“Oh, thank God!” I cried, putting a steadying hand on his shoulder. “I thought he was dead.”
“He’s hanging on by a thread, and from what the doctor told me, things don’t look good.”
“What happened?” I choked out the words in my clogged throat, looking anywhere than at the men around me.
“From what I can guess, Gabriel was one of the first on the scene when the alarms went off at your house. The naturi attacked him and slashed his throat and then pinned him to a tree with several swords stuck through his body. The fire truck arrived with an ambulance, so they were able to get him to the hospital before he bled out, but he was in bad shape.”
“I’m assuming you’ve been to the hospital. What’s the doctor’s prognosis?” I said in a low, even voice as I struggled to keep the last bit of my temper under control.
“Not good,” Danaus replied. “If he survives the next couple of days, he might make it. One of his lungs collapsed and several of his other organs are in distress. The doctor also thinks that if he survives, he’ll never speak again.” His explanation put more fuel on the fire building within me. It was one thing to destroy my home and threaten my life, but Gabriel was mine and I would not tolerate any harm to him.
“Knox, Shelly will be with Cynnia. I want you to personally take her to Gabriel’s side and make her to heal him,” I bit out in slow, clearly enunciated words so there could be no mistake.
“Shelly is with Cynnia and the other naturi at Mira’s town house,” Danaus interjected, saving the nightwalker some unnecessary searching.
“What if she can’t—” Knox started, but I quickly cut him off.
“She healed Barrett the night we were attacked in the tunnels by the naturi,” I snarled, taking a quick step over to stare directly at him. “She can at least try to heal Gabriel. Don’t let her leave that hospital room until she has given everything she can possibly give to heal him!” So far as I was concerned, Shelly had to heal Gabriel.
“I’ll get her, Mira,” Knox said, meeting my glowing gaze. “She’ll find a way to help Gabriel.” Then he paused. “But, if it’s not enough . . . if it looks like we’re going to lose him . . .” He paused, licking his lips. “Have you ever discussed changing him?”
This time I was the first to look away, lowering my eyes to the trampled grass. The earth was squishy and cold beneath my feet from where the hoses had been brought in to spray down the fire-engulfed house.
“We’ve discussed it and he’s said that he would be proud to die in service to me. He said he wasn’t interested in living forever and one lifetime was enough for him.” I forced the words past the lump in my throat.
“If Shelly has any kind of problems, I will ask him a second time just to be sure,” Knox reassured me, placing one of his hands on my shoulder and squeezing. “I would be honored to bring him over if he makes that decision.”
“If you ask him, remove the pain first. I don’t want his decision to be a pain-addled one,” I murmured, still unable to raise my eyes to meet his. Equal parts anger and pain burned through me as I thought about my bodyguard dying slowly, alone in a hospital room. He deserved better than this after all his years of service to me.
My emotions were mixed. A part of me wanted Knox to bring him over, to make him a nightwalker so I couldn’t lose him. But another part of me knew that Gabriel wouldn’t take the offer. He was content with being human, and living a human’s short, fragile life. I didn’t expect him to take Knox’s offer and I respected him for that bravery. He was willing to face whatever awaited us after death. It was something too few of us could claim.
“What do you want me to do?” Gregor demanded, surprising me. His black jacket and waistcoat were tossed over his arm, while his pristine white shirt was streaked with soot. His carefully coiffed hair was askew. The nightwalker perpetually trapped in the nineteenth century was starting to look as if he’d embraced the modern world. Gregor ran with a group of reckless nightwalkers consumed with only their own amusement, but his presence here tonight told me he was finally willing to step up. It was about fucking time.
“I want you to return to Savannah. Gather together all the nightwalkers you can find within the Savannah region. Find out who didn’t make it through the night and send the survivors to my town house,” I directed. “I will be there with Cynnia, making final plans on how we are going to deal with Aurora. We will have our vengeance against this attack. She didn’t just attack me, she attacked our city, our home, and we will not stand for it.”
“You will have your army at your doorstep before the moon reaches its peak tonight, coven Elder,” Gregor said with a slight bow before he hurried across the yard toward a black car parked in the driveway.
“Do you need me for anything else?” Knox asked one last time.
“Just do what you can to save Gabriel,” I said. “I will understand if he cannot be saved, but we must at least put forth all the effort we can muster. He deserves that.”
“I will do everything within my power,” Knox said. He pressed his right hand to his heart before bowing to me. He then ran across the yard and jumped into the passenger seat of the car Gregor was driving.
Danaus and I stood in silence, watching as they disappeared into the night, heading back toward the city. I managed to push aside my anger and hatred, but I knew that bottle would quickly come uncorked the moment I was finally faced with Aurora. She had struck first, but she’d failed. She should have killed me. She should have personally seen to it that I was destroyed by the fire, or at the very least cut off my head as I slept. But she didn’t and now she was faced with my fury.
“What’s our next step?” Danaus inquired.
“We meet with Cynnia. She better have a plan. If not, I will. Aurora struck first and struck hard. She is threatening to expose not only her own race, but also the nightwalkers. Such actions will not be tolerated by the nightwalkers, lycanthropes, or the magic users. It’s time for her to be put down before we find ourselves faced with the Great Awakening.”
And no matter how badly we wished it to be true, everyone knew that mankind was not ready for the Great Awakening. They had recently survived floods, earthquakes, and economic turmoil that left thousands homeless and helpless. Humanity wasn’t ready to know that its nightmares were real as well. We needed to kill Aurora before the truth was finally released to the world.
Twenty-nine
Danaus was kind enough to keep Cynnia and her companions occupied while I slipped upstairs in the Savannah town house. I donned black leather pants, leather boots, and a thick leather top that provided an extra layer of protection against a blade. I was ready to step into war that night and I would take no prisoners. If they stood against us, they died. That was all.
When I finally entered the parlor, my gaze immediately fell on Rowe, as the naturi smoothly rose from the chair he had been sitting in on the opposite side of the room. Cynnia remained seated next to him, while her sister Nyx stood in the back of the room with a carefully blank expression. Rowe flashed me a mocking smile, but I ignored him. My main concern was Cynnia’s all-too-silent sister. She and Rowe were the experienced warriors, not Cynnia.
“Thank you for your assistance with Daniel,” I said, forcing my jaw to unclench. I never thought the night would come when I would not only invite Rowe into my home, but also thank him for his help. After centuries of torment and conflict, I nearly gagged on the words.
Rowe’s smile grew as he stared at me, soaking up the hatred that filled my tense and tightly clipped words. “You know me,” he said with a careless wave of one hand. “Always looking for a way to lend a hand to mankind.”
I swallowed my next comment and turned my attention to Cynnia, who was looking more than a little uncomfortable. Most likely her discomfort came from the common knowledge that Rowe had performed more than one human organ harvest during his time here on Earth, separated from his own kind. Rowe didn’t help humans. He slaughtered them every chance he got. How she expected me to believe he would actually help us was still beyond my comprehension.
“What can you tell me about the occurrences in Savannah during the daylight hours?” I demanded, turning away from Rowe before I lit his smug ass on fire. “Was Aurora actually in the city?”
“She was here,” Nyx replied evenly.
