Death Banishes (Mortis Vampire Series Book Six)

by J. C. Diem

  Snatching up the death ray, I shoved my way past my kin. Slipping on the metal floor that was slickened by water, I bolted around the edge of the pool and fired at the tentacle holding Ishida. Blackened by the blast and oozing bright yellow blood, it dropped the child king. Geordie and Aventius caught Ishida and righted him. Calm despite almost becoming dinner, the emperor fired into the gaping mouth that was now starting to close. Tentacles that had taken hold of victims dropped them as the enormous octosquid began to sink beneath the water.

  My battle lust refused to let the beast escape and I was on the move before I had fully formulated a plan. Jumping onto a tentacle, I raced down its slimy length and leaped into the mouth just before it closed. Scarlet light from my eyes bathed the area and glinted off the teeth that were retracting into the sides of the imp’s mouth. Before I could figure out how to disable the creature, it swallowed and I was suddenly rushing down a long, slick chute and into the depths of its stomach.

  Surfacing, I wrinkled my nose at the smell of rotten meat and other things that I couldn’t identify. I floated in the putrid water and wondered what I was supposed to do now. If it had been a vampire I would have tried to cut off its head or to stab it through the heart. Unfortunately, this thing didn’t seem to have either, or any other weaknesses that I could exploit.

  At a sudden sinking sensation, I figured the monstrous imp had begun its descent to the bottom of the pool.

  Waiting for the monster to stop sinking, I swam over to the side and put a palm against its stomach lining. If I had still been human, I was pretty sure being down this deep would have killed me. My holy marks had worked against the Kveet imps but that didn’t mean it would work against an octosquid imp. A barely perceptible twitch came when I used the holy mark and some of the flesh beneath my palm melted. It gave me hope that using both together could mortally wound the monstrosity. I’d never used the dark power against anything this big before but I had to at least try.

  Shoving the death ray into my waistband, I put both hands against the lining of the imp’s stomach. Concentrating hard, I let the force build until the water around me began to tremble. The octosquid shifted uneasily and putrid water sloshed over my head. Ignoring the rotten chunks of meat that showered over me, I waited until I was all but bursting at the seams with power before unleashing it.

  I was buffeted from side to side as the giant began to explode from the inside out. Abruptly reversing its direction, it rose towards the surface. It moved so fast that I was pressed to the floor of its disintegrating belly. Then I was being forced upwards as the beast regurgitated the contents of its stomach. In a gush of disgusting liquid, I flew out of its mouth, hit the wall with my chest then slid down to land on my face.

  Luc and Igor raced forward to scoop me up while Ishida and the other two vamps blasted the already dying monster. Close to sobbing in fear, Geordie dragged me away from the pool when Luc and Igor put me down. “I wish you wouldn’t scare me like that, Natalie.” It was weird to be scolded by a fifteen year old kid but I didn’t protest his shrill remonstrations.

  Most of my surviving kin had wisely moved into the hallway to escape from the octosquid imp. Ishida and the other two armed vamps ceased firing at the direly wounded beast and joined us. We stayed near the door so it would remain open and allow us to see the death throes of the monstrosity.

  Thrashing, gnashing its teeth and flailing at the air with its tentacles, the monster began to swell alarmingly. “I think we should probably move back and let the door slide shut,” I suggested and backed away from the opening. The others apparently agreed with me and stepped back with alacrity. The door hissed shut just as the imp burst. Thick, yellow ooze splattered through the narrow gaps in the door.

  I was almost positive that I didn’t want to see the aftermath of the creature’s demise but pure curiosity made me step forward again. The door was reluctant to open and did so with a wet sucking sound. Previously silver, the walls, ceiling and floor were coated in fluorescent yellow ooze and grey chunks of flesh. The smell made me want to gag and I wasn’t alone in my revulsion.

  “Eww! Let’s get out of here,” Geordie said with a hand clamped over his nose.

  One of the Japanese warriors handed over the monitor Ishida had dropped when he’d been attacked. Thankfully, it still highlighted the direction we needed to head to reach our goal. Stashing his death ray in the waistband of his pants, the child king pointed down the hallway. “The map indicates that we will need to travel along the surface again soon.”

  “But we’re having so much fun down here,” Geordie said with heavy sarcasm. Ishida cracked a rare smile and Geordie giggled at his own wit.

  Gregor, with Kokoro’s hand clasped in his, made an observation that would have been funny if it hadn’t been horrifyingly true. “Our kin are dying like extras in a horror movie. We are now down to only twenty-three in number.”

  “Do you think the monitor has been programmed to put us in danger?” I asked.

  Gregor shook his head. “I believe we will face deadly obstacles no matter which route we take.” Gregor’s reassurance eased the group’s fears. For a moment there I’d thought the Kveet were trying to kill us off. They would be stupid to turn on us before we’ve finished killing the Viltarans for them, I told myself.

  As we traversed the halls, I couldn’t help but notice that everyone was giving me a wide berth. Even Luc was keeping his distance. Being covered in stomach juices and half-digested Kveet meat had left me reeking so badly I almost expected to see stink waves radiating off me.

  Ishida led us to another set of deep stairs that would carry us up to the surface. “We have to cross a stretch of open ground but we should reach another set of underground passageways before dawn.”

  No one wanted to be faced with the howling winds but we could go no further underground, unless we wanted to take the long way to reach our goal. Gregor opened the door and dust instantly coated us from a gust of sulphurous air.

  “As least we won’t be able to smell Nat up there,” Ishida said and received a few laughs. No one needed to be told to stay together. If we lost sight of each other, it would be all too easy to become lost in the storm.

  .~.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Blinded by the swirling dust that was flung in our faces by the wind, we huddled together while Ishida consulted his monitor. He pointed wordlessly but Igor stopped him with a raised hand before he could move. “We will have a greater chance of remaining together if we form several lines. Link arms and keep the row in front of you in sight.” It was sound advice and after a bit of shuffling, we were ready to brave the arid region.

  Since he was leading us, Ishida, Kokoro and two of their warriors made up the first row. I was in the next row with Luc to one side and Geordie to the other. Igor and Gregor were on each end. Aventius, Cristov and three Europeans came behind us and behind them were the remaining Japanese and Europeans. A hand came to rest on my shoulder and I leaned forward to grasp the shoulder in front of me.

  We made good time despite the dirt that bombarded us constantly. With my arm linked through Luc’s and my other hand on Ishida’s shoulder in front of me, I couldn’t shield my face from the wind so kept my eyes on the ground. My senses were on full alert but consistently came up empty. It truly was a wasteland with only a distant mountain range to break the monotonous view of dead brown dirt on the rare occasions when the wind dropped.

  I almost stepped on Ishida’s heel when he stopped a couple of hours later. He waved Gregor forward and pointed at the ground just ahead. Nodding, Gregor pushed the button on Robert’s severed arm to open the hidden door. A sinking feeling hit me when nothing happened. Pushing the button again, Gregor turned in a circle. He searched for the door but had no success at locating it.

  Luc gestured for us to form a tight huddle. Shoulder to shoulder, we blocked most of the wind and could speak without swallowing mouthfuls of dust. “Gregor, do you still think the Kveet aren’t trying to send us to
our deaths?” my beloved asked his old friend.

  Baffled, Gregor shook his head. “It simply would not be in their best interests for us to die before we have accomplished our goal of destroying the factory and eradicating the Viltarans.”

  “Maybe it isn’t the Kveet who are trying to kill us,” Ishida said. He stared at the monitor suspiciously. “It is possible the Viltarans, or their droids, have hacked into this screen and have altered our route.”

  “Dawn will be here within the hour,” Aventius pointed out. “They have led us out into the open with nowhere to shelter from the sunlight.”

  We would never make it back to the previous underground passages before the sun came up. “I never thought I’d say this but I wish there was a death pit around here somewhere,” I said. My comment drew glances of consternation.

  “Why would you say that, chérie?” Geordie asked.

  “Because the last one had some bodies in it. We could try to use their clothing to cover us.” No one seemed enthralled by my admittedly pathetic plan. “Does anyone else have a better idea?” Sadly, no one did so Gregor started pushing the other buttons on the dead droid’s arm. A faint sliding noise came from somewhere in the distance and we hurried towards it.

  Standing on the edge of the death pit, I gaped at the mound of skeletons that littered the floor. There were so many deceased Viltarans inside that I couldn’t even see the floor. Worming his way in beside me, Geordie made a small sound of pity. The aliens might be trying to kill us but it was horrifying to see so many of them had died so painfully even if it had been thousands of years ago. “Are we really going in there?” the adolescent asked me with a hint of revulsion.

  “Yes,” Igor said then shoved his apprentice into the pit.

  Flailing his arms, Geordie fell face first onto the pile of bodies. Igor jumped in next. Neck deep in skeletons, he fished Geordie out and helped him over to the side. With great reluctance, the rest of us followed suit. Gregor closed the door but we all knew how futile the gesture was. As soon as the sun came up, the door would probably automatically reopen and the frying would commence.

  Annoyed at his mentor, Geordie kicked bones out of the way and waded off into the corner. The carcasses on top were so badly eroded they were all but dust and shattered easily. Crossing his arms, the teen’s bottom lip came out as he subsided into a sulk.

  I made my way over to him and handed Geordie my death ray. “See if you can blast some of the bones to bits and give us some room to move.”

  His lower lip was still pooched out but he emerged from his sulk enough to obliterate a few of the skeletons. Meanwhile, everyone else was stripping the dried out remains of the long deceased Viltarans. Gusts of wind had been swirling inside and when they suddenly dropped off, we all knew the sun wasn’t far away.

  We hollowed out a space in the centre of the pile of bones then started erecting a makeshift tent from the Viltaran clothing. Most of the fabric was in even worse condition than the skeletons and fell apart in our hands. Despair spread throughout the group as the faintest trace of sunlight hit the horizon.

  Still playing with the death ray, Geordie adjusted something then cocked his head at the high pitched whine that issued from the weapon. “Huh. I wonder what that did?” Pointing the death ray at the wall, he fired a shot. A five foot diameter of metal disintegrated and dry dirt showered to the ground. Glancing over his shoulder guiltily, Geordie waited for someone to berate him for causing the destruction.

  Gregor and Luc exchanged an amazed glance then scrambled out from beneath the dubious cover of the makeshift tent and attacked the wall of dirt. Joining them, I stopped long enough to give Geordie a quick hug then grabbed Gregor by the ankle. “Allow me,” I said and unceremoniously dragged him out of the short passageway they’d already dug out. Being the undisputed master of digging, I quickly passed Luc, tunnelling ever deeper through the crumbling soil. This far down, it wasn’t as dry as the dirt on the surface and it was possible, if not easy, to tunnel through.

  “That should be far enough, Natalie,” Luc said when the last of our kin had squeezed inside the narrow tunnel. The end was blocked with the salvaged clothing only moments before the doors slid open and the killing rays of the sun spilled into the death pit.

  We all hollowed out a space large enough to lie down in. Some of the smell from my encounter with the octosquid imp still lingered but the wind and flying dirt had scoured most of it away.

  Peering back down the tunnel, I located Gregor about halfway down. He had dug out a nest beside Kokoro and Ishida. “Gregor.” He turned and lifted an eyebrow at my soft call. “Sorry about dragging you out of the way like that,” I apologized.

  “That is quite alright, Natalie.” Despite the smile he gave me, he still seemed a bit stiff.

  “That thing in the pool was an octosquid imp, wasn’t it?”

  Thawing a bit, he nodded. “So it would seem.”

  “Why was it so big?” Geordie asked, struggling to remain awake now that the sun was up.

  Gregor had already put some thought into the question and had an answer ready. “I assume that, in their usual form, the octosquids do not eat Kveet. When they were transformed into a Viltaran clone, they presumably became as ravenous as the other imps that we have encountered so far.”

  “It’s stomach was full of half-digested Kveet meat,” I confirmed.

  “It is possible that the Octosquids normally grow larger when they consume food that agrees with their metabolism,” Gregor concluded.

  “So, if they were eating anything other than fungus, they would be larger than the ten we saw?” Ishida asked.

  “I can’t be certain without speaking to one of the aliens themselves, but I believe so,” the dapper one replied.

  “Geordie,” Igor called from somewhere at the far end of the tunnel. “How did you make your weapon disintegrate metal?”

  The few of us who were in possession of a death ray turned to peer at the teen. Uncomfortable at being the centre of attention, Geordie hunched his narrow shoulders. “I don’t know. I was just fiddling with it and it made a noise.”

  Reaching into his pocket, Luc leaned across me and handed his weapon to the adolescent. “Try to remember what you did.”

  Turning the death ray over, Geordie examined it and compared it to the one I’d handed him earlier. His expression brightened when he figured out what he’d done. “Twist this thing here, push that button then twist the thing back,” he said to my one true love.

  Taking his weapon back, Luc followed the young vampire’s instructions and the death ray gave a brief high pitched whine. Duplicating the process, the whine came again as the setting changed back. “This could come in very handy when we next battle the droids,” Luc said and grinned at Geordie. The flash of his white teeth made my flesh hunger rise.

  “Get a grip, Nat,” the teen said as he sensed my need.

  “I’d like to,” I muttered, thinking of something Luc possessed that I’d like to wrap my hands around. Ishida sniggered, which sent Geordie into a fit of giggles. Igor sat forward to glare at his protégé and Geordie promptly succumbed to sleep before he could be punished.

  Lying beside Luc, I took my weapon back and stuck it down the front of my new pants since they didn’t have pockets. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Geordie, he just wasn’t that great with operating weaponry most of the time. It was a minor miracle that he’d twice managed to figure out how to use the death ray.

  One by one, my friends and dwindling number of allies slipped into their new version of quasi-sleep. For the first time since we had arrived several nights ago, they felt safe enough to relax for a few hours. As far as the Viltarans knew, we had just been obliterated by the sun. Ishida had left the monitor amongst the desiccated bones in the pit. There was no use using it anymore when it was clearly rigged to lead us to our doom.

  Hopefully we would be able to find our way to the factory and put stage one of our plan into action. We may have been led astray from
our path but the Kveet had shown us where the factory was. Surely it couldn’t be that difficult to find the centre of the blast zone that had all but killed the entire planet?

  .~.

  Chapter Twenty

  I dozed off and on as I waited for night to fall but couldn’t quite slip into a deep sleep. By the time the sun went down, I was more than ready to climb out of the tunnel and back into the pit.

  Instead of being zapped into tiny particles and floating my way out of the pit, this time I was thrown out by Igor and Luc after Gregor used Robert’s arm to open the door. I’d already sent out my senses and located some Kveet imps somewhere to the north. Imps meant underground shelter from the storms and we had half a dozen weapons now that should be able to take down scores of the ravenous clones. We still had our supply of explosives M’narl had given us but they would only be used when we reached the factory.

  Igor was the last one out of the pit again. This time he clambered up the pile of bodies then leaped the rest of the way out. Those of us who were armed with a death ray stood sentry. Geordie hovered at my side and remained anxious until his mentor appeared.

  Ishida moved beside me as I took the lead. “You are certain there is another set of underground passageways ahead?”

  Nodding, I raised a hand to shield my eyes as the first puff of wind spattered my face with dirt. “I can feel a bunch of imps nearby so there has to be shelter of some kind.”