Jocelynn Drake - Nightwalker

A deep silence settled into the car, and I sat patiently, feeling it gently take each dip and curve in the road as we headed closer to the Compound, which housed more humans that had hunted my kind.

“The goal of Themis is balance,” Danaus volunteered at last. “Most of the members of Themis are like James Parker, scholars who study the occult. They watch from a distance, cataloging events and creatures. And then there are those who are hunters. They are sent when your kind threatens mankind. We are trying to keep your secret, and the secret of all the others, from leaking over into the world of man.”

“And are you sent to destroy my kind by wise, knowledgeable men like James?” I demanded, sarcasm dripping off my words.

“No, the leader of Themis is the only one who can dispatch a hunter.”

“Ryan?” I asked, recalling the name that Danaus had tossed out earlier that evening when persuading James to take Sadira to the Compound.

“Yes.”

“I look forward to meeting him,” I said, trying to sound confident, though my blood was soaking through Tristan’s shirt and into the cloth car seats.

An odd sound came from Danaus. It sounded broken and rough, as if his voice were dragged over sandpaper. He was laughing at me. I tried to smile as well, though it was a struggle to get all the right muscles working. It didn’t matter. The sound helped push back some of the pain for a brief moment. It was like catching a shaft of sunlight between shifting thunderheads, and I wanted to bask in it before the black clouds stifled the golden light.

“You will not be able to intimidate and manipulate Ryan like you did James,” he said in an amused voice.

“How about seduce him with my feminine wiles?” I asked in a low voice. Tristan let out a rough sound that could have been a laugh, but he quickly covered it up by clearing his throat. I knew there wasn’t much attractive about me right now. If I didn’t get to Sadira in the next few minutes, there wouldn’t be anything left of me but a blood-covered corpse.

“Doubtful,” he said.

I sighed dramatically, my eyes managing to flutter open for a moment before I gave up the fight. “I guess I shall just have to figure out what he truly wants.”

“How will you do that?”

“I haven’t a clue,” I admitted, which earned me another chuckle.

“And you’re not concerned?”

“It’s less than one hour until sunrise, and I’m riding in a car with a hunter toward a conclave of hunters. The naturi are breathing down my neck, literally, and my last hope for defeating them was killed while I stood watching. Just supposing that I survive the next hour, I still have Jabari, who will rip out my throat because I failed to protect Thorne. At this point, I think the least of my concerns is a human with his own agenda.”

There was a soft creak of plastic as Danaus tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “I hope you’re right.”

“With my recent track record, I doubt it. But what have I got to lose?”

“True,” he conceded in a low voice.

As the silence slipped back into the car, I felt Tristan shift beneath me. I knew why. I could feel it too. We were running out of time. If Sadira didn’t have enough time to properly heal me before the sun rose, I would not reawaken when the sun set again. Both the blood and life would drain completely from my body and I would be dead.

“How much farther?” Tristan asked.

“Not far.”

Dawn was drawing too close and I didn’t like the options Tristan and Sadira would be left with if I didn’t make it. Would Danaus defend them against his brethren? It wasn’t an issue I wanted to contemplate.

“How long have you been with Themis?” the young nightwalker asked, trying to redirect his thoughts.

I managed to move my right arm enough so my hand came in contact with Tristan’s left leg. I touched his ankle, rubbing it in an attempt to ease some of the tension that flowed through him.

“A few centuries.”

“Why did you join them? You don’t seem to be the type to fall in with a cult,” I teased, my hand falling away from Tristan.

“They’re not a cult.”

“Answer the question.”

“Because I seek balance,” Danaus said, to my surprise. He rarely answered my questions about himself, but apparently I had not dug too deep. I wondered if his powers had kept him out of balance.

“And what did you do before Themis?” I wanted to know about the shadows that lurked in his beautiful eyes. What horrors had he witnessed, and had he ever been the cause?

The steering wheel creaked again. “I hunted and destroyed evil.”

“That’s rather vague.” Tristan stirred beneath me. “Whose definition of evil are you going by?”

“God’s.”

“Great. So you’ve spent your life hunting nightwalkers because some human decided we were evil.” Whatever momentary warmth there had been between the three of us shriveled and froze as I balled my right fingers into a fist, my nails digging in my palm. For a time we had forgotten who we were.

“You kill,” Danaus snapped.

“You’re beginning to sound like James.” For a time, I think we forgot that we were still on opposite sides; that we were working under a temporary and fragile truce. “Humans kill. You kill. So do we. It may not be right, but we do what we must to survive.”

A tense silence hung heavy in the air as Danaus turned off the main road and the car seemed to grow darker. I opened my eyes and peripherally could see only flashes of sky through the trees that thickened around us, blotting out the remaining half of the moon.

Before me, Danaus’s powers flowed out from his body, bathing me in its warmth, easing my tension. “There are no naturi here.”

“Are you sure? You couldn’t sense Rowe,” I said, wishing I could sit up and look around.

“There are no naturi here,” Danaus repeated calmly.

“Why can you feel them while I cannot?” Tristan demanded.

Loosening the tension from my fingers, which had been balled into a fist, I forced myself to relax. I needed to conserve my energy if I was going to make it through the next few minutes. The darkness was crowding in again, and I could no longer hold my eyes open. My body had tried to heal itself, but without more blood, it was hopeless. As it was now, I was using up most of my energy just to stay alive.

“Because they are the essence of life itself and you are no longer alive.”

“But I can sense you and other living things,” I whispered.

“You can sense all things that are human, or at least started human, because a part of you is still human. The naturi world is closed to you.” His voice was strong, like a hand massaging the tension from my shoulders.

“Then how is it that nightwalkers can seal them away from this world?”

“That, I do not know.”

“Just keep working on that, will you?” I said, my words fading toward the end.

Danaus parked the car and turned off the motor. I gave up trying to look around and slipped back into Tristan’s mind. He was terrified but was holding together for now. He looked up at the enormous mansion that loomed before us. Every window was filled with light despite the late hour. Apparently, their unexpected guests were causing a bit of a stir.

Tristan had already scanned the manor, easily finding both Michael and Gabriel. While Tristan had never met either human, I knew both extremely well and could recognize them in his thoughts. The other humans were a hive of chaos; anxious, fearful, but also curious. Sadira remained hidden, and Tristan was reluctant to step out of the car.

She has been told to hide herself, I said softly in his mind. She is here.

Are you sure?