Death Banishes (Mortis Vampire Series Book Six)

by J. C. Diem

  Following my instincts, I headed for what would be the dining hall of this particular area. I came to a halt when I saw a door different from the rest. Instead of being blank silver metal, it had a window that I couldn’t quite see through. Sneaking up to the door, I was unsurprised when it didn’t open.

  Holding my swords with one hand, I pressed my face up against the thick plastic. The dining table had held ten Viltarans when I’d seen it in my dream but it was empty this time. My senses had told me that none of my ancestors were inside but I’d been compelled to take a look anyway. My quarry was on the other side of the ocotsquid enclosure, which was to the northwest from where I was.

  Leaving the dining room, I made my way through increasingly unfamiliar hallways towards where the Viltarans had gathered. If the mental map in my head was correct, I was now close to the centre of what was a gigantic, subterranean city that had been built by generations of Kveet slaves. The hallways were growing wider and taller and the intersecting hallways were becoming fewer.

  Reaching the door to the octosquid imp’s cell, I figured it would be quicker to face the beast rather than to try to find the long way around. With my enemies so close at hand, I wanted to face them and put an end to their reign of terror forever.

  The door slid open when I approached it and I entered warily. Just like the last time, a gigantic pool took up most of the area with only a small walkway around the edges. Ripples spread out from the centre of the water and lapped at the edges.

  I took two steps into the room then massive tentacles exploded from the water. One tried to wrap around me but I sliced the tip off before it could squeeze the unlife out of me. A squeal of pain and rage bubbled up from beneath the surface when I chopped off about four feet of the second tentacle.

  Moving faster than I’d expected, the monster surfaced and caused a small tidal wave to splash out in every direction. Leaping over the wave, I raced around to the far side of the room. As I’d expected, the door didn’t budge when I approached it. There were no windows to smash this time so I would have to improvise.

  Blundering in a circle, the octosquid clone spied me with whatever senses it possessed and opened its maw. Several rows of razor sharp teeth waited to rend me to pieces as it roared its rage. Putrid breath wafted over me, making me want to gag. A tentacle hurtled towards me and I sidestepped it and sliced off the tip. Two more flew in my direction and I dropped to the floor to avoid them. The tentacles crashed against the door, it groaned in protest but didn’t burst open.

  From my prone position, I rolled onto my back and stabbed the writhing appendages. Bellowing in rage, the creature did what I’d hoped it would do and sent half a dozen arms to capture me.

  Moving faster than the octosquid could follow, I rolled out of the way as the tentacles landed where I’d been only a moment ago. The metal door was strong but even it couldn’t withstand the force of an enraged Goliath sized imp. Metal panels went flying and the path to my quarry was cleared.

  Saluting the imp with a sword, I sprinted down the hallway until I was beyond its range. Now all that lay between me and the Viltarans were an unknown number of silver androids. I sensed more Kveet clones in captivity but they were too distant to be a bother.

  Only one more door barred me from my goal. It was also without a window and I wasn’t sure how I was going to break it open. I was surprised and suspicious when the door opened as I approached it. The room behind the door was large and empty of furniture. All remaining thirty-six Viltarans were present at the far end of the room. They stared at me with eyes that mine now matched in colour whenever I was feeling strong emotion. I knew they were glowing at the moment because battle lust had me in its clutches.

  I’d expected to have to fight my way through an army of droids and was almost disturbed not to see any in evidence. None of the Viltarans were holding weapons but I wasn’t about to trust any of them.

  One of the Viltarans stepped forward and gestured for me to approach. I recognized him to be Robert’s master, Uldar. Not only the tallest Viltaran, Uldar was also the ugliest. He had fangs on his upper and lower jaws that were almost tusks. His nose wasn’t quite as flat as a bat’s but the nostrils were like small caverns in his face. Long, filthy hair fell to his waist. I was pretty sure the clumps that were stuck in the tangled mess were Kveet meat.

  Once again, curiosity had me stepping inside and crossing the room. I came to a stop a safe distance away from the Viltarans. Each was as hideous as they were tall. All wore the dead black outfits that my own outfit resembled but didn’t quite copy exactly.

  “Mortis,” Uldar said in his guttural voice. He drew the s out in a long hiss.

  “That’s me,” I replied.

  “You say that your name means ‘death’.”

  He didn’t have a translator bot in the room but one must have been communicating what I was saying to him somehow. “It does.” He would shortly get to see Mortis in action for himself rather than watching the carnage via a monitor.

  “I have to thank you, Death, for dispatching so many of my rivals.”

  This conversation wasn’t going in the direction I’d expected it to at all. I thought he would declare war on me then blood would begin to fly. “You’re welcome?” I said uncertainly.

  “You have been a worthy opponent and are a fine warrior but you have one flaw.”

  Only one? He clearly doesn’t know me very well. “What might that be?” I sensed treachery but couldn’t see what form it would take. Nervously looking over my shoulder, I checked to make sure nothing was sneaking up on me.

  When I turned back, the Viltaran was holding up his left arm and his right hand hovered over the control panel that was strapped to his wrist. “You have underestimated how advanced our technology is.”

  With that pronouncement, he pressed a button on the device. Wall panels slid aside to reveal dozens of nanobot guns that were all trained on me. Uh oh. Turning to run, I ducked and rolled then leaped into the air. Darts flew all around me but my acrobatics ensured that none hit their target.

  Landing, I almost made it to the door before it whooshed shut, trapping me. Turning to face the proverbial music, I saw hundreds of darts racing towards me. Throwing myself sideways, I wasn’t quite fast enough and pain lanced through my body. Roughly fifty darts had pierced my flesh. They were expelled quickly and clinked to the ground but it was already too late. The new nanobots had invaded my system and were already marching through me. This time, my body hadn’t automatically managed to protect itself from harm but I was in too much pain to wonder why.

  Writhing in agony as acid ate its way through my veins and then into my flesh, I dropped to my knees and ground my teeth together to contain my screams. Any second now my skin should start to turn grey and my body would begin to swell and bulge. Falling on my side, I jittered and spasmed beneath the invasion of my cells.

  As the agony inside me finally began to abate, I realized there were no visual changes to my body at all. I closed my eyes briefly in relief that I hadn’t turned into a misshapen monster. Being Mortis had many downsides but it also often worked in my favour.

  “I do not understand,” one of the Viltarans said as they cautiously approached me. “Why is she not being transformed into your servant?”

  “Because I’m Mortis, dumbass,” I told him. I wanted to stand up and face them on my feet but I wasn’t sure my legs would be able to support me just yet. “I am able to repair any damage that is done to my body. There is nothing you can do to me that hasn’t been done before.”

  “We shall see about that,” Uldar said. Shouldering the other alien out of the way, he pointed a death ray at me and violet light blinded my eyes.

  Reduced to dust motes, my consciousness was scrambled for only a few seconds before I managed to gather my wits. I tried to reform but only managed to assemble a hand before I ran out of room. Feeling around, I determined I was in a tiny container that was smooth and square. Forming an eye, it took a few seconds for it
to adjust to the darkness. It confirmed that I was in yet another tiny coffin.

  My senses told me that the Viltarans were on the move. They stopped after only walking a short distance. Before I could even think up a plan to escape from the box, my particles were sucked out of the container. My eye went through the tiny opening but my hand was far too large. I ordered it to break down and the chunks were sucked through into another prison.

  Twirling through the air, my eye saw a dizzying array of images. Whatever enclosure I’d had been placed in this time seemed to have been made from the tough plastic that passed for their glass. The container was small, maybe the size of my head and gave my eye nothing to grasp onto when it was flung against the side. My optic nerves scrambled to secure my orb but it was swept away by the perpetual Viltaran-made wind. I tried to reform my body but my particles where whirling and dancing in a constant blast of air and were unable to obey me. Just as I’d feared, I’d told the traitorous Robert too much about my abilities and the Viltarans had found a flaw. Their trap was simple yet irritatingly effective. I wondered which of the aliens had come up with the idea to keep me in perpetual motion to prevent my reformation, not that it really mattered.

  My plastic jar had been placed in what looked like a war room. The Viltarans had all taken a seat around a table that could have seated four times their number. I spied my swords resting on the far end of the table. From time to time their red orbs would turn to study me before they returned to their meeting. I had no ears to hear what they were planning but I knew they had to be scheming about how to flush out their enemies.

  Arrogantly believing that nothing would be able to permanently harm me, I’d stupidly walked straight into their trap. Now the world killers were free to hunt down and eradicate my friends and allies. Despair washed over what was left of me when I realized how utterly I’d failed my secret vow to keep my people safe.

  .~.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  They might have agreed to join forces but the Viltaran alliance was an uneasy one. It was hard to tell with my orb constantly being tossed around as if it was in a washing machine, but a couple of times there seemed to be a challenge for leadership. Over the next few nights, I witnessed Uldar killing two Viltarans who dared to defy him. They fought with their bare hands in a brutal battle that left the winner scarred and the losers minus their limbs and their lives.

  Yellow blood dripped from a wound to Uldar’s throat as he sat at the head of the table. His remaining kin bowed their heads in submission before taking their seats. After the second body had been dragged away, monitors carried in by droid servants were placed on the table. I only caught glimpses of what they were looking at but it seemed to be maps of the cave systems that ran beneath the surface of their poisoned world.

  My worry and fear increased with each hour and so did my guilt. Uldar and his minions would send their droids into the caves with their nanobot guns and shoot anything that moved. The Kveet thought they were safe in their subterranean homes and wouldn’t expect to be flushed out of hiding. Instead of sending them to safety, I’d unwittingly ordered my friends and allies to their deaths.

  Falling into something that closely resembled sleep but wasn’t quite, I withdrew my senses deep into my subconscious. I didn’t want to remotely sense the deaths of all those I held dear. I’d abandoned my theory that fate had forced me to love them. I’d come to the realization that love couldn’t be forced, it could only be given of your own free will. Luc, much wiser than I would ever be, had known this all along. I now understood why he had been so disappointed in me. I hadn’t believed in his love and had thrown it away. My inner voice had goaded me into making the decision to reveal my theory to my friends but I couldn’t blame it entirely. My one true love was going to die, as would the rest of our kin and I would be just a bunch of particles, a few chunks of flesh and an eyeball floating in a jar for all eternity.

  My self-pity party was interrupted a couple of nights later when I felt a twinge from my senses. They were trying to tell me something but I had too tight a rein on them for their message to make it through. The twinge became a flurry and I reluctantly set my senses free.

  Bursting from their confinement, they zeroed in on a group of Kveet that were heading towards the war room. They were almost at the doors and there were dozens of them. Zooming away from the Kveet, my sixth sense arrowed in on a far more familiar band of individuals. If my heart had been whole, it would have lurched to find my kin and another group of Kveet approaching from the south.

  I had no idea how they had found the Viltaran stronghold but my friends and allies were poised for attack. Shifting my attention to the gigantic table, I saw all of the remaining Viltarans currently seated. Their personal droids and a couple of dozen silver soldier robots stood at attention near the walls. Neither aliens nor their robots realized they were about to be attacked.

  Moving in tandem, both groups burst into the room and began firing. Whirling madly in the never ending gusts of wind, my orb saw Cristov point directly at me. A second later, violet light seared him to the bone as he disintegrated.

  Luc turned, saw me then narrowly missed being hit by another blast from a death ray. Additional silver murderbots poured into the room as the Viltarans tipped the table on its side and took cover behind it. More of my kin were caught in blasts and ceased to be. Kveet by the dozens were wiped out but more poured into the room to engage their enemies.

  Geordie fired at a robot and pumped his fist in victory when it turned to dust. One of the Viltarans stood, vaulted over the table and landed behind him. I tried to shout a warning but couldn’t since I didn’t have a mouth to form the words. My orb watched in horror as the alien reached down and took the teen’s head in his hands. Evil pleasure radiated from the grey skinned monster as it tore my young friend’s head from his shoulders.

  My eye stopped moving and my particles ceased to twirl for the length of time it took for Geordie’s body to drop to its knees then topple onto its side. Unable not to see now, my eye watched as Igor screamed in grief and fired at the Viltaran. His death ray was set to destroy metal and passed harmlessly through the alien.

  I’d heard the term ‘mindless with rage’ before but had never experienced it for myself. I was experiencing it now and time caught up to me. I wasn’t sure how it happened but one moment I was inside the jar and the next instant I was free and whole. There was no sensation of reforming, I was just suddenly me again.

  At my incoherent banshee scream of rage, all movement stopped and heads turned. The Viltaran who had murdered one of my closest friends stared at me with almost superstitious fear then turned to flee. Without conscious thought, I crossed the floor and punched my fist through his back. Fishing around inside his chest, I yanked his heart out and held it up like a grisly trophy.

  Scarlet eyes went wide as the Viltaran fell to his knees then thudded to his face. The aliens were becoming acquainted with an emotion they had probably never felt before; fear. Crushing the heart in my fist, I dropped it to the floor. It hit the dull silver metal with a wet splat. One by one, the Viltarans stood and began to back away.

  Naked and splattered with yellow blood, I stalked them. Uldar was the first to turn and run but he wasn’t the last. In a flash, I landed on the back of my closest ancestor. Biting deep into her neck, I drank my fill then grabbed her by the hair and tore her head off. As her lifeless body dropped to the floor, I stalked my next victim. He went down when I hurled the head that I was still clutching at him. It hit him in the chest so hard that it became embedded in his flesh. Both faces stared at me in horror, one was already dead and the other was about to be.

  Surrendering to the battle lust I had inherited from these very creatures, I managed to tear twelve of them apart before they disappeared behind a door that locked behind them.

  While I’d been busy hunting Viltarans, my allies had finished off the killbots. With no enemies left to kill, my battle lust faded. Sorrow and grief instantly took its
place. My senses were still heightened and they told me that only six of my kin were still alive. The Kveet had retreated out into the hall. Maybe they wanted to grieve for their dead in peace.

  To delay the moment I would have to see which of my close friends, if any, still remained, I stripped the shirt off a Viltaran and used it to wipe the blood off my face, hands and body. Choosing another shirt that wasn’t too badly stained, I donned it. It was far too large for me but it was better than nothing. Unable to delay any further, I turned around.

  The first vampire I saw was Luc. He speared a glance at me that scorched me right through to my core then turned his attention to Igor. I could just make out the top of his dark, shaggy head over the overturned table. Gregor, Kokoro and Ishida were huddled together. Gregor smiled at me but worry soon replaced his happiness to see me unharmed.

  Rounding the table, I saw Igor on his knees beside the body of his apprentice. He had retrieved Geordie’s head and cradled it in his lap. Stunned to see the teen hadn’t broken down to the usual watery slush yet, I felt a thrill of hope worm its way through the grief that was trying to crush me.

  Sobbing tearlessly, Igor was beyond words. He didn’t seem to notice me when I knelt beside him. He ignored the hand I placed on his shoulder. “He’s not dead, Igor,” I told him and had to repeat myself before my message reached him.

  “What do you mean?” the Russian asked with wild hope.

  “I can still sense him,” I explained.

  The others gathered around as I rolled Geordie’s body onto its back. Igor was reluctant to hand over his apprentice’s head but complied when I patiently held my hands out.

  Geordie had fed from a Viltaran twice and had gained some of the abilities that I had. He could sleep like a human, he was stronger and faster and his eyes tended to turn red when he was feeling strong emotions. I prayed to a God who had abandoned our kind long ago that the teen would now also be able to heal like I could.