“Who burned down my house?”
“Aurora,” Knox said, causing my head to snap around to him. “She and other members of the naturi moved into the city during the day. They burned down more than a dozen homes in the historic district. The fire department was kept so busy trying to put out the fires that most of the homes burned straight to the ground, along with a few others that weren’t intentionally set.”
“How did she know which one was my house? I’m nowhere near the historic district!” I shouted, waving one hand back at the burnt remains of my home.
Knox swallowed once and looked away from me, seeming unable to speak.
It was Gregor who finally answered. “Amanda told her.”
“Are you sure?” I whispered, unable to believe I had been betrayed by the nightwalker. Amanda and I had our differences during the past several months, but she’d always been loyal to both me and the nightwalkers of Savannah.
“Her body was found half burned in the backyard, under a thick grove of trees,” Danaus replied. “Aurora must have gotten hold of her before the sun rose and beat the information out of her before leaving her to the sun. Archie called to tell me he was incinerating the body before there could be an investigation.” I nodded, grateful that Archie Deacon, the coroner for the county, was still covering my back.
A deep heavy sigh slipped past my lips as I shook my head. “Amanda gave up my private home to Aurora. Was the town house torched as well?”
“The town house is fine. No one approached it during the day,” Danaus said, helping to ease some of the tension from my shoulders.
“Where is Gabriel?” I asked. “He would have been the first to be contacted and told the house was on fire along with the fire department. He should have been here to try to get me out if it was at all possible. Where is my bodyguard?”
Silence was my only answer as Danaus looked to Knox and Gregor, who only looked down at the ground. My stomach twisted in fear and the world seemed to spin around me. Gabriel. My sweet guardian angel. I couldn’t lose him too. Not both him and Michael in less than a year. I needed my bodyguard. I needed his knowing smirk and dry humor. I needed his cautious nature to balance my reckless nature. I needed him guarding me when I slept and needed him waiting for me when I finally opened my eyes each night.
“Gabriel is in the hospital,” Danaus said.
“Oh, thank God!” I cried, putting a steadying hand on his shoulder. “I thought he was dead.”
“He’s hanging on by a thread, and from what the doctor told me, things don’t look good.”
“What happened?” I choked out the words in my clogged throat, looking anywhere than at the men around me.
“From what I can guess, Gabriel was one of the first on the scene when the alarms went off at your house. The naturi attacked him and slashed his throat and then pinned him to a tree with several swords stuck through his body. The fire truck arrived with an ambulance, so they were able to get him to the hospital before he bled out, but he was in bad shape.”
“I’m assuming you’ve been to the hospital. What’s the doctor’s prognosis?” I said in a low, even voice as I struggled to keep the last bit of my temper under control.
“Not good,” Danaus replied. “If he survives the next couple of days, he might make it. One of his lungs collapsed and several of his other organs are in distress. The doctor also thinks that if he survives, he’ll never speak again.” His explanation put more fuel on the fire building within me. It was one thing to destroy my home and threaten my life, but Gabriel was mine and I would not tolerate any harm to him.
“Knox, Shelly will be with Cynnia. I want you to personally take her to Gabriel’s side and make her to heal him,” I bit out in slow, clearly enunciated words so there could be no mistake.
“Shelly is with Cynnia and the other naturi at Mira’s town house,” Danaus interjected, saving the nightwalker some unnecessary searching.
“What if she can’t—” Knox started, but I quickly cut him off.
“She healed Barrett the night we were attacked in the tunnels by the naturi,” I snarled, taking a quick step over to stare directly at him. “She can at least try to heal Gabriel. Don’t let her leave that hospital room until she has given everything she can possibly give to heal him!” So far as I was concerned, Shelly had to heal Gabriel.
“I’ll get her, Mira,” Knox said, meeting my glowing gaze. “She’ll find a way to help Gabriel.” Then he paused. “But, if it’s not enough . . . if it looks like we’re going to lose him . . .” He paused, licking his lips. “Have you ever discussed changing him?”
This time I was the first to look away, lowering my eyes to the trampled grass. The earth was squishy and cold beneath my feet from where the hoses had been brought in to spray down the fire-engulfed house.
“We’ve discussed it and he’s said that he would be proud to die in service to me. He said he wasn’t interested in living forever and one lifetime was enough for him.” I forced the words past the lump in my throat.
“If Shelly has any kind of problems, I will ask him a second time just to be sure,” Knox reassured me, placing one of his hands on my shoulder and squeezing. “I would be honored to bring him over if he makes that decision.”
“If you ask him, remove the pain first. I don’t want his decision to be a pain-addled one,” I murmured, still unable to raise my eyes to meet his. Equal parts anger and pain burned through me as I thought about my bodyguard dying slowly, alone in a hospital room. He deserved better than this after all his years of service to me.
My emotions were mixed. A part of me wanted Knox to bring him over, to make him a nightwalker so I couldn’t lose him. But another part of me knew that Gabriel wouldn’t take the offer. He was content with being human, and living a human’s short, fragile life. I didn’t expect him to take Knox’s offer and I respected him for that bravery. He was willing to face whatever awaited us after death. It was something too few of us could claim.
“What do you want me to do?” Gregor demanded, surprising me. His black jacket and waistcoat were tossed over his arm, while his pristine white shirt was streaked with soot. His carefully coiffed hair was askew. The nightwalker perpetually trapped in the nineteenth century was starting to look as if he’d embraced the modern world. Gregor ran with a group of reckless nightwalkers consumed with only their own amusement, but his presence here tonight told me he was finally willing to step up. It was about fucking time.
“I want you to return to Savannah. Gather together all the nightwalkers you can find within the Savannah region. Find out who didn’t make it through the night and send the survivors to my town house,” I directed. “I will be there with Cynnia, making final plans on how we are going to deal with Aurora. We will have our vengeance against this attack. She didn’t just attack me, she attacked our city, our home, and we will not stand for it.”
“You will have your army at your doorstep before the moon reaches its peak tonight, coven Elder,” Gregor said with a slight bow before he hurried across the yard toward a black car parked in the driveway.
“Do you need me for anything else?” Knox asked one last time.
“Just do what you can to save Gabriel,” I said. “I will understand if he cannot be saved, but we must at least put forth all the effort we can muster. He deserves that.”
“I will do everything within my power,” Knox said. He pressed his right hand to his heart before bowing to me. He then ran across the yard and jumped into the passenger seat of the car Gregor was driving.
Danaus and I stood in silence, watching as they disappeared into the night, heading back toward the city. I managed to push aside my anger and hatred, but I knew that bottle would quickly come uncorked the moment I was finally faced with Aurora. She had struck first, but she’d failed. She should have killed me. She should have personally seen to it that I was destroyed by the fire, or at the very least cut off my head as I slept. But she didn’t and now she was faced with my fury.