The Original Sin (Skye Morrison Vampire Series, #3) (8 page)

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.

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.

“You’re going to behave now, aren’t you?” Aoife asked, drawing my attention back to her.  I looked up at her and sighed unhappily, but nodded.  I was absolutely exhausted and, although I was still furious, I didn’t have another round in me.

“Say it out loud that way I know if you’re telling the truth or not,” Aoife ordered patiently.

“Yes, Aoife,” I sighed again, “I’ll behave.”

“Truth,” she smiled brightly.  “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s go have us a little chat.”  She motioned with her hands and Seamus, Quinn, and Lochlan lifted the chair I was in and walked me over to the front of the sectional sofa.  They set me down by the coffee table but didn’t let go of my arms or legs.

Archer was seated in the tan chair again and I stared cold daggers at him as everyone took their seats.  Trey came over to me and I saw that he had Styvi Nix in his arms. 

“All your yelling gave her a terrible fright,” he said carefully and my heart immediately constricted at the sight of her.

“Give her to me, please” I said and he looked up at Seamus.

“I think it’s safe to let her go now.  Aoife said she intends to behave herself,” Trey said.

I felt my arms being released at the same time Lochlan let go of my ankles.  I immediately held my arms out and gratefully accepted Styvi from him.

“I’m sorry, girl,” I said as I nuzzled her face and let her lick mine.

Trey followed Lochlan and Seamus to the couch without another word and sat down.  We all were quiet for a few moments as we looked around at each other. 

“If you have something to say to me, you need to come right out and say it,” I seethed unhappily, my patience wearing thin. 

“I’m sorry,” Archer said immediately.  “I’m sorry we had to do that to you, but I had to be sure.”

“Had to be sure of what?” I questioned edgily.

Archer sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.  He sat forward in the chair and rested his forearms on top of his knees as he looked over at me.  “I was worried about a Trojan Horse scenario.”

“Trojan Horse scenario?” I frowned, my brow furrowed with the confusion I felt. 

“Yes,” Archer explained patiently.  “Do you remember the legend of the Trojan War?   It’s said that the Greeks built a giant wooden horse and hid a small number of men inside.  When the Greeks pretended to sail away, the Trojan’s took the horse into their city as a victory trophy.  Under the cover of night, the Greeks inside the horse emerged and opened the city of Troy’s gates, allowing the men that had returned on the ships to enter and finally destroy the city.”

“I know the story,” I said, shaking my head with impatience.  “I’m an Ancient History and Classical Civilizations major, remember?”

“Yes.  I’m sorry,” Archer apologized as he dropped his head, pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.  “As I was saying, I thought that there was a possibility that, during your captivity, Amun did something to you, effectively turning you into a Trojan Horse to gain access to us.”

“But he didn’t,” I whispered in shocked surprise.  “What gave you that idea?”

Archer looked up at me and frowned.  “Your dreams.  You said this morning that Amun was coming to you in your dreams and that he said he was controlling them.  You also said how…conflicted you felt after he left and that gave me serious pause.”

I worried at my bottom lip, deep in thought, as I remembered my dream.  I thought back to some of the things Amun said, and how real it felt, and I nervously met Archers ice blue gaze.  “Am I a Trojan Horse?”

“No,” Archer said, shaking his head.  “Thank God no.”

“How do you know?” I asked, wide eyed and worried.  “How can you be sure?”

“Since I couldn’t get a clear vision of your dreams as you said they happened, I had Hunter read you.”

I blanched at the memory of the pain Hunter caused me and I shivered involuntarily.

“I’m so sorry, Skye,” Hunter whispered from the couch.

“And?” I prompted Archer, not looking at Hunter.  “What did you see?”

Archer looked over to Hunter and nodded once.  Hunter nervously cleared his throat and explained.  “I…uh, had a hard time accessing to your memories,” he said quietly in his slick southern lilt.  “Something fought me tooth and nail, but when I finally did get through, I witnessed your whole life.  I…”