Dayhunter

TWENTY-ONE

No one was happy the next night when we finally left Ryan’s hotel. Danaus didn’t want me alone with Ryan; Ryan didn’t want Danaus paired with Penelope; Penelope didn’t want to be left alone with the hunter; and James didn’t want to be left behind at the hotel. Only Hugo wasn’t verbally complaining, but by his expression, I could tell he didn’t want to go at all. By the time the bickering stopped, I was ready to leave them all behind. However, I wasn’t that insane just yet.

After waiting for Ryan to change from his dress slacks into a pair of worn blue jeans, the warlock and I set out in a tiny taxi to the Palace of Knossos. Danaus had already confirmed that the naturi left the mountains and were approaching the city. However, due to his lack of familiarity with the area, he couldn’t tell whether they had arrived yet at the Minoan ruins.

I rubbed my eyes, trying to push aside some of the tension humming through me. I didn’t feel rested. Crete was eating away at my peace of mind. My sleep had been filled with nightmares of running from an angry mob, my father fighting to save me, only to be killed himself. To add to it, I knew very little about the warlock who sat beside me. We had met only a few nights earlier at the Themis Compound back in England. Sure, we were technically on the same side now, but he’d ordered Danaus to kill me some time ago. I wasn’t completely confident that the order had merely been put on hold until this little naturi mess was cleaned up.

I was more than a little curious to discover why Ryan had come to Heraklion himself. Of course, from what I’d gathered during my brief visit to the Compound, Themis wasn’t exactly crawling with magic users. He might have been the only one with enough power and skill to be of real aid—not that this made me feel any better. But for now I had a more pressing questions beating against the back of my brain.

“What possessed you to bring James along?” I asked him, trying not to sound too snide.

“Whatever do you mean?” Ryan asked, positively oozing faux innocence. His perpetual smile grew on his lips, mocking me.

“He’s not like us. You’re putting his life in danger,” I bit out in a low voice. There was no doubt that the taxi driver could hear us; I was just hoping his English wasn’t that good. Or at the very least, that he thought we were a pair of crazy tourists. “He doesn’t need to be here.”

“That’s surprisingly sweet of you, Mira,” Ryan said, his facade of innocence never wavering. “I wouldn’t have expected that.”

“Oh, shove it, Ryan!” I snarled, flashing my clenched teeth at him. “You’re not this dense.”

The smile remained on his lean, ageless face, but it faded from his golden eyes as they danced over my features. He watched me with a frightening intensity before he finally drew in a breath to speak. “I brought him for three different reasons. First, he is the assistant to both Danaus and me. He will be aiding us in any matters that we are unable to address while we are looking into our current problem.”

It was a reason. I didn’t think it was a particularly good reason. Charlotte Godwin was my human assistant back in Savannah and she took care of the day-to-day problems of managing my financial interests and seeing to my travel arrangements—things that generally needed to be addressed during the daylight hours.

“Second, James has been with Themis for several years,” Ryan continued, “but he has had very little field experience. I thought this would be a good opportunity.”

“You could have started him out on something a little less dangerous,” I criticized, shaking my head at him. As we stopped at an intersection, I scooted forward in my seat so I could address the taxi driver. “How far to Knossos?” I inquired in broken Cretan Greek. Despite all the years I’d been gone, my knowledge of the language hadn’t faded from my brain, as I would have expected. However, my dialect was archaic. It was unlikely anyone would be able to understand me. After listening to others, however, I’d picked up enough to get by. Undoubtedly, I sounded like a tourist.

“Less than a kilometer,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at me. He was an older gentleman with white hair and a lined face weathered by time and the sun.

“Let us out here,” I said, pulling a few euros out of the front pocket of my leather pants. I had converted the last of my Egyptian pounds into euros at the Cipriani before Danaus and I flew out. I didn’t have much on me but figured it would get me through the next couple of nights. Beyond that, I had to survive our next encounter with the naturi before I worried about my cash flow.

The driver seemed about to argue, but swallowed his comment when he heard Ryan already getting out of the car. He hadn’t been too sure about us heading to the palace at this late hour, but with a slight mental push, I managed to convince him to take us anyway.

We had left the city of Heraklion behind and entered into the hilly countryside filled with vineyards and olive orchards. From a quick scan of the region, I was relieved to find very few humans in the area. I didn’t have to worry too much about being discovered or anyone stumbling into a deadly battle. The problem with many of the so-called holy sites was that they were now major tourist attractions, leaving the area thickly surrounded by shops, restaurants, and hotels for weary travelers burdened with far too much cash.

Ryan and I silently waited in the darkness until we saw the taxi driver head back toward Heraklion and the relative safety of the city before we turned and headed down the empty lane toward the Minoan ruins. Danaus and Penelope had taken a taxi ten minutes before us, to head south of the palace before getting out and walking back toward the ruins. Hugo took a separate cab and would be arriving at the palace from the east. If we couldn’t stop them, our goal was to at least herd the naturi back toward the caves of Mount Idi and away from any of the large cities and towns in the immediate area. It was a temporary solution at best if we couldn’t destroy them all.

For the first time since I’d become a nightwalker, the darkness felt like a physical weight pressing on my shoulders, rather than the soothing presence it had always been, Dark violent memories of fear and hatred lurked behind every tree. My mother’s death, the men I killed—all ghosts waiting for a moment of weakness before they would strike. With my fists clenched at my side, I struggled to stay focused on the task that loomed before me and the potential adversary beside me.

“You said there were three reasons for bringing James,” I said to Ryan, resuming our earlier conversation from the car after we’d walked in the dark for a few minutes. “What was the third reason?”

He remained silent for a long time, until I was sure he wasn’t going to tell me at all. He drew in a deep breath and his hands stopped swinging loosely at his sides. “Something has happened, and James—being the responsible fellow that he is—feels he should be the one to tell you.”

“Why do I get the feeling that you don’t want him to tell me?”

“At the very least, I’d rather he not tell you in person. I fear that you’re the type to shoot the messenger,” Ryan stated, cocking his head to the side as he looked down at me.

“I didn’t kill Danaus when he told me of the naturi. I would think that would be proof enough.” I shoved my hands in my back pockets, my eyes sweeping away from the warlock beside me to the rows of trees and hills that rose up around the winding road. I had the Browning that Danaus had given me in a holster at my lower back, and I was ready if anything so much as twitched. The only one in the immediate area who I could sense was Ryan, and it was driving me crazy. The air was still, redolent of the earth and wildflowers. It felt as if the world was holding its breath in anticipation of the inevitable battle.

“You needed Danaus alive,” Ryan countered. “Besides, I’m not entirely sure you could kill him.”

I bit back the first sharp comment that rose to mind and pushed on. He was trying to distract me, but there was no reason to jump at the bait. “Are you going to tell me or do I have to drag it out of James later tonight?”

“Michael is missing,” Ryan softly said.

I sighed softly, the sound barely rising above the scuff of my boots along some loose gravel on the road. “Michael isn’t missing. He’s dead.”

“Yes, I know. Gabriel told us.” Ryan stopped walking and I looked up at him. The tall man’s white hair framed his narrow face, creating a strange outline to the shadows that filled the hollows of his cheeks. “We can’t find his body.”

My temper instantly flared and I took a step toward him. It was a struggle to keep my hands from closing around his throat, but I succeeded. There was a tingle of magic in the air coming from my powerful companion, and I had no doubt that he could send my flying across the road without blinking an eye.

But this horrible news diminished the danger of the warlock. Michael had been one of my guardian angels for several years. He’d been an able, dedicated bodyguard; a sweet, gentle man; and a considerate lover. He had watched over me during my daylight hours and stood with me against the naturi, who physically took his life. Recently, I realized that I’d been slowly stealing his life on another level, and the naturi had stolen away my chance to ever make it up to him.

But now this? Lost? A dead body lost?

“What do you mean? The night of the attack, I left him in the front hall. What did you do with him?” I shouted, not caring if I caught the attention of every naturi in the area. Michael deserved better than this. I needed to take him home where he could finally rest.

“We couldn’t find him. I met him. James knew him. Gabriel was there. We searched every inch of the manor and all the area surrounding the Compound. He’s not there,” Ryan calmly said. He laid his large hands over my shoulders, squeezing lightly. The small comfort eased some of the tension from them, but I couldn’t unclench my jaw.

“Who?” I whispered in a choked voice. “Who has him?”

“Mira…” Ryan paused again and licked his dry lips. “The naturi were all over the first floor of the manor—”

“No!” I jerked away from him, walking to the other side of the road while shaking my head in denial. My hands were shaking. The very idea of any naturi touching Michael’s lifeless body fueled a mindless, irrational fire within me. “Absolutely not! No! They don’t need his body. Why would they do it?”

“To get at you.”

“No, I don’t believe you. You have him.”

“Why? So I can point the finger at the naturi and get you to hate them more?” he argued, his voice growing firmer. “That’s impossible. According to Danaus, your hatred of the naturi is boundless and eternal. There’s nothing I could do to increase that.”

I paced back across the road toward Ryan, my fingers clenched into shaking fists. The urge to set the surrounding fields on fire was overwhelming, like a boiling kettle of water begging to blow off some of the steam before it overflows. “Why?” I growled.

“I don’t know who has Michael, but it doesn’t matter. As you said, he’s dead. There’s nothing they can do to him now.”

Yes, logic said that Michael was in a better place and that his empty body was not important. But I needed this. I needed to bury him in the plot of land that had been put aside for my bodyguards. During my century in the United States, I had survived a few other bodyguards and seen to their burial since they had no other family. Michael belonged with them and me, back home in Savannah. In the one place where I could watch over him.

Turning away from Ryan, I resumed our walk toward the palace. He fell into step beside me after a couple seconds. I didn’t know whether I believed him. To me, it didn’t make sense for either Themis or the naturi to take Michael, but I knew it would come back to haunt me someday.

We had been walking uphill and could now see the valley spread out around us, dotted with farms and vineyards off in the distance. As the road curved to the left, the line of trees parted before us, revealing the first glimpse of the ruins of the palace. From what I could see, it was enormous, as if a city unto itself.

But something felt off. A few minutes later my steps slowed as we approached the Minoan ruins. I held my right hand out before me with my palm open. There was an energy growing in the air, unlike the tingling electric feel coming off of Ryan. This was different; hot and thick, as if it were a living thing growing in stature and substance.

“Can you feel that?” I whispered, my dragging feet finally drawing to a stop. I held up both hands before my body, feeling the air as if pressing against a solid creature, though the area was empty before me.

“Yes, an energy,” he replied. He stood beside me, his left hand slowly waving through the air before him. “Did you feel this at Stonehenge?”

Did I feel this at Stonehenge? When I’d arrived at the ancient location, my body was still wracked with pain from Danaus stealing away my abilities and body for his own purposes. I couldn’t stand and every inch of me had screamed in agony. There had been a layer of pain in the air, but my senses were so clouded that I wasn’t sure which of the feelings was related to Stonehenge and the swell of power from the earth.

“I’m not sure. I think so,” I hedged, finally forcing my feet to resume their steady approach. My hand fell back to my side, where I anxiously flexed my fingers a few times as if to loosen the muscles. The power in the air was building. “Can you tell if the energy will peak tonight or tomorrow night?” I asked, glancing over at him.

“No idea.” He shrugged his wide, narrow shoulders before looking down at me. “I’m not an earth user.”

Frowning, I paused before a set of cracked and crumbling stairs that led up to the palace. There were essentially two types of magic: earth and soul, which was also referred to as blood magic. Most magic users dabbled in both, but eventually everyone specialized in one side or the other. Both sides could do the same things, but each magic style had its own requirements and limitations.

And then there was Rowe. As a naturi, he was naturally a strong earth magic user, but he seemed equally adept at weaving blood magic, given that he’d gone to the trouble of arranging a harvest in Egypt less than a week ago. It would have been so much easier if the naturi stuck to earth magic and the bori stuck to blood magic. Then a person would know exactly where she stood when the shit hit the fan.

With one foot on the stairs, I reached out and scanned the area. Danaus and Penelope were roughly south of us, slowly approaching, while Hugo was in position to the east. Unfortunately, out of the five of us, only Danaus could sense the naturi. We were waiting for him to fire a shot to signal that they were here if no one else reacted first.

Creeping to the top of the staircase, I paused, squatting down, pressing my hands against the worn stones. The palace was mostly raised above the hill upon which it stood. If I walked onto the ruins, I would stand out as an easy target for any of the naturi. Despite the darkness of the night, I could easily see within the thick shadows. The only forms I could pick out were columns and bits of broken stone. The area appeared deserted, but I knew better.

I rolled my shoulders once and clenched my teeth. The push of the power in the area had grown a little stronger as I climbed the stairs. A throbbing had started in my temples and I could feel pressure building at the base of my skull. For a whole new reason, I had begun to hope that this battle wouldn’t take too long. The pain was starting to become a distraction, and I wasn’t sure how it would affect my ability to control my powers.

Ryan eased down so he was sitting opposite me on the stairs, his body held low to the ground. I wasn’t sure how good his eyesight was in the pitch-black, but I assumed he knew a spell or two to make it better than the average human.

“Has Danaus told you about Rowe?” I whispered, drawing the white-haired warlock’s attention back to my face. He nodded, so I continued to pick away at the thought that was nagging at me. How often would I find myself in the company of an ancient warlock with oodles of magic information crammed into his brain? “He’s different. Scarred. Dark hair, dark eyes. Unlike the other naturi. It’s from the magic?”

Ryan seemed to hesitate a moment before he nodded. “He’s tainting the magic so it’s tainting him,” he finally replied in a low voice. “He’s using the power of the earth to fuel blood spells.”

I stared at him for a long minute in silence, taking in his snow white hair and gold eyes, features I’d never seen on another human being in all my six hundred years, before finally voicing the thought we both knew was floating through my head. “The opposite of what you’ve done. You’ve tainted earth spells by fueling them with blood magic.”

The perpetual smile that seemed to haunt Ryan’s face melted away and his expression became completely unreadable. There were no laws against what he and Rowe were doing. However, it was my understanding that the mixing of styles was dangerous and frowned upon.

“This isn’t the time for this conversation,” Ryan stated in chilled tones.

“Actually, it is,” I corrected, smiling broadly at him. I leaned closer and lightly laid my hand over his wrist. “You know earth spells. You’ve got an abundance of power flowing up from the earth here. Use it. Cast something here and now. Anything.”

He pulled back, his mouth finally slipping into a frown. “The earth spells I know aren’t to be used lightly, and my strength isn’t in using power from the earth. It would be too dangerous.”

“More dangerous than allowing the naturi to complete their sacrifice here tomorrow night?” I demanded, my voice briefly spiking higher. “If you cast something here now, won’t it siphon off some of the power? Couldn’t it disrupt their ability to break the seal?”

The warlock looked away from me, staring off across the ruins. His brow was furrowed in thought as he turned over my argument. My understanding of how magic worked was pretty rudimentary, but the logic seemed to fit. If we used the magic here before the naturi, the power from the earth would dissipate and move on to the next location. It was extremely unlikely that the naturi would be able to find the next location before the new moon tomorrow night. They would have to wait until the Fall equinox more than a month away. That would give us ample time to hunt down Rowe and destroy him.

“There’s another problem,” Ryan stated after a couple minutes. “Regardless of which earth spell I cast, I’d have to start it with blood magic and then switch to earth magic.”

“Can you do that?” I asked, earning a very smug smile as laughter danced in his narrowed eyes. I rolled my own eyes in response. “So what’s the problem?”

“I don’t use my own soul to fuel my magic,” he admitted, his smile never wavering.

Of course not. That kind of nonsense was for the novices. Why waste the energy from your own soul when you could drain anyone else’s energy that happened to be near you? No wonder he was so comfortable as the head of Themis. Not only was he tapped into an excellent source of information regarding all the other races, but he was constantly surrounded by an ample source of energy. Much like nightwalkers, blood warlocks always stuck close to cities, while the few earth witches in the world preferred wooded regions. You have to stick close to your food source. Or in the case of magic users, your fuel source.

“I repeat: What’s the problem?”

“No humans nearby.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to remind him that Danaus was not far, but I swallowed the hunter’s name. We both knew that Danaus wasn’t entirely human, though I wondered if Ryan was aware that Danaus had some kind of bori connection. Obviously, the hunter was off limits, which was probably best for everyone involved.

“Can you use a nightwalker?” I asked. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea of Ryan highjacking some of the energy that kept me alive, but I was more afraid of facing the naturi here in another battle to protect the seal.

“I can’t. You don’t have a s—”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” I hissed, tightening my grip on his wrist. “Nightwalkers have souls. Besides, we’re pure blood magic. It’s how we stay alive.”

He moved his arm, twisting it so I would release him. “I can try. I’ve never done this so I can’t be sure—”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, cutting him off. Turning my attention back to the ruins, I looked over the area, searching for any sign of the naturi. It remained quiet, with only the sound of the wind lightly rustling the leaves in the surrounding trees. Before we moved, I mentally reached out and told Penelope and Hugo what our plans were. They would keep us covered while Ryan cast his spell.

I pushed off the ground with both hands, climbed the last couple stairs, and walked across the stone floor, heading deeper into the ruins. Since Danaus had yet to fire a single shot, Ryan and I assumed there wasn’t a naturi in the actual ruins. Of course, I checked more than once to make sure that Danaus was still alive and conscious. Not that I thought Penelope could kill Danaus, but I definitely didn’t trust her. I needed the hunter alive much more than I needed her at that moment.

“Where are we going?” Ryan whispered, leaning close to me as he spoke. It seemed silly to me. We were completely out in the open, easy targets. If the naturi couldn’t see us, I certainly wasn’t going to worry about them hearing us. Of course, when I replied, I whispered too. Some things defy logic when fear is twisting like a knot in your stomach.

“There’s a large courtyard in the center of the palace. I’m willing to bet the magic is strongest there,” I replied. Danaus and I had spent most of the flight to Crete studying maps of the Palace of Knossos. There was more than one place the naturi could use for the site of the sacrifice, which might be problematic with only five of us there. It would be better if we just got rid of the magic now and ruined their plans.

Pausing to edge around the corner of one of the few walls that was still standing, I saw Ryan closely examining the faint mural that had survived the centuries. Even in the darkness I could tell that the colors were relatively crisp despite the wear of the ages. I wished I could have taken the time to wander the ruins and marvel at what had obviously been an amazing structure. But for now the naturi dominated my thoughts.

“Mira,” he said, laying his hand on my shoulder before I could walk away from the wall. “Those old myths about the labyrinth…”

“The labyrinth was supposedly found under the palace.”

“And the minotaur?”

One of my eyebrows popped up in surprise at his question. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking. The minotaur? The half-man, half-bull creature that was supposed to be held captive in the center of the maze.

“They made the lycanthropes,” Ryan reminded me when the silence had stretched for longer than he was comfortable.

“That has never been proven,” I murmured, shaking my head. I had trouble accepting that supposed myth surrounding the lycans and the naturi because there was a second half to it that I found even more distasteful, which had to do with the origins of my own race. “There’s no such thing as the minotaur. Just a fanciful human tale.”

We continued on for another couple minutes before we came to a large clearing in the center of the palace. The space was rectangular, its edges marked off by broken rocks from what had been the walls, columns, and roof of the building centuries ago. I had heard old tales of the Palace of Knossos when I was growing up in Chania, but we never traveled far from our home.

“Do you have a spell in mind?” I asked, turning my back to Ryan as he stood in the center of the clearing. The power in the air was incredible, pushing against me as if it could force its way through my skin and into my organs. But at the same time, the energy felt thick and heavy. The very molecules felt too large to sink into me, but it didn’t keep them from trying.

“Yes,” he replied. Even his voice seemed more muffled here, as if the sound was fighting its way through energy. “I’m going to create a storm.”

I suddenly spun around to face the warlock, my mouth falling open at his announcement. “Isn’t that a rather big spell? With this much power in the air, you could destroy half the island, not to mention us.”

“Actually, if I’m not extremely careful, I could destroy not only this island, but several others in the area,” he said. His voice was calm and even, as if the notion of ending countless lives didn’t ruffle his feathers in the least. “This is what you wanted.”

“I want you to cast a spell, not cause mass destruction. Why such a big spell?” I might not have known much about magic, but I did know that weather spells were extremely complicated and took a great deal of energy. Very few could even cast them, and of those that could, even fewer had the ability to control them once they were started.

“I told you, I’m not an earth user. I don’t know a lot of earth spells and the few I do know are very dangerous. Do you want me to do this?” he demanded. Both his hands were raised out to his sides, his palms facing out. It was as if he were about to grab the air around him and pull it in toward his body.

To my surprise, I hesitated only a moment. This was stupid. This was dangerous. And this might be our only chance to stop the naturi in Crete. If we could stop them tonight, I thought, we could spend the next few weeks hunting down Rowe, our main target.

“Do it.”

Ryan drew in a deep, cleansing breath while his eyes fell shut. I was turning my back toward him again when a gunshot rang out. Damn it. We had company. The warlock was of no use to me now. He couldn’t be distracted from the complicated spell he had committed himself to, and I needed to protect him no matter what.

Pulling the gun from the holster at the small of my back, I turned slowly around, holding the weapon before me with both hands as I scanned the area. I didn’t see or hear anything yet. A second shot was fired, the bullet pinging off a stone behind me.

My stomach lurched and I spun around in time to see a naturi running toward me with a short sword raised above his head. I squeezed off three rounds before I finally managed to lodge a bullet in his chest. The naturi jerked at the impact before stumbling over some broken rocks, sending him to his hands and knees. With a loud clatter, the sword hit the ground while the naturi softly groaned.

A smile drifted across my lips, and then I was unexpectedly knocked to my knees. My arms fell and the gun almost slipped from my numb fingers. Nothing had hit me. From my back came a tugging sensation, as if something within me had been snagged or caught. My vision blurred and fatigue weighed on my shoulders.

Ryan had succeeded in tapping into my energy. I doubted that most humans would have even detected it, maybe only paused and yawned at the sudden wave of fatigue and then gone on with their day. However, my existence was pure soul energy, I could no longer generate my own, which was why I had to feed on the blood of others. If Ryan didn’t release me soon, I would need to either feed or sleep. Not an option at the moment. As much as I wanted to drain the moaning naturi dry, their blood was poisonous to all nightwalkers.

A scrape of stone and a new voice jerked my attention back from my own fatigue. A second naturi knelt next to the one I had shot only seconds ago. With her right hand, she was helping him to sit up, while still holding a sword in her left.

I pushed to my feet at the same time she rose to hers. Gritting my teeth, I prepared to attack when I saw Danaus and Penelope appear out of the shadows to my right. They had finally come to join in the fun. I realized then that the naturi were attacking from the east. They had circled around to surprise us. But that also meant they had either slipped by Hugo undetected or silently killed the nightwalker before reaching the palace. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go looking for him until the naturi were taken care of.

Turning back to Ryan, I found the warlock standing where I’d left him. His hands were stretched above his head, reaching toward the heavens he sought to control. His lips were moving quickly but I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. The wind had picked up, dropping the temperature in the area several degrees. Overhead, dark thick clouds churned in the formerly clear sky, blotting out the stars. A massive storm was forming.

The weight on my shoulders suddenly lifted and the fatigue slipped away like a wave pulling back out to sea. Ryan had released my energy and started to use the earth energy that was rising up from beneath our feet. The warlock grunted, drawing my gaze back to him. Lines of strain deepened in his face. Above him, his long fingers trembled. I wanted to ask him if he was okay but knew better than to distract him. Regardless of what his answer would have been, there was no turning back now.

A whisper of cloth, a prickling of the hairs on the back of my neck—they were my only warning. Turning on my left heel, I spun around, raising the gun in both hands at the same time. I unloaded four shots in the naturi before he finally fell to the ground dead. Clenching my teeth, I hurried over and picked up the short sword he’d dropped.

Standing over the dead naturi, I took an extra moment to cut off its head. No reason to take silly chances. I wasn’t a very good shot with a gun. Strangely, this naturi had been from the earth clan. From my experience, they weren’t melee fighters. That was left to members of the animal clan. The earth clan preferred to use magic, letting the earth and plants do the fighting for them.

The naturi weren’t using magic. Was it for fear of tapping into the earth magic that permeated the area? A smile lifted my lips as I turned back around to where Danaus and Penelope were battling four naturi. My guess could prove to be right.

Large drops of ice cold rain started to fall from the sky, landing on my head like small pebbles and instantly soaking into my T-shirt. A flash of lightning forked through the sky, darting from one black mass to the next before being followed by a loud bang of thunder. The storm was still building.

The wind gusted, blowing my hair in front of my face, momentarily blinding me. I pushed it back in time to see another earth naturi running toward Ryan and me, sword raised. Returning the gun to the holster at my back, I beat the creature back with the short sword in my right hand. I didn’t think the worsening weather would help my aim, and I needed to save the last few bullets I had for an emergency.

It was a struggle to fight back the naturi as the storm continued to build. The wind roared while the rain fell in relentless sheets, blinding us. Lightning lashed at the sky, lighting up the area like a strobe light in a smoky nightclub. After finally dispatching my opponent by plunging my sword through his heart, I turned back to Ryan, pressing my left hand to my left thigh in an effort to stem the bleeding. The naturi had gotten in a lucky strike before I killed him. The pain was only a dull throbbing in the back of my mind.

The rain was coming down so hard I could no longer see Danaus and Penelope. All sounds of the battle had been drowned out by the rain and thunder. I couldn’t see Ryan either. He had been only a few feet behind me. I took a few frantic steps forward, sucking in a lungful of air to shout his name when I nearly tripped over his foot. The warlock was seated on the ground, his arms resting on his bent knees before him.

Kneeling before him, I grabbed his slumped shoulder. Ryan jumped, his head snapping up. The tension instantly eased from his shoulder when he realized it was me. “It’s done,” he announced, wiping some of the water from his eyes. His clothes were plastered to his lean frame and he was trembling, either from the cold or exhaustion.

I glanced up at the sky. The storm was still building around us. The lightning that had been content to jump from cloud to cloud was now slamming to the earth with increasing frequency. A couple of trees had already exploded in a shower of sparks and wooden shards as they were struck.

“What do you mean it’s done?” I shouted over the pounding rain. Water blurred my vision and dripped off the end of my nose. If I still breathed, I would have been afraid of drowning. “The storm is getting worse.”

“The storm is getting its energy from this spot. It will continue to build until the energy runs out,” Ryan shouted back.

I instantly released him and nearly lost my balance, as if the world had shifted beneath me. The storm was drawing its power from the well of the earth. It wouldn’t run dry. “Are you insane?” I screamed. “You have to stop it!” If this storm left Crete, it would sweep up through the Aegean Sea, crushing one island after another before slamming into the mainland. Thousands of people were going to be killed.

He stared at me, his mouth soundlessly opening and closing a couple of times. “I can’t,” he finally said when he could use his voice again. “I released this spell. I can’t call it back or control it.”

“Are you insane?” I repeated. It was all I could think to say. Terror had locked up my thoughts.

“You said you wanted to use up the energy,” he shouted angrily back at me.

“Yeah, but not destroy all of southern Europe in the process.” I tightly gripped both of his shoulders and shook him. “You have to stop this.” By the weight still in the air, the spell hadn’t made a dent in the power swelling up from the earth. Ryan had to stop it before it got any worse.

Pain exploded in my cheek and jaw as I was thrown backward, Ryan’s shoulders wretched out of my hands. I slid back across the broken rock until I slammed into a bigger, immovable rock. The sharp edge dug into my back, trying to insert itself between the vertebrae of my spine.

With a groan, I looked up to find Rowe standing next to a confused Ryan. Drenched, but entirely unfazed by the growing storm, the naturi smiled at me as he shoved the warlock aside. Planting his feet wide apart, Rowe casually raised his left hand above his head, his eyes never wavering from me as I pushed to my feet again.

Overhead, the storm calmed. The pounding rain lightened to a steady downpour and the wind stopped trying to push me across the clearing. Rowe had taken control of the storm with little effort and strain.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. He had demonstrated his ability to manipulate the weather when we met in Venice. I just didn’t expect it to be so easy for him. No struggle. No strain. He simply lifted his hand and the fury of the gods slipped into his palm.

While the naturi calmed the raging storm, I quickly looked around. There were still no humans, which meant they couldn’t complete the sacrifice. And then my gaze stumbled back to the warlock, who had also pushed to his feet. They couldn’t complete the sacrifice unless they grabbed Ryan. I needed to get him out of there. I didn’t think Rowe would try to break the seal tonight, but I didn’t want to take my chances and be proven wrong.

“Fancy meeting you here,” I called, brushing my scraped-up hands on the legs of my leather pants. My body was battered, bruised, and thoroughly chilled. What I needed was a good soak in a tub of hot, sudsy water. Instead I got a naturi with an attitude.

“Ancient ruins. Middle of the night. It’s where all the lovers meet,” he taunted, his smile widening to a malicious grin.

I slowly stepped to my left, edging closer to Ryan. I wanted to get between him and Rowe, but the naturi guessed my plan. With a slight twitch of his fingers, a lightning bolt slammed into the ground between Ryan and me. We both dove in the opposite direction, the air around us crackling with energy.

When I looked back at Rowe as I regained my feet, he was closely watching Ryan. The warlock was preparing to cast something; I didn’t have a clue what. I was just worried that he would draw the energy from me, leaving me weak and vulnerable.

“Stupid humans,” Rowe growled, letting his arm fall back to his side. “You’ll never gain the ability to control the weather. The earth is beyond your comprehension.”

“Wow!” I mocked, luring his stare back to me. “I would never have guessed you to be an elitist prick.” Gathering up my energy before Ryan could tap it, I created a fireball in each hand. Because of the ceaseless rain, I put a little more energy behind it.

But something unexpected happened. The energy that had been pressing against me finally found a way into my body. The softball-size fireballs I had attempted to create appeared in my hands larger than basketballs, crackling and spitting in horrific fury. I hurled both of them at Rowe before I could contemplate it any further. However, once the energy found a way into my system, I had no way of stopping it. The power continued to flow in, hot and biting.

I blinked, struggling to rise above the flow of power, watching as Rowe darted away from the fireballs. With the energy filling me, I had no choice but to continue to pitch fireballs at the dark naturi in hopes of setting the bastard on fire. Not the easiest of tasks even with the free flow of energy. I had an amazing source of power, but I didn’t have the same level of control I had perfected over the long centuries.

As Rowe hit the ground, he swung one arm at me. A bolt of lightning plunged from the sky, striking a few feet from where I stood. I lurched backward, my onslaught of fire halted. Rowe took advantage of the pause to cause the storm to build again. Lightning bolt after lightning bolt hammered the earth, each striking closer and closer to me. He was driving me back, farther from him and the center of the clearing.

Keeping me on the run was also stopping me from using the power building within my body. I couldn’t force it out. I couldn’t stop it. The only relief I could find was to use the energy, but I couldn’t concentrate on using my ability if I was dodging lightning bolts.

Mira.

The relief I felt at the sound of Danaus’s voice within my mind was instantaneous. I had been so centered on taking out Rowe, I forgot that the hunter was lurking somewhere about.

What do you need me to do?

Get Ryan out of here. They could use him, I ordered in a brief respite between strikes. I quickly threw another fireball at Rowe, but it went wide of its mark and struck another naturi, bathing him in liquid orange flames. I hadn’t had enough time to concentrate and aim.

Another lightning bolt. It hit far too close. I jumped but didn’t look at where I would land. My right foot came down on a large chunk of rock and I fell backward, landing heavily on my back. I cried out as the pain shot through my spine and ribs. My control slipped on the energy that was vibrating through my body. A wall of fire whooshed up around me with an angry roar.

Laying on my back, I looked up to find a circle of fire surrounding me, reaching up more than ten feet into the heavens. The snapping orange and yellow flames encased me like an oven, drying my clothes and hair, sucking away cold that had chilled me to my bones. I hadn’t thought of the wall of flames. After more than six hundred years, it was a reflexive move, like raising my hand to protect my eyes from a bright light.

Mira! The frantic shout in my head was my only warning. Danaus was there. More than just a presence in my head, he was inside me, his power burrowing down into me until I could no longer separate myself from him. Pain exploded in my frame. I thought my bones were going to splinter under the force of the energy he was pushing into me.

I nearly shouted at him to release me when I realized that as his energy filled me, the energy flowing into me from the earth was being pushed out. The circle of fire was shrinking back down into the earth. I lay still, letting my eyes fall shut as I concentrated on the war being fought within me, but without my influence.

“Mira!” Danaus shouted. He was still within me, but he was calling now. He was close.

“I’m fine,” I muttered, but that was questionable. My body hurt in a hundred different ways, making me wish I’d let Rowe hit me with a lightning bolt. I couldn’t imagine a nightwalker surviving such a thing. Of course, it would be just my luck that I would.

Release me, I said to Danaus, using our private connection. No reason to let everyone in on our little secret. We had enough problems. Slowly, I felt him pull his powers out of my body, leaving me feeling cooler, emptier. I immediately noticed that the power I had felt pouring from the earth into me didn’t return, but went back to pushing against my skin.

A light rain splattered on my face and a grumble of thunder rolled in the distance, pulling me back to the present. I lurched back into an upright position, wincing at the pain in my back and in my head. Rowe had been firing lightning bolts at me only moments ago. But now he was gone. All the naturi were gone.

“Where?” I whispered in confusion, pushing back some hair that had fallen around my face.

“They left,” Penelope answered as she hesitantly stepped closer. “When the wall of fire went up, they ran.” I briefly wondered if this new cautious attitude was the result of the havoc Danaus and I had created when we destroyed so many naturi near Stonehenge.

“Should we follow?” Danaus asked. The hunter extended one hand to me, offering to help me back to my feet. I hesitated only a second, frowning at his hand. Before when he had pushed his powers into me, he needed to be touching me. But, much like Jabari, Danaus had learned to do it without touching me. I didn’t want to know how far away he’d been at the time.

“No,” I said, shaking my head as I regained my feet with his help. I had a feeling we had a new problem. “We need to find out what happened to Hugo first.”