Dawnbreaker

Seven

A sigh escaped me as I slipped out of the taxi and walked to the Dark Room. Sunrise was growing close and I was tired. Fortunately, this was my last stop of the night, and then I could go home for some rest.

The line to get in the Dark Room was gone, and the nightwalker bouncer was seated on a black bar stool outside the entrance, with a handheld game system gripped between his two meaty fists. The Dark Room had become a quiet place during the past couple of months. The lycanthropes had stopped attending and fewer nightwalkers appeared, fearful of being trapped in one place should the naturi suddenly show up. When the bouncer finally saw me, he jerked to his feet and shoved the game into the back pocket of his jeans. I only smiled and patted him on the shoulder as I walked by.

In the entrance, between the two coat checks on either side of the room, there was a splatter of blood on the floor. I followed the trail across the dance floor, which was currently empty, toward one of the back rooms. The half-dozen nightwalkers in the club were ensconced in the dark booths, whispering about the latest naturi attack. Before heading into the back, I paused to order the bartender to mop up the blood before it dried. Spilled blood might not have been a problem to a bunch of nightwalkers, but I preferred not to leave our unique DNA lying around. I had spent too many years protecting our secret to lose everything now to a stupid mistake.

Gritting my teeth, I entered the room where I already sensed Knox. He stood over the dying nightwalker with his hands on his hips and a dark frown on his lips. His black shirt was soaked with blood and clinging to his tense frame. There was also a smudge of blood across his left cheekbone.

“There’s nothing that we can do,” he announced when I shut the door behind me. I looked around the room to find three other nightwalkers in there, lining the back wall. Six humans were collapsed on the floor near them, a sickly shade of white. The blood donors. The humans were breathing heavily and their heartbeats were sluggish from their blood loss.

“Get them in cars,” I ordered. “Take them to at least three separate hospitals. They need blood.” I didn’t need a bunch of humans dying because of this naturi attack as well.

The nightwalkers jumped into motion, picking up the unconscious humans and carrying them out of the club while I turned my attention back to Knox and the dying Kevin.

“There’s nothing we can do without some medical help from the humans,” Knox admitted, rubbing his chin with one bloody hand. “His heart was nearly ripped from his chest. His wounds are too deep and too numerous. We can’t keep enough blood inside of him to get him to heal.”

In other words, Kevin would never survive the daylight hours. When the sun rose, his soul would fly from his body while the blood that Knox had fought to get into Kevin finished leaking out. When the sun set again, Kevin’s soul would be unable to find its way back to its body and he would be officially dead.

I didn’t bother to ask if there was any other way, or if Knox had tried everything. There was no reason to try to keep a steady stream of blood donors marching through the door until the sun finally peeked over the horizon. Both Knox and I had seen enough mortal wounds in our long lifetimes to know when the end was near and fighting it was futile.

Kevin didn’t stir on the blood-soaked sofa where he laid. I could feel the faint flutter of his soul within his fragile frame. His skin had already turned an ugly shade of gray under the coating of blood. Towels had been pressed to his chest and stomach to slow the blood, but they were already saturated. There was nothing we could do now but watch him die.

Shoving one hand through my hair in frustration, I paced away from this nightwalker to the opposite side of the room. Helplessness ate away at me, filling me with nervous energy. Not for the first time, I wondered if my return to Savannah had been a mistake.

Sitting in one of the chairs positioned near the sofa, I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. I would stay as long as I could. I would hold this death watch with Knox. Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave Kevin’s body laying around during the daylight hours. If someone broke into the Dark Room while we were sleeping and found the body, we would all be in trouble of discovery. If Kevin didn’t die within the next hour, I would have to finish the job so we’d have enough time to get his corpse to Archie before the sun rose. I would have to kill Kevin. It was my responsibility.

“You don’t have to stay,” Knox said, settling in the chair next to me.

“It’s the one place I belong tonight,” I murmured. “I will be the one to finish this if necessary.”

“He mentioned Tristan when he was still conscious. If Tristan was with them, I think you should be with him right now,” Knox said.

I frowned, looking at my bloodstained hands. “Tristan wasn’t wounded that badly. He’ll survive the morning with no trouble.” I paused and licked my lips, wondering how much Kevin had told him of the fight. I still didn’t know much, but there was potentially one piece of the puzzle that Knox was ignorant of. “Amanda was with them as well. She was taken by the naturi.”

“What do you mean ‘taken’?” he demanded, pushing to the edge of his chair.

“I mean taken. Kidnapped. Captured.”

Knox jumped to his feet and paced away from the chair to the opposite end of the room. His rage beat against me in that small room even though he never said a word. He was a smart guy. He knew that Amanda had been taken as bait to get at me. He also knew that I couldn’t risk my life for one nightwalker when I still had to go to the site of the sacrifice and save all nightwalkers from the threat of the naturi.

“I liked her,” he finally said into the air, his back still to me. There was the sound of defeat in his voice. “She was always a bit impulsive, but she was a good person, followed orders.”

“Don’t talk like that!” I snapped, getting him to jerk around to look at me. “She’s not dead yet. I plan to—”

A sharp knock at the door broke off my words. Before I could say anything else, the bartender poked his head into the room.

“Mira, Barrett is here to see you.”

Surprised by the lycanthrope’s unexpected appearance, I automatically did a quick scan of the bar to discover that he had not come alone. At least a dozen lycanthropes accompanied him. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

With a frown pulling at the corner of my lips, I rose and followed the bartender back into the main room with Knox close on my heels. The lycanthropes were spread out around the room, while Barrett stood in the center of the dance floor. Apparently, phone calls had been made and the pack called together. Nicolai stood off to one side, looking somewhat uncomfortable. I had a feeling that he was afraid he would be forced to choose between the pack he was now a part of and the debt he owed me for saving his life.

The nightwalkers that had been in the booths were on their feet and gathered on the opposite side of the room, looking just as aggressive as the lycans. No one was speaking. Even the music had been turned off, leaving the nightclub encased in an uncomfortable silence.

“Barrett,” I said with a nod of my head as I stepped onto the dance floor with him.

“We’ve come to escort you from the city,” he announced. “You’re the only reason why the naturi are here. You’re the reason that my people are dying. It’s time for this to stop.”

“I’m not leaving.”

As I spoke those three words, a growl rose from the shifters that lined two of the walls, while a matching hiss went up from the nightwalkers. Tension in the room spiked to mind-crushing levels, leaving us all balanced on the edge of a knife as we waited for someone to flinch first.

“Stop!” I shouted, holding out my open hands to both sides. “Going this route will also end in more deaths, and neither side can stand to lose another person. This is my home, Barrett. My people are here and I need to be here to protect them.”

“You being here is killing your people,” he barked at me.

“I’ll be leaving Savannah in a couple days. I have some business that needs to be taken care of first. One of mine has been kidnapped and I need to get her back,” I argued. My hands dropped back to my sides and tightened into fists. “When I leave for the sacrifice, the naturi should follow me.”

“It’s not soon enough. I want you out of town tonight and I want you to never return,” Barrett snarled.

A brittle smile lifted my lips as I looked at my shifter companion. I tried to remember that he had lost two brothers and was in pain. I tried to remember that he had lost a third of his pack to the naturi. I tried to remember that his people were helpless when the naturi attacked, but still, he was asking for the impossible.

“This is my home,” I calmly stated. “I will not be forced out.”

Barrett growled at me, his upper lips curling so I could see his fangs dropping into place. His deep brown eyes shifted to copper as the animal inside of him demanded control of his body.

“Do you really want to do this?” I asked. “You’re going to lose more of your pack, when I am willing to take the naturi with me in a couple days.”

“But you’ll be back and they will follow behind you until you’re finally dead. If necessary, we’ll finish the job for them and deliver your body.”

Mira! Knox shouted in my brain.

He doesn’t mean it like it sounds. He’s upset, I quickly replied. Barrett had made it sound like he was siding with the naturi, which was forbidden among the races. I knew him better than that. He would never side with the naturi. He was just looking for a way to get the naturi off his back, and the best way to protect his people was to get rid of me.

“If you want me dead,” I said, “then you do the deed. Don’t include the rest of your pack. They’ve lost enough.” A rumble went up around me as the lycans immediately opposed the arrangement.

“Silence!” Barrett shouted, and quiet immediately settled over the room.

This is suicide! Knox snapped at me. The sun will be up soon. You’re weakened.

I’ll be fine.

“Just you and me,” I said to Barrett. “Beat me. Kill me. And Savannah will be free of my presence for as long as the naturi walk the earth.”

“And if I were to lose?” Barrett countered.

I smiled broadly at him, exposing my fangs. “I’ll think of something. The key is that no one interferes on either side no matter what happens. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Barrett had barely gotten the word out before he lunged at me. His fist went immediately for my heart, aiming to end the contest as quickly as possible. I dodged the blow and delivered one of my own to the left side of his rib cage, breaking two ribs. He hissed in pain but didn’t let it slow him down. He twisted, punching me in the jaw hard enough to snap my head around. Taking advantage of my momentary confusion, he came down on the side of my left knee. I howled in pain as I crumpled to the floor.

For the first time, fear beat within me. I was too slow, too weak, and I had severely underestimated Barrett and his need to have me dead. However, the pain quickly overwhelmed the fear that had briefly blossomed, waking up the monster that squatted behind my soul. Where I had been calm before, a new blood lust swelled within my chest, lighting my lavender eyes.

Barrett punched at my face again, but I caught his fist this time. Tightening my grip, I fractured at least two of his bones while pushing to my feet and forcing him back to the far wall that lined the dance floor. I kept most of my weight balanced on my right leg as my left knee slowly healed. Hobbled as I was, I stepped away and waited for him to come at me again.

The lycanthrope pushed off the wall and came at me with the amazing speed of his people, surging across the open space in a blur. With my wounded knee, there was no moving out of the way. I blocked a succession of blows aimed at my face, stomach, kidney, and ribs. Nothing got through, causing his frustration to grow.

Sweat beaded on his forehead and his eyes began to glow with a copperish light. He was losing what little control he had. Soon he would be forced to shift, and I’d easily have him. But I didn’t want it to go down that way. I would be forced to kill him then, and I knew that his pack needed his leadership.

Unfortunately, I was beginning to lose my own battle with the monster inside of me. It growled and spit as it clawed its way up my chest, and was now wrapped around what passed for a heart within my chest. It wanted Barrett’s blood and it was the only way I could satisfy it.

I knocked him away from me again, sending him back across the room to the far wall. This time he paused long enough to break a leg off of one of the tables that encircled the dance floor. He finally had a weapon he could use against me—a wooden stake.

A smile once again graced my lips as I waved for him to attack. If he was going to up the ante that way, then I had no problem taking his blood. He was not looking to just beat me. He obviously wanted me dead.

Barrett came back swinging. I easily slipped beneath his blows, which were aimed to take my head off. I was tempted to set the piece of wood on fire but resisted. I promised myself that I would keep this a fair fight, and the use of my unnatural ability would tip the scales too much in my favor. He deserved a fair fight.

Around me, I could feel the night waning. I was growing weaker. It was less than two hours until the sun finally set. We would all need to reach sanctuary soon or be at the mercy of the lycanthropes, whom I no longer trusted to let us be. My people needed to be safe, and I knew only I could give them that safety.

With a low growl, I approached Barrett, slowly backing him toward the wall. He swung the stake at me, trying to knock me unconscious. I raised my left arm as he aimed a particularly hard blow. The hunk of wood shattered in his hand, sending shards flying across the room. He took the opening, plunging the remaining piece of wood in his hand for my heart. But at the last second I caught it with my right hand, halting it before it could puncture my skin. With a quick twist, I was suddenly standing behind him. The piece of wood was now pressed to his chest just over his heart. We both held onto the wood, struggling for control.

He was strong and he was fast, but I was centuries older than him. I would always be faster and stronger. It would have taken little effort to overpower him at that moment and plunge the stake into his chest.

“Would you like to know what it feels like to be staked?” I whispered in his ear. His only response was to growl at me and struggle for control of the stake of wood. With a dark chuckle, I grabbed a handful of his hair with my free hand and jerked his head back. The blood lust was now in control. I sank my fangs into his throat, bringing a scream from his lips. His blood poured down my throat, filling me with a new strength while I stole his away.

Around us I could feel the lycanthropes closing ranks, preparing to rush me. I had their leader in a death grip. I could easily drain him to the point of death and they knew it. A ring of fire sprang up around us, keeping both the nightwalkers and the lycanthropes at bay. Unfortunately, the fire set off the fire sprinkler systems, sending down a thick wall of water. But the fire never went out completely as I drank from Barrett. No one moved, becoming statues in the downpour.

The water helped to clear my head, and I released Barrett when his grip on the stake finally grew limp and his hand fell harmlessly back to his side. He dropped to his knees before me, slowly shaking his head as he attempted to clear the fog and remain conscious. I doused the flames, but the water continued to fall, drenching all of the nightclub’s occupants.

“This fight is over. I could have killed him, but chose to spare him,” I proclaimed. “Everyone leave, except you.” I pointed to Barrett’s remaining brother, Cooper. “You stay and help your brother. We have business to discuss.”

I watched as everyone slowly filed out of the nightclub. The bartender was the last to leave as he paused long enough to turn off the sprinkler system. There was only Cooper, Barrett, Knox, and myself left. Time was running out for the night, but I needed to know that things were settled between Barrett and me before I continued. There were still other ways that the shifter could betray me and my kind.