Rose raised an eyebrow at him. “Would it kill you to say please?”
“Hurry!” Kallias snarled, watching the building with wide, worried eyes.
Erik stepped away from the car, his green eyes widening in shock, as he realized what had set Kallias on edge. He sniffed, noticing the new scents. “Shit.”
Rose frowned curiously at Erik, noticing the change in his behavior. She sniffed hesitantly at the icy air. Less attuned to particular scents than Erik and Kallias, it took Rose longer to identify the scents that had made both Kallias and Erik so anxious. At first, she only noticed their own scents and the faint scent of fuel from the plane and the car. Then, as she inhaled deeply, she noticed the wet, salty scent of water, the scent of dust and concrete from the nearby buildings, and even the scent of a human—the pilot, she assumed. And then, as she sniffed the air again, she noticed it: beyond the scent of the plane or the car, beyond the scent of the building, beyond the scent of the human: she smelled the distinct, sweet scent of a vampire. No, she realized. Not a vampire. Many vampires.
“Rose,” Kallias snarled in her ear. “You need to get inside the car.”
“Of course,” Rose said dryly. She squinted at the five buildings ahead of them, scanning the shadows between the buildings for signs of vampires. “A thin layer of metal and glass will totally protect me from a bunch of vampires.”
Kallias scowled at her sarcasm. “It’s better than nothing.”
Rose lifted her hoodie and removed the silver dagger from the sheath attached to the waistband of her jeans. She held up the dagger. “So is this.”
“I like the way she thinks,” Erik said with a grin.
Kallias’s head jerked back toward the shadows. “They’re coming.”
“Why are they here?” Rose asked worriedly.
“For us, I assume,” Kallias said. “There is no one else around.”
“Who do you think sent them?” Erik asked. “Alana or Aaron?”
“Does it matter?” Kallias muttered. “Either way, they’re here to kill us.”
Erik and Kallias both pulled out their weapons, preparing for a fight. Then, they watched apprehensively as, one-by-one, a group of at least twenty vampires emerged from the shadows. They filed out from behind the center building—a closed, empty office building—and spread out as they reached the parking lot, encircling Erik, Kallias, and Rose to ensure that they could not leave without a fight. Rose swallowed as she realized that they moved like soldiers.
“This isn’t good,” she muttered under her breath.
“Don’t worry,” Erik mumbled to her, even though he sounded pretty worried himself. “We’ve won against a larger number of vampires before.”
“Yes, but one of us died then,” Kallias hissed, shooting a pointed glare at Rose. “And almost every single one of those vampires was killed by her.”
“Yeah,” Rose said uneasily. “I’m not sure I can do that again.”
One vampire suddenly stepped forward and offered them a friendly smile. Honestly, out of all the vampires, he looked the least dangerous. His blue sweater, blue jeans, and beige, fur-lined coat, coupled with that friendly, toothy smile, gave him a passive, docile appearance, but his sweet, powerful scent gave away that he was a vampire, which meant he was as far from docile as it gets. “Ah, there is no need for weapons,” the man said, his voice lilting with a clear, Norwegian accent. “We are not here to kill you. We are only here to escort you.”
“And if we don’t want to be escorted?” Kallias prompted.
The vampire smiled and spread out his arms, gesturing toward the rest of the vampires with him. “Then, I suppose we will have to kill you, after all.”
Even though they were severely outnumbered, Kallias stepped forward, preparing to fight the vampires that surrounded them. But then, he froze.
A whistling sound, like a fast, high-pitched wind, cut through the silence.
Rose looked up, her eyes widening in shock, as she saw a woman falling through the air, after apparently leaping from the top of the tallest building.
The woman landed on her feet, her body folded forward into a crouched position. She straightened and shook her blue-streaked hair out of her face.
“Huh,” Rose mumbled, her eyebrows lifting. “That was pretty neat.”
Kallias scowled at her.
“What? It was,” Rose said defensively.
A hushed murmur traveled through the group of vampires. The vampire who had stepped forward just a moment ago now took a step backward. His gray eyes widened. He seemed worried, all of the sudden. Rose frowned as she glanced around at the rest of the vampires, noticing similar reactions in the others. She realized, as she watched them, that these vampires recognized the woman who had leapt from the building. And…they were afraid of her.
The woman turned toward the vampire who was currently backing away from her—the same vampire who had just threatened to kill them, the one who had seemed so confident before. “Where are you going?” the woman asked.
Rose’s brows furrowed as she heard the woman’s voice. It sounded familiar somehow, even though Rose was almost positive that she’d never heard it before. The woman’s voice sounded breathy and seductive. Her voice lilted with a soft, purring accent—an accent that Rose couldn’t place. Then, her eyes widened as she realized why it sounded familiar. It sounded like Alana’s accent. It had the same softness, the same appealing lilt… Rose realized that the two women must have lived during the same time period, maybe even in the same region.
The woman’s heavy, black boots thudded harshly against the pavement as she stepped forward, toward the frightened vampire. “I asked you a question.”
“What are you doing here?” the vampire said as he stepped backward.
The woman tilted her head to the side, her dark hair falling over one, bare shoulder as she approached him. “I think you know exactly why I’m here.”
The vampire suddenly spun around and tried to run away from her, but the woman caught him, her hand wrapping around his fur-coat-covered bicep. Then, she tossed him across the parking lot with ease, as if he were weightless. The vampire landed flat on his back, several feet away from her. He quickly scrambled backward on his hands as the woman began to approach him again.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rose noticed Erik gaping at the woman, his jaw literally hanging open. She shrugged at the strange sight, assuming that, knowing Erik, he was looking at the woman like that because she was beautiful.
Because she was. Beautiful, that is.
Rose couldn’t help but notice it as she watched the woman. This woman wasn’t beautiful in the way that Alana was beautiful, though. Alana was a perfect, stereotypical kind of beautiful. This woman—this vampire—was different. She was a unique, unconventional kind of beautiful. A dangerous kind of beautiful.
Despite the brutally cold air that had Rose shivering beneath her hoodie, this woman wore a tight, black tank top and a pair of thin, black leather pants that clung to every slight curve of her tall, muscular body. Her sleek, dark hair fell to her shoulders, and at first sight, in the darkness of the night, Rose thought it looked black, but as the moonlight hit the woman’s hair, Rose noticed the dark, electric-blue streaks in the black hair. Dressed in all black, skintight leather, and heavy, black boots, the woman looked dangerous and…kind of sexy, actually.
Rose blinked, wondering where that thought had come from.
“Kara,” Erik mumbled, his eyes wide, as if he’d seen a ghost.
Rose glanced at him. “Kara?” she repeated, surprised. “That’s Kara?”
“Yeah,” he said slowly, frowning at her. “Can’t you tell?”
Rose scowled at him. “No, actually,” she muttered, her voice thick with sarcasm, “probably because she forgot to wear her Hi-I’m-Alana’s-lover T-shirt.”
“She didn’t send us for you, Kara,” the vampire said, crawling backward, away from her. “You could leave. We wouldn’t even tell her that we saw you.”
“Really?” Per said, his gray eyes widening. He scrambled to his feet. “I’ll take her whatever message you want. I thought…you were here to fight.”
Kara smiled at him. “I am.”
It was as if they were all waiting for those two words…because as soon as she said them, the quiet, anxious hesitation transformed into total chaos.
Several vampires turned and fled, disappearing into the night so quickly that it was as if they’d never been there. But those that stayed pulled out their weapons and closed in on Kara, apparently abandoning their original mission.
One vampire—a tall, muscular man with long, black hair, bound in a ponytail at the nape of his neck—attacked Kara from behind, pressing a dagger against her neck. “Surrender, Kara Unnarsdóttir,” he growled in her ear.
Kara leaned back against his chest, surrendering her weight to him. “Aww,” she pouted, a cocky smirk pulling at her lips. “I suppose you have me now.” As the vampire adjusted his arms to hold her, she twisted slightly, looking up at him as she shoved something into his stomach. “Sorry, I was only kidding.”
The vampire gasped and stumbled backward, clutching the short, thin dagger embedded in his stomach. He jerked the dagger out immediately, and a shocked, anguished scream ripped out of his mouth. Blood poured from his stomach, soaking his clothes. Stunned by the amount of blood and the severity of the injury, the vampire glanced down at the tiny dagger, his eyes widening as he saw the strategic shifts and curves of the blade. He gripped his ripped open stomach, swaying unsteadily on his feet, as he began to choke on his own blood.
Kara grinned. “Those hurt worse coming out than they do going in.”
As soon as they realized that the other vampire no longer had Kara at his mercy, the rest of the vampires attacked her, all at once. The closest vampire to her—the one she had called Per—reached her first. He tried to press his own knife against her throat, like the other vampire had, but before the blade even touched her throat, she grasped his arms and flipped him over her head. Per landed flat on his back. Kara managed to produce two small daggers from a weapon belt around her waist before the rest of the vampires reached her.
“Uh…shouldn’t we help?” Rose asked, watching the scene worriedly.
Erik let out a short, bark-like laugh. “No. Kara’s got this.”
And somehow, she did. As each of the twenty or so vampires attacked her, she killed them, one after another, sometimes two at the same time. Kara moved so unusually and so deceptively that none of the vampires seemed to be able to predict her movements. Blood splattered all over the pavement as she decapitated at least ten vampires and then tore the hearts out of four more.
Rose watched, entranced, as Kara fought with a level of skill and control unlike anything Rose had ever seen before. Even Kallias didn’t fight like that.
Rose realized that, unlike most people, Kara utilized every part of her body when she fought, rather than just her legs and arms. She didn’t just punch, kick, and stab. She used moves that probably didn’t even have a name.
Still, even with such unbelievable skills, an outnumbered vampire can’t possibly stay ahead forever. Kara eventually lost the upper hand, and it wasn’t long afterward that Kara found herself with another dagger against her throat.
Except this time, she seemed to have run out of hidden weapons.
“Okay,” Kara said. She lifted her hands out in front of her and opened them, proving that she wasn’t hiding any weapons. She stared down the remaining vampires, her icy blue eyes burning with defiance. “You win. Kill me.”
Rose shifted forward, her eyes wide, but Kallias quickly grasped her arm to stop her. Part of her wanted to ignore him and race to Kara’s aide anyway, but something about the intense look in his wide, brown eyes made Rose think that maybe he knew something that she didn’t. She stilled, watching Kara warily.
No one moved.
“What are you waiting for?” Kara taunted, lifting an eyebrow. “Kill me.”
The dagger against her throat trembled slightly. The vampire that held her glanced around at the other six remaining vampires, as if he were waiting for someone to tell him what to do. But they all seemed as confused as he did.
“Ah, but you can’t, can you?” Kara said. A cocky smirk tilted at the edges of her lips. “Because Alana commanded you not to kill me, didn’t she?”
The vampire pursed his lips irritably and lowered the dagger.
“I can kill you, but you can’t kill me,” Kara laughed, her light blue eyes sparkling with amusement. “That must be awfully inconvenient for you.”
Rose frowned as she heard a strange, clicking noise. She glanced around, her eyes widening in alarm as she noticed that one of the vampires had removed a small handgun from his belt. He pointed the gun at the back of Kara’s head.
A thunderous gunshot echoed through the parking lot.
And then…nothing.
Kara never collapsed. As a matter of fact, the bullet never even hit her. Stunned, Kara turned slowly toward the gun. She stared, her lips parting in surprise as she saw the bullet hovering in midair, between the gun and her face.
The vampire lowered his gun. “What the hell?” he gasped.
“Damn it, Rose,” Kallias grumbled, shooting a frustrated glare at her.
Rose responded to his glare with a glare of her own. “What was I supposed to do?” she snarled. “Just stand here while she gets shot in the head?”
Kallias shrugged. “It’s not like it would have killed her.”
“But it would have hurt her,” Rose pointed out.
Kara suddenly turned to look at Rose. Their eyes met for the first time since Kara had leapt off of that building, and for a moment, Rose just stared at Kara, transfixed by the intense, piercing eyes that stared back at her. Kara’s eyes were an intense, light blue…lighter than any blue that Rose had ever seen before.
Her eyes sparkled like glass and pierced like ice. They reminded Rose of the cold, glistening frost that covered the pavement. And as the corners of Kara’s pale, pink lips lifted into a surprised smile, those eyes seemed to glow brighter.
Rose snapped out of her daze as she realized that Kara wasn’t the only one looking at her. The other vampires were staring at her, too, their eyes wide.
“Uh-oh,” Erik muttered, cringing in anticipation.
The remaining vampires attacked them, all at once.
They barely had time to react as the six vampires abandoned their attack on Kara and came after them, instead. Despite the fact that the vampires were older and faster than her, Rose managed to dodge the first vampire’s attempt to grab her. Another vampire tried to stab her, and she caught his wrist, just in time to stop the blade from impaling her. The sounds of fighting and pained grunts surrounded her as Kallias and Erik fought the four vampires that attacked them.
Rose realized that she was on her own. Kallias and Erik had their own battles to fight. And Rose began to worry that maybe she wasn’t ready for this.
As she held tightly to the vampire’s wrist, she shoved the silver dagger into his stomach. A furious, terrifying growl echoed from his throat. Fortunately, she managed to jerk the dagger out of his stomach before he shoved her back.
As the vampire slammed her against the side of the car, Rose noticed that the first vampire that had attacked her lay motionless on the ground, blood soaking into the pavement. She didn’t have time to wonder what had happened to him, however, because the vampire that held her against the car suddenly pressed a knife against her throat. The sharp blade dug painfully into her skin.
Rose grasped the handle of the knife to hold the blade away from her neck, and then, she kneed him in the groin as hard as she could. He fell to the ground, groaning in pain. But before Rose could breathe a sigh
of relief, another vampire flew at her, slamming her onto the pavement with so much force that Rose felt as if her lungs would never work again. The vampire straddled her.
He pinned her to the ground, clutching both of her wrists above her head with one hand. With his other hand, he pressed a knife against her throat. She fought with all of her strength to push him off of her, but he was too strong.
The vampire tilted his head to the side, his dark, brown eyes dancing with amusement. “You must be a baby vampire,” he laughed. “You’re so weak.”
“Yes and no,” Rose rasped, tilting her head back against the pavement as she tried to increase the amount of space between the blade and her throat.
The vampire’s brows furrowed. “What?”
Rose narrowed her eyes. “Yes, I am young. But no, I’m not weak.”
As soon as the last word left her mouth, the vampire suddenly flew backward, thrown off of her by an invisible force. He landed flat on his back.
Rose rolled over onto her stomach and grasped her dagger, which lay discarded on the pavement, coated in blood. Then, she jumped up and raced toward the vampire, shoving him back onto the pavement as he tried to stand.
She straddled his stomach and placed the dagger against his throat, just as Kallias had taught her to do. The vampire’s dark, brown eyes widened in fear, and Rose found herself unable to look away from them. She knew that all she had to do was push down on the dagger and let the blade slide through his neck, but she couldn’t move her hand, not when she could see the fear in his eyes.
She began to pant as memories flashed through her mind, memories of the fearful, agonized screams that echoed through the building the night that she had killed all of those vampires. Her grip tightened around the handle, but she couldn’t bring herself to push down. She couldn’t bring herself to kill him.
Then, suddenly, the blade slid through the vampire’s throat without any resistance whatsoever, as if someone else had moved it. Rose blinked in shock and tore her gaze from the lifeless eyes of the vampire, her gaze shifting toward the blade of her dagger. Her brows furrowed as she found someone else’s hand resting on the blade of her dagger, a hand with soft, alabaster skin—a woman’s hand. She glanced up and froze as her gaze met those piercing, blue eyes again.
The Tomb of Blood Page 17