Rogue Rider

Nineteen

Reseph woke to the sound of a scream. He bolted upright, reaching for Jillian, but her side of the bed was empty. Hoping to God he’d been dreaming, he scrambled out of bed and tugged on his jeans. And then… another scream. Jillian’s scream.

Instant, bone-chilling terror and panic ripped through him. Barefoot, he charged through the house and tore open the front door with such force that it snapped the hinges.

Jillian was standing on the porch, face pale, eyes wide. A few yards away, Ares, Thanatos, and Limos were lined up, armored, and mounted on their horses.

“My brothers!” Grinning like a fool, his heart bounding with sudden excitement, he started for them. “Limos!”

“Reseph?” Jillian’s voice was shaken.

“It’s okay,” he said, giving her arm a rub as he walked past. “It’s my family. I can’t wait for you to meet them. Come on.”

“You… you remember?”

“Yup.” Freaky, but yeah, it was all coming back to him.

He took the steps down in two strides, but even as he hit the snowy ground below, he realized something was wrong. No one looked happy to see him. In fact, their expressions ranged from wary distrust, to downright hate in Thanatos’s case. What the hell—

A memory struck him like one of Jillian’s frying pans… Thanatos, holding him down, jamming Deliverance into his chest as nearby, a baby cried. But why…?

More memories came at him, rapid-fire, like bullets from an automatic weapon. His head snapped back as a wall of horror blindsided him. He stumbled, his equilibrium thrown off by the weight of the sudden recollections.

Blood. Screams. Hate… so much hate. The world spun, the ground giving way beneath him, and he crashed to his knees, clutching his head. Hands came down on his back… Jillian’s. She was speaking, asking if he was okay. Asking what was wrong, but he couldn’t speak. More screams… the screams of those he’d hurt. Countless numbers of them. Oh… God.

“No,” he rasped. “Oh… please, no.”

His stomach turned over, and he lurched, half-crawled, half-stumbled away from her and to the nearest tree, where everything he’d eaten in the last week, month, maybe year, came up. He lost it. Lost everything. Including, possibly, his mind.

What was happening?

Jillian stood in the snow, unable to process any of this. The strange, armored people on their horses watched Reseph break away from Jillian, curiously detached. Until he screamed and threw himself against the tree, slamming his head into the trunk over and over.

“Reseph!” She darted toward him, but before she’d gone five steps, arms came around her and she was held tightly by the huge man with blond braids at his temples and yellow hawk eyes. “Let me go!” She kicked and punched, but she might as well have been beating on an elephant. “Release me, you bastard!”

A godawful roar shook the very air, and Reseph spun, his face dripping blood, his teeth bared. Fury blazed in his crimson eyes as they locked onto the man holding her. He charged, but in a blur she couldn’t comprehend until it was over, the guy in leather armor was off his horse and tackling Reseph. Leather Man jammed something that looked like an EpiPen into his throat, and Reseph went completely, utterly still.

“What did you do?” she screamed. “Reseph!”

“He’s okay, female.” The man holding her palmed her forehead. “I’ll make this all go away.”

“No!” The black-haired woman rushed toward them, her armor, samurai in appearance, collecting snow in the joints as she ran. “Thanatos, don’t. You can’t go back far enough. Let her remember this.”

The man samurai called Thanatos tugged Jillian even closer, until she could feel the chill coming off his white armor. What was it made of, anyway? Bone?

“We can rearrange this, Limos,” Thanatos said. “Make her believe Reseph walked out on her.”

The woman named Limos shook her head. “I promised Arik I wouldn’t mess with anyone’s memories again.”

Memories? These people could mess with memories? Erase things? What was going on?

Thanatos rolled his eyes. “The things you do for that human.”

Behind Limos, the big man in leather armor spoke, and the stallion he’d been riding poofed into smoke and shot into his gauntlet.

Jillian was seeing things. None of this was real. It couldn’t be. But it seemed very real when the man threw Reseph over his shoulder, took a couple of steps, and disappeared into thin air.

“No,” Jillian whispered. “No. Bring him back.” She struggled uselessly against her captor’s hold. “Bring him back, you son of a bitch!”

“Let her go, Than,” the woman said. “Go help Ares with Reseph. I’ll take care of this.”

Take care of this? Terror burst through Jillian. Was the woman going to kill her?

Thanatos released Jillian, and the sudden lack of support sent her sprawling in the snow. “Sorry, female,” he said gruffly, and offered his hand.

As if. Jillian scrambled backward in an uncoordinated tangle of limbs until she hit the base of the steps and used them to get to her feet. She stood there, panting and freaking out, as Thanatos muttered something and his horse… oh, Jesus, really? His horse dissolved into smoke like the first one and shot into his gauntlet.

Jillian swayed, her head spinning, her heart pounding impossibly fast. Don’t pass out. Do not pass out in front of these people. She reached out and clutched the railing as hard as she could, praying hard that she’d stay conscious.

Thanatos took a step and disappeared as quickly as the other man had, leaving her alone with the woman and her black stallion. At least, Jillian thought it might be a horse. But she’d never seen a horse with razor-sharp teeth, red eyes, and hooves that created steam in the snow.

Terror was a cold fist around her heart, squeezing so hard and fast that her blood felt like it might explode from her veins. This was a nightmare. She was stuck in a horrible nightmare and reality was sliding right out from under her feet. She must have been speaking her thoughts out loud, because the other woman shook her head.

“This isn’t a nightmare. It’s all real. My name is Limos. What’s yours?”

Jillian swallowed. “J-Jillian. Who… are you?”

“I’m Reseph’s sister. Thanatos and Ares are his brothers.” Limos glanced around, her sharp, amethyst eyes seeming to take in everything. “Nice place. Look, Reseph has been missing for a few months. We didn’t even know he was alive until last night. Where did you find him?”

“In a snowbank,” she said hoarsely. “He… he didn’t remember anything but his name.”

Limos nodded. “Yeah, that’s what we were told. Looks like you took good care of him. Thank you.”

Thank you? Something about Limos’s gratitude struck Jillian as ridiculous, given that they’d knocked out Reseph and then kidnapped him. Sudden anger replaced her fear, and she released the post to get up in Limos’s face.

“Where did your brothers take him? Why did he freak out like that? What the hell is going on?”

“They took him home.” Limos’s voice was calm despite the fact that Jillian was practically shouting now. “As for the rest… it’s not important. We’ll take care of him.” She pivoted around. “You shouldn’t have any more demon trouble, either. Thanks again.”

“Wait—”

“Trust me,” Limos said softly. “This is for the best.”

Limos and her horse disappeared, leaving Jillian terrified, confused, and so alone it hurt.