Dawn of Darkness (Daeva, #1) (23 page)

With
everything set, Nate and Sebastian began to creep away to the far
side of Marmagne, where they could await the signal to begin the
diversion. It occurred to me that Violet never mentioned what the
signal would be, and no-one had thought to ask. I guessed they must
have their own signal they were used to, but I asked
anyway.

"It's
when I say go," Violet replied, her eyes fixed in the
distance.

"Telepathy," Daniel added. "Vampires can communicate mentally
with humans they've bonded with."

"Oh," I
said, thinking up a million more questions about vampires and their
servants. Perhaps, servant wasn't the correct word in this case.
Would Violet be offended if I referred to Sebastian as her servant?
I made a mental note to ask Daniel or Nate later, in
private.

Violet
was studying the patrols of troops wandering around the barriers.
Were it not for the flashlights attached to their weapons, I might
not have been able to spot them in the dark. From what little I
could see, the Silver Dawn had already begun to build the metal
walls around Marmagne, encasing the black spikes within them. The
side closest to us had a large gap, probably the result of the
attack a few nights ago. That was our target; the exposed barrier
spike. One more night, and they would be encased in the walls, lost
to us. And with it, our chance to gain an upper hand against the
Silver Dawn, and what was probably my best shot at getting
revenge.

"Three
patrols of two near the target," Violet said. "Another two groups
either side. Two stationary guards at the wall."

"I'm
betting those two won't budge," Daniel said. "And the four at the
far side might stick to their patrol."

We waited
some more, watching the paths of the patrols, until Violet said,
"They're in position."

"Hope
you're ready for this, Mik," said Daniel. I nodded, though in truth
I was quite anxious. One year of training to fight the
supernatural, and I was about to go up against regular humans with
guns. Still, my job was easy. All I had to do was lure a few guards
out. I could do that.

"Go,"
Violet whispered. I looked at her, wondering if she was talking to
me or Sebastian. My question was answered when the sky was
illuminated in flames. A wave of fire rose up from the earth,
rushing towards Marmagne, clashing and roaring against the metal
walls.

The
guards closest panicked, and rushed off to find the cause of the
problem. Another stream erupted, spurting upwards, and sending
another of the patrols running. I was in awe. I hadn't realised
until then how powerful Nate was.

"Mik."
Violet nudged me. She nodded towards the remaining four soldiers.
The diversion had worked better than expected.

I took a
deep breath, and let the magic flow from within me. I concentrated
on the same thoughts I used previously. This time it was different.
The wind did not begin cold as it had always done, but instead it
was warm from the start. It reached out of me, heading straight for
the guards. At first, nothing happened, and I thought perhaps they
were out of range. But then I saw their flashlights turn in our
direction, one at a time. They drew closer. Daniel and Violet hid
closer to the edge, behind some trees. When the guards approached,
they jumped out from both sides, taking out one man each. The
remaining two did not flinch, nor did they look back to see what
befell their comrades. They kept walking towards me, their eyes
blank and a smile on their faces. I was all they cared about. That
is, until they fell down, unconscious.

They
would have let their friends die, I thought. And all for a promise
of love that didn't exist. The thought of how much my ability could
affect others was frightening. In a sense, I was turning them into
mindless lovesick zombies. No, not even zombies. Slaves. They would
have done anything for me.

"Come
on," Daniel shouted. "We don't have much time before they figure
out it was a diversion." I didn't reply or move, until Daniel
pulled me to my feet, shaking me from my stupor.

"How do
you feel?" Violet asked. There was no shakiness in my legs like
before. I didn't feel dizzy.

"I'm
okay," I replied, leaving out the bit about how I was terrified of
what my ability was capable of.

With the
guards out of the way, we ran to the gap in the wall. I pulled out
a flashlight I had been given, and shone it on the surface of the
black metal spike. It must have been about fifteen feet tall, and
it curved in towards the centre of the ruins as it narrowed to a
point. By all accounts, it looked completely ordinary, if a little
creepy. Daniel took out a knife, and began collecting shavings of
the metal, which he caught in a small plastic bag and
sealed.

Violet
pressed her hand to the spike. She didn't flinch or recoil. Next
she tried passing her hand between two of the spikes. Her hand
froze, as though it had hit something solid. Daniel tried it, and
found he could pass through the invisible wall without any
problem.

"Must be
some kind of spell," Violet muttered.

"Mik,
shine the light down here," Daniel said. I stepped inside the wall
and crouched next to him. He was examining something on the metal,
close to the floor. I shone the light at the bottom of the spike,
and found a strange symbol etched into the metal. There were two
upside-down triangles, one smaller inside the other, both joined at
the base. The sides of the larger triangle continued on past the
apex, curving and overlapping what looked like a 'V'. At five
points around the central shape were smaller etchings, resembling
nails from the side.

"What is
it?" Violet asked.

"Looks
like some kinda glyph or rune," Daniel replied. "Give me a minute
to memorise it."

"We do
not have one minute, Daniel. Sebastian tells me some of the guards
are already beginning to head back. They may already suspect it was
a diversion."

Daniel
was muttering to himself, probably trying to imprint the shapes
onto his memory.

"Mik,"
Violet said. "Come on. We have to go."

I was
torn between the two. On the one hand, Violet had a point. We
needed to get going before the guards returned. But what if the
symbol was the key they were looking for?

"Hand me
the light," Daniel said, and I did as he asked. "Now,
go."

"Daniel–"

"Go," he
said, raising his voice. "I can run faster than you. I'll catch
up."

I stepped
outside the barrier, looking back at Daniel. My feet had barely
touched the ground on the other side when Violet took hold of my
arm.

"You had
better," she said, before pulling me along with her. We were about
halfway to the cover of the woods when I looked back to Marmagne. I
saw the lights of the guards starting to appear once more as they
headed back to their posts. In the distance, there were several
small fires burning, but it looked like they were under control.
There was no sign of Daniel. Probably still inspecting the barrier,
I thought. It was as we reached the edge of the woods that we heard
shots fire in the distance. Violet froze, her eyes searching the
darkness.

"Come on,
you stupid mutt," she mumbled to herself. Her fists clenched. The
guards' lights were waving to and fro, searching in all directions.
I prayed Daniel had gotten away unhurt. Those guns were using
silver bullets, that was for sure. What if he had been
hit?

"There.
That's him," Violet said, her voice filled with relief. I looked in
the direction she was pointing, to see a figure running in the
distance. None of the flashlights were following him.

We
retreated back into the woods and to our rendezvous point, where
Nate and Sebastian were waiting for us.

"Where's
Daniel?" Sebastian asked.

There
were more shots. A sense of dread lingered in the air, until Daniel
burst through the undergrowth, panting. He clutched at his
shoulder, his hands stained red.

"I'm
fine," he reassured us before anyone could point out the obvious.
"Let's get out of here before they catch up."

We all
agreed and started downstream, to a point where the water was
narrow and shallow enough for us to get across without getting too
wet. Once over the stream, we continued to follow it a little way.
It seemed our pursuers had turned back or gotten lost along the
way, so we slowed our pace, adjusting our course to head back to
camp. It hadn't been more than a few minutes after we stopped
running, when there was a thud from behind. We turned to see Daniel
collapsed on the floor.

"Shit," I
said, rushing over to him. His breathing was fast and shallow. He
writhed in pain, groaning, and clawing at his wound. "What's wrong
with him?" I asked Violet, who was now knelt by him. She peeled
back his blood-soaked clothes to get a better look. There was one
neat hole where the bullet entered. Next she rolled him onto his
side, examining the back of his shoulder.

"Idiot,"
she snapped. "The bullet didn't pass through. We have to get it out
so he can heal."

Violet
began handing out tasks to everyone. Nate heated a blade with his
fire and handed it to her, then moved to help Sebastian and I with
holding down Daniel's arms. Violet straddled his body, lowering the
knife to his skin. He screamed as the blade bit into him, his arms
lifting off the ground. It took all of my strength, and Nate's, our
body weight combined, to hold down one arm. I watched in horror as
Violet wiggled the blade about in the wound, digging at the skin to
try and retrieve the bullet. There was blood everywhere. I honestly
thought she might kill Daniel in her attempt to save him. He
screamed louder, the knife going deeper. Violet pulled the knife
out and poked her fingers into the hole. When she withdrew her
fingers, she had hold of the silver bullet casing. She jumped off
him quickly, as did Sebastian and Nate, who pulled me back with
him.

Daniel's
body began to jerk. I heard the sounds of bones cracking and looked
away before I got a repeat performance of the other day. Still, I
listened. I waited for his screams to become howls and snarls.
There was more snapping, then popping, followed by the wet tearing.
I let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding when I heard a
loud yip. His clothes lay ragged and torn on the floor beside him.
Violet crouched down in front of him, inspecting his shoulder. She
grabbed hold of him by the neck, lifting his front paws from the
ground.

"You ever
do anything stupid like that again, and I swear..." She left the
sentence unfinished, the threat hanging in the air. Daniel
whimpered, bowing his head when she released him.

*****

We
managed to make it back to camp without any further incidents.
Daniel changed back, now he had some spare clothes at hand, and was
busying himself with a notepad and pencil. I watched over his
shoulder as he sketched the strange symbol we had seen.

"There
was another line here," I said, spotting a mistake and
demonstrating it with my finger. He quickly corrected it. "Any idea
what it is?"

"Not a
clue." He showed it to the others who were equally as stumped by
it.

Nate was
fast asleep almost as soon as we arrived. I was surprised he could
even stand after such a display of power. I saw Ash do something
similar once, creating a giant wall of ice, but nothing close to
what Nate had done.

Between
all the walking and the use of my ability, I was starting to feel a
little tired as well. Using the Luring Song, as I had come to call
it, hadn't been nearly as draining as the first time I used it.
Perhaps, Violet was right about the feeding, or it could have
something to do with how the wind started off warm this time. I
wondered what would happen if I tried to use my power as I had for
the last year. Would it begin cold, or would it start warm then
change? I looked over at Nate, who had his back to me, thinking it
might be best to test it on someone who was asleep. I sent a small
amount of my magic out to him. The wind was cold as it reached out
and touched him. Nate shifted in his sleep and I withdrew my magic.
Next I tried luring and the wind started warm again. I repeated
this several times, fascinated with the change that had occurred to
my magic. I laughed quietly to myself, because even knowing the
results I had no idea what it meant. I could have guessed all I
wanted, but in the end, it would have been speculation.

I began
to wonder if I could call a sleeping person to me. The warm wind
reached out, touching Nate. At first, nothing happened, but then
Nate began to groan in his sleep. He rolled over, his hand reaching
out for me. The second his hand touched me, he quieted again. I
pulled in my magic and lifted Nate's hand off my knee, before
climbing into the sleeping bag and settling down for a well-earned
rest.

*****

I awoke
with a start, feeling hands on my shoulders shaking me. Nate was
hunched over me.

"Get up.
We're leaving. Now!"

"What's
happening?" I asked, jumping up and pulling on my boots. Nate was
busy rolling up the sleeping bags and packing them into their
holders. I started to help him.