Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1) by Paige Orr (the red fox clan TXT) 📗

house instead of someone's home. The whole thing is fucking creepy, and I sure as hell don’t want to spend long in here. Walking Into the bedroom, I check out the closet and when I open the doors I’m greeted by the sight of something that belongs in an Amish home instead of the home of a Fae.

Fae are known for being highly sexual beings, so I doubt the woman that this house belongs to would be caught dead in drab grey turtlenecks and black floor-length skirts. The fact that none of the people that Zaphyr has had investigating the disappearances has pointed this out to him leaves me feeling bewildered.

Surely even something like this could be a clue. It’s like whoever took her also replaced everything in her home. What if the abductor has come back to do this after the Fae finished their investigations? But what would the point in that even be? I’m getting an awful feeling about this, but I can’t leave the investigation half-finished.

More than ready to do my final sweep of the house, I concentrate and switch on my sight before scanning through the rooms. To my surprise, I actually manage to find something. On the walls in each room are strange sigils that I’ve never seen before. They’re completely different from the sigils in Adelaides cave, and something about them feels fucking sinister.

Goosebumps spread across my skin as chills travel up my spine. I spin in a circle trying to take in every sigil and luckily enough I figure out that it seems to be the same phrase or sentence repeated over and over again. Knowing that I’ll never be able to remember the sigils, and it’s not like I can take a picture of something other people can’t see. I pull a writing pad from the bag hanging from my shoulder and quickly scribble them down.

Hopefully, Zaphyr and Morpheus will be able to recognize these from somewhere. If these are Fae sigils, then it’s a bust, but something tells me that these are fresh. Why else would Adelaide tell me that I needed my sight to find the answers?

Not wanting to stay in this house a moment longer than I have to, I make my way towards the front door. Just as I’m about to reach for the handle though, I hear a set of keys slide into the lock and quickly turn, running into the nearest room.

With my heart beating out of my chest, I find somewhere to hide as I hear the front door opening. Shit! I have no clue who it could be coming here, but either way, it doesn’t look good for me. If it’s a concerned family member, they’re not going to be happy about a stranger being here. And if it’s whoever is responsible for the disappearances, then I could be in danger.

Reaching into my bag, I pull out Justice and Mercy, flicking off the safety as I take deep breaths to calm my heartbeat down. I hear whoever is in the house shuffling around in the living room and I creep my way towards the door. Crouching down, I slowly peek through the gap I left in the doorway when I came into the room.

My whole body freezes and my breath catches at what I see before me. On top of the coffee table, in the middle of the living room is something that I’ve only heard stories about. With wings spread wide behind her back and her poisonous claws poised to attack. The Harpy scents the air, clearly searching for something.

Whatever it is, she soon finds it as her maw gapes open, letting the light glint off of her razor-sharp teeth. She jumps from the table onto the floor, making her way towards the kitchen. The sound of her talons clacking on the hardwood floor causing me to shiver. I have no fucking idea if the iron bullets loaded in my guns will do her any damage, but I know I have to get out of here.

God only knows what that thing will do to me if she finds me lurking about, and I’m not prepared to find out. As she disappears behind the kitchen counter, I slowly nudge the door open to make my way into the living room but stop dead in my tracks when the hinges creak. My heart beats out a staccato rhythm as I pray the beast doesn’t come to investigate the noise. I know I’m shit out of luck though when an ear-piercing screech comes from where I last saw her.

Giving up all pretense of being quiet, I make a break for the front door, hoping to avoid this fight. It’s not that I haven’t trained in every style of fighting I could, but as a human, even having that knowledge would mean nothing against a supernatural.

As I reach the front door and stretch out my hand to open the door, the feeling of the Harpies claws grabbing the back of my shirt stops me in my tracks. One second I’m standing still, fear filling me, and the next I’m airborne as she throws me across the room.

I crash through the coffee table, groaning at the impact, but luckily I manage to keep a hold of Justice. Mercy must have fallen somewhere as I was flying through the air, but having one gun is better than none.

I roll to my feet as the Harpy charges me with her talons outstretched, and I get my gun aimed at her before she reaches me. Not making it in time, I scarcely manage to twist out the way of her grasp, bringing my gun hand around and hitting her with it on the side of the head.

The blow doesn’t even faze her as she turns to me baring her teeth in a hiss and I bring my foot up, kicking her in the gut. The