Immortal Rider

“Son of a bitch,” Arik snapped. “How did the demons get on base? It’s warded.”

“Not from underneath,” she said. “And not from the kind of power Lucifer wields. Once the demons came up from below, they disabled the wards, which is how we and the fallen angels got in.”

“Lucifer?”

She nodded. “He told me he’d found you and was going to grab you. Those demons had to be his, and trust me, your people have never come up against anything like him before. And the fact that he can extend his power into the human realm means that the barrier between realms has been compromised. It won’t be long until it falls and every demon in Sheoul will escape.”

“I thought the Seals had to break for that to happen.”

She dug a piece of elk jerky out of Bones’s saddlebags and fed it to him. “The more powerful Pestilence becomes, and the more human earth he claims in the name of Sheoul, the weaker the barrier becomes.”

“That’s fantastic.” Arik carefully tucked his stang in his pants pocket. “So why are we here?”

“Cara sent hellhounds to my island to root out anything that could potentially be a threat or a spy hoping to learn where you are. I need to check with her to make sure it’s clear before I take you back there.” She sighed. “I just hope the helldogs don’t eat any humans.”

Arik gave her that stare that said “dumbass” without words. “Yeah. That would be a bonus.”

She held out her arm. “Bones, to me.” The stallion, his jaws still working on the jerky, dissolved into smoke ed him and settled into her skin without protest.

“Then what?” Arik asked, as he wiped away a stream of blood on his temple. “You gonna take me back to your house and lie to me some more?”

She started toward the front door. “I’m sure you’re a pillar of truth, Arik.”

“I’ve never stolen someone’s memories and lied about it.” Arik fell into step beside her, his combat boots making heavy thuds on the pavers.

“Oh, right. So holier than thou. You’re saying you’ve never lied? Do you tell everyone you meet who you are and who you work for?”

“That’s different. My job is beyond top secret.”

“And what do you tell the women you meet? Do you have to lie to them about your job? About who you are? Do you f**k them with all those lies between you?” When he stiffened, she snorted. “That’s what I thought.” And worse, she was so freaking jealous about it.

“There’s a huge difference between lying to hurt someone and omitting information to protect someone.”

“You keep telling yourself that, Pinocchio.”

Arik wiped blood from his nose. “How did you find me, anyway?”

“Runa told me when I explained you were in danger. She also said you haven’t returned any of her calls.”

“Tattletale,” he muttered.

Cara, looking freshly showered with her hair wet and clad in her usual flannel pajamas, met them at the door. “The hounds have cleared your island. There was one… mishap, but other than that, you should be good to go. Six hounds will be outside your house at all times.” She bit her lip. “If they want in, though, I wouldn’t argue. You should probably put a sheet over your couch. Dog hair.”

Great. Just great. Limos had never even had a normal dog as a pet, and now she had a pack of hellhounds to deal with.

A Harrowgate opened, and Ares stepped out, his armor dripping blood and gore. Arik jogged over to him. “How’s the base? The soldiers? Ky and Decker?”

“Kynan is on his way to UG. Decker’s helping to triage the injured. There were a lot of casualties. Enough that Than is hung up there.”

“Damn,” Arik breathed. “I need to help—”

“You can’t.” Ares’s voice was intense but level, a sign of respect from one warrior to another. “You’ll only lead the demons back to them.”

“So when can I go back?”

“Don’t you get it, Arik?” Limos asked softly. “Lucifer is after you. My brother owns your soul. You will forever be a liability to your own race. You belong with us now.”

The last time Reaver had experienced the loss of his wings had been when he’d fallen. The removal had been painless—physically, anyway. There were two levels of punishment for angels, and an angel drop-kicked out of Heaven to the earthly realm felt his wings shrivel and disintegrate on the way down. These angels, the Unfallen, could earn their way back into Heaven, as Reaver had.

It was a very different story for the second level of punishment. An angel who was cast from Heaven to go straight to Sheoul had his wings torn off by other angels. The unlucky bastard was then dragged to a hellmouth or Harrowgate and tossed inside, where, like Harvester, he would be called a True Fallen, and he’d eventually grow new wings—leathery batlike things with claws.

An angel’s wings were the main source of his power, which was why an Unfallen who existed in the state Reaver had been in for decades couldn’t draw on the power of either Heaven or hell. And now that Reaver’s wings had been cut off with an incredibly dull bone saw, he felt as powerless as he had back when he walked the earth, toeing the fine line between good and evil.

He sat on a cold floor wearing only his slacks, blood still trickling down his back at the places where his wings used to be, his feet secured with chains to hoops embedded in the stone. He’d discovered that the chain holding him had been constructed from the bones in his own wings. Some sort of evil magic had been used to soften and mold them, and when they were locked around his leg, they sank into his flesh and fused with his ankle bones. His own body was holding him prisoner, and putting strain on the chain caused agony so intense that he’d passed out from the pain.

Ingenious. Twisted and sick, but ingenious.

He looked up as Harvester appeared in the doorway, a sheer black robe draping her sleek body. In her hand was a bottle of what he thought might be red wine. “Good. You’re awake.”

“Good,” Reaver mimicked. “You’re still a bitch.”

She sauntered into the room. “I think someone woke up on the wrong side of his chains.”

Closing his eyes, he leaned back against the wall, which hurt like hell, but he wouldn’t give Harvester the satisfaction of knowing that. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I’ve always wanted a pet angel.”

He snorted. “Who helped you, Harvester?” He opened his eyes. “Obviously, you had help, because you couldn’t have taken me by yourself.”

“Taken you?” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Now, that’s something I might have to consider. I’ll bet you’re great in bed.”

He fought a wave of revulsion. “I am. But you’ll never know.”

“Oh, I could know if I wanted to. I saw the way you looked at me. Do you know how easily distracted you were? All I had to do was show a little ass, and you were panting all over yourself.”

“I was disgusted, and I looked away.”

“You were turned on, which is why you looked away, and it was exactly what I was counting on. It allowed me to activate the spell I used to incapacitate you. It was in the ring I gave you.” She sighed dramatically. “Males are so easy. Doesn’t matter if you’re demon, human, or angel. Show you guys a little snatch, and you go brain-dead. And you? You think I haven’t noticed the way you look at females who dress like p**n stars? You think I didn’t ask around about the type of females you f**ked when you were fallen?”

He clenched his fists, wishing her neck was between them. “Jealous?”

She laughed. “Hardly. Apparently, you stayed away from humans, but no shifter, were, fallen angel, or succubus was safe if she was wearing a short skirt and thigh-high stockings.” In a fluid, sensual movement, she straddled his legs, causing her robe to part and reveal way too much thigh. “And apparently, you’re a real fan of a good bl*w j*b.”

He gave a casual shrug, which wasn’t the smartest thing he’d ever done, because it caused his wing wound to rub on the wall. “What guy isn’t?”

“I suppose that’s true.” She sank down to perch on his legs, and involuntarily, his gaze dropped. Instantly, he raised it again to focus on her face, but it was too late—he’d gotten an eyeful of deep cl**vage and a tantalizing glimpse of the shadowy feminine place between her thighs. “Don’t even think about trying to overpower me, or I’ll yank those chains so hard your femurs will slide out of your skin.”

“You will pay for this.” he gritted out.

Smiling wickedly, she traced her tongue around the rim of the bottle, the action no doubt calculated to make him imagine her tongue swirling around something much more personal.

“Do you know how I fell?” She dipped her tongue into the bottle and made a show of flicking it free of the rim. “As a Throne, I was a dealer of justice to humans.” She reached out, used a long nail to nick the skin above his clavicle. “For centuries I only killed murderers and those with evil in their hearts. With each death, the thrill I got from doing it grew. But one day, I accidentally killed an innocent. The thrill turned to flat-out electrifying power. I wanted more. So I started killing for the sheer fun of it.” Leaning forward, she licked the drop of blood that had welled in the tiny cut on his chest. “And when I discovered that dragging humans to Sheoul to kill them allowed me to enjoy the screams of their souls over and over…” She groaned in pleasure. “Oh, the rush is better than an orgasm.”

“Why are you telling me this? What do you want with me?”

“I’m telling you because you need to know how far I’ll go to take the power I want. Which is why you’re here.” She cocked her head thoughtfully. “Well, part of it. I have orders to keep you occupied. And I also need to borrow some strength from you.”