Pray for Dawn

TWENTY-SIX

I paced like a caged tiger, my footsteps muffled by the Persian rug that ran the length of the hallway. Upon regaining my feet, I had tried to open the doors and barge back into the room, but they had been magically sealed. I was not getting back into the room until Ryan was done with Mira.

The warlock had a way of using people without their knowledge. Charismatic and deeply manipulative, Ryan always seemed to get exactly what he wanted with as little compromise on his part as possible. When he swept into Themis centuries ago, I had been content to let the researchers follow his lead. They were searching for information on the occult and nothing appeared to be more opportune than a powerful warlock offering to provide them with the inside information they sought.

In the end, what did I care who they picked as their leader? So long as I was able to hunt nightwalkers and purge the earth of their evil, I didn’t care who was running Themis. But I should have cared. For two centuries, I watched Ryan use and manipulate creatures for his own benefit, seeming to suck them dry until they were nothing more than hollowed-out shells of hate and fear. The warlock fed my own hatred for nightwalkers, never seeing fit to disillusion me of some of my more erroneous beliefs about the species. My own burning hatred only served to blind me and tighten Ryan’s hold over me. His own personal executioner.

And now the gold-eyed warlock had set his sights on the Fire Starter, one of the most powerful nightwalkers in existence. He couldn’t have her. I wouldn’t allow Ryan to use Mira in the same way he had used me. He was powerful enough alone. He didn’t need Mira fighting at his side.

Turning back to the doors, I gritted my teeth and prepared to put my shoulder into the thick wood when I heard the soft metallic click of a lock being unlatched. One of the doors swung silently open and stopped. I lurched forward and shoved both doors open. Ryan was slumped in one of the chairs, his skin a sickly shade of white. His tie had been loosened and the left side of his neck lay bare. Mira leaned against the front of the desk, a flush to her pale face. The red haze that had filled the house had finally abated, with Mira’s hunger satisfied at long last. And yet, the circles under her eyes seemed darker now, with color in her face, and her fingers were still trembling.

With a low snarl, I grabbed the lapels of Ryan’s coat and lifted him out of the chair to his feet. “Whatever you’re doing has to stop!” I shouted, giving him a hard shake.

“He’s helping me,” Mira said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“He’s not helping you,” I snapped, my gaze never wavering from the warlock. While he was not openly smiling at me, I could see the laughter in his eyes. “Ryan doesn’t help anyone but himself.”

“Maybe helping Mira is in my best interest,” Ryan purred.

I snorted in response, my fists tightening in the material of his jacket. I was ready to pitch Ryan through the nearest window if I thought for a second I could.

“I need his help,” Mira said. Her hand squeezed my shoulder, and it was a fight to not shrug her off.

“He’s made you dependent on him,” I argued. “You won’t drink from anyone else and you’re willing to starve yourself until you can finally get back to his side. What happens when he returns to Themis? You trail after him like the lapdog he wants you to be?”

“It’s not like that,” Mira replied, releasing me suddenly.

“No, not yet, but it will be,” I said. I threw Ryan back into the chair, sending it skidding loudly backward several inches. “Get out of here. Don’t ever come back.”

Ryan smiled up at me, his eyes jumping with laughter. “As you wish,” he replied, and then disappeared.

“No!” Mira screamed. She pushed past me, reaching for the warlock, but came up with only open air. “What have you done?” she cried, turning her horror-filled gaze on me. “You don’t understand. I need him.”

“You don’t need his help,” I firmly said, helping Mira back to her feet from where she was kneeling before the empty chair.

“Yes, I do. He’s given me my only edge over Aurora,” she adamantly argued as tears filled her eyes.

“What are you talking about?” I said. Mira only looked away from me as she tried to walk back toward the desk. I grabbed both of her arms and held her in front of me. “How? What kind of an edge was he giving you?”

But the nightwalker refused to answer me. She refused to even meet my gaze, causing my chest to tighten as if it were suddenly caught in a vise. “Mira, he’s not helping you,” I continued when she refused to speak. “Whatever he’s doing is destroying your mind. Ever since I came to town, you’ve been seeing and hearing things. You attacked Tristan, accusing him of betrayal when there is no one who could possibly be more loyal to you.”

“There are risks with everything in this world,” she said, staring over my shoulder. “It’s worth the risk.”

“It’s not!” I shouted. “It’s destroying you. You’re going to hurt someone important to you or yourself if this doesn’t stop. You also can’t risk being under Ryan’s control. Isn’t it enough that both Jabari and I have that power over you? Do you really want to have another holding your leash?”

“No! I don’t want this!” she screamed, her composure splintering before me. “But it’s only temporary. Once we kill Aurora, it will be over. Ryan and I will go our separate ways.”

“And how long will that take? We haven’t seen any sign of Aurora since Machu Picchu and it’s likely she will remain in hiding while she tries to find a way to deal with both you and Cynnia. This arrangement with Ryan can’t go on that long.”

“I have to,” Mira whispered.

“Danaus?” asked a soft voice off to my left. Mira and I both looked over at the same time to find Lily standing in the doorway. I felt Mira flinch at the sight of the girl and seem to draw into herself in pain.

“Calla?” Mira murmured in a breathless voice. The nightwalker lurched to her side, trying to get at the girl. Luckily, I was still holding Mira’s arms and I managed to stop her before she could get more than a step toward the young girl. “Calla!” she cried again in a louder voice, as she desperately tried to twist out of my grasp. My only saving grace was the fact that Mira still wasn’t up to her full strength or I never would have been able to hold her back.

“It’s not Calla,” I firmly said, forcing Mira to look up at me as I turned my back on Lily.

“But it is!” Mira said, jerking in my grasp in an attempt to look around me and at the girl again. “Look at her, Danaus! It’s Calla.”

“It’s not Calla! Calla is dead. You know this.” Tightening my grip on Mira to the point of bruising, I finally got her to look up at me. “Think about it, Mira. You know that Calla is gone from this world. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth.”

“But…” she whimpered.

“That’s Lily. She’s agreed to help us.”

“Danaus?” Lily repeated, her voice growing more unsure.

“It’s okay, Lily. This is Mira, a friend of mine. She’s very sick right now,” I explained as I watched the confidence slowly flow from Mira’s expression only to be replaced by pain and a growing confusion. Her mind was coming back to me for the moment. Ryan’s blood may have satiated her hunger, but it failed to heal whatever damage was being done to her mind.

“Can I help you?” Lily asked.

“Not right now,” I said. “Go back in the kitchen with Gabriel and the others. I’ll join you there soon.”

“I was wondering if it would be okay if I went upstairs with Tristan. He was going to show me this computer game he’s having trouble with. Can I?” she hesitantly asked.

I frowned, not at all liking the idea of Lily being alone with Tristan. She was a young, vulnerable girl who had been through enough. I didn’t bring her here to be a light snack for a nightwalker.

“She’s safe with me,” Tristan said to my surprise. I hadn’t even heard him approach. My mind was too full of Mira and her deteriorating condition. “She’s a guest in this house. Besides, I know what you’re capable of.”

“It’s fine, Lily. Go with Tristan,” I said, some of the tension flowing from my shoulders.

I knew the moment that Tristan and Lily disappeared from the doorway because Mira relaxed in my hands. She directed her tortured eyes up to my face at last. I dipped into her mind to find it a mess of fractured thoughts. Yet, the nightwalker was standing in the middle of it all, clearheaded for the moment.

“I don’t understand. What’s happening to me? Why do I keep seeing these…images? Are they ghosts?” Mira asked.

“I don’t think so.” I sighed. Ghosts were a more appealing idea than the threat of insanity that I offered her. “Ryan’s blood is doing something to your mind or something has found a way to affect your thoughts. Either way, feeding off of the warlock has to stop.”

“I can’t!” she argued, pulling out of my loosened grasp. “It’s my only edge against Aurora.” Mira clasped her head in both of her hands and let out a low moan as she battled whatever demons were fighting for control of her now.

“This can’t continue.”

“But Aurora…”

Taking one step forward, I swept Mira up into my arms. “I think I might have another solution,” I said. The nightwalker didn’t try to push out of my arms. To my surprise, she actually curled up against me, still clutching her head. I could feel her warm body starting to cool, as if whatever warmth she had gained from Ryan was quickly dissipating.

Marching through the house, I gave Gabriel only a glance at where he was seated at the table in the breakfast nook. The other man was gone, possibly off to get pizza.

“Where are you going?” Gabriel demanded as I jerked open the back door.

“To see someone who might be able to help Mira. Keep an eye on Lily for me,” I replied before walking out of the house, leaving Gabriel to shut the door behind me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get far. I had just deposited Mira in the backseat of the car and shut the door when the kitchen door opened and Lily came running across the backyard to the car. She must have heard the door close or looked out the window.

“Wait! Wait for me!” she cried.

“I want you to stay here with Gabriel and Tristan,” I said calmly, placing a restraining hand on her slim shoulder. “I need to take Mira to see someone who might be able to help her.”

Lily jerked out of my grasp, taking one step backward from the car. “You said that you would protect me.”

“Gabriel and Tristan will keep you safe. I won’t be gone long,” I countered, feeling guiltier by the minute. I had promised her that I would keep her safe and now I was ditching her with a human bodyguard and a nightwalker.

“You think I haven’t heard that one before?” she scoffed, plopping her hands on her hips. “Leave me here and I won’t be here when you get back.”

I frowned down at the teenager and she glared back up at me. I couldn’t take the risk of her running when Mira and I still needed her. She was also risking her own life by potentially falling into Gaizka’s hands. Furthermore, she wasn’t the responsibility of Tristan and Gabriel. She was mine.

“You do exactly as I say or I will put you in the trunk for your own protection,” I threatened, but Lily paid me no heed. She gave a little excited skip and ran around to the front door on the passenger side.

Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my cell phone just before sliding behind the steering wheel. After my initial arrival in Savannah, I had stumbled across a local witch who provided me with some valuable information on the workings of Mira’s domain. She hadn’t been too thrilled to help me months ago and I didn’t get the feeling she believed I’d actually survive when I went head-to-head with the Fire Starter.

“LaVina, this is Danaus,” I blurted out as soon as she answered the phone. “I’m bringing you someone that needs your help.” I hung up the phone before she could reply and started the car. I just hoped that she could help. Mira wasn’t going to last much longer as she was.