Devils Roses 05 - Death

grabs my hand, "We live separate lives. We don’t hang out anymore. You made me this way and then left me."
    My eyes burn. I feel the sparks. He drops my hand and grins, "Easy tiger."
    I frown, "I never left you. You chose Marcus's way. There have been blood bag vampires for as long as there have been blood bags. Not the slutty downtown kind either. I mean the plastic ones."
    He wrinkles his nose, "I don’t like it. It's the rest of my life, the world's life. I'm immortal. I don’t want to eat plastic food. Imagine an eternity of that?"
    I cock my head, "Imagine an eternity together." I whisper it and hate they can all hear me.
    He chuckles and melts the ice around my heart. His grin is killing me. "Aimee, I'm not giving up on you. I know you'll come back around." He comes closer and grabs my face. He presses his lips against mine. I gag and push back wiping my face, "I can taste the last person you killed."
    He looks at me through his lashes, "Ditto." My stomach twists, just like it used to.
    Marcus strolls up the alley behind him. "Aimee, how lovely to see you. We see so little of each other."
    I feel my lips curl into a sneer, "I see enough of you."
    He chuckles and crosses his arms across his broad chest, "So feisty. I liked you better when we first met. Of course it was the time before. Or was it the time before that? That Ari is a pain in my ass."
    I shake my head, "She saved you."
    Shane looks back at him, "I'll be there in a minute."
    Marcus cocks an eyebrow and scoffs, "She isn’t giving you a minute Shane. She's doing something else in this alley. Look around you. The Roses are lining the rooftops. Something is up."
    I narrow my gaze, "Go home Marcus."
    He's in my face, his movements are fast. He slips a hand up into my hair and grips the back of my head. "I don’t take orders from girls."
    I grin at him, "That's not how I heard it."
    He laughs and grips the back of my head harder. I wince. "Tell Lorri the deal is off." His hot breath on my face smells exactly how it should, naughty.
    "Tell me yourself." I grin at the sound of the boots in the alley.
    He releases me and steps back haughtily, "The deal is off." He points to the roof where Henry stands, looking menacingly at us. "Let's not test our fates shall we? I feel fairly confident that I would win this battle."
    Lorri growls at him, "The deal stands."
    Marcus looks at her for a moment, "No."
    "Stop being a child." She snaps.
    "I WILL HAVE HER!" He screams and then he's gone.
    Shane doesn’t even flinch. I grab his hand again and squeeze, "You don’t have to stay with him. You can come with us."
    He shakes his head, "I'm royalty. I can't even walk past the guards. I tried."
    I slide my hand along his face, "Don’t do anything I will have to come for you over. Shane it all seems like shits and giggles but we are over busting in blood brothels in Egypt tonight. We are taking the baddies down there because the African Roses are busy. We are on every other continent. I will know if you are part of it. I don’t want to have to kill you."
    He bends and presses his lips against mine, "Stop making it so finite and difficult. We both know you love me as much as I love you."
    I look down. "I don’t feel that way anymore Shane. I was a girl and you were a boy and things were simple."
    He grips my hand roughly, "I heard that no matter what, you never chose me anyway."
    I pull back but he's gripping my arm.
"Don’t make it so hard Aimes." He whispers and releases me. He's gone before I can reason with him.
    "Well that was a bust." Lorri says quietly. "Fucking Marcus." She looks up at the rooftops, "Sam, go to her. Make sure he doesn’t find her. Do what you have to."
    Sam beams and then he too is gone.
    I see the icy blue eyes watching me for a second. Something about him still makes me question everything. How could I ever choose him over Shane?
    I flash to the rooftops where Ari is standing next to O. "He never came then?"
    She shakes her head, "Something else must be different."
    Ari looks sick, "No. It's got to work." She looks like she might lose it. Lucas growls and rubs against her. His green eyes are full of worry. I scratch his head. He snarls at me. I put my hands in the air defensively, "What? God. You’re all fluffy and soft. I can't help it."
    Ari crosses her arms, hugging herself. She looks like she's talking to herself. She grabs my hand and shows me a picture. It's the desert. I wink us there without consulting anyone. The vampire