by Tara Brown
I almost snarl at her but I maintain my cool, "No. Ewww. Jake is hot but I know they got you to invite me so they can torture me when I get there."
Abbey looks hurt, "I would never let anyone hurt you O."
I nod, "I know. But they would. I'm cool hanging with the twins."
I want to go. I want to hang with Jake. I want him to want me, but it isn’t going to happen. He wants to let them hurt the loser. The popular girls are evil.
Abbey glances at me and bats her eyelashes, "You riding with me to school?"
I shake my head, "No. I'm walking. You go ahead."
She rolls her eyes and sighs.
I don’t like that she is so popular and I'm not, but I also don’t like any of her friends.
I finish getting ready and walk out the door. I feel like I'm forgetting something major. I check my bag three times, but I have everything. I shake it off and walk out of the house.
Lost in thoughts and wishes I walk, without really paying much attention until I notice a smell. It's something I know, something I've smelled before. It's delicious and seductive. I close my eyes and inhale. Flashes fill my mind. I don’t know what they are of but I know the smell. I open my eyes and smile instantly.
The sexiest guy I've ever seen is standing on the sidewalk looking at me. He's my age and gorgeous. His dark eyes pull me in completely. I melt looking at him.
He smiles, "Hey O."
My jaw drops open. He knows my name.
"I need you to come with me."
I nod, helplessly.
"You need to come hold my hand."
I walk towards him. He is intoxicating and unnervingly sexy.
I place my hand in his and instantly I'm somewhere else. I lean forward and throw up everywhere.
I pull my hand back and cry out, "Leave me alone."
"That was an asshole move. You could have just waited for us." A beautiful girl with long blonde hair grabs my hand, "It's okay O. You're not in any danger. I swear on my life. You're safe."
I shudder and throw up again.
The gorgeous guy shakes his head, "Hey, I got her before the magic at school and all that humiliation."
I shake my head and close my eyes. I must be dreaming.
A man with an English accent speaks behind me. "She'll remember it all in a minute anyway." I can hear his footsteps next to me.
I open my eyes and scream as his dark eyes fill my vision. Pain and bursts of light fill my head. I scream and pull back.
It comes in waves.
Aimee, Dorian, Aleks, and Sam. I look at Sam and jump into his arms, "SAM!" I shout.
I grip him and sob. I barely know why I'm sobbing but then it all hits. The change with Ari and then Dorian taking my memories. My heart is swollen and aching as tears stream down my cheeks.
"You're alive." I whisper.
Sam strokes my back, "It's okay O. I'm here."
I close my eyes and am terrified of opening them and seeing it’s a dream.
"Ophelia, love. We need to get going. We have to go to Alaska."
I blink and look back at them all. "My birthday? My real birthday?"
Aleks laughs.
Dorian raises an eyebrow, "Good to see you're bouncing back so fast. I really hope Trist and Phillip are the same. It'll be annoying if they're not."
Aimee smiles at me and pats my head, "How was it the last two years?"
I look at her and knit my brow, "Fine. You know why we did it right? Are they all alive?"
She nods. "Sam, my mom, my dad, Alise and Blake and all the kids. Thank you. Ari told me everything."
I frown harder, "You don’t remember anything?"
She shakes her head. Dorian shakes his as well, "It's better if miss thing over there doesn’t remember. Her past was a shit storm of bad things. Retraining her was fine. We had two years. You don’t have much time at all. You still remember everything right?"
I glance at Aleks and then Aimee. They aren’t together. Their body chemistry is comfortable and friendly, but not in a romantic way.
"Shane?" I'm scared to ask.
Aimee looks down and my heart breaks a little for her.
Dorian rolls his eyes again, "He's on team Marcus."
The name brings with it million memories. Mostly bad ones. "Hanna?" I whisper.
Sam pulls back from me and looks sickened, "She's normal still."
I grimace, "Normal?"
He nods, "Her Siren thing hasn’t hit yet and her monster never took over. She's normal. No death and no drama."
I feel sad for Sam. I know he loved her.
"You alright?"
He shakes his head, "No. I miss her."
I know the price of everything Ari and I did but I can't be sorry. The lost love in his eyes reminds me of something.
"Oliver? Where is he?"
Dorian's eyes burn, "He's with your dad still. Everything is where it was. Oliver's been wiped. He doesn’t remember you. We needed it this way. He needs to see Jonathan for he what he is on his own. He needs to find his own way here."
I nod, "Okay. Well won't we go get my brother?" I look around, "Where are my sisters?"
The smell catches my nose and I smile. Lydia's. It's like the years of me not being here have caught up with me. I feel weepy. I wipe my tear filled eyes and glance at Aimee, "How does she handle this?"
Aimee shakes her head, "I can't imagine."
"Where is she?"
"With Lucas and Ben. We've been watching Jonathan's. Taking turns. It's Ari and the wolves this week."
I sigh, "I just wish this was over. I wish things could be normal."
Dorian laughs and walks out of the room. Loud clicking heels come in from the hallway to the stairs. Lorri storms in. She gives me a once over, "Where's Abbey?"
I frown, "What? Why?"
Lorri raises an eyebrow and looks around the kitchen, "Where's Dorian?"
I feel lost, "He just left."
Her face turns grim, "I bet he did." She growls and then she's gone.
I look at Aleks and Aimee confusedly, "What was that?"
Aleks shakes his head, "I don’t know. It's the look she gets when she's about to eat someone."
I grimace, "She doesn’t like eat them eat them does she? That’s freakin sick."
He nods blankly, "She eats them. Chews pieces of meat off the bones."
I shiver in horror, "Damn dude."
Aimee looks at me and purses her lips, "Wanna get ready? I think we leave in a bit. We need to catch Shane. We're using him as bait so Jonathan will snatch you from the alley like he did last time."
I smirk, "You remember that?"
She shakes her blonde head, "No. I don’t remember anything." Her eyes are filled with dread. My fingers start to spark.
"You wanna?"
Her grey eyes flash a response but she doesn’t give in to the desires. She shakes her head, "It's better this way."
I gulp, I'm still afraid of her. I know I'm stronger but she is the death for us all. She can kill everything except Aleks. I don’t believe her that it's better. I believe she is upset and confused. I can feel the difference between me before remembering and now. I felt so lost and confused. Déjà vu constantly and odd flashes of memory plagued me. I feel like I've been reborn and aged a million years right now. She has lost both the loves of her life to the Ari do-over. It makes me sad.
"So what's up with Shane?"
She looks distraught and shakes her head, "He's different now." She leaves the kitchen.
I glance at Aleks who shrugs, "She almost ate him and he was dying, so Marcus turned him to save him. He figured it would kill Aimee and we'd never stop Jonathan if she killed him. It seemed like a good choice but she's been pretty upset."
"For two years?"
Aleks clears his throat and glances down the hallway, "He lives like Marcus does. Very comfortable with the whole drinking human blood thing. He purposely finds bad humans and drains them. It's pretty gross. At any rate, tonight Aimee is asking him to meet her
in the alley. Everything is where it was last time when Jonathan snatched you."
"Except Giselle isn’t the lord of the vampires and Hanna isn’t here and Aimee isn’t quite as badass as she was last time."
He shrugs, "You got me this time and Sam."
I smile, "Yes we do." I can't help but smile like a goof. The both of them have an intense impact on me.
I turn, when suddenly I hear the boots again accompanied by my sister's cries. My heart leaps.
Lorri is dragging her through the kitchen, "Where is he?"
Abbey is bawling and fighting.
I jump at her but Lorri swats me like I'm nothing.
"Lorri let her go. She didn’t do anything."
Lorri growls savagely, "She broke my heart."
I don’t understand.
"Lorri, maybe not the best way to do this." Aleks speaks soothingly with his hands out.
Abbey looks terrified as Lorri drags her through to the backyard.
I run after her, "Please Lorri. Please let her go. Aimee, AIMEE!" I scream.
Aimee appears in a tank top and jeans, no boots or socks, "What?" She's holding her toothbrush. Her eyes dart to Lorri.
"Lorri, what are you doing? Who is that girl?"
Lorri turns her savage looking face sharply, "Stay out of this Aimee. Where's Dorian? I thought of him and winked here, but he isn’t here."
Abbey screams, reaching for me, "O, oh my god O. I was looking for you. Where did you go? Who are these people O?"
I shake my head, "It's okay Abbey. You're safe. There isn’t anyone who's going to hurt you." It wasn’t true though. Lorri was already hurting her.
Dorian walks out of the woods looking smug and shitty, as usual. "Lorri, what are you doing darling?"
I glance past him at the forest and see Giselle walking out as well. Dorian and Giselle?
"Fix her." She shoves my trembling and sobbing sister towards him. He scowls, "Lorri. Be reasonable. She's human."
"I don’t give a flying fuck. You broke her. You made her forget me. You made her stop loving me. You fix her." Lorri's voice flexes and strains emotionally. I've never heard those sounds come from her. Not even when Sam and the kids died.
Dorian's jaw set. He looks like he's thinking about it. He looks her in the eyes, like he's speaking to her but he isn’t. He closes his eyes and takes a step toward my sister.
"Dorian please leave her out of this."
He ignores me and takes my sisters weeping face in his hands and lifts. "Look at me and you'll feel better. I promise."
Abbey sobs and looks at him. He whispers something. Abbey stops and looks at him. Her face cracks, "Dorian, you cheeky bastard."
Her head shoots around. She jumps up and runs at Lorri. They reach out at grab at each other. Abbey plants the biggest kiss I have ever seen on Lorri's bright red lips. They make out shamelessly in front of us. Just like everyone else in this house.
I look at everyone else and see I'm not alone in the surprise of a few things. I didn’t even know my sister was a lesbian.
Dorian glances at me. I mouth, "What?"
He nods, "Yeah." He walks up to the house, patting Abbey on the back, "Welcome back Abbey."
She and Lorri ignore the rest of us. So many things are starting to make sense. I feel a thousand aha moments taking shape in my mind.
I sigh and turn away just Lorri cups my sister's ass. I walk back to the house with Aleks, and Aimee who is still holding her toothbrush.
"Well that’s weird for me. I'm not going to lie." I mutter.
Aimee scowls, "You didn’t know she was a lesbian?"
I shake my head, "That’s not the weird part. I mean I didn’t know she was a lesbian, but I'm freaking out that her and Lorri have hooked up. Freaking out. She's too young for her."
Dorian laughs from the kitchen, "Says the girl who is lusting after the oldest of the old."
I stick my tongue out. Oliver is extremely old. I blush when I remember him.
"So Lorri is a lesbian?" Aimee asks confused, obviously. I know I am.
Dorian shakes his head, "She's flexible. She doesn’t love easily. She loved Jonathan, which obviously didn’t work out so hot, and now your sister. She's dated a bit but not loved. I tried to convince her it was a terrible, horrid idea." He points through to the window at them grinning at each other and talking, still out on the back grass. "As you can tell that went well."
I walk past everyone and climb the stairs to my old room. I get a whiff of him and stop and smell. I tap at his door gently. I open the door, but he isn’t in his room. He must have just left, the room still smells yummy. I close the door and go to my room. It looks like it did when I first moved in last time. It's plain and lonely. I feel a bit that way.
My magic is fizzling in.
"Sister."
I smile brightly, "Ladies!"
The faces that match mine flit about the space.
"How is Trist?"
They look confused, "How? How do you know us?"
I smile, "trust me. It's a long damned story. How's Trist?"
They shake their heads and look down, "Not good. Father is a cruel man."
I forgot how sucky things were for him. How Oliver and Phillip were the only things that ever made him happy. Even our mother living in the tower was nothing to him.
"Well a plan is in effect to help him. To end father."
"Will you free us soon?"
I shake my head, "I don’t know. I hope so. I'm glad you guys are here. I missed you. Tell Trist the Roses have a plan."
"We love you sister." The ghostly voices still creep me out a bit, but it it's awesome to have them with me again. They vanish.
I lie back on the bed and wait for everything to catch up. My cell phone starts going nuts in my pocket. I pull it out and glance at it.
A message from the twin's stares back at me. I sigh and shove it back into my pocket.
I don’t know how to live in both worlds and I am dreading seeing my dad. The first time was easy. I thought he was my brother. This time I won't be fooled. I'll have to act like I don’t know him. A knock interrupts my dread and self-pity.
"Come in."
Ari walks in. She smiles with only her lips. Her eyes are filled with dread.
"Hey."
She rushes at me, wrapping herself around me. "Oh my god, I'm so glad you're back. It's been brutal."
I hug her, we never were crazy close. I'm stunned and bothered. She must be starting to lose it a bit with all the changes that keep happening.
"Has it been bad?" I ask.
She shakes her head, "No. It's refreshing having Aimee just focus on work and not Shane and Aleks and Aleks and Shane and so on. It's been awesome having Aleks and Sam back at the same time and all the kids. It's been kind of nice not having Hanna around to make such a mess but at the same time Sam is bummed and I'm pretty sure stalking her like a crazed man. It's just been stressful. Ben doesn’t remember shit either. Thankfully the time resets back to where we were, in around the same week. So it's not like I had to relive the entire two years. I just was worried. I'm glad you're here."
I frown, "Me too?"
She laughs and pulls me back, "It's just weird okay. Everything is different this time."
"Why doesn’t Aleks remember anything?"
"Aleks was dead when we got Giselle to make the memories stay. We reversed it and forgot to make his memories stick."
"Yikes."
She nods, "Yeah."
"Ari, O, you in here?" The door is swung open even more and Lucas comes in. He grins, "How's our favorite witch?"
I leap into his arms. I inhale the woodsy smell of him and snuggle in, "I missed you guys. I mean I didn’t know I did, but I did."
He grins and glances at Ari, "Hey baby."
She blushes. I roll my eyes and point, "Take it out of my room."
He grabs her hand and kisses the back of it.
"So we storming the alley tonight?"
I frown, "Wher
e is Ben?"
Ari laughs, "He doesn’t remember you. He was dead with Aleks when we did the memory thing."