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

"Are you going out?" she asked without answering him.

"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," she told him.

"You see too much, Sofia," he replied gruffly.

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

There was a 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 Traveled to one of the remaining, undiscovered safe houses at the base of one of the mountains. He placed the ring on his finger, his body buzzing with lust and anticipation. There'd been no hesitancy in her kiss, none of her previous reserve. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't sense the danger until it spoke.

"Hello, Damian," the Black God said.

He whirled. Czerno stood at the other end of the room. Before Damian could react, a charge of electricity flew through him, carrying with it an invasive liquid that paralyzed him. Damian 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," came the gruff answer.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"Sweetheart, I'll call you later. Stay put for now, okay?" 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!"

A brief search of the house yielded neither man. 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.

Not even the videos were playing. Coldness filled her. Something terrible would've had to happen to break the connection between Damian and 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," she begged. "I know something awful happened to Damian. I can feel it!"

"Come to the Sector."

"I need the address."

"I'll text it when we hang up," Traci said.

Sofia pulled over to the side of the road to await the text and load the address into the car's GPS. She drove fast and arrived half an hour later to the safe house and parked out front. The front door was open, as if they were expecting her.

"Traci?" she called as she entered.

"In here!"

Sofia followed the sound of her voice to the living room. Traci was alone with the man she recognized as Ving, who stood near the doorway. He looked past her.

"Where's your bodyguard?" he demanded.

"I don't know," she answered.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

She edged past him. The model on the couch looked between them with a frown. She was still pale after her encounter with Czerno.

"Ving, we're going to the site," Sofia told him.

"Hell no."

"You can take us, or I can go alone," she said and crossed her arms.

"Neither of you will go anywhere," Ving said firmly. She exchanged a look with Traci.

"Very well. I'll wait for Pierre to catch up," she said, joining Traci on the couch. Ving eyed her. Sofia put her purse down and tucked her phone into her jeans.

"Stay here. I'm calling Rainy," Ving said. Sofia watched, but he didn't go far, just stepped into the hall. He could still see them.

"Traci, we gotta leave," she whispered. "You know where Rainy is?"

"Yes. You're not going alone," Traci said, hesitating. "We can't outrun him. Wait a minute."

Sofia could hardly sit still. The sense of doom was building. She needed to reach Damian, now! Traci crossed to the kitchen door just as Ving hung up the phone.

"You hungry?" Traci asked both of them. "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. Traci disappeared around the corner to the kitchen. Sofia waited, staring blankly at the football game on TV. Ving sat beside her, and she resisted the urge to bolt for the door.

"Hey, Sofi! Linda says you make a killer grilled chicken," Traci called from the kitchen. "I got the chicken if you got the recipe!"

"Yeah, sure." It was all Sofia could do to keep from springing out of her seat. She felt Ving's gaze on her as she crossed the living room and disappeared into the kitchen. There was no backdoor in the kitchen, but Traci had wedged the window over the sink open. She waved Sofia over frantically before climbing on top of the sink and wriggling through the window. Sofia followed and dropped into the grass beside Traci.

"And now we run like hell," Traci said.

They circled the hacienda to Sofia's car and dove into it just as the front door wrenched open. Sofia started the car with shaking hands and 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 safe houses was hit earlier. Rainy called to say he'd be there for a while cleaning up the mess. I've been there twice to check for signs of vamp surveillance."

"That doesn't sound good," Sofia murmured. Her phone rang. Jule's number flashed. Suspecting Ving had made a couple of hurried phone calls, she 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."

She drove fast with Traci's directions guiding her. As dawn broke, they reached the turn off to the safe house. The destruction was visible long before they reached the low adobe structure hidden between the foothills of the Tucson Mountains. Dead vamps lined the driveway. Several cars were on fire, and black smoke spiraled toward 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, none of whom looked like Damian from the distance. She stopped the car before reaching them. The death around her disturbed her, and danger hung in the air. She closed her eyes, seeking the familiar home videos. Instead, a faint memory began to play. She saw glimpses of the early morning battle. Opening her eyes, she hesitated and moved away from the car in the direction of the source of the memories.

"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 war zone 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. He and his vamps had fought half the night and created the battlefield full of destruction before the dozen Guardians assigned to the safe house were overwhelmed. Damian appeared, a fragmented vision, as if the vamp had been peering through a foggy window. Czerno was already there and with him, a secret weapon, 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 of the meeting between Damian and Czerno in the safe house, but she saw what the vamp expected to happen. Damian was meant to be kidnapped, not killed.

Dustin wrenched her to her feet.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he demanded.

"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 his home videos 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," she said quickly.

"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.

"Got it," Dustin said, trotting towards the men.

"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.