War of Gods Box Set

by Ford, Lizzy

“Hello, Claire,” she said, extending a hand. “We haven’t formally met. I’m …” Claire shook her hand, and the visions that protruded into her thoughts floored her.

  Czerno.

  “… I’m Sofia,” she choked out. “I wanted to welcome you.”

  “Enchanté, Sofia. It’s my pleasure,” Claire said. “Pierre will defend you well. Damian couldn’t have chosen a better guard.”

  “Babysitter,” Pierre corrected her.

  “Exactly,” Sofia agreed. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “If you must be with a man, it’s good that he’s French,” Claire said with a wink at Pierre. “Please excuse me.”

  Sofia stepped out of her way, trying hard to digest what she’d seen.

  Claire and Czerno in bed together.

  “Sofi!” Damian’s call pulled her from the vision replaying in her head. “C’mon!”

  He waved her out of the theatre and led her toward the mansion. She sensed his excitement and trailed, troubled.

  “Heya, Dust-man!”

  Three men stood in the main foyer, two in the same shade of brown as her bodyguard and a striking man in designer jeans and an expensive sweater. He shook hands with Damian, a small smile on his chiseled features. Dustin was lean and handsome with clear, cool blue eyes and sharp, angular features. His hair was sandy blond, his skin golden. His noble features and cold, aloof air gave her the impression of an ancient Greek prince.

  “Good to see you!” Damian said with warmth she hadn’t seen him display toward anyone else.

  “Better circumstances this time around,” Dustin said with a glance at her.

  “Hold the salt, Dust-man,” Damian warned. “Sofia, this is Dusty, the commander of the western hemisphere. He helped me rescue you from Czerno.”

  Her face felt warm at the look both gave her.

  “It’s a pleasure, ikira,” Dustin said and held out his hand to her, palm up.

  She looked at it curiously, then at Damian.

  “You haven’t taught her shit, have you?” Dustin asked Damian.

  “Not the traditional greeting.”

  “Ikira, in our time, an Oracle greeted all visitors to the king’s palace to assess their loyalties to her king. Visitors held out their hands like this,” Dusty said, indicating his outstretched hand. “It’s a sign of the ultimate respect. The visitor is giving you an open invitation to his soul. You have the option to touch me or not.”

  She braced herself and placed her palm against his. His memories were much like Damian’s: fuzzy home videos with no sense of his future. She removed her hand. Dustin assessed her in silence for a few seconds, and she had the feeling his sharp gaze missed nothing.

  “You’re better off than when I saw you last,” he said at last and turned to Damian. “You got time to talk, D?”

  “Yep. Before we do, I need to discuss something with both of you. Come.” He motioned them both down the hall and into his private study. “Pierre, stay.”

  Pierre obeyed and closed the doors behind him.

  “How’s Florida?” Damian asked, crossing to his desk.

  “Good. Looking forward to Christmas,” Dustin replied.

  “Don’t expect anything from Jule. He’ll never remember Christmas. I already ordered your present.”

  “That’s why I like you better.”

  “Dusty likes presents,” Damian explained, glancing at Sofia.

  “Good presents,” Dustin clarified. “None of that shit you gave me last year.”

  “You don’t get to pick. A present’s a present.”

  Sofia sat in one of the plush chairs, legs pulled to her chest, and watched their brotherly exchange. Dustin didn’t look like the kind of man who would like anything, let alone presents. She glanced toward the door, mind on what she’d learned earlier.

  Claire. Darian wasn’t crying for once, and his voice almost too hushed to make out.

  Damian dropped an envelope on the table in front of her.

  “There are traitors on the council,” Damian started. “Our European front has been growing progressively weaker the past hundred years. They know what they shouldn’t about our capabilities and our weaknesses. Jule’s going crazy trying to keep up.”

  He pulled photos from the envelope as he spoke. Dustin began sorting through them. She didn’t want to look, sensing she’d met a source of their issues already.

  “Sofia, Han tells me you’ve gotten quite good at reading people,” he said. “The quarterly council meeting is tonight. You’ll get to meet all my council members.”

  Dread trickled through her.

  “You can tell me who the traitors are.”

  “Is this what Oracles do?” she forced herself to ask.

  “Oracles do many things, but this is one of them,” Dustin responded. “It’s unfortunate you don’t have a mentor to show you more about your talents. The ability for you to determine a traitor from a loyalist is one of your most valuable talents. It’s also what makes people hate Oracles.”

  “People hate Oracles?” she repeated, distraught.

  “Let me rephrase—people fear Oracles. It’s a good thing. The more people fear you, the less they’ll fuck with you,” Dustin said.

  She rested her chin on her knees, gazing at Damian.

  “You’ll identify the traitors,” Damian continued.

  “Then we take them out back and—” Dustin ran his finger across his throat.

  “You kill them?” she whispered, horrified. She gripped her throat with one hand.

  “Bad people,” Damian said. “People who would kill you. People like Czerno. Dusty takes care of these kinds of people.”

  “Yep,” Dustin agreed.

  She shuddered as the distant sensation of burning returned. If any man deserved death, it was Czerno. But did any man deserve death? And if she told Damian who to kill, did that make her worse than them? Her eyes slid to Dustin as she tried to reconcile the executioner with the man who liked presents. She met Damian’s gaze.

  “Ours is not a pretty world, kiri,” he said firmly. “This is what you are.”

  It wasn’t the reassurance she hoped for.

  Stop Claire, Darian all but demanded. Trust Damian.

  The dead man was getting annoying. The plan to identify traitors made sense, as ugly as it was. Who better to weed out traitors than the one who could see them for what they were?

  “I wanted to see if you’re to the point where you don’t need human touch,” Damian said, gesturing to the pictures.

  She shook her head. She leapt up and closed the door behind her, turmoil in her breast. She didn’t belong in the human world anymore, and yet, she couldn’t just dump it. Her thoughts darkened and returned to Cody and Jake.

  No, she could never become as cold and accepting of death as the men around her, even if they were at war with a monster like Czerno.

  But it’s my fate.

  Damian’s gaze lingered on the door after the Oracle fled. Something more than Dusty killing bad guys was upsetting her.

  “Wasn’t expecting that. Wanna visit the sector?” he asked, turning his attention to Dusty. “I’ll show you what Rainy’s guys found.”

  “Yeah.”

  He held out his hand, and Dusty clasped his wrist, allowing Damian to Travel them both to Tucson Sector HQ. They appeared in the quiet living room, turning at the startled gasp. Rainy’s Natural, a beautiful woman with mocha skin and blue eyes, leapt up from her seat.

  “No worries, Traci,” Damian said, seeing her panicked look. She’d been there for about two months, not yet enough time to acclimate to the Guardians.

  “Rainy around?” Dusty asked.

  Traci’s eyes were on Damian. A human’s reaction to him never ceased to intrigue him. It was irritating most of the time, like now when he wanted to get a quick response out of one.

  “Traci,” Dusty said more sharply. She looked to him and blinked.

  “He’s sleeping,” she said at last.

  “You wanna w
ake him up or you want us to?” Damian asked in amusement. She hesitated only a moment longer before bolting and disappearing up a set of stairs.

  “Can’t take you anywhere, D,” Dusty complained.

  “Like you’re normal,” he replied.

  “Who decorated this place?” Dusty groused, taking in the lopsided posters of cars and beer bottle décor.

  “You’re such a woman, Dusty,” Damian said with a chuckle.

  “Speaking of women …” his friend said, pinning him with a look. “What’s up with your Oracle? She didn’t seem happy today.”

  “Damned if I know. She walked in on me and Claire last night.”

  “I bet that went well,” Dusty said dryly.

  “Nothing happened, and they’re both pissed at me. You didn’t tell me Claire was coming this way, Dusty.”

  “D, I didn’t know. You can blame Jule for that one. Is Sofia doing any oracl-ing yet?”

  “She’s learning. Han says she’s progressing pretty quickly, though since none of us know how to train her, it’s hard to tell. She’s trying,” Damian said. “We’ll find out what she can do when our guests arrive.”

  “Ikir, boss,” Rainy greeted them as he trotted down the stairs, dressed in jeans and nothing else. “You scared the shit outta Traci.”

  Damian caught his eye and looked pointedly at Dusty, silently asking if the Guardian had done as he asked and told his boss that the Natural was more than a new recruit. Rainy smiled faintly with a nod.

  “What’d you find?” Dusty asked, oblivious to the exchange.

  “Traci found several of the vamps’ stash houses here in Tucson,” Rainy said, motioning them to follow him into a small, dark study humming with electronics.

  He sat down in front of a computer and pulled up a satellite image with the stash houses marked.

  “This is what’s interesting,” he said, pointing to a trail leading from a stash house on the northeastern side of the city and dead ending in the desert. “She can’t pick up anything past this point.”

  He drew a box around a large area.

  “Only you and Czerno can put up one of those types of shields,” Dusty muttered to Damian.

  “And it’s not mine,” Damian responded. “Any cell phone intercepts on why he’s in town?”

  “The local intelligence collection team is having a problem tracking his vamps. We think they’re using disposable cells. As soon as we get a number, it goes inoperable.”

  “But we know he’s here,” Dusty said.

  “Yeah, pretty sure. This area is ten square miles, though. Unless we know where to look, we won’t find where his base is.”

  “It can’t be a coincidence he’s here, a few miles from you,” Dusty said, turning to Damian.

  Damian nodded. He suspected Czerno’s Watcher allies tipped him off.

  “The vamps we’ve captured for interrogation have a new technique. They’ve been killing themselves with cyanide pills,” Rainy added.

  “What happened in Europe is happening here,” Damian said, meeting Dusty’s gaze. “Antoine probably wasn’t the main threat in Europe.”

  Dusty studied him, an odd look crossing his face. Damian waited expectantly, but Dusty shook his head.

  “It’s probably nothing,” Dusty said. “I’ll check the records to see which Guardians rotated here from Europe from the past year.”

  “After the Quarterly, we’ll pack up and clean up,” Damian said. “Hopefully, Sofi can tell us who’s on Czerno’s payroll.”

  “I hope so,” Dusty replied. “Rainy, can your Natural trace anything at all within the square?”

  “Nope, though I’ve only let her past the barrier once. Not sure what traps Czerno might have set.”

  Dusty gave Damian a cool look, and he heard the unspoken warning about women being the downfall of mankind. He smiled.

  “Send the UAVs over the area,” Dusty said. “We’ll see what we can see.”

  “Got it,” Rainy said, turning to face them. “I need more people, boss, or a Traveler at least.”

  “I’ve got several incoming,” Dusty replied. “Damian, Travelers?”

  “None have survived recruitment,” he said grimly. “We had three in the last class, more than we’ve seen in a few hundred years. All three were gunned down. Jule’s short, too. We can pull in a Natural from Latin America. He’s the closest.”

  “Hector?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll contact his station chief,” Dusty said, pulling out his phone. “Whoever is taking out the recruits knows who to hit first.”

  “They do indeed,” Damian agreed.

  “Call me if you need a Traveler in the meantime, Rainy,” Dusty directed. “I’ll make myself available.”

  “Thanks, boss,” Rainy said. “You have a new Natural, ikir?”

  “I do,” Damian answered.

  “If she’s flipping out, you can call Lon’s wife, Linda. Traci hasn’t adjusted yet, and Linda’s been a big help.”

  “Linda’s the talker, right?” Dusty asked, glancing up from his phone.

  “Yeah. Good girl,” Rainy said.

  Damian had been considering how to help Sofia adjust. She seemed like a solitary person, but he wondered if she’d benefit from meeting the Natural women in the organization. She’d been stuck in the mansion since he’d found her, mainly because he wasn’t about to let a fucking Oracle—the first in a few hundred thousand years!—out of the safest place he could put her. His gaze returned to the screen as he deliberated over how close Czerno was and shelved the thought of letting her out of his sight.

  “I’ll keep it in mind,” he said.

  “Jasmine’s pissed, but Hector will be in this weekend,” Dusty said.

  “Awesome, boss.”

  “Dust-man, we’ve got a Quarterly to prep for,” Damian said.

  “Let’s go,” Dusty agreed. “Rainy, thanks. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  “Roger, boss.”

  Damian’s attention lingered on the image on Rainy’s screen. He couldn’t help the sense of unease sliding through him. He didn’t like the new level of battle Czerno was fighting. The playing field was as uneven as the Watcher had warned, and it appeared as though Czerno’s Watchers weren’t as dedicated to non-interference as his Watcher was.

  At least he’d know who the traitors were by the end of the night.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Sonoran Desert, Arizona

  The Black God’s southwest base camp

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” the vamp demanded.

  Two dropped his arms to his side.

  “Water,” he said.

  “Slaves don’t drink the master’s water.”

  Two felt the stinging blow at the back of his head and wobbled, dropping to his knees. One of his master’s men—the one with the red eyes—shoved him away and took his canteen, dumping its contents.

  “Get the fuck outta here!”

  He threw the canteen and it hit Two’s cheek. Two took his canteen and rose. He moved mechanically out of the single large kitchen in the underground lair. He went back to his small room and sat on the bed staring at the white wall in front of him.

  “Two, what’re you doing?” another voice, this one softer, asked.

  He didn’t remember when this man had arrived or why he was supposed to remember him. But he knew he must remember him as he did his master. He concluded he was his master’s friend, or he wouldn’t be here. His master’s friend, the man with eyes as green as the moss in the corner of Two’s room, stood in his doorway.

  “I’m thinking, master,” Two said.

  “Thinking?”

  His master’s friend was powerful. Two sensed it and cringed as he entered the room. His master’s friend had never hit him, but he scared Two.

  “Slaves don’t think, Two,” his master’s friend said. “What are you thinking?”

  “I see a woman in my head,” Two said.

  “What woman?”

  “I d
on’t know her.”

  “What does she look like?”

  Kiri. He didn’t know where the word came from or what it meant. It sounded pretty, like the poof the desert dust made when the first drops of rain fell. The last time he went to the surface, it had rained huge raindrops. Then a rainbow had come out, and he’d stared at it until his master beat him.

  “Slave, what does she look like?” There was an impatient note in his master’s friend’s voice that scared him.

  “Who, master?” Two asked.

  “The woman.”

  “What woman?”

  “The woman in your head,” the master’s friend said.

  Kiri. A strange voice in his head spoke the word again, and he saw the woman with blue and silver eyes. She was crying, because his master was going to hurt her.

  Don’t cry, kiri, he thought.

  “Did you remember to do as I told you? Did you stop drinking the juice your master gave you?” an unfamiliar voice asked.

  He looked up, surprised to see his master’s friend in his doorway, the man with eyes the color of the moss in the corner of his room. He rose in respect.

  “Yes, master.”

  “Good boy. You must do as I tell you,” his master’s friend said. “It’s very important you don’t drink that juice ever again. Don’t forget.”

  “Yes, master.”

  “Come. Your master calls for you.”

  Two obeyed. He followed the man with eyes as green as the moss in the corner of his room down the busy hallways, unaffected by the men who spit on him or shoved him as he went. Slaves were treated this way. The man with mossy eyes turned down a corner and vanished from his sight and thoughts. Two continued to the master’s command center, where his master was planning a battle. As usual, Two took up his place in the corner to await his master’s orders.

  He’d had a dream last night, something he never remembered in the morning, except for this time. He thought hard. There were many people in his dream, and he thought he should remember them. He heard the strange voice again.

  Kiri. The woman with the blue and silver eyes came from his dream! She was talking to him. He didn’t know what she said, but she was holding out a hand to him, crying. Uneasiness swept over him. He didn’t want her to cry.