Page 106 of Marked
Gentle heat fills my arms. My eyes whip down to the soft fluttering lashes of Lilah’s now sun-kissed gaze. She peers at my in confusion. “Ruin?” She blinks sleepily up at me and my world grinds to a halt. “I’m gonna sleep again. Okay?” Her eyes roll back in her head, but her heartbeat continues to purr in my ears.
Gage dives around me, already pulling the blade from both of us. I watch as it comes away, leaving the wound red and puckered along her now paler tan flesh.
Within seconds it begins to knit, closing back up. My eyes burn.
Healed. She’s healing.
Somehow she is like me.
I look up, to say thank you. To beg for forgiveness. Something.
But Markus is gone.
All my words die on my tongue, replaced with a gratitude I can never repay, a debt I will levy for the rest of my existence.
Tomorrow I will be reprimanded, possibly expelled from the colony for what we did. But the team won’t go down with me. Neither will Markus.
Vlad’s death is on me. But so is Lilah’s rebirth.
And it’s a small price in comparison to know that even if she decides to go, to move on, she will be alive. Safe with him dead.
But as I press my face into the soft line of her neck and rock back and forth, that sense of dark dread remains.
It’s not over, and the worse has yet to come.
Chapter 47
Lilah
The room is cool, dim, quiet. Almost.
Something pounds away in my ears. It’s thick, meaty. My mouth waters and my throat burns. I try to sit up, but everything aches. There’s a low squeak, and a small bar of light falls over the foot of the bed.
It pierces my gaze, leaving my head throbbing. I dive over the side of the mattress.
“Baby girl?”
My head whips up. Ruin walks nude from the bathroom and closes the door behind him. Dark marks, like tattoos, trail over the sides of his neck and his thick shoulders. Tribal in nature, they are beautiful. Masculine. And very much like Markus’ tattoos on his arms.
His powerful body eats up the distance between us. “Baby girl?”
I tremble at the need that courses through me just from his sexy rumble alone. His spicy fragrance is pungent, laced with something new. Something mouthwatering.
My hands dig into the bedspread. “You smell fucking amazing.”
He prowls over the bed, making it dip under his bulk. His midnight eyes pulse and shine as he watches me, the colors mixing and spiraling together.
When he reaches for me, I mean to lean up, to let him stroke my hair back.
The slight bunching of my legs leaves me leaping almost to the ceiling before I realize it. I throw my hands up, shielding my face. Strong arms snare around my lower half, and hot vampire wraps around me as I’m lowered back to the floor.
My heart slams. “What the hell?”
His jaw tightens. “Baby girl ... How much do you remember?”
“Remember? Remember what?”
He sets me down on the bed before him. “Lilah ...” His expression is almost hollow, devoid of life. Of hope. “Baby girl, Draven took you.”
