Sunset Rising (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 5) (7 page)

Kat frowned as she stared after Chance,
seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

“
Yeah, she told me once
that she and her father have sort of a strained relationship,” I
said.

Trey shrugged. “I dunno. She hardly mentions
him. But she and her mom seem really close.”

I nodded. “Yeah, she said as much to me
once, too.”

Then, just as suddenly as she had walked
away, Chance walked briskly back to the table.

“
I’m sorry, but I have to
go,” she said. “Trey, can you take me back to my
apartment?”

“
Yeah, sure,” he
said.

“
Everything okay?” I
asked.

She appeared a little out of sorts, which
seemed unusual for her.

“
Oh, it’s a family thing,”
she said. “My dad’s just being an ass again. So much melodrama with
him. I have to try and buy some train or plane tickets so that I
can get home ASAP.”

Trey got up from his chair and inclined his
head toward me and Kat. “Well, it was—nice.”

“
Sorry you have to leave.
I hope everything works out okay,” Kat said cordially to
Chance.

As Trey helped her with her coat, she froze
and stared at Kat. “Thanks, but I’m sure you know how screwy
families can get sometimes.”

“
More than you know,” Kat
said. “Safe travels.”

Chance gave me a quick hug. “I’ll message
you.”

“
Okay,” I said.

I sat back down as she and Trey walked
across the dining room together.

“
Well, that was
unpleasant,” I said. “You don’t like Chance much, do
you?”

I immediately realized that it was a stupid
thing to ask.

Kat patiently looked at me. “No, Caleb, I
don’t like her, and I’m relatively sure the feeling’s mutual. But
of course, she has quite the crush you, I see.”

“
What?” I asked. “She and
Trey—”

“
Are friends, I suspect,”
she said. “Little more.”

“
She’s barely turned
twenty,” I said.

“
And you’re a whole what?
Twenty-seven as of July?” she asked.

Okay, that obviously wasn’t the proper tack
to take with her.

I rubbed my palm against my forehead as a
weary feeling permeated my body.

“
Well, I’m only interested
in being friends. I’ve already told her as much,” I
said.

“
That’s good,” she said,
staring at me. “So, I suppose that I’ll be reluctantly tolerant of
your friendship.”

Honestly, it had suddenly turned into a
night from hell.

“
Now, with that over,
let’s try to put it all behind us and recapture the moment,” she
said, reaching out to grasp my hand.

I offered my best reassuring smile despite
the mild headache that had formed throughout my temples. In fact, I
had nearly lost my appetite altogether.

* * *

By the time we returned to the house, I had
a full stomach and my headache had largely subsided.

In the end, Kat and I had enjoyed a nice
meal and visit together. And while we hadn’t quite recaptured the
emotional tone we’d experienced prior to Chance’s unexpected
arrival, we had enjoyed each other’s company.

We had barely walked through the front door
before Alton presented me with a four-foot length of cylindrical
leather-wrapped wood. It was a couple of inches in diameter and
rather weighty.

“
Wow, I could really
wallop someone with this,” I said.

“
That’s not for walloping,
it’s for training,” he said.

“
Oh,” I said. “How
so?”

“
Often, a blunt instrument
is the most available item to use in defensive situations,” he
said. “I’m going to issue techniques for you to begin practicing
with.”

“
Well, you can forget
about him practicing tonight,” Kat said. “I already have plans for
him, thank you.”

I grinned at the suggestive look in her
eyes.

“
Very well,” he said.
“We’ll go over things in the morning then.”

“
Later in the morning,” I
suggested. “I’m thinking about sleeping in.”

He arched one brow in a nearly imperious
fashion. “Oh, really?”

“
Or not,” I
said.

“
Earlier is better,” he
said.

Before I could say more, Kat took me by the
hand and led—rather, half-dragged—me upstairs to our bedroom.

Later that night, she lay in my arms as I
dozed.

The effect of my day’s stresses had finally
abated and I was more than content to lay there next to her.

I wished it could last forever.

However, reality had its way of interrupting
even the most blissful of moments and, before long, the day’s
events resurfaced in my mind.

“
You don’t need to feel
jealous of Chance, you know,” I said.

“
What? Hardly,” Kat said.
“I feel no more threatened by her than a fly buzzing about my head.
My challenge is not swatting it, that’s all.”

No, she really didn’t like Chance at all,
did she?

“
My mistake then,” I
said.

She scraped a sharp fingernail across my
bare chest in soothing fashion.

“
If you want to remain
friends with Chance, I’ll accept that,” she conceded, albeit in a
glum tone of voice. “Though I can hardly imagine why you’d want
to.”

“
Thanks for being flexible
about the situation.”

“
Hm,” she said. “I don’t
know how I let you talk me into it.”

Then she made a purring sound. “Actually,
your talented tongue just made a rather compelling argument, my
love…without even saying a word.”

Amidst the darkness, a smile formed on my
face.

Chapter 6

Caleb

The next morning, well before breakfast,
Alton wasted no time instructing Roman and me in how to incorporate
the baton-like cylinders into my workout regimen.

“
Where did you come up
with these? You didn’t bring these all the way from London, did
you?” I asked.

“
No, I constructed them
for you,” Alton replied.

They’re rather heavy,” I said. “My wrist
feels strained already. Ever hear of carpal tunnel syndrome?”

His unsympathetic expression spoke volumes.
“It may take some time to acclimate yourself to them. Use them
slowly and methodically at first, and then increase speed once your
muscles have strengthened.”

That seemed reasonable enough.

“
We’ll need to wake a
little earlier in the morning, too,” Roman said. “We don’t want to
shave any quality time from your training.”

Speak for yourself, Roman.

“
Fine,” I said.

It was a disparaging thought. I felt like I
didn’t get enough sleep as it was. Between course readings and
class assignments, as well as researching my dissertation subject,
much less actually attending classes, I already filled most
weekdays.

Of course, my most recent lack of sleep was
due to quality time spent with Kat the prior evening.

Face it, she wore me out.

Outside of Kat, my workouts and continued
combat training—secret from any of my college friends and
peers—took their toll on my early mornings, as well.

I caught a glimpse of Kat out of the corner
of my eye, closely scrutinizing me.

I winked at her and the corners of her mouth
upturned slightly.

Was it all part of a plan to keep me so busy
that I didn’t have time to get into further trouble?

Yeah, right. Trouble somehow always finds me
in the end.

After exercising and combat training with
Kat and Roman, I spent most of the remainder of the day in
classes.

After lunch, I received a text from Yale’s
library informing me that one of the books I had reserved through
interlibrary loan had arrived. It was one of the few I could find
that had been written entirely by Dr. Simonson.

I hurried to the library with Roman in
tow.

The book,
Field Studies on Diseases of the
Blood
, was acquired through the Boston
University School of Medicine and was published in 1908 by a
defunct publisher, Firbst & Lachimann, Ltd.

As books went, it was a veritable tome,
filled with arcane medical jargon and a litany of case studies.
Upon cursory inspection, Dr. Simonson certainly seemed
competent.

As if I’d have known otherwise.

I was no medical expert, but I tried to look
on the bright side.

Well, at least it’s in English.

I located a nearby comfortable chair and
thumbed through the book. Within an hour, I determined it was
likely going to take days just to make heads or tails out of
anything in it.

“
Where am I gonna find
time for this?” I asked.

Following one of my mid-afternoon classes, I
considered heading back to the house. However, I felt rather
pensive and thought that I’d feel too tempted by distractions.

Instead, I went to the student union to find
a comfortable spot for some more reading from Simonson’s book.

Fortunately, one of the lounge rooms was
relatively deserted, so I camped out on an oversized recliner in
the corner. Roman secured a small study table in an inconspicuous
area across the room from me.

With a heavy sigh, I made my debut excursion
into blood disorders case studies. Aside from the frequent use of
my iPad to look up medical terminology, it was occasionally quite
fascinating material. Written when the field was still in its
infancy, Dr. Simonson’s book seemed to have been on the leading
edge of it.

I lost track of time, and before I knew it,
evening had arrived.

At approximately six
o’clock, I received a text message from Roman:
Late night?

I sent:
Overtime averse? Long day?

I looked across the room at him but he was
slouched down in his chair ignoring me.

He responded:
Oh, funny man now? More bruises tomorrow morning
for you. ;-)

I chuckled and
texted:
I’ll wrap it up.

I’d had more than my fair share of sore
muscles and bruises from him since combat training began.

“
Pain encourages
proficiency,” he had said to me on more than one
occasion.

All teasing aside, I admired that the guy
really knew his stuff and he was a good mentor. Alton and Kat had
chosen well.

Then I received another text from him.

Belay that. Paige is en route.

I sent:
Thx.

Another twenty minutes
later, he texted:
Clocking out. See you
tomorrow.

I looked across the room to see him
gathering up his notebook computer into a backpack and he
nonchalantly left the room.

Seconds later, Paige appeared in the
entryway with her arms crossed before her. Ethan stood behind her
with a grin on his face.

She rolled her eyes at me as they walked
over to where I sat.

“
Pack it up, nerdo,” she
said, nudging at my shoe with the tip of hers. “Ethan’s leaving
tonight and we’re not spending his remaining hours hanging out in a
study hall.”

I gestured around the nearly empty room.
“It’s a lounge.”

“
No,” she said.
“
It’s-a-lame.
”

“
Fine,” I said.
“Home?”

“
Nope,” she said.
“Club.”

“
Kat’s gonna love that,” I
said.

“
Red’s not here to care,”
she said.

“
What?”

“
Yeah, she and Alton left
after sundown to check on some leads,” she said.

I wondered why Kat hadn’t mentioned that to
me. Hell, she had never even bothered to send me a text
message.

“
Oh, don’t look all
forlorn,” she said. “She’ll be back later tonight after she drops
Alton off at the airport.”

I’d nearly forgotten that he was returning
to London already. For some reason, things felt like they were
happening so fast around me since last Friday night.

She repeatedly snapped her fingers. “Hey,
back to reality, kiddo. My last wager was ‘club’ as I recall.”

“
Restaurant,” I
countered.

“
Bar,” she
said.

“
Witches Brew?” I
asked.

“
Hm. Catchy name. Close
by?”

“
Walking distance,” I
said.

She gave me a suspicious look. “Okay. I’m
sort of surprised I haven’t been there already. I thought I’d
already scoped out all the dives with potential.”

“
Well, we won’t know for
sure until we go there,” Ethan said.

“
Follow me,” I
said.

I quickly packed away my book and iPad and
led the way outside and across campus.

“
You’re gonna love this
place, Ethan,” I said, slipping one strap of my backpack over my
shoulder.

“
I’m intrigued,” he
said.

He draped his arm across Paige’s shoulders
as we briskly walked the couple of blocks over to Grove Street, not
far from campus.

We rounded a corner and nearly ran into
it.

Paige scanned the front of the building and
groaned. “No fair! Aw, crap.”

Ethan laughed.

Witches Brew was a popular coffee and tea
cafe that served some of the freshest bagels and rolls in the
city.