Seventh Mark (Part 1 +2) (9 page)

“Wasn’t sure if
Michael would come in the room too. Didn’t know if you needed some
privacy.” Grace tilted her head. “Sooo, you know our dirty little
secret.”

“Kinda.”

She slid off
the counter and staring at me. Then suddenly she lunged at me and
swung her arms around me, hugging me tight. It was a moment before
she let go and it took me a moment longer to catch my breath. “I
knew you were special the moment I saw you. I knew you’d totally
get it.”

“You’re crazy.
Even nuttier for putting the
Siorghra
on me.” I touched the
necklace, loving the feel of it but not wanting to admit it.

“You needed to
know. I figured Michael would tell you tonight if I did. I’ve no
idea how, but you’re involved in this as well. I feel it.” She
stepped back and stared at me intently. “You don’t care about what
we are, do you?”

Me? Involved?
How and in what? “Why should I judge you? I liked you before and
nothing’s different.”

She squealed
and hugged me again, shorter in length but still enough to knock
the wind out of me again. “It’s about time Michael met someone. You
are so worth keeping around.”

I wanted to ask
if I might be like them. Maybe I was some sort of fallen whatever
they were.
It kind of makes sense
. I didn’t know my parents
and always had the feeling of needing my freedom – that there was
something more out there.

“They’re
waiting. You ready?” Grace interrupted my thoughts.

My throat
suddenly dry, I nodded. “Wait. I need to pee.”

Like a best
friend, she waited in the hall and we headed downstairs together.
Heavy silence greeted us in the living room. Michael sat on the
couch, dressed in jeans and a white shirt. Grace pulled me into the
room and set me between her and Michael.

Caleb sat by
the desk. Sarah stood behind him, her hand on his shoulder. They
made a stunning couple, and also frightening in a way I couldn’t
quite grasp.

“Rouge knows,”
Michael said in a low voice.

Caleb's eyes
narrowed as he stared at me. He didn’t say anything for a few
minutes. Then completely ignoring me, he turned back to Michael. “I
never considered you an idiot.”

My breath
caught in my throat. I figured he’d be angry, but I didn’t think
he’d act like I was some kind of insignificant fixation. I opened
my mouth to say something and then closed it.
It’s not my turn
to speak.
This conversation was between Michael and Caleb.

“I’m not.”
Michael’s jaw twitched. “Rouge’s not what you think. She’s
trustworthy.”

“It goes
against the Coven and its plans.” He cleared his throat. “This’ll
only bring trouble upon all of us –
your family.
You need to
consider this very carefully. I will ask once, what are your
intentions?”

“I’m not sure.
I need time to think things through.”

“Think things
through? Do you think you should have considered that before you
went and told her? Decide, Michael. I am not willing to risk our
safety for this child. A girl, who you know nothing about. Do you
know her past?”

My past?
I had nothing to hide. I literally had nothing.

“I understand
your concern.”

How did
Michael stay so calm sitting on the couch?
I couldn’t stop my
right knee from bouncing.

Michael leaned
forward. “Rouge’s not the issue. What happened tonight is. While we
were at the school, a boy approached her. He saw my Siorghra on her
neck. He threatened her, threatened us.”

“You put your
Siorghra on her?” Caleb screamed.

Grace spoke
matter-of-factly, “No, I did…to go with the costume.”

Caleb threw his
hand up to stop her. “I’ll speak with you later.” His eyes whipped
over to me. “Who’s the boy?”

I swallowed,
trying to push the butterflies back down my throat. My shoulder
blade began burning again. “Damon said… he knew what you are…” I
took a deep breath. When Caleb didn’t reply I added, “He plans on
destroying you.”

“He what?”
Caleb roared. His nostrils flared, and faster than I’d ever seen
anyone move, he flung the desk across the room. Papers flew
everywhere, as if trying to get away from him. “A boy? A damn boy
tried to intimidate my family? Impossible!” He glared at all three
of us on the couch. “Is this the first time?”

My butt clung
to the couch beneath me and I leaned against Michael’s shoulder.
How could someone toss a desk like it was a book
?
Forcing
courage, I made myself sit straight.

Grace didn’t
even flinch at Caleb’s outburst. “Damon hit on me a while back and
got no where. He’s nothing, just a boy who’s jealous. He doesn’t
know anything. It’s a bloody game.” She glanced at me before
shifting back to Caleb. “He’s got a bit of a grudge and took it out
on Rouge at school when were we hanging out in the courtyard a
while back. He’s not worth it.”

Caleb paced,
his hands clenched behind his back. “This boy threatened you?” He
turned and glowered at her, his eyes shone a brilliant blue. I
pressed myself closer to Michael as he continued, “And you did
nothing?”

Sarah
interrupted, “He’s human?”

Michael nodded.
“He’s young. Too young to be—”

“He’s just an
idiot on a steroid rant.” Grace met Caleb’s stare and then
purposely turned to the overturned desk.

Caleb’s angry
voice rang across the room. “Is there anything about this person
you
do
know? Who’s his family? His friends? Is he a serious
threat? What and why does he know? Something’s being missed. A
random nobody does get what the pendant represents. Does he need to
be eliminated?”

Sarah touched
his shoulder. “We can’t get rid of him until we understand what he
knows. Who he’s with. Kill without questioning him and we
accomplish nothing. We must remove the threat–all of it.”

She sounded
military. What kind of lives had each of them led? What had they
done in order to survive undetected to the human eye?

Caleb stood
statue still. “Michael, find out about this idiot, and if he and
his little posse are any hindrance to us. Get rid of the girl,
she’s of no use.” He dismissed us with a wave of his hand and
stomped to his office, the slamming blood-red painted door
reverberating throughout the house. Some kind of crystal shattered
in the kitchen.

Sarah touched
Michael’s shoulder. “I’ll talk to Caleb.” She kissed him on the top
of his head, and went into the office.

“This isn’t
good,” Grace whispered, more to herself than us.

“Michael,” I
said, my world crumbling and knowing I had to do what was right. “I
don’t want trouble with Caleb. He’s right, your family comes
first.” I reached and squeezed his hand before standing. “Take care
of what you need to. I’m going to head home.”

He stayed
seated on the couch, looking confused.

Grace jumped up
and ran to the hall. “Take my car.”

I caught the
keys she tossed me automatically, like a robot, and watched her run
up the stairs. Michael sat still frozen on the couch. All of a
sudden my heart began tearing.
He’s not going to fight for me.
There’s no such thing as a white knight.
After everything I’d
learned, he hadn’t told me everything. I wasn’t supposed to be
here.

I walked the
few steps back to him and leaned forward to lightly brush my
trembling lips against his cheek.

He whispered in
my ear, “It’s not safe for you to be with us. I knew this was too
dangerous. I should never have talked to you that night you were
running. This is all my fault.” He gently traced my lips with a
finger. “I’ll try and come for you, but it’s better if you just
forget about us. Act like we never existed.”

In dead
silence, I left the house.
First there’s Grollics and now…
It was too much for my little head to comprehend. Driving home I
realized I still had Michael’s Siorghra. I snorted.
Well, at
least he’ll have to see me one more time.

I couldn’t
shake the terrible sense of doom. We’d just been on the edge of
something that felt so real. For the first time in my entire life,
I was crying for someone I loved.

The next
morning, I couldn’t tell if my head or heart hurt worse. My eyes
stung from the tears I’d shed and my throat killed from the crying
it had tried to swallow. However, my shattered heart made the
thought of getting out of bed almost too hard to bear. Tempted to
skip school I only went because I hoped to see Grace.

Pulling into a
parking space at school with the Smartcar, I wondered if Michael
might drop Grace off. No such luck. I waited near the entrance of
the school and reluctantly headed to class when the buzzer
went.

Her empty desk
in first hour made my stomach drop. The only plus side of the day
was Damon’s absence as well. I trudged through classes optimistic I
might see Grace after school… only to be disappointed.

I drove home
after school, parked in the driveway and locked the door. I had no
intention of driving it again. After the incident last night,
returning the car without being asked didn’t seem likely. There was
no way I would go to the house without being invited.

Neither Michael
nor Grace contacted me through the week or weekend. Three weeks
past, and Jim and Sally began to grumble about me hanging out in
the house. For the first time since moving in with them three years
ago they didn’t want me around. I avoided them by staying in my
room.

In the darkened
bedroom one evening, I lay staring at the cracked ceiling and
wondered how to bring Grace’s car back. Did I have enough courage
to drive to their house, knock on the door, and hand the key back?
No way. I thought about parking it at the school and mailing the
keys back but my luck, it would get towed away.

“Get to the
point, dipstick,” I mumbled to myself. I was pretending to wrack my
brain only as an excuse to see Michael. It killed me that he hadn’t
tried to contact me. No effort. Whatsoever. The guy spilled his
guts and told me to leave. So much for liking the good guy.

It’s all I had
been thinking about, night and day for almost a month. Now I just
didn’t want to think anymore.

In a huff, I
jumped off the bed and grabbed my backpack off the floor. I’d
bought a calendar for the New Year. Flipping to January, I stared
at the box with the number seven in it. My birthday. Eighteen. All
that was left after that would be graduation, and then my freedom
from the system.

Which meant I’d
be on my own.

Slapping the
calendar shut, I turned away and tapped my fingers against my leg.
I needed distraction, something to do which didn’t require thinking
about the future. Staring at the walls around my decrepit room, my
eyes rested on the mess inside my closet.
Perfect
.

I dropped to my
knees and began tossing dirty clothes into one pile, others that
needed to be hung into another and shoes to be paired to the side.
While digging, I grabbed something rectangular and soft half buried
in the clutter. I pulled it out and gasped.

The Beast book.
Grollic Monstrum.

The worn
leather felt comforting against my fingers. I flipped it open to
the beginning. The first pages were written in some foreign
language so I skimmed them, simply glancing at the drawings.
Funny, I thought the first page had said something in
English…like a definition or something.

The closet mess
forgotten, I crawled onto the bed. About a third of the way through
the book, the words turned to English. It talked about a war
between Grollics and their worst enemy, and how it all began. It
turned into a narration and the beast in the forest seeming like a
distant memory now, I settled into the pillows to read.

An aged Grollic
tried to help a young woman lost in a forest looking for a cottage.
She seemed afraid of the beast but dainty as she may have appeared,
the woman had strength inside of her beyond any human ability. She
threw the old man aside and attacked the others with him, killing
all but him. She claimed she’d spared him as he’d tried to aid her,
even though she had no right to save him.

The eye for
the eye.
The old Grollic planned his revenge. He watched the
woman and learned where she travelled. He waited for the day when
the white-caped girl returned to the cottage on the other side of
the woods. He raced ahead to the clearing and easily killed the
unknowing man inside, then waited for the girl.

The girl
approached and the moment she entered the house, he attacked. Claws
reaching to rip her neck just missed, but as the Grollic stumbled
he sank his teeth into something warm. The girl grabbed a chair and
smashed it over the Grollics back. They fought through the small
cottage, breaking almost everything inside, including
themselves.

Near death, the
girl barely managed to escape through a narrow window. How she
managed to race away in to the forest, the Grollic thought he’d
never know the answer. Her now red cape –covered in blood— flapped
behind her as if nodding it knew the truth. The Grollic had killed
because of what she had done to his family.

The stunned
Grollic stared. What he had thought was a cape, had actually been
wings. Weak and shattered, he fell back against the wall. The fight
between the two had nearly killed them both. He then understood
their bloods could not mix. They shared unique powers, but those
powers could never be blended. They each had the ability to
destroy, as if they’d been born to battle against each other.

Thus began the
war as both vowed to never find peace until either race was
obliterated. The Grollic may not have understood what he met that
day, but he did learn the blood running inside his body could
poison hers and vice versa.