Quickly, I pulled on semiclean clothes and shouldered my bag. Dawn was only a few hours away and we had to be in Venice before the sun rose. The Coven was demanding we make an appearance. And the ruling nightwalker body would not be denied anything it wanted.

THREE

I hesitated at the bottom of the stairs leading up to my little jet. Instead of winging me back across the ocean toward home, it was carrying me into the dark heart of the nightwalker empire, the Coven. Jabari would claim it was for my own protection; I had no doubt that the Elders had some other dark scheme in mind. Of course, I had no say in the matter. Running would only make it worse. And I still had to figure out a way to protect Danaus and Tristan.

With a grimace, I climbed on and came face-to-face with the young nightwalker. Tristan stood in the middle of the plane, his hands resting on his slender hips as he looked around the pristine white interior. His eyes settled on me after a moment, with one brow arched in question.

“White?” he inquired, amusement cavorting through his voice. I swept past him, ignoring his comment. What could I say? I thought the black clothes were enough of a stereotype.

“Contact Sadira,” I snapped, noticing the way his smile slipped at the mention of our maker. Neither of us was in any great hurry to see her again. I had escaped her “tender care” nearly five centuries ago only to find myself faced with the controlling vampire once again. Tristan had recently escaped, but was recaptured by me as I’d been unwittingly manipulated by her.

“Tell her to have a taxi waiting when we arrive,” I ordered as I dropped my bag on the floor. “We’re going to be cutting it that close.” Lounging on one of the long benches that lined the interior of the plane, I tried to keep up the appearance of being completely unconcerned with the fact that we were flying to Venice, with sunrise only four hours away.

“Anything else, Mistress?” he asked with an elegant bow. I frowned at the nightwalker. Get him away from Sadira and he turns into a sarcastic ass, I thought. Just what I needed. I already had my hands full with Danaus, the Coven, and the naturi; I didn’t need to worry about a young nightwalker now that he was away from his master. But I also had a sickening feeling in my stomach that he was confident I would find a way to free him from Sadira’s grasp. Desperation made me promise to help him. At the time, I’d been sure that one of us wouldn’t survive the encounter. I was wrong, and now I was stuck.

“Go to the back and take a nap,” I grumbled.

I watched him as he took a couple steps toward the back of the jet, where a tiny bedroom lay behind a door. But he paused before reaching the door, seeming to hesitate.

“Go ahead,” I called. “Say it.”

“Why go?” Tristan’s voice was barely over a whisper when he finally spoke, as if fearful of some kind of punishment for questioning me. He turned and his eyes held that same haunted look they had just a couple nights ago in that London alley. Fearful. Hopeless. “We’ve got a jet. Let’s go west. As far from the Coven as we can get.”

“And spend an eternity running from the Coven? From the naturi?” I rose to my feet and slowly approached him. His narrow shoulders curled inward, his body tensing for an expected blow. “There is nowhere to run. Jabari will hunt us down. The naturi will hunt us down. If we go to the Coven now, they can raise an army and we can finally stop the naturi from freeing their queen.”

“What about the Coven?”

I smiled at him and brushed the tips of my fingers along the side of his face. “Others have survived facing the Coven. It just takes a little finesse.”

“The Coven needs you alive.”

“And I promised to keep to you,” I said with a shrug. “So, if I live, you live.”

A cynical smile twisted on Tristan’s lips, failing to lift any of the doubt from his eyes. But he nodded once before turning and disappearing in the tiny back bedroom. He knew there was no escaping our destination. We would go before the Coven. If we were to defeat the naturi, we would need their assistance.

I bit back a sigh as I returned to the bench I had been sitting on. It wasn’t a great plan, but at least it was something. As I stretched out my legs and tried to relax, Danaus stepped onto the jet.

A surprised smile tweaked the corners of my mouth as he sat on the bench across from me. It was only a few days ago since we boarded the jet together for the first time. He had been tense and uneasy as we headed off to search for clues as to how the naturi were attempting to break free of their cage. Now he seemed almost relaxed. I was no longer a threat. At this point we both had darker things to worry about than what we could do to each other.

“What?” he asked in a wary, near growl.

“You’re still here,” I replied. His blue eyes narrowed. I waved one hand at him, brushing off his dark look. “I didn’t mean it quite like that. I thought we would have parted ways by now, whether through your death or not.”

One thick dark brow quirked at me. “I’ve thought the same.” I think he was taunting me. It was hard to tell. His thoughts and emotions had grown distant and hazy again, while his expression retreated to its usual unreadable stone. The link we had established through our combined powers had faded to almost nothingness. My awareness of him was now obscured by the cloak of energy that wrapped around him.

“So I’ve heard. Ryan said you’ve been itching to cut my heart out. Do you plan to keep it as a trophy?” That finally earned me a frown while my own smile widened. “Regardless of your plans for my various body parts, we’ll have to keep working together if we hope to survive the next few nights. Trust me, I’m not pleased. You’re giving me a bad reputation.”

Danaus chuckled quietly, and for a brief moment his features softened. Through that slim window of time, I glimpsed sight of a beautiful man. His weariness and shadow of worry melted away. Normally, with his glares and frowns, he was a virile creature exuding strength and power. Yet when he smiled and laughed, his humanity shone through a break in the clouds. It was a strange combination. Danaus had somehow found a way to be human without all the usual human frailty.

And then I realized I no longer wanted to kill him. Lurching to my feet with none of my usual grace, I paced to the back of the jet, a curse on the tip of my tongue. Was I going soft? Had I lost my edge?

But just because I didn’t want to kill him didn’t automatically mean I saw him as a comrade in arms. He was a strong fighter, and it was nice having someone at my back who could take care of himself. Danaus wasn’t as frail as my beloved angels, but he also didn’t have their warmth and compassion.

Stretching my arms above my head as best as I could in the jet, I shook off the strange realization. Danaus was probably still in my head, mucking up my thoughts. It would pass, I tried to reassure myself. So he wasn’t on my to-kill list anymore. That could change easily enough, and probably would during our stay in Venice.

“Can he hear us?” Danaus suddenly inquired, motioning with his head toward the closed door at the opposite end of the jet.

I paused as I paced back toward the bench opposite him, my brows bunched over the bridge of my nose in confusion. “Why?”

“We need to talk.” Those ominous words rumbled in his chest before finally finding an exit from his lips. I could guess at what he wanted to talk about and I was in no rush, but it had to be done. Mentally reaching out, I brushed Tristan’s mind and found him stretched out on the bed in the back of the jet. With a little shove, I pushed him deeper into sleep, where he would stay until the jet landed.

“Tristan is asleep. He can’t hear us,” I said, sitting on the bench across from Danaus. I stretched out my legs and crossed them at the ankle, trying my best to affect a relaxed posture when all the muscles in my body seemed to be tense and waiting. “What is it that we’re keeping quiet?”