“I first ran across Jelak in Fiero, a small town outside Venice, Italy. That was over ten years ago.” He looked at Jane, who had dropped down on the couch. “He’d just killed a girl about your age and was on the run. Her name was Maria Givano. She was young, beautiful, and full of life. He was still experimenting at that time and wasn’t sure how much blood he’d require to help him become what he thought was his destiny.” His tone was without expression. “So he kept her in a cellar for three days, keeping her alive, but slowly draining her of blood. When she died, he left her there and moved on to another town.” He added. “Another woman. A little older, more experienced. Youth could feed him, but that wasn’t what he was looking for in the long run. He was discovering that there was an element in a more mature, intelligent woman’s blood that could enrich him. As I said, he was experimenting.”
“What the hell do you mean?” Joe asked. “Feed him? You make him sound like a vampire.”
“Do I?” He smiled crookedly. “As I said, you are what you think you are.”
Eve turned to look at him. “You’re saying that Jelak thinks he’s a vampire?”
“Oh, yes. Well, he’s not quite reached that exalted state, but he’s working on it,” Caleb said. “You must have suspected as much.”
“Not really. It’s too weird.” Eve remembered the joking reference she and Jane had made to vampires and Bela Lugosi when they had first found the goblet. “Joe said that Nancy Jo Norris’s murder was a ritual killing, but that doesn’t mean—Why would he think he was a vampire?”
He shrugged. “Maybe he liked the idea. From what I could find out about his early years, he would have embraced the concept. Power. Death. Darkness. Everything incorporated in one entity.” He added, “I think he went to Italy to find his roots and he would have twisted those roots to be anything he wanted them to be.”
“ ‘Roots’?” Jane grimaced. “Why go to Italy? Why not Transylvania? Isn’t that supposed to be vampire home ground?”
“So all the melodramas tell us. As a matter of fact, he did go there first. Then to Spain, and finally Italy.” Caleb crossed the room and held out his hand for the cup of coffee Eve had poured. “It seemed that he preferred the Latin version of bloodsucker.”
“This is too wild,” Jane said. “You can’t expect us to believe you.”
“I can’t blame you if you don’t.” He looked down into his cup. “But you have to accept what I’m telling you if you want to bring him to his knees.”
“I don’t want to bring him to his knees,” Joe said. “I want to put him behind bars and throw away the key.”
“Then I hope I get him before you do.” Caleb’s smiled without mirth. “Because I do want him on his knees. It’s the best possible position for me to cut the son of a bitch’s head off. Let’s see how fast he bleeds to death.”
Eve felt a ripple of shock go through her as she stared at him. Cold ferocity. He meant every word. “That sounds very personal.”
“Does it?” He lifted his cup to his lips. “I guess that’s because that’s what it is to me. I followed Jelak halfway across Europe before I lost him. He left a trail of blood behind him everywhere he went. He preferred women’s blood, but he’d take children if circumstances prevented him from getting the nectar of choice.”
“Why were you following him?” Jane asked. “Are you some kind of policeman?”
“Hell, no.” Seth glanced challengingly at Joe. “Ask him. I think he has my measure. Don’t you, Quinn?”
Joe nodded slowly. “You don’t give a damn about legalities. You’re an outlaw. All you want to do is kill.”
“You can’t say I tried to hide it.” Caleb smiled recklessly. “And I think you’d just as soon kill Jelak as jail him. You’re something of an outlaw yourself, Quinn.”
“ ‘Outlaw’ is a little too vague for me,” Eve said. “Just what do you do, Caleb?”
“I have private means, but I occasionally help the Devanez family out with problems. I have certain skills that they find useful.”
“What kind of skills?”
“I’m a hunter.” He paused. “Like you, Quinn. Only I’m not bound by pesky rules and laws.”
“Why?” Eve asked Caleb. “Why is it personal?”
He didn’t speak for a moment. “I was very fond of Maria Givano. She was barely alive when I found her in that cellar. She told me what he’d done, what he’d said, how he’d left her when he’d had enough.” His lips tightened. “And then she died. Yes, it’s damn personal with me.”
“I can see how it would be,” Jane said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“Not as sorry as I am. Nor as sorry as he’ll be.” Caleb finished his coffee in two swallows. “Now can we get down to the business of finding him?”
“I’m already working on it,” Joe said. “I don’t need you.”
“Yes, you do.” He glanced at Eve, then at Jane. “You need to keep them safe. He wants Eve Duncan, but he’ll take the girl to show he can do it. And to draw Eve to him.”
“And how do you intend to prevent that from happening?”
“He’ll be more cautious if I’m around. He has a certain respect for me.” He glanced at Joe. “But, of course, you could say screw caution and just use them as bait.”
“No, I don’t think that we’ll do that,” Joe said.
“I didn’t think that was an option.”
“You’re damn right it’s not.”
“Respect?” Eve had fastened on that word. “Those tire marks indicated panic rather than respect. Why was he
