She smiled thinly. “Funny you should say that, because before my father joined The Aegis, he was a firefighter. I read all about them when I was a teenager, you know, trying to connect with him however I could.”
“You never met him at all?”
She shook her head. “He died before I was even born. Though I guess saying he died isn’t as accurate as how Lance likes to put it. As Lance says, he was ‘put down.’”
Sounded like this Lance person was an asshole who needed to be ‘put down.’ “What do you know about him?”
One hand came up to cover her belly. She did that a lot when she was stressed, he’d noticed. “He came from a small town in Oregon. Troubled youth. The usual things that eventually lead people to The Aegis. I guess he wanted to be a firefighter all his life, and after only two years of it, he ran into a scorch demon. He kind of went crazy until he learned about The Aegis and that demons were real. It was my mom who helped him join up, and then he got possessed, knocked her up, and here I am.” She looked down at where the baby was moving under her shirt. “What about you? I mean, I know you’ve never met your real father, but you thought you were human for the first years of your life, right?”
He wasn’t sure what made him do what he did next, but he reached out and covered her hand with his. An instant, connecting warmth went through him, that virtual rope that seemed to loop all three of them together. The feeling was addictive, and he wondered if it would be the same once the baby was born.
“Yeah. I mean, I knew I was different. I was stronger than everyone else. Healed fast. Saw things other people couldn’t see, like Harrowgates and demons. I was the only boy in the family… I had three sisters, so my mother was always busy with them, but my father would take me hunting or on trips to trade with other clans. We were pretty close.”
Her thumb smoothed back and forth over his, and the intimate caress went all the way to his soul. “Do you want to meet your real father?”
“I’ll live if I don’t.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He knew that, but he didn’t know how to answer. He’d been hunting down clues about his father for thousands of years, but now that Thanatos’s own baby was on the way, he had a whole new outlook on a father’s role in his child’s life.
“I don’t know if I should.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’d want to know why the fuck he let Lilith do what she did with us,” he snapped, surprising himself at the level of rage welling up. “He let Limos be raised in hell. He sat by and allowed us to be separated, and then he didn’t help when our worlds fell apart.”
“Maybe he couldn’t,” she said softly. “Maybe he did what he thought was best.”
In his chest, Than’s heart turned to ice. “Maybe you’re trying to justify what you plan to do to your own son.”
She squeezed his hand. “Thanatos, no—”
He yanked out of her grip and shoved to his feet. “I am not my father. I will not abandon my child. Like father, like son, I might have fallen for your seductive skills the way he fell for Lilith’s, but I will not let you give our son away, least of all to be raised in The Aegis.”
“The Aegis saved my life,” she said. “They gave me a life when no one else wanted me.”
He snorted. “They used you, Regan.”
“They need me.”
“They need you because of what you can do for them. That’s the only reason they want you. When are you going to open your eyes and see that?”
Regan’s lips parted, but no sound came out. She might as well have screamed, though, her pain was so etched into her expression. Somewhere inside, she’d had the same thoughts about The Aegis and her role with them.
“And why should I open my eyes?” The gold flecks in her hazel eyes glittered, little sparks that punctuated the anger in her words. “Will it make you feel better if I have nothing and no one?”
He turned away from her, because while it wouldn’t make him feel better for her to lose everything she’d ever known, he wasn’t sure it would be a bad thing, either. She was too dependent on an organization that didn’t appreciate her. Besides, she didn’t have no one. She had a son, and if she’d just give up her crazy idea that the baby needed someone else to raise it, he’d make sure she was a part of its life.
His scalp prickled, and a Harrowgate opened ten yards away. Ares and Limos exploded from it, both still armored, their weapons drawn and bloodied.
“We have trouble,” Limos said. “Vampire trouble. Your wildings have taken over Notre Dame cathedral. They’re slaughtering everyone.”
“It’s blatant.” Ares’s deep voice was as clipped as his movements, which meant he was fully engaged in strategy mode. “It’s either a message or a trap.”
Thanatos’s gut twisted. “Either way, it’s meant for me.” He nodded at Limos. “Take Regan back to my place. Ares, let’s see what they want. And then we’ll kill them.”
Notre Dame.
Thanatos had witnessed much of its construction. Now he was witnessing horrific destruction as a dozen daywalkers defiled the cathedral with demonic energy and human suffering.
A local Aegis cell had joined forces with the police to keep everyone out, but they couldn’t block Ares and Thanatos, who passed through the blockade invisibly, hidden within a Khote spell. Inside, Nulls shot around like wisps of black smoke, and vampires crouched on ledges, watching as Ares and Thanatos walked across a floor smeared with blood and littered with dead and injured humans.
“Who is in charge here?” Than called out.
The Nulls screeched, nearly drowning out the deep laughter of a blond vampire who emerged from between two pillars, his teeth glistening with the remains of his last meal.
“You can call me Medras.” He leaped onto an organ, the thud of his boots echoing off the walls. Blood stained his faded jeans and white shirt and streaked his arms. The scent of death clung to him, and Than’s insides buzzed with his own desire to kill.
“Jesus,” Ares murmured as he took in the vampires assembled around them. “How many daywalkers did you make?”
Thanatos swallowed, his throat burning with self-loathing. “More than I thought. I don’t know how—”
“You don’t know how?” Medras snarled. “Let me remind you. I was a monk, traveling through Franconia with my brothers, and you set upon us like an animal. Do you even remember that?”
No, Than didn’t. He thought he knew of all incidents, but maybe he’d been in one of his killing rampages. Oh, God, how many more daywalkers existed than he’d believed?
“I didn’t think you recognized me.” Bitterness permeated every one of Medras’s words. “But I will never forget your face. Nor will I forget the evil that took over my body and forced me to kill so many until I gained control of my bloodlust.” In a smooth surge, he swept a cowering human off the floor.
“Stop!” Thanatos started toward the vampire, but froze when Medras put a blade to the human’s throat.
“One step closer, and he dies.”
“If this is control over your bloodlust, then you’d better work a little harder,” Than growled. Not that he had much room to talk. “Why are you doing this?”
Sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows, drenching Medras in a kaleidoscope of light as he sneered at Than. “You haven’t figured it out yet? You haven’t gotten it through your thick head that daywalkers don’t want to serve you? We want our freedom.”
“Fools. I’m protecting you. Protecting the entire vampire race.”
“Not anymore, Bludrexe. Once the Apocalypse starts, we won’t need your protection. All we have to do is kill your brat and break your Seal.”
Thanatos hissed and, for the first time in front of Ares, let his fangs slice down in fury. “How did you know about my Seal? You couldn’t have put all of this together without help.”
“True. My brethren and I have been in hiding for centuries, but we were able to keep an eye on you. Not all
of your little house slaves are happy, Horseman.”
Than was going to rip this bastard’s balls off and feed them to him. “So one of my servants reported back to you about my impending fatherhood. But that doesn’t explain why you think harming the child will get you what you want.”
“Because, you simpleton. We’re tired of hiding, so we went to your brother. He was very interested to know our origins. We were interested to know that killing your bastard would break your Seal. Pestilence promised us power over the nightwalkers and freedom from your rule if we pledged allegiance to him in the Final Battle.”
The Final Battle, in Daemonica prophecy, was the battle between all four of the Horsemen, when they fought each other for ultimate control of the Earth. Knowing that Than’s own creations wouldn’t stand with him pissed him the hell off. The betrayals kept coming. At this rate, Ares and Limos would turn against him before the end of the day.
Fury iced over his heart and added to the growing sinister vibration inside that demanded he seek out some massive scene of death. The draw to death had been muted while he’d been with Regan and the baby, but now that he was away from her, it roared back with a vengeance, clouding his mind and darkening his thoughts.
“How many of you are there?”
“There are clans all over the world, all united against you.”
“And amongst my staff?”
“For some reason, there are those who are loyal to you. But I’ll not say who.” Medras smiled. “What’s the matter, Bludrexe? Are you feeling the need to go somewhere?”
“I feel it, too.” Ares shifted his weight, growing as restless as Than. “Pestilence has done something … bad.”
Shit. Than tried to open a Harrowgate, but, like most major holy places, it was warded against them. “I have to get to Regan before—”
Too late. As if a massive hand had reached out of thin air and grabbed him, Than was snatched away and dropped into the middle of a nightmare he’d been through before.
The stench of death became a heady drug as he called out Styx and palmed his scythe. Must … kill. The desire to relieve bodies of their souls clamored loudly in his skull, but another, newer desire warred with it.
Regan.
No. Oh, God, no. Half of him wanted her naked, screaming his name as he thrust between her creamy thighs. He wanted to claim her, mark her, use her so thoroughly that she’d be too tired to ever leave his bed. The other half of him wanted to kill, to draw blood and destroy everything in his path.
He roared in confusion and fury, trying desperately to hold onto conscious thought, because if he didn’t, if he let the death haze take him in a killing rampage, he might just let both halves win.
And then his draw to Regan and his desire to kill could become one and the same, and Regan would die.
Nineteen
Sunshine. Pestilence hated it. And yet, when killing and fucking didn’t soothe him, sunshine did. No doubt the warmth was a comfort left over from the days before his Seal broke, when that fool, Reseph, hung out on beaches with females and margaritas.
Just last night, Pestilence had dreamed of one of those times, one of Limos’s shindigs on a secluded California beach.
It might not have been the best of Limos’s parties, but it was the one that stuck out in Reseph’s memory the most. Even over the ball Limos had thrown in 1888 London, where Thanatos went ghastbat-shit crazy and killed one of the guests. Reseph never knew what had set Than off, but thanks to Thanatos, the serial killer demon the papers had dubbed Jack The Ripper never struck again.
Pestilence wondered where the Ripper’s demon soul was. He could be a lot of fun to let loose on the world again. There were hundreds of thousands of demon souls Pestilence wanted to unleash on the human world, and as soon as he destroyed Azagoth and Hades, he’d do exactly that. The problem was finding someone who knew where the Grim Reaper’s realm was located. Only a certain class of angel knew the location, and it wasn’t easy to catch one of the slippery buggers. Memitim were crafty. And more hardy than he’d anticipated.
He’d managed to capture one, but the male had withstood two solid weeks of torture without revealing a single useful detail. Now his stuffed and mounted body swung from the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
No matter. Lucifer, who was still pissed as hell at the Horsemen, and Limos specifically for killing his pet fallen angel, had reminded Pestilence that an ex-Memitim was sitting right under their noses: Idess, the very ex-Memitim who had performed the marriage ceremony for Limos and Arik.
How things came full circle, didn’t they? Pestilence was going to make Idess talk. And scream. And after she revealed Azagoth’s location, he’d make her scream some more.
He glanced down at his watch, wondering if Than had found the present Pestilence had left for him yet. Surely he was done with the daywalkers at Notre Dame by now. And what Pestilence wouldn’t have given to see the look on Than’s face when he learned that the daywalkers were siding with Pestilence.
His arrangement with the vampires was a perfect double-tap to the head with demon-caliber slugs. Not only was it one huge fuck you to Thanatos, but it could put the Apocalypse into motion. The angrier his brother got, the more mistakes he’d make, leaving openings Pestilence could exploit. And, if Pestilence played his cards right, Than’s temper would put him into a murderous rage, and he’d kill the baby himself.
Smiling, Pestilence tossed a seashell into the ocean waves on the Santa Barbara beach where Limos’s party had been. The shell made a plopping noise as it hit the sunlit water. This was what he’d done the day of Limos’s party, after all the guests had gone and Limos was sleeping off a week’s worth of rum and tequila. Reseph hadn’t been tired… just pleasantly sedate. He’d drunk lots of booze, had lots of sex, and had played his ass off in the water and on the sand. With everyone gone, he’d stood at the shoreline and chucked rocks and shells into the surf.
Than eased up to him, all silent and broody.
“’Sup.” Reseph winged another shell into the water.
“Nothing.”
Yeah, there was no “nothing” when it came to Thanatos. If he joined you silently, he wanted something, even if it was only companionship. Limos and Ares would prod Than for info, but Reseph knew better. The guy opened up when he was ready, and if you pushed, you were either looking at an empty space, or you were looking at knuckles in your face.
Reseph liked his nose unbroken and his teeth where they were, thank you very much.
They stood like that for a good ten minutes, Reseph plunking rocks and shells into the waves, and Thanatos doing his mannequin imitation. Finally, Than took a deep, resigned breath.
“I’m tired.”
“That’s what beds are for.”
Than closed his eyes and tilted his face to the sun. “Not like that. I’m tired of nothing changing.”
“Dude.” Reseph snorted. “Wheels hadn’t even been invented when we were born. Now there are people hanging out in space. Things change.”
“We had wheels,” Than said dryly. “But that’s not what I’m talking about.”
Reseph knew that. “You’re talking about you.”
“I’m talking about you.” Than pegged Reseph with a hard look. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
“Ah… thanks? Can I call you an obnoxious asshole now?”
Than snorted. “Like you ever needed permission.”
“True.” Reseph punched him in the shoulder. “You’re an obnoxious asshole. Now, why am I a fucking idiot?”
“Man, you just opened a lot of doors with that question.” Thanatos grinned, and Reseph punched him again, harder. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll narrow it down.”
“Oh, this should be good,” Reseph said, barely resisting an eye roll.
“You’re a whore.”
Reseph blinked. “I’m failing to see the problem.”
A breeze kicked up, and Than turned into it like a dog with his head out of a car window. “Don’t you want more? After five thousand ye
ars of screwing everything in sight, don’t you want to settle down with a mate? Don’t you want kids?”
A twinge of guilt soured the gallon of piña coladas in his stomach. They weren’t talking about Reseph… they were talking about Than.
That was how Than worked. He couldn’t just come out and say that he wanted a family so bad it hurt… he had
to take the longest fucking route he could and make you read between the lines. Of course, if Reseph said flat-out that he knew the deal, Than would only retreat or attack, so Reseph proceeded carefully.
Which really wasn’t his style. But Thanatos didn’t open up often, and Reseph wasn’t going to make him regret doing it.
“I don’t want kids.” Reseph tossed another shell. “I mean, they’re cute… from a distance. Like opossums. And a mate? That would seriously put a damper on my sex life. It’s like, the chicks get hotter every hundred years or so. What if I took a mate today, and then in a hundred years, they’ve all evolved into supermodels?”
Thanatos muttered something that sounded a lot like “fucking idiot.” “So you’ve never met anyone who even tempted you into more than a one-night stand?”
He shrugged. “There’s been a few. Remember that succubus from Sri Lanka? I kept her around for an entire month.”
“Exclusively?”
“No. Duh.” Reseph reached up and scratched his chest, which had grown oddly tight. “Immortal females are great to party with, but keeping them around as mates? Eternity is a long time to be stuck with one female. And humans…”
“They die.”
Easily. They died so … easily. And early. Their lifespans were so pathetically short. The tightness squeezed harder, until it almost hurt to breathe. He’d lost a human once, and somehow that pain had survived the centuries. It wouldn’t happen again.
“If you could have a mate and kids, would you?” Reseph asked.
Silence stretched, broken by the waves and the occasional seagull. Thanatos scooped up his own handful of rocks and shells and heaved them all into the water.