The Reluctant Assassin Read online

  The Reluctant Assassin

  Alexandra Vos

  © Alexandra Vos 2015

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Also by Alexandra Vos:

  Young Adult Novellas

  The Kissing Ban

  New Adult Novellas

  Hunting Him

  Contents:

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Epilogue

  A Letter to Jenny

  Prologue

  The man I was staring at through my binoculars had no idea what was about to happen.

  It was an easy job, this one. In and out. There was no way the smug man eating pasta and leering at every waitress who passed his table could know I had my crosshairs aimed straight between his eyes.

  You could say it was cowardice: if I was going to kill someone, at least give them the chance to put up a fight, but my line of work didn’t require bravery and it certainly didn’t require morals. I was an assassin. Effectiveness was the only required trait.

  And snipers on rooftops were certainly the most effective.

  I spied the mark on the back of his neck through the scope. The mark of the Fae. To the naked eye, it was just a leaf. If you knew better, it contained all the elements, wrapped up in that black image. Our heritage. We’d been able to bend the elements once, but now their inclusion in our mark was the only sign of it.

  I’d never killed someone from my own race before. It was completely forbidden unless someone strayed so far from their morals as this man had. He had been deemed more of a liability than an asset. Still, the doctrine that the survival of our race was paramount put a slight dither in my hand. He deserved it, he absolutely did.

  One didn’t break the Fae’s rules and get away with it.

  It was a lesson I was sure every Fae was forced to realise at some point in their life. I felt like I’d been realising it for the past seventeen years; I’d grown up without a family because my parents had broken the rules of the Fae.

  I adjusted my hands on the gun. Being effective also meant arriving excessively early just to make sure I didn’t miss my chance to end the man’s life and so my shoulders were beginning to ache unbearably. I just wanted to get it over and done with by now, so I could go home and try and rid my conscience of having yet more blood on my hands.

  I sighed when my target finally stood up, following his relaxed movements with the barrel of the gun.

  I was ready when he left the building. When he was getting into the car would be my best time to strike, there’d be a delay as he unlocked the door. He was with another man, but that man was of no concern to me. I’d be off the building before he even realised what had happened.

  Being Fae had some impressive advantages, two of which were increased speed and strength. Carrying this gun up the side of the warehouse had been a piece of cake and scaling back down it before anyone could find me would be equally as easy. It was nothing superhuman, but there was certainly a noticeable difference. I could outduel a human in every scenario. I was the perfect assassin.

  Of course, the entire race couldn’t be paid to kill people, there’d be no one left. Most used the increased memory we had to go into real careers. Lawyers, politicians. Things that would give us enough power in the real world to protect our race without us becoming known to the general public. Being an orphan, I was left with the dregs of assassination.

  I stretched my body against the roof, wanting this to be over and done with as soon as possible. It had rained a few hours ago and the water was seeping in through my skin-tight black clothes. Even my hair was black, currently plaited and out of the way. I just wanted my pyjamas and my bed.

  He’d reached the car, so it was time. I got his forehead in my sights and fired the shot, resisting the urge to close my eyes.

  The shouts reached my ears from where I was on the rooftop and that was enough confirmation for me. I didn’t want to double check. I’d seen enough dead bodies to last me a lifetime.

  Chapter One

  My memory was supposed to be better than everyone here and yet I’d still forgotten my homework. Jenny looked mighty smug sitting beside me as Mr. Bradley strode around the classroom, just waiting for someone else to have done something wrong so he’d have an excuse to lecture. One boy at the front had already copped it for forgetting his sheet. I really didn’t want a repetition.

  “Homework, Ilona?” He requested, fixing me with a glare. Mr. Bradley hadn’t been a fan of mine ever since I’d corrected his mistake about atomic numbers. I certainly had a better memory than him, at least.

  “I don’t have it, Sir.” I ground out, refusing to let a grimace settle onto my face and remaining as placid as possible.

  “And why is that? Everyone else has managed to hand it in just fine.”

  I managed a sweet smile. “I must have forgotten it.”

  “Well, if it happens again, you’ll have ‘forgotten’ your lunchtime.”

  “I’m actually surprised you’ve kept this lunchtime.” Jenny murmured beside me, still far too amused by the situation.

  I spied Tom’s gelled brown hair the moment we entered the dining hall, sitting in his normal spot. “Did he tell you about Jerome’s party in a couple of weeks?”

  She shook her head. “No, I haven’t spoken to him. He invited you?”

  “He invited us,” I corrected. “I don’t think I’ll go, though,” I quickly assured. “I won’t know anyone apart from Tom and he won’t want to be lumbered with me all night. Unless you wanted to go, of course.”

  “Oh, no, definitely not.” Jenny paused to request a salad from the dinner lady, pushing an unruly blonde ringlet from her face. “I’ve only been invited as a courtesy anyway.”

  “The chilli, please.”

  Neither of us ever fancied the soggy hamburgers that lingered on the right side of the options. I wondered if anyone ever had one.

  Sliding into a seat in the corner, I knew no one would be joining us. Jenny and I liked to keep to ourselves - which was another way of saying we didn’t really have any friends. “So, get up to anything this weekend?”

  Jenny chuckled. “Surprisingly, yes. I went to York this weekend, to see the Minster and stuff. My grandparents came too, haven’t seen them for a while.”

  I nodded, sipping my drink and prodding my fork around the food to get the best possible mouthful. “Sounds fun, I’ve always wanted to go to Y-” Lifting the fork to my face, I stopped short in both my movement and my words.

  Rafflesia.

  It was no mistake. If there was one thing that a Fae knew the smell of, it was Rafflesia. The Amazonian plant deadly to our race. One drop of this inside me and I’d be a goner.

  On high alert immediately, my eyes scanned the cafeteria, looking for anyone even remotely obscure. Rafflesia was incredibly difficult to get hold of and the Fae weren’t exactly well-known. Whoever had done this was well-informed and well-supplied. They were no amateur.

  My eyes
caught a boy from my chemistry class’s striking blue ones. He had been looking directly at me. Jack Cooke. I blinked and that was enough time for him to drop his gaze and return to chatting with his friends as though he hadn’t just tried to murder me. The anger had been there, though. I knew for certain it must be him.

  Jenny snapped her fingers in front of my face, eyebrows knitted together. “You all right?”

  I managed a weak smile. “Sure. I just remembered I’ve forgotten my history homework too. I’m such a klutz today.”

  “Something happen last night you’re not telling me about?” Jenny moved her eyebrows up and down, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to laugh.

  I’d only murdered someone.

  “Definitely not. I was just up late trying to finish this game I started, nothing quite so exotic as you’re thinking.” And there’d probably never be something quite as exotic as she was implying, either. Living in the Guild’s complex meant that I certainly wasn’t allowed visitors, and humans and Fae weren’t allowed to be in relationships anyway - we had to stick to each other and repopulate the race, of course. Besides, no one wanted to be with an assassin. “I really do have to go home and get it, though. I’ll only be twenty minutes or something.”

  Jenny waved off, having been perfectly used to sitting by herself before my arrival at the school a few months ago. “No problem. I’ll be here.”

  Sending Jack one more guarded look, I fled from the cafeteria and sprinted all the way back to my apartment block. This was one time my excess stamina came in incredibly handy.

  “I need to speak to Dale.” I demanded of Daisy, the secretary on duty. “It’s important.”

  “I’m sorry Ilona, he’s in a meeting-”

  “Someone tried to poison me.” I insisted, not needing to elaborate. The Fae were worth more than measly receptionists as far as the Guilds were concerned, so Daisy had no idea about the fact we weren’t entirely human. There was no way to hide the fact we were assassins and I didn’t doubt there was a significant amount of paperwork preventing her ever disclosing the information, but our race was top secret and there wasn’t any reason she should need to know about it.

  “I’ll let him know.”

  Tapping my foot impatiently, it was only a minute before a flustered looking man exited the building and Dale gestured for me to come with him through to the back offices.

  “What happened?” Dale’s face was as expressionless as ever. Only the slight clenching of his jaw confirmed the tiniest panic that someone knew who I was. “Anyone we know?”

  I shook my head, choosing to keep standing so I could pace. “There was Rafflesia in my lunch at school today.” They must have managed to get it in everything, since it had no effect on the average human.

  Dale made a noise of discontent, the intensifying of the wrinkles on his forehead the only change. “I was expecting some human stuff, not Rafflesia. I can’t say I’ve had to deal with a breach of the Fae before. What else do you know?”

  “I think it’s a boy in my chemistry class.”

  “You think?”

  I hesitated, conscience nagging at my thoughts. “I’m not positive it’s him.” This Jack guy was trying to kill me and it seemed fairly obvious why – I’d killed someone he cared about. It seemed so unfair to bring him in and torture him for answers like Dale would suggest. “I think I need to try and figure it out for sure before we go forcing answers out of him.”

  Dale nodded once, back stiff in his uncomfortable looking chair. Considering he spent so much time in here, it was surprising Dale hadn’t made it a bit more homely. Nothing more than papers, stationary and top of the range computer could be seen. It was a sad office. “We need to know we’ve got the right person before we drag someone in,” Dale agreed, already having diverted the majority of his attention to a form on his desk. “You’ve got a plan, I presume?”

  “I try and poison him back,” getting an opportunity to do that might give me enough time to get more information out of him. “If he’s got training, then he’ll be able to smell it. If he’s not, then I’ll think of some way to stop him eating it.”

  Dale waited a couple of minutes and typed a couple of things before returning his attention to me. “I’ll get you what you need. Stay on high alert, no doubt he’ll try again and no doubt he’s working for someone who’s older and more experienced than he is. You’ve become a target and that means we’re all targets. I’m going to inform the others as soon as possible so they know to be careful, too. Don’t walk to and from school anymore.”

  Up until this point, it had been easy to go through the motions. Identify my target, go to my boss and work out how to eliminate the target. Now was supposed to be the point where I followed my boss’s orders without hesitation, but instead I just felt scared. I’d never had a reason to be scared in my job before.

  Horrified, yes. Guilty, definitely. But scared? I was always the one who knew what they were doing and took out the other person unawares, but this time I was on the back foot and I didn’t like it.

  I was in real danger and it was the first time I’d ever really appreciated the fact I might want to live.

  Chapter Two:

  My heart sagged. “Jack, I think you’d better be staying back at lunchtime to get that work finished then, don’t you?”

  Was I really going to be forced to embarrass myself just to out this maniac who’d tried to poison me in the middle of the school cafeteria? I glanced at Jenny, who was pushing her glasses up her nose and her ringlets away from the book laid on her desk. I envied her normal life. She had a loving family and she was the smartest person I knew.

  She didn’t have to deal with killing innocent people, then going on with life as if it was normal.

  “Miss Wood, I trust you remembered your homework today. It would be a shame to miss out on the beautiful weather.” That ‘beautiful weather’ was sunshine disguising the bitingly cold wind. You’d still have to be mad to be eating outside in it.

  I loathed my response as I slid my textbook over the completed sheet which was just begging to be handed in. This was my best chance at finding out whether Jack really was my enemy, or whether he was just another acquaintance who’d happened to be zoning out at the wrong moment. “No, Sir. I don’t have it.”

  Jenny’s head shot up and I shrugged, my embarrassment not faked. “Excellent, you’ll be joining Jack in our lunchtime get-together, then.”

  “Well, I guess I’ll see you later then.”

  “Sorry Jen,” I mumbled, struggling to hide my irritation. This just had to be the perfect opportunity.

  “Do you both have your sheets?” Mr. Bradley called when the rest of the class had filtered out. I was stuck staring at the unruly black mess that was Jack’s hair from my seat at the back of the classroom whilst he lazed over his desk at the front.

  Jack nodded, whilst I was forced to mutter a “no,” once again cursing the completed sheet which sat on my desk.

  “You’d better come and get one, then.”

  My strides almost felt awkward as I went to retrieve the paper and my cheeks tinted an unflattering red. I wasn’t supposed to show weakness, but the feeling of Jack’s eyes watching my every move had me completely on edge. What if he pulled a pistol now? What was to stop him, really? I had no idea what his state of mind was.

  I didn’t know a single thing about him, other than his name and apparent poor memory when it came to chemistry homework.

  I returned to my seat without incident, limbs still all intact. “Can we not go get lunch?” It was the general rule - he wasn’t actually allowed to starve us, despite how much that sadistic smirk suggested otherwise. Why would you bother to teach if you didn’t like kids?

  “Later, when the queue has died down,” he dismissed, returning to marking papers at his desk. “I’ll let you know when.”

  Settling down into my seat, I doodled on the edge of my clean sheet, eyes never leaving Jack’s figure.

  I wondered who I’d
killed. I’d wracked my brain and the records of people I’d murdered since being in Sheffield, but there was no obvious connection. I was completely at a loss and that just made it even more terrifying.

  Being an assassin meant long-distance shots and killing people before they even saw your face: they had no idea what was coming to them, there was never a fight. Never any of the doubts and fears that came with knowing someone was after you.

  My time spent mulling over the situation drained any confidence that I could plant this poison effectively. I’d had the training for this, of course, but I’d only ever carried out assassinations with guns. Guns were clean and simple. Poison meant getting up close and putting yourself in danger.

  Mr. Bradley letting us go for dinner came more quickly than I wanted. But, being put into action was the best distraction. I had an MO. I was to get the poison in his meal, prove he was the man I wanted, and then return to Dale for further instruction.