The Assassins of Light

by Britney Jackson

  Of course, Erik just had to make things worse. “Actually, Rose did die a virgin,” he said, ignoring Rose’s murderous glare, “and Kara is definitely her lover.”

  Rose turned toward him, pinning him with a blank stare. “Am I the only one here who understands that some things are freaking personal?!” she hissed.

  “I’m a Viking,” Erik reminded her. “Nothing was too personal for us.”

  “Did Vikings like to exaggerate, too? Because it seems like it,” Rose said.

  Audrey watched them, her eyebrows high. She shifted her bemused gaze to Kallias, who had an exasperated look on his face. “Are they always like this?”

  Kallias nodded. “They bicker like siblings,” he said. “Very sassy siblings.”

  A sudden knock at the door startled them. They’d become so engaged in conversation, so acclimated to the many scents that surrounded them in the small, crowded apartment complex, that they hadn’t noticed the person approaching.

  Audrey let out a cry of fear and slid back against the headboard of the bed, pulling her blankets over her, as if that would protect her. Her heart raced at a dangerously rapid pace as she began to panic, as her dream replayed in her mind.

  Rose reached over and touched Audrey’s arm, hoping to offer her some kind of reassurance, some form of comfort. “Erik?” she whispered. “Please?”

  Erik nodded easily and circled around the bed, toward Audrey’s side. He placed his hand on her shoulder and used his empathic abilities to soothe her fear.

  “Were you expecting anyone,” Rose asked Audrey, “other than us?”

  Audrey shook her head, her lips trembling. “This is it. I’m going to die.”

  “No, you’re not,” Rose whispered, leaning closer to Audrey. “We won’t let that happen. Besides, this isn’t what happened in the dream. This is different.”

  “In the dream, I was outside,” Audrey confirmed, “and it was daytime.”

  “It’s a human,” Kallias told them quietly. “Should I open the door?”

  “No!” Audrey shrieked, her hazel eyes widening. “Don’t you dare!”

  The human knocked again. Louder this time.

  “Ask them who they are,” Rose whispered to Audrey. “Just like you did with us. We’re still here. The door is still locked. Just…ask them who they are.”

  “No!” Audrey said vehemently, shaking her head. “I can’t. You do it.”

  “If I call out, they might recognize my voice,” Rose explained in a calm, soothing voice. “They know you’re here, but they might not know that we are.”

  “And if it is an Assassin of Light, and they realize that we are in here,” Kallias said, “it’s only going to put you in more danger. So, you need to do this.”

  Audrey looked back and forth between them. “Who’s there?” she yelled.

  The man’s voice sounded too quiet and muffled as it echoed through the door, as if he were trying not to attract attention. “Audrey, I need to talk to you.”

  Rose straightened as she recognized that voice. “It’s Owen,” she hissed.

  Audrey’s face turned about three shades paler. “Go away!” she shrieked.

  A quiet thud reverberated against the door, as if someone had just rested their head against it. “You already know, then. About Jared. Don’t you?” he said quietly. “I figured you might…because of your dreams. Okay. In that case, I’ll just have to say this through the door. I need you to get a message to Rose. Jared watches my phone, so I can’t do it myself. The Assassins of Light are after her.”

  Rose jumped out of bed. “Owen, wait!” she called out. “Don’t leave!”

  Kallias stepped between her and the door. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Rose sighed irritably. In such a small apartment, the only way around this tall, muscular roadblock was for him to voluntarily step out of the way. “He came to warn me, Kallias. That means he’s not our enemy. And he might be in danger.”

  “Rose?” Owen hissed. “What are you doing here? You have to leave!”

  Rose gestured toward the door, as if Owen had just proved her point.

  “He might be doing this for Jared,” Kallias said. “He might be lying.”

  “I need to go,” Owen said suddenly. “I’m sorry, Rose. I can’t stay here long. Jared might be tracking the GPS on my car. If I’d known you were here, I wouldn’t have come. Please, just…leave. Get as far away from here as possible.”

  “Kallias, move out of my way. Now,” Rose growled. “If I let him leave, and he gets killed because of this, I will never forgive myself. So, please. Move.”

  “You’re too trusting,” Kallias grumbled. But he stepped aside, anyway.

  Rose opened the door and grasped Owen’s forearm, just as he turned to leave. Before he could object, she pulled him into the apartment with them.

  Owen’s greenish-brown gaze darted around the room, flashing with fear as he noticed Erik and Kallias. “Rose, I really shouldn’t be here,” he sighed. “I only just realized, this morning, that Jared has been tapping my phone lines. I left my phone at my apartment, but there’s no telling what else he’s been doing.”

  Rose put all of the deadbolt locks back into place before turning around to face Owen. He stood just inside the room, his black pants and white button-down shirt wrinkled from his rush over. “Jared’s been spying on you?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I know,” Owen said. “Really bad boyfriend behavior. I would’ve broken up with him for it, but I was kind of busy trying to get a warning to you.”

  Rose’s brows furrowed. “How did you find out that I’m in danger?”

  Owen raked his fingers through his short, brownish-blonde hair, which, surprisingly, was clean of hair gel today. “Jared is part of an organization called the Assassins of Light. Their mission is to protect the world from vampires.”

  “Yeah, we’ve already had a few run-ins with them,” Rose assured him.

  “And they’re not protecting the world from vampires,” Kallias growled, startling Owen with his loud, hostile tone. “They’re just killing us. Out of hatred.”

  “I just said that it was their mission,” Owen said defensively, purposely avoiding Kallias’s gaze. “I never said that it was what they’re actually doing.”

  “If that’s their mission,” Audrey said, climbing out of bed and storming toward Owen, “then, why does your crazy boyfriend want to kill me? I’m a human!”

  “What?” Owen said. He wrinkled his nose and swept his gaze down to her frazzled, unwashed clothes. “And how long has it been since you showered?”

  “People get hacked to death in showers!” Audrey exclaimed dramatically.

  “It’s not really that common,” Rose told Audrey with a bemused frown. “It’s just a horror movie cliché. Most shower deaths are actually just accidents.”

  “Do not use logic on me,” Audrey snarled, pointing her finger at Rose.

  Rose raised both eyebrows. “I’m so sorry for offending you with facts.”

  “Wait. What is she talking about?” Owen asked Rose, pointing at the very paranoid woman who resembled Rose’s formerly fearless best friend. “Why does she think that Jared would kill her? The Assassins of Light are after you, not her.”

  “Audrey had a dream that Jared killed her,” Rose said gently. She wasn’t sure how much bad news Owen could handle in one day. “A precognitive dream.”

  “What?” Owen breathed, his hazel eyes widening with shock. He shifted his gaze toward Audrey. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would he kill a human?”

  Audrey planted her hands on her hips. “He’s your boyfriend. You tell me.”

  “In the dream, he told her that it was a message for me,” Rose explained.

  “Surely not,” Owen said breathlessly. But even as he said it, Rose could see the wheels turning in his head. She could see that it was starting to make sense.

  “Did you tell Jared about Audrey’s dreams?” Erik asked curiously.

  Owen stared deliber
ately at Rose, as if he were trying not to look at Erik or Kallias. “No. If she dreamed it, then he must’ve been given the order to do it.”

  “That’s what he said in the dream,” Audrey said bitterly. Her golden eyes narrowed at the memory. “He said he was just following orders. Then, he shot me.”

  Rose raised an eyebrow. “That’s what the Nazis said, too,” she muttered.

  “That’s what all soldiers say,” Kallias said, “when they do terrible things.”

  Rose sighed. “All soldiers aren’t bad,” she reminded him, fully aware of why he disliked soldiers so much. His abusive father had been a soldier in Ancient Greece. She tilted her head toward Erik. “Your best friend used to be a warrior, remember? You have to be careful not to transfer your anger for one person to an entire group of people. That’s what the Assassins of Light have done to us.”

  Kallias nodded, reluctantly acknowledging that she was right about that.

  “I’m sorry,” Owen said suddenly. A pained look twisted at his face as he turned toward Rose. “I did that. For a long time. I bought into the idea that Jared’s family pushed onto me—the idea that all vampires are evil. The idea that I should hate all vampires because of what happened to my parents. Even when I found out that you were one, it took me a few days to realize that…I can’t hate you.”

  Audrey’s gaze darted back and forth between Owen and Rose. “Wait,” she said to Owen, “are you saying that you’re okay with her being a vampire?”

  Owen frowned. “No. I’m not saying I’m okay with it, exactly. I’m just realizing that it’s not something she can help, and it doesn’t change who she is.”

  “It does too change who she is!” Audrey argued. “She’s a monster now!”

  “I thought so, too. At first,” Owen told her, “but when the telepathic vampire, Alana, attacked us, Rose did everything she could to protect us. That tells me she’s still the same person. It took me a few days to realize it, but I have now. Vampires still scare the hell out of me, but my fear is my problem, not hers.”

  Rose threw her arms around Owen’s neck and pulled him close. “I knew it! I never stopped believing in you. Even when I heard about Audrey’s dream.”

  “Great,” Kallias said. “Now, she feels gratified for her irrational trust.”

  Erik laughed, “Just face it. The universe likes to prove Rose right.”

  “It either really likes her or really hates her,” Kallias muttered.

  Owen folded his arms around her, returning the hug. “You have no idea how much danger you’re in right now,” he told her quietly. “I’m scared for you.”

  Rose frowned at the shakiness she heard in his voice. “I’ll be all right.”

  “I hate to rush the moment,” Kallias interrupted, “but we need to hurry.”

  Owen nodded. “Yes, you do,” he agreed. He stepped back and looked down at Rose. “As soon as the Assassins of Light realize you’re here, they’ll come after you, and Rose, they’re a lot bigger and a lot more powerful than you think. They’ve been preparing for this war for centuries. Do not underestimate them.”

  “Wait, we’re really doing this?” Audrey asked, nervousness flashing in her amber-colored eyes. “I’m just supposed to leave my home? With vampires?”

  “Only if you want to survive,” Kallias said with an impatient glare.

  “I…I need to pack,” Audrey stammered. “Can I at least pack a bag first?”

  “Pack one bag. Just the essentials,” Kallias sighed. “I’ll go start the car.”

  Rose watched as Kallias left the apartment and descended the stairwell. “Hey, Owen,” she said, as they, too, stepped out of the apartment. Erik stayed back with Audrey to keep a closer eye on her, just in case something happened. “Do you happen to know why the Assassins of Light are so interested in me?”

  Owen shrugged. “I don’t know much,” he admitted. “There are a lot of things that Jared never told me, that he probably wasn’t allowed to tell me.” He regarded Rose with a worried frown. “He did say that you killed some Assassins?”

  He sounded worried but still skeptical, and Rose appreciated that he was still trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, at least. “I didn’t kill anyone,” she said, frowning at the strange accusation. “The Assassins of Light tried to kill me.”

  “But they didn’t succeed,” Owen said, “and apparently, the Assassins of Light that attacked you never returned. According to Jared, they were murdered.”

  “Aaron killed them, obviously,” Rose said, rolling her eyes. The rusted metal stairs creaked beneath their feet as they descended them. “Why would the Assassins of Light think I killed them? I didn’t even think they knew about me.”

  “Aaron?” Owen gasped, his eyes widening. “Wait. You mean the Aaron?”

  Rose raised an eyebrow. “You realize Aaron is a common name, right?”

  “As in…Aaron?” Owen said, grasping Rose’s elbow to stop her. “The four-thousand-year-old vampire? The ruthless leader of the Tomb of Blood?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Rose said, scowling at him, “that sounds like our Aaron.”

  “What were you doing with him?” Owen said. “He’s as evil as it gets.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Rose said with a skeptical frown. “He’s pretty terrible, but I happen to know of some people who were more evil than him.”

  “Rose,” Owen said, shaking his head. “You don’t know what he’s done.”

  “You remember Alana, don’t you?” Rose said, her eyebrows lifting. “Did Jared happen to tell you about her plan? I assume the Assassins of Light knew.”

  Owen shrugged. “They know what she did but not why she did it.”

  “She wanted war,” Rose told him. “She hated humans because of what happened to her, and she wanted to create a war that would end humanity. Even if it meant killing thousands of her own kind. Even if it destroyed the world.”

  Owen exhaled shakily. “That sounds a little like the Assassins of Light.”

  “Exactly,” Rose said, “and all that stands between the world and this war that both hate-filled sides seem to want are those of us who are trying to stop it.”

  Owen nodded. “What does this have to do with Aaron?” he asked.

  “He’s one of the ones trying to stop it,” Rose explained. She sighed, “It would be nice if morality was always black and white, always good versus evil, but it’s not. Sometimes, the best we can do is prevent the worst from happening.”

  An eerie click echoed in the night air, and a chill ran down Rose’s spine as she realized that they weren’t alone, that she could hear an extra heartbeat.

  Owen glanced toward the bottom of the stairwell, at the stout, dark man standing below them, pointing a gun directly at Rose. “Jared?” he said nervously.

  Jared’s dark eyes bore straight into Rose, burning with a hatred that Rose had never seen in them before. “I knew you’d warn her,” he said to Owen, a bitter edge to his voice. “Come down here. I don’t want to shoot her with you so close.”

  Owen straightened his shoulders. “No,” he snarled. “Rose is my friend.”

  “Your friend died,” Jared argued. “The thing beside you is a monster.”

  “Owen,” Rose said, her brows knitted with worry and fear, “you should do as he says. I can protect myself. I don’t want you putting yourself in danger.”

  “No,” Owen muttered. He stepped in front of Rose. “He won’t shoot me, so you’re safe as long as I stand here. And I need to make him listen to me.”

  Jared didn’t lower the gun. His hand didn’t even tremble. “Move, Owen,” he growled. “I don’t want to hurt you, but if I have no other choice, I will.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Owen snarled, his hazel flashing with anger.

  “Owen, please, move,” Rose hissed. “I can protect you from the bullet, but I can’t protect you from the emotional pain you’ll feel when he does this.”

  “He won’t do it,” Owen insisted. “Surely, he won’t.
He wouldn’t kill me.”

  “Last chance,” Jared said, and then, after a moment, he pulled the trigger.

  A brief, blood-red spark flashed in Rose’s eyes as she used her telekinetic abilities to stop the bullet. It froze in the air, hovering between Jared and them.

  Jared didn’t have time to react to that startling realization because Kallias suddenly grabbed him from behind and slammed him face-first into a nearby car.

  Erik and Audrey ran out of the apartment when they heard the gunshot, and a few other people came out of their apartments as well. Rose glanced around nervously at the humans, and then, she let the bullet fall safely to the ground.

  “He tried to shoot me,” Owen mumbled, stunned by the realization.

  Rose reached out and grasped his arm—for two reasons: first, to pull him behind her, in case something else happened, and second, to comfort him in some small way. She watched warily as more people came out of their apartments.

  “You’d think they would stay inside where they’re safe,” Erik muttered, as he and Audrey descended the stairs and came to stand behind Rose and Owen.

  “Curiosity is a powerful force,” Rose said. “It also kills cats, apparently.”

  Blood poured down Jared’s face as Kallias held him against the old, beat-up car. “Go ahead. Kill me,” he growled at Kallias, a smile pulling at one side of his bloodied lips. “Do it gruesomely. Show them what vampires are really like.”

  Kallias glanced around at the crowd of humans who were watching them.

  Rose raced down the steps. “Kallias,” she whispered, “we need to leave now. All of these people heard that gunshot. Someone’s called the police by now.”

  “Police won’t be a problem,” Kallias said. “I can control their minds.”

  “Someone just fired a gun at another person. They’ll send more than one or two cops. You can count on that. Reporters will come, too, and what happens when they show up?” Rose asked. “Do your telepathic abilities work on cameras?”

  Kallias froze, anxiety flashing in his light brown eyes. He looked at Erik.

  Erik understood his facial expression as easily as he would’ve understood words, and without hesitating, Erik grabbed Audrey and Owen and started pulling them down the stairs. And then, they were all racing across the parking lot, toward the car. They barely had time to shut the doors before Kallias slammed his foot on the gas pedal. The car jolted forward so abruptly that they slid into each other.