“The naturi and the bori are attracted to power. They believe that more power is the only thing that will give them an edge over the other, and thus the ability to wipe out the other,” Nick explained.
“So what kind of power could have attracted them both into a cage?”
“How about a pair of fallen gods?”
I sat back in my chair, speechless as I tried to wrap my brain around the thought. “You sacrificed two of your own to capture the naturi and the bori?”
“No!” he shouted, slamming his fist on the table. “They made the sacrifice. They made the choice to go into the cages and act as bait for those bastards. It’s their powers, their souls, that are keeping the cages from breaking down.”
“But the naturi cage is breaking down,” I said, hating the words as they came out of my mouth. I didn’t need to throw more wood on the fire burning in his glowing lavender eyes.
“That’s because she’s dying without her mate.”
“Which gods were they?”
“The creator gods. The first gods.” Nick looked down at his hands, which were folded in his lap. “They need each other for strength and stability. They have been separated for a very long time.”
“They were the first?”
“Born from the Earth herself,” he declared with a faint smile. “The Pagans referred to them as Freya and Woden, but they truly have no names. They were simply the first gods, and then came the other gods, and then the humans. The naturi and bori were later created to keep a balance with the humans, but it was a mistake. The two were constantly at war with each other no matter what the gods ordered. They had been made too powerful in their own right.”
“So the first gods sacrificed themselves by locking themselves with the naturi and bori in cages. The cages have been feeding off their powers. The naturi and bori have been feeding off their powers, weakening because they’ve been kept apart from each other and the earth.”
Nick gave a short little chuckle. “There is hope for you yet.”
“Will they die?”
“Eventually, if someone doesn’t take their place.”
“And if they die, then the cages will break and the remaining naturi and all the bori will be set free again.”
“Yes.”
“But you said that the gods were half dead. How can anyone take their place?”
Nick gave a twisted little smirk and shook his head at me. “They can’t.” My father pushed out of his chair and gave a pull at his jacket to straighten it. I remained lounging in my chair, turning over the dark information he had already handed to me. “And before you can ask, yes, the reason the gods are half dead and nearly forgotten from this world is because the first gods are gone from it. Their sacrifice nearly killed us all as well.”
“But you’re looking for a way to make a comeback,” I said, bringing a smile back to his lips. “And I’m sure that you’re not the only one.”
“Definitely not. But I wouldn’t get any ideas of finding some outside help. None of the other remaining gods are half as forgiving or generous as I am.”
“I’m sure,” I said sarcastically.
Nick started to turn away from me, but paused and turned back, scratching the tip of his nose. “And before I forget. Your nights with that bori bastard are growing short.”
“What?” I demanded, trying to lunge out of my seat, but a wave of his hand succeeded in pushing me back down. I started pulling the energy back toward me again, ready for another fight with my father, but he only shook his head in warning.
“He can control you, and I won’t allow it.”
“Danaus won’t control me,” I argued, tightly gripping the arms of the chair. “We’re on the same side. He doesn’t want to control me.”
“You’re on the same side for now. Considering your past relationships, I have a feeling that truce could end very quickly, and then you will have no choice but to kill him.”
“Then let’s wait for that truce to end naturally,” I argued, inwardly confident that such a day would not come between Danaus and me. “There’s no reason to kill him now.”
“He’s a distraction.”
“He’s a needed ally in the coming war.”
Nick shook his head at me, refusing to budge from his stance. “He’s a distraction and a threat. His days are numbered, but my main concern is Jabari. Take care of him.” And then, without another word, he disappeared from sight. I scanned the immediate area, but his distinct signature of power was gone. I was alone.
I remained sitting on the patio for several minutes, turning over all the information that Nick had delivered as well as the new extent of my powers. He was right in that I needed to finally be rid of Jabari. The Ancient was not only a threat to myself, but to Danaus and anyone else that mattered to me. I couldn’t allow him to continue to risk their lives just so he could use and manipulate me. It was time for it to end.
But then, Jabari wasn’t my only problem. I needed to get rid of Nick as well. I couldn’t be his pawn any longer. For that matter, I couldn’t be allowed to make him a more powerful creature than he already was. The world was far too fragile at the moment to stand the shake-up he would create. What I needed was someone else that had a similar problem as myself. Nick had intimated on more than one occasion that I wasn’t the only offspring of a god wandering the earth. There had to be another like me, with their share of impressive powers that could aid me in getting rid of a god. And in truth, I already had a solid guess as to where I could find one. The only problem was getting him to go along with any plan that I managed to weave into creation. It was one thing to take on nightwalkers, lycanthropes, and the naturi. It was a completely different story to stand toe-to-toe with a god and expect that you just might live through it.
Sitting on the back patio, I closed my eyes and listened to the breeze as it swept through the trees, rustling the leaves. Crickets chirped softly now that Nick had left and I’d gone completely still in my chair. Around me, energies swirled and flowed, carrying with them burbles of emotions and broken thoughts. I could feel the soft swell of the powers that flowed up from the earth like a mother’s gentle reassuring caress. I knew what I had to do for the first time in my life. The only problem was that I couldn’t bring myself to move. I had so much to lose now. Danaus, Knox, Valerio, all of my people. The Savannah pack. My home here in Savannah. The quiet peace that existed between the occult and the humans. It all was balanced on a precipice, and I knew that if I failed, I would lose it all. It was time to act for the final time.
Twenty-four
Jabari was at the Dark Room. I hadn’t needed Knox to call me with the information as I was driving into Savannah, but the tenseness in his voice told me he was hoping I would do something. When I parked in my usual spot outside the club, I found both the bouncers missing from the front door and a small splatter of blood running down the door frame and pooling on the ground. A frown pulled at the corner of my lips as I wished I had heeded Nick’s advice sooner and dispatched Jabari when I first encountered him. I should have found a way to deal with the Ancient much sooner, despite my lingering feelings for my onetime mentor.
Upon entering, I found the Dark Room nearly deserted; only Danaus and another bartender remained stubbornly at their posts. I had forgotten that it was Danaus’s night to work there, and need not have worried about his imminent arrival while I was with Nick.
Knox was hovering in the doorway that led to the back rooms of the nightclub. He was leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest, a grim expression stretched over his handsome face. For the most part, Knox saw the Dark Room as his little domain within my territory. I left him to maintain the peace within the club when I was not present, and in many ways that peace extended out to most of Savannah. He was my second in command and always would be, despite Danaus’s new position within my life. He not only knew me and my temperament, but also knew Savannah and her nightwalkers very well. Knox was the perfect moderator between myself and the rest of the others that inhabited my domain.