Scarlet Assassin (4 page)

“If you don’t learn to respond only to me, you will be at anyone’s beck and call.” He whipped her again.

“Fuck you.” She spat blood at him.

“Oh I will, but not before you learn your lesson, my love. Trust me, this hurts me more than it will hurt you if this happens again.” He swung the leather strap across her back once more.

“De Marcus, must we—” the man pleaded in earnest. 

“Shut the fuck up. She needs to learn that I am her master and only me.”

“Fine, but I am done with this folly. She has learned her lesson, I’m sure. Don’t call me again, if this is what you want next time.” Reaching down, the man caressed Clarissa’s shoulder and said, “I’m sorry, Clarissa. Please forgive me.”

With that, the lesson was over. Clarissa lay on the floor for quite some time as De Marcus smoked a cigar and preached to her the virtues of self-control.

“He did that to you? I’m going to kill that bastard. Why would you remember that, did I hurt you tonight? Did I do something you didn’t like? I’m confused.” The hurt in AJ’s voice broke Clarissa’s heart.

“I can’t seem to control the flashbacks, AJ” Clarissa started to silently weep.

She’d been having more of them recently and she couldn’t figure out why. Nothing had changed in her life. She was happier than ever. She’d found out the love of her life hadn’t killed her family as she once suspected. They were together and blissfully happy. Something had happened and she couldn’t put her finger on what it was, so she struggled with the flashbacks.

“Perhaps you should see someone?”

“Who? Who is safe enough to spill all my secrets too? I’m a vampire who’s lived for over a century. That’s bound raise some eyebrows don’t you think?”

“Me, then. You can talk to me,” AJ offered.

Turning to face AJ, she cupped her face and smiled weakly. She didn’t have to say anything. AJ would sense it, feel it, see it in her mind’s eye if she wanted too. She hoped AJ would stay out of her thoughts, but it was inevitable they shared everything.

“I think I need some time.”

“Meaning?”

“I need some space to try and figure this out. Something’s happened, something’s upside down in my world…” Clarissa put her finger over AJ’s lips, stopping her before she could say anything. “It’s not you. Trust me, you’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long time. I’m going to stay at my place for a while. I think it will help me. You’re too close. Our thoughts merge all the time. You see what I’m thinking and sometimes I don’t want you to know what De Marcus did to me. I don’t want to remember what De Marcus did to me, but it’s happening.”

“But—”

“No buts, I’ve decided. After we have dinner with Selene, I’m going home for a little while. It’s not forever, just for a while. Besides, you need space, too. You don’t run anymore, you don’t ride your motorcycle; you’ve been so wrapped up in ‘us’ that you’ve lost all sense of who AJ is.”

“I like where my life is. I love being with you.” AJ pulled Clarissa’s hand to her lips and softly laid a kiss on her knuckles, then turned it over and kissed her palm. “De Marcus is out there and he’s not going to stop hunting for you or me. He’s determined to kill us.”

Trying to make light of the comment, Clarissa responded, “Maybe if we split up we’ll be harder to kill. If we’re together, it makes it easier for him to get us both.”

Clarissa knew she was safest with AJ, but her need to be alone was suddenly more than she could explain.

“I worry.”

“I know, but don’t. I’m not the same woman as I was even months ago. I’ll be careful. I’ll call every day. I’ll talk to you so much you’ll beg me to quit bugging you.” Clarissa tried to give a reassuring smile, but it was weak at best.

“I doubt it.”

“I need to do this, honey, and I need you to understand.”

“I might understand, but I won’t like it.”

“I know my love, I know.” Clarissa felt a little more than sad as she held AJ tighter. She hoped she was doing the right thing. Facing the problem on her own was the only way to figure out what was happening to her.

Chapter Five

Selene rolled down her cuffs and buttoned them. Her new tattoo was to celebrate—no, remind her of the job she’d completed. The artwork today added to the small sleeve tribute to her family. She was the only survivor of a brutal attack that had turned her into an animal, and knew she wasn’t far from that very animal today. The only difference now was that she could control it better. Selene flashed back to that fateful night. In an instant, she met the new world she would either have to embrace or run from for an eternity.

They had barely finished the modest home they lived in when a traveler came by one night and asked her father for lodging. He had offered their barn to the dashing young man, telling him that with a house full of women, it was the best he could offer. 

The urge to meet a possible husband had sent her sisters aflame, something Selene couldn’t understand. Her two sisters had put together a basket, thinking the traveler might be hungry and, of course, it gave them the perfect excuse to visit. They had gathered their courage and asked her, as the elder sister, to be the lookout. Selene watched as her sisters went to the barn. Sneaking behind them, she sat in the shadows outside and watched as her sisters flirted with the traveler. After sitting for a few minutes, the young man pounced on her sisters, ripping them to shreds. Selene remembered screaming as she ran for the house. Before she had taken only a few steps, he was standing over her covered in blood. His gaze kept her transfixed, unable to move, or to warn her parents. Picking her up, he remarked how lucky he had been to find such accommodating lodging with a meal plan. The last thing she remembered as he bit her was the sound of a shotgun firing.

Selene woke to find herself lying in a pool of her father’s blood. His throat had been ripped open. She shuddered looking into eyes staring at nothing. Running into the house, she found her mother lying in blood soaked sheets. A gurgle escaped her lips.

“Run.” Was all her mother had the strength to say before she died.

She wiped at the sweat rolling down her face and neck. She had a visceral reaction every time she time-traveled back to her beginnings. Her only compensation was she had killed the man who had taken her family and given her a gift she never wanted. Immortality.

Before she could even knock the door swung wide and AJ stood looking at her.

“So are you just going to stand there all night or are you going to come in…” AJ lowered her head towards Selene and whispered, “and help me eat Clarissa’s newest creation.”

Without a word of greeting, she walked past AJ and towards certain gastric agony. Clarissa stood hovered over a steaming pot, tossing something in it and mumbling. Sensing her tension, Selene gave AJ a quizzical look.

AJ shrugged and offered a seat. “Sit. Can I get you something to drink?”

“Whiskey neat would be fine. Thank you.” Selene felt more uncomfortable than a new kid at school. She had that feeling she was intruding on a personal moment between AJ and Clarissa. The heat between the two was palpable. “I’m not interrupting anything am I? I can just leave if I am…I mean I don’t want to intrude on…” Selene looked at Clarissa and back to AJ “You know.”

“You don’t need to be so formal, Selene. We are friends,” AJ said. “So spit it out.”

AJ handed Selene her drink and smiled as if they were sharing a secret. It made her uncomfortable, but then being in AJ’s penthouse made her uncomfortable.

“Well this is awkward.” Selene sipped her drink hoping it would work faster than AJ’s mouth.

“Oh, you think we need to be alone to have sex?”

Selene cleared her throat and sipped again. It was more of a chug, but it had the same burning affect. She shot AJ a look that would have wilted most men, but not AJ. She only laughed and slapped Selene on the back.

“We already did that, buddy,” AJ whispered and thankfully didn’t expand further on the answer.

So that’s what Selene was feeling, that post-colloidal some couples shared after sex. The energy in the room was electric and Selene shivered internally. One of the pitfalls of being a vampire, you could sense things whether you wanted to or not. Selene hadn’t had sex in months due to her self-imposed celibacy that kept her head clearer. So the sexual tension was screwing with her overly reactive body. The blood lust from the kill earlier had barely settled in and she was wound tighter than a bundle of barbed wire. She always found a willing sexual partner to work through the blood lust, usually another vampire, because they could handle the immense surge of power that pulsed through her body.

“You okay? You seem tight.” AJ rotated her shoulder, the way a football player did when warming up. “Did you have a job, is that why you’re so keyed up?”

Selene sat on the leather sofa and ran her hand over the butter-soft surface. She could feel the residual sexual energy pushing off it, so she stood and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window. The view was spectacular up top.

“I’m fine,” was all Selene offered. She wasn’t a chatty kind of person, especially after a kill, and then there was her trip to the coven. The bad news she had to deliver to AJ wouldn’t be easy, but she suspected AJ knew what the coven would say, so perhaps it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. She was still going to kill De Marcus with or without Selene.

“Hey, there you are. I didn’t hear you come in. Guess I was busy trying to make sure everything is perfect.” Clarissa threaded her arm around Selene and reached up to place a kiss on her cheek. “So, how have you been? We haven’t see much of you lately, you okay?”

Clarissa pulled Selene’s face closer, trying to catch her gaze. Selene looked down into a face that hadn’t aged in a century. Clarissa still appeared all of twenty, maybe twenty-one years old. It was amazing how time, experiences, and the death of your family couldn’t put a wrinkle on a face. Selene and Clarissa had similar backgrounds, their families were murdered when they were young and they survived in spite of the loss. However, one was still as innocent as the driven snow and the other was dark and murderous.

“I’ve been busy. Sorry. I should make it a point to see you more now that I know where you live.” Selene smiled at her weak joke.

“Yes, and you shouldn’t let that big meanie over there keep you away.” Clarissa pointed at AJ who feigned being crushed by the innuendo. The glance the two exchanged warmed Selene’s heart. She often wished she could find someone like Clarissa, to equal out her life, bring her some semblance of joy.

“She doesn’t. I’ve really just been busy.”

“Well, I hope you’re hungry. Have you acquired a taste for certain foods? I find that I do better with a more bland diet. British food serves me best.”

“I’m not sure. I pop these little babies.” Selene pulled her tin and shook it. The pills echoed in the container. “Eating is such a chore, don’t you think?” She suddenly regretted her comment. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. I just meant that I have better things to do…I mean…I don’t have time to…Shit.”

Clarissa just smiled at the way Selene tried to wordsmith her way out of the verbal blunder, but she was sure she’d insulted Clarissa without meaning too.

“It’s all right. If you eat, great, if you don’t it’s still great to see you.” Clarissa returned to the kitchen, but not before informing them that dinner was ready. “Wash your hands before you sit down.”

“Is she serious?” Selene suddenly felt like a kid.

“Afraid so, buddy. Bathroom’s right down the hall,” AJ said, pointing to the last door.

This is going to be a long night, fuck.
Selene ran her hands under the water, squirted some soap on them and rinsed again. No one had mothered her in decades, funny how she rebelled against it even now. Wiping her hands on the soft, fluffy towel she marveled at the way her place was so different than AJ’s home. It
was
a home wasn’t it? Clarissa had added little elements, and if one knew AJ, would never believe how cozy it was now. The soft towels, the black and white photographs on the walls, the aroma of a home cooked meal wafting through the house. Definitely not signs of vampire living. Pulling the tin from her pocket, she opened it and took a capsule. Before she could break it, she heard Clarissa calling her name. Pop an enhanced blood substitute or eat a meal. Staring at the dark red horse pill, she put it back in the tin and groaned. It would be in bad taste not to eat Clarissa’s food. Like it or not she would eat, compliment the cook and wish she hadn’t indulged.

“So, you went to the coven?” AJ asked.  “What did Van Der Plume have to say? Is he going to help us?”

“Honey, it’s dinner time, you can talk business later.”

Clarissa placed a few boiled potatoes on Selene’s plate along with a sliced sausage and some over-cooked vegetables. Selene sighed and picked up her fork and knife and speared a potato. She hadn’t had silverware in her hands, at least to eat, in years. A coffee, a cookie, a drink – all small, easy to handle and didn’t take up much space or require intensive digestive energy. But she knew more vampires were eating. She could taste it in their blood on the few occasions she had indulged her old habits. While rare, she often found one of her clients – kills – was a vampire and so she indulged. The high one got when feeding off another vampire was explosive.

Focusing back on her plate, she pushed the food around before spearing the slick potato. Slicing it in half, she picked it up and inspected it from all angles before popping it in her mouth. She moved her tongue around it, over it and finally bit it. The texture was exactly as she remembered it. Soft, and warm, she could taste a hint of the dirt it had been grown in. Chewing it repeatedly until it was mush, she took a swig of her drink to help wash it down.

Peering up she noticed both AJ and Clarissa were staring at her obviously waiting for a reaction.

“So?”