Death

“You have suffered so greatly.”

She nods, “I guess. But no different than anyone else who serves in a time such as this.”

“How long has it been a time such as this?”

She looks tired for half a second and then shrugs, “A long damned time. Now, enough chitchat. I want you to come with me. We made a picture for you and Giselle. It's a chart of events and how they happened. Major events. After this I want you to start tagging along with Dorian.” She turns sharply, “Not to screw him either.”

I flinch.

She pulls me into a room with a wall of pictures and timelines. I glance at Giselle. She looks confused.

Lorri lets go of my hand, “Behave.” She turns and leaves.

Giselle peeks her head out the doorway, “She is super mean.” She whispers.

I nod, “I think in the other time I was a major slut. She told me not to, well anyway, I think I did bad stuff.”

Giselle's beams, “Have you seen the hotties here? Damn girl. I hope I was a slut.”

I laugh. She makes me feel better and I realize I like her.

“I want that Aleks guy. Wow. He is a beast.”

I nod, “He is a big man.” The memory of sitting on his erection happens to float through my mind as I say those words. I blush even more.

“Just so no one shits where anyone else eats, who you calling dibs on?”

The sentence almost takes me a minute. I frown, “Wow. That was super gross. Okay. Uhm, none. You can have them all. It's not real. Attraction from a distance is real but their lust and sexual hunger is forced on you. It's not real.”

She shrugs, “I'm a succubus. Some dude named Oliver made me this way. If I have to kill people to eat, I'm going to need a hobby. Sex with all these hotties seems like a pretty sweet gig.”

I shake my head, “Gross.” But I can't fight the smile.

“We need some perks to this shit, Aimes. We didn’t even do anything to have this happen. I've already killed three people.”

My brow grows heavy, “Three?”

She looks sick, “Yeah.” But her mood lifts, “At least I ganked Mr. Mac's ass before he got to rape Jaime. Did you happen to hear how bad he got us all? Jaime died in the other world.”

“I did hear about it all. I'm glad you got him too.”

The dark haired girl with black eyes interrupts us.

“I know you know who I am but just for the record, I'm Ari.”

I smile, “Hey.”

She rushes me, wrapping her arms around me. Confusion is all over my face but I hug back.

I can feel her sobs against my body but I don’t know what to say.

“I-I-I'm so sorry Aimes. I-I just thought it-it was a g-g-g-good idea to free you. I never knew that once an Archangel changes you that my power can't take it back.”

I hug her hard and shake my head, “No. No, don’t feel bad. Lydia told me how it was before. My mom was dead and my sister, you saved her. This is better. Jaime didn’t die and Giselle and me never got sick. It's okay.”

She sniffles and wipes her eyes, “I never knew how much I would miss you. You don’t remember how much we love each other. You're the only sister I've ever had.”

Giselle jumps into the hug, “What about me? Were we close?”

Ari stiffens and snorts, “Yeah.” Her tone tells me otherwise but Giselle is clueless.

Ari pulls back and wipes her face, “I'm sorry.” She shakes her head, “I didn’t mean to lose it like that.”

“It's okay. I understand. I feel pretty close to losing it right now too.”

She glances at me and nods, “I know right. You must be freaking out.”

“Déjà vu. It's been brutal. Like I can't react the way I want to because the imprint of everything is in my brain still, so all of this is normal for me.”

Giselle nods, “I keep getting déjà vu too.”

Ari smirks, “Yeah. It's part of my thing.” She turns and looks at the wall, “So this is the timeline. This is the series of events we have already concurred, even though you weren’t with us this time.”

There are two timelines. One is the old way and one is the new way. I can't believe how integral a part of the team I was in the old way. We go over it until I'm bored and Giselle is sleeping.

Chapter Ten

“Miss Aimee, Mr. Marcus be in the yard, he be waiting on you to has a talk with him.”

I smile at the ghost and get up from the couch, “Thanks Annabelle.”

I shiver when I walk past her, she makes the air cool.

The dark hallway feels foreboding. Marcus is one of the things I don’t trust. Not entirely.

I open the porch door and try not to look like a ridiculous fan girl. He is handsome in a way that makes my knees turn to goo.

“Aimee, my dear sweet Aimee. Now love. Have you gotten those fingers of yours under control?”

I love his accent and his spooky seductive eyes. I nod, almost trancelike.

“Well then, I have news. The boy you tried to kill, he's fine. Better than fine. He's one hundred and fifty percent.”

I sigh, “Oh, thank god. No one would tell me anything, except that he was here in the city.”

He grins, “Well he isn't here, here. He's in the city. You can flash me home if you like and see him for yourself.”

He puts a hand out. I take it nervously. “You should be cold. You’re dead.”

He laughs, “Dead isn’t what everyone thinks it is.” He holds up his cell phone and nudges me, “Think of the place in the picture and wink.

The house is a grand castle. It's crazy beautiful. I stare at it, lost in the massive size and beauty. I wink and we are standing outside the huge castle.

“Where are we?”

He looks confused, “Well, this is my home.” He says it like I should have known that. I supposed I should have.

“A castle? What country are we in?”

He looks at me the way I look at Alise, “Did you bang your head this morning? The USA, we haven’t even left the city or the state. I live in Portland too.” He walks through a giant archway into the massive front door.

He's like a mean girl at school. He and Alise would be perfect for each other.

I follow him in. A large man in a bowler hat is at the front door as I walk through it. He grins at me. I grin back. His bowler hat is awesome.

“You look like the bad guy on James Bond.” I say.

His grin falls.

I walk faster.

I wink and catch up with Marcus. I topple from the uneasiness in my stomach. He grabs me in his arms. “Careful Aimee, I tend to read into things. A lot.” I pull myself together and try not to look his way. I know he's looking at me. I also know my face is on fire.

“S-s-sorry. The uhm winking thing still makes me sick.”

He nudges me, “You are a lot less fun than you used to be. You were really sort of, well, badass. I supposed that’s the way to say it.” He says the word like he's never said it before.

I glance at him, “Was I a slut?” The words come out before I can filter.

He laughs, “No. Lord no. God I wish. You were uppity and annoying in a lot of ways, but very dependable and sort of bitchy.”

I smile, “Thanks. I needed that.”

Confusion crosses his brow. He has no idea how upset I have been getting.

“You always wore high heeled boots and your hair was always long and down. You had a very bad tempter. Famous actually among the Roses for killing without conscious or mercy.”

Horror creeps across my face slowly, “What?”

“Hated Dorian more than anything in the world. Loved Aleks. Felt sorry for the bloke that's here. Shane. He was always losing wasn’t he?”

I look down at the carpet we are crossing and shake my head, “I can't imagine any of it.”

“Well you best start. Lorri is spicy when it comes to failure.” His tone still sounds like he couldn't care less.

The hallway is huge and wide and full of amazing paintings and fancy doors. He leads me down to a door that doesn’t look like the others. It slides into the wall and I'm in awe. It’s a lab. My face drops.

He looks proud, “I knew you would like it.”

I walk in doing circles as I try to take it all in. “It's beautiful. Is that a hybridization oven? You have everything in here.”

“That’s nothing check this out.” He walks over to an electrophoresis system like I have never seen before when a voice interrupts us.

“Aimes?”

I look back and grin. “Shane. You're okay.”

He looks different. His face was always handsome but now it's perfect. Everything is perfect. He's irresistible. My face drops. I look at Marcus, “What did you do?”

He grins at Shane, “Ahh, good to see you're back, son. How was the feed?”

Shane looks down shyly, “Good. Bit of a struggle but I got it.”

I growl at Marcus, “What did you do?”

He tilts his head. “Turn that judgmental face of yours around missy. You did that, not I. I saved him. There was only one way to do it.”

I look back at him. My heart breaks. “I'm so sorry Shane. I've killed you.” I wink back to Lydia's. I run up the stairs and throw open the door, “We need to reset the clock again.”

Ari looks at me and laughs, “Not a chance. Why?”

I cover my face, “Shane. I've cursed him. He's cursed like me now.”

She pries my hands away from my face and hugs me, “He isn’t cursed. He's saved. The old you always wanted him to be unbreakable. Now he is.”

I look at her in disbelief, “I never could have wanted this. He just ate someone for lunch.”

“You never said you wanted it, but I know you would have chosen him if he wasn’t mortal. You loved Aleks, there was no doubt. But the more you were away from him, the less you loved him. Your love weakened with distance and time. Now look at you two. He doesn’t even know you and you barely register him and Giselle is stalking him like a bear.”