Sunset Rising (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 5) (26 page)

“
Growing up, I dated a
really smart boy while I was in Upper School,” she said.

“
Oh?”

I felt relieved that Lyra was sharing
anything personal at all with me.

“
His name was Thomas. He
had it all: dishy, popular, athletic. Everybody loved him, even the
teachers,” she said. “Tickety-boo Thom, his mother used to say. I
always hated that.

“
Anyway, Thomas used to
ask me questions about stupid facts and all sorts of rot. I think
he used to enjoy making me feel stupid or something,” she
said.

“
I can’t imagine that was
easy to endure.”

“
He used to laugh at me,”
she continued. “ ‘Til one day when I’d had about enough and told
him to stop. I said that he wasn’t treating me right, and I wanted
us to stop seeing each other. He actually slapped me, the
bugger.”

“
Thomas sounds like a
truly horrible person,” I said.

“
He was a real bastard in
the end,” she said. “Dane saw to putting him right, though.
Afterwards, Thomas wouldn’t even blink an eye at me. Sometimes, I
would step in front of him in the hallways at school, just to see
him give me a wide berth. It was like my own little private joke to
play on him. I wanted him to suffer.

“
Later, I found out that
he’d gone on to Cambridge,” she said. “He’d always talked ‘til he
was blue in the face about that damned place. I’d bet he fit in
nicely there with all the other tossers.”

I remained silent as we walked to the
parking garage.

“
I can see why you might
not care for college types,” I said.

“
Can’t stand them,” she
said.

“
Lyra, you realize that
Caleb’s not anything like Thomas,” I said.

“
Yeah, maybe not,” she
said. “But I couldn’t help thinking of Thomas when I first met your
mate. That sort of first impression is hard for me to get
beyond.”

Frankly, given everything, it seemed that
Caleb and Lyra had a long hard row to hoe together before anything
positive came about between them, if ever.

Still, stranger things have happened.

“
I won’t hold you to your
assignment to guard Caleb, if you prefer,” I said.

She remained silent for a few moments.

“
No, I’ll stick with
Dane,” she said. “For now.”

“
I appreciate that, and I
hope that you might eventually see a different side of Caleb,” I
said. “Perhaps if you could see him for the kind of man that he
truly is, you might find that he’s not so bad.”

“
Yeah, maybe,” she said.
“I mean, you obviously think highly of him. And I suppose Mr.
Rutherford, too, what with calling him uncle and all
that.”

“
He’s my mate. I love him.
And yes, Mr. Rutherford thinks quite highly of him, as well,” I
said. “But believe me when I say that I’d never tolerate a moment
of behavior from Caleb like you experienced from
Thomas.”

She chuckled. “I can’t begin to imagine that
you would. I’d wager he’d never survive the moment.”

She was definitely right about that.

“
Lyra, I appreciate your
sharing with me about your past and Thomas,” I said. “And I’ll keep
your confidence, but it also might help if Caleb understood what
you told me.”

“
I’d really rather you
didn’t,” she said. “I’m not all that comfortable talking about it.
I’m surprised that I even told you.”

As we exited the elevator to the parking
garage level, I turned toward her.

“
You are a quiet one,” I
said. “Why is it then, do you think, that you were able to share
with me just now?”

She frowned. “I don’t know; an odd whim, I
suppose. I respect you, at least.”

“
I wondered when you two
would be along,” Dane said, walking out from behind a nearby
concrete pillar.

“
No coffee?” I
asked.

“
Nah, changed my mind,
after all,” he said, looking at his sister. “Everything all
right?”

“
Tickety-boo, dear
brother,” Lyra said.

She and I exchanged knowing looks while Dane
narrowed his eyes.

“
Tickety-boo?
” he asked with a pained
expression.

Lyra snickered.

“
Aw, never you mind; I
don’t want to know,” he said, throwing up his arms and marching
toward the SUVs that were parked nearby waiting for us.

Chapter 21

Caleb

I waited outside the SUV while Marla sat
inside, talking on her phone.

Then I spied Kat walking alongside Lyra
while Dane strode well ahead of them.

“
What kept you guys?” I
asked Dane.

“
I haven’t the foggiest,
but believe me when I say that you don’t want to know,” he replied.
“Now, be a good lad and get in the vehicle.”

I opened the passenger door and started to
join Marla in her vehicle, but someone whistled. I turned to see
Kat point to the SUV parked next in line.

Lyra walked directly toward me and I almost
slammed the door shut before she arrived near it.

Instead, I politely held the door open for
her as she hopped inside.

She gave me a suspicious look before
reaching out to grasp the door handle.

“
Thank you,” she said
quietly.

Something in the way she said that sounded
odd.

I made my way to the SUV that Kat was
standing beside.

“
So, did you have a good
visit with Lyra and Dane?” I asked.

She opened the door for me. “Wouldn’t you
like to know? Now inside with you.”

Two vampires sat in the front cab while Kat
and I sat in the back seat. A smoked glass barrier rolled up before
us to provide us with some privacy.

“
Do me a favor, won’t
you?” she asked.

“
Sure,” I
replied.

“
Try to be nicer to Lyra,”
she said.

“
But I just—”

“
I know,” she said. “I saw
that.”

“
Well, she
started—”

“
Yes, I realize that might
be the case. Just don’t give up on trying, okay?” she asked. “I
understand that you’ve both been digging at each other.”

I folded my arms before me. “Just giving
back as good as I’m getting.”

“
Really? Ah, well then,
how’s that working for you?” she asked with a knowing
expression.

I started to say something, but decided
against it.

“
Nice start,” she said.
“Keep that up and you’ll go far, I think.”

I looked up at her to catch her sly look.
Then she gave me a quick kiss.

“
I have confidence in you,
my love,” she said.

“
I hope someone challenged
her to do the same,” I said.

“
I wouldn’t be the least
bit surprised about that.”

Why did I end up feeling as though I was
blindly stumbling in on the tail end of something?

* * *

Kat and I went to her hotel room and, to my
surprise, I dozed off on the couch for a few hours.

Upon waking, I found a note from Kat asking
me to meet her at Alton’s office. A wave of dread washed over
me.

My meeting with Alton.

Within the hour, I stood before the door to
Alton’s office. I looked down the short distance of hallway toward
Marla’s office, where she and Kat stood watching me.

“
Go ahead,” Kat whispered
while making shooing gestures.

I hesitated before finally knocking.

“
Come in,” Alton
said.

I took a deep breath and entered.

“
Hello, Alton,” I
said.

“
Hello, Caleb,” he said,
standing from his desk chair and walking around to greet me. “How
good of you to come.”

“
I hate to bother you if
you’re busy,” I said.

We shook hands and he motioned to the nearby
couch. “Perish the thought. I’ve been looking forward to us having
a chat.”

I bet.

I sat down at one end and he chose the
opposite end. Then he crossed one leg over the other and stared at
me.

“
Well, where to—” he
began.

“
Look, I was completely an
idiot for running out like I did, and I realize how utterly
disappointed you must be in me,” I interrupted.

“
I see,” he
said.

“
But things were getting
crazy and I was unbelievably stressed, and I didn’t know where my
place was anymore. Hell, I didn’t even know where my future with
Kat was headed, or even if we still had one. I mean, I sort of had
to find myself and figure everything out,” I continued, feeling as
if everything was rushing out of me like a geyser.

“
But my experiences were
really helpful and brought everything further into perspective. I
think that I understand exactly where I want to be in life now. I’m
totally committed to Kat, and college, and you—”

He held up one hand. “That’s a lot to say
without taking a breath, especially for a human. Just breathe,
Caleb.”

I inhaled, the smell of Alton’s office
filling my lungs.

“
Now, let it out slowly,”
he said. “Don’t stop until you finish counting to
seven.”

I exhaled until I’d pressed nearly every bit
of air from my lungs.

“
There. Now breathe
normally,” he said.

He watched me. “Much better.”

I leaned my head back against the couch.

“
I’ve been thinking a lot
about exactly what I was going to say when we finally met,” I
said.

“
And I think you left very
little of it unsaid already,” he said wryly.

“
Yeah, I know,” I said.
“I’m sorry. I’ve just been sort of dreading our
meeting.”

Realizing what I had just said aloud, I
looked over at him staring at me with upraised brows.

“
Oh, shit,” I
said.

I was once again the victim of an
overshare.

“
Brutally honest, as only
I can appreciate,” he said good-naturedly.

I closed my eyes and rubbed at my eyelids
with my fingertips.

“
Caleb, how do you
continually manage to find yourself in the most desperate of
situations?”

“
I dunno. Chalk it up to a
lifetime of practice, really,” I replied.

He chuckled. “Oh, how I’ve missed our
chats.”

I opened my eyes. “Really?”

“
Chats, yes,” he said.
“Reckless jaunts across the globe with complete disregard for your
own safety or the feelings of those around you?
No
.”

Any hope of an easy conversation immediately
evaporated before his steady gaze.

“
I’m very disappointed in
what you did,” he said.

“
So was pretty much
everyone else important to me.”

“
As well they should have
been,” he said. “Have you already forgotten our conversation
following your interview at Yale?”

“
What? Of course not,” I
said.

He gave me a long look. “I think you
have.”

I fell silent, waiting for him to
continue.

He stared at me.

“
I mean, we talked about a
lot that day,” I said.

It was his turn to take a deep breath and
let it out slowly.

I did remember that it had also been an
emotionally charged conversation. Upon reflection, many things
flooded back with my memory of the event.

“
I remember you said that
I could lead an army,” I said.

“
Someone who could be a
king,” he added. “And be worthy of it.”

“
Yeah, I remember that too
now.”

His brow furrowed. “Though perhaps I was
rash about that.”

My heart sank.

“
I wished you hadn’t said
that,” I said.

“
What would you have me
say, Caleb?”

I considered his question at length. “I wish
that you hadn’t made it sound as if I was just some sort of
complete failure. Rash is a hard word that sounds far worse than a
mistake when you say it.”

“
Yes, rash is also a word
that can portent repercussions,” he said. “Your rash decision to
leave jeopardized our position with opposing factions.”

“
Wh—? How?”

“
Think of what position we
might have been in had you been captured by someone hostile to our
objectives, much less killed,” he said. “You’re the cherished mate
to the second most powerful vampire in our organization. Can you
imagine the impact on Katrina?”

There was that, of course.

“
And you’re important
to
me
,” he said,
leaning toward me. “Though it pains me to have to remind you of
that.”

I stared into his steely gaze, unable to
look away. It felt like being nailed in place.

“
I’m
very
sorry,” I said with all the
earnestness I could convey. “I realize that I screwed up and
I’m—”

My breath caught in my throat.

“
I’m truly very sorry,” I
said.

The tension around his eyes appeared to
abate slightly.

“
Have you gotten all of
that pent-up rebellion out of your system? Are you all sorted out
now?” he asked.