“Enough to be a threat.” I could imagine one of his rare smiles flitting across his lips as he spoke.

As my own smile faded, I gave him instructions to contact my assistant, Charlotte, and have her arrange for a chartered jet to be ready to leave Venice that night. The new moon was in two nights. We had enough time to be at whatever location would be the site of the next sacrifice. Enough time to face the naturi for what I hoped would be the last time.

Rolling out of bed, I showered and dressed. Unfortunately, I was down to my last clean garment—a sleeveless cotton dress that hung down to my ankles. I had hoped to wear it in Egypt as I wandered around the decaying monuments, listening to the sound of the Nile splashing between its banks. The breezy, navy blue skirt would only hinder me in a fight, but I knew I wouldn’t be fighting Macaire when he finally decided to appear. The Elder might be seriously pissed at me, but he also understood the value of a good weapon. And if I had proved anything during the long years, it was that I was an efficient killer.

I had hoped to slip out of the suite without being stopped, but Danaus was sitting in the living room drinking coffee. The remains of his dinner rested on a trolley brought up by room service. A ghost of a smile floated across my lips as I looked at the hunter settled comfortably on the sofa. It always amused me when I saw him doing such mundane things like eating or enjoying the warmth of a good cup of coffee. It kept my mind struggling to grasp hold of him, as he constantly shifted between ruthless killer and human in my thoughts.

He was dressed in a dark navy linen shirt with short sleeves that revealed his deeply tanned, muscled arms. His shoulder-length locks were pulled back, letting my eyes caress his strong features. The day’s growth of dark stubble had been removed from his chin, but it did nothing to lessen the shadows that clung to the hollows of his cheeks. Danaus looked like a wealthy Italian gentlemen on holiday, but there was a seriousness, a dark shadow in his sapphire eyes, that no amount of expensive clothes could hide.

Had circumstances been different, I would have been content to spend the night staring at him, slowly memorizing his features. I would have happily passed the night curled in a chair, arguing philosophy, mythology, and our place in the universe with him.

“You’re awake early,” he said, setting his cup on the table before him. He rose from the sofa, slipping his hands into his trouser pockets. A knife was once again attached to his waist, and he was wearing a hard leather wrist guard on his right arm. The weaponry and guard were at odds with his clothes, reminding me that there was no escaping what he was—a hunter.

“Another meeting, I believe,” I said. I was dead inside after all that had happened during the past several nights. Walking over to the wall of windows, I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms loosely over my stomach.

“Like last night’s?”

“No.”

“Alone?”

I stared out the wall of windows, admiring the pallet of colors washing across the sky. Since becoming a nightwalker, my skies had been limited to inky black and sickly shades of gray. Yet, while in Venice, I had been given two chances to add some color to my skies. Tonight, the sky was bathed in deep reds and oranges as the sun sank deeper beneath the horizon. “No,” I said, a surprised smile dawning on my face. Danaus knew almost as much as I did at this point. Why should I try to hide this? He was also part of the triad. If Macaire wanted to talk to me about the naturi, then he would have to tell Danaus as well.

“We have to leave tonight,” Danaus reminded me. I knew that. The new moon was in two nights. It was also Lughnassadh, the pagan preharvest festival. Ancient lore said the celebration was in honor of the god Lugh’s wedding to Mother Earth. While I can’t say that I put much stock in the old pagan tales, it would have been rather fitting if the naturi managed to break the seal on that night, erasing the one thing blocking the union of the two worlds.

“Do you know where the next sacrifice will be?” I asked, turning to look at him.

He shook his head, a grim smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “I was going to ask you the same question.”

“Great,” I muttered, walking over and plopping down in one of the chairs next to the sofa. “We’re out of time.”

“We should never have come here. We should have been looking for the next location, or at least trying to hunt down Rowe,” Danaus growled, but to my surprise, he seemed as frustrated with himself as he was with me.

“I don’t remember us having a lot of choice in the matter,” I said, fixing my dark gaze on the hunter. “Or at least, I didn’t. Jabari wanted me here. I wouldn’t have been able to fight him. I’m a puppet, remember?”

Danaus sat down on the sofa again, leaning forward so he could rest his elbows on his knees. He stared off into space, lost in his own thoughts. Unfortunately, this arguing wasn’t getting us anywhere.

“The naturi can’t do anything for another two nights,” I said with a sigh. “If we hadn’t come here, we would have been jumping from place to place, chasing anything that looked suspicious. That would have been a waste of our time and extremely dangerous. Rowe could have attacked at any time during the day. At least here we were protected.”

That comment finally made Danaus’s head snap up, a frown pulling at his mouth. In this case, “protected” simply meant that we were safe from the naturi because this area was controlled by nightwalkers. And apparently because the Coven had struck up some kind of bargain with the naturi.

“Look at it this way, if we hadn’t come, Tristan and Nicolai would most likely be dead. We wouldn’t know the Coven has cooked up some scheme with the naturi, and we wouldn’t know that Rowe is unaware of the alliance. Once we know what the Coven is planning, it will be easier to stop them,” I argued.

“But that still leaves us with one very large problem,” Danaus countered. The hunter picked up his coffee cup again and drank the last of its contents.

Pulling myself up using the arms of the chair, I sat up straight. “I think we have more than that, but which one are you referring to?”

“Where is the next sacrifice?”

“We should know tonight. I think Macaire will tell us,” I said, causing Danaus’s features to twist in confusion.

“And why do you think he will do that?”

“Call it a hunch.” I shrugged my shoulders at the hunter as I smiled at him. “Have you talked to Ryan recently? Are your people looking as well?”

The warlock was the head of Themis, a research group that had spent centuries watching nightwalkers, lycanthropes, and any other creepy-crawly creatures the rest of the human race wasn’t aware of. Their numbers were large enough that they could watch all twelve of the so-called holy sites and report back any kind of activity. And the one major advantage they had over nightwalkers was that they could keep an eye on things during the daylight hours. While I fully expected Macaire to tell us the site of the next sacrifice, I wanted Ryan to confirm the information for me. Macaire would tell us the location; I just wanted to be sure it was the real location.

“Ryan is looking into it,” Danaus replied. “No word yet on the location.”

“Gabriel is contacting Charlotte. She’ll arrange for the flight out tonight,” I said, pushing back to my feet. Forcing a smile onto my lips, I motioned with my head toward the door. “Ready?”

The hunter’s muscular body was almost humming with energy as we headed down to the main landing. Pausing near the canal, I willed my body to relax, pushing the tension from my arms and down my legs until it flowed out of my toes. A light summer breeze stirred, dancing down the canals and threading its way between the buildings. Street lamps were popping on and the glow from Piazza San Marco was starting to swell.