“Why didn’t you stop her?!”
He looks at me like I’m an idiot, jabbing a finger at the swollen lump on his forehead. “None of us were going near that crazy chick unless she was sedated, thank you very much. Not like she was on a psych hold or under arrest, so we can’t force her to stay, regardless.”
Cursing, I make a beeline for the quickest way out of the hospital, following the winding halls until coming across the first door that leads outside and shoving it open hard enough it doesn’t close right behind me. But even after searching the courtyard, circling the building twice, and scouring both parking lots for so much as a stray drop of blood she left behind, I can’t find a single trace of the woman that now holds my fate in her hands.
She’s vanished from my life so swiftly and completely, if it wasn’t for her mark on my skin, I might be able to convince myself that I’d imagined the entire thing... exactly like I’d begged. And the Fates, with their twisted sense of humor, chose now of all times to listen to my pleas.
For far too long, I stand in the middle of the parking lot, sick to my stomach, trying to convince myself that this is all a bad dream that I’ll wake up from at any moment. With a slight tremor in my hand, I withdraw my phone. The longer I wait, the farther away she gets, yet admitting it out loud will make this horrifying reality actuallyreal, and I’m not sure if that’s something any amount of time could ever prepare me for.
Kodiak answers on the second ring. “Hey, man, it’s been a while. How’ve you been?”
“How fast can you get to Starkwood?”
There’s a momentary pause. “Three or four hours? Less if you’re willing to pay any speeding tickets I might get. What’s going on?”
More rattled than I've been in centuries, I confess, “I found her, Kodi. I found her, and I lost her. And she-” yanking out my leather band, I rake a hand through my pale hair, sucking down a shaky breath as I try and fail to pull myself together. “She was in rough shape when she disappeared. I... I don’t know if she’s going to make it more than a few days if we can’t find h-”
“Hold up, what the hell are you talking about?” he demands. “Foundwho?”
“My mate. Kodi, I’ve been marked.”
Silence stretches on for several seconds before the faint sound of a bike engine firing up breaks the tense spell. “See you in an hour.”
Chapter 3
Amara
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Smile and nod. It’sa miracle they hired you at all, Amara. You can’t afford to give up a sweet gig like this. At leastpretendto focus.
I plaster a smile on my face that I don’t remotely feel, humoring the person rambling in front of me that I completely zoned out on, my head still fuzzy despite the fever finally breaking two days ago. If there’s one person in my life that I trust though, it’s myself, so I listen to that little voice in my head and act like I actually belong here.
The one good thing that came from my stint in captivity; I learned how to be alone. Pretending that the devil on my shoulder is real helps fill the silence so it’s not quite as lonely to be trapped in. Maybe I’m too old for imaginary friends, but it’s that or a trip to the loony bin, and thankfully, I’m delightful company to keep.
And therein lies the problem.
