by Tara Brown
Ben ran over and whined. She lowered the dead man.
Giselle’s mouth dropped open, shocked. I knew the look. She’d slept with the dead guy. It was so obvious. She dug her hands into Ben's coat and rubbed his fur.
I didn’t really know the guy but I recognized him. Sam flashed to us. “Shit, is that Don?”
Hanna nodded and made weird monster noises.
I surveyed the castle grounds. The dirt had become mud with the blood of the dead and feathers were littered everywhere.
“This is disgusting. I need to take a picture for Blake. He’s gonna shit. It’s like a real raid.”
Everyone gaped at me in horror.
“What? We just killed a lot of people. This battle’s done.”
“No, more like a diversion.” Aleks stated. He had actually been to battle.
Lorri winked to where we were. “They're in the back. Now. Hands in.” She looked panicked. We all touched her and Sam. She winked and Sam followed.
We arrived at the real party.
The other Roses were not there but I could see Tristan. He sat on a stone bench with his head hanging down. I winked to him and grabbed him, but when my skin touched his I shot off the roof. As the ground came at my face, I winked back to where everyone was.
I scanned the area, seeing a tall blonde I assumed was Lillith. She and the other witches hadn’t noticed my little indiscretion. They didn't seem to be paying attention to Tristan.
Lorri scowled at me. “Yeah, like they never thought about the fact we all wink and flash about like faeries.”
“Whatever,” I sneered. “It was worth a try.”
Sam pointed at another lady. “She’s the one making the guard.”
Lorri whispered and pointed across the massive stone balcony, “I go for Lillith. Aimes, you get the one who’s making the guard. Sam, you get Tristan. Aleks, come with me for Lillith. Everyone else stay here just in case. Go.”
We winked.
I grabbed the guard witch as Sam grabbed Tristan. I winked to the lab and dodged a hellfire blast from her fingers as I winked back out.
Marcus was not going to thank me for that.
Suddenly, I felt sick, leaving her there. My voice cracked when I was with the group again, “I think I just screwed up. Hanna, tell your dad and Roland to get the kids and go to your house. Now.”
Hanna texted Roland. “Done. He says they already did that. They weren’t there. He hates Marcus’ house. Why?”
“Oh my God. I just left a witch who can do hellfire in the lab.”
Marcus turned his face and snarled, “My lab? My house?”
I opened my mouth but shut it as a giggle escaped.
His face pinched. He put a hand up to the bridge of his nose and did the yoga breathing again. “Aimee, have I wronged you in some way that you feel the need to ruin all my shit? Is this penance for my misdeeds? Did God himself ask you to do it?”
“I'm sorry. I panicked.” My answer didn’t improve the look on his filthy face. Gulping, I turned away and scanned the area for Lorri. But she, Aleks, and Sam were still gone. “Where are they?”
I spoke too soon. Aleks showed up. His side was burning.
“Hellfire?” I shouted.
He shook his head. “No. Regular fire. Lorri’s fighting her. She’s too strong for me. Lorri sent me back to help here in case it’s an ambush or more glamour. She wanted me to make sure Tristan still had the power.”
“Do we have Tristan?” I panicked when I saw Aleks’ face paling. Sam flashed back with the limp Tristan in his arms.
“It doesn’t matter now. He’s drained. She has it,” Sam groaned.
Aleks slumped. “Lorri’s with her fighting right now in some place she called the Garden of Eden.”
My eyes lit up. “I know that place. Marcus, can you wash Phillip's mind so he remembers shit again? Then we go to the Garden and kill Lillith.”
“Really? A favor? After what you just did? A favor? Aimee, I am not happy with you right now. Can we just not do this, not right now?” He didn't appear happy.
Giselle grabbed his face and planted a huge kiss on his lips. “Please,” she whispered.
“Fine.” He nodded like a robot. Giselle glanced back and winked at me.
“I know. I owe you a new castle.” I rolled my eyes.
He grabbed Phillip and glared at me harshly. “You replacing the priceless art as well?” He turned and spoke softly to Phillip who sputtered and sat up. He stared at us all and then glimpsed past us. He was up like a shot. “Trist.” He winked across the patio to where Tristan was being held by Sam. His eyes welled. Phillip grabbed him and kissed him but his face was sallow and soft.
“He’s dead inside. She took it all,” he cried. He rocked back and forth with Tristan lying limp in his arms. “Baby, I'm so sorry. I didn’t know. Baby.”
It was gut-wrenching to watch.
“Trist. My love. My only love.” Phillip sounded like he was dying inside.
Sam stepped forward. “We can help. Aimes can suck you both.”
“Uhhhhhh.” I grimaced. “You mean I can pull them?”
“That doesn't make it better.” Sam shook his head. “Just do it.”
“You want me to kill them?” I couldn't believe I was the out. I had to kill everyone now that Dorian was gone. All my friends.
Sam nodded. “Yes. Now get over here.”
Phillip implored me with a stare for a moment before he spoke, “Please, Aimee. He will never wake up. We’re both clean right now. Everything we have done, they made us do. We can be together in Heaven. Aimee, this is him, for eternity, if you don't do it. This is it. Please, send us on our way. Please.” He begged me with trembling lips and silent tears.
“Fine.” I put my hands on them at the same time. “I'm sorry,” I whispered into the cold wind that blew my words around.
“Not as sorry as I am.”
I pulled slowly, savoring the taste of them both. Phillip squeezed my hand with the last of his strength and soul, and then he too was gone.
I didn’t cry. I turned and scowled at everyone. “Let's go find her.”
I wanted Lillith dead. I wanted her to suffer and cry and scream in pain like we had. Everyone was dead. We were but a handful of what we once were.
Lorri appeared looking like herself. She did a head count and then her eyes met mine. I was glad they were their normal color again until she winked at me with a finger to her lips.
I was about to send Sam after her, when she winked back holding Blake's hand.
He pivoted around. “Holy shit, is this a castle? Where are we?” He looked queasy from the wink.
My stomach fluttered when I saw him in her arms.
“Time for me to show you what I make,” she said softly.
She grabbed his mouth and planted the biggest kiss ever. He pulled back, sputtering, “Lorri. What the heck?”
She smiled softly. “Bite the inside of your mouth till it bleeds.”
“Blake, don't do it.” I stepped toward them but he did it. He stared into her eyes and she kissed him again. His red blood and her black mixed and seeped out the creases. Gasps, curious looks, and trembling hands brought to trembling lips were all ignored. Blake and Lorri kissed like it was the last time they would ever touch another human being.
He pulled back, gasping for air and staring at me confusedly.
“No.” I shook my head in tiny movements. “Blake,” I whispered. I couldn’t imagine the horror crossing my face, but his confusion faded into fear when he saw me.
“Lorri,” I said, stepping forward. “Why did you do that?”
Her face was tragic and beautiful in the faded light of dusk on the hillside. She looked classic and dreadful.
She shoved him hard off the balcony where we were. He screamed. I winked but she winked and caught me in the air, taking us to the balcony below.
She held me. I tried winking but she stopped me. I didn’t hear his screams. Giselle was crying and Shane was holding her. His face sh
owed he was perplexed. We all were.
“It only takes a second,” Lorri whispered, holding my head to her shoulders like a mother would a child.
“What did you make him?”
“A savior.”
I pulled back. Lucas and Ben whined. They shook their heads like they had heard something we did not.
Lorri grabbed my face and looked into my eyes. “Do the same thing he did. Bite your cheek.”
I did it. I didn’t know why but I trusted her. She kissed me hard and passionately. She pulled back and grabbed my head roughly. Everything went black just as I caught a glimpse of something in the darkness. A bright light like I had never seen before.
Chapter 29
Hell hath no fury . . .
Aimee
I woke and pushed myself up from the ground. Everything hurt like it had when Dorian changed me, but it was sudden and brutal.
I glanced over at Ari. She was on the ground too. She was stunned and in pain like I was.
I stared up at Lorri standing above me. “What did you do?”
She shook her head. “I don't know. I’ve never done it before.”
Blake stood beside her. He almost glowed in the dark.
“What have you done to him?”
His head snapped toward me with a grin like I'd never seen. He was ecstatic. “Aimes, I'm an angel.”
I focused my eyes better and gasped. His shirt was gone. Stretched out from his back was a pair of huge black wings. They blended into the night. I glanced at Shane and saw the same thing. His chiseled and muscular chest was bare, but behind him was a pair of massive wings.
“You make angels?” I whispered.
“Yes.” She pressed her lips together. “Not just any kind of angel though.”
It dawned on me when I saw Aleks. He was dressed and normal-looking, except his face which was angry.
“You have condemned our souls?” Sam said slowly staring behind him at the wings on his back.
Giselle was shaking and attempting to stand. I winked and stood for a moment on the mountaintop in Norway. I winked back. “I still wink.”
“You can never go to Heaven, Aimee.” Lorri’s face tightened with regret. “I've taken your souls.”
“You are the devil? The real devil?” I muttered, still stunned.
Only Lucas, Ben, and Aleks looked the way they had before. I screamed as my shirt ripped from me and my back exploded in pain. I turned my head to see the black wings and cried. They were so beautiful and frightening I couldn’t cope. I covered my chest and sobbed. Aleks looked frightened.
“I am the real devil, Aimee. I was sent with the mission of keeping the balance. I've always had the ability to create an army of darkness. An army of beings so strong that no force could kill them. But all my brothers have betrayed me. All of them. It was a losing battle. I just didn’t see it. Like Jonathan said, I was always the last to know.” She strolled to where Aleks was. She stared at me. “I have never done it before. I needed to be sure.” She punched Aleks in the face hard. She grabbed his mouth and planted a kiss on him. They flashed and winked, and then they were back and he was on the ground. “Lorri, what the hell?” he growled at her.
She stood back and watched us changing and touching ourselves. Lucas and Ben crept backward on the balcony.
She pointed at them and wagged her finger.
I ran to Aleks and held him close. His warmth sent chills across my naked skin.
I stared back at her. “Why would you do this to us?”
“It's too late.” She winked and was behind Aleks. She snapped his neck. He dropped to the ground. I screamed.
His neck started making popping sounds.
She sighed. “I have failed. You are Plan B.” She winked and grabbed the wolves and winked them away.
Ari was crying and shaking. She turned to face me, mirroring my terrified expression.
My wings felt the breeze in them. They felt the way my arms or legs did. I could feel every feather.
Giselle spun like a dog trying to catch its tail.
Shane started to smile at Blake who was jumping and flapping the wings like a bird. Shane's began to twitch.
Ari was shaking and trembling until Lucas’ dead body was dumped next to hers. Then Ben's. They were in naked human form. Ari was shirtless and covering herself, sobbing into Lucas’ bare skin.
Lorri was back. Marcus stepped forward. “You had this all along? Why didn't you use it?”
“I couldn’t. It’s the emergency hatch. Once pulled it couldn’t be unpulled. These cannot be unmade. There is no destroying them. No hellfire. No magic. No angel. No nothing. They're completely indestructible. God's last stand against it all. Do you have any idea the kind of power that is to bestow upon someone?”
He laughed and pointed. “You chose this group? These people?”
“I have. They are called redeemers. They can redeem a soul and send it back to Heaven. For every soul they save, the balance will tip slightly in the favor of the light.” I caught the stolen glance she sent me. I knew what she wanted.
Aleks started to stir. He woke and screamed. He flashed away. We all had our safe haven we went to when we were scared. He and I shared the same one.
Lorri pointed. “These are true angels. How I was before I fell.”
Marcus sighed and watched Giselle who was still moving in a circle trying to touch her wings. “This was the best you had to choose from?”
Lorri laughed. “Yes. No human or immortal has lived through what they have. Except you and I, buddy.”
He puffed his chest out. “I'm one of them.”
Lorri gave him a look and rolled her eyes. “I trust them. Completely.”
Shane did sound excited when he spoke, “What do we do now?”
Lorri’s tone was grim. “Prepare. You can feel pain. You can bleed. You can suffer. She will try to make you live through all of those things. She will try to make you join her. She will have things equally as strong as you are.”
I glanced at Ben's twitching body. Lucas woke with a start and screamed. He tried to phase but instead his wings shot from his back.
Aleks was back. His huge beautiful black wings looked amazing on his strong thick physique.
Blake tried to see things through his glasses and then took them off. He put them in his pocket. “So you made us into angels of darkness, but we are good?”
“You are what you want to be. I have given you the ultimate immortality. You will live forever. With that comes horrible amounts of responsibility and terrible things to cope with.”
“Alise?” Blake whispered.
“She can't ever know.” Lorri folded her arms. “No one can know, beyond all of you here.”
I glanced at Hanna and realized my hatred was gone. I just saw the sweet girl she was, had always been. She held her hands over her breasts and shook her head. “My siren? My beast?”
Lorri shook her head. “Gone. You can all wink but no more wolves, no more blood lust, or succubus powers. Nothing but the pure power of God.”
“Lorri”—I crossed my arms over my chest and shivered—“it's too much. You've made a mistake. We aren’t worthy of something like this. We'll screw it up. I know we will. One of us is going to be bad and join Lillith in her evil deeds. I know it.” My voice was panicked.
Lorri laughed. “I'm counting on it. I'm also counting on the rest of you to be the team you've always been. The best Roses I have ever had.”
Sam spun around. “Where are you going to be?”
“Retired. I will ask one of you to step forward and help me out. Then Abbey. If you don't mind.”
“What?” I gasped.
“Retired?”
“How?”
“Lorri, we can't do this alone.”
“She’s kidding. She’s kidding us.”
She shook her head. She winked and was back a moment later with her girlfriend. The silence of the dark was creepy. She smiled at me. Abbey looked stupified.
“You guys have wings?” She grinned at Lorri. “That’s sweet, huh? Did you get wings too, baby?”
Lorri shook her head. “Not yet.” She turned to me. “It works exactly the same as before, Aimes.”
I took a breath. “I have a million questions. You can't go.”
She put her arms out. “You have each other. I'm afraid I didn’t have a choice. Making you all took everything there was in me. There’s nothing left. I'll be useless now.”
I swallowed and stepped forward. The fever and heat wasn’t there. There was nothing. My hands shuddered when I lifted them and touched her and Abbey. Abbey was clearly dumfounded. “Aimee? Lorri?”
Lorri nodded her head toward Abbey. “One at a time now, Aimes. Her first.”
I pulled my hand off Lorri and squeezed Abbey's arm. She tried to pull away but I gripped her hard.
“Aimee!” Her voice broke with panic and fear. Terror filled her watery eyes. I closed my eyes and did my thing. It was different. It was cool and refreshing. I didn’t feel like feeding. I was floating, sailing down the river of her memories and thoughts. It was instant. I opened my eyes. She was on the ground in a heap.
My eyes stung straightaway when I looked into Lorri’s eyes. “Don't leave me.”
“Never. You’ll always have help, Aimee. You always did. He won’t leave you.” Lorri shook her head. “And we’ll always have the Sisterhood of the Bloody Boots.” She offered a joke and her hand.
Tears flooded my eyes as I glanced back at the others. They were desperate. Aleks took a step forward. I shook my head and turned back to her. I closed my eyes again. This time it was long and musical almost. Lorri’s memories were huge and amazing. They spanned the world's life. I saw so many things all at once. I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t keep them as memories or knowledge. They floated past me in a cool breeze. Joy and pain, bliss and love, fear and friendship. The way Abbey's face beamed in her mind made me happy. There was a bright light, a flash. And then it was dark.
I opened my eyes. She was on the ground in a heap next to her love.
I stepped back. I didn’t want to touch them, disturb them. Lorri changed into a pile of black feathers, again taking her heart with her. Her feathers covered Abbey and then fluttered off into the cool breeze. I lost sight of them in the darkness.