by Shéa MacLeod
I blinked. So he did know why he hadn’t turned vampire. I really hated when people hid stuff from me. “It doesn’t make sense. I’m getting the dreams. How is that possible?”
“That’s most likely because you also carry Atlantean DNA. It would also explain why you’ve been getting the dreams. The Key recognizes you as one of its own. I imagine, you could even be a descendent of one of Varan’s original warriors just as I am.”
I was starting to get a really funny feeling about all this. “Jack, I was attacked three years ago by a vampire. I actually died, but they brought me back. I certainly didn’t become a vampire.” My heart thudded in my chest so hard it hurt. “I just got stronger, faster.” I didn’t mention my Spidey sense. Another thing to keep under wraps. For now.
“That’s because, Morgan Bailey, you became a Sunwalker.”
Chapter Fourteen
“That’s just crazy. I am so not a Sunwalker. I certainly don’t have any interest in sucking anyone’s blood.”
Jack laughed. “What do you think Sunwalkers are, Morgan?”
“Well, I don’t know. You won’t bloody tell me anything!” I winced at the distinct whine in my voice. I hated when my voice went all whiny.
That really set him off. By the time he was finished laughing he was holding his side in obvious pain. Good. He deserved a little pain. I glowered at him.
“Oh, Morgan, you are such a miracle.”
I didn’t know what on earth he meant by that so I just glared at him some more. I might’ve looked cute and innocent, but I had a good glare.
He managed to pull himself together. “We don’t drink blood, Morgan.”
“Then what are the fangs for?”
He ran his tongue over his canines. “These aren’t fangs. I was born this way.”
“What?” I wasn’t sure it was possible to be more confused, but I was.
“Morgan, some people are just born with longer canine teeth. It’s genetics. Like yours.”
“Mine aren’t long!”
“Nope, but they’re sharp.” His smile was just a little too smug, but he had a point. I did have unusually sharp canines.
“So no blood drinking? Then why were you nibbling on my neck?” I couldn’t help being just a little disappointed by the whole no blood-drinking thing.
“Because you’re tasty, that’s why.” His voice held just that edge of a growl that told me he had really liked sucking on my neck. Things down low clenched when he did that. Oh, boy. I licked my lips.
“Come here.” His voice was rough around the edges.
“Why?” I was pretty sure I knew why, but I wasn’t going to make it that easy for him.
“Come here.” Rougher now.
I got up. Jack’s body radiated heat as I curled up next to him. He wrapped a solid arm around me and pulled me in for a kiss. Hot and wet and completely erotic. It was a good thing I was sitting down.
Fortunately for my sanity, my phone rang right then.
“Leave it,” Jack ordered.
I ignored him. “It’s Kabita. I need to take this.” I really needed to get my head together. Kabita checking up on me was just the opportunity I needed. By the time I got off the phone, I pretty much had my hormones under control, but I figured a quick subject change wouldn’t hurt.
“The blood thing?” I prodded, scooting away from him just a little. I needed some space.
“We don’t need to drink blood to survive,” Jack continued, though there was an edge of what sounded like frustration in his voice. “We get our energy from the sun, not from blood. I need so much sunlight every day or I grow weak. The sun is as necessary to me as it is dangerous to vampires. That’s why we’re called Sunwalkers.”
“So you moved to Portland? How’s that working out for you?” Portland wasn’t exactly known for being the land of eternal sun.
He grinned as he reached over and tangled his fingers in my hair. “These days I use a sun lamp when there’s not enough natural sunlight. Makes my life a lot easier.”
“If I really am a Sunwalker, does that mean I’ll need more sun?” I wasn’t exactly a sun worshipper, so the thought didn’t thrill me.
“I would assume so, yes. Though you appear to be doing fine.”
That was a relief. “OK, so no blood, but you need sunlight. What else?”
He cuddled me a bit tighter against his side. I didn’t want to admit it, but it felt good. Really good. “As you noticed, I’m faster and stronger than any human and most vampires.”
Yeah, I got that. “But I’m not that strong. I’m stronger than humans, sure, but not as strong as a vampire.” Not strictly true. I was as strong as a new vampire and even many older ones, but not nearly as strong or fast as a truly ancient one and definitely not like Jack.
“Of course not. Just like with humans and vampires, male Sunwalkers are generally stronger than females. Beside which, I was a Templar Knight, a trained warrior, not to mention a few years older than you,” Jack pointed out.
I snorted at that. “But you’re also immortal. That’s tied to the amulet. You said so yourself.”
He shrugged. “That’s sort of true. I am immortal because of the amulet, but Sunwalkers, while not truly immortal, are very long lived. We don’t age like humans, and we heal very fast, even from most mortal wounds.”
I healed fast. Very fast. “I’m not immortal,” I whispered.
“You’re not listening, Morgan. Sunwalkers aren’t immortal; they just live a long time.”
“How long?”
“The oldest I know of personally lived to be over two thousand years old.” He acted like we were talking about the weather.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, I was not a Sunwalker. I couldn’t be! “I am not going to live to be thousands of years old. Am I?”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t know, Morgan. I wish I did, but you aren’t like any other Sunwalker I ever met. You’re different somehow. I honestly don’t know if you will live a long time or not. None of us do. There were some of us who lived only a little longer than a normal life span and even some who died young, murdered or killed in battle. We’ve no idea how long we have any more than anyone else does.”
Well, that was something, anyway. I could still be a normal human when it came to living. Or dying, as the case may be. Odd that the idea of living such a long time freaked me out.
I shifted against him, settling more comfortably, and yanked at my lower lip. I decided that ignoring the whole me as a Sunwalker thing was the better part of valor. It couldn’t freak me out if I refused to think about it.
Yeah, yeah. Denial wasn’t just a river in Egypt. But Jack could be wrong about the Sunwalker thing. I could just be a normal ordinary human that got bitten by a vampire and woke up with super powers. Sure. No problem. Made perfect sense to me.
“So,” I asked, “what happened to the rest of them? The Sunwalkers? You made it sound like there used to be a lot of you.”
He was quiet for a moment, the expression on his face one of deep sorrow. “Remember the tales of how the Templar Knights found something hidden under the Temple Mount? How what they found made them suddenly the most powerful force on the earth, more powerful than kings or even the Church?”
I nodded as he got up off the couch and started doing the pacing thing. “Sure. Some have said they found proof that Jesus was married and had kids or that the Church lied about some of its doctrines or something.” I couldn’t count the number of books that had been written on the subject.
“It wasn’t any of that,” he smiled grimly, a faraway look in his eyes. “The only things we found under the Temple Mount were an undead priest and the amulet.”
“So, how did that give the Templars such power?”
“The amulet provides its Guardian not only with the knowledge needed to survive and protect the amulet, but also the ability to thrive. When I changed, the amulet provided me the information I needed to become rich and powerful enough to protect it. I passed that knowledge to
my brother Knights.”
A light bulb went on. “Knowledge you used to further the power and wealth of the Templars.”
He nodded. “Yes. Sometimes it even led me to other descendents of Varan’s original Warriors so that I could turn them, with their permission, of course. Most were happy to be of service. And you can imagine how powerful a fighting force a few dozen Sunwalkers would have been during the Crusades.”
“Uh, yeah, no kidding.” The Templar Knights had used Sunwalkers to establish a massive power base. The thought was mind boggling. No wonder they had practically brought the Church to its knees. Back then Sunwalkers probably would have been viewed as demons or angels or something. It must have terrified both the Church and every government in Europe.
“So the massacre on Friday the thirteenth, the one that ended the Templar reign, wiped out the Sunwalkers, didn’t it?” It was becoming clear. Those in power always destroyed what they feared, what they couldn’t control. The Templars and their Sunwalker allies would have definitely been something to fear.
“Yes.” Infinite sadness filled his voice as he sank back down beside me. “Every last one of my brothers was slain. Only I escaped with the Key. The others stayed behind to cover my escape.”
“So what happened to the other Sunwalker? The one that you said lived two thousand years?”
“She died.”
A female Sunwalker who’d lived longer than anyone I’d ever heard of. Interesting. “But not with the rest of the Templars?”
He shook his head. “No, women were not allowed to serve with the rest of us. Not even if they were Sunwalkers. She was an ally of the Templars and she gave me a place to hide when I escaped.”
“So what happened to her? Did she die of old age or something?” Two thousand years was an awfully long time to be alive.
“She was murdered. Twenty years ago.” His voice was very cold.
“Twenty years ago. The same time Darroch stole the amulet from you.”
He got up abruptly, nearly toppling me off the couch. “Yes. She was guarding the amulet for me. Darroch murdered her in order to take it.”
So this wasn’t solely about the amulet and Darroch’s plans to rule the world or whatever. This was also about revenge. I decided to worry about that later and changed the subject.
“You’ve waited twenty years to seek justice. Why?”
His jaw flexed. “There were reasons. Promises I had to keep.”
I clenched my own jaw. So we were back to hiding things. Fine. “So then you aren’t the last Sunwalker? There are others?”
“No I am not.” He just smiled at me. My not including myself as a Sunwalker didn’t fool him one bit. “I’m simply the last of the Templar Knights.”
Now that was all kinds of weird. Story of my life.
“But I don’t understand what this all has to do with Darroch. I mean, OK, the Templars used it to gain knowledge and power. You helped them do it. But what could Darroch possibly do with that amulet that makes it so bloody important? He doesn’t have you. He’s not the Guardian.”
He looked away from me, to the sword over the fireplace. He let out a deep sigh. “It doesn’t matter. If he has even a fraction of Atlantean blood in his veins, he will be able to access at least some of the information the amulet contains. With that information and just a little ambition, he could rule the world. Or destroy it.”
***
I sighed as I pulled my car up in front of my house. I was really tired of all this world-in-peril shit. An amulet that could either control or destroy the world if it got into the wrong hands? Honestly, it was so cliche it was downright boring, except that Jack had seemed pretty serious about the whole thing and, while I hated to admit it, the Templars had already done it once before.
If I were honest, I was also feeling more than a little guilty. I’d been crazy about Inigo for ages. We’d never done anything about it, but maybe that was my fault. I’d been so busy obsessing about his age and the fact he was Kabita’s cousin, I hadn’t let anything happen. And now I’d gone and made out with Jack.
I sighed. I really needed to get my head on straight. If I were honest, hormones were the least of my problems when it came to men.
The porch light was out again. I really needed to do something about that. If I kept burning through light bulbs at this rate, I’d have to start investing in General Electric stock.
I fumbled around for a minute trying to get the damn key in the lock while cussing under my breath. OK, not exactly under my breath. It was more like a conversational tone, if the person on the other end of the conversation was halfway across the street.
That’s when I felt it, that prickle that started somewhere at the back of my mind and spread until my spine was crawling with it. I closed my eyes, fingers still fumbling with the lock, and breathed in the night, sending my senses out across my property. I couldn’t tell the exact number, but several vampires were closing in from the left where my backyard lay in shadows and another two or three coming from the street.
I took another deep breath, Darkness seeping into my soul. That should have scared the crap out of me, the Darkness. Darkness wasn’t supposed to creep up and take residence in a person’s soul, even temporarily. Fortunately, I didn’t really have time to think about it.
They came at me in a rush, one from each side, the others hanging back. The first one to reach me got a silver tipped blade in the heart for his troubles. He was newly turned and stupid enough to think he was the top of the food chain. I showed him just how wrong he was. Unfortunately, it kind of went downhill from there.
The next vamp was female and at least a century old. Instead of heading straight at me, she feinted and ducked to my other side. She was a lot faster than the baby vamp, smarter, too. She grabbed me by the nape of the neck and swung me at the door. It probably would have broken my nose, but I managed to turn in time so my right shoulder took most of the force. I was so going to have a bruise in the morning.
She snarled at me, flashing fangs, going for my face with her nails. I managed to grab her left wrist and keep her from ripping my eyes out, despite the fact that my arm had gone nearly numb. I rammed my stiletto knife home and she vaporized, but not before I noticed her eyes were the same eerie glowing red as the other vamps I’d been dusting lately. Something seriously hinky was going on.
The Darkness gathered into me faster and faster; the night took a sharper edge. I could feel them out there, all of them rushing at me. And I could feel him, Kaldan, the oldest one of all; his dim outline flickered on the edge of my vision, mimicking life. He was out there watching and waiting in the darkness. Except tonight, the Darkness was mine.
They hit me like a ton of bricks and I went down. Hard. One of them dove for my throat, only I caught his first. I breathed in the Darkness. Breathed out and tightened my fist until I felt his windpipe crush under my fingers. It wouldn’t stop him. Vampires don’t need to breath. It would put him down for a minute though, and it’d hurt like hell. He fell back, wheezing and scrabbling at his throat.
Another one went for my throat, but hit my arm instead as I blocked him. In some far off part of my brain I could feel the searing pain, but it didn’t touch me. I was filled with the Darkness and Darkness didn’t feel pain. Instead, I calmly slipped the silver tipped knife between his ribs and closed my eyes while he turned to dust. Ashes to ashes and all that.
There was no time to gloat. In one smooth spring, I was on my feet with my sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. I’d drawn it so fast even I barely registered the movement. How very Buffy of me. I desperately tried to ignore just how weirded out I was by this whole thing. Too many vamps to kill, too little time.
They were on me, those strange red eyes filled with something very like glee, ripping and tearing at my clothes and skin, trying to shred muscle and open veins. They wanted the good stuff, and damned if I was going to let them. I slashed out with my sword followed quickly by the knife. Another vamp vaporized.
> As yet another pair of fangs sank into my shoulder, the world went fuzzy around the edges, just like it had the night I’d dusted Blondie. The first night the Darkness took me. Just like before, I didn’t fight it. I welcomed it, that soft, warm Darkness. Probably I should’ve worried about that.
I didn’t. I let the Darkness take me and it laughed with joy as it filled every corner. Things got a little hazy after that.
I did remember blood, a lot of blood. Not my blood, but vampire blood and pieces of … other things. I remembered flashes of silver light from my blades, the feel of steel slicing through flesh. And there was fire.
At some point the fight was lit with the orange glow of a bonfire. In the vague part of my brain that was still me, I found that a little odd. Vamps weren’t terribly thrilled with fire so I couldn’t imagine they had anything to do with it. Who exactly had started a bonfire in my backyard?
Sometime after the fire, I realized Inigo was there with me, fighting alongside me. The Darkness must have known he was a friend or I’d have probably tried to kill him. I wasn’t exactly myself.
Instead, the Darkness welcomed him like an old friend. A very old friend. For the first time, I felt the same buzzing tingle I felt when I was around vampires, especially really, really old vampires. In that split second, Inigo felt older than Kaldan. Older than anything I’d ever felt before.
He flashed me a fierce grin, his eyes gleaming gold in the firelight, and the feeling was gone. He was Inigo again. Just Inigo. The Darkness in me grinned back and laughed with joy.
***
I didn’t dare open my eyes. I was pretty sure if I did I would puke everywhere. Headache didn’t even begin to describe the way my head felt. This was more like the mother of all migraines.
I rubbed the surface underneath me with my forefinger. Even that little movement hurt, but I realized I was lying on my own bed. The satin throw underneath me was one I’d brought with me from England. I could smell the faint lingering scent of roses from my Champney’s body wash. Another habit left over from England, girlie as it was.