Damian's Oracle (22 page)

“Gladly.”

“How ‘bout Australia for the next HQ site?”
Jule asked.

“Come to Florida,” Dusty suggested. “We can
be neighbors. I’ll help you keep your woman in line.”

“I’ll be left out again,” Jule
complained.

“I’m going back to Europe with you, aren’t
I?” Damian asked, amused. “And I’ll stay until the issue is
fixed.”

“Even if your oracle remains in Florida?”
Dusty challenged.

“I trust you to take care of her,” Damian
assured him.

“See how that works, Dusty?” Jule said with a
laugh. “I think you just picked up oracle babysitting duty.”

Dusty pursed his lips, and Damian smiled. He
trusted Sofia to either of the two men before him and knew Dusty
was the more likely of the two to shoot first and ask questions
later if she was threatened.

“So we evac tomorrow and set up HQ in
Florida,” he summarized. “Dusty, can you pick a site and relay it
to us? I’ve got parish calls to make this evening. I’m going to
deliver the order to rendezvous here at 0800 in the morning for
evacuations. Jule, we’ll leave for the European front
tomorrow.”

“Awesome,” Jule agreed.

“I need your computer,” Dusty said.

“Like you can use one,” Jule said.

“Fuck you, Jule.”

Damian smiled and tossed his head towards his
computer, straightening. His thoughts drifted to Sofia. He’d likely
be away with Jule for quite awhile. If it weren’t so unsafe, he’d
take her with him.

“I’m heading out to the Sector,” he said.
“Make yourselves at home.”

Jule flipped open his phone, and Dusty sat in
front of his computer. He transported himself to his room to
change. As he pulled on the last of his clothes and crossed to his
armory, a small, black velvet box nestled between two daggers drew
his attention. He opened it, surprised to see a ring bearing the
White God’s seal. He’d tucked away the necklace thousands of years
after finding it among the pieces of his brother’s body. He’d never
been able to bring himself to wear it.

He gazed at the ring, touched. He didn’t know
how the little oracle knew just how to affect him. Dark memories
crossed his mind, along with his resolve to finally let his
brother’s memory rest in the peace it deserved. With Claire’s
death, he’d avenged his brother, righted the wrong made thousands
of years ago. He no longer needed to feel as if he still dwelt in
the shadow of Darian’s death. He was the king now in his own
right.

He removed the ring from the box, smiling as
he saw his name engraved in the interior. He transported himself to
the library, where he knew she’d be hiding out.

“Did you do this?” he demanded, holding up
the ring like a piece of dirty underwear.

She jerked at his voice and twisted to face
him, observing him coolly before turning away.

“Are you going out?”

“I am.”

Aggravated by her second display of defiance
in one night, he crossed to her and planted his hands on either
side of her chair, demanding her attention. She looked up at
him.

“Do you like it?” she asked, unease and
desire crossing her features at his nearness.

“Yes.”

“In your home videos, you’re always thinking
about the symbol.”

“Home videos?” he echoed.

“Your memories.”

Her two-toned eyes were still, her head
resting on the back of the chair as she looked up at him. The
sexual awareness killed him more and more lately, and he started to
think going to the European front was a good thing. She’d have time
and space to adjust without the added confusion of
him.

“You shouldn’t be afraid to wear it
anymore.”

“You see too much, Sofia,” he replied
gruffly.

“You keep telling me who I am. This is who
you
are, Damian.”

There was tenderness in the way she looked at
him that amazed him. He felt her deep confusion of the world around
her and marveled again at how selfless she still managed to be.

“Thank you, Sofia,” he whispered.

She smiled at the genuine note in his voice,
and he leaned forward, kissing her. If only he didn’t have to tour
the Sector tonight!

“We’ll come back to this, kiri,” he promised,
grudgingly withdrawing.

Her eyes swirled with arousal, and her
parted, plump lips threatened his resolve. She touched his face. He
kissed her hand and pushed away. He left the library and
transported himself to one of the remaining, undiscovered safe
houses at the base of one of the mountains. He placed the ring on
his finger, body buzzing with lust and anticipation.

There’d been no hesitancy in her kiss, none
of her previous reserve. Maybe, just maybe -

“Hello, Damian.”

He whirled, aware he’d been too lost in
thought to heed his instincts. Czerno stood before him. Before he
could react, a charge of electricity flew threw him, carrying with
it an invasive liquid that paralyzed him. He dropped to the floor
with a roar, his eyes blurring as more fire and liquid tore through
him. He struggled to free his arms from the invisible bonds, his
eyesight darkening until he dropped into unconsciousness.

The sense of danger jarred her, and she sat
up straight, heart pounding hard. She looked around.

Something was wrong.

Damian.

She shot out of her seat and to the door,
wrenching it open. She pulled out the cell he’d given her and
called the only number in it.

“Jule.”

“What happened?”

“Sweetheart, I’ll call you later. Stay put
for now, ok?”

He hung up, but there was urgency in his
voice. Jule wasn’t the type of man who worried about anything, and
fear slid through her.

“Pierre!” she called. For the first time, he
wasn’t lingering in the shadows. “Dustin!”

She snatched her satchel and dug out Linda
and Traci’s numbers. She dialed each of them, distressed when both
calls went to voicemail. She stopped and closed her eyes, seeking
the home videos that normally streamed.

Nothing. Coldness filled her.

She went to the key locker and chose one of
Damian’s sports cars, her instincts urging her to go somewhere,
though she didn’t know where. Within minutes, she was on the road.
It’d been only a week and a half since she ventured into this new
world, but she felt strangely exposed without Pierre with her.

Her phone rang, and she snatched it.

“Did you call?” Traci asked.

“Where’s Rainy?”

“I’m not supposed to say anything.”

“Please, Traci, it’s important.”

“Come to the Sector.”

Sofia arrived half an hour later and found
Traci alone with the man she recognized as Ving. He looked past her
as he opened the door.

“Where’s your bodyguard?” he demanded.

“I don’t know.”

He stared at her. She edged past him.

“Traci?”

The model appeared, looking tired but
awake.

“Ving, we’re going to the site,” she told
him.

“Hell no.”

“You can take us, or I can go alone,” Sofia
said.

“Neither of you will go anywhere.”

She exchanged a look with Traci.

“Very well. I’ll wait for Pierre to catch
up,” she said, going to the living room.

Ving eyed her, waiting until Traci followed
before accompanying them. Sofia put her purse down and tucked her
phone into her jeans.

“You hungry?” Traci asked. “I was just making
a midnight snack. I can’t stop eating.”

“You’re eating for three,” Ving reminded
her.

“I know, I know,” Traci grated. “As long as I
don’t look it!”

“No, thanks,” Sofia said, pretending to be
interested in the football game on TV. Traci disappeared around the
corner to the kitchen. Sofia waited a minute, then called. “You
need help?”

“Sure, if you want.”

She felt Ving’s gaze on her as she walked.
There was no backdoor in the kitchen, but Traci had wedged the
window over the sink open. She rolled her eyes before ducking
through it. Sofia followed.

“And now we run like hell,” Traci said,
closing the window softly.

They circled the hacienda to Sofia’s car and
dove into it just as the front door wrenched open. She tore away
from the curb, heart pounding as she watched Ving’s furious form
grow smaller in the rearview mirror.

“I’m in so much trouble right now,” Traci
said. “Rainy’s gonna be
pissed.
”

“Me, too, I’m sure. Where are we going?”

“One of their safehouses was hit earlier.
Rainy called to say he’d be there for awhile cleaning up the mess.
I’ve been there twice to check for signs of vamp surveillance.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

Her phone rang. Jule’s number flashed. She
suspected Ving had made a couple of hurried phone calls and let the
call go to voicemail.

“This feels weird,” Traci said. “I’m used to
one of them following me around like a puppy.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too. It feels good to
get out, though.”

They were quiet. She drove fast with Traci’s
directions guiding her. As dawn broke, they reached the safehouse,
a low, adobe structure hidden between the foothills of the Tucson
Mountains. The destruction was visible long before they reached the
building. Dead vamps lined the driveway. Several cars were on fire,
and black smoke spiraled towards the sky. Deep holes in the ground,
rimmed with black, pockmarked the shallow valley. A dozen vehicles
were parked near the structure, itself the size of a small
warehouse. At least one of Damian’s Guardians lay slain among the
scores of vamps.

The adobe structure was guarded by several
more Guardians, and she stopped the car before reaching them. The
death around her disturbed her, and danger hung in the air. She
closed her eyes, waiting. A faint memory began to play. She
hesitated and moved away from the car.

“Sofia,” Traci called, fear in her voice.

Sofia stopped at the edge of the driveway,
horrified by the bloodied and broken bodies spread across the
expansive area in front of her. It looked like a warzone and
smelled like a cesspool. Her chest was tight and her breath short,
but she knew there was one way to find out what happened to
Damian.

“Come with me,” she whispered. She grabbed
Traci’s hand, and she picked her way through the death until she
found the vamp she sought.

“Sofia!” Dustin’s voice was filled with
fury.

She knelt beside the vamp. While he looked
dead, he was alive enough for his memories to reach her. She braced
herself and touched him. The night’s battle lit up her thoughts,
and what she saw made her gasp.

Czerno himself had been there for the
well-timed ambush that overwhelmed the two Guardians assigned to
the safehouse. Damian appeared and destroyed nearly a hundred vamps
before facing Czerno and Czerno’s secret weapon, the one that made
the vamp believe they’d win before he’d been shot down. The vamp
before her went down before she saw the outcome, but she knew what
happened.

Damian had been kidnapped.

Dustin wrenched her to her feet.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Dusty,” Jule cautioned, placing a hand on
his shoulder.

Dustin released her, glowering. There was
only one thing that could make such a cold man so upset. Jule
leveled a glare on her.

“Traci?” Rainy’s voice was surprised and
furious.

“You have thirty seconds, sweetheart,” Jule
said with a calmness that chilled her to the bone. “Or I’ll give
you to Dusty.”

She didn’t want to know what happened after
that. She’d seen the dark side of Dusty in the library before she
told Damian about Claire.

“Damian was ambushed. Czerno knew he was
coming here and had a small army of vamps. He had a secret weapon,
but I don’t know what it was.”

“Where’d they take him?”

“He doesn’t know.”

Jule freed a gun from the small of his back
and pointed it at the vamp beside her. She turned her head away,
jumping as the shot rang out. Jule met her gaze calmly, and she
resisted the urge to run. She didn’t like the reminders that the
men around her were capable of such violence.

“I’ll deal with you later,” he promised.

Ving pulled up and barely made it out of the
car before Rainy grabbed him and slammed him over the hood.

“Dusty, calm them down,” Jule ordered.

Dustin obeyed

“Fan out and find out if any others are
alive!” Jule shouted to the men. “You don’t leave my sight,
oracle.”

She acquiesced, afraid to disagree.

“I got one!” a shout rang out.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you to tell me
everything,” Jule said, blocking her path with his arm. “There are
two people on
my
list. No one else in this fucked up
universe matters.”

She looked up, hearing the unspoken
threat.

“I love him, Jule,” she said, admitting the
words for the first time.

He dropped his arm, and she picked her way
through the bodies, covering her mouth to keep from vomiting. Lon
knelt by a vamp whose chest still moved. She leaned down, bracing
herself as she rested a trembling hand on his forehead.

For Damian.

“He’s one of the last to arrive,” she said
and closed her eyes. “He came from an underground facility on the
other side of Tucson.”

“Where?” Dustin demanded.

“He’s not exactly providing an address.”

“Someone from Tucson Sector!”

Still fuming, Rainy joined them.

“What landmarks did he pass?” Jule prodded.
“Street names, anything.”

His memories were fading fast and growing
blurry. Sofia sifted through them.

“The mall. He passed it on his way out of
town. Abandoned gas station, new housing development in the
foothills. Dirt road, reservation perimeter on the left …“

“Do you recognize it?” Jule turned.

“I do,” Rainy confirmed. “Keep going.”

The memories stopped. Sofia withdrew, staring
at the dead body in front of her.