Death Reigns Read online

  Black eyes wide with fright, Geordie almost ran straight into us. His expression of relief was almost comical when he realized that the cavalry had arrived. “Quickly, you have to get us out of here,” he said and looked back over his shoulder again. “The townspeople are right behind us.”

  Fighting to free herself, a young woman was caught in his grip. She was tiny, frail looking and, if I wasn’t mistaken, she was also a fledgling vampire. The blood on her face and hands was a dead giveaway, no pun intended.

  “I am not sure that it was wise to make a servant when we do not yet know how our blood has been altered by the Viltaran nanobots,” Luc said gravely.

  Easily holding the thrashing girl, Geordie looked unaccustomedly mature as he replied. “I did not have a choice. If I hadn’t turned her, she’d be dead.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to point out that, technically, she was dead now. Sort of, anyway. For once, I resisted the urge to voice my sarcasm. Now wasn’t the time for jokes.

  Moving far more quickly than I’d expected, the villagers spotted us through the thin screen of trees. “There they are!” a woman screamed. “Kill the monsters who murdered my children!” In her late twenties or early thirties, she was dressed in nightclothes and was barefoot. Her feet were torn and bleeding, yet she didn’t seem to feel the pain. Her grief at losing her children had transcended all other sensation.

  I whisked us all away before the humans could fire their weapons. With Geordie so rattled, I opted to take him straight to Igor rather than back to Isabela’s estate. The Russian would know how to calm the teen down. At least, I hoped he would, because I sure as hell had no idea what to do. I’d been placed in many strange and dangerous situations during my life as the undead, but this was a new one.

  Igor started when we appeared right in front of him. He was in the garage working on one of Gregor’s cars. The garage was the place where he felt the most comfortable. A man of simple tastes, he actually preferred his bare cell beneath the catacombs of the now demolished Court mansion to living in opulence. Then again, he was old enough to have been a caveman once upon a time. Even a crappy cell probably seemed like luxury to him.

  Taking in the struggling fledgling held in his apprentice’s arms, he didn’t waste time in berating Geordie for the problem that he’d created. “I take it the girl is your servant?” he asked calmly.

  “Yes,” the teen said bleakly. “I did not expect her to rise so soon. I have only bled her and fed her twice. She should not have turned until tomorrow night.”

  Luc and I exchanged a glance. That answered the question of whether their blood had changed or not. It seemed that their servants didn’t take as long to change as a normal vampire’s.

  “What happened, Geordie?” I asked. Not wanting to exacerbate the already tense situation, I copied Igor and kept my tone calm. Geordie had a healthy dose of empathic abilities and he’d be able to sense it if we grew angry with him.

  “She escaped from the cellar of an abandoned house where I’d locked her and went to the nearest house and drained three children dry. Their mother witnessed her last child’s death and called on her neighbours to hunt the girl down.” Guilt warred with his worry. He had created the fledgling and he was ultimately responsible for the children’s deaths. Being a vampire didn’t mean that we lost the ability to care. He felt pity for the humans and would never have purposefully caused the children any harm.

  The girl in question moaned pitifully. A true fledgling vampire, she hungered for blood above all else. It was her nature to hunt and feed and I was once again very glad that my own army of soldiers had been spared from this mindless craving. I tried to read her thoughts, but they were a twisted jumble of confusing images.

  “Where were you when we rescued you?” Luc asked.

  I had the sense that Geordie hadn’t gotten very far from the house where his servant had had her first meal before he’d called for me. “We were roughly halfway between the two estates,” Geordie replied. He sent a look of compassion and tenderness at the girl when she attempted to tug herself free.

  “Do the humans know what she is?” Igor asked.

  “They know,” his apprentice replied. “There is no way they couldn’t know after the mother saw her fangs buried in her child’s throat.” Geordie’s memories told me that he’d arrived in time to witness the death of the youngest child through the bedroom window. His newly made servant had worn an expression of bliss as she’d fed. Two small bodies had been crumpled on the floor at her feet. Hearing the mother arrive, she’d whirled around, still feeding from the child that was little more than a baby. Geordie had dived through the window to stop his underling from attacking the mother as the first screams had pealed out. She’d bellowed for her neighbours, who had reacted quickly. Geordie had fled, but the humans had been hot on their trail. “I have put us all in danger,” he realized and turned a stricken gaze on me.

  ·~·

  Chapter Three

  I’d promised Geordie that I wouldn’t deliberately read his mind, but it was difficult not to give into the temptation to now. He’d tell us his story of why he’d turned the girl when we were all gathered together. “We’d better let Gregor know about this,” I said and put a hand on the teen’s shoulder. The fledgling turned and snapped her bloody fangs at me. Even with her eyes rolling wildly and her face a mask of fresh blood, she was delicately pretty. Her eyes would eventually turn as black as mine, but for now they retained an edge of light brown that was almost gold.

  “What is her name?” Igor asked. As I’d hoped, he was being gentle with Geordie. He knew when to be supportive and when to give the adolescent a well-deserved slap up the back of his head.

  “I don’t know,” Geordie said. “It all happened so fast, we didn’t exactly get a chance to talk first.”

  Reaching out with my mind, I located Gregor and Kokoro and also sought out Ishida and Danton. I snared them all in my mental net and they appeared in the garage at the same time. Each was equally surprised at being suddenly transported to a new location. Gregor and Kokoro were in mid-embrace, but thankfully they were clothed.

  Turning, Gregor straightened his tweed jacket, attempting to pretend that he hadn’t just been kissing his ladylove passionately. He saw the bloodstained fledgling and came to the correct conclusion that we were in trouble. “Are we in direct danger?” he asked me.

  Knowing what he wanted me to do, I sent out my consciousness and honed in on the furious and frightened posse. Insane with sorrow, the mother of the three dead children urged her neighbours to continue the hunt. Their numbers had grown to nearly a hundred now as more of the people in the nearby town were roused from their beds and joined the hunt. They planned to search every house, barn or building in the area. It would take hours for them to reach Gregor’s property on foot, but they’d eventually stumble across us. I wanted to be long gone before that happened.

  Casting a look at Geordie, I didn’t want to add to his guilt, but honesty was called for. “They’re not going to stop until they find us and get their revenge.” It would have been easy enough for me to reach out and wipe their minds of any memory of what had happened. In this instance, it would be a useless venture. The kids would still be dead and any doctor with decent training would recognize what had caused their blood loss. A mature vamp’s bite tended to heal quickly, but they still left a small mark behind. A newly risen blood sucker tended to mangle the throats of their victims and wounds that severe didn’t heal if the blood donor became a corpse.

  The teen’s narrow shoulders slumped and he had to tighten his grip on his minion as she nearly pulled free. “I never meant for my servant to kill anyone and to bring us to the notice of humans. If you wish for me to leave, I will understand.” He dropped his eyes to the floor as he waited for Gregor to order him off his property.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Gregor said briskly. “You are family, Geordie, and we don’t abandon our family.”

  Gratitude shone from the
teen briefly then it was overshadowed by his guilt and worry. I would have hugged him, but I was pretty sure his freshly minted lackey would try to bite my face off. She wouldn’t attack me because she was hungry, but because she was demented. From the little that I’d glimpsed inside her mind, she’d been mentally damaged even before she’d become one of us. Under normal circumstances, I’d have put the fledgling down like a rabid dog. Since she was Geordie’s first servant, I didn’t have it in my heart to kill her. At least not right in front of him.

  Igor caught my eye and shook his head slightly. He knew me well enough to know what was on my mind. My purpose was to kill anything that threatened humanity and this girl had already mauled three kids to death.

  “I suggest we each pack a few changes of clothes and move to a safer location until the danger dies down,” Gregor said.

  “Are we going to have to return to the catacombs?” Ishida asked. His distaste at the idea came through loud and clear. Unlike Igor, he was used to opulence and wasn’t fond of the idea of slumming it indefinitely. I couldn’t picture the former emperor sleeping on a pallet on the dirt floor of the servants’ quarters of the catacombs at all. I’d spent a few months shacked up in a musty old mausoleum and knew first-hand how uncomfortable lying on ground was. As unpleasant as it was, even my temporary home had been roomier than the cells in the catacombs.

  “I believe I know a place that will be far more comfortable and will be safe for all of us to use as our base,” Luc said to the surprise of us all.

  Intrigued, I didn’t ask questions despite the fact that it would be my job to shift us all to this mysterious new location. Leaving the others behind to pack, I whisked Luc, Ishida and Danton back to Isabella’s estate.

  Higgins and Wesley were waiting for us in the parlour. I sensed their relief and anxiety when we returned. “Has something happened?” the corporal asked. Perched on the edge of a delicate rose patterned chair, he looked out of place in the very girly room. A portrait of a beautiful woman hung over the fireplace. Her beauty was spoiled slightly by her stern expression and black hair that had been pulled back into a severe bun. It was a portrait of Isabella herself and had been painted several hundred years ago, back when stiff, ruffled collars up to the chin had been in fashion. Her dress was dark grey with gold thread and looked about as comfortable as wearing a scratchy potato sack. She seemed to stare down at us with disapproval for invading her home.

  “There was an accident,” I told my soldier without going into detail. “The humans know we’re here and they’ve formed a posse. Get the men to pack their gear. We’re leaving in ten minutes.”

  That should be more than enough time for them to gather their belongings. My soldiers were nothing if not efficient.

  My men had gathered outside well before their time limit was up. Too disciplined to ask questions, they were armed and ready to defend themselves. We’d stolen a plethora of weapons and ammunition from the Brits during our battle with the octosquids and we had no intention of handing them back. I considered the equipment to be payment for saving the entire population of the Earth from being eaten. It was the very least the flesh bags could do for us.

  “We’re ready, ma’am,” Higgins said.

  “Let’s go,” I responded and snared them all in my mental clutches. It was no longer necessary for everyone to be touching for me to teleport us all back to Gregor’s estate. Like most of my weird and whacky talents, I’d learned how to teleport more by accident than on purpose.

  We arrived just as Gregor was locking the door of his mansion. Knowing him, he’d already arranged for both his and Isabella’s properties to be managed by the same business that he’d used when we’d been sent on an unplanned vacation to Viltar. Hopefully, when they didn’t find any monsters in either of the estates, the posse would leave without burning the buildings to the ground. We’d left no evidence of our true natures behind to damn us. We preferred fresh blood and there were no bags of the precious liquid stored in the fridge. The fridge and cupboards were bare and the kitchen had never been used. It was just for show, in case humans ever came to call.

  Everyone was ready to go, so I cocked an eyebrow at Luc. “Picture where you want me to take us and I’ll zap us there.”

  Visibly bracing himself, a picture flooded into his mind. The image that came to him was a beautiful valley and a sprawling stone manor and barn that looked archaic to me. Unexpectedly, soft afternoon light bathed the grey stone walls of the building. A small vineyard lay to each side of the dwelling. It was a peaceful scene and I knew that it came from Luc’s distant past, way back when he’d still been able to walk in the sunlight without bursting into flames.

  Keeping the image in my mind, I willed our small army to appear in a field near one of the vineyards. Gone was the ancient stone manor and in its place was a far more modern mansion. Made of brick, it was three-stories high and had a terracotta coloured roof and white render on the walls. I didn’t know much about Italian architecture and had no idea if this was a typical dwelling or not. The vineyards had multiplied into over a dozen and were spread out over several acres. New buildings had been erected on the property, including a far larger barn than the rickety old one from Luc’s memory.

  Beholding a scene that he hadn’t laid eyes on in over seven hundred years, Luc struggled to contain his emotions. He’d been something of a wastrel when he’d been a youth and he hadn’t exactly been a model son to his parents. Despite that, he’d loved his family dearly and he still missed them after all this time.

  “How it has changed,” he said softly. I slid my hand into his and he sent me a wistful smile. He wished he could go back in time and see his parents one last time before the Comtesse had stolen him away and had turned him into her sex slave. I squeezed his hand, offering him my silent condolences. I wish I’d made that bitch suffer more before I’d killed her. Luc’s master hadn’t died painlessly, yet I was sure I could have caused her far more agony than she’d felt before I’d ended her lengthy existence.

  “Where are we?” Geordie asked. His servant’s thirst for blood hadn’t slackened at all. Sensing food nearby, she lunged forward but couldn’t break free from her master’s grip. His vampirism gave him far greater strength than his slight frame suggested. No mere human would ever be able to beat him in an arm wrestling match, no matter how big their muscles were.

  “We’re at my ancestral home,” my beloved said to the astonishment of everyone but me. While he was skilled at shielding most of his thoughts from me, some of them still leaked through. Strong emotions were the hardest of all to hide. I was pretty sure this wasn’t the first time he’d had to flee from an angry mob of humans, but I doubted he’d ever expected to return to his home under quite these circumstances.

  “Why did you bring us here?” Ishida asked as he appraised the vineyards and buildings.

  “Because I own this property and the surrounding lands.”

  I was as surprised as the rest of our group at that. Luc had managed to hide that knowledge from me easily enough. He was used to guarding his expressions, thoughts and emotions from his maker and it was habit by now.

  “How long have you owned this place?” My astonishment was reflected in my tone.

  “I kept track of my family as the centuries passed. As you can see, they prospered. They bought more land and became very wealthy. Then disaster struck around thirty years ago and they lost everything. I could not bear for the land to pass onto someone else, so I arranged to buy it. I offered to let the owners stay on if they wished. Some accepted my offer.” That meant that some of the humans who worked in the vineyards were his flesh and blood kin.

  “Did the Comtesse know that you bought this land?” Igor asked.

  Luc shook his head. “She did not know that I had slowly amassed a fortune of my own. I hoped to one day distance myself from the Court forever and to move back to the home of my birth.” I caught a glimpse of him squirrelling money away and investing it wisely. He owned property all
around the world. He clamped down on his thoughts, shutting me out before I could see exactly how much his empire was worth.

  “It is a large mansion, but I do not think that there will be enough room to accommodate us all,” Gregor said doubtfully as he eyed the main building.

  Luc sent Gregor a reassuring smile. “There is suitable accommodation nearby, old friend. If you will wait for a moment, I will advise the staff that we have arrived. We would not want the humans to become alarmed at our sudden appearance and to alert the authorities.”

  ·~·

  Chapter Four

  Luc held his hand out to me and I took it. It was far quicker just to teleport us to the front door of the expansive mansion than to walk the distance. Footsteps hurried towards us when Luc knocked. A woman in her fifties opened the door and stared at us in surprise. Despite the deep lines at the corners of her eyes and the silver streaks in her black hair, she was still quite attractive. I could definitely see something of Luc in her features. He’d been a night person for so long that his naturally olive skin was far paler than hers.

  “May I help you?” she asked.

  “I am Lucentio Black,” Luc told her and her jaw sagged open in shock.

  “Mr Black, this is an unexpected surprise!’ she sputtered. It took her a few moments to collect herself. “I am Maria, the caretaker of the property.” She offered him her hand and her shock became calm acceptance as Luc’s hypnotism settled over her.

  “My wife and I will be taking up residence in the overseer’s house,” he told her.

  It was lucky he’d bamboozled the human, because I couldn’t hide my surprise at the title he’d just lumped on me. A small part of me was thrilled at the thought of being his wife, but a far larger part was terrified at the idea of being married. I’d never been in a relationship that had lasted for more than a few months before I’d met Luc. Somehow, the possibility that I’d ever end up married had seemed very remote even before I’d become the undead.