The Soul's Mark: CHANGED (23 page)

The house was beyond tense.  The nervous energy that pulsed from her family was like a living organism, pulsing and shifting, making the air thick and heavy.  And as Lola continued with her fury induced rant, Amelia could almost envision the anxious energy moving from one person to the next, circling the room, following Lola as she paced.

Amelia didn’t really understand why Lola was so pissed off at her.  She just couldn’t make sense out of it, although that could be because she wasn’t really listening.  The yelling had started not long after Lola had returned from the blood bank with Luke.  As it turned out, the town situation hadn’t been all that bad.  There’d been a small group of people barricading the center, not allowing the willing townspeople access to donate.  But with a little persuasion, they’d been able to get the blood bank up and running.

It was after Luke and Lola confirmed that everything was fine in town that Mitchell told them what the water spirit had said: if Amelia failed at changing the bond, the spirits would take him.  Amelia had almost stopped him at that point because it hadn’t been exactly what the spirit had said.  But she didn’t, and as she listened, Amelia realized that the water spirit never actually confirmed that changing the bond was exactly what she needed to do, but he hadn’t denied it either, and Amelia found herself hoping that changing it was in fact what she had to do.  Mitchell went on to explain that Amelia had figured out a way to change him back to a vampire, and in theory, he’d survive it.  Luke and Lola had listened with stunned attentiveness right up until the moment Cole walked through the door, and that’s when the yelling had started.

Cole hadn’t even gotten a chance to say hi, and the look on his face when Lola vamped out was priceless.  He’d shuddered when her eyes flared and her fangs snapped down.  If Amelia had wondered whether he still had any trace of hunter left in him, she now knew he didn’t.  His chubby, paper-white face showed just how terrified he was.  He went straight for Megan, sitting as close as he dared to her and Eric on the couch, and kept his mouth shut.

Amelia ran a finger across the leather of the couch she was sitting on.  This was where it had all started—where she’d found out that Mitchell was real.  She’d been laying on this very couch after he’d bitten her, and she’d been standing in this very room the first time she’d felt the pain of the bond.  And it was that memory that made her even surer that she had to change it—she couldn’t fail.  She remembered crumpling to the ground, screaming in agony.  She remembered Mitchell’s confusion, not even aware that he was causing the blinding pain.  How many others had done the same thing?  How many vampires had caused their soulmates excruciating pain without even realizing what they were doing?

Mitchell elbowed her exceptionally hard, given his condition, in the ribs, ripping her from her thoughts.  “Sorry, what?” Amelia asked, giving him what she was sure was an utterly blank look.  He rolled his eyes at her, clearly aware that she hadn’t been listening to a word that had been said, and jutted his chin towards Lola.

Lola stopped her pacing and through her clenched teeth she said, “Are you really telling me that you could have changed Mitchell weeks ago?”  Her tone was nothing short of fury.

Amelia closed her eyes for a second, biting back the snarky response she wanted to spit out.  She felt as if she couldn’t please anyone.  Mitchell didn’t want her to do anything until Angelle and Tyler got back.  Megan wanted her to use Eric and her to change the bond now before touching Mitchell.  Eric wanted her to reverse the spell on Mitchell before messing with the bond, and she was pretty sure he wasn’t too keen on the idea of using himself and Megan for anything.  Lola wanted ... well, Amelia didn’t really know what she wanted.  She glanced at Luke, looking for some kind of support, but he wasn’t paying attention either.  He sat in the wingback chair in the corner of the living room, eyes closed and head tilted back.  His jeans and T-shirt were full of wrinkles, Amelia noticed, and his legs were stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles.

“Yes,” Amelia answered tightly, fixing her focus back on Lola.  “Theoretically, I could have.”  She hated the way her voice sounded, full of anger, mixed with guilt.  She didn’t want to feel either, but not wanting to feel
them didn’t stop the emotions from tumbling in.  She was furious with herself that she hadn’t figured everything out sooner.  If she had only listened to her mother nine months ago to begin with and changed the bond instead of fighting it, she could have stopped the hunters before any of this damage had been done.

“And he’s still human now because?” Lola said, with a rolling hand gesture, as she tapped her foot on the hardwood floor impatiently.  Her typically soft features looked sharp and tired.  Her eyes were veined red.  At first
, Amelia had thought it was her anger that was forcing the change of color, but on closer scrutiny, she realized they were bloodshot from exhaustion.

Amelia shot a glare at Megan and Eric.  They were the only ones in the room who didn’t look as if they could sleep for a week.  They were cuddled in each other’s arms on the couch. 
Clearly, they’d worked out whatever had happened between them.  “Because Meg wanted me to wait for Cole,” Amelia said.  She felt her fangs lengthening, the razor sharp tips pushing at her bottom lip.

“Well, he’s here now,” Lola shouted.  Her face streaked cherry red.  “Get on with it!”

Amelia almost snapped at that.  Lola hadn’t stopped yelling since Cole had walked through the door, but right then, Mitchell started to squirm beside her, and his anxiety hit Amelia with breathtaking force. 
Stand up for yourself,
he sent.  He nudged her with his shoulder, and then pressed himself closer to her side.

Amelia sucked in a loud breath. 
They never yelled at you like this,
she sent, as she shifted her gaze, focusing on him.  His chiseled face was smiling at her and his sky-blue eyes were alive with humor.  Amelia blinked and furrowed her brow in confusion.  She could feel his scattered emotions: fear, anxiety, love, anger, more fear, clustered together and she just couldn’t understand how he was smiling through it.

He reached up, tracing the length of her fang with a finger, and his smile widened. 
Yes, they did.  You just didn’t hear them.
  He winked.
  Tell her to stop.  She’s stressing everyone out.  You need to take control, love.

Amelia giggled and she hated herself for it.  She sounded like a little girl, but she couldn’t help it.  The way Mitchell was looking at her, full of wonder and love and encouragement, and behind that she swore she could see the flames of desire sparking in his eyes.  A nervous, excited shiver spread along her skin.  Mitchell smirked and leaned in, pressing a light kiss on her lips and her heart fluttered erratically.  He squeezed her knee, reassuringly, and gave her one of those looks that said
I know what I’m talking about.

Amelia nodded, pulled in a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly.  Finding her center, she straightened her shoulders and raised her chin, and then fixed her eyes on Lola.  “You need to stop it.  Yelling is not helping anything here.”

Lola jerked back a step.  There was no vampire grace to the motion.  It was as if someone grabbed her by the back of her neck and yanked.  Her eyes widened, fixing themselves on Amelia’s mouth, and she visibly shuddered.  “Could you please not bare your fangs at me?” she grumbled.  “It’s freaking me out.”

“Good, you should be freaked out right now,” Amelia said calmly, even if the little voice in her head was yelling
What the hell?
  She knew she was stronger than they were, but really, didn’t Lola know that she’d never hurt her?  Well, at least intentionally.  “You need to back the hell off, Lola.”

Mitchell chuckled at that, and Amelia cut him a dirty look.  “That’s not really what I meant, love,” he said, squeezing her knee and stopping her from saying something else that she’d most likely regret.  “Angelle found Tyler.  I thought it would be best ...”

“You thought it would be best,” Lola said, cutting him short.  “Amelia, you should have just done it.  I can’t believe you even asked his opinion when the spirits are threatening to take him from us.”  Her bottom lip began to tremble and her eyes began to water.  She wasn’t crying, Amelia told herself, because Lola did not cry.  Ever.  Amelia’s fangs retreated into her gums, and she pulled her lower lip between her teeth, not knowing what to say.

“Lola,” Luke said calmly, his eyes slowly opening.  He sat forward in the chair, resting his elbows on his knees.  “You’re not being fair to her.  You should be happy.  She’s being patient.  She’s actually thinking about what she’s doing.”

Lola swiveled on her heels and glared at Luke.  They held each other’s glares, and by the intensity of it, Amelia figured their conversation was still continuing through their link.  As the seconds ticked by, Luke’s face hardened with resolve, and tension pulsed from Lola, thick and suffocating.

“I hate to break up this completely pleasant visit,” Cole said, and then he huffed when all eyes snapped to him.  He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe that he’d spoken up and dropped his gaze to the floor.  “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Lola’s right.  We need to worry about changing him back
before your deadline is over.”

****

Tyler nodded his head again.  It was pretty much all he could do as he listened to Angelle’s explanation.  The moon was bright overhead, illuminating the road in front of him.  Erin and Lucy were exceptionally quiet in the backseat.  It unnerved him.  Lucy was always quiet, but Erin, well Erin rarely shut up.

Angelle hadn’t been lying when she’d said that she was a few miles out of town.  It wasn’t until he’d spotted her with Erin and Lucy on the side of the road that he truly believed any of the soulmate crap she’d been trying to tell him.  One minute she was sitting beside him talking so quickly he could barely follow it all, and the next, she was standing on the side of the road.  That’s when it really hit home.  He’d slammed on the brakes, his gaze darting
in between her sitting beside him and her standing on the side of the road.  “I told you,” she said, exasperated, and then the Angelle that was in the car vanished, and the one outside was yanking the door open and hopping in.

But Tyler was fine with the whole soulmate thing.  More than fine with it, actually.  The whole reason he’d left in the first place was so that they could be together.  He didn’t question how it was possible.  Really, he didn’t want to know.  How it happened, why it happened, none of
it mattered to him.  All that was important was that Angelle was his.

What Tyler wasn’t fine with, though, was that Amelia wanted to use him for a spell.  He knew how Amelia’s spells played out.  He’d witnessed some of them firsthand, and he’d be damned if he
was going to let her touch him (or his soulmate) with any of her flaming magic.

“Tyler, are you okay?” Lucy squeaked from the backseat, when Angelle finally took a breath.

“Fine,” he said, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.  He glanced in the rearview mirror and forced a tight smile.

Erin snorted.  “You’re driving really slowly.”  Her voice was dry and tinted with annoyance.  “Clearly you are not okay.  Really, Angelle, you need to take a breath and let him absorb all of this.”

He was about to tell them that he was driving the speed limit when he glanced down at the speedometer.  Thirty miles per hour.  He gritted his teeth, but just couldn’t seem to make himself step on the gas and speed up.  The quicker they drove, the sooner they’d be test subjects for one of Amelia’s
epic
spells.

“You don’t want me to bite you, do you?” Angelle asked.  Her voice was just a whisper, but Tyler heard every bit of the anguish it held.  “I get it.  After what I did to Derek …”

“Angelle, stop,” he said, firmly but not unkindly.  “It has nothing to do with you biting me or what happened to Derek.  I don’t want Millie to test her magic on us.  More specifically; I don’t want her to use it on you.”  Tyler was floored at the fierceness of his tone, and more than a little stunned when he realized he meant every word.  He knew right then that he’d let her bite him if she wanted to.

Angelle was unnaturally quiet for a moment, and then she sighed.  She reached out, running a silky finger along his jaw.  “I’d let her if it meant we could have the bond without the pain.”

Tyler didn’t say anything to that, but he did step on the gas pedal a little harder.  He’d never heard her so unguarded before or seen her without that bubbly, chipper facade that she showed to the rest of the world.  But in that glimpse of vulnerability, he saw the self-disgust that ran right to her core, and Tyler knew he’d do just about anything if it meant he could ease the pain from that wound.  Even if it meant letting Amelia use the magic that scared him to death on them.

The moon was bright, casting a silvery glow upon the grass beneath his feet.  Mitchell watched Amelia from a distance as she huddled with Cole, Lola, and Luke, discussing her plans.  She’d decided it was probably safer to work with her magic outside, just in case things got out of control and she accidentally torched the house.

She’d sent Megan and Eric back inside moments ago to get blood.  Amelia thought that when the spell to change him was finished, he’d be starving.  She was probably right.  He saw what her plans were: reverse the spell as if it had never been placed.  If it worked, it would be as if he’d still been a vampire for the last two and a half weeks—a vampire who hadn’t had a drop of blood in just as long.  Except, Mitchell knew exactly why she’d sent Eric and Megan inside.  She wanted them out of earshot.  Amelia knew Megan would never go for what she was determined to do, and in all honesty, Mitchell wasn’t too keen on it either.  But with Angelle still a few hours off and dawn coming closer and closer, her plan was the best they had.  Neither of them was willing to risk Eric and Megan.  They just weren’t an option—not for this.