by J. C. Diem
Checking to make sure the highway was empty in both directions, I fed from him and led him around to the passenger side of the car. He slid into the seat with a contented smile. There wasn’t enough room for five of us in the front seat so the imps settled into the back seat. Squished up, they overlapped each other, elbowing for room. I felt a hysterical laugh bubbling up but kept it in. So far, I hadn’t noticed any physical or mental changes after being further infected with alien blood. But that could change at any moment.
Staring at the side of my face, my meal made a dreamy observation. “You’re so lovely. You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He started listing what he liked about me. “Your skin is so creamy. Your hair is so soft. Your eyes are so orange.”
Automatically translating his rambling conversation, my head jerked sideways at the last comment. “Did you just say that my eyes are orange?”
“They’re like ripe pumpkins ready to be picked and eaten,” he replied happily.
Fumbling for the rear view mirror, I angled it so that I was looking directly at my reflection. Sure enough, my eyes had turned the same shade of orange as the First’s clones. Aghast, I hoped my subconscious would pipe up with something helpful. After a few seconds of internal debate, it offered its distinctly unhelpful insight. You’re screwed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
My snack was able to point me in the correct direction of the town that contained my goal. He seemed uneasy at the idea of going anywhere near one of the towns that had been raided by the imps. To me, it seemed like a far safer place to be than somewhere that had yet to be attacked.
Dawn was only an hour away when we neared our destination. Up ahead, I spied an army barricade across the exit that led to the town. Pulling over, I instructed my dreamy meal to resume his journey and set off the rest of the way on foot.
A long line of vehicles had been stopped at the barricade. Motors were turned off and drivers and passengers had left their cars. They were squabbling with either Russian or American soldiers, stating their reasons why they needed to enter the town.
Sneaking around the edges of the crowd, I was very careful not to be spotted by the soldiers guarding the perimeter of the town. Most wore night vision goggles and I wondered how I would look to them. My body temperature was far lower than a human’s so maybe I would just be an indistinct blob.
Hunkering down behind a tree, ignoring the imps that had resumed their squabbling, I studied two soldiers that were guarding an alley. The sun would be up soon and they were both flagging. One was leaning against the wall of a five story apartment building. He blinked a few times, shook his head briskly then immediately began fighting to keep his eyes open again. The other soldier was smoking, which seemed to be helping to keep him alert. “I’m going to take a piss,” he murmured to his colleague in Russian. He turned his back and moved deeper into the alley, already unzipping his pants.
Watching the remaining soldier carefully, I snuck closer and crouched down behind a dark car parked just down the road. More soldiers were only a hundred or so feet away but they were turned away. If any of them glanced over their shoulder, they would see the four inhuman shadows standing in a huddle.
The soldier’s eye closed for a few seconds then sprang open again before immediately trying to close once more. His partner urinated against a wall barely twenty feet away. The strong smell of pee floated out of the mouth of the alley. It was strong to me anyway but the lone soldier didn’t seem to notice it.
When his eyes closed again, I was on my feet and moving. Before he had the time to snap himself awake, I had launched myself into the air. My gaggle of shadows reluctantly followed, not that they had a choice since they were tethered to me. Landing on a narrow ledge two floors up, I looked down to make sure no one had seen me. None of the soldiers were screaming or pointing their guns at me so I figured I’d remained undetected.
Shuffling quietly, I worked my way around the corner, mostly hidden behind the imps. They floated in the air, weightless, insubstantial and thankfully impotent. The building next door had a fire escape, which was my intended destination. I waited until the smoking soldier had finished his business and ambled back to his partner before jumping across to the metal staircase.
This building was ten stories high and I climbed to the top quickly. After a rapid search, I ascertained that the rooftop was clear of soldiers. Inside the stairwell, I listened intently but detected no sound coming from anywhere in the building. The stairwell wasn’t the most comfortable place to spend the day in but I would be safe from the sun in here. My new orange eyes glowed softly, dimly illuminating the dusty stairs. Too keyed up to sleep, I took a seat and listened to my new companions complaining. They’d hunkered down a few steps up from me.
“Why can’t one of us take her over?” one of them was saying.
“She’s Mortis, remember? Maybe she can’t be taken over.”
“But she’s just a vampire. She’s weak and pathetic. One of us should be able to take control.”
“I think maybe we can’t control her because none of us came from her. We only exist because she was fed our blood.”
“She has four vampire shadows as well. Are they as restricted as we are? Can only her true, original shadow gain possession?” They mulled the idea over.
“Where does that leave us then?” the query was plaintive.
“We’ll just have to see what happens once she comes face to face with our Father,” one decided. At last, they’d come to an agreement and piped down.
Lying on the cold, uncomfortable concrete landing, I allowed myself to fall asleep.
Instead of dreaming myself into the First’s lair, the clearing in the jungle or the strange weightless nothingness of my latest vision, I dreamt I was in my bed back home in Australia.
Getting up from the comfortable but worn mattress, I moved into the bathroom. My reflection showed me an almost plain face and grey eyes. Beneath the white t-shirt that was my nightie, my chest rose and fell as I breathed. For the first time in over half a year, my heart was beating in my chest. Tears trickled down to my chin as I mourned my lost humanity. The ordinary woman staring back at me with her drab, mundane life was dead and I could never be her again.
My eyes blurred and when I wiped away the tears with my sleeve, my reflection had tripled. The image on the left had the supernatural beauty that I’d gained with undeath. The one on the right had similar features but her skin was greyish and her eyes glowed orange. The one in the middle was my original self.
“We are your three natures,” said my human self. “I contain your compassion and empathy for humans.”
“I contain healing, speed and strength,” said the vampire side of me.
My third and newest nature measured me with its glowing orbs. “What have I gained from you?” I asked it when it remained silent.
“From me you have gained the lust to do battle.”
“Great,” I muttered. I already had a thirst for blood and sex. Was I now going to have the overwhelming need to kill everything in sight? Am I going to develop a hunger for human flesh? If I’d become alive again then I would have been more worried about that possibility. I would need active digestive juices to break down solid food.
“Together, we three will help you to become what you were destined to be,” my human reflection said.
“And what am I destined to be?” I asked her.
My vampire side of me slid sideways to overlap the human reflection and the imp side followed. Merging together, they became the reflection I had grown used to. Only the faintly glowing orange eyes were new. “You are Mortis,” they said as one. “You are death.”
On that not so comforting note, I woke to the darkness of the stairwell. The glow from my eyes had subsided. I held onto the hope that no one would be able to tell that I’d been infected with even more blood that didn’t belong to me. The hope faded when my imp companions stood, stretched and stared at me dejectedly. Their presence shouted
quite clearly that there was something seriously not normal about me.
“Come on then, let’s go,” I muttered.
“As if we have a choice,” one of them said acerbically.
“I’m not particularly happy to have you following me around either you know,” I responded crankily.
“Wait a minute, can she hear us?” one of them said in astonishment.
I turned to face them and they stumbled to a halt a couple of steps above me. “Of course I can hear you.”
Exchanging looks, they seemed to be at a loss. “So you know what we’ve been saying all along?”
“Yep. I know that none of you can possess me and your master plan is to wait until I visit the cavern of doom and see what happens.”
“What’s the cavern of doom?” one of them asked in puzzlement.
Shaking my head, I resumed the trek downwards. They debated about what I’d meant and I did my best to ignore their murmuring.
Now that I’d reached the town, I needed to locate the possessed vampire. I assumed that Colonel Sanderson would be close to the vamp they’d captured. Surely he’d want to keep a close watch on a creature he and the rest of humanity had thought was just a myth.
Taking a back exit, I stuck to the shadows and crept to the end of the narrow alley. Headlights bloomed and I ducked back as an army truck drove slowly past. Secure in the knowledge that all entry points to the town were being watched, the soldiers only desultorily searched for intruders.
With so many men patrolling the streets, I was concerned I would be discovered. If I didn’t give myself away, one of the shadows accompanying me might. The black imps made no effort at all to conceal themselves. I was lucky only I could hear their almost constant grumbling. It was hard to tell if they were more disgusted with their existence or if I was. Being insubstantial, they couldn’t act out their natural impulses to kill and maim.
Working my way deeper into the small town, I heard a babble of many voices in the same location and moved to investigate. Peering around the corner of an apartment building, I studied what I suspected might be the town’s police headquarters. Only three stories high, it seemed almost squat sitting between two much higher buildings. Twin alleys cut alongside the building, separating it from its neighbours. I hoped that one of them would help me to gain access to the place. Painted stark white, I was not going to have an easy time blending in when I tried to break into it.
It made sense that the soldiers would choose to have their headquarters in a police station. It would have fairly secure cells to lock up any imps they managed to capture. Instead of an imp, all they’d managed to nab so far was a lone vampire.
Obtaining video evidence of us was bad enough but now the soldiers had actual physical proof of our existence. Worrying about how that boded for us as a species would have to wait. I had bigger problems than that right now. Yeah, like how I’m going to get into that building without causing a riot. No doubt every soldier in the city would know who I was on sight. I needed to sneak inside, find Colonel Sanderson and somehow convince him not to try to kill me without alerting every soldier in town.
Good luck with that, my subconscious snorted, giving me the distinct impression that I was on my own with this one.
Chapter Twenty-Three
As I studied the entrance, one of the imps grew bored and poked his head out to see what I was looking at. Jerking back before it could be spotted, I dragged the bevy of reluctant shadows with me.
“Are you trying to get me caught?” I hissed at it.
“Why should I care if you are or not?” it sneered.
“Think about this, moron, if I die then what do you think will happen to you?” It was highly unlikely that I could die but they didn’t know that.
“She’s right,” one of the others said. “If she ceases to exist, then so will we.”
“We hardly exist at all right now,” another complained.
“There might still be a possibility that one of us could gain control,” a third said and the others perked up at the news.
“What do you mean?”
I felt like echoing the question but stayed out of their discussion. My success at entering the headquarters uncontested could hinge on this conversation. Although I wanted to speak to the Colonel, I didn’t want to have to fight my way through his men to do it.
“We don’t know what will happen when Mortis faces our Father,” the third imp said. “We think her original shadow will be the one to take her over but I’m not so sure that will be the case.”
“Why not?” two of them asked simultaneously.
“Look at them.” Four heads swivelled to stare at my human shaped shadows. There was barely any light in the alley and they were just faint marks on the ground. “They’re puny and weak. Any one of us is a match for all four of them.” Was it just my imagination or did one of the shadows twitch slightly? I wished there was more light shining in the alley so they would stand out more clearly. I was having greater and greater difficulty trusting any of my shadows.
“So, what are you saying? That we should help the vampire reach our Father?” another of the huge shapes queried.
Shrugging massive shoulders, the third imp nodded. “The sooner she reaches him, the sooner our fate will be decided.” Thinking about it, the other three reluctantly agreed.
“Can you sense the First?” I asked curiously. If they could then I wouldn’t have to use the captured vampire as bait.
“No,” one of them replied. Being identical, I couldn’t tell which of them had replied. “We are linked to you and can only sense what you can sense.”
Since I couldn’t sense anything right now, then that meant neither could they. I was hoping this also meant the First couldn’t sense us. We wouldn’t have much of a chance of sneaking up on him if he knew where I was at all times. Then again, he was counting on me arriving so he could turn me into an imp. He probably had a welcome mat ready to lay out for me and sneaking wouldn’t be necessary. Unless he thought I really had perished when the sun had come up. I couldn’t count on that so figured I’d stick with my plan.
Now that I had the imp’s agreement not to hinder me, I took one last look at the front of the police headquarters. It would be a very bad idea to try to enter that way. The pair of American soldiers guarding the front door were far more alert than the two I’d snuck past just before dawn.
With so many soldiers patrolling on foot, it would be risky for me to attempt to sneak closer at ground level. Going up was my best option. Tilting my head back, I eyed the rickety fire escape attached to the closest building and decided against using it. My aim was to be stealthy, not to bring every soldier within earshot running to my location. With the amount of rust flaking off the fire escape, it would probably detach from the wall the instant I touched it.
I was about to turn the corner and enter the street when I heard breathing. Cigarette smoke wafted across the mouth of the alley. Motioning the imps back, I eased into the shadows to wait out the human standing sentry. Knowing how much humans disliked inactivity, I figured he’d move on sooner or later.
After a few minutes, my patience was rewarded when the cigarette butt was dropped to the ground. A boot heel stomped it and mashed it to death, choking out the scent of burning paper and tobacco. I plastered my back to the wall when the human walked past the alley. He cast a cursory look into the darkness and moved on.
When his footsteps faded, I checked that the way was clear and flitted down the street. Footsteps and low conversation told me that more soldiers were somewhere nearby. I winced when we passed beneath a streetlight, expecting alarmed shouts to ring out but we remained unspotted.
Casting a glance back to make sure that all of my shadows were behaving themselves, I did a double take when I noticed that something had changed. My feet tangled and I almost tripped. Thanks to my quick reflexes, I didn’t sprawl on my face but merely took a couple of quick steps to catch my balance.
Halfway down the next alley
, I leaped up to a much newer and far more secure fire escape and headed to the roof. It was clear of soldiers so I turned to confront my diminished following. Instead of four imp shadows, I now only had three. I was far from upset by this but I was concerned that one of them seemed to be missing and I hadn’t heard or sensed its disappearance.
“Why have you stopped?” one of the remaining three asked me.
“Do you see anything wrong with this picture?” My gesture encompassed all three of them. They looked from me to each other then back at me. It was difficult to tell since they were uniform black but I believed their expressions were blank.
The middle one took another look then made a startled noise. “One of us is missing!”
“Where did he go?” asked the one on the left.
“I heard nothing,” the one on the right said.
They looked at me suspiciously and I threw my hands up. “I didn’t do it. Something must have nabbed him when we were in the alley.” All of my concentration had been on the smoking human. I assumed theirs had been as well.
“What could have done this?” True distress came from the one in the middle. It was weird to see such a large creature wringing its hands in fright.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “Keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything strange.” It was the only advice I had to offer them.
Working my way across the roof, I jumped across to the next building. I kept away from the edge and stayed low so I wouldn’t draw any attention. The three imps followed me closely, hunching down but still managing to tower over me. They swivelled their heads on constant lookout for whatever had snatched their brother. I was hiding it well but I was quietly shaking on the inside.
Crossing several more rooftops, I finally reached the police headquarters. A gap of fifteen feet separated me from my goal. The roof was much lower than the building I was currently hunkered on. If I jumped from here, I’d be sure to make too much noise and draw unwanted attention when I landed.
