Pushing off the wall, I walked away from the hunter with my head bowed as I headed for the entrance to the park.
“You owe me a favor,” I muttered under my breath.
“What?”
“The bet. I won. I killed three naturi with your powers, not mine. I won. You owe me a favor,” I said, not bothering to look up at him.
“If you think I’m going to deliver on that bet, you’re insane. You used me!” he snapped.
“I’m sorry about that.”
Danaus dropped into silence as he walked beside me back to the main gates that barred the entrance into the park during the nighttime hours. I glanced over my right shoulder to find him watching me with the corners of his mouth pulled down in a frown. His shoulders were slumped and his hands dangled empty at his sides. We both seemed more than a little beaten despite what proved to be a relatively easy fight. It should never have gotten so out of control, but it was for the best. If I didn’t find a way to adequately control Danaus’s powers, Nick was going to make me human again. It was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.
Danaus’s voice was a dark rumble that swept around me. “Promise me that you’re never going to do that again.”
Pulling my cell phone out of my pocket, I looked up at him as we exited through the large wrought-iron gates. “I’ll make that promise the day you can do the same for me.”
A frown marred the hunter’s lips and pulled his eyebrows together over the bridge of his straight Roman nose. His beautiful blues eyes sparkled in the moonlight as anger once again filled his frame. He knew he would not get a promise out of me because he couldn’t make the same promise in return. With the naturi surrounding us and the coven trying to kill us at every turn, he couldn’t relinquish control of his most powerful weapon. He was trapped in my world now, and he wouldn’t give up his control over me until one of us was finally dead.
Chapter Eleven
Sunset came too early the next night. After returning to the hotel from Szorbor Park, Danaus headed out into the city while I returned to the hotel room we were sharing on Gellért Hill. I could have used a bite, but I wasn’t in the mood for hunting. I was in the domain of an unknown keeper and Rowe was lurking about. In the meantime, I had with me two nightwalkers of questionable dependability. Valerio looked out for himself first and foremost, while Stefan would rather see me dead so he could have my seat on the coven. The situation was far from ideal from my perspective. I needed to get home before this situation got even more out of control. Unfortunately, returning to Savannah wouldn’t solve my dilemma with Nick. I couldn’t even begin to guess at how I would deal with such a creature.
With a sigh, I jumped in the shower and then pulled on a clean change of clothes. I had packed enough to get me through a week, but I was hoping that this trip abroad wouldn’t last me quite so long. My own domain was wounded and sore, needing my strict attention before the rift between the shifters and the nightwalkers grew any wider.
Stepping out of the bedroom into the main living room of the hotel suite, I found myself faced with Valerio instead of Danaus. A frown tugged at my lips as I looked around the room, as if the hunter were lurking in some remote corner, but he was nowhere to be found.
“He’s not here,” Valerio confirmed.
“Where is he?” I demanded, hating the petulance in my tone.
“Don’t know. He left the hotel room as soon as I arrived and didn’t say where he was going.” Valerio sat in one of the comfortable chairs that ringed a dark wood coffee table. My bare feet sank into the thick carpet as I crossed the room and dropped into one of the chairs opposite him. “Trouble in paradise? Lovers’ quarrel?”
I flashed the nightwalker a dark look and then turned my attention back down to the coffee table before me. There were a pair of picture books on the surface that showed tourists all the wonderful sights within Budapest. A secret part of me wished this would prove to be an easier task than Jabari had led us to believe, and that Danaus and I could take some time wandering these old streets together. However, between Nick and Rowe, such a hope was promptly crushed.
“Mira—”
“Let it go, Valerio. It’s none of your business.”
“Unfortunately, it is my business,” he countered, drawing my gaze up to his face. “If you’re distracted with romantic thoughts, it could mean my life. It is my job to protect the Elder of the coven, after all.”
I tilted my head to the side as I stared at him in surprise. “Would you protect me?”
He smiled. “Of course. You are one of the few nightwalkers still in existence that I would dare to refer to as a friend.”
“Valerio, I’m quite confident that I am the only nightwalker in existence that you would call friend, but that still doesn’t mean you would risk your neck for me.”
His smile grew wider and an evil twinkle filled his eyes. “I never said anything about risking my neck. I only said that it’s my job to protect you. We must be reasonable about these things. You certainly wouldn’t want me to die for you.”
A soft chuckle escaped me as I shook my head at my old friend. Valerio would never change. He looked out for himself above all, and always looked for the situation that best served to give him the advantage. It surprised me that he had taken my side months ago when I was on the outs with the coven, but then the move proved to be to his advantage when I finally claimed the open seat. I was beginning to believe that he was both smarter and more dangerous than I ever gave him credit for.
“So, you’ve become involved with the human and now it’s not working out how you might have hoped,” Valerio observed. I opened my mouth to argue with him, but he held up one hand, halting the words on the tip of my tongue. “Please, don’t waste our time by denying it. You made him your consort. You’ve been working closely together for months now. If you didn’t kill each other, it was inevitable.”
Flopping back against the back of the chair, I crossed my arms over my chest and crossed my left leg over my right knee. “Nothing is inevitable.”
Valerio shook his head at me. “But things aren’t working out, are they?”
“No,” I said softly. We technically kissed and made up at the park, but I could still feel the anger boiling inside of him.
“I’d be surprised if they did.”
“We’re not that different.”
“Yes, Mira, you are.” Valerio presented me with a patient yet condescending smile. “You’re a powerful nightwalker and he’s a human. You’re an Elder on the coven, and he’s a nightwalker hunter. There is a vast canyon separating you and Danaus, and I don’t think you will ever find a way to bridge that gap.”
“We’ll find a way,” I said stubbornly, but I could no longer meet his eye. My gaze dropped down to the shiny tabletop, trying to ignore the truth that was ringing far too clearly in his voice.
“Let it just be a fun interlude. Do not involve your heart in this matter.”
“As if I would be so stupid and foolish,” I scoffed, but it was a lie and Valerio knew it.
“It took you decades to recover from Sean, and I heard about Michael,” he murmured, leaning forward in his seat. He reached across the table and placed his hand on my knee. “The men in your life don’t last a long time, and you are the one left standing with a broken heart. Love is a beautiful thing, but you’re an Elder now. You can’t afford such weakness.”
He was right. I had loved Sean with everything that I was, but his death had finally driven me out of Europe and to the New World. And the loss of my sweet Michael because of the naturi had made me sullen and reckless. The men in my life lived short lives and died painful deaths. But something in my mind screamed that Danaus was different. He was older and wiser than his predecessors. He had his own gifts and could survive and thrive where the others had not. At least, that was the lie I was currently telling myself.
“Love is not a weakness,” I countered, pulling my knee out of his reach.
“It leaves you vulnerable. They coul
d use your attachment to Danaus against you,” Valerio warned.
“And risk the hunter’s wrath? I doubt it. A few may try it at first, but they will not survive his anger at being used like that.”
Valerio sat back in his chair and stared at me with newfound interest. “You sound very confident.”
“Danaus will not tolerate being used.” I knew it firsthand. I was lucky the hunter was still in the city. He could have caught the first plane out of Budapest the second the sun rose and never looked back. I was praying that some thread of compassion he felt for me was holding him to Budapest. “He hasn’t lived as long as he has in our world without having a few skills of his own. He will outlast the others.”
“It will be interesting to see,” Valerio stated, scratching his chin.
A knock at the door drew my attention away from the nightwalker. Pushing out of my chair, I walked to the door while scanning the hallway with my powers. An unknown human stood on the other side of the door. She was alone in the hall. However, there were two nightwalkers downstairs in what felt like the lobby of the hotel. Meanwhile, I could feel Danaus coming down the hall toward the suite. A part of me relaxed as a soft sigh of relief slipped past my parted lips. He was returning to the room.
Opening the door, I was greeted by the sight of a tiny young woman with flowing blond hair and bright blue eyes. She was thin and pale, wearing a wispy thin top and soft flowing skirt that brushed against her ankles. A thick pearl choker was wrapped around her slender neck, with a silver ring in the front. A fragile smile lifted the corners of her rosebud mouth, but there was worry in her gaze. She was afraid.
“Are you Mira?” she asked in a musical voice.
“I am,” I admitted, only when Danaus was standing directly behind her. His hand rested near a knife that he always kept at his side. The hunter stared down at the top of the woman’s head, a frown marring his handsome face.
“I am Sofia and I have been sent by Veyron to invite you to his home this evening,” she said. Her soft, breathless voice danced around us like a summer breeze. It seemed to hold no threat or cause for concern. I frowned. I didn’t trust her. She seemed too helpless and fragile, but appearance could far too easily be deceiving. And yet I could sense nothing out of the ordinary about her.
“Come in,” I said, waving for her to enter the hotel room as I stepped out of the way.
The young woman kept her head down as she entered the dimly lit suite. She came to an abrupt halt when she saw Valerio standing before the seat he had been in just moments ago. Her hands remained twisted before her thin body as if she couldn’t relax enough to allow them to hang limp at her sides.
“This is Valerio,” I introduced, motioning toward the nightwalker. “And the dashing gentleman behind you is my consort Danaus.”
Sofia scooted farther in the room, turning so she was facing the three of us. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” she said, her gaze darting about the room. I knew she was looking for Stefan. Odelia would have informed Veyron of my presence along with the presence of my companions. As if he knew that he was needed, Stefan appeared in the room, standing just behind Sofia. It was all I could do to smother the smile that was trying to rise on my lips. Danaus gave Stefan’s presence away when his eyes shifted from Sofia to the nightwalker standing behind her.
“Oh God!” she cried in her soft voice as she turned to find him there. She jumped away from him and covered her mouth with both of her hands.
“And this would be Stefan,” I said, finishing the introductions with a little more glee than I should have felt at scaring a human. Danaus glared at me, but I shrugged it off. It was just a bit of harmless fun, and any report she brought back to Veyron would make the nightwalker pause in his dealings with us. Regardless of what Danaus thought, there was a method to our madness.
“I am assuming that Odelia told Veyron of our presence in Budapest,” I began, drawing Sofia’s attention back to me.
The young woman dropped her hands back to her waist, where she continued to twist her fingers together, and turned to face me. “Yes, Odelia stopped by last night and told Veyron that you had come to look into our naturi problem.”
“You know about the naturi?” Danaus interjected when she would have continued.
“Yes, of course,” she said softly, flashing the hunter a weak smile before turning her attention back to me. “Veyron would like to welcome you into his house and to Budapest properly. Would you please appear at his home tonight?”
“We would be happy to meet with Veyron tonight,” I said, resisting the urge to frown at Danaus. “We have several matters we would like to discuss with him.” The hunter apparently hadn’t realized that Sofia was Veyron’s pet, and this didn’t bode well for the rest of the evening. I was beginning to wonder about the wisdom of bringing him along, but if I told him that he couldn’t go, I knew it would cause even greater problems. I had taken him into the heart of the coven, for god sakes. A late night meeting with a powerful nightwalker shouldn’t be a problem for us, but I knew it would be.
“Excellent! Veyron will be quite pleased that you’re coming,” she said, seeming to relax a bit for the first time. Reaching inside the left sleeve of her shirt, she pulled out a folded piece of paper and moved to hand it to me. I took a step back, while Stefan stepped forward and intercepted it. It was all done smoothly, like a dance we had practiced over the long years of our association, but in truth we had never done such a thing before. However, it was the practice of the Elders not to receive anything directly from an underling if other nightwalkers were about to act as our assistants. Stefan knew the drill, and I was proud of the fact that I hadn’t actually reached for the paper. The tradition was a mix of protection and elitism. By touching the paper she tried to hand me, I was putting myself at risk of any spell that might have been attached to it. In addition, an Elder never lowered him- or herself to accepting something from any lowly creature if could be helped.
“It—It’s the address and directions to Veyron’s home,” she stammered, her eyes darting from Stefan to me.
Mira, Danaus said in a warning growl.
She’s in no danger, I replied in my most placating tone. His weakness for humans was going to be our undoing in the end; I knew it.
“Odelia said that you are an Elder on the nightwalker coven,” Sofia said in a low voice, but it came out sounding like more of a question.
“Yes, I’m an Elder.”
“And the Fire Starter?”
“Yes,” I hissed, smiling wide enough to expose my fangs. Whatever safety she felt by living under the protection of Veyron’s name slipped away as she came to realize she was in a room surrounded by powerful nightwalkers and a human that I called my consort. If I had come to town with the explicit desire to anger and destroy Veyron, then my first stop would be through Sofia, and the two nightwalkers that were making their way up to the suite would never be able to save her. If Veyron treasured her so much, he never should have sent her. But then, she was in no real danger. I didn’t mind raising the heart rate of a human every now and then, but if I was angry with a specific nightwalker, I usually took my temper out on that nightwalker, not his underlings.
“If there is nothing else, you may return to Veyron and tell him that we will be appearing at his home later this evening.” I extended my hand toward Stefan, who laid the piece of paper in my palm.
“Yes, of course,” Sofia said quickly with a bob of her head before she scurried back to the door. Everyone remained silent as Danaus opened the door and closed it again then secured the lock.
I glanced down at the piece of paper, noting the clean, elegant handwriting. It was obvious that a woman had written down the address and some brief directions to the place that lay somewhere in the Castle District. With a frown, I handed it over to Valerio, who also examined the address.
“Is this truly his place or is it a trap?” I asked, shoving my hands into the pockets of my black dress slacks. I hadn’t been in the mood for my t
ypical leather pants and confining top, but settled for a pair of cotton slacks and a mint green turtleneck. It was far from intimidating, but as Sofia proved, I could be intimidating even without my leather and knives.
“It is the address for his home, but I think it is also a trap,” Valerio said. Folding up the piece of paper, he handed back to me and I shoved it in my pocket.
“Find anything of interest last night?” Stefan inquired.
“He’s not the keeper,” Valerio stated with a heavy sigh. “No one uses that term. However, he is one of the oldest nightwalkers in the region, if not the oldest. His name is frequently connected with Odelia’s when it comes to who is making the edicts in the city.”
“Is there any indication that Veyron and Odelia may be fighting for control?” I asked.
“None. There has been no indication that they are anything but in total harmony at all times.”
I shook my head and walked a couple feet away from where Valerio sat in his chair and then paced back. The only thing I could come up with is that Veyron and Odelia were actually lovers and were sharing the domain, but that situation was doomed to fail at some point. Nightwalkers typically didn’t play well with other nightwalkers, particularly when emotions and shared power were involved. Hurt feelings and wounded egos did not mend so easily. “Lovers?”
“Possibly,” Valerio said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Just so long as they are both permitted to have other affairs as well. Sharing the domain, you think?”
“They have to be,” Stefan interjected before I could speak.
“It’s rare, but it has been done before.”
“If we’re here to take out both of them,” Danaus said in a low, dark voice, drawing all eyes to where he leaned against the doorway leading into the suite, “it will ultimately leave a power vacuum since there are no old nightwalkers in the area. That’s dangerous.”
“Valerio is just a quick jaunt away in Vienna,” I said, waving my left hand at the seated nightwalker. “He can easily hop over and keep the peace if necessary.”
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