Moon Spell (The Tale of Lunarmorte #1) (28 page)

“I don
’
t believe her.”

Caia groaned and slumped back on her bed. “Well, it doesn
’
t matter at the moment. Right now I have uncontrolled powers and a prophecy to deal with. The part where my mother murdered my father is getting tucked to the back of my brain for now.”

“You
’
re compartmentalizing the situation.”

“Is that what you call it?”

“Sure,” Jaeden said with a smile in her voice. “It
’
s what Sydney does in
Alias
all the time. Talk about dysfunctional families. Woof.”

“I thought you didn
’
t watch that much TV?”

“I don
’
t, but
Alias
isn
’
t just any old TV program. It
’
s
Alias
.”

“OK. Well, never mind that it
’
s fictional, Jae, my reality is that my mother killed my dad.”

“Sydney inadvertently killed her mother.”

“I
’
m a lykan and have to hide within a human world.”

“She
’
s a spy and has to hide her identity from everyone she loves.”

“I
’
m prophecy girl.”

“So was she.”

Caia sighed. “OK, again … I actually exist, Jae... I think I win.”

“I guess you do. I was...” Jaeden exhaled noisily, and Caia could feel that she felt helpless for her. “I was just trying to make you feel better in a situation where that can
’
t possibly happen.”

“The fact that you tried means a lot.”

“I
’
m here for you, always.”

The sound of the floorboards squeaking outside her room brought her bolt upright. She narrowed her eyes as she felt waves of curiosity, mixed with guilt, filtering through the walls. “I
’
m going to have to go, Jaeden.”

“Wait!”

“What?” She really didn
’
t want whoever was outside listening to hear something they shouldn
’
t. She sniffed and Lucien
’
s scent hit her. He really wanted to piss her off didn
’
t he?

“I was just wondering what happens now?”

“Training with Marion. You
’
ll cover for me at school?”

“Of course.”

“OK. I gotta go, Jae. Talk later.”

“Bye.”

Caia hung up the phone and tip-toed over to the door. He was still standing outside, she could feel him. With perverse satisfaction she pulled the door open with lightning quick motion. Lucien stood looking at her aghast, his ear turned towards the door. If she hadn
’
t been so angry at him, the sheepish look on his face would have been comical. “I can feel you, remember,” she snapped.

“Oh. Right.” He straightened to his full six-six and shrugged the sheepishness from his face and demeanor. “I was just making sure you were OK.”

“That
’
s not really your problem anymore.”

He growled, his face flushing with irritation. “I
’
m still your Pack Leader, Caia.”

“Do you lie to every member of your pack or am I just special?”

He sighed, running his hand through his thick dark hair. “Caia, I am very sorry. I made an error in judgment but... can
’
t you understand? After everything this pack has been through, I was just trying to protect them.”

She did understand. It didn
’
t change the fact that he had hurt her like no one else had before. “I do understand that, Lucien.”

His body seemed to relax, the tension easing from his muscles. “So we
’
re going to be OK?”

“You and I?”

He moved towards her, taking her by surprise as he cupped her cheek gently with his large callused hand. “Yes. You and I. We can get through this together.”

A silence stretched thinly between them as their gazes locked, and for that moment Caia forgot her anger and could only remember the feel of his lips on hers at the party. As the moment continued to build, Lucien growled from the back of his throat and lowered his head towards her, his silver gaze caught intently on her mouth. She began to tremble with the desire to give into him, her heart beating erratically at his overwhelming closeness. But as his lips were about to touch hers, his warm breath fanning her face, sending shivers over her already confused body, an alarm bell rang inside her head, jerking her back from him.

Lucien frowned, trying to urge her closer, only for her to push his hand off and step back into the safety of her bedroom. “There is no you and I, Lucien.” She gripped the door and began to close it on his face. “Just Pack Leader and Prophecy Girl.”

Caia turned around and braced her back against her closed door, listening as his footsteps slowly moved away. The feelings emanating from him were so raw, her rejection genuinely hurting him deeply. Maybe Jaeden was right. Maybe Alexa had lied to her, and just maybe Lucien wasn
’
t trying to butter her up. His emotions told her that his caring feelings were real. It didn
’
t matter. She and Lucien couldn
’
t be anything, now that she was some freak of nature who could bring total destruction to the pack and to him. No. She was going to train with Marion and then take on her uncle so that the pack would be safe from him. Once she was certain of their safety, she would leave the pack and Lucien. Her heart thundered in her chest at the thought, and she felt sick, a feeling likened to grief wrapping itself around her body.

Caia cursed, hearing the water in her bathroom rush on. “Let
’
s just work on controlling the freakish powers first, huh, Cy,” she muttered, and made to turn the water off.

“We have a
slight problem.”

When did they not? Ethan thought in agitation as he zapped the mutt in its cage, its shriek of pain easing his headache. “Spit it out.”

“They
’
re training her,” his spy murmured, obviously not wanting him to hear correctly. He could feel his muscles tensing, a warm heat of angry power flushing across his skin from his feet up. A bolt of white heat flew out of him, and an even louder, agonized howl deafened him.

“Damn.” He sighed, and crouched down to peer into the cage. He hoped he hadn
’
t killed the thing; it was important leverage.

“My lord?”

“Shut up,” Ethan snapped, turning his ear to the cage. He sighed in relief when a whimper escaped the creature. “Oh thank, Gaia.”

“My lord?”

“Stop
‘
my lording
’
me. We
’
ll need to take her sooner than we thought, that
’
s all.”

His assistant hissed, “There
’
s more.”

Ethan wanted to reach down the end of the receiver and choke the living daylights out of her. Unfortunately, he needed her for the time being as she was one of only three people within the Coven who knew about Caia: himself, her and Lars. Of course, he
’
d have to kill them both when this was over.

“What else?” he asked between clenched teeth, half afraid of the answer.

“Well, it appears Lucien and Caia
’
s relationship has now been put asunder due to a female member of the pack
’
s jealousy.”

That was the last thing he wanted to hear. Another wave of heat flew from his body but he made sure it wasn
’
t directed at the mutt in the cage.

“My Lord?” she asked again, worriedly.

He waited a few seconds so that he didn
’
t accidently kill her down the phone line. When he was sure he was under control, he said in restrained breaths, “You will need to go in as quickly as you can and reunite our lovely couple.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“I don
’
t have to remind you that Caia
’
s relationship with her animal friends is pivotal to weakening the pack. Particularly her relationship with Lucien.”

“I
’
ll go in immediately. As soon as I
’
m allowed. They have her under lock and key at the moment.”

“Then break the damn lock.”
Jeez, you just can
’
t get reliable help these days
. “You can
’
t wait any longer than a few days or else her powers and control will develop. Get in there and get those two lovebirds together or… I will personally eviscerate you.”

Her breath caught in the back of her throat and he reveled in the power he held over her. She knew he was perfectly serious. “Of course, my lord.”

“And Xylena?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Once your mission is complete I want your first kill to be the bitch lykan female that put a kink in Caia
’
s relationship with the Pack Leader and a kink in our plans.”

“Gladly.”

“That
’
s it, Caia. Hold it... hold it... hooold iiiit.”

Caia sighed, her head aching with the exhaustion of trying to contain the water. Marion had set up a heavy duty hose out in the backyard and was attempting to train Caia in controlling it. Right now, instead of the water pouring out directly and falling with gravity, she had Caia separating the water flow into two halves, each spraying in the opposite direction. It was the strangest feeling, having to reach deep inside and tap into the energy that she now felt hovering above the energy she used to tap into her wolf side. The trace buzzing above the lykanthrope energy was sharp and airy - like steel vapor - her lykanthrope more a tingling heat. The first day of training had been excruciatingly frustrating as she kept tapping into her lykan trace, fur exploding across her body at the slightest attempt to harness her magik. But the amount of focus it took was keeping her heartache at bay and allowing her to function normally.

Well.

As normal as she could be.

Although she felt heartache at the truth of her family
’
s past, she also felt a weird sense of relief and freedom from finally knowing the truth. She doubted the new lease of life she felt was an entirely
‘
human
’
or normal reaction to the situation, but her embarrassing emotional breakdown when she first heard the news was human enough for her, thank you very much.

So there she was, on the third day of training, and she had finally managed to conquer her dueling energies when Marion began throwing her off her focus with her obnoxious cheerleading coach persona. She
’
d obviously had way too much caffeine.

“Marion,” she warned between clenched teeth, the pain in her forehead increasing.

Marion laughed, clapping her hands together. She was being wonderful, she really was, but she also had a perverse sense of humor. At Caia
’
s warning, Marion magiked a whistle out of thin air and started blowing on the damn thing, jumping from one foot to the other. “Go, Caia, Go, Caia. Go Go Go, Caia. Whhhiieettt!” She blew the whistle shrilly and was silenced abruptly by a spray of water in her face.

Caia laughed, letting the water return to its natural flow.

Instead of frowning, Marion smiled brightly. “Very good, Caia. You managed to direct a third stream of the water in another direction. We
’
ll just forget the fact that it was on my face...” she did frown now, glancing down at the whistle around her neck. “I think you literally wet my whistle, though.”

Caia chuckled and then collapsed onto the grass. “My head aches.”

“It will at first.” Marion gracefully settled down beside her.

“What next then?”

“Well, I think we should soon begin on creating water from air.”

She rolled her eyes. “And I do that how?”

“You think about it, and it will happen.”

Caia grunted. She made it sound like a piece of cake. It wasn
’
t.

She had asked from the very beginning of her training why she had the power to harness water. If she was going to be this weird hybrid of lykan and witch shouldn
’
t she have really cool powers? Not some weak ability to quench her thirst whenever she wanted. Marion hadn
’
t been amused by her blasé opinion on being a water witch. Apparently it was one of the most powerful kinds.