Seventh Mark (Part 1 +2) (17 page)

Seth answered before I
managed to remind myself to breathe. “Wrong again,
Tat. With Grollic blood, she wouldn’t want to be here.” He glanced
at my neck. “And, she couldn’t wear a Siorgha without excruciating
pain.”

If looks could kill,
Tatiana would’ve just put me six feet under.

“
I don’t know why I can read
it.” I pointed to the book. “I found it this
September and only started looking at it this week. Michael’s
helping me sort it out. See if I can figure out how to read the
rest.” I moved my hand from underneath Seth's and put it in
Michael's. I wanted both of them to know who my alliance was
with.

“
S
omething’s
not right.” Tatiana pursed her lips tight together for a moment.
“No mere human picks up a book like this by chance. Nor should she
be able to read it.” The girl was determined to make her
point.

Surprisingly
,
Caleb spoke. “Michael trusts her, and that is enough. I have not
asked you here to question the girl, but to find the Grollics. Your
job is to scout. If you can’t do that, then you are not
needed.”

Wow, the big guy came to my
defense
?
Maybe Caleb wasn’t so bad after
all.
Maybe
. He looked pretty
pissed staring at me down the bridge of his long nose.

“
I always enjoy you boldness, Caleb,” Seth said.
“It’s no problem. We are simply covering all bases. One would hate
to be blindsided by love.” He winked at Michael.

Michael
seemed
ready to pounce.

“
Gorgeous,” Seth said to Grace, “would you care
to show me around the area and fill me in on where you think
monsters may be? Caleb, I believe we’ve concluded the personal
business we needed to discuss today?”

Caleb gave a curt nod and walked to his office,
closing the door. Grace and Seth headed towards the front door,
chatting quietly.

Michael squeezed my hand. “I just need to talk to
Seth a moment. I’ll be right back.”

I
nodded, picked
up the Grollic book, and headed to the kitchen’s back
door.

Tatiana followed
, but I ignored her. She wanted to try and intimidate me,
which annoyed me.

“
Is there something you want to say?” I tried
unsuccessfully to keep the anger out of my voice.

“
Words cannot explain what I think of you,” she
hissed.

“
Sorry to hear you feel that way. It
wou—”

“
I’m not finished!” She stepped closer, her hands
on her hips. “You do
not
belong here, or with
this Coven! I don’t know what Michael is thinking, but believe
me,
you won’t last! You’re a
danger to everyone around you. You are nothing.
”

L
ast freakin’ straw
. I’d moved across country, then got kicked out. I’d finally
found the closest thing I’ve ever had to a family and this… this
stupid girl wants to take it away. Over my dead body. “You know
nothing about me, or my relationship with Michael. This is not your
place to judge, so
back off!"

“
Are you challenging me?” Her eyes turned a
darker blue, making the faint line between pupil and iris
impossible to see.

“
How dense do you think I am?” I scoffed. “You
think I don’t know I stand no chance against you? You don’t like
me, fine. However, you're going to piss off a lot of people in this
house if you do anything to me. I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes
at this moment.” I grabbed the back door handle, cold air blasting
across my face. “You may have the power but I control
it.”

We stood silent, staring at each other, the antique
clock hanging on the wall chimed the quarter to warning. Tatiana’s
eyes faded to a lighter shade of blue. I had no idea what she
thought I meant by the last line I’d just said. I wanted to say she
had strength and ability on her side but I had the power to tell
Michel or Caleb and get her booted out. I was pretty sure that
would happen if I had a legit complaint.

I sighed. Maybe we could find some common ground.
“I'm not asking you to like me, but if there is something I can do
– even if it's insignificant – I’m going to help
Michael.”

She spun around and stalked to the back door,
slamming it just as Michael walked into the kitchen.

“
Where’s the fire?” Michael watched her go, then
looked at me. “Everything alright?”

“
Just peachy
.”

He came over and hugged me.
“Tat’s just jealous–everyone likes you, even Caleb
and Seth.”

“
I think Seth likes any, and every,
chick.”

“
True. He does have a way with the
ladies.”

“
Tatiana’s one angry female. Who put the burr
under her saddle?”

Michael laughed.
“She did that all on her own. She can be difficult, but she’s
good for Seth. She keeps him in line. Her problem now is that she
sees you as an obstacle. She doesn’t like humans – particularly
pretty girls who apparently have the head Coven wrapped around her
finger.”

More snow fell
during the night, which made the drive to school in Grace’s
Smartcar an adventure. We got stuck five minutes from school.

Grace, or any
other of the Knightlys, failed to mention their unbelievable
strength. I guess I kind of assumed they were strong, but to sit in
the car and watch skinny Grace lean back into the snow bank and
push the bumper with her legs till pulled free, only made me snort
in disbelief.

Thank goodness
no one was around to see. We arrived twenty minutes late, not only
because of the car ride but also Michael’s verbal concern about
letting Grace go to school without protection. He kept mumbling
about a gut feeling that had something to do with both him and his
sister.

Half the buses
hadn’t arrived yet so our lateness didn’t cause any eyebrow rising.
Simon stood leaning on my locker.

“Hey girlie-
girls!” He grinned. “Crazzzeee snow, ‘eh?”

“The snow’s
playing havoc with my little car!” Grace pretended to whine,
nudging me.

I tried hiding
a smile, but the corners of my mouth kept twitching. “The snow’s
awesome. It brings out the superhero in all of us.” I glance at
Grace from the corner of my eye. It felt good to tease her and
relax. Grace burst out laughing.

Simon rolled
his eyes, obviously not getting our joke. “I think you two have
been snorting the white stuff outside.”

“The s-snow?”
Another fit, Grace and I were beside ourselves.

Grace
straightened and took a long breath. “Back when I was a kid, we
used to have the best snow storms. Michael and I used to have
snowball fights that were crazy.” She stopped smiling and a look of
sadness crossed her face.

Simon’s poked
her shoulder oblivious to change of her mood. “We should have a
snowball fight at lunch in the courtyard!”

Grace perked
up. “I’d kick your butt!”

“You… and whose
army?”

She did a mock
bow. “Challenge accepted. You. Me. Lunch. Outside.”

“I’ll go easy
on you.”

Grace pulled my
arm to drag me towards our first class. “You’re toast,” she teased
over her shoulder.

“Remember,
there can only be one!” Simon hollered, his pointer finger sticking
above the crowd of students going the opposite direction.

“I hope you go
easy on him,” I whispered as we walked into the classroom. “If
someone no—”

“Sweetie,”
Grace teased. “I know how to play the game.”

The morning
flew, with no Damon making an appearance. Grace stood waiting by
our lockers at the lunch buzzer. She already had her coat on,
twirling her scarf around her arm and unwrapping it, only to twirl
it again.

“Hurry. I need
to find the best spot in the courtyard before Simon!”

“I’m not going
outside, I don’t have boots.”

“Don’t worry,
I’ll clear a little area for you to stand. We’ll need a
referee.”

“Dream on!
That’ll just make me the perfect target.”

Simon popped
his head around the corner, a tuke pulled tight over his ears. “Are
you stallin’?”

“No way.”

“We’d better
set some ground rules before we head out.”

“You scared you
might get hurt?” Grace grinned and slammed her locker.

“Only thinking
of you, sunshine.”

“After our
water balloon fight last summer, I think it’s you who should be
worrying.”

“Guys!” I
interrupted, laughing. “I’ll watch from inside the cafeteria. I’ve
no intention of being anywhere near either of you.”

They raced out
the door as I walked to the cafeteria. I bought lunch and set my
tray down by one of the windows facing the courtyard. Simon and
Grace had already taken spots behind two overturned picnic tables
and were hurling snowballs at lightning speed toward each other.
You could hear their laughter through the windows.

“Sitting alone?
Found out your friends aren’t really trustworthy?”

I froze at the
sound of Damon’s voice.
Play it cool. He has no idea I
know.

“Who’re the
brainless idiots outside?”

My heart
thundering loud enough to shake the walls, I kept my eyes on those
figures outside. He sat down a few spaces beside me. Out of the
corner of my eye, I shot a glance his way and almost choked on my
soup from the amount of food on his tray – enough to feed a small
nation.

“H-Hungry?” I
had to say something since I now couldn’t stop staring.

“– and you’re
still alive to eat,” he retorted.

“If you call
what the cafeteria serves food, then I guess I can.” Pretending to
joke, instead of following the urge to get up and walk way, was
harder than I thought.

He set his fork
down and turned to face me. “I heard you broke up with your
boyfriend.”

What? I almost
opened my mouth to argue and realized he had no idea of what had
happened over the Christmas holidays. “It’s none of your
business.”

“Whatever.
You’re better off.” He turned back to his food and stared out the
window. “Oye! Simon just got nailed in the face! Who's he fighting?
Ryan?” He’d scarfed down a plate of some kind of noodle in tomato
sauce, the red reminding of a snarl against his lips.

“No…Grace.”

“She’s still
here? Crap! Simon's going to get smoked.” He grimaced and pushed
his tray away like the food.

Play it
cool. Act like you don’t know anything
. “He’s being way too
easy on her.”

“So now you’re
the expert.” Damon turned to glare at me, apparently no longer
interested in the snowball match. He picked a sandwich off his
plate and started chewing again.

Like a twig
being snapped, I couldn’t take it anymore.
Grollic or not, the
guy’s an ass.
“What’s your problem? I get it that you don’t
like Grace – she turned you down a while back – but don’t you think
you should just get over it? Leave her, and me, alone.” I held my
breath.
Where the heck that’d come from?

His eyes
narrowed to slits and some massive vein started throbbing in his
neck. “You really that stupid? Do you not see what is right in
front of your eyes?”

“I know exactly
what’s in front of me right now.” Why couldn’t I just keep my mouth
shut? You’d think with all the feet I’d stuffed inside of it, I’d
know better.

Damon just
shook his head and took a long drink. “What in the world would you
want with them?”

What had I
done? What would—

“—If you're
that stupid, maybe you should stay with them.” He interrupted my
train of thought and started on another plate of food.

“Who are you to
judge?” Screw him. I had some serious power-people to back me up.
My boyfriend can kick your sorry, hairy Grollic ass
.

“You're
completely clueless. It’s people like you who make the human race
look bad.”

“The human
race? I guess that doesn’t include you.”
Oh crap. Too far,
Rouge, too far.

His head
whipped around so fast I thought he’d break his own neck.

A shiver ran
down my spine when I thought what Caleb might think of my mouth. I
tried backing up and coving my tracks. “I-I’d hardly call you human
– you’re the rudest, most annoying person I’ve ever met!”

He tilted back
and started laughing, which came out more like barking. At the
sound, Grace threw a wild snowball way over Simon. Her hands shot
up in the air in surrender. She ran to the backdoors and inside
without a second glance at the surprised Simon.

“Looks like
your gal-pal doesn’t want you hanging out with me,” Damon
sneered.

“Who’d want to
hang with you? You’re like the town bully who never grows up—never
has any friends. Ends up with nothing. Not a damn thing.”

“Better than
being dead.”

I turned to
face him, trying to look as pissed-off as I could. My shoulders
burned, all the way down to my spine. “Are you threatening me? Or
my friends?” A sudden calmness came over me, all my anxiety
draining into this new funnel of fury I’d never noticed before.
“Damon.” I walked over as Grace raced toward the door by us and
bent down so my lips brushed his ear. I spoke, barely above a
whisper, “
Vargulf Bentos
Monstrum
. Hurt Grace or
Michael, and I will bring a slew of terrifying issues which Grace
and the Knightly family have no idea I know.” I patted him on the
shoulder and I straightened.