Death (The Devil's Roses #5)

Ari crosses her arms, hugging herself. She looks like she's talking to herself. She grabs my hand and shows me a picture. It's the desert. I wink us there without consulting anyone. The vampire blood-drugging house is below us. The air is cool as the sun has set, but the desert isn’t completely dark.

"I'm pregnant Aimes." She whispers.

I look at her, "What? Is that even possible?"

She nods, "It's rare. Usually it's angels and Fae impregnating humans. Not Fae impregnating Nephilim." She looks at me with tears making her black eyes like pools of despair. "I need your help."

I nod, "Anything. You know that."

Her lip quivers, "If anything happens to me, you make sure Lucas doesn’t remember me."

I scowl, "What? Why? What's going to happen?"

She shakes her head, "That’s just it. I don’t know." She looks off into the distance, like she's lost. "I haven’t talked to Dorian. I think he'll be mad."

I frown, "Yeah. He's going to be the oldest grandpa in the world."

She looks at me and smiles, "I can't imagine him as a grandpa."

I laugh, "No. Certainly not."

Her smiles fades, "If something happens to me, you make one of them make him forget me."

"No. Ari. That’s so wrong."

She shakes her head, "No. You make him raise the baby and be at peace with my death. He'll hurt himself if I d-die."

I grab her shoulders, "You're immortal. No baby can kill you."

Her eyes grow haunted, "I'm not entirely certain of that. I'm loosing pieces of me everyday. My mind, my heart, my sanity, my soul." She whispered the last part.

"It doesn’t make any sense." I mutter.

She shakes her head and continues to look off in the distance, "I know. I just feel it. Something isn’t right."

"You should talk to Dorian and Lorri."

She shoots me a look and then looks down at the ground, "No."

I know her mother died when she was being born. I know why she's worried. "You're not human like she was Ari. You're special. You'll be fine."

She smiles and I can't help but see the fakeness of it.

"Let's kill shit."

I grin and nod, "Alright." I take her hand and flash us to the opening of the door at the back of the large home.

"Ready?" I ask.

Her eyes fill solid black, eating up all the whites. She smiles a twisted grin, "Yup."

I open the door and slide against the wall. I don’t know how many there are. We did sloppy reconnaissance. We tend to get over confident.

The hall is silent. Ari's buzzing with the strange electricity she controls.

We creep along quietly. Watching for movement. It's all so familiar to me.

I glance back, "Have we done this before?"

She shakes hr head and laughs, "No. But we did it in Rio a few times. You probably just remember that in the weird déjà vu way."

I nod, "Great. Love that Déjà vu."

Her laugh is almost silent. I open the door to the right of us in the long hallway. The room is empty and dark. It's a small sitting room with strange chairs and sofas. They look exotic, like a genie would live in there. I close the door just as Ari opens the one on the left. She closes it, "This is weird."

We walk to the end of the hall where it forks.

Ari points right and walks left. We know each other like the backs of our hands and honestly, she knows me better than I know me. I creep along the hallway, until it opens in a fancy kitchen with marble and granite and stainless steel everywhere. It's stunning. I slip past it to another hallway. There are few windows but many lights so it feels like daylight inside. At the end of a hall with no other doors I feel a twinge of something. My powers are completely with me, so much so, that when I touch the handle of the door it burns it's so cold against my searing flesh.

I stop turning the handle midway. A panicked feeling inside cripples me. It's foreign and only because I was human so few years ago does my body register it. It's fear. Real fear. I look back to where we parted ways and break into a winking run.

"Ari!" I shout, trying to keep my voice down but I can't. I pull my cell and snap a photo of the lovely kitchen and send a mass text instantly, 'HELP!'

I called out, panicking and looking, "Ari!"

Kicking and tearing the doors down, I leave each one open. The house is empty. All of the floors are empty. She is gone.

I hear the others arriving behind me on the stairs. I look back. I know horror and terror have taken over my face. I'm gasping for air. I try to avoid the green eyes when I speak, "She's gone. It was a trap. They took her."

Lorri growls, "For Christ's sake, when will the two of you stop doing these rogue missions. I know it gets stale at times, but this wasn’t one of those times. We have a ton of shit to do. Why would they take her?"

I glance at Dorian and lower my gaze. Lucas leaps up the stairs at me. His fingers bite into my skin, "Where is she Aimes?"

I flinch, holding back my powers. "I don’t know. There was no one here. It should have been full of drugged blood bags."

Lorri paces on the stairs. I look at them all. The worried looks change depending on the faces I glance at.

Dorian looks savagely at me, "How could you let them take her?"

I fight tears, "I didn’t even see them. I didn’t hear them. I-we separated. We always do. She has the holding thing." I clearly have no excuses.

Giselle steps forward and grabs my arms from Lucas who looks like he might eat me.

"You guys suck." She takes my hands and smiles, "Everyone knows Ari is badass and can kick anyone's ass."

Ben grabs his brother's arms, "I agree. This isn’t Aimee's fault. We need to stop blaming and start looking."

Aleks shakes his head, "We don’t need to. We know where they took her. Ophelia's at Lydia's safe and sound. They took what they could. She's in Alaska."

My heart sinks. I remember the details of the last time.

Lorri is already gone. Dorian points at me, "Lydia's now. We need to talk." He flashes him and Ben away but Lucas breaks free before he's also taken home. He grabs my hands, "I didn’t mean it. It's just, she's not been herself lately."

His face is breaking my heart.

"I know. She told me." The tears win over. I lose control. "I'm so sorry. I should have made us go home when she told me."

He shakes his head, "She wouldn’t have let you."

I snort through the tears and put my hands out. Giselle and Lucas take them and we are in Lydia's kitchen.

Sam glances at me, "Leaving now then I guess huh?" He knows already.

"Yup." I wipe my face and sit down.

"Miss Aimee, you's been a bad girl. Lord suffering Jesus, you and that Miss Ari always been so naughty." Annabelle hands me a cup of cocoa. I sip it and smile. I can't help it. She makes me feel loved.

"I know Annabelle."

Lydia storms into the kitchen, "This isn’t so bad. They have Ari, now we have a reason to go there and attack and get the ball rolling the way it was before."

Sam shakes his head, "No. Ari is in a situation."

"Sam." I say before I can stop myself.

He shakes his head, "Everyone needs to know Aimes."

"How do you know?"

He ignores me, "Ari is pregnant."

Lydia gasps. Dorian chokes his cocoa down, spraying a bit of it across the room. He flashes and grabs Lucas by the throat. I see the spark. I leap across the room, knocking my cocoa across the kitchen too. When I grip Dorian's hand, I wink. I'm lying on top of him in the forest close to home. I don’t know why I flashed there but I did.

He screams in rage.

I hold him. I wrap my legs and arms around him and hold him tightly.

When he's done, he closes his eyes and sighs, "You knew? You knew and you took her there?"

I shake my head against him, "I never knew. I never knew until we were in the desert. Too late to turn back."

He sighs, "Fuck me. Fuck. FUCKKKKKK!"

His slow heart is beating harder than I could imagine it would go.

I whisper, "She'll be fine."

He grabs my arms and throws me off of him. He throws me with such force I don’t have time to wink. I slam into a tree with a thud. I gurgle from the broken ribs I'm sure I have and searing pain in my spine. His black eyes burn and his nostrils flare with every breath. He looks savage but I can't get my breath to talk him down.

I lie limp in the soft moss and ferns.

He looks at me and covers his face. He winks and leaves me alone in the woods. I wink to Lydia's, broken and bleeding. I land on the back grass and whisper, "Aleks."

He's there within seconds. He somehow always knows when I need him.

"Hey, what happened?"

I cough as the rib pulls away from my lungs and starts to heal, "Dorian. Pissed." I whisper.

He picks me up and flashes us to my bed. He lays me down and lies beside me.

Ophelia walks into the room. "You okay?"

I shake my head. Aleks stands up and shrugs, "She'll be fine. Her kind heals fast."

"What happened?"

He shakes his head, "Dorian did something to her."

I'm struggling to get my breath, still winded. "Slammed me into a tree." I say breathlessly.

Ophelia looks disgusted, "You don’t want to defend her?"

He frowns, "I don’t like getting involved in Roses business."

She growls, "I've had just about enough of this. She snaps her fingers and grabs his face before he can move away. She holds his head. His eyes roll back inside his head. He drops to his knees. I'm gasping in horror, she's killing him. She drops her hands after a second.