“I know. Ryan is sending me back,” James replied.
“Really?” I asked before I could stop myself. The warlock had given me the impression that he wanted the researcher at my side, but now he was pulling him back to London. It didn’t make any sense.
James shrugged as we stepped onto the elevator. He pushed the button that would take us down to the ground floor. “You know Ryan.”
I did know Ryan. The warlock never did anything unless he had a very good reason. For some reason, he didn’t want James helping me any longer, and I didn’t like it.
“Is he going back as well?” I asked.
I caught James’s furrowed brow reflected in the silver doors of the elevator just before they slid open. “I thought he had already left. He hasn’t contacted me since I returned to the hotel.”
Shaking my head, I stepped out of the elevator and walked toward the doors that led out to River Street. “I don’t know what Ryan is up to. Can you tell me what he was doing with Mira?” I held the door open for him, forcing him to meet my gaze for a moment as he walked past me. The young man glared at me, knowing that I was ultimately catching him between his two masters.
A long silence stretched between us as we walked down the block in the cold morning air. The sidewalk was empty of tourists and most of the shops were still closed at this hour. We had the riverfront area almost completely to ourselves with the exception of the occasional homeless person settled in a shelter alcove or along the boardwalk.
“They were hunting naturi up in Scotland,” James said at last when I had become sure that he wasn’t going to answer me at all. “I was sent a couple weeks ago to pick her up. I wasn’t there, but I booked the flight. They went up to Edinburgh, hunting an earth clan naturi. Afterward, she returned to the Compound. She was in a series of meetings with Ryan, but she also met with me. She told me things.” He hesitated a moment, licking his lips as he thought about his next comment. “She told me things about nightwalkers and lycanthropes and the naturi. But I—I don’t know how much I should believe.”
Pausing at a corner, I shoved my hands in my pockets and gazed up the alleyway that led to Factors Walk. “Believe her,” I said grudgingly. Mira wasn’t one to sugarcoat the truth. If anything, she had a tendency to take a bleak look at the world around her.
“But it means that so much of what I’ve studied is wrong,” James said, frustration eating away at his voice. “So much of the world that I thought I understood has been wrong. I can’t believe that Ryan has the same misunderstanding and yet he’s done nothing to set us on the right path. If Themis is wallowing in centuries of untruths, then I can’t in good conscience remain there. It doesn’t make any sense. We’re not helping anyone. If anything, we’re perpetuating more untruths.”
With a frown, I stared out at the river as it wound its way past the city and down toward the massive shipping docks that were just around the bend. These were the same thoughts that had begun to plague me. I knew my time was growing short with Themis, but standing here with James, I knew that it was time to let the research group go. I had already seen and experienced more things during my time with Mira than James ever would, and if I honestly faced the facts of those events, I knew that many of the things I had learned with Themis were painfully wrong, resulting in the deaths of people who had done nothing to deserve their execution.
“And if we leave Themis, where do we find a place in this world?” I asked.
James heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head. “I don’t think there is a place for us yet.”
Those with knowledge of the others didn’t find an easy home within this world. The everyday world in which most people existed seemed like a pale, gray-shaded lie that left a nasty taste in the back of your throat. We had to maintain some kind of link to the others if we were to remain sane, if we were to find some way to sleep at night, even if it was with a knife under our pillow.
“Not yet, but after the Great Awakening, the world will make a place for us,” I commented, starting up the hill toward Factors Walk.
“After hearing Mira’s thoughts on that auspicious event, I have to admit that I’m not particularly looking forward to it. I can’t imagine that it’s going to go smoothly, no matter when it happens,” James said, walking just a couple steps behind me. “I mean, people just don’t like being lied to. They don’t like secrets.”
I stopped when we reached Factors Walk and looked up and down the wide alley. We were only a few dozen feet away from the apartment building where Abigail Bradford had been killed. The area was still blanketed with heavy shadows, but my keen eyesight could easily pierce the darkest corners. From what I could see, we were alone.
“What are we doing back here?” James finally asked after nearly a minute of silence.
“I was down here yesterday morning and a girl stopped me from walking up here,” I replied, slowly turning back to face the alley that linked Factors Walk and River Street. “She made it sound like she had seen the killer.”
“Really?” James demanded, coming alive and awake for the first time since meeting me that morning. His doubts about Themis and Ryan were temporarily forgotten as he turned his mind back to the mystery currently at his fingertips. “What’s her name? Can we speak with her again? Did you get any kind of description?”
“No, no name. She ran off before I could catch her name or any additional details.” I shook my head and walked back down toward River Street. “She called Factors Walk the Dark Walk.”
“Fitting,” James mumbled as he walked beside me.
“She said that the thing that killed the girl has been lingering around the region and that it’s unlike anything that’s been here before.”
“But—” James started, but abruptly stopped as if the thought caused him enough of a problem to halt his feet. “But that makes it sound like she knows about creatures like nightwalkers and shifters. Could she know about…the others?” he asked, lowering his voice to a whisper.
“Why not? You do,” I said with a smirk that finally got him walking again.
“Yes, but who is she?”
“Another homeless soul. This city has more than a few of them,” I said, crossing the street to walk along the boardwalk. “She looks to be around twelve to fourteen years old. Brown hair. Brown eyes. A little over five feet tall. Slender, with a worn backpack and dirty jeans.”
“Is that why we’re out this morning? Looking for her?”
I weaved around a park bench and regained the sidewalk near the cobblestone street. “Yes,” I admitted. “She was scared of me that last time. I thought maybe if I brought you along, she might be more willing to talk.”
“You think two strange men are better than one?” he inquired incredulously.
“You don’t have a very threatening manner,” I said.
James fell silent after my less-than-flattering assessment of his person and we continued down the walk until it finally wound away from River Street and followed the river into a park-like setting. I was about to give up and head back to Factors Walk when we finally spotted her sitting against the bronze Waving Girl statue, weaving Savannah roses with dried palm leaves.
Her head snapped up at the sound of James’s footsteps as we turned the corner. She placed one hand on the ground and was preparing to surge to her feet and bolt out of the area at the first sight of me.
“Wait!” I commanded. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Please!” James called after me. “We’ve got questions.”
The girl paused, standing, clutching a half-finished rose in her left hand and a pair of scissors in the other. Her bag was still on the ground along with a half dozen finished palm-leaf roses. If she ran now, she would be forced to leave all of her stuff behind if she had any hope of escaping both of us.
“What do you want?” she demanded belligerently, pointing the scissors at me like a knife.
“My name is James and this is Danaus,” James calmly said, with his smooth British
accent and impeccable manners. “We’re looking into the murder of that poor woman who lived over on River Street. Danaus indicated to me that you might have seen the person who killed her. We are simply looking for a little information.”
The girl directed her gaze over at me, arching one eyebrow and crinkling her nose. “Is he serious?”
“Very,” I replied around a half smile. Sometimes James could be a bit stuffy, but I had a feeling that that was half the reason that Mira liked him as much as she did. He was easy to tease.
The girl frowned, as she squinted her eyes at James, carefully looking him over before turning her gaze to me, weighing me with the same heavy stare. “Just hang around River Street or even any one of the churches. It’ll show up eventually,” she said at last, as she plopped back on the ground next to her things and resumed the task of weaving another rose.
“What is it?” James inquired, slowly edging closer one step.
The girl shook her head, not bothering to look up at him. “Don’t know. Like I told him, I’ve never seen anything like it before and there’s more than enough strange things hiding in this city.”
“Strange things?” James repeated.
“Yeah, like him,” she stated, jerking her chin toward me. “Or that woman you were with last night. Vampire, ain’t she?”
“So you do know,” I stated, earning a grim smile from the girl. She gazed up at me with old eyes that bespoke too many years lived on the streets.
“Vampires? Yeah, I’ve seen them. Werewolves, too. In the past few months, there’s something else lurking around the area, fighting with the vampires,” she said. With nimble fingers, she wrapped a thin strip of gold thread around the throat of the rose, tying the leaf in place and finishing yet another flower. She laid it down with the others and pulled up another long palm leaf.
“Naturi,” I said.
“What?” she asked, her head popping up, her hands finally freezing.
“Those other creatures you’ve been noticing are called naturi,” I explained. “They’re earth creatures out to destroy both mankind and vampires. I’d keep my distance from them.”
She gave a little snort and returned to the leaf between her fingers. “Thanks for the advice,” she said sarcastically. “I’ve learned that it’s best to stay away from all of them. All those damn things are always looking for a bite and you don’t want to be their next snack. They might be strong, but you can’t count on them to watch your back, particularly during the daylight hours.”
“But this creature that killed the woman, it’s not any of these creatures?” I said, turning the conversation back to the reason we went looking for her.
“Yeah, nothing like them. Its look is closest to the vampires, but this thing is stronger. It just feels…evil,” she said. A shiver wracked her too-thin body for a moment, causing her to edge a little to her left so that she was sitting more in the sunlight.
James squatted down near her, and picked up one of the roses she had made, twirling it between two fingers. “Have you seen it during the day?”
“Day. Night. It’s always around,” she said with a shrug.
“How long ago did you last see it?” I asked.
“Last night.”
“Will you take us to where you last saw it?”
The girl’s head fell back as she loosed a high-pitched laugh. “Are you crazy? There ain’t no fucking way I’m gonna go anywhere near that thing if I can help it.”
“We can’t get rid of it if we can’t find it,” James said when her chuckles died down.
“Get rid of it? You think you can actually get rid of it?” she asked, her eyes jumping from James to me.
“Well, actually, that’s more of Danaus’s thing. But he’s had a lot of experience getting rid of unwanted creatures. This will be no different for him,” James said.
She stared at me for a long time in silence, her hands falling limp into her lap. “You’re really old, aren’t you?” she said at last.
“Yes.”
A frown slipped across her face as she looked down at her hands. She was at least thinking about our request, which was a start. I had no doubt that she knew she’d be considerably safer if I relieved the city of Savannah of this creature that was starting to kill people. Like she said, this city had more than enough creatures running around. There wasn’t room for another.
“Fifty dollars. We’ll give you fifty dollars if you take us to where you last saw it,” I offered.
Her head immediately snapped up, her brow furrowed in thought. “A hundred dollars.”
“Fifty dollars if you take us to the spot. Another hundred if we actually find it,” I countered.
Another laugh escaped her, but this one was a little more muted than her earlier one, as if the suggestion wasn’t quite as ludicrous as the first one. I knew she had to be thinking about it. It was a lot of money. It would take care of her problems for a while if she was conservative.
“We can’t stop it if we can’t find it,” James reminded her.
“I won’t let it come near you,” I promised.
“Fine,” she said at last. Dropping the flower she was making on the ground, she shoved her scissors into her worn backpack and pulled it over her shoulders before she picked up her roses and remaining palm leaves. “But I can’t promise that we’ll find it. It comes and goes wherever it wants to.”
We followed the young girl back down the boardwalk toward River Street. At the first opportunity, she hurried across the street to the sidewalk opposite the river and then cut back up to Factors Walk. She paused just at the edge of the building and slowly peered around. Her breathing had grown a little heavier as she stood there and the palm leaves crackled softly in her hands as they tightened.
“I’ll go first,” I stated. “Which way?”
“Right,” she murmured.
I stepped forward into the wide alley, looking up and down the area. The region was completely empty of people, both through the alleyway and on the walkways above that connected Bay Street with the second-floor entrances into the buildings. Drawing in a deep breath, I slowly released it through my nose as I reached out with my powers. I didn’t sense anything in the immediate area, neither nightwalker nor naturi. There weren’t even any lycans in the immediate vicinity. Yet, as I was pulling my powers back into my body, I felt a spike of energy at the far end of Factors Walk. It was approaching quickly, and unfortunately, it felt extremely familiar.
“It’s here,” the girl said in a shaky voice.
“Stay behind me,” I commanded. My hand slipped down and I palmed a knife that I kept at my side.
“Danaus!” said a bodiless voice not far from where I stood. “You’ve brought me my newest little friend. I’ve been trying to win her over, but she’s been most stubborn. But you’ll help me, won’t you?”
I knew that voice. It was the same creature that I had encountered in Spain. The same creature that had possessed the nightwalker and killed the naturi. From what I could tell, it was pure energy and seemed to struggle to take a solid form.
“No!” the girl screamed. Dropping her roses, she darted out from behind James and me, running for the nearest set of stairs that led out of Factors Walk and up to Bay Street. The energy surged away from me and beat her to the staircase. It finally appeared once again in the form of a transparent angel with broad white wings and a silver glow. It smiled kindly at her, but there was something dark and menacing that glowed within its black eyes.
“Come now, child,” it purred. “I won’t harm you. I can help you. You can be stronger, so much stronger than the dark creatures that hound you each night.”
“No! J—just leave me alone,” she cried. She pressed her back against the stone wall, holding her hand up as if she could ward it off. To my surprise, James leaped between the angelic form and the girl.
“Back off,” he snarled.
The angel smiled and quickly shifted form to a slender woman with dark hair and bright blue eyes. Reg
ardless of its form, it remained translucent, like a ghost. “James,” it sweetly said. “Please, help me. I can’t survive without your help.”
I opened my mouth to shout at the creature, aiming to draw its attention back to me, but James spoke before I could. “You’re not welcome here.”
“I need the girl,” she said. “Give me the girl, and no one else will be harmed. The girl is in danger out here alone on the streets. I can protect her. You can’t.”
To my surprise, a copperish glow lit the researcher’s eyes as he pushed the young girl farther behind him. A deep growl rattled from his chest and he pulled back his lips in a snarl, revealing a growing set of sharp canines. Apparently, there was more to James’s heritage than we had originally believed. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best time or place for it to present itself. I had to take control of the situation before James finished shifting in a place where someone could easily see him.
“Gaizka!” I shouted. The creature’s head snapped around, a wide grin spreading across his face.
“I warned you, Danaus.” It laughed.
Before I could say anything else, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed off the ballast stone street. We all turned to look at an older black man as he entered the alleyway, his brow furrowed as he took in the scene of me holding a knife pointed toward James and the girl, who were backed against the wall.
Gaizka instantly disappeared and reappeared directly before the man in the form of an elderly woman. “Please, Owen!” it cried in a trembling voice. “These men are trying to harm me, trying to destroy me. Please, help me.”
“Mom?” the stranger gasped in strangled tones as he looked on what appeared to be a ghost.
“Please, my boy. Please, help me.”
“Yes, anything!” he cried.
“No!” I shouted at the same time, but it was too late. The ghost flowed directly into the man’s chest, causing him to jerk for a half second. And then he started at me with glowing red eyes. Gaizka had found a new puppet he could use to fight me and kill others if it wanted to.
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