The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series) (18 page)

“What are they?” she asked in the tense
quiet, too aware of the warmth blooming in her cheeks.

“My catch-and-release protocol. They can
drink blood but never kill a human.”

“Hmm. What about me?”

“I had to make up a special rule for
you.”

She started to smile and stopped herself.
“You’re going to let me try to find Brandon.”

“I’m going to let you fight with my vamps
against the rogues,” he replied.

“And you’ll find Brandon.”

“He’s not my first priority,” Jonny said,
gazing down at her steadily. “But, yes, I will have a team work on
finding him in exchange for you keeping your end of the
bargain.”

“Fair enough.” Not about to show weakness
despite her weariness, she drew a deep breath. “Let’s get this over
with.” Ashley tugged her braid over the side of her neck and turned
her back to him. She waited, hating the suspense and apprehension
roiling within her.

“You understand your position, Ash?” His
body heat grew nearer.

Her heart raced. “You can’t let me go, so
now I have to fight for you and feed you. As long as you find
Brandon, I don’t care what you do to me, Jonny.”

“You understand this arrangement doesn’t end
when we find Brandon? That I can’t just pardon you when I’d kill
any of my vamps for anything similar?”

She didn’t answer for a long moment. She had
purposely not been thinking about what happened when they found
Brandon. She wanted him safe. What happened to her was of less
concern. Although, she began to reconsider whether a normal life
was so bad.

“I think so,” she mumbled at last. “I think
it means I’m stuck with you.”

“Yeah. It does.”

She swallowed hard.

Rather than take her throat, Jonny lifted
her wrist. “All my vamps bear this as a reminder and warning.” He
touched his palm to hers lightly. A flash of fire went through her
hand, and she jerked it back to see the fading glow of a brand on
her palm. The symbol was simple, a half moon with a fang. “It’s
permanent, until I release you from your service.”

“You mean when you decide to kill off
someone.”

“Something like that. Are we on the same
page?” he lifted her hand again to display the blackened outline of
his mark.

“Yeah,” she replied unhappily. With Brandon
in danger, she had no choice but to accept whatever it was Jonny
wanted to do to her.

He gripped her throat with one hand next.
She gasped, not expecting the touch quite yet. His lean strength
was at her back. She waited to feel the sense of losing control, of
him forcing her muscles to obey his commands.

Being helpless was the worst part, maybe
even worse than the pain of his bite.

“If you promise not to fight me, I won’t do
it this time.”

She didn’t feel him in her head and chalked
it up to his godlike powers. She was accustomed to not always being
alone mentally after so many years with Xander and Brandon. Still,
she didn’t like knowing Jonny was able to access her thoughts. “You
can read minds?”

“Not all the time. Usually I have to be in
physical contact,” he replied.

I’m doing this for
Brandon.
Her fear was growing, along with
the strange warmth that always invaded her body when he touched
her. “I won’t fight you,” she said and tilted her head to expose
her neck.

Ashley squeezed her eyes closed and braced
herself for the pain. When his fangs sank into her neck, she felt
…

Nothing. Not even a pinch. The tension
within her started to release, and she realized he wasn’t trying to
hurt her this time. The fire in her system wasn’t from pain, and
the sensation of his warm lips against her neck reminded her of how
it’d felt to kiss him the other day. She was quiet and still,
unable to fathom spending her life doing this every night yet also
unwilling to risk Brandon’s life by opposing Jonny’s plan. For now,
she was trapped with him.

He withdrew several minutes later and
stepped away, releasing her. Ashley touched the scars on her neck.
The intimate exchange was rendered even more awkward by the fact
she sensed only she found it intimate. Jonny did this every night;
she doubted he was able to tell the difference between one woman
and another.

“So.” She cleared her throat and turned.
“About tomorrow. Charles said he’d talk to you?”

“He did.” Jonny leaned against the kitchen
counter, dark eyes on her.

“And …” She prompted.

“You can go.”

Ashley rejoiced internally and nodded. They
gazed at one another too long, and she shifted her weight between
her feet. Had anything ever been so weird?

“Is it always like this?” she asked.

“Is
what
always like this?”

“The, uh, blood thing. It’s really
awkward.”

“No,” he gave a half smile. “It’s never like
this. I’m usually fucking my dinner at the same time.”

She stared at him.

“I usually brainwash them,” he admitted.
“They don’t need to suffer on my account.”

“They just need to die,” she snapped.

“I am what I am.”

I never knew you at
all.
“How many women have you been
through?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“Seven hundred and fourteen.”

She started to laugh and then stopped.

Jonny was serious.

“Why so many?” she managed to ask.

“I tend to drink more than the others. I
generally kill one to two a week.”

“So you can kill humans but they can’t.”

“Right,” he said. “It’s a necessity in my
position, at least until I crush the rebellion and have the full
respect of those who remain.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“Right and wrong are a sliding scale where I
sit. But I do remember all of their names and do my best to ensure
they’re never in pain. It helps me hang onto what’s left of my
humanity.”

Ashley didn’t know what to say. Jonny was
calm and accepting of what he was and what he did. He didn’t make
excuses for his actions and clearly felt the impact of taking a
human life in a way she doubted his vamps did.

The insight into him had the opposite effect
she expected.

She cleared her throat once more and looked
away. The past lingered between them, the sorrow she experienced
when she realized she’d lost the person she cared about. This Jonny
was nothing like him. Her Jonny had been sensitive and kind albeit
misguided. He hadn’t wanted to kill and didn’t know how to use a
woman let alone kill one. Whatever he claimed he felt, he had been
good to her in the private moments they shared four years
before.

Her Jonny was gone, and it disturbed her to
guess what kind of torture he had been through to become the man he
was now.

Had she changed this much? Because she felt
as lost as ever, more so when she considered she’d potentially
spend the rest of her life not understanding the Black God she was
stuck with.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” she
said.

“For …”

“I don’t even know,” she said.
Disappointment settled the stirring of her blood. “Charles spent
the day having other vamps kick my ass, so if we’re good, I’m going
to need some sleep before tomorrow.”

“I’ll take you and your chain back.” He
glanced at the metal links piled at her feet.

Before she could object, he crossed to her
and rested a hand on her arm. They Traveled back to her room, a
space that seemed far too cramped for the two of them. Ashley moved
away from him instantly. She didn’t want his touch to send her
spinning into confusion or worse, cause her to have another
seizure.

“I patched you for now,” Jonny said. “My
sister is a healer. You should …”

She looked up at him, startled he mentioned
his family.

“Never mind. Night, Ash,” he said.

Within a blink, he was gone again.

She released her breath. She’d rather spend
all day and night fighting with the vamps Charles sent to challenge
her than the five minutes she’d just spent with Jonny.

It was going to be a long eternity, if she
were permanently stuck with him.

Save Brandon first. Then I
get the hell out of here,
she promised
herself.

Yet as sound as the plan seemed, she
couldn’t help wondering if there was a part of the boy she’d once
known that she might be able to save.

After a much less grueling day of tactics
training, Ashley joined Charles and a handful of other vamps going
out on a raid to a warehouse where it was suspected Valon was
staying. She itched to hurry ahead, to infiltrate on her own and
take out any vamps present.

But Charles was strict: if she fucked up,
she wasn’t going out with them again, and this was enough
encouragement to keep her dutifully at his side.

“Stop fidgeting,” he growled.

“I can’t. This is taking too long,” she shot
back. Night hid the approach of a scout darting from the direction
of the warehouse.

“No Valon,” he reported breathlessly and
dropped behind the antiquated piece of rusting machinery they hid
behind. The equipment from the former factory had been dragged out
behind the warehouse and left to the elements. “Wards around the
south side and activity inside and outside the wards.”

“What kind of location is this?” Charles
asked.

“Looks like a safehouse or supply depot.
Humans chained in one room, bunks in another, tons of storage
boxes.”

Ashley bristled.

Charles glanced at her. “Don’t you start,”
he warned.

She gritted her teeth without responding.
Every bone in her body wanted her to free the humans.

“They wouldn’t have wards if there wasn’t
something important here,” Charles said, returning his attention to
the scout. “Wards are dead giveaways vamps are present. A normal
safehouse wouldn’t use them.” He considered for a moment. “How many
are here?”

“I saw about three dozen.”

“Good size. Too many for a safehouse.”
Charles motioned the dozen vamps behind them forward within hearing
distance. “We have orders to kill everyone but Valon. Break up into
teams and enter like we practiced earlier. Keep it quick and
clean.”

The vamps moved away immediately to
obey.

“What about me?” Ashley asked anxiously.

“I thought we’d use you as bait.” Charles
rose and hurried towards the next closest piece of factory
equipment.

She scrambled after him. “I can do that,”
she said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Trip the wards. Head around to the south
side and distract them.”

She launched up.

Charles grabbed her arm. “I’m not done yet,
Natural,” he snarled.

She rolled her eyes and crouched beside him
again.

“Hector is going with you. Trip the wards,
stay where you are until you draw attention and then you fight –
outside the warehouse.”

“But there might be more –”

“Outside the warehouse,” he repeated.

“Fine. Anything else?”

“Go.”

She bolted and was trailed closely by the
vamp named Hector. Not fully trusting them to tell her if Brandon
was present, she nonetheless obeyed the first part of Charles’
plan.

Ashley slowed her walk as she approached the
south side of the warehouse. “Hey, Hector. How do I know when
–”

Shouts came from the sentry nearest her and
were followed by a spotlight. Hector ducked down behind a piece of
rusting equipment, and Ashley stepped into the light, shielding her
eyes.

She sensed the movement of three vamps
headed her direction, and heard even more running towards the door
nearest her.

“Hey, guys,” she said cheerfully as the
vamps neared. “Just dropping by to check in on things.”

The door behind them slammed open as more
vamps flooded the area. Ashley gauged their distance and reached
for one of her knives. How long was she supposed to wait before
attacking?

The moment one of them came too close, she
decided to act. Ashley lowered her center of balance and charged
the oncoming vamps. She fought with deft speed unhindered by
Charles and his Taser and chain. Battling vamps felt easy after his
brutal lessons, and she tore through her opponents, vaguely aware
of Hector killing the ones she downed.

In only ten minutes, she’d taken out all
seven of those who came to confront them and paused at the door,
breathless and energized. Ashley peered into the darkness, unable
to see the way the predators could.

Hector was talking into a walkie-talkie. She
debated disobeying Charles completely to search the warehouse but
feared being grounded from future missions if she did. After some
internal warring, she returned to Hector.

He dropped the walkie-talkie into his cargo
pocket and strode past her. “C’mon.” He disappeared into the depths
of the warehouse.

Ashley followed without a word. It was
easier to follow Hector as he navigated in the darkness than find
her own way, and she walked close enough to bump him when he
slowed, senses trained on the darkness. The open bay made up half
the warehouse and was empty as far as she could tell. Movement and
light came from the doors on the north side of the building.

“Hey, Hector. Why is there a ward and
nothing here?”

“That’s what we have to find out.”

She trailed him. He changed directions
before reaching the tall door leading to the other half of the
segmented warehouse and went instead to a stairwell tucked along
one side.

Underground.
The trick she’d learned from watching Jonny hide
her from the Others. Eager to discover what the vamps were hiding –
and praying it was Brandon – Ashley crowded Hector, who gave her an
annoyed look more than once as they descended beneath the concrete
flooring.