Excerpt From The Tomb of Blood

Okay… I promised an excerpt, and here it is! 🙂 I’ve been so nervous about which one I should post, so I really hope you like the one I picked! 🙂 This is from my upcoming book: The Tomb of Blood, which is the book that follows The Stone of the Eklektos in the Creatures of Darkness series. This scene should answer any questions you might have about how the Rose-and-Kara alliance happens…

from The Tomb of Blood, Creatures of Darkness: Book Two
© Britney Jackson
Featuring Rose, Kara, Kallias, and Some Dead Guy.

Rose nearly tripped over a broken tombstone as she tried to catch up with Kara. She reflexively mumbled an apology and continued walking, but while she was apologizing to the inanimate object, she failed to notice that Kara had already stopped. She collided with the strange, elusive vampire before she even looked up.
Kara didn’t budge. Her lips curved slowly into a smile. “Hi,” she murmured.
“Hi,” Rose replied awkwardly, blinking as she looked up and found Kara’s face directly in front of hers. She took an exaggerated step backward, and then, just for safe measure, she took another step backward.
Kara just watched her with an amused smile. “What did you want, Rose?”
Rose swallowed uneasily. “Kallias doesn’t trust you.”
“Of course he doesn’t,” Kara laughed. “I lie, and I’m good at it.”
“But Erik trusts you,” Rose stated.
Kara shrugged. “Erik is naïve.”
“So,” Rose sighed, “are you saying that you shouldn’t be trusted?”
“Do you trust me?” Kara asked.
“I try not to draw conclusions about people before I know them,” Rose said.
Kara’s cornflower-blue eyes sparkled with amusement. “And how do you plan to get to know me?”
“I have questions,” Rose explained. “I want you to answer them.”
Kara walked over to an old, ornate angel statue that was missing one of its wings. She leaned against the statue and crossed her arms. Her gaze traveled up and down Rose’s body for the fifteenth time that night, and Rose briefly wondered whether the strange vampire was trying to memorize every feature of her body. Those icy blue eyes finally returned to Rose’s face, and Kara’s lips tilted into a flirty smile. She extended her wrist causally. “Are you hungry?”
Rose blinked in shock. “You just met me, and you’re offering me your blood?”
Kara shrugged. “I can think of no better way to get to know someone than sharing blood.”
Rose stared blankly at her. “Answering my questions would be a good start.”
Kara chuckled lowly and crossed her arms, causing her thin, black tank top to stretch tight against her muscles. “Your loss.”
“I know that you were Alana’s lover,” Rose informed her.
Kara raised an eyebrow. “Do you?”
Rose sighed, “I want to know if you are still her lover.”
“That would depend on how you define lover,” Kara said.
“That doesn’t qualify as an answer,” Rose complained. “You realize that, right?”
Kara smiled. She stepped away from the broken angel statue and crossed the space between them, stepping over a cracked headstone before she reached Rose. “You are asking me questions because you want to know more about me, and I am asking you questions because I want to know more about you,” she stated. She leaned in close, too close, and whispered, “So far, I’m the only one winning this little game.”
Rose pressed her back up against the tombstone behind her in an attempt to keep a tiny bit of space between them. “What?” she sputtered. “You don’t know anything about me.”
For the sixteenth time—Rose had begun to keep count, by this point—Kara’s gaze swept down her body, lingering on a few very specific places. She offered Rose a cocky smirk. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?”
Rose swallowed nervously. “I just want to know which side you’re on.”
Kara laughed, “No one ever knows which side I’m on. It’s part of my appeal.”
Rose sighed, “So…what? You’re a double agent?”
Kara’s brows furrowed. “A what?”
“Sorry. Human term,” Rose muttered. “You’re playing both sides.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Kara said. Her head tilted to the side, and her light blue eyes danced with curiosity. “Tell me what you think.”
“I think you disagree with what Alana’s doing,” Rose answered without hesitating. “I think you know her better than anyone else. I think you know what she is capable of, and you want to stop her.”
Kara’s eyebrows lifted, and a pleased smile spread across her face. “Then, it sounds like you already know which side I’m on.”
“What I don’t understand,” Rose continued, “is why you’re with her. Erik fell in love with Alana because he fell for her mind games, but you see through all of that. So, why are you with her?”
Kara stepped closer, allowing her hands to press lightly against the tombstone behind Rose, trapping Rose between the stone and her body. She leaned in close, as if she didn’t want anyone else to hear her, and for the first time all night, she answered Rose’s question. “Let’s just put it this way: 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 strange, blue-haired vampire standing so close. “Then, you and I…” She swallowed. “We’re on the same side?”
Kara dropped her hands and took a step back, flashing a flirty smile at her. “Looks like it, sexy,” she said with wink. Then, she turned and strolled back into the tomb, leaving Rose alone in the moonlit cemetery.
Rose stared after the vampire for nearly half a minute before her mind started working again. “Did she just call me sexy?”
No one answered her.
Rose glanced at the tombstone beside her. “Right. You can’t talk. You’re dead. Been there, done that. But I still have a mouth. You don’t, obviously. That must suck.”
“Rose? Are you talking to a tombstone?”
Rose spun around toward the familiar voice, scowling as she found Kallias standing right behind her. “How long have you been there?”
“Long enough to worry about your sanity,” Kallias muttered.
Rose patted the top of the tombstone, as if it were a concrete puppy. “His name is George,” she said defensively. She squinted at the tombstone. “Or maybe Greg. Or Hollingsworth. I can’t tell. The guy’s been dead too long.”
Kallias chuckled. “We should get inside. The sun will rise soon.”
Rose nodded and followed him as he led the way into the tomb.
Kallias shoved the door open. “And the answer is yes.”
“Hmm?” Rose mumbled distractedly as she eyed an object on the floor that looked disturbingly similar to a human bone.
Kallias turned toward her. “Yes, she did call you sexy.”