Jocelynn Drake - Dayhunter

“Oh, shove it, Ryan!” I snarled, flashing my clenched teeth at him. “You’re not this dense.”

The smile remained on his lean, ageless face, but it faded from his golden eyes as they danced over my features. He watched me with a frightening intensity before he finally drew in a breath to speak. “I brought him for three different reasons. First, he is the assistant to both Danaus and me. He will be aiding us in any matters that we are unable to address while we are looking into our current problem.”

It was a reason. I didn’t think it was a particularly good reason. Charlotte Godwin was my human assistant back in Savannah and she took care of the day-to-day problems of managing my financial interests and seeing to my travel arrangements—things that generally needed to be addressed during the daylight hours.

“Second, James has been with Themis for several years,” Ryan continued, “but he has had very little field experience. I thought this would be a good opportunity.”

“You could have started him out on something a little less dangerous,” I criticized, shaking my head at him. As we stopped at an intersection, I scooted forward in my seat so I could address the taxi driver. “How far to Knossos?” I inquired in broken Cretan Greek. Despite all the years I’d been gone, my knowledge of the language hadn’t faded from my brain, as I would have expected. However, my dialect was archaic. It was unlikely anyone would be able to understand me. After listening to others, however, I’d picked up enough to get by. Undoubtedly, I sounded like a tourist.

“Less than a kilometer,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at me. He was an older gentleman with white hair and a lined face weathered by time and the sun.

“Let us out here,” I said, pulling a few euros out of the front pocket of my leather pants. I had converted the last of my Egyptian pounds into euros at the Cipriani before Danaus and I flew out. I didn’t have much on me but figured it would get me through the next couple of nights. Beyond that, I had to survive our next encounter with the naturi before I worried about my cash flow.

The driver seemed about to argue, but swallowed his comment when he heard Ryan already getting out of the car. He hadn’t been too sure about us heading to the palace at this late hour, but with a slight mental push, I managed to convince him to take us anyway.

We had left the city of Heraklion behind and entered into the hilly countryside filled with vineyards and olive orchards. From a quick scan of the region, I was relieved to find very few humans in the area. I didn’t have to worry too much about being discovered or anyone stumbling into a deadly battle. The problem with many of the so-called holy sites was that they were now major tourist attractions, leaving the area thickly surrounded by shops, restaurants, and hotels for weary travelers burdened with far too much cash.

Ryan and I silently waited in the darkness until we saw the taxi driver head back toward Heraklion and the relative safety of the city before we turned and headed down the empty lane toward the Minoan ruins. Danaus and Penelope had taken a taxi ten minutes before us, to head south of the palace before getting out and walking back toward the ruins. Hugo took a separate cab and would be arriving at the palace from the east. If we couldn’t stop them, our goal was to at least herd the naturi back toward the caves of Mount Idi and away from any of the large cities and towns in the immediate area. It was a temporary solution at best if we couldn’t destroy them all.

For the first time since I’d become a nightwalker, the darkness felt like a physical weight pressing on my shoulders, rather than the soothing presence it had always been, Dark violent memories of fear and hatred lurked behind every tree. My mother’s death, the men I killed—all ghosts waiting for a moment of weakness before they would strike. With my fists clenched at my side, I struggled to stay focused on the task that loomed before me and the potential adversary beside me.

“You said there were three reasons for bringing James,” I said to Ryan, resuming our earlier conversation from the car after we’d walked in the dark for a few minutes. “What was the third reason?”

He remained silent for a long time, until I was sure he wasn’t going to tell me at all. He drew in a deep breath and his hands stopped swinging loosely at his sides. “Something has happened, and James—being the responsible fellow that he is—feels he should be the one to tell you.”

“Why do I get the feeling that you don’t want him to tell me?”

“At the very least, I’d rather he not tell you in person. I fear that you’re the type to shoot the messenger,” Ryan stated, cocking his head to the side as he looked down at me.

“I didn’t kill Danaus when he told me of the naturi. I would think that would be proof enough.” I shoved my hands in my back pockets, my eyes sweeping away from the warlock beside me to the rows of trees and hills that rose up around the winding road. I had the Browning that Danaus had given me in a holster at my lower back, and I was ready if anything so much as twitched. The only one in the immediate area who I could sense was Ryan, and it was driving me crazy. The air was still, redolent of the earth and wildflowers. It felt as if the world was holding its breath in anticipation of the inevitable battle.

“You needed Danaus alive,” Ryan countered. “Besides, I’m not entirely sure you could kill him.”

I bit back the first sharp comment that rose to mind and pushed on. He was trying to distract me, but there was no reason to jump at the bait. “Are you going to tell me or do I have to drag it out of James later tonight?”

“Michael is missing,” Ryan softly said.

I sighed softly, the sound barely rising above the scuff of my boots along some loose gravel on the road. “Michael isn’t missing. He’s dead.”

“Yes, I know. Gabriel told us.” Ryan stopped walking and I looked up at him. The tall man’s white hair framed his narrow face, creating a strange outline to the shadows that filled the hollows of his cheeks. “We can’t find his body.”

My temper instantly flared and I took a step toward him. It was a struggle to keep my hands from closing around his throat, but I succeeded. There was a tingle of magic in the air coming from my powerful companion, and I had no doubt that he could send my flying across the road without blinking an eye.

But this horrible news diminished the danger of the warlock. Michael had been one of my guardian angels for several years. He’d been an able, dedicated bodyguard; a sweet, gentle man; and a considerate lover. He had watched over me during my daylight hours and stood with me against the naturi, who physically took his life. Recently, I realized that I’d been slowly stealing his life on another level, and the naturi had stolen away my chance to ever make it up to him.

But now this? Lost? A dead body lost?

“What do you mean? The night of the attack, I left him in the front hall. What did you do with him?” I shouted, not caring if I caught the attention of every naturi in the area. Michael deserved better than this. I needed to take him home where he could finally rest.

“We couldn’t find him. I met him. James knew him. Gabriel was there. We searched every inch of the manor and all the area surrounding the Compound. He’s not there,” Ryan calmly said. He laid his large hands over my shoulders, squeezing lightly. The small comfort eased some of the tension from them, but I couldn’t unclench my jaw.

“Who?” I whispered in a choked voice. “Who has him?”

“Mira…” Ryan paused again and licked his dry lips. “The naturi were all over the first floor of the manor—”