by J. C. Diem
Leaping forward, I booted a Kveet clone against the wall. It burst with a splatter of fluorescent yellow goo. The imps still out in the hallway coughed, grasping their throats with tiny clawed hands as they breathed in the poisonous air. Gregor’s gamble was paying off and I mentally gave thanks for his quick thinking.
The imps that had escaped from the toxic air swarmed over me, much like their Kveet kin had done to the robot they’d taken down. Needle sharp teeth sank through my clothes and into my flesh as more bursts of violet light went off. It only took a small taste for the clones to realize I was far from delicious. Like their brethren currently dying in the hallway, these also clutched their throats in agony. Far more poisonous than the air, my tainted blood ate straight through their flesh. It rapidly dissolved their mouths, making them even larger as it burned its way through their internal organs. It melted its way all the way through their meat and skin and sizzled to the floor. Thankfully, my blood could only destroy flesh rather than metal and pooled on the floor in small black globs beside the bodies of its victims.
Using my hands and feet since I had no other weapons, I snatched up the horrid creatures and either tore them limb from limb or stomped them to death. Battle lust had me in its grip and the clones began to quail from my blazing red eyes that were identical in colour to their own. Sensing the tide turning, Ishida’s people surged forward to attack.
“Not food!” one of the imps wisely, if belatedly, decided and turned to flee. Proving they weren’t quite as stupid as they looked, most covered their mouths and noses with their hands as they bolted out into the hallway. Some didn’t and joined their brethren in death throes as they asphyxiated from the toxic air that was still swirling inside from the open doors above the staircase.
While my clothes now sported over a dozen holes, my flesh had healed instantly from the bites. “Are you alright?” Luc asked as he waved Kveet imp dust motes away from his face.
“I’m fine. You?”
“I am well. This weapon might be small but it is very powerful.” He held the weapon I was beginning to think of as a death ray with new respect.
“I bet Colonel Sanderson would die a happy man if he could get his hands on one of those,” I said.
“I’d be happy to demonstrate its usage to the Colonel personally,” my most favourite companion said grimly.
“It would be a quick but extremely painful death.”
“It was painful when I shot you?”
I could see how upset he was by the thought. “Don’t worry, it only lasted for a moment.” I took his hand and he dredged up a smile for me.
“What did it feel like to be zapped?” Ishida asked as he wandered over. Four of his warriors flanked him. All were alert for any further imp attacks. “Was it more painful than being burned by the sun?”
I could have lied and spared Luc’s feelings but he probably couldn’t feel much worse than he already did. “It was like being burned by a thousand suns all at once.” My beloved’s grip became crushing for a moment before he released me and took a few steps away, ostensibly to examine one of the dead clones.
Kokoro moved to stand beside him, prodding the grey flesh with her shoe. “Do not push her away,” she said quietly. “Mortis needs you, Lord Lucentio.”
Reminded of his duty, Luc bowed his head for a few moments then nodded. I turned before he could see the heartache on my face. Is that all I am to him? A chore? A burden that he has been stuck with? I waited for my subconscious to argue with me but my inner voice remained silent.
With at least another couple of hours left before we could leave the dubious safety of the underground facility, I didn’t think I’d be able to hide my anguish at this unexpected revelation for long. “Wait here,” I said to everyone while avoiding Luc’s gaze. “I’ll be back soon.”
Before anyone could object, I darted out into the hallway. Slipping a little in clone blood, I shied away from the daylight streaming down the stairs at the end of the hall. Still filled with the urge to main and kill, I went imp hunting.
.~.
Chapter Twelve
The little monsters didn’t even know I was closing in on them until I was in their midst and started rending them to pieces. I found there was something quite therapeutic about tearing your enemies apart with your bare hands.
Soaked in fluorescent yellow blood, guts and ooze, I finally allowed them to overwhelm me and take me to the ground. In a move reminiscent of the seven foot imps back home, they piled on top of me until I was completely covered in grey flesh. While their little claws could gouge tears in my clothing and flesh, they didn’t have the strength to tear my limbs completely off. Biting me was extremely bad for their health so we were at a stalemate, or so they thought.
I’d been wondering just how similar these clones were to the ones I was used to and now was a good time to find out. Sending out my senses, I picked up on all of the imps that were attempting to smother or crush me to death. Checking that my kin were still a safe distance away, I groped around until I had hold of a tiny head in each hand.
Staring into the rage filled eyes of an imp that sat on my chest and was vainly trying to strangle me with its tiny hands, I let the force of my holy marks build. I knew the dark power was going to work when the ground trembled slightly. Unleashing the power, I rolled over onto my stomach, dislodging the horde of berserk creatures. I covered my head with my hands a split second before the imps exploded and gore rained down from their rent bodies. When the splattering sounds ceased, I raised my head to survey the carnage. Body parts were strewn up and down the hallway.
Climbing to my feet, I sent out my senses again and felt someone approaching. I knew who it was even before he rounded the corner. Eyeing me warily, Luc lowered his death ray. “I see that your holy marks work just as well against these foes as they did on our enemies back home.”
Wiping goo off the backs of my hands onto my equally filthy jeans, I nodded, avoiding his gaze. “Looks like it.”
Picking his way through exploded parts, Luc stopped a couple of feet away. I figured we might as well have the discussion he clearly wanted to have now while we had some privacy. I couldn’t quite hide my misery when I met his eyes. I knew mine were still glowing scarlet. They were so bright they were reflected in his.
“Just say it, Lucentio.” His full name sounded awkward and cumbersome when I uttered it.
“Say what, Natalie?” He seemed genuinely confused.
“That you’re tired of being my emotional crutch.” Crossing my arms, I gripped my biceps hard enough to leave bruises. They would fade as soon as I let go, of course.
Utterly bewildered now, he moved closer and stared down at me, forcing me to tilt my head back. “Why would I say something that is so untrue?”
Now it was my turn to be confused. “I saw how you reacted when Kokoro reminded you of your duty.”
“She wasn’t reminding me of my duty,” he contradicted. “She was reminding me how much you love me.” Studying my face, he frowned uncertainly. “Is she wrong? Do you not love me?”
“Of course I do!”
“Then why are you pulling away from me?”
Fisting a hand in my filthy hair, I was tempted to tear it out and strangle Luc with it. “You pulled away from me, remember?” Clearly he didn’t judging by his blank expression. “When I told Ishida how much it hurt being shot by the death ray, you dropped my hand and walked away.”
Understanding dawned and his smile was pained. “I did not walk away because of any lack of feeling for you.” Closing the distance, he pried my hands from my hair and twined his fingers through mine. “Hearing that I had hurt you yet again tore my heart asunder. I love you more than I can express yet I continually end up causing you pain.”
Thinking about his broken bones every time we were naked together, I understood what he meant. “It hurts me more when you turn away from me than it does when you shoot me with your new toy.”
Proving just how much he loved me,
Luc pulled me into his embrace, smearing his clothes with imp remains. A sob echoed down the hallway then footsteps rapidly approached. We braced ourselves just before Geordie’s thin body thumped into my back. The teen wrapped his arms around me and dry sobbed into my shoulder. “I can’t stand to see you two fighting!” he wailed into my ear.
More footsteps approached and my young friend was gently eased away by his mentor. Worried for our safety, the entire group had come in search of us. “Everything is fine,” I reassured them all and reached out to take Geordie’s hand. He clutched it with panicky tightness. “Luc and I had a misunderstanding but we cleared it up.”
“You still do not truly believe that Lucentio could possibly love you,” Kokoro said, much to my discomfort.
“He could do a lot better than me,” I pointed out, earning a frown from my one true love.
“You are very wrong about that,” Luc declared. “While you are beautiful, it is not just your face and form that attracts me to you. It is also your intelligence, resourcefulness and even your decidedly strange sense of humour,” he said solemnly.
Struggling beneath the weight of his unjust praise, I mounted the only defence I could. “My looks aren’t that great.” I didn’t bother to remind him that my intelligence was only average. That would just incite ridicule from the two teens amongst us.
Geordie begged to differ. “We’ve all seen you naked, Nat,” he reminded me. “You’re even more gorgeous than I thought.”
“You should have seen me before the vampirism made me irresistible,” I joked weakly. “Tell them how ordinary I was, Luc.”
Hugging me to his side, he bent and almost kissed my hair before he remembered it was encrusted with filth. “I’ve told you before that you were always beautiful to me. You are simply even more beautiful now.”
Knowing when I was beaten, I changed the subject. “We should leave before the Viltarans send some more clones after us.”
I’d assumed the sun had gone to bed since Geordie was up. But I still felt it burning away up there, although it did seem to be waning. “Why are you awake?” I asked the teen. He still had my hand clasped in his and used me for balance as he daintily picked his way over strewn body parts.
“I have no idea, chérie. One moment I was out cold and the next moment I was awake.” His cheeky grin turned to surprise when I pulled my hand free and grabbed his chin. “What is wrong?” It came out slightly muffled and I released my grip.
“Your eyes have turned black.” The slight edge of blue was gone, which shouldn’t have happened for another century yet.
On the teen’s other side, Igor whirled Geordie around and peered at his eyes. “It would appear that Viltaran blood has sped up Geordie’s vampire maturity,” Gregor observed.
“None of our kind has ever been able to wake before sunset before,” Ishida said. “Except for Mortis.” All eyes turned on me, as they had so many times before, reminding me that, to them, I was and always would be a freak.
“How do you feel?” I asked Geordie.
“I feel fine,” he answered but looked worried now.
The rest of our trek was made in silence. Only a dim trace of light still filtered down the stairs. The winds hadn’t started yet and I wanted to find the Kveet before they arrived. As soon as the light faded entirely, we left the underground dwelling. Gregor closed the door then offered Robert’s arm to me. I motioned for him to hang onto it and he tucked it beneath his own arm.
Luc held the death ray in one hand, alert for signs of trouble. Less than a mile away, the ruined city beckoned. Now that we were so close, the lack of windows was obvious. Uniform sandy brown in colour, the buildings also could have been clones. None were intact and most appeared to be mere shells full of rubble. I was beginning to doubt that they would offer us any shelter at all.
“This is where the Kveet disappeared underground,” the emperor said. “We should all start searching for tunnels.” He received several affronted looks from the Europeans but we all followed his order since it made sense.
Cristov found a hole by stepping in it. It was so tiny his foot barely fit inside. “Great,” Geordie complained when we gathered around to examine the opening. “Now all we need to do is shrink ourselves down so we can fit inside.”
As if in response to his thought, the hole widened and the teen was sucked beneath the ground. Launching myself headfirst after him, I stretched out my hands but he was out of reach. Far too hard to be made of dirt, the chute we flew down seemed to have been made of metal. Our ride was smooth and lengthy enough that we had to have been several hundred feet below ground when it came to an end.
With an alarmed screech, Geordie dropped out of sight. Spinning around so I was feet first, I reached the end of the ride and fell into a pool of darkness.
.~.
Chapter Thirteen
Geordie and I weren’t the only ones to be sucked beneath the ground. Startled shouts echoed in the darkness that my eyes were already adjusting to. My kin hurtled down multiple shoots then landed either on their feet like I had or on their faces like Geordie had.
Blinking up at me in bafflement, the adolescent was still trying to figure out what had just happened. I offered him my hand and helped him to stand. “Where are we, Nat?”
Seeing bars on all four sides of us, the answer was fairly obvious. “We’re in some kind of prison.”
Geordie’s eyes adjusted as well and he stepped forward to test the bars. He yanked as hard as he could but they didn’t budge. I tried as well and failed just as miserably. All around us, similar cages held our friends and allies. Most were trapped by themselves but a few had fallen together.
The bars were about two inches thick with a gap of three inches between each one. After we’d been dropped inside the cage, bars had slid into place above us. Although bare dirt lay outside the cells, the floor beneath us was solid metal so we wouldn’t be digging our way out in a hurry.
A quick count only gave me twenty-eight vampires. “Someone is missing,” I said to my young companion.
Geordie was trembling in fear and reaction at being jailed. Clutching the bars, he peered at the others who were held captive. All wore expressions of dismay, fright or anger. “I do not see Gregor anywhere.”
A few cells down from ours, Luc came to the same conclusion. “Gregor!” His bellow echoed around an area that was so large we couldn’t see the sides or the ceiling. No answering call came.
“Natalie, can you escape from your cell?” Luc asked. He still held the death ray but there were five European and Japanese vampires standing between us. Our cells were small and the ray’s blast zone was wide. If he tried to zap me, someone was bound to be caught in the crossfire.
Escaping wouldn’t be a problem, I just didn’t relish the idea of breaking my body parts down in front of Geordie. “I’ll give it a try,” I replied to my beloved then turned to my cellmate. “You might want to close your eyes for a minute.”
Backing away as far as he could, Geordie gave me space to work. Concentrating, I told my body to disassemble and it immediately began to break apart from the head down. I wished I could bypass this stage and instantly turn myself into tiny particles but that was an art I hadn’t quite mastered. Maybe one day I would be able to skip this step altogether.
From the gagging sounds coming from behind me, Geordie had ignored my warning not to watch. He couldn’t actually vomit but the urge to do so still came over him when he was grossed out enough. Considering my bits and pieces were now scattered over the cell floor, I couldn’t really blame him. Some of my body was still contained within my clothing, which had been reduced to a shapeless lump.
I’d left my hands intact and they went into motion, pushing the bulk of my body through the bars to the dirt floor outside the cell. “Give her a hand, Geordie,” Igor called gruffly from one of the other cells. I swivelled an eye to see the teen’s horrified expression. Proving he was braver than I’d thought, he bent and began scooping my pieces throug
h the bars.
It only took a few seconds to reform once all of me had been tossed into a pile. I managed to become whole while still inside my clothes so at least I wasn’t naked this time. Geordie gave me a weak smile but I was pretty sure he had been cured of any lust for me after seeing me in a state that looked a lot like dog food.
Moving to Luc’s cell, I took the death ray when he offered it to me. It wouldn’t do him much good at the moment. “Be careful, Ladybug,” he said quietly.
Wrinkling my nose at the nickname, I leaned forward and gave Luc a quick kiss. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I didn’t make any promises that I would save his friend. For all I knew, Gregor could be dead already.
Kokoro pointed out the obvious from her cell. “Can you still sense Gregor?” Her small hands were wrapped around the bars and her normally serene expression had been replaced by worry. They might be a fairly recent item but she obviously cared for the most refined of us.
Feeling a bit dim for not thinking of it myself, I sent my consciousness out. Not far in the distance, I felt the familiar presence of another vampire. I also felt a large number of other creatures. They weren’t imps, my kin or Viltarans, that much I could tell. There was also another, much smaller group of something else that my senses could pick up but not yet identify.
I gave my friends and allies the good news first. “I can feel Gregor somewhere nearby.” The ex-seer immediately sagged against the bars in relief. Ishida, just one cell over from hers, sent her a sympathetic glance. “I can also feel two different types of other beings. One group is large but there are only a few of the second type.”
Aventius voiced his theory. “Your powers appear to be strengthening if you can now sense creatures other than us. Perhaps you are sensing the Kveet.”
Cristov, in the cell next to his leader, hunched his shoulders and peered around at the darkness surrounding us. “I wonder what the other creatures Natalie can sense are.” No one ventured a guess as to what these mysterious creatures might be. It was a small comfort that there only seemed to be a few of them compared to the dozens of Kveet.