Page 71 of Marked

I can’t help or stop what’s coming. I turn my head from his hold and stumble against the counter, throwing up onto the mess that was already there. The few fries I managed to wolf down earlier come out half-digested and settle onto the rancid fruit. I have to brace against the tile as I upchuck another violent wave. Seth’s hand is on my back, rubbing circles along my sweatshirt, but his touch makes me vomit again.

“I was going to use that fruit,” he chides softly. “But oh well.”

“Why?” I croak, squeezing my eyes shut. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because it is my nature,” he hums.

“Disgusting.” I spit out and wipe at my mouth with the sleeve of my hoodie.

Seth’s hand slides into my hair and yanks it back again. The knife shifts in my leg, and I cry out, the pitch drowning Jack’s furious growl. “Stay back, Anubis! I’ll hack her leg off if you step any closer!” There’s a brief pause before he returns his attention to me. “You weren’t complaining when my tonic helped your cramps, were you?”

I bare my teeth at him. “Are those also made from people?”

“Some,” he admits. “Just depends on what it is.”

I take in a shaky breath through my nose. “And Taylor?”

“Right, right, I keep forgetting about her.” Seth slides his fingers through my hair as he releases it. He looks down at the knife in my leg and glances at my partner. “You should really be careful taking it out.”

I gape at him as he all but skips from the room, as if he wasn’t the one who had stuck the knife in me. As if he hadn’t warned Jack to stay away from me this entire conversation. A swell of pain and utter repulsion hit me, and it forces me to close my eyes again as I breathe heavily through my nose.

“Valkyrie.”

When I open my eyes, Jack is standing in front of me with a pained expression. “Get this thing out of my leg,” I demand through gritted teeth.

He moves to my side. “Hold onto to me.”

I do so without hesitation, all doubt and insecurities about us momentarily forgotten. When I press my face to his shoulder, he holds it there while his other hand wraps around the handle. One heartbeat passes, and then a second. When the third starts, there’s a sickening wet sound as he swiftly pulls the knife out.

I bite down on his shoulder to stifle my scream. He doesn’t move to stop me, just holds me tighter to him as he tosses the knife onto the counter. When I finally pry teeth off him, he squats down in front of me to look at the wound.

“How bad…?” I breathe, bracing my hands on his shoulders as a different pain throbs throughout my leg and across my body.

“You’ll need stitches,” Jack states before he takes off his shirt and proceeds to tear off a portion of it. He loops it around my thigh and looks up at me in warning.

“Fuck,” I curse and grip his shoulders tighter. “Okay, okay. Just…do it.” No sooner do the words leave my mouth that the fabric tightens painfully around my thigh. I stifle another scream and dig my nails into his bare skin.

Jack gives me a few seconds before he stands and gently removes my hands from him. He holds them in his own and stares down at me. “No matter what happens, I need you need to remember what I said about us.”

“What?” I breathe, squinting at him through my pain.

“Nothing was fake,” he stresses. “Everything was real. If there’s only one thing you believe from all of this, let it be that.”

My gaze finally focuses on him as I meet his eyes. “Jack?”

He presses a quick, hard kiss to my lips before stepping back, putting a wide distance between us once again. Before I can ask him anything, Seth comes back to the kitchen, all but dragging my best friend behind him.

“Taylor!” I shout and try to move towards her, but my leg twinges in pain, unable to withstand the abuse afflicted to both its thigh and calf.

“Yes, yes, your precious friend,” Seth taunts. He whirls Taylor around so that her back is to his chest.

My eyes well with tears as Taylor’s normally bright blue eyes meet mine. Both eye sockets are bruised, but one eye has a broken blood vessel, the white stained with swirling red. Her lips are chapped, the bottom one split and bleeding. Her face is pale, making the bruising along her cheekbone look almost vibrant.

“Val,” Taylor whines in a quiet, broken voice and my heart feels like it splits in two.

This is all my fault.

“Tay, I’m so sorry. I am so sorry.” The tears fall from the corner of my eyes. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

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