The Soul's Mark: HUNTED (12 page)

Mitchell took the laptop from her and set it down on the bed.  He pulled her into his arms, hugging her closely.  “Amelia, I need you to tell me where you got this.”

There was something in his voice that made her uneasy.  The way he spoke, the tone of his voice, the way he was holding her; it was almost as if he already knew about her friends’ deaths.  “What’s going on?” Amelia cried.  “What do you know about this?”  She pushed out of his arms and searched his face for any hint of knowing.

Luke was the first to come in at Amelia’s raised voice.  Lola followed right on his heels.  “You guys okay?” he asked, taking a seat on the steps of the landing by the bed.

Instead of answering, Mitchell took the computer and pushed play.  By the time it finished, Angelle, Tyler, Erin, Eric, and Megan were all there, watching in silence.

Eric was the first to speak.  “Millie, tell me that’s not the DVD that that guy gave you.”

“What guy?” Mitchell asked.  When Amelia still didn’t answer, he took her face in his hands and forced her to meet his eyes.  “Love, please.  I need you to talk to me.”

“They’re dead.  They can’t be dead.”  Amelia closed her eyes tightly, trying to fight back the tears as they fell.  She took a deep breath, pulled her thoughts together, and said, “There was this guy named Cole that gave it to me when we were leaving the diner yesterday.  He said he was just returning it.  I thought he was from school.”

“Shit,” Luke swore.  “I can’t believe the vampire hunters came directly to you.”

“Hold on,” Erin said.  “Did you just say ‘vampire hunters?’”

Chaos.  That was the only way to describe the following minutes, and in Amelia’s opinion, chaos was a definite understatement.  Accusations were flung.  Fights broke out.  Even Lola and Luke were arguing.  Amelia tried to calm everyone down, but it seemed to be a hopeless effort.  Pure fear pulsed from Mitchell as he replayed the brutal deaths again.  And that fear was evident to everyone.

Suddenly Megan jumped up onto the coffee table and yelled, “Enough!  All of you stop it right this minute!” and she sent out a quick zap of pure, hot energy to get their attention.  Everyone froze at her stern tone.  She hopped down and marched up to Mitchell, her hands on her hips and head tilted back, to meet him square on with an intimidating glare.  “What is going on here?”

Mitchell looked at Amelia, and she could almost imagine the zipper sliding across his lips. 
He’s not going to say anything while I’m here,
Amelia realized.  She gaped at him, blown over by the realization.

Erin also picked up on it.  “I’ve had more than I can take of his nonsense between you two.”  She pivoted, shifting her glare between Mitchell and Amelia.

Megan looked her up and down quickly and then went back to glaring at Amelia.  “What happened?”

Amelia started at the beginning, telling about the boy that gave her the DVD.  She explained how she figured it was just class notes she had lent out. 

“Is that everything?” Erin asked.

Amelia was about to say yes when Mitchell said, “There’s more.  Last week we confirmed that there are vampire hunters in town.  We found their hideout and cleared out all their research and weapons.”

As Amelia glanced around the room, she didn’t need to ask Mitchell who was a part of the
we
.  Angelle, Luke, and Lola looked guilty, refusing to meet her eyes.

Erin was just as quick to come to the same conclusions.  “I want to make sure I understand what you are saying,” she said, folding her arms over her chest and looking directly at Mitchell.  “You’re telling me that you knew there was a chance that vampire hunters were in town, and then when you confirmed it, you allowed Amelia, Tyler, and Eric to wander around without telling them.”

“That’s why I went along with them,” Angelle piped up, trying to defend Mitchell’s lack of action.

“Yes, that’s even better.”  Amelia shot Angelle a fake smile.  “A
vampire
went to protect another
vampire
and some humans from a
vampire
hunter.”

“Well, when you say it like that,” Angelle started.

She was cut off by a furious Tyler.  “You knew about this!” His face and neck burned bright red.  Angelle inched towards him, eyes wide and full of pain.  Tyler put up his hands and stepped back, and then he glared around the room.  “I have some calls to make,” he said in a chilly tone.  He walked over to the computer, hit eject and took the DVD with him.

Tears sprung to Angelle’s eyes as she watched Tyler leave.  Once he was gone, she turned them on Mitchell.  “This is all your fault.”  Then she turned to Amelia.  “If you two would just work together…”  The tears rushed down her cheeks and a loud choking sob caught in her throat.  She turned quickly and ran from the room.

“She right,” Erin said, her face twisted in disgust.  “You guys really don’t know how good you have it.  Not all of us have the option to be with our other halves.”  The last words came out as a snarled yell.

“Tristan left you to die,” Amelia whispered, knowing that the statement wouldn’t make a difference to the pain her friend must be feeling.

“I know, but that doesn’t change the emptiness I feel with him gone.”  Erin took a deep breath, regaining her composure.  “I can’t be with him and what’s worse is that I have to sit back and watch the two of you put up more walls between each other.  And now look at what’s happened.”  She waved her arms around, as if trying to push away the almost touchable tension that filled the room.  “The family is falling apart.  It’s not just affecting you guys.  Now you’re making us lie to each other and hide things we shouldn’t have to hide.”  Erin huffed and moved towards Amelia.  When she was standing in front of her, she frowned and said, “Oh and by the way, Mitch has complete control over you, Millie.  He’s had it since you let him back in, and he hasn’t used it once.  Maybe you should think about that before you make any more stupid rules.”  She shook her head and stepped towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Amelia asked.

“Library,” Erin replied bitterly.  “Standing here fighting with each other isn’t going to help solve the vampire hunter problem.”

Dazed, Amelia walked over to her bed and perched on the edge.  Her thoughts were a jumbled mess as she tried desperately to sort out what was happening.  Jess, Amber, Doug, and Justin were dead, killed by vampire hunters.  Megan was her cousin, a witch, and Eric’s soulmate.  And to make it all even worse, Mitchell had known about the vampire hunters and hadn’t told her.  Could this day get any crazier?

CHAPTER 12

Mitchell thought it would better for Amelia to stay home.  He really didn’t want her at the scene, and he had a pretty convincing argument, saying it would be harder to deal with it if she saw it, but she went with him anyway.  Before leaving, Mitchell made a few phone calls; one of them to the police reporting the human deaths and asking them to meet him at the nightclub.

Once they set off, he filled her in on everything.  He told her how he had been out searching every night for the hunters, trying to pinpoint their location.  He explained the real reason why Fiona had shown up and why he had let her back into the house.  And then he went on to tell her about the bond and how when she had accepted him—truly accepted him—it had altered the connection, giving him access to her magic.  He explained that he could basically siphon the energy away from her when she used it against him if he wanted to.

Amelia’s head was spiraling out of control from this overload of information.  “Why did you let me hurt you so much if you could have stopped it?” she asked.

He glanced at her quickly and shrugged before turning his eyes back to the road.  “I figured I deserved it.”

“What?” she gasped.  Was he out of his mind?  How could anyone deserve being tortured the way he had been when her magic got out of control?  “How could you say that?”

Mitchell turned right, heading into the downtown district.  “Come on, Amelia.  I’ve been a first class jerk.”  His hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly that it started to bend.  “I’ve cursed you with this life.  You remind me every day how much you don’t want to be here.  I took everything from you, because I couldn’t stand to see you with anyone else.  You only love me because you have to.  Because I bit you.  Because I took the choice away from you.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.  “That’s not true.”

“Yes it is and don’t look at me like that.”  He loosened his grip slightly and let out a long sigh, keeping his eyes fixed on the road.  “Clearly I’m not the only one who has noticed it.  You haven’t loved me since the day you found out I was real.  Not really.  Sometimes I wonder if we’re only together because we’re too stubborn to admit we failed.”  He shot her a quick sideways look that was so filled with regret that Amelia’s breath caught in her throat.  “I couldn’t even tell you about the magic, because I was terrified you would leave or cut me off again.  I spend so much time trying to figure out what will make you happy, and every time I turn around, I’ve done something else to piss you off.”

Amelia watched him in silence for a moment.  She saw his jaw tighten, his neck muscles twitch with tension, and her heart twisted and squeezed.  “Do you love me only because you have to?” she whispered, reading between the lines.  “Is that what you’re trying to say here?  That it’s just the bond and you don’t really love me?”

“It’s never been just the bond.  Not for me.”

“Then what is it?  Why do you love me?  All we do is fight.”

“Yes, we fight,” he said, and then he laughed, a strangled kind of sound.  “You are infuriating sometimes, most of the time, actually, and I’m not scared to tell you that.  I’m always going to tell you when you’re being unreasonable and you’ll probably always tell me when I’m being a big jerk, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love you.”  He pulled up to a red light, glanced at her, and softened his voice.  “I love the way you say my name and the way you wrinkle your nose when you laugh.  I love the way your eyes light up when you smile and how you always stand up to me and knock me back down a peg or two when you think I’m wrong.  I love your temper, and I love your passion.  I love you.  All of you.  Every inch of you.”  He shifted his gaze back to the road, the light turned green, and he accelerated.  He voice was barely audible when he continued.  “But I’m not going to force you to stay with me.”

“Oh, Mitchell,” Amelia sighed.  “I’m not going anywhere.”  She took one of his hands from the steering wheel, holding it in both of hers, and he shifted his gaze slightly to meet hers for just a second before returning it to the road.  “I’m yours.  I have always been yours.  I will always be yours.  I love you.  Forget all the ridiculous rules.  I was wrong and stupid.  I’m lucky to have you and the bond.”  The words fell from her lips with more passion; more truth, more feeling, than she had ever felt before, and she realized for the first time that she truly meant every single word.  It was that realization that triggered the suspicion.  Mitchell knew how she felt.  He knew she wouldn’t leave.  He knew she didn’t feel forced to stay.  He could feel it, just as she could feel it with him, and this wasn’t the first time he had asked her if she wanted to stay.  “There’s something else, isn’t there?” Amelia asked.

“You know how I told you about the photos and bios we found?”

“Yeah,” she said apprehensively.  She dropped his hand and started to knot together her fingers in her lap, trying not to fiddle or look as agitated as she felt.

He turned into the parking lot of the nightclub, which was already alive with flashing police cars, officers scurrying about, and yellow tape marking the scene.  “Well, yours was labeled as ‘recruit.’”  He put the car in park and reached over, caressing her cheek.  “I won’t let them touch you,” he said with a turbulent fervor.

Just as she opened her mouth to grill him with questions, someone tapped on the window and she jumped, smacking her head on the roof.  Mitchell squeezed her hand and then opened his door and jumped out of the car to meet the young female officer who, Amelia assumed, must have tapped on the window.

Amelia had just closed her door when she heard the sharp, high-pitched voice of the officer.  “Mr. Lang, I’m sorry to tell you this, but there has been another murder.”

Amelia’s stomach flipped and flopped like a slinky making its way down a long set of stairs.  “Who?” she whispered the question, closing the distance between them.

The officer looked almost relieved that Amelia had asked and not Mitchell.  She focused her grave eyes on Amelia, taking a few steps away from Mitchell, before answering.  “Your housekeeper, Mabel.  She was just found by her car in the mall parking lot.”

Amelia couldn’t breathe, and she started to shake.  Her head began to spin and the world around her started to blur. 
No
, she screamed silently through the bond to Mitchell. 
No, they’re wrong.  It’s not true.

She looked at him, eyes pleading with him to confirm she was right.  But Mitchell stood frozen.  Not moving.  Not breathing.  Not even blinking.  Amelia planted herself right in front of him, but he didn’t look at her; he just kept staring over her head.  She reached up and cupped his face, bringing his gaze down to her.  He pulled her into a fierce hug, tucking her head under his chin.  His thoughts were a scared and muddled mess.  Just as quickly as he pulled her into his arms, he pushed her away.  And then, he was gone.

Amelia felt a gust of wind as he took off.  She closed her eyes and watched him through the bond.  The world around him became distorted and fuzzy and dizzyingly unclear as he ran.  It felt like an eternity before he stopped; even though Amelia knew it had probably only been seconds.  He froze; an incoherent slew of words and thoughts ran through his mind.  Dread and blinding pain hit Amelia so hard that she gasped for breath.

And then she saw Mabel.  She appeared pale with perhaps a touch of gray to her complexion.  Her eyes were closed, and she almost looked as if she was taking a peaceful little nap.  If Amelia could just ignore the asphalt parking lot and the arrow protruding from her chest, she would have been able to pretend that that was exactly what she was seeing; Mabel sleeping peacefully.