“Can we please not talk about them?” Amanda said in a shaky voice from the backseat. I was stunned by her soft, almost broken tone. Nothing had ever rattled her as far as I knew, but then, this had been her first run-in with the naturi, and she’d barely survived. She had also managed to stab the Keeper of the domain she inhabited. Amanda wasn’t having the best night.
“I didn’t call you together to talk about the naturi,” I said with a sigh. “I wanted to invite you both to be a part of my family.”
Only now I was beginning to question the wisdom of it.
Two
The study in my private home was a classic Old World library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lining three of the walls. Lighted curio cabinets were interspersed among the shelves, holding odds and ends. This was the first home I had maintained for more than a couple of years, and I had begun to allow myself to collect things since I no longer feared the need to pick up and run. Savannah was my home, and I was prepared to defend it.
Leaning against the front of the desk, I found Tristan watching me with hooded gaze as he lounged in a high-backed leather chair. He had grown more comfortable living within my domain during the past month, but then, we were still slowly trying to work out our own relationship of mistress and…child. I had stolen him from our maker, Sadira, in an attempt to protect his life. I’d made no plans for such a thing. I had never intended to create my own family, especially with one of the children that once belonged to my hated maker.
Yet, Tristan needed me. Sadira had created and kept him weak so he could never escape the way I had. When he had tried to escape, Sadira tricked me into returning him to her. I knew what it was like to be under her evil, twisted control and I understood his need to finally be free. While in London, I promised to help him find a way to do that, but never expected to become his mistress as part of the bargain.
Once I returned to Savannah from Crete, it had been on the tip of my tongue to set him free; to renounce my ties to him and let him live his own life as a nightwalker. But my conscience wouldn’t let me. He was still weak, making him easy prey for anything that set its sights on him. I wouldn’t let him get himself killed the first minute he was away from me. For a century Jabari trained me to protect myself, and taught me what it meant to be a nightwalker. I could at least pass along some of that knowledge to my newfound ward.
For now, Tristan seemed content to stay. But there were times when I would find him watching me, a sad look in his eyes. I wondered if he was staying for an entirely different reason. Was he looking for a way to protect me?
Danaus was also there, sitting in one of the high-backed chairs before the desk, his eyes never leaving me, like a lean jungle cat watching its intended prey. Both he and Tristan had fought the naturi beside me in London and again at the Themis Compound, and Danaus stood with me when the seal was broken in Crete. While I’d known both Amanda and Knox longer, I felt a strange closeness to the two newcomers to my domain.
Amanda and Knox wandered slowly around the room, their footsteps echoing in the silence as they stepped from the thick Persian rug to the dark hardwood floor. It was the first time either of them had been in my home outside the city limits. I kept a town house within the city, which was where I held some of my meetings and social gatherings, but the house outside the city was for my own private use. It was also where I spent the daylight hours. Gabriel, my bodyguard, was familiar with my home, and now Tristan, because it was his home as well.
“Mira,” Knox murmured, his gaze still taking in the room for a moment before settling on me. “I’m honored that you’ve brought us here.”
I smiled at him, appreciating his Old World charm and manners. He was more than a few centuries old and had been raised by an Old World nightwalker named Valerio, whom I admired and detested in nearly equal amounts.
“You can repay me by promising to never drive my car again,” I said with a smirk. He smiled in return, knowing I was not entirely serious. He had done what was necessary to keep us alive. And while I loved my car, it was still just an object.
“I’m guessing you’re serious about what you said in the car,” Amanda said, turning from a curio cabinet that held a series of daggers from the twelfth century. “About joining your family.”
I nodded once, my gaze shifting from Amanda to Knox.
“Then I acc—”
“No!” I said, holding up my hand and halting Knox before he could complete the thought. I pushed off the desk and stood with my hands out and open to both of them, wishing for a moment to be able to find the words to express both my fears and my gratitude adequately. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, Knox, but I don’t want either of you to accept or deny this blindly, particularly in the name of loyalty.”
“Besides, this isn’t your typical family,” Tristan interjected, drawing my gaze to him. A wicked smile tweaked the corners of his mouth, but he was just needling me, trying to break the tension that had drawn the muscles in my shoulders taut.
A family among nightwalkers was usually an arrangement where an elder nightwalker agreed to protect a small flock of nightwalkers. Typically, the elder nightwalker had created the others, but not always. Living in a family was a source of protection, like living within a particular mob family. However, life within the family could be just as brutal if not fatal. And in most cases there was no leaving the family alive once you were accepted.
“My arrangement with Tristan is different than what I am offering you,” I started, leaning against the desk again in an attempt to resume my relaxed posture. “My arrangement with Tristan will always be different because of the circumstances. That is no one’s business but ours. The same goes for his future here in Savannah.”
“We have no problem with Tristan,” Amanda said with a shrug. “He’s welcome here.” I didn’t miss the tiny smile she shot him over her shoulder before looking innocently back up at me.
Something in my stomach twisted and I reflexively clenched my teeth. That would not do. A pairing of Amanda and Tristan wouldn’t be a good thing, would it? I mentally shook my head at myself and my silly thoughts. I was acting like a protective mother hen with Tristan. After what had happened with Sadira and the court of the Coven in Venice, I was wary of anything that could potentially harm my ward. He was still healing from his latest trauma, and I didn’t see Amanda as the best influence or the sanest choice for a love interest. But then, such a thing had to be Tristan’s choice, not mine.
“We’re getting off topic,” I sighed, briefly trying to remember what the topic was as I rubbed the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index finger. “The world is changing, as you’ve obviously seen tonight. The naturi are openly hunting us now. For the most part, they are searching for me, but that doesn’t mean they won’t take down any nightwalker they run across along the way. As a result, there is a good chance the order that we have established here may begin to fray.”
“Like following the attack at the Dark Room,” Knox said. He leaned up against one of the bookshelves, folding his arms over his broad chest. The blond-haired nightwalker had been there when a pair of naturi and several lycanthropes ripped through the exclusive nightclub in search of me. Ever since, tension had been running high between the shifters and the nightwalkers.
“And the Docks,” Danaus added solemnly. Several humans had been killed at the human nightclub that evening as the naturi attempted to track down Danaus and myself.
“Yes.”
“But things have gotten better,” Amanda countered.
“It’s not enough, and things are going to get a whole lot worse in the coming months,” I said. Crossing my arms under my breasts, I resisted the urge to pace the Persian rug. “What I am offering is the protection of my name, in a sense. In an unspoken way, you both have been my representatives within the city, but by joining my family, it makes it more official. If you are a part of my family, your actions are the same as what my actions would be. Your words are my words. But by that same token, if you
do something in my name that I don’t approve of, I will rip out your heart. No hesitation. No quarter. No questions asked.”
I paused and looked at Amanda and Knox. Both seemed to shrink back from my gaze, but they said nothing. I didn’t expect either to ever cross such a line, but then, the words had to be said. The warning had to be allowed to hang ominously in the air, if only to give them reason to pause when in the middle of a somewhat questionable act.
“Besides that, being in my family changes nothing else. You will not be required to sleep within this house—”
“Not like that would be such a bad thing,” Amanda muttered. I tried to glare at her for the interruption but failed rather miserably. My home was a beautiful, antebellum three-story house, with rich dark woods and a grand winding staircase. It was magnificent, and it was a shame that I spent more than half my hours of the day locked within the basement.
“Nor will you be required to answer to me in any way other than you do at this moment,” I continued.
“Interesting,” Knox began, sliding his hands into the pockets of his navy trousers.
I arched one brow at him, daring him to continue. There were moments that he truly reminded me of his maker, Valerio.
Knox took a step away from the bookcase and cocked his head at me, sending a lock of short blond hair down in front of one eye. “You’re offering us all the benefits of a family without any of the usual drawbacks.”
“Yes, I do.”
“What’s the catch?”
“The Coven,” Tristan answered for me.
The Coven. The ruling body that oversaw all of my kind consisted of four nightwalkers called Elders. And now I was considered one of them, after a moment of desperation in Crete. To make matters worse, the second that Jabari agreed to my request to take the open seat on the Coven, he blasted it telepathically to any nightwalker within the vicinity that I was now a member. He ensured that there was no way I could weasel out of it after we defeated the naturi that night. Bastard.
“I am now considered a member of the Coven,” I admitted, hating to say the words out loud, as if they carried a type of slow-acting poison. “There are many who would have trouble accepting such a fact. If someone decides to strike at me and take my seat, the first place they will strike is at my family. Being in my family puts a target on your forehead.”
“Any more so that being a nightwalker when it comes to the naturi?” Amanda asked, perching on the arm of the chair that Tristan sat in.
“In that case, you are simply being hunted by the naturi,” Tristan said before I could reply, “and for now, they are content to hunt Mira alone. Tonight, we simply got in the way. Join Mira’s family and you will be singled out by very powerful nightwalkers. You will be hunted by two sides instead of just one.”
Amanda shrugged off his warning, but I noticed that the smile she forced on her lips didn’t quite reach her blue eyes. “It’s the risk you take when joining any family.”
“Not quite, but similar,” I corrected. “Go home and think about it. Tristan will take you back to the city. I’ll come to you in a few nights for your answers.”
Neither looked happy about the sudden dismissal, but at this point there was nothing else I was willing to discuss. They were receiving an option that Tristan had not been given, and it made me extremely uncomfortable. I wished I could give the same choice to Tristan, but if he said no, I knew I would not have the strength to let him go yet.
“And Knox, if for some reason you should hear from Valerio, please pass along the message that I need to speak with him as soon as possible. That’s an official invitation into my domain, if he should ask.”
“I haven’t heard from him since I left him, but I will keep your message in mind should something change,” Knox said before leaving the library, followed by Amanda.
Tristan pushed out of his chair and walked over to stand before me as I continued to lean against the desk. My shoulders were slumped, weighed down by too many questions and too many solutions that I found unacceptable.
“That went well,” he teased, drawing my narrowed gaze to his face.
“Don’t push me, Tristan. Our arrangement could easily change.” I tried to threaten him, but his grin only grew. Neither of us believed my hollow threat.
“You’re not Sadira,” he murmured. He took my left hand in his and rubbed his thumb over the silver band I wore on my ring finger. “And you’ve not offered them a sugar-coated death sentence. This is for the best.”
I woodenly nodded, hoping he thought the same about our own arrangement. “Get out of here.”
I pulled my hand from his and walked over to one of the bookshelves. Picking up a large silver hourglass, I turned it over so the white sand inside poured into the empty container. Time was slipping away from me. We hadn’t located Rowe yet. I had half expected the naturi to appear in my territory looking to remove my head from my shoulders after all the chaos I’d added to his life. But he hadn’t appeared, and a part of me was glad.
A sigh passed over my parted lips as I walked over to another hourglass in my extensive collection and turned it over. Danaus…
The hunter and I had parted ways long before I reached Savannah. He flew with me from Crete, but got off the plane in Paris. I knew he had returned to Themis. It wasn’t so much the researchers that worried me, but the leader of Themis, Ryan, and his misinformation. During our time together, I felt as if Danaus was finally beginning to learn the truth about nightwalkers; he had begun to understand that we were more than bloodsucking monsters from human mythology.
Standing in my study with the hunter now staring at my back while the naturi lurked in my domain, I found myself grateful that he was back in town. He was as much a loose cannon as the naturi, but under most circumstances we had the same goal—destroy the naturi. And together we were an unstoppable force. The naturi had no defense against us.
Prior to his arrival, I had felt completely defenseless against the naturi. I couldn’t sense them the way I could humans and lycanthropes. I couldn’t tell if they were closing in on my secret sanctuary outside the city. Within my own domain, I had begun to feel both alone and trapped.
Reluctantly, I turned back around to face the hunter after turning over a third, silver-plated hourglass with black sand. Danaus had not changed since I’d last seen him, except that his black hair seemed a little longer. His face was nearly ageless. A rare smile shone on his features, making him appear in his mid-twenties, while the perpetual frown that crowded his eyes and tugged at the corners of his mouth put him in his late thirties to early forties—the visage of a time-worn warrior.
“I’m afraid to ask what has bought you back into my domain. Ready to continue our dance?” I asked, referring to our promise to one day fight to the death. Yet after all we’d been through, even that had the feel of a pathetic running gag. However, I knew without a doubt that we would indeed one day find ourselves on the opposite sides of the same battlefield.
“Themis sent me,” he replied. He shifted in his seat, from stretching his legs out before him to sitting on the edge with one elbow leaning on the arm of the chair.
“What does Ryan want?” I nearly growled. I knew I shouldn’t be so hostile. He had helped us fight the naturi in Crete. He had also attempted to protect us when the naturi threatened us in England. But this was also the same man that brought a helpless human named James into a known battle with the naturi. He had needlessly risked James’s life, and I found that unacceptable. It also didn’t help that Ryan was an extremely powerful warlock, making him a special kind of dangerous.
“He wants me to stop threatening the researchers at Themis,” Danaus replied.
A wide grin spread across my mouth and I returned to my spot in front of my desk. I crossed my left ankle over my right as I folded my arms over my newly mended stomach. “Danaus, have you gone rogue?” I taunted. “Finally come over to the dark side?”
“Hardly,” he said with a snort. “The naturi are hunt
ing me. They attacked a safe house in Paris, another in London, and the Compound twice. Three of my hunters were killed along with a couple of researchers.” His tone grew angrier and more frustrated with each word, and his hands tightly gripped both arms of the chair.
A part of me wanted to gloat over the loss of his hunters, but I wasn’t that coldhearted. They might have killed nightwalkers for some misguided notion, but they were still human, and no human deserved to die at the hands of the naturi.
“So you decided to lure them here?”
“It looks like they’re already here,” Danaus pointed out. “How are they finding you? They shouldn’t be able to sense you.”
“I don’t think they can. It could be Macaire pissed at me and telling them where to find me at any given moment,” I complained, hating the Ancient with a fresh passion. Macaire had instigated a bargain with the naturi, which in turn got me stuck on the Coven in an effort to break the bargain. Without a doubt, the nightwalker was not one of my bigger fans. “Mostly, it’s been a matter of luck,” I finished with a shrug. “I have to make appearances around town, conduct business. Naturi are crawling all over my city. It usually doesn’t take long for one to spot me. However, they generally attack only in a pack.”
“Ryan believes that may change if Aurora is freed.” Danaus paused as he sat back again. “He seems to think the naturi will grow in power if she returns to the earth.”
“Moving them from just a shadow to a full-blown nightmare,” I finished. Pushing away from the desk, I stood in the middle of the room, dropping my fists to my sides. “Fantastic. They’re enough trouble now. We don’t need them as a major powerhouse.”
“Since it’s too dangerous to let the naturi hammer against Themis, I thought I would come here,” Danaus said.
“And let them hammer against Savannah instead,” I snapped. “You may not believe it, but keeping the people of Savannah safe and alive is my job as well.”
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