The Soul's Mark: CHANGED (9 page)

He smiled, or a
t least that’s what Amelia thought it looked like.  “It’s nice to finally meet you, Amelia.”

Amelia’s jaw dropped—literally.  She could feel it hanging, bobbing up and down as if she
was a fish out of water, gasping for breath.  It was his airy chuckle that snapped her out of her stupor and she took a step back, and snapped, “You can’t just show up on a girl in the shower!”

He leaned against the far wall of the shower stall
, his body seemingly sinking into it, and folded his floppy looking arms over his chest, smirking at her.  “You called.  I came.  If you did not want me in the shower, you should not have called while you were there.”

“I did not call you!”
she said, putting her hands on her hips, trying not to think about how weird it was to be speaking to a blob of gooey looking water.  She felt the soft burn in her eyes as they began to wash red, and her magic flared, coating her body in a swirling crimson light.

“
Do not take that tone with me,” he said, although it sounded more like a growl.  His body began to thicken and harden, taking on more of a human looking form, except, no matter how hard Amelia tried to take him in, she couldn’t really focus on him.  It was as if every time she thought she got a glimpse of what he looked like it was erased from her mind.  He had brown hair and he was her height, but other than that, nothing stood out.  It was as if, even though he seemed to have a body, it wasn’t actually there.  “You called upon the spirits for strength.  Do you really want to argue about this now?”

“Um … no?” she asked, utterly confused
, and she felt her jaw start to flap again. 
What the hell is happening?

“Good,” he said with a small nod.  “
Now, since I’m here, I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

“Okay …” she sa
id, hugging herself tightly, as she tried to tame her magic that was whirling and flaring all around her.  She had an overwhelming urge to flee, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from him.

“
You have three days,” he said, and she swore she heard laughter in his voice.

“
What?” she asked, as her brow knitted together.  “What happens in three days?”

He shrugged, as if to say he didn’t know
, which was retarded, in Amelia’s opinion, because he obviously did.  “You’ll find out in three days.  But I’ll give you a hint.  Listen to your lover, girl.  He knows what must be done.”

“
What does Mitchell know about anything?” she asked, as dread seeped into her bones.  The last thing Amelia wanted to think about was Mitchell getting involved with the spirits.  He could barely handle being human as it was.

The water spirit didn’t answer.  Instead, he
let out a full-bellied laugh.  Amelia glared at him, watching the water jiggle around as his body shook with laughter.  She huffed in frustration, but it only made him laugh harder.

He
sobered after a few moments, and gave her a stern look.  “Do not come to me, or the other spirits seeking answers.  We will no longer help you, and neither will Mother Nature.  You asked for the power and now you must decide how much you want it and what you will give up for it.”

Right then, s
omeone screamed.  It was a loud shrill and Amelia startled, vaulting a good foot off the ground.  She landed on the balls of her feet, swiveling around, and threw open the bathroom door.  Her muscles tensed, tight as a corkscrew, ready to attack, but she saw nothing.  She scanned her bedroom again, searching for Mitchell, or anyone, but she was alone.

She threw a quick look over her shoulder, glancing back at the water spirit.  He smiled, a cruel kind of smile, and then
, as if he was a water balloon falling to the ground, he popped, splattering all over the walls of the shower stall.

“Are you kidding me?” Eric asked, dumbfounded.  “This is what you’re going to fight me on?”

Megan fell to her knees and
let out a bloodcurdling scream, and Eric just stood there, watching her.  He wasn’t sure if he was more hurt or angry, but either way, he couldn’t make himself pull it back. 
Maybe that’s a good thing
, he thought.  Megan needed to feel the pain of the bond in order to test her magic against it, but knowing that didn’t make the betrayal he felt at that moment any easier to handle.

They’d been at it for hours now, trying to find something, anything
, that they could disagree on enough to trigger the pain from the soulmate bond.  As it turned out, most of Eric’s worries had been completely uncalled for.  He saw eye to eye with Megan on pretty much everything.  Well, everything except the one thing that, in the last twenty-four hours, had become most important to him.

They were gathered in the dungeon; Mitchell, Luke
, Lola, Erin, even Lucy was down here with them, all waiting and watching to see if Megan would be able to use her magic to fight the pain.  The harsh florescent lights were unforgiving, showing the year’s worth of grime and blood that stained the stone walls.  Eric and Megan’s cleaning had only begun to erase the signs of death from the space. Why Mitchell had picked the dungeon to experiment with the bond was beyond him, but Eric also thought the place was fitting.  A cruel spot to inflict the cruel torture.  But now that they had found something that would actually cause the pain, Eric wished they had never tried.  Sure, being able to change the bond was important, and he knew they had to test it before trying to screw with the original spell that had created it, but he would have preferred to never find out this little bit of information.

“
Megan, try to deflect it,” Mitchell said, coaching her in a voice that Eric figured was supposed to be soothing, and maybe it was for her, but it made his blood boil.

“Stay the hell out of this, Dad,” he growled, and he moved closer to Megan.
  “How is this something you don’t want?” Eric snapped, glaring down at her.  He hated how his voice sounded—hurt, angry, and more than a little mean.  It wasn’t him, and he didn’t want to sound like that, but he couldn’t help it.

“Eric, I’m sorry,” Megan
gasped in between screams.  “You don’t understand.  I’m sorry.”  She started panting for breath and clenching at her chest.  Eric knew her lungs were caving in and he wanted to stop.  He really wanted to, he even tried to force himself to agree with her to make the pain stop, but his brain—and heart—wouldn’t accept it.

Tears prickled at his eyes
, and his heart felt as if someone was chipping away at it with an ice pick, splintering off piece after small piece.  “I thought you wanted to be here,” he said, his voice hollow, void of emotion.  “I thought you wanted …”

Megan screamed again, drowning out his thoughts and cutting off his voice.  She convulsed a little, wiggling around on the frigid stone floor and she reached out, gripping onto his pant leg
. 
Eric, stop!
she shouted through the bond, her voice echoing through his mind.

He vaguely heard Mitchell and Luke, trying to coach her.  Their voices seemed to float around him, staying just out of reach of his ears.  Tears streaked down Megan’s cheeks in a flood, and he hastily bent over, brushing them away with his thumb.

Eric dropped to his knees beside her, pulling Megan into his arms.  She screamed again, and he squeezed her tighter, as he fought against his brain, trying to convince himself that this was okay.  It was her choice.  If she didn’t want …

Suddenly, Megan’s magic flared, and she
shot a blast of bright, white-hot magic at him, hitting him square in the chest.  Eric shot back, sliding across the stone, too stunned, too hurt, to try and absorb the magic into himself.

He
gasped and snarled, as he stared down at his chest, and bit back the pain-filled holler that was fighting its way up his throat.  His T-shirt was smoking, and there was a hole burnt in the center.  He stared down, until his blistered skin began to heal, and his shirt stopped smoking, before he was able to pull his eyes away from it.

“You burn
ed me,” he said, as Megan pulled herself to her feet.  He felt hot and cold and sick.  Sick from hurting her, and sick that she’d hurt him back.

“You wouldn’t stop,” she countered
with a shrug, as if to say he deserved it, and Eric figured she was probably right.  “I wasn’t ready for that.”  She shifted her gaze to Mitchell then and said, “I completely understand why Millie almost killed you for using the bond.  You’re right.  We’ve got to fix this.”

Megan started brushing at her pants, and straightening her clothes
, and as she did, the room fell silent.  Eric stared at her back, and he was sure he was looking at Megan as if he’d never met her before, but right then, that’s exactly how he felt.  It was as if she was a complete stranger.

“What the hell was that about?”
Erin asked, as she swatted at Lucy, who was cowering behind her, and clutching at her.  Lucy squealed a little, but stayed safely hidden behind Erin.

“She doesn’t want to be changed,” Eric said
, rolling up to his feet.  “She doesn’t want to stay with me.”  Even as he said it out loud, he couldn’t believe it.

“Like I said, you don’
t understand,” Megan said.  Her face was an emotionless mask, but her aura was black as pitch.  She sucked in a deep breath and straightened her shoulders.  Eric thought she would show him something, but there wasn’t a single stitch of emotion in her eyes as she glared at him.

“Do you guys need a minute?” Mitchell asked.
  His voice was strained, and raspy, and he looked like crap.  He should be in bed; Eric knew that, but he couldn’t bring himself to send Mitchell away.  It was selfish, and Eric felt awful about it, but he needed Mitchell now more than he ever had before.

Eric was about to say yes, not because he wanted time with Megan, but because he really needed to talk to Mitchell, when Megan snapped, “No. 
It’s not important now.  Let’s go again.”

“Meg,”
Eric said pleadingly.  She might not need a minute, but he sure as hell did.  He needed more than a minute.  It was as if everything he’d thought, everything he’d believed in, had suddenly blown up in his face, leaving him lost and confused and utterly empty.  He’d already lost her once, and no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t wrap his head around how she could want to leave him again.

“Not now, Eric.  We’ve found something
that will work, so use it.” And before he could get his head together, she threw her painful thoughts back in his face, and her screams ruptured again, bouncing off the stone walls.

Another scream reverberated through the house, and Amelia nearly jumped out of her skin.  It had been deathly quiet as she hastily dressed and strained her senses, looking for the threat; the only sounds she’d heard for the last few minutes were that of her own steady breathing, whistling through her ears, and the soft drip, splat, drip of water.  She had begun to think she’d imagined the first scream, figuring she was just on edge while talking with one of the spirits, and her overactive mind had gotten away from her, but this time she was certain it was real.  It was a painful sound, verging on bloodcurdling, and she didn’t know where it was coming from.

I’m going to die,
Megan’s hysterical voice shrieked through her mind.

For a split second, Amelia’s heart stopped beating and she couldn’t breathe.  Panic gripped at her throat, cinching it like a noose and closing off her air pipe.  A violent shudder spread along her back, jolting her spine straighter, and tensing her already taut muscles.

Where are you? Who’s hurting you?
Amelia sent back in a frantic rush, and she raced out of her bedroom, trying to follow the sounds of Megan’s gasps and screams.  She was sure Megan was in the house, but the sounds were distorted, muffled, and it was hard to pinpoint exactly where they were coming from.

Amel…
Megan started, but then she screamed again, projecting it through their link.  The screams screeched through Amelia, rattling her brain, and piercing her eardrums.  It came at her from every direction, from inside and out.

She skidded to a stop and spun in circles, trying to pin down where Megan was.  The screams and shrieks felt like an echo as Megan pushed it through their link, and it hit her ears at the same time.  It was as if it was coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Amelia’s heart raced painfully fast as she tried to focus.  Megan started throwing images at her in a frenzied rush.  Eric standing over her, eyes narrowed and lips pulled tight.  Mitchell watching her as she dropped to her knees.  Luke and Lola standing beside him, doing nothing to help.  Erin and Lucy … they were cowering at the bottom of a rough looking stone staircase, trembling, and Lucy was clutching her ears.

The dungeon.
  Amelia ran as fast as she could through the house until she reached the door that sat slightly ajar.  She bolted down the steps, in a blur of motion, hardly feeling the cool stone beneath her feet.  A rage-filled snarl erupted from her lungs, and she lunged at Eric.

Amelia was on him before he registered her presence.  She grabbed the collar of his shirt, her sharp fingernails digging and tearing into his flesh, and she ripped him away from Megan, flinging him across the room.