Hidden Moon (Nightcreature 7)

"How would he know if I was the one?"

"You have a birthmark. " It wasn't a question.

In my mind's eye I saw Mal leaning over me, buried inside of me, kissing the mark, and whispering, "It's you. "

I had wanted him much faster than I should have. Me, who hadn't wanted anyone since Atlanta. I hadn't wondered why; I'd just been happy that I had.

"He probably had you begging him to take what he'd been after all along. "

I swallowed thickly, mortified to realize she was right.

"Is this true?" I asked. "You seduced me with the mist? You slept with me to see if I bore a mark?"

And then told all of his people that I had? My mortification deepened.

"He had to. "

I rounded on Sabina, fists clenched. "I didn't ask you!"

She giggled, put her fingers to her lips, and made the motion of turning a lock, then throwing away the key.

"You knew what had happened to me" - I turned back to Mal - "yet you raped me, too?"

His head came up. "I wouldn't. "

"If the sex is not given freely, that's exactly what you did. "

"I stopped using magic days ago. Before I ever - "

"What? Touched me, kissed me, went down on me?"

"Made love to you. "

"Love?" I laughed. "Right. "

"I stopped," he insisted. "I was never inside of you because of magic. "

"You were inside my head. You made me want you. "

"That was before I knew - " He broke off.

"Knew what?"

"That I'd rather stay like this forever than hurt you. "

"Asshole," Sabina muttered. "You try crawling on your belly for two centuries. "

"There has to be another way!" Mal shouted. "I'm not going to hurt her. "

Sabina just smiled.

Mal hit the bars and the cage rattled. "Let me out!"

"No. "

"What does my birthmark have to do with anything?" I asked.

Sabina turned her attention to me, and Mal gave up trying to convince her, though from the way he continued to stare in her direction, he hadn't given up trying something.