Bane (The Devil's Roses #2) 1

She couldn’t get their faces out of her mind. Each of them went from completely happy lives to pain and suffering. One girl committed suicide. One man killed his wife in a fit of rage. One woman ran away leaving her children and husband alone. One man got cancer. Lorna became a prostitute and died in an alley of some kind of sickness.

Every one of them haunted her memories and filled her dreams with pain and anger. She didn’t know how to make it stop. She tried waiting at the door for them to open it but they waited till she was asleep and snuck someone in.

The last day in confinement Ari slept on her cot. She had felt craziness overtaking her. She looked around the room smelling someone else there. She looked over in the corner to see a man. He was as the others had been. His arms tied behind his back and duct tape over his mouth. She knew it had been a long time since Lorna had been there. Her hands were burning savagely.

The man watched her, he fought every step he took toward her. She climbed off the bed refusing to witness him struggle in fear and agony.

As she drew closer she shrieked and stepped back. The man before her was as close to her as her uncle. His face fought in recognition of who she was. She collapsed on the ground and sobbed, "No please anyone but him. Please don’t make me do this."

She turned toward the door and screamed, "DON’T MAKE ME DO THIS. HE WILL DIE. DON’T MAKE ME DO THIS." She didn’t need to push him she knew exactly where he would go. She knew he nearly died in the army.

He took another step toward her. She felt herself going crazy as her hands lifted. Tears poured from her face as her hands made contact with his bare arms. The push was as gentle as she was able to give. He froze as the air sparkled and his picture filled the air around her.

He was young and in the army. He was on mission in a desert, she knew it was Afghanistan. He had told her the story. He passed the keys to his buddy as they walked up to the jeep and let him drive. He laughed and they joked. As they were driving his friend looked over and pointed out something. They didn’t notice the mine on the side of the road. The jeep blew up. His friend died instantly while he was blown out of the jeep.

Suddenly he was back at the jeep. His friend gave him the keys and instead of throwing them back he drove. When the jeep hit the mine Cookie was killed and his friend was blown from the vehicle. He was injured as cookie had been but at Cookies funeral the wounded man hugged three children and a beautiful woman. He cried and kissed the casket.

As Cookie faded he smiled and spoke softly, "Thank you Ari."

He faded leaving his dog tags floating in the air. She reached out and grabbed them. As her fingers made contact with them the floor began to change around her. She looked around the room as the door opened suddenly and people began running in screaming at her. She couldn’t hear them. She saw Mitch smiling at her from behind the group of men she didn’t recognize. He gave her thumbs up. She was back at the diner, standing in front of it. She wore her jogging shorts and her legs looked tanned again.

Mitch had doomed her to being captured but he saved her knowing that Cookie would bring her to the beginning. Everything in her life changed with Cookies death.

Her hands burned again. It was the first day, angry Ari was gone, churchy Ari was gone, Ben and Lucas were distant memories like dreams in her brain. None of it was real. She was outside the diner on the very day she sent her uncle back.

The red sign said Vince's. She sighed knowing everything was right again, well except everything in Portland but at least she hadn’t been able to mess with their lives.

She started to feel faint. She felt like she was going to pass out. Her hands were burning her. She knew it wasn’t the flu. She walked away from the diner knowing she had to get away from her uncle.

She walked down the street to the pharmacy and stood at the side of the building, "You okay Ari."

She looked up to see David, Missy's boyfriend.

She smiled, "Yeah wanna give me a hand? I lost my contact over here." She pointed further down the alley. She knew he was a dirt bag and she had no remorse for what she was about to do.

He nodded smiling looking slimy, "I can do that."

They walked into the alley making Ari smile.

Chapter Twenty-Six- Chronic Case of Déjà Vu

Aimee

She looked out at the wet day feeling exhausted from something but couldn’t put her finger on what it was. She felt as if she'd run a marathon. Déjà vu seemed to be at every turn. It was as if her powers had grown and she was able to glimpse things in the future. She sighed hoping that wasn’t the case, she liked the mystery of it all.

Aleksander walked into her room tapping lightly at the door. He smiled sending a shiver across her body.

"Morning Aimee."

She smiled still unable to see him without feeling giddy, "Hey Aleks."

He frowned and licked his lips. Aimee watched him doing it forgetting she had vowed to stop messing with him. She knew what she felt for him was part magic and part passion. Love wasn’t apart of the equation.

"So I've been having the weird feeling lately, it’s a bit like Déjà vu but it's not. It's like my day was going a certain direction yesterday but today it's gone and going a different way."

Aimee smiled, "Yeah I'm having that too."

She sat up making room for him to sit on her massive bed. She liked having him on her bed.

He looked up at her through his lashes and smirked, "Perhaps we should take this discussion downstairs."

She smiled at him, "You afraid of me Aleks?"

He leaned in to her filling the air around her, "Absolutely."

She felt herself get dizzy with the pheromones, "Cheater."

He laughed, it was like her favorite song. His dark blond hair was cut shorter than normal. She reached out running her hands through it.

His movement was a fluid motion, he reached down sweeping her up into his arms laying her back on the bed kissing her.

Chills filled her as his tongue found it's way into her mouth. Everything about Aleks was sex, the sheer size of him was enough to make most women moan. His soft lips roamed her neck setting her skin on fire.

He pulled back making cold air fill the void around them.

She opened her eyes and frowned.

He smiled his sexy crooked grin, "I can't do this."

"What?"

He nodded, "I know what it is. It’s a soul-stealing demon. I have to go." He pulled off the bed.

"Are you kidding me right now? Aleks you’ve wanted this since we met. Shane isn’t in the picture. What are you doing?" She felt sexual frustration building inside her.

He laughed, "Oh I want to do this but it isn’t right. Your heart will never belong to me. I need to see Lydia and Lorri."

He turned and walked out of the room confusing her completely.

She sighed and pulled her laptop over and clicked on World of Warcraft.

She tried to play but the battleground she got into sucked. She typed some cuss words at her teammates and exited out of the game without finishing.

"ALEKS!" She stormed from her room nearly throwing the laptop.

She didn’t even wink herself downstairs, she wanted the full effect of her high-heeled boots on the wooden stairs. She clomped down into the den to find Aleks and Lucas sitting with Lydia huddled.

"Aleks." She demanded.

He smirked at her, "Aimee we need to go to New Mexico."

Her jaw dropped, "What?"

Lydia smiled, "Dear we have someone we need to acquire. We don’t know what we're dealing with completely but Aleks is right I feel like that movie with Bill Murray. It's like I cant get past this year or I've lived it several different ways."

Aimee flushed, "I need to talk to you Aleks." She tapped her foot.

Lucas grinned, "Look you guys can have make-up sex later. Aimes this is important."

Her face burned, "Stay out of this Luke."

Aleks laughed, "I can't do this right now. This is important."

"And I'm not?"

He shrugged, "Aimee you don’t love me."

Lucas stood up holding his hands in the air, "Okay this is awkward. I'll be in the kitchen when you're ready to go."

Lydia frowned, "You two again?" She stood and left as well.

Aimee folded her arms leaning on the doorframe.

He stood and walked to her. His gaze was filled with pain, she remembered the look from the many other times she chose Shane over him.

"Aimee I refuse to believe you've suddenly come to your senses and have seen that a life with a human is a terrible idea. I know you don’t love me."

She stammered, "I-I-I do, somewhere inside of me I know you're the right choice."

He laughed, "Convincing. Anyway lets do this and I promise we will talk. I just need to fix this."

He rubbed her arm like her father would have and walked out of the room to the kitchen.

She growled, "Fine."

She put her hands out for the three of them to touch her and winked them to the spot in the picture Aleks held up in front of her face.

They were in the outskirts of a large town. They stood beside a sigh saying 'Welcome to Hobbs, It All Happens Here' on a highway. Tumbleweed rolled across the highway they stood beside making Lydia giggle quietly.

The dry heat was the first thing Aimee noticed.

"Oh my god it's so warm here." Lucas frowned.

She laughed, "Wolf heat and desert heat not friends?"

He shook his head, "Nope lets get what we came for and get home."

"Where are we?" She asked.

Aleks smiled, "Hobbs."

"The soul stealer is here?"

He shook his head, "I don’t think so. We need to get moving. Lucas can you smell anyone?"

Lucas frowned, "I need something to smell Aleks. I need a reference point. I'm not a hound."

Aimee laughed.

"Jal." Lydia spoke softly.

Aimee looked confused, "What?"