“Both, I guess,” she answered.
Finally, he turned back toward her. “I was twenty-six when I died.”
Rose nodded as she glanced over his body. She had noticed that he looked close to her age, definitely in his twenties. “Your body never changed?”
“I don’t age, if that is what you’re asking,” Kallias sighed. “Our bodies don’t deteriorate like the human body does. But there were, of course, some changes during the transformation. For the most part, our bodies remain the same as they were when we died, but during the transformation, our bodies do perfect themselves, in a sense. We become more attractive and appealing to humans.”
Rose nodded. “And don’t forget the fangs! You guys have fangs.”
He snorted at her enthusiasm. “Yes, the canine teeth elongate and sharpen,” he agreed, sliding his tongue across the sharp teeth, “becoming fangs.”
She nodded in approval. “And how long has it been since you died?”
“Approximately 2,485 years,” Kallias answered without missing a beat.
Her jaw dropped. “Did you just say two thousand?” she sputtered.
“I guess that means that, technically, I am 2,511 years old,” he added.
She stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth ajar. “You’re kidding.”
He frowned. “That would be a pretty dull joke, don’t you think?”
“Holy crap,” she breathed. “I mean, I won’t lie. If you had said even one hundred, I would have had a hard time wrapping my mind around it. But twenty-five hundred?” She laughed, a note of hysteria in her voice. “That’s insane.”
Kallias shrugged. “Theron is even older than I am.”
“Is he the oldest?” Rose asked. “The oldest vampire, I mean.”
“No,” he said. “There is one that I know of who is older than Theron.”
“Who?” she asked curiously.
“Aaron,” he said, as if the first name were enough.
She stared at him blankly. “And who is Aaron?”
“Pray you never find out,” Kallias said darkly.
Rose frowned, but her mind quickly shifted back to the issue at hand, the historical artifact in front of her. “You’re from the Ancient Greek Empire.”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “I lived in Athens.”
She suddenly squealed and started jumping up and down.
He scowled at her. “Uh,” he stammered, “what are you doing?”
“This is so awesome!” she sang happily. “You can tell me everything!”
He suddenly glanced down at her ripped open shirt, raising an eyebrow.
When she noticed him looking, she immediately stopped jumping. Blushing, she pulled her shirt closed and shot a murderous glare at him.
He shrugged, his lips twitching as he tried not to laugh.
“Anyway,” she grumbled. “I study history! And you are…history!”
He frowned at her. “You want to…study me?”
“Yes,” she said. “You have to tell me everything you’ve ever seen!”
“That would take a while,” he muttered.
She didn’t seem to hear him. “This is so cool!”
Kallias stared blankly at her, his brows furrowed at her excited dancing. “So, is that all a guy has to do to impress you?” he said dryly. “Live twenty-five hundred years and then teach you…history?” He suddenly burst into laughter.
Her eyes narrowed at his teasing. “It’s not that hard to impress me.”
He snorted, “Name one other thing that has impressed you.”
She glared at him. “Just because you can’t impress me, doesn’t mean…”
He cut her off. “Oh, I assure you,” he said, his laughter fading, replaced by a lascivious smile. “Given the right circumstances, I can impress you.”
She scowled at the innuendo. “I hope you’re not expecting me to kiss you again,” she said suddenly, “because I don’t plan on kissing you ever again.”
He looked amused by her warning. “Who said anything about kissing?”
“You implied kissing,” Rose said, pointing her finger at him.
He laughed. “I said circumstances. I never said anything about kissing.”
“Okay, I’m not that naïve! I know what you meant!” she snapped.
He smirked. “I think you let your imagination get a little too wild there.”
She glared at him. “You… You…” she trailed off, unable to think of an insult strong enough to voice her anger. “So, we agree? The kiss was a mistake?”
If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought she saw his smile falter. But, before she could question it, he fixed the cocky smirk back in place.
“Of course,” he said. He leaned closer to her, all of the sudden, so close that his lips nearly brushed against hers. “I don’t even want to kiss you again.”
Rose opened her mouth to respond to that, but she froze when she noticed Kallias suddenly straighten. His eyes closed, and he lifted his chin slightly, almost as if it were some kind of instinctual reaction. A powerful, convulsive shudder seemed to travel up his spine and then through each limb of his body.
She blinked in shock. “Are you okay?”
His eyes opened, and he seemed normal again. “The sun is setting.”
She frowned. “And how the heck would you know that?”
“I am a creature of the night,” Kallias said. “The night calls to me.”
“I think that might be the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard,” Rose muttered.
He turned and walked back toward the back corner of the building. He knelt and snatched up his shirt and jacket. “Get your things. We will leave soon.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re a very rude person. You know that, right?”
“Yes,” he agreed easily as he pulled on the thin, black T-shirt. The fabric looked permanently wrinkled and still wet with blood, and a large, jagged hole rested over his stomach. He picked up the leather jacket and slid his arms into it.
She glanced down at her clothes. “I can’t walk around in these.”
“We’ll stick to secluded streets,” he said. “No one will see you.”
Rose ran a hand through her hair in a useless attempt to tame her long, tangled mess of hair. “I need a brush and clothes and…a shower, preferably.”
She jumped, startled, as she felt Kallias suddenly behind her, even though she’d never seen him move. He moved her arm so that he could slide the strap of her worn, black backpack over her arm to rest on her shoulder.
He put his hand on her arm and turned her toward him. “Relax,” he said. “We have to get to my car and get as far away from here as possible until Theron cannot track your scent. Then, I promise you will have whatever you need.”
The phone suddenly dinged, a low battery alert flashing on the screen. Rose glanced down at it, and when she looked back up, Kallias had disappeared. She blinked and held up the light, shining it around the room until she finally found him. He stood in front of the two large metal door, his hands on the door handles.
“Wait!” she called, running over to him. “What if someone is out there?”
He glanced at her. Then, he leaned closer the door and sniffed twice.
She frowned at his strange behavior. “Umm… What are you doing?”
“If there were anyone out there, I’d smell them,” he said. “It’s clear.”
“Oh,” she said, her brows furrowed. “And you’re sure the sun is down?”
“I’m about eighty percent sure,” Kallias said.
She glared at him. “You’re going to stake your life on eighty percent?”
He shrugged. “I normally wait an extra hour, but we don’t have time.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll check. Just get out of the way.”
He looked amused by her commanding tone, but he didn’t challenge her. Instead, he just took several steps back until he seemed to disappear into the darkness. “You can open the door now,” he said from s
omewhere behind her.
Rose exhaled slowly and then, shoving the phone in her back pocket, she placed her hand on the handle of one of the double doors and pulled it open. She squinted as the streetlights burned her eyes. The dim glow of the streetlights was blinding in comparison to the total darkness that her eyes had grown used to throughout the day, but slowly, her eyes adjusted to the light. She frowned at the horizon, looking for any pinkness or light tracing the palm trees in the distance, but the sky, instead, looked blackish blue, lit only by the moon and stars.
“It’s safe,” she announced loudly, not sure where he was.
“Good. Let’s go,” he said, his voice suddenly inches from her ear.
Rose squealed and spun around, finding him standing so close behind her that their bodies nearly touched. She knew for a fact that he hadn’t been there a moment ago. Before she could stop herself, she reflexively kicked his leg.
He looked mildly irritated. “What was that for?” he complained.
“You scared me!” she snapped. “How did you move so quietly?”
He stared at her blankly. “Creature of darkness, remember?”
“You need to wear a bell around your neck,” she scolded.
Kallias chuckled and brushed past her. “Come on. Stay close to me.”
Rose stepped outside and sighed happily as the breeze encircled her, brushing off the dust and stuffiness of the warehouse. Kallias led the way toward the end of the street, heading toward a narrow alleyway. She walked briskly to keep up with him, quickly realizing that staying close to him apparently required jogging. They turned the corner onto the dark, narrow alley and continued down it until they turned onto another secluded street. The full moon shone brightly in the black sky, lighting even the darkest alleys. Rose crossed her arms as they walked, attempting to hold her shirt closed, just in case they ran into anyone before they reached his car. She found herself watching Kallias, noticing how he moved so quietly and gracefully through the night, noticing how his golden skin glowed in the moonlight, and how, even after everything that had happened, he looked perfect. She could only imagine how terrible she looked with her bloody and tattered clothes, her disheveled hair, and reddish pink bloodstains discoloring her skin. She blinked as she noticed his light brown eyes staring back at her.
“Uh,” she said awkwardly, “why are you looking at me?”
His lips twitched. “You were looking at me first.”
“I was not,” she lied. “I was looking at…something else.”
“Of course you were,” he snorted.
Her eyes narrowed at his mocking tone. “You’re so arrogant.”
He laughed. “You have already said that. Probably a hundred times.”
She rolled her eyes and then decided to ignore him. She noticed that the buildings seemed to be growing taller and newer as they walked, and the sounds of cars and distant voices grew louder and more frequent. She realized that they were headed toward the busier part of the city. “Where exactly is your car?”
“The parking lot of the hotel where I was staying,” he answered, and then, somehow predicting her next question, he added, “The Hampton.”
She frowned suspiciously, wondering if he had really predicted her question, or if she were just reading too much into it. “The one by the Interstate?”
“Is there another one?” he asked dryly.
“Well, no, but…” she sputtered. “That’s on the other side of town.”
“We’re cutting across the city,” he told her. “It won’t take long.”
She wondered how he planned to do that when there weren’t any roads that cut across the city, but she didn’t have time to ask. It was all she could do just to keep up with his long strides. He led the way onto a quiet residential street that ran behind the larger street they’d been on before. They slowed as they approached an alley that connected two of the busiest streets in town. Chains blocked off the back-alley. A yellow No Trespassing sign hung from the chains.
He leaned forward and grabbed the chains, preparing to tear them off.
“Wait, what are you doing?” she snapped. “Don’t you see that sign?”
He turned and scowled at her. Shrugging, he snatched the metal sign off of the chains. He closed his hand around it, easily crushing it into a yellow ball, as if it were a piece of paper. He tossed it aside. “There. Now, there’s no sign.”
Rose stared at the rolled up metal sign in disbelief.
Kallias tore the chains from the hinges with the same nonchalance. He stepped into the narrow alley and turned back toward her expectantly.
She reluctantly followed him. “You’re turning me into a criminal.”
He laughed. “Relax. We’re taking a shortcut, not committing murder.”
This alley ran behind two buildings of a nice, expensive apartment complex. Because of this, it was much cleaner than the other alleys they’d been down, and porch lights behind each apartment lit the way for them to walk.
“What if we get caught?” Rose asked a little louder than she’d intended.
Kallias shot an irritated glare in her direction before his eyes suddenly shifted toward the apartment a few feet to their left. He cursed under his breath and froze, grasping her arm to pull her to a stop. The door opened, and a short, stout man stepped out, clutching a garbage bag. His wiry glasses set straight on his wide, round nose. His reddish brown hair was so short that it looked like fuzz, and his red-and-white checkered shirt vaguely resembled a picnic tablecloth.
A small wave of relief washed through Rose as she realized the man wasn’t looking at them. Instead, he was looking over his shoulder at his wife who stood just inside the door, cleaning out their fridge. “Babe, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t hear anything,” he called over his shoulder. But then, as he turned to throw the garbage bag in the dumpster, he noticed them, his gray eyes widening as he glanced over Rose’s tattered, bloody clothes. “What the…”
Kallias released her arm, and having moved so quickly that the movement blurred before her eyes, he suddenly stood in front of the man. The man paled with fear and backed into the wall. He began to hyperventilate.
“Stop panicking,” Kallias demanded. He took control of the man’s mind and, using his telepathic ability, commanded, “Go inside. You didn’t see anyone.”
The man calmed, all the emotion draining from his eyes. “Okay.”
Rose watched in complete bewilderment as the man threw the garbage bag in the dumpster and returned to his apartment without another word.
As the man stepped back inside the spacious apartment, he yelled to his wife, “I told you there was no one out there. You probably just heard a rodent.”
Kallias glared at her. “Next time, could you keep your voice down?”
Usually, Rose would have shot back with some sassy remark, but she was too shocked by what had just happened. “What did you just do?” she hissed.
He shrugged, as if it were obvious. “I controlled his mind.”
She gaped at him, but he didn’t notice because he was already walking again. She jogged to catch up with him before he reached the end of the alley. “I’m sorry,” she squeaked, “but it sounded like you said you controlled his mind!”
“I did,” Kallias said without looking at her.
“Vampires can control minds?!” she cried.
He scowled. “That is not keeping your voice down,” he complained.
She felt breathless from the ridiculously brisk pace they were keeping. “I just found out that vampires control minds! Forgive me for freaking out a little!”
“I never said vampires do,” he sighed, as if she were overreacting. “I said I do. Telepathy is a rare ability, even among vampires. I happen to have it.”
“Oh,” she said, a little calmer. “Wait. Are you saying that you have full-blown telepathic abilities? Meaning…you can read minds and control them?”
“Is that so hard to believe?” Kallias asked.
“A little. Yeah,” she muttered.
Kallias kicked a trash bag out of his way as they turned onto a dark back-alley that ran behind an old diner that had closed down a couple of years before. “After a lifetime of believing vampires were fictional creatures, you discovered that we are real. Why does it surprise you to find that psychic abilities exist, too?”
She shrugged. “Touché,” she admitted. “So, you can hear my thoughts?”
“Yes,” he said, his lips curving into a wide grin, “when I pay attention.”
“And you didn’t think that was something I should know?!” she snapped.
“No,” he said, shrugging. “Why would you need to know that?”
Her eyes narrowed at him. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I…”
She never finished her sentence because Kallias suddenly grabbed her and pulled her back against him. He clasped his hand over her mouth before she could ask him what the heck he was doing. She could feel the rigidness and alertness in his body as he held her. She felt his chest expand as he inhaled slowly, as if he were trying to inhale a specific scent…or identify it, maybe.
Kallias cursed under his breath as he recognized the scents of two vampires. He pulled Rose behind the nearby shoe store before he finally released her. He jerked open the door to a small storage room that looked as if it hadn’t been touched in years. He grabbed Rose’s arm and pushed her toward the room.
Rose shoved his hand off of her arm and twisted away from him. “What the heck do you think you’re doing?” she snarled, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Shhh!” Kallias hissed, his eyes wide. “Get inside that room. Hurry.”
She frowned. “Why? What’s wrong?” she whispered.
He sighed and leaned in close to her ear so that he could whisper, “Vampires. I don’t know yet if they’re working with Theron, but if they are, I can’t let them find you. I need you to stay in there until I find out who they are.”
She bit her lip worriedly. “I want to stay with you.”
“No,” he said sternly. “If you get too close, they might recognize your scent. Just stay in the storage closet for a few minutes. I’ll come back for you.”
Rose turned and scowled at the tiny, lightless storage closet. The moonlight hit the closet at just the right angle to reflect off of the silvery spider webs hanging from the walls. She glanced back at him with a pleading look. “Do you realize the likelihood of a poisonous spider being inside that closet?”
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 29