The Roses Academy- the Entire Collection

by Tara Brown

  “Of course. I mean, I can try,” Ophelia responded.

  “You can keep the secret for us? Not tell Annabelle during your witchy lessons?”

  “I won’t say a word.”

  I stared into her eyes, trying hard not to focus on only one. “I need another favor.”

  “Okay.” She continued to smile. She might have given me anything I asked for. I just didn’t want anything.

  “I need you to find out about changing me back and fixing my heart.”

  “Okay.”

  “Oliver said it was possible, but you have to find some dark witches to do it.”

  “I'll do whatever you want, Sam.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” I got up.

  She put the book down, rose from the chair, and walked from the room, almost as if instantly following my orders.

  I flashed into the kitchen where Giselle was sucking the neck of a man against the counter.

  “You’re eating people now?” I asked flatly.

  She pulled away. “Derek, I'd like you to meet Tham. Tham, thith ith Derek.”

  “Why are you eating your date?”

  “It's my kitchen. I'll eat whoever I want.” She laughed. Her blood-stained fangs popped back, leaving her with normal teeth, except they were covered in blood. “He has a blood disorder. He used to get bled or leached. Like barf. Anyway, Jeeves knew about him because of Marcus. Marcus always had a few of them he kept around.”

  “Hamish told you he has a blood disorder?” I asked.

  “I do. I have hemochromatosis. I have to lose a half-liter of blood every week,” the man answered.

  “No more bags for you then, huh?”

  She smiled her bloody grin. “Dude, there are millions of these people. It's like the most common shit wrong with people.”

  “How did Hamish find you?” I asked him.

  The man shrugged. “My doctor. He was a friend of that Marcus guy.”

  “I see. So you are part of the blood kept on tap?”

  “I wasn’t before. Marcus liked girls.”

  Giselle looped her arm into the man's. “Come on, I'll get Jeeves to take you home.”

  I sat at the table and wondered what to do next.

  My phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket, clueless as to who it could be. “Hello.”

  “Sam, my boy, Hanna has told me what you've done. Come to the mansion, right away.”

  “Sure. Okay, Roland.” I flashed from the chair before I had even pressed end on the call.

  Chapter 18

  Creepy Uncle Oliver

  Ophelia

  The bedroom was dim with candles and a lit fire as the only light sources. The air was always damp on the West Coast. I didn’t like it. The East Coast was damp but it was different, not so cold. I couldn’t recall why I’d listened to Sam, but when I left him, his magic wore off and I was annoyed by his mind control.

  In the firelight I caught a glimpse of Oliver. He smiled at me from the reading chair next to the hearth. “I was wondering when you would come and see me.”

  “I don't really like the way you creep around in my head.”

  “I see.” He laughed and closed the book in his lap. He tilted his head. “But I don’t really creep around. It's no different than talking. You just have the ability to read minds. All the strongest witches do.”

  I raised an eyebrow and sat in the chair across from him. “Why can't I hear everyone?”

  “You haven’t hit your power yet. At eighteen, you'll—well blossom, so to speak. Everything will come into you.”

  “How do you know so much about me?”

  “I've been around for a long time.”

  “So you're really old?”

  “I suppose I am.” He laughed. “Tell me why you're here.”

  “I just wanted to see you.”

  He leaned forward. “I wish that were true.”

  “It is.”

  “Did Tristan come for you?”

  “Who?”

  “Your brother.”

  “Tristan?” My eyes darted to the flames licking at the large stone fireplace. I hadn’t known his name before that moment. “No.”

  “Don’t lie to me.” He lifted a shackled leg. “I only allow this to stop me from killing everyone in here because I need you. Don’t make that not be the case.”

  “He came to me.” I gulped.

  “Did he tell you about my son?”

  “He said he was his friend.”

  Oliver nodded. “His best friend. The only friend your brother has ever had. His life has been a lonely one.”

  “What did he do, your son?”

  “He fell in love with the siren Jonathan keeps as a slave.”

  “That’s disgusting.”

  “I know,” Oliver agreed. “Your father has never understood how to love anything. The darkness filled him early on in our lives here. He became what he is almost as soon as we got to Earth. He let the shadows and taint fill him up.”

  “What's your excuse for being evil?”

  “Rebellious nature.” His eyes grew dark. “I disagreed with our rules. I always saw what Lorri was doing as subjective. She’s biased and unfair. Dorian has lain with human women. Just because he never reproduced, Lorri never killed him. He’s her favorite.”

  “He has a child. Ari is his.”

  Oliver's eyes flashed. “You lie.”

  “He never knew until recently but I don’t lie. Ari is his daughter.”

  “Well then, you can see the hypocrisy for yourself.”

  I shrugged. “I guess. What's it like where Jonathan lives?”

  Oliver put his hands behind his head. “So do you want me to draw a map or will you remember the things I tell you?” He looked smug.

  I glanced at him. “What?”

  He chuckled. His navy dress shirt and dress pants made him seem proper and professional. The loafers were the icing on the businessman apparel. But the tattoos climbing from his neckline and out the rolled-up sleeve made me wonder what else there was to him. His blue eyes sparkled in the orange glow. He was wearing different clothes than when he arrived here. “Did you go home to change?”

  “I just popped over to my apartment and grabbed a shower.”

  “You left here?”

  “Maybe.” He grinned and my stomach tightened.

  “You're like Sam, aren’t you? You're making me attracted to you.”

  His lip turned up into a lopsided grin. “You're attracted to me?”

  “No, I mean you're making me feel things.” I blushed and glanced down.

  He leaned forward, brushing his fingers against my hand. “What are you feeling?”

  I shivered, watching his long fingers trace lines along mine. “I-I-I don't know. You all make me so confused.”

  He interlaced our fingers together. “I could make you feel things no one else could. I think you're meant for me, now that I see you.”

  Gasping, I lifted my face to find his inches away. His warm breath fell upon my lips. I licked them and backed away slowly. “You're messing with me.” I swallowed hard.

  Oliver leaned in closer. His size made me feel like a child. “Close your eyes. Blank your mind. Just listen to the fire. Let me in.”

  The smell of him wafted into my nose making my heart flutter. I studied his face and foolishly I trusted him. I wasn’t entirely sure why, but I did. I closed my eyes. He kept his distance but maintained the contact of our hands.

  My breath grew ragged as the warm flicker of the fire created flashes in my mind. I listened to the fire cracking the logs. The warmth was unbearable.

  He massaged his thumb in the palm of my hand, shooting a flash into my mind, a vision.

  His arms encompassed me. His body wrapped entirely around me. I didn’t struggle. I had no control over the vision. My body was his to control. The vision was his. His lips brushed along my throat, making sweat form along my brow. His hands pulled at my clothes, touching the soft skin beneath. I was amazed at the hardness o
f his body against the softness of mine. Our lips met, but before I could feel the kiss, the flash stopped.

  Gasping again, I breathed through my mouth, suffering with the sensation of being blindfolded. I bit my lower lip, waiting for him to continue, but nothing else happened. I opened one eye to see a wide grin spread across his lips.

  “I take it you liked my imagery?”

  “Oh my God!” I jumped up from the chair and raced from the room. His laugh echoed in the walls of the massive hallway.

  I ran into the sitting room to see Aimee and Ari with their heads pressed against each other’s. “You two can work him over for the details! He's not as stupid as you think he is. He knows we want the map.” I turned and stormed to my room.

  I closed the door, trying to ignore the shake of my hands. I lifted a hand to my face, feeling the flush and warmth, and sighed. He was worse than Sam.

  Drained and embarrassed, I climbed onto my bed and lay back, fighting the image of him touching me. I realized, lying there, that the image had been us in my bed and not his.

  That was when I smelled him again.

  I opened my eyes to see him walking across the room. He knelt at my bed, offering his handsome smile. “Hello again.”

  “You laughed at me,” I said into the darkness between us.

  “I was laughing with you.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t laughing, and you're old and friends with my evil dad. Very old. You shouldn’t be in here.”

  His English accent grew thicker. “I've changed, love.”

  “No, you haven’t. You're trying to seduce me. I'm a seventeen-year-old girl.”

  “You’re weeks from eighteen.” He laughed. “But I guess, it's true.” He gazed up through his lashes. “Is it working?”

  “No.” My voice was a squeak.

  “Okay, we can talk then if you prefer.”

  “How old are you?” I hated that I was attracted to him. Maybe it meant I liked the dark and would choose that side. Maybe he was here to tempt me into that.

  “Old. I don’t have a number. There was no time when I was born. I was a star and then I was a man.”

  “A star?” I contemplated that. “Did you watch over the Earth?”

  “Yes.” He leaned closer. “If I'd known you existed, I would have watched you every day. I would be a star again in a heartbeat to spend every moment watching you.”

  “You're intense,” I whispered.

  “I have never been intense a moment in my life, before this one. I think I always knew I would meet you. Maybe not you, as in Jonathan's daughter, but you as you are. If we were peasants in towns across the world, I would have found my way to you.”

  It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me.

  I watched his face, trying to find a flaw to focus on, but he was perfect.

  “Sleep.” He sat in the chair as if ready to pounce, but he didn’t.

  “I can't sleep with you here. What if you do something creepy to me in my sleep?”

  He gasped, obviously offended. “You honestly believe me capable of that? If I do creepy things to you, I want you to be awake for them.”

  “That’s creepy, just saying it like that. It—that’s creepy.”

  “Well, aren’t you glad you're awake then?”

  “No, I wish I was sleeping and this was all a dream.”

  “You feel it when you're with me, don’t you? You feel that we are meant to be together?”

  “No. I need to find my ruby slippers so I can click my heels and then go home and graduate, and go to college like a normal girl. And not hook up with some old angel.”

  “Well, if this were Oz, I think I would be a wizard to your Dorothy. I would force you to stay with me forever and never go home.” He smiled wide.

  “No, you would be the Tin Man. You wouldn’t have known you had a heart all along.” I mocked him.

  “Sleep, Dorothy.” He said it again.

  And as if on command, my eyes got heavy. I tried to fight it but I couldn’t.

  Chapter 19

  The truth of the matter

  Sam

  Roland looked older and more worn. “You can fix it, but you have to go to the dark witches.”

  “I know. I just don’t know where they are.”

  Roland rubbed his forehead in the comfy, worn chair in the den that seemed out of place compared to the niceties everywhere. He brought his glass of scotch and ice up to his lips and sipped at it for a moment. “Lydia was raised by dark witches. She grew up in the South and was being taught to be a dark witch when Annabelle and her grandmother stole Lydia. They raised her in the light. Many of the dark witches live in the South. It's the reason Lydia came to the West Coast. They were attempting to escape the hunters, the dark hunters.”

  I didn’t know the story of Lydia at all. She never shared details. “How do you know this?”

  Roland smiled. “I am a descendant of a very dark and powerful family. I grew up in England, but a couple hundred years ago, I came to the New World. I met Lydia then.”

  I frowned. “What are you?”

  “Fae. I'm a were.”

  I was intrigued. “Why can't we smell it on you?”

  “I don’t shift, ever. It's why I'm aging. I never let the magic touch me.”

  “You loved Hanna's mom, didn’t you?”

  Roland nodded. “A long time ago. She loved me as well.”

  “Fae are a hard one to avoid for us.” I knew beforehand that fae were an issue for me. Before I broke my own heart.

  Roland laughed bitterly. “I made it rather easy for her.” He cut off his laugh with a sigh. “I loved her so much. I swore I would protect her forever. Even after she met the doctor and that was it for me.”

  “Why didn’t you leave?”

  Roland's dark eyes were stricken. “I’d already made a blood pact with her. I would feel her. I would love her. I would serve her. I would ask for nothing of her.”

  “She let you?”

  He nodded slowly. “She did.”

  “That's awful.” Hanna’s mother was one of the bad sirens, clearly.

  Roland sipped his drink. “Perhaps, but it was the way things were done. The doctor and I suffered together. Both afflicted with the same illness, both of us and Marcus.”

  “Is that why she had the match broken, to remove the effects on you all?”

  “Yes. After the doctor changed into Hyde he lost the siren’s bond. Marcus held her bond after that. She hated it so she severed the match, killing all love inside her.” Roland's face crumpled painfully. “She almost killed me the day she broke it. I was the only one blood bonded to her. The pain was unbearable when she went to Lydia and broke all the bonds. Hanna’s dad was oblivious. His love for her never changed, even when Marcus took her bond from him. Marcus knew, but he believed she had broken the match with him and rematched with the doctor. He was unaware that she had done it to spare the doctor.”

  “She did?”

  “He was human, apart from the science experiment he did to himself. Her pity for the doctor and his want of a normal life.”

  “She didn’t know the price would be that she couldn't love her own child?” I asked.

  “No.” Roland shook his head.

  “And then she took her life?” I couldn’t believe this.

  Roland's eyes flashed with anger. “Young man, you will never repeat that story. If Hanna knew . . .”

  “She will never hear it from my lips.”

  Roland appeared broken. “When the young miss came into our lives, everything got better. But the act grew too taxing on her mother. In the moment of her death, I saw her for the weak thing she was. She let Marcus believe that she had done it to stop him and his lust for her. With no match, she was almost impossible to be near. The bracelet calmed it but never removed it from her. The day she took her own life was the worst day of my life.” His old eyes filled with tears.

  I had no pity or remorse, though I wished I did.

&nb
sp; “The best day was when Miss Hanna came home to live here. I see all the best qualities of her mother and father within her.” He made direct eye contact with me. “You must fix what you have done to her. It hurts, Sam. It hurts so much.”

  “I’ll try, Roland.”

  “You will keep my secret?” he pleaded.

  “Of course.”

  “Take Ophelia to Alabama. There is a region called Lillian. It is named for a dark witch. She can find them. Be cautious. Trust no one, and if it gets dangerous, flash the pair of you out of there.”

  “Should I bring Hanna?”

  “No. God no.” Roland shook his head. “She will be sacrificed for the animal inside her. Marcus used her blood for all sorts of unsavory things for a reason.”

  “I'm sorry for your losses, Roland.”

  “You don’t have to say it.” Roland smiled a sad grin. “I know you are incapable of sorrow, my son. You are incapable of all feelings. But thank you for the sentiment.”

  “I wish I could take it back. I wish I was able.”

  “Can Ari change the fate?”

  “Too risky.” I shrugged. “Ophelia is such a major piece in all the puzzles that if we don’t tread carefully with her, the world is at stake.”

  “Understood. Safe travels, my son.”

  I put my hand out for the old man to take. “Let me know when you’ve had enough.”

  Roland chuckled. “Oh, not yet. I have an arrangement with Miss Aimee.”

  “Fair enough.”

  I flashed back to the mansion, sleepy and lost in the story. Sirens really were the worst of the magic world. I wished I had never laid eyes on Hanna. My heart would argue if it had a voice.

  Chapter 20

  Night sweats

  Ophelia

  I woke feeling cramped and sweaty and realized I was in my clothes and sneakers. I had fallen asleep fully dressed. I kicked the shoes off and slid my jeans down. I pulled my tee shirt over my head and savored the night air on my sweaty, naked skin.