Daisy After Life (Book 1): Perdition

by Demers, Raven J.

  Daisy watched as Jill's mouth fell upon the boy's. He groaned, and Daisy struggled to hold onto the image of the sunshine. It helped, for a moment, to think of Henry once again. Their honeymoon. Making love in the woods beneath an afternoon sun in June. But this was no honeymoon scene, and Daisy wondered whether Guilherme would fight her off.

  He struggled against her, pushed himself sideways along the wall, but Daisy didn’t expect to see him hold onto the lithe girl, turn her and reverse their positions. This time Jill slammed into the wall, as his lips moved to her throat. The scene shocked her out of her concentration. Nathaniel had his hand on her shoulder in a trice, trying to pull her back.

  Too late.

  Jill pushed Guilherme away and held up her hand. She sniffed the air. "We are not alone," she whispered, but it was enough for their witnesses to hear. Guilherme staggered back dazed, but swiftly shifted his posture, ready to spring. From his throat came a low, threatening growl to the place where Daisy had stood.

  The pair of still-recovering vampires clambered up the walls, springing from one to another, using their momentum from each jump to get them higher. Daisy tried to think of the sun, but she couldn’t concentrate well enough to push away the sense of being hunted from her mind to reach that level of serenity.

  When Daisy reached the rooftop, a mere step behind Nathaniel, he snarled. "Run," he hissed, and together they moved as swiftly as their feet could carry them. He took her hand, and said, "Push everything you've got into your feet and tell them to move!"

  At first she didn’t understand him, but soon discovered what he meant, as, with a thought and a force of her own will, she pushed the reserves of blood she had into her legs. They sped up, but they were both still weak. What if Jared was right? What if I'll always be weaker? She let the fear push her forward more, and they made their way rapidly across downtown.

  They ran south where old brick factories covered in graffiti were converted into small apartments. Daisy did her best to focus on the sun, but she sensed her repeated failures. They would lose their pursuers a moment or two, only to be hot on their heels a minute later.

  They kept running until they hit Pryor Rd SW where the buildings showed greater wear and the sidewalks disappeared into dirt. Daisy knew another ten or twelve minutes, and they could be back in the safety of the cottage. No one would risk harming Valerie's property. They took a side street, turning different corners, in hopes of losing Jill and Guilherme.

  Though the padding of their feet made little sound as they moved, Daisy felt as though each step pounded the pavement enough to leave dents. For the first time in a while, running tired her, and Nathaniel pulled at her impatiently. "Daize, come on!"

  Daisy stopped on Adamson, and shook her head. "Why are they chasing us? What exactly did we see that we weren't supposed to?"

  "Daize," he hissed again. "Not the time." His eyes flicked around the area, scanning this way and that for any signs of movement. He shut his eyes and took a deep sniff. "They're either masked or they aren't pursuing us. My bet's that they're far better than you at staying masked."

  With this, Daisy had to agree. "Guilherme. Why would Valerie release him? Or why would Jared, even if Valerie no longer had use for him?"

  "A good question, don't you think so, Guilherme?" Jill's voice came softly to them across the length of the empty street. Guilherme, who seemed to prefer high perches, revealed himself on the roof of a steel recycling plant’s main building. "That was quite a chase you led us on. We enjoy the sport."

  Jill's easy posture as she walked forward made Daisy more wary than Guilherme's obvious display of rapacious intent. She let Nathaniel keep his eyes on the theatrical brunette above; Jill's attention focused on Daisy, and no one else.

  "Whatever I say, you are not going to remember," Jill said with a sincere smile.

  Daisy took a step back. "Nathaniel ..."

  There was a flurry of movement as Jill fled Daisy's field of vision. She swirled around to keep her eyes on Valerie's Balm. From above, Guilherme pounced on Nathaniel, who sidestepped at the last moment, leaving Guilherme to scramble to his feet. Daisy knew she had to do everything to keep from letting the small woman from touching her. There had been something in the way she moved toward them, something assured in her words. If Jill touched her, Daisy would forget.

  She wasn't going to let that happen.

  A whirlwind circled Daisy, the stray wisps of white hair lifted at the shift in air currents. From the corner of her eye, she saw Nathaniel work to keep Guilherme from grabbing him. Although the tracker was the least of her concerns, her flagging strength made her wish for a bit of support.

  Jill laughed as she danced around Daisy, moving near enough to touch, but toying with her. She's trying to instill fear in me, Daisy realized, and it sent a hot blaze of anger through her. She looked around for anything she could use as a weapon, but the piles of scrap steel, which might have proved helpful were on the other side of the recycling plant’s fence.

  She crouched down slowly, while Jill continued to dash around her in circles, stopping at different points to mock her. If I can break free of this circle …

  "Guilherme is under my care."

  Daisy asked, "Why?"

  Nathaniel took a blow to the head that sent him sprawling. His thrown body left a gash in the road. Daisy did her best to concentrate on Jill; she saw a pattern to the small woman’s movements. Jill continued to laugh, "Because Valerie does what I tell her."

  "Isn't she your Queen?" Daisy asked, still working to decipher the pattern. One, two, stop. Three, four, stop. Five, stop. Six, seven, eight, stop. The pattern began anew. This time Guilherme was down, yet the struggle continued, though Daisy couldn’t register much of what happened between the two men. Their movements were as fast and confusing as the dark-haired woman's, but far more chaotic.

  Jill snarled. "Valerie is a figurehead and under my control. If Nathaniel were a decent teacher, he would have introduced you to the real Queen of Atlanta."

  Daisy did her best to hide her surprise. "Why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you be keeping your secrets?"

  Three, four, stop. Five, stop. Jill snickered. "I told you. You won't remember any of this." Six, seven, eight …

  Daisy bolted, she shut her eyes and thought of the sun and Perdita. In her mind, she could feel the sunlight shining warm and bright on the top of her head, bathing her face in its glow. She thought of the sleeping child in her arms, and being human again; tiny hands encircling her neck as she rescued the girl again and again.

  Her feet carried her forward as she used the force of her will to push the blood remaining in her toward her feet, burning up its energy. Security lights came on from the buildings she passed. She thought of the sun, and not the wounds still tender and unhealed beneath the pink skin on her belly. Sirens sounded in the distance.

  Daisy imagined running through fields of brilliant gold on the way to the forest, instead of what Nathaniel might be facing. She ignored the voice in her head calling her a coward and a monster.

  Tree branches whipped at her cheeks, but she barely noticed them. The smell of peaches drew her forward. She opened her eyes and saw the white cottage door waiting. Her key was out. If Jill controls Valerie, will she care about the boundaries of these walls? For a moment, she faltered, and heard a rustling in the trees not from her own movements.

  The sun, she said to herself. Think of the sun. She didn’t need to fit the key in the lock. The door opened, and a tiny, sleepy-eyed figure held onto the handle, welcoming her back.

  Daisy dove through, sweeping Perdita up into her arms, and shutting the door. With a swift movement, she turned the lock. The girl's heart beat rapidly and she pressed her face into Daisy's cold chest, hot tears spilling on her flesh.

  Outside, she heard two people prowling outside, hooting at her. Guilherme called, "You cannot stay under the Queen's protection forever, Daisy. At some point the thirst will claim you." Why aren't they coming in? If Valerie is
n't someone they fear …

  She didn't have time to think.

  From the other side of the door, came Jill's voice, soft and low, nearly a whisper. "Or you will walk out into the sun."

  Perdita cried harder, and Daisy pet her hair with a trembling hand. She shushed her, not wanting them to hear the child. They may already have smelled you out, little one. What then? Were they amused at the situation? Sure I would drink from you?

  She ignored the inner voice telling her of her hunger for the child; the chronic ache and fevered need as potent as her fear.

  Daisy moved away from the door, careful to keep Perdita out of sight of the windows. After laying her back in bed, she said, "Why are you up, Perdy?"

  The girl lay back, her black hair spilling out around the pillow. "I had a nightmare," she said, sniffing away the last of her tears. "I thought you were gone."

  Daisy pulled a tissue from a box beside the bed and helped Perdy to wipe her tears and blow her nose. "I'm here now. No need for nightmares."

  Perdy looked around. "Where's Nathaniel?"

  With a guilty expression, Daisy shut her eyes. Yes, where is Nathaniel? What did I leave him to this time? She didn’t care for him anymore, but that didn't mean she wanted to see him dead. Not really. "I don't know," she answered truthfully. "Maybe we'll see him again soon."

  She smoothed out the child's hair, brushing it back from her forehead and cheeks. "Go back to sleep. We will see the sun tomorrow and you can eat more peaches."

  Damn, I meant to get her more food! What will I feed her?

  A tug from the monstrous hunger presented a swift solution to at least two of her problems lay before her. Daisy jumped to her feet. "I need to eat," she told the child. "Get some rest. I won't be going out again tonight."

  Perdita nodded, and slipped back into sleep. Daisy watched the girl's eyelids droop, and finally shut. As soon as the Perdy's breathing grew shallow, she moved swiftly from the room, away from her tempting scent. From outside she could only hear silence, but she knew Jill and Guilherme might still be out there waiting. In her mind, she imagined them standing statue-still, ethereally beautiful in the moonlight and incredibly deadly.

  Weary and sore, she went to the fridge and retrieved two bags of blood. They did little to take the edge off her hunger, but she some of her strength returned. It's not enough, she realized with a surge of fear. If she continued this way, she might end up doing something she couldn’t live with, and it made her ache in a painfully human way.

  As it was, her only ally might be dead. She tossed the empty IV bags into the garbage and headed up to the attic. Nathaniel had left his video games in a jumbled mess on the floor. She stepped around them, feeling another pang of guilt for abandoning him to the monsters outside. Daisy needed to clear her head, to see what she could discern from the little information at hand.

  She sat at the piano and pulled out her favorite mazurka by Chopin again, and lifted the cover. First she played the notes, mournful and contemplative, the rich minor chords ringing out from the instrument with clarity. Then she increased her pace, as she started trying to make sense of her situation.

  Nathaniel had presented Valerie as the Queen of the city, shaping the title into a crude, tasteless joke. He's insensitive and enjoys teasing me, she thought, and pushed it aside, not wishing to think of him. Jill had worked to calm her even that night when her temper flared, which was in line with Nathaniel's open fear of repercussions from Valerie. Or was it the people around her? Jill had told her Valerie was just a figurehead. Does that mean Jill is the Queen?

  That seemed unlikely to Daisy, who continued on to the more playful portions of the song. Jill said I would forget what she told me. Whatever Jill's abilities, whatever "balm" she provided, Daisy's suspicion that the Queen's favorite was capable of more than calming people was confirmed by those words. Control. She had used the word control.

  It explained why she always hovered near Valerie. Whether the Queen was always this unpredictable, or whether Jill's influence made her thus, couldn’t be answered. If she controls Valerie, but isn’t the real Queen, then to whom does Jill answer?

  She desperately wished for Nathaniel to make it back. At least then, she might have someone to ask who might hold some of the answers. She started the song over again, this time adding her experimental refrains to it.

  By the time the sun rose over the trees, Daisy had formulated a plan. The first was to step out into the sun, and put her hypothesis to the test.

  Into the Fire

  Daisy hesitated at the door. Her senses ranged outward until she assured herself no one but the small creatures who lived in the woods could be found outside. With a token intake of breath, she turned the lock, and opened the door. The reflected glow of early morning sunlight spilled into the living room, hitting every inch of exposed flesh on Daisy's body.

  Warmth spread across her, and she waited.

  She didn’t burn.

  As a precaution, she had drunk another two bags of blood before this experiment, although she no longer felt as strong as she had a week before. Why must it be human blood, God? Why shape us this way?

  With a tentative step, she held her hand in a shaft of sunlight coming down onto the front porch. Once again, she counted the seconds.

  Her eyes studied the skin covering the back of her hand, a clash of liver spots and the translucence of youth. Blue veins crisscrossed over bones and tendons stood out more in contrast to the whitened flesh. For a moment, she marveled at the wonder of her skin and its audacity to continue living on after death. Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine ... Still no sign of burning. Nothing singed or even pink. Without reservation, she stepped out fully into the sun.

  They were right, one day I’d step out into the sun. Today is that day.

  It took effort to silence the keening monster inside, warning her she would die, perish, burn!

  Nothing happened.

  In the distance, the dappled sunlight through the canopy of the forest added a serene, living quality to everything beneath it. For the first time since her death, Daisy knew peace again. Silence filled her heart and mind.

  As in her dream, the warmth spread from the crown of her head and down her shoulders, relaxing her into a languor.

  A miracle, she thought, but the word didn’t suit this instance. Thank you, Lord, for giving me this gift.

  The peace didn’t last, though, as she thought of Henry and his absence in this interminable perdition. Standing in the sun and not burning, the gift turned poisonous. Her way out of this monstrous condition had been stolen from her.

  She sighed and walked into the trees to seek their solace.

  Wherever she came near to a tree, she touched it, and called it by name. "Hello, willow. Good morning, oak." She came alive again, remembering walks from years past, when Nathaniel courted her and they spoke to the trees. Even when she first met Henry, and they found common ground in loving the woods near their home. She leaned against a hickory, and let the scent fill her. Henry's favorite.

  For a long while, her thoughts drifted, basking in the filtered sunlight and the comfort of a summer day.

  From a distance came a small voice calling her name. Perdita.

  Daisy moved swiftly, but she didn’t feel hurried. As she returned to the clearing around the cottage, she saw the girl still wearing her pajamas. Long, dark hair fell in a sheet along her back. "Perdy," she whispered, and the child spun around.

  "You said you wouldn't leave the house!" Perdita's eyes filled with tears.

  Daisy nodded. "You're right, I did say I wouldn't leave ... for the remainder of the night. Look," she said pointing at the sky. "It's morning now, and we're both safe. Did you have any of your peaches yet?"

  Perdita looked around, and then back at Daisy. "You aren't supposed to be out in the sun." The child ran up and grasped her hand desperately. "You have to go back inside. Anthea? Anthea!"

  Daisy kneeled down and hugged Perdita to her. "It's ok. I'm ok.
See?" She pulled back to show her. "No burns."

  The girl looked her up and down, turning her caretaker's hands over to make sure there weren't any hidden wounds. "How come?"

  "I'm not sure."

  Perdy nodded sagely. "Maybe God did it, because you helped me."

  A smile came to Daisy's lips. "Maybe so, child, maybe so. I can’t rightly say. I can’t say what God has planned. Since I died and I became what I am now, my faith waivers, and I—I don’t know if He’s there to listen."

  The child looked horrified. "But Aunt Arabella said people who don't believe in God go to Hell."

  "Hm," Daisy said, "that would be awful. What do you think?" Daisy moved into a seated position and pulled the child into her lap, letting Perdita wrap tiny fingers into her hair, twisting them into her curls.

  "I told her once I thought girls are gods, but she didn't like that. If there’s a Hell, I think maybe people like her go there ... and my cousin."

  Her face turned dark with remembered trauma. Daisy brushed the child's hair back from her face, and kissed her forehead.

  "My momma believed something different; something other than in God. I like to think she was still a good enough person she’d never know eternal torment." This pulled Perdita's attention back to the present moment and away from the pain of her recent past. "My momma’s family was rich and came from the North. Her father owned a business that worked with factories in Macon and Savannah."

  Perdita watched her with wide, brown eyes, curling fingers around a clump of grass she’d collected near the porch.

  "They decided to settle in a tiny town east of here. Neither of my Yankee grandparents cared much for religion, and my momma grew up traveling up to New York and back to Georgia, and along the way met spiritualists and sat in on séances among the wealthy folks in both places. Some say she bewitched my Daddy, and caused the storm that ruined the small borough from which he hailed."