Lizzy Ford Read online

  Xander engaged his senses and trotted through the nearly vacant streets. The tavern where the woman told him to go was in the center of the city. He slowed as he neared the tavern, taking in the amount of armed men gathered outside at such an early time. His eyes spotted the form he sought, and he wove his way through the crowd, trailing her down a quiet side street.

  The stranger turned, her bright eyes on Xander. She didn’t seem surprised to see him. She had a new cloak, one that appeared as soft as her other one. Aware of his dirty appearance, Xander wiped his hands on his worn breeches.

  “You’ve made a decision?”

  Xander nodded. “I want revenge.”

  “Good.” That smile again, the one that scared him, crossed the stranger’s face. “Where we are going, you don’t need your mask. My men will not harm you. From this day forward, you will never have to hide again.”

  Xander reached up slowly. He pushed the hood back first and shivered at the breeze that ruffled his dark hair. Peeling off the mask, he waited for the world to crash down around him and people to lynch him.

  Nothing happened. The indirect sun was warm on his face, and he was surprised how much better he was able to see the world without the depths of the hood hindering him. He dropped the mask on the ground.

  “Have you ever heard of a human, boy?” the woman asked him.

  “No.”

  “They are the barbarians I told you about. We will conquer them and return here, once we have created an army.”

  “To kill my father.”

  “Yes.”

  The rage stirred and with it, Xander’s fangs. The image of his mother lying serenely in the grave he made her was engraved in his mind. There was nothing that would stop him from punishing the man who left his mother to die alone.

  “Are you ready?” the stranger asked. “I will teach you to kill without mercy and turn the humans into obedient beasts. Together, we will teach your father that betrayal is rewarded with vengeance.”

  Xander nodded. No one will ever betray me again.

  “Come with me.”

  She led him into the tavern and up a narrow stone stairwell that went to the roof. They emerged into the morning sun, and Xander shielded his delicate eyes from the brightness.

  They went to the edge of the stone roof. From this point, Xander was able to see most of the city, including the white dome of the palace at its center that marked the home of one of the three Gods that ruled the immortal realm. He’d never been to the middle of the city, mainly because it was walled off and guarded. He didn’t know what lay inside the dome, but he saw how large of an area it incorporated. It was where he was birthed and spent only a few weeks before his mother was cast out.

  Pain registered once more.

  “There are two realms, boy, the human realm and ours. Right now, we are not strong enough for our vengeance,” the woman spoke softly. A fire was in her eyes, the cold smile on her face again. “In the human realm, you will grow powerful. Do you know what happens then?”

  “I kill my father.”

  “Yes, boy, you will. You will become the man who slaughters the Grey God.”

  Xander gazed up at the stranger. “How do you know all this?”

  “I’m an Oracle, a creature from the human realm who has the ability to see the future. My name is Eden.”

  “I will grow strong enough to face a God?” Xander asked.

  “Why else do you think your father threw you out? You will become more powerful than him.”

  Xander focused on the dome. He would make his father pay for tossing them out.

  “The next time we stand here, you will have marched through his streets with my army at your back and claimed his life. The streets will be awash with blood. You will become so strong, no one will ever be able to hurt you again. Would you like that?”

  “Yes, ikira Eden,” Xander said quickly. “What must I do?”

  Eden was silent, but that smile again was on her face.

  Chapter Two

  Twenty years later

  Immortal world

  Eden stood on top of the tavern overlooking the immortal city of the Grey God. The two visions that haunted her since she was a child were forefront in her mind. As an Oracle, she’d foreseen this moment in time, as well as another. Both were possible, until this very moment, where she would know if her efforts to save her world succeeded.

  She paced along the rooftop, waiting for the dreaded vision to fade. In order to prevent the destruction of the human world, she’d taken an aggressive, borderline reckless, course of action. One that had to pay off. She, Eden, the Original Human, would be the one who saved the human realm by killing the Gatekeeper, the God who maintained the bridges between worlds. With the bridges open, the threat she’d foreseen was going to overtake the human world.

  “What happens next?”

  She spun. The man before her – a Watcher by his glowing green eyes and the Original Watcher by his unusual height of nearly six feet – was smiling. One of two immortal sects whose war threatened the realms, the Watchers were supposed to keep their noses and hands out of human affairs.

  “The Grey God falls, and my kind is safe,” she replied instantly.

  “No, Eden, what happens next?”

  She knew what he was asking. With a unique vantage point into the world, the Watchers were able to perceive what she couldn’t. She was an Oracle, a human with the spotty ability to predict the future. The gift served her well. It let her amass an army unlike any that had ever existed and showed her the key to victory.

  However, here was where the gift’s usefulness ended.

  “I’ve had no other visions,” she said. “Nothing beyond this moment.”

  “Do you ever wonder why?”

  “Certainly. But clearly, I am meant to be here, now, to fulfill this destiny.”

  “Your involvement doesn’t end here, not if you want anyone to live through this.”

  Eden studied him then faced the dome marking the Grey God’s palace. She strode to the edge of the roof. The streets of the city were littered with dead. The armies of vampires spared no one. Warriors, women, infirmed, elderly, children. All fell beneath the creatures she created in the human realm and used the bridges to cross into this one. The city would be completely dead before morning, decimated within a day.

  “It is what it is,” she said.

  “Is it?” the Original Watcher asked. “There are only five of us Original Beings meant to exist. The Human, Watcher, Other, as-yet unborn Immortal and Vampire. Only one is a predator.”

  “He kills out of necessity,” she said.

  “You fed a predator human blood, and then you removed any kind of restraint standing between him and his nature.”

  Eden said nothing. She wasn’t certain where her perfect killer was right now. Assuming she’d done all she was supposed to in order to achieve her goal, she would know his location within minutes.

  “You have become the only thing holding him back. You replaced his mother; it’s how he views you.”

  “He is no threat to me. You fear for your own life, Watcher?”

  “We Originals cannot kill one another without destroying the worlds,” the Watcher said.

  No sense of humor, Eden said to herself.

  “I am simply curious at what cost you are willing to pursue your goal. You cannot see it, but I can see what happens next.”

  “Pray tell.”

  “You have the ability and the army to protect your realm and seize them both, if you desire.”

  “Good,” she said, pleased.

  “I’m not the only one who knows this,” he said, smiling. “The Watchers and their sworn enemies, the Others, are uniting. The Black God and White God are becoming allies. Combined, they have the power to stop you.”

  “Let them come.”

  “They won’t come for you.”

  Eden’s attention shifted from the blood-soaked city to the creature beside her. She tested her vision on
ce more. It showed her nothing.

  “Humans are afforded special protections in most cases. You’re safe,” he added. “Vampires?” He shrugged.

  “They are inconsequential. Non-sentient beasts that kill,” she replied.

  “They were human once,” he reminded her.

  “There are sacrifices in any military campaign.”

  “You are driven by something other than power. I cannot say the same for your precious Original Vamp.”

  One vision shimmered in her mind. Eden held her breath. The image of her world being destroyed was hazy, fading.

  Gone.

  Xander succeeded in slaughtering his father, the Grey God.

  The sudden release of the pressure built up over a lifetime made her too weak to stand. Eden dropped to her knees and closed her eyes. She released a deep breath then sucked in the humid air. Had she ever been able to breathe without the vise of her destiny squeezing her chest?

  “It’s done,” she whispered. “My world is safe.”

  “What happens next?”

  “I’ll take what I want from your realm, Watcher.”

  “Then you will lose the only other thing you hold dear. There is a reason your Sight brought you here and no further. You have to choose, human.”

  “I’m not afraid of your alliance. Nothing can stand between Xander and victory.”

  “On that point, you are correct. Nothing will stand between Xander and turning the worlds into this level of destruction. Nothing but you.”

  “Sacrifice is –“

  “You saved the human world. You won’t let anyone – even him – destroy it.”

  “We’ll return to the mortal world and live normal lives. He will do as I say.”

  “For now.”

  Irritated, Eden’s eyes cracked open. It was her moment of triumph. For the first time in her life, she didn’t want to think about what happened next. She wanted to sit in this moment and relish it, take pride in the fact she achieved an incredible victory, even if those she did it for would never know.

  “I am here, because we Originals are obligated to one another.” The Watcher knelt beside her. “You have what you want. If you don’t stop now, there will be nothing left. The boy you adopted is now an animal without restraint.”

  “I don’t intend to destroy your precious world,” she snapped. “I only wish to save mine.”

  “Which you’ve done. Now, you have an obligation to the monster you created. Put the leash back on him or the Watchers and Others will kill him. It might take every last one of them to do it, but they’re willing to.”

  “You’re threatening my Xander?”

  “I’m telling you the future I See. If you don’t cage him now, you lose the ability to curb the animalistic side of him. You will conquer the worlds. He will die. You are a fan of choices, Eden,” the Watcher continued. “Choose. Does he live or does he die?”

  “What kind of monster refuses to kill women? You have no idea what Xander is.”

  “Answer my question. Does he live or die?”

  Her heart was beating fast. She didn’t fully understand why. She knew what Xander was; after all, she was the one who taught him war and bloodlust. It was the only way to build the army she needed to protect her world. The ten-year-old child she adopted and turned into a killer started as a weapon with no more attachment to her than a sword or dagger. As the years passed, their relationship transitioned from master and weapon into something different. Their armies thought they were mother and son, and she stopped denying Xander was anything else.

  She was the one who healed his wounds until he was old enough to do it on his own. She brought him humans to feed off of and – in the lean years where they’d been struggling to survive – she let him drink from her. In the twenty years since she took him in, she was the only one to offer him protection and respect. The humans and immortals alike reviled him and what he did. Those he didn’t kill, he turned into vampires like the ones she’d let loose on the Grey God’s city.

  What did happen to a weapon after a victor won his war? What if that weapon had a taste for blood and didn’t want to stop? She unleashed him without any intention of reining him in again.

  She touched the small, velvet pouch at her waist. Inside was the red gem, Xander’s only belonging, that he’d kept once his mother died. Every campaign, he gave it to her for safekeeping, in case the weapon of an enemy severed the leather cord and it was lost.

  The Watcher was wrong. There were two things capable of keeping Xander from falling completely to his nature. She was one; the memory of his real mother the second.

  “Which of the immortals sent you?” she asked the Watcher.

  “Do you think they’d give you a chance to save that creature?”

  Protective anger stirred at his dismissive tone.

  “He slaughters without mercy and control. You alone want him alive. Neither world would be worse off, if he was gone.”

  Not true.

  “He was not always a beast,” the Watcher mused. “Do you remember what he was before you trained him to kill?”

  Eden’s jaw clenched. She remembered the strong, thoughtful little boy whose life she decided to sacrifice for her cause. There was a time she had some heartache about trading his innocence for blood. That time passed, when she saw how dedicated he was to doing whatever it took to reach his opportunity for vengeance. He was as strong as she was in that way, willing to sacrifice anyone and anything.

  “Leave me, Watcher,” she ordered.

  The Watcher obeyed. Eden sensed she would only get one warning from any of the immortals who now wanted her Xander dead. There was some logic to the Original Watcher’s statements; Xander was all-but-lost to his bloodlust. She created that side of him for her purposes without considering what happened, once she saved her world.

  He was a menace. He knew no discipline or restraint. He didn’t understand the difference between an immortal warrior and a human child, between opponent and innocent. All were traits she developed in him that made him the perfect warrior, insatiable for blood, merciless and ambitious. He knew one way of life, and that way had no place in the peaceful society she hoped to return to.

  Even admitting this, she didn’t believe he was an animal. Animals didn’t protect a necklace belonging to their mother or insist their adopted-mother stay where it was safe.

  They didn’t decimate cities out of a sense of vengeance, either.

  No, Eden definitely didn’t want to think about what happened next. If not for the attachment she let grow to Xander, she wouldn’t be concerned about tomorrow at all. Simply surviving was enough.

  Deep in thought, Eden was unaware of how much time passed. She heard him approach from the direction of the stairs some time later.

  “The smell of blood is in the air.” Xander’s honeyed growl was low and rich. “It’s done.”

  “How does it feel, boy?” she asked gruffly.

  “I drank him dry. I took his mind and made him live through it. Gods, it was better than I imagined! His wife, his daughters, his brothers. I spared no one, but their fates were as painful as I was able to make them.”

  “You are all that remains of him.”

  “This world is all that remains of him.”

  Xander came into her line of sight then. He appeared as if he’d been rolling in blood; he was soaked through with it, his eyes glowing with the wildness of bloodlust. A head taller than her tallest warrior, Xander was thick yet agile, his bulging physique covered in skin the same shade of bronze as hers. His fangs were out.

  “I want to crush every last piece of it.” His voice held a familiar fury, one she thought would die with his father. He strode to the edge of the tavern.

  “We’ve accomplished what we came for.”

  “We’re not stopping.” He faced her. “Look how easy the city fell. I can take the Black God next and the White God. There will be nothing standing when we –“

  Eden listened. His eyes flashed br
ight red, his arms gesturing to the world around as he spoke. Hunger was in his face. Xander stopped speaking and was pacing restlessly, as if ready to fight again already.

  “I grow stronger with each one I turn or kill,” he said, looking at his hands. “In a thousand lives, how much more can I do? In ten thousand? In a hundred thousand? I will be stronger than all three Gods combined.”

  “Is that what you want?” Eden asked.

  “What else is there?” He barked a laugh. “We are beyond powerful now, ikira.”

  “The goal was to protect my world.”

  “Why stop there when we can take what we want from either world?”

  Eden’s thoughts grew darker. No, she didn’t think beyond the day her journey was over. There was no dulling Xander’s thirst for war and blood like she might retire a sword. She reached into the velvet pouch.

  “Because the worlds will end up like this,” she said, indicating the city. “There will be nothing left.”

  “No one to oppose us. Absolute power, ikira. Is that not what you taught me?”

  “It is,” she agreed. “But I value life as well, Xander.”

  He looked at her blankly.

  “It’s why I’ve done what I have,” she explained. “I chose to sacrifice a few to save an entire world.”

  “We have the skill and the strategy. You taught me how to build armies and manage campaigns. Why save a world when we can rule them?”

  “It was never my intention to rule.”

  “We will show the worlds the same mercy they showed me. Each life makes me stronger.” Xander continued, not hearing her. “I want … I need more, ikira. We can destroy this world and return to yours to rule. Is that not what you wanted?”

  He was right. If the immortal world posed a threat to hers now, it might again in the future. She could permanently ensure there was never a chance of such danger. It would only cost her Xander.

  Do you remember what he was before you trained him to kill?

  Eden watched the pacing predator, admiring the warrior he had turned into while struggling with a new emotion. No, he was more than a weapon. Xander had long ago become her son.

  She didn’t like the feeling; she didn’t believe in attachments, not when she was focused on protecting her world from others. Attachments were vulnerabilities, distractions. Even so, she found herself furious at the idea of anyone hurting him.