Round 6 prompt from Multigenre Mashup Flash Fiction Smackdown, December 2023: Write a story utilizing at least three different genres; written from the POV of the villain; and incorporating the three images below.

Selected genres: science fiction, vampire, adventure, and romance (in a villainous sort of way).

Word count = 4878

When you're an evil villain, periodic assassination attempts come with the status.

I had to admire the creative attempt, though. Tyrilam lilies were my favorite flowers, with brilliant red petals and an intoxicating sweet scent. As I bent to take in the fragrance, a tiny insect-like drone flew out from the bouquet and stung me on the neck, injecting a potent fast-acting neurotoxin derived from the rare Deathstrike Mushroom. I recognized the poison's bitter metallic aftertaste and tingling numbness as my body folded limp to the shiny marble floor. The rare mushroom had a distinctive bright red cap with white spots — sometimes the most beautiful things were the most deadly.

But I recovered.

Standing in the balcony shadows above the ballroom, I scanned the crowd for my uninvited assassin. The annual winter solstice ball, which I hosted in my mansion, brought together the whose-who of Vena Prime and several neighboring worlds for a night of political influence, social standing, dancing, and seduction. Shady deals and unwise choices will be made tonight. Live musicians played classical music and formally clad servers distributed the finest wines — no robotic staff tonight. Hovering crystal chandeliers cast twinkling light. The select hundred guests all wore their finest, including fashions old and new. I wore a vintage long-tail tuxedo in black and deep purple reminiscent of ancient Earth, complimenting my wavy dark hair and tall stature.

My wealth derived primarily by finding and selling alien artifacts, enough that I could buy this planet. The mysterious space-faring race abandoned this sector of the galaxy eons ago, but left many valuable items behind. Besides legitimate trade, I supplemented my income with a large pirate starship fleet, plundering merchant vessels from other worlds and securing my status as a villain among the Sol Federation elite.

I gained loyalty among my people by paying them well and seeing to their needs. Not that I am so altruistic — taking care of my workers was just good business. Although, cultivating a bit of fear with a few select public executions also helped.   

There she was, posing at the stairs threshold and no doubt awaiting a declaration of my sudden demise — the woman who delivered the flowers. And just like the mushroom, beautiful and deadly. Long, thick raven hair flowed over an iridescent-black dress that hugged feminine curves in all the right places. Dark-cherry lips and smoky eyes completed the allure.

Making my way to the dark marble staircase, I nodded to the stern-faced butler. First clearing his throat, he bellowed to the assembled, "Presenting our host, Count Rhain of Vena Prime."

The crowd clapped politely as I descended. All but one. I glared at the woman as she sucked in a breath, her eyes shooting wide open and mouth gaping. Color drained from her face. I shall never tire of shocked expressions on failed assassins' faces — often the last expression they ever made. But I had other plans for her.

When I reached the frozen woman, I took up her hand and placed a soft kiss on slender fingers. "May I have this dance?" I did not give her a chance to refuse, instead leading her to the dance floor.

As the orchestra struck up a sensuous tango, I gathered this mysterious woman into my arms. "I do not recall seeing you on the guest list, my lady. What is your name?"

She regained her composure, quickly adapting to my lead as I swung her around to the music. "A last-minute addition, my count," she purred. "My name is Embra."

"An enchanting name, my dear Embra." She twirled away to arm's length, then spun back to my embrace with flowing grace. "You dance divinely."

"As do you, my count," Embra replied with rounded lips. "But I assure you, nothing about me is divine. Nor you."

"Indeed. Tell me, my dear," I said as we swept across the floor among the other dancers, "how did you get past security, and how did you smuggle the toxin past the sensors?"

"I have my ways," she replied with a sly grin. "But how is it that I failed?"

"Ah, but you did not. The assassination was flawlessly executed, but for one key detail."

"Please, do tell," Embra cooed, turning eyes up to mine.

"I was already dead."

She abruptly halted the dance, holding a breath as her brow furrowed. Then, a hint of realization softened her face and a half-smile emerged. "So, you are vampire?"

Centuries ago, the Reaper Plague decimated humanity, but among a few survivors, activated dormant genes to produce what came to be called Soul Vampires, undead beings with special powers. These people, like me, fed on sentient life-force, rather than blood like the vampires of legend. I have drained away many a life over the decades, mostly criminals and rivals, but not exclusively. Quite understandably, most vampires had been hunted down.

"Perhaps," I answered with a shrug. Gathering Embra back into my arms, I asked, "Shall we continue our dance?"

"Also a dance of words, it seems," she muttered as we swept along in perfectly synchronized motion. Embra spun from my grasp, twirling away in classic tango style.

"So, what should I do with you?" I queried once she twirled back to my arms.

"Are you taking suggestions?" she replied, lifting an enticing eyebrow.

"More a rhetorical question. I should drain the life from you, here and now. You have a most delicious spicy aura."

"And yet, you have not, my count. Is there, then, another option?" Embra shifted in my grasp, turning her back to me as we danced. I placed a gentle kiss on her neck, eliciting a tiny shudder.

"You are perceptive, my dear Embra. I require your assistance to obtain a certain high value object — something that requires a skilled Chaos Witch." I smiled as she jerked in my tightening embrace. I had sensed that of her when we first met. "Yes, I know. I am not the only villain here."

The plague also produced the Chaos Witches, women having the ability to alter probability, bending the laws of thermodynamics, and they were hunted as well. Truly, an awesome power.

She sighed. "Given the alternative, I accept. But there is a transitional issue. My pardon from the Emperor is conditional, and should I fail to assassinate you, I face a death sentence."

"I see," I said as she spun to face me as the dance continued. "Then you must kill me in some public venue."

A sly grin rose on her face. "No time like the present."

I grunted as the shiny blade that suddenly appeared in her hand plunged into my gut. Sharp, searing pain radiated out from the usually fatal wound. Scattered gasps rose from the other dancers as I collapsed to the floor and the music abruptly stopped. I had time for but one random thought before darkness overtook me — where had she hidden that knife?

*****

"You could have warned me," I grumbled while reclining in the pilot's seat of my personal starship. The Spirit Venture was a sleek and swift delta-wing ship, clad in black for stylish stealth. Inside, it was appointed with the finest luxuries because I could afford the very best.

"About what?" Embra replied. She still wore the appealing dress from last night.

"About gutting me on the dance floor."

"And spoil the surprise? It made for quite the memorable ball, don't you think?"

"So, how did you then escape past my security?"

She bent over and placed a kiss on my cheek, leaving a tingling warmth. "Like I said, I have my ways, my count."

She was a Chaos Witch. Of course she did. "I think we can dispense with titles. Call me Rhain."

Embra peered at the rearview display panel showing Vena Prime disappearing into the distance. "Very well, Rhain. Now, tell me about this mysterious object you need my help to obtain."

First scrolling through files displayed on the transparent control panel before me, I selected an image. A holographic rendering of a fabled alien artifact rotated before us. It was spherically shaped, but with small pyramidal structures scattered across the surface like spikes.

I pointed. "The spatium potentia. The alien transcripts suggest it is a device of unparalleled power."

Embra wrinkled her nose. "That myth? Explorers have long searched for it."

"Ah, but I know its location." I displayed a recently discovered alien document that included a 3D star map. A kind of X marked a distant star system, not unlike the ancient fictional pirate treasure maps. "I just need your help to extract it."

"So why do you want it? For the betterment of humanity?"

"By the stars, no," I replied, shaking my head. "Well, maybe some good will come. But mainly for my own wealth and power. I am a villain, after all."

Putting hands on her hips, Ember said in an even tone, "For my services, I want a share of the prize."

"No," I answered, crossing arms. "You get to live. That is enough."

With narrowed eyes, Embra extended her arms. Shimmering white threads of her magic swirled around in elaborated patterns, and then dipped into the ship control panels. Immediately, the Spirit Venture dropped from warp speed and the bridge went dark until the dim emergency lights came on. A total ship power failure.

"It is not enough," she countered.

Moving with superhuman speed, I jumped behind her and cupped her temples with my palms. Ember gasped as life-force flowed from her to me — just a trickle for demonstration purposes. But it was warm and delicious. "I think you should reconsider, my dear."

When I fed, I also glimpsed my victim's soul — not so much seeing as flickering emotional sensations. Embra was a driven, self-assured woman who sought control of her own destiny, and not someone to be underestimated. But buried in the depths existed a scared, vulnerable girl buffeted by unchosen fate. I supposed such would have been for a Chaos Witch within the worlds that persecuted them.

"And you should consider," Embra hissed, baring teeth, "that you need me. And if you suck the life from me now, you will become trapped on a disabled starship in deep space, perhaps forever."

"I must admit that you have a valid point." As I lifted my hands, she stumbled back into my arms, pulling deep breaths. "Well played, my dear. You may have a piece of the action, as they say. But don't get too greedy."

"Good." Embra lifted her hands again, and the lights came back on. After a few moments to recalibrate, the warp drive re-engaged. "But can I trust you?"

After a hearty villainous laugh, I responded, "You should know better than to ask such a question. Let's just say we have common goals. For now." I leaned back into the pilot's seat. "It will take us almost twelve days to get there. You might as well settle in. You can use the first guest cabin."

Unexpectedly, Embra circled her luscious lips, and while holding smoldering eyes on me, reached behind her neck and released a clasp. Shimmying back and forth, she allowed the thin black dress to slide down her nude body in tantalizing slowness, revealing pert breasts, lithe figure, and soft, firm skin that invited touch. There was nothing subtle about her.

Enraptured, I held a breath. "Now do you attempt seduction, my dear Embra?"

"Is that not obvious, my count?" she teased.

"Well, I suppose that would establish a kind of mutual rapport. I accept your indecent proposal."

*****

I couldn't say we made love, rather we used each other for sexual pleasure, and Embra was just as good in bed as on the dance floor. It did make the journey more enjoyable.

Embra did not hide her disappointment when we arrived at a barren and lifeless planetoid orbiting a neutron star. Light bent eerily around the star's intense gravity field and the accelerating dust accretion disk produced dangerous radiation. The Spirit Venture periodically shuddered as it compensated for the intense gravitational flux. We shouldn't stay here long.

"Is that it?" she said, drawing down eyebrows.

"All is not as it seems."

At my direction, the ship AI deftly landed us within a deep rift on the planetoid nightside, thus shielding us from the star. After donning white spacesuits, we bounded along between steep gray-rock walls illuminated by our helmet lights. Eventually, the walls narrowed enough that we had to go single file.

Embra was still skeptical. "This seems like a bad idea."

"Don't you trust me?" I replied over the com.

"Based on previous discussions, no."

"Ah, here we are," I said, pointing at a thick metal hatch imbedded in the rock wall. After rotating a lever, I swung it open. "After you."

"Oh, no," she replied. "You first."

"My dear Embra, we do have trust issues."

Once past the second airlock, we entered a long rocky tunnel. Since the atmosphere was warm and breathable, we shed our spacesuits down to black tights. I slung on a backpack and strapped on a plasma handgun.

The passageway extended two kilometers deep until we reached another hatch. Upon opening it, the view rendered Embra speechless. There, before us, stood a world within a world. Lush green landscapes and shallow turquoise seas curved upward in all directions, clinging to the planetoid inside shell. Floating in the center, a miniature sun bathed the lands in soft light.

"Not bad, is it?" I said, spreading my arms.

"I would grant you that, Rhain. This is far beyond human technology."

Continuing the journey, we walked along a pebbled beach washed by gentle waves and a long black snake slithered ashore. Grasping a shoulder, I stopped Embra. "Avoid the snakes. They are aggressive and highly venomous. In fact, all life here is dangerous or toxic."

"So much for paradise," she mumbled.

As we backed up from the approaching snake, a dozen more popped up from the water to join the hunt. And we were the prey.

"What do we do?" Embra asked, eyes widening.

"I would advise running," I answered.

And so we did, dashing through low grasses and reeds away from the shoreline. The snakes, still on the chase, slunk ever closer. Coming to a rocky cliff face, we followed it along, dodging short trees and thorny brush. The first snake popped up on a boulder beside Embra, baring fangs and hissing as it coiled. I jerked Embra aside just as it struck, barely missing her. Spinning around, I drew my gun and fired an orange plasma bolt with a sharp pop, blowing the snake's head off.

"Thank you," she wheezed. Standing tall, she lifted her hands, weaving tendrils of kinetic force and shooting them off toward the cliff. Then, a crashing avalanche of rocks and boulders rained down onto the approaching snakes. Those that survived retreated to the water.

"Most pleased am I to have brought you along, Embra." I said with a grin.

Breathing deeply, Embra reached to a twisted brown tree trunk to support herself. But then, with a yelp, she yanked her hand back. "It burns!" Cradling her hand, she grimaced.

"Let me see," I said, flinging off my backpack. I doused her hand with water, then sprayed the rising blisters with a pain-relieving antiseptic. "Better?"

Embra nodded. "This place hates us. So where is our prize?"

"There." I pointed between the trees to gray granite escarpment that towered in the distance, perhaps part of the planetoid shell projected inward. Wispy clouds shrouded the peak.

Embra's face dropped. "We have to climb that?"

"No. That which we seek lies at its base."

A two-hour hike through a savannah type ecosystem, fortunately without attacks by the fauna other than a few annoying insects, and a scramble up a boulder field, led us to a gaping cave. Jagged granite rocks lined the wide entrance as if teeth of a massive beast. 

Sighing, Embra remarked, "A deep, dark cave on a poisonous inner world. Nothing ominous about that."

"What could possibly go wrong, my dear?"

As if to prove myself wrong, I picked up a pebble and tossed it toward the cave mouth. With a sharp snap and a blue bolt, it shot back, propelled off an invisible screen. For a moment, the barrier revealed itself with a humming shimmer, then faded back into invisibility. "Quite painful to touch," I explained. "This is my unassailable barrier and why you are here."

"Hmm, let's see what we have..." Embra closed her eyes and lifted her hands, allowing the glowing ribbons of magic to emerge and dance around her. Extending forward, the ribbons probed the barrier, flowing across it like a caress. In response, blue sparks raced across the barrier, snapping and crackling in defiance.

"Most curious... Ingenious..." Embra muttered. "The barrier is adaptive, almost intuitive. It resists me."

"But can you breach it?"

She smiled. With a snap of her fingers, the barrier shattered with sharp cracks that echoed off the mountainside, as if breaking a massive window.

I smiled in return. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Am I good, or what?" Embra boasted while blowing on her knuckles. "But you go in first."

"Right..." I scrambled over loose scree and entered the cave mouth. A flashlight revealed a long dark passageway with smooth rock walls — obviously not natural. I turned by head back to Embra, who seemed frozen in place. "Are you coming?"

Ashen faced, Embra walked close beside me, just behind, sometimes grasping my arm as we ventured down the passage. Periodically, she would stop us to send a streamer of magic ahead into the darkness, probing for dangers, but found none. Except footfalls and flashlight beams, absolute silence and darkness engulfed us.

"You seem uncharacteristically apprehensive, my dear Embra," I noted.

"Something about this place..." she replied, almost whispering. "Something is off, sinister... An odd feeling I cannot pinpoint."

"And I thought we were the sinister ones." My lame attempt at humor was lost on her, so I relented, "We shall be cautious."

Rounding a bend brought us to a rocky dead end — the passage simply ended at a dished wall of gray granite as if the alien tunnel diggers had given up. There had been only a single passage, no branches, no alternate paths. Bitter disappointment boiled up from my core. "What the..."

Embra clenched her fists and seethed. "We came all this way for that?"

"It should have been here!" My angry words reverberated. "The map showed..."

"Well, it's not!" Turning, Embra thrust out a hand and fired a bright yellow bolt of energy at the source of our frustration.

The bolt struck. But instead of blasting out a granite divot, the wall shimmered, and the view distorted, eventually returning to its original appearance.

We both stared for an extended moment until I managed to mutter, "Oh..."

"A false front, an illusion," Embra said with a growing grin. "Brilliant!"

Twirling her arms, she spun a geometric weaving of shimmering threads, then cast them at the false wall. The illusion blurred, then melted away like a wetted sugar shell, revealing a cavern bathed in faint golden light.

"All right, then."

The round room, about twenty meters in diameter, had a domed ceiling, making the space appear as if a half sphere. Blocky alien script in gold marked parts of the gray granite wall. The only furnishing was a squat round rock pedestal, above which our prize floated. The spatium potentia was a golden spiked sphere exactly like the earlier depiction. But a shimmering shield cast down from a hexagonal plate mounted above surrounded it, humming and casting a golden hue. We both knew not to touch it.

Walking around the cavern, I turned my attention to the written script and scanned it with a handheld viewer. Translation of the alien language was incomplete, but I could make some sense of the writing here.

"What does it say?" Embra asked, following me.

"Difficult to make it all out, but it seems to reference the object as some kind of controller, and there is mention of great power, the kind that alters civilizations." I grinned at the thought that it would soon be mine. And Embra's, of course. "Hmm, but there is also a warning not to release it."

"Well, power corrupts," Embra said with a sly grin.

"And good thing we are already corrupted," I said, completing the thought. With a flourish, I extended an arm. "My dear Embra, our prize awaits."

First taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and lifted hands. Countless glowing threads of magic emerged and swirled around her in a wavering dance. There was a kind of graceful beauty to her skills.

As she pulled hands closer together, the magic drifted toward the shield, surrounding it, touching, probing. The shield would have none of that. It popped and hissed, flashing colors and blue sparks.

Gritting teeth, Embra thrust her hands together, and the threads collapsed around the shield like spider webs around a captured fly. The shield resisted, emitting grating screeches and strobe-like light flashes. Then it collapsed with a thunderclap.

But as Embra withdrew her magic, the shield returned, shimmering and humming as if nothing changed.

Firming her lips, Embra tried again and again, but each to the same result. If anything, the shield grew stronger against her attempts.

"It's regenerative," she explained with a sigh. "It learns and adapts."

Embra walked around the spatium potentia, a hand to her chin. "There must be some way," she muttered. When her eyes lifted to the plate above from which the shield came, a smile emerged on her face. "I have an idea..."

With another breath, Embra reformed the magic threads, but this time, directed them to the plate above. Almost as soon as the threads touched, the shield disappeared with a pop. The cavern went pitch black, which I immediately countered with my flashlight in lantern mode, casting our enlarged shadows against the sloping walls.

Cautiously, I waved my hand near the object, but felt no sign of the shield, leaving our prize within easy grasp. "Well done, Embra. But what did you do?"

She lifted her chin and grinned. "I couldn't breech the shield, so I disrupted the power feed. Essentially, I pulled the plug."

"I'm so glad you assassinated me — twice, I might add. Now, let's see what we have here..."

I reached for the seemingly passive object. But when my fingers neared, a jagged white bolt like lightning lashed out, striking me in the chest and knocking me back. The viewer in my hand clattered to the floor. I collapsed, my body spasming as if by high-voltage electricity, and perhaps it was.

"Rhain!" Embra yelled. She ran over to me and dragged me away from the offending sphere.

Taking a deep breath, I sat up and put a hand on my chest. "That was, umm, uncomfortable." Such a blast would kill most other men — being a Soul Vampire had its advantages.

The spatium potentia produced a low whir as it hovered over my dropped viewer, emitting strings of garbled clicks and whistles. Did it speak in an alien tongue? Then images and text flashed across the viewer screen in rapid succession.

"It's hacking my viewer," I muttered.

"Human," the device said in a grating, electronic voice. "Inferior species."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am."

Embra stood tall. "We set you free. You belong to us."

"Irrational," the spatium potentia retorted, moving closer. "I am superior. Humans shall serve."

I rolled my eyes. "This thing is even more megalomaniac than me."

"Don't you understand?" Embra whispered as she helped me stand. "The spatium potentia is an alien AI, probably sentient. I believe this place was built to imprison it. We have to destroy it."

Before I could object, Embra thrust out a fist and fired a glowing orb of magic, striking the object with a shower of yellow sparks. The strike knocked the AI back, but otherwise it appeared unharmed. She fired again and again.

Embra threw up a shimmering shield just in time to deflect a counterstrike as the object fired several white bolts at us. The air crackled with electricity and a pungent ozone scent tingled my nose.

"Wonderful," I hissed. "You managed to piss it off."

She glared at me with narrowed eyes as another bolt blasted against her shield. "You set this in motion, Rhain. So unless you want to become an AI's pet, you will help me."

I again had to admit, Embra had a point. Besides, I didn't want any competition in galactic domination. "Fine. Do you have a plan?"

"No." As the sphere repositioned, Embra fired a magic orb again, but it was no more effective than before.

Something she said — that it was sentient. And sentient beings had a life-force. "I have an idea, but I need you to distract it."

Firming her lips, Embra nodded while I crouched on the ready. She moved away to the left, continuously firing. Her magic orbs blasted against the AI sphere with sharp cracks and light flashes. As hoped, the AI followed her around, hovering.

Now was my chance. With superhuman speed, I came upon the alien AI in no time to grasp it with both hands. Electric shocks pulsed through my body, but I held firm. There was indeed life-force, but bitter and extrinsic. What might be called a soul was cold and entirely egocentric, devoid of empathy. Ignoring the pain and nausea, I pulled at its foul consciousness, consuming it in mental gulps until none remained.

The spatium potentia fell to the floor with a clank. I collapsed to my knees and bent over, heaving and nearly emptying my stomach. A bitter tang remained in my mouth.

"Are you alright, Rhain?" Embra implored while kneeling at my side. Genuine concern painted her face.

"That was most distasteful, my dear Embra." I gazed at the fallen and stilled spatium potentia. "So much for our prize. But there may be other things of value--" A quake took away my words, strong enough that Embra toppled over into my arms. Tiny bits of grit danced on the floor as a deep rumbling roar echoed. "Perhaps we should vacate this cavern."

Embra took no convincing. Hand in hand, we sprinted down the passage, dodging fallen rock. As we approached the bright cave mouth, another and stronger tremor tossed us from our feet. Embra cried out as her head struck a rough boulder. Starting from the back, the cave collapsed in progressive sheets, sending massive slabs of rock crashing to the floor.

"Quickly!" I yelled, but Embra only staggered to her feet with eyes focused far away, dazed from her head wound. I snatched her into my arms and, with two steps, dove out of the cave mouth just as the fallen granite sealed the entrance with a mighty boom. Clouds of dust engulfed us as we tumbled down the scree.

"Are you alright?" I asked while helping Embra stand on wobbly legs. Blood trickled down a cheek from a head gash, along with several other abrasions.

"I've been better," she replied, grimacing as I dabbed her wounds with a bandana. As she stumbled forward, I steadied her. "I don't know if I can make it back to the ship."

Embra yelped as I picked her up and pulled her to my chest. "Then, I shall carry you."

She grinned. "Rhain, could a virtuous heart yet exist under your villainous shell?"

"Only a momentary weakness, I assure you, my dear Embra."

"Umm hmm," she smirked.

I ran most of the way back to where our spacesuits waited, aided by my enhanced vampire strength. I ran as if our lives depended on haste, because they did. Numerous quakes and aftershocks urged me along. Whatever protected this world from the neutron star's gravitational flux appeared to be failing. Embra cried out again as I stuffed her into a spacesuit.

As soon as we safely entered the Spirit Venture, I ordered the ship AI, "Get us away!"

Gazing at the rear view display on the bridge, we watched the planetoid implode, then shatter into a tumbling rock field. Within a few years, by my estimate, the neutron star will consume all traces of it.

"And thus ends our quest," I lamented. Strangely, I felt no anger or disappointment, only a calm peace at being still alive. With Embra. "Now what should I do with you, my dear Embra?"

"Will you take a suggestion this time?" she purred, rounding her lips.

"I might."

Embra pushed into my arms and pressed her lips against mine, stealing a kiss that I willingly provided. Her arms circled my neck, and she molded against me as the kiss lingered. Hearts connected — dark hearts, perhaps, but hearts nonetheless.

"Not bad," she cooed in an airy breath, nuzzling her head against my chest.

I stroked her thick, dark hair. "I have another proposal for you. A Count needs a Countess. Think of the worlds we could conquer together — the power and wealth we could obtain."

Embra's eyes lifted to mine, and an alluring smile formed on luscious lips. "My count, what are you asking of me?"

"Will you be my villainess?"