River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte (2 page)

“
Where have
you been? You missed all the action.”

Jae shrugged and nodded at
the two vampyres playing computer games. Josh and Styx were
sleeping in one of the back rooms. She wandered through the
apartment, dropping her leather jacket here and her blades there.
The axe she placed in safe keeping on a wall mount she had up in
the bedroom she used to share with Lily. She could feel Reuben
prowling at the back of her.

“
Jae, what’s
up?” His cool hands slid up her arms and massaged her
shoulders.

She shrugged him off and
sat on the bed, pulling her boots off as he glared at her from the
doorway.

“
Well?”

“
I hunted a
rogue by myself.”

He nodded, biting on his
lip ring, a habit she noticed he had when he was thinking over
something, “You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

She knew where he was
going with his line of thought and she was just too damn tired to
get into it. So ignoring him, Jae pulled her t-shirt off and began
rifling through her drawer for a clean one.

Reuben hissed, bringing
her gaze snapping up to him. His eyes were narrowed on her as they
looked her over. “Some people would call that teasing.”

Inwardly she flinched,
outwardly it pissed her off. “Is that a warning I detect, Reuben?”
She sneered, pulling on a clean shirt.

“
Maybe.”

She blanched at the anger
in his voice and sighed. “I’m sorry, OK. I just forget. Lykans are
used to the whole undressing in front of each other
thing.”

“
I know. Just
try to remember. I’m not made of stone.”

She flushed involuntarily,
an awkward silence falling between them as they both remembered the
night he had kissed her and been thoroughly rebuffed.

He cleared his throat and
she sensed a now familiar discussion on the horizon. “Why the
hunting solo?”

She was right.

“
I’m
tired.”

“
I want to
talk to you about this. Hunting by yourself? You’ve been doing it
since that night in here with Lily.”

Jae winced just thinking
about it. “She could have been killed.”

“
But she
wasn’t,” Reuben replied softly, approaching her tentatively. Slowly
he sat down beside her on the bed, seeming afraid she would snap at
him like a wounded animal if he got too close. “You’ve been
controlling your telekinesis.”

Not that night. Not when
she had nightmares. When she was awake and in control she was able
to harness whatever energy it was that gave her the ability to move
things with her mind, but as soon as her emotions went into
overload, there was no stopping the chaos. She had been fine around
Reuben and his gang; killing vampyres who preyed on humans; putting
all her hate into pounding the living daylight out of them; and
feeling nothing more than a tangible connection to these good vamps
she worked with; they were colleagues, nothing more. She wouldn’t
let them be.

But two weeks ago, she had
started having nightmares about her time in the cage. She didn’t
know why or how… but they were vivid and horrifying, and kicked her
telekinesis into high gear. She had been awoken by Lily’s screams.
Six blades were embedded into the walls around them, and her
precious axe was embedded above Lily’s head as she cowered in the
corner of the room. Books, furniture, clothes... were strewn
everywhere, and Lily’s nose was bleeding, a black bruise appearing
on her porcelain face. Jaeden had refused to let her sleep in the
same room with her – or anyone - since; refused to go out hunting
with any of them in case she got them killed.

“
Only when my
emotions are stable. I can’t take chances, OK.”

For her that was the end
of the discussion.

“
Do you want
to talk about these nightmares?”

“
Uh
no.”

“
What
about
that
?”

Jae frowned and looked up
to see what he was talking about. He was pointing to her axe
mounted on the wall. “What about it?”

He shrugged and looked at
her, trying to appear calm, but his jaw was clenched tightly. “If
you’re saying you can’t control it, why do you have a weapon in
here that could kill you in your sleep?”

Because it
doesn’t matter.

She didn’t say that.
Reuben would kill her himself if she said that. He wanted her to be
so happy here with him and the gang, taking out bad guys, living
off Lily’s inheritance. But she was miserable. She ached with every
part of her body for the pack. She wanted her mother and father,
and her little niece Jaela. She wanted to run free with them
through the woods behind Lucien’s house, and play and tussle with
Sebastian. Her dresser began to shake at the thought of Seb and she
quickly threw him out of her mind.

He was gone. She wasn’t
ever getting him back.

She
could
have the pack back
if she wanted.

But she didn’t. She
wouldn’t.

She wouldn’t live with the
people who reminded her of when she was whole and pure and good.
She was something else now; something broken and corrupted, and she
just couldn’t face that kind of disappointment from the people she
loved after everything that had happened to her.

“
Well?”
Reuben pressed.

“
I’ll take it
down.” It would be easier than explaining to him about how messed
up she was. She guessed he knew it already, though.

“
Jae... ” he
placed his large cool hand over hers.

Crap, she winced, looking
up into his face. She shouldn’t make eye contact with him. His
black eyes asked for way more than she could give.

“
Don’t.” She
snatched her hand back, refusing to meet his gaze.

He snapped up off the bed.
“If you would just let me in, I could help you. Just tell me what
happened to you.”

No
way.
No one could ever know how bad it
got.

At her silence he heaved a
heavy sigh. “Fine. I’ll let you sleep.”

“
OK.”

He turned to leave and
then looked back at her. “Just so you know, we may have to leave
the city. The rogues have cottoned on to the fact this is no longer
an easy target for breaking Coven law.”

She nodded, not caring
where they went.

“
I’m going
out.”

Again she nodded. Reuben
had a tendency to disappear every now and then to goddess knows
where. Jae didn’t ask about his mysterious loner ventures. That
would imply that she cared.

2 - Midnight
Rebel

As Caia finished the last
sentence on her report for Marion, she sighed and eased back in the
chair at her desk. The light outside was fading and with it
bringing memories she couldn’t dispel. It had been months now since
she had killed her uncle Ethan after his kidnapping and torture of
Jaeden; since Sebastian had been murdered in the
crossfire.

Months since the pack had
seen any semblance of normality.

She turned and, like many
nights, let her gaze drift outside her window and into the
darkening woods. Jaeden had been gone for months and only Caia, and
perhaps Lucien, knew why. The torture she had undergone at the
hands of Ethan was unthinkable, and Caia hadn’t been able to tell
her family how bad it must have been for her to leave the pack.
Jaeden’s father, Dimitri, was distraught and constantly demanding
Lucien do something about it, but one look at Caia’s face and she
had known he knew it was best to leave Jaeden to come to terms with
her tragedy by herself.

She was strong enough to
make it through the cage so she was strong enough to be
alone.

But it wasn’t forever.
Caia was giving her another month, and if she wasn’t back by then,
she’d fulfil Dimitri’s wishes and bring her back to the pack
herself.

Caia sighed
again, her eyes drifting down and across her bed, and with it
heated memories flooded her.
Dear
goddess
, she scoffed at herself. She was
lucky she hadn’t fallen pregnant! Since lykans couldn’t carry
disease, nor become pregnant unless mated, using protection during
sex was usually only utilised by mated couples who weren’t ready
for children. Since Lucien and she had no idea having sex together
would cement their ‘betrothal’ they hadn’t used any
protection.

Yeesh.

She was sooo lucky she
hadn’t gotten pregnant.

The close call, however,
didn’t stop her from yearning... remembering. Not once was she able
to look at her bed without a reminder of the night she had given
herself to him; the night when for once they were in total
agreement about something, safe together, passionate, happy. The
moment hadn’t lasted long, and ever since there had been a constant
tension between them despite their ‘united front’.

She missed him.

“
Caia.”

The familiar voice sent a
wave a longing through her and she turned to gaze up into his
silver eyes. “Yeah?”

Lucien threw her a
sympathetic look, acknowledging how tired she was. “Marion’s
here.”

She smiled wearily back at
him and stood to her feet, gathering her papers in her hand. They
walked in silence down the stairs and into the sitting room, where
Marion sat having tea, and Saffron, her faerie, stood studying her
cuticles in utter boredom.

“
Ah, Caia.”
Marion smiled warmly in greeting.

For the past few months
Marion’s weekly visits had been the pack’s only constant. Pack runs
had dwindled - there had been two rather shabbily put-together
ventures and even then the mood of the event had been melancholy.
School was out for the summer for Mal and the others, and Caia,
lucky to have made her finals, couldn’t enjoy graduation since
Jaeden had missed it and she had only Alexa to share it with. Plus
any plan Caia had had for the future was gone: no community
college, no apprenticeships, no job, even. Her job was here,
training with Marion, writing up reports on the activities of the
Midnight Coven. As the weeks had gone on, as her reports proved
more and more helpful, the more Marion had hinted at Marita’s
growing curiosity. The day was coming when Marita would ask to meet
her, for her to come to the Centre, maybe even take a physical part
in the war. The Centre was the main training ground for Daylight
soldiers, and because a magik’s power didn’t reach its full
potential until their eighteenth birthday, you had to be eighteen
to join the Centre. The same for any other supernatural being – it
was kind of like joining the army, you had to be a legal adult to
make that choice. From what Marion had told her it not only
involved physical training and strategising, but provided classes
on how to utilise your magik and element. The majority of magiks
taught their children all they needed to know, but the most
powerful magiks tended to be those who were taught at the Centre.
It sounded like an interesting place, and Caia would go if only to
get it over with, so she could just as quickly return to the
pack.

“
Marion.” She
smiled back at her, and sat across from her on the sofa.
“Saffron.”

The faerie smirked at her,
which was more of a response than anyone else got out of her. She
was beginning to think the shapeshifter liked her.

“
So.” The
magik smiled brightly, but Caia detected the strain in that
expression. “What news from the Dark Coven?”

Caia obediently handed
over her written report. “You asked me to look specifically for any
mention of the New York Króls. I found out that Nikolai has asked
the attack be abandoned. Too risky in light of the instability of
the Midnights.”

Nikolai Petrovsky was the
new Regent of the Midnight Coven, and had been appointed by their
Council since Ethan had gone ‘missing’. The fact that Gaia would
not imbue Nikolai with trace magik when the Council put him forward
as the new Head, led the Midnights to believe that Ethan was still
alive somewhere. For now the Council had voted in Nikolai’s rule as
Regent. Of course they were blithely unaware of Caia’s existence.
Caia sighed deeply, and looked between Marion and Lucien, unsure of
their reaction to her next piece of news. “In fact... Nikolai has
asked that all attacks against us be abandoned until there is
definitive news of Ethan’s whereabouts.”

Lucien quirked an eyebrow
as he glanced at Marion, like Caia, interested more in her reaction
than anything else. Marion for her part had stiffened in surprise.
Even Saffron had looked up from her nails in interest. After a few
minutes of silence Marion cleared her throat.

“
Well...
that’s unexpected.”

Well
yeah.

“
But what
does it mean?” Caia asked impatiently.

The witch shrugged. “You
should know better than anyone what it means.”

“
Well I
don’t. Nikolai is strong, and his emotions are not as easy to read
through the trace as it is with the others.”

She nodded, “The
Petrovsky’s are an influential family, have been for many
generations now.”