Wait for Dusk

Chapter Thirty-One

Macaire smirked at me. I rose from the floor as if pushed up my some invisible force and stood between him and Tristan’s body. The hall was completely silent except for the crackle of fire and the steady thud of Danaus’s heartbeat. My temper had reached the boiling over point. I simply wanted him dead. I didn’t care how.

The Elder took a single step toward me and I threw my right arm out. Flames erupted from the floor around him. But before I could catch him, the nightwalker disappeared from sight. I hissed, twisting around to find where he had reappeared. I tapped into the energies around me, feeling him out. He was hovering just on the outskirts of the hall, close so he could watch, but safely out of my reach.

My head snapped over to Jabari, who was relaxing back in his chair. He waved his left hand at me as if to say that it was beyond his ability to help me. Like hell it was. If the Elder wasn’t going to aid me in the disposal of our common enemy, then I was going to use his powers to trap me an Ancient. I could feel Jabari’s powers curling around the room, mixing with Danaus’s and my own. I knew I could wrap my hand around them the same way I could use Danaus’s. I had no doubt that the Ancient was going to balk at being controlled by a pathetic creature such as myself, but I wasn’t going to give him any choice. Jabari had drawn me into this mess, he had made me Macaire’s enemy.

Waving my hand through the air in a sharp slicing motion, I extinguished the flames and stood perfectly still, waiting. Macaire reappeared by the dais, standing with one foot on the lower stair, his body partially turned toward me as if he had paused in the middle of climbing back up to his chair. “Do you blame me for your killing Tristan?”

“You destroyed his mind,” I snarled.

“I’ll admit that there wasn’t much there to destroy when I found him. It seems that he had a run-in with a bori,” Macaire said as he resumed his seat. There was an audible gasp that coursed through the room when he made that statement. I didn’t cringe away from the new censor that was coming from Jabari and Elizabeth.

“We had some problems. The bori has been recaged,” I said shortly. “Did you take care of the naturi problem you were assigned to?”

Macaire’s smile faded and his face twisted into an expression of extreme distaste. “The naturi were exterminated. How was your luck?”

“The naturi were killed, but it seems that something else was waiting for me. Did you have a conversation with Veyron before I arrived? Directed him to dispose of me and my companions?”

“Why would I do such a thing?” Macaire asked smoothly, but there was a warning glint in his eyes.

“Because you’re a fucking bastard that thinks of no one but himself. But I have to thank you. I needed a European territory, and now I am keeper of Budapest and Savannah.”

My only warning was a low snarl from the nightwalker as he launched himself from his chair and streaked across the vast distance that separated us. I didn’t hesitate. I wrapped Jabari’s powers around me and instincts alone helped me to disappear from that spot a half second before Macaire arrived. I hovered for a heartbeat in the swirling darkness, watching Macaire twist about as he desperately searched the room for me.

I reappeared right beside him and slammed my fist into his jaw before he realized I was even standing there. The nightwalker was thrown across the room, sliding several feet over the marble floor before coming to a stop directly in front of a group of nightwalkers that stared at me in utter shock. It was well known that I didn’t have the ability to appear and disappear at will, and yet I just had, making me ten times more dangerous than I already was.

Fear filled Macaire’s face for only a moment before it was replaced with rage. He had underestimated me, and that was only the beginning. I needed him to fear me. With Jabari’s powers firmly in my grasp, I telepathically grabbed Macaire by the legs and tossed him across the room, slamming him into the far wall with enough force to crack the stones. I casually crossed the distance between us before once again grabbing him with magic and tossing him around the room.

“You can’t do this!” he shouted with a slight waver in his voice. He was right. I couldn’t do this, not without Jabari on hand.

Watch yourself, desert blossom, Jabari warned as he pushed to his feet.

With his powers still in the palm of my hand, I slammed Jabari back down in his chair. I was being reckless, but I didn’t care. Killing Macaire was the only thing that mattered now. I would face Jabari later. Sit down and enjoy the show .

Macaire pushed back to his feet and launched himself at me again. Unfortunately, when I attempted to use Jabari’s powers to disappear, Jabari fought me. I got control of his powers again, but only it was too late. Macaire smashed both of his fists into my chest, breaking my chest plate and nearly crushing my heart. I was thrown backward several feet. As I hit the ground, a tight circle of flames sprang up around me, protecting me from a second attack as I regained my feet.

Standing in the middle of the circle, I looked around the room to find that Macaire was once again missing. But I could feel his energy close by. As I grabbed onto Jabari’s powers again, the flames that encircled me immediately went out. I fought for both for nearly a second before I finally gave up on the flames. Apparently if I was using someone else’s powers, I couldn’t tap into my own ability to manipulate fire. It would have been appreciated if Nick could have warned me of such a thing earlier.

With Jabari’s powers in hand, I grabbed hold of Macaire’s energy and forced him to reappear in the room directly in front of me. He stumbled a step backward as if to regain his balance, a stunned and horrified expression on his face. No one had ever pulled a nightwalker back once he had disappeared.

While he was still stunned, I released Jabari’s energy and tapped into Danaus’s powers. The hunter gave a slight grunt as I forced him to slowly boil Macaire’s blood within his skin. The nightwalker ran several feet away from me as if the distance would help as he scratched at the skin on the top of his left hand. Blood oozed out, popping and hissing as it melted anything that it touched.

“Afraid I was going to burn you?” I called across the room in a voice the echoed up to the rafters. “I’ve got more tricks up my sleeve than you will ever know. You never should have touched what belonged to me. You never should have threatened my friends.”

“You’re a monster!” Macaire snarled. “You have no business living among the nightwalkers. No right to be on the coven.” He continued to back away from me as he raised his right hand to claw at the heat creeping up his neck. His skin was growing a dark shade of red as if was cooked from the inside out.

With a smile, I released Danaus’s powers and freed Macaire from their grip. The Elder’s shoulders slumped in relief. At that second I struck again. Grabbing the lapels of his coat, I slammed him on the ground and straddled him. As I did so, I claimed control over Jabari’s powers again. Telepathically, I pinned Macaire to the ground, blocking his ability to disappear from my grasp.

Frustrated and fearful, the nightwalker hissed at me, flashing his fangs in warning. I didn’t care. My whole body was trembling with the energy that flowed in and around me. I felt as if I was about to shatter into a hundred pieces, but I couldn’t stop. Nothing would stop me.

A part of me longed to burn him. I wanted to wash him away in a river of flames that reached nearly to the ceiling of the hall, but I couldn’t risk him escaping me when I let go of Jabari’s powers. Instead I was content to kill him the old fashioned way.

“No!” Macaire screamed as I raised my right fist. He tried to catch it with his wounded left hand that was still leaking sizzling blood, but he was too weak from my earlier attack. My fist punctured his breast plate and went straight to his heart. His blood was just below the boiling point, burning my flesh.

I screamed in pain and triumph as I wrapped my fingers around his shriveled heart and slowly pulled it free of his chest. Macaire immediately went limp as his soul fled his body, released from a long lifetime locked in that frail frame. It wasn’t enough. I dropped the heart at my side and grabbed his head underneath his chin and ripped it from his neck with a sickening cracking of bone and tearing of flesh.

Standing on wobbly legs, I hovered over Macaire’s headless, lifeless corpse. All the energy I had felt slipped from my body and resumed its flow around me as if I were nothing more than a large rock in a stream. Smiling, I walked over to Macaire’s chair on the dais. Hooking the heel of my boot under the edge of the chair, I tipped it over onto its back, sending a loud crash through the silent hall.

“It seems we have another opening,” I announced. I turned around to face the crowd of nightwalkers that was closely watching me. “Do we have any takers?”

Silence followed for several tense seconds before Stefan finally stepped forward. A part of me relaxed—I had been concerned that Valerio might go for the open spot, when I had promised it to Stefan already. I didn’t want Valerio on the coven. I had other, better, uses for him. Stefan and I would never see eye-to-eye on most matters, but we agreed on one thing that was important: the naturi. I knew that he would not be making secret alliances with the naturi, jeopardizing the future of our kind or the life of Our Liege.

“I claim the open seat on the coven,” Stefan proclaimed in a loud, strong voice.

I nearly laughed in my delight. Macaire’s blood had not even grown cold yet and he had already been replaced.

“I recognize your claim to the coven,” I replied. “Does anyone want to counter his claim?” Silence once again reigned. Stefan’s quick claim to the coven and my obvious support left everyone fearful to move, let alone question the nightwalker’s claim to the open chair. After watching my brutal slaughter of Macaire, no one was willing to question Stefan, which pleased me because it put Stefan in my debt. I could use a favor for him on a rainy evening.

“Apparently not,” I chuckled. With a sweeping bow, I backed away from the tipped over chair, directing Stefan to come forward. The Ancient’s face was expressionless as he turned the chair right side up. He paused, looking over the gathered nightwalkers as if surveying his new kingdom before finally taking a seat.

I turned as well, but toward the coven, my gaze traveling from Elizabeth’s look of horror, to Stefan’s expression of reserved contentment, to Jabari’s quiet rage. He and I would still have to have words, but for now he could wait. He’d gotten his wish, and his enemy had finally been vanquished by his little protégé.

As I took my first step toward my seat, a low chuckle filled the hall. I paused and looked around, trying to determine where it was coming from when it finally dawned on me that it was coming from Our Liege’s chair. Everyone looked up and a chill went through the room when they saw that the chair was still empty.

But it wasn’t really. I could feel Nick’s energy filling that chair. I could easily imagine him lounging in that chair with one leg thrown over the arm, looking for all the world as if he owned the place. He wasn’t Our Liege. I didn’t know who Our Liege was, and I wasn’t looking forward to that meeting, but I knew it wasn’t Nick. He had been around for my battle with Macaire, whispering dark secrets into the back of my brain. Nick goaded me on, firing the anger that seemed to burn relentlessly inside of me beyond all reason.

I had not only succeeded in fulfilling Jabari’s wishes that night, but I’d also achieved what Nick wanted. I had learned to control the powers of both Jabari and Danaus. The only problem was that I knew Jabari could still fight me, stop me if I tried to do it at a moment when he wasn’t in accord with my wishes. I had a feeling that Danaus could do the same.

The laughter stopped as suddenly as it started, and everyone was left scratching their heads, naturally assuming that Our Liege had made a rare visit. Nick’s energy faded from the room, which was now filled with the heavy scent of blood. He seemed content to leave me alone for a while. I had accomplished his great task, but I knew he would be back for more at a later date. I would have to find a way to escape him.

But not now.

My legs were trembling with fatigue as I shuffled down to my seat on the dais. My body was suddenly filled with a hundred aches and pains I had not noticed earlier, and my chest felt as if a heavy weight rested on my heart. As I resumed my seat, my eyes fell on Tristan’s limp body and my heart broke for a second time. I had destroyed the man that had tortured him, but I had been unable to save him. And that’s all I ever wanted for Tristan. I just wanted to save him from the world.

My right hand trembled where it hung over the arm of the chair, sending a fresh cascade of blood drops to the floor. I slumped low and rested my head against my left hand while placing my elbow on the arm of the chair. My eyes didn’t drift from Tristan until I felt fingers twine themselves around my fingers. I looked down at my right hand in confusion to find Danaus’s hand wrapped around mine. Gazing up at his face, I saw a pair of beautiful blue eyes caressing my face. He was there for me, standing between me and the rest of the nightwalker nation. He was there watching over me.

In that moment, I knew that Danaus was my last refuge, my only harbor of peace and security. He was my happiness. And the only thing standing between me and complete oblivion.