“So we’re still married?” When Limos nodded, still not looking him in the eyes, Arik let out a long, ragged breath. “Thank God.” He reached out and took Limos’s hand. “We’ll talk about this later. What the hell happened?”
“You almost died, human.” Gethel stood, and to no one in particular, she said, “Take care of him,” and then she was gone.
Arik looked over at Ares’s motionless brother. “Hellhound?”
Ares nodded. “Yeah. We need to keep him like this for a while.”
“How long?” Arik asked, and Ares wished he knew the answer.
“As long as it takes.” Ares lifted Than into his arms. “But I suspect that he’s going to have a nice, long rest.”
Damage control. Shit… damage control.
Kynan repeated those words in his head as he sat with Regan, Val, Malik, Decker, and Lance at Aegis Headquarters, where he’d brought Regan immediately after getting the hell away from Thanatos. Just a minute ago, they’d gotten news of a massive disaster in Greenland.
“We’re responsible for the deaths of all those people,” Decker said numbly, his eyes glued to the laptop on the meeting room’s table.
Val shook his head, but he looked just as shell-shocked as Decker. “There’s no way we could have predicted how the Horseman would react.”
“Overreact.” Lance snorted in disgust. “He went insane over getting laid. What the hell is that about? What kind of as**ole freaks out about losing his virginity to a hot chick? Regan, you must have been a shitty lay.”
Regan lunged across the table with a snarl. Val and Kynan caught her before she could hurt herself or the new life she now carried, but they didn’t bother stopping Decker, who slammed his fist into Lance’s face and knocked the guy out of his chair and into the wall.
Decker planted his big booted foot on Lance’s chest as he lay moaning on the carpet. “You ever speak about Regan like that again, and I’ll shove this boot so far up your ass you’ll be flossing with the laces.”
“And don’t talk about Thanatos that way.” Regan wrenched free of Val and Kynan, but she sat back down instead of going for Lance. “He didn’t ask for any of this.”
Decker let Lance up, and the guy glared sullenly as he grabbed a paper towel from the coffee counter and held it to his bloody nose.
“So what now?” Malik eyed Regan as if she had an answer, but she just swallowed sickly.
“Damage control,” Kynan said. “The Horsemen are going to view this as a betrayal, and rightly so, given the circumstances.”
Damn. This should not have been this complicated. Their intel had indicated that the Horsemen, with the exception of Limos, were sexually active, so they’d as-sumed an easy fling for Regan, a quick and in and out with no complications.
Still, Kynan hadn’t been comfortable with the pregnancy thing, and he’d hoped to be able to tell Thanatos about it after they determined how the child would save the world.
Now… they were all fucked.
Why the hell had Thanatos been a virgin? Religious beliefs? A personal vow? Shy penis? Shit!
“So how do we spin this with them?” Decker asked.
Kylopped back in the chair and stared blindly at the huge painting of a demon-angel battle on the far wall. “I’ll go talk to them.”
“I’ll go with you,” Decker said.
“No,” Regan whispered. “You can’t. Thanatos is…” She shuddered. “Just don’t.”
“She’s right,” Kynan said. “I’ll go alone. It’s not going to be fun, but at least they can’t kill me.”
“We’ll stay here and pray,” Val said. “Because they might not be able to kill you, but I looked up the records of what Limos and Reseph did to the Elders last time we betrayed them, and trust me, they’re quite capable of killing the rest of us.”
Thirty-five
They all went back to Ares’s place. Thanatos was carried, and Arik was propped between Limos and Reaver, though Arik figured Reaver could have used the help more than Arik. He didn’t know much about angels, but he kind of doubted they normally looked like they’d been run over by a tank and then shot out of its cannon. Arik had seen a lot of hangovers in his day, and he’d swear Reaver was coming off one hell of a bender.
After they’d settled Thanatos in one of the spare bedrooms with a hellhound guard to nip him if he stirred, they all came back into Ares’s great room and stared at each other. No one seemed to know where to start. Not a shock, given that there was the matter of Limos’s betrayals, The Aegis’s hijinks with Regan, Thanatos’s meltdown, and Reaver’s… hangover.
For Limos’s part, she still hadn’t met Arik’s gaze as she paced by the cold fireplace.
Ares, who stood next to the chair where Cara sat with Hal at her feet, crossed his arms over his chest and drilled a scowl into Reaver. “So. You going to tell us where you’ve been and why you haven’t responded to any of our summons?”
“It’s not your place to question my activities.” The angel might look like hell on legs, but his lethal power wasn’t diminished, and he still managed to become the centerpiece in an already grand room.
Limos stopped pacing. “Is it my place to question why you didn’t come to the most important event of my life?”
Reaver jerked like his holy ass had been goosed. “You found your agimortus?”
“Yes, but that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Then what?”
Her chin came up. “My wedding.”
Reaver’s sapphire eyes darkened like a stormy sea. “To Satan?”
“No,” Arik said. “To me.” He finally caught Limos’s gaze and he hoped she got his silent message loud and clear. We’re married, and we’ll stay that way, no matter what bullshit you pull.
Him, bitter? Nah.
“I don’t understand.” Reaver’s dull, limp hair brushed his robe as he turned back to Limos. “Marrying Arik won’t negate your contract.”
“It most certainly did.” Limos gave a haughty sniff, as if offended that Reaver would dare question her. “When Arik removed my chastity belt and put his—”
“Okay.” Arik cut her off before she could go into detail neither her brother nor an angel should hear. “He gets the picture.”
Reaver grimaced. “Too clearly.”
Limos looked down at her feet and then back up at Reaver. “I get that you’re busy, and you have all those stupid rules to follow, but you know… there aren’t many people I care about, and I don’t have many friends… and I wanted you to be there.”
“I’m sorry, Limos.” The regret in Reaver’s voice turned it to gravel. “Those responsible for keeping me away will pay. I promise you that.”
Arik’s phone buzzed in his BDU’s leg pocket, and when he palmed it, Kynan’s text flashed on the screen: Will be at Ares’s place in two minutes.
Oh, this ought to be good.
He excused himself, leaving Limos and Ares to question Reaver on his whereabouts, but Arik wished them a silent good luck with that, because the angel didn’t seem inclined to answer.
Arik met Kynan in the courtyard, cutting Ky off before the guy could get “hello” out of his mouth. “Do you know what you idiots almost did?”
The other man’s expression remained passive, even though Arik had just jumped his shit. “I have no idea, but I’m guessing you’re going to fill me in?”
“I’m talking about Than’s Seal. Sound familiar? Do you know what was supposed to break it? Sex. His Seal was supposed to be broken by sex, so he’s been celibate his entire life.”
Kynan paled. “Wait… what? Regan said he was a virgin, but we didn’t know why… oh, fuck.”
“Yeah. Morons. You told me Regan was going to seduce Thanatos, but—” Arik broke off at the behind you gesture from Kynan, and sickly, Arik turned around to see Limos standing in the doorway, flanked by Reaver and Ares, her eyes sparking purple fire.
“You knew? All this time you knew why Regan was at Than’s place, and you didn’t tell me? Your lie could have caused the freaking Apocalypse!” She advanced, glaring at him with savage contempt that speared him right through the heart. “After all your bullshit about hating liars, you did it to me. You did it to me!”
Arik had no defense. Not even a lame, “You’re one to talk,” because while it might be true, the fact was that he was a hypocrite of epic proportions, and that was what this was about. Not his lie, not his omission. His hypocrisy.
“Well?” she demanded.
He didn’t have a chance to answer, not that he knew what to say, because Cara hurried up to them… attempted to, anyway, since Hal kept trying to grab her shoelaces. “I just checked on Thanatos. I think you might want to see this.”
Ares went bowstring taut. “Is the venom wearing off?”
“No, everything’s fine. But… you really should come with me.”
Ares shot Arik a you’re mine later look, and Limos did the same. Man, Arik was in a metric fuckton of trouble, and all things considered, he’d really rather go up against Ares than Limos. He had to fix this. Had to fix it now.
He started after them, but Kynan grabbed his arm. “A little advice from one married man to another. You have to chase her. Women never forgive you if you don’t. But give her a few minutes to calm down first.” Kynan smiled wryly. “Trust me on this.”
Arik’s muscles twitched with the need to go after his woman, to explain the unexplainable and fix all of this shit between them. He wasn’t going to feel solid with her until all of their dirty laundry was aired, and until he knew for certain that she would never try to get rid of him for his own good. They had to get past this, and even though he knew Kynan was right, Arik couldn’t wait. He was a soldier, and his job was to destroy the enemy.
Right now, the enemy was his own stupidity.
He started forward again, but this time it was Reaver who stopped him. The angel stepped out of the house, seized the back of his neck, and frog-marched him over to Kynan as if Arik was an errant schoolboy.
“We’re going to chat first,” Reaver said, releasing Arik so both he and Kynan could get the you’ve-been-bad-boys lecture. “When did The Aegis decide to send Regan to Thanatos?”
“A few days ago,” Kynan said. “Why? And you look like hell, by the way.”
“I live for your opinion,” Reaver drawled. “Now, what was the purpose of taking this action?”
“We recently found a scroll written by a Guardian who was an accurate Seer back in his time.” Kynan shifted his weight a few times. “He… indicated that in order to save the world from Pestilence, an Aegi had to mate with a Horseman.”
Reaver’s eyes narrowed. “Where did you find this scroll?”
“An Aegis chamber Limos took me to.”
“Ah.” Reaver looked out at the sea surrounding the Greek island, his expression troubled, and Arik swore the guy was shaking a little. “Interesting, isn’t it, that while I was being held outside of summoning range, Limos took you to a scroll that instructed you to do something everyone thought would break the Horseman’s Seal.”
“We didn’t have any reason not to trust Limos. She said she found the chamber while looking for her agimortus. We didn’t take action lightly or without researching the items we found in the chamber.”
A lump of suspicion the size of a Gargantua demon sank into Arik’s gut. Limos hadn’t mentioned this chamber, hadn’t brought up doing anything to help The Aegis recently. Was this yet another secret? Another attempt to start the Apocalypse?
No. He couldn’t think that way. She’d told a lot of lies, but he believed she regretted them all, and if she’d done something to lead The Aegis astray, it hadn’t been because she wanted to.
A breeze kicked up, ruffling Reaver’s robe, and he tightened the sash before returning his attention to Kynan and Arik. “Since Than’s Seal didn’t break, no harm done, but the situation leaves a lot of questions.”
“Like what will break Than’s Seal.” Arik blew out a frustrated breath. “Even he thought sex would do it.”
Kynan’s face took on an oddly green cast. “Ah… there’s more.”
Oh, Jesus. Hoping Kynan wasn’t going to say what Arik thought he was going to say, he ground out, “What else is there?”
“It’s Regan,” Kynan blurted. “She’s pregnant.”
Absolute silence fell. And then Reaver stumbled backward, eyes burning blue fire. He let out an angry roar, and then he was gone.
Fuming, feeling like a damned fool, Limos followed Ares and Cara to the rear of the mansion. How could Arik have kept something so huge from her? This wasn’t a, “Honey, no, that dress doesn’t make your ass look fat,” kind of thing. He’d known The Aegis had sent someone to betray them all, and he hadn’t warned them. How long had he known? Had he been part of the decision?
Maybe, during their wedding ceremony, instead of admitting to how many other women he’d kissed he could have said, “Oh, hey, by the way, Regan is here to f**k your brother and I knew about it.”
Yeah, that would have been good. How many people had died in Greenland because of his treachery? And what kind of consequences were yet to come?
And now, because of The Aegis, Thanatos was incapacitated, trapped inside his own head with only his rage as company.