“So the question becomes, why protect them?” I asked. It was a question I’d had to answer myself on more than one occasion during the past couple of months. And every time I did, I was left wondering if I had made a mistake.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

I smiled at her and shook my head. “And what exactly is the ‘right thing’? That’s the true sticking point in this mess. I truly wish you luck in figuring that out. I’m still looking myself.”

There was a knock at the door, and my hand instantly went to the knife at my side even though I had already sensed Danaus’s approach down the hall, with Shelly following directly behind him.

“Mira, I won’t lie to you,” Cynnia quickly said before Danaus could come into the room. “If it comes down to telling you something that would betray and hurt my people and lying to you, I will simply refuse to tell you.”

“And then I’ll kill you.”

“There are worse reasons to die,” she said.

After Shelly and Cynnia were settled with food, Danaus followed me back to the other hotel room we were occupying. I was reluctant to say that we were actually sharing it. He had the bed and I, obviously, was stuck in a trunk in the closet. Hardly a fair setup, but unfortunately a necessary one.

“I need some weapons,” I announced after he closed and locked the door behind me.

With a nod, he pulled out his handy black duffel bag from under the bed and dropped it on the mattress with a small bounce. He unzipped it and began sorting through the items, coming up with an assortment of knives with matching sheaths that I could attach to my waist and ankle under my pants.

“Where are we headed?” he asked as I pulled my pant leg back down over the last knife.

“I’m headed out for a bite to eat,” I said, looking up at him. Danaus frowned, his fingers nervously fiddling with a small silver throwing knife as he stared down at the bed.

“Mira, I don’t know if I…” he started, but his voice quickly faded. I knew what he was about to say. He wasn’t sure that he could accompany me on a hunting expedition since he was still struggling with the idea of what I was. And yet, he felt that he had to stay by my side in an effort to keep me alive.

I smiled as I walked over to him. I carefully took the throwing knife out of his nimble fingers and laid it on the bed, more out of an effort to keep it from accidentally injuring one of us. Danaus stared down at me, his dark blue eyes narrowed with mistrust.

“I wasn’t inviting you along,” I murmured. “I don’t want to worry about you trying to keep up with me.”

“I’ve had no problem keeping up with you, vampire,” he bit out, but there was no real fire behind his anger.

“So far, but then you’ve never been around when I’ve been hunting,” I teased. Reaching up, I brushed aside some black hair that had fallen forward on his forehead and was threatening to block his vision. Danaus caught my wrist and squeezed tightly so I wouldn’t be able to easily free myself.

“This isn’t about you hunting,” he said, his voice softening.

“I know.”

“It’s about Rowe hunting you.”

“I’m counting on it. I want him outside waiting for me. He and I need to talk again,” I said, twisting my wrist slightly, but he refused to release me, though he did lighten his grip.

“And I don’t want you meeting with him alone. He could kill you before you get a single word out.”

I shook my head at his assessment, though I appreciated his concern. “That’s not Rowe’s style. I’d be willing to bet that he wants me to stay alive to see his triumph on the mountain at the Machu Picchu ruins. My only problem is making sure that I’m not present as a prisoner, and Cynnia will be my guarantee that I’m not. Rowe will be willing to talk with me.”

Danaus slowly released me, his thumb rubbing along the tender flesh on the inside of my wrist, caressing the veins that would have held my pulse had I still been alive. The hunter wasn’t happy with my plan, but he was going to let me go alone. At least, he would say that, but I didn’t trust him not to be lingering at a distance, protecting my back. I had to keep him otherwise occupied.

“After I feed and meet with Rowe, I will need to meet with all the nightwalkers in the city,” I announced.

“Locals?”

A soft chuckle escaped me and I shook my head as I took a couple steps away from the hunter. When I looked up at him, a ghost of a smile flitted across my pale face. “There’s no such thing in South America. No nightwalker that I know of calls this continent home. This is naturi territory. Always has been.”

Around us I could feel nightwalkers awakening and beginning to move about the city. They had all been sent by the Coven for one purpose, which explained the overwhelming feeling of anxiety. Unfortunately, fear easily shifted to anger and violence. I needed to get this group reined in before people started dying.

“We need to get moving,” Danaus said, shoving his hands in his pockets. After his more casual attire in Savannah, he was back in his durable black pants, but his black T-shirt looked new.

“Do you know of a place I can call the nightwalkers together? Somewhere very large and public?”

“There’s a bar a couple blocks away called Norton Rat’s. It’s just off the main plaza and should be big enough. It’s where Eduardo works.”

“Good.” I nodded, pacing over to the edge of the bed and then back. “Head over there and see if Eduardo can help you get some vans or a bus. We can at least drive part of the way to Machu Picchu tonight.”

“And you?”

“I’ll hunt, take care of my business with Rowe, and meet you at the bar in less than an hour,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

“We both know you wouldn’t allow me to feed, and I must hunt tonight. I go alone. I can handle Rowe and whatever the naturi decides to throw at me,” I firmly said.

Whatever he planned to say died in his throat. I knew what he was concerned about. The naturi were in the city. I couldn’t sense them, but I believed Cynnia when she said there were more than a hundred. The whole area was crawling with them.

“I’ll be fine. Trust me, if I’m in trouble, you’ll know it.” I flashed the hunter an evil grin full of fangs and menace. If I had to, I’d set half this town on fire to rid the earth of a handful of naturi.

“The bar is off the Plaza de Armas. You have to go through the Hostal Loreto to reach it,” Danaus explained, finally accepting my decision. He then wordlessly left the hotel room. I didn’t ask how many naturi were in the city and he didn’t offer. Obviously, he thought it was better that I didn’t know exactly how many were close by.

Once the door was closed, I jerked open my bag of clothes and dumped its contents onto the bed to see what I had grabbed in a rush before running out of the house to catch my painfully late flight. Jerking off my T-shirt, I pulled on a V-neck, long sleeve shirt that clung to me like a second skin before pulling on a second button-up black shirt. While fall was just beginning to give birth back in the States, Peru was still in the last days of winter, waiting for the official arrival of spring. The cold wouldn’t bother me, but it would tighten up my muscles, and I needed to be as nimble as possible if I was going to take on Rowe.

I quickly ran a brush through my hair and piled it on my head to keep it out of my eyes. Just before leaving the room, I paused in front of the pile of clothes I had created when I rummaged through my backpack. Why bother even to pack again? The fight on Machu Picchu was coming soon. There would no longer be any need for clothes or worrying what I would wear to return home. Oh, I planned to fight back against the naturi, Jabari, and, if I had to, Danaus as well. But the odds were stacked against me.