Marked for Vengeance by S.J. Pierce Page B

rolled his
eyes. “When he tried to knock my head off, dad.”
    “Ok, ok,” he
conceded and patted his son on the back. “Want me to walk you to your room or
do you want to sleep with your old man?”
    He raised an eyebrow.
    “Ok, I get it. You’re
getting too old for that now. Back to your room, then.”
    His arms wrapped
around his dad’s neck. “Love you.”
    “Love you too,
son.”
    *
* *
    Dawn broke over
the tops of the buildings, and Alyx stood on her patio to check the weather
with a fuzzy white robe wrapped snugly around her waist. During the night, the
wind brought with it a thick blanket of clouds and the promise for a dark,
dreary day.
    She went inside
to put on a pot of coffee and pulled her phone from her purse to see if
Benjamin had called. His flight should have arrived sometime during the night.
    Two text
messages awaited her in the inbox, both from him.
    She sat on the
couch, bouncing her leg nervously as she anticipated what they would read. He
would usually get irritated if she didn’t answer him back right away, and he
had sent the messages last night when she visited the rooftop. Morning, doll,
didn’t want to call you late last night and wake you. My flight has arrived.
Going home to sleep, call me when you get this. We’ll plan on dinner tonight .
The other read; Safely home. Love you. She immediately dialed his number
and it rang to voicemail. He must still be asleep.
    She propped her
feet atop the coffee table and reflected back on their year together. It wasn’t
typical for her to be in a relationship. In all the years she had lived on
Earth, this was her first one. She had always been more concerned about her
duty than finding a love interest. However, in this time period, dating was a
‘normal’ thing, and they were ordered to blend into society as best they could.
Singles dated in the city as much as they changed their underwear, and working
in an office where your nosey co-workers eventually find their way into your
business, they questioned her choice to remain habitually single.
    She couldn’t
completely blame her decision to date Benjamin on peer pressure, though. Part
of her wanted to know what it was like to connect with someone in that intimate way and figured this would be her last chance on
Earth to experience it. After she had given him a chance, their relationship soared. He was smart, thoughtful, and a true gentleman. His parents had raised
him right. He was a little ostentatious, and could be mildly jealous at times,
but was never mean. They had yet to fight with each other or have a heated
conversation of the like.
    She considered
herself lucky to find someone like Benjamin. Besides ultimately helping with
her cover, he was also a ‘perfect on paper’ kind of guy. His occupation as a
surgeon meant that he was away a lot, so even though they had been together a
year, in total they had actually only spent around six months of actual time.
This worked for her because she enjoyed her independence and being able to come
and go as she pleased. He also didn’t want children, which was fine with her. Because
of what she was, she couldn’t conceive.
    But on top of
her new-found, seemingly perfect bliss, something happened that she had never
expected; the complicated emotions of also wanting another – her ‘painter man’.
Because of this, she couldn’t help her distance from Benjamin lately. The
object of her recent fascination pulled her in another direction. Even though a
relationship with her ‘painter man’ was forbidden, her heart managed to linger
with him somehow. A part of her knew it wasn’t fair to Benjamin, but she had
yet to do anything about it. She didn’t want to surrender her Wednesday and
Saturday nights on the rooftop, and she didn’t want to break it off with her
boyfriend. Sooner or later, though, one of them would eventually have to give.
Nothing could be pulled in two directions for long without eventually snapping.
It was a simple rule of