Death Deceives: Book Three (Mortis Vampire Series) (30 page)

Many humans
had died over the millennia to make the massive throne. The back, made almost entirely of skulls, towered over the king of the imps. Some of the bones were so ancient that they were turning to dust. The First had plenty of recent victims to replenish the throne with but he hadn’t restored it yet. Maybe he was waiting for total victory before he would bother.

At a slight shifting in the crowd, a bulging stomach was suddenly pressing up against my back. The baby imp inside stretched
either its arms or legs, poking me in the kidney. A noise of disgust escaped me before I could contain it.

“Silence!” the First
bellowed suddenly and an immediate hush fell over the gathering. “I sense someone…familiar.” Red eyes flared in the darkness and turned unerringly in my direction. “Step forward and show yourself!” he commanded.

Here we go,
I said silently to my clone.
It’s show time.

We shouldered our way through to the front and stood before the First. Brightening at my appearance, he
stood and opened his arms as if to embrace me from afar. “So, one of your shadows has won possession of you and the great Mortis is now just a flesh puppet like the rest of my lesser children.” He roared out guttural laughter at the fate that he mistakenly thought had befallen me. The army of monsters behind me copied his laughter like the brainless clones they were. I doubted if most of them even knew what they were laughing about.

As I’d instructed it to, my shadow covered me from view of the eight foot
tall creature. Only brief flashes of my red suit showed each time it shifted uneasily to survey either the crowd or their leader.

Regaining control
of himself, the First moved to inspect me. Up close, he reeked even worse than his offspring. Rotting meat was stuck in his elongated teeth. Still tacky juices from his last meal had run down his chin and onto his chest. I doubted that his sweat slicked skin had ever seen a washcloth or even knew what one was.

Trudging in a slow circle
, he came to a stop in front of me. “It is far past time that you joined my army, vampire. I only wish that some small part of you was still aware of what is about to happen to you.” Lifting his hands dramatically, he issued the order that I’d been dreading since I’d first witnessed the birth of his offspring in my dreams. “I command you to
rise
!”

Instead of being sucked inside me then bursting back out as a newborn imp, my shadow
reached behind me. Almost casually, it pulled one of my swords free then leaned forward and speared it through the First’s chest.

The
father of all imps staggered backwards, staring down at the weapon piercing its heart in stupefied disbelief. A gasp of outraged fury came from ten thousand throats. The sleeping imps stirred uneasily but didn’t wake.

“Did you really think,” the First said as he slowly raised his
face to view me, “that you could kill me so easily, Mortis?” He pulled my sword free and threw it aside contemptuously.

“No,” I replied honestly. “But I
really hoped I could.”

At the First’s withering glare, my frightened shadow shrank back down to normal size and hid behind me. “It was
her
idea!” it shouted out loud so its master could hear.

“
Cowardly traitor,” I muttered.

Now that I was
no longer hidden by my shadow, the First saw me clearly and it was his turn to be frightened. He took in the blood-red mask and matching suit and blanched. His face went a sickly shade of grey-white. “Seize her!” he screeched.

Clawed hands reached for me and I didn’t resist
them. There would be no point since I was so badly outnumbered. “Bring her to me,” the First commanded. I was marched forward until he was towering over me. I tilted my head back to meet his blazing red eyes.

“It has been prophesized that your
holy marks will be the death of me and mine,” the First said. He whirled around and stomped over to his throne. It was even more monstrous up close with dried blood, skin and even hair hanging off some of the fresher skulls.

Reaching around behind the throne, the First brought out a weapon from the shadows. It was the biggest sword I’d ever seen.
Pitted with rust, it was incredibly ancient and appeared not to have been sharpened in the last century or two. I grimaced at the thought of the blunt edge being rammed through me.

Grinning evilly, the First narrowed the distance between us again.
“How are you going to destroy me if I take your hands from you?” At his nod, two imps grasped my arms and held them out. The First’s brow wrinkled in puzzlement at the empty openings of my sleeves.

“
Surprise!” I shouted. Before I could unleash my master plan, the gigantic sword was rushing at my neck. The imp on my left lost her head in a wash of black ooze as the sword passed through her first. Then the weapon clanged against the band on my neck. The vibration of metal on metal made my ears ring and I saw double for a few seconds.

Roaring in rage, the First redirected his aim and this time his sword speared into my
chest. The sword bounced off the metal plate and I was sent flying backwards, pulling the second imp with me. Caught by multiple grey hands, I was shoved forward again. This time their leader aimed the sword lower. It cut through the suit and exited from my back. The weapon was so long that it also speared another imp that was standing too close behind me. Gurgling out a scream, the unfortunate imp stumbled back, freeing itself from the sword. It fell to its knees while desperately trying to hold its insides in then thudded onto its face.

I faked a yawn, covering my mouth with my empty sleeve.
“Nice try,” I taunted the First. “Stabbing me through the guts isn’t going to kill me. I’m a vampire, not a human.”

Yanking
his sword free, the leader of the imp army went into a stabbing, slashing frenzy. Without hands, I could do little to defend myself. I managed to dodge some of the blows, doing my best to give the soldiers time to free the captives. One of my lower legs was cut off and dodging suddenly became a lot harder.

Hopping on my remaining leg, I couldn’t avoid the blow the First directed at my neck. He aime
d for just above the metal band and my head went flying off into the crowd of imps. Screeching with laughter, they passed my head around like a football. Without my head to direct it, my body fell. The First let out a roar of triumph and proceeded to dismember me.

Despite my best efforts to avoid it, I was soon
reduced to ruin. I was in a far worse state than when the Comtesse had ordered her guards to hack me to eleven pieces. This time, I was cut into dozens of pieces. My head was dropped, kicked a few times then booted back towards my body. Red tatters of leather littered the ground and I mourned the demise of my suit.

Panting with effort, the First leaned on his sword and flicked sweat away
from his brow with a toss of his head.

“Are you done?” I asked him. His head whipped around at the sound of my voice then came to rest on my head. The mask was
miraculously still tied around my face.

“How
are you still alive?” he asked in bewilderment.

“Because I’m Mortis, numb nuts.
Did you really think it would be that easy to kill me?” I sent his words back at him mockingly.

My shadow,
still intact despite the fact that I was in pieces, stood beside my head. Apparently we were attached by our hair now instead of our feet. “We’re going to kick your arse,” it said with an audible if not visible sneer. Somewhere during the dismemberment, my shadow had regained its backbone.

The First recovered from his fright and barked out what I thought was probably a laugh. “How are you going to accomplish that when
I have reduced your body to a jumble of torn flesh?”

“I learned a ne
at party trick a few months ago,” I told him with a cocky grin. “You’ll love this.” I sent the next thought to my shadow.
Can you move my head closer to the rest of me?

“Ok,” it replied then drew back its foot and
booted my head over to my hacked up body. It wasn’t quite the style of travel I’d had in mind but it did the job.

As soon as my head came to rest next to my remains, my body parts began to twitch uncontrollably. Before the First and his offspring’s eyes, my
bits and pieces began to piece themselves back together. With each part that became reattached, I felt the usual flash of pain. Mercifully, the reattachment happened quickly.

In seconds, I was whole again, apart from my still missing hands. Sadly, I couldn’t say the same for my suit. When I stood, I was mostly naked. Considering I was surrounded by creatures that weren’t human anymore, I didn’t feel as awkward as I
would have it they’d been vampires or humans. To the imps, my undead flesh couldn’t even be considered as food let alone as something desirable.

Red eyes bugging out of his grey head, the First was nearly apoplectic with fear and rage. “How is this possible?” he spat.

I shrugged, stalling for time. “I have no idea. I’m still waiting for the Mortis manual to be delivered.” Turning, I caught my shadow’s eye.
Help me!
I sent the frantic thought to it.
I need to keep him occupied!
Without my hands, I could only be hacked apart again. While it did buy the soldiers time, being chopped apart was rapidly losing its appeal for me.

Wringing its hands, my shade was almost gibbering in terror. “What do you want
me
to do? I can’t fight like you!”

Desperation was a powerful motivator and a crazy idea sprang into my head. If my shadow had the power to possess me then could the reverse also be true? Without stopping to think the idea over carefully, I sent my
consciousness towards my silhouette. Sensing a link between us, I forced my senses into it.

Shuddering in reaction, my black clone let out a startled scream that echoed throughout the nearby area. Imps shuffled their feet uneasily
, sensing that something strange had just happened. Some of those deep in slumber began to stir.

Opening my shadow’s eyes, it took me a couple of seconds to come to terms with
my new vision. Instead of seeing semi-darkness and indistinct shapes, everything stood out with crystal clarity. My shadow had a form of night vision that humans could only dream of duplicating.

Understanding filtered through to the First
as he realized what I’d just accomplished. He lifted his gigantic sword over his head and ran at me, bellowing incoherently. I’d managed to gain ascendency over my shadow and he wasn’t happy about it.

Both of my weapons were
now on the ground. The straps to the sheaths had been cut during the First’s frenzy and one of the swords was still encased inside the hardened white leather. The other sword had been discarded by the First and lay several feet away. Flexing my borrowed hands, I stretched out both arms. They elongated, snatched up the weapons then retracted just in time to block a blow from the First’s much larger instrument of death.

My reach was
far shorter than the First’s and he had an unfair advantage over me. At that thought, my shadow grew to match the size of my opponent. Now more evenly matched, I went into motion. Both swords became a silver blur as they streaked towards grey skin. Black blood spurted from deep cuts in the First’s arms, chest and abdomen.

Shrugging off the cuts, he swung his sword at me and I let it pass through my shadowy head. With a laugh that sounded hollow through my utterly black mouth, I whirled the swords
in rapid circles in a flashy display of dexterity. “Prepare to die,” I told him darkly. Speaking through my shadow, the words came out in our dead father’s alien language.

Hoping I’d given Sanderson and his men enough time to break some of the humans free
by now, I split my consciousness three ways as I launched my master plan into action.

Stealthy movement came from behind the bone throne as I used my shadow form to block and slice on automatic pilot. I wasn’t actually trying to kill the First with the swords. They were simply the distraction I needed to keep his attention diverted. Besides, his wounds healed almost as fast as mine did. It would take something much deadlier than mere metal to take this monster down.

Keeping to the shadows, Lefty and Righty moved towards their quarry. My
secret plan had been to detach the appendages before we’d entered the cavern. Again, red lines had appeared where my wrists had previously been cut. My hands had popped free and had hitched a ride with me through the throng of imps before dropping to the ground. Skirting the edges of the cavern, they’d positioned themselves behind the throne. Now it was time for them to attack.

The First
didn’t even feel it when my detached hands leaped up and grabbed hold of his loincloth. His sweat soaked skin was slippery but they doggedly made their way upwards. My quarry absently brushed at Righty when it paused for a second on his shoulder. It flattened itself down just in time to avoid the blow.