Pray for Dawn

TWENTY

It was only after the tires finished squealing, launching us out of the parking lot and back onto the street, that Mira tried to speak. Battling any member of the naturi was a tricky matter at best.

“What do you mean you think they’re in a car?” Mira snarled, as both of her hands gripped the wheel. “Naturi? Is there something else with them?”

“No,” I said, twisting in my seat to look behind us while struggling to hold onto the armrest on the door. Mira was whipping us down a winding street, continuously keeping me off balance. I had yet to actually see the car, but I could feel them following. They weren’t gaining ground on us, but they weren’t losing any either.

“Naturi are driving the car? Are you serious?”

“Damn it, Mira! You’re a vampire and you’re driving a car.” For a brief moment, I wondered which one of us had actually lost their mind; Mira for her shortsighted bias or me for even participating in this argument. Of course, the thought was shoved from my mind as Mira made a sharp left turn in front of a semi, causing its tires to screech as the driver slammed on his brakes.

“I know! I know! I’m still getting used to the idea,” she shouted, waving one hand in the air.

“Where are you going?” I demanded when I learned to breathe again.

“Highway. I’ve got to get them away from the lycans,” she said as she finally grabbed an on-ramp to the highway, leading us north.

I sat back in my seat, staring forward as I shoved both hands through my hair, pushing it away from my eyes as I tried to think. Mira was still weaving through traffic like a madwoman, but I had faith in her quick reflexes not to plow us into a concrete divider or crush us under the tires of a tractor trailer.

“How the hell did they find us? Naturi can’t sense vampires. At least, they never could before,” Mira ranted, her voice dying off at the end.

“Shit,” I hissed, barely resisting the urge to smash my fist into the car door on my right. “I bet they can track humans.”

“Yeah, but you’re…”

“I’m still at least half human.”

Mira stared at me with wide eyes. The few times the naturi had managed to locate her, I had been at her side. They had learned to locate me and were potentially following me or at least watching me from a distance, waiting for me to join Mira. They were using me as a homing beacon to locate her.

“We can separate,” I suggested.

“No!”

I sat back and released my seat belt, causing a little bell to start chiming in the car. “Let me out, and I can draw them away from you.”

“I said no,” she repeated, punctuating her remark with an ominous thunk that echoed all around me. She had locked the doors with the switch at her side. “I didn’t save your sorry ass in Venice to hand you over to the naturi now. If I just randomly drop you off, they might guess that we’re on to their little trick. They will have no use for you, and will simply kill you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Maybe you can and maybe you can’t. We’re stronger as a team and you know it. So why don’t you stop arguing with me and help me think of a plan.” Mira glanced at me for a second before looking back at the road long enough to cut between two cars to get to an open lane. “And put your goddamn seat belt back on.”

I didn’t take my eyes off her as I drew my seat belt back on and latched it with a soft click. There were lines of strain cutting across her forehead and pulling at the corners of her eyes. Her fingers continued to tighten and loosen on the steering wheel. She was fighting to stay in control while fear of the naturi beat at her.

In truth, I wasn’t feeling much better. And worse, this was my fault. The longer I remained with her, the easier it was for them to track her down. But Mira was right. We were stronger when we worked together. While I acted as a beacon, bringing them to her side, I was also her only warning that they were even in the area. Vampires couldn’t sense the naturi and the naturi couldn’t sense vampires. Up until now, it had been an arrangement that seemed to work for both sides.

“Can you see them?” she asked, her voice sounding somewhat calmer.

Twisting around to look out the rear window, I let my eyes dance over the cars that were keeping pace behind us. No one seemed to be in any great hurry to catch up to us. “No, but they’re still coming.” I could sense them, four naturi approaching fast.

“Do you need to see them to boil their blood?” Mira inquired.

“What?” I demanded, jerking around so that I was sitting back in my seat again.

“I have to see the naturi to burn them,” she explained. “Do you have to see them to boil their blood? Or is it enough that you can sense them?”

“I—I don’t know,” I admitted. “Anytime I’ve used that power I’ve been able to look my enemy in the eye. It’s a last resort.”

“Well, I think we’ve reached that point,” Mira snapped. “Unless you really want to pull over and fight them hand to hand.”

“I can try it, but they’re in a car. If it works, they’re going to crash,” I pointed out. “Innocent people could die.”

“There would be another investigation, more memories to wipe, bodies to dispose of…” she softly listed under her breath with a shake of her head. “I can’t do it.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I—I can’t do it,” she whispered then shook her head violently as if to wake herself up from a trance. “It won’t work. We need another plan and I think I’ve got one,” she announced with renewed vigor. “Are they still following us?”

I reached out with my powers briefly, touching on the naturi that were still speeding along behind us. They seemed a little closer than they had been only a couple moments ago, but they weren’t quite breathing down our necks. “They’re still there.”

“Good.” To my surprise, Mira jerked the car across three lanes of traffic and grabbed the first exit. I didn’t say anything, but held on as she jumped off the expressway and then grabbed the first on-ramp to the highway, heading back south.

“Where the hell are we going?” I demanded once we were comfortably settled in front of a semi.

“Back to Savannah,” she informed me, as she actually slowed the car down to the legal speed limit.

“I thought you wanted to keep them away from the lycans,” I said, flinching when she abruptly changed lanes a little closer to a Toyota Prius than I thought was sensible.

“They’re not animal clan,” she replied. “If they were, they would have called up the shifters when we were at the restaurant. I think these are from the wind clan.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because the only thing that’s been in my domain since you showed up was from the wind clan. The group in the conservatory.”

“So it’s somebody out for a little revenge,” I said, frowning.

“But why only the wind clan?” Mira asked as she glanced up into the rearview mirror.

“Who do we know from the wind clan?”

“Rowe, Cynnia, and her sister Nyx,” Mira quickly replied. “I don’t think they’re with the pirate. He was banished. Besides, if Rowe wanted my head, I have no doubt that he’d come here to get it personally, after his falling out with Aurora.”

“Do you think they were sent by Cynnia? Trying to extend an olive branch?” I asked. I barely resisted the urge to turn the heat on in the car. The later the night grew, the more the temperature dropped, so that now my fingers were growing stiff from the cold.

“Then I guess we might get to see if these naturi want to talk or fight,” Mira said, taking an exit into Savannah. “Are they still following?”

“Yes,” I said, glancing over my shoulder as I continued searching for the car that I knew held the naturi.

Beside me, I could feel a slight chill enter the air. It reached through my clothes and brushed against my skin. I jerked and looked back over at my companion. The unexpected touch of cool energy was coming from Mira. She was using her powers, but I couldn’t begin to guess at what she was doing. The energy was very slight and I might not have noticed it if I hadn’t been sitting so close to her.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

“Saw this in a movie once,” she said, flashing me a somewhat strained grin.

“You know movies aren’t real life,” I reminded her.

“Yeah, well this movie didn’t also have a wily nightwalker as the lead, so this may just work,” she joked, then abruptly turned serious as she headed toward the riverfront area. “Open the glove compartment. You’ll find a garage door opener inside.”

Leaning forward, I popped open the glove compartment. Inside lay only a 9mm automatic and a small remote control for a garage door opener. I pulled out the remote, but didn’t close the glove compartment door. I wasn’t carrying a gun and I felt safer with the weapon just a matter of inches from my fingertips.

“When we turn the corner, hit the button,” Mira directed.

Mira headed into what appeared to be a somewhat dodgy part of town, full of old warehouses and worn houses. She suddenly took a left turn and I hit the button. I looked around, trying to discern what I had opened when I heard a low, metallic creak and grumble just down the street from us. A large metal doorway was rolling up to a warehouse. Mira quickly jerked the car into the opening, the roof of the car barely missing the bottom of the doorway as we squeaked through the opening.

“Don’t close the door!” she quickly ordered before I could push the button again. “If they’re close behind, they could see it going down.” Mira hit the brakes and turned off the car before we came to a complete stop, plunging the warehouse back into total darkness.

“Now what?” I asked.

“We wait,” she whispered. Mira sat back, letting her hands slip from the steering wheel and into her lap. “How close are they?”

I closed my eyes and stretched out with my power, letting it run through the entire city. I could feel nightwalkers leisurely strolling all over the place, or seated in close quarters with other warm bodies. I could sense a scattering of naturi all over the city, but the set of four moving fast enough to be in a car were a distance off; maybe a half mile away. “They’re not close. Actually…I think they’re moving away from us.”

“Did they ever get close enough to get a good look at my car?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Good,” Mira said with a soft sigh. “Then we’ll just wait a little while and make sure that they aren’t getting any closer.”

“How?” I asked. Releasing the seat belt, I turned in my seat so that I was partially facing the nightwalker. My eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, picking up the small chunks of dirty light that was filtering in through the window on the second floor and through the roof skylight. I could pick out the outline of broken wooden pallets and the occasional crate. Mira remained a faint outline in the dark car.

“When we entered the city, I started cloaking you. I wanted to see if I could cloak you against the naturi. If they’re headed away from us, it would seem that the answer to my question is yes.”

“And if the answer is no?”

“Then we fight them in here, away from anyone else that might be hurt.”

I sat back in my seat again and stared off into the darkness. One thought kept repeating through my head. This choice didn’t fit her usual actions. When I arrived in Savannah in September, she had been in a car chase with the naturi. She had caused them to wreck and then continued the fight on the side of the road. This time we were hiding. Something had changed.

“Why are we hiding?” I demanded.

Mira turned her head and looked out the window to her left. “It’s for the best. No one gets hurt.”

“And it leaves naturi running free within your domain.”

“I never said that I was happy with the decision!” she snapped, her temper briefly flaring. “I just said that it was for the best.”

“What’s going on? Normally, you would have set the four on fire by now and we’d be merrily on our way,” I pressed.

“‘Merrily on our way,’” she repeated, a grin spreading across her face as she looked back at me. “I don’t recall us ever doing anything merrily. You’ll have to remind me.”

“Drop it! I’m being serious. What’s going on?”

The grin fell off of her full lips and she looked down at the steering wheel. “I can’t start fires.”

I stared dumbfounded at the nightwalker for nearly a minute, my brain seeming to shut down under that unexpected pronouncement. The Fire Starter could no longer start fires. How could such a thing happen? What was going to happen to her and her standing within the domain once the other nightwalkers discovered her ugly little secret? Fire had always been Mira’s edge.

“How did it happen? When? Is it because of what Cynnia did to you? But that can’t be, because you used fire at Machu Picchu and at the conservatory. Is the ability completely gone?” I started, the questions pouring out of me before actual thought seemed to kick in once again.

“I haven’t lost the ability,” she said, sounding painfully defensive. “I could still burn you to a crispy critter if I wanted to, so stop celebrating.” Mira drew in a cleansing breath that she didn’t need and gripped the steering wheel tightly. “I haven’t been feeding enough.”

“I’ve noticed,” I growled. When I let my guard down, the world around me was washed in a red haze when I was with Mira. Her hunger beat at me until I thought I would go mad. I couldn’t imagine how she managed to focus through it.

“I haven’t been feeding enough,” she repeated stiffly, ignoring my interruption. “I don’t have the energy to create and manipulate fire. It would be too exhausting. If I’m pressed and desperate, I could, but it would leave me…”

“Vulnerable,” I finished.

“Yes.”

For a heartbeat, I thought about it. She was weak. She was little more than a normal nightwalker now. She wouldn’t have the power to set me on fire. She wouldn’t have the strength to fight me if I tried to kill her now. The fight would be over in a matter of minutes and the world would at last be rid of one of the most dangerous creatures to ever walk its face.

And yet, in the very next heartbeat, I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill Mira. Maybe one day when we were finally standing on opposite sides and not drawn together by some common foe, I would be able to finally strike her down. But not tonight. For now, she was my ally, the one person in this world I had been charged to protect. Not only was she safe from me, but she also needed my help.

Leaning my right elbow on the door, I rested my head in my hand. I honestly couldn’t believe I was about to say this. “Then feed, Mira. We can’t afford to have you weak or possibly distracted. The naturi are running around your domain again and we’ve got something else chewing up young girls.”

“You don’t think this thing is naturi?”

I sighed, somewhat surprised to see that my breath was visible in the cold. I wasn’t ready to tell her. I needed more time to think, to figure out how we could possibly deal with this threat before setting the truth lose into the air. “I don’t know. You said there was a strange smell that you could identify. You’ve been around all the naturi, you know their smells.”

“So maybe the attacker isn’t naturi. Could be lycan or…warlock?”

“Or bori?” I said, mentioning the one creature I knew that she wouldn’t give voice to. The suggestion had to be thrown out there. She had to at least consider it.

“Highly unlikely.”

“And I’m sure you would have said that it was highly unlikely that I would have been affected by the Stain in Peru, but I was,” I said, turning my head to look at her. The spell had awoken the bori that held a part of my soul and the results had nearly been disastrous.

“Are the naturi close?” she demanded, ignoring my comment.

“No. Far end of the city and getting farther away.”

“Good. Then we continue this investigation by trying to find out why the attacker might have chosen Abigail Bradford for his victim when he could have chosen anyone else.” Mira reached for the key and started the car, causing its animal-like rumbling to echo through the empty warehouse.

“Where are we going?” I asked as she slowly backed the car into the street.

“The one place a nightwalker goes to get gossip: the Dark Room.”