Liam gave me what I was learning was his patient look, the one that said, I will answer all of your questions even though I think they are silly and a waste of valuable time.
Yup, I was probably going to get myself dead before the night was over, but it would be so worth it to bring the arrogant man down a peg or ten.
“Your sorcerer’s mark is still there,” he assured me. “I just supplemented it with another mark.”
“Explain,” I barked.
“You now have two equal claims on you. One is the sorcerer’s and the other is mine.”
“I thought I had to give consent in order to have a claim laid on me.”
After what had happened with the sorcerer and my accidental mark, I had gone and asked a lot of people questions in order to have a better understanding of these marks and what they meant. Everyone had said the same thing. A mark could only be placed with your consent.
“That is the usual method, yes.”
“I know I didn’t give you consent. How did you do this? On second thought, I don’t care. Take it off.”
Liam’s jaw moved. I knew his answer before he said it.
“No. You wanted to do this solo; this is the price. I’ll know if you’re in danger. It’ll also let me track where you are.”
“I’ve changed my mind,” I declared. “Nathan can do all the legwork.”
He gave a negligent shrug. “Too late. The mark can’t be removed.”
“Bullshit, otherwise you’d all be walking around with half a dozen marks.”
I didn’t believe his excuse for a minute.
“Nathan,” Liam said.
Nathan turned in his seat and pulled up his sleeve, showing a green and blue tattoo of an oak tree, similar to mine but in much greater detail. It looked similar to other tattoos I’d seen done that had a Celtic origin.
“Liam is my sire. His mark is the only one I’ve ever worn. I’ll wear this until I am strong enough to remove it myself.”
Staring at that mark, so similar to a tattoo, I felt my life slipping from my control. It was a feeling I didn’t like and one I had not felt since the night I woke up sporting a brand new set of fangs.
I might have a mark, but that didn’t mean anything. That’s right. It didn’t change anything. I was still master of my own destiny. I was still the one calling the shots when it pertained to my own life.
My homicidal urges started to fade. As they did, something occurred to me.
“You planned this,” I accused Liam.
He lifted an eyebrow as if to say ‘so what if I did.’
“It occurred to me that this step might be necessary if you decided to be as stubborn as you have been in the past.”
I gritted my teeth against words I wanted to say. Words that might back me into a corner I would have trouble getting out of.
I started to say something several times. Each time thinking better of it before uttering the words.
I took a deep breath. Then another.
“This is not ok. Not by any stretch of the imagination.”
“You’ll feel differently if it ends up saving your life.”
Not bloody likely. He’d essentially micro chipped me like I was a damn dog that might get lost.
