Unbound

by Jeaniene Frost

  “And what did Bryce do to deserve the death he received?”

  “You think I had something to do with Bryce’s death?” he gasped, looking honestly surprised. “Mira, you know my methods.” Again, the same dark grin spread across his lean, angular face, reminding me so much of an animated skull. “If Bryce had crossed me, I would have taken care of the matter here, in the privacy of my own home. I would have kept the matter in the family.”

  “So the fact that Bryce had come to me looking to make his own fledgling didn’t bother you?” I asked.

  Justin sat back down in the chair he had been seated in, his sharp gaze drifting away from me to a spot on the floor. His left hand curled into a fist on the arm of the chair, but his voice was calm, even when he spoke again. “I was…unaware of his request, but Bryce knew that I would not object to expanding the family. I would have welcomed his fledgling.”

  “Maybe that’s just it. He didn’t want this fledgling to be a part of the Ravana family. He possibly wanted something outside of your reach,” I said, purposefully twisting the knife in his chest as I struggled to keep the smile off of my face.

  “Then I would have killed him, but again I would have done it my way. Here and slowly. I’m afraid if you came here looking for Bryce’s killer, you have come to the wrong place.”

  Unfortunately, I believed him. “No, that’s not the only reason why I’m here,” I said with a smile. I was about to comment on his recent trip to see the Coven when a bloodcurdling scream rent the air, effectively silencing me and wiping the smile from my face. We both looked up at the ceiling. I got flashes of a naked female chained to the brick wall in the attic being tortured by a lycanthrope and three other nightwalkers. She was streaked with blood, and her face was swollen to the point that she could barely see out of her puffy eyes. One of her tormentors was projecting the fight for Justin’s benefit since the master of the family was stuck dealing with me.

  “Who?”

  “A new fledgling that has elected to join the Ravana family. She’s being broken in. Would you like to help?”

  “No.”

  “But it’s been so long since you took the time to appropriately break in a fledgling. These young ones have no concept any longer of what it means to exist in our world. They don’t respect you as they should.”

  “I want no part of your games,” I growled.

  “But you must. My fledglings ask that you show them what you truly are capable of, great Fire Starter.” There was no missing the sarcasm that was etched into every word he had spoken. A knot twisted in my stomach, and for the first time, I fully scanned the house. There were close to thirty nightwalkers in this house. I had walked into a trap he had been waiting years to spring. Justin hadn’t been building a family; he had been building an army of fledglings for the sole purpose of killing me.

  Two sets of doors opened on the parlor as Justin rose and walked over to stand near the wall next to a fire extinguisher. A smug smile lifted his features at the same time more than a dozen nightwalkers rushed into the room. There was no time for clear thought, no room for delicacy. Each one of Justin’s fledglings wanted to kill me.

  I dodged fists and clawing nails as I quickly delivered as many blows as possible. There was no time to punch into a chest and rip out a heart. I could only try to knock out as many as possible. I grabbed one snarling body and threw it into the crowd, hoping to create a hole so that I could make a mad dash for the front door. I needed to get out of this room and into a more open area. But the crowd bounced back as quickly as it crumbled, keeping me trapped in the confines of the congested parlor.

  There were too many of them. Pain rippled through my body as fists connected with my vital organs and rained on my head and face. I held my own until someone grabbed a chair and hit me in the back, knocking me to my knees. Another kicked me under the chin, throwing me to my back. A cry escaped me as pain flashed through my body. While I was down, a large, hulking nightwalker straddled me and raised his hand with the intent of plunging it into my chest.

  Time slowed down for that second and the world drifted away so that there was only that blond nightwalker with a look of triumph on his face. Fear brought a scream to my lips as he erupted into flames. As I expected, he was immediately hit with the white spray of the fire extinguisher, but that didn’t stop me. I focused my powers, burning him on the inside and out. He howled, rolling off me. The nightwalker clawed at his chest until fire finally peeked through his blackened skin. The other nightwalkers drew back, but that didn’t save them.

  Sitting up, I directed my powers to all those around me, burning them on the inside and out, cooking them so thoroughly that Justin and his little fire extinguisher couldn’t save one of them. Chaos reigned in the house, but it was my brand of chaos. While I burned any nightwalker that I saw, I also projected the images throughout all of Savannah. Any nightwalker within range would see the bloodbath that was raging through the house.

  I am the Fire Starter! I am the Keeper of this domain! This was my answer to the chaos and the threats around me.

  I thought I heard Bishop’s laughter in my head as I doused the last of the flames and rose to my feet. The room was filled with charred, blackened bodies. Justin was in the far corner, still holding the now empty fire extinguisher. I smiled at him as I approached.

  “You were right,” I said, grabbing a handful of his brown hair and slamming his head into the wall. “It has been way too long since I properly broke in a fledgling. It’s a shame about your family, though. I think I destroyed most of them.”

  “Mira—”

  “The Ravana family is no more. You will return to the Coven and tell them that I have restored order here.”

  “Y-y-yes,” he agreed, attempting to nod, but he couldn’t move his head within my grip.

  “And when I see you again, I will kill you.”

  Releasing him, I stepped over the bodies of the dead and walked out to my car. I didn’t expect Justin to go to the Coven. It worked to his benefit if they thought that the city was still a mess. But that didn’t matter now. Bishop had witnessed the cleansing.

  Nice job, came Bishop’s taunting voice in my head.

  Will that do? I asked, ready to have him out of my hair and back to the Coven reporting the good news.

  Not quite. You have no proof that you actually killed the murderer.

  Soon.

  6

  Leaning against my car, I pulled my cell phone from my back pocket. My hands were shaking and my legs were weak beneath me, threatening to buckle. I hurt in a dozen different places, and they all seemed to be healing too slowly for my liking. Hunger gnawed at me, begging me to stop long enough to feed. I had lost too much blood between the explosion at Bryce’s house and this fight. I needed to rest and heal, but there simply wasn’t time with Bishop lurking around in my domain. I had to press on despite my growing weakness.

  I dialed Barrett Rainer’s number, grateful that I finally had something work in my favor. With the presence of the lycanthrope at the Ravana house, I now had the leverage I needed to call in a favor from the Alpha for the Savannah Pack. Lycans were not supposed to take part in the torture of fledglings. Justin was correct in that it was part of our breaking-in process, and lycans were not supposed to be around to muddy up the waters when allegiance was on the line.

  While I wouldn’t necessarily refer to Barrett as a friend, we were on comfortable, civil terms. In general, our contact was limited to the occasional check-in around the full moon and if there was some kind of problem.

  “Having a good night?” Barrett’s deep baritone filled my ear when he answered the call. The grapevine in the supernatural realm was fast and far-reaching. I wasn’t at all surprised that he knew about Bryce’s murder and probably the explosion as well. Katie’s death would take longer to spread since she was human.

  “I’ve had better,” I growled, pacing away from the rear of the car. “I have a favor to call in.”

  “I’ve go
t problems of my own at the moment. Why do I owe you a favor?”

  “I caught a lycan at Ravana’s taking part in the torture of a fledgling. You know that it’s not permitted. I left him alive for you to deal with, but…”

  “But I now owe you a favor,” he bit out.

  “I need you to get your boys out looking for someone for me. A member of the Daylight Coalition. There’s at least one in town. I’m willing to bet that he’s behind Bryce’s murder and the attempt on my life.”

  “Actually, I’ve got someone here that might interest you,” Barrett announced. I could easily imagine the smug smile that spread across his hard, angular face.

  My feet skid to a halt in the gravel-riddled street. I stood with my back to Ravana’s house and faced the growing darkness. “What do you mean?”

  “Someone from the Daylight Coalition just walked into my restaurant and ordered dinner.” Barrett owned and operated an Italian restaurant downtown called Bella Luna, which was somewhat ironic since his family’s ancestry was mostly German. Apparently, at some point, a member of his family married an Italian woman, and she started the restaurant that has been handed down over the generations.

  “What? Did he flash his official Daylight Coalition membership card hoping to get a discount?” I didn’t mean to be so snide, but fear and frustration were eating away at me. I was running out of time before Bishop arrived to claim my hide.

  “Hardly. I can read his thoughts.” He sounded much calmer than me. It was quiet where he was, making me think that he had called from his office rather than standing over a potentially half-dead man. If it was known that someone was from the Coalition, many of our kind would take it upon themselves to immediately cut short his life span. Neither side did anything to put a halt to these activities as long as no evidence was left behind. It wasn’t a pretty arrangement, but it was get them before they got us.

  “Besides,” the lycanthrope said, his voice dropping a little closer to a growl for the first time since he had called. “We get them on occasion. They pop into the bars, restaurants, and shops with any form of the word moon in the name. I guess they’re hoping to catch us acting like animals so they can do the world a great service and put us down.”

  I paced back toward the car, shoving one hand through my hair, getting my fingers temporarily stuck. My dirty, blood-matted hair was a knotted mess. “Are you going to put him down or are you going to let me talk to him first?” I needed to know if our unexpected guest to the city of Savannah had anything to do with Bryce’s murder.

  “Will he survive the interview?”

  “It depends on his answers. It’s doubtful.”

  “Then you can have him.”

  I clenched my teeth and swallowed my next snide comment. I was determined to have this man regardless of what Barrett’s wishes were. Two nightwalkers were dead, a house had been blown up, and a human was dead in connection to one of the dead nightwalkers. And now I had some unknown Daylight Coalition schmuck wandering around in my territory. He had to be connected to this mess in some way. I just had to figure out how he fit in this puzzle.

  “How much longer do you think he’ll be at the restaurant?” I demanded as I reached into the front pocket of my jeans and pulled out the keys.

  “Probably another thirty minutes at the most. He’s already ordered his dinner and it should be arriving within a couple minutes.”

  “That’s fine. I can be there by then. I’ll park behind the restaurant and follow him after he leaves.”

  I paused as I was about to jump in the car and looked up at Ravana’s house. The fledgling was still in the attic, chained to the wall. For a moment, I wondered if I should go up and free her, but I quickly shook off the thought and got into the car. If she couldn’t find a way to free herself, then she would never survive in my world.

  Back in the car, I was flying across the city. The restaurant was downtown, not far from the Dark Room. I planned on swinging by to get Knox before arriving at the restaurant. I didn’t particularly need the backup, but this was Knox’s investigation, and I had a feeling we would be able to get a lot out of this human if we could keep him alive long enough to pick his brain.

  “I have to get back,” Knox announced as he fell into the passenger seat beside me. “Gregor knew Bryce and Katie.” I had filled him in about Katie’s death when I called to tell him I would pick him up. He already knew about what happened at Justin’s; all the city’s nightwalkers knew about that.

  “Hopefully, he’ll stay alive long enough to be questioned,” I said under my breath.

  “Another body?”

  “Not yet, but our luck hasn’t been that good tonight.” I looked over my shoulder at the front entrance where a nightwalker bouncer by the name of Adam stood glaring at the crowd. His brown hair was cropped short on his head and his black T-shirt was stretched over bulging muscles, making him an impressive figure even if he hadn’t been a nightwalker.

  Adam, tell Gregor that I want him to remain here when he arrives. Knox and I want to speak with him. This message was conveyed with a brief touch of my mind to his. Yet, no matter how brief, I could still feel the flood of fear that shivered through him at my touch. I tried to ignore it, but there were times when it ate at me nonetheless. I was trying to protect him and all of my kind, but he feared me like most nightwalkers feared the Coven. And after what had happened at Ravana’s, it was worse than usual. I could feel a wave of fear crashing off all the nightwalkers that saw me outside the club.

  Turning my attention back to the road, I let off the clutch and jumped out into the traffic. We rushed down to the river, cutting down and around one street after another as we drew closer to Bella Luna. It took only a few minutes to reach the restaurant, leaving me to settle the car in a shadowy area in the back where the deliveries were made.

  “Do I scare you?” I asked without warning after sitting in silence for several minutes.

  “I beg your pardon.” Knox turned in his seat and looked at me, his lips twisting slightly as he was fighting to hold back a smile.

  “Do I scare you?” It was harder to say the second time, but I forced the words out.

  “Scare me?” Knox stared at me for a moment before a sigh finally escaped him. He leaned his right elbow on the door and shoved his fingers through his dirty, bloody blond hair. He had taken the time to clean up slightly while at the club, but he still looked ragged. “Mira, I feel like there’s no right answer here.”

  Slumping in my seat, I relaxed my grip on the steering wheel, letting my hand fall into my lap. “You know me, Knox. I want the truth.”

  “Yes, you scare me. You know you do. After the show of power at Justin’s, how could we all not fear you?” Knox said in a sudden rush as if the words were stampeding from his chest. “You’re the Fire Starter. You can kill us all with a thought. And even if you weren’t the Fire Starter, you’re still powerful enough to wipe the floor with any one of us. So, yes, you scare me.”

  “But…” I inserted, prompting him to continue when he seemed to hesitate.

  “But I know Valerio. I spent more than two centuries with my maker. You’ve known him for even longer. I think you’re more like him than you sometimes realize. You’re more emotional, but you can be just as methodical. Whether anyone else realizes it, there’s a method to your madness, like Valerio. You’re about protecting the secret and being honorable. As long as a nightwalker doesn’t cross those two lines, he’s going to wake up the next sunset. The others don’t realize it, do they?”

  “I can feel it when I enter a room or when I touch their minds. I can feel the shiver of fear, the recoil when I get too close. I feel trapped. I don’t want them to fear me, yet the only way I can get their complete obedience is for them to fear me.” Each word was forced out between my clenched teeth. I was tired of being the outsider after more than six centuries of life. I was tired of being the outsider within my own domain.

  “Do you know what would make it easier for them to accep
t you?”

  I shifted in my seat slightly and looked over at my companion, surprised that he was willing to offer me a suggestion. “What?”

  “Date another nightwalker.”

  I chuckled softly to myself and shook my head. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, I’m not. I’ve been here awhile and I’ve never heard of you with another nightwalker.”

  I looked over at Knox again, stunned to find that he was absolutely serious about this ridiculous suggestion. “Not a chance.”

  “Mira, dating another nightwalker within your domain might convince them that you’re not a heartless killing machine. That there is something feeling about you.”

  “Mmm…your comments warm my cold, dead heart,” I mocked. This conversation was taking a turn that I wasn’t expecting. I turned the key in the ignition enough to get the clock radio to flash on. We had been sitting there for only a couple of minutes. Damn it! I had started this nightmare conversation.

  “I’m serious.”

  “So, what? Are you offering to be my boyfriend?”

  Knox stared at me for a long time, his eyes moving over my face. I knew I looked like a mess. All the wounds I had sustained while at Bryce’s and Justin’s had healed, but I was still covered in my own blood along with dirt and a little of Knox’s blood. There was nothing attractive about me at this moment in time. But it was more than that. Knox knew better than most who I was. He knew of me before we had ever met. His maker, Valerio, and I had run together for a few centuries back in Europe. I had no doubt that Valerio had told his fledgling more than a few entertaining tales of the old days. Beyond that, Knox had been brave enough to try to get to know me when he arrived in Savannah. Unlike anyone else within my domain, I felt like a rejection from Knox would actually be a rejection of who I was, not necessarily of the image I presented to those in my domain.

  And in truth, it had been a couple of centuries since I had last been involved in a serious romantic relationship. The last one had ended badly, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to put myself in that vulnerable position again. Certainly not when the peace of my domain was being threatened.