Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

could also very easily be taken for veiled threats. He'd also acquired a taste for champagne and terrorizing the waiters.
    Bruin Bear persisted in his attempts to be a good ambassador for the new Haceldama, while the Sea Goat kept baring his huge blocky teeth in a terrible smile, and pretending not to notice when people cringed back from him. The two toys had trapped Donna Silvestri in a corner, and she stared at them with wide terrified eyes as the Bear innocently tried to make small talk with her.
    Toby got it all on film, but after a while he weakened, and sent Flynn over to interview the two toys. Donna Silvestri seized her chance, gathered up her skirts, and ran for her life. Bruin Bear waved after her, puzzled, while the Sea Goat sniggered into his champagne glass. Flynn chatted happily with the toys,
    sharing reminiscences of their time traveling together on the abandoned pleasure planet, and everyone else in the antechamber was openly impressed by the cameraman's calm composure in the face of such danger.
    Unbeknownst to Flynn or Toby Shreck, or indeed anybody else, Valentine Wolfe was also present in the antechamber. He moved calmly among the chattering throng, smiling and nodding to all, hidden behind a Shub hologram disguise that gave him the seeming appearance of a Sister of Mercy. His invitation, an absolutely impeccable forgery, said he was there to represent Mother Superior Beatrice, the Saint of Technos III, and now Lachrymae Christi. The Shub camera on his shoulder produced a faultless visual image, undetectable even at very close range, and modified his distinctive voice into that of an anonymous young woman. The illusion wouldn't have withstood the touch test, but who was going to touch a nun?
    Valentine would have preferred to rely on his own minor esp abilities, rather than have to rely on a tech under someone else's control, but unfortunately that just wasn't possible. The security Elves on the perimeter would have spotted him in a moment. And even if he could have found a way into the House, the living esp-blockers would have blown away his illusion immediately. At least the Shub tech was clearly superior to any of the Empire's security devices. Under Shub's cloaking holo he could go anywhere, a ghost from the Empire's troubled past, a deadly specter at the feast. He stood in the middle of the crowded antechamber, unnoticed and unchallenged, and smiled contentedly.
    Of all the many disguises he could have chosen, the nun appealed to him most. He liked the outfit. Its stark black and white complemented his extreme nature. And as for masquerading as one of Saint Bea's nuns, well, Beatrice was still
    technically his fiancee. He was sure she'd understand. Once the terrible thing he planned to do was over, he'd have Shub seize Beatrice, and bring her to him.
    The naughty little minx had put off their union for far too long. Valentine smiled. He forgave her. She was just playing hard to get. What's a few death threats between soulmates? He would wed her anyway; and on their wedding night he would show her such awful pleasures… And when she was dead, he'd do other things to her.
    His plans for the Royal Wedding ceremony were simplicity itself. He was going to murder Robert and Constance, right there in front of everyone, and then declare himself Emperor. He hadn't actually told Shub that. They just thought he was here as an observer. But no doubt it would come as a nice surprise to them. The nun holo would get him close to the happy couple, under the guise of bestowing a benediction from Saint Beatrice, and then a disrupter shot to Robert's smiling face, and a slashed throat for Constance, and that would be that. He was quite looking forward to the second murder. He'd always wanted to kill his beautiful stepmother. Pity there wasn't time to ravish her first, as one more spit in the eye for dear dead Daddy, but no plan was perfect. Maybe there'd be time afterward. And if not, he'd settle for the look in her dying eyes as he finally dropped his disguise, so she could know in her last moments just who had killed her and her Campbell lover.
    A Wolfe, marrying a Campbell? Unthinkable. Someone had to preserve the old decencies.
    Once they were dead, Valentine had no doubt the aristocracy would flock to support him. They'd always understood and appreciated real power. And he was the last scion of one of the grand old Families, extremely suitable to be Emperor.
    He would promise the Clans an alliance with