The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series) (8 page)

Epilepsy
. Her body whispered the
secret to him among her tumultuous emotions.

From the untainted honey flavor of her human
blood, she wasn’t on meds to stop the seizures from happening. He
used his power to relax her muscles and soothed the short out in
her nervous system. Her body was telling him more, and he listened,
interested. He had never fed from a Natural before. The sensations
running through him were different, stronger, his connection to her
more intense than any he’d experienced. Vaguely, he recalled
hearing Xander say Jessi’s grandfather, and therefore Ashley’s, had
been a Watcher. Was this why her flavor was more intoxicating than
anything he’d ever tasted?

He saw her Natural skill – fighting – and
also the reason she was able to continue training hard as a warrior
when she was epileptic. Her body regenerated quickly and repaired
any damage the seizures caused within a day or two. She healed with
speed second only to his. His healing was instant, but her skill
was closer to his ability than that of a human.

Beneath his magic, the uncontrolled seizing
of her womanly frame turned into trembling. She was scared both of
him and the loss of control of her body. This much he was able to
feel, along with the other hot emotions flowing through her. Fury.
Frustration.

Jonny drank enough from her to sate his
curiosity and hunger for the woman he hadn’t seen in four years
then pulled his fangs free and held her securely, one hand
remaining on her neck in case she tried anything stupid. She was
limp in his arms, and it didn’t take him piercing her neck to know
she was panicking.

“Just breathe,” he said quietly. The cool
ocean breeze swept by both of them. His sense were alert, his
ability to spot potential danger before it reached them in full
effect. He listened to Ashley’s breathing stabilize and sensed her
testing her balance.

“What did you … do?” she whispered finally.
“I’ll kill myself before becoming a vamp!”

“I didn’t vamp you,” he replied. “I stopped
the seizure.”

“How?”

“Manipulating someone’s body is one of my
talents. Keeps my meals from fighting back.”

Her breath hitched. Ashley tried to pull
away. Still weak from her seizure, she was easy to subdue, and
Jonny nuzzled her neck once more.

“Don’t!” she gasped and gripped his arm with
both hands.

“You gonna stop fucking with my vamps?” he
replied.

Ashley said nothing.

“I take it that’s a no,” he said, not
surprised. “I’m going to start considering every confrontation you
have with them a personal invitation to pay you a visit.”

“Xander –”

“Xander doesn’t know what you’re doing. If
you want to tell him, I’m happy to tell him who rescued you
tonight.” Jonny kept his tone even, his voice calm and firm. He
wasn’t about to let her know just how much he didn’t want to have
that conversation with Xander.

“Let me go,” she said quietly.

“Do you understand me, Ashley?”

She squirmed.

“Wrong answer.” Jonny bit her again, this
time harder, letting her feel what it was like to have three inch
incisors slicing into her neck.

Ashley gasped and clawed at his arm. He
dwelt on her flavor. As usual, he mentally deciphered the complex
taste unique to each person he’d drunk from. Ashley was sweet,
heady, a mouth full of nectar mixed with the saucy tang of an
unknown spice. It was addicting and ensnared every one of his
senses. She was complicated and delicious bouquet, a combination
arousing more than his hunger, especially when coupled with her
shapely body squirming against his.

He drank long enough to prove his point she
wasn’t going to escape if he didn’t want her to then lifted his
head. His tongue flickered over the puncture wounds to heal
them.

“Do you understand?” he whispered again.

“Yes,” she managed.

Jonny released her. Ashley hurried away and
faced him, paler than usual after her seizure. She didn’t try to
retrieve the knife she’d dropped when her episode hit and instead,
glared up at him. He met her gaze, uncertain why the ocean breeze
felt so much colder when her warmth was gone from him.

“You killed your vamps to save me. Why?” she
asked suspiciously.

“They weren’t mine,” he replied.

She lifted an eyebrow.

“I have a mild problem with
mutiny right now,” he said with a shrug. “Nothing I can’t
handle.”
For the most part.

She frowned. “You’ve changed, Jonny.”

“So have you. I never knew you had epilepsy
or an interest in fighting.”

“You never cared to learn anything about me
at all,” she replied. “I was a means to an end to you.”

“Yeah. You were,” he said. Whether or not it
was true no longer mattered. Ashley needed to be scared straight.
There couldn’t be anything left over from their short relationship
four years ago. He wasn’t about to draw the ire of Xander or the
White God for messing with her, and he couldn’t afford to open the
door he’d closed on his hope not to be alone the rest of his life.
His duty to the vamps was more important than his personal
feelings.

Emotion flickered in her gaze. Hurt? Anger?
He hadn’t thought it possible she’d still be feeling the pain of
how he’d left her. Neither was he completely surprised. He still
thought of her, too, even when he knew it wasn’t right.

He had let her go years before because their
paths were too different. If she were hanging onto something from
the past, he needed to cut that string now before she got herself
in worse trouble.

“Means to an end,” he repeated.

But he knew it wasn’t true. He had no place
in his life for anyone or anything from his past.

Ashley struggled with her indecipherable
emotions. She had always imagined what she’d say or feel when she
saw him again, and it was nothing like what she went through now.
She touched the spot on her neck where he’d bitten her, unwilling
to look away from the man she’d envisioned killing when they met
again.

Jonny was very different from the uncertain,
emotional boy she’d dated four years before. He was quietly
confident, and the oldness in his eyes led her to believe he’d been
serious about killing people for blood. He had been a knobby, lean
twenty year old when they last met and had filled out since then.
His caramel skin and shaggy dark hair gave him the
dark-and-brooding look but the assurance in his tone and steady
gaze dispelled any hope she’d had some part of the boy she once
cared about remained.

He had stopped her seizures and killed vamps
to rescue her, ensuring those she fought never got up again. Why
did this surprise her? Why did she wish he’d never done those
things, never brought her to the beach and held her? Never crossed
her path despite her plan for revenge?

He was everything she’d hoped he would be –
everything she wanted to hate – and yet she was devastated by it.
His claim never to have cared warning infuriated her, made her want
to spend the next week tracking every vamp in San Diego.

Except her body was always weak after one of
her epileptic attacks. She was drained, unsettled, and in desperate
need of rest where she was normally strong enough to take on even a
god.

Jonny was watching her, and she couldn’t
help imagining he wanted to make her his dinner.

“Where are we?” she asked to break the thick
tension between them.

“Monterey.” Even his voice had changed. It
was soft and low, befitting the night. “You need to go home.”

“I can’t Travel anymore,” she shot back. “It
triggers my seizures.”

“You had epilepsy when we met?”

She didn’t want to reveal something so
personal. “No,” she said shortly. “When my Natural skill took hold
there were complications.” It had taken Xander and a team of
Guardians to get her through the first year. The trauma of her
experience with Jonny and the Original Other had triggered her and
Brandon’s gifts years before they were supposed to emerge.
Brandon’s mind talent revealed itself easily, but hers had nearly
killed her.

And Jonny didn’t deserve to know anything
about it.

Jonny’s cool, level gaze was on her. “I can
take us to San Diego.” He held out his hand.

Her jaw went slack. “How do you know where I
live?”

“I visit Xander on occasion.”

Duh.
Xander had told her as much. Relieved Jonny didn’t know
exactly where she lived, she shook her head. “I can make it home
myself.”

“You don’t have a phone or a ride.”

“I’d rather hitchhike than go with you.”
Ashley spun away. She wasn’t going to get her revenge this night,
not when she needed to recover from her seizure. Angry with
herself, she was nonetheless relieved to be walking away from the
Black God with little more than scars from his bite and the fire
burning in her blood from a source other than anger. She had
thought anything but anger purged from her system. How did she see
Jonny for the first time in four years and feel her knees go
weak?

“I’ll let Brandon know where you are.”

She froze, hating to hear her brother’s name
on Jonny’s tongue. “How do you know how to contact him?” She faced
him once more. As far as she knew, Brandon’s Natural gift kept him
masked from everyone, even Xander.

“When you went missing, he called me.”

“He wouldn’t.”

“I paid him a visit earlier. He assumed I
had you,” Jonny explained.

“Paid him a visit? If you hurt him …”

“I didn’t. Just a friendly warning.”

She touched her neck self-consciously.

“Not the same kind. I went back to claim the
phone you’d stolen,” Jonny said, amused. “I’d be interested in
knowing how he got my number.”

“He’s a hacker. He can do shit like
that.”

“Hmm. Useful gift.”

“Don’t you dare!” she approached him,
stopping toe-to-toe to glare up at the Black God. “You don’t go
near him, Jonny. I’m the one messing with your vamps.”

“Then I suggest you keep in mind I know
where you both live,” Jonny replied softly.

“Nothing on this planet will stop me from
finding you if you laid a hand on him! Even you can’t match me
fighting.”

“No, but I’ll catch you when you have
another seizure.”

Her face flamed hot. “I don’t have them
often.”

“Weekly, according to your body.”

She stepped back. She knew from her cousin
Jessi a vamp as powerful as Jonny or Xander was able to access
someone’s mind and body when biting. That she and Jonny had such an
intimate exchange when she wanted him dead sent her emotions
tumbling again.

“Why aren’t you on meds?” he prodded.

“None of your damn business.”

“You’re right. It’s not. But if you’re
serious about taking me on, you better be able to stay on your feet
next time.”

“You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

“Ditto, Ash.”

Had she ever hated him more than she did
now? “Good luck with your mutiny.” This time when she walked away,
she didn’t stop. She strode to the edge of where the parking lot
started before sneaking a look over her shoulder.

Jonny was gone.

She paused and released the breath she was
holding. Ashley leaned against the railing separating the sidewalk
from the parking area, barely able to stay on her feet despite her
anger. She was shaking. She still didn’t understand how he’d
stopped her attack before the worst part came, and she feared he’d
only ensured her next one was that much worse.

But why had he bothered either way? Why not
just leave her writhing and seizing on the beach? Was his fear of
Xander that great?

She drew a breath. No part of her trusted
Jonny’s claim that he’d call Brandon. It was a long way to San
Diego, chilly, and she was alone. She gazed around. What she wanted
was a nap, sweatshirt and some decent food.

The sirens of multiple police cars and an
ambulance approaching the wharf drew her attention back to the vamp
issue she’d just escaped. How on earth did anyone explain to normal
humans what those red-eyed creatures were? She wasn’t about to
stick around to find out.

Ashley stood, mesmerized by the lights of
the police cars, uncertain what exactly to do next. Her grip on the
railing felt like all that was keeping her on her feet, and the
ocean chill was beginning to sink into her skin.

“You sure you don’t want a ride?” Jonny’s
voice came from behind her.

She tensed and pushed away from the metal
railing, not about to appear weak in front of him. No part of her
wanted another favor from him. Yet no part of her looked forward to
trying to find her way home without her family flipping out about
her absence either.

“Fine,” she replied. “In exchange for me not
telling Xander your people kidnapped me in the first place.”

“I told you. They aren’t mine.”

“They’re vamps. Of course they’re yours,”
she said and turned, meeting his dark gaze again. “You’re the Black
God. They answer to you.”

“Things are never that easy, are they?” he
challenged.

“No,” she replied, considering all that had
come between them four years before. “They aren’t. Especially when
it involves the supernatural.”

“Or people meddling where they
shouldn’t.”

“Or betraying someone who trusts you.”

He studied her. “Four years is along time to
hold a grudge.”

“Betrayal’s a bitch. There’s no time limit
on grudges, Jonny. In a million years, I’ll still hate you for what
you did.”

He seemed to want to say something but
changed his mind. “We’ll see. At least hate me from your own
apartment instead of out here on a beach.”

This time when he held out his hand, she
grudgingly accepted it.

A tiny thrill jolted her, racing through
her, as their skin met. She didn’t want to be reminded of how
they’d once held hands years ago, when they were different people,
or how Jonny had changed from an unsure boy into a self-assured
man. His large hand was like his body: warm and strong.