With a slight shake of my head, I jumped in, lunging at the naturi that was backing Gabriel toward the wall. After a couple of exchanges he was dead, his head rolling across the room. In the spare moment between adversaries, I tossed Gabriel the gun I’d been carrying. I wasn’t sure how many bullets it still had, but it was better than nothing.
“Keep back and make sure nothing comes through the door,” I said over my shoulder as one of the two naturi attacking Danaus rushed me. We crossed swords, circling each other the best we could considering the floor was thick with miscellaneous body parts and slick with blood. Poorly balanced with my left foot on someone’s chest while my right foot rested on another’s hand, I blocked an overhead blow aimed to split my skull. I finished by swinging my blade down, cleaving my foe in two.
Half stumbling off the dead body, I looked up in time to see Danaus skillfully finish off his opponent with a neat spinning slash that not only lifted and threw the naturi across the room, but cut him clear to the spine. While I was skillful with a sword, watching Danaus was like taking in the Russian ballet. I could feel more than see the ripple of muscle and sinew dancing beneath his tanned skin. Every movement was precisely timed and balanced for the maximum effect. The light throb of his powers tumbled from him to wash through me.
I glanced around the room. Jabari was down to his last two naturi. Sadira knelt beside Tristan, her bloody hands cupping his pale cheeks. Gabriel leaned against the wall near them, struggling to catch his breath.
“How bad is it?” I inquired, looking down at the young nightwalker. We were all covered in blood, making it hard to tell who was actually bleeding.
“The cut isn’t deep, but the sword was charmed,” Sadira said, flicking worried eyes over to me. There was a smear of blood across her forehead, and her blood-soaked clothes clung to her slender frame, making her look even frailer.
“It slows the healing. It’s more pain than actual poison. He’ll survive,” I said, turning my attention to my guardian angel. He stood staring down at the gun in his hand, a frown on his full lips.
“He died saving my life,” I volunteered, struggling to keep my voice steady as an image of Michael lying in my arms flashed across my mind. I should have been paying more attention. I might not have been able to sense the naturi, but I should have heard the door opening or the footsteps.
Gabriel nodded. “Then he died happy.” His fingers tightened around the handgun, his expression hardening. He’d said the words as much for me as for himself. My brown-haired angel had outlived three bodyguards now. The other two had been brash and careless, picking a fight when they should have known better. Michael, in contrast, had been smart. He knew when to keep his head down and how to follow orders. In the end, I was just bad for him.
Forcing my attention back to Danaus, I pushed those regrets aside for now. They would only distract me and get me killed. Later, I would cry bloody tears for my fallen angel. The hunter was staring toward the broken window, his expression intense and drawn. It wasn’t good.
“Here they come.”
I was already moving before the last word crossed his lips. Jabari had just ripped the arms off his final opponent and was standing in the open in the center of the room. Much like Michael had with me earlier this horrible night, I put my shoulder into Jabari, throwing us both to the ground as a barrage of arrows entered the room through the window. These bastards were starting to become predictable.
Frowning, I looked down to find Jabari staring up at me with a stunned look in his wide brown eyes. I guess I would have too, had I been in the same position. Less than an hour ago we’d tried to kill each other.
“It’s been years since we had fun like this,” I said, lying across his strong chest.
Jabari gave a weary sigh, his eyes suddenly turning sad. His face had lost its walking dead look. He looked almost human, or at least a little less like a corpse. “I still do not understand you, desert flower.” He reached up and tucked a dirty, wet strand of hair behind my ear. “But things have not changed between us.”
“I don’t expect them to. You are just one of the many people who wish to kill me right now,” I reminded him as I rolled off his chest and to my feet. I remained squatting down as another barrage of arrows soared through the room. I could smell his blood now that we were so close. He had been cut. It was impossible to tell how many times or how deep. As an Ancient, he would be able to tolerate the pain better than most, but without rest or a meal, he was going to slow down. We all were.
“Promise me something,” I continued, my eyes locked on the window.
“What do you desire?” He knelt beside me, his long body tensed and ready for the attack. His soft accent rippled across me like a soothing hand rubbing my back.
“I love it when you say that,” I teased in a dreamy voice. He said nothing, but his expression hardened in warning. I was pushing my luck. “When the time comes, let it be between us. Don’t let the Coven send one of its flunkies. I deserve better than that.” I looked over to find him smiling, white fangs peeking out beneath his lips.
“As you wish.” His voice was deep and solemn.
Not quite. I wished to walk away from this mess and go home. I wished that I could push the naturi, Themis, Danaus, and this whole nightmare to the farthest reaches of my mind. I wished for my fairy godmother, the good witch of the north, or some other bitch with a wand to glide in here and zap these arrow-shooting assholes. But I wasn’t counting on it.
“How many?” I called across the room. Danaus frowned at me, his grip tightening on the short sword in his hand. He knelt behind some broken furniture near Sadira and Tristan. The naturi blood was beginning to darken and dry on his skin. His cobalt blue eyes glittered in the weak lamp light.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Tell me.”
“Thirty—more or less.”
I nodded, my expression carefully blank. I wanted to scream that it was impossible. I didn’t think there could have been two dozen naturi on the entire island. Unfortunately, one nightwalker was already down and another was starting to weaken. Sadira could hold her own better than I’d previously thought, but Gabriel wasn’t going to last much longer. I was tempted to call for Ryan, but his own people would need him. We were on our own.
As if on cue, naturi started leaping through the open window. Danaus was nice enough to take out the first one from across the room by carefully placing his knife in the creature’s forehead. It was enough to startle the naturi standing next to him, buying me an extra second as I jumped to my feet. The first few fell quickly, but our little group was soon pushed back by their sheer number.
I was only vaguely aware of my companions. I just kept moving, blocking, and slashing. Yet, it seemed for every one I killed, I was forced back a step as two more took his place. Frustration and fatigue finally got the better of me. The naturi I faced now wasn’t a better swordsman, only lucky. I raised my sword to block a swing aimed at my neck and missed the dagger he plunged into my stomach with his free hand. I removed his head with a scream of frustration and pain, but the damage was done.
Crumpling to my knees, the naturi poison surged through my body, adding to the renewed throbbing ache in my left shoulder. Desperate, I did the only thing I could think of: I created fire. It was all I had left. The flames leapt up from the floor in front of me and quickly spread down the line until it separated the naturi from our little group. The naturi stepped back, watching us, possibly wondering what I would do next or waiting for a member of the light clan to appear so he could remove my final weapon.
“Burn them, Mira!” Sadira screamed from some distant point off to my right.
“I can’t.” The words escaped me as a hoarse whisper, but I know she heard me over the crackling flames. My sword clattered to the floor and I pulled the dagger from my stomach. The pain was already beginning to crush my thoughts, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep the flames going much longer. Still weak from the previous night’s
battle, I had too little strength left to call upon.
“Burn them, Mira!” Jabari commanded angrily. “Destroy them all.”
I wanted to say no, but I was too tired to even form the word. I looked up to find Danaus standing beside me, his hand extended, offering to help me to my feet.
“Let’s finish this together,” he calmly said. “Your life is mine to enjoy when I choose.”
I wanted to laugh. Danaus would choose now to make a joke, repeating what I’d said about him days ago to Lucas. I think I smiled. I’m not really sure since I could no longer feel my lips over the pain in my abdomen.
But most important, he was making a deal with me; one last push with us both using our powers to destroy the naturi that stood watching their prey. If we survived, we’d both be exhausted and at the mercy of whoever was left standing. Unfortunately, we were out of options.
Slowly, I lifted my bloody right hand from my stomach and placed it in Danaus’s hand. And I screamed. Whatever pain I’d felt from the naturi poison was a mere bee sting compared to the power flowing through my body now. It surged down my arm and through my limbs, threatening to peel my flesh from my bones. It kept building, trying to rip me apart.
Burn them.
I blinked and found myself standing somehow, but the room was growing black. “I—I can’t see them,” I said in a choked voice. Panic was crowding in where the pain had yet to sink.
Yes, you can.
This time I realized the voice in my head belonged to Danaus. I wanted to curse and scream at him, but something strange caught my attention. I suddenly realized the room was more crowded now. A split-second search revealed I could now sense the naturi.
I picked through the occupants of the room as the pain built to a point where it seemed I was hanging onto consciousness by a thread. As I reached out, there was only one thought left in my brain—to kill them. I mentally tried to grab their hearts and set them on fire. It was a trick I’d used in the past that had proved effective, but something would not let me. It pushed me toward this almost wispy throb of energy in each naturi. Too weak to fight it, I gave in and wrapped the powers building in me around that bit of smoke.
Another scream ripped from my throat, louder than the first, as the energy flowed out of me. My knees buckled and I fell, still tightly clasping Danaus’s hand as if it were my last anchor to sanity. As the pain ebbed, I heard the thought again.
Kill them all.
My focus cleared and I felt more naturi. Without hesitation I pushed outward, past the walls of the manor, into the trees surrounding the compound. I set aflame every throb of naturi energy I ran across, pushing the power out until I finally encountered a different feeling of power blocking my reach somewhere miles from the Compound.
Then the energy stopped. Beside me, I heard Danaus drop to his knees, my hand slipping from his to thud against the cold, sticky floor. The room was silent except for his ragged breaths. My body still hurt with an intensity I never thought possible, but my thoughts were clearing, and I wished they hadn’t.
I realized with a startling clarity what I had done. I’d destroyed their souls; wiped them completely from existence. Previously, I had just set their bodies on fire. Yes, I killed them with a certain amount of glee, but their souls had been free to pursue whatever afterlife they believed in. This time there was nothing left. My eyes were closed but I could smell the charred bodies and burned hair. I had destroyed them completely. And not just the ones attacking us. I had obliterated every naturi within several miles of the Themis compound.
Twenty-Eight
The silence was overwhelming. After the heavy pound of footsteps, clang of steel, and screams of pain, the quiet was suffocating. Even Sadira’s thoughts were now hushed. I could still feel her in the room, but there was only a muffled confusion. Did she know what I had done? I hated the naturi with every fiber of my being, but had I known I was capable of such utter destruction, I would never have committed the atrocity. Taking a life is one thing. The body ceases, but something of the creature still lives on somewhere. I had stopped that, done something I didn’t think possible.
But how? It didn’t make sense. I had never done such a thing before. Even at my peak, I should have been able to only flambé the occupants of the room, if even that. There were so many, and I was exhausted.
Something happened when I touched Danaus. Not only had I been able to sense them, which is unheard of among nightwalkers, but I could also destroy their souls.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and turned my head to the right to look at Danaus. The ebony-haired hunter sat on the floor beside me, his body hunched over. His head was bowed, leaving his face hidden behind a curtain of long dark locks. He had been affected as much as I, his breath still ragged and uneven. When he finally looked over at me, I saw my horror mirrored in his blue eyes.
Danaus reached out to touch my arm, but I lurched across the floor, pushing away from him. “Don’t touch me!” I shrieked. I cringed, nearly curling into a ball as a fresh wave of pain washed through my body. It was blinding, but my fear of what had happened was greater. I know it didn’t make much sense. I had crawled all over the man on more than one occasion and nothing had happened, but the memory and pain were still too fresh.
“Mira?” Sadira said, her voice a fragile shade of its normal strength.
“They’re gone.” My words had been reduced to a pathetic whimper. The raw ache was starting to subside at last and my thoughts were coming together in a more logical fashion. I lifted my head and reluctantly gazed around the room. It was a disaster, something from a nightmare, with body parts strewn haphazardly around the small area. But to me, the most garish of these grisly sights were the bodies of those I’d destroyed. After their souls were incinerated, their bodies had been reduced to gray and white ash. Most had collapsed into large heaps, but a few still stood like thin, dirty snowmen. Because of me, the island was dotted with dirty snowmen, empty shells waiting for a breeze.
“Then it’s done,” Sadira said. She was sounding strong, more sure of herself. “The triad has been reformed.”
“So you believe me now,” I said, trying to force a smile on my lips. But it fell short. What I really wanted was to vomit. My stomach twisted in a desperate dance to purge itself of the violence I had been responsible for, but I’d lost too much blood during the past couple nights.
“No!” Jabari roared, his angry voice an explosion in the silent room. “It can’t be him.”
“Him?” My head jerked up to look from Jabari to Sadira, but both of them were ignoring me.
“He’s not even one of our kind,” Jabari declared.
“Apparently that does not matter,” Sadira said matter-of-factly. “You felt the power in this room as much as I did.”
“No!”
“You’d pick Danaus over me to be in the triad?” I demanded. While I was never one to discriminate according to a person’s race, there was something that irked me about asking Danaus—whatever it is that he was—to be in an all-vampire triad of power. Particularly after he’d spent so much time killing us.
Unfortunately, it might not have been the wisest decision to call attention to myself, considering that I could barely remain in an upright position. I wanted to lie down, but the pools of cooling naturi blood and assortment of body parts made the idea unappealing.
“You’re still blind to the truth?” Jabari asked incredulously. He walked over to me, his face twisted with rage. “You can never be a part of the triad, no matter how old you become or how strong you grow.” Kneeling down so he could look me in the eye, he sneered. “You are just a weapon, nothing more than a sword or a gun, a tool. Your true power is in how another can use you.”
“No,” I croaked, but my mind was already turning over the idea. The voice in my head had been a command and I obeyed. I had no choice, couldn’t have stopped what happened no matter how hard I tried.
“The triad focuses its power in you. We used you like a key to lock the door
between this world and the naturi,” Jabari explained.
“If I was so important to what happened, why can’t I remember that night?” I asked through clenched teeth. The thought of being controlled by another twisted in my chest, numbing the pain still throbbing in my body. It seemed that from the moment I took my first gasping breath on this earth, I’d struggled for my independence, my ability to control my own fate.
“To protect you.”
A snort of disbelief escaped me as I narrowed my eyes at my old friend and guardian. “I’m beginning to think that nothing you’ve ever done for me was for my benefit.”
Jabari smiled at me, and it was unlike any other I had ever seen cross his face. It was like a mask had finally been lifted, one I hadn’t even realized I’d been staring at for the past five hundred years. I had seen him smile in pleasure and in hatred, but now he seemed formed of ice, cold and unyielding. He put a finger under my chin and titled my head up. I tried to jerk my head away but I found that I couldn’t. The leak of power oozing from him through his finger into my skin was slight, but it was enough to cause my already sore muscles to tense. There was a new presence in my head claiming dominion, but he had yet to speak or command me. For now, he was just staking his claim, proving he had control over me.
“You can’t remember because we didn’t want you to remember,” Jabari stated.
“We?”
“The Coven. We needed to know who could control you. You can be quite an effective weapon.”
I gritted my teeth and tried again to move my head away from his touch, and again I couldn’t, which made his smile widen.
“Sadira can control you,” Jabari continued. “Tabor could, and so can I. Surprisingly, a couple of Tabor’s children could as well, so we naturally assumed that it was a matter of finding the proper bloodlines.”
“There were others?” A new horror dug its claws into my flesh. There were no memories to drag up, but I could easily imagine the scene: me playing the puppet for the amusement of the Coven and its lackeys.
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