Daisy After Life (Book 1): Perdition

by Demers, Raven J.

  As soon as his blood entered her stomach, she shuddered, her body absorbing it into her sinews, her cells singing. She felt an unaccustomed surge of strength and vigor she’d never know, even after drinking from the human. It chilled her, but the cold turned refreshing, allowing her to see more clearly and hear with greater aptitude.

  Nikola swooned, and began to struggle, but Daisy held on. His eyes widened, and rolled wildly. She kept drinking with no concern for the trembling of his ringlets and the hands that pushed against her.

  In some receded part of her mind, she noted he appeared unable to use his gift upon her, and was instead pushing with his smooth, ancient hands. Only one voice that could stop her, and it rang out clearly.

  "Enough," Camilla said, and Daisy’s hunger was instantly sated.

  She drew away from Nikola, who covered up a momentary stumble with a fluid return to his former attentive stance. With a brief, wary glance at Daisy, Nikola returned his gaze to the Queen. Daisy shook herself, and flexed her hands in order to feel the power coursing through to her fingertips.

  "Good. Use your borrowed strength wisely, Daisy." Camilla smiled gently at Nikola, her pearly teeth showing between amaranthine lips. With a slight movement of her wrist, the man went to her, bending down onto both knees, and placing his head in her lap. She stroked his curls like a child playing with a doll. "Jill will take you to Valerie's home. Dispose of her however you like, and return with evidence that she has been dispatched."

  Jill arrived at the mention of her name, and stood next to Daisy. For a moment, she hesitated, seeing the healing wound on Nikola's wrist, his head resting with eyes closed on his Queen's lap. Tiny fingers stroked his cheek, as she quietly soothed him with a wordless song.

  "Time to go," Jill said, and Daisy kept enough distance from the woman to avoid being touched by her. Concentrating on Jill proved a struggle when listening to the lullaby pouring forth from Camilla's treasured throat. Even as Daisy rose from the depths of the sunken palace, she wanted only to return to the enchanting presence of the eternally youthful queen.

  Queen’s Quest

  Jill eyed Daisy warily as they re-entered the vehicle. Despite her recent threats to the contrary, she made no move to touch her. Daisy noticed the distance Jill kept between them and smiled to herself. She had seen the mark on the Basque's wrist, and guessed what it might mean. At the very least, I seem to be able to prevent him from using his gift on me, Daisy thought.

  If she could determine how to use his gift, it would prove invaluable, but she wondered how long it would last. What exactly did he do to me before?

  For the first half of the journey, they sped from the hideaway in silence. They found few people on the road to interfere with their single-minded trip toward Valerie's home. The lingering desire to return to the young Queen faded enough for Daisy to feel once more in possession of her senses and managed to find her voice. Though what to say?

  Jill saved her the trouble. "That was quite a turnaround. All ready to be a killer now?"

  Daisy drew her mouth into a hard line. "She needs to be stopped," she said, but suddenly she was unsure of herself. This was not her usual way. Nevertheless, remnant memories of the Queen's voice continued to work their way around her mind, and she longed to get the task complete fast so she might return. Maybe she would be willing to drink from me again?

  Some part of her rebelled against this thought, but she couldn’t remember why it should bother her.

  "We won't need to worry about Adelaide," Jill offered, misreading the concern on the other woman's face. "I had Valerie send her off searching for a nomad in Augusta." She snickered to herself. "Last we heard from Jorge, he had crossed into South America and was somewhere in Brazil. It'll be at least a week before she finds the trail and makes her way there and back. If she finds him at all."

  The sudden change to Jill's demeanor caught Daisy off guard. She couldn’t tell if it was her alignment with Camilla that caused the shift, or if this was how Jill dealt with being nervous. A secretive smile played out along the young woman's lips. Daisy doubted the Queen had ever fed from her. Daisy sat in smug satisfaction at the thought and didn’t question its source.

  "Is Adelaide loyal to Valeria then?"

  Jill shrugged. "Who can tell with that one? She loves telling everyone else's secrets to the world, but keeps hers to herself. As far as anyone knows, she's loyal to herself."

  "How long have you worked for the Queen?" Daisy asked.

  Jill's smile turned a little crooked and she eyed Daisy from the corner of her eye. "Since I came to Atlanta."

  "Where did you—"

  "Do you really want to know about me?" Jill asked.

  Know yourself, know your enemy, Daisy recalled. "Yes."

  "I'm from Virginia. Born 1881. Turned at 17, and much prefer my life now than I did then," she rattled off.

  Daisy studied her face. The young woman's usual smirk had firmed then faded. "You had a hard childhood?"

  "No," Jill said. "I had a boring childhood with no say in what I did or who I married. Becoming a vampire freed me to live as I wished to live." She maneuvered around a slow-moving truck and made a sharp turn too fast. "Are we done?"

  "Yes," Daisy said, and they passed the community gate, soon pulling up into the driveway to Valerie's house.

  All of the lights were out, even those lining the drive and leading to the backyard. As they stepped from the car, Daisy warring with her apprehension, extended her range of senses outward trying to listen for any sounds apart from the wind and the crickets in the grass.

  No papery voices whispered to one another. No unnatural movements caught her attention. "Shit," Jill snapped, "I left her alone too long."

  Before she had a chance to recognize the scent, a body threw itself at her, and she rolled with it, the both of them hitting the hood of the sedan. Daisy pushed the body off her and Guilherme went flying into the air, landing against the side of the house several yards away.

  Jill ran fast as a bloodhound on the hunt and pounced upon Guilherme, dragging his struggling form off into the bushes at the side of the house. Leaves tangled into his hair as he thrashed against his captor. Daisy listened again, and this time heard the approach. Jared came toward her at monstrous speed, almost a blur to even her own eyes, but she surprised him.

  Even as he came barreling toward her, she reached out and slashed at him, tearing a gash into the side of his face. He twisted on his heel and moved back, suddenly wary of the small woman before him.

  "Mrs. Shaw," he said, "you don't know what you're doing."

  With simple movements, one foot in front of the other, she made it to him in a split second. He startled when she appeared before him, her hand clutched around his throat. She pushed him toward the wall of the house, and raised him up until his feet dangled. Considering their disparate sizes, her arm stretched to its limit to keep him there.

  From the bushes, she could hear tearing sounds and Guilherme whimpering. Jill's pleasured moans distracted Daisy momentarily, enough for Jared to choke out a few words. "Don't trust Jill." Daisy turned her eyes back to the man she held. "She's the one ... controlling ... Valerie," he continued, struggling in her grip. "Your mind is stronger than this. Fight against her control, Daisy."

  She loosened his neck slightly. "Jill never touched me. I'm here under the Queen's orders."

  Jared's eyes narrowed. "Then you're even more misguided than you know," he spat. "What happened in the cellar isn't Valerie's will, it's Jill's."

  A distant part of Daisy returned to the forefront. She listened as Jill continued to torture her captured prey, and realized the horror of the events taking place around her. That she herself was enacting. Slowly, she lowered Jared to his feet, but the memory of Camilla's voice made her hesitate. She left her hand in place. "Explain."

  "There's not time," he said. A keening cry from Guilherme shattered the pretense of a calm night. "Before Jill came, Valerie was only sadistic in the bedroom."

&n
bsp; She studied his face, and recognized the sincerity there. Even now, Jill worked to prove his point with her actions. Daisy held his gaze and began to regain possession of her faculties. Before she could say anything, Guilherme's cries ceased, and Jill came from around the corner.

  With one glance to the pair, Jill said, "Kill him." Daisy noted the thick, inky material covering the young woman's hands and the smear across her mouth.

  Daisy turned her body slightly to see Jill better. "Tell me. Which one ordered my punishment? Valerie or Camilla?"

  Jill grinned, revealing pomegranate-stained teeth. "Her Majesty likes to keep her subjects in line."

  Jared said, "Stop evading the question."

  The pixie-haired woman growled at Daisy's prisoner. Jared snarled back, fiercer than the first. Jill made eye contact with Daisy, sneering. "I told you. I control Valerie."

  A surge of anger built up within Daisy. All of the control Camilla held over her fell away, and she saw her position in a flash.

  I'm just a tool. A pawn in court intrigues. Expendable.

  She released Jared and lunged for Jill. The broad shouldered man at her side followed her in the attack. Jill attempted to reach out to touch some part of their skin, but Daisy sidestepped and spun around behind the petite woman. She tried to grip Jill's arms, but she slipped free of her grasp and continued to evade her. Daisy’s rage built into a crescendo in her head. She wanted nothing more than for Jill to hold still.

  The short-haired vampire froze in place, concern widening her eyes as Daisy walked to the woman she held immobile. She didn’t fully understand how, but she commanded the blood within Jill, as if the blood belonged to her, as if it were inside her own body.

  There was no time to speculate too much. In her mind, Jill struggled against her, a scratching beetle who kicked to be free. Daisy wrapped around Jill's arms, careful to only touch the sleeves and not skin.

  Jared, seeing their unexpected advantage, landed a blow to the woman's face. It took a great deal of strength for Daisy to keep her balance, but she stood firm. Jill hissed and spat curses at them both, remaining paralyzed from the neck down.

  Daisy expected more of Valerie's usual revelers to come to Jill's aid, but no one stepped from the shadows. Jared hit Jill again, and Daisy braced the body before her like a punching bag. A sudden, insistent desire overwhelmed her in that moment, and without conscious thought, she plunged her teeth through the thick skin of her captive.

  This time Jill broke the quiet of the night with her screams. Jared backed up in shock as Daisy met his eyes, feeding on her own kind. A dizzying ecstasy overtook her as she swallowed down the icy substance making up Jill's blood. The tingling sensation coursed through her and sent chills down Daisy's spine. She shivered, murmuring prayers around the throat to which her teeth held fast.

  "Stop," Jared whispered. "Daisy, stop."

  His words meant nothing. They held no weight the way Camilla's had, and Daisy couldn’t keep herself from it. The need for it overwhelmed her disgust, and she emptied Jill of everything. When she dropped the body, it landed with a resounding thud. Somewhere behind the glassy eyed stare, Jill continued to think and exist. Daisy stepped back, wiping at her mouth, and came to comprehend her own actions too late. "End it," she said to Jared, with worry pulling her face into tight lines.

  Jared hesitated, but finally stepped forward, and wrenched Jill apart. Daisy looked away, wandering in a horrified daze toward the back of the house. When Jared caught up with her, he showed no signs of Jill's blood on his hands, though her scent clung to both of them.

  Daisy stopped moving. "Guilherme," she said, and he nodded, going to check on the bushes. He returned with a twisted and pulpy mass with a mess of chestnut hair. Somehow he had survived whatever Jill had done to him, but barely. Jared dragged the young man to the basement, and came back for Jill's body. It took him little time to clean up the mess, but it was long enough for Daisy to recount the horrific details of the night with clarity.

  "Madame," he said, but she didn’t respond. "Daisy Margaret Shaw," he said louder, and took her by the arm. "Time to go inside."

  She looked up at him, unable to put all of the swirling words into form. He nodded in understanding, and guided her toward the back staircase leading up into the house.

  The Glass Queen and the Box

  Valerie waited in the shadows, swirling blood in a brandy glass before a laptop displaying the feeds from multiple surveillance cameras around the property. She sat in a chair placed in the center of the living room, looking defeated. "I never wanted this," she said as Jared and Daisy entered the room. "They say Jill can only hold those weak of mind. I guess we know what it says of me." All pretense of her effeminate voice had fled, she spoke in a rich tenor and sipped her cold blood.

  "Jill is dead," Daisy said. "Camilla ..."

  "Sent you here to kill me." Valerie's eyes lifted to meet Daisy's, shifted to look at Jared, and then closed as she polished off the glass. "We knew my usefulness was coming to an end."

  Daisy shook her head. "I would rather not shed any more blood, but she's holding —"

  "Your girl. I know. Everyone knew." Valerie wiped the lipstick off her lips and sighed. "It's just a game to her. All of this," she waved her hand in a sweeping arc to indicate the whole city, "is a game to a little girl who likes to play with her dolls."

  A wave of uneasiness swept through Daisy, as her mental images of Camilla, the silver sylph who drank from her wrist, and Valerie’s description of a ruthless child, competed for dominance in her mind. "What do you suggest I do? Kill her instead?"

  "Oh, there's no killing Camilla, deary. Not with her scent, her voice, and that tall drink of dark water, the Basque." She patted a chair near her. "But you killed Jill, so let's talk about what you're up against."

  Daisy hesitated. "If what you and Jared have told me is true, then I must do whatever I can to get them back, Perdita and Nathaniel." She glanced to her side to see Jared's arms folded as he stood still and watched the exchange.

  Valerie sighed again. "Even if you kill me, she won't give them to you. At least not in the forms you want them." She glanced momentarily at Jared, gave a short nod, and he left.

  Images of possible horrors that might be done to Perdy flashed through Daisy's mind, and she looked to Valerie for confirmation. "How?"

  "She'll turn Nathaniel into a puppet like Guilherme—" Daisy's surprise showed plainly on her face. "Oh yes, she sent the nomads after you. You're dangerous and he's loyal to you, and your darling girl? She'll either be your juice box as you unwittingly drain her, or she'll force you to turn the child into one of us."

  The thought of Perdy becoming a vampire, or of herself becoming the girl's murderer spiked Daisy's rage. All thoughts of Camilla as hypnotic goddess vanished. Seething anger rekindled the tug at the back of Daisy's throat; this time she hoped to indulge the cold hunger Nathaniel feared, but she couldn’t fathom how.

  The scent of the late hour brought her to the present moment. "I need to return. I'm supposed to have killed you by now."

  "Or have died trying," Valerie offered. "How did you manage to avoid her control? Usually her presence alone can leave a person ensorcelled for days."

  Daisy shrugged. What answers could she offer? "Maybe Nikola's blood?"

  Valerie laughed. The sound of her voice echoed off the domed ceiling of the living room and continued to reverberate as she kept laughing. When finally she could speak, she said, still chuckling, "Oh that's rich, Daisy Margaret. She's a fool for letting you drink from him."

  "Why?"

  "She clearly underestimates your own abilities."

  Daisy stiffened. Does she know?

  She worried they all knew about her ability to walk about by day. She closed herself to scrutiny. If Addie had been there, she was uncertain if she could shut her out. Warily, she asked, "And what are my abilities?"

  Valerie remained silent, refusing to answer. Daisy's concern deepened. Before she could press the fals
e Queen, Jared returned. "Both of them have been taken care of."

  "Guilherme?" Daisy asked.

  "He'll recover," Jared said.

  Valerie added, "If you want him to."

  Daisy finally accepted the offered seat. "Would he have hunted me down if he hadn't been under orders?"

  Jared shrugged. "He wasn't forced to do it; he accepted an offer, but at a risk he wouldn’t have taken without sanction from the Queen."

  She leaned forward and put her face in her hands. This night had brought too much pain and destruction, much of it she caused herself, or allowed to happen. "Why does she want to destroy me?"

  Valerie answered. "Destroy you or claim you. Either one. She must control everything, you see. She's been here a long time. Atlanta is hers, and has been since, oh, when the city burned. She helped rebuild it."

  Daisy turned to look at Valerie, wide-eyed.

  "That child is older than she looks. The last speculation I heard said several hundred years."

  Daisy shook her head, causing white curls to spill around her, her bun having come completely undone. "I don't understand, though. You say she underestimates my abilities, but she sees them as a threat?"

  "It's the mutation in your blood. Whatever affected you—and Nathaniel from his own sire—allowed you to live as mortals before death and resurrect yourselves after. She fears you can create other vampires simply by biting a victim and leaving them alive; normally it takes a long process of blood exchange. It worries her. She wants to control you or end the threat. Besides, you've retained some of your humanity. That alone is rather intriguing. You've held out longer than most." Valerie laughed. "Until tonight."

  When Daisy's features turned dark at her recent memories, Valerie patted her hand. Daisy said, "I’m sorry I laughed the night we first met."