Yet, it was only after I teamed up with Danaus at the Themis compound that I discovered I had been little more than an experiment for Jabari. I was his precious puppet for centuries. He spent years controlling me and then wiping my memory so no one would ever know that he had a special weapon tucked up his sleeve should the need ever arise. He never cared for me.
I might have a new puppet master now, but Nick was determined to make me stronger. I only hoped that newfound strength would help me win my freedom in the end. At the moment, it was enough that I would be able to crush my old mentor.
With a laugh, I summoned up a blaze of flames that circled Nick and myself in the center of the yard. With a wave of my hand, the flames streaked across in a straight line and plowed into Jabari, enveloping him. He screamed once and then disappeared.
“No!” I shouted in frustration. I reached out with my powers, scanning the immediate area for the Ancient, but I could sense nothing. Extinguishing the flames, I sent out even more energy in all directions, scanning any part of the globe still bathed in darkness, but I could not sense him.
“Where is he?” I demanded, turning to face Nick.
The old god shrugged his thin shoulders at me, a lopsided smile quirking one corner of his mouth. “Don’t know. I guess he got away.”
“You guess? Aren’t you supposed to be some all-powerful god? Where the hell is he?” I snapped. If I didn’t succeed in killing Jabari now, the Ancient was going to come back at a more inopportune time and kill me when I didn’t have a fighting chance.
Nick grabbed me by the neck and leaned in close so his nose was smashed against mine. “If I was some all- powerful god, then I wouldn’t need you, would I? Jabari is gone, but we’ll have another chance at him. Now go check your companion.” He released me then, giving me a little shove toward where Danaus lay on the ground, clutching the knife that was sticking out of his chest.
Stumbling to my lover’s side, I placed my hand gently on his chest where the knife was sticking out. “Danaus?”
“Took you long enough,” he grumbled, wincing as he tried to move. “It’s close to my heart.”
“Then we need to remove it quickly so this little man can heal up,” Nick said, coming to stand over Danaus. Before either of us could react, Nick grabbed the handle of the knife and jerked it from Danaus’s body, causing us both to cry out in shock and pain. I quickly put both my hands over the wound and applied as much pressure as I thought would be safe in an effort to slow the bleeding while Danaus’s body went about the task of closing the wound.
Nick knelt on the ground beside us and took a closer look at Danaus. The hunter frowned at the thin, red- haired creature with the lavender eyes but said nothing, which filled me with a deep sense of relief. I didn’t need Nick requesting that I execute Danaus as well. I had found an edge in a fight with Jabari, but I seriously doubted that the old god of chaos had also given me an edge over himself as well.
“Silly bori scum,” Nick snickered. “If—”
“Don’t, Nick,” I interrupted, drawing his eyes up to my face. “Please, don’t.” The old god paused as he stared at me. I could feel him rummaging through my thoughts and emotions like someone searching a library card catalog, and I let him. He needed to know how important Danaus was to me. He needed to know that I would not continue without Danaus at my side, no matter what threats he leveled in my direction. Where Jabari had always been my enemy, Danaus was my only ally in this world.
Nick gave a soft snort as he pushed back to his feet and stretched his arms above his head. “For now,” he said, then disappeared from sight.
I drew in a deep steadying breath and slowly released it, pushing out all the tension that had filled my shoulders during the past several minutes. It was only when I looked down that I realized the hands pressed to Danaus’s chest were trembling, while tears streaked down my cheeks. For a slender moment in time his life had hung by a thread, and he’d been granted a reprieve. For me, that reprieve was time, something I needed as much of as possible. I needed time to become stronger. I needed time to find a way to escape Nick’s grasp while preserving Danaus’s life.
With a low groan, he pushed off the ground into a sitting position. I slowly removed my hands from his chest, but remained close should he need me. The hunter looked a little pale from the blood loss, but his gaze was as sharp as ever and it was now locked on me.
“So that’s your father,” Danaus grumbled. “Not exactly what I was expecting.”
I tried to shrug, but only one of my shoulders seemed willing to work. “He comes and goes as he pleases in whatever form suits him.” I had been relieved to see that he had not chosen to appear as the man I thought of as my real father throughout childhood. Of course, then Nick would have only succeeded in distracting me, which could have cost me my life, thus working against his master plan.
“Your puppet master has changed from Jabari to him? Is that wise?”
“When it comes to your life, it is,” I snapped, quickly shoving to my feet.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Jabari never saw any reason to keep you alive.”
Grabbing my hand, Danaus slowly pulled himself to his feet as well. “And Nick?”
“Sees things differently,” I murmured. If Nick was going to continue to use me and keep me cooperative, I needed Danaus at my side. Danaus kept the madness at bay.
Reaching up with a trembling, blood-covered hand, I brushed some of his hair from this face so I could clearly look into his piercing blue eyes. It was his eyes that I fell in love with first. I loved their sparkle and intensity as he searched to see me for what I truly was, beyond the reputation and horror stories. I loved those eyes and didn’t want to imagine a night where I wouldn’t be able to stare into them.
“I could have so easily lost you tonight to Jabari,” I said in a rough voice. “He came so close. He knows that you’re my weakness, and you have to run when I tell you to run.”
“I will never leave your side, particularly in a battle,” Danaus vowed, cupping my cheek with one hand. “And I am only your weakness if you let me become such. Let me be your strength instead.”
Sighing, I turned my head in his hand and kissed the palm. “You cannot leave me. The world would never survive my wrath.”
Danaus pulled me close, kissing me deeply. I tasted his fear and his love in that moment as we stood in the darkness under the oak trees. I closed my eyes and let myself drift along his emotions, slipping away from the pain Jabari had caused. Pulling slightly away, he whispered with a slight shudder, “I know.”
The world was a dark place for me, and after more than six centuries tucked under my belt and more power than I could begin to understand flowing through my fingertips, my grasp on my sanity was beginning to slip. But then there was Danaus. The chaos that occupied my brain seemed to melt and fall away as background noise when he was near me.
After pressing a sweet kiss to my forehead, he stepped back so he could clearly look me in the eye. One hand was still pressed to his stomach where Jabari had initially injured him, while I refused to remove my hand from the wound near his heart. I was sure that both wounds had already closed, but I still could not bring myself to release him.
“Nick is right,” Danaus began. “You have to kill Jabari.”
“I know. He’s too much of a threat, not only to us but to everything that we value. He has to be stopped. And if I know my old mentor, he hasn’t traveled far and I will be seeing him soon.”
“You have to destroy Nick as well.”
“You make it sound so easy. Do you happen to know the best way to destroy a god?” I demanded, unable to halt the sarcasm that laced every word that tumbled from my lips.
“No, but it seems as if we have two choices: we contact an even stronger nightwalker, as in your liege lord, or we find another god that might help us.”
“Neither seems to be the wisest of choices, and both could potentially offer more trouble than we’ve already got. What about Ryan?”
“I would rather not put the power of a god at the disposal of that warlock,” Danaus grumbled. “Can you think of any other solutions to our current problems with Jabari and your father?” He slowly turned and started walking back toward the house. I slipped one arm through his, both in an effort to steady his gait and to remain close to his side.
