Yet I still thought I had tricked him.
"I will defeat you," I whisper without conviction. "If you have anything to do with him, I will not rest until all of your kind are wiped out. Landulf was a demon, and you use his name as if he were a hero. Your power is a travesty." I aim the matrix. "You will all die."
Dr. Stoon grins and lowers his hands. "We are not alone."
I glance left and right, see nothing, hear only the desert.
Yet I sense the truth of his words, sense a presence.
"Tell them to show themselves," I say carefully. "If you want to live one second longer."
"Very well." He bows his head slightly.
Suddenly there are three figures in red robes, one on each side, another at my back. Each carries a matrix in his or her hand, although their faces are shadowed, as are their minds. They are humanoid but that is allI know about them. They have me in their sights. There seems to be no escape. Dr. Stoon sticks out his hand.
"The matrix, please," he says.
I shake my head. "I will vaporize myself before you will have my blood."
He is amused. "Try."
I try the weapon on him. But it doesn't work.
"We neutralized it at the convention," he explains.
I throw the weapon aside. "You don't want me dead."
"True," he says. "But we will kill you before we allow you to kill us. Lay facedown on the sand."
"I hardly think so," I say, and my attention goes to the figure on my right, the one whose hand shakes ever so slightly, This personIcannot even see his eyesbut I know it is a male, weaker than the others that guard me. Even though I cannot read his mind, I can sense the general character of it. This is an important assignment for him, one that he has had to struggle to win. If he completes it successfully, captures the vampire's blood, he will receive some type of advancement. But if he fails, he will be killed. Indeed, he is especially fearful of Dr. Stoon. He wishes the doctor dead. That is the chink in his psychic armor. He does not care for his associates, hates them in fact, wishes they all were dead so that all the glory could be his. My eyes fasten on his hidden face, my thoughts drill into his cranium.
Kill them. Burn them. Vanquish them.
The man's arm trembles more.
"It is not wise to refuse us," Dr. Stoon says.
"Do you still give me a chance to join you?" I mutter, stalling for time. Never before have I focused so hard, called upon the depths of my will. The strain is immense. For even though this one is the weakest, he is still strong beyond belief.
"Perhaps," Dr. Stoon says. "Lay facedown or die. Now."
"Die," I repeat softly, to the man. "Die."
His aim shifts slights. The finger on the button on his matrix twitches.
Dr. Stoon is suddenly aware of the danger. He whirls on the man.
"Kill him!" he screams.
There are two bursts of red light, one from behind me, one from my left. My victim vaporizes on an ear-piercing scream. But I do not pause to mourn the sound. I am already in the air, flipping backward in a curving arc, my legs going over me, carrying me over the assailant at my rear. There is another burst of red deaththe one on my left tries to shoot me out of the sky. But already I have landed, behind the one who moments earlier stood behind me. In a matter of microseconds I seize his matrix and break his arm. Without speaking, I blow away the red robe on the left. Dr. Stoon reaches into his coat pocket but I caution him to remain still.
"Don't," I say.
The figure I have disarmed groans, moves.
I shoot him and he is no more.
Dr. Stoon has stopped grinning.
"How many more of you are there?" I ask.
He pauses. "There is just me."
"And when you die, you die?"
He hesitates. "We prefer not to surrender this form."
I chuckle. "I do believe there is a note of fear in your voice, good doctor. For a moment there, you know, I thought you were Landulf himself. But Landulf was never afraid."
"Not even of you," he says bitterly.
"Yes," I say sadly, thinking of what he has told me. "Perhaps I was tricked. What did he use my blood for?"
"Is it not obvious?"
"Only your death is obvious. Answer my question so that death won't catch you asking."
He is defiant. "I will not be your puppet. We are alone for the moment,but others of my kind are coming. And if you should slay me, their treatment of you will be that more hideous."
I shake my head. "Nothing can be hideous to me. Not afterL andulf."