Pray for Dawn by Jocelynn Drake Page A

her head and stared down at the city, her jaw tight.
    “Since the door opened, they’re everywhere and they’re not limiting themselves to the woods,” I replied. “They’ve been creeping into the cities, killing humans and vampires when they can do it quietly. They don’t seem to want to be noticed at this point.”
    “Aurora is still plotting,” Mira murmured. “She has her sisters to deal with now besides me.”
    The queen of the naturi did have more than a few problems in her lap now that she was running free on Earth. Her younger sisters now stood opposed to her plans to destroy the human race, causing the naturi race to splinter into two factions. Where she had probably thought her only resistance would be the nightwalkers, Aurora now faced her own kind as well.
    “It’s only a matter of time before she makes her move,” I said, but Mira shook her head.
    “No, she’ll want to solidify her claim as queen first, bring her people back together and crush her sisters. She’s going to need as many of the naturi at her disposal as possible if she is going to destroy both the nightwalkers and the humans. We’ve got some time.”
    Mira let her eyes sweep over the room, her fists balled at her side, but I don’t think she actually saw any of it. “Do you sense any more in the city?” she suddenly snapped, glaring at me.
    “No. There are no more naturi in the immediate area,” I said.
    Mira gave me a jerky nod and directed her gaze back out the window. The anger and frustration seemed to slowly ooze from her body. Yet when she spoke again, a cold chill crept up my spine and coiled like a snake around my neck.
    “We have to get rid of them, Danaus. You have to help me. You may hate my kind, but we are no great threat to the humans you protect. The naturi will wipe us all out if we don’t act. You have to help me.”
    “Have you spoken to the coven?” I inquired. Mira’s narrowed gazed darted back to my face and she took a small step backward so that her right shoulder touched the window behind her. The coven was the ruling body for all vampires under their liege, and last I heard, Mira ranked just behind the naturi, in their “least liked” category.
    “What does that have to do with the naturi?” she demanded, her tone sharpening.
    “I would like to know if I’m protecting you from just the naturi or if members of the coven are hunting you as well.”
    “Your job is not to protect me. Your job is to help me with the investigation. If we can kill some naturi along the way, all the better. The coven is my business.”
    “Is Jabari hunting you?” I pressed. Jabari was not only a member of the coven, but at one time the vampire Elder had been very close to Mira. The Egyptian vampire had been her savior more than five hundred years ago at Machu Picchu and then had tried to kill her just a few months ago in England.
    “No, he needs me alive. He still has a use for me.” Mira looked away from me for a moment then looked back, lifting her chin a little, her lavender eyes narrowed. “I don’t know the coven’s plans and I don’t want to know. I have no doubt they would all rather see me dead, but the Elders have all seen more than a thousand years slip by them. Time means nothing to them. If they wish me dead, they will not rush it.”
    “Don’t trust Ryan.” The words slipped out, surprising me. I hadn’t meant to say it. What did I care what she planned with the warlock? But I believed in a fair fight. I believed in knowing your enemy and honor and duty; things I knew that Mira believed in as well. She was being hunted by both the naturi and the coven because of her abilities. And for his own reasons, Ryan was aiming to use her for his own means. She at least should be aware of what she faced.
    Mira pinned me with a surprised gaze, one corner of her mouth quirking in a smile. She tilted her head slightly to the left, sending her hair falling over her shoulder like a cascade of liquid