"I don’t have a soul sweetheart." He laughed. His laugh grated on her last nerve.
Worry built in her stomach as she walked up to Gladys's desk. She knew she would be back every few days even if it meant trouble for her. She needed to keep Ari safe from Dorian.
Chapter Fifteen- Grandmother What Big Eyes You Have
Ari
She watched out the window of the high-rise seeing the life scurry below her on the street. New York was exactly as she imagined it would be, dirty, smelly and nonstop action. It had taken her a month just to get used to the noise at night. The mansion had been so quiet.
She looked behind as the door to her room opened and smiled seeing Daniel walking in, "Just wanted to say great job today Ari, really. That was perfect the way you read that man and chose not to send him back. I saw the control you had over it all. How do you feel?"
She laughed, "Good I just wish I could get rid of her forever, the other me."
"You're getting closer everyday. It's time for your theory lesson and then boxing okay."
She nodded and looked back at the window as he left the room quietly. She knew she was doing better but she missed home. She sent Lucas a text nearly every hour but he still barely answered her. She didn’t know how to fix the gap that her behavior had caused. She wondered about his part in everything, was he like her? He answered none of her questions except that he was doing fine and he missed her too. She had started to doubt that.
Ben cheered her up and had developed quite the friendship with her. He sent her a birthday card and flowers, he sent her messages every day, he phoned every week and he met her once in the three months when he came with Aimee.
Ari liked him a lot but she wanted his brother. Lucas drove her insane. Ben had been an amazing friend.
She turned and left for theory class. There were other kids like her in the class, they all joked about how they were in an X-Men movie. They learned about witches, demons, vampires, shifters, zombies, monsters, mad scientists, trolls and elves. She had had a hard time taking it all in at first. A lot of history was explained through the classes. Everyone was amazed by the atrocities that had been committed against completely innocent monsters. Some monsters were extinct, murdered by humans. Giants no longer roamed the earth, no one had seen a mermaid in ages and fairies had been gone since before the First World War.
She breezed through class, floated in her mind through boxing and was back in her room looking at her phone again wondering what Lucas was doing. She iced her jaw thanks to daydreaming in boxing class.
She looked at the phone and decided it was time. Her heart hurt and she wasn’t feeling anything anymore. She needed closure, well that’s what Marcia had told her. Marcia was her bathroom mate. They all had their own rooms but everyone had a shared bathroom with one person. Their rooms were beautiful on the top floor of the building and set up like dorms.
Marcia had been in love with a human before she changed. She was a weretiger but never knew. When she turned the first time she ate her own cat. It was devastating for her. Marcia knew then there was no way she could be trusted to be around her boyfriend. She had messaged him for the first couple months in New York but had decided to free him and break up with him. She cried for weeks at first but seemed a lot happier in recent weeks. Ari knew she needed that too.
She started to tap the letters sending the message.
'Lucas I'll be sorry for the rest of my life for what happened between us. I can't fix it and I see that now. I'm sorry I hurt you. I hope one day you can be my friend and stop hating me. I wont text or phone you anymore. Ari.'
She read it again and felt the tears popping from her eyes. She pressed the send and took a breath. She regretted it instantly. She put the phone under her pillow and left for dinner. She needed distracting.
She sat in the dining room picking at her dinner. It was her favorite meal, spaghetti and meatballs with fresh asiago and garlic bread. She twirled her fork in the noodles.
"Earth to Ari."
She looked up to see Marcia smiling at her, "I can't believe you left without me. I was waiting for you to tell me you were done. Did you do it?"
Marcia was very pretty which Ari had learned was a natural trait of all shifters, they looked the way they did so they could naturally keep their population alive. Ari suspected Lucas and Ben were shifters because they were both so handsome.
Marcia flicked her red hair behind her face and started to eat her spaghetti. Her bright green eyes were mesmerizing.
"I did." Ari sighed.
Marcia frowned, "Ari I'm really sorry things didn’t work out with you guys. I know how much you like him. Maybe when you go home things will work out."
Ari shrugged, "Maybe but I think he hates me still so whatever.""How's the nose there sunshine?"
Ari looked up at Henry smirking at her. He was by far the sexiest Asian guy she had ever seen. He was tall and built with naturally tanned skin and an incredibly handsome face. His dark eyes has the slightest hint of grey to them which she thought was cool. Marcia had been eyeing him up to no avail. Henry was a player and he had loved living in New York. Ari hadn’t gone out with them all terrified of being on the streets and the other Ari taking over out of habit. Marci had said the clubs were amazing but that she got tired of watching Henry make his moves on other girls.
"Ari?"
She looked at Henry and smiled, "What?"
He laughed, "I think I hit you pretty hard on the head, you're acting funny."
"Pu-lease, she heals faster than any of us and the only reason you even got a shot off before she sent you into a nice little nap was because she was distracted."
Ari looked at Marcia and blushed.
"Well if you wanna tuck me in Ari I'm more than happy to take a nap if you come along."
He leaned over the table and moved in close to her face taunting her. She felt her face flushing, "Uh Henry if I tuck you in it'll involve a coma."
He laughed and kissed her on the cheek as she swatted him in the head.
She could hear a growl, it was a familiar sound. She looked at Marcia who was no doubt bothered by the flirting Henry was doing but it wasn’t her growling. Her eyes were fixed staring on something behind Henry who was blocking Ari's view.
"Ari back away from Henry slowly." Marcia whispered, "I'm guessing that you’re his still in his mind Ari."
Ari backed up seeing a panic on Henry's face as he trembled, she imagined he was fighting the change, she had never seen him turn into a wolf before but she had heard it was incredibly scary.
She leaned back in her chair looking past his head at the angry face staring at her, Lucas. It made her stomach drop, she was afraid of his response even though she had no cause, Lucas had never done anything to frighten her, nothing beyond protect her even if it was from herself.
"Lucas?" She felt her face tighten, she didn’t want to cry in front of everyone, she hadn’t really cried much in months. Lydia and Lucas were the only ones who made her cry.
"Ari he's fixed on Henry, if Henry turns around they'll both shift and we will have injuries and a lot of mess to clean up. Henry don’t you dare turn. Ari just get him outta here."
Ari stood from her chair running to Lucas. His massive body trembled with anger and whatever else he was controlling. She worried more about the whatever else. She put a hand on his chest to try to talk to him but Henry turned at the wrong second. They both shifted with Ari right in the middle. She screamed seeing the fur and snarling faces suddenly. She wanted to run away but her legs were paralyzed in terror. Lucas had become a shaggy brown wolf with green eyes and Henry had become a black wolf with steel black eyes. Both their faces were gnashing and growling as they started to circle her but seeing only each other. Ari felt her hand heating up, she felt the room start to tremble. As they jumped for each other her mind cleared completely. She knew what she needed to do. She reached into the air as if they moved in slow motion and pressed a hand to each wolf. Her hands dug into their fur finding the skin beneath. She pushed faster than she had before. It nearly shot from her freezing them instantly. Both huge wolves dropped from the air onto the hardwood floor.
Ari stepped back not exhausted, she felt rejuvenated. She looked down at her hands and back at the wolves on the floor. Realizing what she'd done she leapt to the brown shaggy wolf kneeling and cradling his muzzle on her lap. She loved him, she loved him so much. She couldn’t help but be a tiny bit excited about the fact he'd shown up after her text message ending everything.
"Ari what did you do?" She looked up at Daniel walking in.
"She saved us all probably, at least from some nasty injuries. Henry moved in on Ari, it was all teasing but Lucas came into the room at the wrong moment seeing another wolf hovering over his girlfriend. Then Henry kissed her on the cheek and Lucas freaked."
Daniel knelt touching the black wolf, "They're alive still though I'm pretty sure they wont be very excited about it in an hour when they wake up. Ari you did this to them?"
She looked up confused, "My hands knew, they just knew they-I could stop them. I pushed into them both at the same time."
A woman Ari didn’t know stood beside Daniel and spoke softly, "Daniel it shot from her hands, like a bolt."
Ari felt ashamed, "I didn’t mean to hurt them." Everyone in the hall who had been standing around them all and whispering to each other turned back to their tables and resumed eating. Only Marcia stayed beside Ari with a hand on her back.
The woman smiled, "You my dear are turning out to be a very worthwhile find."
Daniel pointed, "This is Lorri. She is in charge of the Roses, like Aimee and Aleksander and Dorian and Lucas here."
She was attractive but her power was what you noticed before her looks. Her long lean body was shockingly fit, she wore dark brown leather pants and burnt burgundy knee high boots. She wore a tight fit cream-colored sweater that showed every curve and muscle. Her arms were clearly toned. She wasn’t thick but she was strong. She had short auburn hair cut funky and styled in every direction. She really just looked like a cartoon character she was so perfectly made. She didn’t look old enough to be in charge of anything, she might be thirty-five if she was a day older. Dorian and Aleksander were crazy old but didn’t look a day over twenty-five so she could realistically be a thousand and still look that good.