Burn the Night

Thirty-six

Holding Danaus close, I buried my face in his chest, not wanting to look around at the all-too-familiar pale white-gray stone that rose up around us to make the ruins of Machu Picchu. In August we had marched up this mountain to stop Rowe and the other naturi from setting Aurora and the rest of the naturi horde free. It had taken us a few months, the sacrifice of several good friends, and the loss of our secrecy, but Aurora had finally been dispatched. And oddly enough, I now counted Rowe as one of my allies, though I didn’t expect that particular development to last long.

Now we had returned for an equally dark and dangerous task I was once again hesitant to face. If it were at all possible, the stakes were higher, but then I had more to lose this time around. I was relying on Danaus to follow my direction, though I knew it would clash with everything he believed. It was too much to ask, so I was meeting my accomplice.

At a small metallic click behind me, I turned around. Adio stood on a ledge just a few feet above where Danaus and I stood in an open field with a single tree. In his hand, he held a gold pocket watch, which he shoved into his pant pocket. He stepped down to the grassy area with a vampire’s grace and slowly walked over to where I clung to Danaus. The hunter had yet to speak, but then, I feared he was beginning to guess at my grand plan to stop Nick.

“You look as if you’ve had a rough evening already,” Adio stated, his eyes skimming over me from my mud-caked boots, to my blood- and mud-splattered clothes, to my wet hair and face. Where the rain had just abated in Savannah as the various forces retreated, the air in mountains surrounding Machu Picchu, Peru, was clear and cool. Overhead, millions of stars twinkled in a cloudless sky, enveloping us as if we were the only three creatures left on the planet.

“You’ve gotten your wish,” I said, reluctantly dropping one hand from around Danaus’s waist so I could better turn to face Our Liege. “The Great Awakening has started. The humans witnessed the battle with the naturi, and then a second fight with the Daylight Coalition. By now the war has been broadcast all across the world. Nightwalkers will awaken to discover that the world is now hunting for them.”

“We will make this right, Mira,” Adio tried to smoothly reassure me, but I wasn’t buying it. “I have nightwalkers picked to step forward and act as spokespeople for our race. We will do some damage control. The Daylight Coalition will not be the only force out there making their message heard. Our people will survive.”

“But what kind of a world will they face?”

“A different one,” Danaus said, squeezing the arm that was still wrapped around his waist. “But one that they will find a way to survive and thrive in. It just might take a little time.”

I nodded, closing my eyes for a moment, then raising my gaze back to Adio. It was nearing time. “I sent a packet of information to my closest assistant and friend. His name is Knox, child of Valerio. He has been given money and directions on how to reach my second domain of Budapest if things become too difficult in Savannah. He has also been given instructions to seek out Valerio in Vienna if necessary. I would like your word that you will keep a protective eye over them.”

“I will,”

“Knox may also be traveling with a human named Gabriel. He is to be protected as well.”

“I understand.”

“There is nothing I can do for the remains of the Savannah pack,” I murmured mostly to myself with a shake of my head. Barrett had suffered so much, mostly because of me. So many lives had been lost, and yet he’d stuck by me through so much death and destruction.

“You have done what you can,” Danaus said, stopping my train of thought. “Barrett will see to his people. He will protect his family and James.”

“Valerio and Knox have been among my closest companions and trusted allies. See to their safety. Also, as much as Stefan and I don’t see eye-to-eye, I believe he will be a good leader of the coven if it remains intact. Find others with a similar strength and vision to save our people.”

“I will see to it, taking a more active role now that the Great Awakening has occurred,” Adio promised.

I stared at the nightwalker that could still look into the beauty of the sunlight each morning and smile. I wanted to tell Adio to watch over Danaus as well. I wanted to tell him to protect Danaus from the nightwalkers that would tear him apart if I were not there at his side, but I didn’t dare utter the words out loud. I could only look at Adio with pleading eyes, praying that he understood what I so desperately wanted to say. To my surprise, he placed his right hand lightly over his heart and bowed to me.

“Are you sure you have the strength for this?” Adio asked after a moment of silence. “You’ve already been in quite a tussle this evening, and you need to be at your peak if you’re to have any hope of succeeding.”

I started walking across the ground to the main ceremonial clearing, which was up at another level. “The energy flowing through this sacred place is mind blowing. It will be enough to carry me through the tasks at hand.”

“Are you sure he will come?” Danaus asked.

“He will the moment he realizes what I have done, I’m counting on it.”

I paused at the massive clearing, my vision blurring for a moment to another time. Some of the walls of Machu Picchu were now lit with a handful of lamps, throwing broad swaths of yellow lights against the white stones, but the night I was remembering had been filled with torchlight and a bonfire. In the middle of the open area thirteen humans had been tied together in a circle. The naturi had in one smooth stroke cut out their hearts and offered them up as a sacrifice to whatever gods that might be listening, opening the door I had closed centuries earlier.

Tonight I would not need a flood of human blood to paint the grass, or the cries of the innocent to float into the air moments before their death. I could open the door on my own because I had made this door and I was its key.

“What’s the plan?” Danaus asked.

“I open the door. We go in. You and Adio will kill any naturi that attempts to escape through the opening. I doubt they will be paying much attention to me when they face potential freedom. I will go in looking for the goddess. When I find her, Danaus, you will take her out and get her somewhere safe.”

“And Nick?”

“He will follow me in.”

“And you’ve got some brilliant plan for trapping him and you getting out again?” he asked, his tone growing more brusque.

“I do.”

“Once I get the goddess settled—”

“You will stay by her side no matter what. You will not reenter the cage. Once I engage Nick in the cage, Adio is going to come out and help you guard her. She must be protected.”

“Mira!”

“No, Danaus!” I snapped, turning on my right heel to face him. “We follow my plan or I take you back to Savannah now and I will leave you there.” We glared at each other for several seconds. I could hear his heart pounding in his chest, and for a moment I could feel a pressure in my brain as he tried to enter my thoughts and read my full intentions, but I kept him blocked out. The only feelings I wanted him to sense from me at that moment were love and determination. I would not be swayed from this course. Nick had to be stopped, and he had to be stopped now, when the world was so precariously balanced on the cusp of a major transition. He could not be permitted to step in as the next major power.

Danaus said nothing as I turned to Adio. Pulling the sword from my side, I handed it to him. He tested the weight and the balance before giving it a few good swipes through the air. I was vastly relieved that it seemed he at least knew how to use a sword. I hadn’t been sure, but it was hard to live a long existence in this world without picking up a few skills in self-defense.

Stepping away from my companions, I approached the center of the field where I had last seen the rip in the sky through which the naturi escaped from their prison. I sucked in a deep breath and held it in my chest as I pulled all the earth energy swirling about me to my fingertips. It was so much easier now than it had been in the summer. Then, it had been like trying to swim upstream in a rushing torrent of water. Now, it was just another part of who I was. The power came to me fast and strong and hot, as if heated by the bowels of the earth before finally reaching my body.

With my eyes closed, I reached out with my fingers toward the open sky and easily felt where the scar was, marking the entrance into the naturi cage. A faint groan escaped me as I grasped the two jagged edges and pulled them apart. A bright light blinded me for only a moment before my eyes focused on a world that looked all too similar to my own.

There were green fields edged with dark trees sparsely decorated with shining green leaves. However, the sky above was a leaden gray instead of a deep blue. As I stepped through the opening, I also noticed that the ground was hard and unyielding, with patches of dried dirt showing through the thinning grass. The air was completely still and there were no sounds of singing birds or the scurry of wildlife. This world was dying.

Behind me, I heard the crunch of earth under heavy feet as Danaus quickly joined me, followed by the lighter step of Adio. I glanced over my shoulder to see that both men had their swords drawn and at the ready. And I felt guilty. Any naturi still trapped in this world were already sick and dying. If they ran, they faced death at the hands of Adio and Danaus, and if they stayed, they faced an even slower death of this world. Were they to escape to the real Earth, they had a chance at life again, this time under Cynnia’s enlightened rule. They had a chance to live.

“I’ve changed my mind,” I said in a low voice. “Don’t attack anyone unless you are attacked first.”

“Are you sure?” Adio inquired.

“You want to give them the chance to escape?” Danaus said.

“They are already dying here and are doomed to death if they stay, even if we most likely succeed today. Cynnia will give them a second chance.”

“As you wish,” Adio said softly, to my surprise. I hadn’t expected Our Liege to so quickly follow my direction, but then I believed that his larger focus was on his own survival and the eventual survival of our people. Now that Aurora was dead, the naturi were a smaller concern for the nightwalkers.

“Do you know where you are going?” Danaus asked as we started across the field and into the surrounding woods. Off in the distance I could see the crumbling remnants of stone and thatch houses built among the trees. I could feel a faint swirling earth energy surrounding us as we preceded, marking the presence of the naturi, but they didn’t approach us. For now they were content to watch from a distance and edge closer to the opening that I was maintaining in the back of my mind. The pull of power to keep the door open was minimal, like a slowly growing headache in my temple. Nothing more than an annoyance.

“I can feel a great source of energy ahead of us. It has to be her,” I said as I continued to trudge forward. I placed the knife I had been carrying in my right hand back in its sheath. I wouldn’t need it for the time being.

“I can feel it as well,” Adio added.

Unfortunately, a second source of great energy was hovering around what felt to be the entrance to the naturi world. Nick was starting to grow suspicious of my absence from this world and he didn’t trust me. We were running out of time. Danaus and Adio needed to have the goddess in hand by the time Nick appeared or this was all for nothing.

Grabbing the arms of Danaus and Adio on either my side, I clenched my eyes shut and caused us all to disappear and then suddenly reappear closer to the source of the energy. I couldn’t pinpoint her exact location with the first jump, but we were significantly closer. It felt as if she was in the center of the world, and yet I didn’t know how vast this world was. I would have to rely on Adio to do the same thing with Danaus—to get him out again with the goddess.

I kept a tight hold on their arms as I jumped us forward a second time, getting significantly closer to the power this time. We jogged the rest of the way to what appeared to be a large tree in the center of a barren field. Here the grass was at its greenest and a castle rose up in the distance. I was willing to bet that Aurora had set up her home as close as she could to the source of the power for her new realm, in hopes that it would strengthen her own powers, regardless of what kind of drain it proved to be on the goddess.

As we drew closer to the tree, we discovered that it wasn’t a tree at all, but large, thick vines that had grown up from the ground, wrapping around something. The power I had sensed at the doorway was now starting to slowly grow closer to our position. We were running out of time. Stepping back, I raised my hands above my head and let my eyelids drop shut. I dug deep into the energy I sensed from the earth, which was leaking through the doorway, and used it to touch the vines. They proved to be more than a little resistant at first, but after some loud creaking and snapping, the vines started to part and recede back into the ground to reveal a crystal chamber hovering just a few inches above the ground.

Encased in the diamondlike structure was a woman with thick brown hair and dark skin. She appeared thin and frail, with her head leaning against the side of the crystal as if she were trapped in a deep sleep. I stared at her a moment, her appearance reminding me too much of the dark-haired Inca women who had been sacrificed for the amusement of the naturi so many centuries ago at the ruins of Machu Picchu. But she wasn’t an Inca woman. She was the goddess; the creator goddess of all things great and small. And she was dying.

“Give me your sword,” I commanded, holding out my right hand, not caring who gave up their weapon. As soon as I felt the heavy weight against my palm, I wrapped my fingers around it and raised it above my head as I stepped forward. I was prepared to pound against the crystal until the end of the world wrapped around us, but to my surprise, a chunk of the crystal broke off with the first hit. In her weakness, her own cage had become fragile. Her last bit of protection had been the vines. A second blow to the crystal created an opening large enough for her limp body to slide through. Danaus immediately stepped forward and caught her before she could hit the ground.

I slid the sword he had handed me back into the sheath strapped to his back. When I looked at his face, I saw a tear roll down his cheek as he stared down at the woman cradled gently like a child in his strong arms. She was exquisitely beautiful and immensely frail. Her chest barely rose and fell with each breath, and I could barely make out her heartbeat.

“Adio, can you get Danaus to the doorway the same way I got us here?” I asked, slowly dragging my gaze from my lover’s heartbroken expression.

“Yes, it shouldn’t be a problem,” the nightwalker said, taking a step closer to Danaus so he could lay a hand on his shoulder.

“Danaus, get her to the clearing with the tree and lay her flat on the ground,” I said. “The connection with earth should help rejuvenate her.” He merely nodded, unable to break his gaze from the woman’s face. “You are to stay at her side no matter what. Protect her with your life. Promise me.”

“I promise,” he whispered.

A dark, ominous voice rumbled across the plains. “Mira!” Nick was nearly upon us.

The sound of Nick’s voice was enough to suddenly snap Danaus out of his trancelike state. He looked up at me with narrowed eyes as he realized what kind of corner I had backed him into. He had promised to watch over the goddess and so would not be able to help me in my fight against Nick. He was trapped.

“Go now!” I screamed, backing away from my two companions. Danaus gripped me with one last desperate look, and then he and Adio were gone from my sight. I could feel Nick approaching with lightning speed, but I turned my back and approached the crystal chamber that had held the dying goddess.

“Stop!” Nick commanded as soon as I laid my left hand on the edge of the opening to the crystal. “What lunacy do you have cooked up now, my little daughter?” There was a desperation to his voice I had never heard before, causing his usual calm to splinter. I glanced over my shoulder to find him standing just a few feet away. He was back to the appearance I had briefly seen upon our first meeting, with his wild red hair and lavender eyes. It was as close to human that this god of chaos could come, and it only succeeded in solidifying my link to this creature in my mind.

“The goddess that inhabited this world is dying because of her lack of contact with the earth and her mate. If this world falls, then so will the cage that hold the bori,” I argued. “The world has been shaken enough by the presence of the naturi. They cannot survive the arrival of the bori as well.”

The bori were the natural enemy of the naturi. Creatures that drew their powers from the souls of living creatures, they had no bodies of their own, but succeeded in tricking humans into becoming hosts for them. They shapeshifted into various creatures, tempting the weak and the vulnerable with promises and desperate pleas. Where the naturi wanted to destroy mankind and save the world, the bori were determined to enslave mankind and destroy the Earth.

“What could you possibly hope to accomplish by entering this world and taking out the goddess?” Nick demanded, smoothing out his voice in an attempt to sound reasonable.

“She was dying. Someone needs to replace her,” I said, grasping the other side of the crystal case before placing my foot on one of the vines closest to the entrance.

“Mira, my dear, you’re not a goddess. You can’t replace her. You’re simply not strong enough.”

“I can try.”

“I don’t think so,” Nick hissed. A heavy blast of energy slammed into my chest, ripping the crystal out of my grasp as I was thrown several yards across the field. I hit the ground with my back and rolled several feet before finally hitting the side of a tree. Gritting my teeth, I pushed off the tree and regained my feet so I was once again facing my father. He immediately wrapped his energy around me again, and I had a feeling he intended to drag us both out of the naturi world, but I wouldn’t allow it. Summoning up my own powers, which he had taught me to use, I pushed off his grasp, shoving the energy back at him with enough force that he stumbled a step backward.

“I’m not allowing this place to falter any further,” I bit out as I wrapped more energy around my hands.

“The naturi and the bori are no longer your concern. Your only thought should be pleasing me,” Nick said with an evil grin.

“You’ve been accommodated enough, I believe.” With the energy spiraling around me, I commanded one of the vines to wrap around Nick, but the bastard suddenly disappeared from sight. I shifted my focus to grab him back, but he reappeared before I could grasp him. His fist slammed into my jaw, snapping my head around as I slammed into the ground again. His punishment didn’t stop there. He kicked me several times in the ribs, breaking more than one before he reached down to wrap his fist in a length of my hair.

“You’re coming home, child,” he snarled, his foul breath dancing under my nose.

“I think the lady prefers to stay,” announced an unexpected voice seconds before Nick was pulled away from me. I twisted around to see the god of chaos hurtling through the air until he slammed into the side of the vines still wrapped around the crystal chamber. Adio knelt beside me, gingerly helping me back to my feet.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I grumbled as I pulled my arm free of his assistance.

“I can help.”

“Where’s Danaus?”

“Where he promised to be.”

A weak smile lifted one corner of my lips. “I can’t keep the door open much longer. I have to focus on Nick.”

“We understand. Danaus told me to tell you that ‘he will be your Rowe,’ whatever that means.”

Tears welled up in my eyes as I quickly looked away from Our Liege and turned my attention back to my father. I knew what it meant. Danaus intended to spend the rest of his life fighting to find a way to open the doors to the naturi world again to set me free, just as Rowe had in an effort to free his queen, Aurora. I could ask for no greater gift.

“Son of the dawn?” Nick said as he stood, brushing himself off. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but this is a family affair.”

“As head of the nightwalkers, this is now a nightwalker affair. If Mira wishes to enter the chamber and hold this world together, there is nothing I can do but help her,” Adio said in an easygoing manner that was more than a little frightening to hear. For a moment I was convinced that Adio would have been content to have either or both of us trapped in this world, he only lacked the ability to close the doors again.

To prove his point, Adio waved one of his hands toward me and I floated off my feet toward the crystal chamber. My stomach twisted into a knot as I approached the tiny prison, but I didn’t hesitate to grab the sides and try to pull myself in. At the same moment, Nick screamed in frustration and used his own powers to pull me away, once again slamming me to the ground. However, this time Adio was there to soften the blow.

Rolling to my feet, I grabbed as much energy as my body would hold and threw it at Nick. I could only guess that Adio felt what I was doing because he mimicked my move, succeeding in shoving the god back until he was pinned against the vines. With my left hand, I tore a limb off a nearby tree and bashed Nick in the face with it, hoping to disorient him.

The god crumpled to his knees, shaking his bleeding head. I seized the opportunity and ran for the crystal chamber once again. “Get ready to close it!” I screamed at Adio.

Getting my hands on the edges of the chamber, I pulled myself in and was immediately encased in the feeling of something draining away my energy like a great suction pump. My eyelids flickered for a moment as I tried to focus over the disorienting feeling. Nick bellowed and lunged at me, his foot stepping onto the edge of the chamber at the same time his hand grabbed my arm to pull me out.

Clenching my teeth against my growing lethargy, I grabbed both of Nick’s arms and pulled him into the chamber while I slid around to the opening. He screamed, but the sound was cut off as I released one of his arms long enough to smash my fist into his nose. Nick released me to cover his broken nose, allowing me the chance to fall out of the opening. My legs scraped against large chunks of crystal as they rushed back into place to cover the opening. If I had hesitated a second longer, Adio would have closed us both in the chamber together.

I lay on my back for a second, trying to get my head to stop spinning while energy seeped back into my frame. I could feel the door to this world starting to close as I weakened. We needed to get out of there.

“Mira, help me!” Adio cried, drawing my attention back to him and the crystal chamber. I looked up to find Nick pounding against the crystal with both of his fists, screaming at me, while Adio used his own powers to mend the broken bits. I added my own energy, sealing my father away.

After a couple seconds I noticed that the chamber seemed to grow stronger and thicker as it absorbed his powers. I looked around the world to find that the leaves on trees were quickly growing black and falling off, while the ground split open and spouts of fire shot up. While the great creator goddess had created a second earth with her powers, the god of chaos was creating a world much more akin to the human idea of Hell.

“I think it would be a good time to beat a hasty retreat,” Adio said, grabbing my elbow. While I gathered up all the energy I had to focus on keeping the door open, Adio teleported us from the crystal chamber to the doorway, which was quickly closing. I pushed Adio through the opening and then dove through myself, landing in a heap on top of him. I summoned up enough energy to roll over Our Liege and lie on my back in the grass, letting the energy from the earth seep back into the frame as I closed my eyes.

“You seemed a little eager to close up that chamber,” I criticized, opening my eyes to find him sitting next to me, staring down at my scratched and bloody face. A smirk twisted his full lips.

“While the thought of locking you both away and out of my hair was tempting, I feared that if you were locked away, I would not be able to escape that world myself,” he admitted.

“Oh, yeah, I would have definitely kept you trapped if I was to be locked for eternity in a crystal chamber with Nick,” I said with a soft chuckle.

Adio smiled down at me. “The great trickster god tricked by his own daughter. It seems fitting.”

“I just hope it holds for a few millennia,” I grumbled. With muscles protesting, I pushed into a seated position and looked around the empty plaza. The stars still twinkled above and a steady wind swept across the silent ruins. The world seemed untouched by the feat we had accomplished, which was exactly as I hoped it would be.

Adio pushed to his feet and offered me his hand. “Come on. There is someone who is waiting for you.”

We walked across the plaza and down to the small clearing that held the only tree that grew in the ruins of Machu Picchu. Danaus knelt beside the figure that lay in the grass beneath the tree, but I noticed that his eyes were not on her, but staring in our direction, anxious and fearful. His shoulders slumped as we came into view and his head bowed as I heard a heavy sigh slip past his parted lips.

Standing over the goddess, I noticed that her heartbeat seemed a little stronger than before, and her breathing was deeper and more even. To my surprise, her eyelids fluttered and opened, pinning me with an intense stare. I fell into those brown eyes, losing all sense of time and place. Machu Picchu slipped away along with the rest of the world. There was just the swirl of energy that had taken on a variety of colors and shades as they danced around me and the goddess. Not only was she alive, but she was growing stronger with each passing second.

Fear trembled through me, but I didn’t question the choice I had made. The great creator goddess had to be a more benevolent force for the earth than the god of chaos. My only concern was that I might have separated her even farther from her mate, who was still trapped with the bori.

And then she smiled at me. The world came back into focus, and I watched as she sank into the earth as if returning back to the womb of her own birth. The earth closed in around her so that there was no mark left of her ever being present. There was nothing left but a new layer of energy dancing in the air, caressing my flesh, taking the place of Nick’s cold touch.

“She’s gone,” Danaus murmured, rising to his feet.

I extended my hand to him and he tightly clasped it in his large one. “She’s home.”

“I think it’s time we did that as well,” Danaus said as he pulled me closer.

Wincing, I raised my hand to shield my eyes. “We can’t.” The sky around us was quickly turning from dark blue to slate gray as the sun rose in the east. By now the sun would already be up in Savannah, and I could not even begin to guess at what might be a suitable hiding place in the city at the moment.

“Allow me,” Adio said, placing a hand on both our shoulders. In the blink of an eye we were enveloped in darkness, only to reappear less than a second later. The ground shifted beneath my feet and the air was considerably warmer than the mountains of Peru. “Consider this a belated honeymoon,” Adio added, and then quickly disappeared again.

Danaus stood close beside me, one arm wrapped around my waist as we gazed over at our new surroundings. We stood on a white beach just at the shoreline. The air was silent except for the sound of the waves lapping against the shore, while lights lit tall buildings in the distance. At the edge of the beach was a well-lit road lined with swaying palm trees. The thick scent of flowers filled the air.

“Where are we? He had to have taken us west,” Danaus murmured.

It took only another second for it to dawn on me, as I thought about what Adio had said just before he disappeared. He had taken us to one of the honeymoon capitals of the world. “We’re in Hawaii,” I said, laughing as I leaned into Danaus. I wrapped both my arms around his waist and held him tightly. He was alive and safe. We both were. Aurora was dead and Nick was in permanent exile. For once, we were both safe and free. The world had become a vastly different place overnight, but it was a world we could attempt to live in, not a world under the shadow of Aurora and my father.

With a low chuckle, Danaus swept one arm under my legs and carried me out into the surf before dropping down to dunk us both underwater. We came up together, sputtering and laughing in the warm water.

“What was that for?” I cried.

“That was for your stupid promise! I could have helped—”

I placed my hand against his cheek as my feet searched for a bottom in the ocean. “And you could have been trapped in there with Nick and me. I didn’t want that for you. Never. I wanted you to go on living.”

Danaus reached up and moved some wet hair away from my eyes. “I would have never stopped searching for a way to get to you.”

“And I would have waited for you to come,” I whispered, my lips brushing against his.

Danaus closed the last few centimeters between us and kissed me as we bobbed weightless in the surf. His arms wrapped around my body and I could taste his love for me as it washed away the last memories of the past few nights. Together we had faced impossible odds again and again, and each time we came out alive and in each other’s arms. With Danaus, the world held no horrors for me now.

Slowly breaking off the kiss, Danaus rubbed the tip of his nose against mine before loosening one arm so he could slowly paddle back toward the shore. “I say we find a quiet hotel where we can forget about the naturi and the Great Awakening for a few weeks.”

“That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard in months.”

“You think you can stand to be alone with me for a while with no impending danger?”

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I let him carry me out of the water and back onto dry land. A deep sense of peace seeped into the marrow of my bones as he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Together, as God intended.”