The Reign of Darkness

by Britney Jackson

  Rose grasped Kara’s hand and pulled herself through the trapdoor-like-entrance. When Rose was on her feet again, she placed her hands on Kara’s arms, examining Kara at arms-length. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” she asked with a frown.

  Kara laughed. She stepped closer and rested her forehead against Rose’s. “I’d be prouder, if you did,” she murmured. She curled her fingers around Rose’s hip and pulled her closer, until the front of Rose’s body bumped against hers. Her mouth curved into a smile, as it brushed against Rose’s. “You did so well, sexy.”

  Even inside the building, shielded from the howling winds outside, it was significantly colder on the surface than it had been in the tunnels, but when Kara’s skin met Rose’s, Rose’s body temperature spiked, just as it always did. Rose’s lips curved into a shy smile, and then, she tugged at the edges of Kara’s leather jacket.

  They shared a slow, deep kiss—their mouths closed, at first, then open.

  “I hate you,” Erik continued to complain—even though they were clearly in the middle of something. “Someone could’ve told me. I thought it was real!”

  The door opened, suddenly. Erik fell silent, as someone stepped inside.

  Kara smiled, as she recognized that mix of jasmine and sandalwood. She pulled back, just enough to glance at Talulah. “I didn’t think you’d make it out.”

  Rose turned, blinking, when she saw Talulah. “How did you make it out?”

  “The lower tunnels have newer exits,” Talulah said with a bitter smile. “I had them made, after Kara’s last betrayal. I needed some she didn’t know about.”

  Kara flashed a sly smirk. “How do you know I don’t know about them?”

  Talulah scowled at her. “Let’s just hurry. I need to return to my people.”

  “You need to return?” Rose repeated, trying to make sense of what they were doing. “But we don’t?” She glanced at Kara. “You said we weren’t running.”

  “We’re not,” Kara said, her hand on Rose’s arm. “We’re just relocating.”

  “Kara,” Rose said, her eyes widening in horror. “That’s the same thing!”

  “No, it’s not,” Talulah assured her. “You’re going where we need you.”

  Rose frowned at that. “I didn’t realize you…needed me somewhere.”

  Talulah gave her a smile. “Then, you underestimated your importance.”

  “If you want it done right, you do it yourself,” Kara told Rose. One side of her mouth quirked up. “And if you’re with me, you don’t ask for permission.”

  “I don’t approve of doing it without a vote,” Talulah sighed, “but…after this attack, the vote won’t go well, anyway. We’re an aggressive species, and these humans—they’re… Well, even I’m struggling to find sympathy for them, now.”

  “They’re not all like this,” Rose said. “There are good people out there.”

  “Perhaps, they should stand up to the crueler ones, then,” Talulah said.

  “Some do,” Rose said, her voice soft and sad. “Not enough. But some.”

  “I still don’t want this war—even if humans have…used up my last shred of forgiveness,” Talulah said, shaking her head. “So, if this is what it takes to make peace with them, I’ll do it.” She looked at Kara. “Just make sure she doesn’t fail.”

  Rose glanced from Talulah to Kara. “She—as in me? What am I doing?”

  “You wanted peace negotiations,” Kara told her. “So, you’ll have them.”

  Rose’s eyebrows lifted in disbelief. “Umm,” she stammered, “w-what?”

  “I have a lead on a guy, who should be able to get us into a meeting with the human leaders,” Kara said with a smirk. “I just have to convince him to help.”

  “Convince?” Rose sighed. “Not with well-crafted arguments, I assume?”

  “Not really my style, is it?” Kara said with a wink. Her smile softened, as she noticed Rose’s hesitation. “This guy isn’t worth your sympathy. Believe me.”

  “Once you get into the meeting,” Talulah told Rose, “I want you to use whatever means necessary to convince them to agree to a cease-fire. I don’t care what terms you have to set; we’ll get vampire leaders to agree to them, afterward.”

  “Like I said,” Kara said, “we’re asking for forgiveness. Not permission.”

  “Sounds risky,” Rose said uneasily. She glanced at Talulah. “Why me?”

  “Because you know modern humans better than the rest of us,” Talulah said. “Also, because you’re smart and passionate. I know you can convince them.”

  Rose grimaced. “I wish people would stop putting so much faith in me.”

  “I wish you’d put more faith in yourself,” Talulah countered. “If you fail, that’ll be why, and considering you might be our last hope, failure isn’t an option.”

  “Oh,” Rose said, her voice a bit higher than usual. “No pressure, then.”

  Erik stared at Talulah. “Are you telling me that the fate of the world rests in the hands of a nerd with fangs and her crazy, battle-axe-wielding girlfriend?”

  “Unfortunately? Yes,” Talulah said, as Rose and Kara exchanged a look.

  “Nerd with Fangs could totally be my superhero name,” Rose told Kara.

  Kara leaned back on her heels, slipping her hands into the pockets of her leather pants, as she offered Rose an indulgently seductive smile. “Sounds lovely.”

  “We’re doomed,” Erik said, as Talulah frowned. “You know that, right?”

  Talulah sighed. “The rest of us will join you in a few days,” she told Rose. “Until then, you’re on your own. Well, you and the people who follow you are.”

  Rose frowned at that. “What people?”

  —

  The private jet they boarded, now, was much smaller than the ones they’d used before, and its dark gray color was nearly invisible against the backdrop of a night sky. Rose hadn’t expected to find anyone inside, so when she found herself in the middle of a crowded jet, she nearly gasped in surprise. She glanced around, her eyes widening at the vampires who occupied each row of seats—Tom, Isolde, Bradley, Cassius, Elise, Colina, Princess Myrinne, a few vampires Rose didn’t even know… She’d seen them before, in Talulah’s colony, but she didn’t know them.

  “How did they get here?” Rose hissed at Kara. “And why are they here?”

  “Not happy to see us, Rose?” Tom teased, as he came over to hug Kara.

  Kara patted him on the back, before turning to Rose. “I talked to Talulah, Elise, and Tom, earlier tonight,” she explained. “Then, they talked to the others.”

  “And some of mine helped them get out, during the attack,” Talulah said.

  “Kara discussed it with me, too,” Princess Myrinne told Rose. “Zosime stayed back to advise Ligeia, but I’m coming with you.” She leaned forward a bit, as if she wanted to bow, but she caught herself, before she did. “Colina is, too.”

  “I don’t get it,” Rose mumbled to Kara. “Why do they all want to come?”

  “Because they believe in you,” Talulah told her. “You’ve inspired them.”

  “Not to mention,” Tom said, “you’ve probably saved half of our lives.”

  “But,” Rose said, at a loss for words, “I don’t even know some of them.”

  “They know you,” Talulah said. She tilted her head, a black braid falling over her shoulder. “You really didn’t realize what kind of influence you had, did you? After taking on Alana? Defeating a base of Assassins? Challenging Aaron?”

  “I…I didn’t,” Rose stammered. She blushed. “It wasn’t like that, really.”

  “It’s exactly what it was,” Cassius stated. Unlike some of the others, Rose knew him—the former knight that Kara had recruited from the Tomb of Blood.

  “It was impressive,” said Bradley, who was also from the Tomb of Blood.

  “And it’s becoming clear that you’ll eventually overthrow Aaron,” Isolde added. “I’d rather align myself with you, now, than wait until after you kill
him.”

  “Kill? What?” Rose squeaked, her eyes wide. “I’m not killing anyone.”

  “Disappointing,” Isolde said with a shrug. “Still here to help, though.”

  Rose spun toward Kara. “Can we talk?” she whispered. “Alone, please?”

  Kara smiled and nodded. She tilted her head toward a door near the back of the jet—a door that Rose assumed led to a bathroom—and strolled toward it.

  It was a bathroom, Rose soon realized, but luckily, it was larger than she’d expected. Kara held open the door, and Rose went inside, first. Rose rounded on Kara, as soon as she shut the door, and Kara leaned against it, grinning wickedly.

  “What are you doing?” Rose hissed at her. “What are you telling people?”

  Kara lifted her eyebrows in delight. “You’re so hot when you’re pissed.”

  “I’m not…” Rose trailed off. She sighed. “We can’t take them with us.”

  “You’d prefer to send them back in the middle of an attack?” Kara said.

  “Well, no,” Rose sighed. Her shoulders sagged in defeat. “These people barely know me. Some of them don’t know me! And yet, they want to follow me?!”

  “Sounds like it, sexy,” Kara said with a flirty smirk. “Is that a problem?”

  “Yeah!” Rose exclaimed. “It’s a big problem! What did you say to them?”

  “To some of them? Nothing,” Kara said. “To the others? Just the truth.”

  “Yeah, right,” Rose scoffed. When Kara just grinned, Rose said, “What?”

  “That you’re worth following,” Kara said, “that I’ve always thought so.”

  Rose swallowed uneasily at that. “Kara,” she sighed. Insecurity fluttered frantically inside her chest. “These people would have to be crazy to follow me.”

  Kara’s smile was gentle—adoring, even. “I swore fealty to you the night I met you.”

  Rose lifted her eyebrows and nodded. “Which was crazy.”

  Kara shrugged. “I’ve never regretted it.”

  Rose blinked. Her pulse skipped a little, and for a moment, words refused to form in her throat. Finally, she blushed and said, “Yeah, well, you’re still crazy.”

  Kara grasped the front of Rose’s hoodie and pulled her closer. “Am I?”

  “Mmm-hmm,” Rose murmured, as she felt Kara’s breath against her lips.

  Kara chuckled. She tilted her head a little, letting her mouth brush against Rose’s, for a moment. Then, she kissed her, feeling the soft warmth of Rose’s lips against her own. Rose’s hands found their way beneath Kara’s jacket, her fingers flattening against Kara’s stomach. Kara smiled, as she felt Rose moan against her.

  “But feel free to keep giving me those angry looks,” Kara teased, between long, wet kisses. She rested her hand on Rose’s hips. “They’re incredibly sexy.”

  Rose rolled her eyes, laughing, “You’re insatiable tonight.”

  “Who wouldn’t be,” Kara said, “after what we did earlier?”

  Rose blushed. “Shut up.” Resolving to make it work, she sighed. “If I’m going to do this, I’ll need time to plan. I’ll need a Plan A, a Plan B, a Plan Z…”

  Kara laughed. “You’ll have time, sexy,” she assured her. “We’ll probably be in New York for at least a day, while I’m interrogating the Assassin of Light.”

  “New York?” Rose asked, as Kara grinned. “What part of New York?”

  “Close to the old headquarters,” Kara told her. “The Assassin of Light I mean to question has a home near there—because he was the Commander before Frederick Martin got promoted.” Then, before Rose could even ask her question, Kara said, “Of course we’ll check on your friends. I was already planning on it.”

  Rose laughed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were a telepath.”

  “Oh, Rose,” Kara teased, “I know you better than a telepath ever could.”

  —

  When they reached New York, Kara had subtly suggested that Rose stay with the others—since Rose and Kara had slightly different philosophies on things like murder and torture. You know…the minor things. But Rose had insisted that Kara might need her—since Rose was the only one who could stop bullets midair.

  Which was how Rose ended up in a random house, trying to calm down an Assassin of Light, whose arm had just become a casualty of Kara’s battle-axe.

  “He’s being dramatic,” Kara complained. “With the pain medication he’s been seriously abusing, I doubt he even feels it.” When Rose gave her a skeptical look, Kara added, “Sniff him, if you don’t believe me. You can smell the medicine in his blood. If you were to feed from him right now, you’d be too high to walk.”

  “Kara,” Rose sighed, “best case scenario is he gets an infection and dies. Worst case scenario is he bleeds to death right here. He needs medical attention.”

  “He would, if we meant for him to survive,” Kara agreed, “but we don’t.”

  Rose’s eyes widened. She closed the door that separated the small office, where Kara had tied the guy up, from the corpse-filled hall that they were standing in now. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that guy isn’t just an Assassin.” Rose waved her hand, gesturing at all the dead security people. “He’s also a politician!”

  Kara nodded, obviously aware of this. “All the more reason to kill him.”

  Rose sighed, “You didn’t tell me the plan involved betrayal and murder.”

  Kara shrugged lazily. “My plans always involve betrayal and murder.”

  “I know, but Kara,” Rose said, “we’re supposed to be the good guys!”

  Kara started laughing, as if that were the silliest thing she’d ever heard. “Oh, Rose,” she said, flashing a wicked smile, “I don’t think I ever agreed to that.”

  Rose huffed out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. How about a compromise?”

  Kara leaned against the door, giving Rose a sly wink. “You name it, sexy.”

  “You got your betrayal,” Rose reminded her, “so, you know, maybe cool it on the murder, okay?” Her eyebrows lifted. “Humans hate us enough already.”

  “Sure,” Kara said, shocking Rose. She grinned. “Anything for you, sexy.”

  Rose suppressed a laugh. “You’re serious? You’re not going to kill him?”

  “Not unless you change your mind,” Kara said, “though I think you will.”

  Rose lifted her eyebrows at that. “Oh, really? And why would I do that?”

  “You’ll see,” Kara said with that sly grin of hers. As the Assassin’s wails of agony echoed through the door, Kara gestured toward it with a tilt of her head. “Sounds like your attempts to calm him down weren’t that effective,” she teased.

  Rose glared at her. “Well, you didn’t exactly make my job easy, did you?”

  “Never will,” Kara said with a smirk. “Want to take a second shot at it?”

  Rose smiled. “Have you ever heard of that Good-Cop-Bad-Cop-thing?”

  Kara lifted both eyebrows. “Rose, I’m a spymaster. What do you think?”

  “Point taken,” Rose said with a smile. “Is it a real thing? Can we do it?”

  Kara laughed at the excitement in Rose’s face. “Well, I couldn’t possibly say no to someone as adorable as you,” she teased, “even if it wasn’t a real thing.”

  Rose frowned. “Wait. So, is it real or not? You weren’t clear about that.”

  “You can be good,” Kara said seductively, “and I’ll be bad. Obviously.”

  “Obviously,” Rose repeated, her cheeks flushing. She glanced toward the office, as the man cried out again. “I can’t believe you hacked the dude’s arm off.”

  “He wasn’t cooperating,” Kara said. She grasped the door’s fancy handle and turned it, opening the door. “Go on, Good Cop. Show me what you can do.”

  “Not much,” Rose said under her breath, as she stepped into the office.

  The scent of blood wasn’t quite as powerful as it had been before, thanks to the tourniquet Rose had made for t
he Assassin—though she wasn’t sure it was a good tourniquet. It had been several years since she took that class, after all. But even with the bleeding slowed, the scent of fresh blood still permeated the office.

  And that scent drove Rose absolutely mad. The blood in the hall was bad enough, but at least it hadn’t been fresh. Fresh was far worse. As Kara circled the Assassin of Light, checking the ropes she’d used to keep him in place, Rose stared at her, watching the pulse of her neck, thinking about the sweet taste of her blood.

  Kara’s light blue gaze shifted toward her. “You all right over there, sexy?”

  Rose blushed. “Yeah! What?” she said quickly. “I wasn’t… I was just…”

  Kara chuckled at her unfinished sentences. “Just…thinking about tasting my blood?” she teased. She kicked the Assassin’s chair, causing him to yelp, as he nearly toppled over. “Or do you prefer it laced with a high dose of narcotics?”

  The Assassin of Light avoided her gaze. “I have a prescription for those.”

  “Do you?” Kara said. She snatched the bottle from his desk and squinted at the label. “Change your name recently, Rebecca? Interesting choice for a bigot.”

  The Assassin of Light grunted in frustration. “You know my name.”

  “And it’s not Rebecca,” Kara said, as she returned the bottle to the desk. She patted his shoulder—the wounded one. “Relax. I don’t judge. It’s your body.”

  Rose winced. She didn’t know whether this was Kara being the ‘Bad Cop’ or Kara being Kara. Antagonizing was Kara’s favorite hobby, after all. She sighed, “He’d probably be more willing to help, if you inflicted a little less pain on him.”

  Kara grinned. “What? He’s not in pain,” she scoffed, “are you, Rebecca?”

  The Assassin of Light glared at a random spot on the wall. He was careful not to look at either of them, Rose noticed. Much like Owen had been, when he’d first met Erik and Kallias. Rose had no idea how to use the allure to her advantage, anyway, so it didn’t really matter to her. “I’m not answering any of your questions, no matter how she treats me,” the Assassin said. “Besides, she already hurt me.”

  “No! You don’t mean your arm, do you?” Kara said, feigning innocence. She glanced down at the bloodied, hacked-up appendage. “It looks fine to me.”