* * *
Damian tapped the knife against his boot, deep in thought. The computer screen before him was blank, but he didn’t notice.
“You want me to kill Jule,” he repeated at long last.
“Yes, ikir. He refused to do as we said and kill his target. He’s a threat to the survival of the Guardians, if he chooses to protect her,” the Watcher said.
“Let’s pretend for a moment that I actually believe anything you’re saying,” he said. “There’s no benefit for anyone if Jule is killed. So what if he failed at taking out a target?”
“If he chooses to protect this target from us-- ”
“First,” Damian said, standing, “Jule doesn’t take orders from you. Second, if he didn’t execute his target, he has a damned good reason. I trust him over you without question. What I really want to know is why Jule is of any interest to you at all.”
The Watcher was silent.
“If you can’t answer that, then I’m not going to help you,” Damian said. “And the girl? She looked far less harmless than the Other. Why aren’t you going after the Other?”
“We can’t track them in the mortal realm,” the Watcher said. “If you let Jule live, you must kill her. There is no other way to keep the Other from destroying everything.”
As much as he hated these creatures, he had to admit that they often led him in the right direction. Damian would never kill his brother, Jule, but if the woman was dangerous enough to warrant a Watcher’s attention, he couldn’t look the other way.
She’d looked harmless to him, beautiful and scared.
“So I have to do my job because you can’t do yours,” he summarized. “I’ll send Dusty.”
“Thank you, ikir,” the Watcher said. “In time, I hope to provide more answers.”
Damian didn’t respond, silently cursing the being. Satisfied it was getting what it wanted, the Watcher left him alone. The more Damian dealt with them, the less he wanted to deal with them again. The fact the mysterious creatures could find him whenever they wanted made him cautious about outright opposing them. Still, he wanted them out of his hair-- permanently.
Damian sought out Sofi, both for her calming influence and any tidbits of what she might’ve Seen. She was in the kitchen with Bianca and looked up with a smile when he entered.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked. He rested his hand on her expanding stomach and his chin on her head.
“Great.”
“Bianca, my son will need a playmate. You and Dusty better catch up,” Damian teased his brother’s mate.
“Dusty is just now on good terms with my cat,” Biana replied. “I think a kid is a while down the road!”
Damian looked down at Sofi and raised an eyebrow. She winked. He hugged her, a darker thought crossing his mind as he held her and their child close. If the Watchers could find him, they could find her-- and their son. His desire to expel the Watchers from the planet solidified. He could handle the Black God, at least for the time being. Jenn would come back with enough information on the Black God’s organization, that Damian could counter the fledgling god for quite some time. The Watchers, however, were a different story entirely. He had no recourse against them yet.
“You don’t need to worry about us,” Sofi said quietly.
“The world is going to shit, and you’re telling me not to worry.”
“Sometimes the answer is right in front of you. You’re just too stubborn to see it.”
He pushed her away from him, eyeing her. She smiled faintly and lifted her chin towards the kitchen door. Damian turned in time to see the vamp Charlie struggling to drag a skinned deer carcass across the threshold. The vamp dropped it.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Damian demanded.
“It’s okay, Damian,” Bianca said quickly. “We have a system. He catches deer, drains them of blood, skins them, and I cook ’em up for dinner.”
“That’s where our venison is coming from?”
“It’s better than letting him kill the neighboring rancher’s cows or my rescue animals.”
“I fucking hate housework,” the vamp said with a growl. “You make me do woman’s work, ikir.”
Damian looked the vamp over. It had taken Dusty two days to drill a routine and sense of discipline into the vamp, which was one day too many to the schedule-addicted assassin. Damian, however, was impressed he was able to do it at all. Vamps weren’t known for their smarts.
“So Charlie just roams free in the house?” he asked.
“Charles,” the vamp corrected him.
“He really doesn’t like being called Charlie,” Sofi echoed. “He’s a person of sorts, too, Damian.”
“I’m keeping him safe from the women, ikir,” Pierre, Sofi’s bodyguard, added. The large, blond Guardian was rarely more than five feet from his charge and sat in the corner.
“Am I the only sane one here? Who domesticates a vamp?” Damian demanded.
Pierre was unfazed by his raised voice and continued playing a game on his phone. The women paused in their activities to look at him. Gauging by the huge basket of yarn at her side, Sofi was crocheting an entire wardrobe for their unborn son. Bianca was cooking something that made him wonder if the vamp killed their lunch, too. The two women resumed their activities, unaffected by his outburst.
“Charles, this needs chopped,” Bianca said cheerfully, holding out an onion.
The vamp moved forward with a frown and hacked the onion apart with a vengeance that displayed his distaste.
“I can do other things, ikir,” the vamp said. “I can fight and hunt.”
“Damian, why not give him a shot at something?” Sofi asked. Her voice was quiet, and he couldn’t help wondering if she’d Seen something important enough to tolerate a vamp in her household.
“He’s really good with details,” Bianca volunteered. “Look.” She started to hand him what looked like an intricate carving in the side of an orange. The vamp snatched it and crushed it with his hand, glaring at her.
She rolled her eyes at him and returned to the cauldron of soup on the stove. The vamp stared at Damian.
“Fine. I’ll assign him something to do,” Damian said. “So you hunt and fight. Do you do anything else?”
“I’m an urban warfare tactics trainer specializing in tracking. I can track any animal, any kind of creature.”
“Interesting,” Damian said. “Can you track immortals?”
“I can.” There was no hesitation in the vamp’s response. Damian reconsidered the vamp before looking at Sofi, who ignored him.
“Can you track Watchers?” he asked.
“I’ve successfully tracked Others and trained vamps with the tracking gift to do so as well,” the vamp replied. “I’ve never tried Watchers.”
“You can track Others,” Damian repeated. “I can’t even track them.”
“You know vamps have gifts like Guardians,” Sofi said. “He’s a Hunter. If he hadn’t chosen to become a vamp, he’d be a very useful Guardian.”
Another thought crossed Damian’s mind, one that told him his little Oracle must’ve known who Jonny would’ve chosen to send him in exchange for Jenn. A vamp who could track Others was an invaluable treasure, especially if Charles could also track the sneaky little Watchers.
“You can train my Guardians to hunt Others?” he asked. “And figure out if you can hunt Watchers, too?”
“Yes, ikir. I’d do anything to get out of the fucking kitchen,” Charles replied. Bianca coughed to cover her laugh, and Pierre seconded the vamp with a quiet amen.
“Well, then, let’s get started,” Damian said and motioned for the vamp to follow as he strode towards the house’s back door. “You’ll work with Darian.”
“The Grey God?” Charles asked, trailing.
“Yes, the Grey God.”
“I can track, but I won’t fight an Other, if that madman chooses to fight one.”
“Darian’s not crazy enough to challenge an Other,” Da
mian said. Silently, he admitted Darian wouldn’t back down if an Other crossed his path.
Darian was where he expected to find him: in the gym. The Grey God rose from the weight bench as soon as he spotted Damian.
“Lookin’ good, brother,” Damian said with a smile. He couldn’t get over seeing his brother whenever he wanted, after so long without him. “This is Charlie … Charles. He has a useful gift. Apparently, he can track Others, and maybe even Watchers.”
“Good. I have a couple Others on my list of people to kill,” Darian said.
The vamp snorted. “I warned you, ikir.”
“I really am the only one with sense around here. No, Darian,” Damian said, perplexed. He’d gone away for a few months and returned to an entirely new world. “You’re not going to fight any of them. Just learn to track them while we have Charles here.”
Darian nodded and looked the vamp up and down.
“Play well together, or it’s back to the kitchen with you, Charles,” Damian warned.
The vamp growled low in his chest. Damian left the unpredictable Grey God with the seasoned vamp. The plan he’d begun to form was finally taking shape. If the Watchers and Others couldn’t hide from him, he was one step closer to finding a way to rid the planet of both. And Darian was the final key.