Authors: Jocelynn Drake
“Your lack of discretion could have created chaos and deaths we cannot afford among our ranks. You are not welcome at the Dark Room until you are back in my good graces,” Mira pronounced. “I will not abide attacks on my guests and on members of my family.”
A second later, a bouncer that had been hovering at the front door of the Dark Room when I walked in with Mira swooped down and grabbed the blond by the arm and ushered her out of the club before she could even pull the knife free from her arm.
A heavy silence settled over the club except for the loud sobbing of the woman still seated on the floor. She had not moved during the brief scuffle between Mira and the blond nightwalker that had been her friend.
“What do we do?” I asked, dragging Mira’s gaze back to me.
She frowned at me, creating little lines between her thin brows as she gave a little shrug. “That’s actually up to you. She attacked you. You beat her. By our laws, her life belongs to you now. You can kill her if you like.”
The woman let out a soft whimper and pushed a little away from me before I could even speak.
“Absolutely not!” I snapped. “Just let her go and let’s forget about it all.”
“Unfortunately, that’s not a possibility either,” Mira said. She turned and looked down at the young woman with the red, tear-streaked face. “She broke our rules. She attacked my guest, insulting me and shaming her host. She’s proven that she can’t be trusted. How do we know she won’t turn us in to the Daylight Coalition next because she didn’t get her proper vengeance?” The Daylight Coalition was a group of human vampire hunters, and they would love to get information from an insider.
“What do you suggest?” I inquired, a part of me dreading her answer.
Mira turned her gaze on Gregor, who was still lounging in the booth, watching the drama unfold like a movie on the big screen. “Wipe her memory,” Mira ordered.
“How much?” he inquired, slowly pushing out of his slouch to the edge his seat.
“All of it. Everything associated with our kind and lycans.”
Gregor frowned, but nodded at the direct order from the keeper of the domain. Rising to his feet with the natural, fluid ease of a nightwalker, he walked over and knelt before the woman, who was still sitting on the floor. My attacker tried to push backward, putting some distance between herself and Gregor, but the nightwalker grabbed her wrist, holding her in place.
“No! Wait! You can’t—”
“It’s okay,” Gregor said in a low, soothing voice. “This won’t hurt a bit. In fact, it’ll take the pain away,” he promised. The nightwalker pressed his hand against the woman’s head and temple before his eyes fell shut. A couple seconds later, the woman went completely limp, her eyes falling shut as well. The two stayed like that for a moment before Gregor lowered his hand and lifted his head.
“It’s done,” he announced. He slowly pushed back to his feet. As he wobbled slightly, one nightwalker caught him by the elbow and held him steady.
“Someone take her home,” Mira ordered. “I never want to see her here again.”
I watched as a tall male nightwalker bent down and put the unconscious human over his shoulder before carrying her out of the nightclub. The rest of the nightwalkers returned to their booths or dancing on the dance floor, the event of the evening seemingly forgotten. I walked back over to Gregor’s booth and stood next to Mira as she gazed down at the annoying nightwalker.
“It’s always interesting when you’re around.” Gregor chuckled when he looked up at Mira.
“Do you have any other information you can provide me about Abigail Bradford?” Mira stiffly said, ignoring his comment.
“Nothing that I can think of,” Gregor said with a shrug. “I believe that she was chosen simply because her death could cause the most trouble in our world.”
“But that means that the killer had to know something of our world in the first place,” Mira replied.
“Chilling thought, isn’t it?” Gregor said, his carefree demeanor finally slipping away. His gaze drifted up to me as he continued, “It’s as if our world is changing around us and not for the better.”
“Our world changed forever when the naturi returned,” I said.
To my surprise, Mira threaded her fingers through mine and we walked out of the Dark Room side by side. I had a grim suspicion that my appearance and obvious guest status in the nightclub had shaken up more than one nightwalker in Savannah and I knew the repercussions would be felt for many nights to come. I didn’t know what Mira was planning, but I truly doubted that I would like it. I rarely did.
TWENTY-TWO
T
hat could have gone better,” I said after several minutes of silence in the car. Mira was driving back toward the waterfront, weaving through the quiet elegance of the historical district.
“It could have been a lot worse,” she replied, as she parked the car in an empty spot on Bay Street.
Unfastening my seat belt, I put my hand on the door handle. “I don’t want to imagine how that could have gone worse.”
Mira reached across and placed a restraining hand on my left arm as I started to exit the car. “Oh, please do,” she pressed. “I do love a good horror story.”
“You’re a walking horror story,” I grumbled, pulling out of her grasp as I got out of the car. Her low laughter followed behind me. Looking over the hood of the car at her, I frowned, though her light mood felt like an infection slowly defeating my immune system. “Did we accomplish anything by going there?” I demanded, trying to hold on to my anger and frustration.
“More than you realize,” she said in mysterious tones.
“Anything regarding the murder?”
“A little bit,” she admitted as she shut her door. “I think someone is trying to expose nightwalkers by killing the Bradford girl. And considering the method and gruesome manner of her death, I’m willing to put my money on the naturi. They stand to gain the most from our exposure.”
“Yes, but there haven’t been that many naturi in your domain,” I said as I followed her down a flight of uneven stone steps to Factors Walk. I needed to tell her. I had put it off long enough. There was nothing to be gained from keeping Mira in the dark about the bori in her domain. While I doubted that she would be able to fight it at all, she may know something about the race that would finally give me an edge should I be suddenly faced with Gaizka again.
“Regardless, they are here.” Mira led the way down the shadowy alleyway that slipped between River Street and Bay Street, the heels of her shoes clicking on the stones. “You killed a horde of them at the conservatory. And then there was the bunch that followed us in the car. They’re here.”
Cutting down a short street between Factors Walk and River Street, we headed toward the river and the most crowded section of the riverfront district, with its bars, restaurants, and gift shops. There was a sharp bite of cold to the air, keeping most of the tourists that had stumbled into Savannah during December back in their hotel rooms. It was also starting to get late and the shops were closing up for the night. We were nearly alone on the street.
“If you’re convinced it’s the naturi, what are we doing here?” I asked, shoving my hands deep into the pockets of my leather jacket in an effort to stay warm. “Are you making another pass by the apartment?”
“Nope,” Mira replied with a shake of her head. She threaded her left arm through my right and snuggled close as if she were trying to stay warm. “I’ve got one more resource that I want to check. The nightwalkers don’t know anything. The lycans don’t know anything. But this guy’s got a different connection. He might know something. I’m just hoping that we can catch him.”
“Who is this guy?”
“A very interesting human,” she said, flashing me an evil grin before stopping in front of an opening in a building with an orange-and-green awning that advertised “Old Town Trolley Tours.” A scattering of people were gathered around the opening, buying tickets and making reservations with a young woman behind the counter. When the woman finally looked up, Mira waved at her. “Hi, Emmy!” Mira cried in a genuinely happy, excited voice that I had never actually heard her use before. It was surprising.
“Mira!” Emmy cried back, her expression instantly brightening. “Let me get these people settled and then I’ll get to you.” With a new vigor, I watched as the young woman whipped through the crowd, taking money, checking off names, and handing out tickets for what I could only assume was an evening tour of the city. Though I was confused as to why anyone would want to take a nighttime tour of the city since so much of the amazing architecture would be obscured by the darkness.
When the line had finally dwindled to nothing, Mira stepped over to the booth, pulling me along when I seemed to hesitate. However, the nightwalker released me long enough to lean across the counter and grip the young black woman in a tight hug.
“Danaus,” Mira said the moment she released the woman. “This is a dear friend of mine, Emma Rose. She handles the ticket sales for the Old Town Trolley Tours Company here in Savannah.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Danaus,” Emma Rose said, extending her hand to me.
“Likewise,” I said gruffly, quickly taking her hand for a single shake before releasing it again and taking a step backward from the booth. I felt ill at ease with the situation. Nightwalkers, lycanthropes, warlocks, and even the naturi, I could handle with little problem. Humans, on the other hand, were something that I had lost touch with. I didn’t feel as if I belonged with them any longer, and hadn’t since I was young, so long as I could barely remember.
However, Mira refused to let me remove myself from the little meeting of friends. She quickly threaded her arm through mine, holding me in place, as she plunged into some idle chitchat about health and other random gossip about who was seeing who within the city. As a new line started to form, I loudly cleared my throat in an effort to prod Mira back to the whole reason we had come to this part of the city in the first place.
Mira threw me a dark look and then returned her attention to Emma Rose. “I won’t keep you any longer. I was just looking for Nate. Is he working tonight?”
“Yeah, he should actually be arriving any minute now,” Emma Rose said, glancing briefly down at the sheet of paper in front of her.
“You have any openings on the next tour? I need to talk to him about something important for a few minutes.”
“Oh, sure! We haven’t been full all night. It’s the time of year. Just way too cold,” Emma Rose replied with a casual wave of her hand.
Mira reached into her back pocket and pulled out her little black leather wallet, but Emma Rose quickly waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. I have no doubt you’ll jump off halfway through, like you always do.”
“Thanks, Emmy,” Mira said, pulling her into another tight hug. “I’ll catch you later.”
Mira and I walked over to the side where a group of people were waiting for the next tour bus to arrive. Mira cuddled close and I stared down at the top of her head.
“You don’t like humans very much, do you?” she inquired softly, surprising me with her question. She turned her face up to look at me; her lavender eyes seemed to pierce me to my core.
“Humans…are…are fine.” I stumbled, unsure of how to answer the question. “Why would you ask a question like that?”
“It’s how you act around them. Emmy, James, Daniel. When you’re around all of them, you’re distant and cold. You don’t look them in the eye and you rarely speak. What do you have against humans?”
“I don’t have anything against them,” I said, inwardly cringing at the defensive tone that had crept into my voice against my will.
“Is it because you’re not really one of them? Are you envious?”
“I’m not envious!” I said sharply, then regretted it as several people looked around at us. I leaned closer, dropping my voice back to a whisper. “I don’t have anything against humans. I just don’t spend a lot of time dealing with them.”
“But Themis?”
“I’m rarely there, and when I am I encounter only James and Ryan.” I hesitated a moment, frowning down at her. “It’s just that I don’t feel like I…I understand them any longer. They’re fragile and their lives are so short. I—I haven’t been one of them for so long. I’m not one of them.”
My eyes fell shut as I slowly drew in a deep breath. I wasn’t human. I technically never was a human, though I had believed I was for at least the first couple decades of my existence. But now, I wasn’t like anything else that existed. I wasn’t human, vampire, lycanthrope, or warlock. I wasn’t truly a bori, but some kind of half-breed that was too dangerous to be left alive, and yet Mira protected me at the risk of her life and her people.
Mira laid her cold hand against my cheek, letting her thumb run across my cheekbone in a gentle caress. “You’re not alone,” she whispered. She was close enough that I could feel the breath from each word skim across my lips. “You’re never alone.”
“It’s better than I am,” I murmured, afraid to move or open my eyes because it would shatter this moment.
“You’re not alone. I won’t allow it,” she said before pressing her lips to the tip of my nose in a quick kiss. I opened my eyes and stared into her, locked frozen in a moment that I thought would never happen again. The world had slipped away and there was only Mira’s hand on my cheek and her parted lips inches from mine. She stood before me like a bundle of unspoken promises; promises of compassion, affection, laughter, and unwavering strength and loyalty. I just needed to lean in those few final inches…
Behind us, a car rumbled down the cobblestone street, snapping Mira’s head around and shattering the moment. I stood a little straighter, while her hand slid down my face to rest on my chest over my heart. Reaching up, I covered her hand with mine and gave it a little squeeze, needing to hold on to that moment just another second longer. If anyone knew what it meant to be alone and an outcast, it was Mira. She was my enemy. She was my friend. She was the only one who would understand that chasm of emptiness that threatened to consume me each night when I awoke. Hunting her kind was all that I had to keep me sane through the endless years. But standing there, holding her hand, I knew that those days were slipping from my grasp. The time was coming when I would have to choose between killing her or facing the life that she was offering me.