"Damian will die next. My daughter is the ruler of the immortal world," her father said.
"Whore, kill your father."
Claire's body rose and grabbed an axe. She fought the invasion, unable to control her own motions.
"Father, run!" she cried. "I can't control-"
Her first strike slammed into her father's head, cleaving straight through it. Claire screamed, unable to pry her hands free of the axe's handle. She struck him again and again. When she tried to close her eyes, the magic controlling her body forced them open again. Over and over, she hacked her father into pieces, sobbing and screaming.
Finally, the magic left her. She dropped to her knees between the two bloodied corpses, hoarse from screaming. The ground still trembled, and trees fell in the distance. The stranger stepped next to her, surveying the damage. He hefted an axe.
"Please don't," she whispered. "I'll do anything. Please don't kill me."
He crouched beside her, his cold smile filling her with a fear unlike any she'd felt before.
"I have plans for you, my sweet Claire. You will do anything for me. Starting now."
He snatched her and sank his fangs into her neck. Claire screamed again, batting at him in desperation to escape. The man didn't let her go until her world grew dark. She dropped to the ground, senseless.
"I'll be back for you, love," the man said. "You're mine now, and so is your lover."
Fading in and out of consciousness, Claire blinked to try to clear her vision. "Who … what are you?"
He fished around in the remains of Darian and yanked free something that glimmered silver in the early morning light. She recognized the necklace that marked Darian as the White God. The man tossed it on the body of her dead father. He leaned over to her and yanked off the necklace marking her as the mate of the White God.
"I'm Czerno, the Black God, your new master and mate," he said. "You disabled my greatest enemy for me. I've got a deal with a certain faction of immortals to bring him back to life and keep him around until I need him. You, love, I have more than one use for. I'll enjoy fucking you for eternity."
Czerno. Claire heard the rest of his words without registering them. Immobilized, fear rose within her as she watched the Black God lift Darian's bloody form from the ground. He disappeared. He hadn't been gone long before another form came into her view. Too weak to focus, she didn't know who it was until he'd knelt beside her.