The naturi weren’t using magic. Was it for fear of tapping into the earth magic that permeated the area? A smile lifted my lips as I turned back around to where Danaus and Penelope were battling four naturi. My guess could prove to be right.
Large drops of ice cold rain started to fall from the sky, landing on my head like small pebbles and instantly soaking into my T-shirt. A flash of lightning forked through the sky, darting from one black mass to the next before being followed by a loud bang of thunder. The storm was still building.
The wind gusted, blowing my hair in front of my face, momentarily blinding me. I pushed it back in time to see another earth naturi running toward Ryan and me, sword raised. Returning the gun to the holster at my back, I beat the creature back with the short sword in my right hand. I didn’t think the worsening weather would help my aim, and I needed to save the last few bullets I had for an emergency.
It was a struggle to fight back the naturi as the storm continued to build. The wind roared while the rain fell in relentless sheets, blinding us. Lightning lashed at the sky, lighting up the area like a strobe light in a smoky nightclub. After finally dispatching my opponent by plunging my sword through his heart, I turned back to Ryan, pressing my left hand to my left thigh in an effort to stem the bleeding. The naturi had gotten in a lucky strike before I killed him. The pain was only a dull throbbing in the back of my mind.
The rain was coming down so hard I could no longer see Danaus and Penelope. All sounds of the battle had been drowned out by the rain and thunder. I couldn’t see Ryan either. He had been only a few feet behind me. I took a few frantic steps forward, sucking in a lungful of air to shout his name when I nearly tripped over his foot. The warlock was seated on the ground, his arms resting on his bent knees before him.
Kneeling before him, I grabbed his slumped shoulder. Ryan jumped, his head snapping up. The tension instantly eased from his shoulder when he realized it was me. “It’s done,” he announced, wiping some of the water from his eyes. His clothes were plastered to his lean frame and he was trembling, either from the cold or exhaustion.
I glanced up at the sky. The storm was still building around us. The lightning that had been content to jump from cloud to cloud was now slamming to the earth with increasing frequency. A couple of trees had already exploded in a shower of sparks and wooden shards as they were struck.
“What do you mean it’s done?” I shouted over the pounding rain. Water blurred my vision and dripped off the end of my nose. If I still breathed, I would have been afraid of drowning. “The storm is getting worse.”
“The storm is getting its energy from this spot. It will continue to build until the energy runs out,” Ryan shouted back.
I instantly released him and nearly lost my balance, as if the world had shifted beneath me. The storm was drawing its power from the well of the earth. It wouldn’t run dry. “Are you insane?” I screamed. “You have to stop it!” If this storm left Crete, it would sweep up through the Aegean Sea, crushing one island after another before slamming into the mainland. Thousands of people were going to be killed.
He stared at me, his mouth soundlessly opening and closing a couple of times. “I can’t,” he finally said when he could use his voice again. “I released this spell. I can’t call it back or control it.”
“Are you insane?” I repeated. It was all I could think to say. Terror had locked up my thoughts.
“You said you wanted to use up the energy,” he shouted angrily back at me.
“Yeah, but not destroy all of southern Europe in the process.” I tightly gripped both of his shoulders and shook him. “You have to stop this.” By the weight still in the air, the spell hadn’t made a dent in the power swelling up from the earth. Ryan had to stop it before it got any worse.
Pain exploded in my cheek and jaw as I was thrown backward, Ryan’s shoulders wretched out of my hands. I slid back across the broken rock until I slammed into a bigger, immovable rock. The sharp edge dug into my back, trying to insert itself between the vertebrae of my spine.
With a groan, I looked up to find Rowe standing next to a confused Ryan. Drenched, but entirely unfazed by the growing storm, the naturi smiled at me as he shoved the warlock aside. Planting his feet wide apart, Rowe casually raised his left hand above his head, his eyes never wavering from me as I pushed to my feet again.
Overhead, the storm calmed. The pounding rain lightened to a steady downpour and the wind stopped trying to push me across the clearing. Rowe had taken control of the storm with little effort and strain.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. He had demonstrated his ability to manipulate the weather when we met in Venice. I just didn’t expect it to be so easy for him. No struggle. No strain. He simply lifted his hand and the fury of the gods slipped into his palm.
While the naturi calmed the raging storm, I quickly looked around. There were still no humans, which meant they couldn’t complete the sacrifice. And then my gaze stumbled back to the warlock, who had also pushed to his feet. They couldn’t complete the sacrifice unless they grabbed Ryan. I needed to get him out of there. I didn’t think Rowe would try to break the seal tonight, but I didn’t want to take my chances and be proven wrong.
“Fancy meeting you here,” I called, brushing my scraped-up hands on the legs of my leather pants. My body was battered, bruised, and thoroughly chilled. What I needed was a good soak in a tub of hot, sudsy water. Instead I got a naturi with an attitude.
“Ancient ruins. Middle of the night. It’s where all the lovers meet,” he taunted, his smile widening to a malicious grin.
I slowly stepped to my left, edging closer to Ryan. I wanted to get between him and Rowe, but the naturi guessed my plan. With a slight twitch of his fingers, a lightning bolt slammed into the ground between Ryan and me. We both dove in the opposite direction, the air around us crackling with energy.
When I looked back at Rowe as I regained my feet, he was closely watching Ryan. The warlock was preparing to cast something; I didn’t have a clue what. I was just worried that he would draw the energy from me, leaving me weak and vulnerable.
“Stupid humans,” Rowe growled, letting his arm fall back to his side. “You’ll never gain the ability to control the weather. The earth is beyond your comprehension.”
“Wow!” I mocked, luring his stare back to me. “I would never have guessed you to be an elitist prick.” Gathering up my energy before Ryan could tap it, I created a fireball in each hand. Because of the ceaseless rain, I put a little more energy behind it.
But something unexpected happened. The energy that had been pressing against me finally found a way into my body. The softball-size fireballs I had attempted to create appeared in my hands larger than basketballs, crackling and spitting in horrific fury. I hurled both of them at Rowe before I could contemplate it any further. However, once the energy found a way into my system, I had no way of stopping it. The power continued to flow in, hot and biting.
I blinked, struggling to rise above the flow of power, watching as Rowe darted away from the fireballs. With the energy filling me, I had no choice but to continue to pitch fireballs at the dark naturi in hopes of setting the bastard on fire. Not the easiest of tasks even with the free flow of energy. I had an amazing source of power, but I didn’t have the same level of control I had perfected over the long centuries.
As Rowe hit the ground, he swung one arm at me. A bolt of lightning plunged from the sky, striking a few feet from where I stood. I lurched backward, my onslaught of fire halted. Rowe took advantage of the pause to cause the storm to build again. Lightning bolt after lightning bolt hammered the earth, each striking closer and closer to me. He was driving me back, farther from him and the center of the clearing.
Keeping me on the run was also stopping me from using the power building within my body. I couldn’t force it out. I couldn’t stop it. The only relief I could find was to use the energy, but I couldn’t concentrate on using my ability if I was dodging lightning bolts.<
br />
Mira.
The relief I felt at the sound of Danaus’s voice within my mind was instantaneous. I had been so centered on taking out Rowe, I forgot that the hunter was lurking somewhere about.
What do you need me to do?
Get Ryan out of here. They could use him, I ordered in a brief respite between strikes. I quickly threw another fireball at Rowe, but it went wide of its mark and struck another naturi, bathing him in liquid orange flames. I hadn’t had enough time to concentrate and aim.
Another lightning bolt. It hit far too close. I jumped but didn’t look at where I would land. My right foot came down on a large chunk of rock and I fell backward, landing heavily on my back. I cried out as the pain shot through my spine and ribs. My control slipped on the energy that was vibrating through my body. A wall of fire whooshed up around me with an angry roar.
Laying on my back, I looked up to find a circle of fire surrounding me, reaching up more than ten feet into the heavens. The snapping orange and yellow flames encased me like an oven, drying my clothes and hair, sucking away cold that had chilled me to my bones. I hadn’t thought of the wall of flames. After more than six hundred years, it was a reflexive move, like raising my hand to protect my eyes from a bright light.
Mira! The frantic shout in my head was my only warning. Danaus was there. More than just a presence in my head, he was inside me, his power burrowing down into me until I could no longer separate myself from him. Pain exploded in my frame. I thought my bones were going to splinter under the force of the energy he was pushing into me.
I nearly shouted at him to release me when I realized that as his energy filled me, the energy flowing into me from the earth was being pushed out. The circle of fire was shrinking back down into the earth. I lay still, letting my eyes fall shut as I concentrated on the war being fought within me, but without my influence.
“Mira!” Danaus shouted. He was still within me, but he was calling now. He was close.
“I’m fine,” I muttered, but that was questionable. My body hurt in a hundred different ways, making me wish I’d let Rowe hit me with a lightning bolt. I couldn’t imagine a nightwalker surviving such a thing. Of course, it would be just my luck that I would.
Release me, I said to Danaus, using our private connection. No reason to let everyone in on our little secret. We had enough problems. Slowly, I felt him pull his powers out of my body, leaving me feeling cooler, emptier. I immediately noticed that the power I had felt pouring from the earth into me didn’t return, but went back to pushing against my skin.
A light rain splattered on my face and a grumble of thunder rolled in the distance, pulling me back to the present. I lurched back into an upright position, wincing at the pain in my back and in my head. Rowe had been firing lightning bolts at me only moments ago. But now he was gone. All the naturi were gone.
“Where?” I whispered in confusion, pushing back some hair that had fallen around my face.
“They left,” Penelope answered as she hesitantly stepped closer. “When the wall of fire went up, they ran.” I briefly wondered if this new cautious attitude was the result of the havoc Danaus and I had created when we destroyed so many naturi near Stonehenge.
“Should we follow?” Danaus asked. The hunter extended one hand to me, offering to help me back to my feet. I hesitated only a second, frowning at his hand. Before when he had pushed his powers into me, he needed to be touching me. But, much like Jabari, Danaus had learned to do it without touching me. I didn’t want to know how far away he’d been at the time.
“No,” I said, shaking my head as I regained my feet with his help. I had a feeling we had a new problem. “We need to find out what happened to Hugo first.”
TWENTY-TWO
Penelope and I stumbled across the clearing, weaving through the crumbling remains of the ruins until we reached the far eastern edge of the Palace of Knossos. We could still sense the nightwalker’s soul, but it was weak and thready. He wasn’t going to last much longer if he didn’t receive help very soon. The rain had slowed to a light drizzle, more annoying than anything, as it added a chill to the air we shouldn’t have felt for a late summer evening.
Slipping in a patch of mud, I finally located Hugo lying under a couple of trees, covered in blood. I hadn’t liked leaving him alone to face the naturi, but I was short on help. I had hoped that his enormous size would add some menace to his figure and deter the naturi without him needing to raise a sword or gun. Instead they had taken advantage of the fact that he was alone and overwhelmed him.
I knelt beside the wounded nightwalker. His eyelids fluttered as he attempted to open his eyes. I hadn’t made a noise in my approach, but he could sense me. I laid a hand on his barrel chest and he flinched at my touch. There was a long cut on his throat and another across his middle. Shallow cuts covered his arms and legs. His face was bruised, with his left eye nearly swollen shut. Hugo was lucky they hadn’t cut off his head or carved out his heart. They had left him to suffer as pints of blood slowly poured from his body. He was losing blood too fast for his body to heal the wounds and hold in the blood.
Looking over my shoulder at Penelope, who was staring white-faced down at Hugo, I ordered her to fetch a car. We needed to move the giant vampire. If we were going to be lucky enough to save him, we couldn’t do it here.
“What should we do?” Ryan inquired, taking Penelope’s place behind me.
I gritted my teeth, catching a whiff of his blood on the slight breeze. It wouldn’t help Hugo. Ryan wasn’t a candidate for a donation. Warlock blood didn’t always go well with every nightwalker, and I didn’t see Danaus allowing it even if Ryan agreed.
“Go gather up all the dead naturi,” I said, putting my hand over the wound on Hugo’s stomach in a desperate attempt to slow some of the bleeding. He let out a low moan as I applied pressure, sending a fresh wave of pain through his body. “Put them in one spot. I have to dispose of them before we leave.”
I waited until the sound of Danaus’s and Ryan’s footsteps faded in the distance before turning my attention entirely back to Hugo. His body was ice cold to the touch, and if I hadn’t felt the actual presence of his soul in the large body before me, I would have assumed he was dead.
I dipped into his mind and immediately got sucked into a swirling maelstrom of pain. Not that I could actually feel his pain. It came through to me as black chaos that permeated every thought and memory. It was difficult to locate Hugo within the chaos, and it didn’t help that everything was coming through in German.
Can you tell me what happened? I asked, finally finding Hugo within the haze of pain and hunger.
Naturi…everywhere. There was a long pause and I could feel him pushing against the pain, fighting to focus his thoughts. I heard something. Rocks shifting. I turned and they were beside me. Too many. Too close.
It’s okay, I murmured in his head, wishing I could lend him some of my strength.
They came from…southwest…I thought they killed you before reaching me.
No. We didn’t see them. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the scent of his blood. It was everywhere, coating my hands, filling the air with its oh-so-sweet smell. I was still achy and tired from our encounter with the naturi. I needed to feed myself, but it would have to wait.
My mind drifted. I didn’t know how I was going to save Hugo. We needed to get him some blood, lots of it. We would need to keep pumping it into him until the wounds finally closed and he could hold it within his body. The wounds had to close before the sun rose or the blood would drain out of him during the day and he wouldn’t reawaken with the setting of the sun.
The sound of a car motor approaching the ruins jerked me from my thoughts. A quick check revealed that it was Penelope and she wasn’t alone. She was bringing two humans with her. I hadn’t thought to ask her to round up a quick bite for Hugo, just something to buy him a little more time. Of course, no matter what my condition, I tended to be somewhat selective in my meals. Looking back down
at Hugo and his gray pallor, I doubted I’d be picky if I was in the same state as he was.
Penelope parked the car not far from Hugo’s location and made her way toward us as quickly as possible. A dark frown tugged at the corners of my lips when I saw the elderly couple preceding her to the site. They wouldn’t survive a substantial blood loss, but I was willing to bet she’d simply grabbed the owners of the car. There was no time to go hunting down a pair of strapping young men who could stand to lose a couple pints of blood each.
The hiss of a sword being pulled from its scabbard sent a chill up my spine. With my hand still pressed to Hugo’s stomach, I twisted around to see Danaus pointing the sword at Penelope, who had taken a step in front of the two humans as if to protect them from the hunter.
“Mira!” Danaus’s hard voice landed heavy on my shoulders.
“Danaus, wait!”
“Hugo needs blood,” Penelope argued, lifting her upper lip in a snarl that revealed a pair of perfect fangs. It was a warning.
“Hugo won’t last much longer if we don’t get some blood back into his system,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm and even. The sound of Danaus’s and Ryan’s hearts pounding seemed to echo through the tree-lined area, rising above the rustling of the leaves. Everyone was tense from the fight with the naturi and tempers were short. I couldn’t afford to have someone snap.
“She means for him to kill the humans,” Danaus said, taking a step closer. The hunter lifted the point of his sword to the level of Penelope’s throat. “Release the humans.”
“No! Hugo needs them!” Penelope shouted. “Mira, control him! Hugo needs blood.”
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