Swallowing over and over, she pointed at the mead. “Open?”

“Damn,” he murmured, as he popped the wax seal off the rim. “Where did you find this?”

“V-vampire,” she said, hating herself for the stuttering.

A comforting gurgle and splash filled the room as he poured. Taking her hand, he placed the glass in her palm, wrapped her fingers around it, and guided the rim to her mouth.

“Drink,” he said softly, tipping the glass as it touched her lips.

The red liquid, spicy and smooth, flooded her mouth like a balm, easing her nerves before she even swallowed. “Those… were your souls, right?”

“Yes.” Thanatos stepped back with a glass of his own. He took two large drinks before saying, “When I’m angry, the souls that live inside my armor can break free. They want only one thing, and that’s to kill.”

“Why?”

“Because if they make a kill, they’re freed from me.”

She shuddered, remembering the pain as the thing tried to rip her apart from the inside. Was that what her victims experienced when she let loose her ability? Did they feel the living light tear the souls out of their bodies? She took another sip of her wine, and a tingly sensation joined the warmth spreading through her. “How do they get inside your armor?”

“Whenever I make a kill, the dead’s soul is sucked into it.” His voice was so casual it was chilling. She could barely talk about her own soul-sucking ability, and he might as well have been discussing grocery shopping. “Souls make my armor stronger.”

“And they just hang out, waiting for you to get angry?”

“Or to be released. I can release them in battle to do my bidding.”

Huh. “Sort of like those ghosts in the third Lord of the Rings movie? The Return of the King.”

His smile was stunning, but his eyes were sad. “Something like that.”

“How come they didn’t all come out?”

“I wasn’t fully enraged.”

She shuddered. “I don’t think I’d like to see that.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” His blond brow lifted, the silver piercing glinting in the firelight. “You wanna tell me about your little surprise?”

Her glass froze before it touched her lips. “Not really.”

A glistening drop of mead clung to his full lower lip, drawing her gaze and igniting a tiny flame of desire. The liquor, by itself, was bold and exotically spiced, but how much better would it taste if taken from Thanatos’s lips? Her breath caught as his tongue swept it uue sweptp. God, how could he make something so simple and normal seem so sexy?

“Ares would command you to talk,” he mused. “Reseph would charm it out of you. Limos…” His voice took on a rough, serrated edge. “She’d annoy the hell out of you until you spilled just to shut her up.”

“And you?”

His eyes gleamed. “I excel at torture.”

Of course he did. Her hand drifted down to her coat pocket, where she’d tucked her stang. “Are you going to torture me?”

“Are you going to tell me what you are?” He put the glass to his lips and regarded her from over the rim. “And don’t think your little Aegis weapon will be effective against me.”

Little Aegis weapon? Arrogant ass. “I’m one-hundred percent human.”

“A human with empathic abilities, I’d buy. A human who can communicate with the dead, I’d buy. But you have power over souls.” He surged closer, no doubt in an attempt to intimidate her with his height and size. It might have worked if she wasn’t buzzing from the wine. As it was, her pulse fluttered madly, and she mentally urged him to come closer. “So I’m not buying the human thing.”

“You want a DNA test? I’m human. My parents were both Guardians.” Technically, that was true. At the time she’d been conceived, her father had been possessed by a demon, but the Horseman didn’t need to know that.

“Is that so,” he murmured, and that fast, the aura of anger and menace that had surrounded him shifted into something more pleasant but no less dangerous.

His fingers came up to his throat, and his armor disappeared, leaving him in the clothes he’d worn for the ceremony. The white shirt under the tux jacket was unbuttoned at the neck, and his scorpion tattoo peeked out, its pincers opening and closing.

She blinked, wondering if the wine was affecting her vision. “Your tattoos are special, aren’t they?”

“All tattoos are special. People might get one on the spur of the moment, but everyone cares about the design they put on their body.”

“No, I mean… they do something for you.”

She thought he was going to clam up, but instead, he surprised her by shedding his jacket, somehow making the process tantalizing, an unintentional strip tease. He tossed the tux coat to the bed, and those long fingers went to his dress shirt. She couldn’t look away as he unbuttoned it and then made the shirt join the jacket.

Man, oh, man. Didn’t matter that she’d seen his bare upper body before… she didn’t think she’d ever grow used to all that magnificent artwork. His Seal, mounted on a fine gold chain, lay flat between his pecs, perfectly outlined by a Celtic knotted tattoo.

“These are scenes taken out of my head and transferred to my skin.”

“I knew tha“I knet, but why?”

“How did you know?” He moved toward her, slowly, his gait rolling, and she got the sense she was being stalked.

The tingly feeling in her limbs spread, both energizing and relaxing her. “I saw it when I touched you before. I can read tattoos the way I can read ink on parchment.”

The tingle turned into a pleasant burn unlike anything she’d ever felt. What had the vamp said about the wine? Magic. Right. No more for her.

Thanatos stopped when he was standing so close that she had to look up to see his face. “Can you control your empathic abilities?” His voice was husky, wonderfully deep, and it rumbled through her in a curiously erotic wave.

She put down the glass, feeling disconnected, like she was watching someone else set the glass on the dresser. Then she watched as he took her hand and placed it on his throat, over the scorpion that always appeared to be stinging his jugular when he spoke.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I can turn it off and on.”

“Are you… turned on?”

Oh, she caught the wordplay, was very aware it was intentional.

“No,” she said, and it was both truth and lie. She hadn’t switched on her empathic ability, though she could read a faint energy radiating from the scorpion. She was, however, extremely aroused.

Being here now had nothing to do with seducing Thanatos for The Aegis. She wanted him. It was that simple. The fear that she might let her soul-sucking ability loose during an uncontrolled moment didn’t apply here. Thanatos’s shadows would protect him, and for the first time in her life, she wanted to unchain her carnal side and let it hunt.

As if sensing her thoughts, Thanatos fastened his hand to the back of her neck and jerked her close, so their bodies were plastered together, and he mashed his lips against hers. His arousal was a brutal, huge presence against her belly, and his tongue was an assault weapon, breaching the barrier of her lips and taking what it wanted. Everything inside her went liquid and hot. Her br**sts tightened, her skin burned, and between her legs, her sex ached.

“And now?” he murmured against her mouth.

“God, yes.” Her pulse leaped in her throat, in time with the throbbing low in her pelvis.

“You drive me crazy.” He rolled his h*ps against her, and he thought she was the one who was doing the crazy-driving? “I want you, Regan. More than I’ve wanted anyone, and damn you, I’m about to give in.”

“Yes,” she breathed. “Do.”

His hands dropped to her waistband, and suddenly, it was a frenzy of who-could-strip-fastest. Her mind was fuzzy, her emotions blurry, but she knew nothing but a driving, primal need to get this man on his back.

And he would be on his back. She needed to be in control, and she would nevehe wouldr, ever be under a man.

When the last item of clothing dropped to the ground, they both stood there, facing each other, their breath sawing in and out, fists clenched. Good God, he was gorgeous. He had a runner’s body, sleek and toned. Twin nipple rings decorated his tattooed pecs, his abs rippled with deep, muscular grooves, and his slim h*ps tapered to powerful legs. And between them, his arousal rose up, thick at the base and ridged with veins all the way to the smooth head.

“I can’t,” he rasped. “Can’t go all the way.”

Disappointment sang through her, but hell, she’d take what she could get at this point. Wait… why couldn’t he go all the way—?

His powerful arms came around her, caging her against him, and all thought stopped. His kiss was hard, hot, desperate. His c*ck speared her between the legs, rubbing against her sex as he pumped as though he was inside her.

“Bed.” She spun him, clipped his calf with her ankle, and shoved against his chest. Off balance, he hit the mattress on his back. Before he could recover, she leaped on top of him, straddling his thighs.

Surprise registered on his face, but then she started to rock, letting his shaft slide between her folds, and his head fell back, his lips fell open, the very picture of male ecstasy. She ran her hands up his abs, his chest, and over the hard planes of his arms. He responded, lifting his hands to place them on her shoulders…

His fingers dug almost painfully into her skin, and he held her very, very still. His gaze was glassy, drowsy, and his words were slurred. “You want to play, Aegi? I’ll play, but keep in mind that I play rough.”

“Yeah?” Dropping forward, she slipped out of his grip to take one of his nipple rings between her teeth. She tugged so hard he hissed. “So do I, Horseman. So do I.”

Thirty-one

Thanatos was on fire.