She trailed her fingers over her chest, feeling the raised lines of the new mark through her sweatshirt. “Because of this.”
“And the bond to Hal.” His gaze dropped to where she was rubbing the marking, and the energy coming off him shifted from menacing to erotic.
Back at Than’s place, he’d said he felt things he shouldn’t. That he wanted to keep her alive for more reasons than protecting his Seal. And that he wanted to throw her down and take her until they were exhausted.
She shouldn’t want any of that. Well, maybe the sex. Opening her heart up again could be a colossal mistake. But every time she caught a glimpse of the man behind the sword, every time he wrapped her in his protective arms, it tapped into the part of her that wanted to be cared for and kept safe. Ares knew about her ability, knew what she’d done with it, and he didn’t treat her like she was a freak, and that alone scored him a lot of points.
“What is this, Ares?” She probably shouldn’t have asked, but she’d never been good at subtlety, and with all the uncertainty in her life right now, she wanted to be clear on this, at least. “I can’t read your signals, and I don’t know who you are.”
“I’m a warrior.”
“Yes, I know who you say you are, but why do you say that? Are you a warrior by birth? By choice? By circumstance?”
“All of the above.” He cocked his head toward the exit. “We should go.”
She grabbed his wrist, and he stiffened, but he didn’t shake her off. “When were you born?”
“Dammit, Cara, we don’t have time for this.” The words were angry, but he let out a long-suffering sigh, and she knew she had him. For a moment, at least.
“Humor me. I’ve done everything you’ve asked. Give me this.”
One eyebrow arched. “The orgasms weren’t enough?”
A pleasant fluttering filled her belly. “Women like pillow talk to go with them, and you denied me that.”
“I at least got you a pillow.” At her flat stare, he rolled his eyes. “I was born around the thirty-second century bc.”
“Did you know what you were?”
He looked up at the gray sky. “For twenty-eight years I thought I was human. My demon mother snatched human babies out of their cribs and replaced them with us. She used some sort of enchantment to arrange for our human parents to name us what she’d chosen.”
“What happened to the babies she stole?”
He hesitated. “You don’t want to know.”
No, she probably didn’t. “Where did you grow up?”
“Egypt.” He looked past her at Hal, his gaze sharpening with hate. “Now, we’re going.”
Pretending she didn’t hear him, she continued. “You had kids. Did you have a wife?”
“I’ve humored you for too long as it is—” He whirled so suddenly she yelped. “Who are you? Show yourself!”
Cara heard the crunch of gravel, as a man peered around the estate’s iron gate. “I-I’m David. I’m a Guardian.”
A deep, rumbling growl came from behind her as Hal, crouching flat on the ground, eased up to them. She dropped her hand to his head, soothing him with her touch. “It’s okay, Hal. Shh.” The last thing they needed was the hound tearing apart one of The Aegis’s demon slayers.
Ares took her hand and led her to the road. Hal followed, though his ears were still back, and his teeth were bared in a silent snarl. The Guardian wisely backed away, hands up.
The moment they stepped outside the Aegis property, the forest erupted to life. A scream caught in Cara’s throat as creatures appeared from out of the woods, out of the ground, and out of thin air.
In a graceful surge, Ares simultaneously drew his sword and threw open a Harrowgate. “Cara, go!” He leaped and spun, taking off a demon’s head as she scrambled toward the opening.
Something wrapped around her throat and jerked her backward. Gasping, she reached up to yank on the rope, digging in her heels as a gray-skinned demon reeled her toward him. A flash of black fur, teeth, and claws sailed past her, and the demon who had captured her screamed as Hal tore him apart.
“Cara!” A creepy demon with hooks for hands swung at Ares, one hook burying itself in his armor. Ares fell backward as he struck out with a dagger. It didn’t even scratch the creature. “Your presence is—” He broke off to slam his fist into another demon’s flat face. “—Affecting my ability to fight.”
She made a run for the gate, but two feet from the entrance, a green-skinned, scaly demon tackled her. She hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind from her lungs. Fire replaced air as she struggled to breathe, and then terror iced down her blood at the sight of a wicked, serrated blade slicing in a downward arc toward her throat.
A roar blasted through the air, and then Ares was there, his foot smashing into the demon’s head. The blade flew out of his clawed hand, and Cara rolled out from under the now-bloody demon. She grabbed the dagger, shoved it upward as another demon swung at her. It caught the spindly creature in the gut. It screeched and fell, and another replaced it. Once more, Ares took the demon’s head off, and if that was how he fought while handicapped, she couldn’t imagine what he could do normally.
Hal ripped into another demon that launched itself at her, and blue blood splattered on the ground. A rain of arrows fell, and she looked up at Guardians running toward them, some firing crossbows and others wielding bladed weapons.
“Gate!” Ares shouted, and yes, she was trying. In the midst of the bloodbath, she crawled, finally reached the shimmering curtain of light, and went through.
She came out on Ares’s Greek island. Hal followed, landing on top of her. He was covered in blood, and she immediately put her hands on him, seeking injuries. He had a few minor cuts, and without even summoning her ability, it flashed hot and channeled into him. She hissed in both surprise and brief pain as Ares’s staff came running, and how crazy was it that demons were coming at her, and all she could feel was relief?
“Cara!” Limos ran toward her, still in her armor. “Where’s Ares?”
Cara pushed to her feet. “Demons attacked us. He’s fighting them—”
“Okay, let’s get you inside.” She grabbed Cara’s arm, and Hal let out a vicious snarl. Dancing aside, Limos went for the dagger at her hip.
“No!” Cara seized Limos’s hand. “Don’t provoke him. Hal, it’s okay. Be good. These are friends.”
A blast of annoyance came off him, but he stopped growling. Where are we?
“Safe,” she replied, blinked when she realized she’d understood him. Just like in the dreams. “This is Ares’s island.”
I patrol. I keep you safe. He slipped away, skirting the Ramreel demons and disappearing into the brush.
Cara allowed Limos to take her inside. “Will Ares be okay? There were a lot of demons. Maybe you should help.”
Limos snorted. “Trust me, he’ll be fine.”
“But there were a lot of Aegi. Ares was worried about a trap.”
“Listen up, human.” Limos brushed her fingers over her throat, and her armor melted away, leaving her in the Hawaiian gown again. “He’s immortal. As long as there weren’t any hellhounds there—”
“There were,” she lied.
Limos froze. “What? Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Cara swallowed, feeling bad about the lie but not willing to risk Ares’s safety. “Please. Help him.”
“Fuck.” Limos threw a gate, but before she stepped through, she stabbed a finger at Cara. “Stay here, and don’t leave the house for anything.”
“Cara told you what?” Ares snarled at Limos as he pinned the last demon to the ground with his sword as if it was an insect in a display case. All around them, Guardians were cleaning up from the battle, triaging their own. Looked like all were injured, two critically, and one was dead. Dead, along with several dozen demons that were already disintegrating.
The rest had fled when Cara escaped through the Harrowgate. Clearly, once their target was gone, they hadn’t felt like sticking around to be slaughtered by Ares and his Aegis sidekicks.
Limos wiped her blade clean in the grass. “She lied. I’m going to kill her.”
“Not if I get to her first.” Her lie had left her without a Horseman to protect her. Ares yanked his sword out of the demon. “Has Than come out of his rage?”
“Yep. He’s gone to New Zealand to follow up on a lead about a fallen angel.”
“Help him,” Ares said. “We need one. Now.”
Limos popped a salute. “Yes, sir.” Her sarcasm was tempered by an impish smile as she zapped a Harrowgate and stepped through.
Ares did the same, and came out in his great room, where there was no sign of the human.
“Cara!” he roared.
Torrent appeared from the kitchen with a steaming plate piled high with roast lamb and vegetables, Rath darting between his legs. “She was here a second ago,” he said.
“Dammit!” Ares stalked through the house, fear spiking his anger. She wasn’t in the master suite, or any of the other bedrooms. His anxiety grew as he checked rooms and kept coming up empty.
And then a sudden suspicion nearly laid him out.
The room.
With dread running like sludge in his veins, he charged to the end of the hall just past the storeroom. The door to the stairwell was ajar, confirming his suspicion. He took the stone steps down three at a time. The narrow, unfinished passageway was dark, but a light from the room at the bottom burned bright.
He insisted the room be lit. Twenty-four-seven.
He hit the bottom of the steps and skidded to a halt. Cara stood at the ancient bookcase, angled so he could partially see her profile. She’d opened the tiled box he kept there and was holding the items that had been inside. Irrational anger hitchhiked a ride with adrenaline and fear for Cara’s safety, and he lashed out.
“Get away from that.”
Cara jumped, whirled around, and nearly dropped the clay horse and dog. Jesus. If the toys had broken, he would have… just… Jesus.
“I’m sorry… I was—”
“You were going through my things.”
Carefully, she placed the toy animals in the box, along with the wooden rattle. But she ran her thumb over the bronze ring and the milky green emerald set into it. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered.
His throat closed up. “It was my wife’s.”
She set it in the box. “And the other things?”
“They were my sons’. Now get out.”
“The light was on—”
“Get. Out.”
“I only wanted to know more about you.”
“I told you my family was killed. What more do you need?” He stepped inside, and the room closed in on him. He hadn’t been in here in decades. Vulgrim kept it clean and the light working, but Ares hadn’t had the guts to visit. The knowledge that he’d been so cowardly ramped up his temper even more. “Get out.”
Pity flashed in her eyes, and wasn’t that just the icing on his shit cake? “I’m sorry about your family.” She closed the box lid so softly he barely heard the click of the tiny latch slide into place. Her gaze traveled around the room, which held all of the possessions he’d been able to retrieve from the time he was human. “Why was the light on?”
How many times had he told her to get out, and she was still standing there, asking about the lights? He should toss her, but he didn’t trust himself to touch her. He was too angry, and he wanted her too badly.
“I keep it on always. My youngest son was afraid of the dark.” He’d thought it was stupid at the time, hadn’t understood childish fears, because he’d never been afraid of anything as a child.
The room was getting seriously claustrophobic. He didn’t bother telling Cara to leave again. He got the hell out of there. Sometimes, the best strategy was to retreat and regroup.
Cara called out to him, but he kept going, didn’t stop until he was in the private, three-walled patio off his bedroom. He just wanted sixty seconds alone—
“Ares.”
Fuck. He didn’t turn around. Instead, he looked out over the sea as the last rays of sunlight cast a sparkling sheen on the water. This was his favorite time of day, when the sun-worshippers were winding down and the night-dwellers were just starting to stir. In this brief window of time, everything was quiet. Back in his military days, they’d called it the time of “peace shadows,” because no matter how fierce the fighting had been, it slowed, for just a few minutes, as everyone adjusted their tactics.
“What happened?” she asked quietly. “I mean, how did it all go down?”
In the distance, the Greek shoreline began to light up, and wisps of smoke from kitchens and beach fires formed lazy, spiraling tendrils that reached for the handful of clouds. He figured that for this topic, there should be gale-force winds, driving rain, and maybe a tornado or two.
“I was twenty-eight. Home with my brother, my wife, and my sons. At the time, I thought I was human, and I didn’t know the men who overran our city were creatures from hell in human skins. I sent my sons with my brother, and they escaped the city, but the demons captured me and my wife. They forced me to watch as they tortured and killed her. Afterward, they released me. Later, I learned that it was hell’s calling card. Time for me and my brothers to come home.”
“What did you do?” Her voice was as soft as the breeze, nonthreatening, and that was the only reason he continued.