Free The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series) by Lizzy Ford

dispelled any hope she’d had some part of the boy she once
cared about remained.
    He had stopped her seizures and killed vamps
to rescue her, ensuring those she fought never got up again. Why
did this surprise her? Why did she wish he’d never done those
things, never brought her to the beach and held her? Never crossed
her path despite her plan for revenge?
    He was everything she’d hoped he would be –
everything she wanted to hate – and yet she was devastated by it.
His claim never to have cared warning infuriated her, made her want
to spend the next week tracking every vamp in San Diego.
    Except her body was always weak after one of
her epileptic attacks. She was drained, unsettled, and in desperate
need of rest where she was normally strong enough to take on even a
god.
    Jonny was watching her, and she couldn’t
help imagining he wanted to make her his dinner.
    “Where are we?” she asked to break the thick
tension between them.
    “Monterey.” Even his voice had changed. It
was soft and low, befitting the night. “You need to go home.”
    “I can’t Travel anymore,” she shot back. “It
triggers my seizures.”
    “You had epilepsy when we met?”
    She didn’t want to reveal something so
personal. “No,” she said shortly. “When my Natural skill took hold
there were complications.” It had taken Xander and a team of
Guardians to get her through the first year. The trauma of her
experience with Jonny and the Original Other had triggered her and
Brandon’s gifts years before they were supposed to emerge.
Brandon’s mind talent revealed itself easily, but hers had nearly
killed her.
    And Jonny didn’t deserve to know anything
about it.
    Jonny’s cool, level gaze was on her. “I can
take us to San Diego.” He held out his hand.
    Her jaw went slack. “How do you know where I
live?”
    “I visit Xander on occasion.”
    Duh. Xander had told her as much. Relieved Jonny didn’t know
exactly where she lived, she shook her head. “I can make it home
myself.”
    “You don’t have a phone or a ride.”
    “I’d rather hitchhike than go with you.”
Ashley spun away. She wasn’t going to get her revenge this night,
not when she needed to recover from her seizure. Angry with
herself, she was nonetheless relieved to be walking away from the
Black God with little more than scars from his bite and the fire
burning in her blood from a source other than anger. She had
thought anything but anger purged from her system. How did she see
Jonny for the first time in four years and feel her knees go
weak?
    “I’ll let Brandon know where you are.”
    She froze, hating to hear her brother’s name
on Jonny’s tongue. “How do you know how to contact him?” She faced
him once more. As far as she knew, Brandon’s Natural gift kept him
masked from everyone, even Xander.
    “When you went missing, he called me.”
    “He wouldn’t.”
    “I paid him a visit earlier. He assumed I
had you,” Jonny explained.
    “Paid him a visit? If you hurt him …”
    “I didn’t. Just a friendly warning.”
    She touched her neck self-consciously.
    “Not the same kind. I went back to claim the
phone you’d stolen,” Jonny said, amused. “I’d be interested in
knowing how he got my number.”
    “He’s a hacker. He can do shit like
that.”
    “Hmm. Useful gift.”
    “Don’t you dare!” she approached him,
stopping toe-to-toe to glare up at the Black God. “You don’t go
near him, Jonny. I’m the one messing with your vamps.”
    “Then I suggest you keep in mind I know
where you both live,” Jonny replied softly.
    “Nothing on this planet will stop me from
finding you if you laid a hand on him! Even you can’t match me
fighting.”
    “No, but I’ll catch you when you have
another seizure.”
    Her face flamed hot. “I don’t have them
often.”
    “Weekly, according to your body.”
    She stepped back. She knew from her cousin
Jessi a vamp as powerful as Jonny or Xander was able to access
someone’s mind