by Lizzy Ford
His gaze was trained on her with an intensity that made her body warm from the inside out.
“Well?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, Sofia, for being a dick.”
“Apology accepted,” she said and looked down. “I’m so sorry about Claire. I knew it would hurt you.”
“No worries.”
His aloof response made her look up. His gaze was wary and moving, and he was guarded once more. Even after thousands of years he was reliving the pain of his brother’s death. If she closed her eyes, she’d see the home video of Darian’s funeral pile. Her heart went out to him.
“I think I’d known for a long time and didn’t want to face it,” he said. “I probably could have gone much longer ignoring her.”
“She would have killed you.”
“She would have tried.”
“You can risk your life, but I won’t,” Sofia retorted.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you cared.”
“I do care about you, Damian, even though you’re a total jackass.”
“For the record, you’re the only person in history who could get away with half the shit you say,” he told her.
“I know.”
The warmth of his smile was not lost on her, and she thought about what Linda had said about him. Maybe the cheerful woman was right – maybe there was more to Damian than she gave him credit for.
“D.”
It was Lon, whose gaze went to her as he approached.
“Guess I lost that bet,” he muttered. “She’s ok and says thanks. The doc can’t figure out what happened. He should release her today.”
“Glad I could help.”
“Rainy would have come, but he won’t leave her side. Poor sap.”
“No worries. How’s Linda?”
“Good. Still won’t let me live down almost dying.”
His gaze went to her then Damian expectantly. Damian ignored his hint, and Lon didn’t press.
“See you at the next bar-b-q?” he asked, holding out his hand.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Damian said, standing to shake his hand.
“Linda says you can call her whenever you want,” Lon said, handing her a tissue with a phone number and smiley face written on it.
“Thanks.”
He retreated.
“Pierre, you want my croissant?” she called.
“I do,” Damian said and snatched the pastry.
“It’s because I’m French, isn’t it? You assume we French all eat croissants,” Pierre complained.
“This is sooooo good,” Damian said, pinning her with a look as he wolfed down the second half.
She glared at him.
“Just when I start to like you … you know it’s amazing even a man who’s thousands of years old can act like a twelve year old. Pierre. Car. Now.”
Furious, she breezed past him, not surprised when he opted not to ride home with her.
She didn’t see Damian until afternoon, when he strolled in from sparring, ear to a cell phone. He was naked from the waist up and sweaty, a combination that made her sit up and pay attention.
“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” he said with a grimace and handed the phone to her before striding out.
“Hello?”
“Hi Sofia, this is Linda! How are you?”
“Good, thanks. Everything alright?”
“Oh yeah. I was telling D that Rainy went off the deep end when we told him about the girls!” she giggled. “Traci told him not to think about asking her to marry him just because she’s pregnant, and he said she had no choice and he’d drag the priest to her. He almost beat down her door. They’re in this horrible tiff right now.”
“Wow, I didn’t mean to start this.”
“The doc would have noticed she was pregnant, just not the twin part and the girls part.”
“Right. Totally not my fault then.”
Linda laughed.
“Listen, I wanted to see if you wanted to go Christmas shopping with us this weekend. It’s one of the last weekends before Christmas. I’m way behind, and Traci -“
Since when did the concept of Christmas shopping seem so bizarre?
Since I became some sort of recently resurrected fortune telling vampire.
It was something normal people did during this time of year, something she’d done every year for 27 years.
“ – count you in?”
Sofia covered the speaker.
“Pierre, am I allowed to go Christmas shopping?”
“I hate this fucking library.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Oui.”
“Linda, I’ll go.”
“Great! We’ll pick you up. Are you at D’s?”
“Yeah.”
“Traci’s been there. She’ll drive. We’ll see you Saturday at nine.”
“Great, thanks.”
Sofia hung up the phone, feeling as if she were emerging from a stupor for the first time in months. While she couldn’t shake the sense of doom that followed her from the visions, she felt more normal, less afraid, at the thought that she’d be rejoining the rest of humanity for a shopping trip with the girls, even if only for a morning.
She left the library to return Damian’s phone. It rang loudly in the hall, a rap song spitting f-bombs that made her eyebrows rise. She hesitated then answered.
“Hello?”
“Hello? Do I have D’s number?”
“Yes.”
“And who are you?”
“Sofia. Who are you?”
There was a pause before the man on the other end answered.
“Jule, a friend of his. I’m in town right now on an errand.”
“Are you a good friend?”
“I’d like to think so,” he said with a chuckle. “We met when he was a teen and went through some rough stuff together.”
“Yeah, I know. His is a sordid history. What kind of a person was he when you met?”
“He’s always been the best man I know,” was the unhesitant response.
His voice held an upbeat note and natural warmth that she liked. He wasn’t like Dustin, who seemed more likely to kill a stranger than talk to one.
“If you all are on the side of good, why is there so much death?”
He gave a surprised laugh.
“Trust me, there’d be more if the bad guys won. It’s not easy being the good guy, and it’s a job not many people can do. You have to stay true to your values while destroying something as well. It’s rough.”
Damian trotted from the stairs towards the courtyard and paused, looking at her curiously.
“I’m having an issue reconciling the two,” she admitted.
“Who?” he mouthed. She waved him away.
“We’ve all gone through that stage. You have to look at it like this: would you want someone to help you if something bad happened?” Jule continued.
“Yes.”
“Exactly. But not everyone can do what we do, because we’re, well, different than normal people. We’re in a unique position to help people who can’t help themselves against bad guys who want to hurt them.”
“I see. You have no regrets?”
“No way in hell, and neither does D. Because of us, many innocent people have been able to live their lives and humanity thrives.”
Damian watched her, eyes narrowing.
“I see why he likes you,” she said quietly. “Thanks for talking to me. He’ll call you back.”
“Sofi - ”
She hung up and tossed Damian the phone.
“I’m going shopping Saturday,” she told him. “And Jule called. He’s in town.”
“That’s who you were talking to?”
She didn’t miss the way he bristled but turned her back to him to return to the library.
“Yep. He’s a good guy.”
Don’t answer my phone.
“Then stop doing that!”
No deal.
H
e drove her crazy, and she was hungry again. Always, always hungry. Was she destined to spend the rest of her life starving?!
“Your drug dealer’s still in business. For now.”
“That’s not funny,” she said, turning to glare at him.
“No?” he asked, approaching her with a languid walk that stirred her blood.
He stopped in her personal zone, too close, but she wasn’t about to back down this time. She crossed her arms and looked up at him, meeting his steady look with a challenging one of her own.
“You’re getting braver, kiri,” he said in a husky tone.
She tried not to let it affect her but suspected by his look of satisfaction that he saw how quickly her face changed colors.
“If you’re half the man everyone tells me you are, you’ll send Han some flowers. He’s going to break his leg tomorrow.”
Amusement flickered across his face.
“At your service, oracle.”
She ached to touch him but refused, hugging herself more tightly instead. Her nerve began to frazzle. She walked away.
“Sofia.”
There was a serious note in his voice that made her stop. His gaze was on her chest. She fingered the necklace there.
“The diamonds were a bit overwhelming for daily wear,” she admitted. “I restrung it onto one of my chains.”
He said nothing, and she saw the look that crossed his face. He wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“Is that ok?” she asked.
“Very.”
He spun on his heel and left. She watched him go, admiring and puzzled.
“My dear Han, you were right about these damn moods.”
He was worse than a woman PMSing.
You’re full of shit.
She gritted her teeth, hating the fact he had open access to her thoughts and worse – he could respond to them!
“No,” Pierre said, blocking the library as she approached. “I’m not wasting any more of my time in there.”
“I have one more thing to do,” she said, holding up her list. “Why don’t you go spar? I promise not to leave.”
He gave her a look of supreme distaste before he, too, walked away.
What was it with these men and their moods? She shook her head and returned to the library. In truth, it was the one place in the house where she felt safe and comfortable when she wasn’t with Damian.
CHAPTER TEN
Claire didn’t look any worse for wear after a day in the offsite location Dusty had scouted as a temporary dungeon for their prisoners. If not for the worried flicker of her gaze past him to see who followed, he would have thought this a social call.
“Dusty’s not here,” he said, irritated by the inference that he was somehow someone to be less feared.
She sat on one of two fold-out chairs in the concrete room, legs crossed and hands in her lap.
“I guess I should feel honored to have your personal attention,” she said acidly.
He pulled up the other chair and sat across from her.
“Two hundred and sixty three,” he started. “That’s the number of Guardians you’ve killed directly with your actions over the past few thousand years. In an organization of less than five thousand, that’s a lot.”
“I offered to become your queen after Darian died,” she replied. “You threw me out with nowhere to go after my husband was killed. Who do you think paid the bills if you didn’t?”
“I’m not sure how betraying everything your husband stood for would excuse anything you did. You’re a pretty twisted bitch.”
Her eyes narrowed. Damian regarded her coolly, unwilling to let someone so undeserving get the best of him. When he wanted, he could be as cold as Dusty.
“You’d never understand,” she replied.
“You’re right. I’d never kill my mate or sell myself to Czerno.”
She paled at his words.
“It’s that bitch, isn’t it?” she exclaimed, rising and pacing. “I was meant to be at your side, not her!”
Damian felt something cool further within him at the reference to Sofia.
“You were meant to be at Darian’s side. Your skills as an oracle were terrible, but he mated with you anyway.”
She shook her head as if he were the fool.
“Will you tell me why you betrayed him before I kill you?” he asked with calmness at odds with the storm in his breast.
Claire glanced at him then back, taking in the resolve on his face. Suddenly she was mewling, kneeling beside him, her hands on his thigh and her face soft and beguiling.
Like the night she’d come to visit him upon arriving in Tucson. Damian gritted his teeth, remembering how tempted he’d been by the same ruse a few nights before.
“Forgive me, Damian. What I did was wrong,” she whispered.
There tears in her eyes, and she looked sincere.
She killed Darian.
Damian stood and moved away, emotions roiling. How could someone so treacherous live under his nose for thousands of years? How had he ever turned a blind eye to her? He touched her mind for the first time ever, and his resolve solidified at the images he saw there.
She’d never loved Darian and had used him to gain his title and power. Her betrayal struck him even harder.
“It doesn’t matter, Claire. You killed my brother and 263 other Guardians.”
She rose and dusted off her legs from where she’d knelt. Her eyes flashed with defiance, and she glowered at him.
“You’ve had tens of thousands of years to get rid of me. You can’t tell me you never looked into my thoughts with your god-powers!”
“I didn’t,” he said. “I promised Darian.”
“Even when we were fucking?”
“Even when we were fucking.”
“Tell me, Damian, does she fuck the way you like it? Can she do for you what I did?”
“Leave her out of this, Claire,” his growl was inhuman, a warning she didn’t heed.
“I was meant to be at your side not some stupid human!”
“There’s no chance of that now, is there? I don’t even expect to let you live tonight.”
As if finally realizing her game was called, she hesitated.
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know about Czerno,” she said.
“I want to know why you killed my brother.”
She appeared pensive, then shrugged.
“I don’t remember anymore,” she said.
Fury lit his insides as he regarded her easy dismissal for one of the most painful events of his life. Worse - he saw in her mind that what she said was true. She didn’t remember, and she didn’t care.
“Damian,” she purred, approaching him and resting her hands on his chest. “I’ll tell you everything you don’t know about Czerno in exchange for my life. I swear, I’ll tell you all and disappear.”
Her touch was like poison! He glared down at her, looking for some sign of the woman he’d thought she was.
“I don’t give a fuck about Czerno, Claire. I loved Darian. I love Sofia. At one point, I think I loved you, too.”
“We can - “
He pushed her away from him and drew a deep breath, withdrawing a pistol from the small of his back.
“You’re a traitor,” he spit the word. “You’ve killed so many, and I’ve been too afraid to see you for what you are. Tonight, you’re nothing to me.”
She stared at him, her surprise the first genuine emotion he’d seen. He gathered his power and sent it towards her, wrapping around her tightly.
“Claire, your immortality is revoked.”
“Damian, don’t!” she shouted as the invisible hands stripped her of her immortal gift. They dropped her to the floor. She scrambled up and stared at him, terrified.
Damian took aim with the pistol and fired into her heart before she could make another sound. She dropped. He stood over her, watching the life fade from her eyes. Images of his brother played through his thoughts, images of Cla
ire’s father presenting her to him, of their visible love, of his death, of his own involvement with Claire …
They hit fast and hard, even as he exited the compound and destroyed it with a flash of power. He stood and watched it burn, feeling as if a part of him burned with it.
A part of him did. What was left of Darian went up in the second funeral pile in his honor. Damian closed his eyes to the heat and light, tormented by his brother’s death and his own cowardice.
Forgive me, brother.
Miles away, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong with Damian. His mind was closed, his home videos playing too faintly for her to hear. Whatever he was going through, he was doing his best to block her.
“C’mon, kiri,” Dustin said, poking his head into the library.
She unraveled herself from her favorite chair near the window. Dark had fallen an hour before. She pocketed her list and trailed him to the area just beyond the patio, where the scent of hot dogs and s’mores greeted her long before she reached the small group circled around a bonfire. Linda and Traci were there. She hid a smile at the look on Linda’s face. The brunette stood between Traci and Rainy, as if she were trying to broker a peace deal between two warring countries.
Traci was stunning, from her supermodel body to her delicate, elfin features. Her arms were crossed, and though she smiled at Lon, Sofia could see her level of comfort was equal to hers among the giants that towered even above a supermodel.
Relief flooded Linda’s features as she saw Sofia. She hurried from between the two warring factions and hugged her. Sofia forced herself not to recoil, afraid to touch anyone.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Linda whispered. “This is awful.”
Sofia felt Rainy’s hard gaze but avoided his heated look.
“Traci, come here!” Linda called, flashing a smile.
The supermodel all but bolted from the midst of the male forest around her.
“This is Sofi. She saved your life.”
Traci’s hand fluttered to her stomach, and Sofia’s face flamed.
“I’ll get you some food,” Linda said, bouncing away.
“She’s so sweet,” Traci murmured as she left. “I’d go crazy here if not for her.”
“I completely understand,” Sofia said.
“Linda says you’re newer than me. This world will screw with your mind.”