She had come here to join the Daylight cause.

Caia gasped and tightened her hold on the connection. Could this be right? She scrambled like an excited child through the trace, trying to find some kind of evidence of this girl’s duplicity, of her malevolence. She found none. Only a bitterness that she had naively wandered into the Center, and been imprisoned.

No! Caia shook her head.

Who was this girl? Where did she come from? Frustrated, she collapsed back in her chair. She couldn’t pick up any definitive details, but she knew enough to know that an innocent girl was imprisoned here in the Center.

“Caia?”

She suddenly became aware that Mordecai was shaking her, and others around her were no longer paying attention to the lecture but staring at her, bewildered by her presence and the disruption she was causing.

She didn’t care about them. She turned to Mordecai. “I need to speak with Marita. Now.”

His cell buzzed on the coffee table, and he groaned when he saw the caller ID. He really didn’t want to speak to that Midnight at the moment, not with what had happened. He needed Nikolai to maintain confidence in him, and this situation was only going to incite the opposite.

Sighing he flipped the phone open.

“Yes.”

“I’ve called you twice now. Why haven’t you answered?” Nikolai’s thick voice queried suspiciously down the line.

He better just get it over with. “There’s been a development.”

“Good or bad.”

“Not great.”

“Well, outline the problem quickly. I have one of my own.”

“Du Bois?”

“Du Bois. Speak, Kirios.”

He bristled at the use of his name, but bit his tongue to curb a verbal reaction. He swallowed and tightened his hold on the phone. “I’ve temporarily lost my access to Caia.”

Silence hung heavily down the other end of the phone.

“Nikolai?”

“I’m still here,” he breathed wearily. “This is just not a good time. Things seem to be unraveling.”

“No, they are not. If you had been paying attention, I used the word temporarily. I’m on this, don’t worry.”

“I shall try to maintain faith in you, Kirios. You can’t have survived the world this long without a certain amount of ability.”

He grunted. “I appreciate the confidence.”

“Hmm, well, I can do no other thing but trust you will take care of this. I am having enough trouble with Du Bois. He has gathered some rebels, idiots who believe in his faithless words. I have one in custody. She says they are planning an attack against a pack of lykans, the MacLachlans.”

“Have you taken Du Bois into custody?”

“Not yet. I need verification from the other idiots who are joining his little rebellion before I can take him before the Council. I will put a stop to the attack in time.”

Frustration rippled through his body. “You better. You realize Caia will be aware of this little attack, and that means the Daylights will be gearing up to defend the pack. If Caia is caught in the crossfire then our plans are going to be obliterated. We need that girl alive.”

“I am aware of what is at stake, Kirios!” Nikolai raged. “Do not push me. I am not the one who lost our inside asset.”

“Yes, well, it looks like we both have a lot of work to do and very little time. And Nikolai… don’t ever speak to me that way again. Understood?”

A tense silence, followed by. “Understood, Kirios. Apologies.”

“Accepted.” He sighed. “Call me when you’ve squashed Du Bois.”

With that he hung up, throwing his phone over his shoulder, and leaning back into the sofa with his eyes squeezed tight.

He had to get moving. There were too, too many years at stake to let Caia and Du Bois control this war.

10 - Mate

The television flickered, lighting her face up in the dark motel room, revealing her sardonic smirk as she chewed on candy and watched the latest soap opera. Ryder watched Jaeden from his place on the twin bed next to hers, and was amazed at the feeling of peace that settled over him just by being near her, and being allowed to look at her.

Ryder closed his eyes briefly as he fought the courage to say what he had to say to her. Maybe he should just let it be. She had had a rough few days.

After her revelations the night before, Jaeden had fallen asleep quickly, exhausted from her much needed crying jag. He, on the other hand, couldn’t even close his eyes, her descriptions of her torture rolling around in his brain and roiling his stomach. How had she survived what had happened to her, and still be able to function as normally as she was?

Her strength amazed him.

Jae had been sleeping for only an hour or so before she had started crying out in her sleep. Her bed started to shake, and then the telephone on her bedside table flew across the room and smashed into smithereens. The television in the corner was just beginning to rumble when he had jumped across the room and slid in beside her, pulling her into his arms and soothing her away from nightmares. Slowly, the movements ceased in the hotel room, and she stopped crying, snuggling into him instead. When she had woken up in his arms that morning, they hadn’t said anything. Jae had merely tugged herself away from him to sit up. Climbing out of bed she had seen the telephone smashed on the floor and had turned back to smile at him gratefully, realizing the kindness he had paid to her last night.

After they had rid themselves of the vamps body, Ryder had let her drive to give her something to do, but the conversation had been shallow and teasing, and the dramatic events of the night before had been studiously avoided.

When it was time to stop at another motel, Ryder had refused to let her sleep in a room by herself. So despite the warnings in his brain that he might not be able to keep his hands to himself another night running, they had booked into a twin room.

“I can feel you staring, you know,” she said softly. “Go to sleep, Ryder, and stop worrying about me. I’m fine.”

He grunted and reached over to switch on the lights.

“Hey!” She turned to glare at him. “You’re ruining the ambience.”

“Yeah, well, I want to talk.”

“You’re kind of a girl, anyone ever tell you that?”

“Yeah, well, you’re kind of a ball breaker, anyone ever tell you that?”

“All the time.”

Sighing, he threw his legs off the bed, and leaned towards her with his elbows on his knees, his eyes boring into hers. “I’m serious.”

Jaeden groaned, switching the television off with the remote, before turning to give him her full attention. “I thought I had gotten away with it.”

He frowned. “Away with what?”

“Talking about last night.”

He grinned at her. “Really? Come on, this is me, you should know better by now.”

She stared at him for a long time, before returning his smile and rolling her eyes. “Yeah, I guess so.” She shifted so she was sitting on the bed with her legs pulled up against her chest. “So, what did you want to talk about specifically?”

Ah, he wasn’t sure she was going to like this at all.

“Well?”

OK, man, just say it... then duck.

“I wanted to discuss the idea of getting Caia to train you, to help you control your telekinesis.”

He waited with his hands clasped tightly in front of him while she seemed to absorb this. Finally Jae nodded, brushing a silky curl back from her face. She pierced him with her clear-eyed blue gaze, and it got him thinking about the other thing he wanted to discuss before this night was through.

“OK.” She grimaced. “Since she knows about the… about what Ethan did anyway, I doubt there’s any harm in confiding in her. I’ll talk to her when we get back tomorrow.”

Well that was easier than he thought. Smiling, Ryder got up so he could sit on the bed next to her, especially enjoying how tense she got the closer he got. “I’m glad you’ll talk to her, but it will have to be when Caia and Lucien get back from the Center.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” she replied quietly, trying to shift away from him inconspicuously.

He couldn’t help it. He laughed.

Her head snapped up, her eyebrows drawn together. “What?”

“You,” Ryder snickered. “Could you be more uncomfortable?”

“I’m not uncomfortable. Why would I be uncomfortable?”

“You’ve been jittery with me all day. I don’t bite... well... occasionally.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.

“Ugh, you are such a male.”

He guffawed, “Yeah, thank Gaia.”

“And I am not uncomfortable!”

“Well, stop moving away from me then!”

“Well stop crowding me!”

Ryder whooped, his eyes glittering as they drank her in. Deliberately, he washed his eyes over her from head to foot, lingering on her long legs, breasts, and finally her lips. She was blushing madly by the time he was done, and the heat between them had cranked up a hundred knots. He stopped grinning and leaned towards her, his lips inches from hers. “I’m going to kiss you now, and I would appreciate it if you would shut up long enough for me to do it.”

“How romantic-”

“Ah, ah. What did I just say?”

She clamped her lips closed tightly, glaring at him. Her rosy cheeks, however, told him she was as affected by him as he was by her.

For minutes they sat like that, until her mouth opened to say what he knew would be a smart ass comment. Before she could, he closed the distance between them, wrapping his hand around her neck and pulling her into his kiss. Satisfaction slammed through him at the taste of her, and he couldn’t stop himself from crushing her against him, pressing her as close to his body as he could get her. Only one word remained prominent in his mind as he devoured her.

Mate.

She felt like she was minutes from bursting into flames.

Oh my goddess.