“How long have you known about the naturi’s plans?” I demanded, my voice hardening. My hands balled into fists at my sides and I resisted the urge to take a step closer.
“His interest in you had nothing to do with the naturi.” Ryan’s broad shoulders slumped as he seemed to relax. He moved back to lean against the front of the desk and motioned for me to take a seat in one of the leather chairs resting before it. I was feeling indulgent, so I sat to his right, crossing my legs as I waited for him to continue.
“Before arriving on Themis’s doorstep,” he said, “I understand that Danaus spent many years living with monks, who taught him that good and evil was a black-and-white issue in this world. Humans were created by God and were innately good. By that logic, everything else was evil and had to be exterminated. You were an interest of his because you seemed to embody the ultimate evil. A nightwalker, a human that has turned from God, that can control fire, directly linking you to Satan and all that is evil.
“You’re somewhat of a mythical creature among your own kind. It took him almost a decade to track down your given name. Most still just know you as the Fire Starter.”
“‘Mira’ doesn’t strike the same kind of fear,” I said with a shrug.
“Danaus became quite determined to find and destroy you…” Ryan paused, staring at me. A dark shadow seemed to passed over his face as he regarded me with his too perceptive eyes, sending a chill up my spine. I suddenly wished that I wasn’t seated so close to the warlock.
“And then something changed for him. In all his searching and digging, not once did he hear a tale of you killing a human. Of course, there were numerous stories of you slaughtering your own kind, particularly those who had carelessly killed humans.”
“But he thought I killed when I fed,” I interjected, recalling our conversation during the plane ride to Egypt.
“True, but I think he was beginning to have doubts about that old myth as well. Before we discovered the naturi’s sacrifice, he had stopped his search for you. You were beginning to raise some uncomfortable questions…I think he was even contemplating leaving Themis. When I sent him to look for you in the States, he had regained his resolve to destroy you.” Ryan paused, staring thoughtfully. I knew he must have made sure that Danaus once again had ample motive to go after my head. “But something has changed for him.” Ryan said the last softly, as if thinking aloud rather than talking to me. I knew his thoughts as though I’d read them. He was wondering about that change. Danaus had more than enough opportunities to kill me but he hadn’t, and protected me on more than one occasion.
“He’s learned that Themis doesn’t have all the right answers,” I said stiffly. “He’s not pleased with your little group at the moment. Danaus has been misled and used. You’ve lied to him.”
“I never lied to Danaus,” Ryan said. The warlock frowned at me, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “If he asked, I would have told him all I knew of your kind. He had his mind made up about nightwalkers long before I was born.”
“You could have told him.”
“He had to discover it on his own.”
“Nice excuse,” I said snidely. “You had your own agenda, and the fact that you could use Danaus’s misinformed conclusions to your advantage provided you with no moral dilemma.” I leaned forward in the chair, tightly gripping the arms.
“Don’t we all.” He shrugged his wide shoulders. “I wish you would not think so ill of me, Mira. We have the same goal.”
A dark smile lifted the corners of my mouth as I stood. “I doubt that.”
“I’ll give you that you probably have more fun at it than I do, but our goal is the same: maintain our secret as long as possible.”
“Is that your goal?”
“I’m not the villain you want me to be. We’ve both done things to keep the humans from discovering what surrounds them. You’ve killed numerous nightwalkers that jeopardized the secret. I’ve done the same with the hunters. We’re both guardians, protecting that fragile wall that separates our world from the world of the humans.”
Ryan stood a step forward, closing the distance between us to less than a foot. He slowly raised his hand, with his finger bent, and held it beside my cheek. “May I?” he whispered.
“May you what?” I watched him through narrowed eyes. Warlock or not, I could still be on the other side of the room before he moved.
“I just wish to touch your face.”
I stared, confused at him for a second, my brow furrowed. It seemed an extremely strange request coming from him, but I didn’t think it was necessarily a trick. When a witch or warlock casts, you can feel the building of power in the air. Of course, Ryan was more powerful than any I had known before. There was enough energy in the air already that I might not notice any specific shift. But I nodded, regardless.
Noticing my wariness, he inched his hand forward until the back of his fingers gently caressed my check, sliding down from my cheekbone and along my jaw. His skin was warm and I felt only a slight jolt of energy from the contact, but nothing more. It was his voice that actually held me entranced briefly. “Forgive me,” he murmured. “You’re not as cold as I expected.”
“I find it hard to believe that you’ve never touched a nightwalker before,” I teased, tilting my head up so I was looking him in the eyes.
“Once before,” he said, a grim smile touching his lips. “And that was only after he was done feeding off me.”
“Yes, a meal tends to warm us up.”
“But you’ve not fed tonight?”
“No.”
“And you’re still not…”
“Cold as a corpse?” I supplied. The darkness that had briefly clouded his expression lifted at the comparison and his smile brightened. “Under normal circumstances, I can go several days without feeding and retain some warmth. A hot shower also helps.”
“Do you retain such warmth because of your ability?”
“To control fire? No. Fire does not burn or warm me. In fact, if I use the ability too much, I grow cold because it requires energy.”
“I hadn’t known.”
“No human ever has.”
“Why do you trust me?” he asked, sounding surprised.
I laughed deeply, the sound filling the room, shoving aside some his energy. He shifted at the sudden intrusion, resettling himself against his desk. “I don’t.” I slumped into the chair behind me, throwing one leg carelessly over the chair arm. “Call it a gesture of good faith. I give you a little something…”
“Because you want something,” he finished.
“Doesn’t everybody?”
“What is it you desire?”
My voice and expression hardened instantly. “Information.”
“An expensive commodity.”
“Perhaps, but what you get in return is valuable as well,” I said, my eyes never wavering from his face.
“And what is that?”
“Your life.”
“So we’ve come to threats,” Ryan announced, sounding amused.
“Not at all. Just a statement of fact. The naturi are a threat to both human and nightwalker. You have information that may help my kind. We are the ones risking our lives to protect you.”
“Very noble of you.”
“Hardly,” I said with a snort. “And you know better.” I looked up at him and his expression turned serious again. We had enjoyed our brief moment of levity, but time was wasting away.
“What is it you think I know?”
“I don’t know, but considering that I know nothing, it has to be more than me,” I admitted. “You discovered the first sacrifice in India before we even realized anything was happening.”
“Are you sure we were the first?”
“No,” I whispered.
Before the disaster in London and Thorne’s death, I would have emphatically said yes, but now I wasn’t sure of anything. The naturi knew too much, finding me far too quickly in Egypt and again in London. Someone was betraying me, and I didn’t like my options at the moment. Of course, I wasn’t about to voice those thoughts to a human. And if I had my way, I’d be holding the creature’s heart in my hand before the naturi attempted the second sacrifice.