Ascended (War of the Covens 3)

A howl shot through the night, and Caia looked up to see six lykans crossing through the gardens toward them. Oh bloody Hades!

“Vil, this is Eliza Emerett, and those are Marita’s lykans. Take her back to the pack. Now!”

His eyes widened as he struggled to hold the hysterical girl. “What about you?”

“Never mind me. Go! That’s an order!”

Stunned and unhappy, he gripped Eliza and then vanished.

Heart thudding in her chest, Caia turned to face the lykans and sought the warm heat of her lykan energy. She was a wolf in seconds—a wolf that was ready to destroy those who’d killed Eliza’s parents and were hell-bent on spilling the little girl’s innocent blood.

She drew back her muzzle as they approached, snarling and posturing, thick saliva dripping over her jaws. With a harsh howl of her own, she propelled herself forward, launching at the nearest lykan, her claws slashing its fur. The lykan whined but managed to swipe at her, making contact and tugging her body close so they were locked in a fight, jaws nipping, bodies tumbling as each tried to gain an advantage over the other.

Finally, Caia managed to protract her claws into the lykan’s belly and pull upward. The lykan howled and went limp. Dragging herself out from under its injured form, Caia found herself outflanked by five other lykans. Marita and an unfamiliar magik stood at their backs, smiling smugly.

“Oh, dear Caia. You are in a pickle now, aren’t you?”

“Not quite.”

Caia jerked her head around at the voice. Vil and Jaeden stood before them, Jae’s hand outstretched, face fierce with concentration.

A baffled yell.

Caia watched with pleasure as Marita and the magik were blasted a good hundred yards away from them.

A sharp, piercing pain ripped through Caia’s side and she yelped at the attack, shaking off the wolf to turn around and face it. In her peripheral, she witnessed Jaeden using her telekinesis on the wolves and was stunned. Magik wasn’t supposed to work on lykans! What the Hades …

But the thought drifted away as she was forced to spar with the bigger lykan, the wound in her side slowing her down. Just as she was about to dive on the other beast, a blur of fur beat her to it, the two wolves tumbling and rolling. She watched in amazement before a crunching noise unsettled her stomach and only one of the wolves got up. His silver eyes glared at her. Lucien. Oh thank goddess.

His warning growl told her to whirl around. She did, just in time to see another lykan leap at her. Falling under him, his huge jaws descending toward her, Caia gave a hopeless swat that barely stirred him. A massive weight collided with them and the wolf was thrown off her. A familiar brown wolf, his muzzle peeled back in a fierce growl, stood over her, his head bent low, telling the lykan she was under his protection. Ryder! She’d never been happier to see two people in all her life.

Rolling up onto her fours, Caia quickly took in Lucien and Ryder dealing quite nicely with the remaining lykans. Vil was nowhere to be seen, however, and she hoped to Gaia he’d returned to the pack.

Her heart jolted at the sight of Jaeden pinned to the ground by a magik, Marita and her companion grinning evilly down at her. This time Caia took control of the icy vapor that was her magik energy and used it to move her through the change instantaneously, clothing her naked form before it could be chilled by the crisp night air of the English countryside. She sent out a shock of water, forcing the pressurized liquid into the mouth of Marita’s companion, flooding his chest cavity. Panic suffused his features and he dropped to the ground, clawing at his throat and gasping silently.

Marita looked up sharply, forgetting Jaeden and clearly feeling no compunction to save her companion. Caia held on tight to the water suffocating the magik, even as she trembled with fear at Marita’s stoic face. They took quiet steps toward one another as if there wasn’t a miniature battle going on behind Caia’s back.

“I’m going to kill you slowly,” Marita murmured, knowing Caia would hear her.

Before Caia could respond, the air shimmered with energy, and Marion and Saffron appeared behind Marita, causing Caia’s eyes to widen and her grip on the other magik to loosen. She was pretty sure he was unconscious anyway.

Marita paused, her body tensing with the unexpected, her eyes telling Caia she couldn’t believe it.

“The only person who will be dying today, sister … is you,” Marion bit out.

Marita’s eyes widened in disbelief and she spun to face her sister. “It can’t be … you were dead. I felt it in the trace.”

Marion smirked. “You really aren’t very good with that trace, Marita. I think it’s best we give it to Caia after all.”