From her visions, neither of them was capable of any measure of kindness. Tears trickled down her face, tickling her ears.

"Then we'll bind you to him."

"What does that mean?" she forced herself to ask to keep hysterics from claiming her.

"An oracle must be blood bound to her master to be of any use and keep you from dying from the Transformation. We'll bind you to Czerno, and you'll serve him for all eternity."

His words were too extraordinary for her to understand fully, but she knew serving men like these for eternity was equivalent to living with the devil in h.e.l.l. Her breathing stilled, and she strained against the bindings.

"Hold still. If I miss, I'll paralyze you for eternity."

He held up the long syringe. By the glimmer in his eye, he wanted her to move. Sofia closed her eyes. He injected the gel into her arm, and warmth spread through her. Sweat soon covered her, and her chest began to tighten.

"We have to kill you first," he said, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter. A slow, cold smile spread across his face. "I didn't use the c.o.c.ktail mix. This might hurt a little."

Fire formed in her stomach, racing through her. The man in the corner of her mind spoke to her then.

My name is Darian.

Sofia began to scream as her nerve endings sizzled from the inside out. She strained and bucked against the bindings, her body seizing. Darkness lingered at the edges of her mind but refused to take her. Instead, the agony grew, tearing her apart, cell by cell, while Jilian's laughter echoed in her mind.

The alarm sounded the second he materialized into the compound. He expected it to; he sensed Czerno as well as the Black G.o.d sensed him. He s.n.a.t.c.hed Jake as a knife sliced through the air where the newbie materialized and whirled, whipping out the sword at his back. He sliced through two vamps before shooting the other two in the small courtyard. Bullets rained down on them.

He dragged Jake against the building and loosed part of his power to locate Czerno's position in the compound.

"C'mon!"

Jake shot off a burst of rounds as several vamps raced across the courtyard, their red eyes glowing and growls loud.

"You ok?" Dusty's voice came across his earpiece.

"Great," Damian grunted. "You got the schematics on this place?"

"Here," Jake said, whipping out a PDA. He ducked into a doorway while Damian shot two more vamps and reappeared, the blueprints on the screen.

"Guide me in," Damian ordered.

"Tell me when you're ready for us," Dusty said.

"Will do. D out."

Jake led him into the Gregorian mansion, whose stone walls resembled an old school fortress. Czerno's affinity for castles meant they couldn't simply blow the place up and hope she survived an avalanche of stone. He had to find her fast.

Damian located the enemy ahead of them, shooting intersections clear as they reached them. Jake led him into a dark wine cellar, and they paused to reload.

Czerno was moving.

"There's another bas.e.m.e.nt," Damian said, pacing the room in search of a door.

"It's not on the schematics," Jake confirmed. "You see a door?"

They heard a sound that made them freeze and look at each other. It was the scream of a soul dying.

"Sofia!" Jake breathed, guilt and anger crossing his face.

"Stand back," Damian ordered. "Cover the door."

He tracked Czerno then placed his hands on the back wall. The stone exploded into pebbles and dust. Light from the hidden hall filled the wine cellar. Sofia's anguished scream was still m.u.f.fled.

"Sofia!" Jake shouted.

"D, watch out for Jilian. Czerno brought in fifty of his goons. Jilian's - " Dusty called.

"Jake!" Damian shouted as the transporter disappeared. "f.u.c.k!"

He saw Jilian's blow cleave the transporter apart the moment he materialized down the hall. Jake dropped silently. Damian charged Jilian, Czerno's longtime executioner. Jilian met his sword with his own, barking orders to his vamps.

The screams stopped, and Damian's heart quickened. The period between when an oracle could be bound and when she permanently died was brief. Jilien's men pounded down the hall. Damian gritted his teeth, unable to unleash the blow that could destroy them all in a blink without taking out Sofia as well.

"D!"

"Busy!"

He whipped out the vamp killing hand cannons and shot the first two of Jilian's men. Several rounds drove him back, and he ducked a blow aimed at his neck by Jilian.

"I'm here, bro!"

Dusty materialized beside him, his gun roaring in the narrow hallway as he mowed down Jilien's men.

"He's coming!" he warned.

Damian slashed thrown Jilian, and the vamp dropped. He hacked him apart until there was nothing but pulp.

"Laney, send in everything!" Dusty barked into his mike. "Now!"

Vamps jammed both directions of the hall, and Czerno was making a beeline for the room behind the wall in front of them.

"Hold em, bro," Damian shouted and placed his hands on the wall.

"Got it," Dusty said, reloading before his hand cannons began roaring again.

The wall before him burst into dust, and he crawled through the opening, firing a full clip at the form at the other end. The mansion rocked as Dusty's first set of explosions went off. The ceiling began to crumble. A second explosion threw him across the room. Czerno disappeared.

Damian rose, sickened by the sight before him. Sofia lay on the cold steel table, her tears still wet but her eyes open and staring blankly. A tube ran from her neck to the vat of blood on the floor. What had started as a stream of blood had slowed to a few remaining drops.

Fury filled him. A stone dropped from the ceiling into the vat, and warm blood splashed over him.

Dusty joined him, drawing a sharp breath at the sight.

"This place is about to come down," he warned.

Damian launched forward, s.n.a.t.c.hing the tube and whipping out a knife.

"Cut me," he ordered.

"You know what you're doing?"

"Think I just got me an oracle," Damian said grimly.

He felt Dusty's gaze on him before it went to the still woman.

"This is more permanent than marriage," he said in a hushed tone.

Damian followed his gaze. He felt fear again, an emotion he hated. Every instinct in his body ached to feel Sofia alive again. He didn't know if she'd understand or forgive him for what he was about to do to her. He didn't know if he understood what he was doing. But seeing her lifeless on the table made his soul wrench in a way that reminded him ...

Darian.

He handed Dusty the knife and pulled off the high-collared vest to expose his throat.

"Do it," he ordered.

Dusty obeyed and punctured deep into his jugular. Damian shoved the other end of the tube into his neck, releasing his power. He sealed his skin around the tube, forced the flow downward, and placed his hands on her, forcing her body to accept his blood. Dizziness made him lean onto the table, and he loosed his regeneration powers.

Dusty watched in silence. The house was crashing down around them. He couldn't transport a dead body.

"D!" Dusty shouted as a chunk of stone crushed a stainless steel cabinet.

"C'mon, c'mon," Damian urged, watching for signs of life in the woman. He forced his blood out faster and faster.

"We gotta go!" Dusty yelled, slapping him on the back. "Now!"

Damian carefully gathered the woman into his arms and closed his eyes. Dizziness washed over him, and he felt his body strain to transport. Silence, and he opened his eyes to find himself kneeling on the NOVA Sector's kitchen floor.

"D, put her down. Laney, get the defib!"

Her eyes were closed, but color bloomed in her cheeks.

He ordered his body to cease the transfusion and pulled the tube from his neck, healing the tear. He gently removed the tube from the oracle and placed his hand over the wound to heal it. He touched her face, exhausted for the first time in years. He leaned against the cabinets behind him.

"Move, D," Dusty ordered, s.n.a.t.c.hing the defibrillator from Laney.

He cut her shirt open while it charged and placed the paddles against her chest. Her body bucked, and her eyes flew open. The oracle gasped.

Dusty felt for her pulse before resting against the cabinets opposite him. Damian met his gaze, and they sat in comfortable silence in the small kitchen, breathing hard as they recovered.

"Jule's gonna be p.i.s.sed we didn't invite him," Dusty said at last and pulled off his gloves, tossing them.

"He would've tried to talk us out of it anyway," Damian said. "He's not as violent as us, bro."

"I think you mean as me," Dusty corrected him, then chuckled. "Congrats, ikir. You figure out how to train an oracle?"

"No f.u.c.king clue," Damian admitted with a ruthless grin.

"May the G.o.ds help you. I sure can't."

"What is she?" Laney asked, returning to the kitchen.

Damian rose and pulled Dusty to his feet.

"That, Laney, is my oracle," he said. "Watch her for a bit while we go back and clean up what's left of Czerno's goons."

Laney's eyebrows shot up, and he looked at the unconscious, blood spattered woman.

"Yes, ikir," he murmured and knelt, lifting Sofia off the ground. "I'll take care of her."

She stared at the sunbeams moving across the ceiling, not remembering where she was or how she arrived. Her memories wiggled their way out of the mud of her mind, and she sat upright. She was alive! She touched her face, her arms, her body. At the memory of the pain, she began to shake.

It's over!!

Yet the sensation of fire creeping through her remained. She suddenly realized the curtains were open, and the sun streaming into her window didn't hurt her eyes. Her memories overshadowed, she threw open the curtains. She shoved the cracked balcony door all the way open. She bathed in the mid morning sun. Morning air had never tasted so wonderful! She didn't have to wear sungla.s.ses indoors anymore, didn't have to hide from moonlight!

"You look good."

She whirled, heart leaping at the sound. Han sat in the corner of her room nearest the door.

"I can go outside!" she exclaimed. "I'm cured!"

She looked again at the sunlit courtyard beyond her window.

"I'm here again," she murmured, troubled, and faced Han. "I'm ... transformed?"

Han nodded grimly.

"Isn't that good?" she prodded. "Isn't it what you all wanted?"

"It is," he confirmed.

"You don't look happy."

"It all turned out well, I guess," he said at last. "As long as you're ok?"

"I am. I can go outside again."

She sat to pull on shoes and saw the scars around her wrists, evidence of her fight against the bindings Julian used to strap her onto the table.

"Han, what happened to me?"