Fighting the Inevitable (24 page)

Caleb left the bedroom
and headed downstairs and into the large kitchen. It was one of the
very few, ultra-modern rooms in the mansion. It was all stainless
steel appliances and shiny white cupboards with black, granite work
surfaces. Along the nearest wall to the doorway was a large wooden
oak table with four oak chairs around it.

Despite being a vampire
and not needing to eat human food, he used the kitchen daily. His
people enjoyed drinking most beverages and his weakness was coffee.
He loved the taste of the rich, bitter liquid and had a
state-of-the-art coffee machine which made every type of coffee
imaginable. He smiled happily as he moved to the machine and
started to make a cappuccino and a mocha. Rhianna had opted for a
mocha earlier when they had been waiting for the real estate agent
to arrive to show them the properties she had
short-listed.

He frowned suddenly and
stopped making the coffees. He should probably cook first, that
would probably take the longest time. It was a bit weird having to
think about things so carefully.

He headed to the
refrigerator and was glad he had brought in some human food. He had
done so on impulse after speaking with Jared this morning, just in
case Rhianna came over and he needed to feed her. He pulled out the
two steaks and wrinkled his nose. He could probably eat his ‘blue’.
It would be a bit more palatable.

However, Rhianna probably
wouldn’t be too impressed with watching him eat a steak swimming in
blood. It would doubtless put her off her own food. Rolling his
eyes, Caleb grabbed his newly acquired cookbook and hunted out the
steak recipes. He quickly settled on peppered steak. The burgers
earlier were peppered and she had seemed to enjoy hers immensely,
so she should like peppered steak.

He was soon lost in the
new intricate art of creating a meal. He was surprised to find he
was actually enjoying the experience and put it down to his desire
to cater to his woman’s human needs. Taking care of her made him
feel warm inside and he was soon serving up peppered steak and
fries with a green, leafy, side salad to go with it along with
crusty garlic bread and the hot coffees he’d started preparing
earlier.

He set the plates on the
dining table and smiled proudly. He had even managed to get the
dishes to look exactly as they did in the cookbook. He hoped that
was a good sign and her dinner would taste exactly the way it
should.

~~~~~

Rhianna showered as
quickly as she could, taking care not to get her hair wet. She
didn’t know if Caleb had a hairdryer and all their exercise had
made her famished. She dressed quickly and tried to remember the
route back down to the lower floor. She hadn’t been paying that
much attention on the way up, but after a few false starts, she
finally found the stairs and hurried down them towards the
wonderfully delicious smells coming from the kitchen.

She stopped in the
doorway and stared in surprise at Caleb sitting at the huge dining
table sipping at a cup of coffee while he waited for her to appear.
There was a feast on the table and she quickly noted he had cooked
for himself as well as her.

“
You didn’t
need to do that, Caleb.” A small smile tugged at her lips as she
slid into the place that was patently meant for her. She saw him
frown quickly, his eyes dropping to the plates on the
table.

“
The food
isn’t to your taste?” he asked starting to rise. “I can make
something else.”

Rhianna reached out and
stopped him by placing her hand on his. “The food is amazing,
Caleb.” She smiled to reassure him. “It looks and smells heavenly
and my mouth is watering to taste it. What I meant was, you didn’t
need to prepare a plate for yourself. It really won’t bother me at
all to eat alone.”

Caleb relaxed and smiled
at her, twisting his hand so he could capture her delicate one in
his and raise it to his lips for a quick kiss. “I want to eat with
you, Annie.” His breath whispered across the back of her hand and
he inhaled deeply of her wonderful sweet scent. He did truly want
to eat with her, even if it had no taste to him.

She laughed and pulled
her hand from his so she could reach for a slice of garlic bread.
She loved garlic bread and was a little surprised it was on the
menu. “Garlic?”

His face broke into a
wide smile and he took a slice of the bread too. “Myth.” Caleb bit
into the pungent smelling bread. He chewed slowly as he watched her
enjoy her own bread with obvious pleasure on her face. He tried
hard to see the appeal of the garlic bread but it did nothing for
him, still he ate it anyway.

At least his coffee
erased the pungent taste from his mouth. “Most of the things you’ve
seen and read about vampires are nothing but myths, Annie. We have
to let you humans feel safe by ingraining our immortality with ‘get
out’ clauses like garlic and silver and holy water, not to mention
the old sun burning us to a crisp and a stake through the heart
turning us to ash. Humans would never be able to sleep at nights if
they didn’t have the comfort of believing they could kill us so
easily.”

His tone was matter of
fact, with a large hint of amusement in it. Rhianna watched his
face as he spoke and literally answered a large portion of the
questions she was dying to ask him. “You can’t die at
all?”

“
Everyone can
die, Annie.” Caleb’s tone was low. “Some of us can just live a bit
longer than others. If we are burned badly enough, it can kill us
or if someone takes our heads, we will die. We naturally try our
hardest to avoid those circumstances.” His smile was wry as he
watched her assimilate his words. He really wished she would just
eat her food and not ask the one question he wasn’t ready to
answer.

She seemed to consider
it, he could almost see her mind whirling as she debated internally
whether to ask, and then she appeared to come to a decision and she
picked up her knife and fork to cut into her steak.

They ate in a
companionable silence. Caleb managed to eat most of the steak
before his iron control finally rebelled, and he set his utensils
on the plate before rising to make another coffee. He emptied his
plate into the bin and set it in the sink before crossing back to
watch Rhianna finish her meal.

“
Will you
stay with me tonight, Annie?” He didn’t want her to leave. He
wanted to lie and watch her sleep, to listen to her deep even
breathing as she rested at his side. He wanted to wake up in the
morning with her lying beside him in his bed so he could slowly
kiss her awake and make sweet, passionate love to her
again.

“
I can’t,
Caleb,” her tone was regretful. “I need to get home soon. Millie
will start to worry and I don’t have any clothes to change into
anyway. It’s not that I don’t want to because I do want to stay. I
just need to be slightly better prepared for staying
over.”

He nodded his
understanding but he wasn’t happy about it. Now he had found her he
never wanted to let her go. She belonged to him. She belonged with
him forever but he couldn’t push her into anything too quickly. He
had to give her time to become used to him, to want to be with him
the way he wanted to be with her.

Rhianna could see his
disappointment. His gentle smile didn’t quite reach his eyes but he
didn’t protest her decision, and if she hadn’t already been in love
with him, she knew she would have fallen in love with him that very
instant. She gave him a big smile and reached over to take his hand
in hers. “Take me home now,” she smiled. “I have a couple of things
I need to do, but I’ll come back later tonight and stay with
you.”

Caleb’s face lit up with
such joy she was glad she had changed her mind. He squeezed her
hand gratefully and tugged her from her chair and into his lap.
“Thank you, Annie,” he sighed, burying his head in the crook of her
neck, his hard lips whispering gently across her shoulder. She fit
so perfectly in his arms, her skin tasted so wonderful against his
lips. He nibbled at the spot where her shoulder joined her neck and
she moaned with pleasure.

“
Come on, the
sooner I take you home the sooner you can come back to me, sweet
Annie.” He smiled raising his head and standing up, his arm
steadying her as she slipped from his lap onto her feet. He bent
his head and kissed her with a deep need, his body craving hers
badly. Soon she would be back in his arms and in his bed. He was
content to let her go for now knowing she would be back before too
long.

He was surprised when she
asked if she could take the property lease home with her. He had
forgotten all about it. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance you
will let me give you the shop?” he asked with a smile. “Now that
we’re a proper ‘item’?”

She laughed and shook her
head. “Not a chance and don’t even think about trying to get
arrogant about it. You are not in the bedroom now,
mister.”

He laughed at her sass
and then had to kiss her one more time. She was just so adorable he
couldn’t keep his lips from hers. It was Rhianna who ended the
long, slow, kiss that had them both breathless by the end of
it.

“
Take me
home, Caleb,” she breathed against his mouth, her lips curving in a
little smile when he protested her withdrawal. “I’ll be back so
much quicker if you stop messing about.”

Groaning he rolled his
eyes and grabbed her hand, practically running out of the house
with her as she laughed loudly.

CHAPTER eleven

Rafe lay quietly,
feigning sleep on the large bed in Aaron’s guestroom. He had been
pretending to be asleep for the last few hours, wanting to alone,
and shunning contact from Aaron and his Alpha, who kept stopping by
to see how he was. Their concern grated on his nerves.

Why they even gave a damn
about him was a mystery. He didn’t deserve their concern or their
pity. The vampire had been so right about him, he was a bastard. A
cold heartless bastard who had broken his sister’s heart and then
allowed himself to be persuaded out of going to her time and time
again.

The pain inside him cut
deeply. He wanted to go to Annie, to look after her, protect her
and hold her as he had done for so many years. The pack wouldn’t
let him. His Alpha wouldn’t let him.

The pack crowded him.
They were always there flaunting their nakedness and lust, battling
each other with sharp bloodied claws and hellish teeth. The scent
of blood sickened him. The violence sickened him. The lust sickened
him. It was all around him and it was deep inside him.

His wolf revelled in it
even as his human side cried out against it. His dual nature ripped
him apart inside until he was screaming silently in his head. Only
when he was with Annie did the terrible duality ease and he could
find some small measure of comfort from the pain.

This life wasn’t for him.
He wasn’t a wolf and he could never be one. The violence made his
soul scream in agony and he longed for the escape from his endless
suffering. He had to get away from the pack but where would he go?
If he went to Annie, Jared would only come looking for him and
there was the chance his sister would not be able to come to terms
with what he now was.

He could run away from
the wolves but he would never be free of them, his wolf would
always be there inside him clawing to get out. Would his need to
suppress his wolf cause him to go insane? Would the wolf break free
and subjugate his human side, turning him into a rogue like the man
who had done this to him? The thought of that happening terrified
him. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.

Rafe sighed and shifted
on the bed, making the appropriate sleepy movements a person made,
just as Aaron popped his head around the door to check on him
again. He settled down as if going back into his deep sleep and
waited until his friend left.

He had made up his mind.
He knew what he was going to do. He rose stealthily from the bed
and stripped off his clothes. Naked, he pried the window open and
slipped silently from the wooden house. He shifted as he jumped and
carefully kept his mind blank so Jared wouldn’t sense
him.

He took off into the
trees and began to run as fast as he could. He knew it wouldn’t be
long before they noticed him gone. Aaron’s frequent checking had
become shorter and shorter in interval and he knew he had little
time to get his head start on his Alpha. He flew through the trees,
his one goal firmly in his mind. He was going to end this torment
finally.

He heard Jared roar into
his mind and he felt the crushing weight of the Alpha’s command
pressing down on him.
“Stop, Rafe!”
Jared bellowed, but Rafe
shook his head knowing he could shake the command off. He’d done it
once before and he could do it again. Nothing was going to stop
him. Nothing!

He broke through the
trees at full speed, seeing the open tarmac in front of him. He
prayed for a car, any car to come speeding down the road towards
him. The pack was behind him, they were all trying to crowd into
his head trying to pull him back to them. He howled an agonised
sound and shot into the road just as a car barrelled towards
him.

“
Yes!”
he howled triumphantly as the speeding hunk of metal raced towards
him just as Jared and the pack hurtled out of the trees. Only a few
more moments and his torment would be over. A car had ended the
rogue’s life and so a car would end his and he would finally be at
peace.