wait for dusk

by Drake, Jocelynn

  “Why do we care?” Valerio interjected, drawing my gaze back to him, as both Danaus and Stefan took steps away from each other. I dropped my hand back to my side and straightened my stance. “Nightwalkers die all the time, many killed by our own kind, not to mention the naturi. Why should the Ancients of Budapest be any different?”

  I shoved my hand back into my pocket and shook my head as I looked at the ground. The snow had been packed down beneath our shuffling feet so it was nearly a sheet of white ice. It also bothered me that none of the nightwalkers seemed to know or care anything about the coven. But then, that seemed to be a smaller concern at the moment. “Because when this war grows with the naturi, we’re going to need every Ancient we’ve got on hand to help stop them. We can’t afford to lose them in silly territorial squabbles. Besides, if Veyron has found a way to kill off Ancients, wouldn’t you like to know what it is? After all, Vienna is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Budapest.”

  “So what do you want to do?” Stefan demanded.

  I looked up at him, a frown pulling at the corner of my lips. I had yet to understand why he had decided to tag along on this little mission, and I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t like it when I did finally learn the reason. For now he seemed willing to play along, but I needed to be cautious about which direction I sent him in. If Veyron was killing Ancients, I didn’t want him getting too close and risk losing him when I still had a need for his skills. Also, if Veyron was killing Ancients, I didn’t want Stefan getting too close and learning the secret of how to do it before I did.

  “See what you can dig up regarding this Ferko. I want to know about the Budapest pack. I want to know their size, their average age, and a gauge of their strength. I also want to know how long they’ve had this easy alliance with the nightwalkers in the area.” There was a good chance that if I was going to go up against Veyron, I would also be taking on Ferko and his people as well.

  “And where do you want me?” Valerio asked.

  “Quietly, see what you can dig up on Veyron. Find out where he holds court and if he actually has a family. Just watch without drawing too much attention to yourself.” It was a great risk sending Valerio digging after Veyron, but of the four of us, he had the best chance at quietly gathering information. Valerio had managed for centuries to hide his true age from all the nightwalkers around him, and I was one of the few that knew he was actually an Ancient. Furthermore, he had a knack for sneaking in and out of a place unnoticed by other nightwalkers around him.

  “And what will you be doing?” Stefan groused.

  “I thought Danaus and I would go back inside and enjoy the mineral bath.” I jerked my thumb back toward the enormous building that loomed behind us. “We’re going hunting for naturi, you ass!”

  “Naturi? Mira, you can’t—”

  I held up my hand to halt Valerio’s words in mid-sentence. “It’s like you said, we’re here to take care of the naturi problem. Danaus and I are going to do some scouting tonight. We’ll try to find where they are hiding out and how many are in the region. Our goal won’t be to wipe them all out in one quick swoop.”

  “Why not?” Danaus inquired from behind me.

  “Because if we do, then we’ll have no reason to stick around and spy on Veyron and his little clan of fledglings,” I said with a smile. Besides, I didn’t think it would be that easy to dispatch the naturi, given that Danaus and I no longer had our greatest weapon at our disposal. We’d have to cut through the naturi the old-fashioned way, one by bloody one.

  Needing no further guidance from me, Stefan immediately disappeared from sight. I closed my eyes and scanned the region. I couldn’t sense him anywhere nearby, but that didn’t mean the nightwalker wasn’t cloaked.

  “You don’t trust him,” Valerio announced.

  I cracked one eye open and looked at my companion, a frown pulling at one corner of my mouth. “Not a bit. I can’t begin to guess as to why he elected to join us. You, I sort of understand, though I don’t trust you either.”

  “That’s because you’re a smart girl,” Valerio said. He leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to my temple. “You kids be careful and have fun. We’ll meet up again at your quaint little hotel room tomorrow night.”

  “Looking forward to it,” I grumbled just before Valerio disappeared as well.

  “I don’t like him,” Danaus declared when we were finally alone.

  I threaded my arm through his and directed him back down the sidewalk, winding out way through the park. “I never really expected you to. He’s not the type to take things too seriously. He likes to play with his food when he gets the chance.”

  “I’m surprised I haven’t staked him already.”

  “Me, too,” I agreed softly. Valerio liked to live dangerously, playing with both humans and lycanthropes whenever the opportunity arose. Only the coven could make him toe the line, and that was simply because he didn’t want them controlling his life.

  We walked more than a block in the cold, the snow and ice crunching beneath our feet. The distant whirr of cars racing down the nearby busy streets could be heard, but even that sound was fading as most people retreated to their homes and away from the cold for the night. Pausing at a street corner, I huddled close to the hunter, trying to use his body to protect me from the wind.

  “What did this little show of power accomplish tonight at the baths?” Danaus demanded. “Besides unnecessary violence and senselessly risking your life.”

  “I taught them to fear the coven. I taught them that the true power lies with the coven and not with this little love fest that Odelia and Veyron have created here.”

  “It taught them to fear you, and fear doesn’t win you allies in this war.”

  “But fear will keep the dagger out of my back. Fear may keep them from willingly being my allies, but it will keep them from trying to kill me. It’s the ones like Stefan that don’t fear me that I worry about.”

  “How could Stefan not fear the power of the Fire Starter?”

  “Because he knows I’m weak now, as weak as I was when I was human.”

  “How can you say that? You’re stronger now than ever before. You’re an Elder on the coven.”

  “I have a consort now and that makes me vulnerable. You are my weakness, and those in power know it now.”

  “Mira—”

  “You’re worth the risk a thousand times over. Never doubt you are worth the risk.”

  I pulled away from Danaus and cleared my throat. We needed to talk of other things besides his impact on my life. We had bigger concerns. “Can you scan for the naturi? Get a sense of how many are in the city?” I asked, looking up at him.

  “I’ll see what I can find for you.” Closing his eyes, I could feel him send his powers out from his body. They washed out over the city, sliding across the river, up through the hills of Buda and down across the flat plains that composed Pest. At the same time, I slipped into the hunter’s mind, viewing the world through his eyes. I could feel little balls of energy that were different from the energy I sensed in nightwalkers. It was similar to the earthy tones I could sense from the lycanthropes, only stronger. I had thought these bits of power were only more lycanthropes, but I’d been wrong. I had actually been sensing the naturi, thanks to my new gift from Nick.

  Pockets of them were scattered throughout the city and in the outlying woods beyond the city limits. A thicker concentration wasn’t too far from us. Their power was dense in the air, clouding everything around them.

  “Is there an island in the Danube near here?” Danaus asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

  Shutting down my own powers and pulling out of his mind, I concentrated on what I could remember of the city. “Yes, there’s actually three islands in the Danube near Budapest. Is that where they are located?” I was impressed with Danaus’s skill. I could pick out a vague sense of direction, but I had no real feel for distance.

  “Most of them are.”

  “How
did you know they’re on an island?”

  “There’s a large blank spot around them where there are no signs of human life. The only spots in the area that would match such a thing would be the river that cuts through the middle of the city.” The hunter rubbed his eyes and the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger before looking down at me. “What did you see?”

  A sheepish grin graced my mouth as I stared up at him. I had made no attempt to cloak my presence in his mind. In truth, I hadn’t thought about it. My main concern was trying to see if I could sense the naturi as well. I could, to my surprise, but with nowhere near the skill that Danaus could.

  “Little balls of earth energy. I sensed them earlier but I thought they were just more lycanthropes,” I admitted, and then immediately regretted my words. I was no longer accustomed to hiding things from Danaus. I was used to him knowing everything I knew.

  “How is it that you sensed them?”

  I dropped my head and clenched my teeth, cursing my stupidity and carelessness. “Things have changed since that night in Savannah.” I forced each word out as if it was stuck in my throat. “Nick gave me the ability to sense all types of energy, but I’m still trying to sort it out. I’m nowhere near as skilled as you when it comes to sensing the naturi.”

  To my utter shock, Danaus ran his cold hand across my cheek so that he was now cupping the back of my neck. He pulled me forward and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “He was inside of the bathhouse, wasn’t he?”

  “How did you know?”

  “I sensed your rage and fear.”

  “I’m afraid he’s going to kill you,” I whispered.

  “You’d never allow it.”

  Blinking back tears, I turned my head and pressed my lips to the palm of his hand. “Thank you for your confidence in me.” It was all I could say. He was giving me his trust, and as I had already proved once tonight, I didn’t deserve it.

  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.