by J. C. Diem
“Nice try, General,” I sneered. “You should know by now that it’ll take a lot more than a few explosive rounds to take me down.”
Sanderson’s gaze moved past me and his reply died before it was born as dread widened his eyes.
“Natalie,” Geordie said and it came out as a moan. Another premonition of doom washed over me. I had the disturbing sensation that I was about to witness something that would strip me of my sanity forever. My legs were frozen, mercifully preventing me from turning around and facing whatever was behind me. “Chérie,” the teen tried again.
Kokoro gave a single sob and I knew what I would see even before I finally turned around. Gregor, Igor and Ishida stood close together with Kokoro and Geordie several yards away. There was a gap between them where no space should have been. My friends stared in horror at the small chunks of flesh and fabric that were scattered through the grass. Deep in denial, I searched for Luc and couldn’t see him anywhere.
Unable to refute what my senses were telling me, I was standing beside the scattered remains of my one true love before I’d even registered the intention to teleport. Dropping to my knees, I reached out with a trembling hand to pick up one of Luc’s. Smeared with black blood, it was uninjured and perfect. I waited for his pieces to start moving as he tried to heal himself but they remained still. He hadn’t broken down into ooze, which meant he was still alive. Yet I could barely sense him. It had taken me a long time to learn how to piece myself back together and I’d only done so because I was the weird and wacky Mortis. Luc hadn’t even tested his ability to reattach a severed limb let alone learned how to heal an injury this catastrophic.
He might not be able to fix himself, my inner voice told me. He could spend the rest of eternity like this. My head went back and my mouth opened. Howling in rage and sorrow, I called my minions forth from the darkness. My eyes didn’t just turn scarlet from my overwhelming anger, they pulsated in their sockets. I rose and floated towards Sanderson, half solid and half whirling particles. My bedazzled servants closed in around him to stop him from fleeing.
Halting before the betrayer, I floated several inches above the ground. “Do you remember what I said I would do to you if you tried to harm me or my friends?” My voice had deepened and my fangs had descended. The general stared at me speechlessly. “I told you I would reach down your throat with my hand and rip your intestines out through your mouth,” I reminded him.
Stricken with terror, my betrayer tried to scream but it was choked off when the particles of my right hand poured into his mouth. Tumbling down his oesophagus and into his stomach, they reformed and tore through his stomach lining. He screamed in abject agony as I fished around inside him and gripped a handful of his intestines.
The guests attempted to flee as piercing shrieks issues from the general. A glance was all it took for my human henchmen to fire warning shots. Some of the crowd kept running and fell to the ground when the next round of bullets shattered their legs. There would be no swift, painless deaths this night. These humans were going to pay for everything that had been done to my kind. Their deaths had already been fated but they were going to suffer so much more now that Luc had been reduced to a ruin.
Gurgling in agony, Sanderson clawed at his stomach as my hand began to climb upwards, dragging his intestines with it. He began to choke when Righty reached his throat. His neck bulged and blood burst from his mouth. Higgins caught his commanding officer before he could fall. Sergeant Wesley helped to hold the general in place as he coughed out gouts of red fluid. I didn’t try to avoid the splatters that covered me in sticky red. My face was soon bathed in the blood of the man who had all but murdered my beloved.
Sanderson was still alive and was hanging by a thread as my fingers appeared between his lips. Righty wormed its way free, still dragging the intestines until they hung down his chest like the medals that had been promised to us. His eyes met mine and his bloody mouth croaked out his last words. “I’ll see you in hell.”
“No you won’t,” I said as the life left his eyes and the breath left his body. “Because I can’t die,” I reminded the corpse of the man who I’d been longing to kill. Now that the task was done, I felt no satisfaction. My grief didn’t lessen with the general’s demise and I turned my attention to someone who was equally deserving of pain.
President Rivers backed away from my scarlet eyed fury and tripped down the steps. Landing on her back, she tried to scramble away but I was on her before she could stand. My knees landed on either side of her chubby legs. “Please don’t kill me,” she begged. “I’ll give you anything you want!”
“Really?” I asked her around my fangs that were far longer and sharper than usual. “Then give me Luc back.”
She began to scream even before my teeth tore into her neck. I could have ripped out her jugular and left her to bleed to death but she deserved to suffer and so suffer she would. Hauling her to her feet, I turned myself into a whirling mass of molecules and inserted them into the president’s flesh. Her heart stuttered and seized up for a moment as I clogged her veins, then it thundered back into action again.
This time when I transformed back to my normal size, I did it with excruciating slowness. The cries of horror and revulsion from the watching dignitaries sounded muffled since I was inside Rivers. Her flesh bulged as I slowly increased my size. Her overtaxed organs failed long before I burst through her flesh. Her body fell apart in chunks that weren’t much larger than what was left of Luc. Naked and covered in blood, I wore her skin like a badly fitting suit.
Huddled in a frightened, sobbing group, the guests begged for mercy. Leaving the corpse of their leader, I peeled off her sheets of skin, dropped them to the blood sodden ground and turned to face them. No one else had tried to run since the others had been gunned down. “There will be no mercy for my enemies,” I told them. Gore dripped from my hair and blurred my vision as I sent a mental command to my tiny minions.
Small and silent, the Kveet imps that I’d hypnotized in the sewers beneath Manhattan surged into the bright lights that had been set up to illuminate the ceremony. Something deep inside me had warned me to save these two hundred clones. Instead of exploding them along with the rest, I’d commanded them to hide deeper in the subway. For once, my inner voice had come through for me and I was glad that I’d listened to it for once.
Pointing at the guests, I spoke in Viltaran. “Food.”
Red eyes growing wide in delight at the banquet that was before them, the tiny imps required no further urging. Racing across the grass, they fell on the humans who’d been disabled first. Their shrieks were cut off swiftly and only tattered clothing and chewed skeletons remained as razor sharp teeth consumed their flesh.
My human henchmen had to shoot most of the remaining guests in the legs to stop them from fleeing the slaughter. Their bamboozled faces remained serene as they did so. I was sure that, deep down in their subconscious, they were horrified by what they were doing but none of them could resist my dark magic.
Once more, fate had tried to bend us to its will. I hadn’t been willing to stand idly by and had taken measures to avoid it. Due to my arrogance, Luc had been struck by the bullets that had been intended for me. If I had allowed Sanderson’s projectiles to hit their true target, my love would still be whole and unharmed. Thanks to me, the person I loved most in the world had been reduced to chowder.
·~·
Chapter Thirty
Kneeling beside Luc’s scattered pieces, I picked up his cold, still hand and pressed his palm against my cheek. I was too stunned to cry. Human screams and piping cries of greed from Kveet imps mingled together but I ignored them all. Peripherally, I was aware of Kokoro sprinting over to the chopper before it could take off. The engine had powered up as soon as my hand had started to traverse through Sanderson’s body, dragging his intestines along behind it.
A small part of me registered that I wasn’t alone in my grief. Geordie sobbed in Igor’s arms and the Russian’s fac
e was stony as he patted the teen on the back. Ishida’s head was bowed in sorrow. Gregor had known Luc for several hundred years and they had been very close. He mastered his grief enough to be concerned for the rest of us. He hunkered beside me and put a hand on my shoulder. “Natalie, we need to leave.” I couldn’t be bothered to dredge up the will to acknowledge him. I wasn’t capable of speech or even of much thought. “Igor, can you find something to carry Luc’s…body in?” Gregor asked.
Gently pushing Geordie away, Igor jogged over to the rows of chairs that were now in disarray. Someone had left their jacket folded over the back of their chair. He grabbed it and jogged back to Gregor. I watched in a dazed silence as the pair began picking up small chunks of my beloved and placing them in the coat. Geordie and Ishida helped, scooping up bits and pieces of rent flesh and gently adding them to the pile.
When they were done, Gregor put his hand on my shoulder again. “Natalie, you need to order the soldiers to destroy the imps.”
“Why?” I asked dully, knowing he would keep nagging me until I answered him.
“It would be too dangerous to allow them to roam free. Innocent lives will be lost.”
He flinched back when I seared him with my scarlet gaze. “Innocent? None of the meat sacks are innocent! Any one of them would put a bullet in your head just because you exist.”
“You don’t want any more little children to be eaten alive, do you, chérie?” Geordie asked in a small voice. “Surely they do not deserve to suffer?”
The imp feast was still going on. Grey bellies were already beginning to bulge but they wouldn’t stop until all of the humans were dead. The heavy compulsion I’d laid on them wouldn’t allow them to. I could have sent them back into the sewers but my hypnotism wouldn’t last forever. Once it wore off, they would emerge and start hunting down fresh prey again.
Geordie had used the only argument that would have worked on me. I’d already witnessed the death of one child and it had affected me more than I cared to admit. Forcing out a tired sigh, I stood and trudged over to the soldiers. Higgins and Wesley stepped forward to hear my orders. They, and their fellow soldiers, were deeply enough beneath my spell that they were able to ignore the cries for help from the people they’d disabled. “Once the clones are finished eating the guests, kill them all,” I ordered them both.
“Yes, ma’am,” Higgins said.
“What then, ma’am?” Wesley asked.
“Then tell your next leader that this is what happens when humans turn on vampires.” I indicated the carnage with my free hand. The other one was wrapped around the cold fingers of Luc’s dismembered hand.
The soldier who had confiscated our weapons stepped forward and handed me his backpack. As one, the men offered me a salute. I returned the salute with Luc’s hand since my other one held the weapons stash. Then Gregor was guiding me towards the helicopter. I took a seat and swapped bundles with Igor, carefully placing Luc’s hand inside with the rest of his shattered body. I held the bulging coat in my lap as everyone climbed on board and the chopper took to the skies.
We didn’t travel far, just across the river to the airport in Brooklyn once more. Kokoro bamboozled our way onto the tarmac and into the cargo hold of a plane that was heading for Europe. The lengthy trip passed in a blur. My friends tried to talk to me but I was too mired in misery to respond. Luc was my only concern. I needed peace and quiet so I could try to help him heal.
I vaguely remembered swapping planes when we landed and sneaking into the cargo hold of an aircraft heading for France. That trip also passed in a blur and then we were climbing inside a van. When I next glanced up, we were driving through a familiar small town. Several minutes later, Igor parked the vehicle that he’d most likely stolen in a garage that I’d seen several times before.
Geordie and Ishida coaxed me out of the van towards the safe house that was only a few miles away from the abandoned Court mansion. I felt a stir of hope at the familiar surroundings. Maybe Luc would somehow sense that he was now in a safe place and would rally enough to begin piecing himself back together.
In the bedroom that I had previously shared with my one true love, I spread the coat out on the bed and knelt before it. I took Luc’s hand in mine again and tried to will him to regenerate.
Several nights and days passed without any signs of change. I heard the others whispering about us downstairs in the living room and I knew they were concerned for my mental health. It was obvious to them that Luc was too far gone to be able to piece himself back together. They didn’t share my faith that he would return to me. The fact that he hadn’t broken down into slush kept my hopes alive.
Igor was the first to give up and leave but he didn’t go alone. Entering the room, his heavy hand rested on my shoulder briefly. I hadn’t heard him approach and started at the contact. “I will be gone for a few nights. I’m going to Kazakhstan to see if my car is still where I left it,” he said in Russian. I sincerely doubted it would still be there after all this time. He was just using it as an excuse to leave. “Geordie and Ishida have decided to accompany me on the journey.”
I nodded to indicate I’d heard him but remained silent and focussed on Luc.
“Goodbye, chérie,” Geordie whispered from the doorway.
“We will see you soon,” Ishida said and ushered his friend away as he began to sob brokenly. Igor squeezed my shoulder in silent commiseration at my misery then left.
It was Gregor and Kokoro’s turn to desert me the next night. They stood arm in arm in the doorway as Gregor explained their reasons for running away. “Just go,” I said, cutting him off in mid-sentence.
“We will be back, Mortis,” Kokoro said softly. I flinched at the name that had been given to me over two thousand years before I’d been born. My entire life had been planned down to the last detail and I’d had no say in how it would turn out. The one time I’d tried to thwart fate, it had backfired on me in a way that I’d never anticipated.
More time passed and I spent it kneeling on the floor in penance for my arrogance at believing that I could prevent Sanderson’s final great betrayal. Eventually, I slept.
Turning in a full circle, a sea of tall grass surrounded me. It was long enough to brush my fingertips and tickled the crosses on my palms. I came to a stop and noticed the ground sloped upwards to form a small hill. A figure waited at the summit. I knew instantly that it was Luc without needing to see his face. The shape of his body was forever etched into my memory.
“Luc!” He didn’t turn around at my happy shout. He stared out over the horizon at a low, full moon and didn’t even seem to know that I was there.
I ran towards him but it was like running through thigh deep mud. A breeze picked up and horror raced down my spine when Luc began to dissipate. “No! Luc, stay with me!” He ignored my screams and continued to stare at the moon.
Clawing at the air, as if it would help me reach him in time, I ran a few more steps. I gave a low moan of fear when ragged holes appeared in my beloved’s body. The wind increased and more and more of him disappeared. Remembering that I could now teleport, I appeared right behind him and he finally turned around. He reached out for me and I did the same. Our fingertips met, a sad smile touched his mouth then a blast of wind scattered his particles far and wide.
Screaming Luc’s name, I stumbled forward and teetered on the edge of a cliff. Waves crashed on the rocks far below, sending sprays of foam and water in every direction. Then a hand pushed me over the edge and I was falling.
Snapping awake, I rubbed my face with both hands then froze. Luc’s hand had been in mine when I’d fallen asleep. I stared through my fingers at the empty coat uncomprehendingly. The chunks of flesh were gone and hadn’t been replaced with watery goo.
Wild hope surged through me. I stood and sent out my senses, searching the house then the surrounding area. I swept my senses towards the abandoned Court mansion a few miles up the road in increasing desperation when I came up blank. In a final effort, I sc
anned the entire country and several more countries that surrounded France. I found no vampires close by.
Bereft, I stared down at the bed and could see no trace of my one true love. Luc was gone and not even his particles remained. My fingers tore furrows in my cheeks that healed instantly as I howled out my anguish. I screamed in torment until my voice gave out and I collapsed to my knees again.
Luc was gone and nothing would ever bring him back. Fate had won and I would live forever with the knowledge that I had killed the only man who had ever loved me and whom I would ever love.
·~·
Chapter Thirty-One
I wasn’t certain just how long I’d been mourning when I sensed vampires approaching. It could have been days or maybe even weeks later. There were three people and that meant it was probably Igor, Geordie and Ishida. It was highly unlikely that some of the other vampires that were scattered throughout Europe had stumbled across the safe house.
As soon as the trio stepped into the bedroom, they would see that Luc was gone. I couldn’t stand the thought of having to share my grief with them. They would blame me for Luc’s death or, far worse, they might expect me to somehow move on and attempt to resume my life.
The thought of having to face their accusing stares forced me into action. The door opened below and footsteps thundered on the stairs. “Nat, we’re back!” Geordie called excitedly but I was already gone before he reached the doorway.
Standing in the shadows beside the garage, I took a last look at the house that had offered me safety and shelter. This was where I had made the friends who I cared about so deeply but who I would now have to leave behind.
