Well, hello again! Sure feels good to see the stats spiking again, and I'm very grateful for ya'll's commitment to this story! Wow, it warms my heart a little! Since this is somewhat of a restart to this story (having not written on it for like forever) I would like to know how many chapters you want out of it? Would you be interested in a sequel when this is to end? And in that case, should I write about one of the other boys – say Tyler – while seeming together Reid and Mel's story? The end to this one is probably the only thing I'm certain on and that will hopefully draw a tear to your eye ;) Please leave me a comment with your thoughts, it would be really helpful right now!

Chapter 9
Embarrassment and relief

The day seemed to be moving along in slow motion, the lessons about thrice as long. It was right at the start of fourth period, which was history, and it was the one I was having alongside Reid. Yay.

I was sitting next to Tammy and Lauren, who were chatting away about the movie they'd seen this Saturday, as Reid and Tyler entered the room. I didn't even look up at them, but I still knew just were in the room they were and where they were heading. Tammy and Lauren's faces shifted to something that looked quite comical as I felt Reid coming closer. Sure enough the guy sitting in the seat on my other side found some reason to leave his chair and the smell of cologne and chlorine filled my nose.

"Hello, Mel," his voice drawled as he slung one of his arms around my shoulders.

I prided myself in not giving him a verbal answer and just kind of waved in his general direction, as I kept my gaze on the girls. "So?" I asked, to prompt them to continue with the gossip they were handing out like candy, feeling Reid's arm stiffen around my shoulders. I couldn't help the small smile that grazed my lips.

As the girls chatted on and I lost interest in the matter, I could feel Reid lean in closer to me. "You mad?"

I didn't even look at him as I shook my head. Instead I fastened my eyes on the blackboard and the teacher who was trying to get the pupils attention – it was, however, a lost cause. I could almost feel Reid roll his eyes as he turned to his friend and struck up some conversation they'd probably had going on before I got in the way.

It wasn't until now I snuck a look at the handsome guy sitting next to me. He looked just as usual; completely flawless with his uniform in a slight disarray, the top buttons of his shirt unfastened, his sleeves rolled up, his pants low on his hips. It wasn't so hard to fall for this guy; he was the bad boy that every girl dreamed of, the one that she wanted to be nice just for her, to prove his love on a higher level. Reid wasn't the type to be "cured" though, and that was one of the things I liked about him.

Tyler noticed me looking at the other boy and raised an eyebrow at me, making me roll my eyes and Reid to look at me. He in turn raised an eyebrow and look about to snarl something at me when the teacher finally got the attention of the class and the chatter died down. Giving him a winning smile I put my elbows at the desk and rested my chin in them, to listen on the lecture that was to come. It wasn't interesting at any level, and seeing as I didn't need this knowledge, I took a nap.

It wasn't until the bell chimed and Reid's hand shifted to hold on to my waist that I woke up, hissing at the sensation of his fingers grazing my skin. Being ticklish is a curse.

He chuckled at my side, keeping me in my seat as the people fled the classroom, Lauren and Tammy hesitating in the doorway, only to be dragged out of the room by Tyler, who obviously thought himself helpful.

"Why are you mad?" Reid's low voice caught me off guard as his stomach slid into my line of vision. Looking up to meet his gaze, I noticed he'd placed himself in a manner that cut off my escape routes; one leg off either side of me, butt on desk. Once again, yay!

"I didn't know you dream of me, Reid," I said, hitting him where he didn't expect to be hit. A smile twisted my lips as I saw the confusion on his face and how realization slowly dawned.

"Seriously? I thought girls wanted their boyfriends to dream of them?"

"Boyfriend?"

"Yeah, I'm your boyfriend." The "duh" at the end wasn't needed.

"No, you're not?"

"I'm not?"

"No."

"So you just let any guy sleep in your bed naked, serve you breakfast in bed and take you on epic dates?"

Rolling my eyes, I got up from my seat, grabbing my bag and made an effort to step over his leg. However he raised it so that I was straddling it. Hello butterflies, you perverted shitheads.

We didn't say anything of a few seconds, I just stood there awkwardly while I felt his smirk at my back.

"Please, lower your leg." Curse the breathlessness of my voice.

"You sure you want me to?"

I had to swallow. "Yes."

Excruciatingly slowly he lowered his legs, making sure to slide it along my thighs. I held my breath until the torture was over, then I drew a deep one and sprinted for the door. Or, rather, tried to sprint to the door. Reid caught me around the waist and pulled me back between his legs.

"What are you-?"

He twisted me around with a jerk and his lips crushed into mine, interrupting my words. A couple of seconds later I couldn't understand why I had tried to run, instead, I found an urge to stick my fingers in his hair, and so I did, feeling the softness of the tendrils as they tickled my fingers. I had to shift to stand on my tiptoes as he slid down from the desk, until he reached down and grabbed me around my thighs, making a moan escape my lips, and after the a blush to cover my cheeks. I felt his smile against my lips before he lifted me up and I put my legs around his lips. This time it was his turn to moan.

Before long he had put me down on the desk, and the situation was starting to get out of hand. I knew I shouldn't let him touch me like this, but I couldn't stop him. Some kind of madness was pushing me to go through with it, to get closer to him and to never stop.

As the door was shoved open and a gasp could be heard, all I felt was relief.

Muttering to myself I managed to shove Reid off of me, and made a beeline for the door. The girl that had stepped in on us looked flushed, but that was all I gathered from her before I exited the classroom and ran for the nearest exit.

I never made it that far.

About ten feet from it I felt something smash into me, and I froze. Touching the back of my head, there was nothing out of the ordinary. But there had been an impact. Shrugging it off, I stayed still to catch my breath, putting one hand to the wall to steady myself. It took my a couple of seconds, but when I was able to breathe normally again, I rolled my eyes at myself. Why had I run? That was just pathetic. I should have held my head high, smirked at the chick and left in style. That was what I would have done had it been anywhere else. But obviously I hadn't.

Chuckling to myself I let go of the wall and started to move back towards the cafeteria. But as I'd taken three steps that same feeling of impact returned and something seemed to buzz in my ears. As the buzzing got louder and louder my balance went off. Staggering as I tried to regain it, my vision blurred. But I could still see the thin legs moving closer hesitantly. Clad in jeans and converse, they hurried closer as I was about to hit the floor, catching me a foot from it.

"Just relax, Melanie, it'll make it easier."

As those words were whispered by a muffled voice, I felt the finality of the blackness surround me. Taking one last shaky breath, I let go of what little control I had and went with it.

Excruciating pain tore through me and jerked me from the peacefulness. Gasping in pain and opening my eyes to their limit, I was assaulted by light and awareness.

As the first sensation gave way to another, I managed to let a scream out. Fighting to get back in control of my own body, I found that I was chained by the wrists to the opposite sides of the room, my feet glued to the floor. My arms were spread wide, giving me no room to move or escape the pain. Then I noticed the small table at my side, just out of reach for my hips. It was covered in tweezers of different kinds, long, thin, thick, small, bent and sharpened to the point they almost looked like needles. The next thing I noticed was that I was topless.

"What the heck?"

"Oh, you're awake."

"No shit. What clued you in, my screaming or my cursing?"

There wasn't an answer, instead, she put a finger to my back and pressed. The pain returned and I gasped again, almost screaming but just as I was about to, she removed her finger and the pain reseeded. Breathing in heavily I turned my gaze to the tweezers again.

"What's with the tweezers? You gonna pluck my backhair out?"

There was a slight chuckle and a slim hand reached out to move over the silver instruments, before it stopped over one of the thinner ones. "No. They're going to help me kill you."

My breath stopped as I pondered it, but no, I was bound to Chase and Reid so how could she kill me without killing one of them? And with a pair of tweezers no less. "You can't kill me," I stated, confident I was right.

Again with the chuckling. "Sure I can. You're all the same, confident you can't be killed, until you are. Let me tell you, Melanie, that there is a reason why you are Marked." She tapped my back with the tweezers. "It's because you've been dead." She paused for effect and I almost felt like gasping in mock, I held it in though. "You probably died a couple of years ago and Chases witchcraft keeps you from remembering the life you had so that he can use you for his own purpose. That's unnatural though, and someone has to keep things in order. Seeing as you have this Mark right here," she tapped my back again, "you are easy to find and, well, honestly, quite easy to kill. If you know what you're doing. I should warn you though, it can be quite painful."

With that said, I could again feel the chill of the tweezers on my back, only this time she shifted them so that the sharp tip rested against my skin, before she pushed. The needles cut into my skin, making a slight move before she jerked them out, and as she did, I felt something pop free from inside my body and slide with them, slowly. Pain seized me and I yelped, unable to keep it in. As the sensation stopped a bloody feather landed on the floor in front of me.

And I figured it out.

She was talking about a mark. I only had one thing that could be anything like that and that was the tattoo, which she was currently digging in. It was a pair of wings, right, and so they had feathers. Chase had done the exact same thing. Only not in this scale.

Hours passed while she again and again pierced my skin, pulling at the feathers that I'd just thought was decoration but that obviously was substantial. I'd screamed my throat raw, my eyes were full with tears and I could feel my body growing weaker and weaker with every feather she plucked. When the light from outside had faded she had lit candles, and they had burned down about an inch.

"You'll soon be free, Melanie, there's only three feathers left."

"Awesome," I snarled through clenched teeth.

I had long since given up on trying to get loose and on being saved. Chase didn't care, so much I'd figured, maybe he was waiting on Reid to understand I was gone and come looking. Tough luck, the boys had some sort of club meet and were competing each other, which would keep them occupied for a couple of hours after school. Reid wouldn't have spent a thought on me since lunch, and since I didn't feel comfortable around water I wouldn't have shown on that meet anyway.

Tammy and Lauren would be at the meet and so excited they wouldn't even remember their own names. They'd probably fainted already from the muscled bodies moving in a way that could be quite... suggesting.

A hiss escaped my lips as the tweezers again pierced my skin, this time making my knees give in. I didn't move as much as an inch, but I could still feel it, all of my control was slipping and I wasn't going to last for much longer.

"Two more," she said in a singsongy voice, almost teasing me with the fact that my life was slipping out from between my fingers.

When she pulled the next feather out I sobbed, my tears mixing with the blood as they hit the floor. My entire body was shaking, my head lolling forward as a floating sensation hit me.

Feeling like I was in a dream, my body soaring high up, music filling my ears, mixed with laughter. I felt at peace, and it was the best feeling I'd ever felt.

Somewhere far away I could hear yelling and explosions, and my soaring was interrupted as someone tried to ground me, a deep voice mumbling in my ear.

Nothing could break the spell I was in however, and I stared with wonder at the feathers suspended in the air before me.

One.

Two.

Three...