Legacy of Blood (9 page)

Archer looked tortured as he stared down at me; lust and common sense warred with each other behind his eyes.  “You’ll hate me later if I give in to you, Skye,” he explained as he started to get up.

I fisted his shirt to stop him.  “Don’t leave me,” I whispered with wide, fraught eyes.  “Please don’t leave me.”  He immediately relented and cupped my cheek with one hand as he hitched my thigh up with the other, getting more comfortable between my legs.

“I’ll never leave you, Skye,” he whispered my name like a benediction, “never.  You’re mine now.  You will always be mine.  You are a part of me and I am a part of you.  My blood is your blood.”

I sobbed once; the immense relief I felt upon hearing his words was indescribable.  I realized that my connection to Archer now was much deeper than it had been when I was human.  It was hard to fully comprehend, but it was like my blood recognized him and craved him; craved his attention, affection, and approval and pulled me to him like it wanted to be whole with him again.

Archer smiled as he read my thoughts.  “What you are feeling is the bond that is made between maker and child.  It’s like this for all my children,” he whispered gently as he lightly stroked my cheek with the back of his hand.

“Do all your children want to fuck you too?”

Archer laughed and shook his head.  “No, love.  I told you that what you are feeling is the leftover excitement from feeding.  Take a deep breath and concentrate on centering your emotions.  The lust you feel will soon subside.”

I highly doubted that it would but did as he asked.  I closed my eyes and took a few, slow deep breaths.  I focused on calming things like warm bubble baths, lounging in a gently swaying hammock, and the feel of the mid-day sun shining down on my skin.  After a bit, I finally began to feel myself calming down.  The lust was still there in the background, but its pull on me was greatly lessened.  I swallowed hard and prepared myself to open my eyes.  I was scared that just the sight of Archer on top of me would set me off again.

As I slowly opened them, I was met with a look that took my breath away.  Archer was staring down at me with such love, approval, and pride that I looked up at him in wonder. 

“You are something else, Skye,” he whispered.  “I’m so proud of you.  Your control is simply astounding.  You didn’t let your emotions get the better of you.”

I shook my head, not agreeing with him.  “I was seconds away from raping you, Archer.”  He threw his head back and laughed as I continued.  “I’m not kidding.  I was so close to just ripping your pants off and taking what I wanted.  It was everything I could do to just keep breathing.  That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.  Will it always be this hard to control my emotions?  Will I struggle with this every time I eat?”

Archer chuckled as he sat up on the couch and pulled me with him.  “You might struggle for a while when you feed, but I will always make sure someone is there to help bring you back from the brink.”

I shook my head, mortified at the thought of me turning my sexual hunger on Quinn or Seamus, or God forbid, Lochlan.  “No, it has to be you,” I said with fearful eyes.  “I don’t want anyone else to see me like this.”

Archer put his hands on my shoulders and looked deeply into my eyes.  “You have nothing to be ashamed about.  Do you understand?  What you went through just now is perfectly natural and most importantly, normal.  Everyone goes through this, Skye… everyone.  No one is going to look down on you or judge you; quite the opposite, in fact.  You did remarkably well overcoming your urges; better than any newborn I’ve ever seen.  You should be proud.  So what if you got turned on.  We all get turned on every now and again when we eat; stop being so hard on yourself.  I know this is all new to you, but you’ll see as time goes on that you have nothing to be ashamed of.  The urges you feel are perfectly normal.”

I nodded my head as I looked down at my hands.  My vampire life was not going to be an easy one I had a feeling, regardless of how “well” I was handling my emotions at the moment.  I couldn’t help thinking again that I wouldn’t have chosen this life if I had been given the option.  I wished Archer had respected my decision to die when I had asked him to kill me.  If he had, I wouldn’t have to be going through all this emotional bullshit, with the Faithful gunning for my death and Amun was gunning for my hand in some sick vampire/monster marriage.  Feelings of disappointment and anger rekindled inside of me and I frowned up at Archer.

“Next time I ask you to kill me, you had better fucking do it,” I whispered before flashing to the now closed French doors.  Oleif was still standing inside the room with his arms crossed over his chest and a weird look on his face.  I didn’t know him well enough to be able to decipher it, but I could have sworn it held tinges of confusion.

“Move your ass, Oleif,” I growled.  “I’m going to my room so I guess that means you are too.”  He raised his eyebrows at me but said nothing as he opened the doors for me and allowed me to leave. 

On my way to my room, I saw one of Styvi Nix’s tug ropes on the floor and stopped cold, mid flash.  Oleif crashed in to me and swore in Gaelic as he bounced roughly off my back.  “Where is my dog?” I wondered in a tiny whisper as I stared at her toy.  I closed my eyes and focused on every heartbeat in the house.  All I heard were the slow, steady rhythms of immortal hearts; Styvi’s was nowhere to be found.

I turned around and shouldered past Oleif as I flashed into the kitchen to where Trey was unceremoniously dumping out all the human food from the refrigerator and cabinets.

“Trey, where’s Styvi?  Why isn’t she here?” I asked, starting to panic.  Styvi was my life and if something had happened to her I didn’t know what I would do.

Trey set the near full trash bag down on the floor and dusted his hands together.  “Miss Styvi is just fine, honey,” he said gently, trying to reassure me.  “She freaked out a bit when you die- I mean changed and we thought it best to get her away from the house so we could clean up.  Quinn drove her over to Nikki’s and she’s staying there with her for the time being.”

“Oh,” I sighed half in relief, half in worry.  I could only imagine what Styvi must have been feeling, having been forced to watch me throw up blood all over the place.  “Okay… I guess that’s good.  I don’t want to traumatize her any more than she’s already been.  Once I can control my speed better and my emotions, I’ll go get her.”

“Quinn mentioned how happy she was to see Nikki again,” Trey shrugged one delicate shoulder.  “Maybe you should leave her there for a while.  She’ll have her back yard and most importantly a stable environment…”

I wanted to disagree with him; to shake my head and argue, but I knew deep down that he was right.  A house full of vampires and an emotional basket case for a ‘mommy’ was no way to live.  As much as it killed me and tore at my heart, I had to agree with him.  “What did he tell Nikki?”

“Quinn handed her a fat stack of cash and told her you had to go out of town again.  She got pissed off at your work situation and called Archer a ‘slave-driving so-and-so’ for never letting you have a full day off.  Quinn said she was still sore about the Krav Maga class you missed when Pádraig took you back home after he realized Amun had been in your house.  Nikki worries we make you work too much,” Trey chuckled but it wasn’t a happy one.

“If she only knew the truth,” I sighed as I rubbed my forehead.  My own best friend didn’t know me anymore.  The life she thought I lived was a complete and total lie.  And now, to top it all off, I was a freakin’ vampire.  There was no way in hell I could tell her; no way could I tell my family or friends.  I suddenly remembered the story Jameson told me about meeting Archer and how after he was turned he had to move away from the town he lived in and was forbidden to go back. 

Trey’s eyes widened with alarm as he picked up on my emotional anguish.  “Honey, what’s wrong?  What is it?” he asked as he came over and placed a soothing hand on my back.

“I’m going to have to leave Austin, aren’t I?” I frowned.  “I’ll never be able to see Nikki or Dan again.  Jameson told me what he had to do after he was turned.  I’m going to have to do the same thing, right?”

Trey sighed and frowned sympathetically as Archer came into the room.  “We’ll try to find a way so that you can stay,” Archer spoke and a few gasps sounded as my housemates in the living room began to whisper to one another.

“
Athair
, that’s unheard of,” Trey’s eyes bulged.

“Aye,” he conceded with a nod, “but I can’t just drop everything and leave.  The club just opened and we have to get it established before we can move on.  There is also the matter of Amun.  We are safest here where
An Dilis
currently watches.  Our best chance to eradicate him is now.  If we move, I fear he will only follow.  We have something he desperately wants and I’m sure he’ll stop at nothing to get it.”

All eyes fell on me and I bit my lip as I sighed frustratedly.  I was going to kill that asshole the first chance I got.  I hated what Amun had done to me and what I was forced to become as an alternative to death.  “I’m going to kill that motherfucker, even if it’s the last thing I ever do,” I gritted angrily before turning and flashing down the hall, back to my room.

As soon as my head hit my pillow, and I fully relaxed, my eyes began to grow heavy.   All of the excitement I had been through today had taken its toll on me mentally.  I desperately needed to sleep and recharge.  Before I knew it, I was out cold.

Images flashed behind my eyes, interrupting hours of deep, sound sleep as I softly heard someone whispering my name.  Something was pulling at my psyche, demanding entrance, and I finally gave in to the request. 

Amun was standing by a large body of water with his back to me.  As soon as I took a step toward him, he whirled around looking surprised but relieved.

“Why have you not come sooner?” he demanded, his black eyes furious.  “I have been summoning you all day.  I could sense you but I did not have access to you… I could not access your mind.  HOW are you preventing me?”

“Ha!” I laughed and sneered at the small victory.  “You mean to tell me you can’t just come into my dreams whenever you want to?”

He flashed to me and grabbed me by the throat.  “You consumed their blood?!” he raged in my face as he glared back and forth between my now colorless eyes.  “But you are mine!”

“I am no one’s!” I yelled back as I ripped his hand from my neck and pushed him away from me; the action utterly shocking Amun.  “No one owns me!  No one will EVER own me!”

“A piece of my very soul is within you,” he growled, quickly recovering.  “You are mine and you will obey.  You will come to me this night!  I DEMAND IT!”

I put my hands on my hips and smirked at him.  “Demand away, Amun.  I don’t know what you’re expecting, but I’m not going to just come crawling to whatever hole you’re off hiding in.  You have no control over me.  Get used to it!”

“Oh, I have plenty of control over you,” he sneered evilly as he took another step toward me.  “All those disgusting feelings of affection and desire you felt for that Day Walker… Archer?  I created them.  I made you dream of him, want him, make love to him…  I compelled you remain with him when you were so determined to leave.  I could not allow you to depart and ruin all my plans!  But in the end, you betrayed me,
Damu
.  There will be a heavy price to pay for that.  You were supposed to stay, complete your change and then destroy him and all his descendants.  Instead you drink his blood and pollute yourself?!  You could have been something magnificent, something beautifully fierce and exquisitely savage, but now you are just another common, pathetic Day Walker!”

I felt my eyes flicker black as anger consumed me.  “I’m not your fucking toy, Amun!  If you think you can force me to feel things and do things for you, you have another thing coming.  I’m going to kill you for what you’ve done to me!  As God is my witness, you will DIE by MY hand!”

Amun chuckled as he looked me up and down and then tsked.  “Oh, my sweet
Nisiqtu
… you are still so headstrong.  I believe I was mistaken about you.  You carry my mark in your eyes.  We are not so different after all, you and I.  You may be a Day Walker now, but the potential for greatness is still there.  The possibilities are endless now.  There is so much we can do to them now that you are one of them.  They will never suspect-”

“Fuck you!” I spat as I turned and walked away.  I didn’t have to listen to his bullshit.  He may have pulled me into this dream but, come hell or high water, I was going to walk out of it.

“You have one week to come to me, Skye,” Amun yelled at my back.  “If you do not obey me, I will begin killing everyone you hold dear, one by one, and I will start with that fiery girl who shares your home.  I believe I will sew her colorful skin into a new hat.”

I whirled around, my eyes wide and fearful.  “You lay one finger on her and I’ll-”

“Silence!” Amun roared angrily, his voice echoing loudly all around me.  “Seven days, Skye.  And you had better be wearing the presents I left for you when you come to me.”

I bolted upright in bed, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath.  Oleif flashed from his spot on the chaise lounge to stand beside my bed.

“What is it?” he demanded, his aqua eyes wide and alert.