Devils Roses 04 - Witch

shook his head, "He wanted it. He knew early on Tristan was his."
    She smiled, "My brother is gay?"
    "Yeah."
    "Oh my god we have to save him. Is he cute? I could totally be a hag."
    Oliver looked lost, "Look the plan is to save him."
    Ophelia sat next to him on the log, "What is the plan? What is your plan?"
    He rubbed her thigh, "I would very much like to make love to you for starters."
    Her stomach dropped, as he continued, "Then we need to rally the troops. That friend of Aimee's made the weapons for Jonathan with Marcus's hellfire. So at least he won't have that this time around. He sent a message yesterday that your brother was getting the powers. He assumed you would come to him. That's going to have to happen again but this time when I capture you with him, you will trust me. You come alone with me and let Lorri and Dorian go with the others. When he makes the trade for your sister for Aimee she can't fight. He will let her live if he has no means to kill her."
    Ophelia looked at him sharply. He put his hands up "As far as I know he doesn’t. I know his entire plan. I helped plan it."
    "What changed?"
    He bent and kissed her lips softly, "You."
    She shook her head, "No, there has to be something else?"
    He smiled, "Believe me O, you are enough of a reason. You've given me something I've never felt before."

Chapter Forty-One
    Aimee

    She watched Giselle start to change. Her body was healing rapidly. The guards had let her inside. Giselle had cried for an hour being back at Lydia's. Her skin was glowing again, instead of yellow and clammy.
    Aleks walked in, "Hey. Oliver wants us to meet him and O. We need to go over the plan for tomorrow."
    She shook her head, "We shouldn’t trust him."
    Lorri crossed her arms, "You know I was thinking the same thing but he never told Jonathan about Ari. Jonathan was completely surprised by that one. He's on our side, he's just doing his usual bullshit."
    "What?"
    "He is the most selfish person ever, ever. He's doing all of this because he loves Ophelia. I never thought I would ever see him fall in love."
    "What about the mother of his son?"
    "Slave."
    Aimee scowled. Lorri shrugged, "They didn’t like the idea that we were to help the humans. They started to see them as weak and infantile."
    Aleks laughed, "Humans are those things."
    Lorri shrugged, "God loves them. He wants them kept safe. That was the mission. He never wanted them used for anything or abused by things they couldn’t fight off. He and Jonathan couldn’t understand that. They let the temptation in the air taint them."
    Aimee remembered what Sam had said about his mother and Lorri. She looked down.
    Lydia looked around at them, "You need to go. Her birthday is in a few days."
    Aimee flashed to the photo Lucas had shown her on Ari's phone. The smell of dust and cedar filled her nose. She looked over at Ophelia sitting on the couch in a huge room with peaked windows making an entire wall. The moonlight was too dim to see outside, but she knew they were in a skiing lodge. She looked around at the grandeur and looked back at Aleks, "I want one."
    He started to laugh, "You're going to have to start investing like Lucas."
    Ari looked at him, "Huh? With what?"
    She looked back at Lucas who shrugged, "I have money."
    She raised an eyebrow, "You invest?"
    He grinned, "I get Annabelle to help out."
    Aimee laughed, "Oh my god you live in your room at Lydia's for free and have money?"
    He frowned, "I like it there. I didn’t want to live in Wolfville."
    Ophelia's ears perked up, "You're from Wolfville?" She asked from across the room.
    He nodded, "Yup. Same town as you. Only I live on the outskirts, like far out."
    "Crazy."
    Ari looked at him seriously, "You have money?"
    He nodded, "Yeah."
    She looked at Aimee and shook her head.
    Aleks poked her, "Maybe if you guys spent more time talking and less time…"
    "Thank you Aleks." Ari's face was flushed, "I'm pretty sure that’s exactly how we will be spending our evenings from now on."
    Aleks looked at Lucas, "Sorry bro."
    Lucas scowled, "What the heck?"
    Ari went to a couch and sat down. Dorian flashed in. He grinned at Oliver who sat next to Ophelia, "Brother."
    Oliver nodded, "Well let’s make a plan then shall we?"

Chapter Forty-Two
    Ophelia

    She wandered the huge skiing lodge. The lights were dimmed everywhere. It was built on a sacred land so she didn’t have to worry about the shadows and darkness. Marcus had built his castle on sacred land as well. Aimee