Ascended (War of the Covens 3)

Her jaw dropped at his audacity, and her lykan colored her words as she replied through a mouth longing to fill with her sharp wolf teeth, “You ever touch one of my pack again and I will send you back where you came from, you son of a bitch.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “I’ll heed that warning. Since, apparently, you might actually be able to do it.”

Draven looked bewildered by the man. “You don’t seem that bothered.”

Reuben shrugged. “I’m not. I’m impressed. I’ve been waiting a long time for someone like Caia.”

Lucien growled and made a move toward the vampyre, but Caia pressed him back, scolding him. She was rewarded with one of his frostiest looks before he straightened his massive shoulders and thundered out of the room, Magnus and Ella following in his wake.

Caia felt tears of frustration prickle in her eyes. “You were going to kill him.”

“No.” The vampyre shook his head. “I know killing Lucien would mean losing you, and I need you too much. I was merely teaching him a lesson. He attacked unfairly.”

“You blackmailed his mate.”

“But it all turned out okay in the end.”

“He doesn’t know that! He thinks I’m punishing him for kicking me out of the pack.”

Reuben threw her a condescending look before taking out a flask of blood from his inner coat pocket. He went to take a swig and noticed her watching. “You depleted my energy.”

Caia threw her hands in the air, wondering why she even bothered trying to get answers from the guy. “I’m going to find Jaeden. You … stay away from my pack.”

“I don’t know if they’re your pack again just yet, sweetheart,” he taunted, and laughed when her only answer was a rude gesture.

24

The Green-Eyed Monster

Rose’s heart pounded in her chest as she stood in the middle of the woods, some fifteen minutes from the hotel. She’d rushed out of a pack meeting where Caia had told them all about the Septum and the little girl, Eliza Emerett, she couldn’t kill. Caia seemed to go off into a world of her own as she described the little eleven-year-old Midnight and where she lived. Rose smirked. She doubted Caia had meant to be so detailed in her maudlin retelling of why she couldn’t possibly go through with such a wicked plan. But that was all Caia was telling them, and Rose was more than a little suspicious.

Clutching the cell phone, she prayed the number she had for Marita was still in use. Surely if it was, and she saw who was calling, Marita could look into the trace and see Rose was sincere in her intentions. All she had to do was fight through the fog Reuben had put over her trace to hide her from Marita, but she would be careful to keep where they were staying still masked. It would be better if she held all the cards.

Rose was reeling from Lucien’s betrayal, and yet she couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t his fault. He was under that she-witch’s spell. They all were! And Caia was going to bring the pack to disaster. Lucien and his pack were good people, nothing like the ambitious, deceitful pack she’d grown up in where your best friend would stab you in the back if it meant climbing the next rung on the hierarchical ladder. She had to save them from Caia, from themselves, and then she and Lucien could finally be happy together. Marita wasn’t a bad person! It dumbfounded her how all these people could believe a woman who had successfully led the Daylight Coven against the Midnights could just become a monster. This was a witch hunt started by a being that needed to be stopped. And if Rose helped Marita stop Caia, she was sure she could negotiate a pardon for the pack.

Trembling with excitement, Rose dialed the number. It rang for a while, but finally the tone clicked.

“Rose,” Marita’s familiar stern voice.

Relief washed through her. “Oh, thank goddess, Marita. Do you know why I’m calling?”

“Hmm, yes, I’m reading the trace. Very interesting. What is interesting is I don’t know where you are.”

Rose paused. “I can’t tell you that just yet.”

“I see.” She was silent for a moment. “Fine. I appreciate you calling, however. And this information I’m reading in the trace about this Septum and this little girl. It’s all true?”

“Yes,” Rose gushed. “Caia’s planning on destroying the trace.”

Marita hissed, “That little bitch.”

Rose waited, her ears lifting under her hair every time she heard a noise. No one could know she was doing this. They wouldn’t understand right now.

“I want you to keep pretending you’re on their side, Rose. Contact me if you discover anything else of importance.”

“Of course.”

“And Rose …”

“Yes?”

“I won’t forget your loyalty.”

25

Last Mistake

Caia was dancing with Lucien, her cheek pressed against his shoulder as they swayed gently to the music. A soft breeze played with the hem of her dress and tickled through her hair as she sighed contentedly. It was a perfect night. The dark sky sewn bright with stars as colorful as fireflies, the air temperate and free, the sound of the surf crashing on shore as rhythmic as a lullaby.