As Caitlin flew even higher, she made a wide turn, heading back in the direction of her island.
She found herself drawn to go back in that direction, and a part of her wondered if she might even return. After all, where else could she really go?
As she headed in that direction, she felt a newfound sense of purpose. Maybe she should at least give Caleb one chance to explain. He had saved her life so many times. He had watched over her all these days, had nursed her back to life. Maybe he did still love her. Maybe…
Caitlin wasn’t so sure anymore. But the more she flew, the more she realized that she did owe Caleb at least one chance, one chance to explain himself.
Yes, she would give him that. And then she would decide.
*
Caleb was furious. Once again, Sera had landed into his life, causing destruction everywhere she went. He couldn’t recall, over the thousands of years, how many times he had asked her to keep away from him, how many times he had made it clear that he had no feelings for her, that he didn’t want her in his life. But countless times, at all the wrong moments, she managed to show up again. It was as if she knew, as if she sensed whenever he was with someone new, whenever he was with someone he really cared about. And she always showed up at exactly the wrong moment. She was the most territorial and possessive creature he had ever met. And he had been plagued with her in his life for thousands of years.
This time, he could not accept it. He would not allow it. She had ruined his relationships too many times, and this was one time too many. He cared more for Caitlin than anyone—vampire or human—he had ever been with. And Sera, like a moth to a flame, must have sensed that. This must have been what brought her out of hiding, what prodded her to track him down.
She had an excuse—she always had an excuse. That was the problem with her: you could never really one hundred percent blame her, because she always showed up with some urgent message, and it always had some legitimacy. In this case, of course, their coven was on the verge of attack.
Kyle, she’d said, was back in New York City, with the Sword, and it would only be days until there was an all-out vampire war. She came bearing a message from his coven: they wanted him back.
They would forgive his earlier transgressions. They needed every soldier they had in this time of war, and Caleb was one of their best.
So on the one hand, he could not be as upset with her as he would have liked—which made the situation even more maddening. On the other, he suspected that she had been waiting for exactly a situation like this to have an excuse to worm her way back into his life. But regardless of the news, she’d had no right to give Caitlin the impression that they were still together.
He stormed over to her now, still on the castle’s terrace, red-faced.
“Sera!” he snapped. “Why did you have to say that? Why did you have to use those words?
There is no us! And, as you very well know, there is nothing that I have not told her. You came here to deliver a message from our coven. That is all. You gave the impression that there was some secret I was hiding, that you and I were still together.”
She was not deterred by his anger. If anything, she seemed to enjoy it. She had managed to ruffle his feathers, and it appeared that that was exactly what she’d wanted.
She smiled slowly, taking a step towards him, and raised a hand and laid it on his shoulder.
“But aren’t we?” she asked seductively. “You know, deep down, that we still are. That is precisely why this upset you so much. If you had no feelings for me, you would not care either way.”
Caleb threw her hand off his shoulder.
“You know that is complete nonsense. We have not been together for hundreds of years. And we will never be together again. I don’t know how many times I can say this,” Caleb said, exasperated.
“I need you to stay out of my life. I need you to stay away from me. And most of all, from Caitlin. I am warning you to stay away from her.”
Sera’s face transformed with anger in the flash of an eye.
“That pathetic little girl,” she snapped. “Just because she is one of us now, doesn’t give her any more standing over me. She has nothing against me. I don’t see how you can even look her way. Not to mention that our coven never sanctioned your turning her,” Sera said, giving Caleb a dark look.
Caleb knew what that meant. It was a threat. She was warning him, his violation of the law. He could be punished severely for it—and she was threatening to let the others know.
“I’m not deterred by your threats,” Caleb said darkly. “You can tell anyone anything you want. I will face whatever they want to throw at me myself.”
“You disgust me,” Sera snapped. “Here we are, at war, our entire coven, our family at risk. And what are you doing? You are hiding out here, on some island, waiting for some pathetic little girl to get well. You should be home, defending your people, like the real man you used to be—”
“My coven cast me out,” Caleb snapped back, “after hundreds of years of loyal service. I owe them nothing. They are receiving now exactly what they deserve.”
Caleb exhaled.
“Nonetheless, I do care for them, and given that the situation is what it is, I will not let them down. I told you that I will return, when the time is right.”
“You said that you would return when she had recovered. Clearly, she has recovered. You’re out of excuses. You must return now!”
“I will honor my word, as I always do. But I want to be very clear on this point: I return only to help save our coven, the humans who might be slaughtered, and to help retrieve the Sword. Do not harbor any delusions that it is for any other reason. As soon as my mission is accomplished, I will depart again, for good this time, and it will be the last time you ever see my face. Do not harbor any fantasies that we are together again. Because we are not.”
“Oh, Caleb,” she said, with a dark little laugh, “you can believe whatever you like, but you know deep down that you and I have been together forever, and that we will always be together. The more you fight it, the closer you become to me. I know how much you love me. I can feel it, every day.”
“You are delusional,” Caleb said. “You are getting worse with time.”
Sera smiled wider. “That’s right,” she said, “tell yourself that. Fight your feelings. Fight what both of us already know.”