The Soul's Mark: FOUND (20 page)

It was at that moment that Amelia knew that
she had just made her first enemy.
 
The
look Lola shot her made her quiver right down to the bones.
 
The trembles rushed up her spine and prickled
through her fingers all the way to her toes.
 
The stare felt like it would never end.
 
When it did, Lola left, leaving Luke to stare after her like a lovesick
puppy.
 

Mitchell’s glare was almost as
insufferable.
 
He wasn’t mad, but he was
clearly disappointed.
 
How had she become
the bad guy?
 
Amelia didn’t know but it
didn’t feel good.

“Luke, it’s okay.
 
You can go,” Amelia said, trying to fix his
bleak look.
 
“Really, I’ll stay in my
room and Mitchell…” she looked at him, not sure what to say.

“I’ll help her with the paper,” he said
firmly.

Crap.
 
That was not what she had
been anticipating.
 
Amelia almost said
no, but then she glanced at Luke again, saw the heartbreak radiating from him
and said, “Um yeah, I could use some help.”
 
Luke looked longingly at the empty doorway where Lola had gone, and
Amelia was sure she could hear his heart shattering.
 
It was written all over his face.
 
She just couldn’t imagine how they had stayed
apart for the last two weeks.
 
Not that
she wanted to admit it, but she thought she just might die if Mitchell left now
that she knew he was real.
 
“Go, Luke,”
Amelia pleaded.

Luke looked at her.
 
Really
looked
at her, making sure she was okay and then smiled.
 
“Thank you.”
 
He shifted his gaze to Mitchell.
 
“Both of you.
 
I’ve
missed her so much.”
 
Then he gave Amelia
another serious, fatherly kind of look.
 
“Eric and Angelle went out for some air so if anything happens, if you
think you need help, yell.
 
I’ll hear
you.”

“She won’t, Luke,” Mitchell said, just as
seriously.
 
“You have my word.”
 
Luke nodded, his lips tilted upwards and his
hazel eyes gleamed with delight and then he left, with the speed, which Amelia
now knew, only a vampire could have.

One of the downsides of living in a mansion
was how bloody long it took to get anywhere.
 
The walk from the kitchen to her office felt like a death march, eerily
silent and gloomy.
 
Amelia could not seem
to stop her thoughts—not that any of them helped.
 
Each idea seemed to pop up and then just as quickly
as it came, the thought swirled around, and then in a rush, disappeared, like
water flushing down a toilet.
 
What was
she doing?
 
Why did she agree to be alone
with him?
 
They hadn’t been able to say
more than two kind words to each other in a row in the last forty-eight hours,
how were they going to work together?
 
The worst part of it was that Amelia didn’t really want to study because
the idea of being alone with Mitchell so close to a bed was doing things to her
body that had never happened before.
 
She
felt alive and sick all at once.
 
Her
mind was telling her that he was a monster and he was just going to hurt her,
but her heart—her foolish heart—was pulling her towards him, telling her that
he was her destiny,
urging
her to get closer.

If Mitchell had been tuned into her
thoughts, he didn’t let it show.
 
Amelia
had come to realize that it wasn’t an automatic link from her mind to his.
 
They had to pay attention or look for what
they had missed.
 
She could tell when he
was spying, most of the time, at least when he wasn’t distracting her, which
was pretty much all the time.
 
It was
like a hum, a vibration in her brain when he was there.
 
She wondered if he felt the same thing.

“Do you really need to write a paper?”
Mitchell asked, following her through the bedroom and into the office.
 
“Or was that just an excuse to be rude to
Lola?”

Well
that didn’t last long
, Amelia thought.
 
Were
they really going to start to fight already?
 
She sat down at the desk and switched on her computer.
 
What
had Mabel said?
 
“There’s a fine line
between love and hate.”
Words of truth.
 
Amelia had never been so emotionally confused before.
 
Is this what love was like?
 
Blistering hatred fused perplexingly with
genuine love and devotion.
 
Heart swelling and beating erratically one second; the next, black
and broken?
 
Why did anyone want
to love?
 

“I didn’t mean to be rude,” Amelia said, keeping
her eyes on the computer screen.
 
“It
just kinda happened.”

“I know.”
 
Mitchell sounded so miserable that she couldn’t stop herself from
sneaking a look.
 
He was leaning against
the doorframe, arms folded, shoulders slumped, and tiny creases lined his
brow.
 
“I never thought I was the jealous
type but with you…” he paused, and rubbed at his face. “I don’t know.
 
It’s as if I have no self-control.
 
You make me crazy.
 
You know that, right?”
 
She did.
 
She really did because he made her feel the same way.
 
Granted, it was different because he didn’t
want to be cruel to her, she could feel that, but she didn’t want to love
him.
 
Even so, she understood.

“Why did you bite me?” Amelia blurted. “You
knew it would be harder.”

“I was scared.”
 
Mitchell laughed—hollow and empty—and a slight
smile touched his lips but didn’t reach his eyes.
 
“I thought I was losing you.
 
Even when you were drunk, your eyes lit up
when you talked about Tyler, the same way they did when you first realized
you’d fallen in love with me.
 
I hoped it
would keep you with me.”
 
He
chuckled.
 
“You’ve always had a mind of
your own.
 
I should’ve known you would
fight it.
 
I guess I just didn’t want to
believe you could want anything else.”

Wow.
 
That was the most honest
thing he had ever said to her.
 
Even in
the dreams.
 
He’d always been so
strong.
 
The rock.
 
But now, in this moment, he seemed
vulnerable.
 
He had been honest with her
so maybe she should do the same.
 
“I need
time, Mitch.
 
This is a lot to take
in.
 
Do you have any idea what it’s like
to find out your whole life has been mapped out for you and that you have
absolutely no control over it?”

“Yes,” he answered, but Amelia knew he
didn’t really understand.
 
For hundreds
of years he had been in control.
 
Dictating and leading.

“I really don’t think you do,” she said,
slouching back into the chair.
 
“I spent
the last five years in therapy.
 
I
thought I was a nutcase dreaming of you.
 
And you let me think it.
 
You let
me think I was crazy.
 
Now… you’ve
decided that it’s time to be with me.
 
What did you expect?”
 
Amelia
didn’t wait for an answer and kept right on going. “Did you really think I
would just open my arms and run to you?
 
You gave me a fake scholarship.
 
You moved me into this prison.” She gestured around the room with a
sneer.
 
“Then when things didn’t go how
you planned you took away my free will.
 
How could you do that to me?
 
If
you really loved me you wouldn’t have.”

Amelia could feel him clamming up, giving
off a clear-cut vibe that said she had gone too far, so when he spoke she was
stunned at what came out.
 
“I thought I
could control it, Amelia.
 
Luke did.
 
I thought I could keep the pain away.
 
I don’t want to hurt you.
 
You’re just so damned stubborn.”

The vibe was getting stronger and he was
getting more frustrated with every passing second.
 
She knew that the honesty thing had to end
before they ruined any progress they had made.
 
“I really do have a paper to write, Mitch.
 
It’s due tomorrow.”

“Do you want help?” he asked hopefully.

Yes
, a voice in her mind hollered.
 
She didn’t want him to leave and the truth was she was sort of
struggling with non-commutative rings.
 
“It’s okay,” she said.
 
“I’m sure
you have things to do anyways.”

Amelia felt the hum, and wasn’t surprised
when he said, “I’m pretty good at ring theory.
 
I could try to explain it.”
 
He
left the doorway, pulled a chair over to the desk and took a seat.
 

Before long, they were deep into ring
theory, and she got it.
 
It seemed so
simple when he explained it.
 
His
hundreds of years of experience endowed him with a wealth of knowledge.
 
The paper was written in no time and even
after it was done, they kept at it.
 
Mitchell knew the theories inside out and Amelia was good at putting
them to work, and they worked together like a well-oiled machine.

Amelia had squealed when she completed
revamping his accounting software.
 
Mitchell had been sure that one of his employees was skimming money from
the coffee shop in town but he was wrong.
 
There had been a glitch in the system stopping income from 5:00 to 6:30
every evening from transferring properly.
 
The squeal must have sounded like a scream because Luke, Angelle, and
Eric barged in ready to save the day.
 
Mitchell and Amelia laughed, leaving their friends confused at the
sudden change in them, but in the end left them to continue.

By two in the morning, Amelia could barely
keep her eyes open.
 
The yawns were
coming steadily, and her brain was reduced to mush; even the simplest
calculations seemed tough and her irritation was mounting at her numerous
mistakes.

Mitchell turned off the computer and closed
the books they had scattered across the desk.
 
Amelia tried to protest but she was just too tired.
 
“You need sleep, love,” he said warmly, and
without hesitation, he scooped her up and carried her to her bed.

“You know I can walk, right?” she asked,
but she snuggled into his chest, glad she didn’t have to.

“This is more fun,” Mitchell smiled.
 
He tucked her in and kissed her forehead.
 
“You’re adorable when you’re tired and not
arguing with me.”
 

Amelia gazed up at him, eyes half closed
and smiled.
 
This was the Mitchell she
knew.
 
The guy she had fallen helplessly
in love with.
 

Intense warmth washed over her in waves and
her heart quickened.
 
The tenderness that
came from him was heavenly, cocooning her in love.
 
Love.
 
It was a
wonderful feeling, a feeling that she had craved for so long.
 
Mitchell bent down and brushed a loose curl
from her forehead and before she realized what she was doing, she grasped his
hand, planting little kisses on his fingertips.
 

Who would have known such a tiny gesture
could be so…intimate.
 
His skin burned
under her lips and a tingling pleasure instantly raced through her limbs.
 
Amelia glanced up, meeting his hungry,
wistful blue eyes, and every bit of control she had vanished.
 

In one swift motion, she threw back the
covers and launched herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist,
her fingers digging into his soft hair.
 
Her hungry lips found his and she kissed him greedily.
 
For a second, he didn’t respond, confusion
pushed through the bond and that confusion just made it all the more
exciting.
 
How amazing was it that they
could feel everything?
 
Know each other’s
thoughts, dreams, fears…
 
And that ramped
up her need to a whole new level.
 
She
flicked her tongue against his lips, and that was all it took to wipe away his
confusion.

Mitchell’s hands cupped her bottom, and he
brushed his tongue against hers, deepening the kiss.
 
Amelia threw her arms around his neck, holding
onto him tightly as if her life depended on it.
 
His hands roamed her body, running along her thighs, up her back, down
her arms.
 
His lips trailed along her jaw
until they found an earlobe, and she moaned and gasped for breath from the
sensation.
 

His hunger skyrocketed, and mixed with
hers, it was overwhelming and wonderful all at once.
 
With his lips still nibbling at her ear, he
moved Amelia back towards the bed, lying her down and slowly, he lowered himself
closer to her.

Amelia fumbled with the buttons of his
shirt, desperately longing for him to get closer yet.
 
With his help, she managed to get them undone
and the shirt off him and then with her legs still around his waist, she
flipped him on his back, straddling him, and let her lips and hands explore the
new found skin.
 

Mitchell moaned as she flicked her tongue
at his neck and his hand slipped under her top, pulling her closer.
 
His lips, urgent and moist, found hers and he
moved her back underneath him, pulling her top off at the same time.
 

His lips trailed down her neck, chest,
stomach and a flash of all the things he wanted to do with her raced across her
mind.
 
She gasped, and horrible warning
bells went off in her mind.
 
What was she
doing?
 
She was supposed to hate
him.
 
They didn’t even know each
other.
 
She wasn’t ready for this.
 
But damn, she wanted it.
 
Wanted him.
 
She tried to ignore the bells, pushing them
away.
 
The last thing she wanted was to
stop but before she could get rid of the thoughts, Mitchell pulled back and
faster than she could process the
movement,
he was off
the bed, looking down at her.

“Sorry, you’re right.
 
That was too fast,” he said, shame dripping
off him.
 
“I shouldn’t have let it get
that intense.
 
I’ll, um…goodnight.”
 
He nervously started inching towards the
door, snagging his shirt and jamming his arms into the sleeves.