Nightwalker

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “No indeed. But it does make her less powerful than most…for the time being. I have hopes for your little half-breed Djynn.”

  “Let’s get back to the Empress,” Kamen redirected. “It’s crucial you let us see her. Or at least point us in the direction of someone who can make these decisions for her.”

  “Oh, she can make these decisions. She’s been ruling her people quite nicely from here.” He seemed to think on it a moment. “Very well. I’ll allow the visit. But only because she doesn’t look so much like a Wraith. Those ghouls still give her nightmares.”

  “I don’t understand what the Wraiths would have wanted with a Mystical,” Viève said with a puzzled frown. “It’s not like it is with Djynn. The Djynn can get power from a Mystical…if it’s a nikki…right?”

  “Right. Mysticals by nature are nikkis.”

  “But what would a Wraith do with a nikki?”

  “That is a very good question. One you might pose to the Wraiths who held her captive.”

  “Does she know which cell it was?”

  “I know which cell it was. I transported Leo and Faith there to retrieve her.”

  “Well…I’m not certain they would tell me. I’m only…” She stopped short of saying the words “a half-breed.”

  “It makes no difference. She’s safe now and that’s all that matters.”

  “Perhaps,” Kamen said. “But it does make this more difficult. The Empress of the Mysticals is not going to want to strike an accord with the Wraiths.”

  “You will have to ask her about that,” Grey said. “She may yet surprise you.”

  “We hope so,” Viève said.

  “Well then, come with me.” Grey paused a moment and eyed Viève. “Perhaps…yes, at least for the beginning we should color your hair so it doesn’t look so…so…Wraith.”

  Grey lifted a hand and touched Viève’s hair. Kamen felt a visceral twinge at the sight of another man touching her in what could be described as an intimate way. As Grey stroked her hair he found himself fighting the urge to strike his hand away. The feeling shocked Kamen, disturbed him deeply. What is this? he asked himself. The last thing he should be doing in this situation was considering something so aggressive toward the man who was their only access to the Empress. He struggled with himself for that brief moment, and controlled the sensation. Still, it left its mark on him.

  Viève’s hair changed color under Grey’s stroking touch. It felt odd to have another man’s hands on her. People just didn’t voluntarily touch her where she was from. Being with Kamen was the most she had ever been touched in her life. It was why she was so hungry for it. Starved really. But she didn’t want Grey’s touch the way she wanted Kamen’s.

  When Grey was finished her hair was a luscious red color, with golden red highlights. She fondled the locks for a moment, touching the vibrant color.

  “Why red?” she asked.

  “It goes with your complexion.” A mirror suddenly appeared before Viève and she was shocked to see herself looking so different. Even her brows had been colored to match. Wraith hair did not take color using human coloring methods. It was gray or white and there was no changing it. She had always wished she could have another color, just to see what it was like for a little while.

  But a little while was enough.

  “Change it back,” she said firmly.

  “But don’t you like it?” Grey asked.

  “It’s very pretty. And I appreciate the effort. But I won’t go before her disguised as anything other than what I am. She may look upon that as a deceit on our part and that will not help our cause.”

  “Hmm.” Grey seemed to think on it. “Perhaps you are right,” he said. He looked to Kamen. “Your little Wraith is really quite clever.”

  “I know she is. But she is not mine.”

  Kamen’s words hit Viève like a slap. Of course it was silly. She wasn’t his. He was just speaking the truth. But hearing him deny her just stung for some reason.

  “Are you certain of that?” Grey asked him.

  “She belongs to herself and no one else, and that is as it should be,” Kamen said.

  The distinction helped ease the sting of his words a little, but still she felt hurt. It was ridiculous of course. She’d only known him twenty-four hours, if that. There was no reason for her to believe he would have developed any kind of possessive feelings where she was concerned.

  “Oh, but look,” Grey said, touching her chin and turning her face toward Kamen. “You have hurt her with your words.”

  “No!” Viève denied quickly. “He hasn’t. He’s right. I am my own.”

  “Are you certain?” Grey asked dubiously. “I could have sworn differently.”

  “Can we just get back to what we were doing,” she said uncomfortably.

  Grey seemed to shake himself to attention. “Yes. Of course.” He filtered his hand back into her hair and she watched in the mirror as it changed back to its original, flat, uninteresting gray.

  She sighed as Grey’s hand left her hair. She reached out for Kamen’s hand and took it between both of hers.

  “Take us to her,” she said, moving closer to Kamen. She felt as though she needed the comfort of his nearness, even if it was an illusion solely for her own benefit.

  Grey nodded and then led the way out of the room. The area outside the door immediately opened up into a huge atrium with soaring windows. They were apparently on the second floor; there was a banister right before them that curved along the balcony and led to a grand, sweeping staircase in the center of the atrium. Grey guided them to the stairs and began to lead them up. With each level the stairs seemed to curve in all kinds of serpentine directions, sometimes moving to the right side of the atrium, sometimes to the left, and sometimes completely around the circumference. By the time they reached the fifth floor, looking down the full distance of the atrium left one feeling a little dizzy.

  Grey led them all the way down a wide hall toward a rear window at the end of the long corridor. The house itself seemed huge. They walked for what felt like half a football field’s length. Then, at the last door on the right side, he turned the knob and entered the room. The room was enormous, like the rest of the house seemed to be, and looked like a well-appointed sitting room in the style of Marie Antoinette’s royal rooms in France. Everything was trimmed in gold.

  And there, sitting on a chaise lounge reading a book, was a woman of delicate structure, her hair swept high from her face only to fall in a riot of ringlets bouncing down over her shoulders and back. She was as petite as Viève and looked very fragile in her gossamer white gown with its lace bodice and full-length skirt. With her porcelain pale skin, she reminded Kamen very much of Viève.

  She looked up when they entered and smiled at Grey.

  “Grey, my angel, what have you brought me to relieve my boredom?” she said in a voice with a thick French accent.

  “Ma petite, this is Kamen and Geneviève.”

  Viève was surprised. She had never told him her name.

  “You may call me Viève,” she said to the Empress shyly.

  “Do you speak French, Geneviève, to go with your French name?” she asked Viève in that language.

  Viève answer in kind. “Yes, I do.”

  The Empress clapped her hands together in delight. “It always pleases me when someone speaks my native tongue.”

  ““Then…you are not offended by my presence?” Viève asked.

  “No! Why would I be?”

  “Because I am a Wraith.”

  The Empress paled. She jumped up and backed away from Viève. “Grey! How could you? How could you bring one of those vile creatures into my presence!” she cried out in French.

  “Please, I mean no offense, and I mean you no harm,” Viève said quickly, refusing to hide behind Grey or Kamen. She held out a placating hand. “I am not one of the ones who kept you captive. I would never do something like that.”

  “As if you would tell us so! Grey, sh
e is not to be trusted. Leave my sight! Leave my sight at once!” Her voice grew shriller as she spoke.

  “We will not go until you have heard us out,” Kamen spoke up firmly. “You can come to no harm with Grey standing right here. After all, that is why you stay here and do not return home, isn’t it? So Grey can protect you? We all know he is the most powerful Djynn in the United States. We wouldn’t stand a chance against him.”

  This seemed to give her a moment’s pause, but it was clear to see she was trembling, her hands shaking.

  “Do you know what those monsters did to me?” she asked, tears in her voice.

  “I only wish I knew why,” Viève said with regret. “It makes no sense that they would capture you and treat you in such a manner.”

  “Did they need a reason?” she asked sharply. “They did it for sport. They knew I had to do whatever they asked or risk being put to death with just a touch of their hands.”

  “It was cruel of them, but one bad cell does not make all of us the same.”

  She seemed to think on that. “Very well. I will listen to what you have to say. But you will stay there, at a distance.”

  “Of course,” Viève said. “Whatever makes you most comfortable.”

  “It would make me most comfortable if you left. But in lieu of that, a distance before me will do. I am not like the dragons or the fairies, I do not have magical powers that do damage. My only ability is to fly. That and to commune with all things in nature,.”

  “Dragons and fairies?” Viève echoed.

  “Yes. Other Mysticals. Don’t you know anything of my people?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t,” Viève said. “I’ve lived a very sheltered life. A very short one compared to most Nightwalkers.”

  “We are made up of all things mystical. Unicorns, Pegasus, dragons, fairies, brownies, elves, hippogriffs, centaurs…the list goes on. If it has been mentioned in a fantasy story, odds are it was real…and a Mystical.”

  “That’s a lot of species for one race,” Kamen noted.

  “We are not a very large population in spite of that. Many of us have been hunted to extinction. Either that or we are held captive by Djynn for use of our powers as nikkis.”

  “And yet you willingly play the role of a nikki for Grey?” Kamen asked.

  “I am not captive. He uses me as a nikki and in exchange he protects me here where no one can reach me.”

  “It sounds like a prison,” Viève said. “To hide where no one can get you means also that you can get to no one.”

  “What would you have me do? Go out in the world where another Wraith could get hold of me?” she snapped.

  “No. I understand why you are afraid. But you cannot live your life in fear,” Kamen said.

  She relented. “Perhaps not. But I will leave in my own time. Now, tell me what you want.”

  “It is about Apep.” Kamen’s mouth formed a grim line. “Any day now we are expecting an attack by him and his forces. And even if he does not attack us, we must find him and put him out of this world before he can do any more damage than he has already done. He is pure evil and must be destroyed if this planet is to have any peace.”

  “Yes. I have heard of this Apep. But I do not see what any of this has to do with me.”

  “Not with you so much as with your people. I have found ancient writings that indicate that all twelve Nightwalkers races must work together in order to fight this evil.”

  “Yes, Grey has told me of these other six Nightwalkers you have discovered. I find it most intriguing.” She frowned. “Tell me about these writings.”

  “Well, it was hard to find much since it seems we can’t read each other’s writings, but I found a little indication of this.” Kamen explained what he had found.

  “And based on this you feel we should all work together? How many races do you have now?”

  “All except yours and the Wraiths, but the Wraiths will join if you do.” He told her of their meeting with the Doyen.

  “The Wraiths are not to be trusted. They say one thing but could well mean another. They may already be in league with Apep and are simply toying with you.”

  “That may be true, but what other choice do we have but to trust them at their word until they prove otherwise?” Kamen said.

  “I will not risk any of my people on such an unknown.” She anxiously nibbled at the tip of one tapered nail.

  “We cannot do this without the Mysticals,” Kamen said gently.

  “I will not risk my people, but I…I will risk myself.”

  “Paulette, no,” Grey said suddenly. “You have been through enough. There are those who are stronger, better able to defend themselves.”

  “No. It must be me. All of these other leaders have sent their best and I should do the same, but…no one mistrusts the Wraiths more than I do, and it seems to me you need someone with a good dose of caution where the Wraiths are concerned. You are all too willing to believe them. It is a deadly, dangerous thing. One that could mean the end of you.”

  Viève didn’t know how she felt right then. She was glad that the Empress was willing to help them, but she felt like a pariah. Like she would not be included in this venture as long as the Empress was there to whisper bad things about the Wraiths in people’s ears.

  But was she wrong to do so? She was just one little half-breed from one little cell in the middle of nowhere. What did she know about the machinations of the Wraith court? Still she hoped Paulette was wrong. She hoped that the Doyen meant what he said about joining the Nightwalkers against Apep.

  “Will you come with us now?”

  “Not just now. I have to get some things together first. I will come and I will see what is happening for myself before I talk to my captains and have them lend forces to your cause. Now, please go. I need to relax and pack. Grey will bring me when I am ready.

  “Very well. Grey, will you send us back?” Kamen asked.

  “Of course.”

  And just like that, they disappeared from Grey’s mansion and reappeared in the common room of the Bodywalker house.

  Chapter 15

  Apep screamed.

  “Get it out!” he cried. It wasn’t supposed to hurt this much! He was a god! Gods did not feel pain!

  Well, that wasn’t true. But it took a lot for a god to feel pain. Like when that Night Angel deflected his power back onto him. That had hurt. Come to think of it he still owed that bitch for that little infraction. He gritted his inferior mortal teeth together and rode out the next wave of pain. He was dripping with sweat and he was pretty sure his beautiful hairstyle was a thing of the past. The bedding was rumpled, but at least it was dry now. It had been a wet mess when his water had broken.

  This giving birth thing was a messy business. He would have to remind himself in the future to never do this again. What had possessed him to think this was a good idea?

  Oh. Right. A godly son to sit at his right hand. Yes. That would be worth it. Between him and his son he would rule this world and the Nightwalkers would be a small footnote in history.

  “It will be any time now,” the doctor said.

  “Why are you sweating?” Apep growled when he saw the man mop his damp pate for the dozenth time. “I’m the one doing all the work! You’re lucky I need you or I would have killed you and your sniveling nurse by now!”

  The sniveling nurse released a frightened little sob. Her hands were shaking as she set a glass of water beside the bed.

  “Get this away from me!” Apep picked up the glass and hurled it into the wall. It shattered and water sprayed everywhere. “And you said it would be ‘any time now’ two hours ago!”

  “You’re nine centimeters dilated,” the doctor said in a placating tone. “One more centimeter and you’ll be ready to push.”

  “Why can’t I push now?” Apep wanted to know. “I could push nowwww!” Apep squealed as a contraction hit him hard.

  “It doesn’t work like that,” the doctor said, mopping his brow again.r />
  “I’m a god! I can do anything I want!”

  “You’ll just tire yourself out for nothing. You should conserve your strength for when it’s time to push.”

  “Gah! You humans are useless!”

  Apep flung out his hand releasing a discus of energy. It struck the nurse, slamming her back against the wall. She crumpled to the floor, dead.

  “Get that thing out of here,” Apep growled to one of the Templars hovering anxiously in the doorway. Two Templars hurried in and gathered up the nurse’s body, dragging it out of the room.

  The doctor had gone a deathly shade of pale, the liver spots on his hands and scalp standing out.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” he said meekly. “We needed her.”

  “I have Templars that can do what she did without all of the whining and crying. Besides, she’s out of her misery now, isn’t she?”

  “She had children!”

  “Well so will I in a minute! And I’m far more important than she was!” Apep sighed as another labor pain passed. This whole business had grown old hours ago.

  “You have one more hour,” Apep warned the doctor. “If it’s not out of me by then I’m going to get a knife and cut it out myself!”

  “You’d risk harming the child! And what about you? You’d die of severe blood loss!”

  “I’m a god! I can’t die!”

  The doctor wasn’t about to argue. No normal person could do what he had just seen her do. He had thought she was just a dangerous and violent woman with delusions of grandeur, but that bolt of power and his nurse’s death had proven her to be every bit the dangerous thing she claimed to be. What if she was a god? She certainly had god-like powers. What would that make the child that was about to be born? He should do something. He should do anything!

  She had an IV. He could always inject something into it. He hadn’t been able to do an epidural because he wasn’t an anesthesiologist and he didn’t have the equipment needed to do so anyway. Perhaps he should dope her up. She obviously didn’t care about the health of her child. But he cared. Whatever it was, it was an innocent until it proved otherwise. And who was he? He was just one little man in the face of this deadly creature. Maybe he could do something to her after the child was born. Yes! Immediately after he would inject an overdose of morphine into her IV. He might go to jail for murder, but it was better than dying himself. Anyway he doubted he was going to get out of there alive. Once he killed their mistress, these followers would turn on him like rabid dogs.