A Haunting Melody: The Golden Lyre

18 | Rho

The symbol Rho (ρ) gives a Hunter the ability to speak and understand the Greek language. Hunters can receive this mark by killing a fellow Hunter who has been turned.

***

Astrid struggled to keep her heavy eyes open as she tried desperately to register the words as they emerged from Rose's mouth. It felt as though Rose had been talking to her through a thick layer of glass, which dulled her voice to nothing but a muffled whisper.

Astrid blinked hard as she made out Rose's words, "Astrid? Are you even listening to me?"

As the glass slowly faded away from her thoughts and she allowed her ears to finally tune in to her surroundings, she realised that Rose's question did, indeed, warrant an answer.

"Sorry, I'm just tired," she shrugged, hoping Rose would simply accept her excuse and move on, but of course she wouldn't. It was Rose.

"Tired? Well, why the hell are you so tired all the time? Have you been seeing that guy? What was his name again... Daniel?" she asked teasingly, raising a single mischievous eyebrow.

Astrid rolled her eyes. Rose always had to make things about boys. Still, she supposed that Daniel was the reason she wasn't sleeping enough lately.

"I knew it!" she squealed, "you're so lucky! Tell me, is he any good in bed?"

Astrid's eyes widened at the sudden intrusive thoughts of Daniel which forced their way into her mind. She had never thought about Daniel in that way, much less with herself.

"Oh really Rose, I'm trying to eat!" Astrid said in an annoyed tone, shaking her head.

"So I'm guessing you haven't done it yet. Have you at least kissed him?" Rose pried.

Astrid felt a deep blush crawl over her face at the memory of the last time he had kissed her. As much as she wished she could say nothing had happened, she could not deny that they had, in fact, kissed and that she may or may not have enjoyed it a little, even though she was still angry with him for the way he went about it,

"Oh my gosh, you totally did!" Rose yelled excitedly, giggling at how easy it was to make Astrid blush, "was he your first kiss?"

Astrid glared at her friend. She could never leave well-enough alone. She knew that if she didn't answer at this point she would never hear the end of it.

"Yes," she let out an exasperated sigh.

"When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?" Rose pouted, although truthfully, she was just happy that Astrid could finally experience a little romance in her life.

It was about time...

"It didn't seem relevant before," Astrid shrugged, trying to be non-committal.

In truth, it felt good to have Rose's undivided attention. She was so used to letting Rose do all the talking that she had almost forgotten what it was like to have her listen for once.

"What do you mean 'it didn't seem relevant'?" Rose asked, flabbergasted, "when isn't your first kiss an important subject?"

"Honestly it wasn't that big of a deal," Astrid sighed, "it wasn't like it was romantic or anything. He just kissed me out of the blue one day. We weren't even on a date or anything."

"Well, what were you two doing together then?" Rose fired back.

"We were early for our shift at the, uh, tattoo-parlour, and so we went to check out that new mall and went ice skating and bowling and had some food and stuff," Astrid mumbled quickly, blushing at the memory of her losing so badly to Daniel when they went bowling.