The Mark of Fate: Book 3 of The Marked series Ford, Rinna (most read book in the world .txt) 📖

it up and examined it carefully. The bags back at the California mansion had a drain which allowed us to pour out the contents into a cup to drink it. Of course, the one I was holding had nothing like that to make consumption easy. It was completely sealed all the way around. The fucking jerks. They wanted me to tear into it like an animal.

Cursing under my breath, I shuffled the bag in my hands until one of the corners was facing up, leaving a bubble of air at the top of it. Using my very human teeth, I clamped down on that corner gently and tore away the plastic, then spit out the piece that ripped away, only spilling a bit of the thick liquid onto the floor.

I looked down at the little hole in the corner of the bag and slowly brought it to my lips, ready to drink.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, lass.”

I immediately stopped when I heard Ronan’s familiar Scottish brogue coming from two cells away and searched for him with my eyes. It took me a second but then I realized what I thought to be a crumpled blanket on the mattress was actually my missing caster mate.

“Ronan,” I breathed out, and spilled a little more of the blood. He was there. He was alive.

Ronan’s topaz eyes shone in the dark as they watched me intently from his spot on the mattress. Besides his voice, his eyes were the only thing that resembled him at all. His dark wavy hair was longer, just past his ears and disheveled. Not at all like the perfectly styled hairdo I was used to seeing on him. His facial hair had grown as well, leaving a thick, bushy beard covering his face and neck. And his clothes, one sleeve was completely ripped off of his once white dress shirt and his pants were covered with dirt and things I didn’t even want to imagine what they were. I would have never known it was him by just looking at him.

Ronan slowly sat up and stretched his arms up and over his head before his eyes found mine again.

“It might be poisoned,” he told me, nodding toward the bag of blood I forgot I was holding. “Or worse, spelled to make you compliant. Either way, you’d be fucked.”

I raised one eyebrow. “Have you done that in the past? Poisoned and spelled a vampire’s blood, I mean.”

“Not me personally, but I’ve seen others do it for the good of the Council.”

“For the good of the Council.”

Ronan nodded his head. “Yes, for the Council.”

Our eyes stayed locked on one another’s for almost a half a minute before I looked back down at the blood in my hands, bringing the hole just under my nose.

“Would a vampire be able to smell poison or spell, if there is one?”

He thought for a second. “Maybe. I don’t know, Millie. But I wouldn’t try it.”

“Don’t call me Millie,” I retorted and inhaled deeply. I knew my vampire senses were locked away just like my ability to call on the predator itself, but I needed to try. I was planning on drinking it anyway, but I just wanted some kind of reassurance.

I didn’t know what I expected but by the smell of it I knew it wasn’t human blood. It had to belong to an animal. It was repulsive, but didn’t seem deadly.

“Oh, shit.” I covered my nose with my free hand and backed my face away from it.

“What is it?”

I heard the panic in his voice and saw he had moved closer toward me in his cell, as if he could get to me to help me with whatever problem there was. There was an entire cell between us, not to mention thick bars in between that.

“Animal blood, I think,” I finally answered. “I can drink it, but it smells wretched.”

Ronan’s look of concern changed to one of almost humor as he watched me bring it back to my lips. Matias once told me vampires can live off of animal blood, but it isn’t as satisfying as human’s blood, and it smelled and tasted like shit. I didn’t think he was lying then, but I didn’t expect him to be so spot on. I was literally gagging from the idea of drinking it. Leave it to Ironshot to torture me with shit-tasting blood.

But I needed it. It would give me energy, so drinking it down would be a necessary evil. Gagging again, I took my free hand and pinched my nose and tipped my head back, letting the foul liquid flow down my throat quickly. Ripping the bandaid off and all that.

Once the bag was empty, I dropped it and immediately felt it start to come back up. One hand covered my mouth and the other covered my stomach as I burped, but thank fuck, I kept it all down. I didn’t think I could handle tasting that shit twice.

“Oh, God,” I muttered and leaned back against the bars. “That was horrible, but at least I feel a little bit better.”

“That’s my girl,” Ronan grinned.

My body warmed at his words and the tone he used when he referred to me that way, but I immediately squashed it back down. That was when I realized I didn’t feel him.

In the past, whenever I was near one of my mates before we were bonded, I could feel them. It was like a tickle on the back of my neck that made me nervous and giddy all at the same time. I didn’t feel that at all, sitting about twelve feet away from the caster who Fate picked to be my mate.

It was freeing and heartbreaking all at the same time. I knew it was because of Dev’s potion. Moving my hand down to the pocket in the waistband of my leggings, I touched the small bump where the vial stayed hidden. I still had every intention of getting rid of it, but I