Kerrelyn Sparks: Eat Prey Love

Roman nodded. “You have my word, Caitlyn, that no harm will come to you here.”

“Let’s have cake and ice cream!” Constantine wiggled out of Caitlyn’s arms. “Come on.”

“I’ll join you in a little while.” Caitlyn tousled his blond curls. “Save a piece of cake for me.”

“Okay.” He ran inside when his dad opened the door.

“See you soon.” Shanna smiled, then entered the cafeteria with her husband.

Caitlyn retreated across the basketball court as all the players and spectators hurried into the cafeteria. She spotted a gazebo in the distance and strode toward it. The strains of “Happy Birthday” wafted toward her, and she glanced back at the cafeteria. The song ended with applause and laughter. Apparently, vampires liked to party.

She wrapped her bright yellow cardigan around herself to ward off the chilly night air and resumed her stroll toward the gazebo. The farther she walked, the darker it became. Her red silk embroidered handbag bounced gently against her hip.

The stone-flagged path led her up a gentle incline. Clumps of yellow daffodils sprung from the grass. Hyacinths in shades of purple, pink, and white added their sweet fragrance to the air.

As she neared the gazebo, the unmistakable sounds of passion drifted from the interior. She halted as a woman let out of long, soft moan.

“Oh, Robby, we need to stop. We’re missing the party.”

“I canna wait another minute,” he grumbled in a low voice. “I need you now, Olivia.”

The woman let out another long moan that Caitlyn could only interpret as surrender. She tiptoed across the grass, headed in another direction. A feminine squeal emanated from the gazebo, followed by a masculine growl.

Sheesh. Caitlyn hurried away. Apparently, vampires were very seductive. Images of Carlos flitted through her mind but she shoved them away. He wasn’t interested in her. He’d looked her over, then walked away.

She spotted a cement bench underneath an oak tree and strode toward it. She couldn’t put off reality any longer. She needed to deal with it. Vampires.

She skimmed her fingertips along the rough bark of the oak tree. According to her sister, vampires were as real as this tree. Now she understood Howard’s cryptic warning that it was what was inside that really mattered. The Vamps appeared to be generous and kind. And they wanted to protect mortals from the bad vampires.

Caitlyn sat on the bench. What was she going to do? First, she needed to talk to Dad and make sure this was all real. She had a terrible feeling deep in her gut that it was. After all, Shanna’s husband manufactured synthetic blood—a perfect job for a vampire who didn’t want to bite people. And her dad had warned her never to come here. It explained why he refused to let her mom visit her grandchildren. He considered this enemy territory.

As far as Caitlyn could tell, she had three choices. First option: she could pretend none of this had ever happened. She could find employment that had nothing to do with vampires. She could lead a normal life.

Boring . She never did boring. She loved adventure. And she was not the type to hide from reality.

Option two was accept her sister’s world and family and take the job with Emma MacKay’s company. She could work all over the world and meet a lot of interesting…people, alive and Undead. Major drawback: danger from the bad vampires.

Option three was also accepting the world of vampires, but taking the job with her dad. As a member of the CIA Stake-Out team, she’d have an exciting life, fighting bad vampires. Unfortunately, she’d never been the sort to engage in physical conflict. And what if Dad decided Roman, or worse, Constantine, was bad?

She sighed. At least now she understood the animosity between her dad and her sister.

“Damn,” she whispered. She was going to have to choose which side of the family feud she was on.

I ’d like to go as soon as possible,” Carlos told his employer as they strolled down the hallway to the MacKay security office.

Angus MacKay frowned. “I’d feel better about this if ye had some real evidence.”

Carlos understood his boss’s hesitation. Angus had financed his last two expeditions, one to Belize and one to Nicaragua. Both trips had yielded zero results. “Actually, it’s the best lead I’ve had in years. According to Pat, the informant saw a wild jungle cat change into a human after it was killed.”

Angus halted mid-step. “That is promising. But what if he’s making it up?”

“Pat believes him.”

“And who is Pat?” Angus resumed his walk to the office.

“Professor Supat Satapatpattana from the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. I call him Pat for short.”

“I wonder why,” Angus muttered as he pressed his hand against the security pad by the office door.

“Chula is a prestigious university, and Pat is a well-known anthropologist. He wouldn’t have passed the report on to me if he didn’t believe it was true.”

Angus nodded. “Then ye’ll have to check it out. Go ahead with yer plans.” He opened the door. “Howard, how’s it going?”

Carlos exhaled with relief. Maybe this time he would succeed. It had been five years since the Summer of Death, five years since he’d witnessed his family and friends being slaughtered. As far as he knew, he and five orphans were all that were left. He had to find more of his kind. He had to find a mate.

Howard’s and Angus’s conversation faded into background noise as memories bombarded Carlos’s mind. So much death. The stench of burning bodies. The choking smoke of burning villages. His parents gone. His brother gone. Everyone murdered. Everything destroyed.

At first the memories had hounded him constantly, dragging him into an ugly pit of despair. Now they only haunted him once a day. Time hadn’t erased the pain. It only made it easier for him to project the image that he was all right.

He’d become a master of pretense and illusion. He’d learned as a young child how to hide in the Amazon jungle, camouflaging himself so he couldn’t be seen. Now he was able to hide in plain sight. No one knew the real him. No one…except Fernando.

Since the Summer of Death, Carlos had gone on a total of five expeditions. All had failed. He took a deep breath to steel his resolve. It didn’t matter if this last glimpse of hope teetered on a vague rumor. He would keep hunting until he succeeded.

He wandered over to the wall of surveillance monitors. The daily deluge of pain had faded away for the time being. Angus was bragging about how well his godson, Tino, could play basketball.

Carlos was glad the birthday boy’s team had won, but the shape shifter team had come mighty close to victory. If he had caught that last pass, the Claws would have won. He didn’t want to dwell on the cause of his stupid mistake. Her.

He’d never felt such an immediate attraction before. A potent mix of desire and passion had slammed into him like a charging bull, leaving him dazed and breathless. Proof positive that he’d gone too long without a woman. For a few glorious seconds he thought he’d found the perfect woman.

But one sniff had crushed his hopes. Reality had crashed down on him so hard, he’d hardly felt the ball smacking him upside the head. She wasn’t a shifter. She wasn’t the one for him. The sooner he found his true mate, the better.

He studied the monitors. No one in the parking lot or the foyer. The hallways were empty. Everyone seemed to be in the cafeteria partying. He should be there with his adopted children. But he’d needed to talk to Angus about the new expedition.

And he needed to avoid her .