"I figured it out," he said before Dusty could speak. "But it'll take awhile. I can only heal them one by one, but Dusty, if I don't do it, then you'll kill everyone, and it's not fair when they're just innocent people. Please, please, please don't-"

"Show me," he said.

"The ones I fixed are all over there." Darian waved an elderly woman over. "This is Hazel. She's volunteered to help me round up the people and knows, like, everyone in town." Hazel was human, and Dusty followed Darian's pointing finger to a hotel ablaze with light.

"You're taking care of the pets, too?" he asked.

"Yes, everything. I'm killing the rats and stuff. Maybe ... if you want to send in someone to help, then they can help me kill the bugs and rats? Oh, and I found where I think the lab was. Iggy asked about it. She said we have to destroy it, too."

Dusty looked from Darian's hopeful face to Jonny's pale features. As if noticing him for the first time, Darian stared at Bianca's brother, an odd look crossing his face.

"I can leave Jonny," Dusty said.

"No," Darian said in a low growl. The Grey God had tensed, his suspicious gaze on Jonny. Jonny looked confused and uneasy, while Darian looked like he was ready to pounce.

For a moment, Dusty was reminded again of the strong, confident leader Darian had been, long ago.

"God-slayer," Darian added. "He has to stay with you. It must be so."

"Very well. I'll send others," Dusty said. "But I want you to move the cured people out of here and then level the city and the lab. I'm not taking chances that mosquitoes or whatever remain."

"I saved everyone?" he asked, hopeful once more.

"We'll know when everything's done," Dusty replied.

"You won't destroy the people?"

"No. You're in charge of this operation," Dusty said with some effort.

"Oh my god! Really?"

"You'll be held accountable if anything bad happens," he reminded him. "Clear the people, wipe out the town."

"Do I get minions?"

"I'll send a team to help you. They're not minions, Darian, they're Guardians. Treat them with respect and take care of them. You need to learn a few more things on your own. I'm entrusting you with this operation." Dusty gritted his teeth, feeling much like he was setting a child with a credit card free in a candy store.

"I can do it, Dusty!" Darian's eyes glowed. He straightened.

Dusty responded with a curt nod, hoping the Grey God was right. His gaze turned to the east, where yellow lined the horizon.

It's time, his sister said again.

"You remember what I told you about family?" he asked.

"I won't fail again, Dusty, I promise. I tried to make it right." Darian's face fell.

"I've gotta return to Florida. If you fail, I'll send Jonny here after you."

Darian glared at the confused young man and said, "I promise, Dusty, I'll take care of the girls even after the Black God kills you."

Jonny gasped, but Dusty nodded, aware his fate was sealed.

Some strange poison ran through the Black God's body. It was familiar to her, but too much a part of him to heal. She glanced up, troubled. If she didn't know better, she'd say whatever the poison was, it felt like what lingered in Jonny's body. Talon was glaring at her, ready to attack, when the Black God launched them through the portal.

Raindrops splattered against her head. Startled, she looked up. The clouds far above were starting to swirl with hypnotic slowness, the rain beginning to fall again, and the sea beneath their feet rippling and shifting beneath the rubbery surface.

The Black God ignored Talon as the vamp snatched his arm to retain his balance, instead wrapping his free arm around her and clamping a hand around her forearm. His skin was colder than snow, the power radiating off him like an arctic breeze. His eyes turned black, fathomless, and she knew whatever creature possessed the human body was loosening its grip on its powers.

Despite her fear, she wrapped her arms around him. Thunder roared. Lightning exploded in the sky. Rain pelted her. The wind snapped free of its bonds, nearly tearing her from his grip with its first gust. The world exploded into life, sucking the air from her lungs and drenching her.

And then the sea swallowed them. She breathed in nothing but water and panicked, clawing at the arm wrapped around her.

He's going to kill me.

She kicked and fought, unable to escape his grip when the cold in-between world swallowed her. The world dumped her on top of a pile of sand near the boardwalk with the angry black sea roaring behind her. Her body strained to heal itself and the Black God, whose touch sucked her healing power fast. He released her, and she rolled, coughing. Water, sand, and hair stung her vision and lungs. Through blurred eyes, she saw the ocean poised above them and to either side, angry waves kept at bay by whatever magic the Black God employed.

He was the first to his feet and dragged her up the beach. His own body told her he was spent. He shouted at her, fury on his face, but his words were lost to the storm. She struggled to get her feet beneath her before she finally found her footing in the sand. He refused to release her, instead pushing her into a painful run up the beach, over the sandbags, and out of immediate danger.

She dropped, exhausted. It was then she noticed Talon wasn't with them.

Fury was on the Black God's face as he stared down the storm, ignoring the gale tearing at his clothing. She dared not stand on her own with the winds strong enough to knock her over.

The Black God moved at last, turning to her with his fathomless eyes. She looked away, wanting nothing more than to disappear. He snatched her arm. She felt another drain as he took another swig of her power, and coldness, then silence.

She fell when he released her. They were in someone's living room. The Black God knelt before her, phone outstretched. His eyes were closer to normal, swirling black spheres.

"Call him, love."

She inched away at the inhuman tone. He snatched her neck and shoved the phone at her.

"Now."

"Who?" she gasped.

"Your Watcher."

Confused, she concentrated on gripping the phone. He released her. She hit the speed dial button. The Black God snatched the phone back and straightened.

"It wouldn't be fitting for the Black God to call you," he said.

"No, it wouldn't," the Watcher said in a tone more subdued than any she'd heard. He'd appeared near the doorway to the bedrooms.

"You know what I can do, Watcher," the Black God warned.

Bianca was even more unsettled to see the Watcher's reluctant nod. The creature's emerald eyes stopped sparkling, and his face grew long.

"There must be a Black God," the Watcher said. "Only one."

"My time isn't up!"

"You started down this path when you enlisted the help of the Others. When you forsake divine code, it has a way of forsaking you."

"Yet you warned me," the Black God stated.

"I did."

"It wasn't you influencing Talon."

"The Others betrayed you and chose Talon to replace you. I cannot let that happen, lest the balance sway permanently, and all is lost," the Watcher said.

"No one will replace me!" The Black God was bristling with checked power that made her inch away from him. The Watcher looked at her.

"Then keep the healer with you," he said with resignation. "She has the power of ancient healers to return to life that which otherwise wouldn't live. What's been set into motion can't be stopped, but you at least have a chance if you have her."

"Get outta here!"

Bianca's mouth was slack as she watched the Watcher disappear in a wink of light. She'd wanted to yell at him to save her, and he'd all but guaranteed the Black God would enslave her!

"Stay here," the Black God ordered and disappeared. She sagged, horrified and fatigued. Looking around, she realized why the tiny living room was so familiar.

It was her father's.

She pushed herself up, cold inside and out. Without even asking where she lived, the Black God brought her home. The apartment was identical to when she'd left it a week before yet seemed somehow foreign. She couldn't explain the sense that she didn't belong despite the pictures of her and Jonny on the walls and all her things sprinkled around the room.

She made her way to the notebook near the desk phone.

Aaron. Her eyes went to the wall clock. She was supposed to meet him in a few hours. Such a normal thing seemed ... weird.

With a frown, she wondered why she'd never seen it before, why she wasted seven years trying to make things work with someone who couldn't hold a candle to the man she was meant to be with.

Her hand went to her throat, where Dusty's necklace dangled. She belonged with him, even if she was second rung to his war against bad guys or even if he was never able to devote himself to any one woman at all. She was doomed to fall for men unable to commit to her!

She rubbed her face and wobbled towards the bedroom, determined to change before the Black God returned for her. A few minutes later, she sat in the living room, granola bar clenched between her teeth while she tied her shoes.

She felt him appear, as though the AC was suddenly set to high.

"Why don't I show you what I'm going to do to that little shit of a brother of yours?" he asked with a slow smile and a gleam in his eyes that made her breath catch.

The Black God was covered in bright blood. She winced as he snatched her arm, and familiar coldness descended over her. When the coldness released her, she stood in the middle of a large conference hall. The storm beating against the windows had shut down the power; the hall was lit by candles and makeshift torches. She looked around.

One buffet table sagged beneath the weight of five kegs while another held food wrapped in cellophane and tinfoil. The room was otherwise arranged as if for a wedding with two sets of neatly lined chairs on either side of a long aisle. Where the altar would've been were two long buffet tables lined with weapons.

She shivered, not wanting to know what Talon planned.

Czerno slammed open the doors at one end of the hall. She started to follow and tripped, then stifled a cry. What looked like a leg lay in her path, and a pool of blood and more mangled flesh nearby indicated where the Black God had gotten the blood covering him.

She covered her mouth and hurried away. The Black God strode through the quiet buildings until he reached a long hallway overlooking a courtyard packed with hundreds of vamps and several bonfires. She slowed, unwilling to join the throng of bloodsuckers. Instead, she pushed open a door leading to a small balcony overlooking what would've been a large garden, prior to the vamps arrival.

The first story of the building was overflowing with vamps. She wondered what Czerno planned on doing, until she saw him stride out of the building towards the center of the vamps.

"Gotcha, bitch!" The vicious whisper was accompanied by a thick hand clamping around the back of her neck. Talon hauled her away from the balcony. "You left me in the fucking ocean! When I'm the Black God, you'll be the first human to suffer like no one else ever has!"

Chapter Ten.

Dusty studied the scenes on the screens of his command center, agitated by the weather hindering their ability to deal with Talon's vamps. Radar and thermal image coverage was decent, indicating the vamps were mainly gathered in one spot. He took in the various scenes, to include the local news, which blasted photos of the black skies and mounting waves of the tropical-storm-turned-hurricane.

The Black God was back, which meant Bianca wasn't far from him. It took effort to repress his anger and his desire to tear outta there to find her.

"No word on Talon," Jenn said from beside him.

"The Black God's there?" Jonny asked. "What about B?"

"Shut up, kid," Dusty replied. "How many vamps?"

"Several hundred, close to a thousand."

The young man drew away from the table. Jenn touched the earpiece tucked in her ear, frowning.

"And so is Darian."

"Darian?" Dusty echoed.

"Hey, boss, the storm blew out our explosives work." Jimmy's scratchy voice came across the intercom. "We can blow half the place up and send in a team to finish off the rest."

"Wait one," Dusty said and whipped out his phone. He prepared himself for the worst and dialed the Grey God.

"Don't yell!" Darian picked up after the first ring. "I have to, Dusty! You'll understand!"

"We're gonna blow the place, Darian! Get out of there!"

"Dusty, you can't! Bianca's here!"

"What happened to taking care of Ohio?" Dusty asked after a pause. "Shouldn't you be saving those people so I don't blow them up?"

"I will, I will," Darian said impatiently. "Iggy found a temporary solution to stop the spread, and I sealed the area around the town. Nothing can get in or out. Trust me, Dusty!"

Dusty wanted nothing more than to order Darian back to Ohio to finish one mess before dragging them into another. Instead, he drew a deep breath and said, "Find Bianca. I'll be there soon."

"Talon just showed up," Jenn said quietly.

It's time. Dusty hung up the phone and gazed at the screens.