Devils Roses 05 - Death

AIMEE?" Lorri rips me from the arms encircling me. She shakes me. Her face changes slightly.
    I shake. I have no answers. I hold up the single white feather. She drops me to the ground. Tears fly from her eyes.
    She screams, looking up at the sky and then shakes with each sob and heave. She shakes her head, "No. No. Why would he do it?"
    Oliver is there, beside her, holding her. His eyes meet mine and I know how he felt. I don’t feel better with Dorian saving me. I would trade places in a heartbeat. I am unworthy of the sacrifice that was made. Only he knows the pain I'm in.
    I clutch the feather.
    Lorri spins looking at me with hatred, "You never even loved him back. You never even cared for him."
    Sam stands in front of me, "You know as well as I do, he did it the way he wanted to. He never would have seen her dead. How was she to know how he felt?"
    Aleks walks out of the house. I feel sick when I see his face. He looks around, "Where's Dorian?"
    Lorri cries harder, angrier. She's gone.
    Sam looks at Aleks and shakes his head, "He didn’t make it."
    Aleks stops, "He's fallen, he can't die. Not unless Aimee…" He looks at me accusingly.
    Sam steps towards him, "No. She didn’t."
    Oliver grabs his arm, "This is my fault. I made the deal trading her life for O's. Dorian saved Aimee and took her place."
    Aleks looks confused, "Why? Oliver, why would you make that deal? Why would trade my girl for yours?"
    "Aleks, it wasn’t my girl for yours. It was the one witch we need for the death dealer who could be replaced."
    Aleks grabs his shirt and lifts him off the ground. His face and arms are trembling. "HE LOVED HER. HE WOULD SAVE HER!"
    Oliver looks savage, "YOU LOVE HER TOO! YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HER!"
    Aleks drops him and looks back at me. Tears line his cheeks but his look doesn’t soften. I don’t blame him. They have been together for hundreds of years. He looks like he doesn’t know how to react.
    I shake my head, "I never knew."
    He nods, disconsolately, "I know."
    Sam smiles softly, "No one knew, Aimes. He never told anyone. We all just guessed."
    Aleks's face reveals the truth of it. He knew. He knew all along. He puts a hand up, "I can't do this right now." And he's gone too.
    Oliver looks at me, "I'm sorry. It wasn’t personal."
    Sam wraps himself around me again, "Fuck off Oliver." He mutters.
    "Did you get Ari back?" I ask softly.
    "No. Lost the trail." He leans into my hair and sniffs it, "What's that smell?"
    "Old lady. We went to a cabin." I can't say anything else. Not without dying inside. I never want to remember the cabin again.
    "No, it smells like something else."

Chapter Twenty

    Hanna

    I sit at the table and eat and can't help but feel like beauty and the beast. He hasn’t touched me again but he's holding me hostage. I am not allowed outside or any phone calls.
    "I'm bored." I mutter.
    He looks angry. He's looked angry all day. Something has happened and he's been a complete savage. He smashed some things and screamed his face off into the phone.
    "Try painting something or try to learn to play on the instruments in the music room."
    I frown, "Marcus, you do know it's not the renaissance right?"
    He laughs bitterly. He always laughs bitterly.
    He walks to my side of the table and grabs my hand. He drags me down the hall. The smell of him in the air and the way he makes my heart flutter, is extreme. He drags me to the room I sleep in and closes the door. He undoes the button on his dress shirt, leaving it open to his white undershirt.
    I step back and try to ignore the heat being stirred up in my body. "What are you doing?" I ask nervously.
    "I owe you, you're bored and I need to feel something. I need you." His voice cracks slightly.
    I back up, not towards the bed. "I don’t want to do this again. I don’t even know you. Jimmy and I never really broke up. So, this is wrong."
    He rolls his eyes and the air around me is stirred up. I feel his warmth against the back of me. I close my eyes and sigh when his warm lips press against my spine. He rubs himself into the back of me. He nudges me toward the bed with kisses and small shoves. I let him.
    I let him slowly take my clothes off, with precision and intimacy that makes my skin lift and my body tremble. I stand there, nervously waiting for him to touch me. Instead his tongue drags up the back of my thigh. He plants a kiss on my butt cheek and continues up my back with licks and kisses. He turns me around and