Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(58)

I wanted to lie and deny it—to cope the only way I knew how and make this all go away. But I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t that girl anymore. Living under a rock out of fear that the sun might burn me was no way to live. I refused to go back to that place.

I nodded to him that it had.

“How many times?”

“Twice.” I swallowed down hard. “It happened last night too.”

“Everything in the room just started levitating out of nowhere,” said Trace, folding his arms across his chest. “Including the bed we were on.”

Dominic’s face hardened at Trace’s last words, probably knowing he added them for his benefit.

“Did you invoke?” asked Gabriel, closing the remaining space between us. He glanced down at my hands, but I had them tucked inside the sleeves of my sweater.

“I’d say so,” answered Dominic for me.

Gabriel reached for my arm and brought it out to himself. He carefully rolled my sleeve back until the silver runes on my palm were revealed. Without pause, he followed the path further up my arm, still rolling the fabric up as he carefully took in the markings on the inside of my forearm.

“How come they don’t—” Did I really want to ask this question? Squaring my shoulders, I cleared my throat and tried again. “Why don’t they look like anyone else’s?”

It was bad enough that my Runes weren’t white like other Descendants, but on top of it, they were all over my arms like those who had pledged to the Dark Legion. The combination was something I’d never seen or read about before.

“I’m really not sure.” He was still examining my arm, his dark eyebrows pulled together as his moss-colored eyes painted tracks all over my skin. The perplexed expression on his face told me this was the first time he’d seen runes like this too, and with all his experience and knowledge on the topic, that couldn’t have been a good thing.

“You think it’s because of the bloodline?” asked Trace. The fact that he was still standing all the way on the other side of the room like I was freaking Medusa didn’t escape me.

“Possibly,” said Gabriel, still inspecting my strange markings. If Gabriel was anything, it was thorough. “I suspect that’s playing a significant role here.” He let go of my arm and met my eyes. “Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone else to compare this to so it’s hard to say for sure.”

“Do you think the Order would know? Maybe they have something in their books about it? Or the Vault?” I suggested. Not that I had any intention of going to them for help, but I wouldn’t be opposed to raiding the Vault and swiping the info out from under them.

“I haven’t come across anything about this, but it is possible.”

“And likely,” added Trace dryly. “They’re not exactly an open-book when it comes to this stuff. Trust me, they hide more than they tell.”

Gabriel didn’t answer him, but I could see the sadness in his eyes as the truth about the Order continued to sink in. This had been his life. His purpose. The only thing he believed in with his whole heart. And now what did he have? Where did that leave him? I couldn’t even imagine what he was feeling.

This entire ordeal was starting to depress me.

“We should get going if we want to catch up to them today,” I suggested and then looked over at Dominic apologetically. “I’m sorry about the mess. I’ll clean it up when we get back.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, angel. I’ll have the staff come in while we’re away.”

That didn’t seem fair to me. I chewed on my bottom lip, though immediately stopped when Dominic’s gaze dropped to my mouth as though I were inviting him. How the heck was I going to concentrate with him around me? It was hard enough to stay focused around Trace, let alone with both of them together.

This had bad written all over it.

“Maybe you two should stay here,” I suggested and then ticked my head to Gabriel. “Gabriel can take me.”

He nodded that he was okay with that.

“Not happening,” said Trace, taking a step forward. “I’m not letting you out of my sight. I already told you that.”

“I’ll be fine with Gabriel. I can take care of myself, Trace. Besides, the sisters aren’t a threat to me. They had a chance to stay and fight me and they had no interest in it.”

“I’m coming. End of story.” He stomped over the broken glass and marched out of the room. I wasn’t sure if he was pissed off, worried, or offended by it. Something told me it was all of the above.

“And our little love triangle just became a square,” smirked Dominic as he followed him out of the room.

Great. Awesome.

Could this day get any worse?





25. HAWTHORNE


The rain smacked down on us like plummeting sledge hammers as the four of us barreled down the highway towards the sleepy town of Hawthorne. Dominic’s contact had given us some intel about where the Roderick sisters were going to be holed up for the rest of the day, but we didn’t know much else beyond that. Including what kind of job they were doing or how receptive they would be to being tracked by a reluctant Slayer, a pissed off McSteamy Reaper and two very-easy-on-the-eyes vampire brothers that hated each other.

My guess was, they wouldn’t be receptive at all.