Sunset Rising (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 5) (9 page)

“
I laughed at him,
thinking his mind had been sadly affected either from battle trauma
he had experienced or his injuries,” Ethan said. “However, he swore
he could prove his claims and asked me to accompany him into the
woods, where he displayed some amazing feats of strength and
speed.”

“
I still can’t believe you
went with him,” Paige said. “Seriously? Some crazy-sounding guy
asks me into the woods, and I’m dropping him with the nearest heavy
piece of wood.”

Ethan chuckled. “I’m not ashamed to admit I
was curious, though I still wore my service revolver.”

“
A lot of good that
would’ve done you,” she said.

“
Well, of course, I didn’t
know that at the time.”

“
Okay, okay, what happened
next?” I asked.

“
As you can imagine, I was
stunned, as well as scared, but he reassured me that he meant me no
harm.”

Ethan paused to look sidelong at me. “Much
like you, he had an innocent face.”

That made me smile.

“
Then the man explained
the power of his saliva and blood, and it immediately occurred to
me how much easier it would be to help people with such abilities,”
he said. “I really hadn’t given much thought to the idea of
eternity at the time, but was definitely still affected by how
fresh Deidre’s loss in my life had been. Besides, I had grown so
weary of the war, and the death, and the sickness. It was
overwhelming in its scope.”

Paige reached out to hold Ethan’s hand as we
continued our walk.

“
A tempting offer,” I
said.

“
Yeah, so much so that I
agreed to his offer. We left my unit behind in the middle of the
night, and journeyed to an old cabin in the middle of nowhere, far
away from any battlefields. I lost track of time, but during nearly
a week of painful blood exchanges using a really odd method of
transference Noah had acquired from an old Indian ritual, I was
turned,” he said.

“
Do you remember much
about it?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Towards the end of the
process, I lost my faculties as if in some prolonged fever. By the
time that I awoke, all I knew was that my life had been changed
forever. The world looked, sounded, and felt completely different
then."

"I remember something of that," I
whispered.

Unlike Ethan, my body had been too weak for
the turning process. I had nearly died before stemming the process
by saturating my body with raw sunlight and its strong ultraviolet
radiation.

“
Now, I’m once again
merely human,” I said.

He reached out and clasped me on the
shoulder. “It wasn’t your time yet.”

“
Sometimes,
yet
feels like
never.”

“
A word of advice,” he
said. “Enjoy the time that you spend, no matter in what form. It’s
about your journey, not your destination.”

I considered that for a moment.

“
So, what happened next?”
I asked. “After your turning.”

“
After a few days showing
me how to feed on animals, just in case people weren’t available,
and then important lessons on the dangers of sunlight, I told him I
felt the need to return to my unit. More than a week was a long
time to be gone and unaccounted for, you see,” he said. “But I felt
honor bound to return to resign my commission and not be labeled a
deserter. However, Noah urged me not to try returning to my unit,
particularly given that my body had been strongly craving
blood.”

“
That was idiotic,” Paige
said.

“
Hey, it was a matter of
honor,” Ethan said.

“
So, did you go back to
your unit?” I asked.

“
After a couple of days, I
got up the urge to venture back just after sundown,” he
said.

Then something occurred to me. “Ah, I bet
the camp had moved on by the time you returned.”

Ethan’s expression darkened. “Not so
much.”

We walked around the corner onto our
street.

“
I smelled the stench of
burning flesh miles before I got close enough to see what had
happened for myself,” he said. “My old encampment had been
attacked, maybe only a day or so prior. It looked like a slaughter
had occurred.”

“
That had to be shocking,”
I said.

“
In truth, while gruesome,
it was prophetic. I mean, it was pretty obvious that my army days
were behind me by that point,” he said. “It made resigning my
commission unnecessary. It was relatively common for people to be
lost and unaccounted for during or following battles. I simply
returned to Noah, and he helped me learn the ways of my new
life."

"And yet, you remained a doctor, didn’t
you?" I asked as we reached our front porch.

“
I couldn’t deny what I
had become, but it didn't change how I felt about helping people,”
he replied. “I just had to be a hell of a lot more careful about
it. And it helped me to learn to curb my appetite for human blood.
To this day, it's the one thing that I hate most about what I am
now. My profession is my penance; plying my trade in return for
partaking in human blood.”

Paige looked up at him with a sad
expression. “You don’t need to pay penance, Ethan. You don’t owe
anyone anything.”

He bent down to warmly kiss her and she
reached up to hug his neck.

They were a lovely sight.

“
I love you for who you
are,” she said.

“
Love?” he
asked.

She smiled. “Yeah…love.”

I grinned as I opened the front door for
us.

Paige and Ethan made their way upstairs hand
in hand as I walked over to the couch to pick up the television
remote.

At that moment, I longed to hold Kat in my
arms.

Chapter 7

Katrina

After sundown, Alton and I made the
hour-long drive on Interstate 95 through waves of cold drizzle to
New London to meet with the vampire who lay territorial claim to
much of the state of Connecticut. We hoped to learn more about
other vampires who might be operating in and around New Haven.

I was determined to locate those responsible
for attacking Caleb.

“
Newton’s a bit of a
traditionalist,” Alton said. “We only visited briefly at the
Slovene conference, but he seemed like a sensible, though quiet,
sort of fellow.”

“
Benjamin Newton,” I said.
“I wonder. As in, Sir Isaac Newton?”

“
You sounded like Caleb
just then,” he replied.

A faint smile crossed my lips.

“
Not Isaac himself, per
say, though Benjamin claims to be distant relative,” he said. “Mind
you, I’ve never explored his claim on that.”

“
Don’t you trust
anyone?”

“
Very few, and rarely at
face value,” he replied. “I trust you.”

Benjamin Newton’s estate was rather large
compared to the properties surrounding it, though most homes in the
area were relatively grand by contemporary standards.

Upon pulling around the sweeping circle
driveway, we were quickly approached by two vampire guards wearing
rain coats. Alton immediately rolled down his window as one guard
approached our vehicle.

“
I’m Alton Rutherford,” he
said. “And this is my associate, Katrina Rawlings.”

“
You’re expected. Pull
your vehicle over there,” prompted the guard, pointing to a nearby
paved easement.

The estate’s interior appeared orderly, but
decorated in a manner reminiscent of an early colonial museum
interspersed with modern conveniences.

We were conveyed to a large den where a tall
vampire stood from his seat in a reading chair strategically placed
before a lit fireplace.

It all appeared remarkably rustic; a vision
of the perfect country gentleman’s estate.

“
Mr. Rutherford,” he
greeted, extending his hand toward Alton. “So good to see you
again.”

“
Miss Rawlings, welcome to
my estate,” he greeted me in turn, taking my hand in
his.

Following further pleasantries, Alton and I
sat together on a settee before Newton, who returned to his
high-backed reading chair.

“
My territory extends
through most of Connecticut and then continues into Rhode Island to
the east and a brief portion of the southeastern tip of New York to
the west,” he explained. “My western territory borders with Rudolph
Pitt’s area.”

“
I’m unfamiliar with that
name,” I said.

“
He claims much of
southern New York, but particularly New York City proper,” Newton
replied. “The entire city area is his; something he’s very
possessive of.”

“
Yes, I’ve heard of Pitt,”
Alton said. “He wasn’t at the conference, as I recall.”

“
Ah, well, he keeps to
himself for the most part,” Newton said. “However, we get along
well enough, and there have never been any disputes between
us.”

“
Would there be any reason
that Pitt might be interested in New Haven?” I asked. “Or any other
vampires who you’re aware of, for that matter.”

Newton frowned. “To my knowledge, Ms.
Rawlings, you’re the only vampires who have recently taken up
residence in my territory, though Mr. Rutherford arranged that with
me well in advance beforehand. Has there been some trouble that I
should be aware of?”

I briefly described what had taken place
with my mate.

“
Oh, dear,” he said. “I’m
terribly sorry to hear about that. I do hope that your mate is
well.”

“
He’s improving, thank
you,” I said. “But I’m very interested in locating those
responsible for attacking him.”

Newton adopted a grave expression. “That’s
certainly understandable. However, I think it important to note
that I’m remaining solidly neutral in the recent rise of vampire
factions around the globe.”

“
Why is that?” Alton
pressed.

“
You might say that I’m a
traditionalist,” he said. “I like the way that things have been
maintained over the centuries. It’s worked quite well, overall.
Maintaining individual territories around the globe is quite a
manageable arrangement.”

“
So long as you’re one of
the vampires in control of a territory,” I added.

He nodded in deference. “Naturally. How very
egalitarian of you to point that out.”

“
Yes, well,” Alton quickly
added. “We’re not here to challenge the merits of the past, though
I’m mindful that flexibility is often helpful in the face of
evolving conditions.”

In addition to our conversation, another
scan of the dated room décor suggested to me that Newton was likely
not only a traditionalist, but also an antiquarian.

“
I must agree with Alton,”
I said. “Times are changing, and we must be prepared to change with
them.”

“
You sound a lot like that
fellow, Bob Dylan,” he said. “However, traditions are important;
they’re stabilizing, which is something people are quickly
forgetting.”

“
I’m afraid that even Bob
Dylan has been passé for some time, Mr. Newton,” I said, glancing
sidelong at Alton. “Incidentally, do you have Amish
roots?”

Hasn’t Newton listened to contemporary music
in over forty years?

Alton gave me a sharp look. “What Katrina
means is that, traditions aside, modernity in moderation has its
merits.”

I repressed a sigh. That wasn’t what I meant
at all.

Newton comes off as an old fuddy-duddy.

Wait, fuddy-duddy? Now I sound dated,
too.

“…
respect your personal
choice in being progressive, Rutherford,” Newton said. “I merely
ask that my own traditions be respected, particularly in my own
territory.”

“
Certainly,” Alton said.
“We mean no disrespect, and we appreciate the courtesy you’ve given
us in permitted our temporary residence in New Haven on Katrina’s
mate’s behalf.”

Newton appeared more settled. “Very good. In
the meantime, if I hear anything further regarding other vampire
activities, I’ll see that the information is forwarded to you.”

We exchanged farewells and were escorted
back to our vehicle.

“
Well, that was less than
helpful,” I said as our vehicle pulled back onto the main
road.

“
Mm,” Alton murmured.
“Back to square one, I’m afraid.”

“
What now?” I
asked.

He remained silent for a time, appearing to
be in deep thought.

We traveled westward on Interstate 95 when
both of our mobile phones received text messages. Alton pulled off
to one side of the highway to check his message as I retrieved my
phone.

My message was from Gavyn Osborn, one of
Alton’s most trusted vampires; a knight from his own period.

“
A new group of vampires
has appeared in London,” I said. “The latest patrol has located
their operational center and requests orders.”

“
It appears we received
the same message,” Alton said. “We should return to London
immediately. Matters like this require both of us, so we can’t
continue to be derailed by dead ends here.”

“
I see. So, Caleb takes a
back burner to vampire politics then?”

“
Please. Need I remind you
of what happened the last time we had a sleeper cell operating in
London?” he countered.