Sunrise at Sunset (47 page)

“And what does the silent man in the chair think?” Katrina queried. “Which looks better on me, blue or black?”

He paused while glancing at Katrina’s pale-skinned feet. “Both look very sexy on you, Kat,” he finally replied with a grin.

She smirked and looked up at the sales clerk. “I’ll take both.”

The clerk nodded with a smile, obviously happy about the commission. Paige frowned and sighed and looked over at Caleb in silent question as she stood in the pair of strappy red shoes. She paraded in front of him once, turned, and walked back to stand in front of him as he stared at her pale feet.

He looked from her feet up the short height of her body until resting on her blue eyes and grinned. “Oh, yeah. Very sexy.”

She smiled appreciatively and caressed the fingers of one hand playfully across his cheek. “Good boy.”

“I’ll take them,” she announced proudly as the sales clerk raised a curious eyebrow at Caleb and glanced to Katrina, who was rolling her eyes at the display.

“He’s very helpful,” the sales clerk offered with a smile as she took the pairs of shoes to the counter to process the sales.

Following the shoe purchases, they made their way down the mall, window shopping. After an hour or so, the two vampires followed Caleb to the food court. They sat at a nearby table as he stood in the lengthy line for Chinese food. A large-framed college student with a flat-top haircut wearing an Atlanta Falcons sweatshirt walked up in front of him to chat with what appeared to be a friend of his, effectively cutting in line.

“Hey,” Caleb announced in a stern voice. “Get in line like the rest of us.”

A woman standing behind him muttered her agreement. But the young man turned to Caleb and puffed out his chest.

“Why don’t you shut up and show some Christmas spirit,” the man retorted.

“Why don’t you show a little courtesy?” Caleb countered as he squared his shoulders, refusing to be intimidated by the guy.

Katrina stood up abruptly from her chair in clear view of the burly man and adopted a steely, lethal-looking expression. Her somewhat imposing and statuesque stance immediately captured the man’s attention beyond Caleb’s shoulder, and she pointed her finger at the man and motioned with her thumb for him to depart as she maintained a tight-lipped expression. The man initially appeared unimpressed until her eyes momentarily flashed bright green, and he swallowed hard as his eyes bugged out of his head. The momentary exchange wasn’t lost on Paige as she sat casually observing the event.

“Never mind,” the man offered curtly to Caleb as he departed to make his way towards the burger vendor next door.

“Whoa there, Red,” Paige cautioned in a near whisper. “A little restraint for the local villagers, and let’s keep those bright eyes of yours in check.”

“Forget it. I can always claim it was a reflection from the Christmas lights,” she whispered back.

Caleb glanced curiously over his shoulder at the women and noticed Katrina standing up and facing his general direction.

She immediately adopted a pleasant expression and asked, “Two Cokes for us, please?”

He grinned, vaguely suspecting what must have transpired, and replied with a nod, “Absolutely.”

The oblivious woman standing behind Caleb offered, “Thanks for standing up to him. That guy sure was rude.”

He looked at the woman with a humble expression, shrugged, and offered, “I guess he decided to show some Christmas spirit himself.”

Caleb caught Katrina’s eyes and winked before turning around to order as she smiled warmly and sat down next to Paige.

After watching him eat dinner, the women agreed to let him do some individual shopping. He was impressed that his mate was so easy-going about the topic and headed off across the mall after promising to be watchful and to call at the first sign of trouble. It was his first true taste of unguarded independence since the night he met with Chimalma at the restaurant.

Caleb purchased a bracelet for Katrina at a specialty jeweler and considered what other gifts he wanted to procure. He momentarily appreciated the crowds of people packed in the mall around him, each person taking part in the frantic final days of holiday shopping. People squeezed by each other, often with their arms full of shopping bags. Normally, the scene would be somewhat unpleasant and stressful, but as Christmas music played over the mall speaker system, Caleb merely felt happy to be there. He glanced around, wondering if Kat or Paige were stalking nearby. Once he was satisfied they weren’t, he pressed through the crowds on his way to a nearby upper-level railing to consider his next destination.

He took note of a very traditional, almost angelic, rendition of “Carol of the Bells” playing over the mall speaker system. As the music began to build, he scanned the crowd on the level below and noticed a tall, brunette woman appearing to be of South American descent turn away from his view in the crowd. His heart almost stopped and his eyes bulged out as he realized the woman bore a strong resemblance to Alondra Vargas -- Chimalma! The woman wore very fashionable clothing and was about the same build as Chimalma. As the music reached a crescendo, Caleb reached for his cell phone, and the woman glanced to her side but not enough to see more of her face than her profile. The woman turned forward again and began to walk slowly in the opposite direction.

His heart raced as fear grew inside, and he selected Katrina’s entry on his phone. He held his finger over the call button as he made an instant decision. He didn’t want to alarm Katrina unnecessarily, and he was so tired of being afraid. He recalled his recent conversation with Alton and how he appealed to him to try to conquer his fear. Resolving he was going to do just that, his legs began moving to the nearby escalator to pursue the woman.
After all, it’s a crowded mall. I should be safe enough.

His finger still hung over the call button of his phone as he gripped his shopping bags tightly in his other hand. He moved swiftly in the direction the woman was headed while squeezing past tight throngs of people. As he tried glancing over the crowd to spot the woman again, he accidently pressed the call button.

“Caleb?” Katrina curiously asked. “Caleb? Are you there?”
He pulled the phone to his ear at about the same time he caught a quick glimpse of the dark-haired woman far ahead in the crowd, walking away from him.

“Kat?” he asked distractedly.

“Caleb? What’s wrong? You sound strange,” she insisted.

“Are you sure she’s dead?” he asked in a quiet voice as he squeezed past two slowly strolling shoppers blocking his progress.

There was a silent pause before her urgent voice demanded, “What?”

“Chimalma. At least, I think it’s her. Her hair looks almost like the night at the restaurant,” he insisted quietly as he kept moving through the crowd. “I’m following her now.”
“Caleb!” Katrina’s voice demanded hotly. “Where are you? Stop now.”

He glanced up and rattled off the names of stores as he continued walking. He frowned after losing sight of the woman again. A version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” by Loreena McKennitt, played over the mall speaker system.

“We’re coming to you,” she stated flatly. “Please, my love. Please stop walking,” she half-pled, half-insisted.

Caleb glanced to his right and noticed the tall, dark-haired woman proceeding towards the entrance to the mall parking garage. He began moving in that direction.

“She’s entering the parking garage,” he muttered while squeezing past more people.

“Caleb Taylor! Don’t you dare go in there!” Katrina hissed vehemently.

He was almost to the entrance doors and waited for a younger couple to enter past him before stepping into the dimly lit garage. He thought that he heard a blur of voices over the phone before the signal was lost. As he slipped his cell phone into his jacket pocket, he saw no other people and realized there was no music to be heard since exiting the mall proper.

After he took no more than a few steps into the parking garage, the glass doors burst open behind him. He whirled around with a wide-eyed expression and found himself staring directly into Katrina’s shoulder. He looked up with surprise into her blazing green eyes and tried to open his mouth to speak, but she cut him off with a stern voice.

“Where?” she demanded while handing her shopping bags to Paige, who was standing at her left.

He shrugged and started to speak again, but she darted away from him and into the parking garage. Shaking his head, he looked over to Paige, who maintained a serious expression. She pushed Katrina’s shopping bags at him, which he grasped with his free hand.

“We’re to sit inside on a mall bench until she returns,” Paige insisted as she squeezed his forearm firmly in her hand and forcefully steered him back towards the entrance into the mall.

“But if it’s Chimalma --” he started to object as she ushered him before her.

“She’s just confirming the target,” she cut him off as they walked back inside.

Katrina tried not to use her unnatural speed in the event that mall surveillance cameras might be observing her. However, she still walked quickly through the parking garage at a rapid pace until catching a glimpse of a dark-haired woman. The woman appeared to be human, and certainly of South American decent. She continued to watch as the lady placed some shopping bags into the back of a sport utility vehicle.

The woman’s cell phone rang, and as she answered it, the lady turned around to display her face more fully. Katrina was immediately able to determine that the woman was definitely human, but she marveled at how closely the person before her resembled Chimalma.

“Very close,” she muttered grimly as she abruptly spun around to return to Caleb and Paige.
An uncanny resemblance, actually.

Paige and Caleb sat on a mall bench just inside the entry from the parking garage when they spotted Katrina stalk through the glass doors. Caleb noted that his mate’s expression was milder, but still displeased. He looked up at her expectantly as she stopped before them and frowned at Paige.

“Well?” Paige anxiously demanded.

“The woman was human,” Katrina muttered with a glance at Caleb. “We can’t keep doing this. You know, I’m the one who triggered the detonator, and I saw the explosion engulf her. Caleb, you need to accept the fact she’s dead.”

Paige let out a heavy sigh and muttered with resignation, “Red’s right, Caleb. We need to trust her on this and try to move on with our lives.”

He was relieved, but felt an immediate sense of guilt and shame wash over him. Katrina sat down beside him on one end of the bench and looked into his eyes intently.

“But she could have been Chimalma’s twin sister,” she added darkly. “So I suppose I can understand why you reacted the way that you did.”

His face reflected surprise, and Paige’s eyes darted to Katrina’s abruptly.

“Really?” she insisted. “That close a resemblance?”

Katrina silently nodded, and Paige’s eyebrows rose. “What are the odds? Sorry, kiddo, I guess that was a good call after all.”
“Good call, bad decision, however,” Katrina admonished, although she leaned back against the bench and wrapped her arm around his shoulders supportively.

He leaned back into Katrina’s shoulder and whispered, “I’m not going to run to you every time I’m afraid of something or someone.”

She frowned as she pulled him closer to her and whispered irritably into his ear, “Is your male ego so fragile that you’re ashamed to accept protection from me? Because you better get it through your stubborn head vampires that do that for their human mates.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I just want you to be able to respect me as something other than helpless, that’s all.”

Paige’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she looked sidelong at him, while Katrina’s jaw tightened.

“What’s that supposed to mean? I watched you challenge the guy in line at the food court. You’re obviously willing to stand up for yourself when necessary. But that’s apparently not good enough, so now you want to transform into someone else because you still see yourself as helpless,” Katrina whispered harshly. “Did you ever stop to ask me what I wanted?”

He was somewhat struck by her retort and swiveled to the right to face her more directly. Her fingers touched his shoulder, and her hand lightly cupped the back of his neck. A momentary chill went down his spine as her hand grasped him there.

Paige’s eyes widened, and she stood up and walked directly over to a nearby store display as dozens of people passed by, heading in all directions like rush hour traffic. Nobody even seemed to pay any attention to the tall, green-eyed, redheaded woman and sandy-haired, blue-eyed young man facing each other on the bench along the dimly-illuminated length of wall.

“What exactly do you want then?” Caleb asked pointedly.

Katrina paused and replied, “I want the thoughtful, kind man with the sincere disposition who I’ve fallen in love with already. That same man who has strength of heart and conviction, but also recognizes his own limits. What I don’t want is another ego-laden risk taker with some sort of perverse death wish. I’ve had my fill with them in the past, and they’re not a good fit for me anymore.”