Summit at Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 3) (10 page)

“Yeah, they were ominous-looking,” he replied. “Kind of eerie, actually.”

Katrina pursed her lips as Paige watched with sudden interest.

“Know that one, Red?” she asked.

“I think so,” Katrina replied. “He sounds just like a vampire I encountered while traveling through northern Africa back in the early 1900s. If he’s who I’m recalling, then he’s an ancient one. I think his name was Hakizimana.”

Caleb and Paige both looked at Katrina.

“It means ‘God Saves,’” Katrina explained.

“Yeah, well, I think he said his name was Ted,” he said.

Katrina stared at him as if he had just turned into a frog before her eyes, while Paige exclaimed, “
Ted
? He said his name was
Ted
?”

He chuckled while holding up one hand, admitting, “Sorry, I made that up. I just wanted to see your faces. It was priceless.”

Katrina rolled her eyes and shook her head. Paige snickered while mussing Caleb’s hair with one hand. “Good one, tiger.”

Then she stole another of Caleb’s French fries.

He smiled at Paige’s compliment. “He actually never told me his name. You know, in the end, neither of them seemed overtly hostile. Still, I was ready to fight for my life, if necessary.”

“You didn’t challenge him, did you?” Katrina asked.

Caleb shrugged. “Not really. I was just resigned to stand up to them.”

Paige stopped chewing a fry, and her pale blue eyes narrowed. She shot at glance to Katrina with a look of concern.

Not a good approach, kiddo
, she recognized.

“On that topic,” Katrina sternly began, “the next time something like that happens, you
don’t
approach them. You run, either to me or Paige, as fast as you can. Understood?”

He clenched his jaw, not wanting to just turn and run every time a vampire showed up on his turf. He thought that he made a fairly level-headed decision earlier that evening, and it had turned out to be correct.

“So, I should just stand there and get eaten?” he snapped.

Katrina took a deep breath. “No, but you’re not equipped to confront a vampire, particularly multiple vampires. Promise me you won’t do anything careless like that again.”

“Fine,” he replied in a tight voice while stabbing two fries with his fork.

She had misgivings about his sincerity, but let the topic drop.
It’s only going to antagonize him further by harping on the subjec
t, she resolved. But she worried about his taking too many chances around vampires. He was very fragile as a human, and his life could be snuffed out in a moment. That was something that she couldn’t endure.

He slowly returned to eating, and the three of them silently sat through the rest of the meal. Katrina and Paige somberly observed him as they drank their glasses of blood. Even Paige’s previously playful mood of stealing fries had abated. When he finished, he cleaned up and then rinsed the dishes before placing them in the dishwasher.

“I’m going to confer with Alton and see what he thinks,” Katrina finally offered. She popped a kiss on Caleb’s cheek then retreated down the hallway with the note in hand.

He activated the dishwasher then leaned against the counter watching Paige. “Thanks for covering me in the yard this evening.”

She darted from her seat to embrace him warmly. “No problem, kiddo. Babysitter’s always on duty.”

Like I could do anything less for him
.
He’s such an important part of my life now.

He fondly recalled her self-appointed nickname when he had first met her last fall.

Geez, my friends would never let me live it down over that “babysitter” business, if they ever heard about it
. Still, he knew that in her own quirky way she meant well.
Paige is one of the best friends that Katrina or I could ever have.

*    *    *    *

Chapter 3: Nights on the Town

In the sublevel room, Katrina conferred with Alton on the note passed to Caleb in the backyard. However, the elder vampire had no additional information to provide her, other than that he was already aware of interests forming on either side of the issue related to the summer conference. He recommended proceeding with caution regarding further interactions with the faction, though she had already been resigned to do that even before calling him. Still, she promised to keep him apprised of the situation.

When he asked her for confirmation as to whether she and Caleb intended to attend the conference, she told him that she hadn’t decided for certain. He seemed less than pleased, but wisely didn’t press the issue with her.

I’ll do whatever’s in Caleb’s best interests
, she reaffirmed after hanging up the phone.

The following evening, Paige mentioned to Katrina that she wanted to take Caleb on another evening ride on her Harley. It was against her normal
modus operandi
, but given the previous evening’s events, she considered it the better part of valor to run her plan past Katrina first.

“Sure, Paige,” Katrina said. “I appreciate your cooperation with me on this issue.”

Paige stared intently into her friend’s eyes. “No problem. But someday soon, you and I are going to have a chat about how overprotective you still are with our boy.”

“He’s a human, Paige. He needs protection from our kind.”

“And yet, he’s not helpless,” she challenged. “Consider how far he’s come since you first met him last fall. Hell, he’s practically a firecracker by comparison.”

Katrina silently acknowledged her friend’s point.

“He means so much to me. I’ve already lost one husband and two children. I can’t bear losing him, too,” she whispered.

“Then don’t drive him away by smothering him.”

The silence grew between them as Katrina merely stared at her.

“Listen, Red. I know you ‘love him more than life itself.’ I get it,” Paige said, “You’re just trying to protect him. You’re Wonder Woman to his Steve Trevor. But every good superhero knows when to lighten up a little.”

Katrina chuckled. “You have a weird way with analogies, Shorty.”

“I’m just
special
that way,” she quipped as she turned to depart.

“Have fun, but please be careful,” Katrina said.

“Not to worry, Red. I can be a superhero when I need to be.”

“And just which superhero are you, exactly?”

Paige paused with a thoughtful expression, one index finger lightly tapping on her chin. After a moment, she shook her head. “Aw, heck, I dunno, maybe Superman’s cousin. Superwoman?”

“You probably mean Supergirl,” Katrina dryly corrected.

“Whatever,” she countered with a dismissive wave, once more on a mission. “I’ll leave all the nerdy stuff to you and Caleb.”

Having received the approval she needed, Paige located Caleb and was happy that he jumped at the opportunity for another cycle excursion.

“I’ll even try not to scare you this time,” she teased.

“Oh, yeah? Do your worst.”

Paige’s bright blue eyes slyly narrowed, and she murmured in a lethal tone, “Oh, you really shouldn’t have said that, tiger.”

Much to her satisfaction, a visible shiver coursed through his body, both from her tone and visage.

They left the house an hour or so after he ate dinner.

The nighttime ride with Paige filled Caleb with an odd sense of contentment. The weather was perfect, not overly warm, even in their leather jackets. The continuous rumbling of the engine grew soothingly rhythmic as he watched the landscape flow past them in a blur of motion.

Life is good
, he contemplated as he tightened his embrace around Paige’s waist.

Paige felt Caleb’s grip strengthen around her. A blissful feeling passed through her, and she couldn’t imagine riding without him that night. While relieved that he had agreed to take an impromptu ride with her given his last experience, she nevertheless deliberately took corners a little sharper than normal in order to elicit the occasional tightening of his hug around her.

I just love this little guy
, she thought contentedly.

Then she refocused on the real reason for their jaunt.

After a time, Caleb wondered if Paige had any idea where they were actually headed, or if she were merely riding in the direction the cycle was pointed in at the time. He speculated that they were not only well outside Mableton city limits, but likely outside the county. Still, he had no complaints, and the gently rolling countryside was relaxing despite the darkness.

Little did Caleb realize that Paige had affairs well in hand. She was touring the area using a progressive, methodical pattern, purposefully hunting for a specific target. Despite the odds against success, it made her feel proactive.

Some time passed before Paige’s keen vision glimpsed a motorcycle like the one that had followed them the other night. She steered them off the main road and into the parking lot of a place that had all the telltale signs of being an old biker bar.

A sea of cycles was arrayed across the half-gravel, half-asphalt lot. The wood-framed building appeared to be at least forty or more years old and in only modestly maintained condition. A wooden front porch sported a series of rough-hewn wooden beams that supported the ramshackle tin front awning.

The old-fashioned porch was occupied by a throng of rough-looking bikers who were engaged in either drinking, smoking, swapping tales, or some combination thereof. Also on the porch, to one side of the front entryway, sat the motorcycle that had caught Paige’s keen vision.

That’s probably not the bike we’re looking for, but it bears checking into.

You’re freakin’ kidding me
, Caleb disdainfully thought as Paige slowed their approach through the parking lot.

Memories of a previous bar visit in downtown Atlanta flooded through his mind like a bad flashback. A former California punk rock singer named Gil Yeager, whom Paige had dated for a brief time, had steered them into a rough bar setting that had ended in an impromptu parking lot fight. He painfully recalled that he and Gil had barely managed to be on the winning side.

As they came to a halt, he maintained a firm embrace of Paige’s waist as she straddled the cycle. She had no sooner removed her helmet when she flashed him a devilish look over her shoulder.

“Lovin’ the hug, kiddo, but now you just look like you’re groping me,” she teased with a flash of her bright blue eyes.

She accepted his anxiety over their arrival, but it wasn’t going to deter her from checking out a possible lead while also exposing him to a prospectively instructive setting.

He absently released his arms from around her and removed his helmet. His blue eyes warily scouted the crowd hanging around the front of the dimly lit building.

“I don’t like this,” he darkly muttered.

Paige hung her helmet over one handlebar and cast a reassuring face at him. “Stop being such a worrywart. I’ve been in dozens of places like this. Most of these guys are just weekend roughnecks trying to live out
Easy Rider
.”

“You mean the
magazine
?” he demanded.

Another inspection of the nearest female patrons confirmed that none of them looked like any of the cover models he had ever seen in an issue of
Easy Rider
.

She immediately countered with a withering expression, “No, porn-king. I mean the world’s most famous biker film and anti-establishment story of the twentieth century.”

“Sorry. Never saw it,” he replied with a shrug.

“Just never mind,” she chastised with annoyance as she snatched his helmet from him and draped it over the other handlebar.

“We could go home and rent it online now, if you’d like,” he suggested.

She tightly pursed her lips, rolled her eyes, and began towing him by the arm towards the building. “Some other time. Come on, Captain Adventure.”

He quickly fell into step beside her, and she draped one arm around his waist as he stretched his arm across her petite shoulders. He glanced sidelong at her as they approached the wooden steps leading up to the smoky porch and noted a self-satisfied half-leer on her face that gave her an edgy appearance.

Well, at least I have a vampire with me
, he thought as they crossed the threshold into the joint.

Loud rock-n-roll roared above the din of laughing, cursing, and carousing in the bar. The scents of stale beer, cigarette smoke, and worn leather permeated the room. A trio of worn pool tables in the back was surrounded by men and women as bets were called out for whoever was shooting. A lengthy series of worn stools along the length of the bar were occupied, save for two, toward which Paige steered Caleb with the pull of her arm around his waist.

A number of eyes darted to up look at the two newest patrons with a mix of mild curiosity and assessment, much like predators sizing up new prey. Caleb’s eyes darted once to Paige’s to note that a subtle look of amusement had replaced her earlier scowl.

She took immediate notice to their reception, but deliberately ignored the patrons. She recognized the various expressions, having seen them on numerous occasions over the past century. But unlike Caleb, she had already determined that in a roomful of dangerous characters, she was the deadliest. It was merely that nobody else realized it yet.

How I’ve missed this
, she reflected.

Her attention quickly returned to assessing the two dozen or more people in the room. She quickly noted that none appeared to be a vampire.

An older, balding man wearing a worn brown leather vest over a stained t-shirt stood on the working side of the bar. His eyes slightly narrowed as he studied the two while passing two bottles of beer to the two bikers before him. He sidestepped to his left and casually wiped the counter in front of Paige with a relatively clean towel.

“Haven’t seen you two before. Just passing through?”

Caleb started to reply, but Paige smoothly interrupted with a shrug, “Just out for a ride tonight. My old man and I got thirsty.”

The bartender snickered. “I bet. Okay then. What’ll you have?”

“Got any Sam Adams?” Caleb inquired.

“Nope,” the bartended answered in a clipped tone.

“Two Buds,” Paige interjected as her eyes met the bartender’s.

One of the man’s eyebrows arched slightly. “Now,
that
we got,” he confirmed and turned to reach into a closed metal cooler behind him.

He neatly popped the metal caps off each bottle and swiveled around to place them on the bar with a thump.

Paige neatly produced a couple of crumpled bills and smacked them on the bar before her. “That’s the first two rounds. Next one’s are yours, lover,” she quipped to Caleb.

The bartender scooped up the bills and made his way to the opposite end of the bar to attend to three bikers clustered together. Paige took a swig from the bottle and casually leaned over to Caleb.

“Next time, pay attention to the lit beer signs and order what you see,” she pointedly recommended. “Don’t go out of your way to look like an amateur.”

He filed the tip away for future reference. “Just what are we doing here, anyway?”

She took another swig of her beer and stared at him.
Poor kid
, she thought,
way too sheltered in his lifetime.

“Looks like we’re just getting something to drink,” she snapped in a perky voice. “And maybe teaching my boy a little bit about bars. Might come in handy someday.”

“I received enough experience in bars with Gil, thanks,” he recalled with a scowl.

Paige’s late boyfriend had a penchant for trouble, and Caleb was thankful that Katrina’s combat training had snapped into his head at just the right time, or he would probably still be recovering from injuries.

Her expression darkened as she recalled how beaten up Caleb had gotten over that event, mostly due to Gil’s big mouth. The memory sent a pang of angst through her, leaving little room for regret at having killed Gil not long after that.

“Yeah, well, this time I’m here to make sure things don’t go south. Just watch and take it all in, like a tourist,” she recommended with a gleam in her eyes.

“All right,” he replied with a shrug. He took a long draw from his beer bottle and discreetly observed the other bar patrons.

“Don’t linger on anyone, or make too much direct eye contact,” she mentored. “You’re at the zoo looking at the animals and watching how they behave. It’s a game. Just mark the ones you think look dangerous, and I’ll tell you if you’re right or not.”

She caught the bartender’s attention again and waved him over. The man frowned slightly as he leaned against the bar to stare at her.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Nice bike out on the front porch,” she casually began. “Had my eye on one like that in town. Know whose it is?”

The man warily eyed her. “Yeah, mine now. Just bought it off one of the customers a couple of nights ago. Some wannabe biker chick, I guess. Anyway, she didn’t seem like she’d been in the cycle scene long for some reason. Said she was tired of it and wanted to get it off her hands. The price was so right, I didn’t think twice.”

Paige sneered. “Yeah, sounds like a gal I once knew. Becky Something, I think.”

The bartender cleared away a couple of nearby empty beer bottles and shook his head. “Well, this one was Lucy Jones. At least that’s what the title said. Cute gal...pretty red hair.”

“Well, nice ride, man,” Paige complimented and took a swig of her beer. “Live it up.”

“Yeah, thanks,” he said with a chuckle and wandered down to the opposite end of the bar.

She turned to lean back against the bar on her elbows and looked bored as her eyes darted across the crowd.
Lucy Jones. I’ll bet that’s an assumed name
, she fumed.
Probably was our stalker, though. I’ll ask Katrina or Alton to do a search just in case.

“The lady I saw had auburn hair,” Caleb recalled.

“Yeah. It was her, I’m sure,” Paige said. “I’m willing to bet she stole the bike, forged the title, and sold it for some quick cash. At least, that’s what I’d do.”