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

to solve on our own. Whatever happens to her will be on our heads, and I think that each one of us can feel the weight of that on our shoulders.

Me and Cail haven’t even met the woman, and yet I can see that he feels the same pressure as I do at the thought of being hurt because of us. All in all, we’re all a bundle of nerves as we do our best to be patient while Morpheus tries to track her. Time seems to be moving slowly as I watch Morpheus intently, and I see the exact moment that triumph shines in his eyes before he jumps to his feet.

“Alright, I’ve got it. She’s at one of the addresses from the list we gave her this morning. Come on, we don’t know how much time we have.”

Cail gets to his feet and we quickly make our way to the front door. We burst outside like the very beasts of hell are on our heels and make our way towards Zaphyr’s car. We pile in as Morpheus starts the engine and within moments we’re pulling out of the driveway. Morpheus pulls Zaphyr’s phone from his pocket, calling who I assume is Melissa’s hacker friend as we speed through the streets.

We pull up in front of the house and jump out of the car, scrambling up the driveway as quickly as we can. Zaphyr gets there first and bursts through the door. The rest of us quickly follow behind him, and the sight that greets us has my stomach dropping. Halfway through the room is a small woman who is clearly unconscious and seriously injured, lying in a small pool of blood.

What surprises me though, is the fact that not far from her lies a dead Harpy. We thought that they were extinct so the fact that one is lying here dead surrounded by destruction is fucking worrying. There’s no doubt in my mind that the wounds covering the woman on the floor were inflicted by the Harpies' claws. The issue is that none of us have the magic to deal with the poisoning, and if she doesn’t get treated soon, then she will more than likely die.

I try my best to think of someone we know that would be able to help, but the only ones that know how to deal with Harpy poisoning aren’t in the city. I run my hand through my hair in frustration as I watch Zaphyr fall to his knees beside the prone form. He leans forwards, checking her pulse, and lets out a shaky breath of relief.

Just then a woman bursts through the door and when she notices Melissa laying there in the state she’s in, she lets out a broken cry as she rushes towards her. Her mocha skin, combined with the green of her piercing eyes is almost as deadly and her lithe, toned body that looks ready to rip each one of us apart. I can restrain the gulp that I take when she whisks by me and her anger washes over me.

She falls to her knees opposite Zaphyr and hovers her hands over the top of Melissa, seemingly not knowing where to put them. She turns to Zaphyr as tears collect in her eyes, making them almost turn luminous with the pain and resentment shining from within them. With a vicious scowl, she nearly growls at Zaphyr, sounding like a wild animal ready to pounce to protect who she cares about.

“What have you done!? I told you if you hurt her, Prince or not, I’ll return the fucking favor!”

“I didn’t do anything! She was like this when we got here. I don’t know what the fuck happened, all I know is that the wounds were caused by the dead Harpy behind me.”

The woman's head snaps in the directions of the corpse, widening at the sight. Her hands begin to tremble as the full weight of the situation settles on her shoulders and her breathing picks up the pace with the knowledge. I understand why she’s so shocked. Most of the younger supernaturals believe Harpies just to be myths, and that’s how we usually prefer it.

“Fuck! I thought those things were more like scary stories to make kids behave! Who the fuck would even know how to treat this shit!?”

“Anyone we have isn’t close enough to get here in time. What about your Coven Mistress, she should be close and usually the knowledge is passed down when each Coven Mistress takes over?”

The woman doesn’t answer Zaphyr as she pulls out her phone, quickly dialing a number and waiting impatiently for someone to answer. When they do, she quickly cuts them off.

"I’m sorry, Isabella. I don’t have time for our usual greetings. It's Annika, I need you to come to the address I’m about to send you, It’s an emergency.”

From Annika’s expression, I can tell the conversation isn’t going well. This is why we never work with Witches so high up in the ranks. Most of them would never agree to help people outside of their fucking coven. I’m not saying that most Fae aren’t just as bad, but we try not to allow that elitist bullshit to get in the way when someone’s life is on the line. Isabella says something to Annika and I can see the frustration building in her face as she snaps down the phone.

“Listen! My best friend is laying in front of me covered in fucking wounds inflicted by a Harpy. So I don’t have the time for your fucking bullshit, I’ll deal with any punishment you have for my treatment of you afterward, but right now I just need you to get your ass over here!”

She hangs up the phone, quickly sending a message to her Coven Mistress before turning back to Melissa and hovering her hands over her again. This