Dayhunter

by Jocelynn Drake

  “He couldn’t, but we could,” I corrected. Macaire’s eyebrows jumped at that bit of information, and even Jabari cracked. Actually, it was just a twitch of one corner of his mouth, but it was something.

  “Molto impressionante. It explains how you were able to incinerate the naturi far from your location. It was my understanding that you could only burn that which you could see,” Macaire said. The fingers of his right hand restlessly moved on the arm of his chair, and he was now sitting up a little straighter.

  “Yes, well this is all very new to me considering that my memory was wiped,” I sneered. My fingers balled into fists and it was all I could do to keep from lighting the tapestries hanging about the room on fire. “I thought the Coven would know exactly what I was capable of, considering it spent nearly a century experimenting on me.” My words dripped with sarcasm so acidic I feared they would soon eat through the marble floor.

  “That was Jabari’s realm,” Macaire said with a dismissive wave of his hand, but the motion was stiffer this time and there was something that flickered in his eyes again. There had always been a certain amount of tension between Macaire and Jabari. While they never openly attacked each other, they had no problems pitting their various flunkies and followers against one another. I would have been willing to wager that either Macaire couldn’t control me or had never been given the opportunity to try.

  Again the door on the left swung open, halting the conversation. Into the room stepped a female naturi. She wore a simple homespun dress and her long blond hair was braided down her back. There were five clans of naturi—earth, wind, water, light, and animal. She was too slender and willowy to be a member of the animal clan, which were typically dark, swarthy creatures rippling with muscles. A water clan member couldn’t be out of water, and her coloring was all wrong for what I had seen of the earth clan, as their hair and skin pigment had the same variety as a summer flower garden. So that left only wind and light. If she was a light clan member, I was in trouble if I attacked, as she would be able to use fire as easily as me. But I couldn’t imagine the Coven allowing a light clan member in their midst. Of course, I would never have imagined seeing a naturi walking free in the Great Hall.

  With her hands folded in front of her like a nun going to prayer, she walked quietly into the room. Keeping her eyes on the Elders, she bowed her head to them, but ignored our trio completely.

  “What is she doing here?” I demanded, each word struggling up my throat and past my lips. My whole body was clenched with rage. I had thought my reaction to seeing Sadira for the first time in five centuries was bad. This was infinitely worse. The sight of the slender creature with her sharp features instantly made me want to rip her apart with my bare hands. I wanted to hear her scream and plead for her life. And then I wanted to hear her plead for me to kill her.

  Nightmarish memories of my two-week captivity at Machu Picchu centuries ago came screaming back with a flawless clarity. She reminded me of the starvation and the pain that flooded all of my senses so that there was no escape. The naturi had captured and tortured me in hopes of breaking my mind. They wanted me to use my powers to destroy my own kind. As I stared at her now, the scars on my back burned anew.

  Danaus stepped forward so he was standing beside me. His right hand reflexively reached for a weapon that wasn’t there. Frustrated, his hand fell back to his side, clenched in a fist.

  “You asked to see her,” Macaire said with laughter in his voice.

  “Why is she on the island?” My voice cracked across them like a whip snapping at the air.

  Macaire stiffened and moved to sit on the edge of his chair. “We have business together,” he briskly replied.

  “The only business we have with their kind is their total extermination!” I took a couple slow steps toward the naturi, my hands before me with my fingers curled into claws. I didn’t have any weapons, but I would happily have killed her with my bare hands. The naturi turned frightened eyes on me and stumbled a couple of steps back, edging closer to the raised dais and the Elders.

  “Macaire!” she cried in her soft lilting voice.

  “Stop, Mira!” Macaire shouted, jumping to his feet. “She has the protection of the Coven.”

  Those words stopped me cold. My body froze as if my mind had suddenly lost the ability to command it, had forgotten how to work my limbs. With infinite slowness I turned my head to look at the Elders. “What?” The word barely made it past the lump in my throat.

  “Stop,” Macaire commanded.

  I ignored him and dragged my eyes to Jabari’s face, who sat watching me. “Say it,” I snarled, my voice harsh and rough.

  Jabari rose from his chair, his head held high. “She has the protection of the Coven,” he said loud and clear. His words reverberated through my chest until I was sure I would shatter into a million jagged shards.

  Wrapping my arms around my waist, I nearly doubled over in horror. “How could you betray us?” I moaned. “They killed hundreds of our kind.”

  “The same could be said about the man that stands beside you,” Jabari replied. A cold smile slithered across his broad lips, stretching his dark skin to accentuate his hard cheekbones. I reached back one hand, unconsciously trying to move the hunter behind me as if it would better protect him from the Coven.

  “They tortured me for two weeks in hopes of using me as a weapon.” I flung the words at him, even though some part of me knew not one of them cared about the pain I had endured to protect my own kind. “They slaughtered nightwalkers in my domain.”

  “Looking for you,” Elizabeth coolly interjected.

  “They killed Thorne in London,” I said, but my voice had lost some of its earlier strength and venom. I didn’t like where this was going.

  “In an effort to get to you,” Elizabeth replied. Her lovely face was blank of expression but her blue eyes seemed to sparkle and dance in the candlelight. “Our Jabari and Sadira were attacked, all in an effort to get to you.”

  “Times have changed, Mira,” Macaire stated, drawing my wide-eyed gaze to his aged face. “It would seem as if the naturi would have no business with nightwalkers if you were not around.”

  “The naturi don’t change. Not ever,” I snarled, straightening from my wounded stance. They would not pin this on me. But even that bitter declaration seemed to carry with it a whimper of pain. I wasn’t the reason so many of my fellow nightwalkers had been slaughtered. I wasn’t the reason the naturi hunted and killed both humans and nightwalkers. This war started long before I was ever reborn, and I was sure it would continue long after my bones had been reduced to dust. I would not be the Coven’s scapegoat.

  “Unfortunately, we cannot rid ourselves of Mira as of yet,” Jabari announced in a weary voice, as if reluctantly granting me a pardon.

  I snapped. There was no more clear thought, just raw, horrible rage. The Coven was protecting our greatest enemy and threatening my life when I had done everything within my power to protect my own kind from the naturi.

  Stretching my arms out on either side of my body, I started calling up great amounts of energy. Without making the conscious decision, I summoned enormous waves of power to me, pulling energy from every living creature within the region. I could feel it coming to me not just from San Clemente, but from all around Venice. At the same time, grim images of Michael’s and Thorne’s mangled remains crowded in my brain. Memories of my horrific nights with Nerian swamped me, threatening to weigh me down and deter me from my path. The Coven had to be destroyed. It didn’t matter that they were the Elders, or even if I had the ability to do it.

  Overhead, the candles in the chandelier flared, awakening the shadows lounging in the far corners of the hall. The shadows lunged forward and back, reaching out from under the dais chairs and crawling up the cold stone walls. The flags and tapestries waved and rippled as if a fresh breeze had rushed in through an open window.

  You can’t destroy me, desert flower. Jabari’s dark voice whispered through my brai
n, threatening to shatter my concentration. If you attempt this thing, you must be able to kill them both. Destroy the Coven, Mira. Destroy them both.

  The command was little more than a faint whisper among hundreds of fragmented thoughts and painful memories. I tried to weigh the command in that second. It’s what I wanted, but now I was forced to wonder if I wanted the same thing that Jabari wanted after all his lies, betrayal, and manipulation. But I couldn’t afford to pause.

  Before the thought was completely formed in my head, I was stopped by the last person I thought would ever do such a thing. Danaus came up behind me and wrapped his strong arms around me, locking my arms against my body.

  “No!” I screamed, my ragged voice bouncing off the high stone walls. I already felt his power swamping me, struggling to form a cocoon around me before seeping into my skin. He was stealing away my ability to choose. Jabari hadn’t been forcing me. It was almost a test to see what I was capable of.

  “Calm,” Danaus whispered, his hot breath brushing against my ear. I also heard the word repeated in my brain like a thought, blanketing my rage, suffocating the fire. He was trying to use our connection in reverse. Instead of commanding me to draw in the power and destroy, he was using his own powers to control and calm me.

  “No!” I screamed again, but even my voice had begun to weaken. The power I had drawn in was seeping from my body back into the air. I wasn’t sure if he could hear me, but I tried to push my own thoughts into his brain. Help me, Danaus. Together we can crush them like we defeated the naturi. Together we can destroy them.

  But all I heard was silence. I could still feel him in my brain, his will sapping my strength. “They have betrayed us; betrayed my kind,” I whimpered pathetically, feeling as if the remains of my soul were shattering into sharp shards of glass.

  “How dare you say that while you stand there in the embrace of a vampire hunter!” Jabari raged, his calm finally cracking. But I knew now it was an act after his attempt to have me destroy the other Coven members.

  “He saved you in England!” I shouted, my eyes locking on his twisted face. “He protected you and Sadira when the naturi attacked. He protected you.”

  “He’s protecting us even now,” Elizabeth proclaimed, gracefully rising from her seat. There was a look of open surprise on her pale heart-shaped face. “Look. She was trying to kill us all, but he stopped her.” Her voice was haunting, like a half-remembered dream drifting through my brain.

  All three Elders were now standing and staring at us with a mixture of wonder and confusion. Something strange had happened, and everyone was individually working on the implications. A renowned vampire hunter who had killed countless other nightwalkers had potentially saved the lives of the Coven. Not exactly something that happened every day.

  “Send the naturi away,” Danaus barked, his arms still locked around me.

  Macaire wasn’t happy with the order, but he could see the wisdom in it. I obviously couldn’t control myself when she was around. The Elder nodded, and the terrified female naturi ran from the room and slammed the door behind her. With her gone, Danaus released me. He had effectively sapped all my strength, and I fell to my hands and knees. I glared wordlessly up at the Coven. I hated them. You didn’t do business with the naturi. You didn’t talk to them. You didn’t make deals with them. You killed them.

  Jabari and Elizabeth had returned to their seats, lost in thought, but Macaire remained standing, his sharp eyes never leaving my face. I could almost hear the cold, steel wheels in his mind churning away, examining each angle of what had happened.

  “That is enough for today,” he suddenly announced, his voice taking on a weary tone. “You may go now. We will talk more tomorrow.”

  “What about the seal? And the triad?” I cried, slapping my hand angrily against the marble floor. Nothing had been discussed and yet he was calling an end to court for the night.

  “We have much to think about,” Macaire said, returning to his seat. “We will talk more tomorrow.”

  I was about to argue again. I had obviously lost all common sense the second the naturi entered the room. A smart person would have picked herself off the ground and left, grateful that she was still alive. But I got off lucky. The moment I was about to speak, I heard Macaire’s voice in my head. We will speak again later. I got the point. Macaire wanted a private meeting. So be it. The scheming had begun anew.

  EIGHT

  Danaus tried to help me off the ground, but I jerked out of his grasp and less than gracefully pushed to my feet. I was livid with him and the Coven. Had he done the right thing? Had he saved our lives because I lacked the ability to control my temper? Had he pulled me away from whatever game Jabari was playing? Yes, but I was still angry. In the boat the night before I chose our joining, let him control me. But minutes ago he’d taken away my choices and forced me. I didn’t give a damn right now if it was for our own good.

  I wanted to tear his throat out, to see him crumpled and bleeding at my feet. My body had been used and abused, first by my own brethren and now by my enemy. I felt dirty down to my very core. I had become a thing worse than chum. I couldn’t even fight my fate, only obey.

  To twist the knife even further, I couldn’t lash out at Danaus. The Coven and its dedicated court were watching closely. If I were to strike out at him, any one of them might take it as a green light to have some fun, and I was too weak to fend them off. And I’d made a promise to get him out of Venice alive. For now, we were one big happy family.

  Silently, our little group—Danaus, Sadira, and I—trooped out of the main hall and across the island back to the dock. The other nightwalkers kept their distance, but were closely watching our progress. I had no doubt they’d sensed my display of power. I was sure that creatures all over Italy had felt it. You don’t create waves like that and not draw attention.

  “Out of the boat,” I snapped at Roberto, who stood behind the wheel. He frowned at me but said nothing as he stepped on the docks. We jumped on the little speed boat and I threw it into reverse. I had some business to take care of and I didn’t want to have a nightwalker following me. The Coven would give me a little space for now. I had a bit of interesting information, but it wasn’t going to do me much good at the moment. No one would believe me if I said the Coven was plotting something with the naturi. Not only was it ridiculous, but it would also be coming from a nightwalker traveling with a vampire hunter.

  “What’s going on?” Sadira softly asked when we were halfway across the Lagoon.

  “I don’t know yet,” I said, refusing to look at her. I directed the boat down the Guidecca Canal, narrowly dodging a shuttle bus as it trudged across the narrow waterway, sending up a spray of water on some of the passengers. The driver’s curses barely rose above the rumble of the boat’s engine. “But I’ll know before we leave here.”

  “There was a naturi, Mira!” Sadira said, her voice jumping in pitch. The sight of the naturi had left her shaken, crushing the last of her composure. “A naturi in the Great Hall!”

  “I noticed.” I shifted the boat into neutral and let it glide into the hotel landing. I looked up at the large, elegant Hotel Cipriani. Tristan was pacing in front of the windows, waiting for our return. No one had bothered him, but that had not lessened his anxiety. Since marking him, his thoughts came clearly to me when I wanted them. I would have known instantly if a vampire had laid a hand on him. But it also worked in reverse. He could feel my own concerns and anxiety, though my exact thoughts were shrouded.

  “Go up to the suite and calm Tristan,” I ordered, gripping the steering wheel. I needed to be away from her. I needed some space from Sadira, the Coven, and this whole damned situation so I could think clearly. “But do not harm him in any way. You know that none of this is his fault. It’s between you and me.”

  “And what are your plans for him?” she inquired from her seat, her voice hardening to rusty steel. After our encounter in the room and with the Coven, she had once again grown wary of
me. During our last years together, Sadira had been a constant shadow in my brain, fearing my powers. The fear had left her a hollow shell, resulting in the death of many of her other pets.

  I spun on my heels, my fists clenched as I looked down at her. A loose tendril of hair fell against my cheek, tickling my neck. “I have no plans for him! I don’t want him. He’s your pet, and you should have taken care of him. You know they would have torn him apart tonight.”

  “He has to learn to protect himself,” she said in such a matter-of-fact tone that I longed to smack her. “You were younger than he when you first appeared before the court.”

  “I was also ten times stronger, and even then I barely survived.” I took another step closer to her, clenching my fists so tight my nails began to cut into the palms of my hands. “You only let him go because you are too much of a coward to stand up to the court.”

  “How dare you call me a coward after I stood with you before the Elders!” she said, surging to her feet. Her sudden movement caused the little boat to rock and lurch in the water.

  “You stood with me because you were confident that I would protect you. That is beginning to wear thin.”

  She smiled back at me, her usual beatific smile of peace and supreme confidence. “I’m your mother, my Mira. You will always protect me.”

  “Get out of here,” I growled, pulling back my lips to expose my fangs. Her smile never wavered as she alighted from the boat and walked gracefully up the landing into the hotel. She sacrificed Tristan to save her own skin, and she knew that I would step forward and protect both of them from the Coven. I wanted to scream. My decisions weren’t wrong. I needed the triad intact, which meant protecting Sadira, though I longed to rip her throat out. It was insane to fight her, because winning would be finally killing her, and I couldn’t.