Free Death Deceives: Book Three (Mortis Vampire Series) by J.C. Diem

turned into grey monsters?”
    Gregor and Luc shared a frown. Geordie had raised a point that all of us had done our best to avoid contemplating. Now that it had been proposed out loud, I felt obligated to at least attempt to help our kin who were unwittingly being led to their hideous transformation into imps.
    I t seemed I wasn’t the only one to feel the guilt. “Cutting down the numbers of our kin being turned into imps would be an intelligent move,” Gregor said almost reluctantly. It would also eat into the time we should be spending hunting down the First.
    Luc nodded thoughtfully. “Perhaps we should intercept the group that is nearing our location and see how many have not yet been possessed.”
    Igor didn’t look happy about the decision but he wasn’t about to argue with a lord. Not even if the lord was his good friend. “How close are they, Natalie?”
    Closing my eyes, I sent out my senses and felt the small group of vampires only a few kilometres away. “They’re almost on top of us.”
    Gregor had already formed a plan. “They will most likely be taking the highway. I propose that we drive very quickly and find somewhere to set up a roadblock to stop them.”
    We couldn’t formulate a more detailed plan until we had stopped the group. Once we saw how many possessed we were dealing with then we could decide how to proceed. For Geordie’s sake, I hoped at least a few members of the group were mere victims of their shadow-possessed masters. The teen had his undead heart set on freeing helpless vamps.

C hapter Nine
     
    Igor quickly overtook us and made his way back to the highway. Luc kept up easily, dodging around the slower cars and keeping on the black car’s tail. To avoid anyone from calling the police, we only drove at reckless speeds when the road was clear of other traffic.
    Eventually, the highway narrowed down until it was only two lanes wide. Igor parked on the side of the road and we pulled in behind him. It was after midnight and there were far fewer cars on the highway now.
    Gathering in a circle, we quickly discussed strategy. Igor was the one with a plan this time. “Natalie, when you sense them closing in to within several kilometres of our location, Luc and I will block the road. If our luck holds, no other cars will approach while we deal with the group.”
    “We three can hide in the gully,” Gregor pointed to a deep ditch running alongside the road. “Once our kin exit from their vehicle, Natalie can determine which of them have been possessed by their shadows. We will target them first.”
    I glanced up at the cloudy sky. As I’d predicted, it had rained while we’d been sleeping. The cloud cover meant there was no moonlight to cast shadows. I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell who was possessed.
    Luc had the same thought and offered a solution. “Igor and I will angle our cars so that the headlights illuminate the road.”
    “Good thinking,” I said with a smile and Geordie automatically scowled. I felt like smacking him upside the head like the others frequently felt compelled to do but restrained myself. Now wasn’t the time for childishness from either of us.
    We’d sped quite a distance away from the small group and had to wait for nearly an hour until I finally sensed them closing in. At my nod, Igor and Luc climbed into their cars. There were no other vehicles in sight so they pulled across the highway, blocking it almost completely. As planned, they angled the cars so that their headlights shone across the road.
    Moments later, light bloomed. Gregor, Geordie and I had already scrambled out of sight into the ditch. We kept low as a van approached. If we were spotted, our ruse would be blown. The vehicle slowed down several hundred feet away from the blockade and came to a stop. Igor and Luc were almost invisible behind the bright lights of their cars. They kept their weapons out of sight.
    “Get out and see what the problem is,” a guttural voice ordered