Cheating Death (Wraith's Rebellion Book 2)

by Aya DeAniege

  “But if Quin dies there will be no more.”

  “I won’t need his blood. And if he survives, well, he’s not yet counting the boxes, is he?”

  “No, he’s not. I think I might do just that.”

  I’m not telling you my real name.

  I didn’t ask for it.

  Good. My turned power as you might have guessed is blood. My blood is special, it keeps me alive and heals me, as it does most vampires. Not all, I should be clear. In something like one out of ten baby vampires suffers from side effects. Something about my blood doesn’t agree with them.

  Which is why a Maker has two days to kill a fledgling.

  I don’t know why it happens, simply that it does. There is no pattern that I can find, though there seems to be an instinct in the others that allows them to pick out who would and would not change entirely.

  Lu says that your teeth should bleed.

  That’s an odd thing to say. Perhaps for them it is true.

  The venom is part of being a predator. To keep the blood flowing, I needed some way that was within me.

  Can we talk about…

  God? He or she has never made themselves present. My sisters and I awoke in a field at the age of six. We recalled everything from that point. While it is possible that we were chosen as children and altered, I have come to doubt that.

  I’m sorry, but there is no spectacular creation myth to pass on. We simply did not exist one day but did the next.

  We were all of an age, seven of us. Myself, the witch, the werewolf, the fae, and three others which mortals ignore, for the most part.

  I am the only one left alive.

  Near as I can tell, we were born some forty thousand years ago. Humans were a creature, but not what they are today. And we, as younglings, aged at a much slower rate than the creatures that we would change into humans.

  Six hundred years, we danced under the sun and felt its warmth. And then we began to change from children into women. That change triggered the changes in our very being. The werewolf changed first.

  What—

  No, no you don’t. No one deserves their names. Each race has bastardized what we were and should have been. You can all rot in hell for all I care, but we agreed that free will and stupid choices must be allowed. So, I honour the memory of my sisters by allowing you to live.

  Well, aren’t you a ray of fucking sunshine.

  Despite lore, werewolves do not require the full moon to change, nor do the sane ones eat hearts. Their powers are tied to the moon, but they are more akin to shapeshifters and skinwalkers. In fact, those races are related to the werewolves.

  She found her power liberating. Next was the witch and so on. Each believed their power was a blessing from the one who made us.

  And then I turned. For every bit of the sun they enjoyed, it caused me agony. I could no longer walk in the sun. It was stolen from me. Even the werewolves still walk under the sun.

  Like any fledgling, I slept like the dead throughout the day. I was starving, constantly hungry. Food just came back up. The werewolf took me out hunting one night. She was the only one who suspected that I might be a predator like her. I drank from an animal.

  For a time, that suited me.

  Then the creatures on two legs discovered us and thought us demons. They tried to burn us.

  So, I ate them.

  They were not the delight of humans, but near to. I walked to the nearby place where they lived and became a god. A very annoyed god.

  You could say that humans are my stock. I bred the ones who would produce that something else. My sisters upon discovering what I did with my nights, chastised me. I introduced them to the elders of my stock, who had been born into the life and who were the first to harbour what we would later refer to as the soul of a human. They were then delighted in them.

  A few of my sisters discovered the males and that they had penises. We were not strangers to self-pleasure, but to find another who fit with us like a puzzle piece was an amazing delight.

  They gave up their immortality to be with their men. In the process, they birthed whole races, and the humans changed. A witch male, now there is something precious to taste.

  Slowly, the others found ways to turn humans without joining with them. Finally, I was the last to not. The witch and the werewolf were old by then. They wanted to see me happy and with people of my own.

  They thought me lonely in the dark, but I had embraced it.

  To grant my sisters their dying wish, I put effort into turning a human. Venom did not do it for me, near as I can understand, it should have. Thousands of years later, I have no idea why my venom turned Margaret, it shouldn’t have.

  But then, that wasn’t my power.

  A human suggested the mingling of blood because to them I was still a god, so they tried to help. Some even volunteered for my experimentation. So, I exchanged blood with the man, and I felt a change deep within me.

  Odin was born.

  Odin is the first born?

  Yes.

  He was on that field!

  Yes. I am more than aware of which of my children attempted to kill me.

  Is it all of them?

  No, Gaia has only ever been helpful, but she is withdrawn from the others, visiting only occasionally.

  By exchanging blood, I gifted him my abilities. In return, my body began to change. I was flat as a board before that. I was also only about four feet tall. Exchanging blood accelerated the physical changes that come over me. It was the only time I was to gain height.

  Can you do that with a vampire?

  I can, yes, but most are too old to make a difference. Are you volunteering?

  It triggers physical change, and you have a need to disappear. So yes, but later.

  Very well.

  In total, I turned five humans. Odin, Gaia, Hera, Kali, and Selket, three of my girls stood on the field against me, siding with Odin. I knew Odin was a warrior and he would stir up trouble, so I told them it would only work on women, that I was the only one who could turn a man.

  For twenty thousand years, that was what they believed. Most of the men they tried to turn developed black spots and lived horrid lives. So, they’d bring those ones to me, and I’d bleed them dry, doing so by my hand somehow ends a life.

  But, you. I mean, should you waste food like that?

  If you mean to point out the fact that I needed the blood of my own to feed myself by that point, the answer is yes. I did. But those who do not take well to my blood appear diseased to me. You wouldn’t put moulded food into your mouth, neither would I. For that reason, I bleed them with a blade, and it has the same effect. If I wanted to make certain a vampire stayed dead, I’d eat them.

  Over the course of those twenty thousand years, much happened. Many of my sisters chose death over continuing. It was only the fae and myself of the original seven left when the others started grumbling.

  In the end, Kali was the one who stirred up trouble, not Odin, but he still went to war eagerly.

  Their problem was mainly that after all those years, I still fed on them. They also didn’t like that I had learned each of their powers, or the fact that I had discovered that I could give commands that simply carried on. Because of the link in the blood.

  Their trap was almost successful, but Gaia saved me. That day we learned that every vampire would know of my death, but it only goes so far as to alert them that I am in mortal danger. If I die, they continue.

  Well, that just made the shit hit the fan. Before they didn’t know, but once knowing, gathering an army was all that much easier. Some few could defy me and to them was given the task of turning men for the army.

  Bob was one of those men, turned against his will and forced to fight. He ran after realizing the plan and found a witch. After divulging what they were planning, Bob offered his neck to me, as a blood bag, I believe you’re calling it?

  We were already planning for war, but his information was helpful nonetheless
. Fledglings make for a poor army. Their powers turn on and off over the course of the weeks just after they are turned. After the settling period, it can take centuries to learn control.

  Bob may be seen as a coward by those remaining on the list, but he betrayed people who tried to take away his choice. They turned him against his will, conscripted him, then were surprised when he left.

  So, Lu was not the first male.

  No, there have always been those who defy their Makers because that part isn’t passed on. I have commanded they all be killed. It’s one thing to walk away from your Maker. It’s quite another to be immune to their commands, and mine.

  A few of an older generation remain, but they have sworn never to turn another on the threat of death. They pass their immunity on to their Progeny, and that does not work for me. If they make a new vampire, I will know, and I will make certain they do not survive long enough for the Progeny to grow beyond the tentative mortal hours.

  How many like Bob are still alive?

  You mean, created by those as conscripts? About a dozen. Four have been granted forgiveness. Forty ran from the field, but they still had to die to keep them from passing it on.

  I find it difficult to feel those children who are immune. That makes it harder for me, but not impossible. That moment of creation is not hidden from me, however. I felt the conscripts being made, but didn’t understand why they were.

  I told you how the battle went.

  Do vampires believe the first fae is still alive, or just Quin.

  Her eldest child took on the title, but only the fae would know that she was not the original. Them and Bau, I suppose, then through her Lu and then on to Quin.

  After the battle, I travelled with Bau, and we went hunting for those on the list. She didn’t have to do the culling. I am more than capable. She continued the hunt and even slipped away to kill them before I laid eyes on them.

  Eventually, she and I parted ways. She had seven children then, all girls. They tried to save her, and it did not work.

  Lu tells a story of the Great Maker. I believe that is the story of Lucrecia. He said his Maker killed her family.

  And it is true, though they were her family as well.

  Lucrecia could not remember anything before her rescue. Not at first. We went to the Oracle and asked for a new name because it was necessary to protect her. They gave her the name Lucrecia, then gave her a tale to tell others.

  Her Maker was a vampire who had several sons. He had killed his Maker, then turned her to be a whore for him and his boys. He died as part of the cull.

  Lucrecia’s fictional Maker was to be one of the conscripted, but everyone else forgot about them. Her own memories just after being renamed are hazy. She retains some of the story but it has changed over the years.

  As vampires, we accept what we are told about other vampires and do not press for the answer. Everyone has their secrets. We abide by that. Don’t ask, don’t tell is almost written into the vampire ethics.

  After the war, I went underground basically. By the time the fight over Bau’s soul happened, I had faded from the memory of the vampires. Those who recognized me and tried to say something were eaten, along with anyone they told.

  I must admit, that was the only time I was fat.

  I set up the Council with five members as a balance. I suppose it also goes back to how many children I had. The first few didn’t work so well. So, I went to the witches and had them make a box.

  The box is magic, of course. It is said to have the names of all the vampires, past, present, and future. I may influence a name once every thousand years. I am very careful with this option and have only ever used it once.

  To place myself on the Council, under the name I was going by at the time.

  What about Wraith?

  I know Lu had turned humans in the past. He killed most of them, and I could never understand the why of that. Why kill his fledglings?

  Two escaped him and went into hiding, that was why they survived so long.

  I never thought he’d do it and keep the fledgling alive.

  The Oracle began having nightmares of a reaper. Not of Death, but of another. In their nightmare visions, they saw this reaper figure killing them. Beyond this death of theirs, they saw nothing else. They knew the reaper was a vampire, so they reached out to me.

  I will eat a witch who attempts contact, and they knew that, which keeps witches at bay. I gave their message a read and went to investigate. They were fully prepared to be eaten, which told me that this was beyond the words they had spoken.

  They shared blood with me willingly, and I glimpsed their vision. For them it was frightening beyond words, for me, it was something different.

  Underneath the blood and pain and thousands of years of regret, there was a voice rising in joyous song. It was a voice that I was unfamiliar with, I had never met the vampire in their vision. I didn’t understand the thousands of years of regret and pain. A new vampire couldn’t possibly carry that forward with him.

  Where the Oracle saw their death, I saw Bau and Lu falling. It was Bau’s nightmare that the Oracle witnessed, not their own. They were experienced, but still too young to understand the difference and the connotations.

  Wraith was coming.

  Except he hadn’t been turned yet.

  I was not on the Council at the time. Only the Council knew where Lu was. While Lucrecia was on that Council, she was also completely honourable. It was one of the reasons I always returned to her.

  She would not tell me Council secrets.

  I did go to her and tell her of it. From that point, as I searched for Lu, she began planning for if I didn’t find them in time.

  I meant to end Lu once and for all. I knew that would draw Bau out and planned to fight her to the death, one which I knew might end in my own.

  Because if Wraith were to kill his Maker, he would emerge like a phoenix from the ashes.

  The ashes of the world that he burned to the ground.

  I was too late.

  The night Wraith was turned, I was in Alexandria, searching for information centuries old. Lu was long gone, and no one seemed to quite recall what happened to the books.

  Two years had passed since the nightmare. Even Bau wouldn’t have found Lu in time to forbid him from turning the boy. Although I’ve always believed that it was her intent to have Lu create a Progeny to kill her. Perhaps she did know and didn’t try to stop him.

  When a new vampire is made, I can usually feel a little something of them. Wraith was so broken that I felt only fragments that made no sense.

  A boy in a field, screaming and chasing girls, a dog dying in an alleyway, and the suffering of that same boy. Pieces of bodies hanging from the ceiling, and a revelling in the pain of another. None of it seemed to make sense. It was as if two different souls had been crammed into one body.

  Furious, I found Lucrecia. We argued bitterly because she could have told the Council what I had told her, and solved the problem herself. She claimed that such information would out me.

  Instead, she had told them that the Oracle had written her. As Younger Council, it was her place to converse with the Oracle about the future of vampires. They had ignored her.

  My anger turned to brittle rage.

  Lucrecia and I plotted for nearly a hundred years. Long enough for Lu to wean the boy, then I headed towards Constantinople to steal him. Upon finding him, I was horrified to learn that Quintillus had hardly been weaned, and what weaning there was had been done by him while cast out, not by Lu.

  I put him in a box for two months. One to hide him, one to come up with a plan with Lucrecia, and another to do a test.

  She turned a creature but refused him Maker’s Blood. We had a suspicion but were uncertain. I fed the creature instead. We dabbled, but we quickly discovered a way to mix the two. Maker’s Blood taken by another vampire could feed the fledgling. I could also feed the fledgling.

  Quin’s bottle?

 
Was empty years ago. Our blood does not necessarily spoil, but the weaning takes a great deal. We kept the bottle out of sight so that he wouldn’t know. He wasn’t keeping track, and when he asked after it, she showed him a full bottle.

  Everything we did was to bring him as close to human as we could. He trusted no one, not even himself. He would only feed if commanded to do so, and then only when hungry.

  He mauled stock on more than one occasion for laughing at him.

  Lu had successfully created an heir.

  In a way, yes.

  Wraith was the dominant personality when I found him. The beast wasn’t even on a leash, just free to do as he pleased. I thought Lu cast Wraith out to see what sort of destruction he might wreak. Turns out that wasn’t even the case.

  I’ve heard Quin tell it later. He doesn’t recall attacking and eating one of the Council members.

  The man was visiting us to ask after Quin’s health. That member had been one of the ones who voted to shelve the investigation into Quin and Lu until after Lucrecia was off the Council. There was a great deal of animosity between him and us. Quin must have picked up on that and, like the obedient little hound, ate what displeased his master.

  His powers were still flaring, sometimes it happens. I don’t believe Quin has my abilities, I think his sort of death is a different kind, but from our perspective he ate the man and then his body began to disintegrate as if acid had been dropped on his chest. Although it would be centuries before I had a way to describe that which wasn’t something along the lines of:

  “Holy shit, what did you do? Oh God, what did you do?”

  Once I got over the shock of it, I believe that was the first time I looked at Quin as more than just a possible temporary bed partner. He would be my equal, clearly.

  We made the claim that Death killed the man in search of Lu’s Progeny. The Council took it as an affront and united in keeping Quintillus from Lu, yet later gave Wraith over to Death.

  Disgusting maggots. Cowards, that set of vampires were, and it seems every Council since.

  We made up my story as well. The Council was rather surprised to learn that Lucrecia had Progeny, but it explained my existence and why I was supping on her blood. You did not need to ask permission at that time, or tell anyone that you had turned another. New vampires just appeared one day and they had existed for hundreds of years by that point.