The Assassins of Light

by Britney Jackson

  Owen lifted his eyebrows and shrugged. “I guess she’s in a good mood.”

  Audrey watched as Rose danced around the kitchen, gathering up empty pizza boxes and tossing them into trash cans. “But why is she in a good mood?”

  An amused smile twitched at Owen’s lips. “Rose,” he sang, drawing out her name. She stopped and glanced at him warily, her bright blue eyes wide, like a deer caught in the headlights. He laughed. “Did you, by any chance, get laid?”

  Rose bit her lip to suppress the embarrassed smile that was threatening to break through, but unfortunately, she couldn’t prevent her face from turning sixty-two different shades of red. “What?” she laughed nervously. She shook her head too quickly, her lips pressed tightly together. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Holy freaking Picasso! She totally did!” Audrey shrieked in delight.

  Rose’s eyes widened, and she sprinted over to them, waving her hands frantically. “Okay, okay! Shhhh!” she hissed. “Goodness gracious, I don’t need everyone knowing my personal business.” She crossed her arms across her chest.

  Audrey nudged Owen with her shoulder. “She’s trying to be angry at us, and she’s still smiling. It must have been some really good sex,” she whispered.

  Rose sighed irritably. “Would you two act your age?” she complained.

  “I don’t think any of us know how to do that,” Audrey said, shrugging.

  “So, uh,” Rose mumbled awkwardly, “what is the news showing today?”

  “Oh, honey, no,” Audrey drawled, shaking her head. “You’re not getting off that easily.” She grabbed Rose’s arm and dragged Rose into the empty chair beside her. “You have to give us details! Like…what was it like? How big is he?”

  That word—he—sent a shockwave of emotion and awareness into her mind, shattering the post-coital bliss that had temporarily disoriented her mind. And before Audrey could figure out what had happened, Rose stood and headed toward the door. Audrey called after her, but she didn’t respond. She just left.

  Erik nearly collided with her as she wandered tiredly out of the room. He turned and watched her with a frown, as he sensed her agonizing emotions.

  “I don’t understand,” Audrey mumbled. “Did I say something wrong?”

  Owen shrugged and picked up a breadstick. “Well, you did ask for a pretty private detail about her boyfriend. Maybe that offended her,” he suggested.

  Audrey gave him a skeptical look. “She’s not that uptight,” she muttered.

  Erik closed the door behind him and headed over to the table in the middle of the room. He leaned over Audrey and Owen so that he could grab a slice of pizza. Then, he leaned against the counter behind him, his half-buttoned shirt falling open to reveal some of the black ink of his tattoo. “What exactly did you say?” he asked as he bit into his pizza. “Right before she started acting weird.”

  Audrey leaned toward him conspiratorially. “Rose had sex last night.”

  He snorted. “It’s about time,” he said with a mouthful of cheese pizza.

  Audrey nodded. “But then, I asked for details, and she just freaked out.”

  “She didn’t just ask for details,” Owen corrected. “Apparently, that’s not nosy enough for Audrey. She had to go for broke and ask for Kallias’s penis size.”

  “Oh, come on,” Audrey said defensively. “Rose knows how I am. She wouldn’t get offended by that. I’ve been way more inappropriate than that before.”

  Erik stopped eating and stared at her as he connected the dots in his head. He sighed and set his half-eaten slice of pizza down on an empty plate—a plate that must’ve been Audrey’s, if the glare she gave him were any indication. He wiped his greasy fingers on his shirt. “She didn’t get upset because Audrey was nosy,” he told Owen. “She got upset because Audrey mentioned Kallias.”

  Audrey threw her hands up. “Why the heck would that bother her? Why wouldn’t she want to talk about the guy she just had sex with?” she complained.

  Erik lifted his eyebrows. “Because it wasn’t him that she had sex with.”

  Owen nodded. “It was Kara,” he explained to a very confused Audrey.

  “Oh!” Audrey exclaimed, her eyes widening. “Oh, shit. That’s…wow.”

  “I’ll go talk to her,” Erik told them, as he headed toward the door.

  Erik found her in the living room. She sat on the sofa, on the edge of her seat, and she leaned over the coffee table, her thick, red hair falling forward and hiding her face, as she scanned the newspaper. He sat down beside her, watching her brows furrow as she studied the news headlines. “What are you doing?”

  “An apocalyptic world war could start at any moment,” Rose said dryly, her eyebrows lifting, “and you’re asking me why I’m reading the newspaper?”

  So, Erik decided to skip the small talk. “Who broke up with whom?”

  Rose didn’t even ask how he knew. Erik could see through her almost as easily as Kallias and Kara could. “Kallias broke up with me, and I…deserved it.”

  Erik nodded. “And you and Kara,” he pried, “you’re together now?”

  “Yeah,” Rose said softly. “I mean, I think we are, but I didn’t really ask.”

  “Did she confess her feelings for you?” Erik asked curiously.

  “Yes,” Rose said, unable to hide the small smile that tugged at the corners of her lips. “She told me that she loved me, and I confessed my love for her, too.”

  “Then, I’m pretty sure you’re together,” Erik laughed. “Are you happy?”

  For the first time since he’d sat down beside her, Rose tore her gaze from the newspaper. When she looked at him, he was surprised to find that there were unshed tears glistening in her bright blue eyes. “I don’t know,” Rose said quietly. “I mean, I was earlier, when we were…” she trailed off, a blush creeping up her neck. A smile tugged at her lips. “To be honest, I was happier than I’d ever been.”

  Erik flashed a wicked grin. “I bet you were,” he said suggestively.

  “Oh, shut up!” Rose groaned, and then, she threw her newspaper at him.

  He laughed as he caught the papers and crumpled them in his hands.

  Her smile faded. “When I think about her, I’m immensely happy,” she confessed. Erik fell serious as he listened. “But then, I think about Kallias, and the guilt and sadness and loss comes flooding back into my mind. I still love him.”

  “I know,” Erik said sympathetically, “and I’m sure he still loves you.”

  “I hurt him,” Rose said tiredly, “I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

  Erik patted her on the back with his hand—except it felt more like a slap than a pat. “Ah, give yourself a break, babe,” he scoffed. “Kallias wasn’t innocent in this whole thing either. Ever since you died, he’s been pushing you away.”

  Rose sighed, “Yeah, but that was because of something I did, too.”

  “If you could go back and just save yourself,” Erik asked, “would you?”

  “And let all of you die?” Rose said, her eyes wide. “No! Absolutely not.”

  “Exactly,” Erik said, spreading out his hands. “So, stop beating yourself up about it. You did what you thought was right. Kallias is blinded by his pain. He doesn’t understand because he doesn’t want to understand. He wants to hold a grudge. He loves grudges. Look at how long he held on to the Theron-thing.”

  “Theron tortured him,” she said. “I think he gets a pass for that one.”

  “The point is,” Erik continued, “I’m not going to sit here and listen to you blame yourself for everything. Not when I know the blame isn’t all on you.”

  Rose leaned back in her seat. “I just feel bad for feeling happy.”

  “Complicated emotions,” he said with a smirk. “My realm of expertise.”

  She looked over at him. “Okay, expert. Then, what do you suggest?”

  “You said that you’re happy when you think about Kara?” Erik asked.

  Rose smiled, fill
ed with thoughts of the previous night. “Immensely.”

  “Then, think about her,” Erik told her. He waved his hand toward the crumpled newspaper that set between them on the sofa. “Like you said, at any moment, an apocalyptic world war could start, and when it does, we could all die. You don’t have time to dwell on the bad emotions. If Kara can make you happy, let her. Be happy together, while you still can. It’s all you have time for right now.”

  “Thank you,” Rose said with a grateful smile, “for talking to me.”

  Erik grinned. “If you were really grateful, you’d give me all of the details.”

  She shot a murderous glare in his direction, and then, without taking her eyes off of him, she used her telekinetic abilities to send the remote control flying, off of the coffee table and straight toward Erik’s head. He ducked before it could hit him, and the remote hit the wall with a loud clack before falling to the floor.

  Meanwhile, Erik burst into hysterical laughter. “I knew you’d do that!”

  Rose rolled her eyes at him. “How do you manage to simultaneously be the most disrespectful jerk on the planet and the most genuinely good friend?”

  Erik stood and started walking toward the door. “I don’t know, but I’ll ponder it while I’m sympathizing with you and having sex with your best friend.”

  Rose covered her ears with both hands. “Ahhh! I don’t want to know!”

  He chuckled at her as he left the living room, returning to the kitchen.

  It wasn’t long before Rose noticed the presence of someone else—the loudness of the heartbeat, the sweet scent of vampire blood, the harsh scent of cologne. “It’s so hard to find solitude in this house these days,” she said loudly.

  The intruder, who had been watching her from the hallway, stepped into the living room, through the hallway door. The tall, thin vampire stood, just inside the room, watching her with narrowed, greenish-brown eyes. For a vampire, he was terribly unkempt, wearing that wrinkled, pale green, button-down shirt with all of its missing buttons, and his messy, unwashed, light brown hair. He looked as if he barely rolled out of bed each night. It didn’t make him any less attractive. His beauty still would have captured a human’s attention. No. What made him unattractive was his unpleasant personality and that permanent sneer on his face.

  “Isaac, isn’t it?” Rose said politely. When he didn’t respond, she said the first thing that came to her mind. “There are showers here. Just so you know.”

  “Why would I need to shower?” he said. “Vampires have no body odor.”

  Rose raised an eyebrow at the odd answer. “I think, usually, cleanliness is the motive,” she muttered under her breath, “but you know…to each his own.”

  Isaac didn’t react to her snarky remark. “I’ve been thinking about you.”

  She blinked. “And…you just keep getting creepier and creepier.”

  “I want to know why Aaron lets you get away with things that he doesn’t let other vampires get away with,” he continued, as if she’d never said anything. “There must be a reason. You’re not old or strong. You don’t have any kind of special ranking, like Kara. You’re not even a member of the Tomb of Blood.”

  Rose watched him warily. “Have you always been this…obsessive?”

  “Yes,” Isaac said, proving that he could, in fact, hear her. She’d begun to wonder. “Anyway, I think I’ve figured it out. You see, I’ve noticed that your blood smells appealing to me, despite the fact that I am thoroughly disgusted by you.”

  “Wow,” Rose said, blinking in shock, “please, don’t spare my feelings.”

  He ignored her interruption. “Which must mean…you have power.”

  Rose flashed a sassy smile at him. “Oh, look at you,” she praised. “Now, you’re putting two and two together and getting four. It took you a while, but you know what they say: it doesn’t matter how slow you go, as long as you get there.”

  His eyes narrowed. “But what is your power? Why would Aaron be more interested in you than Kallias of Athens, the ancient telepath? What psychic ability could be more powerful than telepathy?” he said, his voice low and monotonous.

  “Okay, so, I totally sympathize with insatiable curiosity,” Rose muttered, “but even I am a little weirded out by how much thought you’ve put into this.”

  “And then, I realized: you’re the one we were warned about,” Isaac said.

  She looked up at him. “Wait. What?” she said, her brows furrowing.

  “The monster from the stories,” he said. “You’re the one, aren’t you?”

  He officially had her attention. “What stories?” she asked curiously.

  “The Assassins of Light,” Isaac stated, as if that answered her question somehow. “We weren’t just preparing for a war with vampires. We were also preparing for you—the darkest monster of all, the one who will end the world.”

  Rose frowned worriedly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Do your eyes change? Like in the stories?” he said, taking a step toward her. “I want to see it. How do I make them change? Do I need to scare you?”

  She straightened. “Why don’t you just stay right where you are, okay?”

  He continued to approach her. “I want to know what happens if I don’t.”

  Before Rose could respond to that bewildering statement, Isaac froze.

  “Do you, really?” Kara said as she pressed a dagger against his back.

  His entire body stiffened. “Don’t threaten me. I’ve harmed no one.”

  “Threaten?” Kara scoffed. She walked around him, purposely dragging the sharp tip of her dagger over his skin as she circled him. A cocky smirk pulled at the edges of her lips. “I’m not threatening anyone. I was just showing you my new dagger,” she laughed. She dragged the tip of the dagger up his body and then over his face, until the sharp edge rested just beneath his left eye, nearly slicing into his skin. “It’s beautiful, don’t you think? I just sharpened it a few days ago.”

  He glared murderously at her, but he didn’t move, for fear of accidentally causing the dagger to slice into his face. “You’re obviously threatening me.”

  “Nah,” Kara said with a smile, “I just want to make sure you can see it.”

  “It’s right underneath his eye,” Rose muttered. “I’m sure he can see it.”

  “If you’re not interested in my beautiful blade,” Kara growled at Isaac, her smile suddenly fading, “please, feel free to get the hell away from Rose.”

  As soon as Kara lowered her dagger, Isaac spun on his heels and left.

  “You really don’t do anything halfway, do you?” Rose sighed at Kara.

  Kara spun toward her, a smirk tugging at her lips, as she returned the dagger to the belt around her waist. “Of course not. It’s all or nothing, baby.”

  Rose suppressed a smile. “I was fine, you know,” she assured Kara. “If he had tried to hurt me, I could’ve just used my telekinetic abilities to stop him.”

  Kara braced her hands on the sofa cushion, on either side of Rose’s hips, and leaned over Rose, her soft, violet-scented hair falling between them. “I’m your warrior, Rose. I swore to protect you. And fucking me won’t change that.”

  A short, surprised laugh escaped Rose’s lips. “I never thought it would.”

  “Good,” Kara said, her thin, pink lips curving into a seductive smile. She tilted her face closer, until those lips touched Rose’s. “Then, let me do my job.”

  With Kara’s lips so close and her warm breath caressing Rose’s lips, Rose couldn’t resist the urge to kiss her. All other thoughts in her mind melted away as she clutched Kara’s face to hers and claimed Kara’s lips in a slow, passionate kiss.

  “Kara, for the last time,” Aaron said suddenly, “stop threatening Isaac.”

  Rose pulled back suddenly, stunned by Aaron’s sudden interruption. She peered around Kara’s tall, lean form, and found Aaron standing in the doorway.

  Kara turned to frown at Aaron. �
��He snitched on me? What a crybaby!”

  When Kara straightened and turned to face Aaron, Rose found herself at eye-level with Kara’s lean hips, and the soft, leather pants that clung so perfectly to her muscular backside. Not that Rose was looking or anything… She blinked and shifted her gaze toward Aaron, cringing a little at the anger in his dark eyes.

  “Kara, I’m tired of having this conversation with you,” Aaron snarled. “You can’t just terrorize every bigot you meet. You have to follow the rules.”

  Kara raised an eyebrow. “Aaron,” she said with a playful smile, “in the fourteen hundred years that you’ve known me, have I ever followed your rules?”

  His black eyes flashed with frustration. “No. Which is why my patience is wearing thin,” he growled. “If I ever find anyone who can do what you do, I won’t hesitate to rip your head off of your shoulders. Even I have limits, Kara.”

  “You’re four thousand years old, and you have all the power in the world. Your patience is always wearing thin. I have nothing to do with that,” Kara said dismissively, “and as for your hypothetical situation, it won’t ever happen.” She flashed a cocky smirk at him. “No one will ever do what I do as well as I do it.”

  “No one will ever be as cocky as you are, either,” Rose muttered.

  Kara collapsed onto the sofa beside Rose and slid her arm around Rose’s shoulders. “You can pretend not to like it all you want,” she teased, her lips near Rose’s ear, “but I’ll get you to admit the truth later, when my tongue is on your…”

  Rose clasped her hand over Kara’s mouth before she could finish that sentence. “Kara,” Rose whispered, her eyes widening, “we…are…not…alone.”

  Kara pressed a flirtatious kiss against Rose’s hand and winked at her.

  Aaron didn’t seem the least bit phased by Kara’s distracting comments. Clearly, he was used to it by now. He leaned against the coffee table, tapping an agitated rhythm against his jean-clad thigh. “I don’t like him either,” he told Kara. “As a matter of fact, I hate him. He’s an Assassin of Light. He should be dead.”

  “Why isn’t he dead, by the way?” Rose said. “Didn’t you kill all of them?”