A Bloody London Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 2) (29 page)

Katrina’s eyebrows rose slightly, but she said nothing. She felt a momentary pang of jealousy, but quickly reined it in given the nature of the topic at hand. She shared the preeminent concern of any of her kind to protect their identities from humanity.

However, Caleb blushed slightly from Paige’s intimate appreciation as he stared back into her deep blue eyes.

“Thank you for protecting me, kiddo,” she offered before releasing his face and adopting a far more serious expression.

He offered a tentative smile back at her and cast a sidelong glance at Katrina to gauge her reaction to the kiss.

Katrina noted the silent inquiry in his eyes, and her arm reached out to encircle his shoulders supportively. “It’s fine, and I’m very proud of you, my love,” she offered in a soft voice.

Paige looked up at Katrina with a hard expression. “Red, I need a flight ready to leave for California sometime tonight. Think you can set that up for me?”

Katrina nodded. “I’ll see to it.”

Gil exited the blues bar and looked around searching for them as he rubbed his jaw with one hand. His face was still reddened slightly where Caleb had punched him. Paige stepped out of the alley into his line of sight, and the young man grinned sheepishly.

“There you guys are. Why’ve you been hanging out in the alley?” he asked nonchalantly. “Where to next?”

Paige turned to glance at Katrina with a serious expression and whispered humorlessly, “We’ll be returning late to the estate.”

Katrina nodded, and Caleb swallowed hard at the steely look in Paige’s eyes. One of the rare times he had seen that look was following a mercenary attack on Katrina’s estate when he and Paige had been sequestered. Paige had done an excellent job of protecting him, and he recalled that gaze as she had interrogated one of the surviving mercenaries in Katrina’s garage. A shiver momentarily played down his spine at the vivid and disturbing memory.

“You okay?” Katrina whispered with concern.

He merely nodded and watched the exchange between Paige and Gil intently.

“We’re going to break away from these guys,” Paige offered to Gil in a suddenly light-hearted tone. “They’re lightweights and want to head back to the estate.”

Gil grinned in semi-relieved fashion as Katrina and Caleb stepped out of the alley and back onto the sidewalk.

“Yeah, old Caleb doesn’t seem to be the out-all-night type. I think he’s a little on edge tonight,” Gil agreed with a scowl and nod of his head towards Caleb.

Paige took Gil’s arm and glanced back over her shoulder at Katrina with a resolved expression. “Don’t wait up for us. We’ll catch a cab home.”

A chill flowed through Caleb as he wondered if it were possibly the last time he might see Gil. But then, he felt renewed anger that Gil sought to reveal Paige and, quite possibly, Katrina.

As Paige and Gil walked down the street together, Katrina’s left arm wrapped around Caleb’s waist, and she turned them in the opposite direction. She picked up his right hand in her own and lightly sucked on his bleeding knuckles so her saliva would seal the scrapes.

“I probably just sentenced someone to death,” he muttered with cold realization as he appreciated the numbness forming around his knuckles.

But she pulled him against her in a side-hug and countered, “No, Caleb. He committed suicide. There’s a difference.”

Caleb frowned at her semantics and sighed. He stopped walking and tilted his face up to her lips to kiss her. She eagerly responded and initiated one of her own.

“I love you,” he offered sincerely. “And I would never betray you. I’ll take your and Paige’s secret to the grave if I have to.”

She smiled in genuine admiration. “No need to worry. I already know that, my love. And so does Paige.”

Katrina drove them back to the estate in relative silence as Caleb considered the evening’s events. The topic he had omitted from Paige in his recounting of Gil’s betrayal returned to the forefront of his mind.
Was Gil right about Paige caring for me in more than merely a friend-like or sister-like manner?
The thought burned in his mind like a bonfire and filled him with anxiety. It was a sensitive topic, and he knew that he needed to tread carefully with it.

Katrina sensed his tense mood and glanced over at him with concern. “What’s wrong, my love?”

“Gil said something else on the phone tonight,” he recalled carefully. “Something I didn’t tell Paige.”

She frowned and cast another curious glance at her mate. She wasn’t certain what the subject was, but she sensed it wasn’t good. Reaching out with her right hand, she caressed his left cheek with her fingertips. “You can tell me, my love,” she encouraged. “Perhaps I can help.”

He swallowed, glanced at her, and looked out through the passenger side window at the darkness permeating the glow of the street lamps. “Gil told his friend that he thinks Paige is ’carrying a torch’ for someone else. He was pretty upset about that. He said as much to me at the bar the other day, but I tried to reassure him that wasn’t the case. I told him that she and I were just close friends, like family, and that I didn’t present a threat to him for her affections.”

Katrina remained silent as she considered Caleb’s revelation. She wasn’t hearing anything that hadn’t already crossed her mind. The situation was rather complex and required careful handling on her part. Multiple serious relationships were at stake if the issue were allowed to be mismanaged, and she didn’t want that to happen, either for Caleb or for her best friend.

“Paige is quite fond of you,” she explained carefully. “She cares for you a great deal, Caleb. I’m not naïve about her affections for you, you know. It bothered me at first, but I’m confident she poses no threat to our relationship. Would I be mistaken about that?”

He felt a surge of concern run through him, and he replied hastily, “No. I’m yours, Kat. You’re my mate, and I’ve never been happier in my life. But I also care about Paige. I love her, but not in the same way that I do you.”

Katrina sensed the sincere and honest nature of his response, and a feeling of reassurance coursed through her. “She’s an attractive, and yet playfully quirky woman,” she ventured. “It’s easy to see her allure.”

He reached out to grasp Katrina’s hand as she gripped the console gear shift. “You’re beautiful, intelligent, kind, and generous, Kat. How could I ever ask for more?” he insisted before drawing her hand to his lips and softly kissing her skin. He resolved there was nothing he would ever do to tarnish his commitment to her.

She nodded, sensing the earnest nature of his declaration. It sent a warm, reassuring feeling through her. “I’m happy to hear that, my love. Though I don’t doubt your intentions.”

He continued to hold her hand while casting a quick glance at the profile of her face as she drove. The muscles appeared taut across her high cheekbones. “I love you, Kat.”

They continued down the highway in silence for a time longer, until Katrina exited the highway near Mableton.

“Do I need to mention this to Paige?” he asked warily. He was adrift in foreign territory like a boat on an open ocean and needed guidance.

Katrina paused. “No, there’s no reason to now. It would only upset her further, I think. She has to focus on getting Gil back to California and addressing him and his friend --”

“Skeet,” he prompted.

She looked sidelong at him with a darkly amused expression. “Yeah. Skeet.”

The car wound its way down the sparsely lit county roads as Caleb silently contemplated the grim task that was before Paige. But then, she was a vampire; the very act of killing was second nature to her. He tried to imagine himself killing Gil in a measured, calculated manner, and found that he was having trouble envisioning that.
Does that make me weak or cowardly?

“A planned killing would be hard,” he whispered absently.

Katrina squeezed his hand supportively as their car entered through the gates of the Pine Valley addition. She didn’t want to tell him that such things got easier with time, given an appropriate motivation or necessity. She also didn’t want to tell him that most vampires, herself included, actually enjoyed aspects of killing. It was a predator’s pleasure and part of their very nature. And yet she would have added that his own life was never safer around either her or Paige, despite the constant desire for taking blood that always lay just beneath the surface. Instead she let her grip on his hand speak of her concern.

“I wish Paige didn’t have to go,” he murmured. He reflected on how much easier life had been with Paige around. She was a part of their extended family unit, not to mention a key friend and protector for him.

Katrina pulled the car into the garage, and her eyes quickly darted to his. “Actually, me too,” she offered. She understood that Paige’s arrival at the estate was instrumental in helping to mend her relations with Caleb. There were so many reasons why Paige was an important part of their lives.

Caleb unbuckled his seatbelt and looked at Katrina, who had turned off the ignition and remained in the driver’s seat staring out through the windshield as if transfixed on something before her.

“Kat?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

She broke from her reverie and turned to glance at him with a smile. “Me?” she asked innocently. “I’ve never been better,” she replied.

“You sure?” he asked as he opened the door and started to exit.

Her expression turned sly, and she challenged, “Sure. That is, sure I’ll have your blood tonight if I beat you to the door into the house.”

He grinned broadly and spurted from the car, racing towards the door leading to the interior of the house. She moved in a blur, pursuing him like a cat chasing a mouse. As he nearly reached the door knob before her, her hand darted out at the last second and firmly grasped his wrist. She deliberately spun him around before her and caught him in her arms as he slightly lost his balance. Then she leaned down and kissed him with passion.

“Got you,” she declared.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he replied before wrapping his arms around her waist and applying a warm kiss of his own to her lips.

They were lying together in the sublevel chamber by the time Paige and Gil finally returned to the estate. Katrina had made the impromptu arrangements for a charter flight to California on Sunset Air for them and left the boarding information on the dresser in the room Paige and Gil shared.

Katrina heard Gil question Paige about the abrupt return, but he seemed relieved to be leaving. The two of them slipped out just prior to dawn to make their way to the airport. Fortunately, Sunset Air took elaborate measures and precautions to ensure that their vampire clients wouldn’t be threatened by daylight if the flight arrived after sunrise.

Katrina deliberately let Caleb sleep through their departure per Paige’s wishes. The young vampire was never one for long goodbyes, and the nature of Caleb’s conflict with Gil the previous night had suggested that such plans were for the best.

Once Caleb woke, dressed, and went upstairs, he knew that Paige and Gil had already left to return to California, but part of him still felt disappointed to discover the house so quiet and empty. He gave Katrina a big hug as she made his brunch, clearly her favorite and most accomplished meal to prepare for him, and she tried to offer upbeat conversation to occupy her mate’s thoughts. She was all too aware of how Paige had quickly formed a prominent presence in their lives, making the youthful vampire’s absence all the more poignant.

They spent the day doing laundry, reading alongside each other on the couch, and generally appreciating their shared companionship. As the evening approached, Caleb sat at the dining room table sorting through his materials for Monday’s classes. He looked over to the couch where Katrina was comfortably reclined and prompted, “Kat, I wonder how Paige is doing.”

“She’ll call or text us when she can,” Katrina replied as she lay on the couch reading a novel. “But I need to warn you, we probably won’t be hearing from her for some time. No email, texting, or phone calls. And I suggest you refrain from contacting her as well.”

He looked up with surprise. “Why?”

“It’s a delicate matter she has to address, my love,” she replied in a dark tone. “Think about it. If there’s an investigation of some kind, she needs to avoid any communication trails leading up to, or following, the event. It’s for our protection, really.”

He stared at her as the weight of his Saturday night thoughts returned to the forefront of his mind. He was momentarily surprised that those thoughts hadn’t preyed upon him before that and wondered if he had subconsciously blocked them out until then. His musings were followed by a degree of embarrassment at seeming so dense regarding the topic. “Oh, sure,” he replied sheepishly. “That makes sense, of course. Sorry.”

There was a rush of air near him, and suddenly Katrina was standing next to him. He started slightly, and she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder as he sat at the table.

“Don’t be sorry, my love,” she offered. “This is something new for you. Just try not to dwell on it and realize that Paige will contact us again when she feels it’s safe to do so.”

He nodded. “Okay, then.”

She caressed the back of his neck with her fingernails, causing a soothing sensation to permeate his neck and shoulders. He arched his back slightly forwards, and she lightly ran her nails down his back. A satisfying shiver ran through his body, and he momentarily considered how wonderful life was with her, followed by how peculiar it was that such happiness could be coupled with the dire thoughts of another human’s demise at the hands of a vampire. It was a truly odd dichotomy, and he was scarcely able to believe how logical it all seemed or how easily reconciled.

* * * *

Paige was a patient person, and it was Monday evening before she chose to broach the subject of her concerns with Gil. She met him at a trendy restaurant in town, LA Bohemia, that was frequented by rock bands and Hollywood types who wanted to be seen with rockers. The prices were expensive, but naturally Gil counted on her to pick up the tab.