Rose frowned. “There what is?”
“That gorgeous smile of yours,” Kara murmured.
Rose let out a short, surprised laugh. She looked down, watching her shoes, her disheveled, auburn hair falling around her face, hiding her blushing cheeks. “I should probably warn you,” she said. “Flattery doesn’t work on me.”
“It’s not flattery if it’s true,” Kara countered.
Rose raised an eyebrow, her lips curving in amusement. She laughed. “I’m beginning to understand how you get so many women into your bed.”
Kara glanced at Rose, her icy blue eyes sparkling with mischief. “Is that your way of saying that you want to be in my bed?” she asked with a wicked grin.
Rose stopped so abruptly that she nearly tripped over her own feet. She looked at Kara, her eyes wide with mortified horror. “No! No,” she sputtered, her words spilling out in a jumbled rush. “That’s not my way. I mean…I don’t have a way. I don’t say things like that. But if I did, that wouldn’t be my way.”
Kara continued to tease, “So, you don’t say it…but you do think it?”
Rose felt heat rush to her face. “What? Uh, that’s…” she stammered.
Kallias suddenly cleared his throat, interrupting their conversation.
Rose glanced up, her face turning an even brighter shade of red as she realized that Kallias, Erik, and Elise were watching them. “Oh…uh…hey.”
Erik snorted, “Weirdo.”
“We should go,” Kallias said. If their little argument had bothered him at all, he hid it well. “If we want to make it there before Alana’s army, that is.”
“If they’re not already there,” Kara muttered under her breath.
24
Surrender to the Darkness
Aaron wiped the blood from his mouth as he stepped out of the cell. He closed the heavy, metal door, locking the unconscious woman in the room.
“Someone has been a naughty boy,” said a familiar, seductive voice.
Aaron froze at the sound of that voice—a voice that he hadn’t heard in centuries. His dark eyes widened as he saw her, and the phone fell out of his hand, hitting the floor with a loud clack. She leaned against the wall across from the cells, watching him with that seductive smile curving at the edges of her lips. Aaron breathed out a long string of words that she didn’t even vaguely recognize.
“I don’t know what that meant, but it didn’t sound classy,” Alana said.
Aaron glanced around, as if he were expecting someone else to be with her. “Who let you in?” he asked Alana, his eyes wider than she’d ever seen them.
“Osiris,” Alana answered, her smile widening. “He’s been on my side all along. Apparently, war is quite profitable for immoral, rich people like him.”
Aaron let out a frustrated sigh. “Damn it,” he grumbled.
Alana giggled and stepped forward. Her heels clicked against the marble floor as she approached him, as she pressed her blood-soaked body against him. “The funny part is,” she murmured, tracing the V-neck collar of his T-shirt with her fingernail, “you’re more upset that Rose was right and you were wrong than you are that Osiris betrayed you.” She poked out her bottom lip and, in the most condescending tone possible, said, “Poor, little Aaron doesn’t like to be wrong.”
“I was only feeling casually homicidal before you showed up,” Aaron said. “Now, I’m fantasizing about ripping you apart and bathing in your blood.”
“Such a violent person,” she said, tapping him on the nose. “Bad boy!”
He exhaled shakily, his dark eyes wide and murderous.
Alana smiled. “You must really want to kill me right now,” she mused.
He grasped her wrists and leaned in close. “That doesn’t even scratch the surface of what I want to do to you,” he snarled between clenched teeth.
Alana tossed her head back and laughed, clearly enjoying herself, despite Aaron’s enraged threat. She smiled and whispered, “Then, why haven’t you?”
Aaron immediately released her wrists, his dark eyes widening in shock.
“Come on, Aaron. Don’t be such a tease!” Alana cooed. “Kill me.”
“I can’t,” he breathed, horrified by the realization. “I can’t do it.”
Her smile widened—so wide that her razor-sharp fangs were visible. “Of course you can’t,” she giggled, casually running her fingers through his thick, black hair. She pulled playfully at the curls. “Because I’m already in your head.”
Aaron winced as she tugged harshly at his hair, but he made no move to stop her. It would’ve hurt his pride too much to do that. “When?” he sighed.
Alana shrugged. “It’s easy to take control of someone’s mind when they’re feeding or having sex. Your will becomes so weak during those activities.”
He glanced back at the door of the cell, at the room where he’d left the human unconscious and drained of blood. Well, she was human. Not anymore. He returned his gaze to Alana. “Then, you’d already done it before I saw you?”
“Of course,” she said. “I couldn’t give you the chance to stop me.”
His brows furrowed. “Stop you from doing what?”
“Destroying the Tomb of Blood,” she said proudly, practically bragging.
A hint of fear flashed in his dark eyes. “No. You can’t do that.”
“Aww,” Alana cooed, looping her arms around his neck. She giggled, “If only everyone knew about your soft spot. I’m almost embarrassed for you.”
“Alana, the Tomb of Blood is like a sanctuary for vampires. It’s a place where they’re supposed to feel free and safe. If you kill them here…” Aaron paused, shaking his head. “Do you realize the kind of fear this will provoke?”
Alana raised her eyebrow. “The kind of fear that results in war?”
Aaron raked his fingers through his hair and exhaled shakily. It amused Alana to see Aaron anxious about something—Aaron, the perpetually bored, self-assured vampire. “What do you want?” he sighed. “Do you want me to hand you every rapist and slave trader in the world? Because I can. I have the resources to find them, to track them down. I’ll deliver them to you. You can make them suffer as much as you want. I’ll give you whatever you want. Just don’t do this.”
Alana just smiled. “It’s so funny to see you this way. What would people think?” she laughed. She plucked at a piece of fuzz on his shirt—completely ignoring the fact that his shirt was already ruined with blood. “Even if I believed that you really could deliver every single one of them to me, I would still say no.”
“Why?” he asked, exasperated. “Why isn’t that enough for you?”
“It takes great destruction to bring about great change,” Alana said.
“You’re insane,” he growled. “There is nothing sane about your plan.”
Alana just smiled, as if she knew something that he didn’t. “You know,” she began, “I heard an interesting story recently…about someone named Lilith.”
Aaron stiffened. He recovered quickly, but it was too late. Alana had already noticed his reaction. “Everyone’s heard that story. It’s ancient folklore.”
“Ah, but have they heard about the part you played in it?” Alana asked.
Aaron’s dark skin looked at least three shades paler than usual. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Lilith is just a woman from an old Jewish tale.”
“Ah. Is that so?” Alana said with a patronizing smile. She leaned in close and whispered, “I’m curious, Aaron. Why did they call you the Son of Lilith?”
Aaron felt sick, all of the sudden. “Who told you this?” he asked quietly. “Everyone who could possibly know that story is dead. I killed all of them.”
Alana giggled, “Ah…it’s so much fun to watch the powerful squirm.”
His eyes narrowed. “Whatever you heard,” he growled. “It’s not true.”
“Why don’t I tell the story first? Before you discount it,” she began. She smiled. “So, there was this vampire n
amed Lilith, and this man fell for her…”
“I never loved that sick, psychotic bitch,” Aaron snarled.
Alana tossed her head back and laughed, clapping her hands in delight. “Good boy! Now, you’re playing along!” she praised. “I knew you could do it!”
Aaron just stared at her. “I hope you die a painful, gruesome death.”
“Now that we’re on the same page,” Alana continued, as if he’d never said anything, “let me tell the real story. There was once a young, ambitious man who wanted much more than his lot in life, so he made a deal with a vampire.”
His jaw tightened, as if he were in pain. “Alana, stop.”
“But I’m not even to the good part yet,” she objected, smiling as she saw the emotions beginning to betray themselves in his eyes. “Anyway, it turned out that the price of that deal was greater than he was willing to pay. Because while he was capable of doing many terrible things, he couldn’t leave his family.”
“I get it,” he growled. “You know what happened. Now, shut up.”
“She warned him that if he betrayed her, he’d lose everything,” she continued, watching him with an amused smile, “but his newfound power made him arrogant, and he didn’t believe her. He didn’t believe she could take anything from him…until he came home and found his wife and children ripped apart.”
“I would do anything for the opportunity to kill you right now,” he said.
Alana giggled, “Literally ripped apart. Torn into little, bitty pieces.”
The growl that echoed from Aaron’s throat at that moment was so loud and feral that the walls of the room seemed to shake. “You’re an evil, little bitch!”
“I’m not the one who gave up his own children for power,” she laughed.
Aaron shoved her back against the wall, and one of his hands hovered near her throat, trembling. But he couldn’t do it. No matter how hard he tried. Her telepathic command prevented him from killing her. “I should have left you in that barn,” he snarled. “I should have left you to freeze or starve to death.”
She shrugged. “I’d suffered much worse than that already. It wouldn’t have bothered me much,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “Now, if you’re finished, I have a story to tell. So, after our power-hungry, little boy got his children killed, he decided to keep his end of the bargain, after all. He went to the vampire, and he slept with her. And then, he let her turn him into a vampire. And together, they traveled the world for over a thousand years. And then, he…killed her.”
“Oh, don’t spare the details now,” he snarled. “I drained her, and then, while she couldn’t defend herself, I ripped her apart, just like she did to them.”
Alana nodded, her dark blue eyes sparkling with amusement. She tugged at his bloodstained T-shirt, pulling him closer to her. “I have one question about that story, my sweet, little Aaron. Why did you wait a thousand years to kill her?”
“I waited until the perfect moment for my vengeance,” Aaron growled.
Alana leaned in, brushing her lips against his, and whispered, “So did I.”
—
Rose glanced over her shoulder, frowning as she noticed that Kara had fallen back behind the rest of the group. Kara kept an unusually slow pace—especially for a vampire—and she seemed lost in thought, her cornflower-blue gaze on the ground, watching the frost and snow crunch beneath her boots.
Rose slowed her own pace until she fell into step beside Kara, behind everyone else. Kara’s piercing, blue gaze immediately shifted toward Rose, as if she were intensely aware of her closeness. “How are you feeling?” Rose asked.
Kara watched her. “I should be asking you that,” she murmured. “You’re the one who suffered a terrible injury and then put herself through hell tonight.”
Rose tilted her head, her wavy, auburn hair falling over her shoulder, as she offered Kara a skeptical smile. “The woman you love kidnapped you, locked you away in an abandoned asylum, and then, tonight, she tried to kill you.”
Kara shrugged. “Just a typical night in our dysfunctional relationship.”
“She tried to kill you,” Rose said. “There’s nothing typical about that.”
Kara sighed and nodded. She shifted the battle-axe to her other shoulder. “Believe it or not, I’m actually…relieved. It felt a little like…closure. A relationship is pretty much over when one of you tries to murder the other.”
“It’s not over until Alana’s dead, and you know it,” Erik said suddenly.
His abrupt statement took everyone by surprise.
Kallias glanced back at them. “Oh, are we still doing that?” he asked, his voice thick with sarcasm. “I thought we had abandoned that plan. Because there’s been an awful lot of not killing Alana going on these last few nights.”
Erik scowled at him. “You’re an asshole sometimes.”
“You tried to kill me tonight,” Kallias countered. “You’re the asshole.”
Rose smiled at Kara and waved her hand toward Kallias and Erik. “And here you have a relationship that survives attempted murder,” she quipped.
Kara chuckled, “They’re soulmates.”
“But aren’t they both straight?” Elise asked, clearly not catching on.
Kara offered her an indulgent smile. “That’s the joke.”
Kallias just rolled his eyes. “You all make dumbass decisions, nearly get killed, and then, you use the calm before the apocalyptic storm to make jokes.”
“That’s his way of saying that he’s glad we all survived,” Rose provided.
Kallias scowled at her. “That’s not what I was saying at all.”
As they passed the part of the forest where Rose and Elise had run into Erastos earlier, Rose paused and stared into the dark woods, half-expecting to find Erastos still standing in the shadows, watching them with those strange, pale blue eyes of his. But what she noticed, instead, was a small, folded piece of paper, lying on the icy forest floor, leaning against the base of a birch tree, the white paper barely visible against the pale bark of the tree. She took a step toward it.
Kallias stopped and looked back at her. “Rose? Where are you going?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Just go on ahead. I’ll catch up.”
Kallias exchanged a frown with Kara. Neither one of them seemed eager to leave Rose behind. Erik and Elise, on the other hand, went on ahead of them.
Rose jumped, startled, as a twig snapped beneath her shoe. She shook her head at her nervousness and continued further into the woods. She knelt in front of the thin birch tree and picked up the piece of paper. She unfolded the letter and frowned at the neat handwriting that was scrawled across the page:
My Eklektos,
I must leave until I am needed again. You know all I can tell you for now. By now, you will have rescued the people you love, and you will be headed back to the Tomb of Blood. A difficult battle awaits within the tombs, but before that happens, an event that is perhaps even more significant must take place. If you are under the delusion that you understand what you are, you will soon realize that you are wrong. The mystery of what it means to be the Eklektos is one that you must unravel yourself, and tonight, you will learn a deeper, darker depth to your power. You must not fear it. You must not fight it. You must surrender to the Darkness.
Your servant,
Erastos
Rose blinked at the letter. “My servant?” she repeated bewilderedly.
Just as she started to slide the paper into the front pocket of her jeans, she noticed another note scrawled on the back of the paper. She quickly read it:
P.S. - Turn around. You need your weapon. Seriously, look behind you. Now.
At that exact moment, her senses registered his presence, and she spun around, crumpling the letter in one hand as she extended the silver dagger with the other. Attempting to attack her from behind, Osiris nearly ran directly into her blade, but he stopped just in time, his cold, black eyes widening in surprise.
He raised his han
ds slowly in a show of surrender. “I’m impressed,” he said in the coldest, most disdainful tone possible. “You’re faster than I thought.”
Rose stepped forward, pressing the tip of her dagger against his throat. “Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the entrance to the Tomb of Blood?”
“I stepped out for a minute,” Osiris said. “I needed some air.”
“It’s convenient, don’t you think?” Rose asked. “That you just happened to need some air around the same time that Alana was planning to attack?”
If she’d been human, she probably wouldn’t have even been able to see Osiris, standing in the shadows of the woods, his dark features and clothing blending into the shadows. But she wasn’t human. She could see perfectly well in the darkness, which meant she could see that cruel smile that curled at his lips.
“I’m afraid that I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he lied.
Rose rolled her eyes. “I saw you watching me, you know,” she informed him, “in the hallway…a few nights ago. Were you spying on me for Alana?”
“No,” Osiris said. “I did that just so I could see the fear in your eyes.”
Rose sliced his throat with her dagger, but his hands moved faster than hers. He grasped her wrist and twisted, forcing her arms behind her back, shoving her against the tree. Rose winced as the bark of the tree pressed painfully against her face. The scent of his blood filled the air, and Rose noticed that her dagger, which now lay in the muddy snow, near her shoes, was coated in blood.
“You picked a very bad person to pick a fight with,” Osiris growled.
“Yeah, I meant to,” Rose muttered. “I’m not a big fan of bad people.”
“You know, I’m not supposed to kill you,” Osiris sneered in her ear as his hands bruised her arms. “But what Alana doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
“She’s a telepath, you idiot,” Rose said irritably. “She will know.”
He lowered his head and grazed his fangs against her neck.
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