Blood Solstice: Part Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte (6 page)

“
Putting aside the moral magnitude of what you’re asking me to
do… I don’t even know if I have the capabilities to take that many
people out in one go.”

Reuben
smiled softly. “You incinerated four magiks only a few weeks ago…
simultaneously.”

“
You think that was easy for me?”

“
I think some were misguided magiks – not truly evil – and you
killed them without thought to protect those closest to you. Think
on this as the same thing. Killing the Septum will protect the
people you love.”

She
flinched at the reminder of what she had done, knowing he was
deliberately playing on her guilt. “You are a horrible
person.”

He gave a
huff of laughter. “Perhaps I am.” He turned then and opened the
door. Quietly, she followed as they led her out of the stone room
and down a narrow, dank corridor. She might be imagining things but
she could have sworn they were in a castle.

“
I don’t sense fear from you, Caia,” Reuben mused as they
strode through the maze of dimly lit halls.

“
Should I be afraid?”

“
No. Should I?” He grinned.

“
Definitely.”

Finally,
they came to a stop outside one of many doors they had passed.
Nikolai pushed the door open and a stream of light blinded her as
Reuben nudged her inside. She blinked, adjusting to the light, and
her eyes widened at her surroundings. “Wow, this is not what I was
expecting at all.”

The
circular room looked as if it might have once been a tower room.
Now a panoramic window spanned a good portion of one wall. The
mahogany hardwood flooring contrasted sharply with the soft
buttercream walls. The room was filled with modern furniture,
including a corner sofa and a four poster bed.

Involuntarily, Caia moved towards the window, her eyes
soaking up the stunning countryside. “That’s fake,
right?”

Nikolai
chuckled. “Yes. But why have windows without a view to go with
it.”

“
Well I like it.”

He smiled
smugly and shared a triumphant look with Reuben.

“
Doesn’t mean I like you all.”

That wiped the smirk off their faces.
Good.

Reuben
cleared his throat. “We’ll leave you alone with this.” He handed
over the Septum.

As soon
as they left, Caia flopped down on to the sofa and held on to
Nikolai’s trace as he and Reuben walked through the building. A
building that no longer resembled a castle. Glamour. Damn Nikolai.
He was way more powerful than she’d like. The building now appeared
to be more of a large, stylish mansion than an old
castle.

Caia frowned. Nikolai’s trace was different. Usually his
thoughts were covered in thick smog, and she could only ever get
surface thoughts. Today she could feel him more deeply, clearly, in
the trace. She remembered what Reuben had said about manipulating
Nikolai’s trace, and wondered if perhaps he had relaxed his control
on it in order to appease her.
Hmm.

The two
men entered a large reception hall that paid court to a grand
antique staircase; a staircase that descended towards them before
pausing briefly in the shape of a small landing, a landing that
then branched off into two more staircases like wide welcoming
arms. Almost immediately a tall, broad figure appeared at the
bottom of the far right of the stairs.

“
Vanne.” Reuben frowned, heading towards him.

Caia
gasped, feeling Nikolai’s anticipation at Vanne’s appearance. He
was thinking something must have happened at the Centre.

Vanne!
Caia began to sweat at the implication. Nikolai was familiar with
Vanne? Friggin’ Hades! Vanne was one of them?! Just how deep did
Reuben’s infiltration of the Coven go?

“
We have a problem.” Vanne looked frantic.

“
We know about the Council.” Reuben shrugged him
off.

“
Do you know Marita is going to have them executed in a week’s
time?”

Reuben’s
jaw dropped, an expression Caia was guessing was rare to him. “Is
she insane?”

“
She is completely unravelling. She won’t listen to anyone.
She’s told Marion that Caia has betrayed them; that’s her excuse
for holding Lucien and Ryder prisoner. Marion has refused to
believe her but was met with a threat of imprisonment herself if
she didn’t stop her ‘nonsense’.”

Reuben
swore. “We need the Council if our plan is to succeed. They’re too
powerful to lose.”

Vanne
nodded. “There’s more. Marita has Caia’s pack under guard. They’re
all holed up at Lucien’s home surrounded by magiks. Lucien, Ryder
and the pack children were all taken. I know Lucien and Ryder are
in the containment centre but I have no idea what she has done with
the children.”

The blood
pounded through Caia’s ears. That witch had Lucien and the kids and
Ryder! Without thought Caia burst out of the room, racing with an
ever thrashing heartbeat through the mansion towards the trio. She
burst out into the reception area. “We need to get them
back!”

Annoyance
flickered across the vampyre’s face. “I might have known you were
following Nikolai’s trace rather than doing what we asked you to
do.” He gestured towards the scroll crushed in her hand.

At the
direction of his gaze Caia tucked the Septum behind her back. “I’m
not doing anything for you unless you help me.” She turned
pointedly to Vanne. “Fancy meeting you here.”

He at
least had the decency to look sheepish. “Hi.”

“
The children,” Caia addressed them all abruptly, “She is
experimenting on them. When I was at the Centre I followed her into
the altar of Gaia. She has a secret basement lab underneath the
altar. I know she’s experimenting on lykan children because I saw
it for myself, but I suspect she’s also experimenting on
vampyres.”

“
What?!”

“
Aah, something you don’t know Mr 479 B.C.”

“
Oh good, you
were
listening.”

She
grunted at him in annoyance before continuing, “We need to get back
to the pack and save them, and then somehow we need to get into the
Centre and free Lucien, Ryder and the Council. And we have to get
those kids out of there. I don’t what she’s up to but I have a
feeling it’s connected to the fact that Jaeden has particular
abilities after being tortured by Ethan.”

Nikolai
looked aghast. “You don’t think she’s torturing the children, do
you?”

Caia
sighed. “It didn’t look like torture exactly. There were chemicals
and test tubes… look, who knows, we just have to get in
there.”

Reuben
sighed. “You’re giving me a headache. If you calm down I will come
up with a plan.”

Her eyes
widened hopefully. “You’re going to help me?”

“
I don’t have much of a choice do I.”

4 –
Prisoners

The ugly truth is a magik could take a lykan in human form
anytime, anywhere. Hence why he was here now, staring at a bright
white ceiling, clenching his teeth and fists in rage. When Lucien
had woken up in this cell with Ryder by his side he had not been
surprised to see Marita glaring at them from the other side of the
plexiglass. He
had
been surprised by the first words out of her mouth,
however.

“
So the little monster is missing?” She hissed in outrage.
“And unless you two are extremely good at hiding things from me,
you don’t have her.”

“
Why don’t you let us out of here, you insane bitch, and then
we’ll talk.” Ryder had shrugged.

Marita’s eyes had narrowed to dangerous slits. “I want to
know where Caia is
now
, or I won’t be so kind in my experiments on the pack
children. Stop shutting your minds to me and tell me everyone who
has been in touch with you.”

If Lucien
hadn’t been so shocked by her line of questioning he would have
pounced at her (an idiotic mistake since the plexiglass was
magikally electrified). His frown of deep concern was unmistakable.
“You mean you don’t have her?”

“
Don’t play games with me, Lucien.”

“
I’m not!” He growled, springing to his feet. “Do you or do
you not have her?!”

Marita
sighed. “No. I don’t. I thought you might know something. Now I see
you don’t.”

His mind
whirled with the possibilities. Who had Caia? What did they want
with her?

Ryder had
seemed to sense his slow unravelling and had answered for him, “She
was taken a few hours before your guard arrived. We thought you’d
kidnapped her.”

“
Well clearly you were wrong.” Marita huffed and turned to the
guard behind her. “I want her found. Go back to Lucien’s home and
look for any evidence of her kidnapping. I will have a look at the
trace, see what I can find.”

She had
left without another word.

As he lay
there, his mind tripped over and over again his last moments with
Caia, and he began travelling into dark conclusions. His heart
picked up speed and his only outlet was to let rip a garble of
snarling growls that built into a howl. It did nothing to ease his
fear over Caia. He felt impotent and lost. Desperate. But he knew
those feelings weren’t going to get him any closer to finding her.
He knew he needed to maintain control of himself if he was going to
escape in time to find her before…

At his
sudden silence he heard Ryder sigh from behind him. “Well after
that, at least the Council members know they’re not alone down
here.”

Ryder’s words sunk in.
Crap.
Lucien growled.
Crap, of
course.

“
What? What did I say?” Ryder asked wide-eyed as Lucien spun
on him.

“
If the Council can’t get out of here, how the hell are we
going to? No wonder she stuck us in here together.”

“
Come on, man, we just need to think of a plan.”

What if
Caia was already gone? What if one of the Midnights had gotten wind
of her existence and had snuck up on her before Caia knew what was
happening? What if she was lying somewhere…

Feeling
his chest constrict, Lucien braced himself against the wall of the
cell, fighting to catch a breath.

“
Lucien, you have to calm down. Jeez, I never took you for the
claustrophobic kind.”

“
It’s not that,” he breathed, scoring his nails down the
brickwork, ignoring each pop of broken skin and the prickles of
blood.

He felt
the moment when his friend understood. His stillness caught hold of
Lucien and pressed even harder on his chest.

“
We’ll find her.”

“
And if it’s too late when we do?” At the words he felt the
prick of tears, the painful grip of grief clogging up his
throat.

“
She’s not dead,” Ryder promised him. “You would feel if she
was gone. And this is Caia Ribeiro we’re talking about here. She’s
a frickin’ nuclear warhead. Have a little faith.”

The
pressure began to ease a little. “You think?”

“
I know.”

Slowly,
his breathing grew less laboured and he turned to Ryder.
“Sorry.”

“
No need. If I thought for a second something had happened to
Jae I would be ripping this place a part.”

“
Well we’re lucky Jaeden’s quick. They couldn’t touch her once
she was in wolf form. And it looks like Caia was right about Marita
wanting her specifically. She was more than a little pissed off she
couldn’t get to Jae.”

Ryder
grinned proudly. “Yup, plus she got a few slices in whilst they
grabbed us.”

“
Sorry you didn’t get your wedding night.”

His
friend shrugged lazily. “We’ll be out of here soon
enough.”

“
You really are an optimistic son-of-a-bitch, aren’t
you?”

“
Have to be.” Ryder frowned. “She’s got the kids. And I’m
guessing she’s got them in that lab Caia told us about. We have to
get out of her and get those kids back to the pack.”

“
What are you talking about?”

Lucien
spun around at the voice that had caused Ryder’s eyes to narrow in
disgust.

“
Marion,” Lucien snarled. “How nice of you to show
up.”

Her
presence was like a punch to his gut. All these years she had been
a close friend of the pack, one of Magnus’ best friends in fact.
Now she had betrayed them just as her sister had betrayed the
Coven. He was about to spit and vent his fear over Caia and his
fury over his predicament in her face, when he suddenly took in her
appearance. The witch had flinched at his tone, her pale features
wan and drawn. Her mouth was pinched with strain and her eyes dark
with distress.

“
I… I don’t know what’s going on here, Lucien,” she whispered,
drawing slowly closer to the plexiglass. “I can’t stay. She doesn’t
know I’m here.”

As the
truth of the situation hit him, he deflated, his anger just as
suddenly replaced with reluctant sympathy for her. “She’s
threatened you?”