Death (4 page)

I nod.

Aleks moves to be more in front of me. His rigidity is making
me nervous. I get hungry when I get nervous.

He glances at Aleks with disgust. "She is your
mate?"

Aleks laughs and looks back at me. "Yeah."

I frown. "What?"

Lucas grins and looks at me. "Let's just go inside."

I notice some of the women eyeballing me and then getting lost
in Aleks. They start playing with their hair and batting eye lashes the minute
he looks around. Apparently jealousy also makes me hungry. Sparks starts flashing
at my fingertips as I snap my fingers, surveying the homes.

"Aimes." I glance at Lucas who is wearing the
shittiest grin ever. I follow them inside.

I have no idea what to expect or what's going on.

Ophelia

I drag my hand from his. Every step I take I feel the earth
shift. I'm tired of him getting pissed at me. I can hear the earth attacking
him and trying to separate us. He is sighing and flashing out of the way of the
shifting dirt.
 
Anger brings my
earth and fire magic. I don’t glance back. Hanna is staying at Marcus's and I
am banished. Oliver won't come to Lydia's, well can't.

"O, stop being a pain in the ass. This is juvenile."

I look back and a wall of fire separates us and circles around
him. He tries to flash and can't.

I smirk. "Oh, look at who learned to make a hellfire
wall."

He crosses his thick arms. "You're acting like a
child."

I tilt my head. "I am a child." I climb into the car
and start it. When I back it up and put it in drive, I snap my fingers and the
hellfire ring is gone. A black stain remains on the cement where it burned a
hole into the earth. It has completely ruined the driveway. Marcus is going to
shit when he sees it. I'm a bit upset I won't be there to see it. His fit will
be epic. The driveway will have to be filled in. Not to mention the huge spikes
of dirt and rock that has grown up in his yard. I don’t even know how he will
get rid of them. I don’t really care. He's a snooty bastard.

I hope Lydia never felt me casting. She gets spicy about
hellfire. I don’t even know why she taught me how to do it. It seems pretty
dangerous. It holds a fallen angel prisoner, that's pretty bad. Only me and
Henry can do it. Blake had learned to make weapons from it but he took the
information into the past with him. Thankfully.

In the rearview, I watch as he vanishes.

"Asshole." I mutter.

I look back, thinking a small 'thank you' for the fact he
can't flash into a moving object. As long as I remain moving, he can't catch
me. I grin, imagining what he'll do to me if he does catch me. He's turned me
into a perve.

I run a light and freeze the cars in the other lanes of
oncoming traffic. I slow everyone down and speed myself up.

When I pull on the oak lined street, I see him standing at the
boundary of where he is able to go.

Dark swirls surround his feet. He looks menacing. I press the
gas hard but when I get close he doesn’t flash. I slam on the brakes and skid
to a stop.

He looks angrier than before.

He storms to the side of the car and rips the door off
completely.

"Ophelia, if you ever cast hellfire at me I won't be able
to control my actions." I look at the car door in his hands and giggle
nervously.

He throws it to the ground and drags me from the car. I push
against him and shock him. Nothing hurts him. My hands work magic without me
casting. Ice creeps along his tattoos and muscles. His freezing cold hands grip
me tight. I'm sure he's leaving bruises.

"Get control of it now."

His skin is blue and matches his shirt. My feet aren’t
touching the ground. He's holding me in the air and still growling.

I pull back the magic and let it dissolve inside of me.

He gives me one shake. "Stop using magic like a little
kid. Every time you get pissy you can't be shocking and lighting fires and
destroying people's things."

The magic fizzles in my fingertips. He places me on the ground
softly. I step back but am pinned by the frame of the car. He bends down and
kisses my cheek. "I think we need a break O."

I gasp but he is firm. He's been thinking about it. I can see
it.

A tear slithers down my cheek. He wipes it away.

"I don’t want to see you right now," he whispers.

I want to argue but he's right. I don’t have a handle on the
magic.

The darkness swirls around my feet.

He nods. "It's for the best I think. You need to spend
the time with Trist and Annabelle anyway. They can help you."

I am exhausted instantly. I look down at his hands on me and
realize what's happened.

I shove him hard and walk around him.

"Goodbye Oliver." My arms burn where he has taken my
life force. I know it's renewable but he took magic.

When I cross the line of the border I instantly feel better.
Cleaner.

Annabelle opens the door and smiles.

"Ya been casting bad things Ophelia. Now honey what did
Annabelle tell ya about things like that?" She puts her hands on her apron
and skirt.

I sigh and walk into the house.

"I need a bath Annabelle."

"Hmmmm hmmm." She makes noises and grunts
disapprovingly.

When I get up the stairs I climb into the huge tub. The
bubbles just climb over my chest as Tristan walks in.

"O, you casting hellfire? Cause Oliver said you did, but
I was like no. No way. Not my sister."

He sits on the toilet with the lid down and plays with his
phone.

I sigh. "Dude. I'm in the bath."

He smiles. "Girl please. Anyway, I got the scoop on the
witch who cast the spell on your family abode."

My ears perk up. "What?"

His eyes sparkle with the suspense. I roll mine. "Spit it
out."

He cackles. "Okay, so there was a woman in the room with
us when we were being born. She was apparently mom's sister. Not sure what that
means, but like I think it means sister in witchy stuff. Not that it matters.
So, this witch sister birthed us but apparently only I was supposed to come
out. They didn’t see you in any of the ultrasounds. You were using your wee
baby magic to cloak yourself, so Jonathan couldn’t see you and kill you. That
woman got you out. She found your fake mom and dad and gave you to them and
made them believe you were theirs." He almost gasps for air and then
smirks. "Seriously though, she has some bad ass skills for reals. Then she
put a guard on the house, she died doing it."

I don’t know what to say. I look down at the water. The story
makes me sick. I can't imagine ever loving something or someone enough to guard
them. I look at my brother and smirk. "So you think this whole plan is
going to work?"

His face grows grave. "No. I think Jonathan is going to
win. He always does. Him and Lorri used to be together. That’s why she chose
him to fall with her. She didn’t realize that it was the fact she loved him
that made her trust him. Love and trust sometimes need to be separate
things."

"Him and Lorri?"

He nods once with a hopeless look on his face. "He raped
humans and made monsters and let them all hurt god's creations and when Lorri
found out she couldn’t kill him. Her heart was broken."

I frown. "You sure it was Lorri?"

He nods. "She didn’t want to fall O. God asked her to. He
needed her to fall. The angels were making it hell on earth."

Again, I look down at the water unsure of what to say.

"Me and Phillip just want a normal life. I know it's
never going to be normal but we want whatever is closest."

My heart hurts. I nod. I would do anything to be back home and
dating Jake and feeling like the world was so no bigger than the town I lived
in. "There was a boy, before. I liked him so much but he didn’t really
like me and then one day he did. He liked me and everyone liked me and they
invited me to parties and they wanted to be my friend."

"Magic."

I looked up at him hurt. "Is that the only way you think
that would happen for me?"

He shakes his head and looks down. "I know how it feels
for things to work out when you wish it."

"Phillip?" My voice is small and shaky.

He shakes his head. "There was another boy. I didn’t love
him. I hated him. He was a shifter. He was so mean to me so I just wished he
loved me and wanted me and couldn’t have me. I wished it out of spite. It was
horrid. Phillip hated me. He was so angry but I didn’t understand how I had
cast it. The boy suffered and Phillip thought I loved someone else, until Oliver
broke it. Well made Lillith break it. Oliver explained it to me. He said that
when a witch's magic is coming into them they cast when they wish for things
really hard and don’t know it. Now my body can feel the difference between
magic and just a daydream, but back then it couldn’t. Oliver was really nice to
me."

I nod. "I did the same. I cast on a whole town of people.
My whole high school. I just wish it was real and I was back there and none of
the rest of this was happening."

Tristan puts his hand over mine and frowns. "Kind of an
assy thing to say to your only brother."

I snort. "I still want you to be there for me but I wish
everything else would just fix."

He leans in and kisses my cheek, which feels super weird since
I'm naked in the tub. "If I die you have to swear you'll wipe Phillip's
mind and let him start fresh."

My eyes dart at him. He nods. I search his beautiful eyes for
some kind of joke in it all. He smiles as if he is at peace with it.

I shake my head. "No. Don’t talk like that. Please don’t
talk like that."

My brother smiles. "I have fallen in love with him so
hard. It is enough for a lifetime. When he pursued me, oh it was amazing. It
was such a feeling to be sought after by a man like that. His love has been
more than anyone deserves. If I die you will save him O. You will make him
whole again and let him have a normal life and you will swear it to me."

My eyes have filled with tears but I don’t know why. It's all
hypothetical. I nod. "I swear." My voice breaks. He stands.
"Alright. I will go make you some pancakes and sausages."

I laugh. "Tell Annabelle I want some scrambled eggs to go
with it."

He turns and laughs. "I will."

He closes the door and I don’t know what to say or do but I
miss Oliver and I want him. I feel the magic that could force him to me
crawling around under my skin. I sigh and push it back.

Aimee

"These guys hate me." I lean in and whisper to Ari.

She nods. "Me too. When they found out me and Lucas were
mated his uncle punched him in the face."

We aren’t allowed to sit at the table where they discuss
Aleks's father. Instead we sit back against the wall in the huge log home.

Aleks glances back at me, still smirking.

"Why is everyone giving me that shitty grin?"

Ari's face split. Her black eyes fill with humor, "What
grin?"

I tilt my head. She grins at me, like everyone else has.

I point. "That stupid grin."

"Oh my god Aimes. They can all smell the sex on Aleks. He
reeks of it. They can smell the demon on you. They know you are a succubus like
demon. They can't help but smell the sex on you two and imagine the way you
suck from him while you're doing it."

I grimace. "They can smell all that?" My face is
glowing red. I scowl at Aleks. He tries to look innocently at me.

Ari fights the giggle bubbling from her lips. She covers her
face where the piercing in her mouth used to be and nods.

I glare and purse my lips. "Great. Just great."

"We don’t really want to get involved in this. It's
Rose's trouble, not a pack problem. What do you really expect us to do?"

I'm tapping my feet listening to them. I want to intercede and
get this over with. But Lucas is diplomatic.

"We need your help sir."

"Lorri has asked this of us before. We told her what we
are telling you. No."

"Uncle, be reasonable."

"No Lucas, you be reasonable. You and Ben are the first
of the Fae to choose to become Roses. We didn’t support your decision then
because we know what the Roses are, they meddle."

Ben slaps the table. "Our kind has been killing and
raping and committing crimes against the humans. It's up to us to monitor that.
The Roses are the law. That is all. We are the justice for all. How can you
disagree with that?"

Their uncle looks savagely at them. "I am alpha."

"Uncle this is a pack problem. His father kills
chaotically and indiscreetly. He leaves raped dead women and girls."
Lucas's tone is strong but kind.

His uncle's face reddens. "What does this have to do with
us?" His voice booms across the room. My jaw is clenched. Sparks are
flying from my fingers like a sparkler.

Ben clears his throat, "Uhm, well, he does his attacking
as a wolf. Sometimes part wolf." I gag. I turn my face away. The image of
my mother splayed across the hood of her car, is forcing its way into my mind.

Ari puts her hand over mine and kills the sparks. I close my
eyes and force in thoughts of happier times. Times that included Sam.

"If it ever got out that shifters coexist with humans,
well I'm certain you can imagine how that would be. Experiments and all."

His red-faced uncle looks like he might process the idea. He
nods and looks at Aleks, "We will help but we will need everything. Every
offense, dates and locations."

Aleks nods and puts a hand out across the table.
"Done."

They all stand and I can't help but feel lost. I lean into Ari
and whisper, "That was weird."

She nudges into me. "I know right. They make it look like
they are the ones making the choices and that they could deny you, but they
don’t. Bravado."

I snort and stand to leave with Aleks, but Lucas and his uncle
corner him. A silky haired blonde strolls up in short cutoffs and a tiny tank
top. She smiles too much and stands too close to Aleks. My blood is boiling.

"Come on champ." A huge hand grabs my arm and drags
me from the room.
Ben smirks and kisses the side of my head. "Down girl."

I relax my muscles and let him drag me from the building.

"Her name is Janine. She is always on the prowl. You know
Aleks better than that."

I sigh and nod but the frown stays plastered to my face.

Ari is standing outside with the same haunted look on her
face.

"What's up with her?" I whisper into Ben. "She
seemed good a minute ago?"

"Sam," he whispers back. "Every time we go
outside she starts to get that same haunted look."

I feel sick.

He pulls me the other way and continues, "I can't imagine
what it's all been like for her. She changes things and then has to run around
like the movie Ground Hog Day and fix everything she has undone."

I kick a small pebble. "I know. She doesn’t talk about
it, but if you ever share a bed with her you know it bugs her. She has bad
dreams still."

He shivers. "From the orphanage. She told me about them
once. She tried to get Giselle to persuade the memories from her. She even got
Dorian to try but they are imprinted to her soul we think."

I think. "Maybe, it's because she is part angel."

He nods. "Maybe. Anyway, I've been meaning to ask. How
are you?" His eyes kill me. He is sadder than anyone. He and Sam were like
brothers. Same as Luke and Sam.

I shake my head, gripping to my control. "Not so
good." I don’t like vocalizing my feelings.

He shakes his head. "Me too. I just can't stop myself
from missing them."

I glance back at Ari as we walk into the forest. "She
must beat herself up so much."

He sits on a huge mossy log and looks lost, just like Ari.
"She does. She constantly tries to think of a way to control the push. Her
and O and Trist have been working on it."

I frown. "Why? Who would they push?"

He shrugs. "Not sure." His eyes tell me otherwise.

"You know."

He shakes his head. "I don't know." His words are
firm and even if he does, he isn’t going to tell me.

He reaches over and grabs my hand and drags me to him. He
pulls me down on the soggy log and wraps his huge arm around me. I lean into
him and rest my head.

"We need to get them back, Ben." My voice is hollow.

He rubs my arm. "She's working on it."

I glance over to the huge house next to the patch of forest we
are sitting in. Aleks is walking across the grounds looking for something. My
heartbeat picks up, until I see the silky blonde greet him with a kiss on
either side of his face. My insides clench.

Ben laughs. "Wow, awkward."

I frown at him. "Who is she?"

He shrugs. "Janine. She's one of the elders. She's really
old."

I roll my eyes. "You'd think she would have out grown
those shorts by now."

I see Ari walk past them to where we are sitting. She looks
back at them talking and rolls her eyes. It makes me smile. She huffs over to
us and sits next to Ben. He wraps his arm around her as well.

We sit, staring at Aleks and the blonde of doom.

"You'd think she would notice her vagina is longer than
her shorts."

I burst into laughter. Ben chuckles but Ari just gives us a
look. "Really though. Look at those things. She could die of exposure if
she were a human."

A jealous growl rumbles through my throat. "I could help
her with that."

Ari nods. "Dude, if she keeps pawing your man, I would
for sure be showing her how the hands work."

Ben squeezes us and shakes us. "Down girls. Your petty is
showing. Jeesh. Aleks is a smart guy. He won't fall for the sultry ways of
Janine."

I sigh. "Her hair is awfully shiny and glossy."

Lucas walks up to them smiling. He gives Janine the up-down,
after she greets him with a hug and looks back at Aleks.

Ari's jaw tightens.

Ben is gripping her for dear life. "That was a wolf move.
We can't fight it. The up-down is a wolf move Ari." He lets go of me and
holds her to him.

The blacks of her eyes have eaten up the whites. She shocks
Ben with her skin. He twitches but holds on.

I jump up and grab her face. "Hey."

The black floats back to just her irises. She shakes her head
and looks at me. "Sorry." She turns and hugs Ben. "Sorry."

He shakes his head and twitches again. "No. It's cool.
I'll kick Luke's ass later."

She looks back at him staring at Janine's legs and slumps.
"Cool."
  

Janine paws Aleks and then turns and paws Luke. They stand
there with dirty grins on their faces. I grab Ari's hand and lift her up.
"Let's walk." I glance back at Ben, "Rio?"

He puts a hand in but then pulls back. "I better not. Be
back soon. The wolves will be ready to leave once they're done going over his
dad's priors."

I nod and wink us to Rio. The warmth in the air and the chaos
in the streets is exactly what I need. Ari grips me tightly.

We slip into a dark alley and lift our faces to the wind,
looking for a fight.

I catch a smell and pull her down the alley. My boots click,
my long thick hair feels like my cape, and my heart is racing.

I point to a building. "You ready?"

Her eyes gloss over, the black inky looking color fills the
whites up. Her powers have developed into something frightening.

We drop hands and sneak around the side of the old brick
building.

The front of the business looks like every other seedy
establishment. Rio is a haven for Vampires and Succubus's to hang out.

Greasy looking men stand out front when we get to the front
steps.

"Olá, meninas bonitas." The other men in his small
group nudge each other and laugh.

I lean in close enough to taste his sweat in the air and
whisper, "escapar."

He chuckles and grabs for me. Ari shoots her push at him, not
the real push. The push she has learned to do to humans. It knocks him back on
his ass on the filthy street.

His face is a mixture of shock and anger. He points and
shouts, "Essas meninas são putas do diabo."

Ari looks at me. "Did he call us devil bitches?"

I laugh and nod. "Yeah no, more like devil whores."

"Devil whores?" She looks offended and then shrugs,
"Surprisingly accurate."

I laugh.

The small group of men backs up, like we are wild animals. I
fake forward. They run.

I look at the man and point. "I told you to run
away."

He struggles to get up and runs after the others.

Ari nudges me, her eyes are still jet-black. "Dude, your
Portuguese is good."

I shrug. "All apart of the life I was going to have. You
know. Doctors without borders and shit."

She pats me on the back and steps up into the doorway.
"Let's do this."

I lift my leg and kick the door in. As we enter the sparks
from my fingers fill the dark hallway with flashes of light.

A man jumps at me, stabbing his knife into my torso. I rip his
soul from him. His black blood sprays me. Ari has pushed several of them
against a wall. She holds them there.

"You know that blood brothels are illegal," she
speaks softly.

The eyes flash on our rings. I pull the knife out and shiver
from the pain of it.

Anger flashes inside of me. "I hate being stabbed."

The first man against the wall spits at me. I smile and rub my
hands together. Ari holds them against the wall.

"You have been charged, convicted and tried," I
whisper and lean in close to the man who spit at me. "I find you
guilty."

His eyes widen as my hands spark his soul from him. I run my
hands along the wall, pulling each of them. The pleasure and ecstasy makes me
mouth breathe in a way I don’t like doing in front of other people. Not that
Ari is other people. She knows how I feel when I do crowds. The bodies drop to
the floor, looking like nothing more than gutted dead humans.

I look around at the room.

"Stairs over here." The room is a large foyer
essentially. There is a desk with a ledger and couches. There are no doors
leaving this room. Just a hallway with a set of carpeted stairs. I grab the
ledger and run after Ari.

"Why do Vamps always decorate with the same blood red
carpeting? It's so cliché."

We climb the stairs cautiously. "I know right. Marcus's
house is nice, but dude. So retro whorehouse."

Ari looks back. "I still think it's weird he has a
castle. You go left I go right."

I nod and we split up at the top of the stairs.

My boots dig into the carpet. I hate the feel of it. Too
squishy. I don’t even want to try to imagine the things in this carpet.

I kick open the first door. A dark haired girl, younger than
me by far, sits on the bed looking spaced out. It takes a minute for her eyes
to move and register I am even there.

"You okay?" I ask.

She shakes her head and speaks a language I don’t know. Her
dark silky skin is marred with bites and bruises. Her rail thin arms are filled
with needle holes. My hands ball into fists.  

I look around the small room and smell the air. It's rich with blood and
sex and drugs, but no immortals. I put a finger to my lips. She nods. I close
the door and slip further down the hall. Every door has the same thing,
blondes, redheads, brunettes, dark skin, light skin, every kind of skin. There
is one in every flavor but no immortals. Each girl is the same, young, skinny
and covered in marks and the same empty stare.

A blonde speaks English with a French accent to me in the last room.
"Can you help me?" She whispers.

"Yeah, but I need to find the vampires. Where are they?"

She swallows and shakes her head. "I don’t know. They only come at
night." She shivers, remembering no doubt.

"How long have you been here?"

She wipes her bright blue eyes. "I don’t know. Maybe a month."

"Are you from France?"

"Canada. I'm from Montreal."

"Stay here and don’t move. I'll keep you safe but I need to find
them."

She shakes her head as silent tears stream down her filthy cheeks.
"They are not here. Please just take me with you."

I put a hand out for her. She leaps from the bed, staggering and swaying.
Her ice-cold hand almost shocks me. She is nearly naked in old torn and dirty
lingerie.