Page 14 of Marked
“And you’re a fang prick.”
My lips curve against my will. “Fine, fair enough,” I call. “At least let me take you somewhere. A friend’s house?” She doesn’t react. “A relative? A hotel? Something?”
Her shoulders tighten with every word. “I said to leave me alone. Haven’t you caused me enough grief for one night?”
A low rumble pours from me. “This is fucking idiotic, Lilah. I’m trying tohelpyou. Now get in the car.”
She stops walking.
I brake fast and slam the colony car into park. Leaning over the console, I try to get her to look at me. “Anywhere you want to go ...” I coax. She grips the strap of her bag and lifts it higher, but there is less resolve in her slim shoulders. “Car. In,” I prompt.
Her pale eyes lock on me. “Fine.”
I open the door and shove it wide. Her small frame collapses in the seat beside me, bag clutched tight to her chest. Like a fucking shield.
In the close interior of the vehicle, her soft lilac and sea fragrance fills the air. Quickly. It makes my gums ache and blood pool south of the border. Again. I shift, grateful for my leathers.
Fuck, what is wrong with me?
I keep the windows down and pull off. “Do you have somewhere to go?” I ask.
Her dark head remains turned away, fingers tight in the material of her bag. “Any hotel—far from here—is fine.” I study her face in the dark glass, but there is nothing in her expression.
“Any hotel?” I prompt, wanting to make it clear.
She gives a jerking nod.
My lips tremor, and I shift gears. When I glance at her, it takes everything I got to hide my smile. “Sure thing. Whatever you say.”
Chapter 8
Lilah
The little car purrs around me, and the vamp at my side maneuvers it with ease.
A vamp, Lilah.
My eyes close, blocking out the forest lining the roadside as we travel farther out of the city. A vampire.
In all the years I’ve worked for Uncle Vic, I’ve never seen a vampire as attractive as the one beside me. I hoped it was the low lighting of Carnage, a trick on my senses. It wasn’t.
And it feels like such a betrayal, knowing what I do about his kind.
What little bit we are taught in school—all the bullshit that they start out human, likeus, and how it’s only their transition during puberty that makes them into blood drinkers ... It’s just that. Bullshit.
They are born this way, no matter how normal they appear. But he, especially, looks like the monster he is. A sexy, devilish ...
Hell.
I try hard not to inhale his spicy scent. Some strange mixture of sandalwood, musk, and lavender. It threads through every inch of his car, tightening things it has no business affecting.
Especially considering my current predicament.
Uncle Vic is in jail, but his reach is long. As evidenced by his thugs finding me so soon. Draven, undoubtedly, fled somewhere into the night like the coward he is. I have no friends. Not even at Carnage. It was a job. A means to an end and hopefully a way to buy my freedom.
But now I’m homeless, jobless, and on the run for my life. All the money in my account will barely pay for a week at even the sleaziest hotel.
How the hell am I going to survive now?
