I closed my eyes again, his words echoing through my brain. He was right. We didn’t talk about this ugly part of our past, running from the horror, the moment that brought my kind to the very brink of extinction. We ran from it, afraid mentioning it would conjure up our enemy once again.
“Why? What happened there? Why is it so important?” Danaus fired back from the front seat, where he was driving. “They’ve killed Tabor and they continue to go after Mira. Both were at Machu Picchu.”
“Machu Picchu is important because it was the last battle,” I said in a low voice. I felt Tristan flinch beneath me, surprised that I was conscious again. “It was the last in a long series of battles against the naturi.”
“What happened?” Danaus inquired, his voice softening somewhat.
“I don’t remember anything about that night.”
“It’s understandable,” he murmured under his breath. The words had nearly been stolen away by the wind, but I caught them before they flew away.
“Why?” I tried to turn my head to look up at him, but it felt as if it weighed the same as a baby elephant and I gave up the attempt.
“Sometimes the mind forgets things to protect itself.”
A chill slithered across my skin that had nothing to do with the wind. I wished I could fold my arms over my stomach, fighting back the black memories of the naturi. “What did Nerian tell you?”
“Enough to haunt me.”
The truth was, I didn’t want to hear the details about that night. I still remembered the naturi with startling clarity, as if the memories had been charmed so I could never escape the pain. And now there was Rowe, with his voice teasing at my brain as if I should remember him.
“I remember Nerian.” My words barely inched over a breathy whisper. “I remember what the naturi did to me. They held me for almost two weeks. They wanted to use me to kill the nightwalkers when they arrived at Machu Picchu. We had been battling them off and on for several centuries. Prior to Machu Picchu, they managed to break the seal using the energy at Petra. They had come to Machu Picchu to open the door between the worlds and finally free the remaining host along with their queen, Aurora.” I paused for a moment, trying to force my eyes open so I could look around, but it just took too much energy. I felt lucky to be talking.
“I remember seeing the nightwalkers arrive, but I can’t recall their faces, except for Jabari. It was the first time I had ever seen him. And then, nothing. I can’t remember anything after seeing them appear.”
“What is the next thing you do remember?”
“Standing over Nerian. Sunrise was near and he was dying. I escaped into the surrounding jungle for the day. The next night Jabari came for me.”
“What about Rowe?”
“I had never seen Rowe before the attack in Egypt,” I said with a sigh.
“He seems to know you.”
“I know, but I don’t know him. I’m pretty sure I’d remember a one-eyed elf.” It didn’t make any sense. I had dug through my memory during the past couple days but couldn’t recall anything about a naturi named Rowe, or any naturi that resembled him. “At Machu Picchu, I remember feeling Sadira, though I can’t recall seeing her. I also remember hearing Tabor’s voice. Before leaving, I heard him speaking with Jabari. He sounded tired…and angry.”
“Where are we going?” Tristan abruptly demanded. I could feel the tension running through him increase. Unable to move, I gathered up what energy I could and dipped into his mind. It was relatively easy since he was holding me, but I didn’t have the strength to maintain the link for long. I managed to pick up flashes of trees from his mind, edging closer to the road. The area seemed desolate and lonely, perfect for an attack.
“The Themis Compound. Sadira is there,” Danaus said.
“What’s Themis?” Tristan asked.
“Vampire hunters,” I muttered.
“That’s not the goal of Themis,” the hunter snapped.
I didn’t try to stop the snort of disbelief that escaped me, despite the fact that I was currently in no shape to pick a fight. “Enlighten me. From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t make much sense. There’s you—a nightwalker hunter—and James, a bookworm who seems to be completely out of touch with reality.”
A deep silence settled into the car, and I sat patiently, feeling it gently take each dip and curve in the road as we headed closer to the Compound, which housed more humans that had hunted my kind.
“The goal of Themis is balance,” Danaus volunteered at last. “Most of the members of Themis are like James Parker, scholars who study the occult. They watch from a distance, cataloging events and creatures. And then there are those who are hunters. They are sent when your kind threatens mankind. We are trying to keep your secret, and the secret of all the others, from leaking over into the world of man.”
“And are you sent to destroy my kind by wise, knowledgeable men like James?” I demanded, sarcasm dripping off my words.
“No, the leader of Themis is the only one who can dispatch a hunter.”
“Ryan?” I asked, recalling the name that Danaus had tossed out earlier that evening when persuading James to take Sadira to the Compound.
“Yes.”
“I look forward to meeting him,” I said, trying to sound confident, though my blood was soaking through Tristan’s shirt and into the cloth car seats.
An odd sound came from Danaus. It sounded broken and rough, as if his voice were dragged over sandpaper. He was laughing at me. I tried to smile as well, though it was a struggle to get all the right muscles working. It didn’t matter. The sound helped push back some of the pain for a brief moment. It was like catching a shaft of sunlight between shifting thunderheads, and I wanted to bask in it before the black clouds stifled the golden light.
“You will not be able to intimidate and manipulate Ryan like you did James,” he said in an amused voice.
“How about seduce him with my feminine wiles?” I asked in a low voice. Tristan let out a rough sound that could have been a laugh, but he quickly covered it up by clearing his throat. I knew there wasn’t much attractive about me right now. If I didn’t get to Sadira in the next few minutes, there wouldn’t be anything left of me but a blood-covered corpse.
“Doubtful,” he said.
I sighed dramatically, my eyes managing to flutter open for a moment before I gave up the fight. “I guess I shall just have to figure out what he truly wants.”
“How will you do that?”
“I haven’t a clue,” I admitted, which earned me another chuckle.
“And you’re not concerned?”
“It’s less than one hour until sunrise, and I’m riding in a car with a hunter toward a conclave of hunters. The naturi are breathing down my neck, literally, and my last hope for defeating them was killed while I stood watching. Just supposing that I survive the next hour, I still have Jabari, who will rip out my throat because I failed to protect Thorne. At this point, I think the least of my concerns is a human with his own agenda.”
There was a soft creak of plastic as Danaus tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “I hope you’re right.”
“With my recent track record, I doubt it. But what have I got to lose?”
“True,” he conceded in a low voice.
As the silence slipped back into the car, I felt Tristan shift beneath me. I knew why. I could feel it too. We were running out of time. If Sadira didn’t have enough time to properly heal me before the sun rose, I would not reawaken when the sun set again. Both the blood and life would drain completely from my body and I would be dead.
“How much farther?” Tristan asked.
“Not far.”
Dawn was drawing too close and I didn’t like the options Tristan and Sadira would be left with if I didn’t make it. Would Danaus defend them against his brethren? It wasn’t an issue I wanted to contemplate.
“How long have you been with Themis?” the young nightwalker asked, trying to redirect his thoughts.
“A few centuries.”
“Why did you join them? You don’t seem to be the type to fall in with a cult,” I teased, my hand falling away from Tristan.
“They’re not a cult.”
“Answer the question.”
“Because I seek balance,” Danaus said, to my surprise. He rarely answered my questions about himself, but apparently I had not dug too deep. I wondered if his powers had kept him out of balance.
“And what did you do before Themis?” I wanted to know about the shadows that lurked in his beautiful eyes. What horrors had he witnessed, and had he ever been the cause?
The steering wheel creaked again. “I hunted and destroyed evil.”
“That’s rather vague.” Tristan stirred beneath me. “Whose definition of evil are you going by?”
“God’s.”
“Great. So you’ve spent your life hunting nightwalkers because some human decided we were evil.” Whatever momentary warmth there had been between the three of us shriveled and froze as I balled my right fingers into a fist, my nails digging in my palm. For a time we had forgotten who we were.
“You kill,” Danaus snapped.
“You’re beginning to sound like James.” For a time, I think we forgot that we were still on opposite sides; that we were working under a temporary and fragile truce. “Humans kill. You kill. So do we. It may not be right, but we do what we must to survive.”
A tense silence hung heavy in the air as Danaus turned off the main road and the car seemed to grow darker. I opened my eyes and peripherally could see only flashes of sky through the trees that thickened around us, blotting out the remaining half of the moon.
Before me, Danaus’s powers flowed out from his body, bathing me in its warmth, easing my tension. “There are no naturi here.”
“Are you sure? You couldn’t sense Rowe,” I said, wishing I could sit up and look around.
“There are no naturi here,” Danaus repeated calmly.
“Why can you feel them while I cannot?” Tristan demanded.
Loosening the tension from my fingers, which had been balled into a fist, I forced myself to relax. I needed to conserve my energy if I was going to make it through the next few minutes. The darkness was crowding in again, and I could no longer hold my eyes open. My body had tried to heal itself, but without more blood, it was hopeless. As it was now, I was using up most of my energy just to stay alive.
“Because they are the essence of life itself and you are no longer alive.”
“But I can sense you and other living things,” I whispered.
“You can sense all things that are human, or at least started human, because a part of you is still human. The naturi world is closed to you.” His voice was strong, like a hand massaging the tension from my shoulders.
“Then how is it that nightwalkers can seal them away from this world?”
“That, I do not know.”
“Just keep working on that, will you?” I said, my words fading toward the end.
Danaus parked the car and turned off the motor. I gave up trying to look around and slipped back into Tristan’s mind. He was terrified but was holding together for now. He looked up at the enormous mansion that loomed before us. Every window was filled with light despite the late hour. Apparently, their unexpected guests were causing a bit of a stir.
Tristan had already scanned the manor, easily finding both Michael and Gabriel. While Tristan had never met either human, I knew both extremely well and could recognize them in his thoughts. The other humans were a hive of chaos; anxious, fearful, but also curious. Sadira remained hidden, and Tristan was reluctant to step out of the car.
She has been told to hide herself, I said softly in his mind. She is here.
Are you sure?
Positive.
I slipped out of Tristan’s mind but still felt something else humming in the air. For a moment I thought it was Tristan or Danaus, but the signature of the power was different. There was a magic user inside, a very powerful one.
Danaus heard me softly chuckle as he opened Tristan’s door. “What?” he asked. He probably thought I’d finally lost my mind.
“Some interesting occupants. I look forward to meeting them,” I replied. Of course, that was assuming Sadira could put me back together again.
Twenty-Two
Blinking against the bright entrance, I tried to raise my hand to cover my eyes, but it was too heavy to move. Instead, I pressed my head into Tristan’s bare, blood-smeared chest as he carried me into the great manor. It seemed they had flicked on every light in the place, much like James had earlier in the evening, attempting to protect themselves against the dark creatures entering their sanctuary. Before closing my eyes, I caught a glimpse of the enormous marble and wood staircase that dominated the main hall. On both the left and right of the hall, doors were pulled open and footsteps scraped and echoed off the hardwood floors as people stepped out to inspect Tristan and me.
“Sadira,” I murmured softly against Tristan, my lips lightly brushing the cool skin of his chest. I wasn’t sure if anyone could actually hear me anymore. The world was fading away—the pain had dimmed and I could no longer feel Tristan’s arms holding me.
“Mira?” Tristan’s worried voice demanded an answer, but I simply didn’t have the energy to reply. “Sadira! Where is she? We’re losing Mira.”
The young nightwalker’s question was answered with a horrible sound, a mix of scream and snarl. It was Sadira. I knew her voice, its every tone, pitch, and nuance. For years it had echoed through my brain, a singsong chant I could never escape.
Soft hands touched my face, turning my head. “Mira! Open your eyes and look at me now!” Sadira commanded.
My eyelids fluttered for a brief moment before I finally gave up the attempt. Licking my lips, I drew in a slow breath. “We had…problems,” I whispered.
A snarl of low curses escaped Sadira in a rough voice, but she was very gentle when she pressed a kiss to my temple before resting my head against Tristan’s chest again. “I need somewhere to work undisturbed. There. In there.”
My thoughts drifted away for a while. I was vaguely aware of Tristan carrying me somewhere followed by a flurry of angry voices and some slamming doors. A soft whimper escaped me as Tristan set me down on a hard surface that I could only guess was a long tabletop. The bright lights were banked at last and I was able to force my eyes open a crack. Tall bookshelves lined the wall to my right, broken only by portraits of grim-faced men with gray and white hair.
“They found us…” I forced out as my eyes fell shut again. There was no more time. I had to tell Sadira what happened so she could tell Jabari. The Elder would fix it; he’d be able to stop the naturi. “They killed Thorne. N-Need another.”
“I know,” Sadira whispered. I could only guess that Tristan had caught her up on the evening’s events while I drifted in and out of consciousness. She was standing beside me. Her small hand swept over my forehead, pushed hair away from my face. “But we need to heal you now.”
“Triad—”
“None of that matters. None of that matters without you.” Sadira pressed a kiss to my cheek and then my forehead. “I need you to relax your mind.”
“Tired. So…tired.” I was exhausted. Tired of fighting, tired of the pain.
And then something stirred. Swamped within the pain, I felt something faint shift in my thoughts, but as I tried to focus on it, it slipped away, pulling back into the swirling mist that consumed my thoughts. I reached out again, searching for the movement, and then the pain was gone.
My eyes flew open and I screamed. My thoughts came to a screeching halt as I looked around me. The wall of books and stern-looking men was completely gone. The gleaming hardwood streaked with my blood was gone. Around me were cold stone walls an
d wooden torches held in wrought-iron sconces guttering with firelight in the large room. It was a dungeon. It was the dungeon below Sadira’s castle in Spain. It was the room where I’d been reborn.
Another scream of panic rose up in my throat as I sat up and twisted around to thoroughly scan the room. It couldn’t be the same place. When I closed my eyes, I’d been dying on a boardroom table in England. Sadira didn’t have the ability to instantly flit from place to place like Jabari. It couldn’t be real.
“It’s not real.” Her disembodied voice floated through the air for a moment before she came through the stone wall to my right and stood beside where I sat on the long stone slab. “The pain was taking you away from me. I needed to take you away from the pain so I could heal you. The damage is…extensive. Organs have been shredded and your heart has been punctured. You’re dying.”
“I guessed as much,” I sighed. Anxiety crawled up my spine, digging claws into my back. I could tell my brain that it wasn’t real, but rising panic wasn’t buying it. It looked real, it felt real, it smelled real. “But why here?”
“I need you to trust me,” Sadira said with a soft smile, tilting her head to one side. “This is the one time in your life you trusted me completely.”
A snort escaped me as I swung my legs over the side of the stone table and dropped to my feet, putting the table between us. “I have never trusted you.”
“That is an interesting lie,” she chided. “You lay helpless night after night for ten years, completely dependent upon me to keep you alive. I was in your mind; you never doubted that I would return each night to you.”
I stood with my left hip pressed against the stone slab, my arms crossed over my chest. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sadira watching me, waiting for my response. I knew she was right. I had trusted her to bring me into her world, not to abandon me. But at that point my only other option was death.
For a moment Sadira’s image wavered, and I turned to face her, automatically reaching for her, but my hand passed through her. “So much damage…” Her voice whispered through the air, but her lips never moved. She was having troubling repairing the damage and maintaining the fantasy world. Pain cut through my chest, doubling me over, my forehead pressed against the stone table before me. I felt nothing but the pain for several seconds before it faded again like a wave pulling back out to sea.
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