Sunrise at Sunset (20 page)

Fortunately, she didn’t run into any other occupants on her way down to the garage. That would have been a very difficult sight to explain.

She made an expedient stop by a local drug store on the way to her house to grab some flu-friendly foods, as well as some tissues and other items he would need. They proceeded to her estate, and she was relieved at how much more restful he had become since his fever dropped slightly.

The tall, red-haired vampire laid him on her bed in the subterranean room. She settled him beneath the satin sheets, having removed his clothes completely, and kissed him gently on the forehead. Though she was concerned for his welfare and healing, a maternal part of her was pleased that he was there for her to care for. He brought such a peaceful, important dimension to her life, which filled her with indescribable joy.

She quickly located and unpacked some key items from storage in a separate basement, things left over from one of her many past career experiences, in this case a nurse’s aide. Carrying the items back to her room, she laid them out on the nightstand next to the bed where he lay resting.

She placed a hand on his forehead to check his temperature. He was still slightly feverish, which only confirmed her decision. She reached over to the nightstand and retrieved a small syringe. After neatly and effortlessly sticking a vein in her left arm, she extracted a small quantity of her blood. She released the blood into a small bottle of saline solution and shook the bottle to mix the contents, which turned to a reddish hue.

She drew a quantity of the liquid back into the syringe and inserted it into one of the veins in Caleb’s left arm. Slowly, she emptied the full syringe into his system.

“This is better than any antibiotics, my love,” she murmured softly.
If he were impressed by what my saliva could do, he’ll be amazed when he experiences my blood.

The following hours were a two-fold process. First, Caleb’s own immune system was bolstered in its mission to fight off the virus by assistance from the antibodies in Katrina’s blood cells. Once Caleb’s body was mostly rid of the influenza, his own antibodies began attacking the limited quantity of Katrina’s cells, which prevented the transformation process from continuing in his system.

Katrina recollected moments of her own transformation and the angst that still rose in her as she realized the choice hadn’t been her own. Add to that, she was feeling selfish regarding Caleb. She liked his human blood, craved his human blood. It wasn’t as if that were his primary appeal, for she loved him for who he was. But his blood was just pure ambrosia to her.

She lightly caressed his forehead, and he stirred ever so slightly. The next few hours involved the purging process for her blood cells, and he became more agitated and restless, nearly mimicking the symptoms of ‘flu.
Even under the best of circumstances, it’s a difficult process
, she mused. She moved to the other side of the grand-sized bed and lay down alongside him to watch him rest, allowing her thoughts to roam for what seemed like endless hours.

Sometime in the early hours of the following day, Caleb began to stir. His eyelids fluttered open, and his eyes tried to focus on his surroundings. He was immediately disoriented. A swift intake of breath was all he managed before Katrina was perched on the edge of the bed, gazing down into his eyes.

He was startled for a moment at her sudden appearance, appearing momentarily confused. “Katrina? Where am I?” he asked.

She smiled down at him. “You’re home -- at my home, that is.”

His body was sore and still somewhat achy, but he felt a world of improvement over his last memory from the fevered, languished experience at his apartment. His pallor was much healthier looking, and he didn’t have the same haggard appearance of the night before. He tried to sit up, but her soft hand fell upon his chest and pressed him gently back onto the bed.

“You need to rest,” she cautioned him. “You’re still not quite back to a healthy state.”

He blushed slightly and said, “Um, I kind of need to –”

Her eyes widened, and she offered, “Oh, of course.”

“Hey! I’m naked!” he exclaimed as he started to throw off the white satin sheet covering him.

She smiled slyly at him and muttered, “Just how I like you. And the bathroom is to your left.”

He blushed furiously, so she turned her head while he pattered across the plush carpet into the nearby bathroom and quietly closed the door.

She went to his gym bag and removed a pair of his underwear, which she left hanging on the door knob to the bathroom. A moment later, the door opened slightly, and the underwear disappeared inside as the door shut again.
Modest
, she considered with amusement.

She moved like a whirlwind as she changed the bed linens to a clean set of dark blue satin sheets. She also replaced the white comforter with a dark blue one.

Minutes later, an only faintly blushing Caleb pattered back to the bed and stopped just short of where Katrina perched in nearly the same spot as before.

“Weren’t those white just a minute ago?” he queried with a puzzled frown.

She smirked while holding the sheet aside as he slipped underneath it, and then she rolled the lightweight blue comforter over him. He obliged her with satisfaction, fully appreciative of her efforts to care for him.

“You look much better,” she observed with a gentle smile. “You scared me last night.”

He smirked back up at her, appreciating her simple beauty as she gazed down upon him. “Thank you. I’m grateful you were there for me when I needed you most.”

“You bring out my maternal instincts, it seems,” she replied with a warm smile.

The mention of that word wasn’t lost on him, and one eyebrow rose curiously. “I thought you said vampires were barren?”

“Vampires are, but I had two children before I became a vampire,” she answered simply. It was a somewhat painful memory for her and one she hadn’t mentioned to most of her previous partners.

“And perhaps a husband?” he pressed.

She nodded. “It was a long time ago and a topic I’m not quite ready to discuss, if that’s okay with you.”

He easily detected her reluctance and merely nodded. “I’ll be here when you’re ready,” he offered as he reached out to grasp her right hand in his.

The edges of her mouth upturned slightly. “Thank you.”

Something she had said a few moments prior revisited his thoughts, and he frowned slightly. “Wait, my fever broke overnight? That seems awful quick for how I was feeling.”

She paused, silently considering how to respond to him. “Your body had a little help.”

He gave it some thought and noticed the syringe and reddish fluid on the nearby nightstand. “Is that your…” he ventured carefully.

“Yes,” she interrupted gently, “but you shouldn’t need any more of it now.” She collected the items into her hand so swiftly that he wondered if they were ever there. “There are strong healing properties to my blood that were just what you needed, but not enough to cause more permanent reactions to your system,” she explained with a sober tone.

Caleb felt a momentary pang of jealously run through him. If he were a vampire, he wouldn’t need to worry about illness, and they would have lifetimes available to spend together. Aside from the whole “banishment from sunlight for the remainder of eternity” issue, the benefits seemed to outweigh the detriments to him.

She watched his eyes and detected the momentary conflict reflected across his facial features.
I better change the subject quickly.
“Are you hungry?” she asked. “You can probably manage some soup and crackers, if you want.”

The topic of food hadn’t occurred to him until she mentioned it. As if in response, his stomach growled. She rolled her eyes at him and smiled.

“You and your stomach,” she teased. “I’ll go prepare something for you.”

He watched her walk across the large expanse of room and disappear through a door-sized opening at the top of a small series of stairs against the wall.

You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you
? he wondered.

He called in sick the following day, but did so grudgingly because the end of the semester was upon him, and it was a really inconvenient time to be ill. But one thing was for certain, he was very appreciative of Katrina’s attentions during his recovery.

“And how is my patient feeling?” she asked with a bright smile as she perched on the edge of the bed dressed in pink cotton pajama pants and a fitted pink cami.

Caleb thought that she had the kind of smile men died for. He considered that perhaps some actually had, in fact. “Much better,” he replied. “Thanks, Kat.”

She frowned. “Did you just call me a cat?”

“What?” he countered with confusion. “No, K-A-T. You know, a nickname.”

Her eyes stared directly into the pillow next to his head with a distant expression, as if fixed upon some other time or place.

“I’m sorry,” he insisted. “I wasn’t trying to be insulting. It was meant as a term of endearment.”

Her hand reached out to stroke the side of his face to still his momentary animation. “My husband used to call me Cath,” she said softly, almost too softly to be heard.

His mind raced with this tidbit of information. “Was that your real name?” he asked gently as his hand reached up to hold hers. He recalled that the day before she hadn’t wanted to discuss her husband, so he had let the topic drop.

Her eyes looked down into his sadly. “We don’t talk about our human lives usually. We try to forget what and who we were then.”

He hadn’t realized the significance of such information.

“It’s something very rare and special when we tell someone our human name,” she said.

He started to ask her, but realized that she might not want to tell him.
Perhaps I haven’t earned that privilege yet.
“I understand,” he replied somewhat sullenly and looked away from her to stare at the other side of the room.

She frowned down at him and asked, “You don’t feel special?”

“Not so much, I suppose,” he replied absently as he stared across the room. “It’s okay, really. I realize that I’ll have to earn a special place in your life over time.”

Her hand gripped his chin and forced him to look back at her. She stared back intently into his pale blue eyes and pressed her face to within a half inch of his. “Don’t ever say that again,” she ordered sternly.

His eyes widened with surprise.

“My name was Catherine,” she stated quietly. “My husband called me Cath.”

She kissed him on the forehead and laid her soft face next to his.

“Thank you,” he replied softly. “I’m honored to know that.”

There was a pause as she held her face next to his, and her lips touched his ear. “And you can call me Kat,” she whispered. She found his nickname for her somewhat endearing, despite never having been a fan of nicknames in her past.
At least, since Cath was last used
, she mused darkly.

He turned his lips into her neck and gently kissed her there multiple times. She giggled at the tickling sensation it caused.

“Somebody’s feeling better, I see,” she remarked slyly as she bent her lips to his.

They kissed lightly for a few moments before she sat up and stared back down at him.

“By tomorrow you’ll be back on your feet and feeling as good as new,” she assessed with a grin.

“Then I hope tomorrow never comes,” he muttered with sincerity.

He felt as if he could lay there staring up at her beautiful face and mane of long red hair forever.

Caleb was actually feeling better by that same afternoon, and he slipped into a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. He realized that he would be back at the college campus early the next day and considered all the preparations for the upcoming finals. Fortunately, his classes were being tended to during his brief absence by his peers, and he was pleased his division dean was such an understanding person when it came to personal illness.

While Katrina did laundry and other activities, Caleb took the time to walk through the house. There were rooms he actually hadn’t seen before, and he felt a stroll would do him some good. He smirked, as the term “stroll” was very appropriate. Katrina’s house was a sprawling series of rooms along central hallways on both the first and second floors. The notable exception was how her “lair” was laid out as a large single room, much like an open-architecture apartment where the areas were functionally separated without corresponding walls or partitions. He wondered if all vampires preferred that style of layout.

He made his way down the central hallway on the first floor and walked past the theater room, exercise room, and office study until he reached the end of the corridor. He turned and walked into the small library lined with oak bookshelves packed with volumes of books. A medium-sized window with closed wooden blinds and dark curtains separated the two sides of the room opposite the entrance where he stood.

Beneath the window was a finished oak table and reading chair. But the most notable fixture stood in the middle of the finished wood floor. A rectangular display case containing a simple polished sword sat atop a polished rectangular oak table only slightly larger than the display box it held.