Marked (17 page)

I’m back at my birthday party, only this time I’m
dancing with Sam. His arms are wrapped around my waist and I have
my head tucked up underneath his chin. It is a slow song and I’m
glad. We dance in slow, small circles and my eyes take in the crowd
around us. I smile at Rachel and Kyle, who are slow dancing beside
us. Then my eyes find Jace, leaning against a back wall, staring at
me intently.

Panic trickles through me and my heart begin to
race. There is something fierce in his gaze. He saunters through
the crowd, coming directly toward me. My body tenses and I pull
myself away from Sam.

“
What’s the matter?” Sam
whispers.

“
I shouldn’t be dancing with
you.”

When Jace is nearly two steps away from me, his
face begins to morph into the face of a wolf. Every
fiber
of my being tells me to run. I listen. I bolt past
him and out the open apartment door without looking behind me. As I
make my way down the steps, which lead to the parking lot, a loud
growl sounds from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder for a split
second, I see Jace has now completely transformed into a
wolf.

Darting across the darkened parking lot I get
nowhere. It seems to stretch on forever. In no time Jace catches up
to me, his hot breath panting across the back of my neck. Fear
completely consumes me.

Jace tackles me from behind, sending me down to the
pavement, hard. I scream, but the weight of him muffles it. In an
instant, moving so quickly it’s a blur, Jace bites down on my
shoulder. A shooting pain radiates from the bite mark and through
my body. I cry out, but no one hears me.

I woke to Rachel gently shaking me. Sitting straight
up in bed, I wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead and
struggled to catch my breath.

“
What the hell was that?” Rachel
asked, sitting up in bed beside me.

“
A nightmare.” I panted.

“
Yeah, I’d say.”

“
Sorry.” I breathed.

Rachel lay back down and I realized for the first
time that it was still dark out. Flopping back down against my damp
pillow, I lay there, staring at the ceiling and trying to slow the
rapid beating of my heart. Even though I was quickly able to
disregard the ridiculous nightmare mentally, the fear and
adrenaline that came with it were still present in my system.

Listening to the sound of Rachel’s shallow
breathing, I watched the sunrise, unable to fall back asleep.

* * *

I rode to school with Rachel the next morning. It
didn’t take long for me to realize Jace—my new barbaric
boyfriend—Sam, and myself were the talk of the school. What sucked
was that I was the only one present for everyone to give sideways
glances and stare at. Sam wasn’t there.

I noticed this when I walked into chemistry class
and sat in front of an empty desk. Chewing my bottom lip and
bouncing my leg, I watched the door, waiting for Darcy. I had to
ask her how Sam was doing. She walked through the door, just before
the bell, in a pair of high-heeled boots, jeans, and a tight
sweater.

“
Darcy, I uh… was wondering how Sam
was,” I said, fumbling my words.

She sat in her desk before glaring at me with cold,
blue eyes. “He’s fine, no thanks to you or that muscle-head
boyfriend of yours,” she snapped.

“
Right, thanks.” I shifted back
toward the front of the room, little bubbles of relief bursting in
my mind. At least he wasn’t laid up in the hospital or
something.

When school let out at 3:05, I walked to the parking
lot and spotted Jace leaning against Rachel’s red jeep. My stomach
knotted up into a ball of nerves. I had no idea what to say to him.
Or what he would say to me.

“
What are you doing here?” I
asked.

Jace shrugged. “Thought I’d come to apologize in
person.” His warm eyes met mine and I couldn’t look away.

“
Oh,” I muttered.

“
I’m really sorry, Tessa. You
should have never seen me like that.”

“
I get that you’re sorry,” I said,
holding his gaze, not knowing where I was going with this. “I guess
I just can’t believe how badly you went off.”

“
I know, I ruined your
birthday,”

“
It’s not even about my birthday;
it’s more about the fact that you beat the crap out of Sam for no
good reason,” I insisted.

“
He was being disrespectful.
Honestly, Tessa, did you never once see this coming?” Jace replied,
that wild gleam sparking to life in his eyes once more.

“
Red flags are popping up in my
mind,” I said, my hands waving wildly.

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
If you think what you did to Sam
was justified because he was being disrespectful, then how do I
know you wouldn’t do the same to me for some other bogus reason.”
The words, laced with fear, flew from my lips. I never wanted to
think of Jace as being capable of doing such a thing to me, but
after that, how could I not?

Jace’s expression grew more intense. “I would
never.”

“
Hi, guys. Bad timing?” Rachel
asked, walking up.

“
No,” I answered, my eyes never
leaving Jace’s. “We’re done here.” I brushed past Jace and slid
into the passenger seat.

“
Okay,” I heard Rachel
mutter.

Jace didn’t speak, he just started walking away. I
stared at his back as Rachel slowly pulled out of our parking
space. Nausea rippled through me and tears pricked my eyes.

“
You know, Sam really did have it
coming,” Rachel said.

Pursing my lips together, I glanced at her. “How
could you say that? He could have really been hurt.”

“
Why do you even care so much? Sam
was an ass and Jace freaking called him on it,” Rachel insisted.
“I’d love it if a guy would stand up for me like that.”

“
I don’t know. There’s just
something about the entire situation that bothers me,” I muttered
and then stared out the window.

Rachael turned up the volume on the radio to cancel
out the deafening silence due to our lack of conversation. My mind
rolled around ideas as to why Jace beating up Sam bothered me so
much. I kept coming back to the same reason, seeing him fly off the
handle like that had scared me. Did Jace have a bad temper and I
was just now witnessing it?

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot of the
diner, my cell phone buzzed in my coat pocket. It was Jace.

I could never hurt you like that, Tessa. Please
believe me. For what it’s worth, I care too much for you to ever
abuse you in any way.

I stared at his words, rereading them again and
again, wondering how I should respond.

I care a lot for you, too. ~ Tessa

I’m so sorry. Forgive me?

I’ll try. ~ Tessa

My heart pounded. I wasn’t sure this was the correct
way to end this argument, but I didn’t want to lose Jace simply
because he had stuck up for me.

“
Was that Jace?” Rachel asked,
gathering her uniform from the backseat.

“
Yeah.”

“
And?” she prompted.

“
He’s really sorry,” I said,
grabbing my duffle bag.

“
Good. So now let’s talk about
Katie Taylor’s Halloween party on Saturday night. What are you
going as?”

That was one thing I loved about Rachel, how she was
so quick to move on.

“
I have no idea,” I said, stepping
into the diner behind her. “You?”

“
I’ll know it when I see it.” She
smirked. “We’d better go after school tomorrow and get something
though.”

“
Sounds like a plan,” I muttered,
my mind jumping to thoughts of Jace. Maybe a Halloween party was
just what we needed to break the ice between us.

I met Rachel at our local Wal-Mart after school the
next day to pick out Halloween costumes.

“
Are you serious, Christmas
decorations already?” Rachel ranted as we scoured what was left of
the Halloween section—all of one long shelf. “There’s like five
costumes here… and they’re not even cute!”

“
They’re not that bad… look at this
one, it’s cute.” I held up a white southern bell costume complete
with a big gaudy hat and snickered.

“
Ew, no thank you.” Rachel wrinkled
her nose. “Here, why don’t you be Alice from ‘Alice in
Wonderland’?”

I shook my head. “No, I think I might just go as a
black cat,” I said, reaching for a seven-dollar combo pack with a
tail and headband with ears.

“
Seriously? That’s lame.” She
handed me a pair of black feather wings. “Let’s go as dark
angels.”

“
The wings are pretty, but what
else would we wear with them?”

“
Oh, here… we’ll go as light and
dark angels.” She took the black wings from me and handed me a set
of white.

“
I don’t know,” I said, scanning
the tiny section for something else. Matching costumes weren’t
really my thing. “I think I like the cat idea.”

“
Fine, but you have to wear my
black leather pants,” Rachel said, raising an eyebrow.

“
I’m going as a black cat, not Cat
Woman.”

“
Cat Woman was sexy! You’ve got to
wear them… they’ll look great on you!” she insisted. “I’ll even let
you borrow my stiletto heeled black boots.”

“
You mean your hooker boots.” I
grinned.

“
Those are the ones,” Rachel said,
my words not phasing her. “Halloween is a time when you’re allowed
to dress sexy without everyone calling you a slut.”

“
Oh, people can still call you a
slut,” I corrected.

“
Only the jealous ones.” She
winked. “What do you think of this little tutu—black or
silver?”

“
Go for the silver,” I said,
heading to the end cap of the aisle in search of some face paint
for my whiskers.

Sam stood in the next aisle.

I froze and stared at him while he riffled through
the remaining bags of Halloween candy, oblivious to me. His profile
was all I could see, but I could tell his face was swollen and he
had a black eye. I bit the inside of my cheek and wondered if I
should say, “Hi.”

I didn’t have to wonder for long because he grabbed
up two bags of candy and started in my direction. My heart dropped
to my stomach when I saw the rest of his face and I swore his nose
was broken.

“
Hey,” he said without
smiling.

“
Hi, how are you?” I
muttered.

“
Well, obviously I’ve been better.”
He gestured to his face.

My face reddened. “Yeah, I can tell.”

Sam glanced at the cat ears and tail I was holding.
“What are you going to be tonight?”

“
A cat. You’re going to the party,
too?” I asked, dumbfounded he would be out letting everyone see his
face. I’d be hiding inside behind a closed door until my face fully
healed if I were him.

“
Yeah, my costume is going to rock.
I’m going as a World Champion Boxer. I don’t know who I should
thank more, you or your boyfriend, for how realistic my costume
will be.” He walked past me, bumping me with his side, without
another word.

I stood there, staring into the empty aisle,
speechless.

“
What was that all about?” Rachel
asked from behind me.

I spun to face her. “Nothing, are you ready
yet?”

We left Wal-Mart, each with our own bag of costume
attire, and headed to Rachel’s house for my leather pants and
stiletto-heeled boots.

Rachel lived with her mom in a small, two-bedroom
house. Her parents had divorced when she was eleven and since then,
Rachel had been bounced back and forth between the two. Now that
she was older, she’d cut out the majority of visits to her father’s
house because she hated his new wife—a woman who was in her late
twenties, nearly ten years younger than her father.

“
I’m home,” Rachel shouted as we
stepped through the front door.

“
Hey, honey. I wasn’t sure if you
were going to be home in time before I had to leave for work,” Ms.
Sweeney said. “Tessa, how have you been?”

“
Fine, thank you, Ms. Sweeney,” I
said with a smile.

Ms. Sweeney pulled her scrub shirt over her thermal
top. “What are you girls getting into tonight?”

“
There’s actually a Halloween party
at Katie Taylor’s tonight,” Rachel said.

“
Oh, well, you girls, be careful.
No drinking and driving, home by eleven—I’ll be calling the house
phone to check—and no boys over,” Ms. Sweeney said while putting on
her jacket. “I’ve got to head to the hospital; my shift starts in
twenty. By the way, how do I look in my new scrubs?”

“
Hot. You’ll be the hottest nurse
there,” Rachel replied.

“
Oh yeah,” I said. “You look
great.”

“
Thanks, see you, girls,” Ms.
Sweeney said, stepping outside into the cool afternoon
air.

“
All right, let’s get you those
smokin’ leather pants!” Rachel grinned and I followed her to her
room. “Is Jace going to pick you up from here or do you wanna ride
with Kyle and me?”

“
I’m not sure. I’ve sent him a few
texts today but he’s never said anything back.”

“
Send him another,” she insisted
while flinging jeans and sweaters from her closet floor onto her
bed.