Lethal Rider
Page 23

“Fine,” he growled. “But you stay plastered to me, and at the first sign of danger, you’re out of there.”
“I’m starting to feel like you guys only grab me when you need something.” Wraith punched Thanatos in the shoulder hard enough to hurt, even through the armor. “Next time you call, how about it’s for a kegger?”
“I thought you liked to fight, demon.”
“It’s my second favorite thing to do.” Wraith, his shoulder-length blond hair pulled back with a leather thong, tested one of the points on his throwing star. “But you could at least ply me with burgers and beer first.”
Than didn’t need to ask what his favorite thing was. Dude was a sex demon, brother to Shade and Eidolon. “No time for burgers and beer.”
“Story of my life,” Wraith muttered.
Limos, standing at the entrance to the secret underground mosque Regan had led them to, finished tying her hair up in a knot at the crown of her head. “We could have done this without the annoying demon, you know.”
Ares cut through them and moved down the dark passage. “Remember how Wraith found your agimortus? He finds shit, and the faster he finds Regan’s texts, the better.”
Texts that weren’t going to be read by anyone except Thanatos. He wasn’t sure what they said, but if they even hinted at his secret, he couldn’t risk anyone knowing. He couldn’t be responsible for the destruction of an entire race of people, and he just hoped like hell that Regan’s scrolls would only provide information about their father.
He gripped Regan’s hand tight, holding her near, just as he had since finding Dariq dead in his dungeon. And since her admission of wanting him. And since she’d given him a priceless book. And since he’d realized how much of an as**ole he was to isolate her from her Aegis comrades.
The more he got to know her, the more he realized that The Aegis was all she knew and all she had. He wanted to give her more, but he didn’t know how. Didn’t know if she’d accept anything from him. So he’d caved in and told Ky to assign some Guardians to her.
She, on the other hand, had given him a treasure, a book that had eluded him for centuries. He had no doubt that The Aegis considered it a treasure as well—no, he knew how valuable it was to The Aegis. Just before Than had gated them all here, Ky had called.
“Regan has very little to call her own, and she traded her most prized possession, a prayer written by an angel’s hand, to get that book for you.”
That Regan had done that left him shaken and unsure how to respond. In five thousand years, he’d been given a lot of gifts, mostly by his siblings, but this book, which started off with, My sister, Lilith, was determined to bed the angel Yenrieth, but not if I could get to him first, meant the most.
Any new information he could find about Yenrieth was more precious than gold.
Regan had given him that.
She was also going to give him a son, which would be far more precious than every book in his library combined.
He kept her next to him—probably closer than necessary—as they moved away from the spot just inside the underground tunnel’s opening where he’d gated them. As with most demon-claimed land, the stone and packed-dirt passages were dimly lit by an otherworldly glow. Thanatos could see as well as if it were daylight, but Regan, without her Aegis-enchanted jewelry, had to squint, which was another reason to keep her close, especially given that the passage’s floor was rocky and uneven. Thanks to the baby’s protection, she might be immune to injury from demons, but a fall could harm her or the baby.
Wraith and Ares took the lead, and Limos came in behind Than and Regan. “How far do we have to go?” Limos asked, and Regan shook her head.
“No idea. The sketched map I saw in the vampire’s writings wasn’t exactly precise.”
“Great.” Wraith tossed his throwing star into the air and caught in between two fingers. “We could spend days wandering—”
“Shit!” Ares wheeled to the side, narrowly avoiding a massive axe blade. The sharp wedge cut the air with a whistle, followed by the snarl of its wielder.
The tunnel came alive with movement as dozens of species of demons swarmed around them, crawling on the walls, the ceiling, and flying through the air over their heads. In an instant, a bloody battle broke out, but Than wasn’t going to play games. He had thousands of souls at his disposal, and they wanted freedom.
He released a hundred, their eager shrieks joining the snarls and grunts of the demons taking damage from his siblings. Wraith went through the demons like a fang through flesh, his charmed status keeping him safe—as long as no fallen angels showed up. Next to him, Regan threw out her hand to touch any demons that made it close enough to her, sending them flying backward in shock.
Than allowed himself a small smile. His kid was badass.
So was Regan. She didn’t even flinch at the rush of demons, keeping one hand protectively over her belly and the other at the ready, fingers clutching her dagger. And when a demon with thirty-foot, whiplike tentacles snapped one at Than, nicking his cheek, Regan snarled and struck out with her blade, severing the demon’s limb and sending it screeching into the dark.
Man, her fierceness juiced him up. She might be almost nine months pregnant, but she was still in her element down here mixing it up in a cavern full of demons. It was strange how right now he wanted to both cocoon her in bubble wrap to protect her and get her na**d to get going on those months of pleasure. Except this time, he didn’t want to cl**ax alone.
The battle was over in under two minutes, but Than had a feeling this was just the beginning. Turned out he was right. They repeated the scenario four more times before they reached a crude stone staircase that led down into a pit lined with colorful tiles that had been arranged into crude mosaic images.
“What is this?” Limos stepped into the center of a design portraying a hell stallion tearing apart a demon.
Thanatos threaded Regan’s fingers with his as he led her carefully around other patterns, most depicting violence, others arranged into sex scenes, some reflecting both.
“Don’t step on them,” Than said quietly. “This is a place of worship.”
“The demons in the pictures are deities.” Ares nimbly skirted an image of a dozen-eyed horned demon that was rumored to eat three elephants at a single sitting. “They could come alive.”
Regan tugged on Than’s hand. “Um… so if I step on that one? You come alive?”
He followed her gaze… and drew a harsh breath. Oh, shit.
Wraith went down on his heels and stared at Thanatos’s likeness set into the floor with hundreds of brilliant tiles. “Dude. Why are you sucking on some guy’s neck? And why are there vampires kneeling at your feet?”
A cold sweat broke out over his skin. “Dunno.”
Limos jammed her sword into its scabbard so hard it threw her off balance. But just for a second. “Wrong answer, Than. I spent thousands of years lying. I’m pretty good at sniffing out bullshit. And brother, you stink.”
Thanatos exhaled on a curse. “Do you remember your wedding night, Limos? When you begged us to leave your secrets alone?”
His sister’s cheeks flamed crimson, and as she averted her gaze, shame shrunk his skin. At the time, he hadn’t understood why she’d kept so much from him and Ares, but now that his own past was bearing down on him, he got it. Except that he wasn’t protecting himself. He was protecting thousands of lives.
“Thanatos,” Ares said, stepping next to Limos, “whatever it is, we can help.”
No, they couldn’t, but before he could even start to explain, Wraith was up and punching his fist through a stone panel in front of the altar.
“There,” he said. “Scrolls.” How the hell did the demon find crap so easily?
Regan moved to the scrolls, an eager, curious light in her eyes. She loved this kind of thing, didn’t she? Finding new things, solving mysteries … admirable traits, but dangerous when you were the one keeping the secret she was sniffing out.
Very carefully, she withdrew the scrolls and laid them on top of the altar. “They’re so delicate,” she said, as she smoothed her fingers over their smooth surfaces. “This one…” Her finger stopped on the middle of five scrolls. “The author is so angry. Wait. Thanatos?”
Than moved to her, an ominous sensation dancing up his spine. “What?”
“He’s angry at you. But why—”
A screech rang out, and from a hundred crevices in the walls and ceiling, demons emerged, as inky black and elusive as shadows.
“Fuck.” Than palmed his scythe. “Nulls.” The rarest demon species of all, creatures void of life and souls, shot through the cavern, immune to Than’s souls and every known weapon. Their mouths gaped wide with jagged teeth that took chunks out of flesh with every pass they made. Only Wraith and Regan were impervious, which pissed off the Nulls even more, and every bite into Than’s unprotected head became more vicious.
“I can’t open a gate,” Ares shouted.
Limos swiped at her head, dislodging one of the Nulls. “We have to get out of here!”
Than started to drag Regan toward the entrance, but pulled back when demons poured out of it—some clearly demons, others in human skins.
Regan screamed, and suddenly, his hand was empty. He wheeled around in time to see her being snatched by a vampire.
One of his vampires.
“Markus!” Than lunged, but Markus spun, using Regan as a shield, and Than had to check up at the last second to avoid slicing into her with his scythe.
Regan shouted obscenities, reaching behind her to claw at Markus’s neck. A blur of Seminus demon slipped behind the vampire, and Markus flipped backward, hamstrung by Wraith’s dagger. Than caught Regan before she hit the ground, but with a shocking amount of agility, she wrenched around and slammed her fist into the vampire’s throat.
Yeah, he’d let her have the satisfaction of making Markus choke on his own blood. But Than got to make the kill.
Crunching his foot down on the vampire’s chest so hard bones cracked, he bared his teeth at the asshole. “Who killed Dariq, Markus? Who all is involved in the plot against me?”
“Go to hell,” Markus wheezed, and then he grinned, his fangs flashing wetly. “Your whore and bastard are going to die.”
“Wrong,” Thanatos snarled. “You die.” He swept his scythe in an arc like a golf club, shearing off the top half of the vampire’s skull. Blood and brains splattered on the wall, and suddenly, the demons all melted away.
He turned to Regan to assure himself that she was okay, but the bewildered expression on her face said that everything was not okay.
“The vampire’s tattoo,” Regan whispered, as she stared first at her hand and then at Thanatos. Oh, shit, she’d touched Markus’s tattoo…“The scroll. Oh, my God.”
Don’t say it, Regan. Do not say it.
“You.” Regan looked at Than as if he’d grown a new head. “Bludrexe. Sheoulic for Blood King. Oh, my God, it’s you.” She stumbled backward, catching herself on a blackened pillar. “That’s why the author of those scrolls is so angry at you. A fallen angel didn’t father the vampire race. You did.”
Eighteen
Regan was still reeling from what she’d seen and felt in the vampire’s tattoo. Everything suddenly made so much sense. Now she knew why the daywalkers could touch her—they were Thanatos’s creations.
They were his blood. In a way, they were his children.
He stood over the mosaic of himself, crimson rivulets dripping down his face, breaths sawing in and out as if he’d run a marathon. “Regan…”
Ares sheathed his blade and moved close. “What’s going on, Than?”
“This isn’t something I can discuss.” Thanatos’s voice was a low croak. “And what you’ve already heard can go no further than these walls.”
“Thanatos.” Regan put her hands over her belly to stop the trembling. “These vampires are trying to kill me and our son. I think it’s time we found out what’s going on.”
For a long time, Than just stood there, his head hanging loosely from his broad shoulders. Finally, he sank against a pillar and stared up at the tiled ceiling. “After we were cursed…”
“We all went nuts,” Ares said. “You’ve never spoken of what you did.”
“That’s because I couldn’t. You asked me about my fangs… I got them with the curse.” He blew out a long breath. “I needed blood. I don’t remember much about those first few years, except that I was hungry. I went on a rampage, taking blood from humans… I ravaged entire villages. What I didn’t know is that those I drained past recoverable blood loss but not to immediate death suffered with fever for days before dying … and then they rose as vampires. Daywalkers.”
“His hunger is his burden,” Regan murmured. “From your prophecy. We always wondered what that meant.”
Than nodded. “Now you know.”
“Damn,” Limos breathed. “I always assumed it was your hunger for knowledge. You’re always scouring the globe for books and crap.” She flicked a glance at the mosaic of Than on the floor. “So did you create all daywalkers, or can they reproduce?”
“That’s the thing,” Than said. “Only I can create daywalkers. But the daywalkers… they created the nightwalkers.”
“Holy fuck,” Wraith blurted, and Regan nearly jumped. She’d forgotten he was there. Probably because he was lurking in the shadows. “So you’re kind of my … grandfather.”