The Soul's Mark: Broken (23 page)

“Not now, Cole,” Amelia said with a long
drawn out sigh, and waved him off.  Seriously, how many times did she have to
spell it out for them?  She put her hands on her hips and tried for the
I’m
not impressed
look
.

“Yes, now!” he yelled, either missing her
attempts at annoyance or choosing to ignore them; she wasn’t really sure.  He
closed the distance between them with a breathtaking quickness, and she yelped,
jumping back.  “We lost thirty people last night.”

His words hit Amelia hard and fast.   Her
legs gave out from under her, and she dropped to the floor like a sack of
rocks, landing on her butt.  “What do you mean we lost thirty people?” she
asked, looking up into his glowing eyes and steaming face.

“The night watch,” he spat.  “They’re all
gone, vanished.  Those monsters didn’t even leave the bodies.”

“Night watch?” Amelia asked.  Her brain
just wouldn’t, or couldn’t, process what he was saying.

“Are you stupid?  You sent thirty people
out last night to be slaughtered,” Cole yelled, and his jawline twitched in
spasms along with the rest of his skin.

“Cole, give her a break.  It’s not like she
meant for this to happen,” Megan said, stepping in front of him and nudging him
back.

Thirty people.
  Amelia’s stomach twisted into angry knots, and sweat broke out
along her back.  She glanced between Tyler, Megan, and Cole, bouncing back and
forth between the three of them.  They were all giving her the same look of
disgust, although Tyler and Megan’s were a touch more subtle, but still, it was
there. 
How could they think I would send anyone out?
  That’s what she
wanted to ask.  She wanted to yell and tell them to think about what they were
accusing her of, but she didn’t.  Instead, Amelia took a deep cleansing breath,
and focused on Megan, forging her face into a mask of strength.  “I did not
send …”

“Yes, you did,” Cole seethed, cutting her
off.  “You sent them out with orders not to kill.  They can’t go against you,
Amelia.”  He glared at her; his childish features were marred with contempt. 
“That might be okay for Josh and me, but the rest of them, they’re humans with
fancy weapons.  They don’t have superhero senses.  So, yes,” he nodded in
confirmation, and his back tensed and straightened, “you did send them out to
be slaughtered.”

Amelia opened her mouth to spit out a
nasty, and most likely, childish retort when the reality of her actions hit
her, and she promptly closed it.  A sick feeling crept in and dread filled her
veins. 
Humans with fancy weapons.
  A flock of thoughts began to pile
up, soaring up and down like birds diving for food.  When had she started
taking humans for granted?  She was their advocate; she was supposed to protect
them.  That’s what she had been fighting for since she found out vampires were
real, and now, she was forcing them not to protect themselves.

Suddenly, her chest constricted and she
couldn’t breathe, and frustrated tears bit at her eyelids. 
I didn’t do
this! 
And in a way, she hadn’t.  She hadn’t been the one to break the
bond.  She hadn’t unleashed blood hungry vampires on the world.  And she hadn’t
sent the hunters out last night.  All of this mess was Josh and Cole’s doing. 
But
you are the one that started this, and it’s you that hasn’t fixed it,
her
stupid conscious whispered.

“Cole, stop it,” Josh said, walking into
the room.  “I sent them.  Not her.  And we don’t know for sure that they are
dead.”

Amelia sucked in a breath and looked up at
Josh.  His hair was damp, his eyes were bright, and he looked … good.  He had
clearly slept, and he was the only one of them that had changed and showered. 
He strolled over to them with his thumbs stuck in his jean pockets.  He was
also wearing one of Mitchell’s faded blue t-shirts, one that Amelia had bought
him, and that sent a rush of white-hot anger coursing through her.  And the way
he walked, as if this was his room, his house … it made her sick.

Before Amelia had pulled herself off the
floor, Cole turned on Josh and red rushed up the back of his neck.  “Of course
they’re dead!  You know damn well they didn’t just up and run away.  Dad
wouldn’t have left.”

“How could you?” Amelia hissed.  “I said
that everyone needed to stay inside.”

Josh shrugged his shoulders.  “You
suggested it, and I decided to ignore it.  We needed to know where they were
and what they’re doing.”

“You monster!” Amelia screamed.   She
balled her fists, ready to strike, and ran at him.  Josh sidestepped and
grabbed her white-knuckled fists easily, stopping her before she could even get
one punch in.  All this time, Josh had been trying to convince her that
Mitchell was the demon, but Mitchell would never sacrifice his people.  Soul or
not, he wouldn’t send people out to be slaughtered.  He had proven that at the
fair by telling the vamps to stand down.  But Josh …  All at once, she knew
what she needed—and more importantly, what she wanted—to do.  Josh opened his
mouth to say something, but before he could, Amelia blurted, “I have the spell
that Mother Nature used.”

Josh dropped her hands and cringed away as
if they had burned him.  A flush of green rushed over his face, and for a
second, Amelia thought he was going to be sick.  But then his eyes grew cold
and his body stiffened, and Amelia couldn’t stop herself from shuddering as his
skin began to melt, and the white of his cheekbones started to poke through.

“What?” Megan gasped, and then coughed and
wheezed, choking on the question.  She grabbed Amelia’s shoulders and spun her
around so quickly that Amelia had to grab onto the chair to stop from falling
over.  Megan was beaming at her with excitement and hope and, well, she shone
like the sun on a cloudless morning.

“Ty, go find Sally,” Amelia said, as Megan
wrapped her into a bone-crushing hug, burying her face in Aemlia’s shoulder.

“No need, my dear.  I saw the whole thing. 
You want to recreate the bond.”  Reluctantly, Amelia let go of Megan and slowly
turned to see Sally strutting into the room, juggling an armload of white
votive candles.  Tyler jogged over to her, snagging a few before they fell, and
then set them on the coffee table.

Amelia avoided looking at Josh,
straightened her shoulders, and said, “That’s right.”  She groped around in her
jean pocket and pulled out the piece of paper with the spell.  “I’ve been
replaying the memory, and I wrote down the spell Mother Nature used.”

“You need to break the original curse,”
Josh said.  “The one where you stole all their souls to start with.”  He
grabbed Amelia’s hand and spun her around to face him.  “Why do you need to tie
yourself to him again?” he asked with a pleading note in his voice.

Sally giggled.  “She almost picked you.”
She tapped the side of her head with her pointer finger, and an oddball kind of
smile stretched upon her lips.  “And to answer your question, she cannot do
what you are asking.  She would need to use black magic again, and besides,
Mitchell is her soulmate.”

Josh’s face crumpled and contorted, and his
grip on Amelia’s hand tightened.  “He’s not your soulmate,” he hissed,
searching her face for a reaction.  But the reaction that he must have seen in
her did not help, and like a switch, he shut down.  It was as if Amelia could
see the doors slamming as he closed himself off from them.  He dropped Amelia’s
hand and padded across the room, sliding into one of the chairs.

“Why does it matter what kind of magic she
used?” Cole asked, watching Josh with confusion and a hint of curiosity.

Sally cleared her throat, and gave Cole a
dirty look.  “That’s why this whole thing blew up in your face,” she said,
ignoring his question.  She fixed her steamy glare on Josh.  “When you took her
magic, you didn’t dig deep enough.  You pulled on the pure strands and not the
darkness that lies beneath them.”  She narrowed her eyes.  “But you already
knew that.”

Josh ignored the implication.  “So, use
black magic now,” Josh said, lounging back in the chair as if this whole
conversation was pointless.

Sally arched a brow.  “If it was that easy,
don’t you think Mother Nature would have done it in the first place?  Power
like that changes a person.  It shapes them into something dark.  It was that
darkness that forced Mother Nature to create the bond.  She covered the
darkness with light.  But it’s also the same darkness that made Amelia create
you.”

The tension was suffocating.  It was as if
a layer of plastic wrap was coating the room, sagging around her, and cutting
off the air.  Tyler was lighting the candles, or trying to; he couldn’t get the
matches to stay lit within his shaking hands.  Megan was pressed to Amelia’s
side, and Cole and Josh seemed to be having an intense and silent conversation
filled with eyes, hand gestures, and nods.

Amelia couldn’t stand it.  “She’s right,
guys,” she murmured, kicking her toe at the floor.  “I can’t …” she started,
and then shook her head, “I
won’t
use black magic.  It’s caused enough
problems.”  She shot an automatic and completely involuntary look between Josh
and Cole.

“I’ll use it,” Josh said bitterly, glaring
right back at Amelia.  She could see what he was thinking, that
he
was
one of the problems caused by the magic, and she averted her eyes, unable to
deny it.

“Stop it!”  Megan shrieked.  “Stop being so
selfish.”  She vaulted over to Josh and got right in his face.  “You’re a
murderer!  It’s not just your imaginary relationship at stake here!  People are
dying.”

“Imaginary,” Josh seethed.  In a motion so
fast, that none of them saw it coming, he stood up and grabbed Megan by the
scuff of the neck, holding her off of the ground like a puppy.

Megan didn’t struggle.  Instead she
laughed.  “Wow, you’re more screwed up than I thought.  I call you a
murderer
and all you hear is
imaginary.
”

Amelia saw red, blazing, crimson red. 
“Enough!” she shouted, and with her shout, she unleashed a blast of magic,
hitting Josh with such force that he dropped Megan and flew into the air a good
five feet before hitting the ground with a thud.

Josh whimpered—literally—and he shrunk,
curling himself into a ball.  Cole smirked and Sally giggled.  But Megan was
anything but amused.  She stomped up to Amelia, her face red and her fists
balled, and she snatched the paper from Amelia’s hand.

To Amelia’s surprise, Cole defused the
tension quickly and asked, “So do we need to hold hands or something?”  He
strolled over to Megan and peeked over her shoulder, his eyes moving along the
page as he deciphered Amelia’s hasty scribbles.

Tyler finally managed to get the candles
lit, and then he plopped down on Amelia’s bed out of the way.  Josh was the
last one to join the group, and Amelia wasn’t sure whether to be glad or hurt
that he made a point not to squeeze in beside her in the circle.  Instead, he
slid in between Megan and Cole, and the way he held onto Megan, caressing her
hand with his thumb, Amelia swore he was trying to make her jealous.  It didn’t
work.

As soon as he connected the circle, power
surged through them like a circuit.  A bright light flourished around them in a
ring, and the flames on the candles leapt into the air like torches doused in
gas.

Amelia took a deep breath, and from memory
she said, “Lost souls hear me.”  Her voice was a little shaky, and she
swallowed hard, drawing in the steamy power to calm her nerves before
continuing.  “Find your other half and bind together.  Through the mark of the
soul, let the vampire find a link to humanity, and let them find love through
their mate.”

Amelia had expected to see something.  More
light, that was for sure, but nothing seemed to change.  In the vision, Mother
Nature had glowed, her aura brightening with the spell.  She remembered the
feeling of a new surge of power, something stronger—something stable.  She
looked around the circle, studying everyone’s faces, hoping to find awe or
shock or anything to confirm something was happening or had happened.

When Amelia’s eyes landed on Sally, the
psychic asked, “Do you feel anything?”

Amelia shook her head from side to side,
and then looked at Megan. “You?”

“No.  Try again,” Megan said with
determination.

Amelia shut her eyes, focusing on the flow
of energy, and when she spoke, her voice did not waver.  It was strong, laced
with command and authority, and to her ears, it did not sound like her own
voice.  “Lost souls hear me.  Find your other half and bind together.  Through
the mark of the soul, let the vampire find a link to humanity, and let them
find love through their mate.”

A pulse, like a heartbeat, touched her
skin, and Amelia’s eyes popped open.  The flames from the candles jumped,
licking at the ceiling, and then went out with a hiss as if they had been
doused in water.  A current rushed through Amelia, running from her fingertips,
and then it rushed at her, hitting her with a burning shock as if she had
touched a live wire.  She shrieked, and yanked her hands away, breaking the
circle.

The air around them hissed and crackled,
becoming as thick as butter, and then with a final deafening crack, the pulsing
magic vanished.