"My dear, these aren't toasters," he said and echoed her chuckle. "They're Guardians and guardsmen who would've seen you dead. I didn't send their souls to the immortal realm, because I'd hoped you'd be standing here one day, able to drain the magic from them."

She froze, the warmth of the magic leaving her as fear replaced it.

"Father, there are thousands," she said, looking around her. She tried to assess how many there might be. "Tens of thousands."

"I guess I'd forgotten how many there were. The more the better. We'll need all their magics on the autumn equinox." He disappeared into the house, and she stayed where she was, horrified.

Guardians. He'd killed and buried Jule's kind. Jule, whose soul had somehow lingered in her body when she'd touched him, and who had become the only man she'd ever felt safe around. Even her father's magic was gone when she expelled it.

... you seem to think a Guardian of humanity is your enemy, Darian had said.

Her replacement cell phone rang, jarring her. She answered it with numb fingers.

"Hey," Jule said.

"Hey," she answered.

"I hear it in your voice. What's wrong?"

"I can't talk about it," she replied in a tight voice. "What do you want?"

"We're having a wake for Sean tomorrow. I thought you'd like to say goodbye."

Yully squeezed her eyes closed, relieved the bartender wasn't buried in her backyard with the others.

"I don't think my father would approve of me seeing you," she managed. "I mean, of me going."

"Sean would probably appreciate it if you came. His death wasn't a pleasant one."

She didn't want to imagine what her father was capable of. Her gaze went to the lawn around her. She owed it to the dead to attend one Guardian's wake.

"I'll do my best," she said at last.

"Noon tomorrow, on the cliff opposite the cottage."

Yully hung up. She wanted to scream, cry, or flee. The same part of her that recoiled at draining dead men's magic also understood one truth: she was no match for her father, if he decided to bury her with them.

With a deep breath, Yully left the graveyard and returned to the manor, determined to find a way to leave for Sean's wake.

Chapter Six.

Jenn snapped awake and sat, reaching for the gun under her pillow. The walls of the underground facility were trembling from a shockwave of power that made her Guardian senses hum with danger. She changed quickly out of her sleepwear and loaded her body down with weapons then drew a knife and her gun.

She left the room assigned her by Jonny, two doors down from his in his private wing. His guards lay dead in the hallway before his door, and she leapt over their bodies, shoving the door to his apartments open.

"Jonny?" she called. "Are you here?" A quick exploration of his apartments showed two more dead vamps but no Black God.

Jenn trotted through the halls, hopping over dead vamps as she went. No other sounds stirred but that of her boots over concrete. None of the vamps she'd seen yet were alive. The shockwaves faded, and she stood in the middle of an intersection, stretching out with her Guardian senses to find some kind of life.

"C'mon, Jonny, be alive," she whispered.

A faint pulse of life came from the direction of the gym. Jenn ran through the halls, certain no vamp was about to get in her way when all of them so far were dead. She pushed open the door to the gym. Emergency lighting glowed along the walls, and the strange silhouettes of workout machines made her pause and wait for her night vision to filter out machine from potential attacker.

Nothing was alive in here, either. Alarmed, she picked her way through the rows of machines towards the door leading to the sparring mats. The lights were on in here, and Jonny's form lay in the center of about a hundred dead vamps.

"Jonny!" she exclaimed, rushing forward. She dropped to her knees beside him and pushed him onto his back. "Jonny!"

The only thing she could've imagined happening was an ambush. Jonny's body was bloodied and beaten, though his pulse was strong. Jenn checked his eyes and lowered her ear to his mouth to make sure he was breathing.

"Fancy seeing you alive."

She whipped around, weapon pointed at Xander as he appeared through the doorway. His gaze took in the dead vamps. Jenn had wanted to shoot him since meeting him, and she opened fire. Xander held up a hand, catching the bullets and then tossing them.

Her arm dropped.

"You'll have to use your bare hands," he said, looking her over. "No human weapon can hurt me."

"Why did you do this?" she demanded. She holstered the gun and drew a knife. "You can't kill him."

"I can't claim this massacre. But I can claim credit for saving you from ending up like the rest of them."

"Jenn ..." Jonny's voice was weak. She stepped back over his body, unwilling to lower her guard against the large vamp whose gaze was on her.

"Jonny, hon, what happened?" she asked.

"Help me up." He held out his hand. She pulled him to his feet.

"Stay behind me, Jonny," she directed him. "I'll take care of this."

"No, no, Jenn. I did this," Jonny said. He wobbled on his feet and shook his head. "They ambushed me. I was trying to ... I don't know what happened."

"You killed every vamp in the facility," she told him.

"Really?"

"Except for Xander here, who seems immune to just about everything."

"I'm just that tough," Xander said. Jonny looked at the massive vamp, who made no move to close the distance between them.

"He's just really tough," Jonny said. "You survived, too, Jenn."

"The Black God saved those who were loyal to him," Xander supplied.

"That makes sense," Jonny said.

"No, it doesn't," Jenn countered, watching Xander manipulate the boy-god without knowing how he did it.

"Know your place, Guardian," Xander warned in a lower voice.

"I'm ready when you are, vamp."

"Enough," Jonny snapped, dabbing at the blood on his face. "All I know is that I wanted them to stop beating me. Xander's right, Jenn. You two are the only people I trust. I'm sick of living underground anyway."

"Safer underground," Jenn and Xander said simultaneously.

"I don't care. Xander, find me somewhere safe above ground. Jenn, help me to my room. I need to rest."

"I know somewhere safe," Xander said. "We can go now. This place is compromised. Everyone within a hundred miles felt what you did."

"Somewhere safe above ground, with vamps who are loyal?" Jonny asked.

"As you command." Xander held out his hand.

"Jonny-- " Jenn objected.

"Take us there," Jonny cut her off. He limped to Xander.

"Your Guardian must come," Xander said.

"Jenn, you must come with me," Jonny echoed.

Her instincts on high alarm, she met Xander's gaze. The vamp smiled slowly. She replaced her weapon and crossed to him, unwilling to show fear. No matter what, she had to stay with Jonny. She accepted Jonny's hand rather than Xander's and closed her eyes to the cold sensations of Transporting. When she opened them, they stood outside a stone facade of a compound built into the side of a mountain and surrounded by evergreen trees whose branches were heavy with snow.

"Where are we?" Jonny asked.

"Pacific northwest," Xander answered. "At one of your compounds."

"I was thinking Miami," the Black God admitted. "I'm not used to cold weather."

"This is the safest place you could be, but whatever you desire, I will obey."

"No, no, this is fine. It looks safe. I just need to rest."

Xander stepped aside and Jonny walked through the front door. Jenn started forward, not surprised when the vamp blocked her path.

"You got a problem with me?" she demanded.

"A huge one."

"I'll be gone in three and a half weeks. Deal with it." She brushed by him.

"Do you spar, Guardian?" he called after her.

"Not with vamps."

"Shame."

She faced him. "Why is that?"

"You make a good adversary."

"Of all the Guardians out there, how did I end up your personal adversary?"

"You're the first Guardian I've ever met without killing. I'm curious."

"Likewise, but I intend to kill you before this is over," she told him. "Although, not before I find out what you are."

"There's no mystery to what I am."

"You're no more loyal to Jonny than I am. You survived whatever it was he did, because you aren't a vamp. You're feeding him information that he somehow accepts as truth."

The massive vamp crossed his arms and drew closer as she spoke. He stopped within arms' reach.

"Imagine what I could tell him about you." His threat was a low growl.

"What do you want, Xander?"

"I want to know why a Guardian is so interested in protecting a Black God. Personalizing a mission gets people killed."

"It's not personal," she replied. "I was sent to train him, and I will complete my mission."

"What was your first thought when you felt the power surge?"

I hope Jonny's okay. She clenched her jaw.

"Your feelings are in the way," he continued.

He gripped her forearm. She snapped into motion, but he deflected her next strike as easily as he had those of the vamps he killed. The vamp snatched the phone from her pocket and stepped away, hands raised. Furious, her glare went from the phone in his hand to his gaze.

"You're on your own now. Let's see if you can make it through the month," he said and dropped the cell. He smashed it with his heel.

Jenn strode into the compound. She wasn't afraid to be alone. She'd been deep undercover in much worse situations. Xander, however, was a complication she'd never before run across. He wouldn't respond to her mind manipulation attempts, and he was able to control Jonny. She had nothing but charisma and the knowledge the Black God was fond of her.

Neither of those things would matter when dealing with Xander.

Vamps growled as she passed them but made no move to impede her. At the far end of the main floor of Jonny's new home glowed a panoramic window fitted into the mountainside. Chairs lined the window, and she saw why. The window overlooked the neighboring mountain, coated in white with clouds clinging to its peak. Jonny had been drawn to the view as she was and stood before the window.

Jenn didn't approach, instead sinking into the shadows of one of the many pillars providing support all along the main floor. She didn't know what Xander was, but he'd said one thing that struck her hard.

She really had personalized the mission. She'd defended the Black God, a young man she knew was partly in love with her, against his own kind. The training was part of what Damian wanted her there to do, and she mixed training with good old-fashioned spy techniques. She was learning as much about the Black God's organization as she could, from numbers of vamps to locations of their compounds to the Black God's own skills.

Jonny had entrusted her with a lot. Aside from assigning Xander to keep an eye on her, the Black God hadn't restricted her access to anything. She'd taken in everything she could, like any good operative would. But pitying him, defending him, helping him command his own men ...