The Little Rose

A New Player Enters

"We have word of his position!"

Ducking to the ground and rolling my body to the side I swung my legs around my opponent's waist and brought him to the ground with a thunderous crash, shifting to turn and glare at the man who had dared to just interrupt my training session, I raised an eyebrow before yelling at him.

"Well?!  Don't just stand there like a damn i***t, spill it!"  The tall warrior took a gulping breath anxiously and nodded his head, walking towards me as I laid on the floor with my legs now wrapped around the warrior I was fighting's neck, his hand was tapping my thigh signally he was giving up, but I ignored him, tightening my thighs around his throat until he was attempting to gasp for breath.  

Taking the file from the nervous man holding it out to me, I propped myself on an elbow and opened it.  There in the front was the picture of the one man on this planet I wanted more than anything to kill.  I wanted my fingers around his throat as he took his last breath or blood on my hands as I ripped his beating heart from his chest.   The picture we had was 7 years old, from before he vanished into thin air like a ghost.  His shaggy blonde hair curled on his forehead and his silvery-blue eyes smiled back at me, I hate this face, more than anything else in this world, I hated this man.  

I flipped through the more recent photos in the file, grainy images of a beachfront town, a tall and muscular man with wavy blonde hair down his back in the background of smiling tourists snapshots.  He was taller, wider, and older, but that was him, Orion Slade.  The man who'd murdered my father.  Pulling out the info packet that was tucked into the folder as well I flipped through it, noting that he'd been spotted not far from where he'd originally disappeared from.  But we'd searched the entire area hundreds of times over the past 6 years, since the last time he'd been spotted by one of our followers, and we'd never found anyone matching his description. 

"Send men out to scope the towns along the coast, he must come out for supplies occasionally and when he does, we'll find him.  But this is a start.  How old are these photos?"  I demanded as I looked back through them, realizing the humans in them were different in each picture.

"A year-old Ma'am... umm, ma'am?"  The man's voice shook as he spoke to me, my black eyes slowly raised up his body back to his face,  narrowing in on his worried green gaze that wasn't even directed at my own but towards the man I was holding down. "I don't think Felix can breathe."

"And?  Do you think I'm unaware of this fact?" The tone of my voice was soft, but we both knew my calm meant worse for him than my temper.  

"Nothing ma'am, nothing at all.  I'm sorry I brought it up."  He rushed out quickly taking a step back and lifting his eyes to the far wall, refusing to look back down at his fellow warrior who was slowly suffocating.  

As I fingered through the report and the photos again I noticed from the corner of my eye that he was still there.  "Go give my orders recruit!  Now!"  My yelling at him surprised him causing him to turn on his heel and rush from the room, not looking back.  

Pulling out one of the more recent photos of my target, I set the folder down on the floor and studied him closely.  There was so many difference between the original 7-year-old photo and the new one they almost looked like two completely different people.  Orion had grown a few inches after his first shift, and now his hair was down his back in thick blonde waves.  He looked aged, though not as in old but more worldly as if he'd had to do a lot of growing up over the past 7 years, and I guess he kind of did.

The tapping on my leg stopped and I heard a dull thud as the training guard between my legs passed out.  I wanted to kill him.  He was the worst in his class and would never make it through the intensive program I have set up for the trainees over the next year.  But he was a board member's son and his father would want my head, so I unwrapped my legs from his neck and let him fall to the floor.  

Scooping up the folder I jumped to my feet and headed out the double doors to the gym, towards my quarters on the Captain's floor.  We'd finally spotted him, which meant that soon he'd be within my grasp.  I whistled a happy tune as I entered my room, dropping the folder on the table beside the door and stripping from my workout clothes for a shower.

Soon I was scrubbed clean, my shoulder-length platinum blonde hair pulled back into a high ponytail, and dressed in my normal garb: black shorts, black tank top, and black shoes.  Simple and easy to shed in case of a shift.  My dark blue eyes surveyed my appearance and deciding the Board could have no objections, I made my way downstairs.  The hallway leading to the kitchen was filled with the smell of roasting chicken and garlic and my mouth watered, I didn't realize just how hungry I was until now.

"Isabella."  A deep male voice called from behind me, I didn't have to turn around to know that it was Reginald, the man who'd replaced my father as Grand Master upon his death.  Reginald hated me, and the feeling was mutual.  Reginald had been trying to get me stripped of my rank of Captain since he'd come into power, all because of one tiny little incident when I tried to kill him.  The guy seriously knew how to hold a grudge.

Gritting my teeth I froze in place and forced a polite smile to my lips before turning to face him.  "Afternoon, how can I help you?"  

"Come with me."  His nose was so high in the air I was surprised he was able to glare at me over his fat cheeks.  Then again he was a good 3 inches shorter than my own six-foot, which just made it all the more entertaining when he attempted to look down on me from below me.

"You could ask nicely Reggie."  Reginald's lips pulled back in a sneer as his eyes narrowed further, he hated that I challenged his authority at every opportunity and couldn't stand the nickname Reggie, which of course is why I only ever called him by it.

"You could show some respect."  He spat back, drawing himself up to his whole 5 ft 7 in height and raising his pointed nose just a tab higher in the air.

"Respect is earned, Reggie, and you've never done a single thing to earn mine."  Tossing daggers at me one last time he turned and strode down the hall with purpose, either I'd really ticked him off, or whatever he has to tell me is really important.  My eyes wandered over the dining room doors hungrily, I didn't want to go with Mr. Pompous Asshat, I wanted to go stuff my face with the glorious feast Arianna had cooked up for us tonight, but I'd already pushed him a little further then I knew I should.  Sure the board had to have a unanimous vote to kick me out and he'd never get all 9 members on his side, but I also hated having to go through the entire proceedings leading up to the vote.  So I tried not to give him a reason to bring it up again.

A cough sounded behind me and I rolled my eyes and turned, following along behind Reginald.  "Okay, okay Reggie, don't get your panties in a wad,"  I muttered, shoving my hands in my pockets.  When we reached his office he walked through the door and straight to his desk, I closed the door behind us and made my way to one of the overstuffed leather chairs in front of his desk.  Nodding to the sidebar where he stored his spirits I raised an eyebrow in question.  

"Not going to offer me a refreshment, Reggie?  How rude."  I tisked my tongue at him as a sign of admonishment, but he just continued to glare at me. Throwing myself in one of his chairs, I pulled my legs up to crisscross on the seat and faced him with a bored expression.  "Alright Reggie, spill.  What did I do this time?"

"Were you or were you not at the board meeting last May?"  Reginald asked, leaning forward on his desk to rest his clasped hands. 

"Yes, I was,"  I answered, keeping my tone even and nodding my head.

"Then you remember that the board voted to stop all pursuits of one, Orion Slade?"  Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow in question apparently.  

"Yes, yes I do."  I said, nodding my head along again, continuing to keep a calm demeanor.

"Then why is it that you have continued to use resources to monitor his movements and hunt him down?"  I saw the glint in his eye, I wasn't sure yet what it meant, but between how calm he was acting and that glint, I knew his end game was not going to be to my liking.

"Because I wanted to.  There was another reason as well... let me think of what it was."  I put a hand to my chin and looked off into space quizzically before glancing back at Reginald with wide eyes.  "Oh yeah, because fu*k you."

"I thought you'd say something like that Isabella, so here is how it will be."  Reginald leaned back in his seat and rested his hands on his rounded belly, narrowing his eyes at me as his lips twisted up into an ugly smirk.  "You will cease and desist all operations regarding one, Orion Slade immediately.  Board orders."  

"Or what?"  I laughed at him, standing to my feet and placing my hands on his desk, leaning towards him with a smirk of my own.  "What will you and the Board do?  Put me in time out?  Kick me out of the House of Night?  Please... I'm the best warrior you have, I'm the only trainer you have for the new recruits.  Let's face it, losing me will hurt you more than it will me.  I can find another job, you can't find another one of me."  Standing straight again I put my hands on my hips and c*cked an eyebrow, daring him to go through with his threats.

"Hard to find another job if you're dead."  He growled back, making my eyes go wide in shock.

"You are not seriously threatening to sentence me to death for going after my father's murderer when all I do is kill for you?!"  I exclaimed, in honest surprise at this point.

"The last time we tangled with the Slade's the entire team was ripped apart, including your father, and Orion went on a bloody rampage killing any members he could hunt down.  We don't want more of our own people's deaths on our hands!  Do you?"

"I don't care how many people we lose if it means I get to watch that son of a b*tch, Orion Slade, die!"  I hollered at him, my fists clenched at my sides and my vision turning red.

"And that's the problem!   That brand on your arm says that you protect this establishment at all costs!  The House of Night is supposed to be your top priority, to follow orders, protect the code and always put the House first!  Instead, you are focused on revenge, a mission that will get us all killed in the process!"  Reginald stood from his chair now as well, his hands splayed on his desktop as his chest heaved with indignant rage and screamed back at me, spittle flying through the air.

I looked down at the brand he was talking about, a full moon with a wolf's head inside, howling up, a scar caused by a hot piece of metal shoved to my skin when I was still a child.  This brand was supposed to be a mark of love and duty.  Love for one another and honor to fulfill our duty which was to uphold the laws of the supernatural world and protect it from anyone or anything that threatened its peace, including its own kind.  But now this brand no longer stood for what I had been taught, because if it did, then the Board and the Grand Master, Reginald, would have my back, ready to take on Slade together.

I saw the glint of a blade on Reginald's desk and reached out quickly to grab it, Reginald stepped back in haste, afraid that I was going to kill him, and stumbled into his chair.  But I was no longer looking at him,  I was looking at my arm again, at that brand.  

"To hell with you all, I renounce The House of Night."  As I growled the words at him I slid the blade down my forearm, cutting the flesh from my body.  Blood poured onto the floor and dripped down my arm as I bent to pick up the branded piece of skin, tossing it onto Reginald's desk along with the bloody knife.  "Now I can do whatever the hell I want, so watch your back, Reggie."

With that, I spun and left the office, headed to my room to pack my belongings.  F*ck him, f*ck the Board, and f*uck this place.  The only thing I'd miss was Arianna's cooking.   Feeling the blood dripping off of my fingers I looked down to realize I had left an entire trail of blood behind me.  Looking at the wound I watched it slowly heal.  Impatient I put my other hand over the gaping hole and closed my eyes, calling on my healing light to speed the process up.  In seconds it was as good as new, no brand insight. 

Ten minutes later I left the grounds of the House of Night with my meager belongings on my back, a smirk on my lips, revenge on my mind, and rage filling my soul.