The Reign of Darkness

by Britney Jackson

  The woman didn’t laugh. “Everyone is afraid of you.”

  “Because of what you were told,” Rose reminded her, “by the Assassins of Light. Misinformation is just a tool that they use to keep themselves in power.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” the woman said. “That they lie? How do you think I got into this? My son spoke out against them and died because of it.”

  Rose’s chest ached, as she recognized the woman’s pain. She didn’t mean to tap into her newly accessed power, but there were memories that didn’t belong to her flashing through her mind, before she realized it. “I’m sorry,” she breathed.

  The woman blinked at Rose, stunned. “You really trying to end the war?”

  “We are,” Rose said, “but we need a way to communicate with humans.”

  “We have ways. We’ve been working on it for a while,” the woman said, “but we can’t take down the Assassins of Light with arguments. We need proof.”

  “We have that covered,” Rose said. “You can have whatever information you need, as long as you can spread it quickly. We need people to abandon them.”

  The woman nodded. “We have the connections,” she admitted, “and we can persuade the right people to look at it.” She felt Kara’s grip on her loosen, as she started to come around. “But no one is going to trust help from vampires.”

  “So, don’t tell them,” Kara offered. “Only the Sanctuary needs to know.”

  “No one will ever have to know it was monsters who saved the world,” Rose told the woman, as Kara lowered the dagger. “We’re not doing it for glory.”

  The human eyed Kara nervously, even after Kara took a step back. “Why are you doing it, then?” she asked, reluctantly shifting her gaze toward Rose.

  Rose shrugged. “Maybe we’re not the monsters you think we are.”

  Kara flipped her dagger close to the human’s face, laughing as the woman jumped. “Or maybe we are,” Kara teased, “and we just think it sounds like fun.”

  The woman glanced back and forth between them—before sighing, “My name is Linette, by the way. I run the Sanctuary.” She stepped away from the wall and turned to head back inside. “Come on, then. I’ll introduce you to the militia.”

  —

  It took several weeks—and the cooperation of vampires and humans—but eventually, the fear and hatred that had once fueled the war began to fade. It started with communication and protests, with empathy and courage, with people putting their differences aside to fight the true evils of the world: cruelty and hate.

  Only when the Assassins of Light found themselves alone in their hatred, did they finally answer Rose’s call. Their leader, Diana, agreed to meet with Rose.

  Rose had never met Jared’s mother. She only knew her from the pictures. But Owen knew her well. So, Kara spent the night before the meeting questioning him, learning everything she could about Diana, the Commander of the Assassins.

  “Most of the Assassins of Light are cold and calculating,” Kara told Rose, as they walked out to meet them. “The old leaders—the ones we killed before the war—were like that. Cold. Difficult to manipulate. Diana’s different. She’s furious and vengeful. She’s one of the few who weren’t born into the Assassins of Light.”

  Rose glanced at Kara. “You mean she chose to join an extremist group?”

  “According to Owen, yes,” Kara said. “They targeted her at a vulnerable time, when she’d just lost a sister to a vampire attack, and convinced her to join.”

  “Sister and son, then,” Rose said worriedly. “No wonder she hates us.”

  “She quickly became one of their best, though,” Kara explained. “Owen says she’s most well-known for her marksmanship. If she shoots, she won’t miss.”

  “I’ll keep a barrier around you,” Rose offered. “I won’t let her hurt you.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Kara said with a laugh. “I love a good fight.”

  “I can’t help it,” Rose said seriously, “especially with Erastos still alive.”

  Kara gave a carefree shrug. “Erastos isn’t coming out of hiding any time soon—because he knows, the moment he does, you’ll kill him with one thought.”

  “Maybe more than one thought,” Rose muttered. “I might let him suffer, first.” She winced a little, as she noticed Kara watching her. “Sorry, that was…”

  “Darkness?” Kara said with a smile. “Stop apologizing for who you are.”

  “Sorry,” Rose said—without thinking. She shook her head. “I mean…”

  Kara laughed, “Relax.” She glanced at the two humans waiting up ahead. “It looks like they kept their end of the deal, after all. Two of us. Two of them.”

  Rose glanced around the empty field. “It’s not like there’s anywhere they could hide,” she commented. “Which is probably why they wanted to meet here.”

  As Rose and Kara closed the last few yards between themselves and the Assassins of Light, one of the Assassins pulled out his gun and pointed it at Kara.

  A spark of red flashed within Rose’s eyes, but she pushed her power back down, determined to stay in control. She’d expected this, after all. The Assassins of Light always went after someone Rose loved. If Rose hadn’t known she could handle them now, she wouldn’t have brought Kara. Rose had changed, since the Assassins of Light had last seen her. She’d grown more powerful than ever before.

  Embracing who you are tends to have that effect.

  “Rose Foster,” one of the Assassins said, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Rose recognized this Assassin—the thick, black curls that fell around her face, her short, curvy figure, those furious, dark brown eyes. This one was Diana, the current commander of the Assassins of Light—and the mother of an Assassin who’d died while going after Rose. Diana hated Rose, and Rose didn’t blame her.

  Hating her entire species, on the other hand, was a less excusable offense.

  Kara stopped several feet in front of them, gravel crunching beneath her boots. “I’m surprised you came alone. You don’t strike me as particularly brave.”

  The second Assassin of Light—the one with his gun pointed at Kara—narrowed his eyes. “We’re protecting the world from you. How is that not brave?”

  “Hmm,” Kara said, “you have a point. I am quite dangerous, aren’t I?”

  The second Assassin of Light looked less familiar—though Rose thought she’d seen him in one of the papers. He was much taller than Diana and wore his blonde hair short and pushed back. His blue-gray eyes were cold and narrowed.

  “Hateful people always want to look brave,” Rose said. “They try to pass off prejudice as protection or heroism, when it’s really just fear and fragility. They fear losing power. They fear justice. They fear knowledge. Carrying around a gun and firing it at people you fear doesn’t make you any less a coward.” She flashed a sassy smile at Diana, who gave her a deadly glare. “Neither does starting a war.”

  “It’s not prejudice, when you are a species of murderers,” Diana snarled.

  “And what are you?” Rose countered. “Humans don’t murder anyone?”

  Diana shook her head. “It’s not the same. We’re not killers, by nature.”

  “Except you are,” Rose argued. “You’re just lower on the food chain.”

  Diana rolled her eyes. “I’m not here to argue about our points-of-view.”

  “A point-of-view is a way of looking at information,” Rose argued, “but you don’t have any information. Your hate for us is based on feelings, not facts.”

  Diana stared blankly at her. “Are you always like this?”

  “Yes, she is,” Kara said with a proud smile. “It’s sexy, isn’t it?”

  Diana frowned at Kara. “No,” she muttered. She returned her attention to Rose. “And what about you? You sound like you have feelings on the matter.”

  “Well, what do you expect,” Rose said, “when you attack someone’s right to exist?” She shoved her hands in her pockets. “
Feeling something doesn’t mean you’re not looking at facts. Not looking at facts means you’re not looking at facts.”

  Diana rolled her eyes at Rose’s snarky remark. “And what are the facts?”

  “That vampires have stopped killing humans,” Rose informed her, “that we’re not all evil, any more than humans are all evil. It all depends on the person.”

  “I disagree with your facts,” Diana said, earning a baffled look from Rose.

  You can’t disagree with facts, Rose wanted to say. But she didn’t have time.

  Because Diana was already continuing into her vampire-hating narrative. “Vampires have killed who-knows-how-many people over the years. Their beliefs are different from ours. Their lifestyles are different. They will always be killers.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever. Let’s just skip to the peace talk.”

  Diana flashed a victorious smirk. “You can’t handle hearing my side?”

  “Oh, I can handle it,” Rose assured her. “I just don’t want to.”

  Her smile widened. “It sounds like you know I’m right.”

  “Does it?” Rose said. “Because to me, it sounds like you’re trying to argue about our right to exist.” Her eyes started to glow. “And I’m not going to demean myself or the people I love by pretending our right to exist is up for discussion.”

  Both Assassins of Light stepped back, as they saw the red in Rose’s eyes.

  Rose forced a smile. “Relax. We’re not the animals you think we are.”

  “Your eyes are red,” the second Assassin said. “They’re terrifying.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way,” Rose said, “but I’ve done nothing to you.”

  Kara laughed, “Oh, you two are shining examples of bravery, aren’t you?”

  Diana’s brown eyes narrowed at Kara. She nodded to the other Assassin.

  The second Assassin pointed his gun at Kara and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was loud, piercing the night air, but the bullet never reached Kara’s body.

  It froze mid-air.

  Before the Assassin could try again, his gun disappeared.

  Literally disappeared.

  It dissolved in a swirl of shadows.

  The Assassin of Light stared at his empty hand, his blue-gray eyes wide with alarm. He reached quickly for a second gun, snatching it out of his jacket.

  But the moment he aimed it, that gun disappeared, as well.

  Diana’s mouth fell open, as she watched the Assassin’s gun dissolve into shadows, then swirl into nothingness. She pulled out her own gun, only to watch as it did the same. Her brown eyes widened, and she quickly reached for another.

  “You might want to stop,” Kara said, “before you have no weapons left.”

  “What is this?” Diana asked Rose. “What are doing to our weapons?”

  “Destroying them,” Rose said simply. “And considering you just tried to kill someone I love, you’re lucky I destroyed them and not you.” The color of her eyes changed again—turning black, this time. “Luckily for you, I have…morals.”

  Her eyes returned to a less dangerous—less imbalanced—shade of red.

  “A vampire with morals,” Diana said with a nervous laugh. “Yeah, right.”

  Rose lifted her eyebrows—but said nothing.

  “We’re not agreeing to your terms,” the second Assassin informed them. “We know where you are, now. We’ll attack tonight. That’s all we came to say.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” Rose said. “I really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.”

  Diana scoffed at Rose’s sympathy—as if she didn’t believe it. Or perhaps, it was that she was already sure of her own victory. “Do you have any last words?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” Rose told her, “but I need to use your radio.”

  Diana frowned at that. She reached into her black jacket—a yellow sun, engulfed in red flames, imprinted on the side of it—and she pulled out her radio. “Go ahead,” she said, as she held her finger over the button. “They’re listening.”

  Kara crossed the space between the humans and herself within a second. Diana cried out in pain, as Kara grasped her wrist and wrenched it forward. Kara lifted her eyebrow at the radio in Diana’s hand. “You have to push the button to make it work,” she said, a sly smirk twitching at one corner of her lips. She forced Diana’s finger onto the button and pressed it down. “I’m sure you just…forgot.”

  “Of course,” Diana said between clenched teeth. “An honest mistake.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” Kara said. Without breaking eye-contact with the furious Assassin of Light, Kara urged, “Go ahead, Rose. What do you want to tell them?”

  Rose moved closer, too, ensuring that the radio would pick up her voice. “If you can hear this and don’t agree with this war, if you don’t think the genocide of an entire race is the right way to handle the sins of a few, if you believe in love, not hate…go to the nearest hospital. We have people there who will protect you, through the night. Humans and vampires will be protected. And when you wake tomorrow, you’ll find a world no longer at war, a world where all species coexist.”

  Diana’s brown eyes seethed with hatred. She let go of the button, as soon as Kara released her hand, and she turned to Rose. “And what do you have to say to my people? Those of us who refuse to let monsters like you exist in our world?”

  Rose was silent for a moment. The sky grew darker, clouds eclipsing the light of the moon. The wind began to howl, and lightning streaked across the sky. The wind blew her long, red hair forward, into her face. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded different—power trembling beneath it. “Tell them to attack. Tell them I said…” Her eyes glowed an even brighter shade of red. “I dare them.”

  Diana and the other woman exchanged a nervous look. “Let’s go. Now.”

  Kara grasped Diana’s arm again, spinning the Assassin toward her. “Not so fast,” she whispered. Her lips curved into a sly smile. “Remember those morals Rose mentioned?” She shoved a blade into Diana’s stomach. “I don’t have them.”

  The other Assassin of Light gasped and reached for his gun again—only to remember that Rose had already destroyed it. He began searching for another.

  Kara let Diana fall forward. “Have fun commanding an army with that.”

  Diana clutched her stomach. She glanced at the other Assassin, who was still frantically searching for a gun that didn’t exist. “Just get me to the medics!”

  The Assassin hurried over to help Diana back to her feet. “Yes, ma’am!”

  As the Assassins of Light stumbled back across the field, Kara turned to face Rose. She smiled, as Rose glared at her. “You are so sexy when you’re angry.”

  Rose sighed heavily. “You can’t stab people during peace talks, Kara.”

  Kara spread out her arms, blood dripping steadily from the dagger in her right hand. “Well, I don’t see why not,” she complained. She smiled and stepped closer to Rose. “Besides,” she teased, “I can always apologize before the battle.”

  Rose blushed. “A battlefield is not a place for one of your…apologies.”

  Kara chuckled. “What about a kiss, then? Can I have a good luck kiss?”

  Rose rolled her eyes, unable to hide her smile. “Well, obviously.”

  “Obviously,” Kara teased back, as she leaned in for her kiss.

  27

  Epilogue

  Three years later…

  Kara stretched out on the blanket and folded her arm behind her head—content to watch Rose, as Rose watched the water. “I told you I’d take you to see the fjords one day,” she murmured. “It just took us a few years to find the time.”

  Rose watched the green light weave through the sky, reflecting across the surface of the deep, blue water below. She laughed, “You forgot to mention that we’d have to sneak into Aaron’s territory. You know I’m not supposed to be here.”

  “What kind of date would it be, if we didn’t break any rules?” Kara said.


  “A normal one?” Rose guessed. She shrugged. “Not that I would know.”

  “Aaron isn’t going to challenge you,” Kara told her. “He knows better.”

  Rose leaned forward, glancing over the cliff side, at the dark blue waters. It was strange to just…exist, for a moment—to have no wars to stop and no lives to save. Years ago, a peaceful sight like this one might’ve bothered her. She would have felt so out-of-place, with her mind in such a whirlwind, while nature wasn’t.

  But it was different, now.

  She still worried too much and overanalyzed everything. That was never going to change. But she’d found a kind of balance—between the parts of herself she’d once hated and the parts she’d always known. She had finally started to heal.

  They’d won the war, of course. It was never really a question of whether they would lose—not after Rose gained control of her power. Weapons were no match against someone who could literally create and destroy at will. It had only been a question of how many innocent lives would be lost, and they had done all they could to minimize that number. They’d saved the world. They’d defied fate.

  But the work hadn’t ended there.

  There’d been laws to make, people to educate, treaties to sign…

  Rose was pretty sure she’d never actually agreed to lead the Alliance—or anything else, for that matter—but somehow, she had become the de facto leader of everything relating to vampire and human relations. Even Aaron yielded to her.

  Rose wasn’t a fan of this.

  She’d also managed to start a colony? Somehow?

  Again, Rose didn’t remember actually agreeing to do it. Everyone just kept following her around, until she decided to, at least, give them somewhere to live.

  “Speaking of Aaron,” Rose sighed. “He rarely leaves the Tomb of Blood, and here we are, leaving our colony only a few years after starting it.” She turned to look at Kara, only to find herself entranced. The sky bathed Kara’s fair skin in multicolored light, and her blue hair shined brighter beneath it. Her icy blue eyes glistened, as she watched the sky. Even her leather pants seemed to reflect light.