Legacy of Blood (25 page)

“Mind your fangs, feek,” Lochlan smiled, touching the side of his nose.  “An’ no bittin’.”

I was not amused at his lack of trust in my control and told him so with a look as I stepped out from behind the bar and quickly walked down the stairs.

“Have you seen Trey?” I asked Quinn, stepping to the side to allow two vampires to go up the stairs.

“Last I saw he told Lochlan he was going to go grab a bottle for you guys.”

“He hasn’t come back, has he?” I asked a bit frustrated.  “I’ve got a table waiting.”

He frowned and shook his head.  “Maybe Seamus needed him back outside.  He was in here doing headcount to see if they could let a few more customers in.  He said the line was crazy outside.”

“Shit,” I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair.  “That’s probably what had happened. I’ll be right back.”

I fought my way through the sweaty, dancing mass of patrons and tried to hold my breath.  Being smack in the middle of so many humans was a bit overwhelming.  I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast and I was suddenly dying for a bite.

A hand clamped down on my arm and I whirled around in surprise.  I was expecting a drunken customer but instead saw Seamus standing in front of me.  “Hav’ ya seen Trey?” he frowned, obviously pissed.

I shook my head and felt my brow furrow in confusion.  “No.  Trey was supposed to be bringing us a bottle from the stockroom but he never showed up.  We figured he went back outside.”

“Nay,” Seamus shook his head.  “He’s no’ with me.  I need ‘em though.  Ya see ‘em, tell ‘em he’s fired, the slackin’ git.”

“I’ll be sure to pass that on,” I smirked and watched him head back to the door.  I managed to walk to the hallway in back without feeding from one of the hundreds of tasty customers we had and gave myself a little pat on the back.  The stockroom door was open but there was no sign of Trey.  I grabbed the bottle I needed and headed back onto the main floor. 

“You find Trey?” Quinn asked when I reached the stairs.

“No,” I shook my head.  “He wasn’t in the stockroom.  I ran into Seamus and he said Trey wasn’t outside with him.  He was looking for him too.”

A sudden sharp pain behind my eyes had me whimpering and grabbing my head.

Quinn frowned deeply and stared at me for a moment.  “You okay?”

The pain went away almost as quickly as it had come and I blinked my eyes a few times and shook my head, trying to clear some of the left over pressure.  “Uh… yeah… I’m fine.  Headache I guess.”

“Run upstairs and get Hagan,” Quinn said, his frown still in place.  “I need him down here.”

I nodded and took the stairs two at a time.  I quickly dropped off the bottle of Macallan to the table that had been waiting, apologized profusely for the delay, and then went to find Hagan.  He was sitting at a table with three other vampires and I leaned over and whispered in his ear that Quinn needed him downstairs.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, worriedly.

“I don’t know,” I shook my head and shrugged one shoulder.

Hagan excused himself from the table and headed downstairs while I headed back to the bar.

I was in the middle of taking an order when the pain behind my eyes returned, tenfold.  I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to take deep breaths until the pain went away.

“What is it, Skye?” Lochlan asked, putting one arm around me.

“I-I don’t know,” I whispered as I grabbed onto the counter to steady myself.  “My head hurts.”

The pressure in my head was overwhelming and like nothing I had ever experienced before.  This was no ordinary headache, that much I could tell.  “I think I need to… to-”

“Ta what?” Lochlan asked.  “Do ya need ta take a break?  Do ya need ta sit down a bit?”

The pain in my head suddenly ratcheted up another degree and I was involuntarily whimpering in pain.  It felt like something was pushing up against the back of my eyes and when I opened them, I saw black spots dancing in my vision.  I knew from past experience that this meant a blackout was near.  I opened my mouth to ask Lochlan to take me upstairs, but I never got a word out before I hit the ground and fainted.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was standing in a dark, dank, disgustingly dirty back alley.  Trash littered the ground and water dripped off the tall buildings around me.

“How the hell did I get here?” I whispered to myself as I turned in a circle, taking in my shocking surroundings.

“You are here because I command it!” Amun seethed and I spun around to see him standing in the middle of the alley, his hand tightly wrapped around a terrified Trey’s throat.

“Trey!” I screamed as I stared helplessly at him.  Trey’s eyes were wide, he was crying, and there was blood on his shirt.  “What did you do to him?!  If you hurt him, so help me God I’ll-,”

“SILENCE!” Amun screamed and the buildings all around us shook with his fury.  His eyes were black as night and his rage was profound.  I had never seen him this angry before.  Trey started making a choking sound and I immediately dropped to my knees.

“Please,” I whispered, trying to stay calm but inside I was a blubbering, crying mess.  “Please don’t hurt him.  You have me.  I’m here.  Please just let him go, Amun.”

Amun looked down at me with a mixture of hatred, longing, and sadness.  “You betrayed me,
Damu
.  I provide you a way to locate me, to come to me, and you try and lead their Army against me?  Me, your own father, the very other half of your soul!  How could you?  How could you betray me?”

I bowed my head in submission and did the one thing I could think of to try and calm his rage; I apologized.  “I’m sorry, father.  Please forgive me for what I have done.  I’ll come with you, right now… but please let Trey go first.  He has nothing to do with this.”

“Why?” he whispered, causing me to look up in surprise.  “Why did you betray me?”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered back.  “I wasn’t thinking clearly.  I swear it will never happen again.  Please, take me and let’s just go.”

“I offered you the world,
Damu
, and you spit in my face!” he roared.  “I bestowed upon you a gift in which no other being on the entire planet possesses other than myself.  I have granted you immortality.  I have given you TRUE life.  You should be worshiping at my feet, but instead you recruit my sworn enemies and try to direct them into battle against me?  We should be celebrating their deaths right now in our marriage bed, but instead I am here arguing with you.  In my time, women submitted to men in all matters and did so immediately.  Are you finally ready to submit to me now, or shall I have to teach you a lesson?  I wonder how good your friend tastes,” he said as he licked his lips and brought Trey’s neck closer to him.

“NO!” I screamed as I flashed to my feet, my arms extended in Trey’s direction.  “Please, no.  I’m ready to submit to you.  Tell me what you want me to do and I will do it.  I swear to you.  But please, please don’t kill him.”

Amun smiled and pulled his lips away from Trey.  “If I had known it would be this simple, I would have used the boy sooner,” Amun smiled in satisfaction.  “I guess you just required the right motivation.”

“Don’t do this, Skye,” Trey whispered, his eyes pleading.  “I’d rather die than allow you to give yourself to-.”  Trey started choking again as Amun lifted him off the ground by his neck.

“Let him go, dammit!” I begged helplessly.  “I’m right here.  You have me.  Take me and be done!”

“Oh, I intend to,” Amun smiled sinisterly.  “But you must actually be here for me to take you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion, looking around at the dark alley around us.  “I’m standing twenty feet from you.”

“Not yet,” Amun cocked his eyebrow and then closed his eyes and tilted his head back.  “Your body is currently lying on the floor of the nightclub they keep.”  He opened his eyes and looked at me again, this time slowly taking me in from head to toe and back.  “Your conscience is with me, that much is true; but I also require your body.”

“Fine,” I said quickly.  “You’ll have it.  Just return me to my body and I’ll come to you.”

“You betrayed me before,” Amun tsked as he slowly shook his head.  “Why should I believe you will come to me now without alerting the others for help?”

“Because you have my friend,” I explained, holding my arms out helplessly.

“I should explain something to you before you even think about trying to deceive me again,” Amun said, cocking his head to the side as his black eyes bored into me.  “The ring you wear that allows you to see and feel me also works the same way for me; I can sense you in return.”  He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a more masculine version of my ring.  The blood red stone was the same size and color but the gold band was thicker on his.

“This ring, when worn by me, allows me to see your every move; hear your every thought,” he explained, slipping it on his finger.

The dual vision of me looking at him and him looking at me was almost too much for my brain to handle.  The pull to him was also strong, but not near as strong as it had been at the lake.

Amun took the ring off and my knees wobbled with the relief I felt.  “I will see everything you see, hear everything you say, and everything you think.  There is no way you can hide ill intentions from me, child.  Do you understand?”  I nodded my head and he continued.  “When you return to your body, you will immediately leave and come to me.  If you even consider telling anyone I have taken this Day Walker, or if you fail to comply in a timely manner, I will kill your friend… immediately.”

I nodded my head quickly and looked a terrified Trey in the eyes.  “I’m coming.”  I slid my eyes over to Amun’s face and took a deep breath before slowly blowing it out.  “I’m ready.  Put me back.  I’ll leave immediately and come to you.”

“I adore your cooperation,” Amun smiled widely.  “Meet me on top of the mountain.  You will know where.  Stray from these instructions and your little friend dies.”

I nodded my head in understanding and watched as Amun slipped on his ring again.

“Skye,” I heard someone whisper as I felt my cheek being hit. 

I opened my eyes and saw Lochlan on his knees beside me on the floor behind the bar.  His face looked worried and I blinked a few times to get my bearings.

“If ya wanted a wee nap, ya coulda jus’ said so,” Lochlan smirked as he helped me sit up.  “You okay?”

Stray from these instructions and your little friend dies
.  I nodded my head quickly and stood up.  “I’m fine,” I chuckled and put on a smile.  “Guess I just got a little dizzy.  No biggie.”

“Are ya sure?” Lochlan asked, frowning and studying me hard.  “Ya hit tha floor like a sack a’ potatoes.”

“Pfft,” I waved my hand and acted as if it was nothing.  “I’ve just got a little headache.  I’m perfectly fine.”

“Why don’ ya take a wee break?” Lochlan nodded his head to Archer’s stairwell.  “I’ll handle stuff ‘ere until ya get back.”

“You know,” I said quickly, jumping on the opportunity to leave, “I think I’ll just go splash some water on my face.”

“Aye,” he smiled as he poured up a drink.  “That’ll wake ya up proper.  If dat don’ work, I’d be willin’ ta try a lil’ mouth ta mouth resuscitation.”

He looked at me funny and I realized he was waiting for a response, so I laughed.  He looked even more confused and I turned and left as quickly as I could.  I didn’t want to stay around and risk him realizing that something was the matter with me. 

I look the stairs down at a jog and met Quinn on my way down.  “Where are you off to now?”

“I… uh… have to get another bottle,” I said quickly, “out of storage.”

“Well, be quick about it,” Quinn said with a frown.  “And if you see Trey, bring him to me okay?”

“Will do,” I smiled tightly as I stepped into the crowd and fought my way across the floor to the hallway.  The dual vision from my ring was starting to mess with my sight.  I was getting flashes of a car moving down a freeway before everything went black again.  I knew Amun was still wearing the ring because I felt the pull to him, but he was obscuring his vision so that I didn’t know where he was going.

Meet me on top of the mountain. 
What mountain is he talking about?  We didn’t have mountains in Austin; hills yes, mountains no.  I ran down the hallway and dodged Rachel who was coming out of the Employee lounge.

“Hey, Skye!” she called as I ran past her.

I didn’t bother to stop as I hit the door and was now out in the employee parking lot.  I knew I needed a car but I didn’t have any keys on me to any of Archer’s.  I did the only thing I could think of and ran to Seth’s old Toyota pickup.  I tried the handle and thankfully it was unlocked; I guess he thought no one would bother stealing his early 80s model yellow truck. 
Thank you, Seth!
  I quickly got in, ripped off the bottom panel, cut the wires I needed and sparked the right ones together.  I knew how to hot wire older vehicles (don’t ask!) and was so glad someone still drove one.  The truck purred to life and I twisted the wires to each other and wasted no time driving out of the parking lot. 

I made sure to take the back way to the freeway to avoid passing by the entrance to The Mausoleum.  If Seamus saw me, he would know something was up.  I felt the pull grow stronger as I navigated west through downtown and then north on MoPac Freeway.