Rogue Rider

Twenty-two

Limos stood in Ares’s great room for the sixth day in a row, biting her lime-colored nails and staring down the hallway toward Reseph’s bedroom, where his screams had grown louder over the last hour. They should peak soon, and then he’d fall into a period of soft whimpers as he rocked himself back and forth, staring blankly into space.

“He’s not getting any better.” She turned to her brothers, husband, and Kynan. “We can’t let him suffer like this.”

Ares closed his eyes for a second, face tilted to the ceiling. “No one wants Reseph to suffer, Limos.”

“Really? You could have fooled me. Thanatos stares daggers at him every time we go in the room.”

Than, who was pacing the length of the great room, paused. “It’s not that I want him suffering. It’s that I can’t get what he’s done out of my head.”

“But that’s not Pestilence in there,” Limos insisted. “It’s Reseph. We need to do something to help him.”

“What do you suggest?” Ares asked. “He won’t listen to any of us. He won’t eat, he won’t drink, and when I tried to drag him into the shower today he just dropped to the tiles and screamed. Like he didn’t deserve to be clean. I’ve seen a lot of trauma in my life, but this is beyond anything I know how to deal with.”

Arik looked up from playing tug-of-war with Hal. “What about what you did for me? When I was all out of it after escaping from Sheoul.”

Limos thought about that for a second. “I stimulated you.”

Arik winked. “And you did a damned fine job of it.”

“Christ,” Kynan muttered. “Get a room.”

Ares shrugged. “It can’t hurt to try something new. Limos, the woman Reseph was with… he’s been calling for her. Do you think they had something going on?”

Jillian’s devastation had definitely been real. “I didn’t talk to her for long, but if I had to guess, I’d say they had some sort of relationship. Which, for Reseph, would be a first.”

“Bring her here.” Ares spoke as if he was a general giving a soldier orders, but for once, Limos didn’t call him on it or take it personally. Deep down, he was as worried about Reseph as she was. “The human may be the only person who can help him right now.”

“I’m on it.” She just hoped that Jillian would want to come.

Finding out that the male you had been sleeping with was not only half demon, but that he had almost brought about the End of Days wouldn’t be a selling point.

“You might want to hurry.” Reaver’s voice came from out of nowhere. Limos spun to where he stood near the fireplace, his sapphire eyes bright with concern.

“Why? What is it?”

“I’ve just come from the Watcher Council. Their fear that Pestilence will return is urgent.”

Ares strode forward, a lock of his reddish-brown hair falling over his eyes. “You said exposure to evil could do that. We’re keeping him isolated.”

“That’s good, but in the state he’s in, his mind is weakened. This same thing would have happened if I’d left him in Sheoul-gra.” Reaver sounded a little relieved that what he’d done had actually been the right choice. “His mind is full of cracks that Pestilence could slip through. He needs to heal, and it needs to happen now. Even then, he’s going to spend his entire life fighting to keep Pestilence at bay.”

Thanatos cursed. “Then we’re screwed. Reseph has always been one to ship out when things get rough.”

“We’ve got to let him try,” Limos said fiercely. “I’ll get Jillian. Maybe she’ll give him a reason to fight.”

“And if she doesn’t give him a reason to keep Pestilence locked down?” Ares asked.

“Then I give you Wormwood.” Reaver spoke in a low, grave tone. “And you put both Reseph and Pestilence out of their misery.”

It had been almost a week since Reseph had gone. Six days that Jillian had spent in a desperate search to find him. Or, at least, find out what, exactly, had happened. How the hell did three people pop in and out of thin air? Well, four, counting Reseph.

Jillian had spent the first day crying, curled up in the sheets that still smelled like him, thinking that maybe she was crazy. But then she’d reminded herself that she’d seen demons with her own eyes, so things once thought impossible were now very, very real.

She’d spent the next two days scouring the Internet, getting millions of hits on people who could do what she’d seen. Unfortunately, there was too much information to wade through. Aliens. Angels. Demons. Superheroes.

She had, at least, gotten hits when she typed in the names Reseph, Ares, Limos, and Thanatos. Individually, she got lots of mythical references. But together, she got one very, very interesting return.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

At that point, she’d been too overwhelmed to continue doing anything but stare at the computer screen, until she fell asleep on the keyboard. She’d needed solid answers that made sense, so she’d called an agency that seemed to be everywhere.

The Aegis.

They knocked on her door the next day. Five minutes later, she regretted the call.

Two men had introduced themselves as Lance and Juan, representatives of The Aegis, and they’d had a lot of questions about Reseph and his whereabouts.

Where did you find him? A snowbank. He said his name was Reseph? Yes. Did he tell you who he was? He didn’t know who he was. He had amnesia.

Then came the more invasive questions, and Jillian had gotten testy. Were you intimate with him? None of your business. Did he talk about his brothers and sister? Did you miss the part about the amnesia? Where is he now? I don’t know. How can you not know? Because he disappeared into thin air, you asshole.

She’d tried asking questions of her own, like why they were interested in Reseph and who he really was, but they’d refused to answer. By the time they’d gone, her head had been spinning and she’d been pissed off. She could use a friend to talk to—not that she was sure what to say—but Stacey had left a week ago for her brother’s wedding in Arizona and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.

Damn it. She held the little bird Reseph had carved, staring at it as if it could morph into a carrier pigeon and take Reseph a message. Maybe she could take it to a psychic to see if the psychic could glean any information from Reseph’s vibes.

Dear God, she was losing it, wasn’t she? She was so desperate to find him that she was actually considering going to a psychic. Hell, she’d even flipped through the phone book a time or twelve, but it seemed as though psychics didn’t advertise in her town’s Yellow Pages.

A knock on the door nearly made her jump out of her skin, and she prayed it wasn’t the Aegis guys again. Hastily, she grabbed her phone and peeked out the window. No vehicle.

Heart pounding at the thought that it might be Reseph outside—you know, after popping onto her deck from thin air—she opened the door and sucked in a harsh breath. The woman who had helped take Reseph away stood there, looking very out of place in a bright yellow and green sundress.

Jillian didn’t bother with hello. “Where’s Reseph? What have you done with him?”

“Chill. He’s why I’m here.” Limos strolled inside like she owned the place, her flip-flops slapping on the wood floor.

“Yes, please,” Jillian muttered. “Come in.”

“Thanks,” Limos said brightly. She regarded the room for a moment before turning to Jillian. “Small place. Looks larger from the outside.”

“Unsolicited criticism aside, what are you doing here?”

Limos looked down at her bright lime nails. “Did you and Reseph have a relationship?”

Weird question. “Ah… yeah.”

“Was it just sex?”

“Excuse me? That’s none of your business.” What was it with people wanting to know how intimate she and Reseph had been?

Limos’s dark eyebrows shot up, as if she was surprised to be challenged. “It kind of is. I mean, I don’t want to know the dirty details, ’cuz, gross. But we need your help, so I need to know how involved you were. Did you fall in love with him?”

“Look, I’m really not comfortable with this—”

“I’ll take that as a yes. The real question is just how attached to you he was.”

I love you, Jillian. I love you, and I want this to be the start of something new. Fresh pain squeezed her heart. She missed Reseph so much. How could things have gone from being so perfect to being so awful in a matter of hours?

“Jillian?” Limos’s voice was quiet, as if she knew how hard this was.

“He said he loved me,” Jillian murmured.

“He what?”

Jillian crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling defensive, and maybe a little foolish. “Is that so hard to believe?”

“Let me put it this way,” Limos said. “In five thousand years, he’s never fallen for a female.”

She gaped at Limos in disbelief. “Five thousand years. You want me to believe he’s five thousand years old.”

“Yep.” Limos went back to studying her fingernails. “I guess we didn’t tell you. Brace yourself. My brothers and I are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You probably heard about us in Sunday school.”

“I got kicked out of Sunday school before they got to that story,” she said with a calm she didn’t feel. “But yes, I’m familiar with the Four Horsemen. You’re saying that Reseph, the man I saved from a blizzard, is a biblical monster.”

“Well, no. I mean, the biblical prophecy is just one of two. We’re not all evil and creepy like you see on TV and the movies.” She frowned. “Mostly, we’re not. Anyhoo, you really didn’t save Reseph from a blizzard. He’s immortal. He would have survived.”

She thought back to his miraculous recovery after being frozen nearly solid. “Okay, so let’s say I believe you. Did the hypothermia affect his memory? Was that why he had amnesia?”

Limos winced. “This is where it gets tricky.”

As if the rest of it was all normal and easy? “I’m listening.”

Limos reached down her shirt and pulled out a gold chain with a circular pendant. “This is a Seal. As long as it’s whole, my brothers and I are neither good nor evil. There have always been two Horsemen prophecies… one human, one demon. The human prophecy, when it comes to pass, will put us fighting on the side of humans. The demon one would turn us evil.”

Jillian really didn’t like where this seemed to be going. “And the tricky part?”

“The demon prophecy was kicked off a little over a year ago. Reseph’s Seal broke.”

It took a few heartbeats for Jillian’s brain to work through what Limos had said, and when it all came together, her chest constricted.

“So… wait. All the turmoil the Earth went through, the demons, the plagues… all of it… it happened because of Reseph, didn’t it?”

“Yes. He turned into an evil bastard named Pestilence. He spent a year trying to break our Seals.” She chewed her bottom lip for a second. “There’s time for the gritty details later. Right now I need to ask you to help us.”

Jillian should have been a lot more horrified than she was, but she suspected that everything she’d just learned was too big to process. No doubt she’d freak out later.

“You haven’t answered my question about Reseph’s memory.”

“We stopped Pestilence. Thanatos drove a dagger through his heart and killed him. Sort of. It took away his power, anyway, and it stopped the Apocalypse. That’s why all of a sudden, everything went back to normal. Reseph went to a place called Sheoul-gra. It’s sort of a holding tank for demon souls. The problem was that, as Reseph, he remembered everything Pestilence had done. And it was bad. Really bad. Reseph went crazy, and our Watcher, an angel named Reaver, zapped his memory and sent him here to heal.”

Okay, now it was starting to process, and Jillian sank onto the couch, her legs unable to support not only her body, but the weight of everything she’d just heard. “This is unbelievable.”

“Yeah, well, believe it.” Limos plopped down on the coffee table across from her. “It looks like everything was going well until Reseph’s name hit the wrong channels. We had to get to him before someone who wants him evil again found him or before The Aegis showed up.”

“The Aegis,” Jillian murmured, her voice sounding foreign to her own ears. “They’ve been here.”

“I’m sure they have. They want him imprisoned.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re extremist assholes,” Limos snapped. “They don’t listen to reason, and anything they don’t understand, they prefer to destroy.”

Jillian nearly bolted out of her seat, as if she could somehow attack whoever was threatening Reseph. “They could destroy him?”

“No, but they think that if they can imprison him, or, probably, any of us, they can prevent death and destruction and crap.”

“Is that true?”

Limos hesitated, and Jillian’s pulse thudded in her ears. “Maybe, in Reseph’s case. Pestilence could be extremely dangerous if he returns. That’s why I’m here. Now that Reseph’s memory is back, he remembers all the shit he did. He’s going crazy. Hurting himself. It’s leaving him vulnerable to Pestilence. We need to bring him back, but we’re not getting through to him. We were hoping you could help.”

Overwhelmed by the massive scope of the information she’d just been given, Jillian wrapped her arms around herself, as if the body hug would contain it and help her make sense of it all.

“I don’t know what I can do. I’m just a… human.” A terrified human who had fallen in love with a biblical legend. The thought almost made her hyperventilate.

“Talk to him. Be with him. I don’t know. None of us know. This is uncharted territory. But when my husband was trapped inside his head after being tortured in hell, it took me to get him out.”

“Your husband was… tortured? In hell? Actual hell?”

“We call it Sheoul, but yep. Arik was there for a month. And he rocked it.” Limos grinned, fierce pride settling into her expression. “You met him when he was here with Kynan.”

Both of those men had come across as confident, efficient, and a little… scary. Now she wondered just how scary Arik truly was to have survived a month in hell.

Closing her eyes, Jillian took a deep breath, hoping for some time to let all of this settle. But if Reseph was in pain, there was no time. She had to help.

“You okay?”

Jillian lifted her lids. “No.” Not at all. She felt as if she was teetering on the very edge of hysteria, and all it would take was one more revelation from Limos, and Jillian would tip over. She eyed the female Horseman, needing an anchor to reality, but even her hairstyle seemed inconsistent with who she said she was. Who she’d been when she’d sat astride her stallion-thing, armed and armored like a warrior right out of, well, legend. “Why do you have a flower in your hair?”

“What, it’s not very Horseman-like?”

“It’s not what I would have expected, no.”

Limos huffed. “It’s a poison-spitting iris that dissolves flesh on contact.”

Jillian edged backward. “Seriously?”

“No.” Limos grinned. “I just like pretty flowers. I could remove your flesh myself. I’m great with a blade.”

Flesh removal? Oh, God. The reality of the situation was starting to sink in now. “And this…” Jillian swallowed sickly. “This is how you convince me to go with you?”

“Sorry. I probably need to work on my sales pitch.” Limos propped her elbows on her knees and leaned closer to Jillian, all business. “So… will you help?”

“Where…” Jillian blew out a breath in a rush. “Where will we go? Um… hell?”

“Greece. Trust me, none of us live in creepy places. Well, Reseph used to, but his cave was destroyed.”

Cave? He’d felt confined in her cabin and he’d lived in a cave? “Okay, I’ll do it. Take me to him. Beam me up or whatever it is you do.”

Limos bounded to her feet. “You’re handling this really well. You should have seen how Ares’s wife reacted when she first got introduced to our world and who we are.”

Yeah, well, Jillian had been given a painful introduction to the supernatural world when demons had attacked her in that airport parking lot. Reseph might be a Horseman, but in comparison, he was a kitten. Abruptly, she recalled the fight at the bar and the battle with the barn demon, and she revised that last thought. Kitten, no. Lion, yes.

She followed Limos outside. “Ares is married to a human?”

Limos bobbed her head. “Cara. She’s sort of a hellhound whisperer.”

Jillian stopped so suddenly she slipped on the icy porch and would have gone down if Limos hadn’t grabbed her, lightning fast, and lifted her upright.

“Hellhounds?” Jillian rasped. “D-demons?”

“Ah… yeah.” Limos took Jillian’s arm and dragged her off the porch. “Come on. Harrowgate is waiting.”

Traveling via the thing Limos called a Harrowgate was an unnerving experience, especially when Limos said that the Horsemen were the only beings who could take a conscious human through a portable gate without the human coming out on the other side… dead.

She stepped out with Limos, inside a circle marked by little flags outside a huge Greek-style mansion. Olive trees rose between huge Greek-style pillars and snow-white statues of Greek gods.

“I guess this is Greece?” Oh, Jillian, you’re a rocket scientist, you are.

“Yep.”

“Why are there little flags around us?”

“It’s the designated Harrowgate landing. At our houses we keep them marked off so people know not to enter. When a gate opens, it’ll slice into any living thing it touches.”

Jillian missed a step. Then she missed another—God, Limos must think she was drunk—when she noticed that there were a lot of people and… not humans… gathered around the mansion.

“Um…”

Limos waved her hand in dismissal and started walking toward the crowd. “Don’t worry about the females. They’re here for Reseph.”

Females? All those things were females? With some it was hard to tell. “What… what are they?” Please don’t say demons, please don’t say demons…

“Demons.”

Jillian’s throat closed up so hard she actually reached up to loosen the noose that seemed to be around it. Demons. Holy shit, demons.

“Hey.” Limos’s voice cut through the panic that buzzed in Jillian’s ears. “They won’t hurt you. I promise. Jillian? Stay with me. Reseph needs you.”

Jillian squeezed her eyes closed. With the world shut out beyond her eyelids, she could picture Reseph’s smile, the hard set of his jaw when they made love, and she could hear him telling her how strong she was. He’d brought her back into the world she’d been hiding from and had given her a precious gift. She would give him the same. Somehow she’d survive this, and she’d help him.

She opened her eyes but kept them glued to Limos. “I’m okay. Let’s go.”

The throng made a path for Limos, and Jillian followed until one of the creatures, who appeared human-ish except for her gray skin and hair, black horns, and clawed feet, blocked their path.

“Why are you taking this… human… when we have to wait out here?”

Jillian didn’t even have time to blink before Limos had the demon by the throat, lifting the thing off the ground. “You do not question a Horseman of the Apocalypse. Speak like that again, and you’ll be lucky if I only take your tongue.”

The demon in Limos’s grip nodded—as much as she could—and every demon around them backed up, widening the circle. Jillian wondered how close Limos had been to doing the same to Jillian back at her house, because she’d been nothing but questions.

Limos released the demon, who fell to the ground and stayed there, gasping for air.

“Anyone else want to piss me off?” When no one came forward, Limos smiled. “Good. Come on, Jilly.”

Yeah, Jillian would let that one pass. Good God, she’d threatened a Horseman of the Apocalypse with a frying pan. Reseph could have squashed her with his thumb.

Instead, he’d done amazing, wonderful things with that thumb. The thought that she’d made love to one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse made her dizzy.

“Why are all these, um, women, here? Do they think they can help Reseph?”

“They heard he’s back, but they don’t know his condition. They just want to get laid.”

Abruptly, Jillian felt sick. “These are his… girlfriends?”

Limos snorted. “Hardly. They were just his fuck and party buddies.” She snapped her mouth shut with a wince. “Ah, sorry. Look, you should know… he’s a bit of a, well, he was a playboy. He’s never attached himself to one female, but I think it’s different with you. That’s why you’re here.”

“You think it’s different,” she murmured, her heart aching as she looked back at all the females gathered around.

There had to be a hundred, and they were all, even the freakiest of them, attractive in some way. Some were downright gorgeous, to the point that it hurt to look at them.

Sympathy dripped from Limos’s voice. “Keep in mind,” she said gently, “that Reseph is five thousand years old, and demons are long-lived, if not immortal. That’s a lot of time to build up a body count.”

Jillian struggled to keep her hopes up. She supposed that what Limos said was true, but it didn’t help a lot. Applying logic to a hurtful situation rarely worked until there was some distance, and Jillian doubted she’d have distance for a long time. Not when the way she felt about Reseph was different and more powerful than anything she’d felt for a man before.

Did these females feel the same way about him? The thought made her ill.

“Let’s go,” she muttered.

They entered the mansion, which opened up into a huge room where Thanatos and Ares were talking with a brown-haired woman and Arik. Arik nodded in greeting, the woman smiled, and Thanatos and Ares just stared.

“Oh, for God’s sake, boys,” the woman said. “She’s not an enemy. Stop glaring.” She moved forward, and with her came a black dog-like creature the size of a bull. “I’m Cara, Ares’s wife. Can I get you anything? Something to drink, maybe?”

I could use a bottle of vodka and a Xanax. The dog-thing bared its sharklike teeth. Make that a dozen Xanax. “Thank you. I’m fine.” Jillian wasn’t sure what she had expected, but a relatively normal, domestic family wasn’t it.

Thanatos gestured at her. “Come on. Reseph’s this way.”

Jillian glanced at Limos, who gave her a reassuring nod. “Thanatos doesn’t bite.” She shot Thanatos a glare. “Don’t bite.”

“Ha. Ha.” He started down the hall, leaving Jillian no choice but to follow. When they reached a door, he stopped. “Did Limos explain the situation to you?”

“You mean that his Seal broke and he turned evil and nearly brought about the end of world? Yeah, I got the CliffsNotes.”

Thanatos arched a tawny brow. “In that case, thank you for doing this, human. I doubt many would. But I was talking about his condition.”

“She said he was hurting himself.”

“Something like that.” His mouth formed a grim line. “I don’t know how he’ll react to you, but don’t expect the man you once knew.” He opened the door. “Scream if you need anything.”

Scream. Great. That didn’t sound reassuring at all. Still, she knew Reseph. She wouldn’t let these people frighten her. She was strong. She wouldn’t fall apart.

She stepped inside the bedroom.

And promptly fell apart.