Rose sighed, her gut turning with dread. “What does that mean?”
Kallias shifted the car into reverse as he muttered, “Nothing good.”
15
More Lies
“Rose? Rose. Rose!”
Rose squealed as someone suddenly snatched the horror novel out of her hands. She glared murderously at Kallias. “Hey! You stole my book!”
Kallias, still sitting in the driver’s seat, beside her, examined the book in his hands. “I called your name fourteen times. You never even heard me.”
She shrugged. “It’s a good book.”
Kallias raised his eyebrow. “That’s wonderful. But we have to go inside.”
Only then did Rose notice the darkness in the car. The only light in the car was the one directly above her seat that she’d been using to read. She frowned and glanced out the passenger side window. Outside the car, she saw the quiet parking lot of a hotel. Her eyes widened as she saw the purple streaks in the sky.
“Oh,” she said, suddenly understanding his urgency. “Oops.”
“Yeah,” he said as he read the back cover of the book that had so thoroughly stolen her attention. “We don’t have much time left before sunrise.”
“Okay, but can I have my book back?” she said, holding out her hand.
He chuckled at her impatience. “I think I should keep it until we get inside, just to be on the safe side. I would hate to lose you to another world again.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Taking someone’s book is the darkest kind of evil.”
“Aw, but baby,” he teased, “I’m a vampire. Evil is just in my nature.”
“Not funny,” she said. She tried to snatch the book out of his hand, but he moved it before she could. She pouted at him. “You don’t understand. I need to know what happens. The serial killer just captured the protagonist and forced him to watch while he peeled the skin off of one of his previous victims. He plans to kill the protagonist next. I need to know if he escapes. I’m on eggshells here.”
He stared blankly at her. “What the hell are you reading?”
“It’s a horror novel,” she answered. “I like horror.”
“Huh,” he mumbled, blinking. “I’ll give it back once we’re inside.”
“What? It’s my book. Give it back,” she whined.
He pulled the keys out of the ignition and stepped out of the car, sliding the novel into his back pocket. She scrambled out of the car after him, running around to meet him at the back, in front of the trunk. She tried to snatch it from his back pocket, but his hand moved swiftly, grasping her wrist to stop her.
She glared up at him. “It’s my book.”
He grinned playfully, obviously having fun with this little game they were playing. “The faster we get inside, the faster you get it back. Or…we could just stay out here while the sun rises, and I burn to death in front of you. Your choice.”
She sighed as she realized that the sky was an even lighter shade of blue than before. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I guess the book can wait.”
He chuckled, “I appreciate your sacrifice.”
She crossed her arms. “You better appreciate it. No one comes between me and my books. I’m breaking precedent just so you won’t burn to death.”
He laughed loudly. “I’m sure I can repay you somehow.”
“I doubt it,” she responded as she watched him open the trunk.
Rose reached into the trunk and grabbed her backpack. She slung it over her shoulder and then grabbed a few bags of her clothes from the trunk. She adjusted the bags in her hand so that she could carry more, but as she returned to the trunk, she blinked in shock as she saw that it was now completely empty. Kallias held the rest of the bags in just one hand, as if they weighed nothing.
“I was going to get half of those,” she complained.
He ignored her. “When we get inside, let me do all of the talking, okay?”
“Excuse me?” Rose snapped.
“I need you to keep your mouth shut,” Kallias clarified. “Don’t worry. I know it’s a foreign practice for you, so I’m not setting my expectations too high.”
He watched her with an amused smirk as her bright blue eyes narrowed, and her full, pink lips pursed together, thinning into a tight line. Even in her disheveled, unkempt state, she looked beautiful. Thin, black, reading glasses set crooked on her face, framing her almond-shaped azure eyes that sparkled in the moonlight. Her cheeks were flushed, and several locks of auburn hair had fallen out of its ponytail, cascading around her shoulders. As she stood with her weight mostly on her left foot, her hip tilted slightly to the side, accenting the voluptuous curve of her hips that was mostly hidden by the jacket. Kallias didn’t understand why he felt so attracted to this human, but he couldn’t deny that he did.
“Yeah, of course,” she snarled, her voice thick with cutting sarcasm. “I should just keep my mouth shut and let the man speak for me. I forgot that this was the 1950s.” She tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. “Oh, wait. It’s not!”
He laughed, amused by her reaction. “It’s not like that, and you know it,” he said with a smile. “But you are the worst liar that I have ever met, and right now, it is imperative that no one knows that you are here…that either one of us are here, for that matter. And I, unlike you, have done this before.”
“What? Lied?” she asked harshly.
His smile faded. “I’ve hidden who I am,” he corrected, his voice much quieter than it had been before. He abruptly spun around and started walking toward the glass doors of the well-lit hotel. “Just keep your mouth shut, okay?”
The drastic change in his tone and countenance stunned her for a moment, but then, she followed him, jogging to catch up with his long strides. When he stopped to open the doors of the hotel, she flashed a sarcastic smile at him. “Sure. I wouldn’t dream of disobeying you, Oh-Great-Arrogant-One.”
He didn’t smile at her snarky remark this time, apparently still upset that she’d insinuated that he was a liar. His hand on the door, he turned toward her and sighed, “We also need to give the impression that we are a happy couple, and every time you open your mouth, you make it undeniably clear that we are not.”
Rose grimaced. “Eww,” she muttered as she adjusted the backpack strap on her shoulder. “Why would we want people to think we’re a happy couple?”
That did manage to earn a small smile from him. He opened the door and gestured for her to go inside. “We’re checking into a hotel room together,” he said quietly as he waited. “That’s typically something that happy couples do.”
“Oh,” she said as she walked through the doorway, into the lobby.
Kallias followed her through the hotel lobby, past a set of catty-cornered, maroon sofas that faced a big-screen television. The meteorologist on the television screen discussed the thunderstorm that he expected to hit the next night, his voice echoing through the empty lobby. Kallias and Rose stopped at a counter where a middle-aged hotel clerk stood, typing on his desktop computer.
The hotel worker’s dark brown eyes shifted away from the computer screen, toward them, a polite smile curving at his lips. He stepped away from the computer and clasped his hands together. “Ah, such a lovely couple!” he chimed, gaining a grimace from Rose. “Can I get you two a room for the night?”
Kallias set his bags down at his feet and leaned casually onto the counter. “Yes. Make it two nights. We won’t be able to check out until tomorrow night.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” the man replied cheerfully, typing on his computer.
“Also, we will be sleeping during the day, so I need you to make a note that we do not want to be disturbed at all, regardless of the reason,” Kallias added.
The worker nodded and stopped typing for a moment. He pulled out a notepad and jotted down what Kallias said. “Of course. I will give this note to them,” he said as he returned to typing on the computer. “Okay. I have a honeymoon suite available for the next
two nights. It’s on special pricing all this month. It’s the same price as a regular room, and it is larger and more private than the regular rooms. It is at the end of the hall, so I doubt anyone would bother you. It also comes pre-stocked with beverages—wine, beer, and liquor, I believe.”
Kallias shrugged impatiently. “Sure. Whatever.”
Rose scowled at Kallias. “Honeymoon suite?”
His eyes narrowed at her. “Shut up,” he mouthed.
She glanced at the hotel clerk as she realized that he was watching them curiously. She flashed him a fake smile. “Sorry. I guess I forgot my place.”
Kallias glared at her, but the hotel clerk just chuckled.
“Okay, I’m almost finished. So, this room is for Mr. and Mrs. – What’s your last name?” the hotel clerk asked, pausing in his typing to look up at them.
Rose’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh, we’re not…” She never finished the sentence because Kallias clasped his hand over her mouth before she could.
The hotel clerk lifted his eyebrows, obviously amused by their banter.
“Uh…Smith,” Kallias stammered.
Rose bit his palm to make him remove his hand from her mouth, but Kallias just glanced down at her and smirked, as if it hadn’t bothered him at all. Then, he dropped his hand. “Smith?” she hissed at him. “Yeah, that’s creative.”
Kallias glared at her again. “Will you please shut up?”
“Since you at least asked this time, I’ll think about it,” Rose muttered.
“Roses,” the hotel clerk said suddenly, his eyes still on the computer.
Both Kallias and Rose turned to stare at him. “What?” Kallias asked.
The clerk smiled, still typing. “Give her a dozen roses,” he urged Kallias. “Trust me. I’ve been married for fifteen years. Roses always work. Give her roses.”
“Oh,” Kallias sighed, relieved that he’d just meant the flower.
Rose snorted. “That wouldn’t work on me.”
The clerk looked up from his computer and smiled. “If you say so,” he chuckled. He looked at Kallias. “You’re almost ready. I just need your license.”
Kallias pulled the worn leather wallet from his back pocket and flipped it open. He watched the hotel clerk with that unnerving, intense stare of his as the clerk leaned over and glanced at the wallet. The clerk nodded and began typing, as if he were typing the information from the license into his computer.
But that didn’t make sense…because as Rose glanced at the wallet, she realized that the license and credit card sections of the wallet were empty. Assuming that she’d been mistaken, she stepped closer and leaned over the counter to take a closer look. But, just as she’d suspected, the wallet contained nothing but cash. She glanced questionably at Kallias, but he didn’t look at her.
“All right. It’s $476.37,” the hotel clerk said as he looked up at Kallias.
Kallias tossed five one-hundred dollar bills on the counter and shoved the black leather wallet into his back pocket. He cast a nervous glance toward the windows.
The hotel clerk collected the cash and filed it into the cash register. “Okay, Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” he said, sliding the room keys across the counter as he counted out the change, “your room will be on the seventh floor.”
“Yeah, okay. Just keep the change,” Kallias muttered impatiently as he grabbed the bags from the floor and the room keys from the counter. He started off toward the elevator with Rose following close behind. As they waited for the elevator, he narrowed his eyes at her. “Is it really that hard for you to be quiet?”
“Is it really that hard for you to not be a jerk?” she countered.
The elevator dinged as the doors slid open.
Kallias stepped inside and frowned as he noticed Rose still standing outside the elevator, in the hallway. Her skin looked paler than usual. He placed his hand on the door to hold it open. “What are you waiting for?” he asked.
She continued to stare warily at the elevator. “Can’t we take the stairs?”
“We’re on the seventh floor, and the sun’s rising soon. We’d never make it to the room in time,” he explained, “which is also why I need you to hurry.”
She grimaced. “I hate elevators.”
“You’ll sass a vampire, but you won’t ride an elevator?” he laughed.
“Elevators are tiny and terrifying,” Rose said defensively.
Kallias snorted. He leaned forward and grabbed her hand, pulling her into the elevator with him. “I’ll protect you from the dangerous elevator.”
Rose glanced down at their joined hands as the doors closed, so stunned that Kallias was willingly holding her hand that she nearly forgot about the elevator. Well, that is, until it began to move. She whimpered and moved closer to him, her hip colliding with his. She felt his eyes on her, and not wanting to make eye contact with him, she stared straight ahead at the wood paneling that covered the walls of the elevator. “Say something. Anything. Distract me.”
His voice was low, almost a growl, as he said, “You smell amazing.”
Rose glanced up at him, blinking as she found him staring at her. His eyes were dark with hunger. “Uh…let me rephrase that. Say anything, as long as it does not have to do with you wanting to suck all of the blood from my body.”
Kallias blinked twice, as if coming out of a daze. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“There was no I.D.,” she said suddenly.
He frowned at her. “What?”
“When the hotel worker asked to see your license, you pulled out your wallet, and there was no I.D. in it. But the worker acted like he saw it,” she said.
Kallias pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and flipped it open. “He did see it,” he confirmed. “You didn’t see it because I didn’t make you see it.”
She frowned at the empty I.D. section. “What does that mean?”
“What part of telepathic control do you not understand?” he asked.
He shoved the leather wallet back into his pocket as the elevator came to a squealing stop. Rose practically leapt out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. Kallias laughed at her as he picked up the bags and followed her out of the small elevator and into a narrow hallway with red walls and white carpet.
Rose frowned at him. “Are you saying that you can create…”
“Illusions?” Kallias finished for her. He shifted the bags into one hand as they walked down the hallway. “Illusions do happen in the mind, don’t they?”
She flashed a sarcastic smile at his remark. “Obviously. It’s just so crazy to realize that you can do all of this. I mean, these people don’t even know.”
He stopped in front of their room. “That is kind of the point, isn’t it?”
The hotel room door was painted an exaggerated red, as if the painters had been afraid that the red paint that they’d used on the walls wouldn’t be red enough for a honeymoon suite. As Kallias rifled through his pocket for the room-keys, Rose leaned against a decorative table that held a vase of wax flowers.
“But you’ve never done it to me,” Rose assumed. “Right?”
He checked the other pocket. “I’ve never done what to you?”
“Kallias,” she said worriedly, “have you ever tried to control my mind?”
He glanced at her. “Tried? Yeah, of course I tried.”
Her jaw dropped. “What? How could you do that to me?”
He found the envelope in his pocket and pulled one of the room-keys out of it. He turned toward her, his brows furrowing. “I’m a telepath, Rose. I use my telepathic abilities every now and then. Why would you expect otherwise? You watched me use mind-control on other people, and you didn’t seem too bothered by it, then. Why would it surprise you that I have tried to use it on you?”
“Because you had good reasons to use it on them,” she explained.
“And you don’t think I had a good reason to use it on you?” he asked.
Rose considered that. “When?”
Kallias slid the key in the door. He pushed the door open but made no move to enter the room. Instead, he turned toward her and leaned casually in the doorway, his back against the metal doorframe, as he stared at her thoughtfully. “The night we met, when I stopped you outside the café. Do you remember?”
She crossed her arms. “You mean when you attacked me?”
His eyes rolled toward the ceiling as he blew out an exasperated sigh. “I thought we covered this already,” he grumbled. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No,” Rose answered bitterly, “but you did scare me.”
That seemed to change his countenance. His shoulders dropped, and his eyes softened. His entire persona seemed deflated, all of the sudden. “And for that, I apologize,” he said quietly. “You needed to be scared, but…not of me.”
Her eyebrows lifted. The last thing she’d expected was an apology.
“So,” he continued, “you were a little angry with me, if you remember.”
“A little?” she repeated, laughing at the understatement.
“And you were fighting me,” he added. “You couldn’t possibly understand this, but vampires are unbelievably strong. Every move I make must be carefully calculated just so that I don’t hurt someone. After twenty-five hundred years, I’ve practically mastered that skill, but I don’t want to push it. By fighting me, you were risking hurting yourself, and I didn’t want that to happen. But I also couldn’t let you run off and get yourself killed. Do you understand?”
She chewed on her lip. “Maybe.”
“So, I commanded you to be still,” he explained.
Rose frowned. “You did?”
He shrugged. “And then, you stomped on my foot.”
She blinked. “Wait. What? But you said that you used…”
“You asked if I tried,” he interrupted, “not if I succeeded.”
“It didn’t work?” Rose realized.
“Apparently not,” he confirmed.
“Does that happen often?” she asked curiously.
His brown eyes studied her intensely. “Never.”
Her brows furrowed. “But…then, why did it happen with me?”
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 41