Dawnbreaker (30 page)

“Drop me here!” I commanded as we flew close to the front of the building.

Stefan instantly obeyed as two naturi on butterfly wings streaked toward him, swords drawn. He didn’t need his hands full of me.

As I fell, I quickly pulled my short sword and a small knife, allowing me to slash through the first naturi I encountered while I hit the ground. I had killed two more when I felt Danaus hit the ground near me. We weren’t winning this battle. The naturi were too many and too strong. The power from the earth was making them faster, harder to kill than I remembered. We needed a new trick if we were going to finally end this.

Where’s Cynnia?
I demanded of Danaus as I dodged a blow aimed to slice off my head.

Shelly is taking her inside.

Go get her. I need to talk to Rowe.

Danaus said nothing, but disappeared from my side, and was surprisingly replaced by Stefan.

“Rowe!” I shouted when I finished off the last naturi to attack me. Placing my hand on Stefan’s large chest, I forced him to take a step back. A second later a ring of fire sprang up around the lodge, cutting through the garden and lighting up the gravel parking area. The power came easier than I had expected. Earth and soul energy flowed through me constantly now, causing the fire to burn hotter and brighter than it ever had. The naturi trapped within the ring were quickly slaughtered by my kind, but so were the few nightwalkers trapped outside the flames.

“I demand to speak to Rowe!” I shouted again. My voice rang out clear in the crisp mountain air now that the sound of battle had subsided.

“Right here,” the one-eyed naturi announced as he walked to the front of the crowd of naturi standing just beyond the boundary of the flames. The fire wouldn’t hold out those of the wind clan, since they could easily fly over the five-foot-high flames, but then, this was just a temporary truce so the two sides could make a few threats before getting back down to business.

“I thought I suggested that you should not bring your people to Machu Picchu,” I said, inwardly cursing Danaus and his slowness.

“The door will be opened,” Rowe said. “And we’ll be happy to finish you off tonight if you’d rather. You don’t think that a little fire will keep us away, do you?” As he spoke, two naturi with pale blond hair stepped forward and raised their hands. The flames around the lodge flickered and grew low, threatening to go out completely.

With a growl, I reached deep, pulling more of the earth’s energy into my body, slowing its flow back into the earth. The flames flared again, reaching back to their previous height and then higher by another foot. I could feel the two light clan naturi fighting me, pushing against the fires, struggling to extinguish it.

My eyes drifted shut and I dug deeper than I had before. The power of the earth swelled within me, combining with my natural ability to manipulate fire. Focusing all of my attention, I dropped the flames around the lodge for only a second. At the same time, I waved both my hands at the two blond naturi. The females with their thin lithe bodies and almond-shaped eyes instantly burst into flames, causing Rowe to shout and jump away from them.

In the next second, the flames around the lodge were roaring again. I had managed to take the two naturi by surprise, as they expected me to expend all my energy on maintaining my defense, not to attack. I hoped that Rowe would be unwilling to sacrifice any more members of the light clan, because I doubted that I’d be able to get them to fall for that trick again. I was stronger now, but not strong enough to continue to take on multiple light clan naturi.

“This fire will keep you out for now,” I said with a sinister grin. “Send me your light clan, and I will burn through them like a dry brush.”

“You’re running out of time!” Rowe countered, deciding to change tactics when he realized that a direct assault would not work now that I had a brand new skill. “The sun will rise soon.”

“True,” I said, nodding, and then put my hand behind me, grabbing hold of Cynnia as Danaus brought her forward. “And you’re ensuring that it will be the last sunrise Aurora’s sister ever sees.” I jerked Cynnia forward so she was standing next to me, the firelight dancing off her sculptured features and pale skin. She was smeared with blood and her clothes were dirty and torn.

“Nia!” I heard a woman scream. Then Nyx pushed through the crowd to stand beside Rowe, her eyes wide and haunted.

“Nyx!” Cynnia cried, lurching a step forward. I roughly grabbed her by a hunk of her hair and kept her close to my side.

“I offered a trade,” I said. “You walk away from the sacrifice and I set little Nia free.”

“Mira!” Rowe shouted at me in frustration. The hand holding a blade trembled in his rage, but he said nothing more. I had no doubt that Nyx had been pressuring him to come up with a way to free Cynnia, and I knew his plan the second his eyes drifted toward the sky. He planned to simply wait us out and take her.

Danaus stepped up beside me, a weapon in each hand, ready to resume the attack, but he also knew there would not be another attack until after the sun rose. And then it would be he and Shelly alone against the army of naturi. The naturi would slice through every nightwalker until we were all dead, and then free their wayward princess.

We have no choice.
His words danced across my brain like a warm breeze, catching me by surprise. I thought I would have to convince him of it. I thought I would have to beg and plead with the hunter to use our power to destroy the naturi that waited to kill us all.

It will kill Cynnia as well,
I found myself saying before I could stop the thought. I had become accustomed to having her around. She had saved my life earlier that evening when she stabbed me in the chest. I’d begun to think that I might actually set her free and let her live the rest of her life in peaceful solitude with some of her other people.

“Take Cynnia back inside,” Danaus said, looking over his shoulder.

Shelly led the trembling Cynnia away.

I don’t want to do this again,
Danaus admitted at last. In both his hands, he still gripped blades, ready to physically attack our enemies if I lowered the flames so much as an inch.

If we destroy them now, there will be no sacrifice. No door to close again.

Danaus dropped his knife from his left hand and grabbed my upper arm. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Stefan take an ominous step forward, moving to come between me and the hunter. A wave of my hand kept him at bay, but only just barely. He would keep his word to protect both me and Danaus, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t rough the hunter up a bit.

More than Danaus’s words vibrated through my brain. I could feel his horror and his revulsion at the thought of what had happened back on Blackbeard Island. We had been desperate. Backed into a corner, surrounded by the naturi, he and I had agreed to make one last push with our powers. He had taken my hand in his, while pushing his powers into my body, wielding me like a weapon from Hell. At Themis, it was an accident. We didn’t realize what we were capable of. Yet, on the island, trapped and frightened, we knew what we were doing when we killed them all. We felt each soul being crushed into bleak, cold nothingness. We destroyed their souls.

No. I don’t want this either,
I softly admitted, dropping my head so I could only see his chest.

Never again.

We can do this,
I pressed. I was still confident that there was another way to use the connection between us. There had to be. There had to be a way to use this power beyond just destroying their souls.
It’s about control. We have that.

Mira…

I could feel him begin to waver. He knew this was our best and only shot to survive the day.
We have to do this. If we stop them tonight, there’s no going to Machu Picchu tomorrow night.

Danaus released my arm but didn’t step away as he continued to stare at me. He didn’t want me in his head as he weighed what I had said. He could care less if Jabari or any member of the Coven intended to kill me once I completed the task they had set before me. Sure, he might want the honor of chopping my head off, but dead was dead for him. But I liked to think he also realized that our best chance of defeating the naturi was by attacking them now, not trying to mount an offensive on Machu Picchu.

“We go slow,” Danaus finally said.

“No argument there,” I said, trying not to sound too relieved.

“Only the naturi in Peru,” he continued.

I tried not to laugh at his tone. It was his conscience he was attempting to soothe. “You’re the one in the driver’s seat. I’m just the weapon,” I replied, bitterness slipping between my words.

“Mira, what’s going on? What are you planning?” Stefan suddenly interjected. I had forgotten the nightwalker was still standing there. But right now it didn’t matter. He didn’t matter. There was only Danaus and the naturi.

“We’re getting rid of the naturi,” I murmured, lifting my hand so it hovered between Danaus and me.

Taking a deep breath, Danaus wrapped his long fingers around mine. For a moment there was only his warmth. The strength of his hand holding me was calming, reassuring in a deeper way that I hadn’t felt in a while. For those few seconds, the world and all its threats slipped away because I had someone willing to stand with me.

And then I screamed. The pain was overwhelming, burning brighter than the fire that surrounded me, brighter than the sun I was only now beginning to recall. My back arched and my limbs trembled as the muscles and bones splintered and exploded within me. I could feel Danaus’s power, but the earth power was fighting back. The two were burrowed deep inside of me, fighting for dominance. There was no focusing on the wispy souls of the naturi that surrounded us. There was only white, blinding pain.

Focus!
Danaus ordered, but I could barely hear him over the roar in my head.

I reached out, could see naturi bursting into flames before me but not how we had planned it. The energy was growing too intense. I wrenched my hand from Danaus and fell to my knees. Stars danced before my eyes and I struggled to stay conscious. The flames before me grew hotter, turning a frightening shade of blue. The energy that flowed within me had to go somewhere.

“What happened?” he demanded, kneeling before me. He roughly grabbed both of my shoulders and forced me to meet his intense gaze. “It felt different. I wasn’t in control any longer—something inside of you was fighting me. Did Cynnia do this to you?” He whispered the last bit, but I had no doubt that Stefan had heard it.

“Our last shot failed,” I murmured, then tilted my head up to look at Stefan, who was standing behind me. “We’ve reached our last resort.”

“The Stain.”

I raised my hand to him. “I’ll help you.”

Twenty-Three

S
tefan’s long cool fingers slipped around mine in a slow caress before he pulled me back to my feet. He stood holding my hand in silence for just a breath of time before releasing me. “Preparations need to be made,” he said. “The perimeter needs to be walked. The—”

“It will be handled.” I suddenly cut him off, fully aware of all that needed to be completed in an exceedingly short period of time. “Danaus, go find Shelly. Tell her to put Cynnia into another sleep spell. It’s the only way we’ll be able to protect her.” The hunter seemed to hesitate and I didn’t blame him. The naturi were lingering just beyond the protective wall of blue flames, the sun would soon rise, and I was attempting a strange spell with a nightwalker I wasn’t particularly fond of. But in the end Danaus disappeared inside the lodge to find the earth witch and the naturi princess.

Turning to my left, I let the fingers of my right hand dance through the flames as if I were running them through falling water. At the same time, Stefan took my left hand in his hand as we strolled together around the perimeter of the flame-enclosed area. Naturi fighters paced us as we completed our walk. If someone drew too close, the fire between us would flare and snap at the adversary until they backed off again.

As we walked, we trampled the fragile orchids and thick ferns that filled the garden area. We walked everywhere that the fire touched, our individual power from blood magic filling the air as we established a perimeter we hoped the naturi would not be able to cross when the sun finally slipped back above the horizon.

“You realize what this entails, don’t you?” Stefan asked as we neared our starting point.

“The spell will leave a marker on my soul,” I said with nod of my head.

“A stain for all the bori to see,” he said in an ominous tone.

I flashed him the smile that he was trying so hard to win from me with his dramatic tone. The spell we were attempting was technically called a Soul Sucker. It had been created centuries ago by nightwalkers to protect their daytime lair from any naturi that might happen by. Any creature that moved within the set perimeter had the energy drained from its soul until it finally died. The spell fed upon itself—the more souls it took, the stronger it became. In this case, we were counting on that, considering we had a number of naturi waiting to attack the moment the sun rose.

The spell had garnered the nickname the Stain back when there were bori still on the planet. The more that were killed by the spell, the more souls drained, the darker the stain left on your own soul, marking you to the deadly bori as a powerful nightwalker. There was also the theory that the originator of the Stain spell also got a boost of power from the souls of the dead. The creator of the spell became a storehouse for the soul energy, something the bori not only craved, but survived on.

When the bori roamed the earth, the Stain was a spell of last resort. It was cast when you were completely desperate, fearing discovery during the daylight hours. Because while you might protect yourself during the day, at night you could find yourself under the dark gaze of the bori, and that was something no nightwalker wanted. No one wanted to be faced with their creator and the leash they held.