Skye Morrison Vampire 2 Sins of the Father

By: J.L. McCoy

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Copyright © 2012 J.L. McCoy

All rights reserved. Without limiting the
rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the
prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above
publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the
author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author
acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various
products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used
without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not
authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark
owners.

This book is dedicated to my father.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my
father David Varner. He gave me a quiet place to hide out and write
this book while improvements were being made to our house. If he
hadn’t have opened his house to me and given me some much needed
peace and quiet, you would not be reading Sins of the Father today.
So, thank you very much Daddy!

Special thanks go out to my amazing husband
Kenny for understanding my writing needs. He allowed me to lock
myself away for two months so I could get this done. (Babe, you are
the coolest husband a person could have. I love you completely.
Thanks for being you.)

Next, I’d like to thank my gorgeous cover
model/sister Kellie Albanese (You give good face, kid!), Patrick
Conlin of Conlin Photography in Austin, Texas for the amazing cover
photo and book cover design, Richard Friedman for cover modeling,
Eva Lee Phillips-Friedman for the photo shoot assistance, the
wonderful and amazing Sandra Kruchko for all of the hard work she
put in editing this book, Angel Herrera, Nicole ‘Nikki’
Broadhurst-Carriere, and Anita Smith-Shields for critiquing (I
couldn’t do this without you girls!), the awesome people over at
Irish Gaelic translations forum for the translations, and author
Katie Salidas of Rising Sign Books for the e-book formatting.

I’d also like to thank my wonderful Facebook
“family”. You guys gave me the drive and encouragement to finish
this book faster than I ever thought possible. Thank you for all
the reviews, emails, wall posts, likes, and shares. You guys mean
the absolute world to me!

Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to
thank YOU, the reader! Thank you for buying this book and for
supporting Indie authors like me. My name is a new name among the
vast sea of Indie authors out there and I thank you from the bottom
of my heart for taking a chance on my books. I really hope you like
them!

If I’ve left anyone out, I sincerely
apologize. All mistakes herein are mine and mine alone.

Conlin Photography:
www.facebook.com/pages/Conlin-Photography/147117428676817?ref=ts

Rising Sign Books:
www.risingsignbooks.net

My Facebook author
page:
www.facebook.com/authorjlmccoy

I stood in the stockroom downstairs, a box of
unopened liquor bottles at my feet, as I replayed the events of the
last thirty minutes over in my head. Greyson Mead, Archer’s friend
and business associate, had been brutally murdered. His dismembered
body had been found in a curtained-off PVIP lounge by one of The
Mausoleum’s human cleaning crew. A message had been brutally carved
into the naked flesh of his chest. It read ‘THE BLOOD OF THE SON
SHALL PAY FOR THE SINS OF THE FATHER’
.
After many tears and
a shocking admission from Archer, Greyson’s body was hauled away by
Quinn for the pyre later tonight and Seamus and Hunter had started
the clean-up process. I replayed the conversation as I continued
selecting bottles to restock the bar with.

Archer sighed and swallowed hard. “There’s
something that I’ve been keeping from you all. I think it’s time
you knew.” Everyone in the room froze and turned to Archer.

“
As you know, four of our blood brothers
and sisters were murdered in Houston this month.” Lochlan, Seamus,
and Hunter somberly crossed themselves as Archer continued. “That’s
part of the reason why I wanted to get Quinn, Hunter, and Trey out
of there. I thought it best to have my children with me and away
from danger. But it seems as though danger has followed
them.”

The vampires looked around at each other in
confusion; Aoife, I noticed, sat there quietly looking at her
hands. The news didn’t seem new to her. Archer walked over to the
bar and grabbed an expensive bottle of scotch. He uncapped it, took
a big swig directly from the bottle and then silently passed it off
to Lochlan.

Jameson looked down at me, brushed the hair
back from my face, and then searched my tear stained eyes. “Are you
okay, love?” he whispered. I slowly nodded my head as he led us
over to the table where Trey sat. Trey’s tears had finally slowed
to the occasional breathy hiccup. I reached over and took Trey’s
cool hand in mine, interlocking my fingers with his. He gently
squeezed my hand back in thanks and we turned our attention back to
Archer.

“
Shayne and Molly O’Brien were murdered
last night in their home in Landry, which is only twenty miles east
of here. They were found drained of all their blood and
dismembered…in a manner similar to Greyson’s.” Archer briefly
closed his eyes and sighed. The tragedy of tonight’s events seemed
to have aged him some. His handsome face was drawn and his ice blue
eyes haunted.

Trey gripped my hand tighter as a soft
whimper escaped his lips. I squeezed his hand back and scooted my
chair closer to his. I could only imagine what Trey must have been
going through. He was an Empath in a room full of scared, grieving
people. I tried to think calm, soothing thoughts in an attempt to
help ease him through. I didn’t know if they would help him, but I
sure as hell was going to give it my best shot.

Lochlan took a long drink from the bottle of
scotch and passed it off to Hunter. “Who were Shayne an’ Molly?”
Lochlan inquired in his airy Irish accent. “I don’t think I have
ever met ‘em.”

“
They were of Callum’s blood,” Aoife said,
standing up and walking over to Archer. She reached down and
clasped one of his strong hands in hers. Archer looked at her and
smiled a small, sad smile as she continued. “Callum turned Shayne
O’Brien in the late 1960s in New York. Shayne was the son of a dear
friend of Callum’s, and when Shayne was diagnosed at twenty-one
with an inoperable and fatal brain tumor, Callum turned him. Shayne
met Molly a few years later, fell in love, and asked Callum to turn
her also. Shayne never fully embraced this life and he made the
choice to live alone with Molly here in Texas.”

Aoife glanced at me for the first time and
I saw unshed tears in her eyes. She quickly looked away and at
Lochlan again. “Shayne and Molly O’Brien didn’t have a single enemy
in this world. They were quiet, never left their little town, and
never interacted with others of our kind. They were sweet,
innocent, and very much in love. They didn’t deserve being sucked
dry and ripped to pieces.” I watched as the tears in her eyes
finally became too much to contain and they spilled down her
beautiful, milky white face.
She must have known them both,
I thought sadly
.

“
There’s more,” Archer said gravely.
“Sliocht Sheáin in Boston and Sliocht Brocc in Chicago have each
lost three brothers in the past month. They were all killed in the
same manner.” He took a deep breath before adding, “And we have no
word from Callum. He has been missing from his home in New York for
the past two weeks. No one has seen him.”

“
Why di’nna we know about dis?!” Seamus
exploded in his thick Irish/Scottish lilt; standing up with his
fists clenched tightly, a look of pure, murderous rage on his face.
It was obvious he was itching to fight back. “Someone is feckin’
murderin’ our kind, damnú air! Why di’nna you tell us sooner? Why
di’nna someone from Sheáin’s family tell us? For feck’s sake,
Athair, we cu’da helped! We cu’da tried!”

Trey’s body started to tremble uncontrollably
and he looked over at me with quiet desperation in his eyes. I
could see how hard he was trying to keep it together and how close
he was to failing. I got up from the table, walked over to Hunter,
and took the bottle of scotch from his hands with a quick ‘Thank
you’. I brought it over to Trey and had him take several long sips
as I sat down again next to him, softly rubbing circles on his back
with my hand and gently whispering words of reassurance in his
ear.

Archer looked worriedly over at Trey and then
back to Seamus. “Tóg go bog é, Seamus, please. Tá sé ceart go leor
a mhic.”

“
Callum, brother?” I heard Jamison
question softly behind me. “Why didn’t you tell me?” There was
genuine pain in his voice. I glanced back and saw a mixture of
confusion and betrayal marred his usual carefree appearance. “You
know he is my friend.”

Archer put one hand to his heart and
immediately looked remorseful. “Youngblood, I…”

“
Wait,”
Quinn interrupted.
“I don’t understand, Athair. What does this all mean?”

Archer reluctantly turned his attention away
from Jameson and addressed Quinn’s question. “It means, my son,
that there is a vampire or similar blood drinking creature out
there consuming our blood and leaving no witnesses to tell the
tale. As to the message left on Greyson’s body, I have no idea what
it means.”

“
But why, Archer?” I asked, looking over
at him and Aoife. She was still clutching tightly to his hand,
lending him support. “I mean, I thought vampires only fed from
humans. Why would a vampire drink another vampire’s blood?”

“
We don’t feed on other vampires, Skye,”
Archer explained, letting go of Aoife’s hand and resuming his seat
in a nearby chair. He motioned for a still fuming Seamus to do the
same. Archer watched as Seamus reluctantly complied and then
resumed speaking. “Feeding off another vampire for nourishment is
considered cannibalism. It simply isn’t done and, before I became
aware of these murders, I wouldn’t have believed that someone was
capable of doing something so unspeakable.”

“
The only time a vampire really consumes
the blood of another vampire is when they have chosen their mate.”
Aoife interrupted as she walked over to stand beside Archer. She
reached up to lightly stroke his dark chestnut hair, and a look
filled her eyes that clearly stated ‘he’s mine’. “There is a
sacred, private ritual that is performed. You can liken it to one
of your marriage ceremonies. In the sharing of blood, two vampires
become one. Forever.” She sounded like she spoke from
experience.
Had she and Archer performed this ritual? That
would explain a lot,
I thought silently
. Not dating anyone
my ass, Archer. Yeah, you’re not dating her because you’re probably
already married to her
. I saw the way they acted around each
other. There was a comfortable intimacy and carnal familiarity
there. Even a blind man could see that. I glanced over at Archer
before quickly looking away. He was staring straight at me and I
had no doubt that he had psychically heard my thoughts. Well, at
this point, I couldn’t have cared less.