Jocelynn Drake - Wait for Dusk

I looked down at his chest, avoiding his question with one of my own. “Can I stay with you? I am assuming that you’re flitting back and forth from Vienna each night.”

“Of course you can spend your day with me.” Valerio reached up and smoothed some hair away from the side of my face. He laid his hand under my chin and forced me to look up at him. “What has happened? Where is Danaus?”

I stepped away from Valerio and forced my shoulders to straighten as I took a couple steps over to one of the chairs in the living area. “He left.” Those two words sounded indifferent, but something inside of me fractured, leaving shards digging into my soul.

“Why?”

“He wants to free Sofia.”

Valerio’s footsteps were muffled on the thick carpet as he approached me. He laid a hand against my lower back as he came to stand beside me. “And you told him no.” I remained silent, staring blindly at the wall opposite me. “You did the right thing. Sofia is just a pet, and you can’t go interfering where it won’t benefit you.”

“He’s convinced that she wants her freedom and he is determined to help her.”

He slid his fingers up my spine in a reassuring caress. “She made her choice. If she wanted her freedom so badly, she should never have agreed to give her life over to Veyron.”

“Danaus doesn’t see it that way. She’s human and wants out. He has to protect her from us.”

Valerio reached around and gently grabbed both of my shoulders so he could turn me to face him. “Mira, dearest.” I tried to pull out of his grasp, but he refused to release me. “He’s a hunter. He’s human. Not one of us. He doesn’t understand our world, he can’t. A blind man could have seen what was happening between you two, and I hate to tell you that it just won’t work.”

I knew I wanted the impossible, and I didn’t need to hear how wrong I had been from Valerio. It was like twisting the knife in my heart a little more so that I would finally learn my lesson not to care for anyone. Others in my life had died because of their association with me. Danaus, on the other hand, had chosen to walk away from me. For a moment I couldn’t decide what was worse.

“He left. I think he went to free Sofia during the day,” I whispered, resting my forehead against Valerio’s shoulder.

“Then you stay with me. We’ll deal with the repercussions tomorrow evening,” he said. I didn’t need to tell him that Danaus had chosen to protect the human over me, or that Veyron would undoubtedly send men to kill me during the day. I didn’t need to actually say the words. Valerio knew and he was willing to take me in.

“Don’t tell Stefan,” I said, wrapping one arm around his waist.

“I won’t.” He brushed a gentle kiss across my temple. “But you have to remember that we’ve all had troubles with a human every once in a while during our long lifetimes. I’m sure Stefan has had his fair share of problems.”

“Yes, but if the others find out that there has been a . . . a falling out between Danaus and me, they may take that as a sign to start hunting him.”

Valerio pulled back so he could look me in the face. “You’re still protecting him?”

Leaning back into Valerio, I nodded. I had pulled Danaus into these dark waters, and I wasn’t about to leave him to the sharks. We might not see eye-to-eye on some matters, but that did not mean I was willing to turn my back on him. I just couldn’t. I still needed him.

When we disappeared from my hotel room, I naturally assumed that I would be seeing the richly decorated rooms of Valerio’s Vienna home when we reappeared. Instead I found myself wrapped in Valerio’s arms outside the Nyugati train station in Pest. Pushing against him, I moved out of his embrace as I scanned the region. I could feel Valerio’s powers blanketing us, so no one saw us suddenly pop into existence in this part of town beyond the handful of nightwalkers I could sense in the immediate area.

I shoved a heavy lock of hair out of my face and paced away from my companion. “What are we doing here? I thought we were going back to your place.”

“The night is still so young, Mira.” Valerio reached for me again, but I dodged his grasp as I walked away from the noise of the train station. Despite the late hour, a heavy crowd of people lingered in the area nearby, along with a mix of nightwalkers. My heels crunched in the dirty grit of the street and I found myself tightening my arms on my chest as the wind picked up.

“What do you have in mind?”

“You just became the keeper of Budapest,” he said, throwing his arms out wide. “Don’t you think you should celebrate? Maybe spend a little time with your people?”

“Knock some heads around and instill some fear,” suggested Stefan as he stepped out of the shadows nearby, joining us.

I frowned and shook my head as an uneasy feeling sank into the pit of my stomach. I had lost Danaus, and now Valerio and Stefan were drawing me deeper into their own plans. I didn’t like this at all. “So how long have you two been planning this little party for me?” I asked, forcing a smile onto my lips.

“Since you announced that you were the new keeper,” Stefan said, matching my smile.

“It is tradition, Mira,” Valerio interjected quickly. “Anytime there is a change in leadership, it’s customary for the new leader to go out and be seen among her people.”

What Valerio and Stefan were truly saying was that it was customary for the new keeper of a domain to go out and sacrifice a few nightwalkers as a way of officially kicking off their reign—washing it in blood. They weren’t lying, no matter how much I wished at the moment that they were. I had started my own reign of Savannah in a tide of blood. While our numbers had been small at the time, more than half of the nightwalkers in Savannah and the surrounding regions died when I declared that I was the new keeper of the area.

Unfortunately, after last night’s bloodbath and my fight with Danaus, I found myself no longer wishing to wash the world in the blood of those around me. I wanted to slip into a dark quiet corner and let the world forget about me. I wanted to escape the notice of the naturi, and Nick, and the coven. But standing there in the cold with Valerio and Stefan, I knew I wasn’t going to get that. I was a powerful nightwalker, a coven Elder who had just claimed one of the oldest cities in Central Europe as her domain. It was expected of me to make an appearance and shed some blood.

I swallowed a heavy sigh as I straightened my shoulders and turned my attention to Valerio, who had been watching me far too closely. After my falling out with Danaus, he knew that I was feeling more than a little weak and vulnerable. He was trying to cheer me up the only way he knew how—with violence and chaos.

“So what place have you chosen for me to make my appearance? I would prefer for it to have a large impact on the nightwalker population, since we shall be dealing with the shifters tomorrow night,” I announced, trying to keep my voice sounding bland and even a little bored.

Valerio’s smile widened. He could see right through me, but at least he knew that I was willing to go along with his little game. “You’re going to love this place. From what I had been able to tell, it’s popular with both the tourists and the locals. It’s open late and draws a huge bloodsucker crowd. It’s the perfect place for us. It’s called Bahnhof and it’s just behind the train station.”

I shrugged my shoulders, shoved my hands into the pockets of my slacks and followed both Stefan and Valerio through the street. We carefully wove our way through the crowd and used a little bit of mind manipulation to get through the front door ahead of the line of people waiting to enter the bar. I paused at the entrance, some of the tension easing from my shoulders at the pounding music. From floor to ceiling the place was decorated in old railroad memorabilia, which only seemed fitting since the place was right next to Nuygati train station.