Lydia's voice spoke softly in the background of her pounding ears, "Lucas it's okay. We were just testing her healing capabilities. Remember it's part of the process. Lucas please calm down."
Ari looked to see Lucas holding Ron against the wall. Both men shook as if fighting themselves instead of each other. Lydia stood behind them speaking soothingly.
Ari wheezed nearly tripping off the treadmill, "Lucas it's okay. I'm okay." She held out her arms, which were nearly completely healed.
He turned to see her bright red face covered in sweat smiling at him. He sighed letting go of Ron and walking to Ari, ignoring everyone else in the room. He wrapped himself around her, "You're okay?" He whispered in her ear. She nodded overwhelmed by the sudden show of affection.
Lydia smiled at her while poor Ron looked confusedly at the embrace.
Lucas didn’t wait for her to speak to him or respond, he took her hand in his and walked her from the gym. She looked back at Lydia and shrugged, "The other cuts healed as much as the first one Lydia."
Lydia laughed, "Thanks sweetie."
Lucas dragged her through the house to the second floor where his bedroom was. He pulled her through the dark blue bedroom, which she had never seen before, into his bathroom. He sat her on his large marble counter top and knelt below. She felt awkward being around him alone.
"I'm sorry Ari. I didn’t mean to act like that." He spoke softly from the large bathroom cabinet below where she sat.
He pulled out a medical bag and stood up towering over her.
He looked into her eyes, "I feel something I've never felt before, I feel protective of you. I can't seem to get a grip on myself where you're concerned."
His green eyes sparkled as he took her small hand in his and began cleaning her cuts. He washed the blood off revealing nearly fully healed wounds. She watched him tenderly wiping each part of her arms and clearing away the blood
The tension and heat in the room was overwhelming. Ari stammered, "Y-y-you're bathroom is really big and nice."
He laughed, "I chose the room because of the huge shower. It's a two person shower."
She blushed making him blush.
His eyes grew wide realizing what he'd said, "Oh uhm I didn’t mean. Like I'm big so a two-person shower is awesome for me. Uhm by myself."
She raised an eyebrow at him.
He face palmed himself, "Oh my god, I mean. Uhm anyway."
She laughed. New Ari wanted to toy with him and be sarcastic but Old Ari loved how awkward he was with her.
She smiled softly, "Thanks for cleaning up the blood."
He blushed and nodded. Ari slid off the counter pressing herself against him. New Ari panicked making Ari walk from the bathroom quickly. She didn’t look back.
Chapter Six- Port Mackenzie Part Deux
"It's been three months Lydia, she's ready to snap. I honestly can't imagine being here with you guys for three months with no break. Everyone else leaves for a week or a day or a month but Ari has been here day in and day out for three months."
"I know Aimee but we don’t know enough, Ron's been doing tests on her samples. Every time she sends someone back she gets the life they had left. It's like a bank account, they go back but they deposit the years they would have lived if she hadn’t sent them back. She's virtually stopped aging. He's testing her DNA to see if she's strong enough to join the Roses, we cant just put a regular human out there. She heals fast but we don’t know if her talents can send back any immortals or if she can do anything else that would help her defend herself."
Ari sat on the stairs listening. She knew Lydia knew she was there but she didn’t care. She had started to sink into a depression. Lucas had been gone a lot since the bathroom incident.
"Just let me take her, what's the worst thing that happens? I can wink up back here within seconds. She can't get away from me. I'm going home, honestly nothing happens in Port Mackenzie."
Lydia laughed, "Yeah right, you became what you are just by freak accident."
"I became this in the city."
Lydia snorted, "Technicalities." She sighed, "Fine if you want to go with Aimee you can."
Ari felt her cheeks blush knowing she'd been busted eavesdropping but she was grateful to be leaving the mansion.
"Well guess you'll be needing a bag packed won't ya Miss Ari?"
She turned and smiled at Annabelle, "Guess so." She paused for a moment, "Uh Annabelle where is Port Mackenzie?"
Annabelle shrugged, "How should I know? Why I came here from Georgia with Miss Lydia. I don'ts know where nothing is here."
Ari searched her database or new Ari knowledge but unfortunately she didn’t know where the town was either.
Aimee rounded the corner beaming, "So I want to be going now."
Ari smiled back, "Thanks Aimee."
Aimee grinned, "Hey no worries. Lydia kept me here for five months when she found me. I couldn’t get these bad boys under control." She held her hands up, "Be downstairs in five k?"
Ari nodded and turned and ran up the stairs. She tried to hide her excitement but she couldn’t. Trapped in the rainy winter in a mansion on a lake was about as depressing as a girl could get. New Ari argued that point but she ignored her, as usual. She had learned to control the feelings and emotions of new Ari, the scars still proved the pain was real but she chose not to acknowledge it.
"Now Miss Ari remember a lady doesn’t cuss in front of people and she doesn’t wear her pants so tight that people can see her god given birthmarks on her behind." Annabelle ranted as she packed the bag.
Ari smiled at her, "Annabelle, I don’t think either me or the other Ari has ever been a lady."
Annabelle raised an eyebrow at her making Ari laugh, "Okay okay I wont wear my jeans crazy tight. No skinny jeans out of the house I promise."
The trip to Port Mackenzie was not quite what Ari had thought it would be. She held hands with Aimee for half a second and then they were in another town.
The 'ride' made her stomach queasy, which in turn made Aimee laugh.
Ari looked around at the small town, they were standing on a dock in between a couple old looking boats. The rain drizzled on them making Ari frown.
"Yeah it rains a lot here. Lets go to my dads place. I haven’t seen him in a long time." Aimee spoke softly.
Ari tried not to mind the rain knowing it was at least away from the mansion.
Aimee winked them to a patch of forest behind a huge fence.
Aimee jumped the fence with ease leaving Ari behind it staring at it.
"Jump."
Ari looked at her through a crack, "Dude I can't jump that, it's like six feet."
Aimee laughed, "Don’t think just do it. Leave your bag there."
Confused she dropped the backpack and put her hands on the fence. She struggled pulling herself up. Her arms shook but she made it to the top. She sat at the top looking down and shook her head, "No."
"I will pull you down."
She winced and jumped feeling the sting in her feet from landing wrong.
She gave a dirty look at Aimee and walked toward the house.
"Hey slow down. I don’t know where he is." Aimee slid along the shed in the back yard walking softly. Ari copied her confused.
Aimee crept along to the back door and opened it with a key from under a fake rock. Ari didn’t know what was going on but she was scared, it felt illegal. New Ari tried to make fun of her but she shut her down. Ari had entertained thoughts of joining the military or police department before, well before her life turned upside down.
Aimee slipped inside the house and looked around the cluttered basement. She stalked slowly up the stairs looking like a spy. They reached the top of the stairs but Aimee never moved she just watched carefully. The living room and kitchen were empty. She snuck along the hallway stepping purposefully in certain spots. Ari copied her the entire way. Aimee walked into a room, a bedroom. It was half boxed up. Ari saw Aimee flinch looking at the boxes.
"Is this your room?" She whispered.
Aimee nodded looking sick.
"Is your dad moving?"
Aimee shook her head still not speaking.
Ari looked around the room, awards and trophies lined a shelf above the bed. Science and literature books were everywhere. She started to see Aimee in a new light, a nerdy one. Aimee dropped to her knees and reached her hand under her bed.
"You were a nerd?"
Aimee smiled brightly at her grinning through some obvious pain, "Huge nerd, like World of Warcraft."
Ari raised her eyebrows stunned, "Wow, never saw LARP as a possibility for you."
Aimee scowled up at her, "I never did any LARP, dick." She continued to fish around under the bed.
Ari watched as Aimee pulled a manila envelope out from under the bed. She clutched it to her heart.
"Why didn’t we just blink in here for that? Why all the sneaking around?"
Aimee pressed her lips together, "I can't just wink in here and scare the shit out of my dad. He's normal." She walked from the room clutching the envelope to her chest. She walked down the hall looking crushed. Ari felt so sad for Aimee even though she didn’t understand what was happening at all.
She walked to a door. She turned the knob slowly to reveal a large bedroom. It was messy. There was a man sleeping on the bed. He held a book, an album it looked like. Ari watched from the doorway as Aimee's face crumpled. She wondered why Aimee wanted her to see this? It sickened her to see Aimee, strong and confident Aimee, in such pain.
"I'm sorry daddy." She whispered. She looked back at Ari, "I need to go home."
Ari frowned at the change in Aimee's face but dreaded going back to the mansion after such a short amount of time, "Can we just get a little air first? I feel sick."
She backed from the room and touched Ari just as Ari spoke softly, "Who is the cop Annabelle told me you used to date? Is he from here?"