by Tara Brown
Sam shook his head, "Not now, Annabelle."
She looked him in the eyes, which was creepy considering her eyes were a ghostly grey. "Now is the only time I gots. You all gots to go tonight. I needs you to go back to the mansion and tell thems that Jonathan is going to try to kill Lillith. Them blue ghost girls ain’t been here in a week. They been stuck over there. He gots them all drained. Ophelia don’t know it but her brother gots their magic. She done lost the fight."
He couldn’t care about the news. He couldn’t force himself.
He looked at her and nodded, "I'll go tell them."
Annabelle smiled, "You gotta save your momma, Sam. She will die in there, if you don’ts free her."
He nodded again and flashed into the living room at Giselle's. He felt naked when he saw Ophelia. She was changed and her dark hair was wet. She looked pretty, but to his heart, she was stunning. He couldn't fight his feelings for her.
She flinched when she saw him. His heart broke.
"Your brother has the magic of the other six. Your dad made him take it today. They'll try to kill Lillith tonight, apparently."
Ophelia frowned, "But Lydia said it would be my birthday."
Sam shrugged, "Guess something is up. We have to go today."
Aimee walked into the massive room, "You're back. What's going on, Sam?"
He flinched. She didn’t trust him alone with Ophelia. He didn’t trust himself.
"We need to move tonight. They'll kill Lillith tonight."
Aimee pursed her lips in thought. She pulled her phone and sent texts.
Sam glanced at Ophelia watching him nonstop. He felt sick seeing her face.
"I'm sorry." he spoke low.
She nodded, "Not as sorry as I am." Her face flushed as a tear slipped down her cheek.
Her face was covered in guilt. He didn’t even know how to respond. How could she feel guilty over his attacking her?
Oliver walked in and stopped.
Sam felt his gaze upon him, "Jonathan will kill Lillith tonight."
Oliver's eyes widened. He thought for a moment and then looked like he'd been hit with a dose of obvious, "Oh shit. The sisters."
Sam didn’t follow along. Dorian appeared out of nowhere just ahead of Lorri.
Sam had thought that Ari had planned on the mission not involving Dorian or Lorri.
Lorri looked at Oliver, "What's he doing wandering about?"
Oliver laughed, "Let’s focus, Lucifer; Jonathan will kill Lillith tonight. He can use the sisters’ magic if Tristan can hold it."
She frowned, "He can't hold it until they turn eighteen."
Oliver shook his head, "No. They can wield it any time. The other sisters are eighteen. Once they take their power, it pushes their age. They could have taken the power at birth, if they could have cleansed the sisters’ spirits."
Lorri turned to Ophelia, "Holy shit. Have they been around to see you?"
Ophelia turned her head, "No. They haven’t. I haven’t seen them in days."
Lorri grimaced, "Fuck. Okay. We need to go now." She turned to Dorian, "Get Ari and Luke. I'll get Brandon and Giselle. Aimee, we need Lydia and Hanna."
They were gone, leaving Oliver and Sam standing facing each other with Ophelia in the middle.
She flushed and looked at Sam. He went to open his mouth but she put a hand up, "I know. If I could take it all back Sam, I would. I would rather die than hurt you."
He shook his head, "Then you understand how I feel."
She swallowed hard, "I do."
She looked at Oliver and then him again.
Sam knew he had lost her. No matter what he did, he couldn’t compete with what she felt for Oliver.
Aimee appeared with Hanna and Lydia in tow. Lydia ran to Sam and hugged him into her, "My boy."
He wanted to cry again but fought the urge. Hanna stayed back, watching him.
He could feel her feelings for him. He wished he could feel what she felt. He wished things would be normal again.
He looked at Lydia and whispered, "Is it possible to take the feelings Hanna has and mirror them, so I feel what she feels, instead of what I feel?"
Lydia brightened up, "I believe there is." Her face sunk again, "But then you'd lose your emotions again."
He shook his head, "I want things to be normal again."
Lydia squeezed his fingers, "I think we can make it work. I can't believe I never thought about that. When we get back, okay?"
He nodded, "Okay."
He let go of the older woman and walked to Hanna. He looked down at her fingers and slid his hand around them. He felt her shiver.
Hanna smiled at him as a blush crossed her ruddy cheeks.
He smiled back. He forced his eyes to remain focused, instead of wander and look at Ophelia. He made himself see Hanna. It hurt.
He realized how hard it would have been for her mother to force the love, and why she would have been so broken from it. He promised himself he would love Hanna more than anything again, soon.
Lorri flashed in with Giselle and Brandon. Sam smiled at him.
He raised an eyebrow at Sam, "You okay?"
Sam laughed.
Dorian appeared with Ari and Luke.
Luke looked at Hanna and Sam and raised an eyebrow. Sam shrugged.
"Giselle, you need to compel everyone so that if Ari accidentally pushes a human, you still remember everything the way it is now."
Giselle gave Lorri a dirty look, "You just barged in on me and my fang bang and now you are going to boss me around?"
Lorri growled at her.
"Fine whatevs. God. Take a chill pill." She walked up to Sam first and winked, "I want you to remember this in case Ari pushes a human. Ari's magic doesn’t work on your brain. Remember everything up to the point Ari pushes. Also, I want you to unbutton your shirt and..."
"Giselle."
Sam felt his fingers slip up to the buttons on his shirt.
"Sam, stop it."
He heard it but he couldn’t stop his fingers. They unbuttoned the first one.
"Stop dicking around, Giselle."
"Sam stop trying to take your clothes off."
He nodded, "Okay." He felt foggy for a moment.
Giselle went around to each person and said the same thing.
Lorri looked around and finally settled her eyes on Oliver.
"We have no choice but to place our fates with you."
He bowed slightly, "I am here to help." His eyes darted to Ophelia. Sam felt jealousy raging through him, as the fog in his brain lifted.
"Oliver pulled his cell phone out and showed a picture to them all. It was a small garden with roses and lilies.
"Flash here. It's the weak point. Follow me through and we'll split up." He took Ophelia's hand in his and was gone instantly. Sam flashed, pulling him and Hanna through fast. His feet were in soft earth in a warm garden. The smell of flowers filled the air.
Hanna gripped his hand before he could take another step. She pulled him into her. Her lips met his with force. She kissed him desperately. He let go of her hand and pulled her up into him.
"I missed you, Sam." she whispered into his face as she pulled back.
He hugged her tightly and smelled the scent of the strawberry shampoo in her hair. He closed his eyes and let it be enough.
"I love you, Hanna."
She rested her head on his chest.
"Sam." He looked up to see Lorri giving him the evil eye from across the bushes and flowers.
Lorri pointed to the right, "Oliver says your mom is to the right. She stays in a room that’s guarded." Her eyes flashed to Hanna, "Nothing hurts you. You can get through."
Hanna nodded and squeezed his hand, "Okay."
He felt a twinge in his stomach as he started toward the huge, white metal door at the end of the room. He hadn’t seen her in years. Would she remember him?
Aimee grabbed his arm, "Flash if you get into trouble."
He winked, "You too."
She squeezed his arm. He pulled Hanna to the door and looked at her. She nodded and they slipped out into the hallway. It was freezing when they got out into the hall. The door sealed like a freezer door would. It wasn’t that the hall was cold, but that the garden was sweltering.
Sam pulled her along. She was watching their backs. No one came. No cameras filled the halls. He was a ball of nerves. The huge, white hallway was silent.
"This is creepy." Hanna whispered.
"Yup. It feels like a trap." He followed the hall and turned right at the end of it. The hall opened into huge great room with a fireplace and couches. No one milled about in the beautiful room. It reminded him of a hunting lodge or Luke's family's home.
He stopped and waited and when nothing moved, he flashed them across the room to the hallway. It looked more like a house on that side. The hallway seemed like a hallway in a house, not a fortress.
He cracked every door on the right and peeked inside. Hanna peeked in the rooms on the left. Behind every closed door, there was a small bedroom or office. No one was in any of them.
"This is a trap, Sam. We need to get the others." He felt her skin ripple.
Sam stopped when he smelled something familiar he'd smelled before. He grabbed her hand and waited as a man rounded the corner. He was a weretiger. Sam had met a few before.
The weretiger sniffed the air and then looked to where they stood. A smirk crossed his lips, "Look at what I found. Both sirens?"
Sam glanced at Hanna. She smiled as the shiver took over. She stepped forward and sauntered to him.
The were looked around, "Did I win the lottery? Are you real?"
She grinned, "Touch me and find out?"
He reached with his fingers but she had ripped them off before it registered. No one expected sirens to be able to defend themselves.
Sam flashed to him and had him out of the hallway and in Libya in the middle of the desert, before the first scream ripped through his throat. Sam flashed back to the hallway.
Hanna was still holding his fingers.
Sam looked at them, "Put them in that plant."
She smiled and walked to the huge planter. She pulled at the fake dirt and shoved the fingers into it.
She wiped the blood on her pants and they continued down the hallway.
"It feels less like a trap now."
Sam smiled at her, "That was disgusting."
She shrugged, "Luke likes it when I do that."
"He is also disgusting." He spoke while still looking in rooms and moving forward. He came to a room with the black obsidian door, "Devil's rock."
Hanna looked at it and held a hand up, "It stings."
"This is it."
Sam nodded, "I've seen a door like this before. Can't flash in there."
Hanna turned the handle, crushing it in her hand. She pushed on the door hard, ripping it off the hinges on one side. She kicked it once, making a huge bang. Sam put a hand on her shoulder, "Shhhh."
She glanced back and snarled at him. Her eyes looked wild. The beast was fully there. She had let it take over. He hoped she was still driving the bus though.
He looked around the hallway as Hanna demolished the stone door. Her knuckles bled but she didn't stop. She made a throaty scream as she passed through the entry into the room. Sam looked in at a large sitting room with couches and flowers. It looked like a regular house but there were no windows. A small kitchen sat at the back of the room.
He could smell the burning of Hanna's skin from passing through the door.
"Jon?"
His mother came around the corner. She hadn’t aged at all. She looked at Hanna and dropped vampire fangs instantly. She hissed at Hanna, who grabbed her by the throat and held her in the air.
"Mom?" Sam's voice cracked.
Her panicked, dark eyes met his over Hanna's red head.
"Sam?" she spoke perfectly with the teeth, not like Giselle who still sounded like a four-year old.
"Hanna, drop her. Hanna, that’s my mom."
Hanna looked back at him and growled. She dragged his mother through the black doorway. She screamed the entire way, fighting to get away from Hanna's savagery.
His mom's skin lit on fire as she passed through the doorway. She screamed in pain. Hanna covered his mom's mouth with her hand.
In the hallway, the beast lessened and Hanna struggled with the pain.
Sam grabbed his mom from her and held the weeping vampire. She gripped her son, "I knew you'd come."
She looked exactly the same. Her dark hair was long and shiny with subtle curls. Her skin glowed, except where it was blackened from the magic. Her eyes sparkled but he could tell when he touched her, she was a vampire. She didn’t have the same life she used to, the life and magic of the siren.
"Why?" Sam asked, staring at her teeth.
She shook her head, "He was afraid I would start aging. He did it a couple years ago. His last siren aged badly."
She looked at Hanna, "What are you?"
Hanna laughed, "A little of this and a little of that."
"You're a siren?"
Hanna nodded, "Part."
Her mouth trembled, "You're Hanna." She brought her fingers up to her face, "You look just like him." She grabbed her and hugged her tightly against her chest.
Hanna hugged back, confused. She remembered nothing. Sam hated that she didn’t have the memories he did.
"How is he?"
Hanna's eyes dropped, "He's in a better place."
His mother's lower lip trembled, "I'm sorry, my love. I loved your mother and father dearly. I see you never managed to escape the family curses then?"
Hanna shook her head.
His mom looked at him and smiled again, "I'm so sorry I left you, Sam."
He shook his head, "We have to go."
His mother froze, "He will kill you both. Sam you have to flash out of here."
He shook his head, "You have to come."
She shook her head, "I can't leave."
Sam frowned, "Why?"
She looked at him flatly, "I love him, Sam."
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ophelia
She walked behind Oliver, who wouldn’t let go of her hand. She had to scratch with her left hand.
They all followed him. She had a horrid feeling that he had led them into a trap. They never saw anyone else.
Oliver snuck to a back door and pointed, "Half of us need to go this way. Ophelia and I will go to with Lorri, Dorian, and Aimee. Lucas, Ari, Giselle, Lydia, and Brandon—you go that way. It's where Ophelia and Aimee's sisters are."
Ari shook her head, "We need someone who can flash us out."
He looked at them and nodded, "Right. Uhm Aimee, you'll have to go with them and text Sam to head that way too. He should have his mom by now."
Lorri looked at Aimee, "Don't let any old feelings cloud your judgments."
She nodded and walked away.
Oliver pulled Ophelia out the door. The cold blast was intense. She started to shiver immediately.
Oliver looked back at her, "Warm yourself."
She frowned, "How?"
He glanced at Lorri, "So she knows nothing?"
Lorri growled, "We found her two weeks ago. You've had a lifetime with Trist."
He muttered under his breath, "Fuck."
Ophelia felt his disappointment. She pulled her hand from his with a jerk. He looked back at her. She crossed her arms.
Dorian chuckled, "Alright kids, let's focus before Jonathan sends us to Hell."
Lorri snickered. Ophelia felt like she was missing the joke.
The cold, snowy courtyard was long and surrounded by a stone wall. At the end of it, sat the tower. She recognized it all immediately.
She looked up to the second window to the top and pointed, "That’s hers."
They ran across the courtyard and Oliver kicked open the door. Ophelia ran up the stairs behind him. She felt Lorri at her heels. She was wheezing by the second flight. Oliver laug
hed and grabbed her hand again and flashed them to the top. Dorian and Lorri flashed behind them.
She reached out and touched the door. It sparked against her fingers but she ignored the pain. She would finally meet her real mother.
It felt surreal, regardless of the fact she was standing in a stone tower with angels and demons. It was easier to believe in them, than the existence of a mother she never knew about. Memories flooded her of her mother back home. She couldn’t imagine the pain they were in.
She looked at Dorian. His eyes were set on the door.
Oliver tugged at her hand, "You have to open it, love."
She frowned, "How?"
"Use your magic and open the door."
She pointed a finger and spoke slowly, "Open sesame."
Lorri sighed, "Stop fucking around and tell the door to open."
Her face flushed, "Open."
The door didn’t even creak in a slight effort to open. She looked back at Lorri who was pinching the bridge of her nose.
"What do I do?"
"Magic is imagery—want and need the door to open. Like when you were mad and the magic filled you. Think about the fact he's murdered all the others. Think about the fact she's spent a lifetime alone. Want it."
Ophelia looked back at the door and thought about the fact her mother had been alone. She imagined the cruelty of him forcing himself upon her. She remembered the helpless feeling of Sam pressed against her. Her back in the damp moss as he held her down and screamed at her. She looked at the door and pushed on it. A loud burst shot through the silence as the door blew apart. Tiny shards of wood and slivers filled the air. She blew hard making them fly away from her. She looked into the cell to see the woman from the snow globe, but she wasn’t there. The cell was empty. She turned back to speak but something hit her hard in the head.
xxxx
She woke to a chuckle. She looked up to see her brother standing over her.
"You cannot be my sister. My sister would have known better than to trust a stranger."
