Death Banishes (Mortis Vampire Series Book Six)

by J. C. Diem

  “I have?” I was glad the two teens were happy at their transformation but unease still roiled around in my stomach. Either that or the Viltaran blood still wasn’t sitting well. I hadn’t noticed any changes in myself so far and mentally crossed my fingers that there would be no new powers or weirdness cropping up in the future.

  Most of the night was gone and dawn was only moments away but none of my close friends seemed particularly sleepy. “Let’s find the monitor room,” Ishida suggested when we all gathered in the hallway. “We might as well try to find out where we are and how far away the factory is.”

  Gregor threw me several narrow eyed glances during the short journey to the room that contained a wall of floating screens. He knew I was hiding something but was wise enough not to ask in front of everyone else. I gave him a smile that I hoped was more reassuring than it felt. If I had the chance to speak to him alone, I’d fill him in on what I had seen. Maybe he could come up with a theory on what having scarlet eyes might mean for them. Then again, maybe I wouldn’t want to hear the theory. Torn with indecision, I decided to keep quiet about the new development for now.

  .~.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Filing inside the monitor room, we saw the familiar sight of ruined cities and various views of the lifeless areas that surrounded them. Again, one monitor was blank and Ishida headed straight for it. He surprised us all by pulling up a map of our current location then a map of the factory. His extensive experience of playing computer games must have paid off because he easily manipulated the images to show us where we needed to go. He’d watched the Kveet carefully as the tiny alien had keyed in the information we’d needed. Apparently, Ishida had memorized what our ally had done.

  If the map was correct, we just needed to head west through a series of underground dwellings then ascend to the surface for a final time. A vast, blank area was flashing an ominous red far beyond where the last subterranean building finished. I figured that must be the blasted zone where the air was unbreathable even for the small but hardy Kveet. We would be safe from Viltarans and their imp armies but we would also be vulnerable to the droids. At least we had more weapons now. After destroying the last twenty droids, we were all armed. Everyone had practiced changing between both settings that would either obliterate flesh or metal.

  Finished with the monitor, Ishida put it back in its place and the screen went blank again. Before we surfaced and entered the blasted zone, we would have to check another screen to make sure we were still on track and hadn’t been led astray again.

  Despite the sun now burning away high overhead, Geordie showed no signs of drowsiness. He was alert and was almost dancing on the spot with energy. “Aren’t you feeling tired at all?” I asked him as we headed northwards through the hallways.

  “No. I feel as if I could run forever.” The teen received a few glares at his enthusiasm. Those who hadn’t gorged on Viltaran blood were flagging. I hoped we would be able to find food for them all soon.

  Cristov called a halt a couple of hours later. Aventius was looking decidedly the worse for wear. He and his small band of followers had been starving themselves months before they had joined our cause and all were ragged and needed rest. After my recent feast, I felt like I’d never need to sleep again. My stomach was still full and I probably wouldn’t need to eat for days, if not weeks. My closest friends were also showing no signs of needing to rest but we had to think of the majority so we headed for the closest sleeping quarters.

  From the looks that were being exchanged between Kokoro and Gregor, they would shortly be seeking some time to be alone. Luc’s eyebrows went up in invitation and my flesh hunger flared to life again. Feeding on blood had dampened my flesh hunger but it hadn’t gotten rid of my need for sex entirely.

  We walked off arm in arm, putting enough distance between ourselves and our allies that they wouldn’t be able to hear us when we were naked. Choosing an empty room, we quickly stripped and leapt at each other. Luc’s cool lips trailed a path from my mouth down to my neck. His fangs dug into my skin, stopping just short of piercing my flesh above a vein. Since becoming an undead creature of the night, it didn’t take much foreplay to get me going. Grabbing a fistful of his hair, I lifted his head and mashed my lips to his.

  Our arms and legs tangled as Luc chose a rhythm that was fast and hard and suited us best. Moans that I didn’t bother to control echoed around the room as I reached my utopia. My legs tightened as I orgasmed and I waited for Luc to groan in pain as his bones snapped.

  Seconds later, he finished pounding inside me and released his own sounds of pleasure then collapsed beside me. There were no tell-tale sounds of bones popping back into place. Opening his eyes, his smile disappeared at the expression on my face. “What is wrong?”

  “Nothing,” I replied a little too quickly. Luc’s brows drew down in a frown at my obvious lie. “Ok, there is something different about you since you drank the Viltaran’s blood but it happened to the others as well.”

  Sitting up in alarm, he looked down at his body but didn’t see any changes. Then he saw the scarlet glow on his chest. Raising his hands, he held them to his face then drew them back. “My eyes are glowing, aren’t they?”

  Mine were, too, but he was used to seeing it by now. “Yes.” He blanched but otherwise showed no reaction. “After you all finished chowing down on the Viltaran, your eyes turned scarlet. They were back to normal after you woke up so I kind of thought it was a once off and didn’t mention it.”

  Anticipating the cold that I should have been feeling by now, I reached for my clothes. They were tattered and filthy but they were better than nothing. Sneaking glances at my beloved’s face, I wasn’t sure if he was angry with me for keeping the change a secret or if he was afraid at what the change might signify. He tucked my hand into his arm when we were both dressed, easing my fear that he was angry. “We should speak to Gregor about this,” he said.

  “I agree,” Gregor’s voice floated to us from around the corner. He and Kokoro came into view along with Ishida, Igor and Geordie. “We should discuss this anomaly away from the rest of our kin.” I guessed that both he and Kokoro had had the same reaction as Luc when they had shared their flesh hunger. The fact that their eyes were still glowing softly was a dead giveaway.

  Geordie crossed his arms and his bottom lip pooched out. “Why didn’t you tell us, Natalie?” His, Igor’s and Ishida’s eyes were still black but they would undoubtedly change once they felt a strong enough emotion.

  Guilt stabbed me and my answer was a guilty shrug. “I didn’t know how to break the news to you,” I said finally.

  Gregor held his hands up to forestall a tirade from the teen. “None of us feel any ill effects so far. I am fairly certain that if the Viltaran blood was detrimental to our health, we would have seen the signs of it by now.”

  “She still should have told us,” Geordie sulked.

  “I think I know of one change that you might not have noticed yet,” I ventured.

  Ishida was almost as put out by my actions as Geordie was. “What might that be?” he asked almost stiffly.

  “Luc is stronger now. None of his bones broke when we were…”

  “Intimate together,” Luc said, saving me from the embarrassment of having to say it myself. Apparently he hadn’t noticed the lack of breakage and gave me a smile that made me want to drag him off into another empty room. The thought of being able to jump his bones without breaking any of them was the best thing that had happened to me since Silvius had turned me.

  “Does that mean we are as strong as you now?” Geordie asked me. His petulant sulk was forgotten at the prospect of his strength being increased.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” I had no idea how they could test the theory to find out for sure.

  “That would be awesome,” my young friend said with a grin. Ishida shared his excitement and gave Geordie a high five.

  Igor devised his own method of testing their strength and smacked
Geordie up the back of his head much harder than usual. Staggering forward a few steps, the teen rounded on his mentor wearing an expression of hurt betrayal. “Did that hurt?” the Russian asked.

  Gingerly touching his scalp, Geordie shook his head then grinned. “Not as much as usual.”

  “We should head back to the others,” Kokoro said. “We would not want them to think we are harbouring secrets from them.”

  We were harbouring secrets from them but I agreed with her sentiment. We needed to stick together, especially since our numbers kept dwindling with each encounter we had with our enemies. Walking behind my friends with Luc’s arm in mine, I wondered how I would handle it if any of them were to die. Luc glanced at me when I shuddered and I gave him a quick smile. Even my inner voice that was usually so vocal when it came to criticizing me was quiet on this topic. If one of my closest friends were killed, I suspected my reaction would be terrible in its fury.

  .~.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  When night fell again, we recommenced our underground journey. Following the map in his head, Ishida led us through the maze at a fast jog. I kept my senses on full alert but encountered nothing that might slow us down. Small pockets of caged imps cropped up now and then. Thankfully, we didn’t come across any more octosquids that had been converted into gigantic grey clones.

  It took us another two full nights of jogging before we reached the end of the underground structures. Geordie wrinkled his nose at the heavy smell of sulphur that permeated the hallways. No Viltarans or their imp slaves would have been able to survive in this toxic environment so we were safe from attack by them at least.

  Ishida went in search of a monitor while most of our allies chose to rest. The seven of us who had fed from the Viltaran still showed no signs of fatigue or hunger. We had kept their added strength and glowing eyes from the rest but they sensed we were different. It was selfish of me but I felt less alone now that my friends shared a couple of my weird attributes.

  With nothing better to do, the six of us followed the emperor and watched him work his magic with the only blank screen in the room that housed them. The other monitors didn’t show the usual devastated cities we were used to seeing. Instead, they were focussed on a vast crater where another city had once been. It was daylight, not that you could tell from the thick black clouds that roiled above and blocked most of the light. The sky was a sickly yellow that made me feel ill when I remembered my dream of New York and the destruction that had been wrought. It was just a dream rather than a prophecy but it still worried me.

  One monitor showed the only building still standing. Vast and made of the same dull silver metal as everything else on the planet, it stood on the edges of the crater. From the angle of the camera or whatever device was monitoring it, the building looked like it was on the verge of toppling over the edge and into the pit.

  Dozens of soldier droids patrolled the perimeter. They moved jerkily, as if their joints were freezing up. There was no wind at the moment but the dust storms would come with nightfall, making visibility difficult and corroding the droid’s circuitry even more.

  “They must go through a lot of droids patrolling in the blasted zone,” Igor observed. “I wonder where they get the materials to create more robots from?”

  Studying the semi-crippled machinery, Gregor voiced a theory. “They most likely cannibalize their brethren for parts once they become too damaged to function.” To back up his prediction, one of the robots toppled over onto its face. As it thrashed weakly, two much spryer droids rushed out from within the building and dragged their downed colleague back inside.

  “How do they get the newly made droids to their Viltaran masters?” Geordie asked. “Look at what the dust and wind does to them.” He pointed at the closest droid on the screen. It moved as slowly as an elderly person who was riddled with arthritis and had two broken hips as well.

  “They must use the elevators within the walls of the underground structures,” Ishida said. I almost smacked myself in the forehead for not thinking of it myself. The brief glimpse I’d had of the elevator made me think it ran from side to side rather than up and down.

  “We’ve been running around like idiots when we could have been riding in the elevators, haven’t we?” Geordie said.

  Gregor clapped the youngster on the shoulder. “Yes, but until we can figure out how to use the elevators, I believe we should stick to using our feet.”

  Calling up the blueprints of the factory again, Ishida zoomed in so we could get a sense of where the three vulnerable areas were. If we were going to set our explosive devices off simultaneously, we would have to split up to accomplish the task.

  Gregor’s fist went beneath his chin as he formulated a plan. I hoped he would think up a way for us to shut the factory down with minimal losses on our side. Studying the jerkily moving droids on the monitor, I doubted we would come out of this encounter without suffering further casualties.

  In dribs and drabs, our sleeping kin woke and joined us until we had all gathered in the monitor room. Gregor waited for the last person to arrive before outlining his plan. “The dust storms should cover our arrival and aid us to sneak inside the factory. Once inside, we should remain together until we reach the first target. By then we should have a good idea of the factory’s defence systems and how many adversaries we will be facing.” None of us were happy at the prospect of walking into a gigantic building without any idea of what we would be up against. Gregor ignored the low murmurs and continued. “A third of our number will have to stay at the first attack point with someone keeping an accurate countdown.”

  Ishida stepped in then. “I estimate it will take us twenty minutes to traverse the factory to the second and third attack points.”

  Aventius looked at his people enquiringly and received nods of support. “We will remain at the first attack point,” he volunteered.

  Nodding his thanks, Gregor shifted his attention to the Japanese warriors. One of the women bowed to her ruler. “We will remain at the second attack point, Emperor Ishida.” The teen bowed back, showing no sign that he was nervous about being separated from his warriors during the upcoming battle. He was our navigator and that meant he would have to guide the final team to the third attack point.

  “We will need to leave now if we want to reach the factory before dawn,” Gregor informed us.

  Delving into the baskets M’narl had given us, the explosives were divided amongst everyone. We had a total of six each and I wasn’t the only one to carry them gingerly. They were even more powerful than the explosives Colonel Sanderson had given to us to destroy the fledgling vampire hordes back home.

  Instead of walking in a clump when we emerged into the wasteland, we went in single file this time. I led the undead conga line and Ishida was right behind me with his hand on my right shoulder. My body would shield his screen from the worst of the swirling dust and he would correct me if I started veering off course.

  Even at a distance from the crater where a vast city had once been, the smell of sulphur and other toxic chemicals was nearly overpowering. Shielding my face from the winds that had already begun to blow, I took off at a fast jog. I glanced back once to make sure everyone was following then concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.

  A couple of hours later, Ishida corrected my direction yet again and I adjusted my trajectory. The reek had become much worse and so had the dust storm. I jogged with both hands over my face. Staring downwards at my feet, I only occasionally peeked out through my fingers. The ground was bone dry, cracks zigzagged madly and required most of my attention. Some of the cracks were almost wide enough to fall into. Every now and then someone would trip and the conga line would become momentarily disrupted.

  After another two hours of jogging, I assumed we were closing in on our goal. The air was a mixture of yellow and brown from the whirling dirt and toxins that still hadn’t dissipated after thousands of years. Whatever weapon the Viltarans had used
against each other hadn’t been a nuclear bomb. If it had been, our hair and teeth would have been falling out by now. Maybe they used a giant stink bomb, my inner voice said sarcastically. I sniggered at the idea, thinking I’d have to tell Geordie about it later.

  My amusement died when a wheezing, clanking noise wafted to me on the wind. A dull red glow through the storm warned me that a robot stood only yards away. Its visibility was even worse than ours but probably only because of the damage the winds had caused. One quick zap from my death ray disintegrated it. I bent and picked up the weapon it had dropped and passed it back to Ishida.

  I took down three more robots before the factory was suddenly looming over us. Straggling to a stop, we tilted our heads back and tried to process the sheer size of the building. It was larger than any warehouse I had ever seen on TV and that included ones where huge ships were built.

  Ishida pointed to a spot on the wall and we hurried over to the almost invisible door. Gregor produced Robert’s arm and pushed the button that usually opened doors for us. It worked once again and we piled inside. I was glad to be out of the storm despite not knowing what we would find inside.

  Expecting to be faced with hundreds of angry droids, I whipped my head from left to right but the silver hallway was empty. Consulting his monitor, Ishida pointed to the right. “We need to head east and then descend two levels.”

  Long ago, before the bombs went off and destroyed the cities, the robot factory would have been a thriving hub of activity. Now it seemed to be all but abandoned. The sounds of machinery at work echoed through the halls but it was muted and distant. There didn’t appear to be any kind of guards in place, apart from the malfunctioning droids that were on patrol outside. Being so close to the crater, no living creatures should have been able to approach on foot. Since we were unliving and could survive the poisonous air, we had the advantage of surprise.