Aleks laughed, "Most of them were human, Daniel has modified them. He's lost his mind completely. Don't worry about it Ari you've healed us completely though. Guess you have your advantages and disadvantages."
Aimee shrugged, "My gun shot wound is gone too. Lets find the room with the computers. This place is a lot bigger than I thought."
Ari walked to the surveillance monitors and pointed to one, "There."
Aimee looked and nodded, "That’s her."
The room was empty to the untrained eye but anyone who knew Lorri would know to look for her trademark red hue. She could make herself invisible but whenever she did she let off a slight red mist. It was creepy but the room looked as it were being viewed at sunset. The slightest red glow misted past the camera several times.
Lucas pulled the plugs from the walls and chewed the cords when they were no longer attached to the power source. Each screen went blank.
They slipped from the room toward the front of the building. An open entryway revealed two other possible halls.
"I went down that one, she must be this way." Aleks walked along putting his guard up. Aimee knew she was the only one who could see him when he cloaked himself.
Aimee could feel her heart beat in her throat, she wasn’t used to feeling nervous but she hadn’t ever come up against so many of her kind.
The first door Aleks opened was dark inside with a slight red hue in the air. They slipped into the room, all but Aleks who waited in the hall cloaked.
"Lorri?" Aimee whispered.
Lorri showed herself, her right arm and the right side of her face were burned severely.
Ari gasped, "How?"
Lorri tried to maintain her breath, "No fucking clue. They shot hellfire at me. We've lost the Roses Institute. All the new trainees have been taught their way."
Aimee felt sick, "He's amassing an army?"
Lorri nodded, "Get us out of here. They're gone. He left, he has a girl who does what you do."
Aimee put her arm out watching her shaking hand. She reached for Lucas with her other hand. She would have laughed at the sight of a panther and wolf sticking their paws into the circle if it had been under any other circumstances.
Instantly they were standing in the kitchen at Lydia's.
"Lorri you need to get upstairs now. Hellfire blocks your magic."
Aimee watched as Lydia grabbed Lorri's good arm and helped her out of the kitchen.
Aimee looked at Ari and smiled as she winked herself home.
She stood outside her fathers' house watching him get himself tea. The light inside of the house shone onto the street filling her with a pain her heart couldn’t bear. She wanted to run from it all but she knew what she needed to do.
She knew it was her fault so she forced herself to stay and watch through the window as she dialed the number.
She could faintly hear the phone ringing through the windows. He walked slowly toward the window and picked up the phone from its cradle.
"Hello."
"Hello Mr. James?" She spoke with a soft English Accent.
"Yes this is he."
"Good evening Mr. James. My name is Erika Pierson, I'm the specialist helping your daughter with her recovery."
"Oh hello Dr. Pierson, how is she doing?"
"Well sir that's the reason for my call. She asked us not to worry you but six months ago her liver failed. We had her on the donor list. It was why she was unable to come home. She got a transplant a month ago but went into failure immediately. I'm so sorry sir but she passed this afternoon."
Tears poured down her face as she watched his legs buckle. He dropped to his knees sobbing.
"When will….her……..she…..come….home…..?" His sobbing made him inaudible.
Aimee wanted to look away but she forced herself to look on as he suffered needlessly at her expense, "We will ship her ashes home sir. Her body after fighting the liver disease for so long, well it would be inappropriate. Her wish was cremation."
He nodded trembling rocking back and forth, "Thank you for calling." He dropped the phone collapsing on the floor in front of the window.
Aimee dropped to her knees tears pouring down her face.
She couldn’t smile even though she knew she'd saved him. They would be hunting them all, they would want them dead, they would find any means necessary to destroy each of the Roses. Aimee winked herself to Shane's backyard and waited.
It took her father half an hour to make the call.
Shane watched TV inside holding a soda. He was sitting on the couch in his uniform with the shirt opened slightly.
She watched as he picked up his cell phone. His face lost all of its color as shook his head. He threw his soda against the wall screaming into the phone. Tears formed in his eyes as he calmed himself slightly and spoke more controlled.
Again she forced herself to watch the heartbreak. Nothing would remain inside of her, everything was dead, just as it should be.
Chapter Thirty-One - Mate
Ari
The hot bath revived her. Annabelle sat on the edge of the tub singing softly. It was haunting a song Ari had never heard before. She felt lost in it picturing Lorri, the strongest being she knew, huddled in the corner of a room bleeding and burned. If Lorri could be injured so could any of them. It all became so real in a flash. She looked at Annabelle and smiled, "I need my uncle moved and brainwashed, how do I do that?"
Annabelle nodded, "Miss Lorri can have that taken care of for ya."
When Ari got out of the tub she went and found Lorri resting in the spare room on the third floor.
"Hey kid." Lorri smiled at her.
Ari smiled, "Sorry to bug you but before they get him I need my uncle safe, somewhere else."
Lorri nodded weakly, "Yeah already took care of that. He's safe."
"Where?"
Lorri shook her head wincing, "Can't say, didn’t ask. Just put my best people on it. Trust me he's safe but if we know then we can be tortured and made to tell. Got me?"
Ari smiled, "Uh yeah, thanks. So uhm you need anything? Those burns look pretty bad."
Lorri laughed bitterly, "It’s the second most pain I've ever been in, didn’t even know hellfire was known by anyone anymore."
"Second most?"
"When I fell, that hurt more than this."
Ari frowned, "You're more human than I imagined you would be."
Lorri looked at her, "Thank you Ari."
Ari shook her head and walked from the room as Dorian came strolling in, "Lorri are you alright?"
He brushed past Ari ignoring her existence.
Lorri laughed, "Yeah, did you get it?"
"I got it, why the hell didn’t you tell me you were in trouble?"
"I needed those things safe more than I needed help."
He sighed, "This is a real shit storm." He looked back at Ari and smiled, "I see you made it out alright."
She nodded feeling hurt by his genuine lack of care about her, "Yeah."
"Well that’s good then." He turned back to Lorri.
Ari walked down the stairs feeling uncertain about it all.
She walked to Lucas's room and knocked lightly on the door.
He opened it in a pair of light blue jeans and no shirt. His sun kissed skin made her temperature immediately shoot up.
His green eyes looked lost, "Hi."
She smiled weakly, "Hi."
"Wanna come in?"
She nodded and walked into the room. The smell of him surrounded her, it was a perfect blend of his own musk mixed with the woods. She sighed wanting to curl up inside his arms but he never offered them. He acted awkward and cleared a spot for her to sit in a chair across the room from his bed.
She sat feeling a million miles away from him.
He sat pulling a dark blue long sleeve t-shirt on. He looked at her expectantly obviously feeling misplaced and uncomfortable in the silence.
She felt the same.
He raised his eyebrows at her, "Soooooo uhm that was quite the weird experience hey?"
She laughed, "yeah."
He bit his lip and looked around the room.
She stood up making him stand up as well. She looked at his hands, she loved it when he took hers in them, wrapping them around hers. She shook her head getting out of the fog he always managed to put her in, "Okay well I'll see you around I guess." She ran from the room quickly closing the door.
"Ari wait." She heard him cry out but she ignored it. She had pushed her environment too much and she would have to pay the price. She ran out into the foggy day feeling her shoes squish against the wet grass. She wished for a moment she could transport the house and all of them to the desert, she'd missed them but not the constant wet feeling. She ran down to the dock and sat remembering the first time she'd met him.
"You're Ari?"
She looked up seeing Ben smiling at her. She nodded, "Hi Ben."
He sat beside her, "I feel like we've met before."
She nodded again, "Yeah I get that a lot. I have that effect on people."
"So your hands are pretty crazy hey?"
She laughed, "Yeah, crazy is the word for them."
"What have you changed so far with them?"
She looked into his eyes seeing the spark of something and turned her face away. She didn’t want him to fall in love with her like he had both times before. She dropped her gaze to her runners, "Your brother. I love him so much, everyone gets to forget but not me. I remember every detail like it’s a dream I had once. Well more like a nightmare."
"I remember you that way too." She looked up in the mist to see Lucas walking down the grass.
"Lucas, what timing you have brother." Ben stood from the bench and walked up the lawn, "See ya around Ari."
She tried to ignore the annoyance in his voice.
Lucas pointed to the lake, "I had a dream you weren't you but I saved you. You were swimming or something and I thought you were drowning." He sat across from her on the damp wooden dock.
