"They're not chosen. The ones who resurrect do it all on their own. It isn't a choice. No one would choose this. It's a d.a.m.nation. A curse. We're Evermores. Those who come back. People from here, go to collect those who have returned." He sat on the edge of the bed and lowered his head.

"What's wrong?"

"You know, all the years I've felt tortured, wondering why I had to come back and feel so much pain, it finally all makes sense. I came back for you." He looked up at me. "It was meant for me to find you, and death couldn't stop that, even though our times were crossed. We'd never met during my lifetime. But our love is ill-fated. It was ill-fated from the start. And that's the damaging part, to realize that even though I suffered to find you, there is still nothing I can do, to be with you the way I desire."

"Marcus?"

"Yes?"

"I'm still only seventeen. I'm not withering away right this second. Let's enjoy what time there is."

I pulled him into me and I fell asleep beside Marcus Marble and dreamed of our ever-after.

The Meadow After spending the entire night with him, I awoke in the meadow, a black b.u.t.terfly tickling my nose. Marcus beside me, still. It was Halloween morning, and he had his arm around me. I inhaled the morning air. The sun bright in my eyes. The day brand new. When the b.u.t.terfly fluttered away, I turned my head to see if Marcus was awake. He was. He gazed into my eyes.

"My birthday is only two days away, Marcus. I expect something good."

He smiled. He took my hand and brought it to his chest. And beneath his skin I felt a faint beating in his chest. "Marcus, your heart is beating!" I exclaimed, astonished.

He shook his head. "No, Ellie. It's trying to. You see, the more and more in love with you I fall, the less dead I feel. My body is trying to mimic human function. You give me an adrenaline rush. The feeling-it's almost like a drug that goes way beyond an addiction."

He rolled over on top of me, kissed me on my lips. My neck. He ran his fingers so lightly over my skin that the sensation tickled me. I laughed and rolled him over and pinned his hands to the ground and kissed him.

"Happy Halloween," he said.

"Marcus, I'd love to stay here all day, but I have to go to school."

"You don't have to," he said.

"Yes, yes I do." I laughed. "I don't want to be one hundred years old and ignorant."

"I get it. Higher education." But he did promenade with me through the meadow and walk me to cla.s.s.

The school's homecoming committee was decorating the gymnasium with Halloween decorations. Black, maroon, and white balloons. White and purple streamers. Jack-o-lanterns. Skeletons and spiders and tombstones on the walls.

I couldn't believe I'd decided to come. As soon as I'd entered, Madison and her crew approached me. "Don't tell me you're actually attending tonight."

"I am."

"And let me guess, you're bringing him."

"And let me guess, you're bringing Declan, because no decent guy in this school would ever consider courting a s.k.a.n.k. So just move. I only came by to submit my music request."

"No thanks. We aren't going to dance to your death rock."

"Move Madison." And when she didn't, I pushed past her. "I know the DJ," I said.

"Hey Maxx." I said. "What's on the line-up tonight?"

"s.h.i.t that I definitely do not spin at my nightclub."

I laughed. "Here." I pa.s.sed him a CD. "Play this when it starts to get boring."

"Now we're talking about a real f.u.c.king high school Halloween dance. You coming tonight?"

"Yeah," I said. "Didn't think I offered my good music to benefit these losers did you?"

"Who's the lucky guy?"

"Marcus."

"Marcus? As in the creeper who chased you around in the nightclub a month or so ago?"

"Yep."

"Okay. I can dig that."

"See ya, Maxx."

That night I met Marcus at the cemetery gates. I wore a strapless black dress that was poofy at the bottom, my hair was pinned to my head in curls with purple glitter and I made sure I had applied my makeup right. Too bad my mother couldn't be around for these events. She was too busy with Nick.

Marcus pulled up in his White 1958 convertible. He looked s.e.xier than usual. He wore black eyeliner to draw attention to his dazzling eyes, a black velvet suit with a red tie and half of a white masquerade mask. I could only see half his face. With a moonflower stuck in his chest pocket, he put one behind my ear.

When we arrived in his vintage car and in our outfits, we got a lot of stares. The first thing we did was take our photos together and then we headed for the dance floor. We couldn't really feel the beat of the music that was playing. Personally, I thought it was awful.

"Wait right here, Marcus." I went to where Maxx was and told him to play our music, then when I heard it begin, I pulled Marcus onto the dance floor. Maxx played "Forget That You're Young" by The Raveonettes. Now that, we could jive to.

Everyone gave us dirty looks and their dancing lost a few beats. That's when I motioned for Maxx to roll the other song on the alb.u.m. I wanted to slow dance with Marcus, so he played "My Time's Up." And I pulled Marcus into me. My arms around his neck, his forehead pressed to mine, hands on my waist.

"When I leave here tonight, I'm going to get my stuff, then I'm coming home to be with you."

"Ellie, before you decide to do that, I need you to know of one last thing."

"Don't try to talk me out of it, Marcus. I want you to take my heart, my life, my soul. They don't matter. I want to be with you, forever." I rested my head on his shoulder. "Just tell me how to die for you."

He didn't say anything. He just gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in his throat. We danced until the end of the song and Maxx went back to playing songs that the general crowd liked.

"Let's get out of here," I said. On the way out, Declan gave us an evil stare. Marcus ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know about you, but I get the strangest impression that guy would like to kill me." He chuckled.

Marcus took me to Sean's apartment. I ran in, and began gathering my things. "Find you a place already?" Sean asked.

"Something like that," I said.

"You leaving now?"

"Yeah."

"But you just got back from the dance. I don't understand."

"I'll call you, or something, to explain."

I met Marcus back at the car. I tossed my bag into the small compartment in the back of his car.

"Ellie, I don't think all your stuff is going to fit," he said.

"Marcus, you know magic. You can make room for my things."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Yes. Really."

"Besides Ellie, I don't think you'll be needing a whole lot. In my world you can get anything you want anytime you want. It's something you'll have to get used to."

"Just drive me across town, over the railroad tracks, to the trailer park. There's one thing I want to get that isn't replaceable."

"Your photo alb.u.m of you and your sister."

I turned to look at him. "How did you know that. I never told you that."

He raised his eyebrow again.

"Oh. Magic. That's right."

I settled into my seat, leaned my head against it, as he cranked the ignition.

He pulled into the makeshift driveway of the trailer park. All the lights in the house were out. No one was home. Surely I could go in, rummage through my drawer, and find the photo alb.u.m of me and Darcy. "Be right back."

I ran up the steps and put my key in the lock, twisted the k.n.o.b, and entered. It was pitch dark inside. I tried flipping on the lights, but they wouldn't turn on. Clearly, the bill hadn't been paid. I walked to my old room and over to my dresser drawer and began rummaging through it for the photo alb.u.m. It only took me a second to find it, but when I shut the drawer closed and looked up into the mirror, Nick was behind me.

"I see that Eleanor decided to come home." He shut my bedroom door.

My breath caught. Nick stood behind me. "Where's my mother?"

"Your mother? Your mother? That b.i.t.c.h left me because you ran away from home."

"Where did she go, Nick?"

"Don't worry though, I took care of it."

I clutched the photo alb.u.m to my chest.

"Just like I'm going to take care of you." He launched at me, slammed me onto my bed and jumped on top of me. I screamed as he ripped my dress in half. I'm sure Marcus could hear me.

He covered my mouth with his hand to smother my yelling and pressed a cold blade to my throat. "Make another sound and I'll cut you open."

Just then I heard a loud combustion. Marcus had kicked my bedroom door open and the entire left side of the trailer had shattered and fell apart.

"No you won't." Nick climbed off me and looked at Marcus who stood calmly in the doorway.

"Who the f.u.c.k are you?"

"What do you plan on doing with that knife? Why are you in Ellie's room? Plan on raping, then killing her?" Marcus glared at Nick. Nick knew not to move. "Ellie, leave," He told me.

I shook. I grabbed my photo alb.u.m and ran toward the door. Nick grabbed my arm to keep me from running and slashed it with the knife. Marcus intercepted us, and broke me free from Nick's grasp. Then he grabbed Nick by the neck and tore off the other side of the trailer with his entire body. He slammed Nick through the wall and they both landed in the backyard, with Marcus on top of Nick.

I stood in the floor in my bedroom, watching out of the big hole in the wall.

All of a sudden, Marcus became enraged. I'd never seen him even mad. Not once. Except the time he fought Declan. It felt like the whole earth was going to quake. I saw death in Nick's eyes. He knew it was his time to go. Marcus roared and then his entire body combusted into a thousand black crows and I watched, horrified, as they pecked Nick apart and dissembled his body. The scene was entirely too graphic. Almost surreal. At first I was frozen, then I was hysterical.

Marcus formed back into one being, and tried to calm me down. I heard sirens. The neighbors had called the police.

"Stop crying, Ellie. And let's go." He tried to pull me in the direction towards the woods.

It began to rain. I could barely hear my voice over the storm. Rain beat fiercely to the ground, followed by lightning and thunder. "What did you just do, Marcus?"

"I'm a monster, Ellie." The rain drenched him. "There's one thing you're going to have to understand about this world. We are monsters. We have no control. You're going to have to pull yourself together, Ellie. I did this for you."

"But why?"

Marcus yelled at me. "He was going to rape you, then kill you."

"You could've just beat him up then let him go."

Marcus shook his head. "I couldn't just do that Ellie."

"Why?" I sobbed.

He sighed. Then calmly, he pressed his forehead to mine, and at once, I was overwhelmed with images of Darcy being stabbed by Nick.

"He killed your sister, Ellie, and he planned on doing the same thing to you."

This was enough to make me lose it. "Oh my G.o.d!" I screamed.

"Ellie. Stop and listen to me! Darcy had an encounter with Nick this past summer. He raped her, then she threatened to tell on him, so he killed her. Your mother was having an affair with Nick, which is why your dad wanted a divorce. Ellie, if Darcy had told, he'd been sent to jail, but he deserves to be dead."

I almost died, then and there. All of this happens and then my mother moves in with my sister's killer?

He grabbed my arm, just as the police and paramedics pulled into the driveway. "Now let's go." We ran deep into the woods, everything a blur in my mind. We stopped running and Marcus turned to me.

"Ellie," his eyes flared. I could see he was angry. He talked calm and even, his lips pressed into a thin line. "Don't make me out to be the bad guy. He killed your sister and he wanted to do violent things to you as well. I lost control. I wasn't supposed to kill anyone. And I'd like you to know that because of tonight, because I messed up, The Society will come hunt me down. I'm not sure what they'll decide to do to me, but if worse comes to worst, you may never see me again. I'm going against all the rules just to be with you, to keep you safe."

"You're not serious?"

"I am very serious. When people of my kind bypa.s.s the law as I have, they are done away with."

"But you're a monster. You all are. You said so. You kill people all the time. Isn't that what you do?"

"That's what we feel like doing, but I'm a healer, not a killer. But he deserved it. I fight against killing. I fight for life, and for love. But The Society doesn't see it that way."