Stolen Sun (The Juliana Lucio Series) (15 page)

I arched into him, “William!” I was reaching my climax, and he
began moving over me in a slower but surer rhythm. I grazed my nails down his back as he once again captured my mouth with his. I ran my tongue, then fangs
,
along the column of his neck drawing a thin line of blood, and I felt him shuddering his release, then collapse on top of me. We laid there for several minutes before saying anything.

“Yes, I definitely like waking up in your room much better than in my own. I really, really think we should make a habit of this.”

He looked up at me with his schoolboy smile he thinks will get him anything he wants. The look was only thrown off by the black of his eyes and the fangs peeking out.

“Oh? Tell me what do you think you have to bargain with to convince me to let you stay here every
day
?” I asked jokingly. I think my own fangs and revealing black eyes gave away how much I enjoyed having him there as well.

William looked up at me seriously, “I have the key to weapons room, the only key at the present moment, and I’m willing to teach you how to use what you find.”

“Deal.”

“Deal.”

“You know I would have agreed to let you stay here even without the key.” I told him wrapping my legs around him once more.

“I know
.
I would have given it to you regardless also.” He gave a surrendering sigh, “ready to start training? I don’t think we have much time left with Nathaniel. He’s going to go after Christian soon, if only to get you to come to him. Once he realizes you can compel Master Vampires
,
he’s going to see you as a weapon and will get you to come to him using any means possible.”

“How do you know he’ll see me as a weapon and not just try to kill me, eliminate the threat?”

“It’s what I’d do if I were him.”

Changing the subject I asked him, “Hey, do you want to take a shower before we start training? I have a bathroom that you’ll never want to leave.”

“Sure
, love let
s go.”

W
e were standing in the library looking at the bookshelves.

“Um,
William?”

“Yeah?” He was still looking straight ahead.

“I thought you were going to show me the weapons, not pick out a book to read.”

“I’m trying to decide if I’m really going to do this, let you go after him. Once I take you in here, there is really no turning back is there.”

We were still looking at the bookshelf.

“Take me in where? We’re looking at a bunch of books! And you already promised me you’d help me William, don’t back out now.” I told him exasperated by this point.

He looked over at me I think really seeing me for the first time since we had walked into the library. I’m not sure what he saw, but he gave me a firm nod.

“Where are you going?”

He had started walking toward the opposite end of the bookshelf we were just staring at, I stayed where I was. If he was
going to keep avoiding me, I wasn’t
going to follow him around like a lost puppy.

William reached out pulling a book
off the shelf, except it didn’t come out all the way. He looked over at me with a look in his eyes that was so sorrowful it made me feel as though my entire world was about to change. I heard a slight clicking sound behind the books where I was standing, and suddenly, but silently the entire panel shifted backward.

“What the hell . . .” This time I was the one just staring at the bookshelf.

“Julia
na, welcome to the weapons room,
” William said coming to stand by my side.

“What the . . .”

“It’s a hidden room, we sometimes have other vampires staying here, and we don’t want them stumbling across anything we have in here. It also has a connecting tunnel into the garage, so it’s a sort of escape route in case of an ambush or if we get caught in the garage during sunlight we can get into the house.”

The panel
slid back revealing a two-foot
g
ap that someone could fit through, it was dark on the other side and didn’t
appear to have any light coming from the room.

“Shall we?” William asked gesturing with his hand for me
to enter the room.

As I entered I had to move to the right clearing the bookshelf and immediately before me was a set of stairs leading down to the basement level of the house. William followed close behind me, as soon as he cleared the first step
,
he pressed on a brick, and I
could hear the bookshelf sliding back in place.

My first thought upon seeing it was the weapons room was more like a weapons stockade. The room was enormous, about the size of a small gym with three of the four walls covered with row upon row of weapons. The brick walls of the basement along
with
the dar
kness gave it a sort of dungeon-
like feel. Not the kind of weapons room I would expect to find in a modern day armory. This place was full of titanium crossbows, silver stakes, silver knives of all shapes and design. There were also stab resistant vests, which I questioned how effective they would be against a vampire’s strength. I stood in the middle of the room and did a slow turn
to take everything in around me.
I couldn’t believe their stockpile, and this went far beyond what I was expecting.

“This is amazing,” I said still looking around when something in the corner caught my eye.

I went over to inspect what it was, and I
found several rows of clothing and shoes. The clothes appeared normal enough, if not out of place
among the armory. They had men’s and women
’s
leather pants, which was understandable because both William and Ana rode a motorcycle. What stood out the most were the high heel shoes and boots. The heels were in black, red, gold, and just about every color in between
—
all of them stilettos.

“These shoes are Ana’s?”

“Yeah.” William gave me an evaluating look.

I picked up a pair of red stilettos that looked similar to those Ana was wearing the night Nathaniel and Victoria came over.

“These heels are made of silver aren’t they?” I looked at the others appraisingly.

“They all have silver stakes as heels. They’re really weapons made to look like designer shoes, right?”

“Why would you say that?” he asked me curiously.

“Well, I first suspected she had silver tipped heels when Nathaniel and Victoria came over that first night. For some reason I knew she wouldn’t let them come near me without being able to protect me somehow. And second, well, it’s what I’d do.” I put the heels back.

“If I would have had a weapon on me maybe I could have stopped Ana, maybe I wouldn’t be where I am today . . .” I said regretfully.

“No. Having a weapon on you is smart, and it will protect you from lesser vampires or vampire hunters, but there are very few who could manage to fight off Ana. I know because I trained her, and I’ve fought by her side for decades. You couldn’t have fought her off as a human.”

“Wait
—
what do you mean vampire hunters? What is all this stuff really for? Why are you fighting by Ana’s side, and against whom?” I was rattling questions off like gunfire.

“Whoa, slow down Jules. All in good time, I’ll explain it all. For now let’s see what you can do, and let me show you what some of this stuff is, okay.” He started walking over to some of the equipment leaving me where I was.

“I thought you trusted me.”

He turned to face me, “I do trust you, but I also told you that I would never let anything happen to you, and I meant that. I will protect you at all costs, even if that means not telling you everything right now. I will—just not right now.”

“Why can’t you tell me?”

“Because, it isn’t safe for you to know.”

He told me he trusted me, more than once.  Do I believe him? Do I trust
him
?

“Okay. I expect answers William, but I’ll trust you, for now.”

“Okay, let’s get this done then.” He led me over to the wall of silver knives. “These are all self-explanatory
.
I explained the issues with silver in the morgue, it’s incredibly poisonous to us. The knife will get that poison into the system of any vampire you stab with it, break off the tip in one’s heart, and you can almost guarantee a kill.”

“Almost? That won’t do it?” I said incredulously.

“If they are young or a newborn, yes it will. If they are a century or more it might not, especially if they remove it and consume enough vampire and human blood to purge it out of their system.” He was very matter-of-fact about it all; I was feeling a little queasy.

“And Nathaniel is how old again, exactly?”

“402 years old.”

“So, this is going to be
--”

“Nearly impossible,” he finished for me.

“Well, I’ve always liked a challenge,” I said with a shaky smile. "What
’
s the best way to guarantee killing him?"

“Honestly, Jules?”

He ran his hand through his hair and turned away from me evaluating everything around us. He had his hands on his hips, his shirt un-tucked from his loose sweats; he was the most relaxed and tense that I had ever seen him.

“Maybe we should just get you out of here, Ana and I have places all over the world. We can take you anywhere you want to go. I can call Ana and we can all be gone before sunrise today.”

“Okay, let me just call up Antonio and the boys so they can pack a bag. Should I tell them to pack for warm weather or cold?” He gave me a look that said he didn’t
appreciate the sarcasm.

“Look, William. This isn’t about me. This is about Nathanial and Victoria going after my 16 year-old son and them not stopping until they have him. If you don’t want to go after Nathaniel, that’s fine, you don’t owe me anything. I mean that, I don’t want to get you killed. Just show me how to use some of this stuff and leave. Please.”

“I am not leaving you! Don’t you get it yet? I care about you more than I have about anyone. Quit insulting me and quit thinking the worst of me that I would just leave you to fend for yo
urself with a sadistic 400 year-
old Master Vampire!” His eyes were raging black, the tension rolling off him.

“I wasn’t trying to insult you! I just don’t want you to get killed because of me, I couldn’t take it. I’ve ruined enough lives William. I don’t need to add your name to the list.”

I went over to him grabbing his arm, I tried to pull him to me, but he was as immobile as a statue, finally he gave in and instead pulled me to his chest.

“Listen to me, I have been battling his kind for over 150 years, don’t worry about me being hurt it will only distract you.”

In the next instant William grabbed my arm and threw me across the gym. I went flying through the air and almost landed on my back, but my vampire reflexes kicked in automatically, and I twisted myself around to land on my feet.

“What the hell was that? I said I was sorry!” I screamed across the room, pissed off that I had just gotten flung around like a cat.

“That is your training starting. You did well, Ana landed on her back the first time.”

“I did not William; quit telling lies just because I haven’t been around.”

“Ana!” I flew over to her nearly knocking her over when I threw my arms around her in a hug.

“Well, that was a little unexpected.” She said tentatively hugging me back, “I didn’t know if I should show myself to you in a room full of weapons.”

She gave me a half-smile as I pulled back from her. I wasn’t
sure what inspired the hug; just that I was really glad she was back. Maybe it was because she was my sire, or maybe I just missed her even if I did feel betrayed when she left.

“I thought about it, I won’t lie. But really you had no reason to tell me who your sire was at first, but you still should have told me when they came into town. I hate all the secrets you two are keeping from me. You say you trust me, just not enough to trust me with everything.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“What are you doing here anyway? I thought you went into hiding or something?”

“I’ve been trying to keep an eye on your family, find out what Nathaniel and Victoria are really up to. When I sense him getting close I take off and then come back. Will has been calling and giving me updates. He told me what happened with Victoria and Nathaniel,” she said pointedly referring to the compulsion.

“Yeah, apparently I can compel Master Vampires. So you better watch out or I’ll
use it on you to do all sorts of
bad deeds. Maybe I’ll compel Nathaniel to walk into the sun or something, huh,” I said laughing.

Ana and William just looked at me, “I was just joking! My goodness
,
lighten up.”

“That’s a good idea.” Ana said turning to William, “She can use her compulsion on him as a weapon. We can’t risk it lasting long enough for him to walk into the sun though, and we wouldn’t be able to verify that it worked. But she could compel him to stop fighting or to release Christian.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” William said, “but there will be two of them, don’t forget about Victoria.”

“Hey, guys! I’m still in the room you know,” I said waving my hands back and forth in front of them.

“Yes, but there will be three of us. I’m going with you, no matter the risk, I won’t leave Juliana’s side. Besides I have a feeling that Victoria feels more for Christian than she is letting on to Nathaniel, and doesn’t want to see him turned. Not yet, anyway,” Ana continued.

“What? What do you mean she really cares for Christian? Ana answer me!”

Finally, Ana gave me her attention. She turned sympathetic eyes to me, “I had been following Christian when you weren’t there, and he spends all of his free time with her. Victoria seems truly in love with him when Nathaniel is not around. Christian has no idea what she truly is, and I think she cares about your son as much as he cares about her. She doesn’t seem to have intentions of turning him, but will if Nathaniel forces her too. She will also do it in the near future if you kill Nathaniel and leave her alive. She won’t want the appearance of a large age gap between them.”

“So I have to kill them both to guarantee my son stays human? What is wrong with me that I can contemplate murder like this?”

“It’s not murder Jules; they are planning to kill your son. Do you understand that? Not everyone survives the turn and becomes a vampire, and if they do for all intents and purposes
,
they are considered dead. Look what we just had to do for you.”

“You’re right, we kill them both.” I was done
talking about
it. I wanted to get it over with already.

“Attack me,” I told William.

“Why don’t we do this later?” William was saying, when I felt the air shift around me I ducked using all the vampire speed I had and felt Ana’s leg swipe my hair as it flew over my head. It was the first time I was able to dodge her.