Jocelynn Drake - Dayhunter

Grabbing a knife from my side with my free hand, I knelt down and threw it directly at her chest. The small knife buried itself in her heart. She paused, still standing, long enough for me to rise to my feet and remove her head with a single, fluid swing.

Her blood sprayed everywhere, pelting me in the face. I wiped it off with the back of my hand as I turned my full attention back to Rowe. “Obviously, you didn’t have all your ducks in a row, but you do now.”

“The same could be said about you and your young man,” Rowe countered, motioning with his sword toward Danaus.

James was sitting up now, but the naturi were getting closer. Danaus was painfully outnumbered, while Jabari was trying to defend the two other humans at the same time. The bargain was dead, but we were stretched too thin to try to stop the sacrifice. Besides, there would be no combining our powers this time. Danaus and I were desperate, but what we’d done last time was too ugly to repeat. There had to be another way.

“I—”

Whatever Rowe meant to say was cut off when another naturi called to him. His whole body stiffened at the sound of her voice. He quickly stepped backward, putting some distance between himself and Ryan. But I also noticed he carefully positioned himself between me and the newcomer.

It drew my attention to her. She was shorter than me and her body was incredibly slender, as if she were only an animated skeleton in soft gray clothes. A mass of straight black hair hung down her back. She watched me with enormous eyes that seemed to be the same shade of pale gray as her clothes. In fact, the only thing that didn’t seem to be monotone in this slim creature was her ruby red mouth, which at the moment held neither a smile nor a frown. I watched her until Rowe stepped into my line of sight, thinking insanely that she looked familiar.

Rowe shouted something at her and she responded. They spoke in their own language, which I couldn’t understand. But Rowe’s body language and tone spoke volumes. He pointed his sword at me with his right hand and waved his left hand at her, motioning her to stay back. Eyes narrowed and body bent forward, he was ready to attack me if I took a single step toward her.

Again he shouted some direction at her that I couldn’t understand. Just over his shoulder, I saw her gaze up at the sky once. There was no moon to see, but I knew what she was doing. She wasn’t looking for some celestial body or even a fresh wave of winged naturi to aid them. I knew her expression—she was gauging the night. We were out of time.

Something clenched in my stomach and my hands started to shake. Now was the moment, and I felt trapped. I was afraid to use my powers. I could kill us all. There was too much energy in the air and I wouldn’t be able to control it.

“Danaus!” I screamed. I hoped the hunter heard me. I hoped he understood by the desperate plea in my voice what I was asking, because there was no more time for plans and explanations. “Kill the female! Stop her!” My voice rang out over the fighting, echoing across the valley. Jabari, Danaus, and Ryan heard me. They would stop her if I could not.

Rowe’s face twisted in rage at my words, turning his whole body to face me. He raised his sword and came at me. I countered him, and his sword clashed with mine again and again, the impact sending sparks flying around him. We were both desperate, but Rowe was also afraid of something, which made him sloppy. Dodging a blow meant to remove my head, I punched him in the face, knocking him back a few steps. To my surprise, he fell backward over a piece of broken rock and didn’t get back up.

Chaos surrounded me. Dropping the short sword, I reached inside of myself and tapped my own abilities. I was ready to summon up all the fires of Hell. No one would leave the ruins alive. The sacrifices had to be stopped. The seal had to be protected.

With the first flicker of fire, the energy came rushing into me, alive and crackling. For the first time in my life, I was fully in touch with the powers of the earth. There was no calm, sweet peace. No sound of babbling brooks or whispering winds. There was only crackling rage and the fury of a power long unused. Mother Earth was fucking pissed and I was now her outlet.

Each naturi that approached me burst into flames instantly, but it wasn’t enough to relieve the pressure building in my body. The torches became engulfed in flames while giant basketball-size balls of fire hovered in the air, lighting the courtyard so it appeared as if daybreak had finally arrived. I located Danaus and James and quickly encircled them in a protective wall of fire. I did the same with Jabari, but it wasn’t enough.

The power was building. It was going to destroy me, and I couldn’t find the gray female Rowe had been so intent on protecting. The power was going to kill me before I could stop her.

Danaus. I reached out. My voice in my head seemed like a small whisper compared to the roar of power within me. I couldn’t concentrate anymore. The fires were getting larger, brighter, stronger. I was going to kill the very people I was trying to protect.

I’m here. His voice in my brain was a cool balm against the burning inside me.

Can’t concentrate. Can’t find her. Don’t know which sacrifice she’s going after.

She’s here.

“No!” I screamed. James!

Pain exploded within me. I didn’t even have a chance to react. My whole body was thrown backward. I flew what felt like yards through the air in a terrifying blur of motion before my spine slammed into the hard stone ground. An incoherent scream of pain erupted from my throat as I writhed. Something was being torn deep within me, as if someone or something was attacking the fragile shreds of my soul, trying to pull them from my body. I curled into the fetal position, desperate to hold my soul within my battered frame. The pain burned within me. Nerve endings trembled and twisted. Organs sizzled. Agonizing pain ripped through my brain until there wasn’t a single thought.

And then the blackness seeped in. It consumed everything, the pain, the tearing sensation in my chest, the outside world. The blackness blotted out everything and then it stole me away.

Ijerked upright and gasped, which sent razor blades down my throat and through my lungs before the first clear thought rang through my brain. I didn’t need to breathe, but there were some instincts that even death couldn’t kill. When I awoke each night from a nightmare, my first reaction was always to gasp for air. But this wasn’t a nightmare.

Blinking as I tried to clear my blurred vision, I felt a hand at my back and on my shoulder as someone eased me back to the ground. I coughed and tried to roll back onto my side as I pushed the unnecessary air out of my body. Something inside of me ached. My thoughts were fuzzy as I tried to remember what had happened. No one had touched me, but pain had exploded inside of me, frying every organ and brain cell.

“Rest, Mira.” Jabari’s deep voice swept over me from my right. I lay on my back and unclenched my eyes. Ryan was kneeling beside me on my left, one of his hands holding mine. Jabari was kneeling too. His clothes were torn and he was covered in blood, but a soft smile hovered on his lips. He had won. I was on the Coven, which only benefited him because he was able to control me.

“James?” I asked, fearing the answer when I looked up at Ryan. The warlock nodded over past Jabari. Twisting, I saw the young man seated against the wall, bloodied, bruised, and swollen, but still breathing.

“But Danaus—” I started, then slowly shook my head as I tried to clear the fog from my thoughts. “He said the naturi was by him. Is the seal still safe?”