Page 122 of Tortured Soul
He choked on his cereal, coughing, and sending some flying across the island.
“Ew,Marcus! Gross,” I said, backing up on my stool to avoid the projectiles.
It took him a good minute and a full glass of apple juice before he could talk again.
“What the Hell, you can’t tell me shit like this while I’m eating! You pluckedglassout of his—howviolentare your fights?”
Violent enough for us to threaten to fry each other out. Violent enough that I used a power I’ve been forbidden to use on other Immortals…Well, if Lilith could see me now.
But I didn’t tell him that and took another sip of coffee with a shrug. “A bottle of whiskey got in our way.”
“Well, at least it’s notbooks. Maggie has been pissed since you guys fought in there. She’s been moving books around a lot.”
Yeah, if only she was just moving them.
“Maybe Arc will start moving his bottles in protest too,” I mused. “But anyway. If you miss me that much, I could come back here…But apparently, Arc and I are a package deal now.”
“Yeah, no thank you. If Carter decides he wants to join too, I’m not sure I’d survive the awkward tension.”
I bet he wouldn’t.
We stayed quiet for a few minutes, enjoying the comfortable silence. Marcus and I might have had a rocky start, but I found that he was actually really kind under the thick layer of grumpiness. It pained me that I was forced to leave right when we started to get along.
I really missed our occasional pizza nights, where I would come back late enough that Aymeric was already in bed, the girls out, and Marcus chilling in the living room. He always complained about me showing up right when he was about to order and that it left him no choice but to order one for me too.
In reality, I knew he was waiting for me to call them. He was just too proud to admit it.
“So,” I said, placing my empty cup back on the island in front of me. “How’s work? Any interesting or concerning updates?”
He shook his head, and pushed the cereal box to the side. “Not really. We haven’t lost another scout for a whole week, so that’s a good thing. Although Arc stopped sending them to search for the prison.” His voice changed slightly, sadness pulling at his face. “But I’ve heard they made a lot of progress in that direction since you brought back some documents from the cabin. Now they’re raiding other ones.”
“Yeah, I know.” I nodded.
“Maybe they’ll send another team soon.”
They probably wouldn’t. If Dimitri was successful, they wouldn’t need to send anyone there ever again unless for the potential rescue mission.
“I wish they’d send me,” he whispered, rubbing at his head with both his palms.
I tilted my head to the side in question. “Why you? Aren’t you assigned to the camp security?”
He nibbled on his bottom lip, eyes seemingly lost in front of him.
“I used to lead scouts until—well, until I lost most of my team. I feel like the new ones doing the searches lack motivation to find our missing people.”
I realized that I didn’t know much about him. Sure, I knew the quick story of how he ended up here, but he told me it was about ten years ago. What had happened since then? He did seem particularly sensitive about the disappearances and searches from the beginning. Did he lose someone like this?
“Aren’t you scared you’ll end up missing like the ones before?” I asked.
“I’m a demon. They can’t kill me. Plus, with the chips we’re all wearing, it’ll only send Arc and Carrie the location of where they’ll lock me in, if they even catch me.”
“But what if—”
I paused, replaying his sentence in my head. My brows pulled down in confusion.
“Wait, chips?Plural?”
Marcus’ eyebrow lifted up. “Well, yeah. A few months ago, Ann and Jeremiah developed a tracking chip, but they couldn’t figure out a way to keep it from dissolving because of the toxicity of our blood, so Arc said to sew them in the waistband of our pants.” He shifted back, sliding his finger over the side to show where it’s been sewed in. “It took them about another month to find a combination strong enough to resist our blood then place it under our skin.” He showed a spot on the backside of his bicep. “They didn’t bother taking off the ones they gave us before, so now we have two.”
