Death Deceives: Book Three (Mortis Vampire Series) (34 page)
Read Death Deceives: Book Three (Mortis Vampire Series) Online
Authors: J.C. Diem
“Do you want me to use other guys for sex?” I asked him bluntly.
We’d never had the discussion whether we were exclusive or not. We weren’t exactly dating in the conventional sense of the word.
Circling my nipple with his fingertip, he shook his head. “I very much do not want you to share yourself with anyone else. I was simply wondering why, after I betrayed you countless times with the
Comtesse, you did not return the favour.”
My face scrunched up at hearing he
’d had sex ‘countless’ times with the praying mantis. “I guess I’m just not built that way. Nicholas is very pretty but you’re the one I’m in lo-” I broke off my confession before I could finish it.
“You
do
love me,” Luc said with a smile then leaned down to plant a kiss on my forehead. “I am glad that you feel the same affection for me that I do for you.”
Our
moment of near perfect happiness was spoiled when a phone began to ring. Luc snatched up his pants and pulled out his mobile phone. “It’s probably Geordie complaining we were too loud again,” I said snidely.
“
Hello?” my companion said cautiously after checking the number and not recognizing it.
“Lord
Lucentio, please put Natalie on the phone,” a female voice with an Asian accent said.
“How did you get this number?”
Luc asked even as I held out my hand for his phone.
“Natalie will e
xplain everything in a moment.”
He handed me the phone and I held it to my ear.
“Hi, Kokoro,” I said before she could speak.
“Have you now also become a Prophet?” she asked me.
“No, I recognized your voice. You have excellent timing, by the way,” I told her dryly.
I heard the smile in her voice as she replied. “I thought I would let you finish before I called.”
Covering my face with my spare hand, I tried not to become completely overwhelmed by humiliation. “What can I do for you?” I asked her pointedly.
All humour fled and she answered me seriously. “
I had a vision a short time ago and felt that I should warn you immediately.”
“What did you see?” I so
very badly did not want to know the answer to that. I had taken down the bad guy, my job should now be done.
“Do you remember me telling you of the First’s ten followers?”
“The ones he had a falling out with and ended up banishing?”
“Yes. It seems he didn’t just banish them but had a fate far, far wo
rse than that in store for them,” Kokoro said gravely. The memory of the cave painting with the ten stick figures beneath the ground surfaced. “In my vision,” she explained, “his ten followers had grown jealous of his power. They plotted against him, planning on killing him and assuming control over all vampires.”
“Everyone wants control over
all vampires,” I muttered. Everyone except for me, that was.
“They almost succeeded,”
Kokoro continued. “If the First hadn’t been so paranoid by then, his followers might even now be running a vast empire of our kind.”
“
I saw a picture the First had painted in his lair and it looked like he ordered them to bury themselves,” I said uneasily. “It looked like their punishment was to slowly starve to death.” It was a horrible fate for any creature but especially cruel for beings that could take centuries to die.
“
Yes, that was his plan. What he didn’t know is that they didn’t die. The alien blood in their veins is still strong and has sustained them for all this time.”
I tried to imagine why this
vision had caused her to call me in a panic. Then a chill went up my spine. “Now that the First is dead, they aren’t bound by his orders anymore, are they?”
“I am afraid
not,” she said gravely. “They are already beginning to wake after forty thousand years of slumber. When they rise, they will hunger for both blood and flesh. Soon, they will create a plague of stronger, faster vampires whose blood is far more virulent than ours. It took centuries for the First and his ten followers to gain control of their hungers. The new fledglings will have the same lack of restraint. I fear the humans will face another catastrophe and this time their guns and explosives won’t be enough.”
“Why not?”
“They will simply not be quick enough to keep up with our new kin when they attack.”
“They’ll need my help
again,” I concluded and felt the weight of responsibility I’d only just thrown off settle around my narrow shoulders again.
“They will require
all
of our assistance,” she corrected me. “The Emperor would like to speak to you.”
After a short pause, a young male voice was speaking to me.
“Natalie, congratulations on your success at dispatching the First.”
“Thanks, Emperor.” I was genuinely pleased to speak to the kid again but the circumstances weren’t exactly
ideal. “So, do you want to come to our place or should we come to yours?”
“I believe it would be safest for us all to meet somewhere in the middle.” At ten thousand years old, Ishida was far wiser than the twelve year old kid he appeared to be.
“I’ll have a chat to my team and see if they can think of somewhere safe we can meet. By the way, the suit was fantastic during the fight.”
“I knew it!” he said enthusiastically. “What shape is it in now?”
“It’s a complete write off,” I admitted with regret. “I have one black suit left now and its holding up ok.”
“I will have
replacements made for you,” he promised. “Call this number when you have chosen our meeting place.”
“Ok. Bye.”
I was pleased that he trusted me enough to find a suitable location. The Japanese vamps had been conditioned to believe that all Europeans were their enemies. I wasn’t European but they’d still lumped me into that category when we’d first met.
Luc was waiting with one eyebrow raised when I handed him back the phone. “I take it that destroying the First has somehow unleashed yet another problem?”
He’d overheard the conversation but he didn’t know the complete story yet. It would be my distinct displeasure to fill him in.
“You could say that. Let’s join the oth
ers and I’ll explain everything.” Climbing to my feet, I dressed in some of the clothing I’d left behind in the room. The bed was destroyed and cracks had developed in the walls but I had a feeling we weren’t going to be here for much longer anyway.
If
Kokoro’s vision was right, ten mummified, starving vampires were about to rise up from the earth and I had no idea where they’d been buried. Our mission would be to locate them and take them down before they could create an army of infectious, rabid vampires.
Don’t
worry,
I reassured myself,
pretty soon the news will be full of sudden mass disappearance of humans again.
That would be our first clue of where the new threat was located.
I’d thought that killing the First would be the end
of my battles but I’d been wrong. Death, the deceitful bitch, had more in store for me.
It will never be over
, I mourned. I’d have to keep on killing until every last threat on the planet was gone.
One of the visions I’d had
recently tickled the back of my brain. I’d sensed something incredibly ancient and infinitely hungry buried beneath the earth. If the vision was true, then I at least had an inkling of where the new threat would soon arise.
It looks like I’ll get to travel to yet another country I’ve never been to.
Being Mortis had already taken me far from my homeland of Australia. Just how far would I have to travel before this would all finally be over?
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