Damian's Immortal (War of Gods 3) (10 page)

“
What about Jule?” she
asked. Yully lowered the weapon slowly. The man in the corner took
that as in invitation to approach, and she moved behind the table
her father used for laying out pieces of disassembled weapons in
the center of the armory.

“
I guess first off, is he
alive?” the man called Darian asked. He stopped across from her.
She had the sense of power shimmering in the air around
him.

“
As far as I know,” she
replied. “What are you?”

“
I’m Darian,” he said,
though darkness crossed his features. “Jule was my closest friend
until things went to shit. What are
you
?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
You don’t know?” he
echoed. “Never met anyone more lost than I am.”

“
I’m not lost.”

“
You think an Other is
your father, and you seem to think a Guardian of humanity is your
enemy. I’d say you’re lost.”

“
I don’t understand any of
what you said,” she replied.

His gaze narrowed, as if about to accuse her
of lying. Instead, he frowned.

“
Jule’s safe. He was hurt”
she rushed on, not wanting to admit how, “but he’s safe for
now.”

“
Where?”

“
Up the coast in a
cottage.”

“
Assume I know nothing
about Ireland,” he said, amused. He held out a hand. “Show me in
your mind.”

She shook her head, recalling what she’d
felt when she touched Jule.

“
If he’s hurt, I can help
him,” Darian said.

“
Right now, I don’t know
who to trust,” she said.

“
Easy. Me. Jule’s my
friend.”

“
I just found out my
father’s running around killing people, and you expect me to trust
a stranger when I don’t even know if I can trust him
anymore?”

“
I understand,” he said
and was quiet. His gaze drew distant, as if he were remembering
something dark. “I know what it is to be betrayed.” His pain was
almost palpable, and she couldn’t help feeling it was too raw for
him to fake. Unlike her father, this creature was capable of
sympathy. Whatever had happened, the man before her was hurting
still, like she did when her father hit her.

She held out her hand. He shook his head to
clear it and reached across the island. She braced herself,
expecting to feel some sort of rush of energy, like she did when
she touched Jule. Instead, she felt a tingle in her thoughts and
nothing else.

“
Show me,” he
said.

She closed her eyes and retraced the route
to the cottage in her mind, only distantly aware she was absorbing
his energy.

“
Did you tell him you can
do this?” he asked, perplexed.

“
Do what?” she asked and
opened her eyes.

Their hands were bathed in the same strange
haze that surrounded him. Surprised, she yanked her hand free.

“
I resisted as much as I
could, and you still stole my magic,” Darian said, cocking his head
to the side. “Would be useful for …” He tensed. “Gotta
go.”

He disappeared, and she stared after him for
a long moment before grabbing as many weapons as she could carry
and returning to her room. She rested the weapons on her bed and
locked the door.

She still felt defenseless against whatever
creatures her father and the Guardians were. She sat for a moment,
finally admitting she needed to embrace whatever it was about her
that made her special. The recent chain of events made it
impossible for her to deny something serious was going on, and she
was somehow involved. She just had to convince her father to tell
her what that was.

Chapter Five

The Guardian Jenn watched the interrogation
from the privacy of the two-way mirror. The Black God had failed to
elicit anything other than a sneer with every one of his
approaches. Four of the five vamps he’d chosen as bodyguards were
exchanging looks of derision behind his back, and the vamp he tried
to interrogate was openly ridiculing him. As much as she knew she
shouldn’t, Jenn pitied the young god. She’d interfere if it
wouldn’t make him look even weaker before his men.

At last, Jonny stormed out of the room, and
Jenn emerged from the observation room into the hall. His body
rippled with angry power that made her keep her distance. He
slammed his hand into the wall.

“
This isn’t working!” he
shouted.

“
Then we take a different
approach,” she said. “You have more than one option.”

“
But this one knows
exactly what I need to!”

“
Don’t fixate, Jonny,” she
advised. “If more than one person knows something, it’s not a
secret. This is the first lesson every good spy knows.”

He met her gaze, listening.

“
This vamp wasn’t a loner.
He has friends, doesn’t he?” she asked.

“
Several. I had our logs
checked like you said. He’s been working on the same team for
years.”

“
There you go. Lesson two:
everyone associated with your target is a potential weak
point.”

“
What if they don’t talk,
either?”

“
We try something
else.”

“
Damian can read minds.
Darian can read minds. I can’t,” he mused. “Xander said my powers
will build slowly.”

Upon arriving at the Black God’s compound
two days ago, Jenn had quickly learned the Black God had little
control over his own powers and no respect from the vamps he led.
It was a dangerous combination, one that could make his stint as
Black God very short, if they found a way to kill him. Jenn said
nothing, aware the vamps in the interrogation room were
listening.

“
This business is more
complex than I thought,” he admitted. “I guess I watched too many
movies about spies to know how they really work.”

“
Good operatives have a
box full of tricks. We’ve identified weak points in your
organization. You must clean house, Jonny, or you’ll never be able
to go on the offensive.”

“
You’ll help me go on the
offensive against your own people?” he asked, facing her. The air
around him rippled, reminding her he was as powerful as Damian. His
power pushed her against the wall. She couldn’t tell if he were
doing it on purpose or simply had no control.

“
Our agreement was for
helping you clean house,” she reminded him in a calm purr.
“Besides, I’m going to help you get started. Thirty days isn’t long
enough for you to complete this first step, and it’s crucial you do
it right.”

“
I know you’re right,” he
said slowly. The intensity around him faded, and the air released
her. “It’s harder than I thought.”

She breathed a silent sigh. He’d drawn up on
her twice since she arrived. Thus far, he’d listened to her, and
she hoped he feared Damian enough to continue paying attention. Her
gift for mind manipulation wasn’t enough to influence the powerful
God, and she’d found appeasing the lost young man and using the
extent of her gift were both needed to influence him.

“
Xander!” Jonny shouted
and beat on the door to the interrogation room. The largest vamp
she’d ever seen stepped into the hallway. “Bring his teammates
here.”

The vamp bowed his head and pushed past
Jenn.

“
Soon, Guardian,” it
whispered. “He can’t protect you for long.”

“
Bring it, idiot,” she
replied, unfazed. “You wouldn’t last past our first
kiss.”

The vamp barked a laugh and continued down
the hall.

“
You have no fear,” Jonny
said, his sharp gaze on the retreating vamp. “Even surrounded by
the enemy?”

“
The worst you can do is
kill me,” she replied. “Which is probably what your vamp in there
is thinking.”

Jonny’s features grew thoughtful. “You’re
right.”

“
What’re you thinking?”
she asked.

“
I’m thinking there are
worse things than death,” he replied. “Much worse.”

“
Like being forced into
becoming the Black God?”

“
It was
my
choice,” he snapped.
“I was thinking even someone who doesn’t fear death, fears
something else. It’s a matter of finding what that is.”

His gaze was hard, and she felt him flex his
power again. His thoughts weren’t on the vamp; they were on her.
Jenn forced a smile on her face. She’d long since learned how to
manipulate alpha males, and it wasn’t by going head-to-head with
them.

“
I think you’re right,
Jonny,” she said in the low, level voice she used with her
trainees. “Fear is natural, even for Guardians and
gods.”

Her words soothed him again. He shook the
tension out of his shoulders.

“
I want you to go in with
me this time,” he said. “Call it moral support.”

“
Sure,” she
said.

They waited for Xander to return with the
three vamps trailing him. With the exception of Xander’s quick bow,
they entered the interrogation room without acknowledging the Black
God. Jenn glanced at Jonny, who looked agitated yet distracted. The
kid was hard to read, and she guessed his anger had more to do with
his struggle to understand his new role than the vamps who clearly
had no respect for him.

Jonny entered, and she trailed him.

“
I realize I’ve been
taking the wrong approach,” Jonny said. He sat in the chair in
front of the vamp he’d fixated on. “I thought, if you wouldn’t
talk, your friends would.”

“
I’m not afraid of a boy.”
The vamp in front of him chuckled and tossed his head in greeting
to his teammates.

“
You should fear this
boy.”

Xander stepped back to the door beside Jenn.
There was interest in his glowing red eyes, and she rested the
palms of her hands on the knives at her belt.

“
You think he can do it?”
the vamp asked her.

“
I think you need to keep
your mouth shut,” she replied.

“
Sexy, even when you want
to cut my head off.”

“
Anytime,
shithead.”

“
You need to warn him.” He
eased away from her.

Jenn’s gaze flew up to the strange vamp, and
she followed his gaze. One of the members of Jonny’s own personal
guard had shifted forward and was discreetly drawing the weapon at
his thigh. She never thought she’d find herself rooting for the
Black God, but she willed Jonny to take control of the situation.
The room full of vamps was ready to pounce on the fledgling god.
They watched Jonny like they would their next victim. Her heart
pounding, Jenn moved forward and whispered into Jonny’s ear.

“
You have about sixty
seconds before we’re both fighting for our lives,” she
warned.

Jonny glanced around the room, his
hesitation giving more than one vamp confidence to draw their
weapons openly.

“
Talk to me,” she urged.
“Tell me anything.”

“
What do you want me to
say?” he whispered.

“
That’ll do,” she said to
him then straightened. She addressed the vamp in front of Jonny.
“He says if you don’t cooperate, I get to kill your friends, one by
one.” She drew the gun at the small of her back and aimed it at the
head of one of the vamps.

“
Fuck you, bitch,” the
vamp sneered.

One of the other vamps drew a weapon. Jenn
shot the first vamp and stepped in front of the next.

“
Same thing, shithead. I
get off on killing you idiots,” she said in the same calm voice she
used with Jonny. Her gaze went to Jonny. “May I,
ikir
?”

“
Do it,” Jonny
ordered.

The vamp being interrogated no longer
smiled. Jenn shot the second one. The vamp in front of Jonny
launched towards her. She whirled and drew her knife, ready to kill
all of them. A blur of black shot between her and the attacker.
Jonny snatched the vamp by its neck and slammed it down to the
table.

“
How dare you mock me!” he
roared, an inhuman note in his voice. “No one touches my
Guardian!”

His display was too late. Jenn sensed the
next vamp charge her and spun, burying her knife in the neck of the
nearest before she lashed out with a kick at the next. A knife
caught her arm, and she ducked a punch in the cramped space. Her
knife found the shoulder of one vamp before a kick slammed her
against the wall.

She vaulted to her feet, adrenaline flying
through her. To her surprise, Xander stepped between her and the
two pissed-off vamps waiting for her.

“
Not this time,” he warned
them. “That goes for you, too, Guardian.”

The two lowered their weapons in response,
and she sheathed her knives with a glance at the blood bubbling on
the scrape on her arm. Xander motioned the two vamps away. They
retreated to the other side of the small room, and he stepped
aside.

Jonny was silent and still, his eyes closed
in concentration. The vamp whose neck he held had a look of horror
on its face, and the air around them buzzed with magic. The light
faded from the vamp’s eyes, and it slid to the ground. Jonny
released it and straightened.

“
Xander,” he said in a
thin voice. “Kill those two. No one attacks my
Guardian.”