Blinding Light (The Bloodmarked Trilogy Book 2) (8 page)

Trust wasn’t exactly my main concern at the moment, but I relaxed into his touch and soothing voice. My world was about to be rocked for about the billionth time in the past few days, and falling on my ass into a puddle of my own failure seemed inevitable at this point.

Helen reentered the room wearing jeans and an oversized flannel shirt, her hair pulled back in a small ponytail. The smile on her face brightened when she stopped to look me over, revealing fine lines on either side of it.

“I can’t believe it. After all these years, I finally get to meet you. You look so much like her, it’s surreal,” she lamented.

When she came around the coffee table and sat on the other end of the sofa, she angled toward us and relaxed into the cushion, one leg hitched up under her.

A show of such open admiration made me itchy, so I decided to kick things off with business. “You mentioned you’re a part of a secretive group. What group would that be?”

“Yes, I am. We call ourselves the Keepers. Well, we didn’t come up with the name. Our organization has been around for generations, since the beginning of vampires. We have several factions that span the globe. Our primary goal is to follow the bloodlines of any remaining descendants of the Light vampires.

“Ever since it was prophesized that someone from the Light line, who we refer to as Daymarked, would wipe out the Dark line, or Shadowmarked, a select group of humans who had knowledge of vampires took it upon themselves to keep track of everything. It was said that they were visited by angels in their dreams who told them about the vampires, but that’s all hearsay.

“So it’s always been our duty to protect this line. Ever since the Dark vampires learned of the prophecy, they hunted any remaining Light lines down, killing them off one by one. There wasn’t much left of them, anyhow, after the First nearly wiped them out in the beginning.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I stopped her, shaking my head in disbelief. It was almost information overload. “I’m sorry. I’m not used to getting so many answers,” I said meaningfully, looking back at Gavin, who was the picture of innocence until I made eye contact.

The sexy half grin was back and working to its full effect on every last one of my hormones. And those eyes got all intense and bedroomy. Must get intensified vampire desires under control. Adding insult to injury, he winked to show he knew exactly what I was talking about and he wasn’t ashamed of himself in the least.

“Right,” Helen continued, drawing my attention back to important stuff. I heard Gavin clear his throat behind me and almost developed a raging case of lovesick teenager all over again at the throaty, masculine sound.

Jesus, get a grip woman. Important stuff. Very important stuff.

“Anyway, I guess I should start from the beginning,” she said, either not noticing or choosing to ignore the swell of angst in the room. “I’ll give you the condensed version of vampire history. The story goes that following Lucifer’s fall from God’s grace, he was so jealous of God’s love for humans, he took it upon himself to create his own race of creatures to love as his children.

“He mixed his blood with humans. Some were not strong enough to survive, but the ones who did experienced dramatic physical and mental changes, as you have experienced yourself, along with immortality. When the demon, Lilith, saw what Lucifer had done, she created her version of offspring. By mixing her blood with humans’, the effects were similar but came with more limitations.

“Since Lucifer was a high-ranking and incredibly powerful angel, his bloodline became strong and could walk in the daylight. Lilith’s blood created beings almost as powerful, but they couldn’t tolerate any amount of sunlight. She was always a creature of the night, thus creating more of the same. Her monsters became jealous of Lucifer’s and began killing the Daymarked vampires for power. Since Lilith’s blood wasn’t as powerful, she was able to create a larger number of beings than Lucifer could. The Daymarked were stronger but far outnumbered.

“When God saw what had happened, he cursed Lilith’s creations by taking their souls and any souls tainted by them, leaving them empty, and thus, in need of the very thing that created them. Blood.

“It is said that when God came to Lucifer’s children, he showed mercy. He gave them an opportunity to save their souls. Their souls were not taken from them but rather, they were kept in a sort of limbo. Should they commit the most heinous of sins and kill to feed their unnatural hunger, they would become the worst kind of monster.”

“So, what, you’re telling me I haven’t lost my soul?” I interrupted. “I can’t believe that. I don’t. You don’t know half the things I’ve done,” I gasped, trying to leash the self-loathing.

“I’m sorry, Lucy, but I’m not trying to make assumptions about you. I’m just giving you the vampire theory of Creation. That’s pretty much the gist of how they came to be.”

“So I really am the spawn of Satan,” I reflected. “Awesome. My week just got better.” I rested my elbows on my knees and rubbed my hands over my face in frustration.

“You shouldn’t see it as a curse, but a gift. Lucy, your blood holds unprecedented power. I don’t think anyone has ever seen its potential. Don’t underestimate what your blood is capable of accomplishing. It can kill. Maybe it can heal. It’s limitless at this point, until you test its boundaries.”

It was a nice story, but I wasn’t sure I believed any of it. I guess it only mattered that the others believed it and, therefore, wanted me dead. I got that I came from a different line. There were many truths that came out of the story, but the hows and whys no longer mattered. I now lived in a world that demanded my head. All the hows and whys in my head wouldn’t stop the inevitable from happening, and there were only two possible inevitable scenarios. One, I get killed by vampires, or two, I fulfil the prophecy and kill the bad guys. Devising a strategy to make inevitable outcome number two come true got bumped to the top of my to do list.

“Helen, you said you guys watch for the Light bloodlines, or the Daymarked?” I asked for confirmation.

“Yes, and the Dark lines, the Shadowmarked. Collectively, we call them the Bloodmarked. We like to try to keep track of them in order to prevent them from turning, or taking care of them when they do. If they experience a great deal of blood loss at the age of their optimal health, they will inherit the bloodlust of their line.”

“What do you mean you take care of them? You hunt them?” I asked, incredulously.

“We do. We train every day. Like I said before, our primary goal is to preserve the Light bloodline in order to see the prophecy through, so we must keep in top fighting condition to protect it at any cost,” she answered.

“Doesn’t always work out, does it?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“My mother. My family. You knew about them, didn’t you? You said you followed the bloodlines. That’s why you were friends with my mother, right?”

“Lucy, I’m so sorry. I wish I could have been there, but there was nothing I could-,”

“I’m not blaming you. No one harbored more guilt than me over their deaths. I always knew it had something to do with me and my freakish tendencies. But the truth is, there was no stopping it. I know you must carry your own guilt, but there really was nothing you could have done. You shouldn’t have to do anything. It’s too dangerous.”

“We humans are quite capable of handling ourselves when the time comes to do just that,” she answered with an air of authority.

I was momentarily speechless.

A snort of humor came from behind me. I turned to level my gaze on him. There may have been a few instances when I chastised him for seeing humans as weak, even if I was taking it a little out of context. But this was different. I knew humans weren’t weak-minded, but physically, of course they were weaker than vampires.

Helen continued, taking advantage of my silence to make her case. “You’ll see when you come to our facility up north. We have a great team there that you’ll stay and train with yourself. You’ll see how skilled they are.”

“Wait, what?” I whipped my head around to glare at Gavin’s guilt-ridden eyes. “What?!”

“Lucy,” he pleaded. “I wasn’t trying to keep it from you. I thought if you heard what Helen had to say, you might be inclined to train with others who know something about fighting vampires.”

“You were silent the whole way here. You said nothing about where we were staying or who we would be staying with. Not to mention the fact that you’re putting a freshly turned vampire,” I pointed to myself for emphasis, “into a house full of humans.”

His expression shifted into something unreadable during my mini rant, but I was still fuming. Indicating Helen, I continued. “She knew where I was going, too. You kept something from me. Again.”

“Lucy, it’s not like that. I need to talk to you. Will you walk with me?” he begged.

I realized I was now standing above him, arms crossed. The clock above the desk ticked loudly and emphasized my hostility as I stared down at him with accusation clear in my eyes. Did he see me as some errant child, or did he not trust me enough to keep me in the know?

“Luce, please,” he begged, his voice wavering with desperation.

“Fine,” I snapped. I turned to Helen. “I’m sorry. I have to get out of here.”

“It’s okay. We’ll talk again soon. I think you’ll like Canada. It’s for the best.”

“Mmhmm,” was all I managed to get out before I practically sprinted out the door.

When we were outside I whipped around so fast I almost collided with Gavin, who had been hot on my heels the whole way out. He held my upper arms gently, steadying me. I nearly lost my anger, but not all of it.

“Canada!” I screamed.

He stood there quietly, absently rubbing his thumbs over my biceps as he waited for me to calm down. Oh no, not this time.

“No! This is bullshit! You want me to move to a different country like I’m in the witness protection program?” I demanded.

He simply rested his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. Letting out a heavy sigh, he said, “Yes, Lucy, I want you to be safe. Helen travels back and forth between here and Canada to oversee the team there when she’s not looking out for you. Come on. Let’s walk.”

The whole Canada thing didn’t bother me in the least. He knows I don’t handle having significant information dropped on me last minute. So why would he do it again? Whatever the reason for withholding it couldn’t be good. My mind raced with hypothetical worst-case scenarios, and before I knew it we were standing in a nearby park.

He stopped me under a large, frost-covered oak tree. “Lucy, we need to talk,” he started.

“Yeah. That’s kind of what we’re doing,” I retorted. He never had trouble voicing his thoughts before, aside from the ones he purposely hid from me. I braced for the bad news he was about to impart.

“I just… I want to make sure you’re okay, no matter what happens.”

Wow. He still sucked at sharing his secrets. It was almost painful to watch. I decided I should probably open up first to clear the air and, well, this was something I had been holding in for months that needed to be said. Getting real with each other was never our strong suit, but we had both postponed this encounter for far too long.

Here goes nothing.

With a deep inhale, I let it pour out of me in a rush. “Gavin, I like you. A lot. I think I might be falling for you, and I’m not sure if I’m already there or not, but I care about you. I’m tired of keeping all this in when we both know there’s something going on.” I realized I was rambling and reined it in to evaluate his expression.

It was completely blank. Big surprise. He let go of a long breath he seemed to be holding in before drawing out my name.

“Lucy,” he paused while he gathered his thoughts. I knew, then, that he wasn’t ready to address this particular topic, but I wasn’t going to let him off the hook.

“No evading this time, Gavin. I put it all on the line. Now it’s your turn. I need you to be honest with me about this for once,” I demanded.

His eyes hardened to ice blue, and he straightened his stance. “Lucy, I only came out here to tell you that you’re going to Canada alone. I’m not going with you. I’ve already arranged everything, and I have your passport here,” he said, reaching into his coat pocket.

I ignored the documents in his outstretched hand.

“What!” I yelled. “Are you serious?”

After what we’d been through together he just wanted to bail. Something didn’t add up.

“Look, Lucille, you need to let it go,” he explained, the threat clear in his voice.

“No, I’m not letting anything go until you tell me what the hell is going on. You need to man up and tell me something real! Do you or don’t you feel something for me?”

“No!” he shouted, his anger rising to match mine. “Whatever you think there is between us isn’t real. You were fun to be around, but we have to go our separate ways now. That’s it.”

Fun to be around? That’s it? Was he being serious? There was no way our time spent together could mean nothing to him. All those times he made me come to life, I knew he felt it too.  He had to.

“Bullshit,” I countered. “Did you already forget I can sense you? I know I wasn’t always alone when getting caught up in certain things.”

“Like I said, you were fun for a while. If you developed feelings, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lead you on.”