The Marked by Inara Scott Page A

house. I turned to see Cam behind me, framed by the light in the doorway.
    “Trevor!” he snapped to someone behind him when he saw the gang headed in our direction. “Tell Trevor I need him. Fast.”
    Barrett and the others inched back toward Lucas’s car. Without thinking, I moved closer to the house—and Cam. Unfortunately, this left me isolated from the group. Not exactly what you’d want, when facing down a pack of menacing teenagers who were probably packing something under those coats and vests. Still, when Barrett motioned to me to move back in their direction, I shook my head helplessly. My legs seemed to have frozen.
    Cam paused next to me as he strode toward the street.
    “You should go back to the house, Dancia,” he said in a low voice.
    His softly spoken command gave me a thrill of pleasure even as it hardened my resolve to stay put. If something was going down, I wasn’t going to let Cam deal with it by himself. I had a strong suspicion Barrett and the others would be less than helpful in a crisis.
    Esteban elbowed Lucas. “I’m thinking this party officially sucks.”
    “What do they want?” I heard Tara whisper.
    “I’m sure they want to be friends,” Barrett said.
    Someone snickered. I was too horrified to do anything but stare, wide-eyed, at the approaching nightmare.
    Cam paused at the edge of the driveway. The gang stopped in front of him.
    “Nice night, isn’t it?” Cam said evenly.
    “Very nice,” the leader of the gang agreed. He jerked his head to the side in an apparent signal to his troops, and they fanned out in a wider formation.
    “What do you want?” Cam asked.
    “I thought I’d introduce myself,” the leader said mildly. He had broad shoulders and a thick chest. His round face might have been sweet if it hadn’t been for the fact that he radiated a quiet kind of fury just under the surface. He wore a leather bomber jacket; his bandanna was tied around his neck, train-robber style. “The name is Thaddeus.”
    “Nice to meet you, Thaddeus. Now, there’s a party going on here. I think it’s best you leave.” Cam crossed his arms over his chest.
    “So unfriendly,” Thaddeus said reproachfully. “You haven’t given me a chance to deliver my message.”
    “What message?”
    “Your Watchers have been giving my people a hard time lately. We’d like for it to stop.”
    I took an involuntary step back. They knew about the Watchers?
    “I’m afraid I can’t do that for you,” Cam said, seemingly unfazed by Thaddeus’s demand. “There was a little disturbance up at the school the other day. We tend to take these things seriously.”
    “That’s too bad. I had hoped we might be able to get along.”
    Cam leaned back on his heels. “It’s up to you. Leave now, and we can.”
    Thaddeus shrugged. “If that’s the way you want it.” He turned as if to leave, but took only one step before he stopped. “Just one more thing.”
    “What’s that?” Cam asked.
    “A message. For your boss.”
    That was when Thaddeus did exactly what I’d feared. He reached inside the pocket of his leather coat and pulled something out. I had just opened my mouth to scream when I realized it was a brick, not a gun or dagger. Deliberately, he turned toward Lucas’s car and hurled the brick at its front window. The sound of shattering glass sent me ducking for cover, my head in my hands. A second later, I looked up just in time to see Trevor running down the driveway toward Cam, with Sam, Kari, and Geneva behind him. Meanwhile, Thaddeus was headed right for Cam.
    Meeting the gang leader’s charge, Cam launched himself at Thaddeus with a series of blindingly fast movements. I stared in amazement. Cam was into martial arts, but I was unprepared to see him enter the fight with arms and legs flying—he even went from a full backflip to a spinning kick. The display seemed to stun Thaddeus, allowing Cam to get in a satisfying kick to the face. Thaddeus might have been able to hurl