Ten points for wolf girl. Of course he didn’t believe Caia capable of killing innocent people. The only thing holding him together right now was that hope. And he wasn’t letting go.

He nodded in reply. “I kicked her out hoping that would stop her. It hasn’t but… I have Reuben’s phone number. I’ll check in with him to make sure she’s OK… and then-”

“And then what? Be there when she changes her mind?” She shook her head sadly. “Jeez, Lucien… even if she does miraculously decide not to take out the Septum do you honestly think she will ever forgive you for letting go of her so easily?”

Her question caused his throat to close up and he felt the unbearable need to swipe at something with his claws outstretched. Finally he pinned her with his own penetrating look.

Fight fire with fire.

“You really think if you keep pushing Ryder away he’ll still be there when you realize what an idiot you’re being?” He shouldn’t have enjoyed the way she paled but the animosity between them egged him on. “Yeah, I didn’t think so,” he whispered with a smirk.

“You’re a jerk.”

“Misery loves company, sweetheart.” He shrugged, only speaking the truth.

She gave a pathetic half-growl before jumping towards him with an animation she hadn’t shown in a while. “OK so… you didn’t actually mean to kick Caia out right?”

“Right…”

“So let’s just go get her. All of us. Let’s do this together.”

He shook his head. “I told you I’m not dragging the pack back into this. Plus… for the hundredth time I don’t agree with what she’s doing.”

“But you love her?”

“Yes.”

“And you want to protect her?”

“Of course.”

“Then let’s just you and me go. We’ll go get her. Keep her safe.”

He sighed, running his hands through his hair in frustration. Why was Jae doing this? She was just making him feel bad… it was like kicking a puppy for Gaia’s sake. “I can’t. I can’t leave the pack alone again.” He cursed, feeling his anger at his mate building. “And Caia knows that! No. She made her choice. I have to make mine.”

He watched her shoulders slump, the dim light in her eyes dying. There was more to this for Jae than she was letting on, but getting it out of her would mean nothing short of torturing her. He could only hope she came around on her own.

After a few minutes of silence he shrugged. “So… you still up for that run?”

“Do I get to bite and hit you?” she snapped up from her chair and started crossing the room to the exit.

He sighed and followed her out of the door. “Will you ease up on the verbal assaults if I say yes?”

“But they hurt more.”

“True. But I’m sure you’ll find more satisfaction taking your frustration out on my hide rather than coming up with new caustic witticism’s to scar my soul with.”

“Well, there see… that’s where you’re wrong…”

17 – A Lair, a Girl, and a ‘Hell no!’

Incense flooded her nostrils and clogged the back of her throat. She fought hard not to cough, not wanting to offend Reuben. But the place really did smell bad.

Reuben grinned back at her. “The incense covers the odor.”

Caia frowned as they walked down the dark, narrow hallway and approached the doorway with a beaded curtain as a door. “What odor?” she whispered to Saffron who glided beside her.

Saffron glowered at Reuben’s back. “You’ll see.”

Curious as to the dark look Saffron had thrown Reuben, who as far as Caia could gather was technically her boss, she followed the vamp through the red-beaded curtain and came to an abrupt halt at what she found on the other side.

Saffron nudged around her. “Caia,” she prompted.

But Caia was in shock. They stood in a cramped living room where old, worn out sofas and beanbags took up most of the space. A TV flickered in the corner, where a couple of people sat watching it hypnotically. Soda and beer cans littered the floor and odd furniture, and chips and cookies kept them company out of their packets, molding as they stood there.

The mess wasn’t what shocked Caia. It was the humans. Three to be exact. And the three vampyres that were sucking blood out of the humans’ necks and wrists. More shocking were the moans of pleasure escaping into the air like little invisible ‘O’s and ‘Ah’s out of the mouths of the humans. And the odor was the coppery headiness of blood mixed with sex.

Caia made a face. Lovely.

Caia realized two people in front of the TV were also human. One of them turned and noticed them, his eyes flaring wildly at the sight of the intruders. He scrambled to his feet, his eyes wide with panic as he rushed to the female vampyre on the couch sucking on some guy’s wrist.

“H-heey D-Dee… w-w-we got compaannnyy,” he stuttered, moving cautiously closer to the vampyres.

She was totally confused. When Reuben told her they were going someplace safe to hang out while she looked into the Septum’s trace, Caia didn’t think he meant a vampyre lair… where there were actual bad vampyres. And she was guessing the vampyres hadn’t been expecting old Reuben to drop by. Boy was he going to crack some heads!

The vampyre she assumed was Dee looked up languidly from her feeding and smiled, thick blood made extra slippery from saliva trailing down her chin.

Again. Lovely.

“Reuben,” she sighed happily.

“Dee.” He nodded, giving her a slight smile hello.

What? Was he freaking kidding? There were vampyres… feeding on humans! Hello!

“Reuben…” Caia began sternly, and then stopped at the feel of Saffron’s hand wrapping around her wrist in warning.

“Caia.” Reuben turned back to her, grinning at the look of concern on her face. “This is Dee, Andreas and Charles. This is their lair. They’ve kindly allowed us the use of one of their private rooms at the back so we can get down to business.”

“By business, you-”

“Just follow,” Saffron insisted and Caia felt herself being dragged through the room, past the blood sucking, through a tiny 1980s kitchen, down another corridor and into a back bedroom that was much larger than she would have guessed. It was also empty. It also had a heart-shaped double bed in it. Oh my.

“What the Hades is going on?” She hissed as Saffron closed the door behind the three of them.

Reuben scowled at her. “Dee knows we’re here on spy stuff but she doesn’t know what… you nearly blurting it out was very intelligent, thank you.”

How dare he?!

“Me?” she huffed incredulously. “I’m mucking up ‘the mission’? You brought us into a den of iniquity! I thought you hunted rogue vampyres, not partied with them!”

He rolled his eyes at her and looked to Saffron for back up. The faerie shrugged at him. “You’ll find no help from this quarter, Reuben. You know I hate these places.”

“These places?” Caia snapped. “What is this place?”

He sighed and shrugged. “It’s not illegal, Caia. It’s a place where willing humans act as donors. They’re addicts. The act of taking someone’s blood can be quite pleasurable to a human.”

“Is that before or after they die?”

A growl erupted from the back of his throat. “They don’t die. They’re donors. They’re well taken care of.”

Caia didn’t care if they were well taken care of or if they were willing… it was just… wrong! It was like a twisted version of a crack house. An ugly thought occurred to her. “You don’t… do you?”

Reuben looked affronted by the suggestion. “No. I do not feed on humans, I never have. But this is the last place anyone would think to look for us. We’re safe here while you gather the information you need from the trace.”

Safe? Somehow she didn’t think so.

“So you trust the vampyres with the human blood decorating their teeth and gums, do you?”

With another sound of annoyance Reuben crossed the room and lowered himself onto the bed. His dark gaze blazed with command. “I trust Dee to not tell anyone we’re here. I’ve known her a long time. She does favors for me and I allow this lair to remain open for business. It’s not pretty but it’s the way of the world, little girl. So quit squalling, take this,” he thrust the piece of paper with the names of the Septum on it out to her, “Sit down, and get started.”

Disgruntled, Caia nonetheless did what he asked and settled into an armchair. Reuben and Saffron made themselves comfortable on the bed and Caia looked up to see them both drift off into sleep. It had been a pretty long drive, and while Caia slept in the back of the car, Reuben and Saffron had remained vigilant up front. They made only one pit stop, where Saffron ran into a diner to grab her and Caia a burger. They ate hungrily while Reuben drank, what she presumed was blood, out of a flask.

He was a very neat eater… drinker? Eater? No drinker. Whatever.

The silence was only penetrated by the soft sounds of their breathing, and Caia looked nervously down at the piece of paper that had gotten her kicked out of her pack. It was still hard to believe Lucien had thrown her out. She had thought there was literally nothing that could come between them now. She didn’t think there was anything she wouldn’t do for him and had thought the feeling was mutual. But he had done it to protect the pack and that she could understand, that she respected. The way he was with the pack was one of the reasons she loved him so damn much. But, and though she knew it was irrational, she was cut to the quick by him. The hurt was as deep a gash as the loss of her pack, as the loss of her friends, Marion, Sebastian. And she was afraid the hurt her mate had caused her might not be the kind of scar that disappeared after the change.

Wow. She really was on her own now. But she’d been here before and she could do this. She could do this alone.