Skye Morrison Vampire 2 Sins of the Father (26 page)

“You will drink!” the Dark One said. “Or I
will force you.”

“Go…to hell,” I managed. He squeezed my jaw
harder and I cried out in pain.

“Enough,” the older man said to the Dark One.
He focused his gaze intently on mine. “Drink,” he commanded
forcefully and my body immediately obeyed.

The liquid was slightly warmer than room
temperature and it tasted divine. It immediately coated my parched
mouth and tongue, offering me much needed fluid. I greedily leaned
my head forward in an attempt to drink more of it, faster than he
was offering it to me.

He tsked and took the cup away. “Slowly,” he
commanded and I instantly obeyed again. As I drank the liquid from
the cup, he brushed the hair back from my face. “You must drink
slowly or your body will reject it,” he said plainly. “You’ve lost
a great deal of blood. I imagine you must feel very weak.”

All too soon, he pulled the cup away and I
moaned my displeasure. He turned to the man I had met before and
quickly spoke to him. “Get the human some bread Martin, and make
sure she eats it.”

“Yes master,” the Dark One called Martin
answered as he bowed his head respectfully.

I watched as Martin flashed up the stairs and
disappeared behind the door.

I looked back at the man who had abducted me,
and saw that he was watching me closely. “We will talk again once
you have fed,” he said simply and flashed up the stairs as
well.

I pulled on my chains roughly in frustration,
using all of the energy I had, and screamed. “Just let me go!
Please! I haven’t done anything! Please…”

I exerted all of the energy I had in my body
screaming out, and my legs became like Jell-O, no longer able to
hold me up. My vision began to swim as the full weight of my body
once again became supported by my frail wrists; the pain was
unreal.
Please God…help me
, I silently prayed before I lost
consciousness again.

I awoke to a sharp pain on my left cheek. I
moaned and slowly opened my eyes.

“Finally,” Martin laughed cruelly. “I was
starting to think you weren’t going to wake up.”

He was standing right in front of me and he
had an evil smile upon his pointy face. His long black hair hung
just past his shoulders and blue eyes were as menacing as I
remembered from our first encounter at The Mausoleum.

“Here,” he said as he thrust the torn-off end
of a load of bread at my mouth. “Eat.”

I closed my eyes and turned my head away a
few inches. I felt incredibly nauseated and didn’t think I had the
energy to chew let alone swallow.

“EAT!” he screamed, his cool spittle raining
down upon my face. “Eat, or I will make you eat.”

He thrust the bread roughly into my lips
again, cutting the inside on my teeth as I weakly turned my head
the other direction.

He slapped me across the face so hard that my
body swung on the chains. I cried out as he suddenly stopped my
momentum. My right wrist had snapped just as he stilled me, and the
pain now emanating from it was excruciating.

“Please, no more,” I barely managed to
whisper.

He threw his head back and laughed. “Not so
tough now, are you human?” he taunted. “Without your day walkers to
come save you again, you’re all mine. We won’t be interrupted this
time, I assure you.”

I whimpered as hot, new tears slid down my
face.

Martin stared at my lips intently as his
fangs descended. “You’re bleeding,” he said as he leaned forward
and ran his slick tongue across my dry lips. I closed my eyes and
tried to turn my head away, but it was no use. I had nowhere to go.
When he leaned back, I saw that his blue irises were now black and
he hungrily licked his fangs.

“You taste good,” he growled and smiled.
“Well, since you won’t eat, I hope you don’t mind if I grab a
bite.” With that, he struck faster than my eyes could follow and
sank his fangs deep into the right side of my neck. I cried out
again from the sharp sting of his fangs, and waited anxiously for
the euphoric feeling his saliva was supposed to provide, but it
never came. I felt every deadly pull of his mouth; every gnaw of
his deadly teeth.

A few seconds later it was over and I was
more lightheaded than ever. The room swam as I hung limply from my
chains.

“You’re lucky I have let you live,” he said,
out of breath. I heard the sick, smacking sounds of him cleaning
his fangs before he continued. “You have lost a lot of blood. You
may not survive the next few days. If you cooperate, I won’t feed
on you again. If you don’t, I’ll drain you next time.”

Martin picked up the bread from the dirty
cement floor and shoved it into my lips again. It took everything I
had to open my mouth and bite down. He pulled the hunk of bread
from my mouth, tearing the bitten piece off, and told me to
chew.

Somehow, I chewed. I chewed the piece of
stale bread and swallowed it thickly. “Water,” I whispered.

Martin walked over to the spigot, turned it
on, and filled the metal cup. He brought it to my lips and tilted
it. More water ended up on my shirt than in my mouth, but I didn’t
care. It was cool and wet, and helped the hunk of bread go
down.

He took the cup away and put the bread to my
lips again. This continued until half of the hunk was eaten.

“You’ve had enough for now,” he said plainly.
Thank God
, I thought silently. I didn’t think I could
possibly take another bite. It was hard work forcing food down that
you desperately wanted to vomit right back up.

“If you keep that down, you’ll get more water
later,” he said as he turned to the stairs. “Be a good little bitch
and don’t cause trouble for my master. Remember, your life is in my
hands, human. I can snuff you out whenever I please.” He ascended
the steps and locked the door behind him.

I started sobbing uncontrollably as my
stomach churned with my emotions. I fought hard to keep the bread
and water down, too scared to find out what Martin would do to me
if I didn’t.

When I calmed down somewhat, I tried to move
the fingers on my left hand, but none moved. I forced myself not to
look at the gaping wound that the older man inflicted upon me. I
didn’t think I could handle seeing it again. I tried to move the
fingers on my broken right hand, but only my pinky managed a faint
twitch. I attempted to stand up, but my legs simply couldn’t hold
me any longer. I roughly sank back down and prayed hard that if I
somehow got out of this, I’d still have the use of my hands. The
way it was looking, if Martin or the guy he called master didn’t
kill me, I’d be, at the very least, crippled in my left hand.

Minutes once again ticked by and hours
passed. I fell asleep a few times and was jolted awake by
nightmares each time. One in particular had been extremely vivid
and terrifying. In it, the man who kidnapped me was standing in
front of me, talking to me in a language I had never heard before.
He suddenly reached out, grabbed a fist full of my hair with one
hand and my chin with the other, forcing my mouth open. The man
leaned forward a few inches and blew thick smoke the color of
desert sand into my mouth. The smoke felt like it had a life of its
own as it roughly forced its way down my esophagus and curled to
rest heavily into my lungs. I gagged and it burned like battery
acid for a few seconds, causing me to scream out in pain, before it
suddenly stopped. I watched in horror as my kidnapper smiled in
satisfaction and turned away.

I woke up in a panic immediately after that
dream and had to convince myself that it was, in fact, just a
dream. I had no idea how long I had been in this room, as there was
no way to tell time in here, but I knew I had to have been in here
at least a solid day…maybe two.

Please, please…let Archer find me
, my
mind prayed over and over as my body hung limply from my
chains.

When I awoke next, I heard the door above the
stairs closing. I slowly lifted my head and saw the man who had
taken me walk over.

He tsked as he lifted my face higher to meet
his. “I see Martin has fed from you,” he said plainly, his foreign
accent thick. “You have lost much blood, human.”

“What…do you…care?” I whispered weakly.

“I don’t,” he said simply as he watched me
with detached fascination. “I’ve been watching you with those day
walkers for the last few days. Why are they so…taken with you? I
see nothing special about you…you are just a lowly human,” he said
plainly. “I don’t understand it.”

“I…I just work…for them. I’m
not…special.”

The man chuckled and shook his head. “You
don’t see,” he said, turning away. “It’s of no consequence. As I
said before, you are just a means to an end for me. I want them
dead and you are going to help me accomplish that.” He turned back
to me and smiled cruelly. “They will come looking for you, without
a doubt, and I’ll be waiting.”

I was momentarily glad to hear that this
monster thought Archer and his crew would come save me, but then I
realized they would never get the chance. He intended to kill
them.

“Why?” I croaked out. “Why…are you after
them?”

He pursed his lips in thought and studied me
for a moment. “To explain to you why, I have to start at the
beginning,” he said as he began circling me. “My beginning.”

“Can’t…wait,” I whispered sarcastically.

He came to a stop in front of me and tsked.
“Do not anger me, human,” he warned with solid black eyes. “You
would like me when I am angry.”

I scoffed weakly and lifted my head higher.
“I already don’t like you.”

The man threw his head back and cackled. “So
headstrong,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “It’ll be fun to break
you.”

I closed my eyes and turned my head away. As
much as I wanted to argue with him, I simply didn’t have the energy
any longer. I heard him resume his walk around me as he continued
talking.

“My name is Amun and I have walked this earth
for time immeasurable,” he spoke proudly. “I have seen many
civilizations come and go, the earth freeze and thaw, and yet I
still walk. As I said before, I am the beginning; the father of all
those who drink the blood of the living. I created my first son
over eight thousand years ago in the land of Egypt and he went on
to father all of those who are like Martin. Your day walkers call
them the Dark Ones.”

I opened my eyes and took a deep breath,
realizing what he was saying. “You created…vampires?”

“Yes,” he said simply as he came to a
standstill in front of me.

“How?” I whispered.

He tsked, obviously not interested in telling
me, and began his story again. “I used to drink the blood of the
living to survive, but found my body starting to deteriorate a few
thousand years ago. So, I began feeding from the immortal race I
created, desperate to find a way to stay alive. And it worked.
Their immortal blood made me strong again; faster and younger. It
was the cure I so desperately needed. I drained them completely, of
course, and disposed of the remains, maintaining my secret. No one
but my son knew I fathered and now fed from our race and I never
wanted that information coming to light.”

“1,900 years ago, I ran into a new race of
vampires in Hibernia, your modern day Ireland. They smelled of the
sun and worshiped your Christian God. Needless to say, I was
confused and intrigued. I followed one of them for a few nights and
learned everything I could about their race through him. When I saw
that the man had the power to read a human’s mind, I wanted to know
more, so I approached him. He did not take the introduction well,
so I silenced him by draining him.” Amun smiled at the memory and
licked his lips. “Almost immediately I could hear the thoughts of
the humans in the village. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the
least, and wanted to know what else this vampire’s blood could
afford me. I sat on a nearby hill and bravely met the morning sun
when it rose. To my immense delight, I did not burn. That was the
first sunrise I had seen in over ten thousand years.”

Amun sighed and continued. “All too soon, the
powers of the day walker’s blood faded and my body once again began
to deteriorate. To permanently remedy this, I fed on one day walker
a month and one night walker every week. You see, the day walkers
were so few in number back then that I could not afford to engorge
myself more often than once a month for fear of diminishing my
supply.” He chuckled and smiled cruelly. “That is no longer a
problem today. Each time I feed from the day walkers, I retain
their powers for a time…usually a few weeks. It’s an amazing thing,
their powers.”

I closed my eyes, absolutely disgusted at the
mere sight of Amun, and shook my head. “What…the hell…does any of
this…have to do with…my friends?” I asked, barely able to get the
whole sentence out. I was so weak and fighting hard to stay
conscious.

He growled and my eyes flew open as he
tightly wrapped his hand around my throat, his completely black
eyes consuming mine. “Your day walkers are the descendants of that
spurius
Cináed,” he spat angrily as he squeezed my throat.
“He is the one who finally caught me, bled me, and sealed me
underneath a church in a tomb for over a thousand years,”

I opened my mouth wide, desperately trying to
suck in air, but it was no use. Amun’s hand was wrapped too tightly
around my airway. In seconds, my vision began going black and I
started to pass out.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Amun growled as he
released my throat and backhanded me. “You WILL stay awake!”

I coughed and gasped for air; my throat
burned and my face stung from where his blow had landed across my
right cheek. “Sorry…I asked,” I managed to say weakly once I caught
my breath. “You know…acting like a dick…won’t make yours any
bigger.”