Page 30 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“I’m not like them.”

“You sure about that?”

I pause. “Not as sure as I used to be.”

I shouldn’t say that. Shouldn’t give her more than she needs to survive. But something about her—sharp and raw and trying so fucking hard not to break—makes me slip. Just a little.

I gesture to the grate. “Down there leads into the secondary tunnels. Avoid them unless you're desperate. Too easy to trap someone in a bottleneck. If you're being chased, go up. Climb anything metal, break through, surface where it’s loud and public. You’re safer in crowds.”

“I thought PEACE had surveillance everywhere.”

“They do. But they have rules. Paperwork. Human eyes. Sometimes bureaucracy’s the only thing keeping us alive.”

She huffs. “That’s bleak.”

“That’s reality.”

She leans against the wall, breathing slow, the tension bleeding into something tighter and heavier.

“I saw you before,” she says after a beat. “Three nights ago. Under the bridge.”

I nod. “Yeah.”

“You didn’t follow me.”

“I tried but thought better of it.”

Her head tilts. “Why didn’t you?”

I meet her gaze. “Because I didn’t know what I’d do if I caught you.”

The silence goes sharp again.

Her lips part. Something flickers in her eyes—recognition, maybe. Or the start of it.

She exhales slowly. “Does it ever stop feeling like your skin doesn’t fit?”

“No,” I admit. “But you get used to it.”

Edmund clears his throat from the shadows. A soft, sharp sound.

Reminder.

Boundaries.

“We should wrap up,” I say, stepping back.

She straightens. “Same time tomorrow?”

I hesitate. “Probably not the best idea to meet two days in a row. I can meet you in three days time though. Here, same time. You can train with your father until then. Try not to let others around you note any differences though is my last advice for the day.”

She looks strained by my input but nods.

“I’ll bring more of the masking blend. And something for the scent trails. You’ll need to practice doubling back.”

She nods again, but doesn’t move.

Neither do I.

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