Sunset Rising (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 5) (25 page)

She crunched on the end of a carrot stick.
“Just make sure that’s true, mister. I don’t give second chances
very often.”

“
Okay, I get it,” I said.
“No second chances.”

The remainder of our conversation was far
easier to negotiate.

As soon as I left Chance at the student
center, I got on the phone to the person who often seemed to pull
miracles out of a hat: Alton’s assistant, Marla.

“
Hey, Marla? Listen, I
really need your help with some last-minute Sunset Air tickets for
three,” I said. “And could we please keep this just between us for
the time being?”

* * *

“
London? Tomorrow night?”
Dane demanded. “I thought we were leaving the day after
tomorrow.”

“
What can I say? Plans
changed.”

“
Why the hell am I just
now hearing about this?”

“
It was sort of a last
minute decision,” I said.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

Lyra threw her arms into the air. “Will
somebody please decide where the fuck we’re supposed to be for more
than a week at a time?”

I gave her a sharp look, but Dane held up
his hand.

“
C’mon, sis,” he said.
“We’re world travelers. And spending some time in our old haunts
wouldn’t be so bad, would they?”

“
Whatever. It all pays the
same, I suppose,” she said.

Roman, on the other hand, appeared
reflective from his seat at the kitchen counter.

“
Roman, how would you like
a prolonged vacation visiting your family?” I asked. “Of course, if
you’d like to go to London you’re welcome to, and I can probably
get another ticket. But I thought you’d like to—”

“
No,” he interrupted.
“Actually, given everything in recent weeks, I’d relish some time
with my family. My dad’s complained that they don’t see enough of
me as it is.”

“
Good. But I want to keep
this under wraps; it’s a surprise for Kat.”

“
Fine by me,” Roman
said.

Dane nodded, but Lyra appeared less than
pleased.

“
Well, we had all better
start packing then,” Dane said.

The next twenty-four hours passed quickly,
and before I knew it, we were seated in a comfortable cabin for the
lengthy Sunset Air flight to London.

Due to the time change, we landed only a
couple of hours prior to sunrise. Thankfully, I had managed to
sleep a little bit during the flight.

Upon disembarking from the plane, Kat and
Marla stood in the practically deserted receiving area to greet
us.

Kat adopted a knowing expression on her
face.

“
Aw, hell, this was
supposed to be a surprise,” I said with a stern look at Marla, who
merely shrugged.

“
To your credit, it was
certainly a surprise when I heard about it,” Kat said.

I gave her a bland look as she reached out
to embrace me.

“
Surprise,” I
murmured.

She gave me a warm kiss.

“
So, you’re not annoyed
that I showed up early?” I asked.

She smiled. “Me? Not in the slightest.”

Well, that was gratifying, at least.

“
Welcome, Caleb. I’ll have
your things taken to the hotel,” said Marla. “Your uncle Alton has
asked that you see him once you’ve had a chance to rest a
bit.”

The realization hit me like a speeding comet
to the face.

Oh, yeah…my chat with Alton…about my leaving
town abruptly.

I swallowed hard.

I had forgotten all about that.

Then I noticed that nobody was speaking and
I saw Dane staring at me. On top of that, Lyra looked at me as if I
was an alien bug who had jumped out at her.

“
Pardon me, Ms. Kendrick,
but did you say
Uncle
Alton
?” asked Dane.

Marla folded her arms before her with an
amused expression on her face.

“
Marla, would you please
take Caleb to see about their luggage?” Kat asked. “We’ll catch up
to you in a few minutes.

I looked up at Kat, but knew better than to
challenge her when she had that telltale determined expression on
her face.

She spared me a momentary wink and reached
out to run her fingernails down the back of my back, eliciting a
shiver that ran all the way down my spine.

I dutifully followed Marla.

“
What’s that all about, do
you think?” I asked once we reached the escalators.

I noticed that two men wearing business
suits, who were standing nearby, fell into step behind us.

“
I suspect that Katrina
would like to clear the air a bit with Dane and Lyra,” she replied.
“Speaking of whom, how do you find them?”

“
Difficult,” I replied.
“It’s been somewhat of a challenge, really, though Dane’s starting
to grow on me a bit.”

“
Ah,” she said. “And
Lyra?”

“
A completely cold-hearted
bitch,” I replied.

“
Caleb,
” she chastised. “My word, but I’m surprised to hear
something like that from the likes of you.”

I mildly regretted my frank assessment, but
only slightly, for the mere sake of it sounding rude.

“
Truth hurts,” I said.
“Besides, I’m sure you’d hear as much, if not worse, from
her.”

Marla retrieved her smartphone from her
purse.

“
Something the matter?” I
asked.

“
No, just routine checking
in,” she replied, beginning to text.

“
Is Alton still angry with
me?” I asked.

She paused in her texting. “I’ll let you
determine that for yourself, if you don’t mind.”

A sour feeling formed in the pit of my
stomach.

Chapter 20

Katrina

I watched Caleb and Marla walk away before
turning toward Dane and Lyra. Then I motioned for them to follow me
over to a relatively deserted portion of the terminal.

I turned to face them. “Is there a
problem?”

Lyra started to speak up, but then folded
her arms before her and looked at her brother.

“
Really? You’re not even
baited to touch that one?” he asked his sister. “Honestly, you’re a
mystery even to me sometimes.”

“
Shut up,” Lyra
said.

He shook his head at her before turning his
attention to me.

“
Problem? Not exactly,
General,” Dane replied. “Curious? Absol-bloody-lutely.”

“
Please, do proceed,” I
said.

“
Uncle Alton? As in Alton
Bloody
Rutherford
, the nearly millennium-old vampire and our employer?” he
asked.

I arched my brow at him and he appeared
slightly unnerved.

“
By the by, just to be
clear, when I said
our
employer
, I had me and my sister in mind,”
he added. “You notwithstanding, General.”

“
Naturally,” I said. “The
term is one of endearment for both Alton and Caleb. You might know
that Mr. Rutherford is quite fond of Caleb.”

“
Ah,” he said.

He paused, as if internalizing what I had
just said.

My smartphone buzzed and I read a text
message from Marla that concerned me.

“
How are the two of you
getting along with Caleb?” I asked.

Dane hesitated before answering.

“
Well, General, it’s not
smashing, but it’s coming along,” he replied, looking at Lyra. “A
bit of work in progress, wouldn’t you say, sis?”

I stared at Lyra, unwilling to accept yet
another quiet deference to her brother.

“
Um, sure,” she said,
folding her arms before her once more. “It’s been a rough
start.”

“
Do you like him?” I asked
her.

Her mouth opened and then closed.

“
Not so much,” she
said.

“
Thank you for your
honesty. While I regret hearing that, it’s not essential for your
duties,” I said. “That is, unless you’d prefer to be reassigned to
something else.”

Lyra took a deep breath and looked at her
brother in silent query.

“
Do as you will, darling,”
he said. “But I’m going to give it a go for a bit
longer.”

She frowned at him. “Really?”

“
What can I say? I’m a
classic glutton for punishment,” he said.

“
You would be,” she said
before returning her attention to me.

“
It’s truly your choice,”
I said. “And there’s no hard feelings either way. I only want
what’s in both of your best interests.”

Lyra appeared a little taken aback by my
response.

I noticed that Dane’s eyebrows rose.

“
You know, I’m going to go
get a coffee and let you two talk for a few minutes,” he said.
“Would either of you care for anything?”

“
You don’t even like
coffee,” Lyra said.

“
I do right now,” he said,
gesturing toward me.

“
No, thank you,” I
replied.

“
Give us a bell when
you’re ready,” he said before quickly walking away from
us.

“
Your brother is oddly
charming,” I said. “Bit of a lady killer, too, I’d
imagine.”

“
He certainly thinks so.
Oh, he’s the dog’s bollocks, for sure,” she said. “When he’s not
being a complete wanker.”

I spotted a momentary crack in her usually
hard shell. Then her expression smoothed over again.

“
Tell me, has Caleb been
rude to you?” I asked.

“
I think we’re a bit rude
to each other,” she replied. “But he doesn’t go out of his way, if
that’s what you mean.”

“
Lyra, I hope that you
won’t mind me being forward, but my hands are relatively full
working with Mr. Rutherford on international vampire affairs. I
don’t have the luxury to worry over Caleb’s daily security detail,
much less his relations with those detailed to protect him,” I
said. “That being said, would you care to share your view on why
the two of you can’t seem to get along?”

She looked at me as if I had just challenged
her to eat something heinous.

“
Oh, but this is hellish,”
she said, hiking her hands atop her hips.

“
Perhaps,” I said. “But
trust me when I say that there will be no hard feelings from what
you tell me.”

She took a deep breath and let it out in one
long exhale.

“
You know how sometimes
when you meet someone for the first time, and you’re not sure why,
but you just don’t get a good vibe from them?” she
asked.

I nodded. “Okay. The eternal conundrum
surrounding first impressions.”

“
Well, your Caleb just
rubbed me the wrong damned way, ever since we first met,” she said.
“I dunno. He seemed really full of himself, despite there being
something infuriatingly simple about him, too.”

“
Simple?”

“
Yeah, I mean, like he was
a deer in the headlights. You know, sort of naive,” she said. “And
he comes off as the worst sort of nerd.”

“
Not a fan of nerds?” I
asked.

“
They’re just so awkward,
and yet, they’re supposed to be all smart and everything. Smart
arses, the lot of them,” she said. “But then, they don’t ever know
really anything about the
real
world
; just whatever they read in a bunch
of books, or whatnot. They’re just such twats.”

I took a moment to consider what she had
told me.

“
You were
what—twenty-something—when you were turned?” I asked.

“
Twenty-two,” she said.
“Dane and I were turned at the same time, actually.”

A somber expression formed on her face. “We
were told that it would be a damned shame not to age together as
twins.”

“
So, you really hadn’t
seen much of the world by then, had you?”

“
Well, no, for me not
really. It was Dane who had been the street-wise one between
us.”

“
And you and Dane were
turned in—”

“
1976,” she
said.

I thought, from reading their files, that
they were relatively young as vampires went.

“
You know, Caleb’s already
twenty-seven now,” I said. “And he was—still is, at
times—relatively naive. He’d had a rough time growing up, you see.
He bunkered inside himself for a number of years after
that.”

She frowned at me. “Excuse me, General, but
why are you telling me all of this?”

I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“
I don’t know,” I replied.
“I just hoped that you might see some parallels between the two of
you, that’s all. We’d better signal your brother now and then
rejoin the others.”

Lyra retrieved her mobile phone and started
texting.

“
Please tell him we’ll
meet up in the parking garage,” I said. “Section A-47.”

She quietly walked alongside me as we
proceeded toward the escalators.

During our descent, she sighed.

“
Caleb’s quite unlike any
mate I’ve had as a vampire,” I said. “I’ve found him to be both
endearing and sincere. And he’s very intelligent.”

She gave me a sharp, sidelong glance and
then stared straight ahead.