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Then there was nothing but blackness.

Thirty-two

No amount of pacing and cursing on Limos’s bedroom deck could bring Arik down from what she had done. For the first two hours she’d been gone, he’d alternated between being terrified that Limos had gone and done something stupid, like hunt down Lucifer, and being pissed off at her for lying to him.

And no, he didn’t believe she’d lied about loving him and not messing with his memories again. She’d been trying to get rid of him for his own safety.

He could handle himself. He’d survived his childhood, the military, a month in hell, and Limos’s brothers. He’d survive whatever came after him, and if he didn’t…

Pestilence would own his soul.

Okay, so that was a minor glitch, but he couldn’t spend what time he had worrying about it. He’d put the R-XR and Aegis on the problem and hope they could find a way out of the whole ownership of his soul crap. In the mean time, he’d be with Limos.

She would have the life she wanted, and he’d give it to her.

He allowed himself the luxury of picturing her fat with his baby as he looked through the sliding glass door at the empty bed. They hadn’t even had a chance to make love as a married couple, but he swore that when she came back, he’d have her undressed and he’d be inside her in a matter of minutes. He’d show her what every night with him would be like, would make her crave his touch and forget her crazy idea to get rid of him for his own good.

Goal firmly in place, he strode inside the bedroom just as the door flew open and Limos, fully armored and her eyes red and puffy, walked in. She halted, and her face went ashen before pinking up with indignation.

“Why are you still here?” she snapped.

He folded his arms over his chest. “Well, gee, maybe because I don’t have the ability to use Harrowgates, and maybe because we’re fucking married.”

“Yeah, about that.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder in that arrogant way of hers. “I went to Gethel. Funny thing about angels… they can dissolve any marriage that takes place in the human realm.” She held up a tiny scroll. “You have an hour to pack. We’re officially divorced.”

Son of a bitch. Son of a fucking bitch!

Pestilence stared down aet the steaming lumps of bone and blood that were Thanatos and Styx. The stallion was dying, but Than would be up in a few minutes, good as new. How the hell was his Seal whole? How?

Pestilence had gotten a message from the vampire doppelganger he’d stuck inside Than’s keep, and the vampire had assured him that the Aegi whore had screwed Thanatos, thanks to a little help from his enhanced mead. So what was going on?

Snarling, he gated himself to Harvester’s place. He slammed his way into her home, blew past her, and went straight to the chamber where she kept Reaver. The angel was sitting propped against the wall, covered in blood and dirt, his golden hair hanging in limp ropes around his face and shoulders. Glazed blue eyes watched Pestilence as he stalked in and kicked the angel in the face.

Reaver, blood streaming from his nose and split lip, just smirked. Smug bastard. Pestilence kicked him again. The fucking angel struck out hard enough to knock Pestilence into a wall and split his head open. Blood streamed in a sticky, warm river down the back of his neck and into his armor, which drank it in gurgling sips. If Pestilence wasn’t so pissed, he’d be impressed by how strong Reaver still was, despite having his wings removed.

“When will you learn, Reseph?” Reaver said. “You can hurt me, but you will never break me.”

“We’ll see about that, you fuck.”

Pestilence let loose with everything he had. Reaver didn’t even fight back as Pestilence kicked and stomped him until the angel was nothing but an unconscious mass of meat in a pile, and gore was dripping from Pestilence’s boot. Harvester’s hands came down on his shoulders.

“What happened?” she asked, and he rounded on her.

“You know better than to touch me.”

He circled her, measuring her level of fear and, deciding he wanted more, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her