Witch (20 page)

Aimee grabbed his arm and scowled, "Dude. You don’t
want any of that. Keep it in your pants."

He turned and shoved Aimee, "Leave her alone."

Aimee laughed, "So Marcus destroyed the bracelet
huh?"

Hanna sighed, "Take me to Lydia's?"

Aimee shoved Blake at Ophelia and flashed Hanna away
before Blake could react.

He stood looking dazed, "What-what was that?"

Ophelia felt stunned, "Hanna I guess." She
looked over at the massive erection making a tent in his jeans.

He stood dazed and lost.

Giselle saw it and started to laugh and shake her head,
"Nooooo."

He put his glasses on again and smiled, "She is
amazing."

Ophelia covered her eyes with her hand, "Okay I'm
going to go and find you some help."

Aimee was in the room again in. She looked at Blake and
shivered, "Blake."

He looked at her. She looked at the bulge in his pants. He
put a hand over it, "Oh my god." He ran from the room.

Aimee

She woke from the bed beside Giselle to see Shane standing
in the hall. He was in uniform and exhausted looking. She knew he had worked a
night shift.

"Hey Aimes."

She felt a lump in her throat grow, "Hey."

He looked at her, "You okay?"

She shook her head, "Ari. She messed with the fates
again."

"What does that mean?"

She felt sick. She remembered when they broke up only
weeks earlier. He was crushed.

She looked at Giselle sleeping on the bed, "I can't
do this anymore Shane."

He sighed, "Not this shit again Aimes. Come on. We've
come so far this year. I told you I'm fine with it."

She felt her gaze harden, "I know but I'm not."
It was a lie. She knew it was a lie. She wanted him more than anything in the
world, except Aleks.

His gaze hardened, "I've been here every step of the
way. Dealing with your fucked up friends and the bullshit your life is involved
in and this is it? This is the extent of the emotion you have for me in the
end?"

She nodded. She had broken up with him already. She'd done
the big talks. He just didn’t remember them. She couldn’t change the way her heart
was closed off to him.

"Fuck you Aimee. You know what I'm sick of this shit.
You're a nightmare. A walking disaster. You're worse than Alise. At least she
knows what she wants in life."

She nodded again. Her heart stayed closed off. She'd
gotten good at it. She watched him scream at her but in her mind all she saw
was the Nærøyfjord. The cold wind and the tears that fell on Aleks's grave.

Shane shouted his worst at her. His blue eyes filled with
tears.

She felt nothing. She couldn’t. She knew the secret. He
was too good for her. He always had been.

"I love you. How is that never enough Aimes?"

She blinked at him and spoke flatly, "Shane it's not
you that’s not enough. It's me. I will never be normal. We will never get
married. We will never have children. I will never age or die. You will do
everything alone. You will have my heart and nothing else. One day you will see
that I'm not worth the sacrifice of everything else."

He blinked, "You are when you're everything
Aimes."

She shook her head, "But I'm not Shane. I'm
everything right now. In ten years when you look like my uncle or older brother
it'll be weird. In twenty years when you look like my dad it'll be creepy. When
you're watching kids play sports or running to their dads with a bleeding knee,
I won’t be enough. Trust me. I saw it the other way."

Shane shook his head and walked out of the hospital room.
She felt nothing. Her regrets and priorities had already been put in order when
Aleks died. She had clung to Shane in an attempt to be the girl she was. She
never factored in the girl she had become. Shane could never share the ways in
which she had changed. He could never understand the one thing she lived for,
the kill.

She looked at Giselle and smiled. She needed Marcus to fix
her. She flashed to the Nærøyfjord. The dark night was stunning. The hillside
was the same. She turned to the graves on the hill and felt the emotions
catching up with her.

She walked across the huge rocks to the spot where they
had dug the hole.

She dropped to her knees.

She felt the warm wind behind her.

She smiled.

She didn’t turn around. She didn’t need to.

"I love you Aleks. I always did. I just never knew
how much."

His arms were around her and the smell filled the air
around her. The smell that had become home.

"How do you know about this place?"

She pointed, "We dug the hole there." She
heaved.

His grip tightened, "I died. How?"

"Marcus."

He laughed, "Well can't say I never earned that. Did
I return the heart to Henry at least?"

She nodded.

He sighed, "Good."

She turned, "But the world is different now. Henry is
a prisoner again."

Aleks smiled, "But it means I know how to free
him."

She felt his warm breath on her face. She closed her eyes,
"I prayed for this moment. I prayed you would come back to me."

"I prayed you would finally see me Aimee. From the
minute I saw you sitting on the side of the road crying, I prayed you would see
me."

He hugged her tightly and flashed them to a dark room.

He lit a candle beside the bed.

She looked around, "Where are we?"

His piercing light blue eyes and crooked smile made her
heart soar, "My place."

She grinned at him, "You have a place?"

He nodded, "I have had it for years. Marcus and
Dorian and I used to stay here. It was like the bachelor pad."

She looked back at the bed, "So you had some fun
here?"

He laughed and shook his head, "Uh no. No you know me
better than that. Dorian on the other hand, and Marcus. Wow."

She laughed and backed away from him, "So they used
this bed for a few hundred years?"

"Yes Aimee we had amazing mattress manufacturers
three hundred years ago. They worked wonders. And had a company called Sealy, I
believe you know of them."

She giggled nervously, "You're a dick."

"Stupid questions Aimee. I bought a new mattress this
year." He took a step toward her.

She grinned and took a step back, "Where are
we?"

He sighed impatiently, "I told you my place."

"Country?"

"Italy."

"No shit?"

"None."

She pointed to the painting she could see over the
fireplace where the candle was lit on the bedside table next to it, "You
paint that?"

He laughed, "No uhm a very kind man named J.M.W.
Turner did. I usually called him Joe."

The butterflies in her stomach took a break as she turned
away from him and picked up the candle. The painting was beautiful. It was a country
estate painted in the dark with the light of the moon and stars shining down on
it and a field behind it.

"He was known as the Painter of Light." She
whispered the thing she remembered the most. She'd seen another of his
paintings the Slave Ship, in print of course. It was tragic and beautiful.

"It was Marcus's home outside Colchester. Joe stayed
with him for a while. He was painter in residence. We each got a painting that
year."

"You keep it here? It must be worth millions."

He laughed and took the candle from her hand, "It is,
so, maybe don’t light it on fire. It's obviously irreplaceable."

She turned to him, "You said you didn’t have houses
all over Europe and money and blah blah blah when we met."

He laughed, "I don’t. I have this apartment and a
small farm."

She raised an eyebrow, "How small."

He pointed to the estate house in the picture.

She put her hands on her hips, "You have an English
country estate? You said it was Marcus's"

"Aimee I really don’t want to talk about farms and
paintings and bank accounts. Marcus paid me with the house once." His
bright blue eyes were smoldering in the dim firelight.

He placed the candle on the bedside table again.

Her stomach dropped. She could feel everything quicken.

His hand took hers and tugged gently. She stumbled
forward. He smirked.

She frowned at his grin, "What?"

He laughed, "We haven’t been together like this since
you were sick."

She nodded, "So."

"I had to be gentle with you then." His voice
was full of mischief.

He pulled her hard into his arms. His mouth crushed her
lips against her teeth.

His hands ripped the shirt from her body.

She started to laugh nervously. He stepped back and pulled
his own shirt off. She stopped laughing. His body was amazing. He towered over
her. He pushed her onto the bed.

He knelt in front of her and pulled her boots off,
"Why do you wear these in the summer? It's hot as sin."

She leaned on her elbows and smirked at him, "They're
my ass-kicking boots Aleks. I need em."

He dropped the boot on the floor. She winced watching them
be treated so badly. She had a special closet for them at home.

He leaned over and pulled at the waist of her pants and
slid the jeans off her body.

His eyes sparkled in the light.

She gasped, feeling the muggy air against her bare thighs.
She hadn't noticed how warm it was.

He leaned down and kissed her bare belly. His warm lips
made her skin light on fire. The electricity of their touch hadn’t faded
through his death and rebirth. She felt the energy in the air around them.

His hands roamed her torso, caressing her softy and
working up to a knead. She dragged a hand through his hair. He moaned into her
stomach, "I need you Aimee."

He kissed his way to her lips. She met his fiery kiss with
passion and desire. His hands worked their way into her underwear. She felt
nerves dancing inside of her, as he dragged her underwear down her thighs.

Her brain threatened reflection but she shut it down.

His kisses were enough. She felt her hands trying
desperately to suck from him. She didn’t have to guard them. They pulled
passion from him and filled her up but no life force was taken. She could feel
his thoughts and desires, not like she knew them but felt them. The urgency of
his hands was explained in the feeling she stole from him. He was terrified the
moment would end. He wanted to savor as much as he could.

She gripped his face, "This is it. You and me
forever."

He kissed her lips softly, "It won’t ever be enough
Aimee."

He lay on his side. She grabbed the waist of his jeans.
She could feel the bulge under them, it was about to burst the jeans open.

She smiled and undid them, releasing him. He was
magnificent. A true Viking in every form. She gasped seeing him. She pulled the
jeans off and smirked, "Commando?"

He shrugged, "I had a busy morning and it's
summer."

She kissed his stomach just below his belly button. He
moaned as her fingers traced along his skin. The heat radiating from him was
making the already heavy air unbearable. He grabbed her arms and threw her on
her back, "Maybe another time. I need you, now."

He kicked his pants off and crawled on top of her. She
could feel her own readiness as he slid inside of her gently at first. Her body
expanded for his slow entry. She inhaled sharply.

He looked at her, "I love you."

He bent and kissed her mouth, sucking her lip as his body
rocked back and forth against her. Her skin tingled, coming alive. Searing heat
shot from her hands. He moaned when she touched him as her power shot into him
and sucked from him.

"Aimee stop."

She couldn’t. He was thrusting in and out of her rapidly
and the heat between them combined with the sucking her hands were doing was
driving her wild. Her body burst in a bloom of sweat as she rocked her pelvis
with his. Her stomach heated up and the fire crept low into her abdomen.
Suddenly she clenched against him as pleasure shot through her. Her hands
pulled and he screamed. She wasn’t sure if it was pleasure or plain. She didn’t
care. She rode her orgasm until her body twitched. She felt full. She felt him
collapse on her. He lifted his head, "What the hell was that?"

She started to laugh in between gasping for air, "I
don’t know."

"It felt like you were sucking my entire body."

"Did it hurt?"

He cocked a crooked grin, "That would be a no. I'm a
better lover than this. I don’t have stamina issues Aimee."

She started to laugh, "Well I'm not as easy to please
as this."

He kissed her cheek, "We have time to practice. Maybe
save the sucking hand thingy for the end."

She laughed, "We'll see."

She felt relief in a way she had never felt before. He
could keep her hunger at bay.

She pulled back and looked into his exhausted blue eyes,
"You were made for me. You're strong enough to live through what I
am."

He kissed her cheek, "I did try telling you."

She curled into him and let the heavy air soak her in
sweat. Nothing mattered, her heart and soul were filled with love. It was a new
feeling for her.

Ophelia

She paced in the yard. She heard a stick break and glanced
over expecting Ben but Oliver leaned against a tree. He nearly killed her with
his sexiness. She sighed, "Not right now."

He looked up at the house she stood behind, "You
planning on threatening him?"

She looked at the mansion, "This is where we met last
time. I was hoping you would come to me here."

He beamed, "My heart swells."

She rolled her eyes, "I need your help. That girl
Giselle. I need her to be saved. She's dying because of me. My dad did all of
this."

He crossed his arms, "Why do I care?"

"Because I care." She fluttered her eyelashes.

He laughed, "Oh you want me to swoon under the spell
of your womanly wiles and save her because it matters to you?"

She nodded and bit her lip.

"What do I get out of it?"

She gulped, "My gratitude."

"I want undying love and physical appreciation."

She laughed nervously, "I want world peace."

He shrugged, "What do I care about the world."

"It was an expression. It means we can't always get
what we want."

He pushed off of the tree and walked across the rocks and
dirt slowly, "I get what I want. And if you want world peace so badly all
you have to do is wish for it. Witches wishes and such."

He stopped walking directly in front of her. She looked up
at him, "Will you do it?"

He looked in her eyes, "I want one thing."

Her eyes narrowed, "I'm not the kind of girl you
think I am."

He bent and brushed his lips against her cheek. His warm
breath whispered into her ear, "I know what kind of girl you are."

He was gone.

She looked around, "Oliver you never said what you
want."
 
Nothing moved. The
garden was silent.

"Oliver?"

She put her hands over her eyes and muttered,
"Shit." She pulled the cell phone Lorri gave her, from her pocket.

In an instant Aimee stood across the grass from her. She
looked different. Relaxed.

She beamed, "Hey. You rang?"

Ophelia smiled, "Oh my god is Giselle better?"

Aimee shook her head, "I don’t think so. Blake never
sent me a message about her changing. He's there with Alise. I'm heading there
now."

"You look weird and you got here fast and you're
cheerful."

Aimee blushed, "Oh uhm it was, well, I had a good
night."

Ophelia laughed, "Oh gross sorry. I didn’t mean to
like, pry."

Aimee shook her head, "No it was fabulous." Her
grey eyes sparkled with life. "I never knew what happened when
supernatural people, uhm, did it."

Ophelia felt her face getting red, "Oh. Cool."

Aimee put her fingers to her face and smiled. She was
remembering the night before. Ophelia felt awkward.

"I asked Oliver to save Giselle."

Aimee's face dropped, "What?"

Ophelia nodded, "Yeah. I did. I think he might."

Aimee frowned, "What did Jonathan say he made
again?"

"Succubus."

"What is that?"

Ophelia tried to remember, "I saw it on Charmed I
think they suck your life force and you die. Like a vampire."

Aimee nodded, "Oh okay then we should be fine. As
long as Giselle gets to suck something she should be fine. Wait die? Can she
suck only a little at a time?"

Ophelia shook her head, "I don’t know. On Charmed
they sucked you dry."

"Sweet fuck. Lets hurry."

She grabbed Ophelia's hand and flashed them into the room.
Oliver was bent over in an embrace with Giselle. His hands slid up into her
dark hair. Her hands rubbed the back of him.

Ophelia stopped herself from leaping forward and ripping
them apart. Watching them make out was killing her slowly.

Her heartbeat quickened. She looked down at the floor. She
turned away from the scene.

Aimee cleared her throat.

Ophelia walked out quickly. She ran down the hall.

"Ophelia wait."

She pushed her legs hard when she heard his name. She shot
the glass in front of her with a fireball. She dove out the window.

The air rushed across her. She screamed seeing the ground
flying at her but she knew. Her instincts felt it. She blew hard at the ground and
slowed her decent. She floated to the ground. Her legs hit the pavement
running.

"O."

She looked up to see him standing on the sidewalk in front
of her. She stopped.

"Running from someone like me is a bit
pointless."

She screamed. A fireball ripped from her fingers. He
flashed and it hit a black SUV, exploding it on contact. She watched the
vehicle burn.

"That’s how we change them…"

Her eyes shot behind her where he stood. A fireball was
soaring at him before he could finish his sentence. It hit a corner of a small
building and exploded it into shards of wood and glass.

"O. The humans. Stop."

She swung both her arms at once and fireballs shot from
both hands going in a circle as she spun. She fired like a Tommy gun.
 

She looked around her to see a wall of fire around her.
She saw a figure on the other side of the flames. She walked through. She knew
it wouldn’t burn her. Oliver stood on the lawn of the hospital with his arms
crossed. His arm muscles bulged in his rolled up white dress shirt. She tried not
to notice. She felt the fire rising inside of her. She felt something bite into
her arms and suddenly she was standing in the garden at Marcus's. She turned to
see Aleks. He held her out to assess the damage, "You okay?"

She shook her head, "He, was, he, her." Her face
fell into her hands.

He pulled her in, "You can’t light a whole
neighborhood on fire honey."

She smelled him and memories flooded in. He sat in her
window. Memories of him and Sam melded. She knew him. She knew him well. She
hated that she was attracted to him.

His huge arms wrapped around her.

"Tell me what happened."

She sniffed, "I asked Oliver to save Giselle. I
caught them making out in the hospital room."

He hugged her tighter, "O that's how we make a
demon."

She looked up into his blue eyes, "What?"

He nodded, "You ever hear of the kiss of death?"

She nodded.

"That’s where that came from. Angels give humans the
kiss of death. Mix their blood with human blood and swallow."

She wiped her face, "Well that’s gross. You guys are
disgusting."

He laughed.

She understood how Aimee loved him so much. He was the
sweetest guy in the world. Not like Oliver. She didn’t care how it was done. He
had said he loved her. Her skin crawled seeing it play over in her mind.

"We need to get you back." She nodded. He
flashed her. The air filled with warm wind and suddenly she was back at Lydia's
and he was gone.

She looked up to see Ari going over an old book on the
table. She looked up and smiled, "Hey. You okay?"

Ophelia shook her head, "No. I think I just destroyed
a parking lot."

Ari laughed, "Oh well at least it wasn’t everyone's
lives."

Ophelia sat beside her, "You know it wasn’t your
fault. Aimee was dying. I would have done the same thing."

Ari looked at her and smiled, "Thank you."

"Hanna told me that this has happened to you lots,
the change thing."

Ari sighed, "Yeah."

"How did you deal with the old memories and
feelings?"

Ari shrugged and drank from the mug in front of her,
"Still haven’t."

 
Her dark eyes
filled with sadness, "I killed every one of those little kids. Sarah,
Dawn, Danny. Their faces float in my mind. Sam was like a brother to me. He and
Lucas were brothers. Lucas cries every day. He can't even be grateful that his
real brother is alive because his heart is broken."

Ophelia felt like her heart was on fire. She wrapped her
arms around herself, "I'm sorry Ari. I'm sorry for it all. My family is
the cause of it all."

Ari shook her head, "Ophelia my dad is nightmare.
He's my nightmare but somehow he has a way of screwing with everyone's lives.
It's insane. Lorri is no treat. I've known her now for a while, just found out
she likes chicks. Totally thought she was straight. She doesn’t let any of us
in. She's all about the plan you know? Lydia is so busy worrying about everything
that she misses a lot of things." She puts her arms out, "One day
this will be ours to run and you know what, we'll be no different from them.
We'll think it's for the greater good or see the bigger picture and forget
about the small details. They have too much at stake."

Ophelia sighed, "We need the next Nephilim to be able
to freeze time so we can take a year and live in Barbados."

Ari pointed at her, "Now that’s the spirit. Make it a
witch wish and make it happen."

Ophelia laughed.

Lydia walked into the kitchen and smiled, "Good to
see you girls coming around."

Ari shook her head, "It just gets easier to live in
constant disappointment."

Lydia sat down at the table with a coconut cream pie and
three spoons. She passed them out, "Yes I suppose. I think also that Sam
would have wanted us to be happy. He would want us to make sure Hanna finds
happiness."

Ophelia scooped a massive spoonful of pie, "He would
want us to kill my father and Daniel." She shoved the sweet pie in her
mouth and moaned.

Ari nodded, "Cheers to that." She clinked her
spoon against Lydia's and Ophelia's and shoved it in the pie. She put a massive
bite in her mouth. Her eyes softened, "Oh my god." She spoke with a
full mouth.

Lydia laughed, "It is an old family recipe of
Annabelle's mom."

Ophelia looked at Lydia and wondered if she was full of
regrets. She married a regular man, she tried to have a baby, and she tried to
seek out a normal life. It all ended when her best friend sacrificed her life
for her and made the guards. Her baby died because of the darkness that was in
her from trying casting dark magic. She shoved her spoon in the pie and took a
bite.

"Look at you greedy women eating that pie I made for
everyone. Shame on you all." Annabelle laughed floating in the kitchen.
She looked at Ophelia with her creepy ghost eyes, "Now that Mr. Oliver be
in the street calling for you. He been there about an hour and he be getting on
my last nerve."

Ophelia glanced at Ari who smirked, "Yikes. That’s a
bad situation."

Lydia shook her head, "No you stay in the house. He's
trouble. I think we all learned that the hard way."

She took a bite of pie and looked at Annabelle who crossed
her arms, "You all can't hear him but I can. Now somebody best be getting
rid of him."

Ophelia stood licking her spoon, "Don’t eat it all.
I'll be back in a minute."

Lydia smiled, "Fine but you hurry. We need to talk
about a certain ring of fire in the hospital parking lot when you get
back."

She grimaced and turned and walked out of the kitchen that
suddenly seemed cozy again. With so few people it felt half its size.

She walked through the front door and the porch door,
trying to control the anger that was building.

He was over where the vampire war had been, back when the
world made sense.

"I need to talk to you."

She watched his face. He seemed genuinely upset.

"Why?"

"Because I want to explain."

She shook her head and walked down on the steps, "Why
did you do it?"

He threw his hands up in the air, "You asked me to,
you insufferable girl."

She cocked her head, "I never asked you to do it
quite so, vigorously."

He laughed, "Jesus save me. Look Ophelia that’s how
it's done."

She snapped, "I'M PRETTY SURE YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO
COMPLETELY CHEW ON HER FACE!"
        

He crossed his arms and paced in front of the guard,
"Don't make me come in there. Please."

She could see the dark shadows swirling around the ground
outside of the guards.

"Is that your darkness?" She pointed.

He looked around, "What? Where?"

"There. The swirling shadows. You're evil and you
bring darkness with you."

He looked around, he never looked on the ground.

"I don't see it. Is it behind me?"

She raised an eyebrow, why couldn’t he see it?

"O I don’t give a shit about the swirls of evil. I
need you to hear me. I never would have done it if you hadn't asked me to.
Please listen to me."

She walked across the yard, "You are honestly going
to tell me I asked you to fucking make out with her like it was an Olympic
sport?"

"Yes. No. Wait? What?"

She nodded, "I watched you. I saw you. Your hands
were in her hair and her hands were all over your back."

He pointed at the old house and spit his words in fury,
"You're dating that fucking dog. Behind my back, you're dating him. I've
said nothing because I know it's part of the other world. But you could have
broken it off by now."

"That is besides the point. Wait you're spying on me
and making out with her. Oh my god."

He raked his hands through his hair, "You're going to
kill me. I'm going to actually have a heart attack."

She crossed her arms, "You have to have a
heart."

He looked up at the tops of the trees and screamed.

She watched his bright red face ripple. He stepped across
the boundary. He screamed in pain and dragged her across it. She looked at the
shadows on the ground around her.

He flashed them, as they crossed the guards fully.

She pushed him away when her feet touched the dirt.

She was horrified, "You crossed the guard?"

He looked psychotic as he leaned into her, "I love
you. I told you I love you." His breathing was labored.

"You crossed the guards."