Page 12 of Marked for Redemption

“Those in the camps are preparing for something big. We must start preparing or they will leave us in the dust.” I turned, leaving her with those words. I’d meant what I said and it was up to Kiara to do something about it.

Colton groaned in pain as I entered. I paused, wanting to fix whatever was wrong. Torn, I debated going to him. I turned toward the door, remembering what I’d just told Amaya. We needed to change.

I went into my room and closed the door. I needed a nap before my next session with Colton.

* * *

Ten days later…

Amaya confirmed the camp was there. She’d had guards watch them for a few days, but they didn’t move. I’d promised to find out what else was going on. I needed to hurry because the camp was making Kiara nervous.

I hadn’t been back inside Colton’s mind, because I didn’t know if I could control myself around him anymore. It was time to get this done and over with, though. Slipping inside his mind now was easy. I knew how to get through the walls, avoiding resistance.

“There you are.” Colton smiled my way.

“Yes, I am. How are you feeling today?” I asked but kept my distance.

“Come sit with me.”

I sat next to him, facing the waterfall nestled between two mountain peaks. There was enough room for two people to sit between us.

“Something is wrong. I can feel it.” He began. “I’m asleep more than I’m awake. I’m tired even here with you. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to put the pieces together, but I think that my tormentor's goal is to break me. Whatever she thinks I know is something that I won’t give up easily. I’ve been thinking a lot about it and there are only a few secrets that I’ve kept to myself. Only two of them can be what she’s looking for. I’ve tried to decide which it could be and how much they mean to me. Is my life worth it? I don’t think anybody else’s secret is. If I’m to die regardless, then there is no need to say anything. I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.”

“What have you narrowed it down to, Colton?” I leaned toward him.

“Kiss me.”

I swore I wouldn’t go here again with him. Even if it was just in his head. There was something that passed between us when we touched, making it not safe for me to do.

“If I kiss you, we’ll do less talking. Your shoulders seem heavier today as if the world sits upon them. What’s bothering you, hmm?”

“I feel like I’ve trusted the wrong person. Out there, someone has betrayed me. I wasn’t attacked and kidnapped by happenstance. They specifically targeted me. I was with a group of vampires when I was grabbed. They could have any of them, but they didn’t want them. They wanted me.” He pointed to his chest with more force than necessary. “That means that I know something they don’t. It means whoever I trusted let someone else know the information that could end my life. Instead of it being a powerful piece of knowledge that I had. It’s become my weakness. The thing that, if I say, will make my worth obsolete.”

“Do you know who betrayed you?” I asked, unsure if it was safe to travel down this road. All the talk about trust weighed heavily on me. I had to do the one thing that he spoke of to gain the information we needed. Earn his trust, use it against him to get answers, and depending on what he told me, I’d have to kill him.

“I do. I’m one of the select few males who knows who's been gathering us. He’ll make himself known soon, but I stand by his movement of righting what’s been wronged.”

“You mean there’s only one male responsible for this uprising that you speak of?”

“Yes. As powerful as he is, he doesn’t need an entire council to sit with him.” Colton snickered. “Nothing that organized ever appealed to him, anyway.”

The wheels turned inside my head, and I was so distracted that I didn’t notice Colton coming closer or that he was leaning in for a kiss. He tilted my head up toward his, meeting his lips in the perfect connection. My heart raced in fear, hope, and sorrow. This would not end well.

“I don’t know how I’m falling for you. You’re just something I made up inside my head. The safest place I've ever been. Going back to reality, I know I’ll be gutted like a monster with no hope. Death has to be easier. Otherwise, I’ll keep trying to get back to you.” His hands caressed my shoulders as he slipped off the fabric covering them. “Beautiful…” He unwrapped the material covering my breasts. “Insatiable.” He slid it down my body and over my hips, uncovering them slowly. “Attentive.” He completely undid the long train of cotton that once covered me after he laid me on the ground and removed it from my thighs. “Feminine and honest.”

A lone tear slipped from my right eye as I fought to stay here with him. The compliments were too much. The way he trusted me was a stake in my heart, splintering into pieces that I’d never be able to retrieve.

“I fear that you’re so perfect that no woman will ever measure up. If I don’t consume as much of you as I can now, I’ll never understand what is possible. You’re not only what I need to survive this hell, but I think that you’re the highest level of honesty. Me seeing everything that I need here before me. My acknowledgment to myself of what I want my wife to be. You’re her perfect image.” He climbed on top of me, laying so that he could look into my eyes. “You are love.”

Overwhelmed, I swallowed and tried to fade into the darkness. Colton reached out and pulled me close to him from the leather table he was lying on. Inside his mind, he gripped my face and pulled me to his mouth. Connecting in person and his mind was too much. He pressed both lips against mine. The reality and fable blended so powerfully that they wrecked me. I cried as he claimed me, one tongue stroke at a time. He parted my legs nice and wide before he spoke.

“Am I not perfect for you, Zendaya?” His eyes searched mine.

I knew without a doubt what he was looking for. Honesty. “You are more than perfect, Colton.”

I rolled over, making the mind tap match us in the real world. I kissed down his body, admiring the perfection that I’d spoken of just a few seconds ago. Pulling him into my mouth, inch by inch, I wanted to show him how perfect we were. I needed to take this scene and make it special for him, for us. Because tomorrow, this will all be over.

I bathed his shaft with my tongue, flattening it against him. I followed the veins there with my lips until I reached the tip. The mushroom head glistened with pre-cum, and I lapped at it before putting it into my mouth. Taking a deep breath, I put as much of him inside as I could. Then I breathed through my nose to push him into my throat.

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