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Kenna stops a few feet away, her posture calm and controlled. “I saved you from being used by Malcolm and his cult, I thought you’d be a little more grateful.”
“Saved me? You’re the one who led me right into Malcolm’s trap,” Caleb retorts, fighting the urge to scream.
It doesn’t make sense that his senses are dulled now that he’s human, but his emotions are like a storm, but he doesn’t have a chance to analyze this right now. Not to mention no one’s ever been turned from a vampire back to a human, so there’s not exactly a road map for this.
“I told you not to try to save me,” Kenna replies in that calm, controlled tone.
Caleb looks at her in disbelief, a sharp pain in his chest causing him to clench his jaw. “Next time I won’t,” he says with an air of finality.
He leaves the comfort of the sofa, desperate to be as far away from his aunt as possible, even though the one-bedroom apartment has little to offer in terms of escape. Caleb wanders into the kitchen, where he examines the refrigerator for food.
The only thing that he actually missed about being human.
Blood is great and it tastes marvelous, but after a while, the flavor gets monotonous. There might be subtle differences from person to person, but not enough to make a real impact on the palate. He hadn’t realized how much he missed the wide spectrum of taste normal food offers. He’ll finally be able to taste some of Maddy’s cooking.
The thought of her brings a frown to his lips. It’s bad enough that Mason isn’t picking his calls, but Maddy ignoring him feels like he’s been stabbed right in the middle of his chest. After poking and prodding him so many times about taking the cure, he thought she would have been elated that he was back to human. But apparently, she’s not.
Caleb stabs the sandwich he’s making, his appetite lost in light of his helpless predicament. What can he do without the vamp speed and strength that he had come to rely on? How is he supposed to help in the fight against Orion when he’s so weak and powerless?
“How are you holding up in here?”
Caleb turns in alarm to see Rachel leaning on the doorway. It’s been a while since anyone’s snuck up on him. He’d taken for granted the fact that he could hear a heartbeat from half a mile away.
“I’m okay,” Caleb lies, positioning himself in front of his ruined sandwich so that Rachel doesn’t see.
“I know things are a bit rough right now, but they’ll get better,” she offers.
He takes a deep breath, forcing himself not to react. Orion is out of purgatory, Malcolm got what he wanted and Caleb just lost his powers, his girlfriend and his friend. Rachel is right though, things will get better. They have to. There’s not much else that can go wrong.
“What do you know about the Van Helsings?” Rachel asks.
“They’re the greatest vampire hunters who ever lived,” Caleb says. Kenna had taught him about the family back when he was training to be part of the Order. According to the historical record, Van Helsing alone killed more than a hundred vampires, Dracula included.
“And how do you think they accomplished that?” Rachel asks.
Caleb scratches his head. The how of it had never really occurred to him. “Special weapons?” he guesses.
“Close, but not quite,” Rachel says. “The Van Helsings themselves were the special weapon. They became strong because they had to be. Count Dracula was at the height of his power when the first Van Helsing was alive, spreading terror across the land. He was a warlock before he turned into a vampire, making him very difficult to kill. So, the witches experimented on a few of the Order members trying to make them stronger. The exact spells they used have been lost to history, but they introduced some powers within the Van Helsing bloodline.”
“Is that why Kenna is so good at kicking my ass?” Caleb asks.
Rachel smiles. “No. She’s just good at kicking ass. Unfortunately while descendants of Van Helsings could use their powers freely and easily in the past, no-one in your bloodline has been able to activate their powers for the last hundred years.”
He nods, biting his tongue so that he doesn’t blurt out how useless this information is to him. He might finally be able to understand why Malcolm had wanted his blood, but what good does that do him?
“I want to see Maddy,” Caleb says, catching Rachel off guard. Once again, he’s struck that while the quality of his sensations have reduced after turning back into a human, the intensity of his emotions have increased. The whirlwind of despair and loneliness makes him want to tear the hair right off his skull.
“We’ll find her,” Rachel assures. “I’m sure she’s fine.”
“I want Maddy now,” Caleb insists. He can feel the anger and helplessness swirling within him like a tornado of unbridled emotion. Maddy’s the only one who can calm him down, make him see the beauty in the world once again. If she’s hurt, or dead, there’s no point in him being around either. He was already technically dead as a vampire.
“Just calm down,” Rachel says in a soothing tone, placing a hand on Caleb’s shoulder. “We’ll get her as soon as we can.”
He shrugs off her touch, moving to the other side of the kitchen. “No,” he insists. “If you want me to calm down, then I need to see Maddy. If you want me to stay here, fine. But you need to find her. I don’t want a history lesson on how amazing my ancestors were. I just want Maddy.”
He steadily raises his voice as he speaks, the emotions boiling out with his words, so it is no surprise when Kenna walks into the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” she asks.
