The Lie (The Skyy Huntington Series) (23 page)

“So, fire is also a way to kill vampires?” I asked him.

Lucius laughed at that question, “Fire will pretty much kill anything, and vampires are no exception. But this blade is enchanted, if you stab someone with it, it will burn like someone pouring lava into your body, much hotter than normal fire. And it’s sharp enough to take someone’s head off like a hot knife cutting through butter.”

I nodded at him and sheathed the sword again. It was really cool but I was actually kind of frightened of it at the same time. I wouldn’t want to slip and touch that blade. He could see my hesitation.

“Don’t put it away just yet. I’m going to show you how to pull that out and wield it efficiently in the event you need to use it. It’s small enough that you shouldn’t have too much difficulty handling it. Aiden you can begin by showing her some escape tactics if you like, then I will show her how to use those with the blade,” Lucius said gesturing over towards Aiden.

Fiona had made herself comfortable in a chair along the side wall. I looked at her and she smiled at me and winked, nodding her head in encouragement.

As I was handing the blade back to Lucius to hold while I trained with Aiden, I was startled by Aiden coming up behind me and grabbing me in a choke hold. While he didn’t grab me hard, it scared me because I wasn’t expecting it. He released me and I turned around to face him. “That is how quickly a vampire can grab you, so you need to know how to react to that within a split second.” He showed me a few tactics, like taking two fingers and poking them into the trachea, how to flip the attacker over my back, though he didn’t think I’d have the physical strength to do that against a hostile vampire, and then told me that the good old classics like eye poking, ball kicking, and stomach punching can also help to get me away from the attacker in a pinch.

“We don’t want to discourage you, but a human going against a vampire who is attacking you is not a good situation to be in. These vampires here might not kill you the second they reach you, because they are trying to get information out of you on the books location. But the ring and the sword will be two things they won’t expect. The element of surprise is a good thing to have,” Aiden said after showing me a few more defense moves.

I was sweating and getting hungry, wishing now I had taken Fiona up on her offer for breakfast. Aiden went to a cooler and pulled out a bottle of water and tossed it over to me. I took big gulps and then ran the bottle across my forehead. After a short rest I was back on my feet again.

Lucius then tossed the sword back my way, “Heads up!” he said, as it flew towards me. I grabbed it ungracefully. “The first thing you need to practice is keeping your calm. I know being attacked unexpectedly will frighten you, but you need to remain calm, and keep your muscles relaxed if you want to fight with a sword,” he informed me. “If you tighten up you won’t be able to act with the speed you’ll need, and it could end up getting you killed.”

“Secondly, always keep your feet apart, about shoulders width, never keep your feet close together. Keeping your balance will also make or break a fight.” Lucius showed me some of the proper ways to stand and parry while holding my sword.

“Next, I will show you how to hold the sword in a position that will enable you to strike with speed to any part of the attacker’s body.” He held the blade in a position that ran from his torso up towards his head, then passed it to me to practice a few times. “You’ll also want to keep your elbows close to your body, and bent while holding the sword.” Lucius took the sword back and showed me a few examples.

“The most important thing overall though, is keeping your cool. This blade is short and easy to maneuver, it’ll only take one stab to get them off of you, I just need you to be able to keep it together long enough to do this. Now, the end of the blade is also very useful, the spikes are fused with silver, so stabbing them in the leg or smashing their skull in with these spikes will have the same effect as the ring does, once the silver gets in their blood, they will be paralyzed.”

Lucius practiced a few different holds showing me how to remove the blade safely on my end from the hilt without burning myself on the blade. Once I felt confident enough he put me up against Aiden again, with the sword.

I didn’t like practicing with the actual sword, I was scared I would burn one of them, but they told me I did well, and didn’t manage to burn myself or either of the men.

We’d been in the gym for over three hours by now, and I was starving. The vampires thought I had a decent crash course on defense, and with the ring and the sword I stood a fighting chance against the hostile vampires. Fiona and Lucius both went upstairs while Aiden sat with me as I cooled down and drank another bottle of water.

“It’s really sweet of your mom and Lucius to let me borrow the ring and the sword. I feel much safer now at least,” I said as I took a swig out of my water.

Aiden nodded in approval, “I wasn’t aware either of them had anything like that. It makes me feel a lot better about the situation as well. You did pretty well with the defense crash course too, you’re very agile.”

“I took ballet for over ten years, I guess it’s finally paying off,” I said as I pulled my hair back up into a new sloppy ponytail.

“Ahh, another thing my mother will love to talk about with you. She adores the ballet,” Aiden said while rolling his eyes.

Before we joined the others upstairs, I wanted to talk to Aiden about what to expect tonight when we went to find the hostile vampires. “Aiden, what is going to happen tonight? You know, where will you do it?” I said making the gesture of a knife going across my throat signifying the killing of Mr. Skinhead and his Matrix friend.

“Lucius and Fiona think it might be best to get them onto my property, to invite them in and kill them here without any risk of being seen. They have been taking turns watching the house outside, they know you’re in here,” Aiden replied grimly.

“What! What about me? I mean, even though I have the weapon and the ring I don’t know if I am ready to murder someone or watch a murder even if they
are
a vampire. And what about Christian? He has no protection at all!” I said as I started to panic.

Aiden stood up and walked over to me, rubbing my back to calm me down. “Skyy, there are three of us and one of them out there at a time. You’re very well protected with the ring and sword, and with us here. And they aren’t as interested in Christian as they are in you and finding that book, plus they won’t make it into the house which is where we’ll be telling Christian to stay. It’s not fun for anyone but it has to be done. Your grandpa was right, it’s you or them. And I think I’ll choose you,” Aiden said as he winked at me.

I stood up then. “I should update Grandpa and let him know what’s going on. Maybe he’ll have some advice we could use,” I said halfheartedly shrugging. Aiden nodded in agreement. We walked upstairs and I found Christian sitting at the kitchen table and Fiona cooking him up some pancakes and bacon, which smelled divine.

“Oh, good Skyy, I was just about to come get you. You have to be starving by now, I made plenty for both of you!” she said as she slid a hot pancake onto the already huge stack of them and poured more batter into the pan.

“Fiona, thank you so much, you’re right I am hungry. I should have taken you up on this offer hours ago,” I said as I sat down with Christian at the ridiculously huge kitchen table that Aiden had probably never used. Cupcake shifted from her spot under the table at his feet to under the table by my feet.

I could tell Christian was nursing a little hangover. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hair was still rumpled from sleeping. Fiona brought us some plates and silverware and placed them in front of each of us. “What would you darlings like to drink with this? OJ?” she asked as she went to take the bacon out of the pan onto the serving plate.

“Yes please. Christian, you want some vodka in yours?” I joked as he kicked me under the table.

“Very funny Skyy,” Christian said with little to no enthusiasm.

“Thanks, I’ll be here all week,” I ribbed him again. Aiden excused himself, no doubt to go to his computer room. I had no idea where Lucius had poofed to. He made me nervous so it was probably a good thing he wasn’t around much, he was very intense and serious, even though he said little to nothing most times.

The pancakes and bacon were to die for. Between the two of us we wolfed down every last crumb, which Cupcake was quite disappointed at. Fiona sat with us while we ate, claiming she already had breakfast and wasn’t hungry. I asked Fiona about France, since I heard her mention it several times. Come to find out that she has a chateau there, and also a home back in their native Scotland, as well as London, Vienna, Rome, and Sydney, Australia.

“Aiden keeps our castle in Scotland under his name, and he of course has his home here in America. He likes the more remote life, I love big cities. He owns a few smaller homes in other countries as well. I’d really love to get a place in New York City though I am not sure Aiden could handle me being so close to him,” Fiona said with a chuckle. I was shocked to hear her talk about all the places they owned. I knew they had money but holy shit.

“Sorry, did you say your castle in Scotland? You guys own a castle?” I said awed.

She grinned from ear to ear. “Oh yes sweetie, Aiden will have to bring you both out to see it, it’s amazing. You’ll love it there. Green rolling hills as far as the eye can see, and it’s right on a cliff side overlooking the ocean.”

“Wow, and I thought this place was impressive! A castle though, that sounds like a pretty darn cool vacation,” I said. I wondered how long I’d have to wait for that dream to come true.

Christian chimed in, “It sounds to me like I am in the wrong line of work. I need to get into investing ASAP,” he said jokingly.

I slid my chair back from the table and began to take my plate to the sink when Fiona intercepted me taking it from my hands. “Let me clean up honey, just relax and enjoy yourself.”

I glanced over at Christian, “I need to make a couple phone calls, but you want to watch a movie or something after I am done?” I figured I should probably spend some time with him, who knows what could happen tonight or what the future held. Plus, I figured I owed it to him to explain that I had feelings for Aiden. He smiled back at me with that infectious grin of his.

“Sure, sounds like a plan,” he said.

I excused myself and Cupcake and I went up to my room to send Grandpa a note via Breadbox Express.

I had to walk over to Aiden’s computer room to get paper and a pen, and was shocked to find he wasn’t in there, so I quickly helped myself to the items and went back to my room. I scribbled out a note:

Hi Grandpa,

Aiden’s Mom and his maker both flew in last night to assist us with our problem here. They’ve given me some enchanted ring and sword that should help protect me. We’re going to attempt to kill both of the vampires who are here that we know of tonight. Do you have anything to update? Or any advice?

Love always,

Skyy

Folding it up, I wrote his name on the front, and then jammed it into the breadbox. I wondered how it worked, and figured that was another question in the ever growing list of things to ask him.

I also decided I should give my mom and dad a call, it’d been a few weeks since we last talked. I was an only child, and still have a pretty good relationship with my folks. Since it was a Saturday I could talk to both of them at once if I called. Mom was a work from home transcriptionist and Dad worked a nine-to-five job managing a car dealership ever since I was a little girl. They never had a ton of extra money but they sacrificed a lot to give me anything I wanted growing up. I guess Grandpa hid his secret very well, since his son raised his granddaughter in a modest neighborhood and we never really got much financial help from him.

I pulled out my cell and pressed the send button for their number. Mom answered, cheerful as ever. “Skyy! Honey, it’s great to hear from you.”

“Hi Mom, how’s it going?” I asked.

“Oh, you know, same old. I just finished baking a pie for a pot luck tonight at church. Dad’s fiddling around in the basement with his wood working,” she replied. If I could ever count on stability in my life, it was always my parents, they pretty much did the same thing every week, day in and day out. “What’s new with you?” she asked me.

Oh, if only I could tell her! I’m being hunted by vampires, considering dating one, oh and by the way your father in-law isn’t really dead…

“Not much here either really. I did meet someone though, he lives in the neighborhood. Really cute.” It was all I could come up with. I heard my Mom do her excited squeal voice on the other end.

“Come on don’t keep me hanging. What’s he look like, when can we meet him?” she asked. Oh boy.

“Well he’s got brown hair, green eyes, his family is from Scotland and he moved here when he was real little but he still has this adorable little accent on some words. A smile to die for, great body. Really smart and his family owns an investment company,” I said, totally forgetting that three sets of vampire ears were potentially hearing all this. “And I don’t want to scare him off just yet with meeting the family, let’s make sure that we’re dating first,” I added and laughed.

Mom laughed with me. “He sounds dreamy. And an accent too! How sexy is that?!”

“Yeah he is pretty darn sexy, I must say. Let’s hope I don’t blow it with this one, he’s a keeper.” I could hear her moving around and then a door opening in the background.

“Honey, Skyy’s on the phone come up and say hi,” she shouted down to Dad.

“Dad’s coming up honey. So you think you’ll still be able to make it over here for Easter?” she asked, putting me on the spot. Easter was a big deal to my folks. They were very religious and I wasn’t. But it was important to them so I usually drove over to their place every year to spend it with them. No need to get her worried about me so I figured it’d be best to keep the plans.

“Sure, I should be able to still make it. I’ll let you know when it gets closer though ok Mom?” I sighed. Hopefully I’d still be alive by then.