Death (16 page)

"Go get Giselle. Meet at Lydia's." I shout and dive
at Shane. I wink when I'm touching them both. We land on the street outside the
house. Outside the guards. I kick him in the chest and wink Hanna to the front
lawn, within the guards. I leave her in a heap and run at Shane. He squares
off.

I point, "You've been smuggling girls."

He scoffs, "Sheep. Sluts and sheep."

My face contorts. I leap at him. I don’t cheat. I don’t suck
or wink. I punch good and hard. He rolls us and somehow ends up on my back. He
spreads my legs and rubs himself against me, "You have something I've
always wanted, Aimes."

I wink and am on top of him. I grip his throat in my arms. He
pushes up hard and we leap high into the air. He grabs my arm and pulls me
under him. I wink as we land and thump him into the ground.

Giselle is running on my direction, "SUCK HIM!" I
shout.

She leaps and plants a kiss on his lips, weakening him. Her
kind of poison is instant.

"Don’t kill him." I say breathlessly.

I wink back to Hanna when Giselle has Shane unconscious. She
is bleeding out. Her eyes widen when she sees me.

Lydia comes running out the door.

I point at Hanna, "Give her back her memories."

Lydia doesn’t even get onto the ground when the grip, I never
even noticed on my shirt, is gone. Hanna's eyes are blank.

"Fuck." Lydia whispers. I have never actually heard
her swear.

Sam comes running through the door. His face instantly drops,
"Hanna." He whispers.

Lydia jumps up and grabs him, "She's going to come back
any second. We need someone with incredible strength. Get Lorri."

Sam is panting and convulsing.

Giselle is crying and dragging Shane's semi conscious body, to
the edge of the guards. "Where should I put him?" He was her friend.
"Why did I do this to him Aimes? It's Shane. Aimee?" her voice is
panicked.

Lorri flashes to us just as I press send on my text. She looks
at Hanna and sighs. "Worst day in a thousand years. I swear to god."
She turns to see Giselle, holding Shane, sobbing. Lorri looks at me, like I am
to blame. "Excellent job Aimee. This really is the shit icing on the fuck
up cake."

I point back at Shane, "He's a traitor. Him and
Mar…"

A man's scream cut's me off, "LORRI" I don’t get to
finish saying his name and he's there. Marcus is right outside the guards.
Giselle drops Shane and runs across the guards. I wink to her and put myself
between them and her.

Shane lies still on the ground, but Marcus is fuming mad and
pacing the line of the guards.

"You give her back. We made a deal." He speaks
through his teeth.

I whisper, "Traitors. They're traitors."

Lorri ignores me and stomps across the grass in her big boots,
"Fuck you and your deal." She looks at me expectantly.

I jump and blurt out as much as I can, "He and Shane have
been helping Jonathan with the blood bags and blood drugging. He's the one who
double-crossed us on the brothel with Ari. Shane knew we were going there. I
told him in the alley when we thought they would take O. He was pretending to
try to win me back again. Marcus is the one who wiped Oliver and made him
evil."

Lorri's face trembles with anger, "You killed Dorian with
your actions. Dorian." Her words are short and sharp. He winces but still
forces a smile across his lips in the end.

"Lorri, it was a bit of fun. You know better than anyone
how I feel about the sheep. You know how Dorian felt."

"I DON’T GIVE A GOOD GOD DAMNED ABOUT THAT! YOU KILLED
DORIAN WITH YOUR ACTIONS!" Her spit flies from her mouth. She is frothing.

Something ripples under her skin. Something scary. I look back
at Lydia. She nods her head towards the house. I take a step back from Lorri
and Marcus.

Marcus points, "Give her to me."

"NO."

"Give her over or I will go home and get Henry and he
will BLOW YOUR MAGIC HOUSE DOWN!"

I take a step back.

Marcus's eyes land on me, "You little
bitch. I saved Shane for you. This is how you repay me? You steal the one thing
that soothes my heart and heals me and makes me almost human again?"

I lower my gaze.

Lorri shakes her head, "She didn’t make you double cross
us and work me and Jonathan against each other. You always were just out for
yourself. All along you've been the same selfish little prick you were when
Ethan went bat shit crazy."

A loud rumbling fills the moment of silence between the
bickering.

Marcus's eye gleam as a wicked smile crosses his lips.

Lorri's head drops as a sigh leaves her lips. I close my eyes.
The rumble turns into a groan and then a moan and then a gasp. I turn my head
and look back. Hanna looks like she is having a seizure on the ground. She is
trembling and twitching and vibrating.

I bite my lip and glance at Lydia again. Terror crosses her
face.

"Ophelia." I say quietly.

Sam vanishes from where he was standing.

"She'll cross the guards, there is nothing you can do
about it Lorri. She'll cross and destroy shit and none of us is strong enough
to stop her when she does." His voice is filled with humor and joy. He
knows Hanna will need him now.

A grin crosses my lips, "I know something you
don’t." I smirk and wink home. Well, to my hometown.

I wink into his bedroom by mistake.

"Aimee, what the fu..? How did you do that?"

Alise screams.

I grab him off my sister with one hand and grab his bathrobe
off the floor with the other. I wink us both to where I am praying to god Aleks
is. The place he talks about.

He is. The muted sunlight and the fresh mountain air are
majestic. I take a deep breath and smile. I look over at Blake, who is heaving
spaghetti all over the rocks. I grimace and walk away. Quickly.

"Hey." I say it softly. I want to shout it and tell
him to hurry the frig up, but I can't. He's broken and it's my fault. His red-rimmed
eyes look brutal.

"Hey."

I look down and nudge a small stone with my boot, "I'm
sorry. You know that right? I never meant for him to die and for me to live. I
didn’t even know what was going on. I didn't know he loved me. I don’t think
I've ever known it."

He shakes his head, "He was such an asshole to you. He
was so good at it. You never would have guessed it was all an act. A despicable
act. A way to spare himself the pain of you not choosing him and sparing you
the choice."

"I feel like Harry Potter I swear. The whole Severus
thing blew my mind equally."

He looks confused.

Blake coughs and shouts, "Aimes, what the hell is going
on? Where are we? Why did we come to a mountaintop to talk about Harry Potter?
How the hell did we get here? Are we really here?"

Aleks looks past me and waves, "Hey Blake."

Blake's face gets red like when he rants, "Hey strange
guy, I don’t know sitting on the mountain." He looks at me and holds his
hands out, "What is going on?"

I sigh, "I don’t have time for this. I'll get the girls
to give you back your memories when we get back. Just stop being a tard. Think
Dr. Who."

His lips lift, "For real? Awesome." He tightens his
burgundy robe and doesn’t even think about the fact he's barefoot and it's
freezing.

Aleks laughs and stands up, "I need you." His words
are soft.

I don’t have an answer but I know what my heart is telling me.
The place around us is familiar. When I look past him at the graves, I feel
like throwing up. I feel weakened and sick. I feel like jumping into his huge
arms and letting him crush me into him.

So I do it.

I step into his huge embrace and let him wrap it all around
me. His warmth and smells crash against me. His lips meet mine and it's heaven.
His kiss is hungry and crazed. My body responds. I jump up and wrap myself
around him. I could die smelling him. He pulls back and looks at me. My lips
almost keep kissing the air. "Why did you come?" He asks.

"Uhm. I don’t….oh yeah. Oh my god, we have to go. Hanna
is back." I jump out of his arms and drag him to Blake and wink us all to
Marcus's house. We are standing in the hallway.

"Why are we here?" He asks.

I put a finger to my lips, "Henry, remember. You stay out
here and keep watch for him." I wink myself and Blake inside. "Blake,
if we steal these notes can you make a cure from them. It's for a friend who is
a rage monster Hanna? Uhm like the Hulk."

Blake scowls, "What? Am I in a coma? Are we dead?"

I drag him to the notes I noticed the last time I was here. I
flip open the book and show him the formula.

He reads fast. He shakes his head, "What is this? This is
craziness. Aimes, this is to make the monster worse. See here. Notes on adding
rage."

I growl. I wink us to the hall and grab Aleks and wink us to
Dr. Jekyll's office.

He's at his desk. He smiles at me and then looks at Blake and
frowns, "Odd, but welcome nonetheless. How may I help Miss James?"

I take a deep breath and try to say it all so he and Blake get
some details. "We know about your daughter's raging monster condition,
obviously. Anyway, you had notes. Last time you had notes. It was on the
timeline they made. You gave me notes and Marcus made a cure from them. Well
this time Marcus just has the notes. He knows how to make the cure. It's the
cure he has made for you."

"Aimee I was there for it all." He says impatiently.

I point to Blake, "He wasn't. Anyway, you know how it's
short term? Well, I was wondering if you could make it long term and make some
fast? Like now?"

His eyes brighten, "Do you have any of the notes Marcus
worked on? Without them I can't get past where I am. He won't give them to
me."

I slap down Marcus's papers and push the still robed and
completely confused Blake at the doctor, "Totally ahead of you doc. Make
Blake here understand what's going on. I don’t have time to help you or explain
further. Hanna died today. It's just like last time. She's raging around
Lydia's house as we speak and Marcus is trying to take her."

The doctor's face drops.

"Sensitivity never has been a big thing for you."
Aleks steps forward. "We can get her back. Aimee can wink her. And I have
something that will solve the Marcus issue."

I look back at him, "You're going to Henry?"

He nods. I feel sick.

The doctor grabs something from inside of his desk and passes
it to me, "It's a single round. You can't miss. It'll drop her like a dead
deer. You'll need to bring her home after that. Roland and I can keep her safe,
until the potion is ready."

I look at Blake and smirk, "This is the thing you've
always dreamt about. It's real. All of it. The science fiction isn’t fiction in
my world. It's just science and fantasy meeting. You want in?"

He grins from ear to ear, "Hell yes. This is probably a
dream, but I'm so excited I don’t care." He chuckles, "So this is the
science grant you're working on?"

I grin, "Something like that. This is my boyfriend
Aleks."

He puts a hand out, "It's nice to meet you." Aleks
shakes his hand and looks weird. I can't imagine how messed up it is,
remembering everything from so many different times. Especially with Blake and
I remembering nothing.

I grin at the doc, "So I can leave him here?"

The doctor shrugs, "I don’t really see how much use
another person will be, but I might be able to use him."

I laugh out loud. "He goes to MIT. He was at home
visiting my sister. He's a genius."

Blake's face turns red like he's going to argue but he
doesn’t. He laughs and nods.

The doctor beams at him, "A lad after my own heart.
Fabulous. Yes, go and save my girl and bring her home. We have this. How ever
did you get the notes?"

"I've been in the lab before. I knew how to wink in
there. He never thought about letting me in there. I know he doesn’t let anyone
else in."

Aleks shakes his head, "No one. I think he assumes with
your memory loss you won't think about the lab, beyond it being a geek thing."

I grin, "It worked." I grab the gun and Aleks's
hand. Before I can wink us, he flashes. I don’t know the place.

He lifts my chin, "If things work out the way they did
last time, I just want you to know it's real. It always was. For me."

I smile, "It's real for me. Henry said the curse is
broken. You don’t smell delicious and tempting to other women. But you smell
that way for me."

His face lightens up, "Really? He truly said that?"

I nod, "He did." His eyes sparkle and he presses his
lips into mine. He holds me to him.

He pulls back and laughs, "Finally. You just see me. Of
course this has to be the moment Henry will kill me."

I kiss him once more and then let go of him. "I love you
Aleks. I know I do. So, don't you even think about letting Henry kill you."
I wink before he can say anything else.

I hear the screams before I see the mess and chaos. Hanna.

I wink and run to where she is ripping the boathouse to
pieces. Ophelia is shooting things at her and shaking her head. They cut Hanna,
but the beast doesn’t stop. She is disgusting looking. I hold up the gun and
shoot. She turns and screams a high pitch shriek at me. She starts to run
towards me, but she only gets half way before she drops with a ground-rumbling
landing. Her body shrinks back to her normal form. Her clothes are tattered and
destroyed.

Lorri looks at me "Don’t go off like that again."

I nod. Everyone is out of breath and bleeding from somewhere.
Marcus is pacing the line like a cat in a cage.

I wave back at him, "Screw you Marcus." I shout.

"Don't taunt him." Lydia puts her bleeding hands on
her old round hips. "He can still summon Henry."

My eyes must have given something away, because her face drops
when she sees my look. "What have you done child?" She asks in a
hushed whisper.