Free Fighting the Inevitable by J C Gordon Page A

him.
    Caleb leaned on his desk
and sighed deeply. “I wish I knew, my friend,” he said quietly. “I
feel so restless, so off-kilter right now. No woman attracts
me, I don’t want to feed from source, and I can’t be bothered with
work. There’s only one thing I want to do and that’s find Rhianna,
and yet, I can’t do that because I don’t know anything about
her.”
    Demetri stared at him
open-mouthed. “All this because of the redhead?” he asked
incredulously. “Caleb, I know she was hot but come on, she’s just a
human, nothing spectacular.”
    Caleb glared at his
friend and narrowed his eyes. “That’s a matter of opinion. I don’t
know what it is about her but I need to see her again, at least one
more time so I can see as clearly as you can that there is nothing
spectacular about her.”
    He couldn’t keep the
sarcasm out of his tone as he said that last part. He objected
to his friend saying there was nothing spectacular about Rhianna.
There was something about the woman, the way her mouth shaped as
she talked, the feel of her soft skin under his fingertips, the way
she fit his body so perfectly as he slid deep within
her.
    A hot, clawing hunger
overwhelmed him, and his body tightened instantly. He bit back a
curse, anger warring with need as his perfect memory replayed their
night together. This need, this craving for the redhead, was
dangerous. He had almost lost control once with her. If that
happened again he might be forced to do something he would actually
feel some regret over.
    Caleb wasn’t used to
being out of control, wasn’t used to experiencing emotions. No
woman had ever been able to get under his skin the way Rhianna had.
Was there something of the otherworld about her? Had she cast some
kind of spell over him? He had enemies just like everyone else.
He’d lived a long time, was considered the top of the food chain
among his own people even though he didn’t get involved in the
politics that shaped his race. Was someone using Rhianna to weaken
him?
    He hadn’t sensed anything
unusual about her. She was fully human, he was almost positive
about that. He had scented her deeply and endlessly that night,
enthralled by her exotic aroma that had rushed over him like a
tidal wave. His body tightened further and he uttered a strangled
groan.
    Demetri sighed as he
watched the struggle on his friend’s face. Caleb would only be this
unguarded when he was alone with him. Demetri could sense his
conflict, sense the onslaught of lust and wondered regretfully just
what it had been like for his friend to lay with the little
redhead. She had to have been good for Caleb to want to see her
again.
    He closed his eyes for a
moment before opening them and looking at his friend intently.
“Okay, let’s see if we can find Rhianna and you can then do
whatever it is you need to do to get her out of your system so life
can get back to normal. What can you remember from the night at the
club?”
    His tone held a weary
note but also a hint of amusement. There was something quite
entertaining about seeing Caleb so riled up, even if it was
concerning. He would have endless decades of teasing his friend
about this, once he had satisfied his urge for his human and she
was once more gone from their lives.
    Caleb thought back to the
night. He was blessed with an eidetic memory so it wasn’t hard for
him to remember their entire conversation in Karpathia’s. They
hadn’t really said anything which didn’t directly relate to him
picking her up and taking her home. He frowned suddenly and leaned
forward. “She was very sad,” he said quietly. “I saw it in her
eyes. It was there for a moment and then she hid it, but for a
brief second her eyes were filled with such pain and
sadness.”
    Demetri pursed his lips
and tapped a long finger against his lips. “What makes humans sad?”
he mused, tapping slowly as he pondered. “Maybe she had just broken
up with her boyfriend?”
    Caleb shook his head
slowly.