Dawnbreaker

Nine

It was a couple hours after sunset the next night before I was able to meet up with Danaus. Dawn had been too close when I finally left the Dark Room the previous night to try to see him. Besides, I still had to make sure that Tristan was comfortably settled and healing before I climbed into bed myself at daybreak. There was simply too little time to handle it all. The only cold comfort I did find before succumbing to the dawn was that Amanda would be safely out of the hands of the naturi during the daylight hours. They might have her body, but her conscious mind was beyond their reach, making torture worthless for at least a few hours.

But they were waiting for her when she awoke tonight. I heard her screams in my mind when I woke at sunset. Reaching out with my powers, I found Amanda was to the south of the city, out in the marshes. I connected with her mind long enough to discover that she was on an island. By what I could quickly pick out of her thoughts, I was willing to bet that she was being held out on Blackbeard Island. Knox and Tristan had been sent ahead to procure us a boat. It was my job to convince Danaus to come along for the hunt.

However, standing on the front porch outside my town house, my hand on the doorknob, I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to convince him to join us in this insane venture. It was obviously a trap. The goal of the naturi was to get to me, and I was willingly walking into it because the bait was one of my own. Common sense said that the naturi would kill Amanda either before I arrived or just as I set foot on the island. I had little hope of actually saving her. The risk I was taking didn’t make sense, and yet I felt that she was one of my own. I had offered her entrance into my family and couldn’t turn my back on her now because it wasn’t convenient to my own plans.

Unlocking the front door, I strolled in through the foyer, but my footsteps quickly dragged to a halt when I sensed that Danaus wasn’t alone. There was a woman with him. My teeth clenched and my hands balled into fists as I forced myself to step into the front parlor. Both he and the pretty blond woman jerked to their feet at the same time as I entered the room, their low conversation falling silent.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized snidely, my dark gaze leveled on the hunter. “I didn’t realize that I had left you with enough time to go out on dates. Apparently, I hadn’t properly explained the seriousness of the situation in which we find ourselves.”

“She’s not a date. This is the earth witch I told you about,” Danaus said. “She’s agreed to help you.”

“Hi!” the woman exclaimed. “I’m Michelle French, but you can just call me Shell, or Shelly. That’s what all my friends call me. Except my dad. He calls me Seashell when he thinks he’s being funny.”

It was all I could do to keep my mouth from falling open during this exuberant introduction. She was the epitome of perky, with her upbeat attitude and sunny disposition. Even her clothes shone, a pale yellow shirt and white shorts. I was willing to bet that she’d been a cheerleader during high school, maybe even through college.

“Yeah,” I drawled while dragging my gaze back to Danaus, who was looking at me levelly. Shelly was not the type of person either of us typically associated with. Most of our encounters were with other dark creatures that understood our world revolved around the basic tenet of kill or be killed. “Can I have a word with you in private?”

“Oh sure,” Shelly said in her sweet, chipper voice. “I’ll just run upstairs to my room and finish unpacking while you and Danaus talk.” With a bounce in her step, Shelly swept by me and skipped up the stairs to the second floor. I waited for the bedroom door to close before I opened my mouth.

“Have you lost your mind? Where the hell did you get her?” I snapped, shoving both my hands through my hair.

“Charleston,” Danaus simply replied, further fueling my anger when he refused to elaborate.

“Is that how they are in Charleston?”

“Sweet and happy is not a crime, you know.”

“It is in our world. Why did you bring her here?”

Danaus sat back down, watching me pace back and forth through the room, weaving between the sofa and the coffee table. “You said that you needed someone to teach you how to use earth magic. She can do that.”

“She’s an earth witch?”

“She’s an earth witch and one that hasn’t sided with the naturi. That type of earth witch isn’t easy to find, particularly when your name comes up. She’s willing to help you.”

A snort escaped me as I paused in my pacing to face him, my arms folded over my chest. “I find it hard to believe that she will be able to help me.”

“And I find it hard to believe that she’s willing to help you,” Danaus lectured, pushing to his feet again and coming to stand directly in front of me. “Outside of Savannah, you’re seen as a walking pestilence. Savannah has become a war zone and no one is willing to come here. But she was, so I would get off your high horse and give her a chance.”

“This isn’t about my ego, you ass,” I snapped. “It’s about her getting killed in the first five minutes of being here. It is a war zone, and she’s not equipped to handle something like this. I don’t want to worry about watching over her when I’ve got bigger problems to worry about.”

“What’s happened?” Danaus demanded, ready to put aside our argument and jump back into the business of surviving.

“Tristan and some others were attacked late last night by some naturi and lycanthropes. Two were killed and Amanda was taken hostage. She’s still alive and being held on an island out in the marshes,” I explained, then paused, looking away from him. I couldn’t look at him when I continued. “I have to go get her.”

“Mira,” Danaus murmured, but when he spoke again, his voice was hard and firm. “You can’t do this. It’s a trap.”

“I know it’s a trap!” I exploded, more frustrated with the situation than I was with the hunter. “Do you honestly think that I don’t? Of course it’s a trap, but I can’t leave Amanda to them. She belongs to me. She is a member of my family and I have sworn to protect her. I have to go after her.”

“And if you die, we’re all damned. We won’t be able to reseal the doorway between the two worlds. The naturi will escape and they will kill us all.”

“I have no choice,” I whispered.

Danaus gripped my shoulders with both hands and gave me a little shake, forcing my eyes back up to his face. “You have a choice. You can choose to walk away from this. You have to choose between saving one nightwalker and saving all nightwalkers.”

“This is more than saving just one nightwalker,” I said, stepping backward out of his grasp. “This is about eliminating all the naturi within my domain. A number of lycanthropes have been killed during the past couple of months because of the naturi. Nightwalkers have died. It has to stop. I have no doubt they’ve pulled back to the island, where they’re waiting for me. We can kill them all tonight, cleansing the area before we leave for Machu Picchu.”

“Machu Picchu?”

I nodded, a frown pulling at the corners of my mouth as I sat on the edge of the sofa while Danaus returned to his seat opposite me. “Jabari appeared last night with Nicolai. The Ancient said that the next sacrifice is to take place on the night of the equinox, and that it is to be at Machu Picchu. Naturally, we are being dispatched.”

“Naturally,” he grumbled, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Come with me, Danaus. Help me rid my home of the damned naturi. Barrett and his pack have lost enough because of them. So have my people,” I said. I knew it wasn’t my best argument. Danaus would be happy to see all of my kind wiped out, but right now we were the best defense against the naturi, who were infinitely worse than nightwalkers. The problem was that I couldn’t do this without him, and we both knew it.

Danaus gave what sounded like an unhappy but affirmative grunt. He would be happy to leave me to this suicide mission to save one nightwalker when we both knew I should just walk away. But I couldn’t. Jabari, Tabor, and Sadira saved me years ago from the naturi’s clutches. Sure, it was because they all wanted to control me and use me as their own personal weapon, but I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew was that someone came to save me. Amanda deserved that now, and I wasn’t about to abandon her. And neither would Danaus.

“I’ll help you,” came a soft voice from where Shelly stood in the doorway.

“No! Absolutely not!” I exclaimed, quickly pushing to my feet.

“She might be of some help,” Danaus suggested.

“I can be of help,” Shelly interjected before I could argue. “You’re not the only one who knows how to manipulate fire.” With a snap of her fingers a small ball of fire hovered above her hand. No magic words, no special wave of her hand or pause so she could summon up the power from the earth. She simply snapped her fingers and it was there. Maybe I had underestimated her abilities.

“There are going to be numerous naturi there with the single goal of trying to kill you,” I said. “Have you fought the naturi before?”

“No, but I have been in magical fights before with other witches who were aiming to kill me. I survived those. I can survive this one,” she commented, straightening her shoulders and standing up a little taller than before.

Frowning, I looked down at Danaus, still seated in the chair behind me. He was frowning as well, but he wasn’t denying her request to go along. This felt like a mistake, but so did rescuing Amanda, and I was determined to do that. At least with Shelly accompanying us, we had one more fighter against the numerous naturi that were waiting for us. And I was looking for anything that would even the odds.

“Go put on some jeans. We’re going to be slogging through the marshlands,” I said with a shake of my head. Shelly flashed me a brilliant smile before she jogged up the stairs. I just prayed that I didn’t live to regret this decision.