Kallias handed her the towel, watching as she wrapped it around her bare, damp body. “You’re being ridiculous, Rose. You’re beautiful,” he sighed.
“Because I’m a vampire?” Rose asked again.
“I always thought you were beautiful, Rose,” he reminded her.
Rose glanced back at her reflection. “I look different.”
“A little,” Kallias agreed, “but not as much as you think.”
“But do you think I’m more attractive now?” she asked stubbornly.
Kallias stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her middle, his arms crossing against her towel-clad stomach, his front pressed against her back. He pressed his face against the damp skin of her neck, and he replied, his words vibrating against her skin, “I’m as attracted to you now as I have always been.”
Rose shivered at the sensation of his breath against her neck, and a buzz of adrenaline rushed through her as the blood bond that she shared with him seemed to awaken beneath his touch. The tiredness and pain melted away as hunger and desire took its place. “I need to get dressed,” she mumbled, blushing.
He lifted his head, and his dark, heated gaze met hers in the mirror. That infuriating smirk of his tugged at the corners of his lips, proving that even if he was being uncharacteristically nice, he was still the same guy who once made her so angry that she marched directly into a stack of crates. “So soon?” he teased.
Her bright blue eyes narrowed at his reflection. “I’m trying really hard to not feel totally embarrassed that you saw me naked at the most unsexy time.”
He bent his head again and kissed her bare shoulder, scattering chill bumps across her creamy, freckled skin. “Do you really want me to leave?”
“Hmm?” Rose murmured. Her eyes fluttered closed, her wet eyelashes brushing her cheeks, as she moaned at the sensation of his lips on her skin.
“I said,” Kallias said as he kissed her neck, “do you want me to leave?”
When he pressed his lips against her neck once again, Rose decided that she couldn’t handle it anymore. She spun around to face him, the sink pressing against her back, the front of her body pressing against his, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down until their lips met. Kallias groaned in response, and he moved his arms to circle around her, his hands against her back.
His lips curved into a smile against hers. “I guess that’s a no.”
She blushed. “Shut up,” she muttered before kissing him again.
He laughed against her lips as he kissed her again. He leaned forward, his weight pressing her back against the bathroom sink. His hands closed around her hips, and he lifted her up easily and set her down on the flatter portion of the bathroom counter. The black marble of the counter felt cold and slick against her legs, and his body, which pressed against hers as he stood between her legs, felt warm and rough against her cold, damp skin. Kallias threaded his fingers in her long, wet hair that dripped cold water steadily down her back, and his tongue moved against hers as he deepened the kiss. He tasted of peppermint and blood.
“I’m so hungry,” Rose whispered against his lips, panting breathlessly.
He laughed, “What? Already? You just fed a few hours ago.”
Her cheeks reddened, and she pressed her palm against his chest, feeling the soft fabric of his shirt as she pushed him back. “I can’t help it,” she muttered.
He frowned as he realized that he’d upset her. “I was only teasing, Rose. It doesn’t bother me. You know you can feed from me whenever you want.”
Rose covered her mouth with her hand, hiding her fangs. From whom, she had no idea. Her cheeks burned with humiliation, and the shame felt thick in her throat—painfully suffocating. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she said.
“Rose,” Kallias said, his brows furrowing, “if you’re hungry, just feed.”
Rose stared at the swirling design of the black countertop, unable to look him in the eye. “I can control my hunger,” she insisted, “just like you.”
Kallias sighed and stepped closer to her. He placed his hand on her face and tilted her head back, forcing her to look at him. “I have been a vampire for twenty-five hundred years, and I still don’t always have the best restraint. In my first few decades as a vampire, I couldn’t live anywhere near civilization. I hid myself away in a cave because it was the only way to stop myself from killing people. Rose, no one expects you to have total control over your hunger yet.”
Before Rose could respond to that, three knocks sounded at the door.
Rose squealed in embarrassment and hopped off—or fell off—of the bathroom counter. Kallias caught her by the arm before she could hurt herself.
“Graceful,” Kallias said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. He watched her as she pulled the towel tighter around herself. “You do realize that he can’t see you, right? I mean, we have sensitive eyesight, but we can’t see through walls.”
Rose ignored him and began to sift through the clothes she’d laid out.
“What do you want, Erik?” Kallias called out.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Erik yelled from the other side of the door.
“Then, why do you do it so much?” Kallias complained grumpily.
Rose froze, her eyes widening. “Interrupt?” she sputtered. “Why would you think that you were interrupting something? We weren’t doing anything!”
Erik started laughing, which only caused Rose to blush more.
Kallias rolled his eyes. “Your reactions are the reason he does this.”
“Usually, yes,” Erik snorted, “but I actually have a real reason this time.”
“What is it?” Kallias asked, watching as Rose slipped into her blue jeans.
“Geoff and Emma are waiting for you downstairs,” Erik answered.
Rose frowned at that. “Are you going somewhere?” she asked Kallias.
Kallias regarded her with a wary expression. “Okay. Tell them that I’ll be down there in just a minute,” he told Erik. He waited silently until Erik left.
“You’re going somewhere?” Rose asked again.
He sighed, “It’s time for me to get back into the routine of things. If we want the streets to stay safe for humans, we have to be out there, keeping an eye on them,” he explained. “Granted, I think you wiped out most of the dangerous vampire population of New York City the night that you killed Theron, but it’s been a few weeks since then. There are bound to be more out there by now.”
Rose clutched the towel tightly, staring at the wall, as memories of that night once again flooded her mind—the screams of vampires burning to death.
“Shit,” Kallias said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned that night.”
“I’m fine,” Rose lied, blinking as she tried to clear her mind. She looked up at him. “Okay, so you’re going out. Let me get dressed. I’ll come with you.”
“No,” he said quickly. “You’re not ready for that yet.”
“Not ready?” Rose said incredulously. “You’ve been training me to fight every night for the last three weeks. How much more training could I need?”
“I’m not talking about your fighting skills,” Kallias said hesitantly. When she just frowned at him, he sighed and continued, “You’ve been a vampire for less than a month, Rose. You can’t control your hunger yet. It’s too dangerous.”
A spark of red flashed in Rose’s eyes. “You mean I’m too dangerous.”
“No,” Kallias said slowly. “No. That’s not what I mean.”
“You think I’ll kill someone,” Rose realized. Her eyes began to change.
He watched her eyes warily, well-aware of what it meant when her eyes turned red. “Rose, you need to calm down. When we’re hungry, our emotions become volatile and difficult to control. That’s what you’re feeling right now.”
“Don’t tell me what I’m feeling,” Rose snarled. That crimson-red haze overtook her eyes, consuming them, like fire. “I know exactly what I’m feeling.”
Kallias frowned at the mirror as he heard it rattling against the wall. “Baby, you need to calm down. You’re going to break something,” he warned.
“Answer me,” Rose growled. “You think I’ll kill someone, don’t you?”
“Clearly, I should’ve let you feed before this conversation,” he muttered.
“I’m not angry. I just want you to answer me,” Rose said…angrily.
“Fine. The answer is yes,” Kallias said, his eyes narrowing at her. “I do worry about the possibility of you killing someone. You are a baby vampire.”
“Don’t call me that,” Rose said. “I know that’s a condescending term.”
He nodded. “Sorry. You’re a young vampire,” he corrected, “and in the first few years—sometimes centuries—vampires cannot control their hunger.”
“I can,” she insisted. “How could you think that I would kill someone?”
“Because it’s just a fact of what we are. Killing is in our nature,” Kallias explained, “and it’s already pretty clear that you have an insatiable appetite…”
“Well, you know, you wouldn’t have to deal with my insatiable appetite,” she snarled as the walls began to shake, “if you hadn’t turned me into a monster.”
His eyes narrowed at that. “That’s not fair,” he said steadily. “You died.”
“As if forcing me into an eternity of misery isn’t enough,” Rose growled, “you also expect me to stay locked up in here forever, like a freaking prisoner.”
“Not forever,” he argued, “just until you can control yourself a little.”
Her eyes turned a darker shade of red. “Who says I can’t?” she snapped.
He laughed in disbelief, gesturing at the walls that were currently shaking from the force of her power. “Well, the walls, for one,” he quipped bitterly.
Rose squeezed her eyes shut, her hands clenching into fists at her side, as she tried to regain control of the dark, volatile power inside of her. “Just go.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone while you’re like this,” Kallias said.
“I said go!” she screamed.
The sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the bathroom.
Kallias glanced at the mirror and sighed, “Fine.” Then, he left the room.
Rose braced her hands on the bathroom counter, curling forward, as she panted harshly, trying to regain control of the dark power that burned inside of her. Slowly and reluctantly, she raised her head so that she could look at the mirror. She sighed as she realized that every inch of the glass had shattered, leaving only the metal frame where the mirror had been. “Dang it,” she muttered.
—
“Ouch. Just…freaking ouch,” Rose groaned as her back hit the concrete floor. She stared up at the black ceiling, wincing as pain spread throughout her back, stabbing into her spine like thousands of splinters. She narrowed her eyes irritably when Erik’s face appeared over her, blocking her view of the ceiling.
“Sorry, Rose,” he said, wincing. “I thought you would dodge me.”
She flashed a sarcastic smile at him. “That was the plan.”
Erik held his hand out to her, and she begrudgingly placed her hand in his, allowing him to pull her back to her feet. He watched as she rubbed the back of her neck and winced at the soreness. “Are you all right?” he asked worriedly.
“Obviously,” Rose muttered. She shrugged. “I mean, what’s the worst that could have happened? Even if you had broken my spine, I’d just heal, right?”
Erik grimaced. “If I break your spine, Kallias will kill me.”
Rose patted him on the shoulder. “Relax. I’m fine. Maybe.”
Erik looked relieved…until he realized what she’d said. “Wait. Maybe?”
Rose sighed tiredly and rocked back on her heels, her Converse tennis shoes squeaking against the concrete floor. She swept her gaze around the basement, noticing the coldness and the eeriness of the dark, empty room with black walls and concrete floors. It was really the only room in the house that screamed vampire…or, at the very least, darkness. The rest of the house looked fairly normal. Well…as long as you didn’t count the complete lack of windows or the seventy arsenals worth of weapons, of course. “I’m not cut out for this.”
He scowled at her pessimism. “You’re doing fine.”
“Says the guy who just knocked me flat on my back,” she muttered.
Erik sighed, “Rose, you’ve been learning to fight for what? Three weeks? Four? I’ve been fighting for thirteen hundred years. I was a Viking warrior. I fought my first battle before I hit puberty. No one expects you to beat me.”
“You guys were in serious need of some child labor laws,” Rose muttered.
“You’ve blocked every punch I’ve thrown at you tonight,” Erik added.
“Yet, I somehow missed your entire body coming at me,” she grumbled.
Erik raked his fingers through his wavy, blonde hair. “I’m serious, Rose. I’m sincerely impressed by how much you’ve learned, just by training with Kallias for a few weeks. I wouldn’t recommend you for battle or anything, but you’re mastering the basics fairly well. Just look at how well you’ve fought against me.”
Rose scowled at him. “You’re holding back,” she accused.
“Of course I’m holding back,” he laughed. “I’m a thirteen-hundred-year-old vampire, and I’m fighting against someone who has been a vampire for a few weeks. If I don’t hold back, I might accidentally rip your arm off.”
“That sounds pleasant,” she muttered sarcastically.
Erik offered her an encouraging smile. “You have a lot of potential.”
“Potential?” Rose scoffed, laughing at the absurdity. “A month ago, I was a nerd whose idea of exercise was walking back and forth to the library to get more books. And now, I’m a nerd with fangs. I’m never going to be a warrior.”
“Anyone can be a warrior,” Erik argued. “Warrior is a mindset.”
“Not according to the definition,” she corrected.
Erik grimaced. “I swear, if you start reciting the definition of warrior to me, I’ll throw you on that floor again,” he warned, pointing at the concrete floor.
Rose pouted, “But…”
“No buts,” Erik interrupted. “It’s so annoying when you do that.”
“It’s so annoying when you exist,” Rose countered immaturely.
Erik opened his mouth to offer what would’ve most likely been a sassy comeback, but a loud buzzing noise interrupted him. It echoed from somewhere inside the house. Rose cringed as the high-pitched, screechy sound irritated her sensitive ears, but Erik just smiled. “My lasagna is finished,” he announced.
Rose wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Eww.”
“Eww? You used to like my cooking,” Erik pouted.
“I know,” Rose sighed, dragging her fingers through her long ponytail that had fallen over her shoulder while she fought. “It’s not your cooking. It’s food in general. It all seems so…gross…now. The only thing I ever want now is…”
“Blood?” Erik interrupted, his green eyes sparkling with amusement.
She dropped her hand to her side. “Yeah,” she sighed.
Erik grinned. “Welcome to the life of a vampire.”
She scowled at him, and then, she followed as he headed out of the basement gym and up the stairs, into the hallway. “How do you do it?” she asked curiously, following him through the hallway. The scent of Italian herbs and spices, sauce, and cheese drifted down the hallway, originating from the kitchen. “How do you eat human food every day when all you really want is blood?”
Erik shrugged one shoulder. “You’ll eat anything when you’re starving.”
Rose winced sympathetically. “Sorry,” she sighed, pausing at the end of the hallway as Erik opened the door to the kitchen. “Kallias won’t let me starve.”
Erik leaned against the door, holding it open, as he waited for her to lead the way into the kitchen. “Be thankful for th
at,” he said seriously.
“I am,” she said defensively. She stepped into the kitchen, wincing as the obnoxious buzzing of the oven burned her ears. The warmth of the kitchen enveloped her, bathing her body in warm, lasagna-scented air. “It’s just…” She watched as Erik grabbed an oven mitten from the counter, frowning as she noticed that there were puppies—cute, little puppies—on Erik’s oven mitten.
Erik opened the oven door, revealing the tinfoil-covered pan inside. “It’s just…what?” he prompted as he dropped the pan of lasagna on the counter.
Rose shrugged. “I hate feeling like this. I hate feeling this all-consuming need for blood, this…dependence…on it,” she said, cringing at the word dependence.
“But you do need blood,” Erik said as he uncovered the pan and sniffed at the pasta inside. “Starving yourself wouldn’t change that. As a matter of fact, it would just make it more obvious. When you don’t feed, you feel sick and weak. You feel less…whole. It’s miserable. That need for blood—it’s just what we are.”
“But you and Kallias have survived without it,” she pointed out.
“Survived,” Erik repeated. “Have you ever noticed that no one uses the word survived to describe something pleasant? You survive injuries. You survive hardships. You survive misery. Trust me, Rose. You don’t want to survive immortality. If you have a harmless way to feed—which you do—then, just feed.”
Rose leaned against the oak table that set in the middle of the kitchen. “It’s just hard. Everything has changed, and I just… I want to feel normal again.”
“No, you want to feel human again,” Erik corrected. He grabbed a short, square glass from one of the cabinets above the stove. “Face it, Rose. You were never normal. You can move things with your mind, resist telepathic control… You can literally make your will a reality. You’re the Eklektos. There is nothing about you that is normal. What you really want is to feel human again, but you’re not human. Not anymore. You’re a vampire. This is your normal now.”
The Tomb of Blood Page 3
