by Lizzy Ford
“Outright slaughter in exchange for war with the White God no matter what the costs to the vamps are,” Jonny murmured. “Tell me everything you know about Valon, Charles.” He faced his loyal second and leaned back against the railing of the porch, arms crossed. A cool breeze tickled the back of his neck while Ashley’s taste lingered in his mouth.
“He’s old. Respected. He is part of the old guard, middle management under your predecessor who rose in importance during the chaos of the first year or two you were in charge. I imagine he didn’t have the internal support to challenge the previous Black God.”
Jonny’s jaw tightened at the frustrating reminder of how poorly handled his learning curve had been. He’d been a stupid kid when he assumed command and since then, had gradually transformed into a deserving leader.
“He’s shrewd. Strong,” Charles added.
“So he waited until my alliance with Damian to kill the Others was over to act,” Jonny said.
“Or he waited for the Others to weaken your support base,” Charles said with a shrug.
“Then he absconds with half my vamps after revealing what he is and is working on provoking the White God so I’m faced with a two front war.”
“The war with the Others to weaken your position, Valon to take it.”
It was a smart plan. But at the end of the day, there was only one way for Valon to claim the mantle of the Black God. A one-on-one battle fought between two contenders for the position. It was the honorable way to determine who deserved to be the Black God. “Can he fight?” Jonny asked in a level tone.
“Yes. He can,” Charles replied. “But so can you. Between the two of you, you’re smarter by far. Valon lacks vision and strategy.”
“It won’t matter if he’s stronger and faster.”
“Strategy will always beat strength.”
Jonny wasn’t feeling anywhere near as confident. His predecessor had been much stronger than he was. Jonny hadn’t been thinking about the future or anything else when he killed him. He’d been thinking about saving the life of his sister, who had been in the Black God’s grip. There was no strategy or even thought behind his victory, nothing but the desperate emotion of a teen who loved his family.
His mind slipped to Bianca, his sister, who had become the mate of one of the adopted brothers of Damian. He saw her on occasion though not often, mainly because of the opposite sides of the fence they sat on. Whenever he started to doubt himself, he thought about the day he’d almost lost her, and the doubt vanished.
He was destined to become the Black God. He was meant to be there, not Valon. Why the universe chose a boy over a vamp, he’d never understand, but he no longer asked himself why anymore and focused instead on how to fulfill his vision for the vamps’ future.
Charles was watching him, waiting for him to speak. Jonny straightened and dropped his arms, not about to feel backed into a corner when he’d worked too hard – and changed too much – to become who he was.
“I’ll be traveling armed from now on,” he said with a small smile. “And we’ll be resuming my sparring lessons.”
“Of course, ikir.”
Jonny started past him, needing some alone time.
“Anything else?” Charles asked.
“Give me some time to think, Charles. You may be right about approaching Damian sooner rather than later.”
Charles said nothing else, and Jonny retreated to his bedroom. He wasn’t interested in the ginger this night, in sex, and he was full after feeding off Ashley. After gently suggesting his dinner sleep in a different room because he was ill, he closed the door behind the bedazzled woman.
Jonny went to his dresser and opened the top drawer, where he kept some weapons at Charles’ insistence. He withdrew the long knife he’d used to kill his predecessor, Czerno, and studied it. Hefting it made the threat of Valon seem too real.
Tucking it into his waistband, he went onto his veranda.
He wasn’t tired either and sat in the open, observing the clear sky and gleaming reflection of stars off the distant waves. Vamps were nocturnal, though he did his best to keep hours that left him mentally clear for any interactions with Guardians or humans.
Jonny sat in silence, unable to pinpoint exactly what his thoughts were about the Valon issue. He didn’t feel anything he thought he should, and the lack of fear or anger or regret left him frustrated and confused. Despite his occasional loneliness, the memories of Bianca’s near death, the idea he’d be working on his Masters degree if he were normal, he had unconditionally accepted what he was and his position as the leader of the blood-sucking monsters he didn’t know existed before becoming their leader.
This acceptance, above all, surprised him more than discovering another godslayer was gunning for the job he wasn’t about to give up. It dispelled any concern he had about his lot in life and left him proud of how much he’d grown over the years. Rather than worry about Valon, he experienced a renewed sense of confidence and purpose.
The future of and entire people – his people – depended upon his successful achievement of his vision.
Valon thought him weak and undeserving of the Black God mantle, and Jonny was going to show Guardian and vamp alike just how powerful the right person in the Black God’s shoes could be.
Charles texted rather than knocking, and Jonny pulled out his cell.
We picked two Natural Trackers. Orders?
Jonny smiled, pleased by the news. Vamp them. One can kill the ginger. Grab a junkie for the other. Make them kill tonight. He responded. In order to turn into a vamp, someone had to be bitten, drained near death, fed blood by an existing vamp and then take a life the same way. The process was normally drawn out in two phases so the middle management of vamps could screen out recruits who wouldn’t fit into the vamp mold as well as discreetly uncover junkies and others who wouldn’t be missed – or cause red flags to go up with the Guardians – when they went missing.
Suitable or not, the Trackers were too valuable to wait. Between them and Brandon, Jonny would soon have the hammer he needed to smash the traitors.
Charles second text was too long to be simple acknowledgment. Jonny leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees as he read it.
Your vigilante hit another safe house. Left you a message, too. He had attached a picture of a mask like the one Ashley had been wearing when he confronted her.
Jonny found himself more intrigued by her defiance than he warranted natural for the situation. If she were a vamp, she’d be punished severely for disobedience. But he had no real sway over her, and she seemed to know it.
What she was doing was dangerous, not only to his operations, but to her own existence. He hadn’t quite figured out how to handle her. He had to balance Xander’s potential interference with teaching Ashley a lesson in a way she backed off. A direct challenge was apparently not the right approach and neither was purposely letting her feel the pain of his bite. If anything, those attempts at lessons had only galvanized her.
His mouth watered as he thought about her taste, the feel of her body pressed to his. In another world, one without Xander, he’d snatch her and keep her as the ultimate source of food. She wouldn’t be compliant and submissive like the women whose minds he warped to accept his need to feed from them. Ashley was lively, independent, strong. She’d be an incredible sparring partner in bed and out with the added benefit of her ability to regenerate blood fast.
And … she’d be a good friend. She had been at one point, anyway, and easy to talk to with a huge heart.
Unfortunately, he lived in a world with Xander, which meant his approach was going to have to be different. Jonny shot a text to Charles and then sat back in his chair, eyes on the sky again.
There had to be a way to discourage Ashley if biting her wasn’t going to work. He just had to figure out what that was before she got herself into the kind of trouble she couldn’t get out of. Or worse, the kind of trouble that started a war with Xander.
Ch
apter Ten
“Why are all the dots blue today?” Ashley asked with a frown as she peered over Brandon’s shoulder.
“Because you’re too stubborn to listen to me.”
“A vamp is a vamp.”
“Not when some of them are Jonny’s and he knows where we live.”
Ashley shook her head. Jonny hadn’t come after her a second time last night. Was he giving up on warning her off or too busy doing real work to bother? Either way, she viewed her second takedown of his vamps the previous night as a personal victory.
“Isn’t it your night to dance?” Brandon asked in irritation as she stood over him.
“I was going to go beat up vamps instead.”
“Go dance. You’ve been driving me crazy all week. I’ll plot out a few spots for you to hit when you’re done.”
Ashley debated silently. She did love dancing on Friday nights, mainly as a stress release. And this week, she felt like she needed it more than usual with the Jonny issue and her frustration understanding what to do if she couldn’t exact her revenge as planned.
“Okay,” she said. “Maybe it’ll help me think straight.”
“God I hope so.”
She slapped him on the back of the head and marched to her room. Changing quickly into leggings, a hip-length tunic and comfy sneakers, she then tucked her cell phone into her sock and left Brandon with his computer.
She was waved into the club by a bouncer who knew her on sight. Ashley started to relax the moment she walked onto the packed dance floor. She joined the crowd, unconcerned with dancing alone when everyone else had a partner, and closed her eyes. The techno beat swept her emotions aside so she could focus purely on the physical act of dancing her heart out.
She danced for a couple of hours, until the hair at the back of her neck was damp and the muscles of her body were warm. Partners rotated in and out with her, as usual, and she opened her eyes to smile at someone occasionally before squeezing them closed to focus on the music. Every once in a while, someone brushed by her or bumped her, and she moved away automatically, unconcerned by the crowded space.
At least until the touch of a stranger sent a warm electrical charge through her that reminded her too much of every time she’d been grabbed and bitten by Jonny.
Rousing herself from the near trance, Ashley opened her eyes. No vamp stood before her, no one but a few college girls giggling and dancing together. She started to turn.
“This is what you do when you’re not out tracking my vamps?”
Ashley stepped back and away quickly, bumping someone else without caring, and gazed up at Jonny. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Dressed in dark clothing, he fit in with the crowd of college kids and young adults. “I owe you one.”
Ashley hated more than how her attention was always riveted to him whenever she saw him. Handsome and youthful, his gaze gave him an edge she wasn’t able to define, and his quiet confidence and strength were out of place among the carefree college students partying after a long week of class. He was close enough for her to notice his body heat and his light scent.
“You can’t bite me here,” she snapped, recovering from her surprise. “How did you find me?”
He shrugged. “Not really any of your business.”
“So you’re stalking me.”
“Not exactly.”
It had to be some power of his that let him find her. Nothing else made sense. Agitated with his presence and disruption to her dancing, she spun away and went to the bar. She didn’t want to look over her shoulder to see if he followed. She didn’t want him in her safe place, where she came to relax.
The bartender slid her a glass of water deftly, and she plucked it up, tense despite her inability to sense Jonny among the masses.
“I’ve been trying to figure out what might discourage you from attacking my vamps,” Jonny said from behind her.
She faced him, unable to retreat when her back was pressed to the bar counter. Jonny crowded her, one of his hands on the counter beside her, his heated presence rattling her senses.
“And you’ve given up,” she guessed. She couldn’t help the glance at his heart or the memory of what it felt like for his blood to soak her skin and sleeve. It wasn’t a good feeling. It made her skin crawl and she’d almost panicked when she thought she killed him.
“No. You’re a free meal,” he replied.
He won’t bite me in public, she chanted to herself. No matter how close he got to her. The people behind him jostled by, and Jonny’s athletic frame pressed lightly to hers.
“Want to know my solution?” he asked.
“I don’t care, Jonny. Nothing you say or do is going to –”
He kissed her.
Ashley’s whole world felt like it stopped before her internal alarms began screaming. Jonny’s lips were soft and warm, his scent winding through her senses as she stood too shocked to move. Fire spread through her, racing along her nerve endings and pooling in her lower belly. Her skin grew sensitive. Her heart slammed into her chest.
But it wasn’t his move that left her reeling. It was the desire, the urge to open to him rather than run, the need to feel more. To taste, to experience him in a way she never had anyone else. She experienced the same unnerving reaction to him when they dated four years before, the strange sense they belonged together or at least, were supposed to. Her lips parted in instinctive invitation, and Jonny’s velvety tongue slid between them.
His own taste was dark, exotic, a combination of sweetness and musk, his full lips easing her into the kiss with unexpected gentleness.
Ashley began to kiss him back, not wanting to be outdone, even in an arena where she had practically no experience. She had only ever kissed him, and it was so long ago, she didn’t recognize his flavor or remember what kissing him had been like. If it were this incredible, how had she forgotten?
Immersed in the sensations causing chaos inside her, she didn’t notice their surroundings until the thump of techno stopped suddenly.
Ashley pulled away from Jonny and looked around. He’d Traveled to a beach. She was breathless, rattled, thoroughly confused and uncertain whether she should slap him or laugh.
Jonny gazed down at her, the intensity of his focus too much for her to handle with her emotions. She eased back while seeking something to say.
“Why … why did you do that?” she managed at last.
“I wanted to see if it’d work.” He closed the distance between them.
Ashley stepped back quickly enough to stumble, and Jonny caught her arm to steady her. She felt almost drunk on whatever was in her system. Lust? Shock? Anger? She didn’t quite know what to call the fire burning inside her.
“I’d say it did,” Jonny said, sounding too smug for her liking.
“You call that a kiss?” she retorted before she could stop herself.
“It was a start. Could’ve been better.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and she stared at him. Was he being an ass to her on purpose or was this who he was now? Because his warnings and passive aggressive challenges were starting to wear on her.
This time, it was Ashley who went toe-to-toe with him. Without knowing much about kissing, she at least wasn’t going to let him fuck with her about this when he was already trying to curtail her vamp hunting. She reached up and took his cheeks and pulled his head to hers.
She planted a kiss on his lips. Jonny wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close once more, the hardness of his body sending spirals of need through hers. This time, his kiss wasn’t gentle. It was aggressive, demanding, and sent her emotions and thoughts tumbling. The ocean breeze tickled her sensitive skin, and every inch of her was too aware that thin layers of clothing were all that stood between them.
Just as suddenly as it started, he broke it off and whirled her. She had no chance to recover her breath or senses before his magic drifted into her, preventing her muscles from stiffening. Her eyes flew open, and she knew what was comi
ng before it happened. Jonny bear hugged her with both his arms, the thick length of his arousal against her bottom.
With her heightened senses, his bite hurt far more this time than before.
Ashley cried out as his fangs sank into her neck, wriggling to be free and then going limp when his magic forced her body into submission. Involuntary tears of pain sprang to her eyes, and the sensation of warm desire was replaced by hot, streaking pain.
She gasped.
He didn’t release her or withdraw for even longer this time, instead focused on drinking her blood without caring how much pain he caused.
Fear trickled through her. What if he was done playing games with her? What if he didn’t care about pissing off Xander anymore? And the pain … it was like fire piercing her neck.
“You’re hurting me!” she cried.
Jonny broke off the penetrating kiss slowly.
Pain throbbed through her, and she stood immobilized against him. “I hate you,” she whispered.
“Good,” he responded in a roughened voice. “What’s it gonna take for you to back the fuck off, Ash?”
Nothing under the sky will make me back off. She swallowed hard, not about to utter the words aloud. His breathing was unsteady, his arousal clear. He wanted her to back off but he also wanted her. Was this why he hadn’t resorted to more permanent measures? Was there some part of him that did care, even a little?
She shushed the line of thought. It didn’t seem possible when he hurt her like this. Physical attraction wasn’t the same thing as caring for someone, a lesson she had learned from him before.
“You want me to make you my blood slave?” he demanded. “Because that’s the next step.”
“Xander won’t let you.”
“He won’t let me vamp or kill you. He said nothing about teaching you firsthand not to fuck with me. He believes in letting people make their own choices and mistakes and right now, I am your mistake.”
The truth of his words left her speechless.
“This isn’t a game, Ash,” Jonny continued. “You’re putting you and Brandon in the line of fire.”