Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) Page 19

  “Then why?”

  She dialed her smile back as she stared off into space and I had a feeling that I was getting a rare glimpse of the real person underneath all the boisterous noise and bluster. “Nightwalkers tend to treat each other poorly because we specialize in hurting and using others. I don’t feel the need to ... treat you poorly... because you looked about as dangerous as a lost, wet kitten.” She paused and sighed softly. “You also remind me of Celina.”

  “A friend?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Human?”

  “Yeah,” she breathed, all laughter draining from her face. I didn’t want to know what happened to Celina. We all had a past and too often those memories were better left buried.

  “But back to your earlier question,” she said sharply, giving her head a hard shake. “I didn’t read your mind, but I can read your emotions. You’re dwelling on your problems with the Coven, but that’s not going to help you. You can barely feed yourself. You’ve got to focus on learning how to be a good nightwalker before you can deal with something like the Coven.”

  “True,” I conceded on a sigh.

  “Besides, do you even know what you’re going to do about the Coven yet?” I shook my head and she laughed. “You’ve got time to figure that out. Who says you have to go back to those sadistic asshats anyway?”

  I laughed, leaning into Daphne as we walked closer to where humans were finding interesting ways to stay warm. I liked her way of thinking about my problem. There was no reason to dwell on the Coven when I couldn’t even take care of myself. One thing at a time and for now, I was taking care of myself first.

  Chapter 15

  I spent two weeks in Poland with Daphne and the others, the time passing in the blink of an eye. In fact, much of life seemed to lose its urgency now that I was a nightwalker. After rising each night and feeding as soon as I could, there was nothing left before me but the vast stretch of time.

  Most nights I would wander around the city with Daphne or sometimes even Mahek was at my side. Daphne took the time to teach me how to read minds, wipe memories, and just generally be a better nightwalker, so I didn’t get myself killed or draw attention to myself. Mahek ... wasn’t so interested in teaching me anything. She spent a lot of time watching me, as if she were expecting me to do something amazing. I found out later from Daphne that she was confused because she couldn’t read my mind. Apparently Mahek was expecting me so have some other super power. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to disappoint her. No, super power. I just had a damaged brain than even being raised from the dead couldn’t fix.

  Sitting on the edge of the four-story building, I stared down at the people as they hurried about their tasks. People streamed in and out of the nearby bars, heedless of the fact that nightwalkers were lurking so close. Poland felt different than Venice. In the Italian city, people had rushed through their day so they could be safely in their homes when the sun set. I’d seen that in most cities in the United States as well. But in Poland ... it was like they didn’t care. Or rather, they just didn’t think there were any nightwalkers around to disturb them. For the most part, they were right. I stretched out my own meager powers, reaching as far as I could ... and I could sense so very few of us. It was lonely.

  Not that I really wanted to be around other nightwalkers. I had little doubt that I’d probably get myself killed in a matter of minutes if I found myself confronted with someone less understanding than Daphne and Ignacio. But despite my best efforts to put him from my mind, I longed for Stefan. I wanted to hold him again and to feel his strong arms around me. I wanted to tell him that I was safe and that together we would find the person who had framed mer. I wanted answers for why my life had taken such a strange and unexpected turn, but I wanted to find those answers with Stefan.

  And I liked to think that he wanted to find me as well. Each night as I settled down in my little daytime hiding spot, I could hear his voice echoing faintly through my head. He was calling for me. Some nights his voice was angry and impatient, but others, it was soft and worried; almost as if he were pleading for me to still be alive and safe. I couldn’t answer him. My only choice was to leave Poland and return to Venice. Back into the lion’s den.

  With a shake of my head, I pushed back to my feet and stepped away from the ledge. Two weeks in Jedrzejow, and I knew how to find food and wipe a victim’s memory of the event. I could cloak myself from the view of humans and I was even moving a little more quietly, though still not up to Daphne’s impressive standards. I’d learned all that and I still didn’t know what the hell I was going to do next. Did I risk going back to Venice? I had promised to discover the poor woman’s killer and I knew that Stefan would help me. But if I suddenly returned, did that mean that Stefan would be in danger again? Or myself?

  And what if I didn’t go back to Venice; what did I do my life now? It’s not like I could step right back into my old life. The government was still trying to figure out how to treat nightwalkers. They weren’t exactly ruled as animals, but prosecution of people attacking nightwalkers was spotty at best. Half the people wanted them ruled humans just for the chance of taxing the shit out of them. The other half wanted to sell licenses to hunt them down like deer.

  I sighed, glancing back at the busy street below me. The truth was that I only thought of going back to Stefan. It was the only thing that felt right in my heart. My first thought every night was to decide if I would stay in Poland or return to Italy. But fear won out every night. I was too weak, too inexperienced, and I didn’t have a plan. I was scared out of my mind. I didn’t survive being murdered to face death a second and final time — and that’s exactly what I’d be doing if I went back to Venice.

  My internal grumbles were broken when I felt a nightwalker moving through the crowd, slowly approaching where I was. I was a little surprised that the nightwalker had gotten so close and escaped my notice until now. Edging back toward the ledge, I smirked to myself when I spotted Ignacio sliding easily through the few people on the sidewalk as he walked toward my building. I didn’t know how old he was; certainly not as old as Stefan or even Mira, but there was a definite smoothness to his movement and he was much better at cloaking himself from my detection.

  When he soundlessly entered the building I was standing on, I sat down on the cold rooftop and leaned my back against the ledge. Ignacio had spoken to me very little during the past two weeks and I was just fine with that. But that didn’t mean that I hadn’t been anticipating this conversation.

  Ignacio pushed open the door to the roof and paused briefly, searching the shadows for me. When he finally spotted me, he carefully closed the door behind him, making sure that it didn’t bang.

  “Finally come to tell me to get out of town?” I said, forcing a broad smile.

  His shoulders slumped for a second with some emotion that I didn’t quite catch before he straightened and closed the distance between us with a few long strides. “Yes.”

  I lifted my hands to my sides. “Ahhh... we knew it couldn’t last.” The joke fell a little flat as a sharp shaft of fear twisted in my stomach. Time to be on my own. I was doing fine in Jedrzejow, but I also had Daphne here as a safety net in case I got myself into some serious trouble. But I guess all good little nightwalkers had to leave the nest eventually so they could live their own lives.

  “It’s not for the reason you think,” he said in a low voice.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Ignacio walked over and sat on the ledge beside me. He folded his large, strong hands before him. Bowing his head, his long black hair hung down to shield his face so that I could no longer clearly see his expression. I would have expected him to be relieved that I was leaving Jedrzejow, no longer endangering his little clan of nightwalkers, but there was something weary in the slump of his shoulders.

  “I have a friend in Budapest who will occasionally contact me when he sees something of interest,” Ignacio slowly explained, keeping his eyes lock
ed on his hands. “He said the Hunter recently pass through the city. He stayed two nights and then he left, heading north.”

  Twisting around so that I could look up at Ignacio at ease, I frowned at him blank expression. “I don’t understand. Who’s the Hunter?”

  “Mira’s companion. I’m sure you met him while you were in Venice; when you were in her care.”

  “Danaus? Yeah, I met him. He’s called the Hunter?”

  “Among many other less charitable names,” Ignacio added with a snort. “He spent centuries hunting nightwalkers and I’m not convinced that he’s given up that hobby now that he’s with the Fire Starter.” Ignacio lifted his head enough so that he could look me in the eyes. Apparently he didn’t like what he saw because he softly swore under his breath. “I think that he’s looking for you.”

  “Oh,” I breathed, twisting back to lean heavily against the ledge. It wasn’t the most reassuring news I’d ever received. If he and Mira were on the level when they’d taken me in as a pet, then Danaus looking for me was a good thing. It was in my best interest to keep my ass in one place and wait for him to find me.

  But if he and Mira hadn’t been on the level…. If there had been an ounce of truth to what Vanko had told me after I’d been kidnapped, then I didn’t want to be anywhere near Danaus. He was likely looking for me to finish what I had been started by Vanko. And considering that the man had lived more than a thousand years, I thought it was a pretty safe bet that he was damn good at hunting down and killing nightwalkers. God knew that I wasn’t going to be much of a challenge. Sure, Daphne’s training was helpful, but I still wasn’t much more threatening than a kitten on cat nip.

  “Fuck,” I snarled, shoving to my feet. I paced away from Ignacio and then sharply turned back. “Is this what it means to be a nightwalker? To constantly be afraid? If it’s not the Coven then it’s the Hunter or stronger, older nightwalkers. It’s humans who would rather see me fried in the sun than donate a measly pint of blood.”

  “No, but you’ve got to survive a couple centuries before the fear finally goes away.”

  “No. There’s got to be another way,” I snapped, pacing toward the other side of the roof.

  “You find a strong protector you can trust.” He had spoken softly, but I could easily pick up his words in the silence.

  “Yeah… well, I thought I had one but then things went to shit fast,” I muttered to myself. I gave my head a hard shake, trying to force myself out of my increasingly melancholy mood. “I have to leave here, but I don’t want to walk straight into Danaus’s grasp. I need to know what’s going on. I need to talk to Stefan.”

  “I don’t think he’s going to be the answer you’re looking for,” Ignacio said with a sadness that surprised me.

  I gave him a smile and relaxed a little. I appreciated his concern. “Stefan won’t hurt me.”

  “You’re assuming that he will still care for you when he sees you again.”

  “Why wouldn’t he? He’s looking for me, Ignacio. I hear him every morning. He’s calling to me.”

  Ignacio looked surprised for a blink of an eye but it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. “He’s looking for the woman who was kidnapped from Venice; the woman he met just a few short weeks ago.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “You’re not her.”

  “Of course I am.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re a nightwalker now.”

  “Who the fuck cares?”

  “He will.”

  “You don’t know Stefan. He might be a little surprised when he first sees me, but he won’t care,” I said firmly, but even as I said the words, a little tremor of doubt ran through me. Stefan had called me unique and I was afraid that the uniqueness that he appreciated was tied to my mortality. And that was gone now forever.

  “I know Stefan,” Ignacio admitted grimly.

  “Really? But—”

  “I’ve been before the Coven. He didn’t have a seat on the Coven at the time, but he was a fixture of the court for many years. I know Stefan and I know others like him. He may have found you interesting as a human, but those nights are over now that you’re a nightwalker. As soon as he sees you, he’ll realize you’re nothing now.”

  “No, I’m not! I’m young but I’ll get better at being a nightwalker. I—”

  “You’re chum, Erin!” he snarled, shoving to his feet. He crossed the distance between us in a blink and roughly gripped my shoulders in both his hands. “You’re chum. It’s a term for poorly made, weak nightwalkers. Chum are made quickly in one night and they’re meant for little more than amusement for the First Bloods. Chum aren’t meant to live centuries but a few decades at best and then broken. Tossed aside and eventually killed.”

  I shook my head, trying to organize my scattered thoughts. “First Bloods? Is that what Stefan is?”

  “Yes. They’re the elite of the nightwalkers. They’re royalty. When they rise on their first night as a nightwalker, a First Blood is stronger and more powerful. A First Blood rises with strength and skills you won’t see until you reach your first century. He’s a First Blood and you’re chum. To him, you are disposable. You’re nothing.”

  “You don’t know that he’s like that. He could…”

  “I’ve seen it and I really doubt he’s changed much in the past fifty years.” Ignacio released me and walked back over to the ledge to stare down at the humans.

  I shook my head, but I couldn’t say the words to argue with him further. I was terrified that he was right. There had always been an arrogance about Stefan, a lord of the manor attitude that I’d found amusing and irritating at times. It didn’t seem quite so amusing any longer when I was faced with the possibility that he might turn his back on me.

  But it didn’t change the fact that I needed answers — answers about why I was now a nightwalker and why that woman had been killed. My every attempt to move forward with my life again was snagged on those questions. Until I knew why I’d been forced down this path, I wouldn’t be able to establish some life for myself as a nightwalker. And I’d find a way to get those answers even if it meant doing it without Stefan’s help.

  “So be it,” I snapped, angrier with myself than with Ignacio. “If he doesn’t want anything to do with me, I’ll find my answers without him. The Coven still wants me to find out why Sabrina was killed and I’ll do it.”

  Ignacio graced me with a little smile. “I had a feeling you’d say something like that.”

  “I just have to do it on my terms; try to keep the upper hand for a long as possible until I know who my enemies really are.”

  Ignacio pushed smoothly to his feet, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets. “I wish you luck. Should the Hunter pass through this area, we will keep your secret as long as possible. Hopefully it will buy you a little time.”

  “Any advice on handling the Coven?”

  He shook his head, letting his long hair fall in front of his eyes again. “Besides staying away from them completely? No. If you want answers from Stefan, you will need to get him alone without others realizing that you’re in town. But I have no idea how you will accomplish that feat.”

  “Me neither,” I said, frowning.

  “Also, as you head back to Venice, stay away from Vienna and Budapest.”

  “Why?”

  “Mira has laid claim to Budapest and you do not want any of her little followers spotting you. Sneaking into Venice would become impossible.”

  “And Vienna?”

  “Valerio has laid claim to Vienna in a way.”

  “Another nightwalker?”

  Ignacio nodded. “A troublesome nightwalker who has very old ties to Mira. He would think nothing of handing you over to her.”

  “Thanks.”

  Slipping back inside the building and down the stairs to the ground floor, I quickly cut across toward to the derelict old house where Daphne and the others had been hiding for the past several years. I popped into the room I shared with Daphn
e and gathered up the few meager belongings I had acquired since coming to Poland. It still irked me that all my belongings in Europe were now in Mira’s possession. If she really was my enemy, there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was getting my stuff back. I would have killed to have some of my own clothes. As it was, I’d borrowed a few things from Daphne and stolen the rest using some mind control. Not my proudest moment, but since I had no money, no credit cards, and no ID, I didn’t really have much choice.

  Daphne caught me as I was attempting to leave and convinced me to stay for the rest of the night. There was only another four hours until sunrise so I wouldn’t get too far before I had to find some cover for the daylight hours. And finding shelter in a city you didn’t know was a risky venture.

  As the sun inched toward the horizon, I lay near Daphne in the pitch black room, engulfed by the silence of the house. A thin blanket was wrapped around me as if it could hold back the panic that gripped me in those last minutes before the sun rose. Each morning was the same as that first morning alone in the old crypt. The pain and feeling of losing my soul ran through me until I nearly screamed.

  “Does it ever get easier?” I whisper, my voice rippling through the silence like a pebble dropping into a glassy pond.

  “Sunrise?” she whispered back.

  “Yeah.”

  “No, but you keep telling yourself that it will.”

  I smiled at her response, clinging to her words as the light tugging sensation started in my chest. Beneath the rising panic that gripped my still heart, I could hear Stefan’s voice whispering through my mind. This morning, his soft voice was like a prayer. He wanted me to be safe and beyond the reach of pain and fear. Clenching my teeth, I forced a strained smile on my lips and pushed back to him that I was safe. He couldn’t hear me, but I didn’t care. In a few days, he’d know everything and we’d figure out what to do next.