Dayhunter

SIXTEEN

Once I was back in a pair of leather pants and one of the few cotton tops that had survived my travels, Danaus and I quickly snatched up a speedboat and rushed out to the island. The hunter drove the boat, his large hands tightly gripping the steering wheel. His black hair danced in the wind, revealing his clenched jaw and narrowed eyes. Tension hummed through his muscular body and energy snapped silently around him. I wanted to remain in the far corner of the boat away from him, but it wasn’t an option. We had to talk, come to some kind of understanding before we waltzed into the Great Hall.

Lounging in the other chair beside him, my eyes locked on the island as we approached. “Do you have any guesses as to what flew to the island?” I asked.

“Big bats,” he muttered.

“Great. Are they the only ones?”

There was a pause as his powers jumped from his body and spread out toward the far reaches of the area. They washed through me like a warm wave. It was a feeling I wasn’t sure I would ever become accustomed to, and always left me wishing I could wrap myself up for a minute longer before facing the cold reality of what loomed ahead of us.

“I won’t be able to sense what is on the island until I reach it, but they’re not the only naturi,” he announced. His voice had a distant, dreamy quality, as if his attention was focused on a faraway point. I resisted the urge to take the steering wheel from him and remained seated. “There are another six naturi on the mainland, not far from Venice. It’s hard to pinpoint. Maybe somewhere around Padua or Verona. And there’s one alone in Venice. But I don’t know the area, I can’t tell you which island.”

A chill slipped down my arms. “Rowe,” I whispered, talking to myself, but I knew that Danaus heard the name the moment it left my lips. I occasionally forgot about his stronger than normal hearing.

“You think he’s here?” Danaus demanded. The hunter turned his head briefly to look at me before returning his gaze back to the open waters before us.

“I know it,” I admitted. “I ran into him last night after I got Tristan settled in the hotel. He knows there’s a naturi on San Clemente, but he doesn’t know who it is or why she’s there.”

“Doesn’t he think she’s a captive?”

“I may have disabused him of that idea,” I said with a little smirk as I recalled his stunned expression last night. “At the very least, we know that he’s not in on whatever the Coven is planning.”

Danaus slowed up as we drew closer to the island. “How does that help us?”

“It creates turmoil within his own kind. Possibly a distraction, a weakness we can later exploit.” I said, pushing some hair back from my face. “I think the other six on the mainland are to serve as backup in case something goes wrong. Together with the three we saw from the hotel window, these nine were either sent by Rowe to reclaim the missing naturi or are outside of Rowe’s plans and aligned with the naturi already on San Clemente.”

“Should I ask if you even have a plan?”

“Get out alive,” I replied dryly, folding my hands over my stomach. The statement earned me a fresh frown as Danaus concentrated on pulling the speedboat into the dock. It wasn’t the most difficult of tasks, considering there was only one other boat tied to the little stone structure. Apparently, the house had been emptied of the court before the Coven’s guests arrived. The hunter had also chosen the dock the farthest from the Great Hall. With the court gone, we could quickly travel to the hall and still give me enough time to lay down a couple of ground rules. I wasn’t sure Danaus was going to go for it, but I had to try.

Of course, I’d promised to keep him alive while in Venice, so I had to protect him no matter what happened with the Coven. Yet, nowhere in that agreement did I state in what condition he had to be in. If he became too much of a risk, I’d drain his stubborn ass in a heartbeat and keep him unconscious until we were out of Venice.

“We need information,” I said. “We need to know what the Coven is planning, why the naturi are appearing in Venice, and what in the world they have agreed to. To get any of this information, it means no killing.”

Danaus shut off the engine and stared at me as if I’d been babbling in ancient Celtic. “Your so-called leaders are making deals with the enemy and you don’t want to kill them? After you were so eager to finish them just last night?” he demanded, shoving the keys into his pocket. His hands absently swept over the pair of knives attached to his belt at various locations and the sword strapped across his back. As a seeming last resort, a handgun was in a holster at the small of his back.

“You misunderstand me,” I chuckled, rising bonelessly to my feet. Unfortunately, the motion wasn’t as graceful as I had hoped—my sudden shift in weight made the boat rock, and I hadn’t accounted for it. I wasn’t meant to be on a boat for extended periods of time. Steadying myself with a hand on the back of the chair I had been sitting in, I continued, “I want each of them writhing in unbearable agony, their flesh slowly stripped from their dusty old bones, their eyeballs melting and oozing from their sockets as they beg for death. I want the Coven and the naturi dead in the worst way, but now is not the time. If the Coven is destroyed, their secrets die with them, and that does not help our plans.”

“That didn’t stop you from trying last night,” Danaus tartly reminded me again as he stepped from the boat and onto the dock.

“That was a mistake,” I conceded, jumping onto the dock beside him. “I wasn’t thinking clearly and let my anger get the better of me. This time is different. I will need your help, but I need you to promise not to try to wipe out the Coven and the naturi without my agreement.”

“Mira—”

“No, I’m serious,” I quickly said when he sounded as if he would argue. “Do you think killing the Coven tonight will actually stop the naturi from entering our world? Will killing these winged monsters stop the sacrifices? If we’re killed tonight, do you honestly think Ryan will be able to stop the naturi in three nights?”

“Then what’s to keep them from killing us the second we walk into the Great Hall?” he asked.

“Fear.” The hunter snorted and started to walk up the dock toward the path that wound its way through the tiny forest to the Coven. I jogged up to him and stood in his path, stopping him again. “They’re scared, or at the very least wary of me, and they’re terrified of you.”

Danaus scoffed again and tried to step around me, but I quickly moved to block him, putting a hand on his broad chest. Beneath my fingertips I could feel his heartbeat pounding a mile a minute. It was a bit surprising to find him so anxious when none of it leaked out into his voice or expression. “You’ve killed countless nightwalkers, and I’m sure more than one of them was an Ancient. Jabari has also seen firsthand what we can accomplish together. By now the naturi would have heard what happened in England. Both sides may be willing to give us a little space.”

“You’re not afraid of me,” Danaus said, catching me off-guard with the comment.

I stared into his intense crystalline eyes, forcing a smile onto my lips. “That’s because I know you’re a big pussycat at heart. Wouldn’t hurt a fly,” I teased, then turned and walked down the path before he could answer. Good thing I wore my boots, because it was getting deep. Afraid of Danaus? I was terrified. I tried not to surround myself with creatures that could destroy me with a thought. Or worse, destroy my whole kind with a thought while using me as a weapon.

The walk to the Great Hall was uneventful, but we were prepared the whole time with weapons in hand. I gripped the little dagger I had worn so tightly that my knuckles ached when the huge double doors finally came into view. Holding up my hand, I motioned for Danaus to follow me over to the tree line. The two human guards who stood at the front doors were missing, and I could sense only a handful of nightwalkers on the whole island. While we were by no means hidden, I felt a little better knowing we weren’t standing out in the open.

“Who is on the island?” I asked, peering around a large oak to look up at the oppressive stone building.

“Five vampires,” he began before I even felt him reach out with his powers. “A scattering of humans and four members of the naturi. Wait! The lycan is here too.”

“Nicolai?” I demanded, my eyes swinging around to look at the hunter as I searched the grounds again with my powers. I had checked only moments before asking him, and picked up on the vampires and humans, but Nicolai was there now. A little faint, but definitely present. Damn Jabari! What was the point of having this ability if you couldn’t get an accurate count when you really needed one?

“Why would he still be here?” Danaus asked, staring at the building.

“Oooh,” I said as the pieces started to slowly fit together in my brain. “You think he might be the next sacrifice?” I suggested, pulling Danaus’s eyes back to my face. One brow arched in question as he turned over the idea. “The new moon certainly isn’t going to be working in their favor when they need to perform this sacrifice under a full moon. But I bet you would probably get a nice burst of energy from killing a lycan. Enough to bust through a magic seal that’s holding shut a door between two worlds.”

“Possible.”

“And wouldn’t it be a crying shame if they lost their sacrifice to me?”

A wide grin grew on my face as he turned over the idea. “You plan to steal another pet?” he asked, reminding me of how I neatly purloined Tristan while Sadira watched. If I stole Nicolai, it could turn into a full-time job keeping the werewolf alive, but that was more of a long-term worry. Right now my main concern was just getting off the island alive. Nicolai was the key to whatever bargain the Coven had set up. It explained why Jabari had sent him after me in the first place. I had the opportunity to disrupt the plan.

“Let’s go get my prize,” I announced, stepping out from behind the tree and starting up the path.

“They know we’re here,” Danaus stated, but I had a feeling that it was meant to sound more like a question.

“Without a doubt.”

“We’re never going to get through the door.”

“Getting in won’t be the problem.” I forced myself to put my foot on the first step leading up to the double doors. Getting out alive was going to be the real trick.