Cheating Death

by April White

  Archer chuckled under his breath, and I loved him for it. His amusement was worth at least two points, since I was keeping score.

  And then she surprised me. She gave me the same eyebrow, but with less disdain and more appraisal. “Perhaps you might be up to the task after all.”

  It took a lot not to splutter. “Because everything that’s happened this year wasn’t enough?”

  “Most of your behavior has been in reaction to something. Admittedly, you react decisively and often very well, but they are reactions nonetheless. You have good instincts for the workable choices, but with a few exceptions, you haven’t sought preemptive change.”

  I opened my mouth to protest with examples, but then shut it again. For whatever it was worth, she was right. My mom disappeared; I went to find her. Time split; we fixed it. The Monger ring became a problem; we tried to steal it. I hadn’t actually gone out and tried to make the world a better place.

  “So only seeking preemptive change can make me worthy?”

  She smiled. “No, but the strength of your conviction gives you a greater than average chance of succeeding.”

  “Aislin, we can dance around my worthiness all day. I don’t actually care if you think I’m up to the task, unless that’s a reason to hold back information, in which case, yes, I’m up to it.” I sighed. “Our immediate problem is all about getting the power to compel out of Monger hands. This thing I’m talking about is what comes next. What fills the vacuum when the ring leaves Monger hands?”

  She studied me for a long moment before she finally spoke again. “We have an edict against interference. It is actually written into our laws to prevent the sort of puppet-mastering that Duncan is so very fond of.”

  “Neither of you are big rule-followers, then. He had a hand in the theft of the ring from the Vatican in 1842, you sent Mary Shelley to meet us on the train, and he was responsible for locking us into our compartments when it crashed outside Paris.”

  Aislin scowled. “I sent Mary precisely because I Saw his interference, and you needed a fighting chance.”

  “You couldn’t have come yourself?” I asked.

  The light in her eyes had dimmed. “As I said, there is an edict against direct interference, and I would lose my right to speak at our Council and my ability to sanction the others if I indulged in the practice myself.”

  I had a sudden inspiration, based on my interactions with Doran. “Maybe I’m not asking the right questions then. Let’s see …” I tried to think of something she could answer without volunteering anything.

  Archer got there first. “Have there been any prophecies about the Monger artifact?”

  Aislin smiled. She understood our game. “There was one made by one of my family in Jerusalem long ago.” Her eyes went slightly unfocused as she recited the rhyme.

  “When man of War

  And Sight portends,

  What great one lost,

  And young one sends,

  The first one seeks,

  The hurt one mends,

  What War begins,

  The dark night ends.”

  I sighed. “I kind of love the poetry even though your Family frustrates the heck out of me.” I scribbled down the words and shoved them in my back pocket.

  “Any other prophecies we should be watching out for?”

  She grinned. “Just your favorite.”

  I smirked, and recited.

  “Fated for one, born to another

  The child must seek to claim the Mother

  The stream will split and branches will fight

  Death will divide, and lovers unite

  The child of opposites will be the one

  To heal the Dream that War’s undone.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Every time I hear that thing I think of more people it could fit. I might just be the one who tripped over it once and fell down with a thump right on top of it.”

  “Perhaps. But perhaps it was there to trip over because you were meant to fall on it.”

  I stood up to go and couldn’t hold back the laugh. “Arguing with Fate is considerably less painful than sparring with War, but it doesn’t mean I’m ever likely to win.”

  “Oh, I don’t know … your words can be quite provocative, especially when you wield them with careful logic and clear purpose. You might be surprised at the battles that can be won with those weapons.”

  We left her office and I whispered to Archer, “Why do I feel like that was something I should pay attention to?”

  “I have the feeling that anything Aislin says is something to which we should all pay attention.” Archer’s tone had a smile in it, and I took his hand in mine.

  “You’re pretty hot when you’re grammatically correct.”

  He laughed. “You’re not so bad yourself with all that talk about adverbs.”

  Archer kissed me just as Ringo came loping around the corner. “Hey!” I said happily. “Where have you been?”

  He rolled his eyes in a perfect imitation of Connor. “I’m not the one who took a five-hour lunch,” but then he grinned, and I was so glad to see the easiness back in his manner.

  Archer let go of my hand and gripped Ringo on both shoulders with a serious face. “Thank you. That was, in truth, the most exquisite meal I’ve ever eaten, and whatever favors you called upon to make it happen will be repaid a thousand-fold at your bidding.”

  Ringo stared at him in surprise, then looked at me. “Did he revert back to a Victorian when he lost the Vampire bit?”

  I smirked teasingly. “Not necessarily.” I held his gaze long enough that Ringo caught my meaning and blushed. That made me laugh, and I looped my arm through his to continue walking down the hall.

  “I was sent to get ye. The solarium’s full of people waiting to talk to ye,” Ringo told us.

  I took a deep breath. “Right. Well …” I turned to look at both of them. “This should be interesting.”

  A Mixed Gathering

  Every seat in the solarium was taken, and I realized this was what the school would look like if it was at maximum capacity. Ava gave me a big hug when I walked in, and then she made a formal introduction to Tam, who had only ever seen me in my Cat form. I went straight in for the hug, which surprised him, but he gamely hugged me back.

  “Thank you for taking care of Archer for me.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said simply, and the twinkle in his eye reminded me a lot of Ringo, just like Archer had said it did.

  There were a lot of people in the room I didn’t know, although the way Adam was greeting them as he worked his way across the room toward me indicated they were most likely the mixed-blood captives he had rescued. I’d been horrified when Archer described the conditions in which they’d been kept, especially when I saw an older woman seated off to one side. Adam made a point of going over to greet her, and I appreciated his kindness.

  I made a beeline for my mom and Mr. Shaw who sat with Millicent on one side of the room. Millicent stood up when she saw me coming, and she shocked me with a giant hug.

  “You’ve returned safely,” she said with a relieved smile.

  I tried to shove the guilt away when I hugged her back, but my embrace was extra hard, and she sensed it. “I need to talk to you,” I said quietly. “Later, okay?”

  She looked concerned. “Of course, darling. I believe I am the one who has put you out of your old bedroom.” She laughed at my startled expression. “It’s the same one I had when I was a girl at St. Brigid’s,” she said in a whisper.

  I kissed her cheek. “You’re awesome,” I whispered back.

  I said hello to a couple of other people, then spotted Tom sitting in a chair in the shadows by the door. I caught his eye, and he smiled grimly at me. Archer detached himself from my side and strode across the room to him. They spoke for a few moments, and then Archer shook his hand and came back to my side. “We’re meeting Adam, Ava, and Tom later in the library,” he said quietly.

  Mr. and Mrs. Arman stood on t
he opposite side of the room from my mom and Mr. Shaw, and I hoped that was just an accident of the crowd, rather than by design. When Ringo went over to greet them and Mrs. Arman gave him a hug, I felt better.

  Adam stepped to the front of the room and got everyone’s attention. He had a leader’s natural presence, and he actually seemed comfortable in the role.

  “As you all know, some things in our world have become pretty dire, and since the explosion at Holborn, Descendant politics have spilled over into the rest of the city. We’re all here because it’s a safe zone from anyone who intends harm – Miss Simpson’s wards around the school have held, so the guys who intend harm aren’t able to get inside the gates or over the walls.”

  He looked around the room and grinned affably. “But as much as I like you all, I’m not so keen to stay here with you forever.” There was a general murmur of laughter, and I was surprised to see Adam’s girlfriend, Alex, slip in to stand next to Ava. I hadn’t known she was back from France, and as much as it sucked for her to be trapped here, I was glad to see her.

  “So, here’s the deal. Everyone out there is under Monger control; everyone in here is not. That means we—” he gestured around the room, “are the only ones who can change things.”

  There were more murmurings, this time without laughter.

  “Some of you already know Saira Elian, but most of you haven’t met her yet. She’s a Clocker, obviously, but she’s also mixed, and she’s been spending a lot of time bouncing around the past trying to figure out what the Mongers are up to. She wanted everyone to be together so she could tell you all what she’s learned.”

  Adam held his hand out to me, and I stepped forward to join him at the front of the room. It was kind of surreal for me to be the one in focus, since I’d spent most of my life doing everything I could to blend into the background.

  “Hey, you guys?” I said to the mixed-blood Descendants around the room. “Good job surviving.”

  That statement was just odd enough that it made a couple of people smile, and then, when they processed it, a couple more did too. I looked around the room, trying to memorize faces. These were the people who could stand up against the ring’s power, but a lifetime of living in fear of discovery might be hard to override.

  I laid out the two biggest facts I had. “There was a time stream split in 1944, and I Clocked to a different future. It was a future where the Mongers had no ring—” there were gasps and murmurs, “and there I learned that the ring doesn’t actually belong to the Mongers.” The gasps and murmurs grew louder, and phrases like “take the ring” started to ripple through.

  “So yeah, they can’t have the ring; they actually have no right to it. And because we can’t be compelled by it, we need to come up with a plan to somehow get it off Seth Walters’ hand and out of Monger control.”

  There was general agreement around the room, but I wasn’t done. “But before we start figuring out how to do that, I need to be really straight with all of you.” I looked people in the eyes, and I made sure to include my mom, Mr. Shaw, and the Armans. “If we manage to get that ring, we can’t keep it.”

  I saw a couple of expressions harden at that, so I directed my words to the narrowed eyes in the group, including Mrs. Arman, and surprisingly, Adam. “It goes back to the Family it belongs to, and not only that, we need to do whatever we can to find the Mongers’ actual artifact and make sure they get it.”

  There were some actual cries of outrage at that, and a couple mutterings of “who does she think she is.” Even Mr. Shaw looked unhappy at my words, and the grumbling in the room was getting louder. I caught Ringo’s eye and he nodded, then stuck two fingers in his mouth for a piercing whistle. I always wanted to be able to whistle like that – it shut everyone up instantly.

  “You don’t have to listen to me, and you certainly don’t have to do what I say. But here’s the deal; things need to change. The prejudice against mixed-bloods has to end. In fact, mixed-bloods and Death’s Descendants should have a seat at the Council.” There was more muttering and outright grumbling, and I glared around the room. “Are you kidding? There are what, about forty mixed-bloods in this room? You people have been hiding, sometimes even from your own families, because someone, somewhere, decided they didn’t want to share their power. We’re going to have to share every single one of our assets to defeat Seth Walters at his messed up power-play. If we manage to pull this off – and that’s a huge if – we cannot go back to business as usual.”

  The grumbling quieted a little, and I still had their attention. “I can’t force you to make changes, but I can put a spotlight on things that I think need to change. You could look at me and say, ‘she’s eighteen, what could she possibly know about Descendant politics?’ or you could ask me what the other time stream was like when the Mongers had no teeth and grew fangs to compensate, and you could wonder why the mixed-blood moratorium was put in place, when clearly, we all exist. And you could take the lessons of the past – and I have a lot of them to share, believe me – and pick them apart for the truths that we should apply now.”

  I looked around the room, and then took a deep breath. “We have members of every Family here right now, plus two Council Heads and a whole bunch of very smart people. I’ll tell you my stories, but I want yours too, and when we all know each other a little better, we’ll have an idea of all the skills we bring to the table. Then we can make a plan to go after the ring.”

  Archer’s smile was like a thumbs-up, and I saw similar looks on my friends’ faces around the room. Adam piped up from across the room. “Hi, my name is Adam Arman, and I’m a Seer. My skills include reaching things in high places, running off at the mouth, puking through spirals, leading people through the London Underground, and generally knowing everything except … you know … the things I don’t.” People laughed, and then Tam piped up.

  “My name’s Tam Roth, and I’m a mix of Seer and Monger.” That statement got a couple of raised eyebrows, my own included. “I can communicate with other Seers using pictures in my head, and I don’t know what the Monger side does except make me want to break the rules I think are stupid. And the rules against Suckers are some of the dumbest rules we have. I just spent more than a week with a Sucker, and he is a fairly excellent human being.”

  I would have hugged Tam again if I’d been close enough, but then Archer spoke. “I’m the Sucker, or at least I used to be. My name is Archer Devereux, and I’m a Seer. I was infected with the mutation that caused my cells to stop dying in 1888.” There were outright gasps at that, but Archer met the eyes of the people around him. “Thanks to a cure that Bob Shaw has developed, my cells are happily dying away, which means I can walk in the sunlight and eat proper food. My skills are much diminished now that I’m no longer a Vampire, but among them I count friendship, love, and a long life spent honing a not-inconsiderable set of survival skills.”

  “You’re more than a hundred years old?” a woman near Archer asked in awe.

  He nodded. “I am.”

  Her stare turned to a huge smile. “Wow,” she said, and the tightness in my chest let go.

  There were others that surprised us, some that drew gasps, and a couple of people made my eyes tear. Dorothy Charles, a lovely grandmother of three, was a distant mix of Clocker and Seer. She had no particular skill, she said, beyond an extraordinary memory. She remembered two young people sliding down the hand rails at Aldwych Station during an air raid in 1944, and though she was a child in her mother’s arms at the time, she distinctly remembered watching Archer and me on the platform that night. Twin girls about Logan’s age named Beck and Bauer were with their Shifter/Seer mix mom. They proudly declared their ability to Shift into any bird, which, of course, Logan had to answer with his own all-creature Shifting skills. I predicted an exotic bird and animal Shift-off in their future.

  When Tom finally spoke, he sounded as though he’d been drawing strength from the acceptance in the room. “My name is Tom Landers. I’m a Seer an
d a Monger, and I’ve been a Sucker too. For a long time I thought my only skill was hurting people, but I’m pretty tired of that, so I’m ready to try something new.” Adam moved next to him and clapped a hand on Tom’s shoulder in support. “I’m also Seth Walters’ biological kid, so I’ve got that going for me,” Tom said wryly. Adam barked a laugh, and that seemed to give other people permission to chuckle. A woman near him reached out to grab Tom’s hand for a quick squeeze, and the sympathy startled him. Then someone else began their own story, and he exhaled in relief. Adam leaned over and whispered something in his ear, both of them snickered, and I could tell Tom was going to be okay.

  A couple of hours later, everyone in the room had introduced themselves, and we hashed out some ideas to deal with the Mongers that surrounded the school. It was actually pretty awesome to watch Alexandra Rowen sit down with Colin Zhang, a Shifter Owl whose mix with Seer made him an especially effective hunter, to plan the traps they would set in the woods. And Mr. Shaw’s discussion with Michael Baretsky, a chemist with a mix of Shifter Badger and Monger, about the compounds he had used to create the cure was deeply technical and highly engaging for both of them. My favorite plotters to eavesdrop on were Ringo, Connor, Logan, and Tom. Ringo and Connor would come up with the most outrageous uses for Logan’s various animal forms, Logan would Shift into that animal, and then Tom would spin his little chess piece in his hands and pull their plans apart. As I listened to Tom’s explanations about why a leopard or a snake wouldn’t work in the scenario they had proposed, I realized he had a really tactical brain and should definitely be in on the planning side of things.

  Archer caught my eye and tossed his head very slightly toward the door. I nodded, excused myself from my mom and Mrs. Arman, and followed him out of the solarium. When we were out of sight, he swung me around to kiss him, then rested his forehead against mine. “You were magnificent.”