Author: J. C. Diem
Date: 2013-05-31T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fiction; Fantasy; Paranormal; speculative fiction
Description: Natalie Pierce awakens to find herself not only buried in a box but also missing her body from the neck down. After some initial confusion she remembers that she has become a member of a very exclusive club; the living dead. While Luc, her closest companion, was responsible for beheading her, he had simply obeyed an order that had been impossible for him to resist. The Comtesse, ruler of the European vampire nation, can be blamed for Nat’s current uncomfortable incarceration. Natalie has three important tasks ahead of her. Her first objective is to escape from her underground prison. The secon
Publisher: CreateSpace Publishing

Death Embraces

J.C. Diem

Copyright 2013 J.C. Diem

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-0-9875377-2-0

Amazon Kindle Edition, License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied, resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

Cover art by: Dreamscape Covers

Photographer: Noctem Photography

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter One

I woke to find myself staring at darkness so intense that only by blinking could I tell that my eyes were open at all. My left cheek was pressed against something soft yet gritty that smelled suspiciously like dirt. That’s because it is dirt, I thought in increasing confusion.

Granules of soil were in my nose, my mouth and clung to my eyelashes. Worst of all, they scraped harshly against the raw edges of my neck. Wait a minute…the raw edges of my neck? I didn’t like the sound of that very much. As far as I knew, necks weren’t supposed to have edges, raw or otherwise. They were just supposed to be attached to your shoulders. Then it dawned on me; I couldn’t feel anything below my neck at all.

Shocked, bewildered and terrified, I lay helplessly on my side and whimpered pathetically. I didn’t know where I was, how I’d gotten there or how I’d come to be paralysed. Keeping my mind as blank as possible seemed to be the way to cope with being in this state. Thinking would lead to panic then screaming and general hysteria would shortly follow.

The only concession I made to my predicament was to close my left eye to prevent further dirt from entering it. A few persistent grains were gleefully scratching away at my eyeball. Apart from that small annoyance, I felt no pain, just a vast and distressing nothingness below my neck.

After an unknown length of time had passed, I finally admitted that I couldn’t lie there forever doing nothing. I had to deal with my predicament and finding out where I was would be a good place to start.

Opening my right eye, I rolled it to the left and right then up and down. My night vision had kicked in and it was far better than I could ever remember it being before. My inspection told me that the wall was only two or three inches away from my face. Strangely, the ceiling also seemed to be only a few inches away. Wherever I was, I didn’t have much room to move in.

“I must be partially buried,” I whispered. I had to be because my cheek was sitting flush against the ground. If I’d been lying on my side, my head would have been canted downwards at an uncomfortable angle. The only conclusion I could come to was that someone had attacked me then put me in a tiny room. They had then piled dirt inside and had half buried me in it. What kind of psycho would do something like this? Sadly, there were a lot of sick people out there who had strange ideas of fun.

Since I couldn’t feel anything below my neck, turning my head was going to take a monumental effort. After straining for a few minutes without getting anywhere, I closed my eye again and concentrated on the part of my neck that I could still feel. As far as I could determine, feeling stopped at the base of my neck just above where my shoulders began. I wouldn’t be able to turn my whole body over if I was buried but that wasn’t my plan. I just needed to turn my head enough to see the room more clearly.

“Ok, you can do this,” I murmured encouragingly to myself. Pep talks had never had much effect on me before but this time proved to be the exception.

Creaking audibly, the muscles in my neck responded to my mental command and my head began to turn. Once it started, my head flopped over with surprising ease, almost as if I wasn’t half buried. Or as if my head wasn’t actually tethered to my body. That’s a good one, Nat. You’re not paralysed at all, you’re just a detached head! Ha, ha, ha. My silent amusement held more than a touch of hysteria.

After my brief mental bout of dark hilarity faded, I was ready to examine the room in more detail. It had stark, unpainted wooden walls and ceiling. The building must have been constructed fairly recently because the wood still smelled freshly cut.

Woodwork wasn’t my speciality but it looked like cheap pine to me. A pair of hinges to the left caught my eye. It almost looked like the ceiling was actually a trap door. To back up this theory, a small metal lock had been placed on the wall to the right, just below the ceiling.

Sweeping my eyes from left to right and back again, it occurred to me that the room was only about a foot wide. That can’t be, my confused subconscious argued. My shoulders and hips are wider than that. There’s no way I’d fit in a room that small. Peering down towards my feet, I realized I couldn’t even see my feet, or any other part of me either for that matter. My body wasn’t paralysed, it simply wasn’t there. The room I was in wasn’t in a room at all. It was a box. A tiny little box.

When the fact finally sunk in that my body was missing and that I was just a head in a box, I subsided into a panic. I’m not sure how long I spent screaming and gibbering but the most frequent phrases I used were; “I’m a head in a box! Head! Box! Arrgghh!”

Finally exhausted from my screaming fit, I wound down to the stage where I was whimpering again. “How can this be?” I moaned. “What in G-G-G.” I stuttered on God and couldn’t spit it out. “What in C-C.” I couldn’t say Christ either. “J-J.” Jesus was also a no go. “Fuck it!” For some reason, I couldn’t say the Lord’s name out loud.

I admit I had a sneaking suspicion why this might be the case. Three facts had occurred to me since I’d woken up as a head in a box; I could see in the dark like a nocturnal animal; my head wasn’t attached to my body yet I was somehow still alive and I couldn’t say God out loud. Add all three together and I could only come to one conclusion. “I’m a zombie,” I moaned then sobbed at how low I’d fallen.

No actual tears slid down my face to go with the sobs and crying was frustratingly unsatisfying. One good thing, possibly the only good thing, about being a zombie so far was that no snot clogged my nose. Tears and mucus seemed to be beyond my ability to produce now.

“Ok,” I whispered to myself once I’d calmed down again. “I just need to figure this out. Someone turned me into a zombie and cut off my head. Who hates me that much?”

Thinking long and hard, I came up totally blank. As the manager of a clothing store in the centre of Brisbane, I had a few rivals in the area but I wasn’t outright enemies with any of them. My parents had died when I was nineteen and I’d been pretty much alone for the past nine years. I had no friends or remaining family who might despise me enough to wreak this kind of revenge on me. The idea that one of my infrequent boyfriends was behind this was simply ludicrous. I’d been single for a couple of years now and couldn’t remember the last time I’d been on an actual date. None of my exes had been into the occult and I just couldn’t see any of them holding a grudge for this long. Besides, they’d all dumped me. If anyone had a right to unholy vengeance, surely I did.

That thought rang a dim bell. The word ‘unholy’ brought to mind a picture of a cross. The picture doubled and the lone cross became a pair. They gave me the sense of being old and heavy, possibly made of iron. A much smaller silver cross, decorated with fancy filigree bits, sat in the centre. Old and tarnished, the workmanship was exquisite.

“Not unholy,” I corrected myself. “Holy. The holy…something.” Holy what? Spots? Stains? Blotches? Nah, that wasn’t right but it was close. The word I was looking for was right on the tip of my tongue. I thought it might start with an m.

Someone had taught me a trick once that might help me solve the mystery. If you couldn’t remember the name of something but you could remember what it started with, just start saying words that began with that letter. Usually by the fifth word, you came up with the correct one.

Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to give it a go. “The holy Martian. Mutant. Maggot. Meat. Mark!” That rang a much louder bell. “The holy marks!”

Excitement ran from the tip of my head down to the raw wound that ended at my neck. “That’s it!” Now what the hell does that mean and what does it have to do with me being a zombie?

It was a good question but I didn’t have an answer to it. Not yet anyway. My memory still remained stubbornly vague. Maybe because remembering will be both painful and unpleasant. I was a zombie for Christ’s sake, of course it was going to be unpleasant.

Blinking obstinate grains of dirt out of my left eye, I winked at the lid of the box as if I was trying to send out a message in Morse code. Dot-dot-dash-dash-dash. I was suddenly stricken with the giggles and was soon laughing hysterically. It sounded awful in the enclosed space and I gave myself a massive case of the creeps. If I’m a zombie, why do I still have a sense of humour? I should have been mindlessly pining for a snack of human brains. Maybe I wasn’t a zombie at all then. Maybe I was something else. But what else could survive after having its head chopped off?

Prodding my teeth with my tongue, I located my incisors and winced at how long and sharp they seemed to be. “Ah, great,” I said with despair as the truth finally became unavoidable. I wasn’t a mindless, brain eating zombie at all but something even worse. I was an evil, blood sucking creature of the night. “I’m a vampire!” I cried with utter desolation.

Chapter Two

My memory came flooding back like a movie set on fast forward. My last day as a mortal had been spent in a prolonged agony of needing to pee. It had been Friday, Brisbane’s late night shopping day, which meant I’d had to stay at work until nine pm.

A last minute customer had delayed me enough that all the shops in the street had been closed when I left for the night. It had been spooky creeping down the deserted alley that led to the lone bathroom. A weird old man had jumped me when I’d exited from the toilet. It turned out he wasn’t just a strange old man, he was an ancient and possibly insane vampire by the name of Silvius.

Silvius had knocked me out and carried me to a small crypt in the nearby cemetery. When I’d risen after three nights of excruciating pain, he had explained that he’d created me for the express purpose of becoming his new servant.

I hadn’t exactly been thrilled with the idea. I’d been even less happy when he’d started cackling madly and I saw the length and sharpness of his teeth. It was then that I figured out Silvius was a vampire. Ok, he’d actually told me he was a vampire, but I hadn’t really believed him until I saw his fangs descend and he’d started laughing at me.

My natural instinct had been to stab him through the chest with whatever object was handy. A heavy metal cross had been the closest weapon. I’d snapped it off a nearby sarcophagus then speared it across the room at him. Silvius had died badly. Screaming, coughing up thick, black blood he finally caught on fire when he tried to pull the cross out of his chest.

I remembered something strange about him as I examined my memory. Even stranger than him being an actual vampire, that was. “His shadow,” I said to myself. “It moved on its own.”

More memories came crashing back then. I remembered meeting ‘Lord Lucentio’ in the cold and lonely mausoleum that had been my home so briefly. He had kept me safe as we travelled to Romania to question an aged vampire prophet about my future. Thanks to the holy marks I’d managed to acquire on both palms, my new friend thought I was the scourge of vampirekind. I even had a title; Mortis, which was Latin for death. My sole purpose was apparently to wipe out ‘the damned’.

Luc, as I’d nicknamed him mainly because I was Australian and lazy, and I were met by guards from the Court upon landing in France on our way to Romania. The Court, a group of snobby European vampires numbering in the hundreds if not thousands, was run by a panel of nine Councillors. Of those nine, the Comtesse was the one who was really in charge.

Portents had been seen at my strange new birth but that was only one inconsequential detail that barely concerned the Comtesse. Her main concern was a female vamp that was killing off the European vampire population. It was rumoured that she was the dreaded Mortis.

Luc and I were pretty sure that particular gig already belonged to me. Checking with the prophet who had foreseen my arrival a couple of thousand years ago seemed like a good idea. Luckily for us, the Comtesse had reached the same conclusion. She ordered Luc to head to Romania to question the seer about the renegade female vamp and I tagged along with him for the ride.

Vincent, the creepy custodian of the prophet’s domain, met us when we arrived at the Romanian mountain hideaway. Like Silvius, his shadow had a life all of its own. It gave me chills just looking at the thing. Unfortunately, Vincent wasn’t the only one in the underground lair to have a shadow that seemed to be able to act independently.

After finding a secret journal that had been squirrelled away by the prophet, we quickly determined that I was indeed the fabled Mortis. Being the scourge of vampirekind had never been on my wish list and it wasn’t a job I’d ever aspired to. Before I could even get used to the idea of what fate had in store for me, Vincent set his lackeys onto us. We were forced to dispatch them and then him. Believe me, the world was better off without them.

During their attack, I discovered the holy marks on my hands weren’t just unusual decorations, they were also deadly weapons. If the head of a vampire happened to come between my palms, it invariably imploded shortly afterwards. But only if I willed the implosion to happen. Otherwise, my hands were just like anyone else’s. Honest.

After we landed back in France, Luc phoned the Court mansion to warn them of Vincent’s treachery but no one answered. This disturbed my companion greatly since the phone was always manned. The mansion seemed to be deserted.

Meeting up with Igor and Geordie, a pair of Court servants and Luc’s acquaintances, we drove to the mansion to try to determine what had happened. We discovered that the impersonator had made an appearance and had sliced her way through a number of guards. The Councillors and remaining courtiers had sensibly scattered like dust motes in the wind.

Along with having the holy marks and being impervious to holy water and stakes through the heart, I had one other weird talent. I could interpret foreign languages, both spoken and written. The journal, unintelligible to anyone else, said that I would battle the vamp who was impersonating me and that I would win. I would then go forth and smite down the damned. Lastly, and most horribly, I would be smitten myself. Worst of all, I knew who was fated to do the smiting.

Luc’s plan was to follow the path set out for me by the prophet and to find the woman impersonating me so that I could kill her. My goal was slightly more self-serving, I just wanted to stay alive. Or maybe unalive would be more accurate. I figured the only way to do that was to run away like a coward. Death was a state I very much wanted to avoid.

During my all too brief escape, I encountered a crowd of sewer vamps beneath London. I knew the Brits didn’t always like Australians but their lack of hospitality had been appalling. Their leader was a guy called Alexander and he had been heavily into experimenting on vampires who were stupid enough to fall into his clutches. He fancied himself as a scientist and was hell bent on creating a stronger, faster and harder to kill breed of vampires. What he got was me.

Being the latest vampire to stupidly fall into his clutches, Alexander had cut my chest open then dripped his diseased blood into my dead, unbeating heart. The pain had been prolonged and exquisite. Unfortunately for Alexander, his experiment worked. The wound in my chest closed and I healed so fast it was almost unbelievable. I was stronger and faster just like he’d wanted. I guess he’d never considered that if his experiment worked, his lab rat might just turn on him. But turn on him I did and he’d paid the price of using me as a test subject. Instead of politely dying on the stone slab as Alexander had expected me to, I instead taught him a harsh lesson on what happened to anyone who screwed with Mortis.

Luc caught up to me shortly after I left the sewers and guilt tripped me into re-joining the hunt to take down my imposter. We found her trail and quickly caught up to her. As prophesized, I killed her, using my holy marks to pop her head like a ripe pimple. She’d disintegrated, leaving behind only her clothes, weapons and a nasty stain on the floor.

Then the prophecy had taken a wrong turn. According to the journal, I was supposed to go on a killing spree and start thinning down the bulk of vampirekind. Instead, Luc, my trusted companion and occasional bed partner, had lopped my head off.

Only the timing of his attack had come as a surprise to me. Thanks to a drawing on the last page in the prophet’s journal, I knew Luc had been fated to be my own personal doom. I’d hidden the drawing from him so he wouldn’t have to suffer the knowledge that he would be my end. After all, we had been naked together a couple of times. Ok, maybe more than a couple.

I should have had plenty of time to get used to the idea of my impending death. I should have had years, decades or even centuries to steel myself to the inevitable. Instead, I’d been untimely stricken down by my dark and brooding protector before I could even begin my destined job of whittling down the vamp population.

A pout formed on my lips. It just isn’t fair! I hadn’t even started to kill off the vampire race yet and I had been reduced to being a head in a box. I knew who was at fault here. “Yes I do,” I murmured into the darkness of the box just large enough to contain my hacked off head. “Yes indeedy.”

Lord Lucentio might have been the one to separate my head from my body but I remembered who had given him the order. “The praying mantis,” I snarled in a truly evil tone. Most vampires referred to her as the Comtesse. I called her a praying mantis because her midnight black eyes were set too far apart. They were also as creepy and soulless as the insect I named her after.

During our very first meeting I’d figured out pretty quickly that I didn’t like her. Mostly because she’d made me strip naked in front of two hundred or so courtiers. I figured she’d done that to humiliate me and to put me in my place. I had the feeling that she wasn’t happy Luc had made me his servant. He’d sworn centuries ago that he would never turn a human into one of us.

It was a lie, of course, me being his servant. Silvius had been my maker but we couldn’t exactly tell people that I’d offed the old guy. Murdering your maker was a big no no for vampires. That was one more thing that set me apart from the rest of my kin. I’d killed my master and had survived.

Getting back to the Comtesse, the second time we’d met, she’d ordered my death. It had all been a bit hazy to start with but I was remembering it very clearly now. I also recalled what Luc had said to me just before chopping off my head. He’d said that no vampire could refuse an order given to them by their master. Luc had told me earlier that his master was dead and that he was a free man. If that was the case then the Comtesse shouldn’t have had any power over him. Yet he had followed her order anyway. I found that little fact very interesting.

After my head was severed from my body, it had bounced to a stop at an angle where I could watch as my body was hacked apart by frenzied guards. When the chopping was over, the Comtesse had examined my remains. I’d begun shutting down then but had seen something odd about her shadow. It had moved of its own accord, just like Silvius’ and Alexander’s had.

I might be down but I still wasn’t out and I knew two secrets about the praying mantis that few others knew. Number one: she was Luc’s true master. Number two: the Comtesse had a shadow that acted independently. This was a fact that only I could possibly know because I was the only one who could see them in action.

Her shadow had spoken to me as my poor rent body had been kicked into a heap and I’d been on the edge of blacking out. “Did you really think you were any match for us?” It had whispered in my mind. “You have failed, Mortis and now we are free to rise.”

It sounded crazy but I was certain that the shadows were tied to the creature that had created the vampire race in the first place. The prophet’s journal had explained how we’d come to be. A book I’d acquired after dispatching Alexander the sewer vamp had confirmed it.

A long, long time ago, an alien that was close to being a demi-god had shared its blood with a human, promising the fool eternal life. It had lied, surprise, surprise. We didn’t have eternal life at all. What we had was a temporary and often miserable unlife. We could be killed pretty easily if you knew how to take us down. Some of the more wily vampires managed to live for thousands of years but in the end we would all be reduced to being messy stains on the ground.

Over the millennia, the alien blood in our veins had begun to evolve. Eventually, it had begun to change our shadows, turning them sentient. On two occasions, shadows had acted against me directly. Alexander’s had even managed to possess him and take over his body. Eventually, they would all gain the power to do so.

Once this happened, our shadows would then be in charge. That could only mean one thing; the progeny of our long dead alien father would be in control of the deadliest creatures on earth.

Chapter Three

My memory was complete and now I knew how and why I had become a head in a box. When my body hadn’t instantly been turned into noisome liquid after being decapitated, the Comtesse’s solution must have been to hack me to pieces.

The picture of my dismembered limbs being kicked into a small pile was fresh enough. It was a gruesome sight but I fixed it in my mind and examined it closely. Through the ragged tears in my clothing I made out severed feet, hands, legs, arms and my body in two pieces. All up, including my head, I now consisted of eleven separate pieces.

Despair threatened to overwhelm me. I tried to tell myself that it could be worse. Yeah, they could have left me out in the sun to be incinerated instead of burying me. I’d accidentally caught a tiny dose of sunlight not long ago and it had burned my finger right down to the bone. It had taken hours for the flesh to reknit and that was after Alexander had turned me into a super vamp that healed like lightning and could now sleep like a human.

I’d almost forgotten about that last perk. Most vampires fell into a state that reduced them back to the corpses they were during daylight hours. That rule didn’t apply to me anymore. Now, if I wanted to, I could stay up all day as long as I stayed out of the sun.

Usually, a vamp had to be hundreds if not thousands of years old before they could resist the magic that animated our bodies and forced us down for the day. At a rough count, I determined I’d been undead for just over three weeks now. I was still practically a baby, yet had powers far greater than even the oldest vampires I’d met so far. Yeah, well look where my magical powers have gotten me; I’m a head in a box!

If my body parts had been dragged out into the sun, what would have happened to me? Would I have died? I wonder why they didn’t try it? It was useless to speculate about it and I wasn’t sure what difference it would make anyway. The rest of me was most likely trapped in ten other boxes just like the one my head was being kept in. There was no hope of escape for me. For all I knew, my other pieces were scattered all through the UK or even across Europe.

An even more horrible fact occurred to me then. They’ve cut me up, buried me and left me here to starve to death. I’d seen what happened to vampires when they starved themselves and it wasn’t a state I aspired to. The prophet Luc and I had visited in Romania hadn’t eaten for a couple of hundred years, or so he’d told me. He’d looked like a dried up piece of beef jerky and had smelled like cinnamon.

I was a lot younger than the prophet and I didn’t think it would take me anywhere near as long as it was taking him to mummify. It would still take years if not decades to reach that state. I’d woken up in the box a couple of hours ago and I was already starting to get antsy from inactivity. I’d go crazy long before thirst dried me out.

How could Luc let this happen to me? Sure, the Comtesse had ordered him to lop off my head and he’d been helpless to resist her. But how could he stand by and let them box me up? Either he didn’t really care about me, which was a devastating thought, or she’d ordered him not to interfere. Personally, I was hoping the second explanation was the accurate one.

Since becoming undead, I’d learned to sense when the sun was about to rise from the way the earth seemed to heat up just before dawn. It was probably a warning sign for vamps that death was fast approaching. Being buried in a box an unknown distance below the ground, I couldn’t feel the heat of the sun. But I could still sense it up there anyway, shooting out its blinding, burning rays.

All other vampires in the area would be either dead asleep or fighting against the compulsion to sink into welcoming darkness. I felt no such compulsion but decided I might as well try to sleep anyway. Closing my eyes, I willed myself into oblivion.

My sleep was deep and dreamless. Awareness flooded back when I opened my eyes again, bringing deep depression with it. If I could stay asleep until I finally expired, I would. But I was wide awake now. Awake and alone. I was just a head in a box with no one to talk to and no way out.

To break the silence that had quickly become monotonous, I alternated between humming popular pop songs and dry sobbing in self-pity.

Halfway through mangling a song, I sensed someone approaching on the surface above and my dry sobs ceased immediately. I had no idea how I knew that a vampire was standing there, staring at the spot where my head was buried. I just knew.

They stood there for a long time before moving away. It never occurred to me to scream for help. If the Comtesse became aware that I was still unalive down here, I was pretty sure she’d have my remains dug up and staked out for the sun to finish me off. No more sobbing or singing, I warned myself. Not at night-time anyway.

An itch started up on my chin and almost instantly began to drive me insane. My tongue wasn’t quite long enough to reach it and put me out of my misery. Without a body to anchor my head with, I couldn’t roll over and rub my chin in the dirt. It had been difficult enough just rolling it over in the first place. Now I knew what paraplegics felt like, unable to perform a task as simple as scratching an itchy spot.

You’d think the itch would stop after a few minutes but it just kept getting worse and worse. I tried puffing air on my chin but was absolutely unsuccessful since I didn’t have lungs to fill with air or the ability to breathe at all.

“Why does death have to suck so much?” I shouted. Clenching my hand in frustration, I went still in shock when I realized the sensation wasn’t just my imagination. Somewhere out there, I could feel one of my hands.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated hard and pictured the box containing my head buried beneath the ground. Then I imagined myself rising up out of the dirt. My consciousness seemed to coalesce over my head before drifting away, seeking out the hand.

Without actual eyes in this insubstantial form, I couldn’t tell where I was buried. I glided through darkness without any landmarks to guide me. After what felt like a short trip, I stopped over the spot where I could feel my hand buried. Gathering my will, I sent it into the ground.

My hand was right there but now what? A crazy idea hit me; if a shadow could possess its vampire owner, why couldn’t I possess my own hand? It was worth a try so I forced my consciousness into the cool flesh.

My right hand convulsed when I took it over. Success! The crazy idea had actually paid off. At times I wished I had a vampire handbook to consult so I’d know all the rules. Now was not one of those times. I was pretty sure no other vampire had ever managed to possess their own severed body part before. Being told what was and wasn’t possible might be more restrictive than helpful to a creature as strange as I was.

Tentatively, I clenched my fingers and realized the hand was clutching something. Dropping the object to the ground, my fingers explored it and ascertained that it was a metal bobby pin. The memory of popping the impersonator’s head came back to me again. I had closed my hand around the small object almost instinctively after her head had disintegrated. This might come in handy, I thought. Just how it would come in handy wasn’t clear yet but I tucked the bobby pin between two fingers for safe keeping anyway.

Grit beneath my palm told me that my hand was also buried in box that had been partially filled with dirt. It’s probably been blessed by a priest or something. What I didn’t know about vampire culture could fill a book. I couldn’t think of any other reason why they’d put dirt in the boxes.

Chucking my dismembered body parts into an empty box and burying me just hadn’t been enough for the Comtesse. She, or one of her minions, hadn’t taken any chances and had gone with holy dirt as well. Luckily, holy symbols and holy water had no adverse effects on me. Fat lot of good the dirt was doing to keep my unholiness at bay. In fact, it might even end up working in my favour.

Keeping a tight hold of the bobby pin, I set about exploring the box. A couple of inches of splintered bone poked out the end of my severed wrist. It didn’t hurt but the torn flesh was ragged and unhealed. At first I dragged the broken bone of my wrist along behind me then figured out how to walk on my fingertips. It took some practice to balance my hand and the tail end of my wrist without dropping the bobby pin but it was a quicker way to move around.

Just like the box my head was buried in, this one was also about a foot square. Locating a corner, I stuck the bobby pin upright in the dirt so it would be easy to find again. I wanted to see how high the lid was so flattened my hand down in preparation to launch it into the air. Flexing my fingers, I made my hand spring upwards. It hit the lid quickly, which meant that the dirt was only a few inches from the top.

Part of my consciousness remained with my hand as I opened my eyes again. They stared up at the small metal lock a few inches above my head. I swivelled my gaze from the lock to the hinges. Even if, by some miracle, you did manage to pick the lock, how are you going to get the lid open?

If the box was buried several feet below the ground, surely the pressure on the lid would be too great to open it with only one hand. Then again, I was a super vamp now. I was strong, I was determined and I was edging towards becoming extremely bored. It was the boredom that would get to me the quickest.

Waiting around to wither and die just wasn’t me. I’d survived through Silvius, Vincent and Alexander’s craziness and the battle with the imposter pretending to be me. I would get out of this box and exact my revenge on the Comtesse if it was the last thing I did.

“If you don’t get out of this mess, it will be the last thing you do,” I reminded myself dryly.

Chapter Four

Sending my consciousness back to my hand again, I set about instigating my great escape. I began by pushing the dirt up against one of the walls. My aim was to climb up high enough to be able to reach the lid.

There were four walls to choose from and I had no idea which one contained the all-important lock. That’s if there even is a lock on this box. Just because your head was buried in a container that can be opened doesn’t mean the rest of you has been. What a cheery thought that was. Until I discovered that there wasn’t a lock, I’d assume that there was one.

With no time pressure weighing on me to get the job done, it didn’t bother me if I had to repeat the process of wall building several times.

Hollowing out the middle of the box, I packed the dirt against the wall until it was high enough for me to climb up to the top. It was frustrating not being able to see what I was doing but I persevered. What else was I going to do? Take a break to watch TV? Open a book for a read? Scratch the itch on my chin? Out of the three, the third option would be my first choice.

Feeling along the crack at the top of the box, I came across first one hinge and then the other. Ha, take that, doubtful subconscious! Hinges were a sure sign that there would be a lock to break open.

I’d gotten lucky on my first try and I only had to shift the wall of dirt once to reach the lock. Working tirelessly, my hand knocked the wall down and started again on the opposite side of the box. Before long, my knuckles were scraping on the lid so I knew the wall was high enough.

This time I’d built a wider platform in order to make a solid base to work from. My hand had the annoying habit of overbalancing and falling off the platform. This would have been a lot easier if less bone had been sticking out the back.

Scampering down the rough ramp, I searched for and located the bobby pin in the corner and carried it back to the top of the box. It took only seconds to locate the lock. Closing my eyes, I concentrated all of my will on the severed hand and inserted the bobby pin into the lock. Be patient and for God’s sake, don’t break the bobby pin. The pin was my only shot at breaking my hand free. If it broke, all hope would be lost.

My lock picking experience was non-existent and my skills in this area were turning out to be fairly shabby. If I’d still been able to sweat, it would have soaked my brow due to my fierce concentration. The pin scraped against the insides of the lock, fruitlessly trying to finesse it open. Clearly, I’d never be a successful burglar.

I’d been probing the lock’s insides for hours and daylight was approaching before I finally felt something shift inside. Dropping the bobby pin, I pushed up against the lid and felt it give. “Yes!” my head croaked in its own box while my hand did happy cartwheels. It slid off the ramp and came to a halt facing palm up. I let it rest for a while before attempting to open the lid.

After a few minutes, I made the hand climb the ramp again and feel around for the metal pin. The hairpin would be crucial if I wanted to spring the rest of my body parts free. Locating it, I awkwardly clasped it between my pinkie and ring finger again. Then I braced my palm on the flattened surface of the dirt wall and pushed against the lid.

Little by little, it began to lift. My pointer finger worked its way into the crack first and the rest quickly followed. My hand wormed its way free, clawing at moist dirt. It was suddenly halted when the lid clicked shut on the bone protruding from my wrist. Burrowing into dirt, my fingers pulled the hand forward until the shattered bone was clear. I felt a faint vibration through the dirt as the lid snapped shut again.

Free! It’s free! I rejoiced at my success but deep in my mind I despaired that it had taken me so long to accomplish the task. There were still ten more pieces of me to exhume. At this rate, it would take me a week or more to free myself completely. I didn’t want to spend any more time than was absolutely necessary beneath the ground.

Since the sun was currently up, it would be a bad idea to dig my way up to the surface. A hand that had been barbequed down to the bone wouldn’t be of much use to me. Another thought dawned on me then. If someone came at night to check that the grave of my head hadn’t been disturbed, maybe the rest of my dismembered remains were also being guarded. If so, then digging my way out anywhere near where it had been buried would be a bad idea, bordering on idiotic. I, Natalie Pierce, was many things but thankfully I wasn’t an idiot. Others might have a differing opinion but they weren’t here to argue with me.

To be on the safe side, I started tunnelling sideways instead of upward. Thanks to my vampire hardened fingernails, it was easy enough to make my way through the soil. After about five feet or so of digging, my fingers encountered an obstacle. Carefully poking at it, I determined that it was made of wood. Investigative digging to both sides then upwards determined that whatever it was, it was much bigger than the box my head and hand had been interred in.

I reached the top of the obstacle quickly enough then dug sideways again. I was reluctant to keep on going upwards when I was still so close to my hand’s burial site. Reaching the far side of the wooden hindrance, it was the thought of my own small wooden boxes that made me realize what the obstacle was and where I buried. It was a coffin and that meant I was in a cemetery.

A graveyard would be a logical enough place to hide my remains. It also explained the holy dirt. If the ground was consecrated then there would be plenty of anti-vampire soil to inter my parts in. I hoped whoever had buried me had sustained some nasty injuries during the process. They probably wore protective gloves and didn’t even get an itchy spot. Stupid vampires didn’t tend to last long. And what are you basing that assumption on? Your overwhelming three weeks of being a vampire yourself? I winced a little at my cutting subconscious. It was being particularly harsh today.

Staying at my current depth, I remained above any more coffins that might be in the area. I did squish a few bugs and worms during the journey but being smeared by their goo was a small price to pay for freedom.

After I’d dug maybe thirty feet or so, I figured I’d probably moved far enough away. Angling upwards, I stopped digging when I could feel the heat of the sun burning through the soil. My hand retreated back down the underground tunnel and dug out a small niche to wait out the day. Righty, as I’d nicknamed my hand, deserved a rest after what I’d put it through.

Step one of my barely thought out plan for freedom was now complete. With hours of daylight still left, I decided I’d better think this through all the way. Ok, I need to break all of my body parts free and bring them together. What then? Pretend I was just a big jigsaw puzzle? I’d have to put myself back together like Humpty Dumpty. The question was; could I magically reattach all of my limbs or was this just wishful thinking?

I was pretty sure that survival after decapitation was an unprecedented event. There was no doubt that I wasn’t a run-of-the-mill vampire. But just because I could still think and control my dismembered parts didn’t mean I’d be able to reattach them. I have to try. I can’t just stay in my boxes and wait to die.

In the secret depths of my mind, I made myself a promise. If I managed to reunite my body and couldn’t reattach everything, I’d just drag all my pieces out in the open and let the sun finish me off. It would be suicide by sunlight. True death would have to be better than being Humpty Dumpty for the rest of my unnatural life.

If I really was going to go ahead with my mad plan, I needed to know where the rest of my body was located. Drawing my consciousness back in, I concentrated on my left hand. Feeling an answering twitch somewhere in the distance, my consciousness swept off towards it. Sending out my will was harder with the killing sunlight glaring down and it took longer to reach the appendage this time.

Finally, I located then possessed my left hand and did a quick victory fist pump. Since I had time to kill before Righty could make its way to the surface, I started building a wall. Lefty wouldn’t be able to free itself without a bobby pin but it could at least do its bit to help.

This time, I had to build three walls before I finally located the lock. I built the wall high enough so that, once Righty picked the lock, I’d be able to slip Lefty outside with a minimum of fuss. When the wall was high enough and my fingertips could touch the lid, I allowed my hand to rest.

Since the sun was still up, I spent some time attempting to locate the rest of my body. With a bit of practice and persistence, I found them all. As the last of the sun’s rays slipped over the horizon, my concentration increased. Suddenly, my consciousness was hovering over eleven different locations at the same time.

Drawing a map in my head, I wondered if my burial had been accidental or intentional. I’d been buried in roughly the shape I’d be if I was still whole. My head was at the top with my upper torso in the direction I was thinking of as south. Below the torso was my lower body. Further south were my legs and feet. All were buried a good distance from each other but they should be easy enough to locate. My hands and arms were off to the east and west.

Now that I had a fair idea of where all of my bits and pieces were, I had to rethink my plan. It would be a pain in the butt for Righty to have to traverse what must be a sizable cemetery to break Lefty free only to have to return later to retrieve my right arm. The arm was only a hundred feet or so to the north of Righty. It just made sense to go after it first.

Sending my consciousness back to Righty, I dug the rest of the way up to the surface. Just before my fingers broke free, I froze. Someone was standing over my head again. I cautiously sent my consciousness upwards. Whoever the watcher was, they were standing right over me. After a few minutes, I sensed them walking away. It had to be a guard and that meant I needed to be extremely careful.

Righty finally broke free of the ground and felt around gingerly. My fingers encountered thick, coarse grass. I’d left a small hole behind so spent a few minutes locating nearby tufts and covering the small excavation with plucked blades. I hoped it wasn’t glaringly obvious that something undead had crawled out of the ground.

Satisfied with its job, Righty scurried towards the area where my severed right arm had been laid to rest. I kept my hand low to the ground, dragging the protruding bone behind it rather than running high on my fingertips. My greatest fear was that a vampire guard would spot my hand and know what it was and whom it belonged to.

Bumping blindly into headstones, statues and other obstacles that I couldn’t identify just by touch, I let out a yelp when I crashed into something furry. At first I thought it was a cat. That turned out to be wishful thinking. A pair of viciously sharp teeth bit into the webbing between my thumb and pointer finger.

“Rat!” I whisper-shouted then scrunched my eyes shut and sent all of my concentration to my hand. While I wasn’t afraid of the disgusting, diseased rodents anymore, the last thing I needed was for my hand to be carried off to feed a horde of rat babies.

The rat sawed at my skin with its teeth as I grappled with it. Blood flowed sluggishly from the wound rather than pouring from it. Being undead, my circulation had ceased to function. The rat released me suddenly and I guessed that it had tasted my blood and had found it to be as disgusting as I did.

I had a moment of panic when I realized I’d dropped the bobby pin during the brief struggle. Casting around for it, I encountered another rat. Teeth pierced my pinkie then the rat tried to carry my hand away. A third rodent entered the fray and pounced on my thumb.

Both rats bit deep and I was suddenly in a tug of war as they tried to carry me off in two different directions at once. Screw this! Tugging free, I balled my hand into a fist and punched the closest rodent. For a few seconds there was no movement, then they attacked Righty together.

Anyone watching the battle would have seen a mad swirl of rats being flung through the air as a very strange animal fought for its life. Anything that I came into contact with was seized, squeezed viciously then tossed aside. I was bitten again and managed to put out a beady eye with my finger. That seemed to be the last straw for the rats and they stopped attacking. I pictured my hand to be a small but ferocious dog guarding its turf as I turned it in a circle, waiting for further attacks.

After a minute or so, I figured the rodents must have given up and fled the scene. My first order of business was to wipe eye jelly off my fingers onto the grass. My second task was to find the bobby pin again. Searching through the cool grass, I located the dropped tool and scurried onwards towards my goal.

Stopping a safe distance away from where I sensed my arm lay, I found the edge of a headstone and dug a tunnel next to it. Again, I carefully pulled grass over the hole to cover it from sight. Hiding my excavations was a smart move and I was frankly surprised that I’d thought of it. Like lock picking, stealth and cunning had never been my forte. Convincing women to buy a pair of jeans and two shirts that they didn’t really need was more my area of expertise.

I made good time digging my way through dirt to the box that contained my arm. It wasn’t any easier picking the second lock. Cursing under my breath, scared that if I voiced my frustrations out loud I might alert someone in the vicinity of my buried head, I wouldn’t allow myself to give up. The lock finally gave after several hours of probing at it with the makeshift lock pick. My severed arm couldn’t do anything to help. It lay there patiently in the long, narrow coffin as Righty did all the work.

Digging quickly, Righty scraped enough dirt away from the lid to be able to push it open. Like a large and creepy albino spider, my hand climbed inside and felt for my wrist. Finding the jagged edge of flesh, it seized my arm and hauled it to freedom.

Before continuing onwards, I took the time to try an experiment. Straightening my arm out in the small tunnel that I’d made, I felt for the bone of my wrist. What I found was a hole two inches deep due to the extra bone protruding from the wrist end of my severed hand. Aligning the edges together, I backed my hand up until the bone poked into the hole. I’d hoped the limb would magically reattach itself but nothing happened.

Discouraged, I grabbed the limb and started the laborious task of dragging my arm back down the tunnel then up towards the surface. It was a tight squeeze since the tunnel was hand sized rather than arm sized. I still had a few hours left before dawn rose and I wanted to make some headway on reaching Lefty. Once it was free, it could help with the rest of the excavating. “Two hands make light work,” I giggled with a touch of hysteria as my fingers cautiously poked up through the hole again.

Hauling the arm out, I abandoned it briefly while I made an attempt to disguise the now larger hole. Then I began hauling the arm around the many unseen obstacles in my way. After an hour or so of slow progress, my fingers touched something different. Whatever it was, it was far softer than a headstone.

Carefully prodding the object, I determined that it was a plastic bag. Inside were the remains of what must have been a takeaway meal. Now this will definitely be useful.

Emptying the bag of its trash, Righty crawled inside and checked thoroughly for holes. Finding none, it backed out again. The possibility of losing the bobby pin if it was left loose in the bag worried me. My solution was to push it inside the hole in my wrist and into the spongy bone tissue. I didn’t have a body handy to shudder with but my mind shuddered instead at my morbid ingeniousness.

It was much easier to drag my arm when it was inside the bag. The end poked out a few inches but I made better time. When I felt dawn nearing again, I dug way my downwards, hiding my burrowing as best as I could. It took a lot longer to dig and drag at the same time rather than making my way across land. Since I didn’t need to fall into an unconscious state that mimicked death during the day, I was going to keep going for as long as I could.

Crossing beneath the graveyard at a depth of about four feet, I was drawn towards the box that contained my upper body. It was central to the rest of my body parts and seemed like the logical place to gather my pieces together. It was hard enough moving my smaller parts beneath the ground. Trying to dig a tunnel large enough for my shoulders to fit through was a daunting prospect.

Digging downwards to what turned out to be a sizable crate that housed my upper torso, I hollowed out a large space and tucked my arm in beside the box. Before moving on, I plucked the bobby pin free from the bone of my wrist and crushed the plastic bag into a small ball. Holding the bag and bobby pin tightly, I orientated myself then set off underground, now tunnelling towards Lefty.

I judged it to be half a kilometre away and it took me the rest of the day to dig my way to it. With an hour left before nightfall, I allowed myself to rest with Righty still about thirty feet away from its twin.

Chapter Five

Forcing myself awake from a dream where I was reliving the moment Luc had swung his sword at me, I sensed someone standing over the grave of my head again. I could feel them up there, only a few feet above me. I judged that night had fallen not long ago. My brief nap had reinvigorated me enough that my exhaustion was gone and I was eager to resume excavating.

Minutes later, the watcher was gone. I hoped that anyone guarding the rest of my body was also gone. I’d been careful to keep my tunnels at a distance from where I’d been interred but there was always a chance my creeping body parts could be spotted. A boot pinning my hand to the ground would be an indication that I’d been found out.

Since I was so close to my left hand, I tunnelled the rest of the way underground. I’d had a bit of practice picking locks now and it only took me about three hours to break Lefty free. It waited patiently until its twin had pushed most of the dirt out of the way then helped to push the lid up and slid free.

I clumsily high fived myself then spent a few confusing minutes trying to move both hands at once. Still new to the art of possessing my own body parts, I found it was too difficult to split my thoughts at first. Giving Righty a break, I gave it the task of holding onto the bobby pin and made it crawl into the plastic bag.

My left hand had less bone poking out of the severed end of its wrist. It was easier to manoeuvre as it backtracked down the tunnel I’d already made. At what I judged to be around twenty feet from where Lefty had been stashed, I headed upwards. Dragging the bag containing my right hand out of the fresh hole I’d made, I patted the grass back into place then started scurrying towards where I could feel my left arm buried.

After only a hundred feet or so, I was close enough to start tunnelling again. All of this would have been a lot quicker and easier to do if I didn’t have to hide my exploits. Fear of discovery kept me from being lazy and simply digging straight down to where I knew my arm was buried.

Since I was right handed, I had to swap back to Righty to break my arm free. Lefty just didn’t have the dexterity that the task required. Despite my practice, it was dawn before the lock finally gave. Using Lefty, I began digging soil away from the lid. Splitting my concentration, I slowly gained control of both hands at the same time. In tandem, they dug a large enough space to be able to push the lid up then drag my arm free.

My arm went into the plastic bag then I had a decision to make. My hands and arm were only a couple of hundred meters away from where my head had been entombed. I could either dig my way underground to my head or dig my way towards my torso and stash my left arm there. Since I had a whole day to kill before any of my body parts could emerge to the surface, I opted to go after my head.

Lefty did the brunt of the work, digging its way stolidly through the dirt. Righty followed, dragging the arm in the plastic bag. Picturing my limbs patiently making their way through the dirt like blind moles started me giggling. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was worried I might be going mad. A deeper part thought there was a good chance that I had already crossed that line.

I sensed my limbs drawing closer and closer to my interred head. Then my enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of digging. Finally, they were right outside the box. This lock proved to be more stubborn than the others. Darkness fell, my nightly visitor showed up, stayed for a while then disappeared again and I still couldn’t get the frigging lock open. The hairpin incessantly scratched inside the metal opening just above my face and then something horrible happened; the bobby pin snapped.

Frustrated rage filled my mind. My hands groped through the soil. Lefty connected with something hard and lumpy then turned to vent its wrath on the lock. “Why. Don’t. You. Open. You. Stupid. Thing!” With each word my mouth uttered, Lefty bashed the rock it had found against the lock.

With a feeble metallic clink, the lock broke. I let out a victorious croak as my hands busied themselves digging the lid free of dirt. I was so absorbed in the task that I wasn’t really thinking about how utterly strange it was. So, when I first saw my hands push the lid open, I was completely freaked out and let out a distressed shriek. No one should have to endure a sight this horrible. For a few moments my strained mind teetered on the edge of annihilation.

Closing my eyes, I willed the madness away. If I gave into it, the Comtesse and the dark entity that was slowly but surely taking over her over would win. Like it or not, I was the only vampire standing between what might turn out to be Armageddon for both humans and my kind.

Willing Righty into the box, I forced it to climb up my face. Balancing precariously, it slapped my cheek soundly. Hysteria faded along with the sting of the blow but I kept my eyes closed as my hand backtracked. It stopped long enough to scratch the itch on my chin that had been driving me crazy for the past three nights and days.

Keeping my eyes closed was an excellent idea and doing so made it easier for me to concentrate. By now I had established firm control over both of my hands. They worked together to grab handfuls of my hair then dragged my head out of captivity. The bag was large enough to hold both my head and left arm. Using both hands, I widened the tunnel and dragged the bag along by the thumbs. Dirt kept finding its way inside but I didn’t bother to tip it out. Not enough was getting inside to slow me down.

Working my way back down the tunnel, I stopped when I’d dug a distance of about fifty feet. Dawn was maybe two hours away now. If I was quick, I would be able to make my way up to the surface and race closer to my torso before descending into the ground again. Weighing up my options, I decided to try it. I was growing in confidence but wasn’t quite cocky yet.

Up I went. Before dragging my head and arm out of the wide hole I’d made, I took the opportunity to check that the coast was clear. Manoeuvring the bag up to ground level, Lefty pulled the plastic open while Righty propped my head up. Sweeping the area, I ascertained that it was clear before proceeding.

It was easier to cover up the hole successfully with my head overseeing the work. I couldn’t actually bear to watch my severed, magically possessed hands at their work so looked away most of the time. After I patted grass and dirt back into the excavation, I took a quick peek to make sure it didn’t look too obvious. The quick glance showed me that anyone with half a brain would see a hole had been dug. “Damn it! Why does my head have to be so big?” I whispered.

“Who said that?” a startled voice called from somewhere nearby. If I’d had live blood in my veins, it would have drained out of my face.

Cautious footsteps began to approach. They no doubt belonged to the guard who had been set to watch my remains. My panicked hands raced towards the bag still containing my head and arm. They quickly dragged it behind a short, squat headstone.

Positioning my head so that I could see around the edge of the grave marker, I watched as a scruffy vampire dressed in soiled jeans and a ratty black overcoat came to a halt near the area I’d just fled from.

Casting around the ground, he held a stake in one hand and a torch in the other. Unlike the old days when the torch would have been a stick with fire on one end, he was holding a modern battery operated flashlight. In a pinch, it could also serve as a skull cracker.

I held my breath, not that I had any, as the beam swept near the hole I’d left. At first I thought I was safe then the beam swept back and zeroed in on the all too obvious depression in the ground.

Hunkering down, the vampire guard prodded at the lumps of grass and soil that I’d pushed into the hole in my pitiful attempt to hide it. The hole instantly collapsed and the tunnel was exposed. “What the hell?” Bemused, the guard hunkered down for a closer look. As he did, my hands made their way stealthily across the grass and around worn graves until they were flanking him. “It almost looks like something dug its way out,” he mused to himself.

As he came to that conclusion, my hands leaped to the attack. Catching sight of Lefty, the vamp screeched and swung the torch at it. I made the hand dance backwards out of reach. Meanwhile, Righty leaped into the air and latched onto his sleeve. Beating at it, the minion didn’t realize Lefty was now scampering up his back. Standing, he whirled in a mad circle, slapping and punching himself in an effort to dislodge my dismembered hands.

“You know, you really should have staked me out in the sun,” I advised him just as my hands reached his head.

Whirling, the guard spied my face peeking at him from behind the headstone. His eyes went round with terror then his head disintegrated as my holy marks unleashed their black magic. I hadn’t been sure the power would work since my hands weren’t currently attached to the rest of me. It was a relief to see the power was still operational.

Working quickly, I dragged the guard’s now empty clothing away with Lefty as Righty did a better job of covering the hole I’d made. With luck, the guard’s disappearance wouldn’t be discovered for several days. If someone noticed that he was gone then the rest of my body parts might be exhumed. So far, I was only halfway towards gathering my remains. I needed more time and wasn’t sure that I’d get it.

Gripped by urgency, I gave up the luxury of being squeamish. Yes, I’d been hacked into eleven pieces. Yes, I had to possess my own limbs and force them to gather myself together. “Get over it,” I told myself.

Taking my own advice, I left the arm inside the bag but sat my head on top of it. I’d brought the rock along as my new lock pick and it stayed in the bag as well. Shoving plastic between my teeth so I could grip on tightly and not fall off, I compelled Lefty and Righty pick up the handles. Like the smallest and weirdest dogsled team in creation, they moved in tandem and shot off into the night.

It was far easier to navigate through the cemetery now that I could see where I was going. My head bounced and flopped and eventually fell onto its side as my hands scampered across the dark green grass. One eye was enough to see with and I made excellent time making my way back towards my torso.

Back into the ground I went as dawn drew alarmingly close. More litter covered the hole I made this time. Mouldy and smelly, the discarded plastic bag filled with trash had been there for weeks. No one in their right mind would touch it so the hole should be safe from discovery.

If I kept up this kind of speed, I would have the rest of my body gathered in one place in another two days at the most. I prayed to a God I could no longer name out loud that I would be given the time I needed.

Chapter Six

Quickly and efficiently, I dug my way towards my torso then tucked my head and arms into the nest I’d made beside the box. I was adept at working blindly through the soil by now and dragging my head along for the next trip would only slow me down. The bag wouldn’t be big enough to hold the next piece of my remains but it did hold the lock breaking rock so it had to come with me. The rock was too big to carry and dig at the same time.

Turning my hands in the direction that I could feel my lower body buried in, I set them into motion. It took me almost three times as long to dig a hole wide enough so that my hips would be able to pass through it on the return journey. Dragging half of my body along the surface would be far too risky this time. The holes I’d have to make to get it to and from the surface would be impossible to hide.

It was a journey of only two hundred meters but it took me almost the entire day to dig a wide tunnel to the box. Reaching it at last, Righty bashed the lock open then my hands worked together to make enough room to open the lid. They got it halfway open and hoped it would be enough.

Lefty slid inside and explored what was in the box. It encountered my navel and the ragged, torn flesh above it. At the bottom were the jagged stumps of my legs. Thankfully, my body wasn’t missing anything else. No one had been sick enough to remove my privates Jack the Ripper style. But they had removed my clothes. It was going to be harder to transport a large object like my lower body without something to hold on to.

Working their way beneath my butt and lower back, my hands levered my body onto its side. Then they pushed the dirt I’d been buried in up against it to prop it in place. Eventually, they worked the body up high enough to slide it out of the box. The broken stumps of my thigh bones gave me the best purchase to drag with on the return journey.

I had quite a gathering of limbs by the time my lower body came to rest with the others. I had also created quite a network of underground passageways. I could now simply backtrack down the wide path I’d made and then angle off towards where my legs and feet had been laid to rest.

This time, I opted to take my head along. It would be awkward trying to drag my head and a leg at the same time but the bag would hopefully help with the transportation. It wasn’t quite sunset when I reached the spot where I’d freed my lower body. My right leg was slightly closer, buried off to the east so that would be my next destination.

My head was in the bag and Lefty was dragging it as Righty started making its way towards the surface. Now that my head wasn’t in its usual spot back in its box, I couldn’t feel the watcher when night fell. If I’d been better at multitasking, I would have been able to possess my hands and sense vamps on patrol at the same time. Unfortunately, I was new to this and hadn’t honed my abilities perfectly yet.

Waiting for a painfully long twenty minutes for any guards on patrol to move away, I continued my dig upwards. A quick peek told me that it was clear of enemies. I’d chosen a good spot at the base of a fallen headstone to surface this time. With teamwork, Lefty and Righty shoved the stone until it covered the hole.

Riding the plastic bag and holding on with my teeth, my head was raced across the dewy grass towards my right leg. Heavy clouds started to spit rain when I was halfway there. By the time I was fifteen feet away from my leg, the rain had settled into a solid downpour.

It was miserable work digging in dirt that quickly became sticky mud. Liking my ruse from last time, I pushed over a loose headstone and dragged it over to cover the hole as I descended again.

My head went into the bag and I blindly dug my way towards my leg. Lefty bashed the lock open and I had my limb out in short order. My right foot was a mere fifty feet away, almost within reach. I decided to continue the journey beneath the ground.

Working with practiced ease now, my hands churned through the dirt like tiny bulldozers. They had my foot out and in the bag within half an hour. Backtracking along the path I’d made, I now had a head, leg and foot to get back to the rest of the gathering. As I’d suspected, it was awkward to drag them all at once. The leg wouldn’t fit into the bag no matter how much I bent it at the knee.

In the end, Lefty pulled the leg by the bone sticking out of my ankle while Righty pulled the bag filled with my head, foot and the lock breaking rock. We made our way back up the tunnel to the surface and pushed aside the headstone. It was still bucketing down and no one was in sight so we made a break for it after covering the hole again.

Lefty kept losing its grip on my leg and mud splattered into my eyes but I persevered. At least I had a ready-made tunnel leading to the collection of body parts and didn’t have to dig a new one this time. Pushing aside the headstone where I’d hidden my earlier excavation, I shoved my leg into the tunnel. It fell the four foot distance to where the tunnel became horizontal and fetched up in a small puddle of water. My head and foot went in next and I dragged the headstone back over the hole.

Bending my leg at the knee, I managed to manoeuvre it into the tunnel then dragged the newest components back to the rest of my parts. That had been my quickest run yet and the night was only half over. I decided I would try for the last two remaining pieces of my puzzle despite the mental exhaustion that was making concentration increasingly difficult.

My left leg and foot were in the opposite direction from where my right leg and foot had been buried. I figured it would still be quicker just to use the same tunnel back to the surface then race across the ground rather than begin a new tunnel to the west. In short order, I was pushing the tombstone aside again. Peering out through the opening in the bag, I checked carefully for guards.

I didn’t spot or sense anyone so swung the plastic bag out into the rain again. My head stayed in the bag to shield it from the rain rather than riding on top this time. The plastic was very slick now and there was a good chance that my head could fall off and slow me down. I could see through the opening well enough to navigate around obstacles. The bag slid easily across the wet grass, aiding my speed.

After reaching the spot where my left leg had been stashed, I dug my way down a couple of feet. There were no handy loose headstones in the nearby vicinity to cover the hole with this time. I was forced to waste time digging a head sized divot of grass up some distance away.

My eyes swivelled left and right in sentry mode as my hands did their work. The rain showed no signs of letting up any time soon. No one liked to stand out in the rain whether they were vampire or human. If anyone else was guarding my dismembered corpse, they were probably doing it from the shelter of their car. Vampire sight was much better than a human’s but even we had trouble seeing through rain this dense. I sure as hell was anyway.

With the tuft of grass now ready to cover the hole, I stashed my head back in the bag and dropped it into the shallow tunnel. The tuft worked well to hide my excavation then my hands went to work digging towards my leg. Upon their arrival, I used Righty to bash open the lock.

Time was running out so in a monumental effort, I split my consciousness between both hands. I removed my head from the bag then sent Lefty and the bag with the rock in it off towards where my foot was buried. It was only twenty or so feet away. Meanwhile, Righty began to dig the soil away from the box containing my leg. It worked more or less on automatic pilot as my left hand dug a narrow tunnel to the last prize.

Smashing open the lock, Lefty worked frantically to free my foot. Seizing it by the big toe, it stuffed the foot into the bag. The rock went in next then Lefty dragged the unprotesting bundle back towards my head. Then Lefty joined its twin and freed my left leg. Trembling with exhaustion, my hands stuffed my head back into the bag. Righty dragged the bag and Lefty dragged the leg as they patiently worked their way back to the surface through the tunnel they’d already made.

The tuft popped free then my body parts began to emerge from the hole. When all were clear, the grass went back into the hole again. Fear began to ooze into me as I felt the earth beginning to warm. I’d taken too long to free the last of myself and dawn was about to arrive.

Snarling with effort, I seized my leg with Lefty again and the bag with my head, foot and the precious rock with Righty. It was mental exhaustion rather than physical exhaustion that was slowing me down. Do you want the Comtesse and the evil that animates her to win? I egged myself on, picturing unleashing the holy marks on the blonde’s head. If I could kill her then Luc would finally be free. Considering he had tried to kill me, I wasn’t exactly sure why I cared so much about freeing my one time companion from his seven centuries of bondage. It gave me something to focus on so I used it.

Shoving aside the tombstone that hid my now well used tunnel, I poked my leg into the hole then practically threw the bag in after it. Blinding light seared my eyes even through the plastic bag as the stone slid back into place. Steam rose from Lefty, which had come close to being fried. The skin was singed black in a few places but it hadn’t burst into flames and there was no pain, for which I was grateful. Being so very close to my goal, I didn’t want to stop now, not even to rest for a few minutes. My hands raced down the premade tunnel.

At last, all eleven pieces of me were gathered together in one place. For a final time, I used the rock to break the lock on the box that contained my torso. Quickly but methodically, I cleared enough dirt away so I could get the lid half open. My right breast was itchy so Lefty dropped inside the box and scampered over to scratch it. I halted in mid scratch when I realized I could feel all sorts of itching and general irritation on all of my body parts now.

Excitement and hope washed away my exhaustion and my hands moved with renewed determination. Maybe it would be possible to put Humpty Dumpty back together again after all.

My hands pushed, pulled and bullied my torso until it fell onto the stack of body parts with a thump. Digging out more room with my head propped up to supervise, my hands positioned my body until I looked like the jigsaw puzzle I’d imagined when I’d first had the idea to break myself free. Finally, Righty seized my head by my wet, muddy hair and dragged it to the top of the puzzle. It carefully positioned my head so it sat close to my severed neck.

Looking down the length of my hacked up self was disconcerting but I’d passed beyond the point where it could gross me out. All of my limbs were tingling where they’d been cut. I had the feeling that something very weird was about to happen.

The feeling increased and then my feet began to tremble. They shivered hard enough to make scuff marks in the dirt. Like magnets, they were drawn towards my legs. Closing the small distance, the bones joined with an audible click. Now my legs began to shake. Twitching and shimmying, they worked their way up and reattached themselves to my lower body. This was followed by my lower and upper body reuniting. Then my arms jittered and jived over to my shoulders. Righty fled towards my right arm. Caught in whatever force was putting me back together, it snapped into place at the same time that Lefty did.

Now my whole body was shuddering as it tried to reach the final piece of the puzzle. It wormed backwards two inches then the severed ends of my neck touched. Agony flashed through me from my head to my toes. My back arched and my feet drummed in the dirt. I let out a shriek that cut off when the pain suddenly disappeared.

Lifting my hands to my wondering eyes, the jagged marks where they had been severed were a vivid red. Then the scars began to fade and quickly disappeared altogether. The black spots on Lefty from its brush with the sun were also gone. I felt my neck and it was free of scars. Apart from the holy marks on my hands, I had no scars anywhere. No one would be able to tell just by looking at me that I’d ever been in eleven pieces at all.

A smile touched my lips. It felt as cold and chilly as the rain drumming down on the surface a few feet above me. “Oh, Comtesse, you’d better watch out because I am coming to get you.”

Chapter Seven

Trapped beneath the ground throughout the rest of the day, I dozed until darkness fell. Even in my semi-sleep I could feel hunger gnawing at my insides. I hadn’t felt the blood hunger when I’d been in pieces but now that I was back together again, it was nearly all I could think about.

Now that I was whole again, I was going to make a very large, very obvious opening when I dug my way out. Not even a headstone would be able to cover the tunnel I’d have to make, unless it was a very large one. I’ll figure something out when I reach the surface. Frankly, I was so eager to be out of the dirt and to search for food that I almost didn’t care if I did leave signs of my escape.

Sensing no one in the nearby vicinity, I dug sideways a safe distance away from where my torso had been buried then began angling upwards. Water drummed down on sodden earth only a few feet above me. Excitement at how close I was to freedom had me clawing my way out.

Muddy water trickled onto my hands as they broke through the earth. I rose out of the ground like a demon with vengeance on its mind. That thought disturbed me more than I cared to admit. Like all vampires, I had alien demi-god blood in my veins. Like them, I was also susceptible to becoming possessed by my own shadow. I didn’t want to imagine myself turning into the very thing that I was destined to destroy.

In the last moments before Luc had deprived my body of my head, I’d finally figured out what my true destiny was. The prophet had written in his journal that I would decimate ‘the damned’. At first I’d thought that meant I’d kill all vampires but now I had a different theory. Some of the older vamps I’d had the displeasure of meeting had evolved to the point where their shadows were sentient. Our father’s blood was manifesting itself after tens of thousands of years. Watching the twisted, malformed shadows acting all on their own, I’d instinctively known there was something horribly wrong with the vampires they belonged to.

Now, I knew just how evil they truly were. I knew the shadows could communicate after seeing them interacting with each other. What I didn’t know was if they had a coordinated plan for world domination or if their awakening was random. Instinct told me there was nothing random about it. Someone or something had to be in charge. Maybe if I killed him, her or it, I could stop the offspring from taking over.

Luc had said something to me shortly before he’d lopped my head off that had stuck in my mind. He’d told me that I wasn’t just destined to take down the damned, he’d told me that I was going to save what was left of our kin. If I did nothing, they would all be turned into slaves. Christ, no pressure! To say I didn’t feel up to this task would be an understatement.

Standing in the rain for several minutes, I let it wash me semi-clean. I was soaked and shivering but at least the dirt had been washed out of my hair, not to mention my butt crack. I remembered I’d stashed a spare set of clothing from the deceased guard in the bushes somewhere. They would be completely sodden by now but walking around naked would be noticed and remembered.

Searching the area, I located the clothes again. I scrubbed as much of the vampire ooze out of them as I could before pulling on the jeans, button up shirt and overcoat. I had to roll the pants and sleeves up several inches since I was five feet four inches and the dead vamp had been about six inches taller than me. The boots were far too large so I didn’t bother with them. My bare feet made squelching noises as I skulked through the graveyard. If any other sentries guarded the vast, ancient cemetery, they remained unseen and un-sensed.

Rounding a tree that was bent and twisted with age and looked like it could have used a grave of its own, I spied a black plastic rubbish bin. It would be just the right size to cover a certain hole in the ground that I’d prefer remained unfound.

Backtracking to the hole with the bin in hand, I pushed dirt back into the tunnel then plonked the bin over the opening. As I’d hoped, it was just large enough to cover the tell-tale signs of my escape. Vampires could be nasty and lowdown but I doubted they resorted to bin diving very often. Since they couldn’t eat any of the scraps that were rotting inside, there would be no need for them to search through the refuse. Our sense of smell was acute and we tended to avoid odours this bad.

It was time to leave this place and I couldn’t wait to be gone. If I never saw another cemetery again, I’d be happy. I took a few steps then heard a familiar whistling sound. Here we go again, I groaned inwardly. The noise cut off right about the time that a stake lodged in my chest. Peering through the heavy downpour, I spied a vampire guard about twenty feet away. He was backing away from me in panic. His pale face was filled with an almost religious terror as he recognized me. “B-b-but you can’t be alive,” he moaned as he stumbled backwards. “You’re dead!”

“We’re all dead, numb nuts,” I replied and pulled the stake free. The sentry turned and fled, shrieking at the top of his lungs. Startled shouts from nearby humans rang out at the volume and intensity of the scream.

I went after the fleeing guard like a greyhound after a mechanical rabbit. Whatever dark magic Alexander had imbued me with when he’d dripped his blood onto my heart had changed me in ways I hadn’t anticipated. My feet covered the distance in seconds. Then I launched myself into the air and landed on the guard’s back. His face ploughed into the ground, leaving a skid mark three feet long. The stake that was still sticky with my blood punched through his back and found his heart. Soon, all that remained of the lackey was a muddy blotch on the ground and his empty clothing.

Much smaller than the guard I’d dispatched earlier, his shoes were only a couple of sizes too big for me. I pulled them on and hurried towards the outer rim of the cemetery. It was the opposite direction from the humans who were still shouting to each other, asking if anyone else had heard the scream. Several produced torches and bright light stabbed through the dark, probing the darkness. Already safely out of range, I hurried onwards.

A high, wrought iron fence surrounded the graveyard. The tips were pointy and, unfortunately for me, spear shaped. I could probably have jumped right over it but opted not to. There were a few people, still disturbed by the fleeing guard’s scream, gathered around my side of the graveyard. A trio of frightened humans huddled together beneath their umbrellas.

“I’m telling you,” a guy was whispering loudly to the two women, “whatever made that noise wasn’t human.”

“What, you think it was a ghoul?” asked one of the women sarcastically. Fear was mixed with her scorn and made her voice tremble.

“There’s no such thing as ghouls,” the third woman said. “I bet it was a vampire!” Young, barely out of her teens, she seemed highly excited by the idea. The other two gave her an incredulous look and I stifled an amused snigger. I passed within five feet of them on the far side of the fence and they didn’t even see me.

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s what it was,” the first woman said with profound sarcasm. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that, it’s so logical.” She shook her head and the young woman’s shoulders slumped.

“They could be real,” the kid muttered.

“Whatever it was, I don’t want any part of it,” the man declared and trotted away. Smart move, I thought after his rapidly retreating back.

Following the fence line, I found a gate then waited for a break in pedestrian traffic before snapping the padlock that was keeping me prisoner. A dark alley beckoned to me from across the street. I ducked into it thankfully and threw the bundle of clothing from the second sentry I’d killed into a dumpster.

I was still hopeful that my escape would remain unnoticed. With the only witnesses to my resurrection dead, there was still a chance I wouldn’t be found out. Not unless someone unearthed the holes now dotted around the cemetery.

When the guards didn’t check in with the Court, someone would be sure to investigate. If I was lucky, their disappearance would remain a mystery. Their clothes were gone and the rain would wash their remains away. I smirked at the idea that the Comtesse wouldn’t know I was still unalive and whole again until I snuck up and stabbed her through the heart. As if it’s going to be that easy. I wished it would be. It would be nice for something about my unlife to be easy for once.

Sticking to the dark back streets, I jogged away from the place that was sure to haunt my dreams for some time to come. Twenty minutes later, I was in a residential part of whatever town I was in. Most of the buildings were narrow red brick apartment blocks that all looked the same.

Rounding a corner, I almost ran into a lone man huddled beneath a green and white striped awning of a deli. A car sat at the curb. Its hood was still steaming in the rain so I assumed he’d arrived only moments ago. Unaware of my presence and my unholy hunger, half soaked and shivering, he searched through his pockets. Finding his house keys at last, he stepped back into the rain and darted up the stairs of a two story duplex next door to the deli.

Near starvation made my stomach try to cramp. Being undead, none of my former bodily functions worked now. I couldn’t cry, go to the toilet, vomit or sweat. About the only function that still worked was my ability to drink. A meal had been kind enough to present itself and I wasn’t about to turn it down. I’d expended a lot of energy over the past few days of digging and hauling myself to freedom and needed to replenish my strength.

Catching the door before it could shut all the way, I eased inside after my meal. Turning to see why the door hadn’t banged shut, the guy started back when he saw me standing right in front of him. I met his frightened eyes and he was instantly spellbound.

“Do you live alone?” I asked him as I stepped inside and closed the door. I flicked off the hall light he’d switched on, plunging us into semi-darkness. A streetlight outside gave enough illumination for my victim’s needs.

“No,” he replied in a drugged tone. “My girlfriend will be home in an hour.” His eyes remained on my face, wide and hypnotized. My stomach tried to cramp again. The need to feed was becoming unbearable.

It was raining hard but there was still a chance we might be seen through the glass. I didn’t want to dine on my meal where we could be spotted. “Go upstairs and change,” I ordered him even though I wanted to drag him to the ground and bury my teeth in his neck. I might be an unnatural creature of the night but that didn’t mean I had to mistreat my meals. He would be much more comfortable when he woke from my spell if he was wearing clean, dry clothes.

Obeying my command, the guy turned stiffly and led the way up the stairs. Peeking through the rainy glass, I ascertained that no one was watching me then turned the lock. Clean, dry clothes sounded too good to resist. If I was lucky, his girlfriend would be roughly my size.

Running lightly up the stairs, I followed the sounds of my victim stripping and entered the first door on the left. Like the rest of the apartment, the master bedroom was small and cramped. The décor ran towards boring colours like cream and white. A chest of drawers had been painted the same cream shade as the walls and blended in almost invisibly. I’d hate to have to get up in the middle of the night to pee if I were a human living here. The danger of walking into the dresser was high and so was the potential for injury.

The top drawer of the dresser was open, revealing a small selection of pants and shirts. My meal finished pulling on a dry pair of jeans, bent to pick up his discarded clothes and took them into the bathroom across the hallway. He was obviously well trained. Most of my old boyfriends would have left their wet clothes on the floor to mildew until I picked them up and washed them.

Returning, the guy rummaged through the drawers again, choosing a shirt. While he finished dressing, I opened the wardrobe door. A tiny space to the right held male clothing. The rest of the closet was taken up with girl clothes. They had been separated into summer and winter clothing and then arranged by colour. Wow, she has major obsessive compulsive tendencies.

While the range of clothing was substantial, it turned out I wasn’t lucky and she was nowhere near my size. The girlfriend was at least three inches taller than me and she was far more voluptuous than I could ever hope to be. As an Australian size eight, I was slender and had an almost boyish figure. My sewing skills weren’t up to the task of taking in clothing. Besides, I didn’t have any sewing tools with me.

Eyeing the freshly clothed man, I noticed that he was pretty skinny and that his hips weren’t much wider than mine. I’d have better luck raiding his wardrobe than his girlfriend’s. The pants would still be too long but at least they wouldn’t fall off me. First things first, it was time to feed. “Sit down on the bed,” I told him and he complied.

“You’re so gorgeous,” he breathed when I sat beside him. He tried to cup my face with his hands but I stopped him. There was no need to turn this into an intimate encounter. Feeding my blood hunger from a human was fine but if my flesh hunger rose, I’d probably break him in half.

Besides, he wasn’t my type. I preferred guys with dark hair rather than mousy brown. Coincidentally, this preference had only occurred since I’d met Luc. Previously, I hadn’t been all that fussy. As long as a guy treated me ok and wasn’t a complete slob, I’d be willing to date him. Unfortunately, I worked a lot and didn’t go out much. It was hard to meet guys from the comfort of your couch. Internet dating hadn’t much interested me so I hadn’t had much chance to meet a new guy lately. I’d had to die before I met someone who finally seemed to want me. How screwed up is that?

“Close your eyes,” I instructed and he instantly complied. It was creepy having my meal staring at me worshipfully. When his lids closed, I leaned in. My incisors reacted to the hunger growling inside me and lengthened. They cut through skin and into his vein easily.

Sweet, salty blood flowed into my mouth. I hadn’t eaten in days but I was careful not to overfeed and drain the poor guy. Eating for pleasure had never been high on my list of priorities and it still wasn’t. I ate to live, I didn’t live to eat. You’re not even technically alive at all now, I reminded myself.

“Sleep,” I instructed my victim when I was done. “Wake up in twenty minutes and don’t remember any of this.” The guy’s head promptly sagged to his chest and he began to breathe deeply. Laying him down, I wiped away a runnel of blood from the puncture wounds in his neck with my wet sleeve. As I watched, the tears in his pasty skin began to shrink until they were just small, healing scabs. It was hard to tell they were bite marks at all.

This was the first time I’d examined one of my meals after feeding. Our vampire magic must be the cause of the rapid healing. The poor ‘volunteers’ in the prophet’s Romanian mountain home had all been covered in bite marks. I guessed they were bitten too often for the magic to work effectively.

I didn’t have a watch and wasn’t sure how much time had passed but the girlfriend must be on her way home by now. Searching through my meal’s scant wardrobe, I pulled out a pair of jeans, t-shirt and jumper. Underwear would have to be foregone for now. A quick but piping hot shower took some of my chill away. I frowned when soaping my breasts, they felt different somehow but I shrugged it off as my imagination.

Jumping out of the shower, I dressed quickly and wiped steam off the bathroom mirror. My hand stilled halfway through swiping the borrowed brush through my tangled hair when I glanced at my face. Leaning in close, I examined the changes that had happened during my underground stay.

The most obvious change was my eyes. All the grey had disappeared and my pupils had grown to maximum size. I could now be mistaken for an ancient vampire.

Along with the eyes, my face had altered subtly. Gone was the slightly prettier version of the old me. In its place was a face that was more perfectly proportioned. All the imperfections; the bump in my nose, a too thin upper lip, shallow chin and puffy bags beneath my eyes were gone. My chin and lip had filled out. Straight and faultless, my nose was exactly the right size for my face.

My skin was still pale but now it was flawless. I looked like I’d had subtle but expensive plastic surgery by a talented surgeon. My hair was still the same shade of dark brown with blonde highlights. Apparently, it wasn’t important enough to require change.

My mouth was open in astonishment at the changes. Lifting the jumper and shirt, I saw that my boobs were different. They’d increased from a B cup to a C cup, as if my body had decided for itself what it wanted to look like.

“Jeez, if Luc could see me now,” I murmured to my reflection. That brought an uncomfortable ache to my chest. The last time I’d seen Lord Lucentio, he’d chopped my head off. It hadn’t been his fault but it had still happened. If he saw me again, he’d probably repeat the act.

Quickly brushing my hair, I rummaged through the wardrobe until I found a pair of ratty sneakers and an umbrella. Spying my meal’s car keys sitting on the cream dresser, I snatched them up.

I was about to leave when I saw a watch sitting in a crystal bowl that overflowed with cheap jewellery. She’ll never miss it, I convinced myself and grabbed it. The watch was also cheap but the worn leather band could be adjusted to fit my smaller wrist. The time on the watch matched the readout on the digital clock sitting on a bedside table and didn’t need changing.

It must be close to an hour since I’d first entered the house and it was time to leave. Just as I let myself outside, the headlights of a car rounded the corner. The umbrella turned out to be broken when I opened it and nonchalantly strolled down the road. A couple of broken spokes sagged, allowing water to drip down my back. It was better than nothing and helped with the illusion that I belonged in the area. I kept walking until I came to a narrow gap between buildings and ducked inside. Water continued to drip down my back but there wasn’t much I could do about it right now.

As I’d suspected, the car pulled to a stop behind my meal’s car just outside the duplex that I’d so recently vacated. A full figured woman struggled to disembark from a too small vehicle. She looked a bit like a walrus straining to turn over on a beach.

Once free, she slammed the car door hard enough to make it rock from side to side. She was statuesque rather than fat. Dark blonde hair was piled up in a messy bun, giving her a few more inches of height. If I’d still been human, I wouldn’t have wanted to get on her bad side. She’d have taken me down with barely any effort. Being a vampire, I could snap her neck like a twig if I so chose.

I didn’t so choose and simply waited for her to enter the apartment then hurried over to the car she’d parked behind. She gave one last bad tempered glare outside before flicking on the hall light and stomping up the stairs. Thanks to the rain, she didn’t see me. I doubted she could see more than four feet through the downpour.

“George? George! I don’t smell anything cooking,” she bellowed. “I thought you said you were going to cook fish and chips tonight!”

I was hoping the rain would muffle the sound of the engine when I turned the key but if she kept up that racket, she wouldn’t even hear the theft at all. Without turning the headlights on, I eased the car onto the road. If the couple didn’t notice the missing vehicle straight away, I might have a few hours head start before the cops started looking for my stolen ride.

Turning the headlights on when I was a safe distance away, I fumbled the heater on next. I couldn’t resist flipping the mirror on the visor down to stare at my face every now and then.

Finally used to the sight of my creamy skin and unnatural beauty, I concentrated on driving. Following road signs, I headed back to the scene of the crime; the estate where I had been beheaded. I had been buried insultingly close to where I’d battled my imposter and had won. It was a mere hour or so away by car from the cemetery to the estate, according to the signs. There would be plenty of time for me to drive there, kill the Comtesse then make my escape.

I’m coming for you, praying mantis, I crooned in my head. I hoped she sensed that her doom was coming for her. It would give me great pleasure to make her suffer.

Chapter Eight

An hour and a half later, I was crouched down in the middle of a large, scratchy bush. I’d guessed that it wouldn’t be easy to infiltrate the white castle and hunt down the Comtesse and I wasn’t disappointed. Uniformed guards patrolled the perimeter of the estate, alert and ready for trouble. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure they were guarding an empty castle and that the Comtesse was no longer in residence.

Windows that had blazed with light on my previous visit were mostly dark. That had to mean the Comtesse, her fellow Councillors and the courtiers had returned to France. With the imposter me dead and the real me chopped to pieces, there would be no need for them to hide any longer.

My chances of exacting swift revenge had just been vastly diminished. Here, I would have only had the Comtesse’s guards to contend with. At the Court mansion, I would have the Councillor’s army of sentries to confront. Based on my current fighting skills, which were minimal at best, I wouldn’t stand a chance of getting close enough to the hag to end her unlife.

Glumly sneaking back to the car I’d hidden behind a copse of trees, I reviewed my options. While I was very hard to kill and could heal quickly, I could still be incapacitated easily enough. With one stroke of Luc’s sword, I’d been rendered helpless. What I needed were the fighting skills to claw my way through a battalion of guards in order to reach the Comtesse. Once I was done with her, I’d turn my attention to the growing problem of sentient vampire shadows trying to take over the world. I strongly suspected this would take wit, cunning and a bevy of other skills that I didn’t possess.

“I need to learn how to fight like the imposter me,” I said to the balmy warmth of the car interior. I snorted a laugh at the idea then my amusement faded. My imposter had slashed her way through dozens of minions with ease. Even Luc had been unable to take her down and his fighting skills were well honed.

Maybe learning her skills wasn’t such a crazy idea. After all, who were the Councillor’s greatest enemies? The Japanese vampires. Who had trained the assassin then set her after the Councillors? The Japanese vampires. It was fairly obvious what my next course of action would have to be. It looks like I’m going to Japan.

Flying there might be a problem due to the inescapable fact that the sun had to rise each morning. If a nearby passenger lifted the shutter on their window to let the natural light in, I’d burst into flames. That might be difficult to explain even if I did somehow manage to survive the grievous injury I’d receive. Driving would be my safest method of transportation.

I had no idea how long it would take to travel from Britain to Japan but I had to factor in the need to hide through the day into the equation. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, I have plenty of time. Then again, did I have plenty of time? Maybe the shadows were poised to launch their plan for world domination right now. Nope, I told myself, it’s my destiny to stop them and I’m not ready for that yet. Destiny would just have to wait until I’d learned the skills I needed.

A very real threat that I did face was being spotted and recognized by European vampires. I was on the run and my safest strategy would be to get away from England and then through France as quickly as possible.

If the Comtesse and her cronies figured out that I had managed to resurrect myself, the last place they’d think to look for me would be in Japan. The more I thought about it, the better the idea seemed. It’s bordering on brilliant, I complimented myself with a shameless lack of modesty.

I didn’t have bright ideas very often and I was proud of this one. All I had to do was make my way thousands of kilometres across foreign countries, get across a stretch of water then I’d be in Japan. “It’ll be easy,” I assured myself and did my best to believe it.

Maybe my task would seem easier if I broke the trip down into manageable stages. Crossing the English Channel would be my first challenge. The last time I’d crossed it, I’d swum the distance in five hours or so. I’d been wet, miserable and stank of salt water and pollution when I was done. This time, I’d travel in style and take a ferry instead.

Finding a highway that seemed to lead in the right direction, I put my foot down and soon found a sign pointing the way to Dover. After a few hours, I reached the town where I’d spent one uncomfortable day in the sewers. This time, I spent the day huddled in the boot of my stolen car.

Upon nightfall, I left the vehicle in a crowded undercover car park and walked the rest of the way on foot.

The large, white ferry was quickly filling up with people. When it was my turn to board the vessel, I bamboozled my way on board without any trouble. I might still be new to being a monster but I at least had the hang of hypnotizing the highly susceptible humans. Where I’d once struggled to get a date, few men were now immune to my unnatural charms.

Sitting or standing, the passengers mostly ignored each other. It reminded me strongly of catching the train back home in Australia. Few people were courageous enough to strike up a conversation with strangers. Those that did were usually considered to be an annoyance. Not that I’d had much cause to catch public transport. My apartment had only been a fifteen minute walk from work. Everything I’d needed had been within walking distance of my home.

Instead of squishing into a seat between soggy humans, I opted to stand. I positioned myself so I was pressed up against a window with my back to the other passengers. Accidentally hypnotizing the nearby male commuters into a bunch of worshipful zombies would probably be noticed.

A few foolhardy souls out on the deck took refuge under cover as the rain picked up again. It had never really stopped but it had fizzed down into a drizzle rather than a downpour.

Our journey took just over an hour. The trip was far more pleasant than the last time I’d crossed this stretch of water. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we landed and was worried that my credentials would be checked when we docked.

What credentials? I had no passport, no driver’s license or any other paperwork stating who I was and where I’d come from. I’d disappeared without a trace when Silvius had kidnapped me and had remained mostly off the grid ever since. I remembered that Luc had used my real name when purchasing plane tickets a couple of times. The authorities would be able to track me to Europe, if they could be bothered to.

Working my way to the back of the line, I made sure no one was watching me then jumped over the side. The pile of crates I landed on turned out to be far more unstable than they’d looked. Several wooden boxes went crashing to the dock. Leaping clear, I hastened into the shadows as dock workers yelled in alarm and came on the run. Wow, Nat, it’s good to see you’re as agile as ever. Being hacked to pieces didn’t change that about you. Ignoring my snide subconscious, I slinked away from the dock at a fast walk.

A lone man, walking quickly and talking into his mobile phone, caught my eye. I followed him to an underground car park a couple of blocks away from the channel. In a stroke of coincidence, it turned out to be the same car park I’d slept the day away inside the boot of a car the last time I’d crossed the water.

I waited for my victim to unlock his car and open the door before tapping him on the shoulder. Whirling around in fright and cowering behind the door, he let out a string of curses in French.

“Sorry, guy, but I need to borrow your car.” He was hypnotized before I’d finished my explanation.

“Anything. I’ll give you anything you want.” His smile was large and dopy. Bamboozling humans was almost too easy. They practically begged to be taken advantage of with their complete inability to resist my dark charms.

“Great. Hand over your wallet and keys.” I accepted his invitation with only a small stab of guilt. Overweight and in his forties, his suit was dark and expensive. He could easily recover from the theft of a couple of hundred Euros and he’d be able to claim insurance on his stolen car.

I wasn’t hungry so refrained from snacking on him. The overpowering smell of too much aftershave helped to dampen my appetite. Hoping it would work, I gave him an order. “Catch a cab home and wait until the morning to call the police about your missing car and wallet.” I wasn’t sure my order would stick since I hadn’t actually bitten him. Where is the vampire handbook when I need it? I opened his wallet and handed over some cash so he’d be able to pay for the cab. Nodding jerkily, he turned and shambled towards the exit.

My new borrowed car was small and inconspicuous. It was a white Saab and still had a new car smell when I slid into the driver’s seat. After a few seat adjustments, I could both reach the pedals and see over the dashboard. Searching through the wallet, I found the swipe card I’d need to exit from the parking area. I was growing smarter when it came to grand theft auto and escaping from car parks.

Minutes later, I was on my way, heading east again before eventually angling north. It was lucky I had the ability to translate foreign road signs. Otherwise I’d have been lost within the first hour.

I drove until I could feel the sun growing closer then began to search for a hiding spot. I’d used them before safely enough so headed for an underground parking lot. Three levels down, I deemed it should be secure. Climbing out, I quickly hid in the boot before anyone could spot what I was doing and call the cops. Normal people didn’t climb into the trunk of a car very often.

I wasn’t tired but I did get bored quickly. I should buy a few books. Anything to keep me occupied through the days when I was sleepless would be good. Finally, I managed to fall asleep even with the sounds of human activity going on around my stolen car.

I was somewhere dark and for a few moments I thought I was back in the boxes again. Turning my head, I spied flickering firelight, which dispelled the idea of being buried, much to my relief. A howling, gibbering scream echoed from somewhere ahead and my relief was replaced with unease. I found myself drifting without moving my feet. Since flying wasn’t a new ability I’d gained, I figured I must be dreaming.

Despite the knowledge that this was a dream, I didn’t feel particularly safe as I neared the light. I had the sense that I was in a gigantic cavern. It was so huge that I couldn’t see the sides. The fire ahead was large but still seemed small compared to the empty vastness surrounding it.

Flames roared and crackled, shooting off sparks like miniature fireworks. A crude makeshift spit had been erected over the fire. A pale animal had been impaled on it and it was still thrashing in agony. I assumed it was responsible for the scream. When the spit turned I saw that it wasn’t an animal at all.

A human man screeched as the flames seared his skin. Blanching at the sight, I wondered how he could still be alive at all. Then I saw the spit had been shoved through one of his legs. It ran along his side before exiting through his shoulder. None of his vital organs would have been damaged. He was just high enough above the flames that he would cook slowly and die painfully.

Charred lumps of flesh and white bones, the remains of previous meals, lay amongst the coals. Now I could smell the horrid aroma of overcooked pork and was amazed that I hadn’t noticed it before. This was the most realistic dream I’d ever had. I couldn’t remember being able to smell during a dream before.

Dark shapes could be seen through the flames on the far side of the fire. Seeing them up close was the last thing I wanted to do but I was irresistibly drawn closer anyway.

There were four groups on the far side of the fire, separated not only by distance but also by species. On the left was a huddle of humans. Terrified, filthy and naked, they clutched each other and turned their faces away from the dying man spitted over the fire. Their expressions reflected their hopelessness and knowledge that they, too, would take their turn roasting over the flames.

Next to them were vampires. They guarded the humans and watched the other two groups nervously. They came from all walks of vampire unlife, from sewer vamps to members of the Court. Every one of them had a shadow that moved on its own. I wasn’t sure if it was their choice to be here or if they’d been called somehow and had been unable to resist the order.

Beside them were vampires who had been fully possessed by their shadows. They strutted around self-importantly but didn’t seem to be achieving much.

On the far right was the last, and by far the strangest, group. Six creatures hunkered down, slobbering over the remains of the last human that had been cooked. Each had grey skin, were bald and had faces that would have been at home on a bat. Their noses were rudimentary and up-turned. Their ears were long and pointy, curling under at the tips. All were dressed in make-shift loincloths made from what appeared to be cast off human clothing. Muscles flexed beneath slick sweat as they cracked bones with their teeth.

Discarding a bone that had once belonged to a thigh of an unlucky human, one of the creatures stood. It towered over the possessed vampires. I estimated it to be around seven feet tall. Pointing at the still shrieking human, it grunted an order. I understood it just fine but the possessed vampire turned to translate the foreign tongue to one of the unpossessed. “More meat!” it demanded imperiously. “Our brethren require more meat.”

Brethren? These things don’t look anything like vampires. I found myself moving closer to the hideous creatures. All had stood now and were watching the spitted human hungrily. Their eyes glowed an identical muddy orange, making them seem disturbingly like clones. They were slump shouldered abominations that had no business existing. What are they? They look like imps that have clawed their way straight up from hell, I answered my own question.

Now I was being pulled to the darkest area of the cavern. Even with my night vision I had trouble making anything out but I sensed a shape before me. It sensed me as well and a pair of eyes opened right in front of me. Bright red, they gave off enough light to illuminate a hulking, twisted and inhuman body with skin the colour of ashes. The eyes moved up and up as the thing stood. It topped off at eight feet.

“What are you?” I whispered and jumped when it answered me.

“I am the First,” it answered in a guttural language that I was positive had never been spoken by any entity native to earth. It was the same language the imp had demanded more food with. “I was the one chosen by our Father to be gifted with unlife,” it explained further. What the hell? Is it saying it’s the first vampire ever made? The same one from both the prophet’s and Alexander’s books? How could that be possible when it didn’t look anything like a vampire either?

“What is your purpose?” What I really wanted to know was why so many vampires had gathered together and what the grey skinned, bat faced monsters were. Obviously, they were related to the First somehow. I was having trouble understanding how a vampire could turn into an eight foot troll.

The eyes glowed fiercely enough to make me wince at the brightness then the glow was banked again. “To eat. To rule.” It lowered its head until its face was inches away from mine. If what it said was true, then this monster had been the human who had bargained for immortality and had damned us all. That made him a ‘he’, not an ‘it’. “You seem…different to the rest of my children.” He took a breath, taking in my scent. “What are you?” he asked, repeating the question I’d asked him.

I now had an answer for who was behind the shadow’s ascension. As I’d suspected, someone was in charge and I’d managed to dream myself directly into his lair. The prophet had accurately foreseen both my birth and my beheading. He had, however, neglected to mention in his journal that the First was still alive and that he had somehow evolved into whatever he was now. He’d also failed to mention the creature’s plan for world domination. It was an oversight I hoped to question the decrepit old cinnamon stick about one day, if he ever woke from his coma again.

Obviously, the two thousand year old journal was missing a few of the more pertinent points. The information it did contain was jumbled and out of order. It said that I would kill off most of the damned before having my head separated from my body when apparently that would happen afterwards. How could the prophet get it so wrong? After I’d been beheaded, I’d been just the tiniest bit disappointed that I hadn’t fulfilled the prophecy and killed most of the possessed vampires. The job hadn’t even been started and my unlife had been cut short.

Well, it looked like I’d have the opportunity to kill them at some stage in my future. A whole bunch of them had conveniently gathered together and were lurking in the cavern behind me right now. If I was to take them down, it was pretty likely that I’d also have to take the First down with them. “I’m the vampire that’s going to kill you,” I belatedly said in answer to his question.

Roaring with laughter, a whoosh of his breath made my hair stream backwards as he reached out with huge, clawed hands. They closed around my throat and began to squeeze. “How are you going to kill me if you are already dead?”

Chapter Nine

“Oh, shit!” Sitting up, I banged my head on something metallic and remembered I was squished into the boot of a Saab. People were moving around outside so I lay back down again and tried to be calm. I was imminently grateful that I’d woken up before the First had squeezed my head completely off my neck. I touched my neck where his claws had dug into my flesh and found the wounds were already healing.

Everything about the dream had been horrible but a couple of details stuck out. The First and his strange grey ‘children’ not only breathed, they also ate solid food. “They’re alive again,” I concluded. A chill raced down my spine, making me shiver.

It was common knowledge that the First had been changed from a mere human into the first vampire. Now the alien demi-god’s blood running through his veins had transformed him from being an undead vampire into a living, breathing creature once more. Of course, the whole dream was probably just a figment of my imagination.

A figment couldn’t put claw marks in your neck, I pointed out to myself uneasily. What if it was more than just a dream? What if it was a vision? It wouldn’t be the first time I’d seen the future. I’d foreseen my fight with the imposter me and Luc chopping my head off. Yeah, but you already knew that was going to happen. But I’d dreamed it in almost exact detail and this dream had been just like them.

My ability to see visions hadn’t been mentioned in the prophet’s journal. Neither had my ability to understand foreign languages. No one had the answers to the questions that were running through my mind. I was on my own and I would have to puzzle it out for myself. It occurred to me that I should write a handbook of my own but what would be the point? I was the one and only Mortis. My experiences wouldn’t be repeated by any other brand new vampires because I was unique. The thought made me feel lonelier than I’d ever felt in either my life or my unlife.

After the sounds of humans milling about quieted, I cautiously eased out of the boot. The stolen credit card came in handy when I drove towards the exit. My latest victim mustn’t have reported his wallet stolen yet because the card was accepted and the fee was paid without fuss.

Before heading for the highways that would eventually take me closer to my destination, I stopped to fill up the car. The attendant was female so I had to pay for the petrol instead of hypnotizing her and fleeing without paying. I only had a couple of hundred euros in the stolen wallet now. At least I didn’t have to waste it on snacks. Food of any kind no longer interested me. Blood was the only substance that would satisfy my hunger.

Following the signs, I stuck to the speed limit and angled eastward. It was weird listening to foreign pop music. I gave up trying to translate the words in my head and just let the noise wash over me.

I had a long, long drive ahead and little to occupy my mind. Sometimes I thought of Luc, wondering where he was and what he was doing and if he thought about me at all. Mostly, I speculated about how I would be received in Japan. I’d been warned that the Japanese hated European vampires. Hopefully, they would be benevolent about Australian ones. Otherwise, I might be in worse trouble than I’d been in before emerging from my graves.

My dealings with the Comtesse, her fellow Councillors and the Court had ended with me being cut into eleven pieces. Surely my interaction with the Japanese vamps couldn’t be worse than that. I didn’t bother to kid myself that they would welcome me with open arms. There was a good chance I’d instead be welcomed with an axe through the head. I was hoping I could convince them I was an ally before they started hacking and stabbing. Wouldn’t they jump at the chance to stir up more trouble with the Councillors? If not, then I might very well end up in several pieces again.

My plan to hide during the day in abandoned buildings and underground parking lots worked well for the first four days. On the fifth, I was woken from a sound sleep. I actually didn’t mind being woken up at first. I’d been dreaming that my body parts were squirming their way across the face of the earth, all heading in different directions as the sun was about to rise. Fortunately, this was just a dream and not a vision of the future.

Wondering why I’d woken, I heard a noise just outside the car. Sitting up with a start, I froze just before bonking my head on the boot lid. Someone was standing nearby. I heard the rustle of their clothing and air whistling through a clogged nose. Feet shifted somewhere to the right. Uh oh, there are two humans out there. This can’t be good.

“Let’s pop the trunk open,” a male voice said in a language I couldn’t identify. I wasn’t even sure what country I was in at the moment. I’d passed through too many to keep track.

“Cover me,” the second guy said. I had a few seconds to panic while a metal rod was inserted next to the lock.

For a second, I couldn’t recall where I’d parked the stolen car this time. Then I remembered I’d hidden it in a warehouse that didn’t look like it had been used in years. Broken glass had littered the floor but I’d navigated my way around the worst of it and had parked deep in the shadows.

My most feared nightmare was coming true; I had been discovered by humans. Not just by any humans, if I wasn’t mistaken, they were a couple of cops. My decision to hide out in the warehouse seemed to have been a poor one. I could sense that it was still daylight and nightfall was hours away. Their timing couldn’t have been worse.

Closing my eyes, I lay back down and went limp as the boot lid popped opened. Expecting searing light to wash over me and flames to burst from my body, I was relieved when nothing happened. The heat of the sun baked against the wall beside the car but the sun had shifted so it now lay directly overhead. It was painfully bright but I would be fine, unless they moved me.

Twin breaths were indrawn when the two men took me in. One whistled and the other one muttered a low curse. “Is she alive?” the first guy asked.

“I’ll check,” replied the guy who prised the boot open. Warm fingers brushed my hair aside then probed my neck. “I can’t feel a pulse and her skin is cool.”

“What a shame,” mourned the first guy. “She was so beautiful.” I preened inwardly at the compliment before remembering how dangerous my situation was. It would be easy to hypnotise them both with one glance but I wasn’t sure if my dark magic would work during the day. It seemed prudent to simply wait and see what happened. As long as they didn’t drag me into direct sunlight, I should be ok.

“I’ll call for the ambulance,” the second guy said and his footsteps receded. His buddy waited next to the car, keeping watch as his partner spoke into a radio. In a stroke of luck, I was in a tiny town that didn’t have the money or means to afford a forensic team. If I’d been back in the UK, a team of investigators would have been swarming over the car within the hour. My chances of escaping before being discovered as the undead would have been low.

I had to lie motionless for twenty minutes before a vehicle finally approached. Being too big to fit through the opening my much smaller stolen car had used, it parked outside. With my eyes closed, I only had my hearing to rely on. The back door of the ambulance was swung open then a stretcher clattered to the ground. Two people wheeled it inside the warehouse. Feet and wheels periodically crunched over the broken glass. “What have we got?” The voice was male, over fifty and briskly professional.

“Dead girl in the trunk,” one of the cops said in an obviously affected bored tone. Finding my corpse was probably the most exciting thing that had happened to them during the past year.

“Dead girl, huh?” The over fifty guy marched over then his shadow loomed over me. He gently felt my neck before pronouncing my fate. “Yep, she’s dead alright. We’ll take her to the morgue. The doc’s away for a couple of days but he’ll take a look at her when he gets back. Let’s bag her, Senewski.”

Two pairs of hands lifted me out of the car and onto the stretcher. Quickly and efficiently, I was bundled into a nice, snug body bag. Now that I was hidden from the killing rays of the sun, I allowed myself to relax a little. From here I’d be transported safely to the morgue without needing to worry about bursting into flames.

While my circumstances weren’t exactly ideal, I had a couple of days to plan my escape before anyone would begin cutting me open. I’d already had my chest hacked open by Alexander the sewer vamp. It was an experience I didn’t care to repeat.

With a clatter, the stretcher went into motion, first crunching over broken glass then rolling more smoothly over uneven concrete. Heat engulfed the body bag as soon as the sun hit the plastic when I was wheeled out from the warehouse. I would have gasped if I’d had any air in my lungs. But my breathing days were over so I just winced instead.

“It’s a shame when the pretty ones die so young,” the over fifty guy murmured to his partner as the stretcher was lifted into the back of the ambulance. He received a wordless grunt for a reply.

Senewski climbed into the back with me and the merciless heat abated when the door slammed shut. His hand touched my face through the plastic then ran quickly down to my chest. Squeezing my breast, he voiced a nearly soundless chuckle. “Yeah, it’s a real shame,” his young, falsely cheerful voice said too quietly to be overheard by his partner in the front.

Eeeewwww! He’s a pervert! It was difficult to cringe without actually moving but I managed it.

Chapter Ten

My mouth was still open a little in disbelief at being groped when the ambulance came to a stop. It had only taken a few minutes to reach our destination, proving that the town truly was tiny.

Opening the ambulance door, Senewski jumped out. His feet thudded on pavement as the driver’s door opened. His partner joined him and they lifted the stretcher to the ground. After a short, bumpy ride in the heat, it was a relief when a door opened and I was pushed inside a building. The older guy chatted to a woman and filled out some paperwork while I waited in an agony of suspense. Then the two men transferred me to a gurney and the wait was over.

“I’ll take her from here, guys,” the female said and the men took their leave. Humming under her breath, the woman pushed me down a hallway and through a set of swinging doors. It was much cooler in this room and I guessed we were in the morgue proper. In a town this size, there probably wouldn’t be many other corpses in residence. I tried to picture it as a small hotel but failed. A hotel for dead people. Yeah, I’m sure that idea will take right off.

Unzipping the body bag, the female morgue worker exposed my face to the harsh fluorescent lights. She moved away and I risked opening my eyes a crack. I was in a small room with pale green walls and matching floor. Mercifully, it was without windows. A stainless steel table sat to my right. That’s where the autopsies are performed. I suppressed a shudder at the thought and returned to my study of the morgue.

A bank of metal doors was on the wall to the left. I would be stored within one of the cold, tiny vaults before too long. Then I would be trapped in a box again. This time I didn’t have a rock or bobby pin to break my way out. Not that there seemed to be any locks on them, just handles. But how could I open it from the inside? What if I was put in head first? My feet were nowhere near as dextrous as my hands. If I get stuck, I’ll just have to kick my way out. I was comforted by the plan, even if it was hideously short on details.

Reaching for a phone on the wall, the morgue assistant dialled a number. In her mid-thirties, she was a couple of inches shorter than me and had mousy brown hair. I caught a glimpse of her tired, drawn face as she turned and closed my eyes again. I heard the phone ringing further down the hall as well as through the ear piece. “Petir, can you come to the death chamber?” she said when it was answered after a few short rings. “We have a new arrival and I could use your help.”

His response was in the affirmative and a door banged open somewhere close by after she hung up. After a few seconds, a guy ambled inside and stumbled to a stop. “Holy cow,” he said in whatever language he was speaking, “she’s beautiful! Are you sure she’s dead?”

Sighing almost inaudibly, the female searched my neck then my wrist for a pulse. “I’m positive she’s dead,” she said with strained patience. I wouldn’t like anyone questioning my expertise either. Not that I was an expert at anything. “Help me get her out of the body bag.”

“Are you going to strip her?” Petir asked a little too eagerly.

“No,” was her curt reply and I could have sat up and kissed her. That’d give them both the surprise of their lives. “I’ll take a few samples and leave the rest to the Doctor. You know how he is when people disturb the corpses.”

“Do you need any help?” Petir asked as he helped her to heave me out of the bag and onto the metal table.

“I can handle it,” she replied dryly. “I’ll call you when I want to put her in the locker.”

I sensed his reluctance to leave as he shuffled towards the door. “Just give me a yell if you need me to strip her off.”

“Pervert,” she muttered beneath her breath as the door closed behind her assistant. I agreed with her whole heartedly and wondered what samples she was going to take.

Rummaging in her pocket, she pulled something out and put it down on the bench. I heard a click then a faint squeaking noise. She drew close enough for me to feel her breath on my face then thumbed open my eyelid and shone a torch at my eyeball. I came very close to jumping in alarm at the unexpected brightness.

“The pupil is unusually large,” she said thoughtfully and scribbled a note on a piece of paper. It was probably my chart. Searching through my pockets, she found the wallet I’d stolen a few days ago. “The wallet does not belong to the young woman,” she said out loud. It occurred to me that the squeaking noise was an old fashioned tape recorder and she was recording her findings verbally as well as on paper.

Lifting my stolen jumper and t-shirt, she searched for signs of what had killed me without stripping me off completely. Rolling me onto my side, she searched my back and found nothing. “There are no visible signs of death. There are also no signs of rigor or pooling of blood,” she said in a tone that was partly wondering and partly disturbed.

My eyes popped open when she unzipped my jeans and eased them and my undies down to just below my butt. A thermometer was inserted into a place that wasn’t designed for things to be inserted into. It was just as well that I was facing away from her because my expression would no doubt reflect my outraged embarrassment. She left the thermometer in my butt for about a thousand years before pulling it out and checking it.

“Hmmm,” she sounded more puzzled than ever now. “Her body temperature is barely twenty degrees Celsius.” No wonder I’m cold all the time! “It should be much warmer after being in the trunk of a car for at least several hours.” Thankfully, she pulled my clothes back up and rolled me onto my back. Lifting my jumper and shirt again, she placed an icy cold stethoscope over my dead heart. There was nothing going on inside my chest so she didn’t have any nasty surprises there.

After rummaging around in a drawer, she pushed my right sleeve up. I cracked an eye open and watched her take a sample of my blood. Her brown eyes widened when she saw how dark and sluggish the fluid was. “What the?” Holding the vial up, she frowned and gave me a strange look. “The Doc is going to shit birds when he sees this.” I snapped my eye shut again and heard her cross the room and open another door. From the faint clanking of glass being placed on a shelf, I surmised she had stashed the sample in a fridge I hadn’t noticed during my previous inspection.

At my side again, she pushed my sleeve back down then carefully and methodically used a sharp tool to scrape the crud out from beneath my fingernails into small plastic bags.

Noticing an anomaly on my palm, she took a closer look at my right hand. Straightening my fingers, she turned my hand over and inhaled when she saw the cross on my palm. She murmured what sounded like a prayer when she discovered the second cross on my other palm. “I have never seen anything this strange before,” she said to the tape recorder and noted her findings down on the chart. “The subject has cross marks on both of her palms. They don’t appear to have been branded or burned onto her. It’s almost as if the crosses were pressed very tightly against her flesh for a long time and the marks became embedded on her palms.”

It was a good guess but not entirely accurate. I’d held the crosses very tightly but it hadn’t taken all that long for the marks to appear. I wasn’t the least bit surprised that she’d never seen anything like me before. It was embarrassing to be dragged into a morgue and to be made ready for dissection. Somehow, I couldn’t see Luc, or any other vampire for that matter, ending up in this predicament. Nope, just me. No one can ever find out about this. Other vampires would laugh their arses off if they found out about my little trip to the morgue. It was a shame I could live without.

Pushing open one of the swinging doors, she called out for Petir this time instead of using the phone. He arrived quickly enough that he must have been lurking nearby. For all I knew, he’d been peeking through the small windows in the swinging doors when the thermometer had been residing in my butt.

A sheet was whisked over me from head to toe then they lifted me back onto the gurney. I took a short ride then was stashed inside a cosy yet icy metal coffin.

Sounds were muffled inside the meat locker but my hearing was acute enough to determine when the pair finally left for the day. Motionless, I listened hard for any further sounds to indicate anyone else was in the building. All was quiet and at last I was free to escape.

If I’d still been able to breathe, frost would have formed with every exhale of air. The last time I’d been this cold was when Alexander’s shadow had tried to kill me. The offspring of the First had the ability to suck my unlife right out of my body. I wasn’t in quite as dire shape this time, I was just suffering from cold rather than lack of energy. Still, my limbs were reluctant to respond to my mental commands.

As per my usual crappy luck, I’d been placed in the locker head first so my feet were closest to the door. The slick metal insides gave me no purchase but I managed to squirm my way forward. I stopped when the soles of my stolen shoes were touching the door.

Drawing my knees back until they touched the top of the locker, I was about to slam my feet against the door then I heard a noise. Freezing, I listened carefully and heard the unmistakable sound of an outer door being opened.

Heavy footsteps clomped down the hall towards the morgue. The death chamber door creaked open, followed by the sound of a light switch being thrown. I had a sinking feeling that I knew who was in the room with me and I didn’t think it was anyone who worked there.

Quickly straightening my legs, I forced myself to lie still as the footsteps drew closer. Starting from the left, the visitor methodically checked each locker. Mine was the fourth one along so it didn’t take long before the door was opened. Warm air swirled inside, making the sheet flutter.

Pulling on the drawer, my unwelcome visitor dragged my corpse out from the cold. He grasped the sheet and tugged it down, exposing my face. I opened my eyes to slits and studied the young man who had freed me. He was in his early twenties and had lank brown hair that needed a wash. Pimples were scattered across his chin with a particularly juicy one nestled in the corner of his mouth. Muddy brown eyes sparkled with excitement and he uttered a high pitched giggle that he’d found me and had me all to himself. If I wasn’t mistaken, this was the creepy guy from the ambulance. Senewski, I presume.

Leaving me for a moment, Senewski retrieved the gurney that had been pushed out of the way against a wall. Thin and weedy, he grunted with the effort of rolling my inert body onto the gurney. As soon as I was away from the cold enclosure, my limbs slowly began to warm. Closing the locker, the pervert turned and began to undress. His erection was small and puny, just like the rest of him but he was definitely happy to be alone with me.

“We’re going to have a lot of fun,” he crooned and placed a hand on my leg. He bent to kiss my cold and unresponsive mouth and I decided the only one who’d be having any fun in this morgue was me. I remained unmoving as his warm lips touched mine and his tongue wormed its way into my mouth. Breathing hard, he straightened up and shifted his hand to the button of my jeans.

Before he could undo my pants, I opened my eyes like a princess that had been woken by true love’s kiss. This guy was no Prince Charming, he was just a disgusting pervert who liked to hump corpses. He started when he saw that my eyes were open but he wasn’t afraid. Yet. “Sen…ew…skyyy,” I moaned and at his look of utter horror, I truly began to enjoy myself.

Screaming, he backed away when I sat up. Putting his hands over his face like a kid watching a horror movie, Senewsky peeked out from between his splayed fingers. His eyes bulged from their sockets in the profoundest terror that I’d ever seen on a human being before.

His shrieks were continuous and ratcheted up a few notches when I swung my legs over the side of the gurney and stood up. Twice now I’d thought I was a zombie and had been appalled by the idea. Since zombies had been my greatest fear as a human, besides rats, I figured they’d scare the bejesus out of most people. Holding my arms out stiffly, I shambled towards the pervert who had been about to perform necrophilia on me.

If the room hadn’t been soundproofed, his frenzied screams would surely have drawn attention. I felt no remorse when he pissed himself in fear. It was a sure thing that my corpse wouldn’t have been the first he had tried to violate. As a paramedic, Senewski would have had plenty of opportunity to abuse his patients, alive or dead. Like the ginger haired monster I’d dispatched in London who had murdered a bunch of men, women and children, this guy also had to die. There was no way I could let him live knowing what I did about him. In a weird way, I felt it was my duty to erase human monsters when I came across them.

My ears were ringing from all the screams by now so I put an end to them as quickly as I knew how. Grabbing the pervert’s head with my palms, I wrenched his head around in a full circle. The screams cut off with the sickening crunch of rent bone, cartilage and tendons. Buck naked, it would be obvious to the cops what he he’d been up to when they were called to investigate his death. My disappearance would be a mystery that I was confident they would never solve.

Before leaving, I searched for the fridge that contained my blood sample and found it by methodically opening every door. The tiny fridge blended in well with the other cupboard doors but I finally found it beneath the sink. My vial of blood was the only one inside but it would have been easy enough to identify even if there had been a forest of samples. My blood was much thicker and darker than normal.

Searching the pervert’s pants, I found his keys and wallet. The wallet didn’t have much money in it but I took it anyway. No one had my fingerprints on file so I didn’t bother to wipe the place down. Now I just had a couple more things to find and then I would be on my way.

Unlike the death chamber, the rest of the building was painted a clinical white. Even the floor had white tiles. Maybe they’d painted the body storage and autopsy room green to liven it up a little. Not that moss green was very exciting.

Creeping down the hallway, I located a small office and entered. Turning on the lights would be a bad idea so my search was performed in the dark. My eyesight was good enough that the room might as well have been softly lit anyway.

Apart from a ratty chair, wide desk and wall of bookshelves, there was very little furniture in the office. It was the filing cabinets I was interested in. After a quick search of the drawers, I located my chart, the tape with the morgue assistant’s findings and the wallet I’d stolen last. They had been filed under what I assumed passed for ‘Jane Doe’ in whatever country I was in.

Closing the drawer, I left the office and searched for the exit. Beyond the death chamber, the hallway ended in a solid metal door. The sign above it proclaimed that it was an exit. At a light shove, the door swung open. This must have been how the pervert had broken in. Either the building didn’t have an alarm system or it had been disabled. I checked for a surveillance camera but didn’t spot one. Finally, a stroke of luck. Hunting down the security room to disable the cameras and steal the footage would have taken time and I just wanted to be gone.

Parked in the small lot behind the building was a foreign car. It was compact, brown, exceedingly ugly and suited the dead pervert perfectly. Hitting the alarm button on the keychain, the car beeped shrilly. “So much for a silent getaway,” I murmured and climbed inside. It took me a few moments to figure out how everything worked then I was on my way.

Driving through unfamiliar streets in the strange car, I stopped long enough to discard my vial of blood, the chart and the recording when I was a few kilometres away from the morgue. They went into a handy drain. The vial smashed and I hoped the sluggish water would be enough to wash the evidence of my strangeness away.

I’d taken a brief and unexpected detour from my intended destination but I was back on track once more. In a couple more days I would reach my target. I vowed silently to take more care when finding a place to hide during the daytime in the future.

Chapter Eleven

I made it to the east coast of China without any further delays. I’d had few chances to take in the sights, even if I’d been inclined to. I only stopped to have a snack or to fill up the car with petrol. After the credit card stopped working, I stole another wallet and used it to finance my journey.

At long last, I was standing on a rugged, isolated shoreline. I’d chosen this stretch of land as my starting point because it was too rocky for tourists to visit or for soldiers to bother guarding. Back home in Australia, tourists often swam at night even though the beaches were unmanned and closed. Unaware of the risk they were taking with hidden rips that could carry them out to sea and drown them, they sometimes died. I was fully aware of the risks and had little to worry about. It was impossible for someone who didn’t even breathe to drown.

Flying would be a far quicker way to cross the water but I didn’t want any lurking European vampire spies to notice my departure. The last thing I needed was for the Comtesse and her cronies to find out not only that I had broken free but where I had ended up.

What I hadn’t known when I’d first thought of this idea was that Japan was made up of hundreds if not thousands of tiny islands. I’d stopped briefly at a newsagency the night before and had examined maps of both China and Japan to choose where I’d attempt to cross the sea.

I had no idea where the vamps were hidden. Now that I was so close, I was mystified at where to start. Maybe I should start at the bottom and work my way up. It was a sound plan since I was closest to the southern islands of Japan anyway. Surely I would stumble across my Japanese kin eventually. Something told me these vamps were more reclusive than their European contemporaries. They wouldn’t be hiding in a large city like Tokyo for instance. These guys would be somewhere far more secluded than that.

Swimming across the English Channel had taken me over five hours. I had a lot further than that to travel tonight. Daylight might arrive when I was still in the water. What would I do then? Swim the rest of the way deep enough beneath the waves that the sunlight wouldn’t reach me? I would if I had to, but I’d rather not.

As if in answer to my problem, the sound of a distant motor came on a salty ocean breeze. A couple of minutes later, movement in the dark water caught my attention. A small but powerful boat was angling towards the shore. It was difficult to make out since it had been painted black to blend in with the night. Smugglers, I decided. This could be just what I needed to get me to Japan. A boat would be a lot faster than swimming. Jogging closer, I crouched down behind a straggly clump of bushes.

Slowing down just before it hit the shore, the boat eased onto the rocky beach and two men leaped clear of the water. They dragged the vessel further up the sand until only the back end was still in the water. One man hurried to search some bushes and pulled out a couple of large plastic containers. A third man on the boat began tossing small white packages to them. Working with well-practiced skill, they packed what I strongly suspected were illegal drugs into the containers.

“That’s all of them,” the guy still on board said. I automatically translated the words from Chinese into English. “I’m taking the boat back to the ship.”

“We’ll meet up with you tomorrow,” one of the others replied while he and his friend pushed the boat back into the water.

While the man on board struggled to get the motor started, I crept closer. As soon as the pair lugging the containers had disappeared out of sight over the ridge, I leaped into the boat. I landed so lightly and quietly that the smuggler didn’t even hear me. Swearing bitterly each time the motor failed to catch, he finally succeeded and the small motor roared to life. The smuggler’s grin of triumph changed into a gasp of alarm when he turned to find me standing right in front of him.

My hand muffled his scream of fright as I yanked him towards me. Even in the starlight, my dark magic worked and he became pliant in my hands as soon as our eyes met.

We’d drifted quite a distance from the shore while he’d been attempting to start the motor. He was going into the water and I didn’t want him to drown. “Put on a life vest,” I told him and hoped he understood English. He did and knelt to rummage beneath the seats. Coming up with an orange life jacket that had seen better days, he pulled it on over his head. “You have something I need,” I told him and stopped him from pulling the cord that would inflate the vest.

“Anything,” he muttered in thickly accented English. “You can have anything you want.” If that were true, I’d still be human, working late on a Friday night and moaning about my aching feet while busting to go to the bathroom. It was difficult now to believe that had once been my life. I had been lonely and without family or friends but it didn’t seem all that bad to me now. I was still lonely and without family or friends but had the added downside of also being allergic to sunlight and needing to drink blood in order to survive.

Speaking of survival. I pulled the smuggler close and turned his head to the side. He wore a blissful smile as my teeth broke through his skin. It was risky to drink from someone who smuggled drugs since there was a good chance he might have imbibed his own product. I’d been there and done that and had gotten slightly high from it. Thankfully, this meal’s blood was clean.

Finished with the smuggler, I tugged on the cord to inflate his jacket and shoved him backwards. Pin-wheeling his arms, the man fell overboard and hit the water while the vest was still inflating. “Swim to the shore,” I ordered him. He turned jerkily then began thrashing towards the beach. He swam like I danced, without any hint of natural ability or grace. It was just as well I’d ordered him to don the jacket.

I hadn’t been looking forward to swimming across the dark stretch of water to the southern islands of Japan and now I wouldn’t have to. Taking a seat on the damp bench, I angled the boat towards what I hoped was the correct direction and cranked up the speed.

Chilly, salty water splashed onto my face and wind whipped my hair back as the boat took off. It was a moonless night and only the white caps of tiny waves broke the monotony of black sea and even blacker sky.

After a couple of hours of zooming along, the motor began to splutter. Squatting in an inch or so of water, I searched the compartments beneath the seat. Inside were a few plastic containers filled with fuel. It should be enough to get me where I wanted to go. When the small tank was full of juice again, I had no trouble starting the motor. Maybe it just needed a woman’s touch.

Dawn was less than two hours away when I finally spied land. A small cluster of islands appeared in the near distance and quickly grew in size. None looked well populated. I couldn’t see any lights and there were few signs of habitation. This seemed as likely a place to start searching as any. A deserted island would be the obvious choice for vampires to hole up in if they wished to remain unnoticed.

The first island had a wide, inviting sandy beach. Dense trees hid any buildings in the area from my view. A couple of small boats had been pulled up to the tree line so the high tide couldn’t kidnap them and carry them off, never to be seen again. A row of deck chairs also sat above the high tide mark. They were shaded by umbrellas that were anchored by sturdy metal tables. This definitely wasn’t a vampire hangout. Not unless they took moonlight naps beneath the stars. It looked more like an exclusive island getaway for the rich and bored to me.

All of the islands in the cluster were the same. I had just decided to head for land and find a spot to hide for the day when a larger island in the distance caught my attention. Rising high above the tree line, an ominous mountain with sheer sides frowned down at me. The island was uninviting enough that I decided to take a closer look at it.

It was further away than I’d thought and it took half an hour just to get close enough to see just how unhospitable it was. Waves crashed and boomed off rocks that surrounded the entire island. A shiver went down my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. This is the place, my intuition told me. I’d been lucky to find it so quickly into my search. Yeah, lucky, my subconscious said. You watch, as soon as they spot you they’ll skewer you with stakes and chop off your head. I’d always struggled with optimism, pessimism came more naturally to me.

Spying a narrow stretch of beach sandwiched between piles of boulders, I turned the boat towards it. The vessel puttered along slowly as I searched for a break in the ring of rocks protecting the island. A gap appeared, just large enough for my boat to fit through and I steered towards it. A wave lifted the boat just at the right time to force me through the break, or so I thought. Then the wave disappeared and the boat dropped sharply. An unholy screech came from beneath my feet and I came to a sudden halt.

Losing my balance, I crashed to my knees beside a foot long tear in the bottom of the boat. Water swirled inside at an alarming rate. Since I had no means to plug the leak, I came to the conclusion that the vessel was a goner. I wasn’t a captain and I wasn’t about to go down with this ship, it was time to abandon it.

I discovered that diving over the side was a mistake when I crashed headfirst into a large rock. Swearing in pain, I managed to swallow a mouthful of salty water. Struggling to the surface, I wiped seawater and blood out of my eyes then made for land. This wasn’t the first time I’d cracked my skull. At least this time it knitted back together within seconds and the pain swiftly receded.

Speedy healing was new enough to me that I was still amazed at how fast I could mend. I might have thanked Alexander for using me as his lab rat instead of killing him if the whole experience hadn’t been so painful and awful. But he’d been one of the damned, even if he hadn’t known it, and he’d been fated to die by my hand. Any vampire I met from now on who had a shadow that acted independently was going share his fate. Destroying the damned was, after all, the reason why I existed.

My clothes were water logged and heavy as I dragged myself clear of the ocean but they didn’t slow me down as they would have if I’d been human. A vertical cliff face barred my way and prevented me from progressing any further inland. A quick search told me there was no easy path to the top. It was too close to dawn to attempt to climb it now. Scaling the wall would have to wait until I rose for the night.

Following the cliff face, I clambered over rocks until I found a promising cave. Even at my average height, I had to bend to avoid the rough rock ceiling as I ducked inside. The cave was long, narrow and curved in a gentle arc. It ended in a small, cosy space after about a hundred feet. There were no holes in the walls or ceiling that I could see so I should be safe from the sun here.

Smoothing out the sand and pushing aside a few lumpy rocks, I lay down and proceeded to shiver. With my low body temperature, being wet was usually miserable, unless I was taking a boiling hot shower. There had been no wood on the beach and I didn’t have the means to make a fire anyway so I just had to endure the chill.

I dozed off and on, waking at noises regularly, positive that someone or something was sneaking up on me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that my presence had been noticed. Someone knew I was on the island and they weren’t happy about it.

When night fell and it was safe to leave the cave, I retreated back down the tunnel and stood at the base of the cliff. It had to be at least fifty feet high. My stolen sneakers were too big to attempt to scale the wall in. I took them off, knotted the laces together and slung them around my neck.

Now that I was so much harder to kill, I didn’t have a fear of falling. The impact would hurt but I’d be fine after a few seconds when my bones reknit. Keeping this firmly in mind, I began to climb.

Finding handholds turned out to be easier than I’d thought. Even a human might have been able to scale the cliff without too much effort. Reaching the tiny beach alive and intact had been the real challenge. Once you made it past that deadly obstacle, the rest was simple.

My fingers finally found the top of the wall and I hoisted myself up. The shoes went back on my feet and I was ready to explore.

Unfamiliar trees and scrub grew thick enough to obscure my view of what lay ahead. Small animals and night birds made a soft racket. They’d gone quiet in my immediate vicinity so I stood in a small pool of silence.

Angling my head back, I could just see the outline of the mountain. It loomed above me like a silent vulture hunched over a rotting carcass. This place is giving me the creeps. The feeling that someone or something knew I was there increased. My dream of the gigantic cavern and the creatures that inhabited it came back to me. What would I do if I’d inadvertently stumbled across the First’s lair? Die, of course. I was nowhere near ready to take on the imps I’d seen. They’d pull my arms off like the wings of a fly. They might even eat them afterwards. I wondered if I’d be able to regenerate after my flesh had been eaten. Don’t get eaten and you’ll never have to find out. It was good advice and I’d do my best to take it.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated hard and sent out my senses just like I had when I’d been lying in my many graves. I was glad I hadn’t lost the knack of it. Almost instantly, I located something much larger than a bird or a dog and tracked it. Whatever it was, it was coming my way. Widening my sweep, I sensed a second and then a third figure. They were moving eerily fast and were arrowing straight towards me.

Opening my eyes, I braced myself just as a dark form burst almost silently into the small clearing only feet away from where I stood. Relief coursed through me when I saw it was just a vampire. I’d need light to be able to check whether his shadow was sentient. If he was one of the damned, at least he hadn’t somehow been turned into an imp yet.

His outfit told me that I’d found the place I’d been seeking so desperately. He wore the same black leather outfit as the imposter who had pretended to be me had worn. It had been altered slightly to fit his male frame but it was definitely the same style. His face was hidden by a mask and only his dark eyes were visible. They narrowed when they took in my white skin and western style clothing.

Two more vamps, one male and one female, joined us. Like the first guy, they wore black leather suits and their faces were masked. A dozen throwing knives were attached to their belts but it was their main weapons that I fixated on. Two spears and one crossbow were pointing unerringly at my heart.

Holding up my hands to show that I was unarmed, I was careful to keep my palms facing myself. I didn’t want the sentries to know who or what I was just yet. I was pretty sure that discovering Mortis was on their doorstep would be a nasty and unwelcome shock. “I come in peace,” I said and winced at how cheesy it sounded.

“European scum,” the female guard spat in Japanese. “You’ve been sent here to spy on us!”

“I would have thought the Europeans had grown tired of us killing their emissaries by now,” the first male to arrive said. “Perhaps when you do not return,” he said as he drew his spear arm back, “they might finally take the hint.” I could have avoided the spear he threw at me but opted not to. My Japanese kin were far more hostile than I’d anticipated. They hadn’t even given me a chance to state my intentions before trying to kill me.

As had happened too many times before, the projectile slammed into my heart. Two feet of smooth black wood stuck out of my chest and the rest poked out through my back. I decided it was in my best interests to pretend the wound was fatal. Resisting the urge to be theatrical, I kept my pretend death simple and merely dropped to my knees then fell onto my side.

Walking over to what she presumed was my fresh corpse, the female kicked my motionless feet then uttered a short laugh. “It has been a decade since the Europeans have been stupid enough to send a spy to our shores.”

“We should inform the General that they may be moving against us,” the second male guard said. They didn’t stick around to watch me disintegrate into a gross stain on the ground. That was a good thing, since that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Then again, we didn’t tend to break down into slime until after the projectiles that had killed us had been removed from our dead hearts.

All three sentinels moved off silently back the way they’d come. I waited until they were a good distance away before standing. Pulling the spear out, I dropped it and followed them. Being armed wouldn’t be a bright idea if I was going to convince them that I meant no harm.

I wasn’t surprised that they’d found me so quickly. The sentries, with their supernatural hearing, would have heard my boat approaching the night before. I hadn’t exactly had a stealthy landing after running the boat onto the rocks and tearing a hole in the bottom of it either. Access by cliff face was the only way to the top so they’d headed straight towards where I would climb up when night fell.

I followed just far enough behind them that I could sense their presence but they couldn’t hear me blundering through the scrub in their wake. I stumbled across a path that seemed to be heading in the right direction and began moving with at least a semblance of stealth.

The path began to angle upwards and quickly became steep as it reached the base of the mountain. Clouds obscured the top from my sight. The last time I’d been inside a vampire stronghold that had been built into a mountain, I hadn’t particularly enjoyed the experience. Vincent and his minions had ended up trying to kill Luc and me before we could warn the Court about Vincent’s rebellion.

Vincent had been trying to take control after the prophet had lapsed into a coma. He and at least a few of his minions had been damned so maybe that was why they’d attempted the coup. This had been before I knew my real destiny. Now that I was aware of why I existed, I was glad we’d killed most of them. I wouldn’t need to backtrack to Romania to take care of the rest later. According to my dream, the damned were beginning to be drawn to the First anyway. If so, then maybe I wouldn’t have to round up any strays. I might find them all in one place. In the cavern of doom, I thought sourly.

Keeping my distance, I tried to plan my approach. It would have been nice to be welcomed with open arms by my Japanese kin but that clearly was out of the question. Sadly, I was becoming used to vampires trying to kill me by now. I’d met very few who hadn’t made an attempt on my unlife. Igor, Geordie and Gregor, friends and acquaintances of Luc, hadn’t tried to kill me yet. Now that they all knew who I really was, that would probably change. They would have no way of knowing I’d only kill them if their shadows had the ability to think for themselves.

Up ahead, my welcoming committee multiplied when they met up with several more vampire guards. Sneaking closer, I reached a weathered gateway carved out of rock as the path widened into a thoroughfare. Slithering into the shadows, I studied the area carefully.

Buildings had been cleverly hacked into the rock face, including windows and doorways. Carvings of birds, animals and plants were the main decorations and the workmanship was both ancient and exquisite. Widening my search, I was amazed to see humans mingling with the vampires. What the hell? Where’s the running, screaming and mad panic? Instead of the expected reactions, there were polite bows and mutual respect.

Somehow, the vampires had learned to coexist with humans without turning them into mindless cattle. Watching the interaction, it felt a bit like I’d stepped back in time. While all of the vampires wore black leather, the humans wore either kimonos or simple cotton shirts and pants that peasants might have worn a couple of hundred years ago. More than a few carried baskets with vegetables nestled inside. I doubted they were flown or shipped in daily. That meant they must be grown somewhere on the island. With so many vamps wearing leather, they also had to have access to a lot of cows. How had this community not been discovered by someone flying over the island?

Leaning out to peer around the gateway, I saw that there were more than just a few buildings. A small city had been carved directly into the mountainside. Row upon row of rock houses and shops disappeared into the gigantic maw of a vast cavern. A narrow, winding staircase led further up the mountain, curling out of view. Black leather-clad sentries watched diligently from vantage points both high and low.

Leaning out just a little bit too far, I was finally spotted. A human cried out in alarm and pointed at me. Since there was little point in running, I stepped out into the open. Within seconds, twenty guards had me surrounded. Holding my hands up, clenched into fists this time, I stepped further onto the cobbled square. The three guards who had greeted me so unkindly pushed their way through the crowd to stare at me in shock.

“Like I tried to tell you earlier,” I said to the man who had speared me, “I’m not here to attack you and I’m not a spy for the Europeans.”

He exchanged disturbed glances with the other two. He knew his spear had been dead on target yet here I was, unalive and well. A fresh spear was in his hand but he held it pointed at the ground. His first weapon hadn’t done much good and neither would this one. Unfortunately, the remaining guards did have their weapons trained on me. They held a mixture of spears, swords and crossbows. “Who are you? Where do you come from?” he asked me in Japanese.

“My name is Nat.”

“Gnat?” I heard someone ask in a puzzled tone. “Isn’t that an insect?”

“Natalie,” I corrected her crossly. “Natalie Pierce. I’m Australian.” There were sounds of recognition and amusement. Aussies were always laughed at by foreigners for some strange reason. I didn’t think any vampire would ever take me seriously. Hell, I hardly took myself seriously.

“I may have missed your heart last time, Natalie Pierce,” the guard’s eyes flickered, signalling that he knew he hadn’t missed at all, “but I will not miss this time.” Still speaking stubbornly in Japanese, the guard drew back his spear again.

“Don’t bother,” I told him. “You didn’t miss. I’ve been stabbed in the heart a dozen times by now. It won’t kill me.” I sounded more blasé than I’d meant to but I was frankly bored with being speared, sliced and diced by now.

Fear buzzed through the crowd that had gathered. Curious humans were ushered away as even more sentries appeared. A vamp wearing an elaborate suit of leather armour arrived. A thick breastplate guarded his heart and wicked spikes ran along the backs of his wrists. They’d be an effective tool to behead someone with. The guards bowed respectfully and drew aside to let him through. His face was unmasked and he wore a headdress with black feathers that ruffled in the breeze. His outfit was impressive and I felt a moment of jealousy. I wish I could have a suit like that. Instead, I had dirty clothes that were too large for me and had last belonged to a guy.

“Who is this intruder?” he asked the guard who was about to throw his spear at me for a second time.

“Her name is Natalie Pierce, General Yasui. She says she is Australian and isn’t a European spy as she appears to be.” The general remained impassive until his subordinate tacked on one last fact. “She survived my spear through her heart and claims nothing can kill her.” The general started at that and turned to face me.

“I didn’t say nothing can kill me,” I contradicted the guard. “Just stakes through the heart, holy water, holy symbols and other stuff.” I already felt weird enough without listing all the things that made me so different from the rest of my kin.

Dumbstruck silence met my words. At an unseen signal, weapons were suddenly raised. “Try to survive this,” the general said with satisfaction. Then a dozen projectiles were hurtling through the air towards me.

Chapter Twelve

They struck me all at the same time and I suddenly looked like a vampire pincushion. I staggered back against the onslaught of spears and crossbow bolts but didn’t go down. One bolt had been aimed at my face and I’d managed to catch that one at least. Ok, I didn’t’ actually catch the bolt. It lodged in the arm I threw up to shield myself. The bolt had sheared through bone and the sharp point lightly pressed up against my eyelid. A hairs-breadth closer and it would have popped my eyeball. It was hard enough to explain how I could survive fatal blows to the heart let alone a regenerating eyeball.

Disturbed murmurs swept through the crowd when I didn’t fall down dead. Two bolts had lanced side by side through my heart, shredding it, yet I was still alive. “Told ya,” I said and pulled the projectile out of my arm.

Behind me, I heard the unmistakable sound of a steel sword sliding out of a sheath. Getting tangled up in the spears still stuck in my body, I couldn’t duck out of the way in time before the unseen guard struck. Burning pain seared through my neck and then my head was bouncing across the ground, bringing a strong sense of deja-vu with it. The last time this had happened, Luc had wielded the weapon and a white marble floor had flashed beneath me as I bounced. This time it was dirty cobblestones but the similarities were still strong.

My head rolled to a stop at the feet of the general. His satisfaction turned to puzzlement when my head and body didn’t dissolve into a slimy patch on the cobblestones. “Would you believe me if I said beheading me won’t kill me either?” my dismembered head asked him.

Panic spread through the assembly like wildfire. Screams rang out and guards started shoving the few humans who had crept back to watch away to safety. Through the milling throng, I spied my body. It was still standing in the same spot, waiting for my command.

I didn’t get the chance to order it to shamble over to my head so that I could reattach it. Guards surrounded my body, blocking it from my view. Then multiple hands were grabbing me, yanking the spears and bolts free. Distantly, I felt the wounds healing. This seemed to scare the Japanese vampires even more than my dismembered yet still speaking head had.

“Throw her into the pit,” the shaken general said and kicked my head towards the group of guards in charge of my body. “The sun will finish her off.” He put on an excellent show of bravado but I sensed how terrified he really was. Most of the guards had regained control of their expressions but the stink of fear was still strong.

My heart sank at the general’s order, or tried to. The sun was the one thing that had the power to incinerate me. A hand seized my head by the hair and shoved it into a dark bag. It smelled strongly of vegetables. Onion was the predominant odour but I also detected potatoes. My body was lifted and I was rushed back down the steep mountain path. Branches slapped at my body as we headed deeper into the trees.

We finally came to a halt and my body was placed back on my feet. It stood teetering on the edge of an opening. With my head in the bag, I couldn’t see how far the drop was. Then the bag was being upended and I saw it was very far indeed. An instant later, someone gave my back a shove.

With my head tumbling face first, I watched the distant ground rushing towards me. My eyes scrunched shut just before I hit the ground. Bone splintered in my nose, cheek and jaw on impact. Then my body landed with a jarring thud. I was in enough pain already so kept my consciousness confined to my head. In seconds, my injuries healed. Creaks and cracks of mending fractures came from my face and body but ceased quickly as everything went back into place.

Rolling my eye upwards, I spied a ring of masked faces leaning over the circular opening high above me. Confident that I couldn’t possibly escape, they disappeared and left me to my fate. Without witnesses to give the alarm, I could now reattach my head to my body. I was still shy about this weird new ability to knit myself back together. It still grossed me out and God only knew how other vamps would take it.

Rolling my eye to the left, I located my body. It lay on its back a few feet away. Dark red blood, almost black now, had seeped out from beneath it in a small puddle. Blood was what powered us and even I couldn’t afford to lose too much of it without becoming weak.

Pouring my will into my body, I commanded it to sit up then crawl over to my head. My left hand grasped my hair, lifted my head and placed it back on my neck. After a brief moment of intense pain, I was whole again. Now, I have to find a way out of here. I was quietly worried that this might be easier said than done.

Standing, I turned in a slow circle, examining the walls of the pit. They were made out of solid rock and were glassily smooth. A distance of eighty feet or so stretched above me. There were no handholds this time and it would be impossible to climb out. Why can’t anything about my undeath be easy?

Standing around twiddling my thumbs was out of the question, I had to at least try to escape. Unfortunately, I didn’t think my chances of that were very good. Clearly, the guards were confident that their pit was inescapable since they hadn’t bothered to stick around to watch over me.

Several bundles of clothing on the ground attested that the hole had been used previously to dispose of outlaw vampires. Only faint puddles of ooze remained of my dead kin. The sun had done a pretty good job of drying out their melted flesh. That’ll be me soon if I don’t get out of here.

I still had a few hours left before the sun would rise and burn me to true death so I scurried into action. Searching through the clothing, I found a belt with four throwing knives still attached to it. Driving one of the knives into the rock wall, I was discouraged when the handle snapped off and the blade fell to the ground. I’d hoped it would dig into the rock and allow me a way to climb out but it had barely left a scratch. Scrap that idea then.

Turning in a circle again, I judged the diameter of the hole to be roughly twenty feet across. I picked a starting point then worked my way around the wall, searching it carefully. Reaching my starting place after a slow shuffle that took me the better part of an hour, I was even more discouraged when I didn’t find a single crack that I could exploit.

Fear and panic were beginning to claw at my insides. There’s no way out of this trap. Like all the others who had been cast inside, I was going to die a fast yet excruciating death. What I did next was completely childish yet impossible to control. I threw a tantrum.

Cursing and sobbing tearlessly, I kicked aside the empty clothing of the fallen. Pants and shirts went flying. Shoes and boots soared through the air and hit the smooth wall. A black leather uniform from a deceased guard caught on my foot and stuck to it like cling wrap. I staggered around in a circle, shaking my foot but the damn thing just wouldn’t come off.

I finally managed to peel it off then threw it as hard as I could at the wall. It hit the wall then fell harmlessly to the ground. Sinking to my knees, I put more effort into sobbing. Without actual tears, crying just wasn’t as rewarding as it should have been.

Giving up on sobbing at last, I shifted my knee away from an uncomfortable crack in the ground. If I had to die here, I could at least die in comfort. Wait a minute, if there’s a crack then maybe I can dig my way out of here! Shifting my hands away from my face, I examined the crack. About a centimetre wide, it was several feet long and ran in a crazy path towards the wall. I’d focussed exclusively on the wall during my intensive search and hadn’t thought to turn my attention to the ground. I was going to pay very close attention to it now.

Dropping to my hands and knees, I bent down closer to the crack. Beneath several inches of rock, I smelled soil. A crafty look stole across my face. After my daring escape from the tiny coffins in the cemetery, I was an old hand at digging. All I needed was something to widen the crack with and I’d be in business.

Searching through the discarded clothing again, I found a spearhead that was worn with age but might still be useful. I slipped it into the widest part of the crack near the wall and stomped down hard. Rock crumbled and the crack widened fractionally. I was grateful that the sentries hadn’t stayed around to watch me. I doubted they’d stand idly by, taking bets on the likelihood of my success or failure as I started digging my way to freedom.

After an hour, I had the crack open to the width of my hand. Then the spearhead crumbled to pieces and I was reduced to using my hands. They were nowhere near as tough as steel but at least they healed whenever the skin tore or a fingernail snapped off. Working as quickly as I could, I still wasn’t moving fast enough.

Desperate to be underground before the sun rose, I punched the rock with my right hand in sheer frustration. Bone splintered, poking out of my skin then reknit even as I punched the crack with my left hand. Rock crumbled and split at each blow. My hands weren’t as good as a sledgehammer would have been but they were the only tools I had to work with now. The remaining throwing knives wouldn’t be any help and would only shatter against the dense rock floor.

I pounded at the crack for another hour, widening it to the size of my head. Blood splattered both my sleeves and the ground. The fluid that had once flowed through my veins was beginning to smell rancid. It was probably thanks to Alexander’s experiment that the conversion had occurred so quickly. I didn’t like to think what that meant for me. He might have speeded up my shadow’s transformation and forced me a lot closer to becoming possessed. Worry about that later, you have a job to focus on here.

The hole wasn’t quite wide enough for my hips to fit through when I felt the earth beginning to warm. Throwing a desperate glance up at the top of the hole, I saw the faintest hint of light and my eyes began to burn. Killing rays of sunlight wouldn’t enter the hole for at least another half an hour but I planned to be underground before that happened.

My eyes landed on the leather uniform. Not only would the tough fabric protect me, I figured it would also help me to slide through the jagged rock as well. Stripping at lightning speed, I pulled on the discarded uniform and boots that matched it. I almost had to be a contortionist to lace it up at the back from the waist to my neck. It was a bit tight in the bust and hips but it was the right length. The boots were a size too small but they were better than the sneakers I’d stolen back in England.

Worming my way headfirst into the hole, I began to shovel dirt backwards. I probably looked like a dog frantically trying to bury a bone. It would have been a hilarious sight but fortunately no one was around to see me.

As I’d thought, my hips got stuck at the crucial point and I could go no further. Heat filled the hole and the first rays touched my back. The leather saved me from bursting into flames but my flesh instantly began to boil inside the borrowed clothing.

Shrieking in pain, I wrenched myself into the hole, breaking my pelvis and not caring at all. That pain was insignificant compared to the agony of being boiled alive. The sun torched me from the hips down, crisping me through the leather. I’m melting like candle wax. The thought sickened me but I wasn’t capable of vomiting and I didn’t have the time to even if I’d still been able.

Tunnelling my way through dirt, I dragged my diminished body into the hole, stopping only when the searing heat finally cut off. Flopping onto my back, I writhed in agony that far surpassed any pain I’d ever felt before.

Gritting my teeth, unsurprised to see my incisors had lengthened to wicked points, I gingerly pulled open the top of my pants. Instead of a slender pair of legs, I saw only gaunt bones that were held together by cartilage and not much else. All of my flesh was gone and from the waist down, I was now a skeleton.

Chapter Thirteen

When I’d accidentally burned one of my fingertips off, it had taken several long hours to heal and the pain had been excruciating. Now that I was juiced up with Alexander’s blood, the healing went faster but it was still far slower and more painful than I liked.

Sunlight really was the ultimate killer for vampires. It might not be able to kill me outright but it did a pretty good job of making me pay for being an evil, undead creature of the night. The image of me being burned entirely down to the bone wouldn’t go away. I saw my fleshless skeleton sizzling in the sun, still being aware but unable to crawl to safety because I no longer had the muscles that enabled my body to move.

The pain was so intense that I couldn’t even doze throughout the long, long day. Every now and then I checked on the progress of my reknitting flesh. First, the muscle appeared, then tendons and ligaments, followed by the necessary fat and finally the skin. It was nearly nightfall again before I was completely healed. The memory of agony lingered even if the actual pain was now gone.

I’d left a pile of dirt and broken rock in the pit that would advertise my escape pretty clearly if I didn’t do something about it. The last thing I wanted was for my captors to see my escape tunnel. Digging out a space large enough to turn around in, I wormed my way back out of the hole. I stopped at the crumbled entrance and squinted against the faint traces of sunlight peeking through the trees far overhead. They would disappear soon enough as the sun sank down beyond the horizon. Then the guards would be back to check on how I’d fared after a day spent in the pit of death.

Working quickly, I scraped the dirt back into the hole and threw the rocks in after it. My stolen jumper and jeans would help hide my escape by covering the hole. It was fully dark by the time I was ready to go back into the tunnel again. Sensing several sentries drawing closer, I went in feet first and quickly dragged my clothing over the opening.

I lay stock still just inside the mouth of the tunnel as a group of guards inspected my empty clothing from above. “Inform General Yasui that the spy has been incinerated,” the first guard to spear me through the heart instructed.

Ha! I was only half incinerated, you moron. Personally, I thought his tone of self-satisfaction was overdone, not to mention peremptory. I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he saw me next. Boy would they all get a surprise when I turned up whole and sound again.

Obviously, boldly striding directly into the stone city wasn’t the best way for me to go. They’d just take even more drastic action to try to kill me next time. I was going to have to try a stealthy approach. Maybe the ruler of the Japanese vampires would be a little more willing to listen to my story. The emperor might even hear me out before he ordered someone to chop my head off.

It was as good a plan as any and I couldn’t just stay underground forever. Checking that the guards were gone, I worked my way deeper into the tunnel. It occurred to me that I hadn’t had any trouble getting in and out of the hole this time. I finally noticed the uniform was now less snug around the hips. It seemed that another slight change had happened during my healing process. It was a bit creepy the way my body decided for itself what size and shape it wanted to be. Unless I’d made the decision deep in my subconscious and had made the changes myself. That was a more likely scenario.

Reaching the end of the short tunnel, I dug sideways, moving away from the death pit. Angling upwards, I could tell I was getting close to the surface when thin, cobwebby roots appeared in the dirt. They grew thicker and more numerous until they were actively hindering my journey. The higher I dug, the more roots I encountered. I’d travelled a good distance from the hole and seemed to be coming up into an area far from any paths.

Working my way up to the surface, I sent out my senses and didn’t feel anyone in the vicinity. As I’d hoped, the leather suit made sliding through the dirt easier. I emerged into the cool night air, shaking soil out of my hair. The suit was snug enough that no dirt had gotten inside.

It was a cloudless night and the top of the mountain was exposed. Tilting my head back, I had a clear view all the way up to the top. Dark rock stared back at me, giving me the impression that my intrusion wasn’t welcome.

All bird, animal and insect activity in the area ceased upon my arrival. When they figured out I wasn’t a threat, the noise started up again. Squeezing between two trees, I tripped over an exposed root and careened face first into a bush. I’d lived in cities my whole life and had rarely had the misfortune of being in the bush. Trekking through a forest had never been my idea of a good time while alive, and it still wasn’t now that I was unalive. Dusting leaves and twigs from my leather outfit, I continued on.

Finding a track that led uphill, I followed it. The path was too narrow to have been created by humans or vampires so I deemed it to be safe enough. It veered around to the right, taking me further away from the stone city.

Taking a short break in a natural clearing, I peered up at the mountain again. Towards the top, I spied the flicker of firelight. If I was an emperor, where would I live? High above my minions, of course.

Jogging up the path, shielding my face from tree branches, I left the track when it began to amble away from the mountain. I was slowed down by the thick underbrush but did my best not to break too many branches. It didn’t appear that the sentries patrolled this deep into the forest. Still, I didn’t want to leave too clear a trail for them to follow if they discovered I’d escaped from their trap.

The forest abruptly gave way to rock then the mountainside was stretching up towards the heavens before me. Tilting my head back so far that it almost made me dizzy, I searched for the best path up and realized there wasn’t one. This rock didn’t look as hard or as sheer as the sides of the death pit had been. To test the theory, I drew one of the throwing knives from the belt I’d cinched around my waist and punched it into rock. It went in and stayed in place. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to use the knives but they were a good backup tool.

Climbing was easy to begin with and I swiftly reached a couple of hundred feet just by using my hands and feet. The borrowed boots were excellent for mountain climbing and gave me good traction. Then the handholds became fewer and harder to find. I reached a point when the side of the mountain began to lean outwards. I was glad I’d kept the knives because they would come in handy now.

With a bit of practice, I got the hang of sticking a knife into the rock, hauling myself up, sticking the next one in and repeating the procedure. Without my vampire strength, I’d never have gotten the knives in or out of the mountainside let alone been able to pull myself upwards like this.

A small ledge had been cut into the rock at the top of the overhang. The perfectly smooth surface warned me that it was manmade. Peering over the top, I almost expected to see a guard standing above me, wearing a grin behind his black mask and pointing a spear at my head. To my relief, the ledge was vacant. It ran off to the left and right, curving out of sight with the shape of the mountain. It was clear at the moment, but for how much longer I had no way of knowing.

Now that I knew a guard could appear at any time, I would have to be far more careful. I was only a quarter of the way up and still had a long way to go. If there was a path, then there had to be openings leading into the mountain. I didn’t want to enter just yet. Climbing up would give me a greater chance of finding the emperor.

Hauling myself up onto the ledge, I reached for a handhold and recommenced climbing. The dark clothing helped me blend into the shadows, giving me even more reason to be glad I was wearing it. It didn’t bother me that the suit had belonged to a dead vamp. She no longer had any use for it and her goo had dried up a long time ago. Besides, it wasn’t the first time I’d worn a dead person’s clothes.

I passed two more manmade ledges, pausing each time to check for sentries before continuing the climb.

At last, I reached the opening I’d spotted from the ground far below.

A large window had been cut out of the rock and was more than big enough for me to gain entry. The edges were perfectly straight, as if they’d been cut by machine. From the carvings in the stone city, this place had been made long before machines had been invented. The view during daylight must have been fantastic. It was a pity none of my kind would be able to look at it without their eyeballs exploding.

A quick peek through the window gave me the all clear so I hopped over the sill and snuck inside. My boots made no noise on the black and red tiles that covered the floor in graceful patterns. Ingeniously, thin sheets of rock the same colour and texture as the mountain were attached to a pair of shutters currently resting to either side of the opening. When the shutters were closed it would be impossible to tell there was a window at all. I could make out thick black fabric poking around the edges. Like all vampires, even the emperor wasn’t taking any chances with the sun. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the Japanese ruler’s room. It was far too opulent to belong to a mere lackey.

It was a large bedroom with a gigantic bed that could easily sleep five or six people. The bed might just be a big mattress lying on the ground but it still looked pretty comfortable to me. Curtains hung from the ceiling and could be drawn for privacy. Made of silk, the predominant colours were red and gold. At the moment they were tied into four neat bunches at each corner of the mattress.

To either side of the bed was a matching pair of low, black-lacquered bedside tables. Fragrant candles, possibly jasmine, sat in glass dishes, waiting to be lit. A wardrobe, also black, took up the wall opposite from the bed. It was easily three times the size of my wardrobe back home. The doors were closed and I resisted the urge to snoop inside. I wasn’t here to admire the emperor’s clothes.

On the wall above the bed were ancient paintings of birds, mountains, animals and more birds. Less soothing was the display of samurai swords hanging above the chest of drawers. There were over a dozen and all were kept in elaborate or plain sheathes that hid the deadly blades. I wasn’t an expert but some of them were probably thousands of years old.

On top of the heavy black chest of drawers was a small collection of priceless vases and figurines. I was pretty sure they were made from jade. I picked up a carving of a jaguar. It was heavier than it looked. Just like my skin, the stone was cool. Definitely Jade, I decided.

“That carving is over ten thousand years old,” a young voice said nonchalantly in easily understandable English from the doorway.

Startled, I fumbled the jaguar and almost dropped it. I put it back on the dresser before I could smash it into a million pieces. “I was just, um, admiring it,” I said lamely.

At first glance, I thought the kid was human. He looked about twelve, had thin shoulders and wore a leather skirt. At least it looked like a skirt. Made of the same black leather as my borrowed uniform, it hung to just above his knees. He was fairly muscular for a boy and would be handsome when he grew up. Then I saw his eyes and knew he was as grown up as he was ever going to get. Black as night, his eyes were far more ancient than his face and body suggested.

“You must be the European intruder,” the kid said and stepped into the room.

“I’m Australian, not European,” I corrected him and backed away nervously.

I wasn’t exactly well versed in vampire law but turning a kid into one of us just seemed cruel to me. How could a child, who hadn’t even finished going through puberty yet, handle the flesh hunger that rose once the blood hunger was satisfied? I don’t want to know. “Look, kid, I’m trying to find the Emperor. Can you point me in the right direction?”

He gave me an astonished look then glided over to the wall of swords. Selecting one, he slid the blade from the sheath and checked the edge. “What business do you have with Emperor Ishida?”

“I was hoping he could help me.” I really didn’t want to explain myself to a child, even if he was way older than me in vampire years.

“Help you with what?” the kid persisted.

What the hell, I might as well lay it out for him. Maybe he’d put in a good word with Emperor Ishida for me. “I was at the Court mansion in France when a woman dressed like this,” I indicated my borrowed outfit, “started carving her way through the guards.”

Interest flickered across his almost blank face. “Did she manage to kill any of the Councillors?”

“No, unfortunately.” We shared a short, glum silence. “She did whack some of the older vamps and their sentries on her way to the Court, though,” I added to soften the news a bit.

“So, our gambit failed.” The kid shook his head sadly. “What became of our soldier?”

Admitting that I’d been the one to pop her head like a balloon probably wouldn’t endear me to the Japanese vamps. It might be best if I kept that detail to myself. “She was overwhelmed by guards and then executed,” I lied and only just managed to avoid sliding my gaze guiltily away from his.

“I assume that you have come to our island to seek out the Emperor so that you can take your revenge against our soldier,” the kid said. He rested the sword tip on the ground with both hands on the hilt. He didn’t seem to be afraid of me at all. Then again, he had no idea I was Mortis, queen of death, so why should he be afraid?

“You assume wrong. I’m not after revenge,” I contradicted him. “I want to learn how to fight like her.”

He blinked at me slowly, letting the information sink in. “Why would we teach our enemy our way of fighting?”

“I’m not your enemy,” I told him but didn’t really expect him to believe me. I could see by his small, disbelieving frown that he didn’t. If I was having this much trouble explaining myself to a kid, how badly would my interview with the emperor go?

“All foreign vampires are our enemy,” the teenager said solemnly.

“Wow, that’s not racist at all,” I said sarcastically. “You know, not all European vampires have plans to wipe you guys out. Most of them are just trying to stay under the Councillor’s radar and live their miserable unlives in peace.” Leaning back against the windowsill, I crossed my arms.

“The Councillors are evil scum who should be annihilated from the earth,” the young vamp said with absolute seriousness.

“You’ll get no argument from me. That’s actually why I’m here.”

Eyes widening, the kid swept his gaze from my head to my feet and back up again. “You want the Emperor to teach you how to fight so you can kill your own rulers?” He seemed shocked, almost appalled by the idea. His idea of loyalty and mine were vastly different.

“They aren’t my rulers,” I defended myself. “I was turned by one of their rebels when he fled to my country. He…died and I was left to fend for myself.”

“What happened to you after your master died?” Intrigued, the kid relaxed his stance enough to lean against the chest of drawers.

“A guy called Lucentio found me. He’s a sort of cop, I guess, and he’d been hunting down my master.” The word almost caught in my throat but I forced it out. Admitting Silvius had been my master for even a short time was galling. “He couldn’t just leave me there since I was so new so he took me back to France. I met the Comtesse and saw the other Councillors.” My lip curled at the recollection of being forced to strip down for the entire room. I could hold a grudge for a long time, forever if necessary.

“What is your opinion of the Comtesse?” the kid asked me curiously.

“I think she’s arrogant, evil and lives only to cause misery for all those around her,” I said honestly.

“Why do you wish to kill her and the other Councillors? What have they done to you to deserve death?”

Telling the kid the praying mantis had made me strip naked in front of the entire Court simply wasn’t going to happen. It was a lame excuse to kill the hag and it was too embarrassing anyway. “Look, I have my reasons and they’re private. I’m going to kill them, someway, somehow. If I can learn to fight like one of your soldiers, I figure I’ll have a much better chance.” Once they were gone, then I had a whole bunch of the damned to hunt down.

“If the Emperor did agree to teach you how to fight, would you not then attempt to assassinate him?”

“Of course not!” Jeez, where was the trust? He was pretty cynical for a teenager. I had to remind myself that he might look young but he was probably far more ancient than he appeared to be. I had to give him some kind of explanation without telling him the whole story. “The person he sent to kill the Councillors thought she was doing a job that was meant for someone else,” I felt forced to explain. “I’m on that person’s side and I want to help her.” I stopped there before I accidentally spilled the beans about who I really was. “My fighting skills are pretty sucky so I’m not much help to her like this.”

Staring at me thoughtfully, the kid placed the tip of the sword on the ground and rested his hands on the hilt again. It reminded me strongly of Luc the last time I’d seen him and I felt a stab of sorrow at how things had ended. “Come with me,” he said and swung the sword up so it rested on his shoulder. “I will take you to see Emperor Ishida.”

Finally! Now I’m getting somewhere. I’d always been better at getting along with kids than with adults. My mother had often told me I’d never grow up when she’d still been alive. Luckily for me, she turned out to be right.

The kid sauntered through the doorway and down a corridor. The floor was covered in pure black tiles that were shiny enough to send my reflection back at me. It must have taken centuries to carve the rock walls into perfectly straight lines. Oil lamps lit the way, not that we needed it. Then again, I’d seen humans in the city below. They most likely performed all sorts of chores in the emperor’s domain.

Any moment now I expected to run into some guards and to be skewered again. We were fortunate and encountered no one during our journey down a series of corridors. We finally emerged into a large, open room. The tiled floor turned red and black again with an intricate pattern of a gigantic gold dragon in the centre. In the middle of the dragon was a black throne. It reminded me a little of the stone altar I’d been tied to when Alexander had performed his hideous experiment on me. It was made from a different type of stone but it was just as dark and shiny.

Two men stood beside the throne. One was General Yasui. The other was about six feet tall and wore a suit of armour. Made of thick metal, it was painted dead black and was contoured to his body. He was either very well-muscled or the armourer had exaggerated the physique of its owner.

That has to be the Emperor. I hadn’t even met him yet and I was already intimidated. Suddenly, my plan to ask him for help seemed stupid. What was I thinking? I’d been thinking that I couldn’t take the Councillors down without training. Why didn’t I just join a martial arts class, I wailed internally.

“General Yasui, it seems we have a visitor,” the kid said in Japanese as he sauntered towards the men. It was automatic for me to translate his words into English. I slowed and stopped a safe distance away. My hopes of making a run for it were dashed when I heard movement behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see a number of guards filing into the room. I thought we’d been unobserved during our journey but I’d been wrong. I wasn’t sure why they hadn’t attacked me when they’d had the chance. Because you’re about to suffer through some kind of new humiliation, that’s why. There was my subconscious again, cheerful and optimistic as usual.

General Yasui broke off what he’d been saying, turned and saw me. I believe it was shock that briefly crossed his almost expressionless face but it was hard to tell. The rage that followed was easy enough to interpret, though. He grasped the sword hilt poking over his left shoulder and pulled the blade clear. The emperor turned and stared at me curiously. He was a grownup version of the kid and was just as handsome as the teenager would have been if he’d been given the chance to grow up. I wasn’t sure if I should curtsy or bow or not so just stood still.

“I was informed that our visitor had been beheaded and was then thrown into the pit,” the kid continued in his native language. Passing the two men, he turned and took a seat on the throne, resting the sword across his knees. Only when he sat did I realize that the chair was far too small for a fully grown man to squeeze into.

Way to go, Nat, you’ve been treating the Emperor of the Japanese vampires like a normal kid. You’ve really outdone yourself this time. I would have given myself a sarcastic pat on the back but I was afraid to make a sudden move with so many weapons ready to be hurled at me. The leather suit I currently wore would be ruined even if the weapons didn’t have a lasting effect on me.

“Lieutenant Su,” the general barked. The man who had speared me through the heart stepped forward from the crowd of male and female vampires that now ringed the room. From the look of superstitious dread on his face, he was now fully aware that I wasn’t a normal vampire. I wondered if it was me surviving three projectiles through the heart or springing back from being beheaded that had convinced him of that. Then there was somehow living through being burned to a crisp by the sun, or so they would assume. “You told me that the European scum had been destroyed!” General Yasui snarled.

Bowing his head submissively, the lieutenant gave me sidelong looks as if he didn’t want to take his eyes off me in case I did something else miraculous and inexplicable. “General Yasui, I myself pushed the intruder into the pit. I also personally checked the pit once night fell and only her clothing remained.” His tone was humble and incredulous.

“How then is she standing before me?” the emperor queried. No one had an answer for that and I kept my mouth shut, sensing he wouldn’t want to hear from me at the moment. “I am afraid that such gross incompetence must be punished.” The kid gave a nod to the vamp I’d mistakenly thought was the emperor. “Takeshi.”

The heavily muscled and armoured vampire turned and grabbed the general’s head in his hands. Then, with a wet, tearing sound, he tore the general’s head from his shoulders. Black blood splattered his face, arms and chest and dribbled to the floor. General Yasui’s stunned expression lasted for only a second before his head and body disintegrated. His sword clattered to the ground then was buried by his empty clothing. The goon turned and started for me. A grin stretched his mouth wide but his eyes remained dead and blank. I didn’t have to be a psychic to sense that he was going to enjoy tearing me apart with his bare hands.

Chapter Fourteen

I backed away from the advancing guard, wracking my brain for a way to avoid further bloodshed. The child emperor watched impassively from his seat on the throne. Large hands reached for me and I instinctively put my own hands up to protect myself.

“Wait!” the emperor called as Takeshi was about to clamp his hands on my head. The child king stared at my palms. “What are those marks on your hands?” He already knew but the sight was so unexpected that I think he was having trouble believing what he was seeing.

“They’re, uh, crosses,” I mumbled. Vampire hearing being what it was, astonished murmurs echoed around the edges of the room. Even the armoured guard took an uncertain step back. I dropped my hands but the damage was already done.

“So, the European prophesy has come true,” mused the emperor in wonder. So much for my pathetic ruse that I was just a Mortis supporter. He now knew I was the actual Mortis. “I wish to see the power of your so called ‘holy marks’.” Pointing to a guard seemingly at random, he obviously expected the guy to sacrifice himself. Without hesitation, the chosen one bowed then ran over and came to a stop beside me.

“If I use the marks, he’ll either melt or explode,” I said just to make it clear that the guy was either going to die slowly and painfully or quickly and painfully. The kid nodded with a complete lack of concern and gestured for me to continue.

I read panic and resignation on the chosen one’s face and decided not to prolong his agony any more than I had to. Clasping his head in my hands, I unleashed the dark power that made me Mortis and the poor guy’s head popped. Oohs and ahhs came from the crowd and even the kid seemed to be impressed.

“How is it possible that you survived being beheaded?” he queried.

I shrugged, still not having much clue myself. “I don’t know. My body parts just seem to be able to reattach themselves when they’re hacked off.”

“I would like to see this for myself. Hold her arm out,” the kid said to the armoured guard. Takeshi seized my right arm and I didn’t fight him. The kid wanted a demonstration and he would have it whether I fought the goon or not.

Stepping down from his throne, Ishida crossed the tiled floor and did the job himself with the sword he’d been holding onto almost casually. It whistled through the air and sliced through my wrist just beneath the sleeve of my stolen leather suit like it was made of paper.

My hand flopped to the floor and lay there like the dead thing that it was. Everyone stared at it and I decided to give them a show. “Want to see something cool?” I asked the teenager. He nodded almost hesitantly then started back a step when my severed hand twitched. Takeshi released me and backed away when Righty flipped over onto its palm. I made it go onto its fingertips then ran it in a small circle. Tiny splatters of my blood hit the floor and blended in with the black tiles. Small cries of shock from the guards observing this were quickly stifled.

They haven’t seen anything yet. Grinning inwardly, I made Righty run over to the dead general’s clothing and rummage around until it found his sword. Metal scraped along the tiled floor as it dragged the weapon back to me. Gripping the sword tightly with its pinkie and ring ringer, Righty climbed up my leg until it was lined up with the stump of my wrist. The severed ends touched and, with a flash of pain, my hand became reattached. I held the sword up and swished it through the air to demonstrate that my hand was in perfect working order once more.

Unafraid, yet wide-eyed with wonder, the emperor reached a decision that reflected his true maturity. “I think that it would be beneficial for us to become allies rather than enemies.” No kidding. I was an un-killable vampire with who knew what sort of mystical powers. I wouldn’t want me for an enemy either.

Taking the lead, the child emperor disappeared down a corridor with Takeshi on his heels. Followed by four guards, I hurried after the pair. Silent and grim, Takeshi sent frequent glances over his shoulder to make sure I wasn’t sneaking up to try to stab his boss. No one had tried to take the sword from me so I kept hold of it.

I studied the weapon in quick snatches during our journey. It was ancient, going by the aged ivory hilt. A lion had been carved into the blade in magnificent, realistic detail. I didn’t possess the skills to use it but I kind of hoped I wouldn’t have to give it back anyway. The general sure as heck wouldn’t need it again.

We emerged into a large open space with several windows cut into the rock to let cool mountain air into the room. Heavy metal shutters stood ready to be closed against the daylight. More black-lacquered furniture graced the room. Instead of chairs and couches, there was a scattering of cushions around a low table.

Choosing a black cushion at the head of the table, the emperor sat and indicated for me to sit opposite him. Takeshi took up his post to the left and behind the kid. The four guards stood silently around the edges of the room, barely moving.

“I have known of the European prophecy, that one shall rise and turn against our kind, since the Prophet first saw your coming,” the kid said thoughtfully. My purpose didn’t sound all that wonderful when he put it so starkly. He kind of made me sound like a psychotic mass murderer.

“It’s not really like that,” I struggled to explain. “I don’t feel the urge to stake all of the vampires on earth to death.”

“It is said that when you rise, the damned shall fall. Is this not true?” Ishida cocked his head to the side, wearing a slightly puzzled expression.

Thinking before speaking had never been my strong suit but now was a good time to start. If I began babbling about sentient shadows and the alien demi-god that had created us, I’d lose what little credibility I had. “Not all of us are damned,” I said in explanation.

“Is this so?”

“It is.”

“But you are the one to choose who of us are damned?” I could tell he wasn’t a fan of this theory. In his place, I wouldn’t have been either.

“I don’t choose who are damned. I can just, uh, tell who is and who isn’t.” I almost squirmed on my red cushion but managed to control the urge.

“How can you tell?”

I really didn’t want to tell him but he ruled a nation and was used to having his whims met. Even the childish ones. I was going to have to tell him even if I did end up looking like an idiot. “What do you know of our origins?” I asked him.

Blinking at the question, he lifted an eyebrow. “That we were created by an evil being who fed his blood to a human, promising him eternal life. All know this.”

“Well, what you may not know is that the evil being was an alien with almost divine powers.” He seemed utterly unsurprised so I guess he did know this. “He infected the First with his diseased blood and that has been passed on from master to servant. Our blood has been evolving over the millennia and it’s been making changes in us that most of us don’t even know about.” From his uncomprehending stare, I was going to have to explain it in detail.

“The blood is targeting our shadows and it is changing them.” Now his eyes flickered and narrowed. I’d hit a nerve.

“Changing them how?” he asked almost too casually.

“They’re becoming sentient.” A guard at my back shuffled his feet and I believed I heard muffled laughter from another.

“You believe that our Father’s blood in our veins has altered our shadows and that the shadows are becoming aware?” A hint of a smile tilted Ishida’s lips up but it was just for show. His black eyes reflected his dread and recognition of the fate I’d described.

“I know they are.” Gripping the sword tightly, I jumped in with both feet. “I’ve seen one possess its vampire master. A couple of them have even spoken directly to me.” Yep, that was definitely dread on the child king’s face. “One told me that they were going to take over the world.” I could tell that emperor Ishida believed me, he didn’t need to say it in words when his expression told me so clearly.

“It will be dawn soon. One of the guards will show you to a room. When you rise, we shall travel to the temple at the top of the mountain.” Takeshi stiffened and stared at me incredulously as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “I must consult with the Seer,” the kid said almost to himself.

I knew what that meant; I was going to meet another prophet. Grimacing, I stood and followed the guard who crooked his finger at me. The last time I’d met an oracle, I’d ended up fleeing for my life and then being mobbed by mountain vamps. This time, Luc was far away and I was on my own, surrounded by vampires who could cut me to ribbons. No one would be coming to my rescue.

Chapter Fifteen

Traversing through a network of corridors, I was lost after the first few turns. Finally, I was shown to a thick metal door. The guard bowed me inside and I preceded him into the room.

About twelve feet square, it held a tiny pallet on the floor and a basin to wash with on a small black table. The door was swung shut before I could turn around to protest about being locked in what amounted to little more than a prison cell.

There were no windows carved into the rock so I didn’t have to worry about being crisped to a skeleton again. A couple of paintings hung on the rough walls but there was nothing in the room to keep me entertained.

With nothing better to do, I lay down on the thin, hard mattress fully clothed. I could sense the sun rising even through tons of rock. When it came, I let myself drift away into sleep.

Almost immediately, I knew I was dreaming and wished I hadn’t chosen to sleep. I was back in the cavern of doom again. This time, there were three large bonfires instead of just one. Humans were slowly turning on spits. Mercifully, they were already dead this time instead of being roasted alive and screaming in agony. The stench of cooking flesh predominated, drowning out any other smells in the near vicinity.

Instead of floating and being drawn helplessly along, this time I walked. I wasn’t surprised to see I wore the black leather suit. I was surprised to feel a mask covering my face. Turning my head, I caught sight of a sword hilt over my right shoulder. Another one was over my left shoulder. I could feel twin sheaths across my back and their straps crisscrossed my chest.

Blending in with the shadows, I took a wide path around the fires. The groups behind the flames had grown in number. Strong metal cages had been built to hold human captives. There were too many now for the still unpossessed vampires to guard effectively. At least five hundred people were crammed into the cages. All were naked, dirty and starving. There were no toilets, not even buckets so they stood, sat or lay in their own filth. Dull eyed, beyond despair, they simply waited for their turn to be eaten. Empty cages crouched nearby, waiting to be filled. I was disturbed by the amount of cages, they numbered in the hundreds.

Far enough away that the smell of human waste didn’t offend them, the vampires who hadn’t yet been possessed had also grown in number. There were around two hundred now. Like the humans, they seemed to be resigned to their fate. They might have a steady supply of blood handy but the comforts they were used to were gone. Most eyed their possessed kin, not understanding why they were acting so strangely. They couldn’t see what I saw; their shadows wore their hosts and moved them around like puppets.

The possessed ones had also increased in number. Monstrous shadows chatted with each other, making their plans for world domination. Most of their ideas revolved around capturing humans and eating them. They could plan all they wanted but they could do nothing until they had reached the next stage in their evolution, however that happened.

As for the grey skinned imps, their numbers hadn’t grown by much at all, I was glad to see. Instead of six, there were now twelve. Maybe changing them from shadows into flesh and blood is tricky to do, I thought with some desperation.

“No,” a guttural voice said from right behind me. “It is not a difficult task for me at all, vampire, but as natural and easy as breathing.”

Spinning around, I tilted my head back until the glowing red eyes of the First came into view. “Then why are there so few of your…offspring?” Calling them ‘disgusting hell-spawn’ wouldn’t have been very diplomatic. This might be a good chance to get some information out of him.

“Because I am not yet ready for my children to rise. They will require provisions and securing food is proving to be more difficult than I’d anticipated.” Yeah, kidnapping thousands of humans without being caught would be hard to pull off. Studying me, the First bent down for a closer look. “Why is your face covered?” He seemed puzzled and almost disturbed by my masked face.

“This is a dream, anything can happen in a dream.”

“I have seen this somewhere before,” the First mused in his inhuman speech. Reaching out suddenly, he tore the mask from my face then took a step back. Beneath the mask was another one and for a moment I almost thought he was afraid. “Who are you? What are you called?”

It was all too possible that the First could pull my head off my shoulders if I told him the truth. But I decided to answer him anyway. Call it instinct at work. “I am Mortis.”

Now the First did look afraid as superstitious dread banked the glowing coals of his eyes. “That is nothing but a recently made legend. You cannot be real.”

I laughed, feeling myself beginning to fade back to wakefulness. “You were supposed to be a legend, too. If you’re real then I must be as well.” How old was the First if he thought a prophecy made two thousand years ago was recent?

Howling in rage, the First leaped at me but I was already beyond his reach. A window opened beside me as I began to wake. No, not a window, it was a mirror. My face was reflected back at me and at first I thought I was covered in blood. Then I realized it was just a red version of the usual black mask the Japanese vamps wore. Why would the First be afraid of a red mask?

Before I could think of an answer to the riddle, I came all the way awake and sat up. A noise to my right alerted me that I wasn’t alone in the room. I instinctively threw myself flat again as a metallic object swished through the air where my head had just been. Before I could roll off the bed, the sword was redirected. Stabbing downward, it predictably landed in my heart. Rolling to the side, I collided with the assassin’s legs and he went down, losing his grip on the sword.

Cursing in Japanese, his hand closed around my throat and forced me onto my back. The guy was clad in the typical black uniform the sentries wore. With his free hand, he tore his mask off, revealing a face that was vaguely familiar. I was pretty sure he’d been in the sitting room when I’d revealed what I knew about the First’s plan.

I expected the assassin to rip the sword out of my chest and start hacking uselessly at me with it. What I didn’t expect was for him to tear a chunk of meat out of his wrist with his teeth. Grimacing at me with what was probably supposed to be a smile of triumph, he held his sluggishly bleeding wrist over my mouth. “Now you will die!”

Behind him, the door crashed open and bright lamplight filled the room. The shadow of the assassin whipped its head around and snarled silently at the child emperor and his guards who crowded inside.

“Stop him!” Emperor Ishida ordered but it was too late. Thick, black and acrid, the assassin’s blood dripped into my mouth.

Releasing me, the traitor made no attempt to break free as several guards took hold of him. Acid burned its way down my throat and into my stomach. The emperor stood in the doorway, watching me with interest. I’d been told that ingesting the blood of our kind was a sure way to die. I’d survived having Alexander’s blood poured directly onto my heart, even if the pain had been excruciating. Instead of killing me, it had given me the ability to heal any type of injury. What would happen to me this time?

Cramps hit me and I thought this time I really was a goner. But the pain only lasted for a few seconds before fading. Before I consciously thought about it, I was on my feet. The child king let out a soft gasp and suddenly two guards were standing in front of him, shielding him from harm. It wasn’t the kid I was interested in. The assassin’s confident grin faded when he realized I wasn’t going to die after all. His shadow, being held by regular shadow guards on the wall, suddenly slid to the ground and tried to slink away.

Picking up General Yasui’s sword from the floor beside the thin pallet, I followed the shadow that no one else could see. It stretched out towards the door but wasn’t able to detach itself from the assassin. Elongating itself further in an attempt to escape, the shadow looked more like melting toffee than a vampire.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked it. Glancing up at me, it panicked and scrabbled across the tiles in a desperate bid for freedom.

Guards and their emperor stared at me in disturbed silence as I stalked the shadow. The assassin didn’t seem to know what was going on. His confusion wasn’t fabricated at all. He had no idea why I wasn’t using the sword to end his life.

Knowing it couldn’t escape through the door, the shadow doubled back. It slid up from the floor and back to the wall. It was about to attempt to hide behind its master when I darted forward and skewered it before it could slide out of sight. Somehow, the sword pinned the insubstantial wraith to the rock. I heard it mewling inside my head, pleading for mercy.

“Mercy?” I laughed at the idea. “You’re planning on taking over the world, of turning both vampirekind and humankind into slaves and you want mercy?” Reaching for the shadow’s head, my hands clamped to either side of its ears. “There shall be no mercy for the damned,” I said quietly and unleashed the holy marks upon the shade.

As his shadow shrieked, the assassin went rigid. His body began to shiver uncontrollably then to snap backwards and forwards in the hands of the guards. They gave startled cries but kept hold of him at a sharp look from their leader.

Instead of exploding in the usual wash of gooey blood and soupy brains I was used to seeing from flesh and blood vampires, the shadow simply began to fade. The assassin didn’t die quite as painlessly. His eyes burst and acidic blood ran from his nose, ears and mouth. Then it was pouring from his very pores, escaping through every opening in the vampire’s body, no matter how small. No amount of dire frowns from Emperor Ishida could make the guards hold him now.

Falling in a boneless heap to the floor, the assassin writhed and screamed as every scrap of the diseased blood in his body was expelled from him. The body that was left was a withered husk that barely resembled a vampire. His blood smoked and hissed as it began to dissipate.

“Why does his body not break down?” a guard asked.

“Because he’s human again,” I responded, feeling exhausted as if I hadn’t slept for a month. “The First’s blood was drawn out and took the vampirism with it.” It was just a guess but I thought it was a pretty good one.

“There is still four hours of daylight left,” the emperor said in a not quite steady voice. “I will have a new room prepared for you,” he offered.

“That’s ok,” I said and bent to wipe the sword clean on the dead assassin’s suit. “I doubt I could sleep again now.”

“Vampires do not sleep,” he said in a low voice.

“I do.” The guards exchanged glances, deep and disturbed.

“How old are you, Mortis?” the child king asked. I didn’t think he was enquiring about my mortal years.

I counted back in my head and the answer surprised even me. By now, I felt about a thousand years old. “I’ve been a vampire for about a month and a half now.” They were understandably shocked and disbelieving.

“But your eyes,” a guard said.

“Yeah, that happened after I was hacked to pieces. After I managed to get myself back together again, they were like this.”

Guards began backing away from me, abandoning their leader as they fled. Only Emperor Ishida and his faithful hound Takeshi remained. “It seems my guards are more frightened of you than they are of me,” he said ruefully.

“I’m really not here to kill you, you know,” I told him. “I just want to learn how to fight so I can do what I was created for.”

“Killing the First’s offspring,” the kid said.

“Yeah. And taking down the Councillors.” If the Comtesse was one of the damned, the rest of her cronies probably were as well. I had no way of knowing how many of the Court and their servants had sentient shadows but I was betting that a good number of them did.

“Takeshi, show Natalie to the entertainment room.” The muscular, silent guard was reluctant to leave his boss but followed his orders anyway. If the emperor had created him, he wouldn’t have been able to disobey the command even if he’d tried.

I followed the taciturn, hulking guard down a long series of corridors into a large, far more modern room. Books, comics and toys of every description to amuse a teenager were scattered around the place. There was even a large screen television and video games by the dozens. So they do have electricity here. It was probably run by a generator and I figured Ishida would be the only one allowed to use it. It would be one of the perks of being the boss.

Without a word, Takeshi turned and left. With so many toys to choose from, I was a bit lost. Figuring I was too old for most of the games, I settled for a book. It was written in Japanese but I had no trouble translating the words. A worn but comfortable sofa encased me as I sat and opened the tale of flashing samurai swords and damsels in distress.

Chapter Sixteen

I couldn’t really get into the story. I’d had enough of swords, blood and severed limbs to last me a lifetime since I’d been turned. Especially since I was always the damsel in distress. I read the words without taking in much of their meaning.

Four hours later, a guard cleared his throat from behind me. I was standing, sword in hand and facing him before I’d actually commanded my body to move. He started back fearfully as I tried to digest how quick my reflexes were now. Why did direct contact with our father’s tainted blood enervate me instead of killing me? Maybe the seer would know.

I followed the guard down a confusing warren of corridors until we entered the throne room again. The boy emperor had changed into an outfit that actually befitted someone of his stature.

His headdress stood a good two feet high and would have been far too heavy for a normal kid to even lift let alone wear. It was made of gold that had been beaten paper thin and shaped like feathers. His thin chest was covered in a martial arts style jacket with sleeves that fell short of his wrists by a couple of inches. The jacket was also made of gold, real gold, not just fabric that had gold threads through it. He’d changed into loose black leather pants that were plain compared to the rest of his outfit. His feet were clad in the same type of soft leather boots his guards, and I, wore.

Without speaking, Ishida led a small procession to a section of the wall that was free of decoration. A hidden door popped open as if at his mental command. It was more likely that one of the sentries had triggered it but the effect was still impressive. Four men darted ahead of the emperor, spears held ready. Takeshi and a quartet of guards followed Ishida. I slipped in between the next group of four then another four brought up the rear.

After a short walk, our path through the smooth rock walls ended at another hidden door. This one opened onto the stairway I’d seen winding its way up the mountainside. The air was chilly as we began to ascend and a wispy fog hid the steps. Sentries stood guard at regular intervals. Their eyes followed us, watching me mostly, until we were out of sight. I was careful not to trip up the stairs and embarrass myself.

Staying to a steady walk, it took us almost half an hour to reach the top of the steep stairway. A temple waited for us at the summit. It was ancient and had been carved directly out of the rock. From above, it would look just like a normal mountain top. Only from the sides could you tell that it had been shaped by man, or creatures that had once been men and women.

Vast canvas sheets that were attached to the sides of the temple had been rolled up and shifted sluggishly in a brisk breeze. During the day, the sheets would be released and tied tightly to the ground. If any aircraft were to fly over, the temple would seem like plain rock walls. I had to applaud their ingenuity and their commitment to self-preservation.

Shadows filled the temple except for a dim orange light directly in the centre. The glow reminded me of the grey imp’s orange orbs and I suppressed a shiver. The sentries took up positions on each of the four sides of the temple, facing outwards. It seemed that whatever went on inside the temple would be hidden from their view if not from their hearing.

With a courtly bow, Ishida gestured for me to precede him. Takeshi held his hand out for my sword and I handed it to him without protest. I’ll never see that again, I thought regretfully. The huge guard reluctantly stayed behind with the other sentries, turning his back with one last warning glare at me. I read the unspoken message easily enough. If anything happened to the emperor, I would be held responsible.

I mounted the steps, surprised by the stark emptiness inside. A few low, stone benches were the only decoration or furniture. In the centre of the room was a metal brazier, the source of the dim orange glow. The fire was banked but I doubted it ever went out completely.

Ishida took a seat on the bench closest to the fire and pointed at the one opposite him. Sitting down on the cold surface, I looked around but couldn’t see anyone else in the temple. The emperor gave me an enigmatic smile then the floor began to move.

We sank down into the rock, turning in a slow spiral. I tried to play it cool but had to close my eyes before I grew dizzy enough to fall off the seat. We came to a stop at a depth of about twenty feet. Ishida stood then stepped onto a small platform. A narrow rock staircase led downwards into darkness. He started down and I hastened to join him as the circular elevator began moving upwards again.

There were no torches to light our way but our night vision was adequate enough. Without railings to hold onto, I stuck close to the wall. I sensed it was a long way to the bottom. It would be just like me to trip and fall, screaming all the way down.

Light beckoned below after trudging downward in a tight spiral for what seemed like an hour but was probably only a few minutes. At the bottom of the stairs, a single corridor had been hewn into the rock at a height of seven feet. The low ceiling made me feel like ducking even though there was plenty of room. Ishida’s headdress brushed against the ceiling, screeching lightly in protest with each step he took. The weight of the mountain seemed to press down on me.

As we neared the end of the corridor the light grew brighter. Ishida exited then moved aside so the full effect of the cavern wouldn’t be lost on me. Stepping out into the large space, I goggled at the carvings that covered the walls. I had no doubt they were thousands of years old. The style was ancient, almost primitive and the story they told was chilling.

Just like the prophet’s journal and the book I’d stolen from Alexander, the walls told the tale of our beginning. Starting at the right, I studied the carvings. The first was of a gigantic grey skinned being offering its blood to a puny human. The human writhed on the ground for three nights then stood tall and proud. His teeth had turned long and pointy. He shunned the sun, turning from the brightness and favouring the dark. Humans died to feed him as he tore them apart in his blood hunger. Countless women died when his flesh hunger woke next. He created ten of our kind, using his own blood to turn them into monsters like him.

Time passed and he began to gain control of himself. His followers, fated to obey his every command, ceased their indiscriminate killing and began to exercise caution at his order. They formed an archaic type of government with the First as the leader. There was some kind of falling out between him and his followers and they appeared to have been banished.

Then the First began to withdraw from his role as leader. He turned from a straight, proud vampire into a bent, twisted and secretive creature. His shadow began to change, moving independently. The second last carving of the First showed him engulfed by his shadow, mad eyes staring out of the darkness that consumed him. In the next, he had become a smaller copy of the alien demi-god, tall, grey skinned, bat faced and inhuman.

The rest of the carvings were progressively more modern, the last was only several thousand years old. Without their leader, vampires began to squabble. The Japanese broke off and formed their own ruling class. The Europeans turned frivolous, seeking entertainment that was enough to almost make my stomach churn. A carving of a white haired female vampire had to be the Comtesse. She stood over a circle of dozens of supine vampires. I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see her shadow looming over her commandingly.

By contrast, the Japanese sought out great fighters and turned them, eventually creating a vampire nation of warriors. Their nation remained small and controllable.

The only detail missing from the carvings was me. Not a single picture showed anyone wearing the holy marks. If my arrival hadn’t been prophesized by the seer, how had I come to be here?

“I believed it wasn’t wise to note your coming, child,” a female voice said in response to my unspoken question.

Spinning around, I finally saw the seer sitting right in plain sight. The centre of the room was dedicated to a comfortable set of couches. Just like on the surface, a metal brazier sat in the middle of the room. The vampire looking at me with a hint of amusement sat as close as she could to the coals without catching on fire. Instead of being pure black, her pupils and irises were completely white. It was kind of freaky really. “Yes,” she again answered my unspoken question, “I am blind.”

I hid my shudder at her ability to read my mind. Ishida had taken a seat on the couch opposite from the prophet. His expression was faintly disturbed. “Kokoro, are you saying you foresaw Natalie’s arrival?”

She inclined her head and reached inside the pristine white kimono she was wearing. Her hair was long and midnight black but had been carefully twisted into a large bun. Sticks stuck out of it, somehow holding it all in place. Kokoro handed over a book to the emperor.

Ishida took the book with a disturbed glance in my direction and opened it to the back page. Here were the pictures she hadn’t dared to carve on the walls. A female that greatly resembled me stood with her palms facing outwards. On them were the twin holy marks. I glanced at the drawing as I moved to take a seat on the couch sitting between them. I had no doubt that I’d get my chance to read the book.

I only hoped this one held better news for me than the last two books of prophecy had.

Chapter Seventeen

Ishida flicked through the book, reading rapidly and frowning heavily. Answering his unspoken question, Kokoro bowed her head and explained. “You have been Emperor for ten thousand years, Ishida, but I was already ancient long before you were born.”

Ten thousand years? This kid has been in charge for ten thousand years? My eyes bulged at the information. I just couldn’t get past it.

“Our first emperor was a cruel, harsh man,” Kokoro explained. She was talking to me but I believed she was trying to explain herself to her emperor as well. “He brought us to this remote island once we split from the Europeans, ruling us with an iron fist. He captured humans and kept them as slaves, caring not if they lived in their own filth and died of disease.”

I could picture that quite easily. I’d seen something very like it beneath the prophet’s domain in Romania as well as in my dreams of the cavern of doom. That sort of behaviour alone was enough reason for me to wipe out the damned.

“I was once one of those humans, chosen to be a bed mate for the Emperor. Taken with my beauty, he turned me himself before age could ravage me.” She was delicately lovely, if you could overlook her creepy white eyes. “Waking as a vampire, I was instantly stricken blind and beheld a vision of our beginning. I raved of what I saw and what was to come. I saw that our Emperor was tainted and he would eventually enslave his own kind just like he did the humans.” Her shoulders shuddered delicately at the ancient memory. Ishida had clearly never heard this story before and was watching the seer intently.

“A guard who had been left to watch me when I woke told a few of his trusted friends about what I’d foreseen,” Kokoro went on to say. “He saw my white eyes and believed my vision would one day come to pass. Our ruler was already evil and the guard couldn’t bear to think that our people could end up as mere chattel. He and his trusted few fought their way into the Emperor’s bedchamber. The Emperor fought like a man possessed and perhaps he was, by our Father’s blood inside him.” She looked up at Ishida with her blind eyes, seeing past his physical body and directly into his dead heart. “They assassinated him by cutting his head off then were overrun by his loyal guards.”

“I was told the Europeans were behind the assassination,” Ishida said with the stirrings of anger. “Why was I lied to?”

“Not only you were lied to, Ishida. Our entire nation was lied to, to protect them. I could not afford for the truth to be told for fear it would destroy us as a people.”

“You decided?” The kid’s anger was coming out now. “Who are you to make decisions for our people?”

“I am the one who chose the next four Emperors,” she said proudly and Ishida looked stunned. “A secret circle of elders heard about my visions and consulted me. I told them what I had seen and what the future held. I told them that if they did not listen to me then all vampires would be turned into slaves. I advised them who the next Emperor should be and they made sure he was chosen. Then I was given guardianship of this temple and I began to record our history and our future.”

“Why did you not advise the last Emperor of our fate?”

“There would have been no point. He, unlike you, had a closed mind. He would have been unable to see the benefits of befriending Mortis if he had lived long enough for her to rise. You reached this decision without needing to consult me.” She gave him a proud smile that he ignored completely. His ego was well developed and he didn’t require anyone’s approval.

“Do you think our lives are driven by fate?” I asked Kokoro.

“Of course,” she said, inclining her head. “We have very few choices in life and our paths almost always end up the same despite the choices we make.”

Wow, that’s comforting, I thought snidely but I reluctantly agreed with her. I’d tried to run from my fate and had ended up as a science experiment. On the bright side of that experiment, I was now invincible, or pretty close to it.

“What is it you would have me do?” Ishida asked. For him it was almost humble but a hint of childish petulance remained. He was used to being the boss and making all the decisions. Finding out that he might not have ultimate power would be a blow to the ego. Especially for a guy. Girls really didn’t care about that sort of thing as much.

“I ask that you provide Natalie with the means she will need to fight the First’s spawn. She is our only hope of survival,” Kokoro said.

Stated starkly like that, it was chilling. I was still pretty new and they were all depending on me to save them from a fate worse than death. “No pressure,” I muttered and sank back into the couch cushions.

Ishida thought over her request then nodded stiffly. He stood and tossed the book to me. “You might want to read through that. It appears you have an interesting future ahead of you.” With a short bow at the seer, he headed towards the exit.

His footsteps grew fainter then disappeared up the stairs. Kokoro waited for some signal that only she could sense then pressed a button on the floor with her foot. I assumed this was the elevator button. The distant sound of rock scraping against rock proved me to be correct.

“Read,” she instructed and I flipped open the last page, starting at the back as Ishida had.

It was weird reading a book about myself that had to have been written thousands of years ago. Instead of being made of paper, the book was made of bone. Dozens of thin bones were tied together to form each page with words carved painstakingly into them. The pictures were drawn on fabric that might have been an ancient form of linen.

Seeing myself pictured there with crosses on the palms gave me goose bumps. The face wasn’t quite right, my hair was black and I was wearing a kimono, but it was definitely me. I read through the book quickly. The seer had all the details correct. She predicted me killing my maker and surviving. She also foresaw me consulting her rival prophet and finding his journal. Alexander was in there, too, making me stronger and faster with his crazy experiments. I particularly liked the picture she’d drawn of me disintegrating Alexander’s head.

I found the picture of Luc beheading me to be far less pleasant. On the next page after that one was an overhead view of my hacked up body parts buried in a cemetery. Then my great trek across Europe and Asia was foretold before ending up on this small and interesting island. Even the attack that had happened only a few hours ago was depicted. In the picture, my face was a mask of disgust at the taste of the acidic blood that I’d been forced to ingest.

Then the book changed from what was my past to what my future would be. If I was translating this correctly, I was going to learn how to fight in their Japanese style. I would become just as deadly as the imposter me had been. I couldn’t help but note that my imposter wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the book.

“I believe Ishida would be very upset if he knew you killed her,” Kokoro said. “He was particularly proud of his idea to manufacture the European’s fabled Mortis and to send her to the Court to assassinate the Councillors.”

“It took guts for you to keep me a secret all these years.”

She bowed her head in humble agreement. “I am responsible for the lives of our people,” she said simply.

“I doubt the Emperor sees it that way.”

“He governs their welfare but I govern their spiritual wellbeing.” Spiritual wellbeing? We’re the living dead. Surely, once we’re the dead dead, we just cease to be. If we couldn’t even say ‘God’ out loud then I doubted we’d have much chance of ending up in heaven. Of course, there was always the possibility we’d end up somewhere much hotter and far less pleasant instead.

I went back to reading the book but there wasn’t much information left now. Once I learned how to kill efficiently, I would go forth and begin the long awaited decimation of the damned.

Kokoro had drawn a very realistic picture of me surrounded by four shadows. I couldn’t see who the shadows belonged to, they weren’t depicted. What interested me was that I’d torn one of the shadows completely free of its master and had my hands clamped around its ankles.

Looking at the dangling silhouette, my eyebrows rose to their maximum height. You mean I’ll actually be able to detach the shadows completely? Great, I couldn’t wait for that ability to rise within me.

The last couple of pages scared me badly and I knew my dreams of the vast cavern weren’t just my imagination at work. The First, gigantic, ashy-skinned and red-eyed, sat on a throne made of human bones. Behind him was an army of grey monsters, the offspring that had somehow evolved from their sentient shadows.

“So, it’s true,” I said softly.

“Yes. Your dreams did not lie. The First is very real and his army will rise.”

“He’d have to be tens of thousands of years old.”

“Our Father who created us was not from our world. He crashed on our planet with no means to return home when our world was still young. For millions of years, he was alone, growing more and more insane. Then the ancestors of Homo sapiens came into being. He waited for many millennia for them to evolve to the point where we could be of use to him. He needed an intelligent host to plant his seed within. The First was from a small tribe in what is now known as Africa. The tribe had learned to communicate with each other effectively. Our Father chose the First to bestow his gift upon.”

I found the history lesson to be interesting but I wished she would get to the point.

“Getting to the point,” the seer said with a hint of pique, “this happened fifty or so thousand years ago.”

“Fifty. Thousand. Years. Ago,” I said slowly, trying to wrap my brain around it. “How can anyone live that long and not go crazy?”

“I assure you, it is very difficult at times.”

“You mean you’re fifty thousand years old as well?” She didn’t look a day over thirty thousand to me but I wasn’t an expert.

Kokoro gave me a small smile. “Not quite. My maker was what you might call a third generation vampire. The First made his ten followers and they quickly made many more.” She paused briefly and shuddered. “I am glad I was not made during this period of our history.”

“Why not?”

“Our forebears were far less civilized than we are today. They made no effort to control themselves at first and the fledgling human race was at risk of being destroyed. The First and his followers had a falling out and they were banished. He forbade them to make any more servants. My maker was one of the few who survived a harsh culling period.

“For ten thousand years, he and the few remaining vampires were ruled by the First. Then their leader withdrew and his minions were left to fend for themselves. Their makers had been ordered not to create more of our kin but they themselves had no such restrictions. Consequently, they made servants of their own. But they’d learned it was wiser to remain small in number or risk thinning their food source down.”

“So your maker ended up here, in Japan?” She nodded in response. “And when were you made?” It was probably rude to ask but my curiosity was too strong to resist asking the question.

“I was one of the first servants he made after breaking with his brothers. That was nearly forty thousand years ago,” Kokoro said with quiet dignity.

“Holy shit, you’re old!” I’d have blushed in embarrassment if my blood hadn’t been dead inside my veins. I almost felt like I’d sworn in church. “Sorry.” She waved aside my apology. Reading the last few words, I gently closed the book and handed it back to the seer. “You say in there that I battle the First but you don’t say if I win or lose.”

Shrugging her narrow shoulders, Kokoro placed the book inside her kimono again. “That is as far as my vision extends.”

I sensed this wasn’t the complete truth but didn’t press her. Mainly because I didn’t really want to know. I’d only been reborn as the undead a few weeks ago and I was already tired of being destiny’s bitch. Why couldn’t I have stayed as a normal human being? Why had I been chosen for this horrible unlife? Death had embraced me then dragged me into this quasi-life instead of pulling me down into oblivion. “Why are any of us chosen, Mortis?” she said in response to my unspoken question.

I had no answer for her so asked another question instead. “Can you tell me why Ishida was turned when he was still a kid? It seems a bit…cruel.”

“Do not fear,” the seer said, responding to my unspoken thoughts. “The Emperor might be young but he is fully capable of the pleasures of the flesh.” She smiled gently at my discomfort and embarrassment at the idea of the kid having sex with anyone when he looked so young. “I was forced to turn him into our kind when he was stricken with a fever. He would surely have died without my intervention.”

“You turned him?” If she did, then she was his master and that meant she was the true ruler of the Japanese empire.

“He does not know,” she said serenely. “His origins are a mystery and will remain so.” There was no hint of a threat in her voice. She was psychic and knew I wasn’t going to spill the beans. She’d kept many secrets for the sake of her people. It must get lonely being unable to tell a soul about all the things she knew.

“At times it can be, but I also have my pleasures of the flesh,” she said and smiled knowingly when a picture of Luc flickered into my head. He was naked and ready, all too willing to share my flesh hunger. A pang hit me directly in the heart at the thought that I might never see him again.

“You will see your lover again, Natalie,” Kokoro reassured me. “When you have learned all you can from us, you must return to Europe and finish what you had barely begun.”

Of course I had to go back to Europe. If anyone knew where the First was hiding, it would be the European rulers. That meant I would be meeting the Comtesse again. This time, I wouldn’t be the bumbling idiot she’d ordered hacked to pieces. Instead, I would be an efficient killing machine like the imposter the emperor had sent to her death. None of them would stand a chance against me.

“You will not be alone, Mortis,” the seer said in response to the picture I had of my lone self in battle with hordes of monsters. “You will have an army of your own to assist you.” Her smile was enigmatic and she refused to tell me where the mystery army would come from.

Chapter Eighteen

“Ishida has ordered a suite to be prepared for you. It will be far more comfortable than your previous quarters,” Kokoro told me. I hoped so, since my last quarters had practically been a bare cell.

I stood at the blatant hint that it was time for me to leave. The seer had retreated somewhere deep inside herself. Maybe she was seeing the future or perhaps she was eavesdropping on the thoughts of her people.

All but sloshing with information, I headed back down the dark corridor and took the stairs. The platform was waiting for me when I arrived at the top. It carried me back up to the surface in slow, dizzying spirals.

Emperor Ishida and his entourage were long gone when I stepped out of the temple. A single guard had been left to escort me inside. His face was stony as he led me back down to the hidden door. Pressing a button that was very nearly invisible, he entered the mountain passage first. The door swung shut behind me and I was back in the labyrinth of hallways again.

I’d thought my sense of direction had improved after becoming a vampire but the hallways all looked the same to me. I had no chance of memorizing the winding, almost random path we took.

As promised, I was taken to a suite of rooms then left to my own devices. The first room was a living area with the typical low black table and plump red and black cushions. I was glad to see a large bookcase filled with books off to one side. The paintings hanging on two walls were graceful and attractive landscapes. A bathroom, equipped with a tub but lacking a shower, was in the room to the left. To the right was a bedroom and it wasn’t empty of life as I’d expected. From the whispers and nervous shuffling of feet, several people were waiting for me.

Standing in the doorway, I eyed the line-up of human men in puzzlement. All ten were in their twenties and all were attractive. I was pretty sure none of them spoke English. “What’s going on?” I asked them anyway.

“The Emperor would have you choose seven of us, mistress,” said one of the men with a bow. I couldn’t tell if they were volunteers or if they’d been coerced into this.

“Choose you for what?” I asked suspiciously.

“For blood,” responded another guy.

“Or any other services or pleasures you wish,” replied a third. He sent me a smile that clearly said he’d be happy to help me out with that. Either they could understand me or they were guessing my questions with startling accuracy.

Only the thought that the emperor might be offended if I refused to choose from the men had me stepping into the room. I stood in front of the first man and gave him a good looking over. His eyes remained on his feet and he was quaking in fear. Nope. Too scared. The second guy stared at me boldly, dropping his eyes to my chest with a suggestive smirk. He was the one who wanted to help me out with my pleasures. No frigging way. Too slimy. Another man in the middle was also terrified to the point of shivering. The rest seemed to be ok with the idea of being my temporary slaves. They’ll do, I thought with a sigh of resignation.

“I choose you lot,” I said and pointed at the lucky seven. The rest filed out wearing expressions of either relief or disappointment. “What’s the plan here?” I asked the remaining meals.

“We will each come to you once a week and you will take what you need from us,” one of the men replied calmly.

Since he seemed to be coping with the idea of being my slave, he could be my first snack. “I’ll start with you. The rest of you can sort out what order you want to, er, visit me in.” I wasn’t used to giving suggestions to humans but they nodded and exited my suite.

“What’s your name?” I asked my first victim.

“I am Yori,” he said with a bow. Obviously, they could all understand English. They just chose not to speak it.

In my head, his name translated to something like ‘trust’. Just what I needed, a human who would trust a vampire not to harm him. They do things differently here. The humans do seem to trust the vampires, I reminded myself. “I’m Natalie,” I said and held out my hand.

He shook it gingerly then turned it over and looked down at my palm. Showing just how true to his name he was, he held the holy mark against his face. “I am at your beck and call any time you need me, mistress.” His eyes were guileless as he made the offer.

My gaze strayed to his neck longingly. “Well…I am a bit hungry.”

Smiling, he sank onto the bed and offered me his neck. I wasn’t sure how things were done in the Japanese community but I captured his eyes anyway. They went dreamy and he didn’t protest as I sank my teeth into him. I took just enough of his blood to half fill the empty hole in my stomach.

Yori came out of his daze quickly, which meant he’d probably been vampire food before, and glanced questioningly at the bed. “No!” I said and stood. “That, ah, won’t be necessary.”

“I thought all young vampires needed to feed their flesh hunger,” my human slave said in confusion.

“I’m not a normal vampire,” I said in the greatest understatement of the twenty-first century. “I don’t need to feed my flesh hunger very often.” That wasn’t quite a lie. I did get the urge to feed my flesh hunger but I needed a bed partner I was actually willing to get naked with. Luc was the only vampire I’d met so far who I was attracted to. The few times we’d been naked together, I’d ended up breaking his spine, ribs, pelvis and femur. Humans were far too fragile for me to even think of climbing into the sack with them.

Bowing, Yori smiled and slid off the bed. “Tomorrow night when you wake, an instructor will be waiting for you. He will teach you the skills you need to destroy the European scum.” Wow, the Japanese vampire prejudice against their rivals had even spread to their food.

“That’s great. Thanks.” I all but pushed him to the door and shut it in his face. He hesitated then trudged off down a hallway. The door could be secured with a sturdy lock and a heavy metal bar. I turned the key, slid the bar into place then ducked into the bathroom. Twin oil lamps sat at either side of the door. They gave off a soft glow when lit.

Since I didn’t have the option of a shower, I had to settle for a much more time consuming bath. Colourful bottles were lined up on a shelf above the tub. As the bath began filling with water, I sniffed each bottle and chose one that smelled like roses.

Once the tub was full, I poured some of the fragrant perfume into the water then sank into it and closed my eyes. I wished Luc was here or I was with him, wherever he was. I’d gotten used to him being by my side, keeping me from harm. The next time we met, we might be enemies. The thought chased away the flesh hunger that had begun to rise. Depressed, I struggled against dry sobs and won after a short battle. I was supposed to be the big, bad Mortis for Christ’s sake. Sobbing didn’t fit the image of the cold blooded killer I was meant to be.

The bath did wonders to relax me and I soaked until the water changed from blisteringly hot to warm. If I stayed there any longer, my body heat would leech away and I’d start shivering. Towelling off, I took the black robe that had been left hanging on a hook on the door and pulled it on. There was no blow dryer beneath the sink so I settled for rubbing my hair briskly with the towel then combing it.

Feeling lonelier than I ever had as a human, I dressed in the borrowed leather suit again then settled onto a cushion on the floor of the living room with a book. TV would have done a better job of taking my mind off my uncertain future but my suite lacked both a TV and electricity.

When the sun made its appearance, I dragged myself off to bed. My new life would begin when night fell and I almost dreaded to see how it would turn out.

Chapter Nineteen

As promised, an instructor was waiting for me when I opened the door. If I had to guess, I’d say he’d have been about forty when he’d been turned. Exactly my height, he had a squat, powerful body. His face might have been carved from rock for all the expression he wore. He led me quickly through yet another confusing tangle of corridors to a spacious room.

I had only a few seconds to gawp at the array of weaponry lining one wall. A selection of throwing knives, swords, axes, spears, bows and other weapons I had no name for were on display. Wooden dummies, scarred by many practice bouts, sprouted a few of each weapon.

We weren’t alone in the training room. A hundred or more leather clad men and women were either teaching students how to fight or were honing their skills on each other. They were too well disciplined to gape at me openly but many flicked curious glances at me when they could.

I thought my teacher would be impatient and disgusted with my lack of fighting skills but he treated me with a distant patience that I hadn’t anticipated. Moving to a rack of wooden swords, he chose one then waited for me to do the same. Weight wasn’t going to be a problem but length might be. The last thing I wanted to do was stab myself, even if the worst I could suffer would be splinters. The swords wouldn’t always be made of wood, after all. Being the klutz I was, I might even end up chopping one of my own limbs off.

Selecting a sword that seemed the right size, I waited for the lesson to commence. Instead of leaping about and whacking at me like I’d expected him to, my teacher started off showing me simple blocking techniques. I performed the blocks against imaginary thrusts and slices. They were simple enough but my instructor apparently wasn’t happy with my footwork. I found this out when his sword whistled through the air and smacked me in the thigh. It was a sure fire way to get my attention. Pointing at his feet, he showed me how I should be standing. Keeping one eye on his sword arm to make sure he wasn’t going to stab me suddenly, I shuffled my stance around until it was correct. Once I was in place, I continued to block imaginary sword thrusts.

A strange thing happened during the first few minutes of training and continued on as the night progressed. My instructor’s inscrutable face registered faint surprise then growing amazement at my ability to remember each block he showed me. After an hour of defending myself from invisible blows, he attacked me with an overhand blow without warning.

Changing my stance automatically, I met his descending sword with my own. After a slight nod of acknowledgement from my teacher, his wooden weapon became a blur of motion. Our blades clacked together with each time I performed a block. The attack only lasted for a few seconds before he broke off. I stood with my eyes trained on him, waiting for more.

We now had an audience and I’d been so focussed on blocking that I hadn’t even noticed them gathering. The students and their instructors watched me carefully, waiting for my reaction. I gave my instructor a small bow as I’d seen the other students do. I guessed it had to something to do with showing respect. The corners of my teacher’s mouth twitched in an almost smile then he moved on to showing me how to attack.

It was a long night but the hours seemed to fly past. As dawn neared, students began placing their training weapons back in the racks. My instructor shook his head as I walked past him to put the weapon away. “Practice,” was all he said.

Bowing again, I kept the sword and followed the students out. Word must have spread that I didn’t fall down dead when the sun came up for the day. My teacher knew I had plenty of time to practice what he’d taught me. With the battles waiting for me ahead, I thought this was probably a very good idea. I’d review what I’d been taught before resting for a few hours.

It took me a while to find my rooms again. There was a pattern to the labyrinth of hallways that I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of yet but I had my sense of direction now, at least. In my rooms, I secured the door then came to a dead stop when I spied a familiar weapon lying on top of the bookcase. While I’d been training, someone had returned the late General Yasui’s sword to me. I was nowhere near worthy to use it yet so left it where it was for now.

My next task was to shift the living room furniture around to make a tiny training room of my own. Copying the handwork and footwork I’d learned, I spent the next six hours alternately blocking and attacking imaginary enemies. In my mind, most of them were short, had white-blonde hair and wide-set eyes. I killed the praying mantis at least a hundred times in as many ways as I could concoct. Tired at last, I lay down to rest.

That first training session set the tone for the next four months.

I didn’t spend the entire time fighting, feeding and sleeping. Every second week, I was allowed a night off from training to do whatever I wanted. I explored the island, discovering a field where the cows were kept. Hundreds of cattle huddled together as they slept. I learned that a thin camouflaged canopy was raised during the day just in case of overflying aircraft. If the cattle were ever spotted, someone would be sure to investigate. As per the temple on top of the mountain, the Japanese had devised more ways to hide their existence.

Often during the days Ishida chose not to rest, I was graced with an invitation to join him. We’d sit in his entertainment room, playing computer games and watching movies. He was the only teenage vampire on the small island and he wanted someone to play with. Trust him to choose me to be his playmate. I thought I had matured since being changed into a monster but maybe I hadn’t grown up as much as I’d thought. Still, it kept me entertained as well so I wasn’t about to complain.

Yori and the other six guys continued to supply me with blood. I finally convinced them that I really didn’t need to feed every day so I only had a visit from one of them every third day or so. Yori’s puppy dog eyes told me he wanted much more than to feed just my blood hunger but I resisted him easily. He might only be a few years younger than I was but he would always be a boy to me. I’d already had my hands on a man and wasn’t about to settle for anything less now. While Yori never came out and asked me to jump his bones, it was pretty obvious he wanted to get naked with me.

Kokoro sent for me a few times and we had unpleasant chats about the possible future of our species. We both knew that if I failed, we wouldn’t have a future. Some things didn’t need to be spoken out loud and that was one of them.

Then came the day my instructor decided I was ready to graduate from his tiny class of one. My first clue that it wasn’t going to be just another normal day wasn’t exactly subtle. A student was waiting for me in the training room. Apart from her, the room was empty of the undead. “Come with me,” she said with a mysterious smile.

“What’s going on?” I asked. She glanced back over her shoulder at me several times in nervous excitement but refused to answer my questions.

We trotted down hallways that I’d finally managed to memorize. I knew where we were heading before she came to a stop at an ornate pair of doors. I’d never seen the doors to the throne room shut before and hadn’t realized they were decorated with gold dragons. A pair of solemn guards opened them and I stepped inside.

What the heck is going on here? Am I in some kind of trouble? I wasn’t sure how that was possible since I hadn’t made any enemies or gotten into any fights so far.

Ishida’s throne had been moved to the back wall, leaving the circular centre of the room bare. Ishida sat solemnly on the stone chair, wearing his golden regalia once more. I nervously eyed the guards lining the room. They were three and four deep and all wore their black masks. Dozens of dark eyes watched me stonily.

My instructor, whose name I had yet to discover, strolled into the room. The doors boomed shut behind him, sealing us in and my nervousness grew. My teacher held a sword that I’d never seen before. I’d progressed from wooden swords to metal ones after only a few short weeks of training. Despite my misgivings, I hadn’t managed to chop off any of my body parts, or anyone else’s. The practice swords had been plain and ordinary when compared to this one. The hilt was white and the blade was shiny and razor sharp.

Standing in the centre of the room with his feet planted on the gold dragon’s belly, my instructor waited silently. I finally realised he was waiting for me to approach when someone shoved me forward. Stumbling on the first step, I straightened up and walked to the middle of the room.

My instructor handed me the unsheathed sword without a word. I took a few seconds to admire the ivory hilt and intricate dragon that was carved on the blade. It matched the one on the floor exactly. Then my teacher bowed and took up a spot against the wall. Tense, I waited for something to happen. Finally, something did.

Two veiled guards rushed at me simultaneously. I immediately knew that this wasn’t just another training exercise. This was very much for real and they were out for my blood.

My blade met the sword aimed at my chest and turned it. Spinning, I ducked the second blade and counterattacked with a thrust of my own. Then the fight was on.

Thanks to my freaky new reflexes and intense training, I had no trouble defending myself from the two men. No one had bothered to tell me the rules so I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to fight to the death or just to first blood.

Hoping it was just to first blood, I nicked one of the men on the arm to test the theory. He immediately bowed and retreated back to his spot in the crowd. Before I could cut the second vamp and put an end to the test, two more vamps leaped to the attack. Shit! This doesn’t seem very fair. Taking a chunk of skin off the original attacker’s sword arm, I turned to face the new pair. Another two joined them as the defeated guard retreated from the battle. I had no more time for mental protests at the uneven ratio of fighters so set them aside and concentrated on the fight.

While lying in the eleven boxes in the UK, I’d learned to focus my will with precision. I’d also learned how to control my severed hands simultaneously as if they were living entities all of their own. This had been difficult when they hadn’t been attached to my body. It was far easier when they were attached. I now had full control of my body and I’d been given the means to fight like an avenging angel.

One sword was good but, with so many enemies to fight at once, two would be better. Fending off a sword thrust, I bent and snagged a sword that had been dropped by one of my defeated opponents. The time for defending was over and I went on the attack.

My instructor hadn’t trained me to fight with two swords but I took to it naturally anyway. My hands whirled and twirled the weapons to attack and defend. Vampires appeared before me in numbers that increased with each person I nicked or sliced with my swords.

The first blade that snuck through my guard scored a cut across my chest. Shrugging off the wound that healed instantly, I wasn’t surprised when the fight didn’t end there. I had the crazy idea that I was going to have to fight every damned vampire in the room.

Some of them probably are damned, I thought briefly. Probably, lots of them were. Now would be an ideal time for them to try to kill me. How I was going to tell the damned from the un-damned would be difficult since they were all currently trying to end my life.

It was impossible to keep count of how many vampires I fought or how long the fight lasted. My leather suit was almost in tatters by the time the last female vamp launched herself at me. I sidestepped while she was in mid-air and scored a hit along her stomach. Her guts fell out and slithered to the floor as she landed on her face and skidded in her own blood for a few feet. It would have been a fatal blow for a human. The female vamp merely stood, bowed and shoved her insides back where they belonged. She’d heal in a few hours and would be good as new. As for me, my uniform was fluttering and barely held together but my wounds had disappeared as if they’d never existed. I might be alright but the suit was ruined.

My silent instructor walked solemnly to the centre of the room again and bowed to Emperor Ishida. The kid nodded his head slightly then the entire room was bowing to me. Bowing in response, my borrowed swords still dripped with the sluggish ooze that was their vampire blood. The guard whose sword I had borrowed jogged over. He bowed, I returned the gesture then handed the weapon back to him.

Stopping on his way towards the exit, my teacher stopped long enough to say two words before joining the exodus. “Very good.”

I felt humbled by his praise. Especially since it was the only kind words he’d ever said to me. I may have surpassed his teachings but without his training I’d still have been stumbling around fighting like a girl.

Ishida motioned his faithful sidekick, Takeshi to leave the throne room then strolled over to join me. Checking that the room was vacant but for us, he gave a shout of laughter then high-fived me. “That was kick arse! I’ve never seen any of my soldiers fight like that, let alone a European!” He chortled with glee, acting like any normal twelve year old you might see anywhere in the world. I didn’t bother to remind him that I was Australian. All foreigners were Europeans to them.

“So, I passed the test then?” Tearing off a piece of my tattered sleeve, I carefully wiped down the sword then held the weapon out to him.

“You passed the test,” Ishida said with an almost straight face. Glee still danced in his eyes. “You fought fifty warriors and didn’t kill a single one.” Jeez, was it only fifty? It had seemed like a lot more than that to me. “You have gained much honour today.” He bowed seriously and I bowed back. “The sword is yours, Natalie.” Ishida closed my hand over the ivory hilt of the weapon. “I only ask that you use this weapon to kill the European Councillors.”

My grin was tight and very nearly savage. “I will,” I promised. “If I had another one, I’d be able to kill them twice.”

“General Yasui’s sword is still in your quarters, is it not?” he asked me almost slyly.

“It is.” I’d mounted the bare blade on a wall even though I knew it was going against their customs. No one had passed the weapon on to me and I hadn’t won it in battle. I’d just commanded my severed hand to run over and pick it up after the general’s head had been twisted off his shoulders. Now I knew who’d arranged for it to be put in my room.

“Consider it a gift from the Japanese Emperor to Mortis.” His bow was less formal and more mischievous this time. “Now that the formalities are finished, let’s go and kill some zombies.”

“You’re on.” Ishida had discovered an online game where killing the living dead was the main goal. He got a kick out of the irony. I played it with him sometimes even though I was creeped out by the rotting, brain eating undead things. I felt compelled to kill as many of them as I could.

The fact that vampires were only one small step up from zombies when we first woke as the living dead wasn’t lost on me. We began as mindless killing machines and, from what I’d seen in my dreams, we would end up even worse once we were converted into imps. I’d killed hundreds of the electronic monsters but that wasn’t going to prepare me for the real life battles ahead.

After the epic fight I’d just been through, I now knew I had the skills to fight anything, living or undead. I just hoped it would be enough. I’d been on this island for four months now and the First’s army had to have increased in size. How many flesh and blood imps were now waiting to kill me out there?

Chapter Twenty

Yori was in my quarters when I trudged inside. He was obviously relieved to see me in one piece. Then his eyes dropped to my partially exposed breasts and a flush darkened his cheeks. “I will run you a bath, mistress,” he said and fled from the room. I’d tried to get him to call me Natalie or Nat but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. After thousands of years of servitude, deference towards vampires was ingrained in the humans.

A bath sounded pretty good. I wasn’t exactly tired but my muscles were still tense from the prolonged fight. Using a soft cloth, I cleaned off the sword properly. Two sheaths had been placed on the low black table. Both were made of leather that had been bleached white to match the hilts and then hardened to prevent damage.

A dragon had been carved along the length of one, matching the dragon on the blade of my new sword. A lion graced the other, matching General Yasui’s sword. My instructor must have been pretty sure of my success to have had the sheaths delivered while I’d still been trying to pass his test.

At a soft footstep behind me, I whirled. A blade was in my hand like magic. Yori squeaked and froze, trying to focus on the blade that was resting lightly against his neck without moving. He was holding out my robe in a quaking hand.

“Sorry,” I said in embarrassment and took the robe. “I’m still a bit jumpy from the fight.” Mustering a smile, he backed away then fled from my quarters. My tame human had just gone from worshipping me to being terrified of me. Luckily, I wasn’t particularly hungry and didn’t need to feed from him just yet.

Before he could change his mind and dredge up the courage to re-join me, I locked and barred the door then disrobed. I left the tattered remnants of my uniform on the floor and headed for the bathroom. Sinking down into the water until it lapped at my chin, I closed my eyes and tried to relax.

Still not feeling particularly relaxed after half an hour, I decided to wash my hair before the water grew too cold. Covered in shampoo suds, I slid beneath the water to rinse off. A shadow blocked the light and I thought Yori must have returned despite his fear of me. Then I remembered the door was barred. It would take great strength to break it open, strength beyond what a mere human possessed. That meant another vampire was in the room and I didn’t think they were there to politely hand me a towel.

Water cascaded back into the tub as I shot to my feet. Turning to my attacker, I saw that he was standing in the doorway. He wouldn’t have had time to shift so far away in the blink of an eye it took me to rise to my feet. Then I saw his shadow standing beside me, ready to attack. I tried to raise my hands in defence but dark arms were already around me. I shuddered as intense cold washed over me.

Hulking and silent, the owner of the shadow watched while his silhouette tried to drain me of my life force. Wrestling one arm free, I slapped at the large, misshaped head and heard it snarl. The vampire made no move to either help or hinder his darker half.

Always before, I’d had to put both hands on a creature’s head to make the dark magic destroy the enemy. This time I only had one hand and I was dangerously weak from the cold. Concentrating hard, I shoved my hand into the centre of the shadow’s head and unleashed the holy mark.

Howling and holding its head, the shadow released me and fled back to its owner. I hadn’t killed it but it was definitely injured. The vampire was already on the move and darted into my bedroom. Not bothering to snatch up my robe, I raced after him. Naked, cold and still weak, I skidded to a halt in the bedroom and whirled around in a circle. Despite the fact that there were no exits and nowhere to hide, the intruder had disappeared. Remembering the hidden doors leading to the surface, I knew there had to be one in here somewhere.

Snatching one of the swords from where I’d mounted it on the wall, I began to search. By running my free hand over smooth rock, I finally found the door. My skin pebbled at a tiny breeze that wafted through a crack that was almost too small to be seen.

I’d found the secret entrance but had no way to bar it. My attacker could enter at any time and try to finish what he had started. It wasn’t safe for me here and I didn’t know who I could trust now.

Why did he wait this long before attacking me? A more important question was; did he attack me at Ishida’s orders? I didn’t think so and that got me moving. Now that he’d been discovered for what he was, would he now try to take down the emperor? He could no longer pose as a trusted servant since he had failed to kill me and I now knew he was one of the damned.

Several changes of black leather suits had been given to me and I quickly pulled one on. My hair was still dripping as I darted over to the second sword. I had a feeling I’d need them both when I left the room.

Unlocking the door, I was unprepared when two guards attacked me. Their shadows were in possession, overlapping their vampire hosts and only giving me glimpses of their terrified faces. The vampires might not know what was happening but I did. The First’s offspring were in charge and they wanted me dead. I wasn’t about to oblige them.

Twirling the swords, I blocked, parried then stabbed both guards through their hearts. Their shadows shook their fists, wailed, gnashed their teeth then sank to the ground and dissipated as the bodies of their hosts broke down. I was still weak and cold from the last shadow’s attack but I was quickly regaining my strength.

Well used to the intersecting tangle of corridors by now, I jogged through them quickly. Five more sentries attacked me as I ran. They came out of the dark like wraiths and I sent them to their deaths screaming in fear, pain and hatred.

A pair of male and female vamps guarding Ishida’s door came to attention when I skidded to a halt in front of them. They took in my dishevelled appearance and the long cut on one arm that healed before their eyes. “Your Emperor is in danger,” I said.

“From what?” the female sneered. I was pretty sure she’d been the last vamp to attack me in the trial earlier that night. Maybe she was holding a grudge against me because I’d made her guts fall out. I couldn’t see any suspicious bulges in her leather suit so I assumed she had already healed.

“From Takeshi.” He’d been standing in the shadows but I’d still managed to get a look at his face before he’d fled. Besides, he was the only heavily muscled, six foot tall vampire on the island.

“That’s absurd,” the male vamp said. “He is the Emperor’s personal bodyguard and is sworn to protect his life.”

We would have danced around the issue a bit longer but another shadow-possessed guard attacked. The whistling of his descending sword warned me and I whirled around to meet it with my own blade. Two swords were definitely better than one because the one I didn’t block with slid through his chest and out through his back. The shadow roared loudly in defiance, making the inside of my head ring. The two bewildered guards exchanged frightened looks.

By the time I turned back to them, they had the door open and were charging inside with their weapons drawn. I’d been inside the emperor’s bedroom only once, on the night I had broken in, but I was familiar with the layout.

Takeshi had picked a hell of a night to show his true colours. Ishida wasn’t alone and had three human females in the gigantic bed with him. All were teenage girls not much older than his mortal age. They cowered in silence with tears of terror pouring down their faces. Takeshi had dragged his ruler out of bed and stood with his sword at the child king’s throat.

That answers that question then, the kid didn’t order my death. Ishida’s startled expression reflected that he had no idea what was going on. Thankfully, he was wearing his leather skirt so we were all spared the indignity of seeing him naked.

“Takeshi, unhand me!” Ishida demanded. Instead of unhanding him, the guard’s hand flexed, crushing his vocal cords. “I am your master,” the kid croaked, “release me at once!”

No one else could see it but Takeshi’s shadow was fully in charge. It had risen and it wasn’t going to relinquish its hold on its host now. I sensed the silhouette glaring at me, weighing up its options.

“That’s not Takeshi, Ishida,” I told the teenager. The guards gasped at my audacity of calling the emperor by his name. I didn’t know if it was a first name or a surname but I didn’t have time to worry about etiquette right now. I had one of the damned to kill.

“He is possessed then?” the kid croaked almost soundlessly. He wouldn’t die from having his throat crushed but it would make it hard for him to talk until he healed.

“Yep,” I answered calmly. “But don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

The shadow, using its human host’s mouth, laughed. Harsh and guttural, it grated on my ears and I saw the two guards shudder from the corners of my eyes. “Puny vampire, you will not defeat us. You are one and we are many!”

I made a show of looking around. “I only see one of you, numb nuts. Where are all your shadow friends?” Catching Ishida’s eye, I dropped my eyes to the ground then flicked them back up to his face. If he’d been human, his face would be purple and he’d have died from lack of oxygen by now. Ishida merely looked uncomfortable, his brain was still in good working order. He managed a slight nod.

“Put down your weapons or I will kill the child,” the shadow commanded. He held the sword menacingly near Ishida’s neck. I could survive being beheaded but I seriously doubted the emperor could. He could be pompous and full of himself at times but I’d grown kind of fond of the kid. He was like the younger brother that I’d never wanted.

Putting my swords down on the floor slowly, I stood again, keeping my hands close to my waist. The shadow laughed again, making me wince. It sounded like fleshless skulls knocking together. “So trusting, vampire? You are weak and that is why the First’s children shall prevail.”

“I don’t think so,” I told the smug shadow. “Now, Ishida!” The kid prised himself free and dropped to the floor. As he did, my hands went into action, plucking throwing knives from my belt. The small knives were several inches long and were deep enough to penetrate the bodyguard’s armour where it wasn’t reinforced with metal.

The girls shrieked when the shadow creature roared through Takeshi’s mouth. Ishida’s bodyguard began sprouting knives from his face, neck and upper chest. To either side of me, the guards were also throwing deadly projectiles at Takeshi. They might not be able to see the shadow in possession of its host but they’d heard it speaking through him clearly enough.

Falling to his knees, Takeshi’s shadow made a game effort to force its host back to his feet again. The trio of girls screamed again and scrambled to the far side of the bed. Picking up my swords, I hoped the pair of guards would cease firing projectiles long enough for me to finish the job.

Takeshi’s expressionless face was revealed as the shadow tried to flee from its fate. I didn’t bother to pin it to the ground. It wasn’t going anywhere. That was the one fatal flaw of the First’s shadow spawn. They were tied to their hosts and couldn’t exist without them. “Do you have any final words?” I asked him.

When I received no answer, I did to Takeshi what had twice been done to me. His head fell to the ground, bounced a couple of times then rolled to a stop beside Ishida.

Wisely, the emperor had moved a safe distance away from the fray. He looked down at the head as it dissolved before his eyes. “I would have been very surprised if Takeshi had any final words. His tongue was cut out the day he became my bodyguard.”

I raised my eyebrows, but couldn’t muster up much surprise. I’d seen some of what the shadows were capable of already. Clearly, they had their own tongues to speak with.

“You have my thanks, Natalie.” Ishida bowed while the two guards gaped at him. Offering thanks probably wasn’t something they saw their emperor do very often. Or at all. “Are these two trustworthy?” he asked and pointed at the pair of guards.

Giving them a hard look, I searched for signs that their shadows were acting independently but saw none. “Yeah, they’re ok,” I said.

“I have a task for you when you next rise, Mortis,” the child king said. He moved to the bed and began soothing his harem, sending me a glance over his shoulder that reflected his true age. He didn’t look like a kid at all just then but like the ten thousand year old vampire that he truly was. “It is time to clean house.”

Nodding, I turned to find another fifty or so guards crowded into the hallway. “The show’s over folks,” I told them. Disappointed that they’d missed the kerfuffle, most of them headed back to their posts, exchanging guesses at what had just happened. The two guards who had helped me take down Takeshi remained behind to defend against any further attacks. No other shadow possessed vampires would get past them to attempt to assassinate the emperor.

I stopped in my room long enough to grab the few possessions I might need. Then I hunted down a human servant and asked her to show me to a new room. She gave me a puzzled look but was used to obeying vampires without question.

The room she chose was several twists and turns down various hallways. I gave it a thorough search for hidden doors before ushering her out. I had a feeling I was going to need my rest because tomorrow night was going to be very long indeed.

Chapter Twenty-One

Ishida stared broodingly at one of the torches that burned brightly on the wall. I’d decided to use traditional flame torches for the archaic touch instead of modern battery operated ones. I felt the fire would add to the atmosphere of sheer butchery that was about to occur.

“Takeshi stood at my back for ten millennia,” the kid said. “He could have killed me at any time. Why would he attack me now?” His sense of betrayal was obvious and so was his confusion.

I’d taken up the spot behind his left shoulder that his late bodyguard had so recently vacated. The throne room was empty but for us at the moment but that would soon change. “I think they’ve been waiting for you to turn into one of them.”

He glanced at me askance. “Is that possible?”

“The older we are, the more likely we are to become possessed.” It was only a theory I’d been working on but I was pretty sure I was right.

“So, I could become possessed by my own shadow at any time?” He was horrified by the idea and who could blame him? “I would rather die than become a puppet for the First.”

I was silent for a long moment. “There’s one sure way to tell,” I said.

“How?”

“I can examine your shadow. If it does anything strange then I’ll know you’re one of them.”

Ishida pondered the idea then nodded. He was a tough kid and far braver than I’d have been at his age. His mortal age, that was. “What do I need to do?” he asked.

“Just stand by one of the torches and make sudden, random movements.”

Doubtfully, Ishida stood and ambled over to the nearest torch. For a moment, he simply stood there. Then he broke out into a series of dance moves he’d learned from watching TV. His shadow whirled, twirled, bent, bobbed and spun around on the wall along with him in perfect unison. Unless it was the cleverest sentient shadow I’d ever seen, he was fine.

I applauded when he was done. “Awesome moves, Emperor.” He gave a slight bow then a questioning look. “You’re shadow is ok,” I told him and read the relief on his face before it became an inscrutable mask again.

With an almost inaudible sigh, Ishida sat on his throne. He knew it had to be done but he didn’t relish the idea of weeding out the damned from within his kingdom. Bowing his head, he gave me a slight nod. “Let it be done.”

Now it was all up to me and I wasn’t looking forward to this any more than he was. Jogging to the closed doors, I cracked one open. The corridor outside was jam packed with vampires. Every undead creature on the island had been ordered to take their turn standing before their emperor. I’d toured through the small stone city below and there had to be several hundred vampires and three times as many humans. At least the humans would be spared the culling that was about to commence.

“Sort yourselves in order from oldest to youngest. Then come in ten at a time,” I said and a great shuffling commenced.

When the first ten were ready, I let them file inside. The two guards I was already sure of closed the door tight. The female gave me a slight nod. They would prevent anyone else from entering.

“Line up against the wall,” I directed the group. The torches had been set up so there was just enough room for one vampire a piece to stand between them.

As they followed my instructions, their shadows showed up starkly on the rock wall behind them. A glance from the corner of my eye was enough to condemn five of them straight away. Twisted, slump-shouldered and huge, the shadows didn’t seem to realize that I saw them for what they were. This reassured me that they couldn’t communicate telepathically. Two on the end turned to have a muted conversation that was silent to everyone but me. They were uneasy and maybe even had an inkling of what I was up to. I’d have to work quickly so they wouldn’t have a chance to revolt.

Ishida lifted an eyebrow in query as I returned to him. I lifted a hand and indicated that I’d seen five of the First’s spawn already. Taking up my spot just behind Ishida, I told the vamps to begin practicing their sword work.

Another three shadows gave themselves away from lack of concentration or from simple arrogance. That made eight out of ten traitors in the first batch. I wasn’t very surprised. If these were the oldest vamps on the island then they were very old indeed. Pointing out the two who were normal, I told them to move aside.

Ishida stared at each of the remaining eight one by one. Some dropped their gazes in shame, indicating they knew something was wrong with them even if they didn’t know exactly what it was. The others looked back at him blankly. “You have been identified as being tainted by the First,” Ishida said quietly. “If you have any honour left, I suggest you exercise it now.”

Two vamps moved so quickly that their shadows didn’t have time to possess them. Enough of their vampire selves remained to know that they were doomed. They chose to end their lives at their own hands. Each pulled a small throwing knife from their belts and jammed it into their hearts. As they sank to their knees, their shadows beat at the air and tore their hair in despair. Before the pair had turned to watery slush, the six remaining shadows burst forth to possess their hosts. Then they went on the attack.

While the emperor sat on the throne with his chin resting on a fist, the two un-possessed guards and I took down the six remaining. The fight was short but vicious. The shadows didn’t have much practice possessing their masters so their fighting skills were no match for ours.

Shaken at being attacked by their fellow guards, the two surviving vamps exchanged glances. “What is going on?” one asked me.

“War,” I replied shortly. There would be time for explanations after this grisly ordeal was over.

As I’d predicted, it was a long night. Not all of the old vampires had become the damned but a lot of them had been. I was glad but unsurprised when my instructor passed the test. I’d have noticed it months ago if he’d been possessed. My teacher stood staunchly by my side during the next few hours, stepping in when he felt it was necessary and cutting down the damned that slipped through my guard. His face remained a blank mask but I sensed his pain each time he ended the lives of his kin.

My teacher wasn’t the only one suffering. Ishida seemed to shrink with each death until he looked like a little old man hunched over on the throne. The seer showed up just when I thought the kid couldn’t take any more of the slaughter. She stood to the emperor’s right with a hand on his shoulder. He seemed to take strength from her and sat up straighter.

I thought the First’s offspring would begin tapering off sharply as the age of the remaining vampires decreased. It was disturbing when the shadows of vampires only a few hundred years old panicked and attacked when they were discovered. They were too weak to possess their owners but they still took swipes at me.

My least favourite part of that purge was killing the vampires who had no idea they would one day be taken over by their shadows. The last one was a female vampire who sobbed tearlessly when I pointed to her. On the wall, her silhouette was quaking, shaking its head and wringing its hands. “How old are you?” I asked her. My sword dripped black blood to the tiled floor that had become dangerously slippery with the acidic fluid by now.

“F-f-fifty, mistress,” she replied shakily.

Closing my eyes, I shook my head. Ishida wasn’t the only one who had aged this night. I felt at least five thousand years old. My hands knew what to do and my sword sliced into her heart. Her death was quick and merciful but not painless. The young vampire died with a puzzled, terrified look in her still mostly brown eyes. My instructor looked away from me. It was the only sign he gave of how he felt about this night’s work. He didn’t have to say anything for me to feel his distress and disappointment.

“Is it done?” Ishida asked hoarsely.

I nodded then knelt to clean my sword. Clothing and dropped weapons littered the floor along with the stains that were the remains of the fallen. We were in a battleground minus only the bodies. All we needed were circling vultures to make the scene of mass murder complete.

The remaining vampires were crowded against the walls as far from me as they could get. From the first surviving pair to the last, they had all borne witness to the slaughter.

“It is time to tell your people the truth, Emperor Ishida,” the seer said gently. The kid might not know it, but it was an order from his master and he was helpless to disobey her.

Raising his head, Ishida gazed at the remnants of his army. A rough count told me that barely two hundred were left. If the oracle hadn’t been there to back me up, I think Ishida might have tried to kill me with his bare hands hours ago. The blind vampire had foreseen this as well as what their future would be without my arrival. They would have all ended up as slaves to the First. Kokoro had carved their past and possible future into the rocks thousands of years before Ishida had been born and knew I was their only chance of survival.

“For all of our long lives we have been told that the Europeans were our enemies,” Ishida said into the silence. “We were told that none could be trusted and all should be destroyed.” Nods of agreement met his statement. “This is not true.” His words had the shuffling and muted whispers stilling. “The real enemies have just been culled from our midst.”

“What were they, Emperor Ishida?” a brave soul called out.

“They were the tainted offspring of the First,” Ishida replied softly. “The blood of our Father has infected many of us. Those affected are known as ‘the damned’,” he mourned. Murmurs of disturbed recognition sounded. The European legend had spread far and wide, it seemed. “Thanks to Mortis, we have now been cleansed.”

Looks shifted back to me and they weren’t particularly friendly or grateful for my intervention. Most were still confused about why they’d had to kill their kin even when their kin had attacked first.

“The creature who gave its blood to the First had a far reaching plan to take over the earth,” the seer said. “It’s blood gave life to our shadows. Over time, they became sentient and eventually gained the ability to possess us.”

“I saw Takeshi turn into a devil,” the female guard who had backed me up said. The guy who’d been with her at the time nodded in agreement. “We heard his shadow speak through him.”

All knew the bodyguard had been mute and the statement was met with astonished expressions. A short, intense babble erupted and was cut off when the emperor held up his hand. “Natalie Pierce came to us for help. She asked that we train her so that she could accomplish her task of fighting the First’s spawn. In return, I asked only that she free my kingdom of the damned. I know now that every man and woman on this island is loyal and trustworthy.”

All bowed at the honour, deeply moved by his words. The blind eyes of Kokoro sought me out and she smiled. She at least thought that my job here was done. Frankly, I’d be relieved to go. Staying amongst the people I’d forced to turn on their own would be uncomfortable. They tried to hide their resentment but I’d learned to read their expressionless faces to some degree.

“This will be Natalie’s last night with us,” Ishida said and a feeling of relief swept through the room. Even my instructor was happy with this news. Maybe more so than anyone else since he’d taught me the skills I’d just used to decimate his fellow guards. “She leaves with the thanks of myself and of my people.” As one, they bowed to me deeply. Resentful or not, they were unfailingly courteous. I bowed back then the survivors began filing out.

Kokoro motioned to me and I moved to meet her. She waited until everyone had left, all except for the child king. Ishida sat on this throne and I was pretty sure he was close to tear-less sobs. “Unfortunately, not all of our soldiers obeyed the order to come before their emperor,” she said softly.

“Can you estimate how many got away?” I asked.

“Over twenty but less than forty.” The news wasn’t great but it could have been worse. “I am afraid your task has only just begun, Natalie,” Kokoro said to me quietly.

“I know. I have to track down the Court’s Councillors and find out where the First is hiding.” I grimaced at the tasks before me.

“You face many battles ahead but you will not face them alone.”

She’d told me this four months ago yet still hadn’t told me who my army would consist of. “Don’t worry, we’ll kick their butts,” I said airily. Deep down, I still strongly suspected I’d be facing the battle as a solo act. I’d have countless imps to fight my way through before I could even get close to the First. I didn’t need to be an oracle myself to know that.

“I have a gift for you before you leave,” Ishida said. “It was Kokoro’s idea but I made a few modifications.” With a mysterious smile, he motioned for us to follow him.

We headed down a corridor I’d never been in before. It ended in a door that was guarded by two female vamps. They bowed to their emperor, gave me twin filthy looks, then one of them opened the door. Inside was a collection of armour, possibly dating back to the beginning of vampirekind. All were encased in protective glass. Some were so aged that they were in tatters. The newer ones were in pristine condition, except for tears in the fabric from sharp weapons. They were in all shapes and sizes, to fit the various physiques of their owners.

One piece in particular caught my eye and I moved in for a closer look. The man who’d worn it must have been close to seven feet tall. Wicked spikes jutted out from the shoulders, elbows, knuckles and knees. It was made of bronze and had several stab wounds in the chest area.

“This armour belonged to our fallen Emperors and greatest warriors,” Ishida explained. “Kokoro has preserved them as a record of our greatness.”

I snuck a look at the seer but she averted her face. I thought it was more likely that she’d gathered them as a reminder of our ultimate mortality. Even the undead would eventually die, no matter how powerful they were.

“What do you think of that one?” Ishida pointed to a leather suit that had been set off to one side. Apart from the colour, it looked a lot like the uniform the guards all wore. Instead of being encased behind glass, it sat on a dummy.

I was entranced from the moment my eyes touched it. Blood-red instead of black, it had the usual belt around the waist full of throwing knives but a couple of changes had been made. A raised band covered the chest and back. Metal had been inlaid into the suit that would stop most thrown projectiles.

A second band of metal about two inches wide was around the dummy’s neck. It was a plain but functional piece that had been designed to thwart decapitation. “I like it but isn’t it a bit…girly?” The chest area had definite curves even with the band of metal running across it.

“It should be. It’s yours.” He grinned when my mouth dropped open. “I know stakes, spears and swords through the heart don’t kill you but you can never be too careful.”

“I’m particularly impressed with the neck band.”

“It would be hard to fight without a head, even for you,” he slid a sly look at me.

A red mask covered the dummy’s blank face. It triggered something in my memory that was gone almost instantly. It was the coolest outfit I’d ever seen and it was all mine.

“Thank you, Emperor Ishida. And you also, Kokoro.” I bowed to them both as was customary then the kid surprised me with a hug.

“I wish you didn’t have to go,” he whispered. “This place will be no fun without you.” He was near tears again. He might be ten thousand years old but, deep down, he’d always be a teenager.

Patting him on the back, I felt a lump form in my throat. “I wish I didn’t have to leave either but you heard Kokoro, I have a job to do. It’s my destiny.” I’d learned that destiny couldn’t be avoided, not even when running away from it. It always dragged you back, kicking and screaming to face it again.

Regaining his dignity, Ishida put on his inscrutable emperor’s mask again. “Kokoro has arranged for your departure when you rise tomorrow night.” After a long moment, he gave me a final short bow. “Goodbye, Natalie Pierce.”

“See ya, Emperor.” His back was stiff as he left the armoury. I had a feeling he’d console himself with a few of his harem girls tonight.

Kokoro helped me strip the suit from the dummy. She might be blind but her hands moved deftly enough. I sensed she was disturbed and sent her an enquiring glance that she felt rather than saw.

“The measures you took tonight to cleanse our kingdom will come to naught unless you move swiftly.” She kept her voice low, barely a whisper so the guards at the door couldn’t overhear her.

“What do you mean?” I had a fair idea what her answer would be but maybe I needed to hear her say it out loud.

“That last vampire was barely fifty. She was practically still a baby yet her shadow had already turned evil.”

“And?” I wished she would get to the point. I was still covered in vampire ooze and desperately wanted to take a bath.

“That means any of the newer vampires could become damned at any time. Without you here to expose them, there is no guarantee that the Emperor will remain safe.” Kokoro was as worried as any mother would have been about her son.

“As soon as I leave here, I’m heading straight for France,” I reassured her. “I’ll track down the Comtesse and her cronies and find out where the First is.” Then I’d have the daunting task of attempting to kill him. Just how I was going to pull that off was still in question.

Relieved, Kokoro handed me the last piece of the suit, the red mask. “Go with my blessing and with my love.” She kissed me on both cheeks then glided away. The lump in my throat grew and now I was perilously close to dry-sobbing. It had been years since anyone had told me they loved me. For a moment, it almost felt like I had a mother again.

Your mother is long dead and Kokoro will be a slave if you don’t kill the First and his imps, I told myself harshly. In a few hours, I would begin my trip home. It was time to finish the job I’d barely begun before I’d been beheaded by Luc.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Yori was waiting for me in my quarters again. He was still afraid of me but he knew his duty. He no longer wanted to sleep with me, so that was a plus. Not that it mattered since this was to be my last night on the island.

His eyes went wide when he saw the ooze covering me but he kept silent. I think he would be relieved when his duty to me was done. I fed from him then sent him on his way without saying goodbye. He’d been a good food source but now his job was over.

I took a long bath then gathered my few possessions. A backpack had been provided and I stuffed my new red suit, two extra black leather uniforms and my two swords into it. Lying down fully clothed in a third black suit, I willed myself to sleep.

I was back in the vast cavern again. Shadows from the bonfires danced on the dirt floor like ghouls at a feast. Flames leapt towards the rock ceiling far above.

As per the first time I’d dreamed myself into this place, I didn’t have control of my movements or direction. I was drawn past the fires and the caged humans. The number of cages had increased alarmingly since I’d last been sucked into this dream.

A mini city had been created within the cavern. To the left were the caged human cattle. Nearby were tents that had been erected for the vampires who had yet to become possessed. Many of the tents seemed to be empty. Either their occupants weren’t in the cave, or their shadows had ascended.

I guessed the second choice was more likely when I saw the milling mass of vampires that had been taken over by their silhouettes. As always, they were doing a lot of posturing but were accomplishing very little. In between states, they didn’t seem to require either food or sleep. No tents had been erected for them.

Already converted into their flesh and blood state, the grey imps watched the darkest part of the cavern. Counting them quickly, there were now over forty of the monsters. Their orange eyes glowed softly, seeming to know that something was about to happen. I sensed it as well and tension stiffened my spine.

Gliding closer, I came to a stop near one of the imps. It didn’t sense me hovering so closely behind it. I could smell its sweat and the sweet, pork-like smell of the last human it had eaten. Why are there so many human captives if there are less than fifty imps? I knew my question was about to be answered when the First stepped forward into the light.

One by one, the possessed halted their useless chatter then began to drift towards their leader. The First waited silently until a semi-circle of shadow controlled creatures five or six deep surrounded him. All had been irresistibly drawn to him without him speaking a word.

“My children,” the First said into the silence, “the time has come for you to relinquish your servitude to your hosts.” He wasn’t speaking to the vampires but to the dark creatures that had taken them over. Completely still now, like humans that had been hypnotized, they watched him raptly.

Raising his hands, the First slowly clenched them into fists. Long claws cut through his flesh and black blood flowed. “Rise, my children! RISE!”

At his command, the shadows were suddenly sucked inside their vampire host’s bodies. Then, in an explosion of blood, guts and a clear, watery fluid, new, much larger, bodies burst forth out of the old. Screams of agony and ecstasy rang out during the transformation.

I had just witnessed the birth of an entire army of imps and I was covered in their gunk from head to toe. My lips wrinkled back from my teeth in shocked disgust. Wiping my face, I scraped an eyeball off my cheek. It fell to the ground and burst. Oh, gross!

Orange eyes blinked, surveyed each other and approved of their new forms. Grins stretched malformed mouths and forked tongues flicked out. Each imp seemed to have been cloned from the same cells. All were revolting, unnatural and most of all, evil.

Surveying his army of damned, the First grinned in savage pleasure. He’d waited patiently for this moment for tens of thousands of years. Now it was time for the long dead demi-god’s offspring to take over the world.

“Over my dead body,” I whispered and hundreds of grey, batlike heads whipped in my direction.

“Ah,” breathed the First, “Mortis has come to pay us a visit.” Nervous, guttural titters ran through the throng.

Against my will, I began to drift over to him. The crowd parted and I floated down a narrow corridor of seven foot monsters. One leaned forward and snuffled my hair with its flat snout. It grinned at me and drool dripped from its mouth. Just like new born vampires, these monsters had been born hungry. Now I understood why there were so many human captives. They would shortly be spitted over the fires, roasted then eaten.

I came to a stop before the First. He had moved back into the darkness and was seated on his bone throne. “As you can see,” he waved a clawed hand at the naked, goo ridden throng, “my army is nearly ready. Soon, we shall overrun the humans and then I shall rule.” An expression of extreme arrogance settled onto his misshapen face.

“And what is your grand plan for taking over seven billion or so people with only several hundred monsters?” He seemed a little put out by that. “Yeah,” I said to the thing that had once been human and had thought eternal life sounded like a good idea, “there are a few more people now than there was when you were human.”

Leaning forward, he stared at me intently. The red glow of his eyes washed over my black leather suit, turning it bright red. He grimaced at the suit then dismissed it. “I had forgotten that humans breed like rats,” he mused. “Then I have only one option.”

“What’s that?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“I will make more of my children.”

“How? It looks to me like you’ve already gathered most of your followers. Are you going to make the few vamps you haven’t turned into hell-spawn turn more humans into vampires? Great plan,” I sneered, “it takes decades if not centuries for your diseased blood to possess them.”

Snaking out a hand, the First grabbed me by the arm and yanked me forward. “How little you know of my powers.” Up this close, his breath was hideous. “I have control over all vampires, even the ones that have not yet ascended.”

Uh oh, my panicked brain muttered, this can’t be good. Pulling me even closer, the First whispered a word into my ear then thrust me away.

Spinning through the air, I was headed directly for the rock wall. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact that would shatter most of my bones.

I opened my eyes a few seconds later when there was no impact. Rock was above me but it was a ceiling, not a wall. “Thank G-G-G.” Halting my stutter, I tried again. “Thank fuck that was just a dream.”

Falling asleep again wasn’t going to happen so I climbed out of the low bed. Thankfully, the goo that had covered me in my dream didn’t follow me into wakefulness. I still felt dirty so headed for the bathroom to wash up.

I didn’t actually notice that anything was wrong with me until I turned on the pair of oil lamps before washing my face. Even then it took a few seconds before something weird caught my eye.

Turning my head slowly, I saw the anomaly, staggered back and dropped the wash cloth to the floor. Against the wall, my shadow also staggered back and dropped a shadow washcloth. So did the second one. And the third. “What the hell?” Three identical silhouettes overlapped each other.

My legs felt strength-less and rubbery from shock. Oh my God, the dream wasn’t just a dream. It was real. I remembered the word the First had whispered to me and went cold all the way through to my core. “Rise,” he’d said and the extra shadows that had been in hiding had obeyed him. But why do I have three of them?

Leaving the bathroom, I sank down onto a cushion on the floor. A crazy theory was insistently banging around inside my brain, trying to get out. It was possible that I had three shadows now because I’d been infected with vampire blood not once, but a total of three times.

My shadows had risen but they weren’t showing any signs of sentience yet. I doubted the First was aware of my strange history. He had no way of knowing that I had the blood of three different vampires in my system. This seemed to have put a bit of a crimp in his plans. My shadows had been given the order to rise by their ultimate leader but something had gone wrong somewhere and I wasn’t being controlled by any of them. “Not yet anyway,” I said and put my hands over my face.

Surely it was only a matter of time now before I became possessed. I wasn’t sure how that would work with three different shadows ready to do the actual possessing. My mission to find and kill the First had just become even more urgent. I had to take him down before I became the very thing that I had been fated to destroy; one of the damned.

Chapter Twenty-Three

With another hour left before the sun would fade from the sky, I paced up and down inside my temporary suite. Some of the older vampires set to guard the fortress would be awake and moving around. I decided it would be safer to just stay where I was after watching my shadows overlap each other as I paced the floor. They were still behaving like normal shadows but the sight of them might cause a panic. If anyone else could see them, that was. Maybe only I could see them since I was the one and only whacky Mortis. God, I hope so.

At last, a polite knock sounded. Snatching up my backpack, I shouldered it and opened the door. A guard bowed silently and headed down a hallway I’d never been down before. Time was of the essence if I wanted to be ashore before the sun rose again. I trotted along behind the guard as he led me to a staircase. It descended into darkness, unpleasantly reminding me of the First’s lair.

Thankfully, there were no bonfires with tasty human treats charring away over the flames or hordes of imps at the bottom. Instead, there was only a dank tunnel that smelled strongly of seawater. The tide was out at the moment but I could tell by the glistening walls that the tunnel would be waterlogged at high tide.

We emerged from the tunnel onto a tiny beach. Broken shells gleamed whitely against the damp sand. Two vampire guards waited near the water. So did my ride. The boat was similar to the one I’d stolen from the smugglers to reach the island in the first place. Without needing any urging, I crossed the beach and leapt nimbly into the boat. The guard already on board nodded at me briefly then signalled to the other two to push us off.

With one heave, we were in the water. Starting the motor, the guard slowly and carefully negotiated a path through the rocks. Without a guide, it would have been impossible to make it to or from shore without destroying the boat.

When we were finally through the rocks, the guard cranked up the speed. His face remained stoical as small waves splashed him. Since I was a passenger this time, I stowed my pack where it would remain dry and took a seat.

My chauffer remained silent during the trip and I made no effort to start a conversation with him. Worry ate at me, making small talk seem trivial. The First had awoken his army of evil offspring. More vampires would be making their way to him as their shadows took control. From what I’d just dreamed, the First had power over all vampires. Does that mean he’ll be able to call all of us to him now? I had to find him and stop him before his army became large enough to rise to the surface and take over the world.

Times had changed since the crash-landed alien had first infected the idiotic human who’d wanted to live forever. Now mankind had weapons designed to blow apart large vehicles like tanks and massive battleships. We also had nuclear weapons that could devastate whole cities. Once the possessed ascended to their imp states, they seemed to become flesh and blood again, going by my dreams or visions or whatever they had been. Maybe the humans would be able to battle the monsters with their modern weaponry and win. Then again, maybe they wouldn’t. For all I knew, bullets might not have any effect on them. My best and perhaps only chance to stop the carnage before it began would be to kill the First myself.

As land, and dawn, drew close, I had a rudimentary plan in place. My goal was to hunt down the Comtesse and torture the whereabouts of the First out of her. Ok, it was a crappy plan without much detail but it was all I had.

Jumping into the water, I hauled the boat up onto dry land as the guard lifted the propeller clear. We pushed the boat up the beach and into a small copse of trees. Together, we did a pretty good job of hiding it beneath a camouflage net that had obviously been used for this purpose before.

“Thanks for the ride,” I told the guard then jogged up a rocky slope. When I glanced back, the guard was smoothing out the sand to hide the boat’s arrival. He’d have somewhere to hide before the sun came up in another hour. Now I needed to do the same.

This beach was just as inhospitable and remote as the one I’d left China from four months ago. We might even be near the same spot I’d hijacked the smuggler’s boat from. Scaling a crumbling cliff, I hoisted myself over the edge and took off running. Spying a concentration of lights in the distance, I judged that I would have just enough time to reach them.

Sprinting hard, I entered a large coastal town with only minutes to spare. With little choice, I ended up in the sewers again. This time, instead of inhospitable sewer vamps, my only company was garbage, cockroaches and rats. None were on my list of objects or creatures I wanted to hang out with.

As always, the smells were terrible. Passing what might have been a dead dog that had been washed down from the drain above, I screwed up my nose and hurried past. Not needing to breathe came in very handy sometimes.

Deep inside the sewer where sunlight couldn’t penetrate and barbeque me, I didn’t feel like lying down on the unclean ground so kept moving. I’d grown used to sleeping on a comfortable mattress.

Unfortunately, the sewers were nowhere near as extensive as the ones beneath London had been. Coming to my third dead end in a row, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to travel any further underground. I might as well take a break.

It was safe enough here in the dead end so I put my pack down, sat and took the pair of swords out. I’d been taught how to sharpen and care for the blades so did just that. Refusing to acknowledge my fear that if I slept again I might dream about the First and his army of imps again, I waited out the long day for nightfall.

Hours later, sensing that the sun had at last relinquished its hold on the earth, I made my way back up to the surface. I was in luck and found a manhole that opened into an alley. I’d never been fond of alleys as a human but as a vampire they were a useful tool. Gently setting the lid down, I wiped my hands on the slick black leather pants. Examining my outfit with a critical eye, I decided I’d better find a change of clothes or risk being noticed.

Flitting through the shadows, I spied an open window of a dingy apartment three floors up. The ladder had been retracted but that wasn’t about to stop me. I launched myself up and landed lightly on the metal walkway on the first floor. Swiftly and silently, I climbed up two more floors then crouched near the open window.

Peering inside, I found I was in luck. From the clothes strewn all over the floor and the collection of makeup on the dresser, the bedroom belonged to a girl. Two female voices came from further inside the apartment, bickering good naturedly about what they were going to eat for dinner. While they were busy arguing, I crept inside and raided the closet. Holding up a pair of jeans to judge their size, my head whipped around when one of the voices drew closer.

Since my vampire mojo only worked on straight men and lesbians, I had only a slim chance of hypnotizing the woman who was about to enter the room.

“Fine!” she called over her shoulder as she pushed the door open, “we’ll go to the restaurant with the cute waiter. Again.” Her tone was indulgently exasperated. “I’ll just get changed and we can go!” She called this out because she was half buried in the closet.

Hiding beneath the western style bed, I watched as she searched through the built-in wardrobe. “Hey, did you borrow my favourite jeans again?” she stuck her head out to ask.

“No! I wouldn’t dare after the fuss you made the last time,” her roommate called back.

“Like hell you wouldn’t,” the girl in the closet muttered. “If you didn’t borrow them then where the hell are they?” Giving up her search, she grabbed another pair of jeans and changed quickly.

The pair left the apartment, still arguing like an old married couple. Emerging from beneath the bed, I stripped and pulled on the jeans. They were a little snug in the butt area but had enough stretch to accommodate my slightly fuller curves. I found a dark blue t-shirt and black jumper with a hood that I could pull up and partially hide my face if necessary. Stealing a bra was out of the question, I was much bigger in the chest area than the girl I was pilfering from.

Done with my thieving, I retreated back to the ground. It was much quieter to simply jump down than to use the rusty fire escape ladder. As I worked my way through the narrow alleys, I debated about whether to pull the hood up or not. I decided I should since I was obviously not Chinese. The idea was to blend in, not to stand out. The Comtesse might have been warned by traitorous Japanese soldiers that I was coming for her and I didn’t want to make it easy for her to know I was out for her blood.

It was dark in the alleys but I had no trouble traversing over and around the garbage, discarded furniture and bums that attempted to block my way. Standing at the mouth of an alley, I surveyed the street and tried to decide what my next step should be. There were plenty of cars parked up and down the street but hotwiring vehicles wasn’t in my repertoire of skills. I suddenly missed Luc intensely. He would have been able to steal any car in the area easily.

Spotting a car easing to a stop just up the street, I hurried towards it. I might not be able to hotwire one but I could steal the keys easily enough.

My victim was tattooed, pierced and might have been scary if I hadn’t been an undead creature of the night. He turned around quickly when I tapped him on the shoulder. I didn’t realize he’d stabbed me in the stomach until dismay filled his face. That’ll teach me to underestimate humans. Not that the wound bothered me at all. I was just used to thinking of them as a food source instead of something that could fight back.

“Shit! Fuck!” he said in mangled English. “I thought you were a rival gang member.” Panic tinged his voice and his hands hovered helplessly over the knife handle.

“You really should try looking before stabbing,” I suggested dryly.

Speculation and animal cunning passed over the guy’s narrow, pimpled face. Glancing up and down the street, he came to the conclusion that getting rid of me was the best way to proceed. He grabbed the knife, pulled it out then stabbed me repeatedly until he was panting with the effort.

“Are you done?” I asked when he staggered backwards and armed sweat out of his eyes.

Dazed and blinking in confusion, he stared down at the knife and at the sluggish, dark blood coating the blade. “Why aren’t you dying?” he asked me stupidly.

“Because I’m already dead, moron,” I told him then punched him in the face. I grimaced at the sight of his caved in nose. Blood, bone and brain coated my fist. He dropped the keys as his legs buckled. I caught both his body and the keys before they hit the ground. Popping open the boot, I folded him inside and threw the knife in after him. It wouldn’t do for the cops to get a look at my blood on the blade.

Checking that no one had witnessed the altercation, I wiped the gore onto his t-shirt then quietly closed the boot. My own stolen shirt was now riddled with holes. It was dark enough to hide the bloodstains.

Driving west for a couple of hours, I stopped beside a river and waited for a lone car to pass before dragging the dead gang member out of the car. I searched his pockets and found a tattered wallet. Inside were half a dozen credit cards, each in a different name. The cards went into my pocket and he went into the water with an unceremonious splash. His corpse bobbed along merrily and eventually disappeared from view. The knife followed him into the water with a small plop and sank straight to the bottom. My blood would be washed away without a trace.

Resuming my journey, I drove until dawn neared. I’d chosen a route that took me through rural areas instead of through the larger cities. It seemed prudent to avoid places where vampires might gather in numbers. If they could all be controlled by the First then it would be safe to assume that any vamp could now be my enemy.

Cars passed me regularly during the long drive. I wasn’t confident that I would be safe from discovery if I parked beside the road and hid in the boot. I decided I’d have to be more careful from now on when bedding down for the day.

Nosing my ride onto a dirt road, I drove until the faintest hint of light touched the sky. Instantly, my eyes began to sting and steam rose from my flesh. I wasn’t hurting yet but if the sun’s rays touched me, I’d begin to boil. Since I’d already experienced what it felt like to be half skeleton, I was keen not to repeat the process.

Hiding the car in a thicket, I pulled my pack from the back seat and hurriedly changed into one of the black leather suits.

In the deepest part of the thicket, I dropped to my knees and began to dig. Dirt collapsed into the hole behind me as I made my way into the earth, hiding me from the light before it could scald me. I didn’t stop tunnelling down until I was a good twenty feet below the ground. Only then did I burrow out a small hollow and pack the entrance with dirt. The backpack served as my pillow and I made myself as comfortable as possible considering I was sharing my rough bed with bugs.

Chapter Twenty-Four

This time, I allowed myself to sleep. If I dreamed, I didn’t remember it. Tunnelling my way back to the surface, I halted when I sensed someone standing above me. Urging my senses upwards, I encountered four more beings waiting for me. There was something strange about them, they didn’t feel like normal vampires. Maybe they aren’t vampires at all anymore, I thought grimly.

Still about ten feet beneath the ground, I began digging sideways instead of straight up. After having so much practice moving beneath the earth, it was easy enough to dig a good fifty feet away. Rising almost noiselessly, I wasn’t particularly surprised to see five misshapen imps crouched in a tight circle above the hole I’d made. All held swords or axes ready to hack me to pieces. Been there, done that and I’m not doing it again.

I didn’t know how they’d tracked me in the first place but slinking away wasn’t an option. This could give me the perfect opportunity to find out where the First was hiding. Maybe I wouldn’t even need to visit the Comtesse to torture the information out of her at all.

Ignoring the stab of disappointment at that idea, I judged the distance between me and the nearest monster. I quietly pulled both swords free from the pack and then their sheaths. My chosen target’s grey skin glistened wetly in the shadows. They were all sweating heavily and the smell wasn’t pleasant.

Shouting a warning would have been more sporting but it was five against one so screw fairness. I launched myself at the closest imp without a sound. Orange eyes flicked upwards then widened as one of the other imps saw me. The creature in my sights didn’t have enough time to react before I was on him. My twin swords pierced its neck. Crossing my hands over, the sharp blades overlapped, severing its bald head easily. So, normal weapons can kill them. Good to know.

As the body fell to the ground, twitching and jutting steaming blood from its neck, the other four stared at me stupidly. “Where is your leader hiding?” I asked the group. “Tell me where he is and I might let you live.” Yeah, sure I will.

“If we told you, he’d kill us himself,” one replied. Its voice was guttural and the words were in what I suspected was our father’s alien language but I understood it perfectly.

“How did you find me?”

“You know how,” another responded almost contemptuously.

That exhausted our conversation and all four attacked me simultaneously. Working as a team was completely foreign to the small group. While hacking at me, one accidentally axed its colleague in the back of the head. The imp went down, leaking blood and brains and twitching uncontrollably. The offending monster gave its companions a sheepish look and shrugged its slumped shoulders. Not quite dumb enough to fall for its false contrition, they turned on their ally.

Moving out of range, I watched the remaining trio attempt to massacre each other. They’d completely forgotten about me in their frenzy to do away with their rivals. Minutes later, only one imp remained. Slashed in several places, it held up its gore ridden axe and howled at the sky in triumph. The hairs on my arms stood to attention as I had a vivid flash of what earth would be like with these things in charge. I’d just had a firsthand view of their need to kill. The earth would become a dead wasteland if they were left to run free.

Staggering in a circle, the monster spotted me and went still. The orange eyes were puzzled as it tried to remember why it was there in the first place. Intelligent it wasn’t and no recognition flared within its brain. Hurt badly, possibly dying, it started towards me. The urge to kill was stronger than its need to survive. One of my swords went into its throat and the other slid into its heart.

Dropping to its knees, the imp grasped the sword in its throat and tried to pull it out. Even kneeling, it was almost eye to eye with me. Obliging its unspoken wish, I pulled the sword free. “Tell me where the First is,” I urged the creature.

“Won’t,” it spat. Dribbles of black blood ran from its mouth, down its neck and onto its chest. Clothed only in a filthy loincloth, I noticed this monster was chestier than the others. Jesus, it’s female! I wasn’t sure why that shocked me so much. More than a few of the damned I’d dispatched had been women. I guess the imps were so huge and unnatural that I’d assumed they became androgynous when they changed into their new forms.

Twisting the sword still in the thing’s chest, I winced as she screeched. Startled birds burst out of the trees and winged their way to freedom. “Tell me where the First is!” It wasn’t a question this time but a demand.

Falling onto her back, the imp succeeded in freeing herself from my sword. She crawled a few feet away then fell onto her face. A convulsion hit her as I reached her side. She was dead before I turned her onto her back. Glazed, unseeing eyes stared up at the trees.

“Well, that was unsuccessful,” I said then bent to clean the swords. A more thorough cleaning could wait until I stopped for the night. For now I simply wiped the blades on the loincloth of the dead monster.

It was a surprise to see that none of the fallen had turned into mush yet. Worried that humans might stumble across the carcasses, I spent an hour hiding the carnage. I turned the tunnel I’d slept in into a grave, digging it wide enough to hide all five bodies inside. It was obvious someone had been digging by the time I was done but at least the burial site was hidden beneath the trees.

Before driving off, I changed back into my civilian clothing. I’d have to fill up the car with petrol soon. Wearing the tight black leather outfits would make me stand out far more than I wanted to.

As I drove away from the battle site, I mulled over the small amount of information I’d gleaned from the imps. One had told me I already knew how they’d managed to find me. Either I didn’t know or I didn’t want to admit that I knew it. Passing an abandoned van about two hundred meters down the road, I guessed it had been their mode of transportation.

When I stopped for fuel in a tiny town, the answer to how they’d found me became too obvious to ignore. The bright lights of the service station glared down at me and my shadows stood out baldly on the concrete. All three of them overlapped, filling up the shadow car on the ground with a shadowy petrol nozzle. I knew I wasn’t the only one who could see them when I entered the shop to pay for the fuel. A kid of about two or three pointed at me and tugged on his mother’s dress. He was babbling nonsense words but my freaky mind even managed to translate his speech easily.

“Look, Mummy, look! The lady has three shadows,” the kid was trying to get across to his parent. Lucky for me, she couldn’t understand his words and patted the kid on the head absently. I couldn’t believe a child that young could count accurately. It showed just how little I knew about kids.

It wasn’t necessary to pay for the fuel after all. The guy behind the counter fell beneath my spell and I sauntered out with his spare cash and one of his credit cards in my pocket. I had quite a collection of plastic to choose from now.

Climbing into my stolen ride, I pretended not to see the toddler waving at me from his seat in the back of his car. His mother was fussing with his seatbelt and threw a look over her shoulder to see who her son was waving at. All she saw was the side of my car as I drove away.

Now I know how they found me, I thought dismally as I resumed my trek westward. I was becoming one of them, that was how. Not only could I sense them, they could apparently sense me in return. God only knew how many of the deformed alien demi-god’s spawn were on my trail. Would I find them waiting for me each time I rose for the night? I doubted they could stand direct sunlight but they could obviously move around during the day if they’d managed to get into position to ambush me before I’d risen.

I’d encountered five of the aberrations and had come out of the fight unscathed. Mainly because they’d been too busy trying to kill each other to attack me. It would be wishful thinking to believe I could count on them infighting every time I came across more than one at a time. They might be disorganized and confused now but they might also learn how to unite as a team. Then I’d get to use my fighting skills for real. It wouldn’t be a fight to first blood then but a fight to the death.

Chapter Twenty-Five

My theory was finally tested when I was roughly halfway back to France. I was holed up in the cellar of an abandoned farmhouse in an unpronounceable country when guttural voices woke me from my light doze. I hadn’t slept very deeply for several days now and was feeling cranky and out of sorts.

I’d taken to changing into my black leather suits during the day and keeping my weapons close at hand when I slept. I was glad I had now that the offspring were making their next move. I’d felt them following me from a distance for the past couple of nights. Now they were ready to put whatever plan they’d worked out into action.

I’d chosen this remote place to hide for the day in the hope that they’d take the bait. The cellar was about fifty feet square. Racks of shelves, some still holding the remnants of canned food, should hinder their movement. Right now, I was hunkered down near the back wall behind one of the racks. Two hulking imps were hunched over, due to the low ceiling. A bright flare of sunlight dazzled my eyes as the trapdoor was opened. Yet another creature dropped inside.

As I’d guessed, direct sunlight wasn’t their friend. The newest arrival shucked off a heavy cloak that had covered it from head to toe. The black cloak, steaming lightly, landed on two others just like it. Now I had three monsters to deal with.

This lot already seemed to be cleverer than the last mob and were far more organized. One directed the other pair to split off and begin searching the cellar. They moved as silently as seven foot creatures could with heavy, shuffling footsteps and soft, eager grunts. Their mistake was to assume the sun still had the power to make me die during the day. I have news for them and it isn’t good, heh, heh.

Picking my first victim, I stayed low and moved to meet her. Slightly smaller than the other two, she was just as ugly and muscular but her head had a definite feminine cast to it. I wasn’t under the delusion that this made her any less dangerous than the other two. She was simply closer so I went for her first.

Sneaking far more quietly than the offspring, I waited for her to round the shelf. My sword went into her eye and she jittered on the spot before crumbling to the ground. “Did you get her?” the lead imp asked eagerly. “Is Mortis dead?”

“Technically, yes,” I responded and was gone before he rushed over to see what had happened.

“I thought new vampires had to sleep through the day,” the third intruder complained.

“There is nothing normal about this bitch,” the leader growled.

“You’ve got that right,” I agreed as I popped up beside the third monstrosity. Since it had worked so well last time and he was hunched down low anyway, I stuck a sword into his eye.

Cursing in his alien language, the remaining fiend backed into the open space beneath the trapdoor. Unfortunately for him, I’d snuck in behind him and removed the cloaks. It would mean certain death if he opened the door and tried to escape.

“I’ll make a deal with you, vampire bitch,” he said. From the shadows, I could read rudimentary cunning in his twisted, batlike face. A long, forked tongue flicked out and licked his chops.

“I’m listening.”

“If you let me go, I’ll call off the others. You go your way and we’ll go ours.”

Yeah, I believe that about as much as I believe the earth is flat. “What about the First? Won’t he be unhappy that you’ve defied him?”

“He doesn’t control us completely.” I heard an unspoken ‘yet’ in his words. “We are able to think for ourselves. If we promise to leave you alone and you prevail against our leader, I only ask that you leave us alone afterwards.”

“Leave you alone to do what? Live peacefully with vampires and humans?” I didn’t bother to hide my disbelief.

“We know how to remain hidden and to hunt wisely.” He sounded desperate now and was clutching at straws. We both knew he and his brethren had no intention of lying low and remaining in hiding. They would go on a rampage and murder as many humans as possible.

“Ok, you have a deal.” Surprise didn’t sit well on that misshapen face. “Here’s your cloak.” I threw it towards the creature and was on the move before he caught it. It might be considered unsporting to attack while my enemy’s guard was down but I did it anyway. My sword speared through the cloak and into the throat of the monster. A long gash appeared as I sawed sideways. Now he had two gaping mouths. One dribbled saliva and the other gushed rank smelling blood.

After the second failed attack, the imps took a break for a couple of days to regroup. The third time they came for me, they’d come up with a much better plan. I inadvertently helped them by sticking to the less popular back streets.

I sensed them suddenly drawing closer even before I saw headlights racing towards me in the rear view mirror. Then three vans were zooming in close to box me into a trap. Squashed inside were creatures far too large to fit into conventional seats. Leering faces sneered at me and then half a dozen guns were being poked out of the open windows. Seeing such modern weapons in the hands of things that looked like they had crawled out of hell was weird. Maybe they raided a gun store. I could imagine the look on the human’s faces when they got a load of these customers. They’d have about five seconds to be terrified then they’d be dead and most likely eaten.

Slamming on the brakes, I was rear ended by the van behind me. My ploy worked and I escaped the hail of bullets that had been intended for my car. Slow to react, the imps to either side of me sprayed each other with their automatic weapons and both vans veered away. One hit a tree and exploded. The other screeched to a halt, leaving several feet of burning rubber on the road.

I didn’t want to give the van behind me a chance to bulldoze me into a tree so drove fifty feet away then stopped. I’d rather face bullets than fire any day. Apparently, fire couldn’t kill me but I’d rather not test the theory unless I had to.

Imps boiled out from the two remaining vans and thunder ripped through the air. Grabbing my backpack from the passenger seat, I kicked open the door. Ducking down behind the car, my body jittered and jived as it was riddled with bullets. Most went straight through but the ones that caught on bone wormed their way back out and dropped to the ground. The wounds healed fast, even for me.

Silence descended as the grey monsters ceased fire. While I’d come out of the attack unscathed, my stolen car was a complete write off. It looked like mangled swiss cheese and sat on four flat tyres. Steam rose from the ruined engine. It wouldn’t be going anywhere unless it was on the back of a tow truck.

While the latest group of monsters tried to work up the courage to see if I’d survived their barrage, I slipped away and circled around behind them. Not only had my stolen car been ruined by their attack, my clothes were also full of holes. At least I wasn’t wearing one of the leather suits. They would be difficult to replace unless I made another trip to Japan.

At a quick count, there were ten grey skinned creatures surrounding the wreckage of my car. Make that twelve, I corrected myself as another two slightly singed imps stumbled into view. It was time to see just how well I’d been trained.

My twin weapons poked out of the top of the pack where they were easily accessible. Metal rasped quietly as I pulled both swords free from their sheaths. My feet made little noise as I crossed the road in a run. One of the offspring turned, pointed at me and gurgled out a warning. He lost his hand when one of my swords sliced out. It fell to the road and lay there like a prop from a horror movie. Howling, he clutched his spurting stump. I cut his misery short by taking his head.

More bullets hit me but I ignored them and went to work. Twirling and spinning, the twin swords moved in graceful, deadly arcs. A sword much thicker and less agile than mine swung towards my head. Steel met steel in a sharp ringing sound and the vibration raced up my arm towards my shoulder. The imps were stronger than me but this wasn’t an arm wrestling contest, it was a contest of speed. I was much smaller and faster and far better trained in combat.

In less than two minutes, I had sliced my way through all but one of the monsters. Their abnormal blood and rank sweat coated my ragged clothing, not to mention my skin. Turning to face my final foe, I found myself looking down the bore of a gun. “Dodge this, Mortis,” the female offspring said, unintentionally rhyming. She pulled the trigger.

My head slammed backward and my neck broke with a sharp crack. I found myself suddenly looking up at the cloudy sky above. The constellations seemed different from back home in Australia. I saw them only out of my right eye. My left eye, along with half of the back of my head, had been demolished by the large calibre bullet.

For a moment, everything went blank and I was unable to do anything but look up at the twinkling stars above. Once upon a time, when I’d been new, I’d thought that even I wouldn’t be able to survive a killing blow to the head. No being on earth could survive having its brain scrambled. Unless you were me, apparently. My wounded brain, flesh, bone and everything else inside my skull regenerated with lightning speed. By the time I lowered my head, I was as good as new again. The imp’s expression changed from gloating happiness to dismay. “Why can’t you just die?” she asked me almost plaintively.

“I have no idea,” I replied and ran both swords through her heart.

They might be big, repulsive and smelly but the grey beings died easily enough. I wasn’t sure if the First knew the limitations of his soldiers. Even puny humans should be able to fight them off if they used enough bullets. Then I noticed something extremely disturbing about the fallen monster. She had a suspiciously large bulge in her stomach area.

Dropping down to one knee, I lifted her filthy, oversized men’s t-shirt up to reveal her stomach. Oh my God. She’s pregnant. Dazed, I stared at the bulge in disbelief. Vampires, being undead, couldn’t conceive. How then was a creature that had been made from vampire flesh able to gestate? How was it able to gestate to such an advanced state so quickly? It had been less than a week since the First had awakened his horde of soldiers. The dead offspring looked to be about six months pregnant. By some dark magic, she had advanced along her pregnancy at a rate of about one month per day. In a total of nine or ten days, she would have given birth to the beginning of a new army of imps.

Chapter Twenty-Six

As if my horror wasn’t already complete, the stomach of the dead monster began to move. “It’s still alive,” I whispered and stood so rapidly that I almost fell over backwards. Tiny fists stood out clearly against the rippling flesh. From within the body I heard a muffled, enraged roar.

Like all the others, the imp was wearing a loincloth made of whatever material had been handy. The creatures were too large for their old vampire clothing and only the pregnant one had seemed inclined to wear a shirt anyway. Maybe it had done so in an effort to hide the pregnancy from me just in case their mission failed. Well, I knew about it now and my job had become a lot more urgent all of a sudden. If the imps could breed this quickly, the First would have the army he craved much sooner than I’d anticipated. Humans would be overwhelmed before they could even begin to mount a defence.

I didn’t want to watch as the baby’s head appeared between its dead mother’s legs but my revolted gaze was riveted to the sight anyway. A misshaped dome pushed its way out and tiny, clawed hands grasped meaty thighs. Pulling its body out of the passageway to freedom, it left small, gaping wounds in its mother’s flesh.

Exhausted and covered in disgusting black goo, the premature imp baby lay on the road, panting. Its skin was the same grey shade as its mother. It had the same batlike face and long ears that curled under at the tips. The very sight of the infant hurt me somewhere deep inside. It was an abomination that didn’t belong on this earth.

Sensing my presence, the baby lifted its head to regard me. Orange eyes glittered and it opened its mouth to reveal twin rows of sharp teeth. It knew me for an enemy on sight. Only a few minutes old, it should have been helpless but this thing wasn’t a normal infant. It was the offspring of an alien and had been born with the strength of a monster. It was on its feet in a flash and running towards me with murder written on its tiny, hideous face.

It moved with eerie speed, closing the distance between us in seconds. Still dazed and disbelieving, I made no move to stop it. I believe it intended to scale me with its clawed hands and latch onto my face. It was right at my feet and reaching for my leg when it was suddenly yanked backwards. I’d seen the same thing happen to vicious dogs when they ran out of chain. Saved by the umbilical cord, I thought in relieved amazement.

Climbing to its feet again, the baby examined the cord hanging from its stomach. A swipe of its claws freed it. Grinning evilly, it took a step towards me and that’s when my training kicked in. It took only one swing of my sword to cut the horrid thing in half. Now it was its turn to be dazed and disbelieving. The puzzled look faded as it died and then it was just a lifeless, doll sized freak lying on the road.

Looking around at the carnage, I debated whether to clean up the mess. Why bother? If they’re breeding this quickly, humans will know about them soon enough. It seemed unavoidable now and burying this many bodies would be a waste of time and energy.

I did take the time to clean my swords and to change into one of the black leather suits. I looked a bit like a dominatrix on the prowl but it was better than wearing tattered, bullet riddled rags.

Turning to survey the vehicles, choosing one wasn’t difficult. Mine was totalled, one of the vans was toast and another sported a rash of bullet holes. Only one vehicle was still usable. The van that had rear ended me had a crumpled nose but apart from that it was ok.

Opening the driver’s door, I blinked at the bare emptiness inside where the seat should have been. Now I knew how the creatures had managed to squeeze inside. Feeling like time was running away from me, I jogged to my old ride and wrenched the door off. It hit the ground with an unmusical crash. Then I tore the driver’s seat out and carried it to the van.

Without the tools or knowledge of how to properly affix the seat, I instead judged how close I’d need it to be to the steering wheel then drove it into the floor. Twisted, broken metal punched through the flimsy floor. The seat was wedged in tightly enough that it wouldn’t slide around when I drove.

Thankfully, the keys were still inside. I left the battle scene behind but couldn’t leave behind my feeling of impending doom. I was one lone vampire up against creatures that spawned like maggots. Even if I did wring the location of where the First was hiding from the Comtesse, how could I possibly fight my way through hundreds, if not thousands of imps to kill him?

Despair tried to sink its claws into me. Kokoro had prophesized that I would have an army of my own but I still doubted it. She’d admitted that her sight was clouded when it came to our Father’s first child. She didn’t know what the outcome of my battle with the First’s progeny would be. Maybe this mystery army was just a figment of her imagination. It could be her way of spurring me on. If I believed backup would arrive to save me then maybe I’d psych myself into attacking the First head on. But I was a realist and the idea that an army would suddenly appear out of thin air and come to my aid didn’t seem very likely.

When dawn neared, I was in a reasonable sized city somewhere in Europe. I’d lost track of exactly where I was. Each time I had to stop at a border crossing, I bamboozled my way through. Wherever I was, English wasn’t the national language.

Spotting an underground parking facility, I nosed the van inside and headed several floors down. There were no curtains in the van but the windows were tinted darkly enough that I should remain undetected. Wearing all black could only help with that. I would be a shadow amongst more shadows if any nosy parkers came to investigate. A human would have to shine a torch inside to be able to spot me.

Lying down on the plush carpet, I kept my swords handy but I didn’t think the imps would follow me into a populated area like this. They weren’t quite ready to confront the human armies yet. From now on, I’d stick to the main highways until I reached France. If I was lucky, the Comtesse would be holding court back in the French mansion. I’d been there twice before and knew where it was so I wouldn’t have to waste time searching for the place.

I allowed myself to sleep but not deeply enough to fall into the dark dreams that waited to claim me. I sensed the First’s red eyes turning in my direction like an evil divining rod. Amusement and scorn rolled from him in thick waves. “Do you really think you can best me, vampire?” he chuckled deep inside my mind. “Once we meet face to face, you will be mine. I long for that moment, my bride.”

Behind the First was a harem of pregnant female imps. I wasn’t sure if he’d sired all of the offspring himself or if he’d had help from the male members of his army.

Snapping awake, I sat up and put a hand on my stomach. Thankfully, it was still flat and devoid of life. He might be powerful but even the First isn’t mighty enough to impregnate me in a dream. Besides, my womb is as dead as the rest of me. I was almost relieved at the thought that I’d have to become an imp before I could get knocked up.

Wiping my sweatless brow, I became aware of the sound of humans bustling to their cars. When most of them had left, I exited the van, carrying my backpack. A lone man striding towards his car spied me and did a double take. His face lit up in appreciation of my leather outfit. Reaching him, I had to take his face in my hand and forcibly lift his gaze from my chest to capture his eyes. He was already half hypnotized before I be-spelled him. My intention had been to feed from him quickly then to steal his money and his car. Then I noticed that we were roughly the same size and I decided to take things a step further.

“Take off your clothes,” I instructed him. A grin of dazed happiness filled his narrow face. He divested himself of his clothing quickly and efficiently. When his hands dropped to his boxer shorts, I stopped him. A sulky pout pooched his bottom lip out, making him look like a thwarted child. That brought back the image of the dead monster baby and I almost lost my appetite.

It had been days since I’d last fed so I shrugged off the faint feeling of nausea and drank my fill. Small, girlish hands grasped my hips and slid straight off the slick leather. I could see why the Japanese vamps liked these outfits so much.

“Find the nearest bathroom and sleep for an hour,” I ordered the dreamy eyed meal when I was done. Wearing only socks and boxers, he stumbled off towards the elevator.

Dressing in the suit, I had no doubt that I looked like a chick trying to be masculine. It was better than walking around in a teenage boy’s idea of a bondage outfit. As much as I liked the leather suit, it wasn’t appropriate for wearing anywhere but on the battlefield or when sneaking around at night.

My new stolen car was a red Toyota. Since there were about a billion others just like it on the roads, I determined it would be an excellent alternative to the black van. The boot was a lot squishier than the back of a van but you couldn’t have everything.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Two days later, I was finally back in France. There had been no trace of imps on my tail since the last fight. Maybe they’d given up. Or maybe the First called them off, I thought uneasily. He’d seemed pretty certain that he’d have control of me as soon as we came face to face. The command to ‘rise’ he’d whispered in my ear still haunted me. So did my trio of shadows. Every time I caught sight of them overlapping each other, I started and they started with me. It was unnerving but there was nothing I could do about it. I resolved to quit worrying until I had something concrete to worry about. It would be best to try to ignore them altogether.

Hoping to verify that the Comtesse was where I hoped she’d be, I headed for the one place where I might find an ally or two. That is if they hadn’t been called to join the First’s army. I’d only been to the country house once but remembered the way well enough. It was only a few kilometres away from the Court mansion.

It was late when I passed through the tiny hamlet near the safe house and most of the windows were dark. Depressingly, so were the windows in the safe house that Luc had once brought me to. There was no movement inside when I pulled over and climbed out of the car. The curtains didn’t twitch and the door wasn’t flung open in welcome.

Trudging to the door, I turned the knob and found that it was unlocked. I closed the door once I was inside and automatically locked it. It felt weird to be trespassing but at least I would have a bed to sleep in when the sun came up in a few hours. With the goal of a shower in mind, I headed for the stairs.

I made it as far as the hallway that led to the stairs before the attack came. I heard a familiar whistling sound and suddenly a stake was sticking out of my chest. Before I had time to groan, it was followed by a crossbow bolt and then a small hand axe. Light flooded the hallway and I raised a hand to shade my eyes.

“He’s still not down,” a familiar gruff voice yelled.

“It must have been taken over by its shadow!” This was said by a younger voice that was shrill and almost girly with panic.

“Use the holy water!” Unfortunately, I dropped my hand as this was yelled by a third person and I copped a bucketful of water in the face.

Wiping water out of my eyes, I beheld Gregor, Igor and Geordie’s shocked faces. “That wasn’t exactly the welcome I was hoping for,” I said and grimaced at the weaponry sticking out of my stolen suit jacket.

“Chérie, you’re alive!” Geordie cried. Dropping a dripping bucket, he launched himself at me. Wrapping his arms around me, he managed to grind the weapons in deeper as he grabbed a handful of my butt with his gloved hands. “I have missed you, Natalie,” he said gravely then kissed both of my cheeks. Igor dragged him away before he could plant the next one on my mouth. Sulkily, the young looking yet two hundred year old vampire brushed messy, dirty-blonde hair out of his eyes then pulled his protective gloves off. He was still young enough to have a faint trace of blue in his irises.

“Natalie,” Gregor was almost speechless in his surprise at my return but rallied quickly. “Where have you been? We looked for you in the cemetery but you were already gone.” Forty-ish in mortal years, Gregor was the most civilized vampire I’d met. I’d been to his home in the UK and had been impressed with his extensive library. He was one of the few of my kin who hadn’t tried to kill me. Until now, that was and that had been an accident.

“Someone had already dug you out,” Igor said gruffly as he stepped forward and began yanking the weapons out of me. He handed the axe to Gregor, the stake to Geordie and stuck the bolt into an empty loop in a belt around his waist.

“Yeah, someone.” I replied absently. “Where’s Luc?” I asked and they were suddenly looking everywhere but at me.

“You should head upstairs and clean up,” Gregor said in an unsuccessful attempt to divert me.

Sensing instinctively who the weakest link would be, I turned to Geordie. “Where’s Luc?” I asked again. Fiddling with his axe, Geordie stared down at the floor. “Geordie, what happened to him?” At his quick, stricken glance, black spots were suddenly dancing in front of my eyes. I must have blacked out for a second because the next thing I knew, I had Geordie by the throat and was shaking him back and forth like a ragdoll. His feet dangled a foot above the ground. “Where is he? Is he dead?” My distress was so acute that my fangs had descended, shredding my bottom lip. Gregor and Igor hung from my arms, having no effect on calming me down at all.

“He’s alive,” Geordie croaked and that calmed me enough to put him down. Rubbing his throat where an imprint of my holy mark stood out clearly, the kid looked at me warily. “How did you get so strong, chérie? And why did your holy mark not kill me?”

Gregor and Igor stepped back, eyeing me warily. “I have the blood of three different vampires in me now. I guess that’s made me stronger,” I said in answer to his first question while wiping thick blood from my chin. My fangs had retracted and my lip had healed like magic. “The holy marks only work if I will them to,” I said in answer to the second query. Turning to Gregor, I pinned him with my stare. A lot had changed since we’d last met and I was no longer the naïve baby vampire he’d known. “Where is Luc?”

Exchanging glances with Igor, Gregor knew he’d have to come clean but he still didn’t want to answer me. Now that he’d seen my strength, maybe he was reluctant to stir my wrath again. I’ll show him what wrath is if he doesn’t answer me within the next five seconds.

It was Igor who had the balls to tell me what I didn’t want to hear. “The Comtesse has him.” He met my stare directly and without flinching away from my instant anger.

“Why haven’t you rescued him?”

“Because he is surrounded by several hundred guards, not to mention the members of the Court,” Gregor said dryly.

Rubbing my face with both hands, I took hold of my anger and boxed it back up. “I’m going to take a shower,” I told all three of them. “When I’m done, you can talk me through what’s been happening while I was gone.”

“Would you like me to scrub your back for you, chérie?” Geordie asked slyly. Igor reached out and slapped him up the back of the head.

“No thanks, but you could find me a change of clothes. This suit seems to have a few holes in it.” I fingered the slashes and rolled my eyes.

Relieved that my anger had abated, Geordie scampered up the stairs ahead of me, rubbing the back of his head at the same time. “You are not much smaller than me. I can loan you some of my clothes.”

“Ok, but I’m not wearing one of your bras,” I said inanely. A high pitched giggle floated out from the room my young looking friend had disappeared into.

Stepping inside the room I’d stayed in the last time I’d been here, I stashed my backpack on the bed. I then waited for Geordie to appear with a change of clothes before entering the bathroom. I’d woken up in bed with him lying beside me once. I didn’t want to step out of the shower and find him holding my towel for me.

“Thanks, Geordie.” He didn’t seem to be inclined to leave on his own so I pointed to the door. “Out.”

Hanging his head, he sent me a doleful glance over his shoulder. I wasn’t falling for his tricks and kept a stern look on my face until he was gone. When his footsteps thumped on the stairs, I locked the door then allowed a small grin to appear. Christ, I think I actually missed him. My friends had always been few and far between since I’d been turned into the undead. You didn’t have any friends when you were alive either, I reminded myself. The three guys downstairs were about the closest thing to friends I’d had in years.

It was heartening to see that at a few other vampires had yet to be called to the First. Maybe we would find more of our kin that hadn’t been possessed yet and talk them into joining our cause. I hoped so, because otherwise the army I’d been promised would consist of just the four of us. It looks like Kokoro was right after all, I won’t have to do this alone. The knowledge was profoundly comforting.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I felt much better after my first shower in over a week. Geordie’s clothes were a couple of inches too long in the legs and sleeves but the jeans and cream jumper were clean. Best of all, they didn’t have any holes in them. Yet, my negative subconscious put in. At the rate you’ve been going through your clothes lately, these won’t last very long.

Hearing voices in the dining room, I joined my comrades. Gregor looked curiously at the backpack that I placed on the seat beside me. The hilts of my swords stood out plainly but we had other matters to discuss and he put aside his questions for now.

“Ok, fill me in on what happened after I was beheaded and cut into eleven pieces,” I said.

Smoothing his mane of dark blonde hair back nervously, Gregor glanced at Igor and received a nod of support. Stoical as ever, the Russian pulled a machete from his belt and checked the edge. Unhappy with what he found, he fished a sharpening stone from a pocket and went to work.

“After you were…dismembered,” Gregor began as delicately as possible, “and your body didn’t break down as expected, the Comtesse ordered the courtiers to disperse. We had no choice but to leave or risk death at the hands of her guards.”

“The bitch did not want anyone to know what happened to your remains,” Igor said in his thick, almost unintelligible accent. He drew the edge of his machete against the sharpening stone once more then deemed it to be done. The stone disappeared back into his pocket and the weapon slid back into his belt.

“We caught one of the guards who was in the throne room that night and tortured him for information,” Geordie said gleefully.

“He was one of the few guards who hadn’t been turned by the Comtesse,” Gregor explained. “We were extraordinarily lucky since ninety per cent of the guards belong to her.”

“You mean she’s their true master?” It didn’t seem possible that the praying mantis had gotten away with such a blatant breach of the rules she herself enforced. Councillors were only supposed to have up to twenty servants each. This meant she had potentially hundreds of vamps at her disposal.

“We strongly suspect that she is,” Igor confirmed.

“Our captive informed us that five guards were ordered to inter your body in a place that only they and the Comtesse knew about,” Gregor said. “When Lucentio heard what the Comtesse had planned for you, he went a little insane.”

“How can you go ‘a little insane’?” I asked, disturbed and strangely touched that Luc seemed to care about me even though he’d chopped my head off.

“He turned into a raving lunatic,” Geordie said baldly and cringed away from Igor’s flat stare. “She should be told the truth,” he whined. “She is Mortis.” A grimy finger in desperate need of a wash pointed at me from across the table. “If anyone can break him free, she can.”

Heaving a sigh that would have taken a lot of practice to accomplish, Igor capitulated. “Our prisoner told us that Lucentio started carving his way through the guards in an attempt to reach your remains.”

“Then the Comtesse ordered him to be still,” Gregor took up the tale. “He obeyed her instantly, which told us that she is most likely his true master.” A frown darkened his brow for a moment before he continued. “He could only stand there and watch as you were gathered up and carried away.”

“How did you find out where I was buried?” Despite how disturbing it was to hear myself being spoken about like I was an inanimate object, I was caught up in the story. I had been inanimate, after all, but not for long.

“The guards who carried you away haven’t been seen since,” Geordie said in a low voice that would have been suitable for a spooky story told around a campfire in the middle of a haunted forest. “At first we thought the Comtesse must have ordered their deaths.”

“Then Igor found a note in his pocket one night,” Gregor said over top of his fingers he’d turned into a mini tent. “On the note was the name of the cemetery you’d been buried in as well as a rough map of where your remains were placed.”

“Do you still have the note?” I was totally captivated by the story now.

Igor reached for his back pocket and brought out a stained, crumpled piece of paper. Opening it, I saw the name of the cemetery I’d been interred in at the top. Beneath it was a body shaped drawing with circles where my bits and pieces had been buried.

“It isn’t well known that Luc and I are acquaintances,” Igor said with a degree of dignity that I hadn’t seen in him before. “We do not run in the same circles.” Dressed in his worn farm clothing with un-brushed, unruly black hair, he was a far cry from the Court dandies. He was made to be a servant and would remain so until his maker was dead and he was freed from his servitude. I couldn’t imagine Igor as a lord and almost smiled at the idea. Then a strange thought hit me and I did smile.

“What is so amusing, chérie?” Geordie asked, puzzled that I could find any humour in this situation.

“My maker was Silvius and he’s dead.”

“Yes?” Gregor said after a pause.

“Does that now make me a Lady?”

Geordie snorted a laugh as the other pair exchanged glances. “It does,” Igor decided.

“Lady Nat,” Geordie chortled then pouted when Igor kicked his shin. He opened his mouth to voice his next thought and manfully held it in.

He was going to call me ladybug, I thought. I’d mistakenly been called a gnat by several European vampires by now. “Yeah, it is pretty funny,” I said almost wistfully. It was absurd to think that I could be a lady. “So,” I returned to the topic at hand, “the mysterious note turned up in Igor’s pocket. When did that happen?”

“About two weeks after you disappeared,” Gregor said briskly. “We waited for another week, planning how we were going to break you out then headed for the cemetery.” I appreciated their sentiment but I’d already been long gone by then.

“We killed the two guards that were on patrol,” Igor explained. Hah! They were guarding empty graves, the idiots! After the two I’d killed had disappeared, they’d simply replaced them instead of checking whether I was still there or not. Maybe this wasn’t the first time their people had run away. I’d only spent a short time at the Court and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

“Then we followed the map to where your head had been buried,” Gregor took up the story.

“The map gave us landmarks so we’d know where to dig,” Geordie broke in. I glanced at the map and saw a crude drawing of an angel standing near where my head had been buried.

Gregor gave the younger vampire a frown for interrupting him. “When we dug down to your head, the box was already empty.”

“It was also full of hallowed dirt,” Igor said dryly and shook his hand in remembered pain. Whatever wounds he’d sustained had healed months ago but the memory obviously still lingered.

“I’d like to meet whichever of the guards planned this,” I murmured. “He must be on our side.”

“Why do you think that, chérie?” Geordie asked.

“Whoever it was, they knew that holy stuff doesn’t affect me so burying me in hallowed dirt would be a waste of time. In fact, it ended up helping me.”

“How did the dirt help you?” Gregor asked, confused.

Light dawned in Igor’s eyes. “No one rescued you at all. Somehow, you managed to free yourself!”

Geordie went into a French tirade of disbelief and Gregor gaped at me. The knowing look didn’t fade from Igor’s expression and he nodded in satisfaction when I didn’t disagree with his guess.

“Thanks to the dirt and a bobby pin I held onto after killing the fake Mortis, I managed to spring one of my hands free.” At my explanation, I received two stares of bewilderment and one thick eyebrow raised in interest.

“Natalie has attained powers no other vampire has ever possessed before,” Igor told the other two. I hid a smirk at his choice of words. ‘Possessed’ was highly accurate. “She was able to gain control of her dismembered body parts and draw her pieces back together.”

“How can you know this, Igor?” Geordie asked in tones of awe.

“I saw a small tunnel beside the box where her head had been buried that didn’t make sense until now. We were the first to dig down to the box since it had been buried but the lock had been broken and she was missing.” Igor was in full Sherlock Holmes mode now. “It looked to me like something had burrowed its way to the box underground but I had no explanation for what that creature might have been.”

“I guess the larger tunnel I made so I could drag my head away must have collapsed,” I said dryly.

Geordie made a gagging sound when it finally dawned on him what we were talking about. “You mean your hand dug its way through the ground all by itself?”

“I know,” I commiserated with his sick look. “It grossed me out at first, too.” I wasn’t about to admit that I’d shrieked like a scared little girl when my hands had at last broken into the box where my head was installed and I’d gotten a look at them. If I’d ever come close to losing my mind, it had been in that moment.

“To cut a long story short, I broke all of my body parts free and gathered them together. Then my body magically reassembled itself like it was a really big jigsaw puzzle.” Geordie made a gagging sound again but was unable to vomit up his last meal. Our bodies didn’t work the same way as they had when they’d still been human.

“What happened to you then?” Gregor asked. He was hiding how badly he was rattled by my story but not very well. “You’ve been missing for almost five months.”

How time flies when you’ve travelled halfway across the world to learn how to fight. “I went to visit the Japanese vampires,” I said airily.

Igor was speechless for a second. “Didn’t they try to kill you on sight?”

“Well, yeah,” I admitted. “But I eventually managed to talk them around.”

Excitement sparkled in Geordie’s mostly dark eyes. “What happened?”

“It might gross you out,” I warned him.

He waved off my warning. “Nothing could be as bad as what happened to you in the cemetery.”

He might rethink that assumption once I fill him in on the details. “Ok, you asked for it.” I summed up my arrival on the island and the reception I’d received. “Then they cut off my head and threw me into the pit of death,” I finished up.

“What happened next?” Gregor asked. He wasn’t the only one sitting on the edge of his seat.

“How deep was the pit?” Geordie queried, bouncing up and down on his chair.

“Did you manage to climb out?” Igor demanded.

“The pit was about eighty feet deep and the sides were too smooth to climb,” I said in response to both questions. “My only chance of survival was to go down.”

“Back into the earth,” Gregor mused thoughtfully.

“It took me hours to smash through the rock and dig a tunnel.”

“But you made it out before the sun rose,” Geordie was almost pleading with me and was crestfallen when I shook my head.

“You mean you were still in the pit when dawn arrived?” Igor said.

“Half in,” I corrected him.

Gregor looked ill, as if he had some idea of the hell I had gone through. Unless he’d experienced the excruciating pain for himself, he couldn’t really have a clue. “What happened when the sun filled the pit, Natalie?”

“I began to melt,” I said simply. Igor reached over and patted Geordie on the shoulder when he sank his face into his hands. Gregor’s expression was partly horrified and partly pitying. “Everything from the waist down boiled away until there were just bones left,” I said glumly in remembered agony. Geordie gave a small moan and began sobbing tearlessly.

“But you were able to regenerate,” Igor said as he continued to console his young helper.

“Yeah,” I agreed. If I hadn’t, my pants would be a lot looser right now. “But I wouldn’t want to go through that agony again.” I shuddered and waited for Geordie to regain control before continuing on with my tale. I told them about meeting the emperor and convincing him to allow me to learn their way of fighting. Then I told them about the bargain I’d made that had resulted in cleansing the Japanese vampire nation of their damned.

“How many?” Gregor asked sharply. “How many possessed were there out of five hundred vampires?”

“Three hundred.” He wasn’t happy with my answer and closed his eyes.

“Over half,” Igor said in tones of alarm.

Geordie was clueless at the implications. “What does that mean?” he asked.

“It means that the same fate most likely awaits the European vampire nation,” Gregor answered him grimly.

“It gets worse,” I warned them. “The First is making his move for world domination.”

“What do you mean?” Igor asked. “The First is just a myth.”

“He’s real, Igor. The thing that infected him and turned him into a vampire was a very powerful alien. Our dear old Dad made a deal to give the human ‘everlasting life’. What he neglected to mention was that his diseased blood would one day turn the vampire into a replica of himself. He also didn’t bother to mention that all vampires would be turned into things that look like imps from hell.”

“And this process begins with our shadows possessing us?” Gregor asked doubtfully. On some level he believed something weird was going on with his kin. The reception they’d given me proved that. But he wasn’t positive that I wasn’t just a raving madwoman.

It was time for show and tell.

Standing, I moved to the wall so my shadows stook out sharply. Gregor was the first to see it. He blanched and clutched the table. Igor saw it next and shoved his chair back, standing and moving into a fighting stance. Geordie stared at my shadow, squinted, then his eyes went wide. “Why do you have three shadows, Natalie?” His voice was high and almost girly.

“Because she has been infected with the blood of three different vampires,” Gregor deduced correctly.

“The Japanese vamps also have a prophet. She foresaw our Father’s plan tens of thousands of years ago and carved it into the rock beneath the mountain. He gave his blood to a human, turning him into the first vampire. The human didn’t know that the alien’s plan was for his blood to slowly change his shadow into a sentient being. Eventually, the shadow gained possession of the First. Over time, he changed even further. As far as I can tell, he’s a replica of our Father and is now a creature of flesh and blood again.”

“How do you know this?” Igor asked gruffly, pulling his chair back in to the table.

“I had a couple of dreams about him,” I answered reluctantly and sat back down.

“Vampires don’t dream,” Geordie said and rubbed his eyes like a tired kid.

“I do. I dream because I sleep like a human.” Every time I divulged just how different I was to the rest of my kin, I felt a little more distance open up between us. “Anyway, I dreamed about him and saw him force the shadows of his followers to ascend. Instead of a bunch of possessed vampires, we’re now facing full-on monsters that are a shorter version of him. By the way, their favourite food is roasted humans.”

Dismay swept around the table and I wasn’t immune to it. I hated to rain on their parade and make matters worse but I thought they should hear just how bad our situation was. “I was followed by a couple of imp packs on my way here.” I had their full attention, even Geordie’s. “One of the females was pregnant. She looked about six months gone but the First only recently changed the possessed into their new imp forms.”

“How long did it take her to progress to that state do you think?” Gregor said out of lips that seemed to have gone stiff.

“I’d say about five or six days.”

Geordie swayed on his chair but he wasn’t quite able to faint. Igor steadied him automatically. “If these imps are able to grow so quickly as foetuses, we should assume they can also grow quickly to adulthood. This means that the First will have an army of his progeny within a matter of weeks,” the Russian said.

After a lengthy silence, I sealed the fate of everyone sitting at the table with a single word. “Yep.”

“It’s late,” Gregor said wearily. “The sun will be up within the hour. I suggest we reconvene our meeting when we rise.”

“Just tell me one thing,” I said before the trio could stand. Gregor raised an eyebrow in query. “Do you know where Luc is being held?”

“Oh, yes. We know very well.” His smile was strained and he couldn’t meet my eyes.

“He is being kept in the Comtesse’s bedroom,” Geordie blurted. His young face was miserable but mine went blank.

“I see.” I did see and I saw it all too vividly. Luc, helpless to disobey an order from his master, lying naked on a bed with the praying mantis poised above him. What if he wants to be with her? I puzzled over the question as the three men quietly left the table. Too bad, I concluded. The Comtesse was going to die and then the spell she’d cast over Luc would be broken. He would then be free to choose where he wanted to go and who he wanted to be with. A large part of me hoped he’d choose to be with me. The smaller part wondered if he’d try to kill me again if I destroyed his master.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Come nightfall, we were huddled around the table again. Igor had drawn a detailed plan of the Court mansion that was only a few short kilometres away. I’d been inside the building twice but the map gave me a clear idea of the areas I hadn’t seen. The rooms I was interested in right now were on the fourth floor.

“Here,” Igor’s blunt finger stabbed at the map. “This is the Comtesse’s bedroom.” The suite was on the north-west side of the mansion. Apart from the bedroom, she had a bathroom, living room and guest room in her suite.

“Where are the windows?” I asked. My grizzly ally leaned over and made a few marks with his pencil.

“You won’t be able to enter through the windows,” he warned me. “The Comtesse is paranoid about being attacked and they remain shuttered at all times.”

She should be paranoid considering her unlife span was about to be cut short. “Just her windows or all the windows on the fourth floor?”

“All,” Gregor said. “And the windows on the lower floors are regularly patrolled. Every entry point to the mansion will have at least two guards.” At a quick count, there were eight doors leading inside.

“Only two?”

“And a hundred others within shouting distance,” Igor added.

“Chérie needs a diversion,” Geordie suggested. He was more subdued than usual but a faint sparkle of mischief shone through his gloom.

“Now is not the time for your childish games,” Igor warned him.

“He’s right.” Both of the older vamps turned to stare at me while Geordie gave me a grateful grin. He’d narrowly missed out on another slap up the back of the head. “If you can draw the guards away, it’ll give me a chance to slip inside and break Luc free.” And to chop the Comtesse into little pieces when I find her. This was a rescue mission but I had an even more important agenda; I had to find out where the First was hiding.

“I can arrange for a distraction,” Igor said. “And we will have transportation waiting to take you both to safety.”

“We’ll have to time this very carefully,” Gregor mused. He held his chin in one hand and tapped the fingers of his other hand against the table top. “You can stay awake during daylight hours now, is this correct?” I nodded and Geordie goggled at me.

“Is there anything you can’t do, chérie?” the kid asked.

“I can’t fly.” Not yet anyway. Who knew what sort of powers I’d end up with?

“Quiet,” Gregor said. “I’m trying to think.” He did so in stern silence, staring at the ground and drumming his fingers on the table. The rest of us tried not to fidget and break his concentration. Geordie struggled the most. He squirmed in his seat and opened his mouth to speak several times and subsided each time at a glare from Igor.

At last, Gregor smiled. Flicking his hair back from his face, he brought both hands together, lacing his fingers tightly. “I have a plan and I suggest we put it into action tonight before we lose our nerve.” He outlined it for us and I agreed instantly. Igor seemed doubtful that it would work but allowed himself to be persuaded. Geordie sat with his mouth open, looking more than ever like a teenaged human.

“Are you all crazy?” he spluttered. “This will never work!”

“It’ll work,” I argued. “We’ll make it work.”

Gregor stood then pushed his chair neatly back to the table. “We all have our tasks to perform and we have little time to spare.”

“I’ll give you a lift to the village,” Igor offered and I stood to follow him. Geordie dragged his feet in our wake, reluctant to join us in our mad plan.

A familiar black car was at rest in the garage. I’d woken up with my face in Geordie’s lap the first time I’d been a passenger in this vehicle. I climbed into the front and Geordie slid into the back. He looked more scared than sulky and slouched down in the seat.

As promised, Igor dropped me off a short distance from the village. My task was the easiest, I had to kidnap a human and wrangle him back to the safe house. Walking around the perimeter of the small town, I carefully searched for a likely specimen. After a couple of hours, I spied just the right guy.

He pulled up in front of a small house that desperately needed a new coat of paint. Dressed in a ratty pair of jeans and threadbare jumper, he was just exiting his car as I snuck up behind him. He carried a bag of takeout food, Chinese by the smell of it. I let him lock his car door before tapping him on the shoulder.

Turning, he gave me the once over. “What can I do for you, miss?” he asked me in French. In his mid-thirties, he had sandy hair and a face that was easily forgettable. He was average height and build. There’d be a hundred guys just like him in town.

Capturing him with my eyes, I crooked a finger at him. “Come with me.” Spellbound, he did as ordered and we stepped into the shadows of his porch. Two ratty chairs and an equally ratty table sat to the left of the door. “Are you single?” I questioned him.

“Yes.”

“Do you live alone?” I received a nod. “Do you have to go to work tomorrow?”

“No. It is Saturday tomorrow,” he said in a drugged sounding voice. He’d switched to heavily accented English for my benefit but it made little difference to me. “You are so beautiful,” he crooned and grinned at me happily.

“Yeah, yeah.” Checking my watch, I saw that we had an hour to spare before we had to be back at the safe house. “Take a seat and eat your dinner,” I instructed my temporary slave.

Sitting on one of the wicker chairs, he opened the box and used the chopsticks provided to scarf down his meal. When the box was empty, he let out a contented burp then looked to me for further instructions.

A metal trash can sat on the other side of the door so I took the time to dump his rubbish before beckoning him to follow me. I maintained a brisk walk that had the human panting for air in my wake. We were back at the safe house with a few minutes of our deadline remaining.

Gregor gave my slave a critical inspection then nodded his approval. “Igor should be here sometime in the next five minutes. Be ready to leave as soon as you hear his car.”

Nodding, I headed for the stairs with my slave at my heels. “Wait for me here,” I instructed him. The foot he’d lifted to take a step after me hesitated then clomped to the floor. With his blank eyes, he looked a lot like a robot that needed programming.

I hadn’t felt the presence of the First’s minions since being back in France so I’d stashed my pack in my room during the mission. Now I pulled it out from beneath the bed and opened it. I took out the swords and all four leather suits. Looking at the blood-red one almost longingly, I decided it wasn’t time to use it yet. It, along with two of the black suits, went back into the pack and beneath the bed again.

A car approached and pulled into the driveway just as I finished lacing up the suit. Gregor arched both brows when I joined him at the foot of the stairs. He eyed the twin hilts now poking over my shoulders and straps crisscrossing my chest but wisely said nothing.

Geordie wasn’t wise and opened his mouth as soon as I climbed into the back of the van Igor had stolen. “You look like a human’s idea of a sexy assassin, chérie.” He patted the floor beside him, trying to entice me to come closer. Pulling my slave into the van, I motioned him to take the spot next to Geordie. I closed the door, ignoring the teenaged vamp’s pout.

Igor had chosen well when he’d stolen this van. It had no windows in the back and a thick, black curtain separated the front seats from the back. Sunlight would have a hard time finding its way inside.

We drove the few kilometres to the Court mansion in tense silence and stopped short before we could be seen or heard by the guards. A prickling feeling touched the back of my neck and was gone. It had felt for a moment like someone was watching me. I glanced around as I climbed out of the van but there was no other living or unliving thing nearby.

I gave the human his instructions then left him at the van. “You all know what to do,” Gregor said with a trace of nervousness. “With luck, I’ll see you all again in two nights time.” He and Igor clasped hands and Geordie threw himself at me.

“I hope you do not die, chérie,” he whispered in my ear. “Not when I have yet to pleasure myself with your body.” This time, I was the one to slap him in the back of the head. Rubbing the spot ruefully, he pecked me on the cheek then scurried over to Igor. The gruff Russian gave me a nod then ambled off into the dark. Gregor was already gone, hurrying to his position. If I thought it would have done any good, I would have prayed. Somehow, I doubted God cared what happened to creatures like us.

Dressed in neck to toe black leather, I raced through the shadows, undetected by the few guards I passed. In seconds, I reached the perimeter of the mansion.

Lights blazed from the lower three floors. As I’d been warned, the fourth floor windows were tightly shuttered. Dawn was nearing and most of the guards that had been on patrol were heading for their barracks behind the mansion. The barracks were much smaller than the main building. It had only three floors instead of four and was about the size of a small hotel. It might be crammed with guards but they would be helpless once the sun came up. So would I, but I planned to be gone before the first killing rays touched the ground.

It was the guards inside the mansion that I was concerned about. They would be older vamps who didn’t have to sleep during the day. Gregor estimated there would be close to fifty guards prowling around the mansion once the sun came up. Right now they were shuttering the windows on the third floor and would shortly be working their way downwards.

I checked my watch and counted down the last few seconds. Right on time, an unholy screech came from the east side of the building. That was my cue and I was on my feet instantly. The window just above me was yet to be shuttered. My fist went through the glass with a small crash then I had it unlocked and open.

With a picture of Igor’s map in my head, I darted for the servant’s staircase. It was well hidden down a series of hallways that led to the back of the mansion. Feet thundered down the main staircase and more screeches, decidedly feminine, came from outside. I wonder if Geordie knows he sounds like a girl when he gets excited? I’d have to ask him if we made it out of this intact.

“They have holy water bombs!” a guard shouted in warning. My ears were sharp enough to pick up on the sound of water splashing against a target. This time the screams were masculine and full of pain instead of girly with crazed excitement and terror. That’s one guard down. None of these guards stood a chance of reaching Igor and Geordie. My conspirators would be wearing hoods and generic jeans and jumpers instead of their usual garb.

Gregor’s plan had been for Igor to raid all of the nearby churches and pilfer their holy water. Wearing protective gloves, Igor and Geordie would throw balloons full of the stuff at the guards to draw them away.

To add to the confusion, Gregor also had his part to play. I smelled the smoke before the milling, anxious guards did as it began to filter inside. “Fire!” a hysterical guard bellowed. Roughly half of the guards stampeded to the west side of the building to deal with the latest threat.

I quickly darted upstairs to the fourth floor and eased open the door to the long hallway I’d been in once before. The prickling sensation was back, raising the hairs on my neck. Without conscious thought, the swords were in my hands. I sensed the creatures now, surrounding me on both sides. Doors up and down the hallway opened and the First’s minions flowed into sight. I didn’t know how they’d managed to hide their presence from me but that wasn’t important now. Survival was.

At the far end of the hallway, Luc and his master were waiting for me. I was going to enter that room or die trying.

Chapter Thirty

At first, it looked like dying would be probable. I had to remind myself that nothing on earth could kill me, not even the sun. A crowd of grey imps flowed towards me, stabbing and hacking in a frenzy. A few went down beneath my blades then my left leg was cut off at the knee and I lost my balance. My right arm went next. There were too many to fight at once with only one hand and leg and they bore me to the floor.

Pinned to the carpet beneath the weight of so many bodies, I was all but helpless. Time was running out and I grew desperate. Focussing on my severed arm, I commanded the hand to drop the sword. It did, then turned to face the closest minion. The batlike face of the imp blanched when Righty dragged itself over to him. The monster began to squeal in fright then my hand clamped over his mouth, silencing him. Pouring the dark magic into the holy mark, steam rose from beneath my palm as the creature’s mouth melted. Bucking and heaving, he crawled free from the pile then sprawled on his face.

Working my left hand free, I clutched clammy skin and another minion howled in pain. Using both hands now, I cleared the monsters out of the way until I had room to move. Righty dragged itself over, bringing the sword it had dropped earlier. Sitting amongst the carcases of the dead, I snagged my severed leg and aligned it with the severed stump. My right arm reached me and I held it so the broken bones were touching. The limbs reattached themselves with a momentary blinding flash of pain and I was whole again.

Something like religious awe passed over the misshapen faces surrounding me. But they feared their master more than me and renewed their attack. Now that I had room to manoeuvre, my training took over. Limbs hit the floor and heads went flying as my swords spun into action. Only four creatures at a time could come at me, two from each direction. Soon, they were climbing over the bodies of their fallen.

Their attack became a rout, then the few who survived were fleeing back into the rooms they’d come from, hurriedly barricading the doors. Covered in black ichor, I headed for the last doorway at the end of the hall. There were no guards to stop me now but the door would be locked and would almost assuredly be barred as well.

I quickly wiped off my swords and put them back in their sheaths before examining the door. A miniscule crack allowed me to peer inside. Through the limited view, I saw living room furniture and then a bar set at about my waist height caught my eye. While my swords were sharp, they couldn’t penetrate the thick wood. None of the imps had been carrying axes this time so my options for getting the door open were few.

You punched your way through solid rock to escape from the sun once, I reminded myself. It had taken far too long and I’d ended up being parboiled. A quick glance at my watch told me I had mere minutes left before the sun was scheduled to rise. I had to complete my mission now or I’d be stuck in the mansion with several hundred guards to face when the sun fell again.

Taking a step back, I kicked the door. It shivered but didn’t burst off its hinges as I’d hoped. Trying again, I left a foot sized hole this time. The door was clearly tougher than I’d expected but the hole was large enough to suit my needs. I reached inside, lifted the bar out of the way then pushed the door open.

The Comtesse’s rooms were even more opulent than the rest of the mansion. Priceless trinkets and artwork vied for dominance. The carpet was deep and a maroon so dark it was almost black. It matched the wallpaper, making the walls look like they’d been coated in dried blood. The couches were covered in black leather that matched my suit. Other furniture was made of a dark, heavy wood. The other eight Councillors would be hiding in the rooms where the imps had poured from but I doubted they’d be living in quite this much luxury.

According to Igor, the main bedroom was through the doorway to the left. I was surprised and uneasy to see the door standing open a couple of inches. I’d expected it to be as heavily barred as the door I’d just broken through. I could feel the Comtesse waiting for me inside. I imagined she would have arranged both herself and Luc for maximum effect. Pushing the door open with my foot, I discovered I was correct.

A gigantic bed took up half of the bedroom. Blood-red satin sheets flowed over the mattress almost to the floor. They blended in nicely with the dark maroon carpet and wallpaper. The Comtesse, dressed in nothing but a sheer nightgown and a derisive smile, lounged back against several plump red pillows. Luc, naked except for a pair of red boxer shorts, lay on his back with his head on her lap. His eyes were blank, almost dead. He didn’t even turn his head to look at me. What has she done to him? It almost looked like he’d been hypnotized into subservience. For all I knew, he had been.

“So, the skeletal servant returns,” the Comtesse said nastily and caressed Luc’s forehead with a long-nailed finger. “I love your outfit. Who is your tailor?” She eyed my suit with a sneer as I remained silent. Most of my attention was on Luc. If she had managed to hypnotize him, I hoped it would wear off after she was dead.

“Luc? Are you ok?” He didn’t stir at my soft question or acknowledge me at all.

“Lucentio won’t answer you, servant,” the Comtesse said and slid out from beneath him. Standing, she was just under five feet tall. Pale white and flawless, she stalked over until she was standing only a few feet away. “Lucentio belongs to me. How dare you think you can take him from me?” A hand shot out to slap me but it never had a hope in hell of connecting. My sword was in my hand and slicing through the air before I could even order it to.

Looking down at her severed hand and sluggishly spurting stump, the Comtesse screamed shrilly. She put Geordie’s girly shrieks to shame. Luc twitched and turned his head. Our eyes met and slow comprehension filled his face. Dropping to her knees, the praying mantis picked up her hand and attempted to reattach it. Unlike mine, hers refused to cooperate and thumped to the carpet again.

Rounding the bed, I approached Luc as he sat up. “Natalie?” He sounded like he’d been drugged and was only just coming out of it.

“Yeah, it’s me. We don’t have much time, Luc. We need to leave.”

Snarling, the Comtesse whipped around, brandishing her detached hand at me. “He’s not going anywhere!” As she spoke, her voice thickened and her shadow began to rise behind her. Then it swept forward, possessing her. “Lucentio is mine! Kill her, my servant!” the hag screeched in a guttural, shadow possessed voice.

Suddenly, Luc was beside me and his dazed expression was gone. In its place was a cold, calculating look. “Only the Comtesse has the power to compel me, and you are not she.” It was the truth and yet not the whole truth. While she was possessed by her shadow, the Comtesse wasn’t technically in charge and I guessed that meant Luc didn’t have to follow her orders. He reached for the sword in my right hand and his master cringed away.

“No!” I said and gripped the weapon tightly. “I need to find out where the First is hiding,” I explained at his furious glare. I respected his need for revenge but now wasn’t the time.

“I’ll never tell you,” the monster wearing the Comtesse snarled. Then she whirled around and fled from the room.

Outside, the earth began to warm. We were out of time and I had failed in the most important aspect of my mission. “We have to go,” I said and darted over to the nearest window. While I pulled the bar off and opened the shutter, Luc fished clothes out from the drawer of an ornate dresser.

Together, we pushed the window open then jumped for the ground. Taking Luc’s hand after we landed, I felt a moment of joy when he linked his fingers through mine. From inside the mansion we heard shouts of alarm as we raced across the immaculate lawn. None of the guards were brave enough to follow us. With the sun so close, it would be suicide to do so.

As we reached the van, the first rays of sunlight touched down. Blinded and steaming lightly, we leaped into the open door of the vehicle. My human slave slammed the door closed, shutting out the light. The curtain was already drawn and after a few moments the dazzling spots before my eyes faded. Luc was staring at me in bemusement. “What?” I asked him.

“Despite the fact that I cut off your head, you still you came to rescue me.” After months of torment, he couldn’t quite grasp the reality that he was finally free.

“Well, you were only acting under your master’s orders,” I said. “It’s not like you had a choice.”

Leaning forward, Luc touched my face lightly. “You’ve changed.” I didn’t think he meant just my physical changes.

“Yeah. I’ve been through a lot.” That was quite an understatement and I felt the urge to cry. Luc’s arms came around me and I very nearly gave in to the girly emotions overwhelming me.

“Thank you for saving me, Nat.” He kissed my forehead then was suddenly heavy against me.

Lying Luc down, I brushed dark hair away from his forehead and kissed his clammy brow in return. “He called me Nat,” I said softly and brushed away an imaginary tear.

My hijacked human followed his orders perfectly and drove us to the closest city while I dressed my inert companion. Our chauffer prowled the streets until he found a hotel with an underground parking facility. I watched over Luc as the human booked us a room and returned to give me the key.

I could have handled Luc myself but it would look extremely strange for a woman to be carrying a man much larger than she was. Still, I took most of Luc’s weight as I slung one of his arms over my shoulder. I also carried my backpack, which was heavier than usual thanks to the plan Gregor had cooked up. The human copied me and pulled Luc’s arm over his shoulder. We manhandled the dead weight of my companion into the elevator.

During our short journey, we passed a maid who gave us a disinterested glance and went on continued pushing her cart down the hallway. Apparently, she’d seen it all before. One dazed man, one unconscious man and a woman wearing a bondage outfit that was covered in black goo weren’t enough to stir her curiosity.

At the door to our room, I made sure my slave had closed the curtains tightly before entering. We carried Luc over to the bed and lay him on his back. Being seven hundred years old, Luc could resist the lure of the sun if he had to. I guessed he was too emotionally shattered to stay awake this time. I couldn’t blame him. Sometimes I wished I could still fall dead once the sun came up just so I could sink into oblivion for at least a few hours.

I wasn’t the only one who had suffered after Luc had chopped my head off. Right now, I wasn’t sure which of us had suffered the most. I’d been beheaded, hacked up, buried, beheaded again, half boiled by the sun then hunted by imps. Luc had been held captive by his master while she did whatever she wanted to him and he’d been helpless against her. Luc suffered more, I decided and wished I’d killed the Comtesse instead of trying to torture information out of her.

“Ok, you can go home now,” I told the human. “Dump the van somewhere where it won’t be traced back to you and wipe your prints off it just in case. You won’t remember any of this and will think you just had a normal Saturday.” Nodding jerkily, my slave left the room.

Locking the door, I grabbed my pack and headed for the bathroom. Before showering, I cleaned as much of the gunk from my leather suit as possible. It was sporting a few holes and tears but it might be salvageable. The worst of the damage had been done when my arm and leg had been severed. My sewing skills weren’t great but it looked like I’d have to put them to the test to reattach the pieces.

After my shower, I felt clean and almost warm. A deep chill that nothing could dispel sat in my chest right about where my motionless heart lay. I might have saved Luc but I hadn’t found out where the First had his lair. The Comtesse, or the creature posing as her, would ensure I wouldn’t be able to break into the mansion and surprise her again. Not that my attack had been that much of a surprise since so many imps had been inside and seemingly waiting for me. Why hadn’t her shadow ascended before now? It was a puzzle and the only reason I could think of was that the First needed her to remain as she was for now. Whatever his ultimate plan was, he still wasn’t quite ready yet.

I should have been relieved that I still had some time left before all hell broke loose but I wasn’t. If anything, I was even more disturbed now. I might be Mortis, death of the damned but I felt out of my depth and fairly useless. The creature I was attempting to outmanoeuvre was older than I could imagine and crafty beyond measure. What was I? I was a twenty-eight year old clothing store manager who’d been a vampire for less than a year. It was absurd that I could think I’d actually win this fight.

Dressing in a t-shirt that Gregor had packed in my backpack for me while I’d been searching for my human slave, I crawled beneath the covers beside my unanimated companion. Maybe I’ll feel better after I get some sleep. I hoped so because right now I felt like crap.

Chapter Thirty-One

I didn’t think I’d be able to drift off to sleep but I finally did. Tired beyond belief, I slept deeply. I slowly began to surface when a hand slipped beneath my t-shirt and cupped my breast. Thank God, I’m having a nice dream for once. The hand toyed with my nipple then slid across to torment my other breast. Then the t-shirt was gone and a cold mouth replaced the hand.

Scrunching my eyes shut, I was determined to hold onto the dream at all costs despite the fact that I was feeling more and more awake by the second. Then a husky voice whispered in my ear and my eyelids sprang open. “Natalie, how I’ve missed your sweet body.” Luc winked at me then lowered his mouth to nip at my breast again.

“Not as much as I’ve missed yours,” I said then rolled us over so I was on top.

Allowing himself to be manhandled, Luc gave me a half smile. “How long has it been since you last fed your flesh hunger?”

Counting back, I lost track of exactly how long it had been and shrugged. Luc’s hands rose to cup my breasts as I answered him. He tested their new size with approval. “I don’t know. When was the last time we were naked together?”

Eyes wide with shock, Luc sat up so we were face to face. “Are you saying you haven’t fed your flesh hunger in several months?”

“Who was I going to feed from?” I asked him crankily, eyeing his chest appreciatively. “The puny humans I was feeding my blood hunger from?”

“You had regular sheep that you fed from?” he asked me jealously. A hand crept up to lightly grip the back of my neck. “Who were they?”

“One was called Yori and he wanted me real bad,” I teased and ground my pelvis against his erection.

Black eyes flared then narrowed. “If he wanted you so badly, why did you not let him take you?” Leaning forward, he nipped my neck then flipped us until I was beneath him again.

“Do you remember the first time we had sex?” I asked him, allowing myself to be pinned by the wrists.

Luc ran his gaze from my face down to my navel then slowly up again. “I remember it quite vividly. You broke my spine.” A small smile flickered across his mouth then was gone.

“Do you remember the other times we had sex?” It was getting harder to concentrate and my eyes kept straying to below his waist where he was standing up straight and ready.

“Yes, I received a broken pelvis and several shattered ribs as well as a broken femur.” Luc tried to be grave but his smirk ruined his attempt.

“Well, I’m a lot stronger now,” I warned him. “A human wouldn’t survive a bout in the sack with me. I’m not even sure you’ll come out of the experience whole.” It was a challenge and he was definitely up for it.

“We’ll just have to see about that,” he said quietly. Then his mouth descended and his tongue touched mine. My flesh hunger roared to life and my legs clamped around him. I heard the distinct sound of bones snapping and Luc started swearing in several languages.

Our hands grappled, gripped, stroked and clutched then he was spreading my legs wide and thrusting into me. My back arched as he plunged into me with a speed that was astounding. I pulled him down until we were face to face and the light hair on his chest was teasing my breasts. Moaning, I knew I was about to come and when I did, it was going to be loud. My hands were pinned again so I did the only thing I could think of to muffle the noise and put my mouth against Luc’s neck.

Luc achieved his climax and so did I. I bit down as I screamed and acrid, un-tasty blood flooded into my mouth. This time I wasn’t filled with strength, speed or strange new powers. I was instead filled with memories and none of them were mine.

Light blinded me and I flinched away, blinking in pain. I’d been in the dark for days, feeding my strange new hunger that never seemed to go away. Someone was always with me as I fed. She was a woman who wasn’t really a woman at all but a monster. She was standing beside me now, but I paid her little attention.

My eyes adjusted to the light and I saw I was standing on a narrow strip of carpet the same colour as the liquid I now craved. Blinding white marble spread out to either side of the carpet. Looking up, I winced against the light that originated from a crystal chandelier that hung high above the stark while floor.

I realized I was surrounded by people who weren’t people at all but more monsters. I knew them for what they were despite their pretty faces and expensive clothing. A low murmur of conversation buzzed through the room. My attention wandered down the carpet and I was entranced by the creature sitting on a gaudy throne. The diminutive figure had hair so light a blonde that it looked as white as the floor from a distance. Black, merciless eyes sat a little bit too wide apart. Despite her eyes, she was still very beautiful. Our gazes met and I felt drawn to her as if she had a strange, undeniable hold over me.

The woman on the throne beckoned us forward with an imperious wave of her hand. Monique, the creature who had been watching over me as I’d become a monster myself, urged me forward with a nudge of her hand. Monique had gowned herself in a dress that was indecently low cut and all but showed her nipples. It was the same colour as the carpet and suited her black hair and pale skin. Her beauty, that I had only just noticed hours ago when my blood hunger finally abated, was nothing compared to the mesmerizing magnificence sitting on the throne before me.

Her dress was made of gold fabric and sparkled in the light. She stood to allow everyone to admire it and I saw how tiny she was. Her waist was cinched in tightly and lace covered the otherwise exposed tops of her breasts. Her dainty shoes were the same shade of gold as her dress. Sparing a glance at the crowd, I saw they were all wearing ball gowns and black suits that only the very rich could afford.

“Lady Monique,” the golden gowned woman purred but her attention remained on me. “What entertainment do you have for us tonight?”

“Comtesse,” Monique said then curtseyed. “Councillors,” she gave another, smaller, curtsey to eight individuals who crowded just behind the throne. “My newly made servant has fed his blood hunger to satiation and his flesh hunger is about to rise. I offer Lucentio as your entertainment. Any who wishes to satisfy their flesh hunger are welcome to dine on him.” Her smile was obscenely flirtatious as her gaze swept across the crowd. Many of the women leaned forward in anticipation.

Unease shot through me. I had no idea what type of monsters these creatures were or what I had become. You know, you just don’t want to admit it. Yes, it was true, I did know what I was. I was a vampire who now fed on human blood. I turned uncertainly to Monique, who had done a poor job of guiding me to my new life so far. I wanted to ask her what flesh hunger was but was quelled by her sharp glance. She called me her servant but she held no true power over me. That was reserved for another.

“By all means,” the blonde haired woman said with a haughty wave of her hand. “Reveal your servant to us and let us decide who shall have the pleasure of being his first.” Her dark eyes gleamed in the candle light, almost giving them a demonic red glow.

“Take your clothes off, Lucentio,” Monique commanded me but it was the unspoken demand in the Comtesse’s eyes that I obeyed. My fingers fumbled at the dirty, ragged shirt I wore. It was the first time I’d taken notice of how I was dressed and I felt a momentary disgust at the unaccustomed filth. When I was devoid of clothing, murmurs of appreciation swept through the female members of the gathering. I felt exposed and vulnerable, like a virgin on her wedding night. Like that hypothetical woman, I barely knew what to expect and feared it would be painful.

The Comtesse approached me slowly, examining me from head to toe. Coming to a stop in front of me, she caught and held my eyes. “Are you hungry, newly made?”

I nodded, not sure of what I was hungry for but knowing she would be the one to sate it for me. Toeing off her shoes, the Comtesse reached beneath her gown. She shimmied out of her undergarments then dropped them to the ground. My body responded eagerly and now I knew what my new hunger was. I had to take this creature and I didn’t care who watched as I did.

“Then feast,” the Comtesse said. My hands bore her down to the blood-red carpet as the insatiable need to feed my hunger roared through me.

Gasping for air that I didn’t need, I tried to take in the fact that I had just witnessed Luc’s initiation into becoming a member of the Court. The praying mantis had taken Luc’s vampire cherry. I should have guessed this would have been the case but it was still an unwelcome shock. Before I could come to terms with what I’d just seen, my mind was flooded with pictures again.

I stood in my usual position close to the gaudy throne in the white marble castle. The Court always retreated to the Comtesse’s home for several months during the year. The times varied, decided at her whim just to show the courtiers and Councillors who was really in charge.

She sat on her throne with her minions surrounding her in a colourful yet sombre mob. A small, cold smile sat on her pale, thin lipped face as her black eyes watched us all. As always, her fellow Councillors were clustered together. They exchanged whispered conversation, eyes darting to our leader then away frequently. To me, they almost seemed to be plotting against her. I almost wished they were. Keeping her back to them showed her utter lack of concern for their machinations.

Monique minced into the room. Tonight, her dress was midnight black. It matched her hair so well that it was difficult to tell where her locks finished and the dress began. I wore one of the black suits that all of the male courtiers favoured. I’d quickly learned to blend in and not to bring attention to myself. Drawing attention to yourself often had unpleasant consequences.

Reaching my side, Monique placed a possessive hand on my arm. I wanted to throw it off as I’d come to almost loath her touch after two centuries of pretending to be her servant. But we all had to keep up the pretence or risk death if it became known how badly the Court rules had been broken.

Music from a quartet of my talented kin played softly from a corner of the throne room. At a signal from the Comtesse, the music came to a halt. The quiet murmurs also ceased. Moments later, two vampires entered through the large arched doorway.

A familiar wrinkled bald head appeared above the crowd and I felt my upper lip curl. Silvius, possibly the most despised of all vampire lords, had come. He wore his usual black suit and foppish white shirt with lace at the cuffs and collar. As always, a black cloak covered him from neck to toe. The hood was back so we could all view his heavily lined, skeletal face.

The Comtesse hated Silvius, fearing he was plotting against her. She’d told me this, raving it many times while we’d been in bed together. Weariness tried to overwhelm me at the thought of just how many nights I’d spent in her company. They were too numerous to count.

Following in the hated one’s wake was a timid new servant. Dressed in rags, her dark hair was matted and filthy. Blood caked her mouth and her eyes were vacant of thought. She reminded be so much of myself the first time I’d stepped inside the mansion that I felt a clutch in my chest and a great swell of pity for her. None of us had asked to be turned into monsters. It was a life that I would never wish on anyone. Like the rest of the courtiers in attendance, this pitiful girl would learn to exist in her new world. Sometimes, I believed death would be preferable to this endless misery.

Stopping a respectful distance from the throne, Silvius gave the Comtesse an elegant bow but an eyebrow rose sardonically as he did. A spidery hand swept the cloak back theatrically over one shoulder. A few courtiers tittered in response at his showmanship. Straightening, Silvius sent a semblance of a smile at our hostess. “Comtesse, I have returned as ordered.” His words and expression both stated clearly that he wasn’t happy about his circumstances. While he might have gained a following of his own, Silvius was not powerful enough to challenge the Councillors outright. As someone who hadn’t been created by the Comtesse, Silvius was one of the few who could resist her.

“Lord Silvius,” the Comtesse said with a regal bow of her head. “How kind of you to grace us with your presence.” The titters were louder this time. My fellow courtier’s sycophantic antics sickened me but, like me, they were just trying to survive.

Turning her attention to the grubby vampire cowering behind Silvius, the Comtesse made a small moue of disgust at the sight. “What have we here?”

“This is my new servant,” Silvius said without bothering to introduce her. Silvius had never been a kind master and tended to use his servants harshly. Few lived long under his control. Few would want to.

“What happened to your last servant? She was barely a hundred years old.”

“She did not prove to be satisfactory,” Silvius replied with a chilly smile. A shiver raced up my spine at the revelation that he had probably killed his previous servant. It was one more sign of his impertinence and inability to follow the rules set by the Councillors.

“Couldn’t you have at least bathed her before bringing her into my home?” Now the titters became outright sniggers. The Court craned their necks to better see the lord’s humiliation.

“Why bother?” he asked in a tone that indicated he didn’t care whether he was laughed at or not. “She’ll only get dirty again. The girl is only three days old.”

Knowing she wasn’t going to rattle Silvius, the Comtesse shifted her attack. I knew full well that she was monumentally bored with her lengthy life. She craved entertainment and would have it at any cost. “Her flesh hunger has not yet risen?” she asked, fully aware that it hadn’t yet. Her black eyes sparkled with malevolent glee as an idea dawned on her. Usually, she had to arrange for this kind of entertainment. This time, it had dropped into her lap unexpectedly.

“She has not yet satisfied her blood hunger,” Silvius said stiffly. He was well used to the Comtesse and knew what was coming. He threw a glance at his servant then gave a minute shrug. He didn’t really care what happened to the girl. She’d been made for one purpose only and it was about to be served, just not to him. Unfortunately, I had a sinking feeling I knew who this dubious honour would fall to.

“Lucentio,” the Comtesse said and pointed to me unerringly through the crowd without turning. “Wake the servant’s flesh hunger.” I wanted to shout my refusal but my throat locked shut as it had many times before when I’d been given an order that I didn’t want to obey.

“Flesh hunger can’t be raised as if it were simple lust,” Silvius said with a frown as my heart tried to sink. Judging by the avid stares, my fellow courtiers couldn’t care less whether the rules were broken or not. Just like our hostess, they too craved entertainment. The more cruel and sadistic it was, the more they would enjoy it.

At a commanding nod from Monique that had no effect on me whatsoever, I reluctantly stepped forward. One glance from my true master had me circling the ragged, newly made vampire. She stared at me fearfully, unable to understand what my intentions were. Her blood hunger was still raging through her and no one in this room had the live blood she needed. What ran through our veins was diseased, dead and utterly useless to her.

This wasn’t the first time I’d been ordered to take an unwilling girl in my arms. Each time it happened, I dreaded it more and more. Sometimes they were human women and rarely survived once my flesh hunger took over. The lure of blood was always too much. The combination of sex and blood turned even the most controlled vampire into an unthinking animal.

My hands went to my coat and the courtiers crowded around to watch me break in the newest member of our circle.

Shaking my head, I tried to will away the sight of Luc reaching for the cringing, filthy vampire. It was no use, the image was burned into my brain and now another memory was rising like a dead fish in a pond. Bloated and poisonous, it wouldn’t be denied.

Smoke clogged the room, blinding me and burning my nostrils with its acrid stench. My kin were screaming in pain and fear. Night had fallen only minutes ago and we hadn’t had time to prepare before we’d been attacked.

Leaping out of bed, I hastily donned my clothes. Monique joined me, gloriously naked and unashamed. We’d escaped from the Court several weeks ago but now it seemed the Comtesse had found us. I’d known we would never be free of her permanently. I hoped that the short time away from her control had been worth whatever punishment we would now receive.

Dark eyes wide and fearful, Monique grabbed at my arm. “Lucentio, she’ll kill us all for defying her!”

I barely acknowledged the warning. Death would be far preferable to the life I’d been suffering through for the past four centuries. Picking up my sword from the chair I’d set it on, I opened the door and entered the hallway.

A guard leaped at me through the smoke and was met with steel through his throat. Black blood spurted and he went down when I yanked the sword viciously to the side. Flames crackled overhead, the heat was already becoming uncomfortable. I felt the pull of my master and followed it.

Golden and regal, the Comtesse stood in the centre of the elegant drawing room, surrounded by her loyal followers. She didn’t have her cronies backing her up but she didn’t need them. Thirty of her personal guards were waiting to dispense justice to those of us who had dared to defy her.

“Comtesse.” I gave her a guarded bow, sword still held at the ready but completely unable to use it against her. “This is an unexpected surprise.” Monique reached me and stood at my side. The robe she’d hastily pulled on gaped and several of the guards stared at her hungrily.

“Lucentio,” the Comtesse’s nod was brief but her attention was mainly on Monique. “Lady Monique.” She assessed the black haired vampire with an expression that promised death. Monique stared back defiantly and said nothing.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out about your little rebellion?” the Comtesse asked my pretend maker.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Monique replied unconvincingly.

“Come now,” our true maker and master tittered. “Not only did you run away, you sent an assassin to kill me. Obviously he failed but he told me who sent him before he died.”

Gaze darting from side to side, Monique suddenly stood up tall and threw me to the wolves. “It was Lucentio’s idea.” My mouth dropped open in surprise at her betrayal. “He said that when you were dead we would rule the vampire nation together.

The Comtesse sent an amused glance at me. “Tell me the truth, Lucentio. Is Monique lying?” Being Monique’s master as well as mine, she could have asked her the question. Forcing me to betray my lover was more amusing to her. She’d spent thousands of years with her servants as playthings and had perfected the art of turning us against each other.

Struggling against the compulsion to obey, unwilling to condemn my companion to death, I nodded jerkily. “She lies.” It had been my idea to run away but I’d known nothing about an assassination attempt. I would never be so unwise.

Shoulders slumping, Monique belatedly gathered her robe together. She’d gambled on taking down the most powerful European vampire and had lost. Now she would pay with her life.

“Take her head,” the Comtesse commanded me. Turning, I stared at the lover I’d spent four centuries with in dismay. While I had long ago tired of her childish temper and selfish ways, she was still my companion. She silently pleaded with me not to take her life but I was helpless to refuse the order our maker had given me.

My sword went up then slashed sideways. I cried out in horror when Monique’s head spun to the ground. Her flesh disintegrated even before I dropped to my knees.

“Congratulations,” the Comtesse said as she delicately stepped over the remains of Monique, “Lord Lucentio.” Her small white hand stroked my hair as I bowed my head in sorrow and self-loathing.

“I will never make a servant and condemn a human to this wretched life,” I vowed to her. It was a vow I promised myself I would never break. Silently, I also vowed to remain abstinent. It would be a small penance to pay for the atrocities that I had committed.

Pity for Luc welled inside me but I had no time to comfort him for something that had happened to him three centuries ago. The next memory was far more recent and was one I was all too familiar with.

Natalie placed her hands on either side of the Japanese imposter’s head, wincing in anticipation as her skull disintegrated. “By the power invested in me as Mortis,” she said quietly, “I pronounce you dead.”

I was awash with relief that she had survived her battle with the leather clad warrior. My relief vanished when my master spoke. “What is this creature you have brought into my home, Lucentio?” the Comtesse whispered. Her gaze shifted from Natalie to me. She pointed at me with one shaky finger as she came to an erroneous conclusion. “Traitor! Seize him!” Her guards hesitated, unable to believe such treachery from me. At a glare from our ruler, they rushed forward.

“He has saved you!” Gregor shouted in my defence as I was surrounded by sword wielding guards. “If he hadn’t found Natalie and brought her here, you would all be dead!”

Holding up a hand, the Comtesse stopped her guards from dismembering me on the spot. “There is only one way you can prove to me that you are not a traitor, that you are not collaborating with this creature to end our existence.” A smile, small and vicious, flickered across her face and was gone. It was a smile I’d seen countless times before and had come to dread. “Cut off her head.”

Shaking my head in denial, I fought against the compulsion to obey harder than I’d ever fought before. I took slow, lurching steps towards my new lover, the only woman I’d ever truly loved. My sword made prophetic, metallic ringing noises each time the tip touched the marbled floor. I closed the distance between us until I was standing only a yard away. I silently implored Natalie to run.

“I gave you an order, Lucentio!” the Comtesse thundered. I flinched and lifted my sword. Young, naïve and still so human, Natalie watched me with dull resignation in her lovely grey eyes. Some part of her had known this would be her fate. The missing page in the Prophet’s journal, I thought. The tell-tale ragged leavings of a torn out page had haunted me but I hadn’t had the courage to ask Natalie why she’d removed it. Now I knew. It would be my sword that would end her existence before she had even achieved her destiny.

“I am sorry, Natalie,” I said in a voice low enough that only she could hear me. “But no one can fight against an order that their maker has given them.” My sword swung up then flashed in a deadly arc and sliced through her neck.

Frozen and horrified at what I had just done, I watched as her head bounced a few times, rolled and came to rest. In slow motion, her headless corpse fell to its knees. Instead of disintegrating like any other vampire would have done, Natalie remained solid. There was still life in her severed head and her mouth opened in a soundless scream as the Comtesse panicked and ordered her guards to dismember her body.

Still on my knees, I put my hands over my face so I wouldn’t have to watch the carnage. Hearing the sounds of rent bone and flesh was almost too much to bear. When they were done, the guards kicked my poor lost love’s body into a heap. The Comtesse moved to inspect her, smiling evilly. I’d never hated her more than at that moment. Through my fingers, I saw Natalie’s eyes close as she came as close as we creatures could to losing consciousness.

“Guards, clear the room. I want everyone to leave immediately,” the Comtesse ordered. Obeying her order, I stumbled to my feet. “Not you, Lucentio,” she said in her falsely sweet voice. “I want you to stay and see what happens to those who betray me.” She wasn’t speaking about Natalie, my lost love hadn’t had any dealings with the Comtesse and owed her no allegiance. She was talking about the punishment that I would have to endure. After seven centuries as her servant, she was under the illusion that I still hadn’t suffered enough.

Once the room was empty of all but twenty guards, she gave an order that sent me close to madness. “Box up this servant’s remains and bury the pieces far apart from each other,” she ordered five of her men. “You are to tell only me where you have buried her. If this servant really is Mortis, then she won’t die from her injuries. Cut into pieces that will never be reunited, she’ll slowly starve and go mad.” At that, she gave a witch-like cackle of laughter.

The thought of Natalie being buried alive and suffering for an eternity was too much for me to bear. I cut my way through the guards towards her remains, intending to gather them up and run as far as I could. In my madness, I forgot one inescapable fact: the Comtesse could control me with a single word.

“Stop!” she thundered and my muscles instantly locked into place. “You will take no further action to attempt to free this servant, Lucentio. You will obey my every order without question. You will remain in my sight unless I order you away and you will never, ever try to escape from me.”

With every word she uttered, my heart shrivelled a little more. I could only watch as my beloved’s remains were gathered by the five chosen guards and carried away. Inside my chest, my dead heart broke in two.

Chapter Thirty-Two

“Natalie! Nat! Snap out of it!” Hands were on my shoulders, shaking me gently but insistently.

“Just five more minutes, Mum,” I groaned and tried to go back to sleep.

“I assure you, I am not your mother,” a very masculine voice said in amusement. A hand tweaked my bare breast to prove his words.

My eyes flew open and I saw Luc kneeling beside me. He had teeth marks in his neck that were already healing. Wiping a hand over my mouth, it came away stained with black blood. “Oh, yeah. Now I remember,” I said sheepishly.

“You should not have bitten me,” Luc remonstrated as he propped me back against a pile of pillows and tucked the blankets up around my chin. He climbed into bed beside me but our flesh was too chilly to offer each other any warmth. “You could have died if you’d ingested my blood.”

“Nah,” I flapped my hand weakly at the idea. “A little vampire blood can’t kill me. Buckets of the stuff probably couldn’t.” My mind was still reeling with the information overload I’d just been given. Luc examined my face carefully and noticed again how different I was.

“What happened to you after I…,” he trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

“After you beheaded me?” I finished for him and grimaced. He looked down in remembered shame and nodded. “Well, I woke up and realized I was a head in a box and things kind of went downhill from there,” I joked. Stricken, Luc put a hand over his eyes. Like me, he had no tears to shed but I sensed he was close to breaking down.

“It was pretty funny, in a gruesome kind of way,” I said quickly. “Geordie nearly blew chunks when I told him and the other two what happened.”

“You have spoken to Gregor and Igor?” he asked me, pushing aside his shame for the moment.

“You think I’d be able to break you out of the mansion all by myself?” I said with a raised eyebrow.

“I think you are capable of anything.” It seemed to be the simple truth and I accepted the compliment without protest. So far, I had accomplished a lot and had done most of it on my own.

“Most of the rescue plan was concocted by Gregor but Igor chipped in with a few good ideas.”

“Did I hear correctly when the guards screamed about holy water bombs?” Luc smiled at my nod.

“I wish I could have seen their faces when Igor and Geordie started lobbing the water balloons.” I’d been a little busy climbing up to the fourth floor by that stage.

“How many guards did you fight in the hallway before you came to my rescue?” He was both curious and puzzled. His attention strayed to the twin swords lying on the chair I’d dragged over to the bed. “It sounded like there were dozens.” So, he hadn’t been in a complete daze, then.

“I’m not sure, there were too many crammed in together to count them properly. Did you actually see any of the guards on the fourth floor?”

“No,” he said and shook his head.

“So you don’t know what they really are yet.” I mused about how to tell him then figured show and tell was always a good way to go. “I have a story for you that you might not believe unless you see something first.”

Climbing out of bed, I dressed quickly in the change of clothes Gregor had packed for me. It was another pair of Geordie’s pants and a jumper. I had zero body warmth and walking around naked was out of the question. When I was ready, I stood between the pair of lamps high up on one wall. They were positioned so a normal vampire should have had two shadows.

Luc stared at the wall, counted, recounted then turned his baffled gaze to me. “Unless my eyes are deceiving me, you have four shadows.”

“Four?” I turned and verified that he had counted correctly. “There were only three…before I drank your blood,” I concluded and rubbed a hand over my face. I had a feeling that this development wasn’t going to end well for me.

To my relief, Luc didn’t run screaming from the hotel room. He dressed, sat back on the bed and patted the spot beside him. “Tell me everything,” he invited.

Knowing the story was going to be a long one, I made myself comfortable beside him and recounted the entire saga. Luc’s black eyes were glazed and disbelieving by the time I finished filling him in.

“The First isn’t just real,” he repeated either for his benefit or mine, “he is creating an army of monsters that breed and give birth in a week and his ultimate plan is for world domination?”

“Yeah, that about sums it up,” I said with a fake sunny smile. On the inside I felt like screaming or crying, maybe both.

“I don’t suppose Gregor has a plan on how to deal with this mess?”

“Um, no.”

“You intend to locate the First and kill him before his army becomes too great to contain?” His disbelief was evident but he made a valiant effort not to voice it out loud.

“Yep. I was going to torture his whereabouts out of the Comtesse but I ran out of time.” Hey, at least I got to cut off her hand. Let’s see how she liked being cut into pieces.

Musing, Luc put an arm around my shoulder and hugged me to his side. He seemed to have lost his fear about my holy marks because he also took my hand. “You think the Comtesse will eventually become one of these creatures but hasn’t yet been turned?”

“The First is using her, probably to control the Court. Once he has them in his reach, he can force the shadows of the ones who have become damned to ascend. I have a feeling we have to be in his presence before he can actually change us into imps.”

“It is beginning to make sense now,” Luc said and stood to pace.

“What is beginning to make sense?”

“The recent disappearances within the Court.” He paced some more before explaining his revelation to me. “Slowly, one by one, courtiers have stopped attending our gatherings. There was speculation that they had deserted but I know this isn’t possible. Most of the Court were created by the Comtesse herself and aren’t capable of running.”

I had a momentary flashback to my dreams of the cavern of doom and the courtiers I’d spotted. Their disappearance from the mansion gave weight to my vision. “Hang on, exactly how many servants does the praying mantis have?”

“Over a thousand,” Luc said.

“How is that possible? What about the rule that she can only have twenty servants?” I was outraged that the blonde bitch had managed to thwart the rules so blatantly and still get away with it.

“The Comtesse is very old and extremely clever. If a human catches her eye, she turns them and forces her existing servants to pretend they are the true master of the newly turned.”

“Like she did with you and Monique,” I said then wished I hadn’t when he frowned suspiciously.

“Who told you about Monique?”

“I must have overheard someone talking about her,” I lied. “I just assumed the rest.”

Still suspicious, not quite believing me, Luc shrugged off his disquiet. “It would seem that she has been sending her servants to the First for the past several months.”

“How many of the missing were female?”

After a quick search of his memory, Luc’s shoulders hunched. “Most,” he whispered and I shuddered at the implications. The First must have a regular baby farm set up wherever he was hiding out.

“I wish there was a way we could follow the Court women that are being sacrificed,” I said and thumped a hand on the mattress in frustration. Springs twanged and the bed shuddered in protest.

Luc smiled and it transformed his face from handsome to almost beautiful. “Natalie, you might be young but you are most assuredly not stupid.”

“Who said I was stupid?” I was ready to be insulted but he ignored the question. It was probably for the best since I was pretty sure most vampires I’d met thought I was a complete idiot.

“When are we scheduled to meet up with our trio of merry men?”

“Tomorrow, at midnight.”

His smile became an outright grin. “Perfect. That will give us time to become properly reacquainted and to work out a plan.

Luc’s idea of becoming properly reacquainted was to spend the next few hours naked and in bed. I found I had no objection to this arrangement at all.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Gregor had decided that the safe house might be too close to the Court mansion to actually provide any safety after we’d rescued Luc. Instead, we met on a hilltop a two hour drive away from the mansion.

Luc and I had arrived early to scout for any enemies. He was aware that the First’s progeny had the ability to sense me and wanted to make sure that our hill was defensible.

I’d dressed in one of my black leather suits and was kitted out with both swords. Luc, wearing black slacks and a cashmere sweater he’d bought just before the men’s clothing store had shut for the night, eyed me appreciatively until the others arrived.

Geordie bypassed Luc and enfolded me in his skinny arms. “I am glad you are still alive, chérie. I still have hope that I can attain my dream of holding you to my naked body one day.” He batted his eyelashes at me then dodged away before Igor’s slap could connect.

“It’s nice to have a dream,” I said lamely and glared at Luc’s obvious amusement.

“I am glad you are safe, my old friend,” Gregor said to Luc and gave him a hug that made his ribs creak. Igor contented himself with a nod at us both. For him, it was as affectionate as a kiss on the mouth.

“Natalie has told me of the First and his plan to enslave both humans and vampires,” Luc said to the small group. We’d instinctively huddled together but threw frequent glances over our shoulders. Since we were in a rough circle, we would be able to see if anyone approached us. We also had room to move if we were attacked. I didn’t sense any imps close by but the First seemed to have the capacity to mask them from me. I felt exposed out in the open like this and hoped we could agree on a new plan quickly so we could get out of there.

“We must stop this madness,” Gregor said. “But to do so, we must locate the First and his hordes.”

“Natalie and I have a plan,” Luc said. I wasn’t surprised by their surprise that I’d had anything to do with the plan but I was still a bit cut by it.

“Tell us,” Igor said with his usual gruffness. Geordie was pressed tightly against my side, more for comfort than in an effort to flirt. He was like a pet dog that constantly tried to climb onto your lap no matter how many times you shoved it off, shedding hair and drooling on your legs all the while.

“Female members of the Court have been disappearing for months,” Luc began. “I propose that we keep the mansion under surveillance, see who is removing them and follow the kidnappers,” he finished, laying out the plan for the others.

“Why would the First be taking only the women?” Geordie asked. “Because they are weaker than the men and are easier to handle?” I cut my eyes at him to see if he was joking but he seemed to be serious. Sexist twerp.

“He is taking the women so he can turn them into monsters and get them pregnant, idiot,” Igor said.

“Yes,” Gregor agreed with distaste. “He’d want to increase the size of his army as quickly as possible.”

“Be glad you’re not a girl, Geordie,” I told the kid. “Although, if we put you in a dress, maybe…,” Geordie’s lower lip pooched out but I saw a flash of laughter cross his face.

“You would make far better bait, my dear,” Gregor said. “It is a pity that is out of the question. Every vampire in the Court knows what you look like and your Australian accent is a dead giveaway.” It wasn’t said unkindly but I felt like an uneducated bumpkin anyway.

“Ladybug,” Geordie said almost beneath his breath and sniggered at me.

“Ladybug?” Luc’s hearing was even better than mine and he’d managed to snag the word out of the air.

“Silvius was a lord and he was my master,” I explained. “Now that he’s dead, that makes me a lady. I’m Lady Nat or Gnat,” I emphasized the G for him.

“I see.” Luc turned away but I caught his smile anyway. Great, now my supposed friends were laughing at me. It was wonderful to be a constant source of amusement to vampires all over the world.

“Did you notice a pattern to the disappearances?” Gregor queried.

Luc was about to answer but paused when Geordie jerked then looked fearfully over his shoulder. He sensed them only an instant before I did. As he shifted nervously, I had the prickling sensation in the back of my neck again.

“We have company,” I said grimly and the conversation broke off. My swords were in my hands and I turned in the direction I could feel most of the monsters coming from. I slid the sheaths to the ground so they wouldn’t get damaged during the battle that was about to erupt.

“How many are there?” Luc asked from beside me.

“Lots,” I said succinctly.

“I see them behind us,” Geordie said in a voice that quavered with fright.

“To the sides as well,” Gregor put in. Igor didn’t say anything but shouldered his crossbow. Geordie took a long knife out of his belt and Gregor pulled an axe free from his.

“There are too many,” Luc said in a low voice as dark shadows slipped up the hill towards us.

“No there isn’t,” I contradicted him then leaped to the attack. The imps hadn’t expected me to take the fight to them. They’d thought we would cower in a group and conveniently die together. Dying wasn’t on my agenda and my cowering days were now behind me.

Moving almost too fast to be detected, I cut my way through the first row of grey minions. Screaming, they either bled and writhed on the ground or died quickly and quietly. My hands moved in graceful arcs, relieving the monsters of their limbs and necks of their heads. I pierced hearts, sliced throats and hacked at anything within my reach.

It took only minutes to reduce the small horde of minions into steaming piles of dead flesh and I barely had a scratch on me. Then I heard a piercing, girly scream from the top of the hill. I was racing upwards before Luc, Gregor and Igor could react to the sight of a seven foot imp holding Geordie by the throat.

Legs kicking, hands futilely clawing at the batlike, grinning face of the monster, Geordie threw a pleading glance at me. The minion’s free arm drew back then rammed forward, impaling Geordie with a rusty sword. Geordie gave a gurgling cry then was dropped to the ground.

Bending to retrieve the sword, I was there before the imp wrapped his hand around the hilt. The imp looked at the arm I’d just severed as it flopped to the grass then shifted its gaze to me. Orange irises blinked at me in dull stupidity. A sword, not mine, flashed in the moonlight and then the monster’s head joined its arm. Igor dragged Geordie free before he could be crushed by the creature as it toppled.

“Chérie!” Geordie called weakly and beckoned me closer. I knelt beside him, despairing when I saw that the sword that had gone directly through his heart. “Give me just one kiss before I die,” he managed to choke out and gave a weak cough.

I admit I came close to falling for his act and even bent to bestow the kiss he’d asked for. Then I realized that he should have been dead by now. Igor shook his head in disgust and drew back a foot to administer a kick to the kid’s ribs. With a high-pitched shriek of laughter, Geordie leapt nimbly to his feet.

“What the hell just happened?” I asked in bewilderment. “How is he still alive?”

“He was born with his organs on the wrong side of his body,” Igor explained. “He was a freak as a human and he is an even bigger freak as a vampire.”

Geordie was doubled over, pointing at me and giggling hysterically. “You almost fell for it. One more second and you would have kissed me!”

My face was blank as I stalked over to him. Geordie backpedalled and almost tripped over a fallen imp. He wrung his hands when I reached for the sword sticking out of his chest. He gave me a cheeky smile. “You would not kill me just because of a little joke, chérie?”

Yanking the sword out, I gave him a nasty smile as he swayed on his feet in pain. Then I leaned forward and planted a kiss directly on his mouth. His surprise and momentary silence was worth my fleeting feeling of being a cradle snatcher. “There, I’ve kissed you. Please don’t play any more practical jokes on me again.”

“Oh, Natalie,” Geordie dropped to his knees and held his hands up to me. “Your lips are like silk, like spun gold, like morning dew, like…,” his rhapsodizing was cut off when Luc grabbed him by the arm and lifted him back to his feet.

“If you think her lips are good, you should see her breasts,” my chivalrous protector muttered.

“I live in hope,” Geordie said humbly.

“We should leave before more of them arrive,” Gregor said uneasily.

“It doesn’t matter where we go,” I told him wearily but started down the hill with Luc at my side. “They always manage to find me.”

“How?” Igor asked, jogging to catch up.

I didn’t want to answer that particular question but they had a right to know. “They can sense me, just like I can sense them. Except when the First is shielding them from me.” No one seemed to like the explanation much.

“How can they sense you, Natalie?” Gregor asked the next uncomfortable question. We had reached our cars, both were hidden from the road by a screen of trees.

“Because,” I paused then gave them the answer they all knew was coming, “I’m pretty sure I’m becoming one of them.”

“How?” Igor asked gruffly. “You are less than a year old. How could your blood have altered enough for you to become possessed already?”

I really didn’t want to tell them this part but they had a right to know. “In my dream, the First told me he has control of all vampires. I think that he is able to force his offspring to ascend just by being in their presence.”

“Natalie,” Gregor said slowly, “in this dream, did the First attempt to make your shadow possess you?”

Sometimes, I hated how perceptive the older vampires could be. “Yeah,” I admitted reluctantly. “But so far all that’s changed is that I have four shadows.”

“Four?” Geordie squeaked. “I thought you only had three.”

“I, uh, ingested some more vampire blood,” was my mumbled response. Luc suddenly found something interesting on the ground to study.

Geordie looked from me to Luc, shook his head and threw his hands up in disgust. “Fantastic! I’m sure this won’t turn out to be bad.” From the frowns Gregor and Igor wore, I was pretty sure they agreed with him.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Luc remained silent as we followed Igor’s car to our new safe house. He kept his attention on the road but I sensed he wanted to slide his gaze towards me to gage my mood.

“How long do you think you have?” he asked me almost pleasantly after half an hour of intense quiet.

He makes it sound like I have cancer. “I don’t know,” I replied with a shrug. “There’s never been anyone like me before. It could take centuries or it might be only days.” One thing was sure, the instant I came face to face with the First, he’d call my shadow forth and I’d be lost. Don’t you mean shadows? My snide subconscious had to put its two cents in as usual. This time, I couldn’t just shrug it off. I was in deep trouble. We all were.

“Have you noticed anything strange about your shadows yet?”

“Other than that I have four of them?” I threw a look at him then shook my head. “Not yet.”

“Then we still have time,” Luc said almost serenely.

I nodded, keeping my emotions under tight control. He was right. Until my shadows began to act independently, I couldn’t be turned into an imp and become a baby making machine.

“When Alexander dripped his blood onto your heart,” he said, changing the topic abruptly, “you gained the ability to heal much faster.” I could also hear the sentient shadows but it didn’t seem important so I didn’t bother to mention it.

“Yep.”

“And when the Japanese assassin forced his blood into your mouth, you became faster and stronger than before.”

“Right.” I saw where he was going and squirmed uncomfortably.

“What happened when you bit me last night, Natalie?” Now he did look at me and I read concern in his dark eyes.

“I, uh, got a flash of memory,” I mumbled uncomfortably.

“Whose memory?”

“Yours,” I said after a lengthy internal debate about whether I should tell him the truth or not.

Nodding thoughtfully, Luc automatically turned into a long, dirt driveway shortly after Igor did. “What did you see?” he asked.

Mentally taking a deep breath, I quickly summed up the memories I’d seen, leaving only a few minor details out.

“You could see what I’d seen and knew what I was thinking?” He didn’t seem to be appalled but it was hard to tell. Luc had a hell of a poker face.

“I didn’t mean to intrude,” I told him almost desperately. “It was an accident.”

Pulling up behind the black car, he made no move to open the door. Igor glanced at us then pulled a curious Geordie up towards the tall house that crouched in darkness. Gregor followed without a backwards glance at us.

“They’re probably going to do it in the back of the car,” I heard Geordie mutter petulantly. It was followed by the meaty sound of Igor’s hand hitting the back of his head.

“If you were in my mind then you know how I felt when I cut off your head.” Taking my hand, Luc captured me just like I was an ordinary human by meeting my eyes. “You know that it nearly tore me to pieces knowing you would be buried alive.”

Nodding, I wanted to drop my gaze but couldn’t. “I know how you feel about me.” I’m the only woman he’s ever truly loved. The thought made me feel almost warm inside.

“Then know this,” he paused to kiss my knuckles. “I would rather die myself than to lose you again.” A loud sob came from the house as Geordie eavesdropped on our conversation.

“You’re not going to die, Luc,” I promised because I felt exactly the same way. If I lost him, there would be no point going on living my unlife. “We’re going to find the First and hack him up into cat food.”

Luc’s smile was brief and not at all believable. It occurred to me that he didn’t think our plan was going to work. He was just going through the motions, believing we would all end up dead. Up to this point, I’d been quietly confident that we might have a chance to come out as the victors in this battle. That hope withered and died as Luc’s smile disappeared.

We’re going to lose, I thought in dismay as Luc exited the car. The army I’d been promised consisted of five people, including myself. I’d been kidding myself that I’d be able to get close enough to the First to kill him and save both mankind and vampirekind. The truth came crashing down on me; I was doomed to fail. I might be the fabled Mortis but I wasn’t good enough to stop the coming apocalypse. My merry band of misfits and I would sacrifice ourselves and it would all be for nothing.

Climbing out of the car, I followed Luc across the yard. Igor switched the outside light on, throwing Luc’s shadow into sharp relief on the ground behind him. Movement in the corner of my eye had me whipping my head around. I surveyed the dark yard but I sensed nothing living or unliving nearby. My four shadows were splayed on the ground, standing as stock still as I was.

Turning back to the house, I saw the flicker again but ignored it this time. My friends and I had plans to make that would most likely end in our annihilation. Now wasn’t the time to be jumping at shadows.

The End

Also by J.C Diem:

Death Beckons

Death Deceives

Sample of Death Deceives:

Chapter One

Standing in the doorway of our new safe-house, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that I was being watched. A glance up and down the unfamiliar hallway confirmed that I was alone. You’re just jumpy because you’ll probably all be dead soon, my subconscious told me sourly.

Being hunted by seven foot tall grey imps was definitely making me edgy. My friends and I would face the leader of the imps one day soon and I had a feeling the meeting wouldn’t go well for us. My subconscious had already made the assumption that none of us would make it out unalive. Somewhere deep inside, I kind of agreed with it.

Taking one last look at the deserted yard, I shut the door. I’d only taken a cursory look at the farmhouse as Luc and I had arrived, enough to know that it was two stories high and was made of a combination of brick and wood.

While it was fairly nondescript from the exterior, the interior was a different story. Inside, it was just plain ugly. A long corridor stretched ahead of me with a pair of doors on each side. Prints of sunflowers hung at regular intervals on the walls. I’d never liked sunflowers, either the real thing or pictures of them. No flower should be that big, it was unnatural.

As if the hideous sunflower prints weren’t already enough to condemn the house to ugliness, the colour scheme was awful. The walls were lime green and the carpet was a now faded orange that might have been bright enough to sear the eyeballs when it had been new. I thought the French had better taste than this. Evidently, the décor hadn’t been updated in several decades.

It was automatic for me to lock the door before moving deeper into the house. I didn’t know why I bothered since any imp or vampire could knock it down with one hand. It was a habit that was left over from when I’d still been human. Since I’d only been undead for about six months or so, I did actually manage to still feel human sometimes. The rest of the time I felt exactly like what I was, an unholy monster that drank human blood to survive.

Catching sight of my four shadows trailing behind me, I held in a shudder that would have wracked me from head to toe if I’d let it escape. No wonder I feel like I’m being watched. I had three shadows too many and I was beginning to feel crowded inside my own skin.

Simply being turned into a vampire hadn’t been enough for me. I, Natalie Pierce had been fated for much worse than that. I was Mortis, which was Latin for death. It was poetic somehow to be named ‘death’ by a language that itself was also dead.

It had been prophesized long ago that I would be both the bane and saviour of vampirekind. Having a prophecy written about me was proving to be far less exciting than I’d thought. Everyone had expectations of me and most of the time I wasn’t sure I even qualified for the job. Having that kind of pressure hanging over my head made me nervous.

I’d read the prophecy and it hadn’t mentioned my entourage of shadows. Being a creature of legend, it seemed the normal rules didn’t apply to me. Ingesting the blood of our kin was supposed to kill us but I hadn’t been so lucky. With each infusion of the diseased black ooze that passed for our blood, I’d changed in different ways. The first taste had turned me into the undead. The second time I hadn’t actually ingested the gunk. It had been delivered directly to my heart via a knife wound in my chest and had given me the ability to heal much faster than normal. The third taste had made me ultra-quick and even stronger than I’d already been.

Consequently, I was a faster, more powerful, un-killable killing machine who could heal most wounds almost instantly. You’d think the benefits would be worth the pain I’d gone through but I was still doubtful on that topic. One thing was certain, it wasn’t much fun being the strangest of all the monsters in the world.

Speaking of being strange, the fourth time I’d tasted vampire blood, it hadn’t given me new powers or changed me physically. The transfer of fluids had happened when I’d accidentally bitten Luc during one of our naked romps together. I’d been sucked into his memories and had witnessed the most painful moments of his lengthy unlife. Luc wasn’t aware of my intrusion into his mind yet. I hoped to keep it a secret for as long as possible. I didn’t kid myself that I could keep it under wraps forever. I was bound to slip up sooner or later.

“Natalie,” Geordie yelled, rousing me from my gloomy thoughts. “Get your butt in here!”

A staircase at the far end of the hallway led upwards to the lightless and gloomy second floor but I ignored it for now. Arrowing towards the quiet sounds of conversation, I pushed open a door to the left and found myself in a living room. The colour scheme wasn’t quite as bad in here with pale peach carpet and urine yellow wallpaper.

Two couches sat facing each other across a battered pine coffee table. Most of the furniture in the room had seen better days. The muddy brown fabric on the couch appeared to be velvet. It was worn and threadbare so it was difficult to tell for sure.

Luc, the love of my unlife, patted the empty seat beside him in invitation. Geordie pouted when I accepted. Sitting on the couch directly opposite from me, his lower lip pooched out slightly with his disappointment.

Luc, or Lord Lucentio as he was known by most European vampires, was around thirty in mortal years. He was Italian, six feet tall, had black hair, was broodingly handsome and had a body most women would drool over. Like all vampires over three hundred, his pupils had grown large enough to take over the irises completely. I had no idea what colour his eyes had been before he’d been turned. As hard as it was to believe, seven hundred years had passed since the night his life had ended and his unlife had begun.

Geordie had been about fifteen when he’d been turned and would remain a teenager forever. His hair was dirty blonde and had a habit of falling into his eyes. His pupils hadn’t grown to their maximum size yet and a faint ring of blue still showed around the edges. The kid was only a couple of inches taller than my average five feet four inches and he wasn’t much bigger than me across the shoulders. He was only two hundred, practically still a baby. The two men, and I struggled to include Geordie in that category, were opposites in every way. It was both amusing and annoying having the teen lusting after me.

Boy, you really have tickets on yourself, my subconscious stated sarcastically. I had a hate-hate relationship with my subconscious. It constantly made fun of me, deflated my ego and told me things that I didn’t want to hear. In this case it was right, as usual. As a human, I’d been fairly average; twenty-eight years old, a slender Australian size eight and had been mildly pretty at best. Only as a vampire had I gained any real beauty. Even so, I’d seen vamps that were far more attractive than I was. While my hair, just past shoulder length, dark brown with blonde highlights, remained the same, my face and body had undergone a few subtle alterations. I was now more than mildly pretty. Human men swooned at the sight of me to the point of embarrassment. Vampires still tended to be fairly underwhelmed by me most of the time. Luc seemed to find me attractive enough but he’d been willing to do the naked mambo with me even before I’d been transformed into my current state of unholy loveliness.

Geordie’s persistent crush on me probably stemmed more from the fact that I was a commoner rather than one of the snobby courtiers he was used to seeing every day. If that wasn’t the reason he wanted to jump me then I was stumped as to why he found me attractive. Maybe because you could be intellectual twins, my subconscious offered. That was its way of telling me I could still be childish at times. It was difficult to argue with the truth.

“We should be safe on this farm, for a while,” Gregor said, taking the remaining vacant seat on the couch beside Geordie.

I wasn’t sure how old Gregor was in actual years but he’d have been in his forties when he’d been turned. He was the most urbane vampire I’d met and had a pretty decent library at his mansion in the UK. A mane of dark blonde hair framed his ruggedly handsome face.

I bet he wouldn’t have any trouble finding a meal, I mused. All vampires had their tricks to lure humans in. Some had enhanced beauty, like me, and others had stealth and cunning. My maker, Silvius, could trick humans into thinking he was a harmless, excessively wrinkled old man. That was how the bald old freak had nabbed me. Gregor had a nicely balanced blend of charm, good looks and cunning.

“But how long will we remain safe?” Igor asked. He straddled a creaky kitchen chair that had been turned around the wrong way and leaned his arms against the back. “The grey monsters will find us again soon enough.” His expression was dour to match his tone.

Grizzled and not the least bit handsome, Igor was an enigma to me. He was Russian, of unknown age and was good friends with Luc. Coarse black hair that refused to be tamed fell over his forehead and stopped just above his eyes. If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to guess, I’d say he would have been about fifty when he’d been turned. Like Geordie, he wore rough woollen pants and jacket and an off white shirt most of the time. He’d be able to blend in with any farming community easily but would have trouble fitting into any other setting. He served as a chauffeur to the Court but was comfortable lounging around with a pair of lords. Not that Luc or Gregor looked much like lords at the moment. Their fine clothing was tattered and stained from our recent battle with the ‘grey monsters’.

“Can you sense them, Natalie?” Luc asked as I settled beside him. The couch springs had sprung and poked into my butt uncomfortably. Since no one else was complaining about the crappy furniture, I kept my wisecracks to myself. I placed the backpack that I rarely let out of my sight on the floor by my feet. It contained everything I owned in the world, which was pretty pathetic when I thought about it. Once upon a time I’d had a job, an apartment and an actual wardrobe full of clothes from my store. Yep, I’d been a clothing store manager in my previous life. That was all gone now and my life would never be the same again.

Luc raised an eyebrow impatiently, reminding me that he’d just asked me a question. I’d been following their conversation remotely, hearing the words without really listening to them.

I’d have preferred to take a shower to wash the ooze off before launching into a detailed discussion about our circumstances. Black ichor-like blood was in my hair and coated both my skin and black leather suit. Two more skin tight suits just like it were stashed in my backpack. Emperor Ishida, leader of the Japanese vampire nation, had given them to me when I’d joined their ranks for four months to learn how to fight like their best warriors.

A fourth suit, in blood red, was still waiting to be worn. Ishida had given it to me as a reward for cleansing the Japanese vamps of their damned. I’d only don that particular suit when it was time to face my ultimate foe. That reminded me of what I was supposed to be sensing. “I’ll just check.” Closing my eyes, I leaned against Luc. His arm slid across my shoulder and pulled me to his side. Sending out my senses, I detected no other living or unliving creatures nearby. “I don’t sense any imps at the moment.”

The only creatures I could sense in this fashion were imps and vampires. Humans, animals and insects were immune to my mental probe. I had the vague idea that I could sense our kin and the imps because we shared the same diseased blood. While I’d diligently read the prophecy about myself, it hadn’t been very forthcoming with the powers I’d end up with. Only some of what I could do had been written down. Maybe the Romanian prophet thought it would be wise to keep the knowledge to himself so the vampire population wouldn’t freak out. Maybe he just hadn’t known just how weird I’d turn out. It occurred to me that the powers that be might be screwing with us all by not telling us everything.

Geordie pulled in his bottom lip long enough to make a snide comment at my remark. “That doesn’t mean anything. The First can mask his offspring from you somehow. We’ll probably be surrounded when the sun comes up and killed in our sleep.” He shrivelled against the withering looks we all sent him. “I’m just saying what we’re all thinking,” the kid whined defensively.

The First was just that, the first human to be turned into a vampire. He’d made a deal with a dying alien demi-god, our father, fifty thousand years ago for eternal life. What he hadn’t bargained on was the alien’s diseased blood changing us so that our shadows eventually became sentient.

Over tens of thousands of years, our father’s blood gained ascendency and eventually took control of the First’s vampire body. Then the First had somehow evolved into a replica of the one who had created us. With this change, he’d become alive again and had also gained the power to convert all vampires into clones of himself.

I had no idea why he’d waited until now to start transforming his offspring into their new forms. Maybe he was ruled by fate and had to wait for me to rise as Mortis before embarking on his mad plan for world domination. According to Kokoro, the Japanese vampire prophetess, no one could escape from our fate. Maybe the First was also inhibited by the same rules that we were. If so, then it gave us at least a fighting chance against him.

I’d had several visions of the First but had yet to meet the creature in person. In my dreams he was about eight feet tall, had ashy skin and the face of a bat. In the same dreams, I’d witnessed him calling forth a band of possessed vampires and turning them into clones of himself. The imp clones were smaller, only seven feet tall and their skin was a slightly darker grey than his. Their heads were the same as his; bald and batlike with a rudimentary up-turned nose, large fangs, forked tongues and long ears that curled at the tips. To me they looked like something that had crawled straight out of hell, hence the reason why I called them imps.

Most disturbing of all, the clones were also alive again and were able to reproduce at an alarming rate. The First had a regular baby factory in the underground hideout I’d dreamed myself in on several occasions. I’d come to realize my dreams were more like visions after a couple of them had come true.

The First’s harem were able to produce offspring every ten days or so. I’d seen one of the little monsters claw its way out of its dead mother’s womb with my own incredulous eyes. As soon as the infant had spotted me, it had immediately tried to kill me. God only knew how many imps existed now. God only knew why it was my destiny to kill them all. Come to think of it, maybe God didn’t have anything to do with this whole sordid mess. It was difficult to believe a divine being would hijack an alien spaceship, force it to crash land on our planet, make it turn a human into a vampire and eventually force Mortis, aka me, to be reborn as the living dead. If that isn’t the case then who sends the Romanian prophet and Kokoro their visions? For that matter, who sends you to the cavern of doom in your dreams? My subconscious had me stumped and I didn’t bother trying to search for an answer. I knew my limitations and I simply wasn’t smart enough to solve this mystery.

“Four of us have the ability to remain conscious during the day,” Gregor said to Geordie to soothe his fears. “We’ll take turns to stand guard.”

That meant Igor had to be at least several hundred years old if he could resist the compulsion of dying when the sun came up. It was unnerving to be awake one moment then dead to the world once the first rays of sun hit the ground. Due to the truly crappy things that had happened to me since becoming the walking dead, I was far from being a normal vampire. I now slept like a human again, which meant I could stay awake if I wanted to. Most old vampires could resist the dark magic that took us down for the day but they eventually had to succumb to it again. I could stay awake for days if I wanted to, but it made me very cranky when I did.

Luc crossed his legs and made a graceful gesture with his hand. “I suggest we launch our plan as quickly as possible and track down the First before he can send more of his offspring after us.”

Gregor lifted an eyebrow while Igor took out a knife and began sharpening it. “We didn’t get a chance to discuss your plan in detail earlier. What did you have in mind?” Gregor was referring to the meeting we’d tried to have a couple of hours ago. We’d gathered on the top of a hill to decide what we were going to do and had ended up being attacked by a bunch of imps instead. We hadn’t even known they were there until they’d come boiling out of the night to attack us. Usually, I could sense imps when they were close. As Geordie had said, the First could somehow block this ability and mask his offspring from me.

Our small group of vampires was all that stood between the imp army and an unsuspecting humanity. I couldn’t help but have serious doubts about our chances of saving them, or ourselves.