"Charles found the Other. Damian went to scout things out."

"Who's Charles?"

"He's a Hunter vamp we borrowed from Jonny," she explained. Jule's brow furrowed, and Sofi smiled. "I'll explain later. Xander's waiting."

"Is Darian here? I'm not bringing an Original Vamp here without some sort of backup."

"I'm here, Jule," Bianca said from behind him.

"Great, so I can piss off both my brothers."

"I just meant I can fix anyone who decides to brawl," Bianca retorted.

"Darian's here," Sofi replied with a laugh. "I'll go get him."

"At least then we'll stand half a chance if the vamp goes ape-shit crazy."

"We'll be fine, Jule," she assured him. "Just don't tell Damian or Dusty."

Jule ground his teeth. Silently cursing Oracles, he Transported back to the mountainside. The vamp hadn't moved, as if he and Sofi already knew Jule would facilitate.

"Y'all are cutting me no slack today," he said.

"Wise Oracle," Xander said with a cold smile. "Take me to her."

Jule raised his hand, and the Original Vamp rested his on top. They Transported to the study where Sofi, Bianca, and the Grey God awaited. Xander's attention was caught first by Darian.

"Gatekeeper," the vamp said. "You're negligent in your duties."

"As soon as I figure out what they are, I'll take care of that," Darian shot back. The vamp frowned.

"You will when you're ready, Darian," Sofi said.

"Gatekeeper, Oracle, Healer, Original Immortal," Xander said, taking in everyone one-by-one. "You have a message for me, Oracle, and an answer I seek."

Jule shifted forward as the vamp held out his hand, palm up, in the traditional greeting to an Oracle. Sofi stepped to him, unafraid, while Darian edged closer. She placed her hand on the vamp's, and her eyes began to whirl hypnotically.

The Original Vamp closed his eyes. Their exchange was silent. Sofi dropped her hand, and the vamp remained still, as if letting her magic settle.

"You are certain?" he said at last.

"It's not the only answer, but it's the most likely," Sofi replied.

"Very well. A pleasure, Oracle," Xander said and opened his eyes. "Immortal, take me back."

Jule obliged quickly, unwilling to keep the vamp close to his brothers' mates longer than necessary. They Transported to the mountainside again, and the cold wind swept past him. Jule released the vamp, who turned to him.

"I know one way to return your power to you." As he spoke, his fangs lengthened. "Are you certain this is what you want?"

Realization of exactly what he'd asked for made Jule breathe out hard. His thoughts went to Yully, and he stepped forward without hesitation.

"Absolutely," Jule replied. "Bite me."

"As you wish."

Chapter Eight.

Yully spent the drive north learning how to manipulate her father's magics with his patient tips as guidance. She purposely kept her thoughts of what was to come-- and her fear for Jule-- at the back of her mind, instead filling it with her willingness to learn her trade.

Only when they reached the small bed and breakfast that was their destination did she cease practicing her magic. She was drained but more confident in her ability to use it. Yully stepped from the warm car into the cold night and followed her father into the inn.

"Change into something warm, my dear. We're going to the site tonight."

"Father, I'm tired."

"Do as you're told." The edge in his voice made her hasten her step, and she followed the chauffeur carrying her trunk into a small room.

She took a moment to adapt to the new glimmers of energy in the room before changing into warmer clothes and her heavy coat. She armed herself, not willing to be caught off guard, then joined her father in the tiny foyer. He led her into the cold night and back to the car.

They didn't drive long, and the car pulled off to the side of the road. Yully looked around curiously, not recognizing the sloping hill before them. The scent of the ocean was on the air, and the area in front of them was guarded by tourist police while tourists camped out in small tents up and down the road.

"Take my hand," her father instructed. "We'll become invisible to them." At his words, a rush of cold magic filled her.

Doubtful, she winced as they approached tourists and police alike, waiting for someone to stop them, and fearful of what her father would do if someone did. They moved through the people with ease and walked up the low hill. When she reached the crest, she recognized the sight before her.

Ballynoe. The ancient megalith pulsed with power older than that of her father's. Mesmerized, she missed her step, and her father continued without her to the center of the landmark. It was like watching a spark grow into a flame. He glowed white-purple, and the hill beneath her trembled.

The power beckoned to her, and she obeyed. Her first step into the structure filled her with its power. Yully struggled to control it and then surrendered. She closed her eyes to the gentle flow and strange sensations: Jule's warmth, her father's hot-cold rain, the ancient power of the ruins.

"It's welcoming you." Her father's voice warbled as if through water. "Tomorrow, on the equinox, it'll be so powerful, it will sing to you."

"It's singing now, Father," she replied. The sensations were similar to her bond with Jule: sweet and warm. She ached for him, and the magic thrummed around her, echoing her loneliness. Laughter rose within her, and the magic laughed with her. It flipped her hair and swirled around her. For the first time in her life, she felt her magic was a gift and not a curse.

"Tomorrow, we'll come here just before sunset. The magic is at its strongest between dusk and midnight. Come, daughter."

Yully opened her eyes, suddenly aware she was floating two feet of the ground. She panicked, and the magic released her.

"I've been waiting for generations for you," her father said, his eyes glowing. "I groomed hundreds of others like you, and only you can do this."

Yully didn't ask about her predecessors. She suspected they were buried with the Guardians. As she stepped away from the magic of the Henge, sorrow for those women who came before her pulled her from the powerful high. Her eyes went from the ancient site glowing in the moonlight to her father's form as he walked up the hill.

A new emotion was forming in her breast: hatred. She hadn't expected it to form so fast or so strong. She stepped away from the monument amplifying her magic and followed her father. The intensity of her emotion faded as she crested the hill, but it didn't completely disappear.

She'd born untold ridicule from everyone she'd ever met and believed her father to be the only one who understood and protected her. The past few days had turned her beliefs on end. With the rise of her anger came another emotion: gratitude for finding Jule, the one man who had accepted her.

Yully touched Jule's medallion at her neck. She'd make him proud and protect him and the rest of the Guardians from her father, even if destroying her father took her own life. The Guardians deserved this after losing so many of them.

Resolved, she trailed her father down the hill, through the people who couldn't see them, and to the awaiting car. She couldn't help thinking her life had been wasted and hoped she still had a chance to make it up to the one person who mattered.

Neither spoke on their return trip to the bed and breakfast, and she went straight to her room. Yully slept fitfully and awoke before dawn, unable to rest with her troubled thoughts. She rose and stretched then left the small house on a hill for a quick walk. The day dawned cloudy and cold with a light rain that chilled her after ten minutes. She continued to walk, needing to feel the cold to remind her she was still alive. She returned and searched for her father.

The house was completely empty. Confused, she paused at the back door and felt the telltale energy patterns of the newly dead. There were twenty of them, far more than the small house could hold. Something had happened last night while she slept. Yully backed away from the door. She steadied her breathing, swearing to herself that these would be the last to die at her father's hands.

Jule's magic was stronger this day. It kept her centered and prevented her from running for the hills tearing her hair out. Instead, she prepared for the day as if it were her last. She checked her weapons with scrutiny that would've made her father proud and dressed in dark clothing loose enough for her to fight.

Her father returned around noon, his agitation apparent the moment he stepped in the door. Yully looked up from her seat on the couch as he entered. He'd left the front door open, and she saw the car was running, waiting.

"We're going now," he said, emerging from his room with a coat.

"Yes, Father." She rose and trailed him from the house to the car, unable to guess what could agitate him if killing people didn't.

They drove in silence north again, towards the ancient site. Yully grew more anxious the nearer they got; her father was right about the magic feeling stronger. The air hummed the closer they got. The chauffeur drove them straight to the hill. Her father flung open the door and strode up the incline.

Yully followed more slowly, enjoying the feeling of the power moving through her. She looked around, curious as to why such a popular site was so quiet. Just as fast, she looked away.

Her father hadn't taken the time to bury these people. They looked as if they'd been torn apart by some monster she couldn't imagine.

"Come, Yully!"

Yully steadied her breathing and obeyed, taking comfort in the power of the site. She tested it as she walked to see how much effort it would take to control. The energies flowing around her responded eagerly, and she molded and released them.

She reached the top of the hill and gasped. Her father dragged half a body from the center of the site to the edge. She recognized the blond Guardian, and her chest tightened.

"Come, daughter," her father ordered.

Yully walked to the center of the monument. The power pushed her off balance, and she caught herself before it sent her sprawling into the blood pooled around her.

"Father, why did you do this?" she asked, unable to keep her silence any longer. "Rourk did nothing wrong."

"No? Following us here, reporting our movements to other Guardians?" her father snapped, approaching her. "I spent the night defending you against them. You think I want all this death?"

"I think you don't care."

He slapped her. "Keep quiet, and do as you're told. You cannot begin to imagine how long I've waited for this night and what I've done to make sure it happens as it must. No one will stand in my way, including you, my daughter." He continued past her, up the hill once more.

Yully touched her burning cheek. The site's power comforted her, and she kissed Jule's medallion. Her father returned with a bag slung over his shoulder. She dreaded discovering what it was until he ripped it open to display woodchips.

"Help me spread this around," he directed. "We need each element present."

She obeyed. He brought three more bags while she spread the woodchips around the monument. She was soon soaked by a light drizzle and stretched to keep her stiffening muscles warm. After the bags, he brought torches covered in plastic bags and placed them by each column of the monument.

She finished spreading her woodchips and watched him, taking refuge against the drizzle in the protection of one column. It hummed with energy that spread through her, warming her. Her father moved to the center of the monument and looked around.

"What next, Father?" she ventured.

"We wait."

"For what?"

"For the Gods and Guardians to come."

"We can't perform the rite without them?" she asked.

"You'll need their power to puncture the gateway," he said. "As strong as I am, mine won't be enough. Jule will come for you and bring the most powerful of the immortals confined to earth."

"You promised not to kill him if I cooperated, Father."

"We'll see just how strong your bond to him is. The only way for them to stop this is to kill you. Do you think he'll do it, daughter?"

"No, Father," she whispered.

"Then you've played your part well, daughter. You made the one who can stop you fall in love with you instead," her father said.

"You knew we belonged together," she said in a hushed tone.

"Of course."

"You were setting me up."

"My dear, what I do, I do for us and our future. I saved your life. I thought you'd be happy I spared him instead of burying him with the others." He suddenly cocked his head to the side. "Wait here."

Yully's eyes went to Rourk's body. She moved to the center of the monument and opened herself to the magics. She sensed her father and the Guardians he went to meet on the other side of the hill. There weren't many of them, but they were powerful. One source of energy was darker than a stormy sky while another was as bright as the sun. Puzzled, she concentrated on two more sources of magic. She thought one might be Jule, but the energies faded in and out too quickly to tell.

The sky began to dim, and she played with the magic, adrenaline speeding the power's flow through her. It acclimated to her and accepted her until it obeyed her thoughts before she thought them.

Her father was right. She would need much more power to counter his, and the Guardians could provide it. She wondered again what he was that he was so strong.

Identifying his magic, she avoided it and began to draw from the others. Something blocked the storm and sun sources she'd felt, but the others flowed to her freely. Yully let the power fill her and mix with the other energies, staving off panic that there was much more than she could ever control.

"Daughter." Her father's voice broke her concentration.

Yully opened her eyes and released the magic she'd pulled in. She was floating again, and she dropped to her feet. Dusk had fallen while she tested the magic and her ability to control it. The torches around the circle were lit. She faced her father, not expecting to see the small crowd of people on the other side of the monument. She recognized Damian, Darian, Jonny, the woman who accompanied Jonny, and several others. Her father stood near her in the center.

"Alive or dead, their energy will feed you, daughter," her father said. He gathered his power, and an orb of light formed in his hands.

"No, Father. Let me face them," she said.

"If you think to betray me, daughter, Jule dies," he warned for her ears only.

"Their energies are stronger when they're alive. You said we needed everything we could get," she replied. "Please, Papa. You've prepared me for this day."

His eyes lingered on her face for a moment, and then he held out his hand.