The Assassins of Light

by Britney Jackson

  —

  “Rose, do you have any idea what time it is?” Kallias complained.

  “Not to mention,” Erik said hoarsely, “it’s been a long night.”

  “I know,” Rose sighed, giving Erik a sympathetic look, her heart breaking as she saw the tired brokenness in his expression, “and I promise that I wouldn’t have woken you up if this wasn’t an emergency. But it is. Audrey is in trouble.”

  Erik sat up a little straighter in the bed, his brows furrowing. “Audrey?”

  “Who cares?” Kallias said. “Have you forgotten what she said to you?”

  Rose narrowed her eyes at him. “She doesn’t deserve to die for that.”

  “Rose, your shirt is unbuttoned,” Erik mumbled groggily, leaning against the headboard of the bed, “which actually makes it look a tiny bit less hideous.”

  Rose looked down, blushing, as she quickly buttoned up her pajama shirt.

  Kara sat crossed-legged on the desk, behind Rose, watching them talk, and when Rose shot a glare in her direction, she offered Rose a guilty smile.

  Kallias glanced back and forth between them, a scowl twisting at his lips.

  Erik dragged his fingers through his messy, blonde hair. Exhaustion and depression pulled at his features. “Why do you think that Audrey is going to die?”

  “I don’t think that she’s going to die,” Rose corrected. “I’m afraid that she might…if we don’t get there in time. She had one of her precognitive dreams.”

  “Wait,” Kara said, “your human friend—she has precognitive abilities?”

  “They’re not full-fledged like a vampire’s abilities would be,” Kallias told her. “She only sees the future in dreams. She can’t access the abilities at will.”

  “Still,” Kara said with a frown, “it’s strange, isn’t it? Rose and her friend have psychic abilities, and they both accessed them while they were still human.”

  Kallias nodded. “I thought so, too, but I read Audrey’s mind. As much as I could at the time, anyway. And her friendship with Rose seemed genuine.”

  “Until she found out that Rose was a vampire,” Erik muttered.

  “Right,” Kallias agreed. “After that, she acted like a total bitch.”

  “Don’t call her that,” Rose said. “She has a right to her opinions.”

  “Hating someone for something that they can’t help isn’t an opinion,” Kara told Rose, her light blue eyes burning with sympathy. “It’s just…hatred.”

  Rose glanced at her. “She thinks I’m a monster, and…she’s right.”

  Kara hopped off of the desk and took a step toward Rose, closing the space between them in that one step. “You’re not a monster, Rose,” she said with strong, audible conviction. “Even when your eyes turn red…even when they turn black…even when you do things that you later regret…you are never a monster.”

  Erik frowned curiously at that. “When her eyes turn…black?”

  Kallias, on the other hand, didn’t even seem to notice what Kara had said because he was too busy watching the way Rose and Kara reacted to each other—leaning toward each other, as if a magnetic force were pulling them together.

  Erik seemed to realize it, too, as he sensed their intense, overwhelming emotions. “Damn,” he muttered under his breath. “That’s a strong blood bond.”

  Rose glanced back at him, her eyes wide. She shifted her gaze toward Kallias, guilt twisting at her stomach, as she saw the worried look on his face.

  Kara took a step back, putting a more endurable distance between them.

  Meanwhile, Kallias grabbed his phone from the nightstand and busied himself with scrolling through his contacts, looking for the pilot’s phone number.

  “I need to ask you a few questions,” Kara told Rose. She raised her hands in a placating gesture. “I’m not making any assumptions about your friend. These are just questions.” She offered Rose a worried smile. “Better safe than sorry.”

  Rose raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t like safe.”

  A flirty smirk twitched at Kara’s lips. “A little taste won’t hurt me.”

  Rose suppressed a smile. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

  Kara’s smile faded. “How did you meet your friend?” she asked seriously.

  Rose winced a little. “During orientation, our freshman year, there was this guy who was harassing her, and I kind of…sassed him…until he ran away.”

  “Figures,” Erik snorted.

  “I might have insulted his intelligence,” Rose admitted, “and his morality. And his maturity. And his self-control.” She smiled sheepishly. “The thing is…he had a bunch of his friends with him, and I think I might have embarrassed him.”

  Kara watched Rose with an amused smile. “You’re adorably fierce.”

  Rose flashed a cute smile at her. “Like a leopard seal? Or a wolverine?”

  Kara’s smile widened, curving slowly into a wolfish, lascivious grin. She swept her smoldering gaze down Rose’s body and murmured, “Or a pussycat.”

  Rose just stared, her eyes wide, as she tried to form a response. Her skin felt extremely warm under Kara’s heated gaze. “Uh…yeah…cats are…cool.”

  Kara just laughed, her light blue eyes practically glowing with amusement.

  Erik snorted, “How have you ever managed to get a date, Rose?”

  “Well, I haven’t gotten many,” Rose laughed, “but as for the people who did ask me out,” she paused and shrugged, “I have no idea what they saw in me.”

  Kara moved closer to Rose, a smile tilting at her lips. “Then, allow me to tell you what I see,” she said in a soft, lilting tone. “Your intelligence is hot. Your bravery is sexy. Your kindness is beautiful. And your awkwardness is adorable.”

  Rose blushed. “I…uh… I doubt that’s the way most people see it.”

  “Didn’t you have another question?” Kallias asked Kara, his voice sharp.

  Kara glanced at him, her eyebrows lifting at his hostility. She didn’t seem peeved by it, just amused. “Yes, I did,” she agreed. She returned her gaze to Rose. “My second question is…what happened after that day to build your friendship?”

  “I couldn’t afford rent without a roommate, and Audrey’s grandparents didn’t want Audrey to live alone. They worried about her. Someone told Audrey that I was looking for a roommate, so she asked if she could move in,” Rose said.

  Kara nodded. “I have two more questions, and these are very important.”

  Rose frowned at the graveness that she heard in Kara’s voice. “Okay.”

  “What was his name?” Kara asked. “The guy who harassed your friend.”

  “I don’t know,” Rose said, shrugging. “We’d never seen him before.”

  “And you never saw him again after that day?” Kara asked carefully.

  Kallias frowned worriedly as he realized what Kara was suggesting. He straightened. “You must’ve seen him again. He went to the same college as you.”

  “Never,” Rose said, “but it’s a big college. Maybe our paths didn’t cross.”

  “One more question,” Kara said. She still looked pretty relaxed, but Rose sensed her anxiety. “Who told Audrey that you were looking for a roommate?”

  Rose’s eyes widened, and the blood drained from her face. “I…I don’t know,” she stammered. “I never thought about it. But…I never told anyone.”

  “You didn’t tell anyone you were looking for a roommate?” Kara asked.

  “How could I?” Rose said quietly. “I hadn’t made any friends yet.”

  Kallias scowled at her. “You never wondered who told her?”

  “My brother had just gotten arrested. My mom died a week later,” Rose said, shrugging anxiously. “I had a lot on my mind. I guess I just didn’t think.”

  “I have to be honest,” Erik muttered. “I’m a little creeped out right now.”

  Kallias directed his worried frown at Kara. “What does this mean?”

  Kara leaned back against
the dresser, tucking her arm behind her. “Isn’t it obvious? Someone has manipulated the events of her life. Behind the scenes.”

  Rose shook her head in denial. “No. That’s crazy. I would have noticed. Right? And why would they do that? What could they hope to accomplish?”

  Kara shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you that. Not without knowing who was behind it,” she said sympathetically. “But what I do know is that when you want to manipulate someone, when you want to push them into certain decisions, you don’t do it directly. You get other people to do it. You send people to do these tiny, insignificant things, things that no one will remember, but will affect the person in the way you want it to. You send different people each time. Strangers.”

  Kallias scowled suspiciously at her. “You know a lot about this.”

  Kara rolled her eyes. “It’s my job, remember? I run a network of spies.”

  “Right,” Kallias said harshly, “so how do we know you’re not behind it?”

  “Seriously?” Kara said with an incredulous laugh. “Well, first of all, if I were behind it, I sure as hell wouldn’t have just given myself away to my target.”

  Some of the suspicion faded from Kallias’s eyes as he considered that.

  “And second,” Kara said, her voice softening. “The first time I met Rose was the night that you all arrived here. If I had met her before…” she trailed off.

  Kallias watched her with a frown. “What? What would you have done?”

  Kara blinked, emotion flashing in her piercing, light blue eyes. She shrank back, and there was a surprising vulnerability in her stance. “I…I don’t know.”

  Rose didn’t know what to think. She wondered what was on Kara’s mind, what had struck her so deeply. Because of the blood bond, Rose felt what Kara felt, but the emotions were so powerful that Rose couldn’t identify them. She felt fear, surprise, and…something else. Something warm and intense and confusing.

  “Well, whoever is behind this clearly wants you close to Audrey,” Kallias told Rose, “which means you need to stay away from her, not run to her side.”

  Rose turned toward him. “She could die, Kallias,” she tried to explain.

  “Not our problem,” Kallias said coldly.

  Seething anger burned in her bright blue eyes. “Speak for yourself,” she said, “but Audrey is my best friend, and I’m not letting her die because of me.”

  Erik leaned forward. “What do you mean? How is it because of you?”

  Pain twisted at her face. “She dreamed that…” Rose trailed off miserably.

  “What?” Kallias asked, frowning. “What happened in her dream?”

  Sensing Rose’s deep emotional pain, Kara decided to answer the question for her. “An Assassin of Light killed Rose’s friend. He said that it was a message for Rose,” she explained. When Rose glanced questionably at her, she offered Rose an apologetic smile. “I overheard the phone call while I was in the shower.”

  Rose nodded, her brows creasing with pain and guilt. “Right,” she sighed.

  “Rose,” Kallias said, “why would the Assassins of Light target you?”

  “I…I don’t know,” Rose stammered. “I mean, they’ve attacked me twice, but they weren’t here for me either of those times. They were here to kill Aaron.”

  “Maybe they found out about your power,” Erik suggested.

  “But how?” Rose asked with a puzzled frown. “I’m pretty sure that there were only two of them who saw me using my power, and Aaron killed one of them and took the other prisoner. How could anyone else have figured it out?”

  “You knew the Assassin,” Kara said, “from her dream, didn’t you?”

  Rose shifted her gaze toward Kara. “Kind of,” she said hesitantly.

  Kallias frowned at them. “What do you mean by that?” he asked Rose.

  Rose breathed out a shaky sigh. “Audrey said that it was Jared. The man who shot her—the Assassin of Light—was Jared,” she said, “Owen’s boyfriend.”

  Erik glanced back and forth between Kallias and Rose. “Who is Owen?”

  “He’s one of Rose’s human friends,” Kallias answered with a scowl.

  “You didn’t seem too surprised that it was him,” Kara said to Rose.

  Rose shrugged. “I am, but…I don’t know. I guess I just always had this bad feeling about Jared. There was something really off-putting about him. But Owen is one of my best friends. I don’t think he’s involved. He couldn’t be.”

  “You told me that Owen was acting unusual,” Kallias reminded her.

  “He was,” Rose acknowledged, “but still…he’s not involved in this. He’s a good person. He’s a pacifist, for goodness sakes. He would never hurt anyone.”

  “You trust people too easily,” Kallias said. “You think everyone is good.”

  “And you give up on people too easily,” Rose countered. “I won’t give up on Owen. He’s my friend. I don’t believe he has anything to do with this.”

  “It would explain how they know about you, though,” Erik pointed out.

  Rose felt sick at the thought. “Owen would never hurt anyone.”

  “Don’t be so naïve, Rose,” Kallias said with a disapproving scowl.

  Kara sighed. “Look, let’s just…hope she’s right,” she told Kallias. “For now, we can only wait and see. You know that Rose won’t let her friend die, nor should we want her to. So, we’ll just have to stay vigilant and hope for the best.”

  “Who is this we you’re talking about?” Kallias snarled at her. “You won’t be with us. You’ll still be here serving Aaron like the obedient lapdog you are.”

  “I’m more of a wolf than a lapdog,” Kara said with a sarcastic smile.

  “Kallias,” Rose sighed. “Would you please stop treating Kara like crap?”

  “Maybe if she stops kissing you,” Kallias said with a deadly glare.

  Rose shrank back at that, pain and guilt twisting at her expression.

  But Kara just watched him with a smile. “Not happening,” she told him.

  Rose gave Kara a sheepish look. “Do you have to make it worse?”

  “I’m a troublemaker. It’s what I do,” Kara said easily. Then, shooting a glare in his direction, she added, “Besides, he’s an asshole…which is fine, as long as it’s directed at me and not you. He can insult me all he wants. I think it’s fun.”

  Kallias sulked a little. Clearly, Kara having fun wasn’t his original goal.

  Rose just sighed, “I need to make sure all of my bags are packed.”

  “I can help from here,” Kara explained to Kallias. “I have spies.”

  “I don’t think I trust any of your people,” Kallias informed her.

  Kara just smiled. “You don’t have to.”

  Kallias rolled his eyes and returned his gaze to the phone in his hand. “I called the pilot last night…before we went to bed. So, he’s already on his way.”

  “Lucky for Audrey,” Erik muttered. “I guess I should get ready to leave.”

  Kallias nodded in agreement. “We’ll leave about an hour after sunset.”

  A buzzing sound suddenly echoed through the room. With a soft sigh, Kara reached into the back pocket of her leather pants and pulled out her cell phone. “Aaron needs to see me,” she muttered as she read over the message. She tucked the phone back into her pocket and headed toward the door. She stopped in the doorway and looked back at Rose, her hand still on the doorknob. “I might not be back before you leave. So…” she trailed off as a hint of sadness flashed in her light blue eyes. She shrugged. “Maybe we’ll see each other again. Eventually.”

  Rose watched helplessly as the door closed behind Kara. The pain and fear that spread throughout her chest in that moment paralyzed her. She wasn’t even sure whose pain she felt—hers or Kara’s—because it all blended together.

  Eventually?

  As she tried to make sense of the pain in her chest, of the deep emptiness that she felt when she thought about not seeing Kara again,
she realized that Erik was staring at her with that knowing look on his face. He’d sensed her emotions.

  Erik waited until Kallias stepped out of the room to make a phone call to the pilot—to see if the plane had arrived yet—before he made his way over to Rose. He placed his hand on her shoulder, using his empathic abilities to soothe her sadness and pain. He glanced down at her, raising an eyebrow. “Am I the only person here who’s not too much of a coward to admit my feelings for someone?”

  Rose winced at the implied insult. “Probably,” she muttered.

  —

  Rose sensed Kara’s presence before she saw her. It was an intense, pleasant awareness that tingled along her spine, awakening the animalistic hunger that burned inside of her, awakening the blood bond that she shared with Kara.

  She closed her eyes, inhaling the faint scent of violets, leather, and snow.

  No one else could smell those faints scents from this far away. She knew that. But because Kara had given Rose her blood, all of Rose’s senses were now attuned to Kara—to her scent, her taste, her physical sensations, her emotions…

  Rose turned around, her duffel bag slung over her shoulder, and stared into the shadows that were cast by the buildings on the other side of the parking lot. She watched as Kara emerged from the shadows, walking slowly toward her.

  Erik came up beside Rose and tugged the bag off of her shoulder. “Go on,” he said when she glanced at him, startled. “I’ll put your bag on the plane.”

  Rose nodded, and then, she began to cross the frost-covered parking lot.

  Kallias stopped loading his own bags onto the plane and turned to look at Rose, his brows creasing with worry, as he realized that Kara was there, too.

  “Come on,” Erik said. He nudged Kallias’s shoulder with his own as he passed, tilting his head toward the plane. “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you.”