The Soul's Mark: CHANGED (6 page)

“They think Mitch has turned his back on them,” Megan added.  “We’ve told them all that you guys went on vacation and that you needed a break after the hunters, but I don’t think they believe you’re coming back.”

Amelia sighed, and wiggled around on Mitchell’s lap, getting comfortable.  Of course
, they wouldn’t believe it.  It hadn’t even been a full two months since they had returned from their last vacation and after the mess the hunters left behind, anyone who knew Mitchell would know that he wouldn’t just up and leave on a little getaway.

“How long has this been going on?” Mitchell asked.  His voice was tight, and he held onto Amelia a little tighter, as his body stiffened and
his muscles coiled beneath her.

“Since the bonds were fixed,” Eric said.  He squeezed his eyes shut for a second and Megan placed a hand on his shoulder.  He sighed and whispered, “Mitch, I killed one of the vamps, too. 
Jeff.  This morning.”

“You did what?” Amelia asked, certain that she hadn’t heard him right
, because she seriously couldn’t believe that Eric would kill one of their own.

Eric scrubbed at his face roughly, before fixing his hard glare back on Amelia.  “Meg and I have been using magic to deal with them.  They’re all using the bond and Jeff was … he was going to drain her.  I couldn’t pull him off.  They’re all older than
I am.  All stronger than I am.  I just …” He shook his head, as if he was trying to banish the memory from his mind, and Megan sat beside him, rubbing his back in slow circles.  After a moment, he glanced back up at Amelia, and she had to fight the urge to gasp at the torment she saw in his eyes.  He cleared his throat and said, “It was an accident.  I didn’t mean to kill Jeff.  I was just trying to scare him.  But it’s as if the vamps just don’t care anymore.  They’re looking at their soulmates like a piece of meat, and that’s it.  Even Kyra and Jake were going at it today.  Jake didn’t care that he was killing her.  If we hadn’t shown up, I’m sure one of them would be dead now.  And the humans in town, they’re pushing back, too.  Without Ty, they’re not donating.”

“Well
, get Tyler on it then,” Mitchell snapped.  “Where the hell is he?”  His body temperature spiked.  Amelia felt the burning flush of rage radiating onto her back, and he started to cough again—just a little.  She tried to get up, but he tightened his hold and said, “Stay put,” firmly in her ear.

Amelia stopped moving instantly,
not because he could actually hold her there, but because touching him, being close to him, made everything a bit easier to handle.  The soothing contact of their skin kept her emotions in check and her magic at bay, and she was certain that if she actually moved with the turmoil that was brewing in her belly, she’d fry them all.  She could feel it smoldering and almost see the bright embers of her magic crackling and sparking, just waiting to ignite.

“He’s leaving, Mitch,” Eric said helplessly and scrubbed at his face.  “He’s packing up his apartment and he’s going.”

“We need to know how you deal with this crap,” Megan growled, as she got up and made her way down the three steps of the raised landing.  Her eyes were cold, hard, calculating, focusing on Mitchell, and her magic flared, a glistening layer of white-blue light coating her skin.  Amelia could smell her anger, hot and thick in the air.

“Megan,” Amelia said, wit
h a lethal warning in her voice, watching Megan closely as she moved closer to them.

“They
’re scared of me,” Mitchell said simply, before Amelia could say anything further.  The comment made everyone, even Amelia, shift to look at him as if he were crazy.  “What?” he said with a shrug and a chuckle.  “I didn’t really do anything.  I gave them rules; they followed them.  They were too scared not to.”

Suddenly,
Amelia couldn’t take it anymore.  Vampires being killed by their soulmates.  Humans refusing to donate blood.  The hatred etched on Megan’s face.  The lost and helpless look in Eric’s eyes.  Tyler leaving.  “Where’s Lola?” she asked.  The vamps may not be scared of Eric, but Lola and Angelle and Luke … She jumped off of Mitchell’s lap, and paced towards the door.

“She’s busy,” Mitchell said, brushing off her question, in a way that made her feel like he was telling her to sit down and be quiet while the grown-ups talk.

Amelia spun back around.  “Dammit, Mitch, where is she?”  She didn’t give him a chance to answer before she shouted, “Lola!”

Her heart pounded in her chest, relentlessly hard
, and she clenched her teeth.  She knew Mitchell was only blowing her off in an attempt to keep her calm.  And she instantly felt a little sick for snapping at him.  He was trying to help her; she got that.  But seriously, it was times like this that she swore he knew nothing about her.  Since when did blowing her off ever keep her calm?

Not even a second after she shouted, the door swung open and Luke strode into the room.  He was relaxed
, as always, and wore an easy smile.  Amelia gritted her teeth and said, “Luke, where is she?”

He walked right up to her, unfazed by the fury that she was sure was blazing in her eyes, and he ruffled her hair.  “She’s busy,” he said, his eyes bright and quizzical.  “You get me instead.”

Amelia didn’t know what to think.  Her eyebrows knitted together as she looked up at him, and his smile widened.  Lola was never too busy.  Not for her.  Not anymore.  Realization dawned on her slowly.  “You’re playing into his stupid idea, aren’t you?  You want me to bite him so you’re keeping her away.”  She spun around, narrowing her eyes at Mitchell.  “What’s wrong with you?  You’re freakin’ dying and you want me to do something that will hurt you!”

Her blood pressure was rising, and her heartbeat, erratic.  Mitchell extended a hand to her, beckoning her back to him so he could help calm the panic that was swirling around in h
er brain, but she didn’t move.

“What do you mean he’s dying?” Megan asked.  Her voice was whisper soft, so soft that Amelia wasn’t sure if
Megan was using their link or if she had actually said the words.

“Use Eric’s senses
; you can smell it,” Luke said, confirming that she’d said it out loud.

Amelia watched as Megan closed her eyes
.  The bright and clean white-blue light of Megan’s magic wove out through the air, and when the strands connected with Eric, they blazed fire-red—the same red that Amelia’s magic now glowed since she had become a vampire.  Megan took in breath after breath, and the blood rushed from her face, turning her complexion pasty and a little green.  Her eyes popped open, and she fixed her gaze on Mitchell.  “Oh, my God.”

Mitchell couldn’t sleep.  Aside from the constant coughing every time he laid his head down on the pillow, his brain wouldn’t turn off.  He could see what needed to be done and it terrified him.  Amelia had to bite him to strengthen the bond.  Sure, he’d been asking Amelia to do it, and for the most part, he wanted her to bond them together fully, but it still freaked him out, just a little.

He hated feeling so weak.  Mitchell couldn’t remember the last time he had actually feared dying.  But right now, he did.  He wasn’t ready to leave this lifetime, but more importantly, he knew Amelia wasn’t ready for him to go.

It had been a long day.  One of the longest he could remember.  Once Megan realized how sick he was, the girls had taken off to the library with all of Amelia’s journals in hand, determined to find a way to fix him.

His sweet little Amelia had grown up so much.  And he was so proud of her.  He really was.  It just kind of sucked that she still had such a long way to go, and Mitchell really didn’t know if he’d be around long enough to help her get there.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.  They were supposed to leave.  Start a family.  Be happy.  And get away from all this death and danger.  All he had wanted was to give her a new life and a fresh start.

But Mitchell knew what all of this was now.  A test.  A test of their strength, of them together, but most of all, it was a test of her worth.  He’d known all along that becoming human had been too easy.  There was always a catch to magic.  Always.  But what he didn’t know was what the end result was supposed to be.  What was th
e point of this test?

Mitchell had played the conversation that Amelia had had with her mother, after she had first arrived in Willowberg, over and over in his mind, and he was no closer to the answers now, then he had been nine months ago when it had happened.  He’d figured that her mother had been up to something then, but now that he knew she was Mother Nature, he was sure of it.  He was also sure that Mother Nature had been hinting at something.  The spirits rarely gave a person a second
chance at the same lifetime.  There was something Amelia was meant to do in this life.  And he was pretty sure he knew what it was; he just didn’t understand why.

So many things just didn’t add up.  Amelia had cast the soul curse fifteen hundred years ago,
but Mother Nature had said she had only been her mother for a little over twelve hundred years.  Mitchell knew it was possible that Amelia hadn’t been put back into the life cycle for a few hundred years, but what he didn’t get was why her parents had changed.  Witches always had the same families.  So why had Mother Nature taken on the role as Amelia’s mother?

After the girls had
left to try and figure out a way to fix him, Eric had confessed that he’d taken not one, but two vampire lives in the last week.  With Luke, they had spent hours discussing the situation, but came up with little that would help.  They considered separating the vampires and soulmates, but they knew that that wouldn’t do any good.  Separating them wouldn’t stop the bond, and most likely, it would only intensify the vampires’ need to use the pain in order to get their soulmates back.  Neither of them had any insight on what was happening with Tyler and Angelle, and by the time Amelia came back, exhausted and desperately needing sleep, they were no closer to a solution then they had been before she left.

Mitchell glanced down at Amelia curled up beside him and brushed a few curls out of
her eyes.  She looked so small, so innocent, as she slept.  He didn’t know how he had gotten so lucky to be matched with her.  It was luck, he was sure of that, because he knew he didn’t deserve someone so perfect.

He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, before he pulled the covers back and got out of bed.  He needed to talk to Luke about his suspicions, and see if he, or Lola, had any ideas as to how to get Amelia to actually listen.  She was so focused on not hurting him with the bond that she just couldn’t see past it to everything else that was happening because of her fear.

“Where are you going?” Amelia groaned, rolling over and snagging his hand before he could get too far.  Her eyes were still shut, but she gave him a little tug, as if she was trying to pull him back into bed, but there was no strength to it, and he stayed firmly on his feet.

“Go back to sleep, love,” he said, caressing her cheek.  “I’m just going to get something for the cough.”

“I can get it for you,” she mumbled, but still didn’t open her eyes as she sat up, pulling at the blankets around her.

“Go back to sleep.  I need to get out of this room and stretch,” he murmured, gently pushing her back.  Amelia let herself flop back onto the bed, and
she sighed, as she wiggled around.  Mitchell chuckled, certain that she wasn’t even fully awake, and within seconds, he heard her soft and airy snores as she fell back into a deep sleep.

Mitchell snuck to the door and eased it open, trying not to disturb Amelia’s sleep any further than he already had.  He w
eaved his way through the hallways, to the foyer, and then up the grand staircase.  His entire body ached, from his bones to his skin.  Even his light, cotton T-shirt bothered him, and his skin prickled underneath it with each small movement.

When he finally made it across the house and up to Luke’s room, he was coughing like mad and could bar
ely catch his breath.  He felt drained, his muscles trembling slightly and burning from exertion.  He stood outside the door, hesitating, as he sucked in breath after wheezing breath, and attempted to put together his best argument.

Mitchell
was just about to knock when the door flew open.  “What do you want?” Lola snapped.  She had her hands on her hips and she glared fiercely at him.

Her eyes were blazing and her fangs were down
, and Mitchell was stunned at how much of an effort it was not to jump back from her. 
Dammit!
  He really hated being so breakable.  Lola’s tantrums had never gotten to him before, but right now, seeing her so angry caused a little knot to twist and yank in his stomach.

Mitchell forced himself to hold
her glare for a long moment before he looked over her head at a chuckling Luke.  Trying to keep any trace of hesitation out of his voice, he straightened his shoulders and asked, “Didn’t you talk to her?”

“I did,” Luke said.  “Lola
will
give you guys some space.  Won’t you, honey?”  Lola shot him a look and grumbled something unintelligible, but she stepped back from the door.  Luke rolled his eyes at her before focusing back on Mitchell.  “I hope you’re sure about this, buddy,” he said, motioning for Mitchell to come in.