Redeemers (The Devil's Roses Book 8)

by Tara Brown

  “What’s going on, Aimes?”

  I twitch a no and put my finger to my lips as I wink us from room to room. I could have sworn the scream came from the house, but as I search the last room, I realize they must have been on the back deck. I wink us out there, gasping when I see a pile of black feathers. “No! No!”

  Sam is shaking, his head twitching back and forth. His dark eyes fill with liquid, and when he stares at me they look like bottomless pools. “What did I do?” he whispers.

  Hanna is the one screaming and I have to assume Aleks is the pile of feathers. I step forward as the wind starts to send the outer feathers astray in the yard.

  The shock and horror of the whole thing is crippling me. I drop to my knees, aching and grunting my gasps and cries. They can’t escape my lips as a true cry for the air is stuck in there, blocked by the shock and agony of Aleks not being in the world. I pick up the single white feather, wanting so badly to clutch to it. But it is not mine. His heart was not mine.

  I turn, shaking with my silent sobs and pass it to Ari. She takes it and presses it into Hanna’s hand. Hanna drops to her knees, curling around the feather and crying in shrieks.

  Sam is stunned. Through the kaleidoscope my eyes have become, I can see the shock on his face. He shakes his head. “We can’t die. I can’t have killed him. We can’t die.” His words are a chant of desperation and refusal to accept what has occurred.

  Ari turns and slaps him hard. “WHAT DID YOU DO?”

  He shakes his head. “I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.”

  She grabs his wrist to wink him but I see the change in him instantly. A cold calm takes over him. He stops moving and shaking as a small grin creeps across his beautiful lips. I snatch Ari, dragging her back.

  Hanna crawls to me, gripping at my leg like a child might. “Kill me too. Kill me so I can find him.” The desperation in her voice is crushing. There is no sanity without him; I can see that. She will turn evil and we will end up fighting her instead of having her help us. Not that she has been much help.

  I hate the fact she is Aleks’ true love when she was Sam’s. She was supposed to be his. I wish I didn't have to do the thing I am about to do. But if I were her, I would ask for the same thing. I grab her cheeks and lift her face, pressing my lips against hers and freeing her soul. She drops to the deck, bursting into a pile of black feathers. There is no white feather and the one Aleks left behind is gone as well.

  I turn, confused and still shocked. The ball has not dropped for me. Reality is a painful awareness that the person I might have loved once, even if it was forced, is never coming back.

  Sam’s face twists into an evil grimace. “WHY DID YOU DO THAT?”

  I step back, shocked at the rage coming from him. “It was the right choice.”

  He snarls at me, winking and vanished.

  I collapse into a fit of tears, confusion, and heartbreak. Ari collapses with me, hugging me and sobbing. We wail, alone and lost for what feels like an eternity as the black feathers fill the air all around us. I want to lie on them, surround myself in his smell. I might not have loved him that way anymore, but I did love him in one way—he was my friend.

  Ari is trembling against me when I swear I hear something I couldn’t possibly hear. I turn, wondering if I too have lost my mind. But there she is. I stand quickly, dragging Ari up too.

  The raven-haired beauty comes across the grass with a mist that freaks me out, like a Stephen King movie. She pauses, tilting her head. “I owe you.” Her voice makes my skin crawl. “I just wanted to stop in and say thank you. Without your betrayal of Aleks, my plan might never have worked.”

  I swallow hard. “That’s not who I think it is, right?”

  “Ari, darling. Look at you. As I live and breathe, you are the fairest in the land. Are you not?”

  Ari scowls. “Who are you?”

  “Lillith.” The name leaves my lips like the description of poison might. It dawns on me then, where I have seen her beautiful and perfect face before. It was on the face of one of my best friends. Sam. “Sam is your child?”

  Ari turns, giving me a look.

  Lillith laughs—that very same perfect evil-bitch laugh.

  “It can’t be true. We would have known.”

  I shake my head. “No, we wouldn't have. She’s done everything in her power to ensure neither he, nor we, knew who he was.”

  Lillith stops laughing and nods. “You are a smart girl. Now can you guess how on Earth I managed to fool Lorri? The infamous Lorri? God’s right hand? Blah, blah, blah.” She looks up at the sky and screams. “THAT WAS THE HARDEST PART! WAITING FOR YOU TO COME AND GET HIM AND SAVE HIM! FOR ME!” She cackles some more and the whole picture starts to form in my head. Jonathan might have wanted the nephilim kids, but it would have only been because he knew one of them was Lillith’s. He wanted the child because he or she was the key to winning the war as the antichrist. Jonathan probably knew all along.

  The words feel dirty on my lips, like a lie even though I know they are not. “Sam is the antichrist.”

  She claps her slender hands together. “Brava, Aimee. You really are the smartest one.”

  I don't have a single thing to say in return. The thought that Sam is the antichrist takes up all the space in my head. I wince, realizing she must want to kill us. But she just waves and smiles. “Thanks again for tipping the scales in my favor. I never thought he would commit the sin I needed from him. I was terrified your influence over him might stop it, but I see Hanna’s betrayal really was the best chance. Had you and Aleks not stopped being an item, they might never have realized they were soul mates I separated a long time ago in hopes of this moment. Thank you.” She snaps her fingers as a flame shoots toward us but before I can blink, I am gone. Ari has winked us to the spot where Aleks’ family is buried. Her face is swollen and red and I can’t breathe.

  I want to find Sam and make certain he’s okay, but I’m scared of what he has become. I give Ari a hug, feeling the senseless loss of life burning through me.

  “We have to find Sam and make sure he’s okay. He can’t become the antichrist. She can’t win. We have to find him and make him good again.”

  Ari nods, wiping her face. She pulls a handful of feathers from her pocket. “It’s Hanna and Aleks.” She walks to the spot we once buried him and digs at the ground. She pushes the feathers into the ground and covers it with a massive boulder the size of her own body. She lifts it like it weighs nothing and places it over the spot where the feathers are. “Now they can be together forever.”

  I nod. “I wonder how long Lillith has kept them apart?”

  She shakes her head. “This is fucked up.”

  I wink us both to Lydia’s yard. I see him long before Ari does because I know exactly where to look, and her eyes are stuck on the ruins of our beloved home. I wink to him, and sit on the bench next to him. He’s trembling and breathing in a crazy way. “Aimes, I killed him. I didn't know I could.”

  I turn, wiping my face. “Sam, you aren’t bad. Lillith just made you love Hanna, made you think you were part siren and Hanna’s soul mate. But it wasn't true. None of it was. She made it all up. She did it so that you would feel the heartache of Hanna’s betrayal and turn into her weapon. A weapon Lorri made stronger than Lillith ever could have.”

  He shakes his head. “No. I am Hanna’s soul mate. She just got lost.” His tone is creepy, serial-killer creepy. He sounds like he keeps fingers in a box in his basement. “She will love me again.”

  I grab his hand. “She’s dead. She’s gone. It’s time for you to realize you’re better off without her.”

  He shoves me so hard I have to wink before I land in the water. He stands and holds his hands out, looking at them. “Help me, Aimes. Something is terribly wrong with me.”

  I walk to him from the lake’s edge but he holds his hands up. “I don't want to hurt you. I love you more than I love myself, but I don't feel like I have a grip on this.” He wi
nks and is gone and I have a terrible feeling about what is next.

  I turn to see Ari holding herself, staring at the broken and burned house. The whole neighborhood is a mess. The trees are down and the concrete is broken. It doesn't look like the kind of place Lydia would have lived. I wink to her, shaking my head. “He’s gone and I don't think we will ever get him back.”

  She stares at the rubble and nods. “This is fucked.”

  I nod along. “Very.”

  “Aimee? Ari?” I turn to see Oliver standing on the road—the broken and burned road. He looks confused and lost. “Are you dead?” he asks.

  I shake my head, walking toward him. “Are you here?” I look at Ari. “Can you see him?”

  She nods. “Guess it all just got a lot more fucked.”

  “Great, ‘cause that’s what we needed. More of a challenge.”

  He furrows his dark brows and shakes his head. “Is Ophelia here?”

  I shake my head. “You are the only person we have seen, who shouldn't be here.”

  He winces and looks up. “Oh God.” He swallows hard. “I can only assume this is the point he meant.”

  “What?” Ari cocks an eyebrow.

  “He told us we would be coming back, if any of you died.”

  “All of you?” I ask, slightly hopeful for my own selfish reasons.

  He nods as his eyes dart behind me. He looks relieved and waves. “Hey, mate.”

  I don't look. I’m scared of what I’ll see. But when I hear his voice I feel the weight of the entire world come off my shoulders. “Are we back?” he asks.

  Oliver nods. I turn to see Dorian standing on the burned and dead grass. His dark eyes narrow. “Are you real?”

  My face cracks into a huge grin as I tilt my head back and nod. “Thank you. We needed that.”

  “You are real?”

  Ari runs to him, wrapping her thin arms around him. “DAD!”

  He hugs her back, closing his eyes and sighing. “Oh, thank God, this is really happening.”

  I feel warmth behind me as Oliver comes and embraces me. He smells me and nods. “They’re real, Aimee sort of stinks. Angels rarely stink.”

  Dorian drags Ari to me and wraps his arms around us both. “My girls.”

  Holding us all, I wink to Shane’s, just in case.

  Chapter Eleven

  All the reasons not to be in love

  “Explain it to me once more.” Blake paces, waving his hand at me.

  “Once upon a time—”

  “Don't be an ass. Just the basics.” He snaps at me. Dorian’s eyebrow cocks at the tone of Blake’s voice.

  “Hanna and Aleks were always soul mates—always. We think his father’s curse prevented him from ever finding his soul mate. Then he met me. He loved me and I loved him, but it was never to the depth he and Hanna would have.”

  Dorian mouths, “Or me and you!”

  I roll my eyes and continue. “Aleks was the most loyal person on the planet.”

  Dorian mouths. “Apart from me.”

  I lift my middle finger into the air and continue. “Aleks fought his attraction to Hanna until he became an angel and started doing whatever the hell he pleased.”

  Blake shakes his head. “That doesn’t explain Hanna fighting her attraction to him.”

  “That was Lillith’s doing. She spelled Sam when he was a baby, we think. It’s the only way it makes sense. She spelled him and convinced Sam’s mom that she gave birth to him. So everyone believed he was half siren.”

  Blake nods. “That’s why he wasn't able to go into the black water.”

  Lorelei shrugs. “They said he wasn't no half angel and had bad juju.”

  “Right—and Lillith, though she had ‘first human ever’ status in the beginning, was no siren or human. Whatever the hell she was, she’s close to angel now and she’s got all that stolen magic from the fae. They must hate her for what she took from them.”

  Blake looks constipated. “So Hanna and Sam always believed they were in love because Lillith wanted it that way?”

  “She wanted him to have his heart broken and destroyed. She must have known what Lorri made—Jonathan must have told her. She waited for the moment Lorri made us all what we are, knowing she would turn Sam. He was a Rose and worked as hard as everyone else. Then she broke the curse on Hanna, freeing her to love Aleks, her real soul mate.”

  Dorian holds a hand up, speaking aloud instead of mouthing cheeky shit. “Well, I’d say that's not entirely how it went. I would imagine Lillith didn't have to break the spell on Hanna and Aleks. Lorri’s power sort of reset everyone and everything. So Lillith’s spell would have been washed from them. They would have felt the attraction and had no qualms about doing something about it.”

  Blake grimaces. “This is terrible. So not only can we die, even though she said we couldn't, but one of us is the fucking antichrist. And on top of that, all the little kids with magical powers that could have helped us, are in the garden, protected.”

  Marcus nods at Dorian. “Welcome back.”

  Dorian eyes me up. “Thanks, brother.” He takes my hand in his and tugs. “It was lovely seeing you all, but I have some discussion of my own to have before we can move on with our war and strategizing.” He winks and we are in his apartment in the city. It’s exactly as it was, only now it smells like a musty old coffin. He makes a face and walks to the drapes, drawing one back and cracking the window. As he does, smoke comes billowing in. He closes it again and shrugs. “Guess we will go for option number two.” He takes my hand and winks again. We are in the English countryside, staring at the burning remains of Aleks’ house. “Seriously?” He winks again, making me shudder. We are in a bedroom at a house I have never seen before. He nods. “That's better.” He turns and grins. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” My stomach aches with the desire for him to touch me, and with the oddest bit of guilt that we shouldn't be doing this.

  He runs his hand down my cheek, moving my hair from my face. “I have a thousand things I want to say to you. I never imagined I would be able to say them.” He steps in closer. “And now that you and I are alone and here, I don't give a flying fuck about a single one of them.” Passionately, he grabs my face and crashes roughly down upon me. His grip doesn’t lessen as his mouth spreads mine apart savagely. The kiss is intense but the ripping of our clothes is worse. He tears my leather jacket and pants from my body as if they are a sheath made of chiffon. My shirt is shredded within seconds. He steps back to admire me, holding my hand with his trembling one.

  “I have dreamt about this body from the moment I first saw you.” He lifts a finger, brushing it against my nipple softly. I clench from the desire coursing through me. He lifts my breast, almost like he’s weighing it, thumbing my nipple slightly. He drags his other hand down my torso, right down the middle. He stops on my belly, just above my pubic bone. There he runs the back of his hand across the top of my mound. He lowers it, brushing softly across my lips, dragging the back of one finger between them. His eyes never leave mine.

  He scoops me up, kissing me softly and carries me to the bed. The bedroom smells familiar but I have never been in it. He lays me down and starts kissing my stomach. “Tell me what you want from me.”

  I shake my head, startled that the moment has finally arrived and I’m acting like a simpering virgin.

  “Tell me the thing you like the most.”

  I swallow, glancing down at my vagina. I know the thing I like the most but I’m nervous to say it. He bends his face lower to my ear, whispering, “Whisper it to me.”

  He places his ear next to my mouth. I swallow hard again and whisper. “I want you to lick and suck my clit while making me come with your hand and pinching and teasing my nipples with your other hand. And then I never want to talk about this again.”

  He smiles and nods. “Your wish is my command.” He kisses my stomach again, making a trail of kisses until he reaches my legs. He spreads them, exposing all of me. He lowers his face, b
reathing his hot breath against the moisture that has started building between my legs. He kisses the inside of my thigh, remaining there moments, like he’s pressing the kisses in.

  His hand creeps up my stomach to my left nipple, lightly feathering his fingers across it. I gasp my breaths, enjoying the delicate way he does everything with me. It’s unexpected. Until his tongue slowly traces the lines of my lips, then I’m frozen, and yet still trembling from the delicate tracing of my nipple.

  He pinches my nipple at the exact moment he licks my slit, all the way to my clit and then flicks lightly. My eyes fight rolling into the back of my head as I moan and arch my back, trying to better his angle. He slides a finger up and down me, swirling in the lube I have created. He plunges the finger in, slow at first, maintaining the speed of his tongue’s flicking and caressing.

  He’s clearly done this very act before. He’s a master. His finger slides in and out of me, pumping with abrupt stopping as his hand hits near my ass. My whole body is tingling and it is exactly this moment he pinches my nipple, twisting a little as he speeds everything up.

  My soft whimpers and moans become grunts almost as he pumps his fingers in and out of me. Swirling heat builds low in my belly, forcing my legs to straighten. I clench down on his fingers as waves of pleasure crash through me. He doesn't relent. He increases the pace of his fingers but presses his face into my convulsing clitoris.

  When it’s over, I feel like I’ve jogged a marathon, but it isn’t over. He isn’t done yet. He slides a second finger into me, switches hands and begins caressing my other nipple and brings it all back. He uses his thumb to press down on my clit while spanking my holes with his thrusting hand.

  I come a second time, completely confused if it’s in my ass or my pussy, not that it matters. It’s amazing and electrifying.

  I don't know my name. I don't know where I am. I don't know his name, but I do know that he was made to fuck me. He climbs between my legs, kissing his way up. He nibbles at my neck as he pushes himself inside of me. My entire pussy is throbbing with pleasure, even before he enters, so when he does it’s almost too much. I’m on fire and he doesn't do a single thing to make the flames lower.