by Marie Dry
Maybe Mark would rescue her and maybe this creature might just tell her what she needed to know to help fight them. Of course, if he was willing to tell her, it simply meant he was going to kill her.
“We have use for human women.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. She’d seen what happened to Jo and the other women.
“What use?” In her mind, she screamed for Mark, but she never had the sense that he heard her. If she could reach Mark, she could tell him any information she might get out of this thing. “Wait, what do you mean human women.”
It changed direction and shuffled over to her with that motion so at odds with his length. He picked up a strand of her hair and she jerked back when she saw her hair turn white where he touched it. She wanted to scream in horror, beg it not to touch her, run into Mark’s arms, and be safe.
“The abnormals are good for food, but they don’t incubate well,” he said, uttering those horrific words in that terrible dead voice.
“I’m not human,” she said.
He didn’t believe her. “Humans have such short pitiful lives. They crave immortality. I find that humans will do anything to lengthen their lives.”
She had to believe that Mark would come for her and that they would be able to use any knowledge she could gather to get rid of these creatures. “Are you saying you’re not human? That you live longer?”
“A mere human cannot comprehend what we are.”
Sabrina had the strangest sensation, as if she heard his words, but she could also hear--as if she heard his soul shout it--the lie he spoke.
“Humans are small and live pathetic short lives but your creator gave you the one gift you do not deserve.”
“And what would that be?”
“The ability to spawn.”
“Excuse me?”
“Humans can recreate themselves in their spawn. See their greatness live in the next generation.”
“You just said humans had pathetically short lives. That implies you live long lives. Why would you be so desperate for children if you live that long?” She wasn’t about to spawn anything for these creatures. She’d kill herself first.
“The children of Kratos Lamashtu has finite lives. We wish for immortality.”
“Who is Kratos Lamas whatever.”
He made an eerie spitting sound. “You are not worthy to say his name human. All that needs concern you is that you will have the honor of being Kratos’s sacrifice to his goddess.”
“Why does he want to sacrifice me?” So much for hoping they didn’t know she was the sacrifice they were searching for. “What are you doing with all those women who disappeared? Surely you don’t need to drain all of them for energy.”
“Our master, the great and powerful Kratos wishes us to procreate and produce the perfect humans to sacrifice to his goddess. Now that we found you, we may not need them anymore.
She almost wished she was back in the nothingness, because everything he said painted a grim picture. “And they agree to this.”
“It takes a hundred years to carry one of our babies to term. In exchange for another hundred years of never aging most women will agree to have our babies.”
“And if they refuse?”
“Then we kill them of course.” He said this as if it was the most reasonable course of action.
“So what happens when they deliver the child?” Somehow she didn’t think it went well for the mother.
“If the birth does not kill them, we do.”
“That’s horrible. How can you kill the mother of your child? How do you explain it to the child afterward?” They were truly monsters. Mark, at his cruelest, did not even come close.
“They are not the mothers of our children. Merely incubators that we use to give life to our seed. They are immaterial and our children know that, even while they are still in their wombs.”
“You must be the result of such a union. Don’t you feel anything for your mother. Aren’t you angry that she died?”
Absolutely no emotion, no remorse, no pity--not even curiosity--showed on his pasty features.
Since he was in the mood to tell her all his horrible secrets, she took advantage of it. “Why do you only appear every few hundred or a thousand years? And why did you decide to come here?”
“We sensed you and rose from our sleep. We needed fresh crops. We have never harvested in Africa.”
“You’re disgusting.” How could these things exist. She’d find out find out as much as she can about them. When Mark rescued her, she’d help him and the other destroy the drogge.
“We kept tabs on your owner.”
“How dare you? He’s not my--” Her voice cut off abruptly. He’d done something to her vocal cords.
“Do not speak to me in that tone of voice, human.”
In her mind she swore in Klingon and suddenly she had could speak again. “You said you kept tabs on Mark?”
Those creepy eyes narrowed. “How did you do that?” He actually took a shuffling step back from her.
What had she done, how did she break the hold he had on her? Her heart missed a beat and they sped up. Klingon, she’d thought in Klingon. Could that be it. It seemed such an outrageous solution.
“Do what? And how did you keep tabs on Mark?” She tried to look oblivious and to push fear to the forefront of her mind while she chanted in Klingon.
It worked with Mark, though she’d never had to chant in Klingon to keep him out of her mind.
“We were pleased when he settled on owning a woman at last. At first, we thought he did not value you, but he guards you at the alliance stronghold.”
The world tilted around her and she forgot to chant in Klingon. “You know about the alliance? How?”
“We have someone inside.”
Who would be willing to work for these horrific things? She had to believe that they’d seized his mind. “Did you take control of his mind?” She had to find out who it was and let Mark know.
“He accepted money. Our minds are busy with bringing the master back.”
She didn’t like the sound of that at all. “If you are so busy with bringing your master back, why bother with me?”
“The alliance threatens the master. When he comes he will sacrifice you to the great goddess Jahi and when she rise they will destroy the world.”
“And where will you be living on this destroyed world?” Maybe he didn’t need nature to survive like the rest of humanity.
He didn’t answer. Before the vampire hunters kidnapped her, she would’ve been scared but also sure that Mark would come and rescue her. Now she knew how badly she could be hurt before he could get to her.
Mark where are you? I’m scared and I need you. She feared the very thing that made it possible for her to block him from reading her thoughts may also be stopping her from calling out to him.
“Stop calling to your owner. You cannot get away from us.” He said this as if her actions puzzled him. As if she should just meekly go along with her own kidnapping. She hated that he could hear her calling for Mark.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t try?” she sniped at him. If nothing else, she could stall for time until Mark got there.
“You will be given human food. You will not move.” He left her with amazing speed, given his uncoordinated shuffle.
Sabrina felt that terrible nothingness come over her and fought it with all her might. She would not let them imprison her in her own body--she would not. She clenched her fists until she felt her nails cut into her palms and used the pain to center herself. She couldn’t feel her toes or her fingers, the numbness was spreading. Mev, she shouted in her mind. Stop in Klingon. The numbness receded. she almost sobbed with relief, but forced herself to remain still, as if she was still in his power. But she owned her own body again.
An hysterical giggle escaped her before she could stop it. Her defense against evil was Klingon? She was immune to their mental manipulations. She had no idea what other powers th
ey had, but she had some defense against this, at least. She looked out the window, but all she saw was rolling green lawn. Everything looked so peaceful. They could be on a farm or on an estate in the city. She searched for the mountain to try and orient herself, but couldn’t see it. To be safe, she returned to sit in the same position while the sun set and the evening crawled by.
The door handle turned and she forced herself to remain still in spite of her aching back and cramping legs. She smelled food and suddenly realized she was hungry. Please don’t let my stomach growl and give away the fact that I’m functioning. She didn’t react, didn’t look at the drogge or allow her stomach to smell the food. It felt like years since she ate.
“Be aware.”
She allowed the shield she’d kept up to drop and pretended to blink her eyes, to be dazed. It took every ounce of self-control she had to hide her fury at his arrogant belief that he had the right to tell her body when to be aware. This was her body and these creeps wouldn’t control her mind or use her body for their own purposes.
As she did with Mark all those weeks ago, she put fear and worry and the belief that Mark would rescue her to the forefront of her mind. Behind her mental block she was frantically calling for Mark and looking for an opportunity to get away. In between, she chanted random Klingon words as added protection, still not quite believing the trick to keeping control of her mind could be that simple.
“You are hungry?”
She smelled food and her stomach growled. “Yes.”
Obviously, they wanted her to be a well fed sacrifice. Resisting would only reveal that she was not as under control as they thought and she needed her strength.
“Tell me how you managed to resist me and I will let you eat.”
Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. Could he hear the speeded up beat? “I don’t know what you mean.” She tried to look vacant, cowed by them, and that wasn’t difficult to do. This creature put terrible fear into her heart--for herself and for humanity.
He smiled, an awful dead smile, and Sabrina couldn’t suppress a shudder. She could feel him in her mind, battering at her. She was too frightened to think about specific words so she said Klingon swear words over and over in her head. And it worked. She could feel him pounding at her mind, but he couldn’t take her over.
“My lord, maybe she does not know how she is able to resist you,” Simon said from the direction of the door.
For one terrible moment she couldn’t believe her senses, believed her eyes and ears were deceiving her. In spite of her dislike of Simon, even her distrust of him, she’d never thought he’d be the traitor. She jerked around and glared at him. “Traitor,” she screamed.
She forgot to chant Klingon words, only aware of her hatred for the traitor who stood in the door. She grabbed the knife off the tray Simon carried and the drogge took control of her before she could reach Simon. “I’ll kill you.” And then she couldn’t scream anymore, the nothingness took her.
“You will behave,” the drogge said.
Sabrina found herself sitting on the bed with her hand folded in her lap.
She tried to speak and couldn’t, it took forever for her to calm down enough to chant Klingon words. Even when she got back control of her body, she sat unmoving, not wanting to let them know she was not as helpless as they thought.
“You will bring her food and take care of her. When the master comes tomorrow, she should be in good condition.”
“He’s coming so soon?” Simon asked and she heard something in his voice. Something between unease and excitement.
“The master’s movements are not your concern. Feed her.” The drogge left with that strange shuffling walk. “You can move,” he said over his shoulder and the pressure on her brain disappeared. “Eat.”
Sabrina pretended to come back to awareness, acting groggy and disoriented until she was sure the drogge was gone, then she jumped up, grabbed the small chair in front of the dressing table, and swung it at Simon’s head. “Traitor.”
He ducked and grabbed the chair. “Hey, it’s not what you think it is.”
He put down the chair, but moved back when she swung at him again.
“He told me they had someone inside. It has to be you, you traitor.”
His eyes narrowed and she almost thought he looked surprised.
“Tell me what it is, then,” she snarled. “You’re here because you’re a miserable traitor.”
“Quiet. Drogge have exceptional hearing, believe me you do not want to annoy him.”
“What are you doing here?” Fury consumed her and she went for his eyes with her nails this time. “You traitor.”
“Quiet. It’s best not to call their attention to you. He’s coming and while they are focused on him, I might be able to get you out.”
“I don’t care if they hear me. Why would you help me, and who’s coming?”
His voice was barely a whisper. “I infiltrated them to help Mark search for Kratos. Mark sent me to infiltrate them.”
She whispered as well. She didn’t want the drogge to come. She wanted to kill the miserable traitor herself. “Get me out of here--no wait, I think they’re holding human women captive here. And there might have been a family living in this house. We have to help them if they’re here.”
“Not anymore. You cannot think of them as human, not the women and not the family who used to live here. They cannot be helped. They would kill you without a moment’s hesitation. They have to be put down.”
“Mikaela is getting better. She won’t hurt me. I know she won’t. She’s still in there, I can see it in her eyes. If she can be saved, the others can be too.” Sabrina couldn’t bear it if Mikaela changed into whatever these monsters turned women into. “Please help me get out of here.”
She couldn’t stand the strangeness hanging in the air anymore. There was a sense of expectancy, and not in a good sense. It was as if the feeling of evil drawing over Cape Town these last months intensified and now something even worse pressed down even harder. The overly tall white robed sycophants were breathless with anticipation. She’d only seen one so far, but she sensed more of them.
Simon stiffened and held up a hand. He motioned to the bed. She hesitated and stared at him before she sat down again. She’d play along for now, but sometime he’d turn his back on her, and she’d show him how she dealt with traitors. If she hit him hard enough with something big enough, he had to go down.
Simon picked up the tray and set it down next to her. “You have to eat.” He sounded like the emotionless monsters that he served.
“I’m not hungry.”
Even before the white robed man walked in, she was aware of him with that strange sense of premonition that always preceded them. The vampires had said there was no warning of their arrival. Each time they’d just been there. Even when that first one appeared in her room, she’d felt them before she turned. She and Mark seemed to share an ability. Right now she’d give anything for an ability like super human strength.
“Leave the food, he has arrived.” There was sickening excitement in his voice and something else. “He wants to see her now. Bring her.”
She didn’t know how, but she knew each time it was a different one that came to speak to her.
He turned. Simon took her arm and followed him. She opened her mouth, but he shook his head slightly. They walked down a long corridor and then up some narrow stairs until they came to double wooden doors.
“Leave us,” the drogge said.
Simon didn’t hesitate and, leaving her there, turned and walked away.
“No, he stays. This hunter interests me,” a voice boomed from behind the doors. The double doors opened seemingly on their own. She lifted her chin and walked inside, aware of Simon and the drogge following. In her mind, she chanted in Klingon. It was getting easier to chant while she talked and thought of ways to get out. Never before in her life did she want so desperately to run away. The sense of old evil pervaded the atmosphere until
she wanted to choke or vomit.
Sabrina faltered when the very tall man standing in front of what looked like a nineteenth-century alchemist’s laboratory table turned to face her.
Not human. That was her first thought. Mark, the shifters, and gargoyles were other, but never did she have this absolute sense of something not human when she faced them.
She didn’t know what he was, but this was not a man. Not quite a lizard and not quite a mammal--a horrifying creature and, if she had to guess, he was the product of a genetic experiment gone very, very wrong.
Chapter 16
“I am Kratos Lamashtu.” The drogge sounded like doom and death, but this creature sounded like fate and disaster, as if the end of the world could be brought about by his voice.
He motioned Simon forward and by the way Simon’s footsteps dragged, she guessed he was under some compulsion. What was this strange being capable of? Kratos’s head bent down quite a ways to stare into Simon’s eyes. His body moved in a strange, sinuous, and, at the same time, jerky way. The way he bent was just wrong on any skeletal level.
“My children tell me your mind cannot be reached. Resist me. Walk back to the human female.” He sounded a mixture of excited and scared, had that manic energy found among truly crazy people.
Simon visibly pushed against the compulsion and, though his feet moved slightly back, he couldn’t walk away from the creature. Sabrina didn’t want to be the only human facing this creature, but she wouldn’t shed a tear if the traitor were hurt. She chanted in Klingon, even though she doubted it would help her this time.
“You cannot resist my compulsion and yet your mind is closed to me.” He wrapped long fingers that bent at awkward angles around Simon’s throat. Applied pressure until Simon’s tanned skin turned red with strain and lack of air. Kratos let go abruptly. “You interest me, you may serve me. Betray me and I will end your miserable human life.”
Simon bent his head and stepped back, the compulsion keeping him in place obviously gone. Never did she want to hurt anyone as much as she wanted to hurt Simon at that moment.