Page 93 of Marked
She stops fighting. “Well, no.”
“And you won’t. No one but you. Not now. That was long ago.”
Her lips tremble with a touch of hope that I am sure I am not supposed to see. “So youweremarried?”
“To a point,” I hedge, pulling her back to me. This time, though, she remains a foot away, she doesn’t fight me on it. “It was long before my transition ended. Almost a hundred years now. I knew if I was to ever marry anyone, it would have been Arrow.”
“Arrow?” Her little brows furrow, scrunching her nose.
“I didn’t grow up here, baby girl. Not in Lock Lake, anyway. The war had just broke out between supernaturals and humans, and the Rom colony I grew up in, well, my father was their Chieftain. Arrow was his general’s oldest daughter.”
Lilah blinks. “And you loved her?”
I nod. “It seemed like the thing to do. She was to be mine, anyway. The union would ally our families, strengthen our people. And Arrow was...beautiful. Willful, but kind. It didn’t hurt that I was nineteen and going through my transition. My sex drive was insatiable and I ate damn near my weight every day. Drank it too. But we didn’t know that was what it was. Had no idea that my mother had had a one-night stand with a traveling vamp before meeting my father.”
The old bonfire circle fills my mind, hazy with almost a hundred years between then and now. But I can still picture the rocks, the firewood, and the flames casting over the caravan.
“The night of our wedding, the thirst hit for the first time. Arrow was laid out on our marital bed, her body as ready for me as I was for hers. We had courted for so long, small touches and long looks over a span of months. She ached for me, I could smell her. And suddenly it was too much. Too hard to control every need coursing through my body. My fangs punched through my lip.”
My hand scrubs over my face, trying to block it out. “Her screams were heard, they had to be. But it was our first time.Herfirst time. They left us alone on the edge of that tree line, her scrambling to get away as my eyes lit up the inside of our wagon like dawn.”
“I could smell her fear, her blood ...”Arrow pleading, her dark eyes huge, her hair in my fists as I wrenched her neck in one long line ...“She begged, screamed for me not to. But I couldn’t stop.”
I close my eyes to try and silence the flood, but now that it is open, there is no stopping it.
“Arrow’s blood was everywhere, on my mouth, neck, hands. Her slim throat was in ruin. A word I would later claim as my name. Because I ruined the most innocent thing I touched. I drank and I drank from her, draining her to death. And when I finally snapped the hell out of it, I did the only thing I could. I ran.”
“Sunlight bothered me for weeks after. And I was so sure it was my punishment from God that I considered ending it then and there.” I exhale. “I found my way to Louisiana and stumbled into the war on the side of the humans. I was running from that night and all the ones after. Praying that if I slayed the monster I was so sure I had become, maybe the one inside me would die too.”
“Markus was a general for the supernaturals, and he found me on the front line. He saw the hunger in me and knew exactly what it was. He trained me to control it, and then later taught me to fight. When he founded Eternity, I was the first one to sign on.”
My eyes rise to trail over her upturned face.
“I’m not a hero, baby girl. But I am a monster. And not the good kind. I’m one of the ones that would let the world burn to keep you safe. To do what I couldn’t do all those years ago. I have to be able to protect you.”
She pushes away. “You have, Ruin. For days now you have. I’m free because of you. Or almost.” Her little hands alight over her hips and she glowers at me. “The only thing that is really stopping that is knowing Draven is out there doing God only knows what. I can’t stop him on my own, and the only person I know who can is you.”
I rock back in surprise.
“You don’t think you’re a hero, but Ruin, you are. You’re mine.” Her voice cracks.
I take a step closer, meaning to rip her panties off, to kiss her until she stops talking about heroes and Draven and starts screaming my name. I mean to claim her so hard that she knows what I am in every way possible.
But my hands don’t grab, they caress. Her skin is like silk under my fingertips. My eyes don’t devour her, they memorize, taking in every sweet curve, every full line. When my lips finally meet hers, I can’t feast upon that plump bottom delicacy, I go slow and savor her flavor, her sounds.
There is no rush to taking her. Not this time. When she gently tugs at my clothes, I discard them slowly, my hands never wanting to leave her for long.
As I lay her back over the thick blue mats against the wall and her arms wind around my neck, fingers flowing into my hair, I glide into her body and nibble gently at the column of her throat. She ripples around me. My thirst has her heartbeat drumming in my ears and my fangs press deep into my lip.
I pull back to glance down at her. The mix of emotion brims from my eyes in a wash of gold light.
Her smile is soft, all woman and that innocence that all the hell in her life couldn’t quite destroy. She strokes my face as my rhythm falters. “I know, love,” she says softly and arches her neck back to give me access to her thundering vein. “But I trust you. Take what you need.”
The world brightens, washing away the dark and the years of loneliness.
I bite my wrist without thought and offer it to her. Her lips close over the meat of my arm, speeding my breathing and the slow glide of my hips. I rear back to lock my fangs and my body deep inside hers.
Her screams of pleasure fill my ears, replacing ones better left in a life I no longer have to live. One I can put behind me at long last as my body pistons into hers. We peak together, her core clenching around me until I jet deep inside, claiming her again and again in every way I know how. My body sags around hers and I cradle her to me.
