A CHAPTER! EVERYONE! LOOK! :D
Sorry I haven't been updating much... I just have exams and laziness... hopefully things will go faster... but no promises :/ Thank you to anyone who's still putting up with me I LOVE YOU
Aphrodite struggled to open her eyes the next morning. Sure, she was in the brothel (because apparently you couldn't stay at inns for free) and that pissed her off. But she was also very tired and even though the bed was probably covered in love juices from God knows who (well, the girls might've washed them but she couldn't be certain) it was really comfortable and she didn't want to get out of it.
"I thought the dirty bed freaked you out, Aphrodite," Stevie Rae commented from the doorway. She headed towards the window and opened the blinds, letting the light in at its full power. "Rise and shine! Mario's already got a messenger here to tell us that Ezio's here. That sure was fast, huh? Faster than the turkeys on thanksgiving day!"She giggled and went back to the doorway.
Aphrodite winced at the light and struggled to get up while saying, "Is that an Okie joke? 'Cause it's not funny." She fumbled on the ground for her shoes.
Stevie Rae ignored her and resumed speaking. "Come to think of it, if I remember my history correctly, doesn't Columbus set out for the Americas right about now?"
"No," Aphrodite grumbled, "He does that in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood." She wanted to hit the girl saying, "He actually set out for India, you idiot!" but she contained her morning grumpiness because it really wouldn't help anyone if she killed Stevie Rae.
The Okie huffed. "I meant in this time period; while Ezio's alive."
Aphrodite shrugged then nodded. "I guess so. Yeah, that is, if we don't end up changing the timeline and doing something ditzy that gets him killed before Brotherhood." Stevie Rae nodded as well and Aphrodite passed her on her way out of the bedroom. "Well," she began, stopping to wait for the girl who had stayed behind, staring at nothing in contemplation, "are you coming or not?"
Stevie Rae lifted her head. "Oh! Yeah!" She and the prophetess ran down to the ground floor of the brothel. Stevie Rae tried to express her gratitude but Aphrodite had her out that door so fast she couldn't even form the first syllable on her tongue.
It wasn't a very far walk from the brothel to the villa Auditore yet Aphrodite found herself extremely bored. "It's still morning! We just woke up. How in the whole world could you be bored?"
Aphrodite shrugged. "I'm so bored, I could listen to country music."
"Yeah!" Stevie Rae exclaimed, not seeing the mockery in her voice. "I could use some Kenny Chesney right about now!"
"I can't believe you like that dork," Aphrodite exclaimed, "Ugh and Taylor Swift… it's like they're raping my ears with their scratchy Miley Cyrus voices and their banjos."
"I can't say I disagree with you about Miley Cyrus. But she's not that bad… Ooh! And Taylor Swift is the cutest little country starlet ever!" she remarked, twirling in place. Aphrodite couldn't believe her ears when her company suddenly broke into song. "Someday, I'll be living in a big old city! And all you're ever gonna be is mean!"
"Why do I feel like this is somehow directed at me?" Aphrodite groaned but she never got her answer because they had reached the steps leading to the villa. At the bottom of the steps sat Ezio Auditore da Firenze in the flesh.
"Aphrodite, what brings you here so suddenly?" he asked, clearly seeming irritated. "I mean, you room with my family for days. You become my sister's closest friend in a long time. You're there through one of the biggest events of my family. You don't even stick around to make sure we're alright afterwards. You leave without so much as a 'Sorry for the trouble' or a 'Thank you for your hospitality' or perhaps a 'Sorry about your father and brothers'…" He looked majorly pissed. "And now you're here, no doubt for another favor, eh?"
Aphrodite looked away from him. She didn't do apologies. Like he would've accepted any apology from her. She didn't know what to say though. She didn't even know he'd take it so personally.
"My sister –Claudia if you remember her –is very angry with you. I would suppose that you don't really care anyhow."
Thankfully, Aphrodite had an Okie whirlwind on her side to save her ass from the PMS-ing assassin. "Listen, you!" He looked at her, flabbergasted. He probably hadn't even noticed her there. "I don't know what you got against Aphrodite but don't go making assumptions without hearing her out first. PMS-ing her booty off before she even says anything is totally not cool."
"PMS-ing? What is that?"
"It doesn't matter! What matters, Mr. Auditore, is that Aphrodite is not here for any favors! We, actually, are here to help you in the assassin-templar war. Aphrodite is psychic. She can help you figure out the enemies' next moves and I'm a pretty kickass assassin if I do say so myself. We can help you win…"
"And I know how you will end Rodrigo," Aphrodite added quickly.
"Really?" Ezio said sarcastically. "And how will that be?"
Aphrodite winked. "Well, I can't say everything. You'll just have to wait and see for yourself. But just know that you will end him."
Ezio nodded, not quite believing every single word but accepting the explanation nonetheless. "I suppose you girls can fight, can't you?"
"Naturally," Aphrodite replied, moving her hair behind her shoulder.
Still nodding, he made an Mh sound then said, "Well, since we're going to be fighting together, pray tell me what those marks on your foreheads mean. They are very strange."
Aphrodite saw him suddenly begin to scrutinize Stevie Rae. The poor girl was so innocent that she didn't even notice until Aphrodite passed a hand between the fledgling and the assassin to break the invisible line of concentration. "Um, Ezio, can you stop ogling Stevie Rae; it's kinda creepy."
"Oh, pardone but I just… know this girl from somewhere. I just can't seem to remember where." He rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.
Aphrodite glanced at Stevie Rae, who shrugged, and said, "Well, not many blondes around here. Maybe you banged a blonde at some point in your life." She smirked and crossed her arms over her chest.
"No," Ezio said, "I've slept with many blondes, but this girl –I've seen her somewhere but…" He brought his hand to Stevie Rae's forehead and pushed away the bangs. "This… it was red. I've seen it."
Stevie Rae let out a light giggle, trying to alleviate the severe air of awkwardness due to the fact that Ezio still had his hand on her forehead. "There's no such thing as a red mark, right, Aphrodite?"
Aphrodite shrugged. "I guess. We haven't really taken anything like it at school so…"
"Well, are you going to stand around and talk like old ladies or are you going to start training?" It was Mario's voice that interrupted their conversation. He had a point. It was about time they started to train. Stevie Rae couldn't wait to start training with the best of the best.
"U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya," Grandma Redbird said affectionately to her granddaughter over the phone, "I'm so sorry about Stevie Rae. From what I heard, she seemed to be such a sweet young girl. So you want me to help with this predicament of yours?" The old woman heaved a sigh and on Zoey's end of the phone, it sounded more like static.
Zoey nodded although her grandmother couldn't see then said, "Yeah, because I can't do this alone. I have to replace Aphrodite as leader of the dark daughters and I'm completely lost. I have no idea what to do. The dragon lady" Zoey's code for Neferet in case someone was eavesdropping "probably did this to add more things to my to-do list which was pretty much already full without her little addition." She groaned. "I thought that perhaps you could look into this thing as well if you're not too busy. I just have no time nowadays."
She heard graveness in her grandma's voice as the woman said, "Well, I'll do what I can, but perhaps you could get someone to retrieve the diary for you. If I could get my hands on it, I could see what its connection to Neferet and the girls is clearly. Right now, I have nothing to go by other than the fact that Aphrodite is a psychic and somehow, the girls' spirits are away from their bodies."
"I'll see what I can do," Zoey muttered. Stealing things is already pretty hard to do. Stealing from the dragon lady –even harder.
There was hesitation on the other end before the old woman finally spoke. "I believe your friends will be just fine. Trust in your goddess. She has chosen you, hasn't she?"
Zoey nodded stupidly again. "I guess so." She sighed and said, "Well, thank you so much, Grandma. I love you."
"I love you too, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya."
With that, the conversation ended and Zoey put away her phone. There were still just a couple of hours before the fledglings had to turn in and go to bed so Zoey decided that she should probably get started on her Dark Daughters research. She needed that over with as soon as possible. The last thing she needed was Neferet nagging over her head about it.
The first thing she did when she emerged from the girls' dorm was look at the sky. It was pitch black. The moon was high up and suddenly, she felt guilty for calling her grandmother so late in the night. She hugged herself as a cool breeze blew through her hair and under her clothes. She shivered once then resumed her small journey to the library.
It was silent as she expected. She spotted a fledgling or two catching up on some studying in the silence. Nobody that she knew was there though. She shrugged. It wasn't like she really needed a distraction. She was too busy. She headed silently towards one of the sections of the library to search for anything regarding Dark Daughter ceremonies and flinched when one of the fledglings aimed a perplexed stare at her. It was as though she wasn't allowed to be there. She ignored it and grabbed the first book her eyes fell upon.
Collapsing into one of the chairs and burying her nose into the book, she began to read as if her life depended on it. Unfortunately for her, all distractions came when she least desired.
"Zoey Redbird, what a surprise…"
Yes, folks. It was the Loren Blake. The uber hott (with two t's) Poet Laureate that had almost every girl (the straight ones, that is) falling all over themselves at his feet. The mental image made her want to giggle… but she couldn't giggle when the guy was two freaking meters away from her. She just held her mouth awkwardly open like she was debating on what to reply.
"I've heard of your new position as the leader of the Dark Daughters. What with your friend falling into that trance, it must be too much to handle." He walked two large, tantalizing steps towards her, making the distance between them fall to only one meter. "I suppose it may be for the best. After all, that mark indicates that you've been chosen by Nyx. Leadership of the Dark Daughters is your rightful place," he said quietly. Zoey didn't know whether he was being quiet because they were in a library or not but whatever it was, it was extremely sexy. "I heard Neferet contemplating whether or not to make the position permanent even after Aphrodite awakens." Zoey sucked in a breath. He grip on the book tightened and suddenly, she knew she would give anything to be in that man's arms no matter how wrong it was.
He took another two steps and Zoey had to stand up so that she was staring at his face and not his finely toned chest. "Why won't you speak, Zoey?" The way he said her name made her want to close that distance between them and kiss his face off but she didn't. He was an adult vampyre. It was so wrong.
"I… I have work to do…" she sputtered lamely. "I'm just so…" she trailed off as the distance between them halved and she could smell his delicious scent.
"Very well, then," he mumbled in her ear. "Perhaps I'll see you again later, Zoey…" Loren made his leave and in his wake, he left Zoey with her eyes hazy and her thoughts jumbled. She just knew that no matter how hard she tried, there would be no way for her to sit back down and concentrate fully on her reading again with that man on her mind.
Well, hell…
"So, we're going after those two girls?" Desmond asked as Lucy helped him out of the Animus to give him a break.
"Yeah, well, not us, but I am going," she replied, going back to her desk and placing two handguns on it. She couldn't risk Abstergo following her to Tulsa while she sought out the two fledglings.
"Looks dangerous," he commented, "Not relying on your badass assassin skills, eh?"
She sighed. "This is the twenty first century. We might as well use guns rather than swords and arrows." She ran her hand through her hair then adjusted the bun at the back of her head. "It probably won't be that dangerous but we've got to be ready for anything. The worst that could happen is that I accidently reveal your location, which is why I'm going alone."
"Got it. So what about those training sessions. Without you, who's holding 'em?"
"Rebecca is. Shaun would rather do other things but you should know that they're both equally capable. You could say that they're actually stronger than me," she raised her head to shoot him a split-second smile. If he caught it, he caught it and if he didn't well, she didn't really mind.
"Yeah… well, be careful. We still don't know how these vampyres will react to a human coming up to them."
"Aphrodite is human," Lucy replied. "Plus, it looks like they're assassins like us."
"So… you're just leaving like this?"
Lucy smiled. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you wanted me to stay."
"More like I want to go with you," he replied as the two of them made their way to the bottom floor of the warehouse.
"You know why you can't, Desmond."
"Yeah…" he said, accepting defeat, "I know."
Well, that's all for now, folks :D I'm pretty excited about Lucy going out to look for Tulsa! What about you?