Free Lizzy Ford by Damian Eternal) Xander's Chance (#1 Page B

with the Oracle obsessed with destroying the last Grey God. Eden was little older than Xander, the day he was made immortal.
    “Like a family reunion,” Eden said.
    Xander felt her gaze and sat on a bench facing her. Darian looked between the two of them, wary but curious. No one spoke. Xander held Eden’s gaze. He felt nothing for the beautiful woman before him, not even anger, despite their shared history. He dwelled on the unexpected lack of emotion.
    Eden had been more than a friend, assuming the role of Xander’s mother when his died. Then betraying him. Binding his power. Putting him through years of hellish pain to teach him a lesson about something she knew nothing about.
    Yet Xander felt nothing negative towards her. The inability to know how he should react puzzled him.
    “Okay, here are the rules.” Darian was the first to break the tense silence. “No fighting where humans might get hurt. If either of you fucks up, I get to kill you. If you want a mediator, let me know. I’ll be standing by the monkey bars. Got it?”
    Xander and Eden nodded. Darian strode away towards the large jungle gym, out of hearing distance but close enough to watch and react.
    “I’ll admit. I didn’t expect you to be so …calm,”  Eden said, puzzled. “You weren’t when last we met.” The familiar lilt of her accent was still present.
    “Your parting gifts gave me a lot to think about,” Xander replied. “Though your choice of handing off the vamps to the Black God seems nearsighted.”
    “From molten metal to the tempered steel of a blade,” Eden replied. “You’re more dangerous now, aren’t you?”
    “More cautious as well.”
    Eden smiled. “I didn’t turn over the vamps to the Black God. You can thank the Original Watcher for screwing up that one.”
    “You must be happy,” Xander continued, not surprised to find another Original involved in his years of torture. “You wanted the threat to the mortal realm gone, and now it is.”
    “That was my goal. I wish I’d been involved in the latest war to protect my kind. I guess that’s the punishment for our roles in the Schism – being pushed aside and forced to watch,” Eden said, referring to the war that severed the two realms completely from one another. It took the magic of all the Original Beings to support the cause Eden had dedicated her life to.
    It’s what earned all the Originals their ten thousand year prison terms.
    Eden was troubled. Xander didn’t expect to see the emotion from the woman who all-but-raised him.
    “What’re you doing here, Eden?” he asked.
    “Curiosity. Boredom.” Eden said, gaze stormy. “I remember you differently.”
    “Born a predator, turned into a killer by none other than you.”
    “Exactly. Not sure what you are now.”
    “You created this version of me as well.”
    “Do you hate me for it?”
    Xander considered for a moment. “I don’t open wounds that are healed, Eden.”
    “Good philosophy to have. Humans are a little different. We tend to never forget.”
    “What do you want?”
    Eden leaned back. “I guess to ask you another question, if you’ll answer.”
    “No guarantees.”
    “Understood, son. I spent my eternity dedicated to protecting the human realm from the immortal one. It fell, and I had nothing to do with it, but I’ll be Machiavellian about it and simply appreciate the end result,” Eden said and then paused. She was pensive for a moment. “You lived for nothing but revenge. You got your vengeance, just as I saw my goal realized. What comes next?”
    “You sought me out for advice?” Xander asked with a laugh.
    “We are all that remain from our time. Tell me you did not seek out Jule when you stumbled back into this realm.”
    Xander was silent, recalling how Eden always found a way to push past his defenses enough to manipulate him. Older and wiser, Xander was aware of what she did now, just as he was starting to understand the identity crisis that caused Eden to seek him