by J. C. Diem
Closing my eyes, I sent my senses out far and wide. Apart from the two hundred vampires on Gregor’s property, I sensed only a few scattered vampires across Europe, and Millicent’s dozen that were still in China. I picked up no signs at all of any other vampires, imps, aliens or clones of any kind. I opened my eyes again and relayed my findings. “As far as I can tell, there’s no undead out there at all, apart from us.”
“Could you sense the rats that you sired?” Igor asked.
“I didn’t sense them as the undead,” I admitted. “But I felt a connection to them.”
“You felt a connection because you sired them,” Gregor said. “You may not have directly created the second rat, but it still originated from your line.”
“Can you imagine an infestation of vampire rats?” Kokoro asked and shuddered. “They’d swarm the cities, killing every living being and leaving only corpses behind. It would not take long for them to reduce the entire planet into a lifeless wasteland.”
Geordie’s eyes were wide with alarm. “Do you think that is the next threat? Hordes of vampire rats?”
“No,” I said and he slumped in relief. “But they definitely won’t be human. What I saw of them in my dream told me they were a lot bigger than us but they weren’t quite identical, like the clones were.”
“Could you not tell what creatures they originated from?” Luc asked.
I shook my head in frustration. “They were like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Until they turn up and we see them in the flesh, we’re going to be in the dark.”
Gregor wasn’t happy about that. He liked to plan ahead whenever possible but this time he wouldn’t be able to think of a way to take down this new threat until after it had appeared. “We will have to keep our eyes out for news about any strange sightings.”
“Why do your dreams have to be so vague, chérie?” Geordie complained. “It’s like Fate wants us to flounder around like idiots.”
Sadly, I agreed with his assessment. Fate did like to make us jump through hoops and the next hoop seemed to be almost out of our reach. After the ordeal that we’d just faced, I despaired at the next task that was lined up for us. I only hoped I’d attained all of the abilities that I would need to finally be able to put an end to our constant struggle to save the humans.
This next task would be the last one, but the outcome was uncertain. My dreams seemed to hint that the decisions we would make would result in one of three outcomes. The humans would be utterly wiped out, they’d be all but destroyed, or they’d be saved. As Ishida had said, I hoped we would be able to choose option number three.
Note from the Author:
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Death Conquers
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Also by J.C. Diem in the Mortis Series:
Death Beckons
Death Embraces
Death Deceives
Death Devours
Death Betrays
Death Banishes
Death Returns
Death Reigns, the final book in the Mortis Series, is due to be released in August 2014.
