by Tara Brown
"What did you do?"
She grins, "I fixed him. He was broken." She walks out of the room.
In the silence I hear a scream and slamming. My bones are lining back up with loud snaps and grinding going on in my body.
I cry out taking shallow breaths.
The commotion downstairs is too much. I climb off the bed and wink into the kitchen. I look out the back window to the grass where Aleks and Sam have Dorian on the ground. Ben is in wolf form hovering over Dorian's face.
I wink out on the lawn, "What are you doing?"
Sam looks back at me and grins, "Defending you milady." Ben saunters to me and rubs against my hip. I rub my fingers deep onto the wolf down and notice the burning look in Aleks' eyes. He looks different and yet somehow the same.
Dorian's pleading black eyes meet mine, "You alright?"
I nod once.
I know he's sorry. I can see it blanketing his face.
"I'm sorry too." I whisper.
Aleks climbs off of him and grabs my hand. Something is different. "You really alright?"
"Yeah?" I furrow my brow.
He bends and presses his warm soft lips against my cheek. My entire body shivers. I pull back, "What was that for?" My words are a breathy whisper.
"I just remembered so many things and I'm pretty sure it's been a long time since I did that."
His hands are warm around mine. He steps away and walks across the lawn. Dorian looks after him, "Wanker. I could have taken you if the lads hadn’t helped."
Aleks chuckles and flashes in front of Dorian again. He bends down and punches him in the face once more, "That’s for touching my girl."
Dorian's face breaks into a bloody grin, "You hit like a girl."
Aleks laughs and offers him a hand. Dorian looks at his huge hand and then takes it.
"Apologize."
I'm lost. I shake my head, "Let's focus on getting Ari back." I walk away, "I'm not your girl." At least I don’t think I am.
Lorri walks out the back door, "Okay, planning time. We've worked it out. We know many of the things that happened last time are going to happen again. The place should look the same. Let's do this." She frowns when she sees them all, "What are you idiots doing?"
Sam beams, "Wrestling."
Lorri looks less than impressed.
Chapter Fourteen
Ophelia
The cold of the vampire fortress feels the same as it did last time. We have killed more than we did the last time though. I gag watching Aimee take the soul of the man she's holding. She does it rough, like she used to. His black blood sprays across the pale beige wall of the hallway. She hasn’t done that since she was the old Aimee.
Aleks is clinging to her side, like he used to.
"Why didn’t Marcus come? I thought he wanted this too." I ask.
Sam shakes his head, "He's holding Jon ransom and won't help us. Not until we make Hanna like she was. He wants her dead and reborn. He's been having a tough time locating her though." His grin is cheeky and accusing.
I chuckle, "Ha. Well good luck Marcus. The blue sisters have been watching the house for me. They've been keeping her guarded and cloaked. He doesn’t stand a chance. I just can't believe he's being such a baby. He isn’t helping or anything?"
Sam shakes his head looking around as we follow the group. "He's pissed and won't let Henry have Jon until we change her."
"Bastard. I promised my sisters I would free them."
He presses his lips together. I know he wishes Hanna was changed too.
"You don’t want to even see if your mom is okay?" I ask.
He draws his brows in, "No. I know she's fine. I know what she is." He means traitor and I hate her for it.
We walk in silence and my stomach flips when we near the main courtyard. I remember the pain and suffering Aimee endured when we got there last time. I'm terrified but also anxious. Oliver should be waiting for us. His face flashes in my mind.
Aimee looks back at me severely. Her beautiful pale face is covered in the splatter of the black blood she has filled the air with.
I nod. I know she's checking to make sure I'm ready. Dorian and Lorri have gone off separately. This time I didn’t go with them though. This time I'm meeting my father in the courtyard. Lorri and Dorian have gone to kill Daniel. Daniel who has no idea they know about him. Not this time.
Aimee opens the door we all know leads to the courtyard.
The cold wind hits us. I catch a glimpse of him. My insides flutter. His lips, his hard cold face, his steely eyes and thick body. I remember too clearly how it felt to be with him. The ground thaws beneath me. His eyes meet mine but the love and burning isn’t there like it was before. Something is wrong. He doesn't see me. He sees Jonathan's daughter. I can see it on his face. Cold recognition.
My father stands in the middle of the courtyard looking handsome and youthful. The way they all look. His cruel sneer on his face is all I see though. I hate him. My memories of him burn when they crawl around inside me.
He lifts his lips into a grin. Two men drag the limp body of a bleeding Ari out into the snow. Lucas and Ben growl. Aimee grabs them by the fur.
"So, we meet finally." He speaks and I feel sick. I forgot how much I hate his voice.
He points one finger at Aimee, "You must be Dorian's little puppet. The cure."
Aimee stands ready to be shot. I'm not sure if she will be or not but I know we all made a pact no one would be near her and she would wink as he fired the gun. He doesn’t have one though.
He reaches over and grabs Ari's limp arm and drags her tiny body to him.
"This is the one that has surprised us the most. The push is fascinating is it not?" His voice is silk and evil.
Aimee steps forward, "She is harmless."
He smiles wickedly, "She's not though is she? She can change the time. Daniel mentioned it and I realized that of course I knew about this talent. We had one once. She was amazing. Had to kill her." He shakes his head, "She just couldn’t be trusted to let us have things the way we wanted them. Had a conscience. Very annoying." Oliver laughs as if remembering. He is my father's puppet. My heart is breaking. I look around for Lorri and Dorian but they're not with us.
"Hello Ophelia, love. These nice men are going to take you for a little stroll. We can't let you run off with these Roses you see." The two lugs that brought in Ari walk toward me. Aimee nods once but doesn’t turn her head to see me. I know Trist and Philip will rescue me. I let them take me even though I have to fight my urges to electrocute them both. The snow melts where I walk. Flowers spring from the cracks of the bricks and cobblestone under the deep snow.
I steal a glance at Oliver. He doesn’t budge. I feel sick. The flowers die on the spot. Like my heart.
I'm taken to a doorway. I glance back at my father. He is without mercy. I don’t like the way he holds Ari. I have a sick feeling. I'm dragged into a stone hallway just as I watch him reach behind Oliver, who doesn’t budge. Who doesn’t stop him? He pulls out a blade and holds it to Ari's throat. The wolves whine and moan but the door closes as the screams fill the courtyard, and I'm left with the horror of my imagination.
I'm dragged to the cell. It's all the same. Nothing is different. It smells and feels exactly as it did the other times.
I'm tied and bound and left.
I don’t hear the footsteps or the chatting of my brother and his boyfriend. I hear nothing but my own thoughts and the sound of the wind whistling in the cell.
Chapter Fifteen
Aimee
The blade comes from Oliver's back somewhere. The glint of it in the air above her head stops everything. The wolves whine and I scream, "Stop please." I put a hand out trying to be calm. "Stop. Please. Whatever you want, I will do it. Kill me, not her. Please don’t hurt her."
Aleks takes a step for me but I shake my head, "Take me, kill me instead." I step forward. Lucas is beside me, ready.
Jonathan's fangs glint the same as the blade does.
"Why do you think I want you dead? I have something I need you to do." He holds the short blade at Ari's throat, "Go peacefully with Oliver here and when he is back here and you are in the cell safe and sound I will release her. Otherwise I kill her now." He digs the blade in, drawing her dark blood and making it drip in a slow stream onto the white snow.
I nod anxiously, "YES! Please. I'll go." I put my hands forward.
Oliver steps forwards, "Hands behind your back death dealer. I know how it works." His voice is harsh. I don’t have any memories of him but I know him, in my soul.
I put my hands behind my back. The others argue and bicker but I ignore them. I look Jonathan in the eyes, "He will be right back."
He nods, "Take her."
Oliver grabs my arms and drags me roughly to the same door Ophelia went through.
I'm trembling. I can't stop looking back at her. "Sam, don’t let them move."
"I won't." He is gripping the wolves.
Giselle gives me a last look, "Aimes." Her voice is small and weak.
"It's okay. I'll be right back." My voice cracks. She looks ready to break.
Oliver drags me through the doorway. When it closes I look at him, "Are you on our side?"
He shoves me hard down the stairs. I almost stumble but I wink and am standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up at him when I catch myself.
He points, "Don’t do that again or I won't go back to the courtyard." His blue eyes sparkle.
I turn and walk town the stairs. He unlocks a door and pushes me inside. O is already tied up. She smiles and speaks through the gag, "Oliver. Oliver, untie me quickly."
He pushes me against the wall and rubs his body against mine perversely, "Why would I untie you princess? Not when I have this in front of me for the taking." He nuzzles into my neck and kisses, "I've heard you dealers can be quiet extreme. You suck and pull while you suck and pull."
I gag. "I'm a virgin, please don’t do this." I whisper into the cold rough stonewall.
He chuckles his warm breath into my neck and presses what I assume is his erection into the back of my pants, "I can help you change that." My hands are burning against the bricks.
A scream rips from my throat. It's frustration and pain, from not expelling the rising pressure of my powers. Tears leave my closed eyes.
I whisper, "O, don’t do anything to him. They're going to kill Ari if he doesn’t go back up." He rips my shirt from my defenseless body. I'm trembling naked from the waist up in the freezing cold cell. I can't imagine what Ophelia is going through. She is watching the man, she thinks she will be with for all eternity, rape someone else. His hands reach around. He cups my breasts roughly. I cry out again, "Please stop. Please."
I'm not weak. I'm not feeble or helpless. I'm strong. I could kill him in a hearts beat but it would be a death sentence for my best friend and her unborn baby.
Ophelia is screaming behind the gag. She's crying and struggling. I can hear her.
He turns back, "You'll get your turn baby. Don’t you worry about that."
"Oliver, stop, please baby. Stop. He's done something to you. This isn’t you." She must have worked the gag from her lips. She's sobbing and her voice is cracking.
"Untie me first. Do me first." She pleads.
He grabs a fist full of my hair and slams my face into the bricks. My nose breaks on contact. He ties me up and gags me. Then he is across the room to her. "You want it first?"
I'm in a haze of blood and pain and tears and hating the fact I'm naked and hanging by my hands. The black blood is dripping down my face onto my bare chest.
"Untie my hands so I can touch you too. I'll make you happy I promise." Her words are shaky. I can hear it. She's crushed and I feel sick. He's taking too long. Ari is dead. I know she is. My heart is burning and aching. I spin on my ropes and watch, as her eyes become dead and unfeeling. She smiles weakly, "I can make you happy." Her words are as dead as her eyes.
"You haven’t had any magic training have you?"
She shakes her head, "N-n-not yet."
I can hear the smile in his voice, "And you won't tell your daddy, if I touch you?"
"I'm not a virgin." Her words are a whisper.
He gropes her, "Good."
I sob, watching it. "Please, just go stop him from killing Ari and then come back." My voice is broken. I can't speak without making sounds I don’t recognize.
He looks back at me, "He was never going to let her live. I was never planning on going back up there. Now shut up and wait for me to get back to you." His grin is cold and sick. "They need her before they need you. So she goes first. Hope that's alright."
Ophelia's eyes bug out of her head when she looks at me. He unties her hands and pulls her shirt off. She stands still and sobs as he grabs at her. She looks defeated. She looks up at me. I can see resolve in her eyes. I just don’t understand the decision she has made.
"You better make me happy bitch." He undoes his pants.
Her trembling hands lift, slowly, for his arms. She rubs them for the slightest second and then closes her eyes. Her fingers bite into his skin. Where her hands touch him black veins crawl up her arms to her bare breasts. They make a black pool around her heart. He's frozen when she touches him. She pulls the black veins from him until she can't stand anymore and falls to the cold stone, unconscious. He blinks and looks at me.
"Aimee?" He whispers, stunned.
I cry harder, "Ari. Get Ari."
He looks lost. His blue eyes are clearer than I've ever seen them. He's looks at me again and then is gone.
"Ophelia. Please wake up O." I look up into the stone ceiling and sob, "Please. Please help us. We fight for you, please help us."
Not that I expected anything, but when nothing happens I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. If there is a God, he cares for us the same as every other being. Even though we give everything of ourselves, he treats us no differently.
Her body moves with shallow breaths. She twitches and trembles.
"O. O, please don’t leave me here alone."
She moves a pale hand that is still covered in the black veins. Her fingers grip like she's having a seizure.
I close my eyes and lower my head but the air moves around me. I lift my eyes and jump. She stands directly in front of me. Her eyes are completely black. The veins are reaching her face. Her lip trembles.
Her voice is a whisper that doesn’t come from her. It's as if something speaks through her cold stiff body that is pressed against mine. We are bare chest to bare chest.
"She took it all Aimee. She took his evil and his dark. She took it all inside of her. She's dark now. Her soul is as dark as our father's."
I look at her black lips moving faintly with the whispered words.
"What can I do?" I ask.
"Kill her now before he finds her. Before it's too late."
I look around shaking my head, "I can't. Don't ask this of me."
Her eyes start to flutter.
"Do it before she gains consciousness."
I try to move my trembling hand to her arm. The black veins move with the flow of her blood. The poison is filtering everywhere. Tears blind me to everything but the blackness of her fluttering eyes. If I close my eyes I can smell the ocean and see the harbor of my small town. I can hear my mother laughing and my sister criticizing me and even that makes me smile. I can see my father rocking in his chair with a book and a tea. He smiles at me over his books. I can ask the voices inside of her to untie me and wink home. I can refuse it all and let the cards fall where they may. I sniffle as her hand is lifted and pressed into mine. They know what I am. The fire is waiting for her skin. It's waiting for me to do it. It is still there from the wall in the face. Her cold bare chest pressed against mine feels weird. I keep my eyes closed, until as I release it. I pull it hard and fast and let it take the control.
Her body slams hard against me again and again as she struggles. The real her must be there. She feels herself dying and
is fighting me.
But I've let it go. I've let it have her. It sucks and pulls. Even though my eyes are closed the tears find their way out. They soak my face and chest.
"Aimee." She speaks softly once.
Her body heats up just as I feel the suck stop. She's dry. I open my eyes in time to see the horrified look on her face, frozen there. Her dead body slides down mine. The tears have soaked us both. I go limp in the ropes.