Eternal Rider - Larissa Ione [81]
Arik sat up. Not without difficulty and a lot of pain, but he thought he managed to not look too pathetic. “Why?”
“Because they’re so cuddly and cute,” Limos purred, her violet eyes glinting with mischief. Chick was weird.
Kynan jammed his hand through his hair. “We can’t give up the hound.”
“Give us the fucking dog or we take it.” Frost formed on Ares’s words. “And we will take it.”
“You’re bluffing,” Kynan said. “You don’t know where we’re keeping it.”
Inky shadows billowed up from the floor around Thanatos’s feet, and for a heartbeat, Arik swore he saw faces in the murky depths. “We will know soon enough.”
Brittle tension winged through the air, thickening with each silent second. Arik pushed to his feet, clenching his teeth to keep from grimacing. Ares’s hand now gripped his sword hilt. Thanatos had settled into a fighting stance, and Limos was standing there twirling a strand of glossy black hair. Somehow, she made the innocuous gesture seem dangerous. Like she could strangle him with that single lock.
The other female was gripping the book with white-knuckled ferocity and worrying her lower lip.
Unease wound its way through Arik’s veins. This shit was going to go critical, and fast. “Maybe if we knew why the animal is so important to you, it would be less of an issue for The Aegis.”
Ares locked gazes with Arik, and he got the impression the dude had been given the job of War for a reason. There was a general in that big body, someone who knew not only how to fight, but how to win at any cost.
“The hellhound is mine.” Everyone swung around to the female who had been so quiet. “I’m connected to him.”
“And who are you?” Kynan asked.
“She’s the woman your Aegi were going to torture to get information about the hellhound they’d shot.” Ares moved to stand next to her, and though he didn’t touch her, there was a definite protective quality to his posture.
Kynan scowled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about… wait.” He zeroed in on the woman with such intensity that Ares bared his teeth. “In South Carolina? Three nights ago?” When she nodded, Kynan exhaled slowly. “A Guardian died that night. They said you were a demon—”
“Cara is no demon,” Ares said. “Your Aegi are idiots.”
“Hal—the hellhound… he killed your Guardian,” Cara said. “He was protecting me from them.”
Protecting her? A hellhound? Now Arik had heard everything. “I don’t understand how all of this ties together.”
Ares swung his head around to Arik. “How much do you two know about the agimortus?”
“We know it’s a trigger,” Ky replied. “An event. We know that Sin was the bearer of Pestilence’s agimortus, and when she started the werewolf plague, it set into motion the events that broke his Seal. We believe that the bearer of your agimortus is a fallen angel.”
Ares traded glances with his brother and sister, and after nearly imperceptible nods, Ares put his hand on the other female’s shoulder. “This is Cara. She’s the bearer, and she’s human.”
This time the exchanged glances were between Arik and Kynan. “So her death is what will break your Seal, and no doubt Pestilence wants her dead,” Arik said.
“Which is why we’re guarding her, Einstein.” Limos didn’t even bother looking at him. She was too busy studying her toes, which were painted the same pink and yellow as her fingernails. Apparently, she was the ADD Horseman.
“We have a little problem, though,” Ares said. “Humans aren’t meant to bear the agimortus. It will kill them. But she bonded with the hellhound you have in captivity. It lends his life force to her, which is buying time. But every time you hurt the animal, it weakens her.”
Kynan let out a juicy curse. “I’ll arrange for its release.”
Arik eyed the vamps near the hearth. “I assume you’ve made sure your, ah, minions are no threat to Cara.”
“Our staff is loyal,” Ares said tersely. “They understand the consequences of betrayal. But every other demon in the underworld is a danger to her.”
“Not every demon.” Kynan’s blue eyes became chips of ice.
A muscle twitched in Ares’s jaw, as though he was fighting the urge