“I could say the same thing about Jaeden.”
“When Jae agreed to be my mate she provided the world with an example of her supreme intellectual and emotional superiority.”
Lucien snorted. “I’d like-”
“Ssh,” Ryder interrupted gesturing for him to be silent. He jumped to his feet noiselessly.
Immediately Lucien’s own ears perked up, and he heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. They shared a wary glance just before Marita appeared before them. His heart, seeming to perceive something he didn’t, began to pump loudly in his chest at the sight of her. Usually so together, so coiffed, Marita stood before them somewhat dishevelled, her eyes filled with a war of emotions.
“I’ve come to update you,” she informed them crisply, hollowly. “My sister, under your suggestion, found the laboratory. She was… unwilling to reach an agreement with me and foolishly tried to fight me off.” She stopped as if trying to compose herself, and when she looked back at him he was almost knocked off his feet by the fury he saw there. “She took the children on a suicide mission.”
Ryder tensed just as he did. Lucien cleared his throat, hating to ask. “What does that mean?”
Marita hissed like a snake readying to strike. “She did a communication spell with five children clinging to her. I know her destination was her faerie Saffron’s, where despite much investigation I’ve never been able to find – treacherous bitch. I know she reached there.” She stiffened and bleakness flashed across her eyes before disappearing altogether. “I know the children survived. I know she died. The spell is too much for any witch or warlock, no matter how powerful.”
What? Was she saying…?
“Is…” he shared a brief look of horror with Ryder, “Is Marion dead?”
Marita nodded, her lips pinched cruelly. “Thanks to you.”
His blood boiled instantly. “Thanks to me?! Thanks to you! What am I supposed to tell Caia?! I will kill you for this! I will-”
His last words were cut off as he was blasted back against the wall, his head connecting with eye-watering accuracy on one of the shelving units. He slumped to the floor trying to focus his vision. In all that pain all he could think about was how devastated Caia was going to be. Marion meant the world to her.
“I don’t care what Caia thinks,” Marita clipped. “She was my sister. This is my pain, not hers! Any thoughts I had of granting that little perversion of nature you call a mate mercy is gone now. She is the reason our Coven is falling apart, that my sister, one of the greatest magiks of our time, killed herself trying to save some low-bred lykan pups!”
“Do you hear yourself?” Ryder countered, as Lucien got to his feet. “You sound like a Midnight.”
Marita flinched. “How dare you? I have no racial prejudice against other species, but no society, natural or supernatural, can survive without class order. My sister, a witch of noble lineage, should not have had to die for five common lykans.”
A growl erupted from Lucien’s chest so suddenly he was just as taken aback as the insane witch in front of him. “Your sister was a hero. She has upheld her place within your ‘noble lineage’ as you call it. You… have shit all over it. And you can bet when you travel to the Underworld the dead won’t be as understanding as the idiots in this Centre pandering to your lunacy.”
She made no comment but he was satisfied by the paling pallor of her skin. She narrowed her eyes and straightened her shoulders, pretending his words hadn’t affected her. “I just came to warn you that your time is nearly up. I will be executing the Council in a few days and with it… I will be executing you. By then I hope to have found your precious mate so she can witness your death. Before I send her to her own.”
***
She couldn’t catch her breath. She could feel the others hovering outside the bedroom door, their worry and grief adding to the thick claustrophobia she felt clawing at her throat. How could Marion be dead?
A sob caught in the back of her throat, but she refused to let the tears spill. They all thought she was in here crying her heart out but in truth she was trying to plug the hole the death had made in it. She was trying to force her brain to switch off, to pretend that Marion was alive, that she hadn’t died trying to protect the children she had left alone down in that lab. Oh goddess, it was like losing Sebastian all over again.
No, she snarled at herself, physically shaking her head as if she could empty the thoughts right out of her ears.
“Caia,” Reuben’s cool voice filtered through the door.
She took a deep breath. She could do this. She had no other choice but to do this. Slowly, she made her way to the door and peeled it open, unsurprised by the four anxious faces staring back at her. Caia frowned. “Where is Saffron?”
Jaeden’s lip trembled a little. “She’s gone back to look after the children. She’s keeping them safe whilst we…” she stopped, her huge blue eyes glimmering with pity. “Caia, are you going to be OK?”
She shouldered past them, quite a feat considering how small she was compared to the three of them acting as a wall. “I don’t want to discuss it.”
“But, Cy-”
“I said I don’t want to discuss it.” She whirled around on them, completely unaware of how much she looked and sounded like a young queen commanding her army to obey. Jaeden stiffened a little but nodded, clamping her mouth shut. Reuben was staring at Caia in admiration (unnerving, to say the least) whilst Vil merely looked uncomfortable. Laila, however, slowly made her way towards her and Caia braced herself. If the girl said anything comforting she knew she was going to fall apart. But the Midnight merely placed a soothing hand on her shoulder and said softly, “We should go to the Council member’s families at once, Caia.”
At her touch, an almost medicinal peace flowed through her and the lump at the back of her throat eased, her lungs opened up allowing the air to flow freely.
“You’re right.” She nodded stoically, feeling far more confident she could continue on with the plan, despite her grief.
Jaeden strode forward, the pity gone from her face to be replaced with a far more familiar determination and mulishness. “We aren’t going anywhere until we rescue the pack.”
“Jaeden-” Reuben began to warn her, but Caia help a hand up to quiet him. She took a brief moment to enjoy the little power she had over the formidable vampyre.
“She’s right.” Caia nodded. “We’re taking the pack back first.”
“That gives us less time to gather the families of the Council and the MacLachlan pack.”
“How so?” Jae glared at him.
“Because Marita must be checking in with her guards that surround the pack. What happens when she checks in and she gets no answer?”
Jae curled her lip sardonically. “What… you can’t muddle their trace with that little masking trick of yours so that she thinks everything is OK?”
“Uh…” Reuben stopped and scowled at her. “Yes. I can do that.”
Jaeden chortled at her little victory. “Not so much with the smarts, are you?”
“I’ve just been given very trying news. Marion was a good person and a portentous ally. Forgive me if I’m not thinking straight.”
At the mention of the witch they all tensed, waiting for Caia to react. She glared at the vampyre. “The big bad vampyre, who would sacrifice his own children for this war, actually feels grief?”
His dark eyes narrowed, and quite suddenly he looked nothing like a young gang leader and very much like a dangerously old being that could rip them all apart in seconds. “Don’t provoke me, Caia. I am not in the mood.”
Caia stared back stonily. “Neither am I. So let’s move.”
7 – Ambushed
Birds twittered and squawked in the trees, insects buzzed around her ears, and the wind rustled every piece of foliage its fingers brushed against. Her pounding heart provided the back drumbeat to their musical surroundings and as her pale hair got caught gently in the breeze Caia was sure the gua
rds surrounding Lucien’s must be able to hear and see them hiding in the sullen cover of the woods. She glanced back at Laila and Vil who had refused to be left alone at Ryder’s apartment. Caia had given into their wishes because she was sure she may need Vil at some point. For now, however, she had them hiding behind a couple of trees, further back from herself and Jaeden.
“Where is he?” Jae hissed, her hands clenched into fists.
Caia raised a finger to her lips to shush her, her eyes telling her to be patient.
“It’s done.”
They both jumped, startled, and turned to find Reuben inches from Caia. She stepped back, uncomfortable with his nearness. The guy was possibly the most unnerving person she had ever met. By ‘it’s done’, they both knew Reuben meant he had successfully manipulated each of the five guards’ trace, so that if Marita tapped in to see if everything was alright, she would find nothing but a mixture of bored thoughts and loyal determination to do a good job. Moreover, he was masking the trace of the entire pack so Marita would think they were still under guard. Caia almost shuddered in apprehension at the thought of the vampyre’s seemingly unlimited abilities.
“OK.” Caia nodded, drawing a breath. “Are we ready?”
After a successful attack on Midnight magiks in similar surroundings a few weeks ago, Caia had assumed her nerves over going into battle again would be few, but it seemed she still had enough butterflies in her to open a riotous farm. Jae nodded militantly and quickly began to strip. Reuben was watching her avidly. Rolling her eyes Caia reached up and grabbed him by the chin, forcing him to look away. He grinned unabashed, and turned his attention to her face. She tried not to squirm under his penetrating gaze but she would give anything to know what was going on in the vampyre’s mind. At the cracking of bones Caia felt a rush of unexpected envy. She used to love the feel of the change, the burning, the breaking and bending. Now she changed so fast all she ever felt was a quick flush of hot energy. It left her with that irritating feeling one has when your back aches and you know if you could just crack it you would be satisfied.
Something wet touched her hand and she looked down to see Jae nuzzling her nose into her open palm. Caia smiled reassuringly down at her and gave her the nod. Wolf Jae turned in an instant and was rushing through the woods in a blur. They heard the distant cry of two guards, and they were off. She wasn’t as fast on two legs as she was on four, but she was faster than the average human. Reuben… was a streak of movement. Caia knew he was heading for the magik guarding the back porch. As she raced around the edge of the house she saw he had a hold of the magik by the neck. A loud sickening crack reached her ears. Oh my. She squeezed her eyes shut briefly and then forced her flight to the front of the house to the driveway to confront the two magiks Jaeden was momentarily distracting. Their cries had alerted the other two guards and they were heading towards them from opposite ends of the grounds. Pushing away any gentle feelings, Caia pressed her magik into the approaching guards’ lungs and they both collapsed, clutching their chests as water filled their airways. Seeing the downing of their comrades the other magiks turned on Caia. Jaeden took that moment of distraction to lunge at the one closest to her.
Flooring him, she swiped at his face with her claws, eliciting a piercing scream of agony that was quietly culled by her jaws as they clamped on to his throat. The other warlock seemed to hesitate, deciding whether to save his friend or deal with Caia. His decision was made in seconds and he turned on Caia. She threw up a shield to stop whatever energy he was pushing her way. His face mottled red with determination, his black eyes blazing with fury. A blur shot past the two magiks she had suffocated and came to an abrupt stop behind the one trying to get past her shield with what she was sure was air magik. The blur cleared into Reuben and his large hands gripped the warlock’s head before giving a forceful tug that removed it from his body. Caia watched in horror as his body fell away from the vampyre in a loud thump across the gravel. Reuben sneered and let the head roll from his hands to land in the bloody pool that oozed from his victim’s decapitated corpse. It was only as he turned to look down at Jaeden that Caia remembered her. Jae was hacking up the blood of her own victim and Caia knew all too well how disgusting the taste and feel of death was.
“So what now?” Caia gestured a little shakily to them. “Marita wouldn’t have felt the attack but won’t she feel their deaths… won’t it be like… white noise?” She felt a little stupid for not having thought that part through… well more than a little stupid really.
Reuben’s lips twisted as if he were insulted by the mere suggestion that he would have been idiotic enough to not have thought every second of the attack out. “The manipulation can last past death as long as something of their physical body remains.”
She shook her head in amazement. “If Marita ever knew of your existence you would be enemy No.1, you know that right?”
He snorted. “Caia, she does know of my existence, she would just prefer to believe I am merely a legend, a myth… makes it easier to sleep at night.”
“If you’re so powerful why haven’t you taken over years ago?”
Reuben laughed, his eyes glittering darkly. “This really isn’t the time for that discussion. But the short answer is… I’m just not interested.”
Giving a huff of laughter Caia strode past him, stroking her fingers through Jae’s pelt in comfort as she passed her and into the house.
“Caia!” She heard Magnus yell. He’d obviously detected her scent amidst the sounds of the disturbance outside. The thundering of feet could be heard from all over the house as people rushed to the entrance.
Magnus was the first to reach her and she was dragged into the most crushing hug ever. She felt his lips in her hair and the shudder of his relief, and as she breathed in his familiar scent Caia felt a rush of painful affection. Marion. She had been one of Magnus’ closest friends. She would have to break the news to him.
“Uncle Magnus.” She burrowed deeper into his chest.
The exclamations of the pack got louder as Jaeden and Reuben entered. Caia managed to pull back a little from her uncle’s tight grip to see Dimitri and Julia hovering over Jaeden, aghast at the blood on her muzzle. Christian and Lucia stood close by, clinging to one another, grief over the kidnap of their toddler tightening their features.
“Caia!” She felt herself being yanked out of Magnus’ arms and into Irini’s. At the feel of her sister-in-law’s trembling Caia felt a rush of emotion she wasn’t expecting. All the years Irini had looked after her, Caia had wondered if the lykan had resented her existence. But her tight hug, and the way she pulled back to brush the hair from Caia’s face, told her something she had missed all this time. Irini cared for her, truly and deeply. She smiled tremulously, not sure if she could handle any more sentimental outbursts.
“We were so worried,” Irini whispered, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Aidan stood by her side, his hand on her shoulder. “Lucien was… I’ve never seen him so…”
Caia blanched. “He must be thinking the worst.”
“Caia, he’s been taken,” Aidan announced, causing the riot in the hallway to dissipate. “So have Ryder and the children-”
“I know.” She nodded, turning to look at them all.
She didn’t have a chance to say anything more before she was crushed in Ella’s arms. “Caia, I am so sorry,” the words tumbled out of Lucien’s mother’s mouth in an incredible rush of remorse. “You were right about Marita and everything and we-”
“Yeah, we’re so sorry-”
“Can you-”
A gamut of feelings and apologies engulfed her as the pack urged her to forgive them for not believing her about Marita. She tried shushing them, but it was to no avail. They were determined to have their say and they were far louder than her.
“Quiet.” The vampyre didn’t raise his voice but the word had the same effect on the pack as it had had on the others earlier. They puttered to a stop and then stared sullenly at him.
“You remember Reuben?” She asked wryly.
He nodded ‘hello’.
“I know about the kidnapping.” Caia turned to the pack. “I know about everything.”
8 – Alpha
As Magnus excused himself hoarsely, Caia’s eyes followed his tall figure as it lurched out of the kitchen and onto the porch, disappearing down into the garden and into the woods. Ella and the pack stared after him solemnly whilst Caia fought the Marion-shaped lump of grief at the back of her throat. At the sound of Magnus’ harsh howl in the distance she stumbled back from the gathering and turned to hurry upstairs and into the room she shared with Lucien.
Spotting Lucien’s shirt strewn across the sofa in the corner Caia rushed for it, pressing the fabric to her face so that his scent flooded her nostrils. She promptly burst into harrowing sobs and collapsed on the sofa. As she struggled with the effort to breathe through the burning agony clutching her throat, she wished more than anything that Lucien was here with her, to help her get through this. There had always been the chance that once her war with Marita had begun Caia would have lost Marion anyway. But at least she would have been alive and thriving, helping to keep the Coven tempered with her goodness. Now to exist in a world where there was no Marion was to exist in a world without light. And more than ever Caia needed that light.
A cool hand clasped her shoulder eliciting a sharp thump from her heart. She looked up to see Reuben staring down at her kindly. There wasn’t even enough time to be surprised by the concern in his eyes before she was pulled out of her seat and enfolded in his arms. Shocked at his display of sympathy, of solicitude, she tensed against him. He merely tightened his hold and pressed her head against his chest, soothing her with quiet words.
“You’re allowed to cry, Caia. She meant a great deal to you, to everyone. In this war you will see a lot of death, and feel much grief, but you have to let yourself feel it. If you stop allowing yourself to, you will start to stop caring about why you are fighting this war in the first place.” He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “I know I seem ruthless… and I can be sometimes… but I still care. I need to.”
Blood Solstice: Part Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte Page 7
