Pray for Dawn

FOURTEEN

Anger radiated off the nightwalker as her hand slid along the steering wheel. Mira remained silent, as if words couldn’t squeeze between her clenched teeth. The air in the car had chilled to the point where I expected to see my breath fog if I sighed. Yet this cold would not be cut by a blast of warm air from the heater. She had erected a barrier around her thoughts, keeping me out. But I didn’t need to be in her mind to know that whoever had been involved with Abigail Bradford was toast, literally.

We had returned to the historic district of the city, quickly stopping at a lonely square near the edge. I had expected us to return to the club district of River Street, where most nightwalkers were known to congregate while in the process of hunting down their prey. Mira whipped the sleek, black BMW into an open parking spot on the street and was out of the car before the engine was completely shut off.

In the far corner of the square rose an ornate gazebo. Constructed of stone, the architecture had an Old World feel to it, with its odd bits of ironwork. In one of the windows looking out at the small fountain in the center of the square sat a vampire.

The air was silent except for the crunch of stray gravel beneath our feet. I followed behind her, a knife tightly gripped in my right hand as I searched the area for other vampires. There were a few lurking about a mile off, but after Mira’s brief display of power at the morgue, I doubted any other vampire was going to risk coming close enough to catch her attention.

I reached the gazebo just a couple seconds behind Mira, who was now standing in the center of the structure. My heart lurched in my chest as my eyes settled on the creature resting on the ledge of the gazebo and I fought the urge to scan the park again for another vampire. I couldn’t stop from blinking twice, convinced that my eyes were lying to me in the darkness.

“How is it that I find you involved in this?” Mira snarled. The heavy shadows within the gazebo hugged her body, making her little more than a threatening voice in the cool winter night.

Tristan sat with his back against one of the columns that formed the window. His right leg was bent before him with his foot resting on the ledge and his right wrist balanced on his knee. His left leg hung limp in the air, swaying slightly. The vampire appeared relaxed, and he had yet to look directly at Mira. His gaze was straight ahead as if he was intently watching the fountain in the center of the square. “I didn’t kill her.” His normally soft voice held an underlying edge to it that I had never heard from him before, causing my muscles to clench defensively. It was a warning for Mira to back off.

“Did you know who she was?” I asked. My deep voice broke between the two in an attempt to put a little distance between them before Mira set him on fire. There was still a good chance that he had some valuable information as to who Abigail Bradford was and with whom she associated. I would prefer to acquire that information before Mira finally lost her tenuous hold on her temper.

“Yes,” he hissed. Tristan slowly turned his head to look at me over his shoulder, his pale blue eyes seeming to pick up the distant lamplight like a cat’s. “I had seen her around town during the past month. She was the daughter of a prominent official and a fan of our kind.”

“Why didn’t you contact me immediately when it happened?” Mira snapped, her temper still bubbling to the top.

The younger vampire’s icy gaze finally reached Mira’s face. “Contact you?” he repeated with a slight tilt of his head. “And how would I have done this? I reached for you, but as far as I could tell, you were as dead as Sadira.”

“My cell ph—”

“Cell phone!” he shrieked. In one fluid movement, he unfolded his body and poured to his feet before his mistress. “Call you like a common servant, like Charlotte or Gabriel? Contact you like a human would? You’re my mistress and yet I am to be without your presence.”

To my surprise, Mira broke eye contact first, pacing away from him. “I’ll not have you mucking around in my mind at all hours.” She slowly circled to her right, moving with the grace of a panther edging closer for the kill. “I’m not Sadira.”

Tristan moved as well, his hands out at his sides and open like a gunslinger waiting for the first opportunity to reach for his guns. The two vampires were sizing each other up. The younger vampire was greatly outmatched by Mira. Any scuffle between the two would prove to be brief, but even with the odds against him, it didn’t seem to be enough to deter Tristan from wanting her blood.

“It’s more than that!” he shouted, his voice echoing across the empty park. “You’re not in my thoughts either. Since my arrival in your domain, you have not once dipped into my thoughts, not reached out to make your presence known.”

“Forgive me. I didn’t realize you needed a babysitter,” she sneered, with a mocking bow. “More than a century of time has slipped before your eyes. You don’t need me there watching over you at all times.”

Mira’s only warning was a low growl in the back of his throat. The younger vampire lunged at her, knocking her onto her back. He gripped her shoulders tightly, his legs straddling her slim hips. His shoulder-length hair fell like a curtain around his face, making it impossible to determine if he had bared his fangs to his mistress. As a reflex, I took a step forward, trying to decide how to best separate them without getting my own throat ripped open in the process.

“This has nothing to do with you, hunter,” Mira said with a grunt, pushing Tristan off of her. The young vampire quickly rolled to his feet but remained squatted low, waiting for his mistress to attack. Mira remained seated on the ground, but she had pulled her feet up underneath her body so that she could quickly rise if she needed to.

“It’s not about needing a caretaker,” Tristan began. His hands were clenched so tight into fists they trembled. “As I’m sure you remember, Sadira provided ample restriction. It’s about compassion. About having a familiar voice in the darkness.”

“So when I was unavailable, you chose to pursue a girl that could make our lives unbearable? You know the rules. Avoid those that can’t disappear,” Mira argued, but I could feel the anger in her subsiding as her taut shoulders started to slump.

“The girl was nothing. Just a meal. She belonged to others and was offered to me in a gesture of hospitality.” Tristan straightened, shoving both of his hands through his hair in a frustrated motion.

Mira stood as well, a soft sigh escaping her parted lips. “I don’t know if I can be what you want, Tristan,” she whispered. “I’m your protector. That is all.”

“This family might be just the four of us, but it is still a family. You neither seek nor give comfort when we both need it so much. Particularly now, when hunters wait for us to slip.” Tristan’s eyes lifted to settle on my face. Mira turned her head to look at me as well, her hair slipped like a waterfall off of her shoulder. I had thought they had forgotten I was even there, but now the spotlight had shifted to me.

Standing in the thick darkness with two vampires was not a strange occurrence for me. What was strange was that now I felt like the outsider in a dark world I had inhabited for most of my life. I was the foreign creature that had invaded their domain. I didn’t like the feeling. Clenching my fist, I was surprised to discover that I was still holding my dagger. My eyes fell on the silver blade glinting in the distant lamplight. And maybe I was the only threat standing in that small, circular building. Neither had attacked me or even made a move toward me, and yet I stood ready to cut out the heart of the first creature to look my way.

Mira walked over and wrapped her arms around Tristan’s shoulders, pulling his left shoulder against her sternum. “No,” Mira murmured with a shake of her head. Her left hand drifted across his face, her thumb grazing his cheek in a caress that drew his eyes from me to her face.

“But he’s still a hunter,” Tristan said. I could barely make out his expression, but the words sounded like more of a question than a statement. I had a feeling that Mira had said something to him telepathically, but I didn’t pick it up.

Leaning in, she pressed a gentle kiss to his temple. “Always.” The word had been so soft that it sounded like she had breathed it rather than whispered it. Her gaze returned to me, her glowing lavender eyes coldly weighing me. When she looked at me, I no longer had the feeling that she saw me as the enemy. Like she had said earlier, she saw me as one of them and was determined that I see myself the same way.

“Enough,” I gruffly said, sliding the dagger back into its sheath. The conversation was starting to grow uncomfortable and it would only result in my grabbing a second dagger. “What about the girl?”

“I don’t know much.” Tristan shrugged as Mira released her hold on him. “I stopped in the Dark Room more than a month ago. She was there with a group of others. They offered her and I accepted.”

“What do you mean ‘offered her’?” I was already feeling on edge. After the confusion of the First Communion, then the apartment, the morgue, and now this scene, I was ready to call it a night and start fresh tomorrow. Exhaustion was starting to coil in my shoulders, causing the muscles to throb and ache. The night was still young, but I felt the need to sit down and think about what was happening instead of just getting sucked deeper into the chaos that was Mira’s existence.

“Like a host offering you a bit of wine and cheese upon your arrival at their house,” Mira said lightly, as she strolled over to the far side of the gazebo. She turned and leaned her back against the ledge, crossing her left ankle over her right as she shoved her hands into her jean pockets. “The locals are curious about Tristan, I’m sure. They invited him over for a bit of light conversation. Sharing a pet is a polite gesture.”

“And she came to you willingly?” I asked, tearing my eyes from Mira to Tristan.

“Of course.”

“But that wasn’t the last time you saw her,” Mira prompted. There was no thread of anger or threat in her voice. “The mark on her arm was from you, but it wasn’t a month old.”

“Four nights ago,” he softly said. His eyes fell to his shoes as his right foot slid along the rough concrete. “I was passing through the club district. It was early and I hadn’t fed. She saw me. We talked for a while and she offered.” Tristan looked up, locking his wide eyes on Mira. “I tried to heal the wound, but she wouldn’t let me.”

“Who did she belong to?” I demanded, taking a step into the gazebo.

“Gregor. She was with Gregor’s group,” Tristan said. He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked over to lean back against one of the window arches near Mira.

“Gregor!” Mira cried, running one hand through her hair to push it back from her face. The nightwalker lurched to her feet, pacing toward me. “What possessed you to associate with that pack of mongrels?”

“Mira…” I sighed.

“Yeah, yeah,” she grumbled, waving me off as she turned and paced back to the opposite side of the gazebo. “New to town. Doesn’t know any better.”

“Can this vampire still be found at the Dark Room?” I asked, trying to get us back on track. I didn’t care about her personal opinion about the various vampire cliques within the area.

“Yes, but we can’t go there tonight,” Mira replied as she folded her arms over her middle.

“Why not?” I snapped. I felt like we weren’t getting anywhere, but Gregor might finally be able to give us some background information on this dead girl, and yet Mira was unwilling to track him down.

“He was at the gathering,” Mira said, pointedly frowning at Tristan for a second before looking back at me. “After that, I doubt he would go back to the Dark Room and I would rather handle this matter there. Besides, there are other matters that need to be taken care of before we approach him.”

The question was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it. I truly doubted that she would give me a direct answer. “Then where to now?”

“The town house.” She sighed, her shoulders slumping. She put her hand in her jacket pocket, causing her keys to jangle softly. “I’ve had enough of you.” Mira turned to Tristan, who had moved deeper into the shadows. “Return home. We’ll talk more later.”

Mira swept past me, her keys jingling in her left hand as she walked toward the car. I looked back into the gazebo to find that Tristan had already soundlessly disappeared. I could only guess that he had gone through one of the large windows and was cutting across the shadowy plaza. Taking a deep breath, I reached out with my powers, stretching out across the square. Tristan was easy to spot, already on the other side of the plaza, deep within the shadows that lounged in the far corners of the park. The vampires I had sensed just a mile away had already departed.

Sunrise was still several hours away, but it seemed like Mira was calling a halt to tonight’s investigation. Was she tired? By her extreme paleness and the cold, waxy feel of her skin, I knew it had been a while since she had last fed. There was also the slight feeling of her hunger beating against me, but the feeling was still weak and thin, as if it had yet to gain any real strength. I knew she wouldn’t feed with me at hand, a fact that I was extremely grateful for. It was something I didn’t want to see or feel. But even if she did drop me off so she could feed, there were still too many hours left until she had to seek shelter. I didn’t trust her not to continue the investigation without me. Was she trying to protect her own kind from me, or maybe just Tristan?

I shifted my scan to the opposite edge of the park and froze, my breath becoming lodged behind an anxious knot in my throat.

“Mira!” I shouted, turning on my heel to look back at the Fire Starter. She paused and turned to face me, still playing with her keys. The light metallic jingle was the only noise in the air. “What’s up that hill?” I pointed toward the dark, winding road that disappeared around a sharp corner.

“The conservatory. Why?”

“Naturi.”