A Bloody London Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 2) (15 page)

He paused from grading long enough to glance down at the photograph that had started the argument with Katrina a week ago. In the past few days, no flashbacks occurred, and he had begun to wonder if the effects were dulled by his frequent glances at the photo. A pang of sadness passed through him as his eyes passed over the younger vision of his mother. He glanced with a sigh at the short-haired brunette version of his mate, then known as Amber.
Why didn’t you just tell me?
he wondered before returning to grading.

A few minutes later the doorbell rang. He stretched and yawned on his way to the front door, and unlike a previous occasion when opening the front door nearly earned him a crossbow bolt in the chest, he made the effort to look through the door’s peephole. To his pleasant surprise, he saw one of his favorite people standing in the glow of the twin front porch lamps.

He swept the door open and beamed at the short, petite young woman dressed in form-fitted jeans and a Ramones concert t-shirt who quickly launched into his arms, knocking him back slightly with her momentum. Paige Turner was a spunky force of nature, and he was proud that she considered him a younger brother since their exploits together.

She kissed him lightly on the lips, lingering just a moment longer than would be plutonic, and whispered, “Hey kiddo, missed you.”

His grip tightened around her midsection with both arms as he pulled her small body close to his, feeling as if a sudden weight had been lifted from him merely by her presence.

“God, I’ve missed you,” he whispered desperately in her ear.

Paige considered his warm, but almost troubled greeting and pulled away from him only slightly so her penetrating blue eyes could gaze into his. His attention darted to her trademark blonde hair, styled in a straight bob, reminding him of a Charleston dancing girl from the 1920s. He had learned it was a style she had originally worn during those days before she became a vampire. It was yet another characteristic he loved that made her so different from anyone else he had ever known. There was no way Paige Turner could ever blend absently into a crowd.

“Are you okay, tiger?” she asked with a narrow-eyed expression. She had anticipated that he would be happy to see her, but she had vastly underestimated the intensity of his greeting.

He forced a smile and nodded. “Sure, just glad to see you after what seems like forever.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s only been a little over a month, silly. But I decided you’ve been getting into trouble a lot since I was last here. So, here I am.”

Paige was well informed of how the episode with Devon Archibald and the subsequent agreement between him and Katrina had negatively affected the young man before her. Additionally, she was concerned about the recent visit from the two vampires who had visited him at the college. Despite some personal challenges in her own life and reassurances by Katrina over the phone, she needed to check on him herself.
Caleb’s too important to me
.
I told him in December that his interests are also my interests.

He grinned at her warmly, and then noticed a young man standing on the front porch, which startled him.

“Oh, sorry,” she apologized, sensing his reaction. “This is my date.”

Caleb shook hands with the slim, mid-twenty-something-looking fellow standing before him. He wore black jeans and a concert t-shirt for some band called The Red Letters. His short, spiky, jet black hair was tossed in an unkempt manner and reminded Caleb of a famous lead singer from one of his favorite rock bands.

“Hi, I’m Caleb,” he offered. “Um, aren’t you the lead singer for --”

“Green Day?” the man asked with a grin. “No, sorry, man. I wish!”

Paige groaned. “Caleb, this is Gil Yeager. While he’s not in Green Day, he’s the former lead singer for an underground LA band called The Red Letters.”

Gil appeared amused, but she added with a sour expression, “He just likes it when people think he’s Billie Joe Armstrong, hence the copy-cat appearance.”

“Aw, c’mon babe,” he pleaded, “You know I love Green Day. They rock!”

She shook her head and returned her attention to Caleb. There was something about his demeanor that bothered her. She ushered Gil into the entry so she could close the front door, taking a moment to relock it.
Old habits,
she considered. “Where’s Katrina?”

“Out,” Caleb replied dismissively. “She should be back soon. In the meantime, come in and relax. When did you get into town? You’ve got to stay with us while you’re here, of course.”

He led them into the main living room at the back of the house and gestured for them to be seated. Paige and Gil plopped onto the large leather couch in the middle of the room, while Caleb sat on the edge of a leather recliner.

“How about something to drink?” he asked politely.

“Yeah, man. You have some beer around by any chance?” Gil asked eagerly. “It was a long flight, and I’m bone dry.”

Paige rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You mean, other than the four beers you had during the flight?”

“You’re in luck. We’ve got some Samuel Adams,” Caleb recalled, to which Gil energetically responded with a thumbs-up. He looked to Paige with a raised brow, uncertain if to ask her about blood since he wasn’t sure if Gil knew about her true nature or not.

“It’s okay, he knows,” she responded to his unspoken question. “And I’ll have a type A-positive, if you have it.”

His eyes darted to hers with sudden recognition that his own blood was that type. He raised an eyebrow playfully and asked with a grin, “Will that be fresh or chilled?”

She smirked slyly. “Refrigerated will be fine, thanks. For now.” She deliberately extended and playfully displayed her fangs at him.

He went into the kitchen with a grin. As he opened the door leading into the basement wine cellar, he heard Paige’s voice in the background: “I’ll just give him a hand. Oh, and the nearest bathroom is off the main hallway just down that way, if needed.”

Caleb descended the concrete stairs leading to the lower level where Katrina kept her wine selections, some storage, and of course, a refrigerator stocked with plastic packets of various types of human blood. It was her food pantry, of sorts. He’d no sooner opened the refrigerator door when Paige suddenly appeared behind him in a blur. However, he had halfway expected her to follow him after her comment to Gil. “So, I see my babysitter has a new client,” he commented nonchalantly as he picked out a bag of blood and closed the refrigerator door.

She frowned, grasped him gently by his upper left arm and turned him around to face her. “Babysitter only has one client, and you already know who that is,” she reassured him with a sly smile.

“Boyfriend then?” he asked.

She took the bag of blood from him and turned to walk upstairs. “More like my boy-for-right-now-friend,” she replied as he followed her back into the kitchen.

“You know, you’re not your usual happy self, kiddo,” she noted while removing a drinking glass from the cabinet. As she poured the blood into the glass, she heard his pulse increase slightly. “What’s been going on?” she asked.

“I just thought that since Gil knew you were a vampire you had chosen a mate,” he ventured in an attempt to defer the topic of his situation with Katrina. While he would have liked to confide in her for her perspective, he didn’t want to antagonize Katrina by revealing details she might want kept between the two of them.

She considered his comment as she heated the glass in the microwave. “Nah, the reveal was purely a mistake, really. I outed myself during a late night tumble between the sheets. Lusty moments bring out our fangs and flashing eyes, you may recall. Gil seemed like a nice guy despite a rather strong marijuana habit, so I didn’t want to just kill him. And although he’s not the brightest bulb in the socket, he’s a really great fu --”

He glanced at her with wide eyes as she corrected herself midsentence, “…bed partner. And his blood’s pretty sweet, though that’s probably due to all the weed he smokes.”

He smirked at her while shaking his head slightly, retrieving two cold beers from the refrigerator.

“So, a lead singer for -- what’s the name of his band?” Caleb asked.

The microwave went off, and she withdrew her glass of warm blood. “The Red Letters. They broke up about three weeks ago,” she said.

“Creative differences?”

She scoffed. “Yeah, the drummer got creative with his use of heroin a few weeks ago and overdosed, and the bass player got creative in a bar fight and ended up in county jail that same week. The lead guitar player got upset with the whole situation and filled an opening with another band in San Francisco. Then there’s the creative streak Gil gets, until the pot runs out, that is. But that’s life in a rock band for you, I guess.”

“Oh,” he muttered. He was completely confused and had no idea how someone as cute, desirable, intelligent, and capable as Paige could wind up being paired with Gil. But despite being so close to her, it wasn’t really his place to say anything.
Life is strange
, he considered.

It was at that odd moment that he focused on how fortunate he was to have Katrina in his life. However, he was upset with her for sparing Devon Archibald’s life and still angry for her not telling him about his past. He had always thought their meeting was serendipitous, rather than merely her checking up on an old interest. But nothing changed the fact he was in love with her. Never mind that she not only saved his life as a child, but saved his life on numerous occasions as an adult as well.

Paige noted Caleb’s distracted demeanor and could only guess at the nature of his thoughts. She waited for him to lead the way out of the kitchen. As he passed, she poked him in the ribs with the tip of her index finger and whispered, “Sometimes it seems like all the good guys are already taken.”

He smirked at her off-handed compliment and led the way into the living room where Gil was patiently waiting for them on the couch.

* * * *

Katrina drove particularly fast down the highway on her way back to the estate as “Fake Plastic Trees,” by Radiohead, played on her car stereo. Despite the sedate nature of the tune, she still felt somewhat edgy, so the feeling of the car’s velocity as it propelled her down the highway helped to channel those feelings for the moment. Her thoughts mulled over her current situation with Caleb. She had been particularly patient with him the past few days, but she had decided she was hardly going to hang around the house waiting for him to forgive her. It was bad enough that he was already upset over the issue with Devon in Marietta, but adding the unexpected revelation about his past had really tipped the scales against her.

Kind of crappy timing on the photograph
.

At least she sought refuge in personal interests as an escape mechanism, such as the brief shopping trip she had gone on that night. She had looked at some new women’s suits that were on sale, but found nothing in her size in the color she wanted. She browsed the shelves of one of Atlanta’s largest bookstores until she found a few romance novels that intrigued her. While she had always taken time to read, she now had a lot more time on her hands with Caleb avoiding social interaction and activities with her.

He’s just being difficult
, she reflected darkly.
No
,
it’s like he’s deliberately rubbing it in.

At least that’s how it felt to her. Like anyone, she didn’t appreciate being shut out from someone important to her, even if she had been at fault. It wasn’t as if she had done anything deliberately to hurt him. She had merely failed to reveal something she had intended to tell him all along but for which she was waiting for just the perfect time. She sighed irritably while reflecting on how fate had conspired against her on that matter. How was she supposed to know that he would go digging through old pictures his mother had collected? Better yet, finding the sole photograph she allowed to be taken of herself as Amber Simmons?

Geez, I must be cursed
, she thought acidly as she weaved in and out of slower traffic on the busy highway.

It was so hard being patient while waiting for Caleb to work the angst out of his system. She felt confident that she had communicated well enough how she had been protecting him as a child from an abusive father.
So that makes me the hero in this story, right?

“It wasn’t like I was going to waltz into the house and tell his mother, ’Oh, hi, Mrs. Taylor. Thanks for the use of your garage today. And don’t worry about that wife-abusing and child-beating husband of yours, I just killed him. The body’s out in the garage, but I’ll bury that for you. Now you can carry safely on your way through life. Oh, and yes, I’m a vampire, but please try not to say anything about that, okay? I’ll be on my way now. And be sure not to dial 911 as I’m leaving. Nice meeting you,’” she muttered.

She shook her head while reconsidering her relations with Caleb and decided she just might have to say something to him if he didn’t snap out of his funk in the next week or so. The situation was killing her, and she was only willing to let matters stew for so long before confronting them. It was in her nature, after all.
Although being somewhat morose and melancholy seems to be in my nature a lot lately too.

She sighed with resignation as her car entered the addition, and she made her way down the dark, winding street, eventually arriving at the estate’s driveway.

* * * *

Caleb idly chatted with Paige and Gil about California and their flight to Atlanta. After a time, Gil pulled a partially battered pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his jeans pocket and slipped a cigarette from the pack. Caleb wasn’t sure what his mate’s rules on smoking in the house were, but neither he nor Katrina smoked. However, Paige quickly spoke up before Gil flipped the lighter open.

“Uh, Gil, no smoking in the house,” she interjected smoothly. “Maybe you could take that out back for us?”

“Yeah, sure, babe,” he replied amiably, rising from the couch.