Marked for Darkness

by Raven Woodward

  Her companion was strikingly handsome, with a wave of short blond hair, razor-sharp jaw and cool silver eyes that met hers. A knowing gleam flashed in them as his lips curled into a smile. But the reflection of herself didn’t seem to notice her, staring out at the gorgeous, gem-encrusted room. As though she was waiting for someone.

  Grasping the hand of the regal, flawless Harlow, the man brought it to his still-smirking lips and pressed a light kiss to her skin.

  Harlow felt it on her own hand while watching the scene, unable to move or even look away. Her heart thundered loudly in her ears.

  “I’ll be seeing you soon, my pet,” the cruel-looking man crooned.

  The throne room vanished, and Harlow was tossed back into her body. The air around her was stifling. When her eyes fixed on the canvas, now filled with color, the brush tumbled from her hand, and landed silently on the carpet.

  But Harlow didn’t bend to grab it.

  The scene painted in front of her looked so painfully realistic, she was tempted to touch it. To step back inside, if only to prove that she could.

  A low, gravelly sound reverberated through the room. Harlow whirled around to find Arian standing in the doorway. Furious—there was no other way to describe the curl of his lip and the blazing gold in his eyes.

  “What the fuck is this?” he snarled. His dark hair looked windswept and his jaw was shadowed with stubble, adding to his rough expression.

  Harlow got to her feet. Anger swirled through her like a tornado picking up speed. The floor trembled.

  “Don’t come barging in here all angry over nothing. I can’t control what I see or the fact that I paint what I see.”

  Arian blasted into the room so fast, he was simply a blur. Claws shot from his hands as his body grew. Shifted.

  The frame snapped; the sound of the canvas being torn was painfully loud. As if it was her heart he shredded instead.

  Harlow gasped. Without thinking she pummeled her fists into his back. Somewhere between beast and man, he turned and bared his pointed teeth.

  She stepped back, horror rocketing through her. Another step back. The creature paused, watching her with molten-gold eyes. Sensing what she was about to do.

  Turning on her heel, Harlow ran from the room.

  She couldn’t stay with this beast.

  This monster.

  Her eyes burned hot as she sprinted through the house and out the door.

  She would not stay. She would not be his prisoner.

  Harlow

  The wind whipped her face and tore at her hair. Harlow’s chest ached as she sent her feet flying over the ground, faster and faster, pumping her arms wildly. A roar split the air from behind her, stealing her breath.

  Faster, she begged herself. Pleaded with whatever gods might be watching. In front of her, all around her, beasts materialized in the distance. They sprinted toward her and Harlow ground to a halt. Her heart galloped wildly in her chest, feeling as though it might burst out. Pressure built in her veins. In her bones. Like a storm built to its peak, Harlow felt the lightning coursing through her. Felt thunder rumbling in her veins.

  The beast barreling toward her snarled in warning.

  Harlow extended her arms at her sides. Live energy licked at her fingertips like an affectionate animal. She drew it inside herself, funneling it.

  With a glance behind her, she saw that Arian was close.

  Too close.

  His eyes blazed like twin flames.

  Harlow swung her arms up.

  And clapped.

  The dam inside her broke in an echoing boom. A sizzling violet light shot out from her body, momentarily blinding her.

  Resounding yelps were Harlow’s only indication that it had worked. When her vision adjusted, she saw that all of the beasts had been tossed back, some of them lying on the ground, still.

  Harlow didn’t pause to make sure Arian was too.

  She ran.

  Or she tried to. Big, strong arms wrapped around her middle, yanking her against a solid wall of muscle and heat.

  “I told you,” Arian growled, “not to run from me.”

  Harlow felt for that same energy, for just one more explosion, but her vision spotted. She was spent. With a broken cry, she sagged in Arian’s arms.

  “That’s right, Ms. Marks,” he said in his guttural voice that was not wholly man. “You know you belong to me.”

  A cord of fear renewed her strength enough for her to kick at his shins and to try to shimmy from his grasp, but it only tightened. He laughed. A harsh sound that made her anger burn hotter. Yet her muscles felt weak. Like she’d just run an entire marathon.

  With a huff she let Arian drag her back to the house. When they were back inside, she whirled on him, stumbling from the sudden wave of dizziness that crashed into her. She grasped the arm of a floral antique chair to steady herself.

  “What the fuck is your problem?” she asked, fighting to remain upright.

  Arian’s eyes, still bright and golden, searched her in a heated way that made her entire body flush. “Why did you run?”

  “Because you went fucking psycho!”

  Arian chuckled darkly. “Oh, Ms. Marks.” He stalked toward her and Harlow stumbled back, just managing to land on a matching settee. Leaning so close their lips could touch if Harlow pressed into him, he said, “You have no idea how deep this goes. If you want to see a psycho, I’ll show you one.” With that, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet. He dragged her from the room, not caring when she stumbled or tripped.

  Back through the house he went, until she realized where they were headed.

  His room.

  Harlow dug her heels in. “No fucking way, creeper, I am not having sex with you!”

  Arian simply rolled his eyes and pulled her along as though her struggles were as troublesome as a toddler throwing a tantrum.

  He tossed her down on the bed, and before she could crawl away, Arian was back in front of her. A manila envelope landed in her lap.

  Harlow blinked at it, confused.

  “What’s—”

  “Open it,” he instructed.

  The envelope was large and fairly thick. Perhaps a document of some sort? Harlow slid her hand inside and pulled out a small stack of paper. When she glimpsed the first image on top, her stomach flipped.

  The image from the newspaper clipping was one that was burned into her memory and would be for her entire life.

  Her parents’ car flipped upside down, the entire frame crinkled and dented from rolling. Hot tears sprang to her eyes as she recalled that day. She’d been in the car.

  And she’d survived.

  “Why did you show me this?” she asked, her voice weak.

  His expression was cold when he said, “Read the headline.”

  CAR ACCIDENT CLAIMS ENTIRE FAMILY

  Harlow’s blood chilled. She read it once, then twice. Her eyes skimmed through the article as her heart began to race.

  Local family Maxwell and Julia Marks, along with their daughters Harrietta (aged 14) and Mary (aged 17), perished in a tragic accident on Wednesday morning.

  She swallowed hard. No one had called her Harrietta since she was young. Her birth certificate said Harlow, not Harrietta. And after the accident, when they’d moved to California, Maribelle had no longer gone by Mary. She’d told Harlow they both needed to change their names so they could have a fresh start away from the memories of their parents.

  It clicked.

  She swallowed hard. “Maribelle and I didn’t die that day.”

  Arian inclined his head.

  “Whose idea was it to fake our deaths? Yours?”

  His answer was flat. “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you change our last name to really make a difference?”

  Arian ran a hand through his hair. The only sign that he was unsettled. “Oricus had to see your bodies. Proof that you were dead. They were of course b
urned beyond recognition, but they matched yours and your sister’s general descriptions. He needed to stop looking for you. Once I was able to convince him you were dead, I didn’t have to try very hard to keep you hidden. I placed your sister in a company I own, kept you in a building I own, protected by my brothers. It was foolproof…as long as you remained hidden.

  “Once you stepped back into his territory, right under his nose, then used your magic to summon us both, it was all for naught.”

  “Why?” she breathed.

  Arian closed his eyes for several long moments, suddenly looking pained. When he opened them, they shone with an emotion that made her stomach dip. He moved to sit on the edge of the bed beside Harlow and she held still, unsure of what he’d say next.

  “When the Empress cursed me and my brothers, we searched for anyone that could undo it. Break the curse, if you will. We scoured our planet and many others for anyone who might know a way to undo it. There was a seer on a distant planet who led us to Earth.

  “He told us that among the humans, every few centuries there is one born with the power to undo the curse.”

  A lump rose in Harlow’s throat, threatening to choke her.

  “However, when we arrived on your planet, we lived like kings. There is mythology dating back to the Egyptians that is based on my kind. We were revered. We built empires. For thousands of years we were quite content.

  “We were foolish and reckless. My brother tried to build an army, attempting to replicate our immortality through experiments, and most of them went horribly wrong. When he found his Marked, he tried to change her too.” Arian bowed his head and blew out a breath.

  Harlow waited for him to continue. She drew up her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

  “I stepped in before it was complete. But Oricus was never the same. He became cruel and ruthless, delving in the darkest parts of this world. I knew he had to be stopped, so I began searching for the one—the Morovitz—that could undo our immortality. Of course, my brother learned of my endeavors and sought the Morovitz too. He slaughtered them each time before I could save them, until I’d thought they went extinct.”

  Bile burned in Harlow’s throat. She knew what was coming next.

  He looked up, leveling her with an expression that made it impossible to turn away. To blink. “I’d felt your magic by chance when you were just a babe in your mother’s womb. So I protected your family. Kept them hidden as best I could. When you were born…” He ran a hand through his hair again. “When you were born, I felt the bond snap into place. I knew you were mine.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I visited you in the hospital and I bound your magic to keep it off Oricus’s radar. But apparently my constant attention to you and your family eventually raised some questions.”

  “You lied to me,” she whispered. Her eyes burned.

  “For your protection,” Arian said.

  She scoffed, shaking her head. “If I’d known I was supposed to be hiding from a psychopathic immortal, I never would have left California.”

  Arian shook his head. “Eventually your magic would have snapped free. It was bound to happen, no matter how much I wish it hadn’t.”

  “So if I can make your brother mortal again, then what are we waiting for? Tell me how to do it and I will.”

  Arian’s expression became stone. “No.”

  She straightened. “Why the hell not?”

  A muscle in his jaw flexed. “Because in order to break the curse for one, it breaks it for all of us.”

  “So? Didn’t you say you wanted to be mortal again?”

  He exhaled sharply through his nose. “Whoever performs the spell has to sacrifice themselves to do so,” he said, loud and grating. “Don’t you understand? You’d die. And I can’t let you.” He snapped to his feet and buttoned his jacket. A cold smile touched his lips. “Now you see what hell I am suffering. It was death I craved, and only your kind can bestow it. But you are the only one of your kind in over five hundred years. I do not wish to die when my Marked is on this Earth, nor can I allow her to sacrifice herself to end my brother’s tyrannical rule. There is no guarantee another will be born after you, but I do not care. I will not let you die.”

  Harlow swiped away the errant tear that slipped down her cheek as though batting away a fly. “You seem to make it a habit of not asking me what I want,” she said angrily. Getting to her feet, she steeled her spine and lifted her chin. “I’d rather die knowing your brother won’t hurt anyone else than stay locked up here, hiding away like a coward.”

  His expression turned lethal. “You will not perform the spell! I forbid it!”

  Harlow gave a cry of pain when Arian snatched her by the bicep and hauled her from his room. As though she were a ragdoll, he tugged her along until they reached her room. He pushed her in, hard, and she scrambled so as not to land on her face.

  When she turned back to glare at him, however, he was gone.

  Arian

  “Fredrik’s radio silence has gone on for too long,” Arian announced to the small gathering of clan mates. Ten in total listened on.

  Somewhere in the distance an owl hooted, preparing for its hunt. Though night had descended, Arian still felt restless.

  Anxious.

  Over twenty-four hours had passed since he’d last heard from Fredrik.

  It was time to put his plan to action.

  “We’ll draw out Oricus and his men under the guise of Harlow being on the run. We need to make sure they’re all out of hiding in order for this to work. And the only way to lure out his reserves is to create chaos.”

  Laughter rippled through the clearing. “Chaos is what we’re best at,” Prodepheus said.

  Another round of chuckles followed, but Arian only nodded. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

  “How are we going to make it believable?” Elentis asked. “If he doesn’t sense her, he won’t spend long chasing. He’ll figure it out. You know the fox.”

  Arian nodded again. “That’s why you’re going to go ahead with her to Yellow Two first. From there, there will be a constant rotation. It’ll be most believable if I’m separated from her. The bond will make me desperate now that I’ve…” He cleared his throat—unable to say the words now that I’ve tasted her blood. “Now that we’ve spent time in each other’s company.”

  Silence followed, and Arian didn’t have to look at Josirus to feel the anger and judgement radiating from him.

  “Once we have every single one of them on the hunt, we’ll locate Fredrik—”

  The breeze shifted suddenly, bringing with it the scent of an outsider. All at once everyone snapped to attention. Then they were running, each of them sprinting. Their forms shifted, Arian’s last.

  His body shot forward as his bones lengthened, his senses heightened. The cord that linked him to Harlow was stronger in this form. He felt it like a tether, pulling him back to the house, but he fought against it. His claws raked the ground each time his paws hit the cool surface. Their breaths puffed from their nostrils.

  The scent grew stronger. Then the creature’s eyes gleamed from the shadows near the trees. Elentis’s golden body leapt for it, easily tackling the stranger to the ground.

  Too easily.

  Josirus, Olivia, Elentis, and Prodepheus were back in their human forms as soon as the enemy shifted into that of a man. His face was scarred, his brown hair shorn. A wide toothy grin split the man’s face as the clan forced him to his knees.

  “Speak your name,” Arian ordered when he slipped back into his human form.

  “Your brother has a message.” The man cackled gleefully.

  Without warning, Josirus launched his fist into the man’s face. The crack echoed like a gunshot. Blood spurted from his nose. All the while, he laughed.

  Mad. This man is mad.

  Arian waited for the man’s hysteria to subside. “Your name, you imbecile.”

  “Jackos.”

/>   “What’s the message, Jackos?”

  He giggled like a teen girl seeing a boy naked for the first time. Arian’s brow scrunched. What was Oricus playing at, having a madman deliver a message? Was there a message at all?

  “He found another,” Jackos said, his smile bloody. “There’s two, and you know what that means?” He didn’t wait for Arian to respond before saying in a singsong voice, “It means that she doesn’t belong to just you.” Then he burst out in another fit of laughter.

  Rage shot through Arian, sudden and violent. He brought his knee up sharply, connecting with Jackos’s face. Another thick crunch sounded as the bones in his face shattered.

  “What are you talking about?” Arian’s voice boomed through the clearing.

  Jackos’s head fell to one side as his breathing became loud and nasally. Blood poured from his lips. “Your Moro-bitch,” he mumbled, spitting blood that narrowly missed Arian’s feet. “You thought she was the only one, but she’s not. There’s another.”

  His pulse spiked. Another one? How could there be another one? Two hadn’t existed at the same time for thousands of years.

  When the silence around them grew to a crescendo the man sighed. “Haven’t you heard the legends? Whenever two are born at the same time, it’s always a mated pair.” With his hands he brought his two pointer fingers together, making lewd kissing sounds as he did.

  Red edged Arian’s vision.

  His mate.

  His Marked, was linked to another.

  His canines lengthened as he snarled. “How do I know you’re not lying?”

  “Oh!” Jackos laughed and clapped. Then he leaned forward as if imparting a secret. “You know because you’ve already met him.”