So he was sorry now, Caia thought numbly, now that he was assured of her innocence. “I can’t,” she whispered, and then glanced up at Vil’s little sound of confusion. “I didn’t kill the Septum. I couldn’t,” she explained. “But I made a blood oath to the Council that if they give me Daylight trace once Marita’s dead, then I will ask the gods to take both the Midnight and Daylight trace back, freeing us all from it. I have to leave now to kill Marita.” She couldn’t keep the sad despair out of her voice.

Reuben groaned. “Hades, save me from emotional women. Fine,” he snapped. “It can wait a little while longer. Go tell the Council about your lead and then we’ll get back to the pack to assure them you’re OK. Saffron, take Marion back to your place for now. I’ll contact you when we need you. Vil.” He grinned swiftly at the magik, showing him his fangs. “You’re leaving now. Go back to the pack and tell your Alpha that Caia will be back shortly.”

Vil immediately disappeared. Caia threw Reuben a disparaging look. “I don’t know why people are so afraid of you.”

His answer was a smug cocking of his eyebrow.

Someone really needed to put that guy in his place. She shared a look with the witch and Caia knew Marion was thinking the same thing.

She felt a rush of pure happiness that the magik was back in her life.

23 – Fences

“I’ve never done a communication spell with another person holding onto me before,” Caia snapped at Reuben as they stood facing each other in her suite at the Center, both mirror images of each other with their impatient sneers and defiant arms akimbo. “Are you really sure it’s necessary.”

Reuben shook his head slowly, his expression that of someone who felt they were dealing with a person of little intelligence. “No, it isn’t necessary. However, I think it’s time you tried it, and you can since you’ve been to the hotel before.”

“If I kill you this will be all your fault.”

“Caia, you won’t kill me,” he reassured her. “We really must work on your confidence if you’re to have any hope of taking on Marita and winning.”

“As much as I enjoy your pep talks, can we maybe just get going?”

“Hey, I wasn’t the one stalling.”

Caia took a deep breath. Sometimes it felt like she was dealing with an obnoxious teenager. Bracing herself, she held a tentative hand out towards the vampyre and he gripped her tightly, her hand mostly disappearing in his large one. Butterflies erupted in her belly at the thought of seeing Lucien again after all these weeks and the bad terms they had left one another on. The Council hadn’t been too pleased with her decision to go after Marita with only Reuben and Saffron for help, but they soon realized the method in the madness considering how difficult it had been so far to track her, what with her utilizing the trace to escape all the time. Thus, they were letting her go, although she was a little unnerved by Benedict De Jong’s goodbye, the smug asshole waving her off gravely as if sure it would be the last time he ever laid eyes on her. Goddess, she hoped he was wrong.

“Caia, let’s go.” Reuben squeezed her hand. At his insistence she closed her eyes and began tightening her energy around them both, visualizing the front entrance of the hotel.

An immediate lethargy crashed down over her body and she felt a tug on her hand suggesting Reuben was holding her up. Taking a deep breath Caia opened her eyes and forced her legs to straighten, demanding strength rush back into them. They stood in the empty foyer of the hotel, Reuben grinning at her arrogantly.

“If you say I told you so, I will kill you,” she snapped.

“Caia!”

She jerked around at the sound of her name, and only caught a brief glimpse of Magnus running through the door of the dining hall before she was crushed up into his arms like a little girl. She held on tight, breathing in the scent of her favorite lykan. “Uncle Magnus.” She grinned and pressed a kiss to his cheek, watching as he glowed under her affection.

“We missed you.” He suddenly pressed her back, glowering at Reuben. “You have some explaining to do.”

Uh oh, Caia could see some trouble brewing here. “Uh, where is Lucien?”

“In his room.” Magnus continued to glare at the vampyre. “He wants to kill this one.”

Oh crap.

“Oh, he can’t do that,” she rushed, her hands fluttering nervously. “I need to explain to him before he sees Reuben…” she trailed off and huffed at the blank expression on the vamp’s face. He wasn’t concerned in the least.

“Magnus,” she growled between clenched teeth, realizing she was the only one actually anxious about the situation, “Can you take Reuben into the dining hall while I go and find Lucien, and please promise that you won’t let anybody try to fight him. I know he doesn’t look like much.” She smiled sweetly at the scowl Reuben threw her. “But he can snap any one of us like a twig in under a second.”

Magnus huffed but agreed and, after giving her directions to Lucien’s room, Caia watched silently as they disappeared into the dining hall. She exhaled, brushing her hair nervously back off her face. Seeing a mirror hanging on the wall by the entrance she rushed over to it and gave herself a quick once over. She wanted to look cool and aloof but instead she looked short and tired. Grunting, she turned away and headed up the stairs. As she neared Lucien’s room she began to taste his scent in the air and her ears perked up hoping to catch any sound of him. What she did hear made her heart stop, and she paused silently outside his bedroom door, her fingernails making little crescents in her skin as she balled her hands into tight fists.

“So you’re just going to forgive her?” Rose snapped on the other side of the door.

What the Hades was Rose doing in his bedroom? Caia felt an overwhelming desire to scratch the female’s eyes out and while she was at it throw a good kick to where it would hurt Lucien the most!

“Rose,” he said quietly but determinedly, “We’ve been over this.”

“I know, but I’m still your friend, Lucien, I’m concerned. You can’t just forgive her for leaving you, for lying to you-”

Is that how he saw it?

“-She’s only going to hurt you again and again because this war means more to her than you or the pack.”

Bitch! She doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about!

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lucien growled.

Yes! Thank you!

“I’m not trying to piss you off, Lucien. I’m trying to save you some heartache.”

At the dawning silence Caia had had enough. She pushed the door open with enough force to send it slamming back against the wall and had to stop herself from flinching under the crash it made.

She hadn’t really meant to make that much of a dramatic entrance.

Lucien gazed at her wide-eyed, and as he noticed her pointed glances between him and Rose – Rose who was stroking his cheek affectionately – he flushed, realizing how it looked. “Caia…”

She shook her head. All this time she had been in turmoil and he had been letting the red-head cozy up to him in his bedroom suite. She glared at Rose and wasn’t surprised to see hatred in the lykan’s eyes. Jealousy was a powerful emotion. She should know.

Caia huffed, drawing her arms across her chest defensively. “Looks like I wasn’t too greatly missed, huh. Jeez, Lucien, you work fast,” she seethed.

If she hadn’t been so angry she would have been amused by how flustered and panicky he got, pushing Rose away from him. “It’s not how it looks.”

“It looks like Rose has been trying to replace me. It looks like she’s in your bedroom… alone… with you.”

He made to move towards her but Rose pushed him back, turning on Caia in an instant. “You’re the one who walked out, so don’t accuse him of things you know nothing about.”

How dare this… this… this person speak to her like she had business being involved in her and Lucien’s… well… business!

Caia began walking slowly towards her, her eyes spitting fire. “For starters, I was kicked out. And as for you, what goes on between me and my mate has nothing to do with you, so I suggest you get out before I really lose my temper.”

The air around Caia crackled and sparked and she felt the urgency of her power pleading with her to let loose as it tingled excitedly in her fingertips. Rose’s eyes widened and she looked up at Lucien for help. His lips pinched together and he pinned her with a threatening look. Taking the hint, the lykan fled from the room, dodging around Caia, clearly afraid of her.

When she was gone and the door was closed firmly behind her, Lucien crossed the room to Caia but stopped so there was enough, obvious, distance between them. “That really wasn’t what it looked like.”

Caia shrugged as if it didn’t matter when they both knew it did. “Whatever. You wanted to see me, so I’m here.”

“Caia, don’t.” He shook his head angrily. “You must know how bad I feel about kicking you out. But you should have told me about Reuben. I’m supposed to protect my pack and I didn’t even know one of them was being blackmailed!”

“In order to protect the rest of you,” she argued.

“Yeah, but you are the pack, Caia! What is the point of preaching about looking out for one another and me protecting you all when I couldn’t even protect my own mate?”

Caia exhaled wearily, “I did what I had to do.”

“So is that our relationship from now on? Doing what we have to do to the detriment of our mating?”

“I had to lie and you didn’t trust me… that’s not the mating, Lucien, that’s us!”

He shook his head as if he could dispel the accusation. “No! I only said I was kicking you out because I thought you would see how crazy you were being and change your mind.”