As Kara turned to strap the knives to the band around her stomach, Rose caught the full view of the front of her body. A thin layer of black spandex held Kara’s breasts close to her chest, and a small, almost unnoticeable scar marred the otherwise flawless skin of her flat, lean stomach, just above her belly button. But it was that strange tattoo that caught Rose’s eye—the tattoo that she had briefly glimpsed the night before—an intricate, unfamiliar flower that curled around Kara’s right hip, the leaves partially hidden by the waistband of her pants.
It looked almost like a cross between a rose and a dahlia, except…even that didn’t seem like an adequate description. Rose had never seen anything like it. Its petals looked soft like velvet and smooth like silk. The petals curled in at the edges, swirling toward the center, as if the center were a source of gravity. Shades of lavender, pink, baby blue, and red colored the petals, as if someone had spilled an assortment of beautiful colors on top of the flower. The flower looked so realistic, curling along Kara’s hipbone, that Rose almost forgot that she was looking at a tattoo and not an actual flower. This flower—whatever it was—it was beyond beautiful. It was breathtaking. It was a piece of art, all in itself.
Erik cleared his throat. “Uh…Rose? You’re kind of staring.”
Rose blinked in shock, her cheeks flushing a deep, dark red as she realized that they were all looking at her…again. “I…I wasn’t,” she stuttered. She pointed at Kara’s hip. “I was looking at the tattoo. She has a tattoo. See?”
Kara flashed that flirty smile at her. “I have several.”
“The flower,” Rose clarified. “It’s an interesting flower.”
Kara’s smile seemed to change, losing its flirty tilt for just a moment, as the curve of her lips deepened. She seemed genuinely surprised—and pleased—that Rose had noticed the flower. But the seriousness faded as quickly as it had come, and that flirty mischievousness returned to take its place. “I have one here,” she murmured, dragging her fingertip up the inside of her left thigh. She tilted her head to the side, smiling seductively. “Would you like to see?”
Rose swallowed. “Uh…I think that one should probably stay covered.”
Erik raised his hand, like a student in grade school. “I’d like to see it.”
Kara chuckled and returned to sliding her weapons into the belt around her stomach, completely ignoring him. The band kept the weapons tucked close to her skin, close enough that they weren’t visible through the thin fabric of her tank top. When she finished with that small weapon belt, she pulled on her shirt and began packing the larger weapon belt around her waist with weapons as well.
“How many weapons does one person need?” Rose muttered.
“It’s not a question of need, really,” Kara said. “It’s a question of want.”
Kallias pulled his phone out of the pocket of his leather jacket, checking the time. The screen read: 8:30 P.M. “So, what is the plan for tonight?”
After Kara finished packing her second weapon belt, she slid the drawer closed and leaned casually against the dresser, fully clothed again. “I don’t know about you, but I have to patrol the streets and keep an eye out for Alana’s army.”
“I’ll go with you,” Erik offered, “just in case you run into Alana.”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Kallias asked Erik. “You heard that phone call yesterday. Alana specifically asked Kara to bring you to her.”
“And I said no,” Kara reminded him.
Erik sighed, “Alana said that she would kill innocent humans, if Kara doesn’t bring me to her. I don’t want those lives on my hands. Alana has done all of this to get my attention. I’m not going to pretend that she doesn’t have it.”
Kara shook her head. “Alana did all of this to remind you that she is in control. You think she’ll stop when she sees you? Alana isn’t going to stop until she is certain that she has broken you. How can you not understand that?”
“You seem awfully sure of what Alana wants,” Kallias said suspiciously.
“I am,” Kara said. “Because I’ve been through this before. Over and over. For the last fourteen hundred years. This is how Alana has always been.”
Erik shrugged. “I can’t hide from Alana. She’s already made that clear.”
“Then, don’t,” Kallias agreed. “But do you really want to put your life in her hands?” he asked, jabbing his finger in Kara’s direction. “Especially after she has made it so obvious that she is angry at you for killing vampires?”
Kara sighed, “When I’m angry at someone, I express my anger. I don’t hand them over to a woman who will rip their mind apart from the inside out.” She crossed her arms and looked away as she muttered, “I’m not that evil.”
“When she says that she expresses her anger, she means she kicks their ass,” Erik said playfully. But then, his gaze shifted toward Kara, and his smile faded. He watched her curiously, surprised by the emotions he felt emanating from her. He shifted his gaze back toward Kallias and sighed, “Kallias, I know that you’re just looking out for me because you care, but Kara is my friend, too. I trust her.”
“Fine,” Kallias said. “I hope, for your sake, that you’re right about her.”
“What about you and Rose?” Erik asked Kallias. “What will you do?”
Kallias shrugged. “I suppose we should split up. Cover more space,” he said. “You and Kara take half the area, and Rose and I will take the other half.”
Kara nodded. “I’ll give you a list of the streets.”
Rose frowned. “Is splitting up really the best idea?” she said skeptically. “Wouldn’t it be wiser to stay together? I mean…what if we do run into Alana?”
Kallias scowled at her. “Isn’t that kind of the whole point?”
Kara watched Rose, her arms crossed across her chest, as she considered Rose’s point. “You’re right,” she sighed. “We would be stronger together. But Alana would never let all of us get close to her. She knows that it would leave her vulnerable. Our best chance of finding her is if we split up, like Kallias said.”
Kallias raised an eyebrow at Kara, surprised that she’d agreed with him.
Erik seemed to agree as well. “Alana can be arrogant sometimes, but she’s also afraid. She doesn’t like to take risks. Honestly, I doubt she would have even let you approach her back in Florida, if Kallias and I had been with you. She probably only allowed you to get close to her because she knew you were alone.”
“You wouldn’t have been alone,” Kallias growled, “if I had known.”
Rose scowled at him. “Are we still arguing about this?”
“Yes,” he grumbled stubbornly, glaring at a random spot on the wall.
“I was trying to save my friend’s life,” Rose complained.
“And you couldn’t have picked up the phone and called?” Kallias asked.
“Yes, but that would have wasted time!” Rose pointed out, shaking her head in frustration. “You know? That thing that I already didn’t have enough of?”
“You went after Alana by yourself?” Kara asked suddenly. She stared at Rose, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. “That was very…brave…of you.”
Kallias scowled. “Or dumb. Dumb would also be a good word for it.”
“Brave?” Rose repeated, surprised. “Oh, no, not really. I didn’t know it was Alana until after I got there. I didn’t even know Alana was alive until then.”
“Would you have still gone, if you had known?” Kara asked.
“Well, yeah, of course,” Rose said, frowning. “My friend was in danger.”
Kara smiled at her. “Then, you’re brave.”
Rose stared back at her, not sure how to respond. Her face felt hot, and her throat felt tight with emotion. Kara seemed so sure of her statement. Her words rang with confidence and certainty, and her smile looked so genuine and affectionate. But Rose didn’t feel brave…especially not when she was surrounded by such fearless, ancient warriors, like Kallias, Erik, and Kara. “Um…thanks.�
�
Kara tilted her head to the side, a lock of black hair falling over her shoulder. “You would have made a great Viking,” she added, her smile widening.
“Really?” Rose asked dryly, her bewilderment morphing into disbelief. “I didn’t realize there was such a high demand for weird, awkward nerds among the ranks of Vikings.” She shrugged. “I must have missed that history unit.”
Kara laughed at her sarcasm. “I would’ve had a high demand for you.”
Rose blinked in shock. “Um,” she sputtered, blushing, “what?”
Erik snorted, “If you two are finished, we should probably get going.”
—
Erik grinned. “You like her, don’t you?” he accused.
Kara tucked her hands into the back pockets of her leather pants as they walked. Her icy blue eyes shifted toward him. “Who? Rose?” she asked. A smirk curved at her lips. “She’s strong, sweet, clever, beautiful… What’s not to like?”
“Ha! I knew it!” he laughed.
She chuckled at his excitement. “I wasn’t exactly trying to hide it.”
Erik shook his head at her. “Some things never change.”
Her piercing, blue eyes narrowed at him. “And some things do.”
His smile faded. “You’re right,” he agreed, his green eyes softening with sympathy. “I have changed. But…it’s a good change, Kara. I’m trying to do the right thing. You remember how I was. I killed so many people. I was a monster.”
Kara looked away, her jaw tightening. “We’re all monsters.”
“No, we’re vampires. We’re animalistic and dangerous, but we’re not evil. We don’t have to kill humans,” Erik argued. He stared at her as they walked, an unnerving intensity burning in his gaze. “I know that you understand, Kara.”
Her gaze snapped toward him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I know what this is about. You’re angry because you already feel terrible about killing humans,” Erik accused. “You never liked to kill them. You and Alana used to fight about it. And knowing that I’ve killed people like you—that I think it’s wrong, too—makes you feel even worse about it. But Kara, the ones that I’ve killed—they weren’t like you. They enjoyed killing humans. You don’t.”
“You know nothing about me,” she snarled between clenched teeth.
“We were best friends,” Erik argued. “Practically brother and sister.”
She scoffed, “If the brother and sister fucked the same woman.”
Erik laughed at that. He shoved his hands into his pockets as they turned the corner onto the next street. “Well, that’s kind of why we were friends, at first, wasn’t it? We bonded over our mutual love and hatred for Alana. We helped each other survive. But later, I think our friendship was based on more than that.”
“You left,” she said in a cold, emotionless voice. “For thirteen hundred years, you escaped. Or you thought you did, at least. I didn’t have that luxury.”
“I know,” he said softly. He looked at her, his green eyes softening with sympathy. “You have suffered so much, and you didn’t even have a friend.”
She looked away. “I don’t need anyone. I never have.”
Erik watched her, noticing how the pale, blue moonlight danced across her fair skin as they walked. “Alana still shows up in my dreams,” he confessed.
Kara glanced at him, her brows creasing with sympathy. “Mine, too.”
“It hurts,” he admitted, his voice thick with emotion, “every time.”
She looked down, her sleek, black-and-blue hair falling around her face, hiding the pain and sadness in her expression. “Yeah. It does,” she sighed.
Erik smiled, relieved that they were talking again, like they did before. “Come on,” he pleaded. “Tell me we’re still friends. Tell me you don’t hate me.”
Kara rolled her eyes. “Ugh, you’re so sensitive,” she groaned. “Fine. Yes. We’re still friends. I don’t know how to feel about who you are now, but since you have to hear it said, yes, I never stopped thinking of you as a friend.”
Erik grinned victoriously. “Yes! I knew it! I’m so good at this.”
Kara scowled at him. “At what? Stating the obvious?”
“Reading people,” he corrected braggingly.
“Erik, you’re an empath,” Kara laughed, shaking her head as she led the way down another dark alleyway. “You’re supposed to be good at reading people.”
Erik opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, the scent of fresh blood suddenly flooded his senses, igniting his hunger. He froze. “Blood.”
“It’s about four blocks from here,” Kara commented, looking up at the dark, block buildings that surrounded them. She squinted at the fire escape to the building on her left—a rickety set of metal stairs that led up to the fifth floor of the building. “We can cut across through the buildings. It’ll save some time.”
He nodded in agreement. “Lead the way.”
Erik followed as Kara led the way up the fire escape, the metal stairs swaying under their inhumanly fast footsteps. He followed as she slid through the window, into the top floor of the building. But as Kara picked up speed, leaping from building to building with a speed and precision that Erik wasn’t accustomed to, he fell behind. By the time he reached the source of the blood, Kara was already on the ground, standing beside the corpse of a woman.
Erik leapt over the stairwell and landed unsteadily beside her.
“We were too late,” Kara said without looking at him. “She’s dead.”
Erik stared at the woman, feeling a cold sense of dread wash over him. Long, curly black hair covered the woman’s face, and her body seemed folded in a strange position, as if she’d fallen onto the pavement after she died. Dark, crimson blood stained the collar of the woman’s white button-down shirt, a shirt she wore under a black business suit. The woman’s pants were unbuttoned and wrinkled, as if they’d been hastily undone recently. Her dark skin had an ashen tint to it, the skin of someone who had been drained of blood. But she still smelled of fresh, wet, human blood. The scent of death had not yet taken up residence in her body, which meant that she couldn’t have been dead for long.
Kara crouched next to the woman’s crumpled body and ran her fingers over the woman’s forehead, brushing her curls aside. “She’s not cold yet.”
Erik had retained a tiny shred of hope that maybe this had been the kill of another vampire, but as he stepped around the body and saw the flash of blue beneath the woman’s long, black curls, that hope evaporated. “The orchid.”
Kara looked up at him as he said that, and then, she followed his gaze down to the blue petal peeking out beneath the woman’s beautiful mass of curls. She brushed the woman’s hair aside, revealing the rest of the blue orchid. She reached over and wrapped her long, slender fingers around the orchid’s stem. Several drops of blood from the woman’s neck stained the orchid, leaving eerie, blackish spots on the beautiful blue petals. Kara sighed as she looked down at the orchid in her hand, “Alana always did have a thing for theatrics, didn’t she?”
Erik reached down and took the orchid from her hand. As he stared at the dark blue petals, stained with drops of blood, his mind whirled with painful memories—memories of Alana—some happy, others heartbreaking. “Yeah.”
Kara moved closer to the woman, still crouched low beside the body, her black, leather pants stretched tight around her muscular hips and thighs. Then, she began to gently slide the woman’s suit jacket down her arms.
Erik raised an eyebrow. “Kara? Why are you undressing the corpse?”
Kara rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not. I’m checking her pockets.”
“If you need money, I could loan you a few dollars,” Erik offered.
Kara finished removing the woman’s jacket and then reached into the inner pocket. She pulled out a piece of stationary—a piece of elegant, linen paper, engraved with flowers and carrying the faint scent of perfume. Kara unfolded the paper and read the handwri
tten note scrawled across the stationary. “How romantic,” she muttered. “She sends us corpses with her love letters.”
Erik frowned at her. “What does the note say?”
Kara stood and handed Erik the piece of stationary paper. The scent of the perfumed paper filled his senses as he peered down at the elegant, cursive handwriting that looped and curled beautifully. He recognized the handwriting immediately. It was Alana’s handwriting. The note read, “With love, Alana.”
Erik looked at Kara. “How did she know we would find this?”
“Because she’s watching us,” Kara said simply. “Obviously.”
He blinked in shock. “From where?”
Kara rolled her eyes at him and pointed at the buildings that surrounded the alley, directing his attention to the dingy windows above the fire exits. “From the windows, of course,” she said as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. She shook her head. “Honestly, Erik, your observation skills need work.”
Erik stared blankly at Kara for a moment, frustrated that she had known that they were being watched and hadn’t bothered to say anything. Then, he inhaled deeply, breathing in the powerful, overwhelming scent of fresh, human blood that had drowned out all of the other scents. Beyond that scent, he noticed other scents—the terrible, pungent scent of a nearby garbage dumpster, the thick scent of car exhaust from across the street, where a car idled outside of an old apartment building, the scent of dust from within the unused buildings that surrounded the alley, and then…the sweet scent of a vampire. Many of them, actually. Probably twenty, at least. He glanced around at the buildings, realizing that there were vampires in both buildings. “We’re surrounded,” he realized.
Kara tilted her head to the side as she stared at one specific window. A bitter smile twitched at her lips as she made eye contact with the dark blue eyes that watched them from behind that dingy, cracked window. “Yep,” she agreed.
Erik glared at Kara. “A warning would have been nice,” he complained.
“If you were paying attention, you wouldn’t have needed one,” she said.
“Is there a way to get out of here without fighting them?” Erik asked.
The Tomb of Blood Page 30