Revelation of Blood (27 page)

“Jameson,” I sighed as I started to pull away
from him. The look in his eyes told me how desperately he wanted to
do it. I’d thought we’d made progress in rebuilding our friendship,
but obviously not if he was still having those desires about me. I
was in a relationship with Archer and hearing him talk that way was
a bit too intimate for me.

Leaning back against the headboard, I took
another big swig of whiskey as I glanced at him uncomfortably out
of the corner of my eye. “You shouldn’t say those things.”

“I know. I’m working on it, okay?” he said,
running his fingers through his long brown hair. “I know it’s
fucked up but getting over you is going to take time, Skye. You
can’t just expect me to turn my heart off.”

“I don’t expect that,” I explained as I
turned to him. “What I expect is you to take all those feelings of
love you have for me and turn them into something we can work with.
Jesus, Jameson…call me selfish, but I want you in my life. Nothing
good is going to come from your current feelings. You need to
channel them into the love you have for me as a sister.” I stared
down at the bottle in my hands and felt my eyes tear up. “We were
good together,” I admitted faintly, barely above a whisper, “and
I’ll always cherish the time we spent together, but I meant what I
said. You deserve someone so much better than me. You deserve to be
worshiped, Jameson; you deserve to be the whole world for some
lucky woman. I wasn’t it…I wish I could have been the person you
needed.” I looked back into his eyes as the tears fell from mine.
“Archer is my forever, honey, and that means that yours is still
out there somewhere waiting for you to find her. But I’ll tell you
one thing…whoever she is, she’s one lucky bitch.”

Jameson slowly lifted his hand to brush away
my tears; his face sad. “He’s your forever?” he asked in a whisper.
I just nodded my head and watched as my words sank in.

“Fuck,” he sighed, leaning back and rubbing
his face with his hands. “I had no idea you felt that way. That’s
serious shit, Skye.”

“I know,” I shrugged a shoulder meekly, “but
it’s true. There’s no question that Archer is the man for me. It
just…clicks with him. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced
before. It’s like…fate or something.”

“Soul mates,” Jameson said seriously,
lowering his hands to study me.

“I don’t know if I believe in that, but I
guess Archer is the closest thing I would have to one.”

Jameson chuckled dryly as he took the bottle
from me. “This is wild. Part of me is shockingly sad, but the other
is deliriously happy for my brother. Does he know how you feel?
Have you told him?”

“I-I don’t know if I’ve said it in so many
words,” my brow furrowed.

Jameson’s eyes carefully watched me as he
asked his next question. “Would you marry him if he asked?”

“Jesus,” I breathed out in a
whoosh
of
air. “I’m barely twenty-three and we’ve only been dating for a few
weeks. I can’t even think about something like that right now.”

He stowed the bottle between his legs and
turned to me, taking both my hands in his; his face strangely
serious and intense. “Don’t think about any of that, just think
about the way you feel about him. If he asked you today, all other
crap aside, would you say yes?”

I stared down at our hands and thought about
it. Archer was the love of my life. I’d never been with someone
like him before. Our lovemaking was passionate, perfect, and my
heart was fully invested. I knew I’d want him and no other man for
the rest of my life and I knew that my life would be nothing
without him in it.

Gazing back up at Jameson, I dropped my
mental shield and tuned into his emotions. Surprisingly, all the
things I felt were positive. Jameson seemed genuinely happy for his
brother. I felt the love he had for me, and shockingly, his lack of
animosity towards us. Maybe Jameson was finally making positive
steps toward turning his feelings around. The thought made me smile
inwardly.

“Well?” he prompted me.

I sighed and closed my eyes briefly before I
opened them and answered. “Yes…I’d probably say yes.”

“
Ifreann na Fola
,” he whispered with a
tiny, satisfied smirk.

“That’s not exactly how I envisioned your
response,” I raised my eyebrows at him in surprise.

“If you marry Archer, no one anywhere could
ever lay a hand on you, Skye,” he said, looking deeply into my
eyes. “You’d be completely safe…you’d belong to Archer. Atticus
could never try to take you from us again.”

“But I thought I was already Archer’s,” I
frowned. “He’s my maker and my mate.”

“True, but you haven’t taken the blood oath,”
he explained. “Doing that is irrefutable…you’d be married to
him.”

“You’re talking crazy,” I shook my head. “I’m
not going to marry someone just for protection. Besides, I can take
care of myself. You haven’t seen what I can do yet. I heal almost
instantly; no blade can kill me…even if you stab me in the heart.
I’m not scared of Atticus, Jameson.”

We heard the door to the apartment open and
watched Archer stroll in. I saw his eyes take in Jameson and me and
I smiled up at him. “Hey, honey,” I held my hand out to him. “Come
sit with us.”

He took off his jacket and laid it across the
pool table before coming over and sitting beside me. Jameson and I
sat back against the headboard again, all three of us in a neat
row.

“How was your meeting with the Castile’s?”
Jameson asked as he passed the half empty bottle of whiskey down to
Archer.

He took it and drank deeply before passing it
back to me. “It wasn’t as helpful as I’d hoped,” he sighed,
reaching up to loosen his tie. “What have you two been up to?”

Jameson and I looked over at each other and
chuckled. “Apologizing,” we said at the same time.

“About
bualadh craicinn
time,” Archer
smiled. “You two weren’t fooling me in Boston, you know. I could
read how pissed at each other you were. Why do you think I made you
hold hands at Les Oubliette?”

“I told you I’d try,” I shrugged a shoulder
innocently. “It wasn’t my fault your son was being so
difficult.”

“I’ll show you difficult,” Jameson scoffed
and put me in a head lock. I squealed as we playfully tumbled over
the bed; Archer’s laughter and Styvi’s playful bark sweet melody to
my ears.

My cell phone alarm woke me up at eight and I
disentangled myself from Archer’s arms to roll over and cut it off.
Since I had to be back at Drop Kick Dan’s at ten, I asked Archer if
we could spend the night at the club since it was a lot closer to
Dan’s; of course he agreed.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he purred
sexily as he pulled me on top of him.

“I have to get ready for work, baby,” I
whispered, straddling his hips and bending down to lightly kiss his
lips.

“No,” he moaned, growing hard against me as
he buried his face in my neck. “Stay with me a little longer. I
want to make love to you again.”

“Again?” I breathed as he gripped my ass
tightly to him. “We went four rounds last night. Haven’t you had
enough?”

“I will never get enough of you,” he
whispered, licking and biting my neck. “Even if we had eternity
together, it wouldn’t be near long enough.”

“Oh, Archer,” I moaned. “How can I say no to
that?”

“You can’t baby,” he looked up at me,
smiling, before flipping us over. He reached between us and
positioned himself at my opening, rubbing the hard head against my
wetness; coating it. I lifted my hips eagerly and gasped as he
began to push inside. He was rock hard, thick, and it took my body
a few strokes to fully open for him.

“Fuck, Skye,” he growled, looking down at me
hungrily. “You’re always so tight.”

“No,” I smiled up at him, “you’re just hung
like a horse.”

Finally able to fully sheath himself, he
growled as his body trembled with need. “Hard and fast or soft and
slow, baby?” he spoke against my lips as he nipped and nibbled at
them.

“Hard and fast,” I answered with anticipation
as I ran my fingers through his hair and fisted it tightly.

“Fuck yeah, baby,” he growled and really
started to move. Reaching under me to grab my shoulders, he drilled
deeply into me; the pain well worth the reward.

My first orgasm hit me hard and I saw stars
when I finally came down again. Archer wasted no time flipping me
over on my knees as one hand gripped my hip and the other my
shoulder. The loud slapping sound of skin against skin made me moan
and beg for more. Being the generous lover he was, Archer let go of
my shoulder to lavish attention on my nerve center with two thick
fingers as he pounded harder into me from behind.

“Fuck, Skye. You feel fucking incredible,” he
panted hotly against my back. “I’m so close. Come for me, baby. I
need to feel you.”

“Yes,” I trembled, my orgasm just barely out
of reach. “Bite me.”

He took his hand off my hip and wrapped it
around the front of my throat, pulling me up and tightly against
his chest. His fingers and cock continued their delicious assault
as he struck fast, sinking his fangs deeply into my neck.

I immediately cried out in ecstasy as I
shattered around him; my body arching further back against him as
the waves of pleasure poured through me. After taking a few sips,
Archer withdrew his fangs with a guttural moan as he released
himself inside me. He continued to kiss my neck long after his peak
as his body slowly rocked in and out of me.

“God, I love you, Skye,” he whispered into my
ear.

“I love you, too, Archer,” I answered, softly
stroking the only arms that I wanted to hold me for the rest of my
life. “So very much.”

**********

Freshly showered and appropriately dolled up,
I arrived at Drop Kick’s with two minutes to spare.

“Morning, D.,” I waved as I walked into his
office. Dan must have just arrived himself because he hadn’t yet
booted his computer up. “No word from Nikki on my end. Did she call
you?”

“No,” he sighed, shaking his head.

“I’m so kicking her ass when I find her,” I
frowned, angrily crossing my arms over my chest. Being angry was
easier for me than being worried, so I chose the only emotion I
could to successfully get me through my day.

“If she hasn’t contacted one of us by
closing, I’m going to the cops to file a missing person
report.”

“I agree. I’ll go with you if you want.”

“Will you? Police stations completely freak
me out,” he frowned, running his fingers through his thick, light
brown hair. “I’ve managed to avoid them ever since my fifteenth
birthday went to shit. I spent the night in the drunk tank downtown
and walked away the next morning with a lovely M.I.P. ticket to
explain to my mother.”

“Minor in Possession,” I chuckled. “Nice. Bet
your mom loved that.”

“You know it,” he raised a humorous brow.
“She grounded me for a month and took away my pager.”

“Ha!” I grabbed my stomach, laughing hard,
then wiped at my teary eyes, “Your pager? Oh, Dan…don’t look now
but your age is showing.”

“Laugh it up, sweetheart,” he grinned at me.
“You’ll be thirty-four before you know it.”

I felt the smile slowly slide off my face as
I turned to stow my messenger bag. My body would remain
twenty-three for as long as I walked this earth. The thought
saddened me. I realized I’d never age, have children, wrinkle, or
die from natural causes. I wouldn’t get to experience life the way
every other humans would, the way it was intended to be, and I felt
a bit cheated.

“You okay?” Dan asked, walking up to me and
putting a hand on my shoulder.

Turning around, I put on my best fake smile
and tried to push the depressing thoughts away. “You said pager,” I
chuckled and shook my head as I walked out and made my way to the
floor to start prep.

Dan had me work behind the bar with him all
day and I have to say, I really, really enjoyed it. We both needed
something to take our minds off Nikki, so we did what came
naturally to us; we cut up, laughed, and played my entire shift
and, before we knew it, Fiona showed up to relieve me.

“Call me if you haven’t heard from her by
two,” I said, hugging him tightly. “I’ll come pick you up after you
close and we’ll go straight to the station.”

“You got it, doll,” he nodded. “Fingers
crossed you don’t hear from me.”

“Fingers crossed,” I said, my brow furrowing
a bit as the worry crept back in. I accepted my tips from Dan then
headed through the floor door to pick up my bag.

As I got near, I heard my phone ringing.
I’ve really got to change that ring tone
. It abruptly
stopped as I was digging around for it, but started right back up
again the second I found it. Not recognizing the number, I answered
it a bit cautiously.

“Hello?”

“How come I had to find out from Corvus that
you decided not to join us?” a man asked angrily.

I felt my brow pinch in confusion. “What? Who
is this?”

“It’s your father, Skye. Have you forgotten
about me already?” he asked with an impatient sigh.

“Lucian?”

“Ah, so she does remember me. I was beginning
to wonder.”

“Of course I remember you,” I sighed,
pinching the bridge of my nose.
Shit
! With all the
excitement the night I returned to Austin, I’d forgot to call my
dad and inform him of my decision too. “I’m really sorry I didn’t
call you before. We had a lot to deal with when we landed in Austin
and I guess it just slipped my mind.”

“So, will you tell me why you turned down
Master’s offer?” he questioned, his mood mellowing somewhat.

I sighed as I took a seat in Dan’s office
chair. “New York is a long way away from Texas, Dad. My life is
here; everyone I love is here. I can’t just turn my back on
everything.”