by J. L. McCoy
I finished the contents of the small bottle and put the cap back on as I turned over to face him. “About a minute or so,” I said tiredly. “What happened? How did I get here?”
Jameson slowly got up off the chaise lounge and came to sit next to me on the bed. He reached over and softly brushed the hair back from my eyes. “We brought you back early yesterday morning,” he said gently, a small, relieved smile on his lips. “You’ve been sleeping for almost 36 hours. How do you feel?”
I stretched gingerly, testing out my legs, arms, shoulders and back. I was a little stiff from lying in bed so long, but other than that, I was perfect. “I feel fine,” I said, surprised. After what Amun and Martin put me through, and with giving Aoife, Jameson, and Archer my blood, I expected to feel a lot worse. “How are you doing, honey? Are you okay?”
Jameson tiredly rubbed the scruff on his face. “I’m doing better than I was,” he said honestly. “Healing all three of you almost killed me, I think. When we got back home, I had to feed several times to get my strength back up. It was rough at first; I’m not going to lie.”
“I thought you were going to die after Martin attacked you,” my voice trembled softly as I remembered the sight of his throat half torn out. Tears swam in my eyes and Jameson pulled me to his chest, hugging me tightly.
“Shhh,” he whispered as he stroked my long red hair. “I’ll never leave you, Skye. You saved me, you know that? I would have died if you hadn’t given me your blood. You saved Aoife and Archer, too. We almost lost you in the process, though. I wasn’t strong enough to heal you at first, so we had to rush you to the closest place we could, The Mausoleum, to give you a blood transfusion. Thank God we had a bag of your blood type there. You wouldn’t have made it back to the house otherwise.”
“Oh, Jameson,” I cried as I clung tighter to him. “I’m so glad you’re okay. Is…is Archer okay? Did he make it?”
“Yes, baby,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “He’s all healed up now. I don’t know how you had enough blood in you to feed the three of us, but you did. You are the bravest woman I’ve ever met, Skye. I saw the determination in your eyes as you fed me. I knew you’d die for me.” He pulled me away from his chest and looked me deep in the eyes. “Don’t ever…EVER do that again, do you hear me? You are much more important than I am. I’ve lived my life, Skye…you haven’t. Don’t you dare sacrifice yourself to save me again. If you had died…if you had died, Skye…I couldn’t live with myself.”
I reached up and cupped his cheek. “If you had died, I couldn’t live with MY self. You mean so much to me, Jameson. When I saw you…with your throat torn out…I…I lost it.”
He pulled me back to his chest and held me firmly against him. I buried my face in his neck and took a deep breath in, smelling the familiar and calming scent that was Jameson; leather, and a hint of cool, crisp aftershave.
“What happened to Amun?” I whispered.
“Who is Amun?” Jameson asked me as he slowly stroked my hair.
I leaned back and looked up at him, confused. “He’s the guy who kidnapped me.”
Jameson growled as his eyes began to drain of their beautiful light green color. “We didn’t know his name. He got away,” he growled deeply.
Rage and anger poured off of him in waves and I tentatively reached up and cupped his cheek. “Tell me what happened,” I said gently.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, attempting to calm himself, before opening them and speaking. “He escaped us somehow,” Jameson said, more calm than he had been a second ago, but still incredibly angry. “But, not before he killed Marcán.”
I gasped as my hand flew to my mouth in shock. “Marcán is dead?”
“Aye,” he sighed and explained. “When Dean’s wolves busted down the door, Marcán was the first one in. The man you call Amun decapitated him instantly.”
“Dean was there?” I asked, confused and still reeling from the horrible news of Marcán’s death.
“Aye,” he said as he roughly ran his fingers through his soft brown shoulder length hair. “Maybe I should start at the beginning.”
“Please, because I’m a little overwhelmed right now,” I whispered as I wiped the fresh tears from my eyes. My heart broke for Marcán and I wondered how his brothers in The Faithful were taking his tragic death. “I’m having a little trouble following along.”
Jameson gently laid us down on the bed and pulled me to his chest. He sighed contentedly as I curled up in the crook of his arm and he told me the story.
“After you argued with Archer and Dean and walked away, they got into it. From what I hear, Dean is quite fond of you and it pissed Archer off to no end. Vampires and werewolves do not normally associate and Archer felt like you belonged to us, so you were off limits. For the record, I didn’t agree with you having dinner with him either when I first found out.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Jameson shushed me with a quick kiss on the lips. “Let me finish, okay?” I nodded my head, a bit unhappy, but allowed him to continue.
“Anyway, after Trey calmed everyone down, Dean said he was going to go follow your trail to make sure you were okay. Of course, Archer wasn’t about to let him go alone, so he and Dean went after you. They were almost to the end of the alley when they heard you scream. By the time they came across your blood, you were gone and your scent trail had vanished.” He swallowed hard and continued. “I didn’t see your blood on the sidewalk, but from what I was told, it was enough that they thought you couldn’t possibly have survived losing that much.”
“I almost didn’t,” I whispered against his chest.
“Archer and Dean rushed back to The Mausoleum and Archer immediately called An Dílis while Dean called a few of his wolves. They fought over Dean wanting to help, but in the end Aoife, Trey, and Hunter convinced him that the wolves could be of some use in tracking you. Dean, Archer, Hagan, Marcán, and two from Dean’s pack scoured the city looking for you as everyone else ran the club and waited for An Dílis to arrive. I didn’t know what was going on until I got to the club after my show, mind you, but I blew up. I completely lost my shit, Skye. I was furious that no one had told me you, my girlfriend, were missing, but Aoife assured me that Archer was going to find you. I didn’t care, though. I met up with Archer and the group and laid into Archer as soon as I saw him. I’ve never struck my brother before, but I did when I saw him that night. He apologized of course, tried to explain, but I wasn’t having any of it. I just wanted you back and would stop at nothing to find you.
“We searched for hours, never picking up your trail. Archer listened into the thoughts of those around him and no one had seen you. We were panicked at this point. Archer got a call from An Dílis and we went to the club to meet with them. They told Archer to stay at the club in case whoever took you called while they set up a search grid. Dean and his wolves reluctantly went home and most of us slept at the club that night, feeling helpless and waiting on a call that would never come. Night turned into day, day turned into night and still An Dílis had no clue where you were. They were certain that whoever took you was the man they were looking for based on the blood message left outside of the parking garage.”
“Blood message?”
“The pool of your blood,” Jameson explained gently. “No one else would have had a reason to almost drain you out on the street. It was a perfect pool of blood as there were no signs of a struggle in the way the blood landed.” I looked at him confused, but he just shook his head. “Vampire stuff, love. We can read between the lines where blood is concerned.”
I shook my head, still not understanding, but allowed him to continue. “An Dílis got a tip from a Dark One claiming that he had seen you with a man in Dallas the day before, so they loaded up the van, leaving Marcán, Pádraig, and Hagan with us, as they went after you. Of course they were sent on a wild goose chase, but we didn’t know that at the time. About three hours after they left, one of the dancers arriving for work found
a package by the back door. She brought it to Hunter who was setting up the downstairs bar and he brought it to Archer’s office. Archer opened it and found your ripped and bloody t-shirt and a bag with a large chunk of your hair and part of your scalp still attached to it.”
I quickly reached up and felt the spot where Amun had ripped my hair out. The hair was still missing, but the skin there was smooth once again.
“I healed you, love,” Jameson said as he took my hand from my head and kissed the back of my knuckles. “It will grow back eventually. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you your hair back.”
I took a deep breath and swallowed hard, stuffing my emotions back down. I didn’t want to cry over something as trivial as hair when so much had happened to all of us. In the scope of things, hair should be the least of my worries. I was damn lucky to be alive. “I know,” I said with a small smile. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll just have to wear extensions there until it does.”
Jameson pulled me tighter to him as he kissed me deeply. He licked my bottom lip, signaling me to open my mouth, but I pulled back. “Uh, babe? I haven’t brushed my teeth in days. It feels like something died in there, so let’s hold off until I shower, okay?”
He smiled, nodded his head in agreement, and gently kissed my forehead before finishing his story.
“So, like I said, when we saw your hair and smelled the fresh blood, we knew you were alive. We went ballistic when we saw it though. My mind was filled with horrible thoughts of how you were being tortured and I screamed at Archer, telling him that we had to do something. Quinn found a note in the box but he couldn’t read it and got Archer’s attention to show it to him. Archer said it was written in ancient Latin and that he could understand parts of it. It was a riddle to your location, Skye. We figured out that you were somewhere in East Austin and Archer got on the phone and called Dean before he alerted An Dílis. An Dílis were in Dallas and wouldn’t be back for at least a few hours, so we went looking for you with what we had at our disposal. That ended up being Archer, me, Hagan, Marcán, Aoife, and Pádraig and Dean brought four of his wolves, Zephyr, Dylan, Primo, and Sayer. The eleven of us scoured the east side for your scent and Primo and Dean finally picked it up after an hour of running. They called us and we converged about two blocks from the abandoned house that monster was keeping you in. We quickly laid out a battle plan and put it into motion. Primo and Zephyr broke down the door and Marcán was the first in followed by Archer, Dean, and then the rest of us.
“By the time I got through the door, I could smell Marcán’s blood. I knew he was injured but wasn’t prepared for what I saw. As I said before, he had been decapitated the moment he flashed through the door. Everyone but Aoife and I took on the man who kidnapped you. We were appointed to find you and get you out as quickly as we could. I saw both of those monsters fighting, and I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen anything like what the older one was capable of…you said his name was Amun? He was incredibly strong and fast, like no one I had ever seen before. He took all of them on with ease. Anyway, when I got to the basement door, I could smell you and we charged in after you. You know the rest I’m sure.”
“How did Amun get away?” I asked, confused. “With nine of them fighting, how could he possibly get away?”
“From what I understand, Dean changed into his wolf after Amun injured Sayer and went ballistic on him. It was quite the battle, I hear. Dean managed to get the upper hand for a moment and tore off a few of Amun’s fingers before Amun attacked back. He slammed Dean so hard into the ground that it cracked a few of his ribs. That put Dean out of the fight for a while. Archer, Zephyr, Pádraig, and Dylan jumped in, but Amun easily took them down. Archer was able to last the longest against him. He brought a powerful weapon with him that night. It was a sword that had been blessed by Saint Patrick himself. It was lost over the years, but Archer heard whispers that a wealthy human collector had it and Archer sent Gunnar out to acquire it The man in Germany who owned it had no idea of it’s worth to us, so it made the sale a bit easier. The sword is thought to annihilate Dark Ones and similar unholy creatures with a mere cut of its blade. It’s a very powerful weapon to have against someone like Amun.
“Anyway, Amun tried to feed on Archer, but Archer wasn’t allowing him to get that close so Amun sliced Archer’s gut open with something and that took Archer down. Amun then flashed out the door after seeing the sword and everyone but Archer went after him. They lost his scent about twenty blocks away when they reached the dead end at the freeway.”
“Do you think he’ll come back?” I asked fearfully.
“Not if he knows what’s good for him,” Jameson growled. “But unfortunately we can’t rule out the possibility. An Dílis are tracking him as we speak. It appears that Amun has fled the city, but is still hiding out in Texas. They called in over forty of their men to catch this sick bastard. They still don’t know why he is after Sliocht Cináed.”
I swallowed thickly and sat up. “I do,” I whispered and Jameson flashed to a sitting position as well.
“Tell me,” he demanded as his eyes started to drain again of their light green color.
I gently cupped his cheek and shook my head. “I only want to relive this once, hon. Do you think you can get Archer in here so I can tell both of you at the same time?”
Jameson nodded as he leaned over and gently kissed me on the lips before flashing out of bed and out the door.
I took a few deep breaths and prepared myself as best I could. No one can really be prepared to relive the memories of torture and pain, though. A couple of minutes passed before my bedroom door opened again and Archer stuck his head in.
“Hey gorgeous,” he smiled a heart stopping smile as he strode in. “It’s good to see you awake.”
“Archer,” I smiled as I got out of bed and threw my arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re okay, honey,” I whispered as tears filled my eyes.
He softly kissed the corner of my mouth and scooped me up in his arms, putting me gently back in bed. “You need to rest Skye,” he chuckled as he drank me in with his stunning bright blue eyes. “There’s so much I want to say to you, but it can wait. Right now, I just want to thank you for saving my life. I believe it was your voice urging me to fight that brought me back.” I wrapped my arms tightly around him and hugged him for all I was worth.
After a long moment, I heard someone clear their throat at the door and I looked up to find Jameson there. He smiled tightly at Archer then turned to look at me.
Archer nodded to Jameson and faced me again. He gently put his finger under my chin, lifting my face up higher to meet his eyes. “I asked everyone to meet us here so they can hear about what Amun told you as well. Do you mind?”
I swallowed hard and looked down. “I’m kind of embarrassed by what happened to me, but I understand everyone needs to hear why Amun is after your bloodline.”
“You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Skye,” Archer said gently as he brought my head to his chest again, hugging me close to him. “You had no control over what that monster did to you.”
“I know,” I whispered weakly as tears filled my eyes and threatened to spill over. “It’s just hard to think about what he and Martin did to me.”
“Martin is the young Dark One from the club?” Archer asked. I nodded my head and he chuckled. “I saw his body once I was healed. You really did a number on his neck,” he smiled.
I shrugged my shoulders and lifted my head. “It was either him or me. He had already taken out Jameson and Aoife. I did what I had to do to walk out of there.”
Archer kissed my forehead and patted my thigh. “You did good, babe; very good, in fact. We are all exceedingly proud of you.”
Archer turned to the door and nodded at Jameson again. Jameson opened the door wider and allowed everyone to enter. Pádraig, Trey, Aoife, Hunter, Seamus, Quinn, Lochlan, Hagan, and Jameson all crowded into the room together.
I looked at each one of their faces and smiled timidly before
I began recounting my time in the dank basement with Amun and Martin. I told them everything, even though parts of it were incredibly difficult for me to relive, and left nothing out.
When I was finished, I glanced over at Archer and saw that his eyes were completely drained of their color. “I don’t think Amun meant for you to walk out of that house, Skye,” he growled lowly. “He wouldn’t have told you his entire history and let you live. You said yourself that none of his children, the Dark Ones, knew of his existence.”
I nodded my head and looked down at my hands. “I know. I had that same feeling when he was telling me everything.”
“I guess we know what the message carved into Greyson’s body means now,” Archer steamed, grinding his teeth. “Our blood will be shed for what Cináed did to Amun all those years ago.”
Archer sighed, shook his head and walked over to the bed and sat down beside me again. “I’m sorry we didn’t find you sooner,” he said as he reached over and held my hand. “I’m so sorry that you were dragged into our mess and that Amun and Martin hurt you. I’d do anything to take all that back if I could.”
I shook my head and sighed, looking up at him. “It’s not your fault, honey. It’s no one’s fault.”
Archer quietly growled his disagreement, but dropped the subject. “I need to call An Dílis now and tell them about Amun. They need to know what they are up against. Will you be okay?”
I smiled weakly and nodded my head. “Eventually.”
He leaned over and softly kissed my forehead. “Thank you for everything,” he whispered quietly against my skin. “After you’ve rested, I think you and I should talk. What happened in that house…”
I reached up and gently placed my hand on his chest, stopping him. I didn’t think I could bear to hear him say aloud that the kiss we shared was a mistake. “It’s okay, Archer. You don’t have to explain anything to me. I get it. Things happen in the heat of the moment…things that we wouldn’t normally do. I understand that.”