Death Conquers

by J. C. Diem

  Geordie bristled, but a stern glare from Igor kept the teen from voicing his complaint. He always reacted badly when other men attempted to woo me. Luc wasn’t particularly happy about it either, but he merely rolled his eyes. There was no contest between Luc and Thaddeus. Luc was far more attractive, but it wasn’t just his looks that captivated me. I had witnessed his memories and I’d also been inside his mind. He was a man of honour and principles and my heart belonged to him. No one could ever compare to him or have a chance in hell of stealing me away from him. He seemed to read my expression and winked.

  “Are you ready?” I asked the group as they joined hands. At their nods, I whisked us back to the prison.

  ·~·

  Chapter Twelve

  A mini riot was raging between the soldiers. They’d split into two camps; one team was on board with the idea of becoming my undead servants and the other was less certain. If they hadn’t been locked in their cells, they would have been brawling.

  Higgins listened to the debate for a few moments before striding down the hallway. The shouting died down when his comrades realized the person they were arguing about had appeared.

  “Corporal, how are you feeling?” a soldier asked.

  “I’m fine, Charlie.”

  “Did she really turn you into a vampire?” Sergeant Wesley asked.

  “Yes. It hurt like hell but it was over quickly.”

  “How come you aren’t trying to eat us?” Charlie asked.

  Higgins flicked a glance back at me. “Because Natalie turned me herself. She’s not like other vampires and we won’t be, either.”

  “How do we know you’re really undead?” someone shouted.

  Stepping over to the inmate’s cell, Higgins reached inside and grabbed the soldier by the front of his shirt. The man squawked in alarm when he was lifted several inches off the ground with one hand. “Is that enough proof? Or do you want me to feed you some of my blood and see what happens?”

  “You mean, if we turn, we can also change others into vampires?” the soldier asked when he was placed back on his feet. The thought seemed to horrify many of the men.

  I stepped in to answer that question. “This is why I’m not simply turning you against your will. I don’t want anyone to join my army unless they want to.” I met their stares and turned in a circle until I’d caught the eye of as many of the men as I could. “A war is coming that makes everything else that our planet has suffered so far pale in comparison. If you don’t step up and fight to save the humans, who will?” That got through to them and a short but thoughtful silence descended.

  “I’m in,” Sergeant Wesley called out so everyone could hear him. “Given a choice between sitting around doing nothing or saving our planet, I opt to be a hero, even if people will think we’ve been turned into monsters!” Spoken so starkly, his words helped the others to reach their own decisions. Not all of the soldiers stepped forward to join our ranks, but most did. I would make sure that anyone who refused to side with us would be set free anyway. They didn’t deserve to remain locked up forever just because I’d hypnotized them into following my orders.

  Gregor drew me aside as the shouts of agreement began to fade. “We’ll see about getting their doors open and rounding up meals while you return for the others.”

  Luc took a step towards me then visibly stopped himself and gave me a strained smile. “I won’t be gone long,” I told him and went up on my toes to give him a kiss. My flesh hunger rose as soon as our lips touched and so did his.

  Ishida slanted a look at us. “Is now really the time for that?”

  It wasn’t, but it had been so long since Luc and I had been together that it was hard to deny our needs.

  “Ishida is right,” Luc said softly and trailed a fingertip across my bottom lip. That small touch was enough to make me shiver in anticipation. “Now is not the time.”

  “We’d better find the time soon,” I muttered darkly. If we didn’t, I’d be in danger of spontaneous combustion.

  Danton, his warriors and a few of Gregor’s men were ready to go when I returned, but they weren’t alone. Thaddeus gave me a sunny smile and offered me his hand. “I’m ready to go, my Liege.” His attempt to charm me was laughably easy to see through. Nicholas, a gorgeous but overly muscled vampire, had been fond of calling me by the same title. He’d been a double agent sent by the Comtesse to infiltrate our ranks. He’d done his best to cause dissent and to worm his way into my bed. It had been my pleasure to finally carve his heart out.

  I didn’t waste time in protesting, but I didn’t insert my hand into his and instead took Thaddeus by the wrist. Danton took my other hand and, moments later, I deposited the small group in the prison hallway then went back to make one final trip.

  Millicent made sure she didn’t have to touch me as her retinue gathered into a circle. I took two of the courtiers by their wrists as the rest joined hands. They were justifiably nervous at the thought of being at my mercy. I was tempted to pop over to the Sahara Desert and dump them in the middle of it, but we really did need every vampire that we could scrounge up. I had a feeling that the octosquids would leave the oceans in search of more food soon.

  The doors to the cells opened as we arrived and soldiers lined up in the hallway uncertainly. “Who doesn’t want to join our ranks?” I asked. Scanning the minds of the men, I identified a few who had homicidal tendencies. Most hadn’t acted on their urge to murder anyone yet but, if I turned them, they wouldn’t be able to contain their baser instincts. Pointing at them, I crooked my finger. All up, nearly twenty men wouldn’t be joining our army.

  It took two trips to carry them a safe distance from the prison. I deposited them in an empty field near a large town somewhere in the mid-west. It would be up to them to secure their own freedom now.

  “You five, hold up for a second.” I pointed at the men that had the dubious mental strength to suppress their killer instincts before they could sprint away.

  “What?” one asked with a sneer. “You don’t think we’re good enough to be part of your private army so what do you want with us?”

  I looked deeply into his eyes and he went quiet as he fell beneath my spell for a second time. I repeated the act with the other four men. All stood quietly, eyes glazed over at the strength of my hypnotism as they waited for orders. “You no longer feel the desire to murder people,” I instructed them firmly. “You will not hurt anyone else, unless you’re protecting your own life or the lives of others,” I added as an afterthought. “Create new identities, find decent jobs and be productive members of society.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they said as one.

  I hated the idea of turning anyone into my permanent puppets but I couldn’t set trained killers loose without putting some kind of leash on them. I released the mental hold I had over them and they blinked, as if coming out of a dream. “Can we go?” one of the men asked.

  I scanned his mind quickly and found no trace of homicidal tendencies. “You can go.” The other four had also been purged of their darker thoughts. My command was embedded in their subconscious so deeply that no one would ever be able to reverse my orders. It was chilling to realize that my hypnotism had grown so strong. I didn’t want to risk their hypnotism being wiped out by being turned into my undead minions and I also didn’t want to restrict the wills of my servants. This seemed like the best solution.

  By the time I returned to the prison, meals had been readied for the first ten men who were about to become new recruits in my army. Geordie handed me a sharp dagger and held up a plastic cup that he would presumably use to catch my blood in. “I didn’t think you would want all those strange men biting you.”

  Personally, I thought he didn’t want the men to put their mouths on me, but it was a good idea. It would be much faster to feed the men from cups rather than from the wounds I’d have to inflict on myself. “Thanks, Geordie,” I said and he smiled shyly at my praise.

  Luc was on my right and Geordie was on my
left as I approached the first candidate. Luc’s hand came to a rest on my shoulder in support and Geordie winced in empathy when the blade bit into my flesh. Bright yellow blood squirted into the cup that he held beneath my wrist. I dug the blade in deeper, slicing from my wrist down to my elbow. I moved the blade slowly and didn’t stop until the cup was full. The wound healed quickly and there was no trace of a scar when I was done.

  “Did that hurt?” Ishida asked as he stepped up with another cup.

  “Not as much as it used to.” Since feeding from our ancient ancestors, I was less pervious to pain and discomfort in general. Still, the sight and sensation of cutting myself open was far from pleasant.

  “Two small swallows will do, gentlemen,” Gregor advised the men who were nervously waiting their turn to be transformed.

  Geordie handed the cup over to Sergeant Wesley and he took the required sips. The teen retrieved the cup an instant before the soldier convulsed. Igor eased the man to the ground, displaying a compassion that few knew he possessed as the human left his mortal life behind. White faced and holding onto his composure by a thread, Charlie took the cup that Geordie offered next.

  As Wesley’s eyes snapped open to bathe Igor in a red glow, Thaddeus stepped forward with a terrified convict held firmly in his grip. The inmate’s screams rang out as my newest minion feasted. As the sergeant finished his snack, Charlie awoke as the undead.

  It didn’t take long before I felt like a cow that was being milked, but for blood rather than for milk. The production line worked surprisingly well and we had an efficient system in place. One person would step up to catch my blood while someone else took their cup to feed to a new set of prisoners. Others brought convicts forward to feed the newly made monsters.

  Millicent handed me a cup and kept her face a blank mask. I read the revulsion of what we were doing from the surface of her mind, but beneath that something darker lurked. I couldn’t quite probe into the thought, she held it closely guarded. I knew she hated me and all that I stood for. She was envious of my fame and wanted Luc for herself. Her eyes met mine and I gave her a knowing smirk. Her mouth tightened and she marched off without a word as soon as her cup was full.

  Losing so much blood would have killed a normal vampire. Even I had to feed several times to replenish what I was giving to the men who were now my servants. I’d felt a connection between us when they’d simply been beneath my spell. Now that they belonged to me body and whatever souls they had left, I could feel them on a whole new level.

  Dawn was dangerously close when the last man became a vampire. He fed from a final petrified inmate, then one of Danton’s warriors led the partially drained snack away. Swords and daggers had pierced half a dozen hearts of the inmates that had fought back. We didn’t want to chance one of the cons rising as the undead.

  From the way my new fledglings were swaying on their feet, I didn’t think they would share my ability to remain awake during daylight hours. While they had some of my traits, they obviously didn’t share them all.

  “You should begin transporting your men to the catacombs,” Gregor suggested. “It is daylight back in France,” he reminded me. “They will fall asleep as soon as they arrive.”

  It was the logical place to store them, so I nodded. I’d just fed a few minutes ago and felt chock full of energy again. “I’m going to try to shift more than a dozen at a time.” The only way I’d be able to learn what my limitations were was to experiment.

  Luc motioned twenty men to step forward. They formed two neat rows and the ones in back put their hands on the shoulders of the men in front. I reached out to take Higgins and Wesley by the hand and pictured the courtier’s level of the catacombs. Moments later, we appeared in the dark yet opulent rooms. Just as Gregor had predicted, my men fell asleep the instant we appeared. They thudded to the carpet and lay in an unruly mess.

  Thirty men waited for me when I returned to the prison. Fifty waited the next time and then only eighty remained. Feeling just how close the sun was to rising, I mentally crossed my fingers that my talent wouldn’t fail me. It would be difficult to make sure all of the slumbering fledglings were touching if they were unconscious. Hopefully, I could take them all before the sun showed up.

  “Gather in close,” I instructed my soldiers. They obeyed and we all winked from one side of the world to the other. I felt no fatigue from shifting so many people at once and figured I still hadn’t reached my limit yet. I briefly wondered how it was possible that I could do the things that I could do. I’d been designed by Fate and it had decided what my capabilities would be. There was no use questioning things that I would never have an answer for.

  I couldn’t leave my men sprawled all over each other, so I spent a few minutes lining them up neatly so they wouldn’t wake up in compromising positions. Being unholy creatures of the night, they all now possessed night vision, so it wasn’t necessary to leave a light burning for them. Even so, I wasn’t about to leave them alone down here deep beneath the ground. They were mine now and I was responsible for their well-being. That included their mental as well as their physical health.

  I’d never imagined that I would become the ruler of an army of vampires but I was now and I had a duty and an obligation to these people.

  ·~·

  Chapter Thirteen

  Now that we knew I could transport a large number of people at once, everyone was waiting for me in one group when I returned to the prison. “I’ll be back in a second, I just have to talk to the warden,” I told my waiting friends and new allies.

  Millicent huffed impatiently and crossed her arms. Geordie shot her a glower. I hate that snotty cow. I smirked at his petulant thought and willed myself into Warden Jeffries’ office. He sat at his desk, staring at the monitors bleakly. The bodies of the few dead inmates were stacked off to one side. He was still beneath my spell, but he felt responsible for their deaths anyway.

  “Jeffries.” He roused at my voice and turned to face me. “Alert the police, the army or whoever you think needs to know, that I have turned these soldiers into a small army of vampires. Tell them that we have no intention of trying to take over your world. I’m going to use them to attempt to stop a bunch of aliens from eating everyone on your planet.”

  “Why were those six men killed?” he asked and pointed at the monitor that showed the deceased. My bedazzlement of him had been light and it was already wearing off on its own.

  “Do you really think anyone will miss them?” My tone was dry and he half shook his head before he could stop himself. “I chose to turn these soldiers into my own private army for a reason. They’re all good men who were locked up simply because they were forced to follow my orders. All new vampires have to feed, even mine. Our blood is highly virulent and those six men were accidentally infected. They were all unfit to live amongst humanity even when they were still humans. They’d be far worse as the undead.”

  Nodding reluctantly, he reached for the phone on his desk. “I’ll pass on your message to the authorities.”

  Leaving the distressed warden, I zapped myself back to the others then shifted us all to Gregor’s mansion. As our group broke up, Geordie either accidentally or purposefully jostled Millicent. From his insolent smirk, I guessed he’d done it on purpose.

  “Did your parents not teach you any manners, serv-” Millicent cut off her insulting title of ‘servant boy’ before she could finish it and her eyes slid over to me to judge my reaction.

  “No,” the teen replied with a glare. “They were peasants, milady. We didn’t live in a mansion and eat off silver platters. Five of us lived in a one room shack and wore sacks for clothing. We didn’t exactly have much of a chance to learn any manners.”

  “It comes as no surprise that you hail from peasant stock,” Millie said with a contemptuous sneer. “I cannot imagine what use you could possibly be to anyone, let alone to the great and venerable Mortis.” She turned her sneer on me and my fury rose. The pompous vampire flinched and stepped
back when a red glow began to emanate from my eyes. Anyone who knew me knew that this was a bad sign.

  Gregor wisely drew my friends and true allies away from the twelve cowering Brits as I stalked closer to them. “I think the real question is what possible use you could be to me,” I said in a steely tone that made them flinch again. “You are not, and will never be, welcome here. I’ll give you five minutes to gather your belongings then I’ll transport you to a location of your choice. I don’t care where it is, just as long as it is far away from here.”

  Thaddeus, with his jacket folded over one hand, lifted his other hand to protest. I turned my scarlet eyes on him. Swallowing his plea to remain with us, he bowed and hastened after the others as they fled. None of my friends approached me as I counted down in my head, which I was grateful for. I doubted I’d be able to carry on a conversation and continue to count down at the same time. I really have to find a watch soon. The errant thought fled before I could lose track of the count.

  The courtiers returned within the allotted time, carrying the clothes they’d left behind. I wasn’t going to give them time to change or to return to Isabella’s estate for whatever other possessions they’d brought with them. Millicent marched over to stand in front of me and stared down her nose at the top of my head. I didn’t deign to tilt my head backwards to meet her icy stare. “Have you chosen a destination?” I asked her.

  “Yes. Take us to China. Anywhere in the country will do, as long as you don’t leave us out in the sun to burn to death,” she said acidly.

  Now that’s a tempting thought. For once, I managed not to voice my sarcasm.

  “Bye, bye,” Geordie said in a mock sad tone and gave them a wave. “We’ll really miss you.” His insincerity made me smile inwardly even as Igor’s hand connected with the back of his head. “It was worth it,” the teen muttered as he staggered forward a step.