Marked (24 page)

Eli shook his head. He hadn’t had much time to think about anything.

“They rot inside,” she said. “They become like living corpses, unable to accomplish anything, unable to love, unable to be happy, unable to do good. They clog and warp the future, because they aren’t part of it. What we do is necessary. We make what is
meant to be
happen. You’re part of that now.”

“Want to trade jobs?” Eli snarled, shocked by the sick, hot anger rising within him. Her compassion was almost more painful than disgust or hatred would have been.

She seemed to sense that, because she got right in his face, and even in the Veil her eyes sparked with vivid color. “Do you want me to feel sorry for you? Look, I
am
sorry. You got handed a truly shitty deal. And I am going to live with the fact that it is entirely my fault for the rest of my existence. But now you have a choice. You can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to fight your way through it. You can choose to be connected, or you can choose to be isolated. You can choose to be evil, or you can choose to be merciful. It’s up to you.”

Eli stepped back, needing space. It wasn’t that she was yelling at him; it was that her scent was making him crazy. “It’s not up to me to be merciful,” he said. “Apparently, if I am, people will turn into walking corpses, and I’ll walk around feeling like my insides are going to explode. For all I know, they
will
actually explode. Moros doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to mess around with.”

“That’s not what I meant. You do realize you were merciful to that couple, right?”

He tilted his head up and stared at the moon, low and heavy in the gray-black sky. It was tinted with red, and he knew his eyes were probably glowing bright and evil. He turned his back to her. “I killed them. A young couple, blissfully happy and planning the rest of their lives together, and I
killed
them.”

He flinched as she put her hand on his back. “It was quick. They probably didn’t see it coming. They didn’t have a chance to get scared. Death was instantaneous, and they were together. There’s nothing more merciful than that, Eli.” Her fingers curled into his uniform.

Eli’s breath was coming hard and fast. He could feel her behind him, her body close to his. He folded his arms over his chest to keep himself from embracing her. “It doesn’t feel merciful.”

“That’s because you’re still thinking like a human. But you’re not human anymore.”

“I know!” he roared, his control snapping completely. He spun around. “Look at me, Cacy. Don’t you think I know that? I’m a monster now.” He laughed, and even to him, it sounded insane and brutal. “I was a monster before, too. You just didn’t know it.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

E
li tried to tear himself away from Cacy, but she was ready for him. She clung to his uniform, knowing he could disappear forever if she let go. “You aren’t a monster, and you never have been. You protect the people you love. You’d lay down your life for them. I know that’s the only reason you became a Ker. I know you.”

Eli flashed his teeth at her, his canines sharp as daggers. “
I
don’t know me, Cacy, so how can you? What I do know is that I’m dangerous.” He stared down at his clawed hands and muttered, “I think I’ve always been that way.”

He backed up, but Cacy followed him. “Why? Because you took the law into your own hands in a city where there’s been no actual police force for at least ten years? You took the guys who raped your sister off the street.”

“Permanently,” he snapped.

“Yes,” Cacy agreed, “because they hurt her. And
they’d
probably hurt other women in the past, and they were probably going to do it again.”
She’d
thought about this a lot since Moros had told her. At first,
she’d
been stunned. Eli had seemed so gentle. He saved lives. But Pittsburgh was lawless and violent, and
he’d
struck back against that violence, unwilling to allow men who committed such brutal acts to roam free. She couldn’t blame him for that.

She reached for his hand, and he jerked it away, but he stopped backing up. She knew she was getting to him. “You were dangerous before you became a Ker, Eli. You’ve always been dangerous. That doesn’t mean you’re evil. It means you’re powerful.”

He shook his head like she wasn’t hearing him. “Look at me now,” he said raggedly, spreading his arms and letting her see his claws. “Why are you even here with me? I’m a Ker. You hate the Kere. I’ve heard how you talk about them . . . us.”

She shook her head. “I don’t hate the Kere. I hate creatures who revel in the suffering of others. But you don’t. You never have. I could never hate you.” She took a quick step closer to him, enough to feel the heat rolling off him. His eyes were blazing red, like embers in a fire. And . . . he was still Eli. Still beautiful. Still looking at her like
he’d
die for her if
she’d
let him.

“When Moros took your soul, did he take your heart, too?” she asked.

His arms dropped to his sides. The glow in his eyes faded a bit. “No,” he said hoarsely.

She inched closer, prepared to tackle him if he tried to disappear. “You still feel something for me.”

He looked away, refusing to meet her eyes.

“You want me.” She put her hands on his chest, but only had a moment to savor the heat, because he jumped back like she was the one who’d burned
him
.

He jabbed a finger at her. “Don’t. Don’t push me, Cacy. I don’t want to hurt you.”

She closed the distance between them quickly. “You won’t hurt me.”

His hands closed over her arms, holding her away from him. “Stop.”

Her fingers closed around the front zipper of her uniform, and she slowly drew it down, enough to reveal her throat and the swells of her breasts. She shivered in the chilled air. “You won’t hurt me,” she repeated, her breath coming quicker as she watched his glowing eyes catch fire again, now glazed with something more than anger. Desire.

She smiled, hope blossoming in her heart. After seeing what
he’d
done tonight, how he was desperate not to hurt anyone and how he refused to let the Marked suffer in their deaths, she knew he was good. And she wanted him as badly as she had before. He was scared. He needed her to stand by him now, and she trusted him enough to try. Her fingers played with her zipper as she watched him. “Should I keep going?”

He ran his tongue along his bottom lip. “You don’t want to do this.”

“Was mind reading another nifty power you got when you became a Ker?”

He frowned. “No.”

She pulled the zipper down another few inches, and Eli’s fingers tightened around her arms. “Then you don’t know what I want. Good thing I do.” Another few inches.

He pulled her to him, enveloping her in heat despite the frigid air of the Veil. His arm swept around her back, and he lifted her off her feet, up to his waiting mouth. Cacy wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight as he kissed her like he was starving for her. She ran her tongue over his fangs, reveling in his wildness, desperate to show him she wasn’t afraid.

Because she wasn’t. Not much, at least.

She could feel something coiling beneath the smooth surface of his skin, a barely restrained chaos, ready to explode. Whether in passion or destruction, she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t because he was a Ker now. That was just part of Eli. Becoming a Ker had only intensified it, but it hadn’t changed him. And his feelings for her hadn’t changed, either. She could feel it. She could taste it. She ran her hands over the muscles of his back and wrapped her legs around his waist as Eli’s fingers curled over her thighs and held her against him.

She was hit with a blast of swirling wind, first cold then hot. Eli’s grip on her tightened. She opened her eyes and saw that, somehow,
he’d
transported them from the Veil to his bedroom. Without lifting his lips from hers, he reached out and yanked the zipper of her uniform all the way down. His hand cupped one of her breasts, raising beads of sweat wherever he touched. She pulled her uniform open even more, needing to feel his heated mouth on her body.

He didn’t disappoint her. He ripped her uniform off her shoulder, tearing the fabric down her arm, something no normal human could have done to bulletproof material. His mouth closed over her nipple, and he sucked hard, and Cacy didn’t try to hold back her cry. It felt like everything inside her was being drawn toward him, into him, and that was exactly where she wanted to be. She buried her hands in his hair and held on tight.

Then one of his teeth scraped roughly against her breast, and she flinched. Eli reared back like
she’d
slapped him, his eyes flashing red, the glaze of desire bleeding into a look of horror. He set her on her feet and took a few steps backward, his chest heaving. “I’m sorry,” he rasped. He put his hand over his mouth as he stared at her chest.

Cacy looked down at the red mark on her skin. It had surprised her more than it had hurt her. “I’m all right. Come back here.”

She reached out to him, but he was running his fingers back and forth across his teeth like he believed he still had fangs. Cacy knew if he bolted now,
he’d
never come back; of this she was certain.
He’d
be convinced he was nothing more than a monster, and she would lose him permanently.

Slowly, she finished unzipping her uniform, peeling it away, never taking her eyes off his. She unlaced her boots and kicked them off, then pushed the uniform down her hips and legs before stepping out of it. Eli watched with hooded eyes, his hands fisted at his sides.

“Come back here,” she said again, now standing naked before him.

He tore his gaze from her and held his hands up in front of him, staring at his fingers with a grimace. He was still getting used to being a Ker, going in and out of the Veil, appearing human in one place and inhuman in another. He looked convinced that he had claws, but outside the Veil, his hands were just ordinary hands. Hands she desperately wanted on her body.

“I shouldn’t have brought you here,” he said in a low voice.

She leaned back on the bed and lay on her side, propping herself up on an elbow. “Then why did you?”

His breath hitched as she drew her heel along the sheet, arching one of her knees, opening herself to him.
She’d
never felt this vulnerable, but
she’d
also never wanted anyone more. He remained frozen in place, trembling with tension. He was right on the edge of giving in; all he needed was a little push. So she trailed her fingers from her chest to her belly then between her legs. Even from across the room, she saw his pupils dilate as she stroked herself, imagining what his touch would do to her. “I want you here, Eli. Don’t make me do this by myself.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

A
t the sight of Cacy on his bed, running her fingers through the slick pink flesh between her legs, the thread holding Eli to his logic snapped. All his arguments about why being with Cacy was
a
terrible idea
and
doomed to failure
became white noise in his head, drowned out easily by one thing: the need to bury himself inside her body.

He made it across the room in two long strides. His molten hands closed over Cacy’s hips and flipped her over onto her stomach. He yanked down his own zipper and ripped his arms out of his sleeves, craving the feel of skin on skin. With his uniform hanging from his hips, the hot, rigid length of him pressed between the soft mounds of her ass, the tattoo of the raven on her back undulating as she pushed herself up on all fours and writhed against him, Eli was lost in a haze of passion. The only thing that mattered was now. This. Her.

“Eli,” Cacy begged. “Now.”

His fist slammed onto the bed next to her shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back against him. His hand stroked down her belly and delved between her legs, following the same path her fingers had taken seconds earlier. Cacy put her hand over his, urging him on, until he circled her clit and then slid a finger inside her, groaning at the sensation. She wiggled against him, deliberately provoking him in the sweetest way. His entire body was vibrating with tension; it rippled through him as he arched over her and ran the head of his cock along the seam of her body. He drove himself inside her in one deep, devastating thrust that lifted her knees from the bed. She was so soft, so slick, surrounding him with heat, sending shocks of it through his belly and legs. Lost in that feeling, Eli opened his eyes.

And saw red eyes peering back at him in the window glass, just like they had the night
he’d
found Cacy in the Veil. He froze. It was his own reflection.

Then Cacy ground against him, erasing coherent thoughts from his mind, forcing him to close his eyes as lightning strikes of pure pleasure hit him hard. He gripped her hips and relentlessly pumped in and out, chasing only feeling. Cacy cried out, and her fingers curled into the sheets. But when she tried to look over her shoulder at him, he bent over her, bracing himself with one arm. “Close your eyes,” he whispered in her ear as he pulled back. “Don’t look at me.”

“I see you better than you see yourself,” she replied, shoving her hips back as he slid inside her once again. Her body clenched around his, and they both moaned. He wanted to argue, but he couldn’t think past the mind-blowing bliss that made him desperate with the need to move, to thrust, to ignite.

Eli buried his face against her neck, cursing and apologizing with each breath, his pace becoming more urgent. Cacy met him stroke for stroke, demanding more of him, refusing to let him pull away again. Refusing to accept any less than everything he had. She reached up and folded her arm around his neck, slippery with sweat and taut with barely bridled energy. She wove her fingers through his hair as they moved together; every time he flexed forward, she bowed her back, inviting him all the way in. He inhaled the scent of her, now deepened by heat and want, and drew his tongue along her neck just to taste her skin.

Her inner muscles drew tight around his shaft as her hand slid down his arm, guiding his hand between her legs. She pressed her palm over his, spreading his fingers, letting him feel where they were connected by the wet slide of his body into hers. She turned her head and nuzzled against his cheek.

“Do you feel this?” she said softly as she drew his fingers back and forth against the meeting of iron and silk, hard and soft, all soaked with the heat of desire. “This is what you do to me.”

And then she looked into his eyes . . . and didn’t look away. “Don’t ever stop,” she gasped as he hit her deep. Cacy’s lips parted and she arched back. Eli covered her mouth with his, kissing her hard and absorbing the hitching sound of her pleasure, letting it reverberate all the way to his bones. Letting it drive him wild. He reared back as his body took over completely, giving in to the powerful, merciless rhythm of his hips, the invasion of her soft flesh, the maddening cadence of her moans, the frenzied grasp of her hand as her nails scraped along his hip, pulling him closer, urging him on.

The heat came from deep within him, that hidden place that had always been there, that he had never admitted to. It welled up, drawn to the surface by the tight clutch of her body, the relentless motion of her hips. It simmered at the sight of her hands fisted in the sheets, the sweat glistening along her shoulders where the wings of the raven were spread in flight. The pressure of it built with the feel of her—her full breasts bouncing in time with his thrusts, her nipples taut as he rolled them between his fingers.
Almost there . . .

Cacy’s muscles locked beneath his hands as an orgasm rolled through her. She gasped his name with every fierce spasm of her body. And it was exactly what
he’d
needed to ignite. He slammed into her and roared with his release, shaking the walls and windows, sending tidal waves of heat through the room. Cacy undulated against him as he gushed inside her, wringing every last shred of pleasure from both of them.

Eli came back to himself slowly, his body tingling with the aftershocks of his climax, his throat raw, his chest heaving. He rolled to his side and pulled Cacy with him, tucking her against his body, unable to believe her response to his loss of control.

She hadn’t pushed him away. She had demanded more.

He bowed his head and kissed her shoulder, letting his gaze linger gratefully on the creamy hue of her skin. He pressed his forehead to her shoulder blade as relief washed over him. For a few moments there, he was convinced
he’d
turned into an animal, a raging storm that would destroy anything in its path, including the woman in his arms. But that wasn’t what had happened. She had weathered it—no, it had gone far beyond that. She had controlled it, controlled him, but not by trying to hold him back. She had set him free. She had been there with him, as wild as he was and just as strong. And now he was lying here, nearly paralyzed with the power of his feelings for her. He spread his fingers over her chest, pressing his palm between her breasts where her heart beat rapidly.

She sighed and placed her hand over his. “It’s yours, you know.”

“I don’t deserve it.”

She turned to face him and threw her leg over his hip, drawing him to her. Her hand stroked down his cheek as she looked into his eyes. “I don’t believe in deserving. You haven’t deserved most of what has happened to you. But it happened anyway. So did we. We happened, Eli. I’m so thankful for that. I love you.”

Eli stared at her, rolling her words over in his head. “Would you mind saying that again, please?”

She smiled, her full lips curled in that painfully sexy way. “How much will you pay me?”

He kissed her as his body awakened again, intoxicated by the heady ring of those three words in his mind. When she felt the hard jut of his erection against her leg, she made a little sound of surprise. “Oh, that was quick,” she breathed. “In that case, I think we can work out some sort of payment plan.”

He made love to her slowly this time, gently, whispering his devotion against her skin, worshipping every part of her. It was like floating in a warm sea, bathed with the sun, weightless and peaceful.
He’d
never had that feeling before, that sense of being carried, lifted up and yet completely surrounded, caressed but not shackled. As he lost himself in her again, letting her body undo his control, letting her words of love devastate him, he realized what the feeling was:
happiness
. Even now, with his life transformed, his soul taken, his will not entirely his own, he was happy.

Because of Cacy. This amazing woman who had saved him from himself. Her heart was his. In that moment, as she arched beneath him, her lips parted, her sweat-damp hair spread across his pillow, as he was rocked to the core by the force of his love for her, he vowed to spend the rest of his existence earning the right to call her his.

They came together, holding on tight, trembling with the release. Cacy collapsed against his chest as he rolled onto his back and cradled her head with his hand. He was still panting, but he could feel her muscles going loose with exhaustion. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Never better,” she mumbled. “I just . . . need to . . .”

She drifted off with a sigh, never finishing the sentence. The slow, even rise and fall of her chest told him she was asleep. It made him smile, that she felt safe enough to pass out on him. He welcomed the responsibility as much as the delicious, warm weight of her body and the tickle of her hair on his chest. He ran his fingers through the silky strands and kissed the top of her head. “I love you, too,” he whispered.

Fiery pain shot up his arm, a now familiar call to action. He glanced down at his arm to see a name appearing in spidery black scrawl.
Lori Gaugin
. “No,” he breathed. “Not now.” But the face in his mind erased his bliss, blotting out everything else.

Still, Eli didn’t move, focusing his gaze on Cacy’s delicate fingers, which spread across his chest possessively.

The pressure built in his gut, that need to find his victim boring its way through him, causing him to tense to keep from groaning with the agony. “Cacy?” He didn’t want to leave her like this.

She whispered his name in her sleep but didn’t move. He shook her gently, trying to rouse her, but it was no good. Finally, he gave up, silently promising her
he’d
be back soon. He edged out from under her and yanked on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, determined to be back and naked with her again in a matter of minutes. He let the pull of the Kere tug him into the Veil somewhere near downtown. He immediately walked forward, stepping into the real world, already looking for the woman whose face was newly stamped on his brain.

Lori Gaugin sat in her car, which was pulled to the side of the road near a busy intersection. She frowned as she opened her door and looked down at her flat front tire.

“Dammit,” she snapped.

Eli walked toward her, determined to end this quickly. He reached out to brush her shoulder, the pressure in his body ratcheting to nearly unbearable levels. He shouldn’t have denied it for this long.

A blonde woman appeared from nowhere, as if
she’d
stepped through a curtain of invisibility. Her long red-lacquered nails scraped up Lori Gaugin’s back, causing her to spin in place and look around. Eli blinked as the blonde woman disappeared.

Lori took a step backward, still searching for the person who’d touched her. Her eyes met Eli’s.

And she was run over by a passing taxi.

Eli stared helplessly as she lay crumpled on the road, where another car rolled over her legs. She shrieked in pain, fully conscious, her eyes round with terror and glazed with agony. Eli instinctively moved forward to help her, but a hand closed around his neck and yanked him to the side. He stumbled, gasping as the icy air of the Veil surrounded him.

When he turned, the blonde was standing in front of him. She wore a skin-tight shirt, a short skirt, and high heels. Her red-lacquered claws matched her eyes.

Eli recognized her. She looked different here in the Veil, and far more vicious, but there was no doubt it was the woman who’d tried to buy him a drink the day
he’d
died.

“What’s up, gorgeous?” The woman smiled. “I’m Mandy,” she said, her voice raspy and low.

Eli rubbed his neck, and his hand came away dripping with blood. She held up her claws and waved at him. “This could have turned out differently if you’d only let me buy you that drink.” She pouted. “I hate to damage anything so edible-looking.”

She lashed out so quickly he barely saw it happen. He looked down to see his blood splatter onto the soft gray sidewalk, from four deep gashes beneath the shredded fabric of his T-shirt.

A growl rolled up from his throat as his own claws lengthened. This woman was a Ker, but obviously not his friend. In fact, Eli was certain she was the one who had Marked him that day. She had been in the bar, too, just after
he’d
left Moros. She had put her hand on his chest, right where Cacy had seen the Mark.

That meant she was the rogue. She was the one who was after Galena. And now she had Marked Eli’s victim, leaving him with Lori Gaugin’s face in his mind and name on his arm, his need to Mark still unsatisfied. He snarled and bared his teeth at Mandy, a familiar rage building in his chest, almost overcoming the awful pressure twisting his insides. “Try that again.”

She grinned. “So brave. So stupid.” Her claws came rocketing toward him, but he caught her wrist and twisted her arm behind her. She kicked at him with her spiked heels and raked long furrows down his shins. Something silver flashed in front of his eyes, and a sharp pain stabbed through his throat, distracting him for a moment, which was all she needed to break loose from his hold.

She took a few steps back, licking her lips. He staggered forward, nearly doubling over from the now-unbearable pain. It felt like someone had cut him open, shoveled hot coals into his body, and sewn him up. She watched him with a knowing smirk. “You didn’t Mark your kill, my friend. So disobedient of you.” Her blonde hair bobbed around her shoulders as she nodded toward the street. Traffic was piling up, and a transparent crowd of onlookers surrounded the wounded woman, whose screams were so loud they could be heard in the Veil. She was dying. Slowly. Painfully.

Mandy nodded, like it was her intention for the woman to suffer. Eli suddenly understood why Cacy was suspicious of the Kere. As if to drive the point home, Mandy lifted her fingers to her lips and licked his blood from her fingertips with obvious relish. Her glowing red eyes lit on his. “And now you’ve stolen a Scope. You’ve only been a Ker for a day, and look how much trouble you’re in. Moros will not be pleased.”