The Soul's Mark: Broken (6 page)

Amelia let the words hang in the air for a
minute. 
An illusion.  Not really your soulmate.  You loathe him.
  Eight
months ago, she would have agreed with every word.  But did she still believe
it? 
Dammit!  Don’t let him get into your head!
A voice in the back of
her mind scolded. 
Even if Mitchell is dead, he’s your soulmate!  You love
him, and he loved you.

Amelia opened her mouth to spit out her
thoughts when she was interrupted by a knock at the door.  “Am I interrupting?”
Tristan asked, pushing the door wide open.  He looked between Amelia and Josh
with a smirk and then stepped into the room, and patted Josh’s shoulder. 
“Don’t take it personally.  Amelia just likes to fight, but I’m sure you can
break her in.”  Josh mumbled something incoherent as Tristan scanned Amelia
over from head to toe.  “Did you show her yet?” Tristan asked.

“I’ve been busy trying to put her back
together,” Josh snapped with barely controlled hostility.

Tristan’s eyes flashed red, but he never
took them off Amelia.  “Show me what?” she asked, hating the quiver that she
heard in her voice.  She had never felt so vulnerable before.  Not when her
parents died.  Not when she met Mitchell.  Never.

Tristan took a deep breath, most likely
smelling her fear, which only made her shake more.  His fangs popped down, and
he darted towards her neck.

Amelia screamed.  She couldn’t help it; it
just came out.  She glued her eyes shut, expecting the pain, but it didn’t come.

“You almost killed her last time,” Josh
growled.  Amelia pried one eye open to find Josh pinning Tristan against the
wall by the neck.  “I won’t let you feed from her again.”

“You’re walking on a very thin line,”
Tristan snarled.  Amelia opened her other eye.  Tristan wasn’t fighting at all,
and that made her stomach twist in knots.  He had never seemed to be the
passive kind, and watching him stand there, as if he was actually submitting to
Josh, well, it freaked her out—just a little—and she started squirming, trying
to loosen the restraints.

“You can play your little mind tricks on
Cole, but I know what you are, a filthy bloodsucker,” Josh hissed. “Cole will
see it, too.  She’ll get into his head, and she’ll break your hold.”

Squirming was useless, and well, it hurt
like hell.  The magical chains bit into Amelia’s wrists and ankles, and she
could have sworn that with each movement she made, they tightened.  And on top
of that, Amelia had never in her life been as confused as she was at that very
moment.  Listening to them right now was like listening to someone reciting
riddles.  Except, these riddles didn’t make sense.  She knew they were
referring to her, but the rest of it … well, she might as well been listening
to someone speak in German.  Her brain just couldn’t, or maybe it was that it
wouldn’t, comprehend any of it.

Tristan laughed.  It was a twisted kind of
sound, full of mirth and cynicism, and it slithered over Amelia, turning her
stomach and chilling her bones.  “You really believe all that garbage, don’t
you?” he said to Josh, but he sneered at Amelia.  “She’s not your creator, and
Mitchell really
is
her soulmate.  That piece of trash didn’t make you. 
She doesn’t have the power to pull that off.  It’s a myth, a legend, a
ridiculous fairytale to help the baby hunters sleep at night.  And she’ll kill
you the first chance she gets.”

Amelia didn’t see Tristan move, but he must
have, because all of a sudden Josh was flying through the air.  He hit the
wall, bounced off, and landed face first on the ground.  He didn’t stay down
long.  In a blink, he was back up, but to Amelia’s horror, he kept his eyes
cast down, refusing to look at Tristan as he slithered back over to Amelia’s
bedside.

“Don’t you get tired of leading these fools
on?” Tristan asked Amelia, taking Josh’s seat and leaning back, letting his
arms hang over the plastic armrests.  “You finally let Eric go, and now you’re
messing with this one?” He winked at her and leered.  “I’m guessing Mitch
doesn’t take care of all your needs.”

“What does it matter anymore?” Amelia
asked, and choked on a sob.  “You’ve already killed him.  Why don’t you just
finish it and kill me, too?  That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Killed him?” Tristan asked, raising both
of his eyebrows.  He looked completely befuddled.  “Josh, what is she blabbing
on about?”

Amelia’s heart hammered in her chest.  She
wanted to scream and cry all at once.  She eyed Josh as he shuffled back and
forth.  “I may have insinuated …”

Tristan threw back his head and let out a
deep roar of a laugh, cutting Josh off.  “That’s rich.”  The laughter in his
eyes made Amelia grit her teeth.  “You really thought I’d kill my good friend,
Mitchell, without making him suffer first?”

“I can’t feel him,” she said softly, and
tears started to sting at her eyelids again.  But just as quickly as they came,
a thought hit her that made the tears dry up.  She glared at Josh.  “Seriously,
doesn’t it bother you at all that the only way I’ll talk to you civilly is by
using magic on me?  Why don’t you take these chains off, and see what I really
think of you.”

“Amelia, the chains and the charms are for
your protection,” Tristan said, and patted her hand.  “We can’t have you
hurting yourself until it’s time, now can we?”

Okay, so that didn’t make any sense
, Amelia thought, as she scanned Tristan who was clearly enjoying
her confusion.  Why would she hurt herself?  If she hurt anyone, it would be
one of them.  “Why do you want to break the bond?” she asked.

“Mitchell doesn’t deserve the power you
give him,” he said simply, as if it was a well-known fact, and then he shifted
his gaze to Josh, who was now standing on the other side of her bed glaring
furiously at Tristan.  “Thanks for borrowing her magic,” he said. “It worked
like a charm.”

Amelia’s eyes darted back and forth between
Josh and Tristan, and a sense of dread filled her.  There was something here,
something that she just wasn’t getting.  She could see something that resembled
understanding floating around her brain with a great big
look at me
sign
,
but no matter how hard she tried to read it, she just couldn’t.  It was as if
it jumped back, just out of reading distance, every time she was close.   Her
gut was telling her she should be upset or scared even but, oddly, she wasn’t.

“What does he mean you borrowed my magic?”
And
why am I talking to them as if we are old friends?
  She shot Josh another
glare as a strong scent of cotton candy drifted up her nose.  “Will you stop
it!” she shouted, suddenly understanding the strange calm that had settled over
her.

“I don’t want you to re-break any of your
bones,” Josh said, and squeezed her hand. Amelia wished she could jerk away
from his touch.  “You need to calm down.”

“What I need is some damn answers!” she
shouted, because, really, a straight answer would have been nice right about
then.  It was as if they were talking in circles, but none of those circles
fully connected, they just curved and twisted around each other.

“I used your magic to lift the spell you
had placed on the bond between Tristan and his mate.”  The words rushed out of
Josh so quickly that Amelia almost missed it. 
Almost.

All the circles collided together with a
brain-numbing intensity, and right then Amelia thought she was going to be
sick. 
Erin,
a voice in her head whimpered, and panic clenched at her
throat.  She squeezed her eyes shut, and right then, she actually wished that
Josh would use that infuriating charm on her, because imagining all the things
that Tristan could, and most likely would, do to Erin through the bond wasn’t
something she wanted to see.

Amelia racked her brain trying to remember
what she had read about borrowed magic.  From what she could remember about it,
it was supposed to be painful.   A witch had to merge their own power with the
victim, and then drain off the needed energy until the spell they were trying
to lift was broken.  Depending on the complexity of the spell, it could feel
like you were dying while it was happening.  And Amelia didn’t remember any of
it.  Her eyes snapped open and landed on Josh.

As if reading her mind, he whispered, “The
pain from your injuries masked the process.  And, well, you weren’t completely
lucid.”

“I would love to know how you make these
men grovel like this.  Frankly, I don’t see anything that amazing,” Tristan
mumbled, eyeing Josh as if he was crazy.

Amelia opened her mouth to spit out
something that she was sure she would regret, but she didn’t get the chance. 
Josh beat her to it.  “Shut up, Tristan,” he seethed through clenched teeth.

Tristan raised a brow.  “Josh, I think it’s
time for you to take a break.  Cole has been itching to help with her.”

Josh puffed out his chest, as if he was
trying to make himself look bigger, and he narrowed his eyes to a ferocious
glare.  “I’m not leaving her.”

“I’m not asking,” Tristan said evenly.  He stood
up and started towards the door.  “Get out, Josh, and send Cole in.”

Josh looked down at Amelia, and all the
fight in him vanished.  “Just try to do what he says,” he whispered, his voice
was thick with emotion.  “If you don’t fight him, he’ll be okay.”

Amelia looked at Josh, and for a minute,
she almost wanted to comfort him and tell him that she’d be fine, but
thankfully, she bit her tongue on the words. 
He’s the enemy,
she
reminded herself again, and she forced herself to look away from his sad puppy-dog
eyes.

Tristan chuckled.  “That’s something I’m
going to have to stick around for.  From what Erin has shown me, Amelia never
does what she’s told.”

Josh bent down and kissed her cheek,
ignoring Tristan, and letting his lips linger far too long.  “Keep kissing me
and Mitchell will cut off those lips when he finds you,” Amelia said, but to
her dismay, the statement lacked conviction.

“I’m sure he will,” Josh murmured against
her cheek, his sweet breath warming her a little.  “Be good.  Please.”

Amelia watched Josh walk away, and she had
to fight the urge to beg him not to leave.  She wasn’t sure if it was his
charm, or the way Tristan was watching her as if she was seconds away from
being a meal, or the fact that Cole seriously creeped her out that caused her
heart to sink, but whatever it was, it was brutal.

Logically, she knew they were screwing with
her.  She could feel the pulsing energy all around her.  They were altering her
perception.  Keeping her remotely calm and pulling the fight from her, but
without any way to fight against it, it was a damn hard thing to remember, and
Josh was looking better and better with every passing second.  She hated to
admit it, but there was something about him.  Something gentle hidden behind
the hard exterior he portrayed.  Suddenly, Amelia found herself wondering if
the gentle side was a figment of the magic or if it was real.

She didn’t have time to toss the idea
around.  Tristan walked over to the television and adjusted the volume.  An
ear-piercing scream penetrated her head.  “There’s something I’d like you to
see,” he said with a throaty chuckle.

Amelia couldn’t pull her eyes away from the
screen as Cole dragged Erin across the floor.  Erin’s screams were agonizing,
and there was a red glow surrounding her that resembled jumping flames.  Cole
unlocked the bird style cage that held Megan and threw Erin in.  He laughed, a
cruel sound, and the flames dissolved with a brilliant puff of red smoke.  The
screams faded, replaced by gasping sobs, as Erin collapsed in the cage.

“Do you know what happens to a vampire when
they are in pain?” Tristan asked, watching the screen intently.  Amelia
couldn’t answer.  She couldn’t say it out loud.  But Tristan obviously could. 
“It’s really quite entertaining to watch.  Erin may try and fight the hunger,
and she might succeed for a day, maybe two, but soon she won’t be able to
control herself, and with her being so young, she won’t be able to just take a
little sip.”

“You can’t do this!” Amelia screamed.  She
thrashed about uselessly in the bed, trying to break free.

“I’m just taking care of my soulmate,
Amelia.  I thought you of all people would understand.  The poor thing needs
blood, so I’m handing her a perfectly good meal on a silver platter.”  He
grinned and slipped out of the door, calling over his shoulder, “Enjoy the
show.”  And then the door shut with a loud click.

Sally was definitely eccentric.  Mitchell
figured that was the nicest way to describe her, although it didn’t really
cover the whole of her unique personality quite right.  When she had said that
there was something he needed to know about Amelia’s past lives, she wasn’t
kidding.  But the thing was, she hadn’t just recounted the past, which she
claimed that Amelia’s mother had shown her, but she had acted it out, toying
with magic to paint the scene, and she projected it on the wall as if they had
been watching a movie on a large screen in the theater.  And she had done it
with an oddball kind of smile that clearly showed she wasn’t entirely there, or
here, for that matter.