Lizzy Ford (5 page)

“X!” a gleeful voice pulled his roving eyes from the club to the small woman in black waving at him.

He waved her away. Ingrid, his assistant by day, ignored him and was soon hanging on his arm, accompanied by a few more fawning wannabe vampires. Her heavy boots trampled one of his feet, and he pried his from beneath hers.

“Didn’t I tell you?” she shouted over the music.

Xander spotted the woman he was tracking.

“Isn’t this perfect?” she prompted.

“Yeah,” he said, sensing she wasn’t going to stop until he responded.

His dinner was searching the crowd for someone. Xander pushed into the mind of Ingrid to plant thoughts that would leave him free of her.

“Okay, I’ll see you at work tomorrow!” she said.

He nodded to show he heard. His little human assistant was good for a few things, one of which was finding places like this for him to hunt. She and her friends fell away as he moved into the crowd, towards the blonde. His gaze went over the blonde’s body in satisfaction: tall, slender, flat stomach, large breasts. They probably weren’t real, but he didn’t care, as long as they filled his hands.

She was staring at him when his visual exploration was over. Xander knew the effect he had on women; they tended to be compelled towards him then melted when he touched them. He peeked into her mind to make sure he had her complete attention. She planned on telling him her name was Kelli, and that she was a model.

She wasn’t. She was an escort waiting for her client.

Her eyes widened and her chest moved up and down faster as her breath quickened. She licked her lips as he paused before her. He listened to her unguarded thoughts.

“You got plans tonight, Anna?” he asked.

“I, um, am waiting for someone,” she replied.

“The type of men who require an escort for a club like this can’t afford someone like you,” he said, amused by the idea. Only a handful of people in the club were above college-aged, and it was in the wrong side of town for the trust-fund kids from Beverly Hills to stop in. She wouldn’t know that, though, because she was new in town.

“Aren’t you the guy from television?” she asked suddenly. “You have a show or something?”

“The same,” he said. “Wanna fuck a celebrity?” He offered his hand.

She didn’t hesitate and took it. The impact of his touch was immediate. Her gaze turned starry, her body easing against his. Xander led her through the crowd, out of the hidden rave and into the legitimate bar out front. His curiosity satisfied and the hunt over, he was ready to leave the noise of the club for the peace of his condo.

The cool night hit his skin simultaneously with the warning he least wanted to sense. One of the Gods tripped the wards he had set around his territory in southern California.

Ingrid, come here,
he ordered his assistant silently.

The blonde was huddling against him, her hands roaming his body. Normally, he loved the feel of a woman’s soft hands. With the alarm blaring in his mind, he only half paid attention.

Ingrid all but bolted out of the bar. Tall, gawky with hair dyed blue-black and contacts that glowed red like his eyes did naturally, she wore a
I heart Xander
T-shirt beneath a leather coat.

“I came … fast as … I can!” she gasped. “What’s wrong?”

“Take her home,” Xander said.

Ingrid made a sound of disgust but took the blonde’s arm.

“Are you coming with us?” the woman asked him, longing on her face.

“I’ll be there in a few,” he replied, distracted.

Xander didn’t wait for them to leave before he Traveled. Under his spell, the blonde wasn’t going to be phased by the display of magic, while Ingrid already knew he was the real thing.

He followed his instincts and appeared in a dark alley not far away, knowing who he’d find.

The Black God, Jonny, was one of the three Gods dwelling in the mortal realm. Xander didn’t want any of them in his territory. The nineteen-year-old spun at Xander’s appearance. With dark hair and eyes and the caramel skin marking his Cuban heritage, Jonny was tall and lanky. He hadn’t yet completely filled out.

“What’re you doing here, Xander?” Jonny demanded, at once guarded and tense. His power made the air around him sizzle.

“I could ask you the same,” Xander said. His gaze went to the body at the Black God’s feet. “You didn’t come all this way to hunt.”

“I don’t owe you an explanation.”

“I can pull one out of your head.”

“It’s not like I knew you were here. I don’t need your permission anyway, Xander.” Jonny searched his gaze. “I’ll be gone in an hour.”

Xander considered him. The girl at Jonny’s feet was still alive. Xander saw brown hair and a young face. She was in her mid-teens with a silver
A
charm on her necklace that reflected the yellow street light. A deeper probe into her mind revealed that she was a Natural, a human with special, supernatural skills that made her of value to the White and Black Gods. It explained why Jonny didn’t kill her, but it didn’t explain why he hadn’t turned her.

The Black God was up to something. Unable to enter his mind without tipping him off, Xander shifted forward.

“One hour,” he said. “The local Guardians will be here any minute. You haven’t yet learned how to cloak yourself.”

“If you spent less time manipulating me and more time teaching me, I might!” Jonny snapped, referring to the time Xander spent training the Black God to do his job. Jonny had been in the position for under a year. He only made it through the first few months because Xander stepped between the fledgling god and the vamps that wanted to kill their new master.

“You survived, didn’t you?” Xander replied. “Take your dinner and go.”

Jonny said nothing and knelt. He lifted the teen carefully, his gaze going to her face more than once. Xander almost smiled. He didn’t need to read Jonny’s mind to know the young Black God was reliving something. Jonny’s first kill, the girl that condemned him, was a teenage brunette. In the time Xander spent with the kid, Jonny never killed a girl under eighteen, and never a brunette.

“Fifty eight minutes,” Xander said.

Jonny mumbled a curse and straightened. Within seconds, he had disappeared. Xander tilted his head to the side, following the teenaged God with his senses. Jonny didn’t go far. He wasn’t hunting for dinner; he was moving with too much purpose.

The kid was definitely up to something.

Xander picked up on one of the Guardians from the local station moving towards the alley. He debated following Jonny then changed his mind. Whatever the young Black God was doing, it wasn’t going to affect Xander. He shouldn’t be concerned, but he also knew better than to assume any good was going to come of whatever Jonny was doing. Xander hadn’t survived multiple wars and White Gods tracking him, only to let a teenager fuck him over.

Xander returned to the club. He let the sensations outside of his mind distract him while he checked his watch a few times. True to his word, Jonny left Xander’s at the fifty-eight minute mark.

Xander received a text a minute later.

I’m coming back tomorrow. Fifteen minutes. Don’t fuck with me.

Xander laughed. The text sought permission and voiced defiance. He scared the shit out of everyone he met, the Black God included. He put his phone away, more amused by the idea of Jonny waiting for his permission than responding. Instead of going home right away, he went to the last location where the Black God had been.

Hospital. He smelled the blood of the injured from outside the ER doors. His teeth grew in response. He was too hungry to enter without shredding a few humans in the process. Xander used his senses to find the girl within the bright building. Even more interested in what the Black God was doing, Xander lingered for a few minutes then left.

Whatever it was, he wasn’t about to enter a hospital until he’d had his dinner. Xander returned to his condo and his night’s entertainment.

She wasn’t in his bed waiting like girls were every other night. Xander left his bedroom, irritated, and stretched his senses. He recognized Ingrid’s mind; she was passed out on the couch, curled up with his cat. But there was no one else in the condo.

“Ingrid,” he called. His mental prod jolted her awake. “My dinner?”

“What? Oh.
Oh.
” Ingrid looked around, disoriented. “She got hit by a car.”

“Not again.”

“You have to stop putting that spell on them. They’re like blind deer. Just wander out onto the road.”

“Your job is to keep that from happening.”

“All I did was leave her by the car door. She just had to sit. That’s it.”

Xander rubbed his face, agitated at losing his dinner and his night of fun.

“There’s always me,” Ingrid said hopefully. “You can turn me. I won’t tell.”

“No.”

“Xander,” she whined. “I wanna be a vampire. You promised!”

“I said someday. That’s not today,” he snapped.

“Pleeeeeeease!”

“I’m not turning you into a vampire.”

“I’ll be your dinner. I’ll sleep with you again.”

“I don’t do reruns. You know that.”

She sighed. “You want me to call one of my friends so you have dinner?”

“No. I’ll find my own.”

“Don’t fire me. Please!”

He pushed into her mind and put her to sleep. She dropped back onto the couch. His black cat leapt from the ottoman onto her chest, content to curl up and sleep. Its glowing red eyes narrowed into slits then closed. If Ingrid didn’t know how to hide his money in offshore accounts, she would’ve been gone long ago. She was a brilliant hacker and familiar enough with the underground internet forums to find him new hunting grounds and blood exchanges.

Ready to hunt down his second dinner for the night, Xander pulled off his sweater and replaced it with a t-shirt. His phone vibrated, and he checked it.

Training ops. Lost a Guardian. On my way.

The text came from the station chief of the local Guardians. As part of the uneasy truce they had with Xander, they often used him for training for the new Guardians. Most Guardians listened when their station chief, Gerry, told them the rules about not directly challenging Xander. Some didn’t, and Xander usually found them before their boss could interfere.

Good. Hungry.
He texted back then tucked it in his pocket.

Xander stripped off the t-shirt and his shoes then trotted to the main floor of his condo. He exited out the sliding glass doors off the formal living area that led to the private beach behind the building. The sand was soft between his toes, and he made his way to where the sand was moist but not wet.

He started his Tai Chi routine, focusing externally while the night filled his heightened senses. The fragrant ocean breeze was chilly as it brushed his skin, and his movements fell into the rhythm of the ebb and flow of waves. He closed his eyes and felt his muscles relax at the soothing routine. He waited.

The Guardian trainee who intended to attack him triggered the wards Xander set around the building first. He was moving quickly, around the building and seeking shelter among the rocks that lined one side of the moonlit beach to separate it from the property of the neighboring set of condos.

Xander continued his slow, steady movements, watching the Guardian in his mind. Gerry, the station chief, tripped his wards a moment before the stealthy Guardian crossed the threshold into the ten meter radius around Xander, where he was able to absorb thoughts and manipulate minds.

His would-be attacker was a woman. Female Guardians were very rare, and he recalled the last he faced with a mixture of respect and anger. Xander almost smiled, entertained by her thoughts. She was trying to determine the best way to attack and debating the validity of her boss’s assertion that the human-made weapons she carried were useless against Xander.

Gerry stayed outside his mindreading range up the beach, his movement stilled as he watched. Xander made it clear who taught lessons to the Guardians who failed to respect the boundaries.

Xander turned his back to the approaching Guardian to give her a better target then addressed her.

“You have a choice,” he said in a low growl. “You can challenge me and pay the consequences.”

She froze.

“Or back off and go home intact.”

Most Guardians freaked out when he spoke to them. This one was no different. Her first strike might as well have been in slow motion; no one moved like he did with brute strength that flattened her after a particularly harsh block.

Her breath knocked out of her, the Guardian lay still on her back. Xander crouched over her body, one knee in the center of her chest to keep her in place. His eyes scoured her youthful features. She was in her mid-twenties with dark hair and eyes. The effect he had on human women was dulled on female Guardians, but she sensed his strange draw nonetheless and stared at him.

“That is why you follow my directions,” Gerry said from nearby. The tall, blond Guardian built like a college quarterback was frowning. “You get a warning from me, but Xander gets to deal with you how he wants.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “I don’t want to be a vamp!”

“I won’t turn you. Just bleed you dry,” Xander assured her.

She squirmed, eyes flying to Gerry.

“
Gentle, Xander
,”
Gerry reminded him.

Xander reached down in response and gripped the Guardian by her neck. He took her with him as he stood. Gerry was tense and worried, as he had been since Xander decapitated the one Guardian who tried to attack Ingrid, thinking she was a vamp, too.

“Second warning. Don’t fuck with me,” Xander said, gazing down at the Guardian in his grip. “Got it?” As he spoke, his incisors grew.

She swallowed hard without responding. He held her by the back of her neck, high enough off the ground that her tiptoes barely touched the sand, and forced her head back, until the soft skin of her neck was exposed. His eyes went to the visible pulse. Even without accessing her mind, he could see she was panicking.

“You move, it hurts. You don’t, it won’t hurt as bad.” Xander gave the typical warning.