Chapter Twenty-Seven
It didn’t take Marcus long to come to his senses, but when he did he was full of regret. He couldn’t even say that she was to blame, he had kissed her back. Now she was looking at him with so much sadness in her eyes that he knew she felt the same guilt he did. It was a moment of madness, she needed comfort and he had given her the wrong signals.
“I’m sorry,” he told her.
Paige shook her head it wasn’t his fault it was hers. She had wanted to get back at Seth, even though he wasn’t there she just did it to make herself feel better and it hadn’t worked. If anything it had made her feel a whole lot worse.
“Don’t be,” she reassured him, she couldn’t have him feeling guilty.
Marcus stood up and started pacing around, he couldn’t deny what that kiss had done for him. He hardly knew her, but already he was feeling things he shouldn’t have been feeling towards her. He had taken advantage of a position he had been put in by Seth, to look after her and instead he had kissed her. When Seth discovered the extent of his betrayal he was going to be beyond furious and Marcus could hardly blame him.
“I shouldn’t have kissed you, you were upset I took advantage of that,” he said angrily.
He wasn’t angry with her he was angry with himself, for his lack of self control. He was centuries old, he should have seen it coming, he had more than enough experience with women. He had watched them over the over the years go through so many different emotions, he had seen them when they were angry, when they were happy and when they were in need of a shoulder to cry on. That was exactly what she needed a shoulder to cry on and what did he do, he went and kissed her.
“He’s with her anyway, I don’t know what you’re feeling so guilty about!” Paige hissed.
It had felt wrong to be in another man's arms, to feel another man's lips on hers. The kiss was sweet, gentle and quite lovely really, but it wasn’t Seth and it didn’t matter how much she told herself that kiss felt good it was never going to compare to that bastard.
“What are you talking about?” Marcus asked in confusion.
Paige huffed and stood up, “Oh come on surely you have read my mind, Seth likes to have a snoop around my head!”
Marcus chuckled, but then it dawned on him. Seth could read her mind, he could hide his thoughts he had practised it for centuries but it wasn’t something she could master quickly, and that meant that Seth would find out the truth.
“I can’t read minds,” he told her with a smile.
Paige raised her eyebrows questioningly, “Oh, but...”
“But he can I know. What did you mean he’s with her?” he asked not wanting to go off the subject.
Paige nodded remembering what she had been talking about it, “April, he’s with her, he’s here with her and he’s turned her into a vampire. That’s why I was upset we had an argument,” she confessed.
Marcus’s panic rose, Seth was there. It didn’t even register in his mind what she had said about April he didn’t give a shit about that. All he was concerned with was Seth was out there, and he could have walked in at any moment and she had not warned him.
“Shit!” he hissed, he started to pace harder.
Paige watched Marcus curiously, she had no idea why he looked so worried, she guessed it must have been because of Seth turning April. She sat back down with a sigh, she felt tired and it wasn’t through lack of sleep she was emotionally exhausted.
**
Seth dragged April away from the church and took her to the graveyard, he smirked as he approached a tomb. He wasn’t taking her into the church, she couldn’t go in there, she would be likely to attack someone. He pushed the tomb door open and pushed her inside, he smiled coldly at the look of disgust on her face as she took in her surroundings.
“What are we doing in here?” she asked clearly annoyed at the smell of the tomb.
Seth looked around the tomb and scoffed, “We? I think you mean you.”
He slammed the tomb door before she had time to reply, she was still going through the change so she would be nowhere near strong enough to move the tomb door on her own. He walked away back towards the church now all he had to do was prove his innocence and explain why he had changed April.
As he approached the church doors he could hear hushed talking, he listened in closely and realised it was Paige and Marcus. He leaned into the door to try to hear exactly what they were whispering about. No doubt she ran back there and told him about April, something he was sure wouldn’t have gone down well.
“It was just a kiss, stop worrying about it,” Paige whispered.
“I know but it was wrong of me, Seth would be furious if he knew. Actually scrap that he would kill me with his bare hands!” Marcus hissed.
Seth stood back in confusion, a kiss? What were they talking about, he wondered. Then realisation hit him, they had kissed, when he had no idea but obviously they were sitting in there now trying to think of a cover story for their kiss. Without any further thought he burst into the church, he narrowed his eyes when Paige and Marcus moved away from each other, neither of them were able to look at him and the guilty looks on their faces only made matters worse.
“Oh sorry am I disturbing you, would you like me to go back outside and knock before I come in, maybe you can make yourselves look less suspicious.” He told them, still neither of them met his eyes.
Marcus didn’t need to look at Seth to know what his face was like, he could picture the anger, the accusation in his tone was enough. He knew.
“Seth listen to me,” Marcus said raising his hands and finally looking at him.
Seth ignored him and walked around to Paige, he circled her and then stopped in front of her, “Is there something you would like to tell me?”
Paige shook her head, she couldn’t even look at him. He wouldn’t have needed to read her mind, it was written all over her face and she knew it. When she did look up, she made the mistake of looking straight at Marcus. For what she didn’t know, reassurance?
The glances they exchanged didn’t go unnoticed by Seth, he walked past them both and went to the vestry where Celina, Nixon and Elisa were sleeping. He tapped the door gently and Celina told him to come in.
“Celina, can you take Elisa and Nixon out to the car, there’s something I need to sort out with Marcus and it’s probably best if you’re not here.” He told her.
Any other time she would have argued with him, told him no, demanded to know why he was so keen on getting rid of them, but from the hard look on his face she knew better. Something was about to happen, he was like a hot pan of water that was about to boil over. She could see it in his eyes that he was fighting for control. She lifted Elisa up and Nixon followed her without a word, he couldn’t even be bothered to argue with him, and seeing that his mother wasn’t going to he knew it was bad. They slipped out of the back door and went out to the car, Celina lay Elisa down in the back of the car and she and Nixon sat in the front.
“We’ll go for a drive, let the dust settle.” She informed him.
**
Seth walked back into the main part of the church and sat down on the steps, Marcus was standing in the doorway and Paige was sitting on a bench looking at the floor.
“So tell me, what is it I have missed?” he asked looking towards Marcus.
Marcus shrugged his shoulders and then shook his head, dismissing that anything had happened. He looked over at Paige again, he could smell the fear and panic she was more of a giveaway than anything. He didn’t need to say anything, she was telling him with her actions.
“So you haven’t been stealing kisses from my mate then?” he asked with a growl, his cool facade finally slipping.
Paige looked up, horrified that he knew. She stood up she was pissed off now, how dare he call her his mate now, he wasn’t good enough for her when she wanted him, but typically the minute another man showed her some attention she was his property.
“Who the hell do you think you are? Coming in here and treating me as though I belong to you!” she screamed.
Marcus was shocked by her sudden nerve, even he wouldn’t dare push Seth when he was on the edge. He had seen him like this before and it never ended well, he preferred him when he was angry and destructive. It was when he was cold, calculating and unpredictable that was the worst. There was never any telling when he would strike.
“You do belong to me!” he said, his tone sharp and cruel.
She was his, no other man, human, vampire or demon could touch her. She belonged to him, and he was not going to let Marcus get away with it, not touching his mate that was a step too far.
“I am no ones!” she snarled, she walked towards him and shoved him.
Marcus watched as Seth’s eyes darkened in anger, “Is that so?”
Paige held her head high and stared at him, “Yes!”
He grabbed her and pulled her to him, “You belong to me, do I need to simplify that anymore?”
Paige pushed him away and slapped him across his cheek, she was pleased with herself when she saw the red handprint on his face. He just chuckled at her though and grabbed her again this time holding her hands so she couldn’t lash out at him again.
He dragged her over to the steps and pushed her down so that she was sitting, “Now you just sit there my darling, you can have a front row seat while I kill him,” he said pointing at Marcus.
Paige’s eyes widened and she tried to stand but he pushed her down again, “No!”
Marcus shook his head at her, “Stay there.”
Paige started to sob as she watched Seth walk towards Marcus, his fists clenched and the strong muscles of his shoulders tense, ready for a fight, a fight she had no wish to watch. She looked around in a panic as Seth pounced, she shuddered at the sound of bones breaking and bricks smashing as Seth slammed Marcus from wall to wall. She looked up and cried harder when she saw that Marcus was making no attempts to stop his attack.
She got up and rushed up the steps of the church, her heart started to thud as she spotted the holy water. She vaguely remembered Marcus had said something about Holy water having an effect on vampires, she had no idea what it would do to him, but she was going to stop him. She found a glass from a cupboard and filled it with the water. Without a second thought she ran over to where Seth and Marcus were and threw it right over Seth. The roar of pain that came from him and the smell of burning skin made her cower with fear, she threw up everywhere when the smell became stronger.
Not knowing what else to do she hid underneath a bench, terrified of what she had done, terrified that she might possibly have killed him. She covered her ears with her hands and cried, she couldn’t deal with hearing the agonising screams of pain, pain she had just inflicted on someone she loved. After a while she lifted her hands from her head when she heard nothing else, it was silent. Her heart felt as though it was going to burst out of her chest, it was so quiet all that could be heard was the erratic beating of her heart.
She opened her eyes slowly and looked around she saw nothing, it was suddenly so much darker, and so much more eerie. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath trying to slow her pumping heart. When she opened them again she choked on her own breath, lying on the floor next to her looking burnt and seriously pissed off was Seth.
“Boo!”
She screamed and tried to get away from him but he grabbed her leg and dragged her from under the bench, “You’ve been a very naughty girl!” he told her.
She slammed her eyes shut she couldn’t even look at him, his skin was black and burnt but his eyes were still the same beautiful blue, those eyes that had always sucked her in, and his fangs were still bright and as sharp as ever.
“Look at me!” he growled.
Paige shook her head, she couldn’t look, she was too scared, she couldn’t look at the damage she had caused. It sickened her to see how horrific he looked now, his beautiful porcelain skin burnt to a crisp.
“Paige look at me,” his tone was softer and reluctantly she opened her eyes.
“You’re okay?” she choked.
Seth raised his eyebrows in disbelief he was hardly ok, his skin was burning like a bitch and to top it off Marcus had escaped, okay was definitely not a word he would have used. She was lucky he had feelings for her, because if she had been anyone else he would have ripped her apart.
“Define okay?” he growled, his skin was already healing and smoothing out before her eyes.
Paige looked away guiltily, she had no choice, she couldn’t stand back and watch him kill Marcus. It wasn’t his fault, it was a meaningless kiss and no one deserved to die because of it. Seth was obviously reading her mind because he scoffed at her
“You read my thoughts you can see from them that kiss was innocent!” she snapped finally sick of tiptoeing around him.
Seth narrowed his eyes at her, he didn’t give a shit how innocent it was. It might have been nothing to her, but Marcus certainly enjoyed it. Deep down he knew it was his own fault, he knew he had pushed her to it with his erratic behaviour. He wasn’t one to apologise and wasn’t about to start now, no way.
“You kissed him out of spite, because you think I have feelings for April.” He told her as he sat down.
Paige wasn’t ashamed to admit that, yes she had done it out of spite. It hadn’t quite had the desired effect, all she wanted to do was make him feel the pain she felt but instead he just had a tantrum, a tantrum that nearly got Marcus killed.
“Don’t you?” she asked her voice rising.
Seth stood up and walked over to where she was and shook his head, “No I haven’t got feelings for her!”
“Liar!” she screamed.
She didn’t believe him, she couldn’t believe he could stand there and lie to her face. If he didn’t have feelings why change her. Why turn her into what he was, they had some sort of connection now.
“You’re so naive!” he spat.
Paige stood so that they were facing each other and raised her hand to him, but he caught it before she could hit him. She couldn’t take any more of his contradictions or his insults she was fed up of not knowing where she stood with him.
“I hate you,” she cried, the tears flowed and she finally let go of everything that had been bottled up.
Seth let go of her hand and let her slap, pinch and punch him. He deserved it, he had messed with her head for long enough and it wasn’t fair on her. He hated to see her so upset and to know he was the reason behind her tears hurt him in a way he never thought it could.
“I love you,” he whispered when she finally stopped hitting him.