Death (Cursed)

by Tara Brown

  Warmth surrounds me. He is trying to calm me. I don’t turn around.

  Ari's eyes sparkle. She puts a hand in as the wolves put paws in. Ari holds her cell phone up for me to see the picture of where we are going and instantly we are there. The lodge in front of us is grand and more than I ever imagined for a bunch of were's. Wolves and humans walk amongst each other in between huge log homes.

  Heads turn, teeth are bared at first, but when they see Ben and Luke they're running and crying out. Wolves nuzzle and humans embrace. Ari and Aleks and I stand and watch.

  Luke and Ben shift and stand naked amongst their people. I avert my eyes.

  "Yeah, they have zero issue with nudity." I can hear Aleks laughing. I glance at him and he gives me his crooked grin. I raise an eyebrow.

  "Kids," I mutter, still annoyed with him.

  He rolls his eyes. "Wanna go meet the alpha?" He asks and takes my hand. I take Ari's and try to ignore the sparkle that happens whenever we touch palm to palm. I keep my eyes down and let Aleks lead me.

  The noise of the crowd is incredible. I wonder if any of them remember Ben's death? I squeeze Ari's hand. She hasn’t been the same since Aleks and Ben came back at the cost of all the children and Sam. None of us have. I know Aleks notices it. It breaks my heart that he knows we all wish Sam hadn’t died. Not that anyone wishes he and Ben had. It's just a confusing pile of shit, as always. Nothing is simple for us. Not even walking through a wolf village.

  A loud voice booms across the lawn. "You bring this here Lucas? This angel of death?"

  My face flushes. I glance up at a huge man standing in front of me. He and Aleks are the same size, massive. Aleks stands in front of me.

  The man is older, forties maybe. He has salt and pepper cresting his brow and sideburns. He looks pissed. No one is ever happy to see me.

  Lucas and Ben come running over pulling on sweat pants. "She's with us. Look at her hand."

  The man's eyes dart to the ring on my finger. I finger it nervously. It's my thing.

  His bright blue-green eyes watch me.

  "You're a Rose?" He says it as if it should be impossible.

  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.

  Chapter Four

  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 i
n 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.

  Chapter Five

  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 b
lood 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."