“Knock some heads around and instill some fear,” suggested Stefan as he stepped out of the shadows nearby, joining us.
I frowned and shook my head as an uneasy feeling sank into the pit of my stomach. I had lost Danaus, and now Valerio and Stefan were drawing me deeper into their own plans. I didn’t like this at all. “So how long have you two been planning this little party for me?” I asked, forcing a smile onto my lips.
“Since you announced that you were the new keeper,” Stefan said, matching my smile.
“It is tradition, Mira,” Valerio interjected quickly. “Anytime there is a change in leadership, it’s customary for the new leader to go out and be seen among her people.”
What Valerio and Stefan were truly saying was that it was customary for the new keeper of a domain to go out and sacrifice a few nightwalkers as a way of officially kicking off their reign—washing it in blood. They weren’t lying, no matter how much I wished at the moment that they were. I had started my own reign of Savannah in a tide of blood. While our numbers had been small at the time, more than half of the nightwalkers in Savannah and the surrounding regions died when I declared that I was the new keeper of the area.
Unfortunately, after last night’s bloodbath and my fight with Danaus, I found myself no longer wishing to wash the world in the blood of those around me. I wanted to slip into a dark quiet corner and let the world forget about me. I wanted to escape the notice of the naturi, and Nick, and the coven. But standing there in the cold with Valerio and Stefan, I knew I wasn’t going to get that. I was a powerful nightwalker, a coven Elder who had just claimed one of the oldest cities in Central Europe as her domain. It was expected of me to make an appearance and shed some blood.
I swallowed a heavy sigh as I straightened my shoulders and turned my attention to Valerio, who had been watching me far too closely. After my falling out with Danaus, he knew that I was feeling more than a little weak and vulnerable. He was trying to cheer me up the only way he knew how—with violence and chaos.
“So what place have you chosen for me to make my appearance? I would prefer for it to have a large impact on the nightwalker population, since we shall be dealing with the shifters tomorrow night,” I announced, trying to keep my voice sounding bland and even a little bored.
Valerio’s smile widened. He could see right through me, but at least he knew that I was willing to go along with his little game. “You’re going to love this place. From what I had been able to tell, it’s popular with both the tourists and the locals. It’s open late and draws a huge bloodsucker crowd. It’s the perfect place for us. It’s called Bahnhof and it’s just behind the train station.”
I shrugged my shoulders, shoved my hands into the pockets of my slacks and followed both Stefan and Valerio through the street. We carefully wove our way through the crowd and used a little bit of mind manipulation to get through the front door ahead of the line of people waiting to enter the bar. I paused at the entrance, some of the tension easing from my shoulders at the pounding music. From floor to ceiling the place was decorated in old railroad memorabilia, which only seemed fitting since the place was right next to Nuygati train station.
We slowly pressed through the crowd of humans, making a sweep of the two separate dance floors as well as the different secret niches modeled after railway cars. I could feel the eyes of every nightwalker on us as we walked through the place. They remained silent observers for now. As far as they knew, we were trespassing in their private domain. Of course, they could have also heard about last night’s slaughter as the Széchenyi Baths. Either way, they were giving us some space for now, but it was only a matter of time. I was waiting to see who blinked first. Considering that Stefan’s lone assistant hadn’t escaped the city, I was willing to bet that the nightwalkers of Bahnhof were going to press us first. I just needed to give them a proper reason.
It didn’t take me long to find it. Toward the back of the train-themed dance club was a private car filled with nightwalkers and the human pets that clung to them like bits of fleshy jewelry. This was the exclusive club car. The so-called best seat in the house. And naturally, being the new keeper of Budapest, this had to be my seat.
I stood in the doorway and smiled down at them in silence, my arms hanging loose at my sides. They all looked at me with varying degrees of dislike and disinterest. One female seated farthest from the entrance into the secluded area frowned at me as she unwrapped her arm from around the shoulders of a thin, sickly white human with wind-blown hair.
“This is a private party. It would be best if you left,” she warned, leaning forward on the table. Considering that nearly twenty people were crammed into the tiny area, the table was littered with surprisingly few drinks. There were more nightwalkers than humans in that tight region, and no one was bothering to keep up appearances that they were just average customers of the club. This behavior simply wouldn’t do.
“Yes,” I said in a low hiss as my smile widened. “This is a private party and we have come for this set of seats.”
A low round of laughter rumbled through the car as they shifted restlessly in their chairs. I smiled, chuckling as well. I was older than all of them. This wasn’t going to be a contest. This was going to be a slaughter.
Keep anyone from escaping out onto the main floor. I don’t want to cause a panic among the humans, I directed Valerio and Stefan.
You’re determined to drain all the fun out of this, aren’t you? Valerio whined.
I’ll leave the humans to you and Stefan. I just want the nightwalkers.
“And where do you get this notion that we’re going to move for you?” the female demanded. “You don’t belong here. You should leave this city and go back to your own home.” This time I felt a not so subtle mental shove as she tried to mentally direct me to do her bidding. It lacked finesse, strength, and even cunning. It was both crass and insulting that she even attempted it on someone of my years and experience.
I didn’t even give her a chance to move. In a flash I reached across the table, grabbed her by the throat, and dragged her across the tabletop. Drinks were sent flying in every direction, but the sound of breaking glass could barely be heard over the roar of music coming from the other end of the club. Pinning her to the table with one hand, I raised the other above my head and bathed it in flickering blue flames so that I now had everyone’s full attention.
“Listen to me, you worthless piece of chum, I am Mira. I am the Fire Starter, a coven Elder, and the keeper of Budapest. Do you know what that makes you?” I growled, leaning close so that all she could see were my glowing lavender eyes and long white fangs. The female shook her head as she held the hand wrapped around her neck with two trembling hands. “My personal plaything for the rest of the evening. If you’re lucky, you’ll prove to me exactly why your maker didn’t kill you the second you were reborn, because right now you’re seeming extremely useless to me.”
Two humans stupidly attempted to rush me at the same time in hopes of freeing their precious companion. Throwing the female nightwalker back to where she had been seated earlier, I didn’t hesitate as I snapped both their necks in the blink of an eye and set another nightwalker on fire for edging too close to me.
Chaos erupted in the small booth at the sight of the fire. I stopped thinking and only reacted to the hands reaching for me and the knives that suddenly appeared, glinting in the firelight. After nights of running and fighting naturi, bori, and nightwalkers, I just stopped thinking and let my emotions run free. Limbs were ripped and broken. Screams were quickly muffled, lost in the roar of music that rumbled through the club. Valerio and Stefan appeared beside me, splashed with blood and smiling like devils at the carnage spread before them. In a matter of only seconds twenty people lay dead, both nightwalkers and humans. Hadn’t even thought about it.
Stepping onto the table, I walked over the mess and claimed the seat at the back of the niche, pushing bodies out of my way. With a wave of my hand, a couple orbs of fire app
eared in the air and hovered above the table, casting the blood-soaked booth in a frightening light. I looked around at the mess I had made and I wanted to be sick. I hadn’t lost control in years. I hadn’t killed a human in centuries. Not since my days with Valerio and Jabari, when I was young and reckless, had I caused such death and destruction. And yet despite my superior strength and vicious skill, they kept coming at me. They hadn’t tried to run in fear or plead for their lives. They just attacked me, and I killed them because . . . because killing was the only thing I was good at. Killing them meant taking my own life back one person at a time. I was tired of being hounded by Rowe, Nick, Macaire, and too many others to count. If I killed them, then there were a few less people in the world that wanted to kill me.
After staring blindly at the severed head of one of the nightwalkers that had been in the booth, I blinked a couple times and looked up to find Stefan and Valerio sitting on either side of me, while other nightwalkers crowded the opening to the private little niche. Horror stretched their handsome features and widened their luminous eyes. I could hear “Fire Starter” whispered among them in both Hungarian and rough English.
None of them cared that I was a member of the coven. They didn’t care that being an Elder made me a creature that demanded instant respect within the world of the nightwalker. They only cared that I was the Fire Starter, and with me came the instant threat of a painful and brutal death. Of the twenty, only one person within the booth had died by fire. They rest had been ripped apart by my bare hands. I was washed in their blood so that it was soaked into my clothes and dripped from my chin.
No matter what I did or where I went, I would always be the Fire Starter first and above all else.
Lifting my chin a little, I smiled at the nightwalkers that were cautiously watching me. “I am Mira and I am the new keeper of Budapest. I’ll be in town for a few nights along with my companions. I hope you will make us feel welcome.”
The response from the group was overwhelming silence, but I could feel a buzz in the air as many of them spoke with each other telepathically. I continued to smile at them, soaking in their fear and terror like a drug.
“And if you’re wondering, I have already visited with Odelia and Veyron. They are both aware of my new position within the city,” I added, just twisting the knife a little more.
A few of the older nightwalkers that had been around long enough to potentially see a regime change within a region lingered long enough to welcome me to the lovely city of Budapest and offer their services. However, most silently filtered back into the crowd of humans. In fact, most of the nightwalkers had left Bahnhof within twenty minutes of discovering the slaughter. I was simply too dangerous to remain close to. There was no telling whether I would decide to strike out at more nightwalkers. By now the killing at Széchenyi Baths was well-known among the Budapest nightwalkers, and now there was the bloodbath at Bahnhof. Death followed me wherever I tread, and no one was willing to stand in my path.
I looked across the table so find both Valerio and Stefan relaxing against the bloodstained cushions, appearing at ease with the world. They had nothing to worry about. They were both my protectors and instruments of my destruction. They were immune to my fits of rage, need for chaos, and desire for fear among those that surrounded me. I knew that this type of behavior was expected as I took my place within the city and as a member of the coven. The only problem was that it was starting to make me ill, even as I got better at the destruction as time slipped past. I was beginning to believe that I was the daughter of chaos.
Chapter Sixteen
The next night, the hotel room looked like a bomb had gone off. The walls were pockmarked with bullet holes and the furniture had been trashed. Glass from broken picture frames littered the floor so that the carpet now sparkled in the light coming through the window. Releasing Valerio, I took a couple of cautious steps into the room, my mouth hanging open as I dragged my eyes over the chaos. Danaus sat on the floor with his back pressed against the door that led into my bedroom. His clothes were torn and bloody. A knife was held loosely in one hand while a gun rested on the floor next to his other hand. He looked up at me, confusion filling his face.
“How the hell did you get here?” he demanded, pushing slowly to his feet.
“I stayed with Valerio during the day. He just brought me back.”
He pointed at the bedroom door with the knife. “You mean you were never in there?”
“No.” I shook my head, my eyebrows snapping together over my nose at his tone. “Didn’t you ever look in on me? You never checked?”
“No!”
“You left me!” I shouted back, refusing to feel guilty that he had defended what amounted to an empty room. “I told you that Veyron’s men would attack me during the day. Did you think I was going to stay here unguarded and vulnerable during the daylight hours while you went after Sofia?”
“I didn’t go after her,” he admitted, lowering his voice to a normal level again.
“But you left.”
Danaus narrowed his eyes on my face as his frown grew darker. “And you thought I would choose her life over yours.”
“Yes.” There was nothing else I could say. He left. He left the hotel room and I assumed that he was going after Sofia. Where else would he have gone after our argument? “Your leaving the room signaled to me that you were going after her. I would have been alone during the day, left vulnerable to . . . to this,” I said, extending my hands to encompass the destroyed room.
“I went down to the hotel bar for a drink,” Danaus snapped. “How could you think that I would honestly leave you alone? I stayed at your side in England when the naturi attacked. I was with you in Venice and Peru. Why would I leave you now?”
Because I thought you cared about Sofia more than you cared about me.
I was spared from having to answer out loud by the sudden appearance of Stefan in the center of the room. His eyebrows were raised and his lips twitched as if he was unsuccessfully suppressing a smile. “Had a bit of trouble during the day?” I wanted to smack him. Now was not the best time for jokes. Not when both my temper and Danaus’s were already burning away on a short fuse.
“Who came here?” Valerio asked in the growing silence as Danaus and I glared at each other. I wouldn’t feel guilty about leaving. He had left me with no indication that he planned to return to the room before sunrise, and I wasn’t going to roll over and die to suit him.
“Lycans,” Danaus replied slowly, finally lifting his gaze from me to Valerio, who stood just behind my right shoulder. Stefan’s face was wiped clean of the smirk that had been twisting his lips. The lycans were currently harboring the blame for Stefan’s missing assistant, and they had already been on the top of my list of things to take care of. If they had attacked Danaus with the intent of killing me, then the local pack didn’t stand much chance of surviving the night.
“Are you sure?” Valerio inquired.
“He knows a lycan when he sees one,” I replied as I walked through the room, toward the windows that looked out on the city. Lifting my eyes up to the black sky, I frowned at the full moon that shone down on me with her shimmering silvery light. The shifters would be at their peak strength tonight. It was fitting.
“Faster than normal humans,” Danaus said. “Stronger. They carried with them a thick sense of power that couldn’t be missed. The air smelled like a forest after the rain. There was no doubt that they were all lycans. There were three of them. However, one held back at the door during the fight. He may have been a warlock.”
“Warlock?” I spun around to look at Danaus again, blocking some of the light that tripped into the room from the window. My black shadow was swallowed up in the dark room, adding to the bleak atmosphere.
“Warlock,” he repeated. “He didn’t cast any spells, but there was something about the way he stood and carried himself. As if he was above it all.”
“Sounds like a nightwalker to me.” I crossed my arms ove
r my stomach as I leaned my shoulder against the window frame.
Danaus looked up and flashed me a grim smile. “I know a vampire when I see one.”
“Yeah, I guess you would. Warlock, then,” I grumbled.
“That’s . . . unexpected,” Valerio added.
Stefan shook his head, frowning. “Werewolves don’t form hunting parties with anyone else. They hunt in tight formation with only their own kind.”
I stared at the floor that sparkled with glass strewn over the thick carpet. The appearance of the warlock made me think that maybe he had been sent to make sure the job was done properly. I was beginning to believe that maybe Ferko had not been the one to send them. I had always believed that Veyron would send someone to kill me, but I’d been anticipating humans—not lycanthropes or warlocks. I found this development even more unsettling.
“I’m assuming that no one was killed, considering that there are no bodies,” I resumed, pushing my thoughts to the back of my mind for perusal later. Our main concern at the moment was the shifters. I could worry about their alliances later when I had a chance to beat the information out of Ferko.
“No one was killed,” Danaus stated, “though I have doubts as to whether one of them would survive the next few hours, considering I stabbed him near the heart. He was bleeding pretty heavily.”
“Did the warlock attack you?”
“No.” He finally shoved his knife in the sheath on his waist and then returned the gun to the holster at his lower back. “He never moved from the closed door.”
“His job was to get them in and out of the hotel unnoticed,” Valerio commented. “Silence any noise that rose from the room while they took care of their little task. When word gets out that they failed to kill you, they are likely to try again. You can’t stay here.”
“I’m not leaving the city again until this matter is taken care of,” I told him. “This is my domain, after all.”
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