Blood Solstice: Part Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte (19 page)

She
sighed. She wouldn’t text back. It would only distract him from the
road. But if she could have she would have said…

There’s nothing left to talk about.

No
xxx
’s.

***

The drive
so far had been silent. Lucien hadn’t expected it to be fun-filled
of course, but Caia had been extremely quiet. He couldn’t work out
if it was just the magnitude of everything that had happened or if
she was mad at him for rebuking her about Rose. He glanced quickly
at her. She looked tired and as sad as he felt. But he was actually
proud of himself for putting aside his instincts for revenge and
making a deal with Reuben to protect the pack. He was paying rent
and protection costs to the vampyre in order to keep the pack off
of Marita’s radar. That burned a little, considering he wanted to
rip the creep apart for taking Caia and scaring the crap out of
him, but the pack needed Reuben. They had lost too many and they
were lucky to have the kids back. And if anything happened to the
kids? Gods, he couldn’t bear to think about it. This was the right
decision. It stuck in his craw a little to retreat, but it was the
right decision. As for Caia… he would cross that bridge when they
got to it. He knew the Council would come back to her, but for now
he was glad they were allowing her to stay protected until Marita
was found.

“
You OK?” He couldn’t help asking. He feared a discussion
about Rose. There was nothing going on between them and it annoyed
him a little that Caia could even think about being jealous at a
time like this.

“
I don’t know,” she whispered.

He braced
himself.

“
Something’s happening.”

He
stilled, alert. “What do you mean?”

“
With the Midnights.” She straightened up in her seat. “I’ve
been feeling stirrings all morning but… the Council… I think I need
to warn Reuben and Nikolai.”

It was
weird to think of Caia and Reuben working with this Nikolai guy.
But Vanne had attested to his trustworthiness so Lucien guessed he
could let it go.

“
Warn them about what?”

She shook
her head. “Where’s my cell,” she hissed as she rummaged through her
bag. She made a sound of triumph at finding it and Lucien grew
steadily more irritated at being on the outside of whatever was
going on.

“
Caia-”

She held
up her hand cutting him off and pressed a button on her cell.
“Reuben.”

She had
the vampyre on speed dial?

Lucien
leaned closer to her to pick up the vamp’s end of the
conversation.

“
What?” The guy really needed to work on his telephone
skills.

“
We need to get word to Nikolai.”

“
What’s going on?”

“
He’s in trouble.”

“
He stopped that faerie from telling the Council about the
mess at the Daylight Centre. It’s all fine.”

Caia
huffed. “No, it’s not,” she protested and rolled her eyes, clearly
aggravated. “Between the two of us, who’s the one with the trace?
Jeez, arrogant ass-”

“
Get on with it.”

She
exhaled in what Lucien sensed was growing exasperation. “The
Council are going to have Nikolai deposed. They want to start
sending out task force against Daylights again. And if they do
that-”

“
They’ll find out about Marita,” Reuben finished and hissed,
“Damn. OK. Who exactly on the Council is doing this?”

She
gulped and Lucien reached over to sooth her. “All of
them.”

“
Ah, I see. Well, there’s nothing for it. We just get Nikolai
out of there.”

“
What do you mean? The Midnights will start attacking
again.”

“
Well they’ll just have to. We can’t deal with that and
Marita.”

Lucien
watched with pleasure as Caia growled down the phone at Reuben. The
vampyre didn’t know her that well. “I’ll deal with it. I’ll just do
what I was doing before. I’ll send reports to Alfred and the
Council.”

“
And what about our-”

“
We’ll talk later. Just warn Nikolai to get his ass out of
there.”

She hung
up, trembling.

‘
And what about our-’
… she cut Reuben
off for a reason. Something was going on he wasn’t aware of. He’d
felt it every time he’d spoken with her in the last day. She had
this guilty look in her eye. And it had something to do with the
vampyre.

“
I thought you would have guessed from that
conversation.”

“
I’m not talking about Nikolai and his Council. I’m talking
about you and Reuben.”

She
guffawed, “What on earth are you talking about? You’re not
suggesting that Reuben and I are…”

He
bristled at the implication. “No. But it’s funny that was your
first thought. Something I should know about?”

“
No,” she snapped and he almost flinched at the resentment in
her voice. “And need I remind you that you reprimanded me like a
child for being jealous about Rose. It’s not an appropriate time,
remember?”

Damn her
for throwing that in his face. “That’s not what I was
saying.”

“
That’s exactly what you were saying.”

“
No, that’s what you said. I was just asking what’s going on.
Because you’re clearly hiding something from me.”

Surprised by the sudden silence that descended over the cab
of the van, Lucien looked sharply at his mate. She was staring
straight ahead, her hands twisting and un-twisting the hem of the
over-long t-shirt she wore. His heart skipped a beat. Oh crap,
something
was
going on. And he just knew he wasn’t going to like
it.

***

Five
minutes later Lucien was struggling to contain his anger and
disbelief.

“
Please tell me you’re joking,” he managed
hoarsely.

She shook
her head, her eyes wide and pleading with him.

What?! Is she expecting me to accept this? To
understand?!

“
How the Hades can you even think about doing this?!” He
bellowed, not caring it caused her to skitter back in her seat like
a frightened rabbit.

“
Because I have to. You said before you trusted me to make the
right decision.”

“
Because I thought you would know that killing innocent people
is the
wrong
decision!” He spat. “You don’t
have
to do this! How can you… Caia,
these are innocent people! You can’t kill innocent people! How can
you even-”

“
You don’t know they’re innocent!”

He threw
her a disgusted look. “Is that your argument? Jeez, Caia… do you
even know if they’re innocent? Have you checked out the Midnight’s
trace?”

“
I haven’t had a chance yet.”

Lucien drew a deep breath. This was Caia. There had to be a
reason she would even consider doing this, some reason he didn’t
know about. His Caia would never –
could
never – hurt anyone, unless it
was absolutely necessary.

“
Why?” He managed quietly, calmly. “Why? There must be a
reason.”

“
There is. Lucien, Marita will only get more powerful with the
trace. If I can get rid of the trace then she’ll be a much easier
target.”

OK, that
was not a good enough reason.

“
Is this about the pack? About revenge… because I already told
you the pack is not getting involved in a vendetta. We have to move
on.”

“
And you can. But I can’t. I’m a part of this, and whilst I
am, I might as well get some justice out of it.”

His
fingers turned white on the wheel. “Caia, you have to give me
another reason. There has to be another reason. You wouldn’t do
this. You couldn’t.” He glanced at her and he saw her mouth
tremble. There was more. There had to be more.

“
No. I just really want this to be over.”

“
So you’re going to kill the Septum? Seven innocent
people?”

“
Seven against thousands. Do the math, Lucien.”

An
overwhelming ache flooded through him, his stomach churning, his
heart palpitating. After the last horrendous days Lucien hadn’t
known he could feel any worse. “If what you’re telling me is true,
then we have a serious problem.”

“
I have to do this.”

“
No. You don’t.” He took in a shuddering breath and
momentarily squeezed his eyes shut. He opened them just in time to
see he was hovering a little too close to the car in front. He
eased off the accelerator a little, wishing he could do the same
with his relationship with Caia. “If you do this, and I let you, my
word with the pack will be worth nothing. And after all they’ve
been through they need a strong leader. They need me more than
anyone else needs me right now. I owe them this.”

He knew
she understood at the sound of her harsh in-drawn breath. “You’ll
kick me out?”

He
pounded his fist against the wheel. “Damn it, Caia!” he roared,
shooting her a venomous look. “Don’t do this!”

Her eyes
were wide with shock. “You’re kicking me out?”

“
No! You are not doing this!”

“
I am doing this,” she persisted. “And you’re kicking me
out?”

Panic
overwhelmed him. He fought to breathe. “You’re not doing
this.”

“
I am.”

A wave of
nausea rushed over him but he maintained control, staring straight
ahead. How could his life change so much in the matter of five
minutes?

He hardened his heart against her. Fine, if she wanted to
play hardball he’d play it right back.
There is no way she’ll walk away from the
pack
, he told himself.
No way.
An ultimatum was the only
way to stop her.

“
Then I’m kicking you out.”

16 –
Banished

“
You can’t be serious,” Ryder responded in a hushed tone, his
body language betraying his shock.

Jaeden
sneered, throwing Lucien a look of disgust. “Oh, he’s serious,
alright.”

Caia
stood in the dining hall of the hotel Reuben had given to the pack
as part of their bargain with one another. The last hour of the
drive with Lucien had been one of the worst of her life. The
silence had been brittle and furious and dislike for one another
had resonated in every corner of the van. How could he do this to
her? How could she do this to him?

Lucien
had gathered everyone into the dining room as soon as they arrived,
and proceeded to update them on Caia and Reuben’s plan to take out
the Septum. The pack all stared at them in disbelief. She hugged
herself trying to stop the trembling.

“
Caia, tell him you’re not going to do it.” Magnus turned on
her gruffly, his kind eyes bright with worry. “You can’t do
this.”

She
shrugged wearily, hating to see the disappointment on his face.
“I’m sorry, but I have to.”

“
For the love of…” Ella whispered. “Please don’t do this to
us.”

“
She’s not doing anything,” Jaeden snapped and brushed away
from them all to stand by Caia’s side. She felt the heat from the
lykan as if a warm blanket had been placed around her. She smiled
gratefully at her, momentarily forgetting she was part of the
reason this was happening to her. If Lucien knew she was being
blackmailed into this he wouldn’t be kicking her out of the pack.
She felt like she’d been kicked in the gut.

Lucien is kicking me out of the pack!

He stood
across the room glaring at her, Rose and all his pack gathered
around him protectively. Only Laila and Vil stood close to her
uncertainly, and now Jaeden. Oh and now Alexa.

“
Yeah,” Lex snapped at them. “Lucien’s the one kicking her
out! Kicking her out for doing something that, as our Pack Alpha,
he should be doing!”

“
Alexa,” Mal warned, shaking his head. “Lucien’s doing what’s
right.”

“
How can you say that?” She cried. “Our parents are dead and
he’s not doing anything about it! But he’s going to kick out the
one person who will?!”

“
Enough!” Lucien growled and strode out into the centre of the
group. His silver eyes blazed into Caia’s. “My word is law. I said
there would be no acts of vengeance. This war is no longer ours. If
Caia breaks the law… then she’s out of the pack.” He might as well
have taken a knife and shoved it right through her heart. She
couldn’t hate him for protecting the people they both
loved.

The pack
began chattering in confusion and hurt, completely certain that
Caia wasn’t doing the right thing but uncertain that Lucien was.
Caia shook her head and stood out to meet him.

“
Don’t,” she said sternly and they all quietened. “Lucien is
right. I have to do this and I don’t expect any of you to
understand.” She struggled to hold back the tears. “It’s for the
best anyway. I would have been pulled back into the war no matter
what happened and I don’t want to drag you back in with me.” A
sound to the right drew her attention. Reuben was there waiting for
her. “You’ll be protected here.” She turned back and looked Lucien
straight in the eye. With that look he begged her one last time not
to do this. But she shook her head slightly and his face mottled
with uncontrolled anger. “Will you keep Laila and Vil here with
you? Please?”