Seventh Mark (Part 1 +2) (18 page)

He turned completely
white, then green. I stepped back, horrified at what I’d just
done and worried he’d hurl his lunch all over me. His eyes grew
huge and then darkened as they focused in on me. I had no idea
what
Vargulf
Bentos Monstrum
even meant.
It’d just popped into my head. I remembered seeing the drawing in
the journal with those words in a caption underneath. I probably
hadn’t even pronounced it correctly. The only thing I was sure of –
I had hit a nerve inside Damon.

He snarled,
“Kiss my a—”

“Is there a
problem?” Grace’s voice came out sweet but her body looked ready to
pounce. She stood, legs slightly bent and on the balls of her feet.
She grabbed my sleeve and held on firmly.

“No problem.” I
jerked my head in the mongrel’s direction. “I think the cafeteria
food’s done a number to Damon.”

Damon
swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Rouge, you need to ask your
friend how she, and the rest of her freakin’ family, uses people to
get what
they
want. Ask yourself if they really are the good
guys.”

“Go screw
–”

Grace’s warm
hand squeezed my forearm, it stopped me. Her fingers grew hotter
against my skin. “Let it go,” she said quietly, her eyes never
leaving Damon.

He scoffed and
raised his arms, clasping his fingers behind his head. “Yeah, don’t
dig too deep, Rouge. You might not like what you see.”

“Shut up
Damon.” Grace dragged me away, her lips pressed tight.
“What’d you say to him?” She hissed outside in
the hall.

“
I just pretended to threaten him.” I swallowed,
suddenly feeling the urge to stare at my shoes. “I think you better
get a hold of Michael. You might as well tell him to get Seth or
however you guys handle these situations.” My left leg started
trembling. “I’ve a terrible feeling I just opened a can of
worms.”

“What did you say?”
she repeated.

“What did you say?”
Grace asked again, shaking my arm.

I hesitated.
Lie or tell the truth? What had Damon meant about the
digging to deep? Michael and Grace were the good guys.
“I repeated something from the
Grollic book.” I stomped my foot. “I’m such an idiot!”

Grace blew her bangs
out of her face and shook her head sympathetically. “Damon’s not
going to run. They never do – until it’s too late. I’d be willing
to bet he's planning on watching you like a hawk for the rest of
the day.” The buzzer sounded to end lunch. “Our safest thing at the
moment is to get to our next class. Damon won’t do anything in
front of everybody here. I’m not scared of that loser. I’ll give
Michael a heads up and he can meet us here at the end of the
day.”

I whispered, feeling panic welling up inside, “He
knows what you guys are, and I’m ninety-nine per cent positive he
knows we know what he is.” I suddenly wasn’t looking forward to the
end of the day. Michael wouldn’t be too happy. I wasn’t completely
sure what I’d done, but the anger I had towards Damon at that
moment had taken over proper reason.

After last class,
Michael waited by his Mustang which sat parked beside Grace’s
car. Seth stood at his side. Both in long-sleeve tops, but no
coats, oblivious to the snow falling lightly around them. I’d kill
for some of their natural body heat.

E
very girl who
walked by them slowed their pace and stared. Crossing my arms with
my fists clenched under my armpits, I tried not to watch but
couldn’t stop myself. A girl would walk out of the school and veer
in their direction, as if being called over or simply wanted to get
a closer look. At a moment like this, I had time to be jealous of
girls checking Michael out? I had just ruined everything by
blurting out the one thing I should have kept quiet, and that was
my problem?
I’m
completely screwed in the head
. Then it hit me
.
It’s
Seth they’re googling over
. A senior group of females pushed past me, all fixing their
hair or clothes, and half of them sucking in their bellies and
adding a swing to the hips. I grinned and relaxed—for a
moment.

I
followed
behind them, stopping in front of Michael and grew annoyed as the
girls slowly trudged past. Finally out of ear shot, I crossed my
arms and rolled my eyes. “Seth, do you have this problem everywhere
you go?”

“
Problem?” His eyes continued to follow the
group. “I’m the luckiest man in the world. So many women and I’ve
got so much time.” He sighed happily.

“
Dude! Pay attention.” Michael sounded like Caleb
as he spoke, aside from the dude-part.

Seth straightened. “
I can multitask, you know. It takes so little to catch the
young ones. I expend no effort.” He coughed when Grace slipped
soundlessly from behind me and punched him in the gut.

“
Michael fill you in?” Grace asked. “What’s
happening?”

“
Damon’s not here,” Seth answered, still
clutching his belly.

“
You sure? His car is.”

Michael leaned forward, his arm coming around my
shoulders. “If he leaves out back, Tatianna’s there
waiting.”

Seth rested his elbow on the top of the Mustang and
leaned back. Cold puffs of smoke escaped his lips as he spoke.
“He’s got to have just gone through the change so there’s no way
he’s able to control it. There’s no way a Grollic’s going to walk
by four of us and not try and attack. He’s going to feel
threatened.”

“
Three of us.” Michael retorted.

“
What?” Seth’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh yea, three.
Sorry. I keep forgetting Rouge’s not one of us yet. When she dies
and comes back, you’d better make sure you have her
Siorghra
,
or you’ll be killing off a few of your own kind,
my friend.”

Pounding
exploded inside my ears. Did he mean Michael’ll kill his own kind
because the Coven would be mad? Or something else? With a stutter
of hope inside, I wondered why he seemed so sure I was one of them.
I tried to speak but my mouth had gone dry. I tried swallowing
instead.

“Shut up.”
Michael pulled me closer to him. “Unless you have some information
that’s pertinent?”

Seth stared
wide-eyed and gave a slight shake of his head. I didn’t miss the
grin he tried to hide.

“Maybe Damon
left earlier?” Grace glanced at Michael and then turned to Seth. “I
didn’t watch him. I figured he’d be calling his gang to meet up
here for an after school fight.”

“Grace.”
Michael shook his head.

“He’s
definitely gone,” Seth glanced up from reading his phone. “Tat’s
been inside the school. He’s not here.”

“What now?” I
asked.

“Tatiana’s
going to try tracking him. If anyone, she’ll find out where he’s
gone.”

“Alone?” I
asked. I might not like the girl but that seemed reckless to me.
“Shouldn’t one of you… be with her? What happens if a pack of
Grollics attack?”

Seth chuckled.
“Tat’ can hold her own. She won’t get caught. They’ll never know
she’s been near them.”

Grace slipped
her backpack off her shoulder and brushed the fallen snow off
Seth’s hair. “Rouge
really
scared Damon at lunch. I’ve seen
him angry but never spooked.”

“Yeah, I got
the picture from your message.” Michael opened the passenger side
door of the Mustang. “Seth, why don’t you ride with Grace and I’ll
take Rouge.”

It wasn’t a
question and again, his tone reminded me of Caleb. I slipped
inside, happy for the warm heat. I sat quiet watching the world
from my passenger window as we pulled out of the parking lot and
drove down the street. Recalling what happened at lunch I blurted,
“I royally screwed up today. Damon…He just made me so mad. I
couldn’t… I didn’t think… I just reacted. I’m sorry, Michael. If
Caleb didn’t like me before, he's definitely going to hate me now!”
I dropped my forehead against the cool glass of the window.

Michael
squeezed my knee, keeping his hand there. “Damon already knows
about us, and nothing you could have done will speed things up or
change things.”

“I wouldn’t be
too sure.” Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and repeated what I’d
said to Damon. It seemed like my lips were brushing against the
skin of his ear again. “
Vargulf Bentos
Monstrum
.” I blinked, forcing myself to focus on the picturesque view
outside the Mustang. I just saw blurs of winter colors pass by. I
had to tell him what I’d done. “I read the words in the Grollic
book, but have no idea if I said them correctly or even what they
mean.” Deep down I knew I’d pronounced them exactly right. I wasn’t
about to admit that to anyone. “There was a picture in the book. It
could be someone specific or just a drawing. I don’t have a clue
what and I’m an idiot for trying to scare Damon.” I sighed and
shook my head. “It was from a part of the book I can’t even
read.”

Michael shrugged his shoulders. “I
don’t know the saying. Never heard
it.”

“
Whatever it is, I scared the crap out of him and
now he’s furious.”

“
Vag
if
Ben—?”

“
Var-gulf Ben-tos Mon-strum
.” I
repeated slowly. I scratched my knee, trying to remember what I’d
found by Googling it. “It’s Greek, or something.”

“I don’t know
the Vargulf-part. However, Bentos sounds familiar but I don’t know
how.” Michael put the car in park and sat quiet for a few minutes.
He seemed to be focusing on his breathing. Long and slow breaths in
and out.

We had already
pulled into the driveway of the house. “Do we have to talk to Caleb
right away?” I assumed that was his plan.

“Hmmm? Nah, we
can chill for a bit. There’s nothing Caleb and I haven’t already
discussed. Tatiana probably won’t be back for another hour.
Hopefully she’ll have some information. I’d like to know if Damon’s
alone or actually spoke the truth and there are more.” Michael
stared vacantly out the window, his palm trailing back and forth
over the top of the steering wheel.

He seems
distant.
I didn’t know how to approach or help. I took my time
getting out of the car and waited for him by the bumper.

Hand in hand,
we quietly walked around to the pool house. I changed and started
making dinner. Michael turned on the gas fireplace, sat at the bar
while I cooked. He grabbed my laptop.

Exasperated, he
shut the laptop and put it on the coffee table. “It is no use. I
can’t translate what the words mean.”

“You said
Bentos
sounded familiar – maybe Seth or Caleb know more. We
can head over to the house and ask. I’m just about finished
sup—”

“Let’s go.”
Michael stood at the door, already pulling it open, before I had a
chance to set the spaghetti on the table.

With no one in
the kitchen, we walked straight into the office. Caleb sat at his
desk talking to Seth, who stood leaning against a book case beside
the desk. Sarah and Grace sat in the red chairs, both upright and
listening to the men argue. Conversation stopped when we
entered.

“No news from
Tatiana?” Michael asked.

“Nothing.
However, she's not back yet, so that's a good sign,” Seth
replied.

Everyone turned
expectantly to me.
What I’d do now?
I glanced at Michael in
confusion. He leaned his head toward me and whispered, “They want
to know what happened today, from your point of view.”

I coughed and
cleared my throat. “I got mad at Damon and didn’t think.”

“Should we be
surprised?” Caleb snarled. “You didn’t tell him about the
book?”

I might be
stupid but I’m not an idiot.
“No, I didn’t mention the book. I
might’ve let on that I knew what he is.” I took a deep breath and
waited for the yelling to begin.

Except it grew
quiet instead. No one said a word. I glanced around the room,
settling lastly on Caleb. He’d be the most ticked. However, when
our eyes met, there was no anger but something else.
Maybe a
hint of respect?

“What did you
say to him?” His voice came out quiet, but direct.

“
Vargulf Bentos
Monstrum
.” I stared at my
hands. “I don’t know what it means, just read it in the Grollic
book. Do any of you know? I’m not sure if I’m actually saying it
correctly.” Again I felt this strange tug inside that it was
exactly right.

“
Monstrum must be monster or beast. What we used
to refer to the Grollics as.” Caleb’s brows came together. “It was
one of the terms we used in the very beginning. I do not know the
other words.”

“
Vargulf
means servant,” Sarah said quietly. No one questioned
why she knew, but I did turn to Michael and Grace for some sort of
explanation.

“
I was a warrior fighter a lifetime ago.” Sarah
sighed. “A hunter and fighter. That's how I found Grace and
Michael.” She smiled at them. “They are also the reason I stopped.”
She paced, her arms clasped tight behind her back. “My last orders
were to hunt a pack of Grollics with a unique leader. He turned the
Grollics into servants. We called them Vargulf
Monstrums.”

I wanted to ask what made her stop hunting the
Grollics when she found Grace and Michael. Opening my mouth to ask,
I paused when I
saw the horror
on
Michael’s face. “What's
wrong?”

Everyone turned to stare.