Wait for Dusk dd-5 Page 7

  To my surprise, Jabari lingered behind, along with Valerio and Stefan. The Elder returned to his seat while the two others stepped forward. Valerio gave a sweeping bow to me, grinning ear to ear, while Stefan stiffly bowed his head.

  “Budapest, eh?” Valerio said, inspecting his fingernails. “It sounds like fun. I’ll join you if you’ll have me.”

  “You standing against the naturi? I struggle to see what’s in it for you,” I said, unable to keep the shock out of my voice. Valerio preferred the background, watching as others took risks. He knew when to step forward and take the benefit for himself when the opportunity arose. If anything, Valerio was a lover, never a fighter.

  “Budapest is but a short jaunt from Vienna. I would prefer it if this naturi . . . infection did not spread to my own sweet city,” he replied, and I was happy to drop the issue. That was an explanation that I could understand. He was finally stepping forward to protect what he considered his. Of course, I was willing to bet there was more to it, but he would never tip his hand if he could help it.

  “I wish to assist you as well,” Stefan stated brusquely. “I have had my own issues with the city of Budapest. There is a personal matter that I wish to look into if you would allow me to join you.”

  “That’s fine with me.” I wasn’t going to press Stefan for more information because I knew I wasn’t going to get it. I didn’t trust the nightwalker, but I was willing to bet he was going to give me a little room since I had promised him a seat on the coven. He was going to give me a little time to deliver on my promise before he attempted to take my own seat. “Unless you want to arrive separately from me, my plane will leave shortly after sunset for Budapest.”

  Both nightwalkers gave me a brief bow before disappearing from the Main Hall. I turned in my seat to find Jabari watching me with a thoughtful look on his face.

  “It’s killing you to see me sitting here when you were so close to killing me just a few months ago,” I teased, grinning over at him.

  “It is an unexpected turn of events, but not one I find unpleasant.”

  “For now, you mean.”

  “True,” he conceded. Jabari was pleased I was on the coven so long as it benefited him. The moment I no longer gave him an edge was the day he would kill me. He had already started looking for ways to replace me. Luckily, I had an ace up my sleeve that he didn’t know about. Unfortunately, I had to find a way to escape his control without him being aware of it. Sure, Nick was demanding that I learn to use the powers of my keepers, but it wasn’t something I was confident I could do in secret. If Jabari discovered that I’d found a way to escape his control, he would kill me in an instant. I was too dangerous without someone holding my leash.

  “Is there anything I should know about Budapest before I set foot on her soil?” I asked, directing our conversation back to the more important matter at hand.

  “Don’t trust Macaire.”

  “I gathered that much. Who’s the keeper?”

  “I do not know. Macaire has been known to frequent that region, so I turned my back on it. You will benefit from having Valerio on hand.”

  I sighed and shoved one hand through my hair. “Unfortunately, Stefan is a mixed bag.”

  “He wants your chair,” Danaus said, speaking for the first time since stepping foot in the Main Hall. His deep voice seemed to echo through the silence and vibrate through my chest.

  “He wants a chair on the coven. I’d be happy to hand him someone else’s,” I muttered, not needing to comment out loud exactly whose chair I would be willing to hand over.

  “I can offer you no help with Budapest,” Jabari continued, ignoring my comment. “Be on your guard. It has always been a place for powerful creatures. Both lycans and warlocks call it home, as well as nightwalkers.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  “Do not trust Stefan. He has been known to side with Macaire on occasion,” Jabari admonished one last time before disappearing from sight.

  Danaus came around to stand beside my chair. I looked up at the hunter and smiled at him, some of the tension finally oozing from my shoulders. I still had a long road ahead of me, but for now, the worst had been pushed aside. I survived my first meeting on the coven and been forced to kill only two creatures. I had a dark feeling that it would mark a slow night for me. My reign on the coven would be short, but it would also be washed in the blood of my people and that of the naturi.

  “How do you think it went?”

  Danaus shook his head at me, fighting back a smile. “I wasn’t expecting you to declare war on your first night. It was a bold move.”

  “Macaire has to know where I stand. I’m not going to take any shit from him, and he’s not going to be able to win me away from Jabari like he hoped last summer.”

  “And Budapest?”

  “He knows the keeper of Budapest. I have no doubt that he’s issuing instructions as we speak. There may be naturi there wreaking havoc in the city, but it’s also going to be a trap. I—I can’t ask you—”

  “I’m going,” he declared before I could stammer out my wishes.

  I smiled up at him, barely suppressing the urge to kiss him. Danaus had been there when I was in attacked by naturi in London, Crete, and Ollantaytambo. He was there went we mounted the attack on Machu Picchu. He was there when I struggled to piece together the crumbling order of my own beloved Savannah. He had been there through it all with me. At this point I couldn’t imagine fighting the naturi without him. Of course, there was also the chance he could take out a few nightwalkers as well, which would make him more than happy.

  A part of me wished I could tell him that he didn’t have to go, or that it was too dangerous for him to accompany me. I wished I could tell him that I didn’t need him, considering that I had Valerio and Stefan at my side, but I couldn’t utter the words.

  “Thank you,” I murmured, hating the blush I could feel stealing up to my cheeks.

  Placing his hands on the arms of the chair, Danaus leaned down and pressed a light kiss against my forehead. “I am your consort. You go nowhere without me,” he whispered, his lips brushing against my temple. I smiled, resting my head against his jaw. Apparently when I named him my consort, I wasn’t the only one staking a claim. And for once, I didn’t mind.

  Chapter Seven

  Budapest glowed about us, shining like a golden crown surrounding a shimmering river of glass. The news revealed that a fresh blanket of snow had fallen over the city during the day, leaving it glistening under the stars. The last time I visited Budapest, the three sectors of Buda, Óbuda, and Pest had not yet been joined into a single city. She had been in the process of rebuilding from yet another battle that left many of her amazing buildings scarred and gutted. But still, this jewel of Central Europe shined and thrived.

  After leaving our hotel at the foot of Gellért Hill, we caught a taxi that was now taking us across Erzsébet Bridge toward lower Pest. The bridge rose up around us, white and slender like a woman’s arm reaching across the Danube. Farther up the river I could see the Széchenyi Chain Bridge standing solid in all its stone and golden glow glory. There was beauty around every turn in this city, with its exquisite architecture and stunning statues and monuments. A part of me wished we weren’t here on business but actually had some time to wander down the lovely streets and possibly visit the Parliament Building or any of the castles that dotted the landscape. Unfortunately, the exquisite Saint Stephen’s Basilica was out of the question—the magic held by holy places of worship like churches, temples, and synagogues kept nightwalkers out.

  “You seem quieter than usual.” Danaus finally drew my gaze back into the car. The hunter sat next to me, his long black coat wrapped around him against the bitter cold outside. The temperature had dipped close to zero that night, and the wind gusted off and on, swirling the snow about us.

  “It’s been a long time since I was last here.” And even then, the memories were not so great. I had been running with Valerio at the time, and
causing more than my fair share of mischief. I wasn’t always the good little girl that I was now, and Valerio was no help on that front. The nightwalker had a wicked sense of humor and a dangerous definition of fun.

  “I doubt that’s what’s preoccupying your mind.”

  A smile tweaked the corners of my mouth as I looked up at my companion. “You know me too well sometimes,” I said, then shook my head. “I cannot begin to guess at what Macaire has in store for us. He would not have sent us to Budapest unless he had something special planned that would finally get me off of the coven and permanently out of his hair. And if he can get rid of you in the process, all the better for him.”

  “It can’t be too complicated.” Danaus shrugged, his shoulders brushing against mine. “Either the keeper in Budapest is extremely old and strong, making it unlikely that you’ll be able to defeat him. Or there are a high number of naturi here, making it impossible for us to win against those odds.”

  My frown deepened. It was the same two scenarios that I had come up with as well, and it didn’t make me feel any better. “A single Ancient keeper doesn’t stand a chance against both of us. And neither do the naturi. We’ve wiped them out before. We can do it again.”

  We can’t. We can’t combine our powers as we had before, Danaus countered, switching to our private path in the event that our driver could actually speak English. We had lost our greatest weapon. Through the combination of our powers, we could destroy our enemies with a thought. However, the downfall of that ability was the fact that it sent the soul energy directly to the keeper of Danaus’s soul, a bori by the name of Gaizka. We had just finished locking him away once again at a great cost. I was in no hurry to have yet another run-in with the bori.

  “Macaire doesn’t know that,” I replied. “I’m sure he still thinks that we can wipe out the naturi with a thought. I can’t imagine what edge he thinks he finally has over us.”

  “We’ll figure it out.” I wished I felt that same confidence Danaus exuded, but then I’d had more experience dealing with the Elders than he did. They were careful plotters and evil manipulators. They acted with purpose and caution so they could be sure they knew that the outcome would fall in their favor. It was rare that you could surprise an Elder, and even rarer that you could escape their schemes.

  “When was the last time you were in Budapest?” I asked, happy to change the subject.

  “The Turks called this place home at the time,” he replied, putting his last visit sometime during the late fifteenth century to the early sixteenth century.

  I slid my fingers through his open hand beside me. “A lot has changed since then.”

  “And yet some things have not.” He stared down at our entwined hands. His fingers remained loose, not truly holding my hand, but at the same time he didn’t pull his hand free of my touch. “Mira, I—I’m not sure I can do this.”

  “Do what?”

  Danaus raised our hands. “This? We’re so different. We’ve got pasts that we can’t escape. Pasts that are going to eventually get in the way. I don’t see how we’re going to make this work.”

  “I’m not worried about making something work. It’s about enjoying each other’s company while we have it,” I said, fighting to hold onto the fragile smile that was perched on my lips. My muscles in my chest tightened nervously; I could feel him already pulling away from me before we had taken any real steps forward, and despite what I said, I did want to make this work.

  “What if there is nothing between us but lust?” He lowered his voice as if this was some dark topic not fit for human ears.

  I lowered my voice as well and slid closer to Danaus, so my shoulder touched his. “Is that such a bad thing? At least it is the start of something; something that we could possibly build upon.” I reached up with my free hand and slid my fingers along his jaw, loving the fact that he no longer drew away when I touched him. I could feel the energy balled up inside of him. He was stiff and anxious, but he didn’t move away. The urge to kiss him welled up inside of me once again, the need to taste him. Instead, I dropped my hand back into my lap and lay my head against his shoulder.

  “The road ahead of us is dark,” he warned, but at the same time his fingers tightened around mine.

  “But we’re no longer alone.”

  Giving Danaus’s hand one final squeeze, I sat up and pushed to the edge of my seat so I could lean across the front seat to speak to the driver. While my Hungarian was more than a little rusty, I still managed to direct him to drop us off near an empty corner in City Park. I could feel Valerio and Stefan lurking in the region. We were close to our meeting place, and I preferred to walk the rest of the distance without the watchful eyes of any humans nearby. I handed over six thousand Hungarian forints as he pulled the car to a stop. It more than covered the fee for the taxi ride and was a nice enough tip that he didn’t ask any questions about us being dropped off in a lonely part of a park near midnight.

  Danaus slid out of the car, releasing my hand, and I followed behind him, shoving my hands into the pockets of my long coat in an effort to fend off the bitter cold. With a jerk of my head, we started walking in the direction in which I sensed Valerio. Stefan’s presence was a bit shadowy, as if he were quickly flitting from one place to the next so I couldn’t keep a clear sense of where he was, and yet he wasn’t cloaking himself completely from me.

  After a few dozen yards along a winding path, Valerio stepped out of the shadows, blocking the light from a nearby streetlamp. He wore a heavy coat that stretched to his ankles, while a thick scarf was wrapped around his neck. The cold was little more than a nuisance to most nightwalkers, but he dressed so that he easily blended in with the humans. Plus, he liked to keep up with the latest fashions.

  “Have you found someone worth talking to?” I asked as we joined him.

  “She’s up ahead. From what I’ve been able to discern during the past few hours, she tends to hold court here most nights.”

  “Keeper?” Danaus inquired.

  “Doubtful. She’s old, from what I understand, and long used to getting her way, but no one has used any term with her that has even a vague resemblance to the term ‘keeper.’ It sounds like she’s just an old nightwalker,” Valerio said with a shrug.

  I frowned, not liking what I was hearing. Old nightwalkers were extremely territorial and hated to play nice with other old nightwalkers. Unfortunately, as much as I hated to admit it, I too was an old nightwalker, and I was long used to getting my way. It frequently made for ugly clashes, as one was forced to finally give way to the other, usually through bloodshed and possibly an unexpected death. “What’s her name?”

  “Odelia,” Stefan said, gliding out of the shadows to my right. I was relieved to see that Danaus didn’t flinch. I had not sensed Stefan until a second before he officially appeared, and I doubted that Danaus had sensed him at all. Stefan was just trying to prove to me that he was my superior when it came to powers and experience. I, on the other hand, wasn’t in the mood to play. We had bigger concerns, and the sooner Danaus and I got out of Budapest, the better it would be for all those involved. We needed to get back to Savannah.

  I stared down at the snow-covered ground as I wracked my brain for a memory of someone by that name. I had known too many nightwalkers over my long life, and too few of my memories were good.

  “Do you know her?” Danaus asked.

  “I may have encountered her a time or two,” I admitted with a shake of my head as I looked up at Valerio and Stefan. “But I don’t truly recall her. The name sounds vaguely familiar. Do you know her?” I asked Stefan.

  “She’s about your age. Long, dark hair, dark eyes,” he said, as if reciting a grocery list. “She’s arrogant, stubborn, and short-tempered.”

  I snorted and started walking again. “You’ve just described most nightwalkers.”

  Danaus fell into step beside me, while Valerio and Stefan followed close on my heels. Only Danaus’s footsteps crunched in the snow. We nightwa
lkers had lived too many years of moving like a summer breeze across an endless field to make noise now. There was no question where we were headed. There was a large concentration of nightwalkers up ahead, and it didn’t take much to sense their energy floating in the air.

  “What is this place?” Danaus asked as we turned a corner and started to walk up the circular drive of a large neo-Baroque building. Outside, a large statue threw down a massive shadow as if it were guarding the place. Several large domes rose up in the night, while the gray stone front was marked by tall columns and enormous windows that reflected back the light that shone off the snow.

  “It’s the Széchenyi Baths,” I replied.

  “A Turkish bath?” Danaus said, obviously surprised. I understood why. Most of the time when we were meeting up with a powerful nightwalker, they preferred to hold court in a dark, human-crowded nightclub where food and sex were easy to find.

  “Not a true Turkish bath, though there are still some in the city” Valerio said. “This one wasn’t discovered and rebuilt until the early twentieth century.”

  “And when was the last time you were here?” I asked, arching one brow as I looked at him over my shoulder.

  “More than three centuries ago, as you may recall,” he said, sliding me a sly smile that brought a blush to my cheeks. But then most of our memories would stain my cheeks red. “As to how I knew about Széchenyi, I had some time to read while I was waiting for your arrival.” To my shock, the nightwalker pulled a small travel guide out of his pocket and flashed it to me before returning it to his pocket.

  “Always prepared for any eventuality,” I mocked, then turned my attention to the small grouping of nightwalkers that stood by the front doors. The welcoming committee didn’t look as if they were ready to let us pass into their private club, fellow nightwalkers or not.