“GO TO BED, EVE,” JANE SAID gently. “It’s almost dawn. I know you can’t sleep, but you could stretch out and rest.”
“Why doesn’t he call, dammit?” Eve shook her head. “I couldn’t lie down. I feel as if I’m wound so tight that I’m close to breaking.”
“Then work for a while. At least it will keep you occupied.”
Eve nodded jerkily. “Okay. You’re right.” She moved across the room to her work area. “It won’t keep my mind from going into high gear, but it will keep my hands busy.”
Jane watched her for a few minutes before she turned and went out on the porch.
Caleb was coming down the lake path toward the cottage. Toby was trotting beside him. It was odd how Toby had taken such a liking to him.
“What were you doing?” she asked, as Caleb came up the steps a few minutes later.
“Walking. Thinking. Guarding.” He sat down on the top step, and Toby plopped down on the porch above him. “Keeping out of your way so that you and Eve can comfort each other. I’m not a very comforting person.”
“You have quite a few edges.” She sat down beside him. “Guarding?”
“It would be like Jelak to stage an elaborate scenario, then hit hard when you weren’t expecting it. I was just making sure he was nowhere around.”
“But you weren’t expecting him.”
“No, I’m expecting Eve to get a call.” He looked out over the lake, which was mirroring delicate pink and gold. “Dawn’s breaking. He’s making her wait a long time.”
“Bastard.”
“Smart bastard. The longer you worry, the more eager to pay the price.”
“You said his taking Joe was a complete surprise to you. You’re not easily surprised, Caleb.”
“I was expecting it to be you. I was almost certain that he’d try until he got you. He would recognize Joe’s value on a cerebral level but not on an emotional one. Jelak operates almost entirely on his emotions.”
“Why doesn’t he feel that Joe’s valuable?”
“He’s male.”
Her brow knitted. “So is Jelak.”
“Not really. He’s a vampire god in training. Or so he perceives himself.”
“And men have no value for him? Why not?”
“The blood. It’s too dominant and aggressive. He can’t take the elements he needs from it. A woman’s blood is smooth and complex, and the strength will blend like a river running to the sea.”
She gazed at him. “You seem to know a hell of a lot about how he thinks.”
“He thinks how the cult taught him to think, and I’ve made a study of the cult.”
“When you’re not hunting them down to kill them.”
“But I had to know all that in order to hunt them down.” He smiled. “Which makes me valuable to you because I can tell you how Jelak thinks.”
“Why does he think that becoming a god is possible? Did this teacher that you told me taught Jelak claim he was a god?”
“Donari? No, he called himself master, but he was a student like Jelak. But he was much further along on the path and saw in Jelak a bright light. He wanted to mold him.”
“A cult composed of students and based on a flimsy legend. It would take a nutcase like Jelak to be drawn into it. I can’t understand how it even existed at all, much less for hundreds of years.”
“Power can be an amazing beacon. That’s what’s held the vampire legend intact since it began.”
“You said it started because two brothers with supposed magical dark powers showed up in their village?”
“Yes, the Ridondo brothers. They evidently had a lot of charisma as well as their vaunted magical powers. They convinced the entire village that they weren’t only vampire elite themselves but able to teach others how to attain that power.”
“And what happened to the Ridondos?”
“They lived the high life for a number of years. Why not? They acted like kings, and everyone was afraid to oppose them. One of them, Jaime Ridondo, was even mayor of the town for over twenty years. One of the rules they laid down for the villagers was that no one was ever to speak of their power. That allowed them a certain degree of protection and permitted them to live normal lives.”
“Normal?”
“Normal for them. They married, had children, but eventually moved away from the village.”
“So that no one could ever prove they weren’t the mythical creatures they claimed to be.”
“It would have been the clever thing to do.”
She shook her head. “And the legend lived on and made superstitious people like Jelak find their way to it.”
“Yes, it’s not surprising.”
