Things That Should Stay Buried - Casey L. Bond Page 0,45

went.

“He organized and led the other Guardians, as well.”

Wow. I let all that information sink in until Aries said he was ready. His thumb brushed my skin and then he gripped my skin tighter. I almost let out a hiss, propping my upper body up with my elbows. My nerves were already on fire.

“Ready?” he asked, bending low, his cool breath fanning over my bare skin.

“Yeah.”

The first tap didn’t hurt that badly, but he kept tapping and wiping ink from my skin to reveal what he’d done and how much more had to be inked. Soon, it began to sting. I winced, trying to keep still as his hand held me to the mattress.

His eyes flicked from the mark to mine. “You’re okay.”

I nodded and focused on the slant of his brows, the slight wrinkle that formed between them when he concentrated, the feeling of his hand on my skin – skin I always kept covered. Skin no other guy had touched because I hadn’t let him. Not that this was like that… I reminded myself. Again.

“Did Kes tell you about the ink?” he asked out of nowhere as he wiped my blood and his ink off my skin, satisfied that I was properly marked. “It’s finished.”

It was? I went to stand and he lifted his hand, letting me up.

“What about the ink?” I asked, wandering across the room to look in my dresser’s mirror. It wasn’t bad, actually. And he’d kept his word and made it tiny. It was actually dainty and cute. I lifted the hem of my tank top to see it better, then sucked in a startled breath when I looked up into the mirror to see Aries standing behind me. “You scared me to death!” I accused. My heart jumped a little, too. Not just because he was there, but because he was so close, his chest close enough to brush against my back. He stepped closer until I was flush against him.

The corners of his lips turned upward. “Yet still you breathe.”

Did he just make a joke?

I let out a breathy, “Barely.”

“How does it feel?”

“It stings.”

Aries cleared his throat and extended his hand toward my hip. “May I heal it?”

He’d asked me that question once before and I denied him. I was glad he asked again now. My muscles tightened involuntarily. “Yes.”

When his warm hand landed almost possessively over my skin, I stopped breathing. The sting faded away, but his touch left me stinging in a different way. His thumb brushed my skin along the bone. Once. Twice…

In the mirror, his eyes met mine and something shimmered in their depths, something that made my toes curl and lips tingle. The way he looked at me was mesmerizing. There was an intense hunger there. Something primal. Something more dangerous than the marks he’d drawn on me with his claws.

He bent to softly whisper against my neck. “It’s perfect.”

“The ink?” I rasped, lowering my shirt.

Aries blinked rapidly as if coming out of a daze. “What?”

I craned my head to the side. “You mentioned the ink. Is something special about it? Is it magical or something?”

His eyes bore into mine. “The ink is made from my blood.”

The ink is made from Aries’s blood…

I blinked, trying to make sure I heard him correctly, because the fact that the ink was made from his blood made absolutely zero sense. Maybe less than that. “I thought we were trying to get rid of the blood because the others could smell it on me, and now you’re telling me it’s in my skin?” My voice shrilled at the end, fear taking over.

They would definitely know where I was now. If they could sense Aries’s location from his blood, wouldn’t they innately sense it humming beneath my skin? How would I hide from them now? They would undoubtedly find me as soon as I stepped outside.

He spun me to face him, still running a thumb over my mark. “Don’t worry, Larken. I told you that I will protect you. I wouldn’t have suggested the mark if it meant putting you in harm’s way. Your scent will mask the blood in the mark. They will not scent or sense you, but my blood sings to me, which means I will always know where you are. I’ll always be able to find you and come to your aid in an instant.”

Only inches separated us. He leaned in and let the tip of his horn rake into my hair. I shouldn’t have liked it. I