“Change in plan.” Those were his last sharp words before she felt hands on her body. “Close your eyes.” He ordered fiercely.
When she opened her eyes they were standing in the living room of her house. She looked around and Jarrod was pacing by the door. Taylor quickly looked around noticing her kids were nowhere in sight. She knew immediately something was terribly wrong, running for their bed room.
She reached Ashley’s first looking in she seen no one. She ran to Zach’s and didn’t see them. “Where are my kids?” She screamed out. Damien blurred in front of her.
“In your room.” He spoke smoothly. The fierce intense look that he had earlier was now smoother but she could still see the worry. She ran past him reaching her room. Liz, Ashley, and Zach were curled up on her bed, safe and sound. Nothing looked wrong at all.
She turned back to the living room. “What’s wrong? What happened?” She demanded an answer because she could tell by the faces on both of them it was bad.
“Jarrod, can you give us a minute. Go to the bedroom with them.” She looked at Jarrod as he nodded before disappearing before her eyes.
“What’s wrong? Don’t sugar coat it. I know something is bad wrong. Tell me Damn it.”
Damien stepped toward her. “Taylor, I didn’t want to tell you like this. Let’s sit down.”
He had her shoulders leading her to the couch leaving her no choice.
“What do you remember about your biological mother and father?” He began.
“Nothing. What do they have anything to do with this?”
“Your aunt that raised you. What do you know about her?”
“Nothing. She just disappeared after I married Chase. Gone. The last time I checked the police said they were still continuing to search for her, but there isn’t a sign of her. What has she got to do with it.”
“Your aunt’s name is Ramee. Not Regina. She left because she knew they would be able to track you through her, like they have with us.”
“So she is a vampire to. Is she alive? And what do you mean they would track us through her?” Tears poured from her eyes. Her heart felt as if it had stopped completely waiting for his answer before it would beat again.
“Yes. She is well. She has kept tabs on you. You may not know it. Ramee has the ability to change her appearance. To make you see things that isn’t true. She can manipulate your mind. And she has, only in a way to keep you safe and to be able to see you, talk to you, touch you. She has remained in contact more than you know Taylor.”
“No she hasn’t either. I haven’t seen her. Who is tracking us?” Taylor felt a new anger growing inside of her. She would have known if she had seen her. It really didn’t matter at this moment though, she needed to know who in the hell was tracking her and her family.
“Do you remember last month, you were driving home from work and you stopped and picked up the fragile little lady who just needed a ride home? It was raining and cold out.”
“Yes. So?”
“That was her. The little boy who was lost and brought into your ER, the one that you stayed with telling the stories of your childhood to. Again her. She has been in your life more than you know. She had to do it to keep you and Liz safe.”
“Who is looking for us Damien? I want answers now!” She screamed quickly toning it down in fear of waking the kids. The hell with Regina or Ramee, she didn’t care. If she left on her own free will, putting Liz and Taylor through hell then the hell with her, Taylor thought.
“Calm down Taylor.”
“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down! And don’t you dare use a single one of your fucking gifts either. I want answers and I want them now!”
“Just calm down, I am trying to answer your questions the best way I know how.”
“Straight forward. Don’t sugar coat it.”
“Fine, but keep in mind you asked for it.” His words were harsh and she found she didn’t care at this point.
“Ok, you said something about my parents. How do they come into all of this?”
“Sweet this is going to be hard for you to believe. They were like me. You and your sister are like me.”
She froze.
No way. Impossible. This can’t be right. That would mean that I was vampire. I don’t have special abilities, I don’t have the slightest desire to taste blood. I’m just me. Simple.
“You do have them. You have always had them. You and Liz are both vampires. Your mother Ciarra and your father Macco were vampires. Your Mother was half for the first part of her life. Your line of decedents are special.”
“What do you mean my line? Explain it.” Taylor was confused, in disbelief. She felt like passing out, waking up as if all of this was a dream.
“I will. Let me explain all of it then you can ask your questions. Understand?”
She nodded.
“Your mother comes from the oldest of our kind. Her blood is that of the first vampire. Arasha. He was born from human parents. No one knows why or how this happened. My kind have never found that answer despite many years of researching it.
“Your father’s blood line comes from that of Arasha’s wife. The first female vampire that he chose to change to be forever his mate. Gianna. Your line is the purest there is. Over the years their children changed, then their children changed. And so on.”
“Wait. You said he chose to change. So he just bit her or something.”
“No. He bit her yes, but she in turn had to drink his blood. Once she drank his blood the change began. It is a very painful process to go through it like that.”
“As opposed to what?”
“As opposed to someone like you. I’m getting there. You and Liz are what is left of the first bloodline.”
“Ok.”
“It is said that he possessed an amulet. One that could change any vampire into human. If the amulet was ever used, all vampires would change into human form. There are those of us that believe that this would not be the curse that others believe.
“The truth is we don’t really know everything about your line. But what we do know is, that your line has the ability to live life as your heart desires. Human or vampire. Your abilities will never appear until your heart decides to live as a vampire. This decision is not one to be taken lightly. In order for the change to occur you and your sister have to agree together to make the change. Not one of you can change without the other.
“If you choose to make this change, you will become something that no one including my kind could ever imagine. You will have more abilities than ever known to any kind.
“You will have the ability to control violence in the vampire world. You could stop it all. You would control the entire vampire world. No one, even if they wanted to could stop you, or go against your orders.
“You and your sister could end the violence all together. No more humans would be killed by our kind. We would only lust for the blood that you choose for us to lust for. So, you could make us want to taste the blood of animals instead that of humans. Your power is endless.”
“I don’t understand this. I don’t understand if this is a good thing, then why did we have to scotty beam me up back here? Why did you have to give me a heart attack? Why were you and Jarrod so terrified, concerned?”
“Because there are those in my kind that have only learned the identity of you through me. I have been able to hide it. I don’t know how they found you but they know. And they are planning to come after you.”
“Why, what do they want? I don’t have anything to offer them. I am human. I don’t control them. Why?”
“They are coming to kill you, Liz, and the twins. They will have your abilities to some degree when they change. Not as powerful as you because Chase was human.”
“When they change? Are you shitting me. They are just kids. You told me that you don’t age. They can’t change. They would be stuck like this for the rest of their lives and although I would love it, it would not be fair for them. No that won’t hap
pen. I won’t allow it.”
“They wouldn’t change now. They would change on their twenty fifth birthday.”
“That’s still young. They will only begin to live then. And what of children. Would they be able to have children if they choose to do so?”
“Only if they made that decision and had them before they turned of age.”
“What would happen to their children?”
“The same as yours. If they do not have children then your bloodline would end with them. Forever.”
“But I don’t have any amulet nor do I know of one. This is ridiculous. I don’t understand why they are coming after me, when I live the life of a human. This is not a choice for me but my way of life. Why don’t they just go find the damn amulet and destroy the damn thing.”
“They fear you. The choice is yours to change at any time you and Liz choose to. This can forever change our world. That doesn’t require the use of the amulet.”
“So what are you saying? The bad vamps are coming to kill my entire family because they fear something that until now we knew nothing about? Because I have this ability to control them and make them human with an amulet that I don’t have nor know how to find?”
“Yes.”
“Why now? Why didn’t they do this sooner? Why couldn’t they have done this before the twins were born? Or why wait at all. Why not just kill me and Liz when we were children?”
“That’s where I come in. Vampires can choose to have relationships. But they cannot choose who their mate is. You are my mate. Liz is Jarrod’s mate. You don’t feel the connection that we feel because you are human. If you were to change then you would also feel this. It would be a bond like you have with the children. That strong. Nobody has been able to find you because you have been living a human life. They found you through Jarrod and I. They were able to track us through our thoughts and feelings. The only time our guard is down is well, certain moments in our life. Like the ones we experienced over and over this weekend.”
“What do I do? Do we run? Hide?”
“I can’t tell you what to do. You have your options. You can either live human and run for the rest of your life and those that choose to follow you will do our best to protect you or you can change. But for right now, yes we run.”
“Where to? Where do we go? They found us through you. They will find us again as long as you know where we are.”
“You’re right. You should run without me or Jarrod. The risk that imposes is great but it is your best option. If I shut off the connection, then I won’t know anything.”
“Shut off the connection. You can turn it off and yet you still stole my thoughts, my feelings. You bastard! I don’t want to leave you, but for my kids, I will. You should have never of come into our lives. For you to endanger my life is one thing, my sisters life and my kids, how could you?”
“Turning off the connection would be like turning off the support of existence to my body. I would no longer exist. I would only be a shell and it was only a matter of time Sweet. This is the way it has to be. It was going to happen anyways. Do you think that if we would have stayed away they wouldn’t have found you. They have been searching for you.”
I hate you. I hate you. Because of you, I have to leave my home, take my kids and run for our lives and that is no guarantee I can or will be able to keep them safe. How dare you do this to them? Leave my house now and don’t ever come back here.
Chapter Seventeen
The minute she turned her back to him her heart broke. She turned back to stop him, to apologize and beg for him to stay but he wasn’t there.
Wait come back. I was mad. I didn’t mean it. Please I know you can hear me.
She waited breathlessly for him to come back. Hoping and praying that he would. She needed him to help her through this. To help her protect her children. To stay with her and make sure nothing happened to her babies. Innocent children that had nothing to do with the stupid mistakes that she had made.
She ran to the bedroom hoping Jarrod could get him back but Jarrod was gone as well.
He knows I want him back here; it was a stupid mistake, why isn’t he coming back?
She knew what she needed to do. She had to run with her children and had nowhere to go. She didn’t know what she was up against or what to do next. She couldn’t do this alone without him. She needed him. She fell to her knees, bawling with uncontrolled emotions ripping through her heart body and soul.
Realization set in and the fact that he was now gone. She was on her own. She had to protect her children and Liz with everything in her.
Taylor ran through the house hastily packing only the necessary clothing items for all of them including Liz. She got everything loaded into her SUV. She was now more appreciative of her having the big Tahoe, third seat, fully loaded edition.
“Liz, wake up.” Taylor whispered nudging her shoulder.
“What?”
“We have to go. Come on I will explain on the way.”
“No, I want to sleep. Where did Jarrod go? I know he’s left, I can’t feel him here anymore.” How could she feel him? I never felt Damien like that. Taylor felt jealous of the connection that they had but she didn’t have the time to explore why.
“Liz, there’s no time.” Taylor turned her voice up a notch careful not to wake up the kids which was exactly what she needed to open her eyes seeing the seriousness that Taylor had.
“What’s wrong Tay? Did something happen to Jarrod? Damien? What is it?” Taylor heard the panic and fear in Liz’s voice. She didn’t know how to make it go away.
“Let’s go. We have to get the kids and get out of here. We can’t stay. I’ll tell ya on the way. We don’t have much time.” Taylor reached over grabbing Zach who was on the side of the bed. She waited for Liz to grab Ashley.
They loaded up the kids and took off. She didn’t have a plan on where to go. Just to drive and keep driving until she found somewhere to stop. They wouldn’t be able to stay for long at each stop along the way, that she knew for sure.
She had the financial part figured out. She still had a lot of Chase’s life insurance money left. Between that and what she had saved herself combined with Liz they could go for a while. She even thought that Liz and she could work if needed as traveling nurses along the way.
After stopping, filling up with gas, Taylor grabbed some snacks with some really strong coffee. She explained everything to Liz. Immediately she could see the mirror image of all of her emotions, her feelings, her thoughts. All of it compiled into the look she projected from her eyes.
“What are we going to do?” Liz whispered fighting back the tears as she turned looking over her shoulder at the twins who slept peacefully in the back. The bond that she had with them was almost as strong as it was with Taylor. Liz had basically been their second mother for their entire life. Every decision she made revolved around them. And now they both had to make this decision together and Taylor was completely torn.
“Should we change our names? Our appearance? What do we do? They can find us if they want to. What can we do?”
“I know. I don’t know what to do right now. I just know we have to be strong and keep it together until we know what to do. Just keep driving. Just keep moving. That is my only plan.”
“Where are Jarrod and Damien? They could help us.”
And here it goes. “I made him leave. They found us through them. If they tracked us through them once they could track us again.”
“Really? That was the stupidest fucking thing that you could have done. They are going to keep tracking us. We had a better chance with them helping us. Why would you do that?”
“I don’t know ok. I panicked. I was mad. He said he could stop the connection between us and I was mad because he heard my thoughts, felt what I felt and those were mine and he could have let them be mine. But he kept taking them from me. I tried to get him to come back. It didn’t work. Ok. I fucked up. I don’t need this shit from you right now. Trust
me I am chewing my own ass and I don’t need you on it to!”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. So he could read your mind?”
“Yes. Irritates the shit out of me. And he can feel everything I feel both physically and emotionally.”
“Feel. That could be interesting.” That’s the Liz Taylor knew and loved. She teased Taylor.
“It was and wasn’t. That’s not all. He can like … blink and we are magically anywhere he wants to take us. He can control your emotions. If you mad, or sad, he can make it go away and your happy feeling great again. He can see things you see through your eyes. Which can come in handy. He can wriggle his nose and suddenly all you feel is the most intense orgasm you have ever felt. He can make you feel like you have multiple mouths, hands, touches all over your body. And I’m sure I’m leaving something out or there is more I don’t know about.”
“Holy fuck! Jarrod can make you get the best night sleep you have ever gotten. At will, you are out. He’s strong. He’s fast. He can do the blink your there thing. He said that Damien is special but they don’t know why.”
“That’s what Damien said. He said that all vampires have their own little gifts. He can transfer into any animal he wants. How freaking neat that would be. How many times have we said ‘I’d like to be a fly on the wall’ we could do that.” Suddenly she was excited by the thought of it.
“So let me get this straight. We are both vampires. Well then where are our powers?”
“We have them. I don’t know maybe they don’t work until we change. If we change.”
“I would change in a heartbeat.” She said quickly.
“What about the twins?”
“What about them? Knowing that they would never be sick, die, be hurt, or any of the bad shit in this world is the best news I have had in a long time.”
“What if they grow up and regret the decision that we made for them? We have a choice but they wouldn’t. How is that fair to them?”
“I don’t know. I guess I didn’t look at it like that.”
Liz laid her head back staring out the window no doubt she was searching for the same answers Taylor was.
Swept Away: The First Bloodline Page 19