Immortal Rider

Twenty-nine

Ares couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this angry or hurt. Oh, he’d been murderously furious at Pestilence when he’d captured Cara and meant to torture her to death, but this was different. Ares didn’t want to kill Limos. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, but right now it was taking every ounce of restraint he had to keep from going on a rampage. There were battles all over the world to join. He wouldn’t take sides—he’d just fight. And kill.

He gated himself back to Thanatos’s place, and wasn’t at all surprised to find that all the wedding guests had gone.

Cara approached him as he crossed the great room toward Than. “Everyone left out of respect for you and Than, but they want you to contact them if you need anything. Are you okay?” Her sea-green eyes were dark with worry, and her concern helped level him out. She didn’t deserve to feel the weight of his fury.

But she didn’t deserve to be lied to, either. Clearly, there had been way too much of that going on for way too long. “I don’t knple h ofow,” he admitted. “What Limos did was—”

“What she’d been raised to do.”

He jerked. “You’re defending her? She’s the reason my family was killed. She stole Deliverance and conspired to break our Seals. She betrayed us all.”

“I’m not defending what she did.” Cara laid her hand on his chest, which always had a calming effect on him, even through his armor… but then, her very presence turned the hard leather to soft doeskin, so he could feel her touch right through it. “But keep in mind where she grew up and who raised her. She didn’t know any better.”

“She still should have told us before this.”

“I’m sure she’s regretting that decision.” She went up on her toes and pecked him on the lips. “We should go. It’s time for Rath’s feeding.”

“Give me a second to talk to Than.” He pulled her close, needing the brief, full-body contact for just a second. “I’m sorry about the hellhound Pestilence killed.”

“I am too,” she murmured. “But I’m glad everyone else is safe. Tonight could have gone a whole lot worse.”

Ares didn’t tell her he had a feeling the “worse” was coming. Maybe not tonight, but soon.

He left her to help Than’s vampire staff with cleanup, and joined his brother at the hearth, where he was standing very still, head bowed, doing his best to keep himself under control.

“I’m guessing Arik was successful in freeing Limos?” Than’s voice was icy cold and as calm as the ocean before a storm, and Ares’s hackles raised.

“It appeared so.”

Thanatos peered into the fire, the flames dancing in his eyes. “Losing Reseph was hard. But the things he’s done since his Seal broke have been because he isn’t himself.” Around his feet, the shadows began to swirl. “But with Li… she did what she did with no broken Seal. Because of her, we suffered the curses. And now we could have Lucifer up our asses because she killed Sartael. How the fuck are we supposed to deal with that?”

“I don’t know, brother. But for now, we have to stay level.”

Now there was hypocrisy at its finest, given how Ares had stormed into Limos’s bedroom, hoping she’d arm up and give him a good battle. Fortunately, she’d mated a decent, honorable male who had talked some sense into Ares.

The veins in Than’s temples throbbed, and his voice scraped gravel. “I’m not sure I can do that right now.”

Shit. That left them with only one option; brace for impact. “Cara said everyone’s gone. It’s just your vamps, so you don’t have to worry if you go nuclear. I’ll make sure my Ramreels and Cara’s hounds are gone too.”

Than nodded, and Ares knew better than to stick around. He found Cara and headed outside to open a gate. It really sucked how their run of their rugood luck had turned to utter disaster. And as he glanced back at Thanatos, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the disasters were just beginning.

They found Hekili in the cellar, and Limos, who had seen every atrocity possible, who had grown desensitized to violence, reeled in shock. He truly had been butchered as if he were a cow in a slaughterhouse, and she had no doubt he’d been alive when the cutting began.

She didn’t know if she’d have reacted the same way to his gruesome death before she’d let Arik into her life, but it didn’t matter. The fact was that she’d liked the warg, had trusted him, and he’d died because of her.

He’d died in part because of her lies… lies she’d tried to protect by killing Sartael. And by killing Sartael, she’d enraged Lucifer, who would stop at nothing to hurt her and everyone around her.

Arik tried to pull her into his arms as they stood in the dark, dank cellar beneath her kitchen, and there was nothing she wanted more.

But she avoided his embrace, certain she’d lose her resolve if he caged her in his strong arms.

“Limos?”

“Don’t.” She darted up the steps and blew through the kitchen and out the front door. Arik followed, but she wouldn’t let him close. “Don’t touch me.”

He stood in the light of the moon, his dogtags glinting on his bare chest as if beckoning her. They’d been her comfort when he’d been in Sheoul, and now she hoped they’d be his. “Sweetheart, what’s going on?”

“I made a huge mistake, Arik.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, trying to hold herself together. Funny how she’d calmly dressed in shorts and a tank top after being told about Hekili, but now she was ready to come apart at the seams. “I’ve let what I want to be, a woman, a wife, a mother, overshadow what I need to be.”

“What are you talking about?” He moved forward, his bare feet sinking in the sand, but she stepped back.

“I’ve been a fool, hoping for what I can never have. I’m a Horseman of the Apocalypse. Half demon, half angel. All warrior who is meant for nothing but fighting.”

The lean angle of his jaw became a knife blade as his expression grew fierce. “You are all of those things and more. You are a beautiful woman, a wife, and we’ll make you a mother. Until then, we’ll fight together—”

“No.” She bit back a cry at what he’d just said. She wanted those things so much, but it was just a fantasy. “We won’t. It’s over, Arik. Divorce isn’t possible for us, but separation is.”

His head rocked back as if she’d slapped him. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. You’re in danger because of me. You’ll always be in danger. If not from Pestilence, then from Lucifer. They’ll kill you to hurt me. I can to me.ze="t live with that, Arik. I won’t.”

“Dammit, Limos, it’s my choice to be with you. I’m willing to live with the danger.”

Of course he was. He was braver than anyone she’d ever met. But he was mortal, and bravery got more men killed than cowardice.

“I’m not.”

He ground his teeth so hard she could hear the scrape of enamel. “I don’t care. We’re married. That means I don’t walk away at the first little fight we have. And trust me, this barely counts as a fight. Get drunk, beat the shit out of everyone around you, and tell me you fucked a few neighbors, and then we’ll talk.”

His father was so lucky he was dead, because at this moment, she’d hunt him down and kill him for planting that kind of memory in Arik’s head.

Then it occurred to her that she had to go just as far now, or Arik would never give up on them. She might hate herself for doing this, but at least he’d be alive.

She inhaled deeply, preparing to throw a punch that was going to knock him down. “If you don’t accept my decision, I can make you accept it. I’ll get in your head and do some creative work so you think our breakup is your choice, not mine. Is that what you want?” Her ability wasn’t that extensive, but hopefully Arik didn’t know that.

He paled, and Limos’s chest broke wide open. “You wouldn’t. You swore—”

“I lied.” Steeling herself against his anger and disappointment, she shrugged. “You should be used to that by now.”

“Limos…” His voice cracked, and it dawned on her that he’d avoided saying her name for so long, and now he used it over and over in this conversation, as if using it as a lifeline. “Don’t do this. I love you. You love me.”

And now for the knockout blow. “That,” she said, reaching deep into the Limos she used to be, the Limos who enjoyed being a demon, “was a lie too.”

Heart wrenching, she threw a gate and left Arik alone on the beach.