Lethal Rider

Begin Reading

Table of Contents

A Preview of Rogue Rider

Copyright Page

In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author's rights.

One

Regan Matthews was going to die.

She knew it as sure as she knew the sky was blue. Knew it as sure as she knew the baby inside her was a boy.

Knew it as sure as she knew the baby's father would be the one to end her life.

Screaming, she bolted upright in bed, her eyes focusing on the glow of the nightlight in the bathroom. It took a second to realize she was awake, safe and secure inside The Aegis's Berlin headquarters.

The dream had come to her again, the one where she saw herself lying on a floor and covered in her own blood, too much blood. Thanatos, known to much of the human population as Death, fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, knelt next to her, blood coating his hands, dripping from his pale hair, and splashed across his bone armor.

She took a deep, calming breath, forcing herself to relax. Thanatos couldn't touch her. Not here, in the apartment complex deep below the headquarters building that housed the twelve Elders who ran the ancient demon-hunting organization. Most of the Elders used their apartments only when they came to Germany for Aegis business, but Regan had called this spartan apartment home for years, and despite the fact that she was due to give birth in less than a month, she hadn't done a single thing to prepare for the baby. There would be no decorating, no toys, no cribs.

She'd always hated pastels anyway.

Her hand, so pregnancy-swollen that she no longer wore her Sigil ring, trembled as she rubbed her belly through the cotton fabric of the maternity nightgown, hoping the baby would stay asleep. He was one hell of a kicker, and her organs were still recovering from his last round of hacky sack.

Regan fumbled in the darkness for the bedside table lamp. Her hand fell first to the hellhound-spit coated Aegis dagger all twelve Elders were required to carry as defense against evil Horsemen, and then to the bit of parchment next to the lamp. She allowed herself a moment to smooth her fingers over the inked lettering. The Latin words were a prayer of sorts, but that wasn't where Regan found comfort.

No, as a psychometric empath, she could divine information with a touch or, more specifically, feel the emotions of the person who put ink to skin. This particular bit of writing had been penned while the author was feeling serene. Regan had kept the page with her for years, borrowing the emotions of the author like some sort of psychic vampire, and she'd needed it more than ever over these last few months.

With one Horseman turned evil, his Seal broken according to the prophecy in the Daemonica, the demon bible, Earth was falling into chaos. No Apocalypse promised a party, but Regan often wondered why they couldn't be dealing with the Bible's prophecy instead. At least in the biblical version, the Horsemen would be fighting on the side of good instead of evil.

But that was only part of why she'd needed the parchment. Her regret over what she'd done to Thanatos ate at her, and while she didn't deserve anything less, for the baby's sake she had to find peace where she could.

She allowed the parchment to soothe her for another thirty seconds, thankful to have it. The final page from a tiny book penned by an angel who had given her life to save a Guardian, it was beyond priceless. Regan's fellow Elders had been after Regan to give it up for years, but they'd have to wait. She wasn't giving it up until she was dead.

Which might be sooner than she'd like, if Thanatos got hold of her.

She lifted her fingers from the parchment, but before she found the lamp switch, a noise froze her. It wasn't a loud sound, and in fact she thought the echo of footsteps might be in her head. But what she couldn't dismiss was the trickle of awareness that filtered through her system, an internal alarm that made no sense.

No place on Earth was safer than where she was right now.

Still, she found herself fisting her dagger and easing out of bed. Heart pounding, she crept across the room and put her ear to the door. Nothing. So why was her entire body quivering with static undercurrents that warned of danger?

You're just being paranoid. The nightmare about Thanatos must have freaked her out more than usual.

But it couldn't hurt to check things out. Her Guardian instincts had never failed her, and she'd known more than one Guardian who had paid the price of ignoring that deep-down sense that something was amiss.

As quickly and silently as possible, she tugged on a maternity blouse and a pair of khaki pants, and at her hip she secured her pregnancy-modified weapon belt and cell phone clip. She didn't go anywhere without being armed. She traded out the dagger with a stang, preferring the double-ended, S-shaped blade in battle.

Clutching the stang in a white-knuckled grip, she opened the door and slipped out into the hallway. The darkness, usually her friend, now became a liability without her Aegis ring, which would have lent a measure of night vision.

Regan put her back to the wall and moved toward the light switch outlined in a faint green glow. But when she flipped it, nothing happened.

"Just a burned-out bulb," she whispered to herself. She even said it again, but a niggling sense of doubt joined the feelings of danger.

She glanced back toward her room, wondering if her smartest option was to go back inside and lock the door, but duh… anything that was a threat to her inside Aegis Headquarters wasn't going to be stopped by even a thick slab of wood and a deadbolt.

Besides, she had a secret weapon, one she'd been forbidden to use—unless the baby's life was in danger.

She crept forward, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling with every step.

"Who's there?" There was no answer, but then, no demon would happily offer up his name.

The baby had clearly turned her brain to mush, and she'd become a classic horror movie dipshit who got killed in the first five minutes of the film. Awesome.

She thought she saw a flicker of movement ahead, near the entrance to the auditorium. Where was everyone? Even in the middle of the night, Guardians patrolled the building or spent shifts researching in the massive library or organizing worldwide operations. This was The Aegis's nerve center, and it was never this quiet.

She moved closer, and as she reached for the door, her foot slipped in something warm and wet. Her stomach did a flip-flop. She didn't have to look to know she'd stepped in blood, didn't need lights to know that the dark lump against the wall was a body.

Not good. This was so not good.

Something rustled behind her. Instinct kicked in, propelling her forward through the auditorium doors. It was set up like a large college classroom, with several rows of stadium seats and two aisles of steps. She moved as fast as she could to the stage at the bottom. If she could get to the exit on the far side, she'd come out near the reception desk, where she could sound the alarm—

A soundless blur streaked past her. She pivoted, stang at the ready, adrenaline coursing in a hot rush. Crimson eyes stared at her, and she swore she heard the sound of saliva dripping to the floor.

"Whore." The deep, masculine voice rumbled, and in her belly, the baby kicked.

"I don't know who you are," Regan said, "but you might think twice about insulting a Guardian inside her own house."

Rumbling laughter accompanied a snap of fingers, and suddenly, the auditorium lights popped on. A vampire stood on the stage with her, over six feet of hulking, fangy, undead. His gaze fell pointedly to her belly.

"It isn't an insult if it's the truth."

She ignored the barb that hit a little too close to home. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

At some point, Regan had placed her hand over the baby, as if doing so would keep it safe. Idiot. The stang in her other hand would do more—but only if she could cut the bloodsucker's head off.

The vampire moved so fast Regan didn't see it until its backswing connected with her cheek. Pain ricocheted from her jaw to her cheekbone and up to her skull as she slammed into the wall, her left shoulder taking the brunt of the impact.

"Who I am won't matter when you and the Horseman's bastard are dead." He hissed, his enormous fangs dripping saliva like a rabid dog.

There was something very… off… about this vampire. Not that most vampires weren't "off," but she'd noticed a subtle difference between Thanatos's daywalker vampires and your everyday variety nightwalker. Namely, Than's vamps seemed bigger, their fangs especially so.

"You're one of Thanatos's servants, aren't you?"

He snarled. "I belong to no one. I'm not one of the Bludrexe's neutered pets." He came at her again, and as she struck out with the stang, she lost her balance and managed only a glancing blow that nicked his biceps.

The vampire's hand snapped out, catching her around the throat. Smiling coldly, he squeezed, cutting off her breath.

Panic wrapped around her, squeezing as hard as the vampire's fingers. She might have had a chance if she weren't almost nine months pregnant, but even though she'd kept herself in excellent shape, she tired quickly, and her uneven weight made her awkward.

She couldn't die like this. She couldn't let this baby die. But as her lungs began to burn with a lack of oxygen, she knew this could be it.

Inhaling hard to find even a molecule of oxygen, she reached deep inside herself for the ability she'd kept tightly leashed for most of her life. The ability that had gone out of control the night she had gotten pregnant.

Not the time to dwell on that.

The tingle started low in her gut. Coaxing it as if it were a stray kitten, she called it forth, but it seemed to retreat, going from a pinpoint of light to a sickly glow. And then it snuffed out completely. What the—

"Die, bitch." The vampire hissed in her face.

Shit! Her power… she couldn't access it. Suddenly, the vampire inexplicably eased up on his grip, giving her a sweet gulp of air, and when he smiled, she knew why he'd done it.

To drag out her death.

"Fucker," she rasped. She clawed at his shoulders and kicked at his shins, but he didn't budge. Again she searched for her ability, the one that would drag his soul right out of him, but now it was as if it didn't exist at all.

Her mind went sluggish, her struggles weakening as oxygen deprivation took its toll. Images flipped through her brain, but not the ones she'd have expected while on the brink of death.

People lied about your life flashing before your eyes, because all she could see was Thanatos. She remembered how he looked when he was coming, how his body strained and his muscles bunched and rolled. She remembered the sound of his voice, his laugh.

And she remembered the expression on his face when he realized she'd betrayed him.

She was going to die, and it would all have been for nothing.

In her belly, the baby kicked, harder and harder, as if it too knew the end was near. The vampire smiled.

"I can sense the life within you," he said. "I'm going to enjoy feeling it snuff out." His hand went to her swollen abdomen, and in her mind, she screamed.

"Could you two be any louder?" A stranger's voice joined the scream in her mind and the thud of her pulse in Regan's ears, just as a breeze whispered over her skin.

In the next instant, the vampire flew sideways and she was ripped out of his grip. She had only a split second to see the other vampire who had joined the party before he flung her aside. She hit the floor behind the podium and sat there, gasping for air as the newcomer, one she definitely recognized as one of Thanatos's daywalker servants, attacked the vampire who had been trying to kill her.

The newcomer slammed his fist into the first vamp's head, sending him reeling into the wall. Before he could recover, the new vampire shoved a splinter of wood—where he'd gotten it, she had no idea—into the other vamp's chest. The first vampire hissed even as his body began to blacken and crack into dust.

The surviving vampire limped over to her, fury and pain mingling in his eyes. "You betrayed Thanatos," he growled. "You betrayed us all."

She wasn't sure about the "all" thing, but the rest was true enough. "Then why did you save me?"

"Save you?" The vampire gestured to the ashy mess that used to be his brethren. "He was merely going to kill you. I'm taking you to Thanatos." He grinned. "Trust me, I didn't save you."

Two

The only thing worse than being paralyzed and trapped inside your own skull, unable to move or speak, was being kept like that by your own brother and sister.

For eight and a half endless, insanity-inducing months, Thanatos, fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, had been kept in a bed with nothing but a TV for company. Well, every twelve hours he was visited by someone from Underworld General Hospital to inject him with paralyzing hellhound saliva, change his hydrating saline IV bag, and give him a humiliating sponge bath before changing his sweat pants. But usually whoever visited was wham, bam, thank you, ma'am and all business. And sure, his sister, Limos, third Horseman, and Ares, second Horseman, hung out with him, but Ares wasn't all that talkative.

Limos was a chatterbox, but Than didn't really give a shit about what color nail polish she'd put on that morning or how she and her husband, a human named Arik, were planning a European honeymoon after the Apocalypse was over.

And seriously, a honeymoon? Wasn't it a little late for that? And it wasn't as if Limos didn't live on an island paradise anyway, so every freaking day was a honeymoon for them.

Bitter much, Than-boy?

Yeah, there might be some jealousy there. Because as sick as it sounded, the one thing that had kept Than sane over the thousands of years he'd been alive was the fact that Ares and Limos were as alone as he was. But now Ares and Limos were both married and happy, and he was left paralyzed, miserable, and ripping a massive hatred for the female who had put him here.

Regan.

Ever since he'd been cursed as the Horseman who would become Death when his Seal broke, he'd believed that his Seal was his virginity. He'd guarded his dick like it was the freaking Hope Diamond. He might have been an unpinned grenade ready to blow with sexual need, but dammit, he'd kept himself all virginal and shit.

Until Regan came along, with her seductive body, her devious plot, and her drugged mead. She'd managed to get him naked, get him immobilized, and get him off. The why of it still wasn't clear, since not once, in all of Limos's and Ares's ramblings, had they brought up the Aegis Guardian. And the fact that she was a Guardian, one of the human warriors who existed to rid the world of demons, only made her actions more mystifying.

Guardians didn't want to start the Apocalypse, so either she was secretly working against The Aegis, or she hadn't thought that fucking him would break his Seal.

But if it was the latter… why had she gone to extremes to get him in bed? As a larger-than-life legend, he might have starfucker appeal, and sure, he knew he was handsome, but resorting to drugs and her supernatural ability in order to get what she wanted?

Fury slithered through him, as hot as the lust he'd felt when he'd been beneath Regan, her wet heat clenching around his cock. God, it had been good. For centuries he'd fantasized about being with a female, had imagined all the ways he'd take her. His favorite fantasy had always been with her on all fours and him mounting her from behind, his chest sealed to her back by their sweat, his weight holding her steady for his thrusts.

For these past months, when his mind had drifted to sex, Regan had been that female on her hands and knees.

His cock jerked in response to the direction of his thoughts, pissing him off. His dick had no business getting hard for her, and on his arm, his stallion, Styx, kicked, sensing his master's emotions. The horse, currently in a tattoo-like form, had been stuck on his skin, as paralyzed as Than had been—

Wait. His cock was hard, his horse was stirring… which meant the hellhound venom was wearing off.

Thanatos's heartbeat went double-time as hope shot through him. Maybe his siblings were finally allowing him to be free. Oh, man, if so… he had serious plans. First, he was going to kick Limos's and Ares's asses. Then he was going to have sex.

Lots and lots of sex.

Before Regan, avoiding sex hadn't been difficult because he hadn't known what he was missing. But now he knew, and his body craved it almost as much as it craved revenge. And wasn't revenge going to be sweet. He couldn't decide if he was going to kill Regan or fuck her. Maybe both. Not in that order, though. He wasn't a complete sicko.

The door creaked open. Ares's heavy footsteps were accompanied by Limos's whisper-light ones and the click of hellhound claws on the floor.

"Hey, bro," Limos chirped, as if Thanatos was hanging out for fun. His hands began to clench, but quickly, he locked up his muscles, forcing himself to remain still.

Ares changed the channel on the TV they'd mounted above his bed. "Sorry about that," he grunted. "Someone must have bumped the remote. A cubic zirconia-fest on the Home Shopping Network couldn't have been too exciting."

Oh, no, really. I was just thinking about how great a gold filigree necklace and teardrop earrings would look on me, and at seventy-five ninety-nine plus shipping, it's a freaking steal. But damn, I missed the deal because, oh, that's right, I'm fucking frozen.

Limos's hand came down on Than's biceps, and he struggled to keep from twitching. "Hey… look… we have to tell you something." Her voice was low and serious, and shit, this couldn't be good. "I know you can probably feel the disruption in the world, and it's gotta be making you crazy."

Crazy? Try ceiling-licking, rabies-frothing, dish-ran-away-with-the-spoon in-fucking-sane. Limos and Ares had been keeping him up to date on Pestilence's exploits, but they hardly needed to. Thanks to his curse, Than could feel mass casualties around the globe, was drawn to them like a junkie to heroin. Obviously, being paralyzed had put the brakes on his ability to travel to them, but the pull was still there, swirling around his insides like smoke from a crematorium.

"It's about to get worse," Ares said. "Pestilence's plagues have caused war and famine and death all over the globe. It's why we haven't been around much. We've been spending way too much time at the sites of the worst of it."

Limos and Ares suffered similar curses as Than; Ares was drawn to scenes of large-scale battles, and Limos was tugged to famines. And yeah, Than had noticed that they hadn't been around to keep him entertained. At least Cara, Ares's wife, had been there. She read to Thanatos a lot, and he didn't think he could ever thank her enough for that.

So why is it about to get worse? He wanted to scream at them, could feel his left hand, which was concealed at his side, begin to curl into a fist.

"Last week, Pestilence claimed Australia in the name of Sheoul."

Oh, shit. Demons who were normally bound to Sheoul—what humans called hell—could now occupy Australia. A country that size could host millions of demons and allow for them to set the stage for a massive global attack. Demons had, since the beginning of time, desired to kick off the Apocalypse in order to defeat mankind and take the Earth as a trophy, and with Australia in their pockets, they'd just lobbed the ball that much closer to the end zone.

What about the humans?

Limos, who had always been in sync with his thoughts, answered as though she'd heard him. "Any humans who didn't evacuate are… lost."

"We got a few out." Ares's voice turned bleak. "Kynan, Limos, Arik and I got a few."

"It's bad," Limos said. "But the good news is that The Aegis found a way to close the hellmouths. It's temporary… the magic they're using is being eaten away by demon countermagic, but it's slowed mass demon movement." She patted his arm. "Be patient, Than. Only a couple of weeks left to go, and we'll release you."

A couple of weeks? Why then?

Ares squeezed Than's foot. "Someone will be here in a couple of hours for your next injection. We'll be back when we can."

He and Limos left, and hell, no, Thanatos wasn't planning to be around for the next injection. For some reason, he could move again, and he was getting the fuck out of here.

Summoning all his willpower, he rocked his body until he built up enough momentum to roll out of bed. Hitting the floor hurt like a son of a bitch, but the pain only spurred him on. Something was tugging at his insides. Danger. Death. Both. Except the pull toward danger was a different sensation than anything he'd ever felt. It was almost as if he was the one in danger… but the feeling was distant. Whatever it was, it called to him, and he had to go.

He ripped the IV catheter out of his hand and dragged himself to the sliding glass door. Grunting, he shoved onto his hands and knees and crawled outside. Death and danger still yanked at him, two distinct ropes pulling him in opposite directions. The danger rope seemed more… urgent, but in his current, weakened state, he couldn't risk dropping himself into what could be one of Pestilence's traps. Death, however, filled him with energy.

Right. Death first, danger second.

Letting the tug to death guide him, he opened a Harrowgate and lurched through it. Instantly, hot, humid air hit Than like a furnace blast. The stench of rotting flesh and burning wood stung his nostrils. Weakly, he lifted his head and frowned at the sight of scorched earth and fallen trees. Than's internal GPS was telling him he was Down Under, but he'd never seen it like this before.

So much death. Explained why he'd been drawn here.

"Hey there, man." Thanatos jerked his head around to the shirtless male in skin-tight pants that kept shifting colors to blend in with the smoky gray and black background.

"Hades." His voice sounded like he'd swallowed shards of glass. "Is this… Australia?"

"Yeppers." Hades strode several feet, his boots crunching down on charred bones that appeared to be both human and demon. "Since it's been claimed in the name of Sheoul, I can hang out here."

Of course. Hades was as bound to Sheoul as a demon, although for a very different reason. A fallen angel, he'd been forced to run Sheoul-gra, the place where demon and evil human souls were kept, unless Azagoth, also known as the Grim Reaper, allowed him out.

"Azagoth let you… leave Sheoul-gra?"

"He gave me an hour," Hades said, his voice degenerating into a sarcastic drawl. "His generosity knows no bounds." He nudged Than with his boot. "Now I guess I'm stuck helping you. Recover quickly. I want to hit one of those new succubus whorehouses before I have to head back to the Gra."

A million pinpricks stabbed Than's muscles as he struggled to prop himself against a fallen tree. The blue-haired bastard just stood there and watched.

"Why… help… me?"

Hades's face went as hard as the landscape around them. "Because your fucking brother is pissing me off. While I can appreciate what he's trying to do, starting an Apocalypse and all, I get ticked off when he noses in on my business."

Thanatos wiggled his toes, relieved to feel them again. "What are you talking about?"

The blue veins that spiderwebbed Hades's pale skin grew brighter and started to pulse. "He's trying to dismantle Sheoul-gra and destroy Azagoth."

"Oh, shit." Without a Sheoul-gra, any demon or evil human killed in the human realm would be free to wreak havoc in their phantom form.

There was also a running theory that Azagoth might be the Horsemen's father, but so far, no one had been able to verify that. Until the rumor could be confirmed, Thanatos would rather the guy not be killed.

"Oh, shit, is right. Who'd have thought your screwball brother could have gone so serial-killer fucktwat insane?"

And that was the big problem. Reseph had been the kindest, most even-tempered of all of them. For him to have turned so evil did not bode well for Ares, Limos, and Than.

He became aware of a branch biting into his back, and at the same time, a low-level vibration started in the pit of his stomach. His body was coming to life.

And it was hungry.

Along with the hunger, the tug toward danger grew stronger, became a pulsing awareness in the back of his brain. What the hell was it?

"He grows stronger every day, Thanatos. The souls I watch over are starting to reincarnate at rates I've never seen."

Than frowned. "You think Pestilence is responsible for that?"

"Maybe not directly, but as the Apocalypse grows closer, souls are leaving me faster than they're coming in. Pestilence is getting a big boost in the demon population, and I'm growing weaker. You need to kill him."

Thanatos rocked his head back against the tree trunk. "I intend to repair his Seal, not kill him." Than had found evidence that Reseph's Seal could be repaired, but only if Than stabbed him with a specific dagger at a specific time. Problem was that he hadn't figured out the "time" detail.

"Criminy. Whatever. Just do something. My very life comes from those souls. I need them."

"Criminy?" Than stared. "Seriously? Big, bad, mohawk-haired demon says 'criminy'?"

"Yes, criminy." Hades rubbed his bare chest. "And, fuck off."

Than closed his eyes. "That's better."

The vibration in Than's core became a gnawing hunger, threaded with malevolence. The scent of blood hit him, and he snapped open his eyes. Hades was on his haunches next to Than, a knife in his hand. Blood flowed from his slit wrist, and Than's fangs punched down as the starvation that had been kept at bay for eight months roared to the surface.

He lunged at Hades, but the male caught him around the back of the neck and slammed his bleeding wrist against Than's mouth. Thanatos's brain blanked out as his body was hijacked by fierce hunger and pure animal instinct.

"Ow, fuck." Hades's rough voice was a mere buzz in Than's ears.

At this point, he didn't give a hellrat's ass if he was savaging the male's arm. All that mattered was filling the hole inside him that, when emptied, led to indiscriminate feedings and a lot of death. Fortunately for Than, Hades was one of the few people who knew about Than's need, although he didn't know the extent of it.

Time swirled in multi-colored circles until finally, Hades pulled away and left Than leaning back against the tree, his body completely charged. The hunger was gone, but the other, odd tingle of impending danger still vibrated at the base of his skull. It was like a homing beacon, screaming at him to go.

"Thanks, man." Shoving to his feet, Than flexed his muscles, testing them after so many months of disuse. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flicker of movement in the burned-out forest, and knew he'd get a good workout in a minute.

They had company.

"No problem. I owed you one."