River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte (25 page)

“
How freaking
old are you?” Ryder snapped, not for the first time.

Reuben shrugged, his gaze
fixed on the young couple. “I don’t think she means any
harm.”

Jae turned to him in as
much bewilderment as him. “Why would Caia send a Midnight to
you?”

The boy shook. “She told
us not to tell you Laila was a Midnight... but now that you know,”
he threw a sceptical gaze at Reuben, “I will explain.”

What followed was a tale
Ryder couldn’t believe he was hearing. Caia rescued this girl from
a Daylight prison because she believed the Midnight was good? Were
they kidding?

“
You expect
me to believe this?”

Vilhelm held strong. “She
should have been following us soon, but I got the impression before
I left to get Laila that something had happened. I swear I’m
telling you the truth. Caia just wanted you to keep us here hidden
until she gets back.”

“
To hide you
from the rest of the pack?” Jae asked askance.

Vilhelm nodded. “For
now.”

Ryder growled. They all
seemed to have forgotten one thing. “And what about Marita? Surely
she would just follow your trace to here?”

However, the magik just
shook his head. “She will not know it was me until they scour the
Centre. It would take enough time for Caia to get back.”

“
But Marita
would still find you here.”

“
Caia
intended to protect us from her.”

WHAT!

He felt a rush of
inexplicable fear, fear that something beyond his belief and
capabilities was occurring.

“
Does this
mean... ”Jae whispered, “Is Caia... is she turning against
Marita?”

That’s exactly
what I want to know.

“
Caia is
good.” Vilhelm shook his head vehemently. “I’m a Daylight, and I
believe what Marita did was wrong.”

“
But she’s a
Midnight!” Jae spat out, glaring at the girl, despite how weak she
appeared.

The boy twisted his face
in disgust at her outburst. “And that gives you all the right to
condemn her?”

“
But, but...
” Jae spluttered, mirroring Ryder’s own feelings of turmoil. It was
like they were on the high seas, being rocked violently from side
to side, waiting for the boat to completely overturn.

“
How do we
know it was really Caia that sent you here?” Ryder threw out in
desperation.

Vilhelm nodded, as if
expecting that question. “She said to remind you of a conversation
only you and she know you had. She had just started working for
your Alpha in his store, and you sat with her in the showroom. You
told her about your friend, David, who mated with a faerie. She
hadn’t known some supernaturals could mate out-with their own race,
and you told her all about it; you told her all these other stories
about hunting, about a faerie who tricked you three
times.”

Dread settled throughout
every inch of his body. It seemed the boy might be telling the
truth.

Goddess, he hoped Lucien
knew what Caia was up to; that Caia knew what kind of fire she was
playing with.

Wearily, he nodded. “I
believe you.”

“
I could hide
them,” Reuben suddenly offered.

“
What do you
mean?” more than ever he didn’t trust this guy.

“
I can hide
them so that Marita doesn’t follow them to the pack.”

Before he could jump on
this, Jaeden stiffened and turned to regard her friend in
annoyance. “And how can you do that? She would come after
you.”

Reuben merely smiled
arrogantly. “I’ll be fine. I’ve been around, I have my
ways.”

“
No. You’re
being an idiot,” she snapped.

As much as Ryder was glad
to see Jaeden jump aboard the anti-Reuben bandwagon (even if it was
out of some misplaced sense of concern), he had to settle with the
boy and girl. “We’ll discuss that later. For now, they stay here.
Caia entrusted them to me and to me alone.”

Visibly trembling, Jae
approached him, her hand reaching for his. “Ryder, what’s going on?
What is Caia doing?”

He shook his head. “I
don’t know.”

She sighed and looked at
the girl, a mixture of sympathy and fear in her gaze. “She saved
me, too.”

“
What?”

“
Caia,” she
groaned. “She saved me, too.”

“
Still trust
her?”

“
Do
you?”

He chuckled humourlessly,
looking back at the magiks who were listening intently. “Call me
crazy but... yes, I still trust her.”

“
OK,” she
agreed.

“
I guess I’m
not needed then,” Reuben muttered sardonically from behind
them.

“
Hey.” Ryder
stopped his departure. “You have to keep your trap shut about
this.”

The vampyre sneered. “I’m
not the gossiping kind.” And with his usual stealthy regality, he
left.

Ryder looked down at his
soon-to-be mate. “That means you, too.”

Jaeden shook her head.
“This is going to be virtually impossible. My dad isn’t a wolf,
he’s a freaking bloodhound.”

“
Just channel
pre-
me
Jaeden.”

“
Oh
har-de-har-har.”

17 - Soldier

The last meeting had
dispersed and Caia stood in the main reception hall waiting for the
others to join her. The Centre was buzzing with anticipation. Even
though the students didn’t know exactly what was going down, they
knew it was something big; the hype level was helping to agitate an
already nervous Caia. She was thankful for Marion, who stood close
by her side, watching as the others arrived. She was barely aware
of Mordecai and the five magiks he had chosen from his unit to help
take out the spies watching the MacLachlans. Her mind unfortunately
was all over the place. One, she was terrified their carefully
strategized plan would fall apart in action, and two, she was
worrying how Vilhelm and Laila were faring with Ryder. Caia was
supposed to have returned home almost immediately where she would
put her now fully formed plan into action. When it became apparent
that the battle was back on with Du Bois, she forced herself to
remain confident that it would still take Marita at least the
length of the battle to figure out it was Vilhelm. For a start they
were focusing their investigation on the idea that a Midnight had
somehow infiltrated their facilities to break Laila out (that was
sending them into a massive panic). Because of this assumption,
Vilhelm wouldn’t even be a suspect as of yet, not to mention he was
a Traveller, a magik without the kind of power needed to do the
glamour she had done to disguise him as Vanne. She wasn’t stupid,
eventually someone would report Vil gone, but by then she was
hoping she would be back with the pack and there to take the heat
off him.

She sighed
heavily, watching as Michael appeared around the corner, his tall
figure strapped with guns and knives. Behind him were the four
other vampyres he had selected, who were to be partnered up with a
lykan to take out the four Midnight guards who Du Bois was placing
in a sort of rhombus formation around the edges of the forest.
Moments later, Anders got out of one of the elevators with nine
other lykans from his unit. Four of them would take out the guards.
The five others would be attacking the spies sitting outside the
MacLachlans. The plan was the MacLachlan pack would pretend to
depart for their pack run. All of them would leave their houses and
get into their cars and drive away from their streets. In truth,
they would be heading towards
Magic
Fitness
where a magik would be waiting to
transport them through the portal to the Centre for protection. The
spies watching the houses were to contact Du Bois as soon as the
MacLachlans were off the street. Caia would be listening in on Du
Bois, and once the spies had done this she would send in the paired
lykan and magik to take out the spy. She had given each team the
description of the car the spy would be in, and a description of
the spy themselves and the element they used. The magik was to open
the door to the car for the transformed lykan and cloak the vehicle
whilst the lykan turned the Midnight into a chew toy. This way
there would be no human witnesses wandering around. Once this was
done, four teams of two consisting of one vampyre and one lykan,
would take out each guard around the forest perimeter quickly and
silently. Caia, Lucien, Rose, Phoebe and Anders would head in, in
wolf form, along with Michael, Marita and Mordecai. Each had been
given a magik to take out. There were situated towards the north
end of the forest where the pack met in a clearing and changed
before the run. Du Bois had decided to outflank the MacLachlans by
encircling the clearing, ensuring his magiks could attack from all
sides. Caia knew exactly what position each would take. To Caia’s
chagrin, Marita had ordered that Mordecai take out Du Bois; she had
wanted Pierre for herself, mostly because he was an extremely
powerful water magik and she was afraid for the person who would be
attempting to attack him.

Even if that person was a
treacherous man-whore.

Speaking of
which...

She was sure she had
caught a glimpse of familiar jet black hair on top of brawny
shoulders. Squinting, she pressed gently against Marion to get the
magik to budge a bit so she could see around one of the reception’s
steel pillars.

Her heart literally
stopped.

Rose was pressed flush
against Lucien, who had his arms around her waist, and they were
kissing... quite passionately.

She felt sick to her
stomach.

Trembling, she pulled back
so she didn’t have to look anymore. Gaia, how had her life gotten
here? She flexed her hands, trying to force the trembling to
subsist.

“
Caia, you
have to forget what you just saw and focus. You have a long night
ahead of you,” Marion whispered sympathetically in her
ear.

“
I’m OK,” she
assured her mentor.

“
No, you’re
not. But you will be.”

Surprised at her cryptic
comment, she turned to gaze at the witch only to see her glaring at
Lucien and Rose as they came into view. It almost made her smile.
It was nice having friends who cared. Blowing out a troubling
breath between her lips, Caia focused beyond ‘the couple’ and
watched as Phoebe appeared behind them.

That was everyone
then.

“
We’re all
here.” Marion nodded around the tactical team. “We’re all aware of
our parts in this?”

A lot of murmuring and
head nodding confirmed this.

“
We all have
a set of comms?”

Caia nodded with the rest,
hardly noticing the small ear-piece in her inner ear that would
allow her to communicate with the others.

“
Now
remember, the portals that have been opened transport us out very
close to the Midnights, so stealth is of the utmost importance.
Unit One.” Marion turned to the magiks and lykans who were teamed
up together. “You’ll each be taking a portal to the street your
Midnight is on; it will open in a secure location where you are
hidden from Midnight view. You all remember which team you are?
Caia, do you?”

She nodded, trying to
ignore the sickening butterflies in her stomach.

“
Caia will
prompt you when your Midnight has made the call to Du Bois and you
go in, quickly and quietly.” Marion stared at them a few
intimidating moments at a time, before turning to the teams of
lykans and vampyres. “Unit Two, you’ll be going through the portal
with us. You’ll take position near your Midnight and after the
spies are out, Caia will send you in to take out the guards.” She
smiled dryly and turned to Anders, Mordecai and the others. “Unit
Three. You’re with me. We’ll head in once Unit Two confirm the
guards are down. Everyone clear?”

The back of the reception
area had been sealed off, and shimmering against the wall were six
portals. The colours and shapes they made up were merely a warped
version of reality; it was the wall, but it swirled and glittered
and pulsed invitingly.

Caia looked on, barely
listening as Marion directed each team of Unit One to the correct
portal, and then began following the witch to the portal reserved
for Units Two and Three. The others strode ahead and through them,
the vampyres holding their weapons high just in case they
encountered any Midnights on the other side. She could have told
them they wouldn’t; she knew where every single one of them was and
they had no idea an arsenal of Daylights were on their way to ruin
their night.

“
Caia?”

She started at the warm
hand on her shoulder and gazed up into Lucien’s concerned face. Out
of the corner of her eye she saw Rose glide past them with the
others, her gaze washing over them as she did so. Lucien had
obviously asked for a moment alone to talk to her.

“
What?” She
didn’t mean to snap. There was just too much to concentrate on, her
self control over this issue just didn’t seem that important at the
moment.