Marked by Blood: Book 2 of The Marked Series

by Ford, Rinna

  * * *

  Six days went by in the house, and Xander and I settled in as much as we could. After our little run-in with Benson, word spread quickly about who and what I was. I knew it would happen like that, because that’s how people were. They loved gossip, but at least I got a bit of my story out there myself.

  The residents of the house were a little more scared of me at first, then they became curious, and eventually accepting when they saw I was essentially harmless. Well, harmless enough anyway.

  Though the biggest surprise was Grayson’s girlfriend, Camille. She approached me the day after I told Benson and Trey what I was and asked if it were true. I told her it was and she just nodded her head and walked away. No attitude. Just curiosity.

  The day after that, she sat next to me at breakfast and invited me to a casting circle without any hesitation. I had to ask her what that was and she just chuckled at me.

  I briefly explained my situation to her, and in the span of time it took us to eat our breakfast, she somehow became my biggest ally in the house, next to Xander. Camille took me under her wing in a way and helped me learn the basics of being a caster, which I had no real clue about.

  It was nice to have a better grasp of that part of me. I mean, the spellbook Dev gave me was incredibly useful, but didn’t replace the feeling of having someone actually teach you and help you through your mistakes.

  The second biggest surprise during that week was I didn’t see Irna, not even once. She was notably absent during meals and even during the casting circles. I figured she was working, but I thought she would have been hounding me to “study” me.

  I had ended up talking to Xan about it when we went to bed the day I talked to Irna. I told him what she told me about mixed race couples being incompatible as far as procreating went. He sat in silence for a long time, lost in thought. He held me through the entire night and was even hesitant to let me go the next morning. It was as if he knew something I didn’t.

  I tried to talk to him about it, but he just kissed me and told me everything would be alright. He had a plan and I needed to trust him.

  It didn’t take long after that for Xander to be invited into strategy meetings with Di and her inner circle, which I learned was all part of his plan. He never really told me what they talked about, but I knew that it wasn’t about me. Xan was good at playing along when he wanted to, but I didn’t think he could ever hold back if he felt like I was in danger.

  So, I let him work on his plan. I knew he’d come to me when he felt like he needed to. I continued to work on my magical abilities with Camille and my new caster friends, and shifting with Xan, when he wasn’t in a secret meeting. Life was definitely becoming peaceful in a way, and that made me more nervous than before we even got to the house.

  After all, my life was never meant to be peaceful. I knew that the moment my mark added to itself for the first time fifteen years ago. It would always be chaotic, and I accepted that. But peace during an unpeaceful time, I couldn’t believe. Not even a little bit.

  Chapter Seven

  “Hey, Emelia,” a soft voice called out to me, breaking me out of my thoughts. I turned in my chair by the pool to see Irna standing there, wringing her hands together nervously. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Hi,” I replied with a smile. “Sure. Do you want to sit down?” I gestured toward the lounge chair next to me and she awkwardly sat down, crossing her feet at the ankles and tugging at the hem of her wrinkled dress.

  She was very nervous. More nervous than when I had talked to her the week before and told her who I was.

  “How have you been?” I asked, trying to get the conversation going.

  “Me? I’m fine. I’ve been fine. Why do you ask?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Just making conversation. I haven’t seen you since that day about a week ago, after I told you about myself, so I just wanted to see how you’ve been doing.”

  Irna sat back in her chair and began fiddling with the hem of her dress again.

  “I’m sorry, I’ve been busy…”

  “With your work?”

  “Huh?” She looked up at me as if she was lost in thought. “Oh! Yes! With work! I’d like to talk to you more about what you told me, if that’s alright.”

  “Sure, I guess.”

  The whole situation was odd, to say the least.

  “So how have you survived all of your life being half caster, half shifter? I’m honestly surprised you’ve lived this long with the Council’s decree and all.” Her eyes went wide when she realized what she implied. “Oh! No offense.”

  “None taken,” I grinned. “But I don’t think of myself as half caster and half shifter. I can fully shift into my dragon and I have all of the abilities that come with it. I can also do everything that a caster can do with advanced skills. I seem to be a full shifter and a full caster all in one body with a mate for each part.”

  “Fascinating. You have two mates?”

  “Yeah,” I looked out over the pool as my thoughts drifted to the caster mate who wasn’t mine. He was what I was thinking about when Irna approached me earlier, so my mind returning to him wasn’t too hard to do. I shook my head, getting back to the conversation at hand. “Anyway, you wanted to know how I’ve survived this long.” She nodded her head and waited for me to continue. “Well, the truth is I’ve only been this way for about a month.” Her expression faltered to one of confusion. “Did Devlin tell you about my mother, his sister, Lucia?”

  “Briefly. We didn’t really get to know each other very well when your uncle found me and we agreed to mate.”

  “Well, she was fated to mate with Michael Ironshot. I’m sure you’ve heard of him.” She nodded her head quickly. “My mother despised him and he made her life miserable when she refused to mate with him. My father, a dragon shifter, helped her out. They fell in love and I was the result.”

  “Fascinating,” Irna repeated.

  “My mother raised me as a caster child, never telling anyone who my father was. They all assumed he was a caster like her, for obvious reasons. That was, until I reached puberty and I had my first shift.”

  “Oh no.”

  “Yup. Someone saw and he informed the Council. My mother cursed me to forget who I was and where I came from, along with suppressing all of my powers, caster and shifter. They killed my father, and my mom, well, she mated with Ironshot. I grew up in the human foster care system, thinking I was a normal human with a strange tattoo on my back. The curse lasted fifteen years until Devlin saved me and told me who I was. The curse was lifted, which was about a month ago, and my memories and powers returned. Xander found me. My other mate found me too, but he works for the Council. I don’t think it will work out with him.”

  “Why not?” Irna’s voice was quiet, sympathetic.

  “He works for the very people who want to kill me. Not to mention, Xander isn’t very good at sharing.”

  “It must be hard.”

  “You know better than most how hard it is. I mean, sure I have Xan and he’s amazing. I could never imagine my life without him. But then there’s this….”

  “Hole. There’s a hole that will never be filled, no matter what you try to fill it with.”

  I nodded. She explained it exactly because she’s lived it too.

  I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat. “So, my other mate found me. He actually led the Council to me, unknowingly. They tried to capture me, but Dev and his boyfriend distracted them while Xan got me out of there. I watched Ainsley fall, but I still don’t know what happened to them.”

  “Ainsley was Devlin’s boyfriend?”

  I nodded my head. “Dev put a note in my backpack leading me to Di, which brings us here.”

  I turned back around to face her with a tight smile. I couldn’t believe I told her my entire story, but there was no taking it back at that point. I just felt like she’d understand, so ultimately, that was why I poured my heart out. I hoped she would sympathize with m
e on other ideas too.

  “I’m hoping you can see why I don’t want to be studied. What I am, I think I should be the only one, if I truly am alone in this, ya know? Having two mates is beyond hard and it wouldn’t be accepted if others were in my position. Children of mixed races would, could be like me. I understand committed couples want to share their love, but I just don’t feel like this would be the best. It would cause more heartache than joy.”

  “Huh?” Irna was lost in thought again and when she realized I was talking, she gave me an almost too large smile. “Oh. Yeah. I understand. No problem. It was just an idea and probably wouldn’t have worked anyway,” she blurted out. Jumping up out of her chair, she called over her shoulder, “I’ll see you later, Emelia.” She was in the house and slamming the door before I had a chance to get myself out of my chair.

  How odd.

  Irna’s hasty exit made me worry. But then again, she was a bit strange the two other times I had talked with her. Devlin thought she was a good person and his opinion meant everything to me, so I trusted I did the right thing by talking to her.

  The fact of the matter was, I needed to talk to someone and she just happened to be my best choice at the time. Sure, Camille was becoming a great friend, but she didn’t have my uncle’s endorsement, and no matter how much I wanted to talk to Xander, I felt like it would only cause friction between us if I told him what I was thinking about Ronan.

  I looked back at the house and sighed. I hoped I didn’t make a mistake talking with Irna. Man, I really hoped so.

  * * *

  The field of wildflowers looked like it always did whenever my father visited my dreams. I stepped through the tall grass and turned around to try and find my dad, but he was nowhere to be seen. I sat down and decided to just enjoy the solace when I heard his voice off near the trees.

  “Hey there, sweetheart.”

  His voice was rich and strong, and just hearing it made me feel like a little girl again. My memories of him had returned not long after Xan and I went on the run from the Council, and I was beyond grateful they did.

  He was always there when I was a kid. He seemed as if he were a close family friend, but I always felt the love he had for my mom and me. I remembered it in his hugs and the way he was always just there. I really wished things could have been different for us, but I was thankful I could remember the time I spent with him.

  As I stood up, I could see him coming out of the treeline. He wasn’t smiling for a change and that immediately made me pause. He didn’t look angry, but the seriousness of the situation couldn’t be denied.

  “Dad, what’s wrong?” I asked when he was within a few feet of me.

  “Sweetheart, I am so proud of you.” He gulped and pulled me into a tight hug. “You’re so strong, but I need to you to be even stronger. Can you do that?”

  I nodded against his massive chest my reply, but didn’t trust myself to answer out loud. Something was happening. Whatever it was, it would be huge. I could see it in his eyes and feel it in the way he held me.

  “You need to know you are on the right path, but just like all journeys, there are going to be some major bumps in the road. You are going to hit those bumps very soon. Stay strong, trust in your instincts and those who have proved trustworthy, and don’t ever, ever give up. I promise, there is peace at the end, you just have to be able to reach it.”

  I pulled away and looked up at my giant of a father. Worry was written all over his face.

  “Do you think I can?” I asked. “Reach peace?”

  His face softened as he took in my worry as well. “Daughter, I know you can. You are the strongest person I’ve ever known. But just remember, there are those you can lean on. Don’t hesitate. Let them help you and you’ll succeed.”

  “Like my mates?”

  “Yeah, like them. And others. Family and those who will become like family. You are meant for such great things, Emelia. Don’t forget that.”

  I fell back into his arms again and buried my face in his shirt.

  “I’m scared, Dad,” I admitted with a sigh. “I’m scared of so many things and I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I can be strong enough to find my peace, even if you think I can.”

  There was a long pause as my words sunk into my father’s head.

  “It’s okay to be scared, Emelia. If you’re never scared, you wouldn’t have the chance to be brave. Bravery comes when you’re scared of something, but you do it anyway. Be brave, sweetheart. Always, be brave.”

  I nodded my head, understanding what he was telling me.

  I needed that peace he promised me, but in the meantime, I would thrive in the chaos. All I needed to do was be brave.

  I felt my body begin to wake and I hugged my father tighter. These dreamscape visits were few and far between, but I savored every single one.

  “There’s one more thing I need to tell you, Emelia,” my dad said, this time with a light chuckle.

  “Yeah? What’s that?” I asked.

  “He’s not as bad as he seems. And make sure you tell him ‘Meathead says hi’.”

  “Who? What? Who’s Meathead?”

  Chapter Eight

  “Emi, honey, who’s Meathead?” Xan asked me in a groggy voice, waking me up.

  “What? Oh.” I must have been talking in my sleep. I rubbed my tired eyes and blinked them a few times. “My dad, I think. He told me to tell someone ‘Meathead says hi,’ whatever that means.”

  I snuggled further into my mate’s warm chest and moaned contently.

  “How long have you been meeting your dad in a dreamscape?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t realize I hadn’t told him about my visits with my dad. It wasn’t like I was keeping it from him, it just never came up.

  “Since my first shift. But he doesn’t visit me very often. Not nearly as often as I’d like.”

  “That’s how they work.” Xan put his finger under my chin, guiding my face up toward his. He gave me a single slow kiss and pulled away looking down into my hooded eyes. “What did he have to say?”

  I sighed and rolled away, sitting up on the side of the bed. Xan was a dragon, so he knew about how we could communicate with our ancestors in our dreams. But did his dead relatives only give him super important information? I didn’t want to tell Xan what my dad had just told me. How could I? He was already stressed with the idea of protecting me. How could I tell him things are probably going to get much, much worse in the near future? How could I tell him I needed him and Ronan if I were to make it out of this thing alive?

  I felt Xan’s warm hand on my wrist. “Emi. What did your dad say?”

  I sighed and slumped in defeat. I couldn’t lie to him, but I couldn’t tell him the whole truth either. Besides, I didn’t know if the things my father told me would come to pass. So far, everything my father told me had been cryptic, at best. Different people would interpret the messages I’ve been getting from my dad in different ways, so it was hard to tell what they meant. However, some things were clear.

  I sighed again.

  “My dad talks in riddles most of the time, but I think something’s coming, Xan. My dad told me I needed to be brave and I should trust my instincts, whatever that means.”

  Xan pulled on my wrist making me turn to face him. The look in his eyes could only be described as serious.

  “Was there anything else? Tell me exactly what he said to you.”

  His expression told me he believed whatever we learned in our dreams would come to pass. He was hanging on every word, every thought.

  “He said every journey has bumps in them and I’m getting ready to hit some big ones. That I needed to trust my instincts and the people who I felt were trustworthy. He told me I needed to let the people around me help because I won’t be able to do it all on my own. He said it was my mates, my family, and the people who would become my family would be the ones to help me, but there was peace at the end if I was brave enough to survive it. That’s i
t, besides the Meathead thing.”

  Xan looked down at his fingers wrapped around my arm and released them. He sat straight up in the bed and put his head in his hands.

  “That didn’t sound very cryptic to me. That sounded pretty specific to me actually.”

  “Well, that’s my interpretation of it. I could be wrong, I mean, when he first came to me, he told me he would sound like a fortune cookie. He wasn’t lying about that. It’s mostly vague prophecies of the future that I don’t know for sure will happen.”

  “Oh, it’ll all happen,” he retorted and slid off the bed. He put his hands on his hips. “One thing you should know about being a dragon, your ancestors don’t speak in half truths or lie, like, at all. They tell you what they can to help you on your journey, but it’s always the truth. When your dad says things are going to be happening soon, he means very fucking soon. Are you sure you told me everything?”

  Feeling completely chastised, I lowered my eyes and nodded my head. “Yeah.” I lowered my feet all the way to the floor and began walking toward the bathroom to take a shower. I heard Xan’s feet shuffle over the carpet behind me as he followed me. “Honey, I kind of want to think. Alone,” I told him from the doorframe.

  He raised one eyebrow in defiance. “Emi, do you seriously think I’m going to let you out of my sight right now?”

  “It’s just the bathroom, Xander. Nothing’s going to happen inside our warded space.”

  “I know. I’m still not letting you out of my sight, and I’m definitely not letting you pull away from me out of some sense of protecting me or some shit. I’m a big boy and an even bigger dragon, love. I can handle whatever comes my way and I can be there for you while I do it.”

  “Can you handle sharing me?” I shot back the question with annoyance. Xan stiffened and his eyes became hard. “Because if my father spoke the truth, I need all of my mates to survive this. For us to find peace, I will need you and Ronan.”

  “So you’re saying you’d accept that brown-nosing, back-stabbing asshole of a witch into your life and your bed? That you’d want me to share you? How would you feel about sharing me? Huh? What if I had another mate out there? How would you feel about that?”