Sunrise at Sunset (25 page)

He frowned as a realization struck him. “The Aztecs haven’t been around since the 1500s,” he murmured. “She’s over five hundred years old.”
The woman looked stunning for five hundred years old
.

Katrina noted his surprised expression and was simultaneously impressed with the depth of his historical knowledge. “My little historian,” she noted with a brief smile and a quick kiss to his forehead. “But she’s actually closer to six hundred years old. She was turned in the early 1400s.”

His eyes widened at the revelation. “But why is she trying to kill me?”

Her expression turned grim again. “You’re just an outlet for her revenge against me,” she explained. “In fact, I’m just the latest on a list of targets of my kind, apparently.”

She surmised that Chimalma must have started with Garett in Paris and moved to Octavia in Trondheim, to Wallace in Lima, and finally to her in Atlanta.

“But why?” he demanded incredulously.

“It’s a long story,” she said with a sigh.

“Well, are you planning on letting me leave the house anytime soon?” he asked pointedly.

Katrina frowned, and her eyes swiftly darted to glare at him, “No, I most certainly am not.”

He sighed. “Thought so. Then I guess I have time.”

She rolled her eyes at him and began to recount events from the past. “There was a time in the late 1940s in Central and South America when a battle raged between vampires of two opposing ideologies. A vampire named Quintis began building his own personal Central American empire reflective of the crime syndicates of Sicily and Italy. At first, his endeavors gained him a reputation among nearby governments as a sort of mafia leader. But eventually, he sought to coerce vampires from the area to join him or succumb to his will, including a requirement for tithing to him. To make matters worse, Quintis proposed a plan to turn loyal human commanders into vampires in hopes of creating a vampire-supported leadership structure.”

She explained that Chimalma and her vampire consort, a Brazilian named Davi, approached a number of fellow vampires in the region, which included Katrina, to rise against Quintis before further damage could be done.

She continued, “Our efforts served two equally important agendas. First, Quintis’ actions were threatening the group of us directly, which none of us would tolerate. Second, it would serve as a message to the rest of the vampire world that overt actions that were in disregard to a path of secrecy would be dealt with.”

Caleb found the history that Katrina described both compelling and remarkable. Best of all, she revealed a little more about her past to him.

“Ah, so if that took place in the 1940s and if you were in your late twenties when turned, then I know you were born at least by around 1900,” he ventured with a half-grin at the revelation.

“This is hardly the time, Caleb,” she admonished with a tight-lipped expression. She hoped he would stay focused on what she was telling him because it would help him to understand why all of what she was doing was necessary. Perhaps he wouldn’t feel resentful of his circumstances so much if he understood more clearly.

“Sorry,” he murmured.

“Unfortunately,” she continued unabated, “while Quintis was ultimately dealt with by a number of us acting as a team, Chimalma’s consort, Davi, was killed in the explosion with Quintis. He sacrificed himself because the detonation had to be done manually following a malfunction in the arming and timing mechanism. A number of us were severely injured in the fighting, including Chimalma, and he bought us the time to depart to safety. Davi was a hero that day, and we owe him our lives. The problem is that Chimalma lost a long-time mate, and she eventually held us responsible, blaming each of us for allowing him to die.”

Caleb said nothing as the somber nature of the story fully registered.

Katrina got up and went to her computer across the room. She sat down and began typing and clicking on various windows on the desktop in a furious manner. The screen flickered and flashed like a lightning storm from the speed with which she changed screens and selections. She reached over to another smaller computer screen, which looked like it was attached to a laptop, and clicked some options. The lights in the room went out, save for the illumination from the screens before her. “Try to get some sleep,” she instructed distractedly as she continued to type.

He sighed and slipped underneath the bed’s satin sheets. At first he was too keyed up to rest and kept wondering what she was doing on the computer. But as he lay there, the sound of her clicking and typing eventually lulled him into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.

Caleb awoke with a start, not knowing what time it was. The room was silent, and the glow of the computer monitors was subdued by screensavers. Katrina was nowhere to be seen, but he heard the sound of a shower running in the bathroom off to his left. He illuminated his watch face and noted that it was nearly seven in the morning.

He stretched in bed and was instantly inspired to determine what Katrina was up to on the computer screens. He listened to make sure the shower was still running and gently slid out of bed.

His bare feet were quiet across the thick carpet as he tiptoed over to the computer hutch. He pressed the shift keys on both keyboards and noted the smaller screen session that controlled the house security systems was password locked, but the large flat panel display session to the right went immediately to the Windows desktop.

He looked at the list of minimized applications, recognizing some as being financial, while a couple of Internet browsers had headings related to European travel. He frowned and started to click on the travel topic browser, but then heard the shower stop.

He froze and quickly tiptoed back over to the bed to lie down. Realizing his mistake, he hoped the screensavers would come back on before Katrina exited the bathroom. He momentarily considered going back to the larger console and forcing the session into screensaver mode, but the bathroom door quietly opened before he had time.

He closed his eyes and tried to lie quietly on the bed as if asleep. Yet another mistake.
Katrina’s a vampire with excellent senses.
Oh crap
, he cursed silently as his heart began beating more quickly.

Breathing in, he smelled the sweet fragrance of cherry blossoms, which was her favorite. Following the sound of a quiet sigh, the bed shifted as if someone were lying down, and he felt Katrina’s warm body press against his.

He dared not open his eyes, despite the fact that he probably wasn’t fooling her. He focused on trying to calm himself, but was having trouble concentrating.

Her warm breath tickled the side of his face as she whispered to him in a steely tone, “What am I going to do with you, Caleb?”

While partly annoyed, another part of her found his curiosity endearing. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the luxury of encouraging him under the circumstances.

He swallowed hard and his heart raced loudly in his ears. Keeping his eyes shut, he murmured, “You mean, in a rhetorical way?”

“Open your eyes,” she commanded quietly.
You’re not fooling anybody
, she thought with amusement at his antics. Still, she was determined to take a stern approach with him.

He slowly opened his eyes. Her stoic expression spoke volumes. He hated the thought of her being angry with him. “I just want to know what’s going on, okay, Kat?” he replied defensively.

She regarded him with a tight-lipped expression, though she inwardly understood his curiosity.

“I didn’t see much,” he reassured her. “The windows showed financial information and travel to Europe.”

“What online activities did you perform?” she asked pointedly.
Hopefully he didn’t try to do anything rash like initiate online communication with anyone
, she appraised.
Chimalma’s a shrewd hunter who’ll make use of any resources to scope out a target, even online.

His confused expression showed plainly in the room’s dim lighting. “Nothing. I only looked at -- listen, what were you expecting me to do, exactly?” he stammered.

“Good,” was her simple reply before disappearing from beside him with a lurch.

He heard clicking sounds, and his gaze darted to the computer hutch where she closed applications and locked the keyboard. She muttered something under her breath about being more careful. Seconds later, she moved in a sudden rapid motion, only to reappear beside him again.

At least her eyes aren’t angrily glowing at me
, he considered.

Katrina gathered him in her arms and pulled him to her, melding her lips onto his and kissing him warmly. He gave up trying to make sense of the exchange a few moments ago and focused on her immediate attentions.

You dear young man
, she thought.
How I adore you, Caleb.

He managed to part his lips for an instant to whisper, “I don’t understand what’s going on, Kat. Help me understand.”

She paused, still holding him in her arms, and replied, “I’m taking care of things in my own way, Caleb. Let me do what needs to be done, and try to be patient with me.”

Her soft lips found his again, and his mind became pleasantly distracted.

“Why won’t you tell me?” he pleaded between another series of kisses.

“Because it would only upset you,” she answered before rolling on top of him and nibbling at the soft skin of his neck.

The blood desire was rising in her quickly as she took in his body’s scent, and she both felt and heard the powerful pumping of blood through his veins. She craved the distraction, as well as the opportunity to share herself with him before initiating her plans. She needed to savor the moments with him and didn’t want to waste precious time in conflict with him.

“I’m not going to just sit around helplessly while you take care of everything,” he objected gently.

“Oh yes, you are,” she stated in a tone harboring no further argument.
You agreed to this, remember
, she mused.

“We’re partners, Kat,” he insisted. “We help each other when times get tough.”

Katrina paused, her lips nearly touching the soft skin of his neck. “This is way out of your league, my love. Your expertise is history,” she explained softly as her breath almost tickled his neck. “Mine is hunting and killing. Leave this to me.”

And let me return to that tasty neckline of yours
, she added as her feeding urge increased. She returned to nibbling at his neck and kissing his lips. He wanted to argue further, but his mind was effectively distracted by both her body and his own desires. Still, he had no intention of letting the matter drop for long.

He felt a set of razor sharp fangs touch the skin of his neck and froze like a statue.

“I’m partaking unless you say no,” she rasped into his neck with hot breath.

She had surprised him, being so forward about taking his blood. But in the span of two heartbeats he knew his answer. “I wouldn’t dare,” he managed to gasp as he felt the immediate numbing sensation from her tongue against his skin.
I owe her my life. What price then is a little of my blood?

Later that morning, after they both roused from dozing in each other’s arms, Caleb slipped into jeans and a T-shirt and went to the kitchen for something to eat.

Fortunately, Katrina still had leftover food from his recent ‘flu recovery. He heated some soup in the microwave, opened a package of crackers, and removed one of the Cokes that Katrina kept stocked in her refrigerator. While making a mental note to ask her about groceries, he wondered if she could hear him from the sub-level room.

“Kat?” he whispered as he pulled the soup bowl from the microwave.

He sat down at the island counter with his cola and crackers. A minute later, he called in a normal tone of voice, “Kat, I need you.”

He smiled while stirring the bowl of hot soup. “Not such good hearing after all,” he mused quietly.

“Really?” queried her voice at his left ear.

“Crap!” he yelled as he nearly flew from his chair.

“You called?” she asked, completely satisfied at his surprise.
I just love doing that to him
.

His heart raced as he realized how close he’d come to dumping hot soup in his lap. “Jesus, Kat,” he muttered as he shook his head, trying to catch his breath.

“So you’re passing your time by testing my hearing?” she asked with an amused expression.

He blinked at her with bewilderment. “Just curious.”

“Try to remember that vampires have excellent hearing. Your life may depend upon it someday,” she admonished mildly.

Suddenly his little boon wasn’t so amusing anymore.

“Eat your soup before it gets cold,” she suggested as she moved to lean against the counter.

He reseated himself and recalled what he meant to tell her earlier. “Oh, yeah. I noticed we’re low on food, human food, that is. I suppose a trip to the grocery store is in order tonight, under your watchful protection, of course.”