Jocelynn Drake - Wait for Dusk

“Come in,” I said, waving for her to enter the hotel room as I stepped out of the way.

The young woman kept her head down as she entered the dimly lit suite. She came to an abrupt halt when she saw Valerio standing before the seat he had been in just moments ago. Her hands remained twisted before her thin body as if she couldn’t relax enough to allow them to hang limp at her sides.

“This is Valerio,” I introduced, motioning toward the nightwalker. “And the dashing gentleman behind you is my consort Danaus.”

Sofia scooted farther in the room, turning so she was facing the three of us. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” she said, her gaze darting about the room. I knew she was looking for Stefan. Odelia would have informed Veyron of my presence along with the presence of my companions. As if he knew that he was needed, Stefan appeared in the room, standing just behind Sofia. It was all I could do to smother the smile that was trying to rise on my lips. Danaus gave Stefan’s presence away when his eyes shifted from Sofia to the nightwalker standing behind her.

“Oh God!” she cried in her soft voice as she turned to find him there. She jumped away from him and covered her mouth with both of her hands.

“And this would be Stefan,” I said, finishing the introductions with a little more glee than I should have felt at scaring a human. Danaus glared at me, but I shrugged it off. It was just a bit of harmless fun, and any report she brought back to Veyron would make the nightwalker pause in his dealings with us. Regardless of what Danaus thought, there was a method to our madness.

“I am assuming that Odelia told Veyron of our presence in Budapest,” I began, drawing Sofia’s attention back to me.

The young woman dropped her hands back to her waist, where she continued to twist her fingers together, and turned to face me. “Yes, Odelia stopped by last night and told Veyron that you had come to look into our naturi problem.”

“You know about the naturi?” Danaus interjected when she would have continued.

“Yes, of course,” she said softly, flashing the hunter a weak smile before turning her attention back to me. “Veyron would like to welcome you into his house and to Budapest properly. Would you please appear at his home tonight?”

“We would be happy to meet with Veyron tonight,” I said, resisting the urge to frown at Danaus. “We have several matters we would like to discuss with him.” The hunter apparently hadn’t realized that Sofia was Veyron’s pet, and this didn’t bode well for the rest of the evening. I was beginning to wonder about the wisdom of bringing him along, but if I told him that he couldn’t go, I knew it would cause even greater problems. I had taken him into the heart of the coven, for god sakes. A late night meeting with a powerful nightwalker shouldn’t be a problem for us, but I knew it would be.

“Excellent! Veyron will be quite pleased that you’re coming,” she said, seeming to relax a bit for the first time. Reaching inside the left sleeve of her shirt, she pulled out a folded piece of paper and moved to hand it to me. I took a step back, while Stefan stepped forward and intercepted it. It was all done smoothly, like a dance we had practiced over the long years of our association, but in truth we had never done such a thing before. However, it was the practice of the Elders not to receive anything directly from an underling if other nightwalkers were about to act as our assistants. Stefan knew the drill, and I was proud of the fact that I hadn’t actually reached for the paper. The tradition was a mix of protection and elitism. By touching the paper she tried to hand me, I was putting myself at risk of any spell that might have been attached to it. In addition, an Elder never lowered him- or herself to accepting something from any lowly creature if could be helped.

“It—It’s the address and directions to Veyron’s home,” she stammered, her eyes darting from Stefan to me.

Mira, Danaus said in a warning growl.

She’s in no danger, I replied in my most placating tone. His weakness for humans was going to be our undoing in the end; I knew it.

“Odelia said that you are an Elder on the nightwalker coven,” Sofia said in a low voice, but it came out sounding like more of a question.

“Yes, I’m an Elder.”

“And the Fire Starter?”

“Yes,” I hissed, smiling wide enough to expose my fangs. Whatever safety she felt by living under the protection of Veyron’s name slipped away as she came to realize she was in a room surrounded by powerful nightwalkers and a human that I called my consort. If I had come to town with the explicit desire to anger and destroy Veyron, then my first stop would be through Sofia, and the two nightwalkers that were making their way up to the suite would never be able to save her. If Veyron treasured her so much, he never should have sent her. But then, she was in no real danger. I didn’t mind raising the heart rate of a human every now and then, but if I was angry with a specific nightwalker, I usually took my temper out on that nightwalker, not his underlings.

“If there is nothing else, you may return to Veyron and tell him that we will be appearing at his home later this evening.” I extended my hand toward Stefan, who laid the piece of paper in my palm.

“Yes, of course,” Sofia said quickly with a bob of her head before she scurried back to the door. Everyone remained silent as Danaus opened the door and closed it again then secured the lock.

I glanced down at the piece of paper, noting the clean, elegant handwriting. It was obvious that a woman had written down the address and some brief directions to the place that lay somewhere in the Castle District. With a frown, I handed it over to Valerio, who also examined the address.

“Is this truly his place or is it a trap?” I asked, shoving my hands into the pockets of my black dress slacks. I hadn’t been in the mood for my typical leather pants and confining top, but settled for a pair of cotton slacks and a mint green turtleneck. It was far from intimidating, but as Sofia proved, I could be intimidating even without my leather and knives.

“It is the address for his home, but I think it is also a trap,” Valerio said. Folding up the piece of paper, he handed back to me and I shoved it in my pocket.

“Find anything of interest last night?” Stefan inquired.

“He’s not the keeper,” Valerio stated with a heavy sigh. “No one uses that term. However, he is one of the oldest nightwalkers in the region, if not the oldest. His name is frequently connected with Odelia’s when it comes to who is making the edicts in the city.”

“Is there any indication that Veyron and Odelia may be fighting for control?” I asked.

“None. There has been no indication that they are anything but in total harmony at all times.”

I shook my head and walked a couple feet away from where Valerio sat in his chair and then paced back. The only thing I could come up with is that Veyron and Odelia were actually lovers and were sharing the domain, but that situation was doomed to fail at some point. Nightwalkers typically didn’t play well with other nightwalkers, particularly when emotions and shared power were involved. Hurt feelings and wounded egos did not mend so easily. “Lovers?”

“Possibly,” Valerio said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Just so long as they are both permitted to have other affairs as well. Sharing the domain, you think?”

“They have to be,” Stefan interjected before I could speak.

“It’s rare, but it has been done before.”

“If we’re here to take out both of them,” Danaus said in a low, dark voice, drawing all eyes to where he leaned against the doorway leading into the suite, “it will ultimately leave a power vacuum since there are no old nightwalkers in the area. That’s dangerous.”