The Soul's Mark: Broken (20 page)

“She’s mine,” Josh growled, and he fought
to keep his skin in place through the rush of red-hot rage that washed over
him.  “You will not touch her.”

Cole chuckled and patted him on the
shoulder.  “Twenty-four hours.  If you haven’t gotten her to cave, then I’m
taking her out.”

If Amelia had been worried about how the
other soulmates would take the news, she hadn’t needed to.

Zooey and Greg’s house was only two houses
down on the left from hers, and Amelia decided to run instead of trying to
fight her way down her crammed driveway with the Jeep.  It took her just under
five minutes to get there, but by the time she did, she was ready to hurl.

Her mind raced with all the possible
scenarios, and each one was worse than the last.  What if they blamed her?  It
would be justified, she realized.  She was the one, in fact, who had started
this whole chain reaction, but she didn’t think she could take any more hateful
glares.  She was certainly getting her fill of them from all the hunters. 
After that thought, they spiraled out of control.  What if they were glad the
bond was broken?  What if they wanted to be free of the burden?

And then there was Josh’s idea plaguing her
thoughts.  What if she gave the vampires back their souls?  Could she do that? 
Did she want to?  Each time she thought about it her stomach twisted and
tumbled as if there was a circus going on inside her.  She knew she would need
to use the same magic—black magic—to do it, and that scared the hell out of
her.  But what scared her even more was the fact that she was considering it at
all.  She had been so sure that she was past this.  She had accepted the bond
and Mitchell, but if that was true, then why did Josh’s idea actually seem like
a solution to consider?

When she reached the beige stucco house,
her nerves were on fire.  She had to fight back the urge to run away, but all
of her worries had been pointless and completely unnecessary.

Maybe it was because they were already
in
the know
, but not a single one of the soulmates batted an eye when Amelia
had launched into the story.   She told them about the curse, and explained
that the legend, which they all knew, was actually about her and Mitchell.  
She recounted the burning and told them all about how in her next life she had
blamed Mitchell for it and wanted him dead.

“After that, I kind of created vampire
hunters to kill him,” Amelia said, wringing her hands nervously in her lap. 
“And then when Mitchell killed them all, I made Josh.  He’s a cross between a
witch and a hunter, and I made him for me.”  She let the last words hang in the
air, letting them all grasp onto the meaning of what she had done.  Again, she
was surprised that not a single one of them blamed her, or at least they didn’t
give any indication of it if they did.

“Two days ago, Josh and Cole, well, they
kidnapped Meg and me.  Tristan …” Amelia stopped short, sorting through her
thoughts and trying to pick what was relevant to the story.  She still wasn’t
entirely sure how Tristan fell into all this.  When she continued, she dropped
her gaze and began to fidget, wrapping a curl around her finger.  “Josh used my
power against me.  He had thought that if he broke the bond, then everything
would go back to before I placed the curse that took away the vamps’ souls.  It
didn’t work.”

“What are you trying to say?”  one of them asked,
and Amelia looked back up, trying to pinpoint who had spoken.  All twenty-two
of them sat in a semi-circle around her on the floor, staring at her with lost
and confused eyes.

Amelia took a deep breath and counted to
ten, bracing herself, and then she whispered, “Right now all of our soulmates
are running around town without a soul, without any ties to humanity.”

The silence was loud, and Amelia felt as if
an orchestra was playing in her ears as she watched everyone process her
story.  There were many blank faces, and a few nods of understanding, but there
was one thing that Amelia saw that was the same for all of them.  Emptiness. 
It was as if someone had come in and sucked out all of their insides, leaving
only a shell behind.

“Where’s Lucy?”  Zooey asked, breaking the
silence.

“Erin changed her,” Amelia answered.  “She’ll
be okay.”

“You saw her?”

Amelia nodded.  “Yes, I saw them all this
morning.  I went to the fair with the hunters.  The vamps were there hunting. 
Mitchell …” she paused, biting back a sudden urge to let the building tears
loose.  She took a few deep breaths and pushed on, knowing that they all needed
to hear this, and she was determined not to keep anything back.  “He could have
killed me.  He used persuasion on me, and I walked right into his arms, but he
let me go.  He told me to run.  He’s still in there, and I’m going to fix this,
guys.  I’ll figure it out and get them back.  But right now, we all need to be
careful.  They remember us.  I saw it with Mitch today, and Eric has shown
signs of it with Megan, but that memory … I just don’t know how long it will
last.  Mitch … it was like he thought he owned me, as if I was a pet or a toy
for his amusement.”

When Amelia finished, the glazed eyes and
dampened cheeks of her audience didn’t go unnoticed.  She wanted to cry with
them, but before the flood could start, she rushed on.  She had to be strong,
for them, for Mitchell, for her family.  “Josh, well, he had an idea,” she
continued hesitantly.  “I could try and just give our soulmates their souls
back and get rid of the bond altogether.”

“What?” Zooey yelped, and jumped up to her
feet.  “You can’t do that!  You can’t just take them away from us!”  Tears
streamed down her face in a heavy waterfall.

Amelia was stunned.  She hadn’t expected
that, not from one of the human soulmates.  With all the pain the bond could
cause, she had really thought that they would have at least considered the
idea.  “Zooey, it wouldn’t take them away,” Amelia said.  “Greg would still be
yours.  You just wouldn’t have the bond or the pain.”

“But I love the bond,” Xara said.  She got
up and wrapped her arms around Zooey, who was crying uncontrollably, gasping
and sobbing.  She looked at Amelia with Zooey huddled under her arm, and a
dreamy far off look clouded her face.  “The connection … it’s amazing.   The
feelings, the love, the passion, it’s … it’s … like sunshine.”  Her cheeks
flushed, and she sneered.  “You can’t just take that away.  I thought you
cared.”

Amelia dropped her head back down, unable
to look at them, and she suddenly felt sick.  “I do care,” she whispered. 
Could she really be the only one who would consider life without the bond?  She
fought away the guilt and pushed aside pain, and she blurted, “Look, I have to
go, but you guys need to stay inside.  Lock the doors and don’t open them for
anyone.  Not even your soulmates.  I’ll fix this, guys.  I promise.”

It didn’t take much convincing for them to
stay put.  They decided they wanted to stay together, and Amelia spelled the
house.   Again, she was taken aback at how well everyone was just accepting
this news.  The townspeople didn’t seem surprised by the lockdown; the
soulmates believed everything.  It made Amelia wonder how many disasters had
happened in this town before she came.  Whether it was their willingness to
accept it or that they had already been through a few of these calamities,
their
togetherness
gave Amelia strength, but more importantly, it gave
her hope.  Warm and lustrous hope.

The hope died fast.

Back at home, Amelia looked around the
crammed kitchen.  Clearly, their house had turned into the official
headquarters, a sanctuary for their side of the battle,  even if she didn’t
really know what
their
side was, especially with the random sparks of
something, that Amelia thought resembled humanity, showing up in the vamps.

The house was in a state of havoc.  And if
the house was like this, what about the rest of the town and the rest of the
world?  Amelia wasn’t naive enough to think that the vampires weren’t hunting. 
They had seen the evidence on TV, and she knew that had been their plan at the
fair.  She had only counted thirteen then, fourteen including Mitchell, and she
knew that the town held a little more than twice as many.  They were
everywhere, and right now, they were most likely killing recklessly, without so
much as a thought for their victims.  Or at least they would be sooner or
later; she was sure of it.

In the kitchen, the tension was crushing. 
Tyler and Megan refused to work with Josh and Cole, not that Amelia blamed them
since their only solution to the problem so far was killing the vamps.   From
what Sally had told her, Cole had made it clear that he planned to start with
Eric.  The unexplained burn marks, which shimmered slightly with the telltale
signs of magic that dotted Cole’s shirt, showed Amelia exactly how Megan had
handled his remarks.

Amelia glared at the four of them through
narrowed eyes, with her hands on her hips.  She guessed that her expression
projected every bit of the anger she was feeling, because in seconds, the
kitchen emptied, leaving Megan, Tyler, Josh, and Cole looking guilty, ashamed,
and more than a little nervous.

“What the hell is wrong with you guys?”
Amelia asked; her voice was thin but controlled.

Tyler shrugged his shoulders with a lazy
lift, Megan’s jaw twitched, and Josh kept his eyes on the floor, studying the
dark marble tiles with so much concentration, that Amelia figured he was
counting the speckles.

“Josh, give her the note,” Tyler said,
leaning against the island.

“What note?” she asked with a huff.

Josh didn’t look up from his floor
inspection.  “I don’t know what he’s talking about,” he grunted.

Tyler folded his arms over his puffed out
chest and glared.  “Just give it to her.”  There was a smirk forming on his
lips that Amelia knew well.  It was the
you’re in so much shit
smirk
that usually surfaced when Eric did something completely retarded.

“There’s no note,” Josh snapped, and then
he smiled at Amelia.  Cole chuckled, clearly enjoying Josh’s unease, or maybe
it was the huge, flashing question mark that Amelia was certain was on her
forehead.  She glanced at Megan, who looked just as confused.  Amelia didn’t
say anything.  There was something about Josh’s quick answers and snappy tone
that made the hair on the back of her neck prickle and stand on end.  She stuck
out her right hand, palm up, and waited, tapping her foot on the floor
impatiently.

Josh glanced at her hand quickly and then
began to fidget, shuffling from one foot to the other.  “It’s nothing, will you
just drop it?”

“Give her the paper, man,” Tyler snickered,
and stifled a laugh.

“Amelia,” Josh said, his voice pitched, and
his eyes pleaded.

Amelia narrowed her eyes further.  Clearly,
he was hiding something.  And by the look of him, it was something that he desperately
didn’t want her to know.  She racked her brain, trying to figure it out.  Josh
paled and grumbled something, and Amelia held her glare, gritting her teeth. 
After a second, he shoved his hand in his pocket, producing the wadded up ball
of paper, placing it in the center of her palm.  She unfolded it, flattened out
the creases, and began to read.

Amelia,

You need to leave this town.  Run away
and never look back.  I have tasted your blood, and I fear the next time we
meet, you will not survive it.  I know you are probably wondering why I care,
but that is a question I cannot answer.  All I know is I am drawn to you and
that you must fear me.

I will give you a head start, but
remember, I am a predator.  I will track you and find you.  So I beg you, never
stop running.

Mitchell Lang

Amelia gasped and read it again.  She
looked up at Josh, hardly seeing him, and asked, “Where did you get this?”

Josh didn’t answer.  Instead, he backed up,
moving away from the people who were gathering around them, and Amelia
followed, pacing after him.  Heat built and flooded her cheeks, and she balled
her fists.  He went straight for the study, and ushered everyone in.

“He found it on your Jeep,” Tyler said,
strolling over to the desk chair and sitting down.  He leaned back, propping
his feet on the desk and putting his hands behind his head.

“What is it?” Megan asked, once the door
was shut and they were out of earshot from all the curious people that had been
watching.  When Amelia didn’t answer, she pried the page out of her hands and
started to read it.  When she was finished, she folded it up and said, “We need
to help him,” with a matter-of-fact tone.

“No
we
don’t,” Josh replied, his
eyes fogging with an eerie florescent haze.

“They aren’t going to stop, Josh!  He can’t
stop.  I have to help him!”  Amelia’s voice was rising, tinting with panic, and
emotions swirled through her like a tornado touching down and slashing through
her chest.  Even without a soul, Mitchell was still trying to help her—protect
her.

“You mean kill him,” Josh growled, and then
he drew his lips into a thin white line as his jaw twitched.

“No, she means
help
him.”  Tyler
noticed Amelia rock on her feet, and he jumped up and rushed to her, putting an
arm around her shoulder and squeezed her tightly.