Free Pray for Dawn by Jocelynn Drake Page A

my rising tension and anger. This was all too insane. I was once again working with Mira when I should be hunting her. At least she didn’t look pleased by the prospect.
    “Get your things. We leave in twenty minutes,” she sneered then walked out of the room and into one of the two bedrooms in the suite, slamming the door shut behind her.
    Beside me, I heard Ryan sigh heavily. The warlock leaned his head into his hand, his elbow resting on the arm of his chair. His eyes were closed and he looked very tired. I think the constant meetings were starting to wear on him, and to make matters worse, he had now formed an alliance with the nightwalkers.
    “Did you have to anger her?” he asked, not looking up at me.
    “An alliance with the vampires?” I demanded, ignoring his comment.
    “We’re out of options. If you can think of a better idea, I’d love to hear it. At the moment, it’s all we have.” Ryan opened his eyes and stared at me. The warlock waved his hand and Mira’s door briefly glowed gold before fading away. A dampening spell. I had seen him use it several times since we had met. It ensured that no one could overhear what we were discussing. “Keep her alive, Danaus. This task will most likely be completed in a couple of days and we can discuss this more when you return.”
    “If this is such an easy mission, why am I being sent?” I asked, my brows knitting over the bridge of my nose.
    “Just in case it’s not. If it is the naturi, then they will want her dead. At the moment, she is our only ace.” Ryan paused, a strange smile lifting his lips as he finally looked up at me. “I think Mira also trusts you. Well, maybe not you, but your sense of honor. I don’t think she would let me send anyone else with her.”
    “Great,” I grumbled, turning on my heel. I walked out of Ryan’s suite and back down the hall to my room. I needed to pack my bag yet again.
    Mira trusted me. Just great. While I was off staking vampires throughout Europe, Ryan had formed an alliance with the nightwalkers so that the hunters were now working together with their prey. And Mira “trusts me.” I had seen entire nations rise and fall with less maneuvering than the schemes that Ryan and Mira were concocting, and I had no wish to be a part of another fallen nation.

SEVEN
    J ames was gone, but my duffel bag had been repacked and the weapons bag sat open beside it. James knew that I had several weapons stashed in secret locations around the room in case I suddenly found myself under attack. He had obviously not attempted to search out all the hiding places, leaving me to the final task of gathering up my toys.
    Within five minutes, I had the last of my weapons packed and the bag zipped. I shoved my hands through my hair as I stared down at the leather jacket that lay across the bed. It wasn’t my usual duster, but a softer one that fell only to my thighs. James had left a note saying that he was having the duster mended after the attack in Spain and that he had replaced some of my worn clothes with fresh. So much for a break from the fighting.
    But I had had my chance. After returning from Peru in September, Ryan had offered to let me rest and recover from the massacre at Machu Picchu, but I didn’t take it. I couldn’t sit still, had to keep moving, anything to push back the thoughts humming in my brain. So the warlock sent me out to hunt the naturi and vampires on the Continent, still moving, still hunting, but close at hand should he need me.
    In Berne, Switzerland, I found an earth naturi wreaking havoc in one of the local hotels. The owner had initially blamed the chaos of broken dishes, upset furniture, and over-r grown gardens on a poltergeist. I was there only two nights before I spotted the lithe creature. Standing barely above four feet and dressed in all red, it resembled a sapling willow tree with long, slender arms that ended with sharpened fingernails. It took me another week of stalking the spindly little