Changed (The Hunters #1) (45 page)

Rosa shook her head
vigorously. “No! Please! Let me explain! “

“
Rosa, I have raised you,
trained you to be a huntress, gave you a roof over your head and
this is the thanks for it?” Sergei asked her now. His eyes were
full of contempt and disappointment. It hurt Rosa.

“
Uncle, please listen to
me! I...”

He silenced her with a
gesture. “I am disappointed in you, Rosa. Very. Your father would
not be proud of you. You are not my niece anymore. You are a
disgrace to our family.”

Tears burned in her eyes.
“Please! Listen to me!” But nobody wanted to hear her.

“
Bring them!” Lord
Constantine ordered his men.

Jason and Matt were
brought into the hall. His men threw the unconscious boys in front
of Rosa.

“
What did you do with
them?” she asked terrified. She looked in horror at Jason and Matt.
They were badly bruised and bloodied.

Lord Constantine smiled
wickedly. “Matt, the boy who loves you, but you do not love him.
And the Nephilim, who loves you, too. They must die because of you,
Rosa, because they have fallen in love with you.”

“
What? No! It isn’t my
fault.” She wanted to move but her body was frozen. Her legs didn’t
move.

“
Of course, it is your
fault, Rosa. You should not let it get that far to allow them to
fall in love with you.” He looked at his men. “Kill
them!”

“
No, please!” Rosa
couldn’t do anything but watch them die.

Before her eyes, Jason and
Matt were killed. The pain in her chest exploded. Hot tears ran
down her cheeks.

“
So, Rosa,” said Lord
Constantine. “Do you want anything else before you die?”

Rosa was not able to do or
say anything.

The pain tore her. She
welcomed the death.

A rope was wrapped around
her neck and pulled tight.

I’m dying!

I’m dying!

I’m dying...

Rosa awoke with a jerk. Her hand
touched her throat and she tried to pump air into her lungs. Her
heart was racing.

“
Rosa, calm down,” Matt
said to her. “It was just a nightmare. Take deep
breaths.”

Rosa
tried to calm herself, as she took several deep breaths.
It was only a dream! It was just a dream,
she kept telling herself.

Slowly her heart calmed down and she
could breathe normally again.

“
Are you okay, Rosa?” Matt
asked her. She looked at him.

They sat on the plane back to Boston.
Rosa didn’t intend to fall asleep, but somehow she had, and had the
terrible nightmare.

The dream showed the significant
consequences of her actions. If the hunter clan found out a
Nephilim knew who she was, and they were in love with one another,
her life would end.

It was only a dream, Rosa.
Just a dream. Dreams are not reality.

She knew she had to end her
relationship with Jason if she didn’t want to end up like her
dream.

“
Are you okay, Ice
Princess?” Jason asked, leaning forward.

He sat next to Matt. Rosa nodded
briefly without looking at him.

Why? Why had she fallen in
love with him? Why couldn’t she just hate him? Why did he have to
be so damn hot and charming?

Rosa growled internal.

“
Guys, I’m feeling so
lonely here,” Philip complained.

“
Well, bro. Only the cool
people sit in the front,” Jason replied and leafed through a
magazine.

Philip kicked Jason’s seat.

“
Kick my seat as long as
you want, Phil. But that won’t change the fact that you’re
uncool.”

Rosa had to smile in spite of her bad
mood. Even Matt grinned.

Philip gave Jason a blow to the
head.

“
Hey! Don’t destroy my
hair, you idiot,” said Jason, and ran his fingers through his dark
hair.

Philip snorted. “You haven’t even got
a style to your hair.”

“
That
is
my
style of having no style,” Jason explained. A sigh was heard from
behind.

Rosa leaned her head on Matt’s
shoulder and closed her eyes. Her head began to roar.

“
Sleep a little, Rosa,”
Matt whispered to her and put an arm around her.

She wouldn’t sleep. The same dream
would find her again and Rosa didn’t want to have the same dream
again.

So she stayed awake until
they arrived in Boston.

“
Are you really okay,
Rosa?” Matt asked her once again when she stopped in front of his
house.

She smiled and nodded. “I’m fine,
Matt.”

The dream was still in her mind—she
couldn’t just forget it.

He returned her smile. “That’s good.
Tell me what Jason really wanted from you.”

Rosa had known that he wanted to know
about it. She would tell him the truth.

“
I told Jason that I’m a
huntress,” she said, looking at him.

Surprise was reflected in his face.
“Oh. Do you think that was smart?”

Rosa thought for a long time before
answering. “Yes, I think it was.”

Matt didn’t seem enthusiastic about
it, but nodded. “If you believe that Jason wouldn’t use this
against you, then it is probably the right thing.”

Rosa
frowned. Was there a chance that Jason could use this information
about her to blackmail her? She didn’t know. She
didn’t
want to think
about it.

“
Rosa,” Matt broke the
silence. He reached out his hand. “Can I kiss you?”

Rosa looked at him surprised. She
wasn’t prepared for this, for this question.

“
Matt, I...” But she
couldn’t finish her sentence. Matt had leaned forward and kissed
her on the mouth.

Rosa let it happen and
searched for a tiny spark, but she found nothing. Much like the
first kiss, it felt as if she were kissing her brother.

It wasn’t like the kiss between her
and Jason.

She wanted to break the kiss, when
suddenly there was a knock on the windshield. Alarmed, she broke
away from Matt and looked through the window

Mason stood before the window, and
looked at them with his face grim. Rosa rolled down the
window.

“
Did I ever tell you that
your timing is crap?” Matt asked Mason, a little angry.

Mason shrugged one shoulder. “Could
you please clear the entrance?” he asked Rosa.

“
Of course.” Why did she
always have to get into such embarrassing situations?

“
I’ll see you then,” Matt
said and got out. Rosa nodded and started her car. She waved
goodbye to them and drove home.

When Rosa got home, she threw her bag
in the corner and took off her leather jacket. Sighing, she took a
step forward, when her foot touched something. She looked down and
saw a letter lying on the ground

Rosa lifted it and opened
it.

Rosa,

If you are at home, come
immediately to the Academy.

Lord
Constantine
.

“
Fuck you!” Rose hissed
angry and crumpled the note. She threw it on the floor and stomped
into her studio.

He couldn’t leave her alone for one
moment. She couldn’t even enjoy a day in peace.

Rosa grunted and opened the
door to her studio. She needed something to calm her down, and that
was painting. She hadn’t painted for a long time, and now was the
time.

Almost tenderly, Rosa stroked her
brushes and paints. Painting was a part of her life. She put a new
canvas on the stand and decided to sketch with carbon
pencils.

It was warm in the studio and sunlight
shone through the windows. Perfect time to draw and to let her
imagination run free.

Rosa sat on the stool and took a deep
breath.

“
Well, let’s do
it.”

At the beginning, Rosa didn’t know
exactly what to draw. It appeared in the course of drawing. The
simple line formed more and more into a picture, until they were a
complete image.

Rosa’s hand moved automatically and
sketched curved lines that didn’t make any sense. Only later, it
would show to be the lines of a face.

With her fingers, she blurred the line
to represent a few shades. She took a thin stick of charcoal and
drew finer lines.

It took a long time until she was
satisfied and happy with the picture. She put the charcoal aside
and stood up.

From a distance, Rosa looked at her
work and nodded.

Her image was an angel that was flying
in the air. The angel looked exactly like Jason. Rosa had drawn
Jason, without realizing it, although she wanted to forget
him.

“
I’m so screwed up,” Rosa
muttered to herself and left the studio. Drawing wouldn’t help her
forget Jason.

“
Why must my life be so
complicated?” Rosa asked herself as she washed her hands. “I
wouldn’t have minded being a normal girl, having parents, and to
live my life the way I wanted it. But no! Of course I get a shitty
life.”

Her attitude toward her life had
changed. Okay, she always knew that her life wasn’t that great, but
she had accepted it.

Since the recent events, it became
increasingly clear to her how her life was controlled by others.
She was a prisoner in her own life.

After Jason had come into her life,
she’d realized.

“
Jerk,” Rosa cursed him,
leaning against the wall.

She was never really interested in
boys. Her life consisted of killing as many angels as possible, to
avenge the murder of her father.

But then there was a beautiful,
arrogant angel who turned her world upside down.

The thought of Jason, alone
made her heart beat faster, the butterflies in her stomach come to
life, and her knees felt like Jell-O.

It would be very, very
difficult to stay away from Jason, but if she didn’t want to die,
she had to do it. She’d make it somehow.

All her life she had suppressed her
wishes and desire. It wouldn’t be new for her to suppress her
feelings for Jason.

Her watch told her that
she’d spent two hours drawing. Rosa sighed as she reluctantly
pulled her leather jacket back on, and headed for the
academy.

“
Did you have a nice
trip?” Milena asked.

Jason threw himself on the couch and
rubbed his face. He was exhausted and suddenly had a bad conscience
about Jasmine.

He had never thought of her once while
he was in Vancouver. Rosa had taken control of his thoughts.
Indeed, she still had control over his thoughts. Jason needed to
get her out of his mind.

He was always thinking about her,
rather than thinking of a plan that would set his sister
free.