Hyde (The Devil's Roses 3)

"You've waited your whole life to say that sentence haven’t you?"

She nodded as she stood up from the stool and dragged it with all her might across the floor to its original resting place. The marks on the floor made her laugh. She walked to the door expectantly.

He never moved. She turned back, "Scan me out of here. I'm going home."

"Home? Home where? Back to your aunts and uncles where they tried to kill you? Back to your dads where Roland will no doubt send you to Lydia's where by the way they will kill you."

He never lifted his face from the wrinkled paper.

She slid down the door sitting on the floor and put her hands over her face.

Nothing was making any sense.

Chapter Eleven: Sweet momma hot

Aleksander

"Want to dance?" The girl's eyes looked dilated.

He shook his head, "Thank you but no."

"You're hot, you want to fuck instead?"

He snorted nearly spilling his drink everywhere, "What? No. Go away."

He looked back at Mike the bartender who was doubling over laughing.

"Asshole." He muttered.

Mike shrugged, "What did you think would happen? You have your thingy making all the ladies want you and every girl in here is either drunk or high."

Aleks smirked, "I forgot about that. This is why I never come here. It's disgusting in here."

Mike frowned, "Dude not cool. I don’t come to your house and make nasty comments. How's the drink?"

Aleks laughed, "It's great what is it?"

"Vodka mixed with tangerine, ice and oxygen shots."

"That's weird."

"I know but the humans can drink more if they have more oxygen which equals more money for me."

Aleks nodded, "Genius. Evil genius but whose taking notes?"

The bar wasn't his usual sort of hang out but he had been asked by Mike to stop in and have a chat about Roses Business.

Mike's bar, Master Mike's was neutral territory. No business was allowed officially but sometimes if the Dark Ones were getting out of control or breaking the more harsh laws the Roses would unofficially step in, for a drink.

Mike leaned over the counter, "Let me refill you."

Aleks handed his drink to him leaning across the counter.

Mike nodded to the right, "The guy in the blue shirt, obvious vamp, he's the one. Brought girls every week. I never stepped in or cared cause they always walked out looking happy. Last few weeks he's been bringing the same girl. She's hot. Like sweet momma hot. I actually thought for a sec she was a vamp or a siren maybe because she was so hot. Anyway, she's starting to look rough. I tried to step in but they are claiming her. They're blood drugging her for sure."

Aleks felt his jaw tighten, "Where is she?"

"Back corner leaning against the wall. Hot. Maybe Asian."

Aleks took his drink and slipped Mike ten dollars, "Thanks."

Mike nodded.

Aleks walked away looking around the bar. Women noticed him, human women and everyone else. His presence made them aware of their sexuality. He couldn’t help it. It had been part of his curse, a part of it Dorian hadn’t felt necessary to have removed. He would attract the women so his father would get interested in them and murder them. They had been destined to be a team. He cringed thinking about the latest of his father's crimes. The girl had been young and sweet. He took a large drink shaking off the memory. The Roses liked that he could distract with his looks.

He hated that the price Dorian had wanted was the draw of his father's murders. Aleks had been the only one of his kind and loved being able to avoid the Roses roster. He only ever obsessed over his father's killings. Dorian saw the possibility of Aleks hunting all the Dark Ones, not just his father. He took the draw in a bargain to save Aimee. Aleks never regretted it, he just wish the price had been something else. He hated feeling nothing. Even more so he hated not knowing where his father was, or at least had been.

Turning his head to the back of the room he nearly dropped his drink to the floor.

Leaning against the wall was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen in his life, Giselle.

Chapter Twelve: Stuck by a buck

Hanna

She woke not realizing she had fallen asleep. Her head rested on something. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again as they focused. She was no longer within the inner sanctum of his lab. The room was dark and eerie. She looked at the dark blue walls and the huge fabric curtains draping at the window. The light framed the curtains, where it seeped in the cracks around them.

"Morning sleepyhead."

She jumped, startled at Marcus smiling at her. She frowned, "What are you doing in here?"

She looked down to ensure she had clothes on still.

He smirked, "This is my bed."

"Then what am I doing in here?"

He smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead, "You fell asleep on the floor. I thought I was doing you a service by putting you in a bed. The floor would have been uncomfortable."

She wanted to pull away. The smell of him was drawing her in again. She couldn’t force herself to hate him as she had tried before. He was being sweet, he smelled like sex and she was already in a bed.

His eyes were full of passion, she knew the look. It was the same as the car.

"Hanna you have me turned upside down."

She laughed, "If you weren’t such a dick I'd say I feel the same way." She climbed off the bed, only to be pulled back on, "You can go when I say you can go."

His mouth met hers crushing it. His tongue forced its way into her mouth.

His hand slid up her shirt.

She panicked. His fingers bit into her skin as his kiss grew needy.

She shoved him back feeling a ripple under her skin, "No."

She twitched feeling the shift coming. She ran off the bed and from the room. The hall started to get fuzzy. Her eyes couldn’t focus. Sweat started to burst from her pours. She could hear her screams echoing from the rooms she passed. She ran into a room seeing a window and dove through it. She needed to be outside. The glass shattered cutting her skin. She screamed but the pain of the glass cuts were nothing in comparison to the war going on inside of her. She landed with a thud on the grass below. She was recovered and on her feet running into the forest within seconds.

She could hear him screaming her name, as she felt her skin tearing itself from her body. Suddenly the sound switched off and everything went black.

****

She woke to something sharp stabbing at her stomach. Her right eye didn't open, but her left one noticed movements around here. She looked at the beige colored shape beside her. Suddenly as if the sound was turned on in her ears, she heard a scream. She shot up, forcing her right eye open. The pain of everything hit all at once.

The scream filled her ears again. She touched her lips feeling them closed, she wasn’t the one screaming. She blinked seeing the beige thing move again, it moved in sequence with the screams.

She looked at it letting her brain catch up and recognize it. She blinked looking around. There was no way it could be what she thought she saw.

A full-grown deer with one of its horns ripped off lay on the ground next to her. Blood seeped from its stomach. She reached for it but as her own hand came into view she noticed the blood on it. She looked down at the deer's horn sticking through her stomach.

Tears formed in her eyes as she panicked. She tried to pull the horn from her stomach, which made her insides scream.

She cried out, "Help me. Please help me."

Sob's filled her as she watched the animal suffering needlessly. She had changed and wounded it. She looked down at her clothes seeing only her underwear intact and part of her shirt. Her whole front of her body was covered in blood, some was hers and some the deer's. Blood seeped lazily from her stomach. She was shivering and alone in the forest with a badly wounded buck.

She sobbed but dragged her wounded body even closer to the deer. The animal thrashed as if recognizing her as the predator that had wounded it.

She laid a hand on its face. She didn’t know what to do. She looked around the forest for a solution. Everything was bright and green and alive. There was nothing to kill a deer just lying about. She tried to walk but her legs buckled making her fall back down as if her legs were broken. The huge antler in her stomach felt as it if were ripping her open more with every move.

"HELP ME PLEASE. MARCUS PLEASE COME TO ME!"

She heaved, crying hard as she watched the deer struggle. It screamed again never taking its dark eyes off her.

"HENRY SOMEONE PLEASE!"

She lay back feeling the pain becoming too much.

"HANNA?"

His voice truly was like music. She sighed knowing he would help her. She felt his feet hitting the ground with every step. His warm hands touching her frozen naked skin was a relief.

"Hanna, Jesus Christ what have you done?"

She looked up to see Marcus's worried eyes taking it all in.

She smiled, "You found me. The deer. Marcus you have to put it down."

He nodded, "I will."

She watched as his face changed slightly, his eyes went completely black and fangs dropped as if his teeth grew. He turned away from her. She heard the deer start to scream again but it was cut off by a gurgling sound.

She listened to the sounds terrified of what she wasn’t seeing.

Marcus wiped the blood his mouth, "That was disgusting." She screamed at the sight of him.

He bit into his wrist dripping the blood near her face, "You have to drink this as I rip the antlers out."

She shook her head, leaning away from the crimson stream. "No. No I'll be fine I'm sure."

"Hanna drink."

"Please Marcus don’t make me do this. My dad lived through all his injuries."

He shook his head, "I made him an immortal long before he ever sustained anything major."

"I don’t want to be an immortal."

"Hanna my blood will heal you, that’s all. I gave him something else to become an immortal."