Lethal Rider

by Larissa Ione

  Ares cursed. “Damn, she’s annoying. But if what she said is true, that’s the best news we’ve had in… well, ever.”

  No shit. Than’s knees actually felt weak with relief, but only for a second. They had to stop Pestilence before any of what Harvester promised could happen.

  “What now?” Decker asked. “Do we just sit around and wait for Pestilence to show up?”

  “No, we don’t just sit around,” Lore broke in. “You Horsemen must have some idea where that bastard is.”

  Than gave Lore a taut nod, understanding Lore’s distress in a way he wouldn’t have related to just a week ago. “We’ll find him. Limos, Ares, you found his shrines, right?”

  “Yep,” Ares said. “And three of them are huge. Like, St. Peter’s Basilica huge.”

  “Is one of them off the southern tip of the River Acheron? On the island of Steara?”

  Ares’s eyes widened. “Yeah. How did you know?”

  You’ll be desperate to rid yourself of your past and of anything that made you humiliatingly soft. Than glanced back at the bedroom, where Regan was laboring to deliver their son. “Because Reseph buried his baby sister there.”

  Limos made a small sound of distress. “He used to go every year. I found him there once. It was the only time I’ve ever seen him cry.”

  Than nodded. “He’ll want that gone. My son’s blood will wash away that memory.”

  “We’ll grab some qeres-weapons and go.” Limos moved toward the pile of blades they’d prepared.

  “I’m coming with you.” Lore looked down at his gloved fist, flexing it as a cold smile curved his lips. “I’ve been saving some juice, just for your brother.” Thanatos had no idea what Lore was talking about, but he was definitely starting to rip a new respect for these Sem brothers. They didn’t flinch away from any fight.

  Reaver contemplated the discussion for a second. “I’ll be right back. I need to check on something in the Hall of Records. Don’t go anywhere until I get back.” He disappeared before Than could ask what Reaver was onto.

  He hated when they did that, but he didn’t dwell on angels with bad manners as he glanced around the room. “Let’s get ready for a battle.”

  Battle, maybe. Death, yes. Because one thing Thanatos had honed to perfection over the years was his sixth sense when it came to death.

  And he knew, without a doubt, that someone was going to die today. He just prayed that someone wouldn’t be Regan or his son.

  Labor sucked.

  Regan decided that she was never giving birth again. The pony was it. The first and last.

  “Regan,” Eidolon said, from the end of the bed. “You’re still bleeding. I need you to lay back.”

  She’d started bleeding fifteen minutes ago. She’d thought she’d die from the pain, but in the last couple of minutes, the pain had diminished, and she’d thought the bleeding had, too.

  “That’s bad, isn’t it?”

  “No,” Eidolon said. “Not always. Some species bleed profusely during birth.”

  “But not humans, right?”

  Eidolon exchanged glances with Shade, which couldn’t be good. “Not like this. But you’re giving birth to a child that’s part demon and part angel, so I wouldn’t expect anything about this birth to be routine.”

  His voice was so soothing. Too bad she didn’t believe a word he said. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust his skill. She just figured he’d feed her bullshit to keep her calm.

  The plastic sheet crinkled under her as she sank back onto the mattress. “Do any of you have kids?”

  She didn’t know why she was asking, except that maybe she needed to not think about how many things could go wrong.

  Shade lowered a cup so she could dig out an ice cube. “I have three boys. Triplets. They’re two.”

  “Three?” Dear God, giving birth to just one was bad enough. Three? Being run over by a freight train would be less painful. She popped the ice into her mouth and practically groaned at the luxury as it soothed her parched mouth. “Vladlena? You?”

  Vladlena shook her head. “I’m a newlywed. It’ll be a while before my mate and I consider adopting. My mate is a vampire,” she explained.

  Right… vampires couldn’t procreate. At least, not by getting someone pregnant. She raised an eyebrow at Eidolon. “Doctor?”

  “Tayla gave birth to a healthy baby boy six months ago.” His smile was bittersweet. “I just hope he has a decent world to grow up in.”

  “I hope so, too,” she murmured.

  Eidolon reached into his medical bag. “Regan, I’m going to try to listen to your womb again. Last time it didn’t go so well, but I’m hoping to get just a little of the baby’s heartbeat before I’m thrown across the room.”

  She started to tell him to go ahead when agony tore through her midsection. She jackknifed up with a scream, sure someone was cutting into her with a chainsaw. Her pulse drummed viciously in her throat, clogging it, cutting off the rest of her screams. She’d been stabbed, clawed, bitten, nearly eviscerated, and nothing, dear God, nothing, had ever hurt like this.

  Gulping air like a dying fish, she fell back onto the bed again, clutching the sheets in her fists and digging her heels into the mattress as she tried to get away from the pain.

  Eidolon and Shade were asking her questions, but she couldn’t answer them. Right now she couldn’t even understand them.

  Thanatos burst through the doorway. “What’s wrong?” He was at her side in a heartbeat, taking her hand and cupping her cheek.

  She wasn’t sure if anyone answered Thanatos. The pain knifed through her again, accompanied by a warm gush between her legs. She heard curses and big medical words, felt towels sopping up blood.

  Dizziness swamped her. And cold. She was so cold. Thanatos’s voice drifted to her, calling out her name, but she couldn’t answer. Her mouth was too dry. Or maybe she just couldn’t open it.

  Another blade of agony turned her world inside out, this time lasting longer than she could scream. And then, merciful darkness.

  Thirty-six

  Thanatos had never been so afraid in his life. “Eidolon? What’s happening? She’s unconscious.” And there was blood. So much blood.

  “Thanatos—check her pulse.”

  Than pressed two fingers against Regan’s throat, his own pulse pounding as hard as Regan’s. “It’s strong. Crazy strong. That’s good, right?”

  “Fuck!” Eidolon’s inability to do anything but change out soaked towels for dry ones had released his temper. His eyes, once brown, now glowed gold. “Not good. Her body is trying to compensate for the loss of blood. I think she’s had a uterine rupture.”

  The word rupture was never good. “What’s that mean?”

  “It means she’s bleeding out, and I can’t do a damned thing about it.” Eidolon cursed again. “The baby is protecting her, and ironically, giving birth to it is going to kill her.”

  “No.” Thanatos shoved to his feet. “You have to do something. Regan said The Aegis bastards were going to deliver him. They found a way—”

  “If they found a way, it was with evil magic,” Eidolon interrupted. “Too dangerous to attempt even if we had time to figure out what they planned.”

  “Then let me do something. Please.”

  “You can monitor her pulse and breathing.” Eidolon tossed a soaked towel to the floor and glanced up, his dark eyes grave. “And if worse comes to worst …”

  Than’s stomach bottomed out. “Don’t say it, Doc. Don’t.”

  Eidolon said it anyway, the bastard. “You might have to perform a C-section and hope to hell she doesn’t wake up.”

  Thanatos’s mind raced. Someone had to be able to help. “You have a daywalker at UG. Get him.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Bullfuckingshit! I saw him. I recognize a daywalking vampire when I see one.”

  Eidolon grabbed more towels. “I swear to you, Horseman, I do not have a daywalker on my staff.”r />
  Fuck. Okay, wait… Reaver had been a doctor at UG before he regained his wings. He’d come back from the Hall of Records a split second before Regan screamed.

  Than didn’t waste time. Hit the great room at a run. “Reaver, hurry.”

  They charged back to the bedroom, the stench of blood slapping him in the face. He’d grown scent-blind to the smell of blood over the centuries, but this was different. This was Regan’s, and it might as well be spilling from him, too. As soon as they were inside, it became clear Reaver wasn’t going to do anything.

  “Reaver?” Than’s voice cracked. “Come on, she’s dying.”

  “I can’t touch her.”

  “Can’t,” he spat, “or won’t.” At this point, Thanatos didn’t give a shit about Watcher rules or prophecies or the goddamned laws of physics that kept the planet spinning. He wanted—needed—Regan to survive.

  “Both. As a Watcher, I’m not supposed to help, but even if I risked breaking that rule, it doesn’t matter. I can’t make contact with her any more than Eidolon can.”

  “I can touch her.”

  Than whirled to see Gethel standing in the doorway. Thanatos had never been happier to see his ex-Watcher. “How?”

  “I’m an angel,” she said simply. “Only the Watchers are prevented from making contact with Regan.” She glided over to the bed and placed her hand on Regan’s belly. “The child is doing well.” She sank down on the bed and gathered Regan in her arms, almost as though she was going to rock her to sleep. “Poor thing. Humans are so frail.”

  Eidolon stripped off his gloves and reached for another pair. “I hate to be rude, but she doesn’t have much time.” He looked between Than and Gethel. “If you can’t stop the internal bleeding, we need to get her to Underworld General and I’ll talk you both through surgery.”

  Thanatos so did not like that idea, especially since Regan had said she couldn’t tolerate medications. Which meant no sedation, no pain control, no transfusions, no clotting agents. Eidolon didn’t say it, but Thanatos knew the surgery wouldn’t be to save her. The operation would be to get the baby out.

  “I can handle this, demon,” Gethel said, putting a sour note on demon. In her arms, Regan gasped, her eyes peeling open.

  “Regan.” Than started toward her, but even as Regan screamed in pain, Gethel inclined her head in a slow nod, and then, in a flash of light, she and Regan were gone.

  “Hell’s fucking rings,” Shade snapped. “Where’d she go?”

  Thanatos was close to hyperventilating. He’d trusted Gethel for thousands of years, but he did not like this. He needed to be with Regan. He needed to be there when his son was born.

  “Horseman?” Eidolon asked. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” he rasped. “Reaver, do you know anything about this?”

  Reaver looked like he’d been shot between the eyes. The stunned confusion in his expression did little to reassure Than.

  “Reaver?”

  Reaver swiveled around to him. “Can you sense the baby?”

  Fear spiked, cold and urgent. “Yeah.”

  “Ares!” Reaver’s bellow made everyone jump, and then Ares was there, barreling through the doorway, armed and armored. Reaver turned back to Than. “Gate us to your son.”

  Lore shouldered his way past Ares. “I’m going too.”

  The more the merrier. Everyone poured out of the keep, and praying the gate wouldn’t slice into Regan on the other side, Thanatos threw it open and leaped through into some sort of candlelit chamber. His internal GPS told him they were exactly where he’d predicted Pestilence would take the baby; the island of Steara in Sheoul. But what he hadn’t predicted was the instant fury and horror that seared him, all heated by betrayal.

  He’d found Regan. She screamed in pain and terror as she bore down on a contraction. Behind her, hanging from the ceiling with razor wire, was Idess, battered and bloody.

  And running the entire show was Gethel, standing before an altar, her hand on Regan’s belly, and Pestilence, waiting, a blade poised and ready to drive into the baby that was moments from being born.

  Reaver burst out of the Harrowgate with Ares and Lore, and he didn’t waste time with niceties. “Traitorous bitch.”

  He blasted Gethel with hellfire, a minor weapon meant for only the lowliest of demons, but he couldn’t risk anything more powerful with Regan and Idess so close.

  Thanatos and Ares dove at Pestilence as Lore went for Idess, but Reaver couldn’t afford to help either of them. Gethel was his priority.

  The sounds of battle and pain came from the Horsemen. Regan screamed, and Reaver swore he’d make Gethel scream, too. He blasted her again, but she returned fire with a white hot bolt of lightning that slammed him into the stone wall behind him.

  “Get Regan out of here!” There was a shout, a shot, a thump. As he rolled to his feet, he caught a glimpse of Lore and Thanatos, scooping up their females, and Ares, gathering an unconscious Pestilence.

  Relief was tempered with apprehension. The qeres had worked. But for how long?

  Twin flashes, and they were gone.

  “Clever, using the qeres,” Gethel snarled, as she hurled a ball of blue fire at Reaver’s head.

  Reaver ducked and retaliated, the flames from his fireball singeing her tunic before she could dive behind the altar Regan had been laid on. “Clever, hiding your tracks behind Harvester. You knew we’d suspect her first.”

  She popped up on the other side of the altar. “How did you figure it out?”

  As a battle angel bred for destroying demons, Reaver had a few tricks up his sleeve, and he called forth one of them now, focusing on her eyes to hold her with his gaze.

  “How? I admit, I didn’t put it together until a few minutes ago. Earlier, Limos confronted Harvester about the khnives that attacked Arik. Only someone very powerful could summon more than one or two, and no one inside Sheoul would use low-level spies as assassins. I remembered the book you were reading in the Hall of Records.” He inched a little closer, narrowing his gaze to focus the stream of holding power into a more concentrated laser.

  “It was a Sheoulic book of summoning,” he continued. “You were a little extra twitchy when I found you. So, out of curiosity, I went back to the Hall and found the book. It’s filled with khnive summoning spells.”

  She sniffed. “It’s also filled with a thousand other spells.”

  “True. Which is why I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you were researching the angelic ward used against Kynan and Wraith at Aegis Headquarters … that spell is also in the book. But then you took Regan and all the clues fell into place.”

  “What clues?”

  “While we were in the Hall of Records, you mentioned that The Aegis Headquarters was in Scotland. You shouldn’t have known that… unless you’d employed spies. And then there was Pestilence’s attack on the headquarters in Berlin. You knew that Thanatos had grabbed Regan, didn’t you? It would have been easy for you to alert Pestilence so he could track Thanatos’s movements before the Harrowgate trace grew cold. And what about Harvester’s pendant? She claimed you took it, and I didn’t believe her, but you did. You gave it to The Aegis, along with false information … you convinced them that if they killed Regan’s baby, it would end the Apocalypse, and those fools believed you because you are an angel.” He cursed. “I’ll bet you released the vampires at the Berlin headquarters too, didn’t you? You were hoping they’d kill Regan. You must have been pissed as hell when one of them actually saved her.”

  She smiled. “Look at you. You should have been a detective. So bloody smart.”

  Reaver’s foot came down on the dagger Pestilence had intended to drive through the baby’s heart. “And look at that,” he said. “Wormwood. Last I heard Pestilence was looking for it. You must have known The Aegis had it. How did you get them to hand it over?”

  She licked her lips, slowly, as if savoring her genius. “I traded Harvester’s charm for it. So easy. All I ha
d to do was say that the charm would only provide power if something of equal value was given in exchange.”

  Devious bitch. “Why? You said it was powerless. Granted, you’re a big hairy liar, but still … what’s its purpose?”

  “You’re the detective. You figure it out.”

  Reaver ground his molars. Now she decided to shut up. “One other thing I don’t get. Why send the khnives after Arik? What was the point of killing him?”

  “Fun. What, you don’t believe me?” Her dramatic sigh made him grind his teeth harder. “Fine. That really was just pettiness. With Arik dead, his soul would default to Pestilence. He’d be tortured into saying Limos’s name, and she’d have been sent to spend eternity in Satan’s claws.”

  What. A. Bitch. How could he have not seen all this coming? Oh, right, maybe because she was a full-fledged heavenly angel who was supposed to fight on the side of good.

  “But why save him later, then?” he asked. “When my soul and Limos’s were cast into his body, why did you save his life?”

  She shrugged. “He and Limos were already married. Letting him die would serve no purpose, but saving him…”

  “Would make you look like a hero, and if anyone was suspicious about you at all, it would remove any doubt that you were playing for Team Good.” Devious.

  “See? Smart.”

  “But why, Gethel?” As pissed as he was, he was also saddened by this. Gethel had been the one to give him his wings back. She’d guided him through the early days of the transition. He’d felt as though he owed her a debt of gratitude. “When did you turn from our side?”

  She hissed, as if Reaver had pushed the button that triggered her evil bitch side. “You took them away from me, you bastard. You were accepted back into Heaven and given the assignment to handle the Horsemen.”

  Taken aback, he stopped moving toward her. “I was told you relinquished the duty freely.”