Moon Spell: Part One in the Tale of Lunarmorte

by Samantha Young

  Lucien sighed, gazing at the spot Caia had entered the woods. He hoped to Gaia Marion was right about her, because if they were going to get through the next few weeks together, Caia was going to have to like him enough to trust him.

  20 - Replaced

  The wave of energy sparked her senses as she drove closer towards the house off the highway. Crap, she groaned. It definitely wasn’t energy from someone from the Midnight Coven. She cursed profusely as she pulled over to the side of the road and quickly dialled Ethan’s number on her phone.

  “What?”

  Ah, he was as pleasant as ever.

  “My lord, I think we may have a problem.”

  “You know, I’m seriously considering having a t-shirt made for you with those exact words on it,” he sneered and then yelled, “Why am I not surprised?! What the Hades is going on now... incompetent wench.”

  She flinched and bit her tongue. If she said anything disrespectful to him she would be dead in seconds. “I can feel unfamiliar energy radiating from the house. I think it’s Daylight. I’m just parked off side their driveway.”

  “That’s why you’re calling me?”

  Duh.

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Xylena, do you remember why you’re going to the house?”

  What?

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “And do you remember to whom you are going to visit?

  She rolled her eyes. He really was a jackass. “Yes, my lord.”

  “And do you remember that Caia has just been introduced to her new powers? That the energy coming from the house is most probably hers?”

  Oops.

  “No, my lord. I didn’t think of that.”

  “Yes. Obviously.”

  “I apologise for disturbing you, my lord.” She was lucky he hadn’t fried her already.

  “Just get your ass in there, already.”

  “Of co-”

  He put the phone down on her. Charming. Prince of the Coven … My ass, she snarled and threw her phone down. Fricking toad.

  ***

  Caia took a deep breath and smoothed her hair back before she opened the door. She had been training constantly for the last week with Marion and hadn’t seen anyone other than Marion, Saffron and the Elders since the revelation. Everything seemed to be going well so far. Marion was impressed by how quickly she was learning to control her powers, and awed by the range of said powers. But Caia was exhausted and missing her friends. And to be honest, despite all the sadness and madness, she was a little excited by her new powers and wanted to share it with Jaeden and Sebastian. So instead of her working at Lucien’s this Saturday, Jae and Seb were on their way over to visit with her.

  “Sebastian.” She smiled and drew him into a hug. He squeezed her back tightly and placed an affectionate kiss on the top of her head. “How are you?”

  He chuckled and brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “How am I? You’re asking me how I am?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I’m OK, now I know you’re not angry at me.”

  Caia shoved him playfully and then made for him to follow her upstairs. “Angry at you? Seb, you saved my life at school, getting me into your car so fast. Thank you.”

  He looked adorably embarrassed by her gratitude, shrugging and mumbling incoherently under his breath. She laughed and then stopped him as he blushed. She wanted him to know that she was serious. He had been a true friend to her throughout the whole ordeal. “Honestly, Sebastian. Thank you.” She exhaled slowly. “I mean you even tried to tell me the truth that Saturday...”

  “About that.” He blushed again. “Caia, I’m really sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I was wasted.”

  She chuckled. “Yeah, you were. But you were also sweet. Wanting to mate with me so the pack would accept me.” She smirked, brushing his hair from his face.

  Sebastian laughed and pushed her away. “Will you stop? I’m dying of humiliation here.”

  “Don’t be humiliated, Seb-”

  The doorbell rang cutting her off.

  “Just go up into my room. That’ll be Jae, we’ll be a sec.”

  He nodded and headed towards her bedroom whilst she ran back down the stairs, throwing the door open, and then throwing herself into her best friend’s arms. Jaeden laughed, but hugged her close.

  “Whoa, Cy. You OK?”

  Pulling back, she was shocked by the strange feeling of unfamiliarity that hit her. She smelled like Jaeden, her energy felt like Jaeden, but there seemed to be something else there. It was the strangest trace she had ever encountered, thick, smog-like, icy. It was difficult to describe the feelings that ran through her. She blinked, trying to clear her mind, and then noticed how uncomfortable Jaeden was. Her eyes were darting all over the house, into the hall, the kitchen, up the staircase.

  “I’m fine. Just glad you’re here,” she answered. “Are you OK?”

  She nodded and smiled a little falsely. “Of course. Is Sebastian coming?”

  “He’s already here. Let’s go up.” Jaeden nodded and Caia followed her, frowning. “You sure you’re OK?”

  “I’m fine. Really. Anyway, you’re the one that’s been through all the crap. How are you really? How’s the training?”

  “Good, I think.”

  Once they were seated in her bedroom with Sebastian, Caia frowned at how stiff her friend seemed to be, still trying to identify the unfamiliar trace that Jae reeked of. Jaeden narrowed her eyes at her scrutiny and then shrugged as if remembering herself. “So, Cy, everyone at school has been talking about your meltdown with Alexa last week.”

  “Oh great,” she groaned. Just what she needed, gossiping kids when she returned to school on Monday.

  “I wish I had been there to see Alexa fly across the room.”

  Sebastian laughed. “Right. Man it would have made my year.”

  “Aaaahhheeeeaaaahhh!”

  “What the-” Caia jumped to her feet at what sounded like a cat being tortured. Saffron’s energy hit her before she physically appeared and Caia’s eyes rounded as Jaeden shrieked in outrage, her chair flying away from her. Her body wavered, flickering in and out of existence, as she began muttering something in Greek under her breath, her eyes now a blazing onyx instead of their natural blue.

  Before Caia could do or say anything, or even comprehend what was going on, Saffron materialised behind Jaeden and placed a hand firmly on her shoulder. Jaeden slumped immediately and collapsed on the floor with a thud. Saffron’s own eyes were onyx as she cursed at the girl she had just knocked out. She kicked her and Caia cried out to her to make her stop. She did, catching her breath, her eyes changing back to ice-blue.

  “Would someone like to explain what just happened here?” Sebastian whispered, staring in horror at his friend’s unconscious form.

  Marion suddenly came flying into the room, her wild red hair plastered to her head with dark gunk in it. She glared at Saffron. “I’m getting tired of your dramatics, Saffron. My head is burning.”

  It was then Caia noticed Saffron was wearing plastic gloves covered in hair dye.

  Marion mistook her questioning gaze for the gunk on her head because she shrugged looking sheepish. “It never comes out the right red. I’ve tried all kinds of magik on it but L’Oréal does it everytime; it’s just th-”

  “If you are done,” Saffron snapped, and pulled Jaeden’s body up off the floor and dumped her into a seat. “Marion, put Hephaestian ropes around this one.”

  “Why?” Caia snapped, making a move towards Jaeden. She was blown back by Marion.

  “Good grief,” the witch cried before Caia could complain, her gaze switching between Saffron and Jaeden. “Dimitri will be devastated.”

  “Why?!” This time both Caia and Sebastian yelled in fear.

  “Caia,” Marion’s face crumpled in sympathy, causing Caia’s heartbeat to pick up speed, those old butterflies flapping their wings around the pit of her stomach. She looked at Jaeden, now tied to the chair u
nconscious, and she remembered that unfamiliar trace.

  “What’s going on?”

  “That’s not Jaeden. That’s a faerie from the Midnight Coven.”

  ***

  Jaeden tried to contain her sigh of relief as Ethan walked away from her cage. He always came back if he felt her relief, and would push the pain to her limits. She had also learned quickly to try and suppress the urge to vomit. He enjoyed her fear and pain too much. It spurred him on.

  Once the light from his flame had disappeared and she could no longer sense him in the dank basement with her, she began to shudder and whine with her fresh burns. The bastard had put a spell around the cage that stopped her from being able to change into a lykan; otherwise he would never have been able to hurt her. But trapped in her human form, naked as the day she was born, Jaeden was covered with healing wounds that would have mended much faster had she been allowed to change. The new burns sliced across her back. He must be in a good mood. When he was angry he had always targeted her stomach, one of her more vulnerable areas as a lykan.

  She unconsciously pulled her knees further into her chest so that she would be curled up as tight as she could be in a foetal position, but the movement tightened her back and thus her burns, sending another involuntary whimper into the darkness.

  When they had first taken her - drugged her - she had woken up in the cage and had tried to keep an ear out and listen to what was happening. She knew this had to do with Caia. And soon she knew that Ethan was Caia’s uncle. She waited, hoping and praying that her rescue would be soon. Her father would have the entire pack after her once they discovered her gone.

  She clung to that hope through his torture and his taunting, but as the days passed - or was it weeks? She couldn’t tell anymore - her hope began to crumble. Where was the pack?

  And then Ethan, in one of his more sadistic moods, had told her about the faerie that had infiltrated the pack disguised as her. He had blasted her unconscious for the roar of anger that burst out of her at the revelation.

  Now there was only darkness and pain, and the never ending breath of time. When once she had waited here hanging onto her hope, she now waited for the moment when Ethan would go too far … and end the agony of her twisted body and mind.

  21 - Realities

  Caia watched numbly as Lucien and Dimitri manhandled the faerie that looked like Jaeden. They were trying to secure her so she couldn’t pull any funny stuff whilst they took her down to the basement.

  “What are they going to do?” She asked softly, bleakly.

  Magnus stood by her protectively, his eyes blazing with anger and sadness. Before he could reply Caia jumped at the hideous crack of Dimitri’s hand across the faerie’s face. “CHANGE!” He roared at her.

  Caia flinched, an unexpected tear rolling down her cheek. Dimitri was bristling with rage she had never witnessed before, and he no longer wanted the evidence of his daughter’s disappearance in his face.

  The faerie spat out blood and glanced anxiously at Dimitri. “I can’t with these ropes on me.”

  Lucien sighed, his eyes fully of sympathy and anger, too. “I’m sorry, Dimitri. We can’t take them off her.”

  “I can do it,” Saffron sneered at the faerie in the chair.

  “How?”

  “Faeries can unmask one another.” She stepped forward and put her hand on top of the faerie ‘Jaeden’s’ head. Saffron’s beautiful face crumpled into a mask of distaste at having to touch her, but a wave of energy hit them all as the faerie’s form began to waver in the chair, and finally Jaeden disappeared from them. For some reason that made Caia want to cry even harder. She glanced at Sebastian, who was trembling with fury. His best friend had been gone and in the hands of the enemy for how long? Her eyes flashed back to the faerie, who was now a serene looking blonde with velvet brown eyes.

  “Your name?” Saffron hissed.

  The faerie said nothing. Saffron did the honours and slapped her with a surprising amount of force.

  Caia was troubled with more than the faerie’s name. She stepped towards the faerie involuntarily and her brown eyes locked onto her.

  “How long has Jaeden been gone?” She choked.

  The faerie shifted nervously.

  “How long?” Caia repeated.

  Nothing.

  “HOW LONG!”

  It was Dimitri who bellowed and had to be immediately restrained by Magnus and Lucien. He was going to rip the supernatural apart before they had the information they needed.

  “Let’s get her down to the basement.” Lucien sighed heavily. He did not look pleased by this.

  “The basement?” Caia asked in confusion. Why the basement?

  Magnus cleared his throat. “They need to get Jaeden’s whereabouts from her, one way or another.”

  She understood, and a shudder ran through her body. They were going to torture this creature.

  No.

  Without thinking, Caia hurried to the faerie to question her once more, and placed her hand on her shoulder. Before she could say a word a riot of images blasted her mind and threw her physically back. She landed hard on the floor, and although she could hear the chaos it caused in the room, all she could see were these dark images of rusty bars and the smell of fear. Unfamiliar faces hit her, and blood, lots of blood. The most prominent images, however, were of those bars. Caia tried to hold onto them. And then she saw her. Jaeden lying naked and bleeding - her skin ripped and torn and burned - behind the bars of a cage. White heat shot through Caia’s body and she came back to the room she was in, Lucien bending over her anxiously and Magnus holding Dimitri back, whilst Saffron interrogated the faerie.

  Caia looked at the remorseless creature in front of her, and tears of fury trembled down her cheeks at the images of Jaeden. They were real. She knew they were real.

  “They have Jaeden in a cage,” her voice came out in a growl. Her wolf had taken over her in her own frightened fury.

  Dimitri let rip another roar.

  “Caia, how do you know?” Lucien asked tentatively, helping her to her feet.

  She shook her head. “When I touched her I saw things. About her,” she bit out and glared at the murderess. The faerie looked frightened now. Good. Caia glanced up at Lucien who still held onto her. “Take her to the basement, Lucien. Find out everything you can... however you can.”

  He nodded, but his jaw tightened. He wasn’t happy about torturing any creature, for any reason, and he seemed even less happy that Caia was ready to do so.

  “You didn’t see her,” Caia choked an explanation.

  “Is she alive?”

  She nodded, her head dropped. “Barely.”

  ***

  It was as if someone had died, the dark tension of grief that gripped the house was so intense. Sebastian was sent home, despite his protesting, whilst Dimitri, Lucien, Saffron, and Marion interrogated the prisoner in the basement. The basement must have been soundproofed because no noise filtered up to Caia’s ears as she sat anxiously with Ella and Magnus in the kitchen, cupping a now cold mug of coffee between two frozen hands. Magnus sat close to Ella, his big hands wrapped around hers on the table, offering her comfort. Her steel grey eyes were puffy from crying. She had just gotten back from Julia’s, having left her in the care of Christian and Lucia. By the strained look on her face, Caia knew that Julia had collapsed at the news. She hissed. The tension was making her angry. Everyone, including her own mother, was acting as if Jaeden was dead. She wasn’t. Caia didn’t know why she was so certain, but she was sure that Jae was alive somewhere. The handle on her mug broke off in her hand and she glanced up sheepishly at Magnus and Ella’s enquiring eyes.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled.

  “A few days ago and this place would have been flooded. Furniture would have been broken.” Caia gazed blankly at Magnus, who smiled. “I’m saying I’m proud of how quickly you’ve mastered your powers, Caia.”

  Oh. She flushed a little at his praise and shrugged. “Marion has bee
n very patient.”

  The Elder sighed at her modesty. “She says she’s never seen anything like you. Marion’s not one for exaggeration.” His lip curled as if he was remembering something. “Or praising for that matter.”

  She shrugged again. “It’s no big deal.”

  “Cai-” Magnus stopped abruptly at the sound of feet stomping from the basement door into the hall. They waited expectantly, and whilst she knew Ella and Magnus could smell that it was Lucien and Dimitri approaching, only Caia knew that Dimitri’s rage was now mingled with grief, and Lucien oozed anguish. Her heart faltered. She must have been wrong. Oh Goddess, Jaeden.

  They appeared, their expressions mirroring the emotions rolling off of them. Not only that, but Dimitri’s knuckles were smeared with blood. Caia sniffed subtly. Not his. She winced, but then abruptly stamped out any sympathy for the faerie that had caused more bloodshed than Caia wished to know about.

  “Well?” Ella trembled.

  Dimitri turned away, his head bowed, his breathing erratic as if he were drowning. Lucien sighed heavily, running his hand through his hair in that familiar gesture of frustration. “She’s alive.”

  They all let out a collective breath of relief.

  “But?” Caia asked, bracing herself. Jaeden may be alive but there was reason Dimitri looked like a grieving father.

  “They’ve had Jaeden for weeks.”

  An unexpected growl erupted from Magnus, and Ella squeezed his hand tightly, trying to rein in his angry shock.

  Caia was angry too, but at the moment confusion won out. “How weeks? I... I sensed something different in Jaeden’s trace today so I assumed that...” her voice cracked, “I assumed that she had been taken recently.”

  Dimitri snapped around to look at her, his dark eyes blazing angrily as he snarled, “What do you mean you sensed something different?”

  She stumbled back under the force of his fury. “I just thought something was off... but-”

  “You knew!” He yelled and moved towards her. Lucien jumped in between them, his hand halting Dimitri, his teeth bared and a low menacing growl purred in his throat. Caia’s heart raced frantically.