Marked: A Two Halves Novella (4 page)

“Xander, you’re going to get hurt.” She gave me a jar with
green ointment.

“Are you saying that as a mother, or as a witch?”

“A witch. Put some on your tooth.”

“And she’ll hurt me.” I scooped the goo with my finger and
rubbed it on the molar. The physical pain eased, but the worry about my future
with Xela lingered.

“She won’t have a choice, hon.”

The breath shuddered between my lips when I sighed. “How
long do I have?”

“Three days. Then it will be decided.”

She smiled and came and came to wrap her arms around me.
“I’m sorry.”

There was no doubt she meant it. Ma wanted us to be happy,
but the future was not up to her. “I love you, Ma.”

“I love you too, Xander.” She tightened her embrace.

I pulled back to look into her eyes. “I promise I will not
disappoint you.”

Her eyebrows narrowed as she sighed, then stroked the back
of my head. “Just remember I’m here for you if you need me. So is your sister.
I know you’ll make the right decision.”

“By ‘right’ you mean get the water mark?” I asked.

“No, I mean you will decide what’s right for you, Mira, and
the future of this world.”

I snorted. “No pressure, eh?”

“You can handle it. You’re one of the most powerful beings
on Earth.”

“So, if we can get the sphere by killing someone, what do we
do to get the water mark?” As soon as I thought of the mark, I felt a tug, as
if my soul disagreed. How would Xela feel about it? Would she care? Maybe there
was a chance we could be together. Even if I got hurt, I’d let Xela do with me as
she pleased.

 “You know I cannot meddle, but ask Eric.” She twirled her
finger at the spellbound doorway.

My gaze flew to the common room, where Mira was sitting in
Eric’s lap while he flipped through Ma’s magic book; he was calling her sugar
in every other sentence.

“A war is brewing, Xander. Aseret is preparing to strike at
the vampires. He has to be bound to the underworld and you two have to be the
ones to bind him. Everyone else has joined the demon lord. Those who didn’t
were killed. The balance has shifted. You two are the last of the unmarked and
the last of the shifters who can still help the world. For you, becoming part
of one side or another is more important than ever.” Ma’s hands pressed on my
shoulders as her face drooped and eyes sunk into their sockets.

“I will not fail you. Let’s get this over with.” I kissed
her on the cheek and stepped through the lifted spell, its remnants fogging the
doorway.

The love birds were smooching when I entered. “Get a room.”

“Tempting.” Eric kept his eyes on Mira. I recognized the
lust on his face and thought of last night with Xela.

“You’re the one who’s supposed to mark us? Why?” I
challenged.

“I’m not the one who’s going to mark you, but I know which
mark you ought to have.” Eric shut Ma’s spell book and returned it to the side
table.

“How?” I crossed my arms at my front.

“Because I’m just like you.”

“You’re a shifter?” I stepped closer, re-examining the
evil-bender.

“No, I’m a watcher, but we come from the same breed.”

Mira jumped off his lap to stand beside me. She mimicked my
posture of a probing investigator. I liked this part of being a shape-shifting
twin—Mira always had my back and I had hers. In a conversation about our
future, we were both involved, supporting each other.

“How do you know?” she asked.

“It’s my job to know. I work for the keepers, and we come
from the keepers.”

“Come from the keepers?” Mira repeated. “So we don’t have
parents?”

“You do.” Eric looked toward the kitchen, then lifted his
finger before I interrupted. “No one abandoned you. Being left in the woods was
necessary for you do develop the required skills and emotional barriers to
become watchers. Protect the innocent, hunt and kill the tainted. It’s the
reason you cannot control your feelings. Our essence comes from a range of
experiences to later fulfill our purpose in this world, or the one beneath us.”

I’d known what Eric was talking about since my first memory,
but being in the human form and juggling emotions differently than other
mammals came at a price: self-doubt. The need to belong, to know where you came
from, was greater. Now we had to control our feelings, instead of letting them
guide us and we weren’t sure how. Many creatures set out on their life journey
without parents; why couldn’t we? Turtles, fish, crab—even birds leave their
nest as soon as they can fly and find food.

“And you’re sure that’s the mark we’re supposed to bear?” I
pointed to his wrist.

“Yes.” He stood up from the chair like a soldier, nodding.

Mira contained the squeal I heard in my mind. And I was
happy for her, really. But what did that mean for me? Finally I’d be marked,
but was that the mark I wanted? Would it prevent me from being with Xela?

“It’s for the greater good of the species. Humans, vampires,
and warlocks all depend on us. It’s the path you need to take to be happy. The
happiness may not come right away; it may take years, decades, even centuries,”
he added, as if he knew my decision to be a good guy would mark the end of me
and Xela.

“So we don’t have a choice.”

“I’m sorry, Xander. But sometimes it’s not about choices.
It’s about fate—though your fate will be decided through your choice. You will
choose when the time is right.”

I snorted. “What kind of a choice is it, if it’s already
decided?”

“It’s not decided. I’m only telling you what I feel you will
choose, and my intuition hasn’t betrayed me yet.”

“Do you know who will mark us?” I asked.

“No.” Eric shook his head. “It’s been a long time since a
marking has been done and it’s different for everyone.”

I relaxed my muscles. How would I break this to Xela? Would
she still want me as much as I wanted her?

I retreated to my room, promising myself that whatever was
decided, I would make every effort possible to stay with Xela. It would be my
decision whether to see her, even if she hurt me, because I knew she wouldn’t.
What Ma saw in her spell didn’t matter.

The night dragged. I lay on my mattress, fiddling with the
white gem between my fingers. Mira and Eric tried to be discreet, but when
their moans intensified, I had to press my hands to my ears. Their leaving
didn’t help. Even when they were far off in the woods, I couldn’t block out her
happiness. The mental image of what lover boy and my sister were doing burned
in my brain.

I closed my eyes, and the first person to visit the back of
my lids was Xela. My fingers fiddled the jewel, and squeezed it. The air
blossomed with the scent of red roses. When I opened my eyes, Xela’s face was
inches away from mine. I didn’t get a chance to greet her before her lips were
dancing with mine, and our bodies connected soon after. She knew exactly what I
wanted—her. All I wanted was her, no one else.

Would all this change in three days? Would I have to
relinquish the only woman I felt connected to in all the eternity I lived?
Perhaps her black magic could give us some answers.

“You’re worried,” she observed when we’d sated our raw
passion.

“Concerned.”

“Why? Isn’t this what you want?” She lowered herself onto me
again, urging my hips to move with hers.

I moaned. “Yes, but I want this forever.”

“Forever is a long time, Xander,” she reminded me. “I’m a
black witch who can’t control what happens to her fate.”

“Isn’t there a way?”

“I don’t know.” She paused for a moment. “I’d have to do
some digging.”

“Then dig.”

“Until I reach the other side of the world.” She licked my
ear, then drew her tongue down my body, stopping midway.

I moaned again and reached down to hold her shoulders.
“Wouldn’t you want this forever?” I asked when she paused and looked up at me.

“Yes, but I’m marked. I don’t have a choice of who I am.”
She moved back up, repositioning her hips.

I lifted my head to caress her breasts with my lips. “You’re
choosing to be with me,” I said against her skin.

“Then yes, if I could choose this forever, I would.”

That’s all I needed to know, that she wanted me as much as I
wanted her. But: “What if I got the water mark?”

“Would your body still move the same way it does now?” She
laughed.

I grinned. “Better.”

“Then get the mark.” She moved her hands down to control my
hips.

“You really are a black witch, aren’t you?”

“One of a kind,” she teased.

Sobering, I stopped the momentum and warned, “I’m serious,
Xela. I may have to be one of the good guys.”

Xela came down to rest by my side, propping herself on her
elbow. “Is that where you want to be? You know it’s easy to get this.” She held
out her wrist.

When I locked my eyes on the sphere, it seemed to hypnotize
me the same way Xela could. I stroked my finger over the imprint. The heat
flowed like a calm stream through my veins, not a tsunami.

“You’re proud of who you are,” I said.

“I couldn’t choose who I could be. You can. And whichever
way you decide to go, I hope you will come back to me.”

I looked into her eyes. “I promise.”

She smiled, but my worries didn’t fade. Ma’s words came to
mind, and the knowledge that I would not be with Xela.

“Let’s go for a walk.” She jumped up and pulled a black tank
top from a drawer in the wooden dresser.

“You’ve got a lot of those?” I asked, remembering the one
I’d removed the previous night.

“Yes, but they’re not unlimited.” She winked.

I made a mental note to buy some for her the next time I
went to town, so I’d be able to rip them off her more often. She pulled on
black leggings that hugged her thighs.
Lucky leggings.
As I got into in
my jeans and shirt, I smirked remembering how her legs wrapped around me
effortlessly.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To do some digging.” She grabbed my hand, adding, “Don’t
stray from me. I don’t want the seekers to sense you.”

“I won’t let go.” I tightened my grip.

For the first time, I used a door to leave Xela’s lair. As
soon as it opened, the heat from the underworld hit me as if I’d bumped into a
wall. It felt like I’d been wrapped in tin foil and thrown into an oven. Or a
steamer—the hot air was heavy with moisture, the humidity condensing into
droplets on the uneven floor and dampening the earthen walls of the dark
corridors Xela led me along. She moved through them like a blind person,
counting the steps in a whisper before the next turn. When my head hit the low
ceiling, I shifted to shrink two inches. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of
rotten eggs and dirty socks, the signature stench of the seekers. There must
have been hundreds lurking nearby. Mingled with that odor was the sulfuric
smell of geysers.

“We’re under Shoshone Park,” I said.

“Yes. Hold on.” We stopped to peek cautiously around the
corner. “Okay, it’s clear.” She tugged my hand.

We stepped into an octagonal hall. Tipping my head back, I
looked up at a chandelier suspended from the middle of the natural granite
ceiling, its hundreds of candles illuminating four support pillars that rose
from the floor to roof. Flames roared angrily in an oversized fire pit in the
floor, the acidic odor from whatever was burning bit at the inside of my mouth.
I shifted to change my taste buds.

“You live that close to Aseret’s dungeon?” I asked in
surprise.

“I’m one of the few.”

“Why?”

“Shh.” Xela turned to face me, her hazel eyes sparkling with
power I hadn’t seen before; as if, somehow, this place strengthened her. She
stepped forward with confidence, pulling me along. “No one’s here.”

We ran toward the fire pit in the center of the room.

“Where is Aseret?” I asked.

“This hall is only used for grand affairs. He’s probably in
his dungeons. We don’t have too much time.” Xela leaned over the stone wall
surrounding the raging flames.

“Careful.” I tugged at her arm.

“Don’t worry. It will show our future.” She straightened and
stood before the pit, tilting her head forward, eyes closed. Her arms dangled
at her sides, palms facing forward. Small tremors passed through her body as
her eyes moved under the lids.

Then she exhaled and her shoulders drooped as she slowly
turned toward me. Xela didn’t have to say anything for me to understand her
expression. The spark I’d fallen in love with was gone from her eyes; I knew
our destiny forked.

“We need to go back.” She nodded toward one of the five
openings in the walls.

I inhaled and nodded.
Seekers
.

We skittered into the opening that would take us back to
Xela’s burrow moments before Aseret and his zombie seekers entered. I stopped,
pulling on Xela’s hand, wanting to eavesdrop.

She shook her head and whispered, “Too dangerous, you can’t
stay long.”

“Just one minute,” I pleaded.

Xela sighed but didn’t argue.

Within the hall, the seekers’ commotion stilled. I pictured
Aseret lifting his twig-like arms to gain attention.

“The time hasss commme,” he announced.

The seekers roared, then fell silent again.

“The vampirrres will be dessstroyed, and humannns will
follow.” The way he spoke, with the words oozing from his mouth, was both
irritating and hypnotizing. “We will ruullle!” he hollered, and I pictured him
levitating the way he always did when he was high on his own power.

Xela tugged insistently at my shoulder, and I complied,
following her to the lair.

I welcomed the cooler temperature inside her home, dropping
to sit cross-legged in front of the fireplace. Xela came to my side, stroking
my arm.

“He’s planning to kill everyone,” I said.

“You care,” she cooed, leaning in. The tips of her fingers
touched my pelvis as she pulled the shirt over my head.