River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte (16 page)

Laila. Her name was
Laila.

“
Caia.”
Marita shook her. “Are you alright?”

Goddess, what could she
say? Marita’s eyes were narrowed in anxiety.

“
Has it done
something to you?” She spat, turning to glare daggers at Laila. “If
this filth has managed to get her magik past these bars I’m going
to have her executed.”

“
No!” Caia
grabbed her arm in reflex.

Marita turned to look at
her slowly, uncertainty flickering across her marble face. “What is
going on here?”

Lie, Cy,
Lie!

Marita would have her
thrown in with the girl if she knew Caia sympathised with her.
Marita’s prejudice was too great for her to even contemplate that
the continuing war may be a consequence of a horrendous
misunderstanding on the Daylights behalf. Caia couldn’t fight this
war. Not like this. But what could she do? Her powers had her
trapped in it; she was obliged to stay and fight.

But how? And with
whom?

One thing she did know:
Laila’s time was running out, and somehow Caia had to get her out
of the Centre.

She cleared her throat and
stood up straight and determined. “I’m sorry. The feelings... she
reminded me of Ethan.”

Softness slid back into
Marita’s features. “Of course.”

“
You were
right. A Midnight’s a Midnight. Let’s go.”

Marita nodded militantly
and led her out of the cell.

Caia had to forcibly stop
herself from looking back at the young woman she was now determined
to save.

***

Lucien glanced
fretfully down at Rose, who was curled up on the leather sofa in
his suite. They had just finished training with Anders and Phoebe,
who butted heads so often it was a wonder they were getting
anything done. Lucien was worried about Caia. Mordecai mentioned an
incident occurring yesterday, but she wouldn’t speak to anyone
except Marita, who hadn’t been able to schedule Caia in until
today.
What is going on with her?
He paced back and forth, running an anxious hand
through his hair. She had avoided him all day yesterday.

“
Lucien, sit
down, you’re making me antsy,” Rose laughed, reaching up to pull
him down beside her. A wash of guilt ran through him that she was
in his room again. Caia wouldn’t even look at him when Rose had
insisted on coming into his suite the other night. Nothing had
happened between them, but Rose had revealed how terrible she felt
for the way she treated him… now that she knew his not mating with
her was because he couldn’t, not that he wouldn’t. Talking with her
had been as easy and as natural as it used to be. She had listened
patiently whilst he told her the story.

“
So you and
Caia aren’t together?” She had asked quietly once he’d
finished.

“
No. We’re
not.”

Her smile had been so wide
that guilt had crashed around him in waves. But he had nothing to
feel guilty for! Caia was not his and he was not hers.

And Rose...

He had been crazy about
Rose. Being with her the last couple of days only reminded him of
the good times they’d had. And she was making it obvious she
wouldn’t mind taking a physical trip back down memory
lane.

Thing was... Lucien wasn’t
sure if he was ready to give up on the hope that Caia would come to
her senses and realise they should be together.

“
Seriously,
Lucien, what is up?”

He shrugged and smiled at
her. “Just a little worried about Caia.”

He watched as her full
lips fell into a pout. “From what I’ve heard your worry is
redundant. She’s a big shot around here. An all powerful genie. Why
don’t you stop worrying about Caia and start loosening up a little?
I could give you a massage,” she grinned suggestively.

That did sound
tempting...

A knock at the
door.

“
Lucien?”

“
Caia?” He
shot out of his seat and rushed to the door, throwing it
open.

His relief at having her
in his sight was washed away by her appearance. Her gorgeous eyes
were round with worry and sadness, and her long pale hair looked as
if she’d been tugging on it in exasperation.

“
Thank
goddess,” she muttered when she saw him, and walked past him with a
familiar caress on his chest that sent heat rushing to his good for
nothing places. “I need to talk to you, big time. Lucien,
some-”

She had stopped, and he
turned to shut the door realising the cause of her disruption was
Rose.

“
Oh.” She
threw her shoulders back, “I didn’t realised you had
company.”

Rose stood up from the
sofa and smiled weakly. He quirked an eyebrow as he walked towards
her. That wasn’t like her. Was she frightened of Caia? Lucien
almost laughed out loud at the thought, but then realised it wasn’t
so funny. He guessed if he didn’t know her, the idea of Caia, a
Midnight/Daylight, lykan/witch, was intimidating, if not a little
frightening.

“
You remember
Rose?” He asked, coming to a stop by his ex-girlfriend whilst
trying to catch the eye of his mate so he could determine her
feelings. Caia stiffened, and her eyes narrowed on Rose, an Amazon
compared to her own small stature. If he wasn’t so worried this was
going to cause the rift Marita intended, he’d actually find it
funny how un-intimidated Caia appeared by Rose’s height and
build.

“
How could I
forget?”

Was that a
sneer?
Aw crap, she
was
pissed.

He felt Rose stiffen next
to him and was afraid to look at the expression on her
face.

“
I’m Lucien’s
ex-lover.”

Craaap. Ex
lover? That word... it was just so...
graphic
.

“
I see.” Caia
nodded, flashing him a hateful look. “Not so ex by the look of
things.”

No, no, no,
no!
He took a placating step towards her.
“Now, Ca-”

“
Actually,”
Rose interrupted, placing a hand on his arm and drawing him back
towards her. “We were just discussing that. After all, you two
aren’t going to commit to your mating, and Lucien and I would have
been mates if he hadn’t been obligated to fulfil his father’s
betrothal to you.”

Someone shoot
me. Just put a gun to my head and pull the trigger. It would be
more humane.

He had squeezed his eyes
closed as the words tumbled spitefully out of Rose’s mouth. How
could he have forgotten the word bitch was invented by competitive
female lykans?

The deafening silence in
the room became too much, and he finally worked up the courage to
look at Caia’s face.

He wished he
hadn’t.

She was gazing at him in
pain. A look likened to anguish and regret glittered in her eyes,
but her face seemed pinched with resentment at the same time.
Classic Caia, however, she never failed to surprise him. She fixed
that gaze intently upon him and said, “I always seem to be
apologizing to you these days.” She shrugged so wearily he wanted
to pull her protectively into his arms. “I am so sorry.”

“
What...
Caia?” He frowned, gently shrugging Rose’s hand from his arm as he
approached her. Anxiety, panic almost, washed over him as she took
a few steps back from him.

“
I’m sorry...
for a lot of things. But mostly, I’m sorry that you got caught up
in this more than you ever should have been. My father and yours...
what they did was unforgiveable-”

“
What they
did was for the best... to protect you.”

“
What they
did was take away your choices.”

“
And
yours.”

She shook her head sadly,
her eyes flickering quickly and bitterly to Rose, and then back to
him. “I haven’t lost what you have. I’m sorry you can’t be with the
person you want.”

“
Caia-”

“
Well.” Rose
swaggered forward, cutting him off. “We can’t have kids together,
but that doesn’t mean we can’t be together. You can still do the
right thing here, Caia.”

Irritation ripped through
Lucien as he watched Caia grow paler by the second. “Rose,” he
warned, a growl rumbling from the base of his chest. She merely
shrugged at him, all wide-eyed innocence.

“
I’m going to
go,” Caia managed softly and started for the door.

That was
enough.

Lucien took three long
strides towards her, grabbing her by the arm and turning her
towards him. Still she refused to meet his eye, until he gave her a
little shake.

“
I have a
meeting with Mordecai. Let go.”

“
Lucien?”
Rose asked uncertainly from behind him. He tried to ignore her,
concentrating on getting Caia to acknowledge that she was pissed at
him and there was a reason. She was jealous. Because
she
was his mate. Not
Rose.

“
Caia, you’re
being an idiot.”

Suddenly she flushed red,
and he realised he had said the wrong thing. With a strength
belying her size, she ripped herself from his grip, her green eyes
blazing with renewed energy. “Yeah, I guess I was. But I’m all good
now.”

“
You’ve
obviously gotten the wrong-”

She laughed humourlessly,
cutting him off. “You know what, Lucien? I think you’re forgetting
that I’m in the middle of a war here. I’m a very important person,
don’t you know. I don’t have time to deal with your guilt issues
over moving on from our little mating. I moved on months ago, and
now you have. Nothing to feel bad about.” She tilted her head to
smile at Rose. “I’m happy for you both.”

And with that she was
gone.

She thought he loved Rose?
She had moved on? She thought he had moved on? How could she think
that after everything...

The pack means
everything to me, and I won’t have anything to do with someone who
puts it last. I don’t want a mate like you. Not ever.

He had said those awful
words to her in the motel room before they rescued Jaeden. Could
she really have believed he had meant them?

Yes.

Shit.

Marita – 1, Lucien –
0

***

She couldn’t breathe. The
pain was that bad. She couldn’t cry. The heat of her anger had
dried them all up.

Lucien loved
Rose.

A brittle disquiet had
captured her body as she sat perched on the side of her bed. She
could feel herself shutting down, her walls shooting up, locking
her soul in and the world out. A deep retreat was in progress and
she shivered, feeling the icy blockade settle around
her.

In that moment she loathed
her magik blood. A lykan would be tearing the room to shreds,
expelling their ire from their body like sucking poison from a
snake bite. Half-heartedly she turned to the lamp that sat on her
bedside table and lifted it slowly with her magik. With a flick of
her eyes she sent it speeding into the fireplace and took a
momentary satisfaction in the way its destruction caused the flames
to flare up and out, displaying their anger in the way she wanted
to. But there would be no white heat from this pain, no involuntary
destruction of property. This was a kind of suffering she wanted to
hide from.

With a shuddering breath
the tears began to fall.

So it had happened. She
had fallen in love with Lucien. Maybe she had always been in love
with him. How could she love him when he didn’t love her back? How
could he stand to be around her when she was the reason he couldn’t
have children with the beautiful red-head?

It felt like she sat there
for hours, broken porcelain badly glued together. She could either
fall deeper inside herself to escape the thought of Lucien with
Rose, or she could fall deeper into a problem she might be able to
fix. Laila’s image wavered in her mind. She had gone to Lucien to
finally confide in him, to ask him to help her get Laila out, to
tell him that after they helped the MacLachlans she was leaving the
Centre, that she was no longer fighting for Marita. The beginnings
of a plan were forming in her mind - it wasn’t much, but so far it
was all she had. It was all Laila had. It was all the next
generation had if she was going to be able to enforce the beginning
of the end of a millennia-old racial war.

“
Caia?”

She bolted upright at the
sound of Mordecai on the other side of her door, and jumped off the
bed, flicking her wrist to replace the lamp she had broken, wiping
her hand across her face to glamour away any evidence of her
crying.

“
Mordecai,”
she greeted him brightly and gestured for him to come into the
room. He regarded her with an odd little smile as he took a
seat.

“
Are you
alright?”

“
Of
course.”

“
Marita said
you visited the Midnight.”

Caia’s smile tightened.
“Yeah. I was curious.”