Death Devours

by J. C. Diem

  Opening my eyes again, I was about to report what I’d found when Sanderson’s radio came to life. “Colonel Sanderson,” one of Ishida’s people said. “We have destroyed the caches of fledglings. What are our orders?”

  “I can sense a large group somewhere to the west of here,” I informed the colonel. “They’ve hunkered down already so they must have already found somewhere to hide for the day.”

  Sanderson relayed the orders for Ishida and his people to head west then turned to me. “I take it we have a welcoming party ready to wake up in a few nights somewhere in this town?”

  I pointed at my feet. “We’re standing on top of them right now.”

  “Did you sense anything else?” he asked and unconsciously shifted his feet.

  “A third group is heading north rapidly.” We all knew it had to be the Second. He was scurrying away from the latest mess he’d made, knowing we would have to waste time cleaning it up before we could follow him.

  “The Comtesse’s people are on their way to meet us,” Gregor reminded everybody. “What if we ask them to try to cut the Second off?”

  Sanderson grasped at the idea with the desperation he was barely managing to hide. “General Merwe and I can send a convoy ahead to attack them from behind.” Merwe nodded his agreement with the plan.

  I seconded Merwe’s nod. “Let’s do it.”

  Timing was everything when dealing with vampires. The night was more than half over and it would take many hours for us to catch up with the group heading north. My hope was that we would catch them with their pants down, so to speak, during daylight hours. Even the Second was subject to the restrictions the sun forced upon us. He would have to hide somewhere and all I had to do was find his temporary lair. Unless he has a tame human to drive him around, I reminded myself. If that was the case then he could stay ahead of us indefinitely. Only when he stopped to make more of our kind would we be able to begin catching up to him.

  Gregor took out his phone and dialled someone he knew from the Court. It was doubtful that the Comtesse had left the comfort and safety of the mansion in France but he moved out of earshot just in case she was near. He didn’t want Luc to fall into her clutches any more than I did. She’d made it clear to me that she was going to try to get him back. To avoid causing Luc any worry, I’d kept that particular piece of information to myself.

  General Merwe organized some of his men to search beneath the town for the cache of fledglings. All were armed with flamethrowers and machine guns. Sanderson hastily rounded up the fastest vehicles in our convoy. A mixture of American and African soldiers were chosen for the vital mission.

  Gregor returned wearing a worried frown. “The Comtesse’s people are changing their course and will land somewhere to the north within the hour.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “She has sent only fifty of her courtiers and guards to aid us,” he replied in a low voice.

  “She would not allow herself to be placed in jeopardy by sending more,” Igor grumbled.

  The last time I’d seen her, she and about a hundred of the courtiers had been held captive by their shadows in the First’s cavern of doom. I actually thought it was almost generous of her to have split her forces in half. An extra fifty seasoned vampires would be a great help to whittle down the fledglings.

  We climbed into a much smaller and faster armoured truck with Sanderson behind the wheel and General Merwe in the passenger seat. The windows had already been blacked out and a thick black curtain had been installed to protect us when the sun made an appearance. There were ten comfortable seats facing sideways to choose from. I took the seat closest to the front with Luc beside me. Gregor sat across from me and Igor sat across from Luc. Geordie and Nicholas took the next pair of seats, neither was happy about being seated across from each other.

  Ishida’s people checked in by radio when we had been on the road for a couple of hours. They were bypassing me and reporting directly to Sanderson now. Apparently, they had been confronted with a disciple as well as several hundred fledglings. Ishida had lost ten people, a third of his force as well as over half of the soldiers during their battle. Instead of attacking the soldiers blindly, some of the fledglings had targeted the emperor’s warriors as directed by the disciple. The newly made were beginning to regain the ability to think, which meant they would become more of a threat to us. They were far easier to deal with when they were mindless with hunger.

  Just as I’d read in the Second’s mind several nights ago, he was sacrificing his brothers in a bid to slow us down. His ultimate goal was to have absolute rule but his brethren hadn’t clued in to that fact yet. There had been ten to start with and their numbers were down to just five now. I should have been confident at our chances of success but a niggling feeling of doubt remained. The Second had outsmarted us every step of the way so far. Would he allow himself to be caught so easily now?

  The sun was close when I felt the vamps that were somewhere ahead of us stop. We were still some distance away and wouldn’t reach them before they found somewhere to hole up for the day. Drawing the curtain aside, I advised our chauffeur of the latest development. “They’ve stopped somewhere ahead. It feels like they’re still a couple of hundred kilometres away.”

  Nodding, Sanderson didn’t slow down. We were at the head of the convoy and there were very few cars on the narrow, ill kept road. The colonel concentrated on watching the road. We were in a fairly deserted area and had left the jungle behind at some point. The trees had become more scarce and the scrub more prevalent.

  I wondered if we were heading towards a desert and wished I’d paid more attention to the documentaries of Africa I’d watched over the years. One thing was for sure, there were no human cities for the Second and his fleeing army of fledglings to hide in out here.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Daylight arrived with the suffocating heat that I was used to and that no one else seemed to feel. Geordie succumbed to it instantly and slumped forward. Nicholas grimaced when the teen’s face headed straight for his crotch. Igor caught his apprentice by the back of his jacket and buckled him in safely.

  As always, my ability to sense my kin was weakened by the sun. I had to strain to sense them now. When I did, they weren’t where I’d expected them to be. “Sanderson!” I called. Opening the curtain would be a costly mistake for both myself and my friends, as well as Nicholas. While I would survive, the rest would quickly burst into flames.

  “What’s wrong?” the soldier called back.

  “They’ve turned off the road and are somewhere to the east.”

  Slowing down, the soldiers began searching for another road that our enemies must have taken. Sending out my senses again, I found another group of our kin rapidly approaching from the north. It seemed that the courtiers and their guards had arrived.

  “You’d better let your contact know they’re about to pass us,” I told Gregor. He immediately took out his phone, dialled and spoke into it quietly when it was answered.

  General Merwe was the one to spot the point where the enemy had turned off. “I see fresh tyre tracks over there.” Naturally, I couldn’t see where he was pointing but the colonel slowed then turned. The convoy of large army vehicles behind us followed. The rumble of a different engine joined us. The courtiers, I presume. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to meeting any of them. My contact with the courtiers hadn’t been much fun so far. If the Comtesse had been stupid or arrogant enough to turn up in person, I wasn’t positive that I’d be able to stop myself from dismembering her.

  “Do you see that?” Sanderson asked suddenly. Wherever we were, we’d left the road behind. We’d been bumping over rocks and branches for the past few minutes.

  “It looks like a pair of trucks,” General Merwe replied.

  Sanderson presumably angled towards them. I wished I could see and I wasn’t the only one. Gregor stared hard at the black curtain that divided us from the soldiers. Igor checked his weapons, s
eemingly at ease but also periodically glancing at the curtain. Luc twined his fingers through mine, seeking contact. Nicholas glanced at our hands, grimaced and looked away. Geordie sagged against his harness with his mouth hanging open, oblivious to everything.

  We came to a stop and a long line of vehicles pulled up behind us. “Are they close, Natalie?” Sanderson called.

  Taking comfort from Luc’s hand in mine, I sent out my senses. Seconds later, I felt a group of fledglings nearby. “They’re somewhere over to the right,” I called to the two men.

  Their doors opened and they exited. Sanderson gave orders for his and the general’s men to fan out and search the area. It took the soldiers nearly ten minutes before they found an opening to a cave.

  I couldn’t supress a shudder at the thought of descending into a cave to face my adversaries again. The cavern of doom had been wall to wall with imps. This would be a very different experience, I tried to tell myself. This cave would only hold a small number of fledglings and they would be just as unconscious as Geordie was at the moment.

  Sanderson returned and stood near my window. “We’ve found a tunnel leading downwards. Did you and your people want to go in first or should my soldiers go in before you?” I wondered how he expected us to leave the vehicle without being fried by the sun. “I’ve left you all a present beneath your seats.” Can everyone read my mind?

  Pulling open a drawer between my feet that I hadn’t been aware of, I found a long black cloak inside. It came equipped with a hood so we’d be covered from head to toe. Knowing we would have a better chance of survival than any humans if an ambush had been set, I didn’t even need to check with the others about who would enter the cave first.

  “We’ll go in first, Colonel,” I called out. “Give us a couple of minutes to suit up then have people ready to lead us into the cave.” We’d need to be guided because we’d be completely blind when hidden beneath the cloaks.

  In less than a minute, we had all donned our cloaks. Nicholas barely managed to squeeze into his. He had to clench his fists to make sure they were covered. I didn’t like the idea of leaving Geordie behind by himself. He would be very vulnerable all alone in the truck. Igor gave the teen the best protection he could by bundling him into a cloak and pulling the hood down over his face. If anyone accidentally opened the back door, the kid should be ok. If his cloak was removed, he’d be in serious trouble.

  Someone knocked on the back door of the armoured truck. “Are you ready in there?”

  “We’re ready,” Nicholas answered from beneath his cloak. Mine was pulled so far forward that I could only see darkness when I stood. Light flooded inside when the door was thrown open, too bright even with the covering of the cloak. I squeezed my eyes closed to shut off the blinding glare.

  Nicholas was helped out first, followed by Igor, Gregor, Luc and then myself. The heat took my non-existent breath away. I took a step, stood on the robe and stumbled. Hands steadied me before I could fall. I didn’t protest as I was lifted beneath the arms and rushed across the ground. I caught sight of dirt, rocks and sticks beneath my dangling feet then welcome coolness washed over me as we entered the cave.

  Pushing the hood back, I nodded my thanks at the two African soldiers who had carried me to safety. They nervously nodded back and took small yet powerful torches out of their pockets. Sanderson’s men had been issued with night vision goggles but the African soldiers weren’t as well equipped.

  Steam rose from our robes as we removed them, drawing curious glances from the soldiers. The tunnel was long, narrow and did indeed lead downwards. It reminded me strongly of the First’s cavern. None of my companions had been inside the underground lair. Only Sanderson and some of his men shared my misgivings. At the colonel’s gesture, one of his men handed his night vision goggles to the general.

  “We’ll wait for your signal before we follow you down,” Sanderson said. This time I wouldn’t be given a head start to buy them time to free hostages. The humans would only join us once we’d ascertained that it wasn’t yet another ambush engineered by the Second to decimate our forces.

  Dropping my cloak to the ground, I drew my swords and took the lead. Luc was right behind me, just beating Nicholas to the dubious honour of having my back. We had all armed ourselves and were as ready as we’d ever be. Multiple fresh footprints indicated that we were on the correct path.

  While I could sense a number of vamps ahead, I couldn’t hear any movement. Newly made, the fledglings would be out for the day. They had been lucky to find the cave to hide in because there hadn’t been anywhere else to offer them shelter. How did they even know the cave was here? My thought was uneasy.

  “I am beginning to wonder if the disciples have been here before,” Gregor said after we’d been on the move for a couple of minutes. The tunnel had been angling steadily downwards, twisting in a narrow path.

  Turning to see what he meant, I followed the finger he was pointing with to an ancient cave painting. It was down at knee height, as if the artist had been crouching when he’d made it. The painting was so faded with age that I hadn’t even seen it when I’d walked past. It was a stick figure of a hunter holding a spear and stalking a herd of deer. I’d seen similar paintings in the First’s private cave that he’d outgrown and could no longer fit inside after turning into an eight foot tall grey monster.

  We were far from where the disciples had been buried but maybe this was the area that they had originally come from. If that was the case then the Second and his four remaining brothers would know the cave well. I proceeded with even more caution.

  The tunnel eventually levelled out and we were suddenly faced with several openings. “This reminds me of the catacombs beneath the Court mansion,” Igor observed warily. Tunnels spread out in front of us as well as to the sides. All were dark and uninviting.

  “We should stick together,” Gregor cautioned. “To split up would be foolish.”

  No one disagreed with him and we moved down the main tunnel in a tight unit. Some of the side tunnels I glanced down ended after a few short feet. Others stretched on into the distance. It was easy enough to know where to go, we just followed the footprints.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The footprints continued down the gradually widening tunnel until it opened into a circular area. Many paths branched off from it but the rows of bodies piled in the centre immediately caught our attention. Over a hundred freshly drained humans lay waiting to rise as the undead.

  Gregor eyed the small mob suspiciously. “This cannot be all that is left of the disciple’s fledglings.”

  “Speaking of the disciples,” Luc murmured, “where are they?”

  We all glanced around uneasily, expecting attack from any direction. I’d thought I’d sensed far more than this paltry number of my kin fleeing from us. This is a trap, my subconscious warned me almost unnecessarily. I acknowledged the message with a mental nod.

  It had been tens of thousands of years since anyone had inhabited the cave but there were still faint traces of cooking fires where rocks had been gathered in small circles. More paintings decorated the walls, depicting the history of the people who had once dwelled inside. If I didn’t have such pressing matters to attend to, I would have been fascinated by the artwork.

  Igor moved to take a step closer to the collection of bodies but I put a hand on his arm to stop him and unclipped my radio. “Colonel, can you send some of your soldiers down here with their flamethrowers? We found a bunch of fledglings that need to be eradicated.”

  “They’re on their way,” Sanderson replied.

  Motioning the others to stay where they were, I cautiously walked towards the bodies. Only when I reached the outer edge did I notice one that was far older and more wizened than the others. A disciple lay unconscious directly in the centre of the mob. It probably wasn’t very sporting to behead him while he was defenceless but I was going to do it anyway.

  Stepping over the prone forms, I came to a stop beside t
he disciple. He had fleshed out considerably after consuming a steady diet of fresh blood. His skin tone was still slightly greyish and he looked a bit ravaged around the face but otherwise he fit right in amongst the throng. The only thing that set him apart was the tattered loincloth around his waist. Most of these humans wore nightclothes, indicating that they had been snatched from their beds from the towns rather than one of the more primitive villages.

  I lowered a sword and prepared to skewer the disciple. His eyes popped open just as Luc shouted a warning. I didn’t realize the disciple wasn’t alone until a spear pierced the top of my head and another disciple landed lightly in front of me.

  My vision went blank only momentarily from the injury to my brain. When it cleared, the disciple who had been pretending to be unconscious was on his feet and swinging a blade at me. It cut through both my neck and the spear, severing them both.

  As Luc roared in rage and my head spun through the air, I split my consciousness. Possessing my body, I reached out and grabbed the closest disciple by the arms. Before I could unleash the holy marks and melt his arms down to stumps, Luc was there. His sword flashed out and it was the disciple’s turn to have a flying head. Unlike me, he didn’t survive the blow.

  The other disciple turned tail and ran with Nicholas and Igor on his heels. Gregor approached my head and crouched beside me. “Would you like me to remove the haft of the spear?” he asked with a slight grimace.

  Rolling my eyes up, I couldn’t see the wooden shaft sticking out of my head but I could feel it running through the bone, brain and other stuff inside my head. “Yes, please.”

  He yanked it out then picked my head up carefully. My body waited patiently until Gregor was close then reached out. He put my head in my hands and they lifted it up and placed it back on my shoulders. With the usual flash of pain, I was whole again.

  Sanderson, Merwe and a team of their men arrived in time to see the performance. Most of the soldiers turned interesting shades of green when they saw the rest of the spear still sticking out of me. The head had exited through my right side and black ooze sluggishly dripped from the tip.