Son of Our Blood (2 page)

“They came to me.” She stood and started
to pace, and Mac saw the shadow of one of her guard pace with her. “I know
they’re there. I just chose not to pay attention to him. Shamus thinks I’m so
stupid.”

Shamus was her king and her mate. He
loved Mel more than life itself. And Mac knew that Shamus no more thought Mel
was stupid than he didn’t believe in unicorns or dragons. The man simply loved
his mate.

“Why do they care then?” he asked,
ignoring the man and the comment. “They’ve known all along that I wanted to end
this life. Why now? Why all of a sudden are they giving me what I want?”

There was a catch. There always was with
magic. Mac knew because he had a great deal of it himself. Things he used
without thinking about them, things he could do with little effort. Then there
was the added bonus of being a necromancer. And all that came with speaking
with the dead.

“They don’t tell me anything. In fact, I
wasn’t even aware of where you were until they told me.” She turned and glared
at him. “You have this place pretty locked down and not even your family knows
where you are.”

“Dad and Mom can contact me. Daniel or
Lizzy, too, if they want. But that’s none of your business. I want to know why
you come to me here and now. What is this woman to them?”

She didn’t know. He knew that as soon as
he asked. The Fates, Clotho the spinner who spun the thread of life; Lachesis
who chose the lot in life of humans and supernaturals alike and measured how
long their lives would be. And then there was Athropos. She, with her shears,
cut the thread of life of all. Mac knew them as well as he did most others in
the Kingdom of Molavonta.

“All I know is what I’ve told you. You
can save her and her children or you can have what you want in the morning. And
they said it would have to be in the morning too.” She snorted, something he’d
heard his family do since he was a child. “Think of telling your mother that
you’ve less than ten hours to live. She’ll brain you.”

She would too. As would anyone else in
the MacManus family. Then there were the grandparents and others that lived in
the castle who he loved and cherished. He moved to the window and looked out at
the building next to him without seeing anything. “Tell them I’ll do this for
them. Not for the woman, but for the children. I won’t leave this life knowing
that I could have save little ones. But as soon as I save her, then I want my
due. I want to either end my life as it is or I meet the sun.”

“Done.”

He looked back at Mel. Something was
off. She’d agreed too quickly and he tried to think what he’d done. Before he
could ask for more details on what he’d just agreed to, she was gone and in her
place stood one of the most beautiful women he knew. He bowed before her,
knowing that it would piss her off.

“Get up, you turd head. I swear to you
you’re more like your mother every time I see you. I said to get up.” Morrigan
grinned when he kissed her cheek. “I do love the fact that you don’t bow before
Melody. She can be such a pain in the ass when she gets too big for her
britches.”

“And what do I owe for this great
pleasure? You need me again?” He laughed when she nodded. “And who do you need
for me to put away for you? Some long time lover? A man who died for you?”

He sobered when she looked grim. He
didn’t need this. He had a man to find so that his mate and her children could
live on. He sat down when she did and then when she hopped back up and started
pacing, he knew that whatever she had to say wasn’t going to be good.

“You remember a few years ago when I had
you work with me with that witch? The one who put the spell on the hospital so
that all children born would be born boys? Stupid on her part, especially when
she stayed there to make sure it happened. But I digress. She’s up to her old
tricks again.”

“She’s dead.”

Morrigan nodded.

“Then I don’t know how she’s up to her old
tricks. If she’s been brought back then I can—”

“She had a son.” Morrigan sat down and
stared at him.

He shook his head, knowing where this
was going. “Oh no. No, no, this can’t be right. It can’t be the same man that
is going to kill my mate and her family. No. I refuse this. You’re in with the
Fates and this isn’t right.”

“No, the Sisters Three and I aren’t in
on anything. They told me about your mate, by the way, so congrats, but this
man, he’s causing rifts in the fabric and I need…we all need him gone.”

He stood up to pace and tried to think. His
dad touched his mind, but didn’t intrude. He felt his laughter, but again,
didn’t comment. Mac didn’t need his help right now. What he wanted was to bring
Mel back and tell her that he changed his mind, that he would go tomorrow. But
he knew as surely as he was standing there that she wouldn’t allow it, nor
would the Fates. Resigned to the fact that he was trapped, he turned to her
again. “Who is he and where do I find him?”

She grinned in a way that didn’t make
him feel all warm and fuzzy. “I don’t know and I haven’t a clue. You are the
one who must go this journey.”

He threw back his head and laughed. It,
too, wasn’t a friendly laugh, but one that made grown men shiver and women
hide. “I fucking hate you all.” And with that, he disappeared from the room.

Chapter 2

Energized, he walked along the sidewalk
and enjoyed the night air. He’d fed well so he didn’t even look around as he
walked past the humans out on their stroll. The last woman he’d fed on had been
more than his usual fare with an added bit of something he’d not expected. Magic.

It had been so long since he’d tasted
such pure magic that it had taken him a few minutes to realize what it had
been. He’d had to leave the area quickly after that, knowing that whoever she
belonged to would know the moment she’d been killed. Licking his lips, he
smiled at that.

Magic had been denied him at birth. When
he’d been born he’d been taught that whatever he wanted, whatever he needed,
was his for the making. He didn’t want to make anything. But he did learn to
take. And take he did. His family had been nothing to him once he figured out
what he was going to become and, once he did, he embraced the feelings
wholeheartedly. Vampirism was the only race as far as he was concerned.

He stopped to smell the air. Nothing
more than dirt, the smell of the unwashed, and the sweat of humans. He moved
further down the sidewalk toward his lair. It wasn’t near the time to rest, but
it was getting close. He didn’t even bother stepping into the alleyway to shift,
but turned himself into his favorite animal, a big black bat, and flew toward
home.

His name was Zachariah Roberts. Not the
name he’d been born with. A common name much like the common people he’d been
born to. Herman Harrison just didn’t have the same ring to it as the one he’d
chosen so long ago. Nor did he think it reflected his new image.

His new image. He thought about it with
a smile. He was new and improved since he’d figured out the spell to make him
immortal. And the witch who had taught it to him would no longer threaten to
tell someone. Zachariah licked his lips again with the memory. She had been a
tasty morsel too.

He was all that he wanted to be now. He
could walk in the daylight, though not as long as he wanted, but enough to
throw off suspicious questions that he was anything but a human. He could take
tainted blood into him and not feel any ill effect from it either. Though he’d
only recently found out that most vamps could do that as well. Then there was the
added bonus he’d recently been able to acquire. The bonus of being called
master.

He had a small group, yes, but he did
have vampires that came to him when he called them. Seventy wasn’t near what he
thought he should have had by now, but he was slowly working on that. Smiling,
he thought that if he wanted to keep more, he’d have to stop killing them off,
but that was neither here nor there. If they’d simply do what he wanted then
there’d be no problems.

But lately, as much as the last decade
or so, he felt as if he was being watched. Not all the time, only when he fed. And
then only when he fed with murder. He had looked around each time he’d had the
feeling and each time he’d come up empty. But he knew someone out there was
watching him.

Zachariah moved deep into his house. It
had been his for longer than he could remember it not being. He had had all the
updates done that he’d needed or, in some cases, not really needed. Electricity
had been added at the turn of the century, then the telephone when it became
popular. Not that he had much use for either of them, but he’d wanted to appear
as if he was human. Back then at any rate.

But there was one thing he couldn’t do
without and that was his coffin. He’d been around when coffins were what his
kind had slept in and nothing more. Born in the late seventeen hundreds,
Zachariah had been born into a family of vampires, and they too had slept in
the old fashioned tomb. Now he could not sleep unless he was closed in or
beneath the cool earth. He was a creature of habit.

Lying in the dark silk, he closed his
eyes and thought of the woman who had been his meal. He wished now he’d taken
his time with her, had some knowledge of what she was, but he’d tasted, drank
from her, and that had driven him over the edge. He shifted in his bed and
thought where he’d found her. He was going back there tonight to see if there
were any more of her kind.

Smiling broadly about what he’d planned,
he closed his eyes then let his body go. Soon, he knew that he’d be as dead as
he thought of the woman, only in a few short hours, he’d be awake and she’d be
nothing more than a memory to someone else.

~~~

Aaron watched his son. There was
something different about him. Besides, he figured, his anger. Mac seemed to be
in a constant state of pissiness and he’d about had enough of it. He looked
over at his mate when he felt her touch his mind.

“He’s home for now, let him be. There is
nothing that we can’t solve if he would only come to us. And he will, we have
to believe that.”
Her laughter ran delicately across his skin.
“Besides, I think he wants to
pick a fight with you so that he can work off a bit of his anger.”

“I’m up for the challenge.”
Aaron knew that
he could be too, but he didn’t want to go against his son. Not in his current
state at least.
“What do you suppose has made him so…so pissed? I wonder if
he is sleeping at all.”

“No, he isn’t. Nor is he feeding well
either, I believe. He asked Duncan to take him down some blood and to have it
put into the refrigerator.”
She sighed heavily.
“Do you suppose he feeds
from any donors?”

Aaron was pretty sure that he didn’t. And
he was reasonably sure that he still refused to be vampire, but he didn’t say
anything to his wife. Sara was worried enough. She would be extremely upset if
she found out her only son was thinking of meeting the sun. Not that he would,
Aaron thought, but him thinking about it would upset his mother.

There were times that Aaron wished he’d
not given Mac his blood. But then there were times, like lately, that he was
glad that the injury that he’d sustained all those years ago had given him a
reason for Mac to have it now. He could not only keep tabs on his son, but also
find him when he needed him. But now he knew his son’s every worry, every
thought. And especially his dreams.

“If you two are finished talking about
me, can we please get on with this?”

Aaron looked at his son as he continued.

“I know you two well enough to know that
you’ve been talking since I walked in the room. Are you going to help me or do
I go to Pete on my own?”

“You don’t have to do anything. I’m
right here.” Pete walked into the room with her ever present computer bag and a
backpack. “Hello, handsome. When did you get into town?”

Mac kissed her cheek then stood still
for the hug he didn’t want. Pete wasn’t offended. In fact, Aaron would bet she
only did it to piss him off more. When she opened up her pack and pulled out
more of the equipment she needed, she looked around the room.

“No food?” She smiled when Duncan came
into the room with a tray of food and drinks. “Ah, Dunc, my man, you are a life
saver.”

“I do believe that I have been known to
have a few things up my shirt, but as for a life saver, I am not so sure.” He
set the tray down. “Would you like for me to inquire as to where I could get
you one? I do believe the new grocery store on Maple has nearly everything you
could want or need. According to their slogan that I have seen on the
television.”

She didn’t laugh at him and declined him
going to the store. She picked up a sandwich and looked over at Mac. “Okay.
Tell me what you know. And don’t think the detail is too small. Everything will
help narrow down what we’re looking for.”

Mac sat down and Aaron thought it was
the first time since he’d gotten home over three hours ago. But he didn’t look
any less tense, nor did he look happy. He looked at Sara again and she shook
her head.