by Lizzy Ford
“Means to an end, Ash,” he said as much for his benefit as hers. He had done a great deal in the name of his greater purpose, but he sensed Ashley didn’t have that same ability. She loved too fast and fiercely, and her heart guided everything she did. He envied her ability to feel without consequence. He had always thought her pretty, but in the afterglow of their lovemaking, and the knowledge of how she was everything he had lost, Jonny found her more beautiful than he had ever thought possible.
“I know,” she said. Resolution crossed her features. “Let’s go find my brother.”
Jonny had the urge to touch her again but crushed it. They’d need distance to prevent this from becoming something more than he wanted. “You get one warning this time,” he said firmly. “Any sign of a seizure and you stand down. If you disobey me, you don’t go out again.”
The no-way-in-hell look she gave him made him smile to himself. “Sure,” she said.
“You know I can see in the dark, don’t you?”
“Fuck you, Jonny!” she snapped.
“Happy to, Ash.”
The troubled expression returned before she spun away. Jonny crossed to the door and strode into the hallway, too satisfied with his down time with Ashley. The sense this was going to end in disaster made the pit of his stomach feel heavy. He’d had companionship most nights since he became the Black God, but he’d never had something like this. He’d never connected to anyone else the way he did with Ashley, probably because she knew what he was and chose to be with him. There was no need to alter her mind, no need to hide from her.
She knew. Even if she still resented him, she still understood. And this was something he hadn’t thought would affect him. He didn’t have to be alone anymore, if he chose it. If he chose her.
Conflicted and wary of the emotions starting to spill through the dam around his feelings, Jonny led her out of the dorms and into the night. The vamps were gathering in their assigned teams beyond the next building, and Jonny’s step slowed as he approached the edge of his private time with Ashley. He was torn between saying farewell, just in case the worst-case scenario happened, and not acknowledging her again to maintain the distance he felt was needed.
She stopped when he did, and he faced her. Her features glowed from sex, her lips roughened by kisses and her expression more open than he’d seen it. Rather than ease the tension between them, the day together had only made it more charged, more compelling, and he actively fought the need to be closer.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You didn’t change your mind. If you did, Jonny, I swear –” Her features flushed with anger.
“No,” he said, amused. He racked his brain for the right thing to say. “Take care of Charles. Make sure he returns.”
“I will.” She studied him. “Can I tell him you said that? Because I’d really love to rub it in when he’s not holding a Taser.”
Jonny laughed, startled by her vehemence and then by the sound escaping his lips. How long had it been since he laughed? How completely inappropriate was it for the Black God to find humor anywhere? He’d forgotten how funny she was and it struck him he hadn’t laughed this freely in years.
“No,” he answered. “Just make it happen.”
“I will.”
It was all he could think to say. Jonny began walking again and hardened himself once more as he turned the corner to the open area where his troops were gathered. Charles and the team leaders were dispatching vamps already to predetermined places Brandon had found during his search. The night air was abuzz with activity and anticipation, and he joined Charles.
“Which location did you choose?” Jonny asked.
Charles handed him the iPad with the locations of all the teams flashing in separate boxes. With the more advanced knowledge of strategy, Charles was given free reign to choose where the teams went. Jonny studied the color-coded areas. Charles was always yellow.
“Small location,” he murmured. “So you have a lead.”
“Instinct. We’ve barely missed him twice. He’s smart enough to evolve his tactics, to use a couple spots as decoys and then hide elsewhere.”
“Speaking of tactics, we need to move camp,” Jonny said. “My instincts are telling me we can’t stay in one place too long.”
“Agreed. I have a backup list no one else has seen.” Charles maneuvered the screen to his email and sent the file to Jonny. “Just have Stu send out the message before dawn about who goes where.”
Jonny nodded and observed the screen as it returned to the five raid parties. Something else was bothering him, but he wasn’t quite able to pinpoint what. It was more than concern for his vamps after the disastrous raids the night before, more than his uncertainty about Ashley. “I can’t shake the feeling something isn’t right,” he said for Charles’ ears only. “If you run into anything unusual, if anyone does, contact me immediately. I can stop another ambush before it kills our people.”
“At a steep cost,” Charles reminded him. “You risk losing Valon and Brandon.”
“But if I save a hundred of my people, I’ll do it.”
Charles nodded. “The Natural cleared to go?”
“She is. Make sure she doesn’t try anything,” he said, aware of how quickly Ashley was likely to change her mind about their deal if she sensed Brandon in danger.
“I’ve got a backup Taser,” Charles replied.
“Good.” Jonny lowered the screen. “I’ll monitor from here.”
Charles nodded and left his side for the small team awaiting him. Ashley was already with the vamps wearing yellow wristbands. The one, Hector, she’d partnered with on her previous raid seemed to be less uncomfortable about talking to her while the rest of them stood aside.
They respected her, which was enough for Jonny. But they also harbored few good feelings for any Natural.
Charles joined them and briefed his team before one of the Traveler returned from his current mission to drop off another team.
Jonny watched them vanish and returned to the makeshift headquarters, where a team of four vamps and Stu monitored the missions from multiple computers. He stood back to watch, arms across his chest and tightness in his frame. He was about to begin pacing when one of his wards tripped. He tensed, the hair on the back of his neck rising.
He traveled to the edge of his wards, a good mile from the central camp.
The Grey God awaited him.
“What is it?” Jonny asked, bristling.
“Chill, Jonny.” The Grey God was relaxed. “I’m not here to interfere.”
“Damian send you to observe?”
“No. Just wanted to warn you about something.”
Jonny waited, not convinced the White God’s brother hadn’t come for some ulterior purpose.
“The Others tech you’re using. I can sense it,” Darian started. “It’s a locational talisman?”
Jonny said nothing.
“Anyway, it works both ways. You can find anyone, but anyone can also find you,” Darian explained. “More specifically, any Tracker who can sense Others is going to sense it like I did.”
“There are very few who were able to sense Others.”
“Most of them were part of the old guard from both sides.”
Jonny considered this. Valon had older Trackers with him. It was possible one or more sensed the Others talisman. If so, had they purposely not attacked him or were they still figuring it out?
“And … my personal opinion, not exactly shared by Damian,” Darian continued, “is that you can use it to draw Valon to you. Damian doesn’t think you can take out Valon and prefers you in charge, even if you don’t always see eye to eye. But if you want to end this fast, use the talisman.”
“Let him know in no uncertain terms where I am and challenge him directly,” Jonny said.
“Exactly.”
“You agree with Damian?” Jonny spoke with resentment.
“Not really.” Darian flashed a smile. “Five years ago, three years, even six mon
ths ago, I’d agree. But you told him to fuck off for the first time this week and you were right about everything. He’s not ready to see it yet but he’ll come around.”
Jonny studied him, not expecting any of the White God’s allies to show him any sign of respect.
“He wants Brandon,” Darian added. “Xander won’t let him have Jessi or Brandon, and we’ve never seen Natural powers like either. If you can deliver Brandon, and wrangle Xander’s consent in the process, he won’t fight you about Ashley like he plans to.”
“You know this for a fact?”
“It’s a gut feeling.”
“Why are you trying to help me?”
“I’m not entirely. I have my reasons for wanting to see Brandon officially accepted into the Guardian network as well. Part of that revolves around me not trusting Xander. He holds most of the cards pretty much all the time, and I’m always interested in evening out the balance of power.”
“This is politics.”
“It is.”
Jonny considered. Negotiating with either God was always a double-edged sword, and it was a rare day when he didn’t end up cut to pieces by it. “Brandon should be free to make his own choice, same as Ashley,” he said finally. “I’m not going to promise you anything.”
“You don’t have to. I’m advising you the way I do Damian. It’s sort of what I’m supposed to do. And you’ve already spoken for Ashley. From what I understand, she’s yours.”
“For now,” he allowed.
“Wouldn’t you like a way to balance Xander?”
Jonny’s thoughts went to all the favors he’d one day owe Xander. The Original Vamp was no threat today, but Darian was right. The politics of the gods and the Originals shifted often, and they didn’t always agree on the bigger picture.
“You keep Ashley. We keep Brandon,” the Grey God said.
On the surface, it was smart for each side to have a pawn, a means to hold Xander in check. But the idea made Jonny unusually anxious. If he kept Ashley too long, he risked becoming vulnerable. He didn’t buy Charles’ and her insistence he needed an emotional cause in addition to his primary purpose as the Black God. As he thought, he became aware of something else.
“This is the first time any of you have dealt with me like I’m not the noob you consider me,” he said icily. “Is this a game, Darian?”
“As far as I’m concerned, you aren’t a noob. You’re the Black God. You and I have been in power for about the same amount of time. Like I said – Damian isn’t ready to see that yet.”
“I’ll consider what you’re saying. I do tend to agree with Xander that everyone has the right to decide his or her own fate,” Jonny said. “For me to hand over Brandon would rob him of his choices. Ashley already made her decision.”
“And someone can never choose differently,” Darian said wryly.
Jonny stiffened. The idea he’d lose her sat as well as the danger of her staying. He wasn’t certain what he wanted to happen, and he wasn’t in a mindset to decide quite yet.
“No offense meant.” Darian raised his hands. “Just think about what I said.”
“I will.” Jonny drew a breath. “And I appreciate your warning. Now get the fuck out of here.”
Darian winked and Traveled immediately.
Jonny remained for a moment, considering what he’d learned about the talisman. Its integration with the software Stu designed and Brandon’s locational probability algorithm was working well – with a potentially lethal side effect. Rather than feel relieved to understand an unknown threat, Jonny was more interested as to why Valon hadn’t yet exploited his location.
He Traveled to the command center and motioned to Tasha.
“Evac this location and the others immediately,” he ordered. “I’ll email a list of backup locations. Assign everyone to one randomly.”
“Yes, ikir,” she said and hurried away.
“Stu,” he said sharply enough for the hacker to jump in his seat. “I need the laptop where the talisman is stored.”
Stu bent over and lifted one of the four laptops sitting at his feet. Without a real command center, he was forced to swap them in and out on the table before him as needed. He handed it to Jonny.
The faint tingle of magic reached him, and Jonny Traveled without telling anyone why. Rather than go to one of the new locations, he went to a place Valon knew well: the large wooden mansion in the middle of the forest where he had first gone as the Black God.
The place had been torched, and the house perched on the ledge of a canyon in the Rocky Mountains was nothing more than cinders. It was cool this high up in the mountains, and the trees swayed gently in a quiet breeze.
Jonny stood alone in the stillness, the laptop clutched under one arm. He had spent almost three years in this place, sometimes hiding, sometimes struggling, sometimes learning lessons that left him weeping and resentful of his lot in life.
It felt strange to return and remember those first horrific months when he’d learned both to lead and to kill. This place was a reminder of who he had been, one that affected him more than he wanted it to.
It was symbolic of his past life and how he’d burned down everything – even the house – when he reached the point of no return and emerged from the transformation into the man he was today.
His former headquarters was the perfect place for a confrontation with Valon. Out with the old guard and old ways for good, and in with everything Jonny represented.
Jonny crossed to where the porch of the old house used to stand and knelt, lifting a piece of its charred remains. He had tried to crush his heart the way he had his past without luck. Unlike the former headquarters, his heart still burned with embers of humanity.
He set down the laptop before him. If Valon were watching, he’d understand this for what it was: an invitation. A dare. A promise that Jonny was going to finish the job. Once Jonny had worn down Valon’s resistance movement, once he had Brandon back and his own vamps safe, he’d face Valon at the place where he felt most powerful: where his transition had once begun.
“How’s that for motivation, Charles?” Jonny whispered into the night.
Chapter Seventeen
“Ashley.”
It was the second time she’d heard someone say her name and seen no one. She did a full three-sixty and then went still, senses on high alert. The safehouse was in the lower level of a two story building in a historic district in a tiny town in Rhode Island. Quaint brick buildings lined a two lane, cobblestone street. The downtown area was quiet and void of traffic and people this late of night.
She heard Charles and the other vamps searching the rest of the building and started forward again. Only five vamps had been present and very quickly dispatched. The first time she heard her name, she’d been on the second floor, looking for anyone hiding, and had followed the direction of the sound. She walked cautiously in the direction of the voice, weapons drawn. Her senses picked up no one, but she wasn’t one to hear things, either.
She cleared two more rooms and reached the end of a hallway before she heard it for a third time.
“Ashley.”
A muted whisper before, it sounded a lot like Brandon this time.
“Brandon?” she called softly. Her adrenaline soared, and she tensed, ready to kill anyone within ten feet of her brother.
No answer.
She backtracked to the middle of the hallway and held her breath.
“Ashley. Are you there?”
Brandon’s voice came from one of the rooms she’d already searched. Ashley returned and looked around. It was an office with nowhere to hide, not even a closet or file cabinet.
“Please tell me you’re there.”
She cocked her head to the side and approached the desk. The quiet purr of the computer beneath the desk was audible, though the screen connected to it was dark. She clicked it on.
Her heart seized in her chest.
Brandon sagged in his seat before the monitor on the other s
ide. A bandage was wrapped around half his head, and his remaining eye was focused listlessly on the keyboard before him. He was pale, sickly, weak.
“Brandon,” she whispered, stricken by the sight of her brother.
“Thank god,” he said. “I thought he’d kill you.”
“Where are you?” she demanded. “Why are they hurting you?”
“I can’t talk now.”
“Brandon …” The shadow on the wall behind him shifted despite his lack of movement, and she realized her brother hadn’t hacked their systems to contact her; they’d put him up to this. She squeezed her fists hard enough for the nails to bite into her palms.
“Valon says if you surrender, he’ll let us both go when he’s done with Jonny,” Brandon said.
“After chopping you into pieces? There’s no fucking way he’s serious!” she exclaimed.
“He says … he won’t hurt me again if you do what he says and then turn yourself over to him.”
Her throat tightened. No part of her believed Valon was serious about sparing anyone. But the sight of her brother in this condition destroyed any rationale.
“He says … in the desk is something that will let you disable Jonny.”
Her heart skipped a beat. She had been purposely not thinking about Jonny, about how tender of a lover he was and how poorly she’d convinced herself she stopped caring for him when he betrayed her long ago. When she stilled long enough for her mind to roam, she felt his warm, strong palms skimming her body once more, experienced the pure ecstasy of him sliding into her and kissing her with passion she hadn’t thought him capable of. He had claimed her with gentleness and persistence, touched her with reverence and whispered her name in a low, husky voice that dripped with desire and affection. That she could experience him every night she bore his brand, become the sole focus of his entire world, rendered her breathless. She’d wanted him and yet been scared as well, and he’d shown her a level of ecstasy she’d never imagined possible.
To betray him as he once had her sent her emotions smashing to the ground. Revenge didn’t feel as good as she thought it should.