The Soul's Mark: Broken (10 page)

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, locking sad and
conflicted eyes with hers.  And then, he raised his arm, and a strand of
blinding white energy hit Amelia square in the chest.  As soon as it connected
with her, she felt the pull on her power, and it began to seep from her,
winding around his as it rushed towards him.

When the first strands hit Josh, he gasped,
and a visible shudder of pleasure shook him.  He closed his eyes and breathed
in, his expression changing to one of pure and utter ecstasy.  He threw his
head back and yelled, “I call upon the spirits to hear my pleas,” with a power
and authority that rose far above anything Amelia had ever heard before.  “I
wield the power that set the bond, and with that same power let it be broken.”

The pain was unbearable.  Something ripped
inside her, and Amelia screamed out in agony.  It was as if she was being torn
in half, split into two pieces.  A whooshing sound rushed out of her, and for a
second, hovering in front of her, was Mitchell.  His eyes went from heavenly
blue to fiery red.  His fangs snapped down, and his face contorted with barely
controlled madness.  Then he was gone.

The light overhead flickered, and another
surge of energy pulled from her chest.  Amelia gasped for breath.  It shook
through her, burning her lungs. 
Mitchell!
she called through the bond,
but there was no answer, no hum of thoughts, no pull.  Nothing. 
He’s dead,
kind of,
she told herself frantically, trying to justify the silence. 
This
couldn’t have worked.  It just couldn’t.

Josh wavered on his feet, and his shoulders
trembled slightly.  The paralyzing magic began to dwindle, and Amelia felt life
breathe back into her limbs.  The excruciating pain diminished to a dull
coursing burn, and she struggled to her feet.

“Josh, stop!” Cole yelled.  He was at the
door, reefing it open with such force that the hinges broke.  He tossed it
aside and rushed through, calling over his shoulders, “Something’s not right.”

Josh dropped to the frigid concrete floor,
and his body sucked up the last of the energy that floated in the room.  He
looked a bit pale, and he was breathing hard as he struggled to get back to his
feet.

“Josh, I need some help!” Cole yelled from somewhere
outside the room, and Josh glanced at the door.  Even that small movement looked
as if it had taken a lot out of him.

Amelia felt drained, cold, and utterly
empty, but she managed to pull herself to her feet.  She heard scuffling, and
out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the television.  Cole was
locked, head to head with Luke, and he had a stake in his hand.  Angelle, Lola,
and Erin were stalking towards Megan with blood red eyes and sharp fangs fully
extended, and Eric stood still, gripping at his chest.

She surveyed the scene for a second before
her brain processed what her eyes were seeing.  Angelle, Lola, and Erin looked
as if they were planning to eat Megan.

Adrenaline hit Amelia hard and fast.  She
bolted through the doorway and skidded across an unfinished basement.  She saw
another door wide open, and she ran for it, following the sounds of a struggle.

“Stop!” she yelled, as she slid through the
door.  For a second all eyes turned to her.  Angelle snarled, a purely
animalistic sound, and then sprung at Megan, who was untied, but cornered, in
the cage.

Amelia hit her hard and fast with a streak
of hot magic, and she slammed into the side of the cage.  “What’s wrong with
you guys?” she shrieked, as Lola and Erin made a move for Megan.

The air sputtered around Amelia, and magic
surged from behind her.  “Amelia, order the hunter not to kill,” Madame
Crystal’s voice rang out loudly.  Amelia spun to find Madame Crystal and Tyler
in the doorway with Josh behind them, looking a bit shaky.  She blinked in
confusion, and the psychic yelled, “Amelia, do it now!”

Amelia didn’t argue.  “Cole, do not kill
him!”

Cole looked at her with barely controlled
hatred.  He dropped his stake, grabbed onto Luke’s cheeks, and twisted.  The
sickening snap of bones echoed off the cement walls, and Luke landed with a
thud.

Madame Crystal stepped into the room, and
sent a tendril of energy at Eric.  It circled around his body, from shoulders
to toes, holding him still.  Josh rushed over to the cage, adding his own power
to Megan’s to construct a shield against the others.

Angelle, Lola, and Erin froze, blanched,
and then, a burst of wind ruffled Amelia’s hair, and they were gone.

Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!
  That’s pretty much the only thing that went through Amelia’s mind
at that moment.  Well, that and the image of Mitchell crumpling against Tristan,
as he was dragged away to who knows where.

“You,” Madame Crystal said, pointing at
Josh.  “Go and get some rope to tie these two up.”

Josh glared at the psychic. “Who the hell
are you?” he growled with contempt.

“Just do it, Josh,” Amelia said as she rushed
over to Megan, who was leaning over, her hands on her knees and panting.  She
could feel his eyes on her back, and she was certain he was glaring at her. 
She glanced over her shoulder, seeing his clenched jaw and balled fists, and
she snapped, “Do it!”  Josh’s jaw dropped, and he shot her a look of disbelief
and then left without a word.

“Megan,” Eric whispered, as soon as Josh
left.  He stood still with the blue energy snaking around him, holding him
tight.  His eyes washed red, and his fangs slid down.  “Megan,” he called
again, drawing out her name as if it was a song.

“Eric,” Megan breathed, looking past Amelia
and locking eyes with him.

He smiled, his trademark half grin, but
there was something wrong with it.  Something cold and creepy and dark.
“Remember last night?” he asked.  “You begged me to bite you, and I did. You
liked it.”  He chuckled.  “Actually, you more than liked it.”  His grin
widened, and he winked at her promiscuously.  “Why don’t you come over here,
and I’ll do it again for you.”

“Eric!” Megan shrieked, and turned ten
different shades of red.

“Don’t be shy,” he purred.  The sound of
his voice filled the room, and the air grew sparse, but he didn’t seem to
notice.  His grin widened, and he licked his lips.  “I know how much you want
me, too.  I can smell the desire rolling off of you.”

Megan looked at Amelia; her eyes sparkled
with unshed tears.  “What’s wrong with him?”  She bit her bottom lip, and
Amelia was pretty sure she did it to stop it from quivering.

Amelia opened her mouth and then promptly
closed it, because really, she didn’t want to believe that breaking the bond
could cause her family to go all crazy blood hungry, and saying it out loud
would only make what was happening real.

Tyler went straight for Megan and wrapped her
protectively in his arms.  His expression was a mask of indifference, but
Amelia couldn’t miss the worry she knew he was feeling.  She could see it in
his shoulders, the way the muscles twitched, and in his stance, as if he was
ready for the worst.

Madame Crystal said, “The bond is broken. 
It was not Amelia’s magic that created the bond.” Right then, Josh walked back
into the room, his hands filled with thick rope, and she glared at him.  “By
tampering with the spell that was meant to fix Amelia’s mistake, it caused the
magic to revert back to her original curse.”  She sighed long and loud and said
to Amelia, “These hunters have essentially created the soulless monsters that
you had envisioned almost fifteen hundred years ago.”

Luke’s fingers began to twitch, just small
little movements, but it was more than enough for Amelia to push all her
frenzied questions aside.  At least for the time being.  She was floored that
something as simple as rope could restrain a vampire, but when she thought
about it, it made sense.  They had wrapped the ropes like a noose from
shoulders to ankles around Eric and Luke, pinning their arms and legs tightly
together, taking away their momentum and rendering their strength useless.

It had been Megan’s idea to return to their
house.  Amelia had been reluctant at first.  She hadn’t thought it would be
smart to just waltz into a gated complex that housed a bunch of vampires who no
longer had any link to humanity, but Madame Crystal assured them that the
vampires wouldn’t be there.  She was certain they would hide, and soon, they
would begin to hunt.

The psychic seemed so sure, claiming she
had already seen it, that Amelia finally caved.  She hated the idea, but she
knew that if they could make it into the dungeon, they would be able to lock up
Eric and Luke.   Mitchell had explained to her once that the dungeon had been
made to keep vampires in, so she figured it could also keep them out.

“Let me see if I’ve got this all straight,”
Amelia said, once they were piled in the Hummer with Eric and Luke in the
trunk.  “At some point, like fifteen hundred years ago, I was in love with
Mitchell.  He was killed by a vampire, and I decided to cast some stupid spell
to take away the souls of all vampires out of revenge.”

Madame Crystal laughed.  “Your mother told
me that you were always a bit dramatic.”

Tyler laughed.  It was shaky and forced,
but it was still a laugh, and Amelia cut him a look.  The others were looking
at him as if he was crazy, but he just shrugged it off, put the SUV in reverse,
and said, “A
bit
dramatic is a
bit
of an understatement.”  He was
trying hard to keep everyone’s spirits up, but it was hard.  Especially with
the addition of Cole and Josh.

“I still don’t understand how you could
talk to her mother,” Megan said.  She was fidgeting, clipping and unclipping
her seatbelt, straightening her top, and dabbing at the dried blood on her
wrists.  Amelia figured it was her way of keeping herself busy and distracted
from Eric’s constant calling to her.

“Magic,” the psychic replied with a twinkle
in her eye.

Tyler pulled onto the street, and put the
car in drive, moving at a crawl.  His eyes scanned the shadows along the side
of the road.  He flicked on the interior lights, and kept glancing in the
rearview mirror, watching everyone closely as if he was certain something was
about to happen.

“Whatever,” Amelia said with a dramatic,
drawn out sigh, which she hoped told Madame Crystal exactly what she thought
about her mother contacting her.  “So, after I created a bunch of monsters,
Mother Nature fixed the spell and created the soulmate bond, right?”  Madame
Crystal nodded at her summary, and Amelia pushed on.  “What I don’t get is why,
when these morons decided to break the bond, it reverted back to the curse.”

“Because they asked for the bond to be
broken,” Madame Crystal said simply.  She must have noticed all the blank
stares, and she went on explaining, “By accessing your magic, the magic from
the first coven, they in a way accessed Mother Nature’s magic.  Mother Nature
is the first witch, and you are her descendant, which means your magic flows as
one.”

As soon as they had gotten in the car, Cole
had planted himself in the front seat beside Tyler.  He kept his eyes glued to
the side window, with his bow and arrow ready, which seemed pointless to
Amelia.  What was he going to do?  Shoot through the glass?  “Why couldn’t I
kill that bloodsucker?” he asked, scanning the shadowy edge of the street.

Amelia gaped at him.  The caustic tone that
coated his words was corrosive, offending even.  The way he said
bloodsucker
,
it was as if the word made him sick even thinking it.  She wasn’t sure whether
to be annoyed, angry, or compassionate, because really, she figured it was her
fault he was like this.

Tyler, she guessed, didn’t feel the same. 
He slammed on the brakes, and spun around in his seat towards Cole.  He moved
so close that they were nose to nose.  “Dude, keep it up,” he growled, shoving
Cole back against the window.

Josh was up and in between them, wedging
himself between the front seats, faster than Amelia’s eyes could process the
movement.  He gave Tyler a hard look, and after a second, Tyler backed down and
put the car in drive again. Josh then turned to face Cole square on. “Because
she
gave you an order not to,” he answered.  Cole grunted in response, and focused
his stare back out the window.

The air grew heavy and thick with silence. 
The SUV began to roll forwards, and Tyler turned off the street, making a left
out of the subdivision.  Josh squeezed in on the seat between Amelia and Madame
Crystal, keeping a close eye on Tyler and Cole, and Amelia wiggled over trying
to put some space between them.

Out of everything that had happened in the
past twenty-four hours, Amelia found that part the hardest to swallow.  She
could see the memory.  She knew she had created the vampire hunters in the
lifetime after she had been burned alive, but still, it just didn’t feel
right.  She couldn’t imagine hating Mitchell so much, that she would actually
create a breed of hunters to track him down and kill him.  It just seemed so … cold.

But not only had Amelia created them, she
had ensured that they would obey her every command.  She had weaved that piece
into the spell as a failsafe to make sure that when the time came to kill Mitchell,
they wouldn’t hesitate, even if she couldn’t do it herself.  The hunters would
march into battle on command with no regard for their own safety.