Read The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series) for Free Online

began to clog the
boardwalk. He strolled down the wide sidewalks, observing those
around him with absent interest before turning his gaze to the bay.
His heightened senses would pick up a Natural, Guardian or vamp a
mile before he saw them. He was reading none of them around, just
normal humans strolling along with loved ones, completely unaware
of who he was. Of what he was.
    He still found it strange how he could mix
and mingle with people and no one suspected how different he was.
The world of the Black God had started off surreal. Now, it was the
everyday life of a human he could no longer imagine. With
immortality all but promised to him, he stopped seeking friendships
or family outside the circle of vamps. It hurt too much to lose
someone, and pain became a distraction he didn’t need. Explaining
to an outsider who he was and what he did wasn’t even an
option.
    But every once in a while, he experienced an
ache of loneliness, the yearning to be normal, to form
relationships with others who weren’t monsters, to pursue college
instead of figuring out how to rein in mutinous vamps.
    He paused at the railing and gazed at the
ocean, trying to block the human remorse in his heart and refocus
on his duty. Because that’s all he had become when he killed the
last Black God to take his place. He had become a creature bound by
duty whose personal interests were no longer important. There was
no place for emotions or doubt or mercy, not when such human
weaknesses stood in the way of defeating his enemies and were
interpreted as cowardice to the vamps he led. The civil war was a
greater threat than the White God, and one he felt personally
responsible for after how long it’d taken him to accept his
duty.
    Jonny began walking again, irritated by the
sea of humanity he had once been a part of. He arrived to the
warehouse just as dusk overtook the sky. He could see as well in
the dark as he could in the day, though he saw in gray scale rather
than color. It was another unique gift for the creature charged
with leading nocturnal predators.
    He entered the warehouse where the vamps had
been bringing their dinners. The faint scent of vamp and human
blood reached him, along with the scurrying of some small animal.
He walked around the area where the scent of blood lingered without
finding any sign the talisman he sought had been accidentally
knocked out of a vamp’s hand and forgotten.
    I’ve had no fucking luck the past five
years.
    The vamps and their food and attacker had
all left through the same door and taken the same path away from
the warehouse. He followed the footsteps and opened the door to
step into the narrow alley, scanning the area for the talisman. He
almost hoped a clumsy vamp had dropped it, even if such an
oversight was punishable for sheer stupidity.
    The tool was nowhere in sight. Jonny
searched the area visually. He turned towards the boardwalk and
began walking. In the dying light of the sun, he caught a glint of
something tiny and metal.
    He bent to pull the necklace from the
crevice where it had fallen.
    Jonny lifted the necklace
with an A charm,
and his heart skipped a beat. It’s not
possible. He had seen it four years before
around the neck of the girl he thought of sometimes.
    It was Ashley’s. Or at least, she had one
like it. A Natural, she was a ward of Xander’s – completely
untouchable. Jonny racked his brain to recall what he knew of her
Natural gift before realizing he had no idea what she and her
brother were capable of. In the time they spent together, he’d
never had the chance or motivation to test her to find out. She was
able to Travel, but such an ability was normally secondary to a
Natural.
    She could be anything. Natural gifts were
hereditary, and he knew nothing about her parents, although Xander
had once told him their grandfather was a Watcher. Jonny hadn’t had
the need to understand what abilities a Watcher had, but it was
likely the reason Ashley’s guardian, Jessi, was