The Grey God

"Trying not to touch anything," Dusty replied. "I'm being stalked. Every inch of this city is crawling with vamps. Perfect place for my new HQ, if I can find the right place."

"At least there's no snow here. I'm sick of the cold weather."

"I doubt you came here to escape the cold." He leveled his blue gaze on her. "You came here to escape something else, though."

"Technically I think I'm running from me," she admitted. "Kind of pointless. I just wanted someone to talk to and thought of you first."

"I got time," he said and sat down in a chair near the windows. "If you're gonna cry, go see Jule. I don't deal with that shit." His faint smile softened the words.

"It's not that bad," she said. "It's about … Darian."

Dusty sighed. "He's normal now, I hear."

"As normal as he'll ever be."

"He couldn't be normal when I was stuck with him," Dusty said and muttered a few curses. As the brother charged with watching over Darian, Dusty had been responsible for keeping the Grey God from killing himself and others during his angry teenager stage. Jenn tried not to smile, recalling how frazzled the normally cold, organized assassin had been for months as he tried to juggle fighting the Black God with a teenage god.

"You raised him well."

"I hope I beat some sense into him. It'll surprise me if I did," Dusty said.

"You did. He turned out well."

"Obviously not, if you're here."

"It's nothing he did," she said, looking down.

"Did you try to kill him or something? I wouldn't worry too much, if so."

Jenn chuckled and shook her head.

"This is like a game show. You came here running from yourself and said it's about Darian," Dusty summarized. "I think I understand now. You're falling for him."

"No. I mean it's not like that."

"Not like what?"

"I don't know, Dusty!"

"Start from the beginning."

"There's no beginning to start from," she said, frustrated. "It's nothing. I just got freaked out. It's nothing. Really. It's gone now."

He studied her hard. Jenn rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. If her mind wasn't so scattered, she'd have thought it odd he expressed none of the surprise she expected.