The Assassins of Light

by Britney Jackson

  Kara raised an eyebrow, as if she knew that Rose’s mind was elsewhere. “Aaron feels that you’re necessary for this mission, which is destroying the closest base…of the Assassins of Light. If you feel uncomfortable with that, you can tell me. I’ll talk to Aaron. I’ll argue your point for you. But if you want to be involved, I’ll support that decision as well. I’ll protect you, no matter what you choose.”

  “I choose to help,” Rose said. “I need to help. We have to stop this war.”

  Kara smiled. “I thought you’d say that,” she murmured. She reached out and traced Rose’s soft, gentle jawline with her fingertip. “You’re too brave, love.”

  Rose shivered a little at her touch. “You don’t have to protect me.”

  “I do,” Kara argued. “Not because you need it. But because I do.”

  Rose’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean?” she asked breathlessly.

  Kara straightened, suddenly, as the scent of blood flooded her senses.

  “Blood,” Rose realized, as intense, painful hunger burned throughout her body. She looked up at Kara as she realized something else. “It’s human blood.”

  13

  Strictly Business

  Kara turned and walked toward the door, following the scent of human blood, out into the foyer and then out the opened front door, to the dark lawn that stretched out in front of the house. She felt Rose rush past her, and then, she watched as Rose tore the vampire away from the human. With a soft sigh, she intervened before the vampire could retaliate against Rose for what he would interpret as an attack. When the vampire went for Rose’s throat, Kara slid swiftly between them, taking him by surprise. She grasped the front of his button-down shirt with one hand and, with the other hand, pressed a knife against his throat.

  Isaac froze, his eyes widening in fear, as the sharp blade dug into his skin.

  “You’re not going to kill her, Isaac,” Kara told him. “I won’t let you.”

  “She attacked me,” Isaac snarled at Kara. “I have a right to retaliate.”

  “You think I care about that?” Kara asked. “Back down, or I’ll kill you.”

  Kallias appeared in the doorway, his gaze shifting toward the human who was lying on the ground, nearly unconscious from blood loss. “What happened?”

  “I’m handling it,” Kara said without taking her eyes off of Isaac. “But if the human hasn’t lost too much blood, perhaps you could erase his memory.”

  Kallias nodded. “Get inside. It’ll be easier to do if I’m alone with him.”

  “Of course,” Kara agreed. Then, she shoved Isaac into the house with so much force that he nearly fell flat on his back. She watched as he straightened, as his eyes flashed dangerously. “Let it go, Isaac. I don’t want to have to kill you.” She smiled. “Actually, that’s a lie. I just don’t want to have to explain it to Aaron.”

  “You know you’re crossing a line,” Isaac snarled at her. “There are rules.”

  Rose closed the front door and came to stand beside Kara. She glanced back and forth between Kara and Isaac, swallowing uneasily, as she noticed their aggressive stances. “What is he talking about, Kara? What did I do wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Kara said gently. “You did nothing wrong, Rose.”

  “You attacked me,” Isaac growled at Rose. “I have the right to retaliate.”

  Rose frowned. “What? No. That’s not what I was doing,” she argued. “I wasn’t trying to attack you. I was just trying to stop you from killing that human.”

  Isaac scowled at her. “Is she fucking serious?” he growled at Kara.

  “What kind of former monk uses the F-word?” Rose muttered.

  His brows furrowed. “The…what? What are you even talking about?”

  “The word…that begins with an ‘F,’” Rose said slowly. “Obviously.”

  Kara chuckled. “Rose tends to shy away from vulgarity,” she explained.

  “And she’s dating you?” Isaac snarled with a look of disgust.

  “Actually, we’re not dating,” Rose corrected. “We’re just…umm…”

  Isaac glared at Rose. “I don’t want to hear about what you do together.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. “Oh, there’s the monk-part of him coming out.”

  “Don’t forget,” Kara added, “he wasn’t just a monk. He was a murderer.”

  “It’s only murder if you kill people,” Isaac argued. “I killed vampires.”

  “You do realize that you are a vampire, right?” Rose said. “Don’t you feel like a person? And even if humans were the only ones who counted, you literally just tried to kill one. By your own definition, that would make you a murderer.”

  “Can someone shut this bitch up?” Isaac said to no one in particular.

  Kara flashed a dangerous smile at him. “I’ve poisoned sixteen people this week and dismembered twenty-seven. Twenty-eight, if you insult her again.”

  Rose stared at Kara, her eyes wide. She slowly returned her gaze to the enraged, former Assassin and offered him an apologetic smile—that he didn’t deserve. “Kara takes her oath to protect me a little too seriously,” she explained.

  “I can see that,” Isaac snarled. Even though he continued to glare at both of them, making his hatred known, he didn’t insult Rose again, and he certainly didn’t try to attack Rose again. So, the threat had clearly done what Kara intended.

  Kara watched as he turned and disappeared into the living room. “He’s not as useful as he thinks he is. I don’t think anyone would complain if I killed him,” she said thoughtfully. When she noticed that Rose was watching her with both eyebrows raised, her lips twitched upward at the edges. “What?” she said with a guilty smile. She shrugged. “I’m nothing, if not a woman of her word.”

  Rose gave her a skeptical look.

  “A woman of her word who lies,” Kara amended, “a lot.”

  Rose tilted her head to the side, frowning at the paradoxical statement.

  “But I’m a spy and an assassin,” Kara added as she led the way toward the kitchen. She opened the door for Rose. “So, it doesn’t count when I lie.”

  Rose laughed, “I don’t think it works that way, but…nice try.” As she stepped into the kitchen, she nearly collided with her extremely nosy best friend.

  Audrey stood in the doorway, watching Kara nervously, as she scarfed down her fourth slice of pizza. “Rose,” she mumbled with a mouth full of pizza, “why did your scary, leather-wearing girlfriend threaten to murder the pizza guy?”

  Rose squeezed past Audrey, who had yet to move, and walked over to the counter, scowling at the overabundance of pizza. “She didn’t threaten to kill the pizza guy. She threatened to kill the vampire who tried to eat the pizza guy.”

  Audrey took several steps back as Kara entered the room. “Oh.”

  “There are only four people in this house who eat anything other than blood,” Rose complained. “Who the heck ordered a hundred boxes of pizza?”

  Audrey darted around behind Rose, as if she planned to use Rose as a human shield—or rather, a vampire shield—against Kara. “Erik,” she answered.

  Kara leaned against the counter, raising an eyebrow at Audrey’s behavior.

  “Figures,” Rose muttered. She frowned as she noticed Audrey hiding behind her. “Relax, Audrey. It’s fine,” she sighed. “Kara isn’t going to hurt you.”

  Audrey straightened, but she still kept Rose between herself and Kara.

  “Audrey is scared of vampires,” Rose explained to Kara, “especially the ones she doesn’t know, because Alana attacked Audrey a couple of weeks ago.”

  Kara nodded, and then, she shifted her icy blue gaze toward the terrified human beside Rose. “Don’t worry. We’re not all as psychotic as my ex-girlfriend.”

  “Ex-girlfriend?” Audrey sputtered, her eyes widening. “You dated her?”

  Kara shrugged one shoulder. “Ah, it wasn’t that serious,” she said with a playful smirk. “Our relationship only lasted about…fourteen hund
red years.”

  Audrey let out a terrified whimper.

  Rose gave Kara a peeved look before she turned her attention toward her easily-spooked friend. “Kara is nothing like Alana. Alana was a psychotic murderer hell-bent on destroying the entire world. Kara is none of those things.”

  “She literally just threatened to murder someone,” Audrey pointed out.

  “Technically, I only threatened to dismember him,” Kara corrected. “He is a vampire, so as long as I chose the right body parts, he’d probably survive.”

  “How does she even know that?” Audrey whimpered.

  Rose sighed in frustration. “Kara isn’t dangerous. I promise.”

  “I’m one of the most dangerous people in the world,” Kara argued.

  Rose glared at her. “Ninety-nine percent of everything you say is a lie, and you pick now to be honest?” she complained. “Can’t you just…help me out?”

  Kara’s lips tilted into a flirty smirk. “Of course. Anything for you, sexy,” she murmured. She looked at Audrey. “I will only hurt you if Rose asks me to.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. “Which is something I would never ask! Obviously.”

  “Rose,” Audrey whispered, leaning in close, “your girlfriend scares me.”

  Rose raised an eyebrow. “You know she can hear you, right?”

  Audrey’s wide, terrified eyes shifted toward Kara and widened even more.

  “And for the last time,” Rose added irritably, “she’s not my girlfriend.”

  Kara’s ice-blue gaze shifted toward Rose, sparkling with amusement.

  “Well, what else am I supposed to call her?” Audrey said. “Scary-Ninja-Woman-That-You-Keep-Insisting-Is-Just-A-Friend-But-Can’t-Stop-Kissing?”

  “Or…you could call her Kara,” Rose suggested, “since that’s her name.”

  Kara watched them with an amused smile. “It’s all right with me if you call me her girlfriend,” she told Audrey. “It’ll be true soon enough, anyway.”

  Rose turned toward Kara, barely able to hide her smile. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you that overconfidence is not an attractive quality?” she said sassily.

  “It’s only overconfidence if I’m wrong,” Kara countered, “and I’m not.”

  Rose raised an eyebrow. “You must’ve forgotten how stubborn I am.”

  Kara stepped closer, her light blue eyes sparkling with excitement. “You must’ve forgotten,” she said, her lips close enough to kiss, “that I love a challenge.”

  Rose watched the deep, sensual curve of Kara’s lips as her smile widened.

  Audrey glanced back and forth between them, her eyes wide. “Umm,” she stammered, “is it just me, or did it just get like seventy degrees hotter in here?”

  Rose blinked in shock, suddenly jolted back to reality. She stepped back.

  Kara just continued to smile, confidence radiating in her eyes. When she finally broke eye-contact with Rose, she asked, “I assume Erik has alcohol here?”

  Audrey pointed at one of the cabinets beside the refrigerator, and while Kara went to get a drink, Audrey picked up a napkin and started fanning herself with it. “For goodness sakes, Rose,” she whispered, “just take her to bed already!”

  Rose shot a peeved look at her best friend. “She can hear you, Audrey.”

  Audrey stopped fanning herself with the napkin and glanced at Kara, sighing irritably when she found Kara grinning back at her. “I hate vampires.”

  Kara returned with a bottle of whiskey and a short, square glass. She set the glass on the counter and unscrewed the lid from the bottle. Then, she tilted the bottle, pouring the whiskey into her small glass. When the amber-colored liquid nearly overflowed the glass, she finally set the bottle down and screwed the lid back onto it. Then, she turned toward Rose, her intense, light blue eyes dark with desire. She curled her warm fingers around Rose’s wrist and lifted it to her mouth. Rose watched curiously, blinking in surprise, as Kara planted a soft, chaste kiss on the inside of her wrist. She shivered at the soft warmth of Kara’s lips.

  “May I?” Kara murmured, gently grazing her fangs against Rose’s skin.

  Rose nearly moaned at the sensation. Her entire body responded to the possibility of Kara biting her, a needful ache traveling through her body, finding its destination between her legs. She nodded slowly. “Go ahead,” she breathed.

  Kara’s lips twitched up at the edges, into that mischievous smirk, and then, she sank her fangs into Rose’s wrist, moaning when she tasted Rose’s blood.

  “Eww,” Audrey complained, her eyes wide. “Why is she doing that?”

  Rose closed her eyes and let out a shaky, pleasant sigh. She reached out and gripped the counter tightly as she tried to regain composure enough to answer Audrey’s question. She watched as Kara stepped back, licking the blood from her lips, and tilted Rose’s wrist over the glass. “A lot of vampires spike their alcohol with blood,” she said breathlessly. “It’s the only way for them to feel the effects.”

  Audrey wrinkled her nose in disgust. “That’s so disgusting,” she whined.

  Kara laughed, her piercing, blue gaze shifting toward Audrey. “You’re in a house full of vampires, and you get squeamish at the sight of blood?” she teased.

  Audrey narrowed her eyes at Kara. “It’s not like I wanted to come here.”

  Kara returned her gaze to Rose as she bent her head toward Rose’s wrist. She smiled as she sensed Rose’s hunger and desire. Then, without breaking eye-contact with Rose, she licked the bite wound, slowly and sensually, enjoying the low, breathless moan that escaped Rose’s lips as she did. “Thank you, sexy.”

  Rose leaned heavily against the counter as she tried to calm her racing heart. It had only been one, tiny bite, but it had awoken an intense desire inside of her, a fire that burned beneath her skin. “I hate blood bonds,” she said again.

  Kara chuckled at her and lifted the glass to her lips. She sipped the blood-spiked whiskey, her eyes fluttering closed as those few drops of Rose’s blood took effect. She finished half of the glass quicker than most humans would drink water.

  Audrey watched her curiously. “So, will you…uh…get drunk now?”

  Kara snorted, “I’m a Viking. It takes more than that to affect me.”

  “You sound like Erik,” Audrey scoffed. Her eyebrows lifted when Kara lifted the glass to her lips again, finishing the rest of it. “Yeah. I’d be drunk.”

  “After one glass?” Kara said. “You wouldn’t have survived in my village.”

  “Well, the life expectancy was pretty low back then,” Rose pointed out.

  Audrey rolled her eyes. “She’s spouting out facts again. That’s my cue to pretend to have somewhere else to be,” she muttered. “Actually, I might not have to pretend, if Erik’s in his room. I’m sure I can find something to do with him.”

  Rose’s eyes widened. “What? Again? Are you serious?”

  “Hey, don’t take your sexual frustration out on me,” Audrey said firmly, pointing her finger at Rose. “Just because you’re too much of a chicken to jump into bed with Ninja-Girl, doesn’t mean I have to do without, too. So, goodnight!”

  Rose watched bewilderedly as Audrey sprinted toward the door. “I’m not sexually-frustrated,” she muttered indignantly, after Audrey left, “or chicken.”

  Kara set her glass on the counter and looked at Rose. “We need to talk.”

  Rose glanced at her, her chest fluttering with nervousness. “About…us?”

  Kara noticed the shakiness of Rose’s voice, and her intense, piercing blue eyes sparkled with amusement at the realization. “No. This is strictly business.”

  Rose breathed a small sigh of relief. “Oh. Yeah, okay. I can handle that.”

  Kara tilted her head a little, a mischievous smile twitching at the edges of her lips, as she watched Rose. “We’ll have to sneak out of the house, of course.”

  Rose’s eyes widened. “Sneak out? Of this house? The one that’s currently full of vampires? One of which happens
to be my overprotective boyfriend?”

  Kara leaned closer. “We can’t have anyone listening in, now can we?”

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Rose mumbled under her breath. “It’s hard enough to avoid kissing you when we’re in the house, around everyone else.”

  Kara lifted her eyebrows. “You’re just making it sound more appealing.”

  As Rose followed Kara toward the door, she chanted, “Strictly business. Strictly business. Strictly business,” over and over, as if it were some kind of mantra.

  Kara didn’t even bother to suppress her laughter. “Come along, sexy,” she snorted, as she opened the door for Rose. “We have vampires to sneak past.”

  —

  Rose and Kara practically ignored each other throughout the entire walk to the park—unless you counted all of the accidental staring Rose had done, but Rose was, of course, not counting that. She didn’t know the city well enough to know which park Kara had brought her to, but it didn’t seem to be a popular one.

  Much of it looked wild and overgrown, but that didn’t take away from its beauty. As a matter of fact, in a sense, it added to it. There was something kind of beautiful about nature reclaiming something that humans had neglected.

  Rose stopped abruptly when she realized that she could no longer hear Kara’s footsteps. “Kara?” she called out. She spun around, her brows furrowing.

  Kara knelt beside a neglected, dying rose bush. Her sleek, black and blue hair fell around her face, and her leather pants stretched tight around her thighs, as she scooped up a fallen, dark red rose from the ground. Rose watched her with a frown as she straightened, cradling the rose in both hands. “Take it,” she said.

  “I don’t have a lot of experience with dating,” Rose said sassily, “but the last time I checked, giving a woman flowers implied more than…strictly business.”

  The moonlight, streaming in through the trees, caused the blue strands of Kara’s hair to shine in the darkness. She chuckled, “Just take the flower, Rose.”