Blood Solstice: Part Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte (17 page)

He made a
choked sound at the back of his throat and pushed past them all. He
heard heavy footsteps behind him and knew Magnus was at his back.
The smell of blood hit his nose on the first step and was
overwhelming once they were inside the house. Morgan’s body was the
first they came across, his face and lips blue. Asphyxiation. There
were cuts, large bloody gashes and burns, on his skin that hadn’t
healed because of his death. He’d been tortured before they killed
him. In the living room he found Alexa wrapped in both her
brother’s arms and they sobbed loudly into one another’s shoulders.
Lucien placed a comforting hand on Mal’s arm, more sorry than he
could ever tell them. Their mother lay at their feet. She had been
suffocated with air magik by the looks of it, but no signs of
torture, which meant someone had gotten to the attackers before
they could. Since Mal and Finlay were OK, Lucien could only assume
the boys had heard the commotion and had changed into lykan and
fought off Marita and the magiks. Finding Dana and Daniel in the
kitchen furthered that belief. They too showed no signs of torture.
Daniel’s body lay curled over his sister protectively and Lucien
felt the prick of tears as he imagined the young wolf trying to
comfort his sister whilst they could do nothing against death. His
gaze stuck on their lifeless eyes. They were barely seventeen. His
hands gripped the back of a kitchen chair and the wood crumbled
under them. The sharp little irritating pain of splinters set fire
to his hands. Good. He deserved that and more. How could he have
left his pack here, unprotected? How could he have left them to
die? His family.

Dimitri,
he flinched, feeling as if he had been punched in the gut. The
Elder had joined forces with Magnus to be a father to him since the
death of his own. And now he was gone. Where was he?

“
Finn and I were outside.”

Lucien
whirled at the dead voice and found Mal staring at him numbly, his
face red and splotched. “You were running?”

Mal
nodded. “I took him out. He was worried about Lex, so I took him
out for a run to take his mind off it. We heard shouts and stuff
crashing, so we rushed back.” He shrugged, obviously trying not to
cry, but no one would have mocked him for doing so. Lucien wanted
to tell him to let it out but he found he couldn’t talk. “It was
too late. D-Dana and Dan were already dying.” He gestured weakly.
“I chased off the magik’s just as they started burning them. I
chased them into the living room and scared… Marita… she looked a
lot like Marion so I guess it was her right? Well, she was
killing-” he choked on a sob. “Killing mom. I think she was going
to make it slow but she had to finish it quick cos’ of me. She
killed her. I could have stopped her-”

“
No.” Lucien strode towards him, gripping his shoulder and
giving him a shake. “No. You couldn’t have.” Marita had obviously
filled his mom’s lungs with smoke and ash in order to suffocate
her.

Mal shook
his head. “Dad was already gone. They tore him apart.”

Lucien
felt him shudder and then Mal turned slightly, bending over to
vomit all over the kitchen floor. “I-I’m s-s-sorry,” he choked out
but Lucien shushed him, patting him gently on the back until he was
done.

After a
few minutes of unbearable silence, Lucien asked hoarsely, “Where
are Dimitri and Yvana?”

The young
wolf’s head dropped as he wiped his mouth with the back of his
hand. “Out front, to the side. You must have past them when you
came into the house. They were outside when Marita arrived.
They’re… they’re pretty messed up.”

Lucien
ushered him out of the kitchen and guided him back outside, taking
care to shield him from the view of his father’s body. He vaguely
took in Lucia off to the side with Irini and Cera, who was holding
her three kids as close as possible. With them stood Reuben,
Saffron and Rose, and altogether they hid the kids from the
gruesome sight to Lucien’s right. He walked slowly towards the
pack. Christian stood with arms around Julia as she sobbed
uncontrollably into his shoulder. Jaeden knelt on the ground, the
knee of her jeans soaking in the blood of her father. Dimitri lay
in front of her, his body mutilated, his face and lips blue. Just
behind them was Yvana, her prone body in much the same condition as
Dimitri’s. Aidan and Ryder knelt beside her, quiet tears rolling
down their cheeks. And his own mother (and Lucien thanked the gods
she was alright) stood with her arm around Caia, the two of them
standing between their dead pack members and their grieving
families. Magnus hovered over Dimitri, his friend, his brother, his
own silent tears rolling down his ruddy cheeks.

When Caia
was taken from Lucien he had felt rage unlike anything he had ever
known. At the massacre left in his home, the massacre of his
people, his pack – the lykans he was supposed to protect – by that
evil bitch… brought the rage back in full force.

14 –
Emotional Blackmail and… Just Plain Ol’ Blackmail

There was
no noise. It was as if the world had shushed… or had she gone deaf?
There were no smells. She could see the rain as it pelted the
ground and plastered their clothes to their bodies; she could see
the mud as it squelched under foot; she could see the leaves rustle
against one another as the wind rushed through Lucien’s land in
furious sympathy for their loss. But she couldn’t smell the earth
or hear the tears. She felt numb. Paralysed. Sure that one gentle
nudge would knock her over. It wasn’t possible to feel this much
pain, this much loss. And the anger, the rage, simmered beneath the
surface like oil ready for the first strike of the
match.

Six of
the pack were gone. For the others who had survived it had been a
matter of chance really. Julia had persuaded Imogen and Isaac to
come back with her to her house in order to get some much needed
sleep. Ella was out shopping and checking Lucien’s store was OK.
Cera had gone with her. As for Draven and Kade they had taken the
twins home as well, leaving Lucien’s under the protection of
Dimitri, Yvana, Mal, Finlay and their parents. Dana and Daniel
would never have been there if they hadn’t snuck out and back over
to Lucien’s house, excited and desperate to welcome everyone back
from the Centre.

It should
never have happened. She should have known Marita would target the
pack. And now they were cremating innocent lykans in the woods at
the back of the house. One of the magiks that had been sent by
Alfred to protect them – Jason – was taking care of the mess their
deaths had made in the human world. Memories were being tampered
with, school files stolen and meddled with, Lucien’s store, Yvana’s
café, all of their jobs were being erased as if they had never been
there. The house was emptied, all evidence of their existence
wiped. Jason had tampered with the memory of a realtor. For now the
house was part of some guy’s inheritance. ‘He lived in Cincinnati
and wanted the house put up for sale.’ The money from the sale
would make its way back into the Pack’s accounts but their lives
here were over.

And Caia
had had to sell her soul to the devil himself in order to keep them
safe.

24 hours earlier

“
Ryder’s looking for you,” Caia said softly as she made her
way into her old bedroom. Jae lay curled up on her old comforter, a
teddy-bear Ella had given her when she’d first arrived squished
tightly in her friend’s hands. Her face was stretched taut with
grief, her usually lively blue eyes deadened as they turned upon
Caia.

“
I don’t want to speak to him.”

Caia
nodded. It had only been 36 hours since they’d arrived back to the
house to find their whole world ripped apart. Everyone was in
unimaginable pain. Caia felt like she was sleep-walking. The sense
of unreality was tormenting. And the guilt…

Everyone
was angry, everyone felt guilty. However, Lucien was keeping them
altogether. He didn’t want vengeance; he wanted them all to take
the time to grieve, to accept their new lives. For the most part
the pack seemed to have heard. It was a quiet and stoic grieving.
But not for Jaeden and Alexa, who weren’t handling it at all well.
There was more rage than sadness there, and Caia was hovering on a
tightrope that threatened to throw her in with them. It had never
occurred to her before she would be the one battling the
overwhelming need to punish; she’d always thought, with his
volatile temper, she would be the one soothing Lucien. But after
destroying as many items in the house he could get his hands on,
Lucien had cooled and put his efforts into helping the pack rather
than taking vengeance; he was the one calming her. And he was
almost succeeding. It was just that every time she took one look at
Jaeden or Alexa’s face and thought about Dimitri’s death, she
wanted revenge. Torturous and painful revenge.

She took
in a deep breath, trying to deal with her emotions. “Maybe you
should talk to him. He lost his mom too. You should be comforting
each other.”

“
I don’t want his comfort!” she spat causing Caia to flinch at
the venom. “All he and Lucien have been spouting for the last 24
hours is how we have to accept this and come to terms with their
deaths. Well I don’t want to! I want to find Marita and I want to
rip her apart because that’s what she’s done to me, OK!”

“
I’m with her on this.” Alexa suddenly appeared in the
doorway. There was dark circles under her eyes, her mouth pinched,
giving her the appearance of being older than her eighteen years.
She brushed past Caia and sat down on the bed beside Jaeden. To
Caia’s surprise she reached for Jaeden’s hand and they gripped onto
one another. They looked up at her with twin expressions of fury.
And she didn’t know what to say, what to do to make it
better.

“
W-what can I do?” she asked softly.

“
I have an idea.”

The three
of them snapped around to find Reuben standing in the doorway. For
once there was no mocking in his eyes or lazy languor in his body
language. He was dead serious. His eyes dark with
sympathy.

“
What idea?” Alexa asked urgently.

He slowly
shut the door and wandered into the room to take a seat at Caia’s
old computer desk. “Lucien and Ryder are out making preparations
for the funerals at the moment.” Stalactites might as well have
formed on the ceiling for how cold the room grew with that one
sentence. Reuben ignored it. “I thought I would speak with you
privately.”

“
What’s the idea?” Alexa insisted.

The
vampyre glanced up at Caia. “Caia already knows my
plan.”

“
What plan?”

Jaeden
shifted. “You mean the trace thing? How is that helping destroy
Marita?”

“
Because if Caia gets rid of the trace then Marita no longer
has that power over the Daylights. She can no longer gather people
to her easily and she can no longer hunt down the people she wants
destroyed. Once the trace is gone, we can hunt
her.”

A feeling
of helplessness swept over her as she watched Jaeden’s eyes glow
with the news. Even Alexa, who was confused as to the actual
technicalities of the discussion, was looking surprisingly
animated.

“
Explain?” Alexa asked quietly.

Long-suffering, Caia decided to answer instead. She couldn’t
help the flatness in her tone. “The trace magik was created by
three members of the Daylight Coven and four of the Midnight. It’s
believed that killing the seven direct descendants of those first
members will destroy the trace.”

Alexa’s
eyes widened. “Seriously? How? How can we kill them?”

Caia’s
mouth dropped at the blasé question, shocked at her eagerness, but
it was Jaeden who answered, “Only Caia can. You see they have to be
killed simultaneously in the exact same manner of
death.”

“
Then do it,” Alexa demanded, her dark eyes flashing.
“Fricking do it and we can get Marita!”

Jae
nodded. “Caia, please,” she begged.

Oh dear goddess. Do they know what they’re asking of
me?
Of course not. All they could think
about was their own loss, their own selfish need for
justice.

And she
couldn’t hate them for it.

Reuben
smirked at her.

Caia
wanted to kill him. He was preying on their grief. And they were
preying on her guilt and anger. “It’s not that simple,” she
whispered. “These people are innocent.”

“
You don’t know that, you haven’t checked,” Jaeden
snapped.

“
Jae,” she entreated, “Think about what you’re asking me to
do?”

The lykan
shuffled off the bed and strode around it to tower over her. “I’m
asking you to avenge my father,” she bit out and with the words
came the tears. “My father who loved you; who protected you as if
you were his own.”

When she
heard Alexa’s choked sob behind Jae she wanted nothing more than to
run from the room and keep on running. “I want to.” She trembled.
“I want to, but you can’t ask me to just kill people. That’s not
avenging your father. They didn’t hurt Dimitri or Morgan and
Natalia. These are just people.”

“
They’re magiks,” Jae spat. “Magiks who started this stupid
war in the first place!”

“
No!” Caia hissed. “They just had the unfortunate luck of
being their descendants.”