Here…he whispered. His mental touch was weak and thready, but it was close. I followed the feeling toward a small cluster of EMT workers who knelt around a person leaning up against a tree. The bark above their heads had been gored by long claws, scoring it down to its pale, pulp interior.
“Tristan.” His name escaped me in breathless relief before I could stop myself, revealing myself to those close by that could hear me. Two of the three human heads popped up in surprise to find someone unknown standing so close to the injured victim.
“Do you know this person?” one man inquired, pushing to his feet.
“Yes, he’s…my brother,” I said, hesitating for only a heartbeat. I looked too young to pass myself off as his mother, even though I technically was, within the family. “Let me see him.” I followed the command up with a slight mental push to all three of the EMT workers, who then rose to their feet and took a step away from Tristan.
Kneeling before him, I discovered that the nightwalker was covered in blood. His dark navy shirt was shredded and large patches of white gauze and tape were placed over his neck, arms, and chest. Another patch was placed on the thigh of his left leg. Just by the look of him and the destruction wrought within the park, it appeared as if he and a few others had been attacked almost solely by lycanthropes.
“What happened?” I asked, grabbing the arm of the closest EMT worker. I put all three of the workers under my mind control so Tristan could feed in peace. I appreciated their tender ministrations as they undoubtedly helped to slow his blood loss, but both he and I appreciated their blood donation more.
“We were cutting through the park, heading toward the Dark Room, when the naturi attacked us,” he said in a low voice, accepting the EMT worker’s wrist I offered him. “There were only two of them, and then the shifters attacked. There had to have been at least a dozen, all in wolf form. We didn’t have a chance.”
“Who is this ‘we’?” I asked, then frowned as I caught him the moment his fangs sank into the man’s wrist, effectively catching him with his mouth full.
Four of us. Amanda, me, Kevin, and Charles. I could also feel a small sigh escape him as the blood rushed down his throat. It would go a long way to speeding up his healing. We were headed to the Dark Room to meet up with Knox.
Stay here. Feed. I ordered, pushing to my feet. Tristan took over mind control of the three EMT workers while I wandered through the carnage. Park benches were smashed, deep furrows were dug in the earth from where bodies had been thrown to the ground. And across everything were claw marks.
I quickly walked the entire length of the park, searching for every body, every wounded fighter. Six lycanthropes and a blond-haired nightwalker by the name of Charles were killed. Amanda and Kevin were nowhere to be found. Neither were the two naturi that Tristan said he’d seen.
Tristan, where’s Amanda and Kevin? I asked, trying to steady my thoughts.
Kevin ran to the Dark Room for help. The lycans followed. The naturi took Amanda. There was a hopeless note to his thoughts. He didn’t plead with me to find her, to bring her back, though I know that request was hovering on the edge of his thoughts. We both knew that if the naturi had bothered to take her, then they planned to use her to get to me. It was also highly unlikely that the young nightwalker was going to survive the encounter, even if the naturi were trying to keep her alive for some kind of exchange.
Finish feeding, and then take my car back to the house. I’ll be in contact, I instructed, trying to deaden the anger boiling over inside of me.
She was going to join the family. She planned to tell you tonight, Tristan said, twisting the knife that I felt buried in my gut. I knew that she had planned to regardless of the danger to herself. I had warned her about the naturi and the threat of the Coven, but never thought the naturi would stoop to kidnapping another to get at me. I thought they would simply kill anything that stood between them and me.
I…I will find her, I found myself telling him, if only to ease some of the pain I could feel radiating off of him. Tristan truly did like Amanda. He liked her smile and the joy she got out of waking each night and finding that she was still a nightwalker.
And I knew that I would eventually find her. I just couldn’t promise him that I would find her alive.
With Tristan settled, I set about adjusting the memories of the police, detectives, and emergency workers that flocked to the scene. I posed as a detective, giving orders and mental shoves where needed. It was the biggest massacre I had tried to cover up in recent years under the watchful gaze of so many humans. I was desperately trying to convince a horde of people that a group of teenagers had been attacked by a pack of rabid dogs. Lucky for me, these terrified humans were willing to believe anything that made more sense than things like nightwalkers and werewolves.
After close to an hour of work, my eyes finally fell on a familiar face: Archibald Deacon, coroner for the city of Savannah and the surrounding county. He would help me cover up this mess before someone started running blood tests.
“Why am I not surprised to find you in the middle of this nightmare?” Archibald said, running one hand over his balding head as he narrowed his dark brown eyes at me. I noticed a fine trembling to his fingers as he lowered his hand back down to his side. Savannah had never seen such destruction before, not since the days of the war.
“I wasn’t a part of this mess, but I will need your help cleaning it up. We need to get these bodies back to your morgue before anyone starts demanding tests and shipping the dead to the hospital.”
“No one is shipping anyone to the hospital who belongs in my morgue,” he said, his large round body seeming to puff up at the very notion of anyone invading his domain of the dead. “What about the police? The evidence?”
“I’ve adjusted memories where possible and I’ve already called Daniel. He’ll keep an eye on things for me,” I replied. Detective Daniel Crowley had worked with me in the past to settle small matters like the questionable death of a nightwalker or a lycanthrope that got to the police before reaching me or Barrett. But this was bigger than anything we had dealt with before, and it was going to take most of the night.
While Archie pulled his team together and got the bodies ushered off to the morgue as quickly as humanly possible, I finished up with the cops and any of the onlookers that had wandered too close for my liking. There was nothing I could do about the local news crews that were camped just beyond the perimeter. Their cameras caught every body bag and every ambulance and meat wagon that pulled away from the scene. I caught only snippets of what the media was being told, but by their tone, it didn’t sound as if the cops were completely buying the story of the roving pack of rabid dogs. I know it didn’t sound very believable, but it was the only thing I could think of that would account for the claw and fang marks slashed across the bodies.
Sunrise was only a few hours away when I finally reached the morgue with the last of the bodies. Archie got them settled in the examination room in the basement and sent all of his assistants home for the night with the promise that they would start the tests later that morning. I slid into one of the hard plastic chairs, resting my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands. It felt like my entire body was shaking from exhaustion. So many minds infiltrated and altered throughout the night, so many memories tweaked so that the carnage was blurred and the horror dulled. I wished I could forget about it all as well.
Six lycans and one nightwalker killed. A second nightwalker missing. Tristan wounded. It was only from a call from Knox while I was looking over the park that I discovered Kevin had made it the Dark Room, but there were still questions as to whether he would survive the next few hours.
“Mira, it’s late. You can go home. I’ll keep things under control here,” Archie said as he eased into a cushioned chair behind the battered desk to my right. He sighed heavily and then began shuffling around different sets of papers. The coroner would run the blood tests himself, using human blood he had in stock already so
that no one would discover the true identity of the vampire and lycanthropes within his custody. As soon as it was possible, all seven of the bodies would go into the oven and be cremated.
“I wish I could,” I muttered. I still had one more meeting that night, and it wasn’t going to be pretty. In fact, he was already there, and I could sense his temperament before he even entered the basement. “It would be best if you left here for a little while.”
“I need to start these tests,” Archie argued.
I lifted my head and frowned at him. We were both exhausted and I could understand his desire to start what was going to be a long list of doctored tests just to protect the identity of my people and those of the lycanthropes. However, I knew it would be best if he was not around at the moment. “Barrett is here to identify the victims. You need to leave.”
“Oh,” he whispered, then pushed to his feet. Just before Archie could escape, the double doors exploded open and Barrett entered the room, his face a mask of barely contained fury. And I couldn’t blame him. During the past month, four members of his pack had been slaughtered by the naturi, including one of his own family members. And after tonight’s massacre, their numbers had been decimated.
“M-Mira will take the names,” Archie said in a low voice as he slid around Barrett and out the door.
Normally, Barrett was a calm, even-tempered werewolf. He was a good, strong leader, a steady protector of his people. But the recent deaths had shattered his control and left him snarling at anything that moved. I had called him on the ride over to the morgue. The conversation was brief simply because I knew we would have a longer one when he arrived.
Barrett walked from table to table, pulling back the bloodstained white sheets that covered each body. His fist grew tighter with each death he was forced to look in the face, their sightless eyes closed but still seeming to stare through us both. A low growl rumbled from his throat as he reached the final body. I had expected it. It was Will, the youngest of his three brothers and the second brother to die in the past two months.
I remained silent, watching him, wishing I could remain unnoticed while he inwardly grieved for his dead brother and the other members of his pack. He shoved both hands through his chocolate brown hair and sucked in a deep breath in an effort to regain control of his emotions. Reluctantly, he moved toward a covered table that was somewhat off to the side.
“That one doesn’t belong to you,” I said in a low voice, drawing his narrowed gaze to my face for the first time. I barely suppressed a shiver.
“So, you’ve finally lost one of your own,” he growled.
“One is dead, another lays dying, a third was severely injured, and still another was kidnapped and is most likely being tortured as we speak,” I replied, hating myself for being drawn into the argument. He was hurting from the deaths that had plagued his people recently.
“Two of my brothers have been slaughtered in as many months! A third of my pack has been decimated by nightwalkers. My own mother and sisters have been forced to hide in another city while we die at your hands!” he shouted, finally losing his temper.
“Your pack attacked us,” I said evenly. I wished I could show him more sympathy and compassion, but I had my own people to protect. I was afraid of saying something here and now in a moment of compassion that would only trap my people at a later date.
“Because we’ve been under the control of the naturi.”
“And what do you expect us to do? Let you kill us because it’s not your fault?”
“I thought you were supposed to be doing something about the naturi. I’ve talked to the other packs and not one has had the trouble we’ve had. Some lycans have gone missing, but the body count is nothing like what we’ve experienced.”
I stepped away from the desk and closed the distance between us by a few feet. “Barrett, they’re trying to separate us,” I said softly. “They want us fighting amongst ourselves instead of fighting them.”
“We are fighting each other, and my people are losing! We’re trapped, fighting you, fighting the naturi. Why? Why here? Wh—” Barrett’s rant was suddenly cut off as he stared at me. In that horrible moment he realized exactly why his people were being slaughtered. The naturi were hunting me, using the lycanthropes as cannon fodder. In my battles with the lycans, I had managed to avoid killing any of them, but it was becoming more difficult. The naturi were growing desperate, throwing more and more shifters at us in an attempt to overwhelm us with sheer volume.
“They’re still hunting you, aren’t they?” Barrett demanded in a low voice that scraped across my skin like sandpaper. “They were hunting for you at the Dark Room two months ago, and they’ve been hunting for you since you returned here more than a month ago.”
“They need me dead,” I admitted, balling my hands into fists, hating to say the words aloud. “I can stop them from opening the door that will set all of their kind free.”
“But why come back here? Why not stay surrounded by your own kind? Can’t your Coven protect you?” he countered, taking a step toward me.
“I’ll not be run from my home by the naturi,” I snapped.
“But you’re killing my people!”
“Don’t do this to us, Barrett,” I cautioned, feeling myself getting boxed into a corner, though he had yet to move. “We’ve worked well together over the years. Our people have learned to respect each other.”
My only warning was a low growl before Barrett crossed the distance between us in a couple long, quick strides. He grabbed both of my upper arms and kept walking until he slammed me into the cinder-block wall behind me. Stars exploded before my eyes as my head hit the wall, just before darkness threatened to swamp me.
“Respect! Why haven’t you shown my people a little more respect? You’re responsible for each and every death because you’ve—”
“Because I’ve what? Refused to lay down and die for you? My death won’t stop the naturi. It won’t save your mother or your sisters or your pack.”
“It would buy us some time,” he snarled, his brown eyes turning the same shade as liquid copper.
“To do what? Fight back?” We both knew how effective that would be.
His hands tightened on my arms for a moment, threatening to break bones before loosening again. “Why did you have to come back?” he whispered. He was beyond frustrated. His people were dying and there was little he could do to stop it.
“This is my home. I have nowhere else to go,” I admitted, feeling as if something was tearing in the back of my throat. It was a truth I’d been reluctant to face. I no longer had a safe haven from the world other than my home in Savannah. Two of the other three members of the Coven wanted me dead, and the third member simply wanted to control my every move and thought. The naturi were hounding my every step. I had more enemies than I cared to count, and too few allies.
“Leave here, Mira. Find some other place to hide and take the damned naturi with you,” Barrett bit out. His hands once again tightened on my arms, bruising my pale flesh.
“You can’t force me out,” I said through clenched teeth. “This is my home and my people are here. I have a right to protect them.”
“As much as I have a right to protect my people from you and the naturi. You have the power to save both my people and your own—leave here,” he argued, anger growing in his voice, thickening his beautiful southern accent so that the vowels collided with one another.
“I can’t leave yet. The naturi have a member of my family. I won’t leave her in their hands to be tortured. I have to at least try to get her back.” It was a suicide mission, but I had to try. I owed Amanda that much. I had offered her a place in my family, waved my so-called protection in her face.
“Then do it without killing another one of my people. We’ve died enough for you. Why don’t you try getting rid of the naturi instead of hiding from them?”
“I’m no coward, if that’s what you’re implying, werewolf,” I snarled, shoving him off of me. B
arrett stumbled backward a few steps before turning and curling his upper lip so that I could see his elongated canines. “I’ve fought the naturi more times than I’d care to remember. I’ve fought them and suffered. My people have died protecting your kind and humans.”
“So now you’re looking for my gratitude?” he incredulously demanded.
“No, I’m looking for a little patience.”
“My patience ran out when my brothers started dying. Find your missing vampire. Kill all the naturi. Leave here and never return. I don’t care what you have to do, but if another one of my pack dies, the naturi won’t have to call us any longer. It will be open season on you and all nightwalkers within Savannah.”
Barrett then stalked out of the morgue without looking back at me and his dead brethren.
I slid down the wall until I sat on the cold linoleum floor. Wrapping my arms around my bent legs, I rest my forehead on my knees. He was right. I was as much responsible for the dead bodies surrounding me at that moment as the naturi. I should never have come back. I should have found another way to deal with the naturi while we waited for the next sacrifice and hunted for Rowe. I had just been afraid that if I went to the Coven, they would have been happy to use me as bait in an effort to draw out the one-eyed naturi.
Barrett wanted me to leave, and I planned to abide by his wishes. I had no choice. The next sacrifice was only a few nights away. But I couldn’t leave my beloved Savannah yet. I had to find Amanda first. If I could save her and exterminate the naturi in just one quick foray, I could leave my city with a small feeling of peace. However, I still had to first convince Danaus to help me.
Seven
A sigh escaped me as I slipped out of the taxi and walked to the Dark Room. Sunrise was growing close and I was tired. Fortunately, this was my last stop of the night, and then I could go home for some rest.
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