Death (Cursed)

by Tara Brown

  I feel lost and not just because I've never heard Henry actually form real sentences before. It would take the end of the world to make him say whole paragraphs.

  Giselle chews her lip, "So, uhm. I don’t get it. Are Jonathan and Lorri working together or not?"

  Henry shakes his head. His eyes are lost. He's been tricked too. "We always believed she wanted to stop Jonathan. Not ruin the world with him. Always believed she was sorry for what she took."

  I interrupt, "Is it possible Jonathan doesn’t understand what she is going to do?"

  He nods, "Yes."

  Lorri interrupts him, "No."

  Henry ignores her and continues, "He is seventh angel of god. He was good, until he let the darkness take him."

  Lorri sighs, "We don’t know whole story. We know he loved her or lusted after her power anyway. We know he coveted her magic and powers. The problem is the prophecies come from them. She is the oldest thing alive and the strongest."

  "Not while Tristan has the magic." Sam says.

  Aleks sighs, "Which ends tomorrow."

  Giselle looks sick, "What does it look like if the evil tips the balance?"

  Lorri shakes her head, "We don’t know exactly. All we have is Revelations as a best estimate."

  I burst into laughter. I'm having flashbacks of the dreams I had before, when my mom was dead. It feels alarming and impossible, I can’t imagine it being true. Everyone gives me the same horrified look.

  I laugh and shake my head, "Sorry. I just can't believe this is all true. This is the biggest disappointment I have ever suffered. And that is saying a lot." I pace, "HOW DOES THE SYSTEM FAIL SO BADLY? HOW DO YOU PEOPLE GET TRICKED SO EASILY? JESUS." I squat down and sit on my heels and rock. I hold my face in my hands and think.

  "When Aimee is done having her breakdown, she can kill them both right?" Sam asks. Ben nudges me with his dried blood coated muzzle. I wrap my arms around his huge neck. Aleks's hands are on my shoulders, massaging.

  "No. She can't kill Lillith." Lorri says. "It has to be Tristan or maybe Henry, if we are lucky."

  I look up at Henry with hope. He shakes his head, "No. If she gets magic I cannot kill her. I barely believe this true. She is mother of Fae."

  Lorri makes a face and shakes her head, "We kill them all today. We kill all of them now. We start with Jonathan."

  I stand up and put my hand in. Ben touches me with a paw. Giselle puts her hand in on his paw. She doesn’t look well. I wonder if I have the same look on my face.

  Lorri's red eyes are freaking me out. We flash as one to the same dark hallway.

  "Where are we?"

  "Ireland." Henry whispers. The wolves scout ahead. I wink and keep up with them. We round the corner and see the same place with the same light.

  "At least Hanna has the whole place stunk up." Aleks whispers, "They won't be able to smell us."

  We stand outside the massive room that looks more like an underground hall.

  Lorri gives the go signal. I almost get sick. I grab Giselle and Ben and wink in. Jonathan is bleeding from the lip and panting heavy. Hanna is laughing her menacing beast laugh. She looks psychotic. Her clothes are torn and a large chunk of hair is missing. Sam and Shane fight themselves not to attack her. Lorri slaps Shane and brings him back around. We surround them. Lillith is gone.

  Jonathan realizes he's surrounded and winks but he doesn’t move.

  He looks up snarling. "Something is wrong with your Siren, Lorri." His eyes are ablaze.

  I laugh. It's slightly nervously. I don’t know what he can do. We've waited so long to catch him. Lorri has been setting traps and baiting him to no end. He is always one step ahead of us or so well armed we don’t stand a chance.

  "Yeah, she's broken." Lorri winks a creepy red eye at Hanna. She chuckles her monster laugh.

  Jonathan scowls at her.

  Henry holds his hands out, no doubt he is the reason Jonathan isn't winking out.

  Jonathan shakes his head, "Always the last to know eh Lorri? If you do this now she wins. I was always the only thing stopping her."

  Lorri looks at me, "Do it."

  I swallow hard. The spark is filling me. I step forward, reaching out for him. His hand swings at me. His nails cut into my throat. I feel the warmth of my black blood dripping down my neck and chest.

  "Aimee, if you kill me she wins." His eyes grow desperate.

  A low growl escapes my lips.

  His eyes sparkle, "I've always been trying to help you Lorri. It was always you."

  "Cut that liars tongue for me Aimes."

  He looks at me with daggers but it doesn’t matter. Lorri hasn’t called me Aimes before.

  He swings again but I catch his hand. I rip as hard and fast as I can when my skin touches his. I don't savor it. Black blood shoots across the room. I drop to my knees as I do it.

  The Hanna monster clasps the bracelet. The guys stop acting like savages. Lorri walks forward to me. A single tear leaves her eye. "He was lying. You did the right thing."

  I shake my head, "It felt wrong. In the end it felt wrong." I wink to Marcus's.

  He's pacing outside his lab. The thing inside is slamming and bashing the door. His stormy mood is savage and evil. He sees me and leaps. I catch him and hold back the suck. He slams me into a wall and screams at the same time I do. He starts to laugh a bitter and twisted laugh. It's scary and hideous. His robe is disheveled and stinky. He shoves me and walks back to the lab door. He points, "Fix this. You fix this." He sounds like he is at his breaking point. I'm out of breath and still healing slowly. I know I can't take watching something as strong as him lose it and cry.

  "You fix this Aimee. God damned you. It was designed to keep your kind out." His hand trembles where he points. I walk to him. He flinches but I pull him in. I wrap myself around him and hold him.

  He sobs. It fills me with dread and terror. If he can cry and be broken then the rest of us are doomed.

  His huge body almost crushes me. I slam into the wall. He winces with me. I'm holding up his trembling body.

  "I killed him. It was me. It was my fault. He was my brother." He spits on my neck when he says brother. "He was my best friend in the whole world once."

  I can't imagine how it all feels. How painful it all is to have it slammed like that into you.

  He straightens up and sniffs. He wipes his eyes and looks back at the door, "Please kill that thing before it destroys my lab."

  I nod, "We need to maybe be prepared that it has destroyed the lab." I wince when I say it and hope we don’t have to fight anymore.

  He shakes his head, "I am going to kick your ass one day when it doesn’t hurt me quite so much."

  "Deal." I wink into the room and peek. I wink back out, "It's ruined."

  He inhales sharply and exhales like he is yoga breathing.

  Sam and the others are in the hall.

  "I put the witch in there." I say.

  They frown. Lorri asks, "Witch?"

  "The witch that Jonathan was telling to stay at the house. The plan was for her to shield the bad guys while we were blown up on the third floor. She was working for him."

  Lorri looks at the lab and winces, "Is, is that the, lab?"

  Marcus's jaw tightens.

  Lorri nods "Wow. Aimee that was an intense move. How bad is it in there?"

  Marcus nods, "Done. Gone."

  Hanna walks to him and puts her hand on his arm, "You okay?"

  He shakes his head and looks at Henry who is sporting a severe expression.

  Marcus walks away from Hanna and past them all. We all look at Henry. He laughs. "You all not feel for him when he was killing people and making this one evil." He points to Shane.

  Shane shakes his head, "He had no soul, it was gone. Soulless. Cursed. It's not exactly the same thing as him just running around killing shit for no reason."

  Henry gives us a disgusted look and walks away too.

  I smirk at Aleks, "I need you to come with me."

&nbs
p; He takes my hand, "Okay."

  I wink us in and instantly Aleks is gone. He mustn't be able to pass though the walls Marcus had built to keep things out. The Witch points at me through the smoke and flames and dust and shoots me with a bolt of lightning again. I fly back crying out. I cough and wink behind her. As my skin touches hers I'm shocked again, but my hand clamps down on her neck. I take her to the ground and suck fast and hard. Her blood explodes out of her. I cringe. It's almost greenish in the dull light.

  I flick it off me and shiver as I wink out. Everyone in the hallway makes a disgusted face. I walk like Frankenstein would and mutter, "Going home. Shower. Save Tristan in a bit." I wink home.

  My dad's home. I freeze. He's in his room whistling. I step back and wink to the front door. I open it gingerly, trying not to get dead witch all over everything. I walk in and slam the door good and hard. "Hey Dad." I call and wink to the bathroom downstairs.

  "Aimee?" He calls out.

  I shout at the bathroom door. "Yup. Just showering and getting clean. I got home a while ago with Giselle and just needed a shower." I have no idea what I'm saying. I just need to be at home. The smell and the surroundings are everything. I turn on the water and undress. I try not to think about my boots being ruined. I just strip and fling everything out onto the tiles. The water is hot. Aleks is there suddenly. He steps into the shower. I frown at his flashing naked, "How many places did you go before here?" I ask.

  He looks a bit frazzled, "A few. I went to my place and the apartment in Italy and then Lydia's. Completely forgot about the house being destroyed. Standing in the yard naked was a bit rejuvenating. I thought I should try here, since you did say home. I went upstairs first though. Your mom almost caught me."

  My jaw drops, "Oh god."

  "Yeah. That was after I flashed into every shower at Marcus's. Just caught Ben and Giselle having sex. That was weird."

  I put a hand up to my mouth, "No."

  He rolls his eyes, "Like you didn’t see that coming."

  "You flashing about naked or Giselle. Cause I did see the Giselle-Ben thing in the works when she was the vampire queen of the world."

  His face flushes, "Well, she thought I was there to join in and even seemed excited about it. I'm not really sure she's as serious as he is about the whole thing."

  I grimace, "Oh god." I can't fight the shaking laughter.

  He grabs my face, "You owe me something."

  I look defensively up at him, "Not here. It's my dad's house."

  "And mom's."

  "Right. Of course. I keep forgetting she's alive. How horrid is that?"

  He shakes his head, "I'm lucky you remember I'm alive, with all the frigging around Ari's done."

  He bends to kiss me but the name reminds me what I wanted to do. I shake my head, "NO! I need to see her. Get clean fast." I scrub myself up and down and jump out. I dry off and wink to my bedroom. I open the closet and smile. My things look exactly the same. I pull on a pale blue t-shirt and a light green hoodie. Clean underwear that my mom folded and some boyfriend cut jeans from American eagle. I sigh. I flop back on my bed and let the feel of the familiar soak in.

  My mom knocks and opens the door as I'm pulling on socks and knee high red boots that remind me of Lorri's. I realize I started wearing them when I met her. I wanted to be her. Now I'm grateful to have her respect and love. Even if it's scary and savage.

  Mom frowns, "Is there someone still in the shower downstairs?"

  I grin and blush, "Yup. My boyfriend. Aleks. He's from the company I'm training with."

  She raises a mom eyebrow at me, "You're showering together?"

  "Yeah." I laugh. "Mom, Alise has been showering with boys since she was like thirteen."

  She sighs, "Yeah, but she never loves them. She uses them and moves on."

  I shake my head, "She's with Blake. Has been for ages. She isn’t moving on. Neither am I."

  She sits beside me and pats my thigh, "I just hate that you're so old. It makes me old. I need you to be eleven again and practicing your English accent and convincing your sister that you can't talk normally anymore."

  I laugh again. It feels so nice and normal. I almost cry but that would freak her out.

  Aleks walks into my room with wet hair and pair of pale blue jeans and a white polo. He is heavenly with his wet hair all messy and sexy.

  My mom's face flushes. She stands and puts a hand out, "Hi."

  His eyes flinch, before a look of bliss crosses his face. He grabs her and hugs her. He holds her tight. Her back is stiff and her arms are out. I laugh, "Mom, this is Aleks. He's from Norway. They hug a lot?" I feel like an idiot.

  He has his eyes closed and a smile across his lips. She pats his huge arm, "Okay. Well, wow. It's nice to meet you. Okay."

  Aleks pulls away and nods. When he speaks he sounds like he's a foreigner, "Sorry. I just get really excited to meet Aimee's family. I just love her so much." His cheeks are red and he's never sounded more Norwegian in all the time I've known him. He can lay it on thick when he wants to. I laugh. She looks back and mouths, "Oh my god!"

  I widen my eyes in agreement. She is grinning ear to ear as she leaves the room. She looks back, "Door stays open."

  I wince and shake my head, "You know how old I am right. Like twenty." I look at Aleks and whisper, "Twenty right?"

  He shakes his head, "I don’t know. It feels more like twenty-six or seven maybe."

  I laugh and point, "What was that?"

  He looks confused, "I just got so excited. She's alive and I panicked."

  I laugh again. He grabs my hand. I shout at my mom, "Hey. Tell dad Aleks and I will be back later. We have to go out. Love you." I wink back to Marcus's. Lorri walks past us wearing her red boots and frowns seeing mine. "Aimee. I know I called you Aimes and told you I love you, but that doesn’t mean I want to be The Sisterhood of the bloody boots and shit."

  I cross my arms, "Lorri, how was I to know you would wear them too?"

  She snuggles into Abbey, "You shouldn’t have even bought them." Abbey laughs and shakes her head. They disappear and I look at Aleks, "I can't get past how gross it is. Abbey is like eighteen and Lorri is like a million."

  He snorts and flashes us to Ari's room. Her black eyes meet mine. I jump, "Ari, you’re awake?"

  She swallows and talks softly, "Yeah." She sounds like death. Lucas is sitting beside her, all stinky and gross. I shove him, "Go get cleaned up."

  He snarls at me. I swat him, "Go. Aleks make him go." Aleks flashes them both out. I sit in his chair, "Smells like wet dog in here."

  Her lips attempt a pathetic smile, "You get used to it."

  My look grows serious. I can't fight it, "I gotta get that baby out, Ari."

  She shakes her head, "No."

  I nod, "Yeah. You can hate me all you want, but I have to."

  She shakes her head, "You can't. It'll kill me too."

  I shake my head. My heart hurts with the words that are about to leave my lips. "I lied when I said I starved on the streets in the beginning when I crawled out of the harbor. I didn’t starve. Not completely."

  She looks confused.

  I want to look away but her black eyes hold me hostage. "A girl fell on me. I was lying, cold and alone, in some garbage. She was young, maybe fifteen or sixteen. She fell on me in the middle of my hunger. Her belly landed on my hands. When I finished pulling she was still alive."

  Ari's face looks like she gets where this is going. In fact she looks horrified. "You know Aimes, sometimes friends share shit they could have kept to themselves."

  A broken laugh bursts from me.

  She grips my hand, "I want this baby. I want to try. I want it to heal me and make me comfortable around kids."

  I wrinkle my nose, involuntarily.

  She laughs again. Her eyes water, "I just want to feel something so big that no one can ever take it away from me. Not even me."

  I hug her so hard I tremble. "You saved my whole family Ari. My entire family."
<
br />   She shakes, "It cost us Lydia."

  I pull back, "Didn’t they tell you about Dorian?"

  Her face crumples, "No."