“He intentionally built his underground shelter for vampires beneath a cemetery. Humans saw vampires going in and out of tombs at night and assumed they were rising from the graves. So, then, the humans would dig up corpses and stake them, rather than actually looking for living creatures of darkness. It kept them off of our trails,” Erik explained, smiling. “And then, of course, that shelter became the most powerful vampire colony in the world: the Tomb of Blood.”
“The Tomb of Blood?” she said with a grimace. “What the heck is that?”
Erik winced. “It sounded more intimidating in Latin,” he sighed. “It’s the vampire colony that Aaron leads. I used to live there with Alana and Kara.”
“Kallias told me about those. Vampire colonies,” Rose told him. “He said that the vampires that live in them are less…human…than you guys are.”
He grinned. “Yeah, it’d definitely be culture shock for someone like you.”
“Someone like me?” she repeated. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He just chuckled, refusing to elaborate. “Maybe you can convince Kallias to take you one day. I doubt it, though. He’d never put you in danger like that. But it would be hilarious to see your face when you saw some of them.”
“I’m not liking the sound of this,” Rose muttered apprehensively.
“Ah, and even better, I could introduce you to Kara!” Erik added excitedly. “She would love you. You’re exactly her type. Trust me. I know her type.”
Rose scowled at him, suddenly very confused. “What? Who?”
“Kara Unnarsdóttir,” he repeated dismissively, still wearing that elated smile. “She would eat you alive. Figuratively, of course. Well…I suppose literally as well. That innocent but sassy personality of yours—she loves that kind of thing. And the red hair. Kara loves redheads. Personally, I don’t get it. I prefer blondes. No offense. But she loved them. I remember when she learned the entire Celtic tongue just so that she could visit the Celtic villages at night and flirt with their women. She always said that there were tons of pretty redheads among the Celts.”
She stared at him, blinking, as she tried to keep up with his rapid, excited rambling. “Uh…okay…” she managed to stammer out. “But who’s Kara?”
“Oh,” he said, finally noticing her confusion. “An old friend of mine. She’s also Aaron’s second-in-command. And…she was also Alana’s lover.”
Her frown deepened. “But…you were Alana’s lover, right?”
“Kallias told you about Alana,” Erik realized. He nodded, as if that were a relief, rather than something that bothered him. “Yeah. Alana had many lovers.”
“At the same time?” Rose asked, her eyes widening.
“Most vampires aren’t monogamous,” he said. “We are animals, after all.”
“Sea otters are monogamous,” Rose stated.
Erik frowned. “We’re not…sea otters.”
“I’m sure you could be monogamous, if you wanted to be,” she said.
“Of course. Geoff and Emma are,” Erik agreed. “But Alana wasn’t.”
“And you became friends with her other lovers?” Rose asked, frowning.
He snorted. “Just Kara. I haven’t seen her in twelve hundred years, though. Not since I left Alana. It’s too bad, really, because she would like you.”
“Yeah, you already said that,” she said, “in like fifteen different ways.”
He smiled conspiringly. “Do you like women?”
Rose scowled. “Are you seriously trying to set your best friend’s girlfriend up with your ex-girlfriend’s ex-girlfriend? Because that is really, really weird.”
He grinned. “You just called yourself Kallias’s girlfriend.”
Rose blushed. “No, I didn’t. I’m pretty sure I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did,” he laughed, his green eyes gleaming with amusement.
“No, I…I know better,” she stammered, her cheeks growing hot. “He is a vampire, and I’m a human. It’s impossible. I know that. I’m realistic.”
“It’s not impossible. Love knows no bounds,” Erik argued.
She grimaced at him. “You sound like a Hallmark card.”
“I’m a romantic,” he said with a shrug. “Curse of being an empath.”
Rose glanced around the empty gym, nervously rocking back and forth on her feet, causing the soles of her tennis shoes to squeak against the concrete.
Erik’s green eyes studied her, as if he could see straight to her soul, which was kind of true, Rose realized. He may not be able to see her innermost thoughts like Kallias, but he could feel her emotions, her soul. She wasn’t even sure which one was more unnerving: to have her mind laid bare or to have her soul laid bare.
“We don’t have to do this, if you’re having second thoughts,” Erik said.
“I’m good,” she said. “I want to do this. I want to be able to fight him.”
He scratched his head, mussing his already unruly wavy blonde hair. “Yeah, I can feel that,” he muttered. “Kallias is going to kill me for this.”
She bristled at that. “Kallias is not my boss.”
He looked at her, and the seriousness in his green eyes surprised her. She was used to seeing that playfulness and immaturity in them. “Maybe not, but Kallias does care for you. And what we are about to do will jeopardize your safety.”
She swallowed. She didn’t ask him to elaborate on that. She didn’t want to know…because if she knew the risk, she might chicken out, and she needed to do this. “You’re his best friend. I doubt you have anything to worry about.”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, his eyes boring intensely into hers. “Sure, we have been best friends for twelve hundred years, so there is certainly a bond of some kind between us, but what he feels for you is something else entirely.”
She shifted nervously on her feet. “I’m sure you’re exaggerating.”
Erik shrugged. “Keep telling yourself that.”
Rose sighed, “So, how does this work? How do I control the power? Is there a magic word? A secret formula? Do I need to join a cult? Sell my soul?”
He chuckled, “Not that simple.”
“I agree. Selling my soul sounds way too simple,” Rose said sarcastically.
“These abilities work like…eh…like a gun, I guess,” he began, frowning.
“Great. I’ve always wanted to shoot bullets out of my eyes,” she said.
“It’s like…there is the gunpowder and the trigger,” he tried to explain, waving his hands as if he could grasp the words with his fingers. “Er…for example, for me, emotions empower me, fuel me. When I become angry or afraid, I become more dangerous…because I derive my power from the emotions. So, my gunpowder is my emotions. I control my power, or shoot, with emotions as well. So, emotions are also my trigger. I feel the emotion, and then I project it.”
“You’re trying so hard to make this analogy work,” Rose commented.
Erik laughed at her. “Shut up. Teaching’s not my thing,” he grumbled. “Anyway, Kallias is similar. He is empowered by his mind, his concentration, his ability to read someone, predict, and strategize… His mind is his power, but it’s also his trigger. He reads and controls the mind at will. He chooses to do it, and then, he does it. So, the mind is also the trigger for him. The mind is his domain, and it is also how he controls his abilities. The soul is my domain, and my soul is what I use to control my abilities. Eh…does any of that make sense?”
Rose nodded. “Okay, but based on that pattern, what would that mean for my ability? You manipulate the soul. Kallias manipulates the mind. I manipulate…what? The body? Telekinesis controls the physical world. Based on that pattern, my body would be my trigger and power, but that’s not right…”
“No, because that would just be basic physics,” Erik sighed. “But you…” he said, smiling as if he were impressed by her, “you violate the laws of physics.”
She blew a strand of hair out of her face. “So, then, how do I control it?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I think I know what powers you.”
She frowned curiously. “Really? What?”
“Same thing as me,” Erik answered. “Emotion.”
Rose scowled at him. “But that doesn’t fit the pattern.”
“Not everything fits a pattern,” Erik said. “Emotions don’t. They fluctuate. They change. Sometimes, they are barely there, and sometimes, they are overwhelming. You couldn’t move the glass until I made you feel something, and you obviously felt something when you threw Theron across the room. You need emotion to use your ability, just like I do. Emotion is your fuel…your power.”
“Then what’s my trigger?” she asked.
“That is the part I don’t know,” he sighed. “It would be whatever makes it happen, whatever directs the power, determines what the telekinesis does…”
“Then, it’s decision,” Rose said. “Telekinesis is manipulating things to your will. I decide something will move, and it does. I decided that I needed Theron off of me, and it happened. I decided to move the glass, and it moved.”
“Your trigger is your will,” he realized. “That’s the mind, just like Kallias.”
Rose frowned. “So…I’m like…both of you?”
Erik smiled. “Your power combines the two, the soul and the mind, to manipulate physical world. It makes sense, actually. The parts of us that control our abilities are usually exceptionally strong. Kallias has a strong mind. He has always been intelligent. And I have always been kind of…sensitive, I guess. Emotional. Sympathetic. And you…well, you’re obviously intelligent. I barely know you, and even I can see that. And as an empath, I can also tell that the emotional side of you is strong as well. That explains why you’re so powerful.”
What Erik said reminded her of what Kallias had said at the hotel. “Kallias mentioned that my will is stronger than most. He said that was the reason he couldn’t control my mind. He said my will was too strong to bend,” she said, frowning. She cocked her head to the side as she remembered what he’d done. “As a matter of fact, he purposely made me angry when he used his telepathic control on me because he said that I am the most strong-willed when I’m angry.”
He laughed, “So, he already knew all of this. It doesn’t surprise me. He’s been inside your mind. He probably knows you better than you know yourself.”
“That’s a disconcerting thought,” Rose muttered.
Erik stepped closer to her. “Well, there’s only one way to test the theory.”
She gulped as she noticed how close he was standing to her. “Let me guess. You’re going to zap with a very unpleasant emotion again?”
“I don’t zap,” he said, scowling, as if her word choice offended him.
Rose pulled her hair back into a messy, loose ponytail and quickly wrapped the hair tie on her wrist around it. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”
He frowned. “Why did you need your hair up?”
“It’s a mental thing,” she said quickly. She grabbed his hand and placed it awkwardly on top of her head. “Just hurry up and zap me before I chicken out.”
“There is no zapping involved,” he argued. “It’s emotion, not electricity.”
Rose opened her mouth to argue that, actually, technically, emotions do involve electrical impulses in the brain, but before she could even voice the first word, a deep, blood-boiling wave of anger washed over her, causing her heart to race and her skin to burn, setting every nerve in her body on edge. Her hands tightened into fists, and her teeth clenched together. Her mind seemed to snap.
Erik yelped as his back collided with the concrete wall. He sunk to the floor, wincing in pain. The moment his hand left her, the anger faded, leaving her dazed.
“Well, that was fun,” Erik laughed as he lay on the floor, across the room from her. He winced as he pulled himself to his feet. “It hurt like hell, though.”
Rose gaped at him. “I…you…” she stammered, glancing back and forth between him and the wall. “I did that? But how… Holy crap. I actually did that?”
Erik returned to where she still stood. He smirked at her. “Normally, when I render women speechless, I’m actually doing something to them.”
She grimaced at him. “Great. I’m in shock, and you’re being perverted.”
“I’m always being perverted,” he said. “I just keep some of it to myself.”
“It doesn’t seem like you keep anything to yourself,” she muttered.
“I think your anger is more powerful than your fear,” Erik said suddenly.
Rose scowled at him. “My anger? You’re the one who made me feel it.”
“It was your anger. I just manipulated it,” he said dismissively, frowning at her, as if something else was on his mind. “I need to test another emotion.”
“Wait…” she began, but he grasped her shoulder before she could finish.
This time, she felt a flood of happiness cascade through her, warm, light, and pleasant. She felt her lips curve into a wide, open-mouthed smile, and she felt the urge to laugh for no reason whatsoever. She knew that she was smiling like an idiot, but she couldn’t stop it. When she lifted her chin to meet his gaze, he smiled back at her. “This is amazing,” she told him, her voice almost a laugh.
“I know,” he chuckled. “Move me. Throw me. Do something.”
Rose nodded as she suddenly remembered that there was actually a purpose for the intense, but honestly, pretty freaking awesome, emotion that she was feeling. She tried to focus, letting the happiness become her fuel and willing herself to throw him with her mind. Nothing happened. “It’s not working!” she said. It was supposed to be a complaint, but she was too happy. So, instead, it sounded more like she had announced that she’d won a million dollars.
He dropped his hand and scowled at her. “That’s…strange…”
“Forget Prozac,” Rose muttered. “You’re the cure for depression.”
“That should have worked. Happiness is a powerful emotion,” he said.
“Could I just carry you around in case I start feeling crappy?” Rose asked.
He laughed, “You’d have to deal with all of my suggestive comments.”
“Never mind,” she said quickly.
Erik frowned at her strangely again. “You are…unusual.”
“Well, yes,” Rose agreed, “but I’m not sure you have room to talk.”
“Happiness works for me. Any emotion works for me,” he continued. “But for you, only the dark emotions work. Anger and fear—those are dark.”
“Wait. What?” she sputtered, frowning.
“There are light emotions and dark emotions. Happiness, hope, peace—those are light emotions, but anger and fear are dark emotions. Your power seems to be derived from darkness,” Erik said with a curious frown. “If you were a vampire, that might make sense since we are creatures of darkness, but you’re not. You’re a human, a creature of light. And on top of that, your personality is all light. Your emotions are so much lighter than most people’s emotions. You’re so full of hope and kindness. It just seems strange to me that someone who seems to have no dark side whatsoever would derive her power from darkness.”
“Darkness?” she repeated worriedly. That didn’t sound like a good thing.
“Unless you do have a dark side,” he murmured, staring intensely at her, as if he could see straight through her, “hidden underneath all of that light.”
She swallowed. “I don’t have a dark side…whatever that means…”
He blinked and cleared his throat. “Do you want to try again?”
Rose frowned, surprised by how quickly he’d changed the subject. He had seemed so concerned about it. “Sure,” she sighed, shrugging. “Why not?”
“Are you sure?” he asked with a cocky grin. He took a step backward and raised an eyebrow. “Because I won’t go easy on you. I’m not Kallias. He cares for you. I don’t. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want you to die. You’re a human, and you’ve
done nothing to deserve death. Besides, if you died, it would hurt my best friend. I don’t want that. But I don’t care about your feelings or anything.”
Rose frowned, caught up on the that-would-hurt-my-best-friend part. She wondered if that were true. Kallias had been alive for twenty-five hundred years. Would it really hurt him to see one human die? That didn’t seem likely to her. She looked at Erik as she considered his warning. “I know you don’t,” she assured him. “Why do you think I asked you to teach me, instead of Kallias?”
Erik nodded and took another step back. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Erik disappeared before Rose had a chance to consider what he was planning to do. She glanced around, trying to follow his movement, but she saw no one. Then, suddenly, she felt her body jerked back against the tall, slender body behind her. His hand came around to clasp around her neck, tilting her head back as he leaned his head against her neck and pressed his fangs into her skin.
An unseen force tore him away from her and flung him against the wall.
She glared at him, her heart racing. “What the heck was that?!”
“Owww,” Erik whined as he fell to the floor.
“You attacked me!” Rose accused. “You tried to bite me!”
He groaned in pain again. “I’m a vampire. What the hell did you expect?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Uh…not that.”
“Relax,” he muttered, wincing. “I wasn’t actually going to kill you.”
“Oh, how comforting,” she snarled caustically.
“I just needed to scare you,” he said, leaning back against the wall.
“You don’t need your fangs for that! You’re an empath!” she snapped.
“And piss you off,” he added with a lazy grin.
“Too bad you’re not an empath,” she said again. “Oh, yeah! You are!”
He made no move to stand. “Yes, I am, but Theron is not.”
She nodded, not amused. “Another experiment.”
“Now, you know that you will be able to use your telekinetic abilities when you’re actually being attacked,” Erik said, smiling. “You’re welcome.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I guess I can forgive you.”
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 59