Page 36 of Marked By Him

It was blood.

They were all covered in blood. It was everywhere. There were buckets full of it.

They’re the forest people I’d heard about. The blood worshipers. The humans that couldn’t possibly be human.

I opened my mouth to scream, but the next thing I saw trapped the sound in my throat.

Any hope I had of calling this place home turned to ash with the flames outside my window. I needed out of this room. I needed out of this house. I needed to get as far away from this place as I could.

Roman stood at the head of the rectangle stone. He was the only one in the crowd still fully clothed. But he was there. He was watching.

He lifted his head. His gaze caught mine and his mouth moved with a single word.

Run.

17

Eve

My entire body went tight.The hum in the air turned into a scream. I dropped the curtain. My breath exploded in my lungs as I turned and lunged forward. I tore the door open, wondering if it had been unlocked all this time, if my prison was simply an illusion.

I bounded down the stairs, flung open the front door and bolted down the street. The once serene, welcoming community felt dark and ominous now. The crisp white cottages loomed over me. The darkness behind their windows taunted me with whispers.

My bare feet pounded the pavement. Tiny pieces of rock dug into my soles. Beads of sweat coated the back of my neck. My heart thundered in my ears with every step.

My calves ached.

My heart felt like it had been pummeled out of my chest by a freight train.

But I ran.

I pushed harder than I ever had.

I reached the arched opening in the stone wall that surrounded the community. I passed the guard’s cottage. I didn’t stop until I reached the gate. The tall chain link fence might as well have been a brick wall. It was ten feet high with barbed wire rolled at the top. There was no going over it. The gate was locked. A stream of warm light glowed across the garlic field as the guard opened the door to his cottage. He stepped out onto the porch; his gaze trained on me.

I ignored him and looked out past the stream to the wall of trees on the other side. I knew how deep that forest was. I’d run through it once already. I knew the dangers that lurked in its depths.

The sky was dark. A blanket of clouds covered the moon.

The night air was chilled without the sun. Instinct told me I wouldn’t make it ten minutes on the other side of this fence, but adrenaline pumped through my veins like fire.

You can do this, Eve. You’re not a quitter. You’re a fighter.

“Let her go.”

The command was Roman’s. I knew by the way my skin prickled in his presence.

The competent authority in his voice licked through my insides as I turned to face him.

The heat in his eyes blazed through the darkness. Even after what I’d witnessed through the bedroom window, I felt the cord that bound us pulling tighter and tighter.

I stood there, silent.

Breathing.

Waiting.

I thought everything had changed, but it was still the same.

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