“You will not be able to intimidate and manipulate Ryan like you did James,” he said in an amused voice.
“How about seduce him with my feminine wiles?” I asked in a low voice. Tristan let out a rough sound that could have been a laugh, but he quickly covered it up by clearing his throat. I knew there wasn’t much attractive about me right now. If I didn’t get to Sadira in the next few minutes, there wouldn’t be anything left of me but a blood-covered corpse.
“Doubtful,” he said.
I sighed dramatically, my eyes managing to flutter open for a moment before I gave up the fight. “I guess I shall just have to figure out what he truly wants.”
“How will you do that?”
“I haven’t a clue,” I admitted, which earned me another chuckle.
“And you’re not concerned?”
“It’s less than one hour until sunrise, and I’m riding in a car with a hunter toward a conclave of hunters. The naturi are breathing down my neck, literally, and my last hope for defeating them was killed while I stood watching. Just supposing that I survive the next hour, I still have Jabari, who will rip out my throat because I failed to protect Thorne. At this point, I think the least of my concerns is a human with his own agenda.”
There was a soft creak of plastic as Danaus tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “I hope you’re right.”
“With my recent track record, I doubt it. But what have I got to lose?”
“True,” he conceded in a low voice.
As the silence slipped back into the car, I felt Tristan shift beneath me. I knew why. I could feel it too. We were running out of time. If Sadira didn’t have enough time to properly heal me before the sun rose, I would not reawaken when the sun set again. Both the blood and life would drain completely from my body and I would be dead.
“How much farther?” Tristan asked.
“Not far.”
Dawn was drawing too close and I didn’t like the options Tristan and Sadira would be left with if I didn’t make it. Would Danaus defend them against his brethren? It wasn’t an issue I wanted to contemplate.
“How long have you been with Themis?” the young nightwalker asked, trying to redirect his thoughts.
I managed to move my right arm enough so my hand came in contact with Tristan’s left leg. I touched his ankle, rubbing it in an attempt to ease some of the tension that flowed through him.
“A few centuries.”
“Why did you join them? You don’t seem to be the type to fall in with a cult,” I teased, my hand falling away from Tristan.
“They’re not a cult.”
“Answer the question.”
“Because I seek balance,” Danaus said, to my surprise. He rarely answered my questions about himself, but apparently I had not dug too deep. I wondered if his powers had kept him out of balance.
“And what did you do before Themis?” I wanted to know about the shadows that lurked in his beautiful eyes. What horrors had he witnessed, and had he ever been the cause?
The steering wheel creaked again. “I hunted and destroyed evil.”
“That’s rather vague.” Tristan stirred beneath me. “Whose definition of evil are you going by?”
“God’s.”
“Great. So you’ve spent your life hunting nightwalkers because some human decided we were evil.” Whatever momentary warmth there had been between the three of us shriveled and froze as I balled my right fingers into a fist, my nails digging in my palm. For a time we had forgotten who we were.
“You kill,” Danaus snapped.
“You’re beginning to sound like James.” For a time, I think we forgot that we were still on opposite sides; that we were working under a temporary and fragile truce. “Humans kill. You kill. So do we. It may not be right, but we do what we must to survive.”
A tense silence hung heavy in the air as Danaus turned off the main road and the car seemed to grow darker. I opened my eyes and peripherally could see only flashes of sky through the trees that thickened around us, blotting out the remaining half of the moon.
Before me, Danaus’s powers flowed out from his body, bathing me in its warmth, easing my tension. “There are no naturi here.”
“Are you sure? You couldn’t sense Rowe,” I said, wishing I could sit up and look around.
“There are no naturi here,” Danaus repeated calmly.
“Why can you feel them while I cannot?” Tristan demanded.
Loosening the tension from my fingers, which had been balled into a fist, I forced myself to relax. I needed to conserve my energy if I was going to make it through the next few minutes. The darkness was crowding in again, and I could no longer hold my eyes open. My body had tried to heal itself, but without more blood, it was hopeless. As it was now, I was using up most of my energy just to stay alive.
“Because they are the essence of life itself and you are no longer alive.”
“But I can sense you and other living things,” I whispered.
“You can sense all things that are human, or at least started human, because a part of you is still human. The naturi world is closed to you.” His voice was strong, like a hand massaging the tension from my shoulders.
“Then how is it that nightwalkers can seal them away from this world?”
“That, I do not know.”
“Just keep working on that, will you?” I said, my words fading toward the end.
Danaus parked the car and turned off the motor. I gave up trying to look around and slipped back into Tristan’s mind. He was terrified but was holding together for now. He looked up at the enormous mansion that loomed before us. Every window was filled with light despite the late hour. Apparently, their unexpected guests were causing a bit of a stir.
Tristan had already scanned the manor, easily finding both Michael and Gabriel. While Tristan had never met either human, I knew both extremely well and could recognize them in his thoughts. The other humans were a hive of chaos; anxious, fearful, but also curious. Sadira remained hidden, and Tristan was reluctant to step out of the car.
She has been told to hide herself, I said softly in his mind. She is here.
Are you sure?
Positive.
I slipped out of Tristan’s mind but still felt something else humming in the air. For a moment I thought it was Tristan or Danaus, but the signature of the power was different. There was a magic user inside, a very powerful one.
Danaus heard me softly chuckle as he opened Tristan’s door. “What?” he asked. He probably thought I’d finally lost my mind.
“Some interesting occupants. I look forward to meeting them,” I replied. Of course, that was assuming Sadira could put me back together again.
Twenty-Two
Blinking against the bright entrance, I tried to raise my hand to cover my eyes, but it was too heavy to move. Instead, I pressed my head into Tristan’s bare, blood-smeared chest as he carried me into the great manor. It seemed they had flicked on every light in the place, much like James had earlier in the evening, attempting to protect themselves against the dark creatures entering their sanctuary. Before closing my eyes, I caught a glimpse of the enormous marble and wood staircase that dominated the main hall. On both the left and right of the hall, doors were pulled open and footsteps scraped and echoed off the hardwood floors as people stepped out to inspect Tristan and me.
“Sadira,” I murmured softly against Tristan, my lips lightly brushing the cool skin of his chest. I wasn’t sure if anyone could actually hear me anymore. The world was fading away—the pain had dimmed and I could no longer feel Tristan’s arms holding me.