“Don’t waste your time trying to get a real answer from him,” Kallias muttered. “All he does is make vague statements and expect you to understand.”
Erastos glanced at him. “I understand that you do not trust me…”
“That’s an understatement,” Kallias interrupted.
“But I assure you that I have reasons for each thing that I choose to say or not say,” Erastos continued in an emotionless voice. “My intentions are good.”
“Do you expect that to make me trust you?” Kallias asked. “Evil people always have reasons and good intentions. You can justify anything in your mind.”
“Kallias,” Rose hissed, elbowing him in the side. “You’re being rude.”
Kallias scowled at her. “And?”
“And…you should at least give him a chance,” she scolded.
“The last time I gave him a chance, I was tortured and turned into a vampire,” Kallias said. “Forgive me if I’m hesitant to make that mistake again.”
“In all fairness, you did not trust me then either,” Erastos said.
Kallias leaned forward and narrowed his eyes at the weird, pale vampire. “Let me just reiterate,” he said between clenched teeth, “that you got me killed.”
“I told you that you had a choice,” Erastos reminded him. “You could trust what I told you and protect the Stone of the Eklektos, or you could disregard what I told you. I warned you that the path you chose was the most painful one.”
“If you knew what would happen, why didn’t you stop it?” Kallias asked.
“I cannot stop what is meant to happen,” Erastos stated.
“Like hell you can’t,” Kallias snarled. “You could have warned me.”
Erastos seemed completely unaffected by Kallias’s frustration. “If I had interfered with what was meant to happen, it would have resulted in disaster.”
“Again, Theron tortured me, killed me, killed Phoebe, and turned me into a monster,” Kallias reminded him. “So, what constitutes a disaster to you?”
Erastos sighed, “Your perspective is different from mine. I see the big picture, but you do not. What happened to you accomplished a greater purpose.”
Kallias narrowed his eyes at the vampire. “Have you ever been tortured?”
Erastos frowned at him. “Uh, no. Of course not.”
“The way I see it,” Kallias began. He leaned forward, toward the strange vampire, as he snarled, “In the big picture, torture is still pretty fucked up.”
Rose realized that she could feel Kallias’s anger. It was a calm, controlled rage, but it felt intense, almost as intense as it would’ve felt if it had been her own emotion. “Kallias,” she said quietly. Kallias glanced at her, the anger in his expression instantly fading. “I think that we should give him a chance. If he knows as much as he says he does, then, maybe he can tell us how to defeat Theron and those other vampires, and we need all of the help we can get.”
“Are you sure that you want his help?” Kallias challenged. “Because based on his track record, I’m assuming his help probably involves you dying.”
Rose glanced at Erastos, her brows furrowing as she noticed him shift nervously. “Why would you think that what happened to Kallias was good?”
“Because it led to the present,” Erastos explained. “Each moment of the past played a role in leading to present and future events. Each thing that happens changes people, which in turn, changes the future. If I had interfered with even one thing that happened to him, this moment might have never happened.”
Rose nodded. “Like the butterfly effect?”
Erik frowned at her. “What are you talking about now?”
“Chaos theory,” she said, scowling at his annoyed tone. “The butterfly effect means changing a minor detail can result in major differences at a later time, like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings changing the path of a hurricane.”
Erik grimaced. “This is why no one has had sex with you.”
Rose glared at him. “You know what? Just because you’re too shallow to appreciate intelligence in a woman, doesn’t mean that everyone else is.”
Kallias—who, until that moment, had been as tense as physically possible and had yet to stop glaring suspiciously at Erastos—suddenly started laughing.
Erik just raised an eyebrow at her. “Damn. I’m impressed,” he admitted, his lips twitching into an amused smirk. “I don’t even have a comeback for that.”
“It looks like you finally met someone who can out-sass you,” Kallias said.
Erik snorted. “This isn’t over,” he warned Rose.
Rose rolled her eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Erastos watching her. He didn’t laugh. He just stared with those icy, emotionless eyes.
Rose froze as she met that unsettling gaze. She wanted to give Erastos the benefit of the doubt, but even she had to admit that there was something eerie about those pale eyes of his and the way they always looked so cold and lifeless. Erastos stared intensely at her, as if he were assessing her every feature. It reminded her of the way someone might appraise an expensive car before committing their money to it. She shivered as a sense of unease settled over her.
“That is the general idea,” Erastos said after they stopped bickering. “If I had stopped those things from happening to Kallias, he would not be alive. He would not have shared that link with Theron. He would not have been there the night that Theron attacked you, and you would have died, as you did in your friend’s dream. If even one thing had changed—if, for example, he had arrived just one night later—you would have died, and humanity would be doomed.”
“Wait, what?” Rose sputtered, her eyes widening. “Doomed?”
“Yes,” Erastos said impatiently, as if this should have been obvious. “You are the Eklektos. You are fated to save or destroy humanity. You must live in order to fulfill that purpose. If you die, humanity does not stand a chance.”
Rose actually laughed at that. “Are you sure you’re not insane?”
“Quite sure,” Erastos assured her without even a hint of humor.
“And you know all this,” she laughed, “because you…know things?”
Erastos scowled at her. “You are not taking this seriously.”
Rose sighed, “I’m trying, but come on. You can’t expect me to believe that I’m supposed to save the world, like some kind of superhero. I’m just a human.”
“You are mistaken. You are not just a human,” Erastos told her.
Her brows furrowed. “What do you mean? What else could I be?”
“Rose Foster is human, but the Eklektos is not,” Erastos explained.
She frowned. “But you said that I am the Eklektos…”
“You are,” Erastos sighed. “The Eklektos is…part of you.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Which part? The left or the right?” she asked dryly. “Because my left side is uncoordinated. Is the Eklektos the clumsy one?”
Erastos scowled at her. “I don’t understand the question.”
“You obviously don’t understand jokes either,” Erik muttered.
Rose scowled as she tried to process all of the crazy things that Erastos said. “Okay, so, if I’m not just human, what else am I? What is the Eklektos?”
“The Eklektos is your power,” Erastos answered.
She stared blankly at him. “Um…okay… But what…species…is it?”
“It is older than species,” he said simply, as if that actually made sense.
She sighed irritably, losing patience with his nonsensical answers. “Do these answers actually make sense in your head before you say them out loud?”
“Yes, and in time, they will make sense to you as well,” Erastos said.
“Sure they will,” she muttered doubtfully. “Regardless of what you think I am, I don’t understand why you’d think that I am capable of saving the world.”
“You are far more powerful than you realize,” Erastos told her.
“Thanks. I ju
st love vague, nonsensical answers,” Rose said sarcastically.
“Why are you doing this now?” Kallias asked Erastos. “And don’t give me that ‘the-time-has-come’ shit. Because, in case you haven’t noticed, this is a bad time. If you know as much as you say you do, you know that Theron and about a hundred or so vampires are looking for us and that damn Stone of yours.”
“It is not my Stone,” Erastos said. “It belongs to the Eklektos.”
“Regardless,” Kallias said irritably, “while you are wasting our time spewing this nonsense, those vampires are getting closer and closer to killing us.”
“I am here because I am needed,” Erastos answered. He held up his hand as Kallias opened his mouth to snap at him about the vague, unhelpful answer. “And, more specifically, I am needed because the Eklektos has awakened.”
“Um…actually,” Rose said, “I woke up a couple of hours ago.”
“Not you. The Eklektos,” Erastos corrected impatiently.
She sighed in frustration, “You just said that the Eklektos is…”
“Part of you,” Erastos reminded her. “And until last night, that part of you was latent, buried in the deepest and darkest part of your mind.”
“Last night,” Kallias repeated. “What changed last night?”
Erastos stared at him for a moment. “You almost died.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Kallias asked.
“The Eklektos could not be awakened by just any emotion,” Erastos explained. “It is a dark and unstoppable power. It requires equally dark and powerful emotions to be awakened, emotions more powerful than any others.”
Rose shrugged. “What do you mean? Like anger? Fear?”
“Love,” Erik said suddenly, his voice quiet and sure.
Erastos nodded. “Exactly.”
She frowned at both of them. “Love isn’t dark. It’s…”
“It can be dark,” Erik argued, turning toward her. His green eyes carried no humor now. He was gravely serious. “Love is the most powerful emotion because it evokes so many emotions. It is the one emotion that is both light and dark. Because love evokes kindness, happiness, joy, selflessness, and hundreds of other small, wonderful emotions, but…it also evokes fear, selfishness, insecurity, jealousy, sadness and pain, anger, and rage. It is potent and all-encompassing.”
Rose stared at him, frowning worriedly. “And last night…”
“You saw someone hurt the person you love. You saw Kallias almost die. Last night, your love for him evoked some very dark emotions. I have never felt anything as dark as the emotions that I felt radiating from you,” Erik admitted.
Rose swallowed. “I don’t remember much about last night, honestly.”
“That is because the Eklektos took control,” Erastos told her.
She turned abruptly toward him, her face suddenly pale. “It took control? Like…possession? Are you suggesting that there is someone inside of me?”
“No. Not someone,” Erastos sighed. “The Eklektos is the power that is inside of you, not another person. It is still you. It is just a different side of you.”
“I tried to kill someone. That doesn’t sound like me,” Rose argued.
“My Eklektos,” Erastos said with a slight bow of his head, as if he were addressing some type of authority. “With all due respect, light does not exist without darkness. The same thing that makes you so kind and compassionate is what made you so merciless last night. Love. You love more deeply and freely than most, and because of that, you are the most dangerous person in the world.”
The blood drained from her face. “I don’t want to be dangerous.”
An odd smile tugged at his lips. “Ah, but you are.”
Rose froze as an eerie, hair-raising chill traveled down her spine, like some kind of instinctual warning that something was off about that smile of his.
“Is that why her eyes turned red?” Erik asked. “The Eklektos?”
She spun around to gape at him. “My eyes did what?!”
Kallias sighed, “Damn, Erik, just blurt it out, why don’t you?”
“Yes,” Erastos said in answer to Erik’s question.
“Because those eyes scared the hell out of me,” Erik added.
“Erik,” Kallias said again, narrowing his eyes at his friend.
“What? They did,” Erik muttered defensively.
“As they should have,” Erastos responded to Erik. “The eyes of the Eklektos should be seen as a warning to all of her enemies that their time is up.”
Rose turned her disbelieving stare toward Erastos. “What? No, no, I don’t hurt people. That’s not me. You’re wrong about this. I would never…”
Erastos tilted his head to the side, studying her curiously. “You would do whatever it takes to save someone you love, would you not?” he interrupted.
She frowned. “Well, yeah, but…”
“Whatever it takes includes hurting people,” Erastos stated.
“No. I can’t… I can’t process this. It’s insane,” she sputtered, shaking her head in denial. Then, she turned and narrowed her eyes at Kallias. “And by the way…was anyone planning on telling me that my eyes change colors?!”
Kallias winced. “I didn’t want to freak you out.”
“I would not have freaked out!” Rose snapped.
Erik tapped on her shoulder. “But you are freaking out,” he argued. He cowered in the corner of the sofa when she turned her murderous glare toward him. He grinned and held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “Just a little.”
She sighed and turned back toward Erastos. “I don’t want this power,” she stated, “not if it’s going to make me hurt people. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“You cannot change who you are,” Erastos said. “You are the Eklektos.”
“Why?” Rose snarled. “What is the purpose of this dangerous power?”
“To save or destroy the world,” Erastos repeated.
“How? By defeating Theron?” she asked skeptically.
To her surprise, Erastos smiled at that. Really, it wasn’t so much a smile as it was a smirk…an amused, arrogant smirk. “Theron is not the real threat. He is just a minor stepping stone to your fate. The real threat is far more powerful.”
Kallias narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the dubious vampire.
“Have you met Theron?” Rose asked irritably. “Or, you know, the hundred or so vampires that are following his every command right now?”
Erastos almost looked offended by the mere suggestion that Theron was a threat. “The Eklektos will face far more dangerous threats than Theron.”
“Oh, that’s comforting,” she muttered sarcastically.
Erik ran his hand through his wavy hair, obviously frustrated. “Do you mind—oh, I don’t know—maybe giving us a heads-up on these threats?”
“I will warn you when the time is right,” Erastos assured him.
Erik blinked in disbelief. “Is he serious?” he asked Kallias and Rose.
“Then, what the hell are you doing here right now?” Kallias snarled.
Erastos glanced at him, his expression impassive. “Because she must defeat Theron. If she does not, well, as I said before, the world is doomed without her. In order to defeat Theron, she needs to know what I am telling her. She needs to know about her power and the Stone. I am here to help her understand.”
Rose raised her hand. “Uh, for the record, you’re not helping me understand anything. You’re actually the most confusing person I’ve ever met.”
“What does the Stone of the Eklektos have to do with this?” Kallias asked.
“It unlocks the potential of her power,” Erastos explained. “It is important that she has it in her possession when you face Theron again.”
“Do you mind telling us when that might be?” Kallias sighed.
“It is better if I don’t,” Erastos said. “It will be soon, though.”
Kallias glared at him. “How helpful.”
&
nbsp; Rose frowned at Erastos. “It is just a stone. How could it possibly do anything to my…power? I mean, sure, the way it glows is weird, but still…”
“You are sitting next to vampires with psychic abilities. Surely the connection between you and the Stone is not that hard to believe,” Erastos said.
“Yeah, it kind of is. I don’t believe in magic stones,” she scoffed.
“Magic is a word that humans use when they cannot explain something. Whether it is magic or science, the truth remains the same,” Erastos said.
“It’s just a stone. It can’t have power,” Rose insisted stubbornly.
“That’s what I said,” Kallias agreed.
“It does not have power. You do,” Erastos corrected. “The Stone of the Eklektos is simply a tool that will help you focus and utilize your power.”
“Theron seems to think the Stone has power,” Kallias told him.
Erastos nodded. “That is because Phoebe misunderstood what I said and miscommunicated the information. The truth is…the Stone of the Eklektos is of no use to Theron without the Eklektos. She is the only one who can use it.”
“Great, so, if he finds that out, he will want Rose,” Kallias sighed.
“He already wants to kill me,” Rose reminded him.
“Yes, but he’ll want you alive so that he can use you,” Kallias said.
She grimaced. “Yeah, that sounds even worse.”
Erastos nodded in agreement. “Yes, it is immensely important that the Eklektos never falls under Theron’s control…or anyone else’s, for that matter.”
“Oh, I don’t plan on being under anyone’s control,” she declared.
Erastos seemed amused by that. “The writings were correct about your fiery spirit.” That odd smile tugged at his lips again. “That will be very…useful.”
Rose raised an eyebrow. “The writings? There are writings?”
“Yes. Greek writings, hence your title: Eklektos. But those are not important at this time,” Erastos said. “For now, what you need to know is that you are the Eklektos and the Stone belongs to you. I must admit that I am disappointed that you did not understand that from the scrolls that I gave you.”
She scowled at him. “I spent many nights translating those scrolls, and all I learned from them was a bunch of information that I didn’t need to know about Kallias’s dead wife’s sex life. I don’t know what you think I missed, but…”
The Stone of the Eklektos Page 74