Authors: Jocelynn Drake
Turning on my heel, I found the nightwalker dueling with both of the remaining naturi at once. The air was thick with energy, almost crackling around them. By their broad shoulders and thick build, I was willing to bet that the vampire faced a pair from the animal clan. They seemed to be the foot soldiers of the naturi race. The first into any battle and generally the most brutal.
I was about to insert my sword into the fray when I hesitated. I didn’t need to. The vampire had this fight completely within his control. In fact, by the devilish smile playing on his lips, I was willing to bet that he was only toying with them, drawing out the fight in order to crush their hopes. But it didn’t make any sense. Moments earlier, the vampire had seemed lucky to know which end of the knife to be holding. Now, watching the vampire move was like watching an intimate dance of light and shadow intertwine. The blades flashed red in the lamplight, as he had scored more than one hit on his opponents. And then, to my complete consternation, the vampire turned to look at me as he sliced the throat of one naturi and then, in a flash, plunged the dagger through the heart of the second. The vampire’s wide-eyed, red gaze never wavered from me as the naturi fell to the cold pavement, struggling to heal from their individual wounds before death finally stole them away.
My hand tightened on my own blade as I watched the two naturi writhing on the ground. “Finish it,” I commanded.
“You’ve always been too compassionate,” the vampire said in a voice that barely rose above a growl. However, the vampire heeded my wishes. Kneeling down, he cut the heads off the two naturi, killing them. At the moment of their deaths, he sucked in a deep breath, his eyes rolling up into his head as if he was savoring the exact moment of their demise. He then looked down at the blood covering his hands and smiled to himself.
“We’re not finished, vampire,” I reminded him, lifting my sword slightly.
The vampire turned on the balls of his feet to face me and easily rose, leaving the dagger on the ground next to the dead bodies. He took a step toward me with his arms out and hands open, revealing that he was completely unarmed. But no vampire was ever unarmed. They were deadly fast and amazingly strong whenever the sun was down. I would not be drawn in by whatever ruse he was trying to pull on me.
“It doesn’t have to be like this, Danaus,” the vampire said in a low, soothing voice. “You’ve been fighting a good fight for many years, my son, but you’ve been fighting the wrong side.”
“You may have helped with the naturi, but it doesn’t matter. They would have killed us both regardless. You can’t save your hide from me,” I replied. Unwilling to let him stall any longer, I lunged at him, but he dodged as easily as if I were moving in slow motion.
The vampire chuckled at me and shook his head. “You think you can kill me now. Did you not witness how I so easily destroyed the naturi? What is one mere man against a creature such as me?”
“You’re a vampire. A young one. You can be destroyed.” Again, I came at him with a barrage of moves, faster than I had moved the last time, and still he dodged me. It was like he was inside of my head and knew exactly how I was going to move, and yet no nightwalker could read my thoughts without my knowledge. I would sense their presence.
Panic began to take hold as sweat trickled down my brow and ran along the edge of my jaw. My heart thundered in my chest and I tightened my grip on the sword. He was too fast for me to kill by conventional means. Hell, I couldn’t even touch him. Something had changed in that moment when the naturi arrived and his eyes switched from a sky blue to a ruby red. I didn’t understand it, but somehow the vampire has come into possession of the energy that had been swirling about me just before the naturi arrived.
I had to kill him before he finally decided to kill me. Taking a step backward, I lowered my sword slightly and raised my empty left hand toward the vampire. To my surprise, his grin grew even wider as I summoned up the power that bubbled within me. My body came alive with a fresh surge of energy and within me something roared with delight. The power left me in a rush and slammed into the vampire. His head fell back and he laughed maniacally for only a moment.
And then the red glow left his eyes. Whatever power that had possessed him for a brief period of time had left him. The nightwalker clawed at his arms and chest, stumbling backward away from me, but it was too late. His skin undulated and started to blacken. I had already begun to boil his blood within his lithe frame and there was no escaping it now. The vampire let out a high-pitched scream as he fell to his knees. His nails scratched at his face, tearing away chunks of flesh before he finally collapsed into a darkened husk that flaked away in the breeze.
Gritting my teeth, I pulled the power back inside of my body, struggling to cage the energy all over again. Once it was set free, I could relax for the first time in so many long centuries, but I couldn’t let the power remain unleashed. The desire to kill grew as my body relaxed until it felt as if I would lash out at the first creature that crossed my path, nightwalker and innocent human alike.
I drew in a deep, cleansing breath while I tapped the power back down around my soul like a snake coiling around its prey, pushing away fear as well. The fear that I would lose control of the insidious power and kill everyone.
Shoving one trembling hand through my hair, I slipped the sword back into its scabbard on my back. My mind had just started to turn to disposing the body when a white glow began to grow out of the cold mist surrounding the fountain. I took a couple steps toward it, keeping my right hand lightly wrapped around the hilt of my sword. I couldn’t imagine what I was seeing. A light clan naturi? But I couldn’t sense any naturi in the area.
The energy pulsing through the air felt like every night walker I had ever encountered, and yet it wasn’t a nightwalker. Slowly, a man became encased in the light, standing more than six feet tall with pale blond hair and shining clear blue eyes. Then in a brilliant flash that left me struggling to shield my eyes, a pair of white wings expanded from his back, spanning more than twelve feet across.
I jerked my sword from my back and stepped away as my heart skipped a beat. It felt like a vampire, but it had wings like a wind clan naturi. Neither was a friend of mine and neither wanted me alive.
“Hold, Danaus,” the figure said in a deep, booming voice. “I am no threat to you.” He held up one hand and I took a step backward, a frown tugging at the corners of my mouth.
“Who are you?” I demanded, still poised to attack.
A beatific smile spread across his face, a look of peace and joy. “I am your guardian angel,” he claimed. “Gaizka.”
A fine trembling started in my arms, causing the tip of my sword to waver. Was I truly faced with an angel? I had spent centuries studying and meditating with monks, priests, and other holy men, searching for some divine direction to save my soul from the demonic bori that darkened it, demanding violence. And now standing before me after more than eighteen hundred years was a creature claiming to be my guardian angel and I could not make myself put my sword away.
“Why have you come to me now?” I asked, tightening my grip on my sword. Something felt wrong.
“Because now is the time that you need me the most,” he replied. His smile never wavered as he ignored my sword and took a step forward. He wasn’t solid, but a figure comprised entirely of light and shadow. “We must join together to defeat that naturi that infest the earth once again. If left unchecked, they will destroy all of mankind. They must be stopped.”
I stared at the creature before me, slowly lowering my sword. “You possessed that vampire. You fought the naturi.”
“Yes, I can take possession of lesser creatures to accomplish certain tasks when necessary.”
“And yet you let me kill the nightwalker,” I pressed, more confused by the second.
The angel shrugged his shoulders. “He had his own sins to atone for.”
“I’ve spent a lifetime hunting nightwalkers. They are an abomination feeding off the lifeblood of humans and tossing them aside like used livestock. Have I been wrong in my mission?” I asked. A shiver swept through me and my gut twisted. How could I be wrong? My soul depended upon it. But after centuries, could I finally find the salvation I prayed for now, here?
“The nightwalkers are not our enemies. They are our brothers-in-arms against the naturi. They will fight with us to destroy them. Let me join with you, body and soul, and we will become an unstoppable force in ridding the world of the naturi,” the angel pressed.
“Join with me?” I demanded, taking a step backward.
“You are a powerful figure, Danaus. I need your consent. Together, let us cleanse the world and make it safe for mankind once again.”
Frowning, I looked away from the angel as my mind turned over his questionable words. My gaze tumbled over the remains of the naturi on my left and I recalled the red glow to the vampire’s eyes and devilish glee that he expressed as he slaughtered the naturi. Was that what I would be turning myself over to? Losing all control over myself as I became a puppet for a higher being? It didn’t feel right. No angel would torment his intended prey or feel such enjoyment in their destruction.
The creature before me stood in the guise of an angel, but stank of the powers that flowed from a nightwalker. There was no heavenly light to be found here, no matter how I prayed.
“I’ve fought vampires for centuries to save my soul from the demon that possesses part of it. Have all those years of struggle been for nothing?” I demanded, drawing my gaze back to the creature that glowed before me. For a split second, the expression on the creature’s face twisted and his eyes flashed red.
“No demon possesses your soul,” he snapped. “That is a gift from me, from the heavens. Strength, longevity, and amazing power. You’ve used that power to destroy nightwalkers when you should have been hunting down the last of the naturi.”
My jaw clenched and I tightened my grip on the sword I was still holding. This was all a lie. My mother hadn’t made a deal with an angel. She admitted just before I killed her that she had made a deal with a demon for her powers. This was no angel hovering before me. It was the bori that owned part of my soul, and it had come looking for the other half.
“You’re not an angel. No heavenly creature would accept what the vampires are doing to the human race. You’re a bori,” I growled.
The creature before me smiled an evil little smile as the white glow around it faded. The white wings immediately dissipated and a black shadow seemed to wrap around the creature like a black cloak. I raised my sword again as its flesh seemed to melt away to reveal a white skull with a wide fanged grin. It pointed a bony finger at me, trembling slightly. “Is this a little closer to what you were expecting?” the creature cackled.
I could still see through the creature as it shifted, a classical representation of the grim reaper. I was beginning to wonder if this monster had a specific form or if it was a formless creature that took whatever shape that fit its needs.
“No heavenly creature would condone nightwalkers,” I snarled. “No heavenly creature would ask me to become a puppet in order to destroy naturi.”
“But you have been a puppet of heaven, Danaus,” Gaizka corrected. “Wrapped in your archaic ideas of truth and righteousness, you’ve been slaughtering nightwalkers in the name of God. You’ve been his puppet for centuries. I’m just asking you to eliminate a more immediate threat: the naturi.”
“No.”
The bori growled at me and glided slightly closer, but I held my ground. “I’m asking politely, Danaus. Do not make me force your hand. Those you care for could suffer a horrible fate because of your failure to cooperate.”
“I will not be your puppet.” I raised my sword and plunged it through the center of the creature, but it was like puncturing open air.
With a wave of its hand, a force slammed against my chest, throwing me backward several feet until I hit the side of a car. My body dented the door before I slid to the ground. “Sadly, I expected this from you,” it said with a shake of its head. “Expect my first gift shortly for your lack of cooperation. More will follow. I’ll destroy your world until you finally agree to bend to my will. I’m done waiting for you.”
And then he disappeared, leaving me sitting on the cold pavement surrounded by the dead bodies of the nightwalker and the naturi. The bori that possessed half of my soul waited out in the darkness like a living nightmare, ready to take what little of my soul I still owned. Blood was going to wash over the world as I fought him for my freedom and I didn’t know if it was even possible for me to win.
TWO
I
knelt before the fountain and ran my blood-covered hands through the icy water until my fingers grew stiff and numb. In the darkness, the water looked black, but by morning it would carry a slight pinkish tone. The four bodies had been crammed into a nearby car, but I hadn’t yet set the explosive charge attached to the fuel tank. All evidence of nightwalker and naturi existence had to be wiped clean—the secret of their world had to be maintained if order was to be kept in the human world.
On my knees, I sent my powers out of my body before finally breathing in a sigh of relief. There was nothing supernatural close to me: not nightwalker, naturi, bori, or even lycanthrope. I closed my eyes and bowed my head, but the words would not come. It had been more than two centuries since I had last spoken to God. And even after tonight’s encounter, when I was sure my soul was on the line, I could not bring myself to be the first to break the endless silence.
In the beginning, after finally leaving the Roman legion, I had fought vampires as a way of avenging the death of a friend’s child. I fought them as a way of fighting the strange emotions that I felt whenever they were close. It wasn’t until I had wandered the earth for nearly five centuries before I finally found a sense of peace and purpose while living with some monks. They said I would only regain my soul through fighting against the darkness that surrounded mankind. They spoke of salvation and giving order to the chaos that seemed to be constantly swirling about in my brain. They even seemed to forgive me for being born.