“Proof positive that money doesn’t buy breeding.” I couldn’t help it, it just came out. Sometimes people irritate me so much, and Darroch was unusually irritating.
“Oh, Miss Bailey, you have no idea!” He seemed delighted with himself. “All these years I’ve been searching for the pieces I need to complete the ritual and now,” he clapped his hands together, “now I have them!”
“Why don’t you get on with it already instead of talking our ears off? We know you’re in control of the local vampires. We know you sent them after me to kill me. You’ve already got the amulet. So why the hell do you need us?” I was getting really pissed off.
“Why, my dear Miss Bailey, you are so feisty today.” He beamed at me. I scowled back. “You are right, of course,” he continued, unfazed. “I have taken control of the local vampire clans. Their leaders were weak and ineffectual. I promised them power and human slaves. In their greed and hunger, they were delighted to do whatever I asked of them.”
“So, that was why their eyes were red. You’re not a vampire, so your control of them changed their physiology.”
“Yes, I believe so. I’m not sure entirely why their eyes changed, specifically. Something in my DNA, I imagine.” He chuckled. “No matter. I lied, of course, about giving them power. I have no use for the undead, certainly not ones with any power. I had no intention of keeping my promise. I simply wanted them for one purpose. They were a means to an end, so to speak.”
“To kill me.”
“No, no, Miss Bailey, you mistake my meaning. I did not want them to kill you.” He leaned forward in his chair, almost eagerly. “I sent them to test you. Kaldan took it a little too far, I admit, but I had every confidence you would prove yourself and I needed to make sure.”
Jack and I gave each other a look that was entirely full of bafflement. “Test me? Why?”
“I had to be sure, of course. I had to know if you were the one. You see, don’t you?”
Jack shook his head. “Stop beating around the bush, Darroch,” he snarled from his place on the floor. “What ‘one’? What is Morgan to you?”
“Why she’s the one I’ve been looking for all these years, of course. She’s the last piece.”
“Excuse me.” I was running very short on patience. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You should be delighted, Miss Bailey.” He leaned back and did the finger steeple thing. “You are the last piece of the puzzle, a puzzle that’s millennia old. The last piece I need to perform the ritual which will allow me to access the power of the amulet and my own latent abilities. You, Miss Bailey, are the Key to the Treasure of Atlantis.”
Well, shit.
“Are you crazy? Never mind. I already know the answer to that. Seriously, me? A key? You’ve got to be kidding.” I gave Jack a sideways look. He just shrugged. He didn’t know what Darroch was going on about either. We both knew the amulet was called the Key, but Darroch wasn’t talking about the amulet.
Darroch gave me a toothy smile. “Not a key, my dear. The Key. I need the blood of a descendent of Atlantis as part of the ritual.
“In order to ensure that only a member of the Royal Bloodline could access the amulet, the last High Priest built in a safe clause,” he continued. “If anyone of Atlantean blood who was not either of the Bloodline or of the Warrior Priest Line tried to access the amulet, they’d need the blood sacrifice of another descendent in order to do it.”
Of course, it made perfect sense. The blood was the key, it had to be.
“How did you know about the amulet?” I asked. It wasn’t like they taught Ancient Atlantean history in school.
He gave me a pleased smile as though I’d done something really smart. “Why, the knowledge has been passed down through my family for generations, of course. From father to son since the beginning.”
It hit me. “You are a descendent of Atlantis, too. Except your bloodline was Common which was why you needed someone from the right Bloodline.”
Anger slid through his eyes before he caught himself and gave me a smile. “Very good. Unfortunately, the amulet was designed to wake latent genetic knowledge in all descendents of Atlantis with whom it came into contact, so the likelihood of a descendent of Atlantis being captured and used was low. Even if they did get captured, it was an even playing field. It was a most annoying quandary.”
He didn’t look annoyed. He looked smug, flushed with victory at outsmarting a long dead priest. Unfortunately for Jack and me, the Atlanteans hadn’t planned on guns. Goons, maybe, but definitely not guns. Guns leveled all playing fields.