“I’ll head back to the security office,” Howard grumbled.
“Thank you,” Emma told him. “Be sure to come back later for a bit of cake.”
“Will do.” Howard smiled a farewell at Caitlyn, then lumbered from the room.
“Let me introduce you to everyone.” Emma began calling their names, but there were too many for Caitlyn to keep up with at once. She smiled and waved as they all greeted her.
“And this is your niece.” Emma moved behind a chair where a little girl was sitting. “Sofia, this is your Aunt Caitlyn.”
“I’m happy to meet you, Sofia.” Caitlyn’s heart squeezed in her chest as the little girl gazed at her with wide blue eyes. She was beautiful. Her eyes were like Shanna’s, but she must have inherited her black, wavy hair from her father.
“Hi,” Sofia said softly, then glanced over her shoulder at Emma. “I thought you were my aunt.”
Emma smiled and brushed the girl’s hair over her shoulder. “I’m a pretend aunt. Caitlyn is your real aunt.”
“I don’t have any aunts,” one of the other little girls muttered. “They were all killed.”
Caitlyn’s breath caught. She tried to recall the girl’s name. She was one of Tino’s classmates.
Emma moved over to the little girl and touched her shoulder. “Coco, I would love to be your aunt.”
“Me, too.” The woman seated next to Coco gave her a hug.
All the women echoed a desire to be Coco’s aunt.
“Me, too!” Sofia cried. “I want to be an aunt.”
Caitlyn smiled. Shanna was fortunate to have such caring friends. From the loving way they interacted with each other, it was obvious they were a close-knit group.
With a small jolt, Caitlyn realized these people were Shanna’s family. They knew Shanna better than she did.
A twinge of annoyance needled her. She’d only been nine years old when Shanna had turned fifteen and taken off to a boarding school across the world. Caitlyn had sorely missed her only sister. She’d written letters, but never received a response. Shanna had simply left her family behind. And she’d acquired a new one.
Caitlyn knew she should be happy for her sister, but damn. Why hadn’t she been good enough for Shanna? She’d spent most of her teenage years feeling lonesome and abandoned. It was clear her father didn’t approve of Shanna or her new family. And he didn’t even know the full story—that her son could fly.
“Here’s Shanna now.” Emma motioned to the double doors.
Caitlyn spun around, her heartbeat shooting to a fast pace. Tears threatened at the sight of her sister. Shanna was accompanying another woman, and each carried a baby.
Shanna still looked much the same, with her strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. She’d matured some, naturally, since Caitlyn had last seen her, but the years had only added a warm and beautiful glow.
Shanna’s face lit up. “Caitlyn!” She rushed forward and passed the baby she was holding to Emma.
Caitlyn wasn’t sure how to greet the sister she hadn’t seen in years, but her awkward hesitation quickly passed when Shanna threw her arms around her in a big hug.
A few tears escaped as Caitlyn held her sister tight. It had been so long, but finally, she had her sister back.
“Look at you.” Shanna leaned back and tears glistened on her cheeks. “You’re all grown up. And so beautiful.”
Caitlyn wiped the tears from her face. “I always thought you were the beautiful one. I missed you.”
Shanna hugged her again. “Did you meet everyone?”
“Emma introduced me. Your daughter’s precious.”
“I totally agree.” Shanna grinned. “You need to meet the birthday boy, too. He’s outside playing basketball.”
And flying up to the hoop. Caitlyn needed to get her sister alone so she could ask a few pertinent questions.
“Oh, you haven’t met Heather.” Shanna motioned to the pretty redhead who was holding a squirming baby in her arms. “I was helping her with the twins, Jean-Pierre and Jillian.”
“This is Jillian.” Emma strapped the little girl into a high chair and handed her a cracker.
“They’re adorable.” Caitlyn admired the two dark-headed babies. “How old are they?”
“Eight months.” Heather placed the little boy on the floor, and he shot off in a fast crawl. She sighed. “He’ll be halfway back to Texas before the party’s over.”
The women laughed.
“I’ll watch him.” A young redheaded girl jumped to her feet and ran after the baby.
“Thank you, sweetie.” Heather smiled at Caitlyn. “That’s my daughter, Bethany, otherwise known as Assistant Mommy and Lifesaver.”
“Older sisters are good to have.” Caitlyn glanced at her sister. And really painful to lose.
Shanna blinked and gave her a curious look. “We don’t have to be separated ever again.”
Caitlyn gulped. Had Shanna read her mind? They’d been so close when young, always in tune with each other’s thoughts and feelings that she’d often wondered if they shared some sort of odd connection. It was a few years after Shanna’s departure that Caitlyn had realized the full extent of her own unique abilities. She’d written about it to Shanna, knowing her sister would understand, but there’d never been a response.
“Shanna was telling me about your family while we were in the restroom,” Heather said. “You lived in a lot of foreign countries.”
Caitlyn nodded. “Yes, we lived in Poland, Belarus, Latvia—all over that area.”
“And Mom home-schooled us,” Shanna added. “I swear, every time Caitlyn went out to play, a stray dog or cat would come up to her. Drove our mom crazy ’cause there were too many to keep, and she’d have to find homes for them.”
Caitlyn smiled, remembering her favorite kitty, a solid black cat she’d named Mr. Foofikins. Now she understood why animals came to her, but at the time, in her youthful ignorance, she had assumed everyone could understand the noises made by their pets.
“And every time we moved to a new place,” Shanna continued, “Caitlyn was the first to pick up the new language. She was incredible. I swear she could learn a language in a month.”
Caitlyn’s face grew warm as all the women expressed amazement.
Emma watched her closely. “Is it true you know over a dozen languages?”
Caitlyn nodded. She had an odd suspicion that Emma’s interest in her was more than casual.
“How long does it take for you to learn a language now?” Emma asked.
Caitlyn hesitated before answering. “A few hours.” Her face burned hotter when the ladies gasped. It wasn’t like she’d mastered some fantastic skill. It was simply a weird gift she’d been born with. Once she’d figured out she was a psychic linguist, she’d honed the talent to her present level of expertise. It wasn’t something she usually talked about, since most people refused to believe she could understand any language she heard. They either thought she was lying or loony.
“That must have been extremely useful for your job with the State Department,” Emma observed. “They were wrong to let you go.”
Caitlyn stiffened and glanced at her sister, who stepped closer and lowered her voice. “I told Emma you were looking for employment.”
“How did you know?” The State Department had done a good job of hushing up her big mistake.
“I called Mom to invite her to the birthday party,” Shanna continued quietly. “After she gave me an excuse for not coming, she told me what had happened to you and that you were here in New York, looking for a job. She said Dad wanted to hire you for his team. I wanted to give you an alternative, so I asked Emma to find you.”
Emma smiled. “I’m one of the owners of MacKay Security and Investigation.”
So that was how they’d tracked her down at her hotel. Even so, Caitlyn was stunned that her mom hadn’t wanted to come to her grandson’s birthday party. “I don’t understand why Mom and Dad aren’t here. Or why Dad told me never to come
here.”
Shanna winced. “I was afraid of that.” She leaned closer. “I just want you to know that you’re not alone. You don’t need to stay at a hotel. We have a townhouse in Manhattan that’s mostly empty, and you can live there as long as you need to.”
Caitlyn swallowed hard. “That would really help.”
“Emma and I thought you might like a job with MacKay Security and Investigation,” Shanna continued.
A job offer? This was the last thing she’d expected at her nephew’s birthday party. She turned to Emma. “That’s very kind of you, but I have no experience in the security business.”
Emma dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “We conduct investigations all over the world. Your linguistic abilities make you ideally suited for that kind of work.”
“Thank you. I’ll be glad to consider it.” Caitlyn looked over the faces of Shanna’s friends and realized her sister was attempting to draw her into her family, a family her father didn’t approve of.
“Before you consider anything,” Shanna said with a worried look, “you need to know all the facts. About us.”
The chill returned to tickle the back of Caitlyn’s neck. Her instincts flared. The entrance to the rabbit hole loomed before her, gaping ever wider and enticing her to fall in. As much as she loved adventure, she wasn’t sure this was a place she wanted to go. Her dad certainly didn’t want her involved with these people.
But her sister was here. She didn’t want to lose Shanna again. She didn’t want to lose her niece and nephew. I saw Constantine fly. How could Shanna possibly explain that?
Shanna winced. “I’ll do my best.”
Caitlyn stiffened. “You’re reading my mind.”
Chapter Two
C aitlyn took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. Maybe she shouldn’t be so shocked. She was a psychic linguist, so it was entirely possible that her sister had psychic abilities, too.
Shanna motioned for her to accompany her to the refreshment table. “I’m not making a conscious effort to read your mind. I want to respect your privacy, but some of your thoughts are so intense, I’m catching them.”
Caitlyn glanced back at the other women across the cafeteria. They were busily chatting, so thankfully, she could now speak privately with her sister. “You have telepathic powers.”
“I’m usually better at blocking messages than sending or receiving,” Shanna confessed. “But with you, I’ve always had a strong connection. Remember when we were young, and we’d always—”
“Finish each other’s sentences,” Caitlyn said with a sad smile. If their connection was so strong, why did her sister leave her?
“Are you telepathic, too?” Shanna asked.
“I don’t think so. Most of my psychic ability is centered on language.”
“You have a rare gift.” Shanna ladled some punch into two red plastic cups. “When I was at boarding school, I would think of you often and dream about you at night. You were surrounded by snow, and you wore a bright red woolen coat and mittens.”
Caitlyn’s breath caught. From the ages of ten to twelve, she’d worn a bright red coat.
Shanna passed her a cup of punch. “Later on, I saw you in Washington, D.C., then you were back in the snow. A few years ago the dreams changed. I saw white sandy beaches and palm trees. Elephants and tigers.”
Caitlyn gulped down some punch. “I graduated from Georgetown University before joining the State Department. I was stationed at Minsk, then Bangkok and Jakarta.”
Shanna’s eyes glimmered with tears. “I always hoped I was seeing images from your real life. I missed you so much.”
Then why did you leave me? Caitlyn blinked back tears and grabbed a paper plate featuring a red cartoon car. “I don’t know anything about your life. I didn’t even know you had a husband and children.”
“Dad didn’t tell you?”
“No.” Caitlyn put some crackers and sliced cheese on her plate. “He just warned me never to come here.”
Shanna sighed. “Well, I’m glad you did. Thank you.”
Caitlyn took another sip of punch. “Why didn’t our parents come?”
“Mom does whatever Dad tells her to do. And Dad…well, he doesn’t approve of me.” Shanna motioned to some chairs next to the table heaped with gifts. “Did you know Dad works for the CIA?”
“Yes.” Caitlyn set her cup and plate on the table, then took a seat. “I used to think he worked for the State Department, but when he helped me get a job there, he confessed it was only a cover, and that he’d always worked for the CIA.”
Shanna nodded. “For the last six years or so he’s been in charge of a secret group called the Stake-Out team. Emma MacKay used to work for him.”
“Really?” Caitlyn glanced over at Emma, who was helping the baby Jillian eat.
“And another employee at MacKay S and I, Austin Erickson, worked for Dad.”
“Can I ask why they left?” Caitlyn figured it had something to do with her father’s overbearing personality. The thought of having him for a boss was definitely making her think twice about accepting his job offer. She topped a cracker with a slice of cheese and bit into it.
“They couldn’t agree with the mission of the Stake-Out team,” Shanna explained. “Dad’s investigating a group of…people with the ultimate objective of hunting them all down and destroying them.”
Caitlyn swallowed hard as the cracker stuck in her throat. “Terrorists?”
“Some of them are. I know all about it ’cause Dad tried to hire me, too. Our psychic power is inherited from Dad, you know. Our brother didn’t seem to get any.”
“I know, but what does that—”
“Everyone on the Stake-Out team needs enough psychic power to resist mind control,” Shanna continued. “Dad’s enemy has the ability to control minds and erase memories. He considers them a dangerous threat to mankind.”
“They sound dangerous.”
Shanna sighed. “Some of them are, but not all of them. The ones I know are perfectly nice.”
Nice mind controllers? Caitlyn had to wonder if Shanna’s mind was being controlled if she thought some of them were nice. This had to be the source of the friction between her dad and her sister. “Who exactly are we talking about?”
Shanna hesitated, then whispered, “Vampires.”
Caitlyn blinked. “What?”
“Dad is hunting vampires.”
Caitlyn sat back. She couldn’t be hearing this right. “You mean he’s gone off his rocker?”
“No, he’s perfectly sane. That’s why he calls it the Stake-Out team. You know, staking vampires.”
Goose bumps prickled Caitlyn’s arms. Her dad and sister were crazy. She rose to her feet. “Is this some kind of joke? Some kind of…party game? I don’t find it amusing.”
“It’s not a joke.” Shanna regarded her seriously. “Vampires are real.”
“They’re make-believe.”
“They’re real.” Shanna lifted a hand to stop further objections. “I know it comes as a shock. If you don’t want to believe me, you can ask anyone else here. Or ask Dad. He wants to hire you, so he must be planning to tell you.”
A chill skittered down Caitlyn’s spine. It couldn’t be true. How could her sister lie to her? Then again, what could Shanna possibly gain by making this up? But wouldn’t it be foolish for her to trust Shanna? She hadn’t seen her sister in years.
She would have to talk to Dad about this. But what if he claimed it was true and he was hunting vampires?
Her thoughts swung back and forth, truth or lie, the pendulum increasing in speed, faster and faster till she felt dizzy. She slumped in the chair. “Are you seriously telling me vampires are real?”
“Yes, I am.” Shanna nodded. “And I should know.”
A frisson of alarm shot through Caitlyn, and she sprang to her feet. This was why Dad had warned her never to come here. Shanna has changed. She can no longer be trusted. Stay away from her at all cost. “You’re a vampire?”<
br />
Shanna’s eyes widened. “No. I’m the same as I ever was.”
“Oh, thank God.” Caitlyn pressed a hand to her chest and collapsed onto the chair. “You scared me to death.”
Shanna smiled. “Relax, sweetie. I’m not a vampire.” She patted her arm. “My husband is.”
“Ack!” Caitlyn jumped back to her feet. “You—You’re married to a dead man?”
“He’s not dead. He’s outside playing basketball.”
“But—” Caitlyn frowned, trying to make sense of this. “Isn’t he…sorta dead?”
“He’s Undead.”
The dizziness returned and Caitlyn sat down once more. “I don’t really see the difference.”
“Dead is dead all of the time, but Roman’s only dead when the sun is up.”
Caitlyn rubbed her brow. She was still tumbling down the rabbit hole and couldn’t tell which end was up. “So he’s fifty percent dead?”
Shanna chuckled. “I guess you could say that. But boy, when he’s alive—” She sighed with a dreamy look on her face. “He’s totally alive. All night long.”
With trembling fingers, Caitlyn grabbed her cup and gulped down the rest of her punch. Apparently, vampires were good in the sack. Who would have guessed? Her thoughts returned to the gorgeous mystery man on the basketball court. Was he one of the Undead? Was he available? Could he give her the same sort of dreamy, well-satisfied look that Shanna had?
Caitlyn slapped herself mentally. What was she thinking? Within seconds of learning about the existence of vampires, she was imagining having sex with one? It was the damned lure of the exotic. It always tempted her. “Does he bite you?”
Shanna’s mouth twitched. “Not for food. Roman and all the good Vamps drink synthetic blood.”
“And you’re happy, married to a vampire?”
“Oh, yes. And I’m not alone.” With a grin, Shanna motioned toward the other women. “A lot of my friends here are married to Vamp men.”
Caitlyn had to admit they all looked happy. They were also very pretty. Apparently, vampires were drawn to beautiful women. Would the mystery man find her attractive? Would he even notice her? She groaned inwardly. She needed to stop thinking about him. But it was so much easier to think about a gorgeous man than to deal with this strange new reality that had broadsided her out of nowhere.
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