Marked by Blood: Book 2 of The Marked Series

by Ford, Rinna

  Matias peeked around the corner finding cover in front of the kitchen island. We all ran for it and ducked down, sitting with our backs against the wood. Xan was closest to the door so he took it upon himself to peek through the open door. He brought his head back and cussed under his breath.

  “It’s Michael fucking Ironshot,” he harshly whispered. “He seems to be alone, but I know for a fact that’s never the case.”

  “Come on, Emelia. I just want to have a talk with my step daughter. I think it’s time we’ve met, don’t you, my dear?” Michael called out. “I have someone here who is dying to see you again!”

  After he emphasized the word, dying, a man screamed in agony from beside him.

  “No! Ahhh! No! Don’t come out here! Ahhhhhh!”

  “Devlin!” I yelled and shot up from my hiding position and ran out the front door. Xander tried to reach for me. I was too fast for his hands, but not too fast for Matias. He caught me on the porch before I could fall into Ironshot’s clutches.

  “Emelia! So lovely to finally meet you! My! You are a beauty, just like your mother!”

  The man who I knew was Michael Ironshot was smiling from ear to ear as if he were truly glad to meet me. Devlin was floating in midair, his hands bound behind his back and he was bent in an unnatural angle with his head thrown back.

  “Run!” he ground out through gritted teeth. He was in serious pain and the man with the shit-eating grin was the one causing it.

  “Not this time, Dev,” I told my uncle.

  “Isn’t that sweet? Ahhh and look! You have friends! Why don’t you introduce them?”

  Xander was standing on my right, slightly in front of me and Matias on my left as we stood on the porch. Ironshot leaned forward and squinted his eyes.

  “Nevermind, Emelia,” he told me. It was strange, the way he was talking was like we were having a real, true conversation. “I know that man right there.” He pointed to Xan. “Good to see you, Xander! Do your parents know where you’ve been?

  Xander’s response was to growl, low and menacingly.

  Ironshot smiled even brighter as his eyes slid past me to Matias. “You, I don’t know. Should I?”

  The corner of Matias’ mouth turned up in a dangerous grin and I knew he was plotting how many ways he could decapitate the asshole in front of us.

  The caster lightly laughed and then brought his eyes back to me. “Come now, Emelia. Let’s talk as civilized people do and I’ll let your two friends go, along with your uncle. I’m only here for you. What do you say?”

  “I say you’re completely full of shit,” I shot back. “You have no intention of letting any of us go, so cut the crap and tell me exactly what you want from me.”

  His smile changed from friendly to dark and dangerous. “You’re right, of course. So astute, just like your mother. You haven’t asked about her. Don’t you want to know how she’s doing?”

  “Not particularly, no. Now let Dev go, and I won’t have to kill you where you stand.”

  Ironshot threw his head back and laughed. “Kill me? My dear, you are a hoot!”

  With his words, men began walking out from the woods behind him, Ronan among them. My heart rate picked up and I took a step toward him, but Xan’s hand shot out, stopping me from making a mistake.

  Ronan looked afraid for a second, but when he saw I was held back he returned to his neutral facial expression.

  “Ronan, my boy!” Ironshot called out when he saw my caster mate. He motioned for him to come to him and Ronan didn’t hesitate. “Emelia, you remember Ronan, don’t you?”

  “Not really, no. Should I?” I asked.

  “Oh come on! You know your own fated mate, don’t you?”

  “Eh, mates come and go, right?” I tried my best to seem unaffected but I was afraid I was overdoing it, just a little bit.

  “Lass, please come with us,” Ronan said. “I promise, I’ll take care of you. Your friends too. Please, Millie, be smart about this.”

  The words were coming out of his mouth, but his eyes were telling me something different. His eyes were telling me to run and run fast, but how could I? Not without my uncle, and not without him.

  “Come now, Emelia. Listen to your mate. I promise no harm will come to any of you.”

  I tilted my head to the side and narrowed my eyes at the interloper in front of me, tired of the game he was playing. “You see, Michael, the fact you’re torturing my uncle, your mate’s brother, tells me something different. It tells me you’re a sick, twisted little man who enjoys pulling the wings off of insects and smothering puppies in your spare time. So please, for the love of all things holy, cut the bullshit! Let him go and we’ll leave and never bother you again.”

  “Your mere existence bothers me!” he screamed, finally dropping the facade. “You are an abomination!”

  “An abomination who is meant to destroy you and everything you hold dear!” I yelled back, referring to the prophecy. By the furious look on his face, he believed it to be true. Huh. Maybe there was something to it.

  Just as I was getting ready to charge toward the head caster, a loud boom rocked the woods behind him. Something exploded sending debris and casters flying through the air. Xan covered my head as another explosion happened to the right of us.

  “Camille,” I told my mates. “It’s Camille! We have to help!”

  One brave caster came running at us at that very moment, but Matias caught him before the man even stepped on the bottom step of the porch, ripping the man in two as easily as if he were a piece of paper.

  Another came from the side of the porch, caster sword in hand. Xan charged at him, intercepting him in his part shifter form and the two barrelled off the porch. Then within seconds, I heard Xan’s dragon roar and the sound of trees smashing and I knew he had transformed.

  Neither one of my bonded mates moved far from me, still in protection mode, but I realized, standing there, I didn’t need them to protect me. Not like they thought I did.

  I looked back to where Ironshot was still standing as chaos rained around him. His beady eyes were locked on me as Devlin still floated beside him, but Ronan was nowhere to be seen.

  I smiled at the sight of him standing there alone, but not unprotected of course. I wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d be helpless but still, it was much more of a fair fight than having his goons try to take me. My eyes bled to crimson and my fangs descended as hunger for revenge filled my blood.

  Ironshot’s eyes went wide for just a second, not anticipating I was part vampire as well, but then he returned back to his condescending expression.

  “How about a hug, stepfather?” I asked him, licking one of the sharp canines that peeked out of my mouth.

  “Oh I would love that, my dear. Come a little closer.”

  I took several slow steps, fully aware of the battle going on around me. My two mates against an army of casters and yet, they were winning. Ironshot had to see that as well, even though he didn’t seem to care. Or maybe he did and he had the best poker face in the world. Either way, it worried me because he either knew something I didn’t or he was too insane to know the difference. Probably both.

  I stood about six feet in front of him and stopped. Devlin slowly floated until he was just in front of me.

  “Go ahead and take him my dear. If you can touch him, he’s yours I promise,” Ironshot told me. My fingers ached to just reach out, but I knew it wouldn’t be so easy. Nothing ever was.

  Instead, I ran around Dev’s floating body and latched my body onto my enemy’s, bringing him to the ground. The moment of surprise on Ironshot’s part made him lose focus on Devlin, and my uncle went crashing to the ground as well. I opened my jaw wide to prepare to take his throat out but instead I was thrown backwards, smashing into another caster.

  The foolish caster was battling with my dragon mate, but when he realized it was me who crashed into him, he tried to hold me down. I pulled on one of his arms that dared to touch me and ripped it from the socke
t using my vampire strength. The man howled in pain and fell to the ground screaming, holding onto where his arm was once attached. He was as good as dead in my book so I turned my attention back to Ironshot.

  He was walking up slowly towards Xander who had his back turned toward a small group of casters, his magical blade forming in his hand. He was going to try to kill my mate.

  Without a rational thought, I ran at him at full vampire speed and knocked him down again. I learned my lesson from before and didn’t go with the obvious move next, which was to try and bite him. Instead I tried to call my own caster’s blade forgetting my magic was messed up.

  Nothing appeared in my hand so when I hesitated, it was enough for Ironshot to get the best of me. His blade transformed into a push dagger and he stuck it straight into my side.

  I let go of his shirt and both of my hands went to the spot where he stabbed me, only for him to do it once more, only inches from the first one. He pulled back and tried to stab me again, but he was knocked off of his feet.

  “Emelia! Get out of here!” Ronan screamed. He was holding down Ironshot using some sort of magic and his boss was pissed.

  I didn’t want to leave him, but I was losing strength fast. If I didn’t get out of there in that moment, I knew I never would. I crawled over to where Devlin was still laying, his hands still bound and I tried to lift him, but even with my vampire strength I couldn’t.

  “Matias!” I yelled for my vampire mate. He stopped mid-fight and looked at me, then decapitated the man he was fighting and ran to me. He lifted me up with one arm and Dev with the other. “We need to get out of here,” I told him. “Camille, then get Xan!”

  Matias looked around and spotted Camille sitting on the ground, chanting spells and Grayson in his grizzly form fighting off casters if they came too close. Matias ran Dev and me to them and lay us down next to Camille and then ran to where there was the sound of a dragon breathing fire.

  I crawled over my uncle and grabbed Camille’s arm. “We need to go!” I said when I got her attention. She stopped chanting and looked up at me then Grayson, just at the exact moment a caster ran up behind him and ran his caster’s sword through the bear’s body.

  “No!” she screamed. “Grayson!”

  The bear fell with a thud and he began to transform back into Grayson. Camille scurried across the ground, throwing an energy ball at the offending caster, blasting him away. When she reached Grayson, she shifted his head onto her knees, holding the wound on his stomach.

  “Stay with me, asshole,” she said. “You’re not allowed to leave me. Not ever, you hear me?”

  “I hear you,” he said and weakly smiled up at her, his body slowly changing back to his human form.

  Xander and Matias came running around the corner of the house, seeing us unprotected and ran toward us, plowing down everyone in their paths.

  “Get ready,” I told Camille. The edges of my vision were ringed with black and I knew I was close to passing out, or worse. We needed to go.

  She moved her bloody hand off of Grayson’s wound and took my outstretched hand. I touched Devlin’s bare arm and we waited for my mates to reach us.

  There was a scuffling off to my left and I saw Ironshot somehow get out of Ronan’s magical hold and my caster mate was knocked back. Ironshot rolled over onto all fours and began to rise, his hair in disarray and his face full of rage. He began to run toward us, but my bonded mates beat him to us.

  The moment Matias and Xander reached us, they grabbed onto my arms and we were gone, teleported away.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The moment I opened my eyes and saw we were once again in Amos’ office, I sighed in relief. My vision was getting narrower and my mind was far away. I knew I was losing a lot of blood, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. I just wanted to rest.

  I lowered myself to the carpeted floor as my mates and my grandfather yelled my name from over me, but I couldn’t focus on any one of their faces. My eyes opened and closed slowly, until they didn’t open again and I drifted off to nothingness.

  * * *

  “Dad?”

  I was in our field of wildflowers, but he was nowhere to be seen. I slowly spun around taking in the familiar landscape, but then something odd happened. The sky which was usually a sort of muted sunlight began to dim until I was in almost complete darkness.

  “Dad? What’s going on?”

  “Sweetheart, you don’t have a lot of time,” my dad said. He appeared beside me in an instant. “You have to make a choice.”

  “Choice? What choice? I don’t understand.”

  “You have to choose your fate. Either pass on to the afterlife, easing your suffering, but amplifying the suffering of those you love, or return back to your body, alive. If you choose that option your life will be difficult, much more difficult than before.”

  “What will happen to Xander, Matias, and Ronan? To Amos and Devlin?”

  “That I’m afraid I cannot tell you. It’s a choice you have to make completely on your own.”

  I looked around once more at the darkened sky then back to my father.

  “Will I still get to talk to you if I live?”

  “Yes, sweetheart. That will never change. You’ll always have me, in life and in death.”

  “Then I choose life,” I replied as if there was no choice at all.

  My dad smiled serenely, as if he knew my answer all along and stepped back. My body began to tingle, indicating I was waking up from the dreamscape.

  “See you soon, Emelia,” he said as the field of wildflowers faded from view.

  * * *

  When I awoke, I was laying in my own bed. No one was in the room with me, which seemed odd to me. Confused, I pulled the sheets away from my body and pulled up the gown I was sleeping in to see the side I was stabbed in, twice. There was a bandage over the area, so I carefully peeled it away revealing smooth, unblemished skin.

  I dropped the bandage onto the mattress and slowly swung my legs over the side of the bed, finding the floor with my feet. I tested out my leg strength, finding them tired but sturdy and walked toward the bedroom door, finding it unlocked.

  I turned the knob and opened the door before walking out into the hallway. I heard voices float up from the first floor. Familiar voices, which made me smile despite my cracked lips.

  Holding tightly onto the banister, I took one step at a time until I reached the bottom. I let go of the banister and walked into the living room finding my uncle awake, although tired and he was talking with Irna of all people.

  “Dev?”

  He quickly turned his head, his face lighting up with pure joy. My uncle jumped up off the couch and he ran to me, scooping me up in his arms.

  “Oh,” he sighed. “You stupid, stupid thing. Why didn’t you listen to me?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re the stupid one if you ever thought I’d leave you like that again, not that I had the choice in the first place.”

  He shook his head with a smile and hugged me again. When he released me, I was picked up in another set of arms and carried over to the couch.

  Matias.

  “Little one, what are you doing out of bed?” he asked.

  “How long have I been out?” I asked instead of answering his question.

  “About a day,” Dev said. “At least that’s what I was told when I woke up a few hours ago. Who stabbed you?”

  I furrowed my eyebrows when I tried to remember. The memory was close, but too far away to see clearly.

  “I think it was Michael Ironshot? I’m not sure.”

  My head began to pound and I put both of my hands to my temples. Matias, gently sat me onto the couch and got up and ran, coming back only thirty seconds later with a glass of blood.

  I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I saw the glass in my mate’s hand. I brought it to my lips and drank the entire contents of it in one big gulp. I handed it back to Matias once it was empty. With a wink, he went back into the kit
chen for some more.

  “A sandwich too, please!” I called out. He waved his hand over his shoulder as a sign of understanding.

  “That’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing,” Dev frowned.

  “What? Me with my mate?”

  “No. You drinking blood.”

  “Dev, that’s only part of what I’ve been up to these last two months.”

  Realizing what I said, I looked down at my lap. While I had been on the run and bonding with my mates, Devlin was captured, probably tortured as a prisoner of Michael Ironshot.

  “I can see that,” he chuckled. Classic Devlin. He only saw the bright side of things.

  “What happened to you and Ainsley?” I asked, not taking my eyes off of my hands.

  “Emelia, I…”

  The backdoor slammed, interrupting Dev as Xander came running in the room. He came to a halt seeing me sitting there, then he ran the rest of the distance, scooping me up and putting me in his lap.

  “I thought I lost you,” he breathed into my hair. “I thought I told you not to do that to me again.”

  “I’m sorry, honey,” I smiled.

  “Thank heavens,” Amos said from the doorway. “You gave us quite a scare, young lady.” He tried to sound authoritative and grandfatherly, but ended up sounding silly.

  I shook my head and smiled at him. Matias came back with another glass of blood and a triple decker sandwich on a plate, handing it over and sitting down beside Xander. His hand was on my knee, wanting to touch me however he could.

  I was halfway through my sandwich when something occurred to me.

  “Where’s Camille?” I remembered her coming with me to Dev’s cabin, but not much after that. I knew she helped us get home, but was Grayson with us too?

  “Emi, Grayson didn’t make it,” Xan told me. “He died before we could get him back to the mansion. She hasn’t left their room since they took him away.”

  Grayson died? Oh no.

  I sat my plate in my lap, not able to take another bite. My poor friend.