"Set up something for tomorrow night," Dusty replied. "We'll start by taking out what's here and the warehouse where he's storing weapons. Precision strikes, Jimmy, none of that messy shit."

"Messy shit later, boss?"

"Yeah. I'd like nothing more than to round them all up into a stadium and wipe 'em clean. Toni, you gettin' all this?" Dusty asked. He positioned the earpiece of his communication headphones better.

"Yeah, boss," Toni replied.

"Coordinate a plan to evac the humans from the hotels. Jimmy, rig them as well, just in case. I don't intend to take any prisoners. Jenn, I need to know where Czerno is staying, what his plans are."

"I've got a partial on that one," she replied. "You're not going to like it."

"Send me coords."

"Don't have to. He's in your condo building. Got there a few hours ago."

"Fuck," he breathed. "He knows I won't take the building down with all the humans."

"I got a plan for you," Jimmy said with a smoky laugh.

"Jim, Toni, meet me at HQ. Darian, with me." Dusty closed his eyes to Travel and opened them, arriving to his favorite room in HQ, the war room. Three walls were covered with digital maps, the fourth with a blank projection screen. He'd used the excuse of HQ moving to Miami a year before to upgrade everything in the room. It hummed with electronics. Darian's eyes were huge. He hadn't said a word most of the day, taking in Dusty's world with fascination.

"We gonna blow something up?" Darian asked.

"We are," Dusty replied.

Jimmy appeared, Jenn his ride. Toni trotted down the stairwell leading to the main house. He flipped a switch to display an aerial of the country club on one wall and Dusty's condo on another.

"Evac and implode the building before dawn," Dusty said. "I want to make it uncomfortable for our friend here in Miami. It'll be a good distraction while we rig the country club and other hotels."

"I can do that," Jimmy said, a slow smile spreading across his face.

Dusty gazed at his condo building. He never considered anywhere home. Every few years, he had to move anyway; they all did, for security reasons. His condo was as Bianca had said, boring with no color and no character. He was rarely there anyway.

So why did he feel a twinge of loss at the order to send it up in flames? It had something to do with Bianca, with destroying where he'd started with her.

"Dusty, can I go to watch the building explode?" Darian asked.

"We'll watch it from here," he replied.

"Jimmy, I'll schedule the condo for 0530. That gives you three hours. Is that enough?" Toni asked, whipping out his PDA.

"Yeah, good," Jimmy confirmed.

"Bring in the explosives teams to prep the country club and hotels. As soon as the condo goes up, have them start," Dusty directed. "Jenn, start intel feeds every thirty minutes starting now. Toni, ready evacs, just in case. I hope to disrupt whatever it is they've got planned for tomorrow night. Everything needs to be ready, especially if the hurricane shifts to make landfall."

"Got it," Toni said and sat, logging into the computer at the table.

Jimmy jogged out of the basement war room, and Jenn disappeared.

"I'm glad I got the cat," Darian murmured. "I hope you get him, Dusty."

His words were hushed. Dusty didn't have to ask who; he knew Darian's painful history, thousands of years as a slave to the sadistic Black God. Dusty couldn't kill him and didn't expect to. If anyone could, it would be Darian while Damian was away. Dusty's eyes returned to the image of the country club.

This is where it'll happen. This is where I die, he thought. He looked at Darian, recalling Sofi's warning. Once Dusty died, someone had to take care of the girls. Darian was excited and anxious, but the mention of Czerno made his features darken.

"Darian, I wanna give you a new rule," Dusty said. "No matter what, you will always, always protect your family first. Sofi and Bianca. You understand?"

"I know that one, Dusty." The Grey God rolled his eyes.

"At all costs. Even your own life. You will not fail them, even if you face Czerno himself."

Darian looked at him uneasily. "I promise, Dusty. You'll be here to help me. I won't face him alone."

With a sinking feeling, Dusty understood Sofi's concern better. Darian was scared, unsure. He had no control of his own powers, and he'd not yet been tested in a confrontation with the man who enslaved him. Dusty didn't know if a few months of Darian having his own mind back were enough to erase thousands of years under the control of another.

He had a feeling the worst was going to happen, and the sense he wouldn't be the only one who died this weekend if he had to depend on Darian made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Toni, if at any time you feel the girls are in danger, evac the girls and then everyone else," Dusty said, turning to his XO.

Toni looked up with a frown. "You going somewhere, boss?"

"Not planning on it. Always good to have a backup plan." He glanced at his watch, suspecting where Bianca would be. "I'll be back."

He Traveled to the common area of the newbie barracks, where Bianca lay on her stomach across the couch in front of the TV. Jonny was sprawled on the floor in front of the TV, asleep.

"Hey," she murmured.

He sat across from her, elbows on his knees, watching her. She wore a T-shirt and shorts that revealed her shapely, soft legs.

"I'm mad at you," she said, narrowing her eyes. "You shouldn't have given Jonny a gun."

"He's a man now and a Natural," he replied.

"I don't like it."

"It's who he is."

She sat up and gazed at him, chewing her lip in a way he knew to be an indication that she was troubled.

"We'll teach him how to use it," he assured her, taking in her loose curls and large eyes.

"Something bad's going to happen, isn't it?" she asked.

"Why do you say that?"

"Someone told me."

"Maybe," he said. "You're safe, though. The first sign of trouble, you'll be evac'd."

"What about you? Are you safe?"

"I fight. It's what I do. I take a risk every time I go out."

Her frown deepened. She rose and approached, resting back on her heels in front of him, close enough for him to smell her musk and feel her heat. He touched her automatically, stroking the side of her face and tucking errant curls behind her ear.

"You came to say farewell, just in case," she assessed.

"Something like that."

He took her face in his hands and drew her to him, kissing her once again. She leaned into him, and he pulled her against him. The sense of peace and calm at his core returned as her energy flowed through him.

"Stay with me," he whispered.

She touched his face, then his hair, her cool power soothing him. He wanted to lose himself in her warmth and liveliness on his last night. Something bad was going to happen when he faced Czerno. Without Damian and Jule and with Darian not yet able to take his place as the Grey God, he wasn't going to walk away from this weekend alive.

She awoke alone. Stretching, she couldn't ever remember feeling so relaxed or deeply sated. Or sore. She grimaced. She wasn't surprised to find him gone. Her skin smelled of their lovemaking, her hair and the sheets of him. She recalled the unforgettable night with a deep flush, still feeling his hot mouth and touch branding her body.

She was in one of the main rooms of the mansion. She looked down at the swing of a necklace grazing her chest. It was too short for her to see clearly, and she crossed to the mirror on the other side of the room.

He'd given her his necklace, as if marking her as his. She fingered it and took in her glowing features. She changed clothes, ravenous. Her phone vibrated as she trotted down the stairs, and she glanced down, smiling to see he'd texted.

Stay inside the gate.

Puzzled, she started to respond when someone rushed down the stairs by her. She recognized the petite blonde, who wrenched open the door and ran.

"Sofi!" Toni bellowed, tearing after her. "Stop, Sofi!"

Stay with Sofi. This text came from the Watcher. Bianca jogged after the two, who raced towards a small crowd at the opened gate of the compound. Her breath caught as she saw Talon leaning against a black car.

The devil was with him.

"Darian!" Sofi cried.

Darian was cowering at the gate-line, his wide shoulders hunched and his frame shaking. Toni snatched Sofi's arm before she could reach him, then grabbed her as she neared.

"He can't enter," he said harshly, angry gaze on the devil. "Dusty's wards keep him out."

"They'll come to me, my friend," the devil replied with a small smile. "Won't you, Darian." The devil's smile grew as his cold eyes took all of them and settled on Bianca's necklace.

Bianca shivered and moved closer to Toni.

"I was a bit pissed this morning to have my condo blown out from under me and quite a few of my vamps vaporized," the devil said, glancing down at clothing displaying signs of burns and plaster. "Thought I'd return the favor."

"Darian, come here," Sofi called.

"Stay where you are, Darian," the devil replied, gazing at the blonde. "It's been awhile, love. Ready to take your place?"

"You don't want to do this, Czerno."

"Between the two of you, I think we'll have a good time," he said, gaze returning to Sofi. "Darian, bring me Sofi. Talon, shoot Toni."

Toni pushed both women behind him, and Darian took a teetering step towards him. Darian's eyes were glazed and still, his confusion clear. Bianca cried out in surprise as Talon unloaded on Toni. The Guardian staggered, and Darian took Sofi's arm. Sofi dug her heels into the ground. Bianca grabbed her other arm, instincts screaming.

"Darian, no!" she shouted.

"It's okay, kiri," he replied in a mechanical voice.

He wrenched Sofi off the ground in a tight bear hug and deposited her on the other side of the gate line. Before the blonde could run, the devil snatched her.

"Get in the car, Darian," he ordered. The man hesitated before obeying. "Now for you," the devil said, facing Bianca. He held out his hand to Talon, who plunked a gun into it. Bianca backed away.

"Run, Bianca!" Sofi ordered.

The devil shot the Oracle twice, then once more. Bianca stared, horrified, as the blonde dropped.

"Now, you have a choice to make," the devil said with a calm smile. "You can step out here and heal her, or you can stay there and watch her die."

Bianca looked fearfully at the pregnant blonde, whose blood already soaked her clothing, then at the waiting devil beside her.

Stay with Sofi. The Watcher's whisper was in her mind this time.

She took one step forward, then another, throwing herself onto the ground beside Sofi. She touched her once before Talon wrenched her up. Talon all but threw them both into the backseat while he climbed into the driver's seat. Darian sat, hunched and unresponsive on the far side.

The car jarred her as they launched away from the gate. Bianca righted herself and carefully straightened the blonde, panicked by her pale features. She placed her hands on her face and winced as Sofi vacuumed her power as Darian had. Awkwardly jammed in the back seat, she sneaked a look at the occupants in the front of the car and withdrew her phone.

I need you. Her eyes watered as she typed it. She sent the text then tucked the phone in her pocket, praying they could track her with the tag Toni placed there. The thought of Toni lying in the driveway made her chest tighten. She looked at the unconscious woman in her lap then twisted to look up at Darian.

His golden gaze was down, turmoil on his face. He folded, face turning crimson and gold eyes swirling madly. He clutched his head and gave a small moan.

"Darian," she whispered. Her hand trembled as she touched him. His body sucked healing power from her. The lingering sickness in his body fled, gone for good.

"No!" Darian roared.

The world around them stopped-literally. The car, the traffic, the wind, all went motionless. Darian fought himself, groping with glazed eyes for the crumpled Oracle. Bianca pushed herself away, uncertain which terrified her more: Darian's meltdown or the fact he'd stopped the world in its place.

Talon's jaw was lax, his eyes wide.

"What the fuck did you do?" he demanded, the first to break the terse silence.

She could hardly breathe, as if the air in the car was running out. The devil's cold dark eyes flared and turned black. The devil reached over to Darian, placing a hand on his red forehead. The door tore off, and Darian was flung out, his grip around the Oracle tight enough to take her with him. Before they hit the pavement, they disappeared.

"Get outta the car," the devil ordered. Bianca couldn't move. Talon got out then reached in and snatched her, dragging her out.

The world was dead. There were no sounds, no movement but theirs. Everyone and everything around them had frozen in mid-movement, like an eerie sculpture garden.

"Pop-" Talon said, staring around them.

"Don't ever call me that," the devil snarled. "You're the son of some whore I don't even remember!"