Changed (Marked Duology Book 2) Read online

  “All right, so where’s my paint brush?” I asked, eager to get started. Who would have thought that manual labor would have been the best part of my day?

  “Here.” Jace handed me a brush from in the sink and turned up the music just a hair before we got started.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “I just don’t see why I can’t tell Rachel about any of this. I mean, I don’t even have to tell her about you or anyone else,” I said, as I touched up a small area in the corner.

  “It’s not possible, because in order to tell her about you, you’d have to say something about me. Rachel’s a smart girl; she’s going to have questions and as her best friend, you’re going to want to answer them,” Jace insisted.

  I moved farther down the wall and let out a puff of air. “No, I can keep all of that from her and just tell her about myself.”

  Jace stepped off the ladder he’d been standing on and turned to face me. “All right, so let’s say that you do, do you think that’s information she’d handle okay?”

  I used the back of my hand to swipe a loose strand of hair off my forehead and shifted my eyes to his. “I do. I know she’d understand.” Skepticism pooled in Jace’s eyes, making little flickers of anger torch my insides. “You don’t know her like I do.”

  Jace bent his head in frustration and ran his fingers through his golden hair. When he brought his eyes back to mine desperation glistened in their depths. “Please just trust me on this. Rachel won’t understand it as well as you might think.”

  “She would though; all it would take is for me to show her,” I argued, unrelenting in my decision to gain back my best friend.

  Jace shook his head. “You can’t ever show her. You’ll only be putting yourself in danger.”

  I sat the paintbrush I’d been holding in a bucket on the toilet and crossed my arms. “Danger? Rachel would never hurt me.”

  “I’m not saying that she’d intentionally hurt you. All I’m saying is that you’ll frighten her beyond what words could even describe and when people are scared they’re capable of anything,” he said, walking to where I stood.

  My arms dropped to my sides as the truth of his words sunk in.

  Jace placed his hands on my hips and pulled me into him. “I just want you to think this thing through. You’ll change her whole view of the world—her whole view of you. There are some things that are better known to the human world as myth and legend; this is one of them.”

  Tears exploded from my eyes, and I hated myself for crying in front of him over something like this. He wrapped his arms around me and tucked my head beneath his chin.

  “Humans are quick to fear what they don’t understand, and I know it would kill you for Rachel to fear you. Especially right now, with everything going on between you and your mom, the last thing you need is for more of that uneasy energy to be directed toward you.”

  I took in a shuddering breath and wiped the tears from my eyes. “You’re right… well, partly.”

  Jace chuckled. “Only partly, huh?”

  “Yeah. Rachel would be scared, but after a little bit of time I really do think she’d be okay with it all.”

  “God, you’re persistent. Just promise me one thing… wait a few months before you tell her anything,” he insisted, cupping my face between his hands.

  I met his warm eyes and smiled. “Promise.”

  Jace bent down and brushed his lips across mine. The tenderness behind his kiss surprised me, sending a small pang of warmth through me that seemed to settle in my stomach. I parted my lips, allowing him to deepen our kiss. His tongue caressed mine as he slid his hands down my sides and back to my hips.

  I tangled my fingers into his hair, refusing to let him stop this time. The heat coming off his body mingled with mine in the air between us, making the bathroom suddenly feel sticky and humid.

  Losing myself in a dizzying haze that seemed to grow from his touch like wind to a flickering flame, my hands found their way beneath his shirt as if they had a mind of their own. I ran my fingertips up and down the length of his back and drew his bottom lip between my teeth. A moan escaped him and his hands found their way to a patch of bare skin beneath my navel. He lightly stroked against the skin of my abdomen while tasting the inside of my mouth deeply.

  With our lips still locked, we slowly made our way out of the freshly painted bathroom and toward his bed. I felt the edge of the mattress press against the backs of my knees and then Jace pressed his body against mine, lowering me onto the bed. He softly trailed his lips down the side of my neck. I turned my head away from him, allowing him further access and felt his teeth scrape across my shoulder, nibbling and biting me in a pleasurable way. A way that made the corners of my lips twist up into a slight smirk of delight.

  I had no willpower to pull away; this was what I’d been wanting. I lost myself in the moment as Jace continued to tease my senses with his tantalizing kisses, only breaking away long enough to remove the thin pieces of clothing that separated our skin.

  As he pressed his unclothed body against mine the dizzying warmth of his skin soaked into me and began to pulsate through my body. A moan escaped from my parted lips as my senses became intensified by the brush of his bare skin against mine. Nothing I had felt before could compare to this. Being with Jace was wonderful, magical; it was like floating in a bubble of everlasting happiness.

  * * *

  “Are you hungry?” Jace asked, threading his fingers in and out from between mine. We’d been lying in bed together for the last few minutes, cuddling while catching our breath.

  “I’m not starved like I usually am, but I could always eat,” I answered with a sigh.

  “Good, because I worked up an appetite.” He winked. I watched him as he stood and began to get dressed in front of me, trailing my eyes over every inch of his exposed skin before he covered it back up again. His tattoo grabbed my attention, and I wondered why he’d chosen a full moon out of everything else that he could have picked.

  “Now that I know your secret, what’s the real story behind the full moon on your back?” I asked as I stared at it intently.

  “The moon owns me; why not mark my skin to show it?” he said, slipping his shirt over his head. “You gonna get out of bed and come get something to eat?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be down in just a minute,” I said, yawning and stretching.

  “All right,” he muttered, before leaving the room.

  I laid my head back down against Jace’s pillow and replayed his words in my mind—the moon owns me; why not mark my skin to show it? They left me with a sense of sadness. It was like he had branded himself out of anger. The thought of him hating what he was had never crossed my mind until that moment, and I realized even more how hard it must have been for him to turn me.

  * * *

  I leaned against the counter in the kitchen and watched as Jace rummaged through the fridge for something to cook us.

  “Hmm, I see hot dogs…” he trailed off, continuing to look.

  “Hot dogs are good,” I said, hoisting myself up onto a barstool.

  “Okay, hot dogs it is then,” Jace insisted, holding up the package. He reached into a cabinet and pulled out a pot large enough to boil the hot dogs in. “So… start talking.”

  “Start talking, about what?”

  “Anything—school, work, your parents. I’m sure there’s tons going on in that pretty little head of yours.” He glanced over his shoulder and flashed me one of his famous grins that always brought a large smile to my face.

  “Umm okay, school… where do I begin?” I paused and cut my eyes to the ceiling. “I hate it. Everyone’s perfume and cologne mixed together in the air suffocates me. It’s hard to listen to what the teacher is saying at the front of the room when I can hear what people are saying out in the hall. The lights are too bright, and did I already mention that I pretty much hate it?”

  “You hate school, got it. Continue,” Jace prompted and then smirked as though he found this t
o be extremely amusing.

  “Okay, work. Well, I’m supposed to be there right now and I’m not. So, you can see how high that rates on my list of priorities lately.”

  Jace placed the hot dog buns in the toaster oven and then turned to look directly at me. “Let me get this straight. You hate school because it’s too bright, it smells, and you hear too much. And work has dropped down to the last possible thing you could care about. What about your parents? Please don’t tell me you hate the way they smell, too.” Jace chuckled, amused by his little corny attempt at a joke.

  “No, actually what’s been going on with my parents is… well, a whole lot of tension. Mom not saying anything is getting to be pretty damn frustrating,” I said, letting out a sigh.

  “I’m sure she will; she’s probably just still scared,” Jace offered.

  “Yeah, maybe.” I shrugged, not wanting to think about it right now. “And that pretty much sums it all up.”

  “I’d say so,” Jace said, going back to the fridge for ketchup and mustard.

  * * *

  By the time we were through eating it had already grown dark outside. That was the one thing I hated about winter—and I guessed would be the one thing that I hated even more now that I was a werewolf—how incredibly short the days seemed.

  “I should probably head home,” I said, even though that was the last place I wanted to be at the moment.

  “I’ll walk you out.”

  I smiled and took his hand in mine.

  After one last kiss I reluctantly climbed in and drove away, watching Jace in my rearview mirror as he stared after me.

  I turned out of his driveway and for the first time all night glanced at the clock, it was already a little bit after nine. Thoughts of how amazing my time with Jace had been tonight flashed through my mind and brought a wide smile to my face. I pulled up to the stop sign at the end of Jace’s road and prepared to take a left just as a cherry-red Mustang turned onto the street and zoomed past me.

  My heart dropped to my stomach like a rock. Jace fled from my mind as quickly as a flash of lightning, and the only person I could think about was Shelby.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I debated with myself all the way home on whether or not it had been Shelby I’d passed. Then I debated on whether or not I should text Jace to find out. In the end, I decided I didn’t want Jace to think I was some paranoid nut like Shelby and left him alone, thinking that if it had been her, then I’d find out soon enough.

  Mom was still in the kitchen when I walked through the front door. The scent of banana bread and Lysol filled my nose at the same time as Family Guy blaring from the TV flooded my ears. Dad chuckled from the living room and the sound brought a smile to my face. It had been days since I’d heard him laugh. The stress of my mother’s odd behavior and secrets was beginning to take a toll on us all. I guessed my secret didn’t help matters any, but it had been my mother’s secret long before it became mine. This justified the majority of the blame for the shambles our family was in on her in my mind.

  “Tessa, can you come here for a minute, please?” mom called to me as I attempted to sneak past the kitchen without her seeing.

  “What?” I asked a little harsher than I’d intended, stepping into the sparkling clean kitchen and leaning against the counter.

  “You missed work,” she said while continuing to wipe off a small area of the counter without looking up at me.

  My throat tightened. I did not want to do this right now. “I know. I was pretty exhausted after school and just didn’t feel like going in.”

  That got her attention. “And you couldn’t have called to let them know you wouldn’t be coming in?”

  The disappointment in her eyes burned me. “Honestly, I didn’t really think about it.”

  She laid the rag she’d been wiping the counters with aside and gave me her full attention. “I’m just going to come out and say it, Tessa. I’m really disappointed in you lately, to the point where I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

  Something inside of me snapped at her words. The frustration and anger I’d felt toward her came boiling up to the tip of my tongue. “You don’t know who I am anymore? Try, I don’t know who you are anymore… or better yet, who my father is!”

  I watched as her face fell. She stared at me with this look of complete shock like I’d just slapped her. I waited for her to speak, but just like always, all she did was stare at me blankly and mute.

  Tears of rage streamed from my eyes as I left the kitchen and stomped my way toward my room. When was she going to be a mother, when was she going to explain things to me, when was she going to console me? These were the questions that burned through my mind and fueled the hot tears that streaked my cheeks.

  Just as I flopped on my bed the chiming of my cell phone sounded and I swore under my breath, hoping that it wasn’t Jace telling me Shelby was back in town. It wasn’t. Instead, it was a text from Rachel.

  Just wanted to make sure you were all right. Missed you at work. Have you thought about going to the cabin on Christmas break?

  I spun the phone around in my hand, thinking of how to answer.

  What day are you guys wanting to go? Did you find out for sure? ~ Tessa

  The weekend after Christmas, that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sound good?

  I’d added everything up earlier and Googled how many days were in between each full moon—twenty-nine. That meant it would be safe for me to go to the cabin and actually do something normal for a chance.

  Sounds great. I can’t wait. ~ Tessa

  I’d still have to talk to Jace about it, but I was sure he wouldn’t mind going.

  Awesome!

  I wiped the tears from under my eyes and for the first time in weeks felt excited about something that didn’t pertain to the strangeness that had consumed my life lately.

  * * *

  Two hours passed before I heard the TV in the living room cut off, signaling that my parents were on their way to bed.

  “Knock, knock,” dad said, lightly rapping his knuckles against my closed bedroom door. “Can I come in?”

  “Sure,” I replied unenthusiastically as I flipped another page of my magazine.

  Dad opened the door and leaned his head in. “Everything okay?”

  I glanced at him. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Eh, let’s just say I’ve noticed there’s been a lot of tension around the house between you and your mother. I don’t understand what’s going on and neither one of you are willing to talk to me about it, but whatever it is, it’s really got your mom torn up.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure.”

  “Look.” He opened the door more and took a step into my room. “I’m being serious here, Tessa. I’ve never seen your mother this upset about something before. Now, I don’t know what you’ve done or what she’s done, but you two really need to work this out.”

  I flipped another page of the magazine I’d been reading with more force than necessary, causing the thin paper to tear. “Oh, yeah? Well maybe you should talk to her about it then.”

  “Don’t get an attitude with me. And I have talked to her about this, but I’m getting nowhere, which is why I decided to say something to you, too.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his chestnut hair. “I’m not going to argue with you… you seem to be doing enough of that with your mother right now.” He turned and left the room, closing my bedroom door behind him.

  I let out a sigh and flung my head back against my pillow. My life just kept spiraling out of control. Footsteps outside my bedroom window startled me, but only because they were unfamiliar. They were light and catlike—most definitely not Jace’s.

  I sat up in bed and stared out the darkened window, trying to see past the glare of my bedroom light. Shimmering white-blond hair and electric blue eyes met my gaze as Shelby stepped to my window and stared back at me. My heart lurched to my throat at the sight of her. She wiggled her fingers and sent me an impatient loo
k. How did she know where I lived?

  I stood and started toward the window slowly, wondering what she’d do if I just left her out there and pretended I hadn’t seen her at all. The thought was appealing, but my curiosity as to what she wanted pushed me forward and I opened my window.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, not bothering to tame any of my hatred for her.

  “Why do you look so surprised to see me, Tessa? Did you honestly think I wouldn’t scope out where you lived the last time I was here?” She scoffed. “You’re more naive than I’d thought.”

  “What do you want, Shelby?” It was surreal how intimidating she could still seem even when she was looking up at me from the ground.

  “Either for you to let me in or for you to come out here,” she insisted.

  “Move out of the way.” I sighed as I popped the screen out.

  She flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder as she stepped out of my way. I carefully climbed out the window and wondered what the hell it was that she wanted. Then I wondered why Jace had never texted me to tell me that she was in town, after all it had been hours since I’d thought I’d passed her car on my way home.

  “Come over this way. My parents just went to bed,” I said, walking to the side of the house. There was no way I was taking her to the edge of the woods, not only was that Jace’s and my spot, but I didn’t trust her enough to be alone in the middle of the woods with her.

  I paused when we got to the side of the house and turned to face her. My eyes drank in every inch of her—from her petite, curvy frame to her red painted toenails—and I wondered what it was about her that made her seem so intimidating. Then I realized it wasn’t necessarily the way that she looked, but the gleam in her eyes. They held a menacing factor to them. Always.