Summit at Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 3) (39 page)

The vampire screamed and fled down the corridor.

Dori gripped her pistol with the flashlight held alongside it and peered out into the corridor. The two of them moved together as Caleb also shone his light ahead of them. The sounds of gunfire ceased, and he thought that he heard the fleeting sounds of air rushing past the far end of the corridor.

Dori paused briefly then slowly proceeded forwards.

*    *    *    *

Alton’s two vampire guards had neatly dispatched the armed humans, leaving Katrina free to barrel ahead through the corridor. Fortunately, as a vampire, she had a perfect sense of direction and low-level vision in the mine and confidently proceeded in search of Dori and Caleb.

She heard a pained cry and stopped. A vampire swiftly moved ahead of her. She rushed forward at best speed and quickly overtook the staggering vampire.

It was Ambrogio, and he appeared to have been burned.

A wave of raw fury coursed through her as she assumed that Ambrogio had something to do with Caleb and Dori’s disappearance. He hissed with bared fangs and grasped her by the neck, but she slammed a combat knife into the vampire’s chest.

Gripping his wrist with one hand, she slammed her opposite fist into his burned face with a jarring impact. As his head popped backwards, her hand deftly grasped the hilt of her knife that still protruded from his chest. With a single motion, she withdrew the blade and buried it into the vampire’s eye with a squishy thud.

Ambrogio’s body limply fell to the floor as Alton watched from a short distance away.

“UV light!” yelled one of Alton’s vampire guards from back down the corridor.

“Shoot it out then,” suggested another guard.

Katrina and Alton exchanged glances and made their way that direction until they saw a burst of UV light blaring from one of the side corridors. They stopped well short of the passageway, and Alton brandished his pistol.

Suddenly, amidst the odor of burnt flesh and gunpowder, Katrina smelled her mate’s scent in the air.

“Stop! It’s them!” she shouted.

Alton sniffed the air. “I believe you’re right.”

There was a silent pause, and Caleb’s voice inquired, “Kat? Is that you?”

She nearly collapsed with relief, and the sick feeling in her stomach began to ebb slightly.

“Are you okay? Where’s Dori?” she shouted.

“Here,” Dori replied. “We’re okay.”

“Stand down. It’s them,” Alton alerted the guards.

“Well, they better turn off that damned UV light then!” one guard bellowed.

“Oh, yeah,” Caleb faintly conceded in the distance. “Sorry about that…”

Katrina grinned despite herself and caught a glimpse of Alton as he shook his head.

Moments later, the lights came back on to reveal Katrina hugging Caleb in her arms while Alton warmly embraced Dori.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, my love,” Katrina muttered with relief. “But now I’m going to strangle you.”

“My sentiments exactly,” Alton agreed.

*    *    *    *

While sitting on the couch back at the suite, Caleb required a couple of beers before he was able to come down from his adrenaline high. And given the manner that Dori drank her glass of wine, she must have felt the same.

Caleb silently admired the young French woman, marveling at how capably she had handled herself at the mines and with such amazing presence of mind.

Who is she, exactly?

Paige, Alton, and Katrina sat at the small dining table adjacent to the living room reviewing information gained from the cursory investigation performed immediately following the excitement. Reports were still coming in via cell phone, making the suite a sort of impromptu command post.

A knock sounded at the suite door, and Caleb rose to answer it, but Paige pointed her finger at him and shook her head. Instead, the blonde vampire moved to the door in a blur.

A waiter rolled a cart into the room and hastily departed. The smell of food made Caleb’s mouth water, and he determined that he must be feeling better if his appetite had returned.

“Despite the spectacle they generated, Caleb and Dori’s discovery of the UV light bulbs was rather timely,” Alton conceded.

“Tell me again how our boy made a UV flamethrower,” Paige urged.

“Maybe later,” Katrina countered dryly.

“He’s a regular MacGyver,” Paige proudly quipped.

“Who?” Dori asked.

“It was this pretty cool TV show from the 80s about a resourceful guy who could use bits of nothing to make tools and gadgets,” Caleb began, but then paused with a perplexed expression. “Or was it the 90s? I only remember it in reruns, actually.”

Paige groaned and pressed one of her palms to the side of her face. “Just never mind.”

Alton cast them a strained expression, but continued as if uninterrupted. “The explosives are another matter altogether,” he said. “Those were high-yield, military-grade explosives, not for mining. And it appeared that less than half of the original contents were still intact in their crates.”

“Aren’t you glad I didn’t let you use them,” Dori prodded Caleb with a knowing look.

He blushed and caught a glimpse of Katrina’s wide-eyed look of shock from across the room.

She shook her head.

“Let’s eat,” Caleb remarked to change the subject while moving to peruse the food cart.

He smoothly commandeered a plate adorned with a cheeseburger and fries and moved over to the unoccupied end of the dining room table. Dori moved from her seat and began picking at the vegetable tray on the cart.

“What concerns me is that, despite the compelling evidence in our favor, Ambrogio’s death will probably create a suspicious stir among the attendees,” Katrina pointed out. She was convinced that the vampire was merely part of a larger scheme, though she lacked further evidence for corroboration.

“Probably true,” Alton ruefully agreed.

“Additionally, there’s the leadership angle to consider,” Katrina added.

Caleb rose from his chair and returned to the cart, searching for condiments. Finding none, he walked towards the suite door.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Paige demanded.

Everyone looked up to stare at him.

“Ketchup,” he innocently replied.

“Forget it,” Paige dismissed. “You’re grounded for the time being.”

“Hello? Fries need ketchup,” he insisted.

“We often use mayonnaise in France,” Dori interjected.

Caleb’s look of horror was his silent reply.

“For Pete’s sake,” Paige retorted, slapping a palm to her forehead. “Just cool your jets, Ned McNeedy. I’ll get your ketchup.”

“Ned McNeedy? Is that some character from a Philip Marlowe mystery?” he teased.

“Don’t dis Marlowe.”

“I’m just sayin’.”

The short vampire narrowed her blue eyes.

“Watch it. And don’t be stealin’ my catch phrases, either,” she admonished before disappearing through the suite’s door.

He watched the door close and fondly reflected on his surrogate vampire. She had practically squeezed the breath from his lungs in a bear hug upon their return to the hotel that evening.

“I worried about you, kiddo,” she had whispered in his ear.

A warm, satisfied feeling flowed through him at the memory.

“Ned McNeedy,” he muttered. “What a hoot.”

When he turned back to everyone, Katrina and Alton were intently staring at him.

“What?” he asked with an innocent expression.

“As I was saying,” Katrina continued with an exasperated tone, “Ambrogio was a follower, not a leader. I doubt that he was the only one involved in things that have transpired. Recall that it was Baldar Dubravko who Caleb first saw at the dirt road leading back to the mines, not Ambrogio.”

Caleb looked up from his burger, recalling that night and how hard it had been to get anyone but Dori to believe him. He scrutinized the mysterious brunette, watching her nibble on vegetables and cheese while sipping her wine. She noticed his attention and smiled at him from the reading chair across the room.

“I wonder if there’s a relationship between the London sect that you uncovered in the train tunnels and this group,” Dori pondered.

Caleb wondered precisely how much she knew about their March exploits in London.

I’ve got to find out the real backstory on this lady.

“We should know more once my agents finish pouring over the site,” Alton replied. “We’re fortunate not to have to deal with the local authorities on this yet.”

Katrina was happy for that small blessing. At least the mines were far enough from town that nobody seemed to have overheard the gunshots.

Granted, the battle took place almost exclusively within the mines
.

In what must have been record time, Paige reappeared through the suite door holding a bottle of ketchup. Caleb grinned while gratefully accepting it and created a veritable pool of it near his fries.

“Makes me thirsty,” Paige mumbled, staring at the red substance on his plate.

“Pour you a glass of ketchup?” he quipped, holding up the bottle.

She promptly, albeit lightly, smacked him on the back of the head.

“Check ya later, funny boy,” she retorted. “There’s something I need to look into.”

*    *    *    *

Paige returned to the security office and motioned to Satish at the surveillance station. She wandered over to her desk, discreetly noting that the major’s office was empty.

“The major say anything about signing those reports?” Paige asked.

“Didn’t say anything to me, Captain.”

Paige wandered into the major’s office, picked up the reports from the out basket on his desk, and quickly extracted the digital recorder from the bookcase. It was still on, and she fingered the power button to
Off
. Slipping it into her pocket, she walked back out to her desk.

She downloaded the audio file to her computer and password protected it in a nondescript folder on her system. Then she slipped the recorder back into her pocket and used a headset to listen to the audio file. Within moments, she heard the major’s door shut, followed by his and Dubravko’s nearly whispered voices.

“…
thought you said you could handle Turner?
“ demanded Dubravko.

“…
staged the vault, just as you insisted. The video surveillance snafu was damned difficult to manage, and then Taylor brought Turner down there with him. It was a stupid idea in the end; they
both
survived, which only made them grow more suspicious
,” Pietari chastised. “
You should’ve let me do things more directly
.”

Paige gritted her teeth. Hatred surged through her system, and her fists clenched across the desktop.

“
You’ll do as you’re told
,” ordered Dubravko.

“
What next then?
“

There was a long pause.

“
Let me worry about that
,” Dubravko said. “
I’m still waiting to hear back from Ambrogio. I should have a better idea by then
.”

The two exchanged benign information about the conference, and both vampires departed the office. Then silence.

Paige closed the audio application and locked her workstation. Anger roiled through her as she replayed the audio recording in her mind.

I’m going to kill Pietari
, she vowed.

Paige once again focused on how she and Caleb had very nearly asphyxiated inside the vault, and the major’s recorded statements replayed in her thoughts.

You bastard.
Trying to kill me’s one thing. But almost murdering Caleb? There’s hell to pay for that.

“Captain?” Satish inquired as she studied Paige with concern. “Are you okay? The major’s requesting your location on the radio.”

Paige’s bright blue eyes flashed, and she deliberately struggled to regain her composure.

“Sorry, got some bad news in email,” she neatly replied. “Where’d you say the major is?”

Minutes later, Paige met the major, who was speaking with one of the uniformed vampire security guards at the loading dock area at the rear of the facility. He was studying a surveillance camera mounted on a corner of the building.

The blonde vampire suspiciously followed the major’s gaze.

“What’s going on out here, Major?” she asked.

Both vampires scrutinized her with perplexed expressions.

“You ask that as if there’s something wrong with our being here, Captain,” Pietari retorted. “Actually, I’m considering how that human of yours managed to elude our surveillance system so handily today.”

She speculated that, given all that had happened, it was probably a good thing, despite the danger in which Caleb and Dori had placed themselves. So much had been brought to light thanks to their successful efforts.

Of course, it’s easy to be cavalier when they’re safely back under our protection
.

Then her anger threatened to rise again as she focused upon the traitor before her. She barely managed to keep her fury in check.

“Captain?” the major asked with a quizzical expression.

Paige blinked. “Sorry, just wondering about that myself. I’m sure we’ll make a better effort to track him and Dori from now on.”

“I was considering house arrest, myself,” the vampire offered.

The other guard warily watched both the major and Paige.

“You don’t have a mate, do you, Major?” she asked.

He regarded her coldly. “As you so succinctly put it not long ago, that’s none of your damned business.”

“Fair enough,” she flatly temporized, at which the guard uncomfortably looked away from them both as if studying somewhere in another area of the complex.

Paige glanced at her watch.

“I think it’s about time for Satish to be relieved at the surveillance desk,” she suggested. “Tegins, would you mind relieving her until I return?”

The guard gave the major a questioning look.

Pietari shrugged. “Fine. Go ahead.”

“Yes, sir,” the guard replied and turned to depart, visibly pleased to be leaving.

“As I was saying, Captain, we need to eliminate the blind spots back here, for one,” he noted. “I expect you’ll get on that as soon as possible.”