The Soul's Mark: Broken (8 page)

“I said get up,” Cole growled.  He grabbed
her ankle and flung her off the bed, tossing her across the room, and she
crashed into the wall.

Amelia’s brain raced as if it was running a
marathon.  The air became thick and stale.  The haze that fogged her vision
evaporated, and invigorating energy coursed through her veins.  Amelia smirked
and rolled up to her feet.  “Gutsy,” she said, eyeing him closely.  The
restraints hadn’t just held her onto the bed; they had kept her from accessing
her magic.  She raised her eyebrow, and her laugh was icy.  “You think you can
take me without the dampers you’ve been using?”

“I want you to feel every second of this,”
Cole said.  He stalked towards her slowly, and the way he moved was as if he
was trying to taunt her, begging her to try to attack.  His coiled movements
might have intimidated some, but not Amelia.  She had spent too many hours,
days, weeks, months, training with vampires to allow his stance to scare her.

Cole was being careless.  Amelia could see
it and feel it in his stare.  She let her magic swirl around her, waiting for
the moment he slipped up in his approach.  He would slip up; she was sure. 
They always do when they get too comfortable—too cocky—with their strength.

“What’s taking you so long?” Amelia
taunted.  The closet-like room was tiny, and Cole was taking his time.

“Careful now, Amelia.  Josh isn’t here to
protect you,” Cole shot back with a snarled sneer.

Amelia felt the color drain from her face. 
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
she almost screamed.  It was the
laughter in his eyes that made her swallow it and realize that he was trying to
distract her.

It was soon clear that he didn’t need to
distract her. 
Amelia!
The scream was loud and deep and panicked, and
with it came a forceful pull, knocking her off balance, and she fell to the
ground.

Thoughts buzzed around her brain painfully
loud, and another pull heaved against her body, dragging her along the floor
towards the door.

Suddenly, Amelia couldn’t breathe, and she
realized the damper was what had been blocking her bond to Mitchell.  She tried
to call to him, but neither her voice nor her brain could form the words.  He
was sifting through her memories so quickly that she couldn’t even pinpoint
what he was seeing before he moved on to the next.

Cole’s laugh reverberated through the room,
and when Amelia looked up, he was looming above her.  She tried to scream, but
the only sound she managed was a hiss as the last bit of air escaped her
lungs.  Her throat swelled shut, her magic dissipated as her panic threatened
to take over, and her lungs burned.

“Don’t look so scared, Amelia,” Cole said. 
“You’re the one that created this whole mess.”  He reached a hand out towards
her, and for a second, Amelia thought he was going to grab her.  She gasped;
air hit her lungs hard and fast, and she tried to get up.  Golden strands of
power rushed at her, weaving together, and forming an arm, as if his hand was
growing and being replaced by the magic.  Long talon-like claws sprung from its
fingers, ready to swipe at her.  Amelia jumped back, Mitchell’s thoughts
dimmed, and her heart raced.  She tried to gather up her energy and launch a
counter attack.

The claws sunk into her chest quickly, and
a turbulent wave of power slammed into her.  It was paralyzing; all Amelia
could do was stare wide-eyed at her own wisps of white-blue magic as it seeped
from her body, through the hand, and into Cole.

He moaned, and his eyes drooped.  “Josh
said you were strong, but this is amazing,” Cole murmured.  His breathing
became heavy, and when his eyes met Amelia’s, she saw something dark, far
darker than anything she could have imagined seeing in another person.  It was
destructive and cold and verging on sadistic.

Amelia opened her mouth, but no sound came
out.  Hot agonizing pain washed over her, her legs gave way, and she fell back
down to her knees.

Cole threw his head back and shouted, “Past
lives that have gone astray, show us.”

The air rippled like disturbed water, and
suddenly Amelia was staring at a disheveled image of herself.  Tears streaked
the girl’s dirty cheeks, leaving muddy streams down her face.  She looked down,
falling to her knees, and she screamed, a heartbroken sound, as she buried her
face in a thick chest.

“This is where it all started,” Cole said,
his voice low and strained.  He dug the claw deeper into Amelia’s chest, and
the stream of magic that he was pulling from her quickened.  She screamed out
as a fresh wave of hot pain convulsed through her body.

The girl in the image continued to wail and
sob.  Amelia struggled to watch herself through her own agony.  The girl pulled
someone into her arms, and her lips met his in a soft kiss.  “I’ll avenge your
death, Mitchell.  I swear I’ll make this right.”

Cole gasped, and Amelia’s blood ran cold. 
“No!” he shouted.  “He’s not supposed to be part of this.”

Amelia zoned out Cole’s frantic screams,
and she focused on the image.  There he was.  Mitchell.  Lying dead in her arms,
a chunk of flesh ripped from his neck.

The claw retracted from her chest, and Cole
frantically swiped at the smoky image in the room, as if he was trying to brush
it away.  Amelia pulled herself from the ground; steamy power rushed from her
body hitting Cole with such a force that he flew across the room and smacked
against the wall.  She cinched a thick strand of magic around his throat and
held him tight.

The vision of herself caressed Mitchell’s
cheek lovingly and then gently laid him down in the grassy field.  She rose,
and power crackled through the air like an electric current.  Tendrils of white
light shot from her skin, and thick black smoke wove around them.  Her curly
locks blew wildly around her face, and her dress whipped about.

“I call upon the spirits to hear my plea. 
My lover has died at the hand of a demon.  In the name of Mother Nature, I call
the souls for the entire vampire race.  Come to me.”

The wind picked up around her, and dark
clouds rolled overhead.  Booming thunder shook the sky.  “The vampires will
suffer the loss of their souls as I suffer the loss of mine,” she hissed, as
she scanned the area around her.  Suddenly, hundreds of ghostly images floated
towards her from all sides of the meadow where she stood, and a twisted smile
spread upon her face.  She flung her hands wide and said, “I cast you out to
wander the earth.  I curse thee to suffer and to never be whole again.  I curse
thee.  I curse thee.  I curse thee!” she shouted, lifting her hands above her
head.  Bolts of power shot to the sky, and the ground beneath her trembled and
shook.

A war cry ripped from her body, and she
fell to her knees; blackness radiated from her skin, thick and oily.  One by
one, the shadowy souls dispersed, propelling themselves into the sky.

The wind stopped.  The sky cleared.  The
sun shone brightly down on Amelia’s past self, but the darkness that surrounded
her remained, engulfing her in a dirty cloud.

“You have abused the power of the first
coven, Amelia,” a soft, lilting voice drifted through the air.  “You have used
the powers of Mother Nature for dark purposes.”

Amelia searched the image for the source of
the voice, but there was no one other than her past self and Mitchell’s
lifeless body at her feet.

The vision of Amelia didn’t look up when
she spoke.  “Demons do not deserve souls.”  Her voice was cold and demented,
and the darkness thickened around her.  “I did what had to be done.”

“You have called upon me to use dark
magic,” the voice said gently.  “And for that I should strip you of your
gifts.”

Deep sobs escaped the vision of Amelia, and
she crumpled to the ground and curled herself into a small ball, rocking as the
tears fell.  A bright figure, a woman, drifted towards her.  The brilliance of
the light shone blinding, and Amelia couldn’t make out more than a woman’s
frame.  She hovered over herself from the past and said, “Child, loss is a
painful part of life, but you need to remember the body may die, but the soul
never does.  He‘ll always be here.  All you need to do is open your heart, and
you’ll know how to find him.  Look inside yourself.”

Those words shook Amelia violently.  She
had heard them before.  And that voice … So familiar, yet oddly different. 
Where had she heard this before?  The vision began to fade, and her thoughts
blurred together.  Whose voice was that?  Who was helping her?  Who was Mother
Nature?

The bright glow around Mother Nature
intensified, and her voice changed to one of magnificent power as she spoke. 
“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.”

“No,” Amelia’s tortured screams pierced the
still meadow.  “Mother Nature, please let them suffer as I do.  Please,” she
begged.

“Through my work here today, you will find
love again. When you do, you will understand child.”  And then the vision was
gone.

A loud thumping at the door pulled Amelia’s
eyes away from the place in the air that the vision had been.  The wooden door
slammed open, and Josh rushed in.  His gray eyes hardened as he looked between
Amelia and Cole who was still pinned against the wall.  He mumbled something
incoherent, and then suddenly the shackles snapped around her wrists and her
ankles.  Her stream of magic evaporated, and Cole fell to the ground. The world
around her faded, turning gray, and then drifting darker until the blackness
seized her.

His chest hurt.  A sharp pain was pushing
from the inside, trying to break free from his ribcage.  Mitchell glanced down,
and rubbed at the spot.  A strong pull at his torso knocked him off balance, he
stumbled, and then he saw it.

A golden chain.  It burst from his chest,
linking together and building as it stretched onward, passing through the
window and disappearing in the trees.  A buzz filled his head, like a swarm of
bees, and his breath caught in his throat.

Amelia!
he
shouted, as the image surfaced in his line of vision, and he saw one of the
filthy cross-breeds moving in on her.  As soon as he did, he regretted it.  He
had meant to warn her, but instead he only managed to distract her, and she
fell to her knees.

A hand squeezed his shoulder and began
shaking him.  “Mitch, what’s happening?” Luke’s voice had a rough edge.

“The bond,” Mitchell gasped, locking eyes
with him.  “I can see Amelia.”

The golden chain jutted from her ribcage,
and another forceful tug pulled at him.  Amelia slid across the floor as if
someone had gripped onto her upper body and was dragging her.

Mitchell didn’t waste another second.  He
could feel her trying to speak to him, but the thoughts were coming out as
single syllables instead of words.  He shuffled through her thoughts and
memories until he found her location.  “She’s at Tristan’s old house,” he
growled.  Rage, fear, and hair-raising panic all fought against each other,
colliding together within him in a mess of emotion.

“Is Megan with her?” Eric asked
frantically.

Mitchell closed his eyes, surveying the
room and looking for any sign of Megan or Erin.  He caught sight of the large
television and shuddered.  Before he could say anything, a hand with long,
glowing talon-like claws dug into Amelia’s chest.  And then he saw Amelia but
not Amelia.  It was her, but she was different.  Younger.  Ragged.  She dropped
to her knees, burying her face in someone’s chest.

And then he saw the face.  His face.  “I’m
dead,” he whispered, his eyes fixated on the bloody hole in his neck.  Amelia,
but not Amelia, stood up, and the magic crackled about her.

“I call upon the spirits to hear my plea,”
she said, her voice cracking on the words, and another chill ran over
Mitchell.  “My lover has died at the hand of a demon.  In the name of Mother
Nature, I call the souls for the entire vampire race.  Come to me.”

Mitchell’s eyes snapped open, and he tried
to shake the memory away.  He could still feel it, playing out behind his eyes,
but he fought against it.  He didn’t need to see anymore.  He knew what would
happen next.

Someone slapped him.  Hard.  Hard enough
that his vision faded.  Hard enough that his jaw cracked.  “Amelia cast the
soulmate curse because of me,” he whispered, as if saying it out loud would
make his brain realize how absurd it was.

“What?” Angelle asked.

Mitchell looked at Angelle, but all he
could see was Amelia.  He turned from his family and started weaving through
the hallways towards the door.  “She is the witch that took away our souls,”
Mitchell called over his shoulder.

From Amelia’s memories, he was sure it was
just the two hybrids and Tristan guarding them.  He knew Tristan would be easy
enough to take out, but the hybrids … Amelia had said it was their skin that
made them vulnerable.  If he was careful, he could sneak up on them, and
dispose of them.

“No, not that part,” Angelle said, falling
into step beside him.  “What did you mean because of you?”