Scions: Resurrection

by Patrice Michelle

  “How do you think you’re going to get two men out of that vehicle while covering yourself from gunfire?”

  Ariel worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Damn, he was right. She blew out an exasperated breath and gripped the gun tight as her palms began to sweat. The cuffs slid down her wrists when she lifted the weapon in a ready position. “Okay, I’ll go first, then you go while I cover you with the pulser gun. Hopefully we’ll be out of the vampires’ range and I can help you move the men.”

  She’d barely stepped out from under the rock face when a dark blur zipped past her. Ariel gasped and her insides rocked in concern, but she kept to the plan. Squinting against the bright sunlight, she held the gun trained upward, ready to fire as she began to run backward. There was no reason to fire and draw attention their way unnecessarily.

  “Come on,” Jachin called to her in a low voice at the same time she heard the vehicle’s engine trying to turn over. Ariel tensed at the sudden grinding whir. She glanced behind her to see the Garotters were already on the ground and Jachin sat in the passenger seat, his tarp askew as he leaned toward the steering wheel.

  The noise must’ve given their position away, because gunfire hammered against the vehicle, large BBs dinging the metal frame. Ariel’s pulse raced and her adrenaline spiked.

  She fired off a rapid round of shots toward the mountains while bolting with all the speed she could muster toward the Jeep. Jachin caught the weapon she tossed his way as she climbed into the doorless military-style vehicle and dropped into the driver’s seat.

  While Jachin fired the gun to give her cover, she jammed the gear into place, turned the key once more and pushed on the clutch.

  The engine chugged, sluggish and slow at first, before roaring to life. A breath of relief rushed through her at the sound. Her entire body trembling, Ariel shifted the gear and edged on the gas, backing the crumpled vehicle away from the rocks.

  “Which way?” she yelled over the staccato of gunfire, intuitively keeping her head low.

  “Back up the mountain,” Jachin croaked in a pained voice.

  Ariel shifted the gear once more, then turned the steering wheel all the way around as she punched the gas to the floorboard.

  A splintering sound drew her attention and she saw that a bullet had caught the top of the pulser gun in Jachin’s hand.

  “What the hell?” he asked.

  She quickly replied, relief rushing through her he hadn’t been hit instead, “A bullet just shattered the gun’s barrel. It’s useless now.”

  Once they rounded the curved mountainside road, Jachin dropped the weapon to the car’s floor, his groan of agony punctuating the air.

  Ariel’s heart lurched at the sound. She squared her shoulders and let her sympathy for his pain override the nausea churning her stomach. Reaching under the tarp, she grabbed the top of his left hand and laced her fingers with his. “Hang on. Don’t pass out on me.”

  When he tensed at her touch, she started to pull her hand away. He quickly entwined their fingers, locking her hand to his as he ground out, “Wishful thinking.”

  Ariel wasn’t sure if he was referring to her or himself with his comment. Probably both. “Just tell me what road markers I’m looking for and I’ll get us there. Um, I’ll need my hand back in a sec to shift gears.”

  His hand tightened around hers. “Tell me the gear when you need it.”

  She cast her confused gaze briefly in his direction, but all she saw was camouflage. When she came upon a curve, she began to slow down, needing to shift gears.

  “What gear?” Jachin asked.

  She waited for the engine to grind in protest. “Second.”

  When the gear shifted beside her knee, moving to the correct position, Ariel jerked her attention back to the road, amazed and somehow not at all surprised by his show of telekinetic power.

  Even in excruciating pain, Jachin exuded confidence.

  As she drove, she told him the road signs they came upon and followed his directions. Her heart stuttered a little at the realization Jachin hadn’t released his hold on her hand. His tight grip displayed a very human trait: he might be able to withstand high levels of pain, but he seemed to need their physical connection.

  “It’s just another hundred yards.” Ariel had never been more thankful to see shelter in her life. When she glimpsed the outline of a house through the woods ahead of them, all she could think was, Please let there be running water, an actual flushing toilet and something to eat. Hot water would be heaven!

  Jachin trekked along beside her under his tarp. He’d been strangely quiet, almost broody. He hadn’t spoken since they’d stashed the Jeep in the forest along the road and set off into the woods. She was pleased with herself that she’d found the stream Landon mentioned all on her own. They’d been following its soothing gurgle for a half hour when she spied a lone house.

  Sunlight filtered through the heavy foliage above them, giving the forest a dappled, cool feel. Two deer lifted their heads, then darted away as she and Jachin approached the one-story log cabin. Ariel pulled back the rattan mat, and the door key gleamed like a gold doubloon waiting to be stolen.

  “Men and their simple logic,” she mumbled as she grabbed the key and let the mat drop back into place.

  Once they walked inside, Ariel shut the door and slid the dead bolt home. Setting the key on the small round wood table next to the door, she flipped a light switch. Satisfied to see the soft glow coming from a huge lamp hanging from the vaulted ceiling, she moved into the living area and called over her shoulder to Jachin, “Wait until I close the blinds before you take off the canvas.”

  A quick glance at the winding staircase leading upstairs told her she’d been wrong about the house. From the outside it appeared to be a one-story, but it was actually a loft home built into the hilltop.

  She walked the oak wood floors, stepping over casual navy-blue-and-teal country-style throw carpets to close several blinds on the bottom floor. After she’d completed her task in the main room and the kitchen downstairs, she climbed the curved staircase in the far left corner of the great room. As she reached the top, she sucked in her breath at the gorgeous view the huge picture window allowed of the Shawangunk mountain range.

  Her gaze lowered to the king-size bed next to the window, and she began to tremble as her heart rate came down. Ariel realized just how hyped-up on adrenaline she’d been. Every part of her body ached, from her head to her feet.

  Exhaustion swept over her like ocean waves, rushing around her legs, trying to pull her under. The bed looked so inviting with its black-and-brown patterned down comforter. Framing the huge mattress, a highly polished rustic headboard and footboard of rough-carved oak surrounded the bed. The combination of earthy colors and wood was both masculine and beautiful in its simplicity.

  Her arms felt heavy when she lifted her hands to grip the thick canvas curtain material between her fingers. She pulled the khaki curtains closed and let out a sigh once the room dimmed considerably.

  As she approached the stairs, she realized she hadn’t heard a sound from Jachin. Heart thumping, she started down the carpeted stairs, her fingers tensing around the polished carved-wood railing.

  Her pace picked up until she saw him sprawled out on the leather couch in the living room, the tarp thrown in a forgotten heap on the living room floor. His backpack leaned against the couch, and his boots, socks and handcuffs were lying next to it on the floor.

  Huh! How’d he unlock his cuffs? And then she saw a mangled paper clip lying next to the cuffs. She glanced at the open drawer that had been pulled out from the coffee table next to the couch. It was filled with envelopes, loose-leaf paper, a stapler, a box of paper clips, scissors and tape.

  Interesting office-supply cabinet, Landon, she thought with a half smile as she leaned over to shut the coffee table’s lower drawer. She picked up an unbent paper clip and, after several unsuccessful attempts to unlock her own cuffs, turned to Jachin. “I don’t know how you did
this….”

  His eyes were closed and his bare muscular chest rose and fell in the slow, steady breaths of a deep sleep. She blinked back the rush of tears when her gaze traveled his huge frame and settled on his burned arms. The skin no longer oozed, but it was far from healed. Ariel bit her lip to keep from gasping at the horrific damage the sunlight had inflicted upon him.

  She started to turn away, when her mind registered a distinct difference in his left hand, specifically the top. Placing her hands on her thighs, she leaned closer. The pressure against the cut on her right hand made her wince, but she was too curious to worry about herself at the moment.

  Instead, she focused on Jachin. The skin across the top of his hand and between his fingers was perfectly healed, while the flesh around the sides of his hand was still marred and burned.

  She knew he’d exposed both his hands to the sunlight, so why was part of his hand healed? When she straightened and started to back away, pain lanced through her palm. Ariel glanced at her right hand. She was surprised to see the wide cut across her entire palm still oozed and dried blood coated her fingers.

  Her gaze darted between Jachin’s hand and her palm, a hypothesis forming. She’d held that part of his hand. Had her blood healed his skin?

  “There’s only one way to find out,” she murmured as she moved over him and folded her fingers inward, squeezing her cut. The moment she placed her blood-coated fingers and palm across his arm, Jachin flinched.

  Deep sympathy welled within her, making her throat tickle and her heart physically ache when his dark gaze met hers, groggy and pained. “Go back to sleep,” she whispered, placing her other hand against his forehead.

  Before the last word was out of her mouth, his eyelids had closed. His skin felt cool under her palm as Ariel worked quickly, moving her cut hand across his wounds, touching lightly.

  By the time she started on his right arm, the skin on his left one had already begun to heal. It also felt warm when she went back and swept trembling fingers across the mending flesh. Unable to comprehend the fact her blood was healing his skin, she mentally justified her actions.

  He wasn’t the vampire who had taken her family from her. If he hadn’t kidnapped her, others like Sethen and Thad probably would have…with different results. Jachin had saved her life several times over. She was just returning the favor, healing him as best she could.

  She refused to acknowledge the tingling in her breasts, the hardness of her nipples or the definitive jolt of sensual power that flooded her sex at the realization her blood could heal him.

  Her breath hitched when her gaze landed on his mouth. Relaxed in sleep, his lips weren’t formed into the hard line she was used to seeing. Instead his mouth held a languid sensuality that stole the breath from her lungs, just as his kiss had aroused her more than any man’s had. She swiftly removed her hand and backed away.

  She didn’t want him. She didn’t want…a vampire.

  After Ariel stepped into a much-needed shower and washed away a day and a half worth of dirt, sweat, blood and grime, she tried to use the soapsuds to remove the handcuffs, but the damn things weren’t budging.

  Then she remembered something she should’ve thought of while she’d been the guards’ prisoner in the truck.

  “Idiot,” she mumbled to herself as she bent her left thumb all the way across her palm and downward. This time, with the help of a little more soap, she was able to nudge the cuff off her hand. She quickly did the same thing with her right hand, then set the broken handcuffs in the corner of the shower while she washed her hair.

  Standing in front of the mirror, she wrapped some toilet paper around the cut on her palm and began to towel-dry her hair.

  One thin cut marred her forehead and another ran along her jawline. A dark bruise had begun to form on her cheekbone under her left eye. She was a mess!

  She tapped at her silver hoop earrings that sported a four-leaf clover perched on the bottom curve of each hoop, saying with a smirk, “Lotta luck you’ve brought me.” As her earrings swung back and forth, she leaned closer, frowning at her left earring.

  One of the leaves had broken off, leaving her with a three-leaf clover instead. “And now I know why,” she said with a sigh, leaning back to survey her overall appearance.

  Despite the beat-up look her face sported, the woman who gazed back at her stood with a confident bearing. Her blue eyes probed her reflection with an assessing stare—a look that had more impact and presence than she’d ever projected before. Had her experiences these past thirty-six hours—had it really only been that long?—brought this demeanor on?

  As she rolled up the long sleeves on a button-down chambray shirt she’d borrowed from the back of Landon’s closet, Ariel acknowledged that Jachin putting her in several life-threatening situations had forced her to gain—or find—a spine of steel.

  Who’d have thought that spending time with a real vampire would’ve been more beneficial to her psyche than creating an entire fictional—and controllable—cast of vampire characters in her book?

  Nothing could bring back her family. In many ways she still feared Jachin and loathed all vampires, but she’d also discovered a different side to vampires—a twisted reason for their treatment of humans—she’d never have known if Jachin hadn’t told her the truth.

  And then there was Landon…whatever he was.

  She slid a pair of Landon’s thick white socks on her chilled feet before grabbing up her soiled clothes. Once she’d put her stained, torn shirt and bloodied black dress pants and underwear into the washing machine, she walked over to the bed, pulled back the covers and fell onto the blissful mattress with an exhausted sigh. First a nap, then she’d find something to eat, she told herself as she drifted off to sleep.

  She ran through the woods, the full moon lighting her path. Her pulse raced and her stomach tensed as she glanced back to see if her pursuer had followed. Hard pounding shook the earth underneath her feet. Leaves crunched and trees rustled in the unseen monster’s wake.

  He was gaining fast!

  Ariel screamed and plunged onward. Her legs trembled and her chest ached as she doubled her efforts to get away.

  Jachin stepped out from behind a tree, directly in her path. Relief swept over her and tears streamed down her cheeks as she threw herself into his open arms.

  She was safe.

  Ariel awoke breathing heavily as if she were still running. It was hard to tell by the drawn drapes how long she’d slept, but the grogginess in her head told her it had probably been most of the day. She trembled at the complete faith and trust she’d shown in Jachin in her dream. It disturbed her on many levels. Why had she dreamed of him in that light—in the form of a protector?

  Shaking the fog from her mind, she pulled back the thick covers and climbed out of bed to head to the lower floor.

  Jachin still appeared to be sleeping as she passed by the couch and made her way down the short hall to the kitchen. She needed food to clear the cobwebs out of her head.

  Whereas Landon’s freezer was packed with brown-paper-wrapped meat, his fridge was almost bare except for a couple of blocks of cheese.

  Her stomach rumbling, Ariel pulled the sharp cheddar out and set it on the table. While she was rifling through the pantry looking for a carb of some kind, she spied an unopened bottle of Shiraz. Grabbing a box of crackers from a top shelf, she snagged the bottle of wine, found a wineglass, a plate and a knife, then sat down with her stash at the small wooden table, ready for a mini meal.

  As she snarfed down the food at a record pace, she considered her dream once more and acknowledged her attraction to Jachin had to be due to their unusual circumstances.

  Talk about messing with one’s mind! Not in a million years could I have come up with a situation in my book that would hold a candle to these last thirty-six hours, she thought with a half laugh as she took a bite of a cracker.

  Once she’d eaten and drunk until she was full, Ariel put the half-empty bottle of wine
and the rest of the food away, feeling strangely relaxed.

  It was the wine, she thought with a wry smile. After everything she’d been through, she deserved a glass—or ten. But she’d been good and only had two.

  Her thoughts returned to Jachin as she turned off the kitchen light and headed into the living room. He never looked her way. Instead he stared at the wall, stoically silent.

  “Would you like me to throw your pants in the wash?”

  “No.” He continued to study the far wall.

  She straightened her spine at his cold tone. “Would you like some wine? I found a nice Shiraz.”

  His jaw ticced. “No.”

  “Want something to eat?”

  His shoulders tensed and his gaze narrowed, but he still didn’t look at her.

  Duh…he’s a vampire. She felt like smacking herself on the forehead. Why am I trying to draw him into conversation? she asked herself as she walked away. And yet, since the day he’d kidnapped her Jachin had never hesitated to speak to or glare at her. She much preferred his glacial stare than being completely disregarded as if she didn’t exist.

  Ariel stood in the hallway between the kitchen and the living room, nibbling at her lip as she wondered how to draw him out. When she caught sight of the stereo system built into the hallway wall, a plan began to form.

  Chapter 8

  A riel left behind her inviting peach-and-sugary-almond smell when she walked away, the tempting scent permeating the air all around him. Bunching his hands into fists, he expected a tight, splitting sensation as his slowly healing skin cracked and bled all over again. He glanced down at his arms. His heart thumped in surprise when he found his skin covered in a thin layer of dried blood but otherwise completely healed.

  With his body healing faster than expected, he and Ariel would be able to resume the hike to the Sanguinas manor as soon as the sun went down. The sooner, the better. They had a head start on the vamps tracking them, but he didn’t want to lose the lead they’d gained.