Incipient: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Book 6) Page 17

  “Don’t move,” he warned lowly.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I stared into the kitchen. “Gabriel?”

  “If you run, I will hunt you.”

  Panic gripped my insides as I realized he wasn’t threatening me. He was warning me. Moving swiftly or worse, running, would elicit his prey-predator instincts—something he had no control over. I had intended on getting a small knife from the kitchen to draw out a little blood for him, but I was seriously doubting that was even remotely a possibility now, or a good idea for that matter.

  In fact, I was seriously doubting any of this was a good idea.

  “You should’ve left,” he said beside my ear, standing behind me now.

  I hadn’t even heard him move. With my stomach in knots and my breath caught somewhere between my lungs and my mouth, I tried to steady my nerves. I knew that a racing heart only pounded the blood faster through my veins and that was precisely the thing that spurred a Revenant.

  “Tell me what to do,” I whispered carefully as he inhaled my scent and gripped my waist with both his hands. This was going very, very badly. I needed to put some space between us. To give him breathing room—not fill his nose up with my damn scent. But I was too scared to take a step in either direction.

  It felt like a lifetime before he spoke, and a part of me knew he was at war with himself. With his instincts. “Please don’t…hate me,” he finally said raggedly, and my eyes snapped wide with terror.

  “Gabriel!”

  The stabbing pain jolted me upright. Instinctively, I tried to dash away from the hurt, but he tightened his hold on me, keeping me pressed against his front as he buried his teeth in me. Within seconds, his venom burned through my blood, mollifying my fear and replacing the throbbing pain in my neck with numbness and then pleasure.

  It was the way Revenants were designed, the way they hunted for centuries, turning even the most hostile participant into nothing more than a willing donor.

  I knew this, even as he savagely tore into my neck and the blood spewed from my jugular in unreplaceable gushes. There was nothing I could do to fight him off. Nothing I could do to make him stop.

  I knew this, even as tears ran down my cheeks, and the room blurred around. Even still as I lost all strength in my body and fell limp into his arms. I knew all of that, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

  Seconds melted into minutes and then all sense of time left me. I vaguely remember wondering if he was ever going to stop. And then the blackness came for me just as it had so many times before…

  25. TALK THAT TALK

  My eyelids snapped open as a razor-sharp pain thumped against the side of my neck. The room was blurry, and my memory foggy as though I’d just woken up from a nightmare I couldn’t place. Padding the cushion underneath me, I recognized the fabric as being from a sofa and then immediately noticed someone pacing the floor across from me.

  Where the hell was I?

  Squinting and straining my eyes, my vision came into focus as I took in Gabriel and his flustered expression. And then I remembered what had happened.

  A gasp ripped out of me as I scrambled backward off the futon and then pushed myself into the corner of the room.

  Gabriel’s gaze flew to me like a lion spotting its prey and my heart all but jumped out of my chest. His face was twisted with agony and regret and only worsened when he took in my cowering stance.

  Oh, how the tables had turned on me, once again.

  “Stay the hell back,” I warned him as my hand raced up to cover my neck. To my surprise, it had already been bandaged. Glancing down at myself, I noted my crisp white blouse was covered in brownish-red liquid.

  It was my blood and a whole lot of it at that.

  If this were any other time, any other Revenant, I would be firmly standing my ground, ready to rip him a new one. But this was Gabriel. And I had probably lost half my blood volume, if not more. I was in no condition to take on a kitten let alone a very powerful, very recently well-fed Revenant.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Jemma.” He dropped his head into his hands and crouched down on bended knees. “I’m a monster. No better than my brother. No better than any of them.”

  My natural instinct was to comfort him. To assure him that he wasn’t a monster. But I was too frightened to move. Too traumatized to take a step toward him. The only thing I wanted to do was leave this apartment in one piece.

  “I have to go to school, Gabriel.” I hated that my voice trembled when I spoke. “Will you let me leave?”

  His gaze flicked up to mine. “I never wanted to hurt you. You have to know that.”

  “I do.” I nodded and then mentally traced my route to the door. I needed to get around him and the thought was making my knees shake. “I forgive you, okay? I just want to go to school. Will you let me go to school?”

  He studied my face for a moment and then nodded. Straightening to his full height, he took several steps backward until his back was pressed against the wall.

  Biting the inside of my cheek, I sidled away from the corner, though keeping my back to the furthest wall on the other side of the room. I wanted to keep as much space between us while carefully crossing the room—quickly enough to not give him time to change his mind, yet slow enough that he wouldn’t see me as prey again. It was a delicate balance that had me moving like an awkward crab with a weird limp.

  When I made it to the front entrance, I peered at him standing directly across from me on the opposite wall. My heart sank for him—for the tortured expression I knew he would wear from this day forward, but I couldn’t do anything for him. Not now. Not until I got myself out of the lion’s den.

  Just a few more steps until I was at his door, and then I would run like the wind.

  “Jemma?”

  I froze mid-step. With my back pressed firmly against the wall, I forced myself to meet his eyes.

  “Will you ever be able to forgive me for this?” His voice was so small and broken, it made my throat thicken with sorrow.

  “I already forgive you, Gabriel,” I said, and it was the truth. This whole thing was my fault. I knew that. I’d done this to him, and I brought myself here. The only thing that mattered to me now was making it out his front door with my head firmly attached. “I’m going to fix this, okay? I just need to go to school right now. Okay?”

  “Okay,” he answered softly and then bowed his head.

  The minute his eyes were off me, I took three giant steps and nearly ripped the front door off its hinges. With my heart in my throat, I ran down the corridor as fast as I could, never bothering once to look back until I was outside of his apartment complex and in the safety of my car.

  And then I sobbed until my eyes burned from the tears.

  I pulled into the parking lot of Weston Academy thirty minutes later, making it just in time for lunch break. While I’d only meant to pay Gabriel a quick visit, I’d wound up spending the better part of the morning unconscious at his place. As soon as I’d been able to stop crying and got myself together enough to drive, I headed straight for the Blackburn Estate to pick up another clean school uniform since the one I had been wearing was fit for nothing more than the trash.

  While I’d meant to stop by Temple to speak with the Senior Magister after visiting Gabriel, I was in no condition to talk shop with the head of the Council. Normally, when I lost that amount of blood, Dominic was quick to replenish me with his own blood. And judging by how horrible I felt right then, Gabriel had regrettably missed that step.

  It was just as well. The more bloodsharing we did, the more chances of developing a bloodbond and that was the absolute last thing I needed. One Huntington bloodbond was about all that I could handle at the moment.

  My phone vibrated in my hand as I crossed the student parking lot. Turning the screen over, I quickly read Trace’s message and grimaced:

  Alright, now I’m worried. Why aren’t you answering?

  I’d meant to text h
im back after his fourth message, but I’d forgotten all about that as well. I pulled up the dialogue box and quickly typed:

  About to walk into school. Meet you in the cafeteria.

  I hit send and then slipped my phone into my jacket.

  Once inside, I made a quick stop at my locker to drop off my schoolbag and then hurried down to the cafeteria. Trace was waiting by the entrance door for me, his eyebrows pulled together as he leaned his back against the wall. Relief relaxed his expression as soon as he spotted me—safe and in one piece.

  “I’m so sorry,” I huffed out as I approached him. “I got a little tied up and lost track of time,” I added and then tried to continue forward toward the cafeteria entrance. I wanted to keep things fluid and moving and avoid having to lie straight to his face again.

  He gripped my elbow and hauled me back to where he was still standing. “What is that?” he asked, his jaw muscle hardening as his eyes zeroed in on my bandaged neck.

  I’d purposely left my hair down in the hopes that it would help cover the brand-new bandage on my neck, but apparently, I’d underestimated Trace’s ability to notice every goddamn thing about me.

  “It’s nothing.” I waved it off as I searched my mind for a plausible excuse. “My injury was acting up, so I put a new bandage on it,” I said, emphasizing the word injury since we both knew I was referring to the huge holes in my neck.

  He stared at me for a moment, long enough that I started fidgeting. “You’re lying to me,” he said flatly.

  “What?” I scoffed at his very accurate assertion. “And you’re basing this on what exactly?” I shot back, sounding and feeling pretty defensive considering I was lying to him.

  He pushed off the wall and crowded my personal space, speaking directly by my ear so that no one but the two of us could hear. “I’m basing this on the fact that your injury,” he said, stressing the word in the same manner as I had done, “was on the other side of your neck.”

  Well, shit.

  Caught off guard by his perceptiveness, I did absolutely nothing but stand there like a total mute.

  He pulled back just enough to see my face when he asked, “Did you go see him?”

  “Who?”

  “You know who.” His jaw muscle ticked aggressively. “Dominic.”

  I froze again, panicked and unsure of how to answer. On one hand, I didn’t want him to think I had ditched school to go play another round of Chicken with Dominic, but I also didn’t feel comfortable admitting it was Gabriel who had lost control. For one, I wasn’t sure how he would react to that and two, I didn’t want him to think that Gabriel was a danger to me. Because he wasn’t.

  Well, not usually anyway.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said lowly, his mouth twisting with distaste.

  I could feel the hostility rolling off him in waves, though I wasn’t sure if it was directed at me or Dominic.

  “It’s not what you think. I can explain.”

  He stepped back, his face expressionless and completely unreadable. “You don’t owe me any explanations, Jemma.”

  “I know that, but I want to explain—”

  “There you are,” said Ben as he rounded the corner and spotted us. “I was looking for you at break.” He slung his arm over my shoulder as he came to stand beside us, his gaze cataloguing me. “You okay…after yesterday, I mean.”

  “Oh, yeah. Good as new. I just had some things to take care of before school,” I answered, smiling up at him.

  Trace flexed his jaw muscle as Ben bounced a glance between the two of us. “Everything good? I’m sensing some tension. Should I give you two a minute?”

  “No, everything’s fine,” I lied, forcing myself to keep smiling. “We can talk later, right Trace?”

  “Yeah, sure.” His mouth thinned as he looked down at me.

  “Let’s eat then,” said Ben as he gently shoved me toward the entrance doors, his arms still draped around my shoulder. “I’m starving.”

  Trace followed closely behind as Ben and I walked into the crowded cafeteria. The fluorescent lights beamed down above us as a cacophony of excited chattering and clanging cutlery rang throughout the dining hall.

  “Over here!” called Caleb, his voice taking precedence over the others.

  Ben nodded and then steered us toward the back table. Normally, I would’ve dug my feet in the ground and refused to break bread with Nikki, so to speak, but she appeared to be a no-show at school today, yet again.

  I supposed carrying Lucifer’s spawn around was starting to take its toll on her physically.

  Not that she didn’t deserve it.

  Pulling out a chair, I sat down in between Ben and Trace, with Morgan and Carly flanking Caleb on the opposite side. Morgan’s eyes glanced up from her phone at the sudden commotion of sliding chairs and gave me a proper look.

  Thus far, we were the only two at the table that knew what was really going on with Nikki. As far as everyone else was concerned, she was home sick with the flu.

  “I’m going to get some food,” informed Trace, his forearms flattened on the table. “What do you want?”

  My appetite wasn’t exactly big these days, though after my morning with Gabriel, I figured I needed to put something nutritious into my stomach. “I’ll have a burger and fries,” I said and then reached into my pocket for my cash. Okay, so nutritious was a stretch, but at least I was eating.

  “I got it,” he said as he rose from the table and walked off with Ben trailing behind him.

  I was going to have to clear the air with him, and sooner rather than later. If there was anything I couldn’t stomach, it was Trace giving me the cold shoulder, and lying to his face was a surefire way to get back into that frosty place with him.

  Turning back to the trio in front of me, I fixed my gaze on Morgan. “Nikki still sick?”

  Her eyes darted up from her phone. “Yeah,” she answered as Carly and Caleb started talking quietly amongst themselves. “Not that I’ve been allowed to see her.” She grumbled out that last part and my eyes narrowed.

  “What do you mean, you’re not allowed to see her?”

  “She has some family in town,” she said, as lips pursing with annoyance. “They’re taking care of her while she’s, you know, sick, but they’re total assholes. I tried to go see her yesterday and they straight up wouldn’t let me in the house.”

  My brows scrunched together at this strange development.

  “Who picks a bunch of strangers over their best friend?” she asked as though she couldn’t even fathom it. “I’ve never even heard her mention these people once.”

  “So, you’ve never seen them before yesterday?”

  She shook her head. “Apparently they’re from out of town.” She shrugged her shoulder. “Some cousins and an aunt—I think that’s what they said. Honestly, I just wanted to get out of there. They gave me the heebie jeebies.”

  Something about this wasn’t sitting well with me, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Why would Nikki’s family not allow her to see her own best-friend? And since when did Nikki allow anyone to tell her what to do?

  I was going to need to pay Nikki another visit. And soon. “I take it she’s not going to the meeting tonight?”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” she said and pushed a lock of curls behind her ear. “But you never know with Nikki.”

  “What about Nikki?” asked Trace as he and Ben returned to our lunch table with trays in hand. He placed mine in front of me and then sat down, his eyes still on me.

  “I was just asking if she was going to the meeting tonight,” I said as I skimmed a French-fry off the top of the pile.

  “Why?” he asked, looking wholly confused as to why I suddenly gave a crap about where Nikki was going to be.

  I really needed to learn to think before I spoke. It would free up so much of the time I spent trying to come up with plausible stories to make up for the dumb crap that came out of my mouth. “We have a project together for En
glish,” I lied, avoiding his probing eyes. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll catch her some other time.”

  I wasn’t sure if he bought the excuse or not, nor did I venture a look in his direction out of fear that he would see the lie in my eyes.

  “Well, now that all the boring homework shit is out of the way, let’s talk about something actually important,” declared Ben as he dug into his own cheeseburger. “The Blood Ball,” he mumbled with a full mouth.

  I nearly choked on my food. “The what now?”

  “The Halloween dance,” chirped Carly, her face completely lit up at the mere mention of it. “I’m on the decorating committee this year, and not to brag, but I’m going to knock it out of the field.”

  “Park,” corrected Caleb absentmindedly.

  “Huh?” She turned to her brother, confused.

  “The saying is ‘knock it out of the park.’”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Whatever. Anyways, it’s going to be the highlight of the entire Fall Festival. You’re going, right?” Her question was directed at me.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I mean—”

  “No. You have to come,” she cut in before I could finish my sentence. “It’s tradition. Everyone goes.”

  “Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean. I guess I’ll go.” At that point, I honestly didn’t feel like I had a choice in the matter. She was beyond intense, and frankly, she was scaring me a little. I’d come up with an excuse some other time.

  “So, who are you going to ask to the dance?” asked Ben, his mouth stuffed with food again. He really needed to learn to speak in between bites. “Since it’s lady’s choice and all.”

  “That’s the best part!” Carly nodded excitedly. “Girls have to ask the guys!”

  I had no idea why that was ‘the best part’. Just the thought of it had me breaking out in a cold sweat.

  “Just so you know, if you ask me, I’ll definitely say yes,” informed Caleb, grinning from across the table.

  Trace immediately shot him a murderous glare.