No Mere Zombie: Deathless Book 2 by Chris Fox Page A

punctured by one of her canine’s. Then he dissolved into a cloud of green mist. Not shadow, but something electric and insubstantial that made her fur stand on end as it flowed away from her. Liz spilled to the ground, clawing uselessly at the air. It dispersed the cloud, which flowed into the shadows and disappeared.  
    Where had the bastard gone? She scanned the area, but there was no sign of him.
    Deathless are tricky, even more so than the Ka-Dun.
    “Blair?” she asked, turning to face him. He staggered to his feet, leaning heavily against the wall. At least he was alive.
    “I’m all right,” he panted. He didn’t look all right. Raw pink wounds dotted his fur where his skin had been burned away. “We have to stop him. He took an access key, one linked to another Ark.”
    “What is he?” she asked, scanning the darkness. There was still no sign of the intruder.
    “He’s a deathless,” Blair explained, rolling his neck. It cracked and popped as vertebrae reset to a more natural position. “I’m guessing he’s been hidden here the entire time. Sleeping just like the Mother. He must have just awoken. He was about to kill me when you showed up. Thanks. That’s another one I owe you. It’s becoming a habit.”
    “Yeah, well just remember how much you owe me when someone has to wash the dishes tonight,” Liz said, giving him a half smile as she continued to scan the darkness for their new friend.  
    “I don’t know where he went, but I doubt he’d stay here. If it were me I’d flee the Ark before the Mother returned. It can’t be accidental he waited until she was gone,” Blair said, hobbling towards the ramp leading back to the surface. His theory made sense. “Let’s see if we can pick up a trail. He can use the shadows, but I bet he still leaves footprints.”

Chapter 13- The House of Mohn

    Irakesh quickened his pace, blurring up the ridge line to its peak. The bare granite jutted up into the night sky, overlooking both the way he’d come and the route forward. Behind him lay the gleaming black surface of the Ark, massive and silent. Ahead was a gentle slope with a narrow dirt road. The hillside was covered in scrubby brush, a stark contrast to the fields of ice when he’d invaded this place all those millennia ago. Apparently the climate had changed dramatically, the first sign that he’d emerged into a different world.
    He studied the path, which wound down the hillside to a valley nestled between several hills. Beyond lay a wall of thick green vegetation. The jungle, where he could easily lose himself. Excellent.
    Something much closer drew his eye. A strange metallic shape caught the moonlight, perhaps a hundred yards down the slope. He studied it from a distance, but could make no sense of the thing. It looked like scattered debris, as if a slipsail had been dashed against the side of a mountain and this was all that remained.  
    Irakesh blurred closer, blending into the shadows as he approached. Up close the place reeked of some unnatural substance, something sharp that burned his eyes. He’d never encountered anything like it. A four-foot section of a strange white material lay at his feet, the main body of the craft a few feet beyond. It was primarily metal, though parts were molded from a smooth substance he’d never seen.
    He picked up the long blade, amazed by its lightness. It was strong like metal yet far lighter. What could it possibly be? He dropped it and investigated the craft itself. The front had impacted with the hillside, crushing the area he presumed the pilot must lay. The slight stench of decay confirmed this, and as he knelt to examine further he saw a crushed hand jutting through a break in the strange transparent material that so closely resembled glass.
    Irakesh circled the craft, coming to the side where a large portal lay. He could smell more decay within, so he ducked inside. A body lay at his feet, clothed in strange green clothing with a weave far too