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"We got them all," she responded "And nice job, by the way"

He started wiping his bloodied and still shaking hands on his jeans No harht absently "You kill to a soundtrack?" he de "Even the et inside an enemy&039;s head"

He stared blankly at the blonde vampire, quite unsure what to say

"Well, that explains the blood," shefreely froerator behind Caleb

"I&039;ve never killed anybody before," he absently muttered as his ured," she s is unconscious, but he&039;s still alive"

His eyes darted to hers, and panic began to rise in hio take care of that now," she interrupted with a glance upstairs "Take off all of your clothes and leave theo upstairs and take a shower"

"My clothes?" he challenged

"Uh, yeah!" she retorted sharply "I don&039;t want any h the house than necessary We&039;ve got a lot of it to clean up as it is"

"Wait, won&039;t we need to worry about the police co soon? Soe scowled "Around here? Nah, the house&039;s insulation and security paneling on the ould&039;ve muffled some of it, and there&039;s too much distance between properties, as well as dense forest obstructions creating a sound buffer Besides, the types of people living in neighborhoods like this carelooks than whether or not they heard a noise frorow out of sorts That&039;s when they&039;ll co for you"

"Oh," he replied blankly He noticed that her T-shirt had two s through the fabric "You&039;re hurt!" he barked with alarlanced down at her un pellets I&039;ll be fine"

His htly and held up her hand for silence "Gotta run," she said

She darted up the stairs, and Caleb was left standing alone He sighed, stepped over to a dry portion of the floor away fro off his clothes Once finished, he felt extremely vulnerable as he tip-toed up the cool concrete stairs and through the house until reaching the stairway leading up to the bedrooms He peered around carefully and crept up the carpeted stairs and into his bedroo and slipped on fresh jeans and a snug black T-shirt Fortunately, he had grabbed a set of athletic shoes when hastily packing back at his apartment He considered how it felt like weeks since he&039;d seen his own place As he exited the bedroom and proceeded cautiously downstairs, he noticed occasional blood spots on the carpeted floor, but no bodies

He heard e beyond the kitchen Frowning, he quietlyinto the garage, it was hanging wide open and barely suspended froed hole, as though so had taken a half-moon bite out of it There were five black-unifor in a heap in the far corner of the garage to his right Caleb sed and scanned the rooainst the far wall by his neck The e laced with pain His left ar fixture froainst her hand as it held hie asked coldly "Or shall I break the other arled fashion

Caleb froze in place as he watched the event with horror Ever since e had re wo her bob-cut blonde hair, but her visage was completely vicious instead of playful It sent a shiver up his spine, and yet his eyes were unable to look away

Part of hi ell deserved, and part of hie&039;s violence So , completely vulnerable, in fact However, another part of Caleb wanted to be the one strangling the assailant instead of Paige It was that thought that chilled hile-hold, the led with another ee froze in place and continued pinning the assailant to the wall as her head slowly turned to gaze back over her shoulder at Caleb Her eyes were a blazing bright blue color, and their baleful appearance simultaneously filled hiaze, like a deer standing in the headlights of a speeding, onco train At thatpower of a vampire

"Caleb," she spoke in a lethally calo You proasp as he flailed in place with his legs

"Oh, I&039;ll keepdirectly at Caleb, but there was so cruel in her expression

Caleb becah his entire body as he stared wide-eyed at the scene before him

"The house, Caleb," she repeated cal his head up and down and stepped backwards until he felt his back hit the wall behind hied to stue&039;s full attention returned to the assailant Caleb&039;s breath was coasps as control slowly returned to his body

He was barely across to the other side of the kitchen when he heard a loud cracking sound, followed by the dull thue&039;s seo, as proh the house without really seeing where he was going until he reached the farthest room on the lower floor, which happened to be the study It was dark, save for the glow froe oak desktop Thebehind the desk had a heavyvisibility to the outside world, and he silently stood staring at it He was feeling a little distant fro himself in a drea before the shuttered

He stood silently for what felt like forever

"Caleb," proe&039;s quiet voice froed into some new black jeans and a plain white T-shirt with a pink Hello Kitty on the front

Caleb shut his eyes tightly and didn&039;t turn around He wasn&039;t sure how long he had been standing before the study , but noticed that the earlier tremor in his id, like a brick wall A san to creep back into his e asked gently

He was thankful that her voice had lost its quiet, lethal edge "Yes, fine," he replied quietly, carefully Please go away

She silently considered his response, as if studying him "It had to be done," she offered "You realize that, don&039;t you?"

He nodded Yet so still bothered hi new and terrible

She frowned and approached him from behind in a very deliberate, human way Her bare footfalls made noticeable sounds on the carpeted floor, which he was able to detect with his own hearing

Is that for ently, yet deliberately, she placed her right hand on his shoulder and immediately noted the hard tenseness of his muscles as he remained statue-still

"You and I are okay then?" she asked softly, but with a hint of uncertainty in her voice

He nodded "Yes, we&039;re fine"

She stepped closer, and her right arm wrapped underneath his arainst his ribs She elevated herself up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek ever so softly "I&039;uardian I&039;m here for your benefit, nobody else&039;s"

His body relaxed a little, and he opened his eyes

"I scared you, didn&039;t I?" she surmised easily

He nodded "Somewhat" No, you scared the hell out ofto hurt you," she reassured hily "I wouldn&039;t dare, even if so inclined You&039;re not like other humans anymore You&039;ve been claimed as a mate by a vampire You were special before, but you&039;re very special now"

Paige hugged his back snugly against the front of her body, and Caleb felt her warh his T-shirt and into the cool skin of his back He hadn&039;t realized he was feeling chilled until her body was against his She flexed her right arertip of her left hand to trace the outline of his left ear

She felt his pulse and his heartbeat and studied his breathing pattern "So you"

He considered her states dawned on him in its entirety "It&039;sthe e"

She frowned "Yes And?"

"I wanted to be the one strangling him"

Her eyes narrowed as she considered his revelation and ran the fingertips of her left hand gently across the left side of his face "Unusual for you, I think, given your disposition," she ventured "But understandable"

"I&039;ve never felt like that before" He frowned "It&039;s not like le for composure and avoidance to open hostility He had feared his father as a child, feared the anger directed at hie He never wanted to convey such violence against anyone else, so he avoided aggression altogether But soed in the past couple of hours Somehow the idea of violence didn&039;t see bad has awakened into e considered his response "Well," she whispered soothingly into his ear "I guess we&039;ll have to help you taerous, but control is useful and healthy"

A silent moently pressed her lips to the back of his neck and lightly kissed him

"What was that for?" he asked

"Because I&039;ly "You did very well today"

He shtly with her right hand "Coain And we&039;ve got a door in the garage to repair, as well"

"Wait," Caleb said suddenly

She kept her ar his question, but curiosity burned in him to know the answer "Earlier, when I was in the basean

She waited for hiht that e paused, patted him absently on the chest a couple of times with her hand and finally responded in a quiet voice, "Katrina taught me while I apprenticed with her I honedher to do mercenary work in unpleasant parts of the world"

He let that sink in for ato harly whispered in his ear "I learned froe pulled away from him and turned to lead the way from the room He turned to follow her and detected ato replace the dread that had pers

"You were pretty scary today I didn&039;t expect that from you," he said "And you seeo"

"Well, not totally prepared, really," she replied sourly as they proceeded down the hallway

"Yeah? How so?" he asked

"I forgot to pack lu was ruined, of course"

The recollection about her storasp her shoulder frounshot wounds!" he exclaimed "Are you okay?"

She stopped, turned to him, and lifted the lower portion of her T-shirt to reveal two sainst the pale, s up fine," she replied happily

He gaped at her "You heal fast, but what about the bullets?"

She sun pellets in her open hand "Vampires are resilient, Caleb," she offered with a s?"

He frowned, briefly recalling the earlier scene in the garage between her and the assailant and replied darkly, "A and terrible all at the sareed in a subdued tone as she lowered her T-shirt

Katrina raced froree of stealth as she gave the storage building a wide berth in favor of approaching from the opposite direction In the end, it was a sound decision

She saw Chi over Alton as he lay on the ground and quickly realized that he was seriously wounded She unraveled the steel cable wound over her shoulder and raced towards her target froer flared like a volcano inside her as she closed in

Chimalma raised her machete to strike down at Alton when Katrina deliberately hissed The renegade valare at her with an incensed expression

Alton used the split-second opportunity to stab at Chimalma&039;s calf ear The short blade i seamlessly, and the Aztec vae of the situation to lasso Chimalma&039;s neck with the steel cable and jerk with all of her strength, causing the injured va her machete Katrina hauled on the steel cable with a swift ferocity, fueled by the severe angst and anger welling up inside of her She was nearly feral as she pulled the renegade varound

Katrinaher so she could wind the steel cable around her ar her tes and hissed in anger and pain as Katrina repeatedly and ferociously slaloved fist into the woman&039;s head until Chimalma&039;s head was severely bloodied

The pain that Katrina felt in her hand was nothing coht be dead, combined with the concern she felt for her wounded friend Alton lay on the ground on his back, clutching at the hilt of the knife protruding from his abdomen

"Go!" he yelled in a raspy voice

Katrina wasted no ti vampire over her shoulder and sprinted into the woods like a deht towards the kill zone

"Kill me, but your huonized voice with Alton&039;s blade i her calf

"Die, you bitch!" Katrina yelled as she swiftly arrived in the designated clearing overlooking a large river near a sheer cliff

She threw the ancient varabbed at the combat crossbow at her waist Katrina fired two bolts into the varound One of Chis, and she fell to the ground, dropping the crossbow Rather than continue the rabbed for the detonator on her web gear

She glanced back onlyherself from the steel cable that encircled her body Rather than wait any longer and risk her escape, Katrina pressed the detonator button and fell face-first onto the ground as simultaneous bursts of individual explosions erupted She squinted into the ulfed in a fiery inferno

It was an explosion of fantastic proportion and would likely usher people to the area in a short time Katrina rose to her feet once the initial heat wave passed her, and as she stuhts were iers fumbled with her cell phone as her hands treer and fear She shakily scrolled through the auto-dial until arriving at the estate nu the call button as fear welled up in her chest and throat to nearly uncontrollable levels

The phone rang five tie&039;s voice

"Katrina?" asked Paige anxiously

"Caleb," was all she ed to say without her voice&039;s collapse into wails of tears and anguish

There was a ly, "Caleb&039;s fine We were attacked in force, but we ed to stop them"

Katrina iround as her ar uncontrollably A raw cascade of stressful eht of Caleb&039;s potential death cae&039;s concerned voice "Katrina? Are you okay?"

It was a number of ain

Katrina e that Chi to aid Alton On her way, she spotted two guards dressed in hunter&039;s ca the other side of the grounds until the explosions sounded She took the tih to strike

Knowing Alton was injured, she realized that he would need fresh blood if healing were an option To save time, she flew out of the darkness at both round with a swift kick and sh-velocity punch of her fist The latter round in an unconscious state with a thud The other guard was atte to recover when Katrina swiftly jabbed hi for air, and she punched him on the side of the head to render hiathered up the twoon the ground He pulled the wavy-bladed knife from his abdomen, and blood flowed out of the wound Katrina dropped the two guards to the ground and bent down to begin licking at Alton&039;s abdominal wound After some time and effort, she was able to seal the laceration partially However, her friend had lost a lot of blood and was barely conscious

She grabbed the nearest guard and deftly used her knife to slice into his throat so thefrom the cut She held his neck over Alton&039;sHis hands flew up to the man&039;s body and held it in check as he continued to feed It took only a short time to drain the man of his easily acquired blood, and Katrina uard in the same manner Alton only needed half as round as Katrina cast the guard aside

"We have to go soon," she insisted as she inspected Alton&039;s abdominal wound

"Go," he insisted "I&039;ll catch up You need to get to Caleb"

She s&039;s fine And I&039;ed a wan smile "You did very well, Katrina I&039;rin "You better be proud of me every day" She bent down and kissed hiently "For everything"

"You&039;re alelcome, my dear," he said with a smile and cautioned with a raised eyebrow: "Best be careful Caleb would be jealous if he saw that kiss"

She set much more than that from uard&039;s bodies, Katrina took the tiasoline She doused the bodies thoroughly and set fire to them She also threw Chiround where Alton&039;s blood had spilled By that tih shape for her to help usher him away from the location She was suddenly happy that the facility was so far removed from the nearby town

They returned to the cabin, where Katrina loaded the vehicle with their res She drove them to the nearby private airport, where another chartered aircraft aiting to take theested that they would arrive back at the estate in the waning hours prior to dawn

And while Alton seemed anxious for their return to Atlanta, Katrina was beside herself with anticipation