Rose was stuck on that first part. “Kallias, why aren’t they alive?”
He watched her warily. “A vampire killed them.”
“A vampire? Just one?” she asked worriedly. “Who?”
“Aaron,” he answered.
“You mentioned him before,” she noted. “The ancient one.”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “He’s the most powerful vampire that I know of.”
“Why did he kill them?” Rose asked.
He shrugged. “He considered them a threat. In most cases, an older vampire would win in a fight against a younger vampire. Age is power. But psychic abilities throw off that balance, especially telekinetic abilities. In theory, someone with telekinetic abilities could do practically anything, if they had enough power. No one ever has had enough power for that, of course, but Aaron didn’t want to take any chances. He killed them before they could pose a threat.”
She gaped at him. “He killed them just in case?”
“Aaron is a ruthless, power-hungry asshole,” Kallias said simply.
“Do you think he will try to kill me, too?” Rose asked.
“I doubt it. Aaron would never consider a human a threat,” Kallias told her. “Besides, he lives in Europe. He probably doesn’t even know you exist.”
“You don’t think Theron would tell him?” she asked.
He snorted, “Theron knows better. Aaron has never taken Theron seriously. He would probably rip off Theron’s head just for annoying him.”
Her eyes widened. “He kills people just for annoying him?”
“Oh. I can see why that worries you,” he said. “You are pretty annoying.”
Rose crossed her arms. “Excuse me?”
Kallias doubled over, suddenly bursting into a hysterical fit of laughter.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re annoying,” she muttered immaturely.
When he finally finished laughing, he straightened, still smiling at her. His smile was so wide and genuine that Rose could see the razor sharp fangs that he normally hid so well. She moved closer to him and reached up to touch them, but he recoiled, his smile instantly fading as he grasped her wrist to stop her.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he held her wrist still.
She stared up at him. “Don’t hide them from me,” she pleaded softly.
His brows furrowed, but he slowly and reluctantly let go of her hand.
Rose wasn’t even sure why she wanted to do this, but for some reason, it was important to her. She reached up and touched his lips. Her thumb rubbed across his soft bottom lip until he opened his mouth. She noticed the way his eyes darkened as he watched her. She ran her finger across his left fang. Aside from its sharpness, it felt just like a canine tooth, but of course, the sharpness wasn’t something that she could ignore. His fangs felt sharper than any blade she’d ever felt. She stared into his eyes, willing him to understand that she accepted this, what he was. She wanted to tell him what he had told her, that he was different, not wrong. Almost like an animal, he closed his eyes and leaned into her hand.
“Ow!” Rose squealed as she accidentally cut her finger on his fang.
His hand grasped her wrist again, and she glanced up at him, alarmed. His eyes were dark with hunger, but to her surprise, he seemed in control of it. He pulled her hand to his mouth and closed his mouth around her finger. He sucked gently on the small cut, and then, he swirled his tongue around her finger, his eyes never leaving hers. Her mouth fell open, and her breath came rapidly.
Kallias released her hand, his lips curving into a slow, seductive smile.
She just stared at him, her bright blue eyes wide with shock.
His eyes darted down to her chest. “Your heart is racing.”
Her cheeks reddened. She placed her hand over her chest, as if she could stifle the sound of her rapid pulse with her hand. “Yeah, that’s embarrassing.”
“I won’t let anyone hurt you, okay?” Kallias said, suddenly serious.
Rose blinked at him, surprised by the grave sincerity in his voice. His intense, unwavering gaze bore right through her. “Are you sure you can stop it? You said that this Aaron is older than you. And if he can kill Theron as easily as you make it sound, he must be really powerful. If he decides to kill me, then…”
“If he decides to kill you, then I will kill him,” Kallias interrupted.
She blinked in shock. “Can you even do that?”
“I don’t care whether I can or not,” he stated. He moved closer to her, so close that his bare chest brushed against the flannel material of her pajamas. “Rose, I will do whatever I have to do to protect you, even if it means going to war with every vampire in the world. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not anymore.”
She swallowed, her heart thudding rapidly against her hand.
His eyes suddenly fluttered shut, and he staggered. His hand shot out to catch himself against the bedpost, and his long body leaned heavily against it.
“Kallias?” Rose squeaked, her eyes widening. “Are you okay?”
Aside from the fact that he was still standing—or leaning, really—he didn’t even look conscious, but he somehow managed to answer her anyway. “Mm,” he grunted unintelligibly. “The sun is weakening me. I need to be asleep.”
Rose placed her hand on his chest to steady him, but as soon as her palm made contact with his overheated skin, his eyes came open. He looked down at her hand, as if he were wondering why it was there. “Let me help,” Rose said.
He raised his head and frowned at her. “Help?” he mumbled sleepily.
“Yes, it’s a one-syllable word. I assumed you knew it,” she quipped as she sidestepped him to get out from between his heavy, unsteady body and the footboard of the bed. She wrapped her hand around his arm and pulled gently.
“I don’t need help,” he groaned as he stumbled, nearly falling in the floor.
“Yeah, it looks that way,” she muttered. She continued to try unsuccessfully to pull his heavy body forward. “Come on, big guy. I can’t pull you all by myself,” she said in a strained voice as she nearly fell on top of him.
“Skata, moro mou,” he cursed, speaking drowsily in Greek, as he caught her against him. His hand lingered on the curve of her back longer than necessary.
“Let me help you to bed,” she demanded, narrowing her eyes at him.
He leaned into her, which nearly sent them both sprawling backward into the floor, and sneered, “Will you tuck me in, manoula? Give me a goodnight kiss?”
Rose scowled at him. “Oh, yeah, that’s mature,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Her brows furrowed. “And did you really just call me mommy?”
“I’m twenty-five hundred years old. I don’t need your help,” he grunted.
He grumpily pushed her away from him and tried to walk on his own. Rose lifted her eyebrows as he stumbled again. She sighed and went to his side, wrapping her hand around his arm. “You walk. I’ll lead,” she offered.
They had almost reached the bed when Kallias grunted, “No.”
She frowned at him. “What’s wrong? We’re almost there.”
He looked down at her. “I said I would sleep on the sofa, remember?”
“I’m not letting you sleep on the sofa, Kallias,” she muttered.
He leaned heavily on the bed and grasped her arm before she could walk away from him. “Then, I’m not letting you sleep on the sofa either,” he slurred.
She sighed. “Fine. We can both sleep in the bed. We are adults. I’m sure it will be fine. I sleep in the same bed with Audrey, after all.” Her brows furrowed as she added, “Granted, Audrey is like a sister to me. And you are not…” She paused, frowning, as Kallias suddenly fell backward. “…like a sister to me.”
“I would hope not,” he mumbled, one side of his lips twitching upward as he lay on his back. Aside from the twitching of his lips, he looked comatose.
“You just fell,” Rose pointed out, in case he didn’t notice.
“Shut up,
and get in bed with me,” he murmured.
She scowled at him, even though his eyes were closed and she knew that he couldn’t see the look she gave him. “Are you always like this during the day?”
“No,” he slurred. “I am usually asleep during the day.”
“Yeah,” she said, wincing guiltily as she realized that her questions were what had kept him awake. Her jaw dropped as he suddenly raised his lower body up off of the bed and started tugging his black sweatpants down his lean hips. She quickly clasped her hands over her eyes and shrieked, “What are you doing?”
“Taking off my pants,” he answered as he tossed them in the floor.
She dropped her hands to glare at him, and her eyes widened as she took in his nearly nude appearance. The only clothing that covered his body at that moment was a pair of thin, black boxers. “Yes, I can see that. But why?”
“I’m not sleeping in clothes,” he muttered, as if clothes were disgusting.
“Oh, no. You will wear clothes,” she stated. “You’re not sleeping naked!”
He shrugged, his eyes still closed. “Fine. I guess I’ll leave on the boxers.”
She cast a brief glance at the boxers, and her mouth instantly went dry as she realized how they clung to his… She shifted her gaze to the ceiling, blinking as she tried to clear that image from her mind. “Those don’t really help much!”
He groaned and jerked the blanket over his body. “Get in the damn bed.”
She glared at him, relieved that the blanket was now covering everything. “Don’t tell me what to do. I will get in bed when I decide that I’m ready for bed.”
“Fine. Whatever. But I’m going to sleep,” he mumbled sleepily.
Rose had every intention of standing there for a long time afterward, just to prove a point, but as she stood beside the bed, her muscles began to feel heavy and tired, and her eyes burned and watered as she yawned. “Okay, I am ready for bed now,” she announced as she walked around to the other side of the bed.
She frowned at how much of the bed his long, muscular body covered. She grabbed her pillows and wedged them beside his body. She sighed as she realized that her two pillows barely reached his hips. “I need your pillows.”
Kallias opened his eyes, scowling at her. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m building a wall,” she explained. “Give me your pillows.”
He closed his eyes again. “You’re not getting my pillows. Just get in bed.”
Rose sighed in defeat and grabbed her pillows. She placed them back at the top of the bed. “Fine. But keep your hands and fangs to yourself, okay?”
He kept his eyes closed, but his lips curved into a smirk. “I’ll try.”
She pulled the blanket down and crawled into bed, swallowing uneasily as she noticed how close his body was to hers. Even without moving, her arm nearly brushed against his arm. She turned on her side, facing away from him.
“Turn off the damn light,” Kallias grumbled. “It’s giving me a headache.”
Rose rolled back toward him and glared at him, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. As she rolled back onto her side, toward the nightstand, to switch off the lamp, she complained, “You know, you’d think that after twenty-five hundred years, you would have learned how to say please, at some point.”
Rose gasped as she suddenly felt Kallias move behind her. His strong arms circled around her and pulled her back against his front. His body curled around hers, and every inch of it pressed against her. His lips brushed her ear.
“Please,” he breathed seductively into her ear.
The combination of his breath in her ear and the low, accented tone of his voice sent heated waves of desire down her spine, leaving her breathless.
He chuckled and rolled over onto his back, as if nothing had happened.
Rose, on the other hand, had forgotten how to move. She blinked, shocked that he had somehow managed to turn her on with one innocent, little word. She wondered if that were some kind of supernatural power that vampires possessed, but there was no way she was going to humiliate herself by asking him.
“Light, Rose,” Kallias grunted.
“Okay, Grumpy,” Rose muttered as she switched off the lamp.
—
Kallias paused reluctantly on the temple steps and glanced up at the beautiful Temple of Aphrodite. Wide columns stretched before him, as far as he could see, with gorgeous, ornate designs carved into the white stone. He sighed. “Do you really feel this is necessary?” he complained in his Ancient Greek tongue.
Phoebe turned back toward him, her pale pink peplos swirling around her figure as she turned. She stood several steps above where he’d stopped, so far ahead of him that he actually had to look up at her. She had her long black hair elegantly pinned to the top of her head, leaving her neck bare. Her brown eyes narrowed. “Before we marry, we have to offer the traditional gifts to Aphrodite so that she will bless our marriage with love. You want to marry me, don’t you?”
He scowled at her. “Of course I want to marry you. Why would you even ask that? I just don’t see the point in wasting our day together on these ridiculous traditions. I will love you with or without the imaginary goddess’s blessing.”
Her brown eyes widened, and she ran down the steps toward him, her sandals clacking against the stone steps. “Don’t speak those things so loudly,” she hissed at him as soon as she reached him. “What if the gods and goddesses hear you? They would curse you for speaking such dishonorable things about them!”
Kallias rolled his eyes. “I imagine that, if the gods and goddesses existed, they would have more important matters to worry about than my skepticism.”
“Well, I, like most people, believe they do,” Phoebe reminded him. “So, I would appreciate it if, for just one day, you could pretend to care about this.”
He held up his hands and smiled. “Okay. I’m sorry. I promise to behave.”
Phoebe giggled and grasped his hand, pulling him behind her as she climbed the steps. When they stepped inside the temple, Kallias blinked in surprise at how dark it seemed. The priestesses in the Temple of Athena, where he taught lessons each day, usually kept the temple well-lit with candles, but for some reason, on that day, at least, Aphrodite’s priestesses seemed to have neglected that task. He followed his fiancée as she led him toward the massive, beautiful statue of Aphrodite in the center of the temple. As they moved further into the temple, it grew darker and darker, but his eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Kallias froze as he saw two pale blue eyes in the darkness, watching them.
“What’s wrong?” Phoebe asked, tugging at his hand.
“Nothing,” he mumbled and began to walk again, following her.
As he went through the motions of offering gifts to the goddess, he continued to stare at those pale blue eyes, squinting as he tried to see the person behind the eyes. Aside from the occasional blinking, the eyes watched him the entire time he and Phoebe walked through the temple. Kallias found something very unnerving about those eyes. Human eyes held emotion. One could read the feelings of a person by looking into their eyes, by noticing the spark of anger, the dancing of amusement, the flash of pain, and the darkening of lust. But he saw none of that in those pale eyes. It was as if the person felt no emotion whatsoever.
“Are you ready to go?” Phoebe said after spending an hour in the temple.
“Yeah, yeah. Of course,” he said distractedly, still frowning at those eyes.
“The sun is setting,” she added. “Father expects me home by nightfall.”
He glanced at her, finally, blinking as he realized that he hadn’t been paying attention to her. He placed her hand on her arm and smiled reassuringly. “I’ll have you home before dark. And if not, I will explain it to your father.”
Her eyes widened. “That won’t be necessary,” she blurted nervously.
He frowned at her strange reaction. “But your father likes me.”
“But,” she stammer
ed, “he is…busy. You can’t come inside the house.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Uh…okay. I guess we should get you home, then.”
She nodded and started walking toward the front of the temple, her footsteps echoing softly in the dark temple. Kallias and Phoebe had nearly reached the front of the temple when he chanced another look at those pale blue eyes. He froze as he found them directly behind him. The man with the pale blue eyes had emerged from where he’d been hidden and now stood just a few feet behind Kallias, still staring at him with that unnerving, emotionless stare. He stood within the darker part of the temple, most of his body cloaked by the shadows, but Kallias could make out his face now. The man’s long blonde hair and fair skin looked as pale and unusual as his eyes. His white chiton and Aphrodite pendant practically glowed in the darkness, marking him as a priest, but unlike most of the people in service of the gods, this man did not look the least bit joyous or gracious. Instead, he looked disturbingly cold and unfeeling.
“Why are we stopping?” Phoebe sighed, turning back toward him. She gasped as she saw the man standing behind them. “Kallias, who is that man?”
“I don’t know,” Kallias said. “Have you ever seen him before?”
“No,” Phoebe whispered. She stared at the man, her eyes wide. “I think I would remember if I had. He is so…attractive, don’t you think? And seductive.”
“No, I don’t think that another man is attractive,” he muttered, scowling.
She didn’t respond. She just continued to stare at the man that watched them. It was as if she had forgotten where they were, as if she were in a trance.
“Phoebe?” Kallias said, frowning at her. “Are you okay?”
“Mm-hmm,” she murmured, but she never took her eyes off of the man.
His brows furrowed, and he turned back toward the man with the pale blue eyes, the man who had yet to stop staring at them. Kallias narrowed his eyes at the shadowy figure. “Who are you, and why are you watching us?” he called.
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 46