Blood Pet

Chapter Twenty Three

A/N: Almost 110,000 views! Wow, that's just crazy! Thanks so much! I apoloigize for this late update. These past couple of weeks have been really busy and I haven't had that much time to write! Thanks for all the fans, comments and votes! I really do appreciate it! :)

Song Choice: Addicted by Kelly Clarkson

I didn't know whether I should be happy or extremely pissed off about the tattoo's reappearance. On the one hand, it probably meant that Tristan could now fully track me, but on the other hand, he could probably fully claim that I was his again. An idea I didn't really like all that much.

It took only a second to realize why Annabelle would see the mark and think there was a problem. I remembered Alexander explaining to me how a mark worked. A human could only be claimed with a mark from a vampire who owned them. Any unmarked human was fair game for any vampire who wanted to claim them. Without my mark, Christophe could keep me and torture me because Tristan obviously had no proof that I used to belong to him. Obviously, his word wasn't enough and if his word wasn't enough, I knew mine wouldn't be worth anything. With the mark, Christophe was now probably holding me illegally because I didn't belong to him. The fact that I was even referring to myself as "belonging" to Tristan pissed me off. Was I now totally comfortable with the idea that I belonged to him?

Christophe's angry voice descending the stairs interrupted my thoughts.

"There's no way that the tattoo is back, Nicholas." Christophe spat, "I had that stupid witch remove the damn thing. It's not –"

He stopped talking once he got a look at my shoulder. The black 'T' was clearly visible. He stopped dead in his tracks to stare at it before he started cursing; alternating between English and some other language I didn't understand.

He stalked towards me, still glaring and cursing. Once he was close enough, he grabbed my arm and yanked on it hard, causing me to nearly barrel into his chest sideways. He studied my arm for a few moments before reaching out his other hand and touching it. He cursed again when the tattoo shocked him and he jerked his hand away and glared at me.

"What?" I spat, "You actually think I did that? Seriously?" I asked, "Well, I didn't."

He continued to glare at me for a few moments before moving his eyes back over the tattoo, which seemed to be pulsing even more now.

"Well, this definitely presents a problem. I can't very well keep you if you wear my brother's mark, now can I? I think I'll just have to take care of this then," he said, "I can't allow my brother to get you back."

"Funny. Neither can I."

He smiled at me, "Oh, you want to be back with him, Jessica. I can tell just by looking at you. You want my brother just as much as he wants you."

"I do not."

He continued talking, completely ignoring my denial, "Not that it matters now since the minute I get this horrible little tattoo off your shoulder, he will, once again, have no proof of any claim over you."

He quickly untied me from the table, but before I could even begin to struggle to get out of his grasp, he had shoved me into the chair next to the table. Someone handed him some rope and he wrapped it around the upper half of my body and the chair before tying it off at the back of the chair, right near my elbows. He then tied both my feet to the chair; I did my best to kick him, but I couldn't really get any good jabs in with how I was sitting. Once my legs were tied, he wrapped a piece of rope around my thighs and tied if off underneath the chair.

Once I was firmly tied to the chair, he stepped back. Even though I knew it was no good, I couldn't help but jerk against my bonds to see how strong they were. I could barely move an inch tied down as I was.