Moon Sworn (The Bound Series Book 1) by JF Holland

cupboard like a good girl, but now she was rocking.  Her little arms around her knees as she watched the room and her mummy burn.  Then she turned her head away and faced the wall before she finally uncurled to do what she'd been taught to if anything happened.  She pulled at the floorboards near her feet with the string that was attached and they opened, she climbed down and pulled it shut behind her before crawling along the tunnel mummy had made.  As she got to the end, there was a vent on the outside wall and she pushed it out.  She climbed out of the vent but stayed behind the bush that mummy had planted there so she wouldn’t be seen.  She put the vent back in place and then lay flat on the floor behind the bush and waited.  She knew he was still around watching and waiting, her mummy had taught her how to hide and how to get away and had made her practice this weekly just in case anything happened.  She'd also remembered to spray herself with the magic stuff mummy had made and she'd not cried as mummy had used that machine to draw the words onto her side.  Mummy had said that one day she may have to make it on her own so she'd made her learn how to make the spray on her own.  The words etched into her side were her protection, to keep her hidden in plain sight.  It was written into her skin for all time with special ink that mummy had had made for her.
    She tucked bunny under her arm.  Bunny was her raggedy teddy that she'd had from being a baby, he went everywhere with her.  She traced her finger over the letters on her side and repeated the words, it made her feel like her mummy was with her.  She sniffed up and ran the back of her hand over her eyes and nose and waited a little longer, eventually she knew he'd gone as her skin no longer itched.  It always itched when he was close but she didn't know why.  Mummy had said it was her warning system, her own body telling her that danger was close and that she always had to listen to it.  So now the itching had stopped she came out from behind the bush with bunny tucked under her arm began to make her way towards her great aunts house.  Mummy said she had to go there if anything ever happened to her, and had shown her how to find her way there by herself.  She'd told her that great aunt Sophia would know what to do and that she wasn't to talk to anyone else, no one.  She'd said it was the only way any of them would be safe.  It had taken her hours to get there, every time she heard a car approach she had to hide.  She eventually got to her great aunts and knocked on the door.  Aunt Sophia answered on her third knock and when she opened the door, Maya threw herself crying into her arms.  Aunt Sophie picked her up and carried her inside and sat rocking her on her knee in her front room.
    Maya nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard someone enter the bedroom and come towards the wardrobe.  She didn't know how long she'd been sat there, but obviously it had been a while as it was even darker in here now.  Her legs were cramped and her neck was stiff from where it had been bent forward as she'd had her forehead pressed to her knees. 
    "God damn it Maya, where the hell are you?" she blinked as the panel was suddenly moved and she came face to face with Jaden's… dick.  She blinked again, rubbing at her eyes and looked again, nope it was still there, directly in her line of sight, she hissed.
    "Oh for fuck sake, cover up your junk. I've had a shit evening all things considered and I really don't need to be looking at your dick right now." She heard him sigh and the tired sound drew her eyes away from his rapidly growing appendage.  Shaking her head to dislodge the image as she slowly trailed her eyes up his body, frowning as she saw he was wearing a t-shirt but no pants as he leaned on the rail.  He'd pushed her clothes to one side as he looked down at her.  She watched his brow pucker, before he began to crouch in front of her, concern now