Summit at Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 3)

by Primo, Jaz

  He appreciated all of that, but it really didn’t help to alter his feelings over the matter. In fact, it made him feel a little worse.

  “Well, yeah, I see a light bulb coming on,” he sarcastically replied. “And it indicates that what little means I had to make my own way is about to go away. So, now I’m supposed to just completely mooch off all the wealthy vampires in my life?”

  Paige’s eyes flared with anger, and she popped him on the back of his head with the flat of her hand in a manner that nearly knocked him off the tree trunk.

  “Hey!” he barked. “Take it easy!”

  But instead of apologizing, she stood up before him and glared back at him.

  “You -- You’re just so full of crap, Caleb!” she admonished. “Do you think that you’re worth is in any way balanced by your ability to pay your own way? Let me tell you something, twerp, you’re being an idiot!”

  He started to jump up from the log, but she moved in a blur and pushed him back onto the trunk.

  “Dammit, Paige!” he shouted back at her while barely catching his balance from falling backwards. The effort twisted his still-achy back somewhat, causing him to wince slightly.

  “No! You listen to me now,” Paige demanded. “Money is just a means to us, a necessary facet. It’s all just material stuff. It makes life easier. But it’s not what we’re about, Caleb. We’re mostly about the blood, and, trust me, you’ve got some good tastin’ blood for a human.”

  Her mind easily recalled the smell and taste of his blood when she had helped heal his chest wound just prior to last Christmas. It had taken all her control not to drain him dry, actually. He tasted amazing to her.

  His eyes suspiciously narrowed. “Just what the hell do you mean by that?”

  She adopted an almost cruel expression and paused for a moment to consider him.

  Time for a way-overdue dose of reality, young one.

  “That wonderful red stuff running through your veins right now means more to a vampire than a truckload of money,” she pressed. “But it’s more than that. With you, Katrina gets a mate. She gets your love, your body, your devotion, your companionship, and your blood. Don’t judge us by conventional human values or goals. Money has no motivation for Katrina, or to me, for that matter. Hell, her savings practically compounds itself faster than you could ever spend it.”

  He blinked with surprise, his mind trying to process everything that she was telling him. His heart raced in his chest as he tried to make sense of it all. Meanwhile, she crossed her arms in front of her and silently stared at him as if watching time pass before her eyes.

  I just don’t want to be a mooch, he fumed.

  “Okay, so maybe I didn’t realize everything,” he stammered. “I just felt –”

  “…sorry for yourself,” she interrupted him.

  His mouth snapped shut, and he looked away.

  Maybe a little bit, he conceded.

  “I just want to be useful for something,” he absently whispered. “I want to contribute.”

  Her temper had abated somewhat, though she observed him with narrowed eyes before reaching out to grasp him firmly by the upper arm. He took notice of her hand before looking back into her eyes, which he gratefully noticed were no longer glowing.

  “Your worth is determined by who you are as a mate, friend, and companion,” she stipulated. “Not by your bank account, credit score, career, or job title. There may come a day when all that would be useless to your circumstances anyway.”

  He was taken aback by her comment and pressed, “What does that mean?”

  “Play your cards right, and you may find yourself a little more than human someday,” she alluded.

  His eyes widened at the mention of a forbidden topic between him and Katrina, one of the seven all-important rules he had promised to uphold.

  But it’s not a forbidden topic between Paige and me, he realized.

  “You mean, I may actually be turned,” he ventured out loud.

  Turned into a vampire.

  Paige’s mood abruptly shifted from intense to off-handed, and she merely shrugged.

  “Who knows,” she equivocated. “It’s not something that’s been discussed with me. But you never know, I suppose.”

  Not my place to offer, she silently berated herself. He belongs to Katrina, not me. The latter realization generated a momentary pang of both regret and longing in her.

  A series of silent moments passed between them, and he realized just how dark the forest had become while they argued. If not for Paige’s pale skin, he might lose sight of her in her dark clothes. Most of the nearby trees were merely dark images around them. It was a little unnerving, and he was suddenly grateful for her proximity.

  “Listen, I didn’t mean to piss you off,” he offered with resignation. “I’m just an idiot sometimes, like you said.”

  She sighed. “Yeah, well, I didn’t mean to belittle your circumstances, I suppose. Just grow up a little bit, will you, tiger?”

  “Yeah,” he acknowledged with a nod. “I get it.”

  She flirtatiously smiled and added, “But don’t grow up too much, okay? I like a little occasional immaturity in my men. Keeps you playful.”

  He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

  “I’m just sayin’,” she added, sensing his mood improve by the moment.

  “Whatever,” he countered in his best Valley Boy impression.

  She effortlessly watched him in the darkness with her vampire-enhanced vision and felt encouraged.

  “Friends?” she softly asked.

  The hint of a smile formed on his lips, and he nodded.

  “Friends.”

  She slowly moved forwards and embraced him in a tender hug, perching her chin atop his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and appreciated both their closeness and the closure of their argument. Then she turned her face towards him and pressed her soft lips against the skin of his cheek in a gentle kiss.

  “You mean a lot to me,” she tenderly whispered. “Love you, kiddo.”

  He sincerely whispered, “Love you too, Paige.”

  A warm feeling passed through him, and he momentarily wished that a similar experience could be shared between him and Katrina again soon.

  One problem at a time, he resigned.

  “Don’t say anything to Kat about this layoff stuff, okay?” he stipulated. “It’s not completely a done deal yet.”

  “Sure,” she conceded, though she wasn’t left feeling very hopeful.

  It really doesn’t sound good for the poor kid.

  After a couple of moments, she gently disengaged from their embrace. She playfully patted her hands against his body in a rapid flurry of slaps, demanding, “Okay, you moonlight-groper, back to the hotel already.”

  “Yeah, probably a good idea,” he agreed and headed into the trees to their right.

  Unfortunately, he was going in the wrong direction. Paige shook her head with disgust and darted forwards. She grasped him by the hand, pulling him after her as she stomped headfirst into the forest in a completely different direction.

  “Come on, Daniel Boone, let’s get you back to civilization,” she half-teased, half-admonished.

  As they walked among the trees, a wolf howled in the distance.

  “Hey, that’s a wolf,” he said with surprise.

  “See? Told you,” she muttered with satisfaction.

  By the time they returned to the hotel, it was rather late in the evening. Paige agreed to sit with him while he ate dinner in the main dining room, during which time she noted something odd. The few human patrons in the room furtively glanced at Caleb, and some whispered to each other after doing so.

  She carefully listened in on some comments from nearby people and discovered that one patron viewed Caleb and Dori’s recent experiences with the local police negatively. Another comment suggested they had brought it on themselves. It took her practiced sense of control not to rush over to give the person an earful over that.

/>   “Not real popular lately, are you, kiddo?” she asked before sipping from a glass of Coke, which she intended to exchange for a mug of warm blood sometime soon because her formerly ignored hunger was approaching an unpleasant level.

  He looked up from his plate of chicken paprika, a local dish made with a creamy sauce containing spicy, red paprika served over noodles. “Not so much,” he conceded with a gander at the room’s patrons before returning to his pasta.

  Admittedly, it bothered him, but he had much bigger problems on his hands to contend with.

  A clerk from the main desk strode into the dining room and headed over to where they were seated. The lady extended a small white envelope to Caleb.

  “Mr. Taylor, this was left for you at the main desk,” the young woman pleasantly offered. “I was going to deliver it to your suite, but one of the other clerks said they saw you enter the dining room.”

  “Thanks,” he replied as he turned the envelope over in his hand. It was labeled Mr. Caleb Taylor in an ornate script.

  Paige curiously stared at the retreating desk clerk and then focused on the envelope. “Something from Red?”

  He slipped open the seal and withdrew a white piece of paper with a single sentence: The vault – 10 pm -- tonight.

  “Strange,” he remarked and handed the message to Paige.

  She peeked at her watch. “Hey, it’s 10:10 already.”

  “Let’s go then,” he excitedly insisted while rising from the table.

  “Whoa, tiger,” she admonished, grasping his wrist with a sweep of her hand. “Let’s ask ourselves why someone wants you where you know you can’t go in the first place?”

  As escape from her grasp seemed futile, he capitulated.

  “Yeah, but what if they altered conditions so that I can?” he countered.

  She released his wrist, pursing her lips. “Interesting theory. Let’s go see.”

  They left enough cash to cover dinner and departed the nearly empty dining room in the direction of the main lobby. They proceeded to the main elevator, where they were the only people waiting for the car. The area was relatively devoid of traffic since the vampires were still in conference.

  Inside the elevator, Paige pressed the button for the lower level where the vault was located. Much to her surprise, the LCD screen next to the small keypad immediately indicated the message: Code accepted.

  The car descended, and Caleb looked at her with a surprised expression.

  “I’m just as puzzled as you are,” she said simply.

  When the doors opened, they stepped into a large, dimly lit storage area that had all the trappings of being a large basement. Heavy-duty metal shelves were arrayed into rows and appeared stocked with boxes and crates of supplies and materials.

  “Not very impressive,” he dryly observed.

  “It was just a basement storage area before the vault was installed, after all,” she explained. “The vault’s at the very back against the foundation wall.”

  They proceeded down a couple of aisles of shelves, continuing to the back of the concrete-walled basement. A shiny metal-looking vault stood at the very back of the bay area.

  Using her keen senses, Paige detected no other presence besides them. She thought that everything seemed in place, except that the large shiny vault door was ajar.

  The vault door looked like one belonging in a bank or financial institution. From the front, the dimensions of the vault were twelve feet wide and nearly ten feet tall, and it was composed of thick reinforced steel. An electronic control pad was at the left of the door on the wall facing about four feet high from the floor.

  “Well, the vault door’s certainly open,” she noted.

  With her leading the way, the two of them went to the door, which she easily pried open the rest of the way. She peered inside and noted that the interior lights were bright. The walls to the left and right were lined with locked safe deposit boxes of various sizes, except for a smaller section of wall immediately before them, which blocked her view into the main interior. They stepped inside and walked around the small section of wall, revealing a black, executive-sized briefcase on the floor at the opposite side of the vault.

  “Well, there’s something worth checking out,” Paige noted and led the way into the vault.

  They made their way across the twelve-foot span to the back of the vault where the briefcase was sitting. Paige reached down and popped open the latches, which weren’t locked. Inside, there was nothing but a single folded piece of white paper.

  She unfolded the page as Caleb peered at it while crouching next to her.

  It read: TOO BAD!

  Paige looked up with surprise just in time to see the vault door slamming shut behind them. The petite vampire sped across the distance to the door in a blur, but not fast enough to stop the door from closing into place. She slammed into the door with the force of her body, but the locking mechanism had already initiated itself.

  “Open this door!” she yelled so loudly that Caleb winced.

  There was no response.

  “Don’t worry. The security person covering the surveillance monitors will see us on the camera,” she assured him.

  “Somehow I don’t think so,” he slowly replied as he pointed up to the surveillance camera that’s indicator light was off.

  She looked up at the camera with disdain. “Okay, that sucks.”

  “Can’t we just yell until someone hears us?” he asked.

  She grumbled, “It’s practically soundproof. We’re sealed in here until that door opens.”

  He threw up his hands in irritation, feeling like a rat caught in a trap.

  Then the lights went out, leaving them standing in complete darkness.

  He looked around with alarm, feeling as if he were floating in empty space. A wave of disorientation washed over him, and his heartbeat substantially increased.

  “It’s okay, Caleb,” she offered in a soothing voice. “It’s just you and me in here, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  She decided not to scare him further by telling him that vault had an airtight seal.

  He stared in the direction of her voice and saw her blue eyes glowing at him from across the room.

  “Paige,” he carefully asked. “Are you angry right now?”

  She rolled her eyes and snapped, “Pretty much.”

  “Good, better than being hungry,” he absently observed.

  Her bright glowing eyes widened as she stared back at him. “Actually, I am a little hungry, now that you mention it.”

  His eyes darted to hers. With his growing vampire knowledge and experience, he knew full well that being alone and trapped in a room with a hungry vampire wasn’t an enviable prospect for a human. It had a tendency to shorten one’s life span.

  He snatched the cell phone from his belt and stared at the illuminated screen, only to have his hopes instantly doused.

  “Dammit, no signal,” he groused.

  Having already anticipated that, she nevertheless looked at her own cell phone for confirmation and muttered, “Yeah, pretty much crap.”

  He felt a stab of anxiety and began to back up slowly to the nearest wall, stopping only when he felt the cool metal deposit box doors at his back.

  She observed his action, capable of seeing relatively well in darkness, and moved to his side to place a supportive hand on his shoulder.

  “Listen, no worries,” she soothingly offered. “I’m here to protect you. Hell, I’ve saved your life on two occasions in the past year.”

  He contemplated how she had earned the amusing title of babysitter by her actions against a houseful of armed mercenaries that had attacked them while they were held up in Katrina’s mansion. She had single-handedly killed all the attackers, except one that he had disabled with a crowbar.

  Then he recalled that it was an injection of Paige’s blood that had saved his life from a near-fatal knife wound to his chest soon after the mercenary attack when Chimalma had attacked hi
m. All in all, she had proven to be a formidable friend and protector. However, he realized that a vampire’s hunger might eventually trump their normal, rational decision-making capabilities.

  “You may not have a choice if your hunger grows too strong,” he ominously countered. “Kat said that younger vampires need blood more frequently. And even at nearly a century old, you’ve told me yourself that you’re considered a teenager by vampire standards. And most teens have a hearty appetite.”

  She paused to consider his statement.

  “We still have some time. Katrina and the others will probably find us before it comes to that.”

  “How much time?” he pressed.

  “Three, maybe four hours,” she calculated.

  “Three or four hours?” he retorted. “You’re supposed to be able to go over a day without feeding!”

  His heart rate raced as he calculated just how little time they might have before things turned ugly. He checked his watch and noticed that it was nearly 2 am and realized he just might end up being for breakfast.

  “I’ve been kind of busy, if you haven’t noticed,” she pointed out.

  He immediately tried to calm himself, appreciating that angering a hungry vampire was probably a bad idea, no matter how dedicated she might be to protecting him.

  “Look,” he gently apologized, “I’m sorry, I’m just a little unnerved, okay? My bad.”

  Paige’s eyes flashed, and she snapped, “Just stop that, Caleb. I’m fine! You’re starting to weird me out a little bit.”

  His mouth snapped shut, and he just stood silently against the wall of miniature doors.

  “Well, so much for being Supergirl,” she commented, recalling her analogy with Katrina back in Atlanta.

  “What?”

  “Aw, nothin’,” she whispered dejectedly.

  He smirked as he contemplated his DC Comics knowledge.

  “If anything, you’re more like Wonder Girl. She was a cute, short-haired blonde with blue eyes, just like you. As a matter of fact, she was a Teen Titan and a pretty cool one.”

  After only a moment, he felt Paige’s warm breath against his face. Her soft lips lightly pressed against his cheek to place a quick, appreciative kiss.