You have to look. You have to know for yourself.
Heaving the weightiest of sighs, Marion stood. Her legs trembled so badly she had to grasp the pew behind her. She took a moment to bolster her courage, to remind herself of whom she was, how strong she had always been. She couldn’t let her strength desert her now… now when she needed it the most.
With tentative steps she stood above the marble slab. Very slowly and gently she pressed her finger on the near invisible stud.
Whoosh!
She watched, silently horrified, as it opened, a blast of cool air whipping across her skin. Peering down into the sub-basement, dread settled in her stomach. Quietly she made her way down the ladders attached to the wall and found herself standing in what looked like a hospital corridor. Like a surreal nightmare it felt as if she wandered forever through white hallways, garishly lit with fluorescent lighting, her heeled boots echoing ominously as she approached what was sure to be an unwanted reality. The next corridor she turned down into was different than the others, wider. A door sat adjacent to a large viewing window.
Another door further up the corridor on the opposite side, another window.
Her chest reverberated with the pounding of her heart and she clutched her stomach at the welling of nausea and fear. Her heart began to race out of all control and then stopped as the words on the door shot through her with the impact of a shotgun blast.
Laboratory 1: lykanthrope
Oh Gaia, no. No. She squeezed her eyes shut. No, her sister couldn’t be capable of this.
Anger, unlike anything she had felt for it was mixed with the cruelest of disappointment, surged through her, and she took the door knob in hand and thrust it open.
“Hey! You can’t be-” a magik in a lab coat rushed at her, only to be cut off as she blasted him against the far wall with enough force to render him unconscious. He slumped helplessly to the ground, papers flying up and then fluttering slowly to the floor all around him. Tears filled her eyes at the sight before her. Seven frightened children stared back at her from within cages, wide-eyed and pale.
“Marion?” a child whispered and she stumbled back in recognition. It was Seana Trey, and in the cage next to her was Joaquin Barton. They were Pack Errante kids. Oh Gaia. Oh Hades…
“I didn’t want you to find out like this.”
Marion whirled around to face her sister whose eyes seemed to plead with her.
“This isn’t what it looks like.”
“Where are the others?” Marion asked numbly. “Where are the other pack children?”
“They’re safe… in another lab further down.”
“Safe? How so? They’re being experimented upon! This is completely immoral, not to mention illegal!”
Marita sighed. “Illegal to whom? There is no longer a Council, Marion. I am the law now.”
“What are you doing?” Marion cried. “This isn’t you. You wouldn’t do this. You wouldn’t torture and experiment upon innocent children!”
Marita flinched. “I’m not torturing them.”
Marion gazed at her aghast. Had her sister gone completely mad? “What do you call putting them in cages?”
Her sister’s shoulders slumped, her marble poise deserting her under some invisible crushing weight. “Certain sacrifices have to be made, sister. Don’t you see? Before Caia, the Midnights were winning.”
“Oh goddess, Marita, if father knew who he had left to the run the Coven-”
“Father!” Marita spat. “He was the one who told me things needed to change. He was the one who told me we needed to be more ruthless in our dealings.” She smirked as if enjoying her latest revelation. “Father was the one who left the plans for the laboratories. He believed that experimenting with genetics was the only way to win the war. And he was right. If the Midnights were winning before Caia… with her… we will be destroyed. But these children are the key.”
Marion shook her head in denial. “How on earth could he think that? How can you?”
“Because he was proven right.”
Marion stared at her blankly.
Her sister smiled. “Jaeden. She has telekinetic abilities, has had ever since her time with Ethan.”
“He tortured her! Do you intend to do the same to these children?!”
The look of outrage she was hoping to see appear on Marita’s face at the mere suggestion did not, and in that moment it felt as if her entire world was shattering into a million unglue-able pieces.
“I am hoping it will not come to that. But if it does… so be it. We need an army of ‘Caias’ to win, and if we can’t have that then the next best thing is an army of ‘Jaedens’.”
“This is madness. We were winning. With Caia on our side we were winning!”
“No! That filthy Midnight bitch was never on our side! She went to the Council to have me killed so she could be Head of the Coven! Head of both Covens, Marion… do you have any idea how powerful that would have made her?”
Marion felt the tears running down her cheeks. “She went to the Council because of what she found down here. She would have saved us, Marita. It was prophesized-”
“It was not! It was prophesized that her birth would bring an end to the war… it didn’t say how.”
Marion shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. She would have saved us. Now we’ll be lucky if she doesn’t turn to the Midnights for what you’ve done. Let them go. Let the Council go. We’ll plead your case. It’ll be OK. I promise.”
Marita’s pinched expression gave way to disgust. She glared at Marion with such rage that Marion knew… for Marita there was no going back.
“You are either with me, or against me.”
Marion straightened, her steel spine suddenly finding itself again. “Then I’m against you.”
For a moment an utter sadness flitted across her sister’s face. And then just as suddenly it was replaced with anger. “Then I’m afrai-”
Marion didn’t give her time to finish. She gathered all her strength and pushed her energy force out at her sister, knocking the witch off her feet and out of the door, only to smash her against the opposite corridor wall. With a sweep of her arm she created a high wall of fire across the doorway and turned to the children, melting each lock on the seven cages.
The children were frightened by the height and heat of the flames at her back and she found herself hurriedly coaxing them out of their cages. What she was about to do no one had ever survived… but the children… the children would be OK. There wasn’t any other way.
“Marion!” her sister shrieked.
“Hold tight to me,” she urged the children, grasping them roughly to her, making sure each little hand clasped her arms.
The pain was excruciating. A communication spell should never be used to transport more than two beings, the kind of power needed to do so could rip a person apart, and that, coupled with the fear of hurting any of the children, only made the agonizing burning in every molecule of her being that much fierier.
At the sudden silence she opened her eyes and gasped in relief. They had made it. Saffron blinked back at her from her perch on her sofa. They were in Saffron’s home, a place she knew for some mysterious reason, Marita could never find in her trace. And Saffron was incredibly choosy about who was invited.
One of the children suddenly brought her attention back to them as he threw up on her boot.
“What?” Saffron yelped and moved towards them. She blurred across Marion’s vision, and the room began to slowly turn itself upside down. She burned like ice all over. The pain. It was just too much.
“Marion!”
Her body began to fall apart, her mind with it, and she descended into the darkest of peace.
Caia almost jumped back in shock as Jaeden rushed at her, but was pleasantly surprised as her friend’s arms tightened around her, pulling her into a suffocating hug.
“Oh gods, am I ever glad to see you!”
Caia smiled and gently pried her back at arm’s length. “Blame Reuben for my sudden disappearance. He’s the one who kidnapped me.”
Jaeden hissed at the revelation and turned to stab Reuben with her ferocious glare. “What exactly does that mean?”
Caia momentarily ignored her to smile at Laila and Vil, who were quietly watching them all. “You guys OK?”
They nodded mutely.
“Caia?” Jae demanded.
“Sit down. Please. This needs to be quick.”
Despite that statement it took a little longer than she had hoped to explain everything, especially with Reuben jumping in constantly to fill in the parts she had missed out. She finally got through the tale when his cell rang and he went off into the other room to speak with Nikolai. When he returned he hadn’t looked concerned so Caia had continued on. While Vil and Laila were looking on with ever-growing fascination, she could see Jaeden turn a shade darker with rage as the tale unfolded. When Reuben explained how he had masked Vil’s trace so Marita couldn’t find them, Caia almost rolled her eyes at the hero worship in their gaze.
“Wow.” Vil smiled widely at Reuben, his pale eyes glittering in fascination. “You masked my trace? Thank you.”
“From us both,” Laila added sweetly.
“Hey, hey!” Jae jumped to her feet, a growl burrowing out from the back of her throat. “Don’t thank him!” She turned on Reuben, her eyes brimming with outrage and hurt. “You tricked me. Lied to me. Used me!”
Caia was completely unsurprised by his stoic nod and matter-of-fact response, “Yes.”
Jaeden stilled.
Oh goddess, Caia groaned inwardly.
“Yes?” Jae whispered. “Yes? That’s all you have to say. I could kill you!”
As she lunged towards him Caia threw up an invisible barrier between them causing Jae to bounce gently back off of it. She snarled and whipped around to glare at her.
Caia shrugged wearily. “Believe me, it was for your own good.”
Her friend snorted. “Like he would dare hit me back.”
I wouldn’t be so sure. Caia raised an eyebrow and they both looked at Reuben who shrugged. “If the attack is unprovoked… I hit back.”
“Unprovoked,” Jae spluttered.
For Gaia’s sake.
“Jeez, Reuben, could you at least try here?” Caia pleaded.
“OK, maybe she’s been a little provoked.”
“You used her. She thought you were her friend.”
“She is standing right here,” Jaeden snapped.
Reuben shrugged again. “I am her friend. It was just… necessary. I don’t apologize for what is necessary.”
Jae snorted. “Oh.” She crossed her arms over her chest defensively. “So, coming on to me was necessary was it?”
Well... Caia hadn’t known about that part.
Reuben grinned. “Nah, that was just fun.”
“You’re a creep.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
Sure that if she let them, their argument would continue on into the wee hours of the morning, Caia stood up to interrupt, “If we’re done, may I suggest we get a move on.”