Page 56 of Kissed the Mark
Leandra’s eyes were deep pools of darknessas she lifted them to the ceiling. “Did you know that vampires cancreate thralls by feeding their blood to someone over an extendedperiod of time?” she asked.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Iasked, even as my heart sank at what she would say next.
“The thralls follow every one of thevampire’s whims, and they love to do it. They’re addicted to theblood. Vampire blood is very special.”
I swallowed. The words wouldn’t come the wayI wanted them to; there was more shouting outside that set my pulseracing.
“You are going to tell them, when I’ve run,that you were under my thrall, and that you never wanted to helpme. That you hid me but once I was out of town you realized whathad happened. I coerced you into my big immortality plans and youdidn’t know any better.”
“Fae are pretty resistant to that kind ofmagic,” I said.
“They are.” Leandra lifted the hood of hersweater over her head. “But how often have we had the chance totest it? They won’t know any better. Vampires think they have themost power. Only a fairy would question it.” She raised her gaze tomine. “And you’re outnumbered.”
“You don’t want me to come with?” I asked,but relief mingled in with my anxiety, and understanding at hergift: she was giving me a way out, even when she didn’t haveone.
“Why should I put both of us through this?There’s no reason for it.”
“What if I want to come with you?” Iasked.
The room was suddenly unbearably stuffy asour complicated emotions tangled up together. “Do you?” she askedfinally.
I didn’t know the answer. It was stupid toeven ask. The idea of Leandra going away made me sadder than Iwould’ve thought and the implications of why I felt that wayweighed me down like a stone.
“I’m going to leave,” she said, “withMelanie’s help. I’ll be fine. You go on. You haven’t bounty huntedanythingin a long time.”
The truth of it stung. I’d been so busy withall this that I had barely even gone to HQ to check on the latestbounties; my hands had been full of Leandra. Sometimesliterally.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, though whatspecifically for, I don’t think either of us knew.
Leandra smiled at me sadly. “We’ll see eachother again,” she said.
“I hope so.”
“Thanks for everything.” Her lips were warmagainst my forehead, wet with her tears. She might be going off todie, I realized. And she was still being so nice to me. Nothingshe’d done to me had really been that bad. It was other peoplecoming after her and putting the blame on me that had made it bad,like when Patricia threatened me if I didn’t hand her over,something I couldn’t even have set up if I wanted to.
And I definitely didn’t want to.
There was a moment where I felt like sayingsomething, where more normal couples might have saidI loveyouor something kind to each other.Good luckseemedtoo flippant given the circumstances.
In the end, I said nothing as I turned awayfrom her, and left our jumbled-up feelings for each other behindme.
?
Melanie led me through the forest to wherethe other werewolves—the ones that planned on confronting themob—gathered. I had an odd moment of being the outsider looking infrom the wrong perspective: I saw how the wolves waited patientlybehind the trees, still as though they were part of the wooditself, and the gesture they made to each other to melt through thecracks and make themselves known to a potential threat. It was thesame tactic that they’d used on me, twice now, to approach mewithout indicating what direction they’d come from.
The mob was quieter when the werewolves madethemselves known. Melanie encompassed me in her shadow, hidingbehind a large hollow tree that brought me comfort when I placed myhand upon it.
“Do you harbor the vampire Leandra?”Francesca Gallo, apparently the mob’s spokesperson, asked therepresentatives from the pack bluntly through a megaphone.
“We do not harbor anyone,” one of themreplied.How diplomatic, I thought. “Is there something wecan help you with?”
“Or a good reason you’re infringing upon ourhome in the woods?” another of the wolves asked.
“I know she’s here,” Francesca said. Hervoice shook a bit. It was no surprise when Griselda stepped in forher: “We scryed her location. Leandra is here.”
Tension crackled in the air. It was againstthe rules of magic to scry on someone without their permission—evenconsidered, in some witch circles, to be black magic. We’d had awitch a few years back who had been exiled for scrying her ex andtracking him down with his new girlfriend.
“You don’t have the authority to do that,”the first wolf said, the snarl in his voice apparent.
