Bronze

Chapter 22

Leah

"Anything else I can get for you?" the waitress asked me as I stared outside. I looked up at her, stopped myself from asking for an escape, and shook my head instead. 

I was tired. More tired than I had been in a long time. 

I rested my head against my arms on the table, keeping my eyes glued to the highway. Somehow, I knew the man Markus sent would come from there. 

Absently, I raised my hand to touch my mark and shivered. It occurred to me then that I would have to hide it in order to fool Markus. Every nerve under my skin rebelled against the idea, but my logical brain blanketed them with one chilling word: Sacrifice.

Seeing the waitress making a sweep of the tables again, I waved at her and motioned for her to come to me. She smiled and began walking. 

"Hi," I mumbled when she approached. "Do you have any concealer around, or know anyone who has some?" I asked.

She bit her lip in concentration. Then, she smiled again. "I might know someone." She ran off behind a door and came back a minute later.

She handed me a small tube of beige toned concealer. "It's from another server," she said.

"Oh. Thank you," I replied politely. I had hoped she would walk off after that, but she stayed rooted to her spot beside me. Sighing, I drew the collar of my shirt down, passed my shoulder, and tried looking down at the healed scar. 

The waitress gasped in horror. Everyone around us was whispering about me now, eyeing both of us suspiciously. 

"Did something bite you?" She asked sliding into the seat across from me. 

I attempted to control my eye roll. I couldn't actually come out and tell this random human the truth, as much as I wanted to. It was not only against Lycan law, but it would also turn this whole diner packed full of people into a panicked frenzy. 

People are smart, but mobs are dumb. If one person freaked out and believed my story, then it was only a matter of time before everyone else did, too.

"You could say that," I told her with a shrug. "But it's all healed." 

I raised up the reflective surface of the phone so I could see and carefully opened the concealer with my teeth. It tasted like powdered sugar and smoke. 

"What happened? What animal was it?" She kept asking. 

I dabbed the applicator on a small patch of red skin. It tingled as I blended it out with my finger. The shade was darker than my own complexion, but it would work if I kept my shirt up all the way. 

I shrugged again. "I was in my bedroom." I dabbed a little more. "This dog came barging in like a beast, huffing and growling every few seconds!" I finally looked up at her and saw the amazement in her eyes. That was what kept me going. "He appeared to be angry."

"Who let him in?" She questioned, resting her chin on her palms, her elbows on the table. 

"My friend Lander," I said, slightly bringing back my annoyance at him for encouraging Kane in the first place. "Anyway, the beast was mad- like really mad. I tried pushing it away, but he kept coming at me." -I motioned to the large scar on my shoulder and neck.- "That's how I got it."

Not that I mind it much, I thought bashfully. 

"Did it have rabies?"

I laughed at that. "It seemed like it, but no. I'm fine."