A Bloody London Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 2) (14 page)

Caleb backed away from her and shook his head resolutely. “This is too much. It isn’t making any sense,” he insisted as he backed further away from her. “What did you mean earlier when you said that I helped you? Exactly how did I help you?”

She slowly waved her hands in a calming fashion and urged, “Please Caleb, calm down. I promise to explain everything. Let’s sit down.”

Other thoughts played through his frayed mind, and he muttered, “Wait a minute. If that’s true, all those years, all that time, Mom and I thought my father was still out there somewhere, but he was already dead. My mother wasted all those years preparing to defend us in case he tried to return, and it was for nothing!”

I never thought of that
, she realized.

The room felt too small for him, and he had a hard time trying to catch his breath.
Gotta get some air, clear my head
. He turned and dashed through the house towards the front door.

She was at his heels immediately. “Caleb, where are you going?” she insisted with concern.
No, my love. Not another dangerous flight reactio
n.

“Outside,” he mumbled.

“Wait! Your coat,” she interjected, but he was already halfway out the door and onto the front porch.

She hastily grabbed his leather jacket from the coat closet and followed him outside, pulling the door closed behind her. He was already halfway to the end of the house, heading towards the neighborhood park area, before she managed to catch up with him using her vampire speed.
He’s wound too tightly
.

Caleb maintained a brisk walk in the cold winter air while staring at the ground before him. “What could I have done to help you as a child?” he asked with a frown.

He abruptly stopped, leaving Katrina a step ahead before she stopped and turned to look at him. His eyes widened with realization as he stared up at her.

“Hold on. Did you drink my blood as a child?” he demanded.

It was her turn to be shocked, and she snapped, “No! Never children or pregnant women. Never them. I merely healed a wound on your left arm. Although your blood tasted so sweet, just as it still does.”

He recalled the flashback of his left arm bleeding. He frowned and opened the gate at the side of her property facing the park. It felt like he had to keep walking, keep moving, to match the pace of his mind. He inhaled cold air into his lungs, trying to clear his head. “How exactly did I help you, then?” he asked.

She kept stride beside him. “You called a blood delivery service for me. Then you brought the cooler of blood to me so I could feed and heal.”

His frown deepened.
I don’t remember any of that. Is it even true?
He had no way of knowing, so he was forced to trust her for the time being. “Heal from what?” he pressed as they reached the concrete path winding throughout the park.

“I met the morning sun,” she explained sadly. “I wanted to end my life.”

Caleb stopped, completely caught off guard by her answer, and stared at her incredulously. She regarded him soberly, matching him stare for stare in the light of a nearby light pole.

“Suicide?” he asked with upraised eyebrows. “You?”

She shrugged, unhappy to dwell on that time in her life. “Life grew tedious, and boring, and pointless.”

His mind tried putting the pieces together, although he still had no tangible memories to draw upon. “You changed your mind?”

She smiled thoughtfully and nodded. “Yeah,” she replied. “The sunlight hurt like hell, and I lost my nerve.”

He nodded. “Why me?”

She adopted a smirk, suddenly appreciating the simple coincidences in life. “Your family’s detached garage was the closest building within my running path, the closest shelter from the sunlight. A completely unplanned coincidence, really.”

He frowned and considered the oddity of her statement. He had never given the idea of fate or predestination much thought before. Thought it wasn’t as if he thought divine intervention had much to do with vampires, or if there really were such a thing. Absently rubbing at his eyes, he turned to walk further down the pathway.

She patiently observed him as they walked.
At least he seems less agitated
.
And he hasn’t made a run for any cliffs
.

“What made you want to keep living?” he asked, finding the change of subject soothing for some reason.

“You,” she whispered.

He stopped and stared into her eyes as if trying to divine the honesty in her statement. “What?”

“No human had ever helped me like that before, much less a child,” she explained with a distant expression, smiling. “You were -- are so very special, so unlike anyone I’ve ever met.”

He didn’t know what to say and tried to force his mind to recall anything at all about what she was saying. But nothing came.

Her expression changed to something much darker, and she continued, “It was evening, and you came out to check on me again. I had healed a great deal after drinking the blood, and you were so curious to look underneath that old tarp-covered car to try and look at me. But then your father came into the garage, drunk and feeling mean. And you were his target.”

Caleb balled his hands into fists at his side, and his stare became vacant as he recalled the man who was his father. He recalled the frequent beatings, sometimes for little or no reason, and the smell of booze on his breath. Then he remembered his mother crying and the black eyes she sometimes received from his father’s abrupt temper.

Katrina watched his reaction intently and listened to his elevated pulse. “He whipped your left arm with his belt and drew blood. I was so angry, and I repelled his attack on you. I put you outside so you wouldn’t see anything further, but you came back into the garage as I confronted him again. And this time, I snapped his neck, letting his dead body drop to the floor. But you saw the entire thing, and it almost broke my heart.”

He recalled the snapping sound in his flashbacks and the vacant look on his father’s face. “I hope the bastard rots in hell,” he muttered angrily.

She waited a moment for his attention to return to her.

“I wanted to erase that memory and try to help you lead a normal life without someone abusing you,” she offered gently. “I helped your mother to find employment at my company. Although her continued success was hers alone.”

“Except the college fund,” he interjected.

Katrina nodded. “Yes, the college fund.”

“Wait,” he said. He abruptly turned and walked down the concrete path again at a brisk pace.

She walked silently a couple of steps behind him, watching him intently.
He’s doing better, I think
.
Thank goodness
.

He stopped next to a park bench and perched on the front edge of it. “So, then you deprogrammed me,” he muttered absently.

She sat in the middle of the bench next to him and reached out with her left arm across the short distance between them. Her fingers were nearly at his shoulder when he stood up abruptly, stepping away from the bench while rubbing his eyes wearily.

Almost
, she thought with a grimace. She wanted to touch him, soothe him somehow.
Maybe if I could just hold him
. She sighed. “I hypnotized you somewhat, yes.”

A thought occurred to him, and he turned to face her as she sat on the edge of the bench. “You enrolled in my history class last fall,” he prompted almost as an accusation. “That was no coincidence, was it?”

She frowned, and then sighed with resignation. “No, it wasn’t,” she replied. “I wanted to see how you had turned out as an adult. I had no further contact with you after you had helped me, you see. Oh, I read some newspaper clippings about how you were doing on your school baseball teams, but nothing really substantive. And while I was traveling for years throughout Europe visiting with other vampires and seeing the world, I heard from a contact at the company that your mother had passed away. I knew then that I had to check on you. So I came to Atlanta, and here we are.”

Caleb felt the chill from the evening breeze begin to penetrate his sweater, and he folded his arms in front of him as he stood steadfastly before her. “So,” he ventured carefully, “you didn’t program me to fall in love with you, then?” He wanted his feelings for her to be real.
Hell, I want anything to be real right now.

Katrina looked at him sharply, only to find him staring back at her intently. She leapt up from the bench in a blur and wrapped her arms around him snugly. It caught him off guard, and he spun in an almost complete circle from her impact. But she held him upright firmly and pulled him against her body.

“We genuinely fell in love, Caleb,” she assured him. “It’s all real. Just us. No programming, no hypnosis. In fact, I never actually thought I would see you again once I left my Amber identity behind to become Katrina.”

He appreciated the warmth from her and stood in her arms for a moment as he contemplated her response. He suddenly felt so tired and tried to move towards the nearby bench, but she was like a statue bolted to the ground, and her embrace was like a steel cable wound around his body.

She frowned down at him, suspecting the nature of his effort. Instead of releasing him, she moved in a blur, pulling him onto the bench beside her, happy to maintain her embrace around him once she had him next to her. However, she did momentarily free one arm to pick up his leather jacket beside her and drape it across his shoulders.

He appreciated the increased warmth as they sat in silence. Though still quite upset that she hadn’t told him any of the evening’s revelations until he had confronted her, he still deeply cared for her. He felt a little hurt and betrayed.

“Who else knows about this?” he asked. “Paige? Alton?”

“Nobody,” she replied quietly. “Just you and me.”

He sighed.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked tentatively.

“Yes.”

Crap
. “Do you still love me?” she queried with some hesitation. Her heart was in her throat as the seconds ticked silently by.

“Yes,” he finally replied. “If what I feel is real, then yes.”

Good, very good
. “It’s real. It has to be,” she confirmed.

But he frowned and challenged, “Why? Why does it have to be real?”

“Because if it’s not, I don’t think I could handle that.”

He turned to look at her with an odd expression, not quite sure what to make of her answer, but not liking the implications of it, either. He paused, then shrugged and inclined his face to softly kiss the skin of her pale neck.

She smiled contentedly and quickly turned to face him, pressing her lips against his. She tried to kiss him passionately, but he abruptly pulled away.

“No, not like that. Not right now,” he insisted. “I’m still angry with you for not telling me all of this already.”

Her lips tightened into a thin line.
He’s been upset with me so much lately. First, Devon Archibald, and now this. Dammit to hell
, she fumed.

“Fine,” she replied forlornly, but quickly kissed him on the lips before he could object.

He conceded that and shrugged into his leather jacket. She removed her arm from around him long enough for him to put on his jacket, but he moved away from her before she could embrace him again.

He’s going to make me pay for this, I suppose
, she considered darkly. “What’s restitution going to cost me?” she asked half-playfully.

He looked at her with a serious expression. “I’m not entirely sure yet. But I know one thing for certain.”

She frowned. “Yes?”

He pointed to his head. “You’re going to help me unblock these memories. I want to see what happened that day and night when I was eight.”

She inhaled her breath sharply and countered, “Caleb, no. Not that. There’s nothing to be gained by that now.”

But he shook his head defiantly and demanded, “I’m already having flashbacks. I had a horrible one in the garage tonight and another one back in the kitchen earlier. So, I don’t care how you do it, but make it happen.”

She was taken aback by the strength of his insistence and silently considered him at length.
His eyes are so determined, so intense
.
What if I can’t
?

“I’ll try.”

“Promise me,” he insisted with an arched brow.

She frowned. “I promise,” she conceded unhappily.
Somehow.

He rose from the bench and turned his back on her. “I’m headed back. I’m cold,” he stated and began walking back towards the estate.

She rose quickly to follow, but inwardly she was concerned by his suddenly dark demeanor.
I hope this is just a passing phase
.
But then, what can I do except try to help him through it?
She was devoted to him and determined to get her light-hearted Caleb back somehow.
I won’t give up on him when he needs my support more than ever, whether or not he realizes it himself
.

* * * *

Nearly a week had passed since Caleb found the banquet photograph of his mother and Katrina. By that Friday he had at best remained stoic regarding Katrina’s failure to inform him about his past, though inside he still felt a tumult of emotions. And while it had been difficult for Katrina to view and sense his continued displeasure on a daily basis, she had remained pleasant and understanding in addition to giving him his space and leaving him to his own diversions. The problem was that it had been tearing her apart with guilt, frustration, and sadness. And as was her nature, she bottled up her emotions and concealed them from him.

In keeping with her self-imposed quiet suffering, Katrina chose to divert her own attentions to anything that would keep her mind or body occupied. She cleaned out the basement wine cellar, sorted her files and financial records, and emailed a host of vampires from around the world who sought her out. By that Friday evening, her welcome diversion was in the form of shopping.

Caleb spent the official start of the weekend grading history exams at the new dining room table. As with a number of pieces of furnishings at the estate, the large oak-finished table had been delivered in the past few weeks. A lot of former furniture had become a casualty of the battle between Chimalma and Katrina the past December. He considered that he was sitting in the very room that had nearly been the location of his death. And though it was with discomfort that he recalled those dark events, it failed to deter him from grading exams in the room. It was the roomiest tabletop in the house and ideal for spreading out paperwork.