Pray for Dawn

THREE

It was barely after nine in the morning when I hit the street in Savannah. Squinting against the bright sunlight, I rubbed my eyes and stifled a yawn as I stepped out onto River Walk. The wind sweeping up from the river was cold, cutting through my leather jacket, which sported a few new tears following last night’s encounter. In fact, by the way the tourists were looking at me, I realized that I looked little better than a semi-crazed homeless person. My hair was wild and unkempt, and my clothes were dirty and wrinkled. I hadn’t bothered to shave in more than three days and I hadn’t slept in two nights. My flight from Spain to Savannah had been plagued with turbulence.

I walked down the street, taking in the handful of tourists popping in and out of the gift shops and hopping on the trolley that trundled around the historic district of the city. All seemed quiet enough. Of course, at this moment, all the nightwalkers were safely ensconced in their secret lairs, the lycanthropes were their day jobs, and any other creatures would be acting like normal human beings. I wouldn’t be able to find out much until the sun actually set once again.

Pausing at one corner, I contemplated walking back and catching a few hours of sleep. However, a bit of yellow police tape flapping in the wind caught my attention. I turned the corner and headed up the hill toward a wide alleyway known as Factors Walk. James had not mentioned where the girl had been murdered, but the one place it would make the biggest stink would be near River Walk, where most of the tourists flocked during the day.

“You don’t want to go up there,” called a young voice at my back.

I twisted around to find a young girl of no more than fourteen years sitting against the side of a building. Her hands were tucked under her arms against the bitter wind and her arms and chin rested on her bent knees. She was staring straight ahead at the building across from her as if some part of her was still trying to ignore my presence, but for some reason she had spoken up.

“Why not?” I asked.

“The Dark Walk ain’t safe anymore,” she said, still refusing to look up at me. “Stay down by the river.”

I turned and took a couple steps closer to the young girl so that I was now standing directly in front of her. “What’s changed? I’ve been on Factors Walk before.”

The girl shrugged one shoulder. A quick glance over the young woman revealed that she honestly didn’t look much better than me. Her clothes were dirty and worn, just a motley collection that worked to keep her warm against the cold. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and a smudge of dirt covered some of her freckles.

“Is it just at night that the Walk is dangerous?” I pressed.

“Night. Day. It really doesn’t matter. It hangs out there, waiting.”

“Is that where the girl was killed?”

The girl seemed to shrink in on herself, as if trying to protect herself. “Yes,” she whispered.

“And the killer is still around here somewhere?”

“He’s always around somewhere,” she replied.

“Then that’s exactly what I want to hear.”

Turning, I started up the hill again only to feel a sharp tug on the right sleeve of my jacket. I looked down to find the girl tightly holding onto my arm with both hands. Her head remained down, her eyes locked on the ground.

“You can’t go up there,” she commanded, raising her voice for the first time.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, trying to use my most reassuring voice. “I’ve faced all kinds of dark things and survived. I can handle this.”

“There’s been nothing like this in Savannah before,” she replied, finally looking up at me. Her brown eyes went wide and she released me so fast that she nearly fell backward. I reached for her, but she quickly darted away from my reaching hand. She ran back down the hill, pausing only long enough to grab a worn backpack before disappearing out of sight.

Something about my appearance had scared her, but I couldn’t begin to guess at what. I wasn’t exactly looking my best, but she’d been talking to me before running in terror.

With a sigh, I resumed my trek up the hill to Factors Walk. As I reached the wide alley, I spotted a remnant of the police tape that had once cordoned off the area, tied to a lamppost. Even in the early-morning light, the alley was bathed in thick shadows thrown down by the buildings on one side and the high stone wall on the other side.

Factors Walk was a lonely strip of ground even in broad daylight. At night, River Walk was a hot spot for both tourists and locals with its trendy restaurants, bars, and nightclubs, and I had followed more than one vampire and its prey from the waterfront to the shadows of Factors Walk. Yet, I had never encountered anything there that would cause me a moment’s fear.

Standing in the middle of the alley, I closed my eyes and allowed my powers to stretch out to the cover the immediate area. I could sense humans milling about the River Walk nearby, more humans up in the building beside me. There were no naturi near, but there was at least one lycanthrope standing still at the far end of the alley, most likely watching me. So much for an unnoticed appearance within the city. At this rate, the only thing keeping Mira unaware of my presence in her domain was the fact that the sun was up.

I opened my eyes and frowned. I wasn’t surprised that I couldn’t find anything because I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. Only when I saw the exact place where the girl was killed would I be able to possibly sense something, and even then it was a slim chance. But first I needed more information, and a local newspaper was good a place to start as any.

Unfortunately, it appeared that I first had some other business. As I reached River Walk again, I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk several feet from the three lycanthropes stalking me. I extended my arms from my body, hands open and my palms facing them. I could handle them, but I didn’t want a fight with three werewolves in downtown Savannah in broad daylight. It would go against my vow to preserve mankind’s ignorance of the supernatural species. It would also cripple the fragile peace within Mira’s domain.

Ignoring the two other werewolves, I turned my gaze on Nicolai. A few inches taller than me, he had thick blond hair and his copper-colored eyes were narrowed against the sun that was rising between us. Nicolai had been another of Mira’s unexpected acquisitions in Venice. She had claimed him after defeating him in a fair fight. She pressed her claim in an effort to keep him out of the hands of the naturi, and maybe even to tweak Jabari’s ego.

“Gromenko,” I said with a slight nod.

“Danaus. It’s been a while,” Nicolai matched my nod.

“Not since Venice.”

Nicolai frowned, deepening the lines that cut through his face as a soft grunt escaped him. The man appeared to be in his early thirties, but lycanthropes generally aged more slowly than normal humans. He may have been quite a bit older. Judging by the power rolling off of him, Nicolai was considerably stronger than his two companions, making me wonder if Nicolai had been close to alpha status in his last pack. Some werewolves were natural born alphas, while some could grow into the role under the right circumstances.

Nicolai shoved his hands into the pockets of his navy jacket, his eyes darting away from my face. “We were hoping we could talk to you about an important matter.”

“Of course.”

His jaw muscles jumped for a second before he finally spoke again. “Privately.” There was no missing the disgust in his voice.

“Naturally,” I replied, as my mouth twisted in a smirk. Nicolai’s eyes returned to my face and his frown eased. It was obvious that he didn’t want to be here, but he had most likely been stuck with this task because we knew each other. They assumed I would be more willing to cooperate with someone I was acquainted with than the two thugs hovering behind him like anxious shadows.

With a stiff nod, Nicolai turned. I followed behind Nicolai, and the two silent strangers fell into step behind me. I had nothing to worry about as long as we were on a public street, but a knot of anxiety twisted in my stomach when Nicolai stopped beside a plain white Toyota Camry and pulled open one of the rear doors. I slid into the backseat of the car. Nicolai closed the door behind me and got in the car on the other side of me, while his two companions climbed into the front seat. Wordlessly, we pulled out into the steadily growing traffic and headed farther east toward the edge of the city and the river. I was surprised no one had bothered to take my weapons away from me before I got into the car. This obviously wasn’t a social call. I kept my hands on my knees and stared straight ahead, memorizing where we were headed.

“Should I reschedule my other appointments for the day?” I asked, turning my head toward Nicolai. The driver jerked his head up so he could see us both in the rearview mirror.

“No, this won’t take long,” Nicolai said. His eyes remained out the window to his left.

“For who?” I mocked.

A half smile twisted on his face as his gaze jumped to my face. “Either of us.”

“Jabari?”

Nicolai winced, his shoulders stiffening. He met the gaze in the rearview mirror then looked out the window again. “I’ve not heard from him in a couple months. Not since before Mira left for Peru.” His voice was low, little more than a growl.

Prior to coming to Savannah, he had been a pet of sorts to a very old and powerful vampire named Jabari. Despite this, Jabari had attempted to give Nicolai over to the naturi, but Mira quickly claimed the werewolf and shipped him back to her domain. We all knew she was prolonging his life, not saving him. Jabari was even older than I was, and when he decided to strike back, his first act would be to kill Nicolai while he was under Mira’s protection.

The white Camry slipped outside the inner city onto the gray ribbon of highway that cradled Savannah to her east. But after only a couple minutes we pulled off onto what appeared to be a service road and turned south. The lycan stopped the car in front of a pair of enormous steel doors attached to a giant tan stone entrance that seemed to go under the city to the right of the highway.

The werewolf in the passenger seat jumped out and jogged over to the door. He quickly unlocked the padlock and shoved the doors open enough to let the Camry pass through. The driver flicked on the headlights as we pulled inside, but they barely made a dent in the darkness that swamped the underground room. And it got even darker when the shifter closed the doors behind us.

Leaning forward, I could make out the dirt floor and the rock walls that had been carved under a part of the city. Here and there crumbling red brick arches and pillars struggled to keep the ceiling from caving in. The ground was littered with large stones and the occasional beer bottle from its random and temporary occupants. The tunnel looked to be as old as the city itself and probably was. I had heard tales of pirates and rumrunners using tunnels that ran from the river to secret coves under the city. In fact, one was supposed to still run from the Pirate House restaurant not far from where we were sitting.

I felt a mocking smile rising within me. The tunnels explained why on more than one occasion I had sensed the presence of a vampire or werewolf moving around underground. I had initially thought that maybe a couple of the buildings downtown had secret tunnels connecting their underground parking garages. However, some of the locations had seemed too far-flung from the main core of the city to hold to that logic. Now that I knew, the creatures of the city had one less place to hide.

Beside me, Nicolai slid out of the car. I climbed out as well and walked around the back of the car over toward Nicolai, staying away from the headlights. My eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness of the tunnel. My night vision wasn’t as keen as a lycanthrope’s or a vampire’s, but it still was better than a human’s. As I slowly stepped closer to Nicolai, I let my powers sweep over the immediate area. I didn’t know how deep the tunnel ran or in which direction, but I could at least get a feel for who was close at hand. To my surprise, it was just the four of us and the rats.

“Why are you here?” demanded a rough voice from behind me. I turned to find the lycan that had driven the car circling me, edging into the shadows. Nicolai was leaning against the hood by the front left wheel. His arms were folded over his chest and he was staring down at the ground. He had done his part, and gotten me there.

I turned my back to Nicolai and stepped away from the car, searching for some open ground. The other shifter stood nearby, off to my left.

“You brought me here,” I called into the darkness. The palm of my right hand itched, urging me to grab the knife that was nestled against my lower back, but I wouldn’t be the one to start this fight.

“Why are you in Savannah? Why did you come back?” asked the second lycan. His voice was younger, with a slight Southern accent, as if he’d been born and raised in South Georgia.

“Vacation.” I flexed my hands against the bite of cold in the damp, musty air. The enclosed tunnel was several degrees colder than the sun-kissed River Walk, causing my breath to fog as I exhaled.

“Is that why you were here during the summer?” asked the first. “Vacation? Kill a few vampires and catch a couple ship shots down at Tubby’s,” he suggested, mentioning one of the restaurants down along the River Walk.

“I don’t do shots.” Behind me, Nicolai snickered.

“Look, man, I personally don’t care if you stake a few bloodsuckers while you’re in town.” The easy, placating tone from the younger werewolf instantly put me on edge. “Hell, wipe out their whole fucking kind if it’s how you get off, but since you didn’t kill them all, we gotta keep the peace.”

The lycanthrope to my right circled closer, his feet scuffing the dirt-covered floor. The scent of earth and rain started to drift into the air as if a breeze had run across a field and gotten lost in the tunnels. He was dipping into his powers. “What did you do with Mira?”

Every muscle in my body stiffened. James had made no mention that the nightwalker wouldn’t be here when I arrived. In fact, I’d almost anticipated an awkward reunion once the sun set. But she wasn’t here?

“I haven’t seen her.” I widened my stance slightly.

“You attacked her in July, and now you’re back to finish the job. Where is she?” the first lycanthrope demanded.

I knew they wouldn’t believe me. “If Mira’s missing, it happened before I arrived. I just stepped off the plane this morning. I’ve been in Europe the past three months. I haven’t seen her.”

“What about Themis?” Nicolai demanded. A soft whisper of cloth rubbing was my only indication that the blond werewolf had moved. “Don’t they have other hunters like you?”

I kept my attention on the lycans I knew were a threat. “No one has been sent to Savannah. I should know. It’s my job to issue the orders. I’m the only Themis member in town. If some other hunter got his hands on her, I would know it.”

“Our—” Nicolai was cut off by a low growl from the right. “Something happened two nights ago and she has yet to answer our calls. With your sudden appearance in town, one has to wonder if Themis is playing in our neck of the woods now.”

So I was, naturally, their prime suspect. I was probably the only suspect. “I don’t know where she is,” I snarled.

A subtle shifting in the air was my only warning, the scent of earth and rain intensifying as the shifter to my right rushed me. Bending my right knee, I lowered my right shoulder and put it into his stomach. I used his own momentum to flip him over my back. The crunch of the car’s side panel giving under the weight of the man as he crashed into it filled the silence. My attention shifted to the second lycanthrope, who was inching closer, his eyes glowing reddish brown in the darkness. I felt confident that he wouldn’t change. It would take too long and it left him vulnerable for several minutes. But that didn’t mean that his strength and speed weren’t already enhanced by being a werewolf in the first place.

As I tensed for the attack, I was hit from behind. The lycan I had thrown into the car recovered faster than I had expected. I hit the ground hard with him on top of me, my shoulder slamming into a large rock. His fist crashed into my jaw, hitting my head against the ground. Stars lit up the darkness, momentarily distracting me from the pain that exploded in my stomach as he landed a punch to my gut. I twisted beneath my attacker, grabbing his neck with my left hand. Pressing my thumb into his windpipe, I closed off his throat. The lycan grabbed at my wrist with both hands, desperate to loosen my grip. With him distracted, I finally pushed him back so that I could roll to my knees.

The second shifter took the opportunity to wrap his arm around my throat as he tried to pull me off his companion. Releasing the first werewolf, I kicked him hard in the chest, sending him back into one of the columns as his companion pulled me away. In surprise, the younger shifter loosened his grip briefly. Grabbing his arm, I threw him into his companion. They crumpled into a heap against the stone column, covered in dirt.

I couldn’t stop the grunt of pain that escaped me as I pushed to my feet again. Too many fights and too few hours of sleep had left me slow and sore. I rubbed my jaw, trying to ignore the headache that was throbbing in at the back of my skull. The two lycanthropes were slowly untangling themselves and getting to their feet.

The older of the two lycanthropes pulled a blade from where it had been held in a sheath attached to his belt. The silver knife flashed as it reflected a fragment of light from the car’s headlights. I reached behind my back and drew my own knife from my lower back and smiled. I had been content to keep this limited to a brief scuffle in the dirt, but if they wanted blood, I’d give it to them.

To my surprise, the other lycanthrope pulled a small gun and held it trained on me. The sight of the gun wavered slightly as the young man’s hand shook. My heartbeat picked up its pace and a cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck as I held my body perfectly still. This fight was taking a turn that I wasn’t expecting.

“Shawn!” Nicolai snapped.

“I’m just making sure that this fight stays fair!” the young man shouted back with a tremble in his voice. “I’ve heard things. Heard he’s got powers. It’s the only way that he could possibly survive going up against Mira. I’m just making sure that he keeps things fair.”

Fair? Two on one was fair? I kept my comments to myself as the older lycanthrope started to circle me to the right, stepping carefully over bits of broken rock and crushed beer cans. I moved within him, struggling to keep my attention fully on the man with the knife and not on the man with the gun.

He lunged at me first, using his amazing speed to his advantage. Instead of jerking backward, I slid to the side with ease, which allowed me to slash the blade along the man’s rib cage. The blade cut though the man’s coat, shirt, and skimmed his skin to give him a minor flesh wound, but it was enough to get his attention. With a growl, he pivoted on his left foot and stabbed at me again, but I was gone from the spot before he could make any kind of contact.

I had been fighting with blades for close to two millennia. They were an extension of my body. He hadn’t a hope in the world of defeating me. I was just hoping that the other man didn’t try to put a bullet in my temple when I finally brought his friend down. I inhaled slowly as the man made his attack and exhaled as my blade slashed across bare skin, taking my opponent down one notch at a time. As I flowed to my right, I stabbed the man in the side, sliding the blade through vital organs for a split second. The man cried out and tumbled to his knees. The blade fell out of his hand as he clutched his side in pain. I had no doubt that he would easily heal from this minor wound with a little time. However, I still had his companion to worry about. This dance of knives was over, quicker than I had anticipated, and now it was time to deal with the man with the gun.

In a flash, I darted behind downed werewolf. Grabbing his short brown hair in one hand, I placed my knife against his Adam’s apple, pressing just deep enough to allow a trickle of blood to slip down his throat. Shawn held the gun with both hands, the weapon shaking violently as it was trained on us.

“Drop the gun or I’ll slash his throat,” I growled. “I haven’t seen Mira. I don’t know where she is.”

“Are you looking for her?” Nicolai asked from his spot by the car. The blond lycanthrope hadn’t moved more than two feet during the entire scuffle. I hadn’t expected him to.

“No,” I said, and then frowned. “I wasn’t, but now it seems as if it is in the best interest of all those involved if I find the nightwalker.”

“Then why are you here?”

“The dead girl.”

“Put the gun away. This has gone too far already,” Nicolai declared. “Go open the doors. Let’s get out of here.”

“Nicolai!” Shawn cried, but he was already lowering the gun. “We’re not done.”

“We’re done,” Nicolai snapped. “He hasn’t seen her.”

“How do you know he’s not lying?”

“He’s not. He had no reason to.” A new wave of power brushed against my back for the first time, the smell of it darker and richer than the other two werewolves. I turned to see Nicolai’s eyes glowing a deeper copper and I tensed. “He hunted Mira and survived. If he had killed her, he would have admitted to it and then killed the three of us for the trouble. We’re done.”

The standoff lasted for only a few heartbeats but it was long enough to tense every sore muscle in my tired body. At last, Shawn dropped the gun on the ground and took two steps backward away from it. I quickly pulled the knife away from the neck of the lycanthrope that I was holding and backpedaled toward the car, leaving the man holding his side and rubbing his neck while he sat on the ground.

There was no doubt in my mind now. Nicolai had been the alpha of his last pack and Mira had forced him into an existing pack. This was not good. No pack was strong enough to hold two alphas. It always resulted in the death of one.

“Get in.” Nicolai’s low voice jerked me from my thoughts. I walked around the car and fell into the front passenger seat as Nicolai slid behind the wheel. Shawn jogged down and opened the steel doors. The older were had yet to move.

Squinting and blinking against the morning light, we rode back toward the city, leaving Nicolai’s fellow pack mates behind. The blond werewolf said nothing as we entered the city and he pulled the car back up to the curb where he had stopped me. By the clock on the dashboard, less than an hour had passed, but I still felt like I had been dragged behind a truck.

“If I find her, I’ll have her call you,” I offered as I grabbed the door handle.

“Just tell her to call Barrett,” he said, his hand rubbing his forehead. His eyes were closed and lines of strain dug furrows in his young face. Hunted by an Ancient vampire and trapped in a pack that already had an alpha. In the end, he wouldn’t be able to hide what he was. I didn’t envy Nicolai.

Wordlessly, I climbed out of the car and started walking back toward the hotel I was staying in. My eyes lingered over the spot where I had seen the girl just before the werewolves had stopped me. She said that there had been nothing like this in Savannah before. Did she already know about the vampires and the lycans? A part of me wanted to go track her down and find out what she knew, but it would be nearly impossible. One small human in a city filled with humans and angry dark creatures.

Shoving my hands into my pockets, I lowered my head against the wind that whipped down the street as I headed back toward the hotel. I didn’t need to look any further—the peace was starting to pull apart at the seams and Mira’s disappearance wasn’t helping. I needed to pry some more information out of James before I could continue.