Eternal Rider (19 page)

“I am the only thing standing between you and death,” he said through clenched teeth, “so I’d be a little more grateful if I were you.”

“Are you completely delusional?” She wriggled, but she might as well have been trying to move a boulder. “You want me to be grateful? Okay, how’s this? I’d be grateful if you’d find someone else to transfer this… this…
agiwhatever
to. I’d have been grateful if you had protected the fallen angel who had it so he didn’t
need
to give it to me. And I’d be
really
grateful if you released me.” She struggled more, and this time, his big arms bucked under her struggles, and after a brief flash of surprise in his expression, his grip grew firmer.

“Listen to me carefully, Cara.” His voice had gone quiet. Chillingly quiet. “Don’t ever use violence against me. Violence… excites me. You do
not
want to be part of that.”

His dark gaze narrowed, his jaw tightened, and for a moment, she thought she’d gone too far. After all, she didn’t know anything about the Horsemen beyond what she’d seen in the movies, read in books, or heard in Bible school so many years ago, and none of it was very flattering. Her heart pounded as her anxiety level rose, and then a subtle shift in his expression made her heart pound for a different reason.

He’d softened. Even his grip had loosened, and yet, he somehow had gotten closer. The brand between her
breasts drummed, and as she studied the pulsing vein in his temple, it occurred to her that the rhythm was the same as her own.

She became achingly aware of a dozen different sensations, including erotic energy radiating off him, and though the room was already warm, his weight, his heat… sent a fluid surge of lust to her very center.

And his mouth… she remembered putting her lips on him. Yes… when they’d been in the room with the ram-demon thing. They’d been talking, she’d had some water, and then… then she’d felt funny. A sudden clarity made her pulse roar in her ears.

“You said you put a sedative in the water!”

“I did.”

“Then why did it make me…” Heat blasted her cheeks.

“Horny?” he finished. “Orc-weed is an aphrodisiac for some species. For others, like humans, it’s a sedative. For you, apparently, it’s both.”

“Oh, isn’t that wonderful,” she snapped. “And you keep this date-rape drug handy… why?” Probably not the smartest thing to say to a man who was three times her size, and whose name was
War
, but she was tired of being a victim. Of being helpless. Helpless…“Oh, my God, you didn’t—”

“No, I didn’t,” he said, and was it wrong to notice again how good he smelled? Like leather and horse, warm sand and rich spice. “I wouldn’t have had to. You molested me on your own.”

“Because you drugged me!”

He shrugged, a slow roll of one massive shoulder. “Would have happened eventually. Females always yield to me.”

Yield?
What. A. Jerk. “Female what?
Demons?”

His thumb stroked her cheek, and she hated herself for liking it. “I prefer human females, but—” He gnashed his teeth so hard she heard the crack.

“But, what?” she pressed. “They’re too smart to put up with your crap?”

“I make them combative.”

“Well, gee, with your personality, I can’t imagine why that would be.”

Something sad flickered in his expression, but then it was gone, replaced by that ruthless cruelty again. “It’s my curse. When I’m around humans, they want to fight.”

She squirmed in his grip. “You think?”

His smile was both sensual and wicked. “This is normal fighting. You seem to be immune to my effect.”

“Really? Because you seriously piss me off.” He did other things to her, too, things he shouldn’t, but it seemed that when it came to him, her body and brain were divorced.

“Yeah. Really.” Amusement glittered in his eyes. “If you weren’t immune, you’d be insanely pissed for no reason, and you wouldn’t have any moments of rational thought.”

She wasn’t feeling very rational right now, that was for sure. “Am I the only human who isn’t affected? Is it because of the
agimoney
thing?” The mark grew hotter, and an intense energy spread over her skin and seeped into her veins, where it seemed to circulate through her entire body.

“
Agimortus
. And yes. Though Guardians are immune as well. They wear enchanted jewelry to ease the effect. I’m the reason they started enchanting their bling in the first place.”

He seemed proud of that. “Good for you.” She frowned, remembering how she’d thrown Sestiel across the York street so easily. “What else does the
agitatus
do that I should know about?” Yes, she knew she was pronouncing it wrong, but she was out of her element, and she wanted to have control over something, even if it was one little word.

“Nothing.”

“Is it possible that it could somehow make me stronger?”

“Why?”

“Because… I can’t really explain it, but I feel like I could lift an extra hundred pounds.”

His face darkened. “It’s killing you, so if anything, you should be weaker.”

God, how she hated that word. “Well, I’m not weaker. Now, tell me if there’s another way I can get rid of it besides transferring it to an angel.”

“There isn’t a way.”

“Do you have a computer? Books?”

He regarded her as if it was a trick question. “Why?”

“It’s called research, ancient biblical legend guy. I’m not going to sit by and do nothing. Maybe there’s something you’ve overlooked about getting rid of the
agithing
and getting unbonded to hellhounds.”

One eyebrow crawled up his forehead. “On the internet?”

She sniffed. “You can Google anything.” She ignored his snort. “Can you release me now?”

“I don’t know.” He leaned into her, and whoa… he had an erection to go with that low, husky voice. Her brain wasn’t sure if she should be seriously nervous or seriously aroused, but her body had made up its mind. Heat built
between her thighs, her breasts tightened, and her breath quickened. “Will you promise to do what I say? Because here’s the thing. You die, the world ends. You listen to me from here on out, because you’re nothing but a… a—” He scowled as if searching for the right word, and when he spoke again, his voice was little more than a snarl. “A pawn. You’re nothing but a pawn in this game, and I play to win.”

A pawn? A goddamned pawn? So much for the arousal. She’d concede that she needed him, and that without him, she was lost in this world. But, according to him, she was, right now, the most important human on the planet.

“I’ll listen to you, but you need to treat me with a little respect. Because it doesn’t sound like I’m a pawn. Sounds like I’m more of a queen.” A vein in his temple began to throb, and she grew bolder, the sense of power emanating from the mark on her chest filling her with the mettle she’d lost after the break-in two years ago. Lowering her voice to a tense whisper, she nipped his earlobe. “Checkmate.”

For the second time in two days, third time in six months, Arik was back at The Aegis’s Berlin headquarters, which normally wouldn’t be a problem—Arik loved German food, beer, and women. But he hadn’t had time to indulge in any of those things, and he was starting to get cranky.

Worse, in order to get in on Aegis inner workings, he’d had to swear in as an official Guardian. The organization was a little too radical, secretive, and unorganized for him—he preferred the stricter, more structured management of the military. But once it became clear that The Aegis wasn’t going to budge on this, he’d handed over the only piece of jewelry he wore—his Army ring—so The Aegis could engrave it with their shield symbol and imbue it with protective magic.

He wiggled the fingers on his left hand, feeling the heft of the ring on his middle finger. Somehow it felt heavier than it had before, as if the Aegis spells that enhanced his
night vision and gave him a number of other handy abilities, had added weight.

Regan greeted Arik in the antechamber, which was decked out to resemble an accounting office. Anyone who came in to deliver mail, food, or whatever thought the building belonged to a firm that kept personnel records for large corporations. The Guardian riding desk duty was from a local Aegis cell, trained to act like a secretary. She pressed a button, and one wall slid back, revealing a seemingly endless hallway lit by flickering fluorescent tubes.

Regan led Arik down the hall, past the main offices, the conference room, the labs, the stairs that led to the containment cells… aka dungeon. The Aegis didn’t experiment on demons the way the R-XR did, but they did extract information from them. No doubt The Aegis was as good at intel-gathering as the R-XR was.

Finally, they arrived at a secured door that required Regan to enter a password into the keypad on the wall.

What the hell did they have in there? Arik was used to extreme security measures in the R-XR, but The Aegis seemed to rely more on magic and their own inflated sense of invincibility, so passwords inside an already secure area seemed odd.

“Kynan’s inside,” Regan said. “Don’t touch anything.”

“First time I’ve heard
that
from a woman,” he drawled, mainly to annoy her. But it was also true.

“Asshole,” she muttered, as she spun on her chunky-heeled boots and sauntered away, her long ponytail bouncing against the back of her neck.

Smiling to himself, he entered the room… which was more of a warehouse than anything. Rows of numbered shelves laden with boxes, bags, and tagged items stretched
for what seemed like miles. Along the ceiling, cameras mounted at regular intervals formed a grid that no doubt covered every inch of the room, which was temperature- and humidity-controlled. To his right was a washing station and surgical gloves.

“Arik!”

Kynan raised his hand from where he sat in a recessed area that resembled a library study. Dozens of books and scrolls formed a mountain on the table where Kynan was working with a laptop computer.

“What do you guys keep in here?” Arik asked, as he pulled up a chair across from Ky.

“Ancient and religious artifacts, magical items, demonic objects… you name it.” Ky cocked his thumb at another space that was crammed with bookshelves. “That’s our entire history. Everything ever written about The Aegis, no matter how small the account, is there. What we know of, anyway.” He sat back in his leather chair. “Heard anything from the R-XR?”

“An Australian plague is affecting sheep with a hundred percent mortality rate, and it’s spreading faster than one of their wildfires. Twenty percent of the native population of Madagascar has been wiped out by some demon strain of bubonic plague. And in the Marshall Islands, everyone on Lib Island has been blinded by what the WHO suspects is a parasitic infection. The military has been deployed to four continents to suppress growing violence over the flu pandemic and to assist the UN in quarantining as many affected areas as possible. Problem is that there are too many, and dozens more pop up every day.” Arik blew out a long, tired breath. “What about The Aegis? What’s new with you guys?”

“Some Guardians have disappeared. We lose them every once in a while… they get killed by demons and dragged away, but we’ve suddenly lost two dozen within a matter of weeks, snatched right out of their homes. And tension is firing up between the born and turned wargs again. The truce I negotiated after the battle in Canada finally fell apart.”

Arik studied his friend, noted the dark crescents framing his eyes. “You look like hell.”

“That’s because all I’ve been doing is research. Gem hasn’t been feeling well lately, and I have to fucking be stuck in Aegis headquarters going over crap that makes no sense.”

“What’s wrong? Is it the baby?” Gem was about eight and a half months pregnant, and Kynan was so devoted to her that being away couldn’t be easy even if, thanks to Kynan’s ability to use Harrowgates, something normal humans couldn’t do, he was only minutes away from her no matter where he was in the world.

“Gem’s exhausted. The unrest in the underworld is creating a lot of patients for Underworld General, and she’s working overtime. The baby’s fine.” He grinned, and the dark circles vanished. “We can’t wait.”

“Do you know if it’s a boy or girl?”

“Nope. Like Luc and Kar, we wanted it to be a surprise.”