Page 10 (1/2)

Hunting

Caleb regained consciousness while lying on the couch and immediately lurched into an animated state The sound of his heartbeat pounded in his ears "Don&039;t leave e suddenly appeared at his side, perching on the edge of the couch Her right arm stretched across to the back cushion before hier," she crooned "They&039;re already long gone"

"Damn it!" he cursed

She smiled supportively "You may not believe it yet, but you&039;re a hell of a lot safer in here with me than you&039;d be out there with them"

He didn&039;t want to believe that at the moment All that mattered was they had left without him, left him behind "I just want to help somehow," he lamented "I know I&039;m not much of a threat to a va useful"

"Listen, don&039;t take this the wrong way," she said , they would&039;ve spentChimalma As it stands now, they can concentrate fully on what needs to be done"

"Yeah, sure," he sighed with exasperation Maybe Paige is correct, he considered At least, it sounds logical However, it still didn&039;t change how he felt about thehis way

Paige narrowed her eyes and regarded hi to play nicely?" she asked

His pale blue eyes darted to her deep blue ones with a degree of surprise at her question It was similar to a recent co?" she asked

"Do all vampires ask that?" he demanded irritably "Seems like I&039;ve heard that a lot lately"

Surprise and curiosity showed sie&039;s face as she slowly re him to sit up The vampire considered him for a quiet moment with a peculiar expression "Listen," she offered in a cordial tone, "Katrina asked me to keep an eye on the surveillance syste, but I don&039;t want toAnd since you&039;re already packed"

It ht want to stay where she was close to the co equipment "Oh, sure," he responded casually "Yeah, I can s into another bedroom" He recalled the smaller bedroom at the top of the stairs where he and Katrina shared their ether "I&039;ll move into the one at the top of the stairs," he offered "Of course, if it&039;s okay with you"

"Sure, that&039;s fine," she agreed with a slight nod as she ht, rose, and realized that his belongings still sat in a suitcase in the middle of the floor The final minutes before his blackout replayed in his h his hair

"Caleb," Paige gently pro at how she looked like a young college student froh to be called an adult, though notthan himself in reality

"I don&039;t know you very well, and I&039;d like to avoid any s between us," she explained carefully "So, I&039;, okay?"

"I understand," he replied congenially "And thanks That&039;s very kind" He quietly moved to take his suitcase upstairs with a so to have a barn burner of a tie muttered under her breath as he left the room with suitcase in tow

Alton drove himself and Katrina across the darkened city of Atlanta to the four-story,structure that housed the Corporate Research Enterprises office Upon their arrival, the nearly e&039;s offices were closed

Alton parked their car at the rear of the building, where the only other vehicle was a cleaning service van He and Katrina exited the vehicle wearing long black winter coats and black leather gloves Alton reached into the back seat and withdrew a small black briefcase, which he laid on the trunk to open He removed a small plastic-encased device and slipped it into his coat pocket Placing the briefcase back in the car, the two of theht air was crisp as a cold front entered the city from the northwest, and Katrina took a ainst her pale skin She felt her senses sharpening and honing their sensitivity and was especially happy to be in the field actively doing so She momentarily considered how truly desperate Caleb was to escape his own in-house captivity Still, she felt better knowing that he was tucked away safely with Paige

"Ca the area for the second time since their arrival

"None on the exterior," he noted "But there will likely be some inside"

Alton reached into his coat pocket and withdrew the plastic case with lights and a few sreen lights on the device lit up "This will jam all electronics e enter," he stated quietly "That should take care of alarms and camera systems But because of the power consumption, we&039;ll only have about ten lanced at the device and asked, "Where did you get that?"

He sence toy Somebody owed me a favor"

Her eyebrow shot up, and she adopted an is , and, as expected, there was nobody around They avoided the elevator and made their way to the stairwell It took only a few seconds to race up to the fourth floor, where they exited into the main corridor The offices on the floor appeared to be closed already, and they heard no activities from within any offices they passed

They arrived outside Roon for CRE was still on the plaque Katrina tried the door handle and to no surprise found it to be locked Alton reached into his pocket and pulled out some lock picks, but she held up her hand

"We don&039;t have ti the door near the locked door handle The lock broke away as the door slahtly at theto kick in all the doors we run into?" he asked sharply

Katrina scowled "Only the ones that get in my way"

Alton shook his head, but followed her into the dark offices The lack of lighting was no probleh there wasn&039;t much to see really The furniture was bare, and only a few empty cardboard boxes remained in the area Katrina walked into Chimalma&039;s office and scanned the room She noted the two chairs placed in front of the desk and i in one of them as he interviewed for the supposed part-tiet Caleb closer to therateful that they didn&039;t kill hiritted her teeth angrily as she shuffled through the abandoned desk and nearby filing cabinets She found nothing of interest reas

"Well, it was a long shot," Altonto depart the office

He pulled the door to on their way out, although its daed lock mechanism failed to hold the door shut "What next?" he whispered under his breath so only she would hear him

"Follow the money trail," sheeither where she&039;s at or where she&039;s going next" So to find her, Katrina vowed

Altonsound as they reentered the stairwell and sped downstairs to the ground floor They failed to notice anyone in the building, except for a janitor inside one of the supply closets gathering his tools and supplies The janitor was oblivious to either of the va outside

"Finances are your bailiwick," Katrina announced while entering the passenger side of the vehicle

"Of course," Alton agreed brightly "And I happen to have a contact at Interpol who can help us"

Caleb unpacked his suitcase, placing his clothes in the guest roo bathroom He felt somber and tired, but most of all lost What do I do now?

"This oes to off to war and leaves the other behind," he e of the bed The minutes seemed to last forever as he sat in virtual li noise and looked up to see Paige leaning against the door jahtful

"You don&039;t knohat to do next, do you?" she ventured softly

"No, not really," he replied glu tiet to do the hard part We wait," she replied soberly "They&039;ll check in regularly to let us kno things are progressing In the meantime, we keep you safely occupied and as happy as possible"

He adopted a wry expression Safely occupied and happy as possible, he thought "Yeah? Like what?" he asked aloud, not necessarily directing his question to Paige

"We need soested

"Okay," he replied absently, if only for the sake of sohts were still focused on Alton&039;s and Katrina&039;s departure, but he didn&039;t want to get on a bad foot with Paige Being locked in a house with a hostile vaan with a char smile, "have you memorized all of Katrina&039;s rules yet?"

He looked up with surprise "You know about the rules?"

"Of course, silly," she chuckled "I lived with her for quite a few years We&039;ve talked about her partners in the past I&039;ll admit she has quite a few rules compared to other vampires"

"There&039;s normally fewer?" he inquired

She looked at him sharply "Yes, but that&039;s not important to you, Caleb," she clarified tactfully "What matters is that you learn and follow her rules"

He rolled his eyes

"So," she continued while sitting next to him on the bed, "you&039;veon that," he hedged

"When you can recite thee htfully

"You had to learn them?" he inquired

"Me?" she asked "My only rule is not revealing the true nature of our kind to hurade school again with these rules"

"You have to realize it&039;s hard for us to trust you humans," she explained diplomatically "Our anonyer humanity poses to us"

"I suppose I can understand that," he conceded "My initial reaction to her secret wasn&039;t exactly noble"

She giggled as if reuy"

Caleb turned what seemed like three shades of red simultaneously and felt the heat quickly rise to his face "I see my storied reputation spread fast"

"Yep, old Tree Branch Caleb," she said grandly in her best southern drawl "That&039;s how you&039;re known in these parts"

"Great," he said wryly "Just great" It wasn&039;t the proudest rinned at his reaction before adopting ayou She actually thinks it&039;s pretty a now," she said "I can tell she adores you, Caleb"

His thoughts went immediately to Katrina He worried for her safety and wished she hadn&039;t left hirand-sized box, coe see and reached across the short distance between thehtly

"I could&039;ve helped her," he ht when vampires can&039;t, for exaranted, "That&039;s helpful, I admit"

"And before you arrived, Katrina drilled me in some potentially handy martial arts moves," he added optimistically

Her smirk faded as she withdrew her hand fro delusional A few &039;moves&039; doesn&039;t etic gesture "Fine, I&039;e adopted an incredulous visage "And I thought you were actually suy Listen chaood shape, but you&039;re no match for us on your best day Any one of us would wipe the floor with you Trust htfully as he stared into her blue eyes It was difficult to envision her as overtly dangerous

"You huile than you think when it co sore for days after being tossed around by Katrina that evening in the park "She did throw ht of the branch incident," he re to kill you," Paige ventured with a grin

"It sure felt like it at the time," hewhat to say next, or how best to say it "Katrina&039;s like a sister to an slowly "And I can tell you that she wouldn&039;t go to this reat deal to her You and I both know she loves you, kiddo"

A warrinned at hi in his expression "And I&039;h about her to trust her to have your best interests at heart," she ventured quietly

He nodded and smiled back wanly Yes, I trust Katrina and feel deep appreciation for what she&039;s doing to protect me I just yearn to be with her, maybe try and help her somehow Instead, I&039;h patience topart

Katrina and Alton checked into a hotel on the outskirts of Atlanta They needed a te Chi to the estate and further agitating Caleb, the hotel allowed them immediate mobility to act or relocate as warranted Once settled in the roohts immediately turned to her s before Paige picked up After giving her a brief update, she asked about Caleb

"Just as you predicted, he was irritable initially, but he&039;s doing e reported in an upbeat tone

"Where is he now?" Katrina asked

"He&039;s in the shower in a guest roo there while I&039;m in the sublevel Do you want to chat with him?"

Katrina considered it and declined, "No, it&039;s probably better if I don&039;t just yet He&039;ll likely still be upset withhi on tracking Chie paused, prohed and added, "Tell hirinning on the other end of the phone

"Now, that&039;s what I&039;htly

Katrina shook her head with a se," the spritely va up

Alton walked in fro, "Why do I feel like we&039;re two parents who just left the teenagers in charge of the house while we&039;re gone?"

Katrina chuckled "Good thing that one of the teenagers is a vareeably as he powered up his laptop on a nearby table

The first night without Katrina was difficult for Caleb After his shower, he received an update fro sitting in front of the computers and security surveillance syste him theroo his way up to the guest room

Once asleep, he had restless dreahtht at one of Georgia&039;s numerous Civil War battlefield parks Onehand in hand, and the next Katrina disappeared He called her nah dense trees, across battlefield cannon e, and across open stretches of grassy fields But his voice was barely a whisper even though he yelled at the top of his lungs

He finally heard snarling and growling sounds andan eerie-looking graveyard aainst Chimalma Both looked fierce, and their eyes were ablaze with fury He noticed that each coernails, which were dripping blood By thethe clothes of each woman Those have to be blood streaks, he realized

Katrina&039;s face turned towards hiht hand darted out and plunged into Katrina&039;s rib cage With one swift, terrifyingher still-beating heart while blood dripped thickly to the ground The Aztec-descended vampire screamed in exaltation Katrina&039;s eyes flashed and went dark as her body sluround He was stunned, and watched with horror while shouting, "Katrina! No! No!"

Then there was nothing

He awoke in nearly total darkness, the only light eital clock sitting atop the dresser across the rooasps and broke out in a cold sweat "Oh God," hehi position with the other ar open, and Paige was at his bedside He felt a brief rush of air wash against his slightly daht blue eyes illuminated in the darkness

"Are you okay, kiddo?" she asked with her cool pally to the side of his face

"Yeah," he breathed "Just a nightmare"

"Wow, you really broke out in a sweat," she remarked absently "Want to talk about it? I heard you shout Katrina&039;s naan to recount the brief nighthtstand It didn&039;t take long for comprehension to dawn on both their faces

"Well, I don&039;t have to be a dreaely

"Yeah," he remarked darkly "Keep your useless butt at hoet her killed"

"It&039;s probably best," Paige agreed "But she kno badly you want to be there with her It means a lot to her, Caleb"

He nodded and slipped over the opposite side of the bed He was thankful for having put on a pair of men&039;s paja bathroom He needed to towel off and didn&039;t want to parade around naked in front of her

"Nice-looking useless butt you&039;ve got there," she nevertheless teased while observing his lean, shirtless figure

He grinned and felt a growing appreciation for her cohts quickly turned back to Katrina, and he prayed that everything would turn out coht day as Katrina and Alton stayed safely behind the dark curtains of their hotel room that the first major break occurred in their hunt for Chimalma Alton used his laptop while Katrina reclined on the rooht a lockable cooler with packets of blood

"Chimalma made her first mistake," he observed with satisfaction

She sneered and countered darkly, "Her first nored her and continued, "Shetraced But she&039;s also still trying to run a small international company My Interpol contact acquired her corporate cell phone records, and guess what?"

Her interest was piqued, and she listened closely to her friend and rin "She&039;s still accepting calls on the corporate cell phone she carries," he added with satisfaction "I&039;ve got her latest location froet Interpol to help us?" she asked

He smiled "Simple Chimalma&039;s crimes qualify her as either a serial killer or domestic terrorist"

"Hm, helpful," she admired "Would there be someone of interest there, as well?"

"Perhaps," he replied with a smirk "But I&039;m not quite ready to say just yet"

"I&039;m happy for you," she offered sincerely

Alton continued to se, which he zooressively It was of an area near Warren, Pennsylvania, in the far northwestern corner of the state close to the southern border of New York He brought up MapQuest and focused on the city of Warren Katrina appeared at his shoulder to peer intently at the screen

"Why there?" she asked as hervariables

"It&039;s only a small town, barely eleven thousand people as of the last census," he noted as he searched the Internet for additional information "Established in 1796, its h hard econo as primary employers But look" He pointed to the screen

"CRE has a small corporate retreat just outside of town," Katrina observed

"Great location," he mused "Lots of forest and hills and very few people"

"But why there?" she insisted with a frown "She&039;s hiding froreement "Unless she wants us there In which case, she&039;s picking the battle ground"

Katrina scowled "Fine with me"

"Okay, destination known Nohat&039;s our plan, besides you tearing her to shreds?" he asked pointedly

She glared at hier would only be useful if channeled properly "I see explosives in her future," she said coldly

"Quite an extrerabber, don&039;t you think?" Alton queried "Perhaps a si would be better and far less dramatic?"

"Immolation eli we blow up a lodge full of potentially innocent people?" he insisted incredulously "That&039;s pretty bloodthirsty, even for you"

She gave hi expression and snapped, "Of course not Rather, we set up a kill zone near her and draw, or drag, her into it"

He considered the idea and conceded, "He for a charter flight, I&039;ll make a few calls to some contacts that can help outfit us with helpful tools"

"We&039;ll need a place to stay affording both privacy and soht," she added

Alton searched the Internet further as Katrina retrieved inforhts froe She had used Sunset Air a number of times The co her kind for both its discretion and safe, reliable service

"Got it," Alton said "There are cabins not far from the town of Warren I&039;ll reserve one for us"

"Fine," she warned "But we&039;re picking up some dark sheets and duct tape somewhere because I&039; from sun rays in a cramped cabin closet"

He chuckled and shook his head

It was early evening already, though it felt to Caleb that ti a biography on Theodore Roosevelt that he had brought froe into connecting his laptop to the Internet long enough for hia a few days prior However, she was attentive to his activities, and once he was finished, she disabled the wireless access in the house, rin Still, it allowed hia able to sit casually playing while Katrina and Alton did all of the dangerous work on his behalf Once again, I feel useless, he fue pants and a baby blue T-shirt, and sat barefooted at the computer hutch in Katrina&039;s sublevel room Caleb made his way down the steps and plopped down on the nearby bed He was going stir-crazy and was prepared to do just about anything to get out of the house, even if it were just for a few minutes He couldn&039;t recall a time in his past when he had endured the kind of isolation that he was experiencing

"Hey, any chance I could talk you into deactivating the front door code for about ten minutes?" he asked in a pleasant, innocent voice

She s so the lines of &039;Caleb stays inside the house, period&039;"

He glanced at her with a speculative expression, hoping she wouldn&039;t notice Much to his chagrin, she did

"Co walk?" he pleaded hopefully "I&039;ll only walk to the end of the driveway and back That&039;s all You can go along with me for protection, if you like"

She save her his best appreciative-looking s to be awful hard for you to take that ith two broken legs," she amended with narrowed eyes and flat voice

His eyes widened momentarily with surprise, and his sed "I havethe house"

He folded his arhed derisively

"For any reason," she said forcefully with a raised eyebrow "Remember, nobody&039;s supposed to know I&039;ent voice "I&039; stir-crazy in here"

"I sympathize with you Caleb I really do," she said "But it&039;s for your own safety, after all"

"Listen, I&039;ve never felt so bored and useless in arded hi back at hi for us to do then"

That caught hirinned ly "You could show me some of those handy vampire coave her a dirty look as she walked past hi area to turn on the wall-mounted television "You&039;re just plain sarcastic You know that, don&039;t you?" he called after her irritably She seee forced a laugh "Be nice Don&039;t make me stand you in the corner"

He hurried to the couch and found her already lounging on the cushions h cable channels She didn&039;t even glance up as he glared at her over the back cushion

"Oh, really? Stand me in the corner?" he pressed with a hint of incredulity

"Well, despite my appearance, I&039;m a lot older than you," she ventured "And you&039;re only in your uess that ster here"

He folded his arms before him and asked, "That so? Well, just how old are you then?"

"My vampire life?" she asked "Oh, I&039;m around the century mark now"

He hadn&039;t expected her to be quite that old Her youthful appearance and ht have only been a vampire for a short time "A century?"

To hih college She had a very modern attitude for someone from her ti that hard to believe," hea seat in an open spot at the end of the couch near her pale feet

Paige ignored him and continued to channel surf

"You&039;re solanced at hith "Really," she replied thoughtfully "Well, you apparently don&039;t know much about the early 1900s then It was a wild time, not y"

He felt the history teacher persona rising in him to take over "My specialty is really more the pre-twentieth century, but my impression is everyone was much more conservative in the early 1900s compared to today," he ventured

A smirk formed on her face and she corrected him, "Ah, that may have been true in soraphs, but I can tell you that people in the cities threw soood parties behind closed doors in those days" Her eyes grew distant, as if she were seeing another time "Oh yeah, some really wild parties behind closed doors, especially in the 1920s We did things that would put even cable TV shows to shame You see, people aren&039;t all that different, really, just the facades of what they want to shoardly"

"Well, but there was barely woe," she scoffed "I&039; about the essence of what makes men and women tick inside, Caleb The ehtly, which she regarded with a grin

"Oh yeah, that&039;s right," she teased "You&039;re the history professor Well, take it fro to read about it and another thing to live it"

Her statement struck hiood response, he ade seemed from Katrina

She observed his expression out of the corner of her eye while changing the channel to a romantic comedy "So, spill," she insisted sie term and offered, "You&039;re just so different from Katrina, that&039;s all You&039;re a lot less serious, for exah not fully focused on the movie before her She cast him a sober expression "Katrina&039;s serious for a reason I&039; as aas Katrina or Alton without ti some toll on you, I think So, I e," she explained "That is, if I e"

"What do you mean by that?" he asked

She considered her words carefully as he patiently waited

"Before Katrina left, she warnedinto Caleb&039;s eyes "She told me not to leave the house if at all possible She said that Chimal she&039;s been honing her skills And if Chies to elude Alton and Katrina somehoell, we don&039;t want to confront her out in the open"

"But you&039;re a va my kind," she explained in a quiet voice "Chimalma, Katrina, and Alton, they&039;re serious adults, the veterans"

He frowned at her o implied in her explanation

She noticed his reaction and offered a hopeful ser," she reassured him "I&039;ve never lost any kids on led at his reaction

"So, I wonder kno old Katrina is in vaave hilance and retorted, "Oh no, you don&039;t You&039;re not getting that out of me if Katrina hasn&039;t told you You take that up with her Though more than likely, she&039;ll tell you when she&039;s ready"

He sighed with resignation

"So, what do you say? How about a horror filood vampire movie on the Chiller Channel"