Death (The Devil's Roses #5)

Anger flashes inside of me. "I hate being stabbed."

The first man against the wall spits at me. I smile and rub my hands together. Ari holds them against the wall.

"You have been charged, convicted and tried," I whisper and lean in close to the man who spit at me. "I find you guilty."

His eyes widen as my hands spark his soul from him. I run my hands along the wall, pulling each of them. The pleasure and ecstasy makes me mouth breathe in a way I don’t like doing in front of other people. Not that Ari is other people. She knows how I feel when I do crowds. The bodies drop to the floor, looking like nothing more than gutted dead humans.

I look around at the room.

"Stairs over here." The room is a large foyer essentially. There is a desk with a ledger and couches. There are no doors leaving this room. Just a hallway with a set of carpeted stairs. I grab the ledger and run after Ari.

"Why do Vamps always decorate with the same blood red carpeting? It's so cliché."

We climb the stairs cautiously. "I know right. Marcus's house is nice, but dude. So retro whorehouse."

Ari looks back. "I still think it's weird he has a castle. You go left I go right."

I nod and we split up at the top of the stairs.

My boots dig into the carpet. I hate the feel of it. Too squishy. I don’t even want to try to imagine the things in this carpet.

I kick open the first door. A dark haired girl, younger than me by far, sits on the bed looking spaced out. It takes a minute for her eyes to move and register I am even there.

"You okay?" I ask.

She shakes her head and speaks a language I don’t know. Her dark silky skin is marred with bites and bruises. Her rail thin arms are filled with needle holes. My hands ball into fists.

I look around the small room and smell the air. It's rich with blood and sex and drugs, but no immortals. I put a finger to my lips. She nods. I close the door and slip further down the hall. Every door has the same thing, blondes, redheads, brunettes, dark skin, light skin, every kind of skin. There is one in every flavor but no immortals. Each girl is the same, young, skinny and covered in marks and the same empty stare.

A blonde speaks English with a French accent to me in the last room. "Can you help me?" She whispers.

"Yeah, but I need to find the vampires. Where are they?"

She swallows and shakes her head. "I don’t know. They only come at night." She shivers, remembering no doubt.

"How long have you been here?"

She wipes her bright blue eyes. "I don’t know. Maybe a month."

"Are you from France?"

"Canada. I'm from Montreal."

"Stay here and don’t move. I'll keep you safe but I need to find them."

She shakes her head as silent tears stream down her filthy cheeks. "They are not here. Please just take me with you."

I put a hand out for her. She leaps from the bed, staggering and swaying. Her ice-cold hand almost shocks me. She is nearly naked in old torn and dirty lingerie.

I pull her down the hall.

Ari meets me at the end of the hall. "Just dying girls?" She asks.

I nod. "I'll flash them out in parties of six."

"They must sleep near here. Those things downstairs can't be the only ones here."

I think for a minute. "Is there a basement?" The blonde shakes her head. "I only ever saw the room. I was in my bed and then I was in that bed."

My eyes dart at Ari. "Someone who can flash."

She bites her lip. "Jonathan?"

I shake my head. "I don’t know. Let's get the hell out of here." My stomach is rumbling. The idea of it being a trap is starting to form. I run down the hall getting the girls from the room. Every time I have six I flash them to Lydia's grass. The second trip Annabelle is shouting at me but I flash so fast I miss what she is saying.

I leave the last of them there and flash back to Ari.

"I sent a text to O and Trist and told them what the naked blood bags were doing on the lawn." She looks around the room disgustedly and puts her phone away.

"Lorri is gonna shit," I mumble.

"I sent her a message too."

I glance at her. "Great. She's gonna yell at us for taking this on alone."

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I AM!" Her blood red boots stomp across the hallway.

She looks angry but sexier than normal. I glance at her tan skirt and white blouse that's opened a little, revealing her ample chest and cross necklace she wears to spite the haters. Her red hair is spiky still but softer, more glamorous and she is wearing earth tones makeup.

I frown. "Were you on a date?"

She scowls and I can see her past the mask of prettiness. "Yes," she seethes. "Now explain this fast. She thinks I'm in the bathroom."

I gasp. "She's human?"

She blushes. "Aimee?"

Wide eyed, I glance at Ari. She has her badass teenager look pasted across her face, "They flash them in and out. The girls haven’t seen the rest of the house."

"Daniel had houses like this but I couldn’t ever figure out who did the flashing for him. It can't be just Jonathan. There has to be another who can flash. Who do we have?"

"Me, you, Dorian, Oliver, Aleks and Phillip. I guess Trist and O could probably learn it, if they had to. For the record my money is on Dorian."

Lorri snorts sarcastically. "Yeah, maybe it's me or Aleks. Burn it to the ground. I'll arrange a mission. The nest of them must be around here somewhere." She glances at me. "Not today though. Firstly, I am on the first date I have been on in a long time where I feel like this is the one. And ever if she wasn’t the one, I need to get laid Aimee. Secondly, we need Aleks's dad. So stop dicking around and go back to Maine." She is gone, leaving only a waft of her expensive perfume behind her.

"That was awkward."

Ari puts a hand out. "I really hope she gets laid. Cause she is snippy." I take it and we are in the cold air of Maine. My boots crunch on the forest floor.

"Do you really think it's one of us?"

I shrug. "Dorian is the only one that can make one of me. Phillip can flash but he's nephilim and you guys are friggen weird. Me and Aleks would never do a dark thing."

Ari shakes her head. "No. Dorian would never. I know he wouldn’t. I'm super curious about Oliver and Philip though."

"Fucking angels."

"Yup." We walk out of the woods and up to the house where Lucas lived as a child. Horrified faces watch our every move.

I stop and look at them and then back to Ari. I stifle a giggle when I see the amount of black and red blood sprayed across the front of her. I look down at myself and nod. "We better get cleaned up."

"Oh shit. Where were you two?" I look up at Lucas storming across the grass to us.

I lick my lips and hurry up the stairs. Ari is hot on my heels. "Busy," she says and we run inside of the large log house. The inside of it is gorgeous.

"Philip and Trist would die and go to gay heaven in this place."

Ari laughs nervously and closes the door. She turns the lock. Lucas bangs on the door and looks through the glass.

"Ari open the door."

She stands at the door and speaks through her teeth, "Go see if Janine will let you in. Asshole."

We walk up the stairs but Aleks flashes into the house and stands on the stairs in our way.

"What's going on?" His ice blue eyes are worried, or angry. Probably angry.

He looks over the bloodstains and arches an eyebrow, "Did Lorri call for a mission?"

I swallow and glance back at Ari. Aleks fills the room with warm wind. The door opens and closes. He and Luke are standing inside looking at us.

I scowl at Aleks, "It's cheating to flash inside and unlock the door." I smirk at Ari. "Let's go."

Aleks sighs, "It's annoying to lock us out when we don't know what we did."

Ari smiles and raises her hands fast. Both men are pinned against the wall. Luke sighs, "Dude, I was cool with not knowing. She cools off quickly if you don't poke the bear."

Ari's eyes flash, "I saw you. I saw you checking her out."

Luke looks confused. "Who?"

Ari spits out one word, "Janine."

Luke rolls his eyes, "Ari. She's like a hundred and eighty years old."

I point at Aleks. "He's way older than that." Aleks frowns at me. Luke gives me a pleading look to stay out of it. I scowl, ignoring them both. "We saw you, both of you. Flirting and smiling and letting her kiss your faces."

His cheeks flush with color. "Aimes, it's not what you guys think."

I roll my eyes. "She looks like she could be on the Duke's of Hazard. Don't tell me I don’t know what it is."

Lucas laughs. "She is the key to the elders council. They all listen to her. She is one of the few females in the pack who is an elder. Her husband was the alpha when he died."

I look at Ari. She laughs. "I saw the look, Luke. She wasn't even looking at you and you were drooling on her legs."

He struggles with the invisible hold she has over him. "Babe, it wasn’t like that."

"You got caught."

Aleks looks at me like he's disappointed in me. He can't flash when Ari holds him. Her power can cripple him completely.

"I don’t really want to talk about this." Ari drops them and walks past me. I follow her up the stairs.

She slams a door to a room. I don’t know which one to go to, so I walk to the bathroom and pour a bath. I strip my blood soaked clothes off and climb in.

"You can't possibly think I would find that woman attractive."

I smile at him. "Why? I find her attractive."

He laughs and it's like my favorite song. I can't even be angry with him. He stands with his back to the door. I fight my smile. He points at me. "You on the other hand, did something dangerous."