by J. C. Diem
Struggling with the idea of sacrificing a few to save many, the teen’s shoulders slumped as he reached his decision. “I suppose I would target each one as quickly as possible and hope to kill them all before they could destroy too many more cities.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too,” I told him and he gave me a quick smile of relief.
We all turned to Gregor next. “We should return to the catacombs and rest while I ponder on this,” he said after a thoughtful pause.
Rather than being disturbed that he didn’t have a plan ready, I was glad that I’d get the chance to rest. Blood would restore my strength but sleep would still be welcome. I had a feeling that fate had a message for me that I’d need to hear, or to dream about in this instance.
After feeding from the sailors that Owens rounded up, we took the time to use their facilities to get cleaned up before returning to our hidden base. My soldiers headed for their bedrooms with the knowledge that they would be safe from discovery in the catacombs. No one knew where our hideout was. The French and American governments knew that the vampire Court had once resided in the mansion but they didn’t know about the catacombs, I hoped. They were probably responsible for razing the buildings to the ground. They’d done their best to eradicate us, so why not destroy the house where a large number of our kind had once lived?
I changed into the spare t-shirt Prime Minister Townsend had provided and left my leather suit hanging up in the closet. The night might come when I would need it but, as Kokoro had said, it wasn’t practical for fighting aquatic monsters.
Wearing only a pair of black boxer shorts, Luc slid into the bed beside me. He’d been quiet and contemplative since I’d divulged the reasons why I needed my close friends around me. He waited until my head was resting on his chest before speaking. “I feel as though I should apologize to you.”
“For what?” I didn’t try to skim his thoughts. He’d closed a mental door against me and it would be rude to try to pry it open.
“I thought you valued me more for the pleasure that I could give you rather than for my moral support.”
“To be honest, it’s fifty-fifty,” I confessed. “I love your body as much as I love your personality.”
“Since we are being honest,” he replied. “I feel the same way.” His hand moved to cup my butt but I slid into sleep before my flesh hunger could rise.
Expecting to see the ruins of a monastery, I instead found myself standing next to a chair on a small stage. Upholstered in a plush maroon fabric, the delicate chair was made from a dark wood that had been inset with gold. A backdrop had been erected behind it. The backdrop was of a library scene, with shelves that reached high enough that a ladder would be required to reach them if they’d been real. A small round table made of the same dark wood sat beside the chair. It was stained with several rings from glasses that had spilled their contents.
Turning, I saw three cameras on tripods aimed at the chair. Each one would capture a different angle of whoever sat in the seat. Overhead spotlights would shine brightly on the stage when the filming commenced.
“Ok,” I said out loud. “This is weird.” I had no idea why I’d been sent to this particular dream. Whatever message Fate was sending me, it was beyond my comprehension.
There were two doors in the room. Picking the one to my right, I opened it and stepped out into a city.
Turning in a circle, I took in the empty streets and buildings. Sweeping my senses out, I detected no signs of life anywhere. A door to a nearby house banged shut as a gust of wind rose. Half torn off its hinges, it listed badly. I knew the house was empty but my feet carried me towards it anyway. Wherever I was, it was a city that was foreign to me. The buildings were of varying heights, colours and sizes and were all crammed in tightly together. I had a feeling I was in the poorer part of the city.
The living room furniture had been tossed around as the unknown intruders had searched for victims. The smell of death permeated the air and drew me towards a hallway. Three doors stood open, one was smeared with blood. A bare foot caught my eye as I approached the first door. Pushing it open, my eyes travelled up the foot and stopped at mid-thigh. The rest of the leg, not to mention the body that it belonged to, was missing. Blood coated the bed where the grisly remains of another human rested. Thick liquid had dried to a dark brown stain on the floor, walls and ceiling. The smell of more death carried me back into the hallway to the last door on the right.
Filled with trepidation, I entered the room of an infant. A crib stood in the corner but I had to step over the carcass of a large black dog to reach it. The animal had died while defending the occupant of the room and its owners would never know of their pet’s bravery. A gigantic hole in its chest was the cause of death. Its heart had been torn out and lay on the blood soaked floor beside the animal.
My hands were trembling as I leaned over the crib. At first, I thought I was looking at a discarded doll’s head. Then I saw the dark stain of blood from where the baby’s head had been torn from its shoulders. Newly born, the baby must have been a delicious snack for whatever had bitten its head off and then spat it back into the crib.
Fighting down sudden rage, I teleported into the centre of the city. Death surrounded me as I sent out my senses to find whatever had slaughtered the inhabitants of this town. Widening the search, I found only emptiness in each city or town that I touched. There were no humans left on whatever island or continent that I’d dreamed myself into. There was also no sign of whatever had killed them. On that thought, thousands of red eyes appeared in the shadows. I didn’t have time to brace myself before dark, misshapen creatures came thundering towards me.
Luc started awake when I flailed my hands to ward off a blow that never came. Capturing my hands, he folded me into his arms. If I’d been human, my heart would have been racing. Instead, it lay inside me, inert and lifeless.
“I take it you had an unpleasant dream,” my one true love said quietly. Only Gregor was still awake, but he was too far away to overhear us, as long as we whispered.
“It was a doozy,” I replied and tried to push the image of the decapitated baby from my mind. The suffering of small children affected me far more than I cared to admit. I was pretty sure Fate had used that particular image on purpose. It knew me better than I knew myself and it was aware of which buttons to press to get me to do what it wanted.
“Tell me about it,” Luc said. I related the dream to him and waited for his verdict. “Do you have any idea what any of it means?” he asked.
Glad that I wasn’t the only one who was clueless, I shook my head. “Nope. Maybe Gregor will have an insight.”
Rising, we dressed and quietly made our way to the living area. Now wearing black jeans, a dark blue t-shirt and black leather jacket, I sank onto the couch beside my beloved. Wearing clothing that was similar to mine, Luc was dressed far more casually than I was used to but the outfit suited him. Only Gregor seemed uncomfortable in his less than expensive outfit. He’d no doubt prefer to don one of his custom made tweed suits. They’d be ruined each time we entered the brain of our adversaries, so he had little choice but to put up with the casual clothing for now.
Quirking an eyebrow, Gregor looked as grave as I felt. “Has something happened?”
“Not yet, but it probably will,” I replied cryptically and related my dream again.
Baffled, Gregor also had no explanation for the images that had been sent to me. “I am sure it will become clear in time.”
That was what Danton had said after relating the vision his master had received. I hoped both messages would become clear soon. “It’ll become clear when the shit has already hit the fan and it’s too late to stop it,” I grumbled. “Why can’t Fate, or whoever it is that sends me these dreams, just be clear for once?”
“Perhaps Fate thinks that would be too easy,” Luc said dryly. “I sometimes feel as though we are facing a test and the ultimate outcome depends on how we deal with each threat that arises.”
Gregor nodded slowly in agreement. “I have often had that same feeling.”
Now that they’d pointed it out, I also had the sensation that it would be crucial for us to make the right decisions, or else we’d fail and the Earth itself would be damned. No pressure, I whined but I kept the thought to myself.
·~·
Chapter Thirty-One
Gregor had been keeping track of octosquid activity while the rest of us had been sleeping. The laptop battery had almost run out and we’d have to charge it again if we wanted to keep up to date. Since he’d had time to kill, he’d drawn a detailed map of the world and had found five pins to mark where each alien had last been sighted.
“How accurate is the map?” he asked.
A quick search found all five octosquids. Two had been marked correctly but the other three had moved closer to land. They’d depleted the oceans and seas of life in their immediate vicinities. These three had yet to feed on coastal towns and hunger was driving them in search of two-legged food. Interestingly, two were drifting towards South America from opposite directions.
“We might be in luck. It looks like these two are heading towards Chile and Argentina.” I shifted two of the pins to indicate where the aliens were now. “They’re moving slowly but they should encroach on each other’s territory sometime in the next couple of hours.” Once that happened, an inevitable battle would ensue and we could then move in to take down the victor.
One by one, our friends woke and joined us. Danton was the next to rouse once the sun departed from the sky. His five warriors broke free from their death-like states shortly after. My newly made vampires were slower to rise but became alert within seconds of each other.
The seven of us who could wake at will had been keeping watch over the aliens’ activities via the pins that I kept moving on the map. I frowned when one of the octosquids changed direction. “One of them is moving away,” I warned the others as my soldiers filed into the room. Dressed and armed, they were ready for action, which was handy since we’d have to act fast.
“Should we round up some more human bait?” Ishida asked. He had cleared the furniture from a small area so he could practice his sword technique. He’d borrowed one of my swords since he didn’t have one of his own. He was only slightly shorter than me so the weapon suited him well enough.
He handed my sword back and I slid it into its sheath as I answered him. “We don’t have time for that.” I stood and urged everyone to gather around. Once we were all touching, I whisked us to the dock and on board Shadow.
Several sailors were still tinkering with the vessel. Used to seeing us popping up unexpectedly, they merely filed out onto the dock instead of screaming and fleeing in alarm.
“Has Shadow been fully repaired?” Igor asked one of the men.
“Yes, sir,” the sailor responded and saluted. One of Igor’s eyebrows rose in amusement as he returned the salute.
Locating the alien that was straying off course, I made sure we were within shooting distance when I zapped us to it.
“Fire!” Igor ordered and the soldiers out on the small deck obeyed. Their weapons were far too puny to inflict much damage on the monster’s hide, but it had the effect we were hoping for and caught the beast’s attention.
Faster than I’d anticipated, it whirled around and sent a dozen tentacles shooting towards us. I skipped the boat backwards, staying just out of range and the chase began. Firing the occasional pot shot to work the alien up into a rage, my soldiers made sure they kept its attention on us.
The second octosquid became aware of the interloper approaching its territory and charged in our direction. Teleporting Shadow for a final time, the boat landed directly between the former allies that had turned into enemies simply by their close proximity. Tentacles lashed out but not towards each other, instead, they wrapped around our boat before I could shift us to safety. We were lifted into the air and my attempt to teleport the boat to safety failed. With two immense aliens holding onto us, there was far too much weight for me to shift. They’d turned our trap against us and not even Gregor had foreseen this outcome.
Caught between the two mammoths, we were in a titanic tug of war that made the hull squeal in protest. The windows buckled then disintegrated as Shadow was twisted in opposite directions. Losing his balance, Igor fell through one of the windows. Geordie’s hand reached out, caught his mentor’s foot and was left holding his shoe as Igor dropped. A tentacle swept up towards him, its hungry mouth opened and closed as its teeth gnashed the air in anticipation of a meal.
“Save him!” Geordie screamed at me but I was already on the move.
Appearing beneath Igor, I caught him an instant before the teeth could tear him to pieces. I zapped us both back onto the boat just in time for it to be torn in two. In horror, I watched as my army fell and it was suddenly raining vampires.
Time seemed to slow down as I realized I couldn’t save everyone. Kokoro and Gregor fell together, hand in hand and resigned to their fate. Ishida coolly fired his gun into the mouth that would shortly turn him into chowder. Geordie screamed shrilly, reaching for Igor as his mentor dived out of my arms after him. Danton, his warriors, Higgins and the rest of my men would die and my friends would become a mangled ruin. Only Luc and I were safe, suspended in mid-air as my body had automatically turned into whirling particles and he’d grabbed onto my shoulders before he could fall.
“No.” I shook my head in denial, refusing to allow my people, the remnants of our entire species to be destroyed. Reaching out with my mind, I snared them all in a mental net. Without physically touching any of them, I willed us all directly into the brain of the interloping alien.
Still screaming and holding onto Igor’s shoe, Geordie plopped into the gooey, purple brain beside me and instantly became mired. Thrashing around, his screams petered out as he realized he wasn’t going to be cut to pieces by the ever gnashing teeth embedded in a tentacle. Astonishment replaced his terror. He spotted me and stared with something like awe. “How did you manage to save us all, chérie?”
A bit dazed myself, I checked and found everyone to be safe and sound. “I’m not sure,” I confessed. “I think I somehow linked my telepathy with my teleporting skill and willed us all here.”
Swimming through the thick substance, the teen wrapped his arms around me and smacked a kiss on my cheek. “Ugh,” he said with an instant grimace. “You don’t taste very good.”
“I’m kind of covered in brains,” I reminded him.
“How are we going to get out of this glop?” Ishida complained.
I still had my swords on my back and Luc pulled one free. “Natalie and I will cut a path to freedom.” Even covered in goo, he was gorgeous. Giddy with relief that I’d saved my people from certain death and dismemberment, I pulled him in close and kissed him hard.
We both grimaced at the same time as the hideous taste of alien brains invaded our mouths. “Geordie’s right, that tastes pretty nasty,” I complained.
Mired a few yards away, Gregor’s expression of distaste had nothing to do with Luc and I showing our affection in public. “Can you please hurry?” he requested. “I have brains in my sinus cavities.”
Ishida, Geordie and I burst into laughter, instantly incurring Igor’s annoyance. The Russian doggedly swam his way through the purple mass to deliver a slap to the back of Geordie’s head. Stopping long enough to grab his shoe out of the teen’s hand, he turned his sights on Ishida. Much smaller and slimmer than Igor, Ishida giggled as he propelled himself towards me. With his hand clamped around my waist, I had little choice but to take him along as I transported Luc and myself into one of the narrow tunnels that ran haphazardly through the giant organ.
Regaining his dignity, Ishida offered me a bow. “Thank you. You saved me from much embarrassment at being chastised by Igor.”
“He’ll get you sooner or later,” I warned him. He’d probably get me, too, for that matter.
“I know,” the teen
replied. “But it is fun to make him chase me.” He had a mental flashback to when he’d wanted to chop Igor’s head off for daring to smack him that first time and felt ashamed.
“Igor doesn’t hold that against you,” I told him softly.
Well used to having his mind read, the former child king looked at me hopefully. “Are you certain?”
“Yes,” I replied as Luc began to carve a path through the gooey brain. “Igor had an extremely cruel and sadistic master and was forced to serve him for five thousand years.” He’d managed to murder his master by spooking his horse over a cliff. Since he hadn’t directly killed his creator, he’d survived the experience. “Nothing much could faze him after that.”
“I would like to make it up to Igor, but I am unsure how.” Ishida had changed substantially since I’d first met him. He’d lost some of the imperial reserve he’d had to wear in front of his subjects. He was attempting to just be a normal vampire rather than a beloved ruler.
“You’ve already made it up to him by being friends with Geordie.”
Ishida’s expression was troubled. “Geordie has not had a pleasant life as a vampire.”
Being turned by a thirteen year old girl in the hopes that he would kill her master, Geordie, only fifteen himself, had been ridiculed by most of the courtiers and their servants for all of his two hundred years living amongst the courtiers. It showed how much he trusted his new friend if he’d told Ishida about his torment. “We’ll have to make sure his life is better now,” I responded. I knew Geordie felt alone even when surrounded by his friends but I wasn’t sure how to fix his problem. Worry about that later, my inner voice recommended. You’ve got aliens to kill, remember?
Stepping up beside Luc, I helped him to carve a path towards the centre of the octosquid’s brain. Testing my new ability, I searched for Gregor and willed him to me. Landing on his feet, Gregor wiped purple jelly from his face and nodded his thanks. “I hope our weapons are still operational after being immersed in brains.”
