Destined, page 21
Laila shook her head. “I don’t … I can’t … I—”
“I’ve been there, Laila,” Jae whispered, not even sure why she was telling the girl something so personal. Perhaps she knew it might be the only way to get information from her. “Ethan … personally kept me in a cage. He tortured me. For weeks. Although it felt like years.”
Laila’s young face crumpled in empathy, and she placed a cool hand on Jaeden’s wrist. Jaeden was surprised by the gesture, for Laila had only allowed Vil near her since their arrival. As her hand withdrew, Jaeden’s pain at the memories dissipated, leaving a warm peace lingering in its wake. Relaxing back into the sofa, she smiled sadly at the Midnight.
“Is that what happened to you?”
The girl nodded rigidly.
“Why?”
A tear slid down her pale face. “It was a behavioral modification camp for magiks. He took children of magiks from all over. I come from Halmstad, but others came from Grena, Oslo … all over Scandinavia. He told our parents he was going to train us to be an elite force. It was an honor to be chosen. Instead, he used all measures of control—withholding food, brainwashing—all to turn us into an elite force that would only answer to his command, no matter the order.”
“Like daemons.”
Revulsion passed over Laila’s face. “Like daemons. But so much more powerful.”
“Why the torture? Was that part of it?”
She shook her head wildly, and Jaeden was surprised to see an almost smug smile form on her lips. “His men couldn’t break me. So they tortured me in an attempt to subdue me.”
Horror rippled through Jaeden at the thought of what this girl had gone through.
“How did you escape?”
A cold, ferocious look froze her face. “The oldest trick in the book.”
“Being?”
“One of the warlocks had an … unhealthy interest in me.”
No, no, no. Jae pulled back. He didn’t … oh goddess.
“Don’t worry,” Laila assured her. “They had orders not to touch us that way. It could have a disturbing effect on the controls. But this one”—she shuddered—“he would sneak in some touching, petting.”
“Bastard,” Jaeden snarled.
The witch looked startled at her vehemence before throwing her a grateful smile. “I used it against him, though. I pretended an interest in him, which is probably the most difficult thing I have ever had to do, and he took me from the cage and snuck me out toward the back of the camp. He turned his back for a second, and I knocked him out with a spell my mother taught me years before. Stupid man.” She shook her head in disgust. “I stole his keys to his car, got a few miles away before I abandoned it and set off on foot, confusing my trail as I went. I thought Ethan would find me … but he never came.”
Jaeden snorted. “Yeah, ’cause he was dead.”
“He is dead, then?” Laila asked quietly, her haunted eyes begging for an affirmative.
“Caia killed him.”
“She helped save me from prison … and now this news. It seems I will be forever in her debt.”
A sense of connection threaded between them, and Jaeden smiled warmly at her for the first time. “The way that girl is going, we’re all going to be in her debt.”
The sound of the front door slamming pulled them from Laila’s tale, and Ryder strolled in, an obvious look of surprise on his face at the sight of them sitting together.
“Everything okay?” he queried.
“I was just going to ask that.” Vil hurried in, his anxious eyes locked on Laila. She smiled, holding her hand out to draw him to her.
Visibly relaxing, he moved toward her like a magnet. Jaeden huffed in amusement at the suspicious look he leveled at her. She jumped up to go to Ryder, wrapping her arms around his waist, snuggling close to him. “Everything is good, actually.” She searched his eyes, looking for the answer he’d received this evening from her parents. “Everything is good?”
“What did I miss?”
“Ryder?” she whined.
“I’ll tell you if you tell me what happened here.”
She pulled away from him. “You’re a pain. Fine. Laila and I understand one another now, and I believe Caia when she says Laila is a good Midnight. Who would have thought? Now tell me what my father said.”
All of a sudden, he laughed and grabbed her, whirling around the room. “Yes!”
“Yes?”
“Yes!”
“Oh my god—”
He smothered her words with a passionate kiss. A discreet cough pulled them apart a few seconds later and they turned, smiling, to see Reuben lounging in the doorway. Jaeden felt Ryder tense.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to see how your guests were faring, but obviously, I’m interrupting a celebration.”
Vil grinned. “Jaeden’s parents are allowing them to mate.”
Reuben remained passive, not giving anything away. “How nice for them.”
“Reuben.” Jae made a move toward him, hating to hurt her friend. “I’m glad you’re here. I want you to be here for the ceremony. You’ve been through so much with me, it would feel weird without you.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” Ryder growled, brushing past her to stand bristling at the vampyre. “For a start, my guests are none of your business.”
“I was merely curious. She is a Midnight, after all.”
Ryder scoffed, his fists curling into knots. “We both know why you’re here, you son of a bitch.”
Jaeden fought an oncoming headache. “Ryder—”
“Son of a bitch?” Reuben stood straight now, all evidence of passivity gone and replaced with a stony anger. “I’m the son of a bitch? You’ve done nothing but hassle me since I got here.”
“Because you’re always here!”
“I’m her friend. I’m not going anywhere.”
“We’ll see—”
“Guys!” she shouted, looking desperately to Laila and Vilhelm for help. They were no good, already sliding quietly away to disappear into their bedroom.
“You have no right turning up all the time, that’s all I’m saying.”
“I came here to see if the boy and the girl were okay. That they weren’t causing any trouble, that’s all.”
“That’s what you can’t seem to wrap your thick skull around. This isn’t your business.”
“Whatever’s coming, I’m more equipped to deal with it than you, lykan.”
“Enough with the prophet crap. It’s wearing on my nerves, vampyre.”
“You’re such a child.”
“I’m—”
Their argument drifted from earshot as Jaeden slammed out of the apartment and down the stairs, out of the building. Half the time, she didn’t think their inane arguing even had anything to do with her. Her headache throbbed harder as she got into her car.
A run.
A run would be good to work out everything that had happened this evening. Laila’s sorrowful tale, the bond that she’d felt forging between them, the idea that Midnights might not all be bad, her official engagement to Ryder, and his inability to function normally in a room with Reuben.
Yeah, a run would be great.
Trying to throw off her irritation at Ryder and Reuben, Jae mused over Laila as she drove to Lucien’s house and felt an impatience growing for Caia and their Pack Leader to return so they could work this all out. Parking on his drive, she got out and walked around to the back yard. She didn’t bother going through the house, knowing they would hear her strolling around to the back and would work out for themselves who was there.
That impatience she felt bubbling in her skin changed into an impatience for the run. Jae jerked out of her clothes and suddenly wished she could be like Caia. Ryder had described how she could change into a wolf instantly now, how she could run into the woods on human legs and soar into the change. It sounded wonderful.
But as Jae’s muscles strained with the burn of the change, and as her bones cracked with eye-watering satisfaction, she knew she wouldn’t give up this feeling for anything. Distantly, she wondered if Caia missed it. The cool night air rushing through her pelt was exactly what the doctor ordered. She crunched through pine cones, ran at full speed toward a tree and launched herself at it, only to bound off and race in the opposite direction.
With the run, her mind cleared, replete and calm.
After a while, she grew exhausted, and so made her way back to Lucien’s yard, leisurely and purposely slowing the change into human form. Jaeden smiled, stretching her muscles from top to bottom, yawning. With a final roll of her neck, she shuffled back into her clothes.
On the last button of her shirt, her ears pricked up at a loud crack from the woods close by. She sniffed the air, and an unfamiliar sweet scent she couldn’t identify swam up her nostrils. She hadn’t quite turned around to investigate when pain shot through her head and dark spots clouded her vision, swallowing her whole as they multiplied into a thick black tar.
“I can’t believe this. It’s all your fault!” Ryder railed at the vampyre as they followed Jaeden’s scent.
Reuben glared. “You started it.”
“She’s probably furious at me. At you. I can’t believe she left without me even knowing it. It’s your fault. You piss me off past rationality.”
“It’s always nice to be appreciated.”
“Don’t make me come over there, vampyre.”
“I’m shaking in my boots.”
Ryder bared his teeth and swung the truck viciously into Lucien’s driveway next to Jae’s car so that the vampyre slammed against the passenger door with an oof.
“Childish, immature—”
Ryder ignored him as his eyes narrowed on two figures he saw at the side of the house. Two figures who appeared to be struggling.
“Jaeden!” he bellowed, cutting off the vampyre. Slamming on the brakes and cutting the engine, he threw himself out of the truck, running toward the dark figure that had Jaeden bundled over their shoulder. The figure stopped at the entrance of the woods, jerking toward them, their face hidden by a black hood. Unceremoniously, it dumped Jaeden’s unconscious body to the ground and like a shadow disappeared into the darkness of the trees.
Reuben ran past him. “You check Jaeden, I’ll go after them!” he ordered, his face set with determination. Ryder barely had a moment to register that he’d never seen anyone look quite as dangerous as Reuben did in that moment as he blurred past him.
“Jaeden.” He fell beside her, turning her limp body over. He pressed his fingers to her pulse, relief rushing through him at the steady beat.
“Ryder, what happened?”
He looked up to see Ella and Magnus rushing out of the house, their faces etched with concern. “She’s been knocked out. Her head’s bleeding.”
“Get her into the house,” Magnus ordered gruffly, his eyes searching the woods. “There’s someone out there.”
Ryder nodded, lifting Jaeden into his arms with ease. “I couldn’t see who it was. Reuben’s gone after them.”
Magnus frowned. “The vampyre. Sure he can handle it?”
The venomous look on Reuben’s face flashed before Ryder’s eyes. “I’m sure. Let’s worry about Jae.”
Magnus reluctantly agreed and followed them into the house. Ella cleaned the blood from the wound and Magnus checked her over.
“When she comes around, it’ll heal,” he assured Ryder.
Ella wrung her hands. “Must have been some hit to take one of us down.”
Ryder growled in response.
At that, Jaeden stirred, her eyelids fluttering. “Ow.”
He took her hand in his. “Jae. You’re all right, baby, you’re all right.”
After a few moments, her eyes seemed to focus and she groaned in irritation. “What the hell happened now?”
“I lost them!” Reuben strode into the sitting room, his hair wild from having run against the wind, his shirt torn from obstructing branches.
“Lost who?” Jae whispered. “What happened?”
Magnus shook his head in deep concern. “Someone tried to take you.”
Horror flitted across her eyes before she could stop it. “Kidnap me?”
Ryder squeezed her hand tighter, rage unlike anything he’d ever known desperate to explode and take everything with it. “We’ll find out why,” he promised tightly.
“I want to know who,” Ella snarled.
They fell silent, and Reuben moved toward the hallway, his head down, shoulders hunched in thought. Ryder’s head jerked up as the vampyre muttered, “If it’s who I think it was, things are about to get very interesting.”
20
The Politician
“I don’t think you understand how valuable you are.” Marita appeared to be fighting to remain calm, her words hissed between clenched teeth. “Forget even that you have trace powers leading us to every Midnight in this world, but there is not a witch or warlock on Earth who has done what you did in Remnant Forest.”
She was allowing the Head of the Coven to pace and bluster and lecture, sitting on the sofa by Marita’s fireplace, waiting patiently for her chance to speak. So far, the witch was not happy about Caia’s news that she intended to return to the pack. Boo for her.
“You haven’t even touched on some of the lessons in magik our advanced classes teach. We have no idea what you will be capable of when you have the knowledge and understanding of magik like that of my sister and my own. It would be idiotic to let you walk out of here and go home.”
Caia tensed at her tone, her eyes narrowing as Marita spun to glare at her. “Last time I checked, madam, the coven laws forbid coercion and kidnapping.”
Marita chuckled humorlessly. “So dramatic, Caia.”
“You knew when I got here that it was merely a visit. I’ve been helping you quite well from my home with the pack.”
“Your reports are useful. However, your soldiering is invaluable.”
As the silence thickened between them, Caia could see the witch’s eyes hardening with every tick of the clock.
She really thought I would stay, Caia mused, incredulous.
“What have you got to return to, Caia? Those people who don’t understand you? And if the rumor mill here is correct, your Alpha, the one man who was keeping you bound to that pack, is now in a relationship with Rose Bronson.”
The calculating gleam in her eye, that smug smile, knocked Caia for six.
Son of a bitch, she hissed inwardly. “Rose … isn’t a friend of Phoebe MacLachlan’s, is she?”
Marita gave her a saccharine smile, folding herself elegantly into the armchair before her. “No, not really.”
She didn’t know whether to be disgusted or pay attention to this woman’s tactics. After all, if she was to convince the Council to ally with her and go up against Marita, then she’d better learn to be just as ruthless when dealing with her.
“Why?”
“I need you here.”
In other words, she had deliberately brought Rose here to separate Caia from Lucien, to make her feel isolated from him and the pack, to give her no other option but to call the Center home. There was an absoluteness to Marita in that moment. From the tip of her hair to the tip of her toes, she was determined Caia would remain with her, fight for her. Did she really think Caia would agree to aid her in her experiments with children?
Time to change tactics.
Caia slumped, a small sigh escaping as she glanced up at the magik with a deliberate weariness shimmering in her eyes. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she whispered.
The magik tutted and slid a cold hand across to her, patting it condescendingly. “There, there, my dear. You’ve had an exhausting time of it. But there is nowhere better for you than here. It will be better for you emotionally and physically if you stay. I thought you’d made friends here, people who understand you. And there’s always Marion, who I know is extremely fond of you.”
Caia nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear, making her fingers tremble noticeably. “I just … don’t want to disappoint anyone.”
“You mean the pack. Lucien?”
“Yes.”
“He stepped aside so easily, Caia, when I brought Rose in. What loyalty do you really owe him?”
More than I owe you.
With her young heart in her eyes, she looked up at Marita as if a student to her tutor. “I would like to stay here.”
A wide grin split her normally dispassionate face. “Wonderful. I’ll take ca—”
“But I have to go back to say goodbye to everyone. To explain. I would … like to see Jaeden, as well, before I return to the Center.”
For a moment, Marita’s eyes washed over her, searching, suspicious. It took everything Caia had to maintain the sincere facade of a young, confused girl looking for guidance. Inside she was furious at this woman for putting her in this position, this woman who was supposed to be the protector of the Daylight Coven. How Marion’s great-grandmother would be howling from the Underworld at the way Marita had taken to running things. She was an autocrat all right—she was just better at hiding it than most.
Finally, the magik seemed satisfied that Caia was telling the truth. She nodded and stood. “Very well. You should leave today, then. But I expect you back in two days’ time.”
Caia forced a bright smile. “Yes, yes, of course.”
Restraining the urge to run from the room, Caia sedately left Marita’s suite, surprised to find Marion waiting inside the mahogany elevator for her.
“Well?” She smiled kindly.
Oh, how she wished she could confide in Marion, tell her the truth. She abhorred lying to the woman who’d been more than just a mentor, but a solid friend.
“I’m staying,” she managed weakly. “I’m going back to the pack with Lucien to say goodbye, and then I’ll be back here in two days.”
Marion’s reaction wasn’t the one she’d been expecting.
“Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“What do you mean? I thought you’d be happy.”
The witch threw her a sad, knowing look. “It would make me happy if I thought that was what you really wanted.”
