Cheating Death (Wraith's Rebellion Book 2)

by Aya DeAniege

  That’s a kind of redemption, isn’t it?

  It is, or would be if it were true. There is no way to reverse vampirism.

  “No,” I said. “My name is Quin.”

  Then I grinned at her again.

  She frowned down at me. “Unless you’re about to say that your Maker is Lu, I’m thoroughly unimpressed.”

  And my grin grew wider as she watched me. Ever so slowly it came over her what I meant.

  I was still expecting an attack. Full on, nails in my eyes, teeth biting whatever they could reach.

  She threw down the crown and the little staff thing she had been holding, and she bolted towards the back.

  Not what I was expecting, but I didn’t want my power to be limited to one room. I strolled after her, sending my power ahead. Both to bar her way and to do the deed.

  I could hear it taking effect, so I hung back. While I had managed it on purpose, I didn’t want to be nearby as it consumed her. Watching that happen once was more than enough for one immortal lifetime.

  Plucking up the crown, I set it on my head. Then I picked up the staff.

  Both were solid gold.

  I wandered down to my pack, humming a little ditty to myself and placed both items into my bag.

  You must understand, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was in control. I felt as if I could go anywhere and do anything. Only one person could stop me, and he had no idea what I was capable of.

  With the pack on, I wandered up to where Athena had disappeared and came around the corner to find her nothing but a puddle of putrid sludge. Just like the others.

  I walked around her, feeling my way past everything as I searched for heavier items. Heavier back then tended to mean furniture or goods worth selling. I found rings and jewellery and placed as much as I could into my bag.

  Then I left just as I had come. On the way out, I told the priests that she was very unhappy with them and that they should give her some time to cool off.

  They didn’t even chase me. Best haul I’ve ever had.

  I continued to search for those from the list, and continue to this day. It takes a great deal of practice to perfect any power.

  A few dozen kills didn’t bring me even close to perfecting it. I’ve only just now managed to keep them from turning into a puddle of goo and projectile vomiting black sludge all over.

  Although, I still prefer the black sludge. Getting rid of a vampire body is difficult. Even burning can be difficult and time-consuming.

  I still work with my telekinetic power. It has taken some time, but I have managed it even though Wraith is deep asleep. I would hope that means that Lu failed in breaking me the way he had been broken long before he turned.

  I appreciate having two powers because of his insanity, but I’d much rather have been whole. You know?

  No, but I think I can come to understand it despite that.

  I suppose.

  Us not talking about our powers has left a gaping hole in our knowledge. For all we know, each vampire gets two powers but only one survives, or the two combine into something else.

  We know one in five of us has one, approximately. We know they can be transferred.

  And sharing blood between two vampires is the fastest way to cause transference.

  Who told you that?

  Sasha, you didn’t know?

  Of course, I knew, I wondered how you knew.

  We’ve had centuries, but there have always been holes in our knowledge. Only the Great Maker might know what we lost in all those centuries of silence, or perhaps it was a command of hers, who knows?

  If it was a command, I plan on breaking it. The moment you settle down, we’re going to start watching and training for the day when your powers come back.

  So that when they do, you don’t have to face them alone, you won’t be alone and frightened of yourself, like every other vampire with power.

  Because you’ll have me.

  “There is the park, where is the closest place to your body?” he asked as we pulled up to it.

  I motioned numbly. He pulled around and parked the car in the spot nearest to my body.

  “I’m dead,” I said.

  “More like incapacitated momentarily,” he said quietly.

  “Quin, he killed me.”

  “He’s my Maker, Helen. I can no more kill him than you could kill me.”

  “So, you can’t even cut off his head and put it in a box?”

  “Now there’s an idea,” he murmured with a small, rueful smile. “Except you said Death is separate from him now. Death can just burn through a body and go to the next one and the next. So. Back to square one, I guess.”

  “He killed me!”

  “Helen, I forbid you from killing him. Shit, shit,” Quin started cursing and hitting the wheel.

  I watched it happen in a distant sort of fashion. The Quin I knew was a great deal calmer than what I was seeing beside me at that moment. Flipping out would be the best way to describe it. Quin was flipping out and taking it out on his car.

  I waited until he was a little calmer.

  “And the steering wheel deserved that, because?” I asked.

  “He must have given me a command and told me to forget it,” he growled through gritted teeth. “You were the best option, and I can’t even take it back!”

  “I need your phone,” I said, then pointed into the park. “It’s over there. He’s probably waiting for you.”

  “No, you’d be breathing by now. If he were waiting, you’d be dead for good. He wouldn’t gloat over your body. You’re just a pathetic mortal to him.”

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Thanks for that.”

  I got out of the car and headed towards my body. He was out and sprinting after me as I slapped his hand away from me and bolted.

  Confused garble. Notes added later.

  The next thing I knew, I was back in my own body, staring up at the stars as he bent over me. Almost like a dream, it started to fade. If we hadn’t recorded that period of time, I would have completely forgotten about it, because it faded away so quickly.

  “Why am I angry with you?” I asked.

  He held up a cellphone, then sighed and knelt beside me. He seemed to search around us.

  Someone had broken the light near the bench, leaving the area where my body lay in darkness. No mortal was going to approach the darkness unless they wanted to hide something, I didn’t think those sorts would report a dead body, but you never know.

  Quin muttered a curse.

  “He broke the tablet, so I guess you’re using a dead man’s phone.”

  It came back in bits and pieces. Like a nightmare that Quin had woken me from. I couldn’t quite be certain which bits were real, and which had been created by my exhausted mind.

  “So, the whole night is lost? I’m going to kill him.”

  “It’s not lost, they didn’t tell you?” Quin asked, watching me in the darkness for a moment. “Can you see me even?”

  “Barely,” I muttered in annoyance. “Can you see me?”

  “Yes, bruising around your neck, he strangled you like a common man. An effective way to kill a mortal you don’t want connected to vampires.”

  “The tablet, stop changing the subject.”

  “It’s backed up in the clouds, that’s why you got to keep the rights, and even keep recording after being turned. Every ten minutes or so.”

  “That’s why I have free Wi-Fi?”

  “You thought it was so you could wander the internet?”

  “Maybe.”

  “No, it was to connect you to the clouds.”

  “Cloud, singular. Great, so I’m in trouble, and my tablet is broken.”

  “I swear they told you. I thought that was in the rules.”

  “Maybe anyone else, but not me, help me up?”

  “No, I was being serious about violating you in the park.”

  “What kind of violation?” I squeaked out.

  He k
issed me then, long fingers running through my hair. As the kiss deepened a sense of other came over me.

  “Stop,” I said, pushing him away. “Stop. Is there any way to do that without the other thing there? Like. You and me, not the Maker portion making me complacent?”

  “I don’t think it makes you complacent,” he grumbled.

  “I just want to know if it’s possible to be with Quin the fifteen-hundred-year-old guy with daddy issues, or if it’s Maker all the time.”

  “It’s possible to hold back, but I don’t know if it takes practice or not. So, let us practice, you and me.”

  And he kissed me again before I clued into what he meant. His tongue darted into my mouth, exploring me and teasing at the same time. As he pulled away just slightly, he nipped at my upper lip, then turned his attention to my neck as I pressed against him, heat flushing through me.

  For the first time that night, I was hot. The flash came over me, causing me to reach for my skirt.

  Hey, if I couldn’t see, neither could a normal mortal, right?

  A fiery need danced across my nerves, sending shudders through me as his arms wrapped around me, drawing me up off the ground. His teeth against my neck pressed deeper, threatening to break the skin and jostling me out of the euphoric cloud he had been pushing me toward.

  I hit his shoulder, and he grabbed my hand, forcing it to the ground as he released my neck and growled at me with an animal need.

  There was a moment of fear, a fear that Wraith was real and had taken over completely, and then it was gone. I surrendered to his will, spreading my legs as he settled between them.

  All the times we had seen each other that night, why was this the first?

  I didn’t know why that was the first time he had felt the inclination to ‘violate’ me.

  He kissed me before I could voice a complaint, pressing tight against me as if to hold me still. I responded by pushing up against him, needing to be touched and explored by him.

  His free hand moved down my side, gripping my hip painfully as his tongue explored my mouth. As his hand slipped up my skirt, he hesitated.

  Suddenly he pulled away. I could sense his confusion.

  “I swear you had underwear on?”

  “No, I left them in the room at the Council Chambers.”

  “Where?”

  I shrugged. “I thought you had taken them. I was only wearing the bra in the bathroom. You didn’t look while I changed? And are you delaying for a reason?”

  “I’m allowed to be concerned,” he grumbled.

  “About me going commando?” I asked.

  He was quiet a moment. “Yes. About you going commando. I was taught that’s how demons get in, but I do like the ease of access.”

  “You were not taught that.”

  “I may have been taught something like that, but I was surprised is all. Now, where was I?”

  “I was about to fake scream for help, but mortals are near.”

  “Mm, remind me to teach you how to do that properly,” he growled as I giggled and pressed up against him. “Or perhaps conquering hero is best. Dear maiden, I doth saved you and many words with too many sounds.”

  “Oh, however shall I repay you?”

  He kissed me again, hands roaming up and down my sides as I wrapped my arms around his neck. Sparks seemed to jump across my nerves as I pressed desperately against his hot body, needing every bit of flesh that I could touch.

  Quin worked his hand between us, fingers pushing me back against the cold ground even as they trailed ever downward.

  His hot digits slipped under my skirt and grazed me playfully. I moved my hips downward as his fingers slipped away.

  “Hands on the ground,” he whispered.

  I did as he commanded, setting my palms on the cold ground as he sat back and watched me in that darkness.

  “I’d tell you to close your eyes, but—” he reached out and touched the inside of my leg, grazing his nail across the soft skin.

  I shuddered and let out the barest of sounds. The finger returned, grazing down toward my thigh as I raised my hips upward in need.

  “No, down, keep them down,” he chided as his finger pulled away.

  He began again, fingernail grazing down the inside of my leg, toward my hip. I tensed, keeping myself against the ground but wanting to arch upward. The finger slipped across my hip, grazed ever so briefly across what I wished most to be touched, then up the other hip slowly and toward the knee.

  He did this several times, knowing how it gave me sensation, yet denied what I wanted.

  “Please,” I begged.

  “Well, since you asked nicely,” he murmured.

  His hand resettled my skirts, and he patted my leg gently.

  “That’s not what I meant,” I said.

  “Oh?” he said as if he hadn’t any idea what I meant. His hand slipped up my skirt, a finger slipping inside me quickly as I stiffened. “You meant this?”

  How could I protest when he brought such a shudder to me with only a finger? I pressed downward against that digit as his other hand touched my stomach.

  “Ah, if you want more, keep that back on the ground.”

  I bit my bottom lip and ground against him, needing more to be sated.

  He bent and captured my lips, his free hand slipping up my jaw and gripping me as if to reassure himself that I was still real. Suddenly he was pressed against me, his need obvious. He kissed my neck and shoulder, teeth dragging over my bared flesh as he made a little sound.

  “I’m still here,” I said, tangling my fingers in his hair. “I’m still here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

  “We can’t promise that both of us will survive this night,” he whispered. “Even if we survive physically, we may never be the same.”

  “Then just give me tonight.”

  We kissed again, his hands slipping away for just a moment. When they returned, they settled on my hips, sliding down my legs to spread them further as he settled between them.

  There, in the park, he gave me the night. Uncontrolled, patient, we took our time exploring one another’s bodies. Each nip and caress bringing us closer without pushing the boundaries.

  When we finally found our relief, he was buried deep inside me, pressed close. His lips by my ear let out a little sound.

  Ever so slowly, the sounds of the park came back to us. Footsteps came closer.

  “Cops,” I hissed, giving his arm a smack.

  He pulled away quickly, fumbling with his pants as I bolted in the opposite direction of the footsteps. I hid in a bush as he was found, just standing by the bench, I assume.

  I couldn’t make out what he said, but the officers left, and he strolled over to me casually.

  “It’s more fun being caught in the act,” he said, pulling me close. “You shouldn’t be afraid of mortals.”

  “Excuse me while I finish with my Progeny, who yesterday was mortal?” I asked. “What if those had been the same cops from last night?”

  “I’m sure they answer a lot of calls and have already forgotten your face,” he murmured. “Though that would be an interesting conversation.”

  “It’s called public indecency, and they arrest you and put you on the bad list, oh, what’s it called. Sexual predator list?”

  “Poor Trevor Smith would just have to die,” he said.

  “Who is Trevor Smith?”

  “My alias at the moment.”

  “Oh, oh, well, I’m glad you can get off the list so easily.”

  “Not the first time I’ve been on it, though the first time I had accidentally eaten from a human who was in the midst of an overdose. Police officers do not appreciate you relieving yourself on their tires.”

  “No, I can’t imagine anyone appreciates that,” I said.

  “We need to get you back to Sasha. If he believes you are dead, you’re safe until he knows you’re alive.”

  “That’s going to be a fun conversation that I totally want to be a part of.�
��

  “What conversation?” Sasha asked as she seemed to appear out of nowhere. “I can track you,” she said to me before I had a chance to ask her how she had found us. “You split into two, then returned, what was that about?”

  “Astral projection,” Quin muttered. “She thinks she imitates the powers of the last vampire she touches.”

  “Sounds annoying,” Sasha said, patting my arm.

  Her power is her blood.

  I almost asked, but I clamped down on my question and turned to Quin with pleading eyes. He frowned at me, but it wasn’t like I could give him a warning. His life wasn’t in danger, just his emotional well being.

  “That doesn’t explain why you’re here,” he said to Sasha as he frowned at me.

  “Okay, I’ve decided to do this like a bandage, just rip it off,” she said.

  “Why has your voice changed?” he asked.

  “Shut up and let me talk!”

  “I’m just wondering why your voice changed, by the Great Maker, why are you being such a bitch?”

  “That’s the second time you’ve called a woman a bitch tonight. Readers are not going to like that.”

  “He’s been a slave for centuries, if they aren’t upset by that, but are upset about us being called a bitch, they have their priorities in the wrong order,” Sasha snapped at me.

  “At least you match the description, what with the resting murder face,” I said.

  “Suppose,” she murmured. “I also call him names all the time, he responds in kind. We don’t take insult from it.”

  “What are your ripping off like a bandage, Sasha?” Quin asked. “Because I need you to get her to a hideout that not even I can find. Not even Margaret. Apparently, she wasn’t entirely honest with Lu.”

  “If the Council issued a gag order on telling people about Helen being turned, Margaret is incapable of breaking the gag order, even if she tried.”

  Quin frowned. “That’s not how the Council works.”

  “It is how it works when your Maker is the Great Maker, and she knows you’re a two-timing traitor,” Sasha said quickly and rather loudly.