Cheating Death (Wraith's Rebellion Book 2)

by Aya DeAniege

  “Changing a woman who can’t enjoy it, or has a hymen in one piece is the same as changing a man who has been removed from his own person. It’s a cruel thing to do to one of us, Quintillus, and you who has had the pain of serving under Lu should remember that. It’s not a kind thing that you’re doing, by making excuses.

  “So, when that woman wakes up, and there’s still a chance, you get her into a proper bed and do what Lucrecia taught you to do. You make damned certain she’s not going to regret immortality because she can’t feed her basic instincts. And if you don’t do it, I will.”

  “Please, like she’d just drop her panties for you,” I said.

  “You might be used to ignoring it, but she’s not. And there’s something about the right accent that gets a woman all a twitter. If what I saw was right, your lass has a thing for me. And if you won’t do your damned job, I will. For all our sakes. Fuck the woman, already. Stop dancing around the point like you’ve got time because you haven’t. The moment she wakes up you have an hour. Then you’re ours, you hear me, Quintillus? The Council has called, and we paid you in advance, we want our money’s worth.”

  “Hour and a half. It’s going to take time to feed her and what if we’re still in bed when you come looking?” I asked.

  “If you’re in bed because you’re doing it properly, I’ll give you that. But if you dawdle, I’ll take her head off then and there.”

  “I plan on serving, Balor, you’re the one who tossed sex into the timeline. So, if it gets pushed off to dawn, that’s your problem, not mine. As if I’ve gone back on my word before and not served?”

  “Yeah? Then why’s Bob questioning if you’ll bother telling Wraith about the stone?”

  I bit my tongue. It was a message from Bob, to me. Something that was said during the Council meeting must have tipped him off.

  “Tell Bob that I’ve already sent word to Wraith. Then you tell him, and the others, and all the rest, that Wraith will be here to serve his time as Younger Council.”

  “Is that a warning?” Balor asked.

  “I believe the mortals have a saying, Balor. Be careful what you wish for.”

  “Are you two done posturing?” Lucrecia asked. “Because we’re done washing, and it seems she’s starting to wake. We should move her to a more comfortable room. Especially if Balor is going to have his way.”

  “Balor isn’t touching her,” I snapped.

  “I meant women are more open to sex if they don’t wake up on a cold table in the metal room where they were, for all intents and purposes, killed half an hour ago.”

  “Take my room upstairs,” Balor said. “It’s just been set up, it’s clean, and everything works. I’ve only been in there long enough to glance over it, so if she experiences any of those smelling side effects, she won’t be getting a whiff of me.”

  “Baby vampires tend to puke up blood,” I said.

  “Amma decorated it. So please, if she does puke, point it towards that godawful wallpaper.”

  They apparently found it necessary to wash me while I was out.

  I mean, I didn’t wake up covered in my own blood, so I can’t argue about that, now can I? Quin said that Lucrecia and Margaret did it. I guess he thought he was being all gentlemanly but I would have preferred he had done it instead of two strangers.

  Also, fuck Margaret.

  I don’t know why. I can’t put my finger on it, but fuck that bitch to hell and back.

  Everything about her pisses me off. From the way, she brought in the crystal glasses, to her coyly laughing when Lucrecia made a comment about a new member of the family. Even how she sat and watched Quin with far too much interest when he was playing on his phone.

  Not paying attention to me.

  I pouted, and he looked up from his phone at that very moment.

  “That’s interesting,” he muttered, slipping the phone into his pocket. “So, complete honesty here. Over the next twenty-four hours, your impulse control is going to be about zero. It’ll be an uphill fight to get it back the second day. About a week from now you’ll wake up and just be yourself again, and it’s probably not going to feel nice.”

  “It’ll probably feel like you killed a bunch of mortals and humped their skulls, even if you didn’t do anything of that sort,” Lucrecia said. “I was chained and used for that time. My meals came from my captors. I still felt horrid, like I had done the things that had been done to me, to another person.”

  “If you have powers they’ll be flashing on and off,” Quin added. “Lucrecia could read minds at that point but not control others. This led to her feeling like she was to blame for what was done to her.”

  “Baby vampires don’t get this explanation,” Margaret said.

  “None of us had the benefit of explanation,” Lucrecia said sternly to Margaret. “That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen. Androgen received an explanation, and the transition was much smoother. So, you’ll have to excuse us, but we’re doing it the way Androgen’s Maker did it.”

  “Acting on the impulses is only discouraged if it affects me,” Quin said. “I will be the stop of whatever I please. However I please.”

  “You should break her in properly,” Lucrecia said.

  “Having been both the victim and the unwilling whore in more than one immortal’s bedroom game, I will not subject her to that,” he responded sternly.

  “You use a woman to teach her how her body can and should react, Quin. The poor girl probably doesn’t even know what an orgasm is.”

  I recalled Quin saying something about Lucrecia’s belief that men didn’t need sexual attention. A man, to her, would get off whenever a woman got on him, so to speak. I also remembered how he had said it, in the same monotone, distant voice he used when relating the darker aspects of his time with Lu.

  Just that night, he had called her a misandrist. Lucrecia’s position was very clear. Quin had hinted at what he had wanted, which was different from what Lucrecia demanded.

  “You mean that I’m here to please you,” I said, my stomach turning at the idea. “That’s not what how I was raised.”

  “And I will ease you into what is expected of a Progeny when called,” Quin said. “But at some point, I will use you as I please, how I please, and until I grow bored of listening to you moan.”

  “I know less about sex than you do, so I suppose that’s on the list of things for me to learn?” I asked.

  “Along with languages, astrology, astronomy, true history, economics, politics, breeding, and, well, the list goes on,” Quin said. “Lucrecia has instructions. Should I not make it through this night, she will take you on to teach and guide you. However, you are not bound to her.”

  “You better live through this night. You are not going to die and leave me here alone for all eternity! Not knowing what I know. Not with them finding out what I know. They’d rip me to bits.”

  Quin almost seemed to shrug.

  “What’s she talking about?” Lucrecia asked.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out the stone. In a moment of quiet contemplation, Quin stared at the stone, then threw it to Lucrecia.

  “Leave us.”

  Lucrecia pressed her lips together in a thin line, but stood and walked towards the door. At the door, as she hesitated in wait for Margaret, she brought the stone up and looked at it. I saw her stiffen, saw a tremble run through her as Margaret shoved her way past.

  Lucrecia looked back at Quin. It was clear that she wanted to say something but, in the end, she closed her hand and left the room, closing the door behind her.

  “You guys are so much the drama queen people,” I said.

  I knew that wasn’t a saying of any sort, but it made me feel better to get the words out, as mangled as they were. At that point, I wouldn’t be surprised to find the vampires posturing as I entered a room and putting on the fake pouts that I had seen some drama queens wear when they weren’t getting enough attention.

  “I’m starting to see what you m
ean,” he murmured, then shrugged. “You’ll be like that one day too. Come here.”

  I stood and wobbled slightly. I had to take a moment to swallow as my stomach attempted to heave.

  Walking towards Quin, I tried to keep an open mind.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  “Why, do you have something in your pants to feed me?” I asked sarcastically.

  “I don’t appreciate your tone or your words. Not with me, not right now.”

  “How much of me do you own now?” I asked.

  “Until you are weaned, technically? All of you. Every inch of that skin, every shudder,” his eyes flowed down me, then back up. “The paper gown looks ridiculous. Take it off.”

  I took it off, unaware of whether I wanted to do so. I certainly didn’t think of the morality of stripping down then and there. While it occurred to me that someone could walk in at any moment, it just seemed that I didn’t care.

  Let them.

  “There’s a wild streak in you,” he said, extending his hand to me.

  I reached out and took that hand, aware of the strength that vibrated through him. Of an other, a difference, a something. I frowned at our hands, then looked to him for an answer.

  His eyes were roving down my form. At my feet, he hesitated, then he looked back up me slowly.

  “I supposed something displeases you,” I said.

  “I do believe you said that you had a tattoo,” he murmured.

  “I do, it’s right—” I pointed and looked at the same time.

  There wasn’t a mark on my skin.

  “Tattooing doesn’t last long, Margaret has said because it is ink injected into the skin. The colour you see is the ink still in your skin. Turning fixes many things, not flesh scars, but foreign objects have been known to pop out. Sometimes piercings depending on the Progeny. Nothing to worry about.”

  “And the rest?” I asked.

  “The rest?” he asked.

  “Of me,” I said.

  “You want my opinion?” he asked, looking me over once more. “I was checking for flaws that needed to be seen to, damage to the skin or blackened areas.”

  “Wait, what?” I asked.

  “You don’t have any, so we don’t have to worry about that.”

  “One day you’re going to explain that comment, and tell me why I wasn’t told about that before the change.”

  “One day,” he said, hesitated a moment, then added, “Maybe.”

  I put my weight onto one leg and huffed out an annoyed breath. He smiled in response and raised his other hand. I took that one as well, and he drew me forward and down, onto his lap.

  Straddling him felt odd to me. Skin against dress pants. Chest against buttons a moment later as he wrapped his arms around me. Hands roaming over my back, he made a small sound of appreciation.

  I hope it was appreciation.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, his face mere inches from my own.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “My stomach doesn’t feel right, like I ate something it doesn’t like.”

  “The hunger can take a little time to overcome you. Once it does, you may find yourself attacking someone before you realize that is what you are feeling.”

  “Shouldn’t hunger feel like, you know, hunger?”

  “Not if your mortal morals are interfering with the impulses sent by your stomach. Do you feel hungry when stressed?”

  “No,” I said. “I suppose it’s the same thing, but don’t I drink from a bag like you?”

  “No. Recall. We don’t know that you can stomach the bags. Your first meal certainly isn’t coming from one, considering the one you need to feed off.”

  “But I don’t want to hurt you,” I said.

  “Hence why your stomach may be saying that you are hungry, but your brain just hears white noise. Or stomach upset, as it may be.”

  “You need your strength for what needs to be done. You don’t need me drinking it all away.”

  “I can replenish. First time I find Lu, I’m going to sink my teeth into him and drain as much as I can. That will slow him down and make me faster.”

  “But…”

  “At some point in the next hour, it will happen.”

  “Maybe I’ve got more willpower than that,” I said sternly.

  “And I can’t decide whether I want you to have that will power,” he murmured, a hand moving upward to tangle in my hair. “While we wait that out, I’ve desperately wanted to do something to you since the first time you called me Mr. Fedora.”

  “Spank me?” I asked.

  “Oh, now there’s an idea,” he said with a grin. “We could do that. But not tonight, no, I may be a dead man walking you know.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Classic hero being a whiner. If you all follow the same patterns you have been, there’ll be a struggle, and you’ll almost die but survive.”

  Then I thought about it.

  “But?” he asked.

  “But the plucky newcomer dies to return the balance of the Council’s command of no Progeny. The hero is affected but not really, and is having sex at the opening of the next book.”

  “Your culture is so mean to plucky sidekicks.”

  “Quin.”

  “Does that make four? I think that makes four times you’ve used my name now,” he said, running his hands up my back. “Anyone trying to kill you will be lacking a key bit of information. The Council are closed for business, so to speak. No communication in or out while I’m hunting. That’s the rule.”

  “So, no one knows I’ve been turned?” I asked.

  “No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Only way Lu could get off would be to snap your neck. Anything else would be premeditated. Yes, it would hurt. But the time it would take you to recover without my blood would take you into tomorrow which would cement the change. You’ll be fine.”

  “I’ll just wake up to you dead.”

  “Best use me how you’d like now, while I’m still whole, available, and able.”

  “That does sound fun,” I murmured, bending to kiss his cheek.

  “You don’t have to worry about hurting me, you can’t,” he said, bending his head to the side slightly. “Like most of us, my neck is quite sensitive. Give it a try.”

  “Wait,” I straightened and shook my head. “If I bite and drink from you, even by accident, how are you going to, you know?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” he said in response.

  “Rise to the occasion?” I asked. “You need a heartbeat to get a hard on.”

  “What’s that to do with blood volume?” he asked, apparently puzzled by my question.

  “Blood fills the—you do know how you get an erection, right?”

  “It’s never affected me before. Lu’s drained me, and it’s still worked. Well, somewhat. You won’t be draining me, just having a sip. A sip won’t break me, or my—did you call it a hard on?”

  “It’s one of the many names.”

  “Sounds impersonal. How about man love? Throbbing arousal? You could say the flag is at half mast.”

  “Why only half?” I asked.

  “Because there’s a naked woman in my lap, but all she wants to do is talk,” he murmured.

  “I’m obviously not as experienced as you are.”

  “I should hope not, that’s part of the fun,” he said, smiling toothily. “I enjoy the teasing and taunting, even you sitting in my lap, trying to talk yourself into it. There are no morals any longer. No one is going to judge and, in a few months, you will all but cease to exist to mortals. What we do here, in this room? Is you and me.”

  “Vampires and pain.”

  “Mix in sex, but not tonight, sweetheart. It could be my last night on Earth, and I don’t want to feel more pain than I already have. I want you to kiss away my scars and give me the will to go on.”

  “See, that’s not helpful. Because what if I bite you? Then there’s pain involved.”

  “That’s a differen
t sort of pain. Sex and feeding don’t mix often. That’s how you wake beside a cold body and hear about it for the next thousand years. You need to let your instinct guide you. Over the next week, you will make the transition from prey to predator. Predators need to trust their instincts. We blind the prey to make hunting a little more invisible, but it still helps. Others will bite you and hit you, even rip into you before you know what’s going on.”

  “I’m a predator,” I said, trying to convince myself of that fact. “But so are you. And if you make any daddy references this is done before it begins.”

  He made a small sound and looked quite pleased with himself.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I never thought I’d share a bed with someone who I had shared myself with. You know more about me than my Maker does.”

  I shifted in his lap, a little uncomfortable by that thought. You’d think after a millennium and a half, someone would know Quin. Like, really know him. But he had kept his lives separated until that moment. He would have continued to keep them separate if not for being called to serve on the Council.

  As I shifted, I felt something between my legs. Squeaking, I rose up.

  “That’s just a side effect,” he said quickly, grabbing me by my waist.

  “Yes, I know the tent in your pants is a side effect of arousal.”

  Then it occurred to me what he had said, and I stiffened. I eyed him suspiciously.

  “What did you mean, side effect?” I asked. “Like black spots?”

  “As your digestive system converts it will happen if you ignore the signs. So, no, not quite like the black spots.”

  “Just up front, that happens we have to stop.”

  “Good, not something I’ve ever dabbled in.”

  “And this is not some goodbye romp either. I don’t want to hear you talking like that again. This? This is to make up for last night when you tormented me and teased me with your…”

  I ran my hands down his chest and settled back into place.

  “When I wanted you to kiss me more, but you walked away because of the venom,” I finally finished.

  “It’s not a problem now, and I’m not going to walk away again,” he murmured as he drew me closer.