The Grey God

"Are you crazy? You want to go into Jonny's lair?"

"I don't know what you told that kid, but he marched into Damian's study and demanded I fix his Others problems." He held out a hand.

"I would've loved to see that conversation," Jenn said, unable to keep from smiling at the picture in her head. She accepted Darian's hand, and he pulled her up. "But you're here. So Damian agreed?"

"Damian traded me, like he did you. Odd, I didn't think a god could be traded." There was bemusement in Darian's voice. Jenn knew how strong the relationship was between the brothers. Darian wasn't capable of begrudging Damian for anything he did.

"If Jonny got you, then what did Damian … Xander. Oh, thank god," she said, sighing. "I no longer feel like meat dangling over a hungry lion's cage."

"You're happy about being surrounded by one less vamp?"

"You have no idea what it's like being around someone just waiting to snap and take you out." Jenn sheathed her weapons and started down the peak above the Black God's mountain fortress.

"I think I do," Darian said.

Jenn glanced over her shoulder. Darian looked unusually calm. He'd changed again over the course of the two weeks she'd been assigned to the Black God. Though she expected him to continue the rapid cycle of changes, she couldn't help feeling this metamorphosis was different. She'd watched him go from a near-comatose state, through his teenager stage that nearly drove them all mad, to the gym-obsessed warrior trying to understand his place in the world. But this felt permanent. Little of the darkness that plagued him was visible in his handsome features and gaze. His wiry body was honed and ready to pounce, his golden eyes taking in the world around him with wary curiosity.

No, this wasn't the same man she'd left behind two weeks ago. This was Darian, not the shell of a man whose mind was stuck somewhere else. Like Jonny, he'd grown into what he was virtually overnight.

"So, what do you do around here all day?" Darian asked, taking in the vamps outside the doorway of the Black God's fortress.

"Try to keep Jonny focused on his vamps and not on dragging me to his bed. Kill a vamp or two when it gets in my way. Burn the bodies of Jonny's girl-toys. Avoid Xander. Spar. Oh, and try to stay alive," she summarized. "The vamps only try shit when Jonny and Xander aren't around. They have a standing order not to touch me, but they can make it look like an accident."