Nighttime Guests

Alton focused on preparing and rechecking the equipment and supplies intended for their night-time assault. They also studied the satellite images of the area around the retreat facility, as well as maps of the area roads and designated points of interest within miles of their target.

When evening finally arrived, both vampires felt as prepared as possible for their endeavor. As Alton helped load their implements into the Jeep, he took note of Katrina's focused manner.

"I've seen that look on your face before, you know," he observed as she closed the back door of the Jeep with a resolute push of her hand.

Her piercing green eyes probed into his as she inquired, "And when was that, exactly?"

"Decades ago, actually. Around the time of your last hunt for Chimalma," he recalled.

She arched an eyebrow. "Yes, but this time's different."

"Really? How so?"

Her expression was stony. "Last time was a fruitless hunt. This time, I plan to be successful and perhaps gain a little closure."

Alton nodded silently as he walked around to the driver's side of the Jeep while Katrina secured the cabin's front door.

This time, Chimalma, I'll commit you to dust, she vowed coldly, and you'll never threaten Caleb or me again.

The night was cold and clear, with a crescent moon shining among the array of stars blanketing the sky. They arrived outside the retreat facility close to ten o'clock and parked the Jeep some distance away. Exiting the vehicle, they each wore black jeans, sweaters, leather gloves, and hiking boots. They dabbed black shoe polish on their faces to subdue their pale skin, confident they would blend into the night quite effectively. Additionally, Katrina tied her long, red hair back in a single, tight ponytail.

Alton secured two combat knives to his web gear and was armed with a small automatic pistol with silencer. They were his weapons of choice for the type of activities they planned. Though fighting wasn't his preferred activity, he had experienced enough in his time on Earth that he was no stranger to various forms of combat and violence.

She adjusted her black leather harness gear that held a number of knives and throwing stars. They served her well when she performed stealth work. Wrapped across her shoulder and extending to her hip was a long coil of steel cable, which he had convinced her was superior for carrying in a stealthy situation and was almost as strong as the logging chain she wanted to bring. She admired his forethought on the matter and silently berated herself for not having thought of it first. She also sported the repeating combat crossbow with a leather sheaf of the wood-shafted, metal-tipped bolts.

Both vampires slipped small tactical ear bone conduction microphone/receivers into their right ears, which would allow them to stay in relatively silent communication with each other so long as they remained in close proximity and away from sources of interference. The devices were highly effective and commonly used by military and police tactical teams.

Alton handed her a small handheld detonator. "I have one just like it tuned to the same frequency. That way either one of us can trigger the explosion when we're ready."

Katrina nodded, and he handed her the small electronic jammer they used at the downtown office building in Atlanta.

"Do you remember my instructions regarding its use?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Don't forget you only have ten minutes of power once it's activated," he added, "during which time our communications will go dead."

"Got it," she replied while slipping it into a holder attached to her leather harness. "I'll try not to use it, if possible."

"Let's go then," Alton suggested.

Both vampires moved out silently into the nearby woods in the direction of the retreat facility.

The area was hilly and packed with dense trees interspersed with hiking trails. Small creeks throughout the area emptied into a large river running directly below the small meadow intended for use as the kill zone. Both of them kept to the trees, though their skilled vampire bodies were adept at moving silently through the dense coverage. They moved a short distance apart, so they were approaching the retreat grounds from slightly different angles. Katrina intended to approach somewhat from the front, while Alton would approach from the back because it was closer to the area where he needed to set up the kill zone.

Alton made his way up the facing of a steep, tree-covered hill and soon came upon one of the small hiking trails. He avoided the trail because it was more easily watched or booby-trapped and remained in the trees as his acute senses tuned to any unusual sounds or movements.

After ten minutes, he detected the sounds of a human moving around in the dry leaves covering parts of the ground. He approached to within twenty feet of the guard, who wore hunter's gear and carried a rifle with a night scope. The guard smoked a cigarette near one of the small hiking trails and appeared somewhat bored. He stamped his feet to generate warmth, obviously having been standing in the cold night for some time.

Alton retrieved his silenced pistol and managed to creep to within four feet of the man and slightly behind his area of vision. He raised his pistol and fired once at the base of the man's head, affecting an immediate kill. The figure slumped to the ground, and Alton stamped out his lit cigarette and pulled the figure into some dense bushes nearby. Then he moved silently onwards to seek additional guards.

"One down," he whispered.

Katrina heard and smiled grimly as she made her way through the trees. Her senses felt attuned to the natural environment around her, and she reveled with the thrill of the hunt. Yet another part of her was anxious for it to be over. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could return to Caleb.

Still, she shamefully admitted that the renewal of violence of the past few days had rekindled a sense of pleasure. She loved to stalk prey, regardless of whether it were humans or animals. It was a vampire attribute she relished and warmly embraced, even though in recent years, she sought more sedate and reclusive feeding habits. Now she felt the call of the hunt, though for serious reasons and much higher stakes than her personal pleasure. Now it's for my mate. Just the thought of Caleb and the manner in which he fulfilled the role of mate supplied her with renewed vigor for her task at hand.

Before long, she heard the sound of a person some distance ahead coughing in the night. Her hearing zeroed in on the man's location, and she began the stealthy endeavor of stalking him. He was dressed in traditional hunter's garb, but held an assault rifle with infrared scope. The man was looking through the infrared sight, but was looking to his right and sweeping left in her direction.

She increased the speed of her closure to the man's position and moved more to the rear of him so his scanning arc wouldn't point in her immediate direction without his turning around. Even in the dry winter conditions, she avoided noise that would alert someone to her presence. The breeze caused tree limbs to brush together, generating some ambient noise as her footfalls fell relatively silently one after another.

Once she arrived to within thirty feet of the man, Katrina aimed her combat crossbow at the figure and carefully locked him in her sights. After accounting for the minimal wind, she let loose a bolt that caught the man squarely in the mid-left quadrant of his back. He fell to the ground with little struggle, and she closed the distance to him to slash swiftly downwards across his throat with one of the combat knives sheathed in her web gear.

"One down," she whispered.

She continued on her way, once again scanning the distance with her keen senses to detect another guard.

Within an hour, both of them had taken six more guards out of operation. Alton moved towards the designated kill zone to start distributing his explosives in an even, circular pattern for the most efficient detonation.

Meanwhile, Katrina moved closer to the retreat facility, a medium-sized, two-story conference center with built-in suites of guest rooms. There was also a small restaurant built into one end of the facility, along with a small boat house skirting an oversized pond just behind the main building. The only other major structure was a large storage building positioned well away from the conference center to the east of the boat house.

Katrina was struck by how the entire compound seemed to be closed. There were only half a dozen vehicles in the parking lot, which likely belonged to some of the guards on duty. She had expected to encounter a contingent of guests who would pose an additional impediment to their plans. The Website for the facility didn't indicate any specific closure periods during the winter months, although it was only about two weeks from Christmas. Whatever the reason for the abandoned facility, she found the development encouraging.

She made her way towards the storage building, the nearest structure to her position, allowing her the opportunity to examine further the central complex grounds from a relative degree of cover. As she hugged the building, she wondered how Alton was coming along with the explosives.

"Alton?" she whispered. "Status?"

There was a silent pause.

"Nearly halfway complete," Alton replied finally.

"I'm at the storage building just east of the boat house to survey the grounds further," she whispered. "Then I'll move into the facility for Chimalma."

"Right," he replied. "Be careful. I'll head for the storage building after I'm done here."

"Copy that," she whispered. She permitted a small smile to cross her lips as she moved forward.

Alton completed the configuration of explosives and double-checked the array. While working, he reflected on his experience with demolitions, honed during clandestine operations that he performed for the British Secret Service during World War II and again during brief periods of the Cold War. Of course, he had conducted the operations under separate names and identities, but the cumulative experience had proven handy at such times.

He returned to the retreat grounds, being careful to ensure that no additional guards moved into the area. After arriving effortlessly at the storage building near the boat house, he failed to see Katrina in the immediate vicinity.

"At the storage building," he whispered.

There was a pause, and Katrina replied, "Area surveyed. Moving into the main facility."

"I'll stage near the facility to watch for guards and respond as needed," he whispered.

"Copy," she replied.

Katrina completed her survey of the main grounds of the retreat complex, but found no other guards outside. She moved towards the rear entrance of the building where there was less direct lighting from exterior sources. Most of the interior of the building was dark, except for main hallways and some offices, which appeared vacant.

She tried the rear entrance and was wary when she found it to be unlocked. Abruptly, she heard the sound of Chimalma's voice from within the lower level near the main office area. She reached to her web gear, extracted the small jamming device, and activated it. Unfortunately, her communications with Alton would be suspended until she turned it off again or until the ten-minute battery expired.

After only a moment, Katrina no longer heard the sound of Chimalma's voice as she entered the open area, which appeared to be a gathering room for socializing and mingling near the registration desk. She peered down the length of a long hallway as she made her way to the front entry area and on to the main offices where she originally heard Chimalma's voice.

A guard wearing a woodland camouflage uniform and carrying a silenced submachine gun appeared at the very end of the hallway and pointed his weapon at her. In a blur, she grasped three throwing stars from her web gear and flung them at high velocity down the length of the hall towards the guard as he was pulling the trigger. Two rounds passed in front of Katrina's body. The others went wild into the ceiling when the throwing stars impacted the man's upper chest and throat. He spun to the ground clutching at his neck, and in a matter of seconds, fell silent.

She proceeded towards the main offices.

* * *

Alton was preparing to move around the storage building to head for the front of the facility when he heard a small sound behind him. He swiftly turned with pistol in hand and saw the long, curvy blade of a knife already speeding towards him. He barely had time to swivel his body to avoid being hit in the chest with the blade, instead imbedding firmly into his stomach with a meaty thud.

He grunted from the impact and saw a blur of movement as the dark-clad figure of Chimalma kicked him in the chest with a booted foot, knocking him to the ground as his pistol spun off into the night to land on the ground nearby.

"Well, if it isn't Alton," she offered with a dark expression as she hefted a short-bladed machete in her right hand. "Ever the foolish chevalier, I see."

"Go to hell," he muttered through clenched teeth as his hand went to the hilt of the blade buried in his stomach.

"You first," she seethed back at him with scowl as she moved towards him with the machete raised.

* * *

The day passed rather quickly for Paige and Caleb. They performed a number of mundane domestic tasks, including laundry, vacuuming and mopping the floors, and cleaning the bathrooms. He was less than enthusiastic about the chores, but she quickly convinced him that despite the anticipation of word from Katrina, daily life had to continue. Paige emphasized that Katrina was particularly orderly and would be very appreciative for their efforts upon her return. That finally convinced him to put some vigor into his endeavors. She was additionally pleased that it kept him occupied during the day, leaving less time for boredom or feeling listless.

Once evening arrived, Paige showered and changed into fashionable blue jeans that fit her perfectly and a Goth black Garbage concert T-shirt bearing a picture of Shirley Manson. After Caleb showered and cleaned up, he slipped on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and went looking for something to eat.

As he finished eating a single-sized, oven-baked lasagna, Paige walked by the kitchen counter where he sat. She shriveled her nose and frowned unpleasantly as she glanced at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked while chewing the last bite.

"Dude, there's way too much garlic in that," she noted with disgust.

He raised his eyebrows curiously. "Oh yeah, vampires are allergic to garlic, aren't they?"

She gave him a withering expression. "No, Van Helsing, vampires aren't allergic to garlic," she teased. "There's just way too much in that dish. Remember? Keen sense of smell?" She paused and added, "Besides, garlic alters the appreciable flavor of your blood for a time after you consume it."

He grinned. "Sort of curdles the milk?"

She considered that and smirked. "Yeah, something like that."

"I guess I'm safe for tonight then," he quipped with a smile. "You nibbler!"

She stuck her tongue out, countering, "Not funny, Tree-Branch Boy."

He washed the dishes as she perched on a kitchen stool casually watching him.

"So," Paige ventured. "What sounds good for tonight? Movie, TV, or maybe a game of cards? I'm a pretty mean poker player."

Caleb rinsed the dishes, placing them in the drain board next to the sink. "How about chess?" he suggested.

She considered his offer. "Ok, kiddo. But I hope you won't feel too bad when I kick your butt at it."

"We'll see," he mused with a sly grin and headed to the living room where Katrina kept a chessboard.

"Hey, hold up, tiger," Paige interjected. "Go brush your teeth and use some mouthwash to get rid of the garlic breath. No chemical warfare allowed in the chess game!"

He chuckled and headed upstairs. Ten minutes later, the two were playing chess while Paige sipped at a glass of warm blood that he had prepared for her.

"No sympathy points for the blood offering," she warned. "But thanks, much appreciated."

He smiled as they exchanged a series of rapid moves and counter moves, trading some pawns in the process. Caleb began thinking more thoroughly about his strategy. The spunky vampire proved to be quite an accomplished chess player. It surprised him, since she always seemed more the party-girl. But then, he considered there was likely much more to her than he suspected.

Paige alternated tapping two fingernails of her right hand on the coffee table as she stared across the chessboard at him.

"Hey, quit cheating," Caleb mock-complained as he carefully studied the variety of pieces remaining across the board.

"That's not cheating," she retorted as she continued the strumming while staring at him intently. "It relaxes me."

He glanced up at her, noticing her intent stare. "What?" he pressed with a frown.

"Are you sure you're up to a game of chess with a vastly superior being?" Paige asked with a grin.

Caleb grinned back and challenged, "You know, humans are far better chess players than vampires."

She frowned suspiciously. "How do you figure?"

He smiled. "Because vampires can only make effective use of their 'nights.'"

Paige shook her head with a sour expression and retorted, "Ew. I'm so gonna bite your neck over that one."

Their game continued at a more sedate pace, with each of them taking a deliberative period of time to consider their respective options quietly before moving.

As Caleb pondered his next move, Paige suddenly cocked her head to one side and froze in place. He looked up curiously and started to ask her what was wrong, but she held up her hand for silence.

Her eyes widened, and in a blur of movement she lurched up from her chair to grab him by his upper right arm, jerking him to his feet abruptly. "Crap! We should've played in Katrina's room. We've got visitors," she snapped as she dragged him into the kitchen and threw open the door to the basement before pulling him down the stairs.

"Who? What's going on?" he demanded as his pulse rate soared.

At the bottom of the stairs, she pointed to the far corner of the room towards a stack of crates and boxes and ordered, "Hide behind those crates and keep quiet, no matter what. And stay put! I'm coming back for you!" Then she bounded up the stairs, closing the door to the basement behind her.

He glanced frantically around him and started for the stack of crates when he paused and looked at the nearby workbenches. Need a weapon, he resolved.

Spotting a medium-sized steel crowbar, he grabbed it and hefted it in his right hand. The lights abruptly went out, but instead of heading for the crates, he moved back towards the foot of the stairs and felt his way to the side of the concrete steps. He stood along the lower side of the stairs in front of the refrigerator so he could get a clear swing at someone who might descend to the floor level. It also provided a small degree of visual shelter for him until someone descended to the bottom.

His heart felt like it was going to explode as he listened intently for any noises from above. He thought he heard a small popping sound followed by a door crashing into a wall. There was the muted sound of boots scuffling upstairs.

Caleb jolted as he heard the song "Temptation Waits," by Garbage, begin to blare above from house's speaker system.

I'll tell you something

I am a wolf, but

I like to wear sheep's clothing

He heard muted gunfire followed by a blood-curdling scream and a thunderous crash upstairs.

I am a bonfire

I am a vampire

I'm waiting for my moment

Another muted scream came from above followed by two successive shotgun blasts.

I just can't get enough

I'm like an addict coming at you for a little more

An abrupt rumbling crash sounded upstairs, followed by some muted gunfire and more crashing sounds. Then there were no further noises, save for the loud music.

I'll tell you something

I am a demon

Some say my biggest weakness

Caleb was shaking slightly, but his jaw was set as he heard the door open at the top of the stairs. He saw a red light appear on the steps and walk its way down to the bottom of the stairs next to where he was standing in the pitch blackness. He raised the crowbar with his right arm and prepared to swing as the music blared from above.

The red laser dot swept forward and to the right as it made its way around to him. Silenced gunfire erupted, and he swung the crowbar with all his might. In the quick successive flashes from the weapon's muzzle, he saw a hooded figure in goggles wearing body armor as the crowbar connected with the figure's head with a dull thud.

Caleb slipped on something under his feet and plummeted downward as he heard the whizzing of bullets while the figure's assault rifle continued firing, even as the figure sprawled onto the floor near him. A cool fluid penetrated through his jeans and he reached up to rub his forehead with his hand, smudging himself slightly with the substance.

You are a secret

A new possession

I like to keep you guessing

He heard another sound at the top of the stairs followed by footsteps. Raising the crowbar where he sat panting, he planned a desperate strike at the figure's kneecap.

Katrina made her way into the main office area and approached a short hallway leading back to small offices. In the hallway she noticed letter-sized pieces of paper lying on the floor approximately two feet apart from each other. Each sheet bore the phrase Keep Reading in large black letters.

She frowned and followed the trail of papers while brandishing her crossbow, ready to fire at any immediate target. Her keen hearing registered only silence, reassuring her nobody else was in the immediate area.

At the end of the hallway was a small clerical office, including a small conference table with the repeating message of papers leading across the floor towards it. On the tabletop were a small digital recorder and a white piece of paper, which read ALTON IS ALREADY DEAD.

Katrina turned off the jamming device and snapped, "Alton! Alton, can you hear me?"

But she registered no response in her com link. She heard the small digital recorder lying on the table reactivate and begin playing its looping message in Chimalma's harsh-sounding voice. "Katrina, Caleb is dead. Mercenaries texted me to say they just entered the house. Too bad. It seems humans just don't take bullets very well, I'm afraid."

Katrina gasped as if her heart were being stabbed repeatedly by a knife. She wanted to scream out loud and barely managed to contain herself. Damn it, Paige, you better have saved him!

Whirling around, she ran through the facility towards the nearest exit in a blur. Her eyes were blazing green, and she felt like a maelstrom of anger and bitterness. She had one immediate focus: kill Chimalma.

Her only hope was to locate Alton's last position and expect that Chimalma was still there.

* * *

The cool, sticky fluid he sat in rendered standing too risky, so Caleb crouched on the floor. He nervously held the crowbar like a baseball bat, hoping he might have one more swing to someone's kneecaps left in him. As he heard the tentative footsteps above, he hoped his luck would hold out as it did with the first attacker.

"Caleb?" came Paige's tentative voice.

The crowbar clattered to the concrete floor, and he muttered, "Thank God."

"Caleb!" Paige gasped from somewhere in the darkness before a flashlight snapped on to flash down at him. "Oh hell! Where are you hurt?"

His eyes widened and he glanced down in the flashlight's glow to see he was sitting in a pool of blood. "Jesus!" he cried with shock.

"Crap, crap, crap," Paige chanted as she dropped the flashlight into his lap and began feeling around his body with her frantic hands. She sniffed suddenly and stopped running her hands over him. "Wait," she snapped and bent her face close to his.

Her tongue quickly darted to the blood on his forehead. "Good, good. Not your blood," she uttered. "Stay here!"

Then she was gone, and the assailant's body next to him seemed to leap off the floor and up the stairs with a scraping, dragging sound. Within moments, the loud music stopped, and the lights snapped back on.

"Ew, gross," he muttered as he stood shakily and stared at the red, slimy liquid covering his hands and the floor where he stood.

He heard a brief footstep on the stairs above, but when he looked up, Paige was already standing before him. There was blood smeared around her mouth, and he stared at her with wide eyes. Her youthful and playful appearance had turned macabre. She frowned at him.

"Oh, sorry," she apologized while wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Are they gone?" he asked.

"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 harm in that now, he thought absently. "You kill to a soundtrack?" he demanded.

"Throws the attacker off," she replied with a shrug. "Even the military uses music to get inside an enemy's head."

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

"Well, that explains the blood," she mused while gazing at the plasma seeping freely from the bullet holes in the refrigerator behind Caleb.

"I've never killed anybody before," he absently muttered as his mind replayed events from the past few minutes.

"I figured," she smirked. "And you still haven't. That thug is unconscious, but he's still alive."

His eyes darted to hers, and panic began to rise in him. "Where is he?"

"Yeah, I need to go take care of that now," she interrupted with a glance upstairs. "Take off all of your clothes and leave them on the floor. Then go upstairs and take a shower."

"My clothes?" he challenged.

"Uh, yeah!" she retorted sharply. "I don't want any more blood tracked through the house than necessary. We've got a lot of it to clean up as it is."

"Wait, won't we need to worry about the police coming soon? Somebody must have heard what happened," Caleb asked.

Paige scowled. "Around here? Nah, the house's insulation and security paneling on the windows would've muffled some of it, and there'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 care more about how nice your landscaping looks than whether or not they heard a noise from your property. Just try letting your lawn grow out of sorts. That's when they'll come looking for you."

"Oh," he replied blankly. He noticed that her T-shirt had two small holes across her midsection, and there was blood staining through the fabric. "You're hurt!" he barked with alarm as he pointed to her shirt.

She glanced down at her midriff. "Nah. Just a couple of shotgun pellets. I'll be fine."

His mouth fell open in shock.

Paige tilted her head slightly 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 from the growing pool of blood, and started stripping 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 bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Caleb finished showering 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'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 muffled sounds coming from the garage beyond the kitchen. Frowning, he quietly moved in that direction.

When he arrived at the door leading into the garage, it was hanging wide open and barely suspended from its hinges. The door handle section was merely a jagged hole, as though something had taken a half-moon bite out of it. There were five black-uniformed bodies wearing body armor lying in a heap in the far corner of the garage to his right. Caleb swallowed and scanned the room until he saw Paige holding one of the attackers against the far wall by his neck. The man's face was contorted in a look of rage laced with pain. His left arm was limp to his side, as if it were a hanging fixture from his body, and his right hand was grasping with futility against her hand as it held him in place.

"How many more of you are there?" Paige asked coldly. "Or shall I break the other arm too?"

"No more...none," the man gasped in strangled fashion.

Caleb froze in place as he watched the event with horror. Ever since meeting her, Paige had reminded him of a sweet, mischievous, and spritely young woman. She still looked the same, save for some blood streaking 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 him felt that what the assailant was receiving was well deserved, and part of him was disgusted by Paige's violence. Somehow the middle-aged assailant with graying mustache seemed far less threatening, 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 him to the core.

As she maintained her strangle-hold, the man struggled with another emphatic response: "Just us!"

Paige 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 him with both awe and terror. He felt frozen in place by her gaze, like a deer standing in the headlights of a speeding, oncoming train. At that moment, she emanated and embodied the visceral, terrifying power of a vampire.

"Caleb," she spoke in a lethally calm voice. "You need to go back into the house now."

"Let me go. You promised!" the man sputtered in a strangled gasp as he flailed in place with his legs.

"Oh, I'll keep my promise," she assured him calmly while still looking directly at Caleb, but there was something cruel in her expression.

Caleb became aware of a slight, uncontrolled tremor passing through his entire body as he stared wide-eyed at the scene before him.

"The house, Caleb," she repeated calmly. "Please."

He kept nodding his head up and down and stepped backwards until he felt his back hit the wall behind him. He managed to stumble down the short hallway into the kitchen only after Paige's full attention returned to the assailant. Caleb's breath was coming in small, ragged gasps 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 thump of something hitting the garage floor.

"There," Paige's semi-distant voice carried to his ears. "I let you go, as promised."

Caleb absently walked through 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 from the small desk lamp dimly illuminating the large oak desktop. The window behind the desk had a heavy metal plate in place blocking visibility to the outside world, and he silently stood staring at it. He was feeling a little distant from his body, as if seeing himself in a dream. And yet he realized that he was still standing before the shuttered window.

He stood silently for what felt like forever.

"Caleb," prompted Paige's quiet voice from the doorway. She had showered and changed 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't turn around. He wasn't sure how long he had been standing before the study window, but noticed that the earlier tremor in his muscles had dissipated. However, his entire body was rigid, like a brick wall. A small hint of terror began to creep back into his mind, like a bad memory resurfacing.

"Are you okay?" Paige 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't you?"

He nodded. Yet something still bothered him about his reaction earlier, something 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 my benefit? he wondered.

Very gently, 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're fine."

She stepped closer, and her right arm wrapped underneath his arm and across his lean chest muscles to rest flat against his ribs. She elevated herself up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek ever so softly. "I'm your babysitter, remember?" she asked gently. "Your guardian. I'm here for your benefit, nobody else's."

His body relaxed a little, and he opened his eyes.

"I scared you, didn't I?" she surmised easily.

He nodded. "Somewhat." No, you scared the hell out of me!

"Well, I'm not going to hurt you," she reassured him soothingly. "I wouldn't dare, even if so inclined. You're not like other humans anymore. You've been claimed as a mate by a vampire. You were special before, but you're very special now."

Paige hugged his back snugly against the front of her body, and Caleb felt her warmth penetrate soothingly through his T-shirt and into the cool skin of his back. He hadn't realized he was feeling chilled until her body was against his. She flexed her right arm gently to pull him against her and used the fingertip of her left hand to trace the outline of his left ear.

She felt his pulse and his heartbeat and studied his breathing pattern. "Something more is bothering you."

He considered her statement, and the source of his feelings dawned on him in its entirety. "It's me," he replied faintly. "I saw you strangling the man in the garage."

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've never felt like that before." He frowned. "It's not like me."

His entire life had been a struggle for composure and avoidance to open hostility. He had feared his father as a child, feared the anger directed at him at such a powerless age. He never wanted to convey such violence against anyone else, so he avoided aggression altogether. But something had changed in the past couple of hours. Somehow the idea of violence didn't seem so abhorrent anymore.

"Something bad has awakened in me, I think," he whispered. What's happening to me?

Paige considered his response. "Well," she whispered soothingly into his ear. "I guess we'll have to help you tame it. Avoidance is dangerous, but control is useful and healthy."

A silent moment passed.

"I appreciate it," he responded numbly.

She gently pressed her lips to the back of his neck and lightly kissed him.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Because I'm proud of you, kiddo," she whispered soothingly. "You did very well today."

He smirked. "Thanks, babysitter."

She patted his chest lightly with her right hand. "Come on, tiger. Let's try to get this house cleaned up again. And we've got a door in the garage to repair, as well."

"Wait," Caleb said suddenly.

She kept her arm around him and asked, "Yes?"

He reconsidered asking his question, but curiosity burned in him to know the answer. "Earlier, when I was in the basement, and I heard you fighting those men," he began.

She waited for him to continue.

"Where the hell did you learn to fight that many people at once?" he asked intently.

Paige 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 honed my skills with her for a few years, occasionally joining her to do mercenary work in unpleasant parts of the world."

He let that sink in for a moment.

"No human's going to harm you while I'm here, Caleb," she reassuringly whispered in his ear. "I learned from the best. So, come on. You can help me now."

Paige pulled away from him and turned to lead the way from the room. He turned to follow her and detected a more hopeful sensation beginning to replace the dread that had permeated his earlier feelings.

"You were pretty scary today. I didn't expect that from you," he said. "And you seemed prepared, just like you said a couple of days ago."

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

"Yeah? How so?" he asked.

"I forgot to pack more than one Shirley Manson T-shirt," she replied glumly. "The one I was wearing was ruined, of course."

The recollection about her stomach wounds resurfaced suddenly, and he reached out to grasp her shoulder from behind. "Oh crap, the gunshot wounds!" he exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

She stopped, turned to him, and lifted the lower portion of her T-shirt to reveal two small, faded scars slightly reddened against the pale, smooth skin of her stomach. "Healing up fine," she replied happily.

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

She smirked, reached into her pocket, and revealed two large shotgun pellets in her open hand. "Vampires are resilient, Caleb," she offered with a smile. "Aren't we amazing?"

He frowned, briefly recalling the earlier scene in the garage between her and the assailant and replied darkly, "Amazing and terrible all at the same time."

"Maybe a little of both," she agreed in a subdued tone as she lowered her T-shirt.

* * *

Katrina raced from the interior of the facility, trying to maintain a degree 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 Chimalma's dark-clad form standing 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 from behind. Anger 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 vampire's head twisted to glare at her with an incensed expression.

Alton used the split-second opportunity to stab at Chimalma's calf muscle with a combat knife unsheathed from his web gear. The short blade impaled her leg seamlessly, and the Aztec vampire screamed in pain.

Katrina immediately took advantage of the situation to lasso Chimalma's neck with the steel cable and jerk with all of her strength, causing the injured vampire to choke and grapple at her neck while dropping 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 vampire to the ground.

Katrina moved in a blur to punch at Chimalma's face, stunning her so she could wind the steel cable around her arms and chest, effectively rendering her temporarily immobilized. The vampire gnashed her fangs and hissed in anger and pain as Katrina repeatedly and ferociously slammed her gloved fist into the woman's head until Chimalma's head was severely bloodied.

The pain that Katrina felt in her hand was nothing compared to the agony of the idea that Caleb might 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 time, and hauled the still-hissing vampire over her shoulder and sprinted into the woods like a demon-possessed rocket heading straight towards the kill zone.

"Kill me, but your human pet is dead forever!" Chimalma seethed in an agonized voice with Alton's blade impaling 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 vampire into the clearing and grabbed at the combat crossbow at her waist. Katrina fired two bolts into the vampire, who howled with pain and thrashed on the ground. One of Chimalma's feet caught Katrina's legs, and she fell to the ground, dropping the crossbow. Rather than continue the melee, Katrina turned to flee as she grabbed for the detonator on her web gear.

She glanced back only momentarily to see Chimalma already hobbling and disentangling herself 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 maelstrom and saw Chimalma's body engulfed 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 stumbled away from the area, her thoughts were immediately of Caleb and Paige.

Her fingers fumbled with her cell phone as her hands trembled with a mix of nearly overwhelming anger and fear. She shakily scrolled through the auto-dial until arriving at the estate number, hesitating a split second before pressing the call button as fear welled up in her chest and throat to nearly uncontrollable levels.

The phone rang five times before she heard Paige's voice.

"Katrina?" asked Paige anxiously.

"Caleb," was all she managed to say without her voice's collapse into wails of tears and anguish.

There was a momentary pause, and then Paige answered reassuringly, "Caleb's fine. We were attacked in force, but we managed to stop them."

Katrina immediately sank to her knees onto the cold, hard ground as her arms fell to her sides, and she began sobbing uncontrollably. A raw cascade of stressful emotions from the thought of Caleb's potential death came crashing out.

"Katrina?" came Paige's concerned voice. "Katrina? Are you okay?"

It was a number of moments before relief took over and she was able to speak again.

Katrina managed to tell Paige that Chimalma was dead, and that she was returning to aid Alton. On her way, she spotted two guards dressed in hunter's camouflage who had apparently been patrolling the other side of the grounds until the explosions sounded. She took the time to stalk them until she could get close enough 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 men, and before they could react, knocked one to the ground with a swift kick and smashed the other man in the face with a high-velocity punch of her fist. The latter man hit the ground in an unconscious state with a thud. The other guard was attempting to recover when Katrina swiftly jabbed him in the throat to disable him. He began gasping for air, and she punched him on the side of the head to render him unconscious.

She immediately gathered up the two men and carried them back to where Alton was still lying on 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'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 the man's blood began flowing from the cut. She held his neck over Alton's mouth, and the vampire began drinking. His hands flew up to the man'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 moved to the second guard in the same manner. Alton only needed half as much blood from his body and lay on the ground as Katrina cast the guard aside.

"We have to go soon," she insisted as she inspected Alton's abdominal wound.

"Go," he insisted. "I'll catch up. You need to get to Caleb."

She smiled warmly at her friend. "I called them. Everything's fine. And I'm not leaving you."

He managed a wan smile. "You did very well, Katrina. I'm proud of you today."

Katrina cracked a grin. "You better be proud of me every day." She bent down and kissed him warmly on the lips. "Thank you," she muttered gently. "For everything."

"You're always welcome, 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 smiled slyly. "He won't mind. He'll get much more than that from me once we return home."

Given the DNA evidence on the two guard's bodies, Katrina took the time to break into the storage building and procure some gasoline. She doused the bodies thoroughly and set fire to them. She also threw Chimalma's blade into the fire and burned the ground where Alton's blood had spilled. By that time, he was in good enough 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 remaining belongings. She drove them to the nearby private airport, where another chartered aircraft was waiting to take them back to Atlanta. Fortunately, their flight schedule suggested 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.

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