Authors: Jocelynn Drake
The girl shook her head, not bothering to look up at him. “Don’t know. Like I told him, I’ve never seen anything like it before and there’s more than enough strange things hiding in this city.”
“Strange things?” James repeated.
“Yeah, like him,” she stated, jerking her chin toward me. “Or that woman you were with last night. Vampire, ain’t she?”
“So you do know,” I stated, earning a grim smile from the girl. She gazed up at me with old eyes that bespoke too many years lived on the streets.
“Vampires? Yeah, I’ve seen them. Werewolves, too. In the past few months, there’s something else lurking around the area, fighting with the vampires,” she said. With nimble fingers, she wrapped a thin strip of gold thread around the throat of the rose, tying the leaf in place and finishing yet another flower. She laid it down with the others and pulled up another long palm leaf.
“Naturi,” I said.
“What?” she asked, her head popping up, her hands finally freezing.
“Those other creatures you’ve been noticing are called naturi,” I explained. “They’re earth creatures out to destroy both mankind and vampires. I’d keep my distance from them.”
She gave a little snort and returned to the leaf between her fingers. “Thanks for the advice,” she said sarcastically. “I’ve learned that it’s best to stay away from all of them. All those damn things are always looking for a bite and you don’t want to be their next snack. They might be strong, but you can’t count on them to watch your back, particularly during the daylight hours.”
“But this creature that killed the woman, it’s not any of these creatures?” I said, turning the conversation back to the reason we went looking for her.
“Yeah, nothing like them. Its look is closest to the vampires, but this thing is stronger. It just feels…evil,” she said. A shiver wracked her too-thin body for a moment, causing her to edge a little to her left so that she was sitting more in the sunlight.
James squatted down near her, and picked up one of the roses she had made, twirling it between two fingers. “Have you seen it during the day?”
“Day. Night. It’s always around,” she said with a shrug.
“How long ago did you last see it?” I asked.
“Last night.”
“Will you take us to where you last saw it?”
The girl’s head fell back as she loosed a high-pitched laugh. “Are you crazy? There ain’t no fucking way I’m gonna go anywhere near that thing if I can help it.”
“We can’t get rid of it if we can’t find it,” James said when her chuckles died down.
“Get rid of it? You think you can actually get rid of it?” she asked, her eyes jumping from James to me.
“Well, actually, that’s more of Danaus’s thing. But he’s had a lot of experience getting rid of unwanted creatures. This will be no different for him,” James said.
She stared at me for a long time in silence, her hands falling limp into her lap. “You’re really old, aren’t you?” she said at last.
“Yes.”
A frown slipped across her face as she looked down at her hands. She was at least thinking about our request, which was a start. I had no doubt that she knew she’d be considerably safer if I relieved the city of Savannah of this creature that was starting to kill people. Like she said, this city had more than enough creatures running around. There wasn’t room for another.
“Fifty dollars. We’ll give you fifty dollars if you take us to where you last saw it,” I offered.
Her head immediately snapped up, her brow furrowed in thought. “A hundred dollars.”
“Fifty dollars if you take us to the spot. Another hundred if we actually find it,” I countered.
Another laugh escaped her, but this one was a little more muted than her earlier one, as if the suggestion wasn’t quite as ludicrous as the first one. I knew she had to be thinking about it. It was a lot of money. It would take care of her problems for a while if she was conservative.
“We can’t stop it if we can’t find it,” James reminded her.
“I won’t let it come near you,” I promised.
“Fine,” she said at last. Dropping the flower she was making on the ground, she shoved her scissors into her worn backpack and pulled it over her shoulders before she picked up her roses and remaining palm leaves. “But I can’t promise that we’ll find it. It comes and goes wherever it wants to.”
We followed the young girl back down the boardwalk toward River Street. At the first opportunity, she hurried across the street to the sidewalk opposite the river and then cut back up to Factors Walk. She paused just at the edge of the building and slowly peered around. Her breathing had grown a little heavier as she stood there and the palm leaves crackled softly in her hands as they tightened.
“I’ll go first,” I stated. “Which way?”
“Right,” she murmured.
I stepped forward into the wide alley, looking up and down the area. The region was completely empty of people, both through the alleyway and on the walkways above that connected Bay Street with the second-floor entrances into the buildings. Drawing in a deep breath, I slowly released it through my nose as I reached out with my powers. I didn’t sense anything in the immediate area, neither nightwalker nor naturi. There weren’t even any lycans in the immediate vicinity. Yet, as I was pulling my powers back into my body, I felt a spike of energy at the far end of Factors Walk. It was approaching quickly, and unfortunately, it felt extremely familiar.
“It’s here,” the girl said in a shaky voice.
“Stay behind me,” I commanded. My hand slipped down and I palmed a knife that I kept at my side.
“Danaus!” said a bodiless voice not far from where I stood. “You’ve brought me my newest little friend. I’ve been trying to win her over, but she’s been most stubborn. But you’ll help me, won’t you?”
I knew that voice. It was the same creature that I had encountered in Spain. The same creature that had possessed the nightwalker and killed the naturi. From what I could tell, it was pure energy and seemed to struggle to take a solid form.
“No!” the girl screamed. Dropping her roses, she darted out from behind James and me, running for the nearest set of stairs that led out of Factors Walk and up to Bay Street. The energy surged away from me and beat her to the staircase. It finally appeared once again in the form of a transparent angel with broad white wings and a silver glow. It smiled kindly at her, but there was something dark and menacing that glowed within its black eyes.
“Come now, child,” it purred. “I won’t harm you. I can help you. You can be stronger, so much stronger than the dark creatures that hound you each night.”
“No! J—just leave me alone,” she cried. She pressed her back against the stone wall, holding her hand up as if she could ward it off. To my surprise, James leaped between the angelic form and the girl.
“Back off,” he snarled.
The angel smiled and quickly shifted form to a slender woman with dark hair and bright blue eyes. Regardless of its form, it remained translucent, like a ghost. “James,” it sweetly said. “Please, help me. I can’t survive without your help.”
I opened my mouth to shout at the creature, aiming to draw its attention back to me, but James spoke before I could. “You’re not welcome here.”
“I need the girl,” she said. “Give me the girl, and no one else will be harmed. The girl is in danger out here alone on the streets. I can protect her. You can’t.”
To my surprise, a copperish glow lit the researcher’s eyes as he pushed the young girl farther behind him. A deep growl rattled from his chest and he pulled back his lips in a snarl, revealing a growing set of sharp canines. Apparently, there was more to James’s heritage than we had originally believed. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best time or place for it to present itself. I had to take control of the situation before James finished shifting in a place where someone could easily see him.
“Gaizka!” I shouted. The creature’s head snapped around, a wide grin spreading across his face.
“I warned you, Danaus.” It laughed.
Before I could say anything else, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed off the ballast stone street. We all turned to look at an older black man as he entered the alleyway, his brow furrowed as he took in the scene of me holding a knife pointed toward James and the girl, who were backed against the wall.
Gaizka instantly disappeared and reappeared directly before the man in the form of an elderly woman. “Please, Owen!” it cried in a trembling voice. “These men are trying to harm me, trying to destroy me. Please, help me.”
“Mom?” the stranger gasped in strangled tones as he looked on what appeared to be a ghost.
“Please, my boy. Please, help me.”
“Yes, anything!” he cried.
“No!” I shouted at the same time, but it was too late. The ghost flowed directly into the man’s chest, causing him to jerk for a half second. And then he started at me with glowing red eyes. Gaizka had found a new puppet he could use to fight me and kill others if it wanted to.
I rushed forward, slashing with my knife, hoping that a slight flesh wound might force the creature out or at least wake the man out of his possession. However, Gaizka’s presence made the man both faster and stronger than a normal human. He easily caught my wrist and tossed me across the alley. The creature then turned toward James and the girl. She let out a bloodcurdling scream, her hands tightly fisted in James’s coat.
Still sitting on the ground, I raised my hand and unleashed my powers from where they were curled around my soul. I could feel Gaizka’s laughter within my head as I instantly brought the poor man’s blood to a boil. He kept moving as Gaizka worked to heal the wound, but it was only when I knew the man’s organs were reduced to useless mush that the bori finally fled his puppet. The man was dead before he hit the ground.
The sound of footsteps echoing off the stone pavement jerked my head up in time to see the girl racing up the stairs, her backpack swinging back and forth on her back. She never looked back and I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to find her again, which was a shame since it seemed that Gaizka had taken an interest in her.
James slid down the wall and sat on the ground. He looked down at his shaking hands, a tortured look on his face. I knew his thoughts without asking. He had thought he had escaped the fate of his parents. We all had. He had shown no signs in all his years, but now he had to face a new fate and he wasn’t ready for it. For the first time in his life, I thought he actually needed the sanctuary Themis offered.
With a sigh, I looked down at the body of the poor man who simply walked back into an alley to check on a man and girl who looked like they were in trouble. A good Samaritan, and I had been forced to kill him before he killed someone else against his will. I closed my eyes for a minute and forced the bile back down my throat along with the scream of frustration. Gaizka could easily read minds and take any form it wanted in an effort to win over its prey. I couldn’t find it unless it wanted to be found and I had no idea if it could even be killed. A bori had found its way into Mira’s domain and it was my fault.
“James,” I called. The researcher’s head jerked up, his eyes wide and terrified. “Go back to the hotel. I’ll take care of this.”
“I-I-I can’t do this,” he said, shaking his hands at me. “I-I can’t be this way. I thought I was s-safe.”
“We’ll get through this. I’ll talk to some people who can help you. Go back to the hotel and get some rest. It will help,” I said, knowing full well that it would be a long time before the young man had another good night’s sleep. But to my surprise, he nodded as he pushed to his feet. Blindly, he trudged down Factors Walk and headed back to the hotel.
I stood as well and walked over to the dead body. I pulled it over to the shadows, where it was out of the direct line of sight of anyone who might be passing by. Taking a small bottle of accelerant from the interior pocket of my jacket, I sprayed it on the body. I kept it with me in case I had to quickly dispose of a vampire or naturi body. I piled a couple empty boxes on top of it to make it look like someone had lit some trash on fire. With a heavy heart, I threw a lit match on the pile. I waited only long enough to make sure the accelerant caught on fire before I jogged up the same stairs the girl had disappeared up just minutes earlier.
A sigh escaped me as I drove back to Mira’s town house. I had little doubt that Gaizka was behind Abigail Bradford’s murder, but I just wasn’t sure of the creature’s motives for killing her. If it wanted to start killing humans and causing chaos, it could have easily taken control of Mira and torched all of Savannah. Of course, that could just be the next stage in its master plan. If that was the case, then no one was safe and I would finally be forced to kill the nightwalker. Unfortunately, I was no longer sure that I wanted to.
EIGHTEEN
A
heavy pounding dragged me from the deep abyss of sleep. Twisted in the soft cotton sheets, I lay on my back rubbing my eyes. Sleep had come faster than I had anticipated, pulling me under the moment my head had hit the pillow. Twice in too few hours had I used my powers, with too little sleep and food. I needed to sleep for at least a few hours before trying to butt heads with Gaizka yet again. As I stared up at the white ceiling, my thoughts were finally starting to congeal in a semi-coherent fashion when the pounding started again. Someone was at the front door.
Throwing back the black covers, I swung my feet to the floor and pulled on the pants I had worn the night before. I had left them crumpled on the floor next to the bed in case I needed to be dressed quickly. Grabbing the knife from under my pillow, I silently walked down the stairs. Late-day sunlight was entering the room at an angle, creating long shadows.
“Who is it?” I called before reaching the door. My voice was still heavy and rough from sleep.
“Peter Teague,” a male voice replied from the other side of the door, soft and muffled. “We sort of met last night at the party.”
I had opened my mouth to say that he had the wrong address when it dawned on me that he could be referring to the First Communion gathering. Frowning, I gazed through the slender window beside the door to find last night’s main course standing on the front porch.