Jule pulled his hands free from the handcuffs and tugged the blanket up. He'd been afraid of scaring the beautiful redhead away if she saw he was free. The scent of her lotion still hung in the room, and he breathed the amber-vanilla deeply. He couldn't remember the last time he'd found any woman so intriguing. She wasn't the threat the Watcher made her out to be. She was unguarded and troubled, a combination that appealed to the Guardian in him.
She was worried about him, and he was touched by the idea she took pity on him when she herself was in more danger than he was. The sight of her bruised cheek made his blood boil. The Others had no mercy for mortals, and Jule couldn't imagine what it was like to be raised by one.
The Other had left him no food after beating the crap out of him with his otherworldly power. Jule wrapped himself in the blanket and stretched out on the floor, hungry and chilled.
"Your target is in this house, and you're going to lay there?"
He ignored the irritated Watcher and shrugged deeper into his blanket.
"You have no intention of killing her, do you?"
"Nope," Jule replied.
"If you don't, you will set into motion a fate we cannot-"
"There is no such thing as a fate that cannot be changed, Watcher!" Jule snapped. "You know this. Why do you and the Others both want her?"
"The Others …" The Watcher drew a deep breath. "Your mission is to kill her. If you can't do it, you get none of your powers back. And neither will any of the other Guardians. That was our deal. When she's dead, only then will you and the Guardians all get your powers back."
Jule was silent, realizing he had made that deal. He kicked himself mentally for not thinking before he made any sort of pact with the Watcher, even one that seemed so straightforward, until he met his target and realized she was an innocent caught in the crossfire.
"A powerful innocent," the Watcher corrected him. "Without their powers your Guardians will be slaughtered by the Black God. What is her life in exchange for thousands of Guardians and the humans they're protecting? It's not worth it, any way you look at it."
"If her death is so important, and I've already failed once to take her life, you'd call in someone else to do this job," Jule reasoned. "You have infinite immortals at your disposal."