“I don’t believe in the supernatural,” Rose insisted.
Kallias laughed bitterly. “Well, considering you are being hunted by a vampire, maybe even more than one, you might want to start believing.”
“Would you quit calling it that?” Rose complained. “I’m a human being. You’re talking about me like I’m some kind of animal.”
“To a vampire, you might as well be,” Kallias said, shrugging. “You’re just food to vampires, similar to how animals are just food to you.”
“Now, that’s not fair,” Rose muttered. “I like animals.”
“And some vampires like humans,” he said. “But they also eat them.”
She scowled at him. “Have you ever heard of something called tact?”
He shrugged. “If you are looking for sensitivity, you should look elsewhere. You won’t get it from me,” he said unapologetically.
“Because you’re a jerk?” Rose asked with a raised eyebrow.
“But…” he offered, smiling, “I’m usually an honest jerk.”
She frowned worriedly. “Usually?”
“Come on,” Kallias said as he turned and began walking down an alley.
“So, how do you know about vampires?” Rose asked as she followed him.
“I just do,” Kallias muttered dismissively.
Rose sighed, “It irritates me when you refuse to answer my questions.”
“It irritates me when you ask so many,” Kallias countered.
She glared at him as they walked, but he stared straight ahead, avoiding her gaze. “How do you expect me to trust you if you won’t answer my questions?”
“I don’t,” he told her. “I would actually advise you not to trust me. I would advise you not to trust anyone, for that matter. I sure as hell don’t.”
“Surely there is someone you trust,” Rose said skeptically.
Kallias looked at her. “Only a fool trusts someone willingly, and I am no fool,” he said with an edge to his voice. “When you trust someone, you might as well have given them a knife and said, ‘If you want to slice open my heart, go ahead.’ You deserve to have your heart broken if you’re that stupid.”
Rose blinked. “You must have loads of friends,” she said sarcastically.
“I have very few,” Kallias confirmed, “and I prefer it that way.”
“So, you expect me to do what you tell me to do, but you don’t want me to trust you. Don’t you think those two expectations clash a little?” Rose asked.
“I expect you to be smart. I expect you to do what you need to do to survive. And right now, I am your only chance of survival,” he corrected.
“Yeah, well, I don’t like being told what to do,” she said stubbornly.
Kallias chuckled at that. “I’ve noticed.”
Silence again fell between them as they wandered aimlessly through the city, turning on one street after another, as they tried to just keep moving. Kallias watched every shadow and every corner, looking for Theron or anyone that might be doing Theron’s bidding, but the streets had grown quiet and deserted as the stores and restaurants closed for the night. Now, only the soft sound of her footsteps and the harsher sound of his own echoed through the streets.
“So, how do you know Greek?” he asked after a while.
Rose glanced at him. In his tight black jeans and black button-down shirt, he blended into the shadows of the alley. She had to squint just to see his face. “I study Ancient History. I had to choose between Latin or Greek. I chose Greek.”
Kallias nodded. “And are you fluent?”
Rose shrugged. “Technically, yes. I aced all six classes.”
His eyebrows lifted. “They teach profanity in academic classes?”
She laughed, “Ah, you know, someone always asks.”
They had reached the busiest street of the city by this point, but with the exception of a man sitting on the hood of his car, talking on his cell phone, the street was empty. Dark stores and restaurants lined the street. Only the hotels and gas stations near the highway seemed to be lit at this hour. Kallias figured that he would’ve noticed Theron’s scent by now, if Theron had been following them.
Kallias turned toward her. “Where do you live?”
Rose scowled at him. “That’s none of your business.”
He sighed, “Do you want to get home safely or not?”
“Oh, but I can’t trust you, remember?” Rose reminded him, flashing a sassy smile at him. “It would be unwise to tell someone I can’t trust where I live.”
He gave her an exasperated look. “What could I possibly do?”
“Well, you could kill me or rob me,” she suggested.
Kallias laughed darkly. “No offense, sweetheart, but I’m fairly certain I have more money than you do. I have no reason to rob you,” he pointed out, gaining an irritated glare from Rose. Then, he smiled and nonchalantly added, “And believe me, if I wanted to kill you, you would be dead already.”
Rose scowled at that. “What if you’re some kind of sexual predator, and you’re planning to sneak into my apartment and watch me shower or something?”
“Predator. Interesting word choice,” he muttered too quietly for her to hear. He smirked at her. “Don’t flatter yourself. I have better things to do.”
Her big blue eyes narrowed at him. “Fine,” she grumbled. She crossed her arms stubbornly. “But what makes you think I need you to walk me home?”
Kallias scowled at her. “Do you suffer from memory loss or something? Have you already forgotten that I had to save your life? Twice?”
“Have you forgotten that I helped?” Rose countered. “Theron was going to kill you. Maybe I didn’t commit any extreme acts of violence, but I still helped.”
“He was bluffing. Theron would’ve never killed me,” he said.
“Oh? And why not?” she asked skeptically.
Kallias stepped closer to her. The gentle scents of honey and vanilla filled his senses, followed by the scent of her powerful blood. His eyes darted toward her neck, his mouth watering as he watched the artery pulse. She lifted her head to meet his gaze, and her blue eyes dilated, betraying the desire she felt for him.
“Theron is sadistic in the worst of ways,” he informed her, struggling to keep his mind on their conversation, instead of on her soft, swollen lips. “Humans fight harder to survive than any other creature. They fear death and love life. So, Theron takes great joy in taking that life. But…I am different. I don’t feel any love for life anymore. So, he doesn’t get that joy from taking my life.”
Rose cleared her throat and looked away, blushing at how his closeness affected her. She laughed nervously, “You say that like he’s killed you before.”
He shifted uncomfortably. “I guess that was a strange way to say it.”
She stared at him for a moment. Her eyes softened with sadness. “Kallias, you’re not saying that you…want to die, are you?” she asked worriedly.
His eyes darted away from her quickly, as if he were afraid she’d find the answer there, in his eyes. He grinned. “I guess you did help a little,” he teased, changing the subject. “But you still wouldn’t stand a chance against Theron.”
“You don’t know that,” Rose challenged, flashing that cute, playful smile at him. “I bet I could fight just like you if I knew how. If I set my mind to do it, I could learn. No one can stop me once I make up my mind to do something.”
Kallias smiled. “I don’t doubt that.”
Rose blinked in surprise. “Was that a compliment?”
He shrugged. “I’m sure that if you weren’t such a weak and incompetent human, you could be a formidable foe for Theron,” he teased with a cocky smirk.
She glared at him. “Weak and incompetent? I’ll have you know that I…”
Her argument ended abruptly with a surprised gasp as Kallias shoved her into the wall. He pinned her wrists on either side of her head and leaned against her. His breath fanned her face, his lips only inches from hers. Rose di
dn’t miss the fact that his brown eyes lingered on her lips, as if he were thinking about kissing her. His gaze returned to her eyes, and a cocky grin spread across his face.
“Overpower me, then, if you’re so strong,” he challenged.
With every inch of his hard and unyielding body pressed against hers, Rose wasn’t sure how he expected her to breathe, much less do anything else. Her skin warmed feverishly from the contact, and her mouth felt too dry to speak. Unable to maintain eye contact with his hypnotizing eyes, she glanced at the large, rough hands that pinned hers. Her gaze shifted back to his, and she gulped at the dark, hungry look in his eyes. “Stop looking at me like that,” she breathed.
Kallias smirked. “Like what?”
Rose pursed her lips at him. She jerked at her hands, immediately realizing that she’d never be able to budge in his hold. Her eyes narrowed as she heard him chuckle at her failed attempt. “This proves nothing,” she muttered.
With another soft laugh, Kallias released her and stepped back, instantly missing the feel of her soft body pressed against him. He caught her elbow as she stumbled away from the wall and nearly fell forward, but she stubbornly jerked her arm away from him. She glared daggers at him as she moved away from him.
“Now,” Kallias said, flashing her an infuriating, smug smirk, “do you care to tell me where you live? Or are we going to wait until Theron finds you again?”
“Just so you know, I dislike you,” she grumbled.
He smiled. “The dislike is mutual, sweetheart.”
“Yeah? Well, I kind of hate you,” Rose countered immaturely.
“Hate is a passionate emotion,” he said with a smirk.
Rose marched off in the direction of her apartment without telling him where she was headed. “So?” she said when she heard him following her.
He fell into step beside her. He leaned close to her, until her shoulder brushed against his chest, his lips curving into that mischievous smile of his that he wore so often. “Passionate women are good in bed,” he whispered in her ear.
She shivered at the way his breath felt on her ear, hating how easily her body reacted to him. When she’d recovered from her body’s brief lapse in judgement, she glared murderously at him. “I… You have some nerve to… You have no business considering how I would… You will never know how I am in…”
Kallias raised his eyebrow at her incoherent stammering. “Do you always become incapable of finishing a sentence when a sexual topic is brought up?”
She blushed. “Maybe,” she muttered indignantly. When she heard him chuckle, her blue eyes narrowed. “I can’t help it that I’m not a pervert like you!”
He snorted. “You think I am a pervert? In that case, I would love to hear what you would call Erik. He makes me look like a blushing schoolboy.”
Rose frowned worriedly. “Who is Erik?”
“A friend,” Kallias answered. “My closest friend, actually.”
She placed her hand over her chest and gasped, “You have friends?!”
He rolled his eyes at her teasing. “I told you I have a few,” he grumbled.
“What do you do when you hang out with your friends?” Rose continued to tease, smiling cutely at him. “Brood in your pessimism and black clothing?”
He scowled. “What do my black clothes have to do with anything?”
“Come on,” Rose laughed. “My apartment’s this way.”
Kallias shoved his hands into the pockets of his black jeans as he followed her toward the darker end of the street that led into the residential neighborhoods. “Okay, I’ll give you the pessimism,” he said as he fell into step beside her. “But I’m not the brooding sort. I’m more of the killing things sort.”
She frowned. “What do you do for a living anyway? Are you a criminal?”
“Why do you keep assuming that? Do I seem like a criminal?” he asked.
She stared blankly at him. “You just said that you like to kill things,” she reminded him. “Besides, you’re also secretive. You’ve already told me that you’re not a good guy. And you fight like someone who has been professionally trained.”
He sighed. “I hunt and kill vampires,” he answered, giving her the closest thing to the truth that he possibly could without revealing his own secret.
She started laughing. “You hunt vampires?” she repeated in disbelief.
Kallias shrugged. “I found Theron well enough, didn’t I? I stopped him from killing you. And if I weren’t trying to protect you, I would have killed him.”
Rose shrugged. “I guess. I mean, if he is really a vampire, then…”
“Rose, he bit you. You felt his fangs rip into your neck,” Kallias reminded her. “Deep down, you know what he is. You are just afraid to admit it.”
Her hand immediately flew to her neck at the memory of Theron’s bite, but she frowned when she didn’t feel any cuts or torn skin. “Where did…”
“It has already healed,” he answered before she could finish asking the question. “The body of a vampire is designed to heal from almost anything. Healing and regenerative enzymes run through the vampire’s entire body, the bloodstream and even the saliva. That’s what makes vampires immortal. It’s what allows them to heal so quickly, and it’s what keeps them from aging. Their bodies do not deteriorate the way a human’s body does because those healing and regenerative enzymes are constantly healing them. But those healing enzymes also serve another purpose. When Theron bit you, his saliva healed your bite wound.”
Rose stared at him. “So, when a vampire kills a human, there’s no proof?”
“Nothing as definitive as a bite wound anyway,” Kallias said, shrugging. “It would be clear that the human died of blood loss, but there would be no wounds to explain how the human lost so much blood. Vampires leave no trace.”
“Except for the dead body,” she offered.
Kallias nodded. “But most vampires dispose of the bodies anyway, so…”
“So, humans never know what’s really out there,” Rose finished for him.
“Exactly,” he agreed. “After years of being hunted by humans, vampires retreated to the shadows, and they became quite skilled at hiding their existence.”
“Then, how do you know about vampires?” Rose asked suspiciously.
“I already answered that question,” Kallias grumbled.
“No, you didn’t. You evaded the question,” she argued. “You don’t want to answer that one? Fine. Let’s try a simpler question. How do you know Theron?”
His eyes narrowed at her stubborn persistence. “I just do.”
“Evading a question is a sign of guilt,” Rose informed him.
Kallias ignored her and began to walk faster, frustrated that he somehow wound up getting stuck protecting a human who asked way too many questions.
Rose refused to give up, practically jogging to keep up with him. “It has something to do with that woman Theron mentioned, doesn’t it? Phoebe?”
Kallias froze, and he instinctually grabbed her elbow to stop her. Rose turned toward him and glared down at his hand on her elbow. Then, she glared up at him, pausing nervously as she noticed the dark fury in his large brown eyes.
“That is none of your business,” Kallias growled.
Rose stared at him, torn between her irritation at his reaction and her curiosity over why that name would provoke so much emotion. Irritation won. “Well, I honestly don’t understand what this woman could have seen in either of you,” she snarled. “Theron is obviously psychotic and evil, and you are just… Well, a woman would have to be completely insane to want to be with you.”
“Completely insane, huh?” Kallias growled. His eyes, dark with anger and hunger, swept over her. “Well, I suppose that means you want me, then”
Her eyes narrowed, and she jerked her arm away from him. “Never.”
Kallias stood there, raising an eyebrow, as he watched Rose march down the street. He waited patiently as she took several exaggerated, aggressive steps b
efore she realized that she was walking in the wrong direction. Without missing a beat, she spun around and started marching in the right direction, brushing past him as she led the way toward her apartment. He chuckled and followed her.
They traveled in silence for the rest of the walk, the lights and noise growing sparse as they traveled the residential streets. Kallias found that listening to Rose’s thoughts was almost as amusing as listening to her talk. It’d been five minutes since he’d made that comment, and she was still coming up with sassy comebacks in her mind. She even caught him laughing at her several times.
When she heard him laugh for the fifth time, she glared at him and asked, “What is so funny? Are my boobs showing again?” She glanced down at her chest.
He snorted, “No. Believe it or not, I can’t see through black leather.”
Rose suddenly came to a stop as the reached a group of four identical brick apartment buildings. The buildings were arranged in a square, surrounding a small, unevenly lined parking lot. She paused at a crooked, spray-painted entrance sign and turned toward him. They were still standing in the street.
She sighed, “This is it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You live in the parking lot?”
Rose crossed her arms stubbornly. “No, but I can handle it from here.”
Kallias shook his head sternly. “I will leave when you’re safely inside.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
He followed her as she led the way across the small parking lot, weaving through the maze of old, used cars. When they reached the third apartment building, Rose trudged up the metal stairway with him behind her. Each step creaked beneath their feet. Kallias frowned as he noticed how close the apartment doors were to each other. Rose paused at the top of the stairs in front of a red door with the number seven on it and started fishing through her pockets for the key.
Kallias leaned against the railing. “This is the bad part of town, isn’t it?”
She glanced back at him, pausing as she noticed how he looked leaning against her railing. His jeans hugged his lean hips, and the top of his shirt hung open just enough to reveal a portion of his intricate tattoo. The wind gently ruffled his brown hair, and his golden skin looked luminous in the moonlight.
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 17