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

  The Great Maker already has an important part. She raises the dead: vampires. She was said to be striving to bring her consort back from the dead, to make him a vampire to rule by her side forever more. However, their bloodlines are not compatible.

  Werewolf?

  How did you know?

  Books and myth say the two can’t become one, but, for some reason, someone’s always trying to make it happen.

  I never thought of it like that. The notion that werewolves and vampires are fighting one another is a relatively new one. While we have had our fights and disagreements, we’ve only once been at all-out war. Vampires tend to kill others with a bite, and vampire plus werewolf blood equals a bad time.

  It’s also frankly insulting that humans think we’d waste our time hunting down werewolves over territory wars when they are packs and we tend to be loners. The idea of a lone vampire thinking he or she could win against a pack of wolves is just stupid.

  Because it’s not true?

  No, because they would outnumber us. A pack of wolves against a vampire, the pack wins. Trust me. I’ve had to deliver one of us to them for punishment. It’s been seven hundred years, and he still hasn’t put himself back together yet.

  And they keep his balls in a jar.

  Wait, is that what happened six months ago?

  What?

  The scarring.

  Oh, right, yes, but I work with the wolves. They give me something I crave and I let them play with me to see how to take down a vampire more efficiently. I do have a bit of a hate on for my own race, which I really think is understandable.

  Though, I’m not certain I want to go back. Last time I did a single wolf ripped into my genitals and then beat me with my own flesh. It’s not a pleasant thing, and I should probably find someone else to play with since that was one of the ones I had been working with. Her pack just sat back and watched… then got out of her way when she was finished.

  Werewolves sound kind of bad ass.

  A little bit.

  Anyhow, according to myth, the Great Alpha and the Great Maker were consorts. Both being equal to the other. Both species say this too, so even if the Great Maker was a product of science, likely she had a werewolf lover at some point, and it made a huge impact on both species.

  The Great Maker had seven daughters by her consort. He had one daughter by his consort. Though I’m not certain if that is adopted, turned or honest to goodness biological children.

  His daughter took on some of her mother, she was born immortal or very close to it. Which is how the Great Maker knew that her consort could be turned, just not the how. Though, no one seems able to tell me what happened to the Great Alpha’s daughter after her father passed.

  The Great Maker’s children were born unable to carry a child to term, whereas their sister could but only if it were a great leader that she carried. The kind of leader you hear about in myth and legend.

  Like Alexander the Great?

  As a comparison, yes, I suppose.

  Now, The Great Maker was known as a healer. So were her daughters. I believe that is where the vampire blood healing mortals myth comes in. If it’s true, the power didn’t extend beyond the first generation. When I say healing, I don’t mean self-healing, I mean the kind of healing humans attribute to vampire blood.

  That part of the story would also suggest that the Elders who are hiding in the corners of our society, those whispered of in the dark, are still capable of this thing. It would suggest that it is a power of the original seven, which was then transferred to their Progeny.

  If only we could find one to ask.

  The cull then removed that power, because there wasn’t enough time for the younger vampires to inherit the skill. If any of the sisters survived, they’ve either not passed it on, or have but without the newer vampire knowing what had happened.

  The Great Maker is said to be all things vampire. She holds all the powers. She can kill any vampire at anytime. One myth claims that she made an immortal, mortal. Which suggests that she can take back whatever makes us vampire.

  While her consort was alive, she was normal. She loved and laughed and spoke with her children as both Maker and Mother would.

  When he died, grief drove her mad. She separated from her daughters. They were left struggling with what they were, only then coming into their own. They were still fledgelings compared to her and to what I am today. Too young to understand what was still happening to them.

  They made other vampires by mistake, thinking it was all right to bite mortals. It’s possible that they didn’t know any better, that the Great Maker cannot create vampires the way the rest of us do.

  The story sounds like they hadn’t created Progeny before, which by our timeline and growth period, we know that means that about five hundred years after the birth of their daughters, the consort died.

  With the new vampires, the daughters tried to get a hold of their mother. The first to find her was captured by followers and bled.

  For in the time between the consort’s death and when the first Progeny was made, the Great Maker had turned to magics.

  She went among the mortals as a priestess might, surrounding herself with those weak of will but fierce in loyalty. They bred like animals for her, going this way and that as she dictated. Those who were considered inferior blood were used as fodder.

  Not for her, but to capture the daughter who tried to ask for help.

  The daughter was hung and bled repeatedly, the Great Maker drinking deeply of the one who dared defy her.

  This is where the story begins to get foggy. The vampires paint a picture of anger and insanity. They understand that the Great Maker was grieving and they are afraid of her and what she’s capable of.

  They still view her as a villain, however. But that villainy is much like how Lu is viewed.

  While we want to be rid of Lu, his ‘other,’ Death, is a necessary evil. Even all these centuries later, with Death no longer serving the purpose of the Council.

  Lu, on the other hand, views the Great Maker as a victim. She was grieving. She couldn’t look at her daughters without being reminded of all she had lost and the eternity that stretched before her.

  At first, she tried to take her own life, but nothing worked. And she tried hard. Threw herself into a volcano, burned alive, hung, poisoned. Everything she tried failed. She lived through it all.

  She wanted to die. She wanted her misery to end and yet her child tracked her down and whined about having a child of her own, having life and laughter in her life. Something the child shouldn’t have done, she should have known better and respected her mother.

  Disrespect of a parent is the same as murder in Lu’s eyes. Well, worse I suppose. Lu never had a fit over murder and torture. One rumble about disrespecting a Maker though, and he would lose his mind.

  Hasn’t he killed Makers before, at the behest of the children?

  More recently, yes. Those executions weren’t so much him doing the bidding of a Progeny as his making certain he could still do that work. The closer to modern times we came, the weaker Lu became.

  His beliefs about serving a Maker, however, have always remained the same. He has a list of his own, and each of those Progeny who asked for their Maker to be killed are on that list.

  I mean, I was thrown out of his house, banished from his sight unless he calls, because I wouldn’t participate in his bed games. But if he found out that I was killing his play things on purpose? Not just for that little time either, before and after as well. Or that I’m the one who kept breaking his trade lines?

  He’d see it as the ultimate sin because to him one respects their parents no matter what. Your opinion doesn’t matter, only that of your father.

  When you become a vampire what your blood parents want no longer matters, the only thing that matters is what your Maker wants and what you can do to please them. Some Progeny have no ability to deny their Makers at all. Those who could used to be culled before they cou
ld pass it on.

  Anyhow, the other sisters heard about the one who had been captured. They came together and went to see the Great Maker as one, bringing their daughters with them. They made no demands, broke no rules while they were there.

  They very politely asked for their sister back. From both versions, I’ve heard, they were polite the first time. Lu says that they were false in their submission, but that they still submitted to their mother. The rest believe that they were very polite.

  It was their mother after all, and not just a Maker. They knew that she was grieving the loss of her consort, so they were polite as one should be with a woman who has just lost the love of her life.

  It is said, in some stories, that they brought blood bags from all over the world as a trade, to appease their mother.

  Like bringing wine after a breakup?

  I believe so. Except obviously, this was not a breakup. You don’t bring a widow wine, even if she asks for it. Especially if she asks for it. Doing that ends badly for everyone involved.

  The Great Maker was upset that her daughters came asking for the seventh of them. She threw them out of her territory, driving them off.

  They came together some distance away and talked. For many years, they talked and plotted and planned. Eventually, it was decided that the Great Maker had to be destroyed.

  She wasn’t just affecting them by that point. She had begun spreading her influence, taking over the whole of the world and building a monument to herself.

  At least, that’s what they said. Lu says she was building a tomb for her consort. A monument to his memory. The seventh sister was bound and buried at the heart of the monument as a blood offering.

  I can never imagine missing another so much that I would sacrifice my child to try and bring them back.

  Not even your mute lover?

  Not even him. If killing Lu would bring him back, I’d do it in an instant, but my child? No, never.

  So, the remaining six scoured the world for the archivist. They found him—

  Wait, what? What archivist?

  That’s the thing. I don’t know where he came from or what he was. I just know that there was an archivist. Androgen believes this archivist found my mute and had him turned as a replacement, but is uncertain. And when Androgen comes to you and says that the answer is unclear, you believe it.

  All of vampire history is before Androgen. The answers to questions are in that voice of its, but the voice is rarely heard. The point of the archivist is to keep the records, not to tell others all the dirty secrets.

  Wouldn’t Androgen know, then, about Death and Wraith?

  So? The secret is kept like so many others neither of us would ever bring it up. That’s what an archivist does. Like a priest or a... psychiatrist.

  The six, however, were very much like royalty. They found him, made the necessary rituals, and gave unto him one gift which no other immortal or supernatural creature might claim.

  The mute?

  Perhaps. Recall, myth says that no man could be turned, but then… the mute was no man.

  With the gift secured, the archivist delivered unto them a way to kill one of their own. He taught them the ways of vampire murder. He knew much and told them that it was possible for them to kill the Great Maker but that all involved had to be pure in their decision to do the deed.

  They had to all want her dead. For real, not just in lip service to the others.

  The sisters left the archivist in his place hidden in the ancient world and returned home.

  In the seat of civilization—no, that’s not the translation.

  I don’t think you’ll be able to find the word by speaking other languages. I can’t tell you if it’s a closer translation.

  It’s a term modern humans have used.

  With ‘of civilization’? What about cradle?

  Yes! In the cradle of civilization, the Great Maker continued to build her monuments. One after another, over and over. None were good enough, she would abandon the building and move on. That first one still had her daughter in the middle of it, having never been moved. The Great Maker wasn’t going to risk moving her until the proper monument was built.

  This is now thousands of years later, for learning the way of murder is not easy.

  The sisters gathered the necessary items from across the world. This took some time as roads were not common then, they had to travel through dense forest and impassable marshes to collect what they needed.

  When each item was finally collected, they gathered just outside of the Great Maker’s territory. They began founding a race, creating a civilization of their own. The act of which took much planning, and at any time any of the sisters could have walked away, and the others could take up the fight.

  It was only those who walked onto the battlefield who had to be firm of heart and soul. They all said that there as no shame in turning away and they were very determined. There was not a single doubt in their hearts.

  After so long, surely their mother would never come back to herself.

  So, they sent their civilization against hers. They started a war from one direction and entered the territory from the other. While the Great Maker was struggling to keep the new people from destroying what she had worked so long for, her daughters swooped in to rescue their sibling.

  They found their sister and freed her. Their daughters took the freed sister out of the territory and far away. Myth says so that the children could care for their aunt. I think they did it as any Maker sends their child away.

  It was time to cleave them off, and because none of the sisters expected to live. The powers that the sisters had would have transferred to their children by then. They would have been the Elders that the other vampires remember them as.

  Like elves, almost. Those first Progeny were to other vampires as elves were to humans.

  The six sisters headed for the battlefield.

  They caught their mother unaware. Before the Great Maker knew what was happening, she was physically fending off her daughters. They ripped at her as harpies might, attacking in the light of day as the battle of mortals continued.

  The mortals saw their gods fighting and found their resolve, decimating the Great Maker’s army even as she took the upper hand from her daughters. She beat them back with powers they hadn’t known she had.

  They fought so long that the sun set on their battle.

  In the end, she won. Barely, but she did. Not because they were weak in resolve, but because she had something they hadn’t known about.

  A Progeny.

  What?

  Her Progeny had obviously slept through the day. Upon waking, he knew what his orders were. He was to help with the war. Help he did. But when he saw his Maker being attacked by whores, he attacked them. They didn’t expect him. They certainly didn’t expect two of him.

  Oh, my God!

  Lu says he learned to project from his Maker, but he would have been too young to have multiple powers. I think. The transference of power happens faster than I told you last night, but I don’t think it was that fast.

  The splitting must have come later from somewhere else. Or perhaps he simply embellished his tale later to make himself seem more impressive.

  I’m also pretty certain that he believes his Maker is the mother of our species.

  There’s something to say about the stories Lu told me, considering that I knew there was a problem as he told it to me. Most of us just glaze over the bumps in the stories, at least until you came along.

  I’m like an annoying, helpful NPC.

  You really are, truly, entirely, annoying. Ow! Don’t hit your Maker.

  Not my Maker.

  If I must turn you just so I can say that without you responding in that tone, I will. Where was I?

  Lu making errors in the story.

  Right.

  He tells the story as if it were his Maker standing on the field, fighting for the Great Maker. Which is an odd thing for him to do, cons
idering the fact that Bau is female and he previously admitted that she was his Maker. The one who stood in his version was male.

  The daughters of the Great Maker were not expecting another vampire to step onto the field, let alone a man. Again, let alone a man who could make two of himself and attack as both actively. He was glutted on blood from the battle below, and they were weary from a long fight.

  In the end, they were driven back.

  The other side of that story is a little different. Other vampires say that the sisters stepped onto the field and felt remorse over what they must do. They had a guilty conscious. Their hearts wavered, and so they failed to kill their Maker.

  They simply couldn’t do that to their mother, no matter how mad she had become. They fled the battle, the Great Maker being declared the winner by default.

  According to the general myth—what those besides Lu say—that was when the Great Maker made a new vampire. Myth says she found a man laying, waiting for death and turned him, and called his name for the world to hear.

  Death.

  Yes.

  Of course, general myth conflicts with Lu’s turning story. Or, at least what I assume is his turning story. Though his reasons for being turned are the same as given for the Great Maker’s new Progeny.

  Word spread that the Great Maker had turned a man to punish her daughters for their treachery. She cursed them and wished upon them Death itself. She swore and tore out her hair and declared that, though they were protected from their daughters, the children of those daughters might kill them.

  And so, she spoke and so it was. No Progeny can kill their Maker.

  Only new vampires are affected by her new commands when they are all reaching like that. A cull was necessary. The Great Maker went with her Progeny and taught him the old ways.

  The old ways?

  That’s what everyone says. I don’t know if that means that she taught him how the Elders killed one another, or a way older than her daughters.

  At this point, the Elders did discover that they might kill one another, and so the second era of vampire began.

  Word spread quickly, and rivals would kill one another. The only exception were those called Elder, the sisters and original vampires.