*WARNING – CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BLOOD ROSES*

Yesterday, I delved into the dark past of the notorious Kane Malloy. Today, it’s Caleb Dehain’s turn. Dark vampire with a deeply buried heart, or simply too twisted to ever undo? Let’s have a look…

Has claimed: ‘Eventually the hand that nature has dealt you will make you become what you were meant to be. You have no control over it.’

 ABANDONED…

Caleb is one of three brothers, the eldest being Seth, Jake being the youngest. They were brought up by their mother – a Higher Order vampire who denounced her heritage. Concealing her true identity, she fell in love with a Higher Order vampire nonetheless and her three sons were born in secret. But then their father abandoned her, ironically, to marry one of ‘his own’.

The secret of their heritage remained as such.

TORTURED…

The three brothers were close, with Seth the father figure. He was Caleb’s salvation in more ways than one when, as nothing more than a teenager, Caleb was preyed upon by a serryn.

‘Three weeks she’d chosen to keep him alive. The taunting. The torture. The degrading and debasing acts she had performed on him, to him, and forced him to participate in. The things she made him watch and experience… seeing the little ones sob and being able to do nothing to help them, their pain intensifying if he didn’t watch… the helplessness he had felt bound and manacled knowing if he had been free, he could have overpowered her, stopped it…’

Caleb was found and saved by a group of vampires, Seth amongst them. He may have been one of the rare vampires to escape a serryn with his life, but Caleb never recovered.

‘…the unspoken trauma had changed something inside him – something that wouldn’t heal.’

Despite having seen firsthand what atrocities serryns were capable of, Caleb’s reaction was one of vengeance not fear. Seth, however, kept him from the destructive route, predicting it would be a slippery slope to Caleb’s downfall.

‘They had both idolised their older brother – but for Caleb, Seth had been the father figure they’d never known. Seth had been the only one capable of tempering Caleb.’

BETRAYED…

But Caleb’s temperance was even harder to maintain when his brother suffered injustice at the hands of the Higher Order. Seth worked as a bodyguard protecting Higher Order vampire, Jarin (now Feinith’s betrothed). When Jarin broke the rules and ventured out alone to feed one night, the incident turned almost fatal for him. But despite Seth saving his life, Jarin lied about the events to protect his own back and blamed Seth for cowardice at fleeing the scene. He was subsequently dismissed with dishonour.

Unfortunately, Seth’s trial had also put Caleb on Feinith’s radar. Her fascination with the sullen, bad-tempered vampire who openly defied the Higher Order was evoked.

GRIEF STRICKEN…

But Seth’s dismissal led to a worse string of events. One night, when he would have otherwise been on duty, he way preyed upon by a serryn. Tortured and left for dead, it was Caleb who found him.

‘Caleb had slipped into an even darker place after that – immersed in resentment, restrained from enacting revenge only by knowing the repercussions for Jake and anyone else he had left to care about.’

MANIPULATED…

Now Caleb not only wanted vengeance on serryns but also the Higher Order – not least Jarin – for the injustice that led to the incident.

‘Then along came Feinith – the beautiful, sensual Higher Order vampire with an offer Caleb couldn’t refuse: a chance to appease some of that pent-up frustration and turmoil by hunting serryns. But it had done the opposite.’ 

Feinith persuaded Caleb to overcome his resentment of the Higher Order by working for them for his own ends. They needed serryn hunters and she believed Caleb perfect for the job – not least it giving them an opportunity to spend time together. Caleb, having struggled to form relationships since his trauma, not least any bond of trust with a female, was gradually enamoured by the Higher Order vampire who fulfilled his needs.

OVERCOME BY DARKNESS…

Feinith not only justified Caleb’s need for vengeance, but actively fuelled it. Subsequently, the slippery slope Seth predicted ensued. Caleb, immersed in the liberation of being able to sate his own needs, became addicted to the power and control. More and more encounters with serryns exacerbated his hatred until even Jake came to fear what his brother had become.

‘Seventy years of hunting serryns had turned him into something almost unrecognisable from the brother he had grown up with.’

His reputation became renowned. He became the Higher Order’s most successful and intrepid serryn hunter – and he wasn’t going to stop until he’d destroyed them all.

TAINTED…

Over the decades, Caleb’s obsessive love for Feinith became as dark as his deeds, their warped and power-driven relationship becoming as intrepid as Caleb’s hunting. 

‘Feinith had fulfilled so many of those darker needs, so much so that she’d become an addiction he couldn’t be without. He had adored her. Thrived on the way they sparked. Before she’d torn him apart as she toyed with his feelings – feelings he’d believed were love.’

And then along came Leila. Leila who saw through the darkness and challenged the very nature of what he had become.

‘What did she do to you, Caleb? What did she do that was so bad that you think all of this is acceptable? The way you’ve treated me. What did she do to warp your mind and perceptions so badly? Because this is just as much about her, isn’t it? Killing me isn’t just about the prophecies – it’s about redemption for you, for whatever she did to you.’

Leila, who despite discovering Caleb was her destined nemesis – the fated leader of the vampire uprising she had been brought up to prevent – decided to fight for his salvation her way.

But will Caleb see his Tryan status through? Can he really choose Leila over his own? And what if she fails on what she promised she could do? Will the dark side out again? And can he really, truly trust her or is he just too broken?

On Tuesday, I’ll be looking at Kane and Caleb’s position and status in Blackthorn – who exactly is the most powerful out of the two?