Death (The Devil's Roses #5)

I watch as something changes on her face. Slowly, her eyes become bloodshot. Red veins fill them, until they take over and all of the color is consumed. I didn’t even think she had red blood. She looks at me, "They mean to sacrifice him and take back the power. His birthday is almost upon us. Jonathan weaseled the power out of Lillith, one baby at a time and we fucking put it all into Tristan for him. Now it's just a race for whoever can get it first?"

I shake my head, still mesmerized by her eyes, "Why? What does the magic do?"

"Tips the balance." Her words are a whisper. "We need Henry." She is gone.

We stand in the garden of the burning mansion and look at each other.

"I don’t get it."

Sam crosses his arms, his face is still burning with anger. "The balance is everything. The prophecy's about the end of days are about the tipping of the balance, in the favor of the darkness."

Lucas whines and rubs against me. I sigh, "Just switch back. This isn’t Lassie. I don’t know what you're trying to say."

"I do." I look up to see Henry standing beside Lorri.

Henry looks paler than normal. I've always seen him as a proper English butler in a bowler hat. But now his ageless face looks dazed and sickened. He licks his lips in spurts, "He is right. Fae holds the balance. It was our job. It is why Lydia was right. If I murder Marcus before I would have taken in the darkness. As of now my soul is pure. I am part of the balance. Lillith's magic was given to each of her babies when she gave birth to them. The magic was never hers. It was always ours. She called it into her to fill the void of the pain and the suffering. The reason our king wouldn’t go to her wasn't that she wasn’t pure in virginity, but because she wasn't pure of heart. She was the darkness in the balance. Too much light is the same as too much darkness. But we believed her to be on our side in it all." His accent is so weird I can't even place it. His English is terrible.

I feel lost and not just because I've never heard Henry actually form real sentences before. It would take the end of the world to make him say whole paragraphs.

Giselle chews her lip, "So, uhm. I don’t get it. Are Jonathan and Lorri working together or not?"

Henry shakes his head. His eyes are lost. He's been tricked too. "We always believed she wanted to stop Jonathan. Not ruin the world with him. Always believed she was sorry for what she took."

I interrupt, "Is it possible Jonathan doesn’t understand what she is going to do?"

He nods, "Yes."

Lorri interrupts him, "No."

Henry ignores her and continues, "He is seventh angel of god. He was good, until he let the darkness take him."

Lorri sighs, "We don’t know whole story. We know he loved her or lusted after her power anyway. We know he coveted her magic and powers. The problem is the prophecies come from them. She is the oldest thing alive and the strongest."

"Not while Tristan has the magic." Sam says.

Aleks sighs, "Which ends tomorrow."

Giselle looks sick, "What does it look like if the evil tips the balance?"

Lorri shakes her head, "We don’t know exactly. All we have is Revelations as a best estimate."

I burst into laughter. I'm having flashbacks of the dreams I had before, when my mom was dead. It feels alarming and impossible, I can’t imagine it being true. Everyone gives me the same horrified look.

I laugh and shake my head, "Sorry. I just can't believe this is all true. This is the biggest disappointment I have ever suffered. And that is saying a lot." I pace, "HOW DOES THE SYSTEM FAIL SO BADLY? HOW DO YOU PEOPLE GET TRICKED SO EASILY? JESUS." I squat down and sit on my heels and rock. I hold my face in my hands and think.

"When Aimee is done having her breakdown, she can kill them both right?" Sam asks. Ben nudges me with his dried blood coated muzzle. I wrap my arms around his huge neck. Aleks's hands are on my shoulders, massaging.

"No. She can't kill Lillith." Lorri says. "It has to be Tristan or maybe Henry, if we are lucky."

I look up at Henry with hope. He shakes his head, "No. If she gets magic I cannot kill her. I barely believe this true. She is mother of Fae."

Lorri makes a face and shakes her head, "We kill them all today. We kill all of them now. We start with Jonathan."

I stand up and put my hand in. Ben touches me with a paw. Giselle puts her hand in on his paw. She doesn’t look well. I wonder if I have the same look on my face.

Lorri's red eyes are freaking me out. We flash as one to the same dark hallway.

"Where are we?"

"Ireland." Henry whispers. The wolves scout ahead. I wink and keep up with them. We round the corner and see the same place with the same light.

"At least Hanna has the whole place stunk up." Aleks whispers, "They won't be able to smell us."

We stand outside the massive room that looks more like an underground hall.

Lorri gives the go signal. I almost get sick. I grab Giselle and Ben and wink in. Jonathan is bleeding from the lip and panting heavy. Hanna is laughing her menacing beast laugh. She looks psychotic. Her clothes are torn and a large chunk of hair is missing. Sam and Shane fight themselves not to attack her. Lorri slaps Shane and brings him back around. We surround them. Lillith is gone.

Jonathan realizes he's surrounded and winks but he doesn’t move.

He looks up snarling. "Something is wrong with your Siren, Lorri." His eyes are ablaze.

I laugh. It's slightly nervously. I don’t know what he can do. We've waited so long to catch him. Lorri has been setting traps and baiting him to no end. He is always one step ahead of us or so well armed we don’t stand a chance.

"Yeah, she's broken." Lorri winks a creepy red eye at Hanna. She chuckles her monster laugh.

Jonathan scowls at her.

Henry holds his hands out, no doubt he is the reason Jonathan isn't winking out.

Jonathan shakes his head, "Always the last to know eh Lorri? If you do this now she wins. I was always the only thing stopping her."

Lorri looks at me, "Do it."

I swallow hard. The spark is filling me. I step forward, reaching out for him. His hand swings at me. His nails cut into my throat. I feel the warmth of my black blood dripping down my neck and chest.

"Aimee, if you kill me she wins." His eyes grow desperate.

A low growl escapes my lips.

His eyes sparkle, "I've always been trying to help you Lorri. It was always you."

"Cut that liars tongue for me Aimes."

He looks at me with daggers but it doesn’t matter. Lorri hasn’t called me Aimes before.

He swings again but I catch his hand. I rip as hard and fast as I can when my skin touches his. I don't savor it. Black blood shoots across the room. I drop to my knees as I do it.

The Hanna monster clasps the bracelet. The guys stop acting like savages. Lorri walks forward to me. A single tear leaves her eye. "He was lying. You did the right thing."

I shake my head, "It felt wrong. In the end it felt wrong." I wink to Marcus's.

He's pacing outside his lab. The thing inside is slamming and bashing the door. His stormy mood is savage and evil. He sees me and leaps. I catch him and hold back the suck. He slams me into a wall and screams at the same time I do. He starts to laugh a bitter and twisted laugh. It's scary and hideous. His robe is disheveled and stinky. He shoves me and walks back to the lab door. He points, "Fix this. You fix this." He sounds like he is at his breaking point. I'm out of breath and still healing slowly. I know I can't take watching something as strong as him lose it and cry.

"You fix this Aimee. God damned you. It was designed to keep your kind out." His hand trembles where he points. I walk to him. He flinches but I pull him in. I wrap myself around him and hold him.

He sobs. It fills me with dread and terror. If he can cry and be broken then the rest of us are doomed.

His huge body almost crushes me. I slam into the wall. He winces with me. I'm holding up his trembling body.

"I killed him. It was me. It was my fault. He was my brother." He spits on my neck when he says brother. "He was my best friend in the whole world once."

I can't imagine how it all feels. How painful it all is to have it slammed like that into you.

He straightens up and sniffs. He wipes his eyes and looks back at the door, "Please kill that thing before it destroys my lab."

I nod, "We need to maybe be prepared that it has destroyed the lab." I wince when I say it and hope we don’t have to fight anymore.

He shakes his head, "I am going to kick your ass one day when it doesn’t hurt me quite so much."

"Deal." I wink into the room and peek. I wink back out, "It's ruined."

He inhales sharply and exhales like he is yoga breathing.

Sam and the others are in the hall.

"I put the witch in there." I say.

They frown. Lorri asks, "Witch?"

"The witch that Jonathan was telling to stay at the house. The plan was for her to shield the bad guys while we were blown up on the third floor. She was working for him."

Lorri looks at the lab and winces, "Is, is that the, lab?"

Marcus's jaw tightens.

Lorri nods "Wow. Aimee that was an intense move. How bad is it in there?"

Marcus nods, "Done. Gone."

Hanna walks to him and puts her hand on his arm, "You okay?"

He shakes his head and looks at Henry who is sporting a severe expression.

Marcus walks away from Hanna and past them all. We all look at Henry. He laughs. "You all not feel for him when he was killing people and making this one evil." He points to Shane.

Shane shakes his head, "He had no soul, it was gone. Soulless. Cursed. It's not exactly the same thing as him just running around killing shit for no reason."

Henry gives us a disgusted look and walks away too.

I smirk at Aleks, "I need you to come with me."