Marked

by A.N. Meade

like they were closing in on her, running at her faster and faster. She walked quicker down the path, but the faster that she walked the faster that it followed. She could feel its breath on the back of her neck.

  A voice whispered in her ear, “You can’t run away. There is nowhere to go that I won’t follow.”

  She ran as fast as she could. The light of the moon was bright, but even though she could see what was in front of her it was confusing, and she wasn’t sure which way led out. The tree branches slashed at her arms and legs as she pressed through them. Then, she fell. She hit the ground hard, and her head slammed against the cool earth. She was in pain, but she knew that she had to get up. She had to keep running.

  He was there when she stood up, standing over her. It was Damian’s face. By appearance alone, he was a good looking man. He had strong features and long dark hair. His eyes were two toned and very intriguing. There was a depth to them that made her wonder what he was thinking and about the things he had seen through those eyes. She had always been sensitive to the energy of other people. His energy was very dark. This kept her from letting curiosity place her in his hands. Despite her resistance, he had found her. He had caught her like an animal.

  He stood over her, triumphant. “Why are you running, it’s pointless?”

  Aimee looked up at him, defiant. “Leave me alone.”

  He knelt down, and shook his head. “No, I can’t do that.”

  “Why? Why me? Why can’t you just go?!” She shook in his grasp.

  He held her arm tightly. “After all that I have done for you, after all that I have given to bring you back to me again, how dare you ask me such a question? You know why! I gave you everything! I brought you back! I brought you back to me. You are mine. You belong to me, no one else. The sooner you accept that, the easier that it will be for you.”

  She collapsed on the ground, crying. “Please, just leave me alone.”

  His impatience was growing with her. He grabbed her by the throat and held her down to the ground, his body pressing down on hers. His eyes changed, they became much more opaque. His fangs were long and sharp. His voice shook her to the core. “I will kill you before I see you with him. You will come back to me, in this life, or in the next. I will take your life as many times as I need to drive you away from him and back home. It is useless for you to behave like this. It will change nothing. I will not go, and I will not let you. I have given too much to have you to let you go.”

  She knew that it was true. As soon as he said the words, she knew that it was the truth. He had been the reason that her life up until the time that she had met Marc had been so unbearable. Her parents, her childhood, everything had been terribly and perfectly sabotaged by Damian. He could and would make her life a living hell. He had manipulated everyone that she had ever known, and now he was pulling her strings. She was his puppet. There was no place that was unreachable to him, except maybe heaven, and that seemed desperately out of her grasp.

  The truth was that there was darkness inside her too. She hid it, but he saw. They were more alike than she would ever wish to admit. She tried to make her mind go blank, to escape to somewhere good. There was no such place, not anymore. He had tainted even her relationship with Marc. She was not safe, not even in her mansion in the wilderness. He was here, after all. She would freeze and tighten just before he touched her, and then she would wake up. She couldn’t tell Marc about it. It was her fault. It was her past. Maybe Damian was right. Maybe it was pointless to fight him. It was clear that no one could protect her.

  She walked downstairs to get a drink of water and to sit a while. She felt too afraid to sleep. Damian would be there in her dreams waiting for her. He had violated her sacred space. This was her haven. He had no right to be here. She should have the chance to choose. She was not a possession. She did not choose him. He haunted her, like a ghost from her past that refused to die. His words ate at her like a parasite. She wanted to find a way to cut him out, out of her life, and out of her head.

  Aimee was convinced that there must be some way to free herself, but she had no idea what it was. Something was obviously wrong inside. There was still so much more to her than even she could grasp. The dark hole inside her was such an intimidating thing. She would have to face it. Understanding herself would be the key to finding a way to escape him, she knew it. She made a decision right there in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. She would embrace that part of herself that scared her the most. Continuing as she was meant death, so she had nothing to lose.

  Liam walked in as she put away her glass. “You’re up early.”

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  “Me either.” There was something that he wanted to say, she could see it. Instead he walked over and stood beside her. He always thought so much before he spoke. “Everything okay?”

  She smiled. He knew it wasn’t. “Not really.”

  He seemed surprised that she was honest with him. “What’s wrong?”

  Aimee sighed deeply. “I’ve been having nightmares since we’ve been back.”

  “What kind of nightmares?”

  Tears began to well in her eyes at the thought. “I can hear his voice in my head. I know he is still there, watching me, wanting me. He hunts me through the woods. I’m in a forest alone, and he’s chasing me, I can never get away.”

  “Who?” Liam knew, but he wanted to hear her say it.

  “You know, don’t you Liam? Isn’t that why you haven’t left to go back to France yet? You know he is here. No one can protect me. He won’t stop.”

  Liam remembered that night in France. “It was him that night when we went back to your village, in the woods? He was what you were running from?”

  “Yes.”

  “And in the diner in New Orleans?”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s here now, in your nightmares?” Liam was beginning to piece something together now. Aimee still did not understand.

  “Yes.” She looked down at the tiles on the floor. So much of her hope was wrapped in Liam’s answer to her next question. “What should I do?”

  He put his fingers under Aimee’s chin, and lifted her eyes to meet his. “I need you to tell me his name, Aimee.”

  She looked into his eyes. She knew that he had an ancient strength. If anyone could help her, maybe he could. She needed to trust him. “Dacian.”

  Liam knew the name. She could see it in his eyes. He didn’t ask her if she was sure, or any other stupid question. He just nodded in acknowledgement. “Okay. I need to speak with some friends today. I will do what I can to help you find a way to end this. “He walked toward the hall, and turned back. “Have you told Marc?”

  “No, I haven’t”

  “You may wish to.”

  Telling Marc would be one of the hardest things that Aimee could ever have to do. She knew that she would need to tell him at some point, but she wasn’t sure how. He was the best thing in her life, the only light among all the darkness. She wondered if he would still love her when he knew. Then, she felt guilty for ever wondering. He had done nothing wrong, not one thing for him to deserve being questioned like that, especially by her. It came down to one thing really, and that was her doubt. It wasn’t that she doubted her love for him, but rather if she was worthy of his love for her. There was the nagging question, would he love her if he knew her? If he really knew everything about her, would he feel the same? She wasn’t sure.

  She didn’t go back to bed right away. Instead she walked out on the patio. It wasn’t that long ago that she had stood out there with Marc that first night. It was almost dawn. The light of the sun was barely visible on the horizon. It still stung her eyes. She looked forward to the day that she would be able to watch it again without pain, in her body or in her soul.

  Marc watched her from the window. He wondered what she was thinking. There was a space between them now that had begun to fill with each passing day, forcing them further and further apart. It was
so hard, but he had to give her this time alone. She needed to sort through some things in her mind. He tried to have faith that she would find her truth, and that she would be present with him again. She was home, but she was gone. She had slipped away from him somehow, despite his best efforts. He lay back down on the bed. He was very tired, but he could not sleep. He waited for her to open up to him again. He wanted to help her, but he didn’t know how.

  She lingered a while outside, and then slowly she made her way back up to their room. There was a look in Marc’s eyes as he watched her cross the room that she had not seen in him before. He looked afraid. She sat down beside him on the bed, and laid her head over on his shoulder.

  Curling around him, she began to tell him what she had been hiding. “I’m sorry that I left you there, in Georgia.”

  He was tempted to push it away, to just say it’s okay and not speak of it anymore. It would have done no good to ignore it. He needed to know what was happening with her. Instead of closing down, he searched his heart, and asked the questions that plagued him. “Why did you go, instead of just talking to me?”

  He deserved honesty. Aimee knew that. “I didn’t think that you wanted to talk about my past, at least not in any objective kind of way. You censored everything, and I wondered what you were hiding?”

  Marc didn’t want to argue with her. She felt what she felt, and he