Death Mask (Wraith's Rebellion Book 3)

by Aya DeAniege

  “No, I don’t know if I like modern coffee yet. We’ll head to Europe tomorrow and test theirs. I hear it’s the best coffee in the world.”

  “Nothing wrong with instant coffee,” Peter said.

  “The smell of it turns my stomach,” Quin responded. “It smells like black sludge.”

  I almost gagged at the reference. Even though it had been a week since I had vomited in the cemetery, I could still taste it if someone mentioned the stuff. It was a nasty feeling and always put me off feeding for a couple of hours while my stomach settled back down.

  Peter made a sound and opened the cafe door. He held it as I walked in. He went immediately to the counter. While he ordered a coffee, I found a booth by the window and slipped into it. From there, I could see Quin, and if he looked up he could see me as well.

  Peter came with his coffee and slipped in beside me. I frowned at him, and he gave me a forced smile.

  Two men slipped into the other side of the booth. They both wore suits with ties. Their hair was neat, almost military in nature. I hissed out a breath as they both reached into their suit jackets and produced badges.

  “Detective Moore and Smith,” the one across from me said. “Helen, I’m told you’re dead. Know what that’s about?”

  He seems awfully calm for meeting a dead person.

  “No, clearly I’m not dead,” I said. “Clearly, I couldn’t have been murdered if I’m sitting across from you.”

  Both of them watched me for a long moment, then looked out the window at Quin. He was playing with Daisy in appearance, pretending not to notice what was going on in the cafe. If he thought I was in danger, they would have been headed for the door of the café. There was no way out except the front doors, as far as I knew, and I trusted that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

  “We were sick for a time,” I said. “Which is why we disappeared for a while. Troy is still recovering, which is why he’s not up and about. The Council was waiting for us to get better before they made the announcement. They’ve taken very good care of us.”

  “That’s an odd thing, for us to just believe,” Moore said. “See, your deaths were not only reported, but we have a video of you both being attacked by an unidentified vampire.”

  I motioned with my head towards Quin, without saying anything. Instead, I lifted an eyebrow in question.

  Smith gave his head a small shake.

  “We’ve tried to get a hold of your family for the past three days. They said they hadn’t seen you, but tonight aren’t answering phone calls. Do you know what that’s about?”

  But the police had been to the house already. That’s what Peter had said, and Daisy. So, if the police hadn’t gotten a hold of my family… who had?

  “I saw them earlier tonight with Quin,” I said. “Peter was with them at the time, so ask him.”

  “We did question him before he agreed to call you,” Moore said.

  A cold washed over me. If the detectives were both mortals, which I was pretty certain they were, then it had been Peter who had used that name. He was the one who set the supposed trap.

  Peter was being ridden by Death.

  That also explained his odd behaviour and the lies. I tried not to show my surprise, tried to remain still and focused on the detectives. Still, I risked a glance out the window.

  Outside, Quin’s hand hesitated, but then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He took a phone call instead of looking towards us. I needed him to turn to us, to see what was going on inside the cafe. I was no longer safe, I needed help, but if I started panicking to get Quin’s attention, that would tell Death that I knew what was going on. It would put me into more danger.

  “However, he hasn’t been with your parents since he left looking for you earlier tonight. He said they were sworn to confidentiality and couldn’t tell me what you talked about, even has a copy of the contract with him. Your brother doesn’t seem to understand that interfering with an investigation is against the law.”

  “Then please, arrest him.”

  No, really, arrest him.

  I had no evidence, but I couldn’t help but think that once in a body, Death was stuck there until the body died. Unless he had a vampire to ride, one with power who could bridge that gap between the bodies.

  If I could get the detectives to arrest Peter, that would at least put him in one place. It would give us the time we needed to deal with Bau, keep him in one spot and locked up while we figured something out. Maybe even found a way to remove Death without killing my brother.

  I should have felt something over his possible death. That’s what a normal person would have felt. Anything at all.

  But I had wondered for years what would happen if my family died before I spoke to them again. So many other people kept telling me that I’d regret it. Yet when I placed myself, inside my mind, in that spot, standing at their funeral, I had never been upset.

  Only relieved that it was finally over.

  Not everyone’s family was sparkles and sunshine. I had learned to not talk about mine before I left high school. No one else had ever believed me, thought I was making it up because none of them had believed that family would do that or be like that.

  “He did get you here so that we could talk to you,” Moore said sternly. “Why wouldn’t the Council tell us that you were alive and well?”

  “That’d be a question for the Council,” I said.

  “Why didn’t you call us?” Smith asked.

  “To screw with you?” I asked, then shook my head. “Look, the Council has done a great deal for me, so has Quin and Balor, even Troy. If they say not to contact the police, I’m not going to contact the police.”

  “You aren’t afraid they’ll eat you since you were already thought to be dead?”

  “No,” I said. Then smiled just slightly at a thought.

  “What’s so funny?” Moore asked.

  I couldn’t exactly tell them that Quin might eat me, but that I’d rise from the dead the next day. I also couldn’t tell them that I had ‘died’ several times over the previous week.

  “Just the definitions of eating,” I said with a smile.

  “You think this is a game?” Moore demanded.

  “I think it won’t matter in a year, or six years, or even fifty years,” I said. “We’re alive. They didn’t kill us.”

  “Have the Progeny of Balor and Quin killed anyone?” Smith asked.

  “No,” I said.

  Except we had. Okay, so I lied to the detectives. Possibly not even lied well, but wasn’t it their job to tell when I was lying? Not my fault they aren’t good at their jobs.

  “They’re vampires,” Peter said. “If they did kill someone, how would you even know?”

  “He has a point,” I said. “I mean, you guys thought I was dead and clearly, I’m not. I really have to question these videos you have of us being killed. Is it a real place that vampires have access to?”

  “It is,” Smith said.

  Both detectives had a ‘cut the shit’ tone of voice throughout the entire conversation. Nothing friendly about either of them in the least. While I realize they were doing their jobs, I don’t think the victim of a supposed crime should be talked to like that.

  I wasn’t giggling. I wasn’t putting on this air that I had been playing a game of hide and seek and they had found me.

  Any of them, at any time, could have, oh, I don’t know?

  Dialled my cell phone number?

  The number had been the same for six years. I had even given it to the police a week previous for the break in at my old apartment. That was how my mother and brother had both been able to text me so easily, because they already had my phone number from before. We simply hadn’t been speaking before.

  Quin made me answer every call that came in, to see what loose ends there might be. He insisted on paying for the phone for several more years, to catch everything before taking it from me and giving it to one of his stock to carry for
a few years.

  They could have been nicer, is all I’m saying. I still changed their names, however. Just because someone was mean to me, doesn’t mean I get to open them up to stalking and possible hate mail.

  Unless I’m the one doing it, even then I’ve been told no.

  Dear detectives, not more than an hour ago I murdered a human.

  The thought sent a bit of a thrill through me before I tried to quiet down my thoughts. I didn’t have control over my powers, and that was just the way it was. I didn’t know if the mind reading ability that Lucrecia’s family passed around was strictly mind reading, or if they could send thoughts to those without power. They must have been able to, as an extension of the glamouring power.

  I didn’t need the detectives thinking I had spoken those words out loud.

  Moore set a picture on the table. It was of the Council murder room. I noted the lack of blood on the one wall, or flames eating the photographer. That information meant that it wasn’t a recent picture. I could only assume that it was a still taken from the video they were referencing.

  Looking over the image once more, I glanced up at the detective.

  “You’ve seen this room before, no?”

  “A morgue?” Peter asked.

  “I have seen a room like that, but I couldn’t tell you if this room and that room are the same,” I said. “They’re vampires, detective. They have a morgue, so what?”

  “It’s a murder room, not a morgue,” Smith said.

  “I can see how that would upset your mortal morals,” I said slowly. “But you’re still missing the point that they are vampires. They’ve maintained families for centuries who are willing, and do, die for them. When one of the family is terminally ill, they go to a room like this. The Council doesn’t care about mortal assisted suicide laws.”

  “It’s still murder,” Smith snapped.

  He was the one I wasn’t going to like, I decided. Moore wasn’t making any accusations, though I could see that he was disturbed by the idea of a murder room and stock.

  “Frankly, detective,” I said as if he were an idiot because I decided that I really didn’t like him, “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were Council stock in your police force, even in your division, or whatever it’s called.”

  “That’s impossible,” Moore said.

  “They’re vampires,” I said. “They’ve existed since long before Canada did. The Council has been in the city for well over a century. Stock don’t all look alike, they vary, and they are very skilled at whatever life they choose. They’re caretakers, the immortals you don’t think are real, make certain that they have whatever they need to succeed, all the training, all the tools, as long as they work within the confines of what the base needs.”

  “You learned a lot over your week with them,” Moore said.

  “I didn’t have much of a choice. What else were we going to talk about? The weather?”

  “And you don’t know why we have a video of you being murdered in this room?”

  “What were the series of events?” I asked.

  “You were led in, clearly out of it, then bitten by a vampire there until you died. He bit you several times.”

  I hadn’t watched the video of my turning. I hadn’t even known it existed until a few days before when I stumbled on Troy watching his on his phone.

  “I’m sorry, you watched me be eaten, and then agreed to meet with me with my brother in a little cafe?” I asked. “Does that really seem like a smart idea?”

  “Are you threatening us?” Smith asked.

  I frowned at him, then shook my head. “No, I’m not threatening you. It’s just that you both seem like smart men, and you came out to visit with someone you watched be eaten by a vampire. And you agreed to this meeting in the middle of the night. Why couldn’t this have waited until daylight?”

  “You’ve adjusted to their schedule,” Moore said.

  “Yes, I have, but meeting someone in the middle of the night still seems like the wrong way to approach this,” I said.

  “You don’t seem to be denying the events on the video,” Smith said.

  “Why would I deny it?” I asked. “You have a video of it happening. Clearly it did.”

  “Then how are you alive?” Moore asked. “Let alone whole? The vampires can’t heal mortals. We were told that right from the start.”

  “We were also told that everyone was under control, that the Council were the only ones capable of killing, that one out of five is turned with one power. There’s a lot that we were told that isn’t true.”

  “Can you tell us anything about the events of that night?” Moore asked.

  “A lot of it is vampire business. They haven’t quite come around to the whole not eating mortals who share that kind of information.”

  “What can you tell us?”

  “That a new Younger Council was chosen, his name is Wraith. Wraith was the Progeny of a vampire called Death, or is, I suppose Death is still alive. Now Lu, Quin’s Maker, plotted with Death and Margaret, the old Younger Council, to use this little coming out party of theirs to take over the world.”

  Moore’s mouth worked a little, his lips parted, then closed as he moved his jaw several times. As if he wanted to ask a question, but knew better than to put voice to it.

  “Are you saying there’s a vampire threat to mortals?” Smith asked.

  “They’re vampires!” I all but shouted, then lowered my voice. “That’s like asking if there’s a threat swimming in shark infested waters, except they’re smarter than sharks are.”

  “Margaret has been missing for a week,” Moore said. “As Younger Council, she was to check in with us once a week. We were told about it because she was a vampire, and vampires were supposed to have killed you.”

  “If you have a video of Quin killing me, why does the radio say that his Progeny did it?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, we aren’t kept in on that kind of detail,” Moore responded, then frowned and shook his head.

  “How were you planning on detaining Quin?” I asked Smith.

  “With handcuffs,” Smith responded like I was stupid.

  His tone was dripping with it, he even scowled and shook his head at me before he caught what he was doing and straightened.

  Daisy was right.

  My powers hadn’t shut off. They might have settled a little, but they hadn’t stopped.

  I could ask anyone anything, and they would respond with complete honesty if I did it right. Which was why the detectives were answering as many questions as they were asking.

  I huffed out a breath like Smith had just upset me. Quin had told me to make myself more aware of conversations. It wasn’t easy to just step outside of a conversation during the talk and see what point might cause a problem.

  Me using power on two detectives? Yeah, that’d cause a problem.

  So instead I acted like it was just how the conversation had turned. I even tried to make it seem like I was glaring out the window. Quin smiled back at me, drawing a little symbol in the air and then pointing at me and clasping his hands over his heart.

  I have no idea what the first symbol meant, but the rest painted a pretty clear picture. I couldn’t help but smile and look away from him, embarrassed by the public show of affection.

  Smith was staring at me.

  “What?” I asked. “You think a woman like me can’t get a man like that?”

  “Are you supposed to be carrying on an affair with your interview subject?” Smith countered.

  I shrugged. “That’s up to the interviewers to whine about, not you. I gave them the stuff I already had, and they loved it, I must be doing something right. If that means they need to put up with sappy romance speckled throughout or keep in parts that Quin insists they keep, then so be it.”

  His lip turned up slightly in a sneer. I focused on Moore instead.

  “Can we go back to the events of last week?” Moore asked. “That is when the video was taken, supp
osedly.”

  “It was, almost a week to the day,” I said. “That room is in a building that belongs to the Council, and I was inside of it.

  “See, part of the problem—let me preface this with saying he’s dead and no one else can do this—was that the plan involved Lu using his special brand of power. The creation and release of plague level sicknesses.”

  “Like the Black Death?” Moore asked.

  “Exactly like the Black Death,” I said. “He and I met for a few minutes the night before, and that’s all it took. The Council may have strange methods, but they stopped the virus in its tracks, and they didn’t have to bury our bodies in lye to do it. I’d say that’s a win, wouldn’t you?”

  “You and Troy were both ill? How did he take ill?”

  “Troy came in contact with me. The sickness was fueled by power, so instead of ten days, give or take, I began showing symptoms about ten hours later. At hour twelve or so the fever set in. What you saw, I was very near death.”

  “And you are no longer infected? You aren’t a carrier of some sort?”

  “Complete clean bill of health,” I said. “If I were still contagious after treatment, you would be investigating my actual murder. The Council is devoted to keeping mortals safe, even if it means killing a few of us to stop an outbreak that would decimate the population.”

  “And Margaret and Lu?”

  “If you want the full transcript, you can ask the interviewers. But last week the Great Maker, who is sort of their God, showed up and ate Lu like a vampire eats a mortal. That killed him. It turns out she had been sticking close by but still in hiding.

  “As for Margaret, that is the work of the new Younger Council.”

  “What was that fellow’s name?” Moore asked, flipping through his notes.

  “Wraith,” I said. “Daddy is called Death for a reason. Turns out, Wraith learned from Death and can do the same thing. Well, do it a different way, but the result is the same, so that’s what matters.”

  “Why did Wraith kill Margaret?”

  “She had been plotting with Lu. It turns out she had used her place as the vampire scientist to allow Lu to test his sicknesses until he found one that modern, first world medication couldn’t help. Thanks to her involvement, there was only one way to stop the virus.