Jocelynn Drake - Nightwalker

Digging my nails into the dirt, I started to pull my legs beneath me so I could rise. My whole body screamed in pain and the world swayed slightly. I was too low on blood to pick a fight and expect to win, but at least Rowe was in ragged shape as well.

“Watch her,” Rowe bit out without looking over at me.

Until he spoke, my gaze had not drifted beyond him. Now, I lifted my eyes to see six naturi of various size and clans approaching us warily. And beyond them rose the pale monoliths of Stonehenge. They were attempting the sacrifice tonight, and for some bizarre reason, Rowe had decided he needed me on hand to witness their triumph.

“Shit,” I hissed, lowering my head. I was in no shape to take on seven naturi alone.

A wheezing laugh escaped Rowe. He was kneeling on the ground with his forearms in the grass in front of him. His head was turned toward me, his black hair partially obscuring his face, but I could still see the smirk twisting his lips.

“Oh, like you’re in any better shape than me,” I snarled.

“At least I have someone to protect me,” he said, pushing into a sitting position with pain-filled slowness.

I looked back at the naturi standing before us. A female with pale blond hair that fell to her waist stepped forward. She extended one hand and flames danced over her fingers. Naturally, one of my keepers was a member of the light clan.

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Mira,” Rowe said.

“Go to hell, Rowe,” I snapped, my gaze never wavering from the six naturi standing before me.

A harsh clutter of words jumped from Rowe that I couldn’t understand. Several of the naturi briefly expressed surprise and confusion, but after a moment they backed away, returning to the inner circle of stones.

Silence crept back over the plain. The air was still, waiting. It was only after the naturi retreated back into the shadows of the stones that I noticed the soft sounds of a woman crying. The naturi had their sacrifice waiting in the darkness, surrounded by great bluestones. Where the hell was Jabari? He could move from place to place in an instant. He should have been able to locate me wherever I was. Why hadn’t he appeared yet? If he were there, I knew we could stop this now. I’d even have settled for Sadira or Danaus, but I knew it would take several more minutes for either of them to reach me.

I dragged my fingers through the earth, digging narrows furrows in the soft dirt. The grass was moist, as if it had rained recently. Beneath me, I could feel the strange hum of power beginning to build. Had they begun the sacrifice already? I couldn’t see most of the naturi, as they remained hidden behind the giant stones, but I could hear the faint sound of movement; breathing, the soft swish of clothing.

“You can feel it, can’t you?” Rowe said. The weight of his stare was a physical pressure on my shoulders, but I refused to look over at him. “You could feel it while you were at Machu Picchu. In those last days, Nerian didn’t need to touch you, the power in the mountain was enough to have you writhing in pain.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t going to let him play mind games with me. “Just stop. You weren’t there,” I replied.

“I was there,” he murmured. My gaze jerked over to him at the sound of movement. He crawled a couple feet closer but remained out of arm’s reach. “Every day and every night of your captivity, I was there. You just don’t remember because I looked a little different back then.”

“Years not been kind?” I mocked.

His face twisted into a look of anger and hatred for a split second before he could wipe it away. “I’m sure the years have scarred us both in interesting ways.”

“Why bring me here? I could still stop your sacrifice, destroy all your plans.” I smiled at him as I sat up. I rubbed my hands together, knocking off the dirt.

Rowe sat up as well, seeming to move with a little more ease and less obvious pain. We were both slowly regaining our strength. “Because the reward is worth the risk.”

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “Killing me is worth that much to you?”

Rowe shoved his left hand through his hair, threading some of it behind his left ear so it no longer fell in front of his one eye. A white scar ran along his jaw and seemed to glow against his tanned skin in the moonlight. “My goal is not to kill you.”

I snorted in response, and Rowe said something under his breath in his own language, frustration filling his voice. He looked over at the arrangement of stones for a moment before turning back to me again.

“It doesn’t have to be like this between us.”

“What? The naturi have graciously decided to stop killing nightwalkers?”

This time he was the one to snort. “No, nightwalkers are vermin. They need to be exterminated. I meant between you and the naturi.”

“I am a nightwalker, asshole.”

“But you were never meant to be,” he said, leaning toward me as his voice dropped to an urgent whisper. “You never should have been made into one of their kind. Your powers reach beyond their limitations. You could have been more. You still could be.”

I leaned back, trying to keep some distance between us. With him sitting this close, it was hard to resist the urge to take a swipe at him, but I didn’t stand a chance with his compatriots just a few yards away. “Let me guess, you can help me become more,” I sneered.

“You can feel the power here, and no other vampire can. When they swarmed Machu Picchu centuries ago, not one of them reacted the way you do. You can still feel the earth despite being a nightwalker,” he explained. “It’s still a part of you because it’s more powerful than anything you’ve gained through becoming a nightwalker. You belong with us, not them.”

A slow chuckle built until my head finally fell backward, my laughter filling the plain, silencing the soft plaintive cries from the woman doomed to die tonight. “Save your breath. I’ve heard this speech before, though it was more interesting the first time. At Machu Picchu, you guys were just trying to convince me to kill my own kind. Now you want me to believe that I belong among you.”

“Can you honestly tell me you feel you belong among your own kind? Hmmm, Fire Starter?”

The laugh died inside of me. “It doesn’t matter.”

“You can end the war tonight,” Rowe softly said.

“By killing you?”

“By completing the sacrifice.”

My brow furrowed as I stared at him for a long time, letting the silence grow between us. “What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice dropping to match his softness.

“If you complete the sacrifice, the seal will be broken permanently. You made it. If you break it, the nightwalkers will never be able to recreate it again. We end this battle forever.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I kill you now.”

“And if I do?”

“You walk away. The naturi shall never bother you again.”

“But I will be branded a traitor and will be hunted by my own kind until the end of my nights,” I said with a shake of my head.

“Then break the seal and remain with us,” he offered, stunning me. “I am consort to the queen, and you will be under my protection. The naturi will never harass you and the nightwalkers will never touch you.”

I turned my head to look back at Stonehenge for a second before letting my eyes fall shut. In the hands of the naturi, I was a weapon against the nightwalkers. And while among the nightwalkers, I was a weapon against the naturi. Without ever knowing it, I had managed to dig a heel into both worlds.

Planting both of my hands into the dirt, I pushed off and rose to my feet. Beside me there was a soft rustle of clothing as Rowe stood. He stuck close to me as I slowly walked past the first circle of stones and into the inner circle. The other six naturi circled the woman lying on the ground. Her wrists had been bound together and then tied to a stake in the ground above her head. Her ankles were also bound together and staked so that she was stretched out, her body running east to west. She had short, dark brown hair and her round face was streaked with tears. The smell of her blood filled the air, as her wrists were rubbed raw from her struggles.