I merely shrugged my shoulders at his correct assessment. “It is not in the nature of the nightwalker to change. We are as we have always been.”
“Ahhh . . . but you are different,” Tetsuya replied. “You were reborn differently than the rest of us. You are the Fire Starter.”
“Little more than a parlor trick when it comes to fighting the light clan,” I said with an absent wave of my hand. At the same time, the flames around us shifted and flicked brightly, as though a breeze had swept through the woods and disturbed them. It seemed they were starting to move in for the kill, and I had to fight the urge to reach for my nearest blade. It wasn’t that I was a coven Elder that attracted them to me in the first place. It was the fact that I was the Fire Starter and had survived multiple encounters with the naturi. I was a survivor, which was what they needed when it came to defeating the naturi at last.
“But you must have some plans for your own domain,” Hideo pressed. “Matsui spoke of one naturi in particular, Rowe, who has been hunting you. We have even heard that the queen of the naturi has made it a special mission to acquire your head since you were so instrumental in stopping their return many centuries ago.”
Kojima stepped forward to stand in front of Hideo. His hand slid down to his side where I could only guess there was a concealed blade. The soft sound of earth crunching beneath Danaus’s feet drifted up to my ears as the hunter restlessly shifted his stance. “We’re under the impression that you may be under increased pressure here and planning something that could alleviate some of that pressure for your own kind and the shapeshifters.”
A smile toyed with the corners of my mouth as I looked over at Danaus. The hunter was watching me closely, waiting to see if I was willing to reveal my own plans for Aurora to our visitors. In truth, I couldn’t decide. The Japanese nightwalkers had turned their back on us. They had left us to lead our own lives and demanded that there be no interference in their lives from the nightwalkers of the West.
Desperation had drawn them back to our side, but I didn’t expect them to agree so easily with what we had planned, no matter how desperate they were. In fact, I was more concerned with them becoming a hindrance if they didn’t agree. Hell, I wasn’t banking on the coven to back me on this, so I wasn’t telling them either. How could the Japanese clans go along with my plans?
“You are correct in that we have plans for my domain of Savannah,” I admitted with a sigh as I finally decided to step out on this limb. “Unfortunately, you have to keep in mind that my main goal is not the preservation and protection of our people while eliminating the naturi threat. I am aiming for something far grander. I want a permanent peace. That is what we were meeting about in the tunnels when you aided us tonight.”
“A permanent peace?” Hideo repeated. “You have found a way to return the naturi back to their cage?”
It was a tempting idea, but one doomed to failure in the end, as we had already proven with their escape. The cage that held the bori was enduring, but I wasn’t willing to put my money on the idea that it would last indefinitely either. Putting the naturi back in the cage was not only impossible because I had no idea how it was accomplished in the first place, but also impractical. I didn’t want to have to fight another Rowe years from now as he completed a list of sacrifices in order to free his people. Like I had said, I wanted something more permanent, even if it meant a sizable sacrifice and a change in mentality for us all.
“There will be no return of their cage,” I said grimly with a shake of my head. “We do not know how it was formed. Furthermore, the naturi have been scattered to the four winds, and we would never get them gathered together so they can be recaptured.”
“Then how would we achieve this permanent peace that you spoke of?” Tetsuya inquired.
“We first need to get rid of Aurora.”
“Stopping Aurora would bring us peace? We would still be overwhelmed with naturi,” Hideo said.
“Stopping Aurora would be the first step in the process of achieving peace,” Danaus said, drawing all eyes over to him. “She maintains her plan to destroy not only nightwalkers but humans as well in her effort to save the Earth. She is single-minded in her plan, and she has begun to turn on her own kind. She is alienating those she would need to accomplish her grand scheme.”
“There is a fissure that is growing among the naturi,” I added. “We should be able to use that break in their solidarity to our advantage.”
“How?” Tetsuya asked warily.
I smiled at him. “An alliance.”
“With the naturi?” Hideo demanded, his soft voice hardening for the first time. “You are planning an alliance with the naturi?”
“Yes,” I said with a slight hiss of warning. I wanted to keep this meeting as civil and calm as possible, but I knew that what I was suggesting now was treasonous among the nightwalkers. We had spent too many centuries fighting against the naturi. From the very birth of our race, they had been our enemy. There was no reconciling your differences with your enemies. At least, not when it came to the naturi. What I had said earlier was too true. Nightwalkers didn’t change. But then, I guess Tetsuya was right; I was different.
“Aurora has tried to kill both of her sisters in the name of treason. The younger of the two sisters, Cynnia, wants to establish a coexistence between naturi and nightwalkers. A number of naturi have already rallied to her side, and she aims to take on Aurora. If we can get Cynnia named queen of the naturi, we have a chance at creating a permanent peace between our two peoples.”
Danaus stood beside me with a hand resting on the hilt of one dagger at his side in the form of a warning.
“From what we have come to understand, the naturi are weary of war. The race is slowly dying off. Cynnia is offering them a chance at survival by simply blending into the background, a return to the forests of the world where they can live in peace.”
Kojima shook his head and paced a couple steps away from his companions, edging a little farther into the clearing. He was clearly the most emotional of the trio, struggling to maintain the same outer calm as his companions. “If they are already facing eventual extinction, why do we not just take advantage of it and kill them off?”
“Because their numbers are still great,” I said, closely watching the pacing nightwalker for any sign that he was reaching for a weapon. “The war that would ensue would place us against all the naturi, and no matter what you may hope, we would never be able to rally the nightwalkers together to defeat the naturi horde.”
“You would also be faced with the Great Awakening if you attempted to wage such a war,” Danaus reminded us.
The Great Awakening. I liked to think it was something that nightwalkers from both the East and the West were trying to avoid. Especially since we still had to deal with the naturi epidemic first. I could only manage one thing at a time.
“My people are ready for the Great Awakening,” Hideo firmly said.
I shook my head. “But the world is not. If your people are struggling with the naturi, then you are not ready to face a world that knows about nightwalkers and lycanthropes. Those humans you are so eager to call your friends are just as likely to turn on you the moment they begin to see you as a threat—which you are.”
“Coexistence is the only way we can hope to continue our current life while remaining hidden from humanity,” Danaus said. “Cynnia wants peace between the two sides, and it is the wisest choice at this juncture.”
“Do you seriously think peace with the naturi is possible?” Kojima demanded, glaring at me. I didn’t blame him for his doubts. He was only voicing the same thoughts that I had. The only difference was that I knew what had truly happened among the Machu Picchu ruins. Cynnia wasn’t just trying to save her own skin; she was trying to save her race from an even bigger war that Aurora was planning. We didn’t need to turn the humans against us just yet. That would come soon enough, I was certain.