Page 29 of Marked Resistance

I exhaled slow, and using Xavier’s image, I mimicked the motion he made in my mind. I imagined myself pushing the flames down. As the air left my body, I saw in my mind the flames lowering in intensity until they’d died down. I opened my eyes and the fire in the hearth had returned to its previous state. Ilanis and Grim were both wide-eyed. Xavier tried to hide it, and I don’t think anyone else would have noticed it, but he held a slight smirk on his lips.

I released my hold on Grim and backed away, giving him the space to maneuver around me.

“Feisty,” he teased and swung his arms across his chest in an exaggerated movement.

Without warning, he swung his huge right hand with destructive force toward my head. Using my speed, I dashed backward and out of the way, causing him to stumble and crash to the ground.

“Be glad I didn’t send you to your final death,” I mumbled. “You fucking robbed my sister of her life and turned her.”

“No, I fucking found some random humans and fed,” Grim corrected. “Stop acting like this isn’t what we do on a regular basis. We’re fucking vampires. I fucking got hungry and ate.”

“And then you left her out there? To fend for herself? In the middle of a vampire war?!” The red in my vision began to reappear. “Something tells me it was more than that. You enjoyed killing them. Killing my family. My father? My sister?! She never had a chance.”

“Oi, I told her to report to Dobgar, what more did you want? I fuck them then I turn them. Or is it I turn themthenI fuck them? I don’t know what order it is, it depends on my mood. Either way, I’m living up to myGrimname. It’s about time you all started living up to yours. We’re vampires. This is what we do.”

“I’m going to find her. I’m going to find my sister and I’m going to take her back to Command.”

“No,” Ilanis shot in. She moved over behind Grim, put her hands under his shoulders, and heaved him to his feet with unnatural strength. “We’regoing to find her, and we’regoingto send her to her final death.That’sour assignment. Or did you forget you’re a Fang Ranger?”

I lowered my pitch and spoke in a steady voice. “I’m not killing my sister.”

“How long ago was she here?” Ilanis asked.

The blonde stood bravely, but her voice trembled as she answered. “Last night.”

“What?!” The eyes in her grew doubled in size as Ilanis questioned the blonde.

“She fed while we hid.”

“Did she leave town?” I asked.

The youngest shook her head. “We…we don’t know,” she chimed in. Her voice was high and mouse-like.

“She may have taken one of the boats,” the blonde added. “We didn’t track her. But during the day, we saw no signs of her.”

“Then why were you hiding?” Grim asked.

“Because you vampires are tricky,” the elderly woman interjected. “She could have left or she could have stayed to draw us out. We weren’t sure, so we stayed hidden.”

Xavier stepped into the center of the room. All eyes fell on him. He lowered to one knee and met the gaze of the youngest woman, whose chin and lips trembled. “I know the word of a vampire doesn’t mean much to you in this world. But my word means something to me. As lead of this team, when we gave you our word, we gave you my word. You’re free to leave.”

“Yes, leave ladies. Before I eat you in more ways than one,” Grim grunted.

The three women inched from their place by the hearth and past Xavier and the dead body of their fourth member. As they passed, the youngest covered her face, the blonde cringed and the eldest woman's entire body quaked. The smell of fear wafted from them and filled our nostrils. Grim inhaled when they edged by him as if the most delicious food imaginable passed under his nose on a silver platter. The eldest woman made eye contact with me and mouthed a thank you as they sidled out the door.

Xavier sighed when the door clicked shut. The muscles in his thick neck flexed as he kept his back to us. “We don’t fight in front of humans. Is that understood? It undermines us and our war efforts.”

I knew I spoke out of turn when I did it, but it had to be said. “Our efforts have already been undermined, Xavier. They’re trying to kill my sister. I’m not going to let that happen.”

Xavier’s silence spoke louder than anything he could have said.

“Ialreadykilled her,” Grim said, filling the silence. “We’regoing to end her. Those are our orders.”

“As you reminded us,” Ilanis jumped in, her lip curled. “Command sends it, we follow it. Now we have a lead, and I’ll be damned if I let your youngling ass put my life in jeopardy again. We either end her together as a team, or we end you as an individual. Your human ties should have died with you when you died the first time. Now tell me, which clan doyoubelong to? Clan Shaye, who follows Command? Or are you a deserter? Are youmyenemy?Ourenemy? Because our orders areveryclear on how we are to treat our enemies and any deserters we come across. Shaye obeys.”

“Nice speech,” Xavier concluded.

Ilanis glared at him. “You’d better not.”

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