He didn’t answer because he was too busy laughing hysterically.
“How dare you!” Rose continued. “What kind of person does that?”
He straightened, pulling his body out of its doubled-over position, but he continued to laugh obnoxiously. “Rose,” he snorted, “look at your clothes.”
She looked down, blinking at the jeans and leather jacket. “Oh.”
“You resisted the command,” Kallias added in explanation.
She glared at him. “But what if I hadn’t been able to resist it?”
He scowled at her, the humor suddenly fading from his face. “It’s simple. If you hadn’t been able to resist, I would have felt your will bend, and then, obviously, I would have released you from my control before you did anything.”
“Oh, yeah, because you’re so honorable,” Rose said sarcastically.
His jaw tightened, and his eyes flashed darkly. “Maybe I’m not,” he snarled. “But that doesn’t mean I would ever do something like that. If I want to look at a naked woman, there are plenty of women who are more than willing to be with me. I don’t need my telepathic abilities for that. Damn it, Rose, you keep telling me that you think I’m good, but then you say shit like that.”
“Hey, don’t blame this on me,” she complained. “You’re the one who commanded me to freaking strip for you. Why would you even do that?”
He shrugged wearily. “I needed you to be extremely angry in order for us to really know if you can resist it, and I knew that would make you angry.”
Rose smiled. “Well, I did get extremely angry.”
His lips curved into a smile, too. “Yes, you did. It was entertaining.”
“Until I hurt your feelings,” she added playfully.
Kallias grimaced in disgust. “You didn’t hurt my…feelings.”
“Of course,” she teased, “because big, bad vampires don’t have feelings.”
He rolled his eyes. “At least you know that I can’t control your mind.”
She nodded. She glanced down at her hand. “My hand hurts.”
He laughed. “Well, sweetheart, that’s because you punched a vampire.”
“It was an accident,” she sighed.
“And because your form is terrible,” he added.
She glared at him. “I changed my mind. It was on purpose.”
“Sure it was,” he chuckled as he picked up her hand and examined it.
“If my form is so bad, why don’t you teach me the correct way?” she said.
Kallias lifted her hand to his mouth. Rose gasped as he suddenly pressed his tongue against her skin. He slid his tongue slowly across the sore skin, watching her with dark, dilated eyes, the entire time. Finally, he let her hand fall to her side and stepped back. He smiled at her. “Maybe I will,” he agreed.
Rose couldn’t breathe for nearly thirty seconds afterward, but when her lungs finally started working again, she stammered, “R-really? When?”
“After all of this is over, I’ll teach you whatever you want to know,” Kallias said as he walked toward the bed. A gentle smile curved at his lips. “Deal?”
“Deal,” she said cheerfully.
She took a step away from the table, intending to walk over to him and make him shake on it, but she suddenly staggered as agonizing pain filled her head. Kallias was beside her in less than a second, his hand on her arm, steadying her. She grasped her head as it throbbed painfully, in time with her pulse.
She felt his arms encircle her, holding her up, as her head began to spin. Despite the violent lurching of her head, she couldn’t help but notice how warm his body felt against hers. She felt his hand brushing her hair out of her face.
“Moro mou, are you okay?” he murmured soothingly into her ear.
“Yeah. Just. Headache,” she grunted, resorting mostly to monosyllables.
He led her toward the bed and urged her down. When she finally opened her eyes, she found him kneeling in front of her, his brows creased with worry.
“Thanks,” Rose breathed when she realized he had helped her sit down.
“Come here,” he said softly as he leaned forward onto his toes. He began to massage each side of her head with his thumbs. His thumbs moved in soothing circles, instantly easing the pain in her head. Her eyes fluttered closed.
“Mmmmm…you’re really good with those fingers,” she murmured.
He snorted. “Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea,” he quipped.
Her eyes came open. “Oh. Ugh. Not funny.”
Kallias laughed and continued rubbing her temples. “This is helping?”
“Mmmmm-hmmm,” she moaned as her eyes fluttered closed again.
His eyes widened slightly, but he continued to massage her head, desperately trying to ignore the sexy sounds that she was making. “Good.”
“It came on so suddenly,” she murmured. “It’s strange, don’t you think?”
He sighed, “It’s not strange, considering it was not a normal headache.”
She opened her eyes, her brows furrowing. “What do you mean by that?”
“Keep your eyes closed. It will help you stay relaxed,” he said as he tilted her head back and continued to massage her temples. Her eyes slid closed again, and her soft, reddish-brown eyelashes brushed against her cheeks. “This pain that you’re feeling is a symptom of overuse,” he said. “It happens to me sometimes.”
Her brows furrowed, but she kept her eyes closed. “Overuse?”
“Have you ever gotten a headache after studying too much?” he asked.
“Sure,” she murmured. “Like a stress headache?”
“Well, it’s kind of like that,” he said hesitantly. “When you overuse your mind, it can cause pain, similar to soreness in your muscles after you exercise. When I overuse my telepathic abilities, I experience pain like what you’re feeling.”
She opened her eyes, ignoring the disapproving look he gave her when she did. She stared at him, struggling to imagine this powerful, dangerous vampire experiencing a headache, of all things. “Yeah, but I’m human. I don’t have abilities.”
Kallias suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Right,” he said, purposely avoiding her gaze. “But you did resist the command of a powerful telepath.”
Rose studied him suspiciously. “Kallias, what are you not telling me?”
“Nothing,” he lied. It was an obvious lie, more obvious than any other lie he’d told Rose so far. Everything about his body language screamed that he was lying to her. He stood. “This is my fault. If I had known that testing your will like that would cause you pain, I swear that I would’ve never even suggested we try it.” That, on the other hand, had been honest. He sighed, “I’m sorry.”
Rose scowled as he walked over to his black duffel bag that set at the foot of the bed. He was obviously hiding something, and she was fed up with it.
She tried again. “Kallias, you need to…”
A buzzing noise interrupted her.
Four loud and obnoxious buzzes followed before Kallias pulled the phone out of his pocket and placed it against his ear without even looking at it.
“What do you want, Erik?” he said into the phone, still avoiding her gaze.
Rose sighed in defeat. She felt better, at least. Her head had stopped pounding and spinning. She stood and marched irritably over to the store bags sitting on the bed and pulled out what she needed. When she had everything gathered into her arms, she looked at him. “I’m going to take a shower now.”
He turned to look at her with the phone still pressed to his ear. “Okay.”
She shot one last glare at him before heading into the bathroom.
“She’s still with you?” Erik asked on the other side of the line.
Kallias collapsed onto the bed. He leaned against the headboard with his long legs stretched out in front of him. “Yeah, about that… We need to talk.”
“I agree,” Erik said. “Why the hell did you tell her that you’re a vampire?”
Kallias
ran his hand through his hair. “I didn’t really have a choice.”
“You bit her during sex, didn’t you?” Erik assumed. “I knew this would happen eventually. But wait. You’re a telepath. You could just erase her memory.”
“I didn’t bite her, Erik,” Kallias muttered, “or have sex with her.”
“You haven’t had sex with her?” Erik asked, aghast, as if it were a crime.
Kallias glanced toward the closed bathroom door as he heard the water in the shower cut on. “I know you must find this unbelievable,” he sighed, “but it is possible to be within five feet of a woman without having sex with her.”
“I know. You can’t have sex with anyone from five feet away,” Erik said.
Kallias rolled his eyes. His nostrils flared as the scent of honey suddenly filled his senses, making its way through the entire hotel room. Her shampoo, he realized. He clenched his jaw, trying to ignore the appealing scent, trying not to dwell on the fact that she was naked just one wall away from him, trying not to visualize her in the shower, wet and naked, massaging shampoo into her hair. He cursed under his breath, disgusted with himself for the way he was behaving.
“If you’re not having sex with her, why is she with you?” Erik asked.
Kallias cleared his throat. “She needs protection.”
“You can get condoms at almost any gas station,” Erik told him.
Kallias sighed into the phone. “Not that kind of protection, Erik.”
“Yeah, condoms are pointless for us anyway since we’re infertile and immune to everything, but try explaining that to a human woman,” Erik muttered.
Kallias rolled his eyes again. “The woman that is with me—she is the same woman that Theron attacked that first night. He attacked her three nights in a row, Erik. Theron is not going to stop until she’s dead. He even broke into her apartment. And since we left, we have been attacked three more times by vampires that are acting on Theron’s behalf. Without protection, she will die.”
Erik was silent for a while. Finally, he asked, “Why is he fixated on her?”
Kallias cast a nervous glance toward the bathroom. “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit,” Erik accused. “You know something. I hear it in your voice.”
“I have a theory,” Kallias admitted, “but I think there’s more to it.”
“Well, it’s a start anyway,” Erik said. “What do you know?”
Kallias watched the closed bathroom door warily and lowered his voice so that he was sure she wouldn’t hear. “Erik, she is not normal,” he said quietly.
“What? Like she’s kinky?” Erik asked.
Kallias rolled his eyes again. “I swear, carrying on a serious conversation with you is like derailing a train that is hell-bent on going the wrong direction.”
“I didn’t follow that analogy. I was stuck on the kinky part,” Erik said.
Kallias sighed. “What I meant was: she’s not an ordinary human.”
“What makes you think that?” Erik asked.
“Most humans cannot even resist a vampire, but she has fought back against every vampire that has attacked her,” Kallias explained. “She is unaffected by the allure of a vampire. And she can resist my telepathic control. And…”
“Wait,” Erik interrupted. “She resisted telepathic control? That’s impossible. No one can resist your abilities, just like no one could resist Alana’s control…except maybe you. Shit, is she a telepath? Is that how she resisted you?”
“No,” Kallias said. “I think she is much more powerful than a telepath.”
“No one is more powerful than a telepath,” Erik scoffed.
Kallias cast another paranoid look at the bathroom door. He could still hear the water running, and he could still smell her honey-scented conditioner. “Theron attacked her in her apartment last night. I wasn’t there to save her.”
“Then,” Erik began, pausing apprehensively, “how is she alive?”
“Because she threw Theron across the room,” Kallias answered.
Kallias heard Erik let out a short laugh at that. Erik assumed Kallias was joking, apparently, and honestly, Kallias couldn’t blame him. “Impossible,” Erik scoffed. “A human isn’t physically strong enough to overpower a vampire.”
“I never said that she used physical strength to do it,” Kallias said.
Erik was silent for nearly a full minute. “Shit,” he said, finally.
“She doesn’t know,” Kallias told him.
“How can she be that powerful and not know?” Erik asked.
The scent of vanilla filled the room, the scent of her body wash and her skin. Kallias shifted uncomfortably. “I think it’s best that she doesn’t know. She is impossibly stubborn. I think that she’d wind up hurting herself, if she knew.”
“Or she could use her power to wipe out Theron for good,” Erik argued.
“No,” Kallias growled. “We’re not using her. She’s not a weapon.”
“Holy shit,” Erik laughed. “You have feelings for a human.”
“What?” Kallias snarled. “That’s a bit of a leap, don’t you think? I am not an idiot, Erik. I’d never fall for a human, or anyone else, for that matter. She needs protection. That’s it. I feel nothing for her. Nothing. Do you understand?”
“Nothing. Got it,” Erik chuckled, his voice full of amusement.
“We will be there tomorrow,” Kallias said irritably. “We can talk then.”
“Wait, you’re bringing her here?” Erik sputtered.
“I don’t have a choice. There are vampires everywhere looking for her. It’s the only place where she might be safe,” Kallias said defensively. He sighed. “I don’t expect you to understand, but she needs our help. And I thought…”
“So, let me get this straight,” Erik interrupted. “You’re bringing a human—or whatever the hell she is—here. Even though she is being hunted by Theron and countless other vampires. Even though that will undoubtedly lead to those vampires coming here. Even though that will lead to all-out war between us and them. You’re putting us in danger so that you can protect one human?”
Kallias grimaced. “Yeah.”
“Good,” Erik responded.
“Good?” Kallias repeated in disbelief.
“Yeah, I’ve been itching for a good battle for centuries. It looks like we will finally get one,” Erik laughed. “I’ll call Geoff and Emma, and let them know.”
Kallias laughed in relief. “Thanks, Erik. I knew you’d understand.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Erik said dismissively. “Have you kissed her yet?”
Kallias heard the water cut off. “Bye, Erik. We will see you tomorrow.”
“Fine. Don’t tell me,” Erik complained. “I’ll figure it out myself.”
Kallias hung up the phone and stood, sliding his phone into his pocket, as he walked over to his duffel bag. As he reached into the bag to get his shampoo and soap, he noticed his leather jacket lying beside his bag. Rose had left it with his things when she went to shower. He picked it up to toss it in the chair, but as he took it into his hands, her scent filled his senses. Instinct took over, and before he knew what he was doing, he had the jacket against his face, inhaling her scent.
He dropped the jacket, blinking in shock. “What the hell am I doing?”
He leaned over and picked it up again. He quickly tossed it on the chair, afraid the instincts might take control again if he didn’t get it out of his hands fast enough. But her scent, that powerful sweet scent that was unique just to her, was already working its way through him, igniting powerful hunger and desire.
At that moment, the bathroom door swung open, and Rose stepped into the room, the potent scent of vanilla and honey wafting into the room. Her pale skin looked softer and cleaner, free of the pinkish bloodstains that had been there before. Drenched red hair fell on either side of her shoulders, and water sparkled on her eyelashes. She wrung out her wet hair with a small white towel, and she stopped just outside the room, her
bright blue eyes shifting up to look at him.
He just stared blankly at her because he honestly couldn’t think of a proper response to seeing her in those clothes. Her entire body, from her neck to her ankles, was covered in thick, red-and-black flannel pajamas that looked as if they were six sizes too big for her. “What are you wearing?” he managed finally.
Rose glanced down at her pajamas, plucking absently at the fuzz on the thick material. “What does it look like I’m wearing?” she asked sassily.
He moved closer to her and made a dramatic show of assessing her clothing. “It looks like you’re wearing this quilt I saw on the side of the road once.”
Her eyes narrowed. “They’re supposed to be comfortable, not pretty.”
He smiled wryly. “That’s obvious.”
She glared at him. “You’re a jerk.”
Kallias arched a challenging brow. “Is that the only insult you know?”
Her eyes flashed with irritation, and her cheeks flushed with anger. She lifted her chin. “Fine. You’re an inconsiderate, annoying, insensitive, barbarous, uncivilized, malicious, cantankerous, scurrilous, vexatious, imbecilic simpleton!”
“You want to pull another word out of the thesaurus?” he taunted.
“What’s wrong? Am I talking over your head now?” she countered.
Rose staggered back in shock as he suddenly stepped toward her, his hand sliding into her hair, his fingers entangling in the wet strands. She didn’t have time to wonder what he was doing because before she could ask, his lips were on hers, hot and relentless. She moaned at the first contact of his lips, and she found herself wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back. His tongue found its way into her mouth, dancing with hers in the most sensual way.
Kallias tasted the spearmint on her tongue. He smelled the scent of honey in her wet hair and the scent of vanilla on her damp skin. And he smelled her, that unique scent of her blood, the scent that had been on his jacket. Needing more contact with her, he took another step forward, backing her into the wall.
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 43