by Lizzy Ford
“What?” one of the rescued people asked.
“Nothing. Go to the nearest cop and have them take you home.” She pushed the last out of the warehouse and closed the door, locking it. When the three left her range of sensing, she strode to the vamps and considered them.
After a moment, she knelt and began searching each one for a phone. Only one carried a cell. She pulled it out of his jacket and pocketed it. Her brother was a computer nut who loved to show off. He’d helped her track more than one vamp, and she’d need his help again once the vamps knew not to return to this warehouse again.
Satisfied with her night, she rose and trotted out the back door and into an alley running between warehouses near the wharf where she’d stashed her things. Yanking off the mask, she stuffed it into her backpack and pulled on a hoodie. She slid the backpack onto her back and paused at the edge of the alley. The evening crowd strolled along the bay front San Diego area, and she joined them seamlessly.
Certain she looked like any other college student out for a walk, she glanced down at her stinging hand. She’d suffered a cut and bruises but nothing else from the fight. Her skills were becoming more instinctive, less consciously controlled, and no one – aside from Xander – was able to keep up with her. Her wounds healed five times faster than that of a human. It wasn’t instant, but by morning, the scratch would be a scar. It was one of the side benefits of her Natural warrior talent. She was hard to take out and almost impossible to keep down.
She scrolled through the phone she’d stolen, frowning when she saw it contained only two contact numbers. Like all the others. The Black God ran a tight ship for being a relative newbie. None of his vamps had contact information for more than one level up and down, and she’d yet to fight anyone high enough ranking to have his number.
“Damn you, Jonny.” It wasn’t the first time she’d uttered the words in frustration, and it wouldn’t be the last. “I have a score to settle.”
She glanced at her brother Brandon as he approached. He held an iPad in his hand. “Your vitals are good. How’d it go?”
“Do you have to start a conversation like that?” she grumbled.
“Like what?”
“About my vitals. I already know I have issues.”
“Whatever. It’s a legit concern.”
“I won. Can we focus on that?” Ashley tugged her t-shirt away from her chest to peer down at the nodes attached to her chest that fed her brother information electronically. “And I didn’t lose any of the node thingies this time.”
“Good. Those are expensive.”
She frowned. “Oh, dammit. I lost my necklace.”
“The one Mom gave you?”
She stopped, debating whether it was smart to return to the warehouse. “Yeah.”
By now, the vamps had either regained consciousness and left or called for backup. She’d lost the element of surprise.
“We’ll come back tomorrow,” Brandon said.
“Hmm. I guess.” She turned away.
“This is good. One solid week without an episode.” He lowered the iPad. Two years older than her, he, too, was a Natural, one capable of mind control and also under the tutelage of Xander, the vamp who married their cousin Jessi several years before.
Ashley ignored him. As strong and fast as she was, her skill often came at a price, one she didn’t want to be reminded of after her successful night battling vamps and rescuing people.
But she did dwell on the necklace. It was simple and inexpensive, a gold letter A on a thin chain. It had been one of the last gifts her mother gave her before the car accident that killed both her parents and placed her and Brandon under the care of their cousin, Jessi, who had adopted them.
“Dammit. I wish I hadn’t lost it.”
“Daylight. After classes we’ll go find it,” Brandon promised her. “Was I right? Four vamps, three humans?”
“Yep. Right again,” she replied.
He smiled, pleased. “My Natural gift is getting stronger.”
“And freakier,” she added. “Being around Xander is bad enough. You having mind manipulation skills isn’t quite right.”
“Yeah, it kinda sucks sometimes,” he said with a frown. “Especially on the dating front.”
“At least you have dates!”
“If you weren’t obsessed with vamps, you would, too. But I’m glad you prefer vamps to guys. I don’t know what Xander or I would do if you ever brought home a serious date.”
She’d imagined every scenario possible if that were to happen, and the results were always the same: her date got eaten by the resident vamp living with her cousin or had his mind erased by Brandon. Not that she was interested in guys really anyway. Not since Jonny. She hadn’t been able to consider dating after how he’d twisted her up inside and nearly destroyed her life.
Turnabout is fair play, she told herself content to know she’d beaten up a few of his vamps. The cool ocean breeze rolled off the bay and swept past her, cooling her down after her exercise. She breathed it in deeply and started to relax.
“Got another phone,” she said and dug it out of her pocket to pass it off to Brandon.
“Awesome.” He accepted it. “Not a burner. Even better. Might be able to get some real information off this one.”
“Just tell me where to go to beat up vamps,” she replied.
“I’m going with you soon,” he said.
“You can’t fight like I can.”
“I can crush minds.”
“You think you can crush minds,” she reminded him. “You’ve never tried it.”
“I already bought a mask.”
She smiled and then giggled. “Because that’s what makes a superhero successful!”
“I seem to remember a certain sister claiming that to be the case.”
Ashley laughed. “Okay. True. It does make you feel like an Avenger.”
“You can be Black Widow and I’ll be …” he paused, considering.
“The Hulk?”
He eyed her. “No. Thor.”
“Omigod. You are so not Thor! At least I’m small and quick like Black Widow.”
“And I’m what? Big and green and angry like Hulk?”
“I was thinking smart like Bruce Banner!” She laughed. Brandon was tall and lean with dark hair and the same gray-blue eyes she had.
“Whatever. I’m Thor,” he said firmly. He looked down at his hand, where he’d written part of his daily to do list, along with the bus stop times. “C’mon. We’re going to miss the bus.” He took off at a trot towards the nearest bus stop.
Ashley followed, anxious to get back to the apartment they shared near the University. Fighting made her ravenous. Xander and Jessi had refused to let them live off campus unless they were together. Brandon had the ability to shield them from discovery by immortals and vamps with his mind skills, a feat deemed necessary given the involvement of Xander in their lives. His gift worked best in close quarters.
They boarded the bus and traveled back to the apartment building, where a huge steak and solid night of sleep awaited her.
The mewling of a cat greeted them as they entered the apartment.
“Hey, Cat,” she called cheerfully and leaned down to scoop up the animal whose eyes glowed red like a vamp’s. “Oh, Brandon, we can’t forget to get more, uh, kitty food from Xander.”
“Yeah.” Brandon’s tone was distracted as he plopped down on his favorite spot on the couch and opened his laptop.
“We’re not going to ask your daddy where he gets your food, are we?” she purred to the cat and took it into the kitchen. Ashley set it down and withdrew its food from the fridge. The vamp-cat’s blood was disguised as a bottle of wine, and she poured the thick maroon liquid into the cat’s bowl.
Four years ago, before Xander entered their lives, she never would’ve seen herself here, pouring blood into a dish for a vampire kitty. Their lives had changed dramatically. Even so, she couldn’t think of a better life to have. Her brother w
as her best friend, and their cousin Jessi was finally happy after years of sacrificing so much to raise them after the death of their parents.
“Eww. Don’t drip,” she told Cat as flecks of blood landed on the kitchen tile.
Although, at times, she wondered what life would have been like if she and Brandon hadn’t had their realities smashed and replaced by a world she never imagined possible.
She padded down the hallway to her room and closed the door. Ashley tossed the weapons in her cargo pants onto the bed and turned to face the mirror on the back of her door.
Someone was behind her.
She whipped around, heart in her throat, only to find no one present. She lowered her guard. Her senses said no one was there, and she turned around again.
The form was back, a small slender man with green eyes standing behind her.
She turned again, only to find him gone.
“I’m going crazy,” she muttered.
“No, you’re not,” came the soft response.
Ashley turned to the mirror and saw him again. He was smiling, and the air around him seemed to blur and shift. She reached for her weapon, refusing to take her eyes off him.
“I’m a friend,” the green-eyed stranger said. “I’m the Original Watcher.”
“I have no idea what that means,” she snapped. “What’re you doing in my room?”
“I came to deliver a message.”
She frowned, glaring at him.
“When the time is right, you will remember me and what I’m about to tell you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked.
Who the hell am I talking to? Ashley blinked and gazed at herself in the mirror. She stood in the middle of her room, babbling to herself aloud. Her knife was in her hand, and her frame tense, as if she’d been ready to fight someone.
But there was no one present.
“Weird,” she said and searched her room quickly to ensure her instincts weren’t trying to warn her of something she couldn’t directly see. She set down her knife and shivered. Something wasn’t quite right. She felt as if she were missing something.
“Hey, you cooking tonight?” Brandon called from the hallway.
Ashley shook off her unease and racked it up to the night of fighting vamps. “Yeah. Coming!” With one last look around, she left her bedroom for the kitchen.
Chapter Three
“I forwarded the reports on the most isolated Guardians’ station we could find.”
Jonny glanced up from his phone, where he’d been skimming through said report. His base in southern Oregon perched on the ocean and was surrounded by trees. He sat on the veranda off the top floor in the cool fall sun. “Reading it.”
Even Damian’s most un-secured location was still a nightmare. No station, however remote, was truly ever defenseless. Some were located in crowded neighborhoods, some in more isolated areas, but all had the ability to raise the alarm and alert the White God within seconds if attacked. The target Charles had found was located in a tiny city in southern Idaho.
“We confirmed the trunk runs to this one,” Charles added, referring to the White God’s secret internet network linking all the stations.
“Four Guardians, two shifts. The house is never empty and located in a neighborhood,” Jonny said and lowered his phone. His gaze went to the ocean. “Also warded, I imagine.”
“Yeah.” The older, more experienced vamp was studying him. “I see one way in. What do you see?”
Charles had been instrumental in Jonny’s learning of guerrilla strategy and war tactics as well as strategic planning. He often took on the role of teacher, and Jonny debated a moment, assessing the situation as he had been taught. “No direct attack. No sneaking in with one Guardian always on duty and the wards up,” he surmised. “We need a distraction to draw them out and a reason for the wards to be tripped that’ll cover our activities.”
Charles was waiting.
“We set the house next door on fire, maybe under the guise of a party.”
“That will work,” Charles confirmed. “With the addition it should probably be a fire a few houses down that spreads in their direction. Otherwise, the wards might trip before the place has to be evacuated.”
Jonny nodded. “It’s Friday. Let’s do it. Three vamps and you enough?”
“It is.”
“I’ll send Hector and the other team out to hunt the rogues.” Jonny rose and started back into the house.
“One small issue.”
“What?”
“The talisman. It was taken from the four attacked at the warehouse last night.”
“Rogues?”
“Vigilante.”
Jonny faced him, surprised. “Some stupid Natural stole it? How could anyone know what it was?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think this is something Damian is behind?”
Charles hesitated, pensive. “No. The Guardians kill without hesitation when a human is in danger, and the vamps had three humans with them for dinner. This vigilante didn’t kill.”
“Damian has rogues, too.” If the situation weren’t so dangerous, Jonny might have been amused. “So some crazy Natural has been going around beating up my vamps and now stole something from me.” He shook his head. “I don’t have time for stupid shit like this, Charles! How does some pinche idiota get a hold of something like this?” Of Cuban heritage, he often resorted to cursing in his native Spanish when he was upset.
“It’s unclear what his intentions are. I don’t see a lot of thought in his pattern of attacks. This is the second attack on our guys after six straight in a row on the rogues. His movement is restricted to the downtown San Diego area, within a window between sunset and midnight, and only Thursday through Sundays. We can set a trap for him pretty easily and get the talisman back.”
“With what people?” Jonny demanded, irritated. “I’m down half already, and those remaining are tasked four times over. Our new recruits keep getting hijacked by the rogues because we don’t have the manpower to guard them. I feel like we’ve lost and just don’t know it yet.”
“We haven’t lost,” Charles said quietly. “You’re the Black God. In the end, you are destined to win. The rogues are prolonging their own sentences by opposing you. This is a stage of growth, one that’s painful but one we’ll get through and be all the better for when it’s over.”
Charles’ calm helped Jonny restore his. He had gotten good at handling the constant stress of his job, though every once in a while, he lost his cool. “Yeah. I guess.” Jonny sighed. “You handle the Guardian mission, and we’ll send Hector and Tasha out as planned. I’m free. I’ll head to downtown San Diego tonight and see if my gifts give me any more insight into what’s going on. Maybe I can trap the vigilante and vamp him since he seems to be able to handle any vamp he finds.”
“He’s definitely gifted to fight.”
“It’d be useful against Valon’s vamps, and I need that talisman.” Jonny strode into the house and to his bedroom to change. His dinner from the nights before – the redhead – was kept occupied in her own room until nightfall. She was brainwashed by his magic, incapable of knowing her danger or even what he really was. She thought they’d been lovers for years and he went to work during the day.
In a week, when she was completely drained, she’d be removed from his home by one of his vamps and either returned to her hometown or thrown into the ocean. He didn’t ask where the bodies of his evening meals went; he just wanted them gone. There was a part of him that still wasn’t fully settled with waking up next to a dead body come daylight, even if he had no problem bedding and biting them at night.
He’d wanted to be the first to sign up for his catch-and-release program. Charles, however, convinced him he needed the show of power that came with being the only one in the organization allowed to kill.
He dressed in clothing more suitable for a college student than a god and tucked his phone into the back pocket of
black jeans.
Charles awaited him obediently outside his room. Jonny glanced at him as he emerged into the hallway and headed towards the stairs to the ground floor. He had grown accustomed to being waited on hand and foot by the loyal vamps. It no longer surprised him to find someone in the hallway at all times of the day and night, ready to jump if he told them to.
“I have three. Toby, Elijah and Liam,” Charles reported. “They’re assembling now. Any instructions on what to do if the Guardians return before the mission is complete?”
“Kill the Guardians, avoid killing humans. And make sure no one ever figures out what we’re really doing there. Make it look like some random vamp attack.”
Charles nodded. “Damian will likely come calling.”
“I can handle him. I want reports before and after.”
“Of course.”
Jonny checked his watch. It was close to five. “Go.”
“Leonard and Stu will be in the ops center in case you need anything.”
Jonny nodded before summoning his magic and Traveling to Seaport Village in San Diego. The street sellers lining the boardwalk were starting to pack up as the shadows lengthened. The evening crowd began to clog the boardwalk. He strolled down the wide sidewalks, observing those around him with absent interest before turning his gaze to the bay. His heightened senses would pick up a Natural, Guardian or vamp a mile before he saw them. He was reading none of them around, just normal humans strolling along with loved ones, completely unaware of who he was. Of what he was.
He still found it strange how he could mix and mingle with people and no one suspected how different he was. The world of the Black God had started off surreal. Now, it was the everyday life of a human he could no longer imagine. With immortality all but promised to him, he stopped seeking friendships or family outside the circle of vamps. It hurt too much to lose someone, and pain became a distraction he didn’t need. Explaining to an outsider who he was and what he did wasn’t even an option.