A Bloody London Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 2) (27 page)

He shook his head with a smirk and dutifully proceeded back towards the couch. He beamed with contentment that it was a memorable first Valentine’s for the two most important women in his life. But as he started to lie next to Katrina, she held up her hand and regarded him with a conspiratorial expression.

“It seems you have one last item to open,” she prompted.

He looked at her with a puzzled expression and glanced around the room for anything resembling a gift or envelope. “Really? Where?”

She smirked and pointed to the cabinet doors on the entertainment center across the room. He walked over and opened them, revealing a small, rectangular gift wrapped in shiny blue paper. He picked it up and noted that it felt rather weighty. He glanced over at Katrina, who was watching him intently, and slowly unwrapped the gift.

After removing the paper, he was left with a plain, white cardboard box. She put the television on mute and waited as he removed the box lid. It contained an eight-by-ten dual-picture frame made from sterling silver. He parted the frames, revealing two photographs. The one on the left was Katrina in the sexy, blue sequin dress she had worn the night they went clubbing. The photograph on the right was of Paige, wearing the red dress she had worn that night. Both were smiling in their photos, and each had signed their pictures. Katrina wrote:
To Caleb, my love forever. Kat.
Paige wrote:
Always watching out for you, kiddo. Love, Paige.

He was so proud to have those photos, and he looked up at Katrina with surprise. “These are wonderful! I’ve always wanted a picture of each of you. But I thought that vampires don’t give out their photographs.” The entire time he had known her, she had consistently refused to allow her picture to be taken.

She nodded. “We don’t, typically.” She momentarily considered how much trouble a simple picture of herself as Amber Simmons had caused her recently. But then, this was different: it was for Caleb.

“But you’re special, kiddo. So we made an exception,” Paige announced from the other side of the room.

His head turned in time to see her grin and blow him a kiss before disappearing back upstairs in a blur.

Suddenly, Katrina was standing next to him, and she wrapped her arms around him from behind in a warm embrace. “Happy Valentine’s Day, my love,” she whispered before kissing him on the neck.

He smiled with delight and realized it was indeed the best Valentine’s Day he’d ever had.

* * * *

Another week passed, and Caleb had gotten used to having two additional house guests. It was almost like Gil and Paige had taken up brief residence with them. While he enjoyed having Paige close by, part of him wondered how Gil liked the extended visit. The young aspiring rocker had seemed restless the past couple of days and, while polite, had acted more distant towards him when they chatted. More often than not, Gil and Paige spent their nights out on the town, only to return home long after Caleb had gone to bed. Katrina seemed quite comfortable hosting their extended visit, so he merely continued with his weekly routine.

On Friday, he was pleased that his afternoon at the college was a short one, because he was anxious to initiate his third installment in the Find Caleb series. He decided to move forward with his plans for the construction site. He anticipated that it would prove easy to navigate due to the dormant state of the late-February foliage.

He had some surprises up his sleeve and had purchased a couple of lengths of climbing rope, as well as the gloves and accessories required for climbing and rappelling . One positive aspect of his challenges for Katrina was his growing familiarity with the inventories of the local sporting goods stores.

By late afternoon, he left the college with a trunk load of equipment. He arrived at the abandoned site before sunset and parked his car well off of the road behind a stand of pine trees. Once he had unloaded his gear from the car, he set everything in place. Darkness fell two hours later, and he ate a sandwich and some chips he had brought out to the site. Then he dialed the estate’s number from his cell phone, and someone picked up after only two rings.

“Hello?” Paige answered.

“Paige?” Caleb asked. “Where’s Kat?”

“Hi, tiger,” she replied. “Oh, she’s finishing some laundry. Hey, we’ve been wondering when you’re coming home. Any problems?”

“No problems,” he answered proudly. “Tonight’s another installment in the Find Caleb series for Kat.”

“Sounds good. Where’s tonight’s exciting episode taking place?”

“An abandoned construction site not far from the estate, actually,” he explained. “I have an idea to give me an edge this time.”

“Ha! Good luck, kiddo,” she replied. “Hold on, I’ll get Katrina.”

He gnawed apprehensively at his lower lip at her tone and heard what sounded like wind rushing into the receiver at the other end.
Damn, vampires are fast
.

“Caleb?” Katrina asked. “We’ve been wondering about you. Do you have to work late tonight?”

He grinned. “Nope, I’m calling to inform you that it’s time to play another installment of Find Caleb tonight.”

She giggled. “I was wondering when you’d spring one of these on me again.”

He appreciated her upbeat tone. “I’m at a place not far from the estate tonight. Do you remember the abandoned construction site not far up the highway?”

She was silent for a time.

“The place with the three-story frame and the overgrown landscape?”

“That’s the one.”

“Time limit?” she asked simply.

“Coming by car?”

“Nope, running,” she answered. “It’s not far, and it’s a great night for a run. I’ll just ride back with you.”

He nodded and glanced at his illuminated watch facing. “Okay then. Twenty minutes from right now.”

She chuckled. “Better get ready...here I come!”

The phone went silent, and he pulled his cell away from his ear to stare at the display. He shook his head and muttered, “Someday I’m going to get in the last word.”

He ran a quick pattern of spreading pre-worn clothing through the trees to diffuse his scent in multiple locations before heading to his staging location. He appreciated the lack of wind on that moonless, cold night as he pulled on some snug-fitting leather rappelling gloves and checked the straps on his climbing harness. The lack of wind would prevent his scent from being spread in one direction, giving him more opportunities to move around. He was determined that the evening would mark his first successful evasion from Katrina within the specified time limit.

He glanced at his watch and tried to determine if ten minutes were enough time for her to cover the few miles. Standing near a small copse of pine trees, he listened for any unusual noises. He could see the dim glow of a street lamp to his left in the direction of his parked car, and on a whim, he took out a small pair of binoculars to survey the area.

As he sharpened the focus settings, he saw Katrina standing near his parked car. He held his breath as he watched her scan the area slowly, then take a deliberate deep breath and hold it. He smiled, realizing he was actually viewing her in the act of hunting him. A feeling of exhilaration shot through his body at the thought of being hunted, and his heartbeat increased rapidly. He glanced at his watch again, realizing that roughly two-thirds of the time limit had expired already. A nervous feeling formed in his stomach as he watched her, estimating it would take only minutes for her to run through the area looking for him. It could take scant seconds more to get to him once she spotted him.

Katrina slowly moved out of the illuminated area and into the trees where he had scattered some of his clothes and in a direction that put her at a right angle to his current position. The analogy that immediately came to his mind was of chumming the water when trying to attract a shark in the ocean. He experienced a strange moment of complete clarity in which he weighed the skills of his opponent and was very happy this was a playful game and not a matter of life and death.

He determined he had spent enough time in one position and slipped his binoculars into a small nylon satchel clipped onto one of the rungs on his climbing harness. He moved in the direction of the partially constructed building while trying to muffle the noise of the metal rings attached to his harness.

He was making good time while moving very quietly, but the toe of his hiking boot caught on a discarded piece of lumber that was partially buried in the ground. All the metal rings on his rappelling harness jingled like an alarm all at once, and he winced with frustration, only barely managing to avoid cursing out loud.

Suddenly, Paige appeared out of nowhere. She moved at a quick pace, grabbed him by the upper portion of his left arm, and hauled him forward at a dead run. His eyes widened to the size of saucers with surprise until he realized who it was.

“Way to go, Mister Ninja!” she exclaimed as she half-pulled him along. “Where did you learn how to sneak, Bugs Bunny cartoons?!”

“Where the hell did you come from?” he demanded, barely managing to keep his footing alongside her as they ran towards the abandoned concrete structure looming ahead.

“I just had to see this for myself,” she replied with a chuckle while slowing down to match his pace. “Can’t you run faster?” she demanded.

His heart raced as he ran as fast as his feet could carry him, his harness rings jingling loudly. He stole a glance back over his shoulder, but didn’t see Katrina anywhere. He wasn’t sure how long they had before she would appear, but he knew it had to be quick. The two of them made it onto the building’s lower level slab, and he turned on a red-lens flashlight just to avoid running into anything that might be lying around. The concept of stealth was completely lost at that point, and instead he merely tried to run out the clock.

Of course, Paige had no problems seeing in the dark, and she pulled him from behind as she headed in the direction of the open concrete stairwell.

“Hurry! Get to the top floor!” she barked as she grasped his rappelling harness in one hand and half-carried him up the stairs with her.

In less than a minute, they made it up to the third floor. Caleb ran over to the side of the open-walled structure and gazed down to see if Katrina were down there yet. Paige appeared at his side and pointed off to the left of where he had been staring.

“She’s just left the tree line, kiddo,” she noted. “And we’ve got less than a minute before she’s up here with us.”

His eyes darted around and spotted the coiled up length of rope he had tied to a concrete support column earlier in the evening. It was one of a few ropes he had pre-staged on both upper floors. He interlaced the rope into his rappelling harness hurriedly.

Paige grinned as she watched him. “I was wondering about that harness,” she observed with amusement. “At first I thought it was just part of your costume.”

He paused only a moment to give her a withering look and muttered, “Costume, my ass. I used to rappel in college, you know.”

She giggled, took the coiled end of the rope, and tossed it over the edge of the building. After cocking her head to one side, she nodded. “Say goodbye now,” she said. “You’ve got about four seconds.”

He grinned, grabbed her around the waist, and quipped, “Got to have my good luck charm!”

“What?!” she demanded incredulously. But she was distracted as Katrina came into view with a smile and announced, “Ha! Found you!”

He waved one hand in a half-salute and tightened his grip around Paige’s waist. Unfortunately, his dramatic exit was ruined as he half-stumbled over the edge of the building with her in his arms.

“Awww, CRAAAAAAP!” she shouted as the two of them disappeared from view.

“Caleb!!” Katrina screamed, rushing to the edge of the building. She watched them with a mix of surprise and helplessness, her heart in her throat.

They plummeted downwards like a rock as Paige gripped him tightly, but he managed to right them properly. He hadn’t anticipated a passenger, and despite the relatively light weight of the petite vampire, he had to compensate for the added weight while also controlling the feed of the rope in spurts through his gloved hands.

They hit the ground with a bounce, and he fell somewhat off-balanced to one side, causing them to fall over onto the cold, hard ground.

“Ooof!” he grunted, rolling across the ground and releasing his grip on Paige.

The blonde-haired vampire rolled to a stop next to Caleb, lay still for a few seconds, and complained, “Well, that sucked.”

“Okay, so it’s been a while since my last rappel,” he admitted with a groan while arching his back.

“More practice, Mr. Bond,” she rebuked in a mock-evil voice as she gingerly rotated her right shoulder.

Then the timer on his watch went off with a series of beeps. A second later, Katrina towered above them with partially glowing eyes.

“You two idiots could’ve killed yourselves!” she barked while kneeling down to check on her mate.

Paige sat up absently rubbing her thigh and retorted, “Hey, Indiana Jones here was the brains of this operation! I was just the baggage on this flight.”

But Caleb chuckled happily and exclaimed, “Awesome! I finally won!”

Katrina stared at him as if he were crazy and shook her head. “I did Find Caleb before the timer went off,” she noted with an air of superiority.

“Ah, but you didn’t ’tag’ Caleb,” he countered, sitting up and brushing the dirt off his leather jacket.

“He’s got you there, Red,” Paige interjected with a smirk.

Katrina looked sidelong at her friend and chastised, “Oh, and what are you now, the referee?”

She stuck her tongue out at Katrina and got up to brush at the seat of her jeans.

“Hey, thanks for the assist,” Caleb offered to Paige with satisfaction. “You get half the points on that goal.”

She grinned and reached over to dishevel his hair. “Anytime, tiger.”

Katrina sighed with resignation, merely happy that neither of them was injured.

As the two vampires turned to walk away, Caleb prompted, “Hey! Um, how about a hand with the clean up?”