After Dawn, What Came Next

In a way it was difficult for Christian to take the two vampires seriously. Neither one of them looked old enough to shave let alone like the fanged immortal minions of the damned they truly were. He had promised on Rachael’s grave not to tell a soul a thing if they’d just forget about him. He hadn’t promised however, to forget about them. He couldn’t ever forget the terrifying reality of the things that went bump in the night. Christian grasped the cross around his neck as if it would do him any good and had crab walked his way into a tight corner as far away from the two vampires as he could get. Once in a while, whenever he would find the bravado to open his mouth to speak. David would shoot him with the squirt gun loaded with holy water and smirk at him, daring him to utter a word of complaint.

“It might help our case if you’d quit picking on him,” Cole grumbled. He jerked the squirt gun out of David’s grip and tossed it across the room. He turned to glare at Christian. “And it would help if you’d shut up and quit begging for your life. I told you we’re not going to kill you.”

“Although the idea is tempting,” David added. David leaned propped up against the wall studying Christian as he contemplated exactly what they were going to do about their latest problem. He should lend Christian to the Guardians for the night. About right now the first round of patrols would be headed in and they would be hungry. That might save them the trouble of figuring out exactly what to do with him.

There was another problem looming on the foreseeable horizon. The ballsy fucker had kissed Cat. Anything they might contrive to do with him might be a far sight better than what the brothers would do to Christian once they found out about the kiss. David hadn’t gotten around to mentioning that particular little detail to Cole yet. Cole considered Cat, as most of the brothers did, the daughter he would never have and he would not be pleased to hear about the kiss.

“If I could just make a call,” Christian begged. “I was supposed to meet someone tonight and she’ll think I stood her up. Five minutes, that’s all, I swear. I won’t tell her a thing. It’s just that I like this girl…you know.”

Cole snickered at the thought of any woman thinking this kid was datable. Of course, he was biased. Christian looked so much like Rachael and it was hard to see him as his own person instead of an extension of his older sister. “Who is the lucky lady?”

“Shut up,” David hissed. This kid was going to dig his own grave and put himself in it if he didn’t zip his lip. So much like Rachael, Christian defiantly squared his shoulders and opened his mouth to speak.

“Um, her name is Cat…and she’s…h…o…t.”

Cole was on his feet and across the room, hauling the kid up by the collar and wrapping his fingers around his throat. “What did you say her name was?” Christian was turning a strange shade between a red and a purple. His feet dangled off the floor as Cole held him suspended by the neck. Cat? Hot? As in a sexual way? Not his little Kitty Cat as he had playfully called her since she was old enough to toddle. NO. WAY. IN. HELL. “Did you put your filthy hands on her? Did you?” He shook Christian as if he could rattle the truth out of him.

“I….I….,” Christian heaved. The room was spinning and dark spots floated in and out of his visual field.

David laid a hand on Cole’s straining bicep. If he didn’t let the kid breathe they weren’t going to have to worry about what to do with him. “Cole, you really can’t kill him.”

Cole relaxed his grip. Christian sucked in deep breaths of air, coughing and gagging, swallowing desperately to keep from tossing his cookies between shuddering fits. David was right. They really couldn’t kill him. But, in this case, the brotherhood might make an exception to the rule. All things aside though, they owed Rachael a life for a life and this kid had just collected the debt. Christian probably didn’t realize the full extent of something as simple as a kiss. There was no way out of it now. No way to shield him from the truth of their world. He had unwittingly thrust himself hip deep into the thick of it. Cole hauled Christian by the collar, dragging him out the door and into the hallway. “You want to know the truth. Well, you’re about to find out all of it.”

David evaluated the possibility of doing any kind of damage control and realized there was absolutely no way in hell to clean up this mess. No matter what might have happened. Whether or not Cole had found out about the kiss. There was no way they could have possibly let Christian go. He was in their world now, no matter if he wanted to be or not. Secrets came at a high cost and knowledge was a very expensive thing. Christian was about to pay the price for his curiosity. He had simply learned too much. He would have to make a choice, if he wanted to ever see the light of day again.

Christian longed for Cat’s kiss. Well, he was about to get one hell of a kiss. There was no way out of it now. Christian had sealed his fate the moment he had begun investigating the existence of vampires. He was about to get a crash course in blood donation and who better for him to donate it to than Cat?











Chapter 46

Cat tried to hide her disappointment behind a smile and failed miserably. They had been waiting at the cemetery for hours and Christian hadn’t even bothered to send a text out of courtesy. Would a five second text have killed him? Just a quick hey I’ve changed my mind would have spared her hours of waiting and metric tons of embarrassment. Nobody said so, but they were all thinking it. She had been an idiot for kissing him in the first place. Christian was human. Lying was not a new concept, but it was so rare in the compound that she had trouble wrapping her mind around the idea of deceit. Nobody that she knew of had ever lied to her before and the betrayal of it hurt beyond anything she could have imagined.

Christian could have told her to get lost. No harm no foul in admitting the truth. But, why hadn’t he? Why had he kissed her the way he had and led her to believe something was there between them that obviously wasn’t? Was he simply too chicken shit to call her and tell her the truth? Sure, she didn’t have any experience with men, but she didn’t think the kiss was that bad. Bad enough for him not to call and at least spare her the embarrassment of lurking around in some cemetery in the middle of the night like some damned ghoul.

She was cold, hurt, and angry with no one, but herself for trusting him in the first place. Cat tried to look for the silver lining in this particular cloud of gloom. There really wasn’t one. She had gotten her first real kiss from a boy, such as it was. There at least was that. She hadn’t quite succeeded on her first real assignment, but she hadn’t necessarily failed either. She was embarrassed by her gullibility, but her friends were quick to forgive her for dragging them out here and freezing their asses off for nothing.

The guys wisely kept their distance, but the girls of the pack hovered around her offering much needed emotional support. Guys really didn’t do emotions. They’d probably make her feel worse in their feeble attempts to help than she already did. Danni tucked an arm around her shoulders and Barbara one around her waist. Huddled in their warmth and soothed by Phoenix and Claire’s kind words, she started to feel just a little bit better. Ray had promised her a tall hot chocolate from the coffee shop downtown on the way home. But, that was their coffee shop, hers and Christian’s, and she couldn’t possibly manage to go there without thinking of him.

There was always room for benefit of the doubt, if she wanted to be a bigger idiot than she had already proven herself to be. Maybe, he had forgotten her phone number. Maybe, he had come down with a virus or was in the hospital with some human ailment. Maybe, something really had come up. Maybe, maybe, maybe, oh to hell with maybe. He hadn’t texted. He hadn’t called. And he hadn’t shown up.

Tom snickered, but wisely hid his shit eating grin behind the scarf wrapped tightly over his mouth. The bastard hadn’t shown up. Hell, he hadn’t even bothered to call. Now that was a low blow if there ever was one. But, that was all the better for him and well, just too bad for Christian. Cat would never forgive him for not showing or at the very minimum calling to cancel, no matter how good of an excuse he came up with. Cat was a little embarrassed and rightfully so. They had been hanging out here for hours, freezing in the autumn chill waiting for Christian to show up.

How Phoenix had finally talked Cat into giving it up was nothing short of a miracle. Ray was subtler than his little sister, using the promise of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and a peppermint stick on the side to lure Cat out of the graveyard. Whatever magic combination of words Phoenix had said had finally done the trick. Huddling into the warmth of her friends Cat walked arm in arm with Barbara and Danni ahead of him. How Tom wished he could be that guy. The sensitive type girls went nuts over. He was missing out on the chance to cuddle with Cat. Even if it was just a consolatory cuddle, it was still a chance to cuddle.

Ray was still holding out hope for stopping by the coffee shop to load Cat up with sugar and chocolate. Chocolate had cured many a broken heart and would no doubt heal her bruised ego in record time. He should say something besides offering to buy the first round, but what? Tom was eating this up. Grinning like a Cheshire cat behind Cat’s back as he angled for a way to seize the opportunity her shame over being stood up presented.

Ray thought, being the males of the pack, they should sniff Christian out and teach him a lesson in manners. The girl always came first. Ray was sexually ambiguous in his choice of partners and even he knew that. A part of him wanted to put the hurt on Tom for being the opportunist that he was. Cat deserved genuine friendship and Tom was her friend, but as oblivious to it as she was, he wanted so much more. With Cat one could never tell what you were going to get. This one episode of heart wrenching disappointment might be enough to make her swear off men altogether. But, somehow Ray doubted it.

Cat was too pretty, too innocent, and too clueless for her own good. She had no concept of deceit or how the boy-girl game was actually played. Ray couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. She had played her trump card too soon. She shouldn’t have kissed Christian, but rather have kept him dangling by a thread. Poor thing. The first kiss was as important as the first time. And unfortunately, Cat would always remember the undeserving ingrate who had stolen that tiny bit of her innocence away from her.

“I’m really sorry, Cat,” Phoenix said. She tightened her grip around Cat’s waist and held her tightly to share her body heat. The night was damn cold and tinged with the hint of frost. Tea was exactly what Cat needed, a nice soothing cup of hot tea spiced with mint. Cat’s shoulders sagged in disappointment as the group made their way to the SUV. She tried bravely to hide her embarrassment, shrugging the whole thing off as if it didn’t matter. Well, it did.

Phoenix felt sorry for Christian, if he should by some fit of conscience show up or try to call Cat. God help him if their paths ever crossed. The bonds of friendship ran deep and Christian hadn’t spurned only Cat, but all of them by standing her up. There were so many ways a male could be injured, but not permanently damaged and her father had taught her each and every one of them. The thought of all the ways she could make Christian squeal like a girl sent a warm shudder of vengeance through her core. Yeah, if she ever got the chance to get her hands on him, she was going to make him pay.

Barbara knew the strange species that was the adult human male. Her mom was a nurse and her dad a doctor and there had been no subject off limits or question she and her brothers and sisters could not ask. It helped that her dad was also a human and had once been a single male. He was chockfull of helpful hints and advice in the area of relationships and romance.

They had had the talk and then when she got old enough, they had had THE talk about what men were really like. Her father was perhaps, a bit biased on the topic. It was hard to see the elder Thomas Sterling, paunch bellied and balding, as a young man, especially since he was her dad. But, he had confessed everything and her mom had backed up the story one hundred percent. Barbara really didn’t want to know about her dad’s condom drawer. But, much like you couldn’t turn away from the scene of a train wreck, she had stayed in her seat and listened to every gory detail.

Birth control didn’t always work. She was living proof of that. What started out as nothing more than a one-night stand between two consenting adults had transformed into an epic love story. Her parents had the ultimate give and take relationship. Her dad had risked his life for her mother and her mother had staved off the urges of the wolf for him and she and her brothers and sisters were the result of that courageous love. Their story filled her with hope, but it was also one of caution.

You had to be careful about whom you loved and how you loved them. Know the difference between the types of love, and to recognize which was which. Her dad thought he was in love with Claire. Turned out, luckily for her and her brothers and sisters and for Tom, that what he thought was love was only deep friendship. If her dad’s life or Claire’s for that matter had taken a decidedly different turn, half of the brat pack might not be here.

Barbara was on the fence about what type of traits she was looking for in a potential suitor. But, she could easily recognize what kind of man Cat should end up with. Cat needed, primarily, someone honest to a fault. A man who would give more than he took and one that could handle no small amount of fire and brimstone from her father. Christian was not that guy. It was always assumed that Cat would marry within the pack or maybe, within the brotherhood. The secrets she carried inside of her were far too valuable to risk to the outside world. A human guy didn’t stand a chance and it wasn’t really fair to a human to drag him into the weirdness that was their world. “There’ll be other guys. I promise you that, Cat.”

Ice cream, her mother advised. Ice cream, pints and pints of rocky road was the only way to cure a broken heart. It had always worked for her. Being half human she blended in better than the pure bloods. She had gone to high school with the other kids in town and had been out on her fair share of dates. Her mom always kept ice cream in the freezer at the ready to cure the eventual temporary broken heart that came on the heels of a break up. Cat needed ice cream, maybe the good stuff with the little chocolate hearts and thick ribbons of fudge.

Danni snorted at Barbara’s prophetic musings. Other guys? Who was she kidding? Cat was dateless for a damn good reason. Her father was the stuff of nightmares. Not to mention that any guy would have to get through the brotherhood and the pack to get to her in the first place. Yeah right. Tom was absolutely right for Cat. Close enough to her to slide under the paranormal radar and of mixed blood too fragile to get his ass kicked by the brothers and the pack.

Danni didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Cat got stood up. It happened. Maybe, Christian had a good reason for it and maybe he didn’t. It wasn’t like she didn’t think about guys. She did, all the time. It was that her grandmother and to a certain degree her mom and dad had raised her not to hang her happiness on the shoulders of another person. Her happiness and whatever joy she found in life was no one’s responsibility but her own. She might want a man, but she didn’t need one, and after staring at Cat’s downcast expression, right now, she wasn’t so certain she wanted to be near a member of the opposite sex. No one ever died from castration and in Christian’s case, as far as she was concerned, it was a suitable option. Her dad had taught her plenty about weaponry and field combat. If the girls held Christian down, she was sure she could manage with just a few flicks of a blade and a hasty field dressing to keep him from bleeding out.

She hated to see Cat so upset over nothing more than a bruised ego. Cat had been born a golden child. Sheltered. Trained for the worst and placed upon a fluffed satin pillow as if she were fragile as spun glass. Cat’s entire life was a gigantic contradiction. How was she supposed to become the woman she was supposed to become with everyone placing so many expectations on her? How could she be hard and soft, both a leader and a follower at the same time? Cat didn’t want any of it. Not the position she had been born into nor the ivory tower people placed her in. She simply wanted to find and grow into whomever she decided she wanted to be.

Cat needed an outlet for her anger and aggression. An hour or two of being put through her paces in the gym ought to cheer her up. Maybe, a little time on the gun range shooting at human shaped paper targets might put her head in the proper perspective. It was ok to be pissed off for a good reason. Cat struggled with this, trying to muster her father’s calm, cool, stoic exterior to the surface to hide her disappointment and outrage at being stood up. Well, if she couldn’t be pissed off for herself, Danni was going to have to do it for her. “Anyone for kicking the little bastard’s ass?”

The question roused a roar of whoops and hollers from the guys and nods of agreement from the girls. Cat didn’t want to kick anyone’s ass except for her own. She didn’t want ice cream. She didn’t want hot chocolate or tea with mint. She didn’t want to beat up a dummy or shoot at a paper target. She didn’t want anything except to forget her stupidity. “Can we just go home?” She shouldn’t have asked. There were grunts of dissension amongst her ranks, but at the end, knowing she was going to be nothing more than a Debbie Downer all night, they acquiesced and piled into the SUV.

There was one question Cat hadn’t bothered to ask. One thing niggling at her in the back of her mind, something she couldn’t quite place, but her intuition told her was important. Something she should try to remember. But couldn’t. Why the graveyard? The city had dozens of graveyards. Why that particular one? Christian hadn’t struck her as the type to be into the whole scary, shock factor kind of thing. There was a cemetery not that far from downtown and if he had simply meant to freak her out, he could have asked her to meet him there.

The question was still on her mind and unspoken as she rode the elevator up to the penthouse suite. The doors opened with a soft ping and the brat pack filtered out ahead of her. None of them had eaten and the lure of food and the aroma of it had led them here to the buffet laid out for the Guardian’s human companions. After living in the heart of paranormal central she had thought nothing was capable of surprising her anymore. One look at him, slightly disheveled and obviously in shock had her standing there with her mouth hanging open. “Christian?”

“Cat?” The room swayed dizzily. Cat shouldn’t be here. She couldn’t be here. If she were here it meant only one thing. She was a vampire. He had kissed a vampire. His brain, his poor addled brain couldn’t take one more shock. He hit the floor with a loud thud and everything went dark.









Chapter 47

Carter couldn’t help but be a little amused by the outrageousness of the goings on in Guardian HQ. For him, feeling anything besides his never ending regret was saying something. Any emotion other than guilt and regret had been locked away in a deep bottomless chasm inside of him for quite sometime. Most days, he was dead and wooden. He existed but hadn’t truly lived in a very long time. He did his duty and led the Guardians, but the chuckle that escaped his lips surprised even him.