Assassin (Starlight Book 1)

by D. N. Hoxa

  10

  ——————————

  My body began to hum as I slept. It hummed with electricity, kind of like it had while Jonah tortured me, but not quite. This electricity was different. It was more potent. I felt my eyelids shaking.

  Was it really happening? Or was I dreaming?

  The last thing I remembered was falling asleep in the hospital bed. And now…now, I was being electrocuted.

  “Wake up, sleeping beauty.”

  The voice was definitely not from a dream. It just didn’t have that feel to it. And as the realization hit me, the pain grew and grew and grew until my eyes opened on their own will.

  “Come on, you can’t even take a little bit of electricity?” the voice said again and whoever it was, she sounded disappointed. My mouth was filled with saliva that dripped out of my lips. I couldn’t say where it hurt the most because my whole body felt like it was on fire. No, this was nothing like what Jonah did. This was a thousand times more terrifying. “Fine.”

  The electricity stopped. My mouth opened and closed as I tried to fill my lungs with air. My muscles were killing me. Even my bones hurt.

  But the pain began to ease after a few seconds, and the view in front of me started to clear. The woman who’d electrocuted me had white hair cut close to her chin and brilliant green eyes. She wore a nurse’s uniform and grinned as she watched me try to get my body under control. It was so hard to do now that I could look at her, and my stomach felt like it wasn’t my own. That awful feeling had returned. There was no doubt in my mind that she was there, in my hospital room, to end me.

  “Tell me where he hid it last time, right now, and I promise you, I’ll make this quick. You won’t feel a thing,” she said and slowly ran her index finger down my arm. Small sparks fired as her skin touched mine, and I shivered uncontrollably.

  “Please,” I managed to whisper. She had to stop touching me. The pain had just began to subside, and I would do almost anything to make sure it didn’t come back.

  “There really is no need to beg, Star Watson. Just tell me where it was, and all of this will be over before you can blink.” She sounded like she meant every word.

  This woman was really going to kill me. Strangely though, I didn’t even think about me. All I could think about was my dad and Ella, and the metal IV-pole by my side that I could hit the woman with. Couldn’t tell you how I did it. I was never a violent person. I never even killed spiders or flies. But that night, as the woman who was going to kill me stood by one side and the IV holder on the other, I reached for the latter and swung it so hard, I was sure my arm was going to detach from my body.

  It didn’t. Instead, the woman who was there to kill me fell against the wall three feet away, her face covered in blood. The catheters still attached to the IV tubing pulled out of my hand. I bled as they came out, but I didn’t mind. I stood up, pain forgotten, and I grabbed the IV pole and hit the woman again. To say she hadn’t been expecting a fight would be an understatement. She let me hit her another two times before she came to her senses and threw me on my bed while she cursed.

  “You little bitch,” she hissed and wrapped her small fingers around my ankle.

  There it was again. The humming spread from there and up my leg, but my other one was free and so I used it to hit her on the chest as many times as I could until she finally let me go.

  Stars in my vision. I blinked them away before I sat up on the bed again, thinking, someone must’ve heard us. By then, the nurses had to be running for my room. They would soon be there, and I would be safe.

  But before that happened, the woman grabbed me by the throat. I tried to fight her for about two seconds until electricity consumed every inch of me. My hair must’ve been on fire, or so it felt.

  “You don’t value your own life, and that’s okay,” the woman whispered as she watched me, her face covered in blood. “But do tell me, do you value the life of others? Say, your father and your little sister? She’s quite the charmer with those golden locks and those big green eyes. I wonder how hard she’d cry if I did the same thing to her while you watched.”

  My body froze. I could no longer feel the electricity. Ella. She was threatening my Ella. I have no idea where I got the strength, but my hands and feet started to hit her hard and fast, even while she electrocuted me. She needed to die first. I didn’t care about me, but I was going to kill her before I let her get to Ella. I was going to kill her and every other person in her group.

  When I least expected it, she let me go. My legs were weak, so I fell on the floor and hit my back hard on the side of the bed. She was looking at the door and once the electricity let go of me, I heard it, too.

  Footsteps. A lot of footsteps coming our way.

  Before I knew it, the woman ran for the door and disappeared through it.

  Standing up was out of the question, but I could drag myself after her. I couldn’t let her go. She knew Ella. If something happened to my sister…

  The door opened and Uncle Sam walked in, looking like he was ready to set something on fire. Behind him there was a man, a very big man dressed in all black. He looked like someone who could fight.

  “Star,” Uncle Sam said and tried to pull me up.

  “The woman,” I whispered. “Please, go get her. My family…”

  “We have her, Star. Don’t worry. We have her,” Uncle Sam said.

  I’d been more quick to believe him when he told me that magic existed. But this was my family we were talking about.

  “Are you sure? I need to see.”

  I needed to see her face and feel her pulse. I needed to know she was dead.

  “Yes, I’m sure. And what you need is rest. There’s something I need to talk to you about,” Uncle Sam said. He then looked at the man in black, still standing by the door, and nodded. The man stepped outside without a single word.

  “Are you sure—”

  “Yes, Star. I’m very sure. Close your eyes and get some rest,” Uncle Sam insisted. He pulled the covers up and took my left hand in his, the one bloody from the IV. “Go on. Close them,” he ordered, and I did, just as tears began to spill.

  I just couldn’t understand what was happening. I didn’t even want to. All I wanted was to go back to the day before when all had been fine and my family hadn’t been in danger.

  But even I knew that you couldn’t turn back time no matter how hard you wish it.

  11

  ——————————

  Uncle Sam spoke, but the meaning of his words just wouldn’t reach my ears. I blinked and blinked and tried to read his lips, expecting them to form other words—different words, but they were still the same after the tenth time.

  “It seems you have magic in you, Star. We think you might be a witch.”

  I was in the hospital still, lying on the same bed. An awful smell of burning hair made me want to throw up. A thousand different things were demanding my attention like never before. The smell, the way my fingers were shaking, the way my lips felt so dry, how the bruises on my arms had already healed…

  “Star, look at me.” Uncle Sam’s demand was the strongest. My eyes met his. “Can you hear me?”

  “Yes.” I just couldn’t understand him.

  “I need you to snap out of it, right now. Star, your family is in danger.”

  The whole world came to a halt. “What?”

  “Your family. I sent some people to watch over them tonight, and they were attacked by the Rebels. That’s why I came here and found you…” Lying on the floor, my body still humming with electricity.

  I sat up. “Where are they?” My dad and my sister had been attacked. Why hadn’t I thought about that before I let them go home?

  “They’re home. They’re fine, I promise you. Perfectly fine.”

  I tried to stand up, but Uncle Sam didn’t let me. He pushed me down on the bed gently and I let him. “I need to see them.”

  “They’re asleep. The RR didn’t even make it inside
the house. I’ve already doubled the number—”

  “How did you know to send people over there?” And why hadn’t he left someone with me? I could’ve done without the blonde woman who fried my brains for half an hour.

  “I didn’t. I just knew that you’d be devastated if something happened to them, so I just wanted to make sure they were safe.” And he was right. “After all, all of this is my fault.” And it was.

  “What do they want from me? I don’t know where you hid that book anymore. What the hell do they want from me?”

  I was afraid, more so than ever. If they’d attacked my family once, they were going to do it again. And what would I do if something happened to them?

  “They want to know where it was the last time, Star,” Uncle Sam said reluctantly.

  “I’m going to tell them.”

  I looked at him straight in the eyes. When it came to protecting my family, I was going to give his secret away the next time a Red Rebel came to torture me.

  “I understand that, but, Star, you can’t wait around for them to find you again. Like I said, you have magic in you. It’s—”

  “Are you out of your mind? I don’t have anything in me! I just want this nightmare to be over for me and for my family, so I’m telling you now that I will give your secret away.”

  And I wasn’t even going to be sorry.

  Uncle Sam took a step away from the bed. “I don’t care about the damned secret anymore. You can tell whoever you want. You’re not listening to me, Star. You’re a—”

  “Stop it!” I hissed because I knew what he was going to say. That I had magic in me. What a fucking joke.

  “If you want to save your family, you’ll keep your mouth shut and hear me out.”

  Now that changed things a bit. “I’m listening.”

  “After I told the Council about you, they agreed to place guards around your family’s house because they, too, thought that it was suspicious that you’d felt the intentions of the people who kidnapped you from my store,” Uncle Sam said. “A member of the Council came with me here to test you, but there wasn’t any need for that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The woman that electrocuted you. Her power would’ve killed a human being at first touch. You would’ve been fried before you could take a breath the second she touched you,” Uncle Sam said.

  “I don’t…” I didn’t get it. What did that have to do with anything?

  “Your blood, Star. Your blood has healing properties in it, properties that are only there because of the magic that courses through your veins.” I would’ve laughed if he didn’t sound so serious. “The Council member confirmed it, too.”

  Confirmed it. Confirmed what? That I was a witch?

  “It can’t be. It’s…just impossible.” I was almost eighteen years old now, and I would’ve noticed before if I had magic in me.

  “I know this is a lot to take in, but it’s the truth. You have to believe me.”

  “How can I?”

  Before Uncle Sam could answer, someone knocked on the door. It was one of those men, dressed in all black, and he walked in like he owned the room.

  “We have to leave, now. Master Samayan is waiting,” he said, his voice ice cold and deep. It brought shivers all over me.

  “I need another sec—” but the man didn’t let Uncle Sam speak.

  “Master’s orders. We leave in three minutes.” And he walked out and closed the door again.

  “I’m really sorry, Star, but we have to get going,” Uncle Sam said after a long sigh. He grabbed my arm and sat me up on the bed before he put a brown coat around my shoulders.

  “I want to go home.”

  I realized how that made me sound, but that was all I wanted. To go home to my family and fall asleep on my own bed and pretend none of this bullshit ever happened.

  “You can’t,” Uncle Sam said as he pulled me to my feet. “You need to leave Philadelphia right away.”

  “And I will. Tomorrow. After I’ve spoken to my family.” It had been my plan all along.

  The door opened again, and the same man in black walked in. Without a word, he put an arm under my legs and another around my back and pulled me up.

  “Let go of me,” I said, terrified and shocked. He had no right to grab me like that, and when I saw that he didn’t care, I pushed him off.

  “Star, calm down. We’re taking you to safety,” Uncle Sam kept saying as he followed us into the hallway. I was so weak. I didn’t have it in me to fight for much longer. I surrendered into the man’s arms much too soon.

  “My family,” I said to Uncle Sam.

  “They’ll be all right, Star. They’re protected better than us.”

  I wanted to believe him but I couldn’t make myself stay awake for long enough to assess the sound of his voice and decide if he was sincere. The next time I woke up, I was no longer in the hospital.

  12

  ———————————

  Present

  I’d left my family, the people I’d woken up every morning for. I let them think I was dead for four years! All because I knew that that was the only way I could keep them safe if I wanted to spend my life making sure that the people who tore us apart were stopped. I’d trusted the Council—I’d trusted Uncle Sam when he said that my family was going to be safe, settled somewhere outside of America—I didn’t even know where, just in case I was spelled while being tortured into telling secrets. You never knew what could happen in my line of business. They were supposed to get half my pay every single month. It would enable them to make a perfectly comfortable life.

  All was good that way. They were away from danger. I was away from them.

  And now, as I was crossing the street to get myself a latte, my little sister was there. She was right in front of me?

  How could that be? She was supposed to be somewhere far away. Possibly Europe. Anywhere but there where my enemies could get to her.

  I blinked and blinked as she waited for the light to turn green before crossing the road, and two minutes later, she was still there. I wasn’t imagining her. I would recognize her face anywhere at all, not just because I knew my sister, but because she was the spitting image of my mother, too.

  She’d grown taller and had cut her hair shorter than the last time I’d seen her, but she’d been just a kid back then. I wished I could run after her and look into her once bright eyes just to see how she was, but I couldn’t. I was frozen in place, half afraid she’d see me, half excited she would.

  She didn’t.

  With her shoulders hunched, she crossed the road and disappeared in the sea of people rushing to get to their business. Air came back into my lungs with a vengeance, weighing a thousand pounds. My legs gave, and I sat on the sidewalk, still shaking. I tried to remember the day I’d agreed to leave them. Uncle Sam’s face. His words. The way he’d promised me that they would be safe, far away from me. That had been the only reason I’d agreed to go to the Academy, to train and to kill for the Council.

  With shaking hands, I took my phone from my pocket and dialed Uncle Sam’s number. I hadn’t seen or spoken to the man in a long time, but I didn’t care.

  “Hello?” he answered after the second ring.

  “I trusted you,” I hissed. I trusted him with my family.

  “Star?” His voice was barely a whisper.

  “I trusted you with them. You promised me they would be safe, far away from here. You promised me!” I shouted.

  People could have been watching—I didn’t give a damn. The man who’d brought me into this game involuntarily by hiding his fucking secret in my head, the man I trusted the most in the twisted world of supernaturals had done nothing but lie to me.

  “They are safe, Star. They’re watched twenty-four seven by guards—”

  “Spare me,” I cut him off. I’d seen her right there, and she was alone. There were no guards following her or making sure she was safe. My stomach was on fire. “Whoever ordered t
his and whoever approved it, you’re all dead.” I didn’t make jokes, not when it came to taking lives.

  “Star, please…” But my patience had already run out. I hung up the phone and stood up, breathing fire. I started a message to McGraw next.

  I saw my sister in New York. I will not spare anyone responsible for this. They’ve betrayed my trust and they’re going to pay.

  I hit send without reading the message again, and I put my phone away. I turned around and headed back to the hotel—screw the latte. I had plans to make against the people I’d worked with for so long.

  What the hell did they think, that I wouldn’t find out?

  Probably, because I’d been so stupid as not to even ask around about them. I was terrified of finding out where they were and then of someone holding me hostage. Making me tell.

  But it didn’t matter now. I had an RR meeting to ruin, and tomorrow morning, I’d be at Samuel’s apartment with a knife to his throat until he told me exactly who was to blame for this. I hoped they were ready because I was not the little girl they took in four years ago.

  No, I was a completely different person now.

  13

  ——————————

  Four years ago

  The room was small, but it smelled nice. I was lying on another bed, a more comfortable one, and Uncle Sam sat right next to my feet. Dark grey drapes were pulled in front of the windows to my side, but a sunray or two slipped past to tell me that it was already daylight outside.

  “Are you feeling well?”

  At the sound of Uncle Sam’s voice, the night before came back to me. The woman with blonde hair. The huge men in black…I sat up and black dots filled my vision.

  “Where are they?”