Wait for Dusk

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The silence was suffocating. I stared up the lonely street interspersed with trees gnarled and twisted by time. Without the presence of the naturi, the wind had gone still, leaving the tree branches standing like silent sentinels in the thick darkness. A fresh powder of snow coated the ground, struggling to glisten in the thin light that poured from the moon as it peeked from behind massive clouds.

The earth was holding its breath, waiting for the outcome of yet another battle. But then so was I. Each time I walked into a fight, I weighed the strengths and weaknesses of my opponents. I weighed the strengths and weaknesses of my allies. I played the odds in my head, and too often I came up as the long shot. It was getting old.

Among my kind, being the Fire Starter meant something. With a thought and a casual wave of my hand, I could wipe out an army of nightwalkers. When I faced the naturi, they needed to bring forth only a light clan member to counter my unique ability. A bori merely needed to extend its powers and I was under its immediate control. And a warlock . . . a warlock could counter my powers with a quick spell, leaving me nothing more than another bloodsucker with an attitude problem. In this fight, Valerio and Stefan had the true advantage, with their ability to appear and disappear at will. Sure, the power took its toll on their strength, but the battle wouldn’t last more than a few minutes before one side was decimated.

Despite my place on the coven, it only made sense that I go in as bait. I was the ultimate target of Veyron and the others, at Macaire’s request. I was also the youngest and the weakest of our quartet. Danaus was not thrilled with the decision, but he said nothing when Stefan took me to the end of Veyron’s street and left me. I could feel Danaus as a ghost in my thoughts, along with Valerio. Both men were waiting for the first sign from me that it was time for them to appear.

My footsteps echoed off the concrete, the sound bouncing off the flat front of the homes and flying off into the nothingness. I resisted the urge to nervously check all my weapons once again. I was well-armed with a short sword across my back and an assortment of knives around my body. To Danaus’s dismay, I didn’t bring a gun with me. Guns were ineffective against nightwalkers, and I didn’t think Clarion would allow me to catch him off guard with a spray of bullets.

In truth, I wasn’t sure how we were going to kill Clarion. We would try to stop him if he decided to flee, but I wasn’t sure if Valerio and Stefan could follow him if he did. I wasn’t sure what the warlock was capable of, but I had a feeling he could cast some of the most basic shield spells to block our weapons and attacks. My only hope was that he didn’t know how to control fire, but I wasn’t counting on it. If Clarion was going to survive this ordeal, he would have taken the time to learn how to manipulate fire.

I paused at the edge of Veyron’s yard and sent my powers flowing out from my body so they swept over the ancient structure. A single candle burned in the front window, while the rest of the massive house was dark. Inside, I sensed close to a dozen nightwalkers and a handful of humans. These humans would be heavily armed with guns that could blow apart the brain. That was the only way to kill a nightwalker with a gun—destroy the brain or heart so completely that it couldn’t grow back. I would need to take out these humans before Danaus and the others stepped foot in the building.

Within their midst was a single powerful magic user. It would be Clarion, who was waiting for us. I could sense him over the aged Veyron and his companion Odelia. Clarion was the true danger here, not the nightwalkers or the humans with their weapons. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to defeat him.

I raised both of my hands out to my sides. Summoning up my powers, I directed them at the house, attempting to set the building on fire. It would have been easy if I could just burn the entire structure and everyone inside all at once. It would all be done in one quick and easy move, and I wouldn’t have to worry about putting my companions in danger. But nothing is ever easy.

Electric energy filled the air around the house, sizzling like a lightning bolt looking for a metal pole. The energy dampened my own powers, keeping me from burning the house to the ground. I wasn’t particularly surprised. It was a simple spell, one I had known for centuries and used in Peru to protect us from the naturi while we slept at the foot of the Machu Picchu ruins. I knew Clarion wasn’t going to make it easy for me, but I had to at least try.

Dropping my hands back to my side, I could feel Valerio chuckling in the back of my brain as I walked toward the house. He could read my thoughts, hear as I cursed the warlock for making this more difficult than it truly had to be. But those fragments of laughter quickly grew still as I stepped to the front door and pushed it open easily.

Darkness waited for me as I stepped across the threshold. Leaves and snow had blown into the open doorway, as if the house had been abandoned for years instead of just a few hours. Standing in the hallway, I waved my right hand, sending my power out, seeking candles, but no lights sprang to life. With a low hiss, I summoned up my powers again, this time attempting a small fireball that would hover just in front of me. Again nothing happened. Not only had Clarion cast a protective spell on the house itself, but he had found a way to dampen all fire. My ability was useless as long as the warlock lived.

Dropping my hand back to my side, I clenched my teeth and continued to walk through the house, weaving through room after room. The furniture was overturned and valuable knickknacks and paintings were now missing. The house had been ransacked in anticipation of my arrival. My guess was that Veyron was expecting to live through this fight but didn’t believe that his residence would survive. He was planning ahead, but he wasn’t planning well. If he was truly smart, he would have run and never shown his face in Europe again.

As I turned a corner to go through what appeared to be the dining room, gunfire opened up. Running across the hardwood floor, I dropped to my knees as I turned, sliding across the floor as I pulled a pair of knives from my side. Despite the heavy darkness in the room, I picked out my two assailants and flung my knives at them. One screamed as the knife buried up to the hilt in his arm, while the other man simply gurgled as the blade found his throat. He fell back, choking on his own blood, while the other man stumbled backward. He pressed his wounded arm to his stomach as he tried to awkwardly fire the gun with his left hand. He squeezed off several shots with the automatic weapon, sending two bullets clean through me before I finally reached him and snapped his neck.

Are you all right? Danaus instantly demanded as pain flashed through my frame.

Fine, I growled in return. My shoulder and leg burned but I could feel the holes already closing. I wouldn’t lose much blood, and the pain was only a minor distraction. Bending down, I pulled the knives out of my two victims and wiped them off on their clothes before returning them to their sheaths.

The house was as quiet as a mausoleum now that the gunfire had stopped. I went completely still, straining to hear something. Above me, I heard the ever so faint creak of floorboards under the weight of heavy boots. There was the occasional deep breath and the slight sound of rapid heartbeats pounding away in anticipation. I sent my powers out from my body again. The humans were on the top floors, while the nightwalkers were in the basement. Clarion was completely missing. I could only guess that he was cloaking himself, but I had no doubt he was waiting for me in the basement with Veyron.

If I went directly after my prey, I would have a horde of humans with automatic weapons at my back. I needed to clear out the upper floor first before I went after Veyron and the others. Of course, I didn’t trust this setup at all. I knew that Veyron, Odelia, and Clarion cared nothing about sacrificing a few humans if it meant destroying me.

I relayed my plan to Valerio and Danaus, and neither of the two men liked it. They demanded that they be allowed to assist me, but I told them to hold back. If I could pick off each human without risking more lives than necessary, then I planned to proceed in that manner. They would be taking on enough risk when they went up against Clarion.

Save Odelia for me, Stefan demanded, surprising me. I had not felt his presence in my mind, but then I hadn’t been looking for him. Stefan abhorred my touch, and I had no doubt that he thought he was lowering himself to contact me in such a way, but at the moment it was a necessary evil.

I’ll see what I can do .

Take a gun, Mira, Danaus ordered as I started to pass by the bodies.

I swallowed my argument and picked up an ugly black weapon. I didn’t know how to load this monster and I could only hope that it didn’t have a safety that I needed to flick off. I just wanted to be able to pull the trigger and have the thing send out a spray of bullets at my enemies, but I wasn’t going to rely on it. I didn’t like guns. Too unreliable and too noisy. Knives were so much more personal.

Heading back to the front of the house, I paused at the foot of the stairs. The second floor was open and overlooked the main foyer. I felt too exposed standing there, and knew I would be pinned against the wall as I climbed to the second floor. Looking around, I spotted an ornate chandelier directly overhead. With a smile, I leapt straight up into the air and grabbed a bottom section of the light fixture. There was a slight groan but the chandelier held. I swung back and forth a couple times like a circus performer on the trapeze before releasing myself. My left foot slipped on the edge of the second floor but my right foot held, allowing me to catch the railing.

As I climbed over the railing, gunfire shattered the silence and lit the darkness. Crouched on one knee, I swiveled from left to right, firing back at the men trained on me. Bullets pockmarked the walls and the wood railing around me. I was hit a couple more times but not before I managed to kill the three men that surrounded me with the automatic weapon.

Sitting on the floor, I clutched the gun to my chest while waiting for my body to heal. I was tempted to feed off one of my still dying opponents but decided against it. There was nothing worse than being interrupted in the middle of a meal. I gazed down at the gun in my hand and frowned.

I told y—

Shut up, Danaus. I had no doubt that the hunter had been waiting months to utter those words, and this time he was right. In a firefight with humans, guns were effective against guns. Well, at least they were effective when I couldn’t set them on fire.

Do you need us? Valerio inquired. I wasn’t accustomed to having so many people running willy-nilly though my brain. I was tempted to throw up some barriers and block them all out so I could concentrate but decided against it. They might be needed in an instant, and it was easier to contact them if they were already waiting in the wings of my mind.

Not yet. I sense only two more humans in the house. Let me clean them out and then you can come, I said, forcing myself to calm down and relax. The first stage was nearly complete.

Rising off the floor with ease only a vampire could show, I silently walked down the hall to my right. I eased past one open doorway after another, peering into the vast darkness to see the vague outline of a large bed and what were probably ornate bureaus. Nothing moved.

At the end of the hall was a pair of double doors, with one of them cracked slightly open. I could feel the two humans huddled in the far corner of what seemed to be a large room. With the gun tucked into my shoulder, I eased the door open, its creak echoing through the entire house. Before I took my first step into the room, thirty guns clicked in unison. Shit.

Get here now! I screamed at my companions as I dove across the hall and into an empty room. Bullets ripped through the double doors and pounded through drywall and timber. A trio of bullets scraped across my flesh in various locations, leaving a burning sensation behind. I clenched my teeth and pulled myself into a sitting position as Stefan, Valerio, and Danaus appeared next to me. Danaus knelt beside me, inspecting the latest laceration on my arm. The bleeding was slowing, helped by his constant pressure.

“There’s a few more of them than I could initially sense,” I said between clenched teeth.

“How many is a few?” Valerio asked.

I pushed to my feet with Danaus’s help. “About thirty. Must be a freaking ballroom to fit them all.” After handing the automatic weapon over to Danaus, I withdrew a pair of blades. I felt more at ease with the silver knives in my hands, as if I had regained a part of me.

“Kill her!” screamed a female voice from the other room.

“Oh, and apparently they’ve sent Odelia on ahead to deal with me,” I said with a smile as I gazed up at Stefan. “Please don’t kill her right away. I would like to try to get a little information out of her.”

“I can’t make any promises,” Stefan replied with a bow of his head to me.

I smiled sweetly at him, trying to get under his skin. “Please.”

Neither he nor Valerio said anything as they disappeared again. They would attack the room from behind, but first we had to get their full attention.

“Shall we go serve as live bait?” I asked, turning to Danaus.

“You put a lot of faith in your friends,” he said.

My smile crumpled, but I raised my chin and met his gaze. “Yes, I do.” Valerio and Stefan had ample opportunity to easily kill both Danaus and me. We were going to walk in front of this firing squad, dependent on them to strike from behind and save our lives. A moment’s hesitation and Macaire would get his wish. Danaus and I would be ripped to shreds by the barrage of bullets, making it easy for Odelia to walk up and claim our hearts. At that moment, I was putting a lot of faith and trust in Stefan. It was more than a little unnerving.

Taking a deep, cleansing breath, I shoved the air out of my lungs as I stepped back into the hallway and kicked the doors open. Danaus stood beside me and emptied the last of the bullets from the automatic weapon as the humans facing us took aim. Muscles clenched, I scanned the room for an easy target while counting the milliseconds until Valerio and Stefan reappeared. It felt like an eternity.

Screams echoed from the back of the room, followed by the crunching of broken bones and the heavy thud of a limp body hitting hardwood floor. They came. Bullets still flew in my direction, but the concentration was not as thick as they should have been. Danaus partially hid behind the door and picked off attackers with his handgun, while I launched myself into the room, killing whomever I came into contact with.

Silver blades streaked red flashed in the pale streams of moonlight that danced through the windows filling three walls of the large room. Men fell to their knees, throats cut, intestines spilling from their stomachs. Bullets punctured me from all sides, but the wounds were largely superficial. I was moving too fast for them to get a clear shot, and we had them trapped in the room. Surrounded on all sides, there was nowhere to go and no room for mercy.

The entire battle was over in less than three minutes, but the devastation was massive. Bodies were flung and piled around the large empty room, while blood pooled in the cracks of the hardwood floors and soaked into the few carpets. When silence filled the room again, I turned to find Stefan leaning over Odelia, his fangs exposed and dripping blood. He had not killed her yet, at my request, but he wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

Odelia was a bloody mess. Her face had a series of three long scratches across the front, and the way her left arm hung at her side made me think that her shoulder had been dislocated. Her dark hair was a matted mess of blood and knots from her struggle with Stefan. Long tears marred her clothes, revealing more wounds. She sat with her back pressed into a corner, her fangs bared as she tried to ward Stefan off, but she wasn’t winning that battle.

“My dear Odelia,” I purred as I walked over to her side. I slowly placed a hand on Stefan’s shoulder and squeezed. The nightwalker drew in a slow breath through his nose as he straightened and put his fangs away. He was back in control of his emotions again. “It seems that Veyron and Clarion have abandoned you to your fate. Sacrificed like poor Ferko and Sofia. Did you know you were so expendable?”

“I’m not! Veyron will come for me! Just wait!” she cried even as she pressed deeper into the corner.

I laughed, twirling one blade in my hand. “Oh, I’m afraid it is far too late for that. I’m just looking for a little information before we kill you.”

“And why should I tell you anything?” Her voice cracked as she spoke. I think she was beginning to realize that Veyron wasn’t going to come riding to her rescue. Otherwise, he would have done so already. He would not have set her up against the Fire Starter and two Ancients with only a group of humans and guns.

I shrugged my shoulders as I kicked away a severed limb sitting near my foot. “It determines your death. You cooperate and you die quickly and painlessly. You don’t, and . . . well, we can be creative.” Stefan glared at me but said nothing. This had not been a part of our agreement, and I wasn’t counting on him abiding by my wishes at just this moment.

“Did Macaire approach Veyron?” I demanded.

“Macaire came to Budapest months ago,” she said, her eyes darting away from me.

“What did he want?”

“How should I know? I’m not the keeper of Budapest,” she replied sarcastically.

I sighed dramatically. “Stefan.”

Stefan moved forward to grab her and she screamed, “He wanted you dead! He wanted you dead!”

“Anything else?”

“You and the human. He wanted you both dead, no matter what it took. We were to do whatever it took to kill you both. It didn’t matter who got caught in the cross fire,” she admitted between broken sobs. She covered her face with her right hand as tears streaked down her bloodstained face.

“And Michelle?”

“Wh-Who?” she asked.

“Michelle. Vamp you had killed,” I supplied. The edge retuned to my voice and I was about to hand her over to Stefan when she finally spoke.

“She didn’t belong here. She had no business being in Budapest.”

“No business?”

“She wasn’t welcome here—we have enough pretty female nightwalkers in Budapest. There was no room for more.”

“So you had her killed? How many others have been killed for that reason?”

“Dozens,” she said, looking up at me with a confused expression.

I shook my head as I turned away from her in disgust. I had heard of hunting and toying with fledglings, but even that practice seemed to be dying out. However, I had never heard of nightwalkers being killed because there was simply no room in a city for another attractive nightwalker. Ferko was right. Odelia had been jealous and ordered Michelle’s death because she was threatened by the potential competition.

I merely had to wave my hand and Stefan was on Odelia in a flash as I walked back toward the double doors. Her bloodcurdling screams echoed through the room until they vibrated through my brain and rattled my teeth. The tearing of flesh and the breaking of bones was sickening, but in truth I hardly noticed. Those sounds had been background noises from my nightwalker childhood. They couldn’t move me now.

Danaus frowned as he looked at me, purposefully keeping his gaze from Stefan and his work. “Wouldn’t it be more painful to stake her out in the sun?” he inquired.

“She’s asleep as soon as the sun rises. She would never feel a thing. Your idea is a slow death, but it’s also very merciful. Stefan is quick and messy, but she dies in pain, which is what he wants.”

After a couple seconds Stefan walked over, dripping Odelia’s blood, a rare smile on his face. He might have lost an assistant that was important to him, but he had personally destroyed both of her killers with his bare hands. He couldn’t ask for better justice. And in both instances, Ferko and Odelia had been my gifts. Stefan would now be more willing to fight at my side for the rest of the evening. At least, I hoped it worked that way.

“Veyron and the warlock?” he asked, pleasing me. Apparently he had a taste for blood this evening and was ready to get his fill.

“They are waiting in the basement,” I said with a frown. “The entrance is single file down a set of wooden stairs. If we head down in a line, they will be able to easily kill us all. Let me go down first and scout it out so you can appear in their midst.”

“Like we did up here,” Valerio said, and I nodded.

“You’re doing quite well in your role as bait,” Stefan teased.

I was doing quite well as bait, but I wasn’t enjoying it. In fact, I was downright terrified by the idea of heading down into a basement full of nightwalkers and a warlock without my powers. If my companions hesitated, I was staked. Sensing my unease, Danaus placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. At least he would not let me die without a fight. I just hoped that the others felt the same way.