Death Banishes (Mortis Vampire Series Book Six)

by J. C. Diem

  No one argued and we headed away from where I sensed a far larger group of imps massing. I’d managed to bamboozle a small group of clones but I doubted I’d be able to capture hundreds of them. One bite of my flesh would tell them that I was inedible, as well as killing them, but the rest wouldn’t just walk away and leave me or our group unharmed. Their need to kill was almost as strong as their need to feed. While vampires turned to sludge after death, that didn’t mean their flesh couldn’t be stripped from their bones first. I shuddered at the mental picture of my friends becoming fleshless skeletons surrounded by pools of black blood before finally disintegrating.

  We trotted through the hallways, heading southward away from the Viltarans and the large group of clones that were presumably hunting for us. I’d found them easily when sending out my senses and didn’t have the heart to tell everyone that there was another pack of the little monsters approaching from the east.

  While the Viltarans learned more about us each time we clashed, they still didn’t know all of my tricks yet. They had no way to know that I could sense them and anticipate where they were heading. If our luck held, we could play cat and mouse with them until we whittled down their numbers and gained complete victory.

  As if reading my mind, Gregor sped up until he walked at my side. “How many Viltarans are left now?”

  “Fifty-five.” I’d counted them several times, just to be sure.

  “We have been lucky not to lose more of our kin.”

  “You can say that again.”

  “We cannot count on our good fortune holding out for much longer.” Gregor’s expression was almost glum, as if he was anticipating our eventual failure.

  “Not even someone as brilliant as you can anticipate every eventuality,” I told him. “Who knows how the Viltarans will retaliate against us next time?”

  It had appeared to us that the Viltarans had agreed to work together to kill us when we’d watched their meeting on one of the monitors. Two of the smaller groups had managed to trust each other enough to band together. My worst fear was that the remaining fifty-five would do the same and bring hundreds of murderbots to eradicate us. If I’d had this thought, then everyone else probably had as well. Maybe that was why no one complained about the fast pace I’d set.

  Dawn was approaching when I figured we’d put enough distance between us and the ravenous clones. A small part of my consciousness was on full alert, sweeping the area in a wide circle to make sure nothing was creeping up on us. Nothing alive anyway.

  Once more, we retired to the sleeping quarters. Most of my kin paired up and disappeared inside their chosen bedrooms. Geordie’s eyes went wide in surprise when the Japanese warrior he’d shared his flesh hunger with crooked her finger at him. With barely a backward glance at his mentor, he disappeared down the hallway and into one of the rooms with her.

  “I will keep watch,” Igor told me as Gregor and Kokoro also paired up. The former seer gave her new love a coy smile that meant he was about to get lucky.

  Knowing my squeamishness at both being listened to when I engaged in sexual antics as well as listening to others, Luc offered me his arm. Geordie’s high pitched giggle floated out into the hallway and I quickly dragged my beloved away. I just didn’t think I’d be able to look the kid in the face again if I had to hear him getting horizontal with the Japanese warrior.

  Since we were alone and there were no Viltarans or imps in the area, Luc and I ducked into a vacant room. His eyes were already glowing before we stripped off our borrowed clothing. Instead of jumping on me and bearing me to the floor to have his wicked way with me, Luc took my hands. “In all of the seven hundred years of my existence, I have never known love before I met you.”

  “I bet you never thought you’d end up falling for me when we first met,” I joked.

  Smiling at the memory, he inclined his head in agreement. “From the first moment you burst into the mausoleum full of drug tainted human blood, I knew my life would never be the same.”

  “There’s never been a vampire like me before, huh?” Since I was the one and only Mortis, figure of dread and legend, it was a fairly stupid question.

  “There never has and never will be anyone like you again,” he said sincerely.

  I eyed him narrowly, wondering if he was making fun of me. “Why did you feed my flesh hunger that night?” I asked him abruptly. “You’d abstained from having sex for three hundred years. You didn’t have to sacrifice yourself, I could have used a human or two to sate myself.”

  Luc’s eyes dropped from my face, travelled slowly down to my feet then back up again. “You underrate your appeal.”

  I’d been fairly ordinary as a human, so much so that I’d practically been invisible, at least to the opposite sex. I was still baffled that Luc had been attracted enough to me that he’d thrown aside his vow to abstain from getting naked with another person.

  “Perhaps we were fated to be together,” he said then drew me in and touched his mouth to mine.

  As besotted as a bamboozled human, I fell beneath his spell and wrapped my arms around his neck. He lifted me and my legs went around his waist then my back was being pressed up against the metal wall.

  My moan echoed around the room as Luc joined our bodies together. Instead of pounding out his need, he moved slowly, taking his time and ignoring my frustration. The slow sliding of flesh against flesh maddened me until my eyes blazed and my hands dug into his shoulders. His cold mouth closed around my breast and my legs tightened around his waist. There were no distressing sounds of bones breaking so I gave myself over to the moment.

  Sensing my complete surrender, Luc took us to the ground. Our eyes met and he quickened his pace. My hand slid around the back of his neck and he lowered his mouth to mine. He muffled my moan with a deep kiss as he suddenly gave me what I craved and drove himself into me hard and fast. I went over the edge into ecstasy first and he joined me not long after.

  If we’d been human, we would have been panting with exhaustion. Being undead, we merely lay side by side with our hands clasped and our fingers intertwined. Normally I’d have been shivering lying naked on the floor. The Viltaran blood had either raised our internal temperatures or we had become impervious to the cold.

  I might not feel cold but I did feel exposed so reached for my clothes. As we dressed, I mulled over Luc’s words. I didn’t like the idea that fate had deliberately thrown us together. My bafflement that someone as worldly and sophisticated as Lord Lucentio had chosen a nobody like me to break his sexual fast with continued. Maybe he didn’t choose to have sex with you, my inner voice said insidiously. Maybe he didn’t have any choice about it at all.

  Luc offered me his arm again and I took it with a strained smile. My arrival had been foretold by at least two prophets thousands of years before my human birth. Fate had been planning for Mortis for a long time. Maybe it had arranged for Luc to be the one to find me. He had guided me nearly every step of the way and look where we had ended up; stranded on an alien planet with no way to return home. Not that I blamed him. Rather, I blamed the force that had thrown us together.

  Frowning, deep in thought, I took my musings a step further. Maybe fate forced Luc to love me, knowing I would love him in return and that I would follow him anywhere. A chill raced down my spine at the thought that Luc was a shiny lure and I had taken the bait. If my idea was correct then his free will had been stripped away and he wasn’t in control of his own emotions.

  Let’s face it, my inner voice said in a tone that was full of pity, there is no way a hot guy like Luc would ever fall for someone like you. While I was beautiful now, I certainly hadn’t been the night Luc and I had met. I had always harboured doubts about his feelings for me and my subconscious had just summed it up nicely. If given the choice, I sincerely doubted my beloved would have looked at me twice the night he’d stumbled across me.

  .~.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  With little else to do, we returned to our roo
m and climbed up on the metal bed. Luc closed his eyes and lay still beside me. He didn’t succumb to a deathlike slumber but appeared to have fallen asleep like a normal human. It was a relief to see we could still sleep after ingesting so much Viltaran blood so I tried it myself. Even a short escape from the thoughts that were currently running around inside my head would be welcome.

  Walking down a deserted street in a strange yet familiar city, I saw destruction everywhere. Store windows were smashed and the contents had been looted. Cars had been abandoned in the streets or had crashed into buildings or other vehicles. The vast majority of cars were yellow with signs indicating they were New York City cabs. There were no bodies this time, just splashes of blood to indicate where the dead had fallen.

  Voices speaking a familiar alien language drew me down the street to an intersection. Peeking around the corner of a building, I tilted my head back to take in the row of skyscrapers. Windows had been shattered and glass littered the street below. The buildings were empty of life but I sensed a large number of familiar beings approaching.

  The scorched remains of a helicopter lay on its side halfway down the street. Its colouring suggested it had been an army chopper. The smell of old blood drifted to me on a breeze, coming not just from the downed vehicle but seemingly from all around.

  I drew back slightly as the sound of heavy footsteps neared. I’d been expecting it but was still disturbed to see ranks of silver droids round the corner ahead. Each carried a strange weapon I’d never seen before. Perfectly square and about twelve inches wide, they looked a little bit like rocket launchers. Dozens of small holes held projectiles that I couldn’t quite make out from this far away.

  As the droids stepped out onto the street, they were followed by clones. First hundreds then thousands of humans who had been transformed into grey skinned imps filled the street.

  The city might have been overrun but the humans hadn’t given up. The sound of several choppers came from different directions. Unconcerned, the metal men stood out in the open and waited. When the first helicopter came into sight, a burst of dazzling violet light shot from mid-air and washed over the chopper. Instead of disintegrating the metal, the blast had disabled the engine. The pilot and passengers screamed as their aircraft fell. The screams cut off as the chopper smashed to the ground and exploded in a searing ball of fire.

  Sickened by the destruction, I didn’t want to see the other helicopters suffer the same fate and forced myself to wake up.

  Luc was still asleep so I quietly slid to the ground and made my way to the monitor room. During the short journey, I wondered why I had dreamed about New York, or more precisely, Manhattan, being attacked. I’d never been there and didn’t know anyone who lived there. The Viltarans had no way of being able to find Earth so I failed to see why I had now twice dreamed that it had been attacked. I put the dream down to stress and general worry then put it aside.

  Gregor was already up and was studying the monitors when I entered the room. He gave me a distracted smile then frowned when all I could manage was a weak facsimile in return. “What is wrong?”

  His concern was genuine and almost brought a lump to my throat. How do you know his emotions are genuine? My inner voice muttered the question darkly. Maybe fate is forcing all of them to care about you. I would be the first to admit there were far more intelligent, interesting, witty and likeable people than me. It suddenly struck me as being highly unlikely that Gregor, Igor or even Geordie would have ever become my friends if I hadn’t been Mortis.

  “I have a theory,” I said to Gregor when he continued to stare at me in concern.

  Turning his back on the monitors, he gave me his full attention. “I would be honoured if you would share your theory with me.”

  He didn’t seem to be laughing at me so I hit him with it. “How much control do you think fate has over us?”

  “For an ordinary individual, I would say it has a moderate influence over our lives.”

  “What about someone like me?”

  Hesitating, he saw I wasn’t going to be put off with platitudes and that only the truth would suffice. “For someone as extraordinary as you, I am afraid fate had a very detailed plan. The prophecies that were written about you indicate that you are restricted from making your own decisions. You may feel like you are choosing a certain path but it is more likely fate has already made the choice for you.”

  “Would that also extend to my friends?”

  Hesitating again, he gave me a single nod. “It is more than likely that fate has guided us all, as it has guided you.”

  I wanted to sink to the floor, cover my face with my hands and tearlessly bawl at the confirmation of my worst fear. Luc didn’t really love me. None of them did. It was all just a lie and they had been forced to care about me.

  Reading something of my revelation in my expression, Gregor grew alarmed. Before he could question me further, distant voices alerted us that our kin and allies were on their way. “I think we should speak about this further, when we have the time,” he said.

  “I’ll pencil it into my diary.” He gave a distracted smile at my pitiful attempt at a joke.

  Luc was the first through the door. A faint worry line on his forehead smoothed out when he saw me. “There you are. I was concerned when I woke and found myself alone.”

  His concern and love looked genuine, which broke my heart even more now that I knew it was just a sham. “I had a bad dream and decided to get up,” I told him.

  “What was your dream about, chérie?” Geordie asked me. The teen had adored me almost from the moment I’d woken up with my face in his lap in the back of Igor’s black car. It was almost as painful knowing Geordie had been forced to love me in his own way as it was to realize Luc’s feelings were false.

  His grin began to falter when I took too long to respond to his question. “Something about back home on Earth. I can’t really remember,” I said.

  Dragging the robot interpreter forward on his trolley, the Kveet were ready to talk strategy. “What is our plan for tonight?” M’narl asked.

  Gregor had been mulling over his plan and had an answer ready. “I am reluctant to repeat our tactics from yesterday. The Viltarans must be aware of our tricks by now.” If their robots were linked then the ones who had been ambushed would have relayed the information to their masters.

  “What do you suggest we try this time?” Igor asked.

  “I think we should travel overland for a time to avoid running into any roving imps or droids.”

  None of us particularly wanted to brave the dust storms but they didn’t become unbearable for another couple of hours yet. “Good plan. Let’s go,” I said, making the decision for everyone. I was their leader after all so I might as well use the privilege that came with rank. Knowing the hallways well by now, I led the way to the closest stairs that would take us up to the surface.

  My mood was too gloomy for me to be amused by the sight of the Kveet struggling to climb the stairs that were as high as they were tall. They might be small but they were nimble and it only took a few minutes for them to clamber out into the open. With their colouring and matching clothes, they almost blended into the ground. They scurried along quickly, matching our normal walking pace. One of Aventius’ people took over the task of dragging the robot on his trolley since he’d had to carry it up the stairs anyway. Some of the elders hitched a ride on the trolley, perching beside or on the droid. M’narl was far too dignified to show any signs of weakness and hobbled along at my side. I would have offered to carry him if I thought he would have accepted the aid.

  “I have a feeling that you can understand what I am saying,” he said abruptly. “Am I correct?” We’d pulled ahead of the others and a small distance had opened up between us.

  “Yes,” I replied and nodded because he wouldn’t be able to understand what I was saying.

  “There is something I believe you need to know.” He glanced up at me to make sure I was paying attention. “
The Viltaran’s robots are programmed to be devious with everyone but their masters.” At my raised eyebrow, he elaborated. “They lie as often as possible. Whatever the droid you first encountered told you, it was most likely telling you the untruth.” I hiked my thumb over my shoulder and raised both of my eyebrows this time. He accurately guessed my unspoken question. “Our captive droid has been stripped of its original programming and was reprogrammed to our specifications. It can no more lie to us than the Viltarans can breathe their own poisoned air.”

  “Thanks for the information,” I said to my miniscule ally and bowed. Showing a flash of amusement, he bowed in return.

  Sensing M’narl was flagging, I slowed down to give him a rest and the others quickly caught up.

  As the Kveet dropped back to mingle with his people, Luc and Geordie flanked me. “What did you two talk about, Nat?” the teen asked.

  “We were exchanging recipes for chocolate cake,” I said snidely and immediately regretted it when he gave me a wounded look. “Sorry.” He nodded but his bottom lip trembled slightly. “I’m in a bit of a foul mood and I guess I’m not going to be much fun to be around until I snap out of it.”

  “Let me know when you do snap out of it,” Geordie said and dropped back to walk beside his mentor.

  “Are you going to try to chase me away as well?” Luc said after the silence stretched out for a couple of minutes.

  “Would it work?” I asked curiously.

  “No.”

  Dirt swirled in the first sign that the winds were about to pick up. The sickly yellow sky, thick with clouds, boiled far above. Soon we would be fighting against the full brunt of another dust storm.

  “Are you going to tell me what is wrong?” my companion asked when our silence became unbearable. “Have I done something to anger you?”

  Turning to study his perfect profile, a stab of sorrow lanced through my chest. “You haven’t done anything wrong. This isn’t about you.”