Immortal Rider

Four

It took Limos an hour to clean up the mess Rhys rudely left on her floor, then shower and change into pink board shorts and a lacy yellow blouse. Every single minute of that hour had been occupied by thoughts of what Arik had done for her, and she couldn’t decide how she felt about it. Her emotions ran the spectrum from overwhelmingly awed that he would protect her that way, to confused about why he would protect her that way, to downright pissed that he thought he had to protect her.

Then there was the anger that she was baffled by any of this in the first place. It wasn’t like her to obsess over someone else’s actions, but here she was… obsessing.

Muttering to herself, she hefted Arik’s torturer in her arms and took a Harrowgate to Thanatos’s Greenland residence. The temperature change between Hawaii and his godforsaken frozen wasteland was marked, and she shivered as she stepped out of the Harrowgate and onto the hard-packed ice near Than’s keep’s entrance.

And, for the record, Rhys weighed a ton.

Without a free hand, she kicked at the wood and iron door, and eventually one of Than’s vampire servants, Artur, opened up. Since it was daytime, the vamp on duty was one of the old breed, the first vampires, who had never suffered an allergy to sunlight. They were rare, pretty much legend to most. How Than had found not just one, but ten, to serve him, she had no idea. He could be really tight-lipped sometimes.

Annoying.

As if you don’t have secrets.

Oh, yes, she had lots and lots of secrets, made all the worse by the knowledge that something wicked inside her got a kick out of lying. The bigger the lie, the more potential it had to hurt or even destroy, the more powerful the high. Jolts of delicious, almost erotic adrenaline would cycle through her like a drug.

But she’d given up that drug hundreds of years ago, exchanging the need to lie with casual recklessness that gave her a similar high, but one that was far less addictive.

“Miss Limos?” Artur stared at her in that creepy way of his, and though she couldn’t be certain, she’d long suspected that he’d been a cannibal before he became a vampire. Thkeeere was just something… not right… about him.

She shoved the dead demon into the vamp’s arms and strode inside the great room, her strappy sandals clicking on the floor. A fire blazed in the hearth, and Than sat in one of the cozy chairs next to it, his nose buried in a book. As their voluntary historian, he had a massive library, was always reading when he wasn’t working out in his gym or haunting scenes of mass casualty.

His newest obsessions were seeking clues that might reveal the whereabouts of her agimortus, looking for a way to repair Reseph’s Seal, and trying to find their father. Okay, sure, these weren’t new obsessions, but now they were his only ones.

“Whatcha reading?”

Thanatos lifted his head, the twin blond braids at his temples banging against his cheeks. Salt: A World History.

“Wow. You know how to rock the literary.”

Than cocked a pierced eyebrow. “Do you know how many wars were fought over salt?”

She gave him a duh look. “We were there, remember?” They’d profited from some of those wars, had started their fortunes from the salt trade, in fact.

“Yep. The good old days.” Sarcasm dripped from his words.

“So why are you reading about it?”

“Because I met with Kynan half an hour ago to discuss their progress in locating your agimortus, and he mentioned that The Aegis had recently discovered a stash of Aegis texts inside an ancient barrel of salt. It occurred to me that before their subjugation by the Neethul, the Isfet were heavily involved in the salt trade.”

The Isfet were the demons who had made—and hidden—the cup that bore her agimortus. Unfortunately, thanks to generations of births and deaths, as well as horrendous record-keeping, even they no longer knew where it was stowed.

“So you think you can find a clue in that book?”

Than shrugged. “Can’t hurt. Maybe the author stumbled upon some information during his research.” He put aside his book as Artur entered.

“What shall I do with the body, sir?”

“Who is it?” Than looked at Limos. “One of Arik’s torturers?”

“Yep.” She’d discussed the plan to nail Rhys with Ares and Than a couple of days ago, and though they’d wanted to help, she knew the cagey bastard well enough to know he’d smell a trap. “I need you to dispose of him.”

Pale yellow eyes narrowing, Than sat forward in his chair, his black jeans creaking against the leather cushion. “You want to send a message to Arik’s captors.”

“Reading a book entirely about salt didn’t make you any dumber.” Than gave her a blank, unamused stare. “Yes,” she sighed, “I want to send a message.h od a mes”

Thanatos would likely grouse, but he loved doing stuff like this. Causing trouble was what he did best. Well, Reseph had actually excelled at it, but his troublemaking antics had always been good-natured. Than just liked fucking with demons.

“It would be smarter to hide the body so no one will know what happened to him, and no one can tie his death to you,” Than said, being all sensible. He must be spending a lot of time with Ares, whose thought processes operated like battle plans. “There’s no sense drawing attention to yourself, Li.”

“Helloooo. I’m a Horseman of the Apocalypse, and I’m betrothed to the most infamous, most powerful demon in existence. I couldn’t draw more attention to myself if I wore Lady Gaga’s meat dress to a PETA convention.”

“But you don’t need to keep poking the hornet’s nest.” Thanatos gestured to Artur. “Take the body to the ice chamber.” Once the vampire was gone, he turned his attention back to Limos. “What did the demon tell you before you killed him?”

She studied her multi-colored nails to conceal her concern. “That Arik is going to be executed.” And that Arik had refused to make a deal that might have freed him but would have doomed me.

“When?”

Dammit, she’d chipped the orange paint off her pinky. “Soon.”

“No doubt they’ll kill him in Sheoul instead of aboveground. Damn.” Than wanted Arik dead so Li would no longer have to worry about Arik speaking her name, but killing him in Sheoul was not the answer.

In fact, it would be worse for his soul to be tortured down there than his human body. Souls didn’t pass out from pain. He’d break within days, and she’d be honeymooning in the Taj MaHell.

Though she had no doubt he could set records for holding out.

Once again admiration washed over her, this time accompanied by a fierce surge of desire that wasn’t entirely sexual. Over the last month she’d fantasized about him, what it would be like to bed him, but also, what it would be like to just… be with him. To have that strength of character wrapping around her and making her feel secure. Yeah, she was an immortal Horseman, so mighty that she didn’t need any male’s physical protection. But, as she had seen with Ares and Cara, power didn’t always come from muscles.

Li shifted her focus from her nails to her hair, wrapping a still-damp strand around her finger. “I did manage to get a little intel from Rhys. It’s possible Arik is being stored near a hellmouth.”

“Erta Ale,” Than said. “Kynan mentioned it during our chat. He wants to search the area surrounding the volcano, but he won’t be able to find the exact location of the entrance.”

“Because he doesn’t have enough evil in him.” That was the thing about hellmouths—humans could enter without demonic assistance, but only if they were evil. “Guess that leaves me.”

Than’s already deep voice hit rock bottom. “I know you aren’t thinking of sniffing around inside the hellmouth.”

“Oh, I’m sniffing.”

Thanatos burst out of his chair, veins bulging in his neck, visible even under the collar of his black turtleneck. “Dammit, Li, if you get caught, you’ll be barefoot and pregnant with Satan’s hellspawn before you can so much as scream. You can’t—”

“You think I don’t know the risks?” she interrupted. “I didn’t escape just so I can get caught again.”

Actually, she hadn’t escaped at all, but that was something she could never say out loud. There was only one thing she feared more than marriage to the devil himself; losing her brothers. They’d taught her to love when, for countless years, she’d thought love meant enjoying others’ suffering.

“Then I’m coming with you.”

“Okay.”

Than blinked. “Okay?”

“What, you expected me to argue? I’m not a complete idiot.”

“That,” he said, “you are not. Usually.” His gaze shifted over her shoulder, and she followed it, turning to see Ares striding across the room, his expression grim, tension oozing from every pore in his nearly seven-foot-tall body.

He was dressed for battle in his leather armor, his sword at his left hip. Trailing behind him was an ox of a hellhound. Limos hated the beasts, whose bites could incapacitate her and her brothers, leaving them paralyzed and vulnerable. Any weapon coated in their saliva could cause the same damage. Limos knew that firsthand. But Ares’s wife, with her gift of animal whispering and healing, had charmed the damned things, and was bonded to every hellhound in existence. Thanks to the bond, she was now immortal, and all of the beasts held a powerful desire to protect her and Ares.

“Hey, bro,” she said. “What’s up? Where are Cara and Rath?”

Ares’s black eyes heated at his wife’s name, momentarily replacing the icy glint. “She’s home, nursing a newborn hellhound pup. Pestilence killed its mother. Rath’s napping.”

Rath was their adopted kid. Literally… kid. He was a baby Ramreel, a goatlike demon whose father had also been murdered by Pestilence.

“What’s going on?” Thanatos studied Ares as though trying to decide if he should armor up as well.

“Our brother has recovered from the blow we dealt him,” Ares’s voice, cold and hard, rang with anger. “A swarm of locusts is sweeping across New Zealand, the worst plague they’ve ever seen.”

Limos frowned. “A plague could point to Pestilence’s hand, but it’s still a natural occurrence.”

“Not when the locusts are eating animals and people too.”

Eew. “I was hoping it would take him more terae him mime to regroup.” There were a number of reasons for that, but foremost was the fact that when Pestilence wasn’t causing chaos, Ares and Thanatos didn’t fight. Ares wanted Pestilence dead, and Thanatos wanted to repair his Seal.

Unfortunately, Pestilence was in possession of the only weapon capable of killing him, and no one had found a way to repair his Seal. Hell, they didn’t even know if it was possible. Thanatos was running on nothing more than a theory and hope.

“So was I,” Ares said. “But tension in the Balkans is flaring up again, and so are battles in the Middle East. I just got back from a nasty one.” Ares, as the Horseman who would be War when his Seal broke, was naturally drawn to battles, could sometimes be kept away from home for days, weeks, even months during the worst of the fighting. Fortunately, thanks to Cara’s bond with the hellhounds, his Seal was safe—unless either Limos’s or Thanatos’s Seals broke.

“Dammit,” Than breathed. “I’d been sensing an upswing in deaths, but nothing I could pinpoint.”

“That’s because the battles are scattered right now, mostly skirmishes, and the death rates are fairly low. Pestilence might be working his next attempt at an Apocalypse in gradual measures. Fly under our radar for a while. He’s definitely up to something.” Ares reached over and scratched the hellhound under the chin, and Limos didn’t think she’d ever get used to that. “You guys make any headway in locating Arik?”

Limos nodded. “We were just heading out to Erta Ale to search. Wanna join us? There might be some fighting.”

“Then hell, yeah. I’m there.”

Limos touched her fingers to the crescent-shaped scar on the left side of her neck, and her Samurai-style armor snapped into place. Thanatos followed suit, his bone-plate armor clacking as it folded itself onto his body.

Time to ride.

Nothing.

They’d found freaking nothing but scorching lava, noxious gasses, and lung-choking ash near the Erta Ale hellmouth. Inside the entrance, they’d discovered the gnawed-on skeletons of half a dozen humans and tunnels that broke off into more tunnels. After a full day of combing the caverns, Ares and Thanatos had been compelled to another of Pestilence’s wars, and Limos had to change her game plan.

She threw a Harrowgate to her place, intent on gathering a team of her servants to help her. As she stepped out onto the warm Hawaiian sand outside her home, another gate flashed, and that son of a bitch, Pestilence, burst from it on his white stallion.

“Hey, sis.” In a clang of metal armor, he swung down from Conquest and called the horse to him. Conquest poofed into a wisp of smoke and slipped under his master’s gauntlet to settle on his arm. “I have a job for you.”

Her fingers flexed over the scabbard at her hip, the desire to run him through with her blade stronger than it had ever been. “If you think I’m going to do anything for you can go fuck yourself.”

Pain flickered in his ice-blue eyes, startling the hell out of her. “I know I’ve been a bastard, Li. I can’t help it.” His shoulders slumped, and he looked down at the ground, his platinum hair concealing his face. “My dreams… man, my dreams mess with me. I remember how I was. I… miss that.”

She took an involuntary step toward him. “Reseph?”

“I need help.” With a jerky, uncoordinated movement, he grabbed his head as if it pained him, and his voice cracked. “Cure me… please.” He inhaled a strangled breath. “Deliverance… under… my armor. Kill… me. I’m begging you.”

“We’ll help you, I swear,” she said, reaching for him.

His hand snapped out, grasping her wrist so tightly she felt the grind of bones. “You sentimental fool.” His head came up, a menacing crimson glow lighting his eyes. “Reseph is dead.”

She hissed, anger and pain ripping her right down the middle. She had her sword out and was swinging it before Pestilence could release her. Blood sprayed as the blade hacked into his neck. He stumbled backward, slapping his palm over the gaping wound.

“That,” he said, in a freakishly calm voice, “will cost you.” He jerked his head as if working out a kink, and the laceration sealed up, a hell of a lot faster than the same wound would have responded before he’d gone evil. He’d gained strength when his Seal broke, his ability to draw on the power of Sheoul boosting all his abilities, but bloody hell, she hadn’t thought he’d gotten that resilient. “Like I was saying, I have a job for you.”

“I’m not doing anything for you.”

He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I found an ancient vault that once belonged to The Aegis, and I want you to tell them about it.”

All her internal alarms went off, clanging loudly in her skull. “What’s in this vault?”

“Harmless historical relics.”

“Nope. Sorry. I’m not leading Aegi to a bunch of fake artifacts.”

Pestilence blinked innocently. He could get away with that when he was Reseph. Now… not so much.

“Fake?” He shrugged. “Nah. They’re real. Most of them. And the vault truly is an Aegis hiding place.” He opened a Harrowgate. “Come with me.”

“How stupid do you think I am? We could come out in Satan’s bedroom, for all I know.” Shudder.

He rolled his eyes, as if her distrust was completely unwarranted. “Cast your own gate and link it to mine then.”

“I have things to do.”

Abruptly, Pestilence’s demeanor took on a new cast, and he snarled. “If you don’t want to regret confiding in me about your part in The Aegis’s loss of Deliverance soghtliveran long ago, you’ll do this.”

“Blackmail, brother? Wow, you really have sunk low.”

“Says the girl who has been lying to her family about some really important shit.”

Damn him. With a curse, she cast her own gate over the top of his. They would both enter the now-single gate, but she could back out if she didn’t feel safe.

They went through, Pestilence first, and when she stepped out into a dusty cavern lit by hovering balls of mystical fire, it appeared he hadn’t been lying. At least, not about all of it. They were definitely in some sort of manmade tunnel, and her built-in GPS told her they were somewhere in Egypt.

She shivered. She’d never liked Egypt, and the claustrophobic closeness of the walls tightened around her chest like a python.

“Where are we?”

“A forgotten crypt. Some formerly important dude is entombed in a chamber behind us.” Pestilence knelt at the base of a chest-freezer-sized stone box, and although the lid probably weighed five hundred pounds, he lifted it as though it was made of paper. “Take a look.”

Easing up to the box, she peeked inside, where a dozen pieces of ancient jewelry, coins, and clay figurines lay on top of a pile of dust. Very carefully, she picked up one of the figures. The clay rendition of a plump woman was cracked, the piece of cloth tied around its legs was brittle.

“Nice job with this,” she murmured. “You missed your calling as a counterfeiter. What’s its purpose?”

“That’s none of your concern.”

“You’re such an asshole.”

One blond eyebrow shot up. “After the things you’ve done, you have the gall to call me an asshole?”

“Just get to the point,” she gritted out. “What do you want?”

“Bring an Aegi here. Tell them you discovered the vault in your search for your agimortus.” Pestilence tossed something at her feet. Dogtags, she realized, when she bent to pick them up. Arik’s dogtags, caked with blood. “You’ll do it, or next time I bring you his eyes.”

She clutched the metal chain and tags so hard her palm hurt. For some reason, this little piece of Arik made everything so real, so tangible. It was as if she could feel his pain in the blood smears. God, if she’d been stronger, if she’d resisted Arik and her attraction to him, she wouldn’t be in this mess, and he wouldn’t be in pain.

Shame sifted through her, but she couldn’t afford to give in to it. Whatever Pestilence was up to was bigger than Arik’s agony, and she couldn’t let on that she felt anything for him.

“Do what you have to do to Arik,” she said, her voice strong and sure, even if she didn’t mean what she said, even if inside she was aching. “I won’t help you.”

“Then I hope you’re prepared to face Ares and Thanatos after I tell them of all your deceptions.” He bared his fangs. “And yes, I know. Our mother told me everything.”

Limos’s heart shot into her throat, but she still managed to stay outwardly calm. “Telling them won’t benefit your cause.” She stroked the words engraved into the dogtags, taking comfort in the feel of Arik’s name under her thumb. “If anything, it’ll hurt it. Any remaining feelings they have for you will turn to hate.” She hoped. She was damned sure they’d hate her, anyway.

“I’m willing to take that risk. So, what will it be, sister? Tell the Guardians about this vault, or do I go to our brothers and tell them how you, and you alone, are responsible for the curse that turned us into Horsemen?”

Go, daughter. Go into the human realm and find your brothers. Let the rivers of blood flow. Their mother, Lilith, had spoken those words as Limos left Sheoul… freely. There’d been no battle, despite what Limos had claimed to her brothers. Limos had not escaped—she’d left with great pomp and circumstance, and with every intention of returning to take her place at her husband’s side after she’d accomplished her task.

If Thanatos and Ares knew, they’d plunge Deliverance into her heart right after they did the same to Pestilence. Maybe before.

“Damn you,” she growled. “I’ll do it. But in return, you’ll get Arik out of Sheoul.”

“You’re in no position to bargain.” Pestilence smiled. “And if The Aegis even suspects that this might be a setup, I’ll kill Arik and tell our brothers your secret.”

She wished she could strangle him. He was right; she had no leverage. “You know what this lie is going to do to me.”

Pestilence licked his lips, as if savoring the finest brandy. “That’s the best part of this, sis. With every lie you tell, your addiction to it will strengthen, and with every lie, evil will grow within you, until you want to go to your husband.”

“He’s not my husband.”

“Yet, Limos,” he said. “Yet.”