Blood Solstice: Part Three in the Tale of Lunarmorte (30 page)

But the
thought drifted away as she was forced to spar with the bigger
lykan, the wound in her side slowing her down. Just as she was
about to dive on the lykan, a blur of fur beat her to it, the two
wolves tumbling and rolling together. She watched in amazement
before a crunching noise unsettled her stomach and only one of the
wolves got up. His silver eyes glared at her. Lucien. Oh thank
gods. His warning growl told her to whirl around. She did, just in
time to see another lykan leap at her. Falling under him, his huge
jaws descending towards her, Caia gave a hopeless swat that barely
stirred him. A massive weight collided with them and the wolf was
thrown off her. A familiar brown wolf, his muzzle peeled back in a
fierce growl, stood over her, his head bent low, telling the lykan
she was under his protection. Ryder! She had never been happier to
see two people in all her life. Rolling up onto her fours, Caia
quickly took in Lucien and Ryder dealing quite nicely with the
remaining lykans. Vil was nowhere to be seen, however, and she
hoped to Gaia he had returned to the pack.

Her heart
jolted at the sight of Jaeden pinned to the ground by magik, Marita
and her companion grinning evilly down at her. This time Caia took
control of the icy vapour that was her magik energy and used it to
move her through the change instantaneously, clothing her naked
form before it could be chilled by the crisp night air of the
English countryside. She sent a shock of water out, forcing the
pressurised liquid into the mouth of Marita’s companion, flooding
his lung cavity. Panic suffused his features and he dropped to the
ground, clawing at his throat and gasping silently. Marita looked
up sharply, forgetting Jaeden and clearly feeling no compunction to
save her companion. Caia held on tight to the water that was
suffocating the magik, even as she trembled with fear at Marita’s
stoic face. They took quiet steps towards one another as if there
wasn’t a miniature battle going on behind Caia’s back.

“
I’m going to kill you slowly,” Marita said quietly, knowing
Caia would hear her anyway with her lykan hearing.

Before
Caia could respond, the air shimmered with energy, and Marion and
Saffron appeared behind Marita’s shoulder causing Caia’s eyes to
widen and her grip on the other magik to loosen. She was pretty
sure he was unconscious anyway.

Marita
paused, her entire body tensing with the unexpected, her eyes
telling Caia she couldn’t believe it.

“
The only person that will be dying today sister… is you,”
Marion bit out.

Marita’s
eyes widened in disbelief and she spun around to face her sister.
“It can’t be… you were dead. I felt it in the trace.”

Marion
smirked. “You really aren’t very good with that trace, Marita. I
think it’s best we give it to Caia after all.”

With a
shriek of unchecked ire, Marita sent an animalistic stream of fire
rushing at her sister, its body hissing and diving in attack.
Marion easily deflected it with a mere swipe of her hand. “Is that
all?”

Marita’s
retort was a wall of fire that encircled her sister from head to
foot. Heart pounding, skin hot from the roaring fire, Caia
immediately envisioned a waterfall that appeared over Marion’s
head, obliterating the flames. Unfortunately, it doused Marion as
well, and she threw Caia a bemused look, a look they shared in just
enough time for Marita to utilise magik to suspend Jae into the
air. When Jaeden began screaming Caia couldn’t work out why, until
she realised Marita was scoring burn marks into her with invisible
flames. An untold fury took possession of Caia in that moment,
refusing to let Jae experience once more second of that kind of
torture after having survived it at the hands of Caia’s uncle,
Ethan. She thrust her hands out and up and a tidal wave of water
the likes of which she had never conjured before towered over
Marita like a python readying to strike. Caia gave a jerk of her
head, parting a curtain in the wave so as it descended towards
Marita it bypassed Jaeden. A yell was muffled into a gurgle as the
wave crashed to the ground, whooshing across the grass and taking a
bedraggled and spluttering Marita with it. Her magik let go of
Jaeden and the lykan tumbled to the ground.

“
My goddess, Caia,” Marion’s voice broke through and she
looked up to see the magik smiling at her in wonderment. “That was
very cool.”

Well, brace yourself, because there’s going to be
more!
She thought, as she began striding
towards Marita, who was pulling herself out of the water with a
stream of curses. She straightened in time to see Caia heading
determinedly for her and her eyes widened.

Then they
narrowed in hatred before she disappeared altogether.

“
NO!!” Caia screamed in frustration. She wasn’t getting away
from her that easily! This had to end, it had to end now! And Caia
no longer cared how.

In an
instinct that should have cost her, her life, she made the decision
to travel somewhere she had never been before… a feat that could
only be performed by a Traveller, a magik with Vil’s particular
gifts. Marion had told Caia that Marita was most probably staying
at this inn, a condemned building in a small village in Central
Scotland.

Take me there,
she whispered to her
energy, squeezing her eyes shut and drawing on every ounce of magik
that belonged to her. The travel seemed to take forever, moving
through a black tunnel at warp speed, flashes of coloured lights
exploding in her eyes as a raw sickening pain bubbled under every
inch of her skin. With a thud, she collapsed on gritty ground,
pebbles piercing her skin as she heaved forward, the contents of
her stomach decorating what looked like a short driveway. She
shuddered and convulsed, her flesh and insides so raw it was as if
a butcher had taken a meat hammer to her. When at last she stilled,
lying prone on the stoned driveway, Caia looked up through her hair
to see a gothic looking inn perched on top of a small hill.
Breathing deeply, she pulled herself to her feet, swaying a little,
and gave her surroundings a fleeting look. A road ran up the side
of the inn leading to a residential area and below the hill was
what appeared to be a main road with another road branching off of
it leading to the houses that were stacked behind a tall wooden
fence some yards down from the inn itself. It was pitch dark and
there was not another soul around.

Thank
goddess Eliza’s family lived in England or Caia might not have
survived a longer distance to travel. She examined the inn
carefully. It was old, all of its windows and doors boarded up with
DANGEROUS KEEP OUT sprayed across the main door in red spray paint.
She almost snorted at that. These people had no idea just how
dangerous the contents of the inn were. The thought of what she had
to do next made her want to throw up again, but Caia braced
herself. It was now or never. With another forceful push of her
energy as she transported herself to the inside of the inn, a sharp
pain exploding in her upper thigh. She bit back a yelp, but her
efforts were in vain as she tumbled against the obstacle that had
thrust into her leg and undone her, sending her crashing to the
floor with a muffled ‘oomph’. Damn table.

See, this
was why Travelling was for the professionals.

Flipping
herself over, Caia lay on her back panting and let her eyes drink
in her surroundings. The inside of the inn was like a palace, every
inch of it decorated exactly to Marita’s Renaissance-style
taste.

She
wanted to burn it to the ground!

The sound
of shuffling to her left seized hold of her heart and she
stiffened. A painful heat gripped her entire length and pinned her
to the floor. She struggled against the magikal hold but there was
no budging, and every time she tried to pierce it with her own
magik she got nowhere. As five faces popped into view above her,
Caia realised why. Five magiks, one of which was Marita, had
combined their powers to keep her trapped. She sneered at that,
feeling a little smug that it had taken the five of them to best
her.

But best you they have, you idiot.

Frantically, she began to struggle again as the import of the
situation sunk in. She was going to die here. She was going to die
right here in this spot any minute now.

“
Caia,” Marita snapped, “Stop struggling. The least you can do
is die with a little dignity.”

Caia
tried to speak, to curse the evil witch for all eternity but
nothing came out.

Marita
snickered. “Cat got your tongue, Caia. I can’t believe you and my
sister deceived me so well. After I kill you, I’m going to have to
leave this place and then I’m going to have to hunt down my
deceitful, wicked shrew of a sister and kill her too.”

At the
thought of Marita hurting Marion her struggles grew more
intense.

“
Tut tut, Caia, you’re only wasting your energy. I like the
fact that my killing Marion distresses you so. In fact, I’m not
going to stop there. I’m going to kill everyone you care about.
Your pack. That little Midnight bitch and her boyfriend Traveller.
As for your best friend, Jaeden, well… I’m going to give her a
little taste of what your Uncle Ethan gave to her before I cut her
open to see how she acquired telekinesis. It’s the damndest thing
you know. Oh, you don’t like that at all do you.”

A flicker
of white heat licked across Caia’s calves and she pleaded inwardly
for Marita to make her madder.

“
It was Rose who told me where to find Eliza-”

Oh my gods! I will kill her! If I get out of here I will rip
that tramp apart!

“
-she thinks I’ll grant Lucien and the pack pardon and she can
live happily ever after with your mate.” She snorted. “Delusional
little fool. I’ll let her live, but I’m going to kill the pack
slowly. Mutilate them like I did to the others… Dimitri and
Yvana-”

The white
heat stroked up towards her stomach.

“
-Dana and Daniel. Morgan and Natalia. I didn’t get to finish
them off properly. But when I get to Irini and Ella and all those
others you love… I’ll make sure to take my time-”

It
gripped her stomach and crawled up through her chest, her throat
closing under its blaring fire.

“
-And then Lucien. Oh, I’ll leave him to last. I’m going to
make his torture last for months. First I’ll play with that
beautiful exterior, give him a few scars he’ll never forget. And
then I’ll take his insides out bit by bit whilst he’s still
conscious and-”

“
ARRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!” The horrendous scream that ripped
out of Caia was beyond her control, the white light blinding her as
it exploded out of every cell in her body. Caia was no longer Caia
but one with the greatest stream of energy she had ever
known.

And all
it wanted was the destruction of Marita and her people.

It seemed
forever she ceased to exist.

But then…
the bright white began to fade and a hush fell, her eyes slid
closed of their own accord, silence pillowing her in her
sleep.

26
–Solidarity

The
beeping noise was starting to get annoying. It pulled her from her
sleep and forced her into consciousness. Caia groaned, her head
pounding so hard she was afraid to open her eyes. That was… if she
could open her eyes. Her lids felt as if they had been stuck shut
with hot glue. As for her mouth… she made a smacking sound with her
lips, her mouth as dry as Irini’s victoria sponge cake. The
irritating beeping got louder. What the…

“
Miss…” a lilting voice said softly from above her.

Slowly,
she peeled her lids open and then grunted at the harsh stream of
light that stung her eyes. She tried again and as her eyes came
into focus she saw a woman standing over her. A nurse. Caia’s heart
kicked. Oh crap, where was she?

“
It’s nice to see you awake.” The nurse smiled softly, her
accent thick and sure… and very Scottish? Oh my goddess! Caia
twisted her head around to see the heart monitor she was attached
to was the source of the beeping. She glanced down to see herself
tucked into a hospital bed, a tube plugged into her
hand.

“
Where am I?” She croaked.

The nurse
frowned. “You don’t remember?”

“
No.”

The
woman’s eyes widened. “You’re no from hereabouts from the sound of
that accent, are you? You dinnae remember what happened to you, at
all?”

Yeah,
that’s what she was telling her. She shook her head
impatiently.

“
You’re in the Western General… in Edinburgh. You were found
in the rubble of an explosion in a village a little west of here
twenty four hours ago. Do you remember how you got
there?”

Marita!
Caia sucked in a breath, the events of the night before whooshing
into her body like a gust of wind. The inn… she had gone after
Marita to the inn and… had she killed her? Had she been
successful?

“
Were there any other survivors?” She whispered
frantically.

The nurse
frowned again, shaking her head. “No, honey, you were the only
person found in the debris. It was just a load of ash and rubble,
they said. Why? Were you wi’ somebody? Can you tell me your
name?”