Skye Morrison Vampire 2 Sins of the Father by J.L. McCoy

greeting and wagged her docked tail.
    “Thanks for watching her, girl,” I said
seriously. “It really means a lot to me.”
    “My pleasure, cupcake,” she said with a
carefree smile. “I’m glad Mr. Rich and Gorgeous is giving me a
thousand dollars to do it, although I would have watched her for
free. You know how much I love her.”
    I nodded my head and set Styvi Nix down on
the ground. She looked up at me one last time before she trotted
into Nikki’s house. “Will you text me every now and again and tell
me how she is doing?” I asked, trying to hide the sadness in my
voice. I was really dreading being away from her for more than a
few days. We had never been apart for longer than that before.
    “Of course I will,” she said as she pulled me
into a tight hug. “Have a safe flight and don’t work too hard.”
    I had almost forgotten that the cover story
was a business trip. I nearly slipped up and asked her what she was
talking about. I gave her one last hug, called goodbye to Styvi
Nix, and walked down the driveway to the awaiting cars.
    I noticed the impending dilemma as I trudged
down the long driveway. Quinn and Hunter were driving a single cab,
three-passenger pickup and Archer was driving his two-seater sports
car. I knew that either I would have to ride with Archer or Jameson
would. I took a deep breath as I walked up to the handsome
gathering.
    “Well? Let’s get this show on the road,” I
said grumpily, crossing my arms over my chest.
    Quinn chuckled and shook his shaved head as
he walked around the truck and got in the driver’s seat. Archer
glared at me, walked over to his car, opened the passenger door,
and motioned quickly with his head for me to get in.
    I pursed my lips, narrowed my eyes, and
promptly turned my back on him to walk over to Quinn’s truck.
Hunter was surprised, but held the door open for me and I got in,
scooting myself to the middle of the bench. A few seconds later,
Hunter got in beside me and closed the door.
    I watched through the windshield as Archer
glared at me, walked around to his driver’s side door and got in
his car, roughly slamming the door behind him. Jameson looked at me
briefly before he got in the open passenger door of Archer’s Audi
and closed it. I could see that Jameson wanted me to be nice to
Archer, but I just didn’t feel like it right now. I was still
really upset with him.
    Archer pulled off the curb with an angry
screech of his tires and Quinn pulled out behind him.
     
    The twenty minute drive out to the lake was a
quiet one. Hunter and Quinn pretty much kept to themselves. You
could tell that they were thinking heavily about Callum and Jesse’s
murder. My heart instantly sank at the sudden memory and I pushed
it away. I couldn’t think about that again right now. I was about
to step into a house where Aoife and the rest of Archer’s vampire
family temporarily called home. Everyone else I could handle, it
was Aoife I was worried about.
    Before long, we had turned onto a small, one
lane paved road that was surrounded by woods and drove for another
five minutes. This road was full of twists, turns and hills.
Finally, the trees stopped and I saw beautiful Lake Travis 100
yards in the distance. I took a deep breath and smiled. It was
absolutely gorgeous out here on the lake.
    The road made a final turn to the right and
dead-ended at an enormous house. I felt my jaw drop in shock. I had
never seen a house this big in person before, only on television.
Archer’s house was as big as a Hollywood mansion and just as nice.
There were several cars parked out in front of the six car
garage.
    Quinn pulled his black pickup into an empty
space in the driveway and killed the engine. “Are you ready for
this?” he asked suddenly, seriously.
    I looked over at him questioningly. Does
he know something I don’t ? I took a deep breath in and blew it
out, shrugging one shoulder. “Like I have a choice in the matter,
Quinn? Archer made it pretty clear that I