Sunrise(Pact Arcanum 2) (12 page)

Rory’s gaze dropped. “I had to make it right.”

Take sheathed his swords and put a hand on Rory’s shoulder. “Rory, what did you have to pay?”

“I have to serve.”

“For how long?” asked Anaba, still hostile.

Rory gazed into the distance, his eyes unfocused. “Until the end of the war, or the end of the world, whichever comes first.”

Anaba stared at him. “You’re crazy.”

“Those were the terms.”

Take took a deep breath. “What kind of service?”

Rory looked up at the stars glimmering through the rent in the cloud cover. “Maybe we should discuss this elsewhere? There’s no telling who saw the light or felt the shockwave.” He knew Take and Ana recognized his evasion, but over the link he could feel their need to get away from this place, steeped in Nightwalker power. He watched as their Sentinel instincts warred with their discipline, demanding they attack the vampire before them and stretching their control to the limits.

Finally, Take nodded curtly. “Fine. We’ll figure this out when we get home.”

“First things first,” said Anaba, stepping up to the altar and closing her eyes.

“Ana,” said Take, “what are you doing?”

She didn’t answer, just lifted her staff to draw a sigil in the air in a trail of orange fire.

The others recognized the symbol just before it was complete. Rory threw Take to the floor, shielding the Sentinel with his body as the room erupted in multicolored fire. When the storm cleared, Rory stood. The burns on his skin faded almost immediately and he reached down to Take, who hesitated before taking his hand. Rory tried not to take it personally. After helping Take to his feet, he confronted Anaba. She was standing, unharmed, next to a six-foot circle of molten glass where the altar once stood.

“A Rune of Unbinding?” Rory’s voice was edged with disbelief. “What are you trying to do, setting one of those off in close quarters?”

“I am closing a door that should never have been reopened,” Ana answered coldly. She glared at Rory, her eyes hard and unyielding. “There will be no more bargains.” She tapped her staff against the floor and the world turned white as she cast another spell. Then the three were standing back on the mesa, next to the new crater above Jiao-long’s underground fortress. Surrounding them was a large clearing where the trees had been blown down by the violence of the incursion.

“All right,”
Ana said over the link.
“We need to get away from here then we’ll decide what to do next. Rory, get us coordinates.”

Rory extended his senses to orient himself and calculate a bearing to teleport them away. Then he stiffened.
“Oh, my God.”

“What’s wrong?”
asked Take.

Wordlessly, Rory showed them exactly what he had detected: hundreds upon hundreds of vampires standing quietly around them, watching their every move.

They were surrounded.

NIGHTFALL

CHAPTER 14

Take felt Ana try to teleport them to safety, but she stopped when a jumper block went up all around them.

“Peace, Sentinels,” said a voice from the darkness in front of them. “We have no quarrel with you. We only wish to talk.”

“Ana,” whispered Take, “make a light.”

Anaba raised her hands slowly and spoke into the darkness. “I am going to cast a light spell. It has no offensive potential.”

“Proceed,” said the voice.

Ana mumbled under her breath. Immediately, a soft white light illuminated their surroundings. The vampires were arranged around them in carefully regimented concentric circles, layered deeply into the darkness beyond her light and encircling them completely. Before them, watching them with an unreadable expression, stood a single dark-skinned Nightwalker about six feet tall, with braided black hair hanging to her waist. She wore a formal black cape over her deep sapphire evening gown. “Takeshi Nakamura, called the Wind of Earth.” When she spoke, it became clear it was she who had addressed them from the darkness.

Take looked at her. “Do I know you?”

“You do not, though I know you. I am Layla Magister Curallorn, called Nemesis, the Prince of Wrath.” She moved closer, examining him as if he were an insect under a microscope. “I have been tracking your movements since the day you first opened your eyes, hoping you would lead me to victory.”

“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,” said Take irritably. “It’s been a long night. If you’re not going to attack, stand aside and let us go.”

“You will not leave, Sentinel,” she said fiercely. “Not until you give us your news. Where is Jiao-long?”

Take tensed. “He got in my way, and now he’s dead. Are you going to get in my way, Nemesis?”

A psychic sigh spread through the crowd, but the vampires didn’t budge from their positions. Nemesis laughed at him. “You are the first Sentinel in more than a millennium to have slain one of the Firstborn, Takeshi Nakamura. Shadowhunter, I name you.” She dropped the veneer of civility and her eyes glowed red. “For five hundred years, I have waited for a Sentinel strong enough to eliminate my greatest enemy. Jiao-long forced me to divide North America into two territories, one on each side of the Great River, but neither of us was satisfied. I have used various proxies to feed you and your predecessors intelligence on House Jiao-long for centuries, thinking one day you might annihilate my opponent for me.”

Takeshi stared at her, speechless.

She flashed her fangs in a wide grin. “Did you think your string of successes was due purely to your own devices?” she asked in amusement. “Your tactical skill has brought about the endgame much faster than I anticipated, but surely you realize there was a greater game at work. You are to be commended for playing your part so well, Shadowhunter. A lesser strategist would have surely failed me.”

Anaba’s eyes flashed. “You broke my wards to let Jiao-long’s scions capture Rory, didn’t you? And you weakened their psychic shields to allow me to follow them here.” Her knuckles showed white on her crystal staff. “I thought it was just a lucky break that led us to Jiao-long’s base, but it was a set-up. All of it.”

Take ground his teeth in frustration, remembering Antonio’s forced betrayal. She had made them all dance to her tune like the conductor of an orchestra. “Is that what you think this was? A game for your amusement?”

Nemesis gauged his outrage with amusement. “That is exactly what this was, mortal. And in any game, there comes a time to separate the players from the pawns. I am a player. Jiao-long was a player. You could have been a player, but you were not motivated enough to deal with Jiao-long.” She glanced behind Take to where Rory stood. “I merely arranged the proper incentive by allowing your lover to be taken.”

Take felt Anaba mask her fear with casual disinterest as the Nightwalkers took a single step forward, tightening the ring around them.

Why does she think the two of you are sleeping together?”
Ana thought over the link.
“Did you guys hook up when I wasn’t looking?”

“No,”
Take and Rory thought simultaneously.

 Nemesis turned her head slightly to stare at the crater behind them. “And now, at the end of centuries of planning and manipulation, when all of my stratagems have finally come to fruition, it seems a greater power has taken an interest.” She refocused her attention on Take. “We felt the sunrise and the release of great magic. We saw the light of the incursion. We were watching when you entered Jiao-long’s fortress, and we know it originated there.” Her voice deepened in fury. “Tell me what transpired. What has Jiao-long done to draw the attention of another plane?”

* * *

Rory stood mute, his mind frozen in terror as the road to his destiny yawned before him. Through the link, Take felt his fear but not the reason for it. The Sentinel subconsciously stepped to the side to cover Rory’s body with his own.

Seeing the movement, Nemesis turned her full senses on Rory. “What is this?” she demanded. “A Sentinel cannot be turned!”

Take raised his swords. “You can’t have him,” he said menacingly.

Nemesis scowled. “If he is the threat, then you will not keep us from him, Shadowhunter. Do you think a single triad can hold us all at bay, no matter how powerful?”

The Nightwalkers took another single step forward, closing the noose even tighter.

Rory felt the others readying themselves to fight, knowing that they had no chance, none at all. He pushed his fear to the back of his mind and placed his hand on Take’s shoulder. “It’s all right, Take.”

“I won’t let them take you,” growled Take without turning around.

“Takeshi,” Rory said, “this was the price.”

Take lowered his swords and whirled around in disbelief.

“I love you. Please forgive me someday,” Rory whispered. He kissed Take on the cheek and walked past him toward Nemesis. Stopping just a few feet away, he held his clenched fists straight out to the sides and opened his hands, allowing the glare of the cruciform brands on his palms to spill out into the darkness.

The Nightwalkers staggered from the power of the Pure Draw, their control breaking for the first time in the face of the holy light emanating from his hands. Nemesis held her ground, her brow creased in suspicion. “You are not what you were, Sentinel. How did Jiao-long make you a scion?”

“He didn’t,” said Rory. “He made me a vessel to travel the planes.”

Nemesis hissed.
“Pact Arcanum!”
The other Nightwalkers backed away in terror. “Jiao-long is a fool! How could he dare to bring such magic back into the world?”

“He paid the price for it,” Rory said.

“Not enough,” growled Nemesis, exposing her fangs. Her eyes blazed red. “The Court would have ordered his entire house
expunged
for this crime!” She glared at him. “Did you bargain on his behalf, Traveler?”

“No. I bargained on my own, with an agent of the Light.”

“And what power did you receive?”

“The power to call the soul back to the physical body and fill it with the White Wind.” Noticing Nemesis’s eyes widen, he plunged ahead. “If the soul is welcomed back, the White Wind will displace the Red.”

“This cannot be,” Nemesis said softly, her emotions clearly in turmoil. “Our damnation is eternal. We are lost forever. The Creator could not possibly seek to reclaim us now.”

“Yes,” Rory said quietly. “I think maybe He could.”

“You would offer us redemption, Traveler?” Nemesis drew herself up to her full height. “I am too old to believe in miracles.” For an instant, she regarded him hungrily before she reasserted her facade of arrogance.

“You underestimate yourself, Nemesis,” Rory said softly. “What price would you pay to step into the sunrise again without fear?”

Nemesis studied him critically. “If you would have us take refuge in this fantasy of forgiveness, I ask that you touch me with your power first, so that I may testify that your claims are true.”

“I’d like to, but I’m not sure exactly how.” Rory chewed his lower lip, suddenly embarrassed as she raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “Honestly, Nemesis. They didn’t give me an instruction manual.”

Nemesis smiled. “My experience with the higher powers is similar. They are not fond of sharing details.” Her eyes drifted to the glowing white brands on Rory’s hands. “Perhaps touch?” She held out her hand.

Rory grasped it. Nothing happened.

“It seems forgiveness will take some time.” She let her arm drop back to her side.

Rory nodded, feeling the heavy regard of his triad through the link. “Redemption can be a hard thing to wait for.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I forgive you.”

The moment he said the words, a flash of light spread out in a spherical shockwave from his hand. The Nightwalker’s memories exploded in his mind, and he saw everything she had done—all the people she had killed, the suffering she had caused, thousands of years compressed into a single instant of fractured time. Lurching backward, he collapsed.

Nemesis stood frozen, her eyes white and shining. A hole was burned in the shoulder of her cape, exposing a glowing white cross emblazoned on her skin. Her skin and hair burned from within as the power spread through her body, blinding the surrounding Nightwalkers with brilliant light. Then, all at once, it ended. The light faded abruptly and Nemesis fell to the ground with a shudder, her hair now completely white.

Take ran to Rory and dropped to his knees, cradling his friend’s head in his lap as the Nightwalkers watched dumbly. “Rory! Rory, can you hear me?”

Rory shivered in his arms, tears of blood escaping his eyes as he stared at Nemesis.

Anaba, her thoughts masked from her triad brothers, walked forward to stand before Nemesis. She detached the cross pendant she wore from the chain around her neck to hold it loose in her hand. She spoke an activating word of power and the cross flared with cobalt light. Nemesis flinched, raising her right hand to ward it off.

“Layla Magister Curallorn,” said Ana, her voice measured and deliberate. “I am Sentinel Anaba Nizhoni, called the Wind of Fire, and my words are true. By virtue of the Sentinel Gift of Fire, I can detect no trace of the Red Wind upon you. You are clean.” She paused as Nemesis lowered her hand and gazed into Ana’s eyes over the blue light of the glowing cross. “If you wish to prove your fealty to the Light, reach out and take this holy symbol from my hand.”