Blood Solstice: Part Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte

Blood
Solstice

Part
Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte

By
Samantha Young

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

PUBLISHED
BY

Samantha
Young

Blood
Solstice

Part
Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte

Copyright© 2011 Samantha Young

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*****

Blood Solstice

Part
Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte

To all
the Dream Catchers

***

The
secret of happiness is freedom,

and the
secret of freedom, courage.

Thucydides

The Why
and the Wherefores

Existing
in the shadows of our world are supernatural races; children
blessed by the ancient Greek gods with unimaginable gifts, and at
present they are fighting a two-thousand year old war with one
another. The Midnight Coven, an alliance of dark magiks, faeries,
and daemons born of black magik, believe that vampyres and lykans
are lesser supernaturals and a threat to mankind. They are at war
with the Daylight Coven, a confederate of light magiks, faeries,
vampyres and lykans who believe in the equality of the
races.

Into this
war eighteen year old Caia Ribeiro is born… a lykan with a heritage
unlike any other. A consequence of the manipulation of the gods and
fate, Caia is unique – a half-lykan, half-water magik. And to make
it even more complicated her mother was the daughter of the Head of
the Midnight Coven – Caia is half-Daylight,
half-Midnight.

Since her
visit to the Centre, the Daylight’s headquarters and training
institution, Caia’s world has been turned upside down. Not only is
she convinced that many Midnights are good people looking for a way
out of the war, she acted on that conviction by orchestrating the
escape of a young Midnight girl, Laila, from Daylight prison. To
make matters worse, Caia discovered that Marita, the Head of the
Daylight Coven, was abusing her power by experimenting on lykan
children in order to breed a stronger army, and the one person she
wants to complete that experimentation is Caia’s best friend,
Jaeden – a lykan with telekinetic abilities. Her fear over telling
Lucien, her mate, all she had discovered, was unfounded, and Caia
has at last a group of loyal supporters, despite Pack Errante’s
misgivings over her revelations. However, with Marita growing
steadily more unstable, imprisoning the Council and turning the
Coven into an autocracy, it seems likely that they will have to
turn to Caia for guidance.

But
slithering in the shadows of their conflict is a being with a far
bigger part to play than he’d let on. Who is Jaeden’s friend, the
vampyre Reuben, really? Why does he seem so chummy with Nikolai,
the Regent of the Midnight Coven, when they’re supposed to be blood
enemies?

And why
oh why has their friendly neighbourhood vampyre kidnapped
Caia?

Caia: the
one person they need to rescue the Council and bring the Coven back
from the brink of disaster.

1 – The
Cage

He
hunkered down on to his haunches so they were face to face. His
smile disappeared as he winced. “I’m sorry I hit you so hard. I
wasn’t sure how much strength I would need to put into it to knock
you out. However… you’re pretty fragile for a lykan.”

A growl
rumbled from the pit of Caia’s chest and erupted into snarling
snaps. She had never wanted to tear at someone the way she wanted
to at Reuben.

He didn’t
flinch. He just gazed at her with a look almost akin to sadness.
“We don’t want you in this cage, Caia. You’re just there until
we’re sure you aren’t going to attack Nikolai. We don’t want to
hurt you.”

She
guffawed. “Hurt me? I’d be worried for myself if I were
you.”

He
frowned at her. “Caia, please don’t try anything foolish. You’ve
been out for 24 hours, you’re very weak.”

24 hours?
How was that possible?

“
Again, apologies for my friend’s overzealousness.” Nikolai
was glaring at Reuben.

Her gaze
flew between the two of them, searching desperately for any clue as
to why they had her here. She had been gone a day. Lucien would be
going crazy, not to mention Jaeden and Ryder and
everybody…

“
Jaeden,” she snapped at Reuben. “She trusted you.”

His face
remained expressionless. “I needed her. So I fudged a little with
the truth. She can still trust me.”

Caia
snorted. “Oh yeah, cos’ kidnapping her Alpha’s mate is such a
trustworthy thing to do.”

He
nodded, his eyes telling her understood her anger. She didn’t want
his damn understanding.

“
Perhaps you will allow me to explain myself?” He queried
softly, a whisper of regret lacing his words. She broke eye
contact, her gaze darting pointedly around the cage. “I’m not
exactly going anywhere.”

Reuben
smirked and stood up, his eyes locked to her face. “Nikolai, a
chair perhaps?” Instantly a comfortable armchair appeared behind
him and he sank into it whilst Nikolai stood vigilant at the back
of him. “We need you, Caia… to end the war.”

Caia
chuckled. Of course he did. And what did he think? That she would
blithely follow his orders when she was doing everything in her
power to remove herself from Marita’s rule? “I have no intention of
fighting for the Midnights. Nor the Daylights. That’s not my
plan.”

“
Well, it would seem we agree on that much, but your actual
plan is crumbling around you as we speak.”

She
frowned at him. “What do you mean?” What the Hades did he know
about her plan?

“
Marita has dissolved the Council and imprisoned
them.”

How on
Gaia’s green earth did he know that? Her expression must have asked
as much because he shrugged elegantly, crossing one leg over the
other and relaxing into his chair. “I have important assets inside
the Centre.”

Her mouth
fell open and a riot of butterflies exploded into life in the
bottom of her belly. She had no idea who she was dealing with here,
but the fact that he had assets inside the Centre… “What do you
want from me?”

Reuben
sighed heavily, wearily. “I want what you want. I don’t want to
kill Daylights or Midnights. I just want this war to end… and I’ve
been working on bringing it to a conclusion long before you were
ever born.”

“
And I’ve just to believe that, have I?” She sneered, the dull
throbbing in her head growing worse.

He shook
his head. “Of course not. That’s why I’m going to go back to the
beginning. I’m going to tell you my story, Caia. I’m going to tell
you why this war really began.”

2 – The
Illiadic Truth

Athens, Greece 461 B.C.

His heart thudded rapidly behind its thick-boned prison, the
pulse in his neck throbbing with anxiety. He almost smiled at that.
If he weren’t a vampyre his parents, Phaedrus and Xanthippe, would
consider him an impossibly delicious meal with that vein pulsing
them into temptation. Instead they looked up at him in
bewilderment, their mouths and chins smeared thick with the blood
and skin of the unconscious man in their arms. They sat crowded
together on one of the pillowed kline’s in the andron where his
father held Symposia in their home. The man’s feet dragged to the
floor, the light chiton he wore coming undone from the obvious
struggle he had undergone at the hands of Kirios’ parents. Blood
stained the fabric and ran in rivulets from his masticated neck to
puddle on the mosaic floor. Kirios watched as it spread into the
expensive tiling, wondering how on earth they would explain the
stain. He frowned… perhaps his father would say wine had been
spilled during one of the vigorous symposiums he held to blend in
with the men he served with on the Heliaia, the jury of the supreme
court of Athens.

“
We thought you might like to finish him off?” Xanthippe
smiled, a horrifying, gory gargle of the man’s life blood
distorting her voice.

Kirios shook his head in a mixture of anger and despair. His
parents were never going to understand. They were so old, two of
the first souls to be sent by Hades back from the Underworld to
wreak revenge. They had once been so savage it was a miracle they
had ever fallen in love with one another. But two thousand years of
immortal nomadic life seemed to have grown dull for them, and they
had fallen into a companionship of killing, making love and looting
Tholos tombs, before growing rich on the growing Mycenaean trade.
Their strange life in Athens had only begun after Hades had stolen
Persephone into the Underworld and made her his Queen. Her mother,
the goddess Demeter, in outrage ‘blessed’ his vampyres with
fertility. And living actively (rather than their usual avoidance)
through the Greco-Persian wars with souls easier burdened than
before had changed everything for Xanthippe and Phaedrus. There is
nothing on earth that can put one more in touch with humanity than
war and his mother was no longer the flagitious animal she had once
been… well… to an extent. Despite her appetite and nature she had
grown to love her husband and wanted a child. So they had come to
Athens and insinuated themselves into the middle-class region of
the polis in order to raise their son. But Kirios hadn’t been what
they were expecting. He had powers of mesmerism and an appetite for
blood, but he did not have the soul of a killer.

Looking away from the dark sight before him he sighed,
remembering his thirteenth year. They had always brought him his
blood as a child, now they wanted him to learn to fend for himself…
to execute his first kill. The memory pierced him like a spear. How
disgusted he had been by what they wanted of him. He had no taste
for killing humans, and although he loved his parents, it was
becoming clear they were never going to understand that vital
fact.

And the truth was… looking upon the painful sight of the man
dying in his parents’ arms… Kirios did not think he could stand by
and watch them murder innocents any longer. He was in his
eighteenth year now. It was time to-

His jaw dropped as he suddenly recognised the dying figure in
their arms. “Are you insane?!” He hissed. “That’s
Ephialtes!”

“
Be silent,”Phaedrus ordered quietly, steel warning in his
tone. “Anyone may hear you.”

Kirios felt himself paling, as if it were even possible for
him to be any paler. “Father, you’ve killed a statesman of the
Democratic Party. He’s Perikles’ bloody mentor, for Gaia’s sakes!
Have you gone mad?” Perikles was one of the most influential,
popular, wealthiest members of the demos.

Xanthippe shrugged. “We’re leaving Athens… and Ephialtes has
always annoyed me. I thought it a fitting going away present to
myself.”

Kirios shook his head in disbelief. “How on the gods are you
going to fix this mess before you leave?”

Phaedrus looked annoyed by his question. “The usual… we’ll
leave him somewhere and mesmerise someone else to take the blame.
Perhaps Perikles.”

“
You will not,” Kirios snapped, inwardly surprised he was
standing up to his father.

Phaedrus looked just as shocked. “I beg your
pardon?”

“
Father, please promise me that you will not put the blame on
Perikles. You are leaving Athens… please do not leave it in a
complete upheaval by killing one member of the Democratic Party and
turning another into a murderer.”

“
How dull of you, son.”

“
I happen to be fond of my city. That is all.”

Xanthippe sighed. “Oh, very well. We promise.”