The Marked

Chapter Nineteen

After dropping Caden off Ryder and Lily arrive at the shack, they sit down outside it on the floor near the river. Ryder texts Tristan telling him they've arrived, and then the silence continues.

"Okay, I can't delay this any longer, we need to talk about Zion." Ryder blurts out, the whole car journey had pretty much been spent in silence, it hadn't bothered Lily since she texted Zion asking to meet later and then took the time to think about how she was gonna explain this to Ryder.

"Yeah we do," Lily nods, "but I'll go first, I feel like what I have to say might change what you do."

Ryder looks at her slightly confused, one because he didn't quite understand what she said and two because he wasn't sure about what she'd want to say about him.

"So... last night I asked Zion about why he's interested in what we discussed," Lily pauses, "it's because he has an ability, like you, except his is different, he's the God of death, meaning his ability is to control or inflict death somehow."

"Oh..." Ryder says not quite sure what else to say, "you believe him?"

"He has a mark to prove it." Lily shrugs.

"Mark?" Ryder asks.

"It's a marking you get to symbolise your ability," Lily explains, "I read about it in that book, you have similar abilities to the guy who wrote it's friend, but yours seem to be more powerful."

"But I don't have a mark..." Ryder points out.

"I know, neither did the guy in the book, so my best guess is that you're a feeder unless your mark hasn't formed yet, I still need to speak to Zion about some stuff. It was all to overwhelming last night, I couldn't take it all in while discussing it."

"What's a feeder?" Ryder asks.

"I'm not entirely sure," Lily tries to remember what Zion said, "we discussed them being the source of a species power or something that makes them stronger at least; my guess is that their purpose is to feed the species of Marked that their assigned to."

"So," Ryder stands up preparing to grab Lily, "if Zion was my stalker you'd say."

"That you're a feeder for him." Lily tells him then realises what he said and shoots up, "wait what? Zion's your stalker?"

"Maybe, yes, I mean... I don't know what to tell you, this is a difficult situation." Ryder stresses.

"He is isn't he..." Lily sighs, "I should've guessed he had an ulterior motive, probably knew this whole time what you were and used me."

Ryder looks ahead not sure what to say and notices a wolf in the distance coming straight towards them, "Lils, unfortunately we don't have time to wallow, there's a wolf coming straight to us, we need to leave before it notices us."

Lily looks up to see the same thing except when she does, the wolf looks up stopping and staring at them, "too late... you run one way I'll run the other, it can't chase us both."

"What about the other one?" Ryder asks in panic.

"I don't know. Just Run." Lily shouts and both of them quickly dash off in the same direction and the wolf follows behind them.

Further ahead Lily's look behind her to see that the wolf is closing in on them, this causes her to stumble to the floor.

"Lily." Ryder calls stopping to go to her but he's stopped in his tracks when he sees the wolf walking closer to her. She turns onto her back and tries to slowly crawl away but the wolf is faster and manages to get close to her causing Lily to freeze.

The wolf sniffs Lily jacket and starts to nuzzle it, taking in the scent, Ryder steps closer and the wolf lifts his head and growls.

"Ryder, walk away." Lily tells him.

"No way." Ryder argues.

"I'm serious, back away and he won't hurt us, trust me on this or we're both dead." Lily tells him again. Ryder does as she says and begins to back away, the wolf turns his focus back to Lily and she realises that he either wants to rip her apart without being disturbed, or her scent reminds him of something.

Lily starts to sit up slowly and the wolf doesn't attack so she hopes that it's the latter, she starts to remove her jacket and looks into the wolf's eyes, it's looking at her like it knows her.

Once the jacket is completely off she throws it to the side of her, and like she hoped the wolf moved to her jacket, sniffing it then taking it into his mouth before running off with it.

Lily takes a deep breath standing up, she reaches Ryder and even though they both saw the wolf run off in the other direction they run towards Ryder's car.

Tristan's sees both Ryder and Lily running towards their cars so he climbs out, "what happened to you two? What's with the running?"

"I think we were almost killed by a wolf." Ryder tells him.

"You?! I could've of been ripped to shreds if it didn't like my perfume!" Lily fumes, she moves towards Ryder's car and leans against it taking in a deep breath.

"Well at least you survived." Tristan nods, "how did the little talk go?"

"Talk? What are you doing here? How come you knew we were here?" Lily questions, realising that Ryder obviously had something planned, she just wasn't sure what.

"That is a story for another time," Ryder starts unlocking the car and walking around to his side, "right now we are both in shock and in need of a milkshake, I'll pay."

"I can't," Lily states, "would one of you mind dropping me off home?"

"How about you take my car," Ryder offers, "if you feel okay to drive, it'll be more convenient, Tristan can bring me back after."

"Sure, I'll leave you to whatever you're up to" Lily accepts his keys, "just try not to mention this to Mason."

"Make sure you drive safe," Ryder assures, "make sure you text me otherwise I'll think you got caught."

Lily climbs into Ryder's car and drives away, Ryder walks over to Tristan's and both of them climb in.

"You sure she's okay, there's a lot of ways to die from a car." Tristan points out.

"She seemed it," Ryder assures, "I mean I'm sure if death was the aim she'd have let the wolf rip her to shreds."

"Let's just pray she doesn't drive off a cliff." Tristan starts up the car and they leave.