At Death's Door (Wraith's Rebellion Book 1)

by Aya DeAniege

  “Yes,” I said. “Why aren’t any of you trying to stop him from contacting Lu? Like you said, it would solve so many problems.”

  “You haven’t even met the old man, and you already want him dead.”

  “He’s raped children. On more than one occasion.”

  “Even for us, at our coldest and most brutal, children are not sexual playthings. They tend to die the quickest. Most avoid feeding on them even. A baby does not taste better. Elders do. The older, the better.”

  “Why is he under house arrest instead of in the same thing that Quin was tossed into, for feeding on a baby?”

  “Quin was tossed in because he was caught. His brutality with children is pure, however. He’s had trouble adjusting to seeing children happy and living untouched lives, but I think he’s finally managed it.”

  “And what, Lu has never been caught? How?”

  “The man is a predator of a different sort. We’ve tried to catch him. However, a vampire witnessing what he does isn’t against the law. It’s disgusting, and we know it, but we can’t kill him.”

  “You’re afraid that locking him in a box would draw the ire of Death.”

  “That too.”

  “God, what a bunch of cowards. How many innocents have to end up under the old man before you do something about it?”

  “Most mortals are human to us. Human is food. Even the babies. So, for many, I suppose, it’s a bit like he’s fucking eggs before scrambling them.”

  “It is not the same thing! If anything, it’s like doing that to a baby calf before slaughter.”

  “And after,” I think she said.

  It was hard to tell because she had her phone up to her mouth and muttered it under her breath.

  “What did you say?” I asked, hoping for clarity.

  “Nothing,” she said quickly. “Look, I’m a proponent of killing him or boxing him, even using him as a guinea pig to test different methods of death. They won’t even send him to the bottom of the ocean. That’s almost eternity in prison. He wouldn’t be able to move, just stuck there. It’s a fabulous solution.”

  “Cowards.”

  “Find a way to kill him, then I will no longer be a coward,” Sasha said with a huff and a shake of her head. “Until then, the status quo is maintained. The others, they have nothing, so yes, Lu continues to live. I’m sorry, I’m not here to solve the world’s problems.”

  “What if humans dropped him to the bottom of the ocean?” I asked.

  “You’d be no safer from Death than we would be. He wouldn’t stop at just those involved. The Black Death would be nothing. Wraith is the best bet.”

  Which would explain why she wasn’t overly eager to go searching for the vampire she thought was doing the killing. The Council’s supposed respect for Wraith had gone from absolutely none to frightened wariness over the course of a couple of hours.

  If Death wasn’t killing vampires and Wraith was, then would the Council pay lip service to the Progeny to get their hands on that capability once more?

  “Is he the type to dress up like a vampire cliché?”

  “Considering the fact that Death is the one who always dressed him, we don’t know,” Sasha said. She hesitated, then looked over the phone at me. “However, on the question from earlier, were mortals to take care of Death for us, we would be ever in your debt. Or Lu. I’d rather Death. With him out of the way, the rest of them would take care of Lu.

  “Maybe with the technology of the first world countries you’d even survive.”

  “It would also take care of the overpopulation problem,” Quin said, taking a seat once more. “That was just my man. He got the lithograph I wanted.”

  “Considering the artist is unknown, and you offered three times the value, that’s not surprising. Have you found a new toy, Quin?”

  “Maybe,” he said with a little smile.

  “Quin collects art,” Sasha told me. “One day he should show you his art collection.”

  I felt like that was a euphemism of some sort, or like how friends will strongly suggest one do something alone with the single man they invited along.

  “Has anyone from the Council contacted you?” Quin asked as he tapped something out on his phone. “No one has asked what I meant by ‘Gerald is dead, for realsies,’ and I’m concerned they might think it’s a joke.”

  “Vampires use sayings like for realsies?” I asked.

  I found it hard to imagine them using the slang of the modern day. They seemed far too civilized for that.

  Though, I was thinking that about a group of people who were letting an immortal like Lu continue to roam free.

  “Many changes in language are slang based,” Sasha said. “Who was that drab fellow? Kept making words up, now everyone thinks they’ve been around forever? Chaucer?”

  “Shakespeare,” Quin said. “Chaucer is hailed as the one who made English popular. And who wrote what must have been pornography of his age. Canterbury Tales, I should reread that. You should read it. I keep telling you it’s a fantastic collection.”

  “No, thank you. I don’t like the language we speak now. It’s just not good enough. Can we switch to French even?”

  “She doesn’t speak French.”

  “Bilingual country, my ass,” Sasha muttered.

  “I took French in school, but besides saying hello and asking where the library is, I can’t do much else. Sorry.”

  “You only know one language? What is this world coming to?” Sasha asked with a shake of her head.

  “I also know some Spanish and Japanese. But again, not enough to get by.”

  Sasha made a disgusted sound. She said something to Quin in yet another language. It was not French. I doubted it was one of the Romance languages which French and I believed English were related to. Quin frowned at her and shook his head ever so slowly.

  “That wouldn’t be polite, and I’m not doing it,” Quin said. “We were told to speak English as much as possible. If the interviewer knew another language—well enough to carry on a conversation—we could use that instead. We are not supposed to be speaking other languages without being requested to do so.”

  “You all seem to slip into it, though,” I said. “In and out randomly at times. But that’s why we also have the voice recorders. There are linguists assigned to each of us. They’re pretty stoked about the snippets they’ve been getting in so far.”

  Quin stood again, taking his phone with him.

  “So, you don’t like English?” I asked.

  “No, it’s not a noble language. I have to say. I’m disappointed in your education system. Learning new languages opens one’s mind to all kinds of possibilities. It’s not difficult, either.”

  “Not for someone who knows, what, all the languages in the world? Stories of someone speaking more than one language are impressive. Three or more is practically unheard of.”

  “You should learn another language.”

  “Right, I’ll get right on that.”

  “Quin enjoys Latin. You should learn Latin.”

  “Okay?”

  “Good, I’ll set you up with a tutor tomorrow afternoon when I wake.”

  There was something we could talk about, besides Quin. He hadn’t exactly been clear about the needs of a vampire, or the desires either.

  “How long do you need to sleep?”

  “An hour or two is all I need,” Sasha said. “We tend to get between four and six unless something is going on. During daylight hours, especially between eleven in the morning and three in the afternoon is usually when we sleep. Fledglings pass right out as the sun starts to rise and sleep like the dead until it sets.”

  “And blood?”

  “I receive a yearly blessing from Lucrecia. Marvellous thing, that. Quin is trying to preserve his Maker’s Blood, just in case. After weaning, we don’t need it, but do crave it.”

  “I meant normal blood.”

  “It varies vampire to vampire,” She said, seeming to consider fo
r a time. “For myself, Lucrecia starved Quin and me a few times to show us what it’s like. After three days, I get weak. After about seven I start going rabid. I’ll tear the throat out of my favourite stock without thinking twice about it.”

  “And Quin?”

  “Twice that and he starts getting lippy. I swear, that boy is never weak. Not unless Lu walks into the room. After a month and a half, he gets bitey, but not quite rabid. Around six months he starts getting the wasted look, but not rabid crazy like many get.”

  “Because Lu starved him?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Does this man have no flaws?” I muttered to myself in annoyance.

  No one enjoyed reading about someone who was just oh so perfect. I wasn’t counting the possible lies, not until I had time to review the information more thoroughly. I didn’t want to do that with Sasha there. It seemed rude.

  “Besides turning into a huge man-child when his Maker is around?” Sasha asked. “Do you want the mortal perspective or mine?”

  I glanced over at Quin who was having a quick and hushed conversation in the corner as Androgen seemed to be trying to get his attention. Any time Androgen stepped into Quin’s line of sight, however, the man turned his back.

  “I think we have time for both,” I said.

  “For a mortal, there is the obvious flaw which most vampires have: no remorse for food of the past. And viewing you all as food. Or stock.”

  “Most of you are rich playboys and girls, the center of many fantasies.”

  “True, and we can be detached from the mortal life. My maid’s mother passed away, and I expected her to show up for work the next day. Thankfully, I have a human who supervises everything, he stepped in and dealt with the matter.”

  “There’s also the eating babies.”

  “So? Do you know how many of the Devils wore entrails around their necks? Or used their food as puppets? A little baby blood on his hands isn’t that bad. It’s the reality of who and what we are.”

  Quin said something that made Sasha’s head snap around.

  “No,” she said.

  Whatever had been said, Quin threw his cell phone at the wall and continued to shout at it, as if that would change anything. The shouting was in another language and flowed out so quickly that I wasn’t even certain there were syllables in there. Hopefully, the linguists would be able to pick something up from it.

  Quin stripped off his vest and threw that after the phone. Leaving him in the lighter grey dress shirt and dark grey slacks.

  He looked so much better without that silly diamond patterned vest.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “The Elder Council has been killed,” Quin said as he spun towards us.

  There was something new in his eyes. The calm, collected temperament had been replaced with something a little wilder.

  A little more dangerous.

  “Oh,” was all I managed in response.

  “Margaret is beside herself. She won’t be any use to anyone over the next couple of days.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “The Elder Council was Flavius, her lover,” Sasha said, picking up her phone. “Excuse me. I need to make a call.”

  She didn’t say to who, but I suspected that Sasha was going to call Lucrecia, her Maker. As a mortal, I had been told many people called their parents when something devastating happened.

  Last I had heard Lucrecia was somewhere down south rallying for women’s rights.

  It was hard not to know where the woman was because she was our first contact with vampires. She was now known all over and appeared on covers alongside celebrities.

  The main difference being that none of the stories asked if she was pregnant or talked about her weight loss regiment. The one time someone reported on her outfit and who she was wearing, Lucrecia had written a blistering letter to the editor and then showed up in printed dress that only flared in flash photography.

  No one had been able to use the pictures, though I couldn’t recall why. Nuclear launch codes written in that special flash ink, perhaps?

  Lucrecia would be safe for the night. If Sasha was concerned, she could have headed to any airport or hopped in a car. Only one person was committing the murders, after all.

  Quin slumped into Sasha’s empty seat like a rock.

  “Am I still safe?” I asked.

  “Hm?” Quin glanced at me and frowned. “As safe as you were this morning when you got out of bed. No more danger than driving in a car.”

  “Are you still safe?”

  “The murder of the Elder Council suggests that it is Death going to work. So, I suppose it would depend on whether Lu is feeling generous. I will have to find him to ask.”

  “And if he makes a demand?”

  “Whatever I need to do to survive. He can’t do any worse to me than he already has.”

  “Except kill me,” I muttered.

  “I haven’t told anyone that I like you.”

  Little fast, little awkward.

  I tried to just go with it because maybe for vampires it wasn’t fast. Though, I would have thought it would be the opposite way, that they would go a lot slower.

  “I’m sorry, that’s inappropriate of me to say,” he said.

  “Not inappropriate, are you kidding me? Inappropriate is groping me and demanding we go back to your place. You’ve only been dropping hints all night.”

  Right? That was what happened.

  Check recordings for hints.

  There was, for starters, the text on my phone from Jerry with the rough translation for what Quin had said to me in his car. And then what had happened in the Archives, with his hand on me.

  When he had been talking about how Makers found possible Progeny, was that a hint as well? If so, it was a major hint. Like a neon flashing sign. I felt like a fool for having missed it.

  “That’s absurd, I have never understood how that worked,” he said, though he seemed to trail off at the end there.

  “Wh-have you done that before?” I exclaimed.

  “It can be effective,” he said. “I just don’t understand how it works.”

  “Sure, but what woman could resist that voice and beard?”

  Quin stroked his beard. “Most complain about the beard. Apparently, a beard ride isn’t as fun as a moustache ride, whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

  That was a good question to ask, but was it the right time?

  “Have you had that forever?”

  Well, I guess it just sort of came out of my mouth anyhow. I silently cursed, but Quin smiled at me.

  “No, Lu has always insisted that I go bare. He made me shave whenever I visited. We are not dead; our hearts still beat. If you shave my head tonight, it will not grow back by tomorrow. It would take time.”

  “Right, heartbeat.”

  “Which allows erections. Vampire mythology and smut have always been so wrong. How could a body not degrade without a heartbeat, let alone how could a man carry an erection? No blood circulation means gangrene and soft dick, that’s just the way it is.”

  Was that another hint? Was he trying to insist that his penis worked because he wanted to use it?

  I gulped, not quite certain what to say.

  “I hadn’t asked,” I said.

  “Sorry, you’re the first woman who didn’t try to find out one way or another.”

  “Plus, you know, the whole rape thing kind of gave that away. I’m just saying.”

  “You can rape a person without penetrating them.”

  I felt like I was being strangled suddenly. Don’t ask how I know the feeling.

  Find a better description!

  “I’m only teasing you, not chastising,” Quin said.

  “Sure?” I still wasn’t certain.

  “I was doing a lot better in the Archives,” he muttered.

  “At least you aren’t trying any clichés on me.”

  “Like, ‘I’ve waited centuries for a woman just like you,’?�
�

  “Or that you’re a virgin. Outside of the obvious of course.”

  “I’m told that works very well with women.”

  “Who would want a millennia old virgin? How would he even know where to put what?”

  “One vampire in particular likes to use that line,” Quin said.

  He looked over his shoulder as Sasha walked back into the room.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “No vampire can flee,” Sasha said. “They want us to remain in place as the Council finds some Devils to come and do the questioning. They think it’s someone who’s gone rogue, and neither Wraith nor Death.”

  “Just someone randomly killing vampires with a weapon no one else is supposed to be able to wield?” I asked.

  “Exactly,” Sasha said.

  “I’ve seen way too many horror movies to believe that,” I said. “The Council ignoring the obvious is such a cliché.”

  “Is it?” Quin asked, turning to Sasha.

  “It’s to keep the population as a whole from panicking,” Sasha said. “While scaring those who have been walking the line. If the mortals see vampires suddenly fleeing the city, they’ll make an assumption. They’re already suspicious of so many of us being in the city.”

  “The Archives and the Council,” Quin said.

  “We told them that,” Sasha said in disgust. “They don’t seem to believe that there’d be so many in what they consider a sparsely populated area. They also still believe we’re lone wolf type of vampires.”

  “So, we are in danger,” I said.

  “No more danger than any other night. Besides Quin, since he was the only known name on Death’s hit list. If you can’t find Lu, why not find Wraith instead?”

  “Waiting to hear back,” Quin muttered. “The problem with that is that Wraith, if he doesn’t have the tool, would have to get it back from Death. Getting it the first time wasn’t easy and left him scarred. Only luck, and draining Death upon winning, saved Wraith.”

  “I’d be willing to help,” Sasha said. “We can move luck in our favour.”

  “If that will help, I’m sure Wraith would be grateful for what you might offer,” Quin said. “And if I get a hold of Wraith first, I will let him know that.”

  “You never told me that you have contact with Wraith.”