Marked: A Two Halves Novella
Book One
by Marta Szemik
Copyright 2012 © Marta
Szemik
Published by MyLit
Publishing
License Notes
This ebook is
licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or
given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.
If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased
for your use only, then please return to Allromanceebooks.com and purchase your
own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Publisher’s Note
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.
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 . . .
Table of Contents
Marked:
A Two Halves Novella
- Beginning
- Middle
- End
Sneak Peak at Two Halves
About the Author
Other Books by this Author
Acknowledgments
* * *
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
Book One
by Marta Szemik
Copyright 2012 © Marta
Szemik
Published by MyLit
Publishing
License Notes
This ebook is
licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or
given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.
If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased
for your use only, then please return to Allromanceebooks.com and purchase your
own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Publisher’s Note
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.
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 . . .
Table of Contents
Marked:
A Two Halves Novella
- Beginning
- Middle
- End
Sneak Peak at Two Halves
About the Author
Other Books by this Author
Acknowledgments
* * *
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
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