Rogue Rider

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 f**ked 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 a**hole,” 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.”

Thirty-eight

Jillian hung up the phone just as the door crashed in. A demon lunged through the doorway, its teeth snapping, its rotten stench making her gag. A startled yelp escaped her as she rolled out of the way of the creature’s claws. Suddenly the thing hissed, spitting frothy saliva as it flew backward through the doorway, its eyes wide with shock. The stranger who had arrived before she shut herself in the house stood where the demon had been.

“Stay inside,” the man growled at her. He spun around and tackled the demon he’d hauled out of the house, taking it to the deck.

Stay inside. Right. Good plan. Gripping her shovel handle, she started for the bedroom but skidded to a halt at the crash of broken glass and the nasty snarl that followed. A demon pulled itself through the window next to the bed.

Not good. Holy shit, so not good.

Praying Doodle was hiding somewhere safe, she swiped the snowmobile keys off the floor and bolted out the door. If she could get away from all of this, maybe she had a chance. She leaped off the porch, narrowly missing being grabbed by Lance. A grayish, eyeless demon lumbered in front of the snowmachine, cutting her off. Demons poured into the house, their screeches and clacking teeth joining the shouts and screams of the Guardians engaged in battle all around the farm. She darted toward the barn, but the battle closed in, and suddenly, she was in the thick of it with nothing but a piece of wood and keys for weapons.

Then came the most beautiful sound in the world.

Horse hooves pounded across the clearing from the forest. Four armored riders, Reseph in the lead, stormed toward her in a cloud of churned-up snow. For just a moment, the battle all around Jillian stopped. Reseph’s gaze caught hers, and she knew without a doubt that she was safe.

“Shit!” Lance’s curse broke the spell that had fallen over the battlefield. Humans and demons exploded into action. An SUV tore up the drive, sideswiping a Soulshredder before spinning out and crunching into one of the Aegis trucks. Arik and Kynan leaped out, weapons flashing and slashing.

Lance hurled a blade at Reseph, who whipped up a crossbow and shot the blade out of the air.

“He’s mine,” Thanatos roared, cutting between Reseph and Lance.

Jillian didn’t understand why, but clearly, the yellow-eyed Horseman harbored a murderous hatred for the Guardian.

“Wraith’s gonna be pissed!” Kynan shouted, even as he ducked a swipe from a Soulshredder’s claws. “He ordered Lance for dinner.”

Thanatos flashed a set of wicked fangs. Fangs? Did Reseph have them, too? “I’ll take him a doggie bag of leftovers.”

Jillian dove for the ground as Thanatos thundered past, a scythe in his hand. As she rolled in the snow, she caught a glimpse of Thanatos swinging that wicked blade and cleaving Lance’s head from his shoulders.

Another Soulshredder burst out of the forest and was on her before she could even scream. Heart pounding, she jerked the shovel handle upward, catching the creature in the ribs. The wood penetrated deep, driving so hard it erupted from the demon’s back. It howled, its massive jaws opening in front of her face. She could smell its foul breath and the rank feces-like odor that clung to its skin. A flashback to the night at the ATC parking lot tore through her brain.

She’d been helpless. Terrified.

Yeah, well, she was terrified now, too, but she was not helpless.

She wrenched her makeshift stake upward, shoving it toward the thing’s heart. It howled again, spraying foul-smelling liquid in her face.

Her stomach heaved, and she scrambled wildly backward, narrowly avoiding having her head bitten off.

Even impaled, the demon lurched at her, its clawed hand raised for a killing blow. An arrow blew through its eye, and it fell backward, landing in a bloody, twitching heap. Reseph leaped off his horse and swept her up like some kind of legendary knight in shining armor.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes—” She broke off, her breath rushing from her lungs as Reseph whipped around and took out two skinny, six-legged demons with a sword that seemed to come from nowhere.

“Stay down!” Reseph shoved her behind him, pinning her between his body and the deck, and then he was a flurry of armor and swords and crossbows that demolished half a dozen demons in a matter of seconds.

Before this, she’d seen only a man… granted, a super sexy, dangerous man. But for the first time she was truly witnessing a warrior in action. The man she loved, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, could kick some serious ass.

He was a thing of beauty, a smooth, confident fighter who knew exactly where and how to strike each of his enemies. All of the Horsemen were, actually. She watched in awe and not a small amount of horror as all around her the Horsemen, the stranger, and Kynan and Arik battled the demons and Guardians, and she could only pray that no one had breached the barn to hurt her animals.

Time seemed to slow, becoming a spinning vortex of screams, growls, and blood. Eventually, Reseph kneeled in front of her, his expression concerned and serious.