The Company of Shadows (Wellington Undead Book 3) by Richard Estep Page A

now…powers that your father would have killed thousands to attain.”
    My father?
    “Trust me on this. He watches over you even now.”
    A wave of – what? Relief? Happiness? Something of that nature, at any rate, washed over her at those words. Her father was with her still. If the vampire Wellesley was still alive, he might yet witness her revenge.
    “Oh, yes. Wellesley lives. If lives is indeed the right term.” The voice in Jamelia’s mind snorted derisively. “And you, my dear one, shall be the instrument of his final demise.”
    Joy burned hotly in her breast at the mere thought of crushing and humiliating Wellesley. Moreover, Jamelia could sense Kali’s approbation, knew that her goddess was fully aware of the hatred she possessed toward the vampire and fully approved of it. She chose her next thought carefully.
    What must I do, O mighty and magnificent Kali?
    “Return to the field of battle. You will find that most of the British and their lickspittle allies are marching away to unify with their secondary army, but not all.”
    It is daylight. What of the vampire officers?
    “Safely beneath the ground,” Kali explained, “and relatively unguarded.”
    Then I shall finish every single one of them, saving Wellesley for last!
    “Hold, Jamelia. There are limits to even my powers. I could only bestow upon you so much at a time. Your body is now undead, like those whom you shall soon lead. It is not possessed of the same level of strength that it once had. Today, your best stratagem is to run and to hide – not to fight”
    Then how am I to face the vampire and defeat him? she thought plaintively.
    “As I have said already, you shall be given an army. An army of the dead. Do not think yourself weak, Jamelia, for you are nothing of the sort; however, your newly-resurrected body will begin to decay and deteriorate over time, until it finally falls apart completely. Only then shall you gain peace and be reunited with your father…after having the revenge that you so desperately crave.”
    How long will I have to defeat him, before my body fails, my mistress?
    “Long enough,” Kali replied evasively. “You will still be able to shift form, and your undead body now possesses the ability to absorb tremendous damage. But that is not the power of which I speak. For a demonstration of that, you must return to the surface.”
    Immediately, mistress.
    Obediently, Jamelia arched her back and used her paws in order to roll over awkwardly onto her belly. She was pleasantly surprised to find that her muscles still retained something of her old strength, although they felt stiffer and less limber. The resistance offered by the river water might explain some of that. She also no longer found it necessary to breathe; the sensation was odd and somewhat unpleasant at first, but soon she suspected that she would grow accustomed to it soon enough.
    Bunching her leg muscles beneath her, Jamelia pushed upward as hard as she could. Her sleek feline body rose through the water, her eyes blinking as the daylight grew brighter with every passing second. Breaking the surface, she paddled the fifteen feet toward the closest bank, finally slinking out of the water behind three redcoats who were desperately attempting to fend off a group of attacking creatures. The hunting cat was amazed to see all three of the mens’ bayonets fall from the end of their musket muzzles at the same instant, as though pushed by some unseen force.
    “Think of it as my final gift to you,” Kali laughed from inside her brain. “And do be sure to have fun discovering the others. I shall be watching.”
    One of the redcoats screamed. As if a spell had been broken, the flesh-eating creatures surged forward, burying the trio in a mass of biting, clawing deadness. Jamelia stood silently and watched in horrified fascination as the British soldiers were quite literally torn limb from limb. The undead seemed to favor the soft, vulnerable flesh of the neck, she