Sunset Rising (Sunset Vampire Series, Book 5) Read Free Page A

into the vehicle.
    The trunk popped open.
    “ Caleb, I realize the past
couple of days have been troubling and stressful for you. However,
you’ve responded in a commendable and highly respectable manner,
and I’m very proud of you,” Alton said. “That being said, you will
obey me. You’re staying here.”
    The king has spoken.
    “ Fine,” I said, shrugging
and folding my arms before me. “Whatever.”
    “ Hey, that’s my catch
phrase,” Paige said while leaning the shovels against her
shoulder.
    Kat offered me a sympathetic look as she
held open the rear door and gestured with her hand toward the
interior of the vehicle. I started to enter, but she gently caught
my arm to halt me.
    “ Just so you know, I agree
with Alton. His concern makes sense, my love,” she said, lightly
tapping me on the tip of my nose with her fingertip. “And I’m also
very proud of you.”
    I offered her an appreciative look. “Thanks.
That’s something, I suppose.”
    As I scooted onto the back seat, Alton
appeared in the door and handed me a small automatic pistol.
    I looked at the pistol and then at him with
a wide-eyed expression. “Seriously? Where the hell did you get
that?”
    “ It’s one of Roman’s. The
safety’s in the trigger, so just point and shoot,” he said. “I’m
relatively confident that we weren’t followed, but until we know
who we’re dealing with, I’d rather not take any
chances.”
    I merely nodded, not sure what to say to
that.
    “ We’ll be back here
immediately if something happens,” Kat said. “Shoot first. Let us
worry about the rest.”
    She frowned at me as she closed the door. I
heard the locks engage and the car alarm’s chirp as it
activated.
    I could easily tell from her expression that
she wasn’t pleased at all.
    For one, Kat’s never been in favor of me
having a firearm. Granted, they didn’t intimidate me, though I
wasn’t especially experienced with them. The fact that I was
holding one at that moment only made me feel less at ease over my
current situation.
    There were a lot of unknowns at the
moment.
    Foremost, who’s out there targeting me?
     

 
     
    Chapter 2
     
    Katrina
     
     
    As I pulled on my pair of leather gloves, I
took one last glance at Caleb sitting in the car. I was so very
proud of how he’d conducted himself, and so grateful that his
training had helped to save him.
    But he was hardly adept at hand to hand
combat.
    Back at the house, while Caleb still slept,
Alton and I’d had a brief discussion regarding how to proceed with
his training from this point. At the very least, I felt confident
that my mate was well on his way to being formidable for most any
opponent.
    Except actual vampires.
    While I didn’t like the idea of leaving him
alone in the vehicle, Alton had made an excellent point about the
potential for DNA contamination. Besides, given all that Caleb had
recently experienced, I felt better not exposing him to corpses;
particularly ones he’d helped to create.
    As the group of us proceeded across the
field, the moonlight cast the ideal illumination over our
surroundings. These were conditions only a vampire could fully
appreciate.
    I breathed in the fresh scent of the ocean
from the nearby bay, and I reveled in the soothing sounds of the
wind and the telltale clunking of dry tree branches against one
other.
    Paige had selected an ideal location for
disposing of the bodies. I doubted anyone would come across them
for years, if ever.
    Though, in truth, if ever rarely occurred.
Given the rate that land continued to be developed in recent years,
the most we could hope for was a few decades.
    Despite the considerable burial depth,
between Paige and Ethan it took only minutes to dig far enough to
reach the bodies.
    Paige had done well. She was so reliable
regarding matters such as this.
    Careless or short-sighted vampires didn’t
last long.
    But then, wasn’t that true of all killers?
Only the most thorough and intelligent ones successfully