Disclaimer- I don't own Marked or any of P.C. or Kristen Casts' characters or ideas

I do own Lela and my other characters.

Chapter 8

A Shadowed Future

I was already new and I didn't want to be a freak too. So it had to be a dream. There was no other option. I needed to focus on something else right now. I then remembered that there was a crowd of frantic vampyres and fledglings surrounding me because I had passed out or whatever. I looked up right into Neferet and Zoey's faces. Zoey's eyes were filled with wonder and awe. Neferet's face was almost the opposite. The only difference was that her eyes held jealous surprise. That was just weird- what was there to be jealous of? It was just me sitting of a bed- a very hard, uncomfortable bed. That reminded me; I probably needed to get down now.

While I thought about this there were murmurs in the crowd and one of the sons of Erebus pushed forward. He seemed to be the leader of all of them. He was huge and muscular and was clearly not a new vampyre.

"Priestess, what is this about? Half my guards have left their stations an-" He broke off as soon as his eyes slid to my face, or rather my forehead. He gasped and then began totally freaking out while shouting frantic questions at Neferet. I only got the gist of the questions but his tone made it obvious that something was very wrong.

"What does this mean Priestess?"

"What will happen to her now?"

"It shimmers!"

"Will she be very different?" All of these questions and outbursts were directed at Neferet and I had a feeling that she was going to explode soon. Something else that I was positive about was that I still had no idea what was going on and why everyone was making such a huge commotion. Neferet raised her hands as a sign that everyone should stop talking. Thankfully this time she was going to explain something that no one had seemed to grasp yet. It was crazy but as soon as I heard her voice it was magnified over the large group but it was layered with a voice that sounded like Nyx's.

"Fledgling and vampyres collect yourselves. Obviously this is a new development that must be looked into. Firstly I propose that we should let Lela in on our little secret." God she was acting as if I was mentally retarded or not there at all but still she was being just so God damn rude! Even though I resented this and felt insulted in the extreme I was glad that someone was finally going to explain what all this shouting was about.

"Uh, Lela, maybe you want a mirror. You know, so you can see." Zoey said hesitantly. She had a strange look on her face. It was somewhere in-between surprised and fearful. She handed me a small compact out of a bag from her side. The first thing I saw was the last thing that I expected. My Mark had changed. It was full, and I mean like filled in. Everyone had heard about when this had happened to Zoey but something was different. I couldn't put my finger on it until I remembered one of the bystanders comment. "It shimmers" they had said. I looked more closely and found that as I tilted my head this way and that- the Mark would sparkle and shimmer like crazy almost as if there were tiny heat waves in front of it; changing colors.

Slowly I reached my hand out to touch it. I was surprised that nothing happened. My forehead felt like my forehead, nothing felt different or special but it was especially weird because I could see the proof that something was different. I mean, come on, for God's sake my forehead was shimmering. That was not something that normal people's heads do. Everyone was still watching me, and I probably looked like a complete idiot with my hand all over my face and my eyes had gotten big and round. I guess it looked like one of those wanna-be puppy dog faces. Zoey was still looking at it and as her eyes slipped down to look at me I saw something flash through them. Some small bit of knowledge, it was almost as if someone had whispered a piece of information in her ear and she was startled by what they had told her.

She also saw that I knew she had learned something new from this. It was weird because a moment of silent communication passed through us. We had to talk- about what, I had no idea. It was plain and simple and yet it was really hard to understand. I looked back to Neferet's face expecting to see the cold jealousy again but instead I found a "warm" smile. My eyes widened the tiniest bit in my surprise and it did not escape her notice. Her eyebrows came down a bit, hinting at her hidden frown. She was still examining me as she began speaking again.

"She seems to be fine- no concussion from the fall, or gashes in her forehead, right Zoey?" She looked away from me, only to turn her icy gaze on Zoey. As she said this, her eyes filled with a teasing light but there was something more behind that. A major dislike or I'd even bet it was close to hatred. She was nearly perfect at hiding her true emotions. My gut clenched, sporadically this would happen when I was about to get a "feeling", but instead of the usual flood of knowledge I received I only got one single sentence.

"Trust allies and instincts, hidden behavior will be unearthed soon."

Usually I got a feeling that came through my head and just breezed out but this one planted itself. It was Nyx's voice and, though I hadn't known her long it wasn't uncomfortable. It didn't feel like mind control or anything, it just felt like a mom pointing her kid in the right direction. Nyx had sounded like that the first time I met her too, like a mom- slightly amused, caring, and fiercely protective. My eyes widened even more and I must have looked like a retard. Zoey saw the change in my expression before Neferet could look back because she hadn't taken her eyes off of me the entire time that we had been in the tiny hospital-like room. She pulled me off the clumpy mattress in seconds.

"Yeah, right, so anyway if it's okay with you, Neferet, I'm going to show Lela around now that she feels better." Neferet didn't look like it was okay with her at all but before she could answer Zoey had cleared a path and we were out the door.

She strolled past a few people who did something that looked like a salute it was way different from a human salute though. They crossed a hand over their heart and bowed formally. She did the same in return and they beamed as all this respect was shown. After they had finished saluting her they looked at me curiously and then as they finally noticed me they looked to my forehead and their expressions filled with wonder. Some of their mouths even dropped open. She took me back to the dorms quickly, but that didn't mean that people moved out of our way.

As we reached the dorms some of the girls who had gathered once I had fallen looked up and walked up to us, but as they got closer they slowed down as they took in my full appearance. Again- mouths fell. What was with that? It was so old I mean people in movies from the dinosaur times did that. Anyway Zoey pushed past all of them without a word and began leading, or rather dragging, me up the stairs. Soon we came to a hall that we walked down and into a room that could have only been hers.

As we walked in Zoey shut the door. It closed with a soft thumping and then she whirled around to look at me.

"What in hell is this about?" She seemed flustered and she looked visibly upset now that she could show some emotion since Neferet wasn't in seeing or hearing range. She dropped onto a bed with a cool pink and green comforter on it. I had nothing to say- no answer to her many questions that followed so instead I looked around the room while listening to her try to explain what was going on. The room was open and light but it was a soft light. (I had heard that bright lights hurt adult vampyres but I wondered what they would do to me- to any fledgling.) There was an empty bed across the room and a desk with a laptop on it. There were also two identical dressers, a closet, and a vanity. I looked between the end of the beds and some shelves with a lot of books. While I was looking around Zoey babbled on. I only semi head the stuff she was saying but by the end she had my full attention.

"What are we going to do She hasn't said anything to me in like a week, but still She must be trying to communicate, this is just too weird and if she spoke with you and gifted you with THAT then She has special plans…"

Zoey would only say "She" so I still had no idea what she was talking about and by the time that she stopped to catch a breath I was totally and completely lost. In all that time I had built up, like, a million and two questions.

"Zoey, calm down. What's going on? Who is "She"? What are you talking about gifted? What is so special about me? What do you mean by "special plans"? Where-" But she cut me off then.

" And you think that I need to calm down? Okay well first of all "She" is Nyx and-"

"Nyx? What's so special about her?" She looked at me curiously for a moment.

"So you have spoken with her then?" She asked skipping my question.

"Well yeah I guess but I mean it was just a dream and I was under stress or whatever and I fainted or something so it doesn't mean anyth-"

"Tell me, do you usually faint under stress?"

"Well no but this isn't exactly what my usual day is like."

"Do you think that normal fledgling's heads glow?"

"Of course not everybody knows that but still this doe-"

"Oh Goddess, do you need me to spell it out for you? You are gifted but Nyx! G-I-F-T-E-D. Jeez you would think that the goddess would pick someone with more of a brain. But hey I'm not complaining, She picked me, too."

"Hold it right there- She is a GODDESS?!"

"What did you think she was?"

"Um, a figment of my imagination." This was confusing the hell outta me and I mean more then anything else ever had.

"Right, anyway, so you talked to her and then what happened."

"How the hell should I know I was knocked out!"

"Not AROUND you I meant in the spirit world."

"The 'spirit world' is that where I went?"

"Yeah, sure, so what happened?"

"To tell you the truth, not much." She scoffed at me.

"Yeah, right , 'not much'. Seriously something had to have happened. I mean everyone watched your Mark changing and filling in. Something had to have happened. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in my life. It just filled in and started glowing. That has to mean something 'cause it has never happened to anyone and I'm the Queen of 'Not-Normal-Land'."

"She was talking to me. Then she kissed my forehead."

"What exactly did she say?"

"She asked me if I had met her eyes and ears of today, that would be you, and then she said something like I would be her will and touch of today and that I was supposed to help you out with something. What was she talking about anyway?" Now that I had time to remember all of this I concluded that I still had no idea of what any of it meant. Maybe it would mean something to Zoey. I looked back to her but she was just staring at me with her mouth hanging open. She looked surprised by my normal tone.

"How can you speak so calmly? Our Goddess just gifted you and then sent you to save the world and you're sitting there like your discussing the lunch menu." Just then it sank in. Why she was acting so weird. Nyx had spoken of the world being in "grave danger" soon and now Zoey was saying the same thing but more out in the open. We had to save the entire world. I gasped as I realized this. I sank unsteadily into a chair under the desk. She seemed to know what I had just grasped.

"So you didn't have a clue about any of this?" She asked uncertainly.

"I didn't even know Nyx was a Goddess." I said, but my voice barely came out as a whisper. Her voice softened as she let me take in the unbelievable facts that had just been lain out before me. I tried to wrap my head around the entire ordeal but I just couldn't take it and my head was about to explode.

"So what are we going to do now?" My voice was still coming out softly, like I was losing my voice, which was completely possible at this point. I looked up to meet Zoey's eyes. They now held a kind of pity. I was guessing that it was because I had just gotten thrown into this messed up "adventure" and I had no clue as to what I was doing. Well, at least that was what I would be feeling for someone like me right now. I was compensating what would happen and what I could tell my mentor of this. Zoey must have been thinking the same thing because she breached the subject a minute later.

"You can't tell anyone about this. It is the most-kept secret in the entire continent. Probably the world and yeah I know that sounds cheesy."
"What do you mean I can't tell anyone I mean we have to tell Neferet or something, right?" Her face blanched and right then I knew I had said the wrong thing because a staggering pain hit my stomach at the same moment that I heard a roaring wind in the back of my head…

God, now this is my longest chapter yet- 2,501 words!!!

Please review i need more or i might have 2 stop writiting.