Dark Roses: Eight Paranormal Romance Novels

by P. T. Michelle

  This is serious, Iris. There are too many coincidences to be overlooked. The Fragonard painting shows a beast underneath. Zoe was hallucinating that she saw Colton as a Beast, and now you found yourself thinking about Pentimento. What if what he’s going to show you now is his secret? Will you still love him?

  Iris heard Colton hit a button, then the room vibrated. They were in an elevator.

  She touched the scarf on her eyes, pretending she was adjusting it. In truth, she couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted to take it off. Damn those thoughts in her head.

  “No cheating,” Colton said in a playful voice.

  But why didn’t she feel it was playful like before? All that she’d been thinking about seeing without seeing changed all of a sudden, all because of a trivial thought that hit her brain like a virus. How could her perception change so suddenly? The mind and perception, were horrible things. A simple thought could change the looks and feel of someone you had known for some time.

  You don’t know him. It’s only been two weeks or so. Iris began breathing faster.

  “Are you afraid of heights?” Colton asked. He sounded worried.

  What is wrong with you, Iris? This isn’t the sound of a Beast. But then she didn’t know how a Beast really sounded. She suddenly realized the Beasts’ biggest tricks, the thing that made them the most feared: no one knew anything about them; who they were, or what they looked like. That’s why their first commandment was, “Thou shall not question the beast.”

  “I’m okay,” Iris said, dazed and confused. “Are we there yet?”

  “We are,” Colton said, as she heard the elevator doors open.

  Colton helped her out of the elevator and she felt a cold breeze of air circle around her, before almost freezing her fingertips.

  “Don’t worry about the cold,” Colton said. “I will keep you warm.”

  She let out a courtesy laugh. She trusted him with all her heart, but her mind wasn’t on the same page at the moment. And it made her feel like she had a split-personality.

  Colton stopped her and rubbed her shoulder. “Once you see it, you will forget about the cold,” he said. “Are you ready?”

  Pentimento. This was it. The moment when everything is revealed. When the truth comes out. When all our fears and assumptions prove right or wrong.

  “I am ready.” She nodded. I’m Iris. My father gave me this name because he expected me to see through the veils of deception, and now I am about to see.

  Slowly, Colton pulled the scarf away. Iris began seeing through the blurring veil covering her eyes. The world still seemed dark. It was nighttime. But the first things that shone through the dark-veiled night were tiny spots in front of her. They were sparkling, like diamonds. They were very close.

  They were Stars. Millions of stars. They were so close, she thought she could grab a handful.

  She let out a small shriek, staring at her feet. She was worried she was floating in space or something. But there was concrete under her feet. Silver and metallic steel binding it.

  She raised her head again, a bit below the stars’ level this time. Now she could see it all. She was atop a very high building, overlooking the metallic world they lived in. She was staring at The Second from a point so high, it felt like it was the Beasts’ eye.

  30

  “It’s the highest building in the world,” Colton said, embracing her from behind. “We’re not allowed to be here.”

  “It’s the Council’s headquarters?” Iris asked.

  Colton nodded, rubbing his chin against her shoulder. “Yes. They call it the Sinai building, the place they rule us from. I stole the magnetic key from my father. I discovered he has three, so he’d probably not figure it out soon enough.”

  Iris had seen the building many times before, but she wasn’t fond of craning her head up high while walking down the streets in The Second. It was so high, it disappeared into the clouds sometimes. “Cody once heard a rumor that the top of the Sinai building was the place where the Council made contact with the Beasts too.” Iris said.

  “Really?” Colton looked up at the stars. “So they’re somewhere beyond the stars then? Are they watching us?” he mocked and waved at them. “I told you they must be watching us.”

  “Stop it,” Iris said, snickering. “It’s a ridiculous idea. I just thought I’d tell you what Cody told me.”

  “It’s not ridiculous actually,” Colton turned her to face him. He did it, oh, so smoothly, as if they were dancing. “If they are watching us from up there, then they should see why I brought you up here.” Colton had that sweet look in his eyes again.

  Iris could feel the intensity of the staring in his eyes again. It reminded her of the first time he’d seen her on top of the principal’s office. He was staring at her as if she was some kind of wonder. A precious surprise. An everlasting song he couldn’t stop listening to. She really wished no other girl in the world had been stared up at this way. Yes, it felt so special, and Iris didn’t mind being selfish when it came to Colton’s eyes.

  “Why did you bring me up here?” Iris said, her voice splintered like glass in the windy snow.

  “Remember when I told you the next time I kiss you I wanted it to be my move?” Colton said, as his head was already invading her space. A beautiful invasion.

  Iris closed her eyes and waited for the warmth of his lips to save her from the cold. There was no point in talking anymore. Talking sucked sometimes. The arrival of his lips felt like forever, although it had been only a fraction of a second. And with it, an eternal shiver dwelled in her body. It was like a signature, the kind of slight shiver that was never going to leave her body after the kiss, reminding her of this moment when she was so high, she could almost reach the stars.

  Colton locked his lips onto hers longer than she’d expected. It was as if his life had depended on it this time, and she was losing hers already. Funny how a kiss was the only moment when she didn’t mind dying from being out of breath, as long as their lips touched.

  Finally, Colton pulled away. Slowly though. Iris opened her eyes, and saw him inhale the cold air around him in his lungs, as if he was drowning.

  “I wanted our first real kiss to be special,” he said. “Just like that.”

  “Can I tell you something?” Iris said, almost embarrassed she was going to say this.

  Colton nodded.

  “Stop talking, because I already miss those lips,” she pulled him closer again. Colton smirked and as he bent down to her lips again, he showed the middle finger to the Beasts watching them up there. That’s if there were such Beasts in the first place. “Perverts!” he told them, just before Iris could feel that sweet shiver again. She thought it was the best first kiss in history. And if it wasn’t, it must have been the highest.

  31

  Somehow the rain fell heavily after the second kiss, and Colton wondered if the Beasts didn’t approve of this relationship. Secretly, he suddenly felt worried about Iris. What if the Beasts decided to make her the next Bride? He shook the paranoid feeling from his mind, as he climbed down with Iris and got into his car.

  “I’m driving you home,” he said on the way. “But those lips still have unfinished business with me,” he smirked.

  Iris blushed and preferred to stare ahead at the rainy night. “You didn’t have to provoke the Beasts,” she joked. “Look at all this rain. We could have spent a little more time up there,” she tightened Colton’s jacket around her. He had given it to her once the rain started.

  “I wonder what provoked them more: the kiss or the finger?” Colton said, holding her hand while driving with the other.

  “You still sound like you really believe they were up there watching us.” Iris remarked.

  “I do,” Colton’s facial expression sank into a serious mood. “Why do you think they let us do all this research and sneak into the Ruins? They see everything.”

  “You mean they know about us going to the Ruins? They know about my Pentimento hobby? T
hat can’t be.”

  “Why can’t it be?” Colton said. “They see us. As long as there is no major uprising against them, they don’t mind letting us dig a little. I think they rather love it. We’re like lab rats, just narrow-minded and self-centered humans, and they laugh at us.”

  “You sound weird tonight, Colton.” Iris said.

  Colton couldn’t find words to respond. She was right. He was feeling a bit weird tonight. But not from the beginning. He had planned this to be a special night. Only something happened to him after they kissed. A horrible idea dawned on him. It was a sudden gut feeling. He was afraid to lose Iris.

  Why was he so afraid to lose her to the Beasts all of a sudden?

  Because you like her a lot, Colton. This is different from any other girl you’ve liked. Kissing her felt like selling your soul to her. The little stubborn girl sitting next to you owns you now. Funny that she doesn’t know it yet.

  Colton knew that he had to solve the Beasts’ mystery, or find a way to protect Iris from them until she turned eighteen. If Zoe’s speculations were right about the Beasts picking up smart girls with artistic hobbies like Iris had told him, then Iris was definitely on the list. She was smart as hell, and he didn’t want to even think about her Pentimento hobby.

  “Think about it, Iris,” he told her, nearing her house. “Why did they suddenly look for the girl they call the Beauty, the one who gave red roses to the Bride’s parents? Why not before? You think with all this technology all around us, it’s so hard to know if some parents refuse to wipe their daughter’s memory from the face of the Earth? Hell, the Council could tell the way we think from tracking and quantifying what we buy and the kind of TV shows we watch. Our lives are out there on the social networks, our photographs, likes, and daily banter. All this data they gather from our cellphones and surfing the internet. We are watched twenty-four-seven.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “The Beasts only declared the red rose as prohibited when the phenomena of the Beauty started to spread, the same time it began to gather a crowd that could start a revolution. An uprising. The same word I found on most of the buildings in the Ruins. There was a huge uprising many years ago, and once the red roses spread to so many houses, they feared the uprising would return.”

  “So you’re still convinced that the Beasts have always been here?”

  “I am not really sure of anything,” Colton gripped the wheel tighter. “It feels like I am trying to entrap mercury in the palm of my hand. It keeps slipping away.” Colton stopped the car in front of her house. He was panting. Iris looked worried. She didn’t know why he’d been soaked in fear all of a sudden. He couldn’t tell her that the thought of her being a Bride began to drive him crazy. This creepy thought that overtook him, after they’d kissed on top of the world.

  He watched Iris lean forward and kiss him briefly. “Goodnight,” she said. “This is the best night of my life. I hope it’s yours too. Don’t think too much, and spoil the memory. Tomorrow we’ll continue the search.”

  Colton nodded, saying nothing.

  “I will keep your jacket,” Iris said. “I like that it smells of you,” she said, and got out.

  Colton watched her wave goodbye to him from behind the blurry window with rain trickling down. He drove ahead toward the Ruins, and he wasn’t going to tell Iris about it. He didn’t want her to worry. He wanted to peel off some more of the phrase “humans always see what they…” Something told him a lot would be revealed if he read the rest of that phrase.

  Half an hour later, he was in the Ruins, applying the revealing techniques Iris had taught him. Still, he couldn’t read the rest of the phrase. He’d only succeeded in uncovering the first letter from the word following the word “they.” The letter was a “V,” and it frustrated him that it didn’t make solving the rest of the phrase any easier.

  Humans always see what they v…?

  It didn’t make any sense. He was determined to spend the night here, uncovering other letters. He didn’t mind if they weren’t in order. Just anything that would be a clue, so he could try to figure it out.

  As he kept working, he could sense being watched again. Whenever he turned around, he saw no one.

  “Whoever you are, I’m ready for you,” he yelled at the silent Ruins.

  No reply. Just that creepy sense of being watched lurking in the air all the time.

  Colton dropped his tool for a second and stared up at the gray sky. There were no stars or clouds here. Just this darkened veil covering the sky above.

  “What really happened here?” he sighed. “What kind of war or conflict did this kind of thing to a world people used to live in?”

  Asking questions to the still air in the Ruins wasn’t going to solve anything. He returned to working on the phrase. The thought of Iris being taken was consuming him with every passing moment. He wanted to tell her that Elia Wilson had also been his girlfriend for a brief time, but couldn’t. He was afraid Iris would freak out and leave him. He’d been reckless in the past, but he’d changed now, because of her. But that thought wrapped around him, like a dead man’s carcass. If Elia had been his girlfriend, and so had Eva, and both were taken by the Beasts, was he cursed? Were all his girlfriends destined to be taken by the Beasts?

  32

  Two days later, the rain had turned into snow, and it fell majestically to the ground. It was a cold, but beautiful day. Zoe’s first day back to school, and of course, Iris was with her.

  Iris had woken up with an unprecedented amount of energy and love for life. She’d even pondered the thought of trying not to cause any trouble at school, and actually learn something. Why not? She was going to see Colton today.

  They hadn’t met yesterday because he’d been busy with something, and she’d preferred to spend the cold and rainy day with Zoe, who ended up talking with Cody on the phone the entire time. Iris had decided to sleep in Zoe’s bed as punishment for leaving her alone, and also to get her out of the patient mentality.

  Zoe’s mother had made soup for Iris and interrogated her about who this Cody was. Iris had assured her that Cody was far from being a serial killer, and that she should bless this relationship.

  But today, Zoe called Iris to wake her up. “It’s time for school,” she said on the phone. “I’m so excited.”

  “You’re excited to see Cody, you sneaky liar,” Iris rubbed her eyes and jumped out of bed. She put Zoe on speaker as she brushed her teeth and worried aloud that Colton would discover she had a slight gap between her front teeth—as if he hadn’t already. Was it also possible that he noticed her hair was slightly thinner on the right side of her head, and that it was stiff when she was a kid?

  “Shut up,” Zoe said in the speaker. “Colton already likes you. I can’t believe we’re dating brothers. That’s so absurd.” she laughed.

  “You should listen to Cody going on about Colton. He’s more like his Godfather,” Zoe added.

  “Really?” Iris was beginning to get bored from Colton amazing her with his personality.

  “You think the four of us should get married the same day?” Zoe blurted.

  “Wow. Where did that come from?” Iris said. “Your head just jumped five years into the future.”

  “Actually not,” Zoe said. “Cody and I are planning to get married in a couple of months.”

  “You’re joking, right?” Iris stopped brushing her teeth.

  “No. I’m serious.”

  “Is that even legal? Say you’re kidding, Zoe. You only got to know the boy a couple of weeks ago.”

  “I’m not kidding. Cody and I have been talking about it a lot.”

  “Wow. A lot. You make it sound as if you’ve been planning this huge decision for a year or so.”

  “Think about it, Iris,” Zoe said. “We’re all vulnerable here. I could be taken by the Beasts at any moment while I am seventeen. I don’t want to regret I didn’t do this.”

  Iris shrugged, staring at her reflection in the mirro
r. She looked rather awful with the toothpaste crawling out of her mouth, like in a cheap horror movie. But it was that sudden feeling that filled her lungs. Why did she suddenly feel like her time had come to be taken? Was this why Colton had been acting worried yesterday, and the day before?

  “Iris?” Zoe said. “Did you drown in the sink?”

  “I’m here, Zoe,” she said. The toothbrush stuck to her mouth, like a cigarette on wet lips.

  “I’m sorry if you don’t approve, but Cody will ask my mother to marry me next week. Come on. You should be happy for me.”

  “I am, of course. You know I will support whatever mad thing you decide to do.” Iris said.

  “That’s my girl,” Zoe said. “See you in a while crocodile.” She hung up.

  Zoe never said stuff like that – that was pure Cody influence.

  Iris did nothing but stare at herself in the mirror. Something wicked was about to happen, and she didn’t know what. It was a horrible feeling, so present and so illogical.

  All the way to school, sitting next to Zoe in her mom’s minivan, Iris couldn’t shake the feeling from her chest. Something felt like it was coming her way. It was an irrational fear, but it was imminent and grounded. There was no escaping.

  “Don’t you think it’s been too long without the Beasts taking anyone?” Iris asked Zoe.

  “It’s been nine days,” Zoe said. “But it’s happened before. One time we waited two weeks.”

  In class, Zoe followed every word Mrs. Wormwood said. Iris, on the other hand, didn’t. She’d been whisked to another world in her mind, looking outside the window at the snow falling. Every second intensifying the crazy feeling in her mind. She’d heard about people capable of sensing danger before it happened. She just never believed it was possible.