At Death's Door (Wraith's Rebellion Book 1) Page 10

  “So, I should fix it,” Sasha said glumly.

  “No, you have no obligation to have sex with a man because he finds you arousing. I brought it up only to see your reaction.

  “How many times must I tell you? Men have two hands and know how to use them. You don’t have to prostrate yourself before them because they have a small problem.”

  “That doesn’t look like a small problem.”

  Okay, no one is going to care how big your dick is.

  Of course, they’ll care. Women want their heroes to have giant cocks. Like swords or cucumbers in size.

  Though, admittedly, while I was large for the time, I do not boast a traffic cone.

  Who would compare a dick to a traffic cone?

  Why does your voice keep getting higher?

  I’d offer to show you, but women of this age do not appreciate a cock being whipped out, and I respect that.

  Let’s talk about the elephant in the car, vampire sex.

  Vampire sex can be rough at times. Especially if it involves Lu.

  We go through phases of sex. Lots of it for a period, then we can go centuries without. Longest time without actual sex is Androgen, you two will meet. Androgen hasn’t had sex in almost five hundred years if one believes the rumours.

  Fledglings tend to have a lot. Makers typically find themselves more sexual after turning a Progeny. Or finding a mortal who would make a suitable vampire.

  For Lucrecia, sex was tapering off. She understood my position, however, and made certain that I had a steady stream of maidens. Many visited more than once. They had such a wide range of sexual desires.

  Sasha was just beginning to explore her sexuality. Her mortal life had not been comfortable. Lucrecia found Sasha in a city, being manipulated by lords into sexual favours. Her uncertainty traces back to her childhood.

  Lucrecia was trying to break Sasha of the belief that she had to see to a man’s arousal. She was very much about pleasing men when we first met.

  I would, eventually, sleep with Sasha. That was as far as that went. We more of view each other as siblings. Our life as mortals was just of such stuff that we were so fucked up that we thought what was between us was sexual frustration.

  It was not.

  Do vampires have the awkward morning after?

  Think of a one night stand, that embarrassment you felt. Then think of having to see that person every day for all of eternity. All of it. Not some of it.

  There are about four thousand vampires worldwide. Four thousand. Have you ever lived in a small town? Four thousand is not a lot. And you always end up dealing with the same people. The vampires you see on television are also the same ones who have appeared in my life over the centuries.

  We all move with the Archives now, following the Council. Lucrecia lives in the area as well. She simply flies to other places.

  So, that one awkward night back in the eighth century when we went to that fertility festival and drank way too much wine comes up every couple of decades.

  Yes, in response to your question, yes, we have the awkward morning after. Except it’s worse. You couldn’t even kill them like you could if you slept with a mortal and regretted it.

  Wait, so sleep with a vampire, risk being killed?

  Not anymore, because we’re not allowed to kill mortals.

  Humans.

  Mortals, no vampire is allowed to take the life of mortals. Honest to goodness, that’s what the law says. There is fine print, but it’s not what you think. It’s more like. We can kill to save innocents.

  In the end, our laws are not firm. They are baselines. There is a law saying none may do work with Lu. However, some of us do, we feed him work enough to keep him comfortable.

  And in one damned place.

  If he is kept in books, it’s safer. He can’t buy books if he has no money.

  Lucrecia taught me about vampires and mortals. She showed me the rituals and traditions. When it came the time, she showed me how to begin my stock and how to keep them firm.

  She was everything that Lu was not.

  For me, the most difficult lesson was that pain is not equal to love. Since I was five, that was all it had been. I hadn’t been hugged or kissed or caressed. To my mind, one was not loved unless there was pain.

  It was difficult to learn. Not only that pain and love should be separated, but that I had a problem with it. When it finally came to a head, I watched Sasha be beaten mercilessly for killing a stock who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  Killing stock is forbidden, but she should have handed the stock over to Lucrecia, who would have settled the discipline.

  If the man had been a mere man, she would not have been disciplined. She knew the man was stock as well. Had she not known, the punishment would be a great deal less severe.

  Stock are all identifiable if you know where to look.

  Really? Give me an example.

  The dandelion that turns into birds tattoo? Yeah. We have an artist with almost two thousand years of experience. That once belonged to his stock. He’s had to seriously consider changing it since it became popular.

  Anyhow, watching Sasha be beaten and hearing her cries made me upset, but not for the reason you might think. I was upset because she was being treated like that and Lucrecia would never raise her hand against me.

  I ended up crying.

  Yes, I may be Mr. Fedora, but I am also capable of crying. Stock dying does it to me every time.

  Don’t mistake the noun for them as meaning that we don’t treat them like family. It is simply a word that makes it easier for you to identify what I am talking about. We care for them. We pay their way, keep them healthy, watch them grow. They are our connection back to humanity.

  Lucrecia asked me what was wrong, but I didn’t have the words to explain. I knew a great deal, but the concept of emotional abuse was foreign to me. It had been done to me, but because I didn’t know it was possible, I thought it was just how things were done.

  I did manage to get out something that she understood.

  She caused me the pain I needed, and I felt normal once more. Or at least, for a time.

  Not knowing if it was my sexual preference or my time with Lu, she introduced me to the Devils. A group of vampires who live life more closely with what you would expect.

  Even they have compassion for other vampires.

  They believe in rough, bloody sex. Torturing mortals is their favourite thing to do. From them, I learned the darker things of being a vampire. To hunt humans, cover my tracks, and to finally become a sadist.

  Are you proud of being a sadist?

  I enjoyed my time with the Devils and the screams of my victims. I preyed on all types, the weak, the defenseless, right on to the evil and strong. I must say, I do prefer being a vigilante. There’s something about their death that pleases me so much.

  I have killed innocents. Both for no reason, as well as to save more innocents.

  Why?

  Why not? When I was first turned, no one noticed for certain. You give a man ultimate power, and he will become an ultimate monster.

  So, you did it for shits and giggles?

  Pretty well.

  It’s out of my system. While I sometimes entertain willing victims, I also have tasted the finer, softer loves.

  Sasha and Lucrecia were my anchor points. Every time I got too far away, they reeled me back in. There was no judgment there, not when I slaughtered a family because Lucrecia denied me Maker’s Blood as punishment, or when I snapped Sasha’s neck for trespassing. It was all water under the bridge for them.

  Though, Lucrecia did hit me for that last point.

  In all, it took two hundred more years to wean me from the blood. We managed it without emptying the bottle. Lucrecia’s trick of taking a drop and allowing it to settle in her system was just ingenious.

  It hasn’t saved anyone else, but it could. Four hundred years after my weaning, Lucrecia drew me back in and recreated my turning. By that
point, I had told her how it had happened and the Council had spoken to Lu.

  Recreating the turning is cathartic, it’s a reminder of where we came from. Despite how I changed and how I spent the first hundred years of my life, having that done over just washed everything away. You feel like you’re looking at the world with new eyes.

  What about your Maker?

  I saw him on and off. Every once in a while, we’d stumble onto one another. Once you know who the vampires are, especially in the early centuries, it’s so damned hard not to stumble over them. Few of us were sedentary for long.

  He was under city arrest.

  That never stopped Lu. He’d find me, tie me up, drain me to the point of passing out and then have his way with me until I recovered and escaped.

  Approximately nine hundred years after being turned, my Maker summoned me. I attended, unable to say why I went to see him. As he had never called me before, I didn’t know.

  The pull of the Maker’s call is indescribable. Almost irresistible. After so long apart, I thought perhaps he had changed.

  He had not.

  You saw him for centuries before, so...

  So?

  This doesn’t sound right.

  Shut up and let me tell my story, my way. Or I’ll eat you.

  That’s not a nice thing to say.

  Where was I?

  Not only had he not changed, but in the wake of our meeting, he tried to have me put to death. Everything I did, he told the Council. Everything. I once killed a baby. I then received a summons from the Council who then proceeded to chastise me for doing something where others could see. I spent six months in a box because of that. Six months without feeding!

  And then I was only released because Death came in and killed Council members while looking for me. They hadn’t given up my location but had suffered something terrible. Death killed several of them. For a hundred years, the Council went without enough members, to remind themselves of that.

  In response to the attack, Wraith reacted. No one knows how or why, but he showed up with Death’s weapon and ripped it in two. He gave those pieces to the Council, who hid the items.

  Wait. Back there, they seemed to imply that Death let them have it.

  That is not what happened.

  Death didn’t quit?

  More like, he was fired. He attacked the Council, but they don’t keep records. There are perhaps seven vampires alive who know what happened.

  So, you summed up fourteen hundred years...

  This is about so much more than time. Sasha and Lucrecia were there throughout. Sasha was on the Council that put me in that box. She was the one who let me out.

  They have been the constant, my family.

  After Wraith ripped the tool in two, something like twenty percent of us fell ill. I have no idea why Margaret claims only fourteen were sick.

  I was included in those who took ill. Sasha and Lucrecia were not sick. They cared for me and my stock in my absence, using my detailed records to do so. It took approximately seventy years for all of us to become healthy again.

  When Death’s stock, your ancestors, were released, I was still sick. I didn’t get any of the stock, unfortunately. Some were allowed to go free based on willingness to serve. Not harming the stock of others is so ingrained that we don’t eat stock that refuses to go to a new vampire, simply allow them to go free.

  By that time, let’s see, it was the eighteenth century. Disgusting time. Ugh, malnutrition. Feeding on lords and ladies was fun, but they tasted terrible. I can’t even say why that particular century sucked so much. Perhaps it was because some of us tried feeding on animals, the flavour of mortals was off that much.

  Even the stock flavour seemed more bland than usual. Only a little better than the general population. The industrial revolution didn’t help any.

  Smog tastes bad.

  I haven’t seen Lu since the baby incident. He’s moved around, and there are those who know where he is, including someone I’m going to call. This vampire was on the Council when Wraith ripped the tool apart.

  In the twentieth century, the archives were moved to Canada, they have been in a few places since then, not just this city. I have moved with them, settled near them.

  Lucrecia, of course, served on the Council and has been in the same area of the Archives since then. When we chose to come out, she was voted as the ambassador due to her beliefs and ability to both read minds and glamour mortals. Harder to assassinate someone if they know what you’re thinking.

  I suppose that’s the end of my story.

  “You suck at this. You know that?”

  “There’s a lot to go over,” Quin said. “That was supposed to be more about Sasha and Lucrecia than it turned into. However, this is her apartment, and we’re out of time. I’ll have to drop you off.”

  “But you haven’t made the call yet.”

  Quin pulled out his phone and placed it at his ear.

  “You keep calling this number like I fucking care,” he said. He was silent a moment, then he frowned. “Say that again? Okay? And? Ah, no, calm down. That’s not even possible. No, don’t burn it down. I’m headed your way right now. Don’t move.”

  He hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket.

  “Out of the car, now.”

  I got out immediately, and Quin was out and walking towards the apartment across the street as I rushed to catch up to him.

  “What’s going on?”

  Quin responded in another language. It sent a thrill through me because it was yet another language. At the glass doors of the large building, he seemed to clench his jaw, then turned to me and set a hand on my shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, though.”

  “Now I am worrying,” I said. “Because you spoke in a language I don’t know, without thinking. Classic stress reaction, reverting to a more comfortable language.”

  “That was the vampire I was to call. He has information for me. Thought he saw Death.”

  “Fun,” I said in a cheery voice as the door opened.

  Sasha, the petite vampire from the archives, stopped and stared at Quin for a long moment before she looked at me. Her eyes settled on the tablet around my neck.

  “Should I shut this off?” I asked.

  “No, but you should charge it while upstairs, just in case. I’ll take her. You see him. He’s called Androgen sobbing.”

  “Why is he bothering Androgen?” Quin demanded.

  “He owes Androgen. And you know that face, and how Androgen likes to haunt those who owe. Go, before he calls again.”

  Quin turned on his heel and left. Sasha sighed and looked at me.

  “Come in.”

  I stepped into the building, and she pulled me very quickly across the lavish entrance way.

  A man was standing by the door in a grey doorman uniform. Everything was marble and fake gold. I didn’t even attempt to get an outside description or something of the street. Where Sasha, or any other vampire, lives is only her business.

  Sasha all but pushed me into an elevator and hit a button. I’m not comfortable with sharing which floor it was. Just in case, stalkers can come from the strangest places. I don’t believe anyone could cause her physical harm, but she would probably kill anyone who tried.

  And the Council would probably let her get away with it too.

  Sasha was a petite woman. Her hair was dyed blonde and cut short, then spiked. She wore coloured contact lenses which were pretty obvious. I think her real eye colour was brown.

  Quin hadn’t exaggerated when he had likened her to a pixie. When she was in an active conversation, she was witty and quick. Silent, as we were in the elevator, she had a resting murder face.

  You know resting bitch face?

  Resting murder face is worse than that. She looked like she was plotting murder. That was not because she was plotting my murder, but because she simply looked like that.

  She was dressed differently. Even though she must
have arrived perhaps ten minutes before we did, she had already changed into workout pants and a loose t-shirt. No shoes on her feet, nothing in her pockets.

  Sasha was up on the balls of her feet when the doors of the elevator opened. She stepped out and looked around before making a motion to me. I stepped off behind her, aware that this was odd.

  Loose, almost workout clothing. Up on the balls of her feet, peering around.

  I’m not an expert with fighting, but her behaviour put me on edge. I felt as if she were looking around for an attacker of some sort.

  We stepped off the elevator and directly into her apartment. There was no door between the two, no walls separating them.

  I think Sasha just ate anyone who visited without permission.

  “Plug in there,” she said with a faint motion.

  I moved to the spot and plugged in my tablet. I quickly did a search for the timeline Quin had given me.

  His Maker had called him during the Black Death.

  “Black Death and vampires,” I said loudly.

  It wasn’t until I looked up that I recalled Quin hadn’t come with us.

  I also got an eye full of the contemporary styling of Sasha’s home. Everything looked new, like it had been in a store’s display and Sasha had ordered the entire thing. Right down to the ten dollar prints on the wall.

  The apartment didn’t feel like her home, so much as a hotel she had rented for a while.

  “Sickness helps hide bodies. Vampires can feed openly,” Sasha said as she set a cup before me. “This is better than coffee. How long have you been up?”

  “I was under the impression this was a night only job,” I said. “So, I switched during the past week. Got up about five in the evening, got ready and headed to the cafe.”

  “So, you might make it to sunrise. Drink that.”

  I pulled it towards myself and sipped. There was a nutty, terrible sort of taste. I grimaced and looked at Sasha.

  “I use it as a sexual stimulant mainly,” She said with a little smile. “You’re asking about the Black Death because that was the last time Quin got fucked hard by Lu. I know. Those two are just so bad for one another.