“This was what you wanted, wasn’t it?” I said, taking a step even closer to him, my hands lightly clasped behind my back. “I felt you bumbling through the hotel. You had to know I would be aware of your presence.” I circled behind him as I spoke. I gave him credit for not trying to run as I heard his heart thudding like that of a cornered hare.
“I—I want to help,” James said, struggling to keep his voice from breaking. He wasn’t wearing his glasses now and I noticed his eyes were more copper than an ordinary brown; an odd shade with an almost red highlight in their brown depths. Trapped in that room, surrounded by monsters, he was younger than I initially thought; definitely mid-to late twenties.
“And so you shall,” I whispered in his ear. I quickly moved away, then stepped in front of him again. “James Parker, may I introduce Sadira,” I grandly announced with a flourish of my hands as I bent in a mocking bow.
“A pleasure and an honor,” he said with the kind of grace and aplomb everyone had come to expect of the British. He gave a slight bow of his head out of respect, but nothing more. I was impressed.
Sadira smiled at him, a picture of sweetness and gentility. “It is good to meet you, James Parker.” Her soft accent made it sound like she was almost purring. She then looked at me, and the warmth was replaced by a look of extreme caution. “What games do you play, my daughter?”
“No games. I have a task to be completed and I cannot drag you along, yet I can’t leave you behind either. My new friend James will see to your protection while I am gone.”
“I beg your pardon.” His eyes widened until I feared they would roll from their sockets. “How can I possibly hope to protect her?”
“Take her to the Compound,” Danaus responded, his deep voice sweeping unexpectedly through the room like a bitter winter wind.
James spun around to look at the hunter. “Have you lost your mind? No vampire has ever been permitted inside the Compound.”
Danaus just stared at the young man. He obviously didn’t care about precepts and traditions.
“James, she is one of the three nightwalkers that can stop the naturi,” I said, placing an arm around his bony shoulders. He stiffened at the touch but didn’t try to pull away. “I must go fetch one of the others and cannot protect her at the same time. So it is in everyone’s best interest that she remains alive and well guarded. Your little group can do that.” I leaned close so he could hear me when my voice dropped to a whisper. “Besides, after all the damage your group has brought on my kind, you owe us this one.”
James turned his head to look at me. I smiled, letting him get a good look at my fangs. He jerked violently backward, stumbling into Danaus again. “But what if—I mean, if she—” he started, but halted each time as he struggled to form the sentence without completely insulting Sadira in the process.
I chuckled, shaking my head. I’d put him in an awkward position. Less than two hours ago he had never spoken to a nightwalker before, and now they surrounded him.
“She’ll behave herself.”
“Mira!” Sadira gasped, sounding appropriately scandalized.
My name only earned her a dark chuckle.
“Where are you trying to send me?” Sadira demanded, her hands tightening on the arms of her chair. There was no threat or warning in her voice, but it held none of its usual sweetness either.
“The safest place I can think to put you.” I paused, stepping away from James, to stand directly in front of her. “In a den of hunters.”
Sadira came out of her chair instantly, her body rigid. “Are you mad?” Her eyes were wide and sparkling in the pale yellow lamplight.
“I have no other options. They won’t harm you as long as you don’t attack them.”
“Can you promise that?”
“No,” I admitted with an indifferent shrug. “But it’s in their best interest that you remain alive since you’re key to stopping the naturi. Of course, if you threaten them, I’m sure they have ample stakes lying around.”
“You can’t do this, Mira!”
“Do you have a better idea?”
She stared at me, impotent rage and fear blazing in her eyes. Her small hands were balled into fists at her side.
“I didn’t think so. I’m sending Michael and Gabriel with you as well, to help act as protection and a buffer between you and Themis. Don’t think to strike at me through them…you have your own string of pets that I can go through too.”
Sadira sat back down, lifting her chin a little higher. “You’ll regret this.”
I laughed at her. “You’re not the only one who wants my head on a pike at the moment. Take a number and get in line.” I turned my back on her and walked over to the windows, still shaking my head.
“Themis will never let them in.” James’s voice was fragile, as if he was terrified I would rip his throat out at any second.
“Call Ryan.” Danaus said before I could speak. The two members of Themis just stared at each other.
“Use the phone in the bedroom,” I said, pointing toward one of the doors in the two-bedroom suite. “I’ll have my limo brought around to the front while we wait.”
Finally, James frowned and left the room, closing the door behind him. Michael had already risen from the sofa and was calling down to the front desk for a limo, while Gabriel sorted through weaponry.
“Take it all,” I said. His head snapped up, lines of confusion digging furrows in his forehead as he looked at me. “You may not be returning here again. I want you and Michael prepared for anything. Set up sleeping shifts when you arrive at this Compound. I want one of you awake and with Sadira at all times.”
“But at dawn…?” Gabriel started before the words seemed to die in his throat.
“I’m not sure where I’ll be. Hopefully, I’m being overly cautious.” Gabriel frowned, his gaze darting over to Danaus for a moment. I noticed that his hand tightened on the dagger he’d been about to place in a belt sheath. “He will not kill me while I sleep,” I told him.
“But will he protect you?”
“Yes, I think he will.” The idea was amusing, lifting my mood a bit. I looked over at Danaus, who stood stiff and expressionless. He was completely unmoved by Gabriel’s glares and our conversation. “I think he would much rather kill me himself than allow someone else to do it.”
“That is not much comfort,” Gabriel said, a wry smile briefly touching his lips.
I looked away from my guardian, my eyes falling on Sadira. She had been closely watching the conversation, a smug smile lifting her lips. “Now you have your own,” she said. I had always mocked her about her need to be surrounded by pets and puppets.
“It’s not the same.” My momentary amusement drained from my body. “Their job is to guard me when I cannot protect myself. Nothing more.”
“Really?” Her smile grew as her eyes slid over to Michael sorting through the pile of weapons at Gabriel’s side. She could tell that I had fed off of him. The faint mark we left behind was a warning sign to other nightwalkers. If I did not feed off of him again in a week’s time, the mark would fade.
“Only when I travel,” I said. “And they are still human. When they return home, they have other lives in the sunlight. For your pets, there is nothing for them beyond you.”
James picked that exact moment to come out of the bedroom. I hadn’t wanted to continue this conversation with Sadira anyway. She had a knack for twisting things, and I didn’t need to justify my actions when it came to my guardian angels.
“We can go,” James said, his shoulders sagging a bit. “They are expecting us.”
“Good. The limo is waiting. With any luck, Danaus and I should be no more than an hour behind you.”
“Wait!” Sadira suddenly cried, drawing my gaze back to her face. “If I am to go to this Compound, you must fulfill a request for me.”
“We don’t have time for this, Sadira,” I growled.
“You know you have no choice. They cannot keep me where I do n
ot want to stay,” she reminded me with a small smile.
She was right. She was an Ancient nightwalker who would be surrounded by humans. If she didn’t want to stay at Themis, she could leave regardless of the fact that she would be risking her own life. “What do you want?”
“There is another nightwalker traveling with Thorne; tall, brown hair with blue eyes. Tristan belongs to me. Bring him back with you as well.”
“If he belongs to you, why is he with Thorne?”
Sadira dismissed the question with a wave of her slender hand. “Just a little misunderstanding. Bring him back to me and I promise to behave.”
I stared at my maker, my teeth clenched. I didn’t like this. Why was this nightwalker with Thorne if he actually belonged to Sadira? Was I about to step into a battle between two Ancients? Or was Sadira playing some other game? Damn it, I didn’t have time for this nonsense, but if I didn’t protect Sadira and reform the triad, Jabari was going to have my head.
“Very well,” I snapped, looking away from her.
“Thank you, my daughter,” Sadira purred. I wanted to shove a fireball down her throat.
I turned my attention to Danaus again. “Anything?”
With his arms folded over his chest, he closed his eyes, his thick eyebrows drawn over his nose in concentration. His powers filled the room like warm sunlight, but no one’s expressions changed, not even Sadira’s. Was I the only one who could feel the wonderful wave of power bathing the room?
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him lift his head, his eyes opening. “No naturi in the immediate area. They should be able to make it to the Compound safely.”
“Go now,” I said, resisting the urge to shake my head in an attempt to shed the last tendrils of warmth still clinging to my brain. James led the way out the door, and Sadira didn’t look back as she followed. Michael and Gabriel both nodded to me once, then left without a word. A part of me wanted to hug both my angels. I wanted to hold them and then send them straight back across the ocean. Their job was to protect me during the day, with the expectation that it would only be against any human that found me. My intention had never been for them to face anything like the naturi. It was more than either had ever bargained for, and I had not wanted this for them.
Biting back a sigh, I followed my angels down to the lobby with Danaus at my back. I had just handed Sadira over to a pack of vampire hunters while crawling through the bowels of London looking for Tabor’s replacement. I doubted this was what Jabari had in mind when it came to protecting Sadira.
Seventeen
Every city has a section that police seem hesitant to enter, even ultracivilized London. In my own beloved Savannah, these dark streets, which housed the Docks, were among my favorite to stroll down. In London the dark section was far from Mayfair and Hyde Park. It grew out on the fringes of the city, filled with tightly packed, brick tenements. The air was thick and heavy in the summer heat, filled with ghosts and old, grim memories. I doubted there were many psychics in that part of town; the dead would have given them no rest. But the air pricked my skin and tingled with anticipation. You came here to get problems taken care of, one way or another.
Our taxi driver seemed grateful when we let him drop us off a couple blocks from the pub. He snatched up Danaus’s money and turned his car around, heading back to the bright lights and busy hum of traffic. We continued the rest of the way to the pub in silence, our eyes scanning the area for anything that might offer a potential threat. Beside me, I could feel the gentle throb of power emanating from Danaus. It pushed and brushed against my skin, probing as if it were trying to figure out exactly what I was.
Trying to ignore it, I felt outward with my own powers. While I couldn’t sense the naturi, in this small, six-block region I counted more than a score of magic users, even a couple of full-fledged warlocks and witches. They took note of me in the sense that they were aware of something powerful passing through their part of town, but nothing more. There were only a handful of nightwalkers in the area, all significantly younger than I was. As vampires go, I wasn’t particularly old, but finding those that had walked the earth longer had become more difficult recently. There was something very unsettling about that fact.
Six Feet Under was a dive in the truest sense of the word. It had once been a mortuary with its own crematorium, but apparently the previous owners had moved on. A neon sign flickered over the entrance of a corpse clutching a lily to his chest, a tombstone resting at his head. A bit cliché for a vampire hangout, but who was I to scoff? One of my favorite haunts back home was a vampire-owned bar called Alive One. Its clientele was almost all human, with a few of us stopping by for laughs. Pickings were better next door at a nightclub called Purgatory. Alive One was a place to warm up for an evening of feeding and debauchery.
With a name like Six Feet Under, I expected the normal goth scene of black clothes and pale skin. What I got was wall-to-wall London punk.
We elbowed our way through the crowd outside the club to the front door, where I cleared the mind of the bouncer. I wasn’t about to spend the next hour waiting in line to get into a club while the naturi were lurking. Just inside, I’d pulled my leather wallet from my back pocket when it dawned on me that I was only carrying American dollars. I’d had Charlotte procure me some Egyptians notes before leaving but no other currencies because I wasn’t sure where I would end up.
Before I could say anything, Danaus reached over my shoulder and handed the bored-looking doorman with purple hair a folded twenty-pound note. Enough to get us both in with no questions.
“Don’t worry. I’ll pay for our next date.” I walked into the bar before he could retort.
He and I paused just inside the pub, gazing over the crowd. The people were packed so tightly it was amazing anyone could breathe. It looked as if all the walls had been knocked out of the place, making it into one huge room. A long bar dominated the right wall, with customers lining the edge more than three deep. On the back wall stood a stage where a band was currently screeching and a pale waif of a man screamed into the microphone. I’ll admit I’m no great fan of punk, but fan or no fan, this was just noise.
I let my eyes dance over the crowd, looking for any sign of our prey. Before entering the pub, I had picked up the presence of two nightwalkers, but I didn’t try to identify them. Yet, in this crush, I knew I would have to use my powers to find them. There were too many people here to try to pick out Thorne and Tristan quickly by sight. Stifling a sigh of frustration, I reached out a little. It took only a second and I didn’t like what I found.
“Damn it,” I said through clenched teeth. I couldn’t catch a break.
“What?” Danaus said, turning to look at me. “Did you find him?
“Yeah, I found him.” Tristan had been easy enough to locate. The pale brown-haired vampire was seated in a circular booth off to the left of the stage. He was also the only one I could see in this place who was fashionably dressed, no doubt thanks to Sadira’s tastes for expensive things.
But the other nightwalker was just as easy to spot; I had no doubt that the pale singer clutching the microphone was Thorne. How was I supposed to get him now? I could push my way through the crowd, jump onstage and throw him through the nearest window, but I was trying not to make a scene.
“We wait,” Danaus announced in a low voice after I pointed out the singer in disgust. He muscled his way through the crowd along the back wall. Ignoring the fact that the floor crunched beneath my feet, I followed in his wake, watching the dislodged people look up angrily then sidle away when their eyes touched his face and bulging form. It was an interesting twist. For me, brute force was saved for my own kind. When it came to humans, I needed only sensual allure and a slight threat of something dark and powerful to get them to do what I wanted. But Danaus could stand in a room, and its occupants would begin to squirm. He had become what the humans equated to the grim reaper: walking death.
Ensconced in a shadowy corner, I leaned back against th
e poster-covered wall with my arms folded across my chest and watched our prey. It was all wrong. I checked again and again to the point that Thorne stuttered in mid-song and scanned the bar. He felt me but hadn’t pinpointed my exact location yet.
A vampire singing on a stage in front of a crowd of screaming fans. How could this have happened? From the moment we are reborn, we are all taught one thing: Stay in the shadows. Never draw attention to yourself. The longer the humans look at you, the more they will see and sense that there is something different about you. They will know you’re not human. They might not be able to comprehend what you are, but they will know.
At the end of the song, Thorne leaned forward, balancing some of his weight on the microphone stand, and hissed at the crowd, pulling back his lips and flaunting his fangs. I lurched forward, but Danaus’s hand stopped me from getting more than a couple steps away from the wall. The crowd went insane, their cheers rattling the windows and pushing me back a half step. They knew what Thorne was and they loved it. I scanned the spectators, taking in their expressions. There was no fear; just excitement and pleasure. It would have been intoxicating if it didn’t seem so wrong.
“They know?” I asked, turning to look at Danaus. The hunter stood beside me, continuing to stare up at the stage as he dropped his hand from my shoulder.
“They think it’s just an act,” he said, nodding to the undulating crowd. I looked back, my stomach twisting. If they knew the truth—that three real nightwalkers stood in their midst—would they still be celebrating? Or would they run screaming from this place that still smelled faintly of death under the layers of sweat and alcohol?
We hung back as Thorne stepped down from the stage. Followed by the rest of the band, he waded through a surge of the crowd, laughing as they ran their hands over his body and reached for him. He settled into a circular booth next to Tristan, surrounded by his fellow band members and a smattering of female groupies. I took the lead this time, threading my way there, with Danaus following close on my high heels. I needed to have this done now.
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