Ascended (War of the Covens 3)

Now he was quiet and intensely protective of his sister and little brother, hovering over them constantly these last few days. But despite his grief, he was just like Lucien and Ryder. They were determined to fix the pack, give them a fresh start. Where was the talk of vengeance? Of justice? Apparently there was to be none; in fact, Lucien had demanded it so! The pack has seen too much loss, he said, it’s time to move on. How could they move on? Their family had been destroyed, targeted like deer on a hunt! And was he forgetting that his own mate was a part of the war? Caia wasn’t getting out of it anytime soon … Was he intending to abandon her?

Thank the gods for Caia.

Jaeden refused to feel guilty for manipulating her into doing what Reuben wanted. And funnily enough, she was no longer mad at the vampyre. She was glad he blackmailed Caia. Together they’d gotten her to do something she never would’ve willingly done otherwise.

And if it changes Caia beyond repair? If it destroys her?

Jaeden shook her head. She couldn’t think about that. She couldn’t. Caia was a good person and asking her to do this was going to have its consequences … but hadn’t they all sacrificed something for this war? And it wasn’t like she was intending to leave her on her own to do it. She and Alexa had every intention of going with her and giving her moral support.

Moral support for killing innocents.

Stop it. It has to be done. It’s the only way to stop Marita.

Keep telling yourself that.

Arrggh! Jaeden shoved the thought out of her head and turned to stare at the passing scenery. She felt her pocket vibrate and shifted up so she could slip her cell phone free. It was a text message from Ryder. He was a couple of cars back on the road.

Stupid idiot, fiddling with his cell while driving.

We gotta talk when we get to the hotel.

There were no xxx’s at the end like there would usually be. He was pissed. Yeah, well, so was she! She didn’t want him near her, comforting her, loving her. She didn’t want to fall into that. If she felt this bad losing her dad, she couldn’t imagine how bad it would feel to lose Ryder. Not to mention she might not make it out of this war, and she didn’t want him to hurt any worse than he had to. Making him hate her would make it easier on him if she did die.

She sighed. She wouldn’t text back. It would only distract him from the road. But if she could have, she would have said …

There’s nothing left to talk about.

No xxx’s.

The drive so far had been silent. Lucien hadn’t expected it to be fun filled, of course, but Caia had been extremely quiet. He couldn’t work out if it was just the magnitude of everything that had happened or if she was mad at him for rebuking her about Rose. He glanced quickly at her. She looked tired and as sad as he felt.

But he was actually proud of himself for putting aside his instincts for revenge and making a deal with Reuben to protect the pack. He was paying rent and protection costs to the vampyre to keep the pack off Marita’s radar. That burned a little, considering he wanted to rip the creep apart for taking Caia and scaring the crap out of him, but the pack needed Reuben. They’d lost too many, and they were lucky to have the kids back. And if anything happened to the kids? Gods, he couldn’t bear to think about it. This was the right decision. It stuck in his craw a little to retreat, but it was the right decision.

As for Caia … he would cross that bridge when they got to it. He knew the Council would come back to her, but for now he was glad they were allowing her to stay protected until Marita was found.

“You alright?” He couldn’t help asking. He feared a discussion about Rose. There was nothing going on between them, and it annoyed him that Caia could even think about being jealous at a time like this.

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

He braced himself.

“Something’s happening.”

He stilled, alert. “What do you mean?”

“With the Midnights.” She straightened in her seat. “I’ve been feeling stirrings all morning, but … the Council … I think I need to warn Reuben and Nikolai.”

It was weird to think of Caia and Reuben working with this Nikolai guy. But Vanne had attested to his trustworthiness so Lucien guessed he could let it go.

“Warn them about what?”

She shook her head. “Where’s my cell?” she hissed as she rummaged through her bag. She made a sound of triumph at finding it, and Lucien grew steadily more irritated at being on the outside of whatever was going on.