“Um…what is she doing?” Rose asked, her eyes wide.
Erik nudged her forward. “Entering the Tomb of Blood, obviously.”
Rose kept her feet firmly planted in place. “You expect me to believe that there are hundreds of vampires hanging out inside that little-bitty tomb?”
Kara poked her head out of the tomb. “A thousand, at least.”
“It’s just the entrance,” Kallias assured her. “It’s an elevator.”
Erik and Kallias climbed inside the tomb that was clearly only made for one person. The three vampires watched Rose expectantly, waiting for her to join them inside the dark, dusty tomb that looked like an oversized, stone coffin.
“Uh, no. Absolutely not. Not happening,” Rose stated firmly.
“Oh, come on,” Erik laughed. He leaned against the wall of the tomb to give his long body enough room. “You’ll take on a hundred vampires all by yourself, including a sadistic psychopath, but you won’t climb inside a tomb?”
“Erik,” Kallias growled in warning.
“Oh, right. I’m not supposed to mention that night. Oops,” Erik said.
Kara’s cornflower-blue eyes softened slightly. “You’re claustrophobic?”
Rose swallowed. “Yeah,” she said reluctantly. “A little.”
“Erik, stop being an ass, and be useful for once,” Kara told him.
Erik scowled at her. “What am I supposed to do? Make it bigger?”
“No,” Kara said with a serious look. “You’re supposed to calm her.”
Erik glanced up at Rose. “Oh. Yeah, of course. Come on, Rose.”
Kallias held out his hand, offering to help her as she climbed inside.
Rose felt her chest tighten as she stepped forward. She bit down on her bottom lip so hard as she hopped inside that her fangs sank deeply into the soft flesh. Kallias grasped her shoulders to steady her and cursed as he saw the blood.
“Shit, Rose,” he groaned, his eyes darkening with hunger.
“Sorry,” she said nervously, running her tongue over her wounded lip.
It was so cramped inside the tomb that Rose could feel Kara’s soft body pressed against her back. Kara’s breath fell against her ear. “You smell so good.”
Rose shivered at the sensation. “This was a bad idea,” she muttered.
Kara leaned over the top of the tomb and hauled the slab of concrete over them. “Watch your heads,” she said as she enclosed the tomb with the slab.
Rose tried to pull air through her lungs, but each breath felt like knives sliding down her throat and into her lungs. Her pulse raced against her chest, each heartbeat painfully harsh, and she felt as if her chest might explode.
Erik sucked in a breath sharply as he felt her emotions. “I need to get closer to her. Now,” he said uneasily as he squeezed between them. He took Kallias’s position in front of her and quickly braced his hand on her shoulder. An audible sigh of relief escaped his lips as he calmed her with his abilities.
“Thank you,” Rose whispered, her entire body still shaking.
Erik nodded, his brows furrowed. “Anytime.”
The shifting of bodies had shoved Rose’s body back against Kara, and she could now feel every inch of Kara’s soft but muscular body pressed against her. She shuddered as she felt Kara’s warm breath on the back of her neck.
“I’m really enjoying this,” Kara said playfully, her voice pouring into Rose’s ear.
Rose blushed. “I thought you said this was an elevator.”
Kara pointed at a small camera that looked out-of-place in the old, dusty tomb. “It is,” she confirmed. She slammed her hand against the wall a few times, causing all of them to cringe at the loud crashes. “Lafi! Pay attention, you oaf!”
Erik stiffened. “Lafi?” he whispered, cringing at the name.
“Who is it that you have with you this time, whore?” snarled a gruff, male voice that echoed through the tomb. The voice seemed to come from the camera, which had a microphone and a speaker attached to it, Rose realized.
“Well, he sounds pleasant,” Rose muttered sarcastically.
“You have no idea,” Erik said, his lips twisting into a deep grimace.
Kara rolled her eyes at the camera. “It’s not your job to question me, Lafi. It’s your job to operate the elevator. So, operate the damn elevator.”
“You can burn in the sun, for all I care,” the man snarled.
“She’s in a tomb. The sun wouldn’t burn her here anyway,” Rose said.
Kara laughed. “You can’t reason with an idiot,” she said, her voice extremely close to Rose’s ear. She leaned toward the camera, which pressed her body harder against Rose’s back. “Elise? If you’re there, bring us down, please.”
The tomb shifted abruptly and began to descend. The sudden, uneven movement caused Rose to fall against Kara, obliterating any tiny bit of space that had been between them. Kara caught her, her arms circling around Rose’s stomach as Rose’s butt collided with Kara’s thighs. Her lips brushed Rose’s ear.
“Mmmmm,” Kara purred in her ear, “this is getting better and better.”
“Damn it, Elise,” the disembodied male voice growled.
“Thank you, Elise!” Kara called out toward the microphone.
“You’re welcome!” chimed a female voice with a strong French accent.
Rose straightened, prying Kara’s arms off of her. The jarring, uneven movement of the tomb felt completely and totally unsafe, and that, combined with the feeling that walls were closing in on her, had sent her heart into overdrive again. “Erik?” she squeaked as she tried to inhale a lungful of air.
“Sorry. I forgot,” Erik said, quickly grasping her shoulder. A wave of soothing calmness swept over her body, slowing her heart rate and easing the tightness in her lungs. He stared at her. “Why are you so scared of small spaces?”
Rose looked away uncomfortably. “I don’t know.”
“Liar,” Kara whispered in her ear, her fingers trailing along Rose’s arms.
Rose shivered at the sensation. “Stop that,” she hissed at Kara.
Kara laughed, the breathless, pleasant sound pouring into Rose’s ear. She dropped her hands and leaned back against the wall. “Brace yourselves.”
“For what?” Rose asked nervously.
The tomb hit its stop with the most jolting crash Rose had ever felt. Erik’s hand on her shoulder managed to hold her upright, but that didn’t stop pain from finding its way into every bone in her body. She felt Kara’s hand press against her back, and the soft, warmth of her touch felt surprisingly comforting.
“Oh. That,” Rose muttered as soon as the tomb stopped shaking.
The back wall of the tomb suddenly slid open, like an automated, sliding door. Rose’s eyebrows lifted as she stared at the opening, trying to figure out how someone managed to infuse that kind of technology into an ancient tomb.
“Here we are,” Kara said as she hopped out of the tomb.
Kallias and Erik followed closely behind, apparently unconcerned with the tomb’s strangely out-of-place technology. Rose continued to gape at the sliding door for a few moments before she closed her mouth and stepped out of the stone elevator. Her shoes squeaked as they landed on a spotless marble floor. Rose glanced around the foyer that she’d stepped into, blinking in shock at how normal the room looked. It looked almost like a hotel lobby, except much smaller…and more underground, of course. Mostly bare, crimson-colored walls surrounded them with torches in the corners that looked as if they had been placed there just for aesthetic purposes. A massive computer screen with various views of the city, cemetery, and mausoleum hung on the farthest wall, and a wooden desk set in front of that wall with a smaller computer on top of it.
Behind that desk, in a small office chair, a broad-shouldered, muscular, blonde man sat, overfilling the chair. His white button-down shirt stretched to accommodate his muscled torso, and his blue eyes looked cold and unkind.
Kara ignored him and walked toward t
he thin, beautiful girl sitting in his lap. “Elise,” she said as she grasped the woman’s hand and pulled her to her feet.
The young woman’s light blue dress barely reached her thighs when she stood, and she wasted no time in looping her arms around Kara’s neck. She pressed her lips against Kara’s. Kara held her face with one hand as they kissed, and the other hand pressed against the blonde woman’s back, holding her close.
“I take it she’s another lover?” Rose whispered to Erik.
Erik snorted, “Most likely.”
The woman’s back curved against the desk as Kara leaned over her, her fingers sinking into the woman’s shoulder-length, yellow-blonde curls. Her lips trailed down the woman’s neck, her fangs nipping the soft, fair skin of her neck, leaving tiny trails of sweet-smelling blood. The woman moaned breathlessly as Kara leaned forward, her leather-clad thigh sliding between the woman’s thighs.
“Uh…do they remember that we’re standing here?” Rose asked Erik and Kallias, her eyes widening. “Because this is starting to get a bit PG-13.”
“I’m not complaining,” Erik said, clearly gawking at the two women.
Rose grimaced at him. “Kallias, cover his eyes. I’m not tall enough.”
“That’s enough,” the man behind the desk growled. He stood and grabbed the blonde woman’s arm, roughly jerking her away from Kara.
“Ow! Merde, Lafi,” Elise cursed, pulling her arm away from him.
“If you touch her like that again, I will rip your heart out,” Kara warned.
Lafi stepped forward, growling at Kara, like a wild, feral animal.
“I’m fine, Kara,” Elise assured her. “And Lafi, you need to calm down.”
Kara, unlike Lafi, looked totally relaxed. Her body language conveyed quite clearly that she didn’t consider Lafi a threat. Her right leg held most of her weight, and she leaned back on her heels, her arms crossed across her chest. She watched Lafi with her head tilted to the side, that cocky smirk curling at the corners of her lips. And yet, she kept her gaze on Lafi, as if she were just waiting for him to attack her, even as she spoke to Elise. “You keep saying that you’re fine, Elise,” Kara said, “but I don’t think you understand what he’s capable of.”
Lafi smiled. It was a sick, sadistic smile that instantly reminded Rose of Theron. Rose instinctually stepped back as the memory of that blood-curdling smile flashed through her mind, and she felt her stomach lurch with an all-too-familiar wave of nausea. “Alana deserved everything that happened to her,” Lafi told Kara. “She is a psychotic bitch, and I would do it all over again, if I could.”
“She wouldn’t be psychotic, if it weren’t for you,” Erik snarled.
Rose glanced at Erik as she heard the volatile anger ringing so clearly in Erik’s voice. She exchanged a worried look with Kallias as he noticed it, too.
Lafi’s features twisted into a look of pure hatred as his blue eyes landed on Erik. His hands tightened into fists, causing the muscles in his arms to bulge. He glared murderously at Kara. “You brought Erik Olafsson here?!”
Kara shrugged, a self-satisfied smile curving at her lips. “Problem?”
“He tortured me!” Lafi growled.
“And you cried like a little baby,” Kara taunted, grinning. “I remember.”
A frightening, animalistic growl echoed through the room as Lafi suddenly launched himself at Kara. Somehow, despite her relaxed body language, she seemed prepared for the attack. As her hands slid into her belt to pull out two small daggers, her legs twisted around his in an unusual, unpredictable way and jerked his legs out from under him. They both hit the ground, but Kara landed on top with his large, muscled body to lessen the impact of the fall. He shoved her off of him, slowly and clumsily climbing to his feet.
By the time Lafi made it to his feet, Kara was already standing across from him, her feet shoulder-length apart, a dagger in each hand. He went directly for her throat with both hands, but before he could tighten his grip on her throat, she twisted one of her daggers up into his stomach. He let out a strangled, gurgling sound as he dropped his hands and stumbled backward, clasping his hand over the deep stomach wound. His white shirt slowly turned a deep, dark red as blood soaked into the fabric. He leapt forward again, his hands grasping Kara’s long, blue-and-black hair and twisting. His fangs hovered at her throat.
Lafi screamed out suddenly as Erik appeared behind him and grasped the back of his head with both hands. Lafi released Kara and fell to his knees. “Stop! Please stop!” he sobbed as Erik mercilessly tortured him with pure terror.
“What are you doing to him?” Elise asked Erik, her voice shaky.
Kara straightened. “He’s torturing him. Erik is an empath.”
Elise’s brows furrowed. “He’s a what?”
“Erik,” Kara called. She stepped toward him, moving into his line of vision. “That’s enough. Look at me. You have to stop. You’ll attract attention.”
Erik didn’t hear her. He just continued to torment Lafi with fear.
“Why isn’t he stopping?” Elise asked nervously.
Kallias stepped forward to help. “He loses himself when he does this.”
Kara nodded in agreement. “It’s the emotions. He feels them, too.”
“Erik, can you hear me?” Kallias said loudly.
When Erik still didn’t respond, Kara rolled her eyes and stepped forward. With one swift flick of her dagger, she sliced open his forearm.
“Ouch!” Erik snapped, releasing Lafi so that he could tend to his arm.
Kallias narrowed his eyes at her. “What the hell was that?”
Kara just shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?”
“Watch out!” Rose yelled as she noticed Lafi back on his feet.
He tried to thrust a knife at Kara’s neck, but she caught his arm before he could. She spun and twisted, causing him to yell out in pain, as she twisted his arm behind his back and jerked downward, forcing him to kneel. Standing behind him, twisting his arm painfully, she placed her dagger against his throat.
Kallias and Erik suddenly straightened and glanced toward the doorway at the other end of the room, no longer concerned with the fight. Rose had been so distracted by the fight playing out before her and the scent of fresh blood permeating the room, igniting her hunger, that she hadn’t even noticed the scent of a new vampire—a vampire more powerful than anyone else in the room. Well, except for Rose, possibly. Rose followed their gazes toward the doorway.
“Release him, Kara,” the vampire said, his voice strangely accented.
Kara froze, her light blue eyes shifting toward the doorway as well. She immediately released Lafi and the dagger. She stepped back, raising her hands.
The vampire stepped into the room, his tennis shoes squeaking against the marble floor. He looked young, maybe a year or two older than the young, blonde woman, but still a few years younger than Rose. Out of everyone in the room, he actually looked the least threatening. He wore clingy, black jeans and a thin, white T-shirt that fit closely to his slender form. The white T-shirt contrasted starkly with his dark, bronzed skin. Unruly, raven hair hung over his face, obscuring his onyx eyes. The other men in the room dwarfed him, though he was still taller than Rose, Kara, and Elise. He walked slowly and reluctantly toward Kara and Lafi, a frown pulling at his lips, as if he were perpetually bored.
He stopped in front of Lafi. “Explain.”
“She attacked me,” Lafi spat venomously.
“Before or after you attacked her?” the vampire asked.
Lafi laughed in disbelief. “I should’ve known you’d take her side.”
The vampire sighed, as if he considered Lafi a nuisance. “Excuse me?”
“You always do,” Lafi accused. “With how lenient you are with her, I’d almost believe you were sleeping with her, too, like everyone else in the damn colony. But you’re a man, and apparently, she only whores herself out to women.”
“Aww,” Kara said, “Lafi’s upset that I get more women tha
n he does.”
The vampire just stared at Lafi. “Are you questioning my judgement?”
Lafi froze. “I just think that…”
He never finished that sentence. In a rapid blur of movement, the vampire snatched his head by the hair and ripped it off. Blood sprayed from the body, covering the vampire and splattering the side of Kara’s face, as it collapsed onto the floor. The vampire grimaced at his blood-soaked, once-white T-shirt.
“Damn it. I liked this shirt,” he complained, Lafi’s severed head still dangling from his hand. He tossed the head on the floor and started examining his shirt, grumbling under his breath about having to throw away another shirt.
Kara just wiped her hand across her face, wiping off the blood splatter.
Erik and Kallias also watched with unsurprised expressions.
“Uh…” Rose mumbled, staring at the two pieces of Lafi on the floor, her eyes wide with shock. “Am I the only one the least bit surprised by this?” She glanced up as she heard Elise gasp and cover her mouth, her chest heaving as she began to freak out. “Except for her, of course. She seems surprised.”
“Rose, shut up,” Kallias hissed.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Elise,” the vampire called without looking up from his shirt.
“Yes?” Elise squeaked breathlessly. “Aaron?”
“Clean this up,” he demanded, snapping his fingers. “Now.”
Elise’s blue-gray eyes glistened, as if she were on the verge of tears. She nodded quickly and darted forward to gather up what was left of her boyfriend.
Rose stared in shock. “Wait…Aaron? That’s Aaron? The most powerful vampire in the world?” she whispered to Kallias, her voice full of disbelief. “He looks like a college kid. He’s wearing skinny jeans, for goodness sakes.”
“Rose,” Kallias growled, “shut up.”
Aaron stepped toward Kara. “You have thirty seconds. Explain. Now.”
Kara offered him a guilty smile. “Surprise?”
His black eyes narrowed at her. “You snuck unauthorized vampires into the Tomb of Blood, and the only thing you have to say is: ‘surprise?’” he snarled.
“Oh, come on,” Kara said defensively. “I was bringing them to you. And now, you’re here, and they’re here. I think this went perfectly.” She glanced down at the blood on the floor. “Well, not for Lafi, maybe, but he deserved that…”
The Tomb of Blood Page 21