Marked: A Two Halves Novella

Marked: A Two Halves Novella

Book One

by Marta Szemik

Copyright 2012 © Marta
Szemik

Published by MyLit
Publishing

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Publisher’s Note

This book is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or
have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any
resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations
is entirely coincidental.

All rights are
reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission from the publisher and author.

Warning: This
book contains adult content
.

ISBN-978-0-9878772-2-2

To Maya and Alex

who marked my heart the day they were born.

Shapeshifter Xander will be stuck in oblivion between
good and evil until he is marked
—
either with the sphere that will
identify him as a servant of the underworld, or with the water mark, working
for the keepers of humans, vampires, and warlocks.

One decision will mark him and his twin sister Mira
equally. She is in love with a man bearing the water mark and wants Xander to
follow the path of the good. But Xander loves a black witch, a minion of the
underworld. All he has to do to join her forever is kill.

After all, there’s something good about being bad . . .

Table of Contents

Marked:
A Two Halves Novella

-
Beginning

-
Middle

-
End

Sneak Peak at Two Halves

About the Author

Other Books by this Author

Acknowledgments

* * *

One more inch, and his neck would snap.

The glow of his orange eyes had faded—he was close to death.
My hold tightened on the demon. He had to pay for what he’d done. At sunrise,
the walls of a cave like this one would glisten with moisture, lightened by the
sun from an opening suitable for a groundhog. But now, even the moon couldn’t
breathe through the hole my sister crawled into, following a demon who had
killed humans for the fun of it. I told her trying to catch him wouldn’t be a
good idea but did she listen to me? Of course not, and now she was trapped.

Death scattered across the floor with bones and
unrecognizable flesh remains. I tasted the stench of decay and lessened the
frequency of my breaths.

The mark of the sphere on my left wrist glowed as it began
to appear, and I felt my mouth curve up in a smirk. The orange sparks of the
imprint faded and brightened like flickering ends of fire. The heat burned. I’d
been waiting for this moment for a long time. Finally, we’d know which side we
would serve, and there was something good about being bad.

My sister, Mira, disagreed. “Xander, you’re making a life
decision for both of us. Look.” She turned her head to the left. The magic
light-ropes binding her to the back wall of the cave reddened the skin of her
hands and feet, but I saw the glow of the sphere imprinting on her wrist, as
well.

“It’s better than living in a void.” I clenched my jaw,
determined. Ever since Ma found us as babes lying side by side on the forest
floor, staring into the dense crisscross of tree branches overhead, we’d been
floating between the realms of good and evil for more than twenty years.

“You know I’ll follow you wherever you go, but I don’t think
the underworld is the answer.” Mira’s coo soothed me. “We have a choice,
Xander.”

“And this is it.”

Once I killed this demon, the sphere would define us
forever. There’d be no doubt where our alliance lay: with the underworld,
instead of serving the keepers who protected humans, vampires, and warlocks.

I flexed to constrict the demon’s air flow. The burning of
the oval on my wrist spread, and the heat transferred to my chest, as if
imprinting on my heart. I greatly preferred being marked with the sphere than
lying motionless in the woods, waiting for something to happen. If it weren’t
for Ma, we’d still be there, stuck in oblivion, unable to learn how to grow.
Now the obscurity that challenged us was emotional, not physical, and I’d had
enough.

Before the tension could snap the demon’s neck, the cave
filled with a purplish mist. I inhaled and smelled lilac and lavender. The new
trespasser couldn’t be a demon from the underworld—those creatures stank like
rotten eggs and dirty socks.

A man appeared between Mira and me. He stood tall with feet
apart, arms at his sides. A blue glow swirled around his palms before
condensing into round balls of power. Holding my gaze with his purple eyes, he
lifted his chin. “The sphere is not your calling, Xander,” he whispered. “Let
the demon go.”

I hesitated, focusing on my hold. The demon would be dead in
less than a minute.

“Let him go,”
his hushed voice said in my mind. My
grip loosened immediately, as if my arm listened to his request, instead of my
mind. His words seemed to penetrate my brain and analyze my thoughts.

“What’s it to you?” I said, playing the skeptic, though my
usual tone sounded less harsh.

“I know what you’re struggling with. I’ve been there.”

“And you are . . . ?” I prompted.

“I’m Eric. They call me the evil-bender.” He bent his arms
up so the blue spheres of light rested on his palms. Their electricity sizzled,
and sparks from one connected to the other. The flickers zipped outward as far
as two feet when his fingers twirled the lights. The sleeves of his turtleneck
slipped back, revealing three wavy lines on his left wrist. The water mark: the
sign of the keepers.

“Mind your own business, evil-bender,” I blurted.

I sensed Mira studying Eric. Her eyes glistened with lust.
The emitted estrogen from her body danced through the room. She hadn’t said a
word, but I knew what she was thinking. I could feel my twin’s pain, share her
happiness, and dwell on her sorrows. Our inability to control our emotions was
because we weren’t marked.

Now, her mellow eyes, accelerated pulse, and bitten lower
lip made me want to puke. She may as well have said, “Here I am. Have your way
with me.”

Women!
I rolled my eyes. She’d been swayed by his
charm and style the minute he appeared. And if I killed this demon now, she
didn’t have a chance with the evil-bender. She’d be welcomed to the dark side,
while Eric was one of the good guys. They couldn’t be together. That’s what I
saw in her eyes when the evil-bender showed up: she finally had a chance to be
with someone like her.

In my heart, I knew Mira did not belong to the underworld,
and I wasn’t ready to force her that way. Yes, the decision was quick, but I
couldn’t overlook the immediate connection they’d obviously felt. A connection
I yearned for. Eric’s testosterone blended with Mira’s hormones and the cave
was rapidly becoming a pheromone heaven.

I loved my sister too much to bind her to the dark side. A
decision that affected us equally had to be made in unison. Mira wanted to join
the keepers. The choice had always been clear to her, not to me.

“How do you know who we are?” Mira asked. The question
sounded so automated I narrowed my brows and cocked my head to the side.

The evil-bender kept his eyes on me—as he should, because I
wouldn’t let him cross me. “Because I was unmarked once,” he answered. “Your
place is with the keepers, not in the underworld.”

Fury flowed through my body. Who was he to say where we
belonged? It was
our
decision. I tightened my grip on the demon’s neck
until he passed out, then let his body thump to the rocky ground; it would take
hours before he woke. The sphere vanished from my wrist, unable to imprint.

My gaze flew to our newcomer. I spread my legs, flexed my
knees for a better launch, and hunched forward, baring my fangs.

Eric’s palms lost their glow, and his shoulders drooped.

“What? You afraid?” I goaded.

“No, but I have priorities.” He turned to face Mira. “Hey,
sugar.”

“Hi.”

I rolled my eyes again, surprised she could speak at all.
Her gooey grin would have suited her better if she had shifted to a teenager
hitting puberty—something she’d experienced five to ten years back.

“Let’s get you out of these.” He pointed to the magical
light-cuffs.

“I already tried. They’ll burn you,” I warned.

“That’s why I’m here, you nitwit,” Eric murmured, his eyes
on Mira.

The remark boiled the blood in my veins. I was certain I
turned green, the way I always did when rage consumed me. The evil-bender
pushed me in ways only Mira and a handful of people knew how to.

“Xander, don’t,” Mira pleaded, sensing my anger.

But it was too late. The evil-bender would get what he had
coming. First he interrupted our marking, and now he was throwing punches at
the most powerful shape-shifters in the world. I hadn’t met anyone else like
us, so I guessed that statistic might be inaccurate, but still, we weren’t the
usual demons trailing an acidic stench and burning with their claws. We didn’t
know exactly what our calling was, but it would take only one kill for us to
begin our work in the underworld.

What work would there be for us otherwise? Trying to stop
the demons from ruining the world without killing them? How exactly were we
supposed to gain the alternate—the water mark? We’d tried and tried, and
nothing worked. The only reasonable solution was to give in to the first kill.
I wondered how the evil-bender got his, but the fury inside me boiled and I
imagined it steam through my ears, evaporating logical thoughts.

I launched myself toward the evil-bender—only to be stopped
in my tracks. Stunned, I looked down to my feet, now embedded in blue-glowing
soil. Momentum carried my body forward until my nose almost touched the ground,
then I sprang back to stand tall, sputtering, “What the hell?”

“You’re not marked yet, you little monster, which means I
have power over you,” Eric drawled.

“Take it off.” I kept my eyes on the blue glow. My ears
flattened against my head and I tightened my jaw until one of my molars
cracked—something I instantly regretted; I hated tooth pain.

“Hold still,” Eric whispered to Mira as he removed one
strand of the magical light, then another.

“How did you . . .” I felt my jaw drop.

“Years of practice.”

I pictured his mouth curving up in a smirk. Of course it was
all for show; Mira would love it.

“You all right, sugar?” he asked, taking her hand to help
her step out of the magical bindings.

“I’d be better if you stopped calling me sugar,” she said.

There was my sister! I stood taller, squaring my shoulders.
Ha!
She’s not as easy as she looks, is she?
Mira would have smacked me if she
knew what I was thinking. Then I caught her dirty look.
Shit!
She
did
know what I was thinking. That was the problem with twins, especially shape
shifter twins.

“All right, what do you want me to call you?”

“Mira—just Mira.” She fluttered her lashes.

Jeez! Is this really happening in front of me?
I
pointed to the blue glow at my feet. “Do you mind?”

Eric looked back as if he’d forgotten about me. “Are you going
to behave?”

“He will. Take it off.” Mira walked toward me but, of
course, stroked Eric’s arm on the way past. By the time she reached my side,
the blue light was gone and I could move my feet again. And just in time.

“Are you meddling in my businesss, evil-benderrr?”

No one could mistake Aseret’s slow hiss for that of anyone
else. I turned and saw the demon lord standing at the entrance to the cave.

“Your business is my business, Aseret,” Eric replied. Blue
spheres appeared on his palms again.

“Xannderrr.” Aseret turned his attention to me, and suddenly
it felt as if we were the only two creatures in the cave. The fire in the grand
hall crackled as it intensified, feeding his power. Part of me wanted to listen
to every word that left the lord’s mouth. “I can make you feel the powerrr you
dessserve to have.” His hiss became hypnotic. “You don’t have to be bound to
the biddinggg of othersss. Join me, and you will have the ressspect you
dessserrrve.”

“Don’t listen to him, Xander. He’s the one who trapped us.
He used the demon to lure me here.” Mira’s voice came from far behind me, so
distant she seemed to be talking from another planet. Her words were scrambled,
difficult to comprehend.

Aseret cocked his head, his nose twitching. “I can make you
belonggg,” he coaxed, drawing the words out and pausing between each. “The
confusssion will be gonnne. One ssstrike, and it will be donnne.” He kicked the
unconscious demon’s arm. It flopped on the rocky ground. “Joinnn me.” He
beckoned with his twig-like fingers, the movement slow, mesmerizing. The
sleeves of his long robe slid back, revealing pallid, wrinkled flesh. For the
first time, I thought I saw an orange glow in his eyes, similar to the eyes of
the seekers: Aseret’s minions created to hunt and kill.