“So do I. You’re this great hunter. You spent years tracking down every member of that cult who murdered your sister Maria. Why can’t you find Lisa?”
“I’ll find her.” He threw the rest of his coffee into the fire and the wood hissed and sputtered. “But you’re going to help me. I can’t wait. I have to know.”
“By using force? I told you: I can’t let her break her contact with me.”
“I’ll handle it.” His eyes were cool. “She’s mine. Back off, Jane.”
“Go to hell. She chose me. Do you think I like any of this? But she needs someone and she chose me. Now she’s my responsibility.”
“No way. I saw those sketches. She’s afraid and I have to take that away. You have to help me take it away.” He got to his feet. “I can make you want to do it.” He was suddenly kneeling beside her, his eyes holding her own. “Just a shift in perception,” he said softly. “You know I’ve done it before. You’ll just suddenly realize how right I am. How much you want to do what I want you to do.”
She could feel the waves of power and persuasion he was emitting. She could sense her subtle shifting of will, the heat, the yielding. She glared up at him. “You son of a bitch. This isn’t about seduction or one of your sex games. Don’t you dare try to do that to me. I’ll fight you. You’d have to hurt me. And if you managed to do it, then you’d risk destroying me. Do you really want to do that?”
He stared at her for a long moment.
“Hell no.” He was on his feet in one smooth movement and sat down again across the fire from her. “I can’t hurt you. Okay, I’m a bit upset. It just seemed a tool I could use that would give me what I needed. As you say, I’m a son of a bitch.”
More than a bit upset, Jane thought as relief rushed through her. That persuasiveness was almost more powerful than his more deadly talent. She knew he had no compunction about using it to get his way with other people if necessary, but he was very careful about stepping over that line with her. It only showed how serious he was about finding Lisa.
“You care about her,” she said quietly. “It’s not about possessiveness or duty to someone who is going through the same thing as you did as a child. You do love her, Caleb.”
“You find that so strange?” His smile was bitter. “My parents would have agreed with you. I was supposed to represent everything dark in their own lives. I should be incapable of affection, right?” He shrugged. “Somehow it managed to slip in over the threshold like one of those vampires they thought I might become.”
“I don’t find it strange. How could I? You don’t let me know enough about you to judge. But I think I might be learning a little tonight.” She shook her head. “But I’m frustrated because when I realized that you had a resemblance to her, I was hoping you’d know where I could find her.”
“Did you get the impression that she knew her location?”
“I didn’t get much of an impression at all. She wanted me to see where she was being kept and that she was a prisoner, but our link was only with the sketches until recently. She seemed to be trying to teach herself to extend the contacts for a longer period, but it was slow going. She said she’d never been taught and she had to teach herself.” She grimaced. “And that I was no help at all. I couldn’t keep her with me.”
“But I could.”
She looked at him. “Are you back to square one?”
“No, you’re too stubborn to let me try to go to her right now. But I can go into your mind and insert a stay that will allow Lisa not to spin away from you.”
She gazed at him warily. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Because you’re finding it hard to trust me after I tried to adjust your perception. You can trust me in this. If I can’t do what I need myself, I’ll try to facilitate your doing it. Anything to get what I want. You know that’s my mantra.”
She nibbled at her lower lip as she studied him. Coolness. Mockery. The mask was firmly back in place. But she’d seen something behind it that might give her a chance to help Lisa.
“Why couldn’t she do it herself?”
“She told you: She’s not been taught. You saw what kind of temperament Lisa possesses. She’s impulsive, a little volatile, passionate. And she’s had no one around her to temper those characteristics. Certainly not Teresa Romano. No gentling influence there.” His lips twisted. “And I wouldn’t teach Lisa anything to do with mind games until she’s capable of a little more restraint.” He paused. “But you said she’s teaching herself. That could be a formula for disaster.”
“Who taught you?”
“No one. I learned everything on my own. That’s why I know the dangers. I didn’t want that for Lisa.”
“Well, it seems to be heading toward her like a runaway train.” She was silent a moment. “If I let you put that ‘stay’ thing in my mind, will Lisa know you had something to do with putting it there?”
“Really, Jane.”
“None of your damn arrogance. Would she know?”
He shook his head. “She’d just realize that she has control. If she’s teaching herself, she might believe she’s doing it.”
“And then she could be there long enough for me to question her.” She frowned. “If she’ll answer me. She doesn’t trust me.”
“She wants to trust you. As you said, Lisa came to you, not me.”
“I think I was the only one she could reach. I don’t know why.”
“I do.” He held her eyes. “My link with you is very strong. It’s always there. She used it as a springboard.”
She pulled her gaze away and looked at the fire. “And that’s why she’s afraid I’ll pull you into helping her.”
“Probably. She knows I usually have a certain influence over people around me.”
“Understatement.” She was silent again. “Okay, you can do it. But I still won’t have unlimited time to question or influence her. My time with her is triggered by those sketches I do after I wake.”
“That may change. As she gets stronger, she may be able to reach out to you at any time. As she could do with me, if she chose.” He picked up the sketchbook and flipped it open to the first page. “Now let’s go over these sketches again to see if we’ve missed anything.” His gaze was raking Lisa’s face and expression. “This is where she must have realized that she was in trouble and she might be going to have to have help to deal with it. There’s stress but not desperation. It’s always difficult for Lisa to imagine that she can’t handle situations herself.” He pointed to the mountains and flowering garden in the background. “Calm, beautiful surroundings. Whoever is holding her here is going very slowly, probably trying to use persuasion.” He flipped through a few more sketches. “Same background, but her expression is changing; it’s becoming more tense, her jaw harder, her eyes alert and fierce.”
“I just thought she looked a little older.”
“She does. But it’s because whatever is happening to her is causing her to mature more rapidly.”
“What?”