The Original Sin (Book #3 in the Skye Morrison Vampire Series)

by J. L. McCoy

  Trey gasped in surprise and whimpered.

  “Don’t be mad at him,” Archer barked. “Trey was just following my orders.”

  I opened my eyes and stared daggers at him. “Fuck your orders, Archer Rhys, and fuck you! You had no right to do that to me,” I said coldly and looked around at Hagan and Emrick. “None of you did!”

  Archer flashed to a standing position and adjusted his silk sleep pants. “Why did you lie to me about your dream? You said that Amun told you that the dream was real. I saw him in your dreams with my own eyes; he said nothing of the sort. He just sat there smiling at you.”

  I shook my head, my brow furrowed in confusion. “I don’t know what’s going on, but that’s not what happened in my dreams. In my dreams, he talked to me, dressed me once in some ridiculous Grecian gown, and gave me a dagger so I could kill him.”

  “I don’t understand,” Archer looked down at me, his own brow displaying the confusion he felt.

  “I don’t either,” I yelled, sick of the Spanish Inquisition. “All I know is that what you made me remember was not how it happened; not where Amun is concerned.”

  Archer paced back and forth in front of me, occasionally glancing my way, as he pulled on his bottom lip in deep thought.

  Archer stopped and studied me for a moment before he got a faraway look in his eyes. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of the front door open as Hunter flashed in to stand in front of us.

  “Pádraig said you needed me, Athair?” he bowed his head respectfully to Archer.

  “Aye,” Archer said as he put his hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “I need to utilize your talents with Miss Morrison.”

  “Talents?” I didn’t like the sound of that. “What talents? Don’t you fucking touch me, Hunter. I mean it! Don’t come anywhere near me.”

  “Silence,” Archer sighed at me before looking back at Hunter. “Are you up for it?”

  “Sir?” Hunter asked uncertainly. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” Archer nodded to Emrick and Emrick gently released my hand.

  Hunter kneeled down in front of me and held his hand out. “May I have your hand?” he asked gently, a look of regret on his face.

  “W-What are you going to do to me, Hunter? Please, just tell me.”

  “I won’t hurt you,” he said as Emrick picked my arm back up and placed my hand in Hunter’s. “I’m sorry, Skye. Please forgive me,” he whispered as he looked up into my eyes. He looked so sad and I immediately began to worry. Forgive you? Forgive you for what?

  I glanced up at Archer in panic, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. His face remained stoic as he placed his hand on Hunter’s shoulder and took a deep breath.

  “I’m ready,” Archer said as Hunter tenderly rubbed the inside of my wrist with his thumb.

  I watched Hunters fangs descend as he brought my wrist toward his mouth. I started screaming as I tried to get away from him, but I was being held firmly in place by Hagan and Emrick.

  “Please don’t kill me!” I cried out right before he bit down and I was slammed with the most intense, burning pain I had ever experienced. “Aggggh!” I screamed out as my body bucked off the couch, but Hunter never stopped feeding from me. Suddenly, it felt like something had invaded and wrapped itself around my mind and was actively trying to rip in two. I started seizing and convulsing violently as it tore itself through my psyche. I bit down hard on my tongue and felt the warm, tangy sweet blood spill from my mouth. I then felt something hard being shoved between my teeth as my head was held down against the back of the couch from behind.

  I felt the alien force in my mind find what it was seeking and curl around it as it fed on it. It absorbed a part of me into its being and I started seizing harder as my body desperately tried to fight it off. I opened my mouth and screamed bloody murder around the object shoved in it before blissfully passing out.

  *****

  I heard yelling all around me as my body was lifted and then set down again. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt too heavy. I fought against the warm, heavy blackness and tried desperately to claw my way out of it. I had a few choice words for Archer, and was eager to convey them, but the darkness wasn’t giving me up easily.

  “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Archer yelled. “Talk to me, Hunter! What the hell went wrong?”

  “I-I don’t know, father,” Hunter said frantically. “This has never happened before. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Is she dead?” I heard Trey sob from a few feet away. “Please, God, don’t let her be dead.”

  I felt cold fingers at my neck and I tried to lift my hands to shove them away from me, but they wouldn’t cooperate.

  “There is a pulse,” Emrick said from my left.

  I felt the hard object being taken out of my mouth and I moaned aloud in sudden pain. My mouth felt very tender for some reason.

  “She’s alive!” Trey cried out as I felt myself being lifted again.

  “Go get Jameson!” Archer yelled out to someone as I was set down on a cold, hard surface. I was instantly blasted with ice cold water from above and I took a deep breath as the shock of it kicked in.

  “You’re going to be okay, Skye,” Archer said; the tone of his voice conveying the opposite. “You’re going to be fine.”

  I coughed and sputtered as the water ceased and I was quickly lifted again. Someone wrapped me in a blanket and laid me down on something soft. My chest hurt for some reason and my head was killing me.

  “What have you done?!” Jameson yelled from across the room. I heard scuffling and tried again to open my eyes.

  “Do not harm him!” Archer yelled out. “Jameson, calm down. She’s breathing and she has a pulse. Just get your ass over here and heal her!”

  I felt hands caress my face and I forced my eyes open. They didn’t open much, but I was able to make out Jameson’s face hovering above my own.

  “Oh God, baby…what did they do to you?” he asked in a panic as his hands and eyes roamed my body. His eyes came to rest on my mouth and his head jerked back at the sight.

  I tried to speak, but moaned instead when the pain emanating from my mouth became too much. I managed to lift my hand a few inches and I tried in vain to push him away from me. I didn’t want any of them ever touching me again; Jameson included.

  Jameson yelled something to someone in Irish Gaelic as he put one hand on my cheek and one hand on my chest. I felt the telltale tingle of his healing power begin to sweep over my body and I frantically tried to fight him off. I was incredibly weak and managed to only slowly swing at him a few times

  “Baby, stop fighting me,” Jameson said as he tried to avoid my hands, but he never stopped trying to heal me.

  A sudden powerful wave swept over my body and my chest felt a thousand times lighter as my mouth started to tingle. Another wave hit my body and this one was warm. It traveled down my body and rested heavily into my lower abdomen. A powerful tingling started between my legs and as I took my next breath, I was flying high on a cloud of unwanted, forced pleasure.

  As I started to come down, I fully opened my eyes and silently began to cry. I was so drained all of a sudden. Thick heavy tears cascaded down my face rapidly, but I was too exhausted to make a sound. Jameson and Archer were standing over me, a look of grave concern on their faces, but I just stared at them; I was completely unaffected by what I felt were their false emotions. They didn’t care about me and it was painfully obvious to me all of the sudden.

  I swallowed thickly as Archer spoke. “How do you feel, Skye?” he asked carefully. What do you care? I thought silently.

  I looked over at Jameson as he addressed me next. “Are you okay, love?” Was I okay? I scoffed aloud at the ridiculousness of the question. Fuck no, I wasn’t okay. I almost died. I started chuckling at the absurdity of his question which quickly turned into full on laughter. Archer and Jameson looked at each other, obviously confused by my behavior and stared back down at me, completely at loss on how to handle it.
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br />   My laughter calmed after a few long seconds and I took a deep breath as I wiped the tears from my eyes. A lot of really messed up shit had happened to me since I met Archer and his crew, but this one took the cake. I quickly totaled up the carnage that I had seen since Archer hired me a little over a month ago. I had seen a murdered body in the PVIP section at The Mausoleum, seen the severed heads belonging to my ex-boyfriend Jesse and Jameson’s friend Callum starting up at me from the front seat of my totaled car, been kidnapped and tortured by the father of all vampires and his sick pseudo-assistant Martin, and now this? All of this happened because of them.

  “I’m done,” my voice rasped thickly. “Consider this my two weeks’ notice. I quit.”

  *****

  Thankfully, after my sudden resignation, the room quickly emptied out and I was left alone. No one said a word to me as they left. I took a deep breath in and sighed, feeling like an enormous weight had been lifted off my chest, and I rolled over in the bed, instantly falling asleep.

  Chapter Seven

  I awoke after a short nap and immediately felt better. The intense pain in my head and chest were gone and my mouth felt normal again. I rigidly got out of bed and went into the bathroom to take care of necessities. I happened to glance in the mirror as I walked in and did an immediate double take. I was horrified to find that the front of my white UT Longhorns shirt was covered in dried blood and vomit. My face scrunched up with disgust and I was completely appalled by what they had done to me. I took off my still damp shirt and peeled myself out of my jeans and panties then stepped into the shower.

  I stood under the hot spray and analyzed the events of this morning. What they did to me was completely unacceptable. Archer had no right to invade my mind and he had no right asking others to join in on it. Why couldn’t they just tell me what they were planning to do to me? Would I have agreed to it if they did? I thought about that for a second and decided no, I wouldn’t have agreed to Archer reading my mind or Hunter feeding from me. My mind flashed to Hunter biting me and how violated everyone made me feel. What the hell did Hunter do to me? If that is his divine power, to inflict intense pain and seizures on someone with one bite…well, that’s not divine. That’s just plain evil. Feelings of anger, hurt, shock, disgust, and devastation flowed through me. My body started to shake with the emotional overload I was experiencing and my knees suddenly got weak. I slid down the wall of the shower, tightly pulled my knees to my chest, and silently wept.

  I don’t know how long I was in there for, but I finally managed to stand and wash myself. I got out, toweled off, brushed my hair and got dressed. As I was putting on my Chucks, I noticed Styvi Nix’s bag of food, toys and treats by the end of my bed. I immediately panicked, realizing that I hadn’t seen her since I fled my bed last night after my nightmare, and I abandoned the other shoe as I flew out my bedroom door.

  I heard voices coming from the living room but they stopped right before I reached the end of the hallway. They whole house was gathered in there and they all looked up at me as I came to a screeching halt a few feet away.

  “Where’s Styvi?” I asked urgently.

  Jameson stood up and I saw her wrapped in his arms, asleep. A burst of air left my lungs at the sight of her and I put my hand to my chest in relief. Jameson moved towards me and I instantly took a step back and put my hand up to stop him.

  “Don’t come near me,” I warned, shaking my head. “Put her down on the floor…right now.”

  Jameson complied and Styvi looked up at him, annoyed that her nap was interrupted.

  “Styvi, honey, come here,” I called out to her and she slowly obliged. I quickly scooped her up in my arms and turned to go back to my room.

  “I’m glad you’re awake, Skye. We need to have a word with you. Could you please take a seat?” Jameson said gently.

  I turned back around and warily scanned the group. Seamus, Quinn, Aoife, Pádraig, and Lochlan all eyed me with pity. Emrick managed to look unhappy and Hagan just looked pissed. My eyes slid over to Trey and I saw that he had been crying for a while; by the look of his eyes, probably since he aided Archer in my mind-raping. I looked over at Jameson and he looked desperate as he extended his hand out to me once again. Does he actually expect me to take his hand? Lastly, even though I didn’t want to, my eyes slid over to Archer.

  Archer sat a few feet away from the group in a tan, overstuffed chair, a look of indifference on his face, and just stared at me. Anger and rage blazed anew within me at the mere sight of him. He almost killed me and he doesn’t care? I watched as he crossed his legs and got more comfortable. He’s comfortable, the thought suddenly flitted through my mind and I just totally lost it. I gently set Styvi Nix down on the floor and, without thought, launched myself in Archer’s direction.

  Archer’s face registered absolute shock and he flashed to stand upright before I tackled him to the floor, taking a lamp with us. My fists furiously pummeled him as I screamed wordlessly with the anger, rage, and betrayal I felt. Archer was yelling out something to someone, but I wasn’t listening. All I wanted to do was hurt him like he had hurt me and I wasn’t going to stop hitting him until I did.

  “You son of a bitch!” I screamed with rage. “You stupid, STUPID son of a bitch! How could you do that to me?! How DARE you do that to me?! You fucking motherfucker! I’m going to rip your FUCKING HEAD OFF!”

  “Skye!” Archer called out as he tried to shield his face with his arms. “Skye, stop! Please, let me explain!” Archer continued to yell out to me, but I stopped listening. I didn’t care what he had to say. All I saw was red. I had never, in my entire life, been as angry before or used as many obscenities in such a short period of time. My mother would have been absolutely horrified if she had been here to see this.

  “How could you do that to me? How could you let HIM do that to me? I’ll NEVER forgive you! NEVER! I hate you, Archer Rhys! I HATE YOU!” I screeched over and over.

  I picked up the fallen lamp from beside us and reared back to bash him in the head with it, but it was suddenly taken from my hands as I felt someone pull me off him. I continued to kick out at him with my feet in a desperate attempt to inflict as much pain as I could. Sadly, my feet never found their mark.

  My arms were abruptly secured behind my back as someone else grabbed my legs. I fought with all I had to get back to Archer. I was far from done with him. I wanted to rip his eyes out. He had mentally, emotionally, and physically hurt me and I was utterly and unequivocally livid.

  “Let me go! Get your damn hands off of me!” I screamed as I bucked and writhed in their hold.

  “My God, she’s pissed!” I heard Quinn say in shock as I was placed in one of the kitchen chairs that had been brought into the room.

  I couldn’t see Archer anymore and now that he was out of my sight, my adrenaline waned and I lost my fight. I was suddenly exhausted. My breathing was heavy and my heart thundered rapidly in my chest; it felt like I had just run a marathon in world record time.

  “Jaysus, Skye,” Lochlan said and I looked down to see him crouched on the ground by my feet. He was holding my ankles against the chair legs and looking up at me in shock and awe. “How’s a wee doll like you ‘ave such a fight in ‘er?”

  “Aye,” Seamus said from behind me. “All tha’ effin’ an’ blindin’ she was doin’…I ain’t never seen tha’ likes. Ya’ made a right hames wit dis’ wan, Athair. If she ‘ad been one of us, I’da put fifty quid on ‘er. She was after ya’ bollox, she was!”

  I whipped my head around to look at Seamus. “Are you making fun of me?” I huffed, still furious.

  “No,” Hunter said from across the room. “He’s not. He was just saying that you’re a tough girl and that if you had been a vampire and fought Archer, his money would have been on you. He…uh…also told Archer that it looked like you were out to castrate him.”

  I turned my head and glared over at Hunter, my eyes narrowed in anger. “You. Have. No. Right. To. Talk. To. Me!” I growled staccato.
“You almost KILLED ME!”

  “I know,” Hunter said gently, his voice immediately contrite. “And I’m so sorry, Skye. That wasn’t supposed to happen. That’s never happened before. All I was trying to do was read you through your blood. I don’t know what happened.”

  My brow furrowed irately as I listened to him. “What do you mean ‘read my blood’? What does that even mean?!”

  “His divine power is sight through blood,” Aoife said as she stood up, smoothed the front of her teal sundress, picked up something off of the floor, and slowly walked towards me. “We call it Blood Sight. He drinks from you and he can see your life through your blood. He can see things that mind readers may miss.” She stopped a few feet away from me and held out my sneaker. It must have come off during my attack on Archer.

  I looked at her and frowned irritatedly. “I’m a little tied up at the moment, Aoife.”

  She kneeled down in front of me and quickly slipped my shoe back on. She tied my laces and gave my foot a little pat as she stood back up.

  “Th-Thank you,” I mumbled. Aoife was always doing things I didn’t expect her to these days. She invited me shopping with her weekly, she’d bake me cupcakes or muffins, and she was increasingly nicer to me as the weeks passed. It was almost as if she liked me.

  Something caught my eye and I looked over at Trey as he helped Archer off the floor. My body immediately stiffened as Archer came into view. Yep, I was still pissed at the mere sight of him. He took his hand from his face and I saw the blood around his mouth and the scratches to his cheek. Part of me was ashamed and embarrassed that I had done that to him; but the other part, the one in control right now, was pleased to have inflicted some amount of pain on him, however small it may have been.

  I watched as his scratches started to disappear as he healed. Trey was wiping the blood off his mouth with his handkerchief as Archer glanced nervously over at me.