Bane (The Devil's Roses #2) 1

She shivered and laughed nervously, "You are trouble. What I need is a job not another shifter boyfriend."

He shrugged, "Cookie is looking for a waitress. Lorna is leaving for the summer."

She spun around and brazenly asked Lorna who was waiting on the table behind her, "You're leaving for the summer? Where ya going?"

Lorna blushed, "Oh uhm my sisters' place in Arizona. She needs me to house sit for her. Why?"

Ari smiled brightly, "I need a job." Her voice came out squeaky realizing she had been too familiar with Lorna.

She spun back around and looked at Mitch, "Might want to dial it back a little."

She nodded, "Where's my food slacker?"

"Keep your shirt on, well unless you really want to take it off."

She shook her head again cussing under her breath knowing full well he could hear everything she said.

Chapter Twenty-Four- Like Father Like Daughter

Aimee

She arrived back at the house to check in with Lydia and felt it immediately. Something was up.

She walked in slowly still feeling the guards but wondering if someone had gotten through them and what she felt was Annabelle panicking. The ghost could haunt the house when she wanted to.

Aimee never made any noise as she walked into the kitchen to see Lydia sitting at the table with red eyes.

"Hey what's going on?"

Lydia shook her head sniffling, "Ari, she left today and I can't see her in the city and Lucas lost her at the airport."

Aimee could really have cared less, which earned her a glare from Lydia. She sat next to the older woman and hugged her tightly.

Lydia had grown very attached to Ari in the time she'd been at the house. Aimee had never really given her much of a chance, she couldn’t bear to listen to the constant religious dribble coming from her lips.

"Where are Luke and Ben?"

Lydia sobbed harder, "They attacked each other and blamed each other for her leaving. They left too. Everyone left."

"She sent me a text."

Aimee smelled him before he even got he words out.

She turned glaring at Dorian.

Lydia gasped, "You're her father?"

Aimee nodded, "That makes so much sense, those black soulless eyes."

Dorian dropped his eyes to the floor ashamed of himself, "I never knew. I dated her mother, uhm well obviously nineteen maybe twenty years ago. She looks nothing like the woman. Her mother died because of me. I have never actually had one get with child before. I've always been careful about that."

Aimee frowned unable to see him as the vulnerable saint he was trying to put off.

Lydia stood and walked to him, "It's an accident Dorian. It's been two decades. Nothing can be done about it now."

He sighed, "She messaged me to tell me I was her father. I ignored her. I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say."

Aimee felt sick, "She reached out to you after discovering she actually has a family member alive and you ignored her. Well at least you're consistent. I'd hate for you to try to convince us of your love for her when really we all know exactly the sort of man you are."

He snarled at her, "I brought you into this world Aimee."

She snarled back, "Try to take me out Dorian."

He was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

Lydia glared at her.

Aimee shrugged, "What can I do he's evil."

Lydia shook her head, "I can see inside of him, every secret. He isn’t evil. He's selfish."

Aimee hugged Lydia, "We'll find her. I'm sure Luke is sniffing every plane as we speak like some kind of bomb dog looking for the one she was on."

Lydia laughed at the image, "Yes well he does love her an awful lot. It's Ben I feel truly sad for. She sees him as a brother and nothing more."

Aimee thought about Aleks and the look on his face earlier and smiled, "She can't make herself love someone when she has given her heart away to someone else. Ben will find the girl he's supposed to be with."

Lydia scowled, "You didn’t?"

Aimee nodded, "I did."

"I'm sorry about your father Aimee."

Aimee bit her lip, "Me too. He's dying, it's my fault. I waited too long to be with him. He's been alone for so long. I'm going to move back and spend some time with him if it's all the same to you guys. I'll check in and I'll have my phone."

Lydia squeezed her hand, "of course my dear."

Aimee went to her room to gather her things. It bugged her Ari had left but she thought about the things that had gone on over the last few days and wondered if it wasn’t better for her to be gone.

Chapter Twenty-Five- Fresh Start in an Old Haunt

Ari

The sun set in the desert between two huge hills lighting the sand and dunes on fire. Ari felt at home. Her heart would always belong to Lucas, there was no getting over him. Even the simple flirting that had occurred between her and Mitch over the past few weeks of working together couldn't distract herself from the fact she was in love. She would always be in love.

Mitch was funny and he understood what it was like to be different. He was a harmless sort of fun she enjoyed having around, especially since every heartbeat hurt. The pain of being away from Lucas unbearable.

"It'll get easier."

She looked back as Mitch climbed onto the roof of the restaurant with a mug of hot cocoa, her favorite. She took the mug remembering Annabelle's and smiled missing them all more than she could let herself feel.

"Is that why you're here?"

He nodded, "Yeah I was in love with a girl. She was on the wrong side of the demon tracks. Anyway she tried to recruit me. I tried to recruit her. I tried to get Daniel and Ron to help me convince her. We captured her. She refused."

Ari flinched knowing what that had meant. Daniel had told her flat out all who didn’t join or control their urges were put down.

"I'm sorry."

He nodded sitting beside her, "It's cool. Well its not but what can I do. She didn’t think twice about murdering people. She was old, really old. Sometimes the older they are the more they forget you know?"

"My real dad is really old. He came here with Lorri."

Mitch turned his head sharply, "Dorian is your dad?"

She shrugged, "I guess so. He never answered me when I asked him about it."

"Yikes dude, he's not a nice guy."

She nodded, "I know. Aimee, my friend hates him so much. He changed her and made her murder a young girl in the woods on her first day. He said it was a lesson to show her what not to do. She told me he called people sheep."

Mitch put a hand on hers, "Stay away from him. He used to be around my girlfriend and her friends all the time. I saw him kill someone once."

Ari felt sickened at the thought of him randomly killing for fun with his evil friends. She sipped her hot cocoa and sighed.

"Do you still miss her?"

"Every minute. That’s why I'm here. Daniel thought maybe I should just hang here and enjoy being around normal people for a bit. I think he wants to make sure I never went rogue or to the dark side."

She smiled to lighten the mood, "Well they do have cookies."

He laughed, "I do like cookies."

She lay back on the roof of the restaurant and waited for it to get dark enough. There was nothing like a desert sky.

Mitch lay back with her, his hand still held hers. The tiniest part of her wanted it to mean something beyond the strength and gratitude it really was. She knew he liked not being alone as much as she did.

"Cookie sure seems to like you." He spoke softly.

She almost giggled, "He was a dear friend to me. It broke my heart to lose him before. I came back for him. For all of them. I was alone after I left Lydia's and in my heart I always saw this as home."

"Did you get an apartment?"

"Yeah, it’s a dump but I'll get it squared away."

"I'm glad you're here Ari, even if it's hard to be reminded of my life before."

She turned and snuggled into him, "Me too." They watched the sky darken and the stars start to appear one by one.

She drifted off to sleep enjoying every second of the dry heat and the fresh air.

She woke with a start in her bed. She couldn’t recall leaving the roof. She swore she had slept on the roof. She looked around the small apartment seeing nothing but herself and frowned.

"Mitch?" She spoke softly worrying about the fact he not only knew where her apartment was that he'd brought her home. She was still wearing her waitress clothes, which was a relief.

He never answered her. She layback wondering where he'd gone. She liked that he'd been a gentleman at the very least.

She reached over to the small wooden jewelry box on her dingy old nightstand. It was one of the few things she'd brought in her small backpack from Portland. She opened it and looked at them all. The shiny white stone, the earring, the necklace, the ring, a piece of paper that said 'LOVE' on it, all different little trinkets or pieces of jewelry. For every person she'd sent back one thing had remained. She couldn’t understand why but something always stayed behind. She kept everything. She reached down and touched the rosary remembering the hatred she felt for that one. She wanted to keep it separate from the other pieces but knew that it would only have power if she gave it to it.

Everything in the box made her feel like a serial killer keeping mementos.

She closed the box and slipped it under the bed. She didn’t want anyone to see it, she didn’t want anyone to see how many there were. It made her uncomfortable that Mitch had been in the apartment when she'd been sleeping.

Her fingers tingled remembering how amazing it felt to push on someone. She knew she would have to do it soon.

She looked at her bedside table expecting to see a cell phone. She wished for a second she hadn’t thrown it away. She knew she had to but it was annoying not being able to text Aimee and have her take her to an alley and push on a drug addict. Her lip trembled as she thought about Aimee. She missed her dearly.