"Then who was it?" Dusty asked with a frown.
"My money's on Talon."
"Makes sense, since he knew I was there," he muttered.
"No, boss, he didn't. Czerno, not Talon, sent the vamps to your condo building for Bianca. Talon would've been happy blowing her up, if she'd been there, but Czerno wants her. Dusty, we found out why he wants to keep her close. Jonny is some rare Natural who can kill a god."
"Talon wants Jonny to kill the Black God, and the Black God wants Bianca to make sure he doesn't die," Dusty summarized, surprised.
"Bingo."
"Tell no one of this," he said. "Whatever you found, keep it to yourself. No more conversations on the phone, no reports. If this is true, Jonny is worth destroying a city for any vamp with an itch to off the Black God. Bring Jonny here. Now."
"Sure, boss. I also checked on Toni. He's in bad shape, but he's alive."
"My only piece of good news today." He hung up and lifted his chin at Speck, who obeyed the silent command to leave. Dusty looked around the gym, sensing it was beyond time for him to admit he couldn't prevent what was coming. He flipped through the address book in his phone and dialed the Watcher.
"You almost waited too long," the mysterious creature said from behind him.
Dusty braced himself and turned to face the grandfatherly figure with a smile and emerald eyes standing in the corner.
"No bullshit, Watcher, or you can watch me fuck up the rest of the universe," he warned. "How can Jonny kill Czerno?"
"It's an interesting time to be here," the Watcher said. "Oracles, healers, many of which haven't been seen since the ancient times. In the ancient times, there were also God-slayers, men of a special kind who were bred and raised by the Gods for immortal wars. They possessed a unique gift, the ability to kill an immortal without being an immortal. The Gods raised them like sheep, because men were more plentiful and more easily replaced than immortals. The trick was to breed men who could kill immortals without ever allowing them to become immortals themselves. If they did, their gift was elevated and what made them dangerous to immortals then made them dangerous to the Gods. The White and Black Gods never allowed the slayers to become immortal, no matter how bloodthirsty they were."
"Jonny's a god-slayer. Talon wants him to kill Czerno, but wouldn't that make Jonny the Black God and not Talon?" Dusty asked.
"There's a way Talon could," the Watcher replied. "There's a transfer of power from the moment a Black God dies and his successor takes his place. If Talon killed Jonny during that split second of vulnerability, before Jonny gained Czerno's powers, he could become the Black God."