“Deflower you?” He quirked an eyebrow. “Does that mean...”
She blushed. She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation with Ryder. “Yes,” she heaved an exaggerated sigh. “I am a virgin. Scared?”
His eyes darkened, and she shivered as he shook his head, his throat thick with a possessiveness that should have alarmed her, and yet only stirred the heat in her. “Glad,” he managed, seeming just as surprised as her. “I think I’d have to take the head off of any other guy that had touched you.”
She smiled. “How caveman of you.”
“Yeah, you love it.” He grabbed her and started nipping playfully at her lips.
Jae melted into him, and would have happily let him do what he would with her, but somehow Ryder shook himself into focus enough to sit back on the other bed.
He shrugged ruefully at her questioning look. “It’s safer.”
She blushed again as she tried to articulate what she wanted. “I wouldn’t mind... if we-”
“I would, sweetheart.” He cut her off with a soft look. “I want you. But as my mate.”
Jae nodded, completely shocked that somehow this three day car journey with Ryder had turned into a long ago fantasy she had had before Ethan had taken her. A sense of peace washed through her as she looked at him. With Ryder beside her, maybe she really would be OK.
She snuggled deep into her pillow as he talked to her. For hours they laughed and chatted about everything and nothing, until eventually she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
RAP, RAP, RAP
Ryder bolted up out of the bed, his eyes going straight to Jae to make sure she was alright. Sunlight streamed through holes in the motel room curtains, shooting shafts across her golden skin. A tingling ran through him as he remembered the night before. He smiled. She was one step closer to being his.
RAP, RAP, RAP
Jae was coming around at the banging on the door. Ryder cursed, throwing his covers off and creeping toward the door.
“Who-”
He held a finger up to his lips to cut off Jae’s question as she sat up, pushing her thick hair off her face.
Who was banging on their door? No one knew they were here.
“Jaeden, it’s me!” a strong male voice yelled through the wood.
Ryder tensed as Jae gasped, “Reuben?”
She flew out of the bed and knocked him out of the way so she could throw the door open. The next thing he knew his female was in the arms of some tall, built, dark haired vampyre. Ryder growled. He wasn’t an expert on the subject, but he was guessing the vamp would be considered good-looking to the female and g*y population of the world.
Jaeden must have heard him growl because she pulled back from the vampyre and turned to him nervously. “Ryder, this is Reuben. I told you about him.”
Ah yes, the vamp who talked her into breaking Coven laws; the vamp who wanted ‘something more’ than just friendship. He had never considered himself the possessive type but all of a sudden he understood why Lucien got as crazy as he did whenever another male came on to Caia. His arm shot out of its own accord and he pulled Jaeden into his side. She groaned at his obvious display of jealousy, but right now he wasn’t giving a crap.
He glared at Reuben, whose dark eyes were narrowed on him. “What are you doing here?”
The vampyre straightened and spoke calmly, “I was worried about Jaeden. I came to check she was alright.”
“That’s some tracking skills you’ve got there.”
Reuben shrugged noncommittally.
Jae was right. This vampyre, despite looking about twenty-four, was old. And that meant he was dangerous.
“You’ve seen she’s alright. Now leave.”
“Ryder.” Jaeden smacked him lightly on the chest in admonishment. “Stop.” She turned to smile at Reuben. “I’m fine. But you’re here now, so why don’t we all grab some breakfast together?”
Reuben smiled at her. “Sounds wonderful.”
“Sounds crap.”
Jae snorted. “Reuben, this is Ryder. Please forgive him and his lack of manners. He’s a Neanderthal.”
“He’s just being protective.”
Hey, he didn’t need the vamp sticking up for him. He was about to say so when Jaeden clamped a knowing hand across his mouth. Her eyes smiled at him, and he relaxed wanting nothing more than to kiss her good morning.
“Can you stay quiet long enough to get dressed so we can meet Reuben at the diner?”
He nodded reluctantly and waited, secretly amused, as she turned back to the vamp to direct him to the motel’s diner, her hand still tight across his mouth.
The door closed behind the vamp and she released him.
Before she said a word, he had her backed up against the door as he devoured her mouth with a hot kiss. Finally, he pulled back, enjoying the way her chest heaved from his attentions.
“Morning.”
“Morning,” she croaked. “What was that for?”
“Just a reminder.”
“A reminder?”
“Yeah, a reminder of what we talked about last night. Of how you belong to me.”
Her eyes flashed, and he waited expectantly for their fight to begin. Really, was there anything better than sparring with this woman?
“Of how I belong to you?” her voice went up an octave.
“Yeah.”
“Well, forget about the verbal arm wrestling! Why don’t you just pee on me and everything I own?!”
He smirked and turned away to saunter into the bathroom. “I will if it comes to that.”
“Arrghhh!”
Ryder laughed, ducking the shoe that flew at his head as he closed the door on her.
11 - Misunderstood
“I’m sorry I couldn’t meet with you last night, Caia.” Marita breezed into her suite without knocking. “I had urgent business to attend to.”
Caia nodded wearily, standing up from the window seat that looked out over Paris. “I understand.”
She didn’t actually, but she was trying to. The last two sleepless nights hadn’t exactly improved her mood, but Marita was the top gun and to be respected. Caia was going crazy wondering about the Midnight imprisoned in the Center. Her refusal to join Mordecai for training until she had met with Marita was actually an attempt at exerting self-control over her anger.
Marita threw her a surprisingly warm smile and took a seat on a nearby sofa, smoothing her conservative skirt over her legs as she did so. Instead of sitting spine straight and stiff, however, she relaxed against the back of the seat and tilted her head casually. “Mordecai seems concerned for you. He has me worried.”
The witches’ tone was gentler than Caia had ever heard it - that mixed with Marita’s relaxed body language completely threw her off kilter. She realized this was the first time they had ever been alone in a room together - no Vanne, no servants, no guards. Maybe that’s why Marita was so tense all the time. Here with Caia, on her lonesome, she could be a little freer; and not have to play the role of ‘in control Queen of the Castle’ so much.
Caia shook her head with a polite smile and took the armchair opposite her. “No, I’m fine. Just... a little anxious.”
“Anxious?” Marita frowned.
She nodded and leaned forward confidentially. “Yesterday, when Mordecai took me to the lecture, I felt a Midnight. Here at the Center.”
Marita froze, her expression blank.
“A girl. Imprisoned... I’m guessing somewhere in the basement near Lecture Hall A.”
A silence fell over the room, increasing Caia’s anxiety. Marita’s eyes seared through her. “You really are the Head of the Midnight Coven.”
It was Caia’s turn to look bewildered and concerned. “Uh yeeeess. But you knew that...”
“Of course.” Marita’s hand fluttered by her face, as if at a loss. Caia could not reconcile this magik with the woman she had met previously. “But I have actual hard evidence for myself now. I’ve been reading your reports passed on by my sister but... well, it’s a little strange this situation, as I’m sure you already know. I’ve been Head of the Daylights for twenty five years, and I was groomed by my father for twenty years before that. That’s forty five years of working against the Head of the Midnight Coven. To now be working with her is... weird.”
Caia laughed at her unexpected adjective. “Yeah, I guess it would be.”
Marita smiled, a smile that never reached her eyes, and then settled back into her seat. “Before I explain about the Midnight, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Your trace... it seems different from my own.”
Caia wriggled in her seat at the ‘question’ and the uncomfortably pinched expression on Marita’s face as she asked, “Different how?”
Did she really want to know?
Marita shrugged, but Caia could tell it was a deliberate attempt to look casual about something she obviously didn’t feel casual about. “I can only follow a trace if I am specifically looking for someone. I’ve heard that you can do more?”
Wow, every second at this place was just making her feel more and more like a super freak.
“Yeah, the trace sort of finds me. I mean, I do that, what you do, as well... specifically locate someone, I mean.”
“What do you mean the trace sort of finds you?”
She cleared her throat, shifting again in her seat. “Well, it’s hard to describe. Um... let’s see... OK, for instance Nikolai - I have a tap on him… yeah, I suppose you could call it that.”
“A tap?”
“Yeah. His trace will alert me if he seems intense about something, whether it be a negative or a positive feeling. And then I go in and check to see what’s up. Nikolai is actually a tough cookie. He’s good at hiding a lot of his emotions.”
Marita was gazing at her blankly, no emotion to disclose exactly how she felt about this information. Finally, she smiled tightly. “Well, I think what’s important is you’re using your quite considerable gifts to help us.”
“So about the girl?” Caia did not intend to be side-tracked.
“The girl, the Midnight, is a spy sent in to infiltrate our Coven. She is very good, very convincing. Three months ago she turned up with a young male magik she met, had convinced him that she was from a group of Midnights from Scandinavia who ran a small army base for the Head of the Coven – Ethan. She said they were extremists and that with Ethan’s disappearance they had become even more vicious, killing anything that got in their way of the war. She said she was a disbeliever, a Midnight who actually agreed with Daylight.” She stopped to scoff at the thought and Caia’s heart sped up. “Vilhelm – the boy she met – fell for her lies and he brought her to me. I knew right away she was lying. A Midnight apathetic to the war? Maybe - although I doubt it. But a Midnight switching sides? Never.”
Wow, Caia felt a wave of panic. She had better tread carefully here, or she could find herself locked up, too.
“Well,” she began slowly, throwing the witch a trembling smile. “It can’t be impossible right? I mean, I’m part Midnight and I don’t want to maim any Daylights. I want to end the war.”