Jocelynn Drake - Wait for Dusk

With a sigh, I jumped in the shower and then pulled on a clean change of clothes. I had packed enough to get me through a week, but I was hoping that this trip abroad wouldn’t last me quite so long. My own domain was wounded and sore, needing my strict attention before the rift between the shifters and the nightwalkers grew any wider.

Stepping out of the bedroom into the main living room of the hotel suite, I found myself faced with Valerio instead of Danaus. A frown tugged at my lips as I looked around the room, as if the hunter were lurking in some remote corner, but he was nowhere to be found.

“He’s not here,” Valerio confirmed.

“Where is he?” I demanded, hating the petulance in my tone.

“Don’t know. He left the hotel room as soon as I arrived and didn’t say where he was going.” Valerio sat in one of the comfortable chairs that ringed a dark wood coffee table. My bare feet sank into the thick carpet as I crossed the room and dropped into one of the chairs opposite him. “Trouble in paradise? Lovers’ quarrel?”

I flashed the nightwalker a dark look and then turned my attention back down to the coffee table before me. There were a pair of picture books on the surface that showed tourists all the wonderful sights within Budapest. A secret part of me wished this would prove to be an easier task than Jabari had led us to believe, and that Danaus and I could take some time wandering these old streets together. However, between Nick and Rowe, such a hope was promptly crushed.

“Mira—”

“Let it go, Valerio. It’s none of your business.”

“Unfortunately, it is my business,” he countered, drawing my gaze up to his face. “If you’re distracted with romantic thoughts, it could mean my life. It is my job to protect the Elder of the coven, after all.”

I tilted my head to the side as I stared at him in surprise. “Would you protect me?”

He smiled. “Of course. You are one of the few nightwalkers still in existence that I would dare to refer to as a friend.”

“Valerio, I’m quite confident that I am the only nightwalker in existence that you would call friend, but that still doesn’t mean you would risk your neck for me.”

His smile grew wider and an evil twinkle filled his eyes. “I never said anything about risking my neck. I only said that it’s my job to protect you. We must be reasonable about these things. You certainly wouldn’t want me to die for you.”

A soft chuckle escaped me as I shook my head at my old friend. Valerio would never change. He looked out for himself above all, and always looked for the situation that best served to give him the advantage. It surprised me that he had taken my side months ago when I was on the outs with the coven, but then the move proved to be to his advantage when I finally claimed the open seat. I was beginning to believe that he was both smarter and more dangerous than I ever gave him credit for.

“So, you’ve become involved with the human and now it’s not working out how you might have hoped,” Valerio observed. I opened my mouth to argue with him, but he held up one hand, halting the words on the tip of my tongue. “Please, don’t waste our time by denying it. You made him your consort. You’ve been working closely together for months now. If you didn’t kill each other, it was inevitable.”

Flopping back against the back of the chair, I crossed my arms over my chest and crossed my left leg over my right knee. “Nothing is inevitable.”

Valerio shook his head at me. “But things aren’t working out, are they?”

“No,” I said softly. We technically kissed and made up at the park, but I could still feel the anger boiling inside of him.

“I’d be surprised if they did.”

“We’re not that different.”

“Yes, Mira, you are.” Valerio presented me with a patient yet condescending smile. “You’re a powerful nightwalker and he’s a human. You’re an Elder on the coven, and he’s a nightwalker hunter. There is a vast canyon separating you and Danaus, and I don’t think you will ever find a way to bridge that gap.”

“We’ll find a way,” I said stubbornly, but I could no longer meet his eye. My gaze dropped down to the shiny tabletop, trying to ignore the truth that was ringing far too clearly in his voice.

“Let it just be a fun interlude. Do not involve your heart in this matter.”

“As if I would be so stupid and foolish,” I scoffed, but it was a lie and Valerio knew it.

“It took you decades to recover from Sean, and I heard about Michael,” he murmured, leaning forward in his seat. He reached across the table and placed his hand on my knee. “The men in your life don’t last a long time, and you are the one left standing with a broken heart. Love is a beautiful thing, but you’re an Elder now. You can’t afford such weakness.”

He was right. I had loved Sean with everything that I was, but his death had finally driven me out of Europe and to the New World. And the loss of my sweet Michael because of the naturi had made me sullen and reckless. The men in my life lived short lives and died painful deaths. But something in my mind screamed that Danaus was different. He was older and wiser than his predecessors. He had his own gifts and could survive and thrive where the others had not. At least, that was the lie I was currently telling myself.

“Love is not a weakness,” I countered, pulling my knee out of his reach.

“It leaves you vulnerable. They could use your attachment to Danaus against you,” Valerio warned.

“And risk the hunter’s wrath? I doubt it. A few may try it at first, but they will not survive his anger at being used like that.”

Valerio sat back in his chair and stared at me with newfound interest. “You sound very confident.”

“Danaus will not tolerate being used.” I knew it firsthand. I was lucky the hunter was still in the city. He could have caught the first plane out of Budapest the second the sun rose and never looked back. I was praying that some thread of compassion he felt for me was holding him to Budapest. “He hasn’t lived as long as he has in our world without having a few skills of his own. He will outlast the others.”

“It will be interesting to see,” Valerio stated, scratching his chin.

A knock at the door drew my attention away from the nightwalker. Pushing out of my chair, I walked to the door while scanning the hallway with my powers. An unknown human stood on the other side of the door. She was alone in the hall. However, there were two nightwalkers downstairs in what felt like the lobby of the hotel. Meanwhile, I could feel Danaus coming down the hall toward the suite. A part of me relaxed as a soft sigh of relief slipped past my parted lips. He was returning to the room.

Opening the door, I was greeted by the sight of a tiny young woman with flowing blond hair and bright blue eyes. She was thin and pale, wearing a wispy thin top and soft flowing skirt that brushed against her ankles. A thick pearl choker was wrapped around her slender neck, with a silver ring in the front. A fragile smile lifted the corners of her rosebud mouth, but there was worry in her gaze. She was afraid.

“Are you Mira?” she asked in a musical voice.

“I am,” I admitted, only when Danaus was standing directly behind her. His hand rested near a knife that he always kept at his side. The hunter stared down at the top of the woman’s head, a frown marring his handsome face.

“I am Sofia and I have been sent by Veyron to invite you to his home this evening,” she said. Her soft, breathless voice danced around us like a summer breeze. It seemed to hold no threat or cause for concern. I frowned. I didn’t trust her. She seemed too helpless and fragile, but appearance could far too easily be deceiving. And yet I could sense nothing out of the ordinary about her.