Pray for Dawn dd-4

by Jocelynn Drake

  But she was a vampire. A monster. A heartless killer.

  At least that’s what I tried to remind myself, but the longer I knew her—the more I saw of her world—the harder that was to believe. She didn’t kill humans. She might have toyed with them and played her games, but she didn’t kill. And regardless of whether she admitted it to herself, she cared about Tristan’s safety.

  In my head, I could easily imagine Bodhi shaking his head at me with his knowing little smile. I had traveled with the bald, bandy-legged gypsy for less than two decades, but he and his family had become my family for a time. He was first to try to get me to forgive myself for being born. He was also the first to point out that vampires were evil, following the loss of one of his sons. He would have reminded me that there is nothing wrong in appreciating the beauty and grace of a Bengal tiger, just never think you could take one in as a pet. It would only rip your heart out despite your admiration.

  Staring up at the ceiling, I sighed and laced my fingers behind my head. Maybe Mira was right and I needed sex. It had been a long while since I had been with a woman. My attraction to Mira could just be a buildup of sexual tension, but I wasn’t about to relieve that tension with her, no matter how tempting she was. I was tired of being a plaything for powerful creatures.

  FIVE

  My sleep was disturbed again less than four hours later. Lying on my back, I used my powers to discover James standing outside the door. I released the knife and shuffled across the room, wiping the sleep out of my eyes. I had managed to squeeze in close to seven hours of sleep. With both Ryan and Mira in town, I had a sick feeling that it was the best I was going to get for a while.

  The young man smiled at me when I opened the door, easily ignoring my own sour expression as he stepped into the room. Early thirties, with brown hair and thin face, James had been assigned as my assistant less than a year ago and we were still adjusting to the arrangement. I always worked alone, but I depended on a specific contact within Themis to arrange for my travel, lodging, money, research information, and other odds and ends.

  But for me, it was more than those basic necessities. James was my tie to the human world. He reminded me of what it meant to be human in the twenty-first century, which was not exactly the easiest thing for me to remember. I would turn 1,866 years old this year. After such a passage of time, things like polite conversation and mundane tasks tended to be forgotten under the relentless grind of life.

  “You don’t look as bad as she made it sound,” James said, his sharp eyes skimming over my face.

  I hit the light switch, bathing the room in warm, golden lamplight as I walked over to my bag. “She?” I asked, as I jerked the black cotton pants over my hips.

  “Mira. She was worried.”

  I snorted. Mira’s only concern was that someone would kill me before she had her shot. James also said nothing, but answered the door when another visitor knocked. A member of the hotel staff carried in a large tray with several covered plates, and the smell of coffee that caught my attention. The promise of warmth and caffeine wiped away the last of the fog from my brain. As James signed the bill, I started lifting covers to find a strange combination of breakfast and dinner. Scrambled eggs, sausage, steak with a baked potato, steamed legumes, lentil soup, whole-grain muffins, and a whole pot of black coffee. James was going to work out fine as my assistant.

  “I wasn’t sure what you’d want,” James hedged as he came to stand on the other side of the table.

  “This is fine,” I muttered, falling into a seat as I dug into the food. Coffee and food would clear out the cobwebs and cure the aches. Then I would be able to tackle the growing mess that surrounded Mira.

  “Any trouble with the vampires?” James asked, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. He was still young and enthusiastic about this dark world in which I worked, wanting to know all the secrets and desperate to dive into it. However, after meeting Mira and some other vampires last summer, he had grown a little more cautious. Of course, he had also had to clean up the multiple naturi corpses Mira and her band had left behind following their last visit. Cleaning up that many dead bodies would have been a harsh wake-up call for anyone.

  “Not with the vampires,” I said with a shake of my head as I poured more coffee. “The naturi were another matter.”

  James slowly fell backward into the chair opposite me, his mouth falling open and his eyes widening behind his gold-rimmed glasses. “Naturi?” he nearly choked on the words. “I thought you said that these vampires were a part of Sadira’s domain. Why would the naturi go to a known haven for a powerful nightwalker?”

  “They might not have known,” I said with a wave of my fork in between bites. “They might not have cared. After the doors opened, the naturi scattered everywhere. I have a feeling that they are going to go where they want to.”

  “I always assumed they would stick to wooded areas. I mean, they are nature-based creatures,” James replied.

  I stared down at my half-empty plate for a moment. He had just voiced the hope I had been harboring for the past three months: that the naturi would stick to the woods and leave mankind untouched while they worked out their own little political problems. With any luck, it would take years, enough time for us to come up with some solution to the problem of them even being in this world in the first place. But it wasn’t to be.

  During the past three months, I had destroyed more nightwalkers than I had naturi, but the number was steadily increasing. They were popping up on the outskirts of town, sometimes just seeming to watch me as I battled the vampires before they finally attacked. The trio in Spain had been the most I had encountered at once since leaving Mira’s presence. But then the nightwalker had a special way about her that seemed to bring out the worst in the naturi. She reminded me of a young man I had trained with in the Legion. He had the same special knack. Every time we were sent ahead as scout, he would literally trip over the enemy. It’s a wonder he lived through half as many battles as he did.

  Pushing away those dark thoughts, I turned my attention back to the food that was growing cold before me and switched to a less tasteful topic. “Mira has been with Ryan for the past week?” I asked before shoving a piece of steak into my mouth. It was heaven. I tried to relax and just think about the taste, but I couldn’t. I had to know what was going on before it rose up and bit me in the ass, literally.

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  James looked down at the white tablecloth, his hand jumping up to smooth his navy tie against his chest. “I can’t say.”

  “And Ryan is here now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  This time his eyes darted back up to my face and he frowned at me. “Danaus, I…”

  I held up my right hand, my fork still pressed between my thumb and index finger. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”

  James slumped in his chair and pulled off his glasses so he could rub his eyes. “You know how he is,” he grumbled.

  Yeah, I knew how Ryan worked. He liked to be in control of the flow of information at all times. Ryan was from the school of thought that knowledge is power and he liked knowing more than everyone else.

  I pushed aside my empty plate, cleaned of the steak and vegetables, moving on to the eggs. “How did they take Mira’s presence at Themis?”

  Resting his elbows on the arms of his chair, James stared at his glasses as he held them with both hands. “She’s a great source of information, assuming she’s telling the truth,” he said slowly. One corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile. “But I think they’re glad that she’s gone.” James looked up at me. I was surprised to find that his gaze was sharp, unlike the unfocused stare of someone suddenly caught without their glasses. Not for the first time I wondered if he actually needed his gold-rimmed spectacles.

  “What did she do?”

  “Not much.” He shrugged as he slipped his glasses back on his nose. “Just her usual mischief, I imagine. But s
he stopped sleeping not long after her arrival and I think most people stopped sleeping as long as she was awake and wandering the halls.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to ask how Ryan had managed that unique feat, but I swallowed the question. I doubted if James actually knew even though he doubled as Ryan’s assistant when I was out of town. And even if he did know, I doubt he would be permitted to tell me.

  Reaching for the coffeepot, I poured another cup, somewhat relieved to find that Mira hadn’t caused too many problems. It was probably best that she had shaken things up back at Themis. I was learning that their understanding of vampires had little to do with reality, defying my entire reason for joining the society in the first place. “Is there anything else that I should know about?”

  “Not much. Ryan has pulled back most of the hunters to Paris, London, or the Compound recently. He believes things have become too…tense at the moment and thought it best if we pulled back to guard our own for now. Last I saw, only Farkas and Collins were left in the field.”

  “Doing what?” I demanded, an uneasy feeling slipping down into the pit of my stomach. My right hand slipped from my coffee cup to rest on the arm of the chair.

  “Farkas is on a quick scouting mission in Turkey. Something about a shake-up in the dominant werewolf pack in the area. Collins was sent to take care of a vampire hiding out in the Ukraine.” James adjusted his glasses.

  “When was Collins put on vampire duty?” I snapped, my right hand convulsively tightening on the chair so that the wood creaked softly.

  James swallowed audibly and sat up straighter in his chair. “Last month.”

  “He doesn’t have enough experience in the field and should never have been sent alone,” I barked. “Who put him on vampire duty?”

  “I think Ryan did.” James scooted back in his chair so that he could put a little more distance between him and myself. “Collins was told to only pursue the vampire during the day. If he can’t locate its daytime resting spot, he is to call for assistance.”

  “Collins is going to end up dead,” I grumbled. My grip on the chair loosened and I reached for my coffee in an effort to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.

  “I heard it was a young vampire,” James countered, trying to soothe some of my anger. It wasn’t working.

  “That doesn’t make them any less dangerous; just a little more careless. I have the ultimate authority over who is on vampire duty. Ryan knows that.” I sat back in my chair, glaring at my empty coffee mug.

  Why hadn’t I been consulted? Derrick Collins had been with Themis for only a couple years and just served as backup on vampire hunts on a few occasions. He didn’t have enough experience in the field to handle a nightwalker, even a fledgling. I had always had complete authority over those who served on vampire duty. I was the only one who hunted alone. I was also the only one with the skill, speed, and experience to hunt them at night.

  Ryan had overstepped his bounds. The warlock had put an inexperienced hunter in an extremely dangerous situation and a part of me was reluctant to ask why. And this wasn’t the first time. He had also brought James along to Crete, where the naturi were holding one of their sacrifice attempts. In this instance, I had to agree with Mira. The researcher had no business being anywhere near that dangerous situation, and Ryan had brought him along as potential bait.

  Ryan was very wise and very careful, but I didn’t always agree with his methods. His conscience had no problem withholding information or sacrificing a few lives here and there to accomplish his greater schemes. And while I wasn’t a pawn, I had no doubt that I was still a chess piece for him to play with.

  “When is my meeting with Ryan?” I demanded.

  James pushed to his feet, shoving his hands into his trouser pockets. “He said to come down whenever you’re ready. Room 705.”

  I needed a shower, shave, a fresh set of clothes, and then I would be ready to deal with a warlock. “Tell him thirty minutes.”

  James nodded once and wordlessly left the room. I sat for a minute staring at the rumpled sheets on my bed. An uneasiness twisted in my chest. Themis was no longer the home that I needed it to be. When I had joined centuries ago, it was in the pursuit of more knowledge of the creatures that lurked in the darkness and fed off all that was good in humanity. Now I felt as if I were simply a foot soldier for Ryan in his quest for…whatever he was reaching for next. The information now flowed up to him instead of down through the entire collective. Not for the first time in the past few years I wondered if it was time to move on.

  But for now, such thoughts had to be put aside. In thirty minutes, I would discover what had dragged Ryan away from his ivory tower and, hopefully, I would find out how and why he had given Mira the ability to walk around during the day.

  SIX

  The sun had already set when I finally walked down the hall to Ryan’s suite. Prior to his arrival in the United States, he had been meeting with various groups regarding the new naturi problem. A trio of warlocks from Quebec had made an unexpected appearance at the Compound during my last stay in the UK, demanding to speak with Ryan. There was no particular hierarchy among witches and warlocks. While small and large covens existed around the world, no single being ruled and set laws for the group. No king, president, or dictator.

  But there was Ryan. In their small sect of the world, he was one of the oldest and strongest. He was also one of the only warlocks that were in contact with all the other creatures of the world. And as the head of Themis, he had near limitless amounts of information at his fingertips.

  No, Ryan wasn’t their king, but if he asked, their first thought was “How high?”

  Outside Ryan’s suite I paused for half a second. Mira was in there. I had hoped for a private meeting with the head of Themis, but I was beginning to see that was an impossibility. Still, the sight that greeted me when James let me into the room brought me up short. The entrance to the suite opened immediately to a large parlor of sorts with a sofa, chairs, and coffee table. To one side sat a large desk, stacked with several tomes that the warlock most likely brought with him from England. Ryan sat relaxed in a high-back leather chair, while Mira was perched on his desk before him, her bare feet resting on the edge of his chair on either side of his outstretched legs. There was a strange intimacy to the tableau that made me want to back out of the room, but I didn’t move.

  Both creatures looked up at me, their expressions unreadable. Had this been planned, and if so, by whom? Ryan had summoned me and both would have sensed my approach. There was no surprise in their eyes.

  Mira moved first, placing her feet on the floor and sliding off the desk. As she walked around to the front of his desk, neither looked at the other, but I saw the fingers of Mira’s right hand grasp Ryan’s right hand for half a breath and then release it. Mira strolled past me, a strange smile on her lips. It wasn’t her usual smug or teasing smile. It wasn’t even seductive. A deep foreboding sank into my bones and I suddenly had the feeling that I had fallen in with a shark and a lion. It wasn’t so much whether I was going to be eaten alive, but just a matter of how.

  “It’s good to see you again, Danaus,” Ryan said, drawing my attention back to him. The warlock with the liquid gold eyes rose smoothly to his feet and shoved his hands into the pockets of his black trousers. A smile lifted his lips, making him look completely at ease.

  Ryan had been with Themis for less than two centuries, joining several years after I had. While he didn’t speak of it much, I had the impression that he had been a warlock for a long time before that—nice accomplishment for a human.

  Of course, to look at him you wouldn’t guess he had seen more than three centuries of life. His thin, angular face held an ageless quality, giving him the appearance of a man somewhere between the ages of twenty-five and fifty. His completely white hair hung loose just below his shoulders, casting shadows about his golden eyes. But in a few, unguarded moments, Ryan had spoken of being a young boy with brown curls and eyes in a small
farm village. Heavy magic use had left its unmistakable mark on him, as it did with all powerful warlocks and witches.

  “We need to speak,” I said, still not moving from the doorway.

  “Yes, we do,” he replied, his smile slipping from his face. “Please come in.” His eyes briefly drifted to James and then back to me. James left the room, closing the door behind him. I had no doubt that the researcher would be down at my room until the meeting was over.

  My narrowed gaze fell on Mira, draped over the sofa against the back wall directly across from Ryan’s desk. “Alone.”

  Her smile instantly changed from mysterious to smug; she had no intention of moving.

  “I would prefer it if she remained,” Ryan said. His voice was firm but not yet commanding. The warlock very rarely attempted to pull rank on me. “One of the matters we need to discuss involves her.”

  Clenching my teeth, I stiffly nodded and took a couple steps farther into the room, my feet sinking into the thick, caramel-colored carpet. “I don’t see how she needs to be here to discuss Collins.”

  “Actually, Mira had a hand in Collins being in the Ukraine,” Ryan said, his tone lightening a bit as he pulled his hands out of his pockets and sat back down. He motioned for me to take one of the chairs by the sofa, but I hesitated. The position would make it hard for me to look at both the warlock and the vampire at the same time. I took a few steps closer to his desk, folding my arms over my chest. The air was thick with magic, Ryan’s almost electric power tingling with Mira’s cool breeze. It fogged and jumbled my thoughts. I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes for a second, trying to force my mind to clear.

  “Danaus?” inquired Mira, her voice a gentle caress.