Jocelynn Drake - Dawnbreaker

“So, I’m part—”

A scream rent the air, halting the words in his throat. We turned as one and went running across the basement. Danaus reached the staircase before I did and went charging up, with me following close on his heels. We found Cynnia standing at the top of the stairs, her shaking hands covering her face as she stared down at a naturi sprawled across the floor leading down to the basement. They had gotten close. Too close.

Grabbing Cynnia by the shoulders, I pulled her quickly through the lodge until we finally reached the kitchen toward the back. There were no dead bodies within the stainless steel retreat so I felt safe leaving her there for now, with Shelly to watch over her.

“So many dead. So many bodies,” she kept repeating. Those words haunted me as I wandered through the lodge. I counted more than two dozen within the sanctuary and another dozen on the front lawn and in the garden. Rowe had forced close to forty naturi to their death in an effort to kill me and free Cynnia before he finally gave up.

Standing outside, I looked up at the peak of the lodge. It was blackened and smoldering slightly, but Shelly’s protective spells had held. Amazingly, we had all survived the day, and it was now time to make plans for the night. I was beginning to believe that surviving thus far had been the easy part.

The stench of the burning flesh from the funerary pyre we had erected in front of the lodge crept through the closed windows of the bedroom. Staring up at Machu Picchu, I tried to ignore the smell as best as I could, but there was nothing I could do to push away the image of the enormous pile of bodies that kept flashing through my brain. Thirty-seven naturi bodies had been located around the confines of the perimeter of the lodge. They were scattered everywhere; in the garden and throughout the Sanctuary Lodge. In addition to the naturi, twelve humans had also been killed. Five of them were guardians that had come with the nightwalkers, but seven were tourists, from what we could tell.

The naturi had taken the time to tear open three of the humans and remove some of their organs. Another harvest. Rowe had proven on more than one occasion that he was apt at performing blood magic, some of which required the body parts of living creatures. I gritted my teeth, pushing back the swelling anger. I had a feeling that he’d killed the humans to simply prove he could, to prove that I couldn’t protect them no matter how hard I tried.

When we awoke, the remaining naturi had retreated to Machu Picchu. Tonight it was our turn to attack their stronghold and stop their plans.

Behind me, Danaus dropped his trusty black bag of weapons on the bed with an audible bounce of the springs. One of the humans Stefan contacted had been conscientious enough to grab it among the other bags we brought along. My small bag of clothing was missing, but I wasn’t concerned. A few items of clothing, sunglasses, a hairbrush, and a toothbrush were all easily replaceable—assuming I survived the next several hours at Machu Picchu.

“We go forward with the original plan,” Danaus announced into the all too silent room. I looked over my shoulder at the hunter to find him taking a quick inventory before deciding what he would carry. “We go to the top of Machu Picchu and stop the naturi from opening the door.”

A fragile smile drifted across my lips as I turned and leaned my shoulder against the cold glass of the window so I could still watch the burgeoning night through the corner of my eye. The nights in Peru were growing shorter as they struggled to escape the bonds to winter’s dark grasp and finally bloom into spring. Tonight was the spring equinox, here south of the equator in Peru—a time of new beginnings. Back in my home of Savannah, it was the first night of autumn—a time of endings and quickening decay. Either way, it was the key time for Aurora to return. Tonight, she planned to come through the door, triumphant, letting the change in seasons mark the beginning of her reign on Earth.

It seemed grimly ironic that man’s savior would be the very thing that had filled his nightmares for centuries. But even that interesting twist of fate couldn’t lighten my mood. There was no levity to be found tonight, and I just wanted to finally have it all done.

“And then we get back to the business of killing each other,” I said, turning to fully face Danaus, trying to break the fear.

A crooked, half smile lifted his lips as he tossed me the gun holster he had originally given me months ago when we flew from London to Venice. “As God intended,” he murmured.

During the next several minutes my fingers nervously slid over the various straps and buckles, checking that the shoulder holster was tightly cinched and that the sword lashed to my back wouldn’t slip as I moved. I made these same adjustments over and over again. It kept me from trying to pace the narrow little room, already dominated by a double bed, a rickety dresser, and a pair of worn, high-back chairs. After the lavish opulence of our suite at the Hotel Cipriani, the little room seemed plain and coarse, with its burnt orange walls and worn carpet. However, it was more than adequate for our brief and simple needs.

Cynnia sat on the floor in the corner, her manacled wrists resting on her bent knees as she slowly rocked back and forth. The sight of her dead brethren had left her mute after her initial scream at the top of the basement stairs. Shelly sat silently on the edge of the bed. The index finger of her left hand kept tracing an infinity sign on the comforter. We were all lost to our own dark thoughts in these final hours.

An unexpected knock at the door caused me to jump. I hadn’t been watching for anyone to approach. It was a good thing I wasn’t holding a sword. I would have probably lost a finger. I nodded to Danaus and he rose from where he was seated on the edge of the bed to open the door.

Stefan stepped into the room as I fiddled with the Browning, his gaze carefully skipping over Danaus as he glided in. The handsome nightwalker wore a pair of jeans and black turtleneck against the cold wind, as if it could bother him.

“I see you’ve finally pulled your people together,” he sneered. “We’re ready to leave now.”

I turned my eyes to Danaus, who was glaring at Stefan’s back. “How many naturi?” I asked. I could vaguely sense them but had yet to hone that skill Danaus had obviously worked into a fine art.

Stefan finally turned and looked at the hunter, waiting for his reply. Danaus continued to glare at the vampire, but I could feel his powers sweeping out of the room, shoving aside Stefan’s own powers as if they were an unwelcome guest. Stefan never moved, didn’t even flinch. Was I truly the only nightwalker that could feel Danaus’s powers? I didn’t want to know exactly how deep this connection between us ran, but I knew no good would ever come of it.

“Almost fifty,” he replied, his voice distant.

“Not bad,” Stefan said, unmoved by the number.

“That’s not counting the two dozen lycans they’ve summoned to the mountain,” I added, dropping into one of the two high-back chairs.

“You’re concerned about werewolves?” The laughter danced among his words as he arched one dark brow at me.

“In London they sent both wind and earth clan naturi,” I said. “They will be prepared when we begin to climb the mountain to the ruins. Sending the lycans in is for their amusement, forcing us to kill our own allies.”

“What are we facing now?” Stefan asked.

I looked over at Danaus, but he shook his head. “I can’t tell which clan. It’s just a band of naturi gathered on the mountain.”

With my eyes locked on the faded burgundy carpet, I frantically searched my memory. I’d spent centuries studying folklore and myth that had been handed down, looking for some kernel of truth to all the nonsense. The valuable information I had found within the journals kept by Jabari and a few of the other Ancients contained not only tales provided by the few nightwalkers that encountered the naturi and survived, but also information provided by the naturi themselves. Apparently, we had once been allies with the earth creatures.