Valerio pushed to his feet and took a step around the coffee table toward me. “Now, Mira, there’s no need to volunteer me for more territory than I need. I’m not even technically the keeper of Vienna. I can’t go extending my territory to include Budapest as well. Besides, as an Elder on the coven, shouldn’t you have a domain in Europe like the other members?”
“I keep my eye on Savannah. That’s enough,” I snapped.
“And having a domain on two continents may ruffle more than a few feathers on the coven, I am sure,” Stefan said, earning a glare from me, over my shoulder. But despite my dark looks, the nightwalker was correct. Jabari had a good chunk of Africa, Macaire claimed Rome, and Elizabeth hung close to France. While I was always the first to deny it, I was overseer for all of the New World. I had always taken the approach that I was nothing more than an ambassador for the coven since my domain was exclusively Savannah, but I knew that nightwalkers across the region bowed to my will because I was the Fire Starter. Claiming Budapest as well as the New World would only upset the various member of the coven.
“Well, everyone can relax. I’m not claiming Budapest,” I said, trying to keep my voice from dropping to a frustrated growl. “I’ve got Savannah and that’s more than enough for me. We should get going. Danaus and I will take a taxi to Veyron’s place and then I’ll contact you when we arrive so you can pop over.”
“It may be better if we follow you by the air,” Valerio suggested. “You never know. He may decide to launch an attack when you’re en route to his place if we’re separated.”
“We’ll be fine,” I said, then looked over at Stefan. “Find anything interesting with Ferko?”
“Just where they will be hunting tomorrow night,” Stefan replied with a cold grin.
“Tomorrow night?”
“Full moon,” Danaus said, leaving me cursing my absentmindedness. I had completely forgotten about the full moon. The local pack would meet tomorrow night, since they would all be forced to shift. The urge to hunt would be overwhelming, and they would need the strength of the alpha to keep the group under control.
“I’m guessing that I’ll find out tonight at Veyron’s what has dragged you to this city,” I said, arching one eyebrow at Stefan. The nightwalker had not come because he had any real desire to protect me. He didn’t care about whatever Macaire had planned for me. His main concern was a seat on the coven. However, I was willing to bet that something important had happened in his life surrounding the creatures of Budapest and he had tagged along to take care of a personal matter. I knew that he would have to tell me soon, or it was going to interfere with my own investigation. I was already on edge with Rowe in the city, and it didn’t help that I was faced with a tag-team ruling party. I needed to know that Stefan wasn’t going to run off and take care of his own agenda.
Stefan gave a little snort as one corner of his mouth quirked in a grudging smile. He had underestimated me. “I imagine you will.”
“Fine. We’re out of here. Be on guard while you’re in the city. Rowe is in town and he’s not happy,” I announced as I grabbed my heavy coat from where I had laid it across an open chair.
“The one-eyed naturi from Machu Picchu?” Stefan inquired. “The one that wants your head? When is he ever happy?”
I pressed my lips into a firm line as I turned back toward the bedroom so I could pull on a pair of socks and boots before we left. Rowe was only happy when I was hurt and bleeding. Rowe would only be happy when I was dead.
I paused near the center of the room, every muscle in my body freezing as I extended my powers beyond the confines of the hotel room. Something powerful was coming.
“Danaus! Blade!” I ordered. I was completely unarmed, but the hunter tossed me a knife from across the room. I caught it with my right hand and turned it toward the growing source of energy. Valerio and Stefan didn’t question me as I could feel their own powers begin to fill the air.
To our combined surprise, Macaire appeared in the room, standing so the point of my knife was just centimeters from his heart. He took one look at the blade and raised an eyebrow at me. “I take it things are not going well.”
I hesitated in withdrawing the blade, but finally forced myself to lower it to my side. “I’ve never been one to welcome unexpected visitors.”
“I came to offer my assistance since I am the one that directed you to Budapest.”
“While unnecessary, your presence is most appreciated,” I lied through my clenched teeth. “I take it that everything went well in Spain.”
“All is quiet in Sadira’s former domain. Some of her children still reside in her old castle. Otherwise, the naturi threat has been removed from the area.”
He made the comment about Sadira’s former domain and her poor children as if I was supposed to feel some kind of twisted remorse about her death at Machu Picchu. The only regret I felt was that I had not been the one to actually kill my maker. The old bloodsucking witch got what she deserved, and now it was time for her precious children to learn to stand on their own two feet.
In the meantime, I truly doubted that Macaire had accomplished much on the naturi front. Danaus had been there weeks earlier and cleared out the region. I couldn’t imagine that there was much for Macaire to do. Besides, the Elder was far more interested in seeing me get killed off one way or another.
“We had our first encounter with the naturi last night,” I said. “Rowe is in town and appears eager to have his hands on me again to hand over to Aurora.” I suppressed a barrage of nasty thoughts about Macaire. The nightwalker liked to tread through the minds of others, and I had no desire to have him listening in on my thoughts of him. “I’m confident that we’ll succeed in eliminating him at long last when we remove the naturi threat from the region.”
“Really? I’m surprised, considering that he’s been giving your problems for so long. Why do you think you have an edge this time?” Macaire inquired with a wicked grin.
“He doesn’t have the same kind of support of his people as he has had in the past. He’s an outcast; a traitor. They are going to be unwilling to help him, making the naturi an easier target to hit.”
“Will you be hunting him down tonight?”
I shook my head. “Not tonight.”
“We’ve been invited to a private gathering,” Valerio volunteered.
I turned Danaus’s knife over in my hand, watching the silver blade reflect the light. “It seems that Budapest is far more interesting that we initially thought. We all came to town assuming that we were dealing with naturi, but I’m afraid there has been a serious breakdown in the ruling system that we have set up.”
“What’s going on?” Macaire demanded.
“That’s exactly what we’re trying to figure out. The Ancients are dead. None of the younger nightwalkers are going before the coven. And this Odelia that I met last night claims there is no keeper of Budapest. It’s chaos, and it cannot be allowed to continue.”
“Really? I had no idea the situation was so dire.”
“I’m surprised. I thought you knew. I assumed it was the reason you chose me to come to Budapest—to clean up this mess.”
“My concern was the naturi, that is all.”
“You said that you were familiar with Budapest, correct?” Danaus interjected, where Stefan and Valerio were not bold enough to tread. “You should accompany us tonight to Veyron’s. Perhaps the two of you could shed some light on what has happened to this poor city.”
Macaire stiffened at being addressed directly by Danaus, but was forced to nod at the invitation. “I have heard of this Veyron and I would be happy to accompany you.”
I chuckled as I turned my back on Macaire and walked over to Danaus to return his blade. “Two Elders gracing a single nightwalker’s doorstep. What a rare honor!”
I’m sure that’s exactly how Veyron will see it, Valerio said sarcastically in my mind. He was still cautious enough not to directly cross Macaire. I had recently killed the Elder’s comp
anion, making him a walking powder keg. The littlest thing could set him off, and no one was particularly happy to discover that he was now in town.
“You can get the location from Stefan or Valerio,” I called over my shoulder as I walked toward the bedroom with Danaus following behind me. “We’ll meet you there in approximately thirty minutes.” My final words were punctuated by Danaus slamming the door shut behind us. Let them figure it out on their own. I didn’t want Macaire traveling with Danaus and me. He wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place, and I didn’t like it. I was beginning to feel even more trapped, surrounded by Nick, Rowe, and now Macaire. I was quickly running out of options and people to help me.
Nick had been right. Time was running out for me.
Chapter Twelve
There was no mistaking that Danaus was still angry with me from the previous night. The hunter refused to look at me as we climbed into the taxi. He stared out his window at the night-drenched city while I told the taxi driver where we were going. So much for trying to make this fragile relationship work. We were two damaged people, warped by too many years on this earth and too many violent encounters with the various races. We couldn’t trust others and we couldn’t ask for help. Valerio would have said we were doomed from the start, but I refused to believe it. I had managed complicated relation-ships with nightwalkers, lycanthropes, and humans over my long existence. Why couldn’t I make it work with a half-bori vampire hunter?
I gazed across the taxicab at Danaus, taking in the way the light slid across his strong features as we rode down the busy street. His dark hair brushed his shoulders, nearly obscuring my view of his blue eyes. I swallowed a sigh and turned my gaze back to my window. I knew what he wanted. A promise that I would never control his powers again. I just couldn’t do that with Nick making my life a living hell each night.
“Was it necessary to frighten the woman?” he finally growled at me after we were in the car for several minutes.
“This time, yes, it actually was.” It was a struggle to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “She will carry back to Veyron stories of me and my companions. Veyron needs to know that the Fire Starter is here and she will burn through his domain if necessary.”
“You mean your already dark reputation wasn’t enough to convince Veyron? You needed to scare some poor, helpless human as well?”
I held back my next comment and stared out the window. I truly doubted there was any real reason to pity the poor girl. She looked like she was well taken care of, by the quality of her clothes and the expensive choker that ringed her neck. The woman was obviously Veyron’s pet, which meant that she was accustomed to dealing with nightwalkers. And she carried some value to Veyron since he went to the trouble of arranging a pair of bodyguards for her.
“You needn’t get so worked up about the girl. I have little doubt that she can take care of herself.”
Danaus opened his mouth to comment but I didn’t hear it. A large bundle of magic energy gathered in the air just above out taxicab as we waited at a red light. There wasn’t time to search out who it was or what the reason for the ball of magic was for. It didn’t feel right, and I had survived countless centuries by listening to my instincts. Grabbing a handful of Danaus’s leather coat, I jerked him forward while I crouched down as much as I could in the backseat of the tiny taxicab.
“Get down!” I shouted just before a large explosion reverberated through the air, causing my eardrums to rattle in my head. Something large slammed into the side of the taxi, flipping the world upside down. I was thrown into the side of the taxi with Danaus landing on top of me. His elbow crashed into my jaw while the back of my head hit a combination of the glass and the street as we turned over. The whole world changed from darkness to a flash of white light as the taxicab rolled onto its top and I was crushed under Danaus’s weight. The noise of the metal scraping along the street was horrendous, clogging up all my other senses besides the horrible sense of pain.
Danaus finally shifted on top of me. Around us I could hear the shuffle of feet and the cries of terrified voices from the people that crowded this busy section of downtown Budapest. My body ached and my thoughts felt fuzzy, as if they were covered in cotton. There was a warm wet spot on my temple where my scalp had been cut and I had a sneaking suspicion that I had cracked my skull when we turned over. A part of me just wanted to lie there, but I couldn’t. A creature was lurking somewhere outside the car, desperate for my undivided attention. I wasn’t about to disappoint him.
Are you okay? I asked Danaus, using our private path. I had begun to cloak myself from the human onlookers so I could sneak out of the car.
Been better. Driver’s dead.
Yeah, well, it could have been us just as easily. Stay here and play dead. I’m going to go look around.
I can help.
Keep an eye on the crowd if you can. I’m not sure what hit us or if it’s gone.
Sliding out beneath Danaus on a bed of broken glass, I crawled out through the back window, which had been smashed. It wasn’t easy to weave through the people that were gathered around the overturned car, trying to get a look in at Danaus. I was cloaked, but I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to keep it up. My head was throbbing and the world swayed around me, keeping me off balance.
Outside of the crowd, I scanned the thoughts of the people, reviewing their memories. They were filled with confusion and fear, as no one could recall what had pummeled the side of the car. Only that something hit it with enough force to flip it over and send it skidding across the street. In the most anxious of those gathered, I inserted the memory of a car slamming into the side of the taxi before it drove off. It wasn’t a pretty image, but it was more settling that the gaping void that filled their minds now.
I scanned the area for our attacker but no one stood out initially. There was a heavy feeling of magic and power in the night, but I couldn’t tell if it was residue from the spell that had been cast or if the attacker was still in the region. The only thing I was confident of was that our attacker had been a warlock or a witch. The magic in the air didn’t feel like a nightwalker, and lycanthropes didn’t use magic. Even a naturi would have had a different feel to it.
A knot twisted in my stomach as I switched my focus to scan specifically for Nick. I had to wonder if he had struck out at me simply because I was not making progress fast enough, but I couldn’t sense him. Of course, that didn’t mean the bastard wasn’t lurking somewhere close by, watching the show.
Energy thickening in the air was my only warning before I was slammed into the side of a building with a crushing force. My hold on my cloaking spell wavered once, but I managed to keep a grip on it so no one saw me flying through the air. Three ribs broke, puncturing once vital organs that now only seemed to be source of pain for me. Smashed against the wall, I gazed around the area to see a figure outlined by the moonlight as the person stood at the edge of a building.
With a smile, I summoned up my powers as a fourth rib threatened to break under the pressure pinning me against the wall. Fire flared around the figure that was casting the spells, but just as quickly the fire was extinguished with a hand wave. That was why I didn’t go picking fights with warlocks. You find one with just enough skill, and my ability to manipulate fire no longer gave me an edge. However, the distraction was enough to free me of his magical grasp.
Sliding down the side of the building, I was relieved to see Danaus crawling free of the car. I considered reaching for his powers but squelched the thought just as quickly. The hunter was already angry with me. No reason to make the matter any worse, though I knew I would have to eventually.
Danaus, the rooftop across the street, I directed as I tried to push to my feet.
Got it. I felt the warm brush of his powers as he gathered the energy around him just before sending it across the street to our attacker. The figure jerked sharply and then ran from the edge of the building, moving out of our line of sight. Danaus dropped his hand and mutte
red a soft curse. He couldn’t boil the attacker’s blood if he could no longer see him. The magic user had escaped, but at least we were both still alive.
Too often nightwalkers were seen as the most dangerous of the supernatural creatures because of our need for blood to survive. However, warlocks and witches were frequently the most brutal of the others simply because there were too few of us strong enough to stand up to them. The only thing we had in our favor was that warlocks and witches didn’t frequently feel the need to strike out at the other races. Like nightwalkers, they were content to fight among themselves.
With a few solid mental pushes and a little misdirection, I finally managed to extract Danaus from the crowd gathered around him and the car. He stumbled over to where I was leaning against the wall, a frown creating lines in his brow.
“Warlock?” he asked.
“Or witch. Apparently we have an admirer in town besides Rowe,” I grumbled in a low voice, still trying to avoid the attention of the crowd that was now being dispersed by the newly arrived police and ambulance. I squinted my eyes against the flashlights on their cars, which bathed the area in bright shades of red and blue.
“Earth warlock or witch?”
I shook my head and instantly regretted it as it felt like my brain had sloshed around in my skull. “No,” I replied with a soft groan. “The magic felt like blood magic. Crisp, clean, familiar. This was a blood magic user who was looking specifically for us.”
“Maybe you,” Danaus quickly countered. “I don’t have any enemies in this part of the world.”
A little snort escaped me as I looked up at my companion. “My enemies are your enemies now, my friend.”
Danaus’s frown eased as he put his hand under my chin and tilted my head up so he could get a better look at my face and the blood that was now smeared across my cheekbone and jaw. “You should have just left me in Savannah,” he said.
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