Crimson Truth (Onyx Assassins 4)

I blew out a breath, conjuring a cleansing spell in a blink and propelling it toward my skin.

The tingling sensation turned to a full-on burn, as if it were rejecting my spell with a barely restrained fury.

I didn’t care, I tried four more cleansing spells, my magic filling the room in a frenzy of purple energy.

I hissed from the pain of the mark, the searing brand refusing to budge.

What the fuck?

Something crashed onto the floor across the room, and I snapped my eyes up.

Benedict gaped at me from the doorway in nothing but a pair of slick black pajama pants, his chest and abs beautifully on display, a tray of coffee and pastries now a chaotic mess at his bare feet. He slammed the door shut behind him, and I barely spared a thought to the fact that I hadn’t heard him come in. Had been too wrapped up in trying to spell my way out of this mess.

Something clicked behind Benedict’s eyes, and his shoulders relaxed a fraction as he came to the edge of the bed. He pointed at his mark on my arm. “I know you live to torment me, little witch, but that is a twisted joke.”

“Me?” I gasped, extending my arm toward him to give him a better view of the ink. “You did this! Used some weird, ruby dust-laced pen to put your mark on me so I couldn’t get it off. I gave you everything last night, did you really need to brand me like I was your own personal cattle?”

His brow furrowed, and panic flashed across his eyes.

“Stop it,” he said. “It’s not a good joke. Take it off.”

“I’ve been trying to take it off!” I argued, splaying my fingers and sending another cleansing spell over the ink. I gritted my teeth at the mark’s reaction to it, and sighed when the pain ebbed.

Benedict moved so fast my eyes couldn’t follow. One second he was at the edge of the bed and the next he sat next to me, my arm in his hands. His long, strong fingers slid over my skin as he examined the mark, and my entire body reacted to it. And…I could feel his panic. I didn’t know how to explain it, but there it was. A cold, calculated, ancient panic crackling and spiraling right next to my own inside my soul.

“You’re not joking,” he whispered.

“And you’re…not?” I whispered back, and our eyes met. In that held gaze I felt as if I was falling down an endless tunnel of warmth and protection and light—

“Oh fucking hell!” I snapped, snatching my arm out of his.

He backed off, giving me space as he paced the length of his room. “It’s not possible.”

“It shouldn’t be possible,” I groaned. “Right?”

He stopped his pacing next to the group of cushioned arm chairs in the corner of his room.

“I’m a witch,” I said when he didn’t speak. “You’re a vampire. I can’t be your mate.” I swallowed the bitter taste that burst on my tongue. The taste of a lie. I glanced at Benedict, checking my power to make sure my natural defenses were turned off. “I’m not your mate.”

A scrawl of ink appeared on the space of skin just above his hip.

His eyes flared as he saw the lie written there, and my hands flew to my mouth to cover my gasp.

“I…” His voice trailed off as he kept staring at the strip of ink like he could somehow make the words different if he tried hard enough.

But I knew.

I could feel it in my blood. Even my power hummed in his presence, as if it loved him, adored him, would do anything to protect him.

Good Goddess, this was forbidden. This was so far beyond forbidden. How could fate do this to us?

Tears bit the backs of my eyes, and guilt clawed up my throat. “I’m so sorry,” I blurted out the words, my head falling into my hands.

“Why in the name of fuck are you sorry?”

I didn’t bother looking up, not wanting to show just how fast I was crumbling.

“For doing this to you,” I said through my hands. “For teasing and taunting you until you caved last night. If I hadn’t…I we hadn’t—”

The mattress dipped with his weight, and his hands were gentle on my wrists as he tugged my hands away from my face. He caught my gaze with those astonishingly blue eyes of his, and a stuttered sigh escaped my lips.

“Last night was inevitable,” he said, shaking his head as he continued to hold my hands. “You didn’t do this.”

“How did this happen then, Benedict?” I knew about mates through Valor’s stories, but a witch and a vampire? That was unheard of. Cross-species relationships were forbidden and came with a death penalty for anyone who stepped over that line.