Page 104 of Bitten & Burned

When I saw it, I nearly dropped her.

I froze. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.

“She’s marked, she’s ours, she’s marked, she’s ours…”

My head turned towards the girl in the corner.

She was curled into herself, rocking like she wasn’t in her body. Still whispering. Still twitching.

I swallowed hard. Tried to steady my voice and failed.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

She didn’t even blink. Just kept chanting.

“She’s marked, she’s ours…”

My blood roared in my ears.

“Tell me your name, freak!” I snapped.

That got her attention. She flinched, blinking up at me as if she’d only just noticed I was there.

“Lady,” she said. “They call me Lady.”

“Last name.”

She grinned. Wide and cracked.

“Ashborne.”

I knew she was going to say it. But it still hit me like a godsdamned brick.

It was on my back. This entire time…

I lay Rowena down on the ground, standing and going to the three I’d decimated. I rolled each over, pulling up shirts to see the brands on their backs.

Just like mine. Branded just like me. And now…

I glanced back at Rowena on the floor.

The sight of each one made me feel more crazed. Like I could throw myself over the railing into the ocean. Like I could scrub my skin off and still not be clean.

Gods, the way she smelled—sweet, but rotten. That’s why. That had to be why.

I looked at Lady Ashborne in the corner. “Do you know me?”

Her eyes were glazed over as she looked. I could have sworn I saw one lazily drift to the left.

She shrugged. “I don’t know who you are, but I know youhave one, too. I can smell it on you.” She laughed. “You’re ours too. Not like her. You’re one of us. But she’s ours.” Her laugh bubbled up again.

I saw red. I rose. I moved.

I snapped her neck like the first one.

I was panting when I heard something. Someone at the stairs. Smelled like chocolate and bergamot.Anton. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He was going to…

I dove back to the ground beside Rowena, pulled her into my arms again, and tried to drive out the vision of what I’d seen on her thigh.