When he had gone, some of the tension melted from the room, but Irini and Ella looked shell-shocked and Magnus almost as angry as Lucien. Looking mildly amused on the other hand was the sedate Marion, who was watching them attentively as if enjoying an episode of The Jerry Springer Show.

Magnus huffed and looked around at his pack mates. “Someone needs to teach that boy a lesson.”

“Magnus, no,” Caia pleaded softly. “He doesn’t mean it.”

Lucien snorted and turned away from her, leaving Magnus to shake his head disapprovingly at her. “Even you should know, Caia, a male that young does not disrespect his Alpha the way that pup just did. Lucien would have had every right to tear him apart.”

“No,” Caia grumbled. “Sebastian was just worried about me.”

“Humph,” Magnus huffed and then turned to hit Lucien on the shoulder. “Come on, son, let’s call Dimitri and then grab a drink. Got any of the scotch I like... ”

When they had left Caia looked to the females for reassurance. But they were frowning at her, too.

“You really should discourage him, Caia,” Ella advised sternly.

Irini bit her lip. “I would never have called him if I knew the boy was in love with her.”

“He’s not in love with me.”

“Humph.”

“You’ll have to put a stop to it.”

“Oh yes, or Lucien will end up killing him.”

“That would devastate Isaac, and Lucien respects him.”

“Caia, please-”

“Ladies,” Marion didn’t shout but her voice resonated around the room with authority, cutting off Irini and Ella’s little tirade of advice. “You’re disturbing my patient. Please leave.”

26 - Road to War

Ryder and Dimitri must not have been far from them because Caia awoke the next morning to the sounds of shouting from downstairs. One of the voices belonged to Dimitri. As she awoke, drowsy, but thankfully still in no pain, her brain began to function and process what the argument was about. Lucien had ordered that Dimitri stay home. The useless searching he had done had driven his grief in on him and he was like a snarling, caged animal who no one could help. As far as Caia could gather, Lucien and Magnus both thought it unwise that Dimitri go with them to rescue Jaeden. His emotions would just put them all in danger.

She bolted up in bed at the sound of a scuffle and a crash. Growling was interrupted by a quiet voice and Caia felt the glow of magik descend upon the house. The scuffling stopped.

“What did you do to him?” Lucien demanded.

“I put him to sleep,” Marion replied serenely. “It was in everyone’s interest.”

“Yeah, and what about when he wakes up?” Caia was sure that the demanding voice belonged to Christian.

“While you’re gone I’ll take care of him, don’t worry.”

“Take care of him,” Christian spluttered, “What does she mean by that?”

“Marion would never hurt your father,” Ryder assured him.

Caia heaved slowly up off the bed, stretching her limbs carefully and checking out her mobility. As far as her body could tell this morning there was no wound, ‘daemon who?’ it said, and she smiled, only now truly understanding how wonderful lykan regenerative powers were. In fact, over all, she mused, as she pulled on some clean clothes and brushed her teeth and then her hair, she was feeling rather chipper. She’d survived her first daemon attack, which was technically her uncle’s first assault on her, her powers were obviously growing and she had found Jaeden and was about to go and rescue her. Not a bad day’s work.

Her smile didn’t last long.

“What do you mean I can’t go?” she growled through clenched teeth, glaring at Lucien. He stood dominantly in the center of the room, the map spread across the coffee table. Ryder, Aidan, Christian and Magnus were all gathered around it, while Ella and Irini popped back and forth with refreshments. Marion and Saffron were conspicuously absent.

Caia was seething. She had just spent the last hour with Aidan downloading detailed maps of the area. A big red circle now pinpointed her uncle Ethan and Jae’s position on the print out. Uh the big red circle she had magic-marked!

“You’re not coming.” Lucien shrugged casually.

OK, Caia, breathe, she told herself, making little crescent shapes on her palms with her nails from curling her fists so tight. “Yes. But why?”

Lucien sighed as if he was talking to a moron. “Um, OK, let’s see. You were just attacked and should be resting in bed for one,” he ticked off his reasons one finger at a time. “Uh two, I’m not going to hand you over to your uncle like a Christmas present when it’s obvious he now wants to kill you. And three, you’re still in training, and I’m not taking the chance that you’ll blow us all up with your magik.”

Caia flushed, shifting from one foot to the other. “Well... I... ” she stammered and looked around at the others for back up. Every single one of them lowered their eyes. She snapped and turned her blazing green gaze on her ‘mate’. “Yeah, well… you need me to take you right to the door… jackass.”

Lucien stiffened at the insult while the others smothered their laughs behind their hands. “I’ll let that slide because you’re my mate,” he drawled dangerously, walking slowly towards her. He stopped inches from her so she had to crane her neck back to meet his gaze. “But don’t call me a jackass again.”

She refused to be intimidated. “Jackass.”

Lucien narrowed his eyes and cupped a large hand around the back of her neck, holding her imperceptibly tighter. She gulped.

“We don’t need you now we know which area she’s in. You’ve gotten us close enough to find her with this.” He tapped his nose with his other hand and then drew her closer as if for a kiss. “Good thing you destroyed your car so I wouldn’t have to confiscate the keys,” he whispered across her lips and she tried not to shiver in reaction. And then she came back to herself and pushed him away, blushing furiously. He had just provided the pack with a deliberate display of dominance and she had fallen right into it. Bastard.

“I will never forgive you for this,” she whispered angrily.

Lucien shrugged nonchalantly, though she saw his eyes had darkened with emotion. “Well, I would never forgive myself if something happened to you, so I guess I’ll just have to live with that.”

Caia wouldn’t come out of her room as the males made their preparations for their journey. Irini and Ella were making snacks, while Ryder hunted down a motel for them to stop off on the way.

“There’s the Motel En El Camino!” she could hear Ryder shout as he walked from the office to the living room.

“That’ll do,” Lucien responded. “We just need a place to rest our heads for a few hours, nothing more.”

Caia picked up her lamp and threw it with considerable force against the large cabinet that housed her television. It shattered with enough noise to wake the dead and she smiled, momentarily appeased at the following silence from downstairs.

“She’s really pissed.” Aidan chuckled.

“She was such a quiet girl when she arrived,” Ryder teased.

Lucien merely grunted.

Tantrum over, she waited and waited for them to leave, but Marion arrived with Saffron, postponing their departure further.

“I’m glad I caught you. I just got back from the Center.” It sounded like she was out of breath. “I’m so sorry but Marita won’t allow either me or Saffron to come with you.”

Caia hurried over to the door, holding her breath. Why wouldn’t the Head of The Daylights help them out? They were supposed to protect everyone from Midnights, no matter what.

“Marita believes Caia is more than enough artillery for you to deal with this.”

“Caia’s not going.” Lucien slammed that door closed.

“I didn’t think she would be. I am sorry,” Marion sounded genuinely anxious. “Marita doesn’t want to draw attention to this. She’s just as fearful of anyone finding out that Ethan isn’t the Head of the Midnights as he is.”

“Why?” Ryder snapped.

“Because we have no way of knowing how the Midnights will react. It could be explosive. The Center is not fully prepared for that just yet.”

“It’s alright, Marion,” Lucien reassured her. “We weren’t asking you to come anyway. We can take care of this.”

“But Ethan...”

“We’re going in as lykans. He won’t be able to touch us with his magik.”

No one said anything after that and Caia slid down the door, her heart pounding. She wanted to go with them. She needed to go. And unfortunately it wasn’t just about being the one to get Jaeden back.

She couldn’t bear it if something happened to Lucien and she wasn’t there to help him.

“Damn him,” she hissed and jumped to her feet as the car wheels spun on the gravel driveway, the noise of the engines gradually fading into the distance.

“Caia?” Ella knocked on her door.

She braced her magik against it so that no matter how hard her adoptive mother pushed, the door wouldn’t budge.

“Caia, please.”

“I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

There was a moment of silence and then the Elder sighed. “OK. But there’s food downstairs if you decide you’re hungry.”

“OK.”

As soon as Ella’s footsteps disappeared, Caia was clambering out of her window and down the side of the house as quickly and as quietly as she could. Once on the ground, keeping her back pressed against the wall, she sidled ninja-style along the porch and glanced quickly into the window. The kitchen was empty. Thanking Artemis, she ran full speed into the woods and began shedding her clothes at the same time. Like the night before, Caia was able to transform momentarily into a lykan, and she whooped inwardly as she tore through the woods, ignoring spiking bracken and branches that caught on her fur. At some point she was going to have to tell Lucien about her new cool ability. Just as soon as it entered her mind she dismissed the thought, wondering if it would only alienate her further from the pack. It didn’t matter she supposed. If she was going to live at the Center she wouldn’t have to tell Lucien anything. Not that Marita was sounding a whole barrel of fun at the moment.