The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series)
Page 11
The mention of her brother made his words hit home. “Let me go.”
“Not until I know for sure you understand.”
“Fine,” she bit off the words. “I won’t hunt your vamps anymore.”
“You won’t hunt any vamps.”
“Why do you care if I’m attacking the vamps who betrayed you?” she snapped and strained to move away.
“Because you don’t understand who you’re fucking with. You’ll get yourself and Brandon hurt.”
“Oh, so you’re concerned about me now?” she snarled. This time when she tried to move away, she succeeded. Ashley put several feet between them.
“I know why you’re doing this,” he replied. “I know I hurt you four years ago and you think you’re punishing me by lashing out at my vamps. But the only person who’s going to get hurt is you.”
“You have no idea, Jonny.”
“Let me guess. Doing this makes you feel better for a day or two. And then it wears off and you’re left lost once more and stuck with all that anger about not being able to change what happened or go back to the world you thought you knew.”
She eyed him, wondering if he had been reading her thoughts.
“I get it, Ash, I do. You’re not the only one whose life changed a few years ago.”
She remained quiet.
“Look, if you want me to apologize, I will,” he added. “If that will stop you from this insanity, then I’ll tell you how sorry I am for putting your family in danger.”
“I don’t want an apology,” she said.
“Then what do you want from me? You know you can’t kill me.”
She debated what to say. Jonny was making an effort tonight, and she sensed it was because he didn’t know how else to handle her continued defiance. “I want to know if it was real. If you ever really did care or if you were just using me.”
“You’re serious.” He frowned. “This isn’t about me hurting you. This is about … what? Me lying to you?”
“Betrayal is more accurate. And you did hurt me.” She folded her arms across her chest, not dressed for an evening at the beach.
He studied her, thoughtful and intense, as if he were puzzling through something. “You don’t hate me, do you?” he asked softly at last.
“Oh, I do,” she said. “I didn’t four years ago but I definitely do now.”
He nodded, though she suspected he wasn’t buying it. “You started out as a tool for me to use to get what I wanted from Jessi. Along the way, I started to like you for you instead of as someone I could use. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t love, if that’s what you’re wondering. It was probably more like … pity. I knew you had Xander to protect you, so I wasn’t worried about you recovering from a schoolgirl crush.”
His honesty smashed her. She’d felt more for him than he did for her. Until this moment, she was never able believe it. The way he spoke to her now was like a million paper cuts all over her heart. Pity? Schoolgirl crush?
“I cared about you, Ash, but not the way you wanted me to,” he added. “What you’re doing is too dangerous. I’m the Black God, Ash. My duty comes first and I won’t let you make yourself a target over something that shouldn’t have meant this much to you to begin with.”
Her throat was too tight to respond. Of everything she’d ever expected to hear from him, this wasn’t it. His admittance that he had cared about her – but not enough – was so much more devastating than she imagined anything he could say would be.
“Leave the vamps alone or I’ll have to do something we’ll both regret,” he continued firmly.
She drew a shaky breath. It had been a while since she had the urge to cry like she did now. If he had said he loved her, if he’d had claimed he hadn’t cared at all, she’d find this more bearable. But to say he’d cared and it wasn’t enough – she wasn’t enough … She had to leave before she broke down and sobbed.
“Okay. Thank you.” She turned away and began walking, hugging herself. Had it hurt this much when he crushed her originally?
“Ash …” Rare warmth was in his voice.
“I understand, Jonny. I’m done,” she said without stopping. It’s over. For real this time. She had gotten the answer to the question tormenting her and yet felt defeated by it.
Numbed by her emotion, she ended up walking home instead of taking the bus. She arrived shortly after midnight to find Brandon in his seat on the couch. He was playing video games this time and glanced up when she closed the door.
“I have a schedule for your hunting,” he said.
“I’m not going.” Her words were lost in an explosion of some kind in his game.
“What?”
“I said, I’m not going!” She leaned over the back of the couch and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you, Brandon. Like really love you not fake love you. You know that, right?”
“Can’t return fire,” he complained and wriggled his arm free so he could maneuver the mouse.
“I love you anyway. Even when you’re wearing too much cologne.” Her nose wrinkled.
“I’m not wearing too much!”
Whatever. She needed a hug after her night and held him until he complained too much for her to stand.
Ashley went to her room and gazed around. Her room was as bright and cheerful as ever, a funky combination of purples and oranges. Her surroundings weren’t the problem; the hole inside her was. She had lost her purpose too suddenly for her to understand what was supposed to happen next.
Jonny’s claim was fresh in her mind along with the pain that didn’t come from his bite. The part of her that resented him had melted into sorrow, leaving her uncertain what else there was in the world if not revenge and vamps.
She nudged the project due the week before that sat untouched on her desk. Her grades were mediocre at best again so far this year. She had time to change that. Her obsession had been with training rather than studying, but her latest confrontation with Jonny left her … deflated.
Ashley sat down at her desk and drew a deep breath. She still had the urge to cry, and the sting of Jonny’s bite hadn’t faded. She touched the light scars at her neck and winced. He’d been trying to hurt her, to drive her off.
He didn’t want her around. What he felt for her four years ago wasn’t enough for him to risk being with her and now, nothing remained on his end at all.
Had anything ever hurt this much?
“No more vamps, Ash,” she whispered. Exhausted and upset from her night, she flipped off her lights and climbed into bed to cry herself to sleep.
She slept deeply and awoke long past her normal wakeup time. After her night, she didn’t feel like starting her day at the boxing gym and instead, wrapped a blanket around herself and shuffled into the kitchen.
Brandon’s workstation and laptop were both off and the apartment quiet. He often slept in until noon on a Saturday. Ashley made her usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast and sat in front of the television. She scrolled through her phone to find messages from Jessi and Brandon both. Brandon’s was nothing more than an alert from one of his apps. Whenever he left the apartment, his phone texted her, and vice versa.
She leaned over the arm of the couch to peer down the hallway leading to their bedrooms. His door was opened. She’d been too sleepy to notice when she went to the kitchen.
“He’s up early for once and I slept in,” she murmured. She finished breakfast before taking a quick shower and getting dressed.
And then sitting back down on the couch and realizing she didn’t have any clue what to do if she didn’t spend the day in the gym or plotting Jonny’s downfall. She made a list of potential activities, starting with focusing more on her schoolwork and committing to the major she’d halfheartedly chosen. A new hobby, helping Jessi with her kids, fixing up the apartment.
Nothing on her list appealed to her. It all seemed so … normal. Boring. Unfulfilling. If she went to the Guardians, at least she’d have tons of training and an assignment
somewhere in the field to occupy her.
Her thoughts drifted to Jonny, and she set her pen down. Instead of anger, she felt sorrow without really understanding why. The pleasure of their kiss was marred by the pain of his bite, and she began to wish he’d done one or the other but not both. It would’ve been easier to walk away if he told her he loved her once and not anymore or if he said he’d never loved her at all.
To say he cared but not enough to be with her … it was torture in every way.
“Boys are stupid,” she murmured. She pulled out her phone to text Brandon and see what he was up to. With any luck, he’d bring her some donuts. She rarely indulged but it felt like a day to eat a dozen.
Something vibrated behind her, and she twisted. Brandon’s phone was tucked between the couch and its back.
“Omigod,” she said and dug it out. Her text popped up on the screen. “Brandon, you idiot.”
Her phone vibrated next with another text from Brandon alerting her to the fact he’d left the apartment. Confused, she unlocked hers to look at the string of numbers that popped up. They were the same as the first text from him, a set of coordinates she could click on and a map would open to show her where it was.
“How are you texting me when I have your phone?” she asked herself. She touched the coordinates, and the customized app on her phone opened. It required a ten-digit passcode she never remembered and had pasted into her notepad on the phone. Brandon had a lot of security measures for everything. Ashley typed in the passcode and waited.
Brandon’s phone unlocked automatically and a note popped up on his screen.
Just in case, try here first. Bring weapons. An address was pasted below the cryptic text. She recognized the generic phrasing of their mutual security code. When she hit the emergency app on her phone, it sent the same message to him and her location.
Her breath caught, and she leaned forward, staring at the phones.
Brandon hadn’t left the apartment for donuts. He’d been taken by force and managed to trip the emergency app at some point before he was gone. She’d heard nothing last night and rose. Ashley searched the area for signs of a struggle and checked the doors and windows to see if someone had broken in. The door was locked from the inside, as were all the windows.
Brandon had been taken by someone who could Travel.
She googled the address he’d left and then the coordinates automatically generated by his watch and sent to her phone.
The results made her curse. The address was for southern Oregon, the coordinates for a city in Montana. Instinct told her to go where his coordinates indicated he was. He had to have been wearing his watch when he was taken, or she wouldn’t have the location.
As if whoever had him had figured out the watch was giving his location, another text flashed onto the screen. The coordinates were blank.
Ashley nibbled on her lower lip, needing to do something. His note said to try the Oregon address first.
Ashley changed into her fighting clothing and stood in the living room once more, trying not to panic as she debated how to get to either of the locations where Brandon was possibly located.
Leave the vamps alone or I’ll have to do something we’ll both regret.
Had Jonny not been convinced she’d listen this time because she hadn’t the first several times? No one else knew where she and Brandon lived. No one else could track him. Her gut twisted. She had lost her desire to fight last night, but renewed anger left her feeling charged, ready for a confrontation even if it was the man who smashed her heart.
Except she had no idea where he was or how to reach him. If she Traveled, she risked arriving in a group of vamps and being disabled by a seizure before she could act.
After a moment of hesitation, she texted Xander.
I need a ride somewhere.
His network of Guardians with the ability to Travel eclipsed hers. He responded quickly.
Problem?
Ashley groaned and typed a fast response. I PROMISE to tell you when it’s over. Pretty please?
Within seconds, someone tapped at the apartment door. Ashley stashed two more knives and answered the door.
“I hear you need a chauffer,” said the tall, gorgeous brunette outside her door. A fellow warrior, Jenn had been instrumental in Ashley’s summer training. She was the mate of the Grey God, Darian, and wore his necklace around her neck.
“Yes!” Ashley said and hugged her mentor. “I need to go here.” She released Jenn and held up Brandon’s phone with the Oregon address.
Jenn’s eyes widened. “You know what’s there?”
“No, but I will soon.”
“Give me a minute.” Jenn moved down the hallway and whipped out her cell phone.
Ashley watched her, not understanding the concern. The Guardian warrior made a quick call and returned appearing less than pleased.
“For the record, I’ll do it, but I’m going to Darian the second I leave you,” Jenn said firmly. “Xander says to take you.”
“What’s there?” Ashley asked.
“That happens to be the location of Jonny’s headquarters.”
Ashley’s smile faded. What was her brother doing with Jonny that he sent her the Black God’s headquarters location as the default emergency point?
“Wanna tell me what this is about?” Jenn asked.
“No. I already promised Xander I’d tell him everything when this is over. He wants me to learn life lessons, so I am.”
“Yeah, and he’s about the only one who can help you survive these lessons.” Jenn held out her hand.
Ashley took it, uneasy gaze on Jen’s features. The world swirled and blurred around her, materializing a fraction of a second later. Ashley hated relying on someone else’s Travel skill but preferred to hit the ground fighting.
Jenn had taken her to a forest somewhere. The scents of pine trees and ocean were heavy in the air, along with a morning breeze.
“Where is it?” Ashley asked and glanced towards her feet. Jonny had once hidden her underground, because the Others and Guardians couldn’t sense anyone hiding underground.
“Straight through there.” Jenn pointed. “I’m giving you a ten minute head start before I call Jonny to remind him not to do anything stupid.”
Ashley nodded. She’d been able to face up to five vamps at once, but an entire headquarters teeming with them? She’d probably need some backup or at least, someone to help her survive long enough to get to Jonny and demand to know what he’d done to her brother.
The thought of Brandon in danger banished any fear or doubt. She drew a breath. “Thanks,” she told Jenn and then strode in the direction the Guardian had indicated.
Ashley drew two batons as she walked through the forest. The top of an A-frame roof soon peeked through the branches of pine trees, and she emerged from the forest into an open area leading up to a quiet, rustic hunting lodge.
While large, it wasn’t exactly what she expecting after seeing Damian’s sprawling headquarters in Texas.
She gripped her weapons harder and started forward, unafraid when it came to protecting her family. It was smaller with few signs of activity.
The first vamps on guard to challenge her appeared from the woods nearby. Ashley took them down quickly before striding up to the lodge and pausing before the front door.
Knocking didn’t seem quite right, although barging in didn’t seem smart either.
Then again, she was there to see Jonny, not hide from the vamps.
Her mind made up, Ashley twisted the doorknob before gripping her baton and nudging the door open with her hip. The open space of the foyer and what was once a reception area for the lodge was filled with more vamps than she’d ever seen at once. They were moving between places, some talking to one other, others on cell phones.
The sight was somewhat surreal, a combination of normalcy and supernatural freakiness.
“What the fuck …” One of them noticed her, and the entire space fell silent.
Someone laughed. She heard the unmistakable sound of knives and guns being drawn and lowered herself into a fighting stance. Over thirty vamps were present. She wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
Chapter Eleven
“Ikir.”
Jonny couldn’t place the odd note in Charles’ voice, partially because he wasn’t fully awake. Troubled by his exchange with Ashley, he’d ended up pulling an all-nighter and wanted at least four hours of sleep before facing whatever insanity a new day brought him.
“What?” he grumbled.
“You need to see something.” Charles was in his room. It wasn’t a good sign.
Jonny rolled out of bed and pulled on sweatpants. He wiped his face and approached Charles, about to ask what was wrong when he felt the presence of a Natural.
“Who’s here?” he demanded.
“If I’m not mistaking, your vigilante.” Charles held up his cell to display streaming security footage from the foyer.
Jonny looked twice and then took the phone. “What the fuck is she doing here?”
“She said she’s looking for you.”
He growled low in his throat. Ashley appeared to be holding her own so far with the dozens of vamps. By her expression the night before, he’d been convinced Ashley wasn’t going to do anything stupid anymore and here she was the very next morning, at his headquarters no less. He had gotten good at lying. Did she pick up some tell he didn’t intend for her to when he claimed never to have cared that much for his first love?
“I warned her to stay away.” Jonny tossed the phone back and strode out of his bedroom without bothering to put on shoes. He tugged on a t-shirt as he walked, furious Ashley meant to challenge him so directly, in front of vamps who had already seen him lose half his men. He’d been toying with solutions as to how to fix the problem of Ashley when he confronted her last night.
He’d left under the impression she was no longer a threat.