Death Deceives: Book Three (Mortis Vampire Series) (17 page)

“The rest of us wouldn’t last a second,” Geordie said glumly. Now his chin was quivering. If he’d been human, tears would have been brimming in his eyes. “Will we ever see you again,
chérie
?” he whispered.

“Of course
you will,” I reassured him. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
Not that there would be anything easy about my immediate future. There was great potential for disaster ahead. I was going to have to break into an army controlled building, convince Colonel Sanderson to join forces with me then fight the First and his hordes.
Say your prayers because you are going to die.
There went my subconscious again, always ready with a word or two of encouragement.

Gregor
rubbed his hands together briskly. “When were you thinking of leaving?”

If dawn hadn’t been so close, I would have left immediately.
“Tomorrow night, as soon as I rise. I want to get this done before any more humans end up as party treats.”

Checking his watch,
Gregor pointed to the bedazzled soldier who was still staring at Geordie as if he was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. “We should get this young man back to where he belongs.”

Geordie reluctantly beckoned to the trooper and cast a
sad look at me before Igor herded him and our captive into the hallway.

“We’ll
stop in and say our goodbyes before you leave,” Gregor said then closed the door.

Luc’s expression was serene but only lasted until the elevator containing our friends descended
two floors. Then he turned to me with a forbidding, dark look in his black eyes. He stalked over to me and I almost backed up a step. He reached out and cupped my cheek with his hand. Despite the anger thrumming through him, he was gentle. “This could be our last night together.” With those words, I realized it wasn’t anger filling Luc but fear and grief at the thought of losing me.

Swallowing down the lump that wanted to form, I moved in until our chests were nearly touching. “Then we’d better make the most of it.”

I had my suit unlaced and half off when Luc’s hands enveloped my breasts from behind. I gave a strangled moan when he squeezed almost hard enough to hurt. I’d never engaged in rough bedroom antics before and briefly gave a thought to what I’d been missing out on all these years. Then the rest of my suit was gone and I was suddenly lying on my back on the carpet.

“What is it about you that
makes me lose my control?” Luc asked as he poised himself above me.

“I dunno.
My winning personality?” I teased.

His mouth descended on mine and the capacity for thought was erased. Luc stifled my moans as best as he could while plunging his body into
mine. I accidentally tore a strip of carpet up when I clawed at the ground. Then I was tipping over the edge and Luc was groaning in pain as one of my legs entwined around his and something snapped.

Rolling onto his back beside me, Luc waited for his bones to pop back into place before speaking. “Well, that will certainly be memorable
.”

Tossing aside the strip of carpet, I grinned.
“Yeah, for me too.” It was too cold even with the heat turned up to lie on the floor wearing only our skin. We moved to the bedroom to make some more memories before the sun came up.

Luc didn’t want to give into the dark magic that made us die when the sun rose but eventually closed his eyes and succumbed
to it. I lay awake beside him, tucked beneath a mound of blankets, wondering if this would be the last time we would ever be together.

If I was going to die when I finally confronted the First, I hoped Luc would be able to find someone else to love. He’d had pretty crappy luck when it came to women over the past seven hundred years. If I didn’t make it then it was my
wish that he would meet a normal vampire and settle down with her. If there was such a thing as a normal vampire.

For a few seconds, I remained
strong at the thought of losing Luc forever then I broke into dry sobs. I wasn’t really upset at the thought of dying. I’d died six months ago when Silvius had bitten me and turned me into Mortis. It was the thought of Luc spending the next few hundred or even thousand years alone and lonely that made me sad.

Eventually, I pulled myself together and closed my eyes. I was going to need my rest if I was going to meet with the American in charg
e of fighting the imp invasion.

Opening my eyes, I found myself in a clearing in a jungle. Moonlight shone directly on me, bright enough to ruin my night vision. Blinking white spots away, I turned in a full circle, wondering where the hell I was. I knew I was dreaming but this wasn’t the cavern of doom I normally dreamed myself into.

Something moved stealthily through the trees behind me and I whirled around. My four shadows moved with me but they huddled together, glancing around uneasily. Wherever we were, they didn’t like it either.

Another sound came from the underbrush and I tensed for battle. A creature bounded out of the trees and I groped for the swords that weren’t there before I realized it was just a deer. I was pretty sure I’d seen something like it on a documentary but I couldn’t name the animal. It had long horns that would be excellent for goring enemies with. Attack was the last thing on the animal’s mind, it was far more frightened than I was. Its nostrils flared as it scented the air. Wide brown eyes looked straight at me without seeing me.

Finally deciding the clearing was safe, the deer began to
step daintily across the grass. Reaching the centre of the rough circle, it started then went absolutely still. Seconds later, I sensed the same thing that it did; a dark presence was reaching up from beneath the ground. My shadows quailed, clasping each other instead of squabbling as they had in my last dream.

Legs trembling, the deer broke free from its terror and bolted for the trees. After a few bounds, it stumbled then went down. I moved closer when it didn’t get back up and saw that its chest was no longer moving. The deer had died from
sheer fright.

Now
my
legs were trembling but I forced myself to walk towards the centre of the clearing. One of my shadows became brave enough to shake its head at me. “Danger,” I thought it said in my head but that had to be my imagination.

Ignoring the warning, I came to a stop where the deer had stood before
it had descended into panic. Again, the presence rose and I was suddenly surrounded by a feeling of immense hunger. When the presence sensed that I wasn’t good to eat, its hunger turned to frustrated rage before it subsided back into dormancy.

I didn’t tell Luc about my strange new dream when he rose. I’d woken early and had already showered and dressed before the sun was completely down.

Luc woke with the immediate alertness that was usual for him. He saw me decked out in black leather
and my backpack stashed near the door and a brief flare of loss crossed his face. By the time he had showered and dressed, the others had arrived to say their farewells.

It would have been easy for me to slip away
without a word but it would also have been cowardly. In their place, I’d want to say goodbye if I thought I was never going to see one of them again.

Our friends
were subdued as Luc let them into our room. Geordie gave me a stricken look then turned his back and folded his arms over his narrow chest, pretending to watch the TV. As usual, a report of the imp attacks was playing.

Gregor
kicked things off by opening his arms wide. I stepped into his embrace and was glad I was so hard to kill when his grip became crushing. Easing up on the pressure, he gave me a kiss on the forehead then moved back so he was holding me at arm’s length. “The only advice I have for you is to try to kill the First quickly. We have no idea what powers he might possess and it would be folly to give him the chance to use them against you.”

Igor was next. His hug was much
briefer and he even managed to muster up a pretence of a smile. He had no advice to give me. “Good luck,” the grizzled Russian said gruffly then stepped back.

Geordie
manfully tried not to subside into dry sobs. Then he flung himself at me, wrapping skinny arms around my back and clutching me tightly. For once, he didn’t try to grope my butt or grind his pelvis into me. “Remember that we all love you,
chérie
,” he whispered in my ear. “Especially me.” I kissed his grimy cheek and he stepped away.

Luc was waiting beside the door, holding my backpack. To delay the moment I had to say goodbye, I closed
my eyes and sent out my senses on the off chance that some imps had snuck up close enough for me to sense them. I frowned when I picked up on something close by. Sending out the sweep, I found pockets of our kin scattered near and far. They disappeared from my radar again suddenly. It seemed the First had momentarily dropped his shield. Why, I had no way of knowing.

“
A group of vampires is somewhere in town,” I advised my friends.

Immediately concerned, Luc dropped my backpack and strode to my side. “How many are there?”

“I’m not sure but there are more of them than there are of us.”

“Are they possessed?”
Gregor asked.

My answer was a shrug. To my senses, they were either vampires or imps and that was all I could tell.
Luc, Gregor and Igor shared some kind of silent communication that we women folk, and apparently Geordie, weren’t privy to.

“I think you should delay your departure until we can discover if they are friends or foes,” the most urbane of us said
. Igor nodded to back Gregor up. I wasn’t sure if Luc or Geordie was more relieved that I wouldn’t be leaving them quite as soon as I’d planned. I was more annoyed than grateful to be postponing my trip. It had taken a lot of effort to work up my courage and now it was already starting to leak away.

“Can you pinpoint where they are exactly?” Igor asked.

I’d sensed them only briefly and couldn’t find them when I checked again. The First was blocking me again. I couldn’t even sense the other four vampires in the room with me. “I think they’re somewhere to the north and only a few blocks away.”

As was always the case lately, we were all armed and didn’t need to waste time
retrieving our weapons. Igor, Gregor and Luc had little chance of hiding their guns so we took the stairs to the ground floor and exited out through the back of the building. My backpack covered all but the hilts of the swords poking up over my shoulders. The long black coat did an excellent job of hiding my suit. I was as unnoticeable as I could be without being invisible.

We jogged in near silence until we were one street away from
where I thought I’d sensed the vamps. Motioning the others to stay out of sight, I edged to the mouth of the street and peeked around the corner. My attention was drawn to a large, condemned building directly across the road.

It
would make an excellent hideout with signs on the front door warning people of the danger. Four stories high, the brick edifice was missing its roof and most of its windows. No vampire with even half a brain would try to hide from the sun in any of the rooms that were above ground. My bet was that they were below the street in the basement.

Turning, I almost bumped into Igor. He ignored the sword that appeared in my hand like magic. Sometimes my reflexes were so fast even I didn’t know how I was going to react
when I was startled. “Where are they?” he mouthed almost silently.

“
I think they’re in the basement,” I mouthed back and pointed at the base of the brick building. Very faintly, an unintelligible voice drifted up from beneath the ground, confirming my suspicions.

Retreating
for a couple of blocks, we huddled in a circle to decide what we were going to do. “So, are we going to break in and slaughter them all?” Geordie asked almost sullenly. He was still upset about the last two groups of possessed that we’d killed.

Gregor
shook his head. “We have no way of knowing how many of their shadows have reached ascendency. Since they aren’t on their way to the First’s lair, it is possible that they might all be free of his influence. Perhaps they will turn out to be our allies.”

“Someone has to
sneak inside and see what they’re up to,” Igor suggested. They all turned to me expectantly.

“Fine.
I’ll
go in, shall I?”
It’s always me,
I grumbled to myself. Just because I couldn’t die, I was the one who had to go in. Admittedly, I was more annoyed about being delayed rather than having to infiltrate the decrepit building. How many humans were being roasted on a spit while we were investigating a suspicious group of vamps?

Luc
almost handed me his phone then realized they could just move closer to the building. All I’d have to do was raise my voice and they’d be able to hear me without any trouble. “Alert us if you need our help,” he said.

There was no point in
drawing this out so I shouldered my backpack, turned and trotted back towards the condemned building.