"Hand it over, or I'll break you in half then feed you to Talon," he ordered. She obliged quickly, tensing as she waited for him to finish with her phone. "Who is the other?"
She hesitated, and pain spun through her as the pressure of his knee increased.
"I don't know who he is! He came to me when I was a little girl, and the Watcher ran him off. I just saw him with Talon!" she exclaimed.
"Describe him."
"A man with purple eyes."
The Black God growled low in his chest, an inhuman sound. He clamped a hand around the back of her neck and yanked her to her feet.
"Say anything to anyone else, and you'll spend eternity in the greatest agony I can create."
She managed a nod at the eyes that had grown darker than the sky. He released her and tucked the phone in his pocket. Dismayed, she shuddered from cold and fear. He said nothing to Talon, gave no trace he knew something was wrong. Yet she knew when his fury unleashed, he'd be as merciless as Dusty was with vamps.
I did it, Watcher. Not on purpose, but it's done!
"It's time," the Black God said over his shoulder.
Talon hurried over. The Black God ignored him and turned to her, a cold smile crossing his face. He held out a hand. She shuddered to her core at the evil peering through his gaze, feeling very much like the devil was offering her a deal without telling her the price. Heart quickening, she crossed to him and accepted his hand. Talon looked from the Black God to her, fire in his gaze.
She had no choice but to trust the devil.
*****
It's time, his sister told him.
Dusty didn't remember dozing off but snapped awake. His sister's warning came an hour after he last remembered looking at the clock. He pushed himself out of bed and stood for a long moment, gazing out the window at the fields of winter wheat glowing in the moonlight. His light was off, a sign he'd been sleeping too hard to notice someone come in.
Two hours before dawn. He replaced his weapons and washed his face, feeling very much like this was to be his last day alive. His jaw clenched as he thought again of Bianca. He felt the loss already, a pain similar to the loss of his sister so many years ago. He stepped into a hall with streams of Guardians preparing for the dawn raid. The warm farmhouse smelled of gun oil and breakfast. A form loitering against one wall straightened as he started towards the stairs.