by Lizzy Ford
Valon brought friends. Lots of them.
Jonny gathered his power, ready to flatten the forest for a mile in each direction, when the odd sense of … something reached him. He cocked his head to the side, sifting through his senses and magic both to pinpoint the source of energy teasing the back of his neck and surrounding him in a haze of tingling.
Valon. Ashley’s warning returned to him. He started to unleash his magic when he experienced a flash of fiery pain. Jonny looked down at his forearm and saw an arrow with a head similar to the one Ashley had intended to use on him. This one was smaller, and it seemed to absorb the power he directed at it. He yanked it free of his arm in annoyance and tossed it, knowing he’d heal instantly.
Except he didn’t. He glanced down twice at the wound. It didn’t heal. At all.
“Now I know it works,” Valon’s voice came from somewhere off to his side within the energy cloud. “Are you ready to die, Jonny?”
“I’m ready to kill, Valon.”
Valon’s energy cloud disappeared, and he solidified before Jonny. The Black God prepared to let loose his power, to crush his challenger once and for all.
“Hurt me and you don’t get your little Natural back,” Valon said quickly.
“Like I give a fuck about one Natural.”
“I know you do the girl. You want to know my plans for her? How I plan to fuck and drain her?”
Fury warmed Jonny’s blood at the vision of how Valon had left Ashley at the factory and the knowledge of how much worse Valon was capable of. The predator before him was baiting him, and he clenched his jaw. “This is between us, Valon.”
“You think I’m stupid enough to face you without a plan? To let you wipe me to without even trying to beat you?” Valon laughed. “Some of that naïve boy remains, doesn’t it?”
“You’re stalling,” Jonny said. “What the fuck –”
Pain pierced his back. A flurry of arrows rained from the forest. Several slammed into him before his defenses went up, and the rest deflected off him. He felt without seeing they were made of the same material as the first, material that attracted his power like magnets and prevented him from unleashing it. Pain ripped through him, and he dropped to one knee, unable to reach the arrows to stem the bleeding or eject them from his body. They were immune to his magic.
“The Others knew a thing or two about keeping a god in check,” Valon said. “I can’t stop your power, but I can distract it.”
“This is not going to end well for you, Valon.” Jonny tested his power, startled by how effective the arrowheads were.
“Now it’s almost a fair fight,” Valon said and drew two knives. “You ready?”
Jonny straightened. Blood streamed down his back and legs. His thoughts went to Ashley then his vamps. Charles was right. If Valon won, Jonny’s death would be the first of many. Even without humanity in the equation, everyone he loved would be slaughtered.
Valon was bigger, stronger and faster, but Jonny knew how to fight such an opponent. He’d tested himself against Ashley, who could run circles around him with her speed and skill.
“I’m not the boy you think you know,” he answered. “I won’t let some asshole with no vision run my domain. It takes more than strength to be a god.”
“We’ll find out, won’t we?”
Jonny found himself wishing he could reach the arrows to yank them out of his back. He had access to some of his power but not all. A game of trial and error with Valon was likely to end in death.
He began to suspect Charles was right. When it boiled down to it, duty was a strong enough reason to fight. But knowing what happened if he failed – the fate Ashley, Charles and his loyal vamps faced – lit a fire inside him he hadn’t thought existed.
Losing was not an option.
Chapter Twenty Two
Charles or Jonny had to have had an inkling she was going to search for Brandon the moment she hit the ground. Ashley didn’t have a chance to orient herself let alone determine whether her brother was nearby. The Traveler on her team dropped them into the middle of a nest of vamps hiding out in an abandoned cabin in the forest.
Fortunately the creatures were caught unaware. She’d hacked down three of them before the others had scrambled to grab their weapons. The Guardians with her fought with unity and discipline, and she broke away from them, her speed putting her ahead of everyone.
Reaching a pocket of quiet, Ashley drew a deep breath and gazed around her. She was using the knife Jonny gave her, less because she needed it and more because she felt honored he had given it to her.
Jonny cared on some level, even if he hadn’t said such aloud. It didn’t confuse her like she thought it would. If anything, knowing – finally – she wasn’t the only one affected by their relationship settled some of her doubt and fear.
The sound of fighting died out behind her, and she turned to see the last of the vamps surrounded by the Guardians.
“Alive, as requested,” one of them told her.
She went to the injured creature and bent down beside it. “My brother,” she said. “I want to know where he is.”
The dazed vamp stared at her without speaking.
She drew the knife Jonny had given her and lifted it. “We can do this the hard way or the harder way,” she said. “Tell me what I want to know, and we’ll give you Jonny’s form of mercy.”
The vamp shifted uneasily.
“Natural.” Charles brusque address came at the wrong time.
“Not now, Charles,” she said and leaned around the vamp to see him.
The Guardians were bristling, but they didn’t attack, instead parting for the Black God’s second in command to approach.
“I have a lead on your brother,” Charles said. “I lost a vamp. Leave your lackeys and come with me.”
She stood without hesitation. “You have a Traveler?”
“You shouldn’t leave without us,” one of the Guardians warned. “Naturals won’t last long with vamps.”
“Don’t you start with me,” she said and shot the speaker an annoyed look. “I’ve been fighting with these guys for a week now. I definitely don’t need you defending me.”
“Dusty said –”
“To do what I tell you,” she snapped. “So. Do what I tell you!”
The Guardian backed down but not before he glanced at another of this teammates. She had the sense their orders weren’t exactly what Dusty said they were, but she wasn’t about to let Guardian or vamp get in her way.
“Come on, Charles,” she said and strode away. “Let’s find my brother.”
The Guardians didn’t follow. Charles led her into the forest, to the vamp she assumed would take her where her brother was, and paused. Seconds later, they materialized somewhere else in the dark forest. Somewhere quiet, with no sign of a hideout or safehouse or anything.
Ashley didn’t notice the look Charles gave the vamp beside him or the Traveler stepping away from them. She tuned her senses into the forest, waiting for the slightest sound or smell of her brother, anxious to see him again.
“Where is he, Charles? Do we have to go –”
Hot electricity tore through her, and she dropped to the ground, convulsing and panting. Ashley cursed him silently, bewildered by what he was doing, and lay still when the jolts of electricity ceased flowing.
Unable to move, she was helpless as he tied her arms and legs. “What … are you doing?” she managed at last.
“Jonny’s orders,” Charles said.
“What?”
“We do know where your brother is likely to be. Jonny wants us to get him then turn you both over to the Guardians. Then, you’re supposed to get the fuck away from us.”
A flicker of hurt was quickly replaced by anger. Ashley strained at her bonds.
Charles motioned the vamp with him back.
“This is so stupid, Charles!” she told him. “You need me fighting!”
He crouched beside her and gripped her shoulder, pushing her
onto her side. With a glance at the vamp Traveler, he shifted closer. “I know. I am loyal to my god. But I do not agree with this decision, not because I care for a stupid Natural, but because I know he needs you.”
She listened, surprised.
“I have been ordered to rescue your brother and deliver him to the Guardians, and I’m going to do so. I need to know something before you that’ll determine whether or not I tell you where your weapons are.”
“What?”
“Jonny shared his location with no one. No vamp can track him. Do you know where he is?”
Ashley rolled the question around in her head. She started to respond that she didn’t, until she considered the location Valon had given her where he wanted to meet when she was done doing his dirty work. “I might. It’s a long shot,” she said. “Untie me and we can find out.”
“No. If you get loose, it won’t be because I let you,” Charles rose. “But if you do find the weapons we hid in the bushes over there, and you happen to set yourself free, you need to find Jonny. You have my word Brandon will be safe.”
“You just Tasered me, Charles. Why should I believe you?” she returned.
“Because if you don’t, there’s a chance we’re all going to be dead by morning.”
She looked up at his glowing eyes. Jonny had gone to face Valon alone, and Charles was worried. She didn’t quite know what to think of the loyal vamp disobeying his master, but if he were willing to guarantee Brandon’s life, she was the last person to object.
And … her heart was already racing at the idea Jonny was in danger.
“Fine,” she said softly.
“Much luck.” Charles stretched for the Traveler, who touched him.
Before she could ask how they expected her to get to Jonny, the two winked out of existence.
Ashley cursed. She rolled towards the bushes he had indicated and closed her eyes. Branches and leaves scratched her exposed arms and face, and she groped around in the darkness for a weapon.
The rough leather of the sheath belonging to the knife that killed Czerno brushed her fingertips, and she wriggled closer.
“You are a good luck knife.” She tugged it free and shifted into a kneeling position. Working the knife from its sheath, she managed to saw through the plastic zip ties Charles had used on her and yanked her arms free.
Urgency coursed through her, along with adrenaline. Ashley cut her ankles free, snatched the remaining weapons and stood.
The location she’d identified was somewhere around her, but to get there, she’d have to Travel. She’d risk having a seizure. She tested her body. She was sore already from fighting, tired and hungry. She needed time to heal. Jonny had patched her up to prevent another episode, but would it last if she forced the issue by Traveling?
What if I could save his life?
Ashley closed her eyes and drew a breath, rattled by the memory of what happened the last time she Traveled. It had been during the horrible year when she transitioned into her power, and she’d ended up confined to bed for two days.
“Jonny patched me,” she whispered. She visualized the place on the map where Valon had wanted her to go and willed herself to be there.
The disorienting sense of the world tilting and melting then rematerializing made her breath catch in her throat. She opened her eyes cautiously, braced for an episode. Her insides were shaky but nothing like what she experienced pre-seizure. She grudgingly admitted how grateful she was for Jonny’s ability, even if their interactions rarely ended on a good note.
The area around her had once been a front lawn, judging by the pile of rubble left over from the burnt down house nearby. Her senses picked up too much that left her gripping her knives: the scent of blood in the air, the odd tingling of her senses she recognized from her first confrontation with Valon.
It was quiet and calm but not quite right.
“Jonny?” she whispered.
Break the weapons to break their power. A strange sense washed over her, and she wobbled, expecting a seizure. Instead, the words repeated in her mind, and she suddenly envisioned a man with green eyes, a stranger she didn’t remember meeting.
Ashley shook her head to clear it and began walking. Her instincts tugged her in one direction, to the side of the massive structure where a garage had once stood.
The still form of Jonny made her whole body go rigid. She stared, unable to tell if he were alive or dead, and too shocked to see the god unmoving. He was surrounded by a field of red lightning and black shadows. She ventured into it without hesitation, only for the first red lightning that touched her to shock her like Charles and his Taser.
“Son of a bitch!” she shouted and leapt away.
She eyed the loose power of Jonny. It clung to the bushes and charred remains of the garage, and it stood between her and the Black God. The sense they weren’t alone was growing. She didn’t have time to evaluate their surroundings to determine how close Valon was or just how many of his vamps lay waiting in the forest. Her thoughts flew to Brandon, and she prayed Charles was telling the truth about saving her brother.
“This is gonna hurt.” Ashley scouted a path as free of his magic as possible and dashed to Jonny. Hot fire shot through her as she leapt and sprinted, and she muttered curses with each new shock.
She dropped to her knees in a space free of fog and lightning. The ground around him was squishy and soaked with blood, and arrows stuck out of his back. “Jonny!” She felt for his pulse. It was weak, shallow, his breathing almost too quiet to hear. He was wounded in more places than she could count. “Why aren’t you healing?”
Break the weapons to break their power.
Ashley shivered, uncertain how or why some strange voice was in her head. Her focus shifted to the arrows. She straddled Jonny’s hips and braced one foot against his back to pull the arrows free. Five grueling minutes later, all six were tossed to the side.
“Break the weapons …” She eyed the arrowheads. They were made of the same material the knife Valon left for her had been. It didn’t seem possible they had any sort of effect on him when they were removed.
She rolled him onto his back then leapt away as shadows and lightning sent fire spiraling through her.
“Dammit!” He wasn’t healing, and his pulse was even slower. Panic stirred at the sight of his paling features. Ashley yanked a knife free and smashed the arrowheads. They broke with the ease of brittle slate, and she made sure they were in too many pieces to be used as weapons again before putting the knife away.
Jonny still wasn’t moving.
A trickle of a memory, a thought, moved through her head. Suddenly, she recalled standing in her bedroom, facing a creature that looked very much like an Other, except his eyes were green.
“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.
“You’ll understand at a later time.”
Ashley gripped her knife more tightly.
“The Others could not kill the gods, but they had a means to control or weaken them. Weapons made of the bones of Oracles. The blood of an Oracle once enslaved the Grey God, Darian. The bones of ancient Oracles can do the same to the Black God – render them vulnerable enough for a godslayer to kill him,” said the creature. “These bones, kept in hiding by Others, have been found by the enemies of the Black God.”
“Um, why in the hell do I care what happens to Jonny?” she retorted.
“There has not been balance since the Schism. The current Black God is the lesser of two evils, the only chance there is for peace and balance in any scenario we Watchers can see.”
“And why are you telling me thi
s?”
“Because you must break the weapons to break their power. All of them. They’re linked.”
Ashley blinked out of the memory she hadn’t recalled that was now vividly playing through her thoughts. “Break all the weapons,” she murmured and looked around. She saw no more near the Black God but caught the glint of something a short distance away, closer to the front of the burnt down lodge. “Hang in there, Jonny!” She touched his face, worry filling her with charged energy, and then ran.
Five more of the bone-tipped arrows were scattered in the yard. Ashley crushed them under her heel and started back to check on Jonny when she felt it. The weird energy cloud of Valon’s, the one that left her senses confused.
Not now, she willed him. Valon was strong enough to pose an issue when she wasn’t fully on her feet.
A familiar, tiny flash of red light flickered in the corner of her eye. She reacted instinctively, arcing and dancing away from his charge and the weapons he held.
He missed her, and she faced him. “That shit won’t work on me anymore.”
“Maybe not. But something tells me you’re in no shape to fight.” His pleased smile was cunning. “I didn’t leave much of you left in the factory.”
“Yeah, thanks for that.” Her gaze settled on the bone knife he held in one hand. “You got anymore of those fancy knives?”
“I already gave you one and you fucked up. I think I’ll keep the last one for myself.”
I need that knife. Ashley blew out a breath. The patch Jonny put on her epilepsy seemed to be holding. Valon was bleeding in at least one spot, which made her think Jonny hadn’t gone down without doing some damage. “Okay. Let’s do this,” she said.
Valon waited for her to attack, as if suspecting she was too weak. Ashley began praying once more she was able to Travel without collapsing. She’d have the energy for one chance to surprise him – and then she was screwed.
She willed herself to disappear. Before he could register what she was doing, she materialized behind him and plunged both knives into his wrist and forearm to force his hand release the bone knife.