Banes

by Tara Brown

  She stepped up to the door and took a deep breath, she had always been a private person, she hated she'd just lost her virginity in a dorm room and was emerging with the guy and everyone would know.

  "Stop stressing, it's not a big deal. We aren’t the first people to have sex Ari."

  She turned harshly and hushed him, "Shhhhh."

  He laughed at her panicked face and reached and opened the door pushing her out into the hallway. She felt her runners skidding along the floor as he shoved her out.

  The hallway was empty which she hadn’t expected.

  He grabbed her hand in his and tugged her along down the hall.

  The sitting room was dimly lit with the glow of a flickering propane fireplace and dim lights. Feeling awkward holding Lucas's hand she noticed the burning starting in her hands. He looked at her and smiled, "Easy trigger."

  She blushed a deeper crimson, "Sorry." She pulled her sweaty hand from his.

  She smiled seeing Aimee, "Hey Aims."

  Aimee looked between her and Lucas and nodded, "How's it going?"

  Ari nodded almost squeaking, "Good."

  Daniel looked at Ari and frowned, "have a seat dear."

  She walked to the huge comfy couch and sat feeling the room filling with every ones thoughts abut her and Lucas and their wet hair or the fact they'd been in the room alone in the dark for hours.

  "Are you alright Ari?"

  She looked up at Lorri and smiled, "What? Yes."

  Lucas laughed, "Sorry about earlier. My wolf wouldn’t back down. I was trying to hold him back." He smirked at Ari, "He just really gets protective over her, she's my mate."

  Ari gulped looking horrified thinking to herself, 'had he said mate? Did that mean friend?'

  "Right well yes of course, it's not a problem Lucas. We know what wolves are like when it comes to their mates. It actually provided the perfect test for Ari's abilities."

  Aimee sighed, "So bummed I missed it. I heard you almost shot it right from your hands, that’s pretty sweet."

  Ari nodded still feeling lost in the mate conversation that seemed to be happening above her head somewhere, "Yeah it was crazy. I didn’t get tired after, not right away."

  "Nice."

  Lorri clasped her hands together, "We want to run another trial. Lucas could you help out?"

  He looked at Ari and nodded, "Yes of course."

  Ari frowned, "Trial? You want me to do it again?"

  Lorri nodded, "Yes but under more duress and with more shifters and demons."

  Ari panicked, "I could push one back. This is a very bad idea."

  Lorri shook her head, "No we'll only pick the ones you cant. Aimee will be there just in case to remove you if it gets out of control."

  She shook her head, "No this is a bad idea."

  Daniel leaned forward, "We've done this thousands of times Ari, we have to train and your training for the Roses is just starting now."

  Ari looked at Aimee noticing her face clouding over.

  Dorian stepped into the doorway, "Ari I will be there too honey. You'll be fine."

  Ari gulped. She didn’t mind Dorian the way Aimee did but there was something about him she wasn’t completely comfortable with.

  "Lets do this before she makes it bigger than it is in her mind."

  Lorri looked back at Daniel as she walked from the room, "How quickly does she heal?"

  "Thus far we've seen miraculous, so as quickly as Dorian I believe."

  Dorian smiled at her, "That's my girl."

  She shivered at his black eyes, they looked soulless.

  Lucas took her hand again squeezing it and pulling her down the corridor.

  They walked to the elevator and got in. Ari looked around confused until the doors opened revealing a forest. She looked at Aimee who smiled, "It’s the trial room. There is a section with like buildings and forest and stuff. It's so you can fight realistically."

  Ari gulped, "Like the Matrix?" She reached out touching the tree in front of her, it felt completely real.

  Everyone laughed, "No babe its like a movie set, it's really there. The trees and rocks are lifelike but not living."

  She put her hands on her hips glaring at Lucas, "What? I don’t watch a lot of movies okay. I was training for iron man competitions and worrying about graduating from high school. Jeesh."

  "Okay well Aimee why don’t you girls go over to the north and we will set the attack." Daniel pointed.

  Aimee took Ari by the arm and pulled her along, "Come on. Stop touching everything."

  "This is pretty cool."

  "Yeah it's wicked cool but it's also a set not the real thing. It breaks and then Daniel gets mad."

  Ari frowned walking through the forest almost lost by the density of the trees around her and the light coming from the skylights high above. Rocks, sticks, bark, trees, leaves and even a couple birds perched on branches surrounded them. It was a real forest only like twenty stories above the ground. The forest cleared coming to a couple small trailers. They had windows and a blue sky painted above them.

  She marveled, "It is like The Matrix or Star trek, you know the Holodeck on Generations."

  Aimee laughed, "Oh my god I thought I was the only nerd who watched that show. Remember the episode where Worf and Alexander and Troi were trapped in the Western?"

  Ari giggled, "That was awesome, Wil Wheaton was hot."

  "Ohhhh yeah. He was smoking in his uni."

  Ari looked at Aimee, "Why cant life be simple like before?"

  Aimee shrugged, "Its life Ari, things get tossed in the air sometimes and no matter how they land you have to be ready to fight for what you have."

  Ari nodded, "I know I just wish…"

  Aimee hugged her, "Me too." She pulled her back, "Ready?"

  Ari shook her head, "What's going to happen?"

  Aimee shrugged, "Not sure. Just be ready. Ears open, eyes open, smells in the air."

  "Ouu like that one?"

  Aimee's eyes narrowed, "Oh Dorian for god sake just come out. We can smell your dead flesh from all the way over here."

  He stepped out of the house beside her, "Hurtful." He put an arm on Ari, "Just try to relax Ari."

  Aimee frowned, "Why are you so nice to her and a total dick to me?"

  He shrugged taking a step toward her obviously making Aimee nervous, "Something about you bugs me Aimee."

  Aimee stood her ground unflinching, "Ari I smell wolf."

  Ari smelled her arms making sure it wasn’t her.

  Dorian laughed, "Not on you honey, it's in the air. Can you smell it?"

  Ari put her nose to the air and closed her eyes, she could smell Henry she was certain. She crouched snapping her fingers making sparks. She hadn’t noticed them getting hot but they were burning.

  Aimee held her arm out, "Touch my hand and control it even though it's turned on."

  Ari went to shake her head but she knew it was going to happen whether she fought it or not. She put her hand on Aimee. The push started to spark but Ari held it. She vibrated slightly controlling it. Instantly feeling in control and excited she pulled away smiling.

  "Nice."

  The large black wolf was silent but she saw the movement off to the side. She ran at him dodging as he leapt at her. She grabbed the branch that hung low nearest her and swung to the side. She watched as his muzzle came at her arm with huge teeth bared. She put her hand out to touch him but another wolf had her arm in seconds pulling her from the tree ripping her skin.

  She let herself drop as her other hand came free. She put it to the side of the brown wolfs face. His green eyes sparkled as they met her own dark eyes. The black wolf was on her pinning her as the brown wolf fell away to the ground fighting the sleep she tried to force on him. She pulled the bleeding arm out from under the brown wolf almost waving it in front of the black wolfs face. His jaw snapped at the blood but her hand came up too quickly freezing him. His eyelids closed on the dark eyes. She panted trying desperately to slide her bo
dy out from under the hundreds of pounds of fur and sleeping wolf.

  She listened to the forest looking for Aimee and Dorian but she found herself completely alone. A subtle sound filled the fake forest but her heartbeat overpowered the hidden noise. She shoved the wolves off her and was on her feet trying to control her heartbeat within seconds looking around for the source of the noise.

  From the corner of her eye she saw a flash of something, it looked as if it were a woman. The brown wolf moved still distracting her from the streak moving in the forest about to try to take a shot at her. She saw the flash and jumped out of the way quickly rolling along the ground hitting a log.

  The flash was Lorri, she moved with incredible speed. Ari leapt again trying to avoid her grasping claws. Completely unsure of what Lorri was but knowing she needed to escape she tried to stay a step ahead. Lorri was too fast catching Ari mid air and slamming her to the ground. Ari felt all her wind leave her upon impact and blackness try to take her. She caught a glimpse of Lorri's face smelling the ripped skin of her arms before she was gone.

  Chapter Eighteen- Lucifer, Obviously a Chick Name

  Aimee

  She watched the battle taking place trying not to notice Dorian observing her continuously. Ari handled the wolves both well even if it was odd Lucas seemed to be building a resistance to Ari's special blend of ass kicking. Her arm was bleeding which was fortunate as Aimee saw Lorri making her way to Ari. Nothing distracted Lorri like blood. Ari tried to out maneuver her but Lorri was too fast as Aimee expected her to be. Even winking herself sometimes wasn’t fast enough to escape Lorri. She truly was one of a kind. As Lorri pinned Ari, Aimee watched Lorri's jaw open as her eyes fixated on the blood, running as fast as she could she dove touching Ari before Lorri could get a lick and winked them both out.

  The cool air hit like a ton of bricks as they both stood on the roof of the building. Aimee held Ari up holding her in her arms.

  "It's okay Ari you're safe now."

  Ari shook as her knees buckled, "They bit me. I think they broke my arm."

  Aimee touched her and nodded, "Yup they did."

  Ari started to cry, "What was that all for? Lorri tried to eat me and the wolves, my own boyfriend tried to eat me. What kind of sick place is this? I wanna go home. I want Lydia. I'm done."

  Aimee tried not to laugh remembering her own breaking point. She'd thrown her hissy fit only steps from their current location.

  She wrapped herself tightly around Ari and guided her back into the building. She winked them into the med lab. Ari swooned and passed out. Aimee knew everyone hated traveling with her but at least if she was going to pass out it was where the doctors could help her heal.

  Daniel walked into the lab smiling regardless of the fact Ari was in a pile on the floor, "That was amazing, for a first time my god. She was perfect."

  Lucas ran into the lab looking no worse for wear, "Is she alright? Did Lorri get a bite off?"

  Aimee shook her head, "Lorri would be throwing up right now if she drank her blood. Where's Henry?"

  Lucas smiled, "Past out, he's still wolfie too."

  Daniel frowned, "Why aren’t you?"

  Lucas picked Ari up off the floor and put her on the cot, "Not sure but her touch didn’t knock me out this time. She pushed, I felt it but I was able to fight it."

  "Like your body evolved and knew how to fight it?"

  Lucas shrugged, "You're the genus here Dan not me. Why is she unconscious?"

  Aimee smirked, "She had a full fledged freak out on the roof top, it was awesome. Very I want my mommy. Reminded me of me when I was new here."

  Lucas kissed Ari's unconscious cheek, "I think we've all felt that way one time or another. Things feel so hopeless and overwhelming for us sometimes."

  "Speak for yourself hound." Lorri growled coming around the corner shooting daggers at Aimee.

  Aimee smirked, "Someone bitchy from the near miss?"

  She snarled, "I had it under control." She looked at Daniel, "I'll be back later."

  He nodded trying not to laugh.

  She stormed from the room.

  "She's going to eat someone."

  Aimee nodded sighing, "Yeah."

  "She really is the devil."

  "She really is."

  Lucas looked back at them, "Like the actual devil?"

  Aimee nodded, "Yeah, the actual devil."

  "Lucifer?"

  Daniel nodded pressing his lips together, "Lucifer."

  Lucas looked at Aimee, "You nearly let Lucifer eat my girlfriend?"

  Aimee smiled, "I had it under control the entire time and honestly Lorri does really well at keeping the beast in check."

  "So the Devils Roses, Lorri's in charge of the Devils Roses cause she's the devil. Satan?"

  Daniel sighed, "I don’t really know how else to explain this do you?"

  Aimee shook her head, "No."

  "How? Why? What?" He stood up from hovering over Ari like only a wolf boy would.

  Aimee laughed, "Luke buddy mellow out. She is Lucifer, there is no if and or but. However the story you have in your mind of Lucifer is not the story of how it happened."

  He stopped and looked at Daniel who shrugged, "She's right. Everyone believes the trash in that stupid book but Lucifer never was the problem. She was the solution."

  "She, Lucifer is a girl?"

  "Think about the name, Lucifer. Not a manly name. The morons who wrote the bible made her a man in the story because woman couldn’t possibly hold that important of a role in humanity as the right hand of god."

  "Are you shitting me?"

  "No honestly she isn’t taking a piss, Lucifer is a girl. Well a woman. SHE is Lorri. She changed her name after having to explain the whole damned thing over and over and trying to reason with the brain washed masses that she truly was trying to help. Dammit she is still helping. She started the roses which back then was God's idea. He gave mankind freewill. It was the envy of every angel that man, a simple being walked the earth with the freedom to chose as he saw fit. The archangels saw man as a mistake, they thought mankind was foolish and the choice of freewill the biggest mistake god ever made. They wanted to abolish man, make him kill himself off. They created disease and plague and pestilence to show god how weak his beings were. Then they whispered temptations planting seeds of doubt in the weak minds of man to prove how pathetic and feeble his creations were. Murder, rape, suicide, lust, greed, sloth all inventions of the ever jealous archangels."

  Aimee watched Lucas as he absorbed. He seemed to believe, it was easy for Fae to doubt the bible, it never felt true to her either. Science had always been more plausible for her.

  Daniel continued, "The final blow was dealt when they raped human women impregnating them with Nephilim. Half angel and half mortal. The children were stronger, faster, growing until they finished puberty and then aging so slowly no human see a difference in their appearance within a lifetime. The problem with mating with human women and creating Nephilim was that they too were born with freewill. God was furious as the creatures began to slaughter humans, rape more women creating more Nephilim. He saw no choice but to fight back. He called upon his favorite and asked the ultimate sacrifice of her. He asked her to fall. To live amongst the humans and Nephilim and fight back. She would protect the humans at all cost from the unnatural creations of the archangels. The angels didn’t know that their creations would eventually make an attempt at ruining the world god had spent so much love and care creating. Lucifer fell with some of her hand chosen angels like Dorian to live amongst the people and protect them from the supernatural elements that walk the earth. She never kills anything that lives by the rule God created for them, Do What Ye Will But Harm None and Keep The Secret."

  Lucas looked devastated, "Wow. I had no idea. I'm the offspring of Nephilim?"

  Daniel shook his head, "No you are Fae, something very different. Aimee is a changeling, a fallen angel turned her, making her what she is. We are an unnatural abomination t
o the world god made but at the end of the day we were born innocent, if we live innocent then we are left alone."

  "How was she labeled the Devil?"

  Daniel laughed, "She made the name up for herself, in ancient Hebrew the name meant the accuser. She was the judge and jury for the non-humans of earth and the protection against the Nephilim. Needless to say she was quite pissed when the name became something evil and she was found wicked while the archangels were written into history as the saviors. Even Jesus, when god cast down his only son and made him a man he was in fact meant to be a teacher of people. He was supposed to show them of their natural abilities. You see god has no sway over people, he made them free in every way. Instead of people seeing Jesus as the Son of God and a man who they themselves could emulate they allowed the seeds of doubt planted many years prior to corrupt them. They killed him."

  "That is crazy. It’s a crazy story. I can't even believe that the archangels got away with so much."

  "Lorri cant either. She still fights with them, particularly Michael. He wanted to be the one god chose to save the humans but it was found he too had lain with a human woman impregnating her against her will. Every time there is a surplus of people like us and the balance is tipped the wrong way bad things happen, bad things like the dark ages."

  Aimee smiled, "We are the fine line between balance and chaos."

  "Ari will make a fine Rose."

  Aimee watched Lucas digesting it all, "She'll be awake any minute."

  "How's my girl?"

  Aimee snarled watching Dorian walk in like he owned the place, as usual.

  He smiled sickly sweet at Ari.

  "She's fine Dorian. She'll be awake any second no doubt. Where are you off to now?"

  He shrugged still watching Aimee, "Not sure. I think Lorri wants me to help Aleksander some more."

  Aimee flinched at his name. Her heart still felt confused sometimes, picking Shane was the true choice but she had loved Aleks even if it wasn’t enough.

  "His father again?"

  Aimee felt a shiver remembering the huge naked man in the woods who had murdered her mother.

  Dorian nodded, "Would you care to join me Aimee dear? He's struck again. We're just heading to small place in Louisiana, I believe Aleksander called it Violet which is funny because I was once with a woman from Louisiana named Violet about a hundred years ago."