"Never let anyone in their house touch you Hanna. You never know what their hands do."
He kissed her hand once more. Pleasure filled her making her knees buckle. She ripped her hand away swallowing hard, "You look familiar. What are you?"
He grinned, "A little of this and a little of that mixed with Nephilim."
She shook her head, "I don’t know what that is. I know it means half angel and half human but I don’t know what it means."
"That’s probably for the best. Nice seeing you Hanna."
He turned and walked back into his messy room. Hanna stood still for a moment, catching her breath.
She walked down the stairs unable to get Sam out of her mind. His lips pressing against her hand made her forget to breath. Remembering the kiss made her forget to breath.
She walked down the second set of stairs to the kitchen. She was starving.
Voices filled the kitchen as Hanna walked around the corner, feeling like an intruder.
"Hanna my dear you're awake, how lovely. Come and have some breakfast."
She looked at the kitchen, it looked much larger than the last time she had been in it. She looked at the grin on Lydia's face and frowned.
"The house always makes room for everyone Hanna. Come and have a seat."
She looked at the huge long table. Kids sat at it, young kids. She smiled at a girl with pigtail and missing teeth. Suddenly she wasn’t there anymore.
"Sorry they're still getting used to the idea of you." Lydia passed her a plate of food filled with waffles and bacon and sausage.
She looked at the open chairs deciding on one next to a guy near her age.
She looked at Lydia again who laughed, "Hanna once people like you and these guys, hit the age where their bodies are finished developing they age ridiculously slowly. Nephilim age slightly faster than Fae. Vampires don’t age at all and neither do Death dealers like Aimee. The fallen don't age obviously."
Hanna shook her head, "I don’t know what you're talking about."
A young chubby boy with glasses got up from his chair and walked to Hanna. He looked up at her and smiled. He put his hand on her arm.
Suddenly the brightest light she could imagine filled her eyes as knowledge filled her mind.
She saw everything from his point of view, making the Roses a positive. She saw things as if a movie played inside of her mind.
The light was gone as quickly as it had come. He was still smiling but he had removed his hand.
Hanna staggered back a bit, "What are you?"
He put his hand up again but Lydia grabbed it, "Use your words Danny."
"Nephilim." He sat back down to finish his breakfast.
"God everyone is Nephilim."
Lydia laughed, "Yes well. These kids aren’t even close to their full power. Most non-humans don’t gain power until they're past the age of puberty. Nature's safe guard I believe. These guys are very early to have any power. Their parents are very strong though."
Hanna looked at Lydia, "What does that make you?"
"Witch."
"Like which you or you're a witch?"
Lydia laughed, "Eat your breakfast, I'm a witch."
"So are none of you my age? You're all old but look young I bet. Am I the youngest at the table?"
"Some are younger than you. Sam is your age and Ben is a little older. You and Ari are close in age."
Hanna looked at them all, "So you turn into a wolf and you're little half angel kids? Ari is like you half angels and wolfie is Fae?"
They nodded.
She shrugged and sat next to the good-looking wolf guy Danny's mind flash half explained.
He smiled at her, "I'm Ben."
She smiled back, "I'm Hanna."
"So is this a training camp?"
Ben shook his head taking a bite of waffle. Watching him chew was a very nice experience, his jaw muscles flexed. His emerald green eyes sparkled, as he spoke, "No it’s a haven. These little rug rats are here for safekeeping. Everyone here…"
A commotion filled the hallway interrupting Ben.
Hanna looked up as the girl who killed her father and the dark haired girl walked in smiling. Aimee was covered in blood and the other girl, Ari, was wiping her bloody hands off on her pants.
"Girls!" Lydia sprang into action.
Aimee laughed, "It's not our blood Lydia."
Ari looked evil as she spoke, "The blood club wont have much in the way of business for a while."
Hanna looked at Ben who was smiling, "Aimee you go all agro on them?"
She smiled wickedly.
Ari shook her head, "I may never be the same again. I have never been that grossed out in my life."
Aimee laughed, "It was just rewards."
"Ari you should have called me. I would have come for sure." Ben looked miffed he'd missed a good battle.
Hanna misunderstood still. The little Danny's visions had cleared up what The Roses was and sort of what they were but it didn’t clear up exactly what they would be fighting against. Or why they were fighting.
She knew Marcus had told her about the intentions of the Roses and the Dark Ones, but she didn’t understand how wars could still be happening.
It seemed very cut and dry to her. Don't tell humans, don't hurt humans.
Aimee smiled over at Hanna making rage build inside of her. She felt the slither under her skin, but then Lydia was in front of her, "Remember the deer sweetie."
Hanna took a breath nodding. She wanted to change, she wanted to rip Aimee apart in revenge for her father. She didn’t want to hurt anyone else.
Hanna tried not to lose control of the beast inside of her.
"Babe, you shouldn’t have gone without me."
Hanna looked up to see Lucas, who she realized was almost identical to Ben next to her. He wrapped his arms around Ari and kissed her.
Hanna watched, as Aimee looked away, everyone in the kitchen looked away.
Ari pushed him back, "You would have been distracted. There was a lot of blood."
Aimee smirked at him, "It was like a Quentin Tarantino movie."
Everyone laughed.
Hanna got scared, children were laughing about killing a bunch of other people, like it was a video game. But it wasn’t a game, they were real live people. No one in the room cared at all for loss of life. None of them respected anything. They craved bloodshed.
"Hanna it isn’t like that at all." Lydia spoke frowning.
Hanna got up from the table suddenly and walked from the room. She worried her father had been nothing but another notch on Aimee's belt. Aimee and Ari, she wondered what kind of girls they had been before they became what they were?
She walked up the stairs to the second floor. She passed the room where the smell of sickness filled the air. She looked in to see the sick girl smiling at her.
"Hey."
Hanna smiled, "Hey."
"You can come in if you want to."
Hanna nodded and walked into the room.
The girl looked sick and fragile. Her long silky dark hair sat around her thin face. Her eyes looked weak.
"Are you the new girl?"
Hanna shrugged, "Maybe. I'm Hanna."
"I'm Giselle."
"Are you one of them?"
She shook her head, "I'm friends with Aimee."
Hanna frowned, "Oh wow, you're like a human. I didn’t think she had human friends. She's pretty cold."
The girl shook her head, "No she's the best. Aimes is like the sister I never had. I've known her for like a million years, she's awesome."
Hanna nodded, "I'll take your word for it I guess. Why are you in here?"
"I'm dying. I let Vampires feed off of me and I fed off of them."
Hanna frowned recalling her and Marcus in the woods, "You can die from that?"
The girl laughed, "No duh. I had a liver transplant, Aimee and me were drugged by a rapist science teacher at like a party. It made Aimee what she is now and almost killed us both. I got my new liver but it was still crazy weak. The vamps were doing mad drugs and feeding me their blood."
"It's called Blood Drugging. It makes the human high with the Vampire."
Aimee walked into the room.
Hanna felt a low growl in her throat, seeing the girl standing there with streaks of blood on her.
"I am sorry Hanna. I was only ever doing what he asked me to. I didn’t want him to die, but he was going to change any second. It would have been the last change of his life, his body was dying. The beast was too strong for his weak body to hold back any longer."
Hanna watched her face. She looked sorry and yet she was covered in someone else's blood. "You're apologizing for killing my dad, my only family. Yet you're covered in the blood of someone else."
Aimee lowered her grey blue eyes, "I had no control. When I saw what they had done, I lost it. There were other girls…" She looked up but her eyes were haunted, "I killed every one of them. No one will ever suffer from them again."
Giselle smiled, "Dude you didn’t have to do that. I wanted to go to the club."
Aimee shook her head, "You were becoming an addict. The blood is addictive on its own, adding cocaine and ecstasy to it only makes it worse. They knew that."
Giselle shrugged, "Whatevs nut ball, you got goo all over you. It's nasty."
Aimee blushed, "I'm going home for a shower. I have to speak to Lorri and find out what we can do to fix you."
Giselle laughed, "Girl you can't like fix this. I'm like a cat with nine lives and this is the ninth."
Aimee reached for her hand but Giselle pulled back horrified making Aimee laugh, "It's going to be okay. We will find a way."
"Go shower, you smell."
Aimee nodded, looking at Hanna, "I really am sorry Hanna. Your father was an amazing man. I never knew he meant for you to be there. I promised him in the end I would do it the way he wanted."
