The Soul's Mark: FOUND (31 page)

“It’s never goodbye.
 
Not for you, sweetie.
 
The body may die but the soul never
does.
 
We‘ll always be here.
 
All you need to do is open your heart and
you’ll know how to find us.
 
Look inside
yourself.”

“Mom, you sound just like that ridiculous
psychic.” Amelia tossed up her hands, exasperated.
 
She knew she was stalling.
 
She didn’t want the moment to end, but she
couldn’t help it and she raged on.
 
“Madame Crystal said I’d know how to let Mitch back in and I can’t
figure that out.
 
How am I supposed to
find you or help Erin if I can’t even repair the bond with Mitch?”

“Open your heart.
  
All the answers are there just waiting for
you to find them.”
 
She gave Amelia
another big hug and a wise, all knowing kind of smile.
 
“It’s time to go back.
 
Always remember, I love you my sweet, sweet
child.”

The sunlight glittered through the windows
like ribbons of gold, twirling and weaving, casting the room in a glory of
light.
 
For a quick second, Amelia’s
heart stopped.
 
Had something gone
wrong?
 
She was almost certain she was
dead, because she had never envisioned such splendor in such a simple thing as
the sunlight before.
  
Surely that meant
that her time was over, she had taken too long to decide and the spirits had
done it for her.

Then she saw Mitchell.
 
He sat beside her bed, staring blankly out
the window, a single tear streaming down his cheek winding like a river.
 
When the sunlight touched it, it sparkled
like the shiny flecks of a diamond.
   
His aura shone brightly—lemon yellow—and mixed with the sunbeams he
looked indisputably angelic.

Suddenly, the floodgates opened and his
pain, his worries, his fears, everything came crashing into Amelia.
 
She gasped, instantaneously realizing that he
thought she was never coming back.
 
He
was sure he had lost her and that pain, the idea of losing him was more than
she could bear.

When she gasped, Mitchell swiveled to meet
her gaze.
 
Hastily, he rubbed at his face
and gave her a weak smile.

“You’re here,” Amelia croaked.

Pain and disappointment flashed in his
eyes, and she knew he had misunderstood.
 
“Sorry…”
Mitchell said—hollow and empty.
 
“I’ll go.”
 
He hesitated for a moment, looking her over and then stood up.

“No.”
 
Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat.
 
“I’m glad you’re here.
 
Is everyone okay?
 
Erin?
 
Is Erin okay?”
 
Amelia tried to
sit up and when she couldn’t make it, Mitchell helped, propping pillows behind
her.
  
He fidgeted, fluffing them up,
rearranging the mounds of cushions, smoothing out the sheets.
 
With the way he was avoiding looking at her,
it was obvious that something was horribly wrong.
 
Glints of Erin surfaced in his thoughts, but
as quickly as they flashed up he pushed them down.
 
A rock hard lump formed in Amelia’s throat
and she swallowed hard, fighting against the tears that threatened.
 
“Mitch…
please
…
please.
 
You have to tell me they’re
fine.”

“They’re alive,” Mitchell said.
 
He tried to keep his tone light and if not
for their emotional link, she may have believed him.
 
But as it was, she could feel that he was
hiding something from her, something that she was sure she didn’t really want
to know.

“But…?” Amelia asked.
 
Panic tinged her voice and she imagined the
ghastly fates of her friends—her family.

Mitchell sighed and his expression took on
a hard and closed air.
 
“Don’t worry,
love.
 
You need rest.”

“Stop trying to hide things from me and
tell me what happened!” she shouted, and smacked her fits onto the bed.

“Amelia…” he pleaded, fighting the anger
that flickered in his eyes at her outburst.
 

The all too familiar fury started bubbling
up in both of them, his mixing with hers, creating a thunderstorm of rage.
 
Amelia clenched her fists and focused hard on
keeping an even tone before she spoke.
 
She took a deep breath and locked her eyes with his.
 
“Listen closely, Mitch, because I’m only
going to say this once.
 
If you want it
to work between us, you need to stop trying to make all the damn decisions.
 
You think you’re protecting me, I get it, but
you’re not.
 
I’m not trying to say it’ll
be easy.
 
So don’t kid yourself into
thinking it will be.
 
We’re both stubborn
and frankly,” she smirked, “I know that I’m always right and you’re always
wrong.
 
It’ll be a lot of work, but if
you’re willing to try, so am I.”

Amelia couldn’t help but smile.
 
For just a second, strong, closed Mitchell
looked lost and confused.
 
He gave his
head a thorough shake and his lips curved the slightest little bit.
 
“Did you just say you want to try?”
 
His brilliant eyes shone blue like a clear
summer’s sky and a sudden surge of bliss wrapped around her like a cozy fleece
blanket.

Amelia took a moment to enjoy the love and
devotion that poured off of him, soaking it up like a dry sponge.
 
She tried to send the same feelings to him,
wanting him to feel what she felt but as she gathered them up and pushed she
hit a wall—the wall that she had placed between them.
 
Amelia squeezed her eyes shut, frustrated
with herself for ruining the magic between them, and then forced it out of her
mind, because, she knew that was the least of her worries right now.
 
She fixed her stare on him.
 
“That’s what I said.
 
Now tell me, what’s wrong.”
 
She crossed her arms.
 
When he didn’t answer she yelled, “I’m
serious, Mitch.
 
Tell me!”

Mitchell sighed again.
 
This time long and drawn out, the air slowly
pushing from his lips; he was stalling, Amelia was sure of it.
 
He shuffled awkwardly around the bed tucking her
in like a sausage and then, when she could hardly breathe from the tight
blankets, he said, “Erin’s not doing well.
 
Tristan got away and he’s been calling to her through the bond.
 
I had to lock her up so she wouldn’t run
after him.”

Calling
her?
 
He still had control?
 
A knot twisted in her stomach.
 
This couldn’t be happening.
 
Amelia let her gaze wander the room, allowing
her self-pity to get the best of her.
 
All she wanted was to come back from the—almost—dead, see Mitchell, fall
in love again and live happily ever after.
 
“I don’t get it,” she said through clenched teeth.
 
Then she felt ashamed.
 
It wasn’t like her to put herself first, and
it just didn’t feel right.
 
And Amelia
had to admit that she was the one who asked about her friends, so she knew she
needed to suck it up and put her life on hold—again—to help them.
  
“I thought with her being a vampire he
wouldn’t have that kind of control.”

Mitchell ran a finger along her cheek.
 
“They’re still bonded, love.
 
She still feels the pull and it’s not
something that’s easy to fight.
 
It’s kind
of like us.
 
Even though you have shut me
out, I can still feel your presence.
 
I
can still feel that pull, like you’re tugging a rope that’s attached to my
heart.”
 
He plopped back down in the
chair and rubbed at his face, as if he was trying to banish away his pained
expression.

It was a great feat, but Amelia managed to
ignore his heartbreaking look and pushed on.
 
She needed to know what had happened if she would have any chance at
helping her friend.
 
She dug into her
memories, trying to piece together the drug-hazed conversation she had had with
Tristan.
 
“Tristan said you killed
her.
 
He thought she was dead.
 
What happened?”

A distant look settled on Mitchell’s brow
and small creases marred the soft skin around his eyes.
 
“I came back to tell you I was sorry about
our fight but you were gone.
 
I thought…”
he paused, and Amelia watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed with a bunch of quick
swallows.
 
“I thought you left me.
 
I wouldn’t have blamed you if you did.”
 
He reached out and caressed her cheek, letting
his fingers slide down to her neck, lingering on her mark.
  
“But when you weren’t there, I lost it.
 
I don’t know if our family will ever forgive
me.”
 
A frantic string of images passed
through his mind and his jaw twitched as he fought them away.
 
“Tyler was the one who found Erin.
 
Tristan had left her to die.”

Amelia waited for him to tell her more but
when he didn’t, she said gently, “So you changed her.
 
You saved her life.”

“I almost didn’t.
 
I wanted to kill her.”
 
His eyes flared, streaked red and then he
blinked, casting it away.
 
He let his
arms drop, dangling to his sides and the creases on his brow turned to
crevices, deep and sharp.

Amelia waited, afraid to say anything that
might shut him down, because, whether she liked it or not, at times Mitchell
could be worse than a teenage girl in the mood swing department.
 
Was
that a vampire thing or just him?
she
wondered.

After a few moments, he met her eyes, and
his face lit up with excitement.
 
“Amelia,
can you help her?
 
Is there a spell or something?
 
You could break it like you did with me.”

“I didn’t…” Amelia started, and then
quickly stopped.
 
Didn’t what?
 
She was about
to tell him that she hadn’t broken their link but she had.
 
She knew it was time that she stopped lying
to him and took the responsibility for her actions.

He must have read it on her face because he
said, “
It’s
okay.
 
I guess I didn’t give you much choice.”

It was at that moment that she knew, no
matter what, she had to figure out how to fix what she had done to them.
 
But first, she needed to help Erin.
 
“Help me up, Mitch.
 
I need to see her.”

****

Amelia was absolutely appalled to find out
that her castle dream home actually had a dungeon and that dungeon was where
Mitchell had locked up Erin.

“You left her in here,” Amelia seethed,
glancing around and taking in the barbaric room.
 
She felt as if she had stepped through a time
portal and was teleported back to the
Middle
Ages.
 
The rough and jagged stone walls were caked
with what looked like centuries of grime and were splattered with dark spots
that she knew, disturbingly, was blood.
 
Thankfully, when she glanced at Mitchell, he looked just as
unsettled.
 
“I tried locking her in one
of the upstairs rooms, love.
 
She broke
out.”

“What was this used for?”
 
Amelia asked, looking over a contraption that
hung from the ceiling.
 
She had a
frightening thought of someone hanging upside-down, the leather and chains
tightening and pulling until limbs ripped off, and she cringed and trembled.
 
Before Mitchell could help add any nightmarish
ideas, she tossed up her hands and said, “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”

At that moment, she heard Erin’s voice
traveling down a dark and dingy corridor.
 
“Millie, finally, you need to get me out of here.”
 
Erin’s call surrounded Amelia, slithering
around her like a tangled nest of hissing snakes.
 
The words echoed, bouncing off the walls and
it felt as if they were trying to slither into her mind and pull her in.
 
Her goose-pimpled skin prickled as the
pimples turned into full-grown bumps.
 
“I
know you’re there, Millie,” Erin hissed when Amelia didn’t respond.
 
“I can smell your sweet, sweet blood pumping
through your veins.”

Amelia took a step back and jumped a foot
off the ground when she bumped into Mitchell.
 
He held her, rubbing small circles onto her back and she fought to catch
her breath.
 
“Amelia, it’s not really
Erin talking.
 
She’s letting the demon
take control.
 
You should know that we
had to restrain her as well so she wouldn’t hurt us or herself.”

Amelia opened her mouth, but the only sound
that came from her lips was a scared little whimper.
 
She swallowed hard and shook her head even harder
hoping the fears would fly out from the force, and then she gave herself a
stern mental pep talk.
 
You’re a witch.
 
You have nothing to be scared of.
 
Erin’s your friend and she needs your
help.
 
Keep it together, Amelia.
 
You can do this.
 
When she was sure her voice would work,
she locked eyes with Mitchell and asked, “What do you mean restrain her?”