Bane (The Devil's Roses 2)

"So the Devils Roses, Lorri's in charge of the Devils Roses cause she's the devil. Satan?"

Daniel sighed, "I don’t really know how else to explain this do you?"

Aimee shook her head, "No."

"How? Why? What?" He stood up from hovering over Ari like only a wolf boy would.

Aimee laughed, "Luke buddy mellow out. She is Lucifer, there is no if and or but. However the story you have in your mind of Lucifer is not the story of how it happened."

He stopped and looked at Daniel who shrugged, "She's right. Everyone believes the trash in that stupid book but Lucifer never was the problem. She was the solution."

"She, Lucifer is a girl?"

"Think about the name, Lucifer. Not a manly name. The morons who wrote the bible made her a man in the story because woman couldn’t possibly hold that important of a role in humanity as the right hand of god."

"Are you shitting me?"

"No honestly she isn’t taking a piss, Lucifer is a girl. Well a woman. SHE is Lorri. She changed her name after having to explain the whole damned thing over and over and trying to reason with the brain washed masses that she truly was trying to help. Dammit she is still helping. She started the roses which back then was God's idea. He gave mankind freewill. It was the envy of every angel that man, a simple being walked the earth with the freedom to chose as he saw fit. The archangels saw man as a mistake, they thought mankind was foolish and the choice of freewill the biggest mistake god ever made. They wanted to abolish man, make him kill himself off. They created disease and plague and pestilence to show god how weak his beings were. Then they whispered temptations planting seeds of doubt in the weak minds of man to prove how pathetic and feeble his creations were. Murder, rape, suicide, lust, greed, sloth all inventions of the ever jealous archangels."

Aimee watched Lucas as he absorbed. He seemed to believe, it was easy for Fae to doubt the bible, it never felt true to her either. Science had always been more plausible for her.

Daniel continued, "The final blow was dealt when they raped human women impregnating them with Nephilim. Half angel and half mortal. The children were stronger, faster, growing until they finished puberty and then aging so slowly no human see a difference in their appearance within a lifetime. The problem with mating with human women and creating Nephilim was that they too were born with freewill. God was furious as the creatures began to slaughter humans, rape more women creating more Nephilim. He saw no choice but to fight back. He called upon his favorite and asked the ultimate sacrifice of her. He asked her to fall. To live amongst the humans and Nephilim and fight back. She would protect the humans at all cost from the unnatural creations of the archangels. The angels didn’t know that their creations would eventually make an attempt at ruining the world god had spent so much love and care creating. Lucifer fell with some of her hand chosen angels like Dorian to live amongst the people and protect them from the supernatural elements that walk the earth. She never kills anything that lives by the rule God created for them, Do What Ye Will But Harm None and Keep The Secret."

Lucas looked devastated, "Wow. I had no idea. I'm the offspring of Nephilim?"

Daniel shook his head, "No you are Fae, something very different. Aimee is a changeling, a fallen angel turned her, making her what she is. We are an unnatural abomination to the world god made but at the end of the day we were born innocent, if we live innocent then we are left alone."

"How was she labeled the Devil?"

Daniel laughed, "She made the name up for herself, in ancient Hebrew the name meant the accuser. She was the judge and jury for the non-humans of earth and the protection against the Nephilim. Needless to say she was quite pissed when the name became something evil and she was found wicked while the archangels were written into history as the saviors. Even Jesus, when god cast down his only son and made him a man he was in fact meant to be a teacher of people. He was supposed to show them of their natural abilities. You see god has no sway over people, he made them free in every way. Instead of people seeing Jesus as the Son of God and a man who they themselves could emulate they allowed the seeds of doubt planted many years prior to corrupt them. They killed him."

"That is crazy. It’s a crazy story. I can't even believe that the archangels got away with so much."

"Lorri cant either. She still fights with them, particularly Michael. He wanted to be the one god chose to save the humans but it was found he too had lain with a human woman impregnating her against her will. Every time there is a surplus of people like us and the balance is tipped the wrong way bad things happen, bad things like the dark ages."

Aimee smiled, "We are the fine line between balance and chaos."

"Ari will make a fine Rose."

Aimee watched Lucas digesting it all, "She'll be awake any minute."

"How's my girl?"

Aimee snarled watching Dorian walk in like he owned the place, as usual.

He smiled sickly sweet at Ari.

"She's fine Dorian. She'll be awake any second no doubt. Where are you off to now?"

He shrugged still watching Aimee, "Not sure. I think Lorri wants me to help Aleksander some more."

Aimee flinched at his name. Her heart still felt confused sometimes, picking Shane was the true choice but she had loved Aleks even if it wasn’t enough.

"His father again?"

Aimee felt a shiver remembering the huge naked man in the woods who had murdered her mother.

Dorian nodded, "Would you care to join me Aimee dear? He's struck again. We're just heading to small place in Louisiana, I believe Aleksander called it Violet which is funny because I was once with a woman from Louisiana named Violet about a hundred years ago."

Aimee felt her lip twitch, "No. If you catch him kill him Dorian don’t waste a second trying to find a redeemable quality."

Dorian laughed, "I've never given pause Aimee, never." He shook Daniels hand and walked from the room.

Ari stirred on the bed but Aimee was still lost in the fact that Dorian was on the good side, the man had called humans Sheep. She knew he enjoyed sucking the souls from young girls. She shivered remembering the girl in the woods he'd let her murder in the beginning before she'd learned any control. The girl in the woods was still her only innocent but it bothered her.

She looked at Daniel, "I'm going home."

He looked up from his work at the computer and smiled, "Thanks for coming. She'll be there next week."

Aimee nodded and winked home, she needed Shane.

Chapter Nineteen- Payback is a Bitch Named Forgiveness

Ari

The house seemed empty as she crossed over the threshold into the main entryway. Lucas had been sent somewhere, Ben had been sent with him, Aimee was sleeping at Shane's every night and checking in when she had to and Lydia had been working on something Ari knew nothing about.

"Why Miss Ari you's don’t need to be standing in the hallway like a stranger? Come in. It's getting hot out there anyway. Leaving the door open only makes it worse."

Ari smiled at the maid, "Good to see you Annabelle. Is anyone here?"

"Just us chickens Miss Ari."

Ari nodded, "Great." She had never been an advocate of alone time or sitting around and thinking. She looked around at everything and got an idea, "Annabelle tell Lydia I had some things to do. I'll be back around dinner."

Annabelle waved, "Be safe."

Ari nodded and walked back out of the house. She looked around wondering about the guards. Daniel had made a girl named Izzy drop her at home as she had texts from everyone telling her they wouldn’t be around. She shrugged not thinking much about it and started to walk. She could feel the power in her legs again, like before. She passed through the guards knowing that no matter what came at her she could defend herself.

A thought rang though out her head and she nodded walking to a bus stop. She knew she had a few things on her list of shit to do that had to be completed before the other Ari would be able to remain silent in peace.

The bus ride made Ari nervous, she'd never been a bus girl, their town in the desert had been so small. There actually hadn’t been any buses at all there.

Her heart tugged thinking about her uncle and she knew he was on her list of things she needed to do.

Other Ari guided her to a part of town she was barely allowed to see the memories from. She got off the bus and walked down a quiet street noticing a sick and dirty feeling growing in her stomach. She knew it wasn’t hers but she couldn’t help but feel more nervous as she drew closer to her destination. She rounded a street corner and as her eyes made contact with the wrought iron fence and gate dread filled her.

"It's okay Ari, it's okay." She whispered to herself.

Her palms were blasting heat from them as her nerves were heightened from the stress of it all. She watched from behind a tree as the children played.

A small boy played alone digging in the dirt lifelessly with a stick. She knew he would be a favorite. She could spot them by the lack of will to live. The hair on her body stood on end as she watched throughout the crowd able to pick out the kids who would need her. The ones whose lives were forever tainted and ruined by the life they'd lived in the orphanage where no one protected them. Society didn’t think about the fact that orphans were left under the control of a select group of people and what happened when one of those people betrayed the trust that was placed in them.

She could see a few habits out of the corner of her eye. She remained out of sight in case on of them accidentally recognized her. She knew she looked different than when other Ari had been there but she couldn’t take any chances.

The children were called in for supper and Ari watched as the lifeless ones were dragged in being yelled at and spanked. She remembered that. The memory was hazy and hurt her brain to see it but New Ari accidentally let it slip through the cracks. She was standing outside looking at the gates, maybe ten years old. She saw the other side of the gate as freedom. She thought about life beyond the gate. She had a family out there somewhere looking for her. She like all the others knew it was a mistake, she wasn’t supposed to be growing up in an orphanage.