Damian's Immortal (War of Gods 3) (6 page)

“
Does Dusty …”

“
I’ll let him know,”
Damian said, well aware of how prickly the assassin got whenever
Damian interfered with how he ran the Western
Hemisphere.

Jenn rose. The attractive Guardian was toned
and muscular, her dark hair kept in a pixie cut and her eyes large
and dark. Dusty trusted her for a reason, and if Dusty trusted
someone, Damian knew she was the best at what she did. He sensed
her Guardian gift: the ability to manipulate minds. It served her
well in her position as a spy.

“
It’s the Black God, isn’t
it?” she asked in a quiet tone.

“
How is it I’m always the
last to know what’s going on?” Damian growled, crossing his
arms.

She looked down and stepped away, trotting
to the locker room. He watched her go, suspecting he’d missed more
than he thought during the few months he spent with Jule in Europe.
He didn’t have time to figure out what, not with the Black God
waiting for him to deliver Jenn.

When she returned fully dressed and armed to
the teeth, he held out his hand. She took it, and he Transported
them to the small storage room.

The Black God whirled from the far side of
the room, his gaze immediately going to Jenn. The vamp standing
beside Jonny was as big as any of Damian’s Guardians, with eyes
that glowed red.

“
Hi, Jenn,” the Black God
said with some awkwardness that revealed his age.

“
Hi Jonny,” she
purred.

“
Jenn, your mission is to
help the Black God root out traitors and find out what the Others
are doing,” Damian said, interested in the dynamics between the
two. “Train him how to run his own operatives.”

“
Czerno had no spy
network,
ikir,
”
she said. “You want me to help him set one up?”

“
Yep,” Damian said. He
exchanged a look with her, and understanding crossed her
face.

“
Will do, Boss,” she
said.

“
Charles here has been
offered up by Jonny in exchange for your help for a thirty-day
ceasefire. You will be safe, or the Black God has my personal
promise that I’ll wipe him off the planet.”

“
I promise, Damian,” Jonny
said quickly. “She’ll be safe.”

The Black God looked like a love-struck
teenager, and suddenly Damian understood why Sofi suggested sending
Jenn. Jenn crossed to Jonny’s side. The Black God wasn’t able to
take his eyes off her. While uneasy, Damian suspected Jenn was
seasoned enough to handle the boy for a month.

There was nothing remotely friendly or soft
about Charles. The vamp crossed the room to Damian and stood.
Gazing at the vamp, Damian couldn’t help thinking he got the shitty
end of this deal.

“
Does it eat something
beside humans?” he asked Jonny.

“
I can survive for a month
off of small children and animals,” the vamp growled in
response.

“
Small children
are
humans. You’ll have
to stick with animals,” Damian replied.

“
Very well.” The vamp
didn’t look pleased.

“
We good, Jonny?” Damian
called to the Black God.

“
Yes, Damian.”

“
Let’s go, Charlie,”
Damian said and offered his hand to the vamp.

“
Charles,” the vamp
corrected him.

“
Whatever.”

* * *

Jule sensed the intruder shortly after
dozing off. He couldn’t tell the time in the windowless room, but
he gauged it to be after midnight. His senses tingled, and he
dwelled on how his defensive powers almost seemed to work when
nothing else did. The only explanation was that the Others weren’t
as ready to see him fail as they claimed to be.

The Watchers really wanted him to execute
his mission.

He left the room and ascended to the main
floor. The manor was silent, except for the ticking of the
grandfather clock in the foyer. He couldn’t sense the Other and
paused at the foot of the sweeping, grand staircase leading to the
second floor. The manor stretched into three long wings. His
instincts told him he needed to find the woman, and he closed his
eyes.

When she’d touched him in the alley, she’d
left a piece of herself within him. He’d never heard of anything
like this happening, but he felt her within the house. He
concentrated on the sense. Finally, it spoke to him. He opened his
eyes and trotted silently up the stairs, rolling his shoulders back
in preparation for a fight with the Other.

Jule chose the center wing and kept to the
side of the hallway. Someone else moved silently down the hall
ahead of him, and he slowed his stride. The shadowy figure
disappeared into an alcove. Jule crept up to the place where the
figure had taken refuge and heard the person shift. The hidden
stranger lashed out at him. He ducked a fist and maneuvered around
a kick, snatching the intruder’s body and shoving it into the wall.
At once, he felt the brush of her soft curls against the underside
of his chin and smelled her amber-vanilla.

“
Why are you creeping
around your house?” he whispered.

“
How’d you get
out?”

He sensed rather than heard movement on the
first floor. The woman strained to break his grip, but he held her
in place. Her breathing was the only sound in the still hallway.
Whatever was in the house, it wasn’t human, or the hair on the back
of his neck wouldn’t be standing on end. Their breathing synced,
and she stilled.

Jule eased away from her and took her arm.
She tried to yank free, and he pulled her body against his, moving
them both into the alcove.

“
Stop,” he ordered in a
quiet voice. “Whatever is here isn’t something you or I can
fight.”

She sucked in a breath. Her body fit
perfectly against his, warming him in the drafty hall.

“
We need to find a way
out, and we can’t walk out the front door. Do you understand me?”
he asked.

She nodded, straining against him again. He
released her, and she hurried away from him into the center of the
hall.

Don’t do it!
he willed her as she paused.

“
Papa!” she shouted and
ran towards the stairwell.

Jule wasn’t lucky enough for the creature on
the main floor not to hear. He bolted after her and tackled her.
The woman fought him, and he hauled her to her feet. Wrapping his
arms around her in a bear hug, he all but dragged her down the
hall.

He sensed the creature ascend the stairs and
chose a room at random, shoving it open with his hip. Jule pushed
the woman away from the door and slammed it closed. He locked it
and looked around.

The woman was halfway out the window on the
opposite end of the firelit room. Jule focused first on the nearby
wardrobe and braced himself against it. He grunted as he shoved it
in front of the door moments before the door bucked under the force
of some otherworldly being.

The room smelled familiar, and he realized
he’d chosen her room. Any hope he’d had of finding something--
anything!-- to use as a weapon was dashed as he looked around the
sparsely decorated room.

He crossed to the window. The Magician had
heart. She’d jumped the two stories to the ground and was running
towards a large garage. Jule launched himself out the window as the
creature made the second blow against the door. He landed on the
hard ground with a curse and darted to his feet, chasing her down
again. The woman flung open the door to the garage and ran into it.
Jule reached it and turned.

The Watcher had sent an immortal after the
woman, all right. The tall figure loping after them was the
equivalent of an immortal pit bull, one of the Watchers’ own elite
personal guards.

Jule eased out of the garage and closed the
door behind him. The woman was far enough ahead she should be able
to escape while he distracted the creature.

“
Step aside, mortal,” the
guardsman ordered.

“
I’m afraid I can’t do
that,” Jule replied. “You’ll have to kill me to get to
her.”

“
You won’t last beyond my
first punch,” came the scoff. “I warn you again, step
aside.”

Jule stretched his neck back and shook out
his arms in the cold night. He lowered himself into a fighting
stance. The guardsman drew a sword. They circled each other, and
Jule waited to hear the sound of a car staring in the garage. The
sound didn’t come.

The guardsman struck with nonchalance that
told Jule just how much he was being underestimated. Jule moved
away from the slicing sword and caught the guardsman’s wrist. He
twisted it and unleashed a kick that knocked his opponent off his
feet and sent the sword flying.

Jule retrieved it, satisfied to find it
light and well balanced. When the guardsman rose, the arrogance was
gone from his face, replaced by anger. Jule looked again towards
the garage, growing concerned he hadn’t heard a car or garage door
motor yet.

The guardsman attacked with a knife in each
hand, his movements a flurry of motion. Jule’s instincts took over,
and he allowed them to guide his sword and punches. He couldn’t
remember ever feeling so … off. His sword defended him as if
possessed, yet when he went to strike, he found his blows ill timed
and clumsy.

“
What are you?” the
guardsman demanded, withdrawing.

“
Damned if I know,” Jule
replied.

The garage door behind him opened, and he
whirled. The woman emerged carrying a crossbow. Jule threw himself
down as she leveled it and fired. The arrow went over his head and
was followed by two more.

“
You need to get out of
here, sweetheart!” he yelled and rolled to face the guardsman.
“You’ll just piss him off.”

“
I can take care of
myself. My aim is perfect!” Despite her defiance, her voice
shook.

The guardsman was on his back, but Jule knew
he wouldn’t be down for long.

“
Look, girl,” Jule said,
rising. “You’ve got about two minutes before this creature tears
through me and kills you.”

“
No one could survive
that,” she argued and leveled the crossbow at him.

“
You won’t-- ”

Thunk. For the first time in thousands of
years, he remembered what real pain felt like. Jule looked down at
the arrow protruding from his shoulder, growing annoyed with her
for the first time.

“
I missed your heart on
purpose,” she said. “Leave me alone, or …” She gasped.

Jule turned to see the guardsman sit and
begin trying to pull the arrows from his chest. Jule snapped off
the end of the arrow in his shoulder, not about to bleed to death
before he’d killed the immortal.

“
Now maybe you’ll pay
attention,” he said and threw the shaft of the arrow. “I’m going to
do my best to kill him before he kills you. If you want to help us
both, you’ll get the fuck out of here.”

She lowered the crossbow, her gaze going
from the guardsman to him.

“
When my father gets here,
he’ll kill you both!”

“
Great. Now
go.
”

A torn look crossed her features before she
whirled and disappeared into the dark garage. Jule sighed, hoping
she left this time. Pain radiated through his body from where she’d
shot him, and his normally pliant temper was near the snapping
point.

The guardsman finished pulling the last
arrow from his chest and climbed to his feet. Jule prepared
himself, pleased to hear the sound of a car starting in the
garage.

The guardsman was done playing with him. The
immortal launched himself at Jule, his knives a blur of glinting
steel. Jule grunted at the first few blows that fell harder than
any mortal could strike. His shoulder didn’t move as it should, and
he switched the sword to his other hand, trusting his instincts to
keep his head on his shoulders.

At long last, he heard the sound of a car
leaving the garage, and he maneuvered the guardsman away from the
garage to ensure the immortal didn’t take off after her.
Thankfully, the immortal was more pissed at him than concerned
about its prey. A fist caught Jule in the mouth and a kick sent him
sprawling. He tasted blood and spit it out, rolling onto his back
with a belly laugh. The Watchers would be enjoying this, and so
would his brothers, whom he normally beat the shit out of when they
sparred.

“
Fuck me, I’m not lucky
enough to die!” he said.

“
I’ll be happy to change
your luck,” the immortal snapped and launched at him again. Jule
vaulted to his feet and spun before a knife could catch
him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the
brake lights of the woman’s car as she drove down the driveway.
Satisfied, he focused on the immortal and keeping his weakening
shoulder moving. He didn’t know if the Watchers would let him die
or not, but he was about to find out.

Yully stopped at the end of the driveway and
squeezed her eyes closed, tormented by her conscience. Her body was
stiff from her father’s blows, her blood racing.

I’m going to do my best to kill him before
he kills you.

Jule wasn’t what her father said he should
be. He may have wanted to kill her at one point, but he’d just
taken an arrow to the chest and calmly told her to run so he could
defend her. In the morning, her father really would kill him, and
she’d be lucky to escape with another beating.