The Soul's Mark: Broken (13 page)

“Amelia?  Is that you, kiddo?” Luke’s voice
boomed from down the hallway.  Metal rattled and clanked.  “Come on, kiddo. 
Let me out of here.”

“Have you guys fed them?” Amelia asked in
an attempt to block out Luke’s voice.  He may sound like Luke, but he wasn’t. 
Not anymore.  Eric had made that clear last night.

“They’re not pets, Amelia,” Josh said
sharply.  Amelia couldn’t miss his twisted sneer as he got out of bed and paced
towards her.  “They’re monsters.”

“Of course they’re not pets,” Amelia said,
forcing herself to stay calm and hide the spurt of anger that rushed through
her veins at Josh’s use of the word
monsters
to describe her friends. 
“They’re my family.”

 “Don’t worry about me,” Eric chimed, his
voice filled with musical laughter.  “Megan generously offered herself.”

All eyes turned to Megan, and she fidgeted
uncomfortably under their stares.  “What?” she asked sheepishly, and then she
glared at Amelia.  “He was hungry, and I’m not going to abandon
my
soulmate
the way you have.  He’s still in there, and it’s not as if he forgot who I am. 
He’s just confused.”

Tyler grabbed her, and yanked her off the
floor.  “Do you have a death wish?  He could have killed you!”

Amelia gasped.  She hadn’t noticed Tyler
wake up.  The stress was getting to him.  It was as if a murky coating of
anguish and anger had covered him from head to toe.  His eyes shone with
murder, and Amelia felt the blood rush from her cheeks.

“He won’t,” Megan said.  She snatched her
arm away from Tyler and dropped her eyes to the ground, shuffling back and
forth.

“I never thought you were that stupid,
Megs,” Cole said groggily.  He propped himself up on his elbows.

“Meg, they’re right,” Amelia said, and she
scooted closer to her cousin.

Megan scuttled back, sliding across the
floor on her butt.  “Oh what, now you’re siding with the enemy?” she spat, and
her skin flushed red.

Amelia sighed, and angry, frustrated tears
stung her eyes.  “I’m not siding with anyone, but what would you have done if
Eric hadn’t stopped?  What if he killed you?  I can’t lose you, too.”

Josh crouched in front of Amelia.  He
reached out, brushing a stray curl out of her eyes and tucked it behind her
ear.  “We’re your family,” he said with a soft passion.  “And right now, we
have to be worried about the ones that are on the loose.  The ones that are
most likely randomly killing innocent people in town right this minute.”

Amelia grabbed her cell phone and tapped on
the calendar. 
How was it already Thursday?
a voice in her head
questioned.  She quickly ran over the last few days in her head, praying that
maybe, just maybe, her phone was off by a day or two, but of course, it
wasn’t.  Her stomach clenched, her ears rang, and suddenly she felt
lightheaded.  A cold sweat broke out over Amelia’s back and on her forehead. 
“Oh my God,” she breathed.  “The fair.”

Velvety laughter echoed off the rough and
jagged stone walls.  It was a warm sound, soft and silky, but to Amelia it
sounded like the manic laughter of a serial killer.  The bars that held Eric
and Luke rattled deafeningly loud.

Amelia’s head spun.  The fair.  Mitchell
had decided to have it at a park on the outskirts of town.  It seemed like the
perfect place.  It had a huge grassy field and offered tons of room for all the
rides and games.  But now the location made Amelia feel sick.  It was just
inside the town limits, but far enough away that the vendors could be there
right now and no one in town would even know it.

And then another thought came to her.  What
if the townspeople didn’t stay inside?  Over half the town was supposed be
there helping to set up.  They were walking into a death trap.  Everyone in one
place.   But then, even if the townspeople followed the orders and stayed home,
the vendors didn’t have a clue.  They didn’t even know about vampires, let
alone know that the town was full of them.  Her breathing picked up, coming out
heavy and hard.  Could she trust Josh and Cole?  Would they help?  Their team
had killed innocent people before.  She needed a plan, an idea … anything.

Amelia was jerked from her troubled
thoughts by the sudden silence.  The rattling stopped, and the laughter ended. 
The silence became so thick and heavy and loud that it felt as if someone was
screaming in her ear.  Then there was a whispered grunt followed by two muted
thuds one right after another.  The scuffling sound of footsteps.  Amelia’s
heart jumped into her throat. 
The bars didn’t hold,
her conscious shrieked. 
She locked wide and panicked eyes with Megan and Madame Crystal, and right
away, her magic flared.  The three of them moved quickly, barricading the
entryway, creating a human blockade.  When Amelia saw the first figure round
the corner, she summoned a ball of gleaming power into the palm of her hand.

“It’s just me,” Josh said, as he stepped
into the dim light and caught sight of them.  Amelia hadn’t even noticed him
leave the room, and with a quick glance around, it was clear that the others
hadn’t either.

“What did you do?” Amelia breathed
horrified.  Her brain jumped to the worst possible scenario when Cole stepped
beside Josh and brandished a smug grin.  Amelia swiveled, raising her arm and
pulling it back, ready to throw the magic like a baseball. 
If I just
command them to keep their skin …
She felt her lips curve up, and manic
laughter bubbled up in her throat.

Josh blanched and raised his arms in
surrender.  “They’ll be fine,” he stammered, nervously, and by the way he was
looking at her, with a cagey apprehension, Amelia was certain that he could see
the murder that she felt bubbling up inside her.  “We just, um, put them to
sleep.  I couldn’t think with all the noise.”

Tyler squeezed through the girls and took
off down the hallway.  The cell doors clanked and grinded, and seconds later,
his voice bounced back to them.  “They’re fine.”

Amelia hadn’t realized it, but she had been
holding her breath.  As soon as Tyler said they were fine, the air whooshed out
of her lungs, and she pulled back the power, sucking it back into her core as
if she had turned on a vacuum.  Josh moved towards Amelia with small and
cautious steps.  But Cole didn’t think caution was necessary.  He groaned
loudly and pushed past him.

Megan let out a cry of rage and fury.  It
was a garbled sound from the back of her throat, and she rushed at Cole.  She
let her magic drop, and when she reached Cole, she wailed on him with frenzied
strikes.  Amelia’s jaw dropped, and Madame Crystal gasped.  Cole just stood
there, stiff as marble, and let her beat on him.

And she did.

Megan smacked and clawed and punched and
kicked.  And she kept going until she couldn’t lift her arms, and her legs
trembled.  A deep sob escaped from somewhere deep within her, and she began to
shake.  She wobbled on her feet as the deep gut-twisting sobs fell.

Cole watched her for a moment.  He frowned,
and deep crevasses formed between his eyes.  He opened his mouth and then
closed it.  Grief struck his features.  And then he did something none of them
were expecting.  He pulled Megan into his arms and let her cry.

“It’s going to be okay, Meg,” Amelia said,
trying to sound sure and encouraging, but even to her own ears, her voice
sounded weak and unsure.  “I’ll fix this.  We’ll get them back.”

Megan sniffled and pulled away from Cole,
and quickly got herself together.  She fixed a deadly glare on him and said,
“If you touch Eric again, I’ll find a way to kill you, and if I can’t, I
will
make you suffer.”  Then she turned to Amelia, determination etched on her face,
and said, “What’s the plan?”

Amelia didn’t hesitate with her reply.  “We
go to the fair.”

As far as plans went, it wasn’t much of
one.  Amelia knew that, but it was all she had.  And when everyone agreed, she
figured it was worth a shot.  If she was right about the vendors, then somehow,
they needed to get everyone off the streets and to a safe location, and she
knew she couldn’t do it alone, so she promptly pushed her worries about working
with the hunters aside.  At least until she figured out a way to talk to the
spirits and get the vampires their souls back.

Josh and Cole ventured out of the dungeon
first to make sure it was safe.  As soon as they left, Amelia fired off a quick
text to Officer McLean.  He promptly replied, confirming her fears.  The
officers had been patrolling the streets, making sure no one was wandering
around, and they hadn’t bothered with the edge of town since there were no
houses out that way.  She was in the middle of a frantic reply, telling him to
send a team out right away, when Cole called down the steps, “Um, Amelia, can
you come up here, like now?  We’ve got a little problem.”

It took everything Amelia had not to
collapse and burst into a flood of tears.  And Cole’s tense stance and nervous
shifting at the top of the stairs did not help one single bit.  How many more
problems could she handle?  Had this been how Mitchell felt?  He always seemed
to handle the disasters in stride, and she suddenly found herself wishing he
was here.

But he wasn’t.

Tears prickled her eyes as the image of
Tristan breaking his neck and dragging him away flooded her memory.  That was
when she realized that he might never be here, with her, again.  For all Amelia
knew, Tristan had already killed him.  She knew damn well that that had been
his ultimate goal.

“Millie?” Tyler said.  “You want me to go
and check it out?”

Amelia blinked fast, pushing back the tears
that threatened to fall.  She tried for a smile, but by the look of concern
that marred Tyler’s face, she knew her smile was not convincing.  She opened
her mouth to reassure him, but her voice caught in her throat so she just shook
her head back and forth, and headed for the stairs.

When she reached the top, Cole tossed his
head to the side, gesturing for her to follow, and then he started down the
hallway.  When they reached the foyer, Josh was pacing back and forth in front
of the door.  He was frazzled.  It was impossible to miss.  His hair was a
disaster, sticking out every which way as if he had been running his hands
through it without rest.  His skin had a grayish tone, it was flickering in and
out, and he was muttering to himself.

“Josh?” Amelia said, drawing his
attention.  She couldn’t even think of anything that could have gotten him so
spooked.

Josh stepped towards the window, dragging
his feet as if he was trying to stall, and then with a drawn out sigh, he
parted the curtains and stepped back, giving Amelia a clear view.   “It might
be a little harder to just subdue the bloodsuckers,” he said.

Amelia sucked in a breath.  “Are …” the
words caught in her throat, and she had to clear it a few times before she
could make her voice work.  “Are they all …” she tried again, looking out over
the front yard at fifty, maybe more, cloaked figures, and it looked like every
single one of them had a bow in hand.

“Yeah,” Josh said.  He put a hand on her
shoulder and spun her around to face him.  He grimaced.  “We are kind of like
bees.”

“What?” Amelia asked.  She shook her head,
trying to make sense out of that, but she couldn’t.

Josh ran his fingers through his hair and
then scrubbed at his face roughly.  “Well, um…” he hesitated, and cast his eyes
to the ground, refusing to meet her confused gaze.

“What he’s trying to say,” Cole said from
behind Amelia, “Is that, just like bees, we have attack pheromones.  When one
of us dies, well …” he paused, mulling over his thoughts for a second, and then
he sneered.  “I warned you at the fire.  I told that bloodsucker he’d regret
killing my team.”

White-hot rage flooded over Amelia, and her
blood boiled as she spun around to face him.  “Stop calling him that!  His name
is Mitchell.  Not bloodsucker, or fanger, or monster, it’s Mitchell!”

“Fine!” Cole yelled back, like a child
throwing a tantrum.  He huffed and pouted for a second before continuing. 
“When we are injured or we die, we release a pheromone which signals the others
to attack.  And with you here, the call was a bit stronger because …”

Realization dawned on her, and waves of hot
and cold rushed through Amelia’s veins.  She snuck back to the window, parted
the curtains an inch, stole a quick peek, and she breathed, “I’m the queen
bee.”

“Oh good,” Madame Crystal said with a clap
of her hands.  Amelia jumped, dropped the curtains, and faced her.  “They’re
here.”  She stood in the entryway of the foyer with an excited smile, and the
look in her eyes, Amelia thought, was as if Madame Crystal believed that the
hunters, which were littering the front lawn, were the answer to all their
problems.   Amelia wasn’t so sure.

“You knew they were coming?” Amelia
blurted, stunned.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The psychic grinned and put her hands on
her hips.  “I did tell you.  When you were in the van, remember?  I said more
were coming.  But that doesn’t matter,” she said with a wave of a hand, and her
grin turned into a wide smile.  “Now we have a plan.”

“We do?” Megan asked, poking her head
around Madame Crystal as she made her way into the foyer.