Jogging through the house, I jerked open the front door as she raised her hand to knock. Tristan had sensed her as well because he was now standing at the bottom of the curved staircase, his emotions a ball of tensed anxiety.
The young nightwalker stood alone on my front porch in a clean change of clothes, but she had yet to bathe. Her blond hair was still dirty and matted from her ordeal, while dirt smudged both of her cheeks as well as her bare arms. There was no expression on her pale face, as she seemed to stare blankly through me.
“Amanda,” I murmured, motioning for her to enter the house. “Where’s Knox?”
She stepped inside and gave a slight shake of her head. “He’s gone. I told him to go home.”
I could no longer sense an overwhelming hunger in her, so I felt it safe to assume that Knox had stuck around long enough to help her feed, ensuring that no unfortunate mistakes were made before he gave her a little space. However, I couldn’t begin to guess why she had decided to show up on my doorstep so close to sunrise.
“You should be resting,” I chided, closing the door behind her.
Amanda frowned, and I could feel the first bubble of anger rise within her. “I came to tell you that I accept your offer. I want to be a part of your family.”
At first I thought she simply felt obligated to join my family because I’d risked my life to save her, but there was something buried within her tone that made me doubt it. “But…?” I said, causing her head to snap around to me. I arched one eyebrow at her, questioning. “You don’t want to be.”
“I’m a target now because I’ve been seen with you, with Tristan. Why shouldn’t I join your family when it’s the only way I’m going to be protected from the naturi?” she said in a voice so low it was nearly a snarl.
“She warned you that you would be a target of the naturi when we met last night,” Tristan said. While I appreciated his defense, “I told you so” wasn’t going to help Amanda right now.
“Last night, you were eager to join my family. Now you’ve had a taste of the naturi in the area, and you’re unsure of what you want,” I said, walking toward my study.
“I know what I want!” she shouted, losing her temper finally. “I never want to be touched by the naturi again. You have no idea what it’s like to be held by them! To be tortured, drained, and taunted while you wait for an even more painful death.”
The distance closed between us in a flash as fury consumed my every thought. Wrapping my fingers around her throat, I threw her into the wooden railing of the staircase, causing the wood to crack and groan. I then slammed her into the marble floor, earning a whimper from her.
To my surprise, Tristan stepped forward and placed one foot on her stomach while wrapping his right hand in her hair. He was preparing to hold her still for me so I could continue to knock her around. Punishment was something he had come to understand during his time with Sadira. He was ready to put aside what feelings he had for Amanda and hold her down because of his loyalty to me. Tristan was stronger than anyone gave him credit for.
Struggling to get a grip on my anger, I balled my shaking hands into fists at my sides. “Let her up,” I growled at Tristan, and then turned my attention to Amanda. “You will never question the depth of my understanding of the naturi. I know better than any exactly what they are capable of.”
“I have no choice,” she complained, which brought a chuckle to my throat. It was a common complaint.
“No one is forcing you to join my family, and I would prefer it if you didn’t join because you felt trapped into doing so,” I said, some of the fury and tension sliding from my frame.
“But if I don’t, I leave behind my position in the community. I lose your protection,” she countered.
“True, but your other choice is to leave Savannah.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tristan flinch, taking a jerky step forward as if he could stop my words from reaching her ears. “Leave here and I’m sure the naturi won’t follow you. You wouldn’t be the first to leave here because of the naturi.”
“I’m not leaving,” she stubbornly said.
A smile tweaked the corner of my lips. I wasn’t the only one clinging to this city, a place I called home. “Now you have to decide whether you want to be a part of my family. Are you willing to serve and obey me? Are you willing to face the naturi again?”
“I want to join your family,” she said, pushing slowly to her feet again.
“I don’t want you if your only reason is to protect your own skin.”
“It’s not. Being in the family will enable me to protect others from the naturi,” she quickly said, her eyes briefly drifting to Tristan and then back to me.
An ugly smirk twisted my lips as my eyes narrowed at her. “Tristan doesn’t need your protection. He’s strong enough to face the naturi. I will personally see to that.” I shook my head and turned my back on her. “I’ve changed my mind. You’re not the person I thought you were. I rescind my offer.”
“No!” she cried.
“Mira, please!” Tristan shouted. I turned to find him standing between me and Amanda. “She’s been through something terrible. She needs time to recover. She’s not thinking clearly. Please, reconsider. She belongs with us.” The nightwalker reached out and clasped my right hand in both of his.
“Then she should have stayed in her home and recovered from her encounter instead of coming here and insulting our family,” I snapped.
“I’m sorry,” Amanda murmured. “I—I—”
“Which naturi was giving orders while you were being held?” I demanded, quickly changing subjects. I didn’t want to hear her apologies right now. She had insulted both Tristan and me, coming to my home with her whining complaints and feelings of entrapment.
“I—I don’t understand,” she replied, shoving one hand through her hair to push it away from her face.
I resumed my trek into my study, their footsteps following me across the marble and hardwood floors. “If you’re going to be in this family, you’re going to be of use to me,” I said irritably. “Who was giving orders?”
“I’m not sure. Knox said that you killed everyone on the island,” she said.
I glanced over my shoulder to find her hovering in the doorway. Where she had been eager to explore and soak in every inch of my house last night, she was now equally hesitant to enter my world and endure my gaze. She feared me again, which was something I needed since I no longer had her absolute loyalty, like Tristan.
“Nearly,” I admitted. “The naturi that was being held prisoner still lives. Was she a prisoner when you arrived?”
“Yes. They beat her every time she spoke. She always wore manacles. They tried to get me to drink her blood,” Amanda quickly explained.
Standing beside my desk, I turned over a silver-plated hourglass. It was possible that what Amanda saw was the truth, but then it could just as easily have been an act. I didn’t trust Cynnia or my luck when it came to the naturi. It was too much to hope that I had managed to get my hands on someone that could actually help me get closer to Rowe and potentially Aurora.
The black sand poured from the upper glass chamber in a steady stream, building in the lower chamber in a spent pile. We were all running out of time. The night was wearing down, and I needed to make some decisions about Cynnia before Danaus and I left for Peru. I also needed to make some serious attempts to learn some earth magic before I climbed to the Incan ruins.
At the same time, I felt as if I needed to put Tristan and Amanda on a healing path. What if I didn’t come back from Machu Picchu? I wanted to know that Tristan would be safe and happy in Savannah, and that would only happen if Amanda respected him. Too much to do and too little time.
My fingers drifted over the glass bulb of the hourglass, wishing I could slow those seconds down. “Stay here, today. Tristan will find a safe place for you to sleep. I have some business to complete.”
“It’s getting late, Mira,” Tristan reminded me. “Can’t it wait until
tomorrow?”
“I’m running out of tomorrows,” I said with a frown as I lifted my hand from the hourglass. “I’ll be back before the sun rises.”
“I am truly sorry, Mira,” Amanda said, trying to draw my gaze back to her form, but I refused to lift my eyes from the surface of my desk. “I didn’t mean to insult you. It’s…it’s the naturi. I—”
“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to,” I said, then silently slipped out of the room, leaving Tristan and Amanda alone to finally face the battle they had both survived in different ways.
I had dipped into Tristan’s mind when I found him in Forsyth Park, watched it replay the battle in gory detail. He had held his own, killing several of the wolves that overwhelmed him. They had surrounded him, separating him from Amanda when she was grabbed by the naturi. He had performed well, but it wasn’t enough to save Amanda. He blamed himself for his capture when there were few who would have been able to save her. She needed to understand that he had been there for her, argued for her rescue when common sense said to abandon her. I had a feeling this was their only chance, and I wished them luck.
Fourteen
Summer was in its last days but you wouldn’t know it in Savannah. The air was still hot and heavy with the scent of flowers and earth. It was well after midnight now and the traffic had slowed to the point of being nearly nonexistent. I was sure the bars down along the riverfront were still seeing some action. Yet I remained away from the buzz on River Street, returning to the one place I thought I wouldn’t see again tonight: my own town house. When I left Danaus, I had sworn to myself I wouldn’t return until tomorrow night; that I needed more time to relax from the battle, to think and detach myself from the naturi that was now in my grasp.
On the drive over I knew I was being drawn back to my town house for more than just my need to talk to Cynnia and to see that my companions were safe. I needed to talk to Shelly. Standing outside the front gate, I scanned the house. Danaus was in the front living room with, I assumed, Cynnia.
Pausing there, I mentally reached out along the well-trod path between my mind and Danaus’s. The more we mentally touched, the easier it became. While I wished it wasn’t so, I couldn’t deny that the ability to communicate with him this way was useful.
Is the naturi with you? I demanded suddenly in his brain.
Yes. What’s wrong? His reply was instantaneous, as if he were expecting my touch.
Nothing, I thought with a faint sigh. We’ll talk more soon.
I wasn’t particularly happy about the arrangement, but this was the best option for all those involved. I would have preferred to keep the naturi locked up in the warehouse I owned downtown, but it was inconvenient for all those involved. Danaus would be stuck there during the day guarding her, and I couldn’t guarantee his privacy. I just had to remind myself that this was an extremely temporary arrangement.
Shelly, on the other hand, was alone in the backyard. Slipping silently past the iron gate, I walked around the house to find her seated on the ground with her face in her hands.
“I hesitated,” she announced into the air before I could start to approach her. I hadn’t made a sound and yet she knew I was there.
“You choked,” I corrected, shrugging off the trick. Maybe something in the earth had told her I was coming. I entered the backyard, coming to stand several feet away from where the witch sat on the ground.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, twisting around to look up at me. Her large eyes were red-rimmed and her face was flushed from crying. My stomach twisted with guilt and regret when I looked at her. My instincts had told me she was not ready for a fight with the naturi, but I let my need for manpower override my common sense, and her presence had endangered everyone. If I was to survive the upcoming battle at Machu Picchu, I needed to be more aware of who comprised my team and less worried about the numbers. But then I wasn’t the only one there with a hard lesson to learn.
“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to. Your hesitation and inability to handle the situation put Tristan and Knox in serious danger. They could have been killed trying to protect you when their main concern should have been saving Amanda,” I explained.
“I know. It won’t happen again,” Shelly affirmed, wiping the last of the tears from her face. She turned on the ground so she was facing me.
“I know it won’t. Your assistance is no longer needed here,” I firmly said, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my leather pants. “You’re free to go back to Charleston or wherever Danaus brought you from.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“I can’t allow you to endanger my people.”
She unfolded her legs so she could push to her feet. “But I thought you needed me to help you learn how to use earth magic. I can still help you,” she argued.
“I need to learn how to use this magic in an aggressive manner, for fighting. I don’t get the impression that you even know how to do that.”
“I do!”
“Prove it,” I growled. In the blink of an eye my hand slipped down to the knife in the sheath on my belt. With a flick my wrist the knife spiraled through the air toward her. I was careful to aim it to land a foot in front of her, but to my surprise she deftly rolled out of the way of the approaching blade and got to her feet. With a wave of her hand, three balls of fire appeared before her and shot toward me.
“Normally a nice move,” I said, raising my hand to catch each of the fireballs as they approached me. “But I’m the Fire Starter. Fire isn’t about to stop me.”
“True, but this might,” Shelly said between clenched teeth. She moved her left hand in another sweeping motion, but no fire appeared. I prepared to pitch my own ball of fire at the little witch when vines broke out of the ground and wrapped around my ankles. The plant quickly thickened so they were like ropes snaking up my legs to my knees, holding me trapped to the spot on the stone patio.
“It’s a nice start, but it still won’t hold me for long,” I said with a smirk. Fire ate at the vines, and with a little tug, I pulled free again.
Shelly gave out a little grunt of frustration and took a step back for every step I took toward her into the yard. When the fight started, I had cloaked the yard from the view of any neighbors that might decide to look out their windows. I didn’t want to waste my evening wiping the memories of my darling neighbors because they saw fireballs, or plant life, crawling across my back lawn.
“It’s a nice effort, but you don’t have it in you to attack a person with the skills you have,” I commented, stopping when we were both in the center of the yard. “You have to be willing to kill the creature that is trying to kill you. Not everyone has that instinct.”
“You’re wrong,” she sneered.
I hadn’t a chance to react. Vines burst out of the ground, wrapping around both my arms and legs in the blink of an eye. My entire body was lifted up and my back was slammed into the trunk of the nearest tree. Stars exploded before my eyes and my vision briefly swam, destroying my ability to concentrate. Before I could conjure the thought to burn the vines, I felt a sharp point pressing against my chest just over my heart. I looked down to find a fifth vine shaped like a sharpened staff and pointed directly at my heart. A wrong word from me, a flinch, and Shelly would have me staked.
“Admit it,” she shouted in an angry voice. “I’ve got you.”
Instead of conceding like a sane person would, I started to laugh. My head fell back and hit the trunk of the tree behind me as laughter poured from my throat. “Yes, you’ve got me! Why couldn’t you have done this sooner?”
“They attacked with animals! Helpless animals. It wasn’t their fault they were attacking us.”
“So your answer is to let them kill us?”
“I believe that you should find another way besides killing when it comes to fighting your enemy. Isn’t there another way?”
“No, there isn’t,” said a sad voice from the house. We both looked up to find Cyn
nia standing in the open doorway and Danaus on the patio with a long knife in his hand. “Mira is right in that there is no other way to deal with my kind. Aurora believes that the only way to save the earth is through the total extermination of all nightwalkers and humans,” she continued, closing the door behind her as she came to stand on the patio beside Danaus.
“What are you doing out here?” I snapped, ignoring the fact that I was still held completely defenseless and in absolutely no shape to start shouting orders.
“She said that she felt someone using a great deal of earth magic out here,” Danaus replied before Cynnia could speak up. “I thought it might be a good idea to check it out.”
“Shelly, put me down.”
“Can I stay?”
Instead of answering, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the vines wrapped around my arms and legs as well as the one that still pressed against my chest. I didn’t like being in this position. I wasn’t sure what Cynnia was capable of, but there was the potential that a single thought from her and I was dead. The vines immediately went up in flames around me, but neither my clothes nor my skin were singed.
Dusting off the last of the debris, I looked over at the earth witch who stood clasping both of her hands before her. She had the power I needed in someone who could handle themselves with the naturi, but she seemed to lack the killer instinct of Danaus or the nightwalkers that surrounded me. There was a time in my life when I wouldn’t have seen that as a bad thing, but in my world as it stood now, it was positively fatal. If she wasn’t willing to kill a creature whose only goal was to kill her, she was undoubtedly going to end up dead, and it would be on my shoulders.
Yet, if she knew what was at a stake and still wanted to stay, I could only hope that she would learn to take care of herself before it was too late. There was only so much protection I could offer her.
“Mira?” Shelly pressed softly.
“You protect when I tell you to protect and kill when I tell you to kill. Endanger another one of my people and I’ll kill you myself,” I threatened. It was the closest she was going to get to an acquiescence out of me.
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