Devils Roses 05 - Death

blood-drugging house is below us. The air is cool as the sun has set, but the desert isn’t completely dark.
    "I'm pregnant Aimes." She whispers.
    I look at her, "What? Is that even possible?"
    She nods, "It's rare. Usually it's angels and Fae impregnating humans. Not Fae impregnating Nephilim." She looks at me with tears making her black eyes like pools of despair. "I need your help."
    I nod, "Anything. You know that."
    Her lip quivers, "If anything happens to me, you make sure Lucas doesn’t remember me."
    I scowl, "What? Why? What's going to happen?"
    She shakes her head, "That’s just it. I don’t know." She looks off into the distance, like she's lost. "I haven’t talked to Dorian. I think he'll be mad."
    I frown, "Yeah. He's going to be the oldest grandpa in the world."
    She looks at me and smiles, "I can't imagine him as a grandpa."
    I laugh, "No. Certainly not."
    Her smiles fades, "If something happens to me, you make one of them make him forget me."
    "No. Ari. That’s so wrong."
    She shakes her head, "No. You make him raise the baby and be at peace with my death. He'll hurt himself if I d-die."
    I grab her shoulders, "You're immortal. No baby can kill you."
    Her eyes grow haunted, "I'm not entirely certain of that. I'm loosing pieces of me everyday. My mind, my heart, my sanity, my soul." She whispered the last part.
    "It doesn’t make any sense." I mutter.
    She shakes her head and continues to look off in the distance, "I know. I just feel it. Something isn’t right."
    "You should talk to Dorian and Lorri."
    She shoots me a look and then looks down at the ground, "No."
    I know her mother died when she was being born. I know why she's worried. "You're not human like she was Ari. You're special. You'll be fine."
    She smiles and I can't help but see the fakeness of it.
    "Let's kill shit."
    I grin and nod, "Alright." I take her hand and flash us to the opening of the door at the back of the large home.
    "Ready?" I ask.
    Her eyes fill solid black, eating up all the whites. She smiles a twisted grin, "Yup."
    I open the door and slide against the wall. I don’t know how many there are. We did sloppy reconnaissance. We tend to get over confident.
    The hall is silent. Ari's buzzing with the strange electricity she controls.
    We creep along quietly. Watching for movement. It's all so familiar to me.
    I glance back, "Have we done this before?"
    She shakes hr head and laughs, "No. But we did it in Rio a few times. You probably just remember that in the weird déjà vu way."
    I nod, "Great. Love that Déjà vu."
    Her laugh is almost silent. I open the door to the right of us in the long hallway. The room is empty and dark. It's a small sitting room with strange chairs and sofas. They look exotic, like a genie would live in there. I close the door just as Ari opens the one on the left. She closes it, "This is weird."
    We walk to the end of the hall where it forks.
    Ari points right and walks left. We know each other like the backs of our hands and honestly, she knows me better than I know me. I creep along the hallway, until it opens in a fancy kitchen with marble and granite and stainless steel everywhere. It's stunning. I slip past it to another hallway. There are few windows but many lights so it feels like daylight inside. At the end of a hall with no other doors I feel a twinge of something. My powers are completely with me, so much so, that when I touch the handle of the door it burns it's so cold against my searing flesh.
    I stop turning the handle midway. A panicked feeling inside cripples me. It's foreign and only because I was human so few years ago does my body register it. It's fear. Real fear. I look back to where we parted ways and break into a winking run.
    "Ari!" I shout, trying to keep my voice down but I can't. I pull my cell and snap a photo of the lovely kitchen and send a mass text instantly, 'HELP!'
    I called out, panicking and looking, "Ari!"
    Kicking and tearing the doors down, I leave each one open. The house is empty. All of the floors are empty. She is gone.
    I hear the others arriving behind me on the stairs. I look back. I know horror and terror have taken over my face. I'm gasping for air. I try to avoid the green eyes when I speak, "She's gone. It was a trap. They took her."
    Lorri growls, "For Christ's sake, when will the two of you stop doing these rogue missions. I know it gets stale at times, but this wasn’t one of those times. We have a ton of shit to do. Why would they take