Page 37 (1/2)

Portland, Oregon - 2012

The heels of her boots clicked with every strike against the cold, soaked ceh her thin sweater She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to keep up with his pace She rounded the corner, staying across the street froet too far ahead of her His outdated pleather jacket hts No one but an i pleather She never would have noticed it before, but diversions were a necessity and fashion seemed like a reasonable one

He turned down a dark alley She grimaced and wondered if perhaps he looked for his next victim He never looked behind himself He was overconfident They alere His kind always believed they were the strongest anile His instincts lied to him and allowed for a false sense of security He just didn't know it yet

She fingered the platinuer with her thuh the , sat a red rose The ring was her e It permitted her to follow the man It made her brand of deadly force acceptable

She winked her right eye, flashing in front of him

She lifted hie into a worthy adversary She gasped when her bare hands made contact with the warm, fleshy meat of his throat and the spark started to fill her The touch of his skin htened froht, but it was useless

His eyes shot to the ring on her finger, and recognition and fear spread across his face

"You're a Rose"

His last words

Eager for her meal, she shivered in anticipation The satisfaction filled her like a rich chocolate bar, h her arer

“Stop!” A h the alley

The spark of the fire died, taking her meal with it

She dropped the dead le stopped She didn’t like ending herif her eyes still glowed like molten steel from her feast She looked down the alley to where a policeun drawn She observed the way his hands shook with the sizable gun in the it was from lack of confidence He was clearly new to the force She knew the feeling

“Stay where you are” His voice never wavered, but she could sense the fear co off hi out her nose His voice was familiar

Panic filled her She knew him

He squinted, no doubt fro eyes and the possibility that he recognized her too

She s her hands “Run his prints and you’ll thank me” He wasn’t an innocent The Roses did have rules about that sort of thing

He walked toward her cautiously as he assessed the alley and the danger “Get down on the ground”

She shook her head “Really, would you lie on this street? This alley is filthy with germs and God only knohat else”

A gust of wind blew past hi with it a scent of laundry soap and deodorant with a subtle mix of windblown sea air She would know that smell anywhere She looked around for an exit beyond her usual one She couldn't just vanish in front of him

His smell was the soundtrack to her youth and innocence His was the only true love she had ever known

His face started to light up as his feet brought him closer She felt the air suck froht in the alley, which clearly the city's budget had forgotten

She gulped, pushing down her feelings She felt frozen in panic, but also desperate to see hilance of him would fill her for the next hundred years

He looked at her and frowned in disbelief, as he drew close enough to fully recognize her “You—you’re the one? That's not possible”

She could see the raw emotion on his face His lower lip trembled, no doubt followed by his entire body

She took a step back, putting her hands out “Just pretend you never saw me The medics will say heart attack”

He shook his head “No, not you” His face twisted in pain “Anyone but you Why?”

She blinked as she reether She crammed it into a memory slot

Every touch

Every smile

They had becorew unbearable Only those little moments could sooth her

She couldn’t avoid the sharp breath that left her mouth She winced as she turned her heart off, and let the flat words leave her lips “I have to eat—they make sense”

He looked sickened “You’re eating them? How? They have no marks None of the others had marks”

She let the moment of shame fill her She deserved to suffer

She wanted to explain She wanted to be that girl—his girl She wanted to be sitting on the back steps of his house, listening to his drea onto the handrail of the stairs next to her, and climbed the fire escape

She ran up the stairs before he could register she had left She could still smell his fear, but it had switched It was a different kind of fear The kind that broke her already-tattered and abused heart His fear of losing her again filled the air with his screa as she listened to him shout her na, desperate to get away

His screaht "AIMEE!"

Chapter One