The Stone of the Eklektos

by Britney Jackson

  “As if you have any room to talk,” Theron scoffed. “I know who your father was. You weren’t lowborn either. Of course, I also know how much of a disappointment you were to him. You weren’t good at pleasing anyone, were you?”

  Kallias ignored Theron’s attempt to provoke him. “Macedonia, huh?” he asked with a taunting smile. “That explains a lot, actually. You know, I heard once that the Macedonians were incestuous. Is that why you are so insane, Theron? Were Mommy and Daddy really brother and sister?”

  A loud, guttural growl sounded from Theron’s throat. He raced toward Kallias so rapidly that his movement became a blur, but just as Theron reached him, Kallias twisted and shoved the sword into Theron’s stomach. A strangled, choking sound escaped his lips as the sword impaled him. Kallias jerked the sword out of his stomach, and Theron fell to his knees. His hands clutched at the gaping wound as blood poured through his fingers, soaking into his sweater.

  “You should really work on that anger,” Kallias said.

  Theron growled again and sank his fangs into Kallias’s leg, ripping the jeans and jerking out a chunk of flesh and muscle with his sharp teeth. The bite caused enough pain to knock Kallias off of his feet. He fell to the floor, cursing under his breath. Theron spit out a mouthful of bloodied clothing and flesh on the floor, and then his feral eyes shifted toward Rose, darkening with hunger.

  “Oh my goodness,” Rose whispered in shock. “Kallias! Are you okay?”

  Kallias glanced at Theron, and he panicked as he realized that Theron’s attention was on Rose. “Run! Run! Now!” he shouted at her, but it was too late.

  Rose never even saw him move. One moment, she’d seen Theron kneeling in a pool of his own blood in the middle of the room, and the next moment, she felt his hands grasp her arms as he shoved her against the wall, his heavy, blood-covered body practically falling onto her. His two abnormally long, sharp teeth sank into her neck. She cried out as the fangs tore roughly through her skin, and acting mostly on instinct, she shoved the dagger into his left side.

  Theron suddenly pulled away from her neck and glared at the dagger stuck in his hip. Rose stared at the blackish burgundy blood that coated his face and flowed down his chin and neck, realizing with shock that some of it was hers. His own blood drenched his sweater, still flowing from the sword wound. His eyes seemed dark and manic, and he looked more feral and terrifying than she’d ever seen him before. He jerked the dagger out of his side and tossed it aside.

  “You stabbed me,” he stated, as if he couldn’t believe it.

  “Well, you bit me!” Rose said defensively. She covered her neck with her hand, her eyes widening as she felt the warm blood pouring into her hand.

  “And I’m going to do it again,” Theron growled as he leaned forward.

  Theron froze as a sharp blade suddenly slid in front of his neck. Rose leaned back in shock, blinking at the blood-coated blade and then at Kallias who stood behind Theron, leaning heavily on his uninjured leg. He wrapped one arm around Theron, restraining him, as he pressed the sword threateningly to Theron’s throat. Rose frowned as she realized that that Kallias’s brown eyes seemed darker, dilated too much for the bright fluorescent lighting of the room.

  “Please, Rose, I need you to leave right now,” Kallias said breathlessly.

  Rose wanted to argue. She wanted to tell him that she couldn’t just leave him, that it would be wrong, but as she heard the weak desperation in his voice, she couldn’t bring herself to speak. She nodded and ran from the classroom.

  She froze as she found a beautiful brunette woman standing in front of the hallway door, blocking the only way out of the building. Rose scowled at the woman. “Who are you, and why are you standing in front of the door?”

  The woman stared at her. “You have red hair.”

  Rose blinked at the woman and then nodded slowly. “Congratulations. You’re not colorblind. Now, can we go?” she asked, pointing at the door.

  The woman continued, “You have blue eyes, fair skin…”

  Rose stared blankly at the woman. “Correct,” she muttered. “Seriously, now that we’ve established that you have great eyesight, can you please move?”

  “You’re Rose Foster,” the woman said.

  Rose raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Now, I’m impressed.”

  “You’re the one he wants,” the woman stated.

  The woman slid her hand into her green purse and pulled out a handgun. With shaky hands, she pointed the gun at Rose and put her finger on the trigger.

  Death and Bad Guys

  Kallias twisted and slammed Theron roughly into the wall. He held the sword’s blade beneath Theron’s chin, his forearm against Theron’s chest, holding him still as the sharp edge of the sword dug into Theron’s throat.

  Theron’s eyes darkened. “I could overpower you,” he warned.

  “And I could let this blade slide right through your neck the moment I see one muscle of your body twitch,” Kallias countered. “So, I would suggest you hold very still, and answer my questions, unless, of course, you’d prefer death.”

  “Fine,” Theron said between clenched teeth.

  “I want to know,” Kallias growled, “why you are hunting the woman.”

  “You seem awfully concerned with that question,” Theron commented.

  “Yeah, well, your refusal to answer it makes me suspicious,” Kallias said.

  “It’s a matter of pride,” Theron said. “I can’t let a human escape me.”

  Kallias shook his head. “You’re lying. There’s more to it than that.”

  “Is there? And how would you know?” Theron asked suspiciously.

  “I’m asking the questions right now, not you,” Kallias said. Growing impatient, he took control of Theron’s mind and commanded, “Tell the truth.”

  A blank, dazed look suddenly came over Theron’s eyes as Kallias’s telepathic abilities took effect. “She has something I want,” he said emotionlessly.

  “And that something is?” Kallias prompted.

  Theron began to answer, “The St—”

  Kallias straightened as he heard the distant voice of the woman that Theron had sent to stab Kallias in the street, the woman Theron had also sent to watch Rose. Without waiting for Theron to finish the answer, he rushed out of the room to stop the human woman before she did something stupid.

  Kallias found Rose and the woman in the hallway. He snatched the gun out of the woman’s hand before she could pull the trigger. He emptied it of bullets before he shoved it back into her hand. He glared murderously at her.

  “Did you not understand anything I told you earlier?” he snarled.

  The woman seemed terrified. “I just…I just wanted to…”

  “To kill someone?” he interrupted, glaring pointedly at the handgun.

  Rose gasped as she found Theron suddenly standing in front of her. She gaped at the blood that coated his sweater, wondering how he was even able to stand with such a severe injury, much less move so fast that she couldn’t even see the movement. Before she could react, he grasped her torn shirt and bit into her neck. She felt his fangs rip through her skin as intensely as she’d felt it the first time. Before the pain subsided, she kneed him in the groin as hard as she could.

  Theron released her with a curse as he fell to his knees, snarling every Greek insult that she’d ever heard and even a few that she’d never heard before.

  Rose cupped her hand over the bite wound, surprised to find that the bleeding had already slowed. She raised an eyebrow as Theron groaned at the pain. “It’s nice to know that still works on…whatever you are,” she muttered.

  She heard a laugh, and she looked up to find Kallias staring at her with amusement glittering in his deep brown eyes. She gasped as she noticed the gun-toting, crazy woman lying motionlessly at his feet. “What did you do to her?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Kallias said. He opened the door that the woman had been guarding and gestured toward it impatiently. “She’s fine.
Just go.”

  Rose cast a worried glance at the woman, only breathing a sigh of relief after she saw the rise and fall of her chest. She still wanted to know what he’d done to the woman to knock her out, but at least she knew he hadn’t killed her.

  “Now,” Kallias snapped. His smile was gone now.

  She glared at him but left anyway, slamming the door behind her.

  Kallias approached Theron slowly. Theron stiffened as he heard him approaching and began to shift as he tried to pull himself to his feet, but before he could, Kallias shoved his dagger straight into Theron’s back. Theron collapsed onto his knees again, growling at the pain. Kallias then jerked the dagger upward, slicing all the way up through the chest, an action that would have easily killed a human. Unfortunately, Theron hadn’t been a human for a very long time. Theron fell flat on his back, choking on his own blood, as a pool of thick, crimson blood flowed out of his body, soaking the white tile floor beneath him.

  Kallias stared coldly at Theron as he wiped the dagger off on his black jeans. “You’d think you’d see that coming every now and then,” he muttered.

  Theron tried to speak but wound up choking on blood instead.

  Kallias picked up the unconscious human and cradled her small body in his arms. He shoved open the door with his shoulder and hurried down the next hallway. The hallway opened into a foyer before he reached the exit, and he froze in the doorway as he noticed Rose kneeling in the floor in the small room.

  “Damn it, can you not follow a simple…” Kallias fell silent as he took a step forward and saw the motionless body of a middle-aged, blonde human lying on the floor next to her. He watched as Rose pressed her trembling fingers to the woman’s wrist to check the nonexistent pulse. He watched as her lips quivered.

  “Shit,” Kallias breathed. “You knew her.”

  Rose didn’t even notice him standing there as she started to cry.

  Kallias stepped back into the hallway and set the unconscious human on a side table, sweeping off a vase of fake flowers as he did so. He leaned over the woman and forced himself to concentrate enough to break into her mind.

  “Wake up,” he commanded telepathically, his voice echoing in the hall.

  Her gold-speckled hazel eyes fluttered open. She gasped the moment she saw him and began flailing maniacally. Kallias grasped her wrists harshly to hold her still. Her eyes widened in panic, and her pulse began to race rapidly.

  “Calm down,” Kallias demanded. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Please, just let me go back to Theron,” the woman sobbed.

  His eyes narrowed. “I should,” he snarled. “But then he’d drain every drop of blood from your body in order to heal himself. Not that I care about you. I just need him to stay injured right now. So, you should count yourself lucky.”

  “Then, just let me go,” the woman pleaded.

  “Look at me,” Kallias said, his deep voice suddenly echoing in the woman’s head. She stared up at him, her eyes seeming to dull as he used his abilities on her. Once he had control of her mind again, he commanded, “Forget what happened tonight and last night. Forget you met Theron, and forget that he bit you. Forget about Rose Foster. And most importantly, forget that you ever knew about the existence of vampires. Leave this building, and find somewhere safe to stay for a few weeks, somewhere out of town. Do you understand?”

  The thin, brunette woman stared blankly at him, her small, hazel eyes devoid of feeling, as if she were in a trance. “Yes,” she confirmed.

  “Good,” Kallias said as he stepped away from the woman. “Now run.”

  The woman scrambled off of the table and fled from the building as quickly as her feet would take her. Rose frowned as she watched the previously unconscious woman run through the foyer and stumble out of the building, as if she were being chased. Thinking that perhaps she was being chased, Rose peered into the hallway, blinking as she found Kallias in doorway, watching her.

  She wiped angrily at the tears under her eyes. “Call 911! Please!”

  “Why would I do that?” Kallias asked calmly.

  She stared in disbelief. “I dropped my phone. Please, you have to call!”

  Kallias pushed away from the doorway. “It’s too late for that.”

  “We have to help her,” Rose pleaded. “She’s… She’s…”

  “Dead,” Kallias finished for her. “Dead is the word you’re looking for.”

  Rose glared at him. “Don’t say that! You don’t know that!” she cried.

  “I do, actually,” Kallias corrected. “And so do you. She is not breathing. Her heart is not beating. Her skin is cold. It’s ashen in color. Her eyes are…”

  “Yeah, I know what a dead body looks like!” Rose yelled suddenly.

  Kallias blinked in shock as an image flashed through his mind, a memory of a long-dead corpse lying in a dirty living room floor. Her memory, he realized. He turned away, taking deep breaths as he tried to disconnect himself from her mind. “Then, you know that she’s dead, and there’s nothing you can do for her.”

  She looked down at the woman, her eyes blank. “I can’t just…”

  “What are you going to do?” he snapped suddenly, cutting her off. He took a step toward her, his eyes narrowed in frustration. “Are you going to wait until she feels stiff? Until her corpse stinks? By, then, you’ll be as dead as she is!”

  Rose just stared, shocked by his cruel attitude. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Me?” he snarled, stepping toward her. “What is wrong with you? I’m trying to save your life! Again, might I add. But you insist on making it difficult!”

  “I never asked for your help,” she said quietly.

  Kallias stiffened as he heard Theron moving again. He turned and glanced down the hallway and then looked back at Rose who continued to shake her lifeless teacher in desperation. “Damn it, I am not watching you die.”

  Rose gasped as he suddenly grabbed her arm and jerked her to her feet. “Let me go, jerk,” she yelled as he dragged her toward the door by her arm.

  “You’ll thank me later,” he growled as he pulled her through the door.

  “No, I won’t!” she shrieked, kicking him. “I’ll hate you! I do hate you!”

  He pulled her roughly along the breezeway. “That’s fine with me.”

  “Let me go! Now!” she continued to scream, fighting against him.

  Kallias ignored her and dragged her from the building by the arm with her protesting and kicking him the entire way. By the time they reached the next building, he’d lost his patience. He growled and slammed her into the gray stone wall of the college building. She gasped at the sudden attack, and her blue eyes widened as he grasped her wrists and leaned against her, pinning her to the wall.

  “Do you want to die?” Kallias growled suddenly. He leaned in close, his brown eyes darkening with a mixture of anger and hunger. “If you do, just tell me so that I can stop wasting my time. I’ll even kill you myself. Just say the word.”

  Rose gulped at the threat as she stared into those terrifyingly furious brown eyes. Before she could respond, she heard the doors of the building swing open, and she glanced down the breezeway, gasping as she saw Theron leaning wearily against the wall, covered in blood and ripped open from stomach to chest. Theron eyed her with a crazed, feral hunger, his fangs flashing in the moonlight.

  “How the heck is he walking?” she asked.

  “Skata,” Kallias cursed. He glared at her. “We’re running. Now.”

  Rose didn’t protest this time, her fear finally catching up with her shock and grief. Kallias grabbed her hand and ran. They ran across the dark, empty campus toward the main street, and then they kept running, street after street, through the city. Rose’s lungs ached and burned, reminding her of one of the many reasons she preferred the library to a jogging track. She couldn’t even see in front of her anymore. Everything looked blurred, as if they were moving too fast for her to make out the images as they passed. Since she co
uldn’t see, she just let Kallias to pull her in whichever direction he decided. She wondered as they ran how he always seemed to know when to turn, almost as if his eyesight processed the images much quicker than hers did. They had just turned onto a well-lit street when Rose’s shoestring got caught beneath her shoe.

  She fell flat on her face, her lips smashing painfully into the pavement as she caught herself too late. She pressed down on her hands to push herself up.

  Kallias knelt beside her and helped her to her knees, his touch surprisingly gentle. He pushed her messy, auburn waves out of her face. “Are you okay?”

  Rose wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand.

  Kallias paled as the sight of her blood and its sweet, powerful scent hit him all at once. He cursed and jumped to his feet, quickly distancing himself from her. He panted harshly as he fought to regain control of the powerful, burning hunger inside him. Rose looked up at him, a puzzled look coming over her face.

  “Do you have to bleed every time you’re around me?” Kallias snapped.

  Rose blinked in shock. “Oh, I’m sorry. Next time, I will tell my blood not to come out since I have so much control over that,” she snarled sarcastically.

  Kallias looked away as he continued to fight against the ravenous hunger.

  Rose eyed him suspiciously. “Why would bleeding bother you anyway?”

  Kallias walked away, attempting to put as much distance between them as possible. Even several feet away from her, the scent of her blood still intoxicated his senses. He faced away from her, staring into the dark alley they had just run through, afraid that if he saw her blood again, he’d devour her before he could stop himself. “Theron can smell fresh blood from miles away. With you bleeding, protecting you will be even harder than it was when you weren’t.”

  “Oh,” Rose said, seeming to accept that as a valid answer. She climbed clumsily back to her feet, wincing as her hands, knees, and lips burned from the fall. She scowled at Kallias’s back. “Why are you standing all the way over there?”

  “I’m watching for Theron,” Kallias answered, irritated that she was asking questions, questions that she shouldn’t ask. He spun around and narrowed his eyes at her. “Why the hell were you out alone again anyway?” he snarled.