Death

He takes my hand, "Okay."

I wink us in and instantly Aleks is gone. He mustn't be able to pass though the walls Marcus had built to keep things out. The Witch points at me through the smoke and flames and dust and shoots me with a bolt of lightning again. I fly back crying out. I cough and wink behind her. As my skin touches hers I'm shocked again, but my hand clamps down on her neck. I take her to the ground and suck fast and hard. Her blood explodes out of her. I cringe. It's almost greenish in the dull light.

I flick it off me and shiver as I wink out. Everyone in the hallway makes a disgusted face. I walk like Frankenstein would and mutter, "Going home. Shower. Save Tristan in a bit." I wink home.

My dad's home. I freeze. He's in his room whistling. I step back and wink to the front door. I open it gingerly, trying not to get dead witch all over everything. I walk in and slam the door good and hard. "Hey Dad." I call and wink to the bathroom downstairs.

"Aimee?" He calls out.

I shout at the bathroom door. "Yup. Just showering and getting clean. I got home a while ago with Giselle and just needed a shower." I have no idea what I'm saying. I just need to be at home. The smell and the surroundings are everything. I turn on the water and undress. I try not to think about my boots being ruined. I just strip and fling everything out onto the tiles. The water is hot. Aleks is there suddenly. He steps into the shower. I frown at his flashing naked, "How many places did you go before here?" I ask.

He looks a bit frazzled, "A few. I went to my place and the apartment in Italy and then Lydia's. Completely forgot about the house being destroyed. Standing in the yard naked was a bit rejuvenating. I thought I should try here, since you did say home. I went upstairs first though. Your mom almost caught me."

My jaw drops, "Oh god."

"Yeah. That was after I flashed into every shower at Marcus's. Just caught Ben and Giselle having sex. That was weird."

I put a hand up to my mouth, "No."

He rolls his eyes, "Like you didn’t see that coming."

"You flashing about naked or Giselle. Cause I did see the Giselle-Ben thing in the works when she was the vampire queen of the world."

His face flushes, "Well, she thought I was there to join in and even seemed excited about it. I'm not really sure she's as serious as he is about the whole thing."

I grimace, "Oh god." I can't fight the shaking laughter.

He grabs my face, "You owe me something."

I look defensively up at him, "Not here. It's my dad's house."

"And mom's."

"Right. Of course. I keep forgetting she's alive. How horrid is that?"

He shakes his head, "I'm lucky you remember I'm alive, with all the frigging around Ari's done."

He bends to kiss me but the name reminds me what I wanted to do. I shake my head, "NO! I need to see her. Get clean fast." I scrub myself up and down and jump out. I dry off and wink to my bedroom. I open the closet and smile. My things look exactly the same. I pull on a pale blue t-shirt and a light green hoodie. Clean underwear that my mom folded and some boyfriend cut jeans from American eagle. I sigh. I flop back on my bed and let the feel of the familiar soak in.

My mom knocks and opens the door as I'm pulling on socks and knee high red boots that remind me of Lorri's. I realize I started wearing them when I met her. I wanted to be her. Now I'm grateful to have her respect and love. Even if it's scary and savage.

Mom frowns, "Is there someone still in the shower downstairs?"

I grin and blush, "Yup. My boyfriend. Aleks. He's from the company I'm training with."

She raises a mom eyebrow at me, "You're showering together?"

"Yeah." I laugh. "Mom, Alise has been showering with boys since she was like thirteen."

She sighs, "Yeah, but she never loves them. She uses them and moves on."

I shake my head, "She's with Blake. Has been for ages. She isn’t moving on. Neither am I."

She sits beside me and pats my thigh, "I just hate that you're so old. It makes me old. I need you to be eleven again and practicing your English accent and convincing your sister that you can't talk normally anymore."

I laugh again. It feels so nice and normal. I almost cry but that would freak her out.

Aleks walks into my room with wet hair and pair of pale blue jeans and a white polo. He is heavenly with his wet hair all messy and sexy.

My mom's face flushes. She stands and puts a hand out, "Hi."

His eyes flinch, before a look of bliss crosses his face. He grabs her and hugs her. He holds her tight. Her back is stiff and her arms are out. I laugh, "Mom, this is Aleks. He's from Norway. They hug a lot?" I feel like an idiot.

He has his eyes closed and a smile across his lips. She pats his huge arm, "Okay. Well, wow. It's nice to meet you. Okay."

Aleks pulls away and nods. When he speaks he sounds like he's a foreigner, "Sorry. I just get really excited to meet Aimee's family. I just love her so much." His cheeks are red and he's never sounded more Norwegian in all the time I've known him. He can lay it on thick when he wants to. I laugh. She looks back and mouths, "Oh my god!"

I widen my eyes in agreement. She is grinning ear to ear as she leaves the room. She looks back, "Door stays open."

I wince and shake my head, "You know how old I am right. Like twenty." I look at Aleks and whisper, "Twenty right?"

He shakes his head, "I don’t know. It feels more like twenty-six or seven maybe."

I laugh and point, "What was that?"

He looks confused, "I just got so excited. She's alive and I panicked."

I laugh again. He grabs my hand. I shout at my mom, "Hey. Tell dad Aleks and I will be back later. We have to go out. Love you." I wink back to Marcus's. Lorri walks past us wearing her red boots and frowns seeing mine. "Aimee. I know I called you Aimes and told you I love you, but that doesn’t mean I want to be The Sisterhood of the bloody boots and shit."

I cross my arms, "Lorri, how was I to know you would wear them too?"

She snuggles into Abbey, "You shouldn’t have even bought them." Abbey laughs and shakes her head. They disappear and I look at Aleks, "I can't get past how gross it is. Abbey is like eighteen and Lorri is like a million."

He snorts and flashes us to Ari's room. Her black eyes meet mine. I jump, "Ari, you’re awake?"

She swallows and talks softly, "Yeah." She sounds like death. Lucas is sitting beside her, all stinky and gross. I shove him, "Go get cleaned up."

He snarls at me. I swat him, "Go. Aleks make him go." Aleks flashes them both out. I sit in his chair, "Smells like wet dog in here."

Her lips attempt a pathetic smile, "You get used to it."

My look grows serious. I can't fight it, "I gotta get that baby out, Ari."

She shakes her head, "No."

I nod, "Yeah. You can hate me all you want, but I have to."

She shakes her head, "You can't. It'll kill me too."

I shake my head. My heart hurts with the words that are about to leave my lips. "I lied when I said I starved on the streets in the beginning when I crawled out of the harbor. I didn’t starve. Not completely."

She looks confused.

I want to look away but her black eyes hold me hostage. "A girl fell on me. I was lying, cold and alone, in some garbage. She was young, maybe fifteen or sixteen. She fell on me in the middle of my hunger. Her belly landed on my hands. When I finished pulling she was still alive."

Ari's face looks like she gets where this is going. In fact she looks horrified. "You know Aimes, sometimes friends share shit they could have kept to themselves."

A broken laugh bursts from me.

She grips my hand, "I want this baby. I want to try. I want it to heal me and make me comfortable around kids."

I wrinkle my nose, involuntarily.

She laughs again. Her eyes water, "I just want to feel something so big that no one can ever take it away from me. Not even me."

I hug her so hard I tremble. "You saved my whole family Ari. My entire family."

She shakes, "It cost us Lydia."

I pull back, "Didn’t they tell you about Dorian?"

Her face crumples, "No."

I can't fight the tears, "I am so sorry. It was my fault."

She looks disgusted, "You killed him? Why?"

I shake my head, "I didn’t kill him." I stroke her head and tell her all about Momma Holt in Blackwater Bayou.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Hanna

I smile, thinking about him. The way it felt for him to wash my hair when we were at Roses training together. The way his eyes looked when he saw me again, for the first time this time. He had to pretend he didn’t know me and love me. I tilt my head back and scrub the conditioner out. I open my eyes to his smile.

"You owe me something that I feel you have owed me for some time." He speaks like he's discussing the weather.

A naughty look crosses my face, "Would it be wrong if I undid the bracelet and took advantage of you."

His look matches mine. He nods pleasantly, "Please do."

I raise an eyebrow and hold the wrist with the bright glowing bracelet up. I fake like I'm going to, making him take a deep breath. I frown, "You look nervous."

He nods, "I don’t want to hurt you."

I laugh.

He continues, "Because then you'll become the beast and hurt me."

I laugh harder. I run my hands over my body once more to ensure the soap is all gone and click the clasp. He jumps me. His cock is instantly hard. I giggle as the heat and frenzy fills us both. The sound of my giggle frightens me. I'm scared of becoming the beast too.

He lifts me in the air. The cold-water handle water gets bumped making the water freezing. I cry out. He walks out of the running shower and carries me to the bathroom counter. Still holding me, he swipes everything off and sits me down on the cold hard counter. I squeeze him with my thighs and pull him into me. His body against mine, drives my feverish Siren rage.