Death Deceives: Book Three (Mortis Vampire Series) (19 page)

I’d changed
physically since the night I’d lost my head and then the rest of my body parts. It was unsurprising that the Councillor hadn’t recognized me.

Gregor’s
expression was slightly puzzled. “I do not remember it being prophesized that Mortis’ followers would turn to sacrificing humans.”

“That was Joshua’s idea,” a helpful female worshipper said. All of the vamps had
pushed their hoods back now. Just like Aventius, they looked like they could use a good feed. Extremely pale, her hair was strawberry blonde and her face was delicately beautiful.

Joshua, the sullen young man
with the green eyes, threw her an angry glance at being tattling on. Aventius patted him on the shoulder soothingly. “We all thought Mortis would approve of our actions,” the Councillor said in a tired voice. “It
is
expected that she will one day rule the human race. Why would she care if we sacrifice a few in her name?”

“I
don’t approve of mindless slaughter,” I said with more than a hint of ire. “I’m prophesized to massacre vampires, not humans.” All flinched at the implied threat in my tone.
What is it with them all thinking I’m going to be a world ruler? That is never going to happen.

Geordie sidled up to me and put a skinny arm around my waist. “They were afraid,
chérie
.” For someone so young looking, he could be surprisingly perceptive. “None of us really knew what would happen when you rose, except that you would end up killing most of us.”

My anger began to ebb and now I could see the fear in the robed one’s malnourished
faces. Speaking directly to Aventius, I laid out his choices. “Whether you believe it or not, I am Mortis. I’ve already begun to cull the damned so the prophecy is being fulfilled as we speak.” Most blanched at the news, Aventius just looked sorrowful. “I’m on my way right now to kill the First and his horde of grey imps.” I was going to try my hardest to anyway. The outcome was far from set in stone. “When I’m done, there will be very few of our kin left. It’s up to you whether you are on our side or if you are on the First’s side.”

Confusion was the main reaction to my ultimatum. “I thought the First was just a myth,” the delicate strawberry blonde said to her leader.

Hanging his head, Aventius closed his eyes. “I have feared this day for many thousands of years.”

“You mean it’s true?” Joshua said in appalled disbelief. “He’s really real?”

Aventius nodded, lifted his head and opened his eyes. Sinking to his knees, he held his weapon, a second dagger, up to me. “I pledge my loyalty to you, Mortis.” One by one, his followers,
my
followers now, knelt and held up their weapons.

Throwing a frantic look at Luc, my dark companion just smiled at me faintly
. I was on my own here. “Um, rise Aventius and the rest of you.” Geordie snorted a giggle and I elbowed him in the ribs. Hunching over, he shot me a wounded look and rubbed his side. I hadn’t heard any cracks so I didn’t think I’d fractured anything. “Welcome to the team,” I said lamely and they began to rise.

While I wasn’t ecst
atic that one of the Councillors had managed to escape from being turned into an imp, at least he could act as a leader while the rest of us were otherwise engaged. They could head back to the mansion in France and take charge of the pitifully few remaining vamps we’d sent that way.

Gregor
stepped forward to explain what our goal was and I edged backwards. I had a job to do and I’d been delayed from it for long enough.

Luc was the only one to notice as I
scooped up my backpack and crept away. He watched me go without a word. I blew him a kiss and he gave me a tiny smile. His eyes reflected his sorrow that he might never see me again. My chin quivered at the thought and I broke into a silent run as soon as I reached the street.

Wi
th the wind blowing my hair back from my face and the stolen jacket flapping behind me, I kept up the sprint. I’d planned on stealing a car and driving to the American soldier’s headquarters but running was far stealthier even if it wasn’t as fast.

Cutting across a field, I vaulted over a fence then stumbled to a stop when bright lights suddenly flared to life. My shadows
, starkly outlined on the ground, copied my actions when I lifted a hand to shield my eyes and turned my head away. A sinking sensation hit me as I realized why the First had dropped his shield. He’d been trying to find me so he could lay this trap. If I’d sent out my senses more than just the once, I might have noticed what he was up to. It was too late now, I was caught and would have to fight my way out of this snare.

Guttural voices conversed in our father’s alien language. “Turn it on,” one said.

“I’m trying!” another replied.

Dropping my backpack, I pulled my swords free and took a step forward. Orange light bloomed and gurgles of laughter rang out.
A stream of fire from a flamethrower shot out ten feet and my skin began to crawl as I realized what they intended to do to me. Another jet of fire burst forth and then another. More imps had circled around behind me, also carrying flamethrowers.

I’d been advised by the Romanian prophet’s journal that fire couldn’t harm me. It looked like that theory was about to be put to the test. While I might survive
the flames, my belongings wouldn’t. As much as I hated to do it, I quickly shucked off the coat and twin sheaths. My swords slid back into safety and I wrapped the coat around my backpack. Tossing the bundle off far enough away that I hoped it would be safe, I waited for the coming barbeque.

Turning in a slow circle, I counted eight imps carrying flamethrowers
. Many more of the creatures cavorted just outside the arc of bright lights. One of the imps sent a burst of flame towards me. I sidestepped it easily but another of the bat faced monsters behind me shot his weapon at the same time. Flames licked me and the smell of singed leather wafted away on a faint breeze.

Giggling and gurgling laughter, several of the grey
beings aimed and fired. Diving to the side, I did a forward roll then leaped into the air. One of the imps tried to follow my movement and sent a jet of orange flames into the air. Lowering the flamethrower, he forgot to turn it off and accidentally set one of his companions on fire.

Screaming and burning, the female imp ran across the field, leaving a trail of melting flesh behind. Ignoring her plight, the rest of the group moved to surround me
again. Far more agile than my much larger former kin, I dodged, ducked, weaved then turned directly into an oncoming fireball.

Engulfed in heat, I fell to the ground, covering my face with my hands. Screaming shrilly, I watched the imps gathering into a tight circle. The upper half of my suit was the only thing burning but I was thrashing around so much that they couldn’t tell the flames weren’t having any effect on me.
I felt the heat but it didn’t hurt as I’d expected. I was glad to discover the prophet had been right about my resistance to fire.

Pointing clawed fingers at me and bellowing with laughter, the
imps mistakenly thought I was done for. Rolling across the grass, I wrapped myself around the closest clone. My parents had taught me that sharing was a good thing so I passed the flames on. Now it was the imp’s turn to shriek as his loincloth caught on fire and his skin began to melt. Adding insult to injury, I unleashed the holy mark of one of my hands. My fingers sank through flesh, meat and bone until his lower leg came loose.

Hopping
on his remaining leg, he crashed into one of the others and the fire spread. Confused questions were bellowed by the imps on the sidelines. None of them seemed to be able to understand that I wasn’t dying. My suit was mostly gone from the waist up but my flesh was unmarked. Finally, one of them realized I was unharmed and turned his flamethrower in my direction. Realizing I was still holding the melted lower leg of the now dead imp, I threw it hard enough to cave the imp’s skull in. He went down with a dazed expression and with his brains leaking out through a crack in his skull.

“The flames aren’t working,” one of the smarter clones roared. As if that was some kind of signal, they started piling on top of me.
This again?
Hadn’t they figured out by now that crushing vampires didn’t kill them?

I found out that they weren’t intending to crush me fairly quickly. They simply wanted to hold me down.

“Is she secure?” a female imp asked.

“Yes,” came several replies.

“Move so I can see her face,” the female instructed. After some shifting, my head was uncovered. A very pregnant imp crouched down and examined me. I could barely see her batlike face for the bulge in her stomach. She must have been close to term because her skin expanded as tiny fists and feet stretched inside, searching for an escape route. “The First has ordered us to try an experiment if the fire did not kill you,” she said in her guttural alien language.

Translating the words, I felt an automatic chill run through me from my head to my feet.
I had no desire to be a lab rat again. “I can’t wait to see where this is going,” I lied.

“He says that you have four
shadows because you have tasted the blood of four vampires.” After a short pause, she continued. “He wants to know what will happen if you taste the blood of four of his children.”

My chill became a full blown
blizzard through my clogged veins. Strange things happened to me when vampire blood was introduced to my system. I didn’t even want to think what might happen if I tasted imp blood.
They have the same blood as us,
I told myself frantically.
How bad could it be?
At worst, I’d end up with another four shadows. Having multiple shadows hadn’t harmed me, so far.

“I really don’t think that’s a good id
ea,” I said but they ignored my warning as I’d expected them to.

Gesturing at three of her brethren, the female took a knife one of them offered her and sliced open her palm. The three male clones copied her. One clamped a hand on my jaw and forced my mouth open. Pinned down by a dozen of the grey skinned monsters, I couldn’t move my hands
to unleash the holy marks on them.

Helpless, I watched
as four large, clawed hands come to a stop over my face. Moving in tandem, the palms tilted and black blood dripped into my open mouth.

As I’d expected, the taste was hideous. Diseased, tainted and acidic, the combined blood burned its way down my throat and into my stomach. Screaming in pain, I heaved myself off the ground and the pile of imps shifted slightly.

“Hold her
down!” screeched the pregnant female imp. She scrambled to her feet and readied herself to run.

Writhing and bucking, I fought against the taint I could feel spreading throughout my entire body. The pain spread until I felt it from the ends of my hair right down to my toenails.
The thick, ichor like blood in my veins pulsed as the new blood seep in. The marrow in my bones ached, trying to reject the substance that permeated every iota of my body.

Shuddering in reaction,
I felt a tingling sensation in my neck then lost all feeling in my body as my head came loose. It rolled away and came to rest near the feet of the female imp. Squawking in alarm, she moved back even further. One of the imps lying directly on top of my body shouted in alarm when one of my hands popped free and scuttled away from the pile. A grey foot stomped down, squishing it into the ground. Broken and crippled, my hand resumed its crawl at a much slower pace.

“Get off her so we can see what is happening,” the pregnant imp ordered
shakily.

I could have told her what was happening but my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth in horror. My body had broken apart along the same cuts that had first reduced me to being a meat puzzle before being boxed up in a cemetery.

Once the imps had crawled off me, my parts began inching, rolling and squirming in opposite directions. Since the lower half of my suit was still intact, my legs were trapped. I watched in dismay as my ragged pelvis and jagged upper thighs wormed their way free. My feet had already skedaddled, taking the boots with them. Only my lower legs remained inside the leather confines of the pants. They strained against each other and a seam tore. Wriggling free, one of my lower legs humped away through the grass. The other dragged the torn fabric along, unhindered by the heavy leather.

Grinning at my predicament, the female imp
had lost her urge to flee. “Stop,” she ordered when one of her cohorts pointed his flamethrower at my torso. It rolled along the ground, slowly working its way through the long grass. “Leave it be. Once the sun comes up, she will be finished.” I wasn’t about to disabuse her of that idea. “Our father will be very pleased to learn of your demise, Mortis.” With that, she left, taking her cohorts with her.

The bright lights were turned off, plunging the field into darkness
. After a short while, a number of vehicles drove away. Staring blankly up at the stars, I recalled a dream I’d had of this exact scenario. I thought it had just been a normal dream but it must have been a vision instead.