Midnight Coven (Devil's Roses Book 7) (The Devil's Roses)

by Tara Brown

  I stand and nod at the door. “I am gonna get going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  She turns the iPad off and nods. “I’ll go and see if anyone else is going to stay or if they’re all going for a boat ride.” She kisses me on the cheek and walks to the backyard to shout at Greg.

  I go into the spare room and lie there. A thousand images dance behind my eyes as I relive everything. All of my years as a Rose, all three times I lived it. All of the times Marcus and I made love and broke everything in the room. All of the things I wish I’d done with the people I loved and didn't because of the sun.

  That still makes me laugh.

  I stay one more day at my sister’s house and then meet Dorian in the bayou. He doesn't like Grandmamma Holt’s house normally but now he wants to see her. He seems weird, weirder than normal.

  When I arrive, Ramón is waving and smiling. He’s younger than Em. He uses the magic, prolonging his life. But he’s still older than me. “Cher, I was just telling Grandmamma about you seeing Em. Come sit a spell.” I walk down to the swamp that now feels empty. The ancients no longer roam the waters, staining the cypress tress with their blood. Now they are inside of me, seeing and feeling with me. Getting a second chance at a type of freedom. I let Ramón wrap his arm around my shoulders. He nudges me and looks to where Dorian and Grandmamma Holt are talking in the doorway of the house.

  “What are they talking about?”

  He wrinkles his nose. “Mr. Fancy pants met some girl. He just wants to know what happens when one of dem falls in love.”

  We sit at the bank and I dip my toes in the cold water. I still don't get how it’s cold. The bayou is so warm.

  The water sparkles on my feet but it’s just the bayou magic, not the blackwater. I have all of that except what is still in the living.

  “How you doing?”

  I shake my head. “I think I’m having my mid-life crisis. I know what I am. I know what I do. But I don't feel like I’ll ever plug that hole in my chest where my dead heart sits. I’m unfinished and incomplete without love.”

  “What about Mr. Marcus?”

  I turn, giving him a deadly stare. He puts his hands up. “You and I both know, you love him.”

  I sigh and look back at the bayou. “I do. But he’s the devil. Lorri is like the fake devil and Marcus is the real McCoy. He makes Lorri look like Santa.” I don't want to tell him the rest but I can’t help it. He knows me better than I know myself. “He broke my heart. My blood no longer makes him feel alive so he has found a new girl who does. He just wants to feel alive—he doesn't want to love. So I wasted all my heart on the wrong guy.”

  Ramón wraps his arm around my shoulders and shakes his head. “He ain’t da wrong guy. He da one, cher. I see it with my magic. He da one.”

  I don't believe it anymore but my heart does. My heart won’t give up on him. Even through my head has fully.

  “How’s things down here?”

  He nudges me. “Oh, you know. Dat Martin Ryan guy your daddy wanted you ta date, he killed himself. About a month ago. They found him a couple weeks ago in his house. He lived alone, no family. So no one knew he was dead for a week. Sad to die alone.”

  I shrug. “Even more sad to be a sadistic rapist.” The memory of that night makes me smile in my own sadistic way.

  I had such high hopes on how things was gonna be.

  We stare at the swamp, watching the blackwater sit so still it reflects the trees around it perfectly.

  Dorian walks over, clearing his throat. He looks weird still. “She wants to speak with you.”

  I get up and saunter over. I know I’m in trouble, I can feel it. She puts her big hands on her wide hips. “Why ya gots ta make dat one so angry? Why ya gots to ruin da love ya found?”

  I look back at Dorian. He avoids my stare. “I didn't. He doesn't love me.”

  “He love ya, cheri. He love ya in his way. Ya break two hearts when ya break one. Now ya go on and make it better. And stop using ya magic to make ya sister live forever. Ain’t nobody wanna live forever but ya momma and ya see how dat turn out.” She closes the door in my face. I turn and scowl at Dorian and Ramón and they stroll over, acting like they didn't just both sell me down the river to the lowest bidder.

  Ramón finally cocks his head. “Ya needed a little pep talk. Ya been down, cher.”

  I hug him and shake my head. “Everyone needs to mind their business.”

  Dorian rolls his eyes and grabs my hand. Ramón waves and suddenly we are standing outside of Marcus’ castle. I squeeze Dorian’s hand but he shoves me and winks away.

  “FUCK!”

  Marcus walks out of the front door, frowning at me. He pauses and stares, like he isn’t certain I’m real.

  I look around, contemplating my ability to run in the hot sun. It might not sting anymore but it weakens me, big time.

  “What game are we playing this week, love?”

  It’s been a month since I saw him last. He looks good. Damn good. He looks like he might be in one of his naughty moods. He has on faded jeans and a tee shirt, but on him it doesn't look casual. He has one of those bodies that make everything look stuffy and classy.

  He drops the sarcastic act and walks to me. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you?”

  I nod.

  His eyes widen. “Who?”

  “You.”

  He draws his brows together and wraps his arms around me. “And I have felt sick for weeks. I thought you were done with me forever.”

  I shake my head. “And here I thought we were epic.”

  He pulls me back. “We are epic. We are more than epic. We are centuries of mistakes and sorrow—yes, but we are also a match. And when you have a match you can go wrong a thousand times, but it only takes one time to go right.” He kisses my cheeks and hovers above my lips, cupping my face in his hands and leaning his forehead against mine. “We need to give it that chance at right.”

  I nod.

  He presses his lips on mine but something happens. When I open my heart to him completely I see everything. He lets me and bares his soul to me.

  I rifle his brain and his mind. I steal all his thoughts and his worries. I see the way he sees me. He loves me. He loves me more than he is capable of. He worships me. He sees me as his. I am his own. I try to send my love back to him, but there is one image I see that I can’t shake. Amongst all the bad things he’s done there is one I cannot forgive. I step back, seeing the thing Dorian spoke of. The thing Marcus stole.

  I pull away from him. “What did you do?”

  He pauses. “What happened? Which time?”

  I laugh bitterly. “Henry.” There has to be an explanation that is more substantial than petty want.

  He pauses. “Something horrid but I can’t take it back.”

  “He’s my grandfather.”

  “Fuck!” Marcus’ face becomes an emotional mess. “Love, I would fix it but I cannot. It was a mistake made as a boy, a foolish boy. One you didn't know. Not so much. But sometimes when I’m with you I think you might be the only thing in the word that brings back that foolish boy. You make me feel clean again.”

  I take a step back. “I know. I can see it. I can see how much you love me. I love you so much more than I thought I could, but I can’t be with you, not while you have that in there.”

  He winces, realizing how much I can see. He shakes his head slowly and then turns his head up to the dark sky. “This is my punishment? This is my payment?” He laughs bitterly and I can hear the sobs in it. I don't cry. I don't have the ability to be sad that he loves more than a single thing in the whole world.

  I point at him. “When you fix that, you come find me. You know I’ll be waiting.”

  “Lorelei, please. I didn't know this love even existed. Please.”

  I turn away and start the long walk to Lorri’s house. I mutter, knowing he’ll hear me, “I can’t look him in the eyes, Marcus. I can’t see him and know that. You can’t ask th
at of me.”

  I find Dorian at Lydia’s. He asks what is wrong and I should tell but I don’t. I keep Marcus’ cruel secret because I love him more than myself. I understand what Em meant. He is more. He isn’t mine and he may never be but he is still more.

  Dorian makes me go to that town again and watch that girl again. She is running. She jogs, listening to Bon Iver. It’s weird. The songs are slow and indie, and yet she is running like she’s listening to rock.

  Dorian sighs and looks at me sideways. “What’s the best thing Marcus ever gave you?”

  The answer is already there. I am thinking about it before he even asks, so when he does, it slips out. “Insight. He bared his soul and showed me everything. I saw every time he sat outside my house and watched me. He showed me every time he followed me on Roses business to make sure I was safe. The fifty years I was mad at him he was still in a car across the street, staring at me laughing with other people.”

  “You don't think that's creepy?”

  I shake my head. “No, I do. I think it’s creepy but that’s the part I love. He loves me so much and he has so little control over his emotions that he can’t be normal. He’s willing to risk creepy for me. Then to show me he loved me he let me see behind the curtain to where the creepy was hidden. It’s a fucked up kind of love but I think it’s more. Ya know?”

  He nods and looks at the girl jogging. “I do.”

  And I know he does.

  As the girl runs to her house, a beautiful woman with dark hair comes and hugs her. She must be the girl’s mother. She is stunning. She looks out in the yard before closing the door and I swear I catch a scent of the wolf and hope it’s just a lingering smell in the area.

  Epilogue

  London 2013

  Dorian is dead.

  The world will never know how much of a person he actually was.

  I don't know how to move past his death. I feel like I lost my brother.

  I am sitting staring out the window when Henry shows up. I expect he’s with Marcus but he ain’t. He’s alone. He offers me a hug when I answer the door to his smiling face.

  I hug him, getting a warning about Marcus and a vision of Henry getting back the thing Marcus stole from him. He shows me a place of great beauty and peace, a garden if you will. Then he holds a hand out to me. When I hugged him I got the faintest vision of the world on fire and then the garden.

  “Henry is the world ending?”

  He nods and holds his hand out farther. I point back. “Can I bring Gwen?”

  He nods again. His bowler hat makes me smile now. I look up the stairs. “GWEN!”

  She comes running, bounding down the stairs. “Touch Henry’s hand. We gotta bounce.” She takes it, not knowing I am taking her somewhere she probably won’t want to go. I just can’t lose her. Henry’s travel is delicate, like a butterfly’s form of travel. When we get to the place we are going I am stunned. Gwen stumbles forward. “What the hell?”

  Henry leads us into the garden city. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen. Em and Maria come running up to me. They’re young again. They hug me, squealing and crying out. They’re pointing to Daddy and Greg and Em’s kids.

  Everyone is young or healthy. I don't know.

  Gwen looks up at the sunshine, staring and gaping. She isn’t burning up. “Lorelei, why am I not burning? I can feel the heat but it’s soothing.”

  Oh God. Henry has killed us and taken us to heaven.

  The city is small, all houses and buildings are white. There are no roads, only pathways and gardens and trees for as far as the eye can see. The breeze is soft and dry. The city is surrounded by a giant meadow. It really is the most spectacular thing I have ever seen.

  Henry smiles at me, whispering in my mind with his. “Garden of Eden.”

  I turn and look at Maria and Em.

  He smiles sweetly. “Couldn't leave them to burn, not leave them again.”

  I nod. I understand but I don't. How are we here? Why are we here?

  Henry runs his hands down my face, showing me the world. There is a great battle. A battle Lorri clearly never told me about. The battle ends and Lorri is standing on some crazy ruins, screaming it looks like. She breaks one of the girl’s necks and turns her into something with wings. Then she turns every one of the Roses from Lydia’s house. I don't really know them. But they have wings. Even the one with red hair, the one Marcus ended up falling in love with last year. She is a siren and he couldn't help himself, apparently. I don't like thinking about it or talking about it. I don't want to know why I stopped being enough.

  I don't know what to say. I’m hurt Lorri didn't want me there. I thought we were friends. I see Landry die in the fighting. My heart hurts for Gwen. Henry shows me the world, images from everywhere. There is fighting and starving and fires. There are disparity and bad things everywhere.

  When he pulls back he looks at me, like he is saying ‘see?’ but I don't. I see a world in need. I shake my head. “I have to go back. I can’t leave them like that. I have to fight for the good guys. If I don't have that I have nothing.”

  He holds his hands at my family but I shake my head. “I am more than just the girl I once was. I have to fight.”

  He looks scared. That makes me think I’m probably going to die. But I don't care. I have to try and be part of the solution and be the girl I have become. I am a fighter. I don’t hide and cower anymore. I’m no longer the girl frozen in terror as the icy whispers of the dead graze my lips. Now I embrace the icy and the dead.

  “I have to go back. Take care of our family.”

  He closes his eyes. Gwen takes my hand in hers. “We both go back. As much as the sun feels amazing, I can’t hide here while the world dies.”

  She is going to know Landry is dead in a moment. I hate that.

  Henry blows flower petals in our faces and suddenly we are standing outside of Marcus’ house.

  “Shit just got real.”

  I nod at Gwen. “Horribly real.”

  I squeeze her hand and walk into the house to face whatever may come in the final days of the world.

  When we get inside I see him first. He looks like shit. Scary shit. He’s in a robe and he looks like he smells real bad. His eyes flicker to us, standing in the doorway. He looks down at his robe and nods. “You can’t call first, love? Let a man get some pants on.”

  A chubby kid on the couch, playing Xbox mutters. “Dude, you don't even own pants, I don't think.”

  “NO ONE ASKED YOU, DANNY!” Marcus snaps at the little boy. I walk over and grab him by the arm, dragging Marcus, in his stinky robe and all, down the hall. I push him to the master bedroom and haul him into the shower. I turn it on and tear the robe off. He looks amazing under it. Of course he does.

  He stands under the water, filled with misery. I can smell it on him. Finally, he speaks. “I miss you so much I think I see you sometimes and then I realize it’s not real, and my heart breaks all over again.” His voice is flat.

  I nod. “Is that how you ended up with the redhead? You thought she was me and fell on her?”

  “She made me feel. It was the only way to feel the full loss of you.”

  I reach in and slap him hard across the cheek.

  He leans against the wall of the shower and closes his eyes. “If you have figured out how to kill me, can you just do it and end the misery I am stuck in?”

  I step into the shower with him and lay my head on his chest. “Marcus, we are a match. We are epic. We can do this all wrong a thousand times, but we only have to do it right once to make it.”

  He kisses my head and shows me everything. I see it all. I see the way he got addicted to her and she made him feel. It makes me gag.

  I see the way he used her to feel me.

  But for every image of her there are two of me. I see him creeping and stalking me. I see a thousand images of him being a complete fucking idiot. But then I see the ones I need to see. I see the images of me that make him act like the fuckin
g idiot. He sees me laughing and kissing someone else. He sees me riding in a car with another man. He sees me being happy without him. Each moment drives him crazier.

  I wrap myself around him and shake my head. “Want to try this one time at getting it right before we die with the rest of the world?”

  He nods and kisses my head, trembling and clinging to me as he whispers. “Please be real. Just let this one be real and not a cruel joke.”

  I lift my face and rub my hand on the scruff on his cheeks. “If it is a cruel joke then I am being fooled too, so it doesn't matter. We are together.”

  He sniffles and lets the water wash his one inky tear away. “I don't deserve it but I am going to ask anyway. Please don't leave me again.”

  I cup his face and press my lips into his. “Burn the robe and we will talk.”

  He nods. “Deal.”

  I close my eyes and let the water wash us both clean. “We have done it wrong a thousand times and I have a bad feeling we are out of times to try. So we are either going to get it right or we are going to die trying.”

  He kisses my head again. “I can’t think of a better way to die than trying to make this one, the one that counts.”

  They are magical words, the kind that bring my heart back to life. We cling to each other and let the water wash away the sins. I forgive the ones the water can’t get because it doesn't matter. What matters is that in the end I am able to say I was enough and he was enough and our love was more.

  That's all I want. I want more.

  The End

  Don't miss this sneak peak of The Redeemers, coming out June 2014

  The Redeemers

  Chapter One

  I still can’t picture it, not the way Lorri saw it. I sit on the hilltop and close my eyes with her voice echoing in my brain—but nope. I can’t see it. The lush garden is never going to be there for me. I can’t see the eternal city of Eden.