Destined (War of the Covens 2)

After a while, she grew exhausted, and so made her way back to Lucien’s yard, leisurely and purposely slowing the change into human form. Jaeden smiled, stretching her muscles from top to bottom, yawning. With a final roll of her neck, she shuffled back into her clothes.

On the last button of her shirt, her ears pricked up at a loud crack from the woods close by. She sniffed the air, and an unfamiliar sweet scent she couldn’t identify swam up her nostrils. She hadn’t quite turned around to investigate when pain shot through her head and dark spots clouded her vision, swallowing her whole as they multiplied into a thick black tar.

“I can’t believe this. It’s all your fault!” Ryder railed at the vampyre as they followed Jaeden’s scent.

Reuben glared. “You started it.”

“She’s probably furious at me. At you. I can’t believe she left without me even knowing it. It’s your fault. You piss me off past rationality.”

“It’s always nice to be appreciated.”

“Don’t make me come over there, vampyre.”

“I’m shaking in my boots.”

Ryder bared his teeth and swung the truck viciously into Lucien’s driveway next to Jae’s car so that the vampyre slammed against the passenger door with an oof.

“Childish, immature—”

Ryder ignored him as his eyes narrowed on two figures he saw at the side of the house. Two figures who appeared to be struggling.

“Jaeden!” he bellowed, cutting off the vampyre. Slamming on the brakes and cutting the engine, he threw himself out of the truck, running toward the dark figure that had Jaeden bundled over their shoulder. The figure stopped at the entrance of the woods, jerking toward them, their face hidden by a black hood. Unceremoniously, it dumped Jaeden’s unconscious body to the ground and like a shadow disappeared into the darkness of the trees.

Reuben ran past him. “You check Jaeden, I’ll go after them!” he ordered, his face set with determination. Ryder barely had a moment to register that he’d never seen anyone look quite as dangerous as Reuben did in that moment as he blurred past him.

“Jaeden.” He fell beside her, turning her limp body over. He pressed his fingers to her pulse, relief rushing through him at the steady beat.

“Ryder, what happened?”

He looked up to see Ella and Magnus rushing out of the house, their faces etched with concern. “She’s been knocked out. Her head’s bleeding.”

“Get her into the house,” Magnus ordered gruffly, his eyes searching the woods. “There’s someone out there.”

Ryder nodded, lifting Jaeden into his arms with ease. “I couldn’t see who it was. Reuben’s gone after them.”

Magnus frowned. “The vampyre. Sure he can handle it?”

The venomous look on Reuben’s face flashed before Ryder’s eyes. “I’m sure. Let’s worry about Jae.”

Magnus reluctantly agreed and followed them into the house. Ella cleaned the blood from the wound and Magnus checked her over.

“When she comes around, it’ll heal,” he assured Ryder.

Ella wrung her hands. “Must have been some hit to take one of us down.”

Ryder growled in response.

At that, Jaeden stirred, her eyelids fluttering. “Ow.”

He took her hand in his. “Jae. You’re all right, baby, you’re all right.”

After a few moments, her eyes seemed to focus and she groaned in irritation. “What the hell happened now?”

“I lost them!” Reuben strode into the sitting room, his hair wild from having run against the wind, his shirt torn from obstructing branches.

“Lost who?” Jae whispered. “What happened?”

Magnus shook his head in deep concern. “Someone tried to take you.”

Horror flitted across her eyes before she could stop it. “Kidnap me?”

Ryder squeezed her hand tighter, rage unlike anything he’d ever known desperate to explode and take everything with it. “We’ll find out why,” he promised tightly.

“I want to know who,” Ella snarled.

They fell silent, and Reuben moved toward the hallway, his head down, shoulders hunched in thought. Ryder’s head jerked up as the vampyre muttered, “If it’s who I think it was, things are about to get very interesting.”

20

The Politician

“I don’t think you understand how valuable you are.” Marita appeared to be fighting to remain calm, her words hissed between clenched teeth. “Forget even that you have trace powers leading us to every Midnight in this world, but there is not a witch or warlock on Earth who has done what you did in Remnant Forest.”

She was allowing the Head of the Coven to pace and bluster and lecture, sitting on the sofa by Marita’s fireplace, waiting patiently for her chance to speak. So far, the witch was not happy about Caia’s news that she intended to return to the pack. Boo for her.

“You haven’t even touched on some of the lessons in magik our advanced classes teach. We have no idea what you will be capable of when you have the knowledge and understanding of magik like that of my sister and my own. It would be idiotic to let you walk out of here and go home.”