Demitri Von Cobb could smell the lingering oils of Montague’s collection of perfumes in his chambers beneath the library. Ironic, he thought, as he stared at Gabriel’s Diary. It was the key to finding the carrier of the Volpi gene and deriving the cure from his or her blood, and it sat right in front of him on its pedestal, but he couldn’t touch it. Not without Burton Lang, the wizard who Demitri held captive in the oubliette of Illyrium. The diary looked common; old, and dusty, like it had been forgotten for centuries. It did not look like he had remembered it glowing brilliantly in Burton’s hands.

The diary was Demitri’s last hope in serving the Nekrums to take control of humanity. He realized that Rayne Volpi couldn’t be manipulated. Demitri’s attempt at seducing him to use as a weapon had failed.

As Demitri sat by Montague’s fireplace listening to the marble as the Nekrums telepathically discussed their plans with him, there was a knock at the door. “What is it?” he asked.

“My lord, master,” a one-armed mage said, falling to his knees in obvious fear. “Anna Lott has gone missing from the temple.”

A stinging fury bloomed. Demitri rose from his chair and held his marble up to the mage’s bald head. “You are incompetent, and your services are no longer required.” Within seconds, the mage’s eyes turned bloodshot. Throughout his face, veins grew like roots across his skin beading sweat. His lips, eyes, and nose swelled to the point of bleeding. Then his entire head exploded.

There was another mage standing there, silent and wide-eyed. Blood had splattered across both her and Demitri’s faces.

“Am I going to have to kill you as well?” Demitri asked.

The mage said yes.

“Then what is your bad news?”

The mage began, quietly. Her voice shuttered. “My lord, master, king of all land and sea…” She paused.

“Say it!” Demitri roared.

“Montague La-Rose is also gone.”

Demitri took the mage’s blade from her belt and slit her throat, then stomped off to the dungeons to see the empty cell.

In the corner cell block, where Montague was held below the dining hall, was a giant hole in the ground. At the bottom, the rocks had caved in, blocking the path. There was no trace of where it led.

Demitri had leverage, he thought. The Nekrums had leverage. But now the woman he intended to marry was missing, and the only man who could translate the diary was gone. The only people left alive who could translate it were Montague La-Rose or Burton Lang. Demitri didn’t know where Montague had gone, or who had risked their lives to collapse the ground and break him out, but he knew that Burton was at the Illyrium oubliette, quarantined to the main cavern. With a confinement spell, he’d blocked the wizard from traveling through the underground tunnels.

Demitri looked to his officer standing at the door, “Has there been any sign of the Ikarus general, Indrid Cole?”

“No, my lord, master. Not since the battle.”

“He is the Graleon heir,” Demitri laughed. “He will go to Grale and claim his throne. After spoiling himself in the riches at the capital of Men, Grale won’t be enough. I’ll make him an offer his desires can’t refuse and he’ll realize that he can have more. Then, he will bring the wizard to me.”

Demitri wrote a letter stating that he would give Indrid the Ikarus kingdom if he delivered Burton to him. He signed his name, Demitri Von Cobb the king of Men. As he finished with the last swipe of his feathered pen leaking his own, blue blood he said, “Devict De Mass!” He folded the letter and gave it to his general for his clan to deliver to Grale. “Send a pawn to meet Indrid at Illyrium to lift the spell. Now, he won’t be able to resist the temptation to gain power; to rule not only a tiny chunk of land in the middle of the sea, but lead as king of Men and live on a vast island large enough to support a hundred other kingdoms all under one’s own rule.”

After the Nekrum agenda was complete, power and influence among mere mortals didn’t matter. In the end, Man would rule and own nothing. Humans will no longer exist. And the Nekrums were using Demitri to lead the extinction.

The real Demitri Von Cobb, who was stuck inside the vessel, knew why the Nekrums wanted him. He was a master of the anatomy and physiology of all creatures; man, animal, and insect. Demitri had a brilliant mind and he could understand the science of organ and body splicing that the Nekrums were teaching him. He had been using this knowledge to create monsters. “I told Burton Lang that one day I would impress him.”

The haunting voice from within him spoke.

And you will, my child, once he sees what we have created. The wizard is weak. Give him the marble. Once we possess his body, we’ll make him watch while our army of ferocious creatures butchers the humans that he loves so much. Then, we will have access to the diary, find the Volpi gene, and exterminate this pathetic planet. The light of Burton Lang will become a weapon of darkness.

“What is the fate of this vessel? What will happen to Demitri Von Cobb?”

He is irrelevant.