The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series) (31 page)

“Because if you don’t, there’s a chance
we’re all going to be dead by morning.”

She looked up at his glowing eyes. Jonny had
gone to face Valon alone, and Charles was worried. She didn’t quite
know what to think of the loyal vamp disobeying his master, but if
he were willing to guarantee Brandon’s life, she was the last
person to object.

And … her heart was already racing at the
idea Jonny was in danger.

“Fine,” she said softly.

“Much luck.” Charles stretched for the
Traveler, who touched him.

Before she could ask how they expected her
to get to Jonny, the two winked out of existence.

Ashley cursed. She rolled towards the bushes
he had indicated and closed her eyes. Branches and leaves scratched
her exposed arms and face, and she groped around in the darkness
for a weapon.

The rough leather of the sheath belonging to
the knife that killed Czerno brushed her fingertips, and she
wriggled closer.

“You are a good luck knife.” She tugged it
free and shifted into a kneeling position. Working the knife from
its sheath, she managed to saw through the plastic zip ties Charles
had used on her and yanked her arms free.

Urgency coursed through her, along with
adrenaline. Ashley cut her ankles free, snatched the remaining
weapons and stood.

The location she’d identified was somewhere
around her, but to get there, she’d have to Travel. She’d risk
having a seizure. She tested her body. She was sore already from
fighting, tired and hungry. She needed time to heal. Jonny had
patched her up to prevent another episode, but would it last if she
forced the issue by Traveling?

What if I could save his life?

Ashley closed her eyes and drew a breath,
rattled by the memory of what happened the last time she Traveled.
It had been during the horrible year when she transitioned into her
power, and she’d ended up confined to bed for two days.

“Jonny patched me,” she whispered. She
visualized the place on the map where Valon had wanted her to go
and willed herself to be there.

The disorienting sense of the world tilting
and melting then rematerializing made her breath catch in her
throat. She opened her eyes cautiously, braced for an episode.
Her insides were shaky but nothing like what she experienced
pre-seizure. She grudgingly admitted how grateful she was for
Jonny’s ability, even if their interactions rarely ended on a good
note.

The area around her had once been a front
lawn, judging by the pile of rubble left over from the burnt down
house nearby. Her senses picked up too much that left her gripping
her knives: the scent of blood in the air, the odd tingling of her
senses she recognized from her first confrontation with Valon.

It was quiet and calm but not quite
right.

“Jonny?” she whispered.

Break the weapons to break
their power.
A strange sense washed over
her, and she wobbled, expecting a seizure. Instead, the words
repeated in her mind, and she suddenly envisioned a man with green
eyes, a stranger she didn’t remember meeting.

Ashley shook her head to clear it and began
walking. Her instincts tugged her in one direction, to the side of
the massive structure where a garage had once stood.

The still form of Jonny made her whole body
go rigid. She stared, unable to tell if he were alive or dead, and
too shocked to see the god unmoving. He was surrounded by a field
of red lightning and black shadows. She ventured into it without
hesitation, only for the first red lightning that touched her to
shock her like Charles and his Taser.

“Son of a bitch!” she shouted and leapt
away.

She eyed the loose power of Jonny. It clung
to the bushes and charred remains of the garage, and it stood
between her and the Black God. The sense they weren’t alone was
growing. She didn’t have time to evaluate their surroundings to
determine how close Valon was or just how many of his vamps lay
waiting in the forest. Her thoughts flew to Brandon, and she prayed
Charles was telling the truth about saving her brother.

“This is gonna hurt.” Ashley scouted a path
as free of his magic as possible and dashed to Jonny. Hot fire shot
through her as she leapt and sprinted, and she muttered curses with
each new shock.

She dropped to her knees in a space free of
fog and lightning. The ground around him was squishy and soaked
with blood, and arrows stuck out of his back. “Jonny!” She felt for
his pulse. It was weak, shallow, his breathing almost too quiet to
hear. He was wounded in more places than she could count. “Why
aren’t you healing?”

Break the weapons to break their power.

Ashley shivered, uncertain how or why some
strange voice was in her head. Her focus shifted to the arrows. She
straddled Jonny’s hips and braced one foot against his back to pull
the arrows free. Five grueling minutes later, all six were tossed
to the side.

“Break the weapons …” She eyed the
arrowheads. They were made of the same material the knife Valon
left for her had been. It didn’t seem possible they had any sort of
effect on him when they were removed.

She rolled him onto his back then leapt away
as shadows and lightning sent fire spiraling through her.

“Dammit!” He wasn’t healing, and his pulse
was even slower. Panic stirred at the sight of his paling features.
Ashley yanked a knife free and smashed the arrowheads. They broke
with the ease of brittle slate, and she made sure they were in too
many pieces to be used as weapons again before putting the knife
away.

Jonny still wasn’t moving.

A trickle of a memory, a thought, moved
through her head. Suddenly, she recalled standing in her bedroom,
facing a creature that looked very much like an Other, except his
eyes were green.

“I’m a friend,” the green-eyed stranger
said. “I’m the Original Watcher.”

“I have no idea what that means,” she
snapped. “What’re you doing in my room?”

“I came to deliver a message.”

She frowned, glaring at him.

“When the time is right, you will remember
me and what I’m about to tell you.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she
asked.

“You’ll understand at a later time.”

Ashley gripped her knife more tightly.

“The Others could not kill the gods, but
they had a means to control or weaken them. Weapons made of the
bones of Oracles. The blood of an Oracle once enslaved the Grey
God, Darian. The bones of ancient Oracles can do the same to the
Black God – render them vulnerable enough for a godslayer to kill
him,” said the creature. “These bones, kept in hiding by Others,
have been found by the enemies of the Black God.”

“Um, why in the hell do I care what happens
to Jonny?” she retorted.

“There has not been balance since the
Schism. The current Black God is the lesser of two evils, the only
chance there is for peace and balance in any scenario we Watchers
can see.”

“And why are you telling me this?”

“Because you must break the weapons to break
their power. All of them. They’re linked.”

Ashley blinked out of the memory she hadn’t
recalled that was now vividly playing through her thoughts. “Break
all the weapons,” she murmured and looked around. She saw no more
near the Black God but caught the glint of something a short
distance away, closer to the front of the burnt down lodge. “Hang
in there, Jonny!” She touched his face, worry filling her with
charged energy, and then ran.

Five more of the bone-tipped arrows were
scattered in the yard. Ashley crushed them under her heel and
started back to check on Jonny when she felt it. The weird energy
cloud of Valon’s, the one that left her senses confused.

Not now,
she willed him. Valon was strong enough to pose an
issue when she wasn’t fully on her feet.

A familiar, tiny flash of red light
flickered in the corner of her eye. She reacted instinctively,
arcing and dancing away from his charge and the weapons he
held.

He missed her, and she faced him. “That shit
won’t work on me anymore.”

“Maybe not. But something tells me you’re in
no shape to fight.” His pleased smile was cunning. “I didn’t leave
much of you left in the factory.”

“Yeah, thanks for that.” Her gaze settled on
the bone knife he held in one hand. “You got anymore of those fancy
knives?”

“I already gave you one and you fucked up. I
think I’ll keep the last one for myself.”

I need that knife.
Ashley blew out a breath. The patch Jonny put on
her epilepsy seemed to be holding. Valon was bleeding in at least
one spot, which made her think Jonny hadn’t gone down without doing
some damage. “Okay. Let’s do this,” she said.

Valon waited for her to attack, as if
suspecting she was too weak. Ashley began praying once more she was
able to Travel without collapsing. She’d have the energy for one
chance to surprise him – and then she was screwed.

She willed herself to disappear. Before he
could register what she was doing, she materialized behind him and
plunged both knives into his wrist and forearm to force his hand
release the bone knife.

Valon roared in pain. He dropped the knife
and backhanded her hard enough to send her sprawling onto her back.
Ashley scrambled to her feet and charged him, breaking off right
before she made contact to snatch the knife and roll away.

She rose and crushed the knife beneath her
heel. It snapped into three pieces. Valon smashed into her before
she had a chance to be relieved. Ashley twisted out of his grip and
slammed to the ground. He grabbed one leg and yanked her back
towards him.

“Let’s see what it is Jonny finds so
interesting about you.” Valon’s eyes glowed. “I hear Watcher blood
runs in your family and tastes like honey.”

“Let’s not!” she snarled and slammed her
other foot into his neck. She clawed her way out of his reach and
hopped to her feet once more. She was lightheaded, and the faint
tremor deep inside her was a warning she’d pushed her luck with the
Traveling.

Valon lay coughing on the ground. Ashley
kicked him hard in the gullet and then smashed her knee into the
back of his head.

He went limp, not quite unconscious and not
quite awake either.

She dropped beside him, dizziness and the
internal quaking growing stronger. “No, no, no!” she ordered
herself. Jonny’s patch was slipping, and she was on the verge of
collapsing into a useless, convulsing heap beside a vamp that
wanted her dead. And when he was done with her, he’d finish off
Jonny. Her hands shook too hard to grip weapons, and her vision was
blurring.

She shook her head and staggered towards
Jonny before dropping to the ground beside him. “Jonny!” she called
urgently and shook him. “Jonny! I need you to wake up!”

The Black God moaned.

She slapped him, and his eyes flew open.

“I need to know where the other knife is.
The one … the one you tossed on the beach.” Her words were
slurring.

He struggled to sit up and collapsed onto
his back. “Ash? What’re you doing here?”

“Not now. Where is
it?”
Please don’t say the
beach!

Jonny shifted one hand towards his cargo
pocket. He fumbled with the button before opening it. Two knives,
including the bone one, dropped onto the ground.

“Okay. You need to … to destroy this … one.”
Ashley tried twice to grip the bone knife with clumsy hands.

Jonny reached for it. Rather than bend or
break it, he sent a charge of red power through it. The bone knife
shattered and crumbled into dust. He gasped, some life returning to
his features.

“What the fuck just happened?” he asked.

Ashley checked the wounds in his arm. Her
pants were soaked with his blood, and he still wasn’t healing
despite the bone weapons being gone.

“Where is he?” he whispered.

“He’s here.” Thus far, Valon hadn’t
recovered, but he would soon. “You’re not healing.”

“Too weak. I can heal or use what’s left of
my power and hope it’s enough to keep him at bay.”

She glanced towards the forest, her internal
alarms warning her of danger she couldn’t see. Valon had hundreds
of vamps surrounding them. Jonny was recovering from the magic of
the bone weapons but wasn’t strong enough to hold off an army of
vamps. “Can you fight?”

“Maybe.”

“You need some uh, food,” she said
awkwardly. “Will that help you?”

“Don’t even think about it, Ash. You’re too
weak. You shouldn’t even be here.”

“Whatever. Charles told me you wanted to
send me away. You’re a dick, Jonny.” She lifted the knife to her
throat and touched its razor sharp edge to her skin.

His head flew up, his eyes blazing red. With
strength she didn’t think he had, he snatched her by the neck and
hauled her close.

“Whoa! Careful,” she said, flinching as more
of his lightning tore through her. “Just …” Anything she wanted to
say died on her lips. The man holding her wasn’t Jonny but his
inner predator, a creature ruled by instinct rather than logic. He
was dying and ravenous.

“Ash.” Even his voice was inhuman. “You need
to leave. Now.”

Her frame was tense, her instinct for
survival screaming for her to run. She reined in her panic. “I’m
not going to let you die here, Jonny. You need to feed,” she said.
“These woods are teeming with vamps waiting to kill both of us.
“And … I’m about to become completely useless to you anyway. I have
an episode about to hit me.”

“I can’t … control …” He squeezed his eyes
closed, and his grip on her loosened. “Go. Now.” Jonny sagged.

“No,” she said firmly. “I won’t leave you
like this, Jonny. I won’t let you lie here and die. We need you to
fight Valon, and to do that, you need to feed. If you won’t do it
for you, do it for me. Look.” She held out her violently trembling
hands. “If you don’t stop this episode, it might kill me. Trust me
– this one is going to be bad.”