Painfully, I pushed to my feet. The sound of Jabari and Ryan rising as well drifted to my ears, but my attention was on the carnage around me. Danaus was slowly approaching. He was covered in blood and scrapes. A long cut ran along the right side of his face, blood dripping from the end of his chin. His deep blue eyes glittered in the fading torchlight.

“Rowe?” I asked.

“Unknown,” Danaus said with a slight shake of his head. “He was badly wounded. They carried him out of here.”

I knew better than to hope. Centuries ago I had left Nerian for dead at the top of Machu Picchu, confident the naturi would never be able to pull his intestines back into his body before he bled to death. I had been wrong. I wouldn’t believe that Rowe was actually dead until I saw his cold, lifeless body lying on the ground before me. And even then I’d incinerate him to white hot ashes just to be on the safe side.

But for now I wanted Rowe alive. He knew there was a faction within his happy family that wanted his wife-queen dead. That division within the naturi could work to our advantage in the coming nights. Rowe would be forced to conduct a witch hunt within his own people to find out who wanted Aurora dead. It would create chaos, and creating chaos was what I did best.

Turning, I looked over at one of the nightwalkers who was rumored to have created me. Something deep inside of me hated Jabari for using me, for making me his own powerful plaything. But I didn’t have the memories of those horrible moments to keep the fires of hatred burning brightly. All the memories I had of him were of loving companionship and trust. Even now, knowing the truth about my creation and past, some part of me still trusted him, needed to believe that what he’d told me was the truth.

Regardless of my feelings for Jabari, I didn’t want to be on the Coven, but for now, my presence struck a balance against Macaire and maybe even Elizabeth. And until Macaire was either broken or dead, Jabari would be content to leave me alive. I had bought myself and Our Liege some time.

“I’m leaving,” I announced.

“You’re to go back to the Coven,” Jabari ordered. “You belong with the Coven.”

I smiled at him. “No,” I simply said. “I’m going where I am needed. I’m going home. When the time comes to fight Aurora and the naturi, you know where to find me.”

I walked toward the northern entrance, but stopped after only a few feet. Looking over my shoulder, I stared at Danaus for a few seconds in silence. So many unanswered questions, confused emotions, and ugly mistakes. A bori wrapped in human trappings. A hunter who was no longer sure who the enemy really was. And a nightwalker who was no longer sure where her loyalties lay. There was only one thing I knew for sure when it came to Danaus: We weren’t finished yet.

“Are you coming?” I called.

He arched one thick black brow at me. His lips twisted and one corner of his mouth quirked in a mocking smile.

“It’ll be easier to kill you if I don’t have to hunt you down,” I said, answering his unspoken question, Why?

Without a word, Danaus slid his blood-smeared sword back into the sheath on his back and followed me out of the Minoan ruins. For now, we could both say to hell with the Coven, Themis, and the naturi. I was headed home, where Danaus and I could focus on more important things. Like trying to get back to the business of killing each other.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A special thanks to my editor, Diana Gill, for making me a better writer, and to my agent, Jennifer Schober, for working so hard to keep me sane.

About the Author

By day, Jocelynn Drake is a clean-cut financial analyst writer, but in her free time she writes about a dark underworld where vampires rule. The author of Nightwalker, she lives in Kentucky.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

The Dark Days Novels

NIGHTWALKER

DAYHUNTER