*WARNING!! This post contains spoilers if you haven’t read Blood Shadows or Blood Torn.*

Blood Shadows wasn’t the first Blackthorn novel I wrote, Blood Roses was. But Kane and Caitlin were amongst the first couples to appear in my short stories whilst I was first finding my way around Blackthorn.

When I ‘met’ Caitlin, she was hightailing it alone down a maze of back alleys (which changed slightly). I instantly knew I didn’t want her to be the one being chased. Instead I gave her a purpose: she worked for some kind of agency – an agency that kept the third species, primarily vampires, in check. As I love conflict, I upped the ante. I couldn’t have her chasing just any vampire – I needed her to be hunting down the best, or should I say the worst.

Enter Kane Malloy.

I first saw him the same time Caitlin did. Initially she succeeded in cornering him, but I knew he was going to be even more trouble than I’d envisaged. With this in mind, if he was going to be true to this elusive, most-wanted vampire who was already rapidly developing in my head, it didn’t make sense that she would catch him – not on her terms, anyway. For the sake of the potential story that was already beginning to spark, I needed her good, but not that good.

Their first meeting

So, instead, Kane came out from behind her, pinning her face-first against the wall. It would have been so easy to let a fight to break out between the two, but I wanted Caitlin to be smarter than that. Besides, I already knew I didn’t want it to be a fist-flying and high-kicking kind of story. I certainly didn’t want a super-human heroine able to handle anything thrown at her. I created a sense of fragility to up the tension but, with it, had to justify to myself why she’d be irresponsible enough, even as a top agent, to risk her life pursing such a notorious vampire alone. And then I knew it: she had nothing to lose. Her life was already under threat. She had days left to live. And she wanted Kane because he was the only one who had the answer to help her save herself and, with it, avenge the loved ones she lost in the process. From then on, Caitlin’s character came to life very quickly. And so did Kane’s.

Evolving somewhere between a hero and an anti-hero, for a short while I wasn’t sure which Kane would be. But when logic dictated he should have knocked Caitlin out cold and promptly escape the authorities, instead he stayed to play. He subsequently developed into an even more intriguing character – not least because he had a purpose for Caitlin as much as she did for him. With his goading words revealing he knew just a little too much about her, it became obvious there was going to be some interesting psychological warfare between these two. And when Caitlin, despite all of Kane’s teasing, gritted her teeth, kept her eye on the goal and played the game quietly and carefully before finally getting one over on the master vampire, I knew she was the right one to take him on. And so Blood Shadows (or, as it was then called, Beguiling the Enemy) began.

In the background to developing Kane and Caitlin’s romance, I created the TSCD and its various departments along with the system of laws (not to be mistaken with lores, which apply to the third species belief/rule systems) that kept the third species in order. I’d already decided that one of the features that differentiated the third species from humans was their shadows in place of souls, so creating Caitlin’s shadow reading abilities became a part of that concept when I worked out what threat was looming over her (the soul-ripper). Kane became a master vampire when I had to work out what made him so special that only he could help her.

Shadow readers and master vampires

According to the Global Council’s classification system, a shadow reader is a second species – a human with additional skills but still with a soul (like witches). By reading pulses, where energy transmissions are particularly intense, Caitlin sees fragments of acts and thoughts that are stored both consciously and subconsciously inside the third species equivalent of their conscience. Giving her this skill would enable her to get the truth from Kane whether he liked it or not – hence her taking the risk of catching him. More so, further down the line, I started to see how her skills were going to play a pivotal role later in the series (no spoilers on that yet!).

Before Kane appeared on the page, I’d already started to sketch out how I wanted my vampires to be. I didn’t particularly find the ‘undead’ concept appealing for a romance, and I didn’t want to go down the well-establish horror route of evil binding these animated corpses to the earth. I wanted them to be alive – a different species. Out of this, I developed a vampire hierarchy of royalty and lesser vampires. But, through Kane, a race developed that sat outside of both. Master vampires are the purest of the species (not to be mistaken with the pure blood of vampire royalty): dual feeders able to consume both blood and energy. They sit outside of the rule of the Higher Order, governed by their own lores. Along with this ability, I gave master vampires knowledge about their species others didn’t have. Because of this, Kane became particularly relevant to the future of Blackthorn – not least why the authorities wanted him in the first place.

Love your enemy 

Over time, Blood Shadows became an evolving plot of secrets, lies and cover-ups – where the good guys are revealed to be the bad guys, and the bad guy, well… I’m biased, obviously! Amidst this, I developed both Kane and Caitlin’s characters to give them enough motivation to sustain their battle of wills in order to gain the upper hand in their causes – both sharing the same goal of vengeance for their loved ones.

Of course, their attraction to each other became inevitable. Despite fighting this, the sexual tension between these two became palpable very early on. Caitlin’s deep-rooted obsession with Kane for so many years before finally meeting him did nothing to appease it – not least when he started to prove himself as anything but the reputed monster. And when Kane discovered that, far from knowing the truth of what happened to his sister, Caitlin was more innocent than he could have imagined, it threw a whole raft of moral complications his way. What started out as a dark game for him on his journey to vengeance developed into real feelings when he found himself uncovering more admirable qualities in Caitlin than reasons to hate her. Though set up as enemies, Kane and Caitlin gradually started to discover that their greatest strength was through working together rather than as adversaries.

So did Kane turn out to be the good guy after all? That has been debated. But I think the pivotal scene where Caitlin learns she had the power to destroy the soul-ripper without Kane all along, says it all. I was once told indirectly in a review that if Kane was any kind of hero, he would never have let Caitlin fight the soul-ripper but instead killed it for her. That’s not how I see it. I see that Kane never left her side. I saw him poised and ready if anything went wrong. And I know he would never have let the soul-ripper succeed. What Kane did was forego his own fourteen-year quest for vengeance by refusing to kill Caitlin (despite it creating a whole raft of additional complications for him). With it, he could have easily broken even by taking Caitlin’s fulfilment of her vengeance away from her too. All he had to do was kill the soul-ripper, herald her indebted to him and, with it, conceal the truth of how little she’d needed him all along. But he didn’t. Instead of taking over, he let her discover her own strength. He let her see her quest through to the end – encouraged it even. And when he walked away, he did so only to give her the chance to do the same – with every excuse possible to do just that. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad she didn’t.

Their future

It might have ended with a happy-for-now for Kane and Caitlin, but if you’ve read Blood Torn (if not, look away!!), you’ll know that their actions potentially have huge global consequences. Sirius Throme, the head of the human-run Global Council responsible for putting the regulations into place in the beginning, had never had anything beyond his own interests in mind. He initially wanted Kane so he could ensure that whatever secret recipe could bind vampire and human blood together remained as such. After all, if there’s a cure for human ailments, if the third species are there for the good of mankind, justification for the segregation would fall apart and his world domination plans would be thwarted. Instead, Kane saving Caitlin presented Sirius with an even greater opportunity – a potential way to increase his power to an almost immortal state that has nothing to do with cures at all. He has plans for creating an entirely new world order by using and then disposing of the third species in the process.

But that’s only one of many problems Kane and Caitlin are facing. They’re still on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to the law. Caitlin has an unwavering belief in what she does for a living, not least her need to end the corruption in her organisation. Self-reliant and strong-willed, Caitlin’s not going to give all of that up easily. Then there’s the fact that she’s still recovering from the betrayal of those she loved and trusted. Having had her first love abandon her when she needed him most, the question remains whether she can truly learn to trust again. And with Kane still something of a closed book, it’s possible her insecurities could resurface – not least as it’s not just her heart she’s trusting Kane with this time, but potentially the future of her kind, let alone the third species too, if he is to go up against Sirius.

But Kane’s vengeance remains incomplete. He still carries his guilt for what happened to Arana. He’s still hellbent on not only bringing down the system (now more than ever since Sirius’ threat) but, as you now know, the prophesied vampire leader too. Up until now, Kane has sustained his middle finger at the authorities who slaughtered his sister by refusing to care about anyone who could be used against him again. Being with Caitlin means accepting he has made himself vulnerable. And with Caitlin potentially in the firing line, fiercely-protective Kane could create a whole new wealth of conflict between them if he doesn’t approach it the right way. And let’s not forget Kane’s falling for Caitlin also had him going back on his deal with Jask. Kane certainly can’t afford to lose his reputation – the one thing that he has to maintain to survive Blackthorn – especially with a pending war looming and Sirius having him ready as the scapegoat. With this on top of the prophetic threat of an even greater uprising imminent, having anything but his mission to worry about could get too much.

I’ve no doubt Kane and Caitlin’s love for each other is real though. They have an amazing understanding of each other, a mutual respect, let alone having found a companionship that is developing into become as emotionally fulfilling as it is passionate. Above all of that, they both have a new common goal – one that is no longer one of opposition – in preventing the pending disaster and stopping the real bad guys from winning. I’ve always had a good feeling about these two. Let’s hope they don’t throw me a curveball, but continue to prove me right in believing in them.

Leila and Caleb are up next time!