God of Malice

by J. C. Diem

  “Screw this,” Nat said. “It’s going to take me days to heal at this rate. I’m going to try something.” Concentrating, she was relieved when she broke down into tiny particles. Her empty clothes fell in a heap on the ground. She poured herself back into them and became whole again. “Whew, I’m glad that worked,” she said in glee. All signs of her dire injuries were gone and she felt nearly normal again. This particular talent was one way to heal herself that was always guaranteed to work. She was lucky she could use it on this fourth and final world.

  Lexi glared at her in envy. She was still drained and she couldn’t fix herself as easily as Nat just had.

  “Is it just me, or is it too quiet?” Violet said.

  Examining the street, they saw signs of looting, but not much evidence of violence. “I don’t think the Grimgorg, or whatever other allies Loki has on this world are responsible for this mess,” Lexi said.

  “Humans did this,” Nat realized out loud. “Loki and his friends arrived here around the same time that Fate yanked us into her dream,” she reminded them. “Widespread panic that the US has been invaded must have made the civilians go into looting mode.”

  “This always happens in apocalyptic movies,” Violet agreed. “If Loki and his minions have been here for a while, it should be easy enough for us to figure out where they are now.”

  “We need to find a TV,” Lexi suggested.

  Most of the goods had been stolen from the electronic stores. The ones that were left had been smashed. Lexi’s hearing was still exceptional and she could hear multiple televisions going in the nearby homes. With Nat and Violet steadying her, they made their way to a small house. The living room curtain was open enough for them to see inside. A large TV was tuned to the news, just as they’d expected. A husband and wife were huddled together on the couch, watching in trepidation.

  “Loki and his alien allies have remained in Texas,” the harried looking reporter was saying. “Instead of poisonous yellow gas, a strange silver dome has appeared around the city of Reaverton.”

  Lexi was familiar with Reaverton. She’d lived in Texas for a while and it was only a few hours away from the small town where she’d lived. “I’ve been there,” she said. “The city only has a few hundred thousand people living in it.”

  “I wonder why they’re attacking smaller cities?” Nat said. Her blood had tried to run cold when the reporter had mentioned poisonous yellow gas being used somewhere else in Texas. It wasn’t proof that her old enemies were here, but her gut told her to expect the worst.

  “Who knows?” Violet said with a shrug. “We need to get there, find Loki and end this before it’s too late.”

  Nat tried to teleport them there, but nothing happened. “Damn it! My teleportation isn’t working,” she said with a scowl.

  She and Lexi looked at Violet, but she shook her head after a brief moment of concentration. “I can’t teleport, either,” she said sourly.

  “It’s up to you, Lexi,” Nat said with a hopeful look at the werewolf.

  Lexi took hold of them both and they sank into the ground. Unfortunately, they didn’t go far before they popped up again. She’d been looking at a distance halfway down the street and that was as far as they’d travelled.

  Nat looked around with a frown. “Isn’t this still Shale Falls?”

  “Yeah,” Lexi said with a weary sigh. “I think I know what the problem is.”

  “Don’t keep us in suspense,” Violet complained.

  “On my world, I could only use the zombie highway to travel somewhere I’ve already been before.”

  Nat realized what she was saying. “Because this is your first trip to this reality, you’ve technically never been anywhere except this town.”

  “Exactly,” Lexi confirmed.

  “Does this mean what I think it means?” Violet said in dismay.

  Nat’s lips thinned before she voiced the dreaded words. “We’re going to have to use normal transportation to get to Texas.”

  “That’s going to be at least an eight-hour drive from here,” Lexi pointed out.

  Violet let out a sigh at the thought of being trapped in a car with Nat for that long. “Then we’d better get a move-on,” she said.

  Assisting Lexi to walk, they went in search of a suitable vehicle. “This one will do,” Lexi said at last when they came across a relatively new pickup truck. Shiny and silver, she could stretch out on the backseat and try to recover her strength.

  “I’ll be back in a second,” Nat said and headed inside. A single kick broke the door open. A man in his late twenties came running at the noise. He was carrying a handgun, but halted when he saw the gorgeous woman in black leather striding towards him. Coming to a stop only inches away from her victim, she ensnared him with her gaze. “I need your keys,” she said.

  “Anything,” he replied with a dazed grin she’d seen numerous times before. “I’ll give you anything you want.”

  “In that case, I’ll take some of your blood, too,” she said happily. He swayed towards her, offering his neck and she bit into his vein. After a quick snack, she felt fully recharged. Her meal took his keys out of his pocket and handed them over. She removed all but the key to the truck and handed the rest back to him.

  Neither of her friends protested when Nat unlocked the truck and climbed behind the wheel. Lexi lay down on the backseat and Violet plugged their destination into the GPS. As Lexi had guessed, it would take them over eight hours to drive to Reaverton.

  Violet turned the radio on to hear the news playing. Nat took off, quickly getting used to the gears and steering wheel being on the wrong side of the car. They drove on the left side of the road in Australia, but there was little traffic for her to crash into if she forgot to drive on the right side.

  Listening to the broadcast, she stiffened when she heard the reporter describing small alien spaceships ferrying captives up to an invisible mothership. Her suspicions had just been confirmed. “The Viltarans are here,” she said in a near growl. A hint of red began to emanate from her eyes. “This version of Loki has teamed up with Uldar and his buddies.” Somehow, she wasn’t all that surprised to learn that her old nemesis was here. She’d known she would see him again sometime during this mission.

  Lexi knew Nat had personal beef with Uldar. “The Viltarans aren’t our focus,” she said from the backseat. “We’re here to find Loki.”

  “I know,” Nat muttered. Her hands were clenched on the steering wheel hard enough to turn them white. “But I’d love to get a second chance to kill him all over again.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  ~~~ Alpha World ~~~

  NAT STOPPED IN A SMALL town to give her friends a bathroom break when they were halfway to their destination. The sun had risen a couple of hours ago, but it didn’t affect her in this reality either. She bamboozled the guy manning the counter so they hadn’t had to pay for the gas or food. “We should test our abilities before we get to Reaverton.”

  “Good idea,” Lexi said, juggling an armful of food and two cups of coffee. She felt better after sleeping for a few hours, but she was still horribly weak. Delving deep inside, she could barely feel her unholy trio of supernatural monsters. She couldn’t sense the dead, feel a connection to the dogs in the town, or see any ghosts. She walked over to a nearby picnic table and put her food and beverages down. Taking a few running steps, her speed was much slower than usual. “This is ridiculous,” she complained. “I’m practically a pathetic human! Using the zombie highway seems to be my only working ability.”

  Violet was next. She already knew she couldn’t teleport. Holding out her hand, she couldn’t call on her dagger, either. Her speed was also pathetically slow and her strength had been depleted. With her fingers mentally crossed, she touched Nat on the arm and became her duplicate. “At least that works,” she said wryly. On a hunch, she reached over to Lexi and turned her into another duplicate of Natalie.

  “You two have never looked hotter,” Nat said with a sn
igger.

  Rolling her eyes at the vampire’s complete lack of modesty, Violet dropped the illusion.

  “What about you?” Lexi said to Nat. “What can you do?”

  “Not much,” Nat confessed. “I’ve already tried everything. I’m limited to breaking myself down to molecules, using hypnotism and reading minds.” Her vampire speed was also intact, but she didn’t want to brag.

  “Yeah, it’s a real shame your talents are so horribly reduced,” Violet said sourly. Once again, Nat was more powerful than Lexi and her. It just didn’t seem fair.

  “Ultimate warrior, remember?” Nat reminded her smugly. Her grin dropped away and she turned serious for a moment. “That’s why I always get the short straw, you know. I’m the only one who can survive just about anything Fate throws at me. It isn’t always fun having all these abilities.”

  Violet reminded herself that Nat had almost died in order to save her world. “You’re right,” she conceded. “It’s a good thing you have three working abilities. I think we’re going to need all of them in order to fulfil our mission.”

  “Um, four actually,” Nat admitted. “I can move really fast here, too.”

  “Of course you can,” Lexi said with a sigh. Downing the last mouthful of the horrible gas station coffee, she tossed the empty Styrofoam cup in the trash. The upside to this world having already been invaded was that they didn’t have to wait in line to fill their borrowed truck with gas. The freeways were almost completely devoid of traffic and they’d made good time so far. “Now we know what we can do, we need to figure out how we’re going to save the universe.”

  “I have a plan,” Nat said confidently.

  Violet’s brows drew down in instant doubt. “This should be good.”

  “I have a tried and true method of fumbling my way through any apocalypse,” Nat informed them, as if she was imparting a great secret. “We’re going to wing it and see what happens.”

  Lexi stared at her, then shook her head. “That’s the worst plan I’ve ever heard, but I can’t think of anything better right now.” Hopefully, they would be able to come up with something far more solid than that when they reached their destination.

  During the next four and a half hours, they discussed their options, but it became clear that Nat’s plan of winging it was the only one they had. They’d all been in this situation many times before. Fate had always steered them in the right direction.

  “Fate won’t let us down,” Violet said more to reassure herself than her companions.

  “She wants us to win,” Lexi agreed. After eating a hamburger and fries and snacking on assorted junk food, she was feeling much better. The awful coffee had helped to perk her up as well. From time to time, she glanced out the windows. After they entered west Texas, the landscape began to turn arid. Plants were few and far between and mostly consisted of cacti and scrub. She hadn’t lived in Texas for long, but it almost felt like she was coming home to be back here again.

  “I do my best work when I have no idea what I’m doing,” Nat divulged. That was something her companions had learned about her through reading the chronicles of her escapades.

  A barrier up ahead caught their attention when they neared their destination. Nat slowed down and came to a stop behind a long line of vehicles. In the distance, they could see the silver dome that surrounded the small city of Reaverton. As they watched, a hole opened in the top of the dome and several silver transport ships flew out. It closed over again immediately.

  They climbed out and trekked over to the crowd that was being held back by a line of soldiers. Most of the civilians were friends and families of the people who were being turned into clones or slaves.

  “Can you get us past them, V?” Nat asked.

  “No problem,” Violet replied. Brushing against a soldier, she assumed his appearance and uniform, then melted into the crowd. Lexi and Nat stayed close enough to keep in contact with her as she changed them into two more soldiers. Disguised, they ducked under the barrier and trotted towards the dome. “I’m not going to be able to keep these illusions up the whole way,” Violet warned them. She wasn’t as strong here and she didn’t think she could hold the images in place for more than two minutes.

  “That’s my cue,” Lexi said. Holding onto her friends, she fixed her gaze on a spot just inside the dome and they sank into the harsh, dry soil. Emerging on the other side of the barrier without their disguises, they hurried away before the soldiers on patrol on the other side could spot them. They didn’t want them to raise the alarm and draw the Grimgorg, or Viltaran droids to investigate.

  They’d learned a lot from listening to the news during their lengthy drive. It was enough to warn them that this invasion was very similar to what Nat’s world had gone through during her Viltaran war. Not only would they have the Grimgorg to worry about, they would be facing the tall gray aliens, plus their robots and clones. The only difference this time was that they weren’t here to kill their foes. Fate had a very different mission in mind.

  Civilians fled through the streets in panic and hunchbacked green aliens chased after them. Dull silver droids clanked along, shooting nanobot guns at anyone they saw. Since it was currently late afternoon, the clones and Viltarans were hiding from the killing rays of the sun.

  Thanks to Violet’s ability to blend in, they avoided their enemies as they hunted for Loki. Finding him wasn’t as easy as they’d hoped. Darkness fell and the hole in the dome opened again as the Viltarans descended. Nat shuddered when she heard the familiar guttural roars when they landed and the doors opened to reveal ramps. “Ah, how I’ve missed that sound,” she muttered sourly.

  They hid in the shadows and watched as gigantic gray-skinned monsters wearing identical black clothing disembarked from the vessels. The shortest one was at least ten feet tall. Nat’s upper lip curled backwards at seeing her old enemies alive and well in this dimension. Spreading out, the monsters went on the hunt.

  “How can such an advanced species be so brutal and animalistic?” Lexi asked as a female Viltaran caught hold of a man and tore his arm off. She bit into his flesh and tore off a chunk of meat. Her face was hideous and her teeth were more like fangs as she chewed. Her nose was short, sharp and beaklike. Like the rest of her species, her long ears curled at the tips. Her hair was just a light fuzz that barely covered her scalp. It was hard to tell one gender from another, but the large bulge in her stomach gave away that she was pregnant.

  “That’s a question I wish I knew the answer to,” Nat replied.

  Violet remained silent as she watched the slaughter. Tiny gray clones about two and a half feet tall swarmed over the fleeing civilians and ate them down to the bone. Larger ones that were around eight feet tall had to be former humans. They were just as vicious and voracious as the smaller clones. Once they’d fed, they settled down to begin herding terrified citizens over to either the portals or transport ships.

  Seeing a familiar hideous face standing a head taller than the other Viltarans, Nat’s eyes began to glow again. She had to clench her hands and stop herself from racing over and stabbing him to death.

  “Whoa,” Lexi said as she spotted the eleven-foot-tall hulk. “That is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “That, my friends, is Uldar, leader of the Viltarans,” Nat informed them.

  As if sensing he was being watched, he glared in their direction, but Violet’s illusion that they were part of the brick wall held. He loped off in search of prey and Nat instinctively went after him.

  “We’re not here for him,” Violet hissed as she tried to stop her, but the vampire broke her hand down into molecules so she couldn’t catch hold of her.

  “My gut is telling me to get close to him,” Nat said. She always followed her instincts and she knew there had to be a good reason for this sudden urge.

  Her friends trotted after her as she ducked and weaved around the humans, aliens, droids and clones. Violet caught up to her and yanked her against a wall a moment bef
ore Uldar spun around. He was only a few yards away and seemed to sense he was in danger. Scarlet eyes swept the area suspiciously, searching for whoever had raised his hackles. Long, black and matted, his hair hung almost to his waist. Bits of food were stuck in it. Up this close, his stench was almost enough to make them gag.

  Reading Uldar’s mind, Nat rummaged through his thoughts and memories, gleaning everything he knew about Loki from him. She waited until he trotted away and they were alone before speaking. “Well, well,” she said in satisfaction. Her hunch to follow him had paid off. “It seems the alpha Loki is different from the ones we’ve dealt with on our worlds.”

  “In what way?” Violet asked. She drew them inside an abandoned building so they would be out of sight.

  “He has a girlfriend,” Nat replied. “Her name is Bianca Caldwell. She’s shacked up with him and she’s apparently been with him from the first city they attacked.”

  “What sort of woman would willingly side with Loki?” Violet asked incredulously.

  “Come on,” Nat said with a mock leer. “He might be evil, but he’s still hot. Lots of women fall for bad guys.”

  Violet had been guilty of that herself once. “Still,” she grumbled. “I don’t know how she can live with herself after what he’s done to this world.”

  Lexi played the part of the Devil’s advocate. “Maybe she doesn’t have a choice. He might have forced her to go with him.”

  “Maybe,” Violet said, unconvinced.

  “Let’s go find out,” Nat said. “Uldar had Bianca followed by one of his droids. He knows where she and Loki are staying.”

  “Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt,” Lexi said as they left the building. “For all we know, Fate might have had something to do with this.” Her gut was telling her Bianca would be the key to saving the universe, but she had no idea why.

  Another familiar face came into view as they made their way through the city. King Rho and his entourage were collaring some captured humans. “Can you get me closer to him?” Nat asked Violet.