Dayhunter

by Jocelynn Drake

  “No,” I repeated calmly. “The leaders of the various groups met and came to the agreement that mankind isn’t as stupid as we would hope. One day, people are going to figure out that this whole other world exists. So in an attempt to control the chaos, the various groups agreed that mankind would come to this realization on our terms. A timetable was designed, with a date set for what is being called the Great Awakening—the day mankind wakes up and realizes that it’s not alone on this planet.”

  “Along the timetable there are several stages where we try to prepare man for the idea that vampires and lycans are real,” Nicolai interjected. “Things have picked up in the past hundred years with stories in the tabloids, major motion pictures, books, and now a large number of Web sites.”

  “Propaganda?” Danaus asked, sounding absolutely horrified by the thought.

  “Of course,” I laughed. I stretched out my legs and crossed them at the ankles as I relaxed in my seat. “Nightwalkers own three major publishing companies and half a dozen small press companies. We also own more than a dozen movie production firms around the world. We are constantly churning out positive propaganda for the cause.”

  Frowning, he shifted in his chair, sitting on the edge of his seat. “Promoting vampires.” Such a thing would not make his job of hunting us any easier if we succeeded in winning the support of a large portion of humans when the Great Awakening finally arrived.

  “Not just nightwalkers,” Alex quickly said, drawing his glare to her. “The various groups agreed that anything put out by one of our companies would not intentionally cast another race in a negative light. We’re in this together. If one goes down, we all fall.”

  But then, even that lovely idea had fallen into question following the appearance of a lycan and a witch with a member of the Daylight Coalition.

  Our conversation ground to an uneasy halt as the server arrived with several plates of food. Alexandra had ordered a medley of shrimp and linguine in red sauce, while Danaus settled on manicotti and an order of veal parmesan. Nicolai ordered some kind of seafood concoction that I couldn’t identify. But that wasn’t surprising. I hadn’t eaten real food in more than six hundred years. After that long, it all started to look the same. Sometimes the smells would tantalize, but the actual appearance of food had become unappealing. It frequently reminded me of the aftermath of some of my more gruesome and bloody battles.

  As my companions dug into their meals, I stared across the plaza, which had begun to empty. The night grew darker and deeper, but much of the inky blackness was held at bay by the warm glow of lamplights scattered about the square. The pigeons had left to find a roost for the night, the air filled with the bubbling murmur of conversation and the faint hint of a melancholy tune plucked on an acoustic guitar somewhere nearby.

  “When is the big day?” Danaus asked between bites.

  “There’s no exact date,” Alex said, cutting her food into delicate little bites. It was almost amusing. She was such a lady in public, but I’d seen her hunt. Nothing ladylike about running down and tearing the throat out of a twelve-point buck.

  “It’s tentatively set for sometime in 2055,” I said, twirling my glass again. “Every once in a while a few of the groups get together and reevaluate the timetable.” It had been a while since I’d sat this long out in the open with so many people. I was continually scanning the area for anything, but we were alone. “Sometimes science or technology jumps a little faster than we anticipated and stages have to be moved up. It’s always a very liquid process with room for change, but there’s no denying that it’s coming.”

  Danaus went still beside me, drawing my gaze back to his solemn face. “Were you counting on Rowe?” he asked.

  “No,” I softly said, looking down at the deep red liquid in my glass. I laid my hand flat on the table, suddenly fearful I would unintentionally shatter the stem. The dark naturi with the leather eye patch was determined to free his queen and the rest of the naturi horde waiting on the other side of the seal. He was also determined to accomplish this feat with my help.

  “Why do I get this horrible chill whenever someone mentions that word?” Alex said, laying a forkful of linguine back on her plate. “What’s Rowe? Does it have something to do with the reappearance of the naturi?”

  With a faint sigh my gaze drifted away from my friend and back out to the plaza as I mentally sorted through the events of the past several days, even the events that had taken place more than five hundred years ago. What to tell her? So much of it would horrify her, but I also knew that keeping secrets at this stage wouldn’t protect her.

  Reluctantly, I launched into the tale of the naturi, sparing her of as many of the grizzly details as possible. I stretched back to what little I knew of that horrible night more than five centuries ago and mentioned tidbits of what had happened to us during the past several days. I told her of the sacrifice at Konark and the failed sacrifice at Stonehenge. I mentioned the symbols we had found in the trees as the naturi sought to break the seal that bound them. I described the attack in Aswan, Thorne’s pain-filled death, and holding Michael in my arms as his soul fought for freedom during the final seconds of his life.

  Alex sat back in her chair and blinked a few times when I spoke of my lost angel. She had met Michael a couple of times and liked his easygoing manner. I appreciated her teary eyes…I had yet to shed my own tears for the young man. There was no time, as the naturi hounded us and I attempted to outmaneuver whatever plans Jabari and the Coven were apparently cooking up for the demise of my race.

  However, I purposely omitted the fact that I was not actually a member of the triad that protected the seal, but its weapon. Nor did I voice the fact that the hunter who sat beside me could wield my abilities like a sword. While Alex and I were friends, her loyalty would always be to the pack, and anything I told her could eventually fall on their ears. I was already skating on thin ice by telling her about Rowe and his attempts to free the naturi. The handling of the naturi had always fallen to the nightwalkers, and it had become a tightly kept secret. But if we failed, I didn’t want her to be blindsided.

  Nicolai remained silent during my tale. I wasn’t overly fond of the idea of this outsider hearing all of these details. But I was forced to trust him since Alexandra and the lycanthropes had to know what they were facing before it was too late.

  The female naturi in the main hall was also omitted from my tale. If Alex and Nicolai didn’t sense her, then it was better that they didn’t know about it. I didn’t know what was going on yet, and wasn’t about to start a panic among the other races. If the lycans thought the nightwalkers had aligned with the naturi, a horrible war would sweep across the globe before the naturi ever managed to escape their prison.

  When I was finished with my tale, Alex pushed her half-eaten meal away. “I’ve lost my appetite,” she said weakly. She actually looked like she was going to be sick, her eyes taking on a glassy appearance as the scent of fear drifted from her to my nose.

  “Finish eating,” I prodded, pushing her plate toward her again. “How often do you get to eat real Italian? I mean, outside of a full moon, of course.”

  “That’s not funny,” she snapped. No, Alex didn’t hunt humans, though a select few of her kind did. Even in animal form there was enough of Alexandra the human left behind to restrain her from attacking humans. She hunted only animals, and even then, only on the rare occasion when she gave in to the urge. “How can you make jokes? Don’t you realize what could happen if they enter our world?”

  “Trust me, Alexandra, I understand better than most,” I said in a low, even voice, my eyes narrowing as I looked anywhere but at my companions. Alex didn’t know about my captivity by the naturi—I’d left that out while recounting the events in Machu Picchu earlier—but she knew there was something dark and ugly in my past that left behind some deep emotional and physical scars. She took the hint. “There are a number of things going on that I don’t understand, but I will soon. Panicking right
now isn’t going to help.”

  “It gets worse.” Alex’s usually strong voice dropped down to an unexpected whisper, drawing my gaze back to her lovely face. Shadows danced across her features, thrown up by the candle flickering in the hurricane glass in the center of the table.

  A part of me wanted to ask her how it could possibly be any worse. The vampires were meeting with the naturi in secret. The witches and werewolves were meeting with the Daylight Coalition. Ancient enemies were suddenly allies, and old alliances with the lycans and witches were crumbling before us.

  “They’ve starting calling us,” she said.

  “When?” I demanded, barely able to push the word from my constricted throat.

  “About a week ago, but after last night I’ve heard that it has gotten worse. Most of the leaders have managed to hold their packs together, but a few here and there have gone missing. Most of them are younger, newer to lycanthropy. It seems like the call is worse the farther west you head,” she explained.

  I looked back over at Nicolai, who was staring straight ahead, his full lips pressed tight into a hard, unyielding line. “What about your pack?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve been out of contact with them for more than a month,” he said stiffly, his eyes refusing to meet mine. I left the comment alone. A member of a pack was never out of contact from its members for long. Lycanthropes also never “belonged” to a vampire. Something dark was going on and I was willing to bet that it was rather painful and horrible for Nicolai. It would explain why Alex did nothing to even acknowledge the man’s presence. She didn’t look at him, didn’t talk to him.

  I frowned, turning this new bit of information over in my head. There were four different ancient holy sites in North and South America that the naturi could potentially use for their next sacrifice attempt: Old Faithful at Yellowstone Park, Mesa Verde in Colorado, Easter Island, and Machu Picchu in Peru. Would they dare to return to Machu Picchu after their horrible defeat there centuries ago? If it meant freeing Aurora, yes, without a doubt.

  Turning my focus back to Alexandra, I struggled to keep my sympathy for her plight from showing on my face. It wouldn’t help her when faced with the threat of suddenly becoming servants for a vicious race bent on the total extermination of humanity.

  There were a couple theories as to how lycanthropy started. Some thought it was the result of a spell or curse woven by an old Native American god. Yet, some thought the root of shapeshifters was older than that. However, the darkest of the theories was that lycans were created by the naturi as a type of servant and soldier. Because of a lycan’s close tie to nature, the naturi could call to a lycanthrope, summoning him or her across vast distances to do their bidding. Most viewed that as the future of man if the naturi entered this world—extermination or lycanthropy.

  “So we’ll be faced with both the naturi and lycans if the next sacrifice is to be held in the West,” Danaus said grimly.

  “Maybe even an assortment of Wiccans,” I said. It was becoming a real party, and it appeared everyone was invited.

  I turned my attention back to one of my few friends. Alex was nearly fifty, though she could still easily have passed for someone in her mid-twenties. Lycanthropy gave a person an amazing ability to heal from nearly every injury, except for those caused by silver. Particularly silver bullets and knives. Her “curse” also slowed down the aging process, usually doubling or tripling a human’s average life span. I liked Alex. She had a good sense of humor and philosophy on life. I didn’t want this future for her.

  “When is your flight home?” I asked, battling to keep a frown from tugging on the corners of my mouth.

  “Tomorrow morning.” There was no mistaking the anxiety that crowded those two words. She lived in Portland, on the lovely West Coast. She was in danger of succumbing to the call and she knew it.

  “Go back to London and stay until after the new moon,” I ordered, sitting on the edge of my chair. My eyes jumped over to Danaus, who was watching the exchange with a worried look. “Could Themis protect her?”

  “Mira,” he softly said, his voice deep and weary. “Themis isn’t an organization of bodyguards. We can’t—”

  “Damn it, Danaus!” I cried, hitting the heel of my palm on the table, rattling the nearly empty dishes. It was a struggle to bring my voice back under control, but I finally managed it before I continued. “I’m not asking your people to protect a pack of rabid vampires. Alex is still human—the race you’re so desperate to protect. Call Ryan. Talk to him.”

  Alex shook her head, pressing her lips into a thin line. “I can’t. My pack needs me. I have to go back.”

  “You have to take care of yourself. Go back to London. Your pack will manage.”

  “I have to go,” she said, her smile as fragile as a cracked eggshell. “I’m an Alpha now.”

  My brows furrowed at this announcement and I sat back in my chair. “And you’re still in Portland?”

  “You don’t need to sound so surprised.” She stabbed her food with her fork, using enough force to cause the tines to scrape loudly across the ceramic plate.

  “Forgive me,” I said with a little bow of my head as I pressed my right hand to my heart. “Congratulations on your new position.” It was quite an accomplishment. The Portland pack was large, with about forty members, last I’d heard. The packs out West were larger and there were more of them than on the East Coast in the States. Across Europe and throughout Asia, the packs had only twelve or fewer members and stuck to the rural areas.

  With a shake of my head, I raised my left hand high in the air and snapped my fingers while my right hand dropped back to the arm of my chair. A server instantly appeared and placed the bill in my hand. I scratched out the name of an account on the bill and handed it back. It was the name of the Coven account and was known to all business operators across Venice. The bill would be sent to that account and immediately taken care of. I’d learned that trick when I started doing little odd jobs for the group not long after leaving Jabari. If you were going to do the dirty work of the Coven, they were willing to supply some basic perks while you were staying in Venice.

  “With that said,” I continued when the server walked away, “I still believe you should go to London for the next few days.”

  “You know I can’t, Mira,” she said, standing at the same time as Danaus and I.

  I grabbed her elbow and squeezed it. “Don’t go to them, Alex,” I warned, dropping my voice so it was low and firm. The tone would leave my words burrowed into her brain like a swarm of ticks. I wanted those words to resonate within her mind during the coming months, hoping they would protect her against the siren song of the naturi. “I’ve enjoyed our friendship, but I won’t hesitate.”

  Alex looked up at me with sad eyes. She knew that if she stood between me and the naturi, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. Once she answered to the call of the naturi, she would be under their complete control.

  “Just promise to make it quick,” she said, a halfhearted smile lifting one corner of her mouth. “I don’t want to think about being under the control of those bastards.”

  “I understand,” I whispered, and pressed a kiss to her temple. “When it’s over, come to Savannah and we’ll go hunting.”

  Pausing beside the table, I looked down at Nicolai, still lounging in his chair, his glass of wine in his hand. We would meet again. Jabari might order the lycanthrope to kill me before I left Venice, and Nicolai would do it. Not because he bore any hatred for me and my kind, but because Jabari was holding something over him.

  “It’s been a pleasure,” I said with a little smirk. Nicolai smiled in return and raised his glass to me. We both knew that we would meet again. It was a shame that it would be on opposite ends of the battlefield.

  “Good luck, Mira,” Alex whispered, grabbing my cool hand in both of her warm hands and squeezing it tightly.

  I chuckled as I walked away, my hand slowly slipping from her grasp. “I don’t need luck,” I cal
led, turning and walking backward so I could look at her as I departed. “I’m the Fire Starter.”

  I just wished I had a plan.

  TEN

  Danaus and I wandered down the dark streets in silence, slowly heading back to the speedboat. The sound of water lapping at the stone sides of the canal followed us throughout the winding city. The night was still in its infancy and I wasn’t particularly eager to go back to the hotel suite where Sadira and Tristan were most likely cuddled. I paused on the sidewalk next to our boat and stared across the canal at the lights of the Doge’s Palace and Piazza San Marco. The air was cluttered with the various thoughts and emotions of the people out enjoying the warm summer night.

  “When was the last time you were in Venice?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at Danaus. He was also watching the lights reflect off the undulating waves.

  “I’ve never been to Venice,” he said. It was on the tip of my tongue to demand how that was even possible. He was Italian, or at least Roman, and more than a thousand years old. How could he have not visited the canals? But I knew I wasn’t going to get an answer. He was still stingy about personal information regardless of the fact that he had popped into my thoughts on more than one occasion.

  “Come on,” I said, jumping onto the boat we had borrowed from Roberto. “I want to show you something.” With a somewhat skeptical look, he climbed onto the boat and sat down while I started the engine. I rushed back out into the Lagoon, away from the bright lights and crowded canals. We cruised away from the tourist hot spots and the quaint neighborhoods, as I took him across the Lagoon and between the islands of Burano and Murano to the tiny island of Torcello.

  I slowed the boat as I carefully maneuvered us past the swamps that surrounded the island. Navigating the laguna morta would have been treacherous at best during the middle of the day, let alone during the black of night when the moon had waned to a slender sliver in the sky. But I knew these waters and marshes. Torcello was my hidden sanctuary within the dark heart of the nightwalker world.