Page 7 of Scorned
“Marcus, you possess unparalleled skills and dare I say, you’re the most impressive person I’ve ever encountered who is not supernatural. You clearly know you don’t need training from me, yet every night, you persist.”
Marcus’s face gleamed, gazing down at her with pure adoration. “All I heard is you think I’m a god.”
Peach’s big blue eyes fluttered, unfazed. “Definitely not what I said.”
Since the Venom society took Luka, Marcus and I had become close. He wasn’t a stand in for the best friend I missed, but had become a person I looked up to. He was intelligent and a phenomenal fighter, and either of those attributes would’ve made me respect the shit out of him.
“Hey, Marcus!” I yelled, and his head whipped toward me. “I think you’re a god.”
He winked a brown eye at me. “Thanks, Winnie.”
Peach ran a hand across her short hair. “I hate you both.”
Marcus smirked. “Hate sex is hot, Peaches and Cream.”
Because Peach had cream-colored skin with matching hair, Peaches and Cream became Marcus’s new nickname for her. From my perspective, her hair appeared to be more sandy-blonde, but I’m just a hacker, not a hair specialist.
Peach ignored him and turned toward the half a dozen other people who were standing around watching, excitingly rubbing her hands together. “Who’s sparring with me?”
No one moved or spoke, each of them avoiding her eyes.
Drag’s gaze bounced from person to person before he finally cut in. “Nobody wants to fight you because you’re too old and too fast.”
“So, me again.” Marcus grinned in triumph, and a large sigh left Peach before she finally relented.
“Whatever. Come on.”
Since I’d watched these two lethal beings spar many nights, I turned my attention toward Lyric. She had been silent for the last few minutes and I wondered why until I noticed she had fixed her gaze on Sage’s cabin.
Like Lyric and some other humans staying here, Sage was born into the Vampire Eradicating National Organization of Malice—also known as Venom. She worked for them, capturing vampires to send to the Vampire Research Center for testing.
We didn’t know what they did with the specimens at VRC, we only knew the stories we were told from the two vampires who escaped from there—Viktor and Finneas.
Those two brothers also lead a group called Save—Supernaturals Against Venom Elitists.
Sage ended up here because she betrayed Venom—at least in her father’s eyes since he was the president of the society. After a large battle between Venom and Save, all of us ended up moving to Drag’s land.
Well, almost all of us.
My best friend Luka had sacrificed himself to save Sage and ended up being taken by Venom. If he had a chance to change the outcome, I knew he wouldn’t have done it differently because love changes people.
Unfortunately, his capture sent Sage on a downward spiral. She shut herself off to everyone in the world, including Lyric.
Other than the stunt she pulled earlier tonight, she only came out of the house to stand in the woods and stare into the darkness. She also wouldn’t speak to anyone for more than a minute.
Even though we knew how sad she had become, she wasn’t realizing the hurt she caused her best friends.
Deep down, I knew Luka would want me to get Sage out of her current state of depression, then we could move on with the plans of saving him and his brother Strike. Maybe that would get shit back to at least a semi-normal state.
But perhaps such a useless word like “maybe” can’t realign the world.
Turning her attention toward the firepit, Lyric inhaled deeply before letting out a long sigh. The light from the fire danced across her face, causing the sadness in her eyes to sparkle.
“Sage is fine. I gave her blood, and I’m sure her euphoria has worn off by now because I heard her moving around.”
She crossed her arms, running her hands up and down them, then plastered on a fake smile before turning her head toward me. “I’m just tired and a little cold.”
“I got you.” Jogging up to the steps of our shared cabin, I retrieved the hoodie she had taken off before we started sparring and brought it back to her. “Here, babe.”
