Marked

by A.N. Meade

curtains were drawn. She opened them and peered through. It was well into the night. She was starving. It had been days since she last fed. The beast inside her was becoming harder to contain. She got dressed and went out. Her mind was heavy with decisions that needed to be made.

  She wasn’t sure how to handle everything that had happened. It was hard to see. Her body was so sensitive to everything and the night lights were bright and dizzying. The cars sounded like trains driving past. Their engines were so loud. She felt drawn deeper into town. She stopped as she walked by a night club line. She liked the music, it echoed out into the street. It drew her in. It was dramatic and heavy. The bouncer walked up and down the line of people. He saw her watching him, and his eyes locked with hers.

  He walked up to her, “Go on in.”

  She smiled at him as she walked inside. There was no sock on his face at the sight of her fangs. He smiled back. He was vampire too, the first one who didn’t look at her like he wanted to kill her. He admired her body and her presence. It felt good to be accepted, even in that small way.

  She let the music sway her body as she entered. It was amazing. She looked at the lead singer. The woman had long straight, black hair, and bright blue eyes. They looked like wolves eyes. She wore a dark red satin corset. Her voice was like nothing else she had ever heard. It was ethereal.

  Then, the stage door caught her eye. It wasn’t guarded, so she didn’t walk inside. There was a dressing room a few doors down. Luggage trunks lined the right wall. There were many costumes hanging on a tall metal rack. They were beautiful. On the center of the wall at the back of the room was an antique mirror. It was framed in wood, and set atop a vintage vanity table. On one side, there was an open train case full of dramatic make-up. On the other side was everything that a performer could ever need to do their hair. With all that was in the room, one thing caught her attention above the rest. There was a tiny slip of paper tucked into the mirror’s frame.

  She leaned in to read it. “You are mine. I will never let you go.”

  Her mouth dropped open, and she stepped back, horrified. She saw him in the mirror, right there behind her. She turned around and he was gone. She ran as fast as she could out of the night club and in the direction of Elsie’s. She had come to Louisiana to find out the truth, and she was ready to finish what they had begun together.

  She shifted from side to side, waiting for Elsie to come to the door. Dawn was breaking, and the glare from the windows forced her to drop her eyes. She felt exposed, standing there in the open. She could feel him near her. She looked around to see if he had followed her. Tears rolled down her face. Her eyes were so sensitive to the sun. Where was he? She scanned every alley and doorway. She couldn’t see him Maybe she had imagined it. IT was so hard to focus. Her thoughts were broken fragments. “Come on Elsie,” she thought, “open the door.”

  She rushed through the door as Elsie opened it, slamming it shut behind her.

  Elsie was surprised to see her back so soon. “What’s wrong, Aimee?”

  “I think he’s found me, the man. Somehow I think he’s found me.” Aimee was shaking, and pale.

  “Calm down. Do you know what that would mean? It’s probably just your spirit feeling unsettled because we had to end our session early. Come, let’s finish and see if we can gain some clarity.”

  It was pretty clear that there was no turning back now. Aimee followed Elsie back up to the kitchen, and settled into a chair at the table.

  “Do you want something to drink before we start?” Elsie offered.

  “No, thank you. I’m ready.” Aimee just wanted to get started.

  Elsie lit the incense again, and sat down to compose herself. Aimee watched her curiously. “It’s Myrrh. It will protect us.” Elsie took a few moments, and then asked “Marc doesn’t know you’re here does he?”

  Aimee felt ashamed. She looked down as she answered, “No.”

  “Well then, let’s be finished with this and get you back to him.”

  That sounded wonderful right now. Aimee shook her head in agreement, and then reached out to place her hands in Elsie’s. Elsie took in a deep breath of the incense and exhaled a puff of sweet smelling smoke in Aimee’s direction. Instantly, she could feel herself falling backward. She hit the water in her mind’s eye, and it engulfed her. She felt no pain, just something pulling her farther and farther down. It had the shape of a woman. She had blonde hair and bright green eyes. She was beautiful, but definitely not human. Her skin shimmered in the water. She never spoke, but her presence was comforting.

  “What’s happening?” Elsie asked.

  “I think I’m dead.” Aimee’s expression wasn’t sad or happy, just flat.

  “I need you to find your body. Where is it?”

  “I don’t want to go back there.” Aimee was not about to leave the water. It was freedom.

  “Where are you now?”

  “With the woman in the water, but she’s leaving, swimming back up into the light.”

  “Follow her.” Elsie urged.

  “We’re on the beach now. She’s climbing up the hill, back to the castle. The sky is getting dark.” Aimee tried to absorb every detail. “I can hear something. Men are arguing.”

  “What are they saying?”

  Aimee’s stance changed. She squared her shoulders. Her voice took on an eerie low tone. She was channeling their conversation.

  “I come home to find my wife dead, and you are telling me that you won’t give her a catholic funeral. You tell me she cannot be buried in our family cemetery?”

  “She has sinned, my Lord. Her soul is damned. She took her own life, Dacian.”

  “It was an accident! She wouldn’t have jumped. I don’t care what you say. She will have a funeral with honor.”

  “I cannot allow her to be placed in hallowed ground. It would be a desecration.”

  She could see them. They were standing in the small chapel room. Her body was laid on the altar in front. Dacian spoke with the priest and two other men. He was angry. Things were moving so quickly, like fast forward. Their voices began to blur together. It was harder and harder to concentrate.

  “She is my wife!”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry, Dacian, nothing can be done. She cannot be forgiven.”

  Dacian’s eyes darkened. He looked back at the men, clenching his jaw. “And who are you to grant mercy?!”

  They could see the change in him. Fear swept over the priests. They tried to run, but he cut them down, each one of them. He disappeared for a few minutes and got some rope. He was crying. He tied it around the priests, binding them together, and hung them from the rafters so that their blood drained into the buckets that he had lined up on the floor.

  He sat curled around his knees. “No, no. This isn’t happening. No!”

  He used their blood to draw a circle around the altar. Then, he mixed some with a bit of ash from the fire.

  Aimee looked at Elsie. “He’s putting the blood and the ash on my forehead.”

  Elsie nodded in understanding. “A Tilak. The third eye. He is opening the eye so that he can burn the three afflictions to ashes. When he does this, all the sins committed in the previous lives are also burnt. He’s trying to save you from hell. He wants to bring your soul near in some level of consciousness.”

  Aimee was trying, but she did not understand what Elsie was talking about. “Why would he do that?”

  “What do you see now?”

  “He is standing. I can hear him speaking.” Aimee repeated the words as she heard them to Elsie. “Spirits of the North, East, South, and West, Old ones of the Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, I call upon you. Guard and protect this circle with your power mighty ones.”

  The green eyed woman was there, dripping with water. She tried to approach, as if she were going to take the girl’s body back with her to the safety of the sea. She could not enter, but she waited, just outside the circle. Dacian walked over to Elizabeta’s body, stroking her hair
with his hand. “My wife was taken in tragedy. I need guidance. Guiding spirits I ask your empathy, lend me your focus and your clarity. Lead me to what I need to find. Restore to me that which is mine.”

  A crowned man appeared within the circle. He looked very much like a gentleman. He spoke with authority and charisma. “I know what you seek. You’ve lost something very precious to you. I can bring her back.” A smile swept across his face, “for a price.”

  “I can pay you whatever you want.” Dacian had always been wealthy. Price was never a bigger obstacle to him than his own desire.

  “I can bring her back to you. I will mark her for you, follow her, through her rebirths.” The man walked toward him, slowly, along the outer edge of the circle.

  “How would I know her in another lifetime?” Dacian was no fool. If it were not in this man’s power to bring her to life right there, then he needed to know how his offer would serve the purpose of having her back.

  “You will not die. I have a proposition for you, great warrior. I offer immortality. You will be able to gather your own army, a powerful, eternal army.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “The same as you have followed for yourself for all this time, for power, and for territory.”

  Dacian was skeptical. Why would this man offer him such power? “Then what is it that you stand to gain? Who are you?”

  The man was proud to answer. He spoke clearly, with his head held high. “I am Zaebos. I govern the thirty legions. I have the power of love and of