Rogue Rider (Lords of Deliverance) (22 page)

Except that the Horsemen hated The Aegis, and Lance had no doubt that if those bastards ever learned the location of Aegis headquarters, Aegi would become an extinct species.

There was a tap at the door, and Omar, one of the original twelve Elders, strode in, his expression grim. “You aren’t going to like this.” He flexed his hands at his sides. “Aaron has been monitoring reports of possible demon activity in the American Rocky Mountains. Nothing overly unusual, but DART has reported to investigate.”

Lance yawned. “And? Those pussies will probably capture the demon and try to rehabilitate it or some shit. Why do we care?”

“That’s what I thought at first. Then yesterday Aaron noticed an usual surge in Internet searches related to demons coming from a town called Bardsley. The interesting thing is that a lot of the searches have to do with the name Reseph.”

Lance sat up a little straighter. “Reseph is Pestilence’s human name.”

“Yes, but the name is also linked to historical places and gods, so Aaron yellow-flagged it to keep an eye out, but the name didn’t go red flag.” Omar’s lips thinned into a slash of disapproval. “Until today.”

Juan swung around in his chair. “What happened?”

“Aaron got hold of a police report. At around the same time the demon attacks started in Bardsley, a stranger
showed up in town. He claims to have no memory except of his name. Says it’s Reseph.”

Lance’s stomach turned over, spilling acid into his bloodstream. “Description?”

“Six-nine. Platinum blond hair. Horse tattoo on his right forearm.”

“Jesus Christ,” Lance breathed. Juan and Delia had gone ashen. “It’s him, isn’t it?”

“That would be my guess.” Omar scrubbed his palm over his face. “It could also be why DART is there.”

Delia frowned. “Wait… Pestilence was destroyed. So how could this be him?”

“Think about it,” Lance said. “We didn’t
see
anyone destroy him. We got a fucking phone call from Kynan.” A rude-ass phone call full of threats and lies. Kynan had tried to convince Lance that the angel who had been helping them, Gethel, had gone bad. If that were true, she wouldn’t have spent the last month helping The Aegis develop a potential containment weapon against the Horsemen. “What if he was wrong, or what if this is some kind of Horseman deception?”

The mug in Delia’s hands shook, sloshing coffee over the rim. “So do you think DART is in Bardsley to neutralize Reseph? Or Pestilence? Oh my God, what if the Horseman is still evil?”

“There’s no
still
about it,” Lance said. “The Horsemen are half demon, and anything demon is always evil.” When Pestilence’s Seal broke, he’d simply gone
more
evil. “We need to get to Bardsley. No way are we letting those asshole upstarts take control of this situation.”

“So we’ll be testing out our new weapon?”

“Yes,” Lance said slowly. “We will. And if all goes
right, we’ll finally have a way to lock up the Horsemen and hold them until the Biblical prophecy requires their presence.”

“What about their families?”

“We imprison the ones who can’t be harmed and kill the rest.”

“And Thanatos’s kid?” Delia asked. “Won’t killing him break the Horseman’s Seal?”

Yeah, that was a nasty bit of business. The Aegis had been led to believe that killing the child would save the world, but in truth, it had been the opposite. Because of that clusterfuck, The Aegis had made enemies out of the Horsemen, which was why it was so important to neutralize them. According to Gethel, the Horsemen were planning to murder every Guardian on the planet.

“Kynan said nothing we can do will break their Seals now. Gethel hasn’t confirmed or denied, and we haven’t seen her in a month. So we take the kid. Raise it. Make it loyal to us. He could be our greatest weapon in the fight against demons, and our best protector against the Horsemen if they manage to escape our captivity.”

“So we’re doing this?”

Lance grinned. “Pack for winter. We’re going to catch us a Horseman.”

Kynan and Arik hadn’t found a damned thing. They’d studied the area, questioned whoever would talk to them, and chased down leads. And still ended up with nothing.

It was time to bring in the local cops, because something niggled at Kynan, something about Ms. Cardiff. She knew more than she was saying, and if it took getting an officer to the house to get her to talk, that’s what he’d do.

At least, that’s what he’d do as a first step. He’d play nice… for now.

Ky glanced over at Arik as they climbed out of their SUV and started across the parking lot to the sheriff station’s entrance. “How did Reaver seem to you when you saw him?”

An arctic blast kicked up snow all around them, and Arik had to speak through chattering teeth. “I only saw him for a second. I was getting to the beach party as he was leaving. Seemed fine, though, for a guy who spent
three months in hell.” Arik’s own stint in Sheoul had given him a unique perspective on the horrors to be found in the demon realm. “Limos said Harvester admitted to trapping Reaver there, but then Reaver defended Harvester to Thanatos and Regan.”

Halting at the station door, Kynan stared at his friend. “You’re kidding, right? Was your wife drunk?”

“Nope. Limos laid off the alcohol. She wants to be all healthy while we’re trying for a baby.” Arik stomped his boots on the welcome mat. “I’ll never understand angels.”

Neither would Kynan, and he even had an angel in his family tree.

Warm air welcomed them as they walked into the station and were greeted by a deputy who introduced himself as Dennis Waltham.

“I’ll be right with you folks,” Waltham said. He grabbed some paperwork and disappeared into a room down the hall.

Ky stared after him. “Gotta love small towns.”

“Ky?” Arik’s voice was strangled. “Oh, holy fuck. Holy
fuck
.”

Kynan wheeled around to Arik, who was staring at the bulletin board. “What?” Arik just stood there, his face the color of chalk. “Jesus, you’re scaring the shit out of me.” He strode over to his partner. “What are you—” He broke off, his throat closing like his neck had been caught in a wire noose.

It couldn’t be. The picture on the wall could
not
be Pestilence. Even as Ky’s brain scrambled for an explanation, his eyes locked on the information scrawled below the photograph.

First name: Reseph. Last name: Unknown. He’d been
brought in by Jillian Cardiff one week ago. He was suffering from apparent total amnesia.

Jesus.

Waltham came back, and Kynan and Arik both rushed over to him so fast they nearly tripped over each other.

“That man on the wall,” Arik blurted. “Where is he?”

“Why?” The deputy looked at Arik and Ky like they’d lost their minds. “What’s this about?”

Arik slammed his fist on the counter. “Tell me, dammit!”

Waltham glared. “You might be some kind of demon experts, but I don’t answer to you, so why don’t you try being a little nicer?”

“Excuse us, deputy.” Kynan moderated his voice to counter Arik’s freak-out, but inside, he was screaming. Outside, he was sweating ice cubes. “But this is important. Do you have a file on this guy?”

“We don’t have a lot.” Waltham took his sweet time digging a file out of a drawer and tossed it to Kynan. “We haven’t been able to find out anything about him. What’s in that file is all we have. Is Jillian in trouble? Do I need to get out there?”

So this guy was staying with Ms. Cardiff. Wow, so not a shock. “No,” Ky said calmly. “I overreacted. It’s not the guy we’re looking for. Thanks anyway.”

The deputy shot them a dubious glance, but Kynan didn’t give him the opportunity to get nosy. Ky dragged Arik out of there at breakneck speed. At the SUV, Arik stopped, his entire body a churning cauldron of hate. Kynan had never seen Arik like this before. He was usually level. Very little could rattle him.

Right now, Arik was rattling like a baby’s toy.

“That was fucking Pestilence. How the fuck is he here? He’s supposed to be dead, Ky. I was there. I saw it happen. What if he’s still evil? He can’t start an apocalypse, but he’d still be like a lion in a sheep pen. He could kill millions with plagues alone… holy shit… how the fuck are we going to take him down?” Arik paused in his tirade to take a breath and slammed his fist into the vehicle’s hood, denting the cold metal. “We’ll break into Aegis HQ and grab some
qeres
—”

“Arik—”

“I’m not letting that fucker near Limos—”

“Arik.” Kynan grabbed the other man by the shoulders and shook him hard. “Listen to me. If it’s really Reseph, we have to be smart about this.”

“
If
? I’d know that son of a bitch if he was wearing a spacesuit and covered by a motherfucking burka. He blackmailed my wife, nearly broke me in half, and forced me to drink his blood. He owns my soul, Ky. He
owns my goddamned soul
.”

Yeah, Kynan wouldn’t be overly calm right now if he were Arik, either. Releasing his friend, Kynan dug his cell phone out of his pocket and speed-dialed Ares.

“What’s up, human?” Ares said.

Kynan kept a watchful eye on Arik, because the dude looked ready to launch into orbit. “I need you to get everyone to your place. Arik and I’ll be there in half an hour.” He disconnected before the Horseman could ask questions. This place was too public, and Arik was too… well, fucked up.

“C’mon, buddy,” Kynan said. “Let’s hit the Harrowgate. Your in-laws will know what to do.”

“What if they don’t? That fucker can’t be allowed to
roam the earth, Ky. We thought he was gone. We were moving on with our lives. What now?”

Kynan wished like hell he could answer that.

Reaver strode into Ares’s Greek manor and wasn’t even a little surprised to find Limos mixing margaritas behind the bar. Now that the Apocalypse had been averted, every day was a party for her. What he was surprised about was that she handed out the drinks to everyone, including Reaver, but didn’t take one for herself.

Then again, she’d been busy lately, drawn to the starvation epidemics around the world. She’d always said that when others were going hungry, she couldn’t keep food down.

“Hey, Reaver.” Ares, who was pinned to the couch by a young hellhound lying on his lap, downed his drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Don’t suppose you know what this is about.”

“What… what’s about?”

Thanatos, sitting on the arm of the chair Regan was perched in, looked up from the cradle he was rocking with one foot. “Kynan called. Said to gather everyone here.”

“Looks like I have good timing.” Reaver moved over to the cradle, where Logan was sound asleep and Cujo was sitting, one shoulder propped against the frame. “I hope The Aegis isn’t causing trouble. What have he and Arik been working on?”

“Some rogue demon tearing up a town somewhere,” Limos said in a bored tone. No, a single demon wouldn’t even make the Horsemen blink. At five thousand years old, they’d learned to separate the big problems from the
small ones, and it took a lot for them to consider anything a big problem.

“How’s everything else?”

Ares scratched the inky black lap hound behind the ear, and the thing made a guttural sound Reaver could only hope was a happy noise. “I’m not sure. There have been some odd rumors floating around Sheoul, rumblings about Pestilence’s old buddies trying to regroup. And Cara is worried about the hellhounds. A bunch have gone missing, and more disappear every day. She won’t let Hal out of her sight.”

Odd. Only someone very powerful would mess with hellhounds. Reaver made a mental note to check with Eidolon, head of Underworld General Hospital, to see if he was aware of a fatal hellhound virus running amok.

Kynan and Arik burst through the front door. Arik went immediately, wordlessly, to Limos and folded her against him.

“Arik.” Her voice was muffled against his chest. “What is wrong with you?”

“Let me cut to the chase.” Kynan peeled off his leather jacket and tossed it over the back of one of the chairs. “Your brother is back.”

Reaver’s lungs seized, and oh-shit adrenaline flashed like fire through his veins. His secret was about to become not-so-secret, and not in the way he’d wanted.