“Oh sorry,” a voice full of laughter said as a large body bumped into her. Caia turned to see a boy from her biology class stumble back and then smirk when he realized whom he’d walked into. He nudged a guy Caia didn’t recognize because she didn’t have a class with him. “Dude, it’s psycho Ribeiro.”
‘Dude’ chuckled, his dull eyes drinking her in from head to foot. “Man, how is it even possible that she launched some other chick across a room? She doesn’t look like she could lift a pencil.” He laughed raucously at his own lame joke.
The boy from biology curled his lips. “Dunno man, but she did it.” He stepped closer to her and Caia flinched back. A human had never attempted to intimidate her before. Was there something off with her pheromones? “You like it rough, Caia? How about you play it rough with me after school, huh?”
She felt a growl begin at the base of her throat and had to remind herself to exert some self-control. “Why don’t you go play rough with your ‘Dude’, jackass.”
His eyes narrowed as he closed the space between them. She refused to back up even though he had a good six inches on her. Seriously… why wasn’t he afraid of her?
“Maybe someone needs to teach you some manners, little girl.”
“Maybe you need to back the hell off.”
“Or what?”
“Or-”
“Or you’ll be eating out of a straw for the rest of your life,” a rough voice rumbled from behind them.
The boy pulled back enough for Caia to see Malek standing beside ‘Dude’, towering over them all, his muscles rippling as he crossed his arms over his chest.
She was surprised to say the least. Mal had flirted with her and had also been downright rude (she had shrugged that off because he was rude to everyone) but he had never, however, shown her much interest other than wondering what she looked like nak*d. And from his absence this morning, she had a feeling he was now wary of her, afraid of the Midnight blood that ran in her veins. But there he stood, un-amused and defensive because someone had been threatening her.
A warm rush ran through her. She was still his pack.
The boy’s face turned a yucky sick color. He mumbled something about making a mistake before he brushed past her into the biology lab. ‘Dude’ made a quick getaway.
Caia smiled and flicked a look up at Malek. He nodded sharply at her. “See you at lunch.”
“Sure.” She grinned despite his abruptness. “And thanks.”
He shrugged as if it was no big deal, and then grinned back at her. Well, leered back at her. “Can’t have ‘them’ sniffing around our females now, can I?”
She rolled her eyes and started after biology boy. The truth was ... it was nice knowing Mal still felt that she deserved his dominant male protection – annoying but reassuring.
And later, halfway through biology, with a little concentration on the boy who had been trying to intimidate her, Caia managed to tip his opened bottle of water into his lap (he was wearing crème khakis) from all the way across the classroom. Immature ‘he peed himself’ jokes floated around for a good ten minutes, his angry blushes only making the class laugh harder.
Yup... being a magik had its perks.
Her mood abruptly changed at lunch with the dark pall that hung over the table. The news of Jaeden’s kidnapping had reached all of the packs’ ears by the weekend and had affected everyone deeply. Dana and Alexa didn’t bitch at her, and Daniel made no attempt to make her laugh with his stupid jokes. Only Malek seemed to be himself, cracking out lewd comments and then teasing Caia quietly about being a witch. His first mention of it caused everyone to tense except for Caia. She was glad he had brought it up.
“I didn’t see your car outside, Cy,” he snickered. “What, you fly in on your broom instead?”
“Your wit astounds me,” Sebastian grumbled.
Caia actually laughed though. She was the only one, other than Mal, who wasn’t acting like she should be grieving because she knew Jae was still alive and was comforted (despite Jae’s conditions) by her nightly visitations to see her. The night before she had actually seen how the scars on Jaeden’s back had completely healed. And on the plus there were no fresh ones. Jae had even stopped whimpering and was sitting upright, although she was still unaware of Caia’s presence.
“I really hope you’re joking, Mal, and that you know a little bit more about witches than you’re letting on.”
Alexa snorted. “I think all we really want to know is if you’re going to kill us in our sleep?”
Sebastian growled and Caia had to kick him under the table. It had been fairly loud and she had seen some humans glance around in confusion at the animalistic sound.
“No,” she warned him, pressing a reassuring hand on his arm, “It’s fine. I even understand the hostility now.” She smiled sweetly at Alexa, being deliberately irritating. “You’re worried that because of my heritage I’m a bad guy. I’m not.”
“No one is saying that.” Mal glared at his sister and Caia drew a puzzled look at his out of character behavior. “Are they?”
Alexa hissed, glaring back at him. “Just because Dad said... ugh you are so whipped.”
“And you are so dead if you don’t get your attitude in check.”
“What, you’re going to tell Dad on me?”
“You bet your ass I am.”
“Well, I’ll tell him all about your little sexcapades with ‘them’.”
Mal shrugged, ripping into his sandwich carelessly and answering with his mouth full, “He already knows.”
“Uh-huh, yeah sure.”
“Yeah-huh. Lucien had a word.” He winced and then snarled, biting harder into the sandwich. “And believe me, it sucked. So if you want to keep that little ass intact I’d shut. The hell. Up.”
Alexa snapped her teeth and stood up from the table to repeat her dramatic performance of leaving the pack in a huff. It was a ritual she had perfected to once a week ever since Caia’s arrival. Today it presented an opportunity for Caia. She stood up too and to everyone’s surprise rushed after Alexa.
As Sebastian had noted that morning, Caia and Lucien were talking, but things were still strained between them and the cause of it was swinging her ass out of the cafeteria. With her new found ‘emotion radar’ Caia was going to put to rest some serious doubts.
“Alexa,” she said, grabbing the lykan by the arm and hauling her into the ladies’ toilets. She kicked at the stall doors to make sure there was no one in the room with them and turned back to Alexa only to be confronted by a scared female. Caia rolled her eyes. “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Alexa’s upper lip curled and she bent her knees, lowering her body into a defensive stance. “What do you want then?”
“An answer.”
She snarled but Caia wasn’t fooled. She could sense the fear rolling off of her and, sadistically, felt a little good about it.
“Did you sleep with Lucien or not?”
This visibly surprised Alexa and she straightened from her stance to cross her arms over her ample chest. She huffed in amusement. “So that bothered you, huh? I thought that was why I was blasted across the classroom but I couldn’t be sure. Well,” she shrugged her shoulders elegantly, “You should really put that to rest, honey, because there is no way on Gaia’s green earth that a tainted being such as yourself could ever be Lucien’s mate.”
Caia tried not to flinch at the insult. She was actually proud of herself - she really, truly had her powers under a lot more control. “Just answer the question.”
“Yes.” Alexa smirked. “Yes, I slept with Lucien.”
The lie swelled out of her skin and settled into a smile on Caia’s face.
“What are you grinning at?” Alexa snapped.
“You’re lying. I can feel it.”
“What?”
Caia inhaled deeply and gave the lykan one last sweet smile before turning out of the door with a, “Pathetic,” as she sailed out of the ladies, feeling a little lighter than she had in days.
23 - Duplicity
Ethan was furious. More than that, he was anxious. Xylena hadn’t called in when she was supposed to and, without what should have been his right by birth, he couldn’t feel out her trace to see where she was, or if she still even was. He tried not to panic. He had royally pissed her off last time they had spoken and perhaps this was her shallow attempt at getting back at him. No. He would give her until tomorrow. If there was still no word then, he would have to change the plans a little.
He yanked at his hair in frustration and then blew the television set up without thinking. Damn. There had to be a more constructive way to deal with his fury.
Oh yes, he smiled evilly, getting to his feet. There was.
The smell of fear and sweat hit him before he even reached the bottom of the stairs in the basement. His own personal punching bag. Sometimes he just liked to come down in the dark, when she couldn’t see or feel him, and watch her suffer. It soothed his pain. Yes, her spirit was waning every day. He chuckled, thinking about the uncontrolled rage that would greet him when the lykans found their filthy female in such a twisted mess. They would get stupid and he would get revenge.
“Morning, Jaeden!” he called out as he slithered towards the cage.
Caia had been feeling better after her confrontation with Alexa. Not only had the knowledge that she was half-witch, half-lykan boosted her confidence rather than drained it, but the heavy raincloud that had been hanging over her heart had cleared up a little: that is the corner that belonged to her Pack Leader.
She might as well admit that she had forgiven him for keeping her heritage a secret. The pack had no way of knowing who she was going to be since the last time they had seen her, or how in fact she was going to react to her magik. Lucien had just been doing what he did best: protecting his pack. But since then he had made it perfectly clear that she was just as much a part of the pack, and that he didn’t hold who her mother was against her. It meant a lot, considering none of the pack, except for those closest to Lucien and his family, had visited the house since, and the usual pack run had been cancelled due to Jaeden’s kidnapping. She knew for a fact that Yvana still hated her and now she could understand why.
You look like your mother.
Yeah, definitely not the greatest thing ever… being the spitting image of the snake that had killed a few of the most beloved members of a small pack. If Yvana hated her then she was pretty sure there were others who were only civil to her for Lucien’ sake.
For that she was grateful to him.
And now she knew with absolute certainty that he hadn’t kissed her and then went off and had sex with another female. So what did that mean? That he meant to kiss her? Unlike Sebastian who was so open his emotions were pretty much a neon sign blinking in his aura, Lucien was good at masking how he felt. Yeah, now that the pack were slowly finding out that one of her abilities was being able to sense surface emotions, they had all gotten good at strapping them down and shutting her out. Caia had, however, felt that Lucien at least cared about her, but then she had felt that same stirring feeling from him when it was directed at other lykans. What use was being a magik if you couldn’t even tell if the guy you like liked you back?