Immortal Rider

Thirty-two

No amount of pacing and cursing on Limos’s bedroom deck could bring Arik down from what she had done. For the first two hours she’d been gone, he’d alternated between being terrified that Limos had gone and done something stupid, like hunt down Lucifer, and being pissed off at her for lying to him.

And no, he didn’t believe she’d lied about loving him and not messing with his memories again. She’d been trying to get rid of him for his own safety.

He could handle himself. He’d survived his childhood, the military, a month in hell, and Limos’s brothers. He’d survive whatever came after him, and if he didn’t…

Pestilence would own his soul.

Okay, so that was a minor glitch, but he couldn’t spend what time he had worrying about it. He’d put the R-XR and Aegis on the problem and hope they could find a way out of the whole ownership of his soul crap. In the mean time, he’d be with Limos.

She would have the life she wanted, and he’d give it to her.

He allowed himself the luxury of picturing her fat with his baby as he looked through the sliding glass door at the empty bed. They hadn’t even had a chance to make love as a married couple, but he swore that when she came back, he’d have her undressed and he’d be inside her in a matter of minutes. He’d show her what every night with him would be like, would make her crave his touch and forget her crazy idea to get rid of him for his own good.

Goal firmly in place, he strode inside the bedroom just as the door flew open and Limos, fully armored and her eyes red and puffy, walked in. She halted, and her face went ashen before pinking up with indignation.

“Why are you still here?” she snapped.

He folded his arms over his chest. “Well, gee, maybe because I don’t have the ability to use Harrowgates, and maybe because we’re fucking married.”

“Yeah, about that.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder in that arrogant way of hers. “I went to Gethel. Funny thing about angels… they can dissolve any marriage that takes place in the human realm.” She held up a tiny scroll. “You have an hour to pack. We’re officially divorced.”

Son of a bitch. Son of a fucking bitch!

Pestilence stared down aet the steaming lumps of bone and blood that were Thanatos and Styx. The stallion was dying, but Than would be up in a few minutes, good as new. How the hell was his Seal whole? How?

Pestilence had gotten a message from the vampire doppelganger he’d stuck inside Than’s keep, and the vampire had assured him that the Aegi whore had screwed Thanatos, thanks to a little help from his enhanced mead. So what was going on?

Snarling, he gated himself to Harvester’s place. He slammed his way into her home, blew past her, and went straight to the chamber where she kept Reaver. The angel was sitting propped against the wall, covered in blood and dirt, his golden hair hanging in limp ropes around his face and shoulders. Glazed blue eyes watched Pestilence as he stalked in and kicked the angel in the face.

Reaver, blood streaming from his nose and split lip, just smirked. Smug bastard. Pestilence kicked him again. The fucking angel struck out hard enough to knock Pestilence into a wall and split his head open. Blood streamed in a sticky, warm river down the back of his neck and into his armor, which drank it in gurgling sips. If Pestilence wasn’t so pissed, he’d be impressed by how strong Reaver still was, despite having his wings removed.

“When will you learn, Reseph?” Reaver said. “You can hurt me, but you will never break me.”

“We’ll see about that, you fuck.”

Pestilence let loose with everything he had. Reaver didn’t even fight back as Pestilence kicked and stomped him until the angel was nothing but an unconscious mass of meat in a pile, and gore was dripping from Pestilence’s boot. Harvester’s hands came down on his shoulders.

“What happened?” she asked, and he rounded on her.

“You know better than to touch me.”

He circled her, measuring her level of fear and, deciding he wanted more, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall. Inhaling so deeply that he tasted her terror on his tongue, he smiled.

“The Aegi fucked my brother,” he whispered into her ear, “so why didn’t his Seal break?”

“I don’t know,” Harvester said, and though he got the feeling she was lying, he also knew that no matter how much he beat her, she wouldn’t tell him if it was one of those “rules” she and Reaver had to follow.

“Lying bitch.” He was going to fuck her until she broke. Until every bone was shattered and he was slick with her blood. He ripped off her gown, leaving her naked and trembling.

“There’s still hope,” she gasped, as he thrust his fingers between her legs.

“Leave… her… alone.” Reaver’s voice, halting but still making the air crackle with power, came from behind him.

Maybe he’d give Reaver a little too. After the angel watched him rail Harvester like the whore she was. Smiling, Pestilence looked over his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Reavie-weavie. I’ll save a little for you. I’m like the Energizer fucking Bunny. I can keep going and going.” He flicked his finger over his throat, and his armor melted away, leaving him as naked as Harvester.

“Bastard,” she rasped.

“So true,” he agreed.

“Reseph!” The thundering voice shook the entire residence, and his marrow became pudding. Very slowly, he turned to Reaver, who stood in his chains, his body glowing and double its normal size. “You will not do this.”

There was no reason to fear the angel. None whatsoever, but something so deep inside Pestilence that he couldn’t reach it was as terrified as a small child in the face of his angry father.

He raised his chin in defiance and somehow managed to sound nonplussed as he said, “Now you’ve gone and ruined the mood.” He swiped his fingers over his throat, locking his armor into place again. “Another time, then. The moment the Apocalypse starts, I’m going to use you until your screams no longer amuse me and your skin no longer contains your organs.”

With that, he strode out of Harvester’s house, hoping like hell no one noticed the trembling in his knees. What the fuck was that? He hadn’t been afraid of anything since his Seal had broken. Cursing viciously, he popped a Harrowgate and came out at the black arches that led to his mother’s place. She was inside the temple-like structure, lounging on a sofa in the middle of an orgy. As usual. The sight calmed him down, but only a little.

“My son,” she purred, crooking a finger for him to come to her. “You look upset.”

He kicked at a humanoid male who had sunk to his knees in front of him, and moved through the writhing mass of bodies. “My plan failed.”

“The Aegi didn’t take Thanatos’s virginity?”

“She did. But his Seal didn’t break.”

Lilith blinked, and her lithe body undulated as she sat up. She wore a thin, filmy skirt, but she was topless except for a necklace with an emerald the size of a duck egg sitting between her ample breasts. “What was it you made The Aegis believe in order for them to send the female to Thanatos?”

“That if she got pregnant, the child would save the world.”

She patted the sofa next to her, and he sank down onto the velvety cushion. “And you’re certain she slept with him.”

“Yes.” As he’d been battling his brother, Than had confirmed it.

“You’re responsible for this.” Thanatos’s blade caught Pestilence in the ear, slicing it in half. “You convinced the Aegi to fuck me.”

Conquest lunged, paying Than back by ripping off a piece of Styx’s ear. “Was it good, Than? Was it worth waiting five thousand years for?”

Thanatos’s eyes had filled wihad fillth pain that had nearly given Pestilence an orgasm right there. He loved his siblings’ suffering. “Yes.”

“Did her womb quicken?” Lilith asked.

He shrugged. “Probably. Harvester says there’s still hope, but—” He broke off on a harsh breath. Hope. “The child. The child is our hope. The prophecy isn’t about Than’s virginity, his innocence. It’s about his innocent. A child.” Harvester, that sneaky angel, had known, hadn’t she? While she couldn’t help directly, she’d done it through the suggestion about the scroll. Now he felt a little bad about everything he’d done to her.

Okay, no, he didn’t.

“Brilliant.” Lilith palmed his thigh, her eyes, so like Limos’s, bright with excitement. “The child is the key to his Seal.”

Smiling, Pestilence fell back against the cushions and got rid of his armor. His mind was always clearest when he was naked. Clearer yet when he was coming.

And as mouths and hands covered his body, plans formed. When the first orgasm hit him, he knew what he had to do. He had to get his hands on that child.

That tender, sweet-fleshed child.