Pray for Dawn

TWENTY-SEVEN

The small white two-story house sat out in the middle of a field nearly a mile from the road. Oak trees surrrounded the house, shrouding it from view with their thick leafy limbs. Lily shifted in her seat, growing more uneasy the closer we drew to the house. The night was overcast, blocking any moonlight, leaving the area cloaked in thick darkness.

“Whose house is this?” Lily asked as I put the car in park.

“Her name is LaVina and she’s a witch of sorts,” I replied as I unlatched my seat belt.

“What’s that mean?” Lily demanded as she slowly released her seat belt as well.

“LaVina specializes in voodoo, but has expanded her practices to various forms of earth and blood magic. Several months ago, she helped me to locate Mira,” I explained, and then got out of the car before she could ask her next question.

Lily followed behind me as I picked up a silent Mira from the backseat and carried her up the front steps. The old wood planks of the porch creaked under our combined weight, announcing our arrival.

The front door opened, revealing an old black woman as thin as a skeleton with her gray hair drawn back into a tight bun. Her bony hand wrapped around the door handle of the screen door, holding it shut.

“You shouldn’t have hung up so quickly,” she criticized in a heavy Southern accent. “I would have told you not to bother to come.”

“Just take a look at her,” I said, ignoring her comment. I wouldn’t be turned away.

“What am I supposed to do with a sick vampire?”

“She’s been drinking from a warlock,” I said quickly, hoping to pique her curiosity. “She’s been hearing and seeing things. Ghosts from her past. Savannah needs Mira. You know that. She’s not going to last much longer as she is.”

“Bah!” she scoffed, a frown drawing down the corners of her mouth. “Who’s the young one?”

“Lily. A friend.”

LaVina stared at us for another few seconds before she finally released the door handle and shuffled into the house, leaving us to follow.

“Danaus, are you sure about this?” Lily asked in a low voice as she took a step backward.

“Everything will be fine,” I said, raising one corner of my mouth in what I hoped looked like a reassuring smile. “What’s wrong? See something?”

“No, and that’s the problem. She doesn’t have an aura,” Lily whispered.

It was strange enough to give me pause, but not enough to stop me from opening the door. Mira needed help and LaVina was my only option at this point. I could only hope that maybe the child was tired and possibly mistaken. Or maybe LaVina was powerful enough to cloak her aura from others. Either way, it really didn’t matter. I was desperate.

“Just stick close to me,” I said as I entered the house. Lily was quick to obey, as she followed close enough to bump into me when I suddenly stopped outside the living room.

With her hands on her narrow hips, LaVina stared down at Lily, clucking her tongue at the girl. “You’re a bit of a ragamuffin. Need something to eat? Let me get you something fixed up.”

“That’s okay. Gabriel’s getting some pizza. I’ll just have that when we get back to Mira’s,” Lily quickly said.

“That’s no meal for a girl your age. You need some real home cooking and you’re not going to get that with some vampire,” LaVina argued with a dismissive wave at Mira, who lay limp in my arms.

“It’s okay, LaVina. We can’t stay long. We just need you to look at Mira,” I interrupted.

“Fine. Fine. Have it your way,” the old woman said, throwing her arms up. “Follow me.”

Suppressing a sigh of relief, we followed LaVina down a narrow set of wooden stairs into her basement. The old witch waved her hand as she descended the stairs, causing dozens of candles to flicker to life. To my surprise, a low giggle escaped Mira as she raised her hand. All the candles went out again, plunging the basement back into complete darkness.

“Oh, so the corpse is awake,” LaVina said as she lit the candles again.

“Sorry, LaVina,” I said, descending the last few stairs to the dirt floor. “Mira hasn’t been thinking clearly the past few days.”

“Bite me, Danaus,” Mira said as she finally started to stir in my arms.

“Just set the bloodsucker on the floor over there,” LaVina directed, waving one hand toward the far wall as she fiddled around on a workbench covered with all sorts of strange odds and ends.

I sat Mira on the floor so that her back was against the concrete wall and she was facing the bench where LaVina was busy pulling together whatever she needed. I remained closer to Mira while Lily sat down on the stairs, refusing to come any farther into the tiny, claustrophobic basement. There were no windows and the walls were covered in all manner of symbols, none of which I could identify. The air was musty, filled with the rich scent of dirt, dried flowers, and a hint of incense. Beneath it all was also the faint odor of dried blood. Creatures had been sacrificed in this small cloistered refuge from the modern world.

LaVina hummed a nameless melody to herself as she went about lighting a bit of incense and pulling down little bottles of unknown liquids and fragments of plants. Jerking open the door of an old wooden birdcage, the old witch plunged her hand inside and quickly pulled it out again, holding a small bird in her grasp. With a speed and ease that bespoke of years of experience, she picked up a small blade from the table and chopped off the creature’s head before it could make a single chirp. I quickly looked over at Lily and was instantly relieved to find that she was looking at Mira and me rather than the witch. She didn’t need to be exposed to any more violence and death than she already had been.

I was beginning to think that bringing her here had been a serious mistake. LaVina was eccentric at best. When I had seen her the last time, she had stood naked in a ring of fire in her backyard, her body smeared with the blood of a dead dog, demanding the spirits of the dead tell her where I should go to hunt the Fire Starter. I might not be a believer in her methods, but the next night, I finally encountered Mira and our journey together began.

“Good dirt,” Mira suddenly murmured, shattering the silence that had dominated, other than LaVina’s soft humming. I looked down at the nightwalker to find her digging furrows in the dirt with the fingers of her right hand. She picked up a handful and let it fall through her parted fingers. Her head popped up and she looked at LaVina for the first time. “This isn’t Savannah dirt,” she ventured. “Peruvian?”

LaVina took a couple slow steps toward the nightwalker, her brow wrinkled with surprise and her fingers stained red. “Good guess,” she replied softly. “Some of the dirt was shipped in from the Sacred Valley in Peru. I also had some brought in from the Black Forest in Germany and from the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. Strong bits of earth for spell casting. But I’m surprised you could tell such a thing.”

Mira shrugged her shoulders as she dropped the last of the dirt back to the ground. “Like I said, it’s good dirt. I’ve slept covered in Peruvian dirt.”

“But still,” LaVina pressed as she edged closer. “No nightwalker should be able to sense such a thing. All nightwalkers lose their connection with the earth upon rebirth.”

“Yes, well, I’m special,” Mira said, curling her lips in such a way that she briefly flashed her fangs. There was also no missing the sarcasm that laced every syllable of that statement.

To my surprise, LaVina knelt on the ground next to Mira and clasped the nightwalker’s chin between two thin fingers. She tilted Mira’s head up, looking into her lavender eyes as she once again clucked her tongue. “You, my child, should never have been reborn as a nightwalker.”

“No kidding,” Mira replied snidely as she tried to turn her head away, but LaVina jerked Mira’s head back to face her.

“You were destined for many great things,” LaVina continued. “Being a nightwalker may have delayed, if not completely deterred those things. So sad.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked when Mira just stared mutely at the old witch.

“Nothing specific,” LaVina quickly said, releasing Mira’s face. “Just idle dreams and broken nightmares.”

Using the blood that was still on her fingers, she traced a symbol on Mira’s forehead that caused a knot to form in my stomach. I knew a few old symbols from my travels, and this one felt positively ancient. Older than the pagans, older than Mesopotamians, older than most civilizations that had crawled across the Earth. The monster that lived wrapped around the remains of my soul recoiled at the sight of it and my skin crawled. While I couldn’t name the source of the symbol, something told me that I was looking at the original marking for chaos.

Energy sizzled in the air around LaVina and Mira, as the old witch started speaking in a tongue I had never heard before. My ears started ringing and the air started to grow too thick to draw into my lungs. I thought I would soon begin choking. Mira lay as still as death while LaVina worked her magic, her eyes closed, but a glimmer of lavender light still shined beneath her eyelashes. I didn’t like this.

“LaVina?” I pressed, touching the woman’s arm. The witch immediately stopped what she was doing and smiled at me. She placed her hand in mine and I helped her to stand again. She walked back over to the bench where she fiddled around with some unseen objects.

“So, you were saying that this nightwalker has been drinking from a warlock,” she said, changing the subject to the real reason we had come to her in the first place. I was tempted to pull her back to our previous topic, but decided to drop it. It was more important that we got Mira well and sane again.

“Yes.” I sighed.

“Powerful one?” she asked, glancing over her bony shoulder at me.

“Very powerful.”

“Hmmm…” she said as she slowly turned around again. She leaned up against the bench and crossed her arms over her middle. “Did you know different types of blood affect nightwalkers in different ways?”

“I’m not surprised,” I said, shoving my hands into my back pockets. “Naturi blood is poisonous to nightwalkers.”

“In that same vein, some nightwalkers can’t drink shapeshifter blood. They’re too close to that nature tie, and it makes them sick for several nights on end.”

“Mira can drink shifter blood,” I countered, recalling Mira’s special meal with the lycanthrope Nicolai in Venice.

“Hmmm,” she said again with a nod. “I’m not surprised by that. For some, shifter blood can temporarily make a nightwalker stronger, heighten senses, and satisfy the thirst for longer. However, blood from a powerful witch or warlock does none of those things.”

“Then why drink it?” Lily inquired. I looked over my shoulder to find her rising and walking down to the stand on the last stair.

“Because it can have special side effects,” LaVina said, smiling up at the girl.

“Like what?” Lily asked.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell us, Mira?” I asked, turning my attention back to the nightwalker. Mira had dropped her head and was once again running her fingers through the dirt. She refused to look up at us, but there was a new stiffness to her shoulders.

“Go to hell, Danaus,” she muttered.

“Oh, think about it,” LaVina chided. “Weakness, trembling hands, circles under her eyes, hallucinations. At the root, Mira’s still human.”

“She’s not sleeping,” Lily murmured. My gaze jerked from the teenager to the nightwalker. Her shoulders were now slumped as if she were cowering away from me. Could it be something as simple as not sleeping?

“That’s not possible,” I said, pinning my gaze on Mira. “You can’t be awake during the day. Nightwalkers can’t be awake during the day.”

“Ryan’s blood is special,” Mira admitted in a low voice. “I drink it and I can stay awake during the day.”

“How long has it been since you last slept?” I demanded.

“I need this,” Mira said, clenching her fists in the dirt. “It’s my only edge against Aurora. What if she sends someone for me during the daylight hours?”

“How long?” I repeated.

Mira pushed to her knees so that she was now facing me, her fists clenched at her side. “She’s going to come for me during the day! I won’t be helpless against them.”

“How long has it been?” I shouted back at her, taking a step toward her.

“Ten days!” she shouted back, tears slipping down her cheeks. “I’ve not slept in ten days!”

Pacing away from Mira, I shoved my hands through my hair, but managed to hold my tongue as I caught sight of Lily intently watching me. Ten days. Humans were known to hallucinate after just a few days without sleep. Vampires were resilient creatures, but even their minds couldn’t possibly withstand such an extended period of deprivation. James had mentioned that Mira was up during the day, but it never occurred to me that she was never sleeping. I had just thought that she was waking earlier in the evening or maybe staying up a couple hours past sunrise—not staying awake the entire day.

“How long did you think you could keep this up?” I demanded, losing my tenuous grip on my temper.

“Months, if I had to. Whatever it takes!” she shouted at me.

“Leaving you at Ryan’s mercy.”

“Better at the mercy of a warlock that is just trying to help me defeat the naturi than at the mercy of an entire race that wants to see me dead.”

“You think Ryan is a better option than the naturi?”

“Of course he is.”

“Ryan doesn’t care about you,” I snarled, taking a step closer. “He only cares about how he can use you. You’re a member of the coven. You’re one of the most powerful vampires in all the world. How could you think something so stupid as this notion that he cares about protecting you?”

“Fine, maybe he doesn’t care about me, but he at least doesn’t want the naturi to succeed in wiping out humanity. At least we have that in common! Keeping me alive helps that goal. We can’t let the naturi win.”

“I don’t want the naturi to succeed either, but this isn’t the best way to beat them.”

“They’re going to come after me again.”

“I know,” I murmured. I knew it like I knew the sun was going to rise in a few hours and that Gaizka would come hunting for the rest of my soul. Little inevitabilities that we couldn’t escape. Once Aurora had her forces pulled together, she was going to come after Mira again and she wouldn’t stop until the nightwalker had suffered a gruesome, excruciating end. If the naturi won, Mira faced a horrible death.

“I won’t let Aurora have me without a fight. She’ll come during the daylight hours when I am vulnerable. They’ll steal me away again and no one will be able to find me. Not even you and all your magic tricks. I swear I won’t sleep again until Aurora is dead,” Mira vowed.

I turned to look at LaVina, who was watching Mira intently. I had no way of winning this argument with Mira. She was being completely irrational, and in truth, I couldn’t completely fault her. The naturi had grabbed her once already in her long lifetime and subjected her to two weeks of endless torture in an effort to break her will and use her as a weapon. But her plan was flawed. “How do we get her to sleep again?” I demanded, looking up at LaVina.

“No! I can’t!” Mira argued, but I kept my eyes locked on the old witch.

After a moment, she shrugged. “Just get her to drink from someone other than this warlock. The fresh infusion of blood should dilute the power of the warlock’s, forcing her to sleep again when the sun rises,” LaVina replied.

“I won’t do it, Danaus.”

I looked back down at Mira to find her sitting on her heels, her arms folded over her stomach as if she were trying to guard herself against me. She was frowning at me, but there was no missing the desperation in her eyes. I felt trapped.

“Ryan is using you,” I said, trying to find the best way to build my argument. “He’s locking you to his side. Soon, he will be force you to do horrible things in order to get at his blood. You’re stronger than this.”

“Do you think I don’t know this?” she snapped, lowering her eyes to the dirt floor. “My leash has enough owners. I don’t need another. At least, not one of my own making. But I’ll also do whatever it takes to survive. I’ll not let the naturi have me again.”

“This route risks the lives of others,” I said. Taking a step forward, I knelt before Mira, cupping her face in my hands. Her skin was cool and almost waxy to the touch, as if the life had already seeped out of her. “You could have killed Tristan tonight if I had not arrived when I did. If you go much longer without sleep, someone will die at your hands. Are you willing to risk Tristan’s life? Or Gabriel’s? Or mine for that matter?” I had thrown in the last as a joke, hoping to bring a smile to her lips. Instead, she raised her right hand and laid it against mine as she shook her head.

“No,” she whispered.

Her fear was a palpable thing in the room, seeming to form a cocoon around us. Lily and LaVina slipped away, and for a brief period of time, it felt as if I were finally alone in the world with Mira. The naturi were gone. The bori were a distant memory. The coven was just a bad dream. I rubbed my thumbs over her high cheekbones, wiping away a stray tear.

What am I to do? she asked, using the mental path we had trod so many times before it had begun to feel like a lover’s familiar caress.

Tonight, you’re going to hunt and then you will sleep safely through the day with me watching over you, I replied, using the same mental touch.

Mira’s head snapped up so that she could look me in the eye, surprise and hope filling her expression. I stared at her pale parted lips, wishing I could see another wry smile dance there. You will? she demanded.

I will protect you until you can protect yourself, I confirmed.

Tonight?

For as long as you need me.

Mira turned her face and pressed a kiss into the palm of my left hand, then looked back at me. “All right. I’ll feed from a human and sleep tonight,” she said.

“It’s about time.” I sighed. A part of me was stunned that I was advocating for a nightwalker to feed. But then, I had seen and felt the chaos that ensued when she did not. It was safer for all those involved if Mira remained on her diet of human blood.

Pushing to my feet, I took Mira’s hand and helped her up as well. I turned to find LaVina leaning against the bench, watching us with a thoughtful frown. “Thank you for your help,” I said.

The old witch snorted and waved off my comment. “Didn’t need me. I wasn’t of much help. You just needed to know how to put some sense into that one,” she said, jerking her head toward Mira.

“Why have I never met you?” Mira inquired as I started to walk toward the stairs. It seemed as if every muscle in my body tensed at that exact moment. Mira was having one of her moments of clarity and it was not exactly the best time. I was hoping to escape LaVina’s place before she started thinking about it too deeply.

“I don’t come into the city much and that is where your domain is,” LaVina replied.

“Mira, we should be going. It’s getting late and Lily’s tired,” I interjected, but the nightwalker didn’t even look over at me. She just continued to stare at the witch.

“And yet, Danaus knows you. Are you a part of Themis?”

“His silly organization of so-called researchers? Bah! Bunch of utter nonsense,” LaVina replied, leaving me straining not to roll my eyes. “The boy came into town last summer looking for you. I pointed him in the right direction.”

I moved to grab Mira’s shoulder to stop her from lunging at the old witch, but I stopped sharp when Mira simply smiled at LaVina. A broad grin grew across her face and laughter seemed to twinkle in her eyes. She was actually amused by the witch’s bold honesty.

“You wanted him to kill me?” Mira inquired.

LaVina gave an unlady-like snort and pushed away from the bench, but didn’t take a step toward us. “As if I thought for a second that he would do such a thing.”

Mira gave a soft chuckle and shook her head as she turned back toward the stairs. “Watch yourself, witch,” Mira said under her breath.

“You too, vampire,” LaVina replied.

The car ride back into the city was quiet, with Mira seated in the front seat beside me, while Lily sat in the back. We returned to Mira’s house to find Gabriel and his silent companion waiting for us to return.

“Danaus, this is my new bodyguard, Matsui.” Mira introduced the Asian man from earlier as we paused in the kitchen beside the breakfast nook.

I nodded to the Asian man and then turned my attention back to the nightwalker. I was going to hold her to her promise to feed tonight, even if it meant that I had to accompany her on her hunt. “What’s your plan? Do you need me to go with you?” I demanded.

“No,” Mira said, shaking her head. “Gabriel will help me tonight. It’s the safest option. I would never do anything to harm him.”

“Mira?” Gabriel said, placing his hand on the nightwalker’s arm. “What’s going on?”

“I need to feed. I need to finally sleep and I can only do that if I drink from a human,” Mira said, placing her hand on his. “Will you help me?”

“Happily.”

“Mira, what about Lily? I promised that I would protect her as well,” I said before the nightwalker could leave the room with her warm meal.

“I guess we’re having a sleepover then,” Mira said, cocking her head slightly to the side as she looked down at Lily. The teenager looked skeptical, but wisely kept her comments to herself. “This is the safest place in the city. Danaus will be with me during the day, but Gabriel and Matsui will be there to protect you. They will get you whatever you need during the day. Tomorrow night, we’ll see about getting you some new clothes and settled in the town house with Danaus.”

“What do you mean, ‘settled’?” she asked.

Mira arched one eyebrow at the young girl and crossed her arms over her chest. “Daniel left a message for me. Said a runaway saw the killer. I’m assuming that you’re the runaway. You’ve now fallen in with us, which means you’re here to stay for a while. As such, you’re going to need clothes and some other basic necessities of life. We’ll see to that tomorrow.”

“I’m staying with you and Danaus?” Lily asked, her mouth falling open in shock.

“You are if you can tolerate being around a pompous vampire hunter and a bunch of vampires,” Mira said.

“That’s so awesome!” Lily cried, launching herself at the nightwalker. I made a grab for her but missed. Lily wrapped her arms around Mira in a quick hug that caught the nightwalker completely off guard. “You guys are great. I’d love to stay with you. You’re the only ones that don’t make me feel like some freak.”

“You’re not a freak,” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder as she came to stand beside me again.

“Why would we think you’re a freak?” Mira asked, her brow furrowing as she looked from Lily to me.

“I can see auras. Didn’t he tell you?” Lily suddenly seemed to shrink in on herself. She took a step backward, starting to partially hide herself behind me.

“No, that only makes you more valuable,” Mira said, with a shrug of her shoulders. “Go upstairs and find a room to sleep in. Danaus will inspect it while I grab a bite.”

Frowning, I followed Lily up the stairs. We peeked into five different bedrooms before she finally chose one with soft yellow paint and a striped comforter on the queen-sized bed. I didn’t like where this was going. Mira was making the assumption that we would be keeping Lily indefinitely. While I had to admit that I hadn’t made any specific plans for the child after we finally managed to catch Abigail Bradford’s killer, I didn’t see how it would be possible for us to raise her. I had to return to London and Mira…Mira was a nightwalker. She couldn’t properly raise a child. In the end, Lily needed to be turned over to the authorities once we were sure that she was safe.

While Lily kicked off her shoes and hopped onto the bed, I walked over and quickly checked the windows, making sure they were shut and properly sealed. All the security measures that lined the interior of this house were properly in place. Mira was right. This house had to be one of the safest places in all of the city.

I shoved my hands into my pockets as I walked back over to the bedroom door. “It looks like there’s some pizza down in the kitchen if you’re hungry,” I said, turning and leaning my shoulder against the wooden doorjamb. “Gabriel will make sure that you have something for breakfast and lunch.”

Lily pushed up from where she had been lying in the middle of a pile of pillows and sat in the center of the bed. “You’re not going to be around?”

“I haven’t seen it yet, but I imagine that Mira sleeps in a sealed room for her protection. I’m either going to be sealed in the room or guarding the door from the outside. I won’t be able to hang out tomorrow. I’m sorry.”

Lily dropped her eyes to her hands in her lap, causing her dark hair to fall around her face. “These naturi she talked about…” she said in a low voice. “They hurt her?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “A long time ago, they did some very horrible things to her, things she can never forget. She needs to feel safe. At least for one day.”

“And you trust Gabriel and Matsui?” she said, lifting her head to look at me with a sharp, focused gaze.

“I don’t know Matsui, but I know Gabriel and I trust him,” I admitted, hoping that she wouldn’t use this as a new excuse to run. I couldn’t be in two places at once and Mira needed me. Unfortunately, if it came down to it, I wasn’t sure that Mira had the strength and control she would need to hypnotize Lily into sleeping through the day the same way she had with Shelly when we were in Peru. If I was stuck, I could always see if Tristan could do it. “Gabriel has done a very good job of protecting Mira, and he will do whatever it takes to keep you safe tomorrow.”

“All right,” Lily said, with a nod. “She got a TV around this place?”

“I have no doubt that she’s got one somewhere,” I said, fighting back a grin. “Just don’t go nosing into Tristan’s stuff unless he says you can. I’d rather not worry about a vampire taking a nip at you because you ventured into his territory.”

“Are they really territorial?” Lily asked.

“Can be.”

“Have you been hunting vampires a long time?”

“Yes, a very long time.”

“And now you’re friends with them?” she pressed. I had to crush the smile that was trying to push onto my lips, her curiosity was so amusing.

“Not really,” I hedged, pushing away from the doorjamb to stand with my legs spread. “We just have to work together on occasions to solve some bigger problems.”

“And when it’s solved, will you go back to hunting them?” she demanded.

“I don’t know. Probably.”

She shook her head at me, a frown crinkling in the corners of her eyes.

“It’s nothing that you need to worry about,” I said, wishing I could take away the concerned look on her face.

“But if you and Mira go back to being enemies, it means that I won’t get to see you both. It means that you won’t let me hang out with Tristan anymore. If Gabriel’s Mira’s bodyguard, then I probably won’t see him again,” she listed as her fears grew.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” I repeated, one corner of my mouth quirking in a smile. “We’ll work it all out in a few days. I think we all have bigger things to worry about. Go downstairs and get something to eat. I need to check on Gabriel and Mira.”

Lily still had a worried look on her face as she bounced off the bed and thundered down the stairs to the kitchen. I followed behind her at a slower pace, trying not to think about her questions. What were we going to do after this was all over? It was something that I had never had time to think about when I was involved with Mira before. Tomorrow was something we were never sure we were going to have, so such thoughts were never contemplated.

Now I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I knew my time with Themis was done. I had watched Ryan use and destroy people over the long years and had never done anything about it. I could no longer turn a blind eye to his actions. It was time to move on.

And in truth, I didn’t think I had learned as much about nightwalkers as I would have hoped while I was at Themis. My short time with Mira had taught me that I was wrong about a lot of things, important things that could have easily decided whether a creature lived or died. It was time for me to move on. I had been with Themis for more than a couple of centuries, the longest I had ever bothered to stay in any one place. I had been a part of that institution before Ryan’s arrival and now I felt that it was time for me to leave. I just didn’t know where I would go next.

I followed Lily down the stairs and wandered into the kitchen to find Gabriel sitting at the table next to Lily and Matsui. The teenager was already halfway through her first slice of pizza while hammering Matsui with questions about vampires in Japan. Gabriel sat back in his chair, looking a little paler, but none the worse for wear.

“She’s expecting you downstairs,” Gabriel said when I entered the room. “The door is in the hall, under the staircase.”

“Watch over Lily tomorrow. Get her some food,” I stated as I reached over her and grabbed a slice of pizza.

“She’ll be fine,” Gabriel said with a faint smile.

“Ask Tristan’s permission before you jump back on his computer and stay out of trouble tomorrow,” I said around bites of pizza. I tapped Lily on the top of the head, getting her to look up at me.

“Gotcha,” she said with a smile. “See you tomorrow night.”

I nodded, grabbing a second slice of pizza before heading back through the house. It wasn’t the greatest pizza I had ever had. The crust was a little soggy and there didn’t seem to be enough cheese, but at that moment it was perfect. Like sleep, meals were something that were snuck in between catastrophes. Earlier today, I had managed to grab both breakfast and lunch with Lily because I knew that she needed food and it seemed to be an easy way to get her to open up a little bit to me about Abigail’s attacker. Unfortunately, once the sun set, all my attention turned to Mira. But then she seemed to fill whatever room she entered, pushing out any other thought or action.

Downstairs looked like a place to have parties, with its full bar off to one side and pool table in the center of the room. A huge flat-panel TV dominated one wall, while the opposite wall had a pair of doors. They looked as if they could lead to a bathroom or storage. However, one of the doors was left open, revealing what appeared to a somewhat austere bedroom. There was a single chair off to the side and a queen-sized bed pushed up against the far wall.

Mira sat on the bed with her back pressed against the concrete wall. Her right leg was bent and the elbow of her left arm was resting on her knee as she held her head in her hand. The nightwalker looked worn, as if time were finally starting to catch up with her.

“Did you see Gabriel?” she asked in a low voice. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” I confirmed, causing her shoulders to slump even more in relief. “It doesn’t look like you took much.”

“I didn’t think I had, but after what happened with Tristan, I’m just not sure anymore…” she said, her voice trailing off.

“How do you feel?”

“Exhausted.” She sighed before flashing a faint, wry grin that seemed to disappear before it could fully form on her lips.

“Then go to sleep,” I said, as I reached over and pulled the door closed, then paused with my hand still on the doorknob. “What about Tristan?”

“He’s got the next room,” she replied, pushing off the bed and getting to her feet. “This used to be one big room, but last month I had it divided so that he could have his own room. It has the same security system as this one.” Standing on the left side of the door, Mira opened the covering of a small gray box on the wall and typed in an eight-digit code in the keypad. A second later, a metal door slid out of the wall and covered the wood door. Mira smiled at me when I gave a little jump. “The entire room is concrete and steel. Nothing to burn.” She frowned. “You’re stuck in here now. No getting out until I’m awake again.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“There’s no bathroom in here. No food.”

“I’ll be fine,” I repeated. “It’s December. The days are shorter now. You’ll be awake again soon enough.”

Mira smirked over her shoulder as she returned to the bed. Placing her back against the wall, she stared at me as I leaned against the metal door that guarded the entrance into her secret lair. Her eyelids drifted shut after a few seconds, but she quickly jerked her head, her eyes popping open. I chuckled at her.

“Stop fighting it.”

“Did you bring any weapons?” she asked.

“I’m always armed,” I replied with a smile. Even when I didn’t have a blade or a gun on me, I still had the ability to boil blood. “I’m not going anywhere. You’re safe.”

A small sigh escaped Mira as she slid down the wall and laid her head against the pillow. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Thank you,” she whispered, and then I felt it. It was as if she were no longer in the room with me. I could no longer sense her. It was still a few hours until sunrise, but exhaustion and Gabriel’s blood had finally overcome the strength of Ryan’s blood. She was deep in the sleep of the nightwalkers.

Pushing away from the wall, I walked over to the bed. Mira was dressed in a plain, white T-shirt and a pair of black shorts. Her dark red hair was spilled over the white pillow-cases like a river of fresh blood. I bent over and picked up her legs, while at the same time, I pulled down the cover on the bed. I placed the blanket over the nightwalker, knowing that she would never feel it. Staring down at her, I realized that for the first time since I had met her, Mira finally looked like she was at peace. I just wished it would last.