Death Banishes (Mortis Vampire Series Book Six)

by J. C. Diem

Hiding my amusement as I righted him, I nodded. “I can only break my cells down, not my clothes so I had to leave them behind.”

  “What was the cockpit like?” Gregor asked.

  “Confusing. There seemed to be hundreds of buttons and dials all covered in ice and I had no idea what any of them did. After smashing the ice and pushing a few buttons at random, the shutter on the windows opened.”

  “What does space look like?” one of Ishida’s male warriors asked.

  “Cold, empty and lifeless.” Everyone shuddered at my answer. No one looked jealous that I’d seen what no vampire had ever witnessed firsthand before.

  “I take it you managed to get the communications equipment working?” Gregor deduced.

  “I guess so because a light came on and the console was lit up for a while. A few nights after I started calling for help, a gigantic black ship arrived and grabbed us. They took us back to this planet and sent Robert in to examine us. He determined that we weren’t a threat and a Viltaran came to take a closer look.”

  “I presume that your hunger became uncontrollable and that you fed from him,” Ishida said. Still withered and prematurely aged, the child king looked like a little old man being propped up by Kokoro on one side and one of his warriors on the other side.

  Nodding sheepishly, I fessed up. “I didn’t plan to feed from him but he was right in front of me and my blood hunger kind of took over.”

  Luc spoke, mercifully drawing the attention away from me. “I remember my own hunger rising, waking me from my unnatural slumber.” He received nods of agreement. “The Viltaran’s blood was barely palatable but even a few mouthfuls were enough to restore my health.”

  Silence descended and nervous glances were exchanged until Geordie spoke. “I hope there is some other kind of food on this planet or we will have to start hunting these aliens down for snacks.” He smiled to show he was joking but everyone else remained serious.

  With the uncanny idea that Robert was somehow listening in to our conversation despite the fact that he was off cleaning himself, I spoke quickly. “I’m pretty sure there are other life forms around here somewhere.”

  “Why do you think so?” Cristov asked. Unlike the beautiful and glamorous European vampires who had been created by the members of the Court, Aventius had gathered people who were ordinary of face and form. Cristov was unremarkable to look at but had a fierce dedication to the vampire he now treated almost as if he were his maker. He sat beside Aventius, keeping a close eye on him and ready to catch him if he fell.

  “I had a dream about this planet and saw some small creatures that had been turned into imps,” I explained.

  “What did they look like?” Geordie asked.

  “They were about two and a half feet tall, had grey skin, fuzzy hair, long ears that curled at the tips and fangs long enough to rip your face off before you could blink.”

  Gregor tented his hands and stared over the tops of his fingers. “Did they appear to be very similar to each other?”

  I nodded, unsurprised that he’d grasped my meaning so quickly. “They were identical, almost as if they’d been cloned or something.”

  “They were cloned,” Robert said, startling all of us. Reaching for weapons that weren’t there, the Japanese warriors stared at the droid mistrustfully as he entered the room. The door closed behind him automatically, sealing us in again.

  “Maybe it’s time you told us more about this planet and the Viltarans,” I said to the metal man.

  Taking a seat at the far end of the table, Robert rested his hands on the surface. The table and chairs were too big for him as well but at least he didn’t look like a child as we did. “The Viltarans are a race dedicated to war. Their sole purpose is to invade and conquer. They have destroyed every inhabited world that is within reach of their ships. The beings of over a dozen worlds have been enslaved and turned into copies of their Viltaran overlords.”

  “How do they turn the conquered into their replicas?” Gregor asked.

  Pressing a button on his wrist, Robert withdrew a small vial of bright yellow fluid from a compartment. “Each Viltaran has their genetic imprint stamped into tiny machines that you would call,” he paused for a second to search his mental files for the correct word, “nanobots. The nanobots are designed to infect the blood of the conquered. They permeate the cells and turn the captured natives into Viltaran slaves. Each slave is easily distinguishable as they take on the appearance of their master.”

  “So if the Viltarans go to war against each other on the planet they have just conquered, they will easily be able to tell which slaves belong to them?” Kokoro asked.

  “That is correct,” Robert confirmed.

  “What happens to these worlds after their inhabitants have been enslaved?” Luc queried.

  “They are stripped of any materials that the Viltarans find useful then abandoned.”

  Geordie was the most troubled by this news. “What about the clones that are made?”

  Robert’s stare was pitiless even for a machine as he answered the question. “They are left behind and ordered to eradicate all other life forms and then each other. My former masters leave each world that they encounter a lifeless ruin that can never again be inhabited.”

  “They are ruthless yet practical,” Igor decided. “They leave no chance for the conquered to rebuild and one day exact their revenge.”

  “It would be very interesting to see humans and Viltarans at war,” Robert said.

  I asked the question no one else wanted to. “Why?”

  “The small amount of information I was able to gather from your ship was enough to indicate that your species is almost as bloodthirsty as my master’s.”

  From the guarded glances Luc and Gregor sent each other, I wasn’t the only one who picked up on the droid’s usage of present tense when talking about his master. He had told me that I was his new boss but I was starting to believe the story less and less. To my knowledge, you could only effectively serve one master at a time. Despite my hunch, I would go along with the lie for now. What else could I do?

  .~.

  Chapter Six

  “What kind of disaster happened to turn this planet into a wasteland?” I asked, turning the discussion away from an uncomfortable and potentially dangerous topic.

  Turning his red eyes on me, Robert couldn’t quite shrug, although his shoulders moved slightly. “My masters turned on each other many millennia ago when the planet’s resources became depleted and they could find no other planets to plunder. They unleashed weaponry that came very close to destroying all life. In desperation, several ships were sent out to search for new planets that could be invaded and its sentient inhabitants colonized.”

  Understanding dawned around the table. “You mean it was a robot like Robert that landed on earth so long ago and not an alien?” Geordie said in wonder.

  Inclining his head, Robert confirmed the teen’s suspicions. “All but one of the droids returned without success. It was assumed that the final droid was destroyed.”

  “He crash landed,” I told the machine. “His ship must have been too badly damaged to return to Viltar.” I pointed at the contraption on the droid’s wrist. “He fed his master’s blood to a human and the First eventually became a clone of the Viltaran who sent the ship out. We are all descended from him.”

  Examining us closely, Robert seemed confused. “I do not understand how the First you speak of became a Viltaran clone yet you do not resemble my master at all.”

  Gregor fielded this one. “The immediate physical change in the First was death, followed by his corpse becoming reanimated. He had a thirst for blood and became allergic to the sun. Over time, his shadow began to change. It became sentient and eventually took control of its host. The First’s vampire body was then replaced by an eight foot tall, grey skinned creature that greatly resembles the Viltarans.”

  “Such a thing has never happened before.” Robert seemed to be almost disturbed by our strange or
igins.

  “Humans are an unpredictable species,” Luc told the machine with a chilly smile. He didn’t trust Robert and wasn’t trying to hide his feelings.

  “Once he turned into an imp, the First had the ability to turn other vampires into imps as well,” I said to draw the droid’s attention away from my beloved. I didn’t like the way Robert was eyeing Luc.

  “Imp?” Consulting the information he had downloaded, Robert shook his head. “I am unfamiliar with that word.

  “They are creatures of myth, said to be spawned in hell,” Cristov said helpfully.

  “Hell is another mythical construct thought up by your kind,” the droid remarked. “Perhaps you are not quite as similar to my masters as I’d first believed.”

  As shrewd as ever, Gregor reached a conclusion. “I take it Viltarans have little imagination.”

  Turning to view him, Robert didn’t disagree. “They believe in what they see and not in made up tales.”

  “Tell us something, Robert,” Luc said and the droid shifted his attention. “Why do you call Natalie your new master?”

  “According to Viltaran law, anyone conquered in battle becomes a slave to their conqueror.”

  “We barely even fought,” I protested. As a battle, it had been short and tending towards pathetic.

  “You wrested my weapon from me,” Robert explained. “Although you had no idea how to use the weapon, you still bested me in combat.” Something didn’t feel right about his explanation but I sensed it wouldn’t be a good idea to push the robot on this topic.

  “When are we going to discuss what is really important?” Geordie whined. “What are we going to do for food?”

  “Are there any other creatures on this planet, apart from your masters?” Igor asked our new friend.

  Inclining his head slightly again, Robert responded. “It is rumoured that a colony of Kveet has taken up residence near one of the ruined cities.”

  “What is a Kveet?” Ishida asked. He looked like he’d gained some strength and was sitting up straighter.

  “They are small bipeds around this tall.” Robert held his hands about two feet apart. “They are intelligent and can be quite cunning when threatened.”

  I shared a look with Luc, remembering my dream about the little grey imps I’d seen locked up in their cells. I was fairly sure we shared the same thought, that they had previously been Kveet before being converted into mini imps.

  “How far away is this city?” Cristov asked. He was anxious to see Aventius returned to health, as were the rest of the Europeans sitting at the table.

  “It will take us half a night to travel there,” Robert replied.

  Geordie’s eyes suddenly became hard to keep open and he blinked owlishly. “How long before the sun comes-” Before he could finish his question, the sun burst into life above our underground shelter and the teen went limp. Igor and I reached out to grab him before he could slide to the floor.

  Looking as astonished as possible for a machine, Robert was momentarily speechless. “What is wrong with him?”

  “He’s young,” I said with a shrug. “He won’t be able to stay awake when the sun rises for another few decades yet.”

  “May I ask, how long does your kind…exist for?”

  “Well, the First was fifty thousand earth years old when I killed him,” I explained. “He was the oldest, obviously. Kokoro over there is the next oldest at forty thousand.”

  “Are you saying that your kind has the potential to live indefinitely?”

  “There is some speculation that Natalie could very well live forever,” Gregor said with a falsely cheerful tone. I read dread in his eyes and wondered if I had revealed too much information to the droid.

  “Why?” the droid demanded. I was uncomfortable beneath his blank yet avid scrutiny.

  “Because nothing can kill me,” I told the robot. “I’ve been beheaded, shot, stabbed, set on fire, burned to a skeleton by the sun, blasted to pieces, crushed down to ash and I just keep regenerating.”

  There was a long pause while our new friend processed that information. “Remarkable,” was his eventual response.

  “Do the Viltarans sleep?” Igor asked the droid. He had hold of Geordie’s shoulder to keep him in his seat. I helped to prop the teen up from the other side.

  “Of course,” Robert replied. “Daylight lasts for eight of your earth hours and Viltarans rest during this period.”

  “How long do the nights last?” Gregor queried.

  “Twenty hours.”

  “Long nights,” one of the Japanese warriors said in awe. If most of the life hadn’t been blasted from the planet and we weren’t faced with a race of aliens that would undoubtedly try to enslave or kill us, this would have been a paradise for our kind.

  “Are there any bedrooms in this place?” I asked the robot.

  “Do you mean sleeping quarters?” I thought the question was pretty obvious but nodded anyway. “They are not far from here.” Standing, Robert waited for us to clamber down from the oversized chairs. He headed for the same door he had disappeared through earlier.

  Igor hefted Geordie over his shoulder as we trailed after our guide. Again, Robert opened the door and waited for us to file into the hallway before closing it again. “Has this place suffered from some sort of mechanical malfunction?” I asked Robert.

  Turning to look at me, he nodded once. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

  “Because we might not be as advanced as the Viltarans but even we have doors that open automatically.”

  “I had planned to address the problem while you were all sleeping.”

  The thought of the droid creeping around while we were all on lockdown didn’t appeal to me. Apparently it didn’t appeal to some of the others, either. “I am very curious about this facility,” Gregor said almost casually. “I would like to see what passes for your maintenance area.”

  I had no intention of leaving anyone alone with the droid. “I’ll tag along with you,” I said just as casually.

  Conceding to our request with a short nod, Robert continued on down the hallway and took a few turns. Being well acquainted with Ishida’s mountain fortress, I found it easy enough not to become lost. Ishida’s fortress and all of his people are gone now, my inner voice reminded me gloomily. Colonel Sanderson had bombed their island, killing both the vampires and humans who had resided there. I felt a stab of grief for Yori, one of the seven young men who had provided me with their blood while I’d learned how to become proficient with my samurai swords. I’d lost the weapons when Sanderson had betrayed me. He may have been ordered to turn on me by his superiors but I would never forget that he had stabbed me in the back and had allowed what was left of my kin to be tortured or killed.

  Stopping at the mouth of yet another corridor, Robert pressed a button on his control panel and doors slid open all up and down the hallway. Igor poked his head inside the first room then entered. Curious, I followed him into the Viltaran idea of a bedroom. While the ceilings were high, the uniform silver on all surfaces made the room seem almost cramped. There were no decorations at all, just a hard, narrow bed lying along one wall and a large metal dresser with four deep drawers. The bed lacked a mattress, pillows, sheets or a blanket. “Comfy,” I noted and earned a quick grin from the Russian. Sadly, even this utilitarian room was better than the cells Igor and his apprentice were used to. At least they’d had a pallet to lie on and hadn’t had to sleep on the hard floor.

  No one was happy at the idea of bedding down alone in the bedrooms and wisely paired up. Eyeing the couples as they chose their rooms, Robert seemed puzzled. “Are they all mated?” he asked me.

  “No. They’re just really good friends,” I said lamely. Ishida sniggered from somewhere down the hallway and Kokoro shushed him. Trying to explain our insecurities and unwillingness to be alone to a machine would be a waste of time.

  Luc linked his arm through mine, clearly not willing to part from my side. That was fine with me since I did
n’t want to be separated from him either. Gregor and I weren’t the only ones who didn’t trust Robert. Two of Ishida’s warriors accompanied us. I hadn’t heard the kid give them an order to follow us but I was sure he had given them some kind of signal to do so.

  With five vampires close on his heels, Robert took a convoluted path to a short hallway that ended at another hard to see door. The droid activated the door and entered a large room filled with square columns. Moving amongst the pillars, he stopped somewhere in the middle and touched one of the pillars. A panel opened, revealing a confusing array of what looked like highly advance microchips and circuitry. It only took him a few minutes of tinkering before he was done.

  Testing to see whether the robot had fixed the problem with the doors, one of the Japanese warriors approached the entrance. The door slid open and closed again when he was a few yards away from the opening. Clearly unhappy to have his friend out of his sight, the second warrior hurried over to the door. His concern was needless and the other vampire was unharmed on the other side of the opening.

  “Will all the doors open for us now?” I asked Robert.

  Shaking his head, he slid the panel back into place. “Some areas will remain locked as they might be dangerous for your people.”

  Gregor narrowed his eyes but let the comment pass. Just as I’d suspected, the mechanical man was clever enough to make decisions about our welfare and act on them rather than waiting for us to tell him what to do. Unfortunately, I wasn’t convinced that our welfare was particularly all that important to him.

  I’d been the target of Alexander, a mad vampire wannabe scientist, once and had the feeling that I had stumbled into a trap again. This time, I wasn’t alone and had dragged my friends and allies along with me. I hoped they wouldn’t go through more experimentation at the hands of the aliens who were no doubt hunting for us.

  Our return trip was just as convoluted but Robert took us along a different route. He glanced back several times to judge our reaction. The Japanese warriors and I all knew what he was up to but gave no indication that we were on to him. The droid was testing our mental agility and we didn’t want him to know we were smarter than we looked.