Page 22 of A Trial By Blood

We reached the car in record time, and he had me buckled up in seconds. He jumped in behind the wheel and sped for home.

No one was there when we got to the house. I’d never been more thankful. They wouldn’t take this news well. I wasn’t sure how I’d tell them. Ronan rushed me inside and headed straight for the bathroom. He turned on the shower.

“What are you doing?”

“We need to warm you. Your skin is ice cold.” He tested the water, pulled away the coat covering my nakedness, then stepped in, still in his clothes.

I tried to cover myself as we stood there, humiliation burning my cheeks. His stare sliced to my shoulder. “She bit you. I tried to get to you, but I couldn’t. I thought she was killing you.”

His voice was different, deeper, rougher, but I couldn’t see any trace of emotion on his face.

“It’s part of the r-ritual,” I said.

“These markings are part of it as well?” He brushed his thumb over my arm, then high on my shoulder.

I looked down. The tattoo-like markings the mother had given me were already showing, snaking across my skin. The intricate vine pattern covered my upper arm, and judging by the slight tingle along my shoulder and the side of my throat, they were there as well.

I knew without looking, there’d be a section of unmarred skin between the places Ronan had touched. “W-when the vines on my arm grow and touch the ones on my shoulder…the time I have to p-pass my task is up, and I fail.” My family would see it as soon as they got home.

He nodded but didn’t say anything. We stood there in silence for several more minutes.

“Are you warm?” he finally asked.

“Yes.”

He turned off the water and stepped out, grabbing a towel and wrapping me in it. There was nothing I could do but allow him to dry and dress me. Ronan had seen every bit of my hideous body and now was running the towel over the revolting hump on my back, his hands over my thin hair as he dried it.

I’d be even more humiliated if I wasn’t so exhausted. I didn’t know how I’d stayed awake as long as I had. Adrenaline most likely. But every bit of energy drained from me now. I couldn’t think or move, I could barely draw breath.

The darkness crawled back, surrounding me, taking me under.

* * *

Ronan

She was still breathing, but judging by how shallow each inhale was, I wasn’t sure for how much longer.

I looked down at my hands; a vision of those demons, so many of them running for Rose, filled my head. I couldn’t get to her. If I hadn’t been as fast as I was, I wouldn’t have made it to her in time, they would have torn her to shreds.

What happened afterward was a blur. I killed and killed until there were no demons left. Until there was no more danger to Rose. I tried to recall the finer details, but my vision had turned red. And when I’d finally returned to myself, Rose had been awake and as close to death as I’d seen her.

I looked at her again. So pale, her skin was almost the same color as her white-blond hair.

A door banged downstairs. The sound of voices, of shoes on the hardwood floor, then taking the stairs.

I stood when Daisy filled the doorway, Magnolia and Bram behind her. Daisy looked at me, her gaze dropping to my bare chest, to the scratches and bite marks marring my skin, then shot back up.

“Ronan?” She looked at her daughter and a cry escaped before she ran to her. “Rose? Sweetheart? Please, wake up, baby.” She looked up at me. “What the hell happened?”

Magnolia rushed in. “Oh god, her neck.”

Daisy’s hand flew to her mouth. “Tell me that isn’t what I think it is. Tell me you didn’t take her to Oldwood Forest,” she cried.

I frowned, confused. “I did as Rose asked. She wanted to speak with the mother, to explain her situation.”

Magnolia screamed in rage and ran at me, punching me in the chest. Bram rushed forward, hauling her off her feet and into his arms.

“I don’t understand?” I rubbed at my temples. Pain, again unmuted, exploded behind my eyes this time. “I thought—”