Marked (20 page)

“
A cheeseburger sounds
good.”

“
Cheeseburgers it is then,” she
insisted.

We didn’t speak again the rest of the ride home. I
was busy fighting off the remnants of my headache and mom looked
off in her own little world of thought. Dad was already home when
we pulled up.

“
Ah, burgers! My kind of meal!” He
beamed when he saw us walk in. “How did the appointment
go?”

“
Fine,” I said.

“
She’s healing well. We just have
to keep it clean and use the antibiotic cream they gave us at the
hospital,” mom said, passing out the burgers and fries.

Dinner was odd. My ears started messing up again,
causing my hearing to fluctuate between being muted and
hypersensitive.

“
What’s the matter?” dad said when
I didn’t reply to one of his questions.

“
It’s just my ears; they’re really
messed up right now,” I said.

Mom glared at me with a worried look that was
bordering on fear. “But Dr. Keller checked your ears, honey, he
said everything looked good.”

“
I know.” I nodded. “I’m not sure
what’s the matter.”

“
Maybe it was from your fall. You
could have a giant ball of wax lodged in there and Dr. Keller could
have been too busy checking out your beautiful mother to notice
it.” Dad grinned.

“
I doubt that,” mom said with a
slight smile, her worried eyes never leaving me.

I finished the last few bites of my cheeseburger
just before my headache came back with full force. I popped two
Tylenol and sprawled out on the couch with the TV volume down low.
At 9:45, I was ready for bed.

After brushing my teeth, I crawled into bed and
glanced out my window at the star-speckled sky, wondering why Jace
had never called or texted me back. I’d drifted off into that place
of sleep where you’re asleep but not, and heard a light tapping
across the glass of my window. Startled, I jolted awake and my
heart soared at the probability of whom it was—
Jace
.

I pushed my window open as silently as I could. Jace
stood before me, his face drawn in anguish.

“
Hey,” I said, staring at him
through the textured black lines of my screen. His warm eyes
melted, but he didn’t speak. Something was wrong and my heart began
to pound at the realization of it. “What’s the matter?”

“
I’m sorry.” He
breathed.

I shook my head, not understanding what he was
apologizing for. “For what?”

“
Everything… that’s why I’m here,
to explain,” he said, shifting his eyes to his shoes.

Panicked thoughts circled through my mind before I
settled on one in particular—the cryptic card he’d sent me. I
swallowed hard, hoping he wasn’t about to tell me he was leaving
town now. Had his family and Shelby gotten to him while I’d been
out of commission? “Then explain.”

“
You’re not afraid of me?” he
asked, his eyebrows drawing together in confusion.

A cool breeze wisped through the open window, making
me shiver, and I wrapped my arms around myself for warmth. “Why
would I be?”

“
Because of what I am, because of
what I’ve done. I thought you had figured it all out—the look in
your eyes, it was like you recognized me… even in my other
form.”

Goosebumps prickled across my skin. “In your other
form?” I questioned, hoping I’d merely heard him wrong due to my
screwed up hearing, but I didn’t think I had.

“
I bit you, Tessa,” Jace muttered,
shifting his gaze away from mine. “I am the wolf.”

My heart dropped to my stomach. He was joking; he
had to be. I stared fixedly at him, memorizing each curve of his
face and searching my mind for the name of his emotion. And then it
finally came to me—ashamed. Jace was ashamed.

The word werewolf spun through my mind and I
struggled to remember any of the werewolf lore I’d heard from TV
and books. The only things I could think of were sharp teeth,
speed, and a full moon.

“
I need you to know that I have
never wanted to take away someone’s pain as strongly as I did that
night,” he whispered without looking at me.

My heart pounded. Jace had
bitten
me and he
was a
werewolf
. The thought sent me into a dizzying panic.
Until another thought drowned me in fear—a fear so strong I could
hardly breathe—was I going to become a werewolf now, too?

“
Please don’t be afraid of me,” he
pleaded, his amber-colored eyes finally meeting mine. “I didn’t
want to hurt you. Trust me, Tessa… a part of me died watching you
lay there, knowing that I was the reason for all of your
pain.”

“
Then why did you do it?” I heard
myself ask, shocked I was even able to speak.

Desperation entered Jace’s eyes, the eyes that
instantly remind me of the wolf’s eyes. I remembered how human they
had looked and how soul-grippingly sorry they had seemed.

“
Because it was the only way. If
there had been a less painful way to turn you, I would have used
it, but there wasn’t.”

“
To
turn
me?” Anger and fear
mixed within my system, making me feel more nauseated by the
second. “And what if I didn’t
want
to become a monster like
you?” The words flew from my mouth like a spark bursting from an
open flame. Utterly unstoppable.

Shame softened his features. “I can understand why
you would think that—that I’m a monster—but there are things that
you don’t know, things I need to explain.” He paused as though
searching for the right words to continue on with. “I didn’t turn
you into a monster, if you want to get technical about it; you were
halfway there even before you met me.”

“
What the hell are you talking
about?” I whispered, raising my voice an octave.

“
It’s in your blood, Tessa; it has
been since you were born. That’s what your paw print birthmark
means… you’ve always been marked for change.”

A lump rose in my throat. “I don’t understand.”

Jace let out a deep breath and stepped closer toward
my window. “There are only two kinds of werewolves—ones that are
born from two werewolf parents and ones who have been marked for
change and then bitten. Children born from one human parent and one
werewolf parent are the ones born marked for change. Each is born
with a telltale birthmark, a birthmark in the shape of a tiny paw
print someplace on their bodies. If they should ever become bitten
by a full werewolf on the full moon during the month of their
eighteenth birthday… then they too shall become a werewolf.”

Even though Jace spoke soft and slowly like he was
speaking to a small child, I still found his words hard to follow,
but only because one thing he’d said didn’t apply to me. “But,
neither of my parents are werewolves.”

“
I know,” he said, his eyes meeting
mine and filling with concern. “I don’t think they’re
both
your biological parents.”

I laughed. “What are you talking about? Of course
they are!”

Jace put his hands up in front of himself as though
he were dealing with a crazy person. “Listen to me. I hate that
you’re finding out something so devastating this way, but it’s
true. I’m positive that your father isn’t your biological
father.”

Tears pooled in my eyes. “How can you possibly know
that? Why on Earth would you even
say
something like
that?”

Jace placed his hands against the screen of my
window. “Tessa, your father was a werewolf,” he said seriously,
ignoring my question completely.

His words took my breath away and fueled the anger
slipping through my veins. “Why? If this is all true, then why tell
me… why
bite
me… why couldn’t you just let me go on living
my normal life?” I cried.

“
Because from the first moment I
laid eyes on you, you were all that I could think of. I felt an
intense connection with you, but I couldn’t figure out why—not
until I saw your birthmark.” He moved his hands away from the
screen and crammed them into the front pockets of his jeans.
Looking me directly in the eyes, his lips twisted into the shy
little half smile I’d come to love. “Have you ever felt so lost
inside, like you don’t know yourself and you’re not sure if you
ever will? That’s how I felt every day… but that feeling went away
the day I first saw you. It was like something inside of me sparked
to life and I knew if I were to ever let you go that little spark
would die out again.”

Tears flowed from my eyes, but I felt my anger
beginning to melt away.

“
As scary as I know this might all
seem to you right now, you can’t deny that you feel something
similar for me. Ask yourself truthfully, Tessa, haven’t you always
felt like there was something different about you, something you
could never put your finger on? It was the werewolf inside of you;
that’s what makes you different.”

He was right. I’d known my whole life that something
about me was different from everyone else, but wasn’t that normal?
Didn’t everyone, especially teenagers, feel that way at some point
during their lives?

“
I know you don’t believe me right
now, but I saw the way you looked at me that night… right into my
eyes. You knew it was me. Didn’t you?” he asked.

Yes
, I answered in my head… but aloud I said:
“Leave.”

“
I will when I’ve told you all I
came to say,” he whispered and then took in a deep breath, like
whatever else he was about to say was more nerve-racking than the
first part. “My father is the Pack Leader and I’m his first born
son, well only child actually, so it’s my responsibility to take
over when the time comes. That time is now, the Wolf Moon of my
twenty-first year. In order for me to do this, I have to choose a
mate for myself… and I’ve chosen you.”

My heart lurched in my chest. I wanted to slap him.
I wanted to scream. I wanted him to shut his mouth and get away
from me. How could he do this to me? If all of this was true, which
I was having a hard time seeing how any of it could be, then not
only had I been sentenced to a life as a monster… but also to a
life
with
one because he’d
chosen
me.

Jace reached up and plucked the screen from in my
window just like all the times before. I stood there, feeling numb
by all the crazy information I’d just been given from this guy whom
I’d thought yesterday was sane.

“
I’m so sorry, Tessa,” Jace said,
gripping my cold, shaking hands in his.

The heat from his touch enveloped my hands like a
warm blanket. I blinked and more tears fell from my eyes.

“
Say something, please,” he begged,
his thumb gently caressing my hand.

I swallowed hard. “I don’t know what to say… I don’t
know what to think. How is any of this even possible?”

“
I know you have your doubts right
now, but all you really have to do is think about how you’ve been
feeling these last few days to know that what I’m saying is
real.”

How I’d been feeling—the sickness, the appetite for
meat, my clearer eyesight, the strange hearing issues—maybe it
wasn’t a common sickness after all or a ball of wax blocking up my
ears.

“
How could you do this to me? Why
didn’t you give me a choice?” I asked again, my voice cracking with
emotion.

Jace’s eyes became hard. “Would you have believed
me? Would you have even chosen to be with me, then?”

“
You’re so incredibly selfish,” I
whispered. I’d liked him, loved him, and he’d taken my life from me
and turned me into a monster just like him. “Leave, now!” I jerked
my hands from his and started to close the window.

“
I love you, Tessa,” he said, his
voice caught somewhere between a whisper and a sob.

My heart tore into pieces. It was the first time
he’d ever told me he loved me. I believed him, but I was too angry
and upset to say anything back. I closed the window and scurried
back toward my bed, my legs barely able to hold me up any
longer.

My entire life had just come crashing down around me
with that one conversation. I drew up the covers around my neck,
feeling like a lost and frightened little girl and cried myself to
sleep.

“
Hey! Oh, how are you feeling?”
Rachel asked, running to catch up to me in the hall.

I hadn’t even made it to first period yet and
already nine people had asked me a page full of questions about the
attack and how I was feeling. Rumors had gone wild. Some people
were even surprised to see me walking with two legs. Apparently in
one false rumor, I’d lost a leg.

“
I’m fine,” I said, hoping I hadn’t
sounded as annoyed as I felt.

“
So, everything is healing up okay?
I never got a chance to call you last night after work.”

I spun the dial to my locker, entering my
combination. “Everything went good.”

Rachel leaned against the locker beside mine. “Okay,
then what’s your deal? Are you mad at me or something? You sound
really aggravated.”

I switched out my books, only keeping the one I
would need for first period and my binder. My arms felt stiff and
sore today just like the rest of me. I felt like my muscles were so
tight that if I bent the wrong way something might rip.

A few lockers down the hall a couple arguing about
an incident from the night before caught my attention. The jealous
boyfriend slammed his fist against a locker and I jumped as though
it were right beside me. In fact, I could hear their every word. It
was like I was standing directly beside them, but I wasn’t. I was
at the opposite end of the hall. What was wrong with me?