CHAPTER 24:

JADEN'S POV:

I grab a of couple dark sheets from the hall closet. They are a bit musty, but they will do. I go back to Catalina's room and drape them over the flimsy white curtains that are already there.

Direct sunlight would take a while to kill me, but it is damn uncomfortable. Sunrise is in less than half an hour and once the sun starts to peak over the horizon, I'm like a human who's taken a sleeping pill.

Once the sheets are up, I lay down in bed next to Catalina. As I pull her warm body against mine, she awakens enough to mumble, "Hey sexy vamp boy."

"Hey sexy angel," I murmur back.

"What time is it?" she asks groggily.

"It's morning. The sun's almost up. You should go back to sleep," I tell her.

"Okay," she starts to fall back to sleep.

I shake her gently, "Catalina?"

"Hmm, yeah?"

"If you wake up before the sun goes down, before me, don't go anywhere without me."

"Okay babe." Within seconds, she is once again dozing. I stroke her cheek with the back of my fingers and place a gentle kiss on her forehead.

Mason was a surprise. When I sensed a vampire in the house, my first thought was to kill. That any vampire, or even human for that matter, would dare to enter my girlfriend's home without permission is certain death for them.

I can't believe he's been alive all this time and has never let Catalina know. I certainly had no idea that her brother was alive. And a vampire.

Mason left before I could get any real answers from him. Who is a threat to Catalina? Is it a human or vampire threat? How did he become a vampire? Where has he been this entire time?

He is lucky I didn't kill him in the first second that I entered the kitchen and found him there. Lucky for him, I had already seen the family portrait on the wall and knew what he looked like.

Even though he is her brother, that didn't automatically mean that he wouldn't harm Catalina. After some humans are turned into vampires, they can't be counted on to still care about their loved ones. Some people become heartless monsters and care for nothing but where their next blood will come from.

Look at my parents, they abandoned me when they became vampires, only to come back twenty years later and murder my aunt. Then, without asking what I wanted, they changed me into a vampire. They claim to love me, but I think that their definition of love is different than mine. A more selfish definition.

Mason seemed okay. Not a complete monster and he obviously still cares about Catalina if he made sure to warn me about the danger to her. That doesn't mean that he has much humanity left in him besides that.

Catalina was so wrong about Mason liking me. Of course, if I were him, I wouldn't like me either. I am banging his little sis and all.

Catalina was right about one thing. Her brother is cocky like me. Cocky little baby vamp.

Even if I hadn't seen a picture of Mason before, I would have recognized him as a relation to Catalina. Catalina's father had light brown hair, white skin and green eyes. Her mother was of Hispanic origin and had black hair, dark brown eyes and medium brown skin. Catalina and her brother, Mason, came out like a mixture of the two. Brown hair, light brown eyes and olive skin.

I had no idea that her brother was alive. Sort of. As alive as us vampires can be. Should I tell Catalina that her brother is alive? How much would it upset her if she found out that he was alive the past four years and didn't let her know? I don't want her hurt. Does he still not want her to know? Is she better off not knowing?

Mason may still have some humanity left in him and he may still care about what happens to her, but that doesn't guarantee that he still isn't a monster. It would break her heart to find out that her brother is a cold-blooded killer. It doesn't guarantee either that he won't end up eventually hurting her.

I need to think on it for awhile and figure out what is best for her. Whatever that is, that's what I'll do. I do know that if she found out that I kept the knowledge from her, she wouldn't be happy with me. I definitely don't want that. So, soon I need to decide to tell her or not tell her and keep the knowledge from her forever.

As the sun comes up, I gather Catalina in my arms and my eyelids slowly shut.

CATALINA'S POV:

I wake up in a dark room with a sleeping Jaden's arms wrapped around me. As cozy as it is, I have to use the bathroom. I unwrap his arms from my body and pad across the carpet to my bedroom door. I carefully open the door just enough to slip through to the hallway, without letting the sunlight directly hit Jaden.

It wouldn't kill him immediately, but it would be really uncomfortable for him. After using the bathroom, I walk downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat. Then I remember that there is no food in the house. The fridge isn't even plugged in.

Dammit, I'm hungry! I check the clock and the time is a little after two o'clock. As much as I'm craving Mexican food, Jaden did ask me not to go anywhere without him and I promised not to. He's just a tad overprotective.

I order a large Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza from Papa John's. Yum! The kid on the other line says that it'll be forty-five minutes. I decide to take a shower while I'm waiting. By the time I'm out of the shower twenty minutes later, I'm no longer hungry. I'm fungry.

The pizza still isn't here, so I plug in the television in the living room and sit down on the couch, flipping through the channels. Daytime television sucks.

When the pizza arrives, I jump off the couch and to the door with Jaden's wallet in my hand. I giggle mischievously as I open the door. Taking his money to pay for my pizza while he's in a vamp coma is my idea of fun. Too bad he probably would approve.

It's pathetic how much he spoils me. Well actually, it's kind of awesome.

The pizza guy is a kid about my age with messy blonde hair and really pretty blue eyes. He tries to flirt with me, but I roll my eyes and send him on his way.

I should probably date more before settling on Jaden, but I just don't want anyone else. The last kiss that I shared with Noah pretty much proved that. To me, no guy could ever compare to Jaden.

I almost love him enough to become a vampire. That way we could be together forever. I won't become a vampire to be with him, though. Most vampires aren't like Jaden. Most are soulless killers. I wouldn't risk becoming like that.

Unfortunately, in four years, I'll be physically the same age as Jaden. And after that, I'll be older than him. That will be okay for my twenties and perhaps part of my thirties, but by the late thirties, we may start to look kind of ridiculous together. I shake my head and the thoughts off. The time to deal with that will be when it happens. Jaden might not even want me anymore when I start to look like I'm his mama.

I take the pizza box to the kitchen and place it on the counter while I grab a cup from the cupboard and fill it with water from the sink. I should have thought to order some soda also. I love root beer with my pizza.

I place a couple pieces of pizza on a plate and decide to take my food outside, to the backyard. Thankfully, the cleaning crew also keeps clean the patio furniture out back. The material on the chair cushions and umbrella is faded, but I wouldn't ever replace them. My mom loved this set when she bought it. My dad spoiled her almost as much as Jaden spoils me.

I sit down in a chair facing away from the sun. As I'm lifting the first piece to my mouth, someone grabs me from behind and places a hand over my mouth. "Come with us quietly and you won't be hurt."

Fuck that!

I throw my elbow back and hit him in the abs. He grunts, but releases his grip on me. I hear another male voice say, "Can't you take a hit from a girl, Samuel?"

I quickly get out of my chair and spin around to look at my would-be kidnappers. There is only two of them and since it's daylight, they are human. The girl in me thinks about screaming for help, then the badass vampire hunter chick in me thinks about how much fun it's going to be to kick their asses.

One of the guys is older, probably around thirty-five. He's short and stocky. Obviously works out. The other is tall, lean and probably in his late twenties. I can take them.

The older one comes at me with a confident grin on his face. I probably have a similar grin on my face when I ask them, "Who put their dirty hand on my mouth?"

The younger one says, "That would be me."

I give him a dirty look, "I'm going to kick your ass more."

He scoffs at that and I turn my attention to the one in front of me. I put up my hands and beckon him Neo-style. As soon as he is within arms reach, I shoot out my palm and smack him on the face. He looks momentarily shocked and laughs, "Is that all you got, little girl?"

I laugh too, "No, but you look like such a bitch that I couldn't help bitch-slapping you."

He scowls and reaches out as if to grab onto my arms. Before he can, I grab onto the top of his shoulders and pull his upper body down so that his face can meet with my right knee. "You fucking bitch!" He screams while holding onto his left eye. He tries to charge me at the same time that I back up and jump out of the way.

Stupid retard falls into the empty pool that was drained four years ago after my family died. Unfortunately, he falls into the shallow end. Pity. He would have gotten more messed up if he'd fallen into the deep end.

I turn around to face attacker number two. I raise my eyebrows at him, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

He just smiles and shakes his head. "You're good, but I'm better."

I tense up in anticipation of a similar attack from him. He surprises me by doing a kung-fu type of kick in the air that, I will only admit to myself, that I'm a little jealous of. I barely manage to drop to the ground and roll out of the way in time.

Crap! He really might be better than me. I spring back onto my feet and duck in time to avoid getting hit in the head by his fist. I straighten myself up and kick him on the side of his thigh. He manages to kick me in the stomach hard and I double over in pain. Now I'm pissed.

He moves behind me and wraps his arms around me. Once the pain fades, I can't even move in his death grip. If he would have fought like a brute, as his friend did, I would have had him.

"Let me go!" I yell.

The older guy has pulled himself out of the empty pool and is walking towards us, "Stuff something in that mouth of hers." I can see the older guy pull some rope out of his pocket.

This is so unreal. I can't believe I'm about to be kidnapped. Un-fuckin-believable. I've killed vampires and I couldn't even take this human. At least I get the satisfaction of knowing that I kicked the other one's ass.

What good is it to date one of the most powerful vamps in the city if I'm going to be kidnapped anyways?

The older one starts tying my wrists together and I take the opportunity to lean my weight against the guy behind me and kick out my legs to push the guy tying my wrists away from me. My feet hit him in his chest and he stumbles back. I laugh at him and wish the guy behind me wasn't restraining me because I'd love to be able to point at him while I laugh. People hate that.

The guy walks back towards me and pull his hand back two seconds before slapping me on the face. Then he says, "Who's the bitch now?"

"You're the retard who fell in the pool," I sneer at him.

He raises his hand back again to slap me, but his hand stops mid-air when we hear from just inside the house, "Stop."

All three of us turn our heads towards the voice coming from the shadows of the doorway. It's Jaden and he is leaning against the doorway, looking like he can barely keep himself up. And barely keeping his eyes open.

As I still have one guy holding me from behind and another one about to smack me in the face, I say, "Don't worry babe, I got this."

Jaden ignores me and commands, "Let her go and kill each other."

My mouth opens in shock as I'm released. I rush over to Jaden and put an arm around him, "Jaden, you don't have to do that. It's okay now."

He looks at me with anger in his eyes, but not directed at me, "They die."

I turn around as I hear a thudding sound repeating. The older guy is kneeling on the ground, banging the younger guy's head against the concrete. A pool of blood is forming and once the guy is dead, the older guy stands up and pulls a gun out of his jacket. I didn't even realize that was there.

The guy puts the gun to his head and Jaden says, "Wait."

The guy turns to Jaden expectantly. I'm thinking that with one already dead, Jaden has come to his senses. Then he says, "Who sent you?"

The guy is still holding the gun to his head when he answers, "Anonymous."

Jaden nods and instructs, "Take your friend and kill yourself somewhere else." Then adds, "Far from here."

The guy starts dragging his friend away and I pull Jaden further into the house and kick the door shut behind me. I start helping him back upstairs, "That wasn't necessary, Jaden. All you had to do was send them away."

He doesn't look at me, "I did. Permanently."

I know that right now is not the time for this argument. It's still hours until night falls and Jaden needs to get back to sleep. But when he wakes up, we're going to have a talk.

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