Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [60]
The thing stiffened and fell dead.
Arik blinked in shock, but who the hell cared why the thing died so easily? He went for the other, with the same result. Another came at him, and this time he didn’t bother with grabbing its throat. He punched the fucker in the face, and it dropped. Time after time, he took the demons out, going through them like a lawnmower.
Eventually, he was standing waist-deep in demons,eephed the fu staring at the carnage around him, and the Horsemen were staring at him. At least the weird sensation of being watched by evil was gone.
“What the hell was that, human?” Ares asked.
“I have no idea.” He lifted his head, his newfound spidey-senses tingling again, but this time without the intensity. “Over there.”
Thanatos moved like a snake, faster than Arik could track as he disappeared into the brush. There was a squeak, a thud, and he emerged, carrying a rat by its tail. “This?”
“Yeah. That was it.” Arik scrubbed his hand over his face, confused as shit. “What the hell?”
Limos winced. “Crap. The blood exchange. Like vampires.”
“Ah.” Ares nodded. “Makes sense.”
“To you,” Arik muttered. “You want to include me in your cryptic conversation?”
Limos sheathed her sword. “Khnives are summoned demons. Spies. A lot of demons can summon one or two, but only a handful of beings could have summoned this many khnives, and Pestilence is one of them. Even as Reseph he could command disease carriers and use them to gather intelligence or spread disease… or he could destroy them at will. The blood exchange gave you his abilities. To what extent…” She shrugged. “Time will tell.”
“I’m still not following. You mentioned vampires.”
“Vampires often transmit their special abilities to those they turn,” Thanatos explained. “But since you didn’t technically turn, I suspect there’s something unique about you. What are you not telling us? Do you have a demon dangling from your family tree?”
As tempting as it was to tell Thanatos to fuck off, Arik wanted to know what was up as well. “No demons in my DNA, but I was bitten by one a few years ago.” He figured he’d leave out the part about how the demon that bit him had been sent by the demon he’d made a bad deal with back when he was a teenager, desperate to end his father’s reign of terror. “The infection from the bite nearly killed me, but Shade saved my life. There was a… side-effect.” He glanced over at Limos, who was watching him curiously. “I can learn demon languages after hearing just a few words.”
“You Aegi are full of surprises,” Ares murmured.
Arik had found that statement to be true enough. “So why did Pestilence send his spies to attack? I mean, if he wants me dead, can’t he do it himself? If he’d come with a few of his minions, I could have been toast by now.”
“You’re right.” Limos frowned. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe it was your charming fiancé?” Arik asked, but she shook her head.
“That doesn’t make sense either. I doubt he knows that Pestilence owns your soul. Satan would want you dragged to Sheoul to die, so he could have your soul. He’d lose it if you died here.”
“So what you’re saying then, is that there’s a new player in town.”
Ares nudged one of the khnive bodies with his foot. “A new player who wants you dead.”
Thanatos whistled. “Sucks to be you, human.”
Man, there were days you just shouldn’t get out of bed.
Sixteen
No more creepy demons attacked Arik and Limos on their way back to the house, and when Arik saw Kynan standing on the huge wraparound deck at the front of Limos’s house, he rethought the not-getting-out-of-bed thing. Limos disappeared to give them a moment as he folded Kynan into a bear hug and practically lifted him off the deck. Ky gave him a few manly pats