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

by Aya DeAniege

  Death was blown to his back. His robes whipped about as everything rushed through Wraith. The world greeted him, its voice rising in joyous sorrow.

  Wraith’s hands were bare. He was always to wear gloves around the tool so that he could carry it for short times without being affected by the tool’s power. That would keep him safe so he might keep Death safe, for using power meant that Death would be drained something terrible.

  The tool fell the moment Wraith regained control. He threw it away from himself and stumbled backward. He must have known what it meant, what he had accidentally accomplished.

  Surprised as Death may have been, he is a shrewd vampire. The Council never needed to know that Wraith created the illness. As long as the job was done, and as long as vampires remained hidden.

  This time, it was Death who collected Wraith. The Maker cared for the Progeny as he recovered.

  Death’s power is a terrible thing to wield. At least, that portion of it. Wraith laid up in bed as nothing seemed to happen at first. And then a few deaths appeared, carrying Death’s mark.

  Finally giving up, Death and a barely recovered Wraith left one way. Probably meaning to hide.

  Lu and I headed back to report the failure to the Council.

  Everywhere we went, death had preceded us. Sickness spread down the trade route like wildfire. Even then, we didn’t understand how bad it was.

  For us, the job was done.

  The sickness had a high mortality rate and was hitting the very people who had told us about the vampire child. Thus, we patted ourselves on the back.

  Lu wanted to follow it on, however. I was commanded along even though I was normally free to go by that point.

  We followed it for years. This way and that across the countryside. We watched entire families be wiped out.

  Death’s mark upon them all.

  Reaching the British Isle, we were just devastated. There was concern that all mortals might die out. The sickness was changing even as we watched. We feared that by the time it reached the end of civilization, it would trace its way back through again in a new and deadlier form.

  Even your records can’t tell us exactly how many people died in the Black Death. What do historians say? Forty to sixty percent of Britain fell? Or is that Europe in general?

  If not for that plague, mankind would have been on a very different path. So many people died that the temporary ban on Progeny was never lifted. There simply were not enough mortals to sustain us. Entire crops were destroyed.

  The Council was at first shocked, then pissed about the whole thing. Death reported to them and immediately threw Wraith under the bus, said it was his fault, his doing. I’m sure that went over well.

  Lu and I parted ways in Britain because I left him. He just sat there, staring at the dead piled in the streets. Even he was too shaken to function any longer. For myself, I just couldn’t be there. The smell of sickness and death on top of months of human living was too much for me to reside around.

  I travelled home but recalled how the disease spread. I burned all my clothing, cut off all my hair and continued naked. I just didn’t want to risk my crop, if they were still alive.

  I did find them alive, though barely so. Almost half succumbed to the illness. Those who remained were the closer lines. Those we had been carefully breeding for flavour, it turned out, were perfectly suited to surviving the disease.

  That probably didn’t help matters between Lu and me any.

  When I finally heard from him again, it was about fifty years later. He informed me that my brother and my sister had been killed, and asked if I had made arrangements for my stock yet.

  At no point, had he talked to me about a cull of us. Then word got out that Death had done it. He approached the Council about me, and they denied him the ability to take my life.

  He raged and headed to my home. All he found was stock, which he had fought for the rights for, so he couldn’t even take his anger out on them. All my possessions were gone, everything I held dear had been relocated and split up shortly after Lover.

  I wanted to make certain that I was never in the position to lose everything ever again. Thank goodness, I did it, too. Otherwise, I probably would have returned to ashes just strewn about.

  For two hundred and fifty years, I lived in hiding. It was fun. Sasha went with me across the ocean for a bit. No one knew how or where to find us.

  That’s a baffling fact you’ve mentioned before.

  We can talk about that tomorrow night.

  I never saw Lu again, but I heard about what he was doing, in behind the scenes, trying to catch me doing something wrong so that the Council would revoke protection.

  I was very careful, but he still caught me.

  We pulled into the driveway of a big, expensive house. It had a brick wall with a little fence at the top separating the lawns from the rest of the city. A wrought iron gate swung open for us, then closed again behind us.

  Just a warning to snoops and trespassers: sometimes those walls are there to keep the predators in.

  “Where did Wraith go?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, but—” I tried to get out.

  Questions were welling up. All of which I wanted to ask, but none of them were exactly appropriate for the place we were about to enter.

  “Ask now, instead of later,” he said.

  “Do you have power? Can you do transference? Do other vampires know that story? Does Lu know they know? What is your power? Why would he grant you an audience if it wasn’t a trap? How do you kill a vampire and during which month? Does that mean one of you could choke in January and die for good?”

  “Yes, yes, yes, sort of, none of your beeswax, probably because he’s concerned Wraith has the tool, and if I know, I’m not telling you the answer to the last two.”

  “Which means Death doesn’t have the tool. He would have told Lu. But you think Death is the one killing vamps, so how did you find your friend?”

  Quin seemed to ponder my question. He frowned and shook his head. “When Death attacks, the mess is almost the same, so that’s not helpful to others.”

  “Why didn’t you bring up the other ways before?”

  “Because, without knowing the ways and the moons during which you need to do those ways, it’s pointless. The moons are named after some old system that I can’t make heads or tails of, so short of a suicidal vampire who is also as masochist—or twelve of them—there’s just no way to tell.”

  “But Lu knows.”

  “Lu only knows the winter months. It’s not winter, now is it?”

  “Have vampires died in the winter months before?”

  “They have, those deaths were blamed on one immortal in particular, however. Don’t be asking how those died.”

  The question died on my lips. Instead, I made a little sound and looked out the window as we pulled into a five-car garage that had one other vehicle in it.

  “Well, that’s not a good sign,” Quin said bitterly. “Old man isn’t supposed to have transportation. They must be about to move him, is why that’s there. Which explains why he’s willing to meet with me. I won’t know where he is, in another week.”

  “What about zombies?” I quipped.

  “What did I say about the possible existence of other supernatural beings?” he asked. “Though zombies only existed for a very short amount of time and we killed them all. It was a type of rabies that went very wrong, nothing supernatural about it.”

  “But you knew it was rabies.”

  “Margaret is more mad scientist than she appears,” Quin said. “You could probably list off three of the most insane experiments you’ve heard of, and she’s led or funded one of them. Incredible advances in science, now controlled by ethic laws.”

  “When were there zombies?”

  “More recent than you’d be comfortable hearing about.”

  “All dead?”

  “And burned, nothing remains. Trust us. We’re ve
ry good at destroying everything but ourselves.”

  “There are vampires you don’t know the names of?”

  “There are four thousand of us, and that’s still an approximation. We don’t meet everyone. We might pass one another and know the other is a vampire, but not say anything about it. Don’t even look, just keep going.”

  “And in big areas, pre-industrialization, it would be easy for one of you to get lost? Don’t you need mankind to live?”

  “Animal blood can work, and we don’t need to kill our donors. Those of us who first crossed the ocean did so with a boat crewed by stock. We fed on them and then they continued on their way. If one is careful, or stupid, one can feed on another vampire in a cycle.

  “That last one’s like being on a diet, though. You starve, just at a much slower pace.”

  “I thought you said animal blood didn’t work.”

  Reread entire transcript. Fact check.

  “It’s sort of like how intravenous feeding can work. It will keep you alive, but it’s not advisable. And the hunger doesn’t actually go away.”

  “Oh,” I said. “How is that different from vampire feeding on vampire?”

  “Some vampires have no trouble feeding on others of our race. Older generations, mainly. An animal will sit in your stomach like a belly full of water. Vampire blood is sipped and is like swallowing animal fat, which was once a way humans survived, look up a recipe sometime. It sits like a hard lump, or something too rich, in the bottom of your stomach but it also grows on you. I’ve never fed enough to be full off vampire blood, so I suppose it slowly starving you could be an assumption on my part.

  “Any other questions before we meet Lu?”

  “We’re sure I’m safe? He can’t do anything to me?”

  “Absolutely. You aren’t his type. Too old and not male enough.”

  “He made do with you.”

  “I am male.”

  “But you were older than I am now, when turned.”

  “Quit stalling, Helen.”

  “Like you really want to see him,” I snapped back.

  I got out of the car, slamming the door behind me. Fear curled in my gut, threatening my stability as a cold pricked across my nerves.

  There was no going back.

  “Tomorrow night, I’d like to request a taste of your blood.”

  “What?” I squawked. “Why? What would that tell you? Is that some vampire substitute for sex? Are you crazy?”

  “Just a drop, is all it would take,” Quin said. “I have a nagging suspicion, and am usually right.”

  “Nagging suspicion?”

  “I had power before I was turned. Mild precog abilities. Some manner of mind reading, I’m told. Though I do believe that all I do is read body language. Mortals give so much away with every twitch of their bodies.”

  “My blood, for a show of your power,” I said. “Since we’re proving once and for all.”

  “You wouldn’t prefer I prove that I’m a vampire?”

  “I think that will be proved with time. And vampire or not, power could reside in mortals. We’ve believed as a race since the beginning of time, so why not? I want to see what you can do.”

  Quin sighed. “Fine.”

  He pressed a hand between my shoulder blades and propelled me forward. The door on the side wall, which would lead to the rest of the house, opened. A man with Persian features looked Quin over.

  “The old man said you’d be coming. Welcome, Quintillus Lu DiLucrecia.”

  “What’s that mean?” I asked.

  “Everything is recorded here,” Quin said with a motion up to the corner above the door. “The announcement states which of us he sees. Some don’t photograph well. Officially, we are known by our given names, the name of our Maker, and which family we belong to. Lucrecia hailed from the Italian region and chose her name based on their language. So, I am ‘of Lucrecia’ and answerable to her above Lu.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “This is the interviewer?” The guard asked.

  “Yes, Helen, this is George. He’s hoping you’ll tempt Lu. He and I used to run in the Devils together.”

  “Be wary of this one,” George said. “He’ll steal your heart, then tell you that you’ll always have the genocide and rape.”

  “He eats babies too,” Quin said with a chuckle as we walked through the door.

  George sounded more like a forlorn lover.

  “Are vampires typically bisexuals?” I asked.

  “Bi-curious is more like,” Quin said.

  “Oh,” I said, looking George over. “Does everybody love Quin?”

  “No, most only know he exists because he belongs to the old man. The other Devils put as much distance between him and them as possible.”

  “He’s back,” Quin said.

  “I said I wanted to ride your ass, not that I support or would aid you,” George growled. “This way.”

  Quin’s message was a little cryptic. Which of the pair was he referring to as back? Why didn’t George want to help Quin out?

  With a shake of my head, I looked around and tried to pay attention.

  Lu lives in what could only be described as a small mansion. Marble flooring, high ceilings, and hallways covered in artwork.

  Here and there I recognized a few of the styles.

  I wished, at that point, that I had the ability to take pictures to go along with my story. Unlike in the Archives, I was not bold enough to slip the tablet’s camera on. The Vampire Council might only slap my hand.

  Lu would eat me. Or, play with his food then have Quin eat me.

  The location and identification of all involved in the interviews were to remain in text and audible form unless we gained permission during the interview. The vampires might never be shown, to protect their identity.

  So, I can only say that Lu had the art of famous masters hanging on his walls. I have no idea which masters because I am not an art major and I didn’t have enough time to stop and check the signatures if there even were any. I had seen the work of these masters before, if the nagging memories were any indication.

  We were led into the living area and told to sit. As we waited, I gawked around me, just trying to take it all in.

  On the coffee table between us and the other couch, several books sat as if waiting for a reader to come and pick them. They were older books. Otherwise I might have been tempted to touch them myself.

  I didn’t want to accidentally destroy an older book because I was curious.

  Oh, and vampires eat humans who do that.

  “Boy.”

  Lu’s voice was soft but clear. There was a distinct lilt to it as if his tongue couldn’t pronounce the words correctly. It may have been a side effect of having been born thousands of years previous. His native language could be so different from modern English that he had difficulty with it.

  Though I hadn’t noticed such a lilt or pronunciation problem in the other vampires I had met.

  At the beginning of the evening, Quin had said that Lu had a gravelly voice. I had assumed it was the sound of an old man’s voice, like someone who had smoked and drank most of their lives. His actual voice was nothing like that.

  Unless he only got that way when sick?

  Unless it wasn’t Lu who had found Quin.

  Quin and I turned as one towards the sound of Lu’s voice.

  Of all the vampires I had met that night, Lu was the least impressive.

  Lu was shorter than Quin and thin. He was a petite sort of man, with a thin face. His dark hair was thin, cut short and styled to try to hide its nature. There was a lump in his nose where it had been broken before he had been turned, and hadn’t healed properly.

  And of course, there were the markings on his face from illness. I believe they were the marks of pox, but I have no idea if the sickness would have existed while Lu was mortal.

  Look up pox and history of illness.

  Lu’s eyes were dark like his hair. I couldn’t quite
distinguish between pupil and iris.

  He wore clothing of at least a century past. The clothing looked new and clean but was completely out of place with fashion. If Lu walked the streets of the city, he would have been stared at by passers-by.

  They had said he was called the old man because he couldn’t adapt as well as everyone else. Perhaps he was constantly a century behind, but at least Lu was making an effort to update his look.

  I almost felt sorry for him.

  Then I reminded myself that he was a child rapist and murderer and that I had watched far too many horror movies to believe that this was going to end well.

  “That’s Death stock,” Lu said.

  “A descendant, yes,” Quin said with an edge to his voice. “You recall that the Council released them all. Margaret chose Helen to be my interviewer, says she has just the right balance of intelligence. You’ll have to forgive, but it is her job to ask a lot of questions.”

  “You don’t think he’s kept stock up?”

  “I think if he has, the Council doesn’t know about it. I also think that Helen here isn’t his, as he brands his stock and she hasn’t been branded. Have you?”

  I jumped in spot as Quin turned to me, expecting an answer to his question.

  “No, no branding here. You mean like cattle?”

  “Yes,” Quin said. “A crescent moon, usually on a shoulder. So, you see, she’s a descendant and free of all vampires. I had stern words with Margaret when it was discovered, but she claimed not to know when the selection was made.”

  “And what’s so urgent that you needed to see me?” Lu asked.

  He moved to an armchair by Quin and sat.

  Even with Quin between him and me, I could smell Lu. Old dusty books borderline mildew with just a bit of cedar mixed in. The smell made me want to get up and leave.

  “The tool head has gone missing,” Quin said.

  “And? Only the Council of the time knows where the staff is. Both are needed for the one to work.”

  “The Elder Council and Gerald are both dead.”

  “Wraith, then.”

  “He had no hand in this. I know his mark. This was the work of Death.”

  Lu looked disgruntled. “I suppose you’ve already turned the girl, then.”