“More. Information,” Rose repeated, a dangerous edge in her voice.
Audrey was quiet for a moment. “I’ve never heard you like this, Rose.”
Rose lifted her face for a moment, glancing at her reflection. For the briefest moment, she thought she saw a red glow flash in her eyes, but when she leaned closer to take a closer look at her reflection, she saw only her normal, bright blue eyes blinking back at her. “Please. I have to save him. Please tell me.”
“No,” Audrey pleaded. “You can’t save him. You will get yourself killed.”
“I’ll wander the streets blindly if I have to,” Rose said. “I will save him.”
“Rose, it’s probably too late for him anyway,” Audrey said cautiously. “There was so much blood. No one could survive that. There were cuts and holes all over him. He…” she trailed off. “I think I’m going to be sick again.”
Fear chilled Rose’s veins, sending her heart into a harsh, rapid rhythm against her chest, causing her hands to tremble. “Audrey, I have to save him.”
“Don’t you understand? If you go after him, whatever happened to him will probably happen to you! If you try to save him, you will get yourself killed. What would be the point?” Audrey asked. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “Listen, I know that you like him or something, but that’s not a good enough reason to get yourself killed. Just let him go. He is just some guy.”
“What? No! He is so much more than that!” Rose snarled. “I don’t care if I die trying to save him! I have to try! I can’t let him die! I love him too much!”
Both of them fell silent. Rose hadn’t meant to say that, but she couldn’t take it back either. She hadn’t even admitted it to herself until that moment, but it seemed so clear, all of the sudden. As stupid as it might be, she loved him.
Finally, Audrey managed to utter an eloquent response. “Shit.”
“Yeah,” Rose agreed. She held the phone against her ear with one hand as she shuffled through plastic bags, grabbing the warmest clothes she could find.
“Rose, I don’t want to lose you,” Audrey pleaded. There was a note of defeat in her voice. “Whoever did that to Kallias will probably kill you.”
“Maybe,” Rose responded coldly. “Or maybe I will kill him first.”
“What?” Audrey sputtered. “Rose, this doesn’t even sound like you.”
Rose jerked her jeans up around her hips, hopping clumsily as she tried to balance on one leg. Her wet skin made it harder to pull on the clothes. She felt rage and fear surging through her veins, dark emotions, as Erik had called them, and to be honest, she didn’t feel much like herself at the moment. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine,” she lied. “I just need you to tell me where to find Kallias.”
“I couldn’t see much. There were no windows. It was dirty,” Audrey said.
“That narrows it down,” Rose said sarcastically as she pulled on her bra.
“I’m trying to remember,” Audrey complained. “It was so sickening.”
“What about the walls? What kind of walls?” Rose asked quickly.
“Block, I think? Yes, that was it! Ugly concrete blocks. No paint,” Audrey listed, rambling as she tried to visualize the building from the dream. “There were cracks in the wall, and through the cracks, I could see…dirt. I think it was dirt.”
“He’s underground,” Rose realized. “Do you remember anything else?”
“No,” Audrey answered. “Wait…wait… Yes, I do! I remember the graffiti. There was graffiti on the wall. I’ll draw it and send it to you in a text.”
Rose pulled a black hoodie over her head. “Thank you, Audrey.”
“Please, be careful, Rose,” Audrey pleaded. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Rose exhaled shakily. “Love you, Weirdo.”
“Love you, too, Nerd,” Audrey said, but her voice lacked its usual humor.
Rose snatched her silver dagger from the bed and bolted downstairs. By the time she reached Geoffrey, the phone dinged with Audrey’s text. She pulled the hood of her hoodie over her drenched hair that dripped steadily on her clothes, and opened the message, studying the picture. Geoffrey glanced up from the microscope, and his brows furrowed as he noticed the dagger in her hand.
Noticing his frown, Rose explained, “We need to go. Now.”
“What?” Geoffrey sputtered, tearing his eyes away from the dagger.
“We need to go. Kallias is hurt,” Rose insisted, “possibly even dying.”
His frown deepened. “He hasn’t given you his blood, has he?”
She grimaced. “What? No. Of course not.”
Geoffrey scowled at her. “Then you are not bound to him.”
She shifted impatiently, her sneakers squeaking against the floor. “What? Why does that even matter? Did you not hear me? Kallias is in trouble!”
“A blood bond, like the one between Emma and me, would allow you to sense that he is in danger. You would sense his pain and fear,” he explained. “But you’re not bound to him. So, how could you know that he’s in danger?”
Rose sighed, “I have a friend who has dreams that predict the future. She called me. She dreamed about what would happen to Kallias. He needs our help.”
His eyes widened. “You know someone with precognitive abilities?”
“How is that even relevant?” Rose snapped. “Kallias needs us!”
His brows furrowed with concern, and he drummed his fingers against his legs. “That can't be right. The odds of that happening are astronomical.”
Rose impatiently jerked at the strings of her hoodie, tightening the hood around her face, as she tried to stay calm. “What are you even talking about?!”
“Your friend,” Geoffrey explained with a worried frown. “Psychic abilities are rare, and most humans that have them never tap into them while they’re alive. How is it possible that both you and your friend have psychic abilities? It seems highly unlikely. Are you sure that this person is your friend?”
“Yeah,” Rose said harshly. “She is my best friend and my roommate.”
“I’m just saying that it seems awfully convenient,” Geoffrey said suspiciously, “almost as if someone placed you two together for some reason. And if that is the case, then, I doubt that they did it for a good reason.”
She frowned at him. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“No, the craziest thing is you. Everything about you is insane: your blood, your ability, your power, even the people around you,” he argued. He stood and walked toward her, his black eyes narrowing suspiciously. “I’m only saying that I think you should be wary because it sounds like something bigger is at work here. Theron might not be your biggest enemy. It might be someone close to you.”
“Wonderful,” she muttered. “Can we go now?”
“Are you not listening to me?” he asked. “I am telling you that someone might be behind the scenes, manipulating you. Like your friend, for instance.”
“Audrey is my best friend,” Rose said angrily. “She would never do that.”
“Whatever she told you…it could be a trap,” he insisted.
“It’s not,” she snapped. “Kallias is hurt. We need to save him.”
Geoffrey shook his head. “I am supposed to protect you…here.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Your friend is hurt. He needs you.”
“Rose, I think you’re forgetting that you are just a human,” he said. “You can’t save him. And neither can I, for that matter. If someone is strong enough to take down Kallias, then, they’re strong enough to take down all of us. It makes no sense to leave here and possibly walk into a trap, just so that we can die, too.”
“He is your friend,” she snarled, “and you suggest that we let him die?”
“If he is dying,” he corrected. “We don’t even know that he is. And I’m only saying that it makes no sense to put ourselves in danger when it will do no good anyway. All we would accomplish is dying with him. Surely you realize th
at.”
“I don’t care,” she stated, defiance flashing in her eyes. “I can’t just stay here when I know that he’s dying. I will try to save him, regardless of the cost.”
“I’m sorry, but I promised to keep you safe,” he said, as if it were final.
“Fine. I’ll go without you, then,” Rose said, spinning on her heels.
Geoffrey blinked in shock. “What?” he sputtered as she marched toward the door. He blew out an exasperated sigh and followed her into the foyer. “That doesn’t even make sense, Rose. How will you even get there? Are you going to walk? And do you even know where he is? And what will you do if you find him?”
Rose opened the door, shivering as the cold wind rushed in, enveloping her damp body. She heard the rain pelting harshly against the ground outside and the distant rumble of thunder, but without any light, she couldn’t see anything.
“I can’t let you leave, Rose,” Geoffrey said. “I promised to protect you.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance again, and then, she noticed a small flicker of light through the trees. She squinted, trying to see through the rainy darkness. Her lips lifted into a relieved smile as she saw the light again. Headlights, she realized. The headlights winded between the trees, heading toward the house.
“Erik,” she whispered, actually relieved to see him, for once.
Geoffrey sighed, “Bloody hell. He’s even more irrational than you are.”
The car hadn’t even come to a complete stop yet before Rose darted out the door, scrambling down the wet steps in the darkness as she ran toward the headlights. She reached the car as it stopped and jerked open the passenger door.
Erik switched on the interior light for her as she slid into the passenger seat. “What are you doing, Rose? And what the hell is up with your emotions?”
“We need to go,” Rose demanded breathlessly. “Kallias is in trouble.”
He cringed, as if in pain. “Seriously, babe, your emotions are torture.”
“Listen to me! Kallias is hurt! Your best friend is hurt!” Rose yelled.
He looked at her again, his brows furrowing. “How do you know?”
“My friend has precognitive dreams,” she said quickly. “She called me.”
Erik glanced at the dashboard. “You have a friend with psychic abilities?”
“Yes,” she said impatiently. “We have to find him before it’s too late.”
He nodded. “Have you tried calling him yet?”
Rose held up the phone, showing it to him. “He left his phone.”
“Shit,” he said. “Did your friend know where he was?”
“Underground. Block walls. Ring any bells?” she asked, opening the text.
“Sure. Too many bells. I need something more specific,” Erik said.
Rose handed him the phone and tapped the screen. “What about this? She saw this graffiti on the wall. Have you ever seen this in any of those places?”
His eyes widened as he took the phone from her. “Yeah. Yeah. This is that old warehouse. That entire street is a hotspot for vampires,” he said. His hand tightened around the phone. “Okay, you go back inside. I’ll find him.”
“Absolutely not,” Rose said sternly. “I am going with you.”
Erik scowled at her. “You want me to take you to a vampire hotspot? Even if Theron hadn’t basically issued a nationwide Vampires’-Most-Wanted alert on you, any vampire would still jump at the chance to taste your blood.”
“I don’t care,” Rose stated. “I’m going with you.”
“Are you crazy?” Erik asked incredulously. “This is basically suicide.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But I can’t just stay here, knowing that he could die.”
Erik studied her, his eyes darting down toward her trembling fingers that were wrapped tightly around the silver dagger. “I can’t take you, Rose. It is too dangerous. You would get yourself killed. And then, Kallias would kill me.”
Her entire body shook. “I need to do something. I need to try.”
He reached out toward her. “Here. Let me calm you.”
“No!” she snapped. “You don’t understand! I have to go!”
His green eyes softened with sympathy. “Explain it to me.”
Rose watched the water cascade down the windshield. “I can’t just do nothing while he is out there dying. You think you’re scaring me by telling me that I could die, but you’re not. I don’t care. I need to see that he is safe and alive. Because if he’s not…” Her voice cracked. “I love him too much to lose him.”
Erik shrugged. “Okay. Buckle up.”
The hood of her hoodie blocked her peripheral view of him, so she spun sideways in her seat so that she could look at him. She blinked in shock. “That’s it? I just confessed that I’m in love with Kallias, and your response is…okay? Aren’t you going to tell me that I shouldn’t love him because he’s a vampire or that I haven’t known him long enough to love him or…anything? Just…okay?”
“Listen, Rose,” he sighed, one hand on the steering wheel as he stared straight ahead, watching the downpour outside. He looked more serious than she’d ever seen him. “No one can tell you who you should or shouldn’t love, not even you. And as for time…time has nothing to do with it. Sometimes you meet someone, and after days or weeks, you just know them…because they’re real with you. And sometimes, you could know someone for a hundred years and still not know what they’re capable of. Love isn’t bound by time…or anything else.”
“A hundred years?” she repeated. “Like the vampire that you loved?”
He nodded solemnly. “Yes. Like Alana.”
Rose jumped as she heard the driver’s side door suddenly jerked open. Geoffrey crouched down to look at Erik, his white button-down shirt drenched from the rain, water steadily pouring down his face, dripping from his short, black hair.
His black eyes narrowed. “Have you lost your mind?” he snarled at Erik.
“Nope. Losing my mind implies that I had one at some point,” Erik said.
“I can’t believe you are actually going and taking her with you. You have no idea what you are walking into,” Geoffrey warned. “If Kallias is injured or dying, then you will just get yourselves killed as well. You will both die with him.”
Erik turned toward Rose. “Are you prepared to die for him?”
“Yes,” she answered without hesitating.
He turned back toward Geoffrey and shrugged. “There you go.”
Geoffrey ran his hand along his hairline, wiping the water from his face. “You are both insane. This is a suicide mission. And you are taking a human!”
“What if it were Emma?” Erik asked suddenly.
Geoffrey straightened. “What?”
Erik lifted an eyebrow. “What if it were Emma? Would you stay here while one of us went out to save her, or would you insist that you go after her, so that, in the end, you would know that you did everything you could to save her?”
Geoffrey swallowed, pain flashing across his features. “That’s different.”
“Not to her,” Erik argued, jerking his thumb toward Rose.
Geoffrey’s resolve faltered as he glanced at Rose. “Fine.”
Erik fastened his seatbelt. “You stay here and wait for Emma.”
“And if Kallias shows up?” Geoffrey asked. “What then?”
“Then, explain what happened, and have him call me,” Erik said.
Geoffrey gave him a blank stare. “Before or after he kills me?”
Erik shrugged. “Just blame it all on me.”
“Oh, believe me. I will,” Geoffrey assured him.
Erik glanced at Rose. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” she said, staring straight ahead.
Erik shifted the car into reverse and stomped on the gas pedal, spinning the car around so fast that gravel flew up around the car. Then, he shifted gears and pushed the gas pedal again, sending the car flying down the winding driveway.
Rose grasped the dashbo
ard to hold herself still, since the seatbelt apparently wasn’t made to withstand such maniacal driving. “Don’t hit that tree!”
“Which one?” Erik asked with a playful grin.
“Not funny,” she muttered, her eyes wide.
The ride felt significantly smoother once they reached the paved road at the end of the driveway, even though Erik continued to drive the car as fast as he could. “You have to calm down. I can’t think with your emotions like this.”
Rose glanced at him. It was strange to think that a statement like that would’ve made no sense to her a few days ago, but after everything that had happened in the past week, it now sounded completely normal to her. “As an empath, you should know that the words calm down aren’t going to help anything.”
“Good point,” Erik admitted. Then, he suddenly took his hand off of the gearshift and placed it on her forearm. Rose sighed and relaxed in her seat as waves of calmness swept through her, slowing her rapid pulse and lightening her mood. He sighed in relief as his emotions calmed as well. “Better.”
Rose narrowed her eyes at him when he removed his hand from her arm just in time to shift gears. “I don’t need to be calm right now. I need to…”
“Freak out?” Erik scoffed. “What good will that do? Save your emotions for when you can actually use them. For now, stay calm. Distract yourself. Talk.”
Rose made the mistake of glancing at the speedometer. Her eyes widened in horror. “Oh my word. We’re going to die before we even get there.”
Erik grinned. “Don’t worry. You might die, but I’ll survive.”
“How reassuring,” she muttered sarcastically.
“I’ve only wrecked about a hundred cars in the last century,” Erik said.
Her eyes widened. “Is reckless driving a vampire thing?” she complained.
Erik considered that. “I guess the immortality does give us a little more boldness, that and the fact that we’ve been driving for nearly a hundred years. Geoff drives slow, though. He likes to pay attention to those signs on the road.”
“Yeah, those are kind of important,” she squeaked.
He swerved onto an exit so quickly that it slung them sideways. “Besides, what’s the point in having a car like this, if you’re not going to drive fast?”
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 65