Banes by Tara Brown Read Free Book Online

it doesn’t concern you." He put his hand out again to take hers. She frowned at him and walked the other way. She stormed through the trees to the backside of the house, which took a really long time. The house was huge.
    She walked down to the dock and sat on the cold wooden bench.
    Confusion wasn’t quite the word but it was all her feeble mind would come up with. She was in a constant battle with herself, she liked Lucas, she liked the house, she liked having people who let her live with them considering it seemed her uncle didn’t even know her any more. At the same time she wanted to go home, to her uncles desert diner, she wanted to be back in her old town running in the desert loving the feel of the dry air, she wanted things to go back to be normal. She wasn't certain about anything about herself.
    She knew she needed to find her uncle, she needed to see him again, she needed him to want to be her family again. She fingered the silver necklace she had put on with her uncles ring on it and plotted her escape.

Chapter Five- Is This Chemistry or Science?
    Ari walked down the stairs wondering if Lucas was back from his trip. She'd discovered in her month at Lydia's they all traveled a lot. Aimee was the means to nearly every trip. She learned more about the Roses everyday. Still no one answered her questions out right. It frustrated her the way that things always seemed so cryptic and mysterious and no one was ever upfront. Between the snooping, eavesdropping and being told outright she had learned a fair amount.
    Lydia was a couple hundred years old, she was a witch who did good magic. Annabelle was her maid but also a witch even if she was deceased.
    Andy was a Vampire, she was six hundred years old and rarely spoke which would have been cool with Ari but she seemed to watch her like she was prey, which was creepy. Andy was a lesbian who hated relationships and was hardly ever at Lydia's.
    Brandon was a shifter, this was something exotic and not normal to the rest of the people at Lydia's. At Lydia's being called exotic meant you were a super freak. Ari had thought he was good looking and ridiculously nice but one day he stopped talking to her and barely came to Lydia's anymore. Annabelle had told her it was Lucas's doing, Ari was like the last donut on the plate and Lucas had apparently spit on her.
    Aleksander was a regular dude who had been made what he was by something similar to Lydia. He was cursed and completely hot. His kind, but not interested in anything, disposition had Ari intrigued. She knew something had happened between Aimee and Aleks but no one ever talked about it. Not even Annabelle, which was annoying.
    Lucas was an unknown to Ari, he had managed to make her fall in love with him without ever sharing any details of himself. It was like loving a complete stranger in secret. She assumed he was a vampire like Andy but she knew he could very well be like Aleksander. He never spoke much and she wasn’t certain how he felt about her, which made New Ari peaceful inside and annoyed Old Ari mercilessly.
    Ari smelled breakfast smiling. She knew Lucas was home by the smell of meat cooking wafting through the air. Annabelle only ever cooked sausage and bacon when Lucas or Brandon was there. Aleks never really ate much and Aimee was the same. Ari thought about Aimee and smiled. She had truly become the sister Ari never had. She shopped for her and helped her learn to do her makeup. The few times Ari had been allowed to leave the mansion had been pretty upsetting and if it hadn’t been for Aimee she would have probably been sent to prison.
Ari blushed thinking about the way people had looked at her, or rather her scars and tats. No one saw her all they saw was the damage done to her by a lifetime she'd never actually lived.
    The kitchen was empty, the smell of food lingered in the air but who ever had cooked it was gone. She sighed wondering where everyone was.
    "Annabelle?"
    "Yes Miss Ari?"
    Ari turned to