Danaus suddenly grabbed my shoulder, halting me. He stood very still, his brow furrowed in concentration. Gazing behind him, I found the other nightwalkers watching him intently as well.
“Naturi?” I asked, my eyes slowly sweeping around us. We had just entered the lower agricultural sectors. There were a series of plateaus that had once been used for planting corn and other vegetables for the inhabitants of Machu Picchu. Little vegetation grew there now, just deep, thick shadows.
“No, but—”
“I know,” I said. I could feel them too. They were coming.
As if on cue, the first wolf lifted its voice in song, baying at the moonless sky. The werewolf was soon joined by a chorus of his brothers and sisters, their forlorn cries filling the air. I didn’t allow myself the luxury of scanning to see if Alex was among them. If she was there, I knew I’d sense it a second before I killed her.
Quickly returning my guns to their holsters, I drew my sword. The bullets weren’t coated in silver. Without it, being shot would only piss them off. At the same time, the shadows lunged, converging on my little army.
“Mira?” Cynnia nervously said, staying close to my back as I continued to turn, searching for my approaching attackers.
“Can you control them? Can you stop them?” I demanded.
“I’m wind naturi,” she snapped at me, grabbing ahold of my shirt as a shadow shifted close to my right. “I can’t control animals.”
“Not even a little?”
“Not at all.”
“I’m not going to protect you up this entire mountain if you can’t show a little resourcefulness!”
Low growls from both sides rumbled in the silence and then it began. A shadow jumped at me, but I sidestepped it, swinging my sword as I moved. I clipped its side, earning a sharp cry as it hit the ground hard. As it tried to regain its four paws, I slashed downward, removing its head.
I spun, slicing at a Mexican wolf with ruddy gray and red fur. Its sharp fangs and strong jaws were aimed at my throat. Dropping to my knees, I grabbed Cynnia’s shirt and pulled her to the dirt as well. The wolf overshot me, landing on the other side of the trail in a spray of dust and gravel. He was quick to turn and make another run at me. I tried to dodge him again, but my foot caught on the body of the wolf I had killed moments ago, trapping me. The creature clamped down on my left arm with its teeth and nearly pulled me to the ground. Twisting, I plunged my sword through its ribs and into its lungs. With a yelp, it released me, pulling a chunk of flesh with its teeth. It tried to back off so it could heal from the wound I inflicted, but I was already there, removing its head.
The cut in my arm still throbbed, but it was healing. The flow of blood down it was stopping and would soon dry. I had nothing to worry about. I couldn’t contract lycanthropy. Vampires were immune to the disease. Unfortunately, the scent of my blood on the air would attract more werewolves. I walked a little way up to the path, pulling Cynnia along as I went, trying to put a little distance between Danaus and me. The path was too narrow to allow the wolves to encircle us, but it also kept the nightwalkers trapped. Our fighting was hindered as we struggled to not hurt our allies.
Screams and gunfire filled the air. Most of the humans had been equipped with night vision goggles and automatic weapons. The spray of bullets was slowing down the werewolves a bit, forcing them to heal. The extra second allowed the vampires to pick the lycans off more easily, but in the end the humans were being torn to shreds. They should have never been brought. Like the lycans, they were only a distraction.
With a grunt, I eviscerated a wolf that lunged for my throat, its bowels spilling onto the ground. It howled once in pain before I took its head off. Behind me there was a brush of energy. Dropping to the ground suddenly, I rolled up the path a couple of feet, dragging a stunned Cynnia with me as best I could. Keeping her safely behind me, I stood with sword at the ready. The wolf that had launched itself at my back landed in the spot where I’d stood moments ago. It snarled and was about to lunge when Danaus drove his short sword through the creature’s neck, severing its spine and piercing its throat.
“Showoff,” I called, my bloody hands still tightly gripping my sword.
“They’re coming,” he said. With a jerk, he pulled his blade free, and the body of the wolf collapsed in a lifeless heap on the ground. By morning the mountain would be covered in naked human bodies. A part of me wished I would live to see the next day just so I could hear how our massive public relations group would spin this one.
“Let’s get going!” I shouted. My group was finishing up the last couple of wolves. A dozen lycans were sent and all had died. I lost several humans as well. Several of the survivors would also grow fur at the next full moon. I was beginning to believe that this mountain carried some kind of curse with it. There was a price extracted each time someone set foot on her hallowed soil.
“Where’s the other group?” Danaus asked, stepping over a dead wolf as he climbed the hill.
I started walking again, while my mind stretched out to find Stefan. His anger hit me first, causing me to stumble. His group was in the middle of a battle. Stefan felt my presence and sent back one word before pushing me from his thoughts: Guardhouse. I skimmed over his people. Most of the humans were dead and I felt only a light scattering of lycans, but there was still something wrong.
“Hurry!” I cried, jogging up the path while it was still clear. “Stefan’s group is not far from the guardhouse. Something strange is going on. The nightwalkers keep thinking about rocks and the mountain eating them,” I called over my shoulder at Danaus.
“It’s the earth clan,” Cynnia volunteered. She ran close to my side, staying on my left so it was easier for me to protect her. “They have the ability to move great boulders, or split the earth open and then close it again around their victim.
We had to hurry. While Stefan was encountering some interesting problems, he was farther up the mountain than I was. He was going to reach the Main Gate before I was in position to meet him. If the naturi were going to conduct the spell at the Temple of the Condor, Stefan needed more help if he wanted to survive.
I was about to ask what they were going to send at us when I felt something stir in the air. Not questioning it, I grabbed Cynnia’s arm and pulled her to the ground with me. It was the same feeling I had moments before seeing the harpies at Crete. A shifting in the air, the feeling that something was about to land on your head from above. With a growl, I released Cynnia and rolled over onto my back. I reached for the Browning with my right hand and was about to raise it when I paused. They weren’t harpies. It was worse.
Overhead, with a set of massive gray wings, was a creature that resembled a gorilla more than a man. Its face was large and flat, with a wide nose and fangs that protruded out from beneath its fat lower lip. In its arms it held a dainty woman with blue flowing hair. Her small, fragile hands rested against the pebbled skin of its arms and chest.
“Cynnia, what the hell is that thing?” I demanded, my aim adjusting to take in both the flying creature and its little treasure.
“In your language? An air guardian,” she replied, seeming to back slowly away from me.
“Anything in particular I should know?”
“They’re killers.”
Keeping my back pressed to the ground, I fired at the air guardian as it swooped through the air. For something so large, it was amazingly fast, but I still managed to clip its wings. It roared in pain, wobbling in the air as it tried to lighten the strain on its wounded wing.
I tried to sit up to get a better angle on my next shot when a tree root erupted from the ground and wrapped around my chest, slamming me back down to the earth. I blinked against the stars exploding before my eyes. The root tightened around me, nearly crushing my ribs. I pushed against my earthy bindings, but these roots were controlled by magic, making them stronger. Another root near my foot sprung from the earth and grabbed my ankle, pinning me down. The earth clan naturi laughed from the crad
led embrace of the air guardian as they hovered a few feet above my head. I struggled to cut through my bindings with my sword, but the progress was slow. In a moment my arms would break under the pressure and I’d be helpless.
“Come, little sister,” crooned the earth clan naturi with a wave of her hand toward Cynnia. “You belong with us.”
“Why? So you can kill me like the others tried to?” Cynnia snapped, crawling away from where I lay tied to the ground with a bunch of roots.
“You’d rather side with the nightwalkers?” the naturi gasped. She gritted her teeth and waved her hand toward the mountain trail. “Well then, I guess I’ll leave you with no other choice but to side with us.”
Down the line I heard a nightwalker scream seconds before his existence was snuffed out. From what I could tell, most of my kind were being tied down with the roots and then staked. A swell of panic filled my chest as I released my weapons. They were of no use since I couldn’t lift my arms. With my palms open, I conjured up a wave of fire that covered the length of my body, biting into the roots that held me. The earth clan naturi above me squealed in frustration and tried to crush me with the roots, but they were already beginning to weaken. With my binding crumbling, I sent a fireball screaming through the air. The air guardian turned and tried to escape, but the flames engulfed him and the earth naturi in an instant. His tough hide melted, his flesh sizzling and popping in the night sky before he finally lost the ability to fly and tumbled back to the earth.
Pulling against my bindings, the roots snapped and broke. On my feet again, I lifted my hands and torched two other air guardians I could see in the air above me. Cynnia rose as well and called up a storm, bringing up a swell of air that kept the air guardians fighting to stay close to where we were located on the side of the mountain.
“With these iron cuffs, I can do no more,” she confessed, holding her hands out to me.
“Betray me now and I’ll destroy you,” I snarled. With a grunt, I pulled apart the bindings of each iron cuff until they fell to the ground with a clatter. I prayed I wasn’t about to regret this, but I needed all the firepower I could get. She could have gone with her own kind but had stayed with me.
Beside me, Cynnia drew in a deep sigh as she raised her arms freely up into the air. Black clouds swirled around us like a thickening witch’s brew. I took a step backward and laid a hand on her shoulder, wary of what she was doing. In the flash of an eye two lightning bolts slammed to the earth, plunging through the two remaining air guardians before they had a chance to escape.
Along the path, the nightwalkers were breaking loose and getting back to their feet. Unfortunately, the humans had been quickly crushed and broken under the squeezing roots. I had also lost five nightwalkers. More than half of my army was gone now, and we had yet to reach the mountain ruins. I hoped Stefan was doing better.
Frowning, my narrowed eyes scanned the area laced with dancing shadows cast by the last of the burning roots. Danaus had disappeared from sight when the air guardians appeared. A chill ran up my spine. His name was on my lips when I finally spotted him sitting on the ground, his back pressed against the stone wall of the mountain. When I walked over, the harsh wheeze of his breathing could be heard over the crackling fires. Sheathing my weapons, I knelt beside the hunter. His throat was raw and bleeding. One of the roots had wrapped around his neck and crushed his windpipe.
“Is it healing?” I asked. He tried to say yes, but the word never made it up his throat. I held up my hand, stopping him from trying again. “Just nod or shake your head.” He nodded once, drawing in a sharp breath. I could feel the panic starting to swell in his chest. It wasn’t enough air, not by a long shot. His body was healing, but too slowly, and soon he would suffocate.
“Anything else hurt?” I demanded. Danaus shook his head. “We’ll wait,” I announced, kneeling on the ground in front of him.
“What? Let’s leave him!” snapped one of the other nightwalkers watching our conversation. He was young and had no concept of what he would face at the Machu Picchu ruins.
“He’s one of the few among us that can sense the naturi. I’m not going on without him,” I said calmly.
“He’s a hunter,” the nightwalker sneered. His jean-clad legs were braced wide apart, as if he was about to pounce on Danaus.
“And at the moment he holds more value to me than you and your petulant whining. If you’re anxious to move, take another and scout ahead.” The vampire glared at me a couple of seconds before he motioned for another to accompany him up the path.
Kneeling before the hunter, I found that he was blinking rapidly, desperately trying to stay conscious against the crowding darkness. He would pass out soon if I didn’t do something. I could now command the powers of both the earth and soul, but I lacked the ability to heal the human body. However, I did have a few other tricks up my sleeve. Not any that he would like, though.
I moved so I was directly in front of him with his knees on either side of my hips. He tried to shift and put some more distance between us, but I put a hand on his shoulder, holding him still.
“I can help you,” I murmured, trying to keep my voice soft and reassuring. “But you have to trust me.”
Danaus’s frown deepened and his eyes narrowed. I think he would have told me to go to hell if he could, but instead he drew another ragged and fractured breath. He was running out of time.
Placing my left hand against the side of his face, I pressed my thumb against his temple. I captured his left wrist with my free hand and placed it against my side so he was grasping my rib cage. I held his hand there because I knew he would try to pull away when he figured out what I planned to do.
Closing my eyes, I relaxed the tension from my shoulders and mentally reached out with my mind. I let my thoughts brush slightly against Danaus’s as a warning. He jerked away from me, digging his heels into the dirt as he tried to desperately push away, but I held tight to him.
“No,” he rasped.
Relax, Danaus. I didn’t use my voice, but sent the words drifting through his mind. If he hadn’t been so weak already, I would never have been able to do this. When we had spoken telepathically in the past, it was sending a quick scattering of words across to each other. Our presence within each other’s minds was at an absolute minimum, in an effort to give the other person a little privacy. At the worst, we received a flash of emotion from one another, but little else. But now was different. I was there within in his mind.
Get out of my head! He was livid, but over that was fear. His fear of me and what I was doing was so thick it felt like I was slogging through a Florida marsh. Neither one of us had dared venture so deep, to places where we could hear thoughts and walk through old memories and deeply hidden secrets.
You have to let me help you.
Get out! I could feel the walls being thrown up around me as he tried to erect defensive barriers. He was using all of his strength to fight me, and left nothing behind to continue the healing process. I was only making matters worse.
Biting back a curse, I forced myself deeper into his mind, tearing down his walls. Before he could scramble to fight me, I slowed his thoughts, sending a thick fog across his mind.
Calm. Be at peace. Think only of healing, The words entered his brain as a whisper. He was trying to relax, but the burning in his lungs was growing.
Mira. My name came softly, weak and so fragile. He was reaching out, fearful and in pain. Can’t breathe.
You don’t need to. I’m breathing for you. As I sent the thought through his mind, I drew in a long, deep breath. His hand gripped my side tighter for a moment and then he relaxed. It was all a lie, an illusion that I was weaving for his mind. I couldn’t breathe for him, but at the moment he believed I could and his panic waned, letting his body complete the healing process. The fear and panic subsided and all of his energy was redirected from trying to protect himself from me and the other nightwalkers toward healing the wound in his throat.
For a
brief period of time I created an illusion of safety for him to mentally curl up in. At the same time, I opened the door to my own mind and powers, trying to push what energy I could into his body. I wasn’t sure the energy would flow this way, but I had to try. I was willing to give him every ounce of energy I could spare, so his body could heal before he finally suffocated.
We stayed like that for another ten seconds. I sent soft, calming thoughts rippling through his brain with each deep breath I drew. But his thoughts were growing dimmer as the lack of oxygen was steadily stealing his consciousness. When I knew I could wait no longer, I released my mental hold on him.
Breathe, Danaus.
His first harsh breath shattered the pristine silence of the night. With both of his hands grasping my sides, he pulled me forward so he could lean his forehead against my sternum. My body had become his anchor to reality, and he was clutching me tight enough to create bruises.
I stopped breathing and absently ran my right hand over his hair, smoothing it as his own breathing slowly evened out.
Bitch.
I stumbled over that last thought as I pulled free of his mind.
“It was good for me too,” I said in a husky voice before threading my fingers through his hair and pressing a kiss to the top of his head. I sat on my heels as his hands slid from my sides. He rested against the side of the mountain, tilting his head back so he could breathe more easily.
I could understand Danaus’s fears, but I’d never tried to force my way into his memories, his secrets, until now, when I had controlled him, forcing him to believe in an illusion that could have killed him. His anger began to ebb, but his fear was still a tangible thing between us. In his moment of weakness I was able to enter his mind, which I would not have been able to do under normal circumstances. What’s more, the direct path we had cut between our two minds was now stronger than ever. We could easily slip into each other’s thoughts now, something I knew that neither of us wanted.
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