Lethal Rider

Eleven

The tap on the bedroom door came as Regan finished brushing her teeth with one of the spare toothbrushes she’d found in Than’s master bathroom cabinet.

“I really don’t want to talk to you, Thanatos,” she called out, realizing how stupid it was to say that before the sentence was even out of her mouth: Thanatos wouldn’t have knocked. He’d have barged in like a pissed-off bear awakened from hibernation.

She put away the toothbrush as Decker’s muffled voice came through the door. “It’s not Thanatos.”

“Oh.” She waddled into the bedroom and sank onto the bed. “Come in.”

Decker slipped inside, silent as a ghost. For a big guy, he was remarkably agile. Then again, so was Thanatos… agile in ways her body warmed to think about.

“You okay?” Decker asked.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t let Lance get to you. I think his mama’s milk was curdled.”

She sighed. “It’s not Lance. It’s everything. I feel so useless. I should have been there today. I could have helped.”

“Sounds like no one could have helped. You’d have just gotten yourself killed.”

Her breath shuddered out of her. He was probably right, but that didn’t lessen the guilt of not being with her colleagues when they needed her. It also drove home the fact that the crisis was worse than she’d been willing to admit.

“You know, all this time, even when things looked like they were at their worst, I never doubted we’d beat Pestilence and stop the Apocalypse.”

“We will,” Decker said fiercely. “We’ll find a way.”

“I’m not so sure anymore.” It hurt to say that, and part of her couldn’t believe she had said it. Defeat had never been an option for her. She’d fought for her very life from the day she was born. Now it seemed as if fighting might only drag out the inevitable. “With headquarters compromised, Pestilence has not only hamstrung us, he’s crippled our ability to organize and command, not to mention that this has to be a huge blow to every Guardian’s confidence.”

“Stop.” Decker sat down next to her. “We have to maintain hope.” He looked down at her belly. “And that peanut in there is hope.”

She offered him a thin smile. “You’re one of the only people besides Kynan who can say that without cringing.”

“Because it’s a baby. It’s not a monster, no matter what anyone else thinks.”

“Thank you.” She eyed the bed pillows and fought the urge to straighten them. “Not to be rude, but … is there a reason you’re here?” No one but Suzi had ever bothered to keep Regan company.

“That’s what I’ve always liked about you,” Deck said. “No bullshit.” He sobered, and she braced herself for whatever was coming. “I wanted to give you a heads up on a call Kynan just got from Sammara in the Tech Department. She ran a check of headquarters’ computers.”

Alarm bells clanged in her skull. “Don’t tell me Pestilence got our personnel records.”

“He did.” Decker’s tone was weary, his eyes tired. “And worse, he got the locations of every Aegis cell worldwide.”

“Oh, Jesus,” she rasped. “The slaughter is going to be off the charts.”

“The good news is that the information is encrypted,” Decker said. “We have time, but maybe only a matter of days.”

And after that, Guardians could very well become an endangered species.

Thanatos stalked into his library and went on instant alert. Arik and Limos were on the couch, and Ky was draped bonelessly in one of the armchairs. Someone, probably Arik, had found Than’s med kit and tended to Kynan’s wounds, but he was the grayish color of a dead bile slug, and he clearly needed medical attention.

But where the hell was Regan? “Where is she?” The question came out as more of a bark, but Thanatos didn’t give a shit if he sounded hyper and grumpy, and maybe a little too freaked out that Regan was missing.

“She’s in the bedroom,” Limos said calmly. “I think she had to puke.”

Thanatos started out the door, but Arik called him back. “Don’t, man. Give her a few minutes. She just lost a bunch of colleagues and friends, thanks to your brother.”

“My brother. Not me.”

“Idiot.” Arik beaned Than in the chest with a pencil. “You’re five thousand years old and still don’t know anything about humans.”

Than looked down at the pencil and considered kabobbing his brother-in-law with it. “Because I don’t hang around with humans.”

“Just trust me on this,” Arik said, and Limos nodded in agreement. “Your brother, who you want to save, just destroyed Regan’s world. You’re probably the last person she wants to see right now. Well, second to last. Pestilence wins first place.”

Than still didn’t understand why he should be held responsible for Pestilence’s actions, but he’d listen to the human, since Arik knew Regan better than he did. Which rankled.

Limos leaned forward on the couch, bracing her forearms on her knees. “These guys just filled me in on some important shit about your prophecy.” She blew out a long breath. “Damn, Than, there might be an end to all of this in sight.”

Than listened as Ky laid out the prophecy about the baby’s cry—and the fact that burying Deliverance in Pestilence’s heart while it was weakened would kill him. Made sense … but Than didn’t like it. He didn’t want to kill his brother. He wanted to save him.

“What about the Halley’s Comet Doom Star thing?” Than asked. “I found something in one of my shrines that indicates I can save him by using Deliverance at a particular time. What if that’s what the Doom Star part of the prophecy is about?”

Ky rubbed his eyes and swore. “Hadn’t thought of that.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Arik said. The comet won’t return to Earth until twenty sixty-one. We can’t wait that long.”

The easy way Arik said it, as if waiting to save Reseph wasn’t even an option, pissed Than the hell off. Yeah, he got it. He did. Dicking around for half a century waiting for a damned comet while Pestilence ravaged mankind and demons warred with each other wasn’t exactly an option. But dammit, Reseph was Than’s brother, and the male he’d once been deserved a little more respect.

Instead of knocking Arik across the room, Than swung around to Kynan and held out the book he’d fetched from the vault in the dungeon where he kept his most priceless items. “It’s a history of angels. I flagged some passages about qeres.”

“Damn.” Kynan took the book. “We don’t even have this. Where did you get it?”

“Found it in a burial chamber outside Babylon.”

Ky cocked a dark eyebrow. “Long time ago.”

“You could say that.” Than glanced at everyone as he spoke. “It says qeres incapacitates angels, which you know. But it also lists one of its ingredients. ‘Poison like the hounds of hell.’”

“You think it’s made of hellhound saliva?” Arik asked.

“I don’t know. But if it works like it, qeres could, potentially, work on us.”

Limos’s head whipped around. “Pestilence. We could use it on him.”

“Exactly. He’s become nearly immune to hellhound venom, but qeres has other properties. He may be vulnerable to it.”

“And then what?” Kynan smoothed his long fingers over the leather binding. “You incapacitate him, but what if the effect is only temporary? We don’t have much of the stuff, and once it runs out, there’s no way to hold him.”

“What about Regan?” Limos asked. “Her power held you for a few minutes. Maybe it would work on Pestilence.”

The reminder made Than twitchy, not because he’d been held immobile and helpless, but because all he could think about was Regan on top of him, her naked body undulating, her panting breaths matching his as they neared orgasm.

“Even if she can hold Pest while in freaking labor,” Arik said, “what then? If we miss the incredibly narrow window of the baby’s cry, Deliverance won’t kill him. Then we definitely have to wait for the comet.”

Thanatos’s pulse pounded in his temples at the thought of killing his brother.

“What if we freeze him?” Arik asked. “You know, like Han Solo.”

Thanatos shot Arik an are-you-kidding-me look. “Yeah … carbonite freezing machines might be a little hard to come by, given that we don’t live in the Star Wars universe.”

“Ass,” Arik muttered. “I’m talking about ice. Flash freeze him with liquid nitrogen or something.”

Limos toyed with the orange flower in her hair. “Even if you could lure him into a trap like that, he’ll unfreeze in minutes.”

Kynan shifted in his chair with a wince. No doubt his massive injuries were agonizing. They were also leaving blood all over Than’s furniture. “So what we’re left with is trying to hunt him down and incapacitate him while we wait for your son to cry.”

Son. Than wondered if he’d ever get used to hearing that. “Yeah, and you wanna explain why the fuck you believed this evidence you found that said my kid would save the world?”

“Because Regan inspected the scroll your brother planted for us to find,” Kynan said. “At the time, we didn’t know it was a setup, but Regan discovered that the author believed the prophecy they wrote.”

Thanatos picked up Reseph’s iPod for no other reason than to remind himself that the male who had loaded the mp3 player with country music would hate himself for what Pestilence was doing. “So we know Pestilence didn’t write it. It was his trick to take my virginity.”

“And that’s what’s so weird about the situation,” Ky replied. “He thought it was a trick, but the author thought it was true, and it might be true after all. So did the author believe your son will save the world because they know something we don’t? If that’s the case, they may be working against Pestilence rather than with him.”

Thanatos really wanted to have a chat with this mysterious author. “We have to find whoever penned the baby prophecy. Have you talked to Reaver or Harvester? Maybe they can provide some insight.”

Limos tucked herself more fully against Arik. If she got any closer she’d be up his nose. “The last time I talked to them… what, a month ago? They said they didn’t know anything. Or if they do, they aren’t talking because it’s against their stupid Watcher rules.”

“And don’t get them in the same room together,” Arik said. “Christ, we had to rebuild half of Limos’s party house after our last conversation with them.”

“Why?”

Limos studied her nails, painted yellow and pink today. “They got into a fight. It was like two jumbo jets colliding in mid-air.”

Harvester and Reaver had never been fond of each other, but they didn’t usually get physical. “What were they fighting about?”

“Dunno.” Arik lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “They didn’t say a word. We were talking to Harvester, and Reaver showed up and they went at it.”

“And that’s the last time anyone has seen them?” Than asked.

“Yep.”

Those damned angels. Yeah, the Horsemen could summon them, but that didn’t mean they’d arrive in a timely manner. They seemed to delight in showing up only at their own convenience. Did Reaver know about Pestilence’s attack on the Aegis? Did he even know Regan was pregnant? Speaking of which, she’d been gone too long for his comfort. And, wait…“Where’s Decker?”

“He went to check on Regan—” Limos hadn’t even finished her sentence before Than was halfway down the hall.

Insane, possessive anger clawed at him as he threw open the bedroom door. The sight of Decker sitting so close to Regan spiked Thanatos’s anger meter up to critical. Before he knew it, he had his fist in Decker’s T-shirt collar and had thrown the human across the room. In the next instant, Regan was on her feet, putting her body between them.

“Stop it! Decker was only talking to me.”

Decker picked himself up, calmly brushed himself off, and shot Thanatos the bird. “You know what you need? An old-fashioned ass-whupping.”

“You going to be the one to give it to me?” Than taunted.

Decker shook his head. “As much as I’d like to, I’m not stupid. But I’m also not leaving unless Regan tells me to go.”

Thanatos’s respect for the male went up by a point. Which gave him a grand total of one point. On a scale from zero to a hundred. Still, you had to credit a guy who knew how to check his testosterone at the door and not try to beat down a male who could squash him with a finger.

“It’s okay, Deck,” Regan said, with way too much familiarity and affection than Thanatos liked. “You can go.”

“You sure?” Decker gave Thanatos the evil eye.

“She’s sure,” Than growled, at the same time Regan said, “I’m sure.”

Decker shot Thanatos another hateful glare as he moved to the door, and the second he was gone, Thanatos swung around to Regan. “You are never to be alone in a bedroom with a male.”

She snorted. “You have no say over who I have in my bedroom. If I want to invite the entire Miami Dolphins team into my bed and have a big orgy while covered in chocolate sauce, you have no say in that whatsoever.”

The brief image set fire to his blood, but he kept his temper on simmer, unwilling to let her bait him. Still, he kind of wanted to hunt down every player on the football team and turn them into stains on the Astroturf.

“My house,” he gritted out, “my rules. No chocolate NFL orgies in my keep. I think that’s a reasonable request.”

“For Christ’s sake,” she said, throwing up her arms. “Do you seriously think my mind is set on getting Decker into bed?”

“He wants you.”

“No, he doesn’t. And even if he did, it’s not like I’m a real prize right now. My feet are swollen like overcooked hot dogs, I have stretch marks, I’m fat and ugly and awkward—”

“Stop.” He clenched his fists at his sides to keep from reaching for her. She was so pretty in her indignation, her cheeks pink with a delicate blush, her dark hair framing her face in tousled waves that gave her a wild fierceness that wasn’t diminished by her pregnancy at all. “Never say that to me again. You aren’t fat or ugly. There’s nothing more beautiful than a woman carrying her mate’s child, and—” He broke off with a horrified grunt. Mate? What an idiot. “Not that you’re my mate. It’s just that breeding women are—”

Once more, he broke off, aghast at his rambling, moronic self. Humiliation turned his cheeks hot, and he spun around, intent on leaving, but her soft voice stopped him, and he swung back around.

“Breeding? Look, if I’m going to stay here, we’d better set some ground rules.”

“Like?”

“Like you aren’t going to order me around. And I get my own bedroom. And I want ice cream. The good stuff, not the icky ice milk crap.”

He cocked a tawny eyebrow. “Anything else?”

His sarcasm wasn’t lost on her, but she ignored it. “Yes. While we’re at it, I want some Guardians here with me.”

Regan held her breath, wondering if she’d gone too far as he moved toward her, his big shoulders rolling, his eyes flashing. When he was close enough that their bellies touched, he dipped his head so low she thought he was going to kiss her.

Crazily, she didn’t know if that would be a good thing or a bad one.

“Here’s how this goes. No Guardians. I don’t trust any of them, including you. You can have as much ice cream as you want. I doubt I’ll stop ordering you around.” He turned his face away and put his lips to her ear. “And you don’t get your own bedroom. You sleep here. With me. Remember what I said.”

How could she forget? For the next eight and a half months, you’re going to be mine. Every. Night.

Reaching up, she fisted a handful of silky hair and forced his face back toward hers. His firm lips were a mere inch from hers, and she went up on her toes to get even closer, so close his heat caressed her skin.

“Yeah?” she murmured. “Want to wager on that, Horseman? You’ll be dying to get rid of me long before eight and a half months comes around.”

He brushed the tip of his finger along her jaw, a teasing, sensual touch that didn’t match up with what he said next. “I already am.”

There was no reason, none whatsoever, for the sting of rejection Than’s words brought. But there it was. Dropping back down on her heels, she released him.

“Then let me go. I get why I can’t leave right now, but when The Aegis has a new, secure headquarters, let me go.”

“Do you know how often I pleaded with Ares and Limos to do the same to me over these last months? Not aloud, since I couldn’t speak, but in my head.”

What did one say to that? Regan could only think of one, lame thing. “I’m sorry—”

“You’re sorry? Really?” His voice became a low, silky whisper. “Then prove it.”

His hand snapped to up to grab hers, and as her heart pounded out of control against her rib cage, he slapped her palm against his chest. Slowly, so slowly, he dragged her hand down. She tried to stop him, but she was no match for his strength. Her palm slid over hard, rolling abs and, guided by Thanatos, slipped lower, to the thick length behind the fly of his pants.

God, he was so gloriously hard, his cock pressing so firmly against the fabric that she could feel the curves that defined the smooth blunt head and the rigid shaft.

Clearing her throat, she managed a raspy, “You’re insane.”

“Yeah?” He stared down at her, his guttural words rumbling through her in a wave of heat. “I was a virgin before you. You woke a sleeping demon, Regan. I tried to sate it myself, but failed. Now you’re going to deal with the consequences.”

With that, he broke away from her and strode out of the room, leaving her confused, pissed off, and … really, really achy.

Things were getting hairy.

In the last nine months, the human realm had become a battleground, and Reaver had spent much of it in training, working to hone his battle and healing skills in preparation for Armageddon. But for the last month he’d immersed himself in the heavenly Hall of Records, desperate to find any scrap of knowledge that might reveal something about Harvester’s history.

He’d been gunning for her for nine months, ever since she’d taken him captive in Sheoul, cut off his wings, and tried to get him addicted to marrow wine. He couldn’t kill her, not while she was assigned as the Horsemen’s evil Watcher, but he suspected she’d been involved in the deception that had led to Regan’s pregnancy, and if so, she’d be fired—likely with actual fire—and destroyed.

Smiling at that thought, he popped into Than’s place, and instantly the smile disappeared. If the grim expressions on everyone’s faces hadn’t been a clue that something was wrong, the fact that Kynan was torn up was proof.

“What happened?”

Limos attacked him with a huge hug, as usual, and as soon as she stepped back, Kynan stood with a wince. “You don’t know?”

Reaver crossed to him and gently palmed his shoulder. Divine energy flowed through Reaver and into Kynan, and in an instant, he was partially healed. As a battle angel, Reaver’s healing abilities were limited, but his recent training had given him some small talent for repairing damage caused by fallen angels.

“If I knew what happened, I wouldn’t be asking,” Reaver said wryly.

“Where have you been?” Limos interrupted.

“In the Hall of Records.”

“For a month?”

“It was only hours for me. Time runs differently in Heaven.” He focused on Ky. “Now, what happened? And why is everyone here? Where’s Thanatos?”

“I’m right here.” Than emerged from the dark shadows of the hallway, a hot flush coloring his skin.

“The baby has been born?”

Than snorted. “Great. You were in on it, too? You knew they were planning to give my kid away?”

“Someone had better tell me what is going on,” Reaver said slowly. “Right freaking now.”

“Regan is here,” Limos said brightly. “Than kidnapped her.”

Thanatos folded his arms across his chest as if waiting for Reaver to dig into him. Reaver wasn’t going to waste the time. “And the baby?”

“Still percolating,” Than said. “They’re both safe in my bedroom. The baby seems to be offering her some protection.”

A blast of rare anger vibrated the very air around Kynan. “She wouldn’t need that protection if you’d left them at headquarters instead of kidnapping them like a caveman. Pestilence would never have found HQ if not for you.”

Reaver whipped his head around to Than. “You were at Aegis HQ?”

“Yeah,” Ky gritted out. “And now, thanks to him, Pestilence was, too.”

“The damage?”

“We’re fucked.” Ky ran his hand through his dark hair, leaving behind spiky grooves. “Dozens dead. Prisoners loosed. Possible compromise of our regional cells.”

“Damn,” Reaver breathed.

Kynan flexed his fingers as if testing them. At least one had been broken before Reaver arrived. “Do you know why Pestilence would be looking for a dagger called Wormwood?”

“No, why?” Reaver replied.

“Pestilence had a bug up his ass about it,” Kynan said. “It’s not all bad news, though. We’ve got some new leads on a way to stop Pestilence.” Kynan filled in Reaver about the discoveries they’d made in the Torran.

“But there’s no way to know if the writings are just ramblings,” Reaver said. “Just because someone wrote it doesn’t make it true.”

Kynan scrubbed his hand over his face. “We have to proceed as if it’s true. We don’t have a choice.”

The timing of the baby’s cry had been confirmed to both Reaver and Harvester by their bosses soon after Than’s baby was conceived. Pestilence could, indeed, be stopped at that moment, but Reaver had no idea what was up with the Doom Star part of the prophecy. Not that he could discuss it with the Horsemen even if he knew.

“Do you know how to incapacitate Pestilence so you’ll have him for the birth?” he asked.

“The Aegis might be the answer to that,” Than said. “They have qeres.”

Of course. Pestilence, being half angel, might be susceptible to the substance.

“Do you know if it’ll work?” Ky asked.

Reaver shook his head. “I don’t know, but even if I did—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Limos muttered. “You couldn’t tell us. Stupid Watcher rules.”

“Speaking of rules,” Reaver said, “be careful what you say in front of Harvester.”

“Why? What’s going on with you two?” Arik asked.

“Nothing you need to worry about.” Reaver glanced over at Than. “What’s going on with the baby? You mentioned it’s protecting her?”

“Looks like,” Than said. “Demons and humans can’t seem to touch her without getting tossed, and a frost demon’s breath attack should have caused a lot more damage.”

Reaver frowned. “Did this all start recently? Within the last week or two?”

“Yeah,” Than said. “How’d you know?”

Smiling, Reaver clapped Than on the shoulder. “Because the baby is part angel. And angels, at around the eighth month in the womb, start showing signs of the powers they’ll have. Cool. Sounds like kiddo is going to have some battle angel in him.”

Thanatos beamed, and Reaver nearly choked on the good kind of surprise he never got from that Horseman. It was nice to see him glowing with such pride in his offspring.

“Is there any way around it?” Than asked. “I mean, it’s cool, like you said, but he could interfere with people trying to help Regan. Like doctors.”

Yes, there was, but neutralizing an angel infant meant using evil magic and blood sacrifice, which also carried a risk to the infant and could do massive damage to the mother. Even if Reaver could share the information, he wouldn’t.

“I can’t say, but I can tell you that you’re better off using your time to capture Pestilence.” Reaver nodded toward the hallway. “Speaking of the baby, I’m going to see Regan.”

That fast, Thanatos lost the happy-happy and moved to bar Reaver’s path.

“Don’t take her from me, Reaver.” Than’s stance was rigid, aggressive, but his voice revealed something Reaver had never heard from the Horseman: vulnerability.

“I won’t,” Reaver assured him. “I swear.” With The Aegis compromised, she was probably safest with Thanatos anyway.

But in a way, that was like saying she was safer with a python than a cobra.