Fighting the Inevitable (9 page)

What frustrated him so
much was that he didn’t even know her last name so he couldn’t look
her up to try to find her. He had gone back to Karpathia’s every
night hoping she would appear once more, but she hadn’t. It was as
if she had vanished completely.

His restlessness was
starting to gnaw at him, and he was finding it increasingly
difficult to concentrate on everyday things like work. He knew he
was testing Demetri’s patience to the limits, but he couldn’t help
himself. He craved the little redhead so badly he hadn’t been with
another woman since their night together.

Denying his physical
release also denied him the chance to feed from source. He was an
Ancient and the need to feed was not as essential for him. He could
go months without the hunger twisting his guts into knots, though
he didn’t usually leave it that long.

There was no point in
deliberately torturing himself and, up until now, he had always had
a ready supply of willing women to enjoy. If his current dry spell
with women continued he would have no choice but to feed from his
private stock of chilled blood.

Times had changed greatly
since the old days when the only way to satisfy his hunger was to
find a warm, lusty woman and drink from her as they indulged their
passion. Feeding from source was more recreational now than a
necessity for his kind. There were ample sources of blood available
from the blood banks run by his kind. Granted, chilled blood did
not taste nearly as intoxicating as the hot, sweet essence of a
woman in the throes of her passion but it satisfied the
hunger.

He stifled down a sigh as
thoughts of feeding stirred his bloodlust, and drew his mind back
to the little redhead and how sweet she had tasted in his mouth. He
felt his body start to stir, and he smothered down a curse. He
couldn’t sit here any longer listening to the fat old man waffle
on. His annoyance was ratcheting up so quickly he might be tempted
to silence Belmont forever. “I’m sorry gentlemen, if you could
please excuse me. I’m not feeling too good.” His words were abrupt
as he rose quickly.

He caught Demetri’s glare
as Arthur Belmont stuttered in surprise, but he ignored them both.
“Please, continue the meeting with Demetri. He has my complete
trust and is authorised to make all decisions on my
behalf.”

He didn’t wait to see the
reaction. He strode determinedly out of the room and headed to his
office. He blocked Demetri from his head, not willing to listen to
his angry mutterings. It didn’t need both of them to attend the
meeting anyway. They’d already discussed and agreed on the proposal
prior to meeting with Belmont Industries. The finer points were
just a formality and his friend could deal with them.

An hour later, a furious
Demetri crashed into his office, slamming the door hard behind him.
Caleb watched his friend with a slight smile tugging at his lips.
Demetri was impressive with his green eyes and midnight black hair,
but he was glorious when he was in a fury. He was like some
avenging angel spewing forth his wrath, and was he spewing right
now! Caleb tuned out most of his words letting him rant on until he
got his anger out of his system.

“
Talk to me,
Caleb. Tell me what the fuck is going on with you right now because
I don’t have the first clue!”

Demetri threw himself
into the chair in front of Caleb’s desk and yanked the leather
thong from his long hair so he could rake his hands through it. His
friend’s erratic behaviour was causing him serious concern. It was
so unlike him.

Caleb leaned on his desk
and sighed deeply. “I wish I knew, my friend,” he said quietly. “I
feel so restless, so off-kilter right now. No woman attracts
me, I don’t want to feed from source, and I can’t be bothered with
work. There’s only one thing I want to do and that’s find Rhianna,
and yet, I can’t do that because I don’t know anything about
her.”

Demetri stared at him
open-mouthed. “All this because of the redhead?” he asked
incredulously. “Caleb, I know she was hot but come on, she’s just a
human, nothing spectacular.”

Caleb glared at his
friend and narrowed his eyes. “That’s a matter of opinion. I don’t
know what it is about her but I need to see her again, at least one
more time so I can see as clearly as you can that there is nothing
spectacular about her.”

He couldn’t keep the
sarcasm out of his tone as he said that last part. He objected
to his friend saying there was nothing spectacular about Rhianna.
There was something about the woman, the way her mouth shaped as
she talked, the feel of her soft skin under his fingertips, the way
she fit his body so perfectly as he slid deep within
her.

A hot, clawing hunger
overwhelmed him, and his body tightened instantly. He bit back a
curse, anger warring with need as his perfect memory replayed their
night together. This need, this craving for the redhead, was
dangerous. He had almost lost control once with her. If that
happened again he might be forced to do something he would actually
feel some regret over.

Caleb wasn’t used to
being out of control, wasn’t used to experiencing emotions. No
woman had ever been able to get under his skin the way Rhianna had.
Was there something of the otherworld about her? Had she cast some
kind of spell over him? He had enemies just like everyone else.
He’d lived a long time, was considered the top of the food chain
among his own people even though he didn’t get involved in the
politics that shaped his race. Was someone using Rhianna to weaken
him?

He hadn’t sensed anything
unusual about her. She was fully human, he was almost positive
about that. He had scented her deeply and endlessly that night,
enthralled by her exotic aroma that had rushed over him like a
tidal wave. His body tightened further and he uttered a strangled
groan.

Demetri sighed as he
watched the struggle on his friend’s face. Caleb would only be this
unguarded when he was alone with him. Demetri could sense his
conflict, sense the onslaught of lust and wondered regretfully just
what it had been like for his friend to lay with the little
redhead. She had to have been good for Caleb to want to see her
again.

He closed his eyes for a
moment before opening them and looking at his friend intently.
“Okay, let’s see if we can find Rhianna and you can then do
whatever it is you need to do to get her out of your system so life
can get back to normal. What can you remember from the night at the
club?”

His tone held a weary
note but also a hint of amusement. There was something quite
entertaining about seeing Caleb so riled up, even if it was
concerning. He would have endless decades of teasing his friend
about this, once he had satisfied his urge for his human and she
was once more gone from their lives.

Caleb thought back to the
night. He was blessed with an eidetic memory so it wasn’t hard for
him to remember their entire conversation in Karpathia’s. They
hadn’t really said anything which didn’t directly relate to him
picking her up and taking her home. He frowned suddenly and leaned
forward. “She was very sad,” he said quietly. “I saw it in her
eyes. It was there for a moment and then she hid it, but for a
brief second her eyes were filled with such pain and
sadness.”

Demetri pursed his lips
and tapped a long finger against his lips. “What makes humans sad?”
he mused, tapping slowly as he pondered. “Maybe she had just broken
up with her boyfriend?”

Caleb shook his head
slowly. “She hadn’t been with a man in a very long time. There was
no male scent on her.” He felt his temper spark at the thought of
another man sleeping with the girl even though he knew of her
relative inexperience of other men. He was quite certain that if he
learned she had been with another man after their night together,
he would walk the fine line of the killing edge. This was
irrational because she didn’t belong to him in any way and he
didn’t want her to.

“
Maybe she’d
just lost her job?” Demetri tried again but Caleb shook his head in
the negative once more.

“
There was
pain and sadness. She wouldn’t have been that upset about losing a
job.” Not with the level of pain he had witnessed. Something tugged
at his heart at that memory, some primal instinct deep within him
that sought to comfort the woman who had captured his
interest.

“
Perhaps
someone she cared for had just died? Humans are so fragile. They’re
always dying,” Demetri sighed dramatically, waving one large hand
gracefully in the air.

Caleb blinked slowly at
him, feeling instinctively that his friend was on the right track.
“You might be onto something there, Demetri. Something like a death
could have explained her sadness.” He picked up his phone and
dialled Beth Hollis, his PA.

“
Beth, can
you check all obituaries in the last six weeks. I’m looking for any
mention of a woman named Rhianna.” He hung up and wondered if he
should have given her slightly better information to work with.
She’d probably be checking for a woman dying called
Rhianna.

He sighed and left it to
her. Beth was very good at finding out information. He was sure
she’d check every death notice for any mention of the name Rhianna.
He turned his gaze back to his friend. “Did the deal go through?”
he asked quietly, and saw his friend nod.

“
You just
need to sign both copies of the agreements and courier Belmont’s
over to him,” Demetri answered with a slight smile.

“
Fine, get
them to me and I’ll get it done,” Caleb said with a bit more life
in him at having a new avenue to pursue in his quest to find
Rhianna. “Sorry I left you with the meeting. I was mentally
thinking of how many different ways I could kill Belmont so he’d
stop talking. I thought it was more prudent to leave.”

Demetri laughed loudly,
amusement dancing in his eyes. “How many did you come up with?” He
could understand the other man’s irritation. Belmont was
challenging to have to deal with, but the deal was
lucrative.

“
Too many.”
Caleb’s response was clipped, cold and decidedly unfriendly. “Maybe
you should deal with him for a while until I get my loathing for
him under control?”

The request wiped the
amusement from Demetri’s face. Out of all of them, Caleb was the
most civilised, the one least likely to give into his feral side.
The cold, hard edge to his words was surprising.

Demetri watched him
shrewdly for a long moment. His friend’s reaction to Rhianna was an
anomaly. If the girl proved to be a danger to Caleb then he would
have no qualms in making sure she disappeared for real. He
protected Caleb from everything, including himself.

He uncurled his big body
from the chair and stood up to leave. “I hope you find your girl
soon, Caleb. You’re driving me insane at the moment.” He headed out
of the office deep in thought. If Caleb’s behaviour became too
erratic he would consider his options, until then he would keep his
own council.

Beth Hollis stepped into
Caleb’s office just before four pm. She was a pretty woman, tall
and lithe standing at five foot nine with blonde hair and green
eyes. She’d been Caleb’s PA for four years and probably knew him
almost as well as Demetri. She didn’t know his true nature because
she was human, but she knew everything else about him.

“
I couldn’t
find anything about a woman called Rhianna passing away, but I did
find one obituary about a Rafe Armand who was killed while on a
camping trip. He was survived by his sister Rhianna Armand.” She
placed a printout on Caleb’s desk. “It made the local paper so I
e-mailed you the online link. There’s a photograph of brother and
sister in the article.”

Caleb smiled broadly as
he looked at the obituary printout. “Thanks, Beth! I don’t know
what I’d do without you. You’re a genius.” He knew this was his
Rhianna, the woman who haunted his dreams every night. He didn’t
need to see the photograph but he would look at it anyway, just to
make sure.

“
You could
give me a raise,” Beth laughed with a cheeky grin as she turned and
walked out the office.

Caleb opened his e-mail
and clicked on the link Beth had sent him. It took him directly to
the online story about Rafe Armand’s passing, and he sucked in a
deep breath when he looked at the picture of the laughing
couple.

It was her - Rhianna. She
was laughing as she looked up at a tall, beefy man with dark brown
hair and brown eyes. Her brother was a giant compared to the little
redhead, and he was laughing too as he gazed down at his sister
with open adoration. It was obvious for all to see how close the
siblings were.

He felt a stab of pity
for the petite redhead. She looked so carefree in the photograph,
completely different to how she’d looked that night in Karpathia’s
when she hadn’t guarded her expression. From the date of the
article, it would appear her brother had died the week before
they’d met. She’d probably still been in denial that night, trying
vainly to convince herself it hadn’t happened.

Armed with a name, he now
had enough information to track her down. He felt a thrill of
anticipation course through him, his heart starting to kick up a
beat as he stared at the photograph. He had to see her again. It
was a gut-wrenching ache deep within him to scent her, hear her
voice, and touch her fragile skin.