The Soul's Mark: Broken (17 page)

They retreated back to the hole that
Tristan called his house.  It was small and dirty, and none of the furniture
matched, but for now, Mitchell figured it would do, at least until he was ready
to take back what was his.

“McLean worked with the hunters,” Tristan
said casually, as he lounged on an ugly green and brown striped chair with his
feet propped up on a scratched up coffee table.  “He wanted you dead.  I think
that overrules pet status, don’t you?”

“How do you know this?” Angelle asked with
a sugary tone.  She sat across from him matching his lax pose, but Mitchell
knew that voice.  It was the voice she used just before she attacked.  The calm
before the storm, yep … that was Angelle, and Mitchell had to work at stifling
his groan.  Would they ever stop this pointless bickering?

“Because, I was there,” Tristan said,
brushing Angelle off just like a brother would brush off an annoying sibling.

“Exactly,” Angelle said.  “You were there. 
You helped them.”  She made a great show of rolling her big brown eyes. 
“Mitch, just kill him already,” she said, and then, a sunny smile popped up on
her lips, and she let her fangs slide into place.  “Or better yet, let me do
it.”  She let her legs fall to the floor with a lazy grace and began to stand.

“Angelle,” Mitchell warned, and paused, looking
her full in the face.  She blanched, and he held the stare for a long minute,
before he looked back at Tristan and said, “Explain.”

Tristan stuck his tongue out at Angelle and
grinned.  “McLean was really just supposed to draw Amelia out so I could get to
you, but that stupid protective spell got in the way.  Really, I thought you
already knew he was against you.  Or at least would have figured it out when
his car stalled in the middle of the gates.”  His eyebrows went up and he shook
his head, clearly thinking that Mitchell was mental.

A flash of Amelia warning him that there
was something
off
about McLean surfaced, and just like that, Mitchell
suddenly felt every bit as mental and stupid as Tristan’s look implied.  How
had he missed it?  The signs had all been there.  McLean rushing off for
meetings and brushing off his calls.  McLean’s jumpy attitude whenever he
stopped by to discuss the potential hunter issue.  He should have seen it
before.

“See,” Angelle growled, waving her arms
dramatically, pulling Mitchell out of his thoughts. “He set this whole thing
up, and he’s openly admitting that he was trying to get rid of your pet!”

“I knew they wouldn’t get far with her, and
clearly, I wasn’t wrong,” Tristan said.  “They haven’t left town, and obviously,
she’s madly in love with you.  I knew she’d stay and you’d take her back.”  He
crossed his feet at the ankles and brushed at his jeans as if to remove some
invisible lint.  “Anyway, McLean has this stupid idea that by killing us he can
make his town safe.  He jumped at the chance when those cross-breeds told him
they would get rid of you as long as he delivered Amelia.”  He chuckled. 
“Stupid humans, they trust so blindly.  I guess they never really have figured
out what or who they should be scared of.”

“Why do they want her?” Mitchell asked,
ignoring Tristan’s comment.  He hadn’t expected an answer.  He was just
thinking out loud, but Tristan took the statement literally.

“Something about building a new race of
immortals.  According to Josh, it was her vision in some past life.  A way to
end the vampire line.  He has some sick infatuation with her, and right now,
he’s trying to play the love card, but it’s an act.  I could smell the lies.” 
He grinned triumphantly, as if using his nose was an accomplishment, and then
shook his head.  “She makes him sick.”

“He looked pretty determined to keep her
alive,” Angelle spat, and she cut Tristan a purely disbelieving look.

Tristan chuckled.  “Only because he wants
to use her as a breeding mule.”

“And you say McLean knew all of this?”
Mitchell questioned, his voice dropping to a growl. 
Breeding mule.  They
think they can just take what’s mine and use her like that? 
White-hot rage
washed over him at the idea.  He had already smelled that hunter all over her,
and the thought of him sharing her bed …
I’m going to kill him.

“He did, and he doesn’t care what happens
to that pet of yours either.”  Tristan was smiling, clearly enjoying the
burning rage that Mitchell was sure he could see rolling off of him.  “I
believe his words were, ‘This town was better off before she came.  Do whatever
you want to that supernatural freak.’”

“Mitch,” Angelle said, and she jumped up
from her chair and dropped to her knees in front of him.  “Tristan was going to
let this happen to her.  She’s yours, you claimed her, and he was helping
them.”

“Angelle, give it a rest already,” Mitchell
said, narrowing his eyes at her, and she rocked back, cringing away.  He stood
up and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” she asked in an
uncertain and shaky voice.

“To pay McLean a visit,” Mitchell called
over his shoulder, and when he heard them start to follow, he said, “Alone.”

“Millie, we seriously need a plan,” Megan
chirped, as she watched the people from the fair follow Cole into the house.

“What we need to do is get the bond back in
place,” Tyler said.

“No,” Josh snapped, turning his glare on
Tyler.  “We need to kill the vamps and move on with our lives.”  His eyes
flashed, and he stood up straighter, rolling his shoulders back.

Tyler laughed, not in the
funny ha-ha
kind of way but more of an
I feel sorry that you are so stupid
kind of
laugh
. 
“Dude, you get that my girlfriend is a vampire, right?  You’re
really not as scary as you think.”

Josh’s skin shuddered, and his eyes began to
glow as he advanced on Tyler.  Tyler didn’t back down.  Instead, he met Josh
head on, and they began to circle each other like boxers in a ring just waiting
for the bell to ding.

“Enough!” Amelia yelled, getting in between
them.  “This isn’t going to get us anywhere.”  She scanned the crowd of hunters
as her brain attempted to formulate a plan, all the while feeling the glares
that Josh and Tyler were shooting over her head.  She gritted her teeth, shot
them both a look that she hoped told them to knock it off, and then fixed her
focus on Megan and Madame Crystal. “The three of us are going to lock up this
house.  I’m not going to put all these people in the dungeon.”  She swiveled,
looking up at Josh.  “I want you to split the hunters into teams for watch
duties.  I want you guys to rotate.  Post them at the windows and doors, but I
would like everyone to stay inside.”  Amelia didn’t wait for his response, and
she started over to Megan, racking her brain for a spell that would work.

“Amelia!” Josh snapped, and with a
commanding wave, he beckoned her back to his side.  When she ignored him and
kept walking, he grabbed her, stopping her in her tracks and yanking her back
to face him.  “You’re being careless, Amelia,” he warned.  “Everyone should get
downstairs now, before the vamps show up here.  We can keep them safer in the
dungeon.”

Amelia faltered, and when she glanced
around, she noticed some of the hunters nodding in agreement, and she didn’t
miss all of the hateful glares.  There were a few grunts and a bunch of
unbearable mumbles. 
They all hate me,
she thought.  
Completely hate
me.
  How did Mitchell command the respect of others without them all
looking at him as if they were just biding their time for a chance to get rid
of him? 
Because he does not command it,
a small voice in her head
answered.  And at that moment, Amelia wasn’t sure what bothered her more.  Was
it that people just respected Mitchell because he had earned it?  Or that she
was taking advantage of her power and commanding the hunters against their
will?  Or was it that her thoughts were now actually answering each other in
full conversations?

“Back off, Josh,” Amelia said evenly,
shaking off her thoughts.  She let her eyes drop to his hand that was wrapped
tightly around her bicep and then back up at him, giving him what she hoped was
a truly terrifying look.  She guessed she pulled it off, because his hand
loosened and then fell away in a rush.  “They won’t come here,” she said. 
“Mitchell’s not that stupid.  He saw our numbers.  He won’t risk it.”  If there
was one thing she knew about Mitchell, it was that he was always cautious, and
he could, and would, wait them out.  “He’ll wait until we venture out of our
comfort zone,” she said with absolute certainty.

“You’re wrong,” Josh growled, and he puffed
out his chest in a show of authority, as if that would actually work on her. 
He must have noticed that the little show of
I the man
crap wasn’t
working, because he let a deep sigh escape, and his chest deflated like a
popped balloon.

Amelia gave him another hard look, and
she’d be lying if she tried to say that it didn’t give her any satisfaction to
see Josh pale under the stare, and then she turned and started over to Megan,
with Tyler falling in step beside her.

“What about securing the whole block like
before?” Tyler asked, as they made their way up the steps of the terrace to
where Megan and Madame Crystal now stood, with ribbons of brilliant power
seeping from their fingertips.

Amelia thought about it for half a second
before shouting it down.  “No, just the house for now, Mitch will expect me to
lock up everything.”

Tyler grinned and chuckled.  “Millie, this
might be a first, but if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were actually
thinking.  I think Mitch might have actually rubbed off on you.”

Amelia rolled her eyes and stifled a
groan.  Josh ruined the moment with a growled huff as he bounded up the steps
behind them.  She eyed him with fierce intensity.  “Josh, stay out of our way.”

Between the three of them, securing the
house didn’t take long.  Megan came up with a protective spell, and with a few
tweaks and a little help from the hunters, they were able to make it vampire
specific.  Amelia wasn’t thrilled that the magic might set them on fire if they
tried to enter the house, but for now, it would work, and all she could do was
hope they had enough sense not to try.

After a few more pleads and grumbles, Josh
finally got it together, splitting up the hunters like Amelia had requested,
and posted the first shift through the house.  He set the rest of them up
upstairs in the games room and living room with blankets and pillows before
promptly retreating into the study to brood, Amelia assumed.

She checked on the newcomers, which Cole
had deposited in the media room.  And by the giggles and dozy faces, he had
also given them a nice dose of what she liked to think of as cotton candy
power.

Once she was sure everyone was as
comfortable as possible, Amelia tried to probe Madame Crystal for more
information, hoping that the psychic had
seen
something useful.  After
thirty minutes of questioning though, all she had gotten was a blank stare and
ramblings that made absolutely no sense.

When she couldn’t take it anymore, Amelia
touched base with McLean.  And again, she hit another brick wall of no
information.  He claimed that his men hadn’t spotted anything out of the
ordinary after leaving the fairgrounds, and he assured her that the townspeople
were taking the lock down seriously and that he would call if anything changed.

When she hung up the phone, Amelia wanted
to scream.  Frustration and fear filled her.  She wished Mitchell was here,
telling her what to do.  She missed the rest of her family, their encouraging
words, their laughter, their support.  She knew she had to be strong, but without
them, she felt anything but strong at this moment.  That’s when she remembered
Luke and Eric.  They were in the dungeon, in the house, and the urge to run to
them and just talk to them overtook her.

Now in the kitchen, Amelia slipped two
warmed bags of blood under her shirt. 
It’s a hot water bottle,
she told
herself over and over, as the blood sloshed around against her stomach.  She
stayed to the wall as she passed through the main room, trying not to be
noticed by all the people milling about.  She let out a pent up breath when she
reached the steps to the dungeon, and she pulled the bags out from under her
shirt.

The stone steps seemed longer than she
remembered, and the damp air seemed moldier.  As Amelia made her way down, the
only thing she could think about was Mitchell.  It all seemed somewhat
laughable—or maybe that was just exhaustion taking over—Amelia wasn’t entirely
sure.  But really, to think that all of this started because she had loved him
so much … It was just funny, especially since she had spent so much time
fighting him.

If I ever get us out of this mess …
But that was the problem, wasn’t it?  For hundreds of years she had
been trying to get herself out of a mess, and the funny part about it was that
it was her own mess to start with.

She began ticking off the events, counting
them off on her fingers as she made her way down the dark tunnel. 
One:
Mitchell was killed by a vampire.  Two: I cast a spell stripping all vampires
of their souls.  Three: Mother Nature fixed my screw-up.  Four: Given the gap
in age from when the spell was set, Mitchell must have been reincarnated
numerous times over several hundred years before he was turned into a vampire. 
Five: I was burned for being a witch after the bond connected us together.  Six:
I created vampire hunters to kill Mitchell.  Seven: Mitchell retaliated,
killing the vampire hunters.  Eight: I made more hunters and created a hybrid
mate for myself.  Nine: Mitchell finds me.  Ten: Josh finds me.  Eleven: The
bond is broken.