Devils Roses 05 - Death

bows and vanishes.
    Giselle is almost breathing fire out of her nose.
    Lorri storms up the front door. She looks more savage than normal.
    She looks at me harshly, "You ready?"
    "Yup."
    A smile plays with the corner of her lips, "You smell ready."
    "That's the understatement of the century. What is that?" Aleks grins at Sam, "Dude. Really? Can't take care of business."
    Sam glares and shakes his head slowly, "Nope."
    Aimee is smiling like a fool suddenly. She smirks at Sam and bats her eyelashes a couple times. He frowns but not nearly as severely as Aleks does.
    Sam looks at Lorri and points at me, "This was a good idea?"
    Lorri laughs and puts her hand in, "Probably not. Group up with me and Sam. We know the way."
    Me, Aimee and Giselle slap our hands on Sam. He smells delicious. The guys frown at him. He winks and we're there. The sun beats down. It's warm and lovely compared to the dank air on the west coast of America.
    "Ari would love it here." Aimee whispers.
    Sam nods, "She would die and go to heaven. Man it's hot."
    He tugs at his shirt and doesn’t notice the looks Giselle and Aimee shoot him.
    "Bad timing." I whisper.
    His jaw drops, "Oh. That was the wrong thing to say. Sorry."
    Lorri, Aleks, Ben, Luke and Shane show up seconds later. "Thanks for letting me ride with the sausage party." Lorri snorts.
    "You fit right in." Giselle smirks.
    Lorri shoots her a glare and the rest of us stifle giggles.
    "You're all awfully cheerful for people about to die."
    Aimee puts her hands on her hips, "What's the worst that can happen? We die? Big deal. Everyone else is dead. We are the worst kind of enemy right now. We've got nothing to lose."
    Lorri's grim face splits, "Have I ever told you I love you, Aimee? I love the ass kicking bitch you've become." Aimee beams. Lorri turns around looking at us all, "She is right. We got fuck all to lose. So Jonathan wins. If we're dead we aren’t here for the Armageddon. Fuck em. Let's just do the best we can and see what happens. What have we got to lose?"
    Sam grins, "You coach a lot of basketball Lorri?"
    She looks at him for a moment and then breaks into a gut-blasting laugh. I'm scared. I've never seen her like this.
    Giselle whispers, "Home girl got herself a piece of ass."
    I snicker, "Fo sho."
    "We run it the way we practiced. This is going to be typical. Stay together. Don’t attack until we know for sure." She stalks off. I wait for Sam to lead us the other way. Aimee, Ben, Aleks and Giselle go with Lorri.
    I look at Sam, Lucas and Shane and sigh. "Only girl. I hate my team. I miss Ari." I pout. Lucas rolls his eyes but Sam and Shane both watch me. Like predators.
    Sam snaps out of it and turns and walks the other direction. I stay close to him and Lucas phases and stalks behind me. He stays close. Close so Shane can't.
    "I think putting me with you was a bad idea. You smell sweet."
    I look back at him but don’t have to say anything. I see it in his face. He's the Shane from before. The sweet one who loved Aimee more than anything. Sam looks back, "It isn’t real dude. She's hardly even nice let alone sweet. Trust me on this brother."
    I shove Sam.
    Shane laughs and Lucas nudges me.
    "So is Giselle single still, even though now she's all badass and crazy?"
    "She is, but Luke's brother has dibs on her. We respect dibs."
    Shane laughs, "Gotcha."
    I like him. I can't fight it. We walk though a field behind an estate. Sam looks at me. I nod.
    I look at Shane and whisper, "Dude, this is about to get horribly painful. You'll want to attack me and be very vigorous in the loving. I need you to stay here. I need you to fight it. Like Sam said, it's fake. I'm going to pull the bracelet off and see if you can take it, okay?"
    He takes a breath and nods, like I'm going to punch him in the face. He rolls his shoulders, "Do it."
    I take a breath and unsnap the bracelet. Sam jerks at me. He stops himself. Shane does the same and then his fangs pop out. He puts a hand up to his mouth. Lucas stands in front of me and growls at them. Both men stand there, wrestling their inner demons. I snap it back on and they relax instantly. Sam sighs loudly and leaves to scout ahead, like he always does.
    "Wow, that'th potent." Shane breathes hard. His fangs hang in his mouth. "Thorry. I can't thtop them."
    I laugh and remember Giselle.
    "Okay, I'm going to do it when we get inside and it's going to be bad but you have to focus on the baddies okay?"
    "I got thith. I'm tho thorry I killed you