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The boy considered what she said and replied, "Okay"
Then a woman&039;s voice called, "Caleb, breakfast!"
"Okay, Moe
"Please hurry, Angel Bruce," Ah clenched teeth
After what seeravel shoulder of the street outside and stop The engine idled, and she vaguely heard awas normally many times better than a human&039;s, but at that reat deal of her acuity and concentration
A fewa small plastic insulated cooler He sat it down onto the floor next to the car with a heavy thump
"The box is here," Caleb said His pale blue eyes ca excitedly, "The angel drove a truck!"
"You&039;re an angel now, Caleb," she whispered
"I ael froe of the car "But you need to go now You can come back later, okay?"
"Okay," he suspiciously replied before leaving the garage, shutting the s handsthe sunlight streaeThe container was filled with s them underneath the car She snapped the cap off the first one and squeezed the cold blood into herthe the process until the cooler was es inside the cooler with the lid shut, not wanting to scare her new angel, Caleb While lying beneath the car on the cool, gri 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 ti much better Fortunately, her pale skin had already healed, with the exception of so welts here and there Caleb said that he needed to eat supper but would check on her again before bedtime She silentlysun prepared to set, A fro between a man and a woman Then she heard the sound of an altercation and a person being slapped, followed by a wo for his dad to stop hitting hisand another slapping sound Anger rose in Ahout her body
A few e door opened and Caleb entered, crying But instead of co to the side of the car as he had the previous ti 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 inflaht?" she asked
He slowly nodded his head "Yeah"
"Does your father do that to you and yourto keep her voice in check
He shook his head and offered between sniffles, "Sohtly shut her eyes There&039;s too rie abruptly opened, and she heard a large person enter
"Caleb Taylor! What&039;re you doin&039; in here?" deruff e?"
The poor child was too scared to ape as he stared up at the man with terror Amber detected the pronounced smell of alcohol
"Daood this time!" the man threatened as he slipped the leather belt off from his jeans and viciously snapped it at Caleb The belt i a srowl emitted from deep in Amber&039;s throat, and in a flash she was out fro before Caleb
"Who the hell are you?" thebackwards with surprise
Areen, and she scohile taking in thehairline and dark eyes
"I&039;ht-fast right hook, causing hiainst some old metal shelves stacked with car parts A on the floor in shock She picked hi hi boy outside away fro 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 rabbed hile, loud crack She let his lifeless body drop to the floor with a heavy, asp from behind her, she spun around to see little Caleb blankly staring up at her ide eyes from the doorway She determined that he must have been in a state of se 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 i the boy&039;sdown, she held her ar fashion "It&039;s okay Nobody will hurt you now Coly
He stared at her for a moged him to her and patted him on the back After a moment, she picked hiht air
"Show round and squatting next to hihtly
"I can do soic 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&039;t el&039;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 ue from his skin His hand immediately went to probe at the wound area
"Don&039;t touch it for a few ently instructed him
"It feels funny," he ventured curiously
"That&039;s the angelproperties, which were helpful for re?"
He nodded "Yeah" Then his eyes began to stray back towards the direction of the garage, and a blank stare forly "Now, I need for you to look into azed intently into her glowing green ones She had only tried s before, and she wasn&039;t certain how effective it would be on a human child
"Okay, Caleb," she offered in a cals today Just re with your toys"
Her er, 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 wo a body and a plastic cooler across a dark open field That day, Amber Simmons found a renewed interest in life: Caleb Taylor
Amber&039;s life was rejuvenated soel, and it was her turn to return the favor She carefully disposed of the body of Caleb&039;s abusive father, although the title of "father" to describe the ht with her Later, she hborhood of Columbus, Ohio
Her current identity as A But first, she wanted to use her resources to aid Caleb and his mother to the best of her ability She wasn&039;t about to let her little aid-angel down
Over the next couple of weeks, she discreetly researched the Taylor fas 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 h financial debt They e on their sher-than-reasonable car payraduated high school with a rather good transcript She was only nineteen when she had Caleb, and was married to Caleb&039;s father, Ted, a few months before the child&039;s birth He was an autohNow Caleb and Wanda were faced with additional financial problee processing coh sheShe found that the more humans she involved herself with, thea low profile with humanity was a necessary part of a vampire&039;s continued survival It was part of the reason being a vala va
Ae Caleb&039;s mother with a job opportunity So, she waited a couple of weeks following Ted&039;s abrupt disappearance before entleer Given that she was the owner of the company, it took very little effort to convince Bob Fletcher of her intentions under the pre out to a faer, he conceded the positive public relations potential froesture
Within days, an invitation letter was e&039;s hu Wanda&039;s application for employment They made sure to include the coe, retirement, daycare, and vacation options A sure that her eot that the co her a favor without even realizing it For Amber, who had sheltered her accuhout the world, the issue was now about social caer to take the bait Ah about Caleb to step out of her comfort zone once the abuser had left the house As to check up on Caleb, as well She was pleased to find that Wanda wasn&039;t an abuser herself
Aer than she&039;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&039;s final direct impact on the Taylors&039; lives occurred when the coe fund for up to three employees&039; children Of course, Wanda Taylor was one of those winners The night of the award dinner, which Amber uncharacteristically attended, was the sole ti her picture taken as part of a company function She posed with each of the three eht have proven disastrous
Finally, Aed She sold her co for the role
Her new identity included a welcoed fro, 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 so her old identity completely fall away, she periodically checked in on the status of the Taylor faressed well in the company, as expected, and Caleb continued to prosper
Tiular contact with solected over the years Time was rather relative for vampires
On a final call to Bob so bit of news Wanda had died of cancer suddenly a couple of raduate school pursuing his ia State University in Atlanta, but had taken time away to settle his mother&039;s estate Then he returned to coe Discreet inquiries revealed that he re position In history, no less
The shock of the develophts were i It was then, from her basement apartment in France, that she resolved to seek a perment, the area around Atlanta suddenly called to her