River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte (27 page)

“
How did she
go undetected by Caia?”

“
Caia was a
little preoccupied.”

“
What
happened?”

The excitement bubbling in
his blood threatened to burst into his speech, but he held on
coolly, trying to maintain his dignified demeanour. “Well. It went
well. Caia was able to kill, simultaneously, four magiks in four
different locations in the woods. My faerie has never seen anything
like it.”

Kirios
exhaled in obvious disbelief. “I’ve never
heard
anything like it.”

“
Hmm.
Apparently, two of the Daylights were taken down, and then the
others were in trouble so she had to kill all of the Midnights by
herself.”

“
And her
state?”

He frowned at the next
piece of information he imparted. “She was visibly upset by it and
then she collapsed.”

“
Well, that’s
not reassuring.”

“
Kirios, stay
positive. This is good news. The girl is definitely what we
need.”

“
She has
weaknesses.”

“
Even gods
have weaknesses, Kirios.”

“
Are you
comparing her to a god?”

“
She’s the
closest thing to it since the old times.”

“
We’ll see,
won’t we.”

Nikolai groaned, “Why are
you always so pessimistic?”

Kirios grumbled, “I’m not
being pessimistic. I may even have some good news. There have been
a few developments I’m not... sure of.”

“
What does
that mean?”

“
I’ll explain
when next I see you.”

“
Fine.”
Nikolai waved his comments off in irritation. “Just remember... now
it’s all on you.”

“
I know. I’ll
be waiting.”

18 - Spark

Light burned her eyelids
into opening, her vision unfocused, her mouth and throat dry. She
tried to move her legs and felt shards of pain ricochet throughout
her body. It felt like she had been run over. Maybe more than
once.

“
Caia?”

“
Lucien?”

She blinked a few times
and turned her head, seeing him standing before her, Marion by his
side, both of them gazing down at her with worry etched in every
molecule of their features.

He lifted her hand into
his and squeezed it. “Are you OK?”

No. She was confused. The
last thing she remembered was killing five people. Had that been a
nightmare?

“
Where am
I?”

Lucien loomed closer,
drawing her hand into an almost vice-like grip. “You’re in your
room at the Centre.”

“
Was it a
dream?”

Sadness and fury seemed to
riot across his face as he shook his head. “No.”

Caia clenched her jaw,
turning her head away, desperate to keep the tears locked up. A
single one escaped anyway, spilling from the corner of her eye and
down her cheek.

“
Caia,” he
groaned, and she felt him catch the tear with his finger. “You did
good, sweetheart.”

She choked on
that.
Good!
She
had killed people, murdered them! It wasn’t like Ethan’s death;
that had been unpremeditated, and he had been a monster who
deserved to die. But other than Du Bois and Thierry, those
Midnights were mixed up people, looking for direction, looking for
a leader again. They weren’t truly wicked. And their deaths
had
been
premeditated.

Goddess, she felt like
such a naive fool believing she could kill those people and be OK
with it... because it was the right thing to do. Hah.

“
Caia,”
Marion was saying firmly, almost angrily, “I know it isn’t easy,
but those magiks were going to massacre an entire pack of innocent
lykans.”

Aye, there’s
the rub.

Slowly, she turned to face
them again. “I know. I just... I hadn’t expected...”

Marion sighed and placed a
comforting hand on her leg. “Taking a life is never easy. But this
is a war, Caia, and we have to sacrifice a part of our soul to win
it.”

Lucien smiled gently at
her. “I’ve been worried about you. You know you’ve been out for a
whole day.”

“
A whole
day?”

He grinned now. “You’re
going to be OK. Marita’s personal physician looked you over. Your
body was just exhausted after what you did. Caia, what you did!” He
shook his head in amazement and she watched as he and Marion
exchanged awed and excited looks. “It was unbelievable. Taking out
all of those Midnights in one fell swoop? You should see this place
outside of these doors.”

“
Or inside,”
Marion muttered wryly.

“
What?” Caia
asked in confusion.

“
Take a
look.”

Slowly, with Lucien’s
help, she eased up into a sitting position, and her eyes
immediately widened at the sight before her in the room. Flowers
upon flowers decorated every inch of it.

“
Get well
flowers from your fans.” Marion shook her head
laughingly.

Uh
oh.

“
Fans?”

Lucien grunted. “Some of
the others couldn’t keep quiet about what you did. The Centre is in
an uproar over you. You’re like a damn rock star to these
people.”

She gulped.
This was kind of what she wanted, right... no,
needed
. Still scary
though.

They both seemed to
understand and threw her sympathetic looks. Marion shrugged. “Well,
we knew your power could be limitless and turns out it just might
be. This.” She gestured to the flowers. “Might be the price you’re
going to have to pay for it.”

Caia chuckled
humourlessly. “And here I was thinking it was the bone weary
exhaustion, loss of consciousness, and oh let’s not forget the
whole losing a piece of my soul thing.”

The witch frowned at her.
“Caia, this is important. Two council members have come to the
Centre representing the entire Council. They want to meet with
you.”

The news hit her in a wave
of relief. This was good. No this-this was great. With a bit of
self control she managed to keep the relieved grin off of her face.
Instead she nodded calmly. “I’d like that. When?”

“
Today, if
you are well enough.”

“
Sounds
good.”

Lucien was scowling. “I
don’t know about that, you’ve just woken up.”

Caia sighed, a wave of
sadness washing over her. “I’m fine. Unlike Mordecai and Anders.”
She looked to them questioningly as they acknowledged the loss.
“When will their funerals be held?”

Marion shook her head.
“There won’t be a funeral for either of them. We hold a ceremony
here at the Centre annually to commemorate the dead. We’ll honour
the two of them then.”

“
The Second
Unit...?” She whispered, thinking of Anders loyal men and
women.

“
Grieving, of
course. But they’re soldiers first and foremost. Lyla has been
promoted to Unit Leader.”

“
And you?
Marion you took a few hits.”

She shrugged like it was
no big deal. “It’s Michael and Rose who were wounded.”

Rose.

She blinked up at Lucien’s
pinched face. “Is she OK?”

He nodded. “She’s healing
up pretty good. So is Michael.”

She thought of the
Council; of her plans. How he didn’t know about any of
it.

“
You should
go to her,” Caia told him, her voice flat and
emotionless.

She knew right away that
her tone had sent him into lockdown - he jerked away from her, his
face frozen, his eyes hard. “Yeah. Glad you’re OK.”

And then he was
gone.

She stared at
her suite door, wishing she didn’t have any pride; that she could
yell out after him and tell him she didn’t care if he loved Rose,
he was
her
mate
so he had to stay with her.

Marion clucked, “He sat by
your bedside for the last few hours you know.”

“
Was he with
Rose before that?”

The witch’s silence
confirmed the affirmative.

***

After a shower and
something to eat she felt a lot more human again, enough to take a
little tour around the Centre with Marion as her companion. She
talked to the students and candidates and answered as many
questions as she was allowed to. She even signed some autographs.
It was totally weird and not something she was prepared for, but at
the moment she couldn’t care less because it went a long way in
helping her with her plan. Whilst she was listening to Desi and
Ophelia chatter away about how jealous everyone was that they were
friends with her, Marion tapped her on the shoulder and she turned
in the doorway of the classroom to see Phoebe MacLachlan standing
waiting with a lykan she didn’t recognise. He was a tall, well
built Elder whose soft eyes reminded her of Magnus. A pang of home
sickness echoed in her chest. Extricating herself from the young
Travellers, Caia made her way cautiously over to the Rogue Hunter
and her companion; Phoebe was a little intimidating to say the
least.

As soon as she reached
them, Phoebe thrust her hand out to Caia, her face serious, yet her
eyes were filled with what could almost pass for warmth. Gingerly,
she shook the other female’s hand, refusing to wince when Phoebe
gripped too hard.

“
Caia
Ribeiro, I would like to introduce you to my father and pack Alpha,
Alistair MacLachlan.”

She had expected to be
subjected to the same death-grip handshake, but instead she found
herself crushed in his mammoth embrace. Caia returned his hug shyly
and swallowed her sigh of relief when he let her go.

“
My daughter
tells me you are the one who discovered the attack on my pack. That
you’re also the one who destroyed the Midnights
responsible.”

Feeling heat blooming
under her cheeks, Caia shrugged helplessly. “I had a lot of help
from Phoebe and a few others.”

Phoebe shook her head, as
serious as ever. “She’s being modest, father,” she tutted, “I’ve
never understood that trait.”

Alistair chuckled. “Yes,
we know.”

Caia didn’t know whether
to laugh or admonish him. Didn’t he know Phoebe had no sense of
humour? Phoebe merely frowned at him and turned back to her. “We
wanted to thank you, personally.”

“
Yes.” The
Alpha grinned. He shook his head, disbelieving, as his eyes washed
over her. “Such a little thing, and yet from what Phoebe has told
me I would have imagined you to be a giant. As you may have already
guessed, Phoebe isn’t really a people person-”

“
Father!”

“
-and so when
she admires someone, we all know they must
really
be worthy of her
respect.”

“
That’s
true.” The Rogue Hunter nodded militantly.

“
We’re very
grateful to you, Miss Ribeiro, and if there is anything my pack can
do for yours, you must not hesitate to call on us.”

OK, so perhaps she might
have done something truly good despite the remorse she felt over
the deaths of those Midnights. She had saved this kind Elder and
his valuable daughter, not to mention the rest of their
pack.

Caia, wake
up. Be strong. And think... they’re not just offering you a thank
you, their offering themselves
...

Allies.

Smiling warmly, she shook
both their hands again. “That’s very gracious of you. Thank
you.”

The two lykans left her
then to recount their encounter to Marion, who grinned proudly at
her like a mother hen.

“
Compliments
from Phoebe MacLachlan, now that should go on your
résumé.”

Marion left her to her
fans, a decision that Caia teasingly told her she would later
regret, a look of dismay falling across her features as the witch
disappeared out of the hall. No matter how many times she told
herself that networking was good, it still left her feeling as if
she were stuck in coach between a snorer and a crying baby on a
long haul flight. It was with a huge sigh of relief after ‘doing
the rounds’ that Caia managed somehow to sneak away from the
inquisitive looks and prying questions, and make her way out
towards the reception to be taken up on the elevator to Marita and
Vanne’s suite. The Centre’s layout still confused her, and she
found herself taking a wrong turn and rounding the corner to the
altars. She stopped abruptly at the scene before her and darted
back out of sight, peering around the corner to watch Marita
standing unaccompanied outside of Gaia’s altar. The magik sent
darting glances in every direction as if checking to make sure she
was alone, before stealthily creeping into the altar.

What
the
...

Her behaviour
was so weird. What the Hades was she up to? Caia’s heart began to
pound as she remembered the conversation she had overheard between
Mordecai and Marita. Was this another one of their secrets... or
was this
the
Secret? The thudding of her heart grew louder in her ears and
she felt her legs tremble as she took a tentative step towards to
door.