Dawnbreaker dd-3

by Jocelynn Drake

  “This fire will keep you out for now,” I said with a sinister grin. “Send me your light clan, and I will burn through them like a dry brush.”

  “You’re running out of time!” Rowe countered, deciding to change tactics when he realized that a direct assault would not work now that I had a brand new skill. “The sun will rise soon.”

  “True,” I said, nodding, and then put my hand behind me, grabbing hold of Cynnia as Danaus brought her forward. “And you’re ensuring that it will be the last sunrise Aurora’s sister ever sees.” I jerked Cynnia forward so she was standing next to me, the firelight dancing off her sculptured features and pale skin. She was smeared with blood and her clothes were dirty and torn.

  “Nia!” I heard a woman scream. Then Nyx pushed through the crowd to stand beside Rowe, her eyes wide and haunted.

  “Nyx!” Cynnia cried, lurching a step forward. I roughly grabbed her by a hunk of her hair and kept her close to my side.

  “I offered a trade,” I said. “You walk away from the sacrifice and I set little Nia free.”

  “Mira!” Rowe shouted at me in frustration. The hand holding a blade trembled in his rage, but he said nothing more. I had no doubt that Nyx had been pressuring him to come up with a way to free Cynnia, and I knew his plan the second his eyes drifted toward the sky. He planned to simply wait us out and take her.

  Danaus stepped up beside me, a weapon in each hand, ready to resume the attack, but he also knew there would not be another attack until after the sun rose. And then it would be he and Shelly alone against the army of naturi. The naturi would slice through every nightwalker until we were all dead, and then free their wayward princess.

  We have no choice. His words danced across my brain like a warm breeze, catching me by surprise. I thought I would have to convince him of it. I thought I would have to beg and plead with the hunter to use our power to destroy the naturi that waited to kill us all.

  It will kill Cynnia as well, I found myself saying before I could stop the thought. I had become accustomed to having her around. She had saved my life earlier that evening when she stabbed me in the chest. I’d begun to think that I might actually set her free and let her live the rest of her life in peaceful solitude with some of her other people.

  “Take Cynnia back inside,” Danaus said, looking over his shoulder.

  Shelly led the trembling Cynnia away.

  I don’t want to do this again, Danaus admitted at last. In both his hands, he still gripped blades, ready to physically attack our enemies if I lowered the flames so much as an inch.

  If we destroy them now, there will be no sacrifice. No door to close again.

  Danaus dropped his knife from his left hand and grabbed my upper arm. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Stefan take an ominous step forward, moving to come between me and the hunter. A wave of my hand kept him at bay, but only just barely. He would keep his word to protect both me and Danaus, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t rough the hunter up a bit.

  More than Danaus’s words vibrated through my brain. I could feel his horror and his revulsion at the thought of what had happened back on Blackbeard Island. We had been desperate. Backed into a corner, surrounded by the naturi, he and I had agreed to make one last push with our powers. He had taken my hand in his, while pushing his powers into my body, wielding me like a weapon from Hell. At Themis, it was an accident. We didn’t realize what we were capable of. Yet, on the island, trapped and frightened, we knew what we were doing when we killed them all. We felt each soul being crushed into bleak, cold nothingness. We destroyed their souls.

  No. I don’t want this either, I softly admitted, dropping my head so I could only see his chest.

  Never again.

  We can do this, I pressed. I was still confident that there was another way to use the connection between us. There had to be. There had to be a way to use this power beyond just destroying their souls. It’s about control. We have that.

  Mira…

  I could feel him begin to waver. He knew this was our best and only shot to survive the day. We have to do this. If we stop them tonight, there’s no going to Machu Picchu tomorrow night.

  Danaus released my arm but didn’t step away as he continued to stare at me. He didn’t want me in his head as he weighed what I had said. He could care less if Jabari or any member of the Coven intended to kill me once I completed the task they had set before me. Sure, he might want the honor of chopping my head off, but dead was dead for him. But I liked to think he also realized that our best chance of defeating the naturi was by attacking them now, not trying to mount an offensive on Machu Picchu.

  “We go slow,” Danaus finally said.

  “No argument there,” I said, trying not to sound too relieved.

  “Only the naturi in Peru,” he continued.

  I tried not to laugh at his tone. It was his conscience he was attempting to soothe. “You’re the one in the driver’s seat. I’m just the weapon,” I replied, bitterness slipping between my words.

  “Mira, what’s going on? What are you planning?” Stefan suddenly interjected. I had forgotten the nightwalker was still standing there. But right now it didn’t matter. He didn’t matter. There was only Danaus and the naturi.

  “We’re getting rid of the naturi,” I murmured, lifting my hand so it hovered between Danaus and me.

  Taking a deep breath, Danaus wrapped his long fingers around mine. For a moment there was only his warmth. The strength of his hand holding me was calming, reassuring in a deeper way that I hadn’t felt in a while. For those few seconds, the world and all its threats slipped away because I had someone willing to stand with me.

  And then I screamed. The pain was overwhelming, burning brighter than the fire that surrounded me, brighter than the sun I was only now beginning to recall. My back arched and my limbs trembled as the muscles and bones splintered and exploded within me. I could feel Danaus’s power, but the earth power was fighting back. The two were burrowed deep inside of me, fighting for dominance. There was no focusing on the wispy souls of the naturi that surrounded us. There was only white, blinding pain.

  Focus! Danaus ordered, but I could barely hear him over the roar in my head.

  I reached out, could see naturi bursting into flames before me but not how we had planned it. The energy was growing too intense. I wrenched my hand from Danaus and fell to my knees. Stars danced before my eyes and I struggled to stay conscious. The flames before me grew hotter, turning a frightening shade of blue. The energy that flowed within me had to go somewhere.

  “What happened?” he demanded, kneeling before me. He roughly grabbed both of my shoulders and forced me to meet his intense gaze. “It felt different. I wasn’t in control any longer—something inside of you was fighting me. Did Cynnia do this to you?” He whispered the last bit, but I had no doubt that Stefan had heard it.

  “Our last shot failed,” I murmured, then tilted my head up to look at Stefan, who was standing behind me. “We’ve reached our last resort.”

  “The Stain.”

  I raised my hand to him. “I’ll help you.”

  Twenty-Three

  Stefan’s long cool fingers slipped around mine in a slow caress before he pulled me back to my feet. He stood holding my hand in silence for just a breath of time before releasing me. “Preparations need to be made,” he said. “The perimeter needs to be walked. The—”

  “It will be handled.” I suddenly cut him off, fully aware of all that needed to be completed in an exceedingly short period of time. “Danaus, go find Shelly. Tell her to put Cynnia into another sleep spell. It’s the only way we’ll be able to protect her.” The hunter seemed to hesitate and I didn’t blame him. The naturi were lingering just beyond the protective wall of blue flames, the sun would soon rise, and I was attempting a strange spell with a nightwalker I wasn’t particularly fond of. But in the end Danaus disappeared inside the lodge to find the earth witch and the naturi princess.

  Turning to my left, I l
et the fingers of my right hand dance through the flames as if I were running them through falling water. At the same time, Stefan took my left hand in his hand as we strolled together around the perimeter of the flame-enclosed area. Naturi fighters paced us as we completed our walk. If someone drew too close, the fire between us would flare and snap at the adversary until they backed off again.

  As we walked, we trampled the fragile orchids and thick ferns that filled the garden area. We walked everywhere that the fire touched, our individual power from blood magic filling the air as we established a perimeter we hoped the naturi would not be able to cross when the sun finally slipped back above the horizon.

  “You realize what this entails, don’t you?” Stefan asked as we neared our starting point.

  “The spell will leave a marker on my soul,” I said with nod of my head.

  “A stain for all the bori to see,” he said in an ominous tone.

  I flashed him the smile that he was trying so hard to win from me with his dramatic tone. The spell we were attempting was technically called a Soul Sucker. It had been created centuries ago by nightwalkers to protect their daytime lair from any naturi that might happen by. Any creature that moved within the set perimeter had the energy drained from its soul until it finally died. The spell fed upon itself—the more souls it took, the stronger it became. In this case, we were counting on that, considering we had a number of naturi waiting to attack the moment the sun rose.

  The spell had garnered the nickname the Stain back when there were bori still on the planet. The more that were killed by the spell, the more souls drained, the darker the stain left on your own soul, marking you to the deadly bori as a powerful nightwalker. There was also the theory that the originator of the Stain spell also got a boost of power from the souls of the dead. The creator of the spell became a storehouse for the soul energy, something the bori not only craved, but survived on.

  When the bori roamed the earth, the Stain was a spell of last resort. It was cast when you were completely desperate, fearing discovery during the daylight hours. Because while you might protect yourself during the day, at night you could find yourself under the dark gaze of the bori, and that was something no nightwalker wanted. No one wanted to be faced with their creator and the leash they held.

  But then, it had been a long time since it was last used. We stopped when both the bori and naturi were locked away and we could find more adequate and safer means of protecting ourselves during the daylight hours. There was also a danger to the Stain spell—it wasn’t particular to the soul it attacked. It attacked anything that happened within the perimeter—naturi, animal, or human.

  Now, when we closed the perimeter, Bertha stepped over, with George hanging just behind her shoulder. “They say you’re performing a Soul Sucking spell,” she said, her eyes slipping down to our joined hands for a second.

  “It’s the only way to protect us during the day. We can’t leave here now. Sunrise is less than an hour away.”

  “What if they set fire to the place?” George demanded.

  “I’ve got something for that too,” I replied, catching sight of Shelly coming out of the front of the lodge, with Danaus following behind her. “Can I leave you to prepare?” I asked, looking up at Stefan. “I have a couple of things that need to be taken care of.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re going to do with him,” Stefan said, sliding his hand out from mine. “Drain them both and pray they don’t move until sunrise?”

  “Not quite,” I sneered, then walked toward the lodge where the others waited.

  The tension in the air grew thicker with each passing moment. The sun was creeping close to the horizon, and all of the nightwalkers could feel the coming death of the night. Naturally, those that survived the initial attack of the naturi had begun to wander closer to the lodge, as it offered cover from the rays of the sun, even if it was a deathtrap in itself.

  At the same time, the naturi had pulled back their ranks around Rowe, who stood several yards away from the flickering blue flames. His eyes never wavered from me as I moved about the small enclosed area. I wondered if he knew what I was planning. Had he ever seen a Soul Sucking spell? Even if he had, was he willing to throw every naturi he had at us in hopes of killing us when we were at our most vulnerable? I prayed he wasn’t. The kind of power created by the spell would undoubtedly shine like a beacon to something dark and scary that lingered on the earth.

  Shelly was pale and trembling in the cold night air when I finally reached her side. The nightwalkers that passed her watched the earth witch with slitted, hungry eyes. It had been a long night, a long battle already, and she represented a quick, warm meal.

  “Cynnia is safely asleep in the basement,” Shelly said. “I thought it best if we put her as far from their reach as possible.”

  I shot her a wry smile and nodded, resisting the urge to pat the witch on the shoulder. Between the fight at Ollantaytambo and now the war zone that surrounded her at the Sanctuary Lodge, I was willing to bet that she was already on overload. “Good. Don’t worry. Your job is almost done. I just need you to complete a couple more tasks for me.”

  “And then what?” she demanded, taking a step back, so she was partially hidden behind the hulking figure of Danaus.

  “And then you get to sleep. Just sleep. It’s been a long night and you’ve earned a little sleep,” I soothingly said. My voice dipped down into hypnotic tones, embedding the thought of sleep into the deepest reaches of her brain. I knew I would need to call on that suggestion later that night.

  “Oh.” The single word escaped her in a whisper, but I noticed that she still didn’t move out from behind Danaus’s form.

  “I need you to do a protection spell over the entire Sanctuary Lodge. I need you to make sure that it won’t burn,” I said. “I’m assuming you know that spell.”

  “Of course.” Shelly stepped closer again, her chin raised a little higher at the idea that she might not be familiar with one of the most basic of spells. It was simply a couple of magic words and a symbol written in ash over the place you didn’t want to burn. It was so basic that even I knew how to perform it. All nightwalkers did. The spell wouldn’t allow a structure to burn.

  “Good. Go over the entire lodge, from top to bottom. Get a few nightwalkers to help you. We need this done quickly,” I said, raising my voice a little so I would be heard by any nightwalker within a few feet. “Don’t worry. No one will touch you.” At least, they wouldn’t now that I’d thrown that promise into the air with an edge of a threat.

  Shelly nervously nodded to me, then turned and went back into the dim light of the lodge.

  “Will it be enough?” Danaus asked as we stood together in silence for nearly a minute outside the lodge. “The spells you’re working?”

  “The fire spell will keep them from setting the place on fire, which I honestly think will be their last resort,” I slowly said. The growing lightness was starting to wear on me, and I suddenly found myself longing for my own bed back in Savannah. “Their first desire will be to try to acquire Cynnia alive, which will mean getting past the Soul Sucking spell Stefan and I are creating.”

  “The Stain?” he said.

  I nodded, then motioned for him to follow me into the lodge. “The Soul Sucking spell will drain the energy from any creature that enters the perimeter Stefan and I have created with the fire. When the sun rises, the fire will die, but the perimeter will remain.”

  “Will it be able to handle this many naturi?” he asked, following me as I led him down into the basement.

  “It will. It grows in power with each one that it kills. After a while Rowe will catch on and stop sending naturi after us. I figure he’ll have no choice then but to try to burn the lodge to the ground, which Shelly is now protecting us against.”

  I paused in front of Cynnia, who lay curled into the fetal position on the cold concrete floor. Shelly had sketched out a circle around her and made the appropriate symbols in blue
chalk. A matching blue dome rose over the naturi, protecting her, keeping her from moving until we finally released her.

  “I didn’t think that nightwalkers were magic users,” Danaus said, standing beside me.

  “We typically aren’t. We have enough special skills like speed, strength, and night vision to keep us ahead of our enemies. However, we’ve found it in our best interest to learn some more defensive magic. Most of us know how to protect ourselves from being set on fire during the day or maybe to erect a defensive barrier like the one Cynnia and Shelly taught me the other night. We don’t bother to learn magic that is used for attacking.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the magic drains from our souls. It weakens us. Defensive magic is less draining to maintain than an offensive spell. Besides, don’t you think a nightwalker has enough of an edge in a fight?”

  “Not against a warlock.”

  “That’s why we don’t go picking fights with witches and warlocks,” I said with a smirk as I gazed up at him.

  “Where do you want me?” Danaus asked, his right hand resting heavily on the handle of a knife strapped to his hip. He was ready to take on any of the naturi he believed might get through the Soul Sucking spell. What he failed to realize was that they wouldn’t. It was impossible. Oh, the first few might actually get past the perimeter and onto the steps of the lodge, but I seriously doubted that any would actually make it inside. Particularly after the first five or six died, their souls sucked straight from their bodies.

  I took a deep breath and slowly released it. With my right hand, I motioned to an empty space on the floor not far from where Cynnia was sleeping. “I need you to be right there,” I slowly said, dreading every word as it left my lips.