Devils Roses 05 - Death

him. The moon's brightness lightly touches objects surrounding us, showing us half of what is there.
    He looks around. "There." He walks away from me.
    I look to where he is walking and sigh.
    Dorian waves his usual nod. "Hello brother, Aimee. Long time no see."
    I want to sneer, but Aleks hates it when I start the pissing contest with Dorian. I smile sweetly and lace my voice with the disgust I have for him, sometimes. "Dorian. Fancy meeting you here, in the dark woods where you have no doubt lured some young girls." I mutter the last part.
    "I can make it fancy if you like." His dark eyes burn.
    "Ewww." I smile, mostly because I can't stop myself. "My life is fancy enough."
    He rolls his eyes. "Half an hour, Aimee. That’s all I would need to change your world. You think that lug is skilled in being 'fancy' you are mistaken. His paltry few hundred years are nothing compared to my thousands." He takes my hand and kisses it.
    I rip it away. "Don’t make me kill you." I love the fact I now know I can kill him. He made me to kill things just like him.
    He steps into my face. "Try it little girl. Again, I have moves you can't even imagine."
    I look up into his dark eyes daringly. "I bet I can imagine them. I bet they revolve entirely around you. You strike me as a selfish and self centered dark angel."
    He runs a finger along my jaw line and pleasure shoots through my body. "I do love a challenge. You don’t belong with him. You need someone who won't put up with your naughty disrespect."
    I gasp at the pleasure and step back, ashamed. My face is red. He's won. He always wins. My fingers spark. He laughs at them. He turns and walks into the forest.
    I hate him. In that moment I am able. Mostly it's made up of dark lust.
    Aleks is looking back at me like I'm holding him up. I grunt and stalk into the forest after Dorian. My high heels sink into the soft moss and dirt.
    "You need different boots for this sort of stuff, Aimee."
    I look up at his white blue eyes and snarl. "I didn’t know we were going bushwhacking. I was trying to get a kiss and you flashed us here."
    He looks disinterested, no preoccupied. He's looking around like Lucas does. "We have stuff to do. Days of stuff to do. You kids need to grasp the severity of the situation."
    Dorian looks at me smugly. "Yeah. You kids are really not taking this seriously enough."
    Kids. Did they seriously just call me a kid?
    I stick my tongue out at Dorian and blow by Aleks, well as fast as my boots will allow. "Where are we?"
    Dorian's dark eyes glisten in the moonlight. "Behind Marcus's house."
    I despise Marcus too. I wish they would all just go away. After we save the world of course.
    I can't stand being around Dorian and I despise Marcus and I have to maintain constant effort to not hate Hanna. I sigh.
    Hanna is because I can't deal with anything that makes me think about Sam. The night feels colder suddenly, as his smile floats in my mind. His face brings the memory of the children. I clear my throat and look around. I see strawberry blonde hair bouncing like a wavy cape. My anger growls in my stomach. I rein it in and smile at her. She looks exhausted.
    "Hey." Hanna pulls her hair back into a ponytail. She looks around. "Why are we here?"
    I shrug. The feeling of contempt prickles inside of me. I shake it off and smile at her. Everything is forced. I do it for him. It's what he would have wanted me to do. Sam loved her and I have to try harder at not hating her.
    Dorian stands beside her, grinning.
    She rolls her eyes. "Not now okay. I'm tired."
    Her bracelet is fiery red. It would dull the brightest light.
    Aleks is pacing. He isn’t touching me or trying to talk to me. I start to get nervous. He glances at me. He gives me a fake smile. His lips are perfectly even. Something is wrong.
    Ari walks out of the forest looking wild with the huge wolves on either side of her. It always makes me smile seeing her like that.
    "You need a bow and arrow for that look."
    She laughs. "Why are we here?" She looks exhausted and tortured. The same look she has had since the kids and Sam.
    Aleks looks at Dorian. They do the thing where they speak without speaking. I hate that.
    Ari gives Hanna her best pleasant smile. "Hey Hanna. How's it going?"
    Hanna shakes her head. "You don’t have to Ari. I get it."
    "Get what? We just never see you anymore. You're always at Roland's."
    Hanna looks around impatiently. "Yeah. Lydia's is a hard gig for me. Roland's isn’t so easy either