Marked by Blood: Book 2 of The Marked Series by Ford, Rinna (top novels of all time txt) 📕

the moment. Until things were resolved with the Council and their strict rules about the races mixing, we would never be completely out of harm.

The fact I surprised Di with my magical abilities was also a boost to my overall attitude. If I could knock her, the leader of this little troop, off her game, then it must be something, right? Hopefully she would think twice before trying to use my mate or me.

If Di and her stooges learned Xan’s dad was Chei Yun Liu, the head Councilman for the shifters, then it was a possibility she would either try to throw him out of the house out of fear, or she would try to use him against his father. It was obvious that Chei Yun loved his son and would do anything for him. I also knew Chei Yun was a good man for the most part, like Xan said, but I still didn’t care for him. How could I? My world crumbled when I was twelve, because of his “duty” to the Council.

I shook my head to clear the thoughts and took Xander’s hand, squeezing it gently. He smiled down at me then looked into the room. After our delightful shower, Xan and I talked about the situation we were in and what our next steps should be. For one, we needed to try to make sure people there didn’t know about my dual nature and his parentage. That was a no-brainer. The second thing we needed to do was learn as much as we could about the rebellion we were in. We had no plan to out them to the Council and we were on the fence about helping them, but information was power. We needed to be prepared for anything.

We were some of the first people to arrive for dinner so we found a couple of seats on the far side of the table and sat down. A few people were bringing platters of food in and setting them along the center of the large table before returning to the kitchen for what I assumed was more food. It would stand to reason that the majority of the supes in the house ate food rather than blood, so I imagined with 20-some people that would mean a lot of it was needed.

We watched as more and more people came in and found seats around the table, leaving the chairs around us empty. The residents eyed us warily and made no effort to talk to us, that was until our guide into the crazy house, Grayson walked in holding the hand of a much smaller woman with fair, almost porcelain-looking skin and long hair. It was jet black and slowly changed color all the way down to deep red. She was gorgeous, and completely contrasted with the bear of a man she was holding hands with.

Grayson smiled at us and led the woman to the chairs directly across from us. He let go of her hand and pulled out her chair, letting her smoothly glide into her seat. Her demeanor screamed vampire with how perfectly beautiful she was, but then I realized that she was a caster instead.

Wait. Grayson was obviously a shifter, if I couldn’t tell by his smell and his size, and he was holding hands with someone from another supernatural species. The way they acted, they were definitely a couple. They revolved around each other.

I looked down the table and noticed almost all of the people were coupled with someone from another species. Since meeting vampires, I was getting pretty good at distinguishing all three species by looks and smell. I squeezed Xan’s hand under the table when the realization hit me.

Di was telling the truth about the rebellion’s wants for a united society. The residents of the mansion were all refugees of a sort. They were hiding.

“I don’t know you. Who are you?” the woman narrowed her eyes and stared us down as she leaned forward in her seat.

I raised one eyebrow and my girl crush quickly faded away with her rudeness.

“Camille,” Grayson sighed. “Don’t pay any attention to her.” He then turned back to us. “She, like everyone else here, is a little scared of newcomers. Babycakes, they’re the people I was telling you about.”

Grayson was turned back toward the woman and was trying to get her to see reason, but it only angered Xan and me. He told someone about me?

“What did you tell her?” Xan asked, his teeth clenched together.

Grayson sighed and collapsed back in his chair, obviously feeling torn between us and the woman beside him.

“What do you think he told me?” Red shot back at Xan.

Boy, she was rude.

“Hey, I just told her there were some new people Di was helping out, that’s all. I swear it, man.” He held up his hands in surrender, and I could tell he meant it. There was no fight in him at that moment.

I started to feel bad for our guide, for more than the singular reason that he was trying to keep our secret. His girlfriend was a bitch.

“But you’re obviously a mated pair. What could Di be helping you with? Huh?”

I huffed out an exasperated laugh as Xan growled at the same time. My eyes slowly shifted down the table and noticed everyone there was not so subtly paying attention to our conversation. They were all curious too. At least they weren’t rude about it like the one in front of me.

“We are a mated shifter pair. Is that a problem?” I finally answered Camille the bitch.

“You don’t belong here, so yeah, it’s a problem.”

Her eyes glowed with anger and I sat stiffly in my chair, my expression reflecting hers, and waited for her to make a move, but Grayson beat me to it.

“Now hold on, Camille,” he said to the woman turning her chair to face him. “If Di’s helping them, that’s none of your business. You know I can’t tell you their reasons for being here, but