Lethal Rider

Eighteen

Regan was still reeling from what she’d seen and felt in the vampire’s tattoo. Everything suddenly made so much sense. Now she knew why the daywalkers could touch her—they were Thanatos’s creations.

They were his blood. In a way, they were his children.

He stood over the mosaic of himself, crimson rivulets dripping down his face, breaths sawing in and out as if he’d run a marathon. “Regan…”

Ares sheathed his blade and moved close. “What’s going on, Than?”

“This isn’t something I can discuss.” Thanatos’s voice was a low croak. “And what you’ve already heard can go no further than these walls.”

“Thanatos.” Regan put her hands over her belly to stop the trembling. “These vampires are trying to kill me and our son. I think it’s time we found out what’s going on.”

For a long time, Than just stood there, his head hanging loosely from his broad shoulders. Finally, he sank against a pillar and stared up at the tiled ceiling. “After we were cursed…”

“We all went nuts,” Ares said. “You’ve never spoken of what you did.”

“That’s because I couldn’t. You asked me about my fangs… I got them with the curse.” He blew out a long breath. “I needed blood. I don’t remember much about those first few years, except that I was hungry. I went on a rampage, taking blood from humans… I ravaged entire villages. What I didn’t know is that those I drained past recoverable blood loss but not to immediate death suffered with fever for days before dying … and then they rose as vampires. Daywalkers.”

“His hunger is his burden,” Regan murmured. “From your prophecy. We always wondered what that meant.”

Than nodded. “Now you know.”

“Damn,” Limos breathed. “I always assumed it was your hunger for knowledge. You’re always scouring the globe for books and crap.” She flicked a glance at the mosaic of Than on the floor. “So did you create all daywalkers, or can they reproduce?”

“That’s the thing,” Than said. “Only I can create daywalkers. But the daywalkers… they created the nightwalkers.”

“Holy fuck,” Wraith blurted, and Regan nearly jumped. She’d forgotten he was there. Probably because he was lurking in the shadows. “So you’re kind of my … grandfather.”

Thanatos glared.

Wraith held up his hands. “Chill, Gramps. I don’t want to sit on your knee or anything.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Limos asked.

“He couldn’t,” Ares said. “With our Seals broken, we could have used that information to turn the vampires against him, or to hurt him through them … a lot of possibilities.”

Thanatos nodded. “Harvester warned me to keep it a secret from everyone, including my siblings. Only angels and fallen angels are allowed to create new species. Unauthorized species would be destroyed.”

“So you made up a legend about how vampires were made,” Wraith mused. “And it wasn’t entirely a lie, because you’re part angel.”

“How’d you keep the daywalkers quiet?” Ares asked.

Regan stared at the dead daywalker, whose body was still intact since he was on Sheoulic soil, and realization dawned. “The tats,” she said. “They’re wards of a sort, aren’t they?”

“Yeah.” Than wiped blood from his brow, leaving behind smooth, healed skin. “I had them all marked with a silence ward so none of them could speak of their origins. The problem is that there are daywalkers in the wild. Wildings, we call them. I’ve tried to gather them all, but there are hidden clans. Some don’t want to have to make the choice of serving me or being destroyed.”

Wraith snorted. “Imagine that.”

“It’s a high price,” Than admitted, “but the alternative is that the entire vampire species could be eradicated if the truth of their origins gets out, and that includes hybrids like dhampires and half-breeds like you.”

“I’m not exactly a half-breed.” Wraith said. “More of a freak of nature. But my mate is fangy, so my lips are sealed.”

“It might not even matter now.” Than’s voice was dour. “The wildings seem to be rebelling and taking my staff with them. Once the Apocalypse breaks, all old rules go out the window, which is probably what they’re counting on.”

Limos kicked the vamp’s body. “I wonder if Pestilence has something to do with the rebellion.”

“He seems to have his fingers in all the pies,” Than said.

Ares looked down at the scene depicting Thanatos with the vampires. “I’m surprised Harvester has kept your secret. It’s not like her to be nice.”

“No doubt there’s a reason,” Limos said, her voice dripping with acid. “So what about your nightwalker servants? Do they know your secret?”

Thanatos’s eyes closed, and Regan slipped her hand into his. This must be hard for him, but she could only imagine that there was also a measure of relief that he could finally share his burden with his siblings. When Thanatos opened his eyes again, he gave her a grateful look.

“They know. They were all created by daywalkers and somehow found out, either because they were bitten during the day or they learned the truth from a wilding. They’re tattooed with the same nondisclosure spells.”

Regan returned to the scrolls and very carefully unrolled one. Although she couldn’t read this particular Sheoulic language, she could feel the emotions rising out of the ink. These were definitely related to the texts that had been deciphered at Aegis Headquarters.

“Can anyone read these?”

Ares arranged the scrolls in the order they belonged. “Most of this is about the author’s vampire life after his turning. Boring shit. Guy was so emo. Christ, Than, you couldn’t have turned someone less whiny?”

Thanatos flipped his brother the bird.

Ares fingered the last scroll. “But this one … This one speaks of our father. The angel’s name was Yenrieth, who the other, darker angel called a Lamb.”

Regan frowned. “But in Biblical writings, isn’t the Lamb thought to be Jesus?”

Ares tapped his fingers. “I think the female angel was using it as an insult, but then she talks about …” Ares hissed and stepped back so fast she thought the scroll had burned him.

Limos and Than both moved forward. “What is it?”

“I read that wrong,” Ares said. “I must have.”

“Why?” Thanatos asked. “What’s it say?”

“The angels fought. They fought about Yenrieth’s children and their Seals. And how Yenrieth… shit.”

“Shit, what?” Thanatos came up behind Regan and gently tucked her next to him, as if preparing to brace her for what was coming. Or maybe to brace himself.

“How Yenrieth needed to quit running and accept his fate.”

“And what, exactly, is his fate?” Limos asked, her violet eyes narrowed into slits.

Ares turned to them. “In the Book of Revelation, when it talks about the Lamb, it’s talking about Yenrieth.” He ran a trembling hand through his hair. “If the Daemonica’s prophecy fails, we still have to worry about the Biblical End of Days.” Ares looked from Limos to Than. “And our own father is destined to break our Seals and start the Apocalypse.”

Thanatos didn’t take Regan back to his place right away. He needed sunshine and fresh air, open spaces and the smell of the ocean.

He also needed some time alone with Regan to gauge her intentions regarding the new information he’d just given her. If she told The Aegis what she’d learned, they could see to it that thousands of their enemies were destroyed in one snap of an angel’s fingers.

Ares’s beach was the perfect, safe place to have a little chat.

They stepped out of his Harrowgate into warm, white sand. Regan smiled into the breeze, her cheeks glowing in the sunlight.

“Where are we?”

“Greece. Ares’s island. Thought you might like a change from the frigid weather at my place.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “And you figured I’d be more likely to promise to keep your secret if I wasn’t feeling imprisoned and on the defensive.”

“That too.”

With a sigh, she walked over to the water’s edge and sank down on one of the stone benches Ares had dotted the shoreline with, where she took off her shoes and let the waves lap at her toes. “By keeping this information from The Aegis, I’d be betraying them.” Even as his blood began to boil, she continued. “But you’re my son’s father, and I can’t betray him, either.”

“Quite the dilemma,” he growled.

“Quite.” She patted the seat next to her, and he sat, liking being with her like this, even if the topic of the moment wasn’t the most pleasant. “What do you know about your father?”

He looked out over the huge expanse of blue-green water. He’d always loved it here, but something about sharing such a beautiful setting with Regan made it even better. That, and the fact that being near the baby dimmed the sensation of deaths around the world. He could almost be at peace for the first time since his curse.

“Not much. He disappeared after we were conceived. If the account in that scroll is accurate, then he was still around in some way for a few decades. But it doesn’t tell me where he is now.”

“We have to find him.”

“And why is that?”

Regan turned to him, her hair curling in soft tendrils around her face. “Your Biblical Seals … they’re different than your Daemonica Seals?”

He wasn’t sure where this was going, but he nodded. “According to Gethel, they’re metal rings that protect the contents of four scrolls stored somewhere in Heaven. Why?”

“Because if it’s true that your father is the Lamb referred to in Revelation, we might need him to break those Seals.”

He blinked. “Why?”

“You’re to fight for the side of good if your Biblical Seals break, right? The only way to stop the evil Apocalypse might be to start the good one. To at least start it on our terms. To give humanity a chance.”

Abruptly, he understood how much of a warrior Regan was. How far she was willing to go to save the world, and why she’d agreed to seduce him in order to get pregnant. Some of his anger over what she’d done to him faded, replaced by a grudging respect for her bravery.

“It would be like fighting fire with fire,” he said. But heavenly fire was just as destructive as what came out of hell.

She smiled thinly. “Funny you should say that, because before my father joined The Aegis, he was a firefighter. I read all about them when I was a teenager, you know, trying to connect with him however I could.”

“You never met him at all?”

She shook her head. “He died before I was even born. Though I guess saying he died isn’t as accurate as how Lance likes to put it. As Lance says, he was ‘put down.’”

Sounded like this Lance person was an asshole who needed to be ‘put down.’ “What do you know about him?”

One hand came up to cover her belly. She did that a lot when she was stressed, he’d noticed. “He came from a small town in Oregon. Troubled youth. The usual things that eventually lead people to The Aegis. I guess he wanted to be a firefighter all his life, and after only two years of it, he ran into a scorch demon. He kind of went crazy until he learned about The Aegis and that demons were real. It was my mom who helped him join up, and then he got possessed, knocked her up, and here I am.” She looked down at where the baby was moving under her shirt. “What about you? I mean, I know you’ve never met your real father, but you thought you were human for the first years of your life, right?”

He wasn’t sure what made him do what he did next, but he reached out and covered her hand with his. An instant, connecting warmth went through him, that virtual rope that seemed to loop all three of them together. The feeling was addictive, and he wondered if it would be the same once the baby was born.

“Yeah. I mean, I knew I was different. I was stronger than everyone else. Healed fast. Saw things other people couldn’t see, like Harrowgates and demons. I was the only boy in the family… I had three sisters, so my mother was always busy with them, but my father would take me hunting or on trips to trade with other clans. We were pretty close.”

Her thumb smoothed back and forth over his, and the intimate caress went all the way to his soul. “Do you want to meet your real father?”

“I’ll live if I don’t.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

He knew that, but he didn’t know how to answer. He’d been hunting down clues about his father for thousands of years, but now that Thanatos’s own baby was on the way, he had a whole new outlook on a father’s role in his child’s life.

“I don’t know if I should.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’d want to know why the fuck he let Lilith do what she did with us,” he snapped, surprising himself at the level of rage welling up. “He let Limos be raised in hell. He sat by and allowed us to be separated, and then he didn’t help when our worlds fell apart.”

“Maybe he couldn’t,” she said softly. “Maybe he did what he thought was best.”

In his chest, Than’s heart turned to ice. “Maybe you’re trying to justify what you plan to do to your own son.”

She squeezed his hand. “Thanatos, no—”

He yanked out of her grip and shoved to his feet. “I am not my father. I will not abandon my child. Like father, like son, I might have fallen for your seductive skills the way he fell for Lilith’s, but I will not let you give our son away, least of all to be raised in The Aegis.”

“The Aegis saved my life,” she said. “They gave me a life when no one else wanted me.”

He snorted. “They used you, Regan.”

“They need me.”

“They need you because of what you can do for them. That’s the only reason they want you. When are you going to open your eyes and see that?”

Regan’s lips parted, but no sound came out. She might as well have screamed, though, her pain was so etched into her expression. Somewhere inside, she’d had the same thoughts about The Aegis and her role with them.

“And why should I open my eyes?” The gold flecks in her hazel eyes glittered, little sparks that punctuated the anger in her words. “Will it make you feel better if I have nothing and no one?”

He turned away from her, because while it wouldn’t make him feel better for her to lose everything she’d ever known, he wasn’t sure it would be a bad thing, either. She was too dependent on an organization that didn’t appreciate her. Besides, she didn’t have no one. She had a son, and if she’d just give up her crazy idea that the baby needed someone else to raise it, he’d make sure she was a part of its life.

His scalp prickled, and a Harrowgate opened ten yards away. Ares and Limos exploded from it, both still armored, their weapons drawn and bloodied.

“We have trouble,” Limos said. “Vampire trouble. Your wildings have taken over Notre Dame cathedral. They’re slaughtering everyone.”

“It’s blatant.” Ares’s deep voice was as clipped as his movements, which meant he was fully engaged in strategy mode. “It’s either a message or a trap.”

Thanatos’s gut twisted. “Either way, it’s meant for me.” He nodded at Limos. “Take Regan back to my place. Ares, let’s see what they want. And then we’ll kill them.”

Notre Dame.

Thanatos had witnessed much of its construction. Now he was witnessing horrific destruction as a dozen daywalkers defiled the cathedral with demonic energy and human suffering.

A local Aegis cell had joined forces with the police to keep everyone out, but they couldn’t block Ares and Thanatos, who passed through the blockade invisibly, hidden within a Khote spell. Inside, Nulls shot around like wisps of black smoke, and vampires crouched on ledges, watching as Ares and Thanatos walked across a floor smeared with blood and littered with dead and injured humans.

“Who is in charge here?” Than called out.

The Nulls screeched, nearly drowning out the deep laughter of a blond vampire who emerged from between two pillars, his teeth glistening with the remains of his last meal.

“You can call me Medras.” He leaped onto an organ, the thud of his boots echoing off the walls. Blood stained his faded jeans and white shirt and streaked his arms. The scent of death clung to him, and Than’s insides buzzed with his own desire to kill.

“Jesus,” Ares murmured as he took in the vampires assembled around them. “How many daywalkers did you make?”

Thanatos swallowed, his throat burning with self-loathing. “More than I thought. I don’t know how—”

“You don’t know how?” Medras snarled. “Let me remind you. I was a monk, traveling through Franconia with my brothers, and you set upon us like an animal. Do you even remember that?”

No, Than didn’t. He thought he knew of all incidents, but maybe he’d been in one of his killing rampages. Oh, God, how many more daywalkers existed than he’d believed?

“I didn’t think you recognized me.” Bitterness permeated every one of Medras’s words. “But I will never forget your face. Nor will I forget the evil that took over my body and forced me to kill so many until I gained control of my bloodlust.” In a smooth surge, he swept a cowering human off the floor.

“Stop!” Thanatos started toward the vampire, but froze when Medras put a blade to the human’s throat.

“One step closer, and he dies.”

“If this is control over your bloodlust, then you’d better work a little harder,” Than growled. Not that he had much room to talk. “Why are you doing this?”

Sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows, drenching Medras in a kaleidoscope of light as he sneered at Than. “You haven’t figured it out yet? You haven’t gotten it through your thick head that daywalkers don’t want to serve you? We want our freedom.”

“Fools. I’m protecting you. Protecting the entire vampire race.”

“Not anymore, Bludrexe. Once the Apocalypse starts, we won’t need your protection. All we have to do is kill your brat and break your Seal.”

Thanatos hissed and, for the first time in front of Ares, let his fangs slice down in fury. “How did you know about my Seal? You couldn’t have put all of this together without help.”

“True. My brethren and I have been in hiding for centuries, but we were able to keep an eye on you. Not all of your little house slaves are happy, Horseman.”

Than was going to rip this bastard’s balls off and feed them to him. “So one of my servants reported back to you about my impending fatherhood. But that doesn’t explain why you think harming the child will get you what you want.”

“Because, you simpleton. We’re tired of hiding, so we went to your brother. He was very interested to know our origins. We were interested to know that killing your bastard would break your Seal. Pestilence promised us power over the nightwalkers and freedom from your rule if we pledged allegiance to him in the Final Battle.”

The Final Battle, in Daemonica prophecy, was the battle between all four of the Horsemen, when they fought each other for ultimate control of the Earth. Knowing that Than’s own creations wouldn’t stand with him pissed him the hell off. The betrayals kept coming. At this rate, Ares and Limos would turn against him before the end of the day.

Fury iced over his heart and added to the growing sinister vibration inside that demanded he seek out some massive scene of death. The draw to death had been muted while he’d been with Regan and the baby, but now that he was away from her, it roared back with a vengeance, clouding his mind and darkening his thoughts.

“How many of you are there?”

“There are clans all over the world, all united against you.”

“And amongst my staff?”

“For some reason, there are those who are loyal to you. But I’ll not say who.” Medras smiled. “What’s the matter, Bludrexe? Are you feeling the need to go somewhere?”

“I feel it, too.” Ares shifted his weight, growing as restless as Than. “Pestilence has done something … bad.”

Shit. Than tried to open a Harrowgate, but, like most major holy places, it was warded against them. “I have to get to Regan before—”

Too late. As if a massive hand had reached out of thin air and grabbed him, Than was snatched away and dropped into the middle of a nightmare he’d been through before.

The stench of death became a heady drug as he called out Styx and palmed his scythe. Must … kill. The desire to relieve bodies of their souls clamored loudly in his skull, but another, newer desire warred with it.

Regan.

No. Oh, God, no. Half of him wanted her naked, screaming his name as he thrust between her creamy thighs. He wanted to claim her, mark her, use her so thoroughly that she’d be too tired to ever leave his bed. The other half of him wanted to kill, to draw blood and destroy everything in his path.

He roared in confusion and fury, trying desperately to hold onto conscious thought, because if he didn’t, if he let the death haze take him in a killing rampage, he might just let both halves win.

And then his draw to Regan and his desire to kill could become one and the same, and Regan would die.