Marked By Pain (The Marked #2)(20)

Chapter 11





Mackenzie





Gritting my teeth and trying for the millionth time, I call on my divination mark, picturing the eye with the swirls, while also trying to focus on the vision Kelly had before. Finally, I feel a vision pull me in.



“Where the hell are we?” I ask, looking around. The landscape around me is unfamiliar, and feels so different to anywhere I have been before. The whole place seems to pulse with the magic of our marks.

“I can't believe it. We're really here,” Enzo's voice replies, as he pulls me close. He sounds so amazed, so in awe of this place, and I am too. It’s all real.

“I'm so fucking glad you're here with me,” I whisper, leaning up and kissing him...



“What are you doing?” Locke asks from the doorway, pulling me from my vision. I quickly open my eyes and look at him, trying to force a smile onto my face.

“Nothing, just um, meditating?” I say, shrugging and feigning nonchalance. I can't help but feel disappointed, I finally bring on a vision and it's the wrong one.

“You don't seem like the meditating type,” he replies with a smirk, as he steps into the room and shuts the door behind him.

“I'm trying to bring on a vision, I want to try and see if I can work out what Alaric is planning,” I say, giving him a half-truth at least. I don't want to worry him about Kelly's vision. I don't want to worry any of them, or burden them with this, not yet anyway. I’ll find out who it is in the vision first, I’ll figure out how to stop this, and then I’d tell them.

“Wouldn't Kelly be better for this job? No offence to your divination mark powers, but Kelly is an extremely powerful seer from what I've heard. Plus, I wouldn't put too much trust in visions, Kenz. You know nothing is foolproof with them, you can't trust them to always show you the truth,” he says, taking a seat on the bed next to me. I launch myself at him, wrapping my arms around him tightly. “Woah, Kenzie, what's this for?” he asks, cuddling me back.

“I just really needed to hear that right now, Locke. You wouldn't believe how much,” I whisper, squeezing him tightly.

“What's wrong?” he asks, stroking my hair and pulling me onto his lap.

“I don't want to talk about it, and plus, I don't even have time right now,” I say. I let myself relax for a moment against his chest, just listening to the repeated rhythm of his heartbeat.

“Why don't you have time?”

“I have to leave for testing in like...” I trail off, looking for the clock on the wall. “Ten minutes ago,” I finish, seeing the time. I groan and reluctantly pull myself away.

“Nope, not so quick,” he says, pulling me back and pressing his lips firmly to mine. I sigh in contentment, and then kiss him again, wrapping my arms around his neck and straddling his lap. His hands move down over my ass, tugging me closer to him.

A cough from the door makes me freeze. “Mackenzie, you’re meant to be in the lab,” Alaric calls from the door. I roll my eyes. Great, because being tested on like a freaking lab rat is what I want to be doing right now, as if. I look at Locke, his hair is all ruffled and he looks sexy as hell. Yeah, I could think of better things to be doing right now.

“Mackenzie,” he calls again impatiently.

Standing up, I make a huffing noise as I follow him from the room. As I reach the door, giving one last look and quick smile to Locke before I turn back and leave, heading for the stupid lab.



“Just try and keep calm,” the man in the white coat says.

“Keep calm? You're planning on using the pain mark on me while I'm covered in freaking suckers on my head, and a million monitors beeping around us. You want me to keep calm? Are you fucking insane?” I seethe.

“We just want to see if the mark will attempt to trigger, and what happens to your brainwaves and heart rate if that occurs,” he explains.

“Oh, and that makes it all okay then,” I snap.

“Please relax, Miss Crowe,” the man tells me, and then he presses his hand down on my shoulder. Pain shoots through my body instantly, my teeth clamp down and the sound of beeping filling the room is the only thing I can focus on for a second. The beeping gets louder, as I try to focus through the pain he is dishing out. Try and keep calm my ass. He either isn't using all his power on me, or is very weak with the pain mark as it doesn't hurt that bad I am eventually able to think. Not bad enough to make my other marks want to fight him. It's only annoying, like little bugs prickling all over my skin.

“Enough, this will not work. Emotions trigger the twelfth mark, and I finally found proof in the things stolen from the academy,” a woman says as she walks into the room. The man moves his hand away and I take a deep breath. I roll to the side to see Kelly walking in, and she runs over to me, placing her hands on my head. They light up, warming my forehead and side of my face where she touches, making me instantly start to feel better. I sit up, pulling all the wires off me before looking back at the woman who watches me. She has long black hair tied up, a white coat on, and she holds an old looking book in her hands. I pick up my jumper from the end of the bed and pull it over my head.

“Can I show you something, Mackenzie?” she asks me when I'm done and I nod, sliding off the table.