Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [147]
Regan offered a shaky smile as she flipped on the bedside lamp. “Just another bad dream.”
Her hand fell to the bit of parchment next to the lamp, and she allowed herself a moment to smooth her fingers over the inked letteriӀinked leng. The Latin words were a prayer of sorts, but that wasn’t where Regan found comfort. No, as an empath with limited but powerful abilities, she could feel the emotions of the person who put the ink to the skin, and this particular bit of writing had been penned while the author was feeling serene. Regan had kept the page with her for years, and she’d needed it more than ever over these last few months.
Suzi entered, her compact, muscular body moving smoothly to the tiny bureau of drawers on the opposite wall, where a glass and pitcher sat on a tray. “Did you have them before?” Water gurgled as she poured. “You know, before you were pregnant?”
“Yes.” The lie slipped easily off Regan’s tongue, because while she might not have dreamed of her death before her pregnancy, she’d suffered nightmares that reflected the reality of her daily life.
As a demon slayer, she’d had some really bad days.
Suzi’s messy mop of blond hair bounced on her shoulders as she brought Regan the water and sank down on the bed next to her.
“Drink,” she said, nudging Regan’s hand up, as if she were a toddler. Everyone treated her as if she were made of glass, as if women hadn’t been getting pregnant for thousands of years and surviving just fine.
But not everyone got pregnant with a child that could save the world.
Maybe.
She had to remember the maybe part, because the thing was, The Aegis had been duped into believing a child born of a Horseman and a Guardian could stop the Apocalypse. Now there was a scramble to discover what role this baby would play in the grand scheme of things, especially because they were pretty sure the child was Thanatos’s agimortus—the key to breaking his Seal.
“Can I get you anything else?” Suzi asked. “Warm milk? A sandwich? Soup?”
This time, Regan’s smile was genuine. Suzi was one of the toughest warriors Regan knew, so it was amusing to see her so attentive and nurturing. Then again, Suzi hadn’t always been a demon slayer. Only five years ago, at the age of sixteen, she’d been an Olympic-level gymnast. That was before she’d been introduced to the paranormal world when she’d stumbled upon her coach eating a man outside the gym where she trained. Turned out that her coach had been a demon with a taste for vagrants.
“Thanks, but I’m going to read for a little while.” She glanced at the bedside table where her stack of ancient tomes from The Aegis’s extensive library sat next to an assortment of snacks. “And I have enough crackers to last me a month if I get hungry.”
“I could fetch you more books,” Suzi offered. “Or run a bath for you? Put a movie in the DVD player?”
Regan held up her hand. “Okay, what’s going on? You’re never this willing to do nurse work. You’re nervous. Why?”
A pink blush crept into Suzi’s cheeks. “It’s nothing—”
“Tell me.”
Suzi looked down at her hands, and when she looked back up, the dim bedside light emphasized dark crescents beneath her hazel eyes. “We just lost contact with two of our Australian cells. The reports from the other two are… grim.”
“Dammit,” she breathed. “Countries are falling like flies.” When Suzi averted her gaze, a dark suspicion rose up in Regan. “What are you not telling me?”
“You know you’re not supposed to be worrying about the news—”
“Dammit, Suzi, I’m not an invalid. That little incident was months ago.”
The little incident hadn’t been so little. While watching a news report about the loss of Iceland to demons, Regan had suffered abdominal pain and bleeding so severe that for days there’d been fear she’d lose the baby. Or her life.