Demon Lord VI - Son of Chaos (23 page)

Nikira clasped
her hands again.

“
I have heard you,” Bane’s soft voice spoke behind her, making
her start. She swung around, as did Donavan and the rest of the
scientists. Bane stood next to the door, frowning as he raked them
with cold eyes. Nikira sank to her knees and bowed her
head.

“
Lord.”

“
Get up. What do I have to do to get some rest in this infernal
vessel?”

“
I’m sorry, Lord.” Nikira stood up.

“
What is it?”

She gestured
at Drontar. “This man is a scientist. When you were a prisoner they
took blood from you, and I ordered them to destroy it. They refuse.
They intend to use it to make clones of you, and to use your DNA to
cure sick people.”

Bane wandered
closer. “Clones?”

“
Children made entirely from you, copies of you.”

“
Why would they do that?”

“
So they can study them, and use their genetic
material.”

Bane frowned.
“To what end?”

“
To improve our people, make them more like you. I told them
they can’t steal from a god.”

Drontar said,
“If he was a god, he’d have known about the blood.”

Bane faced the
scientist. “I knew that you took some from me, but I did not know
you still had it.”

“
Then you can’t be a god.”

“
How much do you know about gods?”

“
Enough.”

“
Nothing. Your god is unborn, and you are woefully ignorant.
What do you think I am?”

Drontar
shrugged. “A man with strange DNA and an ability to use the dark
power.”

“
I see. Then you are a fool. I will not permit you to use my
blood for your purposes, whatever they are. Give it to
me.”

“
It’s the property of my government now, I can’t -” Drontar
grimaced and staggered, clasping his brow. “Bloody
hell!”

Bane turned to
face the sample fridge in the corner and held out his hand. A tray
of glass vials filled with blood appeared in it, and he placed it
on the table. The scientists backed away as Bane raised his arm. He
pointed at the tray, and black fire spat from his fingers,
engulfing the vials in searing shadow. Some of the other scientists
dived for cover, and Drontar’s eyes widened. When the fire died,
pools of melted glass oozed across the scorched table top, and
smoke rose from the debris.

Bane glanced
at Nikira. “Had I been more rested, I might have been more patient,
but fools annoy me. I trust I can get some sleep now?”

“
Yes, Lord.”

“
Good.” Bane headed for the door, but stopped beside Donavan,
who stepped back. “And she is in charge. Touch her again, and I
will cut off your hand.”

“
Yes sir.”

Nikira cast
Drontar a triumphant look and trotted after Bane, catching up in
the corridor. He shot her an irritated glance.

“
What now?”

“
I just wanted to thank you, Lord.”

“
That is not necessary.”

“
I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

He arrived at
the lift and pressed the button to summon it. “Good, because I
usually do not.”

“
Why not?”

“
I am disinclined to.” He rubbed his brow. “I have many prayers
whispering in my mind, most of them begging my aid and a few
praising my name, mostly from my domain. I cannot possibly answer
them all. In any case, they do not interest me, and I am too far
away even if they did. The only reason I came was because it seemed
likely to have some bearing on the welfare of myself or my
companions.”

The lift
arrived, and she followed him into it, her heart pounding as she
stood beside him in its confines. Although she was almost six foot
tall, he towered over her, his sweeping cloak adding to his air of
looming size. He pressed the fifth-floor button, then glanced at
her and raised a brow. She reached across to press seven for the
bridge.

Bane watched
the digits change with a faint smile, and she wondered if he could
sense her tension, or perhaps even hear her heart thudding. The
thought brought a qualm of acute embarrassment. She racked her
brain for something intelligent to say, to get his attention and
make him notice that her dress was laundered and her hair brushed,
but her mind was blank.

As the floor
numbers rose towards five, she blurted, “Why do you use the lift,
Lord?”

He shot her a
surprised look. “Why would I not?”

“
Because you can walk through walls and floors.”

“
Ah, I see. Using power tires me.”

Nikira nodded,
then realised that she was staring at him and looked away, her
cheeks growing hot. To her immense relief, the lift arrived at the
fifth floor, and Bane swept out. She sagged against the wall as the
doors slid shut, cursing herself for an idiot. She was a modern
woman who had had many lovers, yet with Bane she was like a smitten
schoolgirl. The crew looked around when the lift stopped at the
bridge, making her feel like even more of an idiot. She went to a
console and studied the screen, then glanced at the nearest
officer.

“
Report.”

“
Nothing to report, Commander. We’re holding position, awaiting
orders.”

“
Good. Carry on.” Nikira re-entered the lift and selected the
third floor, where her quarters were, deciding to remove herself
from public scrutiny before her crew thought she was mad. Flopping
down on her bed, she stared at the dappled plastic ceiling. She was
mad. Completely, madly in love… with a god. How weird was
that?

In a way, she
wished Drontar was right. It would be okay if Bane was just a man.
Yet her desire for him was far stronger than she had ever
experienced before, and there was no chance that what she was
experiencing was worship. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to
indulge in a pleasant fantasy.

***

Drontar turned
to his fellow scientists as soon as Donavan left the lab. “Did he
get it all?”

A
xenobiologist named Frayne nodded. “And most of our equipment.”

“
We have to get new samples.”

“
How?”

Drontar
considered. “We could put anaesthetic gas into the ventilation
system of that room where they stay.”

Frayne, a
short, balding man with a plump freckled face, pursed his lips.
“That’s a big room. It’ll need a lot of gas.”

“
So get a lot. This ship must have a good supply in
storage.”

“
Stealing stuff isn’t my strong suit.”

“
Could you do it?” Drontar asked the pathologist,
Kerm.

Kerm shrugged.
“Sure.”

The second
xenobiologist, Atrill, looked concerned. “How do we know it’ll
affect the other one?”

“
It stands to reason, doesn’t it? They look the same, so
they’re probably the same kind, and he must be mortal too, or he
wouldn’t have stopped the bullets in the containment room. So the
gas should work.”

“
Not necessarily. He uses the white power, which might negate
drugs.”

“
Then we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?”

Atrill
frowned. “If we’re caught, we’ll be thrown in the brig.”

“
Only until we reach base, then the government will give us
medals, just for trying. I don’t have to tell you how important
this is, do I? That genetic material will bring vast benefits for
our people and our government. It probably holds the secret of
eternal youth, too. I think he’s a lot older than he looks, and I
mean a
lot
. We
could have the key to immortality within our grasp. How much is
that worth to you?”

Kerm glanced
at Frayne and nodded. “We’re in.”

Atrill rolled
his eyes. “Fine, so am I.”

“
Good. We’d better do it while he’s asleep. We’ve all got
gold-level clearance to the medical stores; we just need to sneak a
few canisters past the guards. Switch the labels with Freon or
something.”

“
The names are painted on.”

“
Then find some labels and stick them on.”

“
What do we do if the other one stays awake?” Atrill asked.
“We’ll have to knock him out somehow, or he’ll try to stop
us.”

Drontar paced
in a circle, then stopped in front of them again. “Then we’ll have
to knock him out the old fashioned way, with a club. He’s not
dangerous, only the tar’merin is, so we just have to gas him and
those people who hang around in there.”

Atrill nodded.
“I’ll find some gas masks.”

***

Kayos sat up
and scanned the room, wondering what had woken him. A strange scent
stung his nose, and he rubbed it. Artan was sprawled on the floor
beside the table where he had been sitting earlier, and the others
were slumped over it. They appeared to be asleep, but Artan’s
awkward posture aroused Kayos’ suspicions, and he looked at
Drevarin and Bane. They also seemed to be asleep, yet Kayos sensed
that something was amiss.

The door
opened, and four men clad in white clothes and strange masks
entered, heading for Bane and Drevarin. They carried bags, which
they set down beside the cloud couches and opened, taking out odd
equipment. One man pressed a vial to Bane’s arm and pushed a needle
into his vein. Kayos frowned and rose to his feet, approaching
them. The man removed a vial full of blood and fitted an empty one
into the instrument in Bane’s arm. He glanced at his comrades, who
hovered around Drevarin, looking uncertain.

Drevarin woke
with a snort, and the men recoiled. The one who stood over him
brought a shiny metal object down on his head, and the light god
slumped. Kayos’ blood burnt with anger, and he walked closer.

The man with
the club muttered, “Gods, my arse.”

Kayos became
visible, and two of the men leapt away with shocked looks, the
other two gaped at him. The one who knelt beside Bane pulled the
needle from his flesh and hid the vials of blood in his bag.

“
What are you doing?” Kayos enquired.

The blood
thief stood up. He was the tallest and oldest of the group, with
white hair and a short grey beard visible below his mask, which
muffled his voice. “We... There’s been a gas leak. We’re just
making sure they’re all right.”

“
I have been watching you since you came in. Do you really
expect me to believe that?”

“
We have to check their blood, and if they wake up under the
influence of the gas, they’ll be confused. They might hurt
themselves.”

Kayos eyed the
man. “You are a good liar. A dark god would welcome such a follower
as you, clever and cold-hearted, with a soul so corrupt it is
almost red.”

“
I’m not lying,” the man said. He turned to his comrades. “Come
on, let’s go. We’ve done what we can here.”

The other
three men headed for the door, almost trotting.

Kayos tilted
his head, frowning. “Sleep.”

All four
collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut. Kayos went over
to Bane and sat on the couch beside him. He patted the Demon Lord’s
cheek, then shook him. Kayos rose and strode to the door, becoming
invisible as he left the room.

Nikira woke as
someone touched her shoulder, sat up with a gasp and slid off her
bed. Falling to her knees, she pressed her brow to the carpet at
the feet of the silver-haired man who stood beside her bed.

“
Lord Kayos.”

“
Get up.”

She obeyed,
her legs shaking so much that she had to sit on the bed, not daring
to meet his steely eyes.

“
Go to Bane.”

Nikira glanced
up at him in surprise, but he had vanished. Picking up her white
dress, she pulled it on over her sleep suit and sprinted along the
passage to the lift. As soon as she entered the dining room, the
stench of anaesthetic assaulted her nose. She clamped a hand over
it and stared at the four white-clad men lying on the floor.
Staggering back into the corridor, she went to the nearest
comscreen in a data room just down the corridor. Activating it, she
selected the environment control centre. An envirotech appeared on
the screen.

“
Yes, Commander?”

“
I want a complete flush and scrub of all the air in number
three dining room. How long will that take?”

He looked down
at his board. “About five minutes.”

“
Do it now.”

“
Right away, Commander.”

Nikira called
the barracks and ordered a squad of soldiers to meet her outside
the dining room, then summoned Jovan before going back to the door
to wait. The soldiers arrived after two minutes, followed by Jovan
a minute later, and she explained the situation. When five minutes
had passed, she led them into the room, where the faint scent of
anaesthetic still hung in the air. Jovan went to check on Sarrin,
and Nikira pulled the gas mask off one of the men on the floor as
the soldiers rolled him onto his back.

“
Drontar.” The soldiers unmasked the other three, and she
frowned at them. “And his cronies.”

Drevarin sat
up, rubbing his head.

“
Are you all right, Lord?” Nikira asked.

“
Someone hit me on the head, but I am unhurt.”

“
You were knocked out?”

He nodded. “It
is possible to render one of my kind unconscious, even if we cannot
be injured, as such.”