Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(57)

“We need to find the sisters,” I said, running my palm over my clammy forehead. “We’re just sitting around wasting time when we should be on the road tracking them.”

“She’s right,” agreed Dominic and then took a sip of his drink.

I’d lost count of how many of those he had since we got there. “You might want to slow it down. It’s not even noon,” I reminded him. Plus, we really didn’t need him shitfaced if things went bad with the sisters.

“Always worrying about me.”

“Just making sure you don’t get us killed.”

“If you say so, angel,” he said with a wink. His eyes darkened with hidden meaning when he added, “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Heat immediately flamed my cheeks.

Gabriel watched our exchange before narrowing his eyes at me. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah. Yes,” I sputtered, visibly affected.

“You seem flushed.”

I was beyond mortified. “I’m fine. I just want to get this over with.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the stress of what was going on or the withdrawals from Dominic’s nightly visits, but sitting there with Gabriel witnessing my total system meltdown nearly pushed me over the edge.

“You don’t look fine,” said Trace as he stalked over to me, inspecting my face as he knelt down before me and then checked my temperature like I was nine years old.

“I’m fine,” I said as I looked around the room, my irritation growing thicker under my skin. All eyes were on me and it was only making me hotter and more sweaty. “Can everyone stop staring at me? I said I’m fine! Jeez, haven’t you people ever been hot before?”

“Easy, temptress.”

Gabriel gave a circular nod and then shifted his gaze to Dominic, eyeing him suspiciously. Trace never took his eyes off me. I wasn’t sure which one of them was more annoying at this point.

“Are you sure you don’t want to lay down for a while?”

“No,” I gritted through my teeth. “I don’t want to lie down.”

“Stop pestering her,” said Dominic. “Can’t you see you’re irritating her.” He was staring right at Trace.

“You don’t know the first thing about her,” answered Trace, straightening out—readying himself for a fight.

“I assure you,” answered Dominic as he took a final sip of his drink and placed the glass on the table. “I know much more about her than you’ll ever know, and in ways you’ll never know her.”

That was all it took. Trace barreled across the room, lunging into Dominic like a raging bull out for blood. All I could see was a tangle of fists flying every which way as blood sprayed out from both of them. Gabriel quickly jumped in, clamping his hands down on both of their shoulders as he tried to pull them apart, but their attacks on each other were relentless.

They both wanted this fight and neither one was letting Gabriel get in the middle of them. Like marble statues of Greek gods come to life, they pounded their fists into each other until the sound of cracking bone filled the room.

“Stop it!” I yelled, but it wasn’t loud enough, or maybe they were just ignoring me. Anger and fear marred in my veins as my pulse pounded louder and louder in my ears. I was scared for the both of them, yet equally angry at them, and for completely different reasons that I hadn’t even begun to understand yet.

I couldn’t take the incessant fighting, the constant bickering and bloodshed. I had reached my boiling point.

I screamed again, this time louder than I’d ever screamed before, and as if on perfect cue, every piece of glass in the room shattered around us, bursting in the air like confetti.

All three of them ducked down, covering their heads as the shattered glass rained down all around us.

When the dust settled, they straightened to their full heights. Gabriel’s eyes immediately scanned the room, looking for clues as to what just happened while Dominic brushed off the small pieces of glass from his shirt.

And Trace…Trace just stared at me, wide-eyed and shell-shocked.





24. A ROUND PEG IN A SQUARE HOLE


“What just happened?” asked Gabriel, still looking nervously around the room for answers, waiting for someone to elaborate. His gaze paused on Trace upon noticing that he was staring directly at me.

“I…” I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I had no idea what just happened.

Gabriel blinked as though trying to make sense out of the nonsense his brain was likely telling him. “Was…that you?”

Dominic’s head popped up from behind him, his interest suddenly piqued. He was about to laugh it off when he remarked my terrified expression. “Angel?”

They were all staring at me now.

“I…I don’t know what happened.” I wanted to tell them it wasn’t me, to stop gawking at me like I was some kind of telekinetic freak, but I wasn’t even sure of it myself.

A painful stretch of silence passed.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

Gabriel shook his head as though snapping himself out of a daze. “Has anything like this ever happened before?” he asked, taking a cautious step over the glass. The shards crunched under his boots as he moved towards me.