Sunset Rising (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 5) (23 page)

“
Rightly so,” he
said.

Both of them turned toward me and sneered in
a menacing manner.

A moment of irony flashed in my mind. There
I was, on the way to meet my vampire mate for dinner, and I was
about to become dinner for two vampires.

I dropped my backpack to the ground and
finally extracted the knife hidden at the small of my back while
reaching inside my jacket with my left hand to grasp one of my UV
flashlights.

I was very scared, but I also felt angry,
fed up with people trying to kill or take advantage of me.

If I was about to die, I damned sure
intended for them to regret trying.

Hell, I might even take one of them out.

“
Well now, it looks like
the chin wag is over,” said the man. “Oh, but what Roman would give
to see the look on your face right now. I told him it’d be
priceless.”

Roman?

Was Roman part of this?

All of a sudden I felt betrayed.

It pissed me off.

“
You want trouble?” I
asked. “Try it.”

“
Stop.
”

I turned to see Kat standing not far behind
me, leaning against a tree trunk.

Relief surged through me even as my heart
raced.

Finally, the cavalry.

I looked at my two opponents with a
satisfied expression.

“
Oh, don’t look so pleased
with yourself,” the male vampire said. “You’d already be dead if I
wanted you so.”

Kat walked over to stand beside me.

“
Caleb, meet Dane and
Lyra,” Kat said. “They’re your new handlers.”

“
What?”

I traded looks between the two vampires and
Kat.

Dane extended his hand to shake. “No hard
feelings, eh?”

I grudgingly shook his hand.

“
Bit of a weak handshake
there,” Dane said. “I thought someone said that you worked
out?”

I pointedly ignored him and turned to shake
Lyra’s hand.

She folded her arms before her and stared at
my outstretched hand with an arched brow, so I dropped my arm to my
side.

“
We really need to talk
about this, Kat,” I said.

She looked at me. “Look, Paige simply can’t
be located at the moment, so Alton sent them to help us out. We
need nighttime coverage for you.”

“
But—”

The entire prospect sucked; pun
intended.

“
What do you two think of
your new charge so far?” Kat asked, focusing her attention on the
two vampires.

Lyra looked me up and down. “Him? Boring. He
definitely screams bookworm.”

Dane laughed. “Oh, darling, you’re off to a
great start, aren’t you?”

She hiked her hands atop her hips and gave
him a go-to-hell look. “Hey, he’s a job. I’m not here to make new
friends.”

“
And Dane?” Kat
asked.

He adopted a semi-serious expression and
thoughtfully rubbed at his chin.

“
Aside from a possible
fixation to knife people who piss him off, he looks a mix of smart
but clumsy,” he said. “That being said, in the end, I’d guess he’s
quite a tosser.”

A sense of indignation rose like a storm
inside me.

“
What an asshole,” I said.
“Kat, there’s no way.”

Her look of amusement didn’t do much to
encourage me.

“
As he’s my mate, I’ll
have to disagree on your latter assertion,” she said to Dane.
“Though I’ll admit that he has his moments, particularly
recently.”

“
Hey,” I said.

“
What? I’m only being
honest.”

“
Thanks loads,” I said,
folding my arms before me.

“
Despite that, give him
time. He’ll quickly grow on you,” Kat said.

“
On my nerves, perhaps,”
Dane muttered.

I barely restrained myself from displaying
my middle finger to him. There had to be better options than these
two sarcastic vampires.

How far down the bottom of the barrel were
Alton’s available options anyway?

“
How about if we all go to
dinner so that we can get better acquainted?” Kat asked. “My
treat.”

“
And would spirits be
included, General?” Dane asked.

“
Certainly,” she
replied.

“
Then I’m all yours,” Dane
said. “Coming, sis?”

“
Anything’s better than
standing around here,” she said.

I felt sorely tempted to disagree.

* * *

After a dinner punctuated by a combination
of small talk with me and shop talk with Kat, we made it back to
the house. I was hardly feeling enthusiastic about the two English
vampires.

And I had learned little more about them
other than that they were siblings and that Alton thought highly of
their abilities.

“
How did it go?” Roman
asked, rising from the couch.

Dane tossed his leather jacket over the back
of a nearby recliner. “I’ve had easier nightmares. Though it went
better for me than it will for you. I think your stock fell
mightily tonight, old beam.”

Roman frowned. “Whaddya talking about?”

Dane pointed toward me. “You should’ve seen
the look on his face when I mentioned your name tonight during our
grand introductions.”

Roman’s face went blank as he stared at
me.

“
Think about it, mate,”
Dane said. “He thought you’d bailed on him and given him up. Gads
but you’re a bit thick for an ex-Seal.”

“
Would anyone care for a
beer?” Kat asked.

“
Yes, thanks,” Dane
replied.

“
Definitely,” Lyra
said.

“
Please,” I
said.

“
I think I need one now,
too,” Roman said.

He looked at me. “How could you possibly
think that, Caleb? After everything?”

Kat offered bottles of beers to everyone,
except for me.

I didn’t know what to say to Roman. What was
I supposed to think in the heat of the moment?

“
Hey, you were gone. Then
when he said—”

“
Man, I don’t even know
you anymore,” Roman said to me while twisting the cap off his
beer.

I took a deep breath and let it out
slowly.

Kat flicked the cap off her beer using her
thumbnail and took a swig.

I looked at her inquiringly.

“
You had two at the
restaurant already,” she replied to my silent query.

I shook my head, but then she handed me her
opened bottle of beer.

I took a swig of beer and picked up my
backpack before heading upstairs.

It felt like an evening from hell.

“
Goodnight, everyone,” I
said.

“
I’ll be up later,” Kat
said.

Nobody else said anything.

Not that I cared at the moment.

* * *

I sat at the desk in my bedroom, checking
emails while finishing my beer. I had hoped to see something from
Paige, but she was still incommunicado.

I wasn’t overly surprised; even at the best
of times she only checked her email about once a month. She was
mostly a texter; not that I had valid a mobile number for her
anymore.

I couldn’t send a text message to her if I
had to.

It made me feel like crap.

In fact, since returning from Tar Hollow, it
felt as if other portions of my life had also sort of turned to
crap.

Yet, aside from assorted irritated
personalities, Paige was the only person actually absent from my
life.

That had to say something about her
importance, didn’t it?

And I had totally screwed things up with
her.

I took another swig of beer and reached into
my backpack to retrieve my earbuds, which I plugged into my
phone.

After queuing up “Flaws” by Bastille, I
started writing out a list of assignments that I needed to work
on.

Afterward, I jotted down some research
sources that I needed to track down.

By the time I had finished that, I felt
tired so I took a shower.

While rinsing my hair beneath the hot water,
I felt a shift of cool air around me.

When I opened my eyes, Kat stood before me,
looking at me with a sympathetic expression.

Her body was stunningly beautiful.

She reached out to massage my upper
shoulders and neck and I felt like melting before her.

As soon as she kissed me, I felt like other
things, as well.

“
Rough night?” she
asked.

“
Crappy night, if you must
know.”

“
I think that you hurt
Roman’s feelings,” she said.

“
Yeah, well, you might’ve
come to the same conclusion that I did if you had been there,” I
said.

“
I was there,” she said.
“I saw and heard everything.”

“
Oh.”

“
You don’t like Dane and
Lyra, do you?” she asked.

“
Dane seems like a real
jerk,” I replied. “And Lyra…hell, she’s hard to read, but I’m
pretty sure I don’t like her, either.”

“
Hm. They both said
similar things about you,” she said.

“
Screw them,” I said while
rinsing my head under the hot water.

“
Funny. Dane said that
about you, too,” she said.

“
Figures.”

I wiped the water from my eyes and looked
into hers.

She traced the edge of my chin with her
fingertip.

“
In retrospect, I suppose
that your introduction to them could’ve been handled differently,”
she said.

“
So, why did you do it
that way then?” I asked.

She inhaled a deep breath and slowly
exhaled.

“
I wanted to see what
you’d do,” she said.

“
Why the test?”

“
You were away for only a
week,” she replied. “But you seemed quite different when I finally
found you; as if something important had changed inside of you
while you were away.”

“
I still don’t understand
what that has to do with them,” I said.

“
You’re edgier now,” she
said. “The Caleb who left New Haven wouldn’t have confronted two
vampires so aggressively.”

“
I thought that was it for
me,” I said. “It made me feel angry.”

She took my face between her warm palms and
kissed me.

“
Exactly,” she said.
“You’re angrier since you’ve returned.”

“
Maybe.”

“
Why?”

I leaned against the ceramic tiles of the
shower and let the hot water wash over both of us.

“
Paige is gone, people are
mad at me for leaving,” I said. “And any day now, you’re leaving
town again for God knows how long. I don’t even know if I’ll see
you for Thanksgiving.”

“
Oh, Caleb, don’t be
angry,” she said. “Things will improve eventually.”

“
Yeah, well, it’s sort of
hard for me to take the optimistic road right at the moment,” I
said.

She hugged me. “Hey, I talked to Alton today
and we worked out arrangements for Thanksgiving.”

“
Really? That’s something
positive.”

“
How do you feel about
spending the holiday in the Mediterranean?”

“
Not Slovenia,” I said.
“And please not another vampire summit.”

“
No, nothing like that,”
she assured me. “We just need to meet with a special vampire
influencer in the area while we’re there. Alton and I believe that
we can shore up another ally relatively easily.”

I considered the selection of locale.

“
I’m intrigued,” I said.
“Tell me more.”

“
We’ll spend a few days
there,” she said. “The hotel is close to the sea and has an amazing
view. And the beaches will be very romantic at night.”

Admittedly, it sounded tempting.

“
Just us?” I
asked.

“
Alton, you, me, and maybe
we can talk Ethan into meeting us there, too,” she said. “Then you
two could talk and lighten things up between you.”

“
That’s if he’s not being
with Paige somewhere,” I said.

Her expression turned somber. “I understand
that’s not likely.”

“
What have you heard?” I
asked.

“
Oh, Caleb,” she said.
“You could make a lesser woman jealous with your complex female
friendships.”

“
Hey, Paige is like a
sister to me.”

She gave me a wan look. “Well, at least that
concept has stuck with one of you.”

How was I supposed to respond that?

She handed me the bottle of shower gel.

“
Here, soap me up,” she
said, turning around to face the wall. “And maybe massage it in a
little bit while you’re at it. I’ve had a long day,
too.”

I smiled and started with her shoulders and
back, kneading my fingers against her tense muscles.

She moaned with pleasure.

* * *

The next morning, before I left with Roman
for classes, Kat told me that she would be packing to return to
London that night.

“
Already?” I
asked.

“
Alton needs for me to
meet with a Belgian vampire leader and then brief our team,” she
said.

“
Why can’t he do it?” I
asked.

“
Because he’s in
Belarus.”