He was relieved that everything appeared to be safe and entirely normal where she was located right now with Margaret Douglas. Lisa was very smart, and he’d made certain she could protect herself if a threat presented itself. He’d taught her that she might never be completely secure after her sister had been murdered, but he’d decided there had been no need to frighten her by telling her about a possibility that might have nothing to do with the monsters who had killed Maria. Yet he’d felt as if he had to cross every t after MacDuff had been so obsessed about the blood.
The blood.
Not that Caleb wasn’t obsessed; the blood had been both his heritage and his curse all his life. It had defined who he was and what he could be. But he wouldn’t allow it to dominate him…or anyone he cared about.
So think, get moving. For the time being forget about the blood and go down another direction, as he’d recommended to MacDuff.
He drove out of the courtyard and headed south toward Wales.
* * *
Kendrick Castle
“I’m ready.” Michael grinned at Jane as he tore into the tent and turned around in front of her. “All clean and spiffy so that Mom won’t think you’re letting me get away with anything while she’s gone.”
“And early.” Jane glanced at her watch. “We have another forty-five minutes before we’re supposed to meet your mom and dad at that tearoom. I’m impressed.”
“Well, the guys got bored down at the dig, so I thought I’d come back up here and hang out with you.” He plopped down on his bedroll. “So could you tell me why Caleb wouldn’t like to dig for those Roman artifacts with us? He likes doing cool stuff like that.”
Caleb, again. She’d hoped the past hours with his friends would have distracted him. But evidently he’d only taken a deep breath and gone straight back to Caleb. “Because Caleb comes from a very old family who lived in northern Italy many centuries ago. It was a small village called Fiero, but the family was pretty interesting themselves.” She added dryly, “However, I doubt if Caleb would think the ancient Romans had anything to teach his family or him.”
“Why not?” Michael’s gaze was narrowed on her face. Then he snapped his fingers, immediately jumping to a conclusion. “That neat blood thing he can do?” He continued eagerly, “Could they all do it? Was it like having the same color eyes?”
She should have known that she couldn’t just hint vaguely at anything with Michael. He had gone exactly where she didn’t want him to go. Okay, be honest, but back up and try to get out of it. “A little bit like that. But it wasn’t every member of the family and eventually it was only passed down very infrequently.” She smiled. “Satisfied? Now can we talk about something besides Caleb?”
Michael was studying her. “Why don’t you ever want to talk about him, Jane?” he asked quietly. “He used to be around a lot when I came to visit. I think you’re like Mom and Dad and not telling me everything because you think it might worry me. Why would it worry me? I like Caleb.” He paused. “And I think it’s really important that you tell me about him. You said he wasn’t perfect, but he doesn’t have to be. I think maybe being perfect would be boring. He’s just…Caleb.”
She stared at him in shock. Of course Michael had noticed everything about the cautious way he was treated by her and the rest of the family. She supposed she should be grateful he hadn’t zeroed in on her evasions and half-truths before this. How the hell was she supposed to handle this confrontation? “Well, he’s not boring. But as you already know, he’s a bit unusual. Why is it this important to you to know any more?”
“I’m not sure, but it is, Jane.” His brown eyes were fixed intently on her face. “And usually when I feel like this, there turns out to be a reason.”
And how was she to know what that reason was when everything about Michael had always seemed to be a mystery in itself? All she could do was play this one by ear. “Okay.” She dropped down on the campstool beside his bedroll. “You’re clearly fascinated by Seth Caleb, so I’ll give you his entire story as far as I know it. Though I’m not sure that anyone really knows everything about Caleb. He never talks about himself. What I’ve learned was through his sister, Lisa.” Her lips twisted. “And if you think perfection is boring, I guarantee that neither Caleb nor any of his family tree was ever boring. So sit back and I’ll tell you what I know about him. Then you decide for yourself.” Was she doing the right thing? He was a kid. No, he was Michael. Just obey her instincts and hope for the best.
“Before the Ridondos settled in Fiero, they lived in Spain at the compound of the Devanez family. The members of the family were known to have had various psychic talents, like Caleb, that made them very unpopular with their neighbors. So unpopular that they had to flee from Spain to keep from being turned over to the Inquisition for witchcraft. But even after the Ridondo branch moved to Italy, they decided that in order to survive they had to protect themselves from informers to the church by terrifying all the villagers into silence. Two of the brothers Ridondo decided to do that by using their so-called blood arts to make them seem to be demons of darkness. It was easy for them since all they had to do was concentrate on the death-and-pain side of the gift, and not the healing.” She glanced at Michael to see how he was taking all this. No fear. He only appeared totally fascinated. “And Caleb said that maybe they came close to becoming demons in the beginning. The power of the blood talent might have been too much for them to resist. But they must have gotten sick of all that blood and terror after a while, and they moved from Fiero Village into a castle in the country. Time passed, new generations came on the scene, the Ridondos became wealthy and respectable, the blood talent became something to hide. Simple enough, because the talent appeared only rarely in family members as time went by. But of course that blood taint couldn’t be entirely erased. Rumors occasionally surfaced from their old home in the village about the dark past of the Ridondos and their reign of terror. Foolish, exaggerated stories about wizards and vampires and that power that had terrified those villagers for decades.”
“Silly,” Michael said, disgusted. “They should have known it was only a really cool talent. Bad or good, that was all it was.”
“Well, that wasn’t the popular opinion even among family members,” Jane said. “There were problems through the years. I don’t know exactly what they were. It had something to do with the fact that it seemed the physical blood talent was often accompanied by a mental ability to twist and alter the truth, change opinions and perceptions. Evidently that could be even more difficult to accept for anyone in the family who didn’t possess it themselves. After a while any child who was born with the blood talent was considered an outcast, a monster to be shunned by the family. Caleb himself was forced to change his name when his parents sent him away to be raised by his uncle in Scotland. He was only a few years older than you at the time.” She added quietly, “Not everybody in the Ridondo family thought it was as cool as you do, Michael.”
“Stupid.” His brow wrinkled in a frown. “So they thought Caleb was some kind of a monster? You know he isn’t. Anyone can see that.”