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A Fresh Start

Caleb saw green eyes blazing out of the darkness in his drea His heart was pounding, and he struggled to catch his breath as his eyes wildly scanned the roo roo, peaceful ain screa speed

Katrina&039;s a va the reality associated with that thought Ies from every vampire horror filh his istering in his th, sharp fangs, vicious bites to a victiarlic, no reflections inthe e dead!

It was nearly brain overload He realized that he needed to sort things out individually

Okay, she neverthe dayti the day? No, wait, she chatted on the phone and texton her cell phone while the screen illuminated her face as she lay in a velvet-lined coffin ran through his hed if not for the very palpable fear he had felt the previous night

His h a host of brief recollections about her The pale skin - but then, lots of people have pale skin She&039;s a redhead, and I&039;ve seen numerous redheads with pale skin before Heck, I&039;e parking lot incident where that guy tried to rob me Katrina seemed to co for her, either The guy&039;s nasty-looking knife captured my focus elsewhere at the tiht? Okay, dead end there for now

He shivered slightly

Was she intending to kill , but I thought she was crazy A pang of guilt touched hihts fleard She saved ht? People ant to kill you don&039;t save you She had only ever showed hiht?

The speed of her hts It was like she had been everywhere at once Nobody moves that fast! He ran like a rocket, and yet, it had been as if he were running in one of those night you canin quicksand

He shivered once again at thefroht shoulder still ached from where she had briefly twisted his arht struck hiht!

A sickening queasiness ran though hiainst anybody in anger before He had never even been in fights with kids as he was growing up Hell, my own father used to beat on ot into hed Then a vision hit hireen eyes of hers Sure, her eyes are beautiful, but they took on a whole new quality last night The piercing, illu into him Just the recollection made his heart race But why does that also seem so familiar to me?

That&039;s where the terror had started: her eyes beareen quality It struck at so hidden and terrible deep in his ain What the hell does it allto do now? he wondered

His thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone vibrating on the end table He picked it up and noticed a new text e froht in his throat, and his h, kind nature, and beautiful s in his heart He thought he had really been falling for her So, what changed?

She&039;s a vampire But she&039;s still the woht?

"Crap," he muttered wearily as he decided that she at least deserved a reply of soht now, he decided

He typed out his reply carefully, slowly, and as honestly as possible Not sure Confused

The reply from her came only a few seconds after his Take time to think Call , for that matter

OK, he texted back to her

He started to set his cell phone down, but another e arrived

No need to fear Worried about you

That&039;s easy for you to say, he thought while laying the cell phone on the end table And for soe, Ivy&039;s "Worry about You" played through hisyesterday&039;s clothes and went into the bedrooreen cotton lounge pants and aaround her shoulders as she sprawled across her large, four-poster bed with her cell phone in her hands Caleb&039;s replies to her text ht still be in shock soht&039;s events Just her recollections froh her, followed closely by a feeling of intense curiosity What happened to hied in an instant as she&039;d glared at him Katrina readily conceded she had been annoyed with hiry towards hi to walk out on her I just wanted his out, that&039;s all

But the vision of the horror in his eyes before he turned to flee fronized a look of terror, and his was textbook It was as if his

But why, she considered furiously What did I do?

A feeling of worry h her

What if he won&039;t see ht What if he&039;s too scared?

An even darker thought crossed Katrina&039;shteen years?

And for the first tian to form in the corner of her eye

Caleb spentat the walls, the TV, and out of the living roo what to do Eventually, his mind was too tired to consider aspects any further He neededto have some sense of nor and focused instead on sied his bed linens, and went to the apart&039;s central laundry area He listened to his iPod and replied to a few textfrooods store following his dad&039;s heart attack Nancy from Massachusetts was just offered a position at a law firm in Boston And Martin froirlfriend, Brenda But then Caleb&039;s eyes glanced at the earlierthem over and over while the washer and dryer continued theirTV and eating pizza he had ordered from a delivery service For soarlic than norht? He shook his head and tried not to think about that Of course, it&039;s not as if Katrina&039;s going to be breaking intothe blood froht? He considered the idea for a es she had sent him Somehow he felt he was safe and that Katrina&039;s intentions weren&039;t hostile at all

He sighed and tried to concentrate on the television before him as he munched on his pizza That was his Saturday in a nutshell

Caleb spent Sunday continuing to distract hianized quizzes for two of his history classes, prepared so lectures that week, and cleaned out his refrigerator

He went to a local bookstore to browse and found hi to the horror and science fiction sections He glanced at the covers of nearly a dozen novels all relating to vampires He browsed the cineosi, one of the world&039;s most famous horror film actors, best known for his classic rendition of Dracula Ad like Katrina&039;s, although, the vision of her wearing a dark cape and baring her fangs seeht?

In the end, he purchased a discounted book on the historic rocery store for a few items he needed at the aparthed as he recalled the first tithy conversation It seeo

In the end, Sunday had been as equally unsatisfying for him as Saturday

Katrina tried to be patient and wait for Caleb to gather his thoughts, but it was very difficult She e her former mentor, Alton, about Caleb As fellow vampires, they sympathized with her, but in the end they seemed hesitant to offer any specific advice

So, Katrina had enough of waiting and decided to check in on Caleb She waited until after dark and drove around the city to conte to some CDs she&039;d created for just the occasion Fiona Apple was perfect for herclassic jazz from the 1960s She added a couple ofyou could say about long-lived vampires, their music selections were usually eclectic Around 11 p, she was ready to head towards Caleb&039;s apartment

Dressed in some black denim jeans and black leather jacket, she crept quietly to his fire escape and peeked in fro back on his couch with his head bobbed backwards against the cushion A novel he had been reading had fallen into his lap and been forgotten He looked endearing as he slept with his hed, which helped soften herhio At least he appeared to be okay, which was ht, my Caleb," she whispered as she blew him a kiss across the distance between theht darkly

Seconds later, she walked out of the alleyway and back towards where she had parked her car

Caleb began the eek teaching at the college, but he was frequently distracted His lectures were passable, but lacked the usual energy and enthusiash the h he had only been a member of the Social Sciences division for a short time, a number of his fellow professors and division office staff noticed his subdued behavior One of the secretaries named Betty, a kind wo under the weather

Well, at least it&039;s nice that people are taking an interest in me around the office after a seht two sections of history in the , so he had most of the afternoon free after his office hours By the time he walked out to his car on that sunny, cool November afternoon, he&039;d already decided that he needed to return to the scene of his recent mental collapse with Katrina He needed to understand what had happened to hi in a state of liain

Instead of bothering to change clothes, he rerabbed a sandwich and bottled water from a sub shop and drove out to the exclusive Pine Valley edition She had given hiate entrance and the code for the wrought iron gate to her driveway on Friday, though he had no intention of trying to go up the driveway or even approach the house itself

Everything looked quite different by daylight Things didn&039;t seeh it was still distinctly remote and secluded with the edition&039;s sparsely populated residents and heavily forested surroundings

He was pleasantly surprised to find that the edition entrance code still operated correctly for hie rock coluhborhood presented a series of leisurely curves to negotiate the soe areas of densely forested sections between the various five-acre or larger plots of land All the hoe estates, each with their own architectural style One aspect they had in co was maintained The trees, shrubs, and laere h each reflected unique landscape artistry

Katrina&039;s property was further into the edition near the still-developing section of a particularly hilly area He drove to her property&039;s gate entrance and glanced up the winding driveway as he passed He saw the house through the dense trees and shrubbery loo in the sunshine like a castle Caleb rarely had the opportunity to appreciate such properties from a distance,any Dream homes like this are more like pure fantasy on my salary, he considered silently You don&039;t choose a career as a teacher or professor with hopes of getting rich

He stopped at the side of the road next to a ht he would be able to negotiate on foot He wanted to revisit the park area next to Katrina&039;s property, while not going too close to her house Caleb felt that daytime was best because he didn&039;t want to risk an unco in person just yet, and he recalled her co out of sunshine Classic va so sunny and bright, he considered conditions were about as safe as they could get for hiht Instead I&039;ht that he was actually taking all of these things seriously and even felt a little foolish But his endered a more sober expression on his face In fact, his pulse increased noticeably as he focused on his current intentions

He strode up the hilly incline to the scrub and trees scattered at the top If not for the serious nature of his visit, he ht actually have taken the tihed and tried to focus his thoughts on the events of Friday night

After a short time, he made it to the top of the incline and looked back downhill to where his car was parked He felt a cool breeze in the air and noticed that considerably more leaves had fallen since Friday

Hethe winding concrete pathway they had walked together Pausing to glance towards her estate, he began sloalking in that general direction He was pleased that conditions see, he stood outside the black iron gate separating the park area fro across a relatively wide expanse of partially green lawn dotted with pine and oak trees After a sigh, he stared up at one of the s of the house, though he saw no activity present The blinds were turned down completely

He turned and focused on the events of last Friday evening

Katrina sat at her colanced up at a flat panel display off to her left that hosted approxi screens, each hooked up to a ca both internal and external parts of the estate Her eye caught movement from one particular caate to the public park area

She breathed in sharply and ied theto full screen

Caleb stood beyond the trees at the gate Has he co washed through her She zooht bathing his gentle features in light Yet he had a focused expression She frowned as he turned to gaze back in the other direction and sloalked away

What&039;s he doing? Maybe he ca on hi Maybe I should call his cell phone or text hi occurred to her which sent a s the daytio to him He must be here for some other reason

She watched hier focus on hi desire to see him, to talk to hian replaying the events in his e of the bench he and Katrina had sat on that night He recalled how disappointed he&039;d felt when she tried to be honest with him about her secret identity He stood, took a , and walked the path leading towards her house He paused and then proceeded in the opposite direction He halted suddenly, unsure if he were in the exact spot as before Frowning, he concentrated intently to recall the sight of her glowing green eyes A momentary flash appeared in his mind&039;s eye, and his heartbeat fluttered He turned slowly and began walking off in the approxiht

He recalled the feeling of flight, running for his life But now, his pace was deliberate and ed slowly a the trees and bushes A short tie of the drop-off where he had nearly fallen before Katrina caught hiround

Looking down, he noticed a broken branch on the partially sandy ground, realizing ht He picked up one piece and inspected it th of wood, and he had swung it at her hat he believed had been an iainst her ar that point, he lifted the piece of branch and popped it into the palm of his other hand Solid chunk of wood, he ventured with a frown before absently tossing the branch back to the ground

My God, he realized suddenly, it should&039;ve broken her arm, or at least knocked her over

His eyes widened whileonce more at how Katrina was indeed no ordinary woman If she&039;d been able so easily to withstand such an attack, then she could&039;ve effortlessly killed me, he suspected But she didn&039;t, for which he was extre," heafter going through his brief mental exercise: wariness Despite how kind and helpful she had been to hiree of unease Is it a si else? He supposed that only time would tell

He considered a very ioing to do next?

Wednesday passed quickly for Caleb By the time he went home from work, he had finally deters for her after everything they had experienced together and felt he owed her the benefit of at least talking things out to see how they both wanted to progress

He was deeply intrigued by her, but couldn&039;t deny the thought of her being a vampire still unnerved him quite a bit The whole situation was still a little unbelievable to hireat films, but never once had considered there could be an ounce of truth to any of it But as the truth to separate from the fiction? That was a question only Katrina could answer

He picked up his cell phone while leaning against his kitchen counter and dialed her nu only once

"Caleb?" ventured Katrina in a soft voice

He still loved the sound of her voice, a a host of other appreciable qualities "Hi, Katrina," he said "Is this a good ti roo to set

"Sure," she offered curiously "You&039;ve calledthe afternoons before, you know"

He nodded, wondering why this was so difficult for hi with her forfroized "Katrina, I&039;ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few days, and I"

"Yes?"

"I&039;d like to know if you&039;dwith ht he heard a s her breath

"Of course, Caleb," she replied with a hint of relief evident in her voice "I&039;ve been hoping you&039;d call"

The edges of his inally, and he proceeded with a reat What&039;s your schedule look like this week?"

"You ht, for example?" she asked

"Uh, no How about toht?"

He hadn&039;t expected that "You can do daytime?"

"Daytime is harder, Caleb," she answered with amusement "But I can prepare the house to accommodate your preference, especially if it makes you more comfortable"

He considered her offer for a ht see deliberately He respected her too h it was at least nice that she illing to acco&039;s fine, actually," he said

"Good," she accepted gently "Cooodbye and disconnected, he smirked at the way she&039;d said that and realized if he didn&039;t know she was a vaht

Thankfully, Thursday went by quickly for Caleb, because he was anxious for the arrival of evening He changed into a pair of dark casual slacks and a red oxford shirt and sat on his couch watching the sun begin its descent A list of questions led in histo her It wasn&039;t every day someone told you they were a varabbed his leather jacket and drove across town on the I-20 He proceeded north on the I-285 towards the Mableton area As he neared his destination, his anticipation grew to a fever pitch

Once again, the onset of night gave the secluded edition an ohting, and house lights surrounding the visible hoe patches of darkness permeated the uneven landscape and clusters of thick trees within the edition The scene seeions throughout Atlanta He momentarily considered how perfect it was for a horror filhts with Katrina

When he arrived at the gates blocking the entrance to Katrina&039;s winding driveway, he entered his code on the small, metal kiosk and proceeded up the drive Perhaps for his benefit and cohts around the estate were turned on, creating a subtle glow in the night He parked his car in front of the garage and e his car

Caleb walked up the steps leading to the grand front entrance of the house, once againat its considerable size He noticedluhts had been turned on throughout the house He reached the front entrance and barely had ti the doorbell before the door opened to reveal Katrina standing before hi smile

She was a vision of beauty, and hisbut the attractive, intelligent woun to win his heart She wore a pair of forray pocket pants, a silver and white patterned silk blouse, and a pair of strappy, silver, high-heeled shoes Her neck was adorned with a sihtly into a ponytail with a sterling hair clasp One thing for certain, Katrina&039;s a fashionable vaht s, Katrina"

"Please co aside as she held the door open "I&039;ain"