Damian's Immortal (War of Gods 3) (5 page)

“
I’m happy …” He paused as
he turned, startled to see the Grey God without the scars that
knotted his face the last time Jule saw him. The man gazing back at
him was wiry and lean with angled features and swirling gold
eyes.

“
I got a new face,” the
Grey God said.

“
I see that. Lookin’ good,
Darian,” Jule said. “How’s everything on your side of the
world?”

“
Interesting. Dusty found
his mate and destroyed most of Florida.”

Jule laughed, not at all surprised by the
news of his adopted brother, the human turned assassin with a low
tolerance for bullshit.

“
Damian doesn’t know I’m
here,” Darian added. “But Sofi asked me to visit.”

“
So you defied your
brother for the little blonde Oracle?”

“
She runs the place,
Jule,” Darian replied. “Damian’s just figuring that out. Anyway,
she wanted me to tell you to trust your instincts.”

Jule snorted. “She sounds like a
Watcher.”

“
You have no idea,” Darian
agreed. While the Grey God appeared calm, his air was agitated and
his gaze stormy. Jule sensed a great deal of turmoil behind his
calm features and pitied the man. Darian had spent thousands of
years enslaved to the Black God before the Oracle freed him, and
Jule couldn’t imagine how deeply that experience must have scarred
the Grey God’s soul. Darian’s power had grown; the air of the room
shimmered, and light and dark alike warped in the space around
Darian.

“
Good to see you, Darian,”
Jule said, genuinely happy to see Damian’s brother alive. “The new
Black God?”

“
Nothing more than a kid.
Sofi says his path is dark. I can’t help feeling bad for him,”
Darian said, his gaze growing dark and distant. “I know what that
life is like. I guess the alternative was worse.”

“
We all have our paths,”
Jule said. “Doesn’t mean they’re easy.”

“
Yeah.”

“
Tell everyone I said
hello and I’m being held hostage by one of the Others.”

Darian’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“
It’s for a good
cause.”

“
A woman?”

“
Something like
that.”

“
Sofi said to tell you ‘I
told you so.’”

“
Give her a hug when you
get back,” Jule said with a chuckle. Darian cocked his head to the
side, as if hearing someone call his name.

“
I gotta go,” he said.
“I’ll see you in a couple of days. Things will get worse before
they get better, but they should get better.”

The Grey God disappeared, and Jule dwelled
on his parting words. The Darian he remembered had never been
brooding or hesitant like this man. Sadly, he realized his old
friend truly had died when he became enslaved by the Black God.

Trust your instincts.

Jule rubbed the back of his neck. His
instincts told him the Magician was in danger-- and needed to stay
alive. If what the Watcher said was remotely true, she was a
powerful weapon in the hands of the Others, and he had limited
otherworldly ability to protect her from them. Some of his innate
defensive powers remained, or she would’ve turned him to stone or
the Other would’ve vaporized him.

He touched his swollen lip. He hadn’t ever
been without his healing powers. His thoughts darkened as he
thought of leaving the Guardians defenseless to protect a woman he
wasn’t sure he should.

One life. It should’ve
been so simple. He closed his eyes, remembering a time when he’d
made a similar choice. He’d chosen a human over the immortal realm
and been banned for it. In fact, he’d chosen a
woman
over his life in the immortal
realm. A woman who died during the Schism. The memories surrounding
his exile were deeply buried, but he did recall how pissed the
immortals had been with him and wondered why his one choice
mattered so much.

The Watchers must’ve gotten some sort of
twisted pleasure out of dangling a similar situation over his head
again after so long! The fate of humanity was on his shoulders,
with only an innocent woman between him and his ability to help the
Guardians.

“
Little bastards,” he
muttered.

Trust your
instincts.
He trusted Sofi over the
Watchers but couldn’t help wishing the damned Oracle had been a bit
more specific. If the Watchers went to Damian, and Damian wanted
the Magician dead … she’d be dead. Jule would never cross one of
his brothers.

One thing at a
time,
he told himself. He wasn’t to that
point yet, and he had to figure out just how to protect the woman
from the man she considered her own father. Staying in the basement
where the Other could find and kill him wasn’t his top choice, but
at least he was in the house. He could keep an eye on both the
Other and the Magician better.

And stay warm. He was beginning to hate the
cold.

Chapter Three

The White God, Damian, studied the Black
God’s youthful features, both pitying and wary. Black Gods grew
into their powers the way he had discovered his White God powers,
though he suspected an evil education was far from pleasant. The
gangly youth before him had dyed his hair from platinum back to its
natural color of black. His brown eyes were shadowed, his Hispanic
features the color of caramel.

“
Why did you call me
here?” the Black God asked, ill at ease in the small room in the
basement of their old headquarters in Miami.

“
We both have a mutual
problem. Believe it or not, I come in peace,” Damian said. He
spread his arms to show he wasn’t carrying any weapons.

“
Is my sister okay?” The
Black God’s gaze turned sharp.

“
Absolutely,” Damian said
and smiled to himself, marveling again at the turn of events that
led to his chief assassin, Dusty, mating with the Black God’s
sister.

“
He knows what I’ll do to
him if something happens to her?”

“
I’m pretty sure he gets
the picture,” Damian said, unable to help his amusement. “It’s not
every day you marry the sister of a God.”

“
Then what do you want?”
the Black God asked.

“
We have a pest problem.
You know by now about the Watchers and Others?”

Jonny, the Black God, hesitated before
nodding.

“
You know they’re at war
with each other and playing games with us here on
earth.”

“
I …” Another hesitation,
as the youth grappled with what to say to his sworn enemy. “Yes.
The Others were attempting to influence the outcome of who won the
Black God mantle by using me. It didn’t work.” Angry light flared
in the Black God’s eyes.

“
They staged a revolt
within the Black God’s ranks,” Damian reminded him. “Something like
this won’t happen among the Guardians.”

“
Except for
Claire.”

“
Ah,” Damian said with a
tight smile. “You’re learning fast.”

“
No one is invulnerable to
temptation, Damian.”

“
Some of us are,” Damian
countered, impressed by how far the youth had come in so short a
time. He’d wondered if the kid had the guts to embrace the Black
God’s mission, or if he’d shy away from it.

“
Some, not all,” Jonny
allowed. “I’ve heard rumors among my vamps of the Others walking
among them. I don’t like it.”

“
Neither do I,” Damian
agreed. “Which is why I want us to reach an agreement. Let the
Others and Watchers fight amongst themselves without our
involvement.”

“
I’d rather root them out
and have them killed.”

“
That may not help things.
Neutrality is probably less likely to piss off the immortal realm.
Besides, they’re hard little bastards to catch, if you hadn’t
noticed,” Damian pointed out.

“
I did. I’m surprised
you’re not interested in a ceasefire with me, since your Guardians
are powerless,” Jonny said.

“
That’s my concern, not
yours.”

Jonny looked away at his sharp tone, and
Damian saw the Black God’s fear.

“
I don’t know the extent
of the Others’ subversion,” Jonny admitted at last. “Your
predecessor, Czerno, had no spy networks. His philosophy seemed to
be to throw as many vamps at an issue as he could.”

“
Your predecessor wasn’t
known for his sense of strategy.”

“
I would agree not to
slaughter your Guardians and declare a ceasefire for thirty days,
if you will agree to help me root out the traitors in my own
organization.”

Damian considered. There was more to the
boy’s intentions than he let on. The Black God had yet to meet his
gaze again. There was one simple truth to their dual existence:
neither Black nor White God could exist without the other. Damian
understood the delicate balance between Good and Evil, just as he
understood the Black God had the power to overturn that balance as
long as the Guardians were powerless.

Give him Jenn.
The voice of Damian’s mate, Sofi, was a whisper
in his mind. He frowned. Jenn was Dusty’s most senior female
Guardian, the captain of the Western Hemisphere’s spy network. It
made sense to lend
someone with her
expertise
to the Black God, but only if
Damian knew she’d be safe.

“
Would you consider an
exchange?” he asked carefully. “One of my experienced Guardians
will join you and help you root out the traitors. In exchange, I
want you to choose your top advisor to send to me.”

“
Sort of like a hostage
exchange?”

“
Something like
that.”

Jonny considered. “I think that would
work.”

“
I’ll send you
Jenn.”

Jonny’s head snapped up, his expression one
of surprise that quickly turned to anger. He paced. Damian studied
him, curious about the reaction.

“
Did the damn Oracle do
this?” Jonny demanded.

“
Watch it, kid. The Oracle
is my mate,” Damian growled. “Jenn is the chief of my spies.
There’s no one more qualified to help you.”

More confusion crossed the Black God’s face.
Damian wondered what the hell Sofi had figured out that would send
the man before him into the teenage-like fit.

“
We good?” Damian prodded
as the Black God sulked in silence.

“
I’ll send you Charles.
He’s the head of the vamps. He’s been explaining how things work to
me,” Jonny said, blinking out of his thoughts. “Is … Jenn
here?”

“
I can bring her here.
She’ll be armed, and I’m leaving her a distress beacon. If it goes
off for any reason, I’ll be at your throat with a knife, truce be
damned,” Damian said in a low, firm voice. “You
understand?”

Jonny looked up, uncertainty crossing his
face. He nodded.

“
Go get your vamp, and
I’ll get my Guardian.” Damian didn’t wait for Jonny to respond but
used his magic to Transport himself to the Texas ranch where they’d
set up shop after Dusty blew up southern Florida.

“
She’ll be okay, Damian,”
Sofi’s soft voice greeted him as he opened his eyes. “She’ll have a
protector to keep him from killing her, but anyone else you’d send
wouldn’t last the week.”

“
My own little
mini-Watcher,” Damian said, holding out his hand to her. The
tension melted from his body at the sight of her petite frame and
swirling silver-blue eyes.

She hugged him, and he breathed in her fresh
scent. She propped her chin on his chest and looked up at him with
a smile. Her features had gone from drawn and pale to glowing, the
result of his return from Europe after an extended absence and the
child growing in her womb.

“
What about the vamp I’m
bringing into the house?” he asked. “Keep it in the backyard and
give it a doghouse?”

“
He’ll be fine,” she
assured him. “At least, as far as I can See, he’ll be
fine.”

“
I’m not feeling
reassured,” he said with a laugh. He kissed her forehead, her nose,
her lips. “How you feeling?”

“
Good enough,” she
replied, eyes glowing. “Drop off Jenn and come back. You still owe
me for the time you were in Europe.”

He kissed her again more deeply and then
rested his forehead against hers with a sigh.

“
I’ll be quick,
kiri,
” he whispered,
withdrawing from her cool touch. She smiled.

Damian Transported himself before he ditched
his mission for some quality time with his mate. He’d met Jenn once
and didn’t know her well enough to know where she’d be. His
brother, Darian, however, tended to follow her around like a lost
puppy. Damian went to the gym, where Darian spent most of his time.
He wasn’t surprised to see the Grey God in the boxing ring with the
leggy brunette.

“
Darian!” he called. “Take
a break. Jenn, c’mon.”

Both figures froze, before Jenn scrambled to
obey. She slung a towel over her shoulder and dropped into a deep
bow before him. Amused, Damian looked at Darian and tossed his head
towards the door. His brother went.

“
None of that shit,”
Damian said. “I need you to get dressed. I have a special mission
for you.”