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Laura grinned and put her bow back inside the quiver, nearly missing entirely as her gaze remained fixed on the couple just below her rooftop. Weeks of work, all for this. The woman was flailing her arms, talking enthusiastically as the man smiled at her, eyes glowing before he jumped in with something that made the woman laugh.
A glowing red arrow in each of their backs.
“Come on,” Laura whispered, practically vibrating off the ledge of the roof as she watched, wings shuffling to accommodate to her movement.
The man reached out, his hand covering the woman’s own before she absently latched their fingers together.
The arrows flared gold. Their feathered ends lengthening out to surround the couple in a looping swirl of golden ribbon. The ends of each ribbon touched, fusing together in a flash of light until it was impossible to see where one arrow started and the next ended.
Laura gave a fistpump, leaping dramatically into the air as she floated over the rooftop. Feet barely touching the tiles underneath. Then she reached into the air and pulled out a clipboard, flipping quickly to the appropriate page. The faces of the couple across the street smiled back at her.
Best of all, there was now the word ‘approved’ stamped across the top of the sheet.
As quickly as she could take in her success, there was a poof of smoke and an envelope floating in front of her face. She grabbed it and popped the seal, humming softly, as she continued to watch the couple across the way.
Her actions paused, letting the next assignment sit loosely on her fingertips, as the woman leaned in and captured the man’s lips with her own. He froze for a moment, then his hand came up and his eyes closed. The kiss was short but when it ended the man’s hand was still on the woman’s chin. Fingers softly ghosting over her skin.
Laura tensed her fingers, opening and closing her fist, then letting her thumb drift over the pads of the other digits.
Then she sighed, shook out her wings, and looked down at the assignment.
Immediately she frowned, “What the what?”
#
Fortunately Laura was sneaky. Like a super stealthy sneaker of sneakiness. The fact that she could fly and float and be invisible to humans was incidental. She was still naturally sneaky. Which was why she was hiding behind a chimney, watching her target weave through the crowds on the street.
The assignment had only given her the barest details. Carmilla Karnstein. Artist. Currently living in Toronto. The picture hadn’t even done her justice. Her black hair seemed to shine as moved, framing features so sharp the boss himself would have taken a second look. She was small and thin and toned and
Okay, Laura could admit that she was totally smoking.
Being a cupid didn’t mean she didn’t have eyes.
Carmilla kept moving, eyes on a book as she somehow still navigated the twisting streets. Laura leapt after her, moving from roof to roof, from chimney to awning. Ever so often she’d glance down at the assignment, hoping against hope that it had somehow fixed itself. Or even just explained what was going on.
Nothing.
She watched it every time Carmilla would cross someone’s path. The bulky male who leered at her. Nope. The hot blonde who Carmilla dragged her eyes from the book to leer at. Nope. The girl with glasses sitting at the bus station. Nothing. Boy with the skateboard. Nada.
Laura had no idea what trick the universe was trying to play on her.
She’d been doing this a very long time and this, this, was something new.
Perhaps it called for a closer examination of the subject.
Laura spread her wings, letting the white feathers fully extend, and dove off the roof. She smiled as the wind rushed past her face, ruffling her hair and dancing between her feathers. It was a short trip. She landed softly, wings tucking back behind her.
The humans didn’t even give her a second glance.
Laura followed Carmilla where she’d cut into a back alley. A little dangerous for a girl of her size but probably fine. Still, maybe this was one of those ones where the girl fell in love with a mugger-with-a-heart of gold. She hadn’t had one of those since the eighties. That had been a blast. Very mobster back then and the girl had been the badass of the relationship. Getting those two to fall in love hadn’t been an easy task. She’d literally had to lock them in a shipping crate for four hours before they’d even started up a conversation.
Something whammed into her, striking Laura across the shoulders and sending her falling backwards. She stumbled back as the force kept advancing, hands trying to lock around her neck. Laura jabbed forward, using the heel of her hand to smack her opponent’s throat. It had been a while, but she hadn’t forgotten.
They barely flinched.
Small hands closed around her neck, flinging her around like a ragdoll as she was pulled tight to the attacker's body, “Why are you following me?” The words were snarled directly into her face, hands staying tight on her windpipe.
Laura could even make out a gasping breath as her hand scrambled up her back, pounding the release on her quiver that popped one of her spare arrows into her hand. She lunged it forward, pressing the tip of the arrow against the attacker’s neck. Just avoiding breaking the skin.
She didn’t have the air to speak but her eyes rose to meet the attacker’s face and she almost dropped the arrow in surprise. Carmilla.
Her target looked down, seeing the arrow and immediately dropping her with a snarl. Laura fell to her knees, gasping, the ground tearing a hole in her jeans. Barely making out Carmilla practically sprinting away through her bleary eyes. Still the movements were easy. She snatched the bow and notched the arrow.
It landed just a foot in front of Carmilla, the feathers whisking at the girl’s ear.
“The next one hits,” Laura shouted with the first breath she could muster, second arrow already in place.
Carmilla froze, turning slowly. Hands in the air.
Laura struggled to her feet, fighting to keep her body still despite the gasping breaths and feeling wisps of hair fly freely around her face as the clung to the beads of sweat.
Her eyes never left Carmilla’s. As the girl took her in, for just a moment, Laura thought she saw something of fear. Then it whisked away. A haughty glare falling into its place.
“I’ve never known a cupid to miss, sweetheart,” Carmilla said.
Laura stepped towards her, “We don’t.”
The smirk on Carmilla’s face was infuriating, “Then what do you call that?” She nodded towards the arrow lodged behind her.
“A warning shot.” Laura said.
“Please,” Carmilla said, “Warning? I had warning enough when you tripped over that air conditioner 20 blocks back trying to follow me.”
Laura flushed. She was sneaky! She was. Then she frowned, “You heard me?” She caught herself, realizing the situation, “Wait, you can see. You can totally see me. You can see me right now. But that’s,” Laura glanced down at her wrist, still bare, “that’s impossible. And you touched me. I mean, well, you more tried to strangle me but that counts as touching still, right? That shouldn’t happen I mean,I’m a cupid. Except… you already knew that. You literally just called me a cupid.”
Carmilla rolled her eyes, “Do all of you waste your time on pointless summaries?”
Laura took another few steps closer, “How are you seeing me right now? Humans don’t see me unless I want them too.”
“Seriously? It’s not rocket science, cupcake.” Carmilla said.
Squinting, Laura took another step closer to Carmilla, dropping the tip of the bow slightly, “You say that but there was totally this group in the 90s trying to figure out how to shift vision spectrum to see supernatural creatures and they came waaaay closer than anyone was comfortable with. Very evil scientist type.”
“Oh yes,” Carmilla deadpanned, “You’ve figure me out. Let me whip out my lab coat and stroke my evil -”
Laura’s fingers touched Carmilla’s face, bow and arrow dangling from her left hand, and Carmilla’s words disappeared. Laura simply held them there. Four tiny points of contact between the tips of her fingers and Carmilla’s jaw. For the first time in years, she could feel the heat under her fingers. The softness of skin not her own.
She swallowed hard and slowly removed her hand, dropping it back to the bow and arrow, “You’re not human, are you?”
“Brilliant deduction, Lois Lane,” but there was no bite to Carmilla’s words as the floated across the space between the two women.
Laura’s eyes crossed Carmilla’s face, running through the options. From this close, mere breathes apart, it was easy to rule out some options. Rounded ears ruled out fairies. Mermaid would never be this far inland. Siren was highly likely if those cheekbones were any indication but Laura couldn’t spot the telltale flecks of gold in Carmilla’s skin. Cyclops always wore sunglasses. With her gaze directed to Carmilla’s eyes, Laura found them a deep rich brown, flickering with something she couldn’t identify but felt familiar. Still, no silver ring around the pupil that meant werewolf.
Her gaze dropped, flicking over Carmilla’s lips and absently feeling her teeth run along the inner ridge of her own. They were red and full and Laura was beginning to flip right back to the siren theory when she caught the tiny telltale bulge under the upper lip.
“Vampire,” Laura squealed the words and grinned, a little proud that she’d caught such a subtle tell, “you’re totally a vampire. You’ve got the little mouth bumps that mean your fangs are up inside your gums. Does that hurt? I bet it hurts. Like do your normal incisors grow out or are you piercing the gum every time?”
Carmilla’s eyebrows shot up and her mouth opened slightly, soundless.
“And that totally makes sense,” Laura let her grin grow as it all fell into place, “Oh my bow, that totally makes everything make sense. You’re a vampire. That’s why the assignment was so messed up. I mean. I doesn’t totally make sense. But it makes more sense than if you were just a normal human. At least there’s something weird about this one.”
When she looked back up at Carmilla, the vampire’s face had hardened and she’d taken a step back, “What do you mean, assignment?”
“Oh,” Laura waved the bow around, stopping only when she noticed that Carmilla had shifted into a defensive stance, eyes locked on the arrow, “yeah, like, I got this couple together over in London. Totally adorable by the way but a bit of a pain because the girl already had a crush except that guy wasn’t her soulmate so I had to wait until she worked that out for herself and then help her and her soulmate get together. But I did it and then your name came up as the next one. So guess what! You’ve totally got a soulmate and you get to fall in love.”
“You. Are. Not. Coming. Anywhere near me with that thing,” the words roared out of Carmilla, eyes still locked on the arrow.
Laura took a step back, the hostility was rolling off Carmilla in waves, “Well, not this second,” she said, “I mean, it would suck to just be walking around with an arrow in your back without one in your soulmate too. We’ve got to find them first.” She’d never seen anyone quite so angry at the idea of something most people would kill for. Then again, she rarely spoke to her assignments either.
“Not ever,” Carmilla growled, “Thanks but no thanks.”
“But it’s a soulmate,” Laura said, “you can’t just opt out.”
“Watch me.” Carmilla said eyes narrowing, “You just said we need to track my soulmate down? Fine. What happens if I lock myself away. Never see anyone ever again? Never get anywhere near this soulmate,” she sneered the word, “then you can’t get those stupid arrows or whatever it is you cupids do to work, can you?”
Laura clenched her fist, thumb running back over her fingers, “We don’t just pair people up willy nilly you know. Only people who are supposed to be together. Like it’s not as though I’m just arbitrarily shooting people in the back.”
“You literally make people fall in love.” Carmilla said, “I’m not down for forced, fake romance.”
“They’re already falling.” Laura said around her clenched jaw, “the arrows don’t work unless there’s already something there. We just tie them together.”
“Whatever sweetheart,” Carmilla finally took her eyes off the arrow, “you’ve made it very clear you’re not going to shoot me right now and apparently, it wouldn’t work anyway. So I’m off to the middle of the Antarctic where I promise not to fall in love with any penguins.” She turned and waved a hand flippantly, “call me when you finally give up and get a new assignment and I’m off the hook.”
Laura lunged after her, dropping the bow and arrow on the ground as she spun Carmilla around and grabbed her lapels, “How dare you,” she spat, “fine. You’re not interested in love. It’s sad and pathetic but fine. Whatever. I don’t care. Be that way. But how dare you condemn someone else to live that way too. This isn’t just about you. A soulmate is a two person deal, are you really so callous that you’re content to just leave your soulmate behind?”
Carmilla easily broke her grasp, “Vampire remember? I leave everyone behind eventually.”
“So you’ll just never even give it a chance,” Laura said, “really? Because I’m not going to make it easy. I will dog your every step for the rest of your eternal life, chattering in your ear and making you think about your soulmate and your missed chance for every second that I can.” She crossed her arms and peered up at Carmilla, “And are you really sure you want that?”
Carmilla peered down her nose at her, fangs dropping to tiny white points just below her lip.
Laura let her wings spread apart slightly.
“Give me the paper?” Carmilla snapped at last.
“What?” Laura had been expecting another attack.
“The paper,” Carmilla said, “the stupid assignment paper that you cupids get that labels your star-crossed lovers. Let me see.”
Laura’s hand hovered protectively over her pocket, “So you can rip it up? No way.”
Carmilla huffed, the air moving her hair, “So,” she dropped into a poor imitation of Laura, “I can just give this girl a chance by staring ather pretty face so we can dance off into the sunset with arrows of forced affection shoved into our C6 vertebrate.”
Laura watched her, then slowly drew the paper from her pocket, holding it out, “We actually aim for the trapezius. Muscle's better than bone.”
Carmilla snorted, snatching the paper and unfolding it.
It wasn’t until then that Laura remember what was on the paper. Or rather, not on the paper.
“Wait-” she started.
“What the frilly hell is this?” Carmilla said, staring at the page.
Laura rushed over, “Yeah. Sorry. Whoops um. Did I mention that something’s a little weird with this one? Maybe because you’re a vampire? I think I mentioned that. I mean, I really shouldn’t be telling you anything. We shouldn’t even be having this conversation but here we are and I definitely should not have given you that paper.”
“Sweetheart,” Carmilla’s voice was too controlled, “why is the other half of this paper blank?”
Laura winced, “I don’t know.”
“You mean you went on a whole rant about my soulmate,” Carmilla’s hands shook slightly, “when I don’t even have one?”
“NO, no, no!” Laura said, “I’m sure you do. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten this. We’ve just got to find them. Her. You said her right? So you like girls? it’s a girl? See we’re getting somewhere already. Maybe they’re just not born yet and that’s why they’re not on here. Cause the person has to be the person that they’re going to be before they’re matched up so it’ll probably fill in when we find them. It’s just warning me that you’re going to get paired up. Most likely.”
“Most likely.” Carmilla repeated.
“Look,” Laura leaned over Carmilla, pointing at the paper, “see, it’s got your name on it right there. Carmilla Karnstein.”
“Carmilla?” the girl said, “What. Carmilla isn’t my-”
“And there’s your picture right?” Laura’s finger moved downward, talking over Carmilla, “like that is definitely your face because you’ve got a really unique face. Like you cheekbones. Man. And I mean, when we get these we get this like, internal beacon that leads us right to the assignment and your took me to you. Or well, close to you. I had to hunt a little bit. Probably another vampire thing throwing it off a little. But that’s your face.”
“That is my face,” Carmilla said.
Laura glanced up, the vampire putting an odd emphasis on the word face.
There was a beat and then Carmilla said, “So you intend to make me fall in love with a blank piece of paper.”
“No,” Laura corrected, moving away to gather up her bow and arrow, tucking them back into the quiver, “I’m going to help you find someone to fall in love with and then you’re going to ask me to shoot you with an arrow.” She glanced back up at Carmilla, “however long it takes.”