Sam felt his fingers slip up to the buttons on his shirt.
"Sam, stop it."
He heard it but he couldn’t stop his fingers. They unbuttoned the first one.
"Stop dicking around Giselle."
"Sam stop trying to take your clothes off."
He nodded, "Okay." He felt foggy for a moment.
Giselle went around to each person and said the same thing.
Lorri looked around and finally settled her eyes on Oliver.
"We have no choice but to place our fates with you."
He bowed slightly, "I am here to help." His eyes darted to Ophelia. Sam felt jealousy raging through him as the fog in his brain lifted.
"Oliver pulled his cell phone out and showed a picture to them all. It was a small garden with roses and lilies.
"Flash here. It's the weak point. Follow me through and we'll split up." He took Ophelia's hand in his and was gone instantly. Sam flashed pulling him and Hanna through fast. His feet were in soft earth in a warm garden. The smell of flowers filled the air.
Hanna gripped his hand before he could take another step. She pulled him into her. Her lips met his with force. She kissed him desperately. He let go of her hand and pulled her up into him.
"I missed you Sam." She whispered into his face as she pulled back.
He hugged her tightly and smelled the scent of the strawberry shampoo in her hair. He closed his eyes and let it be enough.
"I love you Hanna."
She rested her head on his chest.
"Sam." He looked up to see Lorri giving him the evil eye from across the bushes and flowers.
Lorri pointed to the right, "Oliver says your mom is to the right. She stays in a room that’s guarded." Her eyes flashed to Hanna, "Nothing hurts you. You can get through."
Hanna nodded and squeezed his hand, "Okay."
He felt a twinge in his stomach as he started toward the huge white metal door at the end of the room. He hadn’t seen her in years. Would she remember him?
Aimee grabbed his arm, "Flash if you get into trouble."
He winked, "You too."
She squeezed his arm. He pulled Hanna to the door and looked at her. She nodded and they slipped out into the hallway. It was freezing when they got out into the hall. The door sealed like a freezer door would. It wasn’t that the hall was cold but that the garden was sweltering.
Sam pulled her along. She was watching their backs. No one came. No cameras filled the halls. He was a ball of nerves. The huge white hallway was silent.
"This is creepy." Hanna whispered.
"Yup. It feels like a trap." He followed the hall and turned right at the end of it. The hall opened into huge great room with a fireplace and couches. No one milled about in the beautiful room. It reminded him of a hunting lodge or Luke's family's home.
He stopped and waited and when nothing moved, he flashed them across the room to the hallway. It looked more like a house on that side. The hallway seemed like a hallway in a house, not a fortress.
He cracked every door on the right and peeked inside. Hanna peeked in the rooms on the left. Behind every closed door there was a small bedroom or office. No one was in any of them.
"This is a trap Sam. We need to get the others." He felt her skin ripple.
Sam stopped when he smelled something familiar. He'd smelled before. He grabbed her hand and waited as a man rounded the corner. He was a weretiger. Sam had met a few before.
The Were sniffed the air and then looked to where they stood. A smirk crossed his lips, "Look at what I found. Both Sirens?"
Sam glanced at Hanna. She smiled as the shiver took over. She stepped forward and sauntered to him.
The were looked around, "Did I win the lottery? Are you real?"
She grinned, "Touch me and find out?"
He reached with his fingers but she had ripped them off before it registered. No one expected Sirens to be able to defend themselves.
Sam flashed to him and had him out of the hallway and in Libya in the middle of the desert before the first scream ripped through his throat. Sam flashed back to the hallway.
Hanna was still holding his fingers.
Sam looked at them, "Put them in that plant."
She smiled and walked to the huge planter. She pulled at the fake dirt and shoved the fingers into it.
She wiped the blood on her pants and they continued down the hallway.
"It feels less like a trap now."
Sam smiled at her, "That was disgusting."
She shrugged, "Luke likes it when I do that."
"He is also disgusting." He spoke while still looking in rooms and moving forward. He came to a room with the black obsidian door, "Devil's rock."
Hanna looked at it and held a hand up, "It stings."
"This is it."
Hanna looked at him, "You sure?"
Sam nodded, "I've seen a door like this before. Can't flash in there."
Hanna turned the handle, crushing it in her hand. She pushed on the door hard, ripping it off the hinges on one side. She kicked it once making a huge bang. Sam put a hand on her shoulder, "Shhhh."
She glanced back and snarled at him. Her eyes looked wild. The beast was fully there. She had let it take over. He hoped she was still driving the bus though.
He looked around the hallway as Hanna demolished the stone door. Her knuckles bled but she didn't stop. She made a throaty scream as she passed through the entry into the room. Sam looked in at a large sitting room with couches and flowers. It looked like a regular house but there were no windows. A small kitchen sat at the back of the room.
He could smell the burning of Hanna's skin from passing through the door.
"Jon?"
His mother came around the corner. She hadn’t aged at all. She looked at Hanna and dropped Vampire fangs instantly. She hissed at Hanna, who grabbed her by the throat and held her in the air.
"Mom?" Sam's voice cracked.
Her panicked dark eyes met his over Hanna's red head.
"Sam?" She spoke perfectly with the teeth, not like Giselle who still sounded like a four year old.
"Hanna, drop her. Hanna that’s my mom."
Hanna looked back at him and growled. She dragged his mother through the black doorway. She screamed the entire way, fighting to get away from Hanna's savagery.
His mom's skin lit on fire as she passed through the doorway. She screamed in pain. Hanna covered his mom's mouth with her hand.
In the hallway the beast lessened and Hanna struggled with the pain.
Sam grabbed his mom from her and held the weeping vampire. She gripped her son, "I knew you'd come."
She looked exactly the same. Her dark hair was long and shiny with subtle curls. Her skin glowed except where it was blackened from the magic. Her eyes sparkled but he could tell when he touched her she was a vampire. She didn’t have the same life she used to. The life and magic of the Siren.
"Why?" Sam asked staring at her teeth.
She shook her head, "He was afraid I would start aging. He did it a couple years ago. His last Siren aged badly."
She looked at Hanna, "What are you?"
Hanna laughed, "A little of this and a little of that."
"You're a Siren?"
Hanna nodded, "Part."
Her mouth trembled, "You're Hanna." She brought her fingers up to her face, "You look just like him." She grabbed her and hugged her tightly against her chest.
Hanna hugged back confused. She remembered nothing. Sam hated that she didn’t have the memories he did.
"How is he?"
Hanna's eyes dropped, "He's in a better place."
His mother's lower lip trembled, "I'm sorry my love. I loved your mother and father dearly. I see you never managed to escape the family curses then?"
Hanna shook her head.
His mom looked at him and smiled again, "I'm so sorry I left you Sam."
He shook his head, "We have to go."
His mother froze, "He will kill you both. Sam you have to flash out of here."
He shook his head, "You have to come."
She shook her head, "I can't leave."
Sam frowned, "Why?"
She looked at him flatly, "I love him Sam."
Chapter -Thirty-Five
Ophelia
She walked behind Oliver, who wouldn’t let go of her hand. She had to scratch with her left hand.
They all followed him. She had a horrid feeling that he had led them into a trap. They never saw anyone else.
Oliver snuck to a back door and pointed, "Half of us need to go this way. Ophelia and I will go to with Lorri and Dorian and Aimee. Lucas, Ari, Giselle, Lydia, and Brandon you go that way. It's where Ophelia and Aimee's sisters are."
Ari shook her head, "We need someone who can flash us out."
He looked at them and nodded, "Right. Uhm Aimee you'll have to go with them and text Sam to head that way too. He should have his mom by now."
Lorri looked at Aimee, "Don't let any old feelings cloud your judgments."
She nodded and walked away.
Oliver pulled Ophelia out the door. The cold blast was intense. She started to shiver immediately.
Oliver looked back at her, "Warm yourself."
She frowned, "How?"
He glanced at Lorri, "So she knows nothing?"
Lorri growled, "We found her two weeks ago. You've had a lifetime with Trist."
He muttered under his breath, "Fuck."
Ophelia felt his disappointment. She pulled her hand from his with a jerk. He looked back at her. She crossed her arms.
Dorian chuckled, "Alright kids let's focus before Jonathan sends us to hell."
Lorri snickered. Ophelia felt like she was missing the joke.
The snowy cold courtyard was long and surrounded by a stonewall. At the end of it sat the tower. She recognized it all immediately.
She looked up to the second window to the top and pointed, "That’s hers."
They ran across the courtyard and Oliver kicked open the door. Ophelia ran up the stairs behind him. She felt Lorri at her heels. She was wheezing by the second flight. Oliver laughed and grabbed her hand again and flashed them to the top. Dorian and Lorri flashed behind them.
