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She thought his eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. But what stunning eyes they were. They’d been pale yellow when she’d first seen him, and now, in anger, they’d deepened to a burnished gold. She hadn’t been prepared for them, nor for his sheer size or looks. Oh, she’d known about the souls he kept, and about his tattoos and piercings. But she hadn’t expected the souls to be so eerie, the tats to be so remarkable, or for him to be so handsome. Hell, despite what Kynan had said, she’d still figured on him being some bony, withered dude wrapped up in a Grim Reaper robe.

Thanatos was as far removed from that image as possible, and even though he might terrify her down to her marrow, she couldn’t help but admire him. Remember that when he’s slaughtering you. It’s important that the guy strangling the life out of you is drop-dead gorgeous.

She was such a moron.

The shadows around Thanatos swirled faster, faces forming in the inky billows, and her ability, which could rip a soul right out of a body, writhed inside her like a living thing. It wanted to be used. It wanted to free the souls from Than’s armor the way it “freed” souls from humans and demons.

“Why is this so important to The Aegis?” Than asked.

“I told you.” She gripped her cup tight. “If we want to combat the coming Apocalypse, we need to do more than work together. We need to learn everything we can about you and fill in the blanks.”

“Why you?” He looked her up and down, and the shadows went crazier.

She was so glad she’d bucked Val’s advice to dress provocatively and instead went for casual and covered up, but now she had to see if her decision to play hard-to-get, which was her normal state and easy to do, would be more effective with Thanatos than flirty sex kitten.

“I told you. I drew the short straw.”

“The short straw. I’m flattered.” His sarcasm echoed off the stone walls and the lofty ceiling, and the one tattoo that was different than the others, one of a horse on his right forearm, moved. She blinked, watching in amazement as the horse threw its head. Hadn’t Kynan said that their horses lived on their bodies?

Fascinated, she drifted closer to the big warrior. Her heart rate rocketed and her stomach became alive with butterflies, but she couldn’t stop her feet from moving or her gaze from locking on the horse. Thanatos barked out something in a language she didn’t know, and the shadows that had been circling him dcirm move at his legs, seeming to absorb into his body.

“It’s remarkable,” she murmured, reaching out to touch his skin, but Thanatos hissed and jumped backward, startling her into leaping back herself.

“Go back to your colleagues and tell them to send someone else.” His voice was a nasty rasp. “Send a male.”

She puffed up like a pissy hen, as her last foster mom would have said. “Listen up, Horseman. I know you were born back when women were thought of as little more than brood mares and slaves, but it’s the twenty-first century, and we can do anything a man does. I’m as good as any male Aegi, so get over your chauvinist pig self.”

“I have a sister who can give any male a run for his money, and I can’t imagine her as either a slave or a brood mare, so my issue isn’t with your competence.” He stalked her, and instinct told her to retreat. But she ignored her first impulse and stood her ground, even when he bumped up against her so they were chest to chest and she could smell his smoky scent. “My issue is that I prefer to surround myself with males.”

“Well,” she said tightly, “you’re out of luck, because there are no male Guardians available right now. So you’re just going to have to suck it up and deal with me.”

Thanatos’s eyes glowed with a fierce light she’d be willing to bet people saw just before he ripped off their heads. “You can walk out of my house on your own, whole and healthy, or I will throw you out, a lot less healthy, in pieces. Your choice.”

Think fast… think fast… Regan looked over his shoulder at the entrance to what looked