by Jaz Primo
“Paige, wait!” I shouted as cold rain pelted against my aching face.
Ignoring me, she gunned the engine and her spinning back tire pivoted the cycle around in a semi-circle as mud spewed out from behind.
My eyes widened as I half-stumbled backward on the wet porch, struggling to retreat back inside the cabin as a continuous arc of wet mud sprayed against the front wall and one window, splashing toward me.
I barely managed to slam the front door shut in time before hearing the muted sound of water and mud striking the opposite side of the door.
Damn, she’s really pissed!
I absently rubbed at my throbbing jaw as her cycle’s engine roared and quickly grew distant.
I opened the front door ajar to see her taillights disappear into the night as she sped away.
Apparently, I had screwed up royally with her, too.
Crap.
I’d never seen her that angry before; at least, not toward me.
I grabbed my jacket, flung open the door, and ran outside into the rain. Dodging muddy puddles while shrugging into my jacket, I ran across the small field outside the cabin and into the treeline.
Fortunately, the trees had been culled enough that I was able to dodge between them as I ran forward toward a place where the winding road that Paige was on might intersect.
I hurried to cut her off. I had to talk to her. Maybe I could reason with her as I had Kat; help her to understand what I’d been going through.
Two figures appeared before me, surprising me. I lost my balance and fell backward, though someone caught me from behind before I impacted the ground.
Their glowing eyes, pulsing with either emotion or hunger, told me they were vampires; doubtless, some of the ones who had accompanied Katrina to the cabin.
“You can’t leave,” the female vampire before me stated.
The fellow who caught me from behind waited until I righted myself before letting go of me.
I pointed toward the distant sound of Paige’s motorcycle engine.
“I’m trying to catch Paige,” I said. “Maybe now I can’t, but one of you can.”
“That’s not within the parameters of our orders,” said the tall, broad-shouldered vampire standing beside the female vampire. “The General was very specific.”
I shook my head. “Well, thanks for nothing then.”
“We would help if we could,” the female vampire said, glancing up toward the waning night sky. “But you should return to the cabin now. The thunderstorm is surging again.”
I turned and walked back to the cabin, not caring about the penetrating cold rain. I heard the vampires following not far behind me.
A vampire stood on the porch of the cabin just outside the front door.
“I cleared the cabin already,” he said. “It is safe inside.”
“Thanks, though I was just here a few minutes ago,” I said, stopping just inside the doorway. “Do any of you want to come inside from the rain?”
“Thank you, but that’s outside the parameters of the General’s orders,” said the vampire standing by the door.
It surprised me how formal they were, almost like soldiers. Of course, given the way they kept referring to Kat, I had no doubt that Alton and she had likely formed a literal army by now.
“It’s a nice night, rain or not,” said the vampire who had caught me in the forest. “This beats the city anytime. I’m tired of cities.”
“Country bumpkin,” teased the female vampire.
“To each their own,” he countered.
I shut the front door, leaned back against it, and wondered how much had transpired in the UK and Europe that Kat hadn’t ever mentioned to me.
That was yet another issue with our communication challenges.
My thoughts quickly returned to Paige’s reaction on the porch.
Between Kat and Paige, I felt completely on the outs with both of them; though I held out hope that, after our earlier chat, Kat might come around.
I retrieved a cold beer from the fridge and held it against my jaw. I sat down at the small dining table to ponder things further.
I felt tired and numb. Of course, I’d already been up for most of the night.
After consuming half of my beer, it occurred to me that it was more early morning than night.
I pushed the can away from me. “God, please don’t let me turn into my father.”
With him, anytime was a good time for alcohol.
No, I’d never be a monster like him.
I’d shoot myself in the head first.
I went to the sink to fill a glass with water and tried to contemplate matters further, but I was still too dumbfounded to come to terms with Paige’s reaction.
I drank a full glass of water and then refilled it.
Once again, my life felt as if it was in flux.
What had started out as my grand journey for self-actualization had turned into a veritable nightmare for my closest relationships.
It felt as if I had effectively managed to turn my life even further upside down.
I heard some vehicles pull up out front and I glanced at my watch, surprised that only a little more than an hour had passed since Kat had left.
She walked inside toting a small leather satchel, a backpack with two sword handles sticking out of the top, and a small suitcase, which she placed on the floor just inside the doorway.
She stared at me with a curious expression. “What happened outside?”
“Don’t ask,” I said.
“On top of that, what happened to the side of your face?” she asked. “What happened while I was gone?”
“Paige happened while you were gone, that’s what,” I said, absently rubbing the side of my face with my palm.
The edges of her mouth upturned slightly.
“You’re charming everyone’s hearts tonight, I see,” she said.
“Yeah, I’ve already figured that out,” I said.
“You brought it on yourself, you know.”
I steeled myself from wincing and ground my teeth together.
Tell me something I don’t know already.
“Live by the sword,” she said as she carried her suitcase past me and into the nearby bedroom.
I tried to reflect positively on her decision to locate in the bedroom, but then wondered if I might yet end up being tossed out onto the couch instead.
“Yeah,” I said. “I get it.”
I finished my second glass of water as she set up a portable computer on the dining room table.
“Are we past the point, too?” I asked.
The point of no return?
That thought chilled me to the bone. If there was one thing I had solidified in my mind during my absence, it was that I loved her—needed her—more than I had previously realized.
She was the one woman in the world who filled the empty void in my life.
And my heart.
She stopped what she was doing and looked up at me with an arched brow. “Past the point?” she asked. “Are you asking if I still love you?”
For some reason, I was almost afraid to even acknowledge the framing of her question.
“Yes, of course, I still love you,” she said. “Or I wouldn’t be here right now. Exactly what’s been going through your head since I left?”
I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
Well, that’s something.
I definitely didn’t know what I would’ve done if she had said otherwise.
“I love you, too, you know,” I said. “That never changed. That was never the issue.”
She sat down in the empty chair beside mine. “Caleb, I’m very upset with you about what you did,” she said. “It was irresponsible, as well as selfish. And particularly risky.”
I nodded, but said nothing.
“Nobody I’ve loved as much as you has ever just up and left me like that,” she said. “I was shocked. And it hurt.”
I gazed into her e
yes and could practically see the pain reflected in them.
“It wasn’t you I was leaving,” I said. “It was my situation. You were already well on the other side of the globe.”
“You keep saying that, but that’s where you’re wrong,” she said. “Wherever I place you, wherever I provide for you, is where I am; even if it’s by proxy through those I entrust to watch over you.”
I pondered that. It was an unusual, somewhat foreign, concept to me.
But then I supposed it also made a little sense.
“I’m sorry.”
What the hell more could I say, after all?
“Before my team and I showed up tonight, were you actually planning on coming back?” she asked.
“Yes, I was,” I said. “In fact, I’d intended to call you in the next day or so.”
A sardonic thought crossed my mind. “That is, if you hadn’t found me by then,” I added.
“You gave us a run for our money, you evasive little rabbit,” she said with the first twinkle in her eye I had seen since she found me. “Granted, you still had that small tracking device implanted beneath the skin near your shoulder. However, at first, we were limited to being within close enough proximity to you before we could find you with the beacon tracker.”
“What do you mean by ‘at first’?”
She smiled, but she looked like a cat that had just cornered the rabbit.
“Within a couple of days, Alton secured the use of a surveillance satellite orbiting somewhere over the United States,” she said.
“What the—?”
“Tracking you was relatively easy then,” she continued.
“How the hell did Alton manage to use an orbiting satellite?”
Her expression turned wry. “He’s remarkably resourceful, you know,” she said. “In fact, he still surprises me, from time to time.”
I shook my head.
She reached out and squeezed my hand to get my attention. Her expression had turned serious again.
“Don’t ever do something like this to me again, Caleb,” she said in a hard tone. “If you want to leave me, you better tell me up front first.”
“But I wasn’t actually leaving you,” I said.
She squeezed my hand firmly, using her tight grip for emphasis, though not enough to cause me overt pain.
“Never. Do. It. Again,” she insisted. “Understood?”
I didn’t say anything, but merely nodded.
“Say it,” she said.
“Never again.”
She moved her face to within an inch of my own. “Good,” she said. “And don’t ever forget.”
Maybe it was the way that she stared into my eyes, or maybe it was the tone of her voice. Either way, for some reason, I had the feeling that was to be my only warning.
I swallowed hard, but remained silent.
“So, we’re good now?” I asked.
She released my hand and reached up to firmly grasp my chin instead.
“Not even close,” she said. “You still have fences to mend.”
“With you?”
“With me,” she said. “With everybody, it seems. I can’t begin to tell you how pissed Paige and Roman were.”
“All right,” I said. “Maybe I’ll start with you.”
“Smart man,” she said sardonically, releasing my chin and tapping me on the end of the nose with her fingertip.
I reached out to take her hand in mine and softly caressed the top of it with my thumb.
I missed her affection toward me. It felt like a painful absence, in fact.
She gazed into my eyes with a curious expression. “Yes?”
“Please forgive me,” I asked.
“I’ll consider it,” she said.
I gave her my best confident look, despite how tired I felt. “I’m going to make this up to you. Actually, we need to make this up to each other.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Perhaps,” she said. “But we’re both going to have to work at it.”
“Makes sense,” I said.
She let go of my hand and motioned toward the bathroom.
“Go take a shower,” she said. “You’re not going to bed smelling like you are right now.”
“Maybe a shower, but it’s sort of late for bed now,” I said, glancing outside. “It’ll be dawn soon.”
“Shower,” she ordered.
I knew better than to argue.
Afterward, as Kat took her shower, I lay atop the bed amidst the sporadic flashes of lightning through the window.
My mind felt so tired and numb that I blankly stared at the ceiling with scarcely a thought firing in my brain.
I awoke with a start, lying on my side and not sure how long since I had dozed off.
I felt surprised that the room was relatively dark, though some subtle glow of light emanated around the edges of the nearby window.
As I rolled over onto my back, I stared up at Katrina’s sedate-looking features. She was propped up on one elbow, watching me.
“Good morning,” I said. “At least, I think it’s morning.”
That’s when I realized that someone had secured a dark covering over the room’s windows, which made sense given the vampire beside me.
“It’s around ten o’clock,” she said. “So, yes it’s morning.”
She gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
“I’m sort of—”
“Surprised that I’m in bed with you?” she interjected.
“Well, no,” I replied.
Then I reconsidered my response. “Well, actually, maybe a little. But I’m pretty happy about it.”
She tapped the tip of my nose with her fingertip. “You drive me absolutely crazy sometimes, Caleb.”
“You said that earlier,” I said. “You know, they say it’s the ones you love the most who stimulate the strongest emotions in you.”
“I love you, and yet, I still want to strangle you,” she said.
“See? True love,” I said.
“You’re fortunate that you’re so charming,” she said, caressing my face with her fingertips.
I closed my eyes, appreciating her soothing attention.
Her caressing moved to my neck, and then down to my chest and across my abdomen.
Then her fingers moved much lower and she kissed me; softly at first, and then much more passionately.
Then time stood still.
Chapter 16
Caleb
I was dozing again as one of Kat’s legs lazily lay across mine. Her free arm was draped across my chest and I felt her warm breath against my ear.
“This is nice,” I said. It was the first time we’d made love in many weeks.
“Mmm,” she murmured.
My stomach growled.
“Hungry?” she asked.
“Yeah, but there’s not much in the fridge,” I replied.
“You were getting low on cash,” she said.
I frowned. “Did you go through my wallet?”
She patted my chest with her hand. “Of course, I did. I rifled through most everything, in fact.”
“So much for boundaries,” I said.
“Under the circumstances, you expected less from me?” she asked. “But then, none of my efforts actually told me what I really wanted to know.”
She reached up and lightly tapped my forehead with her index finger. “There’s where all the really interesting information is located. And I can’t rummage through there like I can your pockets.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything,” she said. “No more secrets. Not anymore, my love.”
There was a hint of concern in the tone of her voice; caring versus sounding intrusive or demanding. And yet she had sorted through my belongings while I slept.
That aspect of it annoyed me.
“I’ll try,” I said.
“And I’ll try harder to listen,” she said. “I did a lot of thinking while you slept earlier this morning.”
“I
wasn’t asleep for that long.”
“I’m a fast thinker.”
“What were you thinking about?” I asked.
“You.”
I gave her a wry look. “Let me guess…you’ve thought about my recent behavior and now you think that I’m broken and unreliable.”
Her expression turned serious. “Not broken so much as wounded. Though not beyond saving, I hope.”
“You mean not beyond redemption.”
“No, I mean not beyond healing,” she clarified. “You are, as you said, human. It’s possible that both Alton and I have laid more upon you than was realistic for you. Each person has a different tolerance level.”
I didn’t know exactly how to respond to her concession, but I felt a lump harden in my throat, and I was happy in that moment that I didn’t have to. It felt as if a great hurdle had been overcome; one that I’d formerly felt was unassailable.
She finally understood a little of what I’d been going through.
“You don’t have to hold everything inside of you until you break,” she said. “You don’t have to do this alone anymore. If you’re willing to try again, we’ll work on some adjustments—as well as concessions—for you.”
“What about Alton?” I asked.
“I’ll handle Alton,” she said. “But you’ll still need to talk with him about this. He deserves to hear everything from you.”
I dreaded that.
“He’s not going to think less of me, is he?”
“I won’t lie to you; he’s very disappointed right now,” she said. “But I think we can help him to understand some of what you’ve been going through.”
“Oh,” I said. “I see.”
“He will come around, Caleb,” she reassured me. “He cares about you; very much, in fact. That’s another reason he’s so disappointed with you at the moment.”
I sighed. Fair enough.
“Then there’s Paige,” I ventured.
Paige had been so angry when she punched me in the jaw. I felt lucky that my head stayed attached to my body, in fact.
“She practically took my head off,” I said.
“Hardly,” she said. “Unlike you, I’ve actually seen her take someone’s head off before.”
My eyes widened and a chill went through me over her matter-of-fact tone.
“Don’t dwell on Paige for the time being,” she said. “She’s an altogether different creature, and she has her own system for handling emotional situations.”