Moon Spell: Part One in the Tale of Lunarmorte

by Samantha Young

  Her eyes flashed, and she growled, wanting to rip the sink off the wall.

  They knew!

  She tore out of the bathroom, hurriedly pulling on a pair of jeans, and then tore down the stairs as if the hounds of Hades were nipping at her ankles. Her bluster, however, slowly died at the sound of voices coming from the sitting room, bringing her to an abrupt halt. She sniffed the air and found the familiar scents of her housemates, plus Magnus, Dimitri and Ryder. Among the scents were two unfamiliar ones – of the non-lykan variety. She grumbled, realising she couldn’t exactly rip Lucien’s head off in company. Oh, but he had it coming.

  Sighing heavily, she finished her journey to the doorway of the sitting room, only to be taken aback by the sight of all them turned towards her, as if waiting for her. Her eyes immediately went to Lucien, and she was angered by the tenderness she saw in his face. She flushed as she remembered the hot kisses they had shared, and how Alexa’s taunt had sent Caia into a blazing rage, enough of one to have been able to what... throw Alexa telekinetically across the room? Frowning at him, and at her own worried thoughts, she took in the rest of the group. Ryder stood beside Lucien, and on his other side were two unfamiliar women. The first was a small woman with long red hair and wide violet eyes. She was attractive and very delicate, like a doll, and Caia guessed, by the way she held herself, older than she looked. The scent Caia picked up from her, surprisingly, was a strong vanilla, so strong she could almost taste it. And next to this woman was the most stunning creature Caia had ever seen. The woman was tall, only a few inches shorter than Ryder, with a slender figure and graceful limbs. Her perfect face was framed by short, sharp blonde hair that followed her jaw line in strands of thick silk. Her ice blue eyes were watching Caia curiously.

  “Hello.” The red-head stepped forward, her words tinged with an accent, “I’m Marion.”

  A wave of feeling fell over Caia, a safe feeling, like she could trust this woman with anything. Engrossed in the feeling, she almost forgot her manners. “Sorry.” She took the woman’s hand in her own. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I have a lot to thank you for.”

  She shrugged, laughing warmly. “Not at all. Oh.” She seemed to remember herself, and turned back to her companion. “This is Saffron. My faerie.”

  A faerie? Caia blinked, remembering the amazing stories Ryder had imparted. “Nice to meet you,” she said, trying to hide her wide-eyes.

  She watched as Saffron wrinkled her nose and turned to Ryder. “She smells different from the rest of you.”

  “Shut up,” he hissed back, glaring at her.

  “Wh- ”

  Before Caia could finish her question, and before her temper was given chance to build, Magnus stepped forward. “We need to talk,” he said softly. His worried eyes made the hair on Caia’s skin rise. If she had been in wolf form her ears would have twitched, her hair would have spiked, and she would have lowered to her haunches, awaiting the sign of attack.

  They knew!

  They all knew what was wrong with her... and no one had told her.

  Even the witch and the faerie knew.

  She could feel everyone’s anxiety over having to tell her. Angry tears pricked the corner of her eyes. All this time they had been keeping something from her. She had trusted them.

  Her gaze blazed with accusation as it moved from one to the other. She took perverse delight in watching them squirm. “Is someone finally going to tell me why every time I have an emotional outburst water pipes instantaneously rupture? Why I can throw someone across a room without even touching them? Why I started to change in front of a class of humans yesterday, and could do nothing to stop it?! Why I can actually feel your emotions right now?!”

  Their mouths had fallen open, ears disbelieving at what she was telling them had happened to her.

  “Caia.” Lucien made a move towards her, his eyes full of guilt and anguish.

  “Don’t.” She stepped back from him, her eyes accusing and filled with dislike. He was the last person in the world she wanted touching her right now. She took satisfaction in the way he flinched, hurt by her rejection.

  He sighed and looked at Magnus, and then back to her. “You should know Magnus wanted to tell you from the start, but he was outvoted.”

  Caia looked at her uncle, and nodded, as if she had known all along he would not hurt her. “Then you explain, Magnus. Please, just tell me what’s happening to me?” She crumpled into a chair, hating the way her eyes filled with tears as they pleaded with his. “I’m scared.”

  She looked at Lucien sharply as he made a sound of distress. His emotions hit her like a wave and she gulped under the force of them. Despite whatever had happened between him and Alexa, he had some caring feelings towards Caia - enough to feel hurt when she was hurting. She didn’t want that. She just wanted to be mad at him for now. She looked away, as Magnus approached her, ignoring her feelings for her Pack Leader, and taking comfort in the strong arm her uncle placed around her shoulders.

  “You don’t have to be scared, Cy. We’ll get you through this.”

  “Get me through what?”

  “For you to understand, we have to go back to the beginning,” he sighed, rubbing her shoulder in comfort.

  And then he began to tell her a tale that threw her back into a past she had never known existed; to a history that had been rewritten.

  16 - The Awful Truth

  19 years ago

  “How could you, Mikhail?”Albus burst out in rage, his hands trembling with so much emotion, so much confusion.

  His older brother shrugged, defeated and weary. “I don’t know.”

  “You’re the Pack Leader. To have an affair... with the enemy?”Rafe added in disbelief. Albus was glad for his presence, which calmed his own fiery temperament.

  Mikhail’s eyes flashed at the young man. “Why are you even here? This is between me and my brother.”

  “Mikhail,” Albus warned, angry at the obvious blow Rafe took. He tried not to show it, but Rafe’s eyes darkened with sadness. It had taken Ella’s persuasion for them to see that Rafe was an excellent man, a young man who had suffered for the sins of his father. Albus knew he thought of himself and Mikhail as his own brothers. For Mikhail to hint otherwise was a verbal punch to the stomach that Albus wouldn’t stand for. “Don’t take your own foolishness out on Rafe.”

  Mikhail groaned, “Nothing will come of this. I promise. The affair is over with Atia.”

  “You had an affair with the wife of the Head of the Midnight Coven! If Devlyn finds out, this will never be over!”

  ***

  “Well, Atia. You have been a naughty wife, haven’t you?” Devlyn murmured as he circled her like an animal. His eyes raked over his beautiful wife as she dangled by her arms, arms that were clapped in chains attached to the ceiling. A long time ago he had thought Gaia had created this enchanting creature just for him. Now his stomach turned just thinking about where her body had been. “How was it? Sex with a dirty animal? Not even an influential Pack Leader... some small time piece of filth who has the audacity to call himself a leader.”

  He watched as her eyes began to tear in rage and frustration. She pulled at her chains, her body swinging from the motion. “I told you I killed Mikhail! It is over, and there is one less lykan in the world!” She cried, her tears turning to blood as they ran over the wounds he had inflicted on her. “Please, Devlyn...”

  He laughed humourlessly. “What? You think I’m happy with the death of just one of those mutts? More of them must know that my wife had an affair with one of them. If the Coven ever found out...”

  She pulled again at the chains, and looked at him wildly. “They’re strong husband. Small-time they may be, but they can’t be killed easily.” Her eyes widened as she thought of something, licking her lips in excitement. “Yes, you won’t be able to kill them unless you infiltrate them. I can help. I can find out their weaknesses, and together we can take them out.”

  Devlyn stared, amazed tha
t she would think he would fall for that. “My dear, why would I ask your help to take out this pack, when you’re the reason I have to do a black ops against them in the first place?”

  “Devlyn...,”she begged.

  It was the last thing she said.

  His name.

  A plea for his mercy.

  He felt nothing after he killed her. Just stared at her in disgust, and turned away from her body. His eyes found his son, who stood in the doorway, his hand on his elder sister’s shoulder protectively, even though he was three years younger than she.

  “The Coven is never to hear of this,” Devlyn demanded of them. He watched as they nodded their heads, their faces belying their own disgust at what their mother had done. He felt their anger hit him like a heat wave, and smiled at their loyalty. They were furious that their mother would have even dared to betray him, let alone with a lykan.

  “Adriana,” he commanded, and his young daughter stepped forward from the shadow of her brother, Ethan. She was just as beautiful as her mother, and the perfect weapon. “Your eighteenth birthday is in what... three months?”

  “Yes, father.”

  “I want you training intensively until then.”

  “Of course, father.”

  “Don’t you want to know why?”

  “Of course, father.”

  He smiled. He had raised his children well at least. They hadn’t been poisoned by their mother’s weakness. Adriana would make a fine Head for the Coven once he was gone. “I’m sending you into the pack.”

  Her eyes widened at that. “You want me to infiltrate the pack, father?”

  “Yes. I don’t want anyone other than my children knowing of this.” He strode towards her, putting his arm around her small shoulders, and leading her to Ethan. His other arm went around his son, and he guided them both from the room in which they’d watched him punish and execute their mother. “If the Coven was to find out, children, this family would be stripped of its title. We go from being royalty to traitors.”

  “We understand, father.” Adriana nodded determinedly. “So, I will infiltrate this pack of mangy dogs and find out all there is to know about them.” She stopped and stared at him with determination in her eyes. “Who their strongest warriors are; their relationships with one another, and thus where their weaknesses lie.”

  “Good.” Devlyn was pleased. She had been well taught. He turned to his son. “Why is Adriana’s plan the best we have, Ethan?”

  His fifteen year old son pulled himself up straight, his eyes blazing with a hatred that would see him through the worst of the war. “Because there are only three of us, father, and many more of them. If we can understand their weaknesses, we can exploit them. An emotional lykan is one that we can take by surprise, before they make the change into their... disgusting animal forms. In animal form they are protected from our magik. But as humans...”Ethan smiled a wicked smile. “They’re putty in our hands.”

  Devlyn laughed and squeezed his children closer to him. “Exactly.”

  ***

  “Albus,” Rafe said quietly, placing his hand on his friends shoulder, “I’ve returned.”

  Albus turned, his eyes sad, as he looked over his friend. “You look well. I take it that last rogue didn’t give you too much bother.”

  “No. Not really.” Rafe shrugged, and then took a seat beside him. “Ella says you are adjusting to your duties well,”

  It was Albus’ turn to shrug this time.

  “Al,” Rafe sighed, “It has been months now. I wish you would stop blaming yourself for Mikhail’s death.”

  “I should have known that bitch would come back for him.”

  “You did all you could for him. I know you don’t want to hear it, but Mikhail had to have known what he was doing when he got mixed up with a dark witch... for goddess sake, Albus... he signed his own death warrant.”

  Albus flinched and Rafe immediately felt terrible. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want you blaming yourself any longer. You have a pack who cares for you, a pack that are now your responsibility. Not to mention a lovely wife, and two kids that she’s having a hard time controlling, whilst you are out here in your garage... blaming yourself.”

  His friend’s silver eyes flashed at him in pain. “Why did he do it, Rafe? I can’t understand.”

  Rafe shook his head. “She enchanted him. It could even have been a spell.”

  Albus nodded. “Yes, I had thought of that.”

  They sat in silence for a few moments longer until Rafe couldn’t help himself. “I’ve brought someone home with me, Albus.”

  His friend, and leader, quirked an eyebrow at him. “Someone?”

  Rafe smiled, thinking of the blonde-haired beauty that was sitting in Ella’s kitchen with her. “A young woman I met on my travels.”

  His friend smiled his first genuine smile in months. “Oh?”

  “I was hoping she could stay with us.”

  “You’re taken with her,” Albus stated in amazement as he stood up. “Which pack is she from?”

  He sighed. This was going to be the difficult part. “She’s not from a pack. She’s a magik.”

  “What?!” Albus shouted in instant anger.

  “A Daylight witch!” Rafe cried holding his hands up in defence. “She’s good, Albus. I swear.”

  His friend shuddered in pain. “Rafe...”

  “Albus, it’s OK. I promise she’s not a bad guy.

  ***

  Adriana sighed, watching the handsome lykan sleeping peacefully beside her. She wondered if she had inherited some of her mother’s perverse nature, because sex with this beast had not been nearly as intolerable as she had thought it would be. She smiled wryly, remembering her inward reaction when her father told her she was to attach herself to this lykan; to give herself to him, in every way, if needs must. Her anger over that had been obvious. She was the highest ranking lady of the Dark Coven, and she was to give her virginity to a... mutt? And then she thought of her mother’s betrayal, and the thought of that betrayal becoming public, and no sacrifice was large enough. Luckily for her, Rafe had been enchanted with her from day one. Within a week she had managed to weasel all his secrets out of him; including the fact that his former Pack Leader had had an affair with the leader of the Midnight Coven’s wife.

  Who else knew this? She had asked, all innocent and sympathetic to his pain.

  Everyone, he had groaned, everyone except the children.

  Children, she sighed, and rubbed her rounded belly. She flinched at her father’s fury when she had returned to him with the news.

  “Pregnant!” He screamed. “It’s not possible!”

  She cried, kneeling at his feet. “It’s not my fault, father. Please...”

  He had sent for their prophet. And then the horror of her situation was realised. Years ago the Prophet, an old immortal man who never spoke to or saw anyone except the leading family of the Coven, had told of the coming of the child of mixed race, who would contain such power that they would bring about the end of the war.

  “Gaia has grown weary of her children warring my lord,” the old man had wheezed. “She has blessed your daughter’s union with the lykan male, out-with a mating ritual, in order to bring forth a child from the prophecy.”

  Devlyn had destroyed everything in sight, whilst she sat terrified of the thing growing inside of her.

  “The only way to kill it, is to wait for the birth... or kill your daughter.”

  Her eyes flew wide to her father’s face, his dark eyes fierce on hers. The silence stretched between them like a twanging wire.

  “And the child will definitely not just be a magik? It will have the genes of both my daughter and that... thing?”

  The prophet nodded wearily.

  His eyes burned on her as she began to cry harder.

  “Father, no.” Ethan stumbled up from his seat in the corner of the room. Adriana’s heart pounded for him. How brave of him to face their father for her sake.


  Devlyn shook his head. “No, old man, I won’t kill my daughter when she has done only what I asked of her.”

  She drew in a huge breath of relief and smiled tremulously at her brother.

  “What is to be done then, father?” Ethan asked for her.

  “Adriana will return to the pack,” he told them, taking them by surprise. “We don’t want them suspicious. The child must be killed but so shall the pack be. We have everything we need to destroy them and the abomination growing in your belly. After the birth.”

  ***

  “I’m sorry, Albus,” Rafe groaned, tears spilling down his cheek as he cradled his baby daughter to his chest. “I’m so sorry I’ve brought this upon you.”

  “You didn’t,” Albus bit out, anguished at the sight of his friend’s grief. “My brother brought this upon us. If anyone should apologise it is my family.”

  “I can’t believe... Adriana...,”he moaned, and held the baby girl closer.

  “She... her family is not finished with us, Rafe. We must leave.”

  Rafe nodded, but made no move.

  “We have to leave now friend,” Albus demanded, and pulled him to his feet gently. The rest of the pack was already headed where he had told them to go, and Marion, who had revealed Adriana to them when she visited with Magnus, was protecting them on their journey from any attack.

  Rafe nodded again and followed him outside to the car. Ella waited anxiously with Lucien and Irini who, although young, were fully aware something was wrong, and were unusually quiet.

  “Albus.” Rafe stopped him before they reached the car.

  “What?”

  “You’ll protect her, if something happens to me,” he pleaded, his eyes falling lovingly on his daughter. “You’ll protect my Caia.”

  Albus nodded vehemently. “I already have a suggestion... but it can wait for now.”