"I'll send Sofi your love."

"Fuck you, Jule."

Jule laughed. He disappeared as quietly as he appeared. Xander suspected the Oracle warned him only because it interfered in her plans for him. At least, that's what he'd do. She promised to make his fate hell the last time they met. Uneasily, he was forced to admit she had the power.

Xander hated the idea of not being in control. His agenda was one born of experience: if the scales between the White and Black Gods tipped too far one way, life was bad. So he nudged the scales back in the right direction, sometimes pushing evil, sometimes good, sometimes pissing off both. After all, he was the single most powerful immortal on the planet, and the oldest. No one else gave a shit about the Original Vamp, unless to kill him. If he kept their attention divided and their focus on their turf wars, he was largely overlooked.

Xander hated - but respected - Sofi. She promised personal vengeance against him but not at the expense of the loss of other lives. It was her catch-twenty-two: she needed him alive to use him as a tool to nudge the scales. He needed her insight, for when he wasn't able to see outside his narrow lane. It gave him some level of confidence that her warning was one born of necessity, not idle speculation.

It was bad news for him, though, if the Oracle who hated him felt the need to warn him. Xander spent another moment in pensive silence before he rose.

He might need to pay the Oracle a visit.

But not today.

Someone else tripped the wards marking his territory of Southern California, someone he didn't expect to be alive. Of the five Original Beings, he only knew where one was. The others he hoped had died when the immortal world was destroyed months ago by the Grey God. He'd never be able to sense the Original Other or Original Watcher, since they were able to move without detection by anyone, even their own kind.

The Original Human, however, just crossed into his territory. Xander let his instincts take him to the latest unwelcome creature to interfere with his world. He Traveled to a quiet playground, eyes settling on the woman seated on a bench.

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Xander wasn't the only to notice. No sooner had he appeared than the Grey God himself materialized. Wiry and lean, Darian's golden gaze was identical to that of his brother, the White God. The Grey God was known as the Gatekeeper, the God responsible for tracking and managing the immortals in the human realm.




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