Rise of the Assassin (Child of an Alpha Series Book 1)

by Kaitlyn Taylor

  “You must be stupid,” the assassin huffed. “Do you not understand the powers of dark magic? You can’t kill me!”

  He pushed Nova and I away from him, Nova hitting the wall closest to the front door and me landing next to the broken window. My back didn’t feel too great, but I didn’t have time to nurse it. I looked up to see the assassin ripping the sword out of his chest. He stepped towards Juda and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off the ground, her entire body fighting to get away from him.

  I glanced over at Nova; her lime green eyes were glowing just like Kota’s were, angry to see our sister threatened like that. I saw her face cringe as the first bone broke. Fur started to cover her skin as her entire body began to move in unnatural directions. I pushed myself off the ground, fangs still covered in the assassin’s blood. He squeezed tighter around Juda’s neck, and before I could get to them, he swung her entire body towards and through the broken window, taking pieces of the cottage wall with her.

  “Juda!” I screamed looking out the hole my sister created. She was moving but she wasn’t getting up. All I needed to know was that she was alive. I turned back towards the assassin, ready to charge, but Nova beat me to it. She had completely shifted. Her auburn hair now fur, her eyes still the lime green we saw every day, but the glow was brighter than they were previously, and as I looked over at Kota and Deja, theirs were doing the same. I had never seen that on anyone before until today. Not only were my sisters’ eyes doing it, but so was the assassin’s. I had to wonder if mine were glowing too.

  Nova and the assassin flew by me, the assassin landing on his back while Nova landed on all fours. Kota, Deja, and I followed them, jumping down from the cottage. Deja helped Juda up, handing her the sword that the assassin had somehow pulled out of his chest. I could tell Juda was sore, but her anger was stronger than the pain. She was the evidence I needed to know my eyes were glowing as well. It was harder to notice on Juda since her eyes were basically one color but standing close to her confirmed my suspicions. I wanted answers to this, but now was not the time to get them.

  The assassin stood up looking like he was in more pain than we were. I wasn’t going to underestimate him again. I’m sure he was in pain but I’m also sure he wanted us to think he was weakening.

  “You girls are strong,” he said, out of breath as he buckled over, his hands resting on his knees. “But I can’t be killed while the dark magic runs through me.”

  “Everything has a weakness,” Deja shouted. “Even dark magic.”

  “True,” he agreed. “But the odds of you figuring that out right now are slim. I’ll take my chances.”

  He whipped both of his arms towards us just like he did in the cottage. Kota blocked the spell, only this time that was all she did. She was still weak from taking down the barrier and cloaking spell, and then she’d used a lot of energy to distract the assassin while Nova and I came at him from the side. The girls and I were going to have to do more to protect us, so Kota had time to regain some of her lost energy.

  “Say goodbye, girls,” the assassin sang. “I’ll make sure your fathers know how hard you fought here today.”

  “I don’t think so,” I yelled, charging the assassin head on. He didn’t even try to fight back. I knocked him to the ground and jumped on top of him, punching each side of his face. I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t trying to stop me.

  Before I could make my next move, he raised his arm up so that his palm faced me, pushing me back towards my sisters. Kota and Deja each grabbed an arm, stopping me from falling.

  Nova was the next one to move towards him. Jumping across the space between us only to be flown back towards the cottage. He couldn’t defend himself and attack us at the same time. We needed to keep attacking him until one of us could sneak through and disable him. I’m not sure how we’re going to do that but if we can’t kill him then it was the only other option we had. Nova was back on her feet, the low grumble coming from deep in her throat told me she wasn’t finished with the assassin.

  Deja, palms facing the sky, closed her eyes and concentrated. I hadn’t seen her do this before, but we needed to protect her while she did it. Kota and Juda stepped in front of her, Juda pulling two long knives from her boots after deciding the sword wasn’t going to work. I had no idea she had been carrying those in her shoes this whole time. I didn’t carry weapons so I didn’t know how to hide them, but a giants’ strength could only get them so far, which is why they practiced daily to master the various weapons our blacksmiths created.

  Deja, ready now, threw her arms towards the assassin. Behind him, two thick vines from the trees wrapped around each arm, while a third vine grabbed him by the neck, pulling him back towards the bush fence, forcing him to his knees again.

  Nova ran towards him. This time when she lunged at him, he fell onto his back; the vines held his arms down while two more pinned his legs. Nova howled and bit into his shoulder. The assassin’s eyes grew brighter than before as he moved his arm to stop her, mumbling some incantation.

  Shortly afterwards, Nova was hovering above him just before he launched her towards the bush fence. She hit it and fell to the ground. I didn’t even see him break through the vines that Deja had summoned. How is he doing this? I know it was dark magic, but something had to be a weakness for him.

  Deja went to check on Nova while Juda stepped up and fought the assassin. Her feet were light as she moved quickly to defend herself and sneak a few hits in herself. She gracefully battled the assassin, making it look easy even though the assassin was just as quick and appeared to be just as skilled with a sword.

  “Call the alphas!” I yelled to Kota.

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “If I call them, we’re ratting ourselves out.”

  “I think we have bigger issues at hand, Kota!” Juda yelled, continuing to block every swing the assassin took at her.

  “Yes, call your fathers and tell them you’re too weak to handle one little sorcerer,” the assassin mocked.

  “We’re not going to make it out of this alive if you don’t call them,” I said, as Kota nodded in agreement.

  She laid her palm out and mumble something under her breath. A small blade appeared in the middle of her hand. Deja was next to Juda now; fireballs and vines simultaneously attacked the assassin while Juda battled him with the knives. I turned back to Kota, who had dragged a line across her hand with the tip of the blade she’d conjured, squeezing it tightly into a fist when she was done. She stuck the blade in her boot and then mumbled a spell over and over again as her blood dripped down onto the grass.

  I faced the assassin again, noticing that Deja was single handedly taking her own shot at the sorcerer. She was throwing a combination of fireballs and chunks of the ground, moving closer to him with each element that hit him. My heart stopped when he took a step towards her, going on the offensive. I saw the fear in my sister’s eye when she realized her efforts were doing nothing to weaken him. He smiled as a white light formed within his palms, raising it above his head and then throwing it at Deja so quickly that there was no way for her to escape it.

  The light hit her stomach pushing her backwards, flying past us, hitting the side of the cottage hard. She screamed as she held her stomach, Kota taking her place next to Juda while I ran to her side to make sure she was okay. Nova, still in wolf form, limped over to us, her front right leg wounded. She lay down in front of us, using herself as a shield while I looked at Deja’s wound. I forced her to move her arm only to have fear punch me in the gut. There was a hole in her stomach just below her belly button. It wasn’t very big, but it was severe enough that I could see the grass and cottage wall through it. My fear disappeared, rage taking over me at a level I had never experienced before.

  I stood up, standing over my sisters as they breathed deeply from the pain. Nova wouldn’t shift back until her body was healed and Deja wasn’t moving from that spot without help.

  “Stay here,” I told them. “Watch over each oth
er.”

  I walked away from them knowing they were perfectly capable of protecting each other should the assassin get to them. Kota and Juda were tired, neither one of them able to hide it any longer. At a speed my sisters would find hard to see, I ran towards the assassin and challenged him to hand-to-hand combat. To my surprise, he was just as fast. I was starting to get extremely annoyed with this dark magic. Sorcerers were quick but they were not vampire quick, and yet this murderer was fighting me with the speed of my own race.

  “It’s nice to see the fire come out of you,” the assassin said as he fought, annoying me even more. “I have to say you were not that threatening when you were in the barn.”

  “You knocked us out like a coward,” I yelled back at him, my fist finally connecting with his cheek, but he wasn’t fazed by it at all.

  “I wasn’t there to fight you, I was there to prove a point,” he sang as he ducked, attempting to swipe my legs out from underneath me.

  My brothers had tried that one on me my entire life, and after years of falling for it, I’d finally learned my lesson. I jumped over his leg just in time, landing on my feet, ready for the next hit.

  “What point was that? That you can knock people out without looking?”

  “That I have loyalists on the inside of the castle. You see, I may have been the one that left you and that beau of yours unconscious, but it was your staff that carried you up to your chambers. However, I did not know you were the alpha’s daughter. I figured you were one of the council members’ children, but now that I know who you really are, I couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out.”

  “If you didn’t know who I was, how did your loyalist know which room to take me to?” I dodged another fist meant for my face. “Surely they would’ve told you who I was if they were part of our staff.”

  “I don’t ask questions. I tell them what I need, and they make sure I get it. I’ll have to reward my loyal followers the next time I see them. They exceeded my expectations and then some.”

  “How do you live with yourself?” I asked him, realizing there was no way we were going to win this battle against him. It killed me to give up, but we had given him everything we had, and he still stood tall, barely breaking a sweat.

  “There are sacrifices in every war, vampire,” he answered without hesitation.

  “They were innocent people. They had nothing to do with the politics of it all. How do you go through each day wearing a smile on your face knowing you have their blood on your hands?”

  “No one has clean hands,” he said, looking more annoyed the longer that I questioned him.

  “That’s not an answer. Give me a straight answer!”

  “It’s all part of the plan!” he yelled. “If I’m going to get my revenge on the alphas, then I need the people to turn against them.”

  “What does that mean?” Juda asked as she stepped forward to stand with me. I glanced back at Deja, who was now unconscious, leaning against Nova in her wolf form. Beneath them was a puddle of blood growing bigger the longer we stayed here. We needed to get Deja back to the castle, but Kota wasn’t strong enough to open a portal. Our only hope was that the alphas received Kota’s call and they would arrive any minute to get us out of here.

  “I’ve had enough of your questions,” the assassin barked. “My plan is already set in motion and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.”

  I didn’t get the opportunity to say anything in return, because the assassin was hit by something moving so fast, I couldn’t see it. I felt the breeze as it ran by, but that was it. The assassin spun around twice and landed on his back. His head must’ve been spinning judging by the way it was moving. I was about to take a step towards him to get a shot at him while he was down, but a male figure stood in my way. I looked up and saw matching eyes staring back at me.

  Excitement ran through me when I realized my father was here to help us, but it was quickly replaced with dread when I saw the look on his face. We were in trouble. We already knew that, but the glare from my father sealed it.

  The assassin had gotten himself up off the ground. I was about to warn my father when Uncle Gabe, reaching towards the bush fence, flung one of the bushes towards the assassin, forcing him against the cottage and pinning him there. Uncle Ben, in his wolf form, ran over to him, growling.

  I couldn’t believe the assassin was smiling with an oversized animal in his face like that. Uncle Chris came from around the cottage and punched the man in the face. Had the cottage not been there, I’m pretty sure his head would’ve spun around a few times.

  Uncle Alex calmly walked up behind them, flicking his wrist at the assassin, blocking his air flow. I could see our enemy struggling, and even though he deserved it, it was hard to watch.

  Uncle Gabe ran over to Deja, hovering his hands over her wound, stopping the bleeding until we could get her back to the castle. Fairies not only controlled the four elements, but they were also healers, which meant Deja was going to get the best care possible. He tried to talk to her, cupping her face and forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were closed, and a response was impossible, worry covering my uncle’s face.

  “Luna! Why is it so hard for you to follow directions?” my father yelled, grabbing my attention quickly. “I told you not to leave the castle. You were attacked in our own home, Luna! What were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking I’m not little girl,” I told him, upset that he was treating me like a child. He never would’ve done this to my brothers. “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself and helping you find the son of a bitch.”

  “Then why did you call us for backup?” he asked. “If you can take care of yourself, why did you need us to come and save your asses?”

  “Can we focus on the bigger picture here? The man who has been terrorizing us for the past eighteen years is right here. We found him and weakened him for you.”

  The assassin tried to argue, but he wasn’t able to get a word in thanks to Uncle Alex choking him. I knew we didn’t weaken him. He overpowered us in every way, but I wasn’t ready to say that out loud, especially since my father was attempting to rip me a new one.

  My father shook his head. “You disobeyed me, Luna. Again. When are you going to grow up and realize that there is a chain of command? If I tell you to do something, then you do it.”

  “I’d do it if it made sense,” I argued. Anyone else talking back to their alpha like this would find themselves in the dungeon for a year. Guess it was a good thing we were blood. He might lock me in my room, but was that really punishment when I wanted to be there? “All you ever do is push me to the side. Why train me to be a warrior if you’re not going to let me use those skills?”

  “You’re missing the point,” he shouted. “I gave you an order and you disobeyed me. This isn’t about what you’re capable of, it’s about respecting me not just as your father but as your alpha. You have failed at both since the moment you entered this world. It stops here.”

  “We have a problem,” Juda muttered.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Uncle Chris snapped at his daughter. His arms were crossed tightly against his chest, his face permanently pissed off.

  “He’s gone!” Kota pointed towards the cottage, where the assassin had been pinned by the tall bush.

  Where the hell did he go? How did he get passed Uncle Alex’s spell? This never would’ve happened if the alphas had taken us seriously.

  My father and my uncles walked over to the spot where the assassin had last stood, examining the area for any clues that would tell us where he went.

  “We had him!” Kota yelled. “You were so busy being mad at us that you let him slip through your fingers!”

  “You’ve got a lot of nerve pointing fingers at us,” Uncle Alex countered. “We never would’ve been in this position if you had stayed put like you were told.”

  “You never would’ve found him if it wasn’t for us,” Kota reminded them. “You wouldn’t know what he looks like or w
hat he can do or how strong he is. You’re so busy being mad that you won’t give us any credit.”

  “Maybe we did need your help in the end,” Juda continued off of Kota. “But we did good work here whether you want to admit it or not. We proved that we can hold our own even if we didn’t win the battle. If we were boys, you’d be praising us right now.”

  “This has nothing to do with that,” Uncle Gabe responded, the calmness that he usually possessed fading quickly.

  “When Levi was eighteen, did you stop him from going on the search whenever you got a lead on the assassin?” I asked my father directly, knowing he wouldn’t be able to answer it the way he wanted to. He hesitated because he knew I had caught him. “And what about Liam? Did you stop him? He wasn’t even eighteen when he joined the fight. He and Levi were by your side at eighteen and sixteen and you didn’t even try to stop them.”

  “You play an important role in this, Luna,” he said, trying to distract me from my accusations. I wasn’t going to forget them. I have them written down at my desk in my chambers. “We can’t risk you girls getting hurt before the prophecy can come to pass.”

  “Fuck the prophecy!” Juda yelled. “I’ve had enough of it. This isn’t about whatever the hell Mateo predicted anymore. This is about innocent people dying so that creature can be more powerful.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Uncle Alex asked as he stepped closer to the girls and I.

  “Oh, now you want the information that we found,” Kota laughed.

  “No way,” Juda shook her head. “We found that information and we’re keeping it to ourselves. If you want to know what it is, then you’re going to have to include us the way you do the boys.”

  Uncle Gabe unleashed his fury: “This isn’t a joke!” Fire covered his palms as he stomped towards us. My father and Uncle Alex rushed to step in front of him, risking the burns they would receive if the fire touched them. Uncle Ben, still in wolf form, put himself in between us and the angry fairy just in case Uncle Alex and my father couldn’t hold him.