Summit at Sunset (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 3)

by Primo, Jaz

  Caleb spent the afternoon visiting with Maddy and Aiden and actually enjoyed himself for one of the few occasions since his arrival at the conference. For a brief period of time, he was able to stop dwelling on recent events, vampires, or mysterious upcoming plans with Dori. For a few hours, he was nothing more than a tourist enjoying the company of friends, or at least, burgeoning friends. He admired his newfound human companions and appreciated their diverse backgrounds and personalities.

  He found Maddy to be happy-go-lucky, magnetic, and witty. In some ways, she reminded him of Paige, including their early twenty-something appearance. And yet, there seemed to be an underlying seriousness to her; focused and intent on where she was and what she was doing at any given moment.

  Aiden was an electrician, a skilled tradesman in his own right, and a person with a sharp intellect coupled with a comradely demeanor. He was Caleb’s age, though he carried himself in a confident, self-assured manner that one might expect from someone much older and experienced.

  Caleb appreciated the social and emotional respite provided by the two of them. However, by late afternoon, the three had once again gone their separate ways. Maddy returned to her suite to shower and change before dinner. Aiden wanted to catch one of the late afternoon shuttle rides into Podjelje to purchase some gifts for family back home in Connecticut. Caleb had no immediate plans or obligations and decided to take a walk outside. On his way through the lobby, he ran into Dori, who was furiously scribbling on a notepad.

  “What’s up?” he asked. “Any progress?”

  Her violet eyes caught his with an energetic zeal. “Working on it. We’ll talk soon,” she promised before whisking across the lobby in the direction of the elevator.

  He shook his head with amusement as he proceeded towards the exit. He briefly wandered through the well-maintained flowerbeds and envied the skilled hands that had meticulously given to each bed. Though he had lived on an acreage as a child, he had moved to the city before learning much about tending gardens. Once in the city, his mother, as a single parent, rarely had the time to devote to gardening.

  Caleb wandered in the direction of the nearby forest. Unlike the manicured gardens, the forest presented nature in its native, unbridled decorum. The unexpected cool breeze that swept across the mountains felt refreshing on that sunny late afternoon. The looming canopy of trees was quickly being overshadowed by the nearby mountain as the sun continued its westward track behind it. In a couple of hours, it would be dusk.

  Unlike the main conference grounds, the forested area was devoid of people, aside from a single human guard who acknowledged Caleb in passing on his march back towards the conference center. Caleb offered a friendly greeting, but noticed that the man stared at him rather suspiciously.

  Well, I am the resident troublemaker, after all, he conceded.

  After no more than fifteen minutes of wandering, he heard the birds and other wildlife suddenly fall silent. Something triggered in his subconscious, and his eyes panned the area. Seeing nothing, he shrugged and continued his stroll.

  A couple of minutes later, he looked up in the direction of a rustling sound in the bushes less than twenty feet to his right. His eyes immediately fell upon a pale-skinned woman with short, auburn hair wearing a security uniform worn by the conference site officers.

  Instantly, he recognized the vampire that he had seen back in Atlanta in his backyard at the estate and at the Italian restaurant.

  At first, she surveyed him with disdain. Then her expression transformed to a sneer, and she shook her head slightly.

  “Of all the luck,” she said.

  Instead of fear, he registered surprise. “What are the odds?” he whispered.

  He half-expected her to respond aggressively, but was dumbfounded when she merely winked at him. Then she turned and raced through the trees in the opposite direction, leading deeper into the woods towards the nearby incline of the mountain base. It was at that moment that he weighed the flight or fight reaction that any normal human would experience.

  Yet, his decision was something that made him doubt his own sanity: he pursued her.

  “Wait!” he yelled, plunging headfirst into the forest after her.

  It took less than a minute of running for him to realize that she could easily outdistance him, leaving him lost in foreign surroundings with no sense of direction. A pang of doubt clouded his initial decision. Determined, he ran faster as he tromped across the uneven ground before him.

  Soon, he came to the perimeter fence that surrounded the vast conference site property and which the vampire effortlessly seemed to slip through. He ran towards the location, wondering what magic trick had just been displayed.

  As he drew closer, he quickly recognized the subtle manner in which the links had been cut to appear intact, while providing easy access through the barrier. Slipping between the cut links, he caught his shirt and scraped his hand, but made it to the other side.

  The chase was on again, though he thought that she must have stopped to observe him because she wasn’t much further ahead than before. Skirting a felled tree trunk, he leapt over a small depression in the ground, barely maintaining his footing as he propelled forward.

  To his mutual surprise and satisfaction, he caught a glimpse of her through a break in the trees in the distance.

  Well, she hasn’t turned on her vampire super-speed yet, and she hasn’t tried to kill me.

  “Hold up!” he yelled, but kept running, despite feeling a little winded.

  He tried to maintain visual contact on her as she stopped to look back at him. Suddenly, his body lurched forward as he caught a tree root underfoot. His eyes darted downwards, and he flung his arms before him as a large rock sped towards him on his plunge to the ground. His left arm raked across the side of a rough-barked tree as he tried to grasp at anything nearby. At the last second he instinctually closed his eyes prior to impact, but felt something wrap around his torso, suspending him in midair.

  His eyes snapped open to see the rock just inches from his face. His head swiveled up and to the right to see the auburn-haired vampire holding him with one arm.

  She had an aggravated expression on her face and spat, “My God, you’re clumsy. And insane!”

  “Busted,” he conceded with a hopeful expression.

  She immediately dropped him to the ground beside the rock.

  “Umph!”

  “I don’t believe this,” she muttered with exasperation while perching her hands atop her hips.

  He hefted himself up from the ground and sat up and back on his heels.

  “Thanks,” he appreciatively offered as he examined his left arm.

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head in disgust. “Give me one good reason why I don’t drink you for dinner,” she chided.

  The gravity of his circumstances quickly washed over him, and he adopted a nervous smirk. “Um, perhaps because I’m charming in an annoying kind of way?”

  She fought back a scowl with only partial success.

  “True,” she agreed. “On the annoying part, that is.”

  The fear that had been growing inside him began to dissipate, but only slightly. His motivations for doing what he had were cursory at best, and he quickly acknowledged that he was facing a situation that could turn negative at any moment.

  As if in time with his thoughts, the vampire demanded in a serious tone, “So, why are you following me? What’s your game, human?”

  “Actually, we both have the same questions, I think,” he hedged. It was the best that he could come up with in a pinch.

  She seemed taken aback at first, but resumed her serious, piercing focus on him. “And?” she demanded.

  He swallowed hard, straining for something relevant to counter with. Then his memory played back to the conversation with the tall, dark vampire in Katrina’s backyard before their trip.

  “Take me to your leader?” he weakly ventured.

  She winced at his lame reference. “Oh, I can�
��t wait to see what Hazi says about this,” she muttered.

  She reached down to grab him by his uninjured arm and effortlessly pulled him up from the ground like a rag doll. He lurched upwards and struggled to gain his balance while in her grasp.

  She spun him around and propelled him forwards in the direction that she had been running earlier. He nearly lost his footing, but managed to right himself.

  The waning light around them gave the forest an edgy appearance, and he swallowed hard, wondering if he had made the right decision or not. However, at least the delay in walking with her allowed his racing thoughts more time to settle so that he could think more clearly.

  “I don’t even know your name,” he muttered.

  At first, she said nothing. Following a prolonged pause, she replied, “Mara.”

  “Mara. A beautiful name,” he offered in a cheerful tone. “I’m Caleb.”

  “I know who you are,” she sternly responded and pushed him from behind to encourage a brisker pace.

  By the time twilight fell, there was barely enough light for him to see where he was walking. Fortunately, she allowed him to slow slightly, enabling him to maintain his footing. That was not to say he didn’t stumble now and again, occasionally eliciting a disparaging response from Mara.

  A short time later, they broke through the dense forest to enter a small clearing at the base of the mountain. A dark-skinned vampire casually leaned against a large, moss-covered boulder. He was the same vampire who had confronted him in Katrina’s backyard just weeks prior.

  Unfortunately, Caleb couldn’t remember his rather complicated proper name, though he recalled Mara referring to him as “Hazi.” However, something Katrina had once said about vampires and nicknames made him reject the idea of using such an informal address with the stranger.

  “I’ve been pondering who might be accompanying you,” the yellow-eyed vampire announced, sounding mildly intrigued.

  Caleb walked towards him, but Mara grabbed his arm to halt him before he was six feet from the vampire.

  “I ran into this one while approaching the perimeter,” Mara explained. “Since he’s probably the only person at the site who might recognize me, I thought it best to abort my plans.”

  One side of the man’s mouth upturned with amusement.

  “And you didn’t kill him instead?” he asked.

  She hesitated and grumbled.

  “A soft spot for this one, perhaps?” he inquired.

  Caleb started to turn to gauge her reaction, but she promptly popped him in the back of the head.

  “I’m still contemplating dinner,” she wryly remarked. “His blood smells inviting to me.”

  He took stock of his wounded hand and noticed that the blood was starting to dry where he had gouged it on the fence. His left arm ached slightly from the abrasions he had sustained earlier. He realized that it wasn’t a good idea to chum the air with blood around a vampire.

  “Well said,” the man replied. Then he turned to address Caleb directly. “You remember me?”

  “Yes, sir,” Caleb politely replied. “Although I’m ashamed at the moment not to recall your name properly.”

  “So polite,” he remarked. “I am Hakizimana.”

  Caleb attempted to brand the name into his mind while inclining his head in a gesture of respectful deference. Hakizimana seemed impressed by that, and the edges of his mouth upturned slightly.

  Caleb viewed the growing darkness as an ominous blanket around him, and he had trouble clearly seeing the vampire’s expression. He warily surveyed the area as if half-expecting a contingent of other vampires to appear out of nowhere.

  “We are alone...for now,” Hakizimana offered. “What can you tell me about the status of the conference, Caleb?” he asked with an authoritative tone.

  Though Katrina had been kind enough to discuss the meetings in general terms, Caleb had very little specific information from the meetings. However, he understood that both she and Alton were suspicious of the motives of some of those in attendance, and the tone of the proceedings seemed less than fruitful. Despite his own growing reticence about the conference, he paused to consider what might be prudent to reveal.

  “Well, it hasn’t exactly been successful,” he hinted.

  That seemed to please the tall vampire, who smiled enough to display pearly white teeth for the first time.

  “I thought as much,” he replied. “Alton Rutherford is far too presumptuous concerning his personal projects.”

  “Even though I’m anxious for it to be over, I somehow don’t get the impression that failure is a good thing in this case,” he reasoned.

  “Oh?” prompted Hakizimana.

  “Well,” Caleb began, “Alton’s agenda may not be the one you need to be concerned about.”

  Mara orbited around Caleb to gaze into his eyes, while Hakizimana moved closer towards him. He tried to remain calm, but nevertheless tensed from the rapt attention suddenly being paid to him.

  “What do you mean by that?” Hakizimana asked.

  Caleb swallowed, deciding, In for a penny, down for a pound. He shifted in his stance slightly so that both vampires were in front of him.

  “There’s a vampire named Baldar Dubravko, you see. And between him and another vampire named Dominic Ambrogio-”

  “We already know of them,” Mara interrupted.

  Hakizimana held up his hand to silence her then nodded for Caleb to continue.

  Caleb’s eyes darted between the faces of the two vampires before him, but settled upon Hakizimana. He hoped the sincerity of his next statements would ring true to him.

  “They seem to be doing everything possible to disrupt the conference and its attendees,” he explained. “It’s as if they’re quite satisfied that things aren’t going well.”

  “So?” Mara challenged.

  “Well, I’ve been watching them,” Caleb ventured. “And though I can’t say for certain yet, it does seem as if they’re up to something. I’m fairly certain that I almost suffocated to death in a vault just from demonstrating an overt interest in them.”

  Hakizimana’s brows furrowed.

  But Mara scoffed and urged, “You’re just speculating in generalities, human. Hazi, we’re wasting time. Let me drain this one, and I’ll still have time to check things out for myself.”

  Caleb’s pulse surged, and he nervously eyed the woman. Perhaps he had been hasty thinking that she had taken a liking to him at all.

  “Wait,” Hakizimana ordered.

  His yellow eyes bore into Caleb’s despite the darkness. “What is it that you think they’re up to, exactly?”

  Mara shook her head and settled her hands on her hips.

  Caleb couldn’t help thinking that this was his all-or-nothing gamble for either redemption or doom. He silently deliberated over everything that he had acquired from his own observations, coupled with anything Katrina or Paige had said to him. Then he replayed all the ponderings that he had contemplated during his numerous hours of boredom.

  Finally, he shrugged and tried sounding as innocent as possible, “Well, if they’re so adamant against the conference, maybe that doesn’t just indicate disinterest in the proposal. What if the conference’s failure removes an impediment to another competing interest? And if Alton’s proposal is open and voluntary to anyone who wishes to join, what form of alternative or counter-agenda does that open the door for? Maybe nothing. Or maybe something that’s oppressive and less voluntary in nature.”

  Mara blankly stared at Caleb, while Hakizimana thoughtfully tapped his chin with a fingertip. Seconds felt like hours as Caleb stood helplessly before the two vampires, wondering if his life were about to end.

  I should’ve just run like hell for the conference center, he belatedly determined.

  Eventually, Hakizimana sagely nodded his head.

  “An interesting possibility. Granted, it’s a great deal of speculation, but it’s worth considering.”

  Caleb felt cautiously hopeful fo
r the first time that evening. Then something else occurred to him.

  “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, why don’t you infiltrate the conference and find out for yourself?”

  Mara groaned. “What do you think I was trying to do when you saw me?”

  “No,” Caleb countered, “I mean, from the inside.”

  “And how do you propose we do that?” Hakizimana asked.

  “Easy,” he explained. “Just attend the conference.”

  Mara stared at the tall vampire next to her. The dark-featured man’s eyes widened with some surprise.

  “You have a gift for guile, for a human,” he observed. “As if Alton’s going to just invite me in, much less Katrina, who I’m sure won’t be very pleased to see me.”

  Caleb admitted the logic of his statement. It was time for another gamble.

  “Okay, point taken. But what if I could guarantee your safe admission to the conference?”

  “And precisely what is your method of guarantee?” Mara demanded.

  “Me,” he offered. “I’ll personally guarantee your safe consultation with Alton about this. My life for my word.”

  “We could take your life now,” she flatly ventured.

  Caleb contained a shiver at her cold tone and countered, “Yes, but it won’t get you admission into the conference if you kill me now.”

  Hakizimana chuckled. “Well played, young man. Perhaps we’ll consider your boon.”

  Caleb optimistically regarded the tall vampire.

  “Any other bargaining chips up your sleeve?” Mara inquired.

  He grinned. “Well, maybe…”

  * * * *

  Paige strolled outside among the flowerbeds at the front of the conference center, appreciating the cool evening breeze. The shuttle bus pulled up before the hotel entrance with returning guests who had taken an earlier journey into town. She peered up at the partial moon in the sky and inhaled the fragrance of the nearby flowers. She also detected the telltale scent of a certain aftershave.

  “Lovely night for a stroll,” Ethan offered, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Devoid of doctor’s coat and stethoscope, he looked like a tourist in his casual slacks and collared shirt.