The Mark of Fate: Book 3 of The Marked series by Ford, Rinna (romantic love story reading .TXT) 📕

I really didn’t have any “duties” around the house anymore, not since turning vampire, something I think was done as a way to make up for… you know, and my mates who I usually trained with were off doing other things. Amos and the other rebel leaders didn’t need anything from me at the moment and my uncle had sequestered himself in his workspace, wanting to be left alone, so what could I do?

There was only one thing I could think of and it scared the shit out of me. I sighed deeply as I willed the anxiety to float away.

I stood up from my seat and peered down at Camille. “I guess… I’m going to the infirmary,” I told her. “You want to come with me?”

Her nose wrinkled in distaste and she brought her feet up on the chair seat. “Now why would I want to do a thing like that?”

I sighed again. “I need to do something helpful or I’m going to lose my shit,” I told her honestly, even though the words scared me on so many levels. “I need to find out what happened to them… what they went through, and I want to help get them back on their feet. You don’t have to come.”

She made an exaggerated groan and plopped her feet on the floor, making a big deal as she got up and stood beside me. “Fine. You win,” she mumbled. “I’ll go and help out sick people. Ugh.”

I lightly shook my head as a small smile reappeared at my friend’s antics and began walking out of the dining room. After several steps, she fell in step beside me and continued talking.

“I mean, why though? Don’t sick people kind of creep you out? They sure as hell creep me out.” Camille’s face was contorted into a sort of grimace as she spoke.

“They’re not sick, Camille,” I rolled my eyes. “They were imprisoned and tortured. Those are very different things from being sick.”

My mind drifted off to the moment I found Ainsley laying in his bed at the detention center, but just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, I pushed it out. Being with the rescued supes was going to be hard. No need to make it even worse on myself by thinking about one person I couldn’t save.

“Yeah, but they could have gotten sick from the twisted things the scientists did to them.”

I hadn’t thought about that. She was right, but that wasn’t something I wanted to think about either.

I opened the door to the infirmary and looked inside. My eyes immediately went to Alec’s bed to find it empty. My brows furrowed as I looked around the rest of the room.

“Can I help you with something?” a woman’s voice asked from the opposite side of the room.

I turned my head to see a caster named Lyra standing over one of the rescued supes. She stood upright and looked at Camille and me questioningly.

“Yeah, hi,” I smiled nervously.

“Look who couldn’t stay away.” Alec’s tired voice drifted into the room from what looked like the bathroom, and Marco was there, helping him walk back to his bed.

“Hey, ladies,” Marco grinned at Camille and me. “What are you two up to?”

Camille had a hold of my upper arms as she was halfway hidden behind me. I easily shrugged her off and took a couple of steps toward them.

“Hi. We both just wanted to see if we could help.”

“We could always use help and I’m sure that they would like the company,” he told us.

Alec smiled reassuringly but as he attempted to take another step, his foot didn’t lift up off the ground completely and he stumbled, pulling Marco down with him. I hurried through the room toward him and Marco, coming close to one of the beds but I was stopped short as someone had grabbed a hold of my wrist tightly.

It would have hurt if the woman who grabbed me was at her full strength, but I could tell by the energy it took her to sit up and grab my arm, she had nearly reached her limit. She was sweating profusely and her skin had taken on an ashen appearance.

I didn’t try to pull my arm away. Instead, I turned to fully face her. Her eyes were huge and sunken in on her head and her dry, cracked lips harshly parted as if she were trying to speak. She smelled of rot and earth, which I didn’t completely expect, but it made sense once I realized she was a wolf shifter, like Ainsley. He always had that earthy woods smell, and standing near her, I could smell the similarity. My heart seized at the memory and I did my best to swallow the emotion, planting a fake smile on my face.

“Can I get something for you?” I asked the she wolf as I used my other hand to try and lower her back down onto the bed. She seemed to want to fight me on it but eventually gave up.

“Selina, what do you need?” Lyra asked as she and Marco walked over to the other side of the wolf’s bed.

“You’re… the one,” she said to me, barely whispering.

Then, without warning, she pulled down on my arm with a strength I didn’t anticipate and I nearly fell on top of her. Her teeth lengthened into sharp fangs and her pupils expanded, making her appear more canine. Long strings of spittle began rolling out of the corners of her mouth as she pulled me closer to her face.

“This is all your fault,” she growled fiercely.

Soleil sprung forward and her features became mine as I finally yanked myself away just as Lyra and Marco jumped on top of her to restrain her. I did everything I could to hold my dragon back since I knew Selina wasn’t in her right mind. Yes, she wanted to hurt me, or at least let me know she was angry, but she had every right to be for