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Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtChapter 61
The next week passes in a daze, one I wish stayed forgotten. Marco hasn’t spoken, just sat in her room for the entire time, only
leaving for her funeral. Axton and I have tried to get him to leave, knowing he needs blood but nothing we do seems to work. Yet
as each day passes he slips further into psychosis, induced by his insatiable hunger. After the second day when we realized he
hadn’t fed since four days before Sondra’s death, Axton having counted the blood bags in the basement, he forbid me going into
the room by myself.
Which is hard because one thing I know is Sondra wouldn’t want us
moping, life goes on, and things need to be taken care of. So, for the past two days. I have done nothing but organize housing
and work details for our move to the city. Axton today is dealing with neverending strigoi attacks, his absence from the city really
amped up the attacks, so much so Osiris having taken over for a mere week, rang him begging him to come back to help since
the city has been in a panic state since the first one, on the night of Sondra’s death..
We couldn’t seem to catch a break and even the boys are teething so it’s been a never-ending clusterfluck. Having finished
packing up the kitchen I walk to the closet to start that task next. Most of the pack was already in the city, the trucks having
picked up the women’s belongings yesterday, so there is only the main packhouse left to move. My mother and Luke are moving
into the penthouse apartment Axton owns. So today we are planning to pack what’s left of the pack house for the truck arriving
tomorrow.
Reaching the top shelf, Axton’s arms wrap around me from behind as I pull down the box from the top cupboard in the huge linen
closet. “I need to head into the city,” he whispers, dropping his head onto my shoulder.
“How long? I can meet you at the packhouse tonight, mom and I should be done here by this afternoon hopefully,” I tell him and
he nods and then sighs.
“Has he come out?” Axton asks me, and I shake my head peering down
the hall toward Sondra’s room. None of us have touched her room. Most of Sondra’s belongings we have put in storage for
Marco to go through when he’s ready, despite him claiming he wants nothing.
Axton exhales kissing my cheek then wandering down the hall toward her room. “I put the boys in their bouncers downstairs.
Luke is watching them while your mother brings some boxes up from the basement,” he tells me as I follow him. Axton stops at
the door and knocks, but like usual Marco doesn’t answer so he pushes the door open. Marco is still sitting in her rocking chair,
staring at her bed, his fingers steepled under his chin, with a dark expression on his face.
“Marco?” Axton calls out while stepping into the room. Axton moves cautiously, stepping in front of him.
“Get up, Marco.” Marco says nothing, but leans back in the chair, watching Axton.
“I could have changed her,” he mumbles. His voice rather raspy after so long of barely speaking.
“Sondra didn’t want that,” Axton reminds him.
Marco rocks back and forth in her chair and nods. “No, she didn’t. Maybe if I convinced her when she was younger she may
have taken the offer, but I was too late. We were always too late. Fighting against time, looking for the perfect opportunity which
never came and when it did, she was too old to take it. She believed she was a burden to me.” Marco says, looking
over at me.
“Always too late. I was too late to stop Floyd from marking her, too late to stop their wedding, too late at telling her I love her.
gave her up to him thinking that is what she wanted when all she wanted was for me to save her from him.” Marco whispers,
Marco rubs a hand down his face, looking rather
tired, it makes me wonder if he has slept at all, or if he has just been lost in his own head.
“And now that is the burden I carry, the burden of time. Time I thought I never had and will never get again.”
“So why are you wasting more of it by sitting here?” Axton asks him.
“Time is irrelevant without her now. I was always fighting to get back to her, and now I have no reason to keep fighting; I already
lost any time I perceived as valuable,” he chuckles.
“I wasted it, and because I did, it killed her.” Marco states.
“I don’t know, but your crazy is starting to show and if Sondra was here, she would be beating it back into its box. So instead of
wasting more of this never-ending time you have, why don’t you come do something productive with me, like save the pack that
Sondra worked so hard to build from being eaten by a strigoi?” Axton suggests.
Marco pauses and seems to think for a second. Yet Axton is right, so long in here and he is starting to show sides of him he
usually kept hidden. He wasn’t even trying to hide his fangs, usually he did, mostly he tried to keep what he is hidden. However,
now he dropped the mask and doesn’t
seem to care.
“I can’t go into the city. I am not even sure I can leave this room right now, Axton. Your scent is enticing enough. If I step out
there, I may just kill somebody. Sondra would be furious if I killed somebody, especially one of her own.” Marco tells him, only as
he speaks the words do I realize why he is in here. Lost in his own thoughts, he ignored instinct for far too long, leaving him
trapped and making him ravenous. The only safety was in this room, away from temptation.
“Are you trying to make me look bad? Damn, Marco, I swear you just like the damn taste of me. Blood bags not doing enough for
you these days, you have a freezer full downstairs?” Axton snaps at him while
unbuttoning his jacket. I stare at him, wondering what he is doing before looking at Marco. Axton shrugs off his jacket, tossing it
on Sondra’s bed, and shakes his head.
“I just bloody ironed this shirt too,” Axton huffs, unbuttoning his white button down shirt. He hands it to me and I hesitantly step
into the room, only for Marco to move with speed I miss. Axton’s threatening growl sends shivers down my spine when Marco
moves with a blood crazed gleam in his eyes. Axton cutting off his path toward me as if he expected it. Marco shakes his head,
staggering back and blinking rapidly.
“Mark my mate and I mark your chest with a stake,” Axton growls, while Marco shakes his head, his body twitching and he
swallows.
“Elena, leave the room. Shut the door behind you, please.” Axton says calmly, holding his shirt out to me. I glance at Marco the
Axton who stands chest to chest with Marco. My hands shake as I take his shirt, rushing from the room as he asked. My heart
thumps erratically in my chest when I peer back in.
“Close the door, Lena. I’ll be out in a minute,” Axton tells me. Lexa urges me to listen, but I worry for my mate. Reluctantly, I shut
the door. The moment I close the door I hear a savage growl, and struggling. I hold my breath, and Lexa presses to the surface
in case Marco comes out.
Pain flickers through the bond fleetingly, as I hear stuff being smashed around and my hand twitches for the door handle. I can
hear fighting, hear that Axton shifted when I hear a loud thump which makes my heart jolt in my chest. When silence falls, I grip
s voice.
“Did you have to take a chunk out of me? I’m not a damn steak, you damn cannibal,” he scolds. Exhaling in relief, I open the
door to find Marco pressed to the floor, Axton straddling him naked, having shifted back. He has a huge bite mark on his
shoulder, ribs and even his shoulder blade. Blood cascades over his chest and back and I near faint at the sight of him. Axton
looks like he had a blood-bath, puncture wounds in his neck
yet not in the correct place to mark him. Marco, however, is also in the same state, Khan having torn him to pieces. The room is
nearly completely upturned, and stuffing from the mattress covers the floor like
snow.
“Your balls are touching my damn leg!” Marco snarls.
“Your teeth were in my damn neck, so I guess we’re even!” Axton retorts. I clear my throat and both of them look at me.
Axton looks down at Marco pinned on the floor and Marco wipes his mouth with his thumb, before sucking the blood off it.
“Wow, well this is awkward, just one man’s balls on another man’s leg, a few love bites, nothing sordid, just a drive-thru snack,
nothing to see here,” Marco quips. Axton growls at him, shoving off him to his feet.
“Clearly, he likes to be the top! I don’t know how I feel about that,” Marco says, dusting himself as he sits up.
“Those were my good pants,” Axton snarls, standing up.
“And that was my good hand, you damn savage! You know you’re poisonous to me, right?” Marco snarls, holding his hand up to
show Axton. I look at his hand to see where Khan had bitten him, his hand black and looking infected.
“Fuck!” Axton curses.
“I’m fine. I’m too old for such a pissy bite to affect me,” Marco tells him. Axton snarls, reaching for his hand.
Marco jerks it back. “We don’t need to hold hands afterward. Your mate is right there, have you no manners,” Marco snaps at
him and I raise an eyebrow at him while Axton rolls his.
“I can see why you and Sondra got on so well, the same snarky sarcastic
sense of humor,” Axton snaps as he bends down, snatching his jacket and holding it up. Claw marks shredded through it. He
groans. “Hers was far better,” Marco replies, and even now, with his normal facade back in place, I can still see the mention of
her name causes him pain. Just now, not in a blood craze, he has better control of his emotions to mask it.
“You can borrow one of mine. I have few in the car,” Marco says, back to his normal self.
Marco moves to the dresser, the only thing really left intact. He picks up a photo from it.
“Next life my love, next life we’ll get it right,” he mumbles only just loud enough for me to catch. Axton watches him worriedly,
then grabs a sheet, wrapping it around his waist. A few minutes pass and Marco seems to be slipping back into the same
depressive mood.
“Marco?’ Axton calls, drawing him back to us. Marco jumps and sets the photo back down. He clears his throat and straightens
his shoulders.
“We have work to do,” Marco speaks, walking out of the room and past me without so much as a glance back. Axton wanders
out slowly and sighs.
“Reckon, he’ll be alright?” I ask him, and he shrugs.
“No idea, but at least he is out of this room,” Axton tells me. He presses his lips to mine briefly. “I will see you tonight.” he sighs.
“Now to go try to squeeze into one of his damn suits, or I am going to the meeting in this old sheet,” he chuckles, and I hold his
shirt out to him. He takes it, pecking my cheek.
“I love you!” he calls over his shoulder.
“Love you too,” I chuckle, watching him leave. When he does, I turn back
to close Sondra’s door. Sucking in a deep breath, I pull it closed and get back to work.