Banes (27 page)

Ari shrugged, "If you want to. If not I get it."

Aimee was gone in an instant leaving Ari standing alone in the hallway. She walked up and pressed the doorbell to the institution for after hours.

Daniel answered the door looking exhausted, "Ari, uhm how, well what's going on?"

Ari nearly walked inside to embrace but then it dawned on her she had never been to Roses since she'd been sent back. Daniel shouldn’t know her. She stepped back but Daniel took a step forward, "You okay?"

She gulped and reached out for him tears streaming down her face even harder. Her hands brushed his before he could get away. She pushed watching his body drop to the floor. She turned and ran to the elevator. She looked up at the camera and decided the stairs were a safer bet. She had walked into the trap that had been set to put her down. She knew she was a danger to everyone but she wanted to live. She wanted a life. She turned and ran through the emergency stairwell and sprinted the eight floors.

She heard the doors open at the top of the hall, she knew there would be more waiting at the bottom if she didn’t beat the elevator. She ran past the main floor remembering about the underground parking. She burst through the door on the second parking level. She ran toward the light. Her legs started to fill with the sweet adrenaline. Her instincts from being angry Ari filled her like muscle memory, she weaved through cars and trucks, jumping levels and running as fast as she could.

She leapt through the gate at the end jumping it like a hurdle. She sprinted out into the dark night in New York City feeling the cold October Rain hitting her in her shorts and t-shirt. She pumped her legs hard. Again all she wished for was Lucas. She knew he would come for her. She needed to reach him before they used him as bait to bring her in.

Her brain worked still like Angry Ari, she sensed the conspiracies and traitors in her midst.

She ran until she reached the area where the shifter bar she'd heard about many times was supposed to be. She looked around desperate and soaked. The entrance was a red door, she remembered that much.

Unfortunately the number of red doors on the street was unbelievable.

She walked trying to smell and see if she could get a scent of the shifters, they did smell differently than regular humans.

She walked up and down the street twice and gave up turning down an alleyway. She looked at a man watching her. She felt her fingers heat instantly as he followed her into the alley. She kept her head down assuming he was one of Daniels rogue Roses. She couldn’t believe he was the Mole in the organization. Lorri was going to rip his head off if Ari could ever get word to her.

"Look girl you don't want to do this."

He spoke softly looking behind himself.

She turned to see his face better, he wasn’t a shifter that was certain. He wasn’t nearly attractive enough to be one. He could be a demon but she wracked her brains to think of an unattractive demon or vampire. This man was skinny to the point of starvation and homely.

"Please don’t go down this alley. Just go. Turn around before anyone else sees you."

She frowned looking back at him, "Leave me alone."

He shrugged shaking his head and turned around. He left her alone in the wet alley. She looked around her at the fire escapes.

She turned back to him and shouted, "Do you have a cell phone?"

He turned back around laughing, "Yeah I live on the streets and have no food but I totally have a cell phone."

She smiled and rolled her eyes following him out of the alley back onto the street.

"The shelter up the road, sometimes the workers will let you use theirs if it's an emergency."

"Why are you helping me?"

"You look like my sister. I would want someone to help her."

She nodded and followed him in his rumpled clothes down the wet street. He didn’t stop for her, he didn’t speak to her again he just walked until they reached a building with a red and blue cross on the outside.

He opened the door but never held it for her. She walked behind him leery of everything he did. The room he walked into seemed like a gymnasium filled with homeless people and bad smells. She also caught a whiff of chicken noodle soup. She smiled seeing the shelter. Angry Ari had memories that had been similar. She walked in behind him.

He pointed to bins, "There are clothes over there. I'd cover up if I were you."

She smiled at him seeing his face up close for the first time. He didn’t seem much older than her but the dirt and filth over his gaunt face aged him incredibly.

She turned to the bin of clothes.

"You're new?"

Ari looked toward the voice, "Yeah."

"You living on the streets?"

Ari shrugged at the woman and started rifling through the bin of clothes, "I am now."

"No job?"

She shook her head, "No family, no money, no clothes, no home." She heard the edge in her voice but she knew if she didn’t act defensively they would never believe she needed help. She looked healthy and fit and tanned in expensive running shorts and shoes.

She grabbed a huge hoodie and a raincoat. They smelled funny but she knew they would help mask her scent for the trackers Daniel no doubt had searching for her.

"Do you have anyone you can call?"

Ari turned smiling, "No phone."

The woman held up her cell, "You can try them on mine if you know the number."
"Why are you helping me?"

"You look good, you look healthy and young and pretty. You wont last a day on these streets kid."

She nodded taking the cell, "Thanks."

She sent a text instantly to Aimee,
'its Ari, Daniel is the mole. He knew me when I got there. I'm alone on the streets in NY. I can meet you at the place you told me you threw up after you drank rum for the first time. I will wait for you. Trust no one except Luke and Aleks. Do not text me back here, shelter woman's phone.'

She deleted the message as it sent. She then sent a second message,
'tell Lorri, pretty sure she doesn’t know'

She deleted the text messages and phoned Lydia's house. The phone rang several times before Ben picked up, "Yeah."

"Ben?"

"Yeah."

"My name is Ari, I'm a friend of Lydia's is she there?"

"Nope."

"Don’t tell anyone except your brother I called." She hung up the phone and deleted the call before she passed it back to the woman, "Thanks."

The woman smiled, "Did you find anyone?"

Ari shook her head, "No but I think I have a friend I can go talk to."

She took a step closer to Ari, "Dress bulky, try to look chubby. Head down, hair hidden. Speak to no one and don’t smile."

Ari nodded trying not to smile, "Okay, thanks."

She looked around noticing the homeless men noticing her in her shorts. She slipped some jogging pants over top of them and the hoodie over her t-shirt. She pulled the raincoat over the hoodie and pulled the hood of the sweatshirt up. She tucked all her hair back and looked at the lady who nodded, "Take this get some food somewhere else. When you leave here run for at least three blocks. Most of them can't run that far." She slipped Ari twenty dollars.

Ari took the money, "Thank you so much."

The lady smiled, her wrinkled old face suddenly cleared showing beauty beneath the aging. Ari blinked but it was gone. The woman's smile warmed her heart.

"I just wont be able to bear it if they get you. It happened once before. Horrible. Anyway try to find somewhere to stay and remember even though you might not know your dad there are laws that he has to protect you. He is responsible for you." She turned away from Ari and walked into the crowd. Ari frowned at her shaking her head. The shelter lady had spent too much time with runaways, that was clear. If she knew who Ari's father was she would take it back. Ari looked around the room shuddering at the faces of the people watching her. The shelter lady started to greet people and make noise. The wolves in the room turned their attention from Ari for a split second and she took her chance to get away.

She walked very quickly. As she made it through the door her legs burst into a run. She didn’t look behind her as she sprinted she just drove her body forward.

She heard calling out behind her but she ignored it and sprinted for four blocks instead of three just to be certain.

When she was far enough away she stopped running slumped over to make her body seem bigger than it was and walked with a slight limp.

She wasn’t starving but she was scared enough that she wouldn’t be eating anything she stopped at a convenience store. The owner looked at her like she was the most disgusting thing she'd ever seen. She watched every move she made. She grabbed a snickers and a bottle of water. She pulled out the twenty dollars, the girl at the till looked her over several times before giving her the change.

Ari ate the bar quickly as she walked toward the Empire State building. She smiled remembering the story of Aimee and her first week at Roses training. She drank for the first time since she'd turned. The alcohol didn’t really hit her until all at once it did and threw up all over the front steps of the empire state building.

Ari finished her water and placed the bottle in a garbage bin with her candy wrapper. She looked around ensuring she wasn’t being followed.

The dark wet night reminded her of Gotham City. She didn’t feel like Batman though, she felt like one of the girls he would save, helpless and weak and she would fall in love with him and let him sweep her away into the night with one of his gadgets. Her version was more like a large green-eyed wolf would show up and kill everything leaving a bloody trail and together they would walk away. Next to him she felt like she should probably be wearing an earthy brown mini dress with wings and a bow and arrow.

As she arrived at the entrance she slipped inside the entryway and became invisible to world. Just another hunched over bum inside a door well.

"I'm telling you she's here. I can smell her." She looked up to Lucas's voice but didn’t see anyone.

"Where does the trail end?"

"Over here where you barfed just like you said it would."

Ari looked up and smiled at Aimee standing in the street in a short black raincoat, black jeans and black knee high boots. Lucas stood beside her looking double her size. He looked at Ari and smirked.

Ari smiled at him, "No one followed you?"

Aimee started to giggle, "Wow that's really good. I wouldn’t have known."

Ari laughed, "I smell absolutely disgusting. I don’t know how you found me."

Lucas shrugged, "It seems I can find you better than I can find anyone. Your smell can't be masked against my nose."

She felt her face flush, "Did you tell Lorri?"

Aimee nodded, "She was pissed. I don’t think she even believes it all. She is so angry right now. She has a bit of a temper on a good day."

Ari nodded, "Yeah I've been through Roses training twice. She actually tried to eat me once."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah but you saved me Aimee. You winked me to the rooftop garden to cry and have a hissy fit. You said it was where you went for yours."

Aimee laughed again, "This is freaking me out."

Ari felt the reality hit her, "I have ruined your life three times Aimee."

Aimee frowned, "How?"

"I keep changing the influence I have in it. So you meet me and start dating Shane. Then I change and so does your boyfriend and suddenly you're dating Aleks. Then I change again and you're single."

"Did you do it on purpose?"

Ari trembled slightly, "No I, you're my best friend, I would never."

Aimee smiled and stepped forward, "Then stop worrying about it. Look at it this way I've gotten to test the water with both guys. Which one was I happier with?"

Ari shrugged laughing, "Both. Honestly you seemed in love with both. I think you need to ask yourself which life do you want. With Shane you were always worried about him being human and wanting human things. Even when you were living together you were worried. With Aleks."

An English accent interrupted, "Aw well isn’t this touching. Old friends catching up."

Ari growled, "Hey Dad."

He raised his hands defensively, "Hey kid I didn’t know either."

Aimee took a step toward him, "Dorian what do you want?"

He flashed one of his truly evil smiles, "To help of course."

Lucas walked stepping in between Ari and Dorian.

Aimee tilted her head, "I have a very hard time believing you want to help us. I have long suspected your relationship with Daniel. Seemed a bit chummy to me."

Dorian took a menacing step toward her, "Not now Aimee." His words rolled from his throat.

She laughed, "Touchy. Just out of curiosity if Ari touches you can she knock you out?"

He grinned at Ari, "I'm her dad why would she want to hurt me?"

Ari grinned back, "You're the best dad ever, that’s why."