Immortal Rider (LD2) (47 page)

Pain. Arik thought he’d known every kind there was.

He’d been wrong.

Heart pain was a unique beast, a sharp, scorching sensation that made it impossible to even writhe in agony.

He lay under Tavin’s heavy body, wishing he’d had a chance to make love to Limos before he died. Wishing he could have apologized to her. Wishing he could have made very, very clear that nothing she’d done in the past mattered to him.

The ache in Arik’s heart had nothing to do with the knife buried in it. His pain was for Limos.

Tavin wrenched the blade out of Arik’s chest and
pushed awkwardly to his feet, his hand slapped over his own gushing injury while Arik bled in the sand.

Or… wait. He wasn’t bleeding. Lifting his head, he tested his fingers and toes. They all wiggled. He sat up, looked down, and hey, his injuries were closing up.

“What the—?” Tavin whirled around, launched the dagger, and buried it in Arik’s throat.

Hurt like hell, but Arik yanked it out, and a curious zipping sensation went through him as the wound sealed.

“That’s so cool.” Arik patted himself down, didn’t even look up when Tavin brought down a rain of little caltrops that landed on Arik, sticking to him like two dozen burrs.

They burrowed painfully into his skin in a bid to reach his vital organs. They were a nasty demonic weapon, but even as Arik cursed and tried to pry one from his shoulder, his flesh convulsed around them and pushed them out.

“Fuck.” Tav stood in front of him. “Why won’t you die?”

“No idea.” Arik stood, and the little bone spurs dropped to the ground.

Tavin came at him again, this time with a curved blade aimed at Arik’s neck. The demon wasn’t screwing around anymore. Most things—even immortal things—couldn’t survive decapitation. Arik ducked, swung, and managed to knock Tavin off course, but the dude was fast, and when he whirled, the silver blade filled Arik’s vision.

He dove to the ground, sweeping up one of the spurs as he rolled. In a quick move, he launched the tiny weapon, catching the demon in the gut. Tavin hissed in pain and dropped the blade. Arik took instant action, grabbing the dagger and doing a replay of his high school football days with a tackle that put Tavin on his back.

Arik jammed the blade against Tav’s throat. “You done?”

“Kill me,” Tav rasped. “Or I have to keep trying.”

The bone spur was going to kill him anyway, but it would be slow and painful as shit. Slitting Tavin’s throat would be a mercy. But dammit, the guy had helped Arik at great personal risk by slipping him extra water and giving him an escape route from Sheoul. And then there was the mind thing.

Arik eyed the demon, whose skin had gone ashen and slick with sweat. “You healed my body, but you also healed my mind, didn’t you? That’s why I’m not a slobbering blob of PTSD.”

Tavin’s eyes shot wide. For a moment Arik thought he was going to deny it, but a massive shudder shook him, and he gasped, “I have… a limited… ability. Mother… was a…
pruosi
.”

Pruosi.
A species of demon that possessed off-the-chart mental abilities. So Tav had inherited a Seminus bodily gift from his sire, but also a mental one from his mother. Arik wondered what other gifts the demon was hiding.

And what information he might be hiding with them.

“What do you know about the
khnives
that were sent after me?”

“Nothing.” Tav groaned, and a trickle of blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth. “But look… outside Sheoul for the… perpetrator.” His pain-glazed eyes met Arik’s. “
Khnives
are spies. No demon would… use them as… assassins. Too unpredictable.”

Well, that news was disturbing as shit. Who outside of Sheoul wanted him dead?

Pounding footsteps vibrated the ground, and Limos and Ares were there, swords drawn and leveled at Tavin.

“I have it handled,” Arik said. “Tavin tried to kill me, but for some reason, I’m not dying.”

Ares whistled to one of his Ramreel servants, who was standing nearby. “Prepare the torture chamber.”

Jesus. Horsemen definitely didn’t mess around. He glanced at Limos, who glared at him, and he wondered if she was imagining Arik in the torture chamber next to Tavin. Arik tossed the blade into the sand and shoved to his feet. No one was going to be tortured, and no one was going to kill Tavin, either.

“Did you hear the part where I’m not dying? I got stabbed in the gut, throat, and heart.” Arik rubbed his fingers over the skin on his neck. “Not that you’d know it.”

“I’ll be damned.” Ares shoved his sword into its scabbard. “Gethel said some of Reaver and Limos would be left behind when she ripped their souls out of you. I’d say you got some pieces of immortality.”

Tav, still lying on the ground, coughed, and blood sprayed. “I’m… off the hook if…” He sucked in a rattling breath. “… you’re immortal.”

Arik kneeled next to him and put his hand over the wound in the demon’s abdomen. “He needs a doctor.” Arik’s medic training wasn’t going to be worth jack shit in this situation.

“He tried to kill you,” Limos snapped. “What he needs is a beheading.”

“He helped me get out of Sheoul,” Arik said quietly. “And helped me keep my sanity.”

Ares swore. “I’ll take him to Underworld General. Fucking demons and their fucking demon hospital…”

He gathered Tav in his arms, opened a gate, and was gone, leaving Arik and Limos to stare at each other. Arik was pretty sure she was still mentally fitting him for chains and hot pokers.

“You lied to me.” She sheathed her sword, and he let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

He could tell her it was to protect his colleagues and their relationship with The Aegis, and while that was true, he was going to go with the reason behind the lie in the first place.

“Because The Aegis believed that they could stop the Apocalypse. They did it for the sake of the world. I didn’t participate in the decision, but I had to believe they were doing it for the right reasons.” He paused, wondering how to break the rest to her. He decided on the bandage-removal method; do it fast. “Regan is pregnant.”

Limos inhaled sharply. “Is it… Than’s?”

“Yeah.” He watched her warily, hoping she didn’t blow like Thanatos had. That had been some scary shit, and an experience he never wanted to go through again. “One of the scrolls you led Kynan to indicated that if a Horseman and Guardian made a baby, the kid would save the world.”

“Oh, God.” Limos squeezed her eyes closed.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“No.” Her eyes were bloodshot when she opened them again. “I mean, I didn’t know about the scroll. But… I knew the chamber was a set-up.”

“I suspected as much,” he murmured. “I’m guessing Pestilence forced you?”

“Yes.” She looked so miserable he wanted to sweep her
into his arms, but he didn’t trust himself to stop there. Oh, he wanted to forget all of this and move on to something much more pleasant, but they had to do this. They had to clear the air between them once and for all.

“All of this is because I wanted to cover up my lies.” Limos’s voice trembled. “All of this is because of me, Arik. It’s never going to end, is it?”

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He had to touch her. Stepping close, he gripped her shoulders gently, but firmly. “It’ll end, Limos. But tell me, right now… is there anything else you’ve been hiding? Anything at all?”

“No,” she whispered. “You and my brothers know everything now. Well, they will, once I tell them about the chamber. And the baby.”

Relief nearly turned Arik’s muscles to noodles. They’d gotten past the lies and the secrets, and surely her brothers would forgive her, just as Runa—

Shame washed over him, and he nearly doubled over from the power of it. He’d kept so much from Runa. Yes, for her own good, but when Limos had done things for
his
own good, he’d been furious, because
he
could make his own choices.

Once again his hypocrisy became the air he breathed, and for a brief moment, darkness and self-loathing swallowed him.

“Arik?”

“I’m sorry, Limos.” Pressure filled his chest cavity until he felt like he might explode. “God, what an ass I’ve been. All this time I’ve hated lies, hated people who tell them. But it was okay for me to do it in the name of protecting people like they were too fucking weak to handle the truth.” Oh, man, his chest hurt. “My dad used to say
Runa was weak. He said she bruised easily. Cried easily. He called her a little suckling runt.”

Limos put her hand on his shoulder, but he wheeled away, unable to bear comfort right now. Not when he didn’t deserve it.

“I never thought I treated her like she was weak, but by keeping things from her, that’s exactly what I did.” He rubbed his sternum, but it didn’t relieve the pressure at all. “And then I ran around hating everyone who lied and kept secrets, but shit… I think I didn’t hate them. I think I’ve hated
me
all this time.”

This time when Limos touched him and he tried to shake her off, she didn’t budge. She clung to him even as he backed away, tried to peel her off. Hell, he even yelled at her to let him go, but she hung on like a cowboy on a bronco.

“Stop it!” she barked. “Arik!” She wrapped herself around him and buried her face in his neck, kissing and nuzzling. “Stop.” She petted his hair, stroked his shoulders, and eventually, he fell back against a tree, letting it—and Limos—brace him.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked. “I’m so sorry I was such an ass to you. You didn’t deserve to be judged like that.”

“Yes,” she murmured against his skin, “I did. Without you, all of that stuff would still be weighing on me, and Pestilence might have won.”

Gently, he pushed her back so he could look at her. “I don’t understand.”

“He wanted me to lie,” she said. “He knows it’s an addiction for me. But… you changed that, Arik. I
want
to tell you things. I hate keeping anything from you. You give me what lying and being self-destructive never could. I get
an amazing rush from those things, but with you, I get that rush a million times more intense, and without the guilt. I love you so much. Please don’t hate the person I love.”

Arik’s eyes stung. He wrapped his arms around her so tight she “oofed,” and then he kissed her senseless. “We’re done,” he said into her ear. “We’re done with the lies and the secrets and the idiotic fake divorce decrees, right?”

She pulled back and grinned. “We’re done. You’re never getting rid of me, Arik.”

He was about to tell her that what she said went both ways when a gate popped open several yards away, and Ares stepped out. “Your assassin friend will be fine.” He scowled. “Should have killed him, but whatever.”

Limos went up on her toes and kissed Arik. “If he tries to kill you again, I promise he won’t make it to the hospital.”

“Aren’t you all protective and cute.” She huffed, and he chuckled as he pressed a kiss into her hair and inhaled her coconut scent. “Hey, Tavin did mention something about the
khnives
that attacked us. He thinks someone outside of Sheoul summoned them.”

Limos frowned. “That’s… not good.”

There was a long stretch of silence as Ares caressed the hilt of his sword. “If this new player isn’t a demon, then the forces working toward an Apocalypse are growing. We’re going to have to start looking at those around us more closely.”

A traitor. Ares was implying that there was a traitor in their midst, and as much as Arik wanted to rail against the idea, he couldn’t. Not when even The Aegis itself had been compromised by one of its own a couple of years ago.

And hell, the Regan situation only reinforced Ares’s words.

“Ares,” Arik began, because this needed to be said, “I discussed this with Limos already, but I need to say it to you too. I swear I won’t keep information from you again.”

A shock of brown hair fell over Ares’s forehead as he gave a brisk nod. “I’ll hold you to it, human.”

That was the thing about Ares; when he wasn’t pissed, he was damned reasonable. Unlike Limos’s other two brothers. Speaking of which…

“How’s Thanatos?”

“Can we talk about it later?” Limos asked. “I want to go home. We haven’t had a proper wedding night.”

Ares groaned. “That’s my cue. I have to do some Christmas shopping anyway.”

Arik hugged Limos tight. “It seems weird that you guys celebrate Christmas.”

“Reseph loved any excuse to celebrate and buy presents,” Limos said. “Breaking the tradition would just make it that much more obvious that he’s gone.”

“Not to mention the fact that two of us are now married to humans,” Ares said, “and you people come with a lot of baggage.” A smirk curved his lips, and Arik realized that Ares was reacting to Cara, who had come up behind him with her hands on her hips.

“Are you calling me baggage?” Her tone was huffy, but her eyes glinted with an impish mischief.

In a quick, blur of a move, Ares whirled around, hauled Cara over his shoulder, and strode toward the house. “If the shoe fits.”

Arik watched the couple until they were inside with
the door shut, and then he turned back to Limos. “What do you say I haul you off like a sack of potatoes too?”

Limos’s smile was so sweet Arik thought he might get struck with diabetes. “You do that, and I’ll kill you.”

“Can’t. I’m immortal now.”

She sniffed. “Then I’ll… deny you sex.”

He laughed. “Now, see, I’d worry about that, except you want it as bad as I do.”

“You want it bad?”

He stepped back from her just enough that he could rake his gaze down her body. “Oh, yeah. I want to take you in every way imaginable and keep you so sexed up that when you aren’t in bed, all you’ll be thinking about is getting back in it.” He took in her lush curves, imagining how well they’d buffer his thrusts. “And that’s just tonight’s itinerary.”

Her tongue came out to lick her lips, and he zeroed in on the action, his body hardening already. “Forget everything I said about killing you and denying you… and just take me home.”

“What about Ares?” he asked. “We need to tell him about the chamber and the baby.”