There would be nothing left of them.
She sighed, entering the building’s dark entrance and quietly jumped down the stone stairwell at the back. She could hear voices coming from the end of this hallway and smiled softly as she approached the sliding steel door. Lily and Adam were fighting over the Wii again. She rapped on the door and it slid back within seconds. Gazing at her, with an annoying crease of concern between his eyebrows, Reuben stepped back to allow her entry.
“Where have you been? You missed all the action.”
Jae shrugged and nodded at the two vampyres playing computer games. Josh and Styx were sleeping in one of the back rooms. She wandered through the apartment, dropping her leather jacket here and her blades there. The axe she placed in safe keeping on a wall mount she had up in the bedroom she used to share with Lily. She could feel Reuben prowling at the back of her.
“Jae, what’s up?” His cool hands slid up her arms and massaged her shoulders.
She shrugged him off and sat on the bed, pulling her boots off as he glared at her from the doorway.
“Well?”
“I hunted a rogue by myself.”
He nodded, biting on his lip ring, a habit she noticed he had when he was thinking over something. “You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”
She knew where he was going with his line of thought and she was just too damn tired. So ignoring him, Jae pulled her t-shirt off and began rifling through her drawer for a clean one.
Reuben hissed, bringing her gaze snapping up to him. His eyes were narrowed on her as they looked her over. “Some people would call that teasing.”
Inwardly she flinched, outwardly it pissed her off. “Is that a warning I detect, Reuben?” she sneered, pulling on a clean shirt.
“Maybe.”
She blanched at the anger in his voice and sighed. “I’m sorry, OK. I just forget. Lykans are used to the whole undressing in front of each other thing.”
“I know. Just try to remember. I’m not made of stone.”
She flushed involuntarily, an awkward silence falling between them as they both remembered the night he had kissed her and been thoroughly rebuffed.
He cleared his throat and she sensed a now familiar discussion on the horizon. “Why the hunting solo?”
She was right. “I’m tired.”
“I want to talk to you about this. Hunting by yourself? You’ve been doing it since that night in here with Lily.”
Jae winced just thinking about it. “She could have been killed.”
“But she wasn’t,” Reuben replied softly, approaching her tentatively. Slowly he sat down beside her on the bed, seeming afraid she would snap at him like a wounded animal if he got too close. “You’ve been controlling your telekinesis.”
Not that night. Not when she had nightmares. When she was awake and in control she was able to harness whatever energy it was that gave her the ability to move things with her mind, but as soon as her emotions went into overload, there was no stopping the chaos. She had been fine around Reuben and his gang; killing vampyres who preyed on humans; putting all her hate into pounding the living daylight out of them; and feeling nothing more than a tangible connection to these good vamps she worked with; they were colleagues, nothing more. She wouldn’t let them be.
But two weeks ago, she had started having nightmares about her time in the cage. She didn’t know why or how… but they were vivid and horrifying, and kicked her telekinesis into high gear. She had been awoken by Lily’s screams. Six blades were embedded into the walls around them, and her precious axe was embedded above Lily’s head as she cowered in the corner of the room. Books, furniture, clothes... were strewn everywhere, and Lily’s nose was bleeding, a black bruise appearing on her porcelain face. Jaeden had refused to let her sleep in the same room with her – or anyone – since. And she’d refused to go out hunting with any of them in case she got them killed.
“Only when my emotions are stable. I can’t take chances, OK.”
For her that was the end of the discussion.
“Do you want to talk about these nightmares?”
“Uh no.”
“What about that?”
Jae frowned and looked up to see what he was talking about. He was pointing to her axe mounted on the wall. “What about it?”
He shrugged and looked at her, trying to appear calm, but his jaw was clenched tightly. “If you’re saying you can’t control it, why do you have a weapon in here that could kill you in your sleep?”
Because it doesn’t matter.
She didn’t say that. Reuben would kill her himself if she said that. He wanted her to be so happy here with him and the gang, taking out bad guys, living off Lily’s inheritance. But she was miserable. She ached with every part of her body for the pack. She wanted her mother and father, and her little niece Jaela. She wanted to run free with them through the woods behind Lucien’s house, and play and tussle with Sebastian. Her dresser began to shake at the thought of Seb and she quickly threw him out of her mind.
He was gone. She wasn’t ever getting him back.
She could have the pack back if she wanted.
But she didn’t. She wouldn’t.
She wouldn’t live with the people who reminded her of when she was whole and pure and good. She was something else now; something broken and corrupted and she just couldn’t face that kind of disappointment from the people she loved after everything that had happened to her.
“Well?” Reuben pressed.
“I’ll take it down.” It would be easier than explaining to him about how messed up she was. She guessed he knew it already, though.
“Jae... ” he placed his large, cool hand over hers.
Crap, she winced, looking up into his face. She shouldn’t make eye contact with him. His black eyes asked for way more than she could give.
“Don’t.” She snatched her hand back, refusing to meet his gaze.
He snapped up off the bed. “If you would just let me in, I could help you. Just tell me what happened to you.”
No way. No one could ever know how bad it got.
At her silence he heaved a heavy sigh. “Fine. I’ll let you sleep.”
“OK.”
He turned to leave and then looked back at her. “Just so you know we may have to leave the city. The rogues have cottoned on to the fact this is no longer an easy target for breaking Coven law.”
She nodded, not caring where they went.
“I’m going out.”
Again she nodded. Reuben had a tendency to disappear every now and then to goddess knows where. Jae didn’t ask about his mysterious loner ventures. That would imply that she cared.
2 - Midnight Rebel
As Caia finished the last sentence on her report for Marion, she sighed and eased back in the chair at her desk. The light outside was fading and with it bringing memories she couldn’t dispel. It had been months now since she had killed her Uncle Ethan after his kidnapping and torture of Jaeden, and since Sebastian had been murdered in the crossfire.
Months since the pack had seen any semblance of normality.
She turned and, like many nights, let her gaze drift outside her window and into the darkening woods. Jaeden had been gone for months and only Caia, and perhaps Lucien, knew why. The torture she had undergone at the hands of Ethan was unthinkable, and Caia hadn’t been able to tell her family how bad it must have been for her to leave the pack. Jaeden’s father, Dimitri, was distraught and constantly demanding Lucien do something about it, but one look at Caia’s face and she had known he knew it was best to leave Jaeden to come to terms with her tragedy by herself.
She was strong enough to make it through the cage so she was strong enough to be alone.
But it wasn’t forever. Caia was giving her another month, and if she wasn’t back by then, she’d fulfill Dimitri’s wishes and bring her back to the pack herself.
Caia sighed again, her eyes drifting down and across her bed, and with it heated memories flooded her. Dear goddess, she scoffed at herself. She was lucky she hadn’t fallen pregnant! Since lykans couldn’t carry disease, nor become pregnant unless mated, using protection during sex was usually only utilized by mated couples who weren’t ready for children. Since Lucien and she had no idea having sex together would cement their ‘betrothal’ they hadn’t used any protection.
Yeesh.
She was sooo lucky she hadn’t gotten pregnant.
The close call, however, didn’t stop her from yearning... remembering. Not once was she able to look at her bed without a reminder of the night she had given herself to him; the night when for once they were in total agreement about something, safe together, passionate, happy. The moment hadn’t lasted long, and ever since there had been a constant tension between them despite their ‘united front’.
She missed him.
“Caia.”
The familiar voice sent a wave a longing through her and she turned to gaze up into his silver eyes. “Yeah?”
Lucien threw her a sympathetic look, acknowledging how tired she was. “Marion’s here.”
She smiled wearily back at him and stood to her feet, gathering her papers in her hand. They walked in silence down the stairs and into the living room, where Marion sat having tea, and Saffron, her faerie, stood studying her cuticles in utter boredom.
“Ah, Caia.” Marion smiled warmly in greeting.
For the past few months Marion’s weekly visits had been the pack’s only constant. Pack runs had dwindled - there had been two rather crappily put-together ventures and even then the mood of the event had been melancholy. School was out for the summer for Mal and the others, and Caia, lucky to have made her finals, couldn’t enjoy graduation since Jaeden had missed it and she had only Alexa to share it with. Plus any plan Caia had had for the future was gone: no community college, no apprenticeships, and no job. Her job was here, training with Marion, writing up reports on the activities of the Midnight Coven. As the weeks had gone on, as her reports proved more and more helpful, the more Marion had hinted at Marita’s growing curiosity. The day was coming when Marita would ask to meet her, for her to come to the Center, maybe even take a physical part in the war. The Center was the main training ground for Daylight soldiers, and because a magik’s power didn’t reach its full potential until their eighteenth birthday, you had to be eighteen to join the Center. The same for any other supernatural being – it was kind of like joining the army, you had to be a legal adult to make that choice. From what Marion had told her it not only involved physical training and strategizing, but provided classes on how to utilize your magik and element. The majority of magiks taught their children all they needed to know, but the most powerful magiks tended to be those who were taught at the Center. It sounded like an interesting place, and Caia would go if only to get it over with, so she could just as quickly return to the pack.
