by Tara Brown
Lorri leans against a wall with her arms folded. She looks spicy. “What do you remember?”
“About what?”
“Dorian sucking your soul.”
I look down. “He’s a good kisser.”
“And?”
“I don't remember anything.” I shake my head again.
“You don't remember what you saw when you were out?”
“Just Gwen’s little sister telling me she was sorry and screaming at me.”
She’s definitely annoyed with me. I don't like the look on her face. Finally, she speaks softly, “You aren’t just a witch and a vampire.”
“I’m guessing you aren’t going to say teenaged girl?”
She smiles. “I sort of almost like you, Lorelei.”
I don't know how to take that.
“You’re fae. Your father is not your father. I’m not even sure your mother is your mother. You’re dangerous. We should put you down. Some people don't think you can handle the stress and pressure and power you have.” She sighs. “Dorian wants you put down. Marcus wants you to live with him.” I part my lips to interrupt her but she holds a hand up. “I think we are going to put you in charge of the Roses Academy in England though. I think that's what’s best.”
I’m even more confused.
She grins wide as if she is just trying to test the fates with me. “You are more powerful than anything I’ve seen in a long time. I don't want to chance anyone else swaying you to join their team.”
“There are teams?”
She laughs. “Yes. The good guys and the bad guys. We’re good. If you want to stay alive, you will be my right hand. If you don't think you can do it, I will let Marcus have you. That's not a hard one for me.”
I contemplate Marcus for several seconds before I shake my head. “I don't want to live with Marcus.”
“Good choice.”
“Can you just tell me what I am?”
“Complicated,” she offers. “One of your parents might have been born of the fallen, but one of them is definitely full fae. You have all the characteristics of fae. Beauty. Speed. Grace. Control. Natural magic and the knowledge of how to use it without formal training. Control over the elements to the point they become part of you. You see the dead and communicate with them easily. You taste like fae.”
I wince. “What does that mean in the long run?”
“You’re the combination of too much power. Claiming your magic is one thing. Taking the Blackwater magic is another. Adding that to the other things you are makes you fairly unstoppable. But then you’re a halfling vampire as well. It’s mind-boggling actually.” Her eyes gleam with pride. “And that is why I want you to work for me. You will be unstoppable and you will clean up the harshest section of the world. The creatures are old and the evil runs deep. You and Gwen are being sent to England and then on to Romania. You will meet with the other Roses in England.”
“What about Em and Angie?”
“They’re staying here. They need more training. They’re new to all of this. And I figured it might make you more comfortable, knowing they’re safe. You can focus better and help Gwen get her revenge.”
The whole thing makes me want to curl up into a ball to process it all. But I don't. I give her a confused look and shrug. “Better to be one of you than you hunting my ass like it’s open season.”
She smiles wide again. “I think I do like you.” She points at the clock on the wall behind me. “We leave in an hour. Say your goodbyes and get Gwen.” She winks at me and she’s gone, leaving me with a pit in my stomach and a cool breeze tossing my hair about.
My insides churn and somehow in the end I feel hollow, regardless of how much it all twists and burns.
Goodbyes?
How do I say goodbye to my sister and Angie after everything I’ve done to them? Now I’m going back to England and leaving them here alone?
The idea of it rots me.
I slip back through the doorway, avoiding the crowd of people who are sitting and laughing. It’s as if they’re suddenly free to be themselves now that the evil monster is gone. Em catches my head peeking around the corner and gets up, tapping Angie. I wave a hand and they come.
Angie is still snickering at whatever the guy next to her said as they walk over. They smile right up until they’re around the corner and face to face with me. Em swallows hard, not meeting my gaze.
“What?” I have to ask.
Angie’s bold enough to meet my eyes and just tell me the truth, “Everyone says you are a type of monster that has never been created before. They say you’re dangerous.”
It stings a little but I know it’s not true. “No different from any other monster in the room, I’m afraid. I’m still just me. Yesterday I made a peanut butter sandwich and ate it in a closet where no one could see me.”
Em flinches and looks down.
Leaving them is getting easier. I’m tired of feeling guilty, and now added to that, my feelings of abnormality amongst the freaks, and I’m about to explode. “I’m leaving. I’m being assigned to England and was asked to work as a Rose there.”
Angie’s eyes burn and Em finally lifts her head to meet my face. “You’re leaving?”
I nod.
“But we just got here. We’re still learning how to be—this.” Em points at herself.
I nod again.
Angie leaps, wrapping herself around me. “Stay safe, Lorelei. Don't let none of them tell you you’re anything you don't think you are. I’ve known you since we were four years old and I’ve never seen nothing dangerous.”
I hug her back, taking in gulps of her scent so I won’t forget it.
She pulls me back. “I forgive you and I know why you did what you did. I woulda chosen to save you too. I’m lucky to have a friend like you. I always was.”
“It’s me who’s lucky, it’s always been me. I shoulda listened to you when you told me about Martin. I’ll always regret that. Had I just told my daddy no, and told Whit to suck eggs, we wouldn't be here.”
She swallows whatever she’s about to say, hugging me once more before Em jumps into the embrace, clinging to me. “Don't leave me.”
“Never. I swear, I’ll never leave you. This isn’t me leaving, it’s me ending what I let happen once and for all, but I’ll come back. I want Whit and his brothers and his father to pay for what they’ve done.” I shake my head. It’s a lie. I am leaving her, and if I’m working in England I don't know when I’ll see her again.
She sobs. “I’m sorry, Lorelei. I’m sorry I didn't believe you and I’m sorry I was so mad.”
“You had every right, you both did. I’m just glad you see the predicament I was in. I’m still in.”
Em glances up, nodding at me. “We do. We know now. This place is crazy. An institution for training warriors to fight for God against evil? Who would have ever thought this existed? Nothing you’ve said has been more fantastical than this.”
I roll my eyes. “I don't even want to get into fantastical. Trust me, there is a whole mess of shit we don't even know yet.” I wonder if we really are sisters, me and Em—if whatever made me, made her too.
I kiss them both and point behind me. “I’m gonna take the sneaky hallway back to the room to get Gwen. I don't want to see everyone in there.”
They nod, almost like they’re grateful I don't want to.
I hug them once more, holding my tears and words back, before I turn away and let it all loose. I round the corner, blinded by tears and the agony of being different.
And I’m not sure I fixed a single thing. In the other life, Em was a frozen ghost, forever sixteen. In this life, she’s stuck there again. Only now she feeds off death. Angie was stuck in a horrid life with a monster, and now she’s surrounded by them, never able to have the babies and grandbabies she had last time.
I just wish things could be different in a normal way. I just wish they had all been left to live happily ever after, and I was the one who was killed instead of
Ramón.
When I get to the room, Gwen sits on the bed with a glum face. She doesn't lift her eyes to meet mine when she speaks, “So home we go then?”
“Yeah. We get to deal with Whit and the others. Nothing quite like being forced to deal with your own loved ones.”
She’s pale, even for a vampire. “I had the chance so many times to kill them. I could have ended them and the bad things they did, but I would have been alone in the world. I didn't want that. So I let them live on, doing what they did.” She lifts her face, nodding at her own painful conclusion. “Now I have to fix it.”
Chapter 7
I glance out at the still farm, smiling at the peaceful night. In the dark it’s almost like being back in the bayou. The smell in the air of things growing is near enough, but combined with the humidity of the English countryside, it’s quite similar. If I close my eyes I can hear the wind toying with the long, wispy branches and rustling the lilac bushes. I miss that smell, that warm smell that cloaks you in the South. You don't even need perfume there. Us Southerners are baptized in the sweaty air of the lilacs and magnolias.
Here the smell is harsher but it cloaks you nonetheless.
Gwen ambles over to where I am. Her soft steps give her away. “Bit of a raw deal this. London my arse!”
It makes me smile. We had been told London. What they meant was this farm in the middle of nowhere would be a stopover on the way to the actual destination. I had been told we were also going to Romania, which scares me. It’s silly and I know it is, but Romania actually makes me worry. We came here for a few days to meet the other Roses before we were to leave for Romania.
“Landry says my brothers have split up. My father was caught. He’s being held in a place for people like us in Romania. That's why we’re going there. But first, they want me to see if I can smell my brothers out in a rural part of Northern England. Landry is coming in a few moments to collect us.”
“When do we leave for Romania?”
“The moment we are done in the North.”
My stomach aches when I think about either event occurring. Finding Whit will be tragic as will going to Romania.
A second later Landry, the next in line to run the English Roses Academy, steps in front of me with his winking-eye-flashing movement that they all do. He grins, remaining directly in front of my face. “How are you this evening?”
“Tired of you staring at me like that. I didn't ask to be in charge. I don't even know what I’m doing.”
“At least we both agree on that.” He grabs my hand and Gwen’s and suddenly the air is cold and the smell is wrong. It’s evil, tainted, and filled with death. It makes my mouth water, tasting the vileness in the air. “Where are we?”
“North Manchester.”
“It smells like evil.” Gwen sniffs the air.
“One of the most dangerous places in the United Kingdom. We assumed your brothers would hide out somewhere that the stench of the town would overwhelm their own evil taint.” Landry gives her a genuine smile. He’s always nice to her but a dick to me.
He walks ahead to an old building, nodding at the dark eyes watching us approach.
Great.
Dorian gives me a look, letting me know I’m on borrowed time as far as he’s concerned. He thinks I should have been put to sleep as Lorri so eloquently put it. He speaks to Landry, “Take Gwen here on a tour of the town. See if she can grab their smell.” Landry and Gwen vanish, leaving Dorian and me alone.
I haven’t seen him since he kissed me with the kiss of death and agony.
“Miss me?” he asks sardonically.
My instant response to being treated like garbage is to roll my eyes and walk away. But the moment I turn my back, he’s there, right in front of my face, swirling the wind around us.
The black of his eyes holds me hostage. He flutters his long inky lashes down at me as his hands lift hesitantly, hovering near my arms, and his fingers softly trail up them. It’s like he’s testing the water. His eyes trap me in their stare as his lips slowly lower to mine.
Sounds leave my lips as he caresses them delicately. He’s a type of food I could live off. I could love him without even knowing him, and he calls me dangerous. My hands lift into his dark hair, gripping his face to mine, desperate to kiss until I die. And what a way to go.
He does his winky thing and we are in a room.
He delicately plants soft kisses and inhales me with every one, drinking me in the same way I am him.
He throws me onto the bed behind us, pulling his sweater off. I don't know what to expect but the perfection that is there, is not it. His body is chiseled and hard.
I sit up on my knees as he comes closer, tilting his head to the side and lowering it to my nape as I run my hands up and down the soft, smooth skin.
On the wall behind him I catch a glimpse of my reflection.
My eyes are silver and glowing, molten-like. And my cheeks are flushed with color and passion. My reflection smiles though I don't feel a smile upon my lips. She winks at me and I realize what’s happening. I’m not being myself. I’m succumbing to the attraction naturally there amongst us immortals. It’s not normal. It’s forced like my love of Whit.
I shove him off me.
“Bloody hell. You want to wrestle?” he asks smugly.
My reflection laughs silently from behind the glass.
“No. I don't want to do this.”
He walks to me slowly, grinning with fire. “We role playing now? I’m not big on it but I guess I can try.” His accent is thicker with charm.
“Please, don't do this.”
My reflection is crying she’s laughing so hard. Her molten eyes are still aflame, but now it’s humor and mockery she is bursting with.
“You’re supposed to say it more convincingly.” He raises his voice, “Please, sir, no. I’m a virgin. Please don't hurt me!” He chuckles, grabbing my wrists roughly.
I blast him backward, shaking my head and trembling from the use of my power.
He winks behind me and leans in, muttering into my ear, “I don't think we should use our powers on each other.” He kisses my neck, nibbling ever so delicately. The incense in the air puts my head in a fog.
“LORELEI!” someone calls from outside the room. I realize we’re inside the old building we were just standing beside. “LORELEI!”
I crack an eyelid to see my reflection again. Dorian isn’t in the mirror but I can still feel him.
My lips part to say his name but a scream rips from them. My reflection flickers and vanishes as the mirror cracks. In the broken glass is something shocking.
I turn to see Whit instead of Dorian. He grins and I realize it’s Rydal. I scream again. As the shrill sound rips from my lips I blink and realize I’m still standing on the road, fully dressed and completely turned on but confused.
Dorian cocks an eyebrow at me, still wearing all his clothes and standing on the road.
My hands are caressing and hugging my own body. “What’d you do?”
When I glance back at Dorian his face couldn't be more amused. “Which part?”
I’m trembling. I want to cry when I see the amusement on his face but instead I shout, “WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?”
He doesn't move beyond smiling wider. “You did that to yourself. I was talking about Romania and suddenly you started moaning about and then you were miming being scared and playing hard to get for yourself. I had no idea you were this entertaining. It was like a strip club combined with interpretive dance.”
“No. No. It wasn't me. There was a mirror and she was me but she wasn't, and then there was a face and you were there but you were Rydal.”
His eyes narrow.
I point at the building. “I was in there, that room. I could hear y’all yelling for me. You were there and then you became Rydal.”
“Trust me, if I was there, you’d know it.” He walks past me. “I have a rule about messing with things like you. I don't.”
I’m humi
liated and disturbed. “There has to be a reason. I don't do stuff like that.”
He turns. “I’m certain you don't. Someone is messing with you. They have to be close by to do it.” He vanishes, appearing behind me, touches my arm, and we are suddenly inside the building. We are in the exact room I was just in.
“This is it.”
He grips my hand, pulling me through the rooms. I stop him, recognizing the mirror on the wall. “That's the mirror. I could see myself but she wasn't me.”
He pulls the old brass framed mirror off the wall and studies it. It’s nothing. He smashes it on the floor, making me jump back. Black smoke puffs out from underneath it. He looks at me. “They were here.”
“They can’t be far; they can’t do the winky thing.”
“They are likely not alone, firstly. And secondly, we don't call it that. It’s just traveling.” He rolls his eyes.
“What do we do now?”
He chuckles. “You’re in charge.”
I gulp, closing my eyes and praying an answer will come to me.
When I open them I swallow hard again. The vampire side of me really doesn't think much about hooking up with guys. Not like the Southern girl side of me. She’s nearly having a stroke about the Whit and Rydal make-out sessions.
Dorian gives me a look. “What do think about the black smoke?”
“A spell.”
“They have a witch.”
That makes me shudder. His brow knits. “What was that face for?”
“They’re disturbing and sick when they have witches. The things they do are just—it’s not right.”
He walks down the hallway to the back of the building. “Could there be a protective spell on the place?”
I close my eyes, concentrating as hard as I can to sense magic. There is a stain of magic, but the witch is long gone. “This is a trap. It’s a decoy. They were here only to set it and leave. They didn't stay.”
“How do know that?”
I sniff the air. “I can only smell Rydal so he was alone with the witch. He would have come here because y’all would have thought it. He’s five hundred years old. This ain’t his first rodeo.”