Burn the Night (17 page)

“Damn it, Shelly! She’s already in Savannah!” I shouted, throwing my hands up. Pointing at Danaus, I growled, “Check the area! How many naturi are lurking in my city?” I could have tried to complete the search myself, but while Nick had given me the ability to sense all the different types of power, I still had trouble distinguishing the naturi from the lycanthropes, and I wasn’t very good at estimating their numbers.

Frowning at me, Danaus nonetheless pushed his powers out from his body and through the house. I closed my eyes and was swept along in the wave as it washed through my city. I could feel the soothing vibrations of the nightwalkers across the landscape and then the jarring sensation of the naturi.

“There are seven,” he replied, pulling his powers back into his frame. “They are sticking to the outskirts of town, possibly across the river in lycan territory. None in the city proper.”

“That’s not good,” Shelly murmured, balling her hands into fists before her. “When I left, Cynnia had only three guards with her. I don’t know who the other three are.” Sucking in a slow breath and releasing it to cleanse my mind, I looked over at Shelly as she was torn between her duty to convince me to listen to her charge and her duty to protect the princess. It was a position I could understand.

“Does Cynnia’s need to talk to us have to do with her sister Aurora?” I asked in a low, even voice, which made me sound more reasonable that I was feeling.

“Yes, I’m afraid it does.”

I looked down at Danaus, who simply shrugged his broad shoulders at me. “You knew it was coming.”

“I foolishly wanted a little more time.”

Turning my back on Shelly, I glanced out the window into the large park square opposite my town house. Cars swooshed by, their lights dancing across the trees so the shadows lunged about the open area. I sensed no nightwalkers close to my home, only humans enjoying the warmer than usual spring evening. There were still many hours until the sun rose. Plenty of time to hear the plea of a naturi princess.

“If Cynnia is talking about engaging Aurora and is thinking of potentially using Savannah as a battleground, then Barrett Rainer, alpha for the Savannah pack, should be involved in this discussion.”

“I don’t think she wants to use any city as a battleground,” Shelly quickly countered. “However, there is always the chance of Aurora coming after her.”

“Barrett should be involved,” I pressed. That was my first big mistake when dealing with the naturi. I had made it a nightwalker issue and kept the shifters in the dark in an effort to protect our own shame and secrets. In the end, many good lycanthropes had died without knowing why. I’d learned my lesson the hard way. Barrett deserved a voice in what was going to happen next.

“All right,” Shelly said. “I don’t think Cynnia will be averse to your suggestion. We shall meet—”

“Tonight,” I finished. “I want this over as quickly as possible. We are currently faced with another pressing problem, and I would prefer not to have the naturi in the region causing problems as well.” Danaus was frowning at the callous way I was treating Shelly, but I didn’t care. She was bringing a threat into my domain and it was my job to protect my people, not bring them more harm. “We need a neutral location. I’m not holding the meeting here.”

“The Dark Room?” he suggested.

“No naturi will ever step foot in the Dark Room again,” I said, glaring at him. The last time such a thing happened, Knox had nearly been killed and several other nightwalkers and lycanthropes in fact had.

“The Docks?” he tried again, mentioning the newly restored nightclub that I favored down on River Street.

I shook my head. “Too loud and too many humans.”

“Then how about the tunnels?”

A smile lifted the corners of my mouth and I resisted the urge to kiss him. It was brilliant. It was a favorite haunt of the shifters during the day when they needed to take care of a little business, while other nightwalkers used it as a daytime lair and a secret way of sneaking around the city.

“There’s an entrance to the tunnels just off River Street where it meets up with Bay near the shipping yards. Tell Cynnia to meet us there in two hours. I’ll bring Barrett.”

“Thank you, Mira,” Shelly said in a rush. She unexpectedly closed the distance between us and wrapped me in a quick, tight hug before she was out of the room and out the front door, heading back to the naturi she was supposed to be guarding.

Threading the fingers of my right hand through my hair, I bent my head and stared at the ground. I was trying to convince myself that it all wasn’t crumbling away beneath my feet. I had worked so hard getting my life back in order, putting some distance between not only myself and the naturi, but myself and the coven as well.

“You will just go and listen to what she has to say,” Danaus said. I could hear the leather creaking beneath him as he pushed off the sofa and approached me. He laid his large hands on my shoulders and squeezed, attempting to ease away some of the tension.

“The war with Aurora is coming, and Cynnia needs our help if she is going to survive. We’re getting sucked into another battle with the queen of the naturi,” I said, my voice trembling.

“Look deep inside yourself, Mira. Tell me there’s not a part of you longing to take another shot at her.”

A slow chuckle rose from my lips as I dropped my hand back down to my side. Danaus knew me too well. Aurora and Rowe were the reasons I had been tortured so many years ago. Aurora was the one who nearly had me killed among the ruins at Machu Picchu just a few months ago. Destroying her would mean that her people would be weakened, and in time they could slowly be picked off. Destroying Aurora would be one of my most favorite kills of all.

“The cocky bitch has been causing too many problems in my domain for too long.”

“All you need is Cynnia to point you in the right direction and potentially provide you with a little bit of an army,” Danaus whispered in my ear. “It could be fun.”

“You’re a deliciously evil man, Danaus, but you’re right,” I said, twisting my head so I could press a kiss to his hand. “Killing Aurora, and if I’m lucky, Rowe, would finally cleanse me of the naturi. I could restart my life again without this shadow from my past hanging over me.”

“Just one more battle and then it will all be over with the naturi,” Danaus said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

I jerked around, a smirk twisting my lips. “I seriously hope you don’t believe that. Nightwalkers and naturi living in peace? Now that’s the stuff of fairy tales.”

“I find that idea no different than our situation.”

“Ours is different. You came to your senses. The naturi will not,” I teased, slipping away from him before he could grab me.

“I hope you are wrong,” he called after me as I headed back to the office to call Barrett.

“Me too,” I whispered. I wanted Aurora’s head clasped firmly in my hands, but I didn’t want a war with the naturi. There would be no hiding it. The humans would see it, and our world would be thrown open at last. No more hiding in the shadows, only the Great Awakening.

Thirteen

T
he only thing keeping me from pacing the open tunnels was the fact that both Barrett and Danaus were perfectly still despite the growing tension. Like any potential meeting, we brought along our respective seconds in command. Cooper, Barrett’s brother, leaned against the car that had carried the lycanthropes, while Knox leaned against one of the brick columns that stretched up to the ceiling of the tunnel. Danaus was both my lover and my confidant, but in the nightwalker world, Knox would always be my second in command in Savannah. However, I had a slight suspicion that Knox would just as willingly take orders from Danaus as from me. That’s why I trusted Knox so much. He was smarter than most nightwalkers.

“How do we know this isn’t some naturi trap?” Cooper suddenly demanded, shattering the silence that had filled the tunnels. His voice echoed off the stone walls, carrying deep into the thick darkness that hugged close. “I mean, we’ve got the leaders of the vampires and the lycanthropes right here. What better way to take over the city than to kill them both in a single fight and then move into the city?”

“Danaus, how many naturi are in the city?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at the hunter.

“There are four naturi approaching us, but there are at least a dozen on the outskirts of the city,” he replied a couple seconds after the warmth of his powers had swept past me.

I frowned. There had been only seven naturi in the region when we spoke to Shelly earlier. I wasn’t comfortable with how their numbers were growing, but for now I was more concerned with the contingent of four approaching our location. With any luck, that would be Cynnia and her honor guard.

“I truly doubt that four naturi is enough to kill us all,” I said blandly.

“And if they’re members of the animal clan?” Cooper shot back at me, anxiety creeping into his voice. Two of his brothers had already been killed as the result of fights caused by the naturi animal clan.

“We’ll handle it,” Danaus said.

“She’s late,” Barrett muttered.

Folding my arms over my chest, I leaned my hip against the side of my car, keeping clear of the headlights pointed toward the doors that led into the tunnels. “She’ll be here. This is too important a meeting for her to miss. She knows this is her only chance to win our support.” Luckily, we had to wait only a couple more minutes before one of the large metal doors leading to the tunnels creaked open. Shelly entered first, raising her hand against the blinding light of the two sets of car headlights aimed at her. We wanted the advantage when our opponents entered the tunnels.

For several minutes they would be blinded while we were hidden deep in the shadows that filled the tunnels.

“Mira?” she called out, blinking her eyes rapidly as she struggled to adjust to the light.

“We’re all here,” I confirmed.

Shelly slowly walked into the tunnels with her hands raised to her shoulders, open and empty, to show that she wasn’t holding any weapons. I was about to tell her to drop her hands, but I felt that the submissive stance put the others at ease. Cynnia followed close behind with her three guards. They were armed, but with their arms raised and away from their weapons, in a neutral stance. They needed to protect their princess so they had to remain armed, which was fine, because we were all armed as well. Trust was definitely thin on the ground.

Cynnia looked much the same as when I had last seen her among the ruins of Machu Picchu. She had a slight frame, while her tanned face was framed by a wealth of dark hair. She still appeared to be little more than seventeen to nineteen, but I knew her to be several centuries old. Young to take the throne, I suspected, by naturi standards. Nyx looked to be older than her sister Cynnia, and yet the younger sister was the one stepping forward. I knew there had to be more to the story behind that arrangement, but it had nothing to do with us. I didn’t care to become involved in naturi politics. It was enough that I was up to my eyeballs in nightwalker politics with the coven.

“I see that you’re keeping one step ahead of Aurora,” I called out to the group as they slowly moved out of the direct line of the headlights and into the darkness so they could start to pick us out of the shadows.

“Not exactly an easy task,” Cynnia admitted, dropping her hands limply to her sides. “But then, we quickly noticed that she seemed content to remain on the West Coast, well away from your territory.

We decided to take advantage of that interesting affinity.”

“So you’ve been hanging out with Shelly in Charleston these past few months,” Danaus concluded. “I would have thought you would have remained in South America. Even I know that the earth magic is thick there. It would have been to your benefit.”

“We assumed the same thing of Aurora, so we immediately headed north to get away from her.” Cynnia shrugged her thin shoulders. “And with nightwalkers dominating most of Europe, we decided to head for some safer territory.”

I frowned, clenching my teeth slightly. “So you used me once again to act as your protector against your own kind.”

“Just your reputation,” Cynnia hedged, but a grin widened on her lips.

“Be careful or I might decide to take that protective umbrella away from you,” I warned. It was enough that she had tricked me into protecting her the first time: I respected her ingenuity and daring, but that respect only went so far, particularly when it threatened the safety of the people in my domain.

“In truth, I have come hoping to acquire the help of more than your reputation, as I’m sure you have guessed,” she said. The female naturi took a step closer, while her bodyguards stayed a few steps behind. Only Shelly remained directly behind her shoulder, potentially to help add her voice to Cynnia’s argument.

“I can guess where this is leading, but I’ve come willing to hear your side of the tale,” I said, sliding my hands into the front pockets of my leather jacket. The air in the tunnels was several degrees colder than the air outside, and the thick leather added an extra layer of protection should this meeting come to blows.

“Since the doors were opened around the world in the fall,” Cynnia began, “allowing the naturi people to return to Earth, Aurora has been building an army. While some have flocked to my banner, I know that my numbers are not as great as hers. It is only a matter of time before she decides it is time to finally wipe out not only me but my sister Nyx as well.” Beside me, Knox shifted from one foot to the other, betraying a surprising lack of patience. “If you’ll forgive me, why do we care? The naturi have done nothing but slaughter both the shifters and the nightwalkers.”

“Because the world faces one of two futures, depending on who lives and who dies in the battle that is coming,” Cynnia said, unmoved by his gruff comment. “Should Aurora win, she will continue her campaign to wipe out mankind in an effort to ‘save’ the Earth from the destruction man is causing the Great Mother. Along the way, she will destroy every nightwalker she runs across and turn every shifter she finds into her slave.”