The Original Sin

Chapter Six





“Oh, please,” Trey called out worriedly. “Be careful with her!”

“Stop fighting me, Morrison!” Hagan growled and I looked over to find that he was the one who had ahold of my right arm. I quickly turned to my left and saw Emrick holding the other.

“W-What are you doing?” I panted, my heart beating wildly with fear. “Get your hands off me.”

I looked around the room for help, but only Archer stood by the kitchen.

“Archer, please,” I begged. “Tell them to let me go. I haven’t done anything. I-I don’t understand.”

Trey broke out in a sob and turned to Archer. “I can’t do this if she’s scared. I can’t do this to her, Archer. She’s my friend and she’s completely terrified right now.”

Archer took a step forward and crossed his arms over his chest, his face impassive. “We’re not going to hurt you, Skye. We just need you to cooperate with us and this will all be over soon.”

“Cooperate?” I repeated, confused. “Cooperate with what? What did I do? What do you want from me?” Archer frowned, a look of sadness and reservation suddenly filling his eyes, and I looked over at Hagan, desperate for answers.

“Hagan, sir, please,” I began to cry. “Tell me. What have I done?”

Hagan swallowed thickly and looked remorsefully down at me. “Just do what you’re told and this will all be over soon,” he repeated Archer’s words.

Archer instructed Emrick and Hagan to sit me down on the couch. They complied and sat down on either side of me; their hands still firmly grasping my arms and wrists. Archer came to stand in front of me and instructed Trey to stand behind me.

I looked up into Archer’s eyes and begged him with mine. What did I do? What’s wrong? A flicker of sorrow and shame passed over his eyes before he schooled his features into his usual impassive appearance.

When he was in place, Trey gently smoothed my hair with his hands and apologized. “I’m so sorry, honey,” he sniffed as his tears fell. “Just try to relax. This will all be over before you know it.”

What will be over?, I though in panic.

He stilled his hand and I heard him take a deep breath. “I’m ready,” he said and Archer kneeled down in front of me.

Archer placed his hands on either side of my face and stared deeply into my eyes. My vision started to swim in an all-too-familiar way and I knew Archer was attempting to penetrate my mind. “Now,” I heard Archer whisper and I was suddenly blasted with rapid memories.

I saw the first time I met Archer at Afterburner’s Café. I saw my interview at The Mausoleum. I saw Jameson hovering above me as he carried me to Dan’s office after I passed out. I saw our steamy moment on the hood of his car. I saw myself dancing to Nine Inch Nail’s Closer with Archer. I saw our first kiss. I saw Greyson Mead’s mutilated body. I saw Jesse’s severed head in my car. I saw Dean and our lunch together at Jax’s. I saw Amun out on the street. I saw him slice my forearm open and I saw the basement he took me to. I saw my torture and my rescue. I saw Jameson in my bed and I saw us make love.

The memories slowed down and I began to see my first nightmare. I saw myself chained in the basement and heard my terrified cries for help. I began to whimper aloud as the next dream descended upon me. I watched nightmare after nightmare of me chained and alone in the basement come and go. Finally, I saw Amun and cried out at the same time that Trey did. I saw Amun smile as he sat down in a high-backed wooden chair in front of me. I watched as nothing happened; he just sat in the chair smiling up at me. My dream morphed again and I was in the Christian Louboutin boutique about to try on shoes. I saw the room melt away and I saw the red door. I saw myself step into my apartment and I saw Amun lead me to my couch. I saw him sit there and smile over at me, never saying a word and never moving. I saw myself wake up and run into Archer’s room. I saw myself hug him and I felt an overwhelming sense of love and comfort. I saw us in bed together and my breath hitched at the memory.

Suddenly, I was released from Archer’s control and I was exhausted. I leaned back into the couch and rested my head tiredly against the back of it. I glanced down at Archer and saw that he was just as exhausted as I was. He had fallen to the floor and was sitting there trying to catch his breath. Our eyes met and I immediately closed mine in disgust. I couldn’t stand to look at him right now. I couldn’t believe he had forced his way into my mind after knowing how against it I was.

I leaned my head all the way back and opened my eyes to see Trey looking down at me from above. He still had his hands in my hair and he was crying.

“Oh, honey,” he whispered, emotions flitting too fast across his face for me to follow. Finally, he settled on sorrow. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

I swallowed thickly and closed my eyes again. I was mad at him too and didn’t want to have to look at him. “Tell you what, Trey?” I asked, annoyance lacing my words.

“Why didn’t you tell us you had been having these dreadful nightmares?”

“Because it’s none of your business,” I answered heatedly as I jerked my head away from his touch.

Trey gasped in surprise and whimpered.

“Don’t be mad at him,” Archer barked. “Trey was just following my orders.”

I opened my eyes and stared daggers at him. “F*ck your orders, Archer Rhys, and f*ck you! You had no right to do that to me,” I said coldly and looked around at Hagan and Emrick. “None of you did!”

Archer flashed to a standing position and adjusted his silk sleep pants. “Why did you lie to me about your dream? You said that Amun told you that the dream was real. I saw him in your dreams with my own eyes; he said nothing of the sort. He just sat there smiling at you.”

I shook my head, my brow furrowed in confusion. “I don’t know what’s going on, but that’s not what happened in my dreams. In my dreams, he talked to me, dressed me once in some ridiculous Grecian gown, and gave me a dagger so I could kill him.”

“I don’t understand,” Archer looked down at me, his own brow displaying the confusion he felt.

“I don’t either,” I yelled, sick of the Spanish Inquisition. “All I know is that what you made me remember was not how it happened; not where Amun is concerned.”

Archer paced back and forth in front of me, occasionally glancing my way, as he pulled on his bottom lip in deep thought.

Archer stopped and studied me for a moment before he got a faraway look in his eyes. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of the front door open as Hunter flashed in to stand in front of us.

“Pádraig said you needed me, Athair?” he bowed his head respectfully to Archer.

“Aye,” Archer said as he put his hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “I need to utilize your talents with Miss Morrison.”

“Talents?” I didn’t like the sound of that. “What talents? Don’t you f*cking touch me, Hunter. I mean it! Don’t come anywhere near me.”

“Silence,” Archer sighed at me before looking back at Hunter. “Are you up for it?”

“Sir?” Hunter asked uncertainly. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Archer nodded to Emrick and Emrick gently released my hand.

Hunter kneeled down in front of me and held his hand out. “May I have your hand?” he asked gently, a look of regret on his face.

“W-What are you going to do to me, Hunter? Please, just tell me.”

“I won’t hurt you,” he said as Emrick picked my arm back up and placed my hand in Hunter’s. “I’m sorry, Skye. Please forgive me,” he whispered as he looked up into my eyes. He looked so sad and I immediately began to worry. Forgive you? Forgive you for what?

I glanced up at Archer in panic, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. His face remained stoic as he placed his hand on Hunter’s shoulder and took a deep breath.

“I’m ready,” Archer said as Hunter tenderly rubbed the inside of my wrist with his thumb.

I watched Hunters fangs descend as he brought my wrist toward his mouth. I started screaming as I tried to get away from him, but I was being held firmly in place by Hagan and Emrick.

“Please don’t kill me!” I cried out right before he bit down and I was slammed with the most intense, burning pain I had ever experienced. “Aggggh!” I screamed out as my body bucked off the couch, but Hunter never stopped feeding from me. Suddenly, it felt like something had invaded and wrapped itself around my mind and was actively trying to rip in two. I started seizing and convulsing violently as it tore itself through my psyche. I bit down hard on my tongue and felt the warm, tangy sweet blood spill from my mouth. I then felt something hard being shoved between my teeth as my head was held down against the back of the couch from behind.

I felt the alien force in my mind find what it was seeking and curl around it as it fed on it. It absorbed a part of me into its being and I started seizing harder as my body desperately tried to fight it off. I opened my mouth and screamed bloody murder around the object shoved in it before blissfully passing out.





*****





I heard yelling all around me as my body was lifted and then set down again. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt too heavy. I fought against the warm, heavy blackness and tried desperately to claw my way out of it. I had a few choice words for Archer, and was eager to convey them, but the darkness wasn’t giving me up easily.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Archer yelled. “Talk to me, Hunter! What the hell went wrong?”

“I-I don’t know, father,” Hunter said frantically. “This has never happened before. I don’t know what to do.”

“Is she dead?” I heard Trey sob from a few feet away. “Please, God, don’t let her be dead.”

I felt cold fingers at my neck and I tried to lift my hands to shove them away from me, but they wouldn’t cooperate.

“There is a pulse,” Emrick said from my left.

I felt the hard object being taken out of my mouth and I moaned aloud in sudden pain. My mouth felt very tender for some reason.

“She’s alive!” Trey cried out as I felt myself being lifted again.

“Go get Jameson!” Archer yelled out to someone as I was set down on a cold, hard surface. I was instantly blasted with ice cold water from above and I took a deep breath as the shock of it kicked in.

“You’re going to be okay, Skye,” Archer said; the tone of his voice conveying the opposite. “You’re going to be fine.”

I coughed and sputtered as the water ceased and I was quickly lifted again. Someone wrapped me in a blanket and laid me down on something soft. My chest hurt for some reason and my head was killing me.

“What have you done?!” Jameson yelled from across the room. I heard scuffling and tried again to open my eyes.

“Do not harm him!” Archer yelled out. “Jameson, calm down. She’s breathing and she has a pulse. Just get your ass over here and heal her!”

I felt hands caress my face and I forced my eyes open. They didn’t open much, but I was able to make out Jameson’s face hovering above my own.

“Oh God, baby…what did they do to you?” he asked in a panic as his hands and eyes roamed my body. His eyes came to rest on my mouth and his head jerked back at the sight.

I tried to speak, but moaned instead when the pain emanating from my mouth became too much. I managed to lift my hand a few inches and I tried in vain to push him away from me. I didn’t want any of them ever touching me again; Jameson included.

Jameson yelled something to someone in Irish Gaelic as he put one hand on my cheek and one hand on my chest. I felt the telltale tingle of his healing power begin to sweep over my body and I frantically tried to fight him off. I was incredibly weak and managed to only slowly swing at him a few times

“Baby, stop fighting me,” Jameson said as he tried to avoid my hands, but he never stopped trying to heal me.

A sudden powerful wave swept over my body and my chest felt a thousand times lighter as my mouth started to tingle. Another wave hit my body and this one was warm. It traveled down my body and rested heavily into my lower abdomen. A powerful tingling started between my legs and as I took my next breath, I was flying high on a cloud of unwanted, forced pleasure.

As I started to come down, I fully opened my eyes and silently began to cry. I was so drained all of a sudden. Thick heavy tears cascaded down my face rapidly, but I was too exhausted to make a sound. Jameson and Archer were standing over me, a look of grave concern on their faces, but I just stared at them; I was completely unaffected by what I felt were their false emotions. They didn’t care about me and it was painfully obvious to me all of the sudden.

I swallowed thickly as Archer spoke. “How do you feel, Skye?” he asked carefully. What do you care? I thought silently.

I looked over at Jameson as he addressed me next. “Are you okay, love?” Was I okay? I scoffed aloud at the ridiculousness of the question. F*ck no, I wasn’t okay. I almost died. I started chuckling at the absurdity of his question which quickly turned into full on laughter. Archer and Jameson looked at each other, obviously confused by my behavior and stared back down at me, completely at loss on how to handle it.

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.