Legacy of Blood

chapter Seven

“Well, it looks like she got over her trepidation about feeding… though she almost had intercourse with the human,” Oleif sneered.

“Oleif, Archer and I need a moment alone,” I breathed as I took a step closer to Archer, the leftover lust from my meal completely consuming me. There was a needy fire burning inside of me and only Archer held my salvation.

Archer’s eyes grew wide as he read every thought in my head. I licked my lips and growled when I heard Oleif answer that he wasn’t going anywhere.

“Get the hell out or stay and watch. I don’t give a f*ck what you do, but close those f*cking doors!” I growled out right before I roughly pushed Archer down onto the couch and flashed on top of him. The wooden frame snapped as soon as Archer landed on it, but I didn’t care; I’d apologize later for breaking it.

I straddled his lap and he growled as I hungrily licked and nibbled at his neck; his manly scent and arousal sending me into an even more frantic frenzy. I fisted his hair and ran my still bloody tongue across his bottom lip, inviting him to have a taste of Jason.

Archer captured my tongue in his mouth and sucked on it, cleaning it of any trace of Jason, as he gripped my ass possessively and pulled me tighter to him. I shamelessly gyrated against him as I completely lost myself to lust and need. I was fire, burning desire, and only one thing could sate my wild flame.

I started pulling at his pants in a desperate attempt to free what I wanted most, but his sudden hand on mine stopped me.

“What?” I panted against his lips as I tried again to get his button unfastened. “Take them off. I want to f*ck you. I NEED to f*ck you.”

“Skye, no,” he said gently as he pushed my shoulders back. I didn’t understand and I tried to claw my way back to him. “Stop, love. Stop for a moment. You really don’t want to do this. It’s just the leftover excitement and lust from the blood.”

“No, it’s not,” I argued with him as I rolled my hips against his massively hard member and tried to kiss him again. “I want you… only you. I need you, Archer.”

Archer flashed up and turned over so that I was lying down on the couch and he was on top of me. His hands were holding my wrists above my head and he was breathing heavily as he looked down at me. “This isn’t right, Skye,” he explained gently. “You just awoke and you are experiencing the world for the first time. Your emotions are controlling you right now, not your mind. I can’t make love to you Skye. If I did, I would be taking advantage of you and I don’t want that… you don’t want that either. As much as this kills me, I have to say no to you.”

“Archer, please,” I begged in a desperate whine as I writhed underneath him, fully consumed with lust, and wrapped my legs around his hips. “I want this. I promise.”

Archer looked tortured as he stared down at me; lust and common sense warred with each other behind his eyes. “You’ll hate me later if I give in to you, Skye,” he explained as he started to get up.

I fisted his shirt to stop him. “Don’t leave me,” I whispered with wide, fraught eyes. “Please don’t leave me.” He immediately relented and cupped my cheek with one hand as he hitched my thigh up with the other, getting more comfortable between my legs.

“I’ll never leave you, Skye,” he whispered my name like a benediction, “never. You’re mine now. You will always be mine. You are a part of me and I am a part of you. My blood is your blood.”

I sobbed once; the immense relief I felt upon hearing his words was indescribable. I realized that my connection to Archer now was much deeper than it had been when I was human. It was hard to fully comprehend, but it was like my blood recognized him and craved him; craved his attention, affection, and approval and pulled me to him like it wanted to be whole with him again.

Archer smiled as he read my thoughts. “What you are feeling is the bond that is made between maker and child. It’s like this for all my children,” he whispered gently as he lightly stroked my cheek with the back of his hand.

“Do all your children want to f*ck you too?”

Archer laughed and shook his head. “No, love. I told you that what you are feeling is the leftover excitement from feeding. Take a deep breath and concentrate on centering your emotions. The lust you feel will soon subside.”

I highly doubted that it would but did as he asked. I closed my eyes and took a few, slow deep breaths. I focused on calming things like warm bubble baths, lounging in a gently swaying hammock, and the feel of the mid-day sun shining down on my skin. After a bit, I finally began to feel myself calming down. The lust was still there in the background, but its pull on me was greatly lessened. I swallowed hard and prepared myself to open my eyes. I was scared that just the sight of Archer on top of me would set me off again.

As I slowly opened them, I was met with a look that took my breath away. Archer was staring down at me with such love, approval, and pride that I looked up at him in wonder.

“You are something else, Skye,” he whispered. “I’m so proud of you. Your control is simply astounding. You didn’t let your emotions get the better of you.”

I shook my head, not agreeing with him. “I was seconds away from raping you, Archer.” He threw his head back and laughed as I continued. “I’m not kidding. I was so close to just ripping your pants off and taking what I wanted. It was everything I could do to just keep breathing. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Will it always be this hard to control my emotions? Will I struggle with this every time I eat?”

Archer chuckled as he sat up on the couch and pulled me with him. “You might struggle for a while when you feed, but I will always make sure someone is there to help bring you back from the brink.”

I shook my head, mortified at the thought of me turning my sexual hunger on Quinn or Seamus, or God forbid, Lochlan. “No, it has to be you,” I said with fearful eyes. “I don’t want anyone else to see me like this.”

Archer put his hands on my shoulders and looked deeply into my eyes. “You have nothing to be ashamed about. Do you understand? What you went through just now is perfectly natural and most importantly, normal. Everyone goes through this, Skye… everyone. No one is going to look down on you or judge you; quite the opposite, in fact. You did remarkably well overcoming your urges; better than any newborn I’ve ever seen. You should be proud. So what if you got turned on. We all get turned on every now and again when we eat; stop being so hard on yourself. I know this is all new to you, but you’ll see as time goes on that you have nothing to be ashamed of. The urges you feel are perfectly normal.”

I nodded my head as I looked down at my hands. My vampire life was not going to be an easy one I had a feeling, regardless of how “well” I was handling my emotions at the moment. I couldn’t help thinking again that I wouldn’t have chosen this life if I had been given the option. I wished Archer had respected my decision to die when I had asked him to kill me. If he had, I wouldn’t have to be going through all this emotional bullshit, with the Faithful gunning for my death and Amun was gunning for my hand in some sick vampire/monster marriage. Feelings of disappointment and anger rekindled inside of me and I frowned up at Archer.

“Next time I ask you to kill me, you had better f*cking do it,” I whispered before flashing to the now closed French doors. Oleif was still standing inside the room with his arms crossed over his chest and a weird look on his face. I didn’t know him well enough to be able to decipher it, but I could have sworn it held tinges of confusion.

“Move your ass, Oleif,” I growled. “I’m going to my room so I guess that means you are too.” He raised his eyebrows at me but said nothing as he opened the doors for me and allowed me to leave.

On my way to my room, I saw one of Styvi Nix’s tug ropes on the floor and stopped cold, mid flash. Oleif crashed in to me and swore in Gaelic as he bounced roughly off my back. “Where is my dog?” I wondered in a tiny whisper as I stared at her toy. I closed my eyes and focused on every heartbeat in the house. All I heard were the slow, steady rhythms of immortal hearts; Styvi’s was nowhere to be found.

I turned around and shouldered past Oleif as I flashed into the kitchen to where Trey was unceremoniously dumping out all the human food from the refrigerator and cabinets.

“Trey, where’s Styvi? Why isn’t she here?” I asked, starting to panic. Styvi was my life and if something had happened to her I didn’t know what I would do.

Trey set the near full trash bag down on the floor and dusted his hands together. “Miss Styvi is just fine, honey,” he said gently, trying to reassure me. “She freaked out a bit when you die- I mean changed and we thought it best to get her away from the house so we could clean up. Quinn drove her over to Nikki’s and she’s staying there with her for the time being.”

“Oh,” I sighed half in relief, half in worry. I could only imagine what Styvi must have been feeling, having been forced to watch me throw up blood all over the place. “Okay… I guess that’s good. I don’t want to traumatize her any more than she’s already been. Once I can control my speed better and my emotions, I’ll go get her.”

“Quinn mentioned how happy she was to see Nikki again,” Trey shrugged one delicate shoulder. “Maybe you should leave her there for a while. She’ll have her back yard and most importantly a stable environment…”

I wanted to disagree with him; to shake my head and argue, but I knew deep down that he was right. A house full of vampires and an emotional basket case for a ‘mommy’ was no way to live. As much as it killed me and tore at my heart, I had to agree with him. “What did he tell Nikki?”

“Quinn handed her a fat stack of cash and told her you had to go out of town again. She got pissed off at your work situation and called Archer a ‘slave-driving so-and-so’ for never letting you have a full day off. Quinn said she was still sore about the Krav Maga class you missed when Pádraig took you back home after he realized Amun had been in your house. Nikki worries we make you work too much,” Trey chuckled but it wasn’t a happy one.

“If she only knew the truth,” I sighed as I rubbed my forehead. My own best friend didn’t know me anymore. The life she thought I lived was a complete and total lie. And now, to top it all off, I was a freakin’ vampire. There was no way in hell I could tell her; no way could I tell my family or friends. I suddenly remembered the story Jameson told me about meeting Archer and how after he was turned he had to move away from the town he lived in and was forbidden to go back.

Trey’s eyes widened with alarm as he picked up on my emotional anguish. “Honey, what’s wrong? What is it?” he asked as he came over and placed a soothing hand on my back.

“I’m going to have to leave Austin, aren’t I?” I frowned. “I’ll never be able to see Nikki or Dan again. Jameson told me what he had to do after he was turned. I’m going to have to do the same thing, right?”

Trey sighed and frowned sympathetically as Archer came into the room. “We’ll try to find a way so that you can stay,” Archer spoke and a few gasps sounded as my housemates in the living room began to whisper to one another.

“Athair, that’s unheard of,” Trey’s eyes bulged.

“Aye,” he conceded with a nod, “but I can’t just drop everything and leave. The club just opened and we have to get it established before we can move on. There is also the matter of Amun. We are safest here where An Dilis currently watches. Our best chance to eradicate him is now. If we move, I fear he will only follow. We have something he desperately wants and I’m sure he’ll stop at nothing to get it.”

All eyes fell on me and I bit my lip as I sighed frustratedly. I was going to kill that a*shole the first chance I got. I hated what Amun had done to me and what I was forced to become as an alternative to death. “I’m going to kill that motherf*cker, even if it’s the last thing I ever do,” I gritted angrily before turning and flashing down the hall, back to my room.