His eyes snapped open, and he glanced at her, her wrist still held against his mouth. Realization lightened his brown eyes, and he suddenly dropped her hand and took several steps back. He panted harshly, gasping for breath.
She watched as her own blood dripped from his lips. “Are you okay?”
Kallias wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand. “Yeah.”
She continued to watch him, not sure that he was telling the truth. He looked as if he were experiencing the worst agony she’d ever seen. She glanced down at her wrist, stunned to see that the bite wound had completely disappeared.
“We need to hurry,” Kallias announced, straightening.
Rose looked up at him. At first glance, he looked as if he’d regained control of his hunger, but his eyes told a different story. She could see the feral, barely restrained hunger in his dark gaze. “What about the other vampire?”
“I killed him first,” he stated.
She swallowed uneasily and nodded. “Okay.”
He finally tore his gaze from her. He reached behind him and pulled out a white rag from his back pocket. He stepped forward and knelt to grab the small black handgun from the floor. “Where did you find the gun?” he asked curiously.
“Underneath the desk,” she answered.
He ran the white cloth over the gun. “How did you know it’d be there?”
“I guessed,” she said, shrugging. When he gave her a quizzical look, she explained, “When my brother, Zach, was a kid, probably no older than twelve, he was nearly shot because he was with some older guys who robbed a convenient store. The owner of the store kept a gun clipped to the bottom of the counter, underneath the cash register, so that, if he were robbed, he could just reach under and grab the gun when he opened the cash register.” She pointed at the bulky cash register beside the computer on the desk. “That’s the master cash register. The woman said she had a gun. So, I just guessed and hoped for the best.”
Holding the gun with the cloth, Kallias knelt and returned the gun to its place underneath the desk. “Stay in here, okay? I need to clean up this mess.”
Rose blinked. “Clean up this mess?” she said as he left the room. “These are body parts, not a ketchup spill. How do you plan to clean up dead vampires?”
When no answer came, she walked into the kitchen, frowning as she watched Kallias drag in a large tin garbage can from outside. She watched in silence as he gathered up the dead vampire from the floor, as if he were just picking up trash. The severed head of the second vampire lay in the kitchen floor, just a few feet from her shoes. Rose shifted her feet away from it, looking back up at Kallias as she heard the thud of the body as he tossed it in the garbage can.
“You’re just going to throw them in the trash?” she asked.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he crossed the distance between them and picked up the head that lay near her feet and carried it back to the garbage can.
“You do realize that someone will come across the bodies if you put them in the trash, right?” Rose continued. “Dead people are kind of noticeable.”
“I told you to stay in the office,” he muttered as he walked past her.
Rose followed him as he returned to the office to pick up the parts of the other vampire. “And I told you that I don’t follow orders,” she reminded him.
He dragged the body back to the kitchen, still not looking at her. She followed him as he returned to the kitchen and tossed the body into the garbage can. He turned back toward her, finally meeting her gaze. His hair hung around his face, and his clingy, black T-shirt looked wet from the blood. She could see a few partially healed cuts on his forearms and a deep gash cut into the tattooed skin of his neck. Blood splatter scattered his arms, neck, and face, and blood and fleshy bits coated his right hand. Despite all of this, his shoulders remained slouched and relaxed. His eyes, however, studied her warily, gauging her reaction.
“You called me good,” he said, his tone thick with bitterness and disgust.
“Uh,” she stammered, frowning, “Well, yes. I have…once or twice.”
“Look around you,” he said, spreading his arms. “This is what I am, what I do. I kill. There’s nothing good about me, Rose. You need to see that.”
She looked down at the blood splattered across the white tile floor.
He approached her, crossing the room in a few strides. She glanced up at him as he stopped directly in front of her. “Don’t you get it?” he asked sadly. He gestured toward the blood-covered room behind him. “This—killing, violence—comes naturally to me.” Then, he cupped her face with his hand, his gaze holding hers, and added in almost a whisper, “But this—gentleness—does not.”
Rose covered his hand with hers. “And yet, your touch is gentle anyway.”
His brows furrowed as he stared at their hands. “That’s irrelevant.”
“No, it’s not. It’s important. It is the important part. Your nature doesn’t determine who you are. It’s natural for everyone to hurt people, even humans. But that doesn’t mean we can’t choose to be better,” Rose explained. “The violence and the killing may come naturally to you, but the way you’re touching me right now? You chose to do that, and that’s what matters. Your natural inclinations don’t determine whether you’re good or evil. Your choices do.”
Kallias sighed, “Why are you so determined to find good in me?”
“Why are you so determined not to?” she countered.
He stared at her for a moment, caught off guard. Finally, he dropped his hand and sighed, “Believe what you want. Just remember that I warned you.”
Rose opened her mouth to argue, but she froze as he suddenly leaned into her, leaving no space between their bodies. She frowned as he slid his hand into the pocket of the leather jacket that she wore and pulled something out of it.
His lips twitching, he held up the bottle of lighter fluid for her to see. Then, he turned and walked back to the garbage can. He poured the lighter fluid into it.
“You’re going to burn them?” she exclaimed suddenly.
He turned toward her, frowning at her horrified tone. “Are you sympathizing with the corpses now? They can’t feel anything. They’re dead.”
She scowled at his mocking tone. “I know that,” she snapped. “What I meant is: I don’t know if you’ve thought this through because burning doesn’t fully dispose of the human body. If you burn them, there will be remains left.”
“These are not human bodies, Rose,” Kallias reminded her.
“Yeah, I know,” Rose said, “but vampire bodies are humanlike, right?”
“Of course,” he said sarcastically. “Human bodies can run faster than the eyes can see and break through the strongest metal with their bare hands.”
She scowled at his sarcasm. “If anything, your bodies are stronger.”
“In most ways, yes,” he agreed, “but the body of a vampire does have one major weakness that the human body does not have.”
“The sun,” Rose said.
“And what is the sun?” Kallias prompted.
She frowned. “It’s a yellow dwarf star, made of burning gases, such as…”
“Short version, Rose,” he interrupted.
She scowled at him. “That was the short version.”
“It is fire, correct?” Kallias asked impatiently.
“Oh. You were looking for the preschool answer,” Rose said, flashing a sarcastic smile at him. “Why didn’t you just say so?”
“Our bodies are weak to fire,” he continued, ignoring her remark.
She frowned. “Why? What’s the science behind it?”
Kallias shrugged. “I am not sure. I doubt anyone knows. But if you’re really curious about it, you can talk to Geoff. I’m sure he has a few theories.”
“Who is Geoff?” she asked curiously.
“Geoffrey Cossington,” he said. “He’s another friend of mine. You will meet him. I’ll need his and Emma’s help in protecting you. He was a s
cientist when he was human. He still meddles around with it when he gets bored.”
She frowned worriedly. “How many vampire friends do you have?”
“Just three,” he assured her. “Erik, Geoff, and Emma.”
“Oh,” she said, a little concerned about meeting so many vampires. She cleared her throat. “You should probably take the garbage can outside before you set fire to it. If you don’t, the smoke will set off the fire alarm and sprinklers.”
Kallias glanced up at the sprinklers on the ceiling. “Good point,” he agreed. When he looked back at her, he noticed her over by the supply closet, dragging out an old mop and a blue mop bucket. “Rose, what are you doing?”
“We need to mop up the blood, right?” she asked.
Kallias sighed and walked over to her. He pulled her away from the closet. “I’ll take care of all of that. You go to the dining room and wait for me.”
She scowled at him. “I know how to mop a floor, Kallias.”
“You’re too slow,” he said, grinning. “You will just get in my way.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Fine,” she grumbled. “See if I offer to help again.”
—
Rose sat on one of the dining room tables, cross-legged, as she read a travel pamphlet that she found on the hostess stand. It listed all sorts of semi-interesting facts about the state of Georgia. She scowled as she noticed that the writer of the pamphlet had gotten some of the historical facts wrong. So, she found a pen lying on the counter and started making corrections to the pamphlet.
“What are you doing?” Kallias asked curiously.
Rose didn’t even look up at him. She just continued crossing out entire sentences in the pamphlet. “I’m fixing the mistakes in this travel pamphlet.”
His eyebrows lifted. “You’re correcting someone else’s pamphlet?”
“I have a duty to prevent ignorance,” she said defensively.
He snorted, “And to be anal retentive, apparently.”
She scowled at him. “I thought you were cleaning up dead vampires.”
“I’m finished,” he said, shoving his hands into his pants pockets.
She blinked in shock. “It hasn’t even been two minutes yet!”
He grinned. “It’s not my fault that I am faster than you.”
She pursed her lips. “There’s no way you’re already finished,” she insisted as she hopped off of the table. She brushed past him as she walked toward the kitchen to check. She raised herself onto her toes and peered through the small, square window in the door, her jaw dropping as she stared at the spotless kitchen.
“Are you satisfied? Can we go now?” Kallias asked impatiently.
Rose looked at him, her brows furrowing as she noticed that he’d even cleaned the blood off of himself. She threw up her hands in defeat. “Fine.”
Kallias grabbed his partially eaten steak and put it in his mouth, holding it between his teeth. He pulled money from his wallet and tossed it on the table.
Rose scowled as she watched him carry the steak in his mouth like a dog. “I may be wrong, but I think most people use a fork and knife to eat a steak.”
The edges of his lips quirked up. “Most people don’t have fangs.”
“Touché,” she admitted.
As the two of them left the restaurant, the rush of cold air that surrounded them seemed to soothe Rose. She felt almost as if it cleansed her of the fear and shock that she’d felt during the attack. She found herself leaning her head back and closing her eyes as they walked, relishing the way the night felt.
“Are you trying to walk into something?” Kallias asked grumpily.
She opened her eyes. “There’s nothing in front of me,” she said, gesturing to the empty parking lot. “I’m just enjoying the night while I can.”
He frowned. “You’re a human. You’re not supposed to enjoy the night.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you own the night or something?” she sassed.
His frown deepened. “Humans are instinctually afraid of the dark. They teach themselves to overcome that fear, but in the most basic part of their minds, they know that the night is dangerous because it is when monsters come out.”
Rose stared up at the black sky, littered with hundreds of white, twinkling dots. She’d always found the sky beautiful at night. “You’re wrong,” she sighed. “Monsters come out during the day, too. They just call themselves humans.”
Kallias stared at her. “Rose. Tell me who hurt you.”
She blinked at him, as if just realizing what she’d said. “It was nothing,” she said with a fake smile. She quickly tried to change the subject. “You know, now that I think about it, I probably should have kept that gun. With as often as we get attacked, it would probably help if I had some kind of weapon.”
“No,” he objected, scowling. “No guns for you.”
Rose glared at him. “Oh? And why not, Mr. Bossy Pants?”
“Because you’d end up accidentally shooting me or yourself,” he said.
“Excuse me?” she snapped. “I think I did very well with that gun.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Oh, so you were aiming for the shoulder, then?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Maybe.”
He sighed, “Rose, had you ever even used a gun before tonight?”
Rose shrugged. “Of course,” she lied.
Kallias eyed her skeptically. “Oh, really? What kind?”
“Many kinds,” she said, flushing. “Nerf guns. Paint guns. Water guns.”
He laughed, “Right.” He stopped suddenly and pulled out his dagger. “But you know what? You’re right. You should have a weapon. So, here.”
She stared at the short, steel blade. “You’re giving me your dagger?”
“No,” he said curtly, his eyes flashing at the mere suggestion. “I am loaning you my dagger. I don’t give away my weapons. I expect this back.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re loaning me your dagger?” she amended.
He cracked a smile at her sassy tone. “If it makes you feel safer, yes.”
A surprised smile curled at the edges of her lips. “Thanks,” she said, taking the handle of the blade into her hand. Staring down at the dagger, she bit her lip thoughtfully. “So…uh…where exactly am I supposed to put it?”
Kallias suddenly knelt down in front of her and rolled up his pants leg to his calf. Rose frowned at him as she watched him unsnap a black, belt-like strap from his ankle. Her frown deepened as he moved to kneel in front of her.
“Um…what…uh…Kallias?” she sputtered incoherently as he began to roll the left leg of her jeans up around her knees. “What exactly are you doing?”
He chuckled softly as he finished rolling up her pants leg and strapped the belt-like strap to her ankle. Rose felt incredibly awkward, standing in the middle of an empty parking lot with someone kneeling in front of her. Even on his knees, he was so tall that his head was level with her stomach, but that still left her having to look down in order to see him. His hands felt rough and soft at the same time, brushing against the smooth, sensitive skin of her ankles.
“I’m suddenly grateful that I shaved last night,” she commented, “because if I hadn’t, this would be even more awkward than it already is.”
Kallias snorted at her unusual comments as he pulled the belt tight around her ankle. He looked up at her and held out his hand. “Dagger?”
Rose carefully placed the sharp weapon in his hand, and he sheathed the dagger with a black, leather sheath before attaching it to the strap on her ankle.
“Is this illegal?” she asked, staring warily at the weapon.
“Probably,” Kallias said. He grinned wickedly at her, his brown eyes dancing mischievously, and added, “If someone sees us, just start moaning.”
“Excuse me?” she exclaimed, wide-eyed.
“Then, they’ll just think I’m doing something else to you,” he teased.
She stared blankly at him for a moment. Then, slowly, she gl
anced at the crotch of her pants—which he was embarrassingly close to, she suddenly realized—and then back at him, her eyes widening and her jaw dropping. She continued to stare at him speechlessly as he tightened the strap around her ankle.
Finally, Kallias stood. He chuckled as he noticed her expression. Raising an eyebrow, he placed his fingers under her chin and wordlessly closed her mouth for her. A cocky smirk spread across his face as he added, “Of course, that is probably illegal, too, but at least it would make a more interesting story.”
Rose said nothing. It wasn’t until he turned and resumed walking toward his car that her brain started working again. “Uh, yeah. I’m pretty sure it’s very illegal,” she muttered. She jogged to catch up with him, the weight of the heavy dagger causing her to move awkwardly. They stopped when they reached the lone black car in the dark parking lot. She grimaced at her ankle. “It feels weird.”
“If you’re going to complain about it, just give it back,” Kallias grumbled.
She glared at him. “You have to give me time to get used to it. Goodness, you’d think your weapons were people with as much as you care about them.”
“That’s not true,” he said. “I like them much better than I like people.”
Rose scowled at him, crossing her arms across her chest as she waited for him to unlock the doors. He pulled the keys out of his pocket and pressed the button to unlock the doors. The car beeped twice and the headlights flashed.
Kallias opened his door and slid into the driver’s seat. “Get in,” he told her, but she was already sliding into the passenger’s seat when he said it. He cast a quick glance at the digital clock on the dashboard as he shoved the keys into the ignition and cranked the car. He sighed as he realized how much time had passed.
“Kallias?” Rose asked once they were closed inside the quiet, dark car.
“Yeah?” he asked, still staring at the clock.
“The vampire that attacked me mentioned Theron,” she told him.
“Yeah,” he said simply.
“So, even this far away, they’re still hunting me?” she asked.
“Apparently,” he said, still not looking at her.
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 40