The Soul's Mark: FOUND (13 page)

“We were just having a little fun, Luke,” a
girl said.
 
Amelia’s mind was moving
slower and it was getting hard to remember whose voice belonged to whom.
 
They were all melting together.
 
She forced her eyes open; trying to see what
was happening.
 
She wanted to shout for
Luke to run away.
 
She needed to warn
him.
 
But warn him of what?
 
She wasn’t even sure.
 
A little voice was screaming
vampires
but her brain was telling her
she was drunk.

“
Kandi
,” Adam
snapped, moving in front of her as if to shield her.
 
From what?
 
Amelia
thought.
 
They were the monsters, not
Luke.
 
“We were just chatting with
her.
 
We weren’t going to hurt her,” Adam
continued.

Suddenly, Eric was hovering over her.
 
“Millie… Millie, try to focus.”
 
Eric’s eyes bore into hers.
 
“Are you okay?”
 
Amelia focused on him.
 
There was something wrong.
 
His face was contorted, eyes blazing…
red.
 
“Luke, she’s bleeding.”

Amelia tried to move.
 
She needed to get away.
 
Eric.
 
Luke.
 
She frantically looked
around.
 
Call for help.
 
She needed to call for help.
 
Then she saw Angelle.
 
Looking sweet and deadly.
 
A dynamic mix of sugar and fire; the sight
made Amelia shudder.

“Get away from her, Eric,” Angelle
growled.
 
She turned to Adam and Kandi,
who were cowering like scared little dogs, and the sweetly syrupy voice poured
out.
 
“If I ever see you near her again,
I won’t hesitate to rip you apart.”

One second they were cowering and the next
they were gone, leaving Amelia with her roommates.
 
“What’s going on?” she cried.
 
Her hurting head was spinning out of control
and everything around her was taking on a static-like, grayish tone.
 
“I don’t understand what’s happening.”

Before she knew it, she was in Luke’s arms,
cradled like a child against his chest and they were back in the house heading
towards the front door.
 
“Don’t
worry,
kiddo.
 
I’m
going to take you home.”

Home.
 
Yes, home sounded good
.
 
Amelia snuggled in and
closed her eyes.
 
She thought she heard
Tyler and Erin but it seemed so far away, like a dream.
 
Everything else was just too loud.
 
Music was pounding, pumping out and she
buried her head deeper into Luke’s chest, hiding from the noise.

The next thing she knew, she was in Luke’s
car, cradled on his lap.
 
Amelia
fluttered her eyes open.
 
Eric was
driving she noticed and Angelle looked worried.
 
But why?
  
They were the vampires.
 
Why were
they worried?
 
Nothing made sense because
logically, she should be the one that was scared.
 
She looked up at Luke, through half closed,
sleepy eyes.
 
“I think I should be scared
of you guys,” she murmured.

Luke chuckled and it rumbled through his
chest, jiggling her, “Why’s that, kiddo?”

“Because… you’re a
vampire.”
 
Then she giggled and rested her head back against his chest, closed her
eyes, and let the darkness consume her.

Someone was calling her name.
 
It was frantic and relentless, calling and
calling, over and over.
 
Amelia struggled
to open her eyes.
 
They felt so heavy,
and sharp stabbing pains radiated from her head, pulsing through her entire
body.
 
It was dark, black as the dead of
night and she looked around trying to find who was calling her.
 
With every move of her head, hot pain mixed
with dizzy drunkenness overwhelmed her, attempting to suck her back into a
cold, dark hole.

She struggled to keep her eyes open.
 
It was getting brighter.
 
There was a soft, white light shining
down.
 
Amelia looked up.
 
Sunlight, it was the sun.
 
Was it morning?
 
Why was she outside?
 
She blinked a few times.
 
It was so quiet.
 
The calling had stopped and she was alone in
the soft grass under a big oak tree.
 
Stripes of sunlight peeked through leaves and branches from above,
warming her skin where it touched.

A soft hand brushed hair from her
eyes.
 
Her gazed shifted, and beside her,
looking like a fallen angel was Mitchell.
 
“Amelia, what happened?”

“I hit my head,” she slurred, feeling woozy
and closed her eyes again.

“Are you drunk?”

Drunk?
 
That sounded right.
 
She
remembered going to the party.
 
“Yup,”
she said and giggled, and then a thought dawned on her.
 
“Wait, how am I drunk?
 
I shouldn’t be drunk in a dream.
 
And what are you doing here?”

“You’re bleeding.”
 
He poked around at the back of her head which
did not feel nice, and she tried to bat his hand away.

“Tyler’s a really good kisser,” Amelia
blurted.
 
“So is Eric, but you’re
better.”
 
Then she smacked her hands up
to her mouth in red-hot embarrassment and giggled some more.
 
She wasn’t really sure what was funny, but
well, even her voice sounded funny, a bit slow and slurred.

Mitchell took her face in his hands and
pulled her attention back to his sea blue eyes.
 
“Try to focus, Amelia.
 
What
happened to you?”
 
He looked so
scared.
 
Someone else had been scared,
too.
 
Who?
 
She didn’t know and it didn’t matter.
 
Mitchell was back.
 
She had missed him and now he was back.
 
Then Amelia saw him realize something, and
his face turned cold, and he went deathly still.
 
“Who the hell is Tyler?
 
And what do you mean ‘so is Eric’?
 
You kissed Eric.”
 
The words came out snarled, contorted with
anger.

“He’s really cute,” Amelia said, and then
clasped her hands back to her mouth.
 
Why
couldn’t she stop talking?
 
“He tasted
like raspberries.
 
I like raspberries.”

“You were with another guy,” he spat the
words at her.

“My roommates are vampires,” she
giggled.
 
“But they aren’t scary like the
other ones.
 
I need to sleep.
 
I wonder if Tyler will call me tomorrow.”

“Forget about Tyler,” he growled and
dropped his hands from her face.
 
He got
up and started pacing back and forth, back and forth.
 
Amelia tried to follow him but the movement
was too much and it made her dizzy.

She closed her eyes and yelled, “No!”
 
She took a deep breath.
 
“I don’t want to forget about Tyler.
 
I like him.
 
Go away Mitch.
 
Leave me alone.
 
I don’t want you here anymore.”

Right at that moment, Amelia moved.
 
She didn’t mean to move and she didn’t think
she did it on her own, but she was floating.
 
And Mitchell was gone.
 
No.
 
She wasn’t floating, she realized.
 
Luke was carrying her.
 
There was so much commotion around her.
 
Angelle was yelling and poking at her
head.
 
Amelia wanted to tell her
everything would be okay and that she was fine but she couldn’t keep her eyes
open.
 
It all seemed like too much
work.
 
Someone tucked her into bed.
 
The world spun around her and she passed out.

****

Something was wrong.
 
Amelia could feel it deep in her bones.
 
Her bed was moving.
 
No, not moving.
 
It sagged.
 
Someone was in her bed.
 
She
jumped awake and opened her eyes.
 
Too fast.
 
It was way
too fast, the room moved around in circles and she clamped her eyes shut.
 
She could hear the covers rustling and
someone touched her hand.
 
Open your eyes
, she thought.
 
You
need to open your eyes.
 
It seemed to
take forever and she thought she would never be able to pry them open again.
 
A tangy, sweet scent drifted to her nose and
as if she could not control it, her eyes fluttered open.
 
“Mitch,” she groaned.
 
“Why can’t you just let me sleep?”

“How are you feeling, love?”
 
He looked rumpled and tired.
 
He was in a suit and it looked as if he had
been hit by a truck.

Amelia closed her eyes again, relaxing back
in bed.
 
“Drunk and sore,” she whined, “I
don’t want to be drunk anymore.”

“I know.” He scooted over and gently pulled
her into his arms.
 
Amelia snuggled into
the hollow of his neck.
 
Tears stung her
eyes, prickling like bee stings.
 
If the
room would just stop moving everything would be okay, she was sure of it.

“I don’t want to love you any more either,”
she choked out through the tears.
 
“Why
won’t you just stay out of my dreams?”

“You’re not dreaming, love.”
 
He kissed her lightly on the forehead.
 
His lips felt warm, and she sighed.
 
“I’m sorry, Amelia.
 
Please forgive me.”
 
He sounded so sad.
 
Sad and lonely.

She peered up at him, not
understanding.
 
Why was he sad?
 
Why was he sorry?
 
What had he done?
 
And did it even matter?
 
He wasn’t even real.
 
“Forgive what?”

“You’ve left me no other choice, love,” he
murmured and brushed her hair back, trailing his fingers lightly down her
neck.
 
“Remember that I love you.
 
Please, just remember that.”
 
He closed his eyes for a long second, and
when they opened, Amelia gasped.
 
They
were no longer blue and heavenly, but tinted with streaks of red.

Amelia squeezed her eyes shut.
 
It’s
just a dream.
 
You’re drunk.
 
It’s not real.
 
He’s not real.
 
Suddenly, there was a sharp pain, like two
little needles jabbing into her neck, breaking the skin.
 
She gasped.
 
The pain grew, burning, hot, like scalding water.
 
It was her birthmark.
 
It was on fire.
 
She tried to reach up her hand to stop the
burning, but her hands were stuck.
 
Not
stuck… restrained… He was holding her wrists.

Just as fast as it started, the fire
stopped and her body tingled.
 
A warm
floating sensation engulfed her.
 
Was she
dying?
 
Was this it?
 
The end?
 
There was something else.
 
She could feel it.
 
A connection.
 
A link.
 
A chain.
 
Yes, that was it.
 
A chain, tethering itself
around her heart, gently tugging her closer, closer.
 
Closer to what?
 
She needed to get closer, she knew that, but
to what?
 
An
uncontrollable need to get closer to him.
 
To Mitchell.
 
The room was still spinning too fast, and it
hit her.
 
If she could get closer, he
could make it all stop.
 
He would help
her.

Amelia tried to get closer but her body
wouldn’t move.
 
She tried to speak but
the hard lump in her throat trapped the sound, pushing it down.
 
Her hands were cold, and the spinning room
was taking on a grayish tinge, getting darker… darker… darker…
 
She tried to keep her eyes open but her
eyelids were too heavy.
 
A soft hum
filled her ears, getting louder and louder, buzzing like bees.
 
And then it was dark.

****

Amelia woke up with a pounding
headache.
 
Every muscle in her body
throbbed, and she felt weak and lightheaded.
 
Her mouth was parched and a stubbly film covered her tongue.
 
She smacked her mouth, opening and closing,
trying to get the saliva moving.
 
The
horrid taste was as if she had licked a wet dog, and she wrinkled her
nose.
 
How much had she drunk last
night?
 
Obviously way too much
, she thought and silently vowed never to
drink again.

From somewhere in the house, she heard a
door slam followed by muffled voices.
 
She couldn’t make out the conversation, but the tones were enough to let
her know that an argument was underway.
 
She pulled a pillow over her head, trying to drown out the noise, but it
was no use.
 
Another door slammed and footsteps
pounded down the stairs.

Frustrated, Amelia flung the pillow across
the room.
 
The sun glittered through the
window on the west side, letting her know that she had slept most of the
day.
 
She glanced over at the clock,
3:30.
 
With a groan, she dragged herself
out of bed and staggered to the bathroom.

After guzzling three large glasses of water
and popping a few Advil, she brushed her teeth to get rid of the rancid taste
in her mouth.
 
The toothpaste wasn’t much
better and the sharp mint caused her stomach to heave and turn.

Amelia sunk to the floor, resting her head
between her knees, gulping in a few deep breaths.
 
She racked her mind, trying to remember what
she had done last night, but everything was fuzzy.
 
A few foggy images coursed through her head.
 
Jell-O shooters, Tyler, Eric, but they were
all jumbled and torn, nothing was making sense.

A couple minutes later, her stomach settled
and she slowly got up off the floor.
 
Hot
bolts of pain shot through her head.
 
She
ran her fingers through her hair and discovered the source of the pain.
 
A goose egg the size of a plum rested at the
back of her head and her hair was matted and crusty around it.
 
The lump was throbbing as if it had its own
pulse.

How had that happen?
 
Amelia leaned up against the counter to get
closer to the mirror and with a little handheld mirror, she examined the
lump.
 
She noticed a gash as well.
 
She stared at it, trying to think, but
couldn’t remember anything.

You
need to remember
, a small voice echoed through
Amelia’s mind.
 
She needed to figure out
what happened.

Amelia couldn’t breathe.
 
Her chest felt tight as if something was
squeezing around her heart and tugging, pulling her off balance, and she
stumbled, righting herself on the sink ledge.
 
She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, gasping for breath.
 
Her eyes were veined red, and her skin had a
pale, grayish pallor.
 
She splashed some
water on her face and the coolness helped a bit but the tugging at her chest
continued.
 
Each tug was more forceful
than the last.
 
She sucked in a few
ragged breaths and stumbled towards the door.
 
She needed help.
 
If she could
just make it out of her room, someone would help her.