That could have gone better,” I said after several minutes of silence in the car. Mira was driving back toward the waterfront, weaving through the quiet elegance of the historical district.

“It could have been a lot worse,” she replied, as she parked the car in an empty spot on Bay Street.

Unfastening my seat belt, I put my hand on the door handle. “I don’t want to imagine how that could have gone worse.”

Mira reached across and placed a restraining hand on my left arm as I started to exit the car. “Oh, please do,” she pressed. “I do love a good horror story.”

“You’re a walking horror story,” I grumbled, pulling out of her grasp as I got out of the car. Her low laughter followed behind me. Looking over the hood of the car at her, I frowned, though her light mood felt like an infection slowly defeating my immune system. “Did we accomplish anything by going there?” I demanded, trying to hold on to my anger and frustration.

“More than you realize,” she said in mysterious tones.

“Anything regarding the murder?”

“A little bit,” she admitted as she shut her door. “I think someone is trying to expose nightwalkers by killing the Bradford girl. And considering the method and gruesome manner of her death, I’m willing to put my money on the naturi. They stand to gain the most from our exposure.”

“Yes, but there haven’t been that many naturi in your domain,” I said as I followed her down a flight of uneven stone steps to Factors Walk. I needed to tell her. I had put it off long enough. There was nothing to be gained from keeping Mira in the dark about the bori in her domain. While I doubted that she would be able to fight it at all, she may know something about the race that would finally give me an edge should I be suddenly faced with Gaizka again.

“Regardless, they are here.” Mira led the way down the shadowy alleyway that slipped between River Street and Bay Street, the heels of her shoes clicking on the stones. “You killed a horde of them at the conservatory. And then there was the bunch that followed us in the car. They’re here.”

Cutting down a short street between Factors Walk and River Street, we headed toward the river and the most crowded section of the riverfront district, with its bars, restaurants, and gift shops. There was a sharp bite of cold to the air, keeping most of the tourists that had stumbled into Savannah during December back in their hotel rooms. It was also starting to get late and the shops were closing up for the night. We were nearly alone on the street.

“If you’re convinced it’s the naturi, what are we doing here?” I asked, shoving my hands deep into the pockets of my leather jacket in an effort to stay warm. “Are you making another pass by the apartment?”

“Nope,” Mira replied with a shake of her head. She threaded her left arm through my right and snuggled close as if she were trying to stay warm. “I’ve got one more resource that I want to check. The nightwalkers don’t know anything. The lycans don’t know anything. But this guy’s got a different connection. He might know something. I’m just hoping that we can catch him.”

“Who is this guy?”

“A very interesting human,” she said, flashing me an evil grin before stopping in front of an opening in a building with an orange-and-green awning that advertised “Old Town Trolley Tours.” A scattering of people were gathered around the opening, buying tickets and making reservations with a young woman behind the counter. When the woman finally looked up, Mira waved at her. “Hi, Emmy!” Mira cried in a genuinely happy, excited voice that I had never actually heard her use before. It was surprising.

“Mira!” Emmy cried back, her expression instantly brightening. “Let me get these people settled and then I’ll get to you.” With a new vigor, I watched as the young woman whipped through the crowd, taking money, checking off names, and handing out tickets for what I could only assume was an evening tour of the city. Though I was confused as to why anyone would want to take a nighttime tour of the city since so much of the amazing architecture would be obscured by the darkness.

When the line had finally dwindled to nothing, Mira stepped over to the booth, pulling me along when I seemed to hesitate. However, the nightwalker released me long enough to lean across the counter and grip the young black woman in a tight hug.

“Danaus,” Mira said the moment she released the woman. “This is a dear friend of mine, Emma Rose. She handles the ticket sales for the Old Town Trolley Tours Company here in Savannah.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Danaus,” Emma Rose said, extending her hand to me.

“Likewise,” I said gruffly, quickly taking her hand for a single shake before releasing it again and taking a step backward from the booth. I felt ill at ease with the situation. Nightwalkers, lycanthropes, warlocks, and even the naturi, I could handle with little problem. Humans, on the other hand, were something that I had lost touch with. I didn’t feel as if I belonged with them any longer, and hadn’t since I was young, so long as I could barely remember.

However, Mira refused to let me remove myself from the little meeting of friends. She quickly threaded her arm through mine, holding me in place, as she plunged into some idle chitchat about health and other random gossip about who was seeing who within the city. As a new line started to form, I loudly cleared my throat in an effort to prod Mira back to the whole reason we had come to this part of the city in the first place.

Mira threw me a dark look and then returned her attention to Emma Rose. “I won’t keep you any longer. I was just looking for Nate. Is he working tonight?”

“Yeah, he should actually be arriving any minute now,” Emma Rose said, glancing briefly down at the sheet of paper in front of her.

“You have any openings on the next tour? I need to talk to him about something important for a few minutes.”

“Oh, sure! We haven’t been full all night. It’s the time of year. Just way too cold,” Emma Rose replied with a casual wave of her hand.

Mira reached into her back pocket and pulled out her little black leather wallet, but Emma Rose quickly waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. I have no doubt you’ll jump off halfway through, like you always do.”

“Thanks, Emmy,” Mira said, pulling her into another tight hug. “I’ll catch you later.”

Mira and I walked over to the side where a group of people were waiting for the next tour bus to arrive. Mira cuddled close and I stared down at the top of her head.

“You don’t like humans very much, do you?” she inquired softly, surprising me with her question. She turned her face up to look at me; her lavender eyes seemed to pierce me to my core.

“Humans…are…are fine.” I stumbled, unsure of how to answer the question. “Why would you ask a question like that?”

“It’s how you act around them. Emmy, James, Daniel. When you’re around all of them, you’re distant and cold. You don’t look them in the eye and you rarely speak. What do you have against humans?”

“I don’t have anything against them,” I said, inwardly cringing at the defensive tone that had crept into my voice against my will.

“Is it because you’re not really one of them? Are you envious?”

“I’m not envious!” I said sharply, then regretted it as several people looked around at us. I leaned closer, dropping my voice back to a whisper. “I don’t have anything against humans. I just don’t spend a lot of time dealing with them.”

“But Themis?”

“I’m rarely there, and when I am I encounter only James and Ryan.” I hesitated a moment, frowning down at her. “It’s just that I don’t feel like I…I understand them any longer. They’re fragile and their lives are so short. I—I haven’t been one of them for so long. I’m not one of them.”