A Bloody London Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 2) (18 page)

“Now?”

“Sure, why not?”

“He was pretty tired earlier,” Katrina hedged.

“And that matters?” Paige retorted pointedly. “Maybe it’s better when his mind is more receptive to it. I dunno, like when he’s already tired?”

Katrina conceded that the idea seemed logical and peered at the clock across the room. Nearly two hours had passed. “Fair enough.”

“Can I watch?” Paige asked. Katrina shrugged and nodded.

The two proceeded into the dark sublevel chamber where Caleb was sleeping. After closing the door behind them, the two vampires quietly navigated their way across the room through the darkness until Katrina sat on the edge of the bed next to Caleb while Paige stood near the foot of the bed, watching intently.

“Caleb?” Katrina asked gently as she caressed his forehead with her fingertips. “Wake up, my love.”

He murmured something unintelligible and stirred. His eyes fluttered open. “Kat? Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine,” she replied softly. “But I need you to wake up for me, okay?”

“B-but why?” he stammered as he rubbed at his eyes, straining unsuccessfully to look up at her in the darkness as she leaned over him. He was barely able to make out her form in the nearly pitch black conditions.

“I’m going to try the hypnosis removal,” she offered.

“Awww, Kat, can’t it wait until morning?” he groaned and rolled over on his left side while trying to pull the covers over himself again.

She rolled her eyes, pulled the sheet and comforter down to his waist and insisted, “No, my love. I need to do this while you’re vulnerable.”

His eyes shot open as he clawed to grasp at the covers. “What?”

She quickly corrected herself. “I meant, susceptible. It may be easier that way.”

He sighed and rolled back over to stare at her dark silhouette as she sat next to him.

“Maybe you could sit up for me?” she suggested.

He sat up in bed lazily, and she was suddenly pleased he had pulled his sweatpants back on since leaving him earlier. She wasn’t comfortable parading her mate around naked in front of Paige, or anyone else for that matter. Reaching behind him, she pulled his pillow up to rest against the headboard. “Lean back against the pillow.”

He sighed again and leaned into the pillow while pulling his legs up underneath him to sit Indian-style before her. Then he crossed his arms before his bare chest.

“Just keep staring into my eyes and try to relax,” she instructed as her eyes began glowing bright emerald.

He watched her eyes and yawned, while shivering slightly from the cool air in the room. He noted that Katrina’s eyes continued to glow more and more brightly.
They look like beautiful emeralds floating in a black sea
. After a few minutes his breathing relaxed, but he shivered again as a chill reverberated through his body. A fleecy blanket was abruptly wrapped around his upper body, startling him.

“Sorry, kiddo,” Paige offered to his left.

He broke his gaze with Katrina and glanced to his left. “Paige?”

Katrina made an exasperated sound and growled, “Caleb, please concentrate. Paige is just supposed to be observing quietly.”

He smirked in Paige’s direction. “Glad you could make it to our little séance.”

He felt the bed move slightly as Paige scooted next to him and pulled her knees up to her chest. “Happy to be here, actually.”

“Could we please get back to business?” Katrina asked with an exasperated sigh.

“My bad,” Paige whispered while nudging Caleb slightly.

“Sorry about that,” he added quietly as his gaze returned to Katrina’s glowing eyes. He felt Katrina’s hand pat him lightly on the inside of his thigh and withdraw again, leaving him feeling much more comfortable while wrapped in the comfy blanket.

After staring into Katrina’s eyes for an undetermined period of time, he felt his eyelids grow heavier. He could have sworn that her eyes were actually pulsing, becoming brighter.

“Think back to your childhood, Caleb,” she whispered. “Think of your back yard, and your toys, and the garage.”

He tried to recall his childhood and immediately recalled images of opening gifts at Christmas when he was just a boy. He flashed on an image of riding his bike from the front yard out into the street during late spring or early summer, though he couldn’t recall how old he had been. He thought of his mother baking cookies and pies at the holidays, followed by his father coming home from work and the smell of alcohol.

“Think of your garage, Caleb,” she urged soothingly.

Caleb’s flashbacks shifted, and he was able to see the inside of their old garage, including the tools and old car parts his father left lying around. He saw the old car covered in the dirty plastic tarp that his father had renovated for years when he was a child. He recalled the times he sneaked beneath it to peek at things just out of curiosity. Caleb no longer saw Katrina’s glowing orbs, and instead flashed to a time when the garage seemed somewhat scarier. He breathed in sharply as he flashed on a vision of his father lashing out with a belt at him and the searing pain across his left arm. The pain was fresh, but it felt like a stabbing dagger instead of simply a leather belt.

“Pain!” he shouted as his eyes went wild, and he kicked away from Katrina abruptly, nearly catching her in the chest as he flailed away with his right foot while his left foot dug against the mattress. He sprang to one side as his foot finally impacted the mattress beneath him, and he flung the blanket from around him in a sudden lurch.

“Caleb!” she shouted, trying vainly to reach out for him.

But Paige was closer and faster and was able to wrap her arms around his torso, trapping his arms to his sides as he tried to launch his body past hers. He bounced against the mattress, shutting his eyes tightly against the images which still flashed before him.

“Stop!” he pleaded. “Just stop, I changed my mind. No more!”

Paige’s eyes were wide with shock as she held him against her body. Her gaze darted over to Katrina, who quickly recovered and was stretched across the bed alongside him.

Katrina held his face between her hands, whispering, “It’s okay, my love. You’re safe. We’re stopping.”

He nodded and quietly lay there, no longer trying to fight against the strong arms that held him in place like iron bands. Paige relaxed her embrace and unwound her arms from around him.

“I’m so tired,” he murmured raggedly into the comforter pressed against his face.

Katrina’s mind raced as she tried to understand what had just happened, but she suspected that questioning him about it at that moment would prove both unwise and fruitless. She kissed him affectionately on the forehead, and Paige assisted her with maneuvering him back under the covers in the center of the bed.

The petite vampire gathered his pillow and slipped it beneath his head for him. “Try and get some rest, kiddo,” she whispered.

Both vampires moved off the bed and stared at each other silently with wide-eyed expressions.

“Please don’t leave,” he mumbled quietly.

They glanced down at him, and then Paige looked back at Katrina. “You call Alton,” she suggested. “I’ll stay with him for now.”

Katrina nodded with a resigned sigh, picked up the phone handset near her computer hutch, and preceded upstairs up to the first floor while Paige lay down beside Caleb.

“Babysitter’s right here, tiger,” Paige whispered as she laid her arm over his huddled form. She kissed him lightly on the back of his head.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

Her mind raced to understand what had just happened. She had never seen anything like that from him before, and she realized it was going to take more than just amateurs to assist the young man in reconciling his memories. She just hoped that Katrina realized it and that Alton advised her friend of the same.

Within minutes, Caleb drifted off into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.

* * * *

Chapter 4: Imperfect Pairings

When Caleb’s eyes fluttered open, the room wasn’t as dark as before, and he realized from the dim glow that a lamp had been turned on somewhere across the room. He was lying on his stomach, and one side of his face was pressed into his pillow. Upon trying to move, he winced as his neck and upper back muscles ached in protest.

“Oh, crap,” he moaned.

He rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes. Feeling the bed jiggle slightly, he removed his hands to see Katrina staring down at him. She leaned over him with her hands planted on each side of his body and kissed him lightly on the lips.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” she greeted with a warm smile.

“Mm, morning,” he murmured.

“Feeling better?” she asked.

His mind quickly recalled the events from the night before, and he frowned. “Oh, that’s right. I think I’m okay.”

She continued to hover over him as she studied his features, and he noticed she was already dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved turtleneck. “Wha-what time is it?” he stammered.

She glanced at the clock across the room. “Almost ten-thirty, my love.”

“Geez!” he exclaimed. “I need to haul my butt out of bed then. I don’t want be rude just lying here all day.”

But she pressed her palm against his bare chest and pushed him gently back onto the bed. “No hurry, it’s Saturday. And Gil only roused an hour ago,” she reassured him.

He relaxed somewhat and studied her eyes for a moment. He could spend hours gazing into those beautiful orbs.

The corners of her mouth upturned slightly in amusement.
He has that mesmerized expression again
.

He deliberately blinked and looked past her face to regain his concentration. “What’s next?” he asked.

“I called Alton last night after your outburst,” she replied. She related how Alton had listened intently to her story of meeting Caleb as a child, as well as all the events that transpired, including taking the dead body of Caleb’s father with her that night to bury him in an undisclosed location. Her former mentor had been very patient and waited until the very end to ask clarifying questions. Finally, he had remained so silent before speaking again that Katrina had feared he had hung up on her. He explained how tricky hypnosis was and ventured how difficult it might be to alter what she had done.

“Alton said he knows of a vampire in London who’s a long-time practicing psychiatrist who might be able to help you,” she said. “Although he’ll have to provide details later. He suggested we might be able to address that when you and I visit him on our trip to England.”

“That’s kind of him, of course. But I’m curious what he said about our
real
initial meeting?” he asked pointedly.

Her expression was unreadable as she fell silent for a moment. “He was sympathetic, actually,” she recalled. “But he was very intrigued and said that it answered a few questions he had about your and my relationship. I’m still not sure what he meant by that; he was terribly hedgy on the subject. But he did have a message for you.”

Caleb’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah?”

She smirked. “He used that term of his again. He said, ’Tell Caleb that, to be brutally honest, I’m concerned for him and want to help as much as possible.’”

He smiled at the use of their special phrase “brutally honest” to indicate the sincerity of his comments versus merely being polite. Katrina studied his reaction carefully and wondered if there were more to the message than what had been stated.

“That was very kind,” he replied.

She decided not to press the topic. “You gave Paige a bit of a scare last night too. She’s very concerned.”

He grinned shyly. “Really? She’s a good friend, and a great guardian. We’re tight.”

“Even closer, I think,” Katrina observed and kissed him softly on the lips.
But I’m okay with that level of friendship
, she conceded fleetingly,
so long as it remains a friendship.

“Hungry?” she asked.

“Sure!” he replied brightly.

She shook her head. “When are you not?”

He adopted a mock-insulted expression, and she used her hand to dishevel his hair even more than it already was. “Okay, now you need to get that cute butt of yours out of bed,” she prompted with a sly smile.

“How about breakfast in bed?” he countered with a smirk.

She arched an eyebrow in a challenge and swiftly wrapped her right arm underneath and around his waist. Pulling him from the bed with a lurch, she swung his body around until his toes touched the carpeted floor. He nearly lost his breath and teetered unsteadily as he landed on his feet, but she steadied him with her arm still wrapped securely around him, for which he was grateful.

“Wha --” he started, but she crushed her lips to his.

His arms encircled her waist, and he pulled her towards his body as they kissed. “I’ll be up soon,” he promised.

She pressed against his body and countered, “I sense you’re already up.”
What a nice way to start the day
.

He flushed slightly regarding his body’s excited reaction as she pulled deliberately away from him. She moved in a blur to appear at the top of the stairs, glancing back over her shoulder with a smirk. The door slid shut behind her, leaving him standing in silence.

“Damn, she’s fast,” he muttered with a grin, shaking his head.

After he showered, shaved and slipped into a pair of jeans and a Georgia State baseball sweatshirt, he proceeded upstairs and immediately smelled the fresh scent of pancakes. He smiled with sincere appreciation as he noticed Katrina flipping fresh pancakes over a griddle. Paige stood next to her, watching with an amused expression, while Gil sat at the kitchen bar counter eating a stack of three large flapjacks.

Katrina glanced at Caleb from over her shoulder as he walked closer to the stove. “Ready for some pancakes?”

Paige looked at him with a raised eyebrow and an expression of awe and asked, “When did all this cooking stuff start?”

He grinned. “Just recently. Kat’s a great cook, actually.”

Katrina smiled appreciatively as Paige reached out to pull Caleb into a sideways embrace with her left arm. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “How ya feeling this morning, kiddo?”

“Better, thanks,” he offered as his right arm quickly slipped around her waist to complete the hug.

Katrina slipped three pancakes onto a large plate and handed it to him. “Eat up,” she quipped.

“Mmm,” he hummed, and plopped onto a barstool next to Gil. “Morning, Gil. How’d you sleep?”

Gil’s eyes played over to Caleb’s fresh pancakes, and he looked back over his shoulder at Katrina.

She anticipated his request and asked, “How many, Gil?”

“Three, please,” he replied gratefully before returning his attention to Caleb. “A good night for me last night. Pretty sore in some places when I woke up, though. But it was the good kind of sore I wouldn’t pass up again tonight, if you catch my drift.”

Paige shook her head as she moved across the kitchen to fill a drinking glass with water. She sat the glass down in front of Caleb while glaring at Gil. “A little too much info, Gil.”

Caleb smirked as he drizzled syrup on his pancakes. “Couldn’t agree more, Paige.” He dug into his pancakes with a vengeance and complimented his mate, “These are great, Kat!”

She neatly slipped a fresh stack of pancakes on Gil’s plate with her large spatula and lightly ran her fingernails down the back of Caleb’s neck in silent response, causing him to shiver pleasurably.

“Yeah, these are good, Katrina,” Gil offered. “Thanks.”

Paige used Caleb’s momentary distraction to slip a forkful of his syrupy pancakes into her mouth with an appraising expression. “Tasty, actually,” she offered with surprise.

“Want some?” Katrina asked her with a smirk.

“Make ’em with blood, and I’ll consider it,” the spunky vampire replied.

“Major gross,” Gil muttered around a mouthful of pancake.

Paige popped him playfully on the back of the head with the flat of her hand and teased, “Ha! Just wait until you try burning some stinky dead animal meat in my kitchen again.”

“So, what are we doing today?” Caleb asked.

“How about we go around town and take in some sites?” Gil suggested. “We can all hang out together.”

Caleb stopped chewing and looked sidelong at the young man with upraised eyebrows while Paige just rolled her eyes.

“The ladies are vampires, Gil,” Caleb reminded him. “Remember? Sunlight bad, nighttime good?”

“Oh, yeah,” Gil replied foggily. “Sorry, they just seem so normal that I forgot about that.”

Katrina gazed wide-eyed at Paige, who slowly reached out her hand towards Gil’s neck from behind him as if to choke him while glaring into the back of his head.

“How long have you known Paige exactly?” Caleb asked warily while noting Paige’s reaction out of his peripheral vision.

“Oh, just a few weeks now,” Gil replied as he continued eating his pancakes, oblivious to the shaking motion Paige was making with her closed fist behind his head.

Katrina stifled a laugh and interjected, “Maybe Caleb can take Gil out for the day to scope out some activities for tonight.”

“Please, take him away already,” Paige muttered.

Gil chuckled, not realizing Paige was actually annoyed with him.

Caleb defrayed any further aggravation on Paige’s part by offering, “I’ll show Gil some of downtown. Like Kat suggested, we’ll locate some potential hot spots for this evening. How’s that?”

Before long, the two men were on their way. To Caleb’s satisfaction, Katrina had been kind enough to let them take her Audi out for the day. He drove them past a number of areas of interest in the Atlanta area, including some historic plantation homes, museums, the Centennial Olympic Park, Civil War locations, the Atlanta Zoo, and a host of other noteworthy attractions. He stopped at a number of interesting locations with the hopes of piquing his West Coast visitor’s interest. However, Gil seemed most intrigued by the heart of the city itself and was curious about the locations of some of the city’s most popular clubs, particularly ones catering to alternative rock.

By mid-afternoon, Gil asked to stop at a bar or pub to grab a beer and a bite to eat. Caleb began a quick search on the car’s GPS for possible locations, but Gil pointed to a random bar just up the street. Caleb realized that they weren’t in the safest part of town, but relented after sensing the enthusiasm in Gil’s demeanor. The bar was a reasonably maintained establishment called Brandy’s whose parking lot teemed with sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. In fact, Caleb took note of the fact that their sports car was the only actual car in the parking lot. A large-framed fellow with mustache and crew cut parked beside them and gave them a long, wary look as he walked past their car to head into the bar.

By the time the two of them crossed over the threshold of the front door, Caleb wondered how poor a choice they had made. The customers consisted mainly of what appeared to be gritty, hard-nosed types. Even the furniture looked nearly as worn and hard as the clientele, relegated to a variety of scratched oak tables and chairs that looked as though it was generations since they had been refinished. The stools lining the worn-looking bar were vinyl-covered, though most had cracks and tears in the material.

George Strait blared from a jukebox across the room, and some older model televisions mounted above the bar displayed rodeo, monster truck, and boxing events. Most of the faces in the room looked up at the two newest patrons with expressions ranging from amusement, to wariness, and even mild disgust. Obviously, despite the inclusion of their leather jackets, Caleb’s college sweatshirt and Gil’s Green Day concert t-shirt failed to impress anyone.

“We should go,” Caleb urged with a wary expression.

“No way man, I’m thirsty,” the suddenly willful young man from California retorted as he strode purposefully up to one of the available wooden tables. He pulled out a worn chair and plopped down.

“Just great,” Caleb muttered as he followed and pulled up a wooden chair opposite him.

A short, blonde waitress who appeared in her forties wearing faded jeans and a polo shirt with the bar’s name on it stopped by their table with a slightly raised eyebrow. “You two stayin’?”

Caleb looked across the table at Gil, who was taking in the décor in the room and sighed. He glanced at the waitress, noted her nametag and replied, “Well Peggy, it kind of seems that way.”

The woman shrugged. “Just thought I’d better ask first. What can I get you?”

Gil immediately popped up with an order for a Modelo Especial on tap, and Caleb ordered a bottle of Samuel Adams.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” the waitress responded. “Menus are on the table.”

As Caleb reached for one of the worn-looking menus, he heard a chortle from the table next to theirs where three burly, rough-looking guys were sitting, including the large-framed man with the mustache who had preceded them into the bar. Their laughing was followed by a deep voice razzing, “Hear that, Wes? No salt or lime to go with that Modelo for the punk-rocker.”

A round of chuckling ensued, including some cursing, followed by the response, “Hell, I haven’t heard about anyone ordering old Sam Adams since he died at the Alamo!”

The history professor personality inside Caleb cringed painfully. It always incensed him when people made such inaccurate historical references. Still, it wasn’t as if the guy would care to know that Sam Adams was actually a reference to Samuel Adams, a prominent founding father from the American Revolution. It would just escalate tensions, which was precisely what Caleb didn’t need at the moment.

“Well, ya’ old bastard, I guess you’d know since you were there!” another teased.

A round of laughter ensued, followed by the thumping of empty beer mugs on a tabletop. One fellow boomed, “Peggy! Another round of Buds for the real working men over here!”

The waitress appeared with Caleb’s and Gil’s beers, plopped them onto the table, and barked at the men, “Keep your shirts on. I’ll get to you in a minute!”