Nightwalker

Twenty-Nine

The darkness gave way suddenly to a moonlit plain hugged by a desolate ribbon of road. I slowly pushed up into a sitting position so I could look around. Rowe took a few stumbling steps away from me before finally collapsing to his knees in the grass. Bent over, his fingers clutching the grass, he struggled for air. His whole body was trembling, his shirt sticking to his narrow frame as if he were sweating profusely. All this flitting from place to place was taking its toll on him.

Digging my nails into the dirt, I started to pull my legs beneath me so I could rise. My whole body screamed in pain and the world swayed slightly. I was too low on blood to pick a fight and expect to win, but at least Rowe was in ragged shape as well.

“Watch her,” Rowe bit out without looking over at me.

Until he spoke, my gaze had not drifted beyond him. Now, I lifted my eyes to see six naturi of various size and clans approaching us warily. And beyond them rose the pale monoliths of Stonehenge. They were attempting the sacrifice tonight, and for some bizarre reason, Rowe had decided he needed me on hand to witness their triumph.

“Shit,” I hissed, lowering my head. I was in no shape to take on seven naturi alone.

A wheezing laugh escaped Rowe. He was kneeling on the ground with his forearms in the grass in front of him. His head was turned toward me, his black hair partially obscuring his face, but I could still see the smirk twisting his lips.

“Oh, like you’re in any better shape than me,” I snarled.

“At least I have someone to protect me,” he said, pushing into a sitting position with pain-filled slowness.

I looked back at the naturi standing before us. A female with pale blond hair that fell to her waist stepped forward. She extended one hand and flames danced over her fingers. Naturally, one of my keepers was a member of the light clan.

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Mira,” Rowe said.

“Go to hell, Rowe,” I snapped, my gaze never wavering from the six naturi standing before me.

A harsh clutter of words jumped from Rowe that I couldn’t understand. Several of the naturi briefly expressed surprise and confusion, but after a moment they backed away, returning to the inner circle of stones.

Silence crept back over the plain. The air was still, waiting. It was only after the naturi retreated back into the shadows of the stones that I noticed the soft sounds of a woman crying. The naturi had their sacrifice waiting in the darkness, surrounded by great bluestones. Where the hell was Jabari? He could move from place to place in an instant. He should have been able to locate me wherever I was. Why hadn’t he appeared yet? If he were there, I knew we could stop this now. I’d even have settled for Sadira or Danaus, but I knew it would take several more minutes for either of them to reach me.

I dragged my fingers through the earth, digging narrows furrows in the soft dirt. The grass was moist, as if it had rained recently. Beneath me, I could feel the strange hum of power beginning to build. Had they begun the sacrifice already? I couldn’t see most of the naturi, as they remained hidden behind the giant stones, but I could hear the faint sound of movement; breathing, the soft swish of clothing.

“You can feel it, can’t you?” Rowe said. The weight of his stare was a physical pressure on my shoulders, but I refused to look over at him. “You could feel it while you were at Machu Picchu. In those last days, Nerian didn’t need to touch you, the power in the mountain was enough to have you writhing in pain.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t going to let him play mind games with me. “Just stop. You weren’t there,” I replied.

“I was there,” he murmured. My gaze jerked over to him at the sound of movement. He crawled a couple feet closer but remained out of arm’s reach. “Every day and every night of your captivity, I was there. You just don’t remember because I looked a little different back then.”

“Years not been kind?” I mocked.

His face twisted into a look of anger and hatred for a split second before he could wipe it away. “I’m sure the years have scarred us both in interesting ways.”

“Why bring me here? I could still stop your sacrifice, destroy all your plans.” I smiled at him as I sat up. I rubbed my hands together, knocking off the dirt.

Rowe sat up as well, seeming to move with a little more ease and less obvious pain. We were both slowly regaining our strength. “Because the reward is worth the risk.”

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “Killing me is worth that much to you?”

Rowe shoved his left hand through his hair, threading some of it behind his left ear so it no longer fell in front of his one eye. A white scar ran along his jaw and seemed to glow against his tanned skin in the moonlight. “My goal is not to kill you.”

I snorted in response, and Rowe said something under his breath in his own language, frustration filling his voice. He looked over at the arrangement of stones for a moment before turning back to me again.

“It doesn’t have to be like this between us.”

“What? The naturi have graciously decided to stop killing nightwalkers?”

This time he was the one to snort. “No, nightwalkers are vermin. They need to be exterminated. I meant between you and the naturi.”

“I am a nightwalker, asshole.”

“But you were never meant to be,” he said, leaning toward me as his voice dropped to an urgent whisper. “You never should have been made into one of their kind. Your powers reach beyond their limitations. You could have been more. You still could be.”

I leaned back, trying to keep some distance between us. With him sitting this close, it was hard to resist the urge to take a swipe at him, but I didn’t stand a chance with his compatriots just a few yards away. “Let me guess, you can help me become more,” I sneered.

“You can feel the power here, and no other vampire can. When they swarmed Machu Picchu centuries ago, not one of them reacted the way you do. You can still feel the earth despite being a nightwalker,” he explained. “It’s still a part of you because it’s more powerful than anything you’ve gained through becoming a nightwalker. You belong with us, not them.”

A slow chuckle built until my head finally fell backward, my laughter filling the plain, silencing the soft plaintive cries from the woman doomed to die tonight. “Save your breath. I’ve heard this speech before, though it was more interesting the first time. At Machu Picchu, you guys were just trying to convince me to kill my own kind. Now you want me to believe that I belong among you.”

“Can you honestly tell me you feel you belong among your own kind? Hmmm, Fire Starter?”

The laugh died inside of me. “It doesn’t matter.”

“You can end the war tonight,” Rowe softly said.

“By killing you?”

“By completing the sacrifice.”

My brow furrowed as I stared at him for a long time, letting the silence grow between us. “What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice dropping to match his softness.

“If you complete the sacrifice, the seal will be broken permanently. You made it. If you break it, the nightwalkers will never be able to recreate it again. We end this battle forever.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I kill you now.”

“And if I do?”

“You walk away. The naturi shall never bother you again.”

“But I will be branded a traitor and will be hunted by my own kind until the end of my nights,” I said with a shake of my head.

“Then break the seal and remain with us,” he offered, stunning me. “I am consort to the queen, and you will be under my protection. The naturi will never harass you and the nightwalkers will never touch you.”

I turned my head to look back at Stonehenge for a second before letting my eyes fall shut. In the hands of the naturi, I was a weapon against the nightwalkers. And while among the nightwalkers, I was a weapon against the naturi. Without ever knowing it, I had managed to dig a heel into both worlds.

Planting both of my hands into the dirt, I pushed off and rose to my feet. Beside me there was a soft rustle of clothing as Rowe stood. He stuck close to me as I slowly walked past the first circle of stones and into the inner circle. The other six naturi circled the woman lying on the ground. Her wrists had been bound together and then tied to a stake in the ground above her head. Her ankles were also bound together and staked so that she was stretched out, her body running east to west. She had short, dark brown hair and her round face was streaked with tears. The smell of her blood filled the air, as her wrists were rubbed raw from her struggles.

“What do you need me to do?” I asked, staring down at her.

Rowe stepped in front of me and gently grabbed my chin, tilting my head up so I was forced to look him in the eye. “You will do this?”

“It’s time to end this war.”

A half smile lifted one corner of his mouth briefly and he nodded. “You must cut out her heart and place it on the ground. Her blood must saturate the earth before we burn her heart.”

I had to be sure. I couldn’t make any mistakes now. As Rowe stepped back to my side, I took a step closer to the woman. She stared up with wide eyes, pleading silently with me to free her. But I couldn’t. She was the only human in the area. As long as she lived, she could serve as a sacrifice for the naturi whatever I did. The best I could do for her was make it quick.

Staring down at her, I focused on her heart. The slender woman gasped suddenly, shattering the silence in the night air. Her body arched off the ground and all the naturi took a step backward. The woman jerked again, this time screaming.

“What’s happening?” someone demanded.

“It’s the nightwalker! She’s killing the woman,” another voice snarled, but I didn’t look up. I remained focused on the woman’s chest until her pale blue shirt with pearl buttons finally started to blacken and catch on fire.

“Stop her!”

Rowe grabbed me and threw me backward into one of the enormous stones, breaking my concentration. I fell back to the ground, my eyes clenched shut as I waited to see if I’d hit the stone with enough force to knock loose the other stone balanced on top of it. When I wasn’t immediately crushed, I opened my eyes, trying to ignore the pain throbbing to life along my spine and in the back of my skull.

“Can we still use the woman?” Rowe demanded, looking briefly over his shoulder at the woman, who was no longer moving.

“The heart has been destroyed,” someone else confirmed.

The naturi with the eye patch turned back to me, a knife clutched in his right hand. “Then we will try it with her heart,” Rowe proclaimed.

I dug my heels into the earth and tried to scoot backward, but I was halted by giant stone sticking up from the earth. I had used the last of my powers to kill that poor woman, and now I had nothing left to save myself.

My only warning was a slight building of pressure, a shift in the powers that filled the circle, and then Jabari was standing beside me.

Rowe and the other naturi jumped back, gathering on the other side of the circle, the woman’s corpse between us. The knife in his hand trembled as he stared at the Ancient, his breath hissing between clenched teeth.

“You cannot have her,” Jabari proclaimed.

Rowe hunched forward, then a low growl escaped him as giant wings exploded from his back. As black as a moonless night, the fully extended wings were more than nine feet long from tip to tip and resembled those of a bat. “You cannot keep her forever,” he snarled, pointing his knife at Jabari.

I looked up at my onetime mentor and protector to see a wide grin split his handsome face. He extended his arm so his hand was nearly over my head. Power immediately surged through my body, ripping a whimper from my throat. It was as if strings had been attached to various parts of my body and I was pulled back to my feet. There was no voice in my head commanding me, but I could feel a presence, a subtle push of power. There was nothing to fight. Nothing to push or struggle against. I was merely a spectator in my own body. Reduced to a mere marionette.

A second wave of power pushed through my body, nearly blinding me with pain. My left arm lifted and three of the naturi exploded into balls of fire. I could feel the member of the light clan trying to extinguish the fires, but she was no match. She was engulfed in flames next.

With a single flap of the enormous wings, Rowe launched himself into the air. “See you with the dead,” he bit out, and then he was gone, leaving behind the last two naturi to be burned alive.

When the last of the naturi were reduced to ash, Jabari released me. My knees buckled and I collapsed back onto the ground. Pain seemed to be a living, breathing entity within my body. I didn’t seem to exist anymore. There was only pain and horror.

I blinked a couple of times, trying to clear my vision, and saw Jabari extend a hand toward me, offering to help me back to my feet. I jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me,” I snapped.

His dark laugh rose up in the silence, wrapping itself around me like a noose. “I don’t need to.”

A shiver rippled through me and I clenched my teeth to keep them from chattering. No. No, he didn’t need to touch me to control me.

“We go to Venice. It is the best way to protect you from the naturi,” Jabari announced.

I certainly didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. Venice was the one place I would be safe from them. They never set foot in the city. The old tales said that one of the naturi’s gods had died in what is now the city of Venice, creating the canals that wove their way among the tiny islands. The naturi supposedly couldn’t enter the city. Unfortunately, Venice was also the home of the Coven. I didn’t want to be anywhere near another Ancient, let alone near at least three of the most powerful nightwalkers in existence.

I frowned, realizing I had no options. I didn’t have the strength to fight Jabari, and even if I did, I didn’t know how. The bastard could control me like a puppet. And if I slipped away from him, I had no doubt that Rowe would cut my heart out the first time he caught sight of me. At least Jabari needed me alive for the time being. I had stopped the second sacrifice, bought us a little time. The naturi would strike again.

But the triad was reformed, even if it now included a vampire hunter. And the triad still had me, a weapon that could kill or bind them.

The sound of a car engine jerked us both from our thoughts. It was Danaus. I knew it without using my powers. It was the hunter.

“You will travel to Venice and you will bring the hunter with you,” Jabari ordered. “We will be waiting for you.”

I nodded, my eyes darting away from his face. “Sadira?”

“She has already left for Italy. She asks that you bring her child.” My gaze jumped back to his face, to find a mocking smile lifting his lips. She would demand that, keeping both Tristan and me on a short leash. As the car drew close, Jabari stepped backward and disappeared.

My eyes fell shut and it was a struggle just to remain upright. For the first time, I wondered if I’d chosen the right side. If I’d sided with the naturi, I would have been forced to kill nightwalkers and stand by while the naturi killed the humans. If I’d sided with the nightwalkers, I would have been forced to kill the naturi. And regardless of which side I might have chosen that night, the innocent human woman would still have died by my hand.

The car engine stopped and I could hear the sound of heavy footsteps running across the field. I opened my eyes in time to see Danaus come between a pair of large stones, a long knife in his right hand. His eyes quickly swept the carnage, pausing briefly on the woman that lay to my left, before he finally put his knife back in its sheath at his side.

I slowly pushed to my feet, but my legs buckled again. Danaus crossed the short distance separating us, grabbing my arms and keeping me from hitting the ground again.

“Jabari?” he asked.

“Come and gone already,” I said. My voice was harsh and rough as I forced it past the lump in my throat. “We go to Venice.” A fragile, mocking smile slipped across my lips. “We did it. We reformed the triad and even have a weapon that can stop the naturi.”

I flinched as his large hands cupped my cheeks, but the power that filled him didn’t try to push inside of me. It swirled around us, forming a warm, comforting cocoon.

“Don’t let him beat you,” Danaus ordered, forcing me to meet his glittering gaze. I knew he was talking about Jabari. He didn’t know about Rowe yet, and I wasn’t sure I would ever tell him. I was already enough of a danger to the world around me; no reason to up the ante.

“He already has,” I murmured. “I’m a tool. A weapon.”

“No, you’re the Fire Starter. A walking nightmare to both vampire and naturi. We’ll find a way to beat him.”

I didn’t even try to keep the skepticism from darting through my eyes as I stared up at the hunter. I couldn’t imagine what kind of miracle he expected me to work.

“You’ve eluded me for the past few decades. What trouble could a few old vampires offer?” he continued, arching one thick brow at me.

Danaus was being ridiculous, but I understood his point. We had to find a way if we hoped to survive. Our fates were linked now.

“We’ll find a way,” I whispered. “I always do.”

Danaus leaned forward and brushed a kiss against my temple, sending a wave of peace deep into the marrow of my bones, helping to ease some of the pain. “And then we’ll kill each other as God intended.”