Jocelynn Drake - Dawnbreaker

“The next sacrifice is going to be in a few days. You need to be there to stop it.”

“The fall equinox, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know the location?”

“Machu Picchu.”

I nodded. I wasn’t surprised. That was just how my luck ran. Machu Picchu was also one of only two holy sites south of the equator. In Peru at this time of year, winter would be drawing to an end, making the holiday the spring equinox there instead of the fall. The spring equinox was a time of rebirth and new beginnings. Peru was also the sight of the last great failure of Aurora’s people to come through the door. There was no better time or place for her to make her grand reappearance.

“Is there a plan?” I asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. The last plan the Coven had come up with to defeat the naturi was to use me as bait in an attempt to draw at the leader of the naturi.

“I would like you to be there early. Hunt Rowe. Stop him.”

“Will you be joining us on the hunt?” I inquired, knowing the answer before he gave it.

“Eventually.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head. Yeah, Danaus and I were to be the foot soldiers in this attack. We would sweep in and take on the naturi. And then when Rowe was preparing to complete the sacrifice, Jabari would appear and help to take down the consort king of the naturi, stopping the arrival of Aurora. At least, that’s how I’m sure he envisioned it. But then I doubted any of this had happened the way Jabari had envisioned it so far.

“Mira!” Nicolai cried, causing my head to snap up. The first thing I noticed was that Jabari was gone, but then, he had the ability to pop in and out of a place at will.

“What’s wrong?” I demanded, briskly walking toward him.

“The naturi,” he called back, causing my feet to come to a sliding halt. I seemed doomed to have someone forever shouting those two words at me.

I forced myself to take a step closer to him as I looked around the night-drenched cemetery. “Are they here?”

“No,” he said, pressing the palm of his right hand against his temple. “They’re calling us.”

Biting off a curse, I rushed to his side. I cupped his cheeks with both of my hands as he slowly fell to his knees. He was gritting his teeth as beads of sweat dotted his forehead. His pounding heart and ragged breathing filled the night air.

“Are they close?” I demanded, tilting the werewolf’s head so he was forced to look up at me.

“N-No…in the city.”

“Can they read your thoughts? Are they searching for me?” I barely resisted the urge to give him a little shake when his attention seemed to drift away from me.

“No, just calling. Want us to come to the city…Forsyth Park.”

“Listen to me, Nico,” I murmured, kneeling on the ground before him. “You don’t have to obey them. They don’t own you. They aren’t your masters. You don’t have to go to them.”

He sucked in a deep, cleansing breath through his nose and pushed the air out again through his clenched teeth. He was trembling beneath my hands as sweat started to cover his body. He was fighting it as best he could, but if there were any naturi close by, Nicolai didn’t have a chance at avoiding them. I had watched the Savannah Alpha give in to the call, and I knew few lycanthropes that were stronger or more stubborn than Barrett.

“They’re miles away. You’re stronger than they are,” I continued, desperate to free him from their siren song. Kneeling beside him on the ground, I was so close now and he was holding on by a thread. If that thread snapped, he would have his fangs into my throat before I had a chance to move.

Nicolai blinked and looked up at me with copper-colored eyes. I was losing him to the animal inside. I swallowed back the fear that was rising in the form of a lump in the back of my throat.

“Stay with me, Nico. Think of Venice,” I said, trying to conjure up a purely human memory for him to cling to as he fought the naturi’s hold on him.

“Venice…?” he bit out between clenched teeth. He closed his eyes and shivered. “Nightwalkers everywhere. Air was thick with blood.” His upper lip curled and I caught a flash of his right canine as it started to lengthen.

“No, not that part of Venice,” I said, running my thumbs over his cheekbones. “I meant where it was just you and me together, alone in the hotel. No naturi. No nightwalkers.”

Nicolai’s eyes opened and I watched the copper recede to brown. He was coming back to me, fighting their hold as he recalled the memory of us having sex following a narrow escape from both the Coven and the naturi. Neither of us had spoken about that night since it happened. In fact, after returning to Savannah myself, I had gone out of my way to avoid Nicolai, and not entirely because of the naturi. I hadn’t been quite sure what to say after our extremely brief encounter, particularly since the night before that, Nicolai had tried to kill me.

“You were beautiful that night,” he said in a low, rough voice. He lifted his left hand and laid it over my wrist, his thumb caressing the inside of my arm.

“I like to think I still am,” I replied with a smirk. I needed his mood to lighten, needed to be sure he was completely with me before I released my hold on his face.

“You were a long, pale line of white light,” he continued, ignoring my comment. His eyes traveled over my face slowly, as if he was suddenly becoming reacquainted with me, before finally meeting my gaze again. “You’ve avoided me.”

“It was for the best. The…the naturi,” I said, trying to swallow the last word. I had just won him away from that dark race, I didn’t want to lose him all over again. “They’re making it difficult for everyone.”

“You don’t even call. You send Gabriel with all your messages,” he countered. The hand encircling my wrist tightened, as if he was preparing to hold me in place in the event that I tried to quickly move away from him. “You started acting cold and distant while we were still in Venice. It’s because of what my sister did.”

I flinched at the mention of his sister, and I know he felt it in my hands, which were still cupping his face. It wasn’t his sister so much as him. While in Venice, I discovered that Nicolai had come into Jabari’s keeping because his sister and a few others were aiding the naturi. Nicolai traded places with his sister when Jabari demanded to take one of the traitors as a servant. Of course, I didn’t discover any of this until after we’d had sex. I believed Nicolai when he said that he didn’t help the naturi, but a part of me wondered if he had worked to protect his sister by keeping what she was doing a secret. While I could understand it if he did, I knew that a part of me would never forgive it. The result was an uneasy coldness I felt around Nicolai that I struggled to overcome.

“It’s not your sister,” I said in my most reasonable tone. “I have no doubt that she has paid for her crimes, and I won’t make you pay for them as well.”

I released my hold on his face and shoved my free hand through my hair in frustration. How was I supposed to delicately put this? It was just casual sex. We both needed to blow off a little steam. Baby, you were great in bed, but I’m not looking for anything long-term. I preferred to not hurt his feelings, but I also didn’t have time for this.

“Venice was great,” I lamely started again, inwardly cursing my ineptitude. You’d think after living for six hundred years, I’d be better at this.

“Venice was amazing. I thought we were great together. I also thought that since you sent me to your domain, you would want to continue what we started.”

“Nicolai, I—” I started, then stopped. “My main reason for sending you here was that it would be easiest to protect you from my own domain. It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that…” My voice faded as I noticed the lines from the corners of his eyes growing, while one corner of his mouth quirked in a smile. He was laughing at me. “You’re just playing with me, aren’t you?”