Redeemers (The Devil's Roses Book 8)

by Tara Brown

  His eyes draw to me. “What are you?”

  I smile wide. “Someone who wants answers.”

  The friendly faces instantly start to change, like a wave of scowls crashing over the group. “We don't answer to anyone.”

  I cock my head, letting my wings rip from my back. “I can ask a different way if polite is annoying to you.”

  The instant silence is followed by several hard swallows. The man out front sneers. “I’m not scared of some fallen angel.”

  “I didn't fall.”

  He looks confused, in fact they all do. I step toward him. “Let me tell you my secret.”

  He doesn't back away as I step to him, running my hands along his cheeks. I lift my face, planting my lips on his and ripping out his soul instantly. He drops into a pile of flesh and bones and bad clothing choices.

  Gasps fill the air. Another man steps forward. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?”

  I grab his chest, dragging him to me, putting to rest his feeble attempt at fighting me off. “I am your worst nightmare. Tell me where the one who started this is. Where is the woman who is making you?”

  He tries to shove me. I kiss him, dropping his husk on the floor next to his friend’s. When I lift my face each of the other people in the crowd look like they might play along.

  “I know there is a woman making you. She is named Lillith. Where is she?”

  A girl at the back mutters, “She’s in Ireland. I was there with her a few days ago. She has a man who moves with a wink. He’s not a vampire or a succubus.”

  “Is she staying somewhere in particular?” Lorelei asks. She knows Ireland well.

  The girl looks around uneasily before nodding. “She is but I don't know the place. I was brought there and taken from there by the winking man.”

  Lorelei walks to the front of the crowd. It parts like she is parting the sea as she walks to the girl. She rests her hand upon the girl’s head. “I know where we’re going.” She turns and walks back. She pauses when her eyes meet mine, recognizing the look on my face. Her gaze lowers as she spins, grabbing a man close to her with magic and tossing him to the side. We all leap at that exact moment, all of us. I am kissing and killing as quickly as the rest of them. Gwen and Lorelei are fighting and tossing the wounded our way to kill. Within moments the room is silenced as the last body drops to the floor.

  I turn, wiping blood from my lips and pulling my wings back in. Giselle pulls hers back in and smiles at me. “I like killing them. That's not bad, right?”

  I shake my head, still breathing heavily and prepared for something else. There’s always something else with us.

  But no one comes into the main room. I sniff the air, noticing the clean scent in the breeze coming in the broken front of the building.

  “Lorelei, I really want to be seen again. You threw a dead guy right at me.”

  She snaps a finger and Blake pops into view in front of me. “Tired of it already?”

  He nods. “It wasn't as awesome as I imagined.”

  She holds a hand out for me. I walk to it, letting her put an image into my mind. I hold my hands out, winking us to the spot where Lillith apparently is.

  It’s an old mansion, sort of cool looking. It isn’t at all what I was expecting. I figured she’d be in a garden, looking like a mad fairy or something. Gwen nudges Lorelei, muttering softly, “Ya sure we should go in?” Her Scottish accent is cool.

  Lorelei shakes her head. “No. She might be some all-powerful savage and kill us all but what else is there to do?”

  “I don't know. But this feels off and the sun is going to rise soon.”

  “You should go. We’ll catch up after we look inside.”

  Gwen frowns. “That's not what I meant.”

  “I know. But you’re right, the sun is coming.” Lorelei gives Blake a smile. “Can you and Giselle take Landry and Gwen somewhere for the night? Maybe Shane’s?” She looks at Gwen. “We won’t be long. She’s either going to kill us or not be here. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. It won’t be some anticlimactic fight in a dining room. It’s going to be a trap, more than likely.”

  Gwen rolls her eyes. “Yeah, crazy woman. This isn’t a movie.”

  Lorelei grins. “But it feels like one. Shane, darling, you wanna go with them please and show Gwen where she can sleep?” She bats her lashes, I swear forcing a nod from him.

  Blake takes their hands, winking them away with Giselle and Shane.

  Lorelei gives me a harsh look. “We’re screwed. I can feel the spell on the lands. The moment we landed, she knew we were here. We gotta either run or go inside and face the music.”

  I’m so glad she’s sent everyone else away. “I always like to face things head on. Let’s do that.”

  I grab her hand and wink/run to the front door of the house. I glance up at a balcony and wink to it. It’s beautiful and set up as an outdoor dining area. Lorelei opens the door, stepping in. The house is silent. She walks down the hall with me following. My entire body is on edge. I can’t feel the magic in the air, but I can feel the anxiety of it all.

  We search the top floor, finding no signs of life. No one is staying here. I have to assume it’s a trap. I grip to Lorelei’s hand, hoping we get the chance to wink if we have to.

  I wink us down the stairs to the foyer. When we turn she’s there, leaning against the wall. I have to assume it’s her. She’s stunning, scary stunning. She doesn't look the way she should.

  She’s so beautiful I feel like I’m staring at art and not a person at all. She has dark hair and gray eyes. She’s taller than I thought she would be and still so very young. She smiles and I can only compare the beauty to Giselle. She is perfect. Her face has no makeup on, just alabaster skin with a kind of glow to it, like she’s been in the sun a bit. Her tall, thin body has curves in the right places, pronounced by the tight dress and heels. She looks like a businesswoman, not a fairy or an elf. She doesn't look like the fae, the way they always look a bit hippie. She’s elegant and her face has me convinced, instantly, she’s innocent in all of this.

  “I have wanted to meet you both for so long.” Her voice is smooth with an English accent that is like the queen’s. “You have become so famous now.” Her dark eyes meet mine, and I don't know who I am until Lorelei blasts me with my Dorian and my other memories that Lillith is trying to steal. His name reverberates through my body, reminding me I hate this woman.

  “I see you are barely hanging on, Aimee. The fact you’ve been able to resist the spell is remarkable.” Her eyes dart to Lorelei. “You are an amazing credit to the witches of the world.” She sniffs the air, lifting her perfect face slightly. “The Blackwater witches—theirs is a power I have wanted forever. You know they say the witch hunters are the reason the witches took their magic to the bayou.” Her dark eyes sparkle with mischief. “But that's not entirely true. The waters were protected; they were the only place the witches could hide from me. I wanted them so badly.” She grins and I can see the malice and evil inside of her. “And you have brought them right to me.”

  Lorelei doesn't back down. She isn’t intimidated at all. “Try and take them.”

  Lillith laughs, lifting her face like she is batshit crazy, as Lorelei always says. She has the evil-genius laugh down pat. She stops laughing, lowering her face and smiles peacefully.

  She is a crackpot.

  I can see why everyone is scared of her. She’s not sane at all.

  She swallows and nods, like she is having a conversation we cannot hear. “It was lovely to have met you both. I am so grateful I got to finally see you.” She looks directly at me. “I am sorry you don't get to see how this all plays out. I wish you had been smarter than to come here.” She shakes her head. “Lorri is an idiot. She always was. She never saw this for what it was and what it might have been.” She snaps her fingers and a raging ball of fire hits us. Lorelei gives me a look as the flames smother us both.

  I scream but suddenly I am standing on the grass, star
ing at the mansion again with a weakening scream slipping from my lips and my hand shading my face.

  Lorelei sighs. “That was hard to maintain.”

  I look down, realizing my feet have not left the spot they had been when Blake and Giselle took Gwen and Landry away. “What just happened?”

  Lorelei scoffs at me like I’m an idiot. “Like I was going to risk going in there.”

  I cock an eyebrow. “You might have told me.”

  “Astral projections work better when the person being projected believes it’s real. Just how that works.” She gives me back the same shitty frown I’m giving her. “You coulda just trusted I wouldn't hurt you, jackass.”

  “That was evil.” I wink us to Shane’s, still shaking off the feeling of being an astral projection. I seriously thought we were burning up.

  Everyone gives us an expectant stare. In fact, they are identical. “Well?”

  I nod. “She’s a nutbar who wants to take over the world and get her revenge. She’s powerful and evil. There was nothing new there.”

  Lorelei points out. “And she’s strong. Stronger than me for sure.”

  “And hot. No guys can come. I swear you won’t make it. You’ll join her team in a heartbeat.”

  Blake winces. “How hot?”

  Lorelei nods at Giselle. “Giselle and Aimee’s sister combined. She’s perfect and beautiful.”

  He nods. “I’m out, no matter what. I can’t betray you guys again and I know I will.”

  “Her face is super familiar. I know I’ve never seen her before but I know her.”

  Shane gives me a dubious look. “Ophelia and her brother, obviously. They must have looked like her a little.”

  I shake my head. “I guess, I don't know. She looked different than the shit I’ve seen. She wasn't how I expected or how the art showed her or anything.”

  Lorelei nods. “I agree. She didn't look the way I expected either. She’s far more powerful than I imagined as well.”

  “She took all that fae magic from her kids. She’s going to be a beast.” Shane shakes his head. “We don't stand a chance at killing her if Lorelei isn’t stronger than her.”

  “I can kill her but I don't know how to get close enough. She did the whole hellfire thing to us.”

  Blake scowls. “How are you still with us? Can we withstand hellfire?”

  I turn, giving Lorelei a dirty look. “Oh, we went in as astral projections.” She offers me a sweet smile.

  Blake misses the tone I am offering and nods. “That was smart. I never even would have thought of going without your bodies.”

  “Yeah, me either.”

  Lorelei sticks her tongue out at me again as Marcus comes sauntering into the room. He wraps an arm around her waist and kisses beside her mouth, taking a long draw of her cheek before kissing again. I feel like a voyeur who is seeing something forbidden. It’s intimate and makes me jealous.

  “Can you send me back?” I ask, trying not to look at Marcus.

  Lorelei nods. “I think I should be able to. I was able to send you as an astral projection the last time because of the connection between you and Dorian. His love drew you there. It should work again. The moon will be ready tomorrow night.”

  “Okay.”

  Shane saunters over, leaning in. “We need to deal with Sam.”

  I nod at Lorelei, earning a scowl in return. “Sam.” I mouth.

  Her eyes narrow. She gives Gwen a smile. “Enjoy your sleep. We have to go and find our rogue teammate.”

  Gwen links her arms into Landry’s and waves. “Night everyone!”

  Giselle frowns. “You mind if I stay behind? I don't want to watch you and Sam shout at each other.”

  I love her bluntness. “It’s fine. I was going to ask Blake to stay anyway, hang with the kids.”

  “Yeah, I could go for some normalcy.” Blake shrugs and strolls into the living room to challenge the kids to a game.

  Lorelei goes out the back door with Marcus in tow. I know she can locate Sam, at least to a general location. Shane and I follow her out.

  She closes her eyes, calling the winds and other shit. I don't honestly need to pay attention to it so I don't. “East St. Louis.”

  “That's random.”

  She shakes her head. “No, it’s the epicenter for sin in the US. Detroit and St. Louis are the roughest places in America.”

  That makes me worry. I hold a hand out for her to shock me with the love I can feel slipping away.

  We link and I wink. I’ve been to both cities several times. We appear next to a blood brothel I closed down before. It’s a red brick building in a terrible state of disrepair.

  “This place is a shit hole.” Marcus mutters, looking around in disgust.

  I nod. “They have so little left here. The infrastructure is in the toilet. Highest crime rate in the country, and yet they laid off thirty people from the police force the last time I paid attention to that sort of thing. I remember Miles Davis’ house was vandalized last time I read up on East St. Louis.”

  “This isn’t from the wars?” Shane cocks an eyebrow.

  I shake my head. “No, it looked like this last time I was here.” It looks like an old war zone, the kind you see in post apoc films where the grass and weeds have reclaimed the land and are starting to cause the buildings to collapse.

  “Wow. I had no idea it was this bad.”

  I shrug at him. “What does it matter now? It just matches the rest of the country.”

  His face looks forlorn as he realizes how right I am. “This is awful. We have to find a way to make this end. There won’t be a world to save if we don't stop it.”

  He sounds like Ned Flanders on The Simpsons. I can’t even agree with him, even though I do, because I am totally expecting him to say gosh diddly dang at any second.

  We walk, smelling the air and sensing the evil around us. “I smell evil. Lots of it.” I mutter, lifting my face to the warm breeze.

  Shane shrugs. “I can feel it in the air. But not Sam.”

  Lorelei points to the right. “He’s that way.” We follow her, as if she’s Toucan Sam. She leads us down a road where a group of African Americans watch us from a porch. Shane’s eyes narrow as one of them stands up and starts walking toward us. “What you honkies doing in these parts? You wanna give us that pussy or you want us to take it?”

  Lorelei spins, stopping Marcus from doing anything first. “Excuse you?” She has a serious thing with dirty talking. I have to assume it's the whole living through the fifties and sixties three times—she’s a prude. Her being with Marcus is a mystery to me. He always seems so nasty. He’ll say anything to make you uncomfortable at the same time Lorelei makes you a mai tai and some cookies.

  “What you deaf, bitch? I said show me that puss—” Lightning shoots from the sky, striking him where he stands. His friends all groan and recoil, laughing at him.

  The man twitches, trying desperately to finish the sentence, but the more he tries to say pussy the more she strikes him with lightning. Eventually he falls to the ground, jerking and muttering pussy. His group of friends are laughing and pointing.

  It’s an odd example of friendship for me.

  Lorelei turns and stomps off.

  Shane is snickering—actually snickering and Marcus is boldly laughing. He points at the man, shouting, “That’ll teach you to talk dirty to my lady!”

  It feels weird walking away, leaving him alive. I turn as we get half a block away and run back. I’m wink/running until I reach the urine-soaked man. I send him to meet his maker, no doubt Satan. I turn and grab the other men, each of them trying to escape but I wink, catching and sucking them dry. After a moment they’re all dead and my hands are coated in blood.

  Shane walks into the decaying house I’ve broken into, giving me an uncertain look. “You okay?”

  I shake my head. “They had to die.”

  He nods. “Okay.”

  The light filtering into the room from the holes in the wal
ls and the broken windows catches my eye. I can’t help but notice the way the dust dances in the light. It swirls and twirls, and then I’m on my knees sobbing tearless noises.

  Lorelei’s hand is on my arm, shooting me full of him again. I can’t cry, but I am heaving from the waves of forgotten love smashing against me.

  She massages the spot she has burned me with my own love. “It’ll pass. We just let it go too long.”

  The room filled with dead men is an example of what happens when we let it go too long. The indifference means I have to kill. Shaking and trembling with overwhelming feelings, I stand and walk from the house. Marcus cocks an eyebrow. “I think we should stick you in the black water too.”

  I flip him the middle finger and walk past him in the direction we had been going. I step over the dead man like he is nothing but a bag of garbage on the road.

  I hate this life.

  I hate it more when we finally find Sam. Lorelei stops outside of a place that smells like sex and cruelty all in one sniff.

  “Blood brothel.”

  She nods at me. “I think so. Feels like one.”

  Marcus swallows hard. “You don't mind if I help with the life ending, do you?” He licks his lips, earning him a swat from Lorelei. “Keep it in your pants, pervert.”

  It makes me smile, through the stench of the evil burning my nose.

  Shane pats him on the back. “If I happen to have one that fights, I’ll toss her your way.”

  Marcus swallows again, as if he can already taste the blood. “Appreciate it, mate.”

  When we get inside, the stench of death is overwhelming to the senses. I don't quite know if a single person is alive upstairs, but the entire bottom floor of the brothel is a slaughterhouse. Sam is sitting behind the counter, frowning at us as we enter. I know my eyes darting to the carnage are giving away my thoughts on the whole thing. He shrugs when I look back at him. “Don't look at me like that, Aimes. I couldn't help myself. I tried to fight it but they were evil and God was telling me to do it. I had to.”

  I can hear the change is gone. He is normal again.

  Lorelei’s eyebrows knit together. “Sam, did you kill everyone?”

  He nods. “Even the dog. I don't know why. He came at me, like he was protecting them and I killed him. I didn't know I could kill an animal with a kiss but I did. He tasted so innocent it was hard to swallow.”