Chapter Four
Zelus
I’d finally found her, the soul I was meant to take, and it had to be the bird fluttering around Dead’s domain, for fuck’s sake.
Thanatos had snuck off with that feisty redhead somewhere to escape the literal Hell raining down on him, all because he was too beguiled and besotted to do his bloody job.
Start the apocalypse.
It was what we lot were created for.
Heaven and Hell were out in swarms now thanks to that tosser. Turned out, angels and demons didn’t want mortals to meet their inevitable end and were willing to team up this one time to stop it from happening. Go bloody figure. It added an obstacle to an already complicated job.
I’d been waiting for this. Desperate for it. The ultimate suffering. The pain that ended it all. The final blissful release before absolute nothingness.
Living so many lives and watching the world turn again and again, the same shit, the same disasters, over and over—it was endless. I’d had my fun. I wanted off this bloody ride. But as the days passed, it was obvious my fellow Horsemen didn’t feel the same eternal burden.
Ares was off somewhere unreachable after I’d unwittingly crossed paths with her and got my ass handed to me. That woman couldn’t take a bloody joke. But after she disappeared, it’d take pure luck to find that clever minx if she didn’t want to be found.
Limos—the lazy twat—was dragging his feet somewhere, so no hope there.
That bastard had no sense of urgency, and if he did find his Counter Soul, it was by no effort of his own.
Like everything else, he refused to do more than what was expected of him, and unless the other three of us failed, he couldn’t be bothered.
That bloke barely took proper care of himself. He always had Ares hovering over somewhere nearby, making sure he didn’t disappear into time and space.
Of all the Horsemen, I least expected Dead to get caught out by his Counter Soul. I thought that wanker was my real competition for bringing the apocalypse first. No more mortals, no more death.
It didn’t take a bloody genius to see he hated his existence, and I’d been convinced he’d do whatever he could to bring an end to an eternity of duty he never wanted. But that selfish bastard was ready to start a war over one woman—and had—so it was up to me to do what he couldn’t.
My bloody luck meant the soul I was supposed to ripen and then take to start the end of the world—whatever the fuck that meant; the apocalypse didn’t come with instructions—just so happened to be the roommate to Dead’s newly chosen queen.
Fortunately for this desperate bugger, Dead had his own problems to deal with after I’d put a deadline on his Counter Soul and he got mixed up with the angels. It was the kick in the ass he needed, but knowing him, he’d figure something out. At least he’d be out of my way for a bit.
I hadn’t thought my reckless antagonism against the tosser who hid the fact that he’d discovered his Counter Soul would be the thing that helped me in the end with mine.
If only he’d given me some hint for how to ripen and deliver her soul before buggering off.
At least we weren’t running up against a clock since the initial month we thought we had passed and nothing seemed to have come undone.
Maybe we’d been given whatever time it took to complete the job. Who could really say?
I hadn’t figured out what we were meant to do with them once we found them.
But with how easily I identified that this feisty bird was meant to be mine, I figured the same would be true for how to do my bleeding job.
Intuitive. But it couldn’t hurt to enjoy it a bit while I poked around for what needed to be done, could it?
We only had theories about our Counter Souls. They were created to tempt us. Humanity’s last barrier against their inevitable end. Each soul was our perfect soul match in every way, so no surprise when mine was a gorgeous blonde with a penchant for punishing men.
Fate got something right.
I fucking lived for a challenge, and a dominant woman with very little interest in me was the ultimate fantasy for this bloke. I enjoyed the pain as much as I enjoyed turning the tables, and this beauty was clever and quick to snap back. She riled up every bit of my predator instincts.
I landed on my knees in front of her, the plume of her intoxicating scent near my nose. I smelled her fear and excitement. Her hesitation and determination were in every tick of her pulse. But on my knees, it was her lust that sent my senses reeling and what fully hardened my cock.
She didn’t hesitate. Her tiny but unforgiving hand was already in my hair, yanking. That delicious spark of pain was everything I needed it to be. It was an effort not to groan.
Like she’d done it her entire mortal life, she angled my head back and whispered those four magical words, “That’s a good boy.”
Fuck me, that little bit of praise did make me groan. It was blood straight to my knob the way her rasp-laced voice breathed right over my open mouth, both sweet and lethal. A warning and a promise.
My masochistic tendencies reared their ugly head and brought my body to life in ways I’d nearly forgotten about after years of frivolous encounters that neither satiated nor stuck out in my memory.
The muscles in this human form I fashioned for the mortal plane clenched and tensed in anticipation for what the minx would do next.
I’d already noted that my pheromones didn’t work on her, nor my coercion. Both failed miserably when the little viper threw her entire weight into me, mugging me off the way no woman had. Nothing I did seemed to work on her.
I’d only managed to steal a bit of her time and attention because I’d caught onto her proclivities and exploited them for the night. She’d never know it was a demon she’d faced down on that sidewalk, only to be swooped up by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
It didn’t appear the demon had set his sights on her because of me, but I’d need to be careful. My dangerous darling was a light in the dark of this town. It was only a matter of time before demons sniffed her out and wanted to lay waste to her.
Unfortunately for me, it was pure happenstance that I tempted her with a little playful encounter. Was this the power of a Counter Soul? Were they not susceptible to our abilities like mortals were meant to be? Would my venom that could both kill and act as an aphrodisiac not work?
What a goddamn treat this was becoming.
I’d underestimated the power of a Counter Soul.
Thanatos refused to mention anything of value and left me to figure it out all on my own, the selfish twat.
Now, I was eagerly in the fuck around and find out phase of coming in contact with my ticket to the end of the world and what I was created to do.
I was convinced she’d keep her mouth from me, that she’d deny me my request, but this vicious beauty surprised me yet again—like she’d done all bleeding night. She gave me what I wanted.
A taste of those deliciously soft lips.
The way her mouth fitted over mine, the languid stroke of her tongue, the sheer dominance in both her hand and kiss made me wonder if it was this little mortal morsel who had all the power between us.
Because the second she kissed me, absolute fucking bliss washed through me like a bleeding tsunami.
The greedy coil of want twisted my thoughts to whatever it took to have her.
I wasn’t given long to bask in her mouth’s expert touch, because it was gone before I’d been given enough of a taste.
When my eyes flicked up, she stood over me like she was the six-foot-five Horseman and I was her prey. Her two-colored gaze kept me perfectly in place under her. Every bit of her screamed her dominance as she scowled down at me and then turned on her heel.
Those perfectly wide hips swayed back and forth with every clack of her heels. I watched her go, still in the trance her kiss put me into.
The little mortal knew exactly how good her lush figure looked from the ground with the way she moved, every curve enticing, every bit of her skin a bloody temptation.
I could only guess how many men had found their final resting place on their knees in front of her.
Probably all of them if she’d snagged someone like me who’d had so many women over so many millennia that I’d lost count.
Maybe this was the true danger of a Counter Soul. Like they’d been constructed by Lilith herself to tempt us. And maybe they had.
“Come here,” she commanded in that clipped tone of hers, the one that went straight to my knob each time. It demanded absolute subservience.
Cheeky devil.
As weak as mortals were, this woman gave all the feeling of one you wouldn’t want to trifle with. The punishment she’d deliver would be creative, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t entice me to push a bit to see what she’d do.
I started to get to my feet, but her voice cut through the action like a blade. “No, birdie. I never said you could get up, did I? You’ll follow me on your hands and knees.”
Dead would have a field day if he caught me crawling on all fours at his bird’s flat, though it wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen me in a compromising situation. I’d enjoyed every bit of fun I could as an immortal being who had nothing but time on his hands.
The thrill shooting through this mortal form I’d spent so much of my time in nowadays suggested I didn’t much mind the thought of being found out as long as it was this woman dishing out the order. All I saw was her, anyway.
Hiding my smile, I crawled after her like commanded, swallowing my excitement.
I couldn’t properly guess what the beautiful viper had planned next, and that very rarely happened to me. Definitely not with a mortal. It’d been a long time since I’d been led around by a bird like this.