A Company of Monsters (The Sorcerers of Verdun Book 2)

by Shami Stovall

  But she couldn’t stop. Even when she wanted to yell at him to run. She couldn’t seem to get the words out. All she could think of—all she could do—was follow through with the order.

  Kill your allies.

  Drowning in her single-minded need to kill Victory, she reached for him a second time. She hadn’t noticed Vergess arrive, however. She only just noticed his fist collide with her face, blacking out her vision with a single moment of intense, near jaw-shattering pain. She hit the walkway, her head in so much agony the sensations spread to her neck and shoulder blades.

  “Don’t look at their eyes,” Vergess stated. “They’ll dominate you in an instant!”

  Geist grimaced as someone lifted her from the ground. The urge to kill still haunted her thoughts, but her dazed body couldn’t seem to put the command into action.

  “You’re lighter than I expected,” Dreamer said. “God grants us little gifts.”

  Vergess jumped for the man with the purple eyes, keeping his own closed. “Don’t let her out of your sight! She might not have regained herself!”

  “Her?” the German operative asked.

  Dreamer nodded and turned. He carried Geist away from the garden and straight for the stables. The sounds of gunshots, the bright green blaze of an unnatural fire—Geist couldn’t distinguish much else. But by the time Dreamer set her on the floor of the stable, her strength returned. She rolled to her uninjured side and pushed herself to her feet.

  “Geist,” Battery said as he felt back into the stable, his voice shaky. “Thank the stars you’re okay. We counted six enemy operatives. Two of which are—”

  Bullets pierced through the walls, agitating the already anxious horses. Some reared up, and others kicked at their stalls.

  Battery shouted over the chaos, “—two of which are the Eyes of the Kaiser! Vergess said they were elite members of the Kaiser’s Guard. Please, Geist. We haven’t found Blick. Where is he?”

  Kill your allies.

  Geist reached out, but Dreamer yanked Battery away before she made contact. And as Geist prepared herself to launch forward, Dreamer waved his hand. Illusions formed over her vision, obscuring everything and making it appear as though multiple people were around the stable, even if they weren’t. Maybe if they weren’t in the middle of a war zone, the illusions wouldn’t have confounded her as much as they had, but terrible mix of panic and mayhem made everything worse. She flailed around, determined to catch someone with her phantom strike.

  “The Eyes of the Kaiser already got to her,” Dreamer said. “Focus on holding back the enemy. Vergess and Victory will find your brother.”

  Although Geist couldn’t distinguish Battery from the illusions, she heard him just fine.

  “Will she be okay?” he asked. “We have to help her!”

  “I… don’t know what we can do. Stay out of her reach. She’ll tear you apart if she gets ahold of you.”

  “We can’t leave her like this.”

  “I’ll… try something.”

  Geist closed her eyes and lunged for the people talking. Her mind processed facts she hadn’t even considered. She had five allies here on the Kott estate. Two more allies left in the car down the road. Thousands of allies in the docks of Riga. Millions of allies in France and Britain. She had a terrible compulsion to kill them all. For a fleeting second, she had a thought. If she left the Kott estate, she could kill more at the ports. If she made it back to Fort Belleville, she could get away with a slaughter before they caught her.

  Shaken with her own gruesome thoughts, she turned away from Dreamer and Battery in favor of returning to Riga.

  One of Tinker’s flashy grenades went off in the stable, spooking the horses into a full-blown panic and blinding Geist with the aftereffects of sparkles and lights. Then someone struck her on the side of the head, rendering her unconscious.

  Seven

  A Company of Monsters

  Hot wind rushed over the Kott estate.

  Amalgam didn’t feel the heat. The bullet hole in his backside stitched itself together, a searing pain dominating his perception until the metal popped out over his flesh and fell onto the grass. He stood and ran a hand over the last of the fading injury.

  His corpus sorcery had taken care of the life-threatening damage. Once again, Amalgam breathed deep, almost hating the sensation.

  He would live. A fact he despised the longer it remained true.

  The blaze created by Amalgam’s sorcery raged out of control, consuming the house and jumping to the lawn. It would spread to the road and leap into the trees. The whole area would become a twisted landscape, not unlike Amalgam’s own body.

  He clutched at his magi-tech uniform, his grip so tight it pained his knuckles.

  She had been so close! Right in his reach.

  Amalgam hadn’t expected to see Geist so soon after the start of the operation. He knew their paths would eventually cross, but in the Russian Empire? Fortune had been cruel in the past, but obviously it wanted to make things right now. Amalgam had dreamed of encountering her since their last interaction in the OHL.

  “There you are, my friend.”

  Amalgam turned to face the speaker, though it didn’t matter. He “saw” the Right Eye of the Kaiser, even while facing away.

  “Did you kill them?” Amalgam asked.

  “We shot a few, but they managed to escape on horseback.”

  Amalgam didn’t care whether the Ethereal Squadron lived or died. He only wanted to hear about one of them—about Geist—but his single-minded fanaticism wouldn’t be appreciated by his fellow operatives. They thought he was here to serve his homeland, like any good duty-bound soldier, but Amalgam’s love for his Germany had died with his real name.

  The Right Eye of the Kaiser placed a hand on Amalgam’s shoulder and motioned away from the burning mansion. Amalgam gritted his teeth and held back the urge to rip the man’s hand off. What was his name again? His real name. Hans Lorenz.

  “Hans,” Amalgam growled.

  “I require your insight,” Hans said as they walked. “Something interesting happened, and I want to know if you can help me.”

  “Speak.”

  “During our skirmish, I dominated one of the Ethereal Squadron and had him attack his allies. A small man. I’m not sure what his sorceries entailed.”

  Amalgam held his breath and listened to the crackling of the flames. A part of the roof collapsed, filling the crumbling estate with the cries of disintegrating wood and embers.

  “I commanded him to attack his allies,” Hans continued. “But that’s when our traitor, Wilhelm, arrived. He said something interesting. He said,” and then switching to English, Hans repeated, “don’t let her out of your sight. She might not have regained herself.” Afterward, Hans returned to speaking German and asked, “Fascinating, no?”

  Amalgam exhaled and inhaled, his breath trapped in the confines of his gas mask, warming his skin and creating a stale scent of sweat. He didn’t want the others to know about Geist. If they knew of her presence, they would target her, no doubt in Amalgam’s mind. And he couldn’t stand the thought of her captured at the hand of her enemies.

  “Are you listening?” Hans asked.

  Another hot gust of wind rushed past them.

  Amalgam shook his head. “What of it?”

  “He called the soldier a she. Did you sense anything different about the enemies? Was one a woman?”

  “Wilhelm must’ve gotten his English confused. There were no women among the ranks of the Ethereal Squadron.”

  “Hm. And here I thought your undead sight could pierce through trickery.”

  Undead sight. That was what the Eyes referred to his senses. Were they jealous? Sometimes it seemed so, but Amalgam never counted his bizarre vision as a blessing. His “sight” also came with a heightened sense of hearing. No one understood that magic spoke. Even as Amalgam walked with Hans, he heard the whispers of Hans’s sorcery, revealing secrets of his magic.

  …
control … order … rescript …

  And sometimes, if Amalgam listened hard enough, he could hear the secrets of the man himself.

  … brother … Otto … where is he?

  “There was no woman,” Amalgam stated.

  “A shame,” Hans muttered. “It would’ve been interesting to find a female sorcerer in the ranks of our enemy. I never did get to hunt those harpy spies who infiltrated the capital.”

  Before Amalgam could respond, he sensed the arrival of the rest of their squad. Their whispers, their sorcery, their auras—all were distinct, almost agitating. Whenever they drew near, Amalgam couldn’t help but take notice, like a person approaching while wearing bells.

  Two sorcerers approached from the fiery mansion. Although they had arrived at the Kott estate with eight operatives, Amalgam could no longer sense two of them. Now they were six.

  “Brother,” Hans said with a smile.

  The Left Eye of the Kaiser, Otto Lorenz, greeted his brother with a tip of his cap. “Brother. Here you are. Did you find the last Kott child?”

  “He escaped with the Ethereal Squadron, unfortunately.”

  “The Kaiser won’t be pleased. We had a mission.”

  Hans and Otto gave each other quick glances, their stares a cryptic language only they knew. The two of them could’ve been twins. One of them was older by a year, but nobody was sure which. Even their aura and sorcery whispered in the same tone, usually of each other’s names.

  The second sorcerer to arrive was Dietrich Cavell, an Austro-Hungarian.

  Geist’s brother.

  He carried a bandolier of glass vials and metal canteens and walked with an odd gait, unconcerned with the roaring fire destroying the last of the mansion. Dietrich jogged through the falling embers and ash until he arrived at Amalgam’s side.

  “The blood,” he said, his voice shaky. “I gathered the last of it from Walter’s body.”

  Walter had been a member of their team, but if he was dead, it meant the Ethereal Squadron had gotten to him.

  Hans and Otto both gave Dietrich the same sharp look of disappointment.

  “You couldn’t save him?” Hans asked.

  Dietrich shook his head, his gaze distant. “I’m not… skilled enough… with my sorcery.”

  “Such incompetence would’ve never been tolerated in the Kaiser’s Guard.”

  Otto smiled. “He wouldn’t have lasted a week, brother. Look at him. He’s singed.”

  Amalgam turned away and headed for the road, uninterested in whether they got the blood they were looking for. The last two members of their team waited along the dirt path, among the trees. Lieutenant Markus Cavell—none other than Geist’s father—and Pavel Leman, their Russian double-agent and language escort.

  The others followed close behind, Hans flanking on the right, Otto on the left, like the positioning was ingrained in their stride. It probably is, Amalgam mused. The brothers had been raised in the Kaiser’s Guard, the most elite and intense military training course Germany had to offer. They could dismantle and assemble their rifles in their sleep.

  The roar of the fire died in the distance, and the smoke blotted out the stars in the sky.

  Amalgam stepped onto the main road, and seconds later, he felt the shift of cold magic as Lieutenant Cavell ghosted through the nearby trees. He “showed himself” the moment he reached the group, dropping his invisibility and startling the rest—his specter sorcery was unrivaled.

  Unlike Dietrich, who held himself like a limp blade of grass, Lieutenant Cavell had an aura that overpowered others. He stood tall, his uniform bloodied, but his pistol clean. The man had a scent of war about him.

  He was the type of man Amalgam used to be, before the gas ravaged his body.

  “Did you kill them?” Lieutenant Cavell asked.

  “They escaped,” Amalgam said.

  “All of them?”

  “And a child of the Kott family.”

  “Even with the Eyes of the Kaiser?” Lieutenant Cavell barked, his disbelief and anger mingling in equal parts.

  Hans and Otto made no reaction nor offered any apology. They stood stiff and cold, only their occasional quick glances between them.

  Amalgam found their lack of reaction amusing. They were tools of war. Nothing like the enlisted soldiers. Neither man had lived a life of home and family—they had been offered up as babes and forced to pledge themselves to the Kaiser. While normal German schoolchildren learned their numbers and letters, Hans and Otto had learned discipline and the art of killing.

  “Well?” Lieutenant Cavell shouted. “What excuse could you possibly have? No one can escape the Eyes of the Kaiser!”

  “I did dominate one,” Hans said, no agitation in his voice, just amusement. That was the word they used. Dominate. Like the entire world was subject to their control. Hans continued, “But it turns out Wilhelm is in this group. He knew our tactics. He saved the others from my gaze.”

  That was the trick with the Eyes of the Kaiser. They were some of the deadliest operatives in the Kaiser’s Guard—one glance and the enemy would work for them—but if they couldn’t make eye contact, their sorcery couldn’t take hold. Amalgam thanked the cruel God in heaven that he no longer had eyes.

  “Wilhelm?” Lieutenant Cavell asked. “The one who infiltrated the OHL?”

  Hans smiled. “Yes. He attacked, so I had to retreat. With his eyes closed, it was simple, but it’ll be different in the future. He’ll prepare for us.”

  “We should just kill him,” Otto chimed in with a chuckle. “Then we can drag his head and spine back to the Kaiser.”

  “He can use it for his collection.”

  “And his son can animate it with his sorcery.”

  Lieutenant Cavell exhaled and ran a hand over his smooth chin. The man was older, Amalgam knew, but his apex sorcery kept him in his prime. His aura, his magic—they whispered his thoughts and schemes. Amalgam didn’t care about Lieutenant Cavell’s love for Austria-Hungary or his devotion to the emperor. Amalgam did care, however, about Lieutenant Cavell’s hatred for his own daughter. If he knew Geist was in the ranks of their enemy, he would seek her out at once.

  “We should ignore these Ethereal Squadron agents,” Amalgam said. “We have the blood of the Kott family, and we should return it to our base before moving to the next target.”

  Hans pulled down his cap and buttoned his uniform coat. “They didn’t appear here on accident. I suspect they’re a team meant to counter our operations.”

  “I agree,” Lieutenant Cavell said. “They even avoided the main road. They knew we were here.”

  Amalgam rotated his shoulders. “How shall we proceed, lieutenant?”

  If he couldn’t persuade them to disengage, he would have to get to Geist first. The moment Amalgam had her in his grasp—the moment he could feel and hear her aura—he would finally be able to relax. He would have to subdue her, however. She made it clear she wouldn’t go anywhere with him willingly. But that didn’t matter. He would do whatever was required. Nothing else concerned him.

  And when he had her? He would allow the GH Gas to twist her body as well. Then… Amalgam wouldn’t be the only one. If he had that, life would be worth living.

  Lieutenant Cavell pushed Hans aside and grabbed his son by the collar. “Come here, boy.” He jerked Dietrich close and ripped a blood vial from the bandoleer. “Tell me, were you the reason the team had troubles this evening?”

  “No, sir,” Dietrich replied, his gaze down.

  “Good.”

  Lieutenant Cavell pulled out a glass container of Grab-Hersteller Gas—Grave-Maker Gas—the sinister concoction that had twisted Amalgam’s body and left him half the man he once was.

  Amalgam took a step back, every muscle in his body tense. While in his anti-magic armor, he wouldn’t be affected, but the devilish whispering of the gas always left him rattled. If too close… he would lose his sanity to it.

  He didn’t know how they made the gas, but he knew he wouldn�
�t want to hear the answer. Something about it wasn’t right.

  Although sorcerers couldn’t learn magics outside their bloodline, the terrible gas fused things together and made them one. Lieutenant Cavell pulled up his uniform sleeve and then opened the vial of blood. He poured the contents across his forearm, coating his skin with a layer of thick crimson.

  Then he smashed the container of gas, allowing the noxious cloud to wreck his arm. The gas had its own thoughts, but listening to them could drive a man to madness.

  … dgftheredgfisdgfnodgfescape … hungerdgfneverdgfdies …

  Amalgam took another step back, the voices of the gas too much for him to bear. The wind took the sickly green cloud away, carrying it into the trees and dispersing it. Still, the echoes of the dark voice lingered in his thoughts.

  One little touch of the gas was all Lieutenant Cavell had needed. His skin warped and twisted, soaking in the foreign blood and adding it to his own. After a few moments, the damage had been done. His arm had a waxy sheen, but otherwise he was whole.

  Lieutenant Cavell took in a deep breath, his forehead covered in sweat.

  Amalgam remembered the terrible sensation of the gas covering his body. It burned. Most men would’ve screamed. Yet Lieutenant Cavell held back his shouts and remained composed. He had done this before, Amalgam could tell.

  “Excellent,” Lieutenant Cavell muttered.

  Otto lifted an eyebrow. “You wanted Kott House’s mastery of insects? I never thought of you as someone who wanted bestiola sorcery.”

  “I want a sizable collection. The rest is to be shipped off to the laboratory.”

  “Lieutenant,” Dietrich said. “Before we return the blood, I… have something to report.”

  Lieutenant Cavell turned to his son, his eyes narrowed. “Did you manage to see anything while you were hidden?”

  “Y-yes, sir.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “I counted six of them. One of which was… my sister.”

  “Florence?” Lieutenant Cavell whispered. “She’s here?”

  The question silenced the group, each man holding his breath. Amalgam could sense their collective excitement and hear the susurrations of their surprise. And although he wanted to deny Geist’s existence, Amalgam knew he couldn’t now that Dietrich had seen.