Marked: A Two Halves Novella

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. 

All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher and author. 

Warning: This book contains adult content. 

ISBN-978-0-9878772-2-2 

To Maya and Alex who marked my heart the day they were born. 

 Blurb:

Shapeshifter Xander will be stuck in oblivion between good and evil until he is marked-either with the sphere that will identify him as a servant of the underworld, or with the water mark, working for the keepers of humans, vampires, and warlocks. 

One decision will mark him and his twin sister Mira equally. She is in love with a man bearing the water mark and wants Xander to follow the path of the good. But Xander loves a black witch, a minion of the underworld. All he has to do to join her forever is kill. 

After all, there's something good about being bad . . . 

* * * 

One more inch, and his neck would snap. 

The glow of his orange eyes had faded-he was close to death. My hold tightened on the demon. He had to pay for what he'd done. At sunrise, the walls of a cave like this one would glisten with moisture, lightened by the sun from an opening suitable for a groundhog. But now, even the moon couldn't breathe through the hole my sister crawled into, following a demon who had killed humans for the fun of it. I told her trying to catch him wouldn't be a good idea but did she listen to me? Of course not, and now she was trapped. 

Death scattered across the floor with bones and unrecognizable flesh remains. I tasted the stench of decay and lessened the frequency of my breaths. 

The mark of the sphere on my left wrist glowed as it began to appear, and I felt my mouth curve up in a smirk. The orange sparks of the imprint faded and brightened like flickering ends of fire. The heat burned. I'd been waiting for this moment for a long time. Finally, we'd know which side we would serve, and there was something good about being bad. 

My sister, Mira, disagreed. "Xander, you're making a life decision for both of us. Look." She turned her head to the left. The magic light-ropes binding her to the back wall of the cave reddened the skin of her hands and feet, but I saw the glow of the sphere imprinting on her wrist, as well. 

"It's better than living in a void." I clenched my jaw, determined. Ever since Ma found us as babes lying side by side on the forest floor, staring into the dense crisscross of tree branches overhead, we'd been floating between the realms of good and evil for more than twenty years.  

"You know I'll follow you wherever you go, but I don't think the underworld is the answer." Mira's coo soothed me. "We have a choice, Xander."  

"And this is it."  

Once I killed this demon, the sphere would define us forever. There'd be no doubt where our alliance lay: with the underworld, instead of serving the keepers who protected humans, vampires, and warlocks.  

I flexed to constrict the demon's air flow. The burning of the oval on my wrist spread, and the heat transferred to my chest, as if imprinting on my heart. I greatly preferred being marked with the sphere than lying motionless in the woods, waiting for something to happen. If it weren't for Ma, we'd still be there, stuck in oblivion, unable to learn how to grow. Now the obscurity that challenged us was emotional, not physical, and I'd had enough.