Marked: A Two Halves Novella (8 page)

“What are you doing to her?” I asked in a broken voice that
betrayed me. The drop of hope left in my heart urged me to run and sweep her in
my arms, but my instinct kept me away.

Xela lifted her head. Hatred intensified the glow of her
eyes.

“You thought you knew herrr!” A gurgle bubbled from the back
of his throat as he threw his head back and cackled. The seekers and demons
joined in his delight, their yelping echoing through the grand hall like a pack
of hunting wolves.

I looked at Xela again, and the glowing hatred held a spark
of death. The soul I knew was dying. My shoulders dropped, and I felt my heart
disappear along with hers as if it chose to be locked up, gone from this world.
Aseret owned the key that would keep Xela’s spirit locked away. I wanted to
scream, but my eyes concentrated on the magic brewing over my witch’s head.

The flame defrosted, flowing down Xela’s body like water,
streaming over her curves, each ribbon changing her appearance. The flame first
caressed her, then savagely reshaped the flesh. Her body shook with seizures. I
wanted to shut my eyes but couldn’t. The trembling stopped, her dark locks
meshed in webs twined with debris, her hazel eyes sunken in gray hollows, her body
coated in dirt and scum. Soon, the hourglass figure replaced with a lump for a
body. She no longer looked like my black witch. There was nothing about her I
would have loved. Even the heart I thought I knew began beating differently,
the rhythm strangling each pulse.

“What did you do to her?” I squeezed the words between my
grinding teeth, my hands clenched into fists.

“Thisss is who she isss, Xander. The only way to have herrr
back isss to join me.”

“Turn her back, and I’ll join you,” I blurted.

“Come forrrward,” Aseret ordered.

The hall fell silent. I saw no one except Aseret. His eyes
rolled back in their sockets as he chanted again. The pull inside my body
returned.

Aseret’s voice resonated in my head:
“Join the underworld
and you will have everrrything you’ve ever wanted. You will not be lost in an
endless oblivion. I will return Xela to the form you love. She will be yours
and only yoursss. You will feel no pain. You will rrrule at my ssside. Spare
yourrr soul mate, Xander. Isn’t she worth sssaving?”

There was nothing I wanted more than to have her back. I was
ready to give up my life for her. Would that be so bad to give up your life for
someone you loved? The other shifters and demons didn’t matter. Xela had her
soul wrapped around my heart.

I looked toward my witch, trying to find that spark in her
eyes that drew me before, but her eyes were blank, flatter than a can of opened
soda.
What did he do to you?
I desperately wondered.

The walls of the grand hall seemed to close in. My feet were
hovering above the ground. Aseret’s gaze pulled me toward him, and I let my
arms fall to my sides and my head loll back. As I floated closer to him, the
heat from the fire pit wrapped itself around my body, as if the flames were
fabrics preparing me for mummification. Ready to be taken by the underworld, I
looked at my left wrist where the mark of the sphere would soon be visible.

A memory flashed through my mind from when I was an
infant—I’d imagined this moment and how it would feel to have either of the two
marks.

The memory reminded me of who I was. I thought about my
sister, about Eric and the keepers, remembering what they’d said. If I chose
the sphere, Mira’s fate would be decided. Humans would have no protection. The
future of all three species would be at risk. Even if I wasn’t sure how I was
going to help them, I couldn’t let their destiny be decided by my personal
choice.

Aseret’s pull suddenly stopped, and I faced the warlock from
less than three feet, bound by blue magic light at my feet, no longer hovering.
Aseret held his arms palm-down in front of him; they streamed orange light. The
rock floor below them glowed, then split open. Within the gap, white shadows
floated like feathers in a gentle mist.

“What is he doing?” I instinctively moved to stop him, but
my feet were glued to the rock. A freezer laughed as I strained to break his
spell.

“He’s opening the hereafter,” Xela replied in a voice devoid
of care or passion. Any strength she’d muster, she used to open her mouth.

The chasm released a white spirit. It slammed into Xela’s
body. Treachery and pain brimmed in her eyes.

“Can’t you do something?” I asked.

She laughed. Aseret had not only changed her appearance,
he’d changed her soul. Or did he? Was all that had transpired in her lair an
act? Was she merely luring me to the underworld, as she had others? Aseret had
no intention of changing Xela back, I realized. He would not allow the cohort
who brought shape-shifters to the underworld to leave his side.

My left wrist burned.

“Ssilly shifterrr.” Aseret cackled as he focused on the
opening to the hereafter.

My choice had been made, willingly, and I hadn’t
accomplished anything. Soon, my fate and my sister’s would be decided. Aseret
was a liar—but I already knew that. I’d been blinded by Xela’s charms.

The glow faded from his palms. In a moment, the remaining
spirits would be released.

Aseret turned his attention to my wrist.

Mira, where are you? I need you.

The sphere began imprinting, burning itself into my flesh.
Then it stopped, and faded into nothingness.

I looked at Aseret in confusion. He was trying to hide his
disappointment.

Why did the imprint stop?
The glow under my feet
disappeared. I took a step back.

“You have nothing to fearrr, Xander. It will only take a
moment,” the demon lord explained.

I couldn’t be bound by the light while being marked—that
would imply force. My marking had to be done of my own free will.

“Xander, don’t move.”
Mira’s voice sounded in my
head.

My gaze slid across the hall, to the left. The air there
swirled, lifting the dusting of soil from the rocky floor and twirling it like
a newborn tornado. My sister appeared—alone.

“Ahh, two for the prrrice of one.” Aseret laughed, but his
joy diminished when the blue light reappeared at my feet. “Take it off!” he
yelled, but his demons only looked back at him, puzzled.

Eric now stood on the other side of the hall, palms up,
balancing blue spheres of light. New hope flared in my chest. Aseret’s plans
weren’t going the way he’d hoped.

“You’re meddling in my businesss, benderrr!” Aseret hissed
at Eric, his words harsh despite coming out at a snail’s pace.

“
You
are my business, Aseret. Have you forgotten I’m
an evil-bender?” Eric smirked.

“Bend elsewhere, not in my underworld!” Aseret’s flat nose
twitched as he floated backward.

“It’s not
your
underworld, you hypocrite! Need I
remind you what the underworld was supposed to be used for?”

“I remember,” Aseret snapped. “That has changed—and it will
soon be changed forever.” He looked down at the crevice into the hereafter.

“It’s time you’re reminded of who we are!” Eric’s lifted his
chin, and the fleshy spikes on his neck lengthened.

“Xander, don’t do it.” Xela’s familiar voice came from a new
body I no longer felt a connection to. “I will be bound here forever.”

My eardrums heard sizzling acid, not her sugar-coated plea.
“You are no longer part of me,” I grated through clenched teeth. My body
yearned for my black witch, but I knew I would never get her back. I was
furious with Xela—this Xela, not the old one. My instincts warned me that my
witch’s soul had been changed and was now controlled by a foreign influence.
The anger bubbled in my veins. Ready to jump at Aseret’s throat, I bent my
knees, but the blue light under my feet held me still.

Aseret floated closer to his seekers.

“Control yourself, Xander. We need to bind Aseret to the
underworld. You’re still vulnerable,”
my sister warned as she stepped up
beside me. Eric wiggled between us, his palms balancing the fiery balls of blue
sparks. The light holding me in one spot disappeared.

“You wouldn’t dare, benderrr!” Aseret hissed again, his
zombie seekers closing in on all sides.

“Don’t pay attention to them. They won’t hurt us,” said
Eric.

“They won’t? How?” I asked.

“The keepers will protect us.”

Aseret’s face sagged, and the strain to maintain his
composure showed in his eyes as they swung from right to left, looking for the
keepers. “Thisss is not a balanced fight!” Aseret growled.

“Actually, it is balanced now.” My father’s voice echoed
down a staircase that ran up a side wall. He stood before the velvet curtains
covering an entry at its top. Gabriel and Drake flanked him, their arms
outstretched. A thin beam of transparent light flowed from their hands toward
us. The magical energy formed a shield around us, protecting us from the seekers.

“It’s time you learned how to obey the rules of this world,”
the three keepers said in unison.

I had never seen Aseret show fear and didn’t expect him to
this time. Sure enough, he chose to revel in what he was about to do—he held
his arms out over above the crevice, the spirits within held only with a sheer
covering of light. “You’re too late!” He threw his head back and laughed. The
hood of his cloak fell from his bald pate. He snorted for air in between loud
laughs as he wallowed in his glory.

The seekers tried to break through the protective shield,
but they were zapped one by one, thrown to their knees.

“He’s unlocking the door to the hereafter,” I yelled as
energy from Aseret’s palms flowed toward the opening.

“Put your hands in my palms to bind him,” Eric said. “The
light won’t hurt you. We cannot let him open the hole.”

I placed my left hand on top of the blue sphere. Mira did
the same on her side. The electricity travelled through my body to form a new
sphere in my other hand.

Eric closed his eyes. The fleshy spikes protruding from his
neck vibrated. The blue spheres released light that hit Aseret in the center of
his chest. The force of impact threw him back against a wall. Even so, he
continued to release energy through his palms toward the spirits.

The spikes on Eric’s neck vibrated again, intensifying
another blow. Aseret howled as he strained to focus. One more hit, and he would
be done—bound to the underworld, unable to hurt humans and vampires.

His gaze flew to Xela. I heard his cunning voice in my head:
“You will regret this for the rest of your existence. The only woman you
could love will be lost to you forever.”
He turned his palms away from the
hole to the hereafter and pointed to the witch.

“No!” The sweet sound flowed from her mouth to my ears.

Aseret’s hate was greater than his need for a cunning witch.
He wanted to hurt me enough that I’d kill him. And yes, if he hurt any part of
my Xela left in that body, I’d kill him.

I pulled away from Eric and sped toward Xela before Aseret
could disintegrate her.

Aseret released his blow. My fate would be decided by the
stream of magical fire. I was ready to sacrifice anything to save her, even
damn the world.

It only took a second and I pushed Xela aside. Her body
slammed to the floor, her head striking the rocky surface. She lay unconscious,
blood oozing from beneath her skull.

Belatedly, I realized Aseret’s fire never hit me. I turned
in time to see my sister shake dirt off her clothes. It appeared she had sped
toward the demon lord, slamming into him and redirecting his blow toward the
hole to the hereafter.

Xelay lay motionless. My left wrist burned.
I killed her.
I killed Xela.
I looked in despair toward my wrist, expecting to see the
glowing sphere.

A hush fell over the hall. My gaze flew up to the seekers,
demons, even the keepers, who all stood still. I thought they were
concentrating on my wrist, as I was, but they weren’t. I looked up, their
attention was on the open crevice. White spirits flowed freely through it to
hover over the seekers. Their see-through white shadows vibrated with chaos and
confusion. The hereafter had been opened.

“They’re trying to locate their bodies,” Eric said.

“It hurts.” Mira gasped and fell to her knees. Her eyes
closed, clutching her wrist.

I had done it. I’d decided our fate. One stupid mistake had
tied us to the underworld.

The inferno-like agony suddenly turned to ice, and the pain
eased. I let go of my wrist, expecting an orange glow. Instead, I saw three
wavy blue lines. The water mark.

“But . . . how?” I gaped.

Aseret shouted “No!” cutting into my confusion.

The continuous stream from the blue spheres Eric held in his
outstretched hands wrapped around Aseret’s body. It wound downward to connect
his feet to the stone beneath him. Eric stopped, looking toward the keepers.
They nodded, then disappeared into a vortex, leaving behind only swirling dust.

I didn’t get a chance to stand before the room spun. The
gray stone whirled together with the orange glow from the seekers’ eyes and
turned to green. When it stopped, I found myself at the hill with my sister and
the evil-bender who had just changed our lives forever.

* * *

“Did I kill her?” I asked after promising Ma we’d eat
goulash before discussing any new business. The food was good, but I had no
heart to tell her Xela’s was much better. Or perhaps it was her company that
made the food scrumptious.

“No, she’s alive,” Eric answered. He kept his distance from
my sister.

My confusion was mirrored on her face. She’d looked that way
since this morning.

“How did we get the mark?” I asked.

 “You sacrificed your life for hers.” Eric rubbed his neck
where the fleshed spikes sunk in.