The Grey God (War of Gods 4) Read online

  “If you need me to pull you out, I will.”

  “I’m good,” she said with a forced smile. “Just take care of him.”

  “I’ll let you know,” Damian promised.

  “Thanks.” Jenn stepped away but felt the White God watching her. A small part of her suspected Damian knew what Xander knew.

  She Traveled back to the panoramic window, where her nest of blankets wasn’t the only thing waiting for her. Jonny whipped around mid-step as she materialized. He relaxed visibly.

  “I didn’t think you’d return,” he said.

  “I keep my word, too,” she said. Jenn shrugged out of her backpack and yanked off her wet jacket.

  “The Others are right here on my doorstep, Jenn, and I can’t find them!” the Black God said in frustration. “What if they attacked tonight? We’d be defenseless.”

  “You’re far from defenseless, Jonny,” she reminded him. “You’re the Black God. You can’t track them, but I bet you could put a dent in one of them with your power.”

  “Xander can’t even stop them! And I gave away the only vamp who could track them to Damian.”

  “Tell him you need help,” Jenn suggested. Privately, she willed the boy away. She, too, was rattled by the events of the night. Her mind control magic slid around him, ineffective this night.

  “He won’t help me. Jenn, I can’t interrogate or spy on every one of my vamps! I need a solution, now.”

  “I gave you one. You need someone with Charles’ skill. You and Damian have a common enemy, one that threatens both of you. He’ll work with you to get rid of the Others,” she said with some impatience.

  Jonny paced and brooded. Jenn sat down and pulled off her wet boots, slinging them away. Her eyes settled on her blankets. In the time she’d been gone fighting Others, some vamp had left her the head of another dead animal.

  This is getting old, she grated to herself. Any hope of getting more sleep this night was gone. She focused on Jonny again, willing him to accept her solution.

  He stopped pacing then shook his head.

  “Maybe you’re right,” he said slowly. “Maybe he’ll give me Charles back, at least for a day or two.”

  There’s no way in hell, she told herself. Out loud, she replied, “It’s a good idea.”

  “Yeah, it is a good idea.”

  She didn’t say that she thought Damian would run circles around the boy and find a better solution. Jonny needed help with his Others issues. Even she was freaked out by how close they were. Why were the Others lurking in the forest outside the Black God’s fortress, if not to kill them all?

  “I’ll go ask him now,” Jonny said.

  “You’re being very smart about this, Jonny.”

  He flashed a tight smile. Jenn waited until he disappeared as he Traveled to the White God’s headquarters. She stripped down to her underwear and changed into warm clothing, not caring what the vamps saw so long as Jonny wasn’t around to get any ideas. The vamps were jittery enough, with the foyer teeming with young vampires who seemed both eager to do something about the excitement and uncertain what.

  Jonny hadn’t given them any direction, she assessed.

  I’m not about to wait around for Others to fry me. Jenn armed herself with as many weapons as she could then left her backpack, expecting the rest to be gone by the time she returned. She left the mansion into the cold night and scouted around. Built into the mountain, half the fortress was tucked into the stone of a small peak. She climbed onto the roof of the mansion then approached the peak. The vantage point from there would let her see anything coming up the driveway or through the forest, though the pines were thick. It was too snowy to move quietly through the forest. At least from the peak, she’d see anything before it got to the fortress, even in the moonlight.

  Jenn chose a small scouting position, hidden from view by rocks and snow. She made her new spot as comfortable as possible and lay down to wait and watch. The cold, still air sank into her clothing and skin. Within a couple of hours, clouds blocked the moon, and the snow began again. She watched vamps go in and out of the fortress. Jonny returned at some point and left with a small group to hunt. An hour before dawn, she began to feel drowsy and shifted her position to keep from falling asleep.

  “What’re we waiting for?”

  She twisted, one knife drawn before she recognized Darian’s dark shape crouched over her feet. She hadn’t heard or sensed him, as if he’d gone to some sort of stealth mode that silenced even his mind. But he was alive and in one piece after his run-in with the Other. More relief trickled through her than she liked.

  “Are you healed up?” she asked, uneasy with the fact his thoughts were so closed off.

  “Good as new. Mostly. Is this where you sleep?”

  “Not usually. I didn’t want to be caught off guard when the Others came back.”

  “They’re not near here.”

  “You can track them?”

  “I can,” he confirmed. “That’s how I found them last time. They’re away for now.”

  Jenn bit her tongue to keep from saying what she wanted to say. She sat and leaned against the nearest boulder, studying Darian. He seemed at once distracted and aware, as if his instincts were on autopilot while he thought deeply.

  “You can say it,” he said.

  “Say what?”

  “I can see it on your face.”

  “You’re a fool and a shithead for thinking you could take on three Others.”

  “I got one.”

  “And pissed off the other two,” she pointed out. “If the Black God hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have been able to save you. You have no idea how hard it is to keep that kid focused.”

  Darian shifted.

  “I’m done,” she said. “No, wait, I’m not. If you were one of my Guardians, I’d kick your ass for not thinking before you acted and putting others in danger. Lecture over.”

  “If I let you kick my ass, will you forgive me? We’ll be friends again and you’ll stop treating me like I’ve got the plague?” he asked, half-teasing.

  Jenn snorted. “What’re you doing here?”

  “You didn’t say no,” he said and stood. “I’m not a fan of the cold. Let’s go inside.”

  “Are you crazy? You want to go into Jonny’s lair?”

  “I don’t know what you told that kid, but he marched into Damian’s study and demanded I fix his Others problems.” He held out a hand.

  “I would’ve loved to see that conversation,” Jenn said, unable to keep from smiling at the picture in her head. She accepted Darian’s hand, and he pulled her up. “But you’re here. So Damian agreed?”

  “Damian traded me, like he did you. Odd, I didn’t think a god could be traded.” There was bemusement in Darian’s voice. Jenn knew how strong the relationship was between the brothers. Darian wasn’t capable of begrudging Damian for anything he did.

  “If Jonny got you, then what did Damian … Xander. Oh, thank god,” she said, sighing. “I no longer feel like meat dangling over a hungry lion’s cage.”

  “You’re happy about being surrounded by one less vamp?”

  “You have no idea what it’s like being around someone just waiting to snap and take you out.” Jenn sheathed her weapons and started down the peak above the Black God’s mountain fortress.

  “I think I do,” Darian said.

  Jenn glanced over her shoulder. Darian looked unusually calm. He’d changed again over the course of the two weeks she’d been assigned to the Black God. Though she expected him to continue the rapid cycle of changes, she couldn’t help feeling this metamorphosis was different. She’d watched him go from a near-comatose state, through his teenager stage that nearly drove them all mad, to the gym-obsessed warrior trying to understand his place in the world. But this felt permanent. Little of the darkness that plagued him was visible in his handsome features and gaze. His wiry body was honed and ready to pounce, his golden eyes taking in the world around him with wary curiosity.


  No, this wasn’t the same man she’d left behind two weeks ago. This was Darian, not the shell of a man whose mind was stuck somewhere else. Like Jonny, he’d grown into what he was virtually overnight.

  “So, what do you do around here all day?” Darian asked, taking in the vamps outside the doorway of the Black God’s fortress.

  “Try to keep Jonny focused on his vamps and not on dragging me to his bed. Kill a vamp or two when it gets in my way. Burn the bodies of Jonny’s girl-toys. Avoid Xander. Spar. Oh, and try to stay alive,” she summarized. “The vamps only try shit when Jonny and Xander aren’t around. They have a standing order not to touch me, but they can make it look like an accident.”

  “Did you say Jonny tried to drag you to his bed?”

  “Is that all you heard?” she asked, amused. “He thinks about it too much. I have probably three days until my mind control no longer works on him. And then, it’s up to my wits to keep me alive.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “This is what I do, Darian. I fuck—and fuck with—dangerous men,” she replied. Jenn leapt the last few feet to the level ground. When she didn’t hear Darian drop behind her, she turned.

  He was staring at her hard. His features had grown dark and shuttered. She caught the slightest hint of his memory.

  “I remind you of her,” she said. “At least I serve a higher cause than myself.”

  “I know that.” His voice was soft, and he shook off the darkness before dropping to the ground beside her. “I know you’re nothing like her. I wouldn’t be here if I thought you would betray me.”

  But … she heard the uncertainty in his voice.

  “Of the two of us, I’m the better liar,” she said. “You know better by now than to trust a woman who lies for a living.”

  “I’m not afraid of you.”

  “You sure?” Jenn looked up at him. She took a step closer, waiting for him to back down. The Darian she’d left behind two weeks ago hadn’t resolved his issues with his past. He would’ve turned tail and run.

  Darian held her gaze. He smelled of pine trees and a bonfire, his earthy scent mixed with the softer scent of soap. She couldn’t read his thoughts, but she saw the shadows in his eyes. She’d stood close to him before, normally when he had her in a headlock. This time, their proximity seemed too intimate. The moment stretched on until it felt awkward even to her. They studied each other, trying to read one another.

  “I’m sure, Jenn,” he said at last.

  His resolution brought home just how much she didn’t know this Darian. He’d found some level of peace, and he’d grown powerful enough to kill an Other. What took two gods and two Original Beings to do in Ireland, Darian had done on his own. No, he definitely wasn’t the man she’d left in Texas.

  He was dangerous in a way that left her certain of two things: being too close to him would probably get her killed. And, if he found out she was meant to be his mate, he’d pursue her with the same wild determination he pursued Others.

  Darian didn’t flee, but suddenly, Jenn wanted to.

  The Grey God stepped around her, striding towards the door to Jonny’s fortress. Jenn shivered involuntarily as a cool breeze replaced his body heat. She watched him, unable to identify why she felt the loss of more than his warmth. She had to keep pushing him away, or she wasn’t the only one who’d probably end up dead in a few days.

  She just had to drive him off before he found out.

  When she entered, Darian stood in the middle of the foyer, surveying the vamps staring at him like the god he was.

  “I’ll show you around,” she said. She led him first down the hallway where the gym was, pointing out the locker rooms and weapons room before taking him to the second floor to Jonny’s wing and past her doorless room.

  “I take it those aren’t yours,” Darian said, leaning in to look at the animal heads on her bed.

  Jenn crossed her arms, irritated that the vamps had opened her windows, too, as if to make her room more uncomfortable for her. She strode in and rifled through the drawers for clean clothes.

  “You got anywhere to be?” she asked.

  “Just tracking Others.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Oh?” She faced him. “Why not?”

  “You can’t kill them. I can.”

  “If I remember correctly, you were about to die when I rescued you from them.”

  Darian smiled faintly.

  “I haven’t had a decent shower in a week,” she said, tossing him her knives. “They like to creep up on me when they think I’m unarmed. You mind waiting a few minutes?”

  “Go for it. I won’t say no to being so close to a naked woman.”

  Two weeks ago, she’d have laughed. After the strange exchange outside, the joke fell flat. Jenn eyed him. Darian flipped a knife in the air then sat down on a chair in the corner.

  “Want me to clean up your bed?” he asked, gaze going to the animal heads.

  “I sleep on the floor.”

  “After a zillion years sleeping on the floor, I won’t waste another night outside a real bed.”

  “You’re not sleeping in my bed.”

  The awkward silence fell again. Darian’s gaze was intent and shadowed. Jenn shook her head and turned away. She entered her bathroom and locked the door, leaning against it.

  Things were getting weird. She suspected part of it was the knowledge that Xander—and Sofi—believed her to be Darian’s mate. She found it impossible to act normal around him with a potential fate that would put both of them at risk. Like Darian, she’d lost all she’d ever loved long ago. Since that fateful day, she’d sworn never to share herself with anyone. Her path as a spy for the Guardians had been lesson after lesson in how to fuck and walk. She’d built up a callus around her heart, one that got stronger and easier to maintain as she manipulated evil men.

  Resolved to behave as naturally as she could, she stripped and turned up the shower as hot as she could tolerate. Her skin felt like it was melting, and she sighed deeply. She didn’t mind sleeping on the floor, but she did mind not getting a regular hot shower. Too afraid to take more than a quick rinse-off with the vamps around, she even bathed within reach of a knife or two.

  After a lengthy shower, Jenn exited and pulled on clean leggings, sports bra, and socks. Her muscles felt relaxed for the first time in weeks. She yanked the door open, spirits lifted.

  “What happened to you?” Darian demanded. He crossed to her and touched her side, where a long bruise wrapped around her hip. His touch sent fire through her, and she shivered at the sensation.

  Jenn glanced down. She didn’t even feel the bruises and scrapes covering her body, but she felt Darian’s scorching fingers. The wounds healed as she watched, his magic caressing her from the inside in a way that—she was embarrassed to admit—was arousing. She pulled on a shirt.

  “That’s the price you pay for being surrounded by vamps,” she said, unconcerned. “I get in skirmishes almost every day. If it’s not them, it was Xander kicking my ass in the gym. Sometimes I think he was trying to improve my skills. Other times, I know he was just fucking with me.” She stepped away from his warmth in the cold room, gaze sweeping over his broad shoulders and whiplike frame.

  “You didn’t tell me this, either.”

  “I’m doing my job, Darian,” she replied. “I didn’t get to my position as the head of Dusty’s intel networks by backing down from assignments that even most male Guardians wouldn’t take.”

  “This is where we’re different. People who hurt me end up dead.”

  “I wouldn’t be a good spy chief if I killed my sources.”

  “I always liked you, Jenn.”

  She glanced at him. The small smile was on his face again as he watched her. He had his brother’s intensity. She instinctively assessed him for weaknesses the way she did everyone. Claire was his only pressure point. He had no sens
e of his own mortality and fighting skill that rivaled Xander’s.

  It was a dangerous combination. If he had Damian’s temper, he’d be in trouble. But he seemed calmer than the White God, more driven. Darker.

  “You keep looking at me like I’m the vamp that ate your cat,” Darian said.

  “I’ve watched you and Jonny change from people I know into people I don’t,” she replied.

  “You know me, Jenn.” Darian retreated to the hallway.

  Not anymore. Jenn finished arming herself and followed. “You have a plan that involves more than dropping into a secret meeting of Others?”

  “I thought we’d try to find their portal this time.”

  Jenn rolled her eyes at his back. Darian walked through the fortress, retracing their steps from earlier, until they reached the foyer. He led them into the cold morning, looked around then held out his hand. She gave him a long look, imagining them Traveling to a bustling train station populated only by Others.

  “Trust me,” Darian said. “There’s only one of us I’ll risk getting killed, and it’s not you.”

  With a sigh, she placed her hand in his and closed her eyes.

  Chapter Four

  The Oracle Sofia descended the stairs to the main floor of her mate’s Texas ranch, one hand on the railing and the other on her stomach. Her head spun from the visions she’d been having since Ireland, and she’d fought with herself for days before coming to the conclusion she’d have to break one of her Oracle vows. If she didn’t help put her mate on a certain path, she couldn’t tell if any of them would survive.

  “Oracle.”

  The low growl of the Original Vamp they’d inherited interrupted her thoughts. She turned to face him, arms crossed. Xander had promised Jule to behave, an oath Jule said he couldn’t break, since it was Original-to-Original. She still didn’t like having him in the house.

  Her tall, blond bodyguard, Pierre, stepped closer to her, hand moving to his weapons.

  “Got time for a lost soul?” Xander asked.

  “Don’t mock me, Xander,” she replied.