Mark of Blood

by Jody Morse

  “Your biological parents had ties to this world,” Sean pieced together.

  “Did my...uncle...explain those ties to you?” I asked.

  Sean shook his head. “No. I asked him, but he wouldn’t tell me anything about your biological parents.”

  I swallowed hard. I’d always imagined my biological mother being a young mom who had been unable to care for me, which was why she placed me in the care of my own mother and father. But now there were so many questions swirling around inside my mind.

  Was the prophecy the reason my biological parents had given me up for adoption? Had they figured that I would be safer in the human world than I ever would have been in this world? Had they given me up to protect me?

  Were my biological parents... vampires? Were they even still alive?

  There were so many questions, but I didn’t even know where to begin looking for the answers.

  I glanced over at Sean. “How did you even find him? My biological uncle, I mean?”

  “Actually, he found me,” he replied. “He tried to get in touch with you the night before you went missing.”

  “He was the one who called me to meet him at the café. The man who would be wearing the top hat,” I murmured.

  Sean nodded. “Yes. He wanted to warn you that the vampires were looking for you. If you hadn’t fallen through the portal, you probably would have ended up getting kidnapped. Either way, you were going to wind up in Deadwood.”

  “Deadwood?” My eyebrows rose in question.

  He glanced over at me oddly. “Hasn’t anyone told you that you’re in Deadwood? That’s what this place is called.”

  I shook my head. “No, no one mentioned that.” I paused. “It makes sense, though. Ty told me the ocean is called the Deadwood Sea.”

  “Ty?” Sean’s eyebrows knotted together at the center of his forehead.

  “He’s a mermaid. Well, a merman, really. And he saved my life.” When Sean shot a questioning glance in my direction, I told him the story about how Rosie and Kara had wanted to eat me but thanks to Ty helping me get to shore, I was still alive. Although I still wondered if he knew what had been waiting for me in the woods...

  “I saw a mermaid,” Sean replied. He paused for a moment and then added, “She was dead.”

  “Dead?” A knot tightened in my stomach as I glanced over at him sharply.

  “Yeah, all I saw was this girl with dark hair and a purple shiny tail. She was just... laying there. It looked like someone shot her.” A distant look filled his eyes at the memory.

  Rosie. Somehow, I just knew that the mermaid he was describing to me was Rosie. I wondered who had shot her.

  “We need to find a way out of this place, Lila,” Sean said quietly, his voice slicing through my thoughts. “We need to find a way to escape.”

  I glanced over at him, noting the hopeful look behind his eyes. “We can’t escape.”

  “Of course we can.” He leaned in closer to me—so close that I could feel his breath through the bars that separated us. “I know it won’t be easy, but I know we can make it happen. You and me? We’re a team. We always figure out a way.”

  “But that’s the thing, Sean. There’s no way out of this,” I told him. “I tried to escape with Marjorie, one of the prince’s slaves. You know what happened to her? She’s dead right now... because of me, because of my bright idea to try to get out of this place. Those woods you saved me in? There’s no surviving them. This is our reality now, and there’s no way to escape it.”

  I lowered my gaze to the floor, unable to look at him. The problem was that Sean knew me too well. I was afraid that if he looked into my eyes, he would see what I was really thinking.

  Even if there was a possibility that we could have escaped Deadwood, I didn’t want to.

  Chapter 7

  Kade

  I KNEW IT PROBABLY sounded crazy, but I had a bad feeling—a really bad feeling. The sky changing colors like that... It just wasn’t right. Something was going on, and I was going to get to the bottom of what it was.

  I really wished Emerson was around. He was my wisest brother. If any of us had a viable explanation for what was going on, it would have been him. But Emerson was gone. He was off doing the impossible... looking for our father. So I had to settle for someone else—someone who I was pretty sure had the answer. I just really didn’t want to have to rely on her.

  As I stood on the front stoop of her cottage, I knocked on the front door. I waited a few moments for her to answer. When she didn’t come to the door, I knocked again.

  I knew she was home. The lights were turned on, and the windows were open. The scent of something brewing drifted out the window and in through my nostrils.

  When there was still no answer, I didn’t let up on my knocking.

  Finally, the door was flung open just as I heard her say, “What is with you Starks?”

  Then a startled-looking Zoe’s eyes widened when she saw me. “Kade. What are you doing here?”

  A smile of amusement hit my lips. “What a warm welcome. You seem surprised to see me, even in spite of your psychic intuition.”

  “You know my intuitions come and go,” she explained. “But, no, I didn’t think it would be you.”

  “Yet you knew it was a Stark,” I commented as an amused smile hit my lips. “Let me guess. You were expecting Sebastian.”

  “Actually, I wasn’t,” she said firmly as her eyes flicked over to meet mine. “You never come to see me. What do you want?”

  “Now I want to know who it is you were expecting,” I murmured, holding her gaze.

  She shot a frustrated look at me. “I’m really busy right now, Kade. What’s the real reason you came here?”

  “I want to know what’s going on with the sky.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Sebastian hasn’t told you?”

  I shook my head. “No, I haven’t even seen Sebastian. Have you?”

  “Yeah, I saw him.” She hesitated for a moment. “You should really find him, Kade. So much has happened since the last time you’ve talked to him—so much that you need to know about.”

  “Okay. I’ll find him after you tell me what’s up with the sky.”

  Zoe sighed. “You’re not going to leave my home until I tell you what happened, are you?”

  I smiled. “You’re finally catching onto the way I think, after all these years.”

  She rolled her golden brown eyes at me. “I don’t have time to go into all of it with you right now. All I can say is that the protection spell has been lifted.”

  “What do you mean ‘the protection spell has been lifted’?” I questioned as the panic rose within me.

  “It’s no longer in effect,” she replied.

  Glancing up at the sky, I allowed her words to really sink in. The spell lifting meant the one thing that I had always feared but that I’d never dreamed would actually happen. We would become creatures of the night again.

  Of course, there were still vampires who chose to live that way—the vampires who spent their time in the human world. But I couldn’t imagine myself ever living that way. Being forced to avoid the sun, to reside only in the night, took away the control that I so desperately needed.

  I wasn’t sure why I was so worried. There was an obvious solution.

  I darted my eyes over to meet Zoe’s again. “Do something to fix it.”

  “I wish I could do something to fix it, but I can’t.”

  “Of course you can,” I insisted. “Just use your magic.”

  “I wish it was that simple, Kade, but it isn’t. When the spell went into effect years ago, Laurel wasn’t the only one whose magic was involved. It took her magic and a thousand mermaid tears for it to work.”

  “So? All you need is some mermaid tears then. If you don’t want to be the one to make them cry, I’ll do it.”

  “Even if we could somehow convince the mermaids to cry for us, which is much more unlikely than you realize, I’m just not powerful enough to per
form a spell like this,” she explained, shaking her head.

  “Then get powerful enough. Can’t you call on your coven?” I paused. “I’ve never heard you speak of a coven, but witches have covens, too, don’t they?”

  She sighed. “You are really impossible sometimes, Kadence.”

  I balled my hands together at my sides, glaring at her. Everyone in the Stark coven knew better than to call me by my full name. If it were anyone else, I would have knocked their head off or ripped their heart out, but I knew that wasn’t an option with Zoe for two reasons.

  The first was that, as much as I hated to admit it, we needed her. We needed a witch who was willing to work with our coven, a witch who was on our side. And, even though she was being difficult right now, Zoe was on our side.

  But there was an even bigger reason for why I couldn’t do anything to hurt Zoe, not now or ever. It would start a war with Sebastian, one where I would be the only causality.

  See, Sebastian may have thought he’d loved Julia. But it didn’t matter which slave he fell for, because I was certain of one thing.

  Whether he was aware of it or not, the truth was that my brother had never really fallen out of love with Zoe Blackwood.

  Chapter 8

  Sebastian

  AS I WALKED DOWN THE hallway and past the door that led to the Chambers, I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming amount of guilt for locking Lila away in the dungeon.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized what a mistake it truly was. Lila didn’t belong locked away in a prison cell. The only reason she was still in Deadwood at all was because of me. Because of my selfishness.

  See, in my head, I knew there was no sense in keeping her here. Her staying in Deadwood was a risk. If Alessandra found out she was still alive, she would make it her mission to have her killed. And if anyone else learned the truth—that she was Lila DeHaven, the real Lila DeHaven—well, I didn’t even want to consider what the consequences would be.

  No, in my head, I knew what was best for her. I knew the right thing to do was for me to send her back home, back into the human world, so that she could live her life freely.

  It was my heart that was stopping me. The idea of letting her go, of risking never seeing her again... Well, I couldn’t bear that thought.

  The thing was, I’d always been a firm believer of listening to your head, rather than your heart. But not this time.

  This was different. This was Lila. Everything about her, about us, was different. I didn’t want to lose that. At least not yet.

  As my shoes clacked against the marble floor, I was just about to set foot in the dining hall where Celia was filling Henry in on everything when I heard the doorbell chime.

  My stomach clenched. I knew there was a chance that one of our guests may have been ringing the doorbell, but I doubted it was any of them. I had a good feeling I knew exactly who it was.

  When I reached the front door, I took a deep breath and swung it open.

  “Aunt Caroline,” I murmured, my eyes scanning her face. She still looked the same—perhaps even younger—since the last time I’d seen her. Her blue-green eyes stood out against her fair skin, which was dotted with freckles. Her straight, auburn hair fell over her shoulders, and she wore a lacy emerald green dress that fell just below her knees.

  “Hello, Sebastian. What a pleasure it is to see you again.” Her lips curved into a smile. “What has it been? Two-hundred and five years?”

  “Two-hundred and three,” I corrected. I remembered the day of my father’s coronation all too well.

  “I’ll trust that your memory serves better than mine.” Caroline shrugged her shoulders and tossed her hair over one shoulder. “May I come in? I’d like to have a little chat with you.”

  I pulled the door open a little wider and glanced outside. Neither Daniel nor the coven of 300 vampires that Celia had warned me about were with her.

  I glanced back into my aunt’s eyes. “You’ve come alone?”

  “Yes. Well, sort of,” she replied as she stepped into the foyer. “My ship is anchored along your shore. Daniel is waiting for me there. As for Celia... I’m not sure where that girl is.” She rolled her eyes in annoyance.

  It dawned on me then that Caroline had no idea that Celia had come to warn us or that she had offered to fight alongside us. It drove home the realization that my cousin really was on our side. She had gone behind her mother’s back to help us.

  And that meant that I needed to protect my cousin. I couldn’t let Caroline know that Celia was at the palace, that she had chosen to defend our coven.

  “So, what is it that you would like to discuss?” I asked my aunt, who was now staring at a painting on the wall. It was a portrait of my mother on the day she’d been crowned queen.

  Caroline glanced over at me. “Is there somewhere a little more... private... where we can go to discuss things?”

  “Whatever you need to say, you can say it right here,” a familiar voice said from behind me.

  “Princess Alessandra,” Caroline murmured just as I glanced over my shoulder to find my fiancée standing behind me. She had changed out of her ball gown and into a sexy black little number.

  Smiling at me, Alessandra walked across the foyer and wrapped her arm around my waist. Then she turned to my aunt. “It’s nice to see you again, Princess. But I must say that it’s very surprising. What is it that’s brought you to our home?”

  “Our home?” Caroline repeated, staring at us both with wide eyes.

  “Haven’t you heard the news?” Alessandra asked, her red lips curved into a smile. “Sebastian and I are engaged to marry.”

  An odd look crossed my aunt’s face. After a few moments, a faint smile hit her lips. “How delightful. Congratulations to you both.”

  “Thank you. So, what is it that’s brought you here?” I pressed.

  My aunt’s eyes locked on mine. “I want you to leave the palace.”

  “I will not leave the palace,” I said firmly.

  “Oh, but you will. I’ve brought a copy of the Stark Coven Doctrine with me,” Caroline reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of paper. She handed it to me. “Please read the 11th clause.”

  As Alessandra began to read over my shoulder, my eyes fell on the words written on the paper in swirly handwriting:

  Clause No. 11: Abandonment – Should the current King or Queen of the Stark abandon the throne for any reason for a period of 90 days or longer, with no written or verbal plans to return, the throne will be given to the Stark who is next in line to reign. First priority will be given to the next sibling in line to be King or Queen. If a sibling does not exist, the following order will be used in order to determine the next ruler:

  a). The next heir in line to the throne. If the current rule has children, this will be the first-born boy. If the current ruler does not have a son, the first-born daughter will be given Royal duties.

  b). Another member of the direct Stark descendants, such as a cousin or distant cousin;

  c). The spouse of the current ruler. (Widows or widowers are not given first priority for the throne, since they are not of Stark blood. However, first priority will be given to the current ruler’s spouse before moving onto option d);

  or

  d). A member of the coven who is deemed most fit to be a ruler of the Stark kingdom. (Please refer to Rule 432 for more details on the matter).

  To read more about what qualifications need to be met for a ruler to take the throne, please refer to Rule 278 of the Doctrine.

  Handing the paper to Alessandra so that she could continue reading, I swallowed hard. As much as I hated to admit it, the truth was that she was right. It looked like there wasn’t a point of going to war. There was no way I could try to fight her on this when the document clearly stated what was to happen in the event that my father had abandoned the palace, something that no one could deny.

  Leave it to my dad to go and mess things up like this. The thing was, my father
had to have known this would happen. He’d studied the Stark Coven Doctrine to the point where he was able to recite it. Had he thought his sister wouldn’t know he was gone or was it possible he hadn’t cared?

  When I glanced up at Caroline, she smiled at me. “So, how soon do you think you’ll be able to vacate the premises?”

  “Wait a second,” Alessandra said, holding up a hand dismissively. “There’s an exception regarding death.”

  “It seems unlikely that exception could possibly apply in this case,” Caroline insisted.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Alessandra said. Then she turned to me. “Listen to this. If it can be proven that the current King or Queen did not abandon the throne and that they are deceased, normal coronation rituals will apply,” she read out loud. “Meaning if your father is actually dead, you would still be crowned King.”

  “Well, I sincerely doubt that’s the case here,” Caroline replied. “Charles has never been the most responsible person.”

  Well, I couldn’t argue with my aunt on that. I was certain my father was alive.

  “You don’t know that for a fact,” Alessandra insisted. “You should give Sebastian some time to locate his father.”

  “There’s no locating my father,” I replied, shaking my head. “I have no idea where he could be.”

  “If you look for him, you might learn that he’s dead,” Alessandra argued.

  “Your odds of finding Charles are slim, Sebastian,” Caroline told me. “It would make it easier for everyone if you would leave the palace.”

  I knew my odds of finding my father were, indeed, slim, but I had to at least try. It was the only shot in hell we had of possibly maintaining control of the throne.

  To be honest, the idea of my aunt as a ruler scared me. I no longer knew the woman who stood before me. I didn’t know her reasons for creating a 300-vampire coven of her own or her reasons for returning to Deadwood after over 200 years, but I had a feeling her intentions weren’t honorable. I wouldn’t have been surprised if, like, Emilio Craven, she wanted to become the leading ruler of all the vampire covens.