“I think most people would have,” Rose muttered under her breath. She sighed, fidgeting nervously with the strings that tightened the hood of her jacket. “It’s just…some of the things he’s said… Not to mention, I saw him watching me.”
“You attacked him, Rose,” Elise reminded her. “He’s probably just waiting for an opportunity to kill you when no one is around to save you.”
“Oh, that’s all?” Rose said sarcastically. “For the record, though, I don’t need anyone to save me. I’m perfectly capable of killing him myself.”
Elise’s blue-gray eyes widened. “With what? You’re a baby vampire!”
“Why do we have to use such a condescending term to refer to someone who hasn’t been a vampire long?” Rose complained. “Is age that big of a deal?”
“It’s basically our only form of hierarchy,” Elise said, shrugging.
Rose sighed, “I’d kill him with my…ability.”
Elise lifted an eyebrow curiously. “Which is?”
Rose smiled. “Nice try.”
Elise laughed at her. “Why are you all so secretive about it? Kara won’t tell me either,” she complained. “I know everyone else’s abilities. Just not yours.”
“We should go,” Rose sighed. She glanced at the camera. “I just wanted Aaron to know that I think it would be a good idea to keep an eye on Osiris.”
“Well, I think we should hurry up and get out of here before Aaron decides to kill me for taking you on a suicide mission,” Elise mumbled.
Rose followed Elise through the dark, dusty mausoleum.
“Why do you think Alana would hold Kara prisoner tonight, of all nights?” Elise asked curiously as she opened the heavy door. “I mean, Alana could have done this centuries ago, if it was just to keep Kara from leaving her.”
Rose eyed an object on the floor that looked disturbingly similar to a human bone. “I don’t know. Maybe Alana had a good reason to do it this time.”
Elise raised an eyebrow. “A good reason to kidnap someone?”
Rose pursed her lips. “Let me rephrase,” she said with a sarcastic smile. “Maybe her reason for holding Kara prisoner is a good reason…for a sociopath.”
Rose followed Elise outside, into the cold, moonlit cemetery. The frost-covered grass crunched beneath her Converse tennis shoes as they walked through the cemetery, past the broken tombstones and statues, toward the outer fence. When they’d nearly reached the gate, Elise froze, her shoulders stiffening.
“What is it?” Rose whispered, noticing Elise’s alarmed expression.
“You don’t smell them?” Elise asked. She shot a pointed look at Rose’s chest, the exact spot where Rose had been staked, and whispered, “Humans.”
Rose frowned and sniffed at the bitterly cold air, noting the scents of the trees, the crumbling stone, the frozen ground, and…then, yes, two humans.
“You stay here,” Elise whispered. “I’ll take care of them.”
Rose reached out and grasped Elise’s hand to stop her, and Elise turned back toward her with a concerned frown. “Don’t kill them,” Rose pleaded, scanning the cemetery with her wide, worried gaze. “They’re just humans.”
Elise’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Rose,” she said slowly, trying to reason with her. She gestured toward Rose’s chest. “Humans did that to you.”
“These might not be the same ones,” Rose insisted.
Elise just stared blankly at her. “Are you serious?”
“I don’t like to kill anyone,” Rose confessed, “but especially not humans.”
Elise’s frown deepened. “I understand that you’re a nice, compassionate person, but…this is madness,” she said as gently as possible. “You almost died.”
“Can we at least make sure that it’s them, first?” Rose asked hopefully.
Elise sighed and opened her mouth to respond.
A gunshot suddenly echoed through the cemetery—a loud, thunderous sound that startled them and caused sharp, bursting pain to explode in their ears.
Elise whirled around toward the sound, and her mouth dropped as she found a bullet hovering in mid-air, right in front of her face. “What… How…”
“Surprise,” Rose said dryly, grimacing. “My power is telekinesis.”
Elise’s blue-gray eyes widened in shock. “Holy crap. Are you serious?”
“No, not at all,” Rose said sarcastically, allowing the bullet to fall slowly through the air and land safely on the ground. “The bullet’s doing that by itself.”
Elise continued to gape at her. “No wonder you kept it a secret.”
The crunch of footsteps caught their attention. Elise and Rose watched as the humans moved through the trees, closer to them. The humans—a young man and an even younger woman—didn’t seem to realize that Elise and Rose could see them, just as they also didn’t seem to realize that they hadn’t simply missed when they’d shot at the vampires. The young woman—barely out of her teens—looked terrified, her brown eyes wide, her skin pale. She followed the slightly older man, who looked strikingly similar to her, as he led the way toward them. Rose frowned as she recognized the scent of the man’s cologne.
“It’s them,” Rose said reluctantly.
“Obviously,” Elise muttered. “They just shot at us.”
“Do we have to kill them?” Rose asked, her brows furrowed.
“You don’t have to,” Elise assured her. “I’ll do it.”
Another gunshot echoed through the cemetery, followed by a second bullet flying through the air toward them. Rose’s eyes flashed—a brief, red spark glowing within them—as she once again stopped the bullet with her mind.
The man’s brown eyes widened as he actually watched the bullet freeze.
A shrill, terrified scream suddenly echoed from beside him.
“Nina!” he said worriedly. He spun around and pointed the gun at Elise.
Elise held the young, brunette woman against her, one arm draped around the woman, restraining her, her fangs hovering at the woman’s throat.
“Please, Peter,” the woman cried. “Please, don’t shoot her right now.”
“She’s right,” Elise said. “You don’t want to accidentally hit your sister.”
Peter’s brows furrowed. “How did you know that she’s my sister?”
Elise pressed her nose against the woman’s neck and inhaled. She smiled at him and explained, “You smell too similar to be anything other than siblings.”
He kept the gun pointed at Elise. “Don’t worry, Nina. It’ll be okay.”
Nina whimpered. “No, it won’t. Please, Peter. I don’t want to die.”
“It’s for a greater purpose,” her brother said. “It’s what God wants.”
Before he could pull the trigger, an unseen force ripped the gun out of his hand. It flew through the air and landed easily in Rose’s hands. He stared, his eyes wide and mouth ajar, as Rose pointed the gun at him, her eyes glowing red.
“You really shouldn’t pretend to know what God wants,” Rose told him, her nose wrinkling in disgust, “especially when you’re clearly a freaking idiot.”
“What kind of demon are you?” the man breathed. “Your eyes are red.”
“Once again with the idiocy,” Rose complained. “Demons are fallen angels, you crazy cultist. I am not a fallen angel. I am a vampire. It’s different.”
“Are you trying to debate theology with the man who tried to kill us?” Elise asked Rose, tightening her grasp on the woman as she struggled to get free.
“No, I’m debating common sense,” Rose corrected.
“You should be dead!” Peter realized, his eyes widening. “I staked you!”
“I knew I recognized you from somewhere,” Rose muttered.
A strange whoosh of movement suddenly blurred past them, and then, the human man yelped as he was snatched backward, slamming against someone.
Rose blinked in shock as she recognized the vampire’s scent. “Aaron?”
Aaron had Pet
er’s arms twisted behind his back, restraining the human with a nonchalance that only Aaron could manage. He watched Peter with an expression of bored fascination for a few moments as Peter struggled—and failed—to get free. “We need to talk,” he sneered in the human’s ear, “Assassin.”
“Peter!” the human woman yelled worriedly. “Please, let him go.”
“Why do you care about him?” Elise asked her. “He nearly killed you.”
“If she died, it would be so that I could kill you!” Peter growled at her.
“Bullets don’t kill vampires,” Elise informed him, “crazy human.”
“Those do,” Peter said, looking at the gun in Rose’s hand.
Rose glanced down at the gun, her eyes widening in shock.
Peter screamed as Aaron twisted his arms harder, nearly breaking them.
“I’m going to need you to explain that,” Aaron stated simply.
“You know, most people ask the question before they do the torturing,” Rose told Aaron, scowling. “At least give him a chance to answer you first.”
“I won’t answer anything,” Peter sneered. “I’ll die for my cause.”
Aaron shrugged. “That sounds good to me,” he muttered. With no hesitation whatsoever, he buried his fangs in the man’s neck, groaning as blood filled his mouth. He held the man easily as he mercilessly drained him of blood.
Nina tried to run toward her brother, but Elise held her still.
Peter struggled—on and off—relaxing against Aaron, then struggling again, as he fought against the euphoric sensations that coursed through his body as Aaron fed from him. “Let me go, you sick freak!” he screamed, flailing.
Aaron let go of the human, wiping the blood from his face as the man collapsed on the ground, too weak from blood loss to stand. He stepped forward and pressed the bottom of his tennis shoe against the human’s head. “Last chance, human. Tell me everything you know about the Assassins of Light.”
“No,” Peter said. “You can kill me. They will tell stories of my bravery.”
Aaron rolled his eyes and crushed the man’s head beneath his shoe.
Horrified by the gruesome sight, his sister began to scream hysterically.
Rose cringed. “Was that necessary?” she complained at Aaron.
“What?” Aaron said, feigning innocence. “He said I could kill him.”
“You just traumatized his sister,” Rose scolded, gesturing toward the screaming woman in Elise’s arms. “Don’t you have any sense of decency at all?”
Aaron grimaced in disgust at his shoe and shook his foot, as if that would shake the blood and flesh off of it. “Damn it. He got his brains on my shoe,” he complained. “Does anyone know how to clean brains off of shoes?”
Rose stared blankly at him. “Can’t say I’ve ever tried,” she said dryly.
Meanwhile, the human woman began to scream louder.
“I’ll buy you some new shoes!” Elise yelled, clasping her hand over the human’s mouth, cringing at the loud screams. “Just make her stop screaming!”
Aaron glanced at the human, tilting his head back to shake his curly, black hair out of his face. He stepped over her brother’s corpse as he walked toward her. He stopped in front of her, smiling, as if he didn’t notice her utter terror. “Your screams are hurting our ears, sweetheart. I need you to shut up.”
Rose frowned. “Are you flirting with her or threatening her?”
The woman immediately stopped screaming, her brown eyes wide.
“Hmm,” Aaron murmured, surprised. “Uncover her mouth, Elise.”
Elise reluctantly pulled her hand away, cringing in anticipation.
But the woman didn’t scream. She just continued to stare at Aaron.
Aaron tilted his head to the side. “Well, you’re significantly more reasonable than your brother,” he commented. “Maybe I won’t have to kill you.”
“You won’t,” she said quietly, her lips trembling. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I never wanted to be part of the Assassins of Light anyway.”
Aaron raised his eyebrow. “You were forced?”
“I was born into it. We all are. Generation after generation serves in the order. My brother wanted to, but I didn’t. My parents forced me,” Nina said.
“So, it really is like a cult,” Rose realized.
“Generations?” Aaron repeated, his brows furrowing. “But the original Assassins of Light were monks. They were celibate. They didn’t have families.”
“Yes, but a very terrible vampire killed all of them,” Nina explained.
Aaron smiled and tapped his chest with his finger. “That would be me.”
“Oh,” Nina squeaked, somehow managing to look even more terrified than she did before. “Well, when they reformed the order, they did it differently.”
“Interesting,” Aaron muttered. He pointed at the gun in Rose’s hands. “What did your brother mean when he said that those bullets could kill us?”
Nina swallowed. “They release poisoned blood into your bloodstream.”
Rose turned the gun over in her hand, her eyes wide.
Aaron held out his hand. “Give it to me. I’ll dispose of it.”
Rose walked over to him and carefully placed it into his hand.
He turned back toward Nina. He tucked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. Despite her fear, his allure affected her. Aaron chuckled at the heated longing in her wide, brown eyes. “You’ll tell me everything you know?”
“I promise,” she said, her voice trembling. “Just…don’t kill me.”
Aaron glanced up at Elise. “Take her down to the tombs. Put her in a cell.”
“A cell?” Rose repeated incredulously. “You have jail cells down there?”
“Let me guess,” Aaron said, “You don’t think I should put her in one.”
“She’s traumatized enough as it is,” Rose said, just as he’d predicted.
“Do what I said,” he told Elise. “I need to talk to Rose for a minute.”
Elise offered Rose an apologetic smile, and then, with one hand curled around Nina’s arm, she pulled the human away, back toward the mausoleum.
Aaron took the gun apart and gently lay each piece on the ground. Then, he turned toward Rose. “I saw you on the cameras. You should be in bed.”
Rose crossed her arms, wincing a little as that caused the wound in her chest to hurt even worse. “You shouldn’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do.”
Aaron paid her very little attention as he turned and walked over to what was left of the Assassin’s body. He nudged the corpse with his shoe, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “I’m not cleaning that up. I’ll send someone else to do it.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Rose muttered sarcastically. It was almost comical to watch such a ruthless, brutal vampire get grossed out by something. Well, that is, until she remembered that it was the corpse of the man he’d just murdered that was grossing him out. “You didn’t have to kill him. You could have just…”
“Let him go? Like you did?” Aaron interrupted, raising an eyebrow.
“I know showing mercy is a revolutionary idea,” she said dryly, “but…”
“My job is to protect the thousands of vampires that are part of this colony,” Aaron snarled, stepping toward her. “I don’t have time for mercy.”
“Fighting hatred with hatred breeds more hatred,” Rose insisted. “Have you considered the fact that by killing the original Assassins so mercilessly, you may have caused an even stronger organization to form? You fueled their cause.”
Aaron rolled his eyes. “The human insulted me.”
Rose raised an eyebrow. “And you have to kill everyone who insults you?”
“Yes,” Aaron said, frowning at her, as if the question were absurd.
Rose crossed her arms. “He was a human.”
He stared blankly at her. “And your point is?”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have time for this,” she mutt
ered. “I have to go.” She spun on her heels and started walking toward the cemetery’s gates.
Aaron suddenly appeared in front of her, moving too rapidly for her to see. His black eyes narrowed. “The only place you’re going is back to the tombs.”
“I came to you willingly, Aaron,” Rose snarled. “I’m not your prisoner.”
“You’re injured,” he reminded her. “You need to be in bed.”
She flashed a fake smile. “Thanks for the concern, but I’m fine.”
“You have a hole in your chest, Rose,” Aaron said, raising an eyebrow.
Rose glanced down at her shirt, grimacing as she realized that the blood had begun to seep through the bandages and stain her shirt. Again. “I’m out of bed, aren’t I?” she pointed out. “Obviously, I’m doing better than I was yesterday.”
He scowled at her. “You’re were dying yesterday.”
She spread out her arms and smiled. “And today, I’m not. Yay.”
“That’s not saying much,” Aaron muttered.
Rose narrowed her eyes at him. “Stop pretending to care, okay?” she said bitterly. “We both know you don’t. I’m just a weapon to you, right?”
“Yeah,” Aaron said harshly, “but you’re of no use to me if you’re dead.”
She shrugged. “Then, you better hope I survive.”
He sighed in frustration. “What is so important that you have to leave?”
“Kara needs my help,” Rose answered. “She’s being held prisoner.”
Aaron laughed. “That’s it?” he scoffed. “This is Kara we’re talking about. She can sneak in and out of anywhere. It’s what she does. She’ll be fine.”
“Really?” Rose said, her voice sharp with sarcasm. She tilted her head to the side. “Tell me something… How do you sneak out of telepathic control?”
His smile faded. “Alana has her?”
“Oh! Now, I have your attention!” Rose exclaimed. She smiled bitterly. “You wouldn’t want to lose your best warrior to your enemy, now would you?”
His jaw tightened. “Fine. Go. But take Erik and Kallias with you.”
“That was my plan originally,” she sighed, “but I can’t get in touch with them. They’re not answering their phones, and I have no idea where they are.”
Aaron frowned at that. “Interesting.”
The Tomb of Blood Page 51
