Dayhunter (7 page)

The panic ebbed and I redirected my thoughts toward my primary concern as I felt the nightwalkers move away from the hotel. It was less than an hour from dawn, and they were seeking their own resting place. They assumed I wouldn’t be up to any trouble this close to sunrise. Furthermore, their human guardians wouldn’t be in place to keep an eye on Danaus for another hour or two. They would have to be sure their vampire masters were safely stowed for the day before leaving. It was a window of opportunity, albeit a very small one, and I wouldn’t have a second chance.

“Come with me,” I commanded, pointing at Danaus as I headed for the doors.

“You’re leaving?” Sadira gasped, horrified that I was heading outside when dawn was already beginning to lighten the sky.

I threw open the doors and stepped back to let Danaus precede me. “I have a question that needs answering before tomorrow’s meeting.”

“But the sun—”

“Don’t wait up,” I said, and laughed, following Danaus out of the room.

We jogged down the hall and through the hotel as silent as the wind. I might have been laughing, but I could feel the night struggling as it entered the final throes of death. No matter how hard I clenched my fist, the sand was slipping through my fingers. I was going to cut this one close, but I had to know. Rushing back outside, I hurried down to the dock, the rubber soles of my boots silent along the worn stone sidewalk. I untied one of the speedboats resting there, fighting the urge to glance up at the sky.

“Can you hotwire it?” I called as Danaus jumped onto the boat.

Wordlessly, he walked over to the wheel and knelt before it. I was stepping onto the boat when I heard the sound of breaking plastic as he ripped the panel off. He fiddled with the wires for a moment, causing the motor to sputter and cough. I was skilled with some mechanical items, but had yet to learn the fine art of hotwiring a vehicle. When I needed to go somewhere, I usually hijacked a driver as well, saving myself the trouble. Unfortunately, most people were still asleep at this hour and I didn’t want to try to track down a private taxi driver.

An impatient remark nearly leapt from my tongue before the motor suddenly roared to life. Danaus rose to his feet and shifted the boat into reverse. As he dropped it into drive, I pointed toward the Lagoon and he launched us into the darkness, moving me away from the safety of a resting place for the daylight hours.

“Where are we going?” he asked after a couple minutes. We had left the Guidecca Canal and entered the Lagoon. The dark waters opened around us, the gentle waves rising and falling in a hypnotic dance. Lights danced in all directions, cold and distant, as if taunting me with promises of protection from the sun that was rising closer to the horizon. The immediate area was a thick, inky blackness, a swamp of night created by the waters—a sanctuary that was chosen only as a last resort.

“Head for that island, San Clemente,” I said, pointing toward a swath of land another ten minutes away. A large hotel rose up out of the darkness, a handful of its windows glowing against the slate-gray sky. A neat row of lamps lined the sidewalks, wrapping around the island. “That’s where the Coven resides most of the year. It started as a monastery but was converted into a hotel in the past century. There are other buildings on the island, including the main hall for the court.”

“Why are we going there now?” Danaus asked, turning the boat and putting on more speed. His eyes jumped up to the sky for a second, possibly judging the time left until the sun officially rose.

“We’re not,” I replied, forcing back a smile. “Turn off the engine.”

His head jerked toward me, his brow furrowed in confusion, but he also wordlessly slowed the boat to a stop before killing the engine.

Standing next to him, I spread my legs as wave after wave rocked the small craft, lapping at its sides. “I want you to scan the area for naturi.”

“Now?” he demanded in surprise. His eyes darted again to the sky, which was growing lighter by the minute.

I gripped the seat in front of me, my nails biting into the plastic. “Yes, now. Just do it. We don’t have time for a debate.”

With a frown, Danaus stared out at the Lagoon. His powers surged out from his body, ripping through me as if made of nothing more than smoke. I flinched but didn’t move. Its warmth wrapped around me in a snug cocoon, holding me tightly, but it lasted only a few seconds before it dissipated.

“I can’t search all of the city,” he said at last. “That island is cloaked in some kind of magic. Everywhere else is clear, but I can’t verify the island.”

“I suspected as much,” I murmured. I could sense the creatures through the barrier. Even without using much of my powers, I could tell there were more than two dozen nightwalkers on San Clemente, not to mention the nearly three hundred humans. However, I couldn’t sense the naturi. No nightwalker could, as far as I knew.

But I could with help from Danaus. I had been able to sense them briefly when we combined our powers at the Themis Compound. This was stupid and extremely dangerous, but I had to know. I had to know what we were walking into tomorrow.

“I need your help,” I slowly said in a low voice that barely reached above the sound of the breaking waves. “I have to know if there is a member of the naturi on that island. When we were linked in England, I could sense the naturi. We have to do that again. I’m the only one who can push through their protective barrier.”

Danaus nodded and held out his hand to me. Hesitantly, I lifted my hand, but I still didn’t take his.

“We can’t kill anyone on the island. We can’t even try. Don’t think it, Danaus, or I swear I will destroy us both,” I warned. “Let’s just take it slow.”

It took a great deal of effort to force myself to take his hand. The pain for our last joining was still fresh in my mind, and while I had recovered, I was in no rush to experience it again.

Lucky for me, it was different this time. The power didn’t run screaming into my body, but slowly flowed in like a small woodland stream. It trickled up my arm and into my chest. The warmth seeped into my bones, filling my body. But then it changed. The power expanded in my bones until I thought they would splinter and break.

“Too much,” I whimpered, struggling to keep to my feet. I tightened my grip on the chair before me but could no longer feel it. There was only Danaus’s hand and the steadily increasing pain.

“I can’t slow it any more. Focus,” he said. His voice sounded distant, as if he were on the other side of the Lagoon. The sound of the water hitting the side of the boat had faded.

Focus on the island.

This time the words came as a command in my head. Thoughts about the pain starting to rip through my limbs ebbed and my mind focused on the island that bobbed ahead of us. It took only a moment, but I found what I was looking for. A member of the naturi lay sleeping on the island. By the size, I was willing to guess that it was probably a female, maybe of the light or wind clan. I made one quick scan of the buildings but knew I wouldn’t find another. It didn’t matter. One was enough for me.

“Stop,” I said in a hoarse voice, struggling to release his hand.

I felt Danaus hesitate, his hand still tightly gripping mine. His thoughts were a jumble, but I understood the feeling. Frustration. One order from him and I would torch every nightwalker on the island. He wouldn’t get another opportunity like this one.

“Stop!” I cried, my voice cracking. I jerked my hand but couldn’t break Danaus’s grip. I was fighting the power burning in my body, trying to halt its progress as it raged through me.

Angrily, Danaus released my hand and I dropped to my knees. He was breathing heavily, leaning on the steering wheel, but he looked to be in better shape than during our first attempt at this little trick.

My bones ached and my muscles burned and throbbed with a pain that I was becoming well acquainted with. Yet it wasn’t as bad as earlier in the evening. I’d recover soon enough.

“You would have been tempted too,” he breathlessly said, struggling to straighten.

“But I wouldn’t do it,” I croaked, leaning against one of the seats in the boat. “We made a bargain.” I put my head down on the seat and closed my eyes, listening to the sound of the water hitting the side of the boat. “Don’t worry. You’ll get another shot at them, I promise.”

Something had died inside of me, leaving a small, heavy corpse curled up in the pit of my stomach. I never had much respect for the Coven, but I’d always believed their ultimate goal was to protect my kind. I believed they would protect us all.

Countless centuries ago the Coven had been created by Our Liege to help establish some kind of control over the growing number of nightwalkers that were filling the earth; to establish order in the chaos. Four ancient vampires were handpicked by Our Liege to hold court and pass judgment when Our Liege chose to be absent. During the centuries, Elders were killed in power struggles and evil schemes, but the feel of the court never changed. It was a place of horrors and dark fantasies. The Coven was about power and control.

But in the end I also believed it was about the protection of our kind. The Coven was created to protect all nightwalkers as much as it was to protect humans. The naturi had slaughtered nightwalkers through history like animals. For nearly countless ages they hunted down and destroyed thousands of humans and vampires, believing both races to be a pestilence on the earth. Nightwalkers had sealed the naturi from this world, and we have protected that seal. Why would the Coven suddenly turn its back on that history?

Danaus stared down at me, a look of surprise filling his blue eyes. “Let’s get out of here,” I whispered. “I’m running out of time.”

With a nod, he started the speedboat again and turned us back toward Cipriani. I pulled myself up into the seat and stared up at the pale gray sky. Dawn was close. The night was drawing in its last gasping breaths, its weight pressing down on me as it if were my job to support its lifeless frame.

“There’s a very specific reason why we chose Venice for the seat of the Coven,” I slowly began. “There are no naturi here. There never have been. Members of the water clan won’t even lurk in the canals. They call it the Dead City. I’m not sure why. I think one of their gods supposedly died here. They’ve never set foot in the city.”

“Until now,” Danaus interjected.

“Not only is a naturi deep in nightwalker territory, but it had to have been invited. All magically inclined creatures have to be invited onto the island.”

“How do you know it’s not a prisoner?”

“Because it wasn’t afraid or in pain,” I said. My bitterness left a nasty taste in the back of my throat. I didn’t know how I was sure of that fact. Something in me just knew it. When I sensed other creatures, I could get an emotional imprint. Something in me said I would have known if that naturi had been tortured or afraid for her life.

I’d suspected that my kind had been betrayed somehow. During my travels the past few days, the naturi remained one step ahead of us, always knowing exactly where to find me. The only way they could have managed such a feat was if someone were informing them. I’d suspected it, but I didn’t believe I would actually be proven correct.

Silence settled back between us as we entered Guidecca Canal and drew close to the hotel. The area was still empty of nightwalkers, and most humans nearby were sleeping. The only ones who were awake were members of the hotel staff—not that they couldn’t be servants of the Coven as well. I wasn’t worried. The Elders knew I had been out in the Lagoon, but they couldn’t know why.

By the time Danaus was tying up the boat, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I climbed onto the dock, lacking my usual grace. I was hanging onto consciousness by a thread. My body was sore, fighting every movement. Danaus tried to pick me up, but I growled at him, lurching away from his touch. I had enough strength left to drag myself into the hotel.

“Promise me you won’t go near San Clemente during the day,” I mumbled as I entered the elevator. I leaned heavily against the wall, fighting to keep my eyes open. “They’ll know. You’ll put us all in danger. Just wait until sunset.”

“But I—”

“Just promise,” I snapped. “We’re in their domain. We have to play by their rules.”

“I promise,” he grudgingly said, obviously less than thrilled with my request.

“Wait. Wait for me. We’ll get them,” I whispered.

The elevator doors slid open with a soft hiss and I lurched forward, hurrying into the suite. The sun was nearly up. I wasn’t going to be awake much longer, and if I wasn’t hidden, I’d be fried to a crisp. Throwing open the door to the master bedroom, I stumbled inside and slammed the door shut behind me. I didn’t bother to lock it. If Danaus or someone else wanted in while we slept, they would find a way in. The room was pitch-black, as the heavy curtains had been pulled across the windows. Sadira and Tristan lay stretched out on the bed, his arms wrapped around her. I tripped across the room and slid onto the king-size bed next to Tristan. Exhausted, I was drifting off to sleep when I felt Tristan roll over and wrap his arms around my waist. He snuggled close, his long body curving against mine. And then there was nothing.

FIVE

T
he fog lifted from my thoughts the next night and I returned to consciousness to find Tristan stretched out beside me on the bed. He was leaning on his elbow, his brown hair hanging down around his eyes as he watched me. A faint smile played on his pale pink lips, but his blue eyes were worried. He was afraid, and for good reason. We had survived the day but still had to face the Elders.

Tristan lifted his hand to touch my cheek, but I jerked away from his fingertips and frowned. “I thought you might enjoy some company,” he said gently. His open hand remained hovering in the air near my cheek, waiting for my permission to resume its descent. For a second I honestly wished I could accept his proposition. The curtains were still drawn and the room was quiet as a marble mausoleum in February. But a few stolen moments of bliss in his arms wouldn’t chase away our fears regarding the Coven.