The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series) by Lizzy Ford

spread out all over
the world,” the hacker reported. “Their ages range from five years
to seventy.”
    “Narrow it down to ages eighteen to forty or
so,” Jonny instructed. “Healthy enough to survive being
vamped.”
    “Fourteen.”
    “Send me and Charles the list.”
    “Got it. There’s a chance they’ll notice
we’re in the database, depending on their security measures,” the
hacker said. “You want me to mirror the database?”
    “Yeah. And anyone we identify, can you take
them out of the database or mark them as dead or similar?”
    Stuart was quiet for a moment. “Anything I
alter is a potential red flag,” he said. “Let me play around with
it and see if there’s something I can do to alter files without
leaving a trail.”
    “Good.” Jonny leaned back.
    “If you ever … uh … want to vamp another
hacker, it’d be useful,” Stuart added.
    “I’ve got a recruitment requirement out for
one,” Jonny reported. “We’re having problems keeping recruits right
now. Tasha’s working on it.”
    “Yep. I have two identified,” Tasha added.
“We’re approaching them soon.”
    “Yeah. I know.” The hacker sounded
disappointed. “Someone with network security skills would be
good.”
    “Noted,” said Tasha.
    “Ikir ,” Charles said quietly.
    “Yeah.”
    Charles indicated the hallway outside the
ops center. “Minor problem.” He held out the phone to Jonny.
    Jonny accepted it quizzically and placed it
to his ear. “What is it?”
    “What do you mean, what is it ?” came the
infuriated voice of Brandon. “You know why I’m calling.”
    Jonny glanced at Charles, who shrugged. “No
idea how he got my number,” Charles said quietly.
    Jonny motioned him away and waited until
certain no one was within hearing distance. The last thing he
needed was someone else thinking he’d gone soft by sparing the
vigilantes.
    “I’m afraid I don’t,” he replied coolly.
“What do you want?”
    “I want my sister back!”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Sorry.” Jonny started to lower the phone, determined to hang up on
him, when Brandon’s next words stopped him.
    “Vamps grabbed her last night.”
    Jonny debated hanging up. No other missions
were authorized last night in California, aside from his own trip
to visit Brandon. His people were too tapped out to sneak away and
disobey him, which left one possibility. “Go on,” he said.
    “You just couldn’t leave her alone! She
didn’t kill any of your vamps. She just wanted to help people and
practice her skills. What did you do with her? Kill her? Vamp her?”
Brandon was panicking. “How the hell –”
    “Brandon, listen. I –”
    “No, you listen! I’m going to
–”
    “Stop!” Jonny’s sharp tone silenced the
young man close to his age on the other side of the call. “I don’t
have her. I wouldn’t risk Xander’s anger.”
    “It’s quite a coincidence you showed up in
the middle of our apartment and then she disappears.”
    It is, he agreed silently. But chances were, she’d crossed Valon’s
rogue vamps one time too many and they tracked her down to stop her
from interfering again. “There’s a lot going on you don’t know
about. If you want to find her, go get Xan –”
    “I know where she is.” Brandon was calming.
“Xander will kill us if he finds out.”
    “And I won’t?”
    “No offense, but I’m more afraid of him than
you.”
    Jonny rolled his eyes.
    “Swear you don’t have her.”
    “I don’t. None of my guys do, either.”
    “It was your guys that grabbed her!”
    “Look, Brandon, I’ve got a tiny rogue
element in my organization I’m looking to crush,” Jonny said with
tried patience. “My guess is Ashley crossed the wrong damn vamp
last night, and this is the result. It’s stupid as shit to be out
doing what she’s doing. If she got in over her head, it’s not my
fucking problem.”
    There was a long moment of silence. He could
almost see Brandon