Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,17
who stared up at the ceiling overhead that cracked with each massive blow from above. Two fissures spread across the painted heavens, mimicking the lines Aries had drawn on my face. I gathered the sleeve of my sweatshirt and went to wipe off Aries’ freaky blood smears.
Kes batted my hands away before I could swipe anything. “No! You can’t remove his mark.”
“For how long?”
“Oh, I don’t know, forever,” he snapped.
“Never?”
“Not unless you take a permanent mark.”
My mouth gaped.
We watched as more bits of stone and dust fell from the ceiling. A particularly hard impact shook the walls I was bracing against and I let out a cry.
Kes paced, inching closer to the door. “I am his Guardian.”
“Well, go…” I shooed him. “Guard him or whatever.”
“He gave an order to stay here.”
Why did guys have to be so weird? “You never listen to anything anyone says, so why start now?”
Another huge jolt came from above. The two were tearing the earth and graveyard apart, I just knew it. All those headstones. They were probably throwing them at one another like snowballs.
“Why is Taurus worried about one girl?”
A storm roiled through Kes’s blue eyes. “Because you could make all the difference.”
The ceiling groaned overhead. The once perfectly smooth ceiling bowed toward us.
“It’s not safe down here. I won’t make a difference if we’re buried alive!”
He gritted his teeth, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Come on. But stay at the bottom of the steps. Stay close to me.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I mean it, Larken,” Kes warned before leading me up the staircase and helping me out of the vault, even though I wasn’t short like he claimed. As he led me outside, I wished he had told me what to expect, because I did not expect him.
Taurus looked young like Aries, very much like a guy my age, with the exception of the bullish, bone-colored, sharp-tipped horns curling from either side of his forehead and pointing straight at me. As if he was aware of me, his eyes snapped to mine. They glowed an angry orange, like churning lava, and I retreated a step. “She’s mine,” he growled. “You cannot harbor her.”
He had thick hooves where feet should be, and I half expected him to scuff the ground with a cloven-tipped foot, kicking up clouds of dust behind him.
Aries was visibly pissed. He glowered at me and Kes. “How am I to protect her, Guardian, if you put her in harm’s way?”
I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Sorry, Kes. “With all due respect, Aries, the fight compromised our safety.” His dark brows furrowed, so I explained, “The ceiling split and was about to collapse.”
Taurus let out a guttural roar that vibrated through my skin and charged at Aries, almost catching him off guard, but at the last second, Aries lowered his head and steeled his muscles. Their impact knocked me off balance for a second. Kes steadied me as the two beasts circled one another.
Taurus tried to impale Aries, but Aries grabbed his horns and thrust him away as though he weighed nothing. Aries was clearly stronger, but Taurus scared me. He was merciless and stubborn and would not relent. He kept attacking Aries, trying to gore him from one side, then the next, then charging straight-on. He tried to chase him, but Aries wouldn’t play Taurus’s game.
Taurus couldn’t focus. He kept glancing back to the bloody slashes on my face.
“I have pledged myself to her, as evidenced by the marks. You can scent my blood on her skin. Why do you continue to fight when I’ve clearly won the battle?” Aries half-taunted.
I mean, it wasn’t an unreasonable question. Maybe it would’ve been smarter not to be such a wise-ass when he asked it, and maybe he should’ve wiped the cocky smirk off his face, but who was I to judge?
“Aren’t you going to jump in or something?” I whispered to Kes as they smashed heads again and again.
“He doesn’t need my help,” he said, slouching against a tall obelisk-shaped headstone, arms crossed over his chest, eyes fastened on his Zodia.
“But down there, you said you were worried. You said you were his Guardian.”
Kes shrugged. “I shouldn’t have worried. He recovered quickly. He’s good now. Just watch.”
Kes loved MMA fighting, and this battle was like that to the hundredth power. The two brawling beasts parted, Taurus finally showing signs of exertion while Aries showed none at all.
The bull-headed jerk pointed his finger at me. “If the pledge leaves your skin, I will