River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte (9 page)

Ryder concealed his
frowning interest by pretending to cough on his burger. When he
looked back up at her, she was eating away at the rest of her food,
seeming more relaxed, believing he had bought it.

Well, let her
relax
, he mused,
while I find out what the Hades she’s been up to.

***

Jae was feeling lighter.
She hadn’t had any nightmares last night, no telekinesis kicking
in. Ryder seemed to have bought her story and was no longer asking
annoying and prying questions. In fact, the rest of breakfast had
been fun. They had talked and laughed, and he had filled her in on
what had been happening with the pack whilst she was gone. If the
rest of the pack were this easy, perhaps her return would go far
more smoothly that she’d thought.

Ah she couldn’t wait to go
on a run. Her body was screaming for the change.

“
We’ll be
home soon enough and you can run as much as you like.” Ryder
smiled, walking closely by her side as they crossed the lot back to
her motel room.

Goddess, she hadn’t
realised she had said that out loud.

“
My stuff’s
already in the truck. You got your bag together?”

“
It’s already
packed.” She sighed, unlocking the door, and wrinkling her nose as
she stepped inside the rank room. “I can’t believe you made me
sleep here.”

Stepping further in, a
slight coppery smell tickled her nostrils and she stopped
abruptly.

“
Oof.” Ryder
banged into the back of her, sending her stumbling
forward.

She whirled to face him,
her eyes narrowed in concentration. “Do you smell that?”

He puckered his brow,
shrugging and twirling his keys impatiently. “Don’t smell a thing
except urine, beer and sex. Can we please go?”

She shook her head
unconvinced, her eyes searching the room. “I smell... I dunno...
something familiar.”

“
What’s not
familiar about urine, beer and-”

She smirked at him as he
flushed. “And?” She prompted, enjoying his discomfort.

“
Just get
your bag,” Ryder muttered, turning away from her.

Jaeden laughed softly, and
turned toward her things, only to stop again. “Hey!”

“
What, what?”
Suddenly he was right at her back in defence mode.

Her t-shirt and jeans lay
strewn across the ancient chair in the corner of the room, crumpled
beside her now open backpack.

“
I could have
sworn I packed this before we went for breakfast.”

“
Is that
all,” he whined, “Goddess, Jae, I thought there was an
actual
problem... not
some hormonal imbalance causing female memory loss.”

“
Hey!” She
snapped around at him, glaring at him all the while she stuffed her
things back into her bag. “I know you’re more of a gentleman than
that to talk chauvinistic crap to a lady, so stop trying to
irritate the life out of me, Ryder, before I go crazy and end
yours!”

Abruptly he grinned, his
golden brown eyes glittering with humour. “Why would I stop when
it’s this much fun. Truly...” He placed a hand on his heart. “You
bring such joy to my life.”

She was not going to laugh
at him.

Or think about how
light-hearted he made her feel.

How good.

No.
Down that road there be
complications
.

Instead she threw her back
pack at him and strode past his laughing face. “You’re funny,” she
said sarcastically. “The fact that you’ve been designated the pack
golden retriever really doesn’t seem to have dampened your spirits
at all.”

“
Uh, hello,”
he called to her back, and she heard his pounding steps catching up
to her as she neared the truck, “Retrieving you, and saving you
from imprisonment, was a very important job.”

She turned back to him,
smiling sweetly. “But hardly the job of a Rogue Hunter.”

“
I’m not a
golden retriever.”

“
No? Well,
what’s that bell around your neck?” She pointed innocently to his
throat.

He grimaced glancing down,
which sent her into hysterics.

“
You looked!
You actually looked... I can’t believe that-”

“
Get in the
truck,” he growled at her immaturity and stomped around to the
driver’s side.

She sighed happily,
jumping into the cab, and twisting around to face him as she
buckled herself up. “What’s the matter Ryder? Can’t take a little
teasing?”

He snorted and glanced up
at her from under his enviously long lashes. “Oh baby, I can take a
little teasing. But you just made this war.”

Well, she
chuckled, this
was
going to be a looong drive home.

But at least he would be
too distracted to ask any uncomfortable questions along the
way.

***

Well, well, well, Marcus
thought, watching as the lykan climbed into the truck with her
mate. This was turning out better than he had thought. Marcus had
tailed the tall female wolf from the city; following the scent he
had found at his dead girlfriend’s body before the sun destroyed
any evidence of Cora’s existence.

He had thought to capture
the lykan, torture her - perhaps even show her how a man of his
species showed a female a good time.

But this was
better.

Much better.

The lykan took his
female...

Well, before Marcus killed
her, he’d just have to kill her mate and make her watch while he
did it.

And there was no doubt in
his mind that the brawny male lykan escorting her out of the motel
room was her mate.

He waited five minutes
before jumping into his car and following their exit. He had
refreshed himself with the females scent by breaking into their
room and sniffing her clothes. He would be able to tail them until
their next stop...

And then he’d make his
move.

7 - New Friends, Old
Acquaintances

Caia was in awe. The fact
that some of the students in the huge hall were clearly
uncomfortable with her presence didn’t even dispel how excited she
was to be watching young magiks and faeries learn communication
training from their elders. She could feel Marion beaming beside
her, Caia’s apparent enthusiasm rubbing off on the older
magik.

“
Have you
watched enough, Caia?” Mordecai smiled. “You want to
try?”

That morning, she had
opened her guest room door to Marion, a perkier Marion than Caia
had ever encountered - eager, Caia was beginning to realise, to
show off her protégé. Apparently Lucien had already gone with his
escort to check out the Second Unit. At first she had felt a little
anxious about being separated from him, but now she was too caught
up in the activities of the Centre. Their first stop had been to
pick up their ‘tour guide’, Mordecai. He was a stocky,
bookish-looking magik in his late twenties, with kind eyes and an
easy smile. From his warm reception, Caia was guessing Marion had
not only picked him as her escort because of his being a powerful
water magik, but because he obviously didn’t care about the fact
that Caia’s mother had been a Midnight.

She beamed like a little
girl. “Can I? I mean, I wouldn’t know where to start.”

He chuckled, enjoying her
keenness as much as Marion. “Well, we’ll keep it simple. You
haven’t seen much of the Centre so the furthest we can allow you to
travel is from here to your guest suite.”

Little butterflies awoke
in her stomach, churning her breakfast back into action. “Wow. I
want to, you know, but... those guys make it look easy. I’m
guessing dematerialising and re-materialising isn’t exactly
popcorn?” Her wide eyes drank in the bright room, watching as
magiks and faeries popped in and out of the room at the quiet
instructions of their teachers. As if sensing she was about to
attempt the spell, some of them stopped what they were doing along
with their instructors to gaze across the space at her. She could
make out what the closer ones were whispering to one
another.

“
She doesn’t
look like much. What is everyone afraid of?”

“
I can’t
believe they let her in here. What if she’s a spy?”

“
I heard she
eviscerated her uncle without any remorse. Apparently she was
smiling while she did it. Ugh.”

“
I think we
should give her a chance. If Marion says she’s trustworthy then
she’s trustworthy.”

Caia drew in a shuddering
breath, her eyes finding solace in Marion’s gaze.

“
I don’t know
what you’re hearing with those ears of yours, but just block them
out, Caia.” Marion smiled gently. “Mordecai will talk you through
this.”

“
But they’re
all watching.”

“
Yes. So?
Just forget them. And remember, it can take many, many attempts to
pull off your first travel. No one here,” she sneered around the
room at them, as if sensing their disapproval of her for bringing
Caia, “Has ever done it first time.”

Exhaling, Caia turned to
Mordecai, who was smiling reassuringly. “Let’s give it a
go.”

He nodded, brushing his
thick locks off his forehead and pushing the frame of his glasses
further up his nose. “Now, Marion has explained that you can
differentiate with ease the two energies that make up your lykan
and your magik. Is that correct?”

“
Yes.”

“
OK. The
tricky thing for you in a communication spell is that other energy
bobbing in the background. You see, for any other use of your magik
you tap into the energy and expel it from whichever part of your
body you want... usually your hands. But to travel you need to grab
hold of that energy, and wrap it around your body’s system...
cells, muscles, bones... everything, everywhere. You’ll know when
you’ve done it, believe me. It’s hard to explain, but you will.
Thing is though, it takes a lot of concentration, and at first a
lot of time to go through the process.
You
have the added complication of
having your lykanthrope energy. What we need you to do is wrap your
magik around that energy without merging the two energies
together.”

Caia blinked, her heart
suddenly picking up speed. “What happens if they merge?”

Mordecai glanced briefly
at a stoic Marion and then back to her. “We don’t know. We just
don’t want to take that chance. We need you to treat that energy as
carefully as you would an artery, wrap around it, but don’t rupture
it.”

“
You don’t
have to do this, Caia,” Marion assured quietly.

She felt the stares of the
trainees burning her cheeks and willed her heart to slow down.
There was no way she was going to fail in front of these guys. That
was exactly what they wanted. And if she was going to make a
difference in this war, then she was going to need to prove herself
to the Daylights first hand.

“
No. I’m
doing this.”

Mordecai grinned. “Good.
Now close your eyes... and do as I asked.”

Quickly and easily, Caia
grabbed a hold of the steely vapour that was her magik energy, and
completely disengaged from the heat that allowed her to change into
a wolf. Now the hard part. So, she was to what... wrap the energy
around every molecule of her being…

Ohhhkkaaaay.

She started with her toes,
and Mordecai was right. She knew when a part of her body was
complete in the process. She followed it through until her very
hair tingled with energy.

“
Done,” she
said, and was surprised to hear a flurry of whispering.

“
Uh...”
Mordecai seemed to hesitate. Her eyes flew open and he was staring
at her incredulously, whilst Marion smiled, almost smugly. “Caia,
are you sure?”

She nodded, holding on
tight to her transformation. “Yeah, you said I would know, you were
right... it’s a weird kind of certainty.”

“
But you did
that in seconds?” He gaped like a fish.

She frowned. “Is that
wrong?”

Marion chuckled. “It
usually takes a lot longer the first few times. You’ve done it like
you’ve been doing it for years.”

Oh. Well, that
was good right?

Mordecai gulped. “I see
what you’ve been talking about, Marion.”

“
What?” Caia
quizzed, looking between the two.

“
Uh, Caia,
now for the next part.” Mordecai now seemed even more excited to
move it along. “I want you to visualise your guest suite. Think of
a suitable spot you can materialise in and go there. But... you
have to have an extremely clear vision in mind.”

She closed her eyes and
imagined a spot on the thick beige carpet that felt like clouds
beneath her bare feet; a spot that stood just in front of the
chaise longue placed at the end of the opulent bed. Yeah, there was
plenty of room to crash land there.