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CHAPTER 23:

CATALINA'S POV:

When we leave the apartment building, Jaden lets me drive his Charger. I guess I can kind of understand his excitement in owning a car that is just like one from a television show. Even if the show aired a million years ago.

Of course, the best part is that it goes really fast.

I look over at him, while I'm driving, "Jaden?" I ask in a cutsie voice, that I've heard girls my age use with their boyfriends.

"Yes, Catalina?" he asks suspiciously.

"Would you be mad if I crashed your car?"

He gives me a patient look, "Only if you got hurt in the process."

"Hmm," I think to myself. "Permission to crash your favorite car. You don't know how tempting that is."

"However, I'd prefer that you didn't," he says with a stern expression on his face.

I wave my hand in the air, "Yeah, yeah. You can't go trying to take it back now."

When we near my old neighborhood, I start to feel anxious. Besides house cleaners, I haven't allowed anyone else to step foot in my family's home since their deaths. Since Jaden was the one who got me my revenge, not to mention the fact that I love him, I think he should be the one to come with me.

"Jaden?"

"Yes, angel?"

"I'm taking you someplace very special to me," I tell him, with a lump in my throat.

He grabs onto my right hand and squeezes. "Your family's home?"

I look at him in shock, "How did you know?"

He has a serious look on his face. "Didn't I ever mention that one of my vampire powers is mind reading?"

"No shit?" I ask in disbelief. How could he forget to mention something like that?

He busts out laughing, "No. I wish. That would make dealing with you a hell of a lot easier, though."

I give him a dirty look, "If I'm such a hassle to deal with, then maybe you could just choose to not deal with me at all."

"Looooove you," he says all lovey-dovey. Is that all he's going to say from now on when he's in trouble?"

"Seriously, Jaden. How did you know?"

He sighs, "I may have followed you one night?"

"Recently?" I ask suspiciously.

"Yes."

"I guess I should be used to it by now." Then I add, "Stalker."

"Loooove you, Kitty Cat," he says sweetly.

"Loooove you too, stalker boyfriend," I tease him.

I park in the driveway of my family's home. As I turn off the engine, he grabs my waist and pulls me up against him. "Thank you," he whispers.

"For what?" I ask quizzically.

He pecks me on the lips, "For choosing me to share this with."

I stroke the lips that just kissed me, "I'll always choose you, Jaden."

Before I know what he is about to do, he uses his super vamp speed to open his door and pick me up out of the car on his side. "By the way," be begins, "I installed a new doorknob on the back door."

I shake my head, laughing, "I'm not even going to ask."

He sets me down on my feet and grabs onto my hand, "It's not that interesting of a story anyways."

As we near the front door, I take out my key to unlock it. I swing the front door open and hold up my arms and say, "Tada. The Truman residence."

He steps inside and looks around briefly. Of course, he's been in here before, hasn't he? He looks and me and smiles, "It seems like a nice home to grow up in, angel."

"It was. We were very happy," I look down as the floor as the memories bombard me.

He pulls me in for a hug and I lay my head against his chest. "It's okay to remember, Catalina."

"I know. I just wish that they weren't just memories anymore." I lift my head up so I can look into his face, "You know, I've always blamed myself."

He squeezes my body against his, "You were still a child, Catalina. It wasn't your fault."

I look over his shoulder, at the family picture on the wall, "I know, I could have never guessed that the three teenage boys walking me home would barge inside the house and slaughter my family. But still . . ."

He holds my face in his hands, "But nothing. It wasn't your fault. The people to blame are dead now." He smiles without humor, "Thanks to you and your creative form of justice."

I decide to change the subject and give him a mischievous smile, "Hey Jaden, do you want to see my room?"

Without even answering, he picks me up in his arms and jets it up the stairs. Five seconds later, I'm laying on my bed and he's hovering over me. He belatedly answers, "I'm always up for you trying to get in my pants, angel."

I raise my eyebrows at him, "How'd you know where my room is?"

The expression on his face turns wicked, "Well, I couldn't go breaking into the vampire hunter casa. How else was I supposed to steal some of your panties?"

I slap him on the arm, "You pervert! I hope you at least waited until I was eighteen to do that!"

He looks thoughtful, "Of course, sexiness, I waited until midnight on your eighteenth birthday." Then he laughs, "I didn't really steal your panties, you know. I was too busy shopping online for all the lingerie that I wanted to see you in."

I give him a teasing look, "Um, Jaden. That's kind of pathetic." Then I laugh in his face. Literally.

He looks serious when he says, "I don't know. I think it was practical planning. I did get into your panties, didn't I?"

He has a point there. With a coy smile on my face, I ask him, "How would you like to get in them again?"

He doesn't answer, big surprise, and instead kisses me long and hard. I'll take that as a 'yes'. Then, he lifts his head to look me in the eyes, "Did you ever sneak any guys into your room?"

I give him a surprised look, "I was in junior high! What kind of slut do you take me for?"

"My slut," he says and kisses me hungrily again.

I turn my head to the side to end the kiss, "Actually, I didn't even try because I wouldn't have gotten away with it. My big brother, Mason, was too protective."

"Oh, I see."

I kiss him lightly on the lips, "I think he would have like you, Jaden."

He gets a smug look on his face, "Everybody likes me."

I ignore his big ego. "He would have like you because he was almost as cocky as you are."

Jaden looks serious when he asks, "Do you think your parents would have liked me too?"

I weave my fingers through his auburn hair, "I think they would liked you very much."

An elated expression covers his handsome face. "That makes me very happy to hear, Catalina."

An impatient one falls on my face, "Are you going to get in my panties now, or what?"

"Vampire love slave at your service," he says an instant before pulling away at my clothes, then his own. A moment later, he's inside me.

I moan as he enters me, "I love you so much, Jaden."

"Me too, angel," he says right before biting into my neck. I climax instantly, whispering his name. I'm in a daze of pleasure for what seems like an eternity and am vaguely aware when Jaden climaxes himself, while licking at the bite mark on my neck.

He pulls out of me and gathers me into his arms from behind. He kisses my hair and whispers, "Sleep, angel."

"Okay," I mumble as sleep takes me over.

JADEN'S POV:

I'm enjoying having a sleeping angel in my arms, when I sense another vampire near. In three seconds, I'm dressed and softly closing Catalina's bedroom door behind me. In two more seconds, I'm at the bottom of the stairs. One second later, I have the vampire raised off the ground, by his throat, in the kitchen.

I sneer in his face, "Don't you know that you can't sneak up on a vampire as old as me, kid?" I can sense that this vampire, that I have by the throat, is a young one. I could so easily fuck with his head and his actions.

He grabs at my throat in an attempt to get me off him, "I'm only here to talk."

"To me?" I ask warily.

"Yes," he gasps out.

I drop him to the floor, but he springs back up instantly. By the time he is upright again, I am standing in the doorway of the kitchen, successfully blocking the path that would lead him to the still asleep Catalina.

"Talk fast, kid."

"Why? Do you need to hurry back to your human girlfriend?" He sneers at me.

"You're testing my patience, baby vamp."

"You don't belong with her. She's human." I can feel the barely controlled hatred rolling off him.

"Is that why you're here? Because you'd be wasting your time, if it was."

"You'll only get her hurt," he says condescendingly.

I take a hostile step towards him, "Are you threatening her?"

"I would never threaten her or hurt her myself, but there are those who would. Like your parents." He tells me.

I tense up immediately, "What have you heard?"

He shrugs, "Things. All you need to know is that it's in her best interest to send her away. Away from this city and away from you."

I'm shaking in anger, "I can protect her."

He raises one eyebrow? "Oh yeah, how can you do that all the time. You can't always be with her. One way or another, someone will get to her."

I get my rage under control and shrug nonchalantly, "I'd like nothing more than to be with her all the time."

"Even a vampire has to sleep," he says doubtfully. "Old ones like you can't get out of it any more than I can."

I glare at him, "You don't have to tell me my restrictions, kid."

He glances out the window, "I have to go. It'll be daylight soon."

As he starts to open the back door, I reach out to grab his arm, "Why are you telling me all this?"

He looks back at me, "Because, if you aren't going to do what it takes to protect her, then I am."

I give him a friendlier look, "Don't you think you should have told her a long time ago that you were still alive, Mason?"

He has a hard look on his face as he asks, "Am I?"

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