Dayhunter

TWENTY-FOUR

I didn’t want the sun to set. The dawn had finally brought on a blissful peace, sweeping me away from death, Danaus’s betrayal, and the wars that were brewing. By the time I had settled into the windowless crypt, I was trembling from exhaustion that reached down to my very core.

Lying in the stone crypt at nightfall, ignoring the sound of bugs crawling around me, I tried to focus my thoughts. I needed to know how old the night was. I needed a plan for how to deal with the naturi. But instead I got the feeling I wasn’t alone in my tiny mausoleum. I scanned the immediate area but didn’t sense anyone—not human, vampire, or warlock. Regardless, I still couldn’t shake the feeling.

My right hand tightened around the gun I’d left on my stomach while I slept. With the other hand, I pushed back the heavy stone lid to the crypt that had protected me from the sun. It was not the first time I’d slept in a cemetery, and no matter how distasteful I found it, I doubted that it would be the last. When desperate, it proved to be one of the safest places to hide without fear of being exposed to the sun.

Sitting up, I pointed the gun directly in front of me, swinging it back and forth, trying to find the creature my instincts were screaming was close. Fear and anger swelled in my stomach and I clenched my teeth. The sight of the gun wavered when my gaze fell on Jabari leaning against the wall near the door. I still couldn’t sense him, but I had known he was there. All I could figure was that he had appeared the moment I awoke for the night, and I sensed the shift of energy in the air.

“You can lower the weapon now,” he said, his dark eyes locked onto my face.

“Really? That doesn’t seem like such a good idea to me,” I sneered, more irritated with the fact that I couldn’t get my hand to stop trembling than with him.

Jabari arched one eyebrow at me in mocking question as his gaze shifted to the gun. He didn’t have to say anything. We both knew he could make me drop the gun at any time. Or if he was feeling particularly evil, he could make me raise the gun to my temple and pull the trigger.

With a growl I couldn’t stop, I returned the gun to the holster at my lower back and climbed out of the crypt. “What are you doing here? I thought no one else was coming.”

“I came to check on your progress,” he said. “Things don’t seem to be going so well. Hugo is barely clinging to life.”

“He made it through the day?” I demanded before I could stop myself. Jabari’s presence surprised me so much that I had forgotten to scan the cemetery to see if I could still sense the big nightwalker.

“Yes, but he will be of no use to you tonight. He will need to feed and sleep for a couple more nights and days before he will be of use to anyone.” He paused as I slid the lid of the crypt back into place and leaned against the stone coffin. “And I can no longer sense the other nightwalker that was sent with you…”

“Penelope,” I murmured. My head fell and I shoved one hand through my hair. I still had to face the nightmare that played through my head like a broken record. “She was killed. Danaus killed her. To stop her from killing two humans.”

I waited for the Ancient to strike me, to break me in some horrible, painful way because I had failed to control the hunter. But it never came. After a few seconds I looked up to find him still watching me from where he stood near the door.

“I can’t control him,” I started, talking simply to fill the growing silence. “I never claimed to be able to control him, but we need him alive. Regardless of how we all feel about him, we need him.”

“But you feel betrayed by him,” Jabari said, taking a step forward. I took a quick step back, my spine slamming into the stone crypt that ran horizontally along the back wall of the mausoleum. Only a few feet of open, thick blackness separated Jabari and me. The Elder closed the distance as I remained trapped. “I can feel the pain rolling off you. He betrayed you. You trusted him and you thought he trusted you.”

A bitter smile twisted my lips as I looked up at one of my three makers. “You’d think I would have learned not to trust powerful creatures.”

Jabari leaned close, his eyes glowing faintly in the absolute darkness like a cat’s eyes catching a car’s headlights. There was no hiding my fear from him. My stomach clenched and my hands trembled despite tightly gripping the edge of the crypt. He might need me alive, but he could cause me severe amounts of pain.

“You still trust me,” he whispered, his voice low and hypnotic.

I closed my eyes for a second, trying to quell the shaking that had gone from my hands to encompass my entire body. He couldn’t be right. I wouldn’t let him be. Clenching that thought between my gritted teeth, I opened my eyes to find him standing by the door on the opposite side of the tiny room. I hadn’t even heard him move.

“Why are you here?” I demanded, summoning up my anger again. I knew better than to believe his line that he was just checking up on us. I was surprised by his appearance, but I shouldn’t have been. The last time he had randomly appeared was at the Themis Compound, the night of the attack and the sacrifice at Stonehenge. “Afraid of missing out on another sacrifice?”

Jabari smiled this time, a dark and evil thing. “Just missed the last one.” The smile slithered from his face and he turned serious again. “You know why I’m here. It’s the same reason I commanded you to appear in Venice. The one place in the world where you could prove to be the greatest nuisance.”

“Because of the naturi in the Great Hall,” I said.

Jabari simply nodded, the smile returning to his lips.

My hands fell back to my sides and I leaned against the tomb that had served as my daytime bed. “Honestly, old friend, is what Macaire told me the truth? Just between you and me and the spiders.”

“I do not know, but I have found that it’s very rare for Macaire to speak the truth,” Jabari replied, matching my mocking tone.

“Has the Coven truly made a bargain with the naturi?”

“A small group within the naturi, yes,” Jabari corrected.

I bit on my lower lip for a second, trying to hold back a smile, as he carefully hedged. “They want us to kill Aurora.”

“That is correct.”

“And the Coven wants them to kill Our Liege.”

To this, Jabari said nothing, but he did nod once.

Yeah, I was the only nightwalker insane enough to actually say those words out loud. But then again, I had lots of people trying to kill me, what was one more? “And this is because he’s trying to move up the Great Awakening.”

Again Jabari nodded.

“This is ridiculous!” I shouted, barely resisting the urge to start pacing in the tiny crypt. “This is nothing more than Macaire’s power play. He has to know that allowing the door to open will bring about the Great Awakening. There will be no hiding a war with the naturi from the humans.”

“That is true, but it is proving to be effective. Tabor was vocally against the plan, threatening to go to Our Liege.”

“And he ended up dead,” I said, finishing the thought. “I’m assuming this is the reason no one has been able to sense you for the past several years.”

“I prefer my privacy, yes,” Jabari murmured, as if this was all a lighthearted game. He leaned against the wall opposite me, crossing one leg in front of the other. His dark skin allowed him to nearly blend into the darkness, giving the night an almost velvety texture where he stood.

“But I don’t understand.” I shoved one hand through my knotted and dirty hair in frustration. “Why drag me into this? Kill Macaire and end the bargain. You didn’t need me in Venice for that.”

“I needed you causing chaos in Venice, threatening to spread our secret and disrupting our meetings with the naturi. It strikes fear in them, and we need them to fear us. Besides, you should never underestimate Macaire. He has been on the Coven longer than me. He is harder to kill than you would think.”

“So I was brought to Venice to discover the secret?”

“With the hunter at your side, it was inevitable.”

“And Nicolai?”

“We offered him as a sacrifice.”

“So I was supposed to save him…”

“No, you were supposed to kill him, but everything still worked out in the end,” Jabari admitted with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

“What’s the next step in your master plan?” I demanded, my temper flaring. I had been used and manipulated since the moment I stepped off the plane in Venice. Jabari didn’t have to use his powers to control me. He could do just fine with me running around on my own, creating chaos wherever I went.

“The same plan that I am sure you have already cooked up with the hunter,” Jabari said, pushing off the wall. He slowly walked over to stand before me. Only a slender column of air separated us when he spoke again. “Kill the naturi called Rowe. Stop the sacrifice and protect the seal. We must make it clear to them that there is going to be no bargain between nightwalkers and naturi.”

“The naturi from Venice. The one in the hall. She’s here with Rowe,” I said, trying to swallow back my fear. My anger had slipped away and now there was just the cold chill of the crypt as I stood alone with one of my makers, and one of my greatest betrayers. Once again we found each other as allies when I knew it was only a matter of time before we would find ourselves on opposite sides of the battlefield.

“Then we kill her. If the harpies appear, we kill them as well.”

“Jabari, I—I…” I hesitated. I had some fears about our plan, but I didn’t want to volunteer my solution unless it was absolutely necessary. “Do you still mean to kill me?”

Lifting one hand, he cupped my cheek as he leaned forward and brushed his lips against my other cheek. His lips strayed down my jaw to my bare neck, sending a chill sweeping through my entire body. “My fragile desert blossom,” he murmured in my ear. “I want you dead in the worst way. But for now I have a use for you, so you live.”

That’s what I thought. I was trapped, surrounded by creatures that wanted me dead, but for now all seemed to have a use for me as some kind of weapon against the naturi. Except for Rowe. He wanted to use me as a weapon against the nightwalkers.

I bit back a sigh as Jabari stepped away from me. Our course was set. The big bad Ancient could make it sound easy all he wanted, but I knew the truth. When we walked back into the Minoan ruins that night, the naturi were going to throw everything they had at us to ensure that they completed the sacrifice. There was no way they were going to let us stop them a second time.