The Assassins of Light

by Britney Jackson

  Elise frowned, clearly conflicted between Kara’s orders and Rose’s. “Er,” she said, glancing at Susan, who was clearly panicking, “okay…if you’re sure?”

  “Yes, I need to be alone,” Rose said quickly, her voice strained, “please.”

  Elise nodded and followed Susan toward the front of the house.

  Rose listened to the sound of Elise’s high heels as they tapped across the marble floor, trying to ground herself, trying to remind herself where she was, but her mind kept slipping back into that night. And her power kept building.

  She needed to get away from the screams. Yes, that would work, Rose thought. She just needed to find somewhere far enough away from the screams that she could clear her head. And preferably, a place with fresh air…that didn’t smell so strongly of blood. She wandered the hall for a few moments, checking the doors that led to more rooms than any one person needed, and then, finally, she found a door that led outside. She stepped outside and closed the door.

  Rose leaned against the door and covered her chest with her hand, as if her hand could contain the exploding pain inside. She inhaled the cold, autumn air, and she sighed as she smelled roses, lilies, chrysanthemums, and a plethora of other sweet, soothing scents. She opened her eyes, taking in the sight of the courtyard before her for the first time. It was beautiful, covered in flowers and leaves, with bright, lively colors spread out before her, glowing in the moonlight.

  But she saw a dark form, too, in the midst of the colors, a shadow hidden behind the flowers. She straightened and inhaled deeply, trying to identify the scent. Beneath the scent of flowers, and beyond the scent of fresh human blood, she smelled the sweetness of age and power. Vampire blood. She recognized the scent, somehow, but only vaguely. Not enough to remember whose scent it was.

  “Who’s there? I know you’re out there,” Rose called. “I can smell you.”

  Leaves rustled as the dark form moved toward her, his sweet, powerful scent creeping ever closer. “Your power is so mesmerizing,” said a familiar voice, “the way light and shadows ripple from your body in a strange, impossible dance.”

  Rose recognized that cold, emotionless voice, and as he moved closer, creeping out of the shadows, toward her, she recognized him. “Erastos?” she said, her eyes widening. She threw up her hands. “What the heck are you doing here?!”

  He stepped out of the shadows. The moonlight that streamed into the center of the courtyard fell upon his white-blonde hair, causing it to shine in the darkness. “I was waiting for you,” he said in that eerie voice of his, “of course.”

  Rose lifted her eyebrows. “You were waiting for me,” she repeated, “to come to a senator’s home…that I’ve never been to before…and come out into the courtyard…that I didn’t even know about…and find you, standing in the shadows, being totally creepy?” She nodded. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  “I trust you received my gift?” Erastos said. “The rose with black petals?”

  Rose tilted her head to the side, lifting her eyebrows. “You mean the one you left on the kitchen counter, inside Kallias’s house? You might not know this, but stalking and trespassing are illegal. That means you’re not supposed to do it.”

  “You did get it, then,” Erastos said, stepping closer. “Did you like it?”

  Rose crossed her arms across her chest. “I don’t like you stalking me.”

  “You don’t understand the meaning, do you?” Erastos realized. “It was symbolic, you see. The color of the petals. Do you understand what it means?”

  “I don’t understand anything you do, Erastos,” she muttered tiredly.

  “Everything has a meaning, my Eklektos,” he told her. He took another step toward her, each movement eerily slow, like a snake creeping toward its prey.

  Rose straightened, a suspicious chill sliding down her spine. “Well? Are you going to tell me what that meaning is, or are you just wasting my time?”

  Erastos regarded her curiously. “I detect hostility. Are you angry?”

  “Depends,” she growled, as the red fire in her eyes began to dance faster, burning brighter and brighter. “Did you know what would happen to Zach?”

  “Tragedy has a certain effect upon you,” Erastos said. “It was amazing.”

  Everything changed in an instant. Rose’s eyes, though still red, darkened, black shadows dancing within them, threatening to overtake the light. The cool, late-autumn air began to snap and fizzle, as if it were electrically charged, as if the very air they breathed could catch fire at any moment. The leaves began to rustle in the wind, and thunder cracked overhead. Rose shook her head, her skin flushed with anger, her jaw tight with pain. “No,” she growled, and even though she’d barely even whispered the word, the ground trembled from the power behind it. “I can’t do this.” She spun on her heels with every intention of going back inside.

  But Erastos, moving faster than she would’ve ever expected—shockingly fast, even for a vampire—appeared in front of her, blocking the door. He stood close to her now, his scent as cold and sterile as his personality. But, for once, his pale blue eyes didn’t look cold and sterile. They were wide and full of fascination.

  “Get out of my way, Erastos,” Rose snarled, “before I lose control.”

  “I want you to lose control,” he said. “I want to witness the Darkness.”

  “Rose?” Kara called from the door. She entered the courtyard with slow, careful steps, her eyes darting from Rose to Erastos. She barely reacted to Rose’s swirling, red eyes. Instead, she narrowed her eyes at Erastos. “Who is this?”

  “His name is Erastos,” Rose said, her glowing, crimson-red eyes flashing and dancing, like fire. “He’s the vampire who gave me the Stone of the Eklektos.”

  “Really?” Kara said curiously. She reached Rose, finally, and deliberately put herself between the ancient vampire and Rose. “Is he a friend or an enemy?”

  “I don’t know,” Rose said. “I don’t know anything about him, actually.”

  “Usually a bad sign,” Kara said. She watched Erastos with narrowed eyes, her shoulders rolled back, her body prepared to fight. “What is he doing here?”

  “I came to help,” Erastos said to Rose, still fascinated with the fiery, red glow of her eyes, “just as I always do. My purpose is to serve you, my Eklektos.”

  “If that were true,” Rose said, her chest heaving, the force of her power causing her long, red hair to sway and whip across her face, as if blown by a harsh wind, “then you would’ve warned me about my brother…so I could save him.”

  Kara glanced at Rose, shifting her gaze away from Erastos for the first time since she’d entered the room. Her light blue eyes burned with sympathy, and she reached out, almost unnoticeably, and threaded her fingers through Rose’s.

  The action had an immediate effect on Rose, and even though her eyes remained red, the power that danced around her seemed to calm, the wind stilling, her hair falling flat against her back. Tears glistened in Rose’s swirling, red eyes.

  Erastos watched them curiously, his gaze darting from Kara to Rose, and if Rose didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought she’d seen a hint of worry in those normally emotionless, pale blue eyes of his. But then, the emotion faded, and he turned to Rose. “Everything I do or don’t do has a purpose, my Eklektos.”

  “Well, that’s suspiciously vague,” Kara said, her eyebrows lifting, “and I would know. I happen to be quite good at the suspiciously vague stuff myself.”

  His pale blue gaze shifted to Kara. “I tell her what she needs to know.”

  “Need to know basis, huh?” Kara said. “Good way to manipulate.”

  “You want her to survive the night, don’t you?” Erastos asked her.

  Kara frowned curiously at that. “Is something going to happen tonight?”

  “Yes,” Erastos said, “and I have information that you’ll need to survive.”

  Kara looked at Rose, who had finally managed to regain control of her power�
��enough so that her eyes were blue again, at least. “Do you trust him?”

  “Not much,” Rose said, “but so far, his advice has been helpful.”

  Kara shifted her gaze back to Erastos. “Say what you came to say.”

  Erastos stared at Kara with a strange curiosity, almost as if he were trying to figure something out. “Things will change tonight. The answers are coming.”

  Silence stretched between them for a moment. Then, Rose sighed, “Can you translate that in a way that doesn’t sound like you read it off of fortune cookie?”

  “Keep your mind open,” Erastos said, “and accept the help that’s given.”

  Kara leaned closer to Rose. “It sounds like he’s giving you sex advice.”

  A surprised laugh escaped Rose’s lips, and that little laugh eased a bit of the tension and pain that she’d been feeling. “I highly doubt it,” she assured Kara.

  “Goodnight, my Eklektos,” Erastos said, bending at the waist, bowing to her, as if she were some kind of royalty, “and good luck in the battles ahead.”

  “Battles?” Rose said worriedly. “Do you mean that metaphorically? Like when people say trials to describe difficult times? Or…do you mean it literally?”

  “You can’t stop the war, my Eklektos,” Erastos said. “It’s already here.”

  Rose watched as he disappeared into the shadows, leaving through a gate at the far edge of the courtyard, and for several moments, neither of them spoke.

  Then, Kara asked, carefully, “My Eklektos? Why does he call you that?”

  Rose shrugged. “It’s Greek. It means chosen or elected. Or destined.”

  “He said it like a title,” Kara murmured. “Reverently. The way someone might say my King, or my Queen, or my God. Why would he say it that way?”

  Rose shrugged again. “Like I said, he’s still a complete mystery to me.”

  Kara nodded thoughtfully. She cleared her throat. “So…are you ready to go? If we want to get back to the colony before tomorrow night, we need to go.”

  “Yeah, I’m good,” Rose said tiredly. “Did you…get what you needed?”

  “That and more,” Kara said with a small smile. “If everything he told us is true, we could take down the entire organization before the end of the night.”

  “Wow,” Rose said, blinking in shock. “So, we can stop the war, after all.”

  “Looks like it, sexy,” Kara said with a smirk. She stepped back, holding out her hand to Rose. “Let’s get back to the colony before they ruin everything.”

  Rose intertwined her fingers with Kara’s and followed her into the house. “So, if we succeeded, I wonder why Erastos said that we couldn’t stop the war.”

  “He must have been wrong,” Kara said with a languid, carefree shrug.

  Rose frowned worriedly. “But he’s never wrong.”

  30

  The Betrayal

  Kara reached out and grasped Rose’s arm, suddenly, pulling her to a stop.

  Rose turned toward her, stunned both by the roughness of her grasp and the anxiety she sensed inside of her. “Kara,” she said worriedly. “What’s wrong?”

  Elise stopped and looked back at them. She crossed her arms, her long, white coat and black dress swaying in the wind. “Aren’t you two coming?”

  “Not yet,” Kara said, blinking out of her daze. “And neither are you.”

  Elise’s brows furrowed. “Umm…okay?” she said, walking toward them.

  Erik also turned around and returned to where they stood—just a few feet in front of the private jet that they were supposed to be boarding. “What is it?”

  Kara released Rose’s arm and stepped toward Erik. “Keep her out here with you,” she told him, and then, she disappeared in a swift blur of movement.

  “What the heck?” Rose sputtered. “Kara!” She tried to rush after her, but Erik caught her, wrapping his arms around her to restrain her. “Erik, let me go!”

  “I can’t,” he said tiredly. “Just…calm down. She’ll be back in a minute.”

  “What’s going on?” Rose demanded to know. When Erik didn’t answer, she turned to Elise, instead, and asked—worriedly, “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

  Elise nodded slowly, her brows creased. “Don’t you smell the blood?”

  —

  Kara knelt next to the motionless body of her spy, pressing her fingers to his neck, checking his pulse—even though she already knew that she’d feel nothing. If she couldn’t hear his heartbeat, she wouldn’t feel it, either. She glanced at the bullet wound in his chest. Blood oozed from the wound, soaking his shirt.

  “There’s poison in his bloodstream,” said a voice that Kara immediately recognized. “So, I wouldn’t try to turn him into a vampire, if I were you.”

  Kara stood and turned toward him. “I don’t turn my spies,” she told him. “They know what kind of danger they’re signing up for when they take the job.”

  Isaac smiled at her. “You don’t seem too surprised to find me here.”

  “I’m not,” Kara said. She tilted her head to the side, her dark hair falling over her leather jacket. “Do you know why I always trust my instincts, Isaac?”

  “Because you’re a primal creature with animalistic instincts?” he guessed.

  “Because,” Kara began, taking a step toward him, “your gut instinct is usually right. Wait for your second conclusion, and you’re probably overthinking. Wait for your third conclusion, and you’re almost certainly being manipulated.”

  “Well,” Isaac said with a smug smile, “you would know quite a bit about being manipulated, wouldn’t you, Kara Unnarsdóttir?” He squinted thoughtfully. “What is that word that the Buddhists use? Ah, karma,” he laughed. “It’s karma.”

  Kara raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were supposed to be Christian.”

  Isaac scoffed, “I’m over three hundred years old. These days, I mostly just hate you.” He tilted his head back, his messy, brownish-blonde falling out of his face. “You know, I almost lost you when you snuck out of the Village of the Undead. I wouldn’t have known what to do, if I hadn’t seen Erik and Elise leave.”

  Kara nodded. “Were you the one who kept them going all of this time?”

  “Who? The Assassins of Light?” Isaac laughed darkly. “Oh, no, this all goes way deeper than me. You’d be very surprised to know who’s really behind it.”

  “I’m sure I would,” Kara muttered, rolling her eyes impatiently.

  He smiled. “When was the last time you checked your phone?”

  Kara shrugged. “I put it on silent because Aaron wouldn’t quit calling.”

  “And you assumed that he was only calling because you left,” Isaac said.

  She nodded slowly. “I take it there was another reason he was calling?”

  “We’re officially at war,” Isaac informed her. “Humans and vampires.”

  Kara looked away for a moment, her jaw tightening, as she tried not to react to that very scary piece of news. Then, her gaze shifted back toward him, and she stepped toward him. “And where does that leave you, Isaac?” she asked. She began to twirl a throwing knife between her fingers—a knife Isaac had never seen her pull out. “You betrayed us, so you’re clearly not on our side. But you can’t truly be on theirs, either, can you? Not when you’re the very thing they hate.”

  “I never wanted to be this,” he said, his face contorting with disgust. “But thanks to your girlfriend, I’ve had to live as one of you for three hundred years.”

  Kara froze. “My girlfriend?” she said, her brows furrowing in confusion.

  “Not the one with red eyes,” Isaac said. “The other one. The crazy one.”

  “Alana,” Kara said, frowning, as she tried to piece together the puzzle—the ever-growing, impossible-to-solve puzzle. “Alana turned you into a vampire.”

  Isaac sat down in one of the seats, crossing one leg over the other, as if he weren’t the least bit scared of Kara. “God, she was such a crazy bitch, wasn’
t she?” he muttered under his breath. “No wonder people beat and raped her.”

  Kara looked up at him, and then, before he could react, she flung the throwing knife at him. She watched unsympathetically as he cried out in pain, the throwing knife stuck in the center of his chest. “You’re lucky I need your vocal cords intact because I would have aimed for your throat, if I didn’t. And believe me. That hurts. I know from experience.” She took a step toward him, watching as his chest heaved from the pain, which, she assumed, only made the pain worse.

  “And here I thought you didn’t care about her anymore,” Isaac rasped.

  “Who says I do?” Kara countered. “Maybe I just think you’re a piece of shit that deserves to have a knife stuck in his chest.” Her light blue eyes narrowed. “I almost wish she were still alive. Just so she could make you regret those words.”

  Isaac lifted his hand, his fingers trembling because of the pain, and then, with a cry of pain, he jerked the knife out of his chest. He tossed the blood-coated weapon aside and glanced down at the stab wound in his chest, watching as blood bubbled out of the small wound, drenching his loose, brown shirt. “You act so tough. You use other people’s weaknesses against them, as if you have none. But the truth is…you have weaknesses, too. One of them is standing behind you.”

  Kara spun around, worry flashing in her piercing, blue eyes, as she saw Rose standing behind her. “Rose,” she said nervously, “you shouldn’t be in here.”

  “Oh, come on,” Rose teased, “you knew I wouldn’t stay out there.”

  Kara nodded at that. “I’m surprised you waited as long as you did.”

  “Me, too,” Rose said dryly. She looked at Isaac. “What is he doing here?”

  “Sending a message,” Isaac said. He reached into his pocket, grimacing in pain as he moved, and pulled out his phone. He tossed the phone at Rose, and while she was busy catching it, he pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Kara.