Damian's Oracle (18 page)

“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.

He 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.

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.