Authors: Jocelynn Drake
“No more than the rest of mankind,” she said with a shrug. “We were all human once. Becoming a nightwalker didn’t change our souls.”
“Just your instincts,” I snapped.
To that, Mira simply shrugged as she turned back toward the car. “Come along, hunter,” she said. “We don’t have time to tarry here.” With her hand on the door, she stopped and looked over her shoulder at me, a playful grin spreading across her face. “Besides, my restraint is fading.”
Quickly descending the last of the creaking porch stairs, I jumped into the passenger seat, sinking into the soft leather. This battle would not be won or lost tonight. I needed to think more.
I glanced at the clock as Mira started the car. It wasn’t yet 9 P.M. I stared at it, my mind unable to comprehend what I was seeing. We had been in there for only thirty minutes. I would have guessed hours had drifted by in mind-numbing bliss.
We were in the car for several minutes before my hard voice finally shattered the silence. “What was that?”
“First Communion.”
“I’ve been around when vampires feed. I’ve never felt anything like that.”
“What you felt is what we feel every time we feed. A nightwalker can control whether his or her victim or other nightwalkers can feel it. A fledgling cannot. The first time you feed, it’s always the best. It’s a rush of power and pleasure like nothing you’ve ever known. For the first time, you’re connected to every living thing on the planet.” Her voice had taken on a dreamy quality, caressing my mind. “It’s why First Communion is so important. It’s our chance to relive that one moment. And for some, it’s a chance to remake that memory with someone important. Depending on the maker, First Communion doesn’t always go well for a fledgling. Emma was very lucky.”
“So now it has turned into an orgy.”
“Yeah.” Mira sighed. “You want to go back?”
I remained silent, watching out my window as we pulled back onto the expressway headed south toward downtown Savannah. Images and sensations were still strong in my mind and I was struggling to reconcile them. I had wanted Mira like nothing I had ever known before. Had she put those thoughts in my head? Were they the result of the feeding vampires? I had desired Mira before, but I had never touched her. She was a vampire; I was supposed to kill her, not want to have sex with her.
As the city rose up before us and we descended into the valley, I pushed those concerns away: but a new, grim thought dawned on me. “It looked like every vampire in the city was there.”
Mira’s hands tightened on the steering wheel and the car accelerated, gliding past ninety miles per hour. Her chin dipped to her chest, causing her hair to fall like a curtain along the side of her face, hiding her expression. “Almost.”
Almost.
Tristan, her precious ward and one of her few family members, had been missing from the gathering.
ELEVEN
O
n Bay Street, Mira pulled into an open parking spot just a few blocks from Bull Street and City Hall while I called James to tell him where to meet us. As she shut off the car, Mira reached down and pulled a lever that popped the trunk. I slid out of the car at the same time as she and walked to the back of the vehicle. Knowing Mira had an old-fashioned distaste for guns, I expected to see a variety of knives, daggers, and swords gleaming in the light from the overhead streetlamp. Yet, when Mira opened the black leather bag hidden in the back of the trunk, all I saw were clothes.
I threw her a puzzled look then reached down and lifted up a pile of clothes only to find more clothes. The nightwalker smiled as she lightly smacked my hand away then returned to tucking in her shirt into her jeans.
“We can’t all walk around looking like hired thugs for the Mafia,” Mira teased. Rolling up her sleeves, Mira pulled a pair of wrist sheaths out of one pocket of the bag and strapped them on before pulling her sleeves back down. She also snapped a knife sheath to her belt, placing it down the back of her pants at her spine. All of her knives were small and lightweight, good for throwing or close fighting. With her clothes resettled, she pulled on a black suit jacket, but left it unbuttoned.
“A person will more willingly believe a thought you put in their head if it matches what they see,” Mira explained. “And right now, I want them to believe we’re detectives for the local police.”
While Mira’s clothes probably cost more than what most detectives made in a month, she did have a more professional air about her than usual. I, on the other hand, was dressed in my usual black cotton pants and turtleneck with worn black boots.
James appeared as she was shutting the trunk of her car, his cheeks flushed as he was slightly winded from the jog over from the nearby hotel. “Everything go okay?” he inquired as he brushed some hair out of his eyes.
“Fine,” I replied sharply, at which Mira lightly chuckled. If I were lucky, what occurred at that house would never be spoken of. The implications were something I wasn’t ready to contemplate while we were in the middle of a murder investigation, if ever.
With everything settled, we followed Mira down a dark set of stone stairs to the lower level, called Factors Walk. River Street was the next block over and was at the level of the river, while Bay Street was at least one story above River Street. This was where I had briefly encountered the young girl earlier in the day. A quick glance over the area revealed that she was currently nowhere to be found.
The wide alley was cloaked in darkness, as the main streetlamps on Bay Street didn’t reach down into Factors Walk. A couple of the buildings had doorways on Factors Walk, but their dim lamps did little to cut into the thick darkness. Our footsteps echoed off the ballast stone street and along the surrounding walls and building fronts.
A man stood in one doorway, his back pressed to a wall, a position that allowed him to watch our approach. He pensively puffed on a cigarette, his dark eyes narrowed, deepening the crisscross of wrinkles that dug deep furrows in his face. His gray pants and white shirt were rumpled and half hidden beneath a dark brown trench coat. He reached up and twisted what appeared to be a blown-out lightbulb in a lamp by the doorway until it flickered on, blanketing the region in dirty yellow light.
“You’re late,” he announced, flicking away the cigarette. I sank back into the shadows, out of the reach of the light that hung outside the front door of the six-story redbrick building. My life had been spent perfecting the art of invisibility, slinking along the fringe of a person’s memory. James, on the other hand, stood directly beside the nightwalker, blinking at the light as he stepped into it.
“Something came up,” Mira replied, standing at the foot of the three stairs that led up to the building. She hovered along the edge of the light, her pale skin glowing like a grounded star. From her left jacket pocket, she withdrew a pair of sunglasses with blue-tinted lenses and settled them on the bridge of her nose.
The man shoved his right hand into his pocket and pulled out a creased pack of cigarettes. “I’ve been waiting for almost an hour, damn it. People are gonna start asking questions.”
“You really should stop smoking,” Mira calmly said, looking up at him.
“Smoking ain’t gonna kill me. It’s dealing with your kind that’ll do me in,” he grumbled, pulling out a cigarette. “You know of any city where your kind hasn’t settled?”
“There’s very few of us in the Dakotas,” Mira supplied cheerfully, earning a derisive snort from the man as he flicked his lighter. Cupping his hands around the cigarette, the brief flash of light further illuminated his features and picked up the flecks of gray in his dark brown hair. He was older than I had initially thought, worn to an angry nub by his years.
“That’s okay.” His sarcastic sneer twisted his lips around his cigarette as he took a long drag. “This is enough of a hole.”
“Then move,” Mira suggested.
“Can’t,” he sighed. “Annie’s family is here and the girls are settled.” For a brief moment, his expression softened and he exhaled deeply. With a shake of his head, he reached in his pocket. “Keys for the front door and apartment. Top floor. Can’t miss it.” Mira caught the pair of keys on a ring in one hand as he tossed them to her.
“The report?” She bounced the keys in her hand so that they jangled softly.
“I’m working on it. Probably won’t have it all until morning,” he said with another shake of his head.
“Leave it at the town house. He can look at it during the day,” Mira directed, motioning with her head toward me. The man looked me over for a breath, his eyes sweeping over my features as if trying to memorize my appearance. I froze, my eyes locking with his, like I was a wolf sizing up an opponent.
“He’s not one of yours?” he asked at last, his eyes still moving over my face as if he was internally weighing some thought that didn’t match up with my appearance. There was something in his tone. I couldn’t decide whether he was surprised that I wasn’t a vampire, or surprised that I wasn’t a vampire yet.
“No, just an associate,” Mira replied.
“And this one?” he asked, nodding his head toward James.
James took a step forward and extended his hand toward the smoking man. “James Parker. I work as a researcher and I’m here to assist Mira in this matter.”
Before the stranger could say anything, Mira took one step closer, and the man came down the stairs, careful not to brush against her. He gave a small grunt, ignoring James’s extended hand as he took another puff off his cigarette. He paused a couple of feet away from me, looking up at Mira as she stood at the top of the stairs. “You’ve got to be quick about this one,” he warned, his fingers nervously fiddling with his cigarette. “Too many people are watching.” He then turned and quickly walked down the alley, a thin trail of smoke lifting into the air behind him as he turned a corner and headed down to River Street. I watched him for a brief moment then followed Mira and James up the three stairs and into the redbrick building.
Closing the door behind me, I blinked against the bright light that flooded the empty hallway. The walls were painted white and the doors and woodwork were all dark mahogany. The building was old, but very clean and well maintained. The floor was covered in tiny white and blue ceramic tiles arranged in an intricate design of flourishes and flowers. Someone had put a great deal of money into restoring this building.
Mira paused at the foot of the main staircase, sending her powers out around her. The cool brush lasted only a second and I found myself reaching out with her. It had become a habit now when she was near to search for the naturi.
“Anything?” she murmured, her left hand resting lightly on the banister.
“Only humans,” I replied.
The nightwalker nodded and started up the stairs, her left hand sliding along the rail. I followed behind her, my footsteps loud and heavy in the silent apartment building. During my two previous trips to Savannah, I had spent very little time in this part of town. Here resided the young professionals that still liked to be close to all of the trendy clubs and bars in the city. The vampires were more than happy to hunt in this section of town, but it was dangerous for me to hunt them among so many humans. I would wait until they slunk back to the fringe of the city for their daytime slumber before I would attack.
And now one vampire had gone too far and killed a woman with connections. A careless or heartless moment had put everyone in danger of being outed. With the naturi lurking in the shadows, we were all walking along the edge of the knife, praying that the secret would last for just a few more years.
Of course, the coven would do what it had done for years and cover up this little mess. The vampires had their resources. Even Mira was not without her connections within the city.
“Who was the man out front?” I inquired, trying to keep my voice low as we reached the second-floor landing.
“Daniel Crowley,” Mira replied, continuing up the stairs. “Homicide detective.”
“And he helps you?”
“Sometimes. He gives me a call when something looks funny. He slows up the paperwork and gives me a look at what the police are seeing. He gives me a chance to take care of things before too many people start asking questions.”
“Do you pay him for this inside information?”
Mira sharply turned on the stair to face me, her eyes narrowed. “Daniel isn’t a dirty cop, if that’s what you’re implying. He’s no different than you. He wants to protect the people of this city. Yes, I pay him a small consulting fee. He’s got five daughters in private schools. That doesn’t come cheap.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, breaking eye contact first. For a vampire that reveled in her independence, Mira was showing a surprising amount of protectiveness for a collection of creatures. But I had a feeling that Daniel had earned her respect. He was sticking his neck out to protect mankind and help Mira. What did I care if Mira compensated him for his troubles?
“Thanks,” Mira said gruffly, then turned and continued up the stairs.
It wasn’t until we had reached the third floor that James finally spoke up. “How did he find out…about everything?”
“His sister-in-law is a member of the local pack,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. There was a somewhat wry smile teasing at her lips as she spoke. “Only Daniel and his brother know, but it opened his eyes to the rest of us.”
That way was better than what I had been expecting. It probably hadn’t been a comfortable moment for Daniel Crowley, but I doubted it caused him to wake up in a cold sweat with a scream lodged in his throat. Those few humans who knew that vampires, lycans, and all the other creatures existed were generally survivors with gruesome tales of blood and pain, and poorly healed scars.
I stopped at the top of the stairs on the top floor next to Mira. There were only two apartments on the sixth floor. The apartment on the left had its door close to the stairs. A woven mat with WELCOME in wide black letters beckoned all visitors. A fake potted palm also stood next to the dark wood door, adding to the warm atmosphere. The door to the apartment on the right was at the other end of the hall. Yellow police tape was stretched across the entrance, warning away the curious.