Rogue Rider

Thirty-seven

Jillian had been terrified more than once in her life. The worst, by far, had been when the demons attacked her in the ATC parking lot.

Until now.

For some reason, these Aegis guys scared her even more. With the demons, she knew what to expect; pain, blood, and death. With Lance and Juan, the unknown was making her sick with fear, and it was a huge shock to realize that humans were, by far, more terrifying than demons.

The men who had climbed out of the trucks had melted into the surrounding forest, and after tearing apart her house, Lance had forced Jillian onto the snow-covered ground. Juan stood behind her, a wicked, S-shaped blade in his hand. Lance squatted down in front of her, her cell phone in hand.

“Your house was a treasure trove of information. I’m guessing that the phone entry Limos is who I think it is?”

Jillian shrugged. “It’s a common name here in Nowhere, Colorado.”

“Smartass. I wonder,” Lance murmured, “if Pestilence cares enough about you to feel your pain.” He slammed his fist into her face, knocking her backward into Juan’s legs. Agony spiderwebbed through her cheek and jaw, all the way to the top of her skull.

“Stop it,” Juan hissed. “She’s human.”

“She’s involved with demons.” Lance shot Juan a disgusted glare. “I thought we agreed on this.”

“As a last resort.”

“If you have a problem with it, maybe you should have gone with Kynan, Val, and Regan and joined their little ragtag agency.”

“You know that’s not what I want.” Juan eased Jillian off his legs. Face throbbing, she fell forward on her knees and spat blood onto the once pristine snow. “But some of Kynan and Val’s ideas on how The Aegis should conduct itself were valid. We need people to trust us and not run roughshod over everyone just because we can.”

“We do what we have to do. The Apocalypse almost happened because of the ‘new, gentler’ rules. We won’t let that happen again.”

Jillian tested one of her teeth with her tongue. “I don’t understand.” Her words were mushy, spoken through her split lip.

“Some of our colleagues are demon lovers. Kynan fucking married one, and Val’s daughter is a vampire. So they wanted to get all buddy-buddy with the freaks instead of killing them. When a demon named Sin came onto the scene, instead of killing her, Kynan let her live, and she started the plague that broke Pestilence’s Seal.” Lance snorted. “We should have sent Kynan packing right then and there.”

“You won’t get any argument from me on that point,” Juan said.

“Now,” Lance said, as he flipped open a pocketknife. “Your pain doesn’t seem to have brought Pestilence around, so let’s see if your screams will do it.”

Terror flooded her as she scrambled backward, the scream he wanted so badly lodged in her throat. He lunged, catching her by her coat’s collar and yanking her toward him as he jammed the tip of the blade beneath her right eye.

Suddenly, from the forest, a snarl rent the air.

Lance smiled. “Looks like your honey has come to rescue you.”

A deep male scream joined a chorus of growls and the gruesome wet sounds of tearing flesh. A chill that had nothing to do with the cold slithered down Jillian’s spine. She recognized those noises.

“Soulshredder,” she rasped. “Oh, shit—”

Two demons burst from the foliage and ran toward them, their gaping maws dripping saliva and blood. Lance and Juan shouted curses and sent weapons hurling at the things as Jillian scrambled to get to the house. But her panic and the icy ground cost her, sent her slipping and sliding.

Even as she was reaching for the snow shovel propped up against the porch, Lance snared her ankle. “You little bitch! Look what your boyfriend sent!”

Reseph hadn’t sent the demons and she knew it, but arguing was useless. She kicked at Lance, knocking him away. From all around, the Aegis people ran toward the demons. She grabbed the shovel and swung around, biting off a scream when one of the Soulshredders punched his fist through Juan’s chest and ripped his heart and lungs right out of his rib cage.

A jumbled tirade of curses and insults erupted from Lance. He didn’t stop yelling even as he sank one end of his S-shaped blade into the creature’s back. Jillian swung the shovel, nailing it in the midsection. The demon screamed and spun, slamming its arm down on the wooden handle and breaking it in half. Lance was tossed into the snow in an awkward tangle of limbs. The other Guardians attacked, and although one of the Soulshredders was badly injured, the other wasn’t at all slowed.

“Get the bitch in the house,” Lance shouted.

One of the Guardians broke away from the battle with the demons to rush her. Wielding the shovel handle like a baseball bat, she prepared to defend herself. And then, from out of nowhere, a huge man in torn jeans and a ratty yellowed T-shirt bowled the Guardian over. Who the hell was that? There was no time to ask questions, though, not when she had both demons and humans after her. She needed help.

As fast as she could, she threw herself onto the porch. The icy deck sent her sprawling, but she somehow managed to claw and crawl her way through the front door and lock it behind her. The Guardians had ransacked her living room… shit! Where was the card with Kynan’s number on it?

Someone or something pounded on the door, putting a crack in the wood. Desperately, she tore through the mess, praying she’d find the card, because if she didn’t, she had a feeling she’d soon be praying for death.

Reseph was so not done fighting for Jillian. In fact, the challenge of winning a female, something he’d never really had before, left him energized. He wasn’t sure how he was going to accomplish what she wanted, because he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to say, with one hundred percent certainty, that Pestilence was no longer an issue.

He just had to find a way around Jillian’s demand, and if anyone could help with that, it was Ares. He’d have to discuss it with him soon. That was, of course, if Reseph wasn’t dead.

Right now, he had to make things better for other people he’d hurt, and those people might demand payment in blood.

He stood at the entrance to Than’s keep, feeling oddly unsure about entering, even though he’d called everyone to meet him here. He used to walk inside like he owned the place, but now he felt like a complete stranger. An intruder.

An enemy.

Taking a bracing breath, he pushed the door open. Inside, Than, Limos, and Ares were waiting, and surprise, surprise, so were Reaver and Revenant.

Reseph’s siblings were armored. Man, that fact hit him like a punch to the gut.

“Thanks for coming,” Reseph said.

Than, who had been lounging on the couch, shoved to his feet, his expression stern. “What’s this about?”

“I wanted to let you know I got a place to live.” At least, for now. He hadn’t exactly rented a place. He’d commandeered the run-down cabin he was staying in.

Thanks to the fortune Thanatos had amassed for them by investing gold he’d looted hundreds of years ago, Reseph could have afforded to rent anyplace he wanted. But he didn’t care about comfort, and he didn’t want to be around anyone.

“You could have left a message,” Ares said. “Why gather us here?”

Because I miss you. “I was hoping we could find a way to give Arik’s soul back to him.” He’d thought about that last night… between bouts of thinking about Jillian and all the ways he’d fucked things up with her.

“Really?” Limos came forward. “You think you can do that?”

“I don’t know.” He looked at Reaver. His father. “Is it possible?”

Revenant answered before Reaver could. “Only Pestilence can do that. Either through his death or by consent.” He shot a toothy smile at Limos. “Looks like your human is out of luck. Sad.”

“You’re such an asshole,” Limos bit out.

Total understatement. Reseph really hated their new Watcher. “Okay then, there’s only one thing to do,” Reseph said to Reaver. “Do you still have Wormwood?”

Very slowly, Reaver nodded.

“You have to kill Pestilence.”

Silence fell in the room. A moment later, it erupted in Whats? And, Are you crazys? Then there was Revenant’s Gladly.

Reaver strode across the room and stopped a foot away from Reseph. “Do you know what you’re saying? Killing him will kill you. Your soul will spend hundreds, maybe thousands, of years in Sheoul-gra being tortured until the biblical Apocalypse. Even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be reincarnated. The Watcher Council has calculated that the chances of good beating evil in the Final Battle are dismal without you.”

“I have to make things better, Reaver. I have to repair some of the damage I’ve done.”

“Not like this,” he said. “Arik is immortal now. He doesn’t need his soul anytime soon. We have time to find another way.”

“You said there isn’t one.”

“Dammit, Reseph.” Ares approached, his expression grim. “There is another way. You can let Pestilence out and—”

“And what? You ask him nicely? He’s not exactly the kind to negotiate. And I won’t expose you to him again.”

“I’m happy to torture Arik’s soul out of him,” Than said, with a little too much relish. Not that Reseph could blame him. But God, letting Pestilence out could only lead to bad things.

“What if I can’t put him back?” Reseph rasped.

Revenant crossed his arms over his puffed-out, leather-clad chest. “Then Pestilence goes on a rampage and butchers everyone you love.”

“No, he wouldn’t.” Ares stared at Revenant with contempt, his hand hovering over the sword at his hip. “Because we’d have him pinned down with hellhound venom.” He glanced over at Reaver. “Since Pestilence no longer has the power of the broken Seal behind him, hellhound poison should work on him, right?”

Reaver didn’t answer, which meant it was one of those things he couldn’t answer because of stupid Watcher rules.

“You’d better hope so,” Revenant said, sounding so damned slimy. “Because Reseph will never be able to put him back.”

The fallen angel’s words went right to Reseph’s gut, because that was exactly what Reseph was afraid of.

“I am so sick of your ugly ass,” Limos snapped.

Reseph strode to the center of the room, stopping the conversation. “All of this is pointless. It’s Arik’s decision. We ask him and go from there.”

Total silence, because everyone in the room knew exactly what Arik would say.

Kill Pestilence.

“Reseph…” Limos bit down on her lower lip, and Reseph’s heart bled for her. She had to support her husband, but at the same time, doing so might mean death for her brother. She was in the worst of all positions.

A phone beeped, and Limos grabbed her cell off the coffee table. “Shit.” She listened, her color fading until moments later, she wheeled around to Reseph. “It was Kynan. Jillian called him. She’s in trouble. The Aegis. Demons. Ky and Arik are on their way to her house.”

Reseph’s heart nearly burst out of his chest as he swiped his finger over his armor scar. “I don’t have any right to ask you this, but—”

“I’m with you,” Ares said.

“Yup.” Limos joined Reseph at his side.

Thanatos nodded. “Let’s go save your female.”