Death Devours

by J. C. Diem

  Despite their overwhelming arrogance, I instinctively knew that neither of these men were the Second. Somehow, he had escaped from our trap again, once more leaving his brothers to die in his place. With their servants battling my kin and desperately trying to feed from the soldiers, the disciples were left defenceless. Sanderson, surrounded by a team of men, fought his way through to my side.

  Sensing that the colonel was in charge, one of the disciples addressed him. “If you cease to resist us, we will promise you eternal life, riches beyond your comprehension and as many slaves as you could possibly desire.”

  “What did he say?” Sanderson asked me.

  I repeated the offer verbatim.

  Pretending to muse over the offer, the colonel flicked off his safety and casually held the gun at his hip. “I already have everything I could possibly desire and eternal life sounds more like eternal suffering to me.”

  “What did he say?” the disciple said to his brother. The question became moot when Sanderson pulled the trigger and a hole suddenly appeared in the disciple’s chest. Gaping down at the wound, the disciple had time to send a despairing gaze to his brother before he exploded.

  Screaming in rage, the final disciple went for the colonel with both hands extended. A dozen soldiers opened fire with conventional machine guns. Riddled with bullets, the disciple was driven back and dropped to his knees. I was standing before him with both swords in my hands before Sanderson could order his men to finish the job.

  Tilting his head back, the disciple sneered up at me. He was already beginning to heal and expelled bullets rattled to the ground. “You have failed. The Second is far too clever to be caught by a mere female.”

  That confirmed my supposition that his leader had escaped from my clutches. “Times have changed, you chauvinistic arsehole,” I told him. His brow creased from lack of understanding but I wasn’t going to waste time in calling for a translator. My swords moved in tandem and sliced cleanly through his neck. “Women aren’t considered to be inferior anymore,” I said softly as his head toppled and he joined his brothers in death.

  “I hate to disagree,” Gregor said from somewhere to my right. “But in some cultures women are still thought to be of less worth than dogs.” His cheek had begun to grow back, I was glad to see.

  Smiling, I turned to see where the rest of my team was when I spied Nicholas. The overly muscled former Court guard was acting suspiciously. It almost looks like he’s trying to sneak up on someone. When the dwindling crowd of fledglings shifted, I understood who his intended target was.

  As Nicholas drew his hand back to throw one of the small but deadly explosives, I was on the move. Calculating the distance, I knew I’d never make it in time to save Luc. Desperate, I detached my left hand and threw it hard.

  Nicholas’ bomb left his hand as I possessed Lefty. Twisting in mid-air, my hand opened wide and caught the tiny device, deflecting it from its path. Wrapping my fingers tightly around the explosive, I winced in anticipation of pain a split second before it detonated.

  Luc whirled around when the bomb went off just feet away from him. Seeing Nicholas guiltily backing away from him, he tightened his grip on his gun and raised it. The muscle bound ex-courtier turned and fled, dodging away as Luc pulled the trigger. An unfortunate fledgling stepped into the line of fire and took the traitor’s punishment.

  Without my left hand, I could no longer fire the gun. Handing it over to my human lackey, I drew my sword and fought my way to Luc’s side. Still rattled at how close he’d come to dying, he wiped splatters of what had once been my hand from his cheek. Seeing my empty sleeve, he winced in sympathy. We shared a brief moment of complete accord when we thought of the Comtesse. I’d relieved her of her right hand and now I was minus my left one. Is this supposed to be some kind of karmic justice? If it was, then I couldn’t help but think that karma had a strange sense of humour.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chasing after Nicholas and exacting revenge on him for attempting to kill Luc, not to mention for destroying my hand, had to wait. Taking down the last of the fledglings was more important.

  Left with only one hand, I put it to good use and went to town on the feeding fledglings. A giddy sense of pleasure overtook me again as I cut them to pieces. Most had their mouths buried in necks, wrists and even below the waist. An African soldier, screaming in terror at being savaged, lifted his gun and blasted the head off the vampire who had her face buried in his thigh. Blood was pumping out of his mangled vein. He’d be dead in minutes unless he had a transfusion. Knowing he was doomed, he met my eyes and gave me a tiny nod. My sword slid in and out of his heart quickly. His terror abated as he went slack with death.

  Sanderson’s voice rose over the din and cut through my battle lust. “Natalie, get your people clear!”

  Spinning, I saw that hundreds of fresh troops had just arrived and had the fledglings surrounded. Most of my team members were already clear but a few still hacked away at the enemy. Kokoro gave a shrill shout for Ishida but the child king paid her no attention. Deep in battle, he speared a fledgling then beheaded another.

  Shouldering their weapons, the soldiers prepared to fire. Sprinting through puddles of the fallen, I scooped Ishida up under my handless left arm, ignoring his indignant squawk at being manhandled. I vaulted into the air just as a barrage of bullets and explosives rained down on the remaining vampires.

  Landing on the other side of the circle of soldiers, I dropped the emperor then raced back to check on my friends. Luc saw me and relief crossed his face. We didn’t attempt to talk until the hail of gunfire finally petered out.

  Waving gun smoke away from his now filthy face, Geordie took a few tentative steps forward. “We did it,” he said in wonder. “They’re all dead.” His smile was huge and very nearly beautiful. “We won, chérie!” He launched himself at me and I braced myself for impact.

  Sending out my senses as Geordie’s skinny arms encircled me, I found no hidden caches of fledglings waiting to rise. Apart from my small army of vampires, the city was free of the undead. We had saved what was left of the population from an infestation.

  Glancing over the teenager’s shoulder, I saw Anna-Eve speaking to Colonel Sanderson. The soldier wore an intent expression that I couldn’t read. Whatever she was saying to him, he was giving it serious thought.

  Geordie suddenly jerked and took a couple of steps back. “What the?” He looked down at his hands and my gaze dropped. I did a double take when I saw three hands instead of two. A hand that looked decidedly feminine was clutching the teen’s wrist. He gave a small scream that I very nearly echoed when it suddenly twitched, turned and launched itself at me.

  Lefty landed on my chest then quickly scuttled down to my left arm and reattached itself. My flesh tried to crawl after the brief flash of pain that reattachment always brought.

  Putting his hand over his unbeating heart, Geordie forced out a laugh. “That was a mean trick, Natalie.” His expression was reproachful.

  I forced a smile of my own. “Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.” In truth, I hadn’t had any control over Lefty at all. It had somehow regenerated and returned to me of its own accord. That’s not the first time this has happened, I reminded myself. After I’d been fed imp blood, my body had broken down and my parts had dragged themselves off in different directions. Once the imps had departed, my body parts had returned. It had creeped me out then and I wasn’t any less creeped out now.

  Gregor’s face had mostly grown back by now and I could no longer see inside his mouth when he approached. “Where is our heavily muscled friend?” He looked around for Nicholas but didn’t see him.

  “If he’s smart, he’ll be on his way to the Himalayas by now,” I said darkly.

  “What happened?” Geordie asked, not bothering to hide his glee that Nicholas was gone.

  Luc appeared at my side and slipped his hand around my waist. “Nicholas attempted to kill me when my back was turned.” His tight grip was a de
ad giveaway that he was still annoyed even though face was calm.

  Igor stomped over to join us. “I saw the whole thing.” His expression was even more grim than usual.

  “Tell us!” Geordie begged and danced on the spot like an excited puppy.

  The Russian put Geordie out of his misery instead of cruelly drawing the tale out. “I spied Nicholas sneaking around and knew he was up to no good. Then I saw him throw one of the explosive devices straight at Lucentio.” Geordie’s mouth opened and his eyes grew larger. “Something flew through the air to intercept the device and it exploded only feet away from Lucentio’s back.”

  Staring down at Lefty, Geordie pointed at my newly reattached hand. “You tore your own hand off and saved Luc’s life by catching the bomb?” Hero worship shone from his eyes. “That is the coolest thing I have ever heard of.”

  “Thank you, Natalie.” Luc planted a kiss on my temple then grimaced and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. I was utterly covered in goo, ooze and crud. My suit had been torn right through the middle when I’d been cut in half. Even if I did manage to clean it, it still wasn’t going to be salvageable.

  One by one, the surviving vampires joined us. Aventius had lost nearly half of his group and they were down to twenty. Ishida kept his distance but deigned to give me a single nod of thanks for saving his life. Out of his original fifty warriors, only thirty-two were still alive. I bowed to my instructor, glad to see he’d come through the fray unscathed. He nodded almost warmly and even smiled a tiny bit.

  Anna-Eve gathered her people, of which there were now only twenty-five and stalked over to join us. Her clingy red dress was torn, stained and ruined. Her long blonde hair had clumps of goo in it but she was still beautiful in a haughty, arrogant way.

  Out of a force of one hundred and fifty-four, we had only eighty-two remaining. The prophecy turned out to be correct after all, I thought. Thanks to the First changing so many of us into imps and then myself and Sanderson’s troops killing them, our numbers had dropped significantly. After the battle we’d just finished, they’d been decimated even more. Worldwide, there was probably only a couple hundred of our kind left. Death had done an excellent job of devouring our species.

  Pointing her finger at Aventius, Anna-Eve broke into my mental dialogue. “Now that our business is finished, I demand his life!”

  “Our business isn’t finished yet,” I replied then waved at Sanderson, who was standing with Merwe. The pair had a short conversation then started in our direction. Thousands of their men were either dead or seriously wounded. I frowned when I realized the survivors were being treated instead of killed. They would need to be monitored for the next several days to ensure that none of them turned into the undead. I’d warned Sanderson of the dangers and he’d witnessed it himself after one of his men had turned. It’s his problem, not mine, I told myself.

  “Did we get them all?” the colonel almost demanded when he reached us.

  I shook my head in the negative. “Not quite.”

  Geordie’s expression turned glum. “Who did we miss, chérie?”

  I knew that no one was going to be happy with my next words. “The Second wasn’t here. He’s probably far away by now, already brewing a new batch of fledglings.”

  “Can you sense him?” General Merwe asked. His gaze strayed to Kokoro. From the knees up, her kimono was still an immaculate white, matching her eyes. It was obvious to me that he had a serious crush on the seer.

  I’d already tried to locate the Second but closed my eyes and sent out my senses again. Straining as hard as I could, I came up blank. “Wherever he is, he’s moved out of my range.”

  Dropping his eyes to the ground, Sanderson’s shoulders slumped for a few seconds as he contemplated having to do this all over again. Then he straightened up and reshouldered the responsibility. “Then we’ll have to be on the lookout for further reports of disappearances.” Examining our faces, he posed a question. “Can I continue to count on your people to assist us in hunting down this monster?”

  Now it was my turn to examine my friends and allies. Aventius immediately nodded, which made Joshua scowl. I’d kind of hoped the new vampire had died during the fracas but he was still around to be a pain. At least Nicholas is gone. That was a bright moment in what had been a dark and horrible night.

  Kokoro had a quiet word to her emperor and Ishida reluctantly nodded as well. Anna-Eve didn’t bother to check with her people. Thinking hard, she also nodded her support. Now that she had seen what the world would face if the Second was allowed to run amok, she saw the value in cooperating.

  “It is agreed then,” Sanderson said formally. “We will continue to work together until this monster is finally brought down.” He smiled but his eyes remained cold as they swept over us. I wondered uneasily if he was beginning to think that all of our kind should be eradicated. If I were in his shoes, I’d think long and hard about the wisdom of allowing us to live.

  If you are like me, your time is valuable and I am very glad you enjoyed this novel enough to read it through to the end. As you no doubt know, reviews are an excellent tool to help new readers find my work and decide if the book is for them. I would very much appreciate it if you would take a brief moment to click on the link below and leave a review:

  Death Devours

  Also by J.C. Diem in the Mortis Series:

  Death Beckons

  Death Embraces

  Death Deceives

  Due for release in December 2013: Death Betrays

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven