Blood Solstice: Part Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte (27 page)

A loud
grunt shook her from her thoughts and she looked up to see one of
Michael Brown’s unit members pulling a magik up off the mat where
he had just floored her.

Caia
sighed, watching the team that had been put together to hunt down
Marita train in their private gymnasium. First she had to find and
kill Marita before she could even contemplate performing the rite
that would ask the gods to give her Daylight trace.

“
Caia.” Lyla came hurrying over to her, a bead of sweat
glistening on her forehead suggesting she had been working out for
way longer than she should have been. “Come take over from Phoebe.”
She gestured to the lykan who was standing scowling at one of the
vampyre’s and shaking her head at whatever he was suggesting.
“She’s killing me. I could use some light relief.” She winked so
Caia knew she was only teasing her. Caia snorted. Lyla was only
teasing her but what she said was true. Compared to these people
she
was
light
relief when it came to sparring. They trounced her good. She was
covered in bruises. Caia inwardly groaned at the thought of
fighting Lyla, who was only marginally less aggressive than
Phoebe.

“
I uh-”

“
She can’t,” a familiar voice interrupted and Caia smiled at
the sound. Saffron. The faerie had come to save her.
Thank you, Hemera
. Lyla
raised an eyebrow – the kind of eyebrow raise that suggested
interest – as she gazed over Caia’s shoulder. Ah… so Reuben was
with Saffron. Caia turned and rolled her eyes. She was right. Jeez,
the females at the Centre were really wound up about Reuben. Desi
and Ophelia had been blah blah blahing about him for the last few
days. What was so darned special about him? Hah, she wondered if
they would be so into him if they knew how old he was.

“
Hi guys.” She gave them a ‘thank you for rescuing me’
wide-eyed look that Lyla couldn’t see.

“
Hey, Reuben.” Lyla ran her tongue along the bottom of her
upper row of teeth. “How’s it going?”

“
Better for seeing you, Lyla, better for seeing you.” He
smirked.

Ugh, gag me.

“
Oh, please,” Saffron grunted, apparently not as polite enough
as Caia to keep the thought to herself.

Reuben
ignored her and threw Lyla another flirtatious grin. “If you don’t
mind, we need to steal the little one away for a while.”

Uh, what?
“Uh, the little
one-”

“
Of course,” Lyla cut off her protest. “She’s all
yours.”
As am I,
her eyes conveyed.

Caia
heaved a sigh. She’d never understand her sex. With a nod of
acknowledgment to Lyla, Caia ushered Saffron and Reuben back out of
the gymnasium.

“
What do you want to talk to me about?”

But
Saffron was still stuck on Reuben’s behaviour with the lykan. “Do
you have to be so disgustingly juvenile with the women here?” She
huffed as they got into an elevator.

He
grinned wickedly at her. “Jealous, Saffron?”

“
Guys-”

“
Jealous! Puhlease, our day in the sun has been over for a
long time,
Kirios
. I just don’t want to have to listen to you have verbal sex
with everything that has breasts. I am stuck here beside you for
now while we see this through, so please refrain from the mundane
and try to engage in some intellectual conversation with these
people, rather than trying to decide which one’s pants you want to
get into as if you were choosing between chocolate or vanilla ice
cream!”

Caia hid the face she made,
jealous
much was right
. Apparently even seven
hundred years of his presence hadn’t put Saffron off. If Caia had
to guess, the faerie was perhaps just a wee bit in love with her
vampyre friend. Saffron’s diatribe had apparently struck Reuben
dumb. Under the growing silence Caia looked up to see him staring
at Saffron with an inscrutable expression on his face. As for the
faerie, she was staring straight ahead, her beautiful face pinched
with tension as if she knew she had revealed more than she had
meant to. Caia instantly felt bad. She knew what it was like to
care about someone and not know if they felt that way about you.
And Reuben was insanely flirtatious with everyone. Come on, he had
even flirted with Caia.

The
elevator doors suddenly binged open and she realised they were one
her floor.

“
Guys, you wanted to talk to me about something,
remember.”

Saffron
sniffed, “Of course. Let’s go to your suite.”

And so
she walked behind them to her bedroom suite, not speaking or
intruding upon their private business, even though she was
impatient to know what they wanted to talk about. Just as they
neared her door Reuben leaned over to Saffron and she heard him
hiss, “We’ll talk about this later.”

Saffron
shrugged and then spun around, holding her hand out to Caia.
“Key.”

Caia
rolled her eyes at her. “I am quite capable of opening my own door,
thank you.” She nudged her aside and swiped the key card down and
the door popped open. It was the same room she had stayed in before
Marita had gone bat shit crazy. Her eyes automatically took in the
magnificent panoramic view of Paris. She sighed, wishing life was
as uncomplicatedly beautiful as the city.

When the
door swung shut behind them, Caia spun on them. “OK, what’s going
on? Why the secrecy?”

Reuben
exhaled and shared an anxious look with Saffron. “Maybe you should
sit.”

Wow,
there were just never enough of these heart-pounding, nauseating,
‘what now?!’ moments in her life.

“
Okkaaay.” She slowly lowered herself onto a sofa.

With
that, the vampyre took a step back, gesturing Saffron forward. The
faerie gave a militant nod and then took a step towards her. “Caia,
we have something that we haven’t told you. We kept it back from
you – for a good reason – with the intention of telling you once
you had killed the Septum. That’s all changed now, of course. You
see…” she trailed off, a strange look entering her eyes. “…Marita
has always had a weakness. The biggest threat to her if you like.
And that is Marion. Marion knew Marita better than anyone; could
anticipate her moves better than anyone; knew the family’s past
haunts, private hideouts. We had every intention of telling you
this when the trace was gone but well…”

Caia’s
pulse was racing and she clasped a hand over the throb in her
wrist. That didn’t do much for the visible throb in her neck. “Tell
me what?”

The
faerie’s answer was to vanish.

Reuben
hadn’t even moved. He just stood there like he was expecting it.
Caia clenched her jaw. “What’s going on?”

He didn’t
say a word, just stared at her, waiting. Then Caia felt the
tell-tale buzz of energy and Saffron was standing back in the room,
smiling. A second later, another slight figure appeared beside
her.

Caia’s
jaw dropped as she took in the familiar mass of fire red hair and
fey features.

“
Marion?” she gasped and got to her feet on trembling legs,
her eyes wide, tears instantly filling her eyes. Was it really her?
Was she really here… alive?

The
witch’s own familiar violet eyes watered up, and then she was
rushing at Caia, her strong arms encircling her in a tight hug.
Caia held on for dear life, breathing in the familiar scent of her
friend and mentor, clutching her as if she were afraid she would
disappear any minute.

“
It’s really me, sweetheart, it’s really me.” Marion stroked
her hair, murmuring reassurances. The overwhelming relief took over
and Caia’s body began to shake with hard sobs. Marion merely held
on tighter.

***

“
How are you alive?” She asked some time later.

Marion
smiled smugly, a familiar expression that served to lighten the
weight on Caia’s chest. “I was never really dead.”

Drawing
Caia back down onto the sofa, the four of them sat with one another
as Caia was told the tale of their deception.

“
You see,” Saffron began, “I had already contacted Reuben
telling him Marion was very ill from having travelled with too many
of the children. That’s when he came up with his plan to deceive
Marita. He masked Marion’s trace making Marita think her sister was
dead. If she thinks Marion is out of the picture she won’t hesitate
to go to the places that Marion knew about.”

Clever,
Caia thought. Pity, that along with it, they had caused her, Magnus
and Vanne untold heartbreak.

Marion
must have seen the anger in her eyes because she patted Caia’s
hand. “I know it was ruthless and deceitful, but we couldn’t risk
the chance of anyone finding out I’m alive. This is the best weapon
we have against her.”

Caia
gazed at her in admiration, taking solace in Marion’s seemingly
unending strength and determination. “I am sorry about Marita,
Marion.”

She
frowned and looked away. “I am sorry that I was a fool not to have
seen it sooner.”

“
Apologies aside,” Reuben muttered eyeing the witch carefully,
“Marion claims to know where Marita is.”

A mixture
of excitement and apprehension rushed through Caia at the thought,
and she gripped Marion’s hands harder than she meant to. “Really?
Where?”

“
In a small village in Scotland. She has a safe house there, a
derelict inn. Only myself, Marita, and my mother knew of it. Not
even Vanne knows of its existence.”

Caia’s
heart was going overtime. “So we’re going there, we’re going after
Marita?”

Reuben
nodded grimly. “That’s the plan.”

“
But what about Vanne and the Council? I have to tell them I’m
going after Marita. The oath.” She held her hand up palm outwards
so they could see the annulet.

Marion
frowned at it. “I can’t believe they made you take a blood
oath.”

“
I don’t mind.”

“
I mind.” She scowled. “It was unnecessary. Bloody idiots
running this place like…” her voice trailed off as Reuben began
speaking again.

“
Caia, I must remind you that no one can know about Marion’s
existence. Marita will be checking the trace for anything and
everything, and we can’t tell them about this safe house because
she’ll find out we know and leave.”

Of course, dumbass,
Caia silently
berated herself. She took a minute, tracing the texture of the
carpet with her foot. “OK. How about I just tell them I have a lead
that I can’t discuss because I don’t want Marita to uncover it in
the trace, and that I’ll only be taking you and Saffron with me as
back up, to ensure that Marita doesn’t find out.”

“
I don’t see how they can argue with that,” Marion
agreed.

Finally,
Reuben nodded. “It’s our only chance. I think-”

Caia felt
an unexpected prickle of energy, as did Rueben who stopped talking.
Caia’s eyes widened as Vil appeared behind the vampyre. Reuben was
out of his chair in milliseconds, just a blur, and when he stilled
it was with Vil clutched by the throat, Vil’s pale eyes wide with
fear and shock.

“
Reuben!” Caia hissed, shooting to her feet and launching
herself at him, tugging poor Vil out of his stone hard arms. “Let.
Him. Go.”

He
growled at her, but finally let up, and Vil stumbled towards Caia,
happily letting her place herself between him and the
vampyre.

“
It’s just Vil,” she snapped. Reuben grunted, shouldering past
her to take his seat again. Vil hastily jumped out of his path.
“What’s going on?” She demanded. But Vil was staring at Marion like
he had seen a ghost… which technically he had.

It took a
good few minutes to calm him down and explain it all to him, and
all the while Reuben grumbled that he had to add another layer to
Vil’s trace to mask his knowledge of Marion’s existence.

“
You can’t tell anyone about me,” Marion insisted
sternly.

Vil
nodded deferentially. “I promise, Marion.”

“
You better,” Reuben warned quietly, lethally. “Or I will take
care of the problem.”

“
Reuben,” Caia warned.

He
ignored her and continued to unsettle Vil with his
glare.

“
Vil, what are you doing here?”

The magik
tried unsuccessfully to ignore the evil looks Reuben was shooting
him. “I… uh… I’m here because Lucien is looking for
you.”

She
gripped his arm, her features a mask of anxiety. “Why, what’s
wrong?”

“
Oh, nothing. I mean, well something. I mean, Lucien knows all
about-” His eyes flicked with reluctance to the vampyre “-Reuben’s
blackmail. He wants you to come home to the pack.”

So he was
sorry now, Caia thought numbly, now that he was assured of her
innocence. “I can’t,” she whispered, and then glanced up at Vil’s
little sound of confusion. “I didn’t kill the Septum. I couldn’t,”
she explained. “But I made a blood oath to the Council that if they
give me Daylight trace once Marita’s dead, then I will ask the gods
to take both the Midnight and Daylight trace back, freeing us all
from it. I have to leave now to kill Marita.” She couldn’t keep the
sad despair out of her voice.