The Soul's Mark: CHANGED (20 page)

And it made her even more panicky to think about how much Mitchell was depending on her.  He’d never really depended on her before, not like this, and she really wasn’t sure if she liked the feeling.  It twisted her stomach and made her head hurt.  But it wasn’t just him; they were all depending on her.  When it came to the important stuff, her family typically ignored her.  They thought of her as a child, but today, when she had barked out all those orders and taken control, not a single one of them batted an eye.

Amelia sighed.  She missed the days where school was her only concern, and she really, really couldn’t wait for the summer to end, so she could get back to it, not ready to consider that it would probably never be the same again.  She didn’t think she’d ever really understand her family.  And even though she’d said it to Mitchell, she didn’t really believe that strength meant power, and she really didn’t want to believe that the only reason they were listening to her was because she was stronger than they were.  She hated to admit it, but she kind of liked it better when they listened to her because Mitchell had told them to.  At least then, she hadn’t been the one making the final decisions—he had.

“Mom!” Amelia called, making her way through the backyard and into the trees.  She was greeted by silence.  She wasn’t exactly sure what to expect.  She’d never really tried to find her mother before; she’d
just kind of appeared when Amelia had needed her, and right then, her mother was exactly what she needed.  “Mom!” she yelled again, ducking under the swaying branches of one of the weeping willows.  “I know you can hear me!”

She stood still, listening, wai
ting, and hoping that her mother would show up.  If anyone would tell her what she had to do, Amelia was sure it would be her mother.  Exhaustion was starting to wear on her.  She hadn’t slept more than a few minutes at a time during the last twenty-four hours, only dozing off while she’d waited for Mitchell to wake up.  It wasn’t so much that she was sleepy tired, though, just worn out—drained.

Amelia threw her head back and cried out, “Mother, please!”

“What’s all this shouting about?” a deep voice called from behind her.

Amelia jumped, her heart leaping in her chest.  A deep, throaty chuckle reached her ears, and she looked up slowly, turning around, cringing, as she realized who it was.  She’d never wanted to hear that voice again.  She could already feel the hot flush of embarrassment creeping up her neck as she met his eyes.  He was smiling, but there was nothing happy about the smile.  It was a devious smile, one that sent a chill rushing over her skin.  “You have to stop doing that,” Amelia said.

He chuckled again.  “You need to stop calling and expecting no one to show up.”  He walked past her, and propped himself against the tree trunk, crossing his arms over his chest.  He winked.  “Look on the bright side; at least you’re dressed this time.”

Amelia groaned long and loud.  “Go away.”  She waved her hands as if she was trying to brush away a pesky fly.  “I want to talk to my mother.”

“I told you not to call on any of us.  You’re cheating, Amelia.”

Amelia bristled at his arrogant tone and glared at him.  He looked real: tall and thick and full.  Not just a blob of water.  His hair was lighter than she’d expected, sandy, light brown, and his eyes were gentle, which didn’t match his cruel looking smile.

She said through gritted teeth, “Yeah, well, you also told me to listen to Mitchell and that didn’t work out so well.”

The water spirit cocked his head to the side, studying her.  His stare felt invasive, as if he was seeing right through her
, and Amelia fought against the sudden urge to fold her arms over her chest, in an attempt to cover herself from his searching eyes.  After an insufferably long moment, he said, “I told you he knew what needed to be done, and he does.  I did not tell you that he knew how to do it.”

Amelia was taken aback by his statement.  He sounded almost disappointed.  She furrowed her brow, and asked, “Can you tell me what will happen if I don’t change the bond on time?”  She didn’t really expect an answer.  He’d made it pretty clear that he wasn’t going to help, but she hoped he’d give her something that might confirm that changing the bond was actually what she was supposed to do.

He smiled.  It was the first semi-sincere smile she’d seen on him.  It didn’t quite reach his eyes, but it wrinkled his cheeks a little.  “Mitchell will be taken from you until you fulfill what must be done.”

Amelia rocked back, as if his words were a physical slap.  They sure felt like one. “You can’t do that!”

“Yes, we can.”  His smile grew further and for a moment, Amelia was certain she was going to throw-up.  Her mouth began to water, her stomach rolled.  How could anyone be happy about ending a life?  “He’s human.  His spirit belongs to us.  We can take him out of the cycle any time we see fit to do so.”  He pushed off of the tree and stretched his arms over his head, looking at ease, as if he wasn’t really talking about killing her soulmate.  “Don’t look at me like I’m a monster, child,” he chided.  “You chose this and until you both are ready, it is too dangerous to keep you paired together.”

“I didn’t choose this,” she said.  Her hands were shaking and her body temperature dropped to freezing.  “I would never choose something that would take him from me.” 
Not now.  Never again.

“You have and you did,” he said, as if he could read her thoughts.  “When you picked the vampires over the hunters, you set this all in motion.  We’ve given you fifteen-hundred years to prepare yourself and fix your mistakes.  Everything that is happening is your doing, and it’s time you make it right.  We let you make the choice.  We gave you time to find your soulmate.  We even gave you almost a year to settle in and decide if he was in fact what you wanted.  We’ve waited long enough.  You only have a day, Amelia.  I’d advise you to stop wasting your time.”

He padded over to her, and tapped the bottom of her chin.  His fingers felt like ice.  She looked up at him, feeling utterly empty, unwilling to process what he’d just said.  He smiled an encouraging kind of smile.  And then, he was just … gone.

Amelia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or scream.  They all seemed like viable options right then.  She couldn’t say how long she stood there, not knowing what to think or what to do, when her cell phone chirped and vibrated.  Amelia dug into her pocket, pulling it out and glancing at the screen.  It was a text message from Cole.  She tapped the screen pulling it up, expecting it to be the spell, but it wasn’t.  Instead, it said:
Meg filled me in.  On my way.

Amelia scrunched her nose, reading it again.  Just yesterday, Cole had made it overly clear that he wasn’t coming back, like ever. 
Meg?
Amelia called silently as she stared at the message. 
What did you tell Cole?

I told him the truth,
she replied.
  Before you freak out, it was Mitch’s idea. He figured we could use all the magic we can get our hands on.

Amelia gritted her teeth.  The last thing she needed right then was to have another person
depending
on her.  Another person to make sure she was safe. 
Tell Mitch to stop having damn ideas!
  Amelia shouted back.

As soon
as she sent the thought, she felt the slight pull around her heart, and Mitchell said, “I heard that.”

A hot wave of emotion rushed through her at the sound of his voice, a sound that after tomorrow, she realized, she may never hear again.  She sucked in a ragged breath and spun around.  “Don’t you ever listen to me?” she said through her teeth, as she fought against the sob that was trying to find its way out.  “I told you to stay inside.”

Mitchell ducked under the swaying branches, walking towards her with a maddening (and infuriatingly sexy) grin.  “You already knew I wasn’t going to.”

She didn’t know how he could be so calm about everything or how he could be smiling.  She started to shake, first her fingers and then her arms and then her shoulders.  It spread through her until even her bones felt as if they were quivering.  “Don’t you get it!” she shouted.  “I’m trying to keep you safe.  I’m not going to
lose you.  I can’t lose you.”

Mitchell flinched away from her, and dropped his sky
-blue eyes to the ground, shifting back and forth from foot to foot.  “Don’t be mad, love, please,” he said, nervously.  “I can’t …” He sucked in a breath, looking back up at her.  “How did you deal with this?  It’s … it’s …”

Amelia stared at him for a long moment, not really sure what he was talking about, but once she clued in on it, she felt horribly guilty.  She remembered what it was like to feel his anger, and she remembered the fidgety unnerving feeling it had given her.  “I don’t know,” she said.
“I just did, but you need to chill out because all your fidgeting and nervousness is driving me crazy.”  She sighed, and forced a smile.  “Now, please, go back inside.”

He gave her a pleading look, moving closer to her.  “Amelia, let me help you.  Let me do something.  I can’t just sit back and watch.  It’s not me.  I just can’t.”

Something inside Amelia cracked and broke and her eyes filled with tears. “They’re going to take you from me,” she said.

“I heard, love.”  Mitchell let out a long breath.  “Come on.”  He took her shoulder, guiding her out of the branches and leading her back to the house.  “Let’s not dwell on it.  We still have time.”

Maybe he was right, Amelia thought. It was probably best not to think about it, but the problem was, her brain and her heart wouldn’t let her stop.  “I just don’t get why they would do that.  Why you?  It’s my screw-ups, not yours.”

“They’re taking what they can,” he said.  “Your soul is not theirs anymore, or at least not all of it.  The spirits, Mother Nature, they are charged with humans and witches.  And you’re not only a witch.  When you changed, your soul became my soul.  A vampire does not own their soul.  It will always belong to their soulmate, whether they are human or have been changed.  The spirits cannot take what no longer belongs to them.”

“So as long as you’re human, you’re vulnerable.”  A sharp feeling of betrayal prickled her skin.  How could her mother do something like this to her?  Amelia wouldn’t have thought she could have.  There had to be a way to change him back.  There just had to.  Amelia wouldn’t—couldn’t—believe that her mother would leave Mitchell human if he wouldn’t be safe.

“Stop that,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist as they neared the terrace.  “You don’t need to worry about me right now.  You need to stay focused.”

“For the first time in probably forever, I’m completely focused, Mitch,” she said, looking up at him.  “They won’t take you from me.  I won’t let them.”

The girl was smirking; her sharp fangs, only half extended, were resting on her plump lower lip.  Rays of light from the dying sun made them shimmer and glint like a metal knife.  The breeze picked up, whipping her flat white hair around her shoulders.  She giggled as she took him in, her smirk shifting to a coy smile. She took her bottom lip between her teeth, and her fangs extended further as her eyes fixed on the mark on his neck.

She stared at the inked mark, licking her lips.  Her eyes narrowed to sliver-like slits, and she cocked her head to the side, as if she needed to see it from another angle.

Tyler thought he’d feel something.  Anything.  But he didn’t.  Well, that wasn’t entirely true.  He felt something, but it was only stunned disbelief.  He hadn’t expected her to find him so quickly.  After all, it had taken Mitchell five years after the dreams had started to find Amelia.  But he figured that this was better.  No dreams.  No attachment.  He didn’t even know the girl’s name.  Killing her would be ... easier.  Too bad the thought of actually doing it made his stomach clench.

He glanced over his shoulder, just a quick look to see if the guy at the front desk was watching, and as he did, he reached behind his back, gripping the stake tightly and pulling it from his back pocket.

The girl giggled.  “There’s no need for that,” she said.  Her voice was too close.  Tyler could feel her warm breath puff against his cheek as she spoke, and he cursed himself.  Mitchell’s first rule: never take your eyes off of the enemy.  He tightened his grip on the stake, swiveled on the balls of his feet, and plunged it at her in a fast and efficient motion.

It wasn’t fast enough.

The girl snarled something that he couldn’t even begin to understand, and grabbed hold of his wrist, squeezing it so tightly that he couldn’t keep hold of his weapon, and it slipped from his grip, clattering to the pavement.  She yanked on him, pulling him with her at an inhumanly fast pace, and in a blink, she was dragging him across the parking lot.

She shoved him into a room, wrenching his arm behind his back before she let go, and he fell to his knees hard.  Sharp pain lanced through his legs and shoulder and he grunted, swallowing down the cry that tried to slip out.  The door slammed, and he heard the lock snap closed, and that’s when he finally felt something real.

Fear.  It slid through him like a hot needle.  His heart leapt to his throat like a racehorse breaking through the gates, and he scrambled to his feet.

“What the hell is your problem?” the girl asked.  She moved towards him, with slow steps; her hands rose just as slowly as if she was trying to show she wasn’t a threat.  It was confusing as hell.  Her expression was murderous, but the rest of her body language was unthreatening.