Ascended (War of the Covens 3)

At the direction of his gaze, Caia tucked the Septum behind her back. “I’m not doing anything for you unless you help me.” She turned pointedly to Vanne. “Fancy meeting you here.”

He at least had the decency to look sheepish. “Hi.”

“The children,” Caia addressed them all abruptly. “She is experimenting on them. When I was at the Center, I followed her into the Altar of Gaia. She has a secret basement lab underneath the altar. I know she’s experimenting on lykan children because I saw it for myself, but I suspect she’s also experimenting on vampyres.”

“What?”

“Aah, something you don’t know, Mr. 479 BC.”

“Oh good, you were listening.”

She grunted in annoyance before continuing, “We need to get back to the pack and save them, and then somehow, we need to get into the Center and free Lucien, Ryder, and the Council. And we have to get those kids out of there. I don’t know what she’s up to, but I have a feeling it’s connected to the fact that Jaeden has particular abilities after being tortured by Ethan.”

Nikolai looked aghast. “You don’t think she’s torturing the children, do you?”

Caia sighed. “It didn’t look like torture exactly. There were chemicals and test tubes … who knows. We just have to get in there.”

Reuben sighed. “You’re giving me a headache. If you calm down, I will come up with a plan.”

Her eyes widened hopefully. “You’re going to help me?”

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

4

Prisoners

The ugly truth is, a magik could take a lykan in human form anytime, anywhere. Hence why he was here now, staring at a bright white ceiling, clenching his teeth and fists in rage. When Lucien had woken up in this cell with Ryder by his side, he’d not been surprised to see Marita glaring at them from the other side of the Plexiglas. He had been surprised by the first words out of her mouth, however.

“So the little monster is missing?” she hissed in outrage. “And unless you two are extremely good at hiding things from me, you don’t have her.”

“Why don’t you let us out of here, you insane bitch, and then we’ll talk.” Ryder said.

Marita’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “I want to know where Caia is now, or I won’t be so kind in my experiments on the pack children. Stop shutting your minds to me and tell me everyone who has been in touch with you.”

If Lucien hadn’t been so shocked by her line of questioning, he would’ve pounced (an idiotic mistake since the Plexiglas was magikally electrified). His frown of deep concern was unmistakable. “You mean you don’t have her?”

“Don’t play games with me, Lucien.”

“I’m not!” He growled, springing to his feet. “Do you or do you not have her?”

Marita sighed. “No. I don’t. I thought you might know something. Now I see you don’t.”

His mind whirled with the possibilities. Who had Caia? What did they want with her?

Ryder seemed to sense his slow unraveling and answered for him. “She was taken a few hours before your guard arrived. We thought you’d kidnapped her.”

“Clearly you were wrong.” Marita huffed and turned to the guard behind her. “I want her found. Go back to Lucien’s home and look for any evidence of her kidnapping. I will have a look at the trace, see what I can find.”

She left without another word.

As he lay there, Lucien’s mind tripped over and over again his last moments with Caia, and he began traveling toward dark conclusions. His heart picked up and his only outlet was to let rip a garble of snarling growls that built into a howl. It did nothing to ease his fear over Caia. He felt impotent and lost. Desperate. But he knew those feelings weren’t going to get him any closer to finding her. He knew he needed to maintain his self-control if he was going to escape in time to find her before …

At his sudden silence, he heard Ryder sigh from behind him. “After that, at least the Council members know they’re not alone down here.”

Ryder’s words sunk in. Crap. Lucien growled. Crap, of course.

“What? What did I say?” Ryder asked wide-eyed as Lucien spun on him.

“If the Council can’t get out of here, how the hell are we going to? No wonder she stuck us in here together.”

“Come on, man, we just need to think of a plan.”

What if Caia was already gone? What if one of the Midnights had gotten wind of her existence and had snuck up on her before Caia knew what was happening? What if she was lying somewhere …

Feeling his chest constrict, Lucien braced himself against the wall of the cell, fighting to catch a breath.

“Lucien, you have to calm down. Jeez, I never took you for the claustrophobic kind.”

“It’s not that.” He scored his nails down the brickwork, ignoring each pop of broken skin and the prickles of blood.