Lethal Rider

Twenty-seven

The sounds of battle penetrated Thanatos’s black haze. Whatever The Aegis bastard had darted him with hadn’t been hellhound saliva, or Than wouldn’t have blacked out, even for a few seconds, and it wouldn’t have made him fuzzy in the head. No, everything was crystal clear when you were paralyzed by hellmutt venom.

Had to be the qeres. Those fucking assholes had knocked him off his feet with the weapon they’d promised to use against Pestilence.

Fuckers.

And Regan… His body shook like a washer on spin cycle as his body stirred back to life. How involved had she been in this attack? He waited for the insane anger to set in, anger at her deception, but nothing happened. Maybe because no, he didn’t believe that after all they’d shared over the last couple of days, the talking, the love-making, she’d betray him again.

He’d give her the benefit of the doubt. Everyone else involved in this scheme, however, was going to die.

Snarling, he rocked himself up off the ground and onto all fours. All around him, Guardians were battling his vampires, and about fifty yards away, a pack of hellhounds was bearing down. Good. Let them tear the Aegis assholes to pieces.

“My lord.” Viktor, one leg broken badly, tried to help Than to his feet. “We’ve failed you—”

“No, you didn’t.” Than staggered to his feet and flicked his fingers over his throat. Instantly, his armor folded into place. “I let down my damned guard and trusted the wrong people.”

Viktor opened his mouth, but only a gasp and a rush of blood came out. A wooden bolt blew a hole through the vampire’s chest and shattered on Thanatos’s armor. In a puff of greasy smoke, Viktor crumpled into a pile of blackened ash on the ground.

“No!” Roaring in anguish, Thanatos summoned his scythe and in one lighting-fast motion relieved the Guardian who’d killed Viktor of his head. The hellhounds fell on the remaining Aegi, but Than didn’t wait around to enjoy the show.

Hurry! We need to get to the ship! Someone had shouted as Thanatos went down, the voice barely audible in the chop of the helicopter blades, and fuck, that meant he couldn’t use a Harrowgate. Water affected the destination gate, and one wrong calculation could dump him right into the ocean… where he couldn’t gate himself out.

His brain stewing with revenge, he released Styx, mounted the stallion, and took off in the direction of his son.

Styx ran as if he was being chased by the hellhounds they’d left behind, and with every stride, Thanatos’s fury mounted. He panted through the growing desire to kill, needing to stay in control. Regan had shown him what she did to stay calm, and right now, he borrowed the trick, clicking his thumb on the saddle’s pommel. One, two, three. Breathe. One, two, three. Breathe.

It worked. Only slightly, but it worked. Oh, he was still going to rend Aegi bodies from limb to limb, but he’d do it in an orderly, calm fashion.

And if either she or the baby had been harmed in any way, the calm thing was going out the window. If The Aegis wanted a war, they’d gotten one.

Sacrifice? Sacrifice, as in kill? Regan backed away from her colleagues so fast she slammed into a rolling tray, knocking it over and sending instruments clattering to the floor.

“Fuck you,” she breathed. “Fuck every one of you. You’re not touching my son.”

“Regan,” Lance said, so calmly her hair stood on end, “you agreed. When we came to you in the beginning, you agreed—”

“I agreed to get pregnant. Jesus Christ… I didn’t agree to kill my baby!”

“Be reasonable, Regan. It’s not your baby. It belongs to The Aegis.” Juan stepped closer, and the room began to spin. “It’s not really a baby anyway. It’s a demon. A demon whose death will save mankind from untold horrors.”

“Untold horrors? You sound like a narrator from one of those fifties nuclear preparedness films.” Regan’s chest tightened around her madly beating heart. They were serious. They honestly had no problem murdering a newborn infant. “You idiots! Thanatos can sense this baby. He is going to find us, and he’s going to slaughter every one of you.”

Lance shook his head. “We planned for that. We have it on good authority that the Horsemen can’t open a Harrowgate on a boat.”

Regan grew lightheaded, so dizzy that she threw out a hand to catch herself on the wall. “Who told you that? It’s a lie.” She had no idea if their claim was true or not, but at this point, she’d say anything to stop this insane plan of theirs.

“We know it’s true.” Omar flanked her left side, and now she was surrounded. “Let’s make this easy on everyone. It’s the only way, Regan.”

Okay, calm down…think…think. “You can’t touch me.” She doubted the hysteria in her voice was helping anything. “This demon, as you call him, is protecting me.”

Lance smiled. “Again, we planned for that.” He gestured to one of the techs standing near the doctor. The tech opened a cabinet and removed a tray laden with candles, packets of powder, a ceremonial bowl, and a few objects Regan didn’t recognize. Another tech brought in a cage containing a live rabbit.

“Blood magic?” She was going to throw up. “You’re going to neutralize him with an evil spell? You can’t know it’ll work. You could kill him!” She realized instantly what a stupid thing to say that was, given that the goal was to kill the baby.

They’d been possessed. That was the only answer. Her colleagues, the people she considered to be her family, the ones who had fought beside her, shared her Aegis ideology, and given her a home, had to be under the influence of evil. Somehow, Pestilence had gotten hold of them, that son of a bitch.

Well, fuck this. Pivoting, she slammed her fist into Lance’s face. Power sang through her, and he went airborne, crunching into a bulkhead and sliding motionless to the floor. Hands grabbed her from behind, but again, the baby’s energy exploded, and she turned in time to see Omar cartwheel into a doorframe and slide bonelessly to the floor.

“Stay back,” she snarled. “You’ve seen what I can do. Next person who tries to hurt me gets a taste of my soul-sucking talent.” Another bluff, since it wasn’t even tingling inside her.

Keeping her eye on everyone, she reached behind her and opened the door. Once in the passageway, she ran as fast as she could toward the deck, hoping to force the helicopter pilot into flying her off the boat, but when she heaved open the door, disappointment shrouded her like a sodden blanket.

Son of a bitch, the bird was gone.

She heard the fall of running footsteps behind her. Don’t panic. With as much calm as she could muster, she slammed the passageway door and spun the locking mechanism. A mop propped nearby became her best friend as she grabbed it and jammed the handle through the door’s lock handle to prevent it from spinning. It wouldn’t hold them for long, but she figured she only needed a couple of minutes. She hurried to the chest of Aegis supplies and grabbed a crossbow. Beneath the weapon was a large wooden box. Inside, lying on top of gray egg crate foam, were vials of milky liquid.

Qeres.

She snared a vial, and with adrenaline boosting her, she rushed to the motorized lifeboat on the starboard side of the ship. She could see the shoreline from here, and thank God the seas weren’t rough. This was doable.

Awkwardly, she climbed into the hard-sided raft, grabbed the control box, and flipped the switch. In a grind of gears and a jolt that left her gasping for breath, the craft lowered down the side of the ship.

She heard shouts above, and as the little raft plunked into the water, the shouts turned to curses.

“Fuck! Reverse the winch. Pull her up!” The mushy voice belonged to Lance, and she almost laughed at the knowledge that the blow she’d delivered must have broken a few teeth.

“Too late.” With a flick of her wrist, she disengaged the clamps that held the raft to the rigging, and her little boat floated free. She aimed the crossbow at Lance’s head as he peered over the side of the ship. “Go to hell, assholes.”

With one hand still holding the weapon, she pushed the motor ignition button, and the small diesel engine roared to life.

In a matter of minutes, she was far enough away from the Aegis ship to finally take a deep breath. To relax. Except then she looked ahead to the land and the pier there jutting out into the water, where she saw a figure take form as she got closer.

A large, armored man stood like a statue, his hair blowing in the wind, lashing his face. Thanatos. Breathing became a chore. Oh, God, she could feel his cold rage from here. She didn’t believe he’d hurt her, even accidentally, but what if he blew the way he had the day he took out most of the island’s population?

Her mouth went dry and her throat closed up as she guided the boat up to the rickety dock. His boots struck the wood with menacing thuds as she tried to come to her feet. She couldn’t tell if her legs were unsteady or the boat was rocking, but either way, she could barely stay upright until his hand snared hers and lifted her effortlessly to the dock.

Finally, she met his gaze. And wished she hadn’t.

All that icy anger had glazed his eyes with a glassy sheen of murder. His gaze raked her from head to toe, gauging, she assumed, her health. When he finished, he cast a Harrowgate and wordlessly led her through it. When they stepped out into the aftermath of the bloodbath in front of his keep, the day’s events hit her like a sledgehammer to the ribs.

The blackened remains of dead vampires mixed with the blood and body parts of dead Guardians. Guardians who had, most likely, not known exactly what the Elders had planned. They’d been considered acceptable losses for the greater good, hadn’t they? All around them, hellhounds were … doing what they did to their victims. Regan’s stomach churned at the sight and stench of death.

There were no words. Just horror and despair and the need to get her baby to safety.

Thanatos, still clutching her hand tightly, strode into the keep, never once looking at her. Inside, he dropped her hand and made a beeline for the library. She followed, closing the door behind her, as if that would shut out the death, the betrayal, the whole world.

Thanatos, his back to her, stared at the cradle in the corner. “Were you involved in this, Regan? Did you know The Aegis was going to take you and attack my people?”

“Did I—?” She sucked in a harsh breath. He’d thought she’d betrayed him. Again. “No. God, no. I had no idea what they had planned.”

“Even so, did you go willingly?”

She looked down at her belly, unsure how to answer.

“Regan?” he prompted.

“I got into the helicopter willingly. I know you don’t trust them, but I had no reason not to. But when the engine started and you ran out…”

“What?” He turned to her, and she hated the guarded look in his eyes. They’d made so much progress, and this could have destroyed it all. “What did you do?”

“I tried to get out. And then we were in the air and there was nothing I could do. It wasn’t until we got to the ship and I found out why they took me that I had a chance to get away.”

“Why they took you?” The guarded look turned perplexed. “Weren’t they trying to get you away from me?”

Her pulse leaped as her heart began to pound in a new panic. If Thanatos knew what they’d intended, he could go into a massive rage. But he needed to know. So much had been kept from him out of fear of what he would do. It was time to finally treat him like he was more than a death bomb waiting to go off and give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Getting me away from you was only part of it,” she said quietly. “They wanted to deliver the baby.”

“Why? Do they have Pestilence?”

“No.” Her voice was now a guttural croak. “They wanted…they planned to deliver our son…and kill him.” A sudden blast of fury exploded from Thanatos, and all around him, his souls shot from his armor. Hundreds of them. Thousands. Oh, shit. Quickly, she took his hand and placed his fingers in her palm. “Tap, Than. You can do this. Count it out.”

“I’m beyond counting!” he bellowed. He looked down, his teeth clenched, and she knew that despite what he’d said, he was trying to hold it together. He was trying … for her.

“Thanatos? I need to talk to Kynan.”

His head jerked up. “After what The Aegis has done, you want another Guardian here?”

“I need to understand this.” Tears stung her eyes, blurring her vision, and she hated herself for that weakness. “The Elders who took me… they were possessed, or ensorcelled. That’s the only explanation. Please, I need to understand.”

“I do too.” Thanatos smiled, but there was nothing humorous about it. “I need to know who to kill.”