Ascended

by S. Young

  “I love you,” she whispered and felt him squeeze her close.

  “I love you too.”

  Caia pulled back to gaze up at him, smiling at the relief of it all being over, that they could finally be together in peace.

  “Caia,” he breathed … and the sound was followed by a sickening wet whisper of metal through flesh. Lucien’s eyes widened in surprise, his mouth falling open in shock. Blood poured out in its wake. He collapsed to his knees and Caia reached for him with a soundless scream, helpless to do anything as the sword that had torn through his heart twisted full circle. Lucien’s eyes emptied, his expression going slack as he disappeared, leaving only a body that tumbled into the sand, a gory photograph of what had once been the real man.

  “NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” Caia screamed, falling beside his body, stunned out of action as she glanced around for the killer. There was no one there. A sob broke from deep in her heart and she cried over her mate’s corpse.

  The cold solidity of it vanished, and Caia fell face-first into the sand. Propping herself up, spitting the beach out of her mouth, her hands searched the ground for Lucien. He was gone. Looking around she realized she was no longer on the beach. She was in a room that seemed familiar. A child’s room filled with toys and books. Familiar toys and books. A scream rent the air, and terror exploded through her. Mama! she cried inwardly, hugging her small knees to her chest, shuffling back against the headboard of the bed she now sat on. Growls and howls reached her ears from the outside, and she jumped at the crescendo of items crashing on the ground floor of the house.

  “ELIZA!” she heard her father scream, and she scrambled forward on the bed, hearing his footsteps pounding down the hall. Her bedroom door burst open and her father stood there, pale and grief-stricken. He clutched his chest, and it was then she noticed the swamp of thick blood soaking his entire upper body.

  “Run,” he ordered hoarsely, and then collapsed.

  Instinct took hold. She must always listen to Daddy! Shutting out the sight of him dying on her floor, she turned to the tall window beside her bed and hitched it up with all her might. Rucking up her nightgown, her whole body trembling, she climbed through it and fumbled for purchase on the wall creeper that allowed her mother’s ivy to decorate the wall outside. A blast of power shot past her shoulder, sending shards of glass in every direction. She felt little cuts slice through her skin like bee stings but it only made her move faster. She swung herself fully onto the creeper and scuttled down it. Thank goddess, she was on the first floor.

  “GET HER!” an unfamiliar voice screamed as her bare feet touched grass. She turned and stared out over the garden. Beyond the garden was her father’s land and beyond that, a lake, and beyond that, woods. If she could get to the woods, she could hide.

  Caia jerked awake, sucking in a rush of air in her panic. Eliza. The little girl from the Septum! The little girl may not have recognized the voice that screamed “Get her!” but Caia would know it anywhere. Marita was going after Eliza Emerett, and it was all her fault.

  She jumped out of the bed she’d been given in the hotel and hurried into her clothing. She had to save Eliza, and there was no time to wait. Drawing on her energy, she used a communication spell to take her to Vil and Laila’s room, praying she wouldn’t interrupt anything. It was daytime, after all. She snorted at herself. Like that would stop them. Thankfully she didn’t, but her energy shook the two magiks awake from a nap.

  “Caia, wha—”

  “No time to explain.” She rushed to Vil, throwing his jeans at him. “Put these on and take me to Eliza Emerett’s home. Specifically the gardens!”

  Caia had never adored anyone more in that moment as he pulled on his jeans and gripped her arm without a word of question. She could have kissed him!

  The travel was rocky, probably because Vil was still half-asleep, so they got there feeling a little woozy. The sounds of growls and shrieks met their ears instantly, and Vil paled as he realized what she’d gotten them into. Perusing their surroundings, her heart thumped as she saw the little white figure in the dark a few hundred yards ahead of them.

  “There, Vil, take me to her!” She pointed and they were gone again, back within seconds.

  “Oomph!” Vil grunted, and Caia shook herself together in time to see Vil wrap his arms around Eliza who had ran straight into them. She struggled and cried, and he fought to hold on to her.

  A howl shot through the night, and Caia looked up to see six lykans crossing through the gardens toward them. Oh bloody Hades!

  “Vil, this is Eliza Emerett, and those are Marita’s lykans. Take her back to the pack. Now!”

  His eyes widened as he struggled to hold the hysterical girl. “What about you?”

  “Never mind me. Go! That’s an order!”

  Stunned and unhappy, he gripped Eliza and then vanished.

  Heart thudding in her chest, Caia turned to face the lykans and sought the warm heat of her lykan energy. She was a wolf in seconds—a wolf that was ready to destroy those who’d killed Eliza’s parents and were hell-bent on spilling the little girl’s innocent blood.

  She drew back her muzzle as they approached, snarling and posturing, thick saliva dripping over her jaws. With a harsh howl of her own, she propelled herself forward, launching at the nearest lykan, her claws slashing its fur. The lykan whined but managed to swipe at her, making contact and tugging her body close so they were locked in a fight, jaws nipping, bodies tumbling as each tried to gain an advantage over the other.

  Finally, Caia managed to protract her claws into the lykan’s belly and pull upward. The lykan howled and went limp. Dragging herself out from under its injured form, Caia found herself outflanked by five other lykans. Marita and an unfamiliar magik stood at their backs, smiling smugly.

  “Oh, dear Caia. You are in a pickle now, aren’t you?”

  “Not quite.”

  Caia jerked her head around at the voice. Vil and Jaeden stood before them, Jae’s hand outstretched, face fierce with concentration.

  A baffled yell.

  Caia watched with pleasure as Marita and the magik were blasted a good hundred yards away from them.

  A sharp, piercing pain ripped through Caia’s side and she yelped at the attack, shaking off the wolf to turn around and face it. In her peripheral, she witnessed Jaeden using her telekinesis on the wolves and was stunned. Magik wasn’t supposed to work on lykans! What the Hades …

  But the thought drifted away as she was forced to spar with the bigger lykan, the wound in her side slowing her down. Just as she was about to dive on the other beast, a blur of fur beat her to it, the two wolves tumbling and rolling. She watched in amazement before a crunching noise unsettled her stomach and only one of the wolves got up. His silver eyes glared at her. Lucien. Oh thank goddess.

  His warning growl told her to whirl around. She did, just in time to see another lykan leap at her. Falling under him, his huge jaws descending toward her, Caia gave a hopeless swat that barely stirred him. A massive weight collided with them and the wolf was thrown off her. A familiar brown wolf, his muzzle peeled back in a fierce growl, stood over her, his head bent low, telling the lykan she was under his protection. Ryder! She’d never been happier to see two people in all her life.

  Rolling up onto her fours, Caia quickly took in Lucien and Ryder dealing quite nicely with the remaining lykans. Vil was nowhere to be seen, however, and she hoped to Gaia he’d returned to the pack.

  Her heart jolted at the sight of Jaeden pinned to the ground by a magik, Marita and her companion grinning evilly down at her. This time Caia took control of the icy vapor that was her magik energy and used it to move her through the change instantaneously, clothing her naked form before it could be chilled by the crisp night air of the English countryside. She sent out a shock of water, forcing the pressurized liquid into the mouth of Marita’s companion, flooding his chest cavity. Panic suffused his features and he dropped to the ground, clawing at his throat and gasping silently.


  Marita looked up sharply, forgetting Jaeden and clearly feeling no compunction to save her companion. Caia held on tight to the water suffocating the magik, even as she trembled with fear at Marita’s stoic face. They took quiet steps toward one another as if there wasn’t a miniature battle going on behind Caia’s back.

  “I’m going to kill you slowly,” Marita murmured, knowing Caia would hear her.

  Before Caia could respond, the air shimmered with energy, and Marion and Saffron appeared behind Marita, causing Caia’s eyes to widen and her grip on the other magik to loosen. She was pretty sure he was unconscious anyway.

  Marita paused, her body tensing with the unexpected, her eyes telling Caia she couldn’t believe it.

  “The only person who will be dying today, sister … is you,” Marion bit out.

  Marita’s eyes widened in disbelief and she spun to face her sister. “It can’t be … you were dead. I felt it in the trace.”

  Marion smirked. “You really aren’t very good with that trace, Marita. I think it’s best we give it to Caia after all.”

  With a shriek of unchecked ire, Marita sent an animalistic stream of fire rushing at her sister, its body hissing and diving in attack. Marion easily deflected it with a mere swipe of her hand. “Is that all?”

  Marita’s retort was a wall of fire that encircled her sister from head to foot. Heart pounding, skin hot from the roaring flames, Caia envisioned a waterfall that appeared over Marion’s head, obliterating the flames. Unfortunately, it doused Marion as well, and she threw Caia a bemused look, a look they shared in just enough time for Marita to use magik to suspend Jae in the air. When Jaeden screamed, Caia couldn’t work out why, until she realized Marita was scoring burn marks into her with invisible flames.

  An untold fury took possession of Caia, refusing to let Jae experience one more second of torture after having survived it at the hands of Caia’s uncle, Ethan. She thrust out her hands and a tidal wave the likes of which she’d never conjured before towered over Marita like a python readying to strike. Caia gave a jerk of her head, parting a curtain in the wave so as it descended toward Marita, it bypassed Jaeden. A yell was muffled into a gurgle as the wave crashed to the ground, whooshing across the grass and taking a bedraggled and spluttering Marita with it. Her magik let go of Jaeden, and the lykan tumbled to the ground.

  “My goddess, Caia,” Marion’s voice broke through and she looked up to see the magik smiling at her in wonder. “That was very cool.”

  Brace yourself, because there’s going to be more! she thought as she strode toward Marita, who was pulling herself out of the water with a stream of curses. She straightened in time to see Caia heading determinedly for her, and her eyes widened.

  Then they narrowed in hatred before she disappeared altogether.

  “NO!” Caia screamed in frustration. She wasn’t getting away from her that easily! This had to end! It had to end now! And Caia no longer cared how.

  She made the decision to travel somewhere she’d never been before … a feat that could only be performed by a Traveler, a magik with Vil’s particular gifts. Marion had told Caia that Marita was probably staying at a specific inn, a condemned building in a small village in central Scotland.

  Take me there, she whispered to her energy, squeezing her eyes shut and drawing on every ounce of magik that belonged to her. The travel seemed to take forever, moving through a black tunnel at warp speed, flashes of colored lights exploding in her eyes as a sickening pain bubbled under her skin.

  With a thud, she collapsed on gritty ground, pebbles poking her legs and arms as she heaved forward, the contents of her stomach decorating what looked like a short driveway. She shuddered and convulsed, her flesh and insides so raw, it was as if a butcher had taken a meat hammer to her. When at last she stilled, lying prone on the stone driveway, Caia looked up through her hair to see a Gothic-style inn perched on a small hill.

  Breathing deeply, she pulled herself to her feet, swaying a little, and gave her surroundings a fleeting look. A road along the side of the inn led to a residential area; below the hill was what appeared to be a main road with another road branching off, leading to houses that were stacked behind a tall wooden fence some yards down from the inn itself. It was pitch-dark, and there was not another soul around.

  Thank goddess Eliza’s family lived in England or Caia might not have survived a longer distance. She examined the inn carefully. It was old, its windows and doors boarded up with DANGEROUS KEEP OUT sprayed across the main door in red. She almost snorted. These people had no idea just how dangerous the contents of the inn were.

  The thought of what she had to do next made her want to throw up again, but Caia braced herself. It was now or never.

  With another forceful push of her energy, she transported herself to the inn’s interior. A sharp pain exploded in her upper thigh and she bit back a yelp, but her efforts were in vain as she tumbled against the obstacle that had thrust into her leg and undone her, sending her crashing to the floor with a muffled oomph. Damn table.

  See, this was why traveling was for the professionals.

  Flipping herself over, Caia lay on her back panting and let her eyes drink in her surroundings. The inside of the inn was like a palace, every inch decorated exactly to Marita’s Renaissance-inspired taste.

  She wanted to burn it to the ground!

  The sound of shuffling to her left seized hold of her heart, and she stiffened. A painful heat gripped her entire length and pinned her to the floor. She struggled against the magikal hold but there was no budging; every time she tried to pierce it with her own magik, she got nowhere. As five faces popped into view above her, Caia realized why. Five magiks, one of whom was Marita, had combined their powers to trap her. She sneered at that, feeling a little smug that it had taken five of them to best her.

  But best you they have, you idiot.

  Frantically, she struggled again as the import of the situation sunk in. She was going to die here. She was going to die right here in this spot any minute now.

  “Caia,” Marita snapped, “stop struggling. The least you can do is die with a little dignity.”

  Caia tried to speak, to curse the evil witch for all eternity, but nothing came out.

  Marita snickered. “Cat got your tongue, Caia? I can’t believe you and my sister deceived me so well. After I kill you, I’m going to have to leave this place, and then I’m going to have to hunt down my deceitful, wicked shrew of a sister and kill her too.”

  At the thought of Marita hurting Marion, Caia’s struggles intensified.

  “Tut-tut, Caia, you’re only wasting your energy. I like the fact that my killing Marion distresses you so. In fact, I’m not going to stop there. I’m going to kill everyone you care about. Your pack. That little Midnight bitch and her boyfriend Traveler. As for your best friend, Jaeden, well … I’m going to give her a taste of what your Uncle Ethan gave her before I cut her open to see how she acquired telekinesis. It’s the damnedest thing, you know. Oh, you don’t like that at all, do you?”

  A flicker of white heat licked across Caia’s calves, and she pleaded inwardly for Marita to make her madder.

  “It was Rose who told me where to find Eliza—”

  Oh my gods! I will kill her! If I get out of here, I will rip that tramp apart!

  “—she thinks I’ll grant Lucien and the pack a pardon and she can live happily ever after with your mate.” She snorted. “Delusional fool. I’ll let her live, but I’m going to kill the pack slowly. Mutilate them like I did the others … Dimitri and Yvana—”

  The white heat stroked up toward her stomach.

  “—Dana and Daniel. Morgan and Natalia. I didn’t get to finish them off properly. But when I get to Irini and Ella and all those others you love … I’ll make sure to take my time—”

  It gripped her stomach and crawled up through her chest, her throat closing under its blaring fire.

  “—and then Lucien. Oh, I’ll leave him till last. I’m go
ing to make his torture last for months. First, I’ll play with that beautiful exterior, give him a few scars he’ll never forget. And then I’ll take his insides out bit by bit while he’s still conscious and—”

  “ARRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!” The horrendous scream that ripped out of Caia was beyond her control, the white light blinding her as it exploded out of every cell in her body. Caia was no longer Caia but one with the greatest stream of energy she’d ever known.

  And all it wanted was the destruction of Marita and her people.

  It seemed forever that she ceased to exist.

  But then … the bright white faded and a hush fell. Her eyes slid closed of their own accord, silence pillowing her in her sleep.

  26

  Solidarity

  The beeping noise was annoying. It pulled her from her sleep and forced her into consciousness. Caia groaned, her head pounding so hard, she was afraid to open her eyes. That was … if she could open them. Her lids felt as if they’d been hot-glued shut. As for her mouth … she made a smacking sound with her lips, her mouth as dry as Irini’s Victoria sponge cake. The irritating beeping got louder. What the …

  “Miss …,” a lilting voice said softly above her.

  Slowly, she peeled her lids open and then grunted at the harsh, stinging stream of light. She tried again, and as her eyes focused, she saw a woman standing over her. A nurse. Caia’s heart kicked. Oh crap, where was she?

  “It’s nice to see you awake.” The nurse smiled softly, her accent thick and sure … and very Scottish? Oh my goddess! Caia twisted her head—a heart monitor was the source of the beeping. She glanced down to see herself tucked into a hospital bed, a tube plugged into her hand.

  “Where am I?” she croaked.

  The nurse frowned. “You don’t remember?”

  “No.”

  The woman’s eyes widened. “You’re no from hereabouts from the sound of that accent, are you? You dinnae remember what happened to you, at all?”

  Yeah, that’s what she was telling her. She shook her head impatiently.