Immortal Rider (Lords of Deliverance 2)

Arik’s eyes went heavy-lidded, his body relaxed and Limos tensed. Reseph used to do the same thing, and that was when he was the deadliest.

“Fuck off, Horseman.”

Limos leaped between Arik and Thanatos, heading off the inevitable. “Lock it down, both of you. Arik’s right.” She glanced at Ares, seeking his support, and he didn’t disappoint. When it came to strategy, he generally didn’t let emotion cloud his thoughts.

“I agree,” he said. “I was reluctant at first, but it’s time we put some trust in The Aegis again. We may have made temporary inroads in our fight against Pestilence, but we’ve been fooling ourselves if we think we can defeat him without the full cooperation of the humans.”

Than’s souls swirled at his feet as his emotions boiled, and before they got out of hand, Limos took his hand in hers. “Brother, stop. You know we’ve got to do this.”

It was strange the way Thanatos had always been the quietest of them, and yet, he truly was the most volatile. Reseph’s emotions had been on his sleeve, Ares’s a little more under control, and Limos’s somewhere in between. But Than… he was an underground spring of emotion that only an idiot would tap.

“We’ve already been working with them,” Than said.

“Yes,” Ares agreed, “but we’ve played it close to the vest. At this point, we have little to lose by sharing whatever information we have.”

There was a tense silence as Thanatos met each of their gazes. “Do what you think is best,” he finally said, but he shot Ares and Limos looks that said clearly, But my privacy is my own.

It wasn’t as if Thanatos’s secrets would be important to The Aegis in the long run anyway. His agimortus didn’t need to be found or guarded. Thanatos could protect it by himself.

Now that the sharing thing had been settled, she turned back to Arik. “So, back to my agimortus. Legend has it that it’s about the size of a sake cup, made of ivory or bone, and engraved with a set of scales. It was made by an enslaved demon race, the Isfets, who used it as a unit of measure. One Isfet used the cup to secure his freedom and a life in the human realm, but the cost was his sister’s life. He had to drink her blood from the cup, which granted him immortality and human form. When his clan found him, they took him back to Sheoul and hid the cup so he could no longer keep it with him… thus, losing his immortality. Over time, the demons died and the cup was forgotten. There are hundreds of theories about where the cup is hidden, but we’ve checked them all out.”

She paused, waiting for Arik to ask more questions, but he was motionless, not even looking at her. “Arik?”

Arik’s gaze was fixed on the forest. “There’s something out there.”

“I don’t see anything.” Ares might not see anything, but he armored up nonetheless.

“I don’t either.” Arik’s stance widened, his shoulders squaring, and a chill shot up Limos’s spine at the battle-ready posture. When he made a protective gesture for her to get behind him, she actually obeyed. As if she couldn’t take care of herself. Oddly, she got warm fuzzies from the idea that he was trying to protect her. “I feel it.”

“What do you feel?” she asked.

“Evil,” Arik whispered. “I feel… evil.”

Hellfire throbbed through Arik’s veins, a searing, screaming warning that evil was within striking distance. The foreign sensation drilled into him, and he moved forward with an almost desperate need to destroy whatever was threatening him and Limos.

Thanatos and Ares were on their own. Which was an idiotic thought, since Limos was fully capable of taking care of herself as well.

Behind him, he heard the unmistakable clatter of armor snapping into place, followed by the hiss of steel clearing leather housings.

Oh, good, and here Arik was with no weapon.

The bushes rustled, and even as Arik opened his mouth to let out a warning, mastiff-sized, four-legged demons burst out of the foliage. Khnives.

Limos shouted something about Pestilence’s spies and buried her blade in one of the khnives’ chests.

Arik wheeled out of the way of the first one, its snapping teeth grazing his arm. Rolling, he grabbed a thick tree branch and nailed the second khnive in the throat, sending the skinless, opossum-like creature slamming into a tree trunk.

“Human!” Ares tossed a dagger, and Arik caught it, spinning in time to jam the blade into a beast’s brain with an upward stroke under its jaw.

Waves of evil buffeted him like a windstorm, growing more powerful as dozens of the demons came at them. The things had long, sharp claws and razor teeth between powerful jaws, but where their deadly abilities lay was in their numbers. Within seconds, Arik and the Horsemen were overwhelmed.

All around them, blood dripped off leaves, streamed down tree trunks, and turned the crystal pool red. Than had unleashed his souls, and the godawful shrieks of the attacking shadows joined the chorus of screams and growls from the dying demons.

Three demons leaped simultaneously, but as Arik slashed at one, another hit him from the side, knocking the blade from his hand and slamming him to the ground. Limos shouted, bringing her sword down in an arc that sheared off the thing’s head. The other two came at Arik’s throat. Snarling, because f**k if he got out of Sheoul to die at the teeth and claws of demons considered by even other demons to be lowlife scourge, he grabbed one around the throat and squeezed.

The thing stiffened and fell dead.

Arik blinked in shock, but who the hell cared why the thing died so easily? He went for the other, with the same result. Another came at him, and this time he didn’t bother with grabbing its throat. He punched the fucker in the face, and it dropped. Time after time, he took the demons out, going through them like a lawnmower.

Eventually, he was standing waist-deep in demons,eephed the fu staring at the carnage around him, and the Horsemen were staring at him. At least the weird sensation of being watched by evil was gone.

“What the hell was that, human?” Ares asked.

“I have no idea.” He lifted his head, his newfound spidey-senses tingling again, but this time without the intensity. “Over there.”

Thanatos moved like a snake, faster than Arik could track as he disappeared into the brush. There was a squeak, a thud, and he emerged, carrying a rat by its tail. “This?”

“Yeah. That was it.” Arik scrubbed his hand over his face, confused as shit. “What the hell?”

Limos winced. “Crap. The blood exchange. Like vampires.”

“Ah.” Ares nodded. “Makes sense.”

“To you,” Arik muttered. “You want to include me in your cryptic conversation?”

Limos sheathed her sword. “Khnives are summoned demons. Spies. A lot of demons can summon one or two, but only a handful of beings could have summoned this many khnives, and Pestilence is one of them. Even as Reseph he could command disease carriers and use them to gather intelligence or spread disease… or he could destroy them at will. The blood exchange gave you his abilities. To what extent…” She shrugged. “Time will tell.”

“I’m still not following. You mentioned vampires.”

“Vampires often transmit their special abilities to those they turn,” Thanatos explained. “But since you didn’t technically turn, I suspect there’s something unique about you. What are you not telling us? Do you have a demon dangling from your family tree?”

As tempting as it was to tell Thanatos to f**k off, Arik wanted to know what was up as well. “No demons in my DNA, but I was bitten by one a few years ago.” He figured he’d leave out the part about how the demon that bit him had been sent by the demon he’d made a bad deal with back when he was a teenager, desperate to end his father’s reign of terror. “The infection from the bite nearly killed me, but Shade saved my life. There was a… side-effect.” He glanced over at Limos, who was watching him curiously. “I can learn demon languages after hearing just a few words.”

“You Aegi are full of surprises,” Ares murmured.

Arik had found that statement to be true enough. “So why did Pestilence send his spies to attack? I mean, if he wants me dead, can’t he do it himself? If he’d come with a few of his minions, I could have been toast by now.”

“You’re right.” Limos frowned. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe it was your charming fiancé?” Arik asked, but she shook her head.

“That doesn’t make sense either. I doubt he knows that Pestilence owns your soul. Satan would want you dragged to Sheoul to die, so he could have your soul. He’d lose it if you died here.”

“So what you’re saying then, is that there’s a new player in town.”

Ares nudged one of the khnive bodies with his foot. “A new player who wants you dead.”

Thanatos whistled. “Sucks to be you, human.”

Man, there were days you just shouldn’t get out of bed.

Sixteen

No more creepy demons attacked Arik and Limos on their way back to the house, and when Arik saw Kynan standing on the huge wraparound deck at the front of Limos’s house, he rethought the not-getting-out-of-bed thing. Limos disappeared to give them a moment as he folded Kynan into a bear hug and practically lifted him off the deck. Ky gave him a few manly pats on the back, and they broke apart, Arik grinning like an idiot.

“Man,” he breathed. “It’s so great to see you.”

“Ditto. You gave us a scare.” Kynan clapped him on the shoulder. “You look good. Shade and E did you right.”

“Speaking of Shade—”

“He and Runa are on their way,” Kynan interrupted.

“Good.” Arik sank down on one of the bar stools that cozied up to the bamboo mini-bar. The east decking was set up with tables, the bar, and a hot tub, and Arik wondered how much partying Limos did here. “Runa’s probably been a little worried.”

“A little?” Kynan snorted. “I think the only thing keeping her together has been all the time she spends in Underworld General’s daycare.”

Arik had forgotten that UG had a daycare run by Runa and a couple other in-laws of his, Serena and Idess. That was some weird shit. A hospital run by demons, with a nursery run by a werewolf, a vampire, and an ex-angel. There was a book or TV show in there somewhere.

Arik propped one heel on the stool rung and leaned back, letting the sun hit his bare skin. “I’ll bet the hospital has been busy.”

“Everything has been busy. It’s bad, man.” Kynan dragged his hand through his hair. “The Aegis is overextended, and we’ve lost nearly ten percent of our Guardians in assassinations and battles with demons. We even lost an Elder. Decker took his place.”

Arik’s eyes shot wide. “You made Decker an Elder? He isn’t even an Aegi.”

“He is now.”

Arik rubbed the back of his neck, stunned at this new turn of events. “Wow. The Aegis has a really intensive selection process, doesn’t it?’

“Ha-ha.” Kynan shook his head. “We had a few candidates shortlisted, but we decided to take someone from the R-XR.”

“Why? You already had us, well, him, as a consult.”

“Yeah, but as an Elder, we can share more sensitive information with him, and when he’s sworn to keep something secret, he has to.”

“You mean, keep something secret from the R-XR.” Arik hated all the secrecy crap. How the hell were they supposed to solve the end-of-the-world puzzle when the players wouldn’t share their pieces?

Ky shrugged. “So… now that you’re back…” he trailed off. “You are back, right?”

Arik looked up at a seagull soaring overhead and wondered how to respond. This was something he didn’t know how to answer. His mind was still scrambled, Pestilence held the deed to his soul, he could alert to spies like a bird dog, a gob of people were trying to kill him, and then there was the… whatever it was… going on with Limos.

“Look,” Ky said, interrupting Arik’s musings, “if you need time off, a vacation… therapy… it’s understandable. Hell, it’s required. But the world situation isn’t getting any better. The Apocalypse took a break, but it’s knocking at our door again. We need you, man.”

“Trust me, I want to kick some demon ass. But I’m not sure leaving right now is a good idea.”

“What, you want to stay here?”

Fucking idiot that he was, yeah, he wanted to stay. Because hey, nothing like self-torture to make one’s life complete. “My soul is in danger. If I die, I become Pestilence’s soul-bitch. Long story, but if he decides he wants me dead, I’m probably safest here. Our best defense against an evil Horseman is another Horseman.”

“Fuuuuuuuuck.” Kynan scrubbed his face. “I could use a double shot of whiskey right now.”

“I’m sure Flicka keeps hard liquor behind the bar.”

“Flicka?”

“I don’t want to say her name.”

“So you’re calling her horse names?” Ky cocked a dark eyebrow. “I can’t wait to see how she reacts to Mr. Ed.”

The slatted-wood double doors that opened to the deck from the living room swung wide, and Arik leaped to his feet as Runa stepped out, Shade at her side.

“Sis!” As Arik moved toward her, Shade put his big body in the way, menace all but leaking from his pores. What the hell was that about?

Runa, seemingly unconcerned by her mate’s reaction, went around him and threw herself into Arik’s arms.