Sunrise at Sunset (Sunset Vampire #1) - Page 10
Hunting
Caleb regained consciousness while lying on the couch and immediately lurched into an animated state. The sound of his heartbeat pounded in his ears. "Don't leave me behind!" he shouted as he sat bolt upright.
Paige suddenly appeared at his side, perching on the edge of the couch. Her right arm stretched across to the back cushion before him in a corralling fashion. "Whoa, tiger," she crooned. "They're already long gone."
"Damn it!" he cursed.
She smiled supportively. "You may not believe it yet, but you're a hell of a lot safer in here with me than you'd be out there with them."
He didn't want to believe that at the moment. All that mattered was they had left without him, left him behind. "I just want to help somehow," he lamented. "I know I'm not much of a threat to a vampire, but I could've done something useful."
"Listen, don't take this the wrong way," she said matter-of-factly, "but if you had gone along, they would've spent more time looking after you than they would hunting Chimalma. As it stands now, they can concentrate fully on what needs to be done."
"Yeah, sure," he sighed with exasperation. Maybe Paige is correct, he considered. At least, it sounds logical. However, it still didn't change how he felt about the matter. His eyes focused on the pale arm before him barring his way.
Paige narrowed her eyes and regarded him warily. "Are you going to play nicely?" she asked.
His pale blue eyes darted to her deep blue ones with a degree of surprise at her question. It was similar to a recent comment made by Katrina.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Do all vampires ask that?" he demanded irritably. "Seems like I've heard that a lot lately."
Surprise and curiosity showed simultaneously on Paige's face as she slowly removed her arm, allowing him to sit up. The vampire considered him for a quiet moment with a peculiar expression. "Listen," she offered in a cordial tone, "Katrina asked me to keep an eye on the surveillance system in her room. That's where you've been staying, but I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or anything. And since you're already packed…"
It made sense that Paige might want to stay where she was close to the computer and monitoring equipment. "Oh, sure," he responded casually. "Yeah, I can move my things into another bedroom." He recalled the smaller bedroom at the top of the stairs where he and Katrina shared their most recent, and hopefully not last, intimate time together. "I'll move into the one at the top of the stairs," he offered. "Of course, if it's okay with you."
"Sure, that's fine," she agreed with a slight nod as she moved to let him stand up.
He rolled upright, rose, and realized that his belongings still sat in a suitcase in the middle of the floor. The final minutes before his blackout replayed in his mind as he ran one hand over his scalp and through his hair.
"Caleb," Paige gently prompted.
He turned to her, once again marveling at how she looked like a young college student from one of his history classes, barely old enough to be called an adult, though not much younger-looking than himself in reality.
"I don't know you very well, and I'd like to avoid any misunderstandings between us," she explained carefully. "So, I'm here if you want to talk about anything, okay?"
"I understand," he replied congenially. "And thanks. That's very kind." He quietly moved to take his suitcase upstairs with a somber expression.
"Yeah, I can see we're going to have a barn burner of a time," Paige muttered under her breath as he left the room with suitcase in tow.
Alton drove himself and Katrina across the darkened city of Atlanta to the four-story, modern-looking structure that housed the Corporate Research Enterprises office. Upon their arrival, the nearly empty parking lot suggested that most of the building's offices were closed.
Alton parked their car at the rear of the building, where the only other vehicle was a cleaning service van. He and Katrina exited the vehicle wearing long black winter coats and black leather gloves. Alton reached into the back seat and withdrew a small black briefcase, which he laid on the trunk to open. He removed a small plastic-encased device and slipped it into his coat pocket. Placing the briefcase back in the car, the two of them proceeded to the building's service entrance.
The night air was crisp as a cold front entered the city from the northwest, and Katrina took a moment to appreciate the feel of the cool breeze against her pale skin. She felt her senses sharpening and honing their sensitivity and was especially happy to be in the field actively doing something rather than just sitting and waiting. She momentarily considered how truly desperate Caleb was to escape his own in-house captivity. Still, she felt better knowing that he was tucked away safely with Paige.
"Cameras?" she asked while scanning the area for the second time since their arrival.
"None on the exterior," he noted. "But there will likely be some inside."
Alton reached into his coat pocket and withdrew the plastic case with lights and a few small buttons on it. He began pressing buttons until two green lights on the device lit up. "This will jam all electronics when we enter," he stated quietly. "That should take care of alarms and camera systems. But because of the power consumption, we'll only have about ten minutes before the battery goes dead."
She quickly glanced at the device and asked, "Where did you get that?"
He smiled and muttered, "British intelligence toy. Somebody owed me a favor."
Her eyebrow shot up, and she adopted an impressed expression. His device is going to make things much easier.
They entered the building, and, as expected, there was nobody around. They avoided the elevator and made their way to the stairwell. It took only a few seconds to race up to the fourth floor, where they exited into the main corridor. The offices on the floor appeared to be closed already, and they heard no activities from within any offices they passed.
They arrived outside Room 404 and noted the company sign for CRE was still on the plaque. Katrina tried the door handle and to no surprise found it to be locked. Alton reached into his pocket and pulled out some lock picks, but she held up her hand.
"We don't have time," she noted before stepping back and swiftly kicking the door near the locked door handle. The lock broke away as the door slammed inwards and open. He shut his eyes tightly at the momentary crashing sound.
"Are you going to kick in all the doors we run into?" he asked sharply.
Katrina scowled. "Only the ones that get in my way."
Alton shook his head, but followed her into the dark offices. The lack of lighting was no problem for the vampires, though there wasn't much to see really. The furniture was bare, and only a few empty cardboard boxes remained in the area. Katrina walked into Chimalma's office and scanned the room. She noted the two chairs placed in front of the desk and imagined Caleb sitting in one of them as he interviewed for the supposed part-time position not long ago. It was a rather elaborate ruse to get Caleb closer to them until Chimalma was ready to spring a trap. I'm so grateful that they didn't kill him once he was here. The mere thought repulsed her.
Katrina gritted her teeth angrily as she shuffled through the abandoned desk and nearby filing cabinets. She found nothing of interest remaining related to either CRE or Alondra Vargas.
"Well, it was a long shot," Alton muttered.
"Agreed," she stated before turning to depart the office.
He pulled the door to on their way out, although its damaged lock mechanism failed to hold the door shut. "What next?" he whispered under his breath so only she would hear him.
"Follow the money trail," she muttered. "She'll have to purchase something either where she's at or where she's going next." Somehow I'm going to find her, Katrina vowed.
Alton made an agreeable grunting sound as they reentered the stairwell and sped downstairs to the ground floor. They failed to notice anyone in the building, except for a janitor inside one of the supply closets gathering his tools and supplies. The janitor was oblivious to either of the vampire's presence. Seconds later, they were walking outside.
"Finances are your bailiwick," Katrina announced while entering the passenger side of the vehicle.
"Of course," Alton agreed brightly. "And I happen to have a contact at Interpol who can help us."
Caleb unpacked his suitcase, placing his clothes in the guest room dresser and storing his toiletries in the adjoining bathroom. He felt somber and tired, but most of all lost. What do I do now?
"This must be what it feels like when a spouse goes to off to war and leaves the other behind," he mused darkly while perched on the edge of the bed. The minutes seemed to last forever as he sat in virtual limbo.
He heard a light tapping noise and looked up to see Paige leaning against the door jamb looking thoughtful.
"You don't know what to do next, do you?" she ventured softly.
"No, not really," he replied glumly. This is the most useless I've felt in a long time.
"Now, we get to do the hard part. We wait," she replied soberly. "They'll check in regularly to let us know how things are progressing. In the meantime, we keep you safely occupied and as happy as possible."
He adopted a wry expression. Safely occupied and happy as possible, he thought. "Yeah? Like what?" he asked aloud, not necessarily directing his question to Paige.
"We need some 'getting to know you' time, I think," she suggested.
"Okay," he replied absently, if only for the sake of something to do. "You start." His thoughts were still focused on Alton's and Katrina's departure, but he didn't want to get on a bad foot with Paige. Being locked in a house with a hostile vampire wasn't an enviable prospect.
"So," she began with a charming smile, "have you memorized all of Katrina's rules yet?"
He looked up with surprise. "You know about the rules?"
"Of course, silly," she chuckled. "I lived with her for quite a few years. We've talked about her partners in the past. I'll admit she has quite a few rules compared to other vampires."
"There's normally fewer?" he inquired.
She looked at him sharply. "Yes, but that's not important to you, Caleb," she clarified tactfully. "What matters is that you learn and follow her rules."
He rolled his eyes.
"So," she continued while sitting next to him on the bed, "you've memorized them then?"
"Um, I'm working on that," he hedged.
"When you can recite them backwards, she'll be much easier to live with," Paige mused thoughtfully.
"You had to learn them?" he inquired.
"Me?" she asked. "My only rule is not revealing the true nature of our kind to humans."
"Great," he groaned. "I feel like I'm in grade school again with these rules."
"You have to realize it's hard for us to trust you humans," she explained diplomatically. "Our anonymity is all we have to protect us from the danger humanity poses to us."
"I suppose I can understand that," he conceded. "My initial reaction to her secret wasn't exactly noble."
She giggled as if remembering something funny. "Oh yeah, the tree branch guy."
Caleb turned what seemed like three shades of red simultaneously and felt the heat quickly rise to his face. "I see my storied reputation spread fast."
"Yep, old Tree Branch Caleb," she said grandly in her best southern drawl. "That's how you're known in these parts."
"Great," he said wryly. "Just great." It wasn't the proudest moment in my brief history with Kat, he admitted.
She grinned at his reaction before adopting a more sympathetic expression. "I'm sorry about teasing you. She actually thinks it's pretty amusing now," she said. "I can tell she adores you, Caleb."
His thoughts went immediately to Katrina. He worried for her safety and wished she hadn't left him behind. Trapped in a grand-sized box, complete with closed lid and all the amenities.
Paige seemed to detect where his feelings were going and reached across the short distance between them to pat him on the back lightly.
"I could've helped her," he muttered dejectedly. "I can go out in the daylight when vampires can't, for example."
She raised one eyebrow and granted, "That's helpful, I admit."
"And before you arrived, Katrina drilled me in some potentially handy martial arts moves," he added optimistically.
Her smirk faded as she withdrew her hand from his back and chastised, "Okay, now you're just being delusional. A few 'moves' doesn't make you combat-ready."
Caleb held up his hand in an apologetic gesture. "Fine, I'm saying I'm not in bad shape, that's all."
Paige adopted an incredulous visage. "And I thought you were actually smarter than the average guy. Listen champ, you may think you're in pretty good shape, but you're no match for us on your best day. Any one of us would wipe the floor with you. Trust me."
He considered her thoughtfully as he stared into her blue eyes. It was difficult to envision her as overtly dangerous.
"You humans are far more fragile than you think when it comes to us," she insisted.
He recalled being sore for days after being tossed around by Katrina that evening in the park. "She did throw me around like a rag doll the night of the branch incident," he reminisced.
"And I bet she wasn't even trying to kill you," Paige ventured with a grin.
"It sure felt like it at the time," he muttered, wide-eyed.
She was introspective as if deciding what to say next, or how best to say it. "Katrina's like a sister to me, and I respect her probably more than you realize," she began slowly. "And I can tell you that she wouldn't go to this much trouble if you didn't matter a great deal to her. You and I both know she loves you, kiddo."
A warm feeling passed over him, and he started to smile.
She grinned at him as if reading something in his expression. "And I'm willing to bet you care enough about her to trust her to have your best interests at heart," she ventured quietly.
He nodded and smiled back wanly. Yes, I trust Katrina and feel deep appreciation for what she's doing to protect me. I just yearn to be with her, maybe try and help her somehow. Instead, I'm left to sit around and hope that I have enough patience to make it through the waiting and worrying part.
Katrina and Alton checked into a hotel on the outskirts of Atlanta. They needed a temporary base of operations until determining Chimalma's location. Rather than returning to the estate and further agitating Caleb, the hotel allowed them immediate mobility to act or relocate as warranted. Once settled in the room, Katrina's thoughts immediately turned to her mate. She dialed her cell phone and only waited two rings before Paige picked up. After giving her a brief update, she asked about Caleb.
"Just as you predicted, he was irritable initially, but he's doing much better now," Paige reported in an upbeat tone.
"Where is he now?" Katrina asked.
"He's in the shower in a guest room upstairs," Paige explained. "He's sleeping there while I'm in the sublevel. Do you want to chat with him?"
Katrina considered it and declined, "No, it's probably better if I don't just yet. He'll likely still be upset with me for leaving him. Just tell him that we checked in and are working on tracking Chimalma further. We'll call when we know more."
Paige paused, prompting, "And?"
Katrina sighed and added, "Tell him that I love him, Paige." She could almost hear Paige grinning on the other end of the phone.
"Now, that's what I'm getting at," she responded brightly.
Katrina shook her head with a smirk and instructed, "Say goodbye, Paige."
"Goodbye, Paige," the spritely vampire replied before hanging up.
Alton walked in from one of the two bedrooms asking, "Why do I feel like we're two parents who just left the teenagers in charge of the house while we're gone?"
Katrina chuckled. "Good thing that one of the teenagers is a vampire."
He nodded agreeably as he powered up his laptop on a nearby table.
The first night without Katrina was difficult for Caleb. After his shower, he received an update from Paige on Katrina's phone call. She spent the evening sitting in front of the computers and security surveillance system in Katrina's lair, leaving him the main part of the house to himself. He lay on the main living room couch watching television until nearly 1 am before making his way up to the guest room.
Once asleep, he had restless dreams that eventually turned into a nightmare. Katrina and he happily strolled though a moonlit night at one of Georgia's numerous Civil War battlefield parks. One moment they were walking hand in hand, and the next Katrina disappeared. He called her name while running through dense trees, across battlefield cannon emplacements, around old stockade fencing, and across open stretches of grassy fields. But his voice was barely a whisper even though he yelled at the top of his lungs.
He finally heard snarling and growling sounds and made his way towards the source. Upon entering an eerie-looking graveyard among a copse of thick pine trees, he saw Katrina facing off against Chimalma. Both looked fierce, and their eyes were ablaze with fury. He noticed that each combatant had a set of jagged claw-like fingernails, which were dripping blood. By the moonlight, he saw dark stripes covering the clothes of each woman. Those have to be blood streaks, he realized.
Katrina's face turned towards him, and she hissed. In that same moment, Chimalma's right hand darted out and plunged into Katrina's rib cage. With one swift, terrifying movement, Chimalma's hand exited Katrina holding her still-beating heart while blood dripped thickly to the ground. The Aztec-descended vampire screamed in exaltation. Katrina's eyes flashed and went dark as her body slumped lifelessly to the ground. He was stunned, and watched with horror while shouting, "Katrina! No! No!"
Then there was nothing.
He awoke in nearly total darkness, the only light emitting from the dimly glowing numerals of a digital clock sitting atop the dresser across the room. He was breathing in short gasps and broke out in a cold sweat. "Oh God," he muttered, putting one hand to his forehead while propping himself in a sitting position with the other arm.
Seconds later, the door to the bedroom swung open, and Paige was at his bedside. He felt a brief rush of air wash against his slightly damp face as her bright blue eyes illuminated in the darkness.
"Are you okay, kiddo?" she asked with her cool palm pressed soothingly to the side of his face.
"Yeah," he breathed. "Just a nightmare."
"Wow, you really broke out in a sweat," she remarked absently. "Want to talk about it? I heard you shout Katrina's name."
He nodded in the darkness and began to recount the brief nightmare as Paige turned on the small lamp on the nightstand. It didn't take long for comprehension to dawn on both their faces.
"Well, I don't have to be a dream therapist for that one," she noted sagely.
"Yeah," he remarked darkly. "Keep your useless butt at home so you don't distract Katrina and get her killed."
"It's probably best," Paige agreed. "But she knows how badly you want to be there with her. It means a lot to her, Caleb."
He nodded and slipped over the opposite side of the bed. He was thankful for having put on a pair of men's pajama pants earlier as he walked towards the adjoining bathroom. He needed to towel off and didn't want to parade around naked in front of her.
"Nice-looking useless butt you've got there," she nevertheless teased while observing his lean, shirtless figure.
He grinned and felt a growing appreciation for her company. But his thoughts quickly turned back to Katrina, and he prayed that everything would turn out completely differently from his nightmare.
It was mid-afternoon the following day as Katrina and Alton stayed safely behind the dark curtains of their hotel room that the first major break occurred in their hunt for Chimalma. Alton used his laptop while Katrina reclined on the room's sofa drinking blood from a hotel glass. She had brought a lockable cooler with packets of blood.
"Chimalma made her first mistake," he observed with satisfaction.
She sneered and countered darkly, "Her first mistake was coming after Caleb and me."
He ignored her and continued, "She must be using disposable cell phones to avoid being traced. But she's also still trying to run a small international company. My Interpol contact acquired her corporate cell phone records, and guess what?"
Her interest was piqued, and she listened closely to her friend and mentor.
Alton noted her focused attention with a grin. "She's still accepting calls on the corporate cell phone she carries," he added with satisfaction. "I've got her latest location from the coordinates forwarded to me."
"Just how did you get Interpol to help us?" she asked.
He smiled. "Simple. Chimalma's crimes qualify her as either a serial killer or domestic terrorist."
"Hm, helpful," she admired. "Would there be someone of interest there, as well?"
"Perhaps," he replied with a smirk. "But I'm not quite ready to say just yet."
"I'm happy for you," she offered sincerely.
Alton continued to smile as he retrieved a satellite image, which he zoomed in on progressively. It was of an area near Warren, Pennsylvania, in the far northwestern corner of the state close to the southern border of New York. He brought up MapQuest and focused on the city of Warren. Katrina appeared at his shoulder to peer intently at the screen.
"Why there?" she asked as her mind began organizing information and assessing variables.
"It's only a small town, barely eleven thousand people as of the last census," he noted as he searched the Internet for additional information. "Established in 1796, its main claims to fame were oil and lumber. The town went through hard economic times, with only a few companies serving as primary employers. But look." He pointed to the screen.
"CRE has a small corporate retreat just outside of town," Katrina observed.
"Great location," he mused. "Lots of forest and hills and very few people."
"But why there?" she insisted with a frown. "She's hiding from us? That doesn't make sense."
Alton murmured his agreement. "Unless she wants us there. In which case, she's picking the battle ground."
Katrina scowled. "Fine with me."
"Okay, destination known. Now what's our plan, besides you tearing her to shreds?" he asked pointedly.
She glared at him, but admitted that he was correct. Her anger would only be useful if channeled properly. "I see explosives in her future," she said coldly.
"Quite an extreme attention grabber, don't you think?" Alton queried. "Perhaps a simple beheading would be better and far less dramatic?"
"Immolation eliminates evidence," Katrina countered.
"Are you suggesting we blow up a lodge full of potentially innocent people?" he insisted incredulously. "That's pretty bloodthirsty, even for you."
She gave him a withering expression and snapped, "Of course not. Rather, we set up a kill zone near her and draw, or drag, her into it."
He considered the idea and conceded, "Hm, seems plausible and direct. If you'll arrange for a charter flight, I'll make a few calls to some contacts that can help outfit us with helpful tools."
"We'll need a place to stay affording both privacy and some degree of safety from sunlight," she added.
Alton searched the Internet further as Katrina retrieved information related to corporate charter flights from a folder in her luggage. She had used Sunset Air a number of times. The company was owned by a fellow vampire and was well-known among her kind for both its discretion and safe, reliable service.
"Got it," Alton said. "There are cabins not far from the town of Warren. I'll reserve one for us."
"Fine," she warned. "But we're picking up some dark sheets and duct tape somewhere because I'm not about to spend the day with you hiding from sun rays in a cramped cabin closet."
He chuckled and shook his head.
It was early evening already, though it felt to Caleb that time had practically stopped. He spent most of the day reading a biography on Theodore Roosevelt that he had brought from his apartment. Later that afternoon, he had talked Paige into connecting his laptop to the Internet long enough for him to update his video drivers so he could play a computer game he'd tried loading a few days prior. However, she was attentive to his activities, and once he was finished, she disabled the wireless access in the house, much to his chagrin. Still, it allowed him to pass a few hours getting lost in the game. However, he felt guilty for being able to sit casually playing while Katrina and Alton did all of the dangerous work on his behalf. Once again, I feel useless, he fumed.
Paige showered, changed into some black cotton lounge pants and a baby blue T-shirt, and sat barefooted at the computer hutch in Katrina's sublevel room. Caleb made his way down the steps and plopped down on the nearby bed. He was going stir-crazy and was prepared to do just about anything to get out of the house, even if it were just for a few minutes. He couldn't recall a time in his past when he had endured the kind of isolation that he was experiencing.
"Hey, any chance I could talk you into deactivating the front door code for about ten minutes?" he asked in a pleasant, innocent voice.
She smiled politely. "I seem to recall Katrina's saying something along the lines of 'Caleb stays inside the house, period.'"
He glanced at her with a speculative expression, hoping she wouldn't notice. Much to his chagrin, she did.
"Come on, just a brief evening walk?" he pleaded hopefully. "I'll only walk to the end of the driveway and back. That's all. You can go along with me for protection, if you like."
She smiled. "Well, sure. I can do that."
He gave her his best appreciative-looking smile.
"But it's going to be awful hard for you to take that walk with two broken legs," she amended with narrowed eyes and flat voice.
His eyes widened momentarily with surprise, and his smile disappeared entirely.
She shrugged. "I have my orders, and they don't include either of us leaving the house."
He folded his arms across his chest and sighed derisively.
"For any reason," she said forcefully with a raised eyebrow. "Remember, nobody's supposed to know I'm even here."
"Paige, please," he pleaded in an urgent voice. "I'm going stir-crazy in here."
"I sympathize with you Caleb. I really do," she said. "But it's for your own safety, after all."
"Listen, I've never felt so bored and useless in my life," he complained.
She regarded him coolly before smiling back at him. "Well, we better find something for us to do then."
That caught him off-guard. "Like what?" he asked carefully.
She grinned menacingly. "You could show me some of those handy vampire combat moves that you said you learned from Katrina!"
He gave her a dirty look as she walked past him with a smirk over to the nearby sitting area to turn on the wall-mounted television. "You're just plain sarcastic. You know that, don't you?" he called after her irritably. She seems to enjoy toying with me, he noted irritably.
Paige forced a laugh. "Be nice. Don't make me stand you in the corner."
He hurried to the couch and found her already lounging on the cushions methodically surfing through cable channels. She didn't even glance up as he glared at her over the back cushion.
"Oh, really? Stand me in the corner?" he pressed with a hint of incredulity.
"Well, despite my appearance, I'm a lot older than you," she ventured. "And you're only in your mid-twenties as a human, so I guess that makes you the spoiled youngster here."
He folded his arms before him and asked, "That so? Well, just how old are you then?"
"My vampire life?" she asked. "Oh, I'm around the century mark now."
He hadn't expected her to be quite that old. Her youthful appearance and manner led him to believe she might have only been a vampire for a short time. "A century?"
To him, she seemed like a peer, someone he could have known through college. She had a very modern attitude for someone from her time period if she were truly a century old. "I'm finding that hard to believe," he muttered while taking a seat in an open spot at the end of the couch near her pale feet.
Paige ignored him and continued to channel surf.
"You're so…modern," he added, grasping for the right word.
She glanced at him curiously, considering him at length. "Really," she replied thoughtfully. "Well, you apparently don't know much about the early 1900s then. It was a wild time, not much different from today really, other than the technology."
He felt the history teacher persona rising in him to take over. "My specialty is really more the pre-twentieth century, but my impression is everyone was much more conservative in the early 1900s compared to today," he ventured.
A smirk formed on her face a