Dayhunter Page 14

  The punch knocked him on his ass. I immediately backpedaled a few steps as he rolled back to his feet, sucking in a couple ragged breaths.

  “What are your orders?” I demanded. We circled each other, only a few feet of empty air separating us.

  “Kill you,” Nicolai evenly replied. The werewolf stepped forward in a blur, swinging his right fist at my stomach. I jumped backward, dodging the blow and landing balanced on the tips of my toes. He dipped down before I could land flatfooted again and swung one leg around. His foot and ankle connected with my toes, knocking me back.

  Instead of landing flat on my back, I caught myself on my fingertips, continuing the flip over. It wasn’t pretty, but I managed to land on one foot and a knee, ready to lunge at him.

  Nicolai backed off a couple steps when he realized his attempt to knock me on my back had failed. Fists raised, he waited for me to rise to my feet again.

  “Just kill me?” I continued. “What about Danaus? Or Tristan?” I needed to understand this game Jabari was playing. I knew the Ancient would send Nicolai after me, but what was his rationale for doing it? Did he want me to rid him of this pet? Or was Nicolai a greater threat than I was giving him credit for? My death here would put both Tristan and Danaus at great risk. And with the appearance of the naturi in the main hall, I was beginning to seriously wonder if Jabari truly needed me alive any longer. I knew my nights were numbered, but I now felt as if I had fewer of them than I had previously believed.

  “He named only you,” Nicolai stated. His heavy breathing and his fast heartbeat were the only sounds in the empty campo. No sound came from his footsteps as we started to circle each other again.

  “Alex?” I swung at him, but he dodged it. Unfortunately, I had overextended, positive that the blow would connect. Off-balance and moving too slow, I swallowed a curse when I felt Nicolai’s large hands wrap around my shoulders. White light exploded before my eyes when he slammed his head against mine. The pain was immediately followed by a second swelling of pain as his fist hit my chin, snapping my head around.

  Somehow, I remained standing, though I had yet to open my eyes. I didn’t need to see him. I could hear him. I could smell him. I could feel the heat pulsing off his massive frame. Gritting my teeth, I drilled my right fist into his side. The sound of at least two ribs breaking was unmistakable.

  “Just you,” he grunted.

  Taking a couple unsteady steps backward, I blinked my eyes a couple times to clear my vision. Good grief, that man had a freaking hard head! Nicolai stood a couple feet away, still upright, but one hand was now pressed against his wounded rib cage.

  I snorted softly. “I’m a lucky girl.”

  “Sorry.” The single word escaped him in a nearly breathless whisper, causing a frown to tug at the corners of my mouth. We were all trapped in this collection of islands one way or another.

  Nicolai came at me again, his talonlike nails aimed to remove more than one layer of flesh from my body. I didn’t try to dodge him this time. Grabbing his upper arms, I used his momentum to help me throw him away from me. Unfortunately, the lycan was smart enough to wrap his long fingers around my wrists and pull me to the ground with him.

  We landed in a heap with him beneath me. Both of us grunting, we slammed into the hard, stone-covered ground. Rolling several feet as we struggled for supremacy, our legs tangled in each other. When we finally settled in one spot, Nicolai was on top of me, his knees resting on either side of my hips as he struggled to keep my arms pinned on either side of my head.

  A little golden flash of light caught my eye, and my gaze drifted down to find a gold cross dangling from his neck on a thick gold chain. The little piece of metal had caught a sliver of moonlight and winked at me. It didn’t glow or heat up like so many of the movies liked to show. But I could feel it throbbing with power, beating against me as it fought to keep me back away from the werewolf. Nicolai’s faith was strong. Without uttering a word, I knew he believed very deeply that God and the heavenly host would keep him safe from me.

  A hiss escaped my clenched teeth and I pressed back into the cool, broken stone in an attempt to put some distance between me and the cross. Touching it would burn me, and since it was a spell-induced burn, I would never completely heal from it. And I preferred not to have a cross-shaped scar somewhere on my face.

  “Thought of everything, didn’t you?” I taunted. The words pushed past my lips in a harsh whisper since I couldn’t unclench my teeth. Nicolai remained silent, focused on keeping me pinned, but even that was faltering. He was strong, but I was still stronger. I managed to lift my arms a couple inches off the ground, beginning to push him off me. With one last groan, he relaxed the pressure he was using to hold me down for less than a breath before slamming my arms back down to the ground. The sound of bones breaking shattered the silence.

  I screamed, my back arching off the ground a little. He had brought my right forearm down on a rock, snapping the bones in half. My vision swam in the pain for a couple seconds. The thought of defeating him without killing him vanished. Instinctively, I brought my knees up between his legs. The surprise and pain was enough to finally push him off.

  Before he hit the ground, a circle of fire sprang up around him, stretching more than six feet into the air. Scrambling to my feet, I cradled my broken arm against my chest as I darted off to the darkest niches of the campo. One of the far corners held a type of two-walled arbor, thick with vines. The shadows were deep, affording me some cover.

  Mira!

  I flinched at Danaus’s sudden presence in my head. The touch was tentative and distant, making me think he was still leaning against the wall where I left him.

  Go away! I mentally snarled at him. I’m busy trying not to get killed.

  You’re hurt.

  Go away! I wasn’t surprised that he could tell I was injured, since the pain seemed to fill my entire frame. Yet I stiffened when I suddenly felt the small wave of power sweeping through me. Danaus and his warm touch were slowly moving over my body, searching for the injury. It’s my right arm. It’s broken. Even the thoughts sounded shaky and frightened in my head. Nightwalkers couldn’t do this. We could read one another’s thoughts and emotions, but we could not reach out and touch each other like this.

  I’m coming. The thought was firm and resolute in my head. I could feel him moving, drawing closer.

  No, it’s healing. Stay where you are. I—

  I quickly ended the thought when I saw Nicolai leap through the fire, his arms raised to protect his face. A nightwalker would never have taken such a chance. We caught fire far too easily. When he landed on his feet, I immediately extinguished the fire, plunging the square back into utter darkness. I knew that the fire would have destroyed the lycan’s night vision, and I had only a couple of seconds before he could pierce the gloom again.

  Grabbing a rock the size of my left fist, I darted across the square to his side in silence. My goal had been to hit him on the back of the head. If it worked for Danaus, it would work for Nicolai. But the werewolf sensed me at the last second, whether by a stir in the air or the sound of my clothes as I moved, I don’t know. He turned to face me and I ended up hitting him in the temple. He crumpled at my feet like a sack of wet noodles.

  A scrape on the concrete snapped my gaze to the edge of the square, and I raised my left hand with the rock, ready to throw it at the intruder. Danaus stood in the shadows, his arms raised in surrender, a smirk on his lips.

  “You’re a mess,” he murmured, earning a glare from me.

  “Have a nice nap?” I sneered, dropping the rock.

  The smirk dissolved from his lips, turning into a matching glare. I hurt too much to trade barbs with the hunter. There were more pressing concerns as the night continued to age.

  I knelt down beside Nicolai but didn’t touch him. His chest rose in deep, even breaths and I could hear the strong, steady rhythm of his heartbeat. He would recover. Blood leaked from his temple, but I was sure that would st
op soon enough. When I stood again, Danaus was on the other side of the unconscious lycan. “Check to make sure he’s still wearing his cross,” I said.

  Danaus furrowed his brows at me but knelt wordlessly and pulled the man’s shirt collar away from his throat with one finger to reveal a gold chain and cross against tan skin.

  “I don’t want someone else picking up the scent of his blood and making a snack of him,” I muttered as I turned and walked away. I once again cradled my arm against my stomach, the pain beginning to ease. The bone was mending, but the process was slower than healing a flesh wound.

  “Why did Jabari send him?” Danaus asked, following behind me.

  “I don’t know.”

  “But the naturi—”

  “I don’t know, Danaus. I don’t know what they’re planning, but I’m beginning to wonder if Jabari has something else in store for me,” I softly admitted. If I was needed to protect and make the seal that bound the naturi, it meant the Coven couldn’t have me killed. But after Nicolai’s attempt, it meant that either Jabari had finally made his replacement or the Coven no longer wanted to protect the seal. Or Jabari had plans for me that didn’t include the Coven or the naturi.

  Standing on the pavement beside the boat, I looked across the Lagoon toward the bright lights of San Marco. Welcome back to Venice, Mira. In this dying city, pain and horror skulked in every shadow and around each corner, all held beneath a veneer of elegant, Old World beauty and civilization.

  Danaus stood behind me and unexpectedly laid his hand on my right shoulder. My head darted over to look at the large hand as his warmth seeped through my cold flesh. At the same time, he dipped two fingers from his free hand into my front left pocket. I tried to jerk away from him in shock but was effectively trapped between his larger body and the open canal. My narrowed gaze snapped to his face. Danaus smirked again and dangled the key before my face.

  “You’re in no shape to drive,” he said, then stepped into the boat. Frowning, I said nothing as I hopped into the little speedboat and settled into one of the seats. My arm was mostly healed, but I didn’t care. I was feeling ragged and worn from the encounter.

  The engine roared to life as Danaus pulled us away from the island and back into the Lagoon, headed for Guidecca and our hotel. The sound of the wind and waves was relaxing, wiping the tension from my shoulders. I thought of Nicolai for a moment, wondering what it was that Jabari held over the werewolf.

  I shook my head, not caring that no one was around to see it, lost to my own thoughts. Jabari was playing a game. I just didn’t understand his goal. Mine was unmistakable. Protect the peace. And the only way to do that was to destroy the Coven’s bargain with the naturi. I just had to figure out how.

  TWELVE

  Any reprieve I thought I might have earned after nights of running and fighting to stay alive had been adequately crushed. Now I just wanted a few minutes of quiet in which to think and try to anticipate Jabari’s next move. A sigh knocked against the back of my teeth but never managed to escape as Danaus and I stepped into our suite at the Cipriani. Instead of being faced with the sweet, cuddly scene of Sadira and Tristan, the rooms were empty. I hadn’t left explicit orders for them to remain in the rooms, but I didn’t sense them out hunting in the streets when I scanned the hotel area before leaving Torcello.

  A heavy tension hung bloated and ugly in the air, pressing against my chest. Standing in the middle of the black and gray parlor, I struggled to keep from clenching my fists. The beautiful room with its elegant furniture and shiny marble floors was untouched—indicating that they walked out on their own.

  I started slowly, hesitant. My powers spread from my body in a circle, reaching outward until I had covered the main islands of Venice. There was no Tristan or Sadira. Reluctantly, I pushed out across the Lagoon to San Clemente, where I found Sadira in the Great Hall. She wasn’t alone.

  Her emotions were clear. She was calm, but sad. I still didn’t sense Tristan, but I knew he was there too. Someone was blocking my ability to sense him, and there was only one person who could do that: Tristan’s beloved maker, Sadira. A nightwalker could keep other nightwalkers from sensing him and his children as a type of defense mechanism. Only the older ones like Jabari could keep it up for nights on end. At best, Sadira could maintain the barrier for a couple of nights, but she didn’t need to hide him for long. She was only buying the others some time. And maybe so had Nicolai. Jabari might not have truly believed that the werewolf could kill me, but he knew that Nicolai could stall me for a time.

  “Can you go inside a church? A still functioning church?” I asked Danaus. My low voice crept through the tense silence that filled the suite. Standing next to the sofa, I leaned down so my right hand tightly gripped the corner of one of the dark end tables, causing my newly mended forearm to ache. Danaus stood behind my left shoulder near the double doors to the suite. I didn’t bother to try to hide my frustration and anger. What was the point? He could sense my emotions if he wanted to.

  “Yes,” he said. “What’s going on?” His heavy footsteps crossed the room to stop before his bag of weapons, which sat near the sofa. Placing the worn duffel bag on the coffee table, he unzipped it without looking up at me and started rummaging around for the one appropriate item that would destroy his enemy

  My lips parted but my voice couldn’t quite push past the lump in my throat. I licked my lips and tried again, forcing my fingers to loosen their death grip on the table because they were starting to throb and I didn’t want to shatter the wood. “There’s something I need to take care of.” The words came out flat and emotionless despite the turmoil in my chest. I had to go back to San Clemente.

  Looking over my shoulder at my dark companion, I found that his hard gaze never wavered from the flash of steel and leather as he dug through his bag of goodies. “Where’s Sadira and Tristan?”

  I ignored the question and stood erect again as I finally pried my fingers loose from the table. Silently, I removed the necklace and earrings I had been wearing, shoving them into my front pockets. They would only get in the way. “There’s a small church just a couple blocks south of here. Go there and stay inside until dawn,” I directed, staring straight ahead instead of at him.

  “I’m going with you.”

  I spun around to face Danaus, standing a few feet away now. His black brows were drawn together over his nose, and his jaw muscles hardened as he clenched his teeth. His fingers deftly attached his leather knife sheath over his belt as he prepared for the coming fight. He had made his decision to follow me into whatever battle I now faced. My own frown eased from my lips and something light swelled in my chest, pushing aside the anger and fear that had been weighing me down during the past few nights. He didn’t know what we faced or how bad our odds, but he was willing to follow me.

  Unfortunately, he could not come with me this time. “That’s not an option,” I said with a slight shake of my head. “Our business is getting rid of the naturi.” My voice had grown as cold and unyielding as the Russian tundra. I couldn’t let him accompany me; both for Tristan’s sake and my own. “This is nightwalker business. You’re not going. Go to a church. I don’t want to worry about someone coming after you while I’m gone.”

  He refused to be put off by my tone, and roughly grabbed my wrist when I tried to walk away from him. “What’s going on, Mira? First Nicolai, and now this. Where are Tristan and Sadira?”

  My gaze met his narrow blue eyes and for a moment I longed to sink into their cool depths. I wanted to forget about it all and go back to playing cat and mouse with him through the historical district of Savannah. I knew he would willingly walk in the main hall and protect me with his last breath.

  Of course, his protection of me had nothing to do with me per se, but with the protection of the human race. I was the key—the weapon that would beat back the naturi. For half a breath I wondered if he hated me all the more for it. A creature he perceived as completely evil, now the savior of mankind. A v
ampire hunter forced to protect his chosen prey.

  “Sadira has taken Tristan to the Coven,” I whispered.

  “Why?” His deep voice had also dropped to hushed tones, as if we were sharing secrets. But we had already done that tonight, and most of what we’d said shouted at the top of our lungs for all the heavens to hear.

  “Punishment,” I murmured, forcing the word past a clog in my throat. “I stole Tristan from her, so she must strike back at me.” My gaze wavered and darted across the room to stare out the windows that overlooked San Marco Piazza. The warm yellow light glowed in the square, beckoning the late night revelers.

  “Will they kill him?”

  “Yes, but not until I get there.” My voice hardened and my hands balled into fists as I stared blindly out the bank of windows. “She’ll want me to see it; to know that I failed to protect him.”

  Danaus’s thumb rubbed the inside of my wrist in a light caress, drawing my gaze back to his face. “Will they try to kill you?”

  A half smirk tweaked the right corner of my mouth, pushing aside the concern that had undoubtedly drifted across my features. “They can try, but I doubt it. It’s time for the Coven to bring me to heel. They will try to break me and remind me that I serve them.”

  “I can’t go,” Danaus whispered, releasing my wrist. His hand fell limp back at his side. He finally understood that I had to prove my strength. It was a test. If he walked in and guarded my back, it would be taken as a sign of weakness on my part. Any help he gave me would cause more damage than good.

  “No.” I walked toward the door, refusing to look back at my partner in crime. They were going to hurt me. They were going to make me wish I was dead, but they wouldn’t kill me. Tonight was just a bit of fun. If I somehow managed to survive the next few nights and stop Rowe’s plan to free the naturi, then it would be open season on my head.