No one ever would. No matter what happened this day and the next, Xander was going to be safe.
Eden touched her Oracle magic. It responded, even when it refused to show her the future. With Xander incensed, he wasn’t aware of the trickle of power she pushed into the red gem in her hand. His abilities were beyond those of any immortal she knew. He was able to hear thoughts and manipulate minds in addition to brute strength that allowed him to tear men in two with no effort.
He was stronger than she was, had been for quite some time. It never disturbed her before, because he was on the path she needed him to follow.
For the first time in her life, she felt something other than conviction about what she had done. Her adopted son was no longer needed in her world. He fulfilled his purpose, only he was not going to be able to live a normal life in the mortal world like she was. Their ways had to part, because there was no place for her weapon in a civilized society.
Did she cut him free as he was? A menace to the worlds that would destroy then be destroyed?
Does he live or does he die?
Of all the emotions she expected to feel on the day of her great victory, anger and guilt were not among them.
“I want to bestow upon you a gift, Xander,” she said. “Your vengeance has been achieved, and my world saved.”
He faced her. “What is it?” His features were open with her; he had never entered her mind unbidden or used his skills or magic against her.
But she was the only one. If she tried to talk him out of the course he wanted to take, she wasn’t certain the hold she had on him would overcome his bloodlust.
I need more.
“A choice,” she replied. “Between power and immortality.”
“Power.”
“You would choose power over life?”
“Always,” he said without hesitation.
“Even your own life?”
“Yes.”
“We are a lot alike,” she murmured. “Driven to our causes. Blind to what victory brings.”
“This world can be mine.” Xander’s attention was on the streets that flowed with blood.
“Yes, it can,” she agreed. But it won’t be.
Eden funneled her magic into the gem. She pulled it free. The spark of fire in the rough ruby was enough to draw Xander from his musings. Protective of his sole treasure, he had never entrusted anyone else with guarding it.
“Power without mercy is dangerous, son. Does any part of you see this?”
“I’ve never known mercy, and I’ll grant it to no one.”
“I’ve shown you what kindness I possess.”
“I’m the only you’ve spared,” he pointed out.
Eden gazed at him, seeing more than the adopted son or bloodthirsty predator she created. She saw herself reflected in the pacing vampire. They shared much more than ambition and similar mind magic.
“Mercy is something neither of us understands,” she agreed. She was quiet, weaving a second spell into the crystal. He was too strong for her to place the spell on him without him agreeing at least in part. “Will you do something for me, Xander?”
He glanced at her, waiting.
“Your gift comes with one condition,” she said. “You must learn mercy.”
He scowled.
“Call it a favor to me.”
The predator paced, not outright rejecting her request but not responding either. She held out the necklace. Its spells were hidden to him, until he placed it around his neck. Xander’s eyes went from the gem to her, the only person in either world that he trusted.
He suspected nothing, especially not that his use to her was gone. Or that she cared deeply about what happened to him. Or that what she did was to make him less of a threat to their enemies.
“Do you agree?” she asked.
“Very well. Absolute power for learning mercy.” He sneered at the words.
The gem flared. He snatched it from her, instinctively replacing it around his neck.
He froze. Eden braced herself, uncertain how the first spell would affect him. Red fog filled the air around him. It swirled and eddied before finding its way to the gem. The smoke funneled into the red ruby, disappearing into its depths.
Xander frowned. She sensed him testing his bonds. The second spell hadn’t hit yet, or he wouldn’t be on his feet.
“What is happening?” he asked at last.
“I righted a wrong,” she replied. “I didn’t give you power, son. I granted you immortality. No weapon made by man or immortal can kill you. In exchange, you no longer influence the vamps you create. You no longer access the power created when a human is vamped. The crystal sustains you for eternity and binds you.”
The surprised look on his face bothered her. He wasn’t expecting betrayal on the day of their victory.
“The second spell will teach you mercy. You and I have no capacity for such a thing, but we will learn. If you take an innocent life, you will feel the same pain that life does, only you will feel it thrice over,” she continued. “To give you a sense of what it’s like to harm an innocent, you will first feel the pain you’ve caused throughout your life. One day of pain for every innocent you’ve harmed.”
The idea of him in pain caused the familiar vise around her chest to return. She made him what he was, but his suffering was necessary to ensure his survival.
“Your immortality will ensure you survive the pain,” she added.
His shock wore off, replaced by anger. He gripped the gem.
“You have a choice, Xander,” she said. “The gem can be destroyed to release its magic, but by doing so, you lose all that remains of your mother and me.”
“Simple. I want … need power.” Fury was in his voice. His hand was clenching and releasing the gem. He didn’t remove it.
“You didn’t carry that bauble with you for twenty years to sacrifice it now.”
His hand dropped from the necklace. The emotions flying across his features were too quick for her to follow. She held her breath. Accustomed to extreme risk, she nonetheless was not fully certain that enough of the boy remained to counter the beast Xander had become.
“You betrayed me,” he whispered. “Like my father.”
“I am doing what I must. Your life is important to me, more so than the amount of pain I must put you through to sustain it,” she replied. “Protect the gem. Whoever has it will have the power to control you – and your magic.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know.”
She knew the moment the second spell hit. His body went rigid, and confusion crossed his features. Xander staggered and dropped to the rooftop, his body convulsing.
Eden flinched. She spent twenty years healing him. Her only solace: the lesson was worth teaching. It was all that might keep him alive. She crouched beside him.
“One day, you’ll understand,” she said quietly. “It may not feel like it, but you’ll survive this. Trust me.”
He gave a strangled cry of rage and pain in response. Eden gazed at his writhing body a moment longer before she rose.
This is how you dull a sword after victory.
With another brief hesitation, Eden turned and walked away.
“Watcher,” she said, pausing by the stairs. She suspected he was observing what happened.
The Original Watcher appeared, confirming her instinct.
“Tell your kind he is no longer a threat,” she directed. “The vamp army I created is gathering at the bridge on the western edge of the city. Send your people there to destroy them, if it pleases you.”
His eyes went to Xander, who writhed in pain on the other side of the roof.
“Your allies will. Not. Touch. Him.” Eden said sharply. “Do you understand?”
“Provided he poses no danger to us, yes.”
“He won’t. He is paying the penalty for the loss of a hundred thousand innocent lives. He won’t walk for years. That necklace will absorb new magic and prevent him from acce
ssing the depths of his current store.”
“It’ll make a good target for your enemies. His power will be strong enough to destroy a world soon.”
Eden shook her head. “Not unless someone can withstand the release of his mind magic. The gem is protected by it. Even I would fall to his manipulation, if he were to use it on me. No, Watcher, the gem will kill any who touches it.”
“You leave him in such pain, destroy your armies and walk away,” the Original Watcher summarized. “You alone emerge unscathed.”
“Wrong,” she said. “I held two things dear: my cause and my Xander. Today, both are gone.”
The Watcher studied her and then nodded. “Go in peace, Eden. You will be needed here again one day. I will handle the vamp armies you created.”
Eden didn’t dwell on the peculiar statement. Watchers shared what they wanted, and she had no desire to find out what that was. Seconds later, she was back in the mortal world, where she belonged. Instead of victorious, she felt only regret.
Chapter One
Present Day
Los Angeles
Xander made his way through the rave. Multi-colored strobe lights pulsed around the overcrowded, vampire-themed club while electronica drowned out most attempts at conversation. The air was filled with marijuana smoke and the scent of bodies sweating as people danced, drank or huddled with friends. His glowing red eyes didn’t draw attention in a club where everyone was pretending to be a vampire. It was his size – combined with a prey’s instinctive sixth sense warning it of a predator – that caused people to move away from him.
He always fed at night, and hunger made his senses sharper, especially when he was surrounded by so many potential sources of dinner. His fangs were out in anticipation. With his choice of prey, he narrowed in on a gorgeous blonde who seemed out of place, one of the few not wearing fangs or dressed from head-to-foot in black. She wore a tight red dress and sky-high heels that would put her at his chin, no small feat given he was seven feet tall. She was just the way he liked them: sexy, sleazy, experienced. `
He lost her somewhere around the bar and enjoyed the idea of hunting his next meal-toy. He’d give her the same offer he gave every woman: fuck him or not. None had yet to refuse, and all consented to the orgasmic night of sex and blood. He didn’t turn them into vamps or kill them; he had an agreement with the local Guardians – charged with protecting humans from vampires like him – that he’d let them go. In exchange, they left him alone.
“X!” a gleeful voice pulled his roving eyes from the club to the small woman in black waving at him.
He waved her away. Ingrid, his assistant by day, ignored him and was soon hanging on his arm, accompanied by a few more fawning wannabe vampires. Her heavy boots trampled one of his feet, and he pried his from beneath hers.
“Didn’t I tell you?” she shouted over the music.
Xander spotted the woman he was tracking.
“Isn’t this perfect?” she prompted.
“Yeah,” he said, sensing she wasn’t going to stop until he responded.
His dinner was searching the crowd for someone. Xander pushed into the mind of Ingrid to plant thoughts that would leave him free of her.
“Okay, I’ll see you at work tomorrow!” she said.
He nodded to show he heard. His little human assistant was good for a few things, one of which was finding places like this for him to hunt. She and her friends fell away as he moved into the crowd, towards the blonde. His gaze went over the blonde’s body in satisfaction: tall, slender, flat stomach, large breasts. They probably weren’t real, but he didn’t care, as long as they filled his hands.
She was staring at him when his visual exploration was over. Xander knew the effect he had on women; they tended to be compelled towards him then melted when he touched them. He peeked into her mind to make sure he had her complete attention. She planned on telling him her name was Kelli, and that she was a model.
She wasn’t. She was an escort waiting for her client.
Her eyes widened and her chest moved up and down faster as her breath quickened. She licked her lips as he paused before her. He listened to her unguarded thoughts.
“You got plans tonight, Anna?” he asked.
“I, um, am waiting for someone,” she replied.
“The type of men who require an escort for a club like this can’t afford someone like you,” he said, amused by the idea. Only a handful of people in the club were above college-aged, and it was in the wrong side of town for the trust-fund kids from Beverly Hills to stop in. She wouldn’t know that, though, because she was new in town.
“Aren’t you the guy from television?” she asked suddenly. “You have a show or something?”
“The same,” he said. “Wanna fuck a celebrity?” He offered his hand.
She didn’t hesitate and took it. The impact of his touch was immediate. Her gaze turned starry, her body easing against his. Xander led her through the crowd, out of the hidden rave and into the legitimate bar out front. His curiosity satisfied and the hunt over, he was ready to leave the noise of the club for the peace of his condo.
The cool night hit his skin simultaneously with the warning he least wanted to sense. One of the Gods tripped the wards he had set around his territory in southern California.
Ingrid, come here, he ordered his assistant silently.
The blonde was huddling against him, her hands roaming his body. Normally, he loved the feel of a woman’s soft hands. With the alarm blaring in his mind, he only half paid attention.
Ingrid all but bolted out of the bar. Tall, gawky with hair dyed blue-black and contacts that glowed red like his eyes did naturally, she wore a I heart Xander T-shirt beneath a leather coat.
“I came … fast as … I can!” she gasped. “What’s wrong?”
“Take her home,” Xander said.
Ingrid made a sound of disgust but took the blonde’s arm.
“Are you coming with us?” the woman asked him, longing on her face.
“I’ll be there in a few,” he replied, distracted.
Xander didn’t wait for them to leave before he Traveled. Under his spell, the blonde wasn’t going to be phased by the display of magic, while Ingrid already knew he was the real thing.
He followed his instincts and appeared in a dark alley not far away, knowing who he’d find.
The Black God, Jonny, was one of the three Gods dwelling in the mortal realm. Xander didn’t want any of them in his territory. The nineteen-year-old spun at Xander’s appearance. With dark hair and eyes and the caramel skin marking his Cuban heritage, Jonny was tall and lanky. He hadn’t yet completely filled out.
“What’re you doing here, Xander?” Jonny demanded, at once guarded and tense. His power made the air around him sizzle.
“I could ask you the same,” Xander said. His gaze went to the body at the Black God’s feet. “You didn’t come all this way to hunt.”
“I don’t owe you an explanation.”
“I can pull one out of your head.”
“It’s not like I knew you were here. I don’t need your permission anyway, Xander.” Jonny searched his gaze. “I’ll be gone in an hour.”
Xander considered him. The girl at Jonny’s feet was still alive. Xander saw brown hair and a young face. She was in her mid-teens with a silver A charm on her necklace that reflected the yellow street light. A deeper probe into her mind revealed that she was a Natural, a human with special, supernatural skills that made her of value to the White and Black Gods. It explained why Jonny didn’t kill her, but it didn’t explain why he hadn’t turned her.
The Black God was up to something. Unable to enter his mind without tipping him off, Xander shifted forward.
“One hour,” he said. “The local Guardians will be here any minute. You haven’t yet learned how to cloak yourself.”
“If you spent less time manipulating me and more time teaching me, I might!” Jonny snapped, referring to the time Xander spent training the Bla
ck God to do his job. Jonny had been in the position for under a year. He only made it through the first few months because Xander stepped between the fledgling god and the vamps that wanted to kill their new master.
“You survived, didn’t you?” Xander replied. “Take your dinner and go.”
Jonny said nothing and knelt. He lifted the teen carefully, his gaze going to her face more than once. Xander almost smiled. He didn’t need to read Jonny’s mind to know the young Black God was reliving something. Jonny’s first kill, the girl that condemned him, was a teenage brunette. In the time Xander spent with the kid, Jonny never killed a girl under eighteen, and never a brunette.
“Fifty eight minutes,” Xander said.
Jonny mumbled a curse and straightened. Within seconds, he had disappeared. Xander tilted his head to the side, following the teenaged God with his senses. Jonny didn’t go far. He wasn’t hunting for dinner; he was moving with too much purpose.
The kid was definitely up to something.
Xander picked up on one of the Guardians from the local station moving towards the alley. He debated following Jonny then changed his mind. Whatever the young Black God was doing, it wasn’t going to affect Xander. He shouldn’t be concerned, but he also knew better than to assume any good was going to come of whatever Jonny was doing. Xander hadn’t survived multiple wars and White Gods tracking him, only to let a teenager fuck him over.
Xander returned to the club. He let the sensations outside of his mind distract him while he checked his watch a few times. True to his word, Jonny left Xander’s at the fifty-eight minute mark.
Xander received a text a minute later.
I’m coming back tomorrow. Fifteen minutes. Don’t fuck with me.
Xander laughed. The text sought permission and voiced defiance. He scared the shit out of everyone he met, the Black God included. He put his phone away, more amused by the idea of Jonny waiting for his permission than responding. Instead of going home right away, he went to the last location where the Black God had been.
Lizzy Ford Page 3