Wait for Dusk

Chapter Ten

After some discussion, Danaus and I decided we would pursue a small group of naturi hanging on the edge of the city at what turned out to be Szobor Park. I suspected that if anyone knew I was in the city, they would expect me to go straight for the gathering on one of the islands in the Danube River, but I wasn’t willing to step into that trap just yet. It was bad enough that I had willingly walked into whatever trap Macaire had set for me. For now, I was avoiding the bulk of the naturi on the island. I wasn’t sure how we would reach the island just yet, and I feared a trip out on a ferry would put me in the clutches of the water clan once again. My last encounter with the water clan in Savannah nearly cost Danaus his life.

Unfortunately, neither Danaus nor I were familiar with Budapest. The hunter knew a vague location of the group of naturi, but neither of us could give directions or a landmark to taxi driver. As a result, I was forced to dip into Danaus’s mind while he scanned the region for the naturi. At the same time, I was in the mind of the taxi driver, directing him as best as I could toward our ultimate destination. My powers were strained as I struggled to separate the two minds, while leaving enough of the driver conscious so he could effectively operate the car without plowing us into the first semi we passed. I was shaking by the time we reached Szobor Park, the strain making it one of the longest thirty-minute drives of my life.

I had done this trick before with other nightwalkers, touching multiple minds at once with little problem. But then, everything was easier when I was dealing with nightwalkers. The mind of a human was too easy to completely consume. Meanwhile, I had to maintain my own guard against Danaus so he could not see some of my own dark secrets as we were intimately linked together. I didn’t expect the hunter to go wandering around in my mind while we searched for the naturi, but I wasn’t about to leave the door hanging wide open either.

At Szorbor Park, my hands were trembling and my head was throbbing from the strain. I released both Danaus’s and the taxi driver’s minds at the same time, glad to finally be free of them. Slumping back against the seat as Danaus paid the fare, I closed my eyes and drew in a slow cleansing breath. The pain started to ebb and I became aware of the energy steadily flowing from Danaus. It pulsed and brushed against me, a reassuring heat that seeped into my chilled frame. The hunter was continuously scanning the area for the naturi to make sure we weren’t going to be attacked before we even stepped from the car.

“Are they coming?” I pushed into a sitting position as he opened his door.

“Not yet. Feels like they actually moved deeper into the park,” he replied as he slid out.

I followed behind him, unbuttoning my coat as I moved. My weapons were hidden beneath the heavy folds of my leather coat, and I needed to be able to easily access them. “Where are we?” I may have been giving directions to the taxi driver as I pulled them out of Danaus’s brain, but that didn’t mean I had even the slightest clue as to where we finally ended up. I frowned as I looked around the empty expanse. We were on a lonely strip of road, well outside the city proper. We weren’t going to easily find another taxi back to the hotel, assuming that we had little trouble dispatching the naturi. Grabbing my phone, I typed in the phone number for the taxi company written across the side of the car door. If we couldn’t get another taxi, I’d be forced to hotwire a car. Unfortunately, I was trying not to stir up too much trouble in the city just yet. I wanted to meet this Veyron first, and then I would be happy to cause as much trouble as I wanted.

A red brick wall rose up before us with three tall openings. There were two large windows within the wall that housed a pair of enormous stone statues. I walked over to one, squinting in the darkness until I finally made out the cubist vision of Karl Marx’s face. Cocking my head to the side, I took a step back and smiled.

“It’s Statue Park,” I said, talking mostly to myself.

Danaus stood next to me as he looked up at the statue of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. “I don’t know it.”

“It’s also called Memento Park by some.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and walked over to the other statue. I didn’t recognize the face, but it matched some of the Communist themes I had seen in pictures. “I read about this place. About a decade ago the city leaders gathered up all the Communist statues from around the city and placed them together in a single park. Preserving history, but keeping it carefully corralled in a single location so it can’t bleed into the present.”

“So, I’m guessing that we should be careful and try not to damage the statues,” Danaus said.

I smirked at the hunter over my shoulder. “It would be preferable. I don’t expect that the city will be able to easily replace anything that we break tonight, and I’d hate to be responsible for destroying this interesting bit of history.”

Taking a couple steps backward, I crouched on the balls of my feet for a second before taking a running leap into the air. It was with a sigh of relief that I easily landed on the top of the red brick wall despite the coating of snow and ice. Squatting down, I stared out at the broad swath of level ground that sparkled in the snow before me. Apparently the park was closed during the winter, because no one had bothered to shovel the snow from the walkways. However, I could still make out the outline of six large circles in the earth around a larger central circle. There were no trees in the park to hide behind, but I could easily make out more than three dozen statues. And somewhere in there, five naturi were hiding. I could feel the pulse of their energy, but it almost seemed blurry, as if their powers were obscured by the energy coming from the earth.

I, on the other hand, stood out on the wall, my hunched body outlined by the moonlight. Let the naturi know I was coming for them. With any luck, my appearance and active hunting of the naturi would finally draw out Aurora, or maybe even Rowe. I was ready to remove the head from either one.

“Let’s go,” I said as I took a step off the wall. I landed easily, my knees flexing under the impact. My left heel slipped slightly as I hit the snow but I kept my balance. Meanwhile, Danaus took the time to pick the lock at the front gate. A loud squeal resounded through the frozen wasteland as he pushed it open. I flinched at the sound, glaring at him over my shoulder. I wasn’t exactly trying to be sneaky, but at the same time, I wasn’t trying to wake the dead either.

“Where are they?” I asked when the hunter was finally standing beside me.

“Toward the back of the park, holding very still.”

“Blending in with the statues, I’m sure.” Reaching inside my coat, I pulled a short blade from where it was strapped to my waist. A second blade was removed from where it hung at my hip. “You take the right and I’ll take the left. We’ll meet at the back of the park.”

“Shall we make this interesting?” Danaus inquired as he also pulled a blade.

I arched one brow at him and lowered my weapons. “Fighting the naturi isn’t already interesting?”

“Most kills wins.”

“First to use his or her powers automatically loses,” I added with a grin. Danaus nodded, one corner of his mouth lifting. “And my prize?” This caused Danaus to pause, his newborn smile slipping from his face.

“What do you want?”

My smile only grew, but I knew better than to ask for anything really interesting. He’d never agree to it and our fun would be lost. However, I still had to go for something that might make him sweat just a little bit so it would be a real competition. “A favor.”

“You want a favor?” he repeated.

“Yes, I want the right to hold a favor in reserve with you.”

Danaus stared at me in silence, weighing the danger of owing me a favor. At the time, I knew he was considering the odds of whether I would actually beat him in a race to hunt down the five naturi. He would need only three to beat me. This was going to be a close thing no matter what was at stake.

“I’d like the same prize should I win,” he finally said, surprising me.

“All right,” I agreed slowly. I hadn’t considered the chance of him actually requesting the same thing. Of course, what was the danger? The bastard could control me if he truly wanted to, and it wasn’t like he could ask me not to feed. It was both too dangerous for those around me and just generally impossible if I really needed to feed.

With the contest settled, Danaus headed off to the right, quickly becoming little more than a hulking shadow in the darkness. His crunching footsteps echoed through the silent night, announcing his approach. Meanwhile, I moved soundlessly through the darkness, weapons drawn. Large shadows rose up around me, cast by the moonlight glazing the various statues and random bits of brick wall that worked to section off the park.

I paused as I passed the first circle to my left, and fanned out my senses so I could try to pick out the naturi. Their energy danced in the air, but it was all hazy and unfocused. Confident that I hadn’t left a naturi at my back and they were all still in front of me, I edged around a small brick wall and entered the second connecting circle.

“Why have you come here, bloodsucker?” called a voice out of the darkness. It sounded like it had come from the far edge of the park. It was an easy target for me to home in on, but I knew that the other four naturi stood between me and the speaker. They weren’t about to make it that easy for me.

“Looking for you.” The cold, silent air carried my words across the distance. “And hoping to find Rowe.”

“The traitor is not here.”

“If you go find him for me and bring him here, I might consider letting you live,” I taunted as I edged away from the wall. Tightening my grip on the blades, I moved across the second circle, allowing me to put some distance between the statues and myself. The approach left me exposed and vulnerable, but then I wasn’t the type to hide and wait for my prey to come to me.

“We want nothing to do with that traitor.” The voice laughed, the sound bouncing around the park. “Besides, we outnumber you. You’re the one that should be pleading for our mercy.”

“Never again,” I muttered under my breath. I had begged for mercy at Machu Picchu when I was tortured as a fledgling. I had pleaded for them to kill me and release me from the overwhelming pain. I would never beg for anything from the naturi again.

My only warning was the soft ping of a taut bowstring being released. I spun around, dropping to my left knee, but I reacted too slowly. The poison-tipped naturi dart embedded itself in my left shoulder blade. Pain screamed down by arm, causing my hand to open. My knife fell to the snow with a muffled thud. I swallowed a cry, gritting my teeth to hold it in. My left arm was useless as I waited for the poison to finally run its course through my body.

Raising my right arm, I blocked the blow aimed to remove my head. A brief flash of sparks from the impact with my short sword lit up the night. My opponent looked to be a teenager with his fresh face covered in a sprinkling of freckles and his unkempt, windblown brown hair standing on end. But looks could be deceiving. This creature was likely older than I was, with ample battle experience.

As he lifted his sword over his head for another blow, I aimed my own sword for his stomach, hoping to disembowel him. He was fast. He shifted his stance, easily blocking my thrust. I needed to finish him quickly. I was trapped on my knees and there were four more of them running around the park.

The naturi looked over my shoulder for a split second as he moved to slash at me again.

“Shit,” I hissed. Dropping my left shoulder, I rolled away from my opponent and the naturi that had come up behind me. As I moved, I scooped up the knife I had dropped with my left hand. While I’d regained the ability to use that hand, it was still weak. I wouldn’t be able to block with it and my aim would be miserable if I attempted to throw anything.

Unfortunately, rolling to my feet caused the dart in my shoulder to dig deeper, sending a fresh wave of pain through my body. I swayed once on my feet before the pain finally ebbed a bit. Blinking once, my gaze focused on the three naturi arrayed before me. At the same time, a pair of gunshots shattered the night, bringing a frown to my lips.

That’s one, Danaus said, touching my mind. The hunter had taken the lead by making the first kill. However, with three naturi before me and a fourth lurking somewhere in the darkness, my main concern was not about winning our little contest, but surviving it. Of course, I wasn’t about to admit to the hunter that I was in trouble.

The naturi that had attacked me earlier moved in again, while one of his companions also swung his blade. In a flash of silver glinting off the moonlight, I blocked both slashing blows, causing the two naturi to take a step backward. Clenching my teeth, a soft grunt escaped me as I threw the knife as hard as I could at the naturi that had yet to attack me. However, my left hand still lacked both speed and accuracy. The naturi easily deflected the knife, sending it spinning off into the night.

A pair of shots rang out as Danaus pursued the other naturi that had yet to appear at my back as I’d expected. That left three standing before me.

That’s two, Danaus kindly informed me.

I swallowed a snide reply, cursing myself for not taking the time to pack my Browning. I still didn’t like guns and avoided carrying them whenever possible.

“Two of your companions have been killed. This is your last chance to escape before you lose your lives as well,” I said.

“A chance to kill the Fire Starter is worth any risk,” one of the naturi said, bringing a frown to my lips. I had yet to use my gift and still they recognized me. I wasn’t ready to be considered enemy number one among the naturi.

“Besides, we have you outnumbered. You haven’t a chance,” said another naturi.

“Not for long,” I growled. Grabbing another knife off my leg with my left hand, I swung around at the opponent on my left. He blocked the sword aimed at his chest but wasn’t fast enough to stop the knife I buried in his lower abdomen. Unfortunately, my back was left open. Pain screamed through my body as another naturi stabbed me in the back. I moaned as I jerked the knife loose from the naturi’s stomach. Stretching around, I stabbed the other naturi in the thigh, but the move drove the sword deeper into my back.

The naturi pulled the sword from my back, bringing a gush of blood from my body. Wildly swinging my short sword, the naturi took a cautious step backward, giving me more space before they once again moved in for the kill. Danaus was coming toward me, but I had a feeling he wasn’t going to make it in time. Blood was pouring out of me and I was growing weaker by the second.

Desperate and trapped, I needed to take them out as quickly as possible, but we had agreed not to use our powers. Unfortunately, I needed to start using Danaus’s power if I was going to escape Nick’s wrath.

Stepping backward, I drew in a deep breath and held it as I pushed down the pain threatening to overwhelm me. I reached out into the air with my mind, pulling the energy that was radiating from Danaus toward me. He wasn’t going to like this at all.

With the energy balled up in my hands, I threw it at the three naturi standing before me. I had to wait only a second before they stumbled back, screaming and clawing at their skin. At the same time, Danaus cried out, his grunt of unexpected pain echoing across the open park.

Mira! he called, but I ignored it. I focused the energy on my enemies, cooking them from the inside out. The energy didn’t fill me the same way as when Danaus was controlling me. I could feel it flowing out of the hunter and directly into the naturi before me. Danaus groaned, but it wasn’t a sound of pain, but of release. Over the blossoming anger and frustration coming from him, I could sense an underlying feeling of joy and pleasure. It was as if the use of this power provided him with a growing sense of relief. Regardless of what he felt, I knew that Danaus was going to strangle me when I finally released my control over him.

The trio of naturi dropped their weapons and fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Their skin blacked and finally cracked, allowing the boiling blood to ooze out. The screams were finally reduced to choked, gurgling cries of pain before they were silenced permanently.

With a wave of my hand, I released my hold on Danaus, cutting off the power that flowed to the bodies of the naturi. The hunter’s heavy breathing was the only sound that carried across the park besides the sound of the wind. Slowly, I turned to face Danaus when the sound of clapping drew my attention back toward the three naturi. A tall figure walked out of the darkness, a pair of black wings extending from his back as if he were part bat. Rowe.

The one-eyed naturi had haunted me for months, his memory chasing after me no matter where I went or what I did. He had aided Nerian in torturing me when I was first captured by the naturi more than five centuries ago. He tried to kidnap me when I was in London with Danaus only a few months ago. He fought me on Crete yet again when he broke the seal that bound the naturi in their world. Onetime consort of the queen of the naturi, he focused all of his energy on freeing his people. Now he was banished, an outcast, because he was twisting earth magic with blood magic—an act forbidden by the naturi.

“Rowe,” I snarled, tightening my grip on my sword as I stepped over the bodies of the dead naturi to close the distance between us. “I expected you sooner.”

“Healed from our last meeting?” he asked, pulling a sword from his waist as he folded his wings against his body. I swallowed back a growl that rose up in my chest. The last time I encountered the naturi, he had shoved a knife deep into my back while I stabbed his wife-queen in the chest at Machu Picchu. I barely survived, but at least Aurora had barely survived the meeting as well.

“What do you want with Budapest?” I demanded when I finally had control of my temper. “Has Aurora come to roost here, and you’re clinging to the hem of her dress, hoping for a reprieve?”

“I want nothing from Budapest. My few followers contacted me the second they discovered that you were lurking in the region. I’m more than happy to grab you and hand you over to Aurora. I have no doubt that she would be pleased to have you again after the damage you wrought in Peru,” he said with an ugly sneer.

“Buying your way back into her good graces?” My laugh sounded forced and uneven as I struggled to focus over the pain in my back. “She’s not going to take you back. You’ve dealt in blood magic, scarred your body, lost your golden glow. You’re not one of them now. Never will be!”

“She may never take me back, but I promise that you won’t survive my attempts to return to my people.” He lunged at me, sword pointed at my chest.

I stumbled a step backward, knocking his sword away with my short sword. Pain twisted in my back as I moved, threatening to swamp me. My body was healing, but too slowly for my liking, particularly while I was facing Rowe. Unfortunately, I doubted that Danaus was willing to back me up after everything that I had just put him through. Yet at the same time, I couldn’t summon up the guilt I felt that I should. The hunter had controlled me in the past to save both of our necks. How was what I had done any different?

As my footing grew firmer, I matched Rowe blow for blow with the sword, looking for an opportunity to finally relieve him of his head or his heart. The naturi was too dangerous to be left alive. He wanted to kidnap me yet again, and I would not fall back into the hands of the naturi.

Rowe smiled at me despite the fact that I was pushing him backward a step for every step that I took forward. The evil grin was enough to stop me in my tracks. I couldn’t take the time to try to scan the region for more naturi, as the distraction would leave me vulnerable to attack from him. I stopped walking forward, darting my eyes from left to right, but saw no one besides my opponent.

“Where is Cynnia?” he demanded, surprising me. I hadn’t seen the naturi princess since we left Peru, and in truth, I didn’t expect to ever see her again. I tended to kill first and ask questions later when it came to the naturi, regardless of their allegiance to Cynnia or Aurora.

“I haven’t seen her.”

“Don’t try to protect her. She needs to be killed for her betrayal of the crown,” Rowe said, his smile slipping from his face.

“Even if the crown tried to kill her. She doesn’t have the right to protect herself from her own sister?”

“Not if her sister is the queen. Aurora passed judgment on her. She needs to face her fate, and you need to stop protecting her.”

I didn’t like this. Did the naturi actually think I was protecting the rogue princess because I had stood by her earlier at Machu Picchu? The little rugrat had used me for protection. After the battle at Machu Picchu, she took those that were willing to follow her and disappeared into the coming dawn. I hadn’t heard from her, and I prayed I never would.

“I don’t know where she is. I wouldn’t protect her. She’s on her own now. Besides, Nyx seemed fully capable of protecting her little sister. Maybe you should go looking for them instead of harassing me. Hand them over to your ex-wife.”

“I will find them,” Rowe stated, the tip of his sword wavering in his growing anger.

“Fine. Just keep me out of it. I don’t want to be a part of your war,” I responded, my own grip tightening on my sword.

“You are a part of our war now. Aurora wants you and her sisters dead. I will deliver that to her.”

The sound of footsteps crunching across the snow caused me to draw my last remaining knife from my side and clench it in my fist. However, a part of me relaxed almost as quickly as I recognized the cadence of the footsteps. Danaus was drawing near. The hunter might not be happy with me, but he wouldn’t knife me in the back while I faced off against Rowe. He would at least wait until he was standing in front of me.

“Get out of here, naturi!” Danaus growled. “You’re outnumbered and we could kill you with a thought. Get out of Budapest. We’ll hunt you down another night.”

Rowe cocked his head to the side, his eyes flitting between Danaus and me before his mocking smile returned. In the same second, he threw out his wings and caught the wind that was sweeping over the land. He took to the air, disappearing in the thick black of night. I stared up at the sky for several seconds, waiting to see if the sky grew heavy with clouds, signaling that the naturi was calling up a thunderstorm. But it remained clear, sparkling with starlight.

As I lowered my head, Danaus roughly grabbed my arm and slammed me into a nearby brick wall. Pain exploded in my back as my wound hit the wall a second before the back of my head smacked into the red brick.

“What the hell—” I started, but swallowed the words when I looked at his face, twisted with rage. I stiffened and raised my chin as I prepared for this fight. The hunter had been content to let Rowe go because he was determined to take a pound of flesh out of me.

“What the fuck do you think you were doing?” Danaus demanded, stunning me. Such foul language was definitely out of character for the hunter, but then I had left him more than a little pissed by controlling him earlier.

I shoved the knife I was holding back in its sheath at my side, but kept the short sword in my hand. I didn’t think I would need it but didn’t quite feel comfortable being unarmed around Danaus. “Killing naturi,” I said tartly. “The deal was that we couldn’t use our own powers. Nothing was said about using each other’s powers.”

“You used me!” he shouted, making me press closer against the wall.

A hollow ache radiated from my back, but it was nothing compared to the ache that suddenly began to fill the empty void in my chest. Guilt and horror had finally begun to set in. I had hated Jabari and Danaus every time they controlled me, taking away my right to choose. I hated being little more than a marionette for their enjoyment. And then I’d done the same thing to Danaus. I could make whatever excuses I wanted to make, but it didn’t get around the fact that I’d done the one thing I hated more than anything else in this world. I had used him to save my own skin. And sadly, I knew I would do it again in order to escape Nick’s reach.

“Now you know what it’s like to be treated like a puppet on a string,” I said in a low voice. “Now you know what it’s like to have all your choices taken away.”

“Is that what this is about? Getting even?” Danaus said, some of the anger draining from his tone.

“No, I—” I started, but stopped abruptly, swallowing the words that fluttered through my mind. I wanted to apologize, but had never received words of apology from either Danaus or Jabari. Neither ever had a doubt about what they were doing to me. They had their reasons, and at the time, they always seemed like good reasons.

“You had no choice,” Danaus said, deepening the frown on my lips. I had a choice. I could have used my own powers to destroy the naturi. I could have cried for help, allowing Danaus to make the choice to use his powers to save me. I could have said no to Nick and faced my fate. I could have let the naturi kill me. I had choices. I just made the selfish one.

“I was trapped. I couldn’t beat them. I should have asked you for help. I made the wrong choice and I’m sorry,” I said, letting my eyes fall shut. I took a deep breath and shook my head as if to clear it. “But I have to learn to control your powers. If I don’t, Nick will grab me. He’s going to make me human again.”

Danaus reached up and brushed a loose hair from where it had blown across my cheek. “Being human again wouldn’t be so bad.”

I jerked away from his touch and scowled at him. “I won’t go back to being human. Not to please you or Nick. I’m a nightwalker and that’s how I plan to stay, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“I don’t want you to change,” Danaus said.

“I’d be fool if I didn’t know you’d prefer me to be human.”

“Anything other than nightwalker might be easier to accept,” he admitted. But in the next second he completely stunned me when he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.

It was a short kiss, a gentle brushing of the lips that warmed me down to my toes. When he pulled back, I was still speechless.

“Of course, I’m learning there are some advantages to seeing a nightwalker,” he continued.

“Such as?”

“You’re more durable that other women I’ve known. You’ve certainly lasted the longest.”

A snort escaped me as I failed to stop the amused smile that formed. “I had no idea you had such a gift for flattery.”

Pushing off the wall, I walked away from the hunter with my head bowed as I headed for the entrance to the park.

“You owe me a favor,” I muttered under my breath.

“What?”

“The bet. I won. I killed three naturi with your powers, not mine. I won. You owe me a favor,” I said, not bothering to look up at him.

“If you think I’m going to deliver on that bet, you’re insane. You used me!” he snapped.

“I’m sorry about that.”

Danaus dropped into silence as he walked beside me back to the main gates that barred the entrance into the park during the nighttime hours. I glanced over my right shoulder to find him watching me with the corners of his mouth pulled down in a frown. His shoulders were slumped and his hands dangled empty at his sides. We both seemed more than a little beaten despite what proved to be a relatively easy fight. It should never have gotten so out of control, but it was for the best. If I didn’t find a way to adequately control Danaus’s powers, Nick was going to make me human again. It was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.

Danaus’s voice was a dark rumble that swept around me. “Promise me that you’re never going to do that again.”

Pulling my cell phone out of my pocket, I looked up at him as we exited through the large wrought-iron gates. “I’ll make that promise the day you can do the same for me.”

A frown marred the hunter’s lips and pulled his eyebrows together over the bridge of his straight Roman nose. His beautiful blues eyes sparkled in the moonlight as anger once again filled his frame. He knew he would not get a promise out of me because he couldn’t make the same promise in return. With the naturi surrounding us and the coven trying to kill us at every turn, he couldn’t relinquish control of his most powerful weapon. He was trapped in my world now, and he wouldn’t give up his control over me until one of us was finally dead.