Her first instinct was to leap out of bed, get dressed, and demand access to Ares’s library and computer. Her second instinct was to curl up in a ball and sob. That second instinct? Something that had developed since the attack two years ago.
Screw that. She swung her feet over the side of the bed and grabbed the duffel full of clothes. She might have sworn to never kill again, but she hadn’t sworn to give up on life. She was going to live.
When Pestilence was Reseph, he had, for the most part, avoided Sheoul. He’d descended into the demon realm to hang out at the Four Horsemen, but other than that, it had been too depressing. Reseph had liked parties and vacations and surfing. If it got the adrenaline pumping, the females purring, and the alcohol flowing, he was so there.
Reseph had been a pu**y of epic proportions.
Pestilence ran his tongue over the sharp point of a fang as he crossed the threshold of his Sheoulin dungeon… which wasn’t actually in Sheoul. Technically, it wasn’t a dungeon, either. When his Seal had broken, he’d gained a massively cool ability… he could turn areas of the human realm into land claimed in the name of hell. Now, in the basement of the Austrian manor he’d commandeered, demons who normally couldn’t leave Sheoul could hang out in the human world and enjoy luxuries they’d never known, which included the ability to torment humans.
And they’d turned the basement into a Disneyland of torture and misery.
Reseph would have been mortified. Pestilence was orgasmic.
Pained screams and moans joined laughter and pleasurable grunts. The mouthwatering scent of blood and lust teased Pestilence’s nostrils, mingled with the stench of death, bowels, and charred bone and flesh. All kinds of earthly and demonic creatures hung from various hooks and chains on the walls and from the ceiling, and different species of demons skittered around, some of them playing, others performing tasks Pestilence had given them.
Starting an Apocalypse required a lot more help than he would have thought.
A graceful, elflike demon carrying a spiked club crossed the room when he saw Pestilence. A Neethul slave trader, Mordiin was Pestilence’s right-hand man, his ruthlessness and uncanny ability to sense fallen angels making him indispensable.
Mordiin had located the two Unfallen that were currently chained down here. Mordiin had found them wandering the human realm, minding their own business, and Pestilence had grabbed them. Instead of destroying them, as he’d been doing to keep Ares’s agimortus from being transferred yet again, he’d dragged them here.
Oh, they were still going to die, but first he had special plans for them.
“My lord,” Mordiin rumbled. “We have destroyed four more hellhounds.”
“Good work. Only what, a few thousand left to go?” He hated those f**king things. They were the one weapon that could be used against him, and he wanted them gone. Even Chaos, whom Pestilence had convinced to work with him. Once that mutt rendered Ares immobile, Pestilence was going to kill him. Double-crosses were part of being evil, after all.
“Slaughtering the hounds took a heavy toll on us,” Mordiin said. “We lost several good fighters, more than we lost in the capture of the fallen angels.”
Pestilence snorted at that. Demons were a dime a dozen. “Keep killing the hellhounds, but capture one alive. And tell me you’ve finished with the other tasks.”
Mordiin inclined his head, and his white hair fell forward, catching on his pointed ears. “Your message has been prepared. The structure is built and ready for delivery.”
Excellent. The two Unfallens were going to make memorable gifts for Ares. “What about the Aegi?”
Mordiin gestured to a bloody human strapped to a table. “Like the others, this one knows nothing. He’s too low-ranking to provide any useful information.”
Cocking his head, Pestilence studied the man, whose mouth was open in a silent scream as one of the imps worked him over with a hot poker. “Why can’t I hear his agony?”
Mordiin shrugged. “His screams blew out his voice box.”
Interesting. “Tell the turncoat Aegi that unless he provides us with more substantial results, he’ll be the next victim on the table.” He’d hate to have to permanently maim David, who had been a high-ranking Aegis member and had so far given up a lot of great intel, but Pestilence was getting desperate. He had to find Deliverance, and someone in The Aegis must know where the dagger was.
“Let’s finish the angels and the Aegi. Time to deliver the message to Ares.”
When Ares stepped out into the hall, face hot and still dripping wet and ready to explode out of his skin from the unspent sexual energy, he ran into Limos, who was propped against the wall, suitcase at her feet. She’d changed into a glaringly bright muumuu, and her impish smile told him everything he needed to know about how long she’d been there.
“Wow,” she chirped. “Didn’t take you long to get into her pants. And here I thought Reseph was the charmer in the family.”
He brushed past her, water sloshing in his boots. “Don’t start.” Each squishy step took him blessedly farther away from Cara and brought back the return of his seismic battle senses. It was unsettling to be with her, for his body and mind to experience stillness, as if the world had stopped moving. The lack of distraction left him too focused on her—and on his desires.
Not acceptable.
But neither was how fast his inner tuning fork was starting to vibrate. Ever since Reseph’s Seal had broken, the buzz of worldly violence had intensified, but this new buzz was different, a new, more potent frequency that was drowning out the hundreds of others. Something very, very bad was coming.
“You are no fun,” Limos called out. “Oh, and you might want to change. Reaver got the Aegis assholes to agree to a meeting. They’ll be at Thanatos’s place in an hour. I’m sure you don’t want to look like you’ve been drowned.”
He swung around. “Why didn’t Than call me?”
“Because he called me. I figured I’d tell you when I got here to babysit.” She jerked her thumb toward the door. “You gonna take her with us?”
Damn straight. “Cara has to be with one of us at all times.”
“My lord?”
Ares didn’t bother to turn around. “What, Vulgrim?”
“Your brother left a message.”
“I know. I’m heading to his place in a minute.”
“Not that brother.”
Ares pivoted around to the Ramreel, whose broad nose flared the way it did when he was stressed. Even his curled horns seemed to be drooping a little. Not good. Torrent, who stood beside his father, looked even more miserable, his grayish fur rippling nervously. “Tell me.”
“If you’ll come with me…” The Ramreels headed down the hall, hooves clacking.
“Dammit.” Ares pointed to Limos. “Grab Cara. Join me in the great room.”
“But—”
“Do it!”
Limos stuck her tongue out at him, but she moved to the bedroom door. Ares caught up to the two Ramreels at the back door. As Ares stepped out into the rear courtyard, his gut did a somersault, and his stomach threw in a double twist. The organ gymnastics were a perfect 10 of oh, fuck.
In the middle of the courtyard, next to the barbecue pit, was a giant wooden cross. And nailed to it were two headless bodies. Their intestines had been yanked up through their ruined necks and wrapped around their torsos like Christmas tree garlands. Their lungs had been arranged behind them to look like wings, and they each held a bloody heart in their hands.
Lying on the ground in front of what Ares suspected were fallen angels was a human. A Guardian, if Ares went by the Aegis shield that had been carved into his stomach.
Vulgrim handed Ares a note. Reseph’s scribbles confirmed Ares’s suspicions. I’m sure you’re looking for Unfallens, so I thought I’d deliver. Enjoy.
Fifteen
“That angel is an asshole.”
Kynan laughed, and Arik wanted to deck him. Would have, too, if he hadn’t been freezing to death in the middle of God-knows-where. Reaver had flashed them to some featureless expanse of ice and then disappeared without so much as a “Good luck,” or a “Hope the Horsemen don’t kill you.”
“You should have seen Reaver when he was still fallen,” Ky said.
“He was even more of an asshole?”
“Nah. He was just grumpier.”
“I don’t think I like angels,” Arik muttered.
Kynan shot him a sideways glance. “You don’t like anybody.”
“True.” Arik tugged his jacket tighter. He supposed he should be grateful that the angel had been able to flash them here instead of Kynan’s using the Harrowgate. Humans couldn’t use them while conscious—they came out on the other side dead. But Kynan, thanks to his invincibility charm, could travel through them, and unfortunately, Ky would have to knock Arik out in order for them to leave here. The idea was not appealing in the least.
Arik squinted his eyes against the bright sunlight glinting off the snow. “You know we could be walking into a slaughter.”
Kynan shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”
“That’s comforting.”
A blast of icy wind took the sting out of Kynan’s chuckle, mainly because it numbed every part of Arik’s body. “The Aegis and Horsemen have a long history of working together. You know, before we betrayed them. We should be able to talk it out.”
“Should. Great.” They tromped through the snow. Ahead, there was only vast wasteland on top of more vast wasteland. “Are you sure we’re in the right place?”
“Yeah, human, you are.” The deep, rumbling voice came out of nowhere, and both Arik and Kynan instinctively drew weapons—Kynan palmed an Aegis stang, and Arik pulled his pistol.
“Show yourself,” Arik called out.
Suddenly, a giant dun stallion was rearing up, and Jesus, Arik damn near got his head smashed in by one flailing hoof. The beast came down, and his rider, a big male with sandy hair wearing some sort of ivory plate armor, raised a gauntleted hand in greeting.
“I looked and there before me was a pale horse,” Arik murmured. “Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.” He stared in awe at the huge male described in Revelation. “You’re Death.”
The dude rolled his yellow eyes. “Thanatos. I don’t become Death unless my Seal breaks.” He wheeled the horse around and muttered, “Fucking humans always f**king up prophecies.”
What a douche. Arik was totally over his awe. He glanced at Ky. “I guess we’re just supposed to follow?”
Kynan shrugged, but Thanatos snorted. “I’d keep to one side of my stallion. You don’t want to be behind him when he passes gas.”
Yep, a douche. They trudged another fifty yards or so—hard to tell when there were no landmarks—and out of thin air, a massive castle shimmered into existence, rising up out of the snowy landscape like an iceberg in the ocean.
“You can only see it because I’m letting you.” Thanatos dismounted and gave the horse a fond pat on the neck. “To me.” The stallion dissolved into a thin line of smoke, did a loop-de-loop, and then shot inside the Horseman’s gauntlet. Freaky.
Kynan’s dark brows drew together as he stared at Thanatos. “What kind of armor is that?”
“Lava beast scale.”
Jesus. Few humans had ever seen the massive demons that lived deep inside volcanoes, but they supposedly fed off the misery and death eruptions caused. Legend had it that their scale was fireproof and impenetrable by conventional weapons and that with every death its wearer dealt, it would become stronger. Arik would love to outfit a tank or APC with that shit.
They followed the Horseman across the inner bailey. An arched entrance sized for a T-Rex opened up into the keep and a chamber larger than a high school gymnasium. Against the far wall, a blazing fire burned in a hearth, and tending to it were two beings Arik thought might be vampires. In front of the hearth was a trestle table built to seat at least two dozen people, but right now there were only two… a brown-haired male in leather armor and a black-haired female in a fuchsia, blue, and yellow… muumuu? They had been concentrating on a game of chess when Ky and Arik entered, but were now casting dark, intense glares their way.
Fuck me, this is not my idea of a good time. Nope. Arik wasn’t good at negotiation. Not when it involved sensitivity and talking things out. His idea of negotiation involved firepower and who had the most and best.
In this case, the other guys had the biggest dicks. That never did sit well with Arik.
He scanned the room, taking note of the layout, exits, potential weapons. He was startled when he noticed a woman curled up in a recliner, dressed casually in jeans and a University of Missouri sweatshirt. She glanced up from the ancient-looking book she’d been reading to watch them with curiosity… nothing even close to the hostility they were getting from the other three.
The male and female at the table stood as Arik and Kynan approached.
Leather Armor Guy spoke harshly. “Your names.”
Bristling at the male’s abrupt demand, Arik gestured to Kynan. “That’s Kynan. He’s a Guardian. I’m Arik. R-XR.” He figured they didn’t need to know about his Guardian status, given that they hated The Aegis, and Arik liked his head on his shoulders.
“I’m Ares.”
Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. Arik stared at the Horseman who would be War.
Ares cocked his thumb at the female. “Our sister, Limos.”