The Soul's Mark: FOUND

by Stoyanoff, Ashley

  The peace didn’t last long enough. By 4:00, Amelia was starving. She thought about ignoring it but her stomach felt like it was eating itself so she headed for the kitchen. She regretted it as soon as she got there. Mitchell was standing on the terrace with his arms around another girl, kissing her—on the cheek—but that didn’t matter, he was still kissing her.

  White-hot fury overtook Amelia, every muscle in her body went rigid and she gritted her teeth. Her fists were clasped so tightly that her fingernails cut into her palms but she couldn’t seem to loosen them. What the hell did he think he was doing? A voice in her head hollered. And who the hell was the tramp he was all over? Mitchell knew she was there. He knew she was fuming and he was enjoying it. Amelia could hear the silent rumblings of his chuckle vibrating through her mind and it was infuriating.

  The girl, whoever she was, noticed Amelia glaring and pushed him away. She came over to Amelia. “I’m Lola.” What a tramp, Amelia huffed silently. She was shorter than Amelia was, maybe by an inch, and she had the same perfect figure and flawless skin that all the vampires seemed to have. Her pixie cut blonde hair had a little fringe at the front and it looked great with her cute oval face. She was dressed stylishly—not like Angelle, more toned down—in a basic black knee length, pencil skirt, a black fitted long sleeved t-shirt and a colorful rainbow-striped scarf arranged around her neck.

  Lola must have spotted Amelia’s fury—she was sure it was impossible to miss—she tilted her neck to give Amelia a full view of her mark. It was the same marking she had, the alchemy symbol for soul, but the name Luke Price was scrawled along the bottom. “You don’t need to be threatened,” she said, letting Amelia take a good long look before smiling back at her. “I belong to Luke.”

  Surprisingly, that didn’t help and Amelia was disgusted with the jealousy—green-eyed and nasty—that was pulsing through her. She didn’t want Mitch. She didn’t want anything to do with him but she also knew she didn’t want anyone else to have him.

  Luke chuckled. “Maybe she’ll come around sooner than we thought.” He gave Mitchell a congratulatory whack on the back.

  Amelia bristled, ashamed and cheesed off with her reaction. “Don’t hold your breath,” she nearly yelled. Luke and Mitchell doubled up. She gave Lola another glare and said, “Welcome home,” then went to the fridge, swung it open and gaped. It had been emptied of food except for a single shelf; the rest was heaped up with bags of blood labeled with the Willowberg Blood Bank logo.

  “Get used to it,” Mitchell said coolly. “We drink blood and I don’t see the point in hiding it from you anymore.”

  “Whatever. Doesn’t bother me.” Amelia knew that was a worthless statement. He knew it was bothering her. It was revolting. Blood in the fridge? Did they have to flaunt it around her? Amelia took out a box of strawberries and went to the sink to rinse them.

  “Why don’t you guys take my things upstairs,” Lola said. “I’d like to get to know her.”

  Wow. That was the last thing Amelia wanted. To get to know the tramp that was all over Mitchell. Damn this crazy jealousy, she thought. She didn’t like it, not one bit. “Maybe some other time,” Amelia said, dumping the clean berries into a bowl. “Kinda busy right now.”

  Amelia knew Mitchell was pissed off at her before he snapped. Maybe there is something good about the bond, she thought, laughing silently to herself.

  “Amelia,” Mitchell growled.

  Amelia put on her best innocent little girl smile, glad she had put on clean jeans and a low cut white tank. She glanced demurely at him, batting her eyes. “What? I have a paper to write.”

  “That’s okay,” Lola said, cutting off Mitchell before he could get a word in. “I’m sure we’ll have tons of time later. Come on, Luke.” She smiled sweetly at Amelia, which Amelia thought looked unnatural and fake. Then Lola turned. Her knee high leather boots clicking as she floated across the marbled floor.

  Luke looked torn. He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable, and said, “Sorry but someone needs to stay with them.”

  Lola stopped, and spun around. Her brown eyes flared. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m sure he can handle her.”

  “That’s the problem.” Luke shuffled from one foot to the other, looking anywhere but at Lola. “He’s not handling her very nicely right now and she’s…” he glanced at Amelia apologetically, “not making it easy.”

  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.

  CHAPTER 21

  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 be
tween 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.

  “Mitch,” Amelia whispered. “Don’t go.” She wasn’t sure why, but the last thing she wanted was to feel the distance between them. She didn’t want to feel the pull and she didn’t want to be alone. He searched her face, and she could feel the hum as he searched her mind. Amelia sat up and grabbed her shirt, pulling it back on and then locked her eyes on him. “I don’t want to be alone.”

  He smiled brilliantly at her and if her heart could have wagged its tail, it would have. He closed the distance between them in a few short steps, touched his lips to hers with a light kiss and then whispered. “I need a shower. I’ll come back soon.” And then, with another quick kiss, he left.

  Wide-awake now, the idea of a cold shower sounded really, really good and Amelia jumped at the thought. After a quick burst of cold water, she pulled on shorts and a tank, ventured back out into her room and curled up in bed. Not long after, Mitchell came back, freshly showered and in jogging pants and a t-shirt. Without a word, he cuddled in behind her, pulling her close to his chest and before long, Amelia drifted to sleep.

  CHAPTER 22

  Erin looked herself over in the mirror, fiddling with her pigtails and straightening the straps of her overalls. She sighed. She already looked guilty and she hadn’t done anything yet. If He saw her, he would know something was up, and then she wouldn’t be able to fix what was already in motion. And she had to fix it.

  She dabbed on more cover-up, hoping to hide the raccoon eyes, and then took in a deep breath and bolted from her room, praying she could get out before anyone noticed her panic.