“No.” The vampyre shook his head. “I know killing Lucien would mean losing you, and I need you too much. I was merely teaching him a lesson. He attacked unfairly.”
“You blackmailed his mate.”
“But it all turned out OK in the end.”
“He doesn’t know that! He thinks I’m punishing him for kicking me out of the pack.”
Reuben threw her a condescending look before taking out a flask from his inner coat pocket. It was full of blood. He went to take a swig and noticed her watching. “You depleted my energy.”
Caia threw her hands up in the air, wondering why she even bothered trying to get answers from the guy. “I’m going to find Jaeden. You… stay away from my pack.”
“I don’t know if they’re your pack again just yet, sweetheart,” he taunted, and laughed when her only answer was a rude gesture.
24 – The Green-eyed Monster
Rose’s heart pounded in her chest as she stood in the middle of the woods, some fifteen minutes from the hotel. She had just rushed out of a pack meeting where Caia had told them all about the Septum and the little girl, Eliza Emerett, she couldn’t kill. Caia had seemed to go off into a world of her own as she described the little eleven year old Midnight and where she lived. Rose smirked. She doubted Caia had meant to be so detailed in her maudlin retelling of why she couldn’t possibly go through with such a wicked plan. But that was all Caia was telling them and Rose was more than a little suspicious. Clutching the cell phone in her hand she prayed the number she had for Marita was still in use. Surely if it was, and she saw who it was calling, Marita could look into the trace and see Rose was sincere in her intentions. All she had to do was fight through the fog Reuben had put over her trace to hide her from Marita, but she would be careful to keep where they were staying still masked. It would be better if she held all the cards.
Rose was reeling from Lucien’s betrayal, and yet she couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t his fault. He was under that she-witches spell. They all were! And Caia was going to bring the pack to disaster. Lucien and his pack were good people, nothing like the ambitious, deceitful pack she had grown up in where your best friend would stab you in the back if it meant climbing up the next rung on the hierarchical ladder. She had to save them from Caia, from themselves, and then she and Lucien could finally be happy together. Marita wasn’t a bad person! It dumbfounded her how all these people could believe that a woman who had successfully led the Daylight Coven against the Midnights could suddenly just become a monster. This was a witch hunt started by a being that needed to be stopped. And if Rose helped Marita stop Caia, she was sure she could negotiate a pardon for the pack. Trembling with excitement Rose dialed the number. It rung out for a while, but finally the tone clicked.
“Rose,” Marita’s familiar stern voice.
Relief washed through her. “Oh thank goddess, Marita. Do you know why I’m calling?”
“Hmm, yes, I’m reading the trace. Very interesting. What is interesting is I don’t know where you are.”
Rose paused. “I can’t tell you that just yet.”
“I see.” She was silent for a moment. “Fine. I appreciate you calling, however. And this information I’m reading in the trace about this Septum and this little girl. It’s all true?”
“Yes,” Rose gushed. “Caia’s planning on destroying the trace.”
Marita hissed, “That little bitch.”
Rose waited, her ears lifting under her hair every time she heard a noise. No one could know she was doing this. They just wouldn’t understand right now.
“I want you to keep pretending you’re on their side, Rose. Contact me if you discover anything else of importance.”
“Of course.”
“And Rose.”
“Yes.”
“I won’t forget your loyalty.”
25 – Last Mistake
Caia was dancing with Lucien, her cheek pressed against his shoulder as they swayed gently to the music. A soft breeze played with the hem of her dress and tickled through her hair as she sighed contentedly. It was a perfect night. The dark sky sewn bright with stars as colorful as fireflies, the air temperate and free, the sound of the surf crashing on shore as rhythmic as a lullaby.
“I love you,” she whispered and felt him squeeze her close.
“I love you, too.”
Caia pulled back to gaze up at him, smiling at the relief of it all being over, that they could finally be together in peace.
“Caia,” he breathed… and the sound was followed by a sickening wet whisper of metal through flesh. Lucien’s eyes widened in surprise, his mouth falling open in shock – blood began pouring out in its wake. He collapsed to his knees and Caia reached for him with a soundless scream, helpless to do anything as the sword that had torn through his heart twisted full circle. Lucien’s eyes emptied, his expression going slack as he disappeared, leaving only a body that tumbled down into the sand, a gory photograph of what had once been the real man.
“NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” Caia screamed falling beside his body, stunned out of action as she glanced around for the killer. There was no one there. A sob broke out from deep in her heart and she cried over her mate’s corpse.
The cold solidity of it vanished and Caia fell face first into the sand. Propping herself up, spitting the beach out of her mouth, her hands searched the ground for Lucien. He was gone. Looking around she realized she was no longer on the beach. She was in a room that seemed familiar. A child’s room filled with toys and books. Familiar toys and books. A scream rent the air and terror exploded throughout her. Mama! She cried inwardly, hugging her small knees to her chest, shuffling further back against the headboard of the bed she now sat on. Growls and howls reached her ears from the outside and she jumped at the crescendo of items crashing on the ground floor of the house.
“ELIZA!” She heard her father scream, and she scrambled forward on the bed, hearing his footsteps pounding down the hall. Her bedroom door burst open and her father stood there, pale and grief stricken. He clutched his chest and it was then she noticed the swamp of thick blood soaking his entire upper body.
“Run,” he ordered hoarsely, and then collapsed to the floor.
Instinct took hold. She was always to listen to daddy! Shutting out the sight of him dying on her floor she turned to the tall window beside her bed and hitched it up with all her might. Rucking up her night gown, her whole body trembling, she began climbing through it and fumbled for purchase on the wall creeper that allowed her mother’s ivy to neatly decorate the wall outside. A blast of power shot past her shoulder, sending shards of glass in every direction. She felt little cuts slice through her skin like bee stings but it only made her move faster. She swung herself fully onto the creeper and began scuttling down it. Thank goddess she was on the first floor.
“GET HER!” She heard an unfamiliar voice scream as her bare feet touched grass. She turned and stared out over the garden. Beyond the garden was her father’s land and beyond that a lake and beyond that woods. If she could get to the woods she could hide.
Caia jerked awake, sucking in a rush of air in her panic. Eliza. The little girl from the Septum! The little girl may not have recognized the voice that screamed ‘Get her!”’ but Caia would know it anywhere. Marita was going after Eliza Emerett and it was all her fault. She jumped out of the bed she had been given in the hotel and hurried into her clothing. She had to save Eliza and there was no time to wait. Drawing on her energy, she used a communication spell to take her to Vil and Laila’s room praying she wouldn’t interrupt anything. It was daytime after all. She snorted at herself. Like that would stop them. Thankfully she didn’t, but her energy shook the two magiks awake from a nap.
“Caia, wha-”
“I have no time to explain.” She rushed to Vil, throwing his jeans at him. “Put these on and take me to Eliza Emerett’s home. Specifically the gardens!”
Caia had never adored anyone more in that moment as he pulled on his jeans and gripped her arm without a word of question. She could have kissed him!
The travel was rocky, probably because Vil was still half asleep, so they got there feeling a little woozy. The sounds of growls and shrieks met their ears instantly and Vil paled as he realized what she had gotten them into. Perusing their surroundings, her heart gave a thump as she saw the little white figure in the dark a few hundred yards ahead of them.
“There, Vil, take me to her!” She pointed and they were gone again, and then back within seconds.
“Oomph!” Vil grunted and Caia shook herself together in time to see Vil wrap his arms around Eliza who had ran straight into them. She began struggling and crying and he fought to hold on to her.
A howl shot through the night and Caia looked up to see six lykans crossing through the gardens towards them. Oh bloody Hades!
“Vil, this is Eliza Emerett and those are Marita’s lykans. Take her back to the pack. Now!”
His eyes widened as he struggled to hold the hysterical girl. “What about you?!”
“Never mind me. Go! That’s an order!”
Stunned and unhappy, he gripped Eliza and then vanished.
Heart thudding in her chest, Caia turned to face the lykans and sought the warm heat of her lykan energy. She was a wolf in seconds.
A wolf that was ready to destroy those who had killed Eliza’s parents and were hell bent on spilling the little girl’s innocent blood.
She drew back her muzzle as they drew nearer, snarling and posturing, thick saliva dripping over her jaws. With a harsh howl of her own she propelled herself forward, launching herself at the nearest lykan, her claws slashing across its fur. The lykan whined but managed to swipe at her, making contact and tugging her body close so they were locked in a fight, jaws nipping, bodies tumbling as each tried to gain an advantage over the other.
Finally, Caia managed to protract her claws into the lykan’s belly and pull upwards. The lykan howled and went limp. Dragging herself out from under its injured form, Caia found herself outflanked by five other lykans; Marita and an unfamiliar magik stood at their backs, smiling smugly.
“Oh, dear Caia. You are in a pickle now, aren’t you?”
“Not quite.”
Caia jerked her head around at the voice. Vil and Jaeden stood before them, Jae’s hand outstretched, face fierce with concentration.
A baffled yell.
Caia watched with pleasure as Marita and the magik were blasted a good hundred yards away from them.
A sharp, piercing pain ripped through Caia’s side and she yelped at the attack, shaking the wolf off in order to turn around and face it. In her peripheral, she witnessed Jaeden utilizing her telekinesis on the wolves and was distractedly stunned. Magik wasn’t supposed to work on lykans! What the Hades…
But the thought drifted away as she was forced to spar with the bigger lykan, the wound in her side slowing her down. Just as she was about to dive on the lykan, a blur of fur beat her to it, the two wolves tumbling and rolling together. She watched in amazement before a crunching noise unsettled her stomach and only one of the wolves got up. His silver eyes glared at her. Lucien. Oh thank gods. His warning growl told her to whirl around. She did, just in time to see another lykan leap at her. Falling under him, his huge jaws descending towards her, Caia gave a hopeless swat that barely stirred him. A massive weight collided with them and the wolf was thrown off her. A familiar brown wolf, his muzzle peeled back in a fierce growl, stood over her, his head bent low, telling the lykan she was under his protection. Ryder! She had never been happier to see two people in all her life. Rolling up onto her fours, Caia quickly took in Lucien and Ryder dealing quite nicely with the remaining lykans. Vil was nowhere to be seen, however, and she hoped to Gaia he had returned to the pack.