Wait for Dusk

Chapter Two

Valerio found me sitting in the middle of my destroyed library, my eyes locked on the hourglass as I tried to will the sand to stop falling. My thoughts were a shattered wreck and I was left bobbing in the middle of the black sea, clinging to the one thing that I had been sure was impossible: Nick could turn me human again.

After centuries of being a nightwalker, of endless nights of blood and violence, it was the one place where I felt I belonged. I was hated and feared by most of my kind, I had allies that would rather see me staked, but being a nightwalker was all I knew. It was home, and I couldn’t go back now.

But my heart beat and blood rushed through my veins, if only for a moment. My lungs had burned until I took that first gasp of air, refilling them completely for the first time in far too many years. Worse still, my soul had been fully anchored within my frame as if it had settled back down in the hole that was now the home to the monster that craved the blood I fed on so frequently. For a flicker in time I’d been human again, and all I had felt was terror.

“Mira?” Valerio whispered, glass crunching under the hard soles of his dress shoes as he stepped into the room. He had magically appeared, streaking across the vast distance from Venice to Savannah. And for the first time in my existence, I had sensed the swell of power before he appeared and knew exactly who it was. Nick had truly awakened something within me.

Kneeling beside me, he slowly placed one hand on my shoulder, causing me to flinch. “Mira, are you all right?” I was wounded mentally and physically, and I needed time to heal and think, but I would get neither. Yet time was slipping away from me, and Valerio’s unexpected presence in my domain indicated there was a new problem that needed my unique attention.

“Bring me Danaus,” I commanded in a low voice.

“Is he the one that did this to you?” Valerio’s hand tightened on me even though there was no change in tone in his voice.

“No. Bring him to me.”

“Where is he?”

My eyes fell shut and I reached out with my senses, letting my powers wash over the entire city of Savannah and the surrounding suburbs in a great wave. To my surprise, I found Danaus exactly where I had left him—at Factors Walk. Had only a couple minutes passed when it felt like years?

Mira! came Danaus’s instant reply when he sensed my touch.

Valerio is coming for you, I simply stated and then pulled quickly away, setting up mental barriers as I went. I didn’t want the hunter in my head, didn’t want him to know about the monster that seemed to be linked to my earliest beginnings, my weak pathetic human roots.

“He’s at Factors Walk,” I said, shoving a mental image of the location into Valerio’s mind. The nightwalker jerked away at the unexpected invasion, releasing his hold on my shoulder, but I didn’t care. “Bring Danaus to me now.”

Wordlessly, my longtime friend and companion stood and disappeared from sight. I had enough time to reach out and pick up the silver hourglass that rested between my bent legs before Danaus and Valerio reappeared. With a grunt, I flung the timepiece across the room, where it to shattered into hundreds of pieces, sending out a spray of black sand like a plume of deadly smoke.

The hunter took one look at the room before grabbing a handful of Valerio’s white shirt and slamming him against the nearest wall. “What the hell have you done?” he snarled. Danaus’s powers bubbled up with his anger, filling the small, broken room with a warm haze of anger. This time, I felt as if I could reach out and touch those powers. And if I really wanted to, I could give them only the slightest shove and Danaus would boil Valerio’s blood. This new power carried with it a haunting temptation, like low-hanging fruit just waiting to be plucked.

“He didn’t do anything,” I muttered, shaking my head as if to clear it from too many dark thoughts. Energies swirled around me like ghosts, each with its own demands and desires. “He found me like this.”

Danaus released Valerio with a small shove and stepped over to me. Kneeling down, he placed one hand beneath my chin and forced me to lift my head. I knew what he saw. I was cut, battered, swollen, and bruised to the point of being barely recognizable. My clothes were shredded and I was covered in my own dried blood. From the moment that Nick had gotten me alone in my home, he had taken the time to beat me completely senseless so I didn’t have a chance at fighting back. Didn’t have a hope.

“Is Gaizka gone?” I asked, unable to stop the tremble that slipped into my voice at the mention of the bori that tried to steal Danaus away.

“It’s gone.” He cupped my face with both his hands and looked me in the eye. “You saw it. The doorway opened and Gaizka was drawn back inside. Caged. Gone forever.”

My eyes fell shut as a tear slipped down my cheek. “Forever,” I repeated, bitterness eating away at the word before it could travel much farther than my lips. Forever seemed like such a pretty concept. Aurora and the naturi were supposed to be locked away from the world forever, but they escaped. Why couldn’t the horde of bori that were waiting in their own little holding pen break free as well?

“What’s Gaizka?” Valerio asked.

I turned my head toward the nightwalker, still resting my face in Danaus’s hands. His warmth was wrapped around me in a comforting embrace, and I wasn’t ready to leave it just yet and dive back into the cold brutal world that waited for me. “A bori who escaped. We locked it away again.”

I opened my eyes to find Valerio standing with a somewhat blank expression. One hand was outstretched, with the tips of his fingers pressed to the doorjamb as if to steady himself as the room threatened to spin around him. I could easily guess that it was taking all of his strength and considerable willpower not to show the terror I knew was screaming away in his mind.

The bori, along with the naturi, were our greatest enemies. Yet where the naturi were content to simply destroy us, the bori were determined to once again control us. They were, after all, the creators of all nightwalkers. Centuries ago the nightwalkers and the lycans locked away the bori and the naturi, but recently our prisoners had been escaping their bonds.

“It’s gone?” Valerio asked in a breathless voice. “You’re sure it’s gone?”

Pulling my face out of Danaus’s grasp, I rested my head against the desk behind me and closed my eyes. “It’s gone.”

“It . . . Gaizka . . . did this?” Valerio inquired.

“Yes,” I quickly said before Danaus could speak. It was a lie, but it was something I knew Valerio would easily believe. I still had no idea what I would tell Danaus when the time finally came, but for now neither man needed to know who had been in the library with me. I was trying to come to terms with it myself. I didn’t need to think about the repercussions of other people knowing.

“But it’s gone now,” I said with a grunt as I tried to push to my feet. To my surprise, Danaus swept his arms beneath me and picked me up, cradling me against his large chest.

“You need to rest,” he said firmly, starting to walk out of the room.

“She needs to feed,” Valerio countered in a cold voice as he came to stand in front of the hunter, stopping him from taking me to whatever soft, comfortable location he had in mind. Bed sounded very nice. Feeding required more energy than I was willing to expend until the next evening.

“But I’m not going to get either, because I need to know why you’ve suddenly shown up in my domain,” I said tartly, pinning Valerio with a dark gaze. “This isn’t a pleasure visit, is it?”

“It’s always a pleasure to see you, Mira.” Valerio smiled, as some of the tension eased out of his strong shoulders. The destruction of the library, my appearance, and the mention of the bori had temporarily shaken up the nightwalker’s usual unflappable calm. But he now seemed to be settling back into his usual self of untouchable poise and charm.

Laying my head against Danaus’s chest, I listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, letting the soothing sound push back the pain. Valerio and I had some kind of business to discuss, and I had a dark feeling I knew who it involved. “Danaus, either put me down or put me in the parlor. There’s no rest for the wicked in this city.”

A part of me half expected the hunter to simply drop me on my ass exactly where he stood, but I must have looked pretty damn bad because he carried me into the main parlor and gently settled me on the sofa while he took a nearby chair to my left. Valerio followed us silently into the room, which was impressive considering the creaky, hardwood floors, but then Ancients had all kinds of special skills that we younger ones could only dream about.

Valerio walked over to the marble fireplace and turned around, his hands on his hips as he looked down at his feet, a frown toying with the corners of his lips. The nightwalker was weighing his words. If he was trying to be cautious, I knew it did not bode well for me.

“Out with it,” I snapped. “You’re not here for Knox.” Yet even as I uttered the words, I felt a strange tightening in my chest at the thought of it. What if he was here to take back the nightwalker he had made centuries ago? Not only had I come to count on Knox to help me maintain the peace in my domain, but I also saw him as a good friend. I didn’t want Valerio to snatch him away from me.

“No, this isn’t about Knox,” Valerio admitted with a shake of his head, sending a soft lock of hair down across his forehead. The nightwalker released a heavy sigh and stared at Danaus, who was frowning at him, looking distinctly uncomfortable. The last time he’d met Valerio, it had not been under the best circumstances. Both the naturi and the coven were trying to decide how to kill us, and Valerio was struggling to choose a side.

“I think it would be best if we discussed this in private,” Valerio finally admitted, tearing his eyes away from the hunter to pin me with his dark gaze.

“If this is about the coven, he can stay,” I grumbled as I slid into a sitting position. I gently placed my feet on the floor, feeling to see if my knee and leg were fully healed. Strength was returning to my battered frame and I felt that a lot of my aches and pains could be washed away with a hot shower. “Danaus has met the coven. He’s been through hell with me. He can stay to hear this.”

At this, Valerio finally frowned at me. “Are you saying that you’ve finally taken a pet?”

“No!” Danaus said, instantly lurching to his feet.

“No,” I seconded in a softer, yet firm voice.

“Then what, Mira? Are you saying he’s your equal? You, a member of the coven, are equal with a vampire hunter?” Valerio demanded, twisting the knife that he had plunged into my chest when he started this conversation.

I didn’t know how best to explain it. Danaus had walked through the fires of Hell with me, survived attacks from both naturi and bori. If this creature was going to continue to watch my back, I couldn’t keep secrets from him.

“It’s complicated, Valerio. Let’s leave it at that.” Valerio gave me a skeptical look that implied far too much. Leave it. It’s not what you think, I told him again, in thought, which only earned me a slight grin. The nightwalker positively reveled in being a complete pain in the neck.

Motioning for Danaus to return to his seat, I ran one hand roughly through my hair, pushing it out of my face. “Can we just get down to business?” I said to Valerio. “What does the coven want?” While Valerio had never mentioned it, I knew the coven was one of the few things that would drive the nightwalker out of the splendid comfort of the Old World into my domain.

“They want you,” he stated, shoving his hands into his pockets as he leaned one shoulder against the mantel of the fireplace.

“For what?” Danaus inquired.

“They’re convening, aren’t they?” I asked, trying not to sound like I was whining, but I wasn’t succeeding too well.

“Yes, and your presence has been ‘requested,’ ” Valerio said with an amused little sneer.

Requested, my ass. The coven wanted to meet and have me officially inducted as a member. I had skipped some of the formalities when I joined the coven during the summer due to a desperate moment of need—if we were to have any chance at stopping the naturi. Jabari, one of the coven Elders, had been there to verify my petition, but I never received the official approval of the other two members of the coven. I had never given other nightwalkers a chance to challenge me. Hell, Our Liege could simply stop my ascent to the open seat by ripping my head off.

I swallowed a half-dozen snide comments as I rubbed my temples with one hand. I needed to rest and to talk to Danaus. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t have the chance to do either until I got rid of Valerio. “Am I the only reason the coven is meeting?”

“I don’t think so,” the nightwalker said with a small sigh. “Keepers from domains all around Europe have been complaining about the recent naturi infestation. There’s a chance that the coven might take some action at last, but it’s unlikely it will happen unless you’re there.”

“I guess it’s too much to ask that the keepers take care of their own domains like they’re supposed to.” I slouched on the sofa, dropping my head into my left hand while resting my elbow on the arm of the sofa. “It’s not like it’s the job of the coven to police the world for the naturi.”

“It may be, now that they are running loose again,” Valerio pointed out grimly.

“At least until Aurora has been taken care of,” Danaus added.

That was doubtful. I had mortally wounded Aurora, but I wouldn’t believe that the queen of the naturi was dead until I saw her cold corpse rotting before me. Besides, there was still Cynnia and Rowe. The naturi nation had too many would-be leaders waiting in the wings that could easily take up the cause once Aurora was killed. Unfortunately, with our penchant for infighting and betrayal, the nightwalkers were nowhere near as organized. Right now we needed a united coven to take on the naturi threat, and the ongoing war between Jabari and Macaire would keep us from ever being at our peak strength. To make matters worse, my presence on the coven would not help mend the gaping fissure that tore through the nightwalker ruling body.

“What were your orders?” I demanded, pushing my concerns regarding the naturi aside. I would have to deal with the coven first and survive that ordeal before I turned my attention to the naturi.

“Fetch you.”

“Good dog.” My wry grin succeeded in wiping any lingering smile from his face.

“Watch your step, Mira,” Valerio warned. “My orders are to bring you to Venice immediately. I could grab you now and take you. In your current condition, I don’t see how you would last too long.”

Danaus shot to his feet and came to stand directly between Valerio and me. The hunter slid his hand up to the knife strapped to his side, while his own energy surged from his body to beat against me.

“It’s okay, Danaus,” I said, laying a hand on his arm. I gave it a gentle squeeze, trying to reassure him. It was touching that he was ready to kill my friend to protect me. “If Valerio planned to do that, he wouldn’t have wasted time telling me.”

Danaus stood in front of me, staring down Valerio for several more seconds before the hunter finally backed off, returning to his seat beside me.

“Tell them that I will board a plane just before sunrise today and be in Venice tomorrow night in time for a meeting of the coven,” I said, lifting my head from my hand to look at the nightwalker directly.

“It’s not what they want,” he warned.

“But it’s what I want, and as a member of the coven you have to obey my wishes. If Jabari wants me there tonight, he’ll have to fetch me himself.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him.” Danaus growled, shifting in his seat as if expecting to see the Elder suddenly appear before him.

“If you must, tell the coven members that I am tidying up some of my own naturi matters,” I said to Valerio with an absent wave of my hand.

“Don’t you mean bori?”

“No, I don’t,” I said sharply. “And after you relay the message, you may want to reconsider being present when I arrive. I’ll be bringing Danaus.”

“Really?” Valerio said, cocking his head to the side as he took a step closer to me.

“As my consort.”

“Oh . . . really?” he asked with a deep chuckle. “That hasn’t been done in . . .”

“Centuries, I know.”

“And never with one of his kind.”

“True.”

A wide grin spread across Valerio’s handsome face as he shook his head at me. “I wouldn’t miss this meeting for anything in the world. I’ll see you in Venice.” With that, he disappeared in a small surge of energy, leaving me with Danaus and the mess that I was about to make.