Cheating Death (Wraith's Rebellion Book 2) Read online

  Books By Aya DeAniege

  Contracted

  Contract Taken

  Contract Broken

  Contract Renewed

  Daughters of the Alphas

  Masked Intentions

  Wraith’s Rebellion

  At Death's Door

  Cheating Death

  Death Mask

  Being Written:

  Contract Signed

  Cheating Death

  His Grace

  Fragments*

  Prototype*

  Copyright 2017 Aya DeAniege

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced in part or whole without written permission except in the case of small quotes for reviews, articles, or essays.

  To all those who read before launch, whether as a beta reader or to simply enjoy the book earlier.

  You help me keep my sanity.

  When I shut the tablet off that first night, I was certain that I was going to be eaten. So certain about it that I asked to be able to write the forward before I shut it off. That, at least, would do… well, nothing really. All it did was prolong my life for a few minutes while I filled out the forward for that first night.

  What we talked about was completely off the record. All I’ll say about that time is that it happened over dinner, or breakfast depending on how you’re looking at the time of day.

  Okay, so I assumed what the interviewers would do with the information, I’m allowed to do that.

  I think.

  I don’t really know what I’m doing, truth be told, you just kind of have to go with it. Go into it with an open mind, because if you had told me at the beginning of the night what was going to happen to me? I wouldn’t believe it, not for a second.

  Being with Quin the night before had been eye opening that was for certain.

  The vampires are much the same as were present the night before.

  Quintillus, or Quin, is a fifteen-hundred-year-old vampire who has kept a secret from everyone but for his Maker, Lu. The pair of them were, unsurprisingly, also the mysterious pair that the Council called on as executioner and hound: Death and Wraith.

  Sasha is his doting, uhm, how do I put this… doting, loving sister who pines after Wraith, not realizing that dear baby brother is the one she’s chasing after, biting her lip all the while. Like all vampires, she holds her secrets. Though, I’m not certain why they all keep their secrets instead of sharing with someone, anyone.

  Vampires are like a bunch of teenaged girls writing in their diaries about all the petty little feuds that won’t mean anything in a week.

  I was actually graced with the presence of Lucrecia, and that of Margaret. The two of them are a great deal more alike than they’d like to admit, and I really think that’s why they don’t get along. There are differences, of course, but both are stubborn, obnoxious, set in their ways.

  Oh, and they’re both bat shit crazy.

  Lucrecia is a misandrist. You, like me, probably aren’t overly familiar with the word, but a misandrist is like a misogynist but for the other gender. She’s also Quin’s Matriarch. He’s the only full male in her family, and she likes to use him like a whore. Not liked, as in past tense, but like as in still and continuing to go on.

  I’m not even certain if her behaviour will change after tonight.

  Then, of course, is the Council. Their number is only four, and they will be introduced in due time. It’s important to note both that the Council has the ultimate say in the vampire world, but they’re also responsible for so many terrible things.

  With Death, they gained ultimate control over the vampire race, because he was their executioner. If they needed a vampire scared, or ripped into and tormented, they could send Wraith. Or Quin, or any number of other vampires with powers who ended up chained to the Council while they were fledglings. Before they realized they had an option, they were doing the bidding of the Council.

  For those like Quin, those with powers who were forced to serve, it was simply life, how it had always been.

  The Council says come, Quin comes. The Council says fetch, Quin fetches.

  Vampires.

  I think I preferred it when they were just mysterious and no one knew what was going on.

  Oh, right, no animals were hurt in the making of this.

  Humans, on the other hand, were free game.

  I sat at the window of Quin’s loft apartment, looking out over the street below as the sun began to set behind the tallest of the buildings. There was a blue coffee mug in my hands, filled with that rich, dark liquid which I always needed to feel alert. The odd hours and the coffee in my hands somehow made me feel at ease. There was nothing expected of me, no job to rush off to. All I had to do at that moment was enjoy my coffee and fill out a little information while I waited for Quin to become a little more alert.

  Below, on the street, I watched the evening shoppers go about their errands through the swirling clouds of orange and brown leaves. Few of them were rushing. It always seemed that a warm fall evening had that effect on people along the street. They would slow down to enjoy every warm night they could before winter began to nip at their heels.

  As I had slept, autumn had taken full hold over the city. The wind in the fall and winter could be bitter, but that had never stopped me from thinking the landscape beautiful.

  Check for rambling. No one wants to read that.

  From my viewpoint, I could see graffiti on some of the buildings. The paint wasn’t visible from the street, or even on the first floor, because it was on the sides of brick buildings that had been exposed during renovations to the buildings beside them. On a flat wall, just across the street, I could see the faded remains of a painted billboard. A remnant of a time long gone, encouraging me to drink a certain brand of pop.

  The city was modernizing, but little things like that remained. Such as down the street, where there was a large sign with removable letters which advertised a clothing store that I was pretty certain didn’t exist any longer.

  Vampires were a bit like the city. They were upgrading their beliefs and culture, but one only needed to view them from a different angle to see that they weren’t quite there yet. Relics of their past were still visible in the corners of their society, hidden on the backs of their buildings, and in the dusty corners of their minds.

  They were creatures of a thousand years previous. Their ideologies and ours in the modern time did not align.

  Such as Quin didn’t have the newest phone because he wanted the newest and coolest. He had the newest phone because he tended to lose them, or drop them down the stairs—as he had the night before. His new phone had been shattered and all but inoperable despite surviving being flung across Sasha’s apartment earlier in the night.

  New phones were coming for both of us. One for Quin because his had been broken. One for me because we suspected that Lu might have done something to it. The new phone would come preprogrammed with numbers and the writing app that I had been using the night before, for my extra notes.

  I had wanted to say no, but I had just gotten that phone. I had two years on a contract and still owed almost four hundred on the device. I couldn’t afford to pay out the cost. If I could have, I would have a laptop of my own or could have paid rent.

  It was also Quin’s fault that the phone had been compromised in the first place. Okay, so it was actually my dumb fault for handing Lu my phone. Who would have thought a six-thousand-year-old vampire would know how to hack the newest gadget?

  Review logs for approximate age of Lu and repl
ace.

  So, I was getting a brand-new phone from the man who I had told not to save me. He had dictated which style and then asked me what colour I wanted.

  Did you know, if you’re rich enough, phones will come in pretty well whatever colour you want?

  I had asked Quin if he knew about the protective cases. Explaining to a man that old that phones are way too expensive not to go into a case was a little awkward. For me, it felt as awkward as explaining to a stranger that they had something on their face.

  We’d both be receiving cases from the brand I suggested because I knew they would survive my kind of clumsiness.

  Quin’s response?

  “Oh, is that why your phone looks so lumpy?”

  “You thought that was stupid of me to say?” Quin asked in the present, startling me out of my narration. “I suppose for one who grows up without privilege, placing a protective case on a phone is simply smart. How long do your phones last?”

  “The last one was four years old. I only got rid of it because it wouldn’t talk to the network or something? Which is ridiculous because it was clearly talking to the network moments before as I was receiving hate texts from my ex’s wife.”

  Quin slipped an arm around me, assuming a position behind me but not pressed close. His beard tickled my scalp on the side of my head as he sighed out. One hand settled on my stomach, splaying out as if to hold me close. In his other hand was a mug filled with a dark liquid. White cup, dark liquid, if he had been anyone else I would have assumed coffee. Because it was him, I leaned away from the cup, towards my coffee.

  The smell of coffee didn’t quite cover the smell of the blood.

  Quin kissed the top of my head and pulled away.

  “You need to get used to the smell. I always forget. No mortal ever seems to enjoy blood in the morning. Not the ones I would want to be around, anyhow.”

  He made a sound as he put distance between us. I turned from the window and watched as he seemed to swallow convulsively. A hand pressed against his mouth as he struggled

  He looked a bit like he was trying to swallow a mouth full of boogers.

  “Are you going to be all right?” I asked.

  He nodded but didn’t answer verbally. With a sip of the blood, he grimaced and turned to me, forcing a smile.

  “Is it worse than yesterday?” I asked, motioning to my mouth.

  Quin made a sound and nodded, but still didn’t open his mouth. He swallowed several times, then sipped from his mug again. Even with the beard, I could see his tongue rolling around the inside of his mouth, as if sucking something off his teeth.

  “Could be because we slept in the same bed,” he said.

  “I told you that I could take the couch,” I said.

  “Only way to wake me is by removing a comfortable body,” Quin said. “I sleep like the dead.”

  He meant literally.

  We went to bed at about six in the morning. I fell asleep almost instantly, waking several times as per my usual sleep pattern. Right about noon, Quin went deathly cold, his body went rigid as if rigour mortis had set in. He wasn’t wrapped right around me, thankfully, just pressed against my back. His hand had been tangled in the blankets.

  I hadn’t been able to get the blanket back from him.

  At four, I ended up getting up for good. Though normally I slept eight hours, the ten had been almost heavenly, and once awake I had spent a few minutes just laying in bed, deciding whether I actually wanted to get up.

  “You should shower, I pulled out some clothing in your size. Do wear it without a fight. Your clothing, recall, is not accessible right now.”

  Yeah, because he lost them.

  After arriving at his place, I had changed into the same clothing he had offered me before we went out to Lu’s. I went to brush my teeth and by the time I got back from the bathroom my clothing was missing. Fluffy and Scruffy were up on the bed, watching Quin’s cat pace the floor, glaring up at them.

  It had been an intresting night, trying to sleep as three cats tried to figure out the pecking order and who owned me. Warm, but interesting.

  “You keep bossing me around,” I grumbled.

  I sipped my coffee as Quin watched me. He ran his tongue over the inside of his mouth once more.

  “Trying to give you the experience of being a baby vampire, of course,” he said finally. “Kindly go do as I command you.”

  “I’m not really into role play,” I said with a grimace.

  “I’ll keep that in mind when I finally have my way with you. Go do as I commanded.”

  I arched an eyebrow at him. He held out his hand, and I handed over the coffee mug. As I walked away, I stuck my tongue out. My back was to him, and I was feeling a little playful.

  “Don’t stick your tongue out at me, it’s not polite.”

  “Is being a Progeny like being a sub?” I asked body, turning towards him.

  His eyes roved down my form, then back up and locked with my own. Those beautiful browns gave nothing away as he stripped me to my soul.

  “Go shower.”

  I took that as a yes, and yet a no at the same time.

  Even though I didn’t understand the purpose of showing me what it was like to be his Progeny, I did as Quin asked. After my shower, I dressed in the provided clothing. Then I went to the mirror and looked at myself.

  He had chosen a dark red colour, sanguine I believe was the proper term, a bloody red that was untouched by autumnal brown. I hadn’t worn something so red since my third-grade Christmas play when I had been a background elf.

  I wasn’t entirely certain it had ever been worn. It and the pants fit perfectly, but that wasn’t surprising considering the fact that Quin had selected my pyjamas as well without asking my size. He had made a correct assumption, which I suppose wasn’t difficult after ‘studying’ the female form for so many centuries.

  The pants were dark brown slacks. Altogether, the outfit mirrored what I had worn the day before. Except the shirt was short sleeved instead of half.

  The socks and underwear were new. There was just a fresh feeling to a brand-new pair that couldn’t be imitated no matter how clean one was.

  After some thought, and consideration of my reflection, I fought my hair back into a braid. Having it long and loose just made it get in the way. At least with the braid, I had a chance at getting through the day without wanting to shave it all off.

  “Quit preening,” Quin said, leaning against the doorframe. “You look good in red, and we don’t have time for you to be self-conscious.”

  While I had showered, he had changed from the pyjama bottoms to a much more formal dress shirt and jacket combination. Like the night before, these clothes had been made specifically for him. He hadn’t put the shoes on, yet, but he did have diamond patterned, black and red socks on. He had even combed out his beard. The sleep hadn’t distorted the beard a great deal, but then again, Quin hadn’t exactly moved all day.

  I guess sleeping like the dead had its upside. No bed head.

  Should I go back and describe him in the pyjamas?

  Quin’s pyjama bottoms had been black, not overly impressive. What had caught my attention were the muscles under the skin. Once one got over the scars and the brand on his chest, the rest was just pure, unadulterated man. It made me bite my lip just thinking about him going around shirtless.

  Though, I couldn’t much complain about him in formal wear either.

  “If you didn’t want me to preen, you should have chosen a different colour,” I muttered, slipping the tablet around my neck and settling it under the collar of my shirt. “Like a nice grey, maybe.”

  “You look good in red,” he repeated.

  I arched an eyebrow at him.

  He smiled back in response. “You keep doing that, and I’ll be tempted to give you a nip.”

  “Oh?” I asked. “Give it a shot.”

  He slipped into the bathroom and had his hands on me before I realized what was going on. One hand grabb
ed my braid, the other slipped down to the small of my back, pulling me close. He bent and captured my lips, tongue thrusting into my mouth.

  It took all I was to keep my feet under me.

  You read about those kisses, or hear tales from others, but you think they’re the exception to the rule. You never stop to think, ‘hey, maybe I’ve only been with bad kissers before.’

  His hands tightened, focusing my full attention on him and his tongue as it slipped out of my mouth.

  A fiery need was slowly consuming me.

  I had never just slept beside a man, not when we were both alone. I had never had one who was so controlling around me.

  And then the fiery need turned to a burning which focused almost entirely on my mouth. I felt as if I had just bitten into a hot pepper. While I was a fan of spicy things, I didn’t like it in combination with the lingering coffee flavour.

  “Why does it burn?” I asked.

  “I may have gulped some pepper juice,” he said with a toothy grin. “It seems to have the effect of countering the venom, or perhaps makes us salivate so much that our mouths are clean of it. Worth it, though, to see that fog come over your eyes.”

  “You need your caps,” I said.

  “Everything is on lockdown until the Council wakes. They take their damned time these days.”

  “So, no vampire is allowed out before the Council?” I asked.

  “Not really, it’s more of that no vampire business can happen while they are sleeping. What we’re doing tonight is most definitely vampire business. My guy is arriving tonight with the phones too, and Sasha’s guy is supposed to get back to me about who keeps taking my guys. They take that sort of thing seriously.”

  “You’re avoiding the main topic of discussion.”

  “And then I’ll kill him. It’s on my list of things to do today.”

  “Like it’s a shopping list or something?” I asked. “And since when is it kill? Just maim gently. I’m joking, don’t get that look. You need to tell them what to do and let them handle it. It’s their mess.”