Rose blushed. “You knew that I was following you?”
Kara smiled. “You can’t sneak up on me, Rose. I invented sneaking.”
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Rose argued. “I’m pretty positive that sneaking existed long before the Viking Age. The Trojan Horse, for example.”
Kara returned to Rose, invading Rose’s space again, causing the scent of violets to swirl around Rose’s head, intoxicating her with its gentle sweetness. Rose could smell the wine and blood on Kara’s breath as Kara said, “The point is…I’m good at it, and you’re not.” Her light blue eyes sparkled mischievously. “Everything about you gives you away. Your shoes squeak when you walk. Your jeans scratch. Your clothes rustle.” Kara stepped forward, placing her hand on Rose’s hip and pulling her closer, until the front of Kara’s body pressed against Rose’s. She brushed Rose’s hair aside with her other hand, and then, she leaned forward, pressing her mouth to Rose’s ear, as she added, “Not to mention, I can smell your blood from miles away, and you smell like sweet, decadent pleasure.”
An intense shudder traveled down Rose’s spine as Kara breathed that last word directly into Rose’s ear. The entire lower half of Rose’s body suddenly felt like Jell-O. Not cold Jell-O either. Extremely overheated Jell-O. Rose was beginning to understand what Elise had meant. Everything about Kara—every action, every movement, every word—seemed deliberately seductive. Rose’s cheeks flushed, and she silently pleaded with her erratic heartbeat to slow down.
Kara stepped back and swept her gaze down to Rose’s chest. She smiled as she noticed the spike in Rose’s pulse. “It’s impossible not to notice you.”
Rose’s blush deepened. “Oh,” she said breathlessly.
“So…” Kara said, raising an eyebrow. “Are you coming or not?”
“Where are you going?” Rose asked curiously.
Kara took a step backward. “Why don’t you follow me, and find out?”
“Honestly, I just wanted to talk to you,” Rose told her, “privately.”
Kara smiled. “Then, come talk to me, sexy.”
—
“How long have you been afraid of small spaces?” Kara asked.
Rose shifted her gaze toward Kara. Kara leaned against the opposite wall of the tomb as she waited for Igor to operate the elevator, watching Rose with those intense, piercing blue eyes. Rose self-consciously covered her chest with her hand, as if that would stifle the sound of her racing heart. Her chest felt painfully tight, and she could barely breathe. “Since I was seven years old.”
Kara’s light blue eyes softened with sympathy. “What happened?”
Rose stared at Kara for a moment, stunned by the concern she heard in Kara’s voice, stunned by the fact that Kara seemed to recognize something that she’d never admitted to anyone, that there was a reason she avoided small spaces. She wondered how Kara knew. “I…I don’t like to talk about it,” she stammered.
“That traumatic, huh?” Kara said, her brows creasing with concern.
Rose looked away, unnerved by Kara’s perceptiveness. “It’s not that big of a deal. I usually just avoid elevators…take the stairs…avoid…closets…”
Kara pushed away from the wall of the tomb and took one step forward, which put her directly in front of Rose, close enough to touch. Rose’s bright blue gaze shifted toward her, darkening with hunger, as Kara’s scent invaded her senses. “Look at me,” Kara said. “Don’t look at your surroundings. Only me.”
Rose swallowed uneasily as she stared into Kara’s cornflower-blue eyes, as she felt the heat that radiated from Kara’s body. “What?” she laughed nervously. “Are you some kind of expert on claustrophobia or something?”
“No,” Kara sighed, a hint of pain flashing in her icy blue eyes. She smiled gently. “But you’re not the first person I’ve known to have this problem.”
Rose nodded in understanding. “Alana?”
“Yes,” Kara said softly, “and…for similar reasons, too, I assume.”
The tomb finally shifted into motion, and the movement was so abrupt and jarring that Rose fell forward, directly onto Kara. Kara caught her easily, one arm sweeping around Rose’s waist to hold her up. Her other hand found Rose’s face, tilting it back so that she could look into Rose’s almond-shaped, azure eyes.
Rose stared up at Kara, too stunned to speak. She could feel Kara’s body against hers, every hard muscle, every soft curve, and desire thrummed through her entire body, burning inside her blood and tingling on her skin. Everything about the way Kara held her felt like a lover’s embrace, and as she felt Kara’s warm breath fall against her lips, she wondered how it would feel to kiss her.
With a loud crash, the tomb jerked to a stop.
“Ah, it’s over,” Kara sighed. She set Rose on her feet and stepped back, a mischievous smirk curving at her lips. “Just when it was getting good, too.”
Rose blinked, confused by what had just happened. She leaned against the wall of the tomb, her heart pounding against her chest, as she watched the mischievous, enigmatic vampire push the concrete slab off of the tomb.
Kara raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Are you coming?”
Rose blinked again, slowly coming out of her daze. “Oh. Uh, yeah.”
Once they were finally out of the tomb and inside the mausoleum, Rose inhaled deeply, breathing in a lungful of fresh oxygen, relieved to be outside of that tiny, stone compartment. But since they were still in an ancient mausoleum and not actually outside yet, her breath of fresh oxygen was less oxygen and more dust. She coughed and wrinkled her nose at the musty scent of the building.
When Rose looked up, she saw that Kara was already halfway down the hallway, making her way toward the heavy, stone door at the other end of the building. Rose hurried after her, quickly catching up with the strange, seductive vampire. “So,” she said, falling into step beside Kara, “how did you meet Alana?”
Kara glanced at Rose as they walked. “The same way as everyone else.”
Rose frowned at the vague answer. “By her showing up in your nightmare, making that nightmare even worse, and then asking you to help her?”
Kara’s eyebrows lifted. “I had sex with her,” she corrected.
“Oh,” Rose said, her brows furrowing. “That’s…not how I met her.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kara teased. “She’s quite good in bed.”
“Um, right,” Rose said awkwardly. “So…were you a vampire then?”
“No. I was human,” Kara answered easily. “She killed me.”
Rose frowned at the nonchalant way that Kara had said that. She’d said it as if it didn’t bother her at all. “So…then…Alana was a vampire when you met?”
Kara stopped when she reached the end of the hall. Greenish-blue light from the sky streaked into the mausoleum as she pushed open the heavy door. She leaned against the door, holding it open for Rose. “Alana had been a vampire for two days when I met her, and she didn’t have a clue what she was doing.”
Rose’s brows furrowed. “Was it an accident?”
“No,” Kara answered. “She meant to kill me.”
“Oh,” Rose said, her frown deepening.
“But in her defense,” Kara added, “I wanted to die.”
Rose stared at Kara, shocked that Kara had just told her something so personal. Something told her that Kara didn’t do that very often. “Why?”
“I did something terrible,” Kara said evasively.
Rose swallowed uneasily. “What did you do?”
Kara smiled gently. “I’ll make a deal with you,” she offered. “When you’re ready to tell me why you’re afraid of small spaces, I’ll tell you what I did.”
Rose nodded in understanding. Whatever terrible thing that Kara had done—it was hard to talk about, just like the thing that had happened to Rose.
“Go on, sexy,” Kara said with a flirty smirk. “Ladies first.”
Rose snorted at that. “And you’re not a lady?” she teased b
ack.
Kara let the door slam closed only after Rose stepped through it. “Oh, no,” she laughed, shaking her head. She tucked her hands into the back pockets of her leather pants as she descended the steps with Rose. “I am not even close to being civilized enough to be a lady, Rose. I am one-hundred-percent barbarian.”
Rose laughed, amused by her teasing. “A barbarian and a vampire.”
“Good point,” Kara chuckled, smiling at Rose, “I’m twice the bad.”
Too distracted by Kara’s flirty comments, Rose didn’t even notice the sky until a flash of green caught her eye. She froze and looked up at the sky.
Kara stopped as she heard Rose gasp. She turned back toward Rose, watching as Rose stared up at the sky. Rose’s bright blue eyes sparkled with wonder, and Kara smiled at the sight. “You’ve never seen them before?”
“The Northern Lights?” Rose said breathlessly. “No. Never.”
Kara followed her gaze, watching the flash of green in the sky that moved like a living, breathing being. “If you go further north, you can see them better,” she said, moving closer to Rose. “Have you ever seen the fjords?”
Rose shook her head. “Only in pictures.”
“I could take you to see one sometime,” Kara offered, “if you want.”
Rose blinked in surprise at the offer. “In the middle of Alana’s…war?”
“No,” Kara said, watching Rose closely. “But when all of this is over…”
“I’ll probably have to go home once all of this is over,” Rose said softly.
Kara moved even closer to Rose, until she could feel Rose’s breath on her lips, until she could feel Rose’s breasts against her own. She smiled when she heard Rose’s breath hitch at her closeness. “You’re a vampire, Rose,” she said, her breath warm against Rose’s lips. “You don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to stay anywhere. You have limitless years and nothing to hold you down.”
Rose stared at Kara as she tried to remember how to form words. Kara’s closeness unsettled her. The soft, sensual scents of leather and violets invaded her senses, beckoning her, and the scent of Kara’s blood ignited an intense, primal hunger inside of her. “Why are you standing so close to me?” she blurted.
A knowing smile curved at Kara’s lips. “Why does it bother you?”
“You just evaded my question,” Rose accused.
Kara grinned. “Didn’t you just do the same to me?” she countered.
“What? No. Yeah. Maybe,” Rose sputtered, her words spilling out in a rush.
Kara tilted her head to the side, her cornflower-blue eyes sparkling with amusement as she watched Rose, almost as if she could see the internal struggle that Rose was experiencing. She took a step backward, and with a wicked grin, she extended her wrist casually toward Rose, her palm up. “Are you hungry?”
Rose glanced down at Kara’s wrist, watching the pulse of the light blue veins. She blinked in shock as she realized that Kara was offering Rose her blood. “You just met me tonight,” she squeaked, “and you’re offering me your blood?”
“Sharing blood would be one way to get to know each other,” Kara said.
Rose stared blankly at her. “Or we could just…you know…talk.”
Kara chuckled, clearly amused by Rose’s snarky remark. She shrugged. “Fine. Your loss,” she said, still smiling as she took another step back, putting a more appropriate amount of space between them. She leaned against an angel statue that was missing one of its wings, and she crossed her arms, causing her thin, black tank top to stretch tight against her muscles. That sideways, flirty smile returned to her lips. “So, tell me, Rose: What do you want to talk about?”
“Uh…well,” Rose began, “I know that you were Alana’s lover.”
“Do you?” Kara asked with an amused smile.
Rose continued, “I want to know if you still consider yourself her lover.”
“That would depend on how you define lover,” Kara said cryptically.
“You can’t answer questions with questions,” Rose complained.
Kara stepped away from the broken angel statue and crossed the space between them. Kara’s soft, enticing scent overwhelmed Rose’s senses again as Kara stepped closer to her. “You’re asking me questions because you want to know more about me, and I’m asking you questions because I want to know more about you,” Kara said, her lips curving into a seductive smile. She leaned in close, too close, and whispered, “So far, I’m the only one winning this game.”
“What?” Rose sputtered. “You don’t know anything about me.”
For what must have been the twentieth time that night—Rose had lost count, by this point—Kara’s gaze swept down her body, lingering on a few very specific places. A smirk tugged at her lips. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?”
Rose swallowed. “Kallias doesn’t trust you, but Erik does,” she sighed. “I just want to know if I can trust you. I want to know if you’re on our side.”
“Part of my appeal is that no one knows which side I’m on,” Kara said.
“What are you saying?” Rose asked. “That you’re a double agent?”
Kara’s brows furrowed. “A what?”
“Sorry. Human word,” Rose muttered. “You’re playing both sides.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Kara said evasively. She tilted her head to the side, and her light blue eyes sparkled with curiosity. “Tell me what you think.”
Rose didn’t hesitate. “I think that you disagree with what Alana’s doing. I think that you know her better than anyone else and that you want to stop her.”
Kara’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, and a pleased smile spread across her face. “Then, it sounds to me like you already know which side I’m on.”
Rose nodded. “But what I don’t understand,” she continued, “is why you’re with her. Erik fell in love with Alana because he fell for her mind games, but you’re too perceptive. You see through all of that. So, why are you with her?”
Kara moved even closer, until the front of her body pressed against the front of Rose’s body. “Let’s just put it this way,” she whispered, “I like to keep my friends close and my enemies closer, and I like to keep Alana very, very close.”
Rose tried to pull air through her lungs, but it didn’t seem to be happening, not with this gorgeous, seductive vampire standing so close. “Then, you and I…” She swallowed. “We are on the same side? I can trust you?”
“Looks like it, sexy,” Kara said with a wink.
Rose watched as Kara turned away from her and began to stroll up the steps. “Kara?” she called out. “Can I ask you one more question?”
Kara turned toward her. “You can ask as many questions as you want.”
“Why do you keep calling me sexy?” Rose asked curiously.
Kara stared at her for a moment. “Because you don’t realize you are.”
—
Erik raised up in the bed as soon as he heard the door creak open. He muted the television as he watched Kara step into the room. She didn’t even glance his way. Instead, she walked right past him, straight to the office chair that set in front of the desk on the other side of the room. She sat down in the chair and started unlacing her boots, her blue-and-black hair falling over her face.
Erik moved to sit on the edge of the bed, facing her. “Kara,” he said, watching her warily, as if he were afraid she’d attack him again. “We should talk.”
“No, we really shouldn’t,” she said as she continued unlacing her boots.
Erik sighed and decided to start with an easier topic. “Have you seen Kallias and Rose? They went to the bar, but they haven’t come back yet.”
“I did see them, yes,” Kara answered. She just left it there for a moment, ignoring Erik’s expectant look, as she finished removing her boots. She tossed them aside and leaned back in her chair. “Rose is headed back to the bar now.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Back?” he repeated. “Where was she?”
A hint of mischief sparkled in Kara’s cornflower-blue eyes. “With me.”
Erik snorted, “Is that really all you’re going to tell me?”
“I might have told the old Erik more, but…” Kara shrugged.
His smile faded. “Kara, I’m still the same person. I just…”
“Spend all of your time killing people like me?” she finished for him.
“No. They’re not like you,” Erik tried to explain. “You’re different.”
Kara tilted her head back, her dark, silky hair falling back, over the back of the chair, as she stared at the ceiling. “Rose said that she needed to go back to the bar to talk to Kallias. I assumed that, by talk, she meant that they were going to fight about something, so I came back here. I didn’t want to intrude.”
Erik frowned at that. “That’s a strange assumption to make.”
“Not really,” Kara said absently. “It was all in her body language.”
He nodded. “They’ve been fighting a lot lately. Well…not really fighting. More like…dancing around a fight. Kallias is angry, but he doesn’t want to fight.”
Kara folded her arms behind her head and leaned back in the office chair. It squeaked as the front wheels rose off of the floor. “Bad combination.”
Erik nodded in agreement. “He still hasn’t forgiven her for dying.”
Her brows furrowed. “That’s a weird thing to be pissed off about.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t see how much it hurt him,” he sighed.
“Pain isn’t an excuse to hurt someone else,” Kara said. “You and I know how that feels. Hurting others doesn’t fix you. It just breaks someone else.”
Erik just stared at her for a moment. The emotions that rose up inside of him at that moment were thick enough to choke him. After all of these years, it felt so soothing and so healing to have someone who actually understood his pain, someone who actually understood how broken he was. Rose and Kallias were sympathetic, of course, but it wasn’t the same as having someone in front of him who had actually suffered in the same way that he had. “You were the only person who ever really understood,” he confessed quietly, “about Alana.”
The Tomb of Blood Page 27