Blackwater

by Tara Brown

  I feel my face tensing, "No. Maria thinks she's plotting something. Besides, I left once. I can't leave again."

  He shakes his head, "We can't decide this today anyway."

  I feel my walls coming up, "We aren’t a we. I told you, when Em's happy. We shouldn’t have done this."

  He towers over me, pinning me against the cold tiles. "We are a we." His eyes look fierce, "You are mine."

  I shake my head, "Not yet."

  He leans in and kisses my neck. His huge hands cup my breasts, massaging them under the warm water. His body against mine is intense and intimidating. He's huge in the small shower. He drops to a knee and spreads my legs slightly.

  I gasp as he plants a soft kiss against my lips. He parts them with his fingers and licks the length of me. My eyes close as my head tilts back.

  His tongue flicks as a finger slides inside of me. I moan, feeling my legs start to weaken. His fingers pump roughly as his mouth trails down to my thigh. His fangs sink into my thigh. Sounds I don’t recognize leave my mouth. His fingers and fangs bring me to orgasm.

  "Say you wish to be mine forever," he whispers.

  My hands are gripping his hair. I mutter it out, "I wish to be yours, oh god, forever."

  He speeds the rhythm up, as I'm orgasming and he sucks my clit again. My legs collapse but he scoops me up into his arms.

  I open my eyes and shake my head, "You have to stop this. You're making me crazy."

  He grins, "I can't. I've waited so long. I wanted to do this to you for so long."

  My legs wrap around his waist. He buries himself inside of me. He rams me against the shower wall opposite the water.

  I shudder and melt into him as he fucks me against the tiles and kisses my neck. I bite into his shoulder and suck his blood from him. He does the same and we come at the same moment in a messy series of bucking thrusts and whimpers.

  I'm exhausted and spent. He lowers me to my feet.

  "I will never get tired of this."

  I laugh. I don’t want to be mean but I'm tired of it. I have too many things taking precedence in my brain.

  I rinse off and climb out of the shower. I need to be away from him. He's clouding my brain and taking up all the energy and emotions, just like I knew he would. I knew he would become everything.

  I wrap in a towel and stalk out to get my clothes. I abandon the underwear and destroyed bra and slip on my pants and shirt.

  "You're leaving?" He comes out after and I nod.

  "Why?" He looks pissed.

  I shake my head. "You're taking it all up like before. I made everything about you and missed out on the fact my friend was dead and my other friend was raped and my sister was being poisoned with magic. I let you become everything, Whit. Everyone I loved lost everything."

  He looks hurt, "You love me, why shouldn’t we be important to each other?"

  I cover my eyes with my hands, "Baby, you're not a normal man, this isn’t a normal love. It's all consuming. I don’t even know if I love you or am sucked into your juju." I sigh and look at him, "I need to help my family and stop my momma and fix the shit I ruined." I walk for the door but he takes a huge step and stops me from leaving.

  He looks down on me with his dark brooding eyes, "Let me come with you."

  I swallow and try not to look at him, "No."

  His eyes pull me in, "Let me come with you."

  I nod, "Okay." I know I'm fighting him but it's not working. He's winning. I shake my head and force my brain to snap out of it, "No. No." I shove him back and open the door, "Don't do that to me. You can't force me into things. That’s wrong."

  I stalk down the hallway and down the stairs. I leave the house and break into a run. I don’t even know where I am. I run until I'm sure I'm rid of him. I walk up to a truck parked in a driveway and open the door. I pull down the visor and catch the keys. I smile and start the truck. I put it in reverse and drive fast for the bayou.

  Grandmamma is standing with the door open when I arrive. She looks at me once before turning and walking back inside, leaving the door open.

  I hop out and run for the door.

  Ramón is there, standing at the table. I smile when I see him but he doesn’t smile back.

  "What's wrong?" I ask, closing the door and sitting on the tiny chair in the corner.

  Grandmamma shakes her head, "She gonna try to take you magic."

  I frown, "What?"

  Ramón's eyes are filled with emotions, "We never got to explain everything last time. Yo momma, she gonna try to take your magic. If she murders you, she gets the magic. Witches can steal the power from other witches."

  The uneasy feeling in my stomach is making me sick, "So, she took Maria's?"

  They shake their head, looking exactly the same doing it. Grandmamma lights a sage stick and starts burning it, "No Cheri. You can't no take power from a witch dat you steal da body from. She no gets power from Emily or Maria. She can't no take power dat ain't been claimed either."

  "I never claimed my powers, I don’t think I did." I feel like the bad news is still hovering in the air around us.

  Ramón shakes his head, "You didn’t. But that means if you don’t, you can't help Emily or Maria none."

  I lick my lips, "If I claim the powers then I can save them but she might also be able to steal them from me? If I don’t, Emily and Maria are stuck, trapped in the mansion and the bayou forever as ghosts. And I won't be able to help Angie?"

  Ramón gives his grandmamma a sideways look. She shakes her head. He argues with his eyes and I feel left out.

  "What?"

  He looks at her defiantly and speaks without looking at me, "We know someone who can help. Grandmamma is friends with a woman who can help us."

  I feel my face starting to pinch, "Who?"

  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 stares at me with 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.

  She shakes her head, "No. You can claim some but some left behind. Can't claim it all with da Devil's soul inside of you like dat."

  I swallow, "What are we going to do?"

  Ramón looks sickened, "Call the Roses."

  Chapter Eighteen

  It sounded less like assassins when he said Roses, and yet 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.

  A dark-haired girl, who I can sense is a witch, just like they said I would be able to. Her voice is in my head.

  "Hi." she whispers in my mind. I nod my head at her and try to keep my thoughts to myself. "I'm Ophelia." Her mind whispers to mine. I nod again. I don’t have anything to say. I'm freaking out in a variety of ways. I can't help but notice the way Grandmamma is staring at the Ophelia girl. She is giving her an odd look.

  A tall blonde, who's my height but drop-dead gorgeous and reeks of vampire blood, gives me a grim stare. Her cold gray eyes look pained and haunted. We could probably be friends.

  A girl with jet-black hair and the blackest eyes I have ever seen, gives me a once over. She smiles at me but I can see myself in the blackness of her eyes. She's haunted too.

  Finally a man walks in. Instantly I have the urge to kneel before him. His will cripples mine.

  He flashes me a grin. My mouth is hanging open.

  The redhead looks
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 look, "Don't piss me off ghost boy."

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

  Grandmamma speaks a whisper and 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.

  Grandmamma nods towards me, "Take dem to Angie."

  My stomach drops. I shake my head and refuse to meet any of their eyes. "I can't do this. I can smell the death on them. They're gonna hurt her."

  I feel his eyes on me. He is trying to force my will again. My knees almost buckle but something happens. I feel a flash flare of anger and when I turn my face to his, a grin splits across his lips.

  "Oh my. What have we got here? Did your witch blood just make you defy me?" He takes a step towards me, I feel something twist in my belly.

  I don’t know what that means. I shake my head and whisper, "I don't know."

  He looks like he's accepting 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."

  I frown, "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 looks at Ramón and smirks, "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. I can see the 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 on the grass.

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

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

  "Am I dead?" I whisper.

  He laughs but I hear the girl in my head again, "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. It's going to fix everything for you. You get to start over, at the beginning. Ari can force you back in time and make you pick something different. She has a special magical power. She forces you back in time. Sometimes you get lucky and it makes it possible to fix everything and sometimes it fucks 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 and shake my head, "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 and then puts a hand out, "Aimee."

  I look at her hand cautiously. I put mine out and she shakes it. I feel an instant spark between our hands. She narrows her eyes, "Interesting."

  I feel her hand almost drag from me but it's as if my hand responds with it's one magic.

  Ophelia 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 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 and looks at me, "What a horrid conflict. Can you feel?"

  I frown at him, "What?"

  He smirks, "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 looks back at 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 had let Whit come. Why had Ramón let me go with them?

  Ophelia walks towards me and smiles sweetly, "You're okay. We won't hurt you, 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 is walking along gracefully behind her.

  "Lorelei?" she gasps and runs towards 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?"

  I shake my head and feel my heart breaking again, "I don’t know. Maybe I can change that." I look past her at the Ari girl. She smiles and nods. The haunted look is still her eyes.

  The redhead looks at her watch and nods at Ari, "Do it."

  Ari smiles and walks towards Angie, "This is going to make everything better." Ophelia goes with her.

  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'm trembling and taking steps back, away from him. The air in front of Angie starts to sparkle as Ari grips her thin arm. Ophelia is touching Ari and closing her eyes.

  The air opens and I see my engagement party.

  Angie is walking 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 face and lets him drag her into the woods. I see her black dress and dark hair entering the woods, just like I saw for real that night.

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

  The last thing I hear is Marcus whispering, "See you soon, Lorelei." Then the jazz band is singing again.

  Chapter Nineteen

  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 into the front doors and call out, "Whit? You there, sugar?" I feel my heart pounding and know I'm still alive. I haven’t drunk the blood yet.

  I see him step 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."

  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 look 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 is talking with friends inside of 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 of 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 look at 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 confused, "What happened?"

  I grin, "We have already done all this. I met the Roses and came back in time."

  His face drops, "Shit." He looks 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.