“I didn’t know they would come.”
“But you know who they are, don’t you?” Kicking out with my left foot, I clipped his hand, but he held tight to his knife. I wished I had changed from the previous night. While the skirt was slit on both sides up to the knee and provided ample ease of movement, I never liked fighting in a skirt. “You know them because you’re one of them. They knew how to find me because you told them.”
“I didn’t know they would attack.” He edged away from the wall so he had more room to maneuver, but it wasn’t easy. The ground was uneven, filled with graves and large cover stones, not to mention random chunks of rock broken off from other monuments.
“You sold me out!”
I grabbed him. His knife sliced my upper right arm, but it didn’t stop me from throwing him into the wall. The impact knocked the air from his lungs, and I was there before he could suck in the next breath. My hand locked around his throat, pressing into his esophagus. He struck at me with his knife again, but I caught his wrist. With few options left open, he kicked at me. The force pushed me backward, but I used the momentum of my falling body to pull him with me to the ground. Danaus landed on his side next to me.
Frustrated, I released my hold on his throat. I needed a better approach. Rolling back to my feet before he could, I kicked him below the chin, snapping his head back as he got to his knees.
“I defended you from Jabari!” Circling him, I could barely hear the crunch of rock and sand under my feet over the pounding fury in my head. “I defended you and now I have lost him forever.” Stopping in front of him, I grabbed his shirt in both hands. I pulled him to his feet so he was staring me in the eye. “My life is forfeit because of you. My domain is lost, because of you.”
“I didn’t send them,” he repeated, his eyes narrow, glittering slits. “Why would I send someone else when I’m looking forward to cutting your heart out?”
I tensed the muscles in my arms, preparing to slam him into a nearby pile of jagged rocks, when something shot through the slim distance separating our faces. I jerked my head backward, my eyes widening. We both looked at the mausoleum wall beside us to find a small arrow shivering in the tan brick wall. A bolt from a naturi wrist crossbow.
Danaus reacted before I could, throwing his body into mine. We landed in a heap on the ground behind the tall sides of a grave cover stone. He lay on top of me as I heard three more arrows ping against the stone and bounce off. The naturi had found us. I loosened my grip on his shirt and slid out from beneath him, trying to edge around the side of the grave enough so I could see around the cemetery.
“How many are there?” I demanded, as another arrow whizzed over the top of the grave. I lay flat on my back in the dirt, straining to hear any indications that they were close. I looked back at Danaus, who was regarding me with a confused expression. “In case you haven’t caught on, I can’t sense them.”
“How has your kind survived so long?” he said with a slight shake of his head.
Glaring at him, I pulled back my lips enough to angrily expose my fangs. I was in no mood to exchange barbs when I had the damned naturi trying to kill me and I still had to kill him before the night was over.
The wind shifted and I caught a light smell of trees and water, the green smell of the rich earth after a rainstorm, all scents that had no business being in Egypt. They were close. I reached over and pulled a sword from a sheath on Danaus’s back. Facing a member of the naturi unarmed was never a wise choice.
“Seven,” Danaus said. “Four are in the cemetery, approaching fast, and three are on a rooftop outside the cemetery.”
I nodded. The three outside the graveyard were to keep us pinned down until the ones in the cemetery could reach us. I rolled to my knees at the same time I heard the ultrasoft footsteps of the approaching naturi. We had visitors.
Leaping to my feet, I raised the blade so it was in front of my heart. Two naturi stood a couple dozen yards away with their arms raised toward me. Bolts sped across the expanse, aimed at my chest. I deflected them, wishing I had something with which to return fire. I didn’t carry a gun. No nightwalker carried a gun. There had never been a need until now. With any other creature, it would have been a matter of knives or our bare hands. It had been five hundred years since we’d had a series of encounters with naturi before this, and guns hadn’t been the models of efficiency and accuracy that they were now. I was learning the hard way how to deal with the naturi. If I survived this, Gabriel would have to give me a quick lesson on how to fire a gun.
Without bothering to reload their crossbows, both naturi drew short swords and rushed me, clearly realizing that a gun would be relatively useless. The blade I held had more reach, but I knew they would waste no time coming in close to make good use of their steel.
“Nerian?” demanded the one closest to me, his hazel eyes narrowed. He had the same bushy hair and thick frame as Nerian, indicating that he was probably with the animal clan as well.
The smile grew across my face before I could stop it. It was a smile similar to one I’d seen on Jabari’s face in the past, one of peace and joy and malice. “Ashes,” I replied in a voice that could have frozen the Nile. “And you will join him soon.”
They both attacked at the same time, forcing me to dodge the blade of one while blocking the other. Across the cemetery I could hear the sound of steel clanging against steel. Apparently, Danaus had made some new friends. I kicked one of my attackers in the chest, sending him tumbling backward over a raised grave, while I blocked two more slashes from the naturi aiming to take off my head.
I would have to get rid of one of my attackers if I had any hopes of incinerating the other. Unfortunately, creating and controlling fire took a great deal of energy and concentration, particularly with the naturi. With houses, and sadly with vampires, all you had to do was start the fire. Humans took a little more work, but for some reason the naturi were the worst. Something about these creatures didn’t want to burn. That’s not to say they couldn’t, with the exception of a conscious naturi from the light clan. Overall, the naturi made nice kindling; it just required extra effort. And with one aiming to cut me into multiple pieces, I couldn’t be distracted with cremating my foes.
I turned, careful to keep my back to the wall of one of the larger mausoleums. If Danaus lost his battle or if one of his attackers abandoned him and attacked me, I didn’t want him to suddenly appear at my back. The naturi thrust his blade at me. I blocked it. As he drew it away, he flicked the tip so the edge grazed the bottom of my arm. A long red line appeared, sending a sharp, burning pain up my arm. It was a sensation I had forgotten about. All the naturi weapons were charmed, a special poison that screamed through the body.
I kicked at him, but he sidestepped my blow. What he didn’t expect was my fist landing on his nose the next second, snapping his head backward. Beneath my knuckles I felt bone break and flesh give. He staggered a couple steps backward, blood pouring down his face. He cursed, which always sounded strange to me. Their language was so beautiful and lyrical that curses came out sounding more like compliments, which is how I took it.
Across the graveyard a groan broke above the sounds of fighting. I couldn’t chance a look over, but it wasn’t Danaus’s voice. The hunter rid himself of one of his opponents. I attacked my bloody opponent before my other foe returned. Lucky for me, pain from his broken nose clouded the naturi’s judgment, and it was only two seconds later before my sword was buried in his chest. Grinning, I drew the blade upward, ripping through his vital organs and snapping bone until it broke through his collarbone and shredded the muscles and tendons in his shoulder. His eyes glazed over and his short sword clattered to the ground. Before he could collapse, I slashed my sword through the air, freeing his head from his neck.
I looked up to find my other playmate coming at me, rage glittering in his green eyes. His anger gave him more strength and speed than his companion, but I still had an edge. Nerian haunted my thoughts enough that I
knew I had to kill this naturi or I would be in their hands once again—a fate I would not repeat. The brown-haired creature slashed and blocked with ease, forcing me to circle away from the wall, exposing my back. I tried to circle around so I didn’t have to worry about anyone plunging a blade in my back, but he was good.
We exchanged glancing blows so that after a couple of minutes we were both bleeding small streams from half a dozen little cuts. My body burned and my arms trembled from the pain. The naturi’s leather jerkin was soaked with blood and sweat, but his eyes were narrowed and keenly focused on me. Clearly, his goal was to kill me.
Gritting my teeth, I blocked another series of blows aimed at my heart and slashed at him, backing him up a couple feet. With a little space between us, I lowered my eyelids until my eyes were reduced to narrow violet slits. He took a step toward me with his sword raised but lurched to a sudden stop, eyes widening. His irises seemed to be swallowed up by the whites of his eyes and his mouth opened as a low, strangled cry echoed through the strangely quiet graveyard. I lowered my sword, focusing all my energy on his body. It took only another couple seconds for the flames to peek through his flesh, blackening it. The sound of sizzling skin and tissue hissed in the air, while the smell of burning hair and leather overwhelmed any lingering scents of the Nile and the city. I stepped back as his clothes ignited and he crumbled to the floor. He never screamed and it was a bit disappointing, because it had been such a painful way to go. But what do you expect when you start a fire in someone’s lungs?
When the naturi was reduced to a clump of blackened pieces, I withdrew the power, extinguishing the fire. Exhausted, I crumpled to my knees in front of the corpse. The sounds of fighting had died off and I could vaguely feel Danaus nearby. I needed to rest for a moment before turning back to my dilemma with him. Summoning a little power, I pushed out and touched the minds of any humans who had wandered close at the sounds of fighting or the sight of the brief fire. It took a little effort, but I erased the image, convincing them to turn around and return to their homes. Our secret was still safe.
“There’s the little princess,” announced a bold, mocking voice into the growing silence.
Spinning around, I landed on my butt in my haste. The last naturi had forced me to turn, leaving my back to the vast expanse of the cemetery. The last three naturi from across the street were cautiously drawing closer.
Seated on the ground with my back pressed to the sand-worn wall of one of the crumbling, red brick tombs, my eyes were locked on the center naturi, who was staring at me. I had never seen a naturi like him. Well over five feet, he had hair so dark that it looked black, where all the naturi I had ever seen before were either blond or light brown. His right eye was covered with a black leather patch, while his right cheek and jaw were crisscrossed with rough, jagged scars. The naturi healed from nearly everything, their warm beauty seemingly protected for all time.
The one-eyed naturi took a step closer, edging around the dead bodies of his companions with his sword tightly clenched in his right hand. “Time to go.”
“Not a chance.” Something in his voice teased at my memories, as if I should remember him, but I could not recall ever seeing a naturi like him.
“But I have such plans for you.” He took another step closer. Digging in my heels, I prepared to leap to my feet. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the other two naturi turn toward Danaus. They would keep the hunter occupied while this naturi took care of me.
Yet, again his voice and words haunted me, bringing back images of Nerian and our final conversation. “Are you Rowe?”
His grin widened and he threw open his arms in a shallow bow. “At your service.” His dark red button-up shirt was open at the collar, and when he bent forward, I got a clear look at the scars that streaked across his muscular chest. As he straightened, he paused and his grin faded. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
“Nope.”
“We’ll fix that.” Rowe brought his sword down, but I blocked it with my own. Seated on the ground, I was at a definite disadvantage. I was too tired and hurt to try to burn him. I needed to get to my feet.
Rowe was about to bring his sword down again when a pair of high-pitched screams rent the air. A chill went up my spine and I flinched against the sound as if it were slicing through my skin. We both looked up to find that the other two naturi had dropped their short swords and were clawing wildly at their arms and face, pulling at their skin while screaming. I didn’t have a clue what was happening to them. They collapsed to the ground then, their lithe bodies jerking and arching in pain. Suddenly, the tanned skin split and blood poured out, hissing and bubbling. Their blood was boiling. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it to be possible.
“I’ll catch you soon,” Rowe said, pointing his sword at me. The sole surviving naturi then darted across the graveyard and down into the shadowy street.
My stomach twisted as it tried to turn itself inside out, my eyes falling back on the dying naturi. It was only then that I felt the enormous press of power filling the graveyard, pushing against my skin like a hand on my chest. My gaze jerked around the area and I found Danaus focused on the two naturi. He was on his knees, one hand outstretched toward them. He was doing it. This creature I had threatened and taunted was boiling the blood of his enemies from inside.
There was a brief moment of awe as I sat there watching their blood cool in the night air. My trick was good, but his was better. And what was to keep him from doing the same to me and the rest of my kind?
Twelve
When the naturi stopped writhing on the ground and were silent except for the occasional pop and hiss of melting bone and tendon, Danaus lowered his shaking hand. In the light from a distant street lamp, sweat glistened on his hard face and ran down his arms. The power he had called forth flowed out of the cemetery and a cool breeze swept in. He looked exhausted and a little pale. That unique ability obviously took a lot out of him.
He looked up at me and our eyes locked, both thinking the same thing. Did I have enough strength left to kill him before he could kill me? We were both exhausted, but if it meant our lives, I knew we both had the energy to crush one another. I had felt his power, let it wash over me when we were close, but it never occurred to me that he could do something like this. He could kill nightwalkers without ever getting close. And yet I’d never heard anyone mention such a unique gift. Of course, the hunter would have quickly become the hunted if we had known he was this dangerous. The Coven would have sent scores of vampires after him and we would not have rested until his existence was wiped from this earth. We could not afford such an enemy.
I don’t know how long we sat there staring at each other, waiting for the other to flinch first. Time seemed to stretch and twist in that graveyard filled with naturi corpses. We both had these horrible powers, which created a great amount of fear in those around us. For centuries Jabari was the only thing that kept me from being crushed by the Coven. And now I knew Danaus’s secret. One word from me and he would be hunted by vampires from all over the world until he was dead…if he didn’t kill me first.
Yet, sitting there in the dirt in that lonely Egyptian cemetery, I wasn’t sure I would ever speak of what happened. He saved my life when he had absolutely no reason to. I didn’t think it was possible, but I was even more confused than I’d been twenty-four hours ago.
“Who are you?” My voice sounded rough and ragged to my own ears. The various cuts and strains were coming back into focus, until I was nearly drowning in the pain. My grip on the sword in my right hand relaxed and I let it slip from my limp fingers. A breeze stirred, sweeping up from the river and weaving its way through the city before finally reaching us. Rich spices mixed with the thick smell of humanity drifted toward us, freeing us from the pall of death that had blanketed the graveyard.
Danaus sat down and was swallowed up by a deep shadow thrown by one of the mausoleums, becoming little more than a dark figure. A nightmare.
&n
bsp; “I am a member of a group called Themis.” His breathing was still labored and his arms trembled. There was a long cut across his left bicep, leaving the arm nearly covered in blood. Something in me stirred at the sight of the blood, but after what I had seen him do, I would not try for the temptation.
“The same as the men who attacked before sunset?”
“Since leaving the U.S., I haven’t had a chance to get a message to them. Tonight, I finally met with my contact at the Officers’ Club at the far north end of the city.” Each word that passed his lips was slow and hesitant. He looked down at the ground, his brow furrowed. I suspected he didn’t want to tell me anything, but knew that if we were going to move forward I had to know more. “I didn’t know they were sending anyone here. When I met with my contact, I discovered they thought I had been captured and was being held against my will. There are some in Themis that don’t ask questions. They were to rescue me and kill you.”
“And now?”
“They have been informed that we are…working together.” A wry, almost bitter smile quirked one corner of his mouth. His deep blue eyes flicked up to my face briefly and I had the impression he was fighting a laugh.
“I’m sure they are pleased with that.” A faint noise jumped from the back of his throat that almost sounded like a laugh. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one skating on thin ice at the moment. “Is that who you were meeting with here?”
“Yes, I caught them as they headed back north.”
“Has Themis called off its dogs?” I inquired, idly picking up a small rock and turning it over with the tips of my fingers.
“The hunters will be on a plane out of Egypt within the next hour.”
“Smart.”
I would hold off from killing Danaus for now. He had used his power to not only destroy the naturi attacking him, but also successfully scared off Rowe, incidentally exposing his unique ability and saving me from a fate potentially worse than death. However, I wouldn’t mind taking a chunk out of the hides of those who had hurt Michael. Nothing could light my temper faster than the thought of being attacked while I slept. I had no respect for cowards who attacked a person while he or she was defenseless.
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