Marked: A Two Halves Novella Read Online Free PDF Page B

help. Even when they were far off in the woods, I couldn’t block out her
happiness. The mental image of what lover boy and my sister were doing burned
in my brain.
    I closed my eyes, and the first person to visit the back of
my lids was Xela. My fingers fiddled the jewel, and squeezed it. The air
blossomed with the scent of red roses. When I opened my eyes, Xela’s face was
inches away from mine. I didn’t get a chance to greet her before her lips were
dancing with mine, and our bodies connected soon after. She knew exactly what I
wanted—her. All I wanted was her, no one else.
    Would all this change in three days? Would I have to
relinquish the only woman I felt connected to in all the eternity I lived?
Perhaps her black magic could give us some answers.
    “You’re worried,” she observed when we’d sated our raw
passion.
    “Concerned.”
    “Why? Isn’t this what you want?” She lowered herself onto me
again, urging my hips to move with hers.
    I moaned. “Yes, but I want this forever.”
    “Forever is a long time, Xander,” she reminded me. “I’m a
black witch who can’t control what happens to her fate.”
    “Isn’t there a way?”
    “I don’t know.” She paused for a moment. “I’d have to do
some digging.”
    “Then dig.”
    “Until I reach the other side of the world.” She licked my
ear, then drew her tongue down my body, stopping midway.
    I moaned again and reached down to hold her shoulders.
“Wouldn’t you want this forever?” I asked when she paused and looked up at me.
    “Yes, but I’m marked. I don’t have a choice of who I am.”
She moved back up, repositioning her hips.
    I lifted my head to caress her breasts with my lips. “You’re
choosing to be with me,” I said against her skin.
    “Then yes, if I could choose this forever, I would.”
    That’s all I needed to know, that she wanted me as much as I
wanted her. But: “What if I got the water mark?”
    “Would your body still move the same way it does now?” She
laughed.
    I grinned. “Better.”
    “Then get the mark.” She moved her hands down to control my
hips.
    “You really are a black witch, aren’t you?”
    “One of a kind,” she teased.
    Sobering, I stopped the momentum and warned, “I’m serious,
Xela. I may have to be one of the good guys.”
    Xela came down to rest by my side, propping herself on her
elbow. “Is that where you want to be? You know it’s easy to get this.” She held
out her wrist.
    When I locked my eyes on the sphere, it seemed to hypnotize
me the same way Xela could. I stroked my finger over the imprint. The heat
flowed like a calm stream through my veins, not a tsunami.
    “You’re proud of who you are,” I said.
    “I couldn’t choose who I could be. You can. And whichever
way you decide to go, I hope you will come back to me.”
    I looked into her eyes. “I promise.”
    She smiled, but my worries didn’t fade. Ma’s words came to
mind, and the knowledge that I would not be with Xela.
    “Let’s go for a walk.” She jumped up and pulled a black tank
top from a drawer in the wooden dresser.
    “You’ve got a lot of those?” I asked, remembering the one
I’d removed the previous night.
    “Yes, but they’re not unlimited.” She winked.
    I made a mental note to buy some for her the next time I
went to town, so I’d be able to rip them off her more often. She pulled on
black leggings that hugged her thighs. Lucky leggings. As I got into in
my jeans and shirt, I smirked remembering how her legs wrapped around me
effortlessly.
    “Where are we going?” I asked.
    “To do some digging.” She grabbed my hand, adding, “Don’t
stray from me. I don’t want the seekers to sense you.”
    “I won’t let go.” I tightened my grip.
    For the first time, I used a door to leave Xela’s lair. As
soon as it opened, the heat from the underworld hit me as if I’d bumped into a
wall. It felt like I’d been wrapped in tin foil and thrown into an oven. Or a
steamer—the hot air