Kissed by Darkness (25 page)

“Or destroy it,” I agreed. “He doesn’t even need to find the Bloodline.”

“But that doesn’t make sense.” He shook his head. “I know he can destroy the world if he accesses the amulet, but he can only access it if he finds a descendent of the Bloodline. If he could access the amulet himself, he would have done so already. You’ve got to be wrong about that.”

I shook my head. “Not necessarily. If he’s descended of a Common Line, he’s not strong enough to access the amulet’s full power on his own, true, but there is another way. He has to perform a very specific ritual to release the power. Even members of the Priest and Warrior Lines can only access a tiny fraction of power unless they perform the ritual, unless they are directly descended from Varan or one of his Warriors like you are. Heck, even you can only access a certain amount.”

I did a mirror check. “That is why the amulet chose you in the first place. That was always the plan. A descendent of the original Warrior who delivered the last member of the Royal Bloodline to the Amazons should be the one to find and deliver the amulet to a Royal descendent, presumably so that he could access both the full knowledge and power contained in the amulet without having to perform the ritual.”

“So, that pretty much proves you are descended of the Warrior Priest Class, as well. That must be where this new ability is coming from, this Kissing the Darkness thing. If the Elemental Mages you mentioned were other descendents of the Priest Class and they lost their abilities over time as the Atlantean blood was watered down by human, it would explain your abilities,” Jack pointed out.

I mulled it over. “I guess that makes sense. Once I got close enough to the amulet at Darroch’s house it must have sensed me or something like that. That’s why I keep getting the dreams. Obviously it wants us to rescue it.”

Even to me that sounded a little weird. Referring to an object like it was a person who’d been kidnapped, but the amulet was starting to feel almost sentient. That old High Priest must have had some serious magic mojo to create it.

“Anyway …” Sure everything was in place, I turned away from the mirror. “We need to get it back so that you can do your job and find the right person to give it to. I prefer you find somebody
not
evil and creepy.”

Except something was bothering me about those dreams, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Unfortunately it was escaping me at the moment.

“Well come on, then. Let’s go save the world.” He opened my bedroom door and waved me outside.

I shoved aside my doubts and flashed him a grin. “And kick Darroch’s butt.”

His answering grin was frighteningly feral as he followed me out the door. “And definitely kick Darroch’s butt.”

Chapter Twenty

I was not entirely stupid, so before Jack and I did the whole breaking and entering thing, I sent a text to Kabita and Inigo to let them know where I was and what I was doing. Jack was one of the best fighters I’d ever seen. OK, he was the
best
fighter I’d ever seen (900 years of experience would do that), but Darroch had a lot of goons. Backup was never a bad idea.

“Doesn’t look like anyone’s home.” His voice was low in my ear. His breath tickled my skin and sent shivers through my body. Bad libido. Bad! This was so not the time to be acting up.

“He must have one hell of a night life. I swear the man is never home.” I scanned the grounds. Sure enough, two of the big, black cars I’d seen on the day of the barbecue were gone. Then again, I wasn’t discounting the possibility of a trap. Call me suspicious.

“How many times have you broken in?”

I shrugged. “This is only the second time. And lucky you, I’ve been here before. I know how to get in.”

“Good. You know where the amulet is kept.”

“Um. Not so much,” I admitted.

“So it could be anywhere.” Exasperation was clear in his voice, which resulted in some eye rolling on my part.

“Well, excuse me. I only had time to search the bedroom before he came home,” I sniped.

“It wouldn’t be in the bedroom.” He sounded very sure of himself.

I gave him a look. “What do you mean; it wouldn’t be in the bedroom? Wouldn’t he want to keep it close?” I guess I had a few things to learn about the fine art of burglary. Was it my fault I was better at killing things than stealing them?

Jack shook his head. His eyes glinted silver in the moonlight. “No. That’s the first place a burglar would look. There’s no way Darroch would allow that amulet to accidentally fall into the hands of some petty thief.” Now it was his turn to give me a look.

“I am not a petty thief.” I couldn’t help it if my voice came out a little snippy. “I was trying to get the amulet back for you. So it’s
your
fault.”

He laughed softly. His face was awfully close to mine. Wouldn’t take much for him to lean over and kiss me. I shivered with the thought. Despite the slight chill in the night air, I suddenly felt decidedly warm.

“Hey.” He reached out and stroked one finger down my cheek, leaving warm tingles in its wake. Oh, good lord, I was going to melt into a puddle right then and there. “When this is over, I’m taking you out for dinner. How do you feel about Italian?”

Did he just ask me out on a date? Seriously? “I, uh, I love Italian.” What could I say? I was a pizza kind of girl. I know. Italian food wasn’t just pizza, but it was still my favorite, especially if it was the real deal. Yum.

He flashed me a grin. “Great. I know this fantastic little spot just outside Rome. Very romantic.”

Rome? As in Italy? I think maybe I squeaked. The guy hadn’t even slept with me except in the literal sense and he wanted to take me to dinner in Italy? Holy crap, wait until Kabita heard about this. She was going to freak the heck out. I swear, sometimes I was so sixteen.

“Guess it’s now or never,” I said, playing it cool instead of blurting something stupid about Rome or Italy or dinner or even worse, begging him to throw me to the ground and have his way with me. Seriously, what was wrong with my libido lately? It was completely out of control. “Let’s go.”

He grabbed the back of my head and pulled me in for a quick, hard kiss before taking my hand and heading off across the lawn. Great. Now all I could think about was how warm and strong his hand was and how soft and full his lips were. How it made certain parts of me sit up and take notice. How much I wanted to kiss him again, strip him naked, climb on top and …

Honestly, had it been
that
long since I’d been with someone? Come to think of it, yeah. It had definitely been that long.

I led him around to the side of the house where the pantry window was. Unfortunately, this time it was locked up tight so we were going to have to find another way in. Dammit.

“Thought you said you knew the way in,” he hissed at me. I just glared at him and moved around to the back where I knew there was a nice, big sliding glass door. Push come to shove, a rock could accidentally make its way through said door.

Fortunately for the door, there was no need for mysterious flying rocks. Jack tested the door and it slid open easily. Call me crazy, but while I could accept an open mudroom window, a big ass sliding glass door left open was another story entirely. “Jack,” I hissed at him. “I don’t think … “

It was too late. The light inside snapped on and Brent Darroch sat there in all his creepy Julian Sands glory. He looked for all the world like some kind of wannabe king with his velvety high-backed armchair, surrounded by his neck-less goon squad minus Clive and the scrawny guy. Only instead of a scepter, he held a very large pistol. Freaking fantastic.

There was no point in running back the way we came. A quick glace over my shoulder revealed Clive and Scrawny lurking behind me, Clive with a smug look on his face and a really big gun in his hand. Damn. He ushered us inside with a wave of his gun for an audience with his majesty. Scrawny took up the rear.

“Welcome back, Miss Bailey.” Darroch’s oily voice sent chills down my spine. Not the good kind either. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon. And my old friend, Jackson Keel, how lovely to see you. It’s been, what, at least ten, fifteen years.”

“Twenty,” Jack growled. I could see the muscles working in his jaw. If he wasn’t careful he was going to grind his teeth flat. I wondered vaguely if a Sunwalker’s teeth could regenerate like the rest of him. I’d have to ask him sometime. You know, when we weren’t about to die horrible, agonizing deaths.

Darroch waved his hand airily. “Has it truly been that long? Well, six of one, half dozen of the other. Isn’t that how the saying goes, Miss Bailey?” I ignored him. “Well, I really must thank you both for being so accommodating. When I planned this all out I had no idea it would be so … easy.” He smirked at us.

“You’ve got the amulet, Darroch. You’ve had it for twenty years. Why do you need us?” Jack snarled. “You took it the same night you … ” He broke off. The look on his face told me something really nasty had happened that night twenty years ago.

Darroch smirked. “Yes, the same night I killed your little plaything. It was such a pity. I wouldn’t have minded having her to myself for awhile.”

The sound Jack made could only be described as a scream. It made my blood run cold. There was so much hate and anger in that scream. He launched himself at Darroch, but Scrawny threw himself in front of Jack, and slammed him halfway across the room with a single kick. Damn, but he was good.

Jack may have been a 900 year old warrior, but he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell against Scrawny, who’d obviously seen one too many Jet Li movies. I tried to help, but Darroch waved me back with his gun.

Next thing I knew, Clive waded into the fray and knocked Jack on the head with the butt of his gun, dazing him. Clive and Scrawny made short work of tying Jack up and propping him against the nearest wall.

Jack may have been dazed, but he wasn’t out and he was still pissed. “Darroch, you fucking … I will kill you for what you did.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Keel. You don’t have a chance in hell of touching me. So stop being so melodramatic.” He waved his hand airily and Clive kicked Jack viciously in the ribs, sending him toppling sideways.

“Darroch, you jack ass, what did you do that for?” I snapped. “He’s already tied up. What
do
you want us for, anyway?”

Darroch looked at me from hooded eyes. Eyes as cold and dead as the vampires I killed. I knew without a doubt then that twenty years ago Darroch had somehow murdered a two thousand year old Sunwalker. A Sunwalker who’d been important to Jack. Whether she’d been just a friend or more than that I didn’t know and didn’t care. It wasn’t the time for personal vendettas. It was the time for surviving and surviving meant finding out all I could about Darroch’s plans for us and the amulet.

I didn’t know why Jack hadn’t sought revenge before. I sure would have. But he’d claimed to have his reasons. Said he’d made promises. One of these days he was going to have to explain those promises.

“Well, that’s the thing, you see.” Darroch flicked an imaginary piece of lint from his pant leg before crossing one leg over the other. “I’ve been trying to access that damn amulet for
years
, only to discover, and this will amuse you, Jack, that I am not strong enough!” He threw his head back and laughed uproariously. “Can you imagine? Me! Not strong enough! Me, not
pure
enough. Me, a member of one of the most influential families in the United States of America, a descendent of nothing more than a
Commoner!
Can you believe the injustice of it?”

“Proof positive that money doesn’t buy breeding.” I couldn’t help it, it just came out. Sometimes people irritate me so much, and Darroch was unusually irritating.

“Oh, Miss Bailey, you have no idea!” He seemed delighted with himself. “All these years I’ve been searching for the pieces I need to complete the ritual and now,” he clapped his hands together, “now I have them!”

“Why don’t you get on with it already instead of talking our ears off? We know you’re in control of the local vampires. We know you sent them after me to kill me. You’ve already got the amulet. So why the hell do you need us?” I was getting really pissed off.

“Why, my dear Miss Bailey, you are so feisty today.” He beamed at me. I scowled back. “You are right, of course,” he continued, unfazed. “I have taken control of the local vampire clans. Their leaders were weak and ineffectual. I promised them power and human slaves. In their greed and hunger, they were delighted to do whatever I asked of them.”

“So, that was why their eyes were red. You’re not a vampire, so your control of them changed their physiology.”

“Yes, I believe so. I’m not sure entirely why their eyes changed, specifically. Something in my DNA, I imagine.” He chuckled. “No matter. I lied, of course, about giving them power. I have no use for the undead, certainly not ones with any power. I had no intention of keeping my promise. I simply wanted them for one purpose. They were a means to an end, so to speak.”

“To kill me.”

“No, no, Miss Bailey, you mistake my meaning. I did not want them to kill you.” He leaned forward in his chair, almost eagerly. “I sent them to test you. Kaldan took it a little too far, I admit, but I had every confidence you would prove yourself and I needed to make sure.”

Jack and I gave each other a look that was entirely full of bafflement. “Test me? Why?”

“I had to be sure, of course. I had to know if you were the one. You see, don’t you?”

Jack shook his head. “Stop beating around the bush, Darroch,” he snarled from his place on the floor. “What ‘one’? What is Morgan to you?”

“Why she’s the one I’ve been looking for all these years, of course. She’s the last piece.”

“Excuse me.” I was running very short on patience. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You should be delighted, Miss Bailey.” He leaned back and did the finger steeple thing. “You are the last piece of the puzzle, a puzzle that’s millennia old. The last piece I need to perform the ritual which will allow me to access the power of the amulet and my own latent abilities. You, Miss Bailey, are the Key to the Treasure of Atlantis.”