The Roses Academy- the Entire Collection

by Tara Brown

  Grandmamma shakes her head and sighs. “Lorri. She ain’t da kinda friend no sane person wants. She bad juju.”

  I cross my arms. “What kind of bad juju?”

  Ramón gulps and smirks nervously. “The devil kind. And that ain’t even the worst part. If she helps us, Grandmamma's gonna owe her a favor.”

  I glance at Grandmamma. She gives me her blank stare. “I already know what da favor gonna be. I already know dey be helping us. Helping you claim what's yours.”

  “I don’t understand. Can't I claim it now?” I am so confused.

  “No. You can claim some but some left behind. Can't claim it all with da devil's soul inside you like dat.”

  I swallow. “What are we going to do?”

  Ramón looks sickened. “Call the Roses Academy.”

  Chapter 18

  It didn’t sound like assassins when he said Roses Academy. However, when they arrive I can smell the blood on their hands from a mile. I assumed some things, I can't lie. But I didn’t assume five people would show up and I would be the least weird one in the room.

  The redhead walks in the door first, with a feisty smile and passionate eyes. She looks at me like she knows all about me somehow. I swallow nervously as she crosses her arms. “Well, well, well.” She eyes me up.

  A dark-haired girl with dark eyes smiles and waves softly as she follows the redhead in. “Hi,” she whispers. “I'm Ari.”

  She’s followed by a tall blonde who's my height but drop-dead gorgeous and reeks of vampire blood. She gives me a grim stare. Her cold gray eyes are pained and haunted. We could probably be friends. “Aimee. Nice to meet you.”

  A tall guy with shaggy hair and the scent of wet dog nods, not saying anything, as he comes in.

  Finally, a man walks in. Instantly, I have the urge to kneel before him. His will cripples mine. He flashes me a grin.

  The redhead barks back at him, “Stop it.”

  He sneers at her. “No.”

  She turns and smiles bitterly at Grandmamma. “So we have a deal?”

  Ramón looks nervously at his grandmamma and then me. “Deal with the devil?”

  The redhead shoots him a glare. “Don't piss me off, ghost boy.”

  Ramón snaps his fingers and flames shoot up in a circle around her.

  Grandmamma speaks a whisper and the flames go away. Her face doesn’t change, but I can hear the anger in her voice, “No.”

  Ramón's eyes drop to the floor in shame.

  “Take dem to Angie.” Grandmamma nods toward me.

  My stomach drops. “I can't do this. I can smell the death on them. They're gonna hurt her.”

  The weird guy’s eyes are on me. He’s trying to force my will again. My knees almost buckle but something happens. A flash of anger hits me when I turn my face to his, a grin splits across his lips. “Stop doing that,” I growled.

  “Oh my. What have we got here? Did your witch blood just make you defy me?” He takes a step toward me, making something twist in my belly.

  I don’t know what that means. I shake my head and mutter, “I don't know.”

  He appears to accept the challenge of my defiance. It makes me scared and intrigued.

  The blonde speaks, “Marcus, stop it. Leave her alone.”

  He ignores her and walks to me. He cocks his head. “I'm gonna come find you when this is over.”

  His words make me feel naked and terrified. I glance at Ramón who shakes his head subtly.

  The redhead holds out a phone. “Show me where you want me to go.”

  “What?”

  She grins and I don’t think she can smile anything but hatred and bitterness. “Google the spot you want us to go to.”

  With trembling hands, I take the iPhone. I Google the governor's mansion and pass her the phone when the house shows up.

  She takes it and grabs my hand. She smirks at Ramón. “We'll be ready in an hour. Anyone who needs to know what's going to change?”

  He glances at me and shakes his head. There’s guilt on his face. My breathing picks up, but instantly I'm sucked into a twister and then standing on the back lawn of the mansion. I lean forward and lose my stomach onto the grass.

  The warmth of someone is behind me. It's all so familiar.

  “You've been eating human food?” the man from the Grandmamma’s cabin asks. I don’t understand none of what's happened.

  “Am I dead?” I whisper.

  He laughs but I hear the blonde girl in my head. We can move without walking. You're safe. The girl with the black hair, Ari, she's going to send your friend back to a point in her life and force her to make a different choice. Ari can force you back in time and make you pick something different. Sometimes you get lucky and it’s possible to fix everything, and sometimes it messes everything up.

  I stand up and wipe my face. Then I look at the black-haired girl. “Do it to me, not Angie.”

  The black-haired girl, Ari, shakes her head. “Your soul is detached. It doesn’t work on our kind. Only humans.” She seems sweet, regardless of stinking of dead vampires.

  I glance at the vampire. “Why are you with them? They kill our kind. I can smell it on them.”

  The blonde grins. “You can smell dead vampire on us?”

  I nod. My stomach rumbles again.

  The vampire shrugs. “It was time to switch sides again. I like faction changes every couple hundred years. Keeps it fresh.”

  I don’t know what that means. I reach for his cheek, mesmerized by his beauty. “What are you?”

  He grins at me and it makes me clench my thighs together. “Someone you'll love knowing one day.”

  I nod, I believe him.

  “Marcus, stop,” the blonde says, forcing me to snap out of it.

  I look at the house. “Is this gonna hurt her?”

  The redhead shakes her head. “No. She'll be fine.” She stomps off in very high-heeled red boots.

  The blonde gives me a look. “You okay?” She puts a hand on my arm. I eye her hand cautiously. There’s an instant spark between us. She narrows her eyes. “Interesting.”

  Her hand almost drags from me, but it's as if my hand responds with its one magic.

  Ari smirks. “She's a natural witch and a vampire. Not a full vampire though. Only half changed. They just let her have lots of blood and didn’t bury her the right way to make her full. She can be both a human witch and a dead vampire in one body.”

  The Marcus guy walks around me. “What a horrid conflict. Can you feel?”

  I frown at him. “What?”

  “Feelings? Do you have feelings? Like suffering and happiness?”

  I nod.

  He raises an eyebrow and stares at me, but it's like he's lost for a moment. He turns back to the blonde and shakes his head. “She hasn’t even claimed her magic yet. That’s when it's going to get interesting.”

  I take a step back. I wish I’d had let Whit come. Why did Ramón let me go with them?

  Ari walks toward me and smiles sweetly. “We won't hurt you or your friend, I swear.”

  I believe her. “Can you hurt me?” I ask, honestly curious. I'm thinking about them just killing my mom.

  Marcus looks at the Aimee girl. She shakes her head. “I think the two sides of that coin contradict each other.”

  Marcus laughs. He's weird. Sexy and weird.

  The redhead is back and Angie trails along gracefully behind her.

  “Lorelei?” she gasps and runs toward me.

  I smile again and nod. “Yeah. How are you?” I ask again.

  She shakes and sobs. “I knew it. I knew you was alive. Why didn’t you take me with you?” My eye juju magic never worked well.

  My heart is breaking again. “I don’t know. Maybe I can change that.” I glance past her at the Ari girl. She smiles and nods. The haunted look is still in her eyes.

  The redhead checks her watch and nods at Ari. “Do it.”

  Ari smiles and walks toward Angie. “This is going to make everythi
ng better.”

  Marcus grabs my hand and pulls me to him. He cups my chin and smiles wickedly. “Repeat after me.”

  I nod.

  He smiles harder. “You will remember everything. Ari's magic won't reset your brain. Change the things you need to.”

  Mindlessly I mutter the same thing to him. He winks at me but I'm confused.

  I tremble and step back, away from him. The air in front of Angie starts to sparkle as Ari grips her thin arm.

  The air opens and I see my engagement party.

  Angie is staggering drunk along the edges of the forest. Martin is there, he talks to her. She shakes her head and stumbles slightly. He grips her arms and says something bad. Her face drops. She nods her head and lets him drag her into the woods. Her black dress and dark hair enter the woods, just like I saw for real that night.

  Suddenly, everything resets and she is stumbling again. He says his cruel words and she shoves him into the forest. She turns and sways down the garden path and I’m sucked into the twister again.

  The last thing I hear is Marcus’ whisper, “See you soon, Lorelei.” Then the jazz band is singing again.

  Chapter 19

  The Engagement Party, Baton Rouge, 1964.

  The engagement party is going strong. My memories are all over the map. I run from the party toward the house, along the dark garden path.

  I burst through the front doors and call out. “Whit? You there, sugar?” My heart pounds and I know I'm still alive. I haven’t drunk the blood yet.

  He steps from the shadows. I grab his arm. “I know what you are. I know what I am. We gotta save my sister and Angie.”

  He pulls me back. “NO! There's no hope.”

  “There’s time.” I shake my head and drag him back to the party. I see Emily talking to my momma. They're fighting. “Wait here,” I whisper and leave his side.

  He drags me back. “No. There is no time.”

  I peer into his dark eyes and remember everything I felt for him, all the innocence that was attached to it. “I have a plan. Trust me?”

  He looks like he might say no but he doesn’t. He lets me go. I turn and walk up to them. I nod at Em. Her eyes flicker at me. She frowns and shakes her head. “Whatever you want, Momma.” She walks away.

  Momma turns and smiles at me. She's been drinking. She laughs. “Have a nice night, Lorelei.” She cackles and walks to where my daddy talks with friends inside the house. She watches me and Em. I pretend to look beaten until she turns her back. I see her watching the time.

  I drag Em back to Whit. “Give us your blood.”

  He frowns and Em looks at me like I'm nuts.

  “Do it. Trust me. Tell her to drink it and not be scared and not freak out. It's the only way.”

  He nods again. He grabs Em and smiles softly. “Drink my blood and don’t be scared of what you see and hear or taste. Trust me completely.”

  Em nods and doesn’t take her eyes off him.

  He bites down on his wrist and gives it to her. She drinks the black blood. He takes his wrist from her and gives it to me. I drink like last time. Only this time I'm aware of the effect it has on him.

  I look at my sister. “Trust me?”

  She nods.

  “You're going to die in a few minutes—it's okay. This blood is gonna save you. You'll wake up the same as you were yesterday, okay?” I grip her hands and love that she is still the same girl. No scary-ass ghostly Em, just regular Em.

  I turn to Whit. “Get Greg outta here and meet me at the truck.”

  He frowns. “What truck?”

  I laugh and shake my head. “A car. Steal a car, your car. I don’t care. Meet me out front.”

  He stops me and looks baffled. “What happened?”

  “We have already done all this. I met the Roses Academy and came back in time.”

  His face drops. “Shit.” He scans around.

  I laugh. “They ain't here. Go get the car and meet me out front.”

  He kisses me once and I run from the bushes. I find Angie stumbling around. Her dress is ripped and her lip is bleeding.

  I grab her face. “Did Martin do this?”

  She nods and cries. Her words are incoherent, but I grab her hand and drag her around the side of the house. We have seconds before the hit on the house is going to happen. I still don’t understand how the damned vampires ended up there, killing my whole family and half the party.

  I pull the sobbing mess my best friend is to the car that’s started and sitting out front. I glimpse down at my Jackie Kennedy dress and smile. “Lucky dress.”

  I shove Angie into the back seat and get a glare from Whit when I climb in.

  “Whit, give her the wrist.”

  His jaw drops. “What are you doing?”

  “Oh, and drop the non-Scottish accent. Be who you are.”

  He laughs. “Fucking Roses. Goddamned them and their meddling ways.” The Scottish is back. He bites into his wrist and shoves it back at Angie. “Shut up and drink from my wrist.”

  She stops crying instantly and drinks from his wrist.

  Watching her bright-green eyes flash in the dark as she drinks his blood is amazing. She is young and beautiful and still my best friend. My heart beats in my chest; it’s still beating. That’s only a short-term thing so I cherish every beat and flutter it makes.

  “Take us to Grandmamma Holt's cottage, please,” I whisper. He pulls his arm from Angie and drives the car.

  “Want to explain?” he says through clenched teeth.

  “It's just forty-eight years of bad things that I'm trying to correct. I need to claim my power before the sun sets and before my momma realizes what I've done.”

  “Weird night.”

  I laugh. “You have no idea. I was in 2012 like fifteen minutes ago.”

  “Were we together?”

  “Sort of.” It isn’t fair I'm still angry with him, and yet I can't fight it. The emotions came with me.

  “Sort of?”

  I smile. “I wasn’t happy about the plan. Angie ended up raped and married to Martin, Emily ended up dead and stuck as a poltergeist in the mansion and it was run-down and bad. Aunt Tessa was a mess. And I ran from you for the whole forty-eight years. I hated what you made me.”

  His face hardens. “You have to see, I had no other choice.”

  “I do. I see what my momma has done and the chain of events she has created. I don’t have no choices but the one I'm making now.” I stare straight ahead and grip myself.

  Angie leans forward. “I feel funny.”

  Whit glances back at her and smirks. “Go to sleep.”

  She sits back and passes out instantly.

  “Hey! That was mean.”

  “I'm not playing this game where you get to make me turn everyone under the bloody sun and I have no say in the matter.”

  I see her sleeping face. “She deserved to be young and beautiful forever.”

  He sighs. “You made her into a monster. You don’t think she's going to feel the way you did?”

  I never thought of that. “I hope she can see I saved her.”

  “Did I ask you to wish anything for me in the future?” he asks, searching my eyes.

  I nod as my cheeks flush with heat and color. “You asked me to wish to be yours forever.”

  His lips lift. “Did you wish?”

  I nod again.

  “Do you still wish it?” He is searching my eyes again.

  I grin like a fool. “Lord, help me, but I do. I wish to be yours forever and ever.”

  He leans over and kisses me softly. “I love you.”

  I blush more. “I know.” It's the truth. I do know it.

  He grins like I am and drives past my granddaddy's house and I get the same shiver I always get. He doesn’t slow down though. He doesn't know I'm related to the creepy-looking trailer and the man inside it being haunted by a ghost.

  He stops the car outside the cabin. I jump out and run for the door. She opens it and smiles
. “You fix things, cherie?”

  “I think I might have. I need to claim my power before my heart stops beating.”

  She points to the bayou. “We go der.”

  I gaze past her. “Is Ramón in there too?”

  She looks at Whit and shakes her head. “He no want to see dis one.”

  I look back at Whit and nod. “Okay.”

  Grandmamma hobbles with her twisted cane out to the edge of the swamps.

  She stands there for a minute, just looking at the water.

  “Dey says de magic of de Blackwater witches is from de water itself.” She looks back at me, creating a haunting image of a white-eyed old woman standing on the banks of a bloodied swamp. The cypress trees here have the same red moss, only it's dark and mist creeps along the banks.

  Whit speaks softly, though somehow I'm able to hear him. “They say the magic of the Blackwater witches comes from the water itself. When the witch trials were happening a lot of witches fled the North and came to the swamps to hide. When the churches and officials found them, they murdered the women and the magic bled out into the water. The red moss is apparently from the witches' blood staining the cypress trees.”

  Grandmamma laughs and nods muttering something. She turns away from me and hobbles down into the black murky waters. She turns back toward me. “You gotta put dem feet in de waters, cherie.”

  I yank my boots off and walk, grimacing at the squish of my toes. I make my way to her. My stomach is going crazy and the sounds of the bayou are louder than they've ever been.

  I gasp as the cold water shocks me when I put my feet in.

  I stand next to her and she takes my hand in hers. She starts to chant something in French I can't understand. She mutters and speaks fast as if she were speaking right to God.

  Suddenly I see something, a color in the water or a swirl of sorts.

  The water froths and churns and sparkles with life.

  The mud below me heats up.

  “Call dem, cherie. Tell dem you want to claim what's yours.”

  “I claim what's mine,” I say to the swamp.

  She laughs “You gots to mean it. Shout it to dem. Scream and open your lungs. Let da water come and fill you up.”