Jocelynn Drake - Dayhunter

And a part of me desperately wished he would stay. While trapped at Themis, he’d sat outside the room where I slept helplessly throughout the day while surrounded by his brethren. He had hovered close on so many occasions while I slept that I now hated the idea of him not being there when the sun broke above the horizon. Danaus was my only sense of security in this world that was changing too fast. He threatened to destroy everything that I believed in and everything that I protected. But at the same time, he seemed to be the only one left trying to protect me.

“Get out of here. You’ll attract too much attention. I’ll be fine,” I said, waving him off.

He hesitated a moment before turning around and wandering out of the cemetery back the way he had come in. I concentrated on him with my powers until I felt him just on the edge of the city, well away from the graveyard.

My whole body ached and felt like a giant bruise. I needed some rest, but even now with the approaching dawn, I wasn’t tired. In fact, I was wide-awake with a new frightening thought. Killing the naturi wasn’t going to be enough to convince the faction that some rogue nightwalker had the power to break a promise made by the Coven. I knew what had to be done. The only problem was, I needed either Jabari or Macaire’s help to accomplish it.

Ididn’t want the sun to set. The dawn had finally brought on a blissful peace, sweeping me away from death, Danaus’s betrayal, and the wars that were brewing. By the time I had settled into the windowless crypt, I was trembling from exhaustion that reached down to my very core.

Lying in the stone crypt at nightfall, ignoring the sound of bugs crawling around me, I tried to focus my thoughts. I needed to know how old the night was. I needed a plan for how to deal with the naturi. But instead I got the feeling I wasn’t alone in my tiny mausoleum. I scanned the immediate area but didn’t sense anyone—not human, vampire, or warlock. Regardless, I still couldn’t shake the feeling.

My right hand tightened around the gun I’d left on my stomach while I slept. With the other hand, I pushed back the heavy stone lid to the crypt that had protected me from the sun. It was not the first time I’d slept in a cemetery, and no matter how distasteful I found it, I doubted that it would be the last. When desperate, it proved to be one of the safest places to hide without fear of being exposed to the sun.

Sitting up, I pointed the gun directly in front of me, swinging it back and forth, trying to find the creature my instincts were screaming was close. Fear and anger swelled in my stomach and I clenched my teeth. The sight of the gun wavered when my gaze fell on Jabari leaning against the wall near the door. I still couldn’t sense him, but I had known he was there. All I could figure was that he had appeared the moment I awoke for the night, and I sensed the shift of energy in the air.

“You can lower the weapon now,” he said, his dark eyes locked onto my face.

“Really? That doesn’t seem like such a good idea to me,” I sneered, more irritated with the fact that I couldn’t get my hand to stop trembling than with him.

Jabari arched one eyebrow at me in mocking question as his gaze shifted to the gun. He didn’t have to say anything. We both knew he could make me drop the gun at any time. Or if he was feeling particularly evil, he could make me raise the gun to my temple and pull the trigger.

With a growl I couldn’t stop, I returned the gun to the holster at my lower back and climbed out of the crypt. “What are you doing here? I thought no one else was coming.”

“I came to check on your progress,” he said. “Things don’t seem to be going so well. Hugo is barely clinging to life.”

“He made it through the day?” I demanded before I could stop myself. Jabari’s presence surprised me so much that I had forgotten to scan the cemetery to see if I could still sense the big nightwalker.

“Yes, but he will be of no use to you tonight. He will need to feed and sleep for a couple more nights and days before he will be of use to anyone.” He paused as I slid the lid of the crypt back into place and leaned against the stone coffin. “And I can no longer sense the other nightwalker that was sent with you…”

“Penelope,” I murmured. My head fell and I shoved one hand through my hair. I still had to face the nightmare that played through my head like a broken record. “She was killed. Danaus killed her. To stop her from killing two humans.”

I waited for the Ancient to strike me, to break me in some horrible, painful way because I had failed to control the hunter. But it never came. After a few seconds I looked up to find him still watching me from where he stood near the door.

“I can’t control him,” I started, talking simply to fill the growing silence. “I never claimed to be able to control him, but we need him alive. Regardless of how we all feel about him, we need him.”

“But you feel betrayed by him,” Jabari said, taking a step forward. I took a quick step back, my spine slamming into the stone crypt that ran horizontally along the back wall of the mausoleum. Only a few feet of open, thick blackness separated Jabari and me. The Elder closed the distance as I remained trapped. “I can feel the pain rolling off you. He betrayed you. You trusted him and you thought he trusted you.”

A bitter smile twisted my lips as I looked up at one of my three makers. “You’d think I would have learned not to trust powerful creatures.”

Jabari leaned close, his eyes glowing faintly in the absolute darkness like a cat’s eyes catching a car’s headlights. There was no hiding my fear from him. My stomach clenched and my hands trembled despite tightly gripping the edge of the crypt. He might need me alive, but he could cause me severe amounts of pain.

“You still trust me,” he whispered, his voice low and hypnotic.

I closed my eyes for a second, trying to quell the shaking that had gone from my hands to encompass my entire body. He couldn’t be right. I wouldn’t let him be. Clenching that thought between my gritted teeth, I opened my eyes to find him standing by the door on the opposite side of the tiny room. I hadn’t even heard him move.

“Why are you here?” I demanded, summoning up my anger again. I knew better than to believe his line that he was just checking up on us. I was surprised by his appearance, but I shouldn’t have been. The last time he had randomly appeared was at the Themis Compound, the night of the attack and the sacrifice at Stonehenge. “Afraid of missing out on another sacrifice?”

Jabari smiled this time, a dark and evil thing. “Just missed the last one.” The smile slithered from his face and he turned serious again. “You know why I’m here. It’s the same reason I commanded you to appear in Venice. The one place in the world where you could prove to be the greatest nuisance.”

“Because of the naturi in the Great Hall,” I said.

Jabari simply nodded, the smile returning to his lips.

My hands fell back to my sides and I leaned against the tomb that had served as my daytime bed. “Honestly, old friend, is what Macaire told me the truth? Just between you and me and the spiders.”

“I do not know, but I have found that it’s very rare for Macaire to speak the truth,” Jabari replied, matching my mocking tone.

“Has the Coven truly made a bargain with the naturi?”

“A small group within the naturi, yes,” Jabari corrected.

I bit on my lower lip for a second, trying to hold back a smile, as he carefully hedged. “They want us to kill Aurora.”

“That is correct.”

“And the Coven wants them to kill Our Liege.”