correctly.”
“No, I’m sure you did,” I snapped, glaring at the quartet of nightwalkers. “Leave. Leave Savannah and the New World. Return to Japan, and if I have my wish, never leave your home again. You are not welcome in this world.”
“You’re turning your back on our superior strength and abilities because you would rather side with the naturi?” Nomura demanded.
“I’m turning my back on you because of what you did to him! Because of what you tried to do to me!” I snarled. “I’m turning my back on you because of the fact that you brought this on us all in the end. If you had not been so cocky in your decision to give him knowledge of blood magic, Aurora might not be here. Leave here and take Matsui with you, now.”
“As you wish,” Nomura replied in clipped tones. He turned on his right heel and quickly exited the town house, his companions following close behind him. Matsui paused in the hallway outside the parlor and bowed deeply to me before he left the house as well. There was a look of genuine regret on his face. I preferred to think that he actually liked serving as my bodyguard. It had to at least be less formal than following behind the Japanese nightwalkers.
“I’m confused,” Rowe announced when the door slammed shut. “Are you angry at them for torturing me or for failing to kill me?”
“I’m angry they used you as a science experiment that could have triggered the end of humanity as we know it if we don’t stop Aurora,” I replied, glaring at the naturi. The story was all too familiar, as Jabari had been content to experiment on me. Both Rowe and I had merely been puppets, playthings for powerful creatures. And in the end, if the Soga clan had succeeded to get me to Japan to help them with their naturi problem, I would have been forced to stay so I would become their next pet project.
Rowe pushed out of his chair, standing so he was looking me directly in the eye. “It didn’t have to be the Soga clan. I would have begged for the knowledge of blood magic from anyone willing to teach me, regardless of the cost. My job was to free Aurora and the others.”
I took a couple steps closer to him. “And you don’t regret it, do you?”
Rowe smirked at me. “Nope.”
“Considering all the lives that have been lost over the years, do you regret anything at all?”
“Just not killing you when I had the chance.”
I matched his smirk with one of my own. “Which time?” Rowe had more than one shot at me over the long years, and here I still stood, alive and smiling at him.
“All of them, from our first meeting till this very second,” he replied.
Shaking my head, I turned my back on the naturi and started to return to the other side of the room. To my shock, Danaus brushed by me in a quick sweeping motion. I twisted around in time to see his meaty fist land squarely on Rowe’s nose, throwing the naturi back into his chair. I placed my hand on Danaus’s chest to keep him from taking another step toward Rowe. However, my eyes were locked squarely on Nyx, who had come away from the far corner like a dark shadow. Her face remained expressionless, but there was a new burning in her gray eyes that hadn’t been there before. This seemed to be more than just protectiveness of her own kind—there was something between her and Rowe.
“She spared your life in Budapest,” Danaus growled. “She gave you a second chance at life and still you persist in hunting her.”
“I’m not as easily tamed as some,” Rowe said in a low voice as he rubbed his nose, checking to make sure it wasn’t broken. Danaus tried to lunge at the naturi again, but I held him back, my eyes remaining on Nyx. There was no weapon in her hand, but I had a feeling she was only waiting for Danaus to make another move toward Rowe.
“Enough!” I shouted, shoving against Danaus so he was forced to take a couple steps back away from Rowe. Summoning up the energy swirling in the air around me, I turned off the lamps in the room, plunging the room into complete darkness for a breath before lighting all the candles as well as igniting a fire in the fireplace. Everyone grew still, seeming to hold their breath as they waited to see if my temper had reached its breaking point.
“We’re not getting anywhere with these talks!” I complained, returning to the other side of the room with Danaus. It was better if there was physical space between Rowe and us. I still wanted to set the bastard on fire after his little dig at Danaus, but I knew we would need him healthy for the battle ahead. “Aurora is out there somewhere waiting to attack. She is not only looking for the heads of you three, but I’m willing to bet she would like to add mine to her collection as well.”
“It’s more than that,” Cynnia said, letting her voice fill the silence for the first time in a while. “Aurora launched an open attack on the city. I think she’s picked the place where she wants to have her final battle with you and her sisters.”
“You mean Savannah?” I asked. “She wants to fight out in the open?”
Nyx fell back into the shadows, but her voice crept forward to replace Cynnia’s soft soothing words. “What better way to strike fear in the hearts of men than for them to witness a battle of the magical arts they can’t hope to understand or win. She will intimidate them, subjugate them, and then finally destroy them all.”
“We need to give her a reason to draw away from the city,” I argued. “We need to give her a reason to pull back her forces to some of the open, uninhabited areas that surround Savannah. Get her out of the city.”
“How will we do that?” Knox asked.
I smiled at him for a second before turning my attention to Cynnia. “With bait. We make her come after Cynnia outside the city.”
“I’m not leaving my sister unguarded and vulnerable,” Nyx countered.
“Who said unguarded?” I shook my head at her, still smiling. “Didn’t you say the animal clan was waiting outside the city at a safe location? Stick Cynnia in the middle of the clan for a time. They’ll keep her safe, correct?”
“They would protect her,” Nyx reluctantly conceded.
“Hell, you and Rowe can go with her as added protection if that’s what you want.”
“And what if you’re her target?” Rowe inquired.
“Then we’re fucked,” I snapped. “I’m not leaving my city without some kind of protection. If it looks like Aurora is going to come after Cynnia outside the city, then Danaus, the nightwalkers, the lycans, and I will come riding to the rescue, attacking her from behind. But until I know that she has turned her sights elsewhere, I’m not budging from Savannah. She’s done enough damage here and destroyed enough lives.”
Rowe stared at me with a strange expression as he scratched his chin with his right hand. “You’re willing to take a lot of risk for a group of people that are going to come at you with a cross and wooden stake once they discover you exist.”
“This is my home and I will protect it,” I said. “I’ll worry about what they think about me later.”
Rowe gave a soft snort and shook his head. “I wish you luck.”
I remained silent, holding onto the luck bequeathed to me by my enemy. I knew I was going to need it. Aurora’s shocking daylight raid on the city proved to me that she was willing to take chances we weren’t willing to take, in an effort to not only protect the humans, but also protect our secret from the humans. I had a dark feeling this war was going to take a turn that I couldn’t protect my people from, and result in more deaths. And possibly even the truth.
Thirty
The wind threaded its fingers through the black feathers of my wings as I soared overhead toward a distant thicket of trees. The sun had just broken over the horizon and was glazing the earth in its golden glow. I could feel myself growing weaker the brighter the sky became. We had spent most of the night arguing tactics before we were all evicted from Mira’s town house in Savannah a couple hours before sunrise. The Fire Starter declared that she needed to have a private meeting with the other gathered nightwalkers before they sought a safe place to spend the daylight hours.
Cynnia, Rowe, and I retreated to the house Shelly was renting in another part of the city. The witch tripped
