Page 41 of Mortal Guardian (Shadow Shifter)

Deruthel glanced at the screaming woman with disinterest. “It takes time to perfect the conversion process. We expected certain setbacks despite our efforts to seed the population with the appropriate bloodlines.”

The screaming stopped as the woman choked on the black fluid streaming from her mouth. Her back arched before her bones split from her skin, exposing muscle and bleeding tissue. The black oily substance that bubbled from her mouth also seeped from the splits in her flesh. She moaned before laying still in a puddle of dissolving tissue.

Riley grabbed her stomach, praying to keep the contents inside. “Oh, God. I’m going to be sick.”

“This experiment has failed, but we are close to creating viable breeders.”

Riley swallowed the lump in her throat. “Why do this?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We need women.”

“You have them.” Her eyes narrowed. “Or aren’t you confident you will create a stable portal?”

“Of course, I have never failed in my mission, but our females cannot traverse it,” Deruthel said.

Riley’s eyes widened. “What? Why?”

Deruthel glanced at the black puddle that had once been a woman with a floral blouse. “Our current females cannot traverse the portal. If they do, they become infertile. It’s a waste of resources. We procure our stable from the inhabitants of the worlds we conquer.”

Riley sat back on her knees. “You abandon the woman when you move to a new world?”

Deruthel’s red eyes met hers. “It’s what we have done since our females were ravaged by disease.”

Riley swallowed hard. “They died?”

“We had strong females, ones that traverse the worlds with us. However, centuries ago we conquered a world that had an adverse effect on the females of our species. The inhabitants released a toxin that rendered our women sterile. We were forced to leave them behind and start again in the next realm. While our first-generation males retain their fertility, our women and our regional soldiers are disposable.”

“Regional soldiers? The soldiers that are created in that particular world?”

“That’s correct. Only the first generation moves on to the next world and the Vorla.”

Riley frowned. “What’s the Vorla?”

“You have a similar creature in your world. You call them rats. The Vorla were unaffected by the toxin and have both male and female. They procreate like your rabbits and provide us a food source when the native population has expired.”

“You feed on the Vorla while you’re waiting for the next world to conquer.”

Deruthel nodded. “While they provide a minimal sustenance, their blood is putrid.”

“So, you could stay in a world, but you choose to conquer others.”

“Why would we confine ourselves when we have the ability to conquer all worlds?”

Riley’s head bowed. “You’ve done this with every world. Converted the women, and annihilated the population before moving on.”

“Yes. It always takes some testing to get the recipe correct.”

Riley touched the metal cuff on her wrist. “The women you are converting, they are all descendants of the priestess?”

“Yes. We seed the world before taking it over. Did you really think we lost the war?”

Her head snapped up. “You didn’t?”

Deruthel laughed. “I always enjoy this part. Every conquered world thought they had a chance to defeat us. They never realize the war was over before we got here.”

“I don’t understand.”

Deruthel stood as the two women fawned at his feet. “The war was a ruse. To get a female from your world to ingest the king’s blood.”

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