Death (The Devil's Roses #5)

Sam sighs, "Oh my god. That is going to kill me."

I grin, "Nothing can kill you baby. We gotta go though. Lorri said we were leaving now."

He flashes us to the front door. I grin at him adjusting himself.

"Something wrong?" I ask. I can't help myself.

He shakes his head and laughs, "You're gonna wreck that power of yours if you keep it up." He leans in and whispers, "I'll make sure you don’t have a need for weeks."

I inhale sharply and bite my lip to stop myself from tempting him.

He nods, "That's what I thought." He turns away from me, to where Aleks walks up dragging a fierce looking Aimee. Giselle and Shane are right behind them. My skin crawls seeing him. I feel panic and terror creep into me. Sam grabs my hand. My skin sparks when he touches me.

Lucas growls at Shane, but Giselle puts her hands in the air. "No. He didn’t do it. Marcus, tell them."

"Blow it out your ass." He shouts from his spot on the couch, in his too short robe that's flashing his dark hairy legs.

It's silent for a moment and then Giselle shouts at him, "Stop acting like you're the only one WHO'S life is SCREWED. You selfish, self centered piece of shit. You are not the only person in the world who didn’t get what he wanted in life. You think THIS is what I wanted? Do you? answer me god dammit."

We all take a step back. No one has seen Giselle lose it since the reign of the dark queen days. She looks fierce like Aimee. She storms into the living room and grabs him by the ear. She hauls his nasty ass off the couch. He cries out. She turns and screams again, "Stop acting like this is celebrity rehab and get dressed. You smell funny. King of the vamps, ha. You're more like the dirty cousin to the king that shits himself and no one admits to being related to." She drags his filthy ass to where we are.

Aimee is outright laughing. I'm still eyeballing Shane nervously. I could kill Marcus though.

He winces and pulls out of her grip, "I wiped his mind. I changed him and wiped his weak little mind. Bloody hell. Are you happy now? Now can I go back to sulking?"

She slaps him in the face, "No. You owe Hanna an apology too."

He tenses his jaw and looks at me. My eyes narrow. I'm not in the mood for his shit.

"Hanna, I am sorry that you died and became an amazing immortal and sex goddess. Yes, your life is horrid just like mine." He bows and vanishes.

Giselle is almost breathing fire out of her nose.

Lorri storms up the front door. She looks more savage than normal.

She looks at me harshly, "You ready?"

"Yup."

A smile plays with the corner of her lips, "You smell ready."

"That's the understatement of the century. What is that?" Aleks grins at Sam, "Dude. Really? Can't take care of business."

Sam glares and shakes his head slowly, "Nope."

Aimee is smiling like a fool suddenly. She smirks at Sam and bats her eyelashes a couple times. He frowns but not nearly as severely as Aleks does.

Sam looks at Lorri and points at me, "This was a good idea?"

Lorri laughs and puts her hand in, "Probably not. Group up with me and Sam. We know the way."

Me, Aimee and Giselle slap our hands on Sam. He smells delicious. The guys frown at him. He winks and we're there. The sun beats down. It's warm and lovely compared to the dank air on the west coast of America.

"Ari would love it here." Aimee whispers.

Sam nods, "She would die and go to heaven. Man it's hot."

He tugs at his shirt and doesn’t notice the looks Giselle and Aimee shoot him.

"Bad timing." I whisper.

His jaw drops, "Oh. That was the wrong thing to say. Sorry."

Lorri, Aleks, Ben, Luke and Shane show up seconds later. "Thanks for letting me ride with the sausage party." Lorri snorts.

"You fit right in." Giselle smirks.

Lorri shoots her a glare and the rest of us stifle giggles.

"You're all awfully cheerful for people about to die."

Aimee puts her hands on her hips, "What's the worst that can happen? We die? Big deal. Everyone else is dead. We are the worst kind of enemy right now. We've got nothing to lose."

Lorri's grim face splits, "Have I ever told you I love you, Aimee? I love the ass kicking bitch you've become." Aimee beams. Lorri turns around looking at us all, "She is right. We got fuck all to lose. So Jonathan wins. If we're dead we aren’t here for the Armageddon. Fuck em. Let's just do the best we can and see what happens. What have we got to lose?"

Sam grins, "You coach a lot of basketball Lorri?"

She looks at him for a moment and then breaks into a gut-blasting laugh. I'm scared. I've never seen her like this.

Giselle whispers, "Home girl got herself a piece of ass."

I snicker, "Fo sho."

"We run it the way we practiced. This is going to be typical. Stay together. Don’t attack until we know for sure." She stalks off. I wait for Sam to lead us the other way. Aimee, Ben, Aleks and Giselle go with Lorri.

I look at Sam, Lucas and Shane and sigh. "Only girl. I hate my team. I miss Ari." I pout. Lucas rolls his eyes but Sam and Shane both watch me. Like predators.

Sam snaps out of it and turns and walks the other direction. I stay close to him and Lucas phases and stalks behind me. He stays close. Close so Shane can't.

"I think putting me with you was a bad idea. You smell sweet."

I look back at him but don’t have to say anything. I see it in his face. He's the Shane from before. The sweet one who loved Aimee more than anything. Sam looks back, "It isn’t real dude. She's hardly even nice let alone sweet. Trust me on this brother."

I shove Sam.

Shane laughs and Lucas nudges me.

"So is Giselle single still, even though now she's all badass and crazy?"

"She is, but Luke's brother has dibs on her. We respect dibs."

Shane laughs, "Gotcha."

I like him. I can't fight it. We walk though a field behind an estate. Sam looks at me. I nod.

I look at Shane and whisper, "Dude, this is about to get horribly painful. You'll want to attack me and be very vigorous in the loving. I need you to stay here. I need you to fight it. Like Sam said, it's fake. I'm going to pull the bracelet off and see if you can take it, okay?"

He takes a breath and nods, like I'm going to punch him in the face. He rolls his shoulders, "Do it."

I take a breath and unsnap the bracelet. Sam jerks at me. He stops himself. Shane does the same and then his fangs pop out. He puts a hand up to his mouth. Lucas stands in front of me and growls at them. Both men stand there, wrestling their inner demons. I snap it back on and they relax instantly. Sam sighs loudly and leaves to scout ahead, like he always does.

"Wow, that'th potent." Shane breathes hard. His fangs hang in his mouth. "Thorry. I can't thtop them."

I laugh and remember Giselle.

"Okay, I'm going to do it when we get inside and it's going to be bad but you have to focus on the baddies okay?"

"I got thith. I'm tho thorry I killed you before too. It wath an acthident. I promithe. I don’t even remember it."

He is so cute I could eat him alive. I blush and shake my head, "It's cool. We got way worse drama than that 'round here. Not to mention the fangy apology is adorable."

He moans and shakes his head. Lucas rubs against him and makes the wolf chuckle.

Shane rubs his eyes, "I feel thleepy."

I grin, "It's the sun. Duh."

He frowns, "I go out in the thun all the time back home."

Sam is back, "Sun here is stronger. Marcus settled in Portland for a reason. The sun makes him feel a bit weak. You being his royalty can go out in the sun like him. But it does weaken you when it's direct and hot. Weakest time of the day. This is why you guys stay on the west coast."

Shane nods, looking disinterested.

Sam sighs again, "They got a lot of baddies. Mostly human. So, Hanna you got that right?"

I grin, "Oh I got that." I can feel the beast hanging in the background. She is looking for a fight.

We walk through the gate at the back of the property where the bushy garden is. The lilacs smell amazing. I shake my hair and roll my shoulders as we cross behind a garden shed of sorts. The estate is stunning. Flowers and gardens and stone pathways. The house is huge. It reminds me of the Tudor but it's made from white washed bricks that are huge. The roof has the terrace garden balcony railings. I wonder what's up there. I turn to the front of the house and see something amazing. I gasp and gush, "Oh my god. It's like the lake out front of Mr. Darcy's house in the newer Pride and Prejudice." The words leave my lips before I realize who I'm with. They look at me like I'm insane. Even Luke.

I roll my eyes and snap a picture of it and send it to Aimee's cell. She hates me but she has to agree it looks exactly the same.

"Put the phone away. Sweet friggen god, you're going to get us killed."

It's my turn to roll my eyes. I storm past them, stalking up the side of the house. There are huge garage looking things in the bottom of the house on the side where the land slopes. They look old and creepy. Of course Sam walks right for them. We sneak into the dark and wait. I see a man walk past the garage opening with a gun. I look back at Sam. He nods. I unclasp the bracelet. The man turns, smiling. I walk to the entrance of the dark. He grins and licks his lips, "Hey Sexy!" He has a thick French accent. He grabs at me. I spin him and snap his neck. My beast rages. I drag him into the darkness. I clasp the bracelet and grin, "One down."

Shane is gripping Sam and panting. His fangs seem bigger than before. A small trickle of blood leaves his lip and drizzles down his chin.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Aimee

"Do you think Shane is safe with her?" I can't help but worry. He's still my friend.

Lorri puts a finger to her lip and drags a man into the bushes. His semiautomatic weapon is tossed aside, we don't need it. She bites into his throat, ripping and tearing. She wipes the blood off her face and licks her hands clean. He didn’t even get a scream out.