Sunrise at Sunset (2 page)

She stored the drained blood bags inside the cooler with the lid shut, not wanting to scare her new angel, Caleb. While lying beneath the car on the cool, grimy floor, she could feel her body rapidly healing. She closed her eyes to rest.

By late afternoon, Amber heard a car pull into the driveway, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps and a door to the house opening and closing. Eventually, Caleb returned to check on her, at which time she was feeling much better. Fortunately, her pale skin had already healed, with the exception of some remaining welts here and there. Caleb said that he needed to eat supper but would check on her again before bedtime. She silently marveled at the child’s interest in her.

As the evening sun prepared to set, Amber heard a commotion coming from the house. She clearly heard shouting between a man and a woman. Then she heard the sound of an altercation and a person being slapped, followed by a woman’s cries, as well as Caleb’s voice screaming for his dad to stop hitting his mom. Finally, she heard Caleb cry after more shouting and another slapping sound. Anger rose in Amber’s chest and spread throughout her body.

A few minutes later, the side garage door opened and Caleb entered, crying. But instead of coming to the side of the car as he had the previous times, he sat in the corner next to some old tires, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. His sobbing eventually stopped, and he was reduced to sporadic post-crying convulsions.

“Angel Caleb?” Amber quietly ventured.

He looked towards her from where he sat. She could see that one side of his face was noticeably inflamed. “Angel Caleb, are you all right?” she asked.

He slowly nodded his head. “Yeah.”

“Does your father do that to you and your mom very often?” she asked gently, trying to keep her voice in check.

He shook his head and offered between sniffles, “Sometimes.”

Amber grit her teeth and tightly shut her eyes.
There’s too much of this crap in the world
, she thought grimly.

The side door to the garage abruptly opened, and she heard a large person enter.

“Caleb Taylor! What’re you doin’ in here?” demanded a gruff male voice. “Didn’t I tell you not to play in the garage?”

The poor child was too scared to move. His eyes were wide as saucers, and his mouth was agape as he stared up at the man with terror. Amber detected the pronounced smell of alcohol.

“Damn you, boy! I’ll blister your ass good this time!” the man threatened as he slipped the leather belt off from his jeans and viciously snapped it at Caleb. The belt impacted the boy on his left arm, breaking the skin and leaving a small line of blood.

A feral growl emitted from deep in Amber’s throat, and in a flash she was out from under the car, protectively standing before Caleb.

“Who the hell are you?” the man demanded while staggering backwards with surprise.

Amber’s eyes blazed bright green, and she scowled while taking in the medium height and build of a middle-aged man with receding hairline and dark eyes.

“I’m Angel Amber,” she growled. “And I’m your worst nightmare!”

She punched the man in the jaw with a lightning-fast right hook, causing him to spin to the right and fall back against some old metal shelves stacked with car parts. Amber immediately turned to Caleb, who was sitting on the floor in shock. She picked him up and hugged him to her body while carrying him to the side garage door. She hastily ushered the young boy outside away from the altercation.

The man recovered and swung a tire iron at her back as she spun around and caught his wrist. She effortlessly stripped the iron from his hand and tossed it onto the floor.

“What the hell --” the man spat with alcohol-laced breath.

Amber grabbed him by the throat with one hand and snapped his neck with a single, loud
crack
. She let his lifeless body drop to the floor with a heavy, meaty, thumping sound.

Hearing a gasp from behind her, she spun around to see little Caleb blankly staring up at her with wide eyes from the doorway. She determined that he must have been in a state of semi-shock based upon the empty expression dominating his face.

Her breath caught in her throat, and her eyes continued to glow bright green as she stared down at the young boy. She immediately cocked her head to listen, expecting the boy’s mother to investigate. Silence reigned. Squatting down, she held her arms open for him in a welcoming fashion. “It’s okay. Nobody will hurt you now. Come here, Caleb,” she beckoned soothingly.

He stared at her for a moment and bravely, but slowly, walked into her embrace. She hugged him to her and patted him on the back. After a moment, she picked him up and took him back outside into the cool, night air.

“Show me your arm, Caleb,” she said while lowering him to the ground and squatting next to him. He held up his arm, which was still bleeding slightly.

“I can do some angel magic to make it feel better. Is that okay?” she asked.

His eyes were huge, and he quietly nodded while holding his arm out to her.

“Okay, but don’t move, Caleb. It takes an angel’s kiss to heal it,” she said gently. She placed her tongue against the wound and held it there for just a couple of moments. The small taste of his blood was unlike any she had consumed in recent memory and was extremely powerful to her. But she mastered her temptation and removed her tongue from his skin. His hand immediately went to probe at the wound area.

“Don’t touch it for a few minutes, Caleb,” she gently instructed him.

“It feels funny,” he ventured curiously.

“That’s the angel magic,” she explained. Vampire saliva had healing properties, which were helpful for removing a prey’s bite marks. “Did it stop hurting?”

He nodded. “Yeah.” Then his eyes began to stray back towards the direction of the garage, and a blank stare formed again.

“Good,” Amber cooed soothingly. “Now, I need for you to look into my eyes, Caleb.”

His pale blue eyes gazed intently into her glowing green ones. She had only tried mild hypnosis with dogs before, and she wasn’t certain how effective it would be on a human child.

“Okay, Caleb,” she offered in a calm, neutral voice. “Look into my eyes. Forget the bad things today. Just remember playing with your toys…”

Her mantra continued for a few minutes longer, but soon afterwards, the oblivious young boy was in his backyard playing with his toys as nighttime fell. Nobody was around to notice a tall, brown-haired woman carrying a body and a plastic cooler across a dark open field. That day, Amber Simmons found a renewed interest in life: Caleb Taylor.

Amber’s life was rejuvenated somewhat by an unexpected intervention from her little angel, and it was her turn to return the favor. She carefully disposed of the body of Caleb’s abusive father, although the title of “father” to describe the man carried little weight with her. Later, she made her way to her home in an upscale neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio.

Her current identity as Amber Simmons needed to come to an end before long. But first, she wanted to use her resources to aid Caleb and his mother to the best of her ability. She wasn’t about to let her little aid-angel down.

Over the next couple of weeks, she discreetly researched the Taylor family. Her trappings of wealth and contacts in human society meant that she could acquire information rather easily when she needed it. She discovered that the Taylors were a struggling middle-class family suffering from exceptionally high financial debt. They maintained a high balance on multiple credit cards, a mortgage on their small acreage, and a higher-than-reasonable car payment on a very used car.

Caleb’s mother, Wanda, graduated high school with a rather good transcript. She was only nineteen when she had Caleb, and was married to Caleb’s father, Ted, a few months before the child’s birth. He was an automobile mechanic by trade and brought in just enough money to keep the household running. Now Caleb and Wanda were faced with additional financial problems.

Amber owned Columbus Mortgage, a small mortgage processing company that she didn’t run directly, though she maintained the power of strategic decision making. She found that the more humans she involved herself with, the more questions were asked about her over time. Keeping a low profile with humanity was a necessary part of a vampire’s continued survival. It was part of the reason being a vampire could be a lonely existence. The implied glamour from the numerous Hollywood films involving vampires was altogether wrong.

Amber needed a discreet way to engage Caleb’s mother with a job opportunity. So, she waited a couple of weeks following Ted’s abrupt disappearance before making an uncustomary, after-hours visit to the gentleman serving as the company’s manager. Given that she was the owner of the company, it took very little effort to convince Bob Fletcher of her intentions under the premise that she was reaching out to a family in need. Ever the corporate manager, he conceded the positive public relations potential from the gesture.

Within days, an invitation letter was mailed from Columbus Mortgage’s human resources department specifically soliciting Wanda’s application for employment. They made sure to include the company information sheet on benefits, such as medical coverage, retirement, daycare, and vacation options. Amber prided herself on making sure that her employees were well compensated. She never forgot that the company’s staff was doing her a favor without even realizing it. For Amber, who had sheltered her accumulated wealth in multiple locations throughout the world, the issue was now about social camouflage rather than capitalism.

In the end, Wanda was eager to take the bait. Amber had to hand it to Wanda: the woman cared enough about Caleb to step out of her comfort zone once the abuser had left the house. Amber made unannounced, unnoticed visits during the evenings to check up on Caleb, as well. She was pleased to find that Wanda wasn’t an abuser herself.

Amber remained in her identity longer than she’d expected just to make sure Wanda and Caleb settled well into their new life. Via progress reports from Bob Fletcher, Amber was very pleased to discover that Wanda had a real talent for independence when given the opportunity. In just a couple of years, Wanda worked her way from the mailroom up to a clerical support position. She also learned that Caleb had settled into his single-parent life and was doing well in school.

Amber’s final direct impact on the Taylors’ lives occurred when the company sponsored a raffle to provide a college fund for up to three employees’ children. Of course, Wanda Taylor was one of those winners. The night of the award dinner, which Amber uncharacteristically attended, was the sole time that Amber recalled having her picture taken as part of a company function. She posed with each of the three employees, minus their children. Caleb’s presence might have proven disastrous.

Finally, Amber had to disappear, and a new identity needed to be forged. She sold her company to Bob Fletcher, whom she had been carefully grooming for the role.

Her new identity included a welcome return to her natural red hair color, and her name changed from Amber Simmons to Katrina Rawlings. For the time being, she chose to travel the globe, and would settle down somewhere later.
The rest will fall into place eventually
, she mused.

As Katrina journeyed the world over the years, she did something else that was a first for her. Instead of letting her old identity completely fall away, she periodically checked in on the status of the Taylor family via calls to Bob Fletcher. Wanda had progressed well in the company, as expected, and Caleb continued to prosper.

Time passed as Katrina renewed regular contact with some fellow vampires around the world who she had neglected over the years. Time was rather relative for vampires.

On a final call to Bob some years later, Katrina learned a shocking bit of news. Wanda had died of cancer suddenly a couple of months prior. Caleb was in his final year of graduate school pursuing his master’s degree at Georgia State University in Atlanta, but had taken time away to settle his mother’s estate. Then he returned to complete his work at college. Discreet inquiries revealed that he remained in Atlanta with hopes of securing a teaching position. In history, no less.

The shock of the developments rang through Katrina with surprising strength. Her thoughts were immediately of Caleb and the loss he must be enduring. It was then, from her basement apartment in France, that she resolved to seek a permanent residence. And against her better judgment, the area around Atlanta suddenly called to her.

Chapter 1

Reacquainted

K
atrina took a number of months to establish herself in the area around Atlanta, Georgia. She settled into an upscale, secluded neighborhood in nearby Mableton. As customizations were made to her large estate, she began to familiarize herself with the area. Georgia was a state in which she had never spent much time, though she loved the variety of forest environments that blended into the suburbs and city areas. It was a perfect environment for a vampire, and she wondered why she hadn’t visited there before.

She selected an appropriate mode of transportation. Though Atlanta was a large metropolis, it held the opportunity for enjoyable driving experiences. She typically preferred a traditional luxury sedan, but she bought a new jet black Audi sports coupe. It implied fun and speed, without seeming pretentious. The car was sleekly contoured for speed, a style of vehicle that was something entirely new and different for her. Maybe it was that, for the first time in recent memory, she actually felt as young at heart as her nearly thirty-year-old appearance suggested. After only one test drive across the I-20 highway at high speed, she knew that she made the perfect choice. It made her feel playful.

Unlike previous identities, Katrina decided to forgo the diversions of a career. This time she intended to utilize her accumulated wealth to its fullest, allowing her more time to focus on independent projects. She had a couple of diversions in mind, but only one of them had sandy hair and pale blue eyes.

Her careful searching revealed that Caleb was living locally, and she easily located him on the Website for Robert Fulton Community College in downtown Atlanta. Professor Caleb Taylor was teaching sections in history for the college as one of their recently-hired faculty members.

Katrina hadn’t seen Caleb since he was a pre-teen, when she had secretly attended an evening baseball game at his junior high school. He’d been a sandy-haired, lanky youth with an awkward manner about him, which she found both endearing and amusing at the time. Years later, she had seen a photo of him standing in the back row of a group of high school baseball team members as part of a newspaper article about their winning the state championship.

She decided to enroll with the college and take the only evening section of U.S. History that Caleb taught in the upcoming fall semester.
It’ll be fun
, she mused. Her last college course was in the 1960s at Pennsylvania State University.
Suffice to say, I won’t be transferring my transcript
, she added with a smirk as she completed the online enrollment application.

It was Monday night and the end of the first day of fall classes at Robert Fulton Community College. Caleb shuffled his lecture notes for about the fifth time as he sat in his closet-sized office that was barely wider than the doorway that led into it. His desk faced a wall-sized window, which at least gave him a view of the campus grounds, though he hated having his back turned to the door. There was barely room for a bookshelf on the right and a narrow computer hutch on the left next to his guest chair. Nevertheless, he was grateful for the opportunity to teach full-time, being twenty-six and fresh out of graduate school. The marketplace had been competitive due to the state’s recent poor economic conditions. It was a small community college, serving only about four thousand students each spring and fall semester. But Caleb loved academia, unlike many of his friends who had primarily valued the socialization of their collegiate experiences. Knowledge was a passion, and now a labor of love for him.

He glanced at his watch, realizing his evening class was about to start at eight-thirty: the last section of the day, as luck would have it. He picked up his notes and textbook and made his way upstairs down the simple-tiled hallway lined with classrooms. His was Room 203 on the left about midway down the hall.

When he walked into the classroom on that first evening, he glanced around at the faces before him. There were four rows of tables and chairs split on two sides by an aisle up the middle, to accommodate up to thirty-two students. Only twenty-one were enrolled, and he had been warned by the associate dean to expect two or three students to drop.

There were a variety of stories represented in the faces he saw. Some were younger high school graduates trying to start their college career with poor ACT/SAT scores who couldn’t yet qualify for university admission. Others were working adults striving to get an educational edge or promotion in their careers. A few others were interested in avoiding the large general education class sizes of Georgia State for a more intimate setting. There appeared to be a half-male, half-female distribution, and he noted that it was his first class that semester that didn’t have anybody sitting in the back row.

After welcoming everyone to his Early American History class, he began calling roll, glancing up at each face in turn to try and associate names with faces: Bibbons, Cosby, Darby, Franks…

Katrina was running late. She had nearly forgotten to get a textbook and was making her way from the college bookstore with her notepad and text in hand. She wasn’t sure whether she would actually attend the entire course, her main interest being the opportunity to see Caleb after so many years and listen to him lecture. Her curiosity intensified as she mulled her prolonged absence in his life.

Absence
, Katrina chastised herself.
As if I’ve had any real part in his growth or development
. Any tie that she felt to him was solely based upon the memory of his youthful aid on that fateful summer day. Aside from killing his abusive father, she had merely played the role of an anonymous financial benefactor for him and his mother. After that, she’d restricted herself to only watch from a distance. Nothing more.
But then, wasn’t that the plan, to stay out of his life and allow him the opportunity to grow up in a “normal world?”
Her previous attempts to develop close relationships with humans always ended badly and, more often than not, fatally for the humans in question.

Katrina broke from her reverie, darted into the classroom as roll was being called, and slipped into a chair at the back of the room. Then her green eyes darted towards the front, following the sound of what had to be Caleb’s very mature-sounding voice.

When her eyes settled on the fit young man standing at the podium, she arched one eyebrow in surprise. The Website photo didn’t do him justice. His features were accented by a masculine, yet gentle face framed by neatly-maintained sandy brown hair. She was happy to see that his eyes were still the beautiful, pale blue that she remembered from when he was a child, though she readily admitted the term “child” hardly applied to the strapping man that stood at the front of the classroom.

His conservative navy blue slacks and tie looked professorial, while his white Oxford shirt fit snugly to his muscled chest, further accentuating his athletic build. Caleb’s pleasing appearance was completely unexpected, and she felt an immediate dual desire rise within her. Part of her appreciated him sexually, while another part was sizing up her prey. She still considered humans as prey, even though her hunting activities were curbed many years ago by the easy access to blood bank supplies. Somehow blending into society was easier if she weren’t being hunted by humans for draining people of their blood.

Oh Caleb, how you’ve changed since I last saw you
, she contemplated as another wave of desire washed through her.

Caleb continued to call roll. “Jill Parker, Melvin Peterson…

“Katrina Rawlings?” he queried in a friendly tone.

“Here,” a firm, but silky voice answered as he looked up to meet the face hosting such an enchanting tone.

When his eyes fell upon Katrina, he nearly lost his breath. He guessed that she was in her mid-to-late twenties. Her pale features were punctuated by deep green eyes and shoulder-length red hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She wore a pair of stylish black denim jeans and an emerald cami. A gold Greek key necklace adorned the pale skin of her neck. She could easily have been a fashion model. But, much to his surprise, the most notable aspect about her was her eyes. He could see her beautiful emerald eyes from the front of the classroom staring back at him in a penetrating manner.

His pause was somewhat noticeable, and he swallowed once to moisten his throat before forcing himself to glance down with a raised eyebrow and continue calling roll. A few students turned around to glance back at Katrina, the men’s eyes lingering before turning back to the front.

Following roll call, Caleb passed out a copy of the course syllabus to each student. When he arrived at the back of the room to hand a copy to Katrina, his hand was starting to shake slightly, so he simply placed the paper onto the table before her.

Her hand reached out deliberately to retrieve the syllabus without taking her eyes from his. The left corner of her mouth started to curl into an amused smile. He forced himself to look away and return to the front of the room, noticing that his pulse was elevated slightly. After pausing to regain his focus, he discussed the syllabus information, textbook, and the course objectives. Caleb dismissed the class early and watched as Katrina rose quickly, departing before anyone else.

He exchanged pleasantries with some students following class, but would later be unable to recall anything he said. He was still somewhat mesmerized by the beautiful woman who had sat in the back of the class.
Wow
, he thought wildly while walking down the hall.
That was unexpected
.

Yet, even considering her beautiful appearance and penetrating eyes, there was something nagging at the back of his mind. She somehow seemed familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite place why. It was as if some tidbit of recognition was on the tip of his memory, yet masked behind a dark curtain.

A couple of younger male students walked behind him, and one asked the other, “Hey man, did you get a look at the redhead in back? I’d tap that in a second!”

W
ith my luck she’ll probably drop the class
,Caleb thought silently as he made his way down the stairs. Still, he already couldn’t wait until Wednesday evening.

He arrived at his office and found his girlfriend, Melanie Baxter, waiting for him. They had been dating regularly for about six months. She was a records specialist at the state’s Department of Public Safety office downtown, where he’d met her while paying a traffic ticket. Melanie was a year younger and few inches shorter than Caleb. Her straight, dishwater-blond hair draped to her shoulders, and her face was accented by bright hazel eyes. Her fashionably faded blue jeans and white lace trim tank both presented a form-fitted appearance that Caleb found very appealing. She was holding a red apple in one hand and looked bored.

“Hey, Mel,” Caleb greeted her.

She grinned, gave him a quick kiss on the lips, and handed him the apple. “There you go, teacher,” she said.

“Thanks,” he replied smoothly. “You been here long?”

Melanie’s grin faded to a more sedate expression, and she replied, “Not too long. I remember you said the first day of class is always short because you just give them an assignment list.”

“Yep, pretty much,” he absently supplied as he took a bite of the apple.

“Ew, aren’t you even going to wash that?” she asked with a pained expression.

“I’m a firm believer in the power of stomach acids,” he quipped between bites while dropping his handful of notes and textbook onto his desk.

She just shook her head at him with disdain before adopting a speculative expression.

“So, Candace dropped me off here on her way home,” Melanie began tentatively. “I thought you might want to get something to eat with me after class.”

Caleb perked up, as he was feeling somewhat hungry. His last meal was around midday at the student center cafeteria. “Yeah, that sounds good,” he agreed with a smile.

“Then maybe on the way back to my place you could drop me by this new department store at the mall. They’re staying open extra late hours as part of the grand opening,” she ventured with anticipation.

“Yeah, sure,” he replied with a tired sigh as he flipped off his office light and closed the door behind them.
Shopping...

Melanie chatted about her day and the upcoming sale at the mall department store, but Caleb only processed a few bits and pieces at dinner. His mind kept wandering back to the strange effect Katrina Rawlings had on him.

Wednesday rolled around again in no time, and he was looking forward to his evening history class.
Or perhaps I’m looking forward to one student in particular.
He almost made it to the classroom before realizing he had forgotten to grab the handouts for the essay that he planned to assign.

Caleb whirled around abruptly, nearly losing his balance, and almost ran directly into Katrina Rawlings. She immediately grabbed his arm and held him in place with a surprisingly strong grip as he righted himself.