River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte (15 page)

Jaeden must have heard him
growl because she pulled back from the vampyre and turned to him
nervously. “Ryder, this is Reuben. I told you about
him.”

Ah yes, the vamp who
talked her into breaking Coven laws; the vamp who wanted ‘something
more’ than just friendship. He had never considered himself the
possessive type, but all of a sudden he understood why Lucien got
as crazy as he did whenever another male came on to Caia. His arm
shot out of its own accord, and he pulled Jaeden into his side. She
groaned at his obvious display of jealousy, but right now he wasn’t
giving a crap.

He glared at Reuben, whose
dark eyes were narrowed on him. “What are you doing
here?”

The vampyre straightened
and spoke calmly, “I was worried about Jaeden. I came to check she
was alright.”

“
That’s some
tracking skills you’ve got there.”

Reuben shrugged
noncommittally.

Jae was right. This
vampyre, despite looking about twenty-four, was old. And that meant
he was dangerous.

“
You’ve seen
she’s alright. Now leave.”

“
Ryder.”
Jaeden smacked him lightly on the chest in admonishment. “Stop.”
She turned to smile at Reuben. “I’m fine. But you’re here now, so
why don’t we all grab some breakfast together?”

Reuben smiled at her.
“Sounds wonderful.”

“
Sounds
crap.”

Jae snorted. “Reuben, this
is Ryder. Please forgive him and his lack of manners. He’s a
Neanderthal.”

“
He’s just
being protective.”

Hey, he didn’t need the
vamp sticking up for him. He was about to say so when Jaeden
clamped a knowing hand across his mouth. Her eyes smiled at him,
and he relaxed wanting nothing more than to kiss her good
morning.

“
Can you stay
quiet long enough to get dressed so we can meet Reuben at the
diner?”

He nodded reluctantly and
waited, secretly amused, as she turned back to the vamp to direct
him to the motel’s diner, her hand still tight across his
mouth.

The door closed behind the
vamp and she released him.

Before she said a word, he
had her backed up against the door as he devoured her mouth with a
hot kiss. Finally, he pulled back, enjoying the way her chest
heaved from his attentions.

“
Morning.”

“
Morning,”
she croaked. “What was that for?”

“
Just a
reminder.”

“
A
reminder?”

“
Yeah, a
reminder of what we talked about last night. Of how you belong to
me.”

Her eyes flashed, and he
waited expectantly for their fight to begin. Really, was there
anything better than sparring with this woman?

“
Of how I
belong to you?” Her voice went up an octave.

“
Yeah.”

“
Well, forget
about the verbal arm wrestling! Why don’t you just pee on me and
everything I own?!”

He smirked and turned away
to saunter to the bathroom. “I will if it comes to
that.”

“
Arrghhh!”

Ryder laughed, ducking the
shoe that flew at his head as he closed the door on her.

11 -
Misunderstood

“
I’m sorry I
couldn’t meet with you last night, Caia.” Marita breezed into her
suite without knocking. “I had urgent business to attend
to.”

Caia nodded wearily,
standing up from the window seat that looked out over Paris. “I
understand.”

She didn’t
actually, but she was trying to. The last two sleepless nights
hadn’t exactly improved her mood, but Marita
was
the top gun and to be respected.
Caia was going crazy wondering about the Midnight imprisoned in the
Centre. Her refusal to join Mordecai for training until she had met
with Marita was
actually
an attempt at exerting self-control over her
anger.

Marita threw her a
surprisingly warm smile and took a seat on a nearby sofa, smoothing
her conservative skirt over her legs as she did so. Instead of
sitting spine straight and stiff, however, she relaxed against the
back of the seat and tilted her head casually. “Mordecai seems
concerned for you. He has me worried.”

The witches’
tone was gentler than Caia had ever heard it - that mixed with
Marita’s relaxed body language completely threw her off kilter. She
realised this was the first time they had ever been alone in a room
together; no Vanne, no servants, no guards. Maybe
that’s
why Marita was so
tense all the time. Here with Caia, on her lonesome, she could be a
little freer; not have to play the role of ‘in control Queen of the
Castle’ so much.

Caia shook her head with a
polite smile and took the armchair opposite her. “No, I’m fine.
Just... a little anxious.”

“
Anxious?”
Marita frowned.

She nodded and leaned
forward confidentially. “Yesterday, when Mordecai took me to the
lecture, I felt a Midnight. Here at the Centre.”

Marita froze, her
expression blank.

“
A girl.
Imprisoned... I’m guessing somewhere in the basement near Lecture
Hall A.”

A silence fell over the
room, increasing Caia’s anxiety. Marita’s eyes seared through her.
“You really are the Head of the Midnight Coven.”

It was Caia’s turn to look
bewildered and concerned. “Uh yeeeess. But you knew
that...”

“
Of course.”
Marita’s hand fluttered by her face, as if at a loss. Caia could
not reconcile this magik with the woman she had met previously.
“But I have actual hard evidence for myself now. I’ve been reading
your reports passed on by my sister but... well, it’s a little
strange this situation, as I’m sure you already know. I’ve been
Head of the Daylights for twenty five years, and I was groomed by
my father for twenty years before that. That’s forty five years of
working against the Head of the Midnight Coven. To now be working
with her is... weird.”

Caia laughed at her
unexpected adjective. “Yeah, I guess it would be.”

Marita smiled, a smile
that never reached her eyes, and then settled back into her seat.
“Before I explain about the Midnight, can I ask you a
question?”

“
Of
course.”

“
Your
trace... it seems different from my own.”

Caia wriggled in her seat
at the ‘question’ and the uncomfortably pinched expression on
Marita’s face as she asked it, “Different how?”

Did she really want to
know?

Marita shrugged, but Caia
could tell it was a deliberate attempt to look casual about
something she obviously didn’t feel casual about. “I can only
follow a trace if I am specifically looking for someone. I’ve heard
that you can do more?”

Wow, every second at this
place was just making her feel more and more like a super
freak.

“
Yeah, the
trace sort of finds me. I mean, I do
that
, what you do, as well...
specifically locate someone, I mean.”

“
What do you
mean the trace sort of finds you?”

She cleared her throat,
shifting again in her seat. “Well, it’s hard to describe. Um...
let’s see... OK, for instance Nikolai - I have a tap on him… yeah,
I suppose you could call it that.”

“
A
tap?”

“
Yeah. His
trace will alert me if he seems intense about something, whether it
be a negative or a positive feeling. And then I go in and check to
see what’s up. Nikolai is actually a tough cookie; he’s good at
hiding a lot of his emotions.”

Marita was
gazing at her blankly, no emotion to disclose exactly how she felt
about this information. Finally, she smiled tightly. “Well, I think
what’s important is you’re using your quite considerable gifts to
help
us
.”

“
So about the
girl?” Caia did not intend to be sidetracked.

“
The girl,
the Midnight, is a spy sent in to infiltrate our Coven. She is very
good, very convincing. Three months ago she turned up with a young
male magik she met, had convinced him that she was from a group of
Midnights from Scandinavia who ran a small army base for the Head
of the Coven – Ethan. She said they were extremists, and that with
Ethan’s disappearance they had become even more vicious, killing
anything that got in their way of the war. She said she was a
disbeliever, a Midnight who actually agreed with Daylight.” She
stopped to scoff at the thought and Caia’s heart sped up. “Vilhem –
the boy she met – fell for her lies and he brought her to me. I
knew right away she was lying. A Midnight apathetic to the war?
Maybe - although I doubt it. But a Midnight switching sides?
Never.”

Wow, Caia felt a wave of
panic. She had better tread carefully here, or she could find
herself locked up, too.

“
Well,” she
began slowly, throwing the witch a trembling smile. “It can’t be
impossible right? I mean, I’m part Midnight and I don’t want to
maim any Daylights. I want to end the war.”

Marita seemed to look
right through her, reminding Caia that she was still the phlegmatic
woman she had met upstairs. “You’re Daylight blood obviously
overpowers the bad blood. Not to mention that you were raised
Daylight.”

“
I
understand.” Caia gave her a tight smile, mentally squishing the
rush of anger that exploded through her at the ‘bad blood’ comment.
“But I just didn’t get a malevolent feeling from her.”

“
Perhaps you
were too far away.” Marita shrugged.

“
Could you
take me to her then?”

She was again surprised by
the smile bestowed upon her, her eyes trying for kind and
concerned. “Will that help? Will it stop whatever anxious thoughts
you’ve got buzzing around in your head and get you back out of this
room and back into training? You’re missing important things.
Lucien is with Rose and the others, training in the
simulator.”

Caia tried not to feel as
if she had been slapped in the face by the mention of Rose and
Lucien, together.

“
It would
help.”

Marita nodded regally and
stood up, walking gracefully to the telephone by Caia’s bed.
“Noble, can you please alert the Containment Centre that I’m on my
way down with Caia.”

***

She had been right. The
Containment Centre – in other words the prison - was situated one
level below Lecture Hall A. Bars rolled down from the ceiling as
you passed through the ‘reception’, and rows of individual cells,
where what looked like plexi-glass (the magikal kind), contained
the prisoner rather than bars. Caia wondered at the other occupants
who gave off no Midnight trace. They were obviously rogues. She
didn’t have time to wonder too long because the trace was
electrifying, and sizzled through her even more intensely as Marita
drew her to a halt outside a door at the very end of the corridor.
It was a huge iron monstrosity with a small rectangle at the top
that slid open so you could peer inside.

“
She’s in
here.” Marita sneered and placed her hand against the door. She
muttered an incantation under her breath, obviously forgetting that
Caia had supreme hearing.

Occultus
atrum unus
. Caia repeated the words over
in her brain only to have her heart stop at the thought of
why.
You really do want to play with fire,
don’t you?

The door swung slowly open
with a forbidding creak, and Marita seemed to prepare herself
before entering. Caia followed, only to feel the trace grow even
stronger. The sound of the door had frightened the girl.

The door was the only
source of light, but Caia could see well with her wolf eyes the
hideous conditions of this prisoner’s cell in comparison to the
others. She sat huddled in the corner of a bare square stone room,
thick iron bars that crackled with electricity (more magik)
separating her from any visitors. Her long bedraggled hair covered
most of her face and knees as she pulled herself tighter into a
ball. The sight of Marita terrified the girl.

A rush of pain hit Caia so
fast she cried out and stumbled back.

“
Are you
alright?” Marita was by her side in an instant.

No, she
wasn’t alright. This girl was innocent. Despite her harsh treatment
she still held no ill will towards the Daylights. The only person
she felt bitter towards was Marita, and yet at the same time she
understood why the witch would not believe her. Of all the traces
Caia had felt over the past few months, of all the feelings of
antipathy towards the war, of actual
goodness
she thought she was picking
up from the Midnights… none of those could touch this young woman
for her purity of soul. There was a pearl of blissful warmth in the
girl’s trace, something Caia had never encountered before. She
tried to push the connection harder to discover what it meant, but
all she received were the girl’s thoughts on Vilhelm, the Daylight
magik, her friend. Without realising it, she sent Caia an image of
his anguished face as she was torn from him by Marita’s
men.