Sunset Rising (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 5) (22 page)

“
Really? Absolutely,” I
said. “How?”

“
Good,” he said. “First,
don’t ever do it again.”

I should have seen that coming.

“
Anything else?” I
asked.

“
Yes. Keep some ice handy
in the fridge, just in case,” he said.

I frowned. “Ice? In case of what?”

“
In case I change my mind
and decide to show up to punch you in the face,” he said
dryly.

I swallowed. “I’ll bear that in mind.”

Yeah, people weren’t especially happy with
me at the moment.

About the only person who didn’t give me
some sort of crap about skipping town was Chance. When we met up at
Yalehoos one afternoon after Kat and I returned to New Haven,
Chance applauded my effort.

“
Way to go, Caleb,” she
said. “You finally showed everyone. You finally took control of
your own life.”

“
Yeah, and that’s worked
out swimmingly for me,” I said.

“
Well, maybe the
appreciation for it comes later when your psyche fully metabolizes
the experience,” she said.

“
Thank you, Dr. Freud,” I
said.

“
Seriously, Caleb. I’m
proud of you.”

I supposed what Chance said had some
validity, or perhaps I was just trying to put a positive spin on
things.

Then again, maybe it had been a growth
experience for me.

And yet, I still felt a little guilty about
it.

But there was still one major unresolved
leftover matter.

Paige.

* * *

I spent the first week, following my return,
reconnecting with Kat. However, given Paige’s continued absence, I
spent the second week simply trying to reestablish some sort of
balance in my life.

One thing was certain; waking up beside Kat
was an excellent way to start my day.

“
Good morning, sleepy
head,” she said with a warm smile as she wriggled closer to
me.

“
Mm, good morning,” I
said.

I briefly kissed her as I reached out to
rest my hand atop her cool hip.

“
You must have just
slipped into bed,” I said.

“
Ah, but I was here when
you woke up, wasn’t I?”

It was the fourth time that week, in
fact.

“
You don’t have to pretend
that you’re an up-all-night sort of person, you know,” I
said.

“
I know,” she said. “But
I’m trying to normalize our relationship.”

I arched my eyebrows.

“
Daylight notwithstanding,
that is,” she added.

It was a perfectly understandable
exception.

“
Does that include a more
normalized Thanksgiving?” I asked.

Her wan look spoke volumes.

“
I’m working on that,” she
said.

“
Don’t tell me you’re
heading back to London before Thanksgiving,” I said. “It’s only
days away now. And besides, I’ll have a few days off from college,
too.”

“
I know, my love,” she
said, lightly running her fingertips through my hair. “I’ll work on
that.”

Her nails felt like heaven on my scalp.

“
Well, I suppose I could
always just have Thanksgiving in New Haven,” I said.

“
Really?” she
asked.

“
Yeah, if I had to,” I
said. “Maybe some of my friends who aren’t going home for the
holidays might want to pitch in together. We could have a dinner
here at the house.”

“
That’s very mature of
you,” she said.

“
Everyone could bring a
dish. There’s bound to be some of us who won’t be going home. At
the very least, I’d bet that Chance would jump at any opportunity
to avoid dinner with her family,” I said.

Kat fixed me with a gaze that I couldn’t
begin to define, except to say that it wasn’t good…at all.

“
On second thought, I
think I’ll call Alton today and see what can be arranged,” she
said.

“
Um, okay,” I said. “Only
if you’re sure—”

“
Shut up.”

I already felt more encouraged about
Thanksgiving plans.

“
Do you think we can find
Paige by then?” I asked.

“
Given recent events,
probably not.”

“
But—”

“
I’ve warned you before
that your actions have repercussions,” she said. ‘That’s never
truer than when you play with a vampire’s feelings.”

I couldn’t help feeling there was a double
meaning there.

“
Don’t you remember the
dinner chat that you and I had together soon after I revealed to
you that I was a vampire? I told you that small decisions today
take on larger impact and meaning tomorrow.”

“
You remember that?” I
asked. “How in hell can you quote a conversation that we had over
dinner more than a year ago?”

She tapped the tip of my nose. “My powers of
recollection have improved remarkably over the past five centuries.
Oh, and I’m a woman. We rarely forget what we tell men.”

“
Seriously?” I
asked.

My eyebrows rose as she rolled out of bed,
though I certainly appreciated the view of her shapely, beautiful
butt.

She turned to look at me over her shoulder.
“Oh yes. Rest assured, I’m serious about many things.”

I decided not to press the topic.

While Kat showered, I pulled aside the
curtains on the nearby window for some natural light and sorted
through my backpack and various folders of assignments to prepare
for classes that morning.

It seemed my professors had an endless
supply of creative ways to keep me busy. Memories of my own brief
experience as a college history professor resurfaced.

I missed my teaching position and wished
that I could return to it. Those were some of the best days of my
life.

“
Ow!”

The bathroom door slammed shut.

“
Caleb,” growled
Kat.

“
What?” I said, turning to
stare back at the closed bathroom door.

Then I remembered the parted curtains and
noticed the morning light filtering in onto the floor from between
the opened blinds.

I quickly closed both the blinds and the
curtains.

“
Sorry,” I said, walking
over to open the bathroom door.

Kat stood before me wearing nothing but a
towel.

Then her towel dropped to the floor.

“
Bad Caleb,” she said with
an arched brow. “No morning playtime for you.”

“
Maybe just an abbreviated
playtime?” I asked.

She rested her hands atop her bare hips.

“
No,” she said. “Now go
downstairs while I get dressed.”

“
Aw, crap,” I said. “You
know that drives me crazy when you do that.”

The edges of her mouth upturned slightly.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”

As I sullenly went downstairs, silently
vowing never again to open the bedroom curtains during daytime when
she was around, I heard Roman whistling in the kitchen.

“
There you are, slacker,”
he said.

I joined him at the kitchen counter where he
was mixing fruit into two steaming bowls of oatmeal.

“
What’s the latest?” I
asked.

“
You’re running late,” he
said. “Again.”

“
Aren’t you ever gonna cut
me a little slack?” I asked.

He pushed one of the bowls toward me. “Nope.
And neither should you. We’ve got a schedule to keep here, you
know.”

I stirred the oatmeal in my bowl. “I’m
taking advantage of time with Kat while she’s still here.”

“
Nice to see that someone
can keep you from skipping town,” he murmured.

“
I think that’s enough,
Roman,” Kat said from the bottom of the stairs. “You’ve been riding
him for an entire week. I think he appreciates his mistake by
now.”

“
Yes, ma’am,” he said.
“Sorry, ma’am.”

Kat walked over to give me a brief kiss.

“
Hey, I was thinking, what
about you and me—” I asked.

“
I’ll be juggling
conference calls and email for most of the day, but I’ll see you
this evening when you return home,” she said. “That being said, you
can call or text me if you need anything before then.”

She poured a mug of hot coffee and walked in
the direction of the den without saying anything further.

“
And the obligations
continue,” I said.

“
Yep. Always,” Roman
agreed.

After breakfast, Roman and I headed out for
campus and I was soon lost in the hustle and bustle of classes. I
had to wait around until late afternoon to meet with Dr. Gowan
about my dissertation, so I hung out in the main library for part
of the day.

While there, I received a text from Kat to
meet her at Witches Brew after my meeting was finished.

By early evening, I finished my meeting,
complete with a listing of new materials to research. As I tried to
delve further into the background of Dr. Oliver Simonson, there
were fewer primary source materials to draw upon.

I felt as if my dissertation topic was
becoming an effort in futility.

Worse yet, I still didn’t have any specific
idea as to what revelations Alton expected me to discover. For the
most part, it seemed as if Simonson was just a scientist who had
become so immersed in his work that he progressively withdrew from
visibility.

His published papers became less frequent as
his work proceeded. It was as if he disappeared from his world.

I felt that, at the rate I was going, I’d
end up much the same way.

As I exited the elevator at the ground floor
of the building, I noticed that the lobby was deserted.

“
Roman?” I
asked.

He was nowhere to be found.

I tried texting him, but received no
response.

That was really strange.

I texted Kat.
Just left Dr. Gowan’s office. Roman is nowhere to
be seen.

She replied:
Proceed directly to Witches Brew. I’m here and
will locate Roman. Be careful.

My day just got weirder.

I walked outside, paying close attention to
my surroundings. Roman was gone.

I took a deep breath and strode down the
sidewalk in the direction of Witches Brew. Fortunately, it was on
Grove Street and in close walking proximity.

There weren’t many people out and about on
campus. It was close enough to the Thanksgiving holiday that many
students were skipping out early on their vacation.

What few passersby I saw quickly made their
way to nearby parking lots or into other buildings. New Haven was
definitely a much colder place outdoors by mid-November,
particularly at night.

Fortunately, the sidewalk I was walking on
went directly through the scenic heart of campus and was well lit
by lamps.

As I entered through a small grove of trees
and hedges, I noticed a young woman, wearing matching black leather
pants and jacket, walking in my direction.

I watched her out of the corner of my eye as
she passed by me, but she kept walking. Her footsteps continued in
the distance.

Then they abruptly stopped and I turned to
look back over my shoulder at her.

It appeared that she had stopped to talk on
her cell phone.

“
Watch where you’re going,
you twat,” said someone with an English accent.

I turned to face forward. A young man stood
before me. His faded leather jacket and jeans gave him an edgy
appearance.

“
My mistake,” I said,
giving him a wide berth to walk past him.

“
You can say that again,”
he said.

I stopped to give him a hard sidelong
look.

That’s when he grinned and I noticed his
extended fangs.

Chapter 18

Caleb

“
Don’t press something you
might later regret,” I warned.

“
Oh, I’m tickety-boo,” he
said. “And you Yanks are such wankers. Who are you to threaten
me?”

I reached to the small of my back where I
kept one of my combat knives sheathed.

“
Sweet Fanny Adams!” said
a woman with an English accent from behind me.

I turned in time to see the young woman
wearing the leather outfit with an expression of mock surprise on
her face.

“
I think he means to cut
you down, Dane,” she added.

“
Listen, mate,” said the
man. “Don’t be pissing around with me.”

I backed up to keep both of them in view, my
hand still grasping the hilt of my knife.

“
You’ve made quite the
impression on him, I think,” she said.

“
Nah, not this one. He’s
flat barmy,” the man said.

“
Who the hell are you
people?” I demanded.

“
Cheeky. You’re absolutely
gormless, aren’t you?” she asked.

“
Disappointing, really,”
said the male vampire. “He’s not worth the trouble of
killing.”

“
Well, I think he’s
somewhat dishy,” said the woman. “He has potential, I
suppose.”

“
Really?
” the man asked. “Where’s
your standards, sis?”

“
Still, orders are
orders,” she said with an exaggerated shrug.