Rogue Rider (Lords of Deliverance) (30 page)

Jillian, who didn’t belong with the likes of him. But he was just selfish enough to be glad she was here, coaxing him to eat and talking to him in a low, soothing voice as she told him about things back at home. When his mind would suddenly jump back into his horrific deeds, she knew, and she’d tap his cheek and force him back to the present.

“You’re done with the first sandwich. Faster than I expected.”

He glanced down at the crumbs on the plate. “It isn’t your chili,” he said, “but it’s not bad. Ares has always had good cooks on staff.”

“You’re saying you miss my chili,” she teased.

“Yeah.” He missed her chili, her house… he missed
her
.

Holy shit, he was pathetic, wasn’t he? He’d fallen for her so hard. His brothers and sister must be laughing their asses off at him after all his blustering about how he’d never fall in love or even limit himself to one female. But he wanted Jillian and only Jillian. That fact had been made real clear when Than and Ares had tried bringing in a few of his regular bedmates in an attempt to entice him out of what they had termed his “delirium.”

The females had distracted him, all right, but only long enough for him to kick them out. Their touch had actually disgusted him and made him invoke Jillian’s name like a ward or some shit.

Yep, his sibs had to be choking on their laughter.

“How are you feeling?” Jillian looked at him like a doctor might look at a patient, and he wondered if he looked as beat up as he felt. He had no idea. He’d broken all of the mirrors in the bedroom and bathroom a while ago.

“Better,” he said. “But I think it’s more because of you than because of the food.” He paused. “Thank you for coming. Most people wouldn’t.”

“Then most people are assholes.” She said it so forcefully that he smiled.

“I wouldn’t dare argue with you when you’re riled.”

“Very wise, Horseman.” She shook her head, making her dark hair sweep against her jaw. He’d missed the feel of her silky bob on his skin, and he reached out to rub a stray lock between his thumb and forefinger. “I’m still kind of reeling about the Horseman thing.”

“You’re taking it well,” he said, pride swelling in his chest. His Jillian was strong, but he’d known that. “Humans tend to have bad reactions. Usually the human-realm dwellers do, too.”

“Human-realm dwellers?”

He shrugged. “Vampires, werewolves, some shapeshifters. Anyone who resides exclusively in the human world instead of in Sheoul. They’re usually a little more grounded in the human world than the demon one.”

“Vampires and werewolves are real?” She blinked. “Guess it makes sense if demons and Horsemen exist, but wow. It’s crazy finding out that legends are real. You said people in the human realm have bad reactions to finding out Horsemen exist, but what about the beings in Sheoul?”

“Demons are pretty much raised on stories about us. You know, ‘Be a good demonling and eat your veggies,
and someday the Horsemen might want you at their sides during the Apocalypse.’ ”

“Wow.” Her hands, so capable on the farm, fluttered awkwardly up to the collar of her button-up Henley. God, he hated seeing her so out of her element. “So all those… females… outside? Where do they come from?”

“There are females outside?”

“A lot. I didn’t count, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to say there’s easily a hundred.”

Oh, damn. He’d give anything for Jillian not to have seen that.

“Yeah,” he croaked. “To underworlders, my siblings and I are like movie stars. We have groupies. They even classify themselves according to which Horseman they like best. Ares has War Mongers. Than has Reapers. Limos never really had any who were open about it, though, since she was engaged to Satan, and no one wanted to fuck with her. Literally.”

“Satan?” Jillian’s voice was strangled. He’d have smiled if this whole thing wasn’t so screwed up.

“The very demon.”

“I’m glad I’m sitting,” she muttered. “What about you? What are your groupies called?”

Aw, shit, he should have seen that question coming, and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt Jillian.

“Hey.” Her soft voice, so full of strength, humbled him. “You can tell me. You can tell me anything.”

How had he been lucky enough to have
her
be the one to find him in a snowbank? He owed her so much, and that included the truth.

“Reseph’s Riders,” he said miserably. “My groupies are called Reseph’s Riders.” He hung his head, staring
into his lap, and he was suddenly ashamed of his entire life. “Jillian, I was a total whore.”

“When your Seal was broken?” She sounded hopeful, as if there would be a way to forgive that.

He laughed, but it wasn’t a happy laugh. “Yeah, then too. Only it was… different.” He shuddered and tried to drag himself out of the pit of those particular sick and twisted memories.

“Reseph? It’s okay. Take a breath.”

Shit, he was hyperventilating.

“Listen to me.” She took his hands and squeezed hard. “It doesn’t matter what you were like before. I didn’t know that man. The one I know didn’t so much as look at other women.” She gave him a sultry smile. “And besides, after everything we’ve done, I guess I can call myself a Reseph Rider, too.”

He was on her so fast he didn’t realize he’d moved until he was on top of her, kissing her with everything he had. She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing her legs up to cradle his hips.

“You’re so perfect,” he said, as he kissed a trail along her jaw. “How did I not find you before?”

“I guess you weren’t looking.”

No, he wasn’t. “I promise you, Jillian, I’ll never look again.”

Jillian shouldn’t be turned on. She knew it, and yet, Reseph’s touch set her on fire so easily. Even now, despite the horror she knew he’d inflicted upon so many, including himself, she wanted him. Right here on the floor of a strange house full of strange people and strange creatures.

Reseph tore at her clothes with an urgency that bordered on desperate. She was right there with him, and when he entered her, it was as if all was right with the world. She clutched at his shoulders with matching desperation, almost terrified that if she didn’t have hold of him, he’d disappear from her life again.

Lunging, he thrust into her urgently, slamming into her as if his life depended on the coming orgasm. She clung tighter, letting him take what he needed. It wasn’t much of a sacrifice, not when her own fervor mounted with every wild pump of his hips.

Reseph churned on top of her, his hands tangled in her
hair, his teeth closing on the curve between her neck and shoulder. Pleasure roared in furious and fast, shattering her, and she bit down on her hand to muffle her cries of ultimate bliss. She felt him swell inside her, and then he climaxed in a frenzied rush, his hot flow filling her, her core milking it all.

As they came down, he shuddered and sank against her, shifting to the side so he wouldn’t squash her.

“Fuck,” he breathed. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“More than.” And then she sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, damn. Condom.”

He nuzzled her shoulder. “S’okay. I can’t catch or transmit disease. And I take an herb to prevent pregnancy—” He broke off. “Wait… I stopped taking it when my Seal broke—” He broke off again, but this time with a strangled rush of air. “Jillian. Oh, God, Jillian. I… I…”

“Shh.” She pushed up on one elbow and stroked his cheek with the backs of her fingers—fingers that shook, because damn, what if what they’d just done had gotten her pregnant? “It’s okay. You need to get some rest.”

He nodded and stretched out next to her, his lids droopy. The water Ares had brought seemed to finally be working. The sedative part of it, anyway. The sexual side-effect seemed to have already kicked in.

“Jillian?” His voice was groggy, almost inaudible.

“Yeah?”

“I love you. No matter what happens, remember that.” Soft snores drifted to her within two heartbeats, and she settled against him, fighting a losing battle with her own exhaustion. She had so many questions and needed so many answers, but right now she needed rest more.

Most of all, she needed Reseph.

Jillian woke, stiff and sore, partly from sleeping on the hard floor and partly from Reseph’s lovemaking. Not that she was complaining, but it made trying to quietly get dressed a little more difficult when she kept hissing at the stabs of pain. Her ribs, shoulders, and hip bones had never fully recovered from the demon attack, and sometimes she had to eat ibuprofen like candy. Today would be one of those days.

Reseph was sleeping peacefully, so she snuck out of the bedroom and wasn’t surprised to find that the massive living room was packed. In addition to Ares, Thanatos, Limos, and Cara, there was also a woman holding a baby, who she assumed were Thanatos’s wife and child, given how he was hovering. At their feet was a smaller version of the hellhound that lay on the couch over Cara’s lap.

And at the entrance to the kitchen was a huge being with ram-like horns. What in the world was it?

“It’s not polite to stare,” Limos said.

Jillian jumped. “I’m sorry. I just…”

Limos punched her in the shoulder, startling her again. “I’m kidding! Everyone stares at Ramreels.” Said Ramreel gave Limos the finger, and she returned the gesture. “You love me and you know it,” she called to it, and the Ramreel snorted.

Seriously, Jillian felt like she was in the Twilight Zone. Had she dreamed up a million scenarios of what she thought life for the Four Horsemen and demons would be like… this would not have been one of them.

Ares moved over to them. “How is Reseph?”

“I’m curious about that as well.” A beautiful, raven-haired
woman with matching wings appeared from out of nowhere, and Jillian damned near screamed.

“That’s Harvester,” Thanatos explained. “Fallen angel.”

“I’m really not in Kansas anymore,” Jillian breathed.

“Well?” Harvester said. “My time and my patience are in short supply.”

Adrenaline was still skittering through Jillian’s body after being scared half to death, and before she could consider how she should speak to a fallen angel, she blurted, “Is common courtesy also in short supply?”

Limos barked out a laugh. “Oh my God, I love this human.”

“Sorry,” Jillian said, hoping the fallen angel wouldn’t zap her with lightning or something, “but Reseph is miserable, and my nerves are a little frayed. I’m worried about him. I got him to eat and drink, and to clean up. He’s sleeping now, but he’s just so… not right.”

A sudden roar pierced the air, and instantly, they all tore off toward Reseph’s bedroom. Jillian got there first. Reseph was tugging at his hair, throwing himself against the wall.

“Reseph!” She ran to him, and although he quieted the moment she gripped his wrist, he still bashed his head into the wall. “Please, Reseph. You’ve got to stop.”

He ignored her, and behind him cracks spiderwebbed up the wall, joining the already existing faults. Plaster fell in small chunks, coating them both in white dust.

“Do something!” She wrenched around to the Horsemen and the fallen angel, desperate for this to stop. “Please. There’s got to be something you can do.”

“That’s why we brought you,” Ares said. “We’re out of ideas.”

“You could take him back to Sheoul-gra,” Harvester suggested, with enough relish that Jillian realized the angel was not fond of Reseph. “It won’t make him better, but at least you don’t have to watch his misery.”

“That was so helpful,” Thanatos said dryly.

Harvester’s cold smile dropped the temperature in the room. “I live to serve.”

“You hate him,” Limos said. “Why are you even here?”

“It’s my job to be here.”

Ares swung around to the fallen angel. “Yeah, here’s the thing. Your job is to watch over us. You can’t do that effectively if you hate one of us. So maybe I go to your boss and have you fired.”

Harvester hissed, her huge fangs glinting, and Jillian pressed closer to Reseph. “You’re threatening me?”

“It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.” Ares’s voice was calm, reminding Jillian of Reseph when he’d been dealing with those jerks in the bar parking lot. If Ares was anything like his brother, that fallen angel had better watch out. “You know me well enough to know I do what I have to do to win a battle. This is a battle. Reseph is fighting for his sanity. If you can’t help, you can go.”