Summit at Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 3) Page 2
Time seemed suspended as they reveled in their nighttime paradise. However, the continually dropping temperature eventually made its presence known to Caleb. While Katrina was blissfully immune to extreme temperatures, she felt her mate shiver slightly.
“Let’s return to the cabin, my love,” she urged as she grasped his hand in hers and half-lifted him to his feet.
Her arm instinctively wound around his waist in a semi-protective manner as they walked back up the dark incline towards the direction of their cabin.
By the time the small, nondescript cabin loomed before them, it was well past two in the morning. Caleb yawned and massaged his arms with his hands to generate some warmth as they walked through the front door. As soon as Katrina closed the door, she moved in a blur to stand before him. Her deft fingers unbuttoned his bloody shirt. A moment later, she cast it into the fireplace. The embers from the waning fire relit with the fresh fuel of his ruined shirt.
“Why don’t you go ahead and take a warm shower?” she suggested as she undid her ponytail, allowing her long, red hair to cascade across her shoulders. “I’ll join you momentarily.”
He nodded, stifled a yawn, and made his way into the cabin’s sole bathroom. She smirked at him as he departed, finding his innocent sleepiness endearing, and then added some cut firewood to the fireplace. The wood soon crackled anew as she heard the shower running in the bathroom.
Fire in the hearth, and soon, fire elsewhere, she thought as she slipped from her clothes and moved towards the bathroom to join him.
* * * *
Caleb had quickly fallen into a deep sleep after the lovemaking that followed their shower. Even in his exhaustion, the striking, red-headed vampire knew exactly which erotic buttons to push to elicit the amorous response she had needed from her young mate. He had performed well for her, due in no small part to the increased stamina his body had acquired from a regular regimen of exercise.
While lying in bed next to him, Katrina stretched for a moment before relaxing against him. She rolled onto her side and held his body close to hers, breathing in his body’s scent and listening to the strong thrumming of his heartbeat. The bedroom was so quiet that she easily heard the sound of his blood rushing through his arteries. His regular breathing was like a soothing mantra to her, and she reveled in knowing that the human male in her arms was hers…all hers.
I adore him. He’s my everything.
After a time, she grew somewhat restless. Knowing that sunrise would come all too soon, she wanted to appreciate the night and the great outdoors before having to sequester herself inside during the impending day.
Stupid sunlight, she fumed. I used to love the sun. Now it just impedes me.
Minutes passed before she slipped from underneath the covers, being careful not to awaken Caleb. He shifted slightly, but remained asleep as she slipped into a pair of jeans, dark t-shirt, and sneakers. Then she slipped from the bedroom to the cabin’s front door. Moments later, she stood outside near their rented SUV, appreciating the night air. She closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, and categorized the host of scents and sounds around her.
She quickly identified a pair of bats flying around a nearby tree. I can smell a raccoon not far away, too.
The breeze blew through the trees as she registered other scents. Hmm, tree blossoms, freshly sprouted grasses, and moisture from overnight dew. The odor of burnt wood from the cabin’s fireplace. Sounds of water lapping against the shore in the nearby lake. So many sounds and scents that I never noticed as a human.
Everything was so natural and peaceful, and it filled her with happiness to be there. She wandered through the forest, but stayed relatively close to the cabin in case Caleb needed her.
Paige complains that I worry too much. Perhaps I’m just paranoid.
Then she replayed a brief series of memories, quite dramatic and potentially fatal events that she and Caleb had shared since last fall. A number of times, such dramas had occurred under seemingly innocent circumstances.
He seems to have a penchant for attracting danger.
“Paranoid nothing. I’ll stay close to the cabin,” she resolved out loud.
The remaining hours passed all too quickly, and she eventually felt a telltale change in the atmosphere. When the eastern sky began to lighten with the hint of an impending Saturday sunrise, she paused to consider the beauty of the new day. Of everything entailed in being human, she missed sunrises the most. She used to revel in the feeling that a sunrise heralded the promise of a new day and the opportunity for a fresh start to life. But since her turning, the morning sun brought a new meaning: her potential death from its ultraviolet radiation.
Sensing the impending rays preparing to break across the treetops, she returned to the cabin to find Caleb still soundly asleep.
Standing in the bedroom doorway, she observed her lover and mate with a tender expression. She once more contemplated how he was the embodiment of a loving life-companion for her. She slipped from her clothes and slid beneath the covers to lie next to him. Her arm draped across his chest as she laid her head on the pillow next to his. Soon, she lazily dozed and let her thoughts roam freely.
* * * *
The remainder of the weekend passed quickly. During the day on Saturday, Caleb partook in some mid-morning fishing at the lake. He had been hesitant to leave Katrina cooped up alone in the cabin, but she had insisted that he needed to enjoy the beautiful sunshine for a time.
“You’re still human, after all,” she had insisted. “And your body needs some sunlight once in a while. Besides, I want to read this new mystery novel I brought with me.”
In the end, he had reveled in the fishing experience and even caught three nice-sized bass, which he cleaned and stored in the cabin refrigerator to have for dinner that evening.
He spent the remainder of the day indoors with Katrina. They played Trivial Pursuit for a time, but the score rose astronomically in her favor, so they moved to card games. She taught him how to play a couple of variations of poker. He gaped at her dexterity, as well as the ability for her to both shuffle and deal cards so quickly that he barely saw her hands move before her. The infuriating thing was that she never even broke eye contact with him while doing so. He won as many hands as he lost, and by the end he was definitely getting the hang of how to play.
“You’re good at everything, you know,” he dryly observed.
She smiled in response. “Thank you. But unlike you, I’ve had nearly five hundred years of experience to draw upon.”
He rolled his eyes at her, although he had to admit that she was probably correct, yet again.
“So, what do we do now?” he asked with a glance at his watch. There were still a couple hours of daylight left before it was safe for her to attempt leaving the cabin.
Her eyebrows playfully arched, and she adopted a predatory expression. “Oh, I have a couple of ideas,” she offered as she rose from where she sat at the cabin’s small dining room table.
He started to rise to meet her, but she moved in a blur to wrap him in her arms. Her lips passionately pressed against his, and she hugged him to her while herding him towards the nearby couch. As they fell over the backing and onto the cushions, he chuckled as she didn’t seem to miss a beat kissing him. Once again, she pushed those erotic buttons in him, and he found his excitement quickly rising.
Then time stood still.
That evening, Caleb cooked his fish over a small grill located just outside the cabin while Katrina sat in a folding nylon chair watching from a comfortable distance. Like most vampires, she detested the scent of cooked flesh of all kinds. However, she took pleasure in watching him cook, and she appreciated the happiness emanating from him in waves. The camping trip had been exactly the relaxation that both of them had seriously needed.
As if on cue, he commented, “It’s such a shame we have to leave tomorrow. This has been really nice, Kat.”
She lazily twirled her ponytail between the fingertips of one hand. �
�It has been wonderful, hasn’t it? We’ll have to do this more often.”
He agreed and continued frying his fish.
“Hey, Kat, I’ve been wondering something about vampires recently. Where exactly are vampires derived from? After all, you were all humans before your transformations. I mean, it’s not magic, right?”
Katrina quietly observed him at length. It’s valid question, really, she thought, though most of her previous partners had never bothered to delve too deeply beyond the fact of their mere existence or her incredible abilities and attributes.
As the silence grew, he tentatively spied at her out of the corner of his eye before refocusing on his cooking. She easily detected the intensity of his curiosity.
“The truth might surprise you,” she began. “Actually, even among some of the oldest of our kind, there seems to be some doubt as to what the original vampires, or beings, were exactly. However, it’s been generally accepted that the ‘originals’ couldn’t have been something indigenous to our planet.”
He looked up after her voice trailed off to silence, and his eyes widened slightly. “You’re saying the original vampires were aliens?”
She shrugged, well-acquainted with the outlandishness of the notion. “Who knows? There may not have even been more than one originally.”
“So, was it...were they humanoid or animal?”
Again, she shrugged broadly and focused past him to the forest beyond. “Whatever it or they were, their conversion process changed our bodies into what you see before you,” she explained. “We may not even resemble the image of the original beings. We’re all strange, mutated hybrids of them for all I know. Whatever they were, one fact remains: they were excellent predators.”
He silently conceded the truth in her statement while turning the fish in the skillet. It’s an amazing premise, if true. But then, maybe it’s something that will never be known. Maybe all the vampires who know the truth are all long since dead and gone.
Eventually, he wondered out loud, “So, when and where exactly is that vampire conference supposed to happen this summer?”
When they had vacationed in England during his spring break in March, Alton Rutherford mentioned that a special vampire conference was pending somewhere in Europe during the summer. Alton was an eight-hundred-year-old vampire and one of Katrina’s closest friends. He was also her former mentor and had taught her sword fighting, as well as financial investment strategies.
Katrina’s mood darkened somewhat at his mention of the conference. “Early to mid-June. The exact date and location will be determined sometime in the next week or so. Alton’s supposed to call me when it’s set.”
He tried to act nonchalant. “So, are we going, then?”
Her eyes darted to her mate. “I haven’t decided yet, my love.” Then she sighed with what sounded to him like resignation. “But it would mean a lot to Alton if we did.”
“Oh,” he casually replied as he finished cooking the fish.
She leaned forward in her chair. “Has Alton called you or something?”
He looked up at her with surprise. “Called me? No, I was just curious. I just wasn’t sure whether to offer to teach this summer or not, that’s all. I figured I’d wait until I knew more about your plans for us.”
She settled back into her chair, gazing up at the evening sky. “I see.”
Silent moments passed as she pondered the prospect.
“Well, if I know Alton, we’ll probably end up going,” she finally conceded. “You wouldn’t mind, would you?”
He shook his head and offered an innocent expression, “Not at all. I’ve never been to Europe. So, any chance it’ll be near Romania?”
“You mean Transylvania, don’t you? Caleb Taylor, I should come over there and bite you in the neck.”
He playfully snickered as he carried the skillet towards the cabin. She growled under her breath, but rose from her chair and followed him inside.
Caleb made his way into the kitchen, where he popped open a container of pasta salad and dished some onto his plate beside the sizzling fish. She watched as he warmed a glass of blood for her in the small microwave and poured himself a Coke. Then he took his drink and plate to the dining table and returned to remove her glass from the microwave.
“Dinner is served,” he announced while placing the glass at the table setting next to his. Then he sat down to his meal.
“Thank you,” she offered as she sat next to him to sip from the glass of blood.
Yum, type A. My favorite. Caleb’s blood type, in fact.
He ate in relative silence as she contentedly watched him while finishing her own liquid meal. After cleaning up the dining room and kitchen, he took her by the hand, looked into her eyes, and asked, “It’s our last night here at the cabin. How about showing me more of the great outdoors?”
She was only too happy to oblige.
They spent most of the evening walking around the lake, appreciating each other’s company as much as the beautiful scenery. He was amazed by how alive the forest continued to be after dark. It was like living in another world, more ominous in some ways, and yet peaceful in others. But eventually, it was time to return to the cabin, and the night passed too soon.
On Sunday, Caleb fished some more, but released his catch. By evening, they loaded their SUV and made the long drive back to Atlanta. He dozed off mid-return and was still asleep by the time Katrina turned their vehicle into their estate driveway.
The estate was in the center of five acres of property, situated among similar acreage lots in an elite neighborhood addition in the small community of Mableton, just outside downtown Atlanta. The upscale Pine Valley addition sported heavily forested properties, of which Katrina’s lot bordered a scenic wooded park that sprawled throughout the addition.
The house itself was a two-story structure comprising over six thousand square feet of living space. Once parked in the cavernous multi-bay garage, Katrina gently roused Caleb, and he stretched with a wide-mouthed yawn as he exited the vehicle.
“I’ll unpack the SUV,” she offered. “You go get ready for bed. You have to teach in the morning, after all.”
There was no argument from him as he made his way through the garage and into the house. He felt exhausted, but thoroughly satisfied with their weekend getaway.
* * * *
Life returned to an unremarkable pace until Wednesday, when Caleb received a cryptic text message from Katrina during one of his history lectures at Robert Fulton Community College in downtown Atlanta where he was a faculty member.
Shipment from Alton arriving this afternoon. Can you come home early?
Fortunately, his last class that day was just prior to lunch.
The delivery service truck pulled into the driveway less than half an hour after he arrived home. The wooden crate removed from the back of the panel van by the two deliverymen was quite large, in excess of six feet long. Caleb watched closely, directing the men to place the crate in the middle of one of the two empty car bays in the garage.
As the panel van departed, he stared at the crate with a perplexed expression. Then the garage door began its closing descent, and Katrina appeared beside him as a displacement of air rushed around him. The sunlight had barely cleared where she stood, and he peered up at her.
“In a hurry or something?” he asked with a smirk as he looked down at her pale bare feet sticking out from under her faded blue jeans.
Don’t get your feet burned in the process.
“Just curious,” she casually replied, although she intently stared at the crate before them.
“Got a crowbar?” he asked as he scanned the periphery of the garage.
Katrina lurched forward to pry the crate lid open effortlessly with her fingertips amidst a series of loud creaks as the nails were unceremoniously ripped from the wood. Caleb gawked at her as she dropped the lid aside on the concrete floor and playfully wiggled her fingers.
“Not necessary,” she quipped.
As he dug out more packing materials and laid them aside, he revealed a leather-covered couch, such as one would see in a hotel or office waiting area. However, it appeared worn and had a couple of small marks on the black leather covering. He instantly recognized it from their trip to London in March. It had to be the one he had found in the London Tube tunnels outside of an old entrance to the lower levels of the tunnel system. A number of vampires who had been spying on Alton were operating from there, and Caleb had been the one to discover them.
Katrina stepped forward and tore the side of the crate apart to gain easier access to the worn piece of furniture. She laid the crate section aside and scowled.
“I bet this is --”
“The couch from the Tube tunnels,” he interrupted excitedly, then picked up a small white envelope taped to the top of the couch. Written on the front was Caleb in a black gothic-like script.
“It’s in Alton’s hand,” she observed.
He opened the envelope and unfolded the letter inside, also written in the same style of script.
“Wow, really nice handwriting,” he commented as he began to read.
“That’s just him showing off,” she dryly observed as she studied the message from over his shoulder.
Caleb,
How are you, dear boy? I’m sending you a token memento from your recent trip to London. Truth is, I didn’t have the heart to throw it in the bin after you went to such trouble finding it for me. Tell Katrina I said it should look nice in your living room.
Plans are being finalized for a large conference in Slovenia this June. I’m hoping you will show an interest in accompanying Katrina. It should prove very educational for you, and the scenery will be breathtaking. Plan on at least a two-week stay.