Jocelynn Drake - Wait for Dusk

“No, not pet. I gave you a greater position. You are my equal before the coven. My beloved and protected consort.” I released him then, giving him a little shove as I walked back over to the door and leaned against it. “And you come to me smelling of her.”

“She’s a helpless human trapped in a bad situation. We need to help her,” Danaus replied, avoiding the issue that it appeared as if he had already found my replacement. My stomach tightened and I clenched my teeth. I didn’t need this now. I was more concerned about taking care of the naturi threat in Budapest, killing Rowe, and avoiding being killed in the process.

Shoving both hands into my hair, I turned my back on him and stared at the door that led to the hallway of the hotel. I needed more time to look into this matter with the naturi and try to find out why a magic user was trying to kill me. Also, I was sure that Stefan would prefer if we did something about his missing assistant before I went stirring up more trouble.

“We need to wait, Danaus,” I said, forcing the words out in a calm, even tone as I turned back to face him. I was trying to be reasonable. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and help him after all the times he had helped me. Yet Sofia’s scent felt almost like a physical barrier between Danaus and me.

“And what if she doesn’t have time for us to wait?” he demanded.

I dropped my hands back to my sides with a heavy flop. “Has Veyron done anything to make her think that he plans to kill her sometime soon? I mean, that would be why we’d try to save her—because Veyron plans to kill her, and not because she’s grown bored or something?”

“She wants her freedom,” Danaus said firmly.

“Yeah, well, don’t we all,” I muttered, though I’m sure that he heard me. I felt trapped. I didn’t care about Sofia and her problems. I had enough of my own, and I wasn’t willing to risk my neck for every poor soul that crossed my path. I’d be dead in a matter of nights if I took it on myself to try to protect the world. But then again, that was what I was trying to do every time I took on the naturi.

Drawing in a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to find a center of calm in all the anger and frustration buzzing around inside of me. “Give me a few nights. Let me try to take care of Veyron, Rowe, and a few of the other problems in the city before I try to figure out what to do with Sofia. Maybe we’ll just get rid of Veyron and that will take care of it.”

“Will that actually work or will she just be swallowed up by another nightwalker once he’s gone?” Danaus demanded.

“What? Just say it finally! What do you want from me?” I demanded, losing my hold on my temper yet again.

“I want her to come to Savannah with us!” he shouted back.

“No! Absolutely not!” I knew if I saw Sofia right then, I’d pulled her hair out and pluck her eyes from her skull. I’d turned my back on Danaus for only a short time and the little tramp decided to poach something that I had just begun to consider was mine. “She’s not coming to Savannah!”

“You’re jealous,” Danaus accused.

“You’re damn right I’m jealous. There’s no way in hell she’s coming into my domain with you,” I snarled. “If you’re so desperate to free her, fine. Before we leave Budapest, we’ll get rid of Veyron, and she’ll be free. But from there, she’ll be on her own. I’m not going to be her personal protector. If I’m going to take up that role, then she will be my pet and I’ll keep her on a leash so tight she’ll long for her nights with Veyron.”

“I can’t do this any longer. It’s not working,” Danaus said, throwing his hands up in the air as he walked away from me.

It felt as if a vise were suddenly gripping my heart, threatening to crush it. I was losing Danaus before I’d even had a chance to truly enjoy his companionship. But then, I had no doubt that everyone would have said our would-be relationship didn’t have a prayer of working. I had wanted to try, though.

“You didn’t give us a chance,” I whispered. “I may be jealous of Sofia, but you make it sound like I have every reason to be. You can’t get over the fact that you just might be attracted to a nightwalker—the evil ones. So when a pretty human crosses your path and winks, you jump on her like a dog on a bone.”

“Don’t make this about us. It’s about freeing a helpless human from a powerful nightwalker. It’s about protecting humans from your kind. That’s what I do,” Danaus said, turning to glare at me. “I’m going to free her.”

“Then you have to choose between me and Sofia,” I replied, putting my hands on my hips. “The only time you will be able to successfully free her is during the day, when Veyron and all the other nightwalkers are asleep. That will leave me unprotected, and there is a very good chance that Veyron is going to send someone to kill me in the morning now that I have taken Budapest right out from under him. You save her, you’ll be killing me.”

“I can’t leave her.”

“She’s in no danger.”

“You don’t know that,” Danaus grumbled.

“No, I don’t, but I do know that I’m in greater danger than she is at this moment. Are you really going to choose her over me?”

“My job is to protect humans, not vampires,” Danaus replied. He grabbed his coat from where it lay on the chair and jerked it on. I barely had a chance to step out of the way before he pulled open the door and stalked out into the hall, slamming it shut behind him. It was still several hours before sunrise, plenty of time for him to plan an attack on Veyron’s home and steal Sofia away. He was going to start a war that I wasn’t willing to fight. Of course, that was assuming I would survive that long.

My stomach twisted into a tight knot and I descended slowly to my knees in front of the door leading out of the hotel room. He had left me. Danaus, the one creature I’d been able to depend on to protect me during the past several months, had left me to protect someone else. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I clenched my teeth and sucked in a sharp breath as I held the tears back, refusing to let them fall. I would not cry over Danaus.

We hadn’t had a real chance at making this work. He was a hunter and I was his prey. Did I really think that he could ever come to care for me? It was impossible. Danaus longed to be a real, normal human. It was understandable that he would be attracted to the thing he wanted more than his next breath. I represented everything he didn’t want to be, everything he didn’t want to be a part of. His enemy.

If Danaus wasn’t going to help me, then I had to find a way to help myself. I wasn’t about to curl up and die just because I could no longer rely on the hunter to protect my back when I was at my most vulnerable. Closing my eyes, I reached out with my mind, seeking the one person left in the area that I felt would prefer to see me rise the next night. Valerio instantly reacted to my mental touch. I could sense his immediate concern and unease. No words had been necessary. He knew that something terrible was wrong. But then, above everyone else, Valerio knew me best. Maybe even better than Jabari.

I didn’t even have a chance to regain my feet before he appeared in the hotel suite, still wrapped in his thick coat and scarf. He looked down at me for only a second before scanning the rest of the suite with his eyes and his powers to determine that we were truly alone.

“Did I disturb you in the middle of someone?” I asked as I pushed off the floor with one hand. I was too tired to even use my powers to rise to my feet. Valerio reached out and caught my free hand, helping me.

“No one is more important to me than you,” he said smoothly, causing one corner of my mouth to quirk at the pretty lie. “Where is the vampire hunter?”