“Kara,” he growled, a note of warning in his tone. Despite the fact that he sounded angry, he looked merely annoyed. His shoulders slouched, and his expression seemed tired and nonchalant, as if he couldn’t care less about this.
“Just hear them out,” Kara urged.
Aaron sighed. He glanced over his shoulder at Erik and lifted his eyebrows, as if he were impatiently waiting for Erik to answer a question that he’d never asked. “Erik Olafsson. What brings you back to the Tomb of Blood?”
Erik shifted uncomfortably. “Nostalgia?”
Kara took that opportunity to make her way over to the desk. She hopped on top of the desk, leaned back onto her hands, and crossed her long, leather-clad legs. She cast a sideways glance at a wine glass that set on the surface of the desk, and then, she reached out and picked it up, twirling the stem of the glass between her fingers, causing the burgundy liquid to swirl around the glass. Rose noticed the faint scent of blood, drifting into the air as the liquid swished around the glass, mixed with a heavy fruity scent. Kara tilted the glass up and sipped the burgundy liquid, and as she did, her cornflower-blue eyes shifted up to meet Rose’s gaze. She slowly and deliberately took another sip of the blood-spiked liquid, her lips tilting into a flirty smile as she watched Rose watch her.
Rose blushed and quickly shifted her gaze back toward Aaron.
“Nostalgia for what?” Aaron said with a disbelieving laugh. He walked toward Erik, slowly and leisurely, as if he had all of the time in the world. “Being a pitiful, used-up toy for Alana to play with when she gets bored? Or being the most hated vampire here?” Because Erik was so much taller than him, he had to look up at Erik, and yet, somehow, Erik was the one cowering away from him.
Erik winced at the harsh reminders. “Er…neither?”
“After all of the things that you’ve done,” Aaron said, his black eyes narrowing at Erik, “why would I ever let you back into the Tomb of Blood?”
Erik frowned. “Because you know. You know that it was her. I never wanted to torture anyone. Alana forced me. You know that. You always have.”
“I’m not talking about the torture,” Aaron said. “I am talking about all of the vampires that you’ve killed since then. Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“Shit,” Erik muttered. He took a step backward, cringing in anticipation.
Kara set the half-empty glass on the desk. “What does he mean?” she asked Erik, her brows creasing with worry. “The vampires working for Alana?”
“Oh, he didn’t tell you?” Aaron asked her. “Your friend has made a hobby out of killing vampires. For no other reason than that they feed, like all vampires are meant to do. They feed from humans, and he kills them for it.”
Kara’s shoulders fell, and the color drained from her face. She glanced questionably at Erik. “Tell me that’s not true,” she said in a sad, betrayed tone.
Erik stared at her, his face twisting with pain. “I’m sorry, but…”
“I have killed humans,” Kara said venomously. “Why don’t you kill me?”
“Kara, you’re my friend,” Erik said uneasily. “I wouldn’t…”
“Your friend?” she laughed. “I don’t even know who you are anymore.”
Erik’s entire countenance seemed to deflate at that. “But…”
“So, let me get this straight,” Kallias said suddenly, directing his question at Aaron, “it’s fine to kill vampires if you order it, but otherwise, it’s wrong?”
Aaron’s dark gaze shifted toward Kallias, and his lips curved into an amused smile. “Ah, Kallias,” he sighed, “I never thought I would see you here.”
“I assure you…it is not because my feelings have changed,” Kallias said.
“Of course not,” Aaron said as he walked toward Kallias. He stopped in front of him, his dark eyes trailing up and down Kallias’s body. He smiled smugly. “I’m pleased to see that you finally left that cave. You clean up well.”
“I didn’t realize you two knew each other so well,” Erik commented.
“We don’t,” Kallias said, narrowing his eyes at Aaron. “We met. Once.”
Aaron smiled. “Tell me why you’re here, Kallias.”
“Forget it,” Kallias said, his eyes dark with hatred. “This was a mistake.”
“We want to stop Alana,” Rose answered, “and so do you.”
Kallias shot a frustrated glare at Rose.
Aaron turned toward her, a surprised smile forming at the edges of his lips. “And who are you, sweetheart?” he asked, leaning forward to sniff her.
Rose stepped back. “Don’t do that. And…my name is Rose Foster.”
Aaron grasped her hand and lifted it to his mouth. “Rose. Pretty name. It suits you, beautiful,” he murmured as he bent at the waist and kissed her hand.
Rose jerked her hand out of his. “Don’t do that either.”
“Uh, Rose,” Erik said nervously, “you’re talking to Aaron. Remember?”
“You don’t like me?” Aaron asked, an amused smile twitching at his lips.
“Based on what I’ve seen so far, I think it’s safe to assume that you’re a heartless megalomaniac,” Rose said. “So, right now, I’m leaning toward no.”
Kara spit out a mouthful of burgundy liquid, her eyes widening in shock.
“Rose, have you lost your mind?” Erik hissed at her.
“What makes you think that?” Aaron asked her, surprisingly calm.
“You just killed someone for questioning you,” Rose pointed out.
Aaron shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s against the rules,” he stated. He lifted an eyebrow. “You’re not getting off to a good start on that, by the way.”
“Good leaders respect and invite advice,” Rose told him, “and they handle criticism in a professional manner. And just so you know, decapitating someone with your bare hands isn’t usually considered professional.”
Kara scrambled off of the desk and quickly put herself between Aaron and Rose, protectively shoving Rose behind her. She looked up at Aaron, her eyes wide. “You can’t kill her,” she said anxiously. “Please, don’t kill her.”
Aaron glanced down at her, his eyebrows lifting. “I can’t?”
“I swore to protect her,” Kara explained.
He snorted, “You didn’t think that through, did you?” He glanced past Kara, at Rose—who seemed very taken aback by Kara’s quick reaction. An amused smile pulled at his lips. “So, you think that I’m not a good leader?”
“I think,” Rose corrected, “that there are only two explanations for what you did. Either you are a terrible leader, which is unlikely, considering the fact that you lead the most powerful vampire colony in the world, or you’re obsessed with your own power…which is pretty much the definition of megalomaniac.”
“Rose,” Kallias growled, staring at her with wide eyes, “shut up!”
Kara turned to face Rose, careful to keep herself between Aaron and Rose. “Rose, don’t get me wrong. Your sassiness totally turns me on, but…”
Rose’s gaze snapped toward Kara. “My sassiness does what?”
“But I really need you to tone it down for now,” Kara finished. “Please?”
Aaron ignored their nervousness. “And why do you think I’m heartless?”
Rose returned her gaze to Aaron. “You ordered his girlfriend to dispose of his body,” she explained. “She was clearly freaking out, and you didn’t care.”
Aaron stared at her for a moment, his dark eyes boring into her, beneath a mess of wavy, black hair. Then, he pulled a phone out of his pocket.
Kara frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he quickly pressed a series of buttons and then lifted the phone to his ear. The long, monotonous ring echoed through the room, easily discernible by the vampires, as he waited for someone to answer.
“Hello?” a woman answered, a soft French accent coloring her words.
“Elise,” he said, his gaze focused on Rose. “This
is Aaron.”
“Oh,” she said nervously. “I’m disposing of the body, I promise. I…”
“Let someone else do it,” Aaron interrupted.
“Sir?” she asked in a confused tone.
“Apparently, I may have been a little heartless earlier in ordering you to do that,” he said, still staring at Rose. “So, get someone else to do it, and you just…drink or…mourn…or whatever it is that people do after someone dies.”
“Oh, thank you, sir,” Elise said quickly, “I’ll do that. Thank you.”
Aaron rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Whatever. Goodbye.”
Everyone stared at him, gaping in shock.
“What just happened?” Kara asked, her icy blue eyes wide with disbelief.
Aaron slid the phone into his pocket. “Happy?” he asked Rose.
Rose shrugged. “It’s a start.”
With the back of his hand, Aaron easily pushed Kara out of the way, as if she were weightless. He stepped forward, closer to Rose, leaning his face toward hers. “I did something for you. Now, you must do something for me.”
Rose felt his breath on her face, and she realized it smelled sweet, like vampire blood. “There’s a word for that, you know. It’s called manipulation.”
Aaron tilted his head to the side. “Tell me why you smell so powerful.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Rose noticed Kara watching her anxiously. She also noticed that Kallias was shaking his head at her. “I can’t,” she answered.
“Why not?” Aaron asked, as if he couldn’t believe she’d refused.
“Because I don’t trust you. Obviously,” Rose muttered. “I just watched you kill someone. His blood is still all over the floor, for goodness sakes.”
“Someone will mop it up, eventually,” Aaron said dismissively.
Rose frowned. “Um…that…doesn’t change anything.”
“Fine. Let me rephrase the question,” Aaron sighed. “You said that you are here to help stop Alana. Why should I want your help? How are you useful?”
“Do you have another empath on your side? Or a telepath?” Rose asked.
“No,” Aaron said easily. “Those aren’t exactly common abilities.”
“Kallias is a telepath, and Erik is an empath. But I don’t have to tell you that because you already know,” Rose said. “You already know you need them.”
Aaron smiled. “Good point. But why do I need you?”
Rose shrugged. “I never said you did.”
Aaron leaned toward her and lowered his voice, his words thickly accented. “I know who you are, Rose Foster. I know that you killed Theron and fifty other vampires while you were human. Now, tell me: how did you do it?”
“Holy hell,” Kara breathed, her eyebrows lifting at Rose. “Is that true?”
Rose swallowed. “How did you know all of that?” she asked Aaron.
“It’s my job to know,” Aaron said. “Now, call me crazy, but a vampire that somehow killed that many vampires when she was still human sounds either extremely useful or extremely dangerous. Tell me how you did it. What are you?”
“A vampire,” Rose said. “I’m sure you can smell that in my blood.”
Much to her dismay, Aaron seemed to take that as an invitation. He leaned forward and sniffed her neck, his breath falling against the sensitive skin. “You do smell like a vampire,” he said, “but you smell like something else, too.”
“Probably vanilla,” Rose said, “or honey. Soap, shampoo, etcetera.”
Aaron scowled at her smart-aleck response. “No. Try again.”
“It doesn’t matter how powerful she is,” Kallias snarled. “Her power is not yours to use. It is hers. Erik and I will help you. Rose will stay out of this.”
Rose glared at Kallias. “I don’t think I ever agreed to that.”
Aaron turned toward Kallias. “While I do see the merit of having a telepath on my side, I also see the danger in it. How can I trust a telepath?”
Kallias shrugged. “I don’t really give a shit whether or not you trust me.”
Aaron’s eyes narrowed. “Well, I do. I need to know I can trust you.”
“You already do,” Rose pointed out.
Aaron glanced at her. “Excuse me?”
“You already trust him,” Rose said matter-of-factly. “You wouldn’t be in this room, if you didn’t. That’s why you haven’t personally gone after Alana.”
“I haven’t personally gone after Alana because that’s one of the benefits of being powerful,” Aaron corrected. “I can…delegate. That’s a good human word, isn’t it? Delegate? A baby vampire like you should understand that one.”
Rose scowled at his condescending tone. “This is too important. Alana is threatening the existence of vampires. If you knew that you could kill her before she used her telepathic control, you would have killed her by now. But you don’t. You can’t risk her gaining control over your mind because that would give her control over the Tomb of Blood, which would make her unstoppable. So, you’re staying away from her. But you’re not showing that same caution with Kallias, which means you must already trust him, at least to a certain extent.”
Aaron stared at her, his eyebrows raised. Then, his dark gaze shifted down toward the glowing stone beneath her hoodie. “Whose amulet is that?”
Rose frowned. “Amulet?” she repeated, following his gaze down to her chest. She noticed the faint red glow of the stone and covered it with her hand.
Aaron rephrased the question. “Whose magic created it?”
“Magic?” she laughed in disbelief. “It’s just a stone. It’s not…magic.”
“It glows,” Aaron argued. “Normal stones don’t glow.”
“Technically, they could,” Rose corrected, “if they were radioactive.”
Kara smiled. “It’s so hot when you do that.”
Rose turned to look at Kara, her eyes widening in shock.
Aaron frowned at Rose, clearly not used to having anyone correct him. He reached out and grasped the chain around her neck, pulling the Stone out of her hoodie. The Stone immediately stopped glowing the moment it touched his fingers. He turned it over in his hand, squinting at the dark, crimson Stone.
“Hey, stop that!” Rose snapped, slapping his hand.
The expression of pure shock on Aaron’s face was almost comical.
“Uh…Rose,” Erik said worriedly, “you probably shouldn’t hit him.”
Aaron examined the back of his hand, as if he were looking for confirmation that she really had slapped him. He blinked at the red handprint.
Rose shoved the Stone of the Eklektos back into her hoodie. “I don’t care who you are. You can’t just grab something out of someone’s shirt.”
“Please don’t kill her,” Kara pleaded with Aaron, her eyes wide.
Aaron sighed at Kara, as if he found her request inconvenient somehow. He shifted his annoyed gaze back to Rose. “Whose inscription is on the Stone?”
“Inscription?” Rose asked. She pulled the Stone back out to look at it.
“It says Eklektos,” Kallias provided.
“It does?” Rose asked. “Oh, it does. I’ve never noticed that before.”
“Eklektos? The Greek word?” Aaron asked. “Who is the Eklektos?”
“Me,” Rose answered reluctantly. “Or…at least that’s what I was told.”
“By whom? Who gave that to you?” Aaron asked.
“Why does it matter?” Kallias asked suspiciously.
Aaron shrugged. “Whoever controls the Stone controls her.”
“No one controls me,” Rose declared, shoving the Stone of the Eklektos back into her shirt again. “I would never allow it. I control me. That’s it.”
A small smile tugged at Aaron’s lips. “Good to know,” he murmured.
Then, with no warning whatsoever, he snatched up her wrist in her hand and sank his fangs into it. Rose gaped in shock as he pulled his mouth away from her wrist, thick drops of her blood staining his lips and dripping fro
m his fangs.
“Wow,” Kara breathed as the scent of Rose’s blood filled the room. Her cornflower-blue eyes darkened as she watched the blood pour from Rose’s wrist.
“What the heck are you doing?” Rose snapped at Aaron.
Aaron didn’t answer. Instead, he started walking toward the desk, his grip still tight around her bleeding wrist. Rose tried to pull her hand away from him, but the ancient vampire was entirely too strong to overpower. She had no choice but to stumble along behind him as he dragged her toward the computer.
“Let go of me,” Rose squeaked, trying to pry his hand off of her.
With one hand still holding Rose’s wrist, Aaron typed something into the computer with the other hand. A drawer beneath the computer suddenly slid open, just like the elevator door had done, and he grabbed a strange black cuff out of it. He slapped it onto her wrist and closed it, a smile curling at his lips.
“Ow,” Rose complained as the cuff seemed to irritate the wound on her wrist. She frowned at it. It looked almost like a bracelet…except much bigger and more painful. She noticed a glass container embedded in the cuff, directly above her wrist. Dark, crimson liquid filled it as she watched. “Is that my blood?”
“I need a sample,” Aaron explained.
He unclipped the black cuff and unattached the container of blood from the cuff. She watched in shock as he placed the container inside a box beside the computer and shut the door. After just a moment, a model of DNA suddenly appeared on the screen, spinning and shifting as the computer-generated data about her blood. She watched as her blood type, ethnicity, and various other irrelevant information appeared on the screen. Aaron typed something else into the computer, and the word ADMITTED flashed in bright green on the screen.
A smile tugged at his lips. “Relax, sweetheart. Your heart is racing.”
Rose scowled at him. “Uh…just one question,” she mumbled. “If you can afford this kind of technology, why the heck are you still living in tombs?”
He snorted. He glanced over at Kallias and Erik and motioned for them to come to the computer. “I need your blood samples as well,” he explained.
The Tomb of Blood Page 22