Cheating Death (Wraith's Rebellion Book 2)

by Aya DeAniege

  “By the Great Mother, you’d think it was Lu down there,” she muttered.

  “And if it were?” I asked.

  She grabbed me and kissed me. I’m not kidding. It was such a kiss. Every bit of it simply blew me away. It was also so unlike Sasha that I forgot everything else that was going on.

  When she pulled away, I was hard and panting with need.

  “There,” she said. “Still a sad puppy?”

  Why are you laughing, why is that funny?

  I don’t know. It’s just... so wrong.

  I suppose, yes. It was also then that I realized there might be something else to Sasha. I hadn’t bedded her before. Even those who are so called brothers and sisters among vampires sleep together, it’s inevitable.

  You carry on a relationship and then break it off. That’s how it goes. Sasha and I have never done that. We just had the one-time thing, and technically it wasn’t real sex because it was me projecting from inside a box.

  …

  You just got a funny look on your face.

  It just occurred to me that we’re going to see her and I’m going to have to tell her the truth.

  I just told you that. Baby brother is about to get beat.

  Yes, yes, I think I am. Where was I?

  Lu, dragging a scythe.

  Right, full Death getup and all.

  Death went right up to Bob’s home and threatened to kill him. I mean, he made the motion, didn’t speak or anything. Speaking just didn’t happen. It was a little like your stabbing motion. I suppose Bob was to assume who Death might be looking for.

  Bob probably protested that he wasn’t hiding anyone. Death eventually left.

  That was all. We remained in the tree for three more days before Sasha got hungry and we climbed down. We went up to Bob, who looked utterly relieved to see us.

  Then Sasha went off to talk to Bob in private, and I slept with half the harem or so, again, feeding heartily. We never spoke of it again.

  We walked into a building, in a place, with a thing. You understand why I wouldn’t give a description, right? Wouldn’t want to compromise a vampire safe house. Although, for all I know the place was mysteriously burned to the ground the next morning. Or maybe not, maybe they just sold it because once a safe house was used, it couldn’t be used again.

  Or maybe they turned it into a crack den, who knows?

  Sasha let us in, she left for a moment, then returned with a tray with two glasses of blood and a mug of hot coffee. The smell of the coffee made my mouth water.

  Quin handed me a baby vampire juice box instead, and I pouted at the sight of it. I wanted coffee, not blood. I wasn’t hungry, I wanted to enjoy a favourite beverage.

  “No,” Sasha gasped out.

  “Before you protest,” Quin said as I stabbed the juice box and drank sulkily, “Lu infected her with his special little something, and she was dying yet highly contagious. If we hadn’t turned her, her body would have started an epidemic.”

  “So why is she still living and breathing?” Sasha asked.

  “Can I do it?” I quipped. “You’re probably just going to whine and wring your hands anyhow.”

  Quin watched me for a moment, then turned to Sasha.

  “They asked me to serve as a weapon, and to find Wraith. I told them I wouldn’t go without payment upfront. A debate began as to the payment I would require. I only gave them one option.”

  “A Progeny?” Sasha said, her eyebrows raising. “That’s bold, Quin. Especially for you, especially against the Council.”

  “I didn’t know she was infected at the time. I demanded Lu be boxed, initially.”

  Sasha sucked a sharp breath through gritted teeth. “Better luck getting a Progeny. Who ended up tossing this out, then?”

  “You know the point of the interviews was for us to poll the mortals for ability to be vampires. To find Progeny to add to our numbers. When it was discovered that she was infected, the next step was natural. I almost lost the vote to be her Maker, though.”

  “Amma?” Sasha asked.

  “Yes, and the Younger Council not being present,” Quin sighed out. “Look, Sasha…”

  Sasha made a sound and stood. She picked up the coffee and a cup of blood. The blood she handed to me, the coffee she walked off with.

  Quin watched her walk away, a desperate sort of look on his face. I reached out and touched his arm, even as I sipped from the cup.

  I’m not certain why I did it, as far as I knew, I wasn’t hungry at all. It was just there, an idle motion even. Like boredom eating for a vampire, except for the fact that I wasn’t exactly bored.

  Sasha returned and let out a small sound.

  “She’s very new,” Sasha said pointedly.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Sweetie, Quin gave you a juice box, but you’re going for the open blood.”

  I gulped and looked at the coffee table, where I had set the juice box and some point. I didn’t even recall doing it, but I must have exchanged the box for the cup.

  “She was only out an hour or so,” Quin said. “I’m sure it’s safe, but I’d rather not take her on the next bit, just in case it hasn’t quite taken hold.”

  “An hour?” Sasha asked with a small whistle. “When was the last time you had food?”

  “Uh, four hundred and fifty years?” he asked.

  “You had wine last night,” I said.

  Quin smiled at me. It took a moment for me to wrap my head around that fact. He had pantomimed sipping the wine. I hadn’t tracked how much disappeared from his glass.

  I had been too focused on his pause, the quiet contemplation that I knew meant he was testing the flavour of the wine.

  “Four hundred and fifty years?” Sasha squawked out. “Three years ago, you told me I ruined the family dinner with too much salt!”

  “I could smell it,” he said in response.

  “Four hundred and—” Sasha went stiff.

  “The Council has commanded silence. Nothing in or out but for what is heard from my own lips.”

  “They only do that with Younger Council,” Sasha grimaced. “That’s too bad, new Progeny and bound to the Council for a century?”

  “The name drawn was Wraith,” Quin added.

  She stared at him. The change was subtle, ever so slowly, she seemed to relax, and yet stiffen at the same time. It was the oddest thing I had seen in any of the vampires. As if she wanted to flee, but at the same time knew that if she tried to, Quin would be following after.

  “You’ve decided to come out,” she whispered.

  I almost missed the words, but there they were.

  Sasha had known.

  The question then was, since when? Since the jungles in South America? Since the boat trip? Or before that?

  “You knew?” Quin squawked out, startled and surprised.

  “Of course, I knew, little brother,” she said with a shake of her head. “You said yourself, we both have our secrets. I wasn’t going to force you into the open, or to admit it to me. All I could do was whatever I could to protect you.”

  “For how long?” he asked.

  “I had my suspicions from the first time you lied about your age,” she said. “Truth be told, it wasn’t until last night that I really knew without a doubt. You’ve only ever been with one man sexually, yet last night a new name was added to the list?”

  “Then…”

  “I made my choices based on what might obscure your path from the others. Outed now, by that damned box, you’ll need to make a choice, Quin. The name Quin likely still resides in the box. No one but the Council and, what, Lucrecia? No one else knows unless you’ve told them.”

  “Word spreads fast.”

  “Let me worry about the word. You get your mask. No, a new one, you get a new mask, and you wear it for all things Council. Be Wraith for the Council. Keep yourself hidden. It’s no one’s goddamn business who Wraith really is. Unless you want to be inundated with requests for suic
ide and murder.”

  “He can kill people with his mind!” I said loudly, then just gulped down the cup so that I wouldn’t have to see the look on anyone’s face.

  When I lowered the empty cup, I considered licking the inside of the mug. I wanted the blood that much. Instead, I set the cup on the table and looked at Sasha. She arched an eyebrow at me, as if to ask if I was going to be impolite again.

  “Somehow, I’m not surprised by that,” she said, then blinked at Quin. “You’re going to kill the old man?”

  “Yes, Helen here signed us up for a side quest.”

  “Or two,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Or two?” Sasha demanded. “I play video games, missy, what else did you sign the pair of you up for? And with who?”

  “The witches,” I said, reaching for the other cup.

  “Helen, full sentences, don’t make Sasha keep asking,” Quin growled.

  I took in a long breath. “Return the tool, kill the wicked witch, try not to piss off the Great Maker, and kill Lu-slash-Death.”

  “What wicked witch?” Quin asked.

  I blinked at him. He hadn’t been there for that part of the conversation. That made me go back in my memory and try to remember the conversation word for word. Then I recalled the last bit I had been told. To get him to drink from me as soon as possible. I turned my attention to Sasha, who quirked an eyebrow up in question.

  Something else?

  I almost choked, not quite realizing that I had taken a sip from the cup. I swallowed, then sucked the blood off my bottom lip as both Sasha’s eyebrows rose.

  “She’s a mind reader, maybe,” Quin said.

  “I see what she is,” Sasha said, surprise and yet annoyance in her voice.

  Think it.

  It was Sasha. In my head. Sasha was in my head, and Quin didn’t know it. Just her and me.

  He has to drink from me.

  I had no idea if just thinking that sentence meant anything, but I was going to try and do what Sasha wanted me to do. All I could do then was pray that she heard me.

  Sasha watched me for another moment before she focused on Quin. She blinked several times, then sighed loudly.

  “The Great Maker needs to know about mind readers because they sometimes go searching without realizing it. She needs to guard against new ones, or kill them.”

  “If she can kill others, why not kill Lu?” I asked. “And, no, I don’t want to hear how everyone needs to stand for themselves and learn their own lessons. Look at what’s going on! They aren’t doing squat. Quin is.”

  Sasha looked livid. Her resting murder face had turned to genocidal maniac as she turned to me ever so slowly.

  “I’m not sure that she’d appreciate you saying that,” Sasha said ever so slowly.

  “Maybe she should stop being a cunt,” I said, sipping from my glass as Quin choked on air.

  He left the room, coughing and choking as I smiled at Sasha.

  “I’m guessing you have a line to God, so to speak,” I said. “I don’t care. I’m just a little pissed. He could die tonight, and she’s just going to let him? After all he’s done? That’s ridiculous. He’s been the only one trying to change things, so why not protect and help him?”

  “It is not our place to question the Great Maker,” Sasha said. The woman sighed and rubbed at her face. “Lucrecia was supposed to protect him. She hasn’t quite done that. Margaret was supposed to aid him. She hasn’t quite done that either. What am I supposed to do? Swoop in and save the day? I can’t do that. It’s not my place. I can only support him.”

  “Fine, support. Get him to drink from me. The Oracle says it’ll help. Maybe patch him back together if he survives tonight and doesn’t use the tool.”

  “What did they call you?” she asked.

  “Helen the Siren,” I said.

  She sucked in a breath through gritted teeth.

  “Bau is coming for me, isn’t she?”

  “As part of the Oracle, she would have known the moment you turned. You are connected to her boy, in more than just vampire heritage. After all this time, they may have found a way to hide the signs and obscure the visions. The stone did not always get a clear view, only small facts. Locations and the like, not what was going to happen.”

  “What do you know about the Siren?” I asked.

  Sasha shook her head. “The Siren is a symbol, several have received the label through time. It is a symbol of change, of warning even.”

  “Luring men to their deaths,” I grumbled.

  Quin returned and sat beside me, still clearing his throat. He draped an arm around my shoulders and rubbed at his lips idly with one finger.

  “You haven’t fed off her yet?” Sasha asked.

  “No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Modern humans are not the same as we were when we were turned.”

  “Not by far, which is why you don’t rip the throat out right away. Let me get a knife, and we’ll bleed her arm some.”

  “Sasha,” he sighed out.

  “It’s not for her. It’s for you,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand as she stood and walked out of the room.

  She returned a moment later with a scalpel and a towel. As she approached me, I held up both hands to stop her.

  “I have to ask. What is with you people and scalpels?”

  “Surgical instruments are sharper than regular blades,” Sasha said. “Means cleaner cut, less tearing on a cellular level, I believe is what Margaret said, which means faster healing time. This kind of bleed, you’d need to wait about two hours for a full heal. Since the advent of these, that time has dropped to about ten minutes.”

  “Okay then, and the towel?” I asked.

  “Blood plus new sofa equals upset Androgen,” Sasha said. “Basic math and common sense.”

  I made a sound of agreement and held my arm out to her. She motioned and had me turn on the couch, towards Quin.

  “For this first time, I’m going to have you look away,” Sasha said. “Mortals tend to faint, baby vampires as well. You’ve probably never seen the inside of a human before, so look at the wall there.”

  “We don’t need to talk him into it?” I asked.

  “No, you don’t,” Quin said with a growl. “I am here, you know, I am a thinking, breathing, person.”

  “Good for you,” Sasha snapped. “Helen, face the wall.”

  I looked away. I felt Sasha’s hand on my arm, then Quin’s lips on me. There was a wave of giddy euphoria as his tongue lapped at my arm. Some bit of that other that was Maker shuddered over my nerves and fanned a flame between my legs.

  Then the pain hit me.

  As I tried to pull away, Sasha slipped onto the couch and held me in place.

  “Easy, breathe through it,” she murmured in my ear as he fed. “I cut nice and deep, so you need to breathe, or you’ll pass out before he’s done.”

  I struggled to get my lungs to work. The burning pain seemed to take all control away from me. My body protested at the most basic level. All it wanted to do was spasm or fail, but I forced it to take in air.

  One little cut and I’m immobilized?

  My lungs worked, but only for a moment. I had gone my entire life without physical pain for the most part. Getting hit was different than being cut into, it was different than having a little nick on the finger. Everything in me screamed to get away, even as I was paralyzed to the point of barely being able to breathe.

  But I was breathing.

  “That’s it,” Sasha murmured. “We need to get you trained up. Oh, Quin, can I help train her?”

  Quin lifted his head, a finger wiping at an errant drop of blood on his bottom lip as he straightened.

  “If I don’t survive tonight, I suppose there wouldn’t be many others I could trust with her.”

  “Train me?” I gasped out.

  “To tolerate the pain,” Sasha explained as her grip on me tightened, hugging me for a moment. “It may seem cruel or barbaric, but not doin
g it is worse. Then what would happen if mortals caught you? You’d be stuck there because you aren’t used to pain. Wouldn’t know what to do, be frightened instead of pissed off. See? Almost nothing left already.”

  I looked at my arm. There was a pink line running down my wrist, but that was all. Even as I watched, it began to fade.

  “Maker’s Blood will make it disappear completely,” Quin said, reaching for the juice box, which he thrust into my hands. “Sip this, now.”

  My hand trembled as I brought the box to my lips and took a sip.

  “Does she taste different?” Sasha asked.

  “She does. Initially it was bitter and she became sweet as the heart slowed. I can still taste the venom, but there was a savoury that turned almost…”

  “Like mushrooms and beef, from the smell of her. Nice and filling, full-bodied. With that special something, but not like Lu’s flavour, right?”

  “Not at all like him, no,” Quin said, considering for a moment. “I want more.”

  “Nu-huh,” I said, waving the juice box under his nose.

  “You aren’t allowed to say no to me,” he said sternly. “That’s not what Progeny do.”

  “If I’m marked up, he’ll know,” I said.

  “You won’t be seeing Lu tonight.”

  “Classic mistake,” I said. “You leave, he comes here to try and kill us. Sasha will run away and leave me to be ‘killed’ and come recover me later.”

  “Lu actually can’t come around me,” Sasha said with a shake of her head. “But I get what you mean. Quin, you’ll have to wait until after Lu is dead unless you want to give it away and have him make her stay dead. Just in case. Err on the side of caution.”

  He grumbled something about mean women and walked off with the towel.

  I sipped the juice box again as he returned.

  “How many of those has she had?” Sasha asked, holding up a finger quickly to jab at me.

  I assumed it meant that I had to keep my mouth shut, so I did.

  Near as I could tell, Progeny typically took a beating to learn their place. While I wanted to snarl at Sasha, I also knew that behind that resting murder face and pixie-like looks was a woman capable of murder and torture. Quin might not have seen it, or for some reason believed she wouldn’t hurt a fly, but she wouldn’t hesitate to hit me.