Summit at Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 3) (44 page)

Caleb breathed in deeply, appreciating the scent and coolness of the fresh mountain air. He walked across the expanse of ground that he had spanned earlier in the day, but for some reason, that same distance seemed much further in the darkness.

As he walked, he realized that Paige had fallen behind him a short distance away. He paused to glance over his shoulder at her, and she smirked back at him.

“Go get her, kiddo,” she teased. “Or rather, be ready for her to come get you when she sees you standing there. I’m close if you need me, but do me a favor and stay away from the edge.”

He quirked his lips at her odd comments and kept walking towards the edge of the small cliff from which he had flung the briefcase. As he approached the edge, he saw a glow of industrial spotlights encircling a huge crater in the roadway.

The fencing alongside the road had been blown down for a short distance on either side of the crater, and the small cliff on which he stood seemed to have been whittled away significantly. Down below, some heavy tractors and a backhoe filled the crater with dirt and gravel.

He noticed that the black limousine was flipped over and had been moved to the side of the roadway. It was basically a twisted metal frame, burned and battered almost beyond recognition. There were also scorch marks on the undamaged part of the roadway where a fire must have been. Approximately two dozen workmen attended to various activities at the site, as well as a half-dozen or more authorities.

Surveying the scene below him, he spotted Alton talking to Katrina as they watched over the activities at the site. Dori was nestled beneath Alton’s left arm protectively draped around her shoulders. He was momentarily reminded of how Katrina often wrapped her arm around his own shoulders. It was a comforting scene, and he was pleased that the two seemed so happy together.

A handful of other vampires and some human companions watched from just outside the roped-off construction area. Caleb felt somewhat anxious as Katrina abruptly stopped talking to Alton and looked up to stare directly at him. He waved down at her, and she briefly returned his wave before adopting a concerned expression.

She doesn’t like me standing here
.

She moved in a blur from next to Alton and sprang halfway up the rocky façade of the cliff with a single leap. Then she appeared to half-claw, half-step the remainder of the way to the top where he was standing.

He was astonished that she was able to accomplish such a feat, and he staggered back a step or two.

“My God, Kat,” he nearly gasped.

To humans, vampires in action could be breathtaking, if not terrifying.

Nature’s perfect predators.

“You shouldn’t be up and around tonight, my love,” she stated with concern, drawing herself to her full height in an imposing stance. “And I can do much better than that. You just haven’t seen me in action very often.”

She was a vision of beauty in the moonlight, her pale skin illuminated against the night. Her emerald eyes glowed ever so slightly, but he wasn’t sure if it were strong emotion or hunger.

Despite the way her red hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, it seemed to glisten brightly in the moonlight. She was a vision of feral loveliness, and he momentarily wondered if biblical angels also looked that way to humans. To him, she was certainly an angel, the angel who had saved him from the hands of a cruel, abusive father.

“A beautiful angel,” he whispered as his pulse increased from the desire that flowed through his mind and body. “My vampire. My love.”

The corners of her lips upturned slightly, and then her eyes darted behind Caleb to see Paige standing close by. She nodded to the petite vampire before returning her full attention to Caleb.

My Caleb
.
But why are you here when you should be back at the room resting
?
A concussion is nothing to be trifled with.

“I need to be near you,” he replied to the question evident on her face.

She moved across the distance between them like lightning, coming to an abrupt halt to stand before him, and gazed down into his eyes. Her arm wrapped around his waist as she bent to kiss him passionately on the lips. Much to her satisfaction, he returned the kiss in kind.

“I need you too,” she whispered after parting from the kiss. “But you should be in bed resting, not standing next to the edge of a cliff.”

He chuckled as his arms reached out to encircle her, and he hugged her to him. He felt her arms envelop him in return, and he smiled. It was exactly what he needed.

“How’d you sense I was up here?” he asked.

It was her turn to chuckle. “You’re my mate. I’m keenly attuned to the scent and taste of your body and your blood. I recognize the rhythm of your heartbeat and the music of your pulse. I could pick you out of a crowd of people in seconds if I were blindfolded. And besides, if I can find you in a dark London subway tunnel, how much easier must it be in the open evening air?”

It was a heady experience that flowed through him as he considered her almost poetic response to his question.

How can I be so blessed to have her in my life?

“I love being your mate,” he murmured as he rested his head against her shoulder.

“As do I,” she endearingly replied, holding his body close to hers.

Katrina loosened her grip and rotated her body around to stand beside him. She wrapped her left arm firmly around his waist and slowly led him back to the edge of the cliff. She stepped behind him and wrapped both arms around his waist, her body remaining like a pillar grounded to the Earth beneath her as he was tethered by her arms.

“Let’s give you a more secure vantage point. You can see that it’s still a mess down there,” she offered.

Caleb looked down over the edge, feeling very safe and secure in Katrina’s arms. The anxiety of earlier had completely dissipated, and he could appreciate all that was taking place down below more thoroughly. He noticed a few of the vampires, including an uncustomarily grinning Alton, momentarily looked up at him. A couple of the vampires gave small waves to him, and he waved back.

Then he felt Katrina pull him away from the edge as she hugged him closely to her. He wanted to melt into her as he felt the warmth from her body penetrate into his own against the evening’s cool breeze.

“Kat, there’s something you need to know,” he tentatively began.

She was immediately concerned by his tone, but lightly kissed the back of his neck. “Yes?”

“I sort of lost...What I mean is, Georgia’s experiencing some steep budget cuts with the bad economy. And, well, I just found out that I’m being laid off from the college. I lost my job, Kat.”

She mulled over his revelation for a moment and hugged him to her.

He loves teaching. It’s so unfair.

“But don’t worry, I’m going job hunting just as soon as we get home,” he reassured her. He meant to prove to her that he was no slouch. However, he also realized that the major obstacle was more the country’s “jobless economic recovery” than his determination to find work.

Katrina proudly regarded the man in her arms, touched that he was so concerned with her impression of him. As if he had to impress her after all that he had sacrificed for her.

He simply has no idea.

“Caleb, there’s no shame in your circumstances. You were laid off, just like so many other people. The culprit is a faulty economy, not you. You speak of job loss as if I’m going to think less of you,” she mildly chastised. “And yet, you nearly died today for me, for Paige, for strangers, for all of us.”

He frowned. “But that was an easy decision, actually. You couldn’t flee the building during daytime. I just can’t live without you, not now, not ever. You’re my everything, Kat.”

Her arms tightened around him, but she relaxed her grip again to prevent hurting him. The thought of losing him to an explosion had been nearly too great to bear, and she didn’t think that she could endure something like that again.

“I thought you were dead when that explosion went off,” she said as her eyes moistened. “And I can’t bear to see you take risks like that again. I need you in my life, and I need you to be alive to do that.”

He let that sink in before saying anything.

“So, it seems that we’re at an impasse, Kat. We need each other too much to see the other risk their life. Sounds like we need to risk our lives together, then.”

Katrina fondly considered him as she held him in her arms. “An admirable philosophical argument, my love.”

He tilted his head upwards to kiss her appreciatively as her lips met his. Then perspiration formed on his forehead, despite the cool evening breeze, and he suddenly felt very tired.

“Are you ready to go back to the room now?” she gently asked, having detected the change in his body.

“Are you really interested in my answer?” he playfully countered, though his legs were feeling more tired with each passing moment.

She adopted a sly expression. “I’m always interested in your answer, my love. However, I’m also taking you back to the room now.”

“Well, I suppose I could use a shower and maybe something to eat.”

“What a fortunate coincidence then.”

Releasing him from her embrace, she affectionately held his hand as they walked side by side back towards the hotel. As they reached Paige, she fell into step alongside them.

“See? I told you
she’d
come get
you
,” she teased Caleb.

*    *    *    *

The conference only continued for two additional days following Caleb’s return to the hotel. The reconvening of attendees began with Alton’s playing the complete digital recording of the conversation between Major Pietari and Dubravko. It wasn’t as if Dubravko’s failed attempt at murdering the attendees didn’t convey the heart of the matter, but the digital recording added supplementary context to the events leading up to that. A number of attendees made statements, some quite elegant, concerning the important occasion that fate had placed before them.

In the end, it was agreed by the vast majority that an abbreviated list of fundamental premises for collaboration would be established to distribute worldwide to vampires for consideration. Additionally, a future conference would be scheduled for further discussion of those items by interested parties.

Alton was quite pleased.

Towards the end of the day, Caleb was invited into the conference room. Upon entering, Katrina beckoned him to the front of the table to stand between hers and Alton’s chairs.

The assembled vampires issued a toast to him, using champagne glasses containing warm blood, no less.

Alton held up a thick manila envelope, informing him, “Caleb, this august group has raised a small token of our esteem and appreciation for your courageous and life-saving actions on our behalf. Each has pledged their support of your actions and bears no ill will for the inadvertent death of Baldar Dubravko. In fact, a roomful of allies would like to greet you and thank you in turn.”

Caleb realized that any reference to the death of the limousine’s driver was notably absent.

He likely didn’t warrant recognition as Dubravko’s aide. Was that because he was merely human?

He made his way around the table with Katrina closely behind him, politely nodding and shaking hands with each vampire in turn. In particular, he was pleasantly surprised that Talise and Rianne gently embraced him rather than merely shaking hands. Certainly, new alliances had been formed.

“We were glad to make new friends on this trip,” Talise whispered in his ear, while smiling over his shoulder at Katrina.

“You’ll both have to come visit Maddy and me, Caleb,” Rianne warmly invited.

Katrina nodded.

When they arrived at Hakizimana, the ancient vampire looked upon him with an appraising expression as they shook hands.

“You’ve surprised me, Caleb. It’s been some time since that’s happened, and that’s a good thing.”

The hazel-eyed, auburn-haired Mara stood beside Hakizimana, inspecting the young man as she reached out to shake his hand.

“I suppose you’re okay in my book,” she reluctantly offered. “Maybe,” she added as the edges of her mouth upturned ever so slightly.

Caleb’s eyes darted to Hakizimana to see the vampire smiling at him in evident amusement as he continued around the table to greet the remaining vampires.

When he returned to the head of the table, Alton gestured to Caleb.

“We all genuinely thank you, young man,” he said with a nod, gently dismissing him.

Katrina lightly ran her fingernails down the back of his neck and smiled at him before retaking her seat next to Alton at the front of the conference table.

Caleb turned to depart, but Hakizimana rose, asking, “I wonder if the Chairman might indulge the newest member of our gathering? I have a question for Caleb.”

Caleb stopped and turned to look at both Alton and Katrina. Each nodded their approval, and he returned to stand between them at the front of the room.

“How can I be of assistance, Hakizimana?” Caleb politely asked, inwardly pleased that he had recalled how to pronounce the vampire’s name properly.

“You’ve gone to great personal length to risk your life. In the end, the actions you have taken have certainly furthered the success of this conference. May I ask why all of this meant so much to you?” the dark-skinned vampire innocently inquired.

Caleb’s face blanked as he grasped for a diplomatic answer, and instead, tapped into the emotions he had been feeling.

“I’d truly like to say something insightful or prescient, or something inspirational and noteworthy, but I’m afraid that all I can offer is this: I did it for those whom I care deeply about.”

He looked at Alton, and then his eyes settled on the woman whom he loved so dearly.

“And if I may say, at first, this conference seemed such a novelty to me. But given all that’s happened, it’s obvious that novelty has given way to necessity. All of you must try to come up with a viable plan for the future because I’m quite sure that humanity isn’t going to have a plan when the day comes that vampires are revealed to the world. I sincerely hope that you can succeed because, for me, it comes down to this: some of my favorite people are vampires, and I don’t want to see them threatened.”