“How many are left?” I asked, looking up at Stefan.
“Three, maybe four. Do you want us to hunt them down?” He smiled at me with frightening eagerness. Stefan loved his bloodshed, but then so did most nightwalkers.
I waved my hand, brushing off the question. “Don’t bother,” I muttered, turning my attention back to Ferko. “Hear that? You started with sixteen shifters and now there are only a handful of you left in all of Budapest. This could have been settled quietly. Lives could have been spared, but you chose to go this route.”
“You have no business in Budapest,” Ferko said in a rough, gravel-filled voice.
“The naturi are here. That makes it my business. But we have a more pressing matter.” I glanced over at Stefan, who tightened his grip on Ferko’s neck. The werewolf flinched, twisting in the nightwalker’s grasp. “It seems that Stefan’s assistant has gone missing in Budapest.”
“What the hell do I care if someone has gone missing?” the werewolf snarled. “What the hell does that have to do with me?”
“A lot. Veyron pointed us in your direction.”
“Bastard,” Ferko muttered under his breath.
Stefan gave his prisoner a hard shake, making sure he had his full attention. “Her name is Michelle. She is a nightwalker with brown hair and brown eyes. Her hair hangs down past her waist. She is delicate. You would remember if you saw her.”
Ferko laughed. “You think I’m going to remember some random girl?”
Stefan slammed his fist into the back of Ferko’s skull, knocking him flat on his face. The werewolf shook his head slowly as he struggled to push back into a seated position with a low groan.
“You would remember her!” Stefan shouted, losing the last of his grip on his temper. “She is exquisite, like a dream. Dark hair, dark eyes, and pure white skin. She’s a nightwalker. You would remember her!”
“When did she come into town?” he asked, finally taking the inquiry seriously.
“Weeks ago!”
As I started to walk by Ferko, I slammed my knee into his jaw, knocking him back to the ground while walking around to stand next to Stefan. Valerio stepped away, wandering over toward Danaus, lingering close in case Ferko did something truly stupid like attack me. I laid my hand on Stefan’s shoulder, but he jerked out from my touch while a low growl rumbled in the back of his throat. He wasn’t in the mood for any comfort from me, which meant he wasn’t going to like the other part of my so-called brilliant plan.
We’ll find her, I tried to silently reassure him.
You mean, we’ll find her dead body, he snapped back at me.
I bit back a sigh and didn’t deny it. At this point we’d be lucky if we found her body at all. She had been missing for a while now, and Budapest wasn’t the friendliest city I’d ever visited. My growing concern was that we wouldn’t be able to find the actual culprit in this rotating fun house of horrors. First we met the sensual Odelia, and then the power-hungry Veyron. It didn’t ease my mind that we had Macaire lurking about, eager to offer a helping hand. And now the unlucky Ferko, who was not only doing the grunt work for Veyron, but also taking on all of the blame. This couldn’t be the arrangement that the lycanthrope originally signed on for, and we had to find a way to use that to our advantage.
We need to leave him alive, I said reluctantly to Stefan.
The nightwalker jerked a step away from me, pinning his dark gaze on my face. Are you insane? He may have killed her. If not him, then one of his people.
Probably so, but we need him in order to get closer to Veyron. It’s the only way to catch everyone in this twisted power dynamic. There’s a warlock out there that’s working with the lycans as well. I want them all.
So be it, he snarled at me as he stalked off a few yards. Just so long as I kill him before we leave Budapest.
Agreed.
I walked back around so I was standing in front of Ferko, who growled at me like a wounded dog. “Is this the agreement that you had in mind when you went in with Veyron? Sacrifice your people? Get yourself killed just so he could be the big bad vampire in Budapest? He wanted you for his enforcer so you could do all his dirty work?”
“You don’t know anything,” Ferko said stubbornly.
“Really? Then enlighten me.” I slipped my hands into the back pockets of my pants as I came to stand before the shifter. “Seems like you’re getting the raw end of this deal. You’re going to die while he gets away without a care.”
“What do you want from me? Names? Dates? The total betrayal of everything? I’m no snitch.”
I sighed, my shoulders slumping under the weight of too many long nights with no real answers. Glancing up at Stefan, I found the nightwalker growing more impatient by the second. I thought he was getting closer to the realization that he wasn’t going to get his Michelle back, but he at least needed the culprit behind her disappearance and death.
“Hasn’t he already betrayed you? He singled out the lycanthropes for the disappearance of Michelle. Lycanthropes attacked Danaus today, trying to kill me. Did you actually think you would escape unscathed from such acts?”
“One can hope,” he said, looking up at me with a lopsided smile.
“You’re no help to me. Kill him,” I said, weary. I turned on my heel to look at Danaus, who was watching me with dark eyes. The hunter made no move to stop either me or Stefan. Valerio leaned against a nearby tree, picking dirt and dried blood out from under his fingernails.
“No! Wait!” Ferko shouted suddenly. “Odelia sent me after the woman.”
I turned back to face him, raising one hand to halt Stefan, who was holding the man with both hands around his neck. If Ferko had hesitated any longer, the nightwalker would have snapped his neck before we could procure this interesting and surprising bit of information. Odelia had struck me as another of Veyron’s flunkies. She didn’t have any particularly special standing within the nightwalker community other than being somewhat old. The true power, in my mind, had always been linked to Veyron. He was the oldest, strongest, and most powerful in the region.
“Odelia? Not Veyron?” I asked.
“Odelia likes the fact that she’s the most beautiful of all those in the city. She doesn’t like having competition,” Ferko said quickly. “The bitch had two of my own females killed because of their looks. When this brunette showed up unexpectedly in town, Odelia didn’t care that she was only passing through. She wanted her dead.”
“So she requested that your people take care of her,” Stefan said.
“Requested?” Ferko snorted. “You make it sound like we had a choice. Between Veyron and Odelia, we didn’t have much choice in the matter if we wanted to continue to run in the city.”
“You tracked Michelle down and killed her,” I finished, my throat tightening around the words. The nightwalker had done nothing more than come into town so she could pick up a package for Stefan. She had been eliminated because she was simply too beautiful to live where Odelia was concerned.
“Where is she?” Stefan demanded in a trembling voice.
“Dead.”
Stefan kicked the lycanthrope in the back, knocking him to the ground again. “I understand that! Where is her body?”
“Burned,” Ferko admitted, slowly pushing back into a sitting position. “It’s the only way to be sure that one of your kind isn’t going to rise again. Her ashes were spread around these woods.”
Stefan looked up at me, shaking his head. I could see the pain in his eyes. He couldn’t stay here and not kill Ferko. And I couldn’t blame him. If I had been in his shoes, I would have already ripped the werewolf’s heart from his chest. Of course, I didn’t think the werewolf deserved such a quick death. He deserved to suffer for the death of Michelle, and if I had any say in the matter, he would before we left Budapest.
Just give me a little more time, I begged Stefan.
So long as he is mine before we leave Budapest.
You can have Odelia as well if you would like.
Throw in a seat on the coven and I might not have to kill you myself, Stefan said, causing one corner of my mouth to twitch with a morbid laugh.
Agreed.
Stefan’s eyebrows jumped as he looked at me, surprised by my promise. The nightwalker said no more after that, not waiting to spoil his sudden good luck. He simply disappeared into the darkness, leaving us to handle Michelle’s murderer.
“Tell me about the warlock who was with your kinsmen during the day and I’ll consider sparing your life,” I said.
Ferko turned his face up to me, frowning. I doubted whether he could actually see me through his blurred vision, but I could tell he was considering my offer. He had to know that his life was dangling by a thin thread. “Warlock?”
“Oh, don’t start playing dumb with me again,” I huffed. “We were making such progress.”
Ferko shook his head, turning his face back to the ground again. His shoulders were slumped and his breathing was labored. His body was having trouble healing all the wounds we had inflicted on him despite the full moon. Of course, if it hadn’t been a full moon, I seriously doubted that he would have been able to survive. Valerio and Stefan liked to play rough.
I paced away from Ferko, walking over toward Danaus. Valerio looked up from his fingernails and pushed off from the tree with a jerk of my head. He headed over to our captive and took up Stefan’s position behind Ferko. While Valerio might not like to get his hands dirty, he was still very good at it. If I gave the slightest indication that I wanted Ferko dead, Valerio would not only happily carry out my wish, but also make sure it was a particularly slow and painful death.
“I’ve been around for quite a while, Ferko,” I started again, trying a different approach. “I’ve known nightwalkers and lycanthropes to work together on the rare occasion. I’ve known nightwalkers to rarely work with warlocks and witches. But this is a first. Warlocks don’t generally get along with shifters. They see you as just a bunch of filthy, uncivilized animals that can’t control your basic urges. Why would a warlock possibly want to work with your kind?”
“Maybe this one sees you as being less desirable to have around than a pack of animals,” Ferko sneered.
“Maybe,” I admitted. “I’ve pissed off my fair share of warlocks, but I have to say that I haven’t been in this part of the world in a long time. I don’t know who would find my presence undesirable.”
“No one wants you to be the keeper here,” Ferko said. “You don’t belong here.”
“And trust me, I don’t want to be keeper here, but someone has to rein in the chaos in this area before it leaks across the rest of Europe. Not every nightwalker is going to prove to be as tolerant as me.”
“Tolerant? You’ve destroyed my pack!” he snarled, baring his fangs at me. Power filled the air so that the scent of the woods grew even thicker. Valerio leaned forward and clipped the werewolf behind the ear. The lycanthrope collapsed in a limp heap at my feet, unconscious.
“Valerio!” I shouted, throwing my hands up in frustration. I wasn’t even close to being done interrogating our prisoner. I needed to know more about the warlock that was apparently working with the lycans, and by extension, the nightwalkers. This kind of collaboration wasn’t something that set me at ease. Sure, at one time in my own domain my own people had gotten along with the lycanthropes, and I had a scattering of associates that were witches and warlocks. But this arrangement in Budapest was distinctly different and completely unsettling. The warlocks and lycanthropes were acting as muscle for the nightwalkers during the daylight hours, extending that species’ power more than it should have.
“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, flashing me a weak smile. “I don’t know my own strength sometimes.”
“Is he still alive?”
“Yes,” Valerio said, sounding put off that I would think he had so little control. “He’s just unconscious. I am assuming that you want him awake when I kill him. Or should I call Stefan back? I’m sure he’d be happy to finish off this fleabag.”
“Leave him alive. I promised him to Stefan later. Right now, we need him conscious so we can get more information out of him. I need to know who this warlock is.”
Valerio sighed as he stepped over Ferko’s unconscious form and started to walk over to where he had left his coat folded over a tree limb. “We don’t need him for that.”
“Of course we do,” I snapped, trailing behind him. “The lycans that attacked Danaus during the day were accompanied by a warlock.”
“The night that we met with Veyron, Mira and I were attacked by a magic user,” Danaus interjected. “I’m willing to bet that it’s the same one. A city generally doesn’t have that many powerful magic users on hand.”
Valerio turned and arched one eyebrow at us as he pulled on his coat. “Agreed. Warlocks aren’t very good at sharing. However, in this town, I would be reluctant to make such an assumption. It seems like everyone is working together here.”
“Too true. Nightwalkers directing lycanthropes. Warlocks protecting lycanthropes.”
“I’m surprised that they haven’t also struck a deal with the naturi,” Danaus added, earning a dark look from me. We didn’t need to discuss potential deals with the naturi. We had already been down that route and the outcome was never pretty. The last time such a thing was spoken of, I ended up on the coven.
“The naturi don’t like to make deals,” I said. “Besides, Rowe’s running around the city with his own personal band of followers. Their only agenda is to get their hands on me so they can hand me over to Aurora. He’s not going to be into making deals with anyone. At least, I hope not.”
“Unlikely,” Valerio agreed.
“Thanks,” I grumbled, but then turned my attention back to our problem at hand. With the toe of my scuffed black boot, I turned Ferko over so he was lying awkwardly on his back with one arm trapped under his body. His mouth was slack as blood trickled out of the corner and dripped onto the melting snow. “What about the warlock?”
“It’s likely that it’s Clarion,” Valerio stated.
“Clarion? I’m afraid I’ve never heard of him.”
“He’s given me a little trouble in Vienna. He’s a powerful warlock who is based in Budapest, but he’s come around some of the other big cities surrounding Budapest, looking to expand the reach of his . . . domain,” Valerio said, struggling for the right word.
Warlocks and witches were not known for having a domain. They tended to settle in a central location for a time, and operated exclusively in that region until they either died, grew bored, or were run off by someone more powerful. They didn’t have followers or minions like nightwalkers or lycanthropes. And they didn’t try to expand the reach of their home territory. This didn’t sound good at all, and it clearly explained why Valerio was interested in this little trip to Budapest. It was a chance to make a grab at his annoying neighbor, possibly scaring him into a new location if he didn’t simply kill him.
“So you think that Clarion is the one working with the nightwalkers and lycanthropes?” Danaus asked.
Valerio gave a noncommittal shrug. “Possibly. Did you get a good look at him?”
“No, not at all. Just say a vague outline in the darkness.” Danaus shoved his hands into the pockets of his long leather coat as he frowned at the vampire. “In the hotel room, I was too worried about keeping the lycanthropes away from where I thought Mira was. I could only sense his power in the air, marking him as a warlock.”
“On the way to Veyron’s, I got only a glimpse of the figure on the rooftop. No details,” I admitted with no small amount of frustration. “But what are the odds that there is more than one powerful warlock in the region?”
“Pretty good, unfortunately,” Valerio stated, pulling a growl out of me. I felt like I had stepped in quicksand. With every movement, I was getting sucked further down into the thickening insanity that permeated every inch of the dark occult side of Budapest. I was seriously beginning to long for my home of Savanna
h—away from Veyron, his flunkies, and the schemes of Macaire, which I had yet to figure out.
“How is that possible?” Danaus demanded. “I didn’t think warlocks and witches played well together. Too territorial. Even more so than nightwalkers and lycanthropes.”
“It’s true, but this one seems to have found someone that he does get along well with. I have encountered Clarion only a few times during the past several years, but I had heard that he doesn’t work alone. There’s another magic user that he associates with here in Budapest. Unfortunately, I don’t know whether it’s a warlock or a witch yet. I can’t gauge the creature’s strength, but can only guess that he or she is at least as powerful as Clarion or he wouldn’t bother with this creature.”
“You mean, he would have either killed the person or pressured him or her out of the region already,” I said.
“True.”
“So what’s our next step? Do we go after Veyron?” Danaus asked. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduct that he sent a hit squad after you,” he added, bringing a frown to my lips. “You were expecting him to send some people after you.”
“Yes, but the problem is that I was expecting him to send humans with big guns and wooden stakes, not a pack of werewolves with a warlock as backup. That makes this whole situation more complicated, Mr. Rocket Scientist,” I said, not caring how bitchy I was starting to sound. We were all getting more than a little frustrated by Veyron and his minions, and that didn’t get us any closer to taking care of the naturi infestation we were originally sent to take care of. I might have let Rowe slip through my fingers tonight, but I wasn’t through with the one-eyed naturi. I wasn’t going before Aurora again unless I had an edge that would finally take the naturi queen down. In the meantime, I needed to take care of Rowe so he wasn’t constantly at my back with a knife.
“We first need to understand the power structure in Budapest.” Valerio artfully wrapped his dark red scarf around his neck, showing the same skill as when he tied a cravat a few centuries ago just prior to our attending the various balls and soirees that filled our evenings together in Europe. “If we aren’t careful, we could kill a simple pawn, which would leave the bulk of the power structure intact and us vulnerable to retaliation.”
wait for dusk Page 20
