Page 19 of Blood from the Marrow
Marisol traced Elena’s navel with her fingertips, relishing her soft skin. She reached over to circle Zuri’s wrist. To run her thumb over the hands that cherished her and held her close. That made her feel safe.
Her scalp and fingertips were still buzzing with the effects of Elena’s bite when she opened her mouth and spewed the secret she’d been keeping. “I met my mother,” she said quietly into the dark room.
In an instant, Elena turned to face her and Zuri sat straight up.
“What do you mean?” Zuri’s hackles were high like Marisol had said there were intruders at the gate.
“The day I went to the park?—”
“I knew it. I knew something was wrong,” Zuri said before forcing herself to stop talking.
“What happened?” Elena asked so gently, it was obvious that drinking from her had intensified something for both of them. “What did she want? Where has she been?”
“Why the fuck did she?—”
Elena glanced back at Zuri and silently told her to give Marisol a chance to speak. Nostrils flaring, Zuri’s jaw flexed from the force of making herself quiet.
Eyes closed and head on her pillow, Marisol regurgitated the experience she’d been reliving in her head on repeat. When she finished, Zuri was pacing the bedroom and Elena had sat up to put her arm around her.
“And she believes you’re being hunted? By whom?” Elena’s body was tense, but she was obviously trying to hide her concern.
“How can you even believe anything she fucking says?” Zuri snapped. “She could be some kind of plant… or a spy.” She focused on Elena. “Maybe that Baylor fuck wasn’t alone like you thought, and?—”
“Babe,” Elena interrupted with the measured voice of someone used to being in charge. “Think about that leap. They’d have to not only know about Marisol?—”
“Which they did know about because that fucker saw her in the hospital.” Zuri stopped at the foot of the bed and crossed her arms over her bare chest.
“Okay, but then they’d have to have found her birth mother, convinced her to?—”
“I know, okay?” Zuri waved Elena away and sat on the edge of the bed next to Marisol. “I know. It’s just that this doesn’t make any sense.”
“Could she be telling the truth?” Marisol ran her thumb over the button on the duvet. “About being in hiding and all that?”
Zuri’s gaze cut to Elena.
“There’s so much we don’t know,” Elena said, like the admission was painful.
“We don’t know anything,” Zuri corrected. “We don’t know any fucking thing.”
Elena’s nod was grim. “We should learn what Clara knows. We need to know who to protect you from, at the very least.” She reached for her phone on the nightstand behind her. “I’ll tell Librada?—”
“No, I don’t want to scare her,” Marisol said, surprising herself. “I mean, maybe she’ll take off if she thinks vampires are after her or something.”
“I sure as hell would run if a red-eyed automaton with claws for nails showed up at my door,” Zuri muttered.
Marisol couldn’t help the stress chuckle that rumbled in her throat. With a sigh, she unclenched her muscles. “She did look legitimately afraid of something.”
Zuri grabbed her hand. “Absolutely no one is going to touch a hair on your head, you hear me?” She squeezed her tighter. “Elena isn’t the only one who’ll tear out a fucking throat.”
“You’re safe with us,” Elena echoed even though Marisol didn’t have a doubt about that.
“What if she’s telling the truth about everything? About why she left?” Marisol hated how much she hoped it was true. “What if there are others like me?”
“We’re going to find out, babe.” Zuri ran her thumb over the back of her hand.
“Let’s leave tonight,” Elena said.
Marisol didn’t let her roll away. Instead, she pulled them both closer to her. “No. I don’t want anyone to think something is wrong. There’s just one more night. Let’s just stay as planned,” she said instead of the weaker thought:I’m afraid to find out she’s lying.
