Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [9]
These particular demons had spread the gambling bug like one of Pestilence’s viruses. Not only had organized crime tripled, but the stakes had increased. Nothing was off the table in the back rooms of even reputable establishments. Money, drugs, children, human organs… all becoming disturbingly common as currency.
The lizardman was unrepentant. “Humans are stupidly blind. We can’t be held responsible for their weaknv> their esses.”
Ky snarled. “Where. Is. Arik?”
The demon’s nose, two black holes in his face, twitched. “We don’t know where he’s being held.”
Kynan threw aside the stang and gripped the demon’s throat in his bare hands. “Listen to me, you fucking Sleestak creep. You spill, or I’m going to turn you into a pair of boots and a belt. And then I’m going to hunt down every one of your family members and do the same thing. Got it?”
Decker casually lit a match and touched it to the end of a tiny capsule, a nasty little R-XR weapon that could be dropped on a demon, where it would immediately burn its way into flesh. The thing caused excruciating agony as it passed through the victim’s body, its white-hot shell cauterizing as it traveled, preventing a total bleed out.
Fear flickered in the demon’s yellow eyes. “I don’t know,” he said quickly. “Is the truth, slayer.”
“Rumors, then. I know you’ve heard rumors.”
“The… Iblis’s torturing grounds are in the Doom region of Sheoul,” the Sleestak said, using one of the many names for the big bad demon Christians called Satan. “But the human is said to have been handed over to experts.”
Arik’s torture had been contracted out? Fuckers. “And these experts are keeping the human where?”
“They have many chambers. All located near hell-mouths.”
“Which one should we focus on?”
The demon said nothing. Ky squeezed his throat, and Decker crouched on his heels, holding the capsule over the lizardman’s crotch. “Which. One.”
“Erta Ale,” it rasped. “The rumor is… Erta Ale.”
“Isn’t that an Ethiopian volcano?” Decker dropped the capsule on the floor and crushed it with his boot.
Ky nodded. “I’ll search it. I need you back at R-XR headquarters in D.C. You have to convince the R-XR to hurry up with the weapons they promised us.”
The R-XR and Aegis had been working on weapons that could deliver doses of hellhound saliva into the Horsemen—specifically, Pestilence. But Ky wouldn’t hesitate to use it on any Horseman who went bad.
“The R-XR is doing their best.” Defensiveness crept into Decker’s voice as he hacked off the lizardman’s head with a little more force than was required.
“The R-XR is doing what they do best, which is being overly cautious.” Kynan knew, because he’d been dragged into the secret Army unit, the Ranger-X Regiment, back when he was an Army medic who’d been attacked by a demon. The demon had nearly ripped out his throat, leaving him scarred and with a voice that made him sound like he was always chewing on gravel.
Decker’s mouth tightened into a grim line. “The R-XR is proceeding with necessar="2ith necy caution, and you know it. Someone has to balance out The Aegis’s tendency to act first and think later.”
Decker was right, but Kynan’s temper was on edge, just like the relationship between The Aegis and the R-XR. For years, they’d been allied, backing each other up in operations and sharing information, but when Pestilence’s Seal broke, the relationship went south. The military preached caution and was still trying to cover up the growing threat, while The Aegis went in weapons-hot and was of the belief that it