Death (Cursed)

by Tara Brown

  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.

  I pull her down the hall.

  Ari meets me at the end of the hall. "Just dying girls?" She asks.

  I nod. "I'll flash them out in parties of six."

  "They must sleep near here. Those things downstairs can't be the only ones here."

  I think for a minute. "Is there a basement?" The blonde shakes her head. "I only ever saw the room. I was in my bed and then I was in that bed."

  My eyes dart at Ari. "Someone who can flash."

  She bites her lip. "Jonathan?"

  I shake my head. "I don’t know. Let's get the hell out of here." My stomach is rumbling. The idea of it being a trap is starting to form. I run down the hall getting the girls from the room. Every time I have six I flash them to Lydia's grass. The second trip Annabelle is shouting at me but I flash so fast I miss what she is saying.

  I leave the last of them there and flash back to Ari.

  "I sent a text to O and Trist and told them what the naked blood bags were doing on the lawn." She looks around the room disgustedly and puts her phone away.

  "Lorri is gonna shit," I mumble.

  "I sent her a message too."

  I glance at her. "Great. She's gonna yell at us for taking this on alone."

  "YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I AM!" Her blood red boots stomp across the hallway.

  She looks angry but sexier than normal. I glance at her tan skirt and white blouse that's opened a little, revealing her ample chest and cross necklace she wears to spite the haters. Her red hair is spiky still but softer, more glamorous and she is wearing earth tones makeup.

  I frown. "Were you on a date?"

  She scowls and I can see her past the mask of prettiness. "Yes," she seethes. "Now explain this fast. She thinks I'm in the bathroom."

  I gasp. "She's human?"

  She blushes. "Aimee?"

  Wide eyed, I glance at Ari. She has her badass teenager look pasted across her face, "They flash them in and out. The girls haven’t seen the rest of the house."

  "Daniel had houses like this but I couldn’t ever figure out who did the flashing for him. It can't be just Jonathan. There has to be another who can flash. Who do we have?"

  "Me, you, Dorian, Oliver, Aleks and Phillip. I guess Trist and O could probably learn it, if they had to. For the record my money is on Dorian."

  Lorri snorts sarcastically. "Yeah, maybe it's me or Aleks. Burn it to the ground. I'll arrange a mission. The nest of them must be around here somewhere." She glances at me. "Not today though. Firstly, I am on the first date I have been on in a long time where I feel like this is the one. And ever if she wasn’t the one, I need to get laid Aimee. Secondly, we need Aleks's dad. So stop dicking around and go back to Maine." She is gone, leaving only a waft of her expensive perfume behind her.

  "That was awkward."

  Ari puts a hand out. "I really hope she gets laid. Cause she is snippy." I take it and we are in the cold air of Maine. My boots crunch on the forest floor.

  "Do you really think it's one of us?"

  I shrug. "Dorian is the only one that can make one of me. Phillip can flash but he's nephilim and you guys are friggen weird. Me and Aleks would never do a dark thing."

  Ari shakes her head. "No. Dorian would never. I know he wouldn’t. I'm super curious about Oliver and Philip though."

  "Fucking angels."

  "Yup." We walk out of the woods and up to the house where Lucas lived as a child. Horrified faces watch our every move.

  I stop and look at them and then back to Ari. I stifle a giggle when I see the amount of black and red blood sprayed across the front of her. I look down at myself and nod. "We better get cleaned up."

  "Oh shit. Where were you two?" I look up at Lucas storming across the grass to us.

  I lick my lips and hurry up the stairs. Ari is hot on my heels. "Busy," she says and we run inside of the large log house. The inside of it is gorgeous.

  "Philip and Trist would die and go to gay heaven in this place."

  Ari laughs nervously and closes the door. She turns the lock. Lucas bangs on the door and looks through the glass.

  "Ari open the door."

  She stands at the door and speaks through her teeth, "Go see if Janine will let you in. Asshole."

  We walk up the stairs but Aleks flashes into the house and stands on the stairs in our way.

  "What's going on?" His ice blue eyes are worried, or angry. Probably angry.

  He looks over the bloodstains and arches an eyebrow, "Did Lorri call for a mission?"

  I swallow and glance back at Ari. Aleks fills the room with warm wind. The door opens and closes. He and Luke are standing inside looking at us.

  I scowl at Aleks, "It's cheating to flash inside and unlock the door." I smirk at Ari. "Let's go."

  Aleks sighs, "It's annoying to lock us out when we don't know what we did."

  Ari smiles and raises her hands fast. Both men are pinned against the wall. Luke sighs, "Dude, I was cool with not knowing. She cools off quickly if you don't poke the bear."

  Ari's eyes flash, "I saw you. I saw you checking her out."

  Luke looks confused. "Who?"

  Ari spits out one word, "Janine."

  Luke rolls his eyes, "Ari. She's like a hundred and eighty years old."

  I point at Aleks. "He's way older than that." Aleks frowns at me. Luke gives me a pleading look to stay out of it. I scowl, ignoring them both. "We saw you, both of you. Flirting and smiling and letting her kiss your faces."

  His cheeks flush with color. "Aimes, it's not what you guys think."

  I roll my eyes. "She looks like she could be on the Duke's of Hazard. Don't tell me I don’t know what it is."

  Lucas laughs. "She is the key to the elders council. They all listen to her. She is one of the few females in the pack who is an elder. Her husband was the alpha when he died."

  I look at Ari. She laughs. "I saw the look, Luke. She wasn't even looking at you and you were drooling on her legs."

  He struggles with the invisible hold she has over
him. "Babe, it wasn’t like that."

  "You got caught."

  Aleks looks at me like he's disappointed in me. He can't flash when Ari holds him. Her power can cripple him completely.