Eternal Rider - Larissa Ione [60]
“Release her.” Ares’s deep voice was warped with rage.
A sudden vision of herself, decapitated and disemboweled, the hound feeding on her corpse, flashed in her head. She’d always possessed an empathic ability to sense an animal’s emotions, but this went beyond feelings. She was reading the animal’s thoughts, what he wanted to do to her. Another flash went through her brain, of Ares, screaming silently, his body mutilated, his bones shattered as a pack of hounds fed on him. Around his neck, his Seal was broken, and across the dark space was Pestilence, smiling.
The hellhound’s plans for her and for Ares kept coming. Swallowing bile, Cara fought to keep from vomiting.
The mark on her chest flared hot, and her gift, usually buried deep, rushed to the surface. It wanted to kill, was somehow connected to the agimortus, and she had a sickening feeling that as powerful as her ability used to be, it had now gone atomic.
“Release her,” Ares growled, “or I swear to you, I’ll skin you alive and spend weeks making you die.”
It wasn’t a threat. He’d do it, and a wave of dizziness came over her at the savagery winging through the air. She had to do something. Anything. Her hand tingled as her power condensed in her palm.
Violence is for those who don’t have the intelligence to find another way.
Right. Okay… think. She sifted through what she knew about hellhounds… which was nothing. But she’d saved one’s life. Could she tell this beast that? She’d never communicated with an animal before, at least, not with words, until Hal. But that had been in her dreams. Would it work with a hellhound she wasn’t bonded to?
Tentatively, she smoothed her hand over the wiry fur on his shoulder. “Hey, big fella. Let’s calm down, okay?”
She heard the buzz of Ares’s voice and the deadly rumbles in the hound’s throat, but she ignored all of it to focus, praying he’d tune in to her wavelength. Almost instantly, the beast stilled, and his memories ran through her head like a movie on fast-forward. So much data downloaded into her brain that she couldn’t process it, could only take in the scenes involving Pestilence, Ares, and even Hal. So much death and destruction…
A howl pierced her eardrums in a painful boom. He flung her across the room, and the floor came at her in a rush. Thanatos moved like a cat, scooping her up before she hit the tile. The sound of furniture breaking and bodies thumping against walls broke through the ringing in her ears.
Thanatos had barely set her on her feet when she twisted around to see Ares on the floor, his armor crumpled, his broken sword beneath the hellhound’s hubcap-sized paw. Thanatos shoved Cara behind him and lunged for the hound, his blade coming down in an arc.
The blow would have severed the beast’s head if the hound hadn’t suddenly disappeared.
Thanatos tore out of the room, shouting for Vulgrim and calling for a search of the property. When Ares didn’t immediately stand, Cara offered her hand to him. “Are you okay?”
He ignored her offer and exploded to his feet. He let loose a tirade in a language she didn’t know as he gripped her shoulders and yanked her close. “Did he hurt you?” His voice was harsh, clipped, and Cara moderated her own in hopes of calming him.
“He wanted to at first, but no.”
“How did he find me?” He released her, jamming both hands through his hair over and over. “How the fuck did he—”
“Your brother,” she murmured. “Pestilence told him how to find you. And me.”
“How do you know?” His question was more of a demand, his cold gaze that of an interrogator.
“He told me. I’m not sure how, but he told me. He—his name is Chaos—wants you dead.”
“I’m aware of that,” he barked. “The feeling is mutual. So why didn’t he kill you?”
“Because Hal is his son.”
His expression turned thunderous. “He’s what?”
“They were chasing Sestiel when The Aegis shot Hal. That’s how he ended up at my house. I