But the nightwalker refused to answer me. She refused to even meet my gaze, causing my chest to tighten as if it were suddenly caught in a vise. “Mira, he’s not helping you,” I continued when she refused to speak. “Whatever he’s doing is destroying your mind. Ever since I came to town, you’ve been seeing and hearing things. You attacked Tristan, accusing him of betrayal when there is no one who could possibly be more loyal to you.”
“There are risks with everything in this world,” she said, staring over my shoulder. “It’s worth the risk.”
“It’s not!” I shouted. “It’s destroying you. You’re going to hurt someone important to you or yourself if this doesn’t stop. You also can’t risk being under Ryan’s control. Isn’t it enough that both Jabari and I have that power over you? Do you really want to have another holding your leash?”
“No! I don’t want this!” she screamed, her composure splintering before me. “But it’s only temporary. Once we kill Aurora, it will be over. Ryan and I will go our separate ways.”
“And how long will that take? We haven’t seen any sign of Aurora since Machu Picchu and it’s likely she will remain in hiding while she tries to find a way to deal with both you and Cynnia. This arrangement with Ryan can’t go on that long.”
“I have to,” Mira whispered.
“Danaus?” asked a soft voice off to my left. Mira and I both looked over at the same time to find Lily standing in the doorway. I felt Mira flinch at the sight of the girl and seem to draw into herself in pain.
“Calla?” Mira murmured in a breathless voice. The nightwalker lurched to her side, trying to get at the girl. Luckily, I was still holding Mira’s arms and I managed to stop her before she could get more than a step toward the young girl. “Calla!” she cried again in a louder voice, as she desperately tried to twist out of my grasp. My only saving grace was the fact that Mira still wasn’t up to her full strength or I never would have been able to hold her back.
“It’s not Calla,” I firmly said, forcing Mira to look up at me as I turned my back on Lily.
“But it is!” Mira said, jerking in my grasp in an attempt to look around me and at the girl again. “Look at her, Danaus! It’s Calla.”
“It’s not Calla! Calla is dead. You know this.” Tightening my grip on Mira to the point of bruising, I finally got her to look up at me. “Think about it, Mira. You know that Calla is gone from this world. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth.”
“But…” she whimpered.
“That’s Lily. She’s agreed to help us.”
“Danaus?” Lily repeated, her voice growing more unsure.
“It’s okay, Lily. This is Mira, a friend of mine. She’s very sick right now,” I explained as I watched the confidence slowly flow from Mira’s expression only to be replaced by pain and a growing confusion. Her mind was coming back to me for the moment. Ryan’s blood may have satiated her hunger, but it failed to heal whatever damage was being done to her mind.
“Can I help you?” Lily asked.
“Not right now,” I said. “Go back in the kitchen with Gabriel and the others. I’ll join you there soon.”
“I was wondering if it would be okay if I went upstairs with Tristan. He was going to show me this computer game he’s having trouble with. Can I?” she hesitantly asked.
I frowned, not at all liking the idea of Lily being alone with Tristan. She was a young, vulnerable girl who had been through enough. I didn’t bring her here to be a light snack for a nightwalker.
“She’s safe with me,” Tristan said to my surprise. I hadn’t even heard him approach. My mind was too full of Mira and her deteriorating condition. “She’s a guest in this house. Besides, I know what you’re capable of.”
“It’s fine, Lily. Go with Tristan,” I said, some of the tension flowing from my shoulders.
I knew the moment that Tristan and Lily disappeared from the doorway because Mira relaxed in my hands. She directed her tortured eyes up to my face at last. I dipped into her mind to find it a mess of fractured thoughts. Yet, the nightwalker was standing in the middle of it all, clearheaded for the moment.
“I don’t understand. What’s happening to me? Why do I keep seeing these…images? Are they ghosts?” Mira asked.
“I don’t think so.” I sighed. Ghosts were a more appealing idea than the threat of insanity that I offered her. “Ryan’s blood is doing something to your mind or something has found a way to affect your thoughts. Either way, feeding off of the warlock has to stop.”
“I can’t!” she argued, pulling out of my loosened grasp. “It’s my only edge against Aurora.” Mira clasped her head in both of her hands and let out a low moan as she battled whatever demons were fighting for control of her now.
“This can’t continue.”
“But Aurora…”
Taking one step forward, I swept Mira up into my arms. “I think I might have another solution,” I said. The nightwalker didn’t try to push out of my arms. To my surprise, she actually curled up against me, still clutching her head. I could feel her warm body starting to cool, as if whatever warmth she had gained from Ryan was quickly dissipating.
Marching through the house, I gave Gabriel only a glance at where he was seated at the table in the breakfast nook. The other man was gone, possibly off to get pizza.
“Where are you going?” Gabriel demanded as I jerked open the back door.
“To see someone who might be able to help Mira. Keep an eye on Lily for me,” I replied before walking out of the house, leaving Gabriel to shut the door behind me.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get far. I had just deposited Mira in the backseat of the car and shut the door when the kitchen door opened and Lily came running across the backyard to the car. She must have heard the door close or looked out the window.
“Wait! Wait for me!” she cried.
“I want you to stay here with Gabriel and Tristan,” I said calmly, placing a restraining hand on her slim shoulder. “I need to take Mira to see someone who might be able to help her.”
Lily jerked out of my grasp, taking one step backward from the car. “You said that you would protect me.”
“Gabriel and Tristan will keep you safe. I won’t be gone long,” I countered, feeling guiltier by the minute. I had promised her that I would keep her safe and now I was ditching her with a human bodyguard and a nightwalker.
“You think I haven’t heard that one before?” she scoffed, plopping her hands on her hips. “Leave me here and I won’t be here when you get back.”
I frowned down at the teenager and she glared back up at me. I couldn’t take the risk of her running when Mira and I still needed her. She was also risking her own life by potentially falling into Gaizka’s hands. Furthermore, she wasn’t the responsibility of Tristan and Gabriel. She was mine.
“You do exactly as I say or I will put you in the trunk for your own protection,” I threatened, but Lily paid me no heed. She gave a little excited skip and ran around to the front door on the passenger side.
Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my cell phone just before sliding behind the steering wheel. After my initial arrival in Savannah, I had stumbled across a local witch who provided me with some valuable information on the workings of Mira’s domain. She hadn’t been too thrilled to help me months ago and I didn’t get the feeling she believed I’d actually survive when I went head-to-head with the Fire Starter.
“LaVina, this is Danaus,” I blurted out as soon as she answered the phone. “I’m bringing you someone that needs your help.” I hung up the phone before she could reply and started the car. I just hoped that she could help. Mira wasn’t going to last much longer as she was.
TWENTY-SEVEN
The small white two-story house sat out in the middle of a field nearly a mile from the road. Oak trees surrrounded the house, shrouding it from view with their thick leafy limbs. Lily shifted in her seat, growing more uneasy the closer we drew to the house. The night was overcast, blocking any moonl
ight, leaving the area cloaked in thick darkness.
“Whose house is this?” Lily asked as I put the car in park.
“Her name is LaVina and she’s a witch of sorts,” I replied as I unlatched my seat belt.
“What’s that mean?” Lily demanded as she slowly released her seat belt as well.
“LaVina specializes in voodoo, but has expanded her practices to various forms of earth and blood magic. Several months ago, she helped me to locate Mira,” I explained, and then got out of the car before she could ask her next question.
Lily followed behind me as I picked up a silent Mira from the backseat and carried her up the front steps. The old wood planks of the porch creaked under our combined weight, announcing our arrival.
The front door opened, revealing an old black woman as thin as a skeleton with her gray hair drawn back into a tight bun. Her bony hand wrapped around the door handle of the screen door, holding it shut.
“You shouldn’t have hung up so quickly,” she criticized in a heavy Southern accent. “I would have told you not to bother to come.”
“Just take a look at her,” I said, ignoring her comment. I wouldn’t be turned away.
“What am I supposed to do with a sick vampire?”
“She’s been drinking from a warlock,” I said quickly, hoping to pique her curiosity. “She’s been hearing and seeing things. Ghosts from her past. Savannah needs Mira. You know that. She’s not going to last much longer as she is.”
“Bah!” she scoffed, a frown drawing down the corners of her mouth. “Who’s the young one?”
“Lily. A friend.”
LaVina stared at us for another few seconds before she finally released the door handle and shuffled into the house, leaving us to follow.
“Danaus, are you sure about this?” Lily asked in a low voice as she took a step backward.
“Everything will be fine,” I said, raising one corner of my mouth in what I hoped looked like a reassuring smile. “What’s wrong? See something?”
“No, and that’s the problem. She doesn’t have an aura,” Lily whispered.
It was strange enough to give me pause, but not enough to stop me from opening the door. Mira needed help and LaVina was my only option at this point. I could only hope that maybe the child was tired and possibly mistaken. Or maybe LaVina was powerful enough to cloak her aura from others. Either way, it really didn’t matter. I was desperate.
“Just stick close to me,” I said as I entered the house. Lily was quick to obey, as she followed close enough to bump into me when I suddenly stopped outside the living room.
With her hands on her narrow hips, LaVina stared down at Lily, clucking her tongue at the girl. “You’re a bit of a ragamuffin. Need something to eat? Let me get you something fixed up.”
“That’s okay. Gabriel’s getting some pizza. I’ll just have that when we get back to Mira’s,” Lily quickly said.
“That’s no meal for a girl your age. You need some real home cooking and you’re not going to get that with some vampire,” LaVina argued with a dismissive wave at Mira, who lay limp in my arms.
“It’s okay, LaVina. We can’t stay long. We just need you to look at Mira,” I interrupted.
“Fine. Fine. Have it your way,” the old woman said, throwing her arms up. “Follow me.”
Suppressing a sigh of relief, we followed LaVina down a narrow set of wooden stairs into her basement. The old witch waved her hand as she descended the stairs, causing dozens of candles to flicker to life. To my surprise, a low giggle escaped Mira as she raised her hand. All the candles went out again, plunging the basement back into complete darkness.
“Oh, so the corpse is awake,” LaVina said as she lit the candles again.
“Sorry, LaVina,” I said, descending the last few stairs to the dirt floor. “Mira hasn’t been thinking clearly the past few days.”
“Bite me, Danaus,” Mira said as she finally started to stir in my arms.
“Just set the bloodsucker on the floor over there,” LaVina directed, waving one hand toward the far wall as she fiddled around on a workbench covered with all sorts of strange odds and ends.
I sat Mira on the floor so that her back was against the concrete wall and she was facing the bench where LaVina was busy pulling together whatever she needed. I remained closer to Mira while Lily sat down on the stairs, refusing to come any farther into the tiny, claustrophobic basement. There were no windows and the walls were covered in all manner of symbols, none of which I could identify. The air was musty, filled with the rich scent of dirt, dried flowers, and a hint of incense. Beneath it all was also the faint odor of dried blood. Creatures had been sacrificed in this small cloistered refuge from the modern world.
LaVina hummed a nameless melody to herself as she went about lighting a bit of incense and pulling down little bottles of unknown liquids and fragments of plants. Jerking open the door of an old wooden birdcage, the old witch plunged her hand inside and quickly pulled it out again, holding a small bird in her grasp. With a speed and ease that bespoke of years of experience, she picked up a small blade from the table and chopped off the creature’s head before it could make a single chirp. I quickly looked over at Lily and was instantly relieved to find that she was looking at Mira and me rather than the witch. She didn’t need to be exposed to any more violence and death than she already had been.
I was beginning to think that bringing her here had been a serious mistake. LaVina was eccentric at best. When I had seen her the last time, she had stood naked in a ring of fire in her backyard, her body smeared with the blood of a dead dog, demanding the spirits of the dead tell her where I should go to hunt the Fire Starter. I might not be a believer in her methods, but the next night, I finally encountered Mira and our journey together began.
“Good dirt,” Mira suddenly murmured, shattering the silence that had dominated, other than LaVina’s soft humming. I looked down at the nightwalker to find her digging furrows in the dirt with the fingers of her right hand. She picked up a handful and let it fall through her parted fingers. Her head popped up and she looked at LaVina for the first time. “This isn’t Savannah dirt,” she ventured. “Peruvian?”
LaVina took a couple slow steps toward the nightwalker, her brow wrinkled with surprise and her fingers stained red. “Good guess,” she replied softly. “Some of the dirt was shipped in from the Sacred Valley in Peru. I also had some brought in from the Black Forest in Germany and from the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. Strong bits of earth for spell casting. But I’m surprised you could tell such a thing.”
Mira shrugged her shoulders as she dropped the last of the dirt back to the ground. “Like I said, it’s good dirt. I’ve slept covered in Peruvian dirt.”
“But still,” LaVina pressed as she edged closer. “No nightwalker should be able to sense such a thing. All nightwalkers lose their connection with the earth upon rebirth.”
“Yes, well, I’m special,” Mira said, curling her lips in such a way that she briefly flashed her fangs. There was also no missing the sarcasm that laced every syllable of that statement.
To my surprise, LaVina knelt on the ground next to Mira and clasped the nightwalker’s chin between two thin fingers. She tilted Mira’s head up, looking into her lavender eyes as she once again clucked her tongue. “You, my child, should never have been reborn as a nightwalker.”
“No kidding,” Mira replied snidely as she tried to turn her head away, but LaVina jerked Mira’s head back to face her.
“You were destined for many great things,” LaVina continued. “Being a nightwalker may have delayed, if not completely deterred those things. So sad.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked when Mira just stared mutely at the old witch.
“Nothing specific,” LaVina quickly said, releasing Mira’s face. “Just idle dreams and broken nightmares.”
Using the blood that was still on her fingers, she traced a symbol on Mira’s forehead that caused a knot to form in my stomach. I k
new a few old symbols from my travels, and this one felt positively ancient. Older than the pagans, older than Mesopotamians, older than most civilizations that had crawled across the Earth. The monster that lived wrapped around the remains of my soul recoiled at the sight of it and my skin crawled. While I couldn’t name the source of the symbol, something told me that I was looking at the original marking for chaos.
Energy sizzled in the air around LaVina and Mira, as the old witch started speaking in a tongue I had never heard before. My ears started ringing and the air started to grow too thick to draw into my lungs. I thought I would soon begin choking. Mira lay as still as death while LaVina worked her magic, her eyes closed, but a glimmer of lavender light still shined beneath her eyelashes. I didn’t like this.
“LaVina?” I pressed, touching the woman’s arm. The witch immediately stopped what she was doing and smiled at me. She placed her hand in mine and I helped her to stand again. She walked back over to the bench where she fiddled around with some unseen objects.
“So, you were saying that this nightwalker has been drinking from a warlock,” she said, changing the subject to the real reason we had come to her in the first place. I was tempted to pull her back to our previous topic, but decided to drop it. It was more important that we got Mira well and sane again.
“Yes.” I sighed.
“Powerful one?” she asked, glancing over her bony shoulder at me.
“Very powerful.”
“Hmmm…” she said as she slowly turned around again. She leaned up against the bench and crossed her arms over her middle. “Did you know different types of blood affect nightwalkers in different ways?”
“I’m not surprised,” I said, shoving my hands into my back pockets. “Naturi blood is poisonous to nightwalkers.”
“In that same vein, some nightwalkers can’t drink shapeshifter blood. They’re too close to that nature tie, and it makes them sick for several nights on end.”
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