Ascended (War of the Covens 3)

“H-heey, D-Dee … w-w-we got compaanyy,” he stuttered, moving cautiously closer to the vampyres.

Caia was totally confused. When Reuben told her they were going someplace safe to hang out while she looked into the Septum’s trace, Caia didn’t think he meant a vampyre lair … where there were actual bad vampyres. And she was guessing the vampyres hadn’t been expecting old Reuben to drop by. Boy, was he going to crack some heads!

The vampyre she assumed was Dee looked up languidly from her feeding and smiled, thick blood made extra slippery from saliva trailing down her chin.

Again. Lovely.

“Reuben,” she sighed happily.

“Dee.” He nodded, giving her a slight smile hello.

What? Was he freaking kidding? There were vampyres, feeding on humans! Hello!

“Reuben,” Caia said sternly and then stopped as Saffron’s hand wrapped around her wrist in warning.

“Caia.” Reuben turned back to her, grinning at the look of concern on her face. “This is Dee, Andreas, and Charles. This is their lair. They’ve kindly allowed us the use of one of their private rooms at the back so we can get down to business.”

“By business, you—”

“Just follow,” Saffron insisted, and Caia was dragged through the room, past the bloodsucking, through a tiny 1980s kitchen, down another corridor and into a back bedroom that was much larger than she would’ve guessed. It was also empty other than a heart-shaped double bed. Oh my.

“What the Hades is going on?” she hissed as Saffron closed the door behind the three of them.

Reuben scowled at her. “Dee knows we’re here on a mission, but she doesn’t know what … you nearly blurting it out was very intelligent, thank you.”

How dare he?

“Me?” she huffed incredulously. “I’m mucking up the mission? You brought us into a den of iniquity! I thought you hunted rogue vampyres, not partied with them!”

He looked to Saffron for backup. The faerie shrugged. “You’ll find no help from this quarter, Reuben. You know I hate these places.”

“These places?” Caia snapped. “What is this place?”

He sighed and shrugged. “It’s not illegal, Caia. It’s a place where willing humans act as donors. They’re addicts. The act of taking someone’s blood can be quite pleasurable to a human.”

“Is that before or after they die?”

A growl erupted from the back of his throat. “They don’t die. They’re donors. They’re well taken care of.”

Caia didn’t care if they were well taken care of or if they were willing. It was just … wrong! It was like a twisted version of a drug house. An ugly thought occurred to her. “You don’t … do you?”

Reuben looked affronted by the suggestion. “No. I do not feed on humans. I never have. But this is the last place anyone would think to look for us. We’re safe here while you gather the information you need from the trace.”

Safe? Somehow she didn’t think so.

“So you trust the vampyres with the human blood decorating their teeth and gums, do you?”

With another sound of annoyance, Reuben crossed the room and lowered himself onto the bed. His dark gaze blazed with command. “I trust Dee to not tell anyone we’re here. I’ve known her a long time. She does favors for me, and I allow this lair to remain open for business. It’s not pretty, but it’s the way of the world, little girl. So quit squalling and take this.” He thrust the paper with the names of the Septum out to her. “Sit down and get started.”

Disgruntled, Caia nonetheless did what he asked and settled into an armchair. Reuben and Saffron made themselves comfortable on the bed, and Caia looked up to see them both drift off to sleep. It had been a long drive, and while Caia slept in the back of the car, Reuben and Saffron had remained vigilant up front. They made only one pit stop where Saffron ran into a diner to grab burgers for her and Caia. They ate hungrily while Reuben drank what she presumed was blood out of a flask.

The silence was only penetrated by the soft sounds of their breathing, and Caia looked nervously down at the piece of paper that had gotten her kicked out of her pack. It was still hard to believe Lucien had thrown her out. She’d thought there was literally nothing that could come between them. She didn’t think there was anything she wouldn’t do for him and had thought the feeling was mutual. But he’d done it to protect the pack, and that she could understand—that she respected. The way he was with the pack was one of the reasons she loved him so damn much.

But, and though she knew it was irrational, she was cut to the quick. The hurt was as deep a gash as the loss of her pack, as the loss of her friends, Marion, Sebastian. And she was afraid the hurt her mate had caused might not be the kind of scar that disappeared after the change.