A Bloody London Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 2) (17 page)

Gil’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Katrina and clarified, “Hiya, Katrina. So, you two really are a couple then?”

Paige rolled her eyes, popped Gil on the back of his head lightly with the flat of her palm and chastised, “Yeah, Gil, a couple. Remember when I told you about vampire mates on the plane? Like common-law spouses but without rings?”

He grinned and nodded, “Oh, yeah. Well, that’s a relief. You had me worried for a minute there, babe.”

She shook her head with a tight-lipped expression and observed dryly, “He calls most women ’babe,’ by the way. Though I recently expressed to him how I really
hate
that.”

“Nice to meet you, Gil,” Katrina offered with an amused nod from where she stood, not wanting to remove her hand from Caleb’s. It felt like it had taken so long finally to get back to that point with him.

“Same here,” Gil replied as he raised his beer bottle in salute and drank.

The four of them stayed up visiting, learning more about Gil and how Paige and he had met while she was out on the town club-roving. Around midnight it was obvious that both men had grown tired, though Gil’s response might have been due to the volume of beers he had consumed. And while Katrina and Paige were both night dwellers by nature, a silent signal between them prompted a mutual herding of their partners to their respective bedrooms.

In the sublevel room, Katrina showered first and lay on top of the king-sized bed reading a novel. Caleb stifled a yawn as he exited the bathroom wearing a pair of dark sweatpants and the pendant Katrina had given him at Christmas. He paused for a moment to admire her in her satin pajama pants and form-fitted sleeveless top. Her long red hair was combed out smoothly and draped across her shoulders like a flowing mantle.
She’s a vision of beauty
, he resolved, feeling affirmation that despite their recent differences she was undoubtedly the love of his life.

Katrina glanced up from her book and smiled at him before returning to read again. She uncrossed her legs at the ankles and stretched her bare feet out before her. He walked to the end of the bed and began massaging her feet gently.

“Ooh, that feels wonderful,” she purred. “But you don’t have to do that. I know how tired you are.”

“Eh,” he replied. “I want to do something nice for you.”

She smirked and returned to reading her novel.
That certainly works for me
.

After a few minutes of ministrations, he said, “Kat, I’ve been thinking about Paige’s active night life. I mean, I feel bad enough you have to spend your days cooped up here in the estate. Then in the evenings you rarely go out unless you and I do something together. Don’t vampires need to roam through the night to exercise or something?”

“I work out in the home gym,” she replied off-handedly. “Besides, our stamina and constitution don’t require exercise in the same way humans do.”

Must be nice
. He considered the topic from another perspective. “Aren’t you bored, though? I mean, if you wanted to roam around town all night I’d understand.”

She frowned and glanced up at him from over her book. “Do you honestly want me to spend my nights away from you?” she asked.

He massaged one foot at length while mulling that over. “Well, maybe not every night. But I feel guilty that I may be keeping you from enjoying life while you wait around for me. And even then, I can’t stay up all night with you because I need at least five or six hours of sleep so I can make it through work the next day. Half the time, you spend the night lying in bed next to me, and you don’t even need more than two or three hours of sleep every few days.”

“I like watching you sleep. It’s soothing to me to listen to the rhythm of your heartbeat, my love,” she replied simply. “It’s a meditative experience, really.”

He wasn’t sure how to respond to that, and instead just continued to massage her other foot and ankle. “But if you wanted to go out --” he began.

“Prowling around town? Skulking in the shadows for victims?” she offered in an amused tone.

“Well...”

She nodded as she turned a page in her novel and only glanced up at him briefly. “Thanks so much to Hollywood once again. Caleb, do you think for a moment I miss ’the old days’ when much of my time was spent scoping out blood sources? Some of the best developments to our kind include large refrigerators and regular blood deliveries. I’m just like any other human you know, for the most part. I like reading, Internet surfing, watching television and films, shopping, and a host of other diversions. Sometimes I even like pursuing business interests or part-time careers. For the most part, I’m very content with things.”

“For the most part?” he asked as he ran his hands up and down both of her calves.

She paused from reading, relishing the feeling of his firm fingertips. “Well, I have enjoyed our Find Caleb sessions, despite the most recent troubles at the wildlife preserve,” she mused with a smile. “But I understand if you’re kind of turned off by that for a while.”

He nodded, happy to hear she enjoyed his attempts at meeting her hunting need. However, he silently admitted he was wary about elaborate Find Caleb sessions following the encounter with Devon Archibald. But he made a mental note to continue plans for the abandoned construction site.

After a moment, he looked up and stared at her in a penetrating fashion, admiring how beautiful she was.
She’s a red-haired vision of loveliness
.
She’s perfect, and I can’t believe how fortunate I am to be with her
.
Although it’s true that I’m still not entirely pleased about everything that’s happened lately.

After a moment, she looked up with a quizzical expression and asked, “What is it?”

He swallowed, stopped massaging her ankle and replied, “I was just admiring. You have to be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Kat.”

She grinned broadly, placed her novel aside on the nightstand, and beckoned to him with the crook of her index finger. “Come here.”

He crawled onto the bed, perching next to her. She reached out to grab him by the arms, rolled his body onto the bed next to her, and draped her leg across both of his. He lay on his back looking up at her as she softly kissed him on the lips a number of times, to which he responded eagerly and felt a sense of excitement wash through him.

“Do you know how many vampires would love to have you?” she asked endearingly.

“For dinner?” he countered with raised eyebrows.

She chuckled. “No, silly. For a mate.”

“Very kind,” he replied, although he wasn’t sure if he necessarily agreed with her. But then, he didn’t know many vampires, either.

Her expression turned somber as she perched over him, staring down into his blue eyes. “I’m serious, my love. You proved your worthiness for that kind of role by age eight, and then solidified it again last December. Do you know how many vampires never meet a human as dedicated and devoted as you, even over a period of centuries?”

Not that I considered you for the role of mate at age eight
.

He nearly blushed. “Thanks, Kat. I’m proud to be your mate.”

She smiled back at him and placed a warm kiss on his lips.

After lying in silence in her arms for a time, he felt he needed to revisit a topic. “I’m ashamed to admit that I laid the guilt on a little heavily this past week, Kat,” he conceded. “While I’m not okay with what happened, I’ve also held a bit of a grudge against you this past week. You didn’t deserve that, and I apologize.”

“But you’re still unhappy?” she asked.

He shrugged, admitting, “I’ll move beyond it eventually. But I still want to know what happened, and I need my memories back to do that properly.”

She respected his resolve, even if she disagreed with it. “Well, I suppose I’ll forgive your angst-ridden indulgence from this past week.”

Grateful for her understanding, he kissed her in appreciation.

A series of exchanged kisses ensued as they embraced in silence, each enjoying the intimacy of being with the other. Finally, she sighed and searched his face with a distant expression.
If only we had more time together
. Time passed so quickly for humans, and she was quite fond of the one cradled in her arms.

He regarded her silently and considered inquiring about her thoughts, but she spoke before he had the chance.

“You would probably make a remarkable vampire, my love,” she muttered under her breath in a manner that, even with their close proximity, he almost missed.

His eyebrows rose, and he looked into her eyes with unabashed intensity as his mind contemplated the scope of her comment. She noted his expression and heard his pulse increase marginally, and the corners of her mouth upturned with veiled amusement.

“We won’t speak of this further,” she stated firmly. “But yes, the thought has crossed my mind on occasion. Although I’ve never turned anyone before.” She tapped him on the end of his nose lightly with her fingertip. “But you have many human years ahead of you, and I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the topic.”

He tried to put the subject aside, but felt compelled to ask, “If I became a vampire, what would that mean for us?”

She paused, and then reached down to pinch the pendant around his neck between her fingertips. She raised it up until it was suspended before his eyes. “You’re mine forever, Caleb,” she answered resolutely.

He actually shivered as her words sunk into his mind.
Hers forever
. The thought was simultaneously thrilling and ominous. Despite his love and adoration for her, forever was a long time to contemplate.

He wrapped her hand in his as she held his pendant and rose to meet her lips with a passionate kiss. She pressed him back down onto the bed and nipped at his lower lip as she kissed him. Within moments, she felt his hand probing underneath her knit top, and his fingers gently caressed her breasts.

A tantalizing shiver ran through her as she turned his body to lie on top of hers while continuing to kiss him. Acting upon her signal, he used one hand to shift his sweatpants off while she slipped from her pajama pants. He kissed her passionately and endeavored to please her tenderly. Then time stood still as darkness blanketed them from the cares of the outside world.

After Caleb fell asleep, Katrina glanced at him in the darkness and pulled the covers up to his neck so he didn’t catch a chill. She slipped out of bed, pulled her pajama pants and sleeveless top back on, and made her way upstairs to the first floor. She found Paige in the front entry room, curled up on one end of the couch with her feet pulled beneath her as she lounged against the arm rest. Katrina grinned at her friend’s attire: a pair of black Lycra biking shorts and a black cotton t-shirt with the image of a large, red, flaming skull on the front.

“There you are,” Paige greeted her.

“Sorry,” Katrina offered as she commandeered the other end of the couch, draping one leg over the edge of the cushion. “Took a little longer than expected.”

Paige smirked and ventured slyly, “Make-up sex is great, isn’t it?”

“What makes you think --”

The blonde vampire looked away and interrupted, “Fine, whatever.”

“Yes, it’s wonderful, actually, particularly after a couple of weeks or more,” Katrina conceded with a sigh.

Paige smirked and affirmed, “Yep, thought so.”

The red-haired vampire shook her head. “So, what’s the scoop on Gil?”

Paige recounted everything that she had told Caleb earlier. “So Gil has two women in his life: me and Mary Jane.”

“Ah, but do you have feelings for him?”

Paige considered that with a slight frown. “Somewhat, but it’s still too early for me to say for certain.”

The two chatted at length about a host of other topics, including the upcoming spring break trip to England that Katrina had in mind for her and Caleb. That led to a discussion of their favorite European destinations, and Paige revealed her desire to revisit Italy and Greece following the few decades since her last visit. Since then, most of her time had been spent in North or Central America, and she welcomed a change of scenery. But with needing to observe Gil for the time being, she was putting off any vacation plans.

“Why not take him with you?” Katrina asked.

“I need to wait to find out if he’s on any watch lists before he applies for a passport,” Paige explained. “I’m still researching his background, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s had some trouble with the law in the past for --”

“Drugs,” Katrina interjected.

Paige nodded and chuckled. “Yeah, he’s kind of a pot-head. But I can probably break him of that eventually, if I wanted to.”

Katrina nodded and hoped everything would work out for her. It had been years since anyone had caught her friend’s eye, although Katrina had a sneaky suspicion that someone like Caleb might have been on her radar under different circumstances. Fortunately, she trusted Paige implicitly, and the thought of her former pupil’s friendship and innocent affections for Caleb no longer made her jealous. Besides, few were as devoted as the young man in her life.

“Hello? Earth to Katrina,” Paige interrupted with a snap of her fingers. “Lost you there for a minute.”

Katrina jolted from her reverie with a smirk and remarked, “Okay, I’m back now, Houston.”

“So what are you going to do about Caleb’s memory?”

Katrina quietly considered a response. “I was thinking about trying to use the same hypnotic technique to undo what I did nearly twenty years ago.”

Paige’s eyebrows rose. “You can do that?”

The red-haired vampire shrugged. “I can try. I’ve never actually faced something like this before. In fact, I haven’t hypnotized anyone else since then, either. I was surprised when it worked the first time, actually.”

“We could call Alton for his advice,” Paige ventured.

Katrina countered, “Or I could try myself first and see what happens.”

“So, when are you planning to try?”

“Sometime soon. He seemed pretty insistent about it again tonight, actually.”

Paige shrugged. “Okay, why not tonight?”