Destined (War of the Covens 2)

Marion was waiting for her outside of Marita and Vanne’s suite, and Caia called upon her best acting skills to greet her normally. Still, her mentor seemed to detect something and Caia waved her off, explaining it away as exhaustion.

She was surprised by the quick hug Marita gave her and had to hide her revulsion as she returned it. It was with deep relief that she returned the more sincere hug from Vanne. Did he know about the children? Oh goddess, she hoped not.

“We’re glad you are okay,” Marita said. “You are quite the little wonder, aren’t you.”

It was hard to tell whether she was being sarcastic.

“Caia Ribeiro?”

Caia turned around to see two distinguished-looking people peering at her in astonishment. One was a stocky older man, perfectly coifed in a designer suit, and his companion a small, compact woman whose movements reminded Caia of a little bird.

“Caia.” Marita gestured to them. “May I introduce Alfred Doukas and Penelope Argyros?”

It did not escape Caia’s notice that both these council members had Greek names. Did that mean their family was from way back when? Was that what it took to be a council member? A lineage that could be traced back to the gods? If so, these were definitely the people she needed to impress.

“It’s an honor.” She shook their hands firmly, a deliberate soft smile playing across her lips. They seemed taken aback by her. She doubted she was what they’d been expecting.

“No.” Alfred grinned back. “This is an honor for us. We came because we’ve heard extraordinary things about you, Miss Ribeiro.”

“Please call me Caia.”

“Of course.”

What followed was almost like an interview. They wanted to know about her upbringing, about Ethan’s death, about the attack against the MacLachlans. They wanted to know what her plans were from now on. She shoved what she’d just witnessed to the back of her brain and told them she was considering a position offered to her by Marita, but that she hadn’t decided whether to take it yet. She told them about the pack, describing them colorfully, explaining how much they meant to her. It was safe to assume that Alfred and Penelope were enchanted by her, and thankfully seemed to approve of her loyalty to the pack, first and foremost.

“It says a little something about your character.” Penelope nodded, smiling earnestly at her.

The “interview” seemed to be drawing to a close when Penelope twittered, “And this substance? That transformed Marita’s first lykan in command, what was it exactly?”

Caia shook her head. A vision of Anders’s panicked eyes when he realized he was going to die flashed through her mind like an arrow of guilt. “It was something Pierre du Bois and his partner, Thierry Cotillard, hired human scientists to work on. They had daemons on their payroll capture lykans and had these scientists working on their genetic makeup for the past five years. Impressively, they hid it from the trace, and I didn’t know to look deeper. A mistake I won’t make again.

“I’m sure if Ethan had known about it, he would’ve wanted a piece of the action, especially as they’d had a breakthrough. They were able to concoct a liquid from taking chemicals in a lykanthrope body and combine it with the magik used in natural materialization to transform a lykan in wolf form back into a human. I don’t understand how it works, but there’s a lab, here in Paris, where the liquid is kept. The human scientists have all been killed.”

Alfred scowled. “Are we sure that their breach has been taken care of? No human is left alive that is aware of supernaturals?”

Caia shook her head. “I couldn’t be sure. I just know from what I could see in du Bois’s head that the men and women he was using are dead. Whether those people told others …”

“Point taken.” He shook his head, disturbed. “This lab must be destroyed.”

Marita coughed delicately from behind them and they all looked to her questioningly. “Perhaps it would be prudent to analyze the lab, discover what we can about this formula?”

Oh, you would like that, wouldn’t you? Caia thought, concealing her disgust.

“No,” Penelope chirped, shivering a little. “The idea of magiks experimenting on other supernaturals … I think it’s best that information goes no further than these four walls. The last thing we need is giving the wrong people inspiration.”

Well said.

Caia pinned Marita with her stare, hoping to see a glimmer of guilt or some kind of betrayal of her own experiments. There was nothing. She was so cool. Definitely not an enemy to underestimate.

“I agree.” Alfred nodded gravely. “Best to destroy it immediately.”

Marita shrugged as if it made no difference to her. “Fine. I’ll have someone take care of it.”

“I’ll do it.” Caia sprang to her feet. No way in hell was she letting Marita or one of her slugs near that place. “Right now. I’ll go right now.”