Burn the Night

by Jocelynn Drake

  “It’s too late. We’re exposed to the world.”

  Rowe shrugged one shoulder, wincing at the motion as wounds still tried to mend. “I guess it was only a matter of time before they found out.”

  “I would have preferred to handle it in a more civilized manner.”

  “Why hide the truth?” he asked.

  “Self-preservation,” I snapped. “They are going to be hunting us now to rein in the danger we present to them.”

  As if on cue, a human barked out over a blow horn, “Everyone step out into the open with your hands behind your head! You are all under arrest.”

  Rowe gave a snort as his hand fell on the hilt of the sword at his side. He was more than ready to jump into battle with a bunch of humans. To him, they were nothing more than vermin that needed to be exterminated. I gently laid a hand over his, stopping him from drawing the weapon.

  “We can’t fight them,” I firmly said. “This is the Great Awakening. We have to face this mess and not make a bigger one.”

  “Then what do you propose?”

  I frowned, hating to utter the words. It was not something I was accustomed to. Like Rowe, I was a fighter, ready to face any situation head on, but now was not the time. “We run,” I said.

  Rowe stared out at the gathering of humans around us, a dark look on his face. I think he was beginning to realize the futility of trying to fight this many humans at once. It would only bring more, and the humans outnumbered us, after all. It would be an endless battle that we couldn’t win. As Cynnia had suggested, we had to find a way to coexist, which wasn’t going to be easy or pretty.

  “Okay,” he finally conceded.

  “Can you get your people out of here and somewhere safe outside the city?” Danaus asked him. “Somewhere hidden?”

  “Yes, we can get out of here. What about you?”

  “What about us?” Knox demanded, coming up behind me. I thought that I’d sensed him alive earlier, but it was a relief to see him in person.

  “I’ll provide a distraction for the nightwalkers and the lycanthropes,” I said, fighting back a relieved grin. “Spread the word. The distraction won’t last long, so they have to move fast. Tell everyone they need to lay low for the next few weeks. Find new hiding places outside the city if necessary. Wait for direction from me.”

  Knox nodded once and then disappeared back into the shadows thrown by the massive trees, to spread the word to the rest of the nightwalkers in the area. I turned to Rowe, who gave me a little salute before launching back into the air. I held my breath as he streaked across the sky on massive black wings. Spotlights followed him as he moved, but not a single shot was fired. From the crowd of humans, I could hear exclamations of terror and shock. For now, however, they were too stunned and afraid to fire. I hoped that mind-set would last a little while longer.

  Alone with Danaus, I found the hunter staring at me, waiting for my next move. I had one shot at this, and only one way of getting him out of there alive. I just prayed that I had enough strength left to pull off this little stunt. I was shaking with exhaustion, but still had to carry on, for both his protection and the protection of my people.

  “I’m hoping you’ve got an escape plan for the both of us,” he said with a smirk. “I would really prefer not to spend the rest of the night and the next few centuries locked in a human prison while they try to figure out exactly what I am.”

  “I’ve got a trick or two left up my sleeve. However, you’re just going to have to trust me on this one.” I extended my right hand toward him, with the palm open. Without hesitation, he threaded his fingers through mine as we slowly walked out into the opening that was littered with the dead bodies of both naturi and nightwalkers.

  “Put your hands behind your heads!” ordered the same gruff human voice.

  With a smile, I raised our entwined hands and pressed a kiss to the back of Danaus’s hand before I released it and placed both of my hands behind my head.

  “Drama queen,” Danaus muttered under his breath as he did the same with his hands.

  “You only wish you would have thought of it first,” I teased, squinting against the bright light.

  Danaus gave a snort but said nothing more as I mentally contacted the other nightwalkers, warning them to be ready. Closing my eyes, I tapped into the powers that had been with me since birth, the power that had caught the attention of nightwalkers, naturi, bori, and even a god. All around the park a wall of fire sprang up, separating us from the humans. At different intervals I created breaks in the fire, allowing the lycanthropes, naturi, and nightwalkers to slip through while the humans focused on the unexpected fire.

  To my surprise, Danaus’s hands were on either side of my face and he turned me to face him. I opened my eyes in time to see him lean down, and then my eyes fell shut again as he deeply kissed me. I tasted both his strength and his fear for what was to come. I tasted his dry sense of humor and his protectiveness in that kiss. But most of all, I tasted his love for me.

  I dropped my hands so they rested on his shoulders and leaned my forehead against his. “Are you ready for this?”

  “I’ll follow you anywhere,” he whispered, brushing a kiss against my cheek so that he caught a falling tear.

  Extinguishing the flames in a sudden flash, I tapped into some of the powers Nick had blessed me with and we disappeared from the park in the blink of an eye, without a trace, leaving the humans with only the image of two creatures in a loving embrace.

  Thirty-six

  Holding Danaus close, I buried my face in his chest, not wanting to look around at the all-too-familiar pale white-gray stone that rose up around us to make the ruins of Machu Picchu. In August we had marched up this mountain to stop Rowe and the other naturi from setting Aurora and the rest of the naturi horde free. It had taken us a few months, the sacrifice of several good friends, and the loss of our secrecy, but Aurora had finally been dispatched. And oddly enough, I now counted Rowe as one of my allies, though I didn’t expect that particular development to last long.

  Now we had returned for an equally dark and dangerous task I was once again hesitant to face. If it were at all possible, the stakes were higher, but then I had more to lose this time around. I was relying on Danaus to follow my direction, though I knew it would clash with everything he believed. It was too much to ask, so I was meeting my accomplice.

  At a small metallic click behind me, I turned around. Adio stood on a ledge just a few feet above where Danaus and I stood in an open field with a single tree. In his hand, he held a gold pocket watch, which he shoved into his pant pocket. He stepped down to the grassy area with a vampire’s grace and slowly walked over to where I clung to Danaus. The hunter had yet to speak, but then, I feared he was beginning to guess at my grand plan to stop Nick.

  “You look as if you’ve had a rough evening already,” Adio stated, his eyes skimming over me from my mud-caked boots, to my blood- and mud-splattered clothes, to my wet hair and face. Where the rain had just abated in Savannah as the various forces retreated, the air in mountains surrounding Machu Picchu, Peru, was clear and cool. Overhead, millions of stars twinkled in a cloudless sky, enveloping us as if we were the only three creatures left on the planet.

  “You’ve gotten your wish,” I said, reluctantly dropping one hand from around Danaus’s waist so I could better turn to face Our Liege. “The Great Awakening has started. The humans witnessed the battle with the naturi, and then a second fight with the Daylight Coalition. By now the war has been broadcast all across the world. Nightwalkers will awaken to discover that the world is now hunting for them.”

  “We will make this right, Mira,” Adio tried to smoothly reassure me, but I wasn’t buying it. “I have nightwalkers picked to step forward and act as spokespeople for our race. We will do some damage control. The Daylight Coalition will not be the only force out there making their message heard. Our people will survive.”

  “But what kind of a world will they face?”

&nb
sp; “A different one,” Danaus said, squeezing the arm that was still wrapped around his waist. “But one that they will find a way to survive and thrive in. It just might take a little time.”

  I nodded, closing my eyes for a moment, then raising my gaze back to Adio. It was nearing time. “I sent a packet of information to my closest assistant and friend. His name is Knox, child of Valerio. He has been given money and directions on how to reach my second domain of Budapest if things become too difficult in Savannah. He has also been given instructions to seek out Valerio in Vienna if necessary. I would like your word that you will keep a protective eye over them.”

  “I will,”

  “Knox may also be traveling with a human named Gabriel. He is to be protected as well.”

  “I understand.”

  “There is nothing I can do for the remains of the Savannah pack,” I murmured mostly to myself with a shake of my head. Barrett had suffered so much, mostly because of me. So many lives had been lost, and yet he’d stuck by me through so much death and destruction.

  “You have done what you can,” Danaus said, stopping my train of thought. “Barrett will see to his people. He will protect his family and James.”

  “Valerio and Knox have been among my closest companions and trusted allies. See to their safety. Also, as much as Stefan and I don’t see eye-to-eye, I believe he will be a good leader of the coven if it remains intact. Find others with a similar strength and vision to save our people.”

  “I will see to it, taking a more active role now that the Great Awakening has occurred,” Adio promised.

  I stared at the nightwalker that could still look into the beauty of the sunlight each morning and smile. I wanted to tell Adio to watch over Danaus as well. I wanted to tell him to protect Danaus from the nightwalkers that would tear him apart if I were not there at his side, but I didn’t dare utter the words out loud. I could only look at Adio with pleading eyes, praying that he understood what I so desperately wanted to say. To my surprise, he placed his right hand lightly over his heart and bowed to me.

  “Are you sure you have the strength for this?” Adio asked after a moment of silence. “You’ve already been in quite a tussle this evening, and you need to be at your peak if you’re to have any hope of succeeding.”

  I started walking across the ground to the main ceremonial clearing, which was up at another level. “The energy flowing through this sacred place is mind blowing. It will be enough to carry me through the tasks at hand.”

  “Are you sure he will come?” Danaus asked.

  “He will the moment he realizes what I have done, I’m counting on it.”

  I paused at the massive clearing, my vision blurring for a moment to another time. Some of the walls of Machu Picchu were now lit with a handful of lamps, throwing broad swaths of yellow lights against the white stones, but the night I was remembering had been filled with torchlight and a bonfire. In the middle of the open area thirteen humans had been tied together in a circle. The naturi had in one smooth stroke cut out their hearts and offered them up as a sacrifice to whatever gods that might be listening, opening the door I had closed centuries earlier.

  Tonight I would not need a flood of human blood to paint the grass, or the cries of the innocent to float into the air moments before their death. I could open the door on my own because I had made this door and I was its key.

  “What’s the plan?” Danaus asked.

  “I open the door. We go in. You and Adio will kill any naturi that attempts to escape through the opening. I doubt they will be paying much attention to me when they face potential freedom. I will go in looking for the goddess. When I find her, Danaus, you will take her out and get her somewhere safe.”

  “And Nick?”

  “He will follow me in.”

  “And you’ve got some brilliant plan for trapping him and you getting out again?” he asked, his tone growing more brusque.

  “I do.”

  “Once I get the goddess settled—”

  “You will stay by her side no matter what. You will not reenter the cage. Once I engage Nick in the cage, Adio is going to come out and help you guard her. She must be protected.”

  “Mira!”

  “No, Danaus!” I snapped, turning on my right heel to face him. “We follow my plan or I take you back to Savannah now and I will leave you there.” We glared at each other for several seconds. I could hear his heart pounding in his chest, and for a moment I could feel a pressure in my brain as he tried to enter my thoughts and read my full intentions, but I kept him blocked out. The only feelings I wanted him to sense from me at that moment were love and determination. I would not be swayed from this course. Nick had to be stopped, and he had to be stopped now, when the world was so precariously balanced on the cusp of a major transition. He could not be permitted to step in as the next major power.

  Danaus said nothing as I turned to Adio. Pulling the sword from my side, I handed it to him. He tested the weight and the balance before giving it a few good swipes through the air. I was vastly relieved that it seemed he at least knew how to use a sword. I hadn’t been sure, but it was hard to live a long existence in this world without picking up a few skills in self-defense.

  Stepping away from my companions, I approached the center of the field where I had last seen the rip in the sky through which the naturi escaped from their prison. I sucked in a deep breath and held it in my chest as I pulled all the earth energy swirling about me to my fingertips. It was so much easier now than it had been in the summer. Then, it had been like trying to swim upstream in a rushing torrent of water. Now, it was just another part of who I was. The power came to me fast and strong and hot, as if heated by the bowels of the earth before finally reaching my body.

  With my eyes closed, I reached out with my fingers toward the open sky and easily felt where the scar was, marking the entrance into the naturi cage. A faint groan escaped me as I grasped the two jagged edges and pulled them apart. A bright light blinded me for only a moment before my eyes focused on a world that looked all too similar to my own.

  There were green fields edged with dark trees sparsely decorated with shining green leaves. However, the sky above was a leaden gray instead of a deep blue. As I stepped through the opening, I also noticed that the ground was hard and unyielding, with patches of dried dirt showing through the thinning grass. The air was completely still and there were no sounds of singing birds or the scurry of wildlife. This world was dying.

  Behind me, I heard the crunch of earth under heavy feet as Danaus quickly joined me, followed by the lighter step of Adio. I glanced over my shoulder to see that both men had their swords drawn and at the ready. And I felt guilty. Any naturi still trapped in this world were already sick and dying. If they ran, they faced death at the hands of Adio and Danaus, and if they stayed, they faced an even slower death of this world. Were they to escape to the real Earth, they had a chance at life again, this time under Cynnia’s enlightened rule. They had a chance to live.

  “I’ve changed my mind,” I said in a low voice. “Don’t attack anyone unless you are attacked first.”

  “Are you sure?” Adio inquired.

  “You want to give them the chance to escape?” Danaus said.

  “They are already dying here and are doomed to death if they stay, even if we most likely succeed today. Cynnia will give them a second chance.”

  “As you wish,” Adio said softly, to my surprise. I hadn’t expected Our Liege to so quickly follow my direction, but then I believed that his larger focus was on his own survival and the eventual survival of our people. Now that Aurora was dead, the naturi were a smaller concern for the nightwalkers.

  “Do you know where you are going?” Danaus asked as we started across the field and into the surrounding woods. Off in the distance I could see the crumbling remnants of stone and thatch houses built among the trees. I could feel a faint swirling earth energy surrounding us as we preceded, marking the presence of the naturi, but they
didn’t approach us. For now they were content to watch from a distance and edge closer to the opening that I was maintaining in the back of my mind. The pull of power to keep the door open was minimal, like a slowly growing headache in my temple. Nothing more than an annoyance.

  “I can feel a great source of energy ahead of us. It has to be her,” I said as I continued to trudge forward. I placed the knife I had been carrying in my right hand back in its sheath. I wouldn’t need it for the time being.

  “I can feel it as well,” Adio added.

  Unfortunately, a second source of great energy was hovering around what felt to be the entrance to the naturi world. Nick was starting to grow suspicious of my absence from this world and he didn’t trust me. We were running out of time. Danaus and Adio needed to have the goddess in hand by the time Nick appeared or this was all for nothing.

  Grabbing the arms of Danaus and Adio on either my side, I clenched my eyes shut and caused us all to disappear and then suddenly reappear closer to the source of the energy. I couldn’t pinpoint her exact location with the first jump, but we were significantly closer. It felt as if she was in the center of the world, and yet I didn’t know how vast this world was. I would have to rely on Adio to do the same thing with Danaus—to get him out again with the goddess.

  I kept a tight hold on their arms as I jumped us forward a second time, getting significantly closer to the power this time. We jogged the rest of the way to what appeared to be a large tree in the center of a barren field. Here the grass was at its greenest and a castle rose up in the distance. I was willing to bet that Aurora had set up her home as close as she could to the source of the power for her new realm, in hopes that it would strengthen her own powers, regardless of what kind of drain it proved to be on the goddess.

  As we drew closer to the tree, we discovered that it wasn’t a tree at all, but large, thick vines that had grown up from the ground, wrapping around something. The power I had sensed at the doorway was now starting to slowly grow closer to our position. We were running out of time. Stepping back, I raised my hands above my head and let my eyelids drop shut. I dug deep into the energy I sensed from the earth, which was leaking through the doorway, and used it to touch the vines. They proved to be more than a little resistant at first, but after some loud creaking and snapping, the vines started to part and recede back into the ground to reveal a crystal chamber hovering just a few inches above the ground.