Falling Petals Prologue

I aimed the gun carefully, breathed out slowly, and squeezed the trigger. Bang! The shot rang out in the clear, quiet air. Bang, bang, bang. I squeezed off three more shots in quick succession. Four of five family members lay dead. The last was a little girl, four years old that day. I hesitated, finger still on the trigger. The little girl was crying, and it tore at my heart. Even after more than three hundred years of horrible cruelty, I hated harming children. It’s just so wrong.

            “Shadow.” Lunnette spoke my name softly. She stepped over the bodies to reach the little girl. Reaching down to touch her forehead, Lunnette hummed a simple, sweet lullaby. The little girl’s eyes fluttered closed. Though she still breathed, I knew she was dead to the world. Yet, my hand still shook. I couldn’t pull the trigger. Lunnette made her way back over to me and rested a hand on my shoulder. Thanks to her, I instantly felt calm again. My hand stopped shaking.

            Lunnette was the outcome of a short ill-fated love affair between a fallen angel and a Nephilim. They’d passed along all their knowledge, along with a special gift. Lunnette ended up being powerfully empathic to the point of controlling feeling and- rarely- thoughts. The only drawback was she couldn’t affect anyone who knew about her talents unless they’d been trained to let her in. Thankfully, I had. However, her talent was rarely useful in our line of work. So, she was delegated the behind-the-scenes sort-of-brain of the operation. Her job was to help us wiggle out of trouble and to keep our grades up when we needed to. Plus, she was the cheerleader, keeping us optimistic and together.

            “Let me do it.” Anfanasia came up to gently take the gun from my hand. Unlike me and Lunnette in our practical loose jeans and tees, Anfanasia was in a revealing, slinky red dress. She had been dubbed the temptress, and was in charge of seducing those we needed on our side. Anfanasia was a witch, descended from two pure and powerful lines. She had limited control of the elements and a basic know-how in the spells and potions area. Anfanasia aimed the gun at the little girl. Her job had made her harder than us, and she pulled the trigger without flinching. The fifth and final shot rang out.

            “Let’s go. Torch it.” I ordered shakily. Anfanasia held up her hands as we backed out quickly, muttering under her breath. The room heated until the air literally sparked. The house burned quickly under Anfanasia’s influence. We stood there the whole time, watching to make sure all the evidence burned away. A fire engine showed up as the house smoldered out. We had called them so there would be no suspicion cast on us. Lunnette grabbed our hands and we were crying our eyes out within seconds.

            “Ladies? Are you okay? Did you see who started the fire?” a policeman asked. We had a standing agreement that I talked to all officials, so this one was on me.

            “God, it was this big guy. Heavy, you know? Maybe African American? He killed them. He killed little Hannah. She only turned four today.” I looked up at him, frowning prettily through the tears. The officer, maybe twenty-five, was definitely more interested in that than my story.

            “Are you related to the victims? Or to each other?” the policeman questioned. His gaze wandered to the low-cut neckline of Anfanasia’s dress.

            “We’re their cousins. We came to visit for Spring Break. The three of us are sisters. Alice is the oldest, and Liz is the youngest.” I sobbed, quickly running through our cover story. The officer believed me quickly despite our greatly varied appearances. We looked nothing alike. I had lustrous, wild black hair that matched my eyes down to the exact shade, and was tall and lithe. Anfanasia had fiery red hair and catty green eyes; she was average height and a little on the heavy side. Lunnette had golden blonde hair and turquoise eyes, pixie short and naturally thin. We were each unique. I had a dark, mysterious, hauntingly graceful beauty. Anfanasia was exotic and seductive while Lunnette was waifish and exuded a more modern version of my innocent, unknowing air. A car pulled up to the curb, almost hitting the officer. A man jumped out, panic clear on his face.

            “Girls!” Agent James Lovell, the man who coordinated the Black Roses, cried. He swept us up in a close, personal hug that meant nothing at all to us, but everything to anyone watching.

            “Dad!” Anfanasia smiled at me wickedly while Agent Lovell shook hands with the officer. He pointed us toward the sleek black limo.

            “Welcome back Lunnette. Anfanasia. Mary-Anne.” A new agent opened the door for us from the inside. I only knew she was new because she used my old human alias, the one I had dropped in the seventies. For most, it meant a death sentence, but I was trying to be nice.

            “I wouldn’t call her that if I wanted to keep my skin attached and right-side out.” Lunnette smirked while I scowled at the agent. I flashed my unnaturally sharp canines.

            “It’s Shadow.” I snarled. The agent flinched, and I knew my eyes were the fiery red they somehow changed into when I was hungry. I snatched a bottle of red liquid out of the warmer and tried hard not to think about what it was.

            The drive was long, giving me time to contemplate my role in our little group. I was the leader, the muscle, and the bait, all rolled into one slightly aggravated package. Part of my job was keeping us together and focused, making all the big decisions, and recording pretty much everything for the Powers That Be. Also, as my job as bait, I was the one who had to play innocent and draw out the criminals. I healed the fastest, so it was easier if I got hurt; plus, according to Agent Lovell, I was the most beautiful, a statement that constantly grated at Anfanasia. The least glamorous part of my job was often the most fun. I was in charge of taking out anyone who got in our way, in any way I wanted. Basically, I was a serial killer, and I enjoyed it the same way any of my kind would. Well, my parents’ kind.

            My parents were vampires. That’s right, both of them. My birth was a flaw, a potentially fatal coincidence. I was a one-time occurrence. Something like me should be impossible, and would be for the rest of time. At least that’s what I hoped. Most people don’t see it. I can go out in the sun, and don’t have most of their weaknesses. Plus, I change my age and I have a pulse. Not much? I can age backward, normally, or even stop and resume hundreds of years later. It was enough that several people had tried to kill me over the years. Hours flew by as I stared thoughtfully out the window. As the ‘You are now entering Washington D.C.’ sign flashed by, the agent cleared her throat.

            “Okay, so I’m going give you a quick debriefing for your next mission.” The agent announced. That got my attention. I snarled, fangs still carefully concealed. The manila folder quivered in the agent’s hands.

            “Give it to her. It’s her job.” Anfanasia said coolly, shooting me an amused glance. I could feel the heat rising to my face. I had an expectedly violent temper and hated feeling like I was being replaced.

            “No.” the agent’s voice was strong, but her eyes betrayed her.

            “You’re coming dangerously close to being drained like a human six-pack.” Lunnette warned, blowing on her freshly painted nails to dry them. She handed Anfanasia the nail polish, which I’d already used. We always painted our nails the same self-formulated black polish, which was packed with spells we could activate at will. I was tempted to use some of them against the agent.

            “I’d love to see her try.” The agent smirked. My lips skimmed back from my teeth n a silent growl.

            “Is that an invitation?” I asked, voice slightly distorted by my fangs. I could almost feel the agent’s fear, and could certainly smell it.

            “Take it! Take it!” she pleaded, shoving the folder at my chest. I took it calmly and popped open another bottle of synthetic blood.

            “We’ve got an acquisition, girls.” I announced. The other girls whooped, and the agent smiled at us until I shot her a glare that spoke volumes.

            “Finally! I’d rather capture than kill any day.”  Lunette giggled. The happiness in the air made her seem a little tipsy.

            “Lunnette, your name is Lisa. Anfanasia, yours is Anna. And mine is Rose.” I laughed at the irony.

            “Brilliant! Read on Rose!” Anfanasia grinned.

            “Starting now we’re to go by our new aliases. We’re the daughters of the vice president, triplets. He was replaced by his twin brother form the military, in our department. We’ve been in Boston for the last year, studying at a private and selective boarding school. We’re going to be seniors here. Yowch Anna, you’re going to need a lot of make-up and some serious acting skills to pull off being a horny seventeen-year-old.” I teased. Anfanasia was actually twenty-seven. Lunnette was 19. It would only take me about ten minutes to slowly age backwards from twenty-two to seventeen. I concentrated on starting the process and felt the years slipping away.

            “Target?” Lunnette asked. Lisa I corrected myself. I had to think of them as my sisters Lisa and Anna.

            “Eric Pearson.” I told them, struggling to figure out where I knew the name from.

            “Pearson? Isn’t that the president’s name?” Anna asked.

            “Oh yeah! Are they staging some kind of lame coup?” Lisa snorted.

            “Actually, they believe he has powerful latent psychic healing powers caused by the trauma of his mother’s death and his following attempt at suicide.” I read off the file quickly. After a moment of silence, my sisters and I broke into laughter.

            “Yeah, sure.” Lisa giggled.

            “There’s no way that little squirt-" I froze.

            “Yep. Hey, what’s up?” Anna frowned, noticing my shocked expression.

            “Doesn’t the president only have one son?” I inquired.

            “Yeah, the little third grader. What?” Anna asked, worried, as my expression shifted from shock to disbelief.

            “Eric Pearson can trace his lineage back to your family, and yours. He’s seventeen.” I nodded my head twice while I spoke, first toward Anna, then at Lisa. Their mouths hung open- silent, shocked.

            “Eric Pearson is the president’s step-son. The president adopted Eric when his father died eleven years ago.” The agent told us snarkily.

            “No picture.” I commented, rifling through the rest of the paper.

            “He has a constant bodyguard. Nobody who knows who he is has gotten close enough to take a picture unless they’ve been frisked. Then they’re constantly scrutinized. Rose, check your phone. There’s a picture of him from last year before his mother died. You’re the only one with a high enough clearance to see it. You’ll have to point him out to Anna and Lisa.” The agent looked uninterested, but she picked at her nails nervously.

            “How can I have a higher clearance than them? Does the Black Roses mean nothing to you people?”

            “You’ve been with us since our formation in 1973. Of course you have a higher clearance than them.”

            “Wait, if we’re going straight to the White House, what the hell are you doing here?”

            “I’m Senator Sanford.”

            “What?”

            “The vice president’s wife. My husband- your father- is already waiting for us. He’s young, only thirty-four, having fathered you at 17. The mother died in childbirth, leaving him with the kids. I’m twenty and he married me two years ago. You all hate me and rose hates her dad as well. Calls him a cradle robber and resents him from marrying a woman only three years older than her.

            “Sounds like Shadow.” Anna muttered under her breath. Of course, with my senses, I heard her. I scowled at her reference to my volatile temper.          

            “Good. As long as I don’t have to pretend to actually like you.” I sneered. The agent gulped.

            “I, uh, wasn’t finished yet.”

            “Please continue.”

            “He needs to be seduced.” The agent fidgeted but Anna stretched, showing too much skin.

            “By a virgin.” Lisa flashed an awkward smile.

            “By Rose.” They all stared at me.

            “No!” Lisa and I protested at once.

            “She’s still a virgin?” Anna broke into laughter. My glare only made her laugh harder.

            “You have to.” The agent pressed.

            “Trust me. The last time I tried, I killed the guy.” I answered flatly. Anna shut up, looking like she’d been slapped. Lisa sent me a sympathetic glance. She couldn’t have sex either. However, her reason was to save her own life. If she had sex, her powers would transfer to her lover. Lisa would be useless to the government, so she would disappear… for real.

            “Well, practice makes perfect. Besides, our superiors believe his abilities will prevent that sort of accident. Back to the point. You need to gain his trust, loose whatever powers he has and teach him how to use them, seduce him, and then bring him back to us.”

            “So in other words: meet and greet at school, prom, screw his brains out, then take him home to meet the parents.” Anna cackled. I smiled wryly, used to her crude and filterless way of talking.

            “You could put it that way, yes.” The agent responded coolly. For the first time I really looked at her. She was decent looking. The agent had thin, straw-colored hair, a pale comparison top Lisa’s thick golden mane of ringlets. Her eyes were pale green, nowhere near as deep and seductive as Anna’s. Yet, I envied her. A mortal flame burned beneath her skin. She was human, just human, and that mortality was beautiful.

            “Okay, so I’m assuming we go back to high school tomorrow?” Lisa questioned. I shuddered. I’d been there and done that too many times to react any other way.

            “The school is on Spring Break. You’ll be starting next week. By you, I mean Lisa and Anna. You’ll interject yourselves into the school social system. Make sure Rose will have a stable position. You’ll be joining in May, ten days from graduation. Your job is simple. Only-" the agent hesitated.

            “Only what?”  I probed warily.

            “You’re going to have to tell him what you are. The very first day. We don’t believe he’ll freak out, but be wary.”

            “I’ll find a way.” I nodded firmly. I’d completely resigned myself to the inevitable.

            “Okay. So you’ll get the expensive wardrobes and anything else you’ll need for school. You’ll each receive a credit card with half a billion dollars apiece. You have until graduation to remove him or we will be forced to eliminate him as a possible threat.” The agent said.

            “What do we call you?” I asked belatedly as we pulled up in front of the White House.

            “You can call me Samantha. Welcome home girls!” she responded. A big, buff man with sandy blonde hair and foamy blue eyes waved vigorously form the drive. We caught on immediately as the agent jumped out to run up and kiss him. Anna and Lisa rushed out to hug him as well. I took the time to down the rest of my bottle and pop open another. Then, bottle in hand, I sauntered past my ‘family’ and was directed to my room.