Pray for Dawn (26 page)

“He went through a partial shift when we didn’t think he could at all,” I explained. To my left, Mira remained surprisingly silent, though I had a feeling that she was simply waiting until we were alone so that she could pound me with questions.

“Then he’ll have no choice. When the full moon arrives, he’ll have to shift completely,” Barrett confirmed with a solemn nod of his head. “He’ll need help. Fighting the change will only make it more painful the first time. He’ll also need guidance back. His family?”

“No family. No pack,” I said firmly. Barrett had to understand that James had nowhere else to turn.

His brow crinkled as he looked at me and a fresh frown formed on his face. “Is he searching for a pack?”

“No, I doubt he will ever be a part of one. He just needs someone to help him get his feet under him again. Get him through the first full moon. A little advice and guidance. That’s all I’m asking for.”

To my surprise, the lycanthrope only thought about it for a couple of seconds. “Send him to me a couple days before the full moon. The pack will help him.”

“I’ll do what I can,” I replied, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

“You’re not sure he will come?” Barrett asked, his tone jumping in surprise.

“This has all come as a surprise to him,” I admitted. “He may be resistant at first.”

“How old is he?”

“I—I don’t know. Mid-twenties, maybe.” I honestly hadn’t a clue as to how old James was.

“He’s twenty-eight,” Mira interjected, drawing my gaze back to her. For a moment, I wondered how she knew I was talking about James and then I felt it, a shift in power. She was a ghost in my thoughts, listening in undetected when I didn’t think such a thing was possible. I had been so focused on getting James help from Barrett that I had dropped my guard.

“It will be hard on him, but the pack can help. Get him here,” Barrett said and then rose to his feet. “We’ll do what we can.”

I slid to my feet at the same time as Barrett and shook his hand. “Thank you for meeting with us and for your assistance.”

“My pleasure, and please, dinner is on me tonight.”

“Barrett!” Mira started, but the lycanthrope held up his hand, stopping her.

“Accept it as an apology,” he quickly said, forestalling any further comment from the vampire. “I had some of my people speak with your friend recently.” His dark copper eyes returned to my face and he gave a brief bow of his head. “For the trouble. I did not understand the nature of your relationship with Mira.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to argue that I had no relationship with Mira. That our preferred arrangement was one of hunter and prey. That this “friend” status Mira was bestowing on me was complete bullshit. But I kept my mouth shut and tried not to glare. This wasn’t his fault. It was Mira’s.

While I was standing, Mira slid out of the booth and I silently followed her out of the restaurant. It was only when we were both out on the street again in the cool fall air that I felt as if I could relax. I rolled my shoulders and leaned my head toward either shoulder, loosening up the muscles. I hadn’t realized I had grown so tense while talking with Barrett until we were away from the restaurant.

Mira walked beside me, jiggling her keys in her hand. “At least that is out of the way,” she muttered.

“Not exactly informative.”

“I didn’t expect it to be,” she replied, walking around to the driver’s side of the car. She hit the button on the remote, and the lights briefly flashed as the doors unlocked. “I took this meeting as just a kind of warning that you and I are looking into the murder.”

I paused in the act of lifting the car door handle and tilted my head slightly to the side as if I was trying to hear something, but I was actually reaching out with my other sense. My powers flowed out from me, covering the area. The dozen or so lycanthropes in the nearby restaurants muddied up my senses, but as I reached past them, it cleared.

“We have to go now,” I said, looking at Mira over the roof of the car.

“How many?”

“Four and they’re approaching fast.”

Mira looked up at the black night sky as she jerked the door open, as if she expected them to swoop down on us at any moment.

“No,” I said, jumping into the car as she did and slamming my door shut. “By land. I think they’re in a car.”

“Damned naturi.”

TWENTY

I
t was only after the tires finished squealing, launching us out of the parking lot and back onto the street, that Mira tried to speak. Battling any member of the naturi was a tricky matter at best.

“What do you mean you think they’re in a car?” Mira snarled, as both of her hands gripped the wheel. “Naturi? Is there something else with them?”

“No,” I said, twisting in my seat to look behind us while struggling to hold onto the armrest on the door. Mira was whipping us down a winding street, continuously keeping me off balance. I had yet to actually see the car, but I could feel them following. They weren’t gaining ground on us, but they weren’t losing any either.

“Naturi are driving the car? Are you serious?”

“Damn it, Mira! You’re a vampire and you’re driving a car.” For a brief moment, I wondered which one of us had actually lost their mind; Mira for her shortsighted bias or me for even participating in this argument. Of course, the thought was shoved from my mind as Mira made a sharp left turn in front of a semi, causing its tires to screech as the driver slammed on his brakes.

“I know! I know! I’m still getting used to the idea,” she shouted, waving one hand in the air.

“Where are you going?” I demanded when I learned to breathe again.

“Highway. I’ve got to get them away from the lycans,” she said as she finally grabbed an on-ramp to the highway, leading us north.

I sat back in my seat, staring forward as I shoved both hands through my hair, pushing it away from my eyes as I tried to think. Mira was still weaving through traffic like a madwoman, but I had faith in her quick reflexes not to plow us into a concrete divider or crush us under the tires of a tractor trailer.

“How the hell did they find us? Naturi can’t sense vampires. At least, they never could before,” Mira ranted, her voice dying off at the end.

“Shit,” I hissed, barely resisting the urge to smash my fist into the car door on my right. “I bet they can track humans.”

“Yeah, but you’re…”

“I’m still at least half human.”

Mira stared at me with wide eyes. The few times the naturi had managed to locate her, I had been at her side. They had learned to locate me and were potentially following me or at least watching me from a distance, waiting for me to join Mira. They were using me as a homing beacon to locate her.

“We can separate,” I suggested.

“No!”

I sat back and released my seat belt, causing a little bell to start chiming in the car. “Let me out, and I can draw them away from you.”

“I said no,” she repeated, punctuating her remark with an ominous
thunk
that echoed all around me. She had locked the doors with the switch at her side. “I didn’t save your sorry ass in Venice to hand you over to the naturi now. If I just randomly drop you off, they might guess that we’re on to their little trick. They will have no use for you, and will simply kill you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Maybe you can and maybe you can’t. We’re stronger as a team and you know it. So why don’t you stop arguing with me and help me think of a plan.” Mira glanced at me for a second before looking back at the road long enough to cut between two cars to get to an open lane. “And put your goddamn seat belt back on.”

I didn’t take my eyes off her as I drew my seat belt back on and latched it with a soft click. There were lines of strain cutting across her forehead and pulling at the corners of her eyes. Her fingers continued to tighten and loosen on the steering wheel. She was fighting to stay in control while fear of the naturi beat at her.

In truth, I wasn’t feeling much better. And worse, this was my fault. The longer I remained with her, the easier it was for them to track her down. But Mira was right. We were stronger when we worked together. While I acted as a beacon, bringing them to her side, I was also her only warning that they were even in the area. Vampires couldn’t sense the naturi and the naturi couldn’t sense vampires. Up until now, it had been an arrangement that seemed to work for both sides.

“Can you see them?” she asked, her voice sounding somewhat calmer.

Twisting around to look out the rear window, I let my eyes dance over the cars that were keeping pace behind us. No one seemed to be in any great hurry to catch up to us. “No, but they’re still coming.” I could sense them, four naturi approaching fast.

“Do you need to see them to boil their blood?” Mira inquired.

“What?” I demanded, jerking around so that I was sitting back in my seat again.

“I have to see the naturi to burn them,” she explained. “Do you have to see them to boil their blood? Or is it enough that you can sense them?”

“I—I don’t know,” I admitted. “Anytime I’ve used that power I’ve been able to look my enemy in the eye. It’s a last resort.”

“Well, I think we’ve reached that point,” Mira snapped. “Unless you really want to pull over and fight them hand to hand.”

“I can try it, but they’re in a car. If it works, they’re going to crash,” I pointed out. “Innocent people could die.”

“There would be another investigation, more memories to wipe, bodies to dispose of…” she softly listed under her breath with a shake of her head. “I can’t do it.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I—I can’t do it,” she whispered then shook her head violently as if to wake herself up from a trance. “It won’t work. We need another plan and I think I’ve got one,” she announced with renewed vigor. “Are they still following us?”

I reached out with my powers briefly, touching on the naturi that were still speeding along behind us. They seemed a little closer than they had been only a couple moments ago, but they weren’t quite breathing down our necks. “They’re still there.”

“Good.” To my surprise, Mira jerked the car across three lanes of traffic and grabbed the first exit. I didn’t say anything, but held on as she jumped off the expressway and then grabbed the first on-ramp to the highway, heading back south.

“Where the hell are we going?” I demanded once we were comfortably settled in front of a semi.

“Back to Savannah,” she informed me, as she actually slowed the car down to the legal speed limit.

“I thought you wanted to keep them away from the lycans,” I said, flinching when she abruptly changed lanes a little closer to a Toyota Prius than I thought was sensible.

“They’re not animal clan,” she replied. “If they were, they would have called up the shifters when we were at the restaurant. I think these are from the wind clan.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because the only thing that’s been in my domain since you showed up was from the wind clan. The group in the conservatory.”

“So it’s somebody out for a little revenge,” I said, frowning.

“But why only the wind clan?” Mira asked as she glanced up into the rearview mirror.

“Who do we know from the wind clan?”

“Rowe, Cynnia, and her sister Nyx,” Mira quickly replied. “I don’t think they’re with the pirate. He was banished. Besides, if Rowe wanted my head, I have no doubt that he’d come here to get it personally, after his falling out with Aurora.”

“Do you think they were sent by Cynnia? Trying to extend an olive branch?” I asked. I barely resisted the urge to turn the heat on in the car. The later the night grew, the more the temperature dropped, so that now my fingers were growing stiff from the cold.

“Then I guess we might get to see if these naturi want to talk or fight,” Mira said, taking an exit into Savannah. “Are they still following?”

“Yes,” I said, glancing over my shoulder as I continued searching for the car that I knew held the naturi.

Beside me, I could feel a slight chill enter the air. It reached through my clothes and brushed against my skin. I jerked and looked back over at my companion. The unexpected touch of cool energy was coming from Mira. She was using her powers, but I couldn’t begin to guess at what she was doing. The energy was very slight and I might not have noticed it if I hadn’t been sitting so close to her.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

“Saw this in a movie once,” she said, flashing me a somewhat strained grin.

“You know movies aren’t real life,” I reminded her.

“Yeah, well this movie didn’t also have a wily nightwalker as the lead, so this may just work,” she joked, then abruptly turned serious as she headed toward the riverfront area. “Open the glove compartment. You’ll find a garage door opener inside.”

Leaning forward, I popped open the glove compartment. Inside lay only a 9mm automatic and a small remote control for a garage door opener. I pulled out the remote, but didn’t close the glove compartment door. I wasn’t carrying a gun and I felt safer with the weapon just a matter of inches from my fingertips.

“When we turn the corner, hit the button,” Mira directed.

Mira headed into what appeared to be a somewhat dodgy part of town, full of old warehouses and worn houses. She suddenly took a left turn and I hit the button. I looked around, trying to discern what I had opened when I heard a low, metallic creak and grumble just down the street from us. A large metal doorway was rolling up to a warehouse. Mira quickly jerked the car into the opening, the roof of the car barely missing the bottom of the doorway as we squeaked through the opening.

“Don’t close the door!” she quickly ordered before I could push the button again. “If they’re close behind, they could see it going down.” Mira hit the brakes and turned off the car before we came to a complete stop, plunging the warehouse back into total darkness.

“Now what?” I asked.

“We wait,” she whispered. Mira sat back, letting her hands slip from the steering wheel and into her lap. “How close are they?”

I closed my eyes and stretched out with my power, letting it run through the entire city. I could feel nightwalkers leisurely strolling all over the place, or seated in close quarters with other warm bodies. I could sense a scattering of naturi all over the city, but the set of four moving fast enough to be in a car were a distance off; maybe a half mile away. “They’re not close. Actually…I think they’re moving away from us.”