The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series) (27 page)

Hector dropped about ten feet closer to the
ground with the extension of her rope. Ashley shimmied down to the
large vamp. He was alive and clutching the noose around his neck.
Ashley sawed through the rope supporting both of them.

They dropped the remaining ten feet to the
ground. Ashley hit hard on one ankle and rolled to reduce the
impact. She withdrew one knife as she hopped back to her feet and
tested the ankle. It was sore already, a sign she’d be slower than
she preferred for a bit.

Hector began coughing and gasping. Ashley
drew near him, waiting for the vamp they faced to try something
while Hector was down and she was recovering.

“Hey, Hector. Get up!” she ordered him. “We
gotta warn Charles.”

“You … should’ve left … me,” he replied and
crawled to his knees.

“Yeah, probably,” she agreed. “C’mon!”

She saw the red spark of the attacking vamp
a split second before he smashed into her. This time, it wasn’t a
glancing blow. He hit her full on and drove her onto her back.
Ashley wriggled and lashed out with one elbow, smashing him in the
nose.

“Hector! Go warn Charles!” she shouted and
then flipped her hips to shove the vamp off her.

Hector stumbled away, back towards the door
through which they’d entered.

Her attacker didn’t give her time to get up
but tackled her again. Ashley ducked and tagged him good with a
knife. She bound to her feet. “That all you got, you idiot?” she
shouted.

Suddenly, the overhead lights of the factory
flipped on, blinding her. Her instincts alerted her before the
sunspots cleared enough for her to see.

More than sixty vamps surrounded her. She
faced one, the vamp with the ability to hide himself, while the
others hung back around the edges of the factory, waiting for the
order to attack.

“You’re good,” said the vamp facing her. He
was large, muscular and bristling. Unlike the others, his eyes were
pure black rather than red. “I see you refused my offer.”

“Offer?” she echoed.

“To spare your brother if you took care of
Jonny.”

Ashley straightened, surprised. “You’re
Valon?”

“I am.”

Panic fluttered to life inside her. She
didn’t know what to say and had always been a horrible liar.

Valon drew closer without drawing his
weapons. He was studying her. The gleam of intelligence in his eyes
confirmed what Jonny had said about him. “That’s it? You’d rather
let your brother die?” he asked. “Did you misunderstand something
about my message, Natural? Or are you stupid?”

“No,” she said finally. “Is he here?”

“He’ll be dead before you are.”

Fear seized her before she recalled what
Jonny had said. “You won’t. You can use his mind stealth ability
against your enemies.”

“Smart girl.” Valon folded his arms across
his chest. “His gift is unique. But you … you’re a nuisance. I can
find another warrior, one with less fight.”

“Won’t break my heart not to be vamped,” she
replied.

Valon drew even closer. Confident she could
fight him now that at least one of her senses had a firm hold on
him, Ashley didn’t raise her weapons but met his gaze head on,
waiting to see what it was he wanted.

“How do you fight for Jonny? I know Xander.
I know he wouldn’t agree to this.”

“I’m here for my brother,” she replied.
“Give him back, and Xander won’t have a reason to hunt you down and
rip your skin off.”

Valon’s scrutiny was making her
uncomfortable. It wasn’t the look of a vamp about to attack but an
opponent assessing his enemy. She wished she’d thought to ask more
about him, whether he could read minds or anything else. She hadn’t
expected him to be able to befuddle her senses to the extent he
did.

“I smell him on you,” he said pensively. He
appeared less pleased by this than the mention of Xander. “You
aren’t just his food, are you?”

Ashley’s anger surged. The answer was too
complicated for her to understand herself let alone explain to
someone else. “None of your fucking business,” she replied.

“I didn’t expect this,” Valon said. “I
didn’t expect Jonny to be so cold as to send in someone he was
fucking to take me out. He’s more vamplike than I gave him credit
for.”

“Yeah, you’re both dicks.”

“I had planned on detaining you then letting
you go to curry favor with Xander for my ascension to the role of
Black God. But this … this is even better,” Valon said. “I’d rather
fuck up Jonny’s world by destroying the woman he’s fucking.”

Ashley shuddered inside at
the expression on his face. It wasn’t threatening. He was
happy.
And she had a
feeling that was the worst news possible.

“That might work if he gave a shit.”

“Then you are a fucking fool and so is he
for sending you within my grasp.” Valon stepped away. “Time to see
what a real Black God does to Naturals that cross him.” He motioned
the vamps around them forward.

Ashley lowered herself into a fighting
stance, unafraid despite the overwhelming numbers. “Jonny will
crush you, Valon,” she said. “And you better hope you kill me
tonight.”

“It would be my pleasure.” He flashed a
smile. “Kill her.”

Adrenaline jolted within her, and she
glanced towards the door through which Hector had gone. With any
luck, he’d be able to bring Charles and the rest of them soon. They
weren’t going to win this battle, but they might all escape.

She thought so until the second noose draped
around her neck and yanked tight enough for her to be forced onto
her tiptoes. Ashley stretched up to cut the rope only for two vamps
to charge her.

“Come on … now!” she managed, hacking at
them while trying to remain on her toes. “This is hardly fair.”

“The Black God doesn’t play fair,” Valon
said, standing back to watch.

You have more in common
with Jonny than you know,
she
thought.

A vamp got a blow in. A second slashed her
side. Ashley strained to defend herself when doing so meant she
couldn’t breathe. Charles and Hector didn’t appear, and the blows
of weapons and fists became an onslaught she wasn’t able to stop.
Desperation crept into her, along with pain. Her thoughts went to
Brandon first and then Jonny, and she hated herself for admitting
she hadn’t been able to decide because she wasn’t able to stop
loving either of them.

Not that it mattered. It was about to become
too late for her anyway.

Jonny knew something was very wrong even
before the call came from Charles. His gut was heavy and twisting,
the sense of foreboding distracting him from monitoring the
progress of his teams.

Charles’ text was shorter than last
time.

Come now.

Jonny checked their location with Stu before
Traveling to the abandoned factory in southern Oklahoma. He smelled
blood – and lots of it – the moment he materialized. Charles
stood off to one side, hand on his bloodied forehead. Tasha was on
her knees beside him, holding her stomach.

Jonny scanned the bodies of the dead vamps,
his heart quickening. He counted several dead rogues – and almost a
dozen of his own. His losses were going to become crippling soon.
“What happened?” he asked, senses alert for any additional
attackers.

“Ambush,” Charles reported. “He had all his
vamps here waiting for us. And then they let us go.”

“What do you mean?” Jonny frowned.

“They wanted to send you a message.”

“What message? That this is war?” he looked
around. “Where’s Ashley?”

Charles said nothing, his jaw tight.

“Charles,” Jonny growled, anger flaring.
“Where is she?”

“Inside,” was the soft response. “We did
everything we could to reach her.”

Jonny’s chest tightened until he could
barely suck in a breath. His emotions churned, and dread dropped
into his belly. “Get everyone back who made it,” he ordered and
strode forward, into the factory.

Ashley hung by her neck from a noose tied to
the ceiling. She was unconscious and bloodied almost beyond
recognition. The scent of her blood made him crave her, and he
hurried to her. She’d managed to take out close to ten vamps, whose
bodies lay at her feet.

“Ash,” he whispered and wrapped an arm
around her. He lifted her to ease the tension on the rope then used
his magic to cut her free. “Ashley!”

She didn’t stir. Her pulse was faint, rapid,
fading. Jonny rested her onto the ground, listening to her body and
ignoring the compulsion to taste her with steely determination.

“Is she alive?” Charles asked from several
feet away.

“Barely and not for long,” Jonny replied, at
a momentary loss as to what to do. Her gorgeous eyes were closed,
her face cut and her dark hair dripping with her blood. Rope burn
rendered the skin around her neck raw and he wasn’t able to count
the amount of injuries from which she bled.

She healed fast but there was no coming back
from this.

“Our healer can’t help Naturals,” Charles
said.

“I know.” Jonny touched her forehead to
assess the damage.

Ashley didn’t have fifteen
minutes. Fear tore through him, the kind of emotion he hadn’t
experienced since he took his position as the Black God, since the
night he almost lost his sister. He hadn’t wanted to care about
her, hadn’t considered what it meant for
him
if something happened to her. The
thought of losing her paralyzed him, left him uncertain what he
felt but sure he was already in too deep.

To save her, he’d have to do what he didn’t
want to – go to Damian and ask for help.

“I know someone who can help her,” he said
and scooped her up. “Get everyone back to Miami.”

“Ikir,
do you need –”

“No. Just go!” Jonny Traveled before he
confirmed Charles would obey.

He went to the one place he never hoped to
go to talk to the one person he hated to negotiate with. His heart
pounded hard and fast in his chest as he materialized in front of
the gates to Damian’s headquarters in Texas. Immediately, every
ward was tripped and every alarm blaring. Guardians lined up along
the walls with weapons he knew weren’t going to make much of a
difference if he truly wanted in.

He waited instead, tense and all too aware
of Ashley dying in his arms. “Stay with me, Ash,” he whispered, his
pulse flying.

“What the fuck, Jonny?” Darian was the first
to appear outside the walls to confront him.

“Send out my sister,” Jonny told him.

Darian’s gaze went to Ashley.

The strongest Healer ever known, his sister
Bianca lived on the compound with her mate, the adopted brother of
Damian. She had once turned Charles from a vamp into a human. If
she could do that, she could save Ashley.

“You better have a good fucking reason to be
here,” Damian said, materializing a moment later.

“I do,” Jonny said. “Bianca. Now.”

Damian studied him briefly before tossing
his head towards the compound in a silent order to his brother. The
Grey God disappeared.

“I don’t do favors for you,” Damian
said.

“It’s not for me. You want leverage against
Xander? This is it!” Jonny snapped. “If she dies, it’s on you,
Damian.”

“I’m not the one who got her into this
mess.”

“She made a decision.”

“I don’t give a shit. You want our help? You
turn her over after she’s healed. You clearly can’t protect her
like we can when you’ve got all this shit going on.”

Jonny clenched his jaw hard enough that it
popped. If Ashley weren’t about to die in his arms, he’d consider
refusing. He didn’t think Damian would let her die if Jonny left
her at the feet of the Guardians and Traveled home.

But he couldn’t just … leave her. No part of
Jonny wanted to let her go right now, not until he knew for sure
she was going to live through this. Damian was right, though. Until
this mess was over, Ashley was safer with the White God than she’d
ever be with him.

And for the first time in
several years, he felt raw and vulnerable. He hated not being able
to harness his power or control his vamps enough to protect someone
he cared about. He hated not being
enough
for what he had to do.
Emotions he fought to block began to trickle free, fueled by his
vamp hunger and the weight of Ashley’s warm body in his
arms.

“Jonny?” Bianca’s soft voice sounded sleepy.
“What happened?” Darian brought her and her husband, Dusty. They
materialized behind Damian, who was still glaring at Jonny.

“Hey, B,” Jonny greeted her. He glanced at
Dusty, the steely-eyed former leader of Damian’s assassins he had
personally charged with Bianca’s safety under the threat of death
if Dusty let anyone get within an inch of her.

“Bianca only,” Damian directed the three
behind him.

Jonny had long since gotten use to the
wariness of the White God and his brothers. He’d never do anything
to hurt his sister, but the others assumed the worse about him.

He lowered Ashley to the ground gently and
crouched beside her. Bianca knelt on the other side and reached
across to give him a quick hug. With long, curly black hair,
caramel skin like his and large, brown eyes, she was naturally
beautiful and the sweetest person he’d ever known. Her Natural
healing skill had put them both on the radar of the Guardians and
vamps after he fell in with the wrong crowd. Dusty had found her
first, and the two fell in love shortly after meeting.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered with a
quick smile before her attention turned to Ashley. She wore a
sweatshirt over boxer shirts and looked as if she’d just been woken
up.

“You, too,” he replied. “Can you heal
her?”