Chapter Eleven
Zelus
I’d done a bloody fucking sweep and cleared out all the demons in the area, so how was it one slipped through?
Who was this twat after my human? By the sheer number in the area, it wasn’t an average higher demon.
The ones he’d sent were far more powerful than the typical grunt—and getting stronger by the minute.
No one made a nuisance of themselves where I was concerned, unless they thought they could take on a Horseman. Very few demons could. But this one hadn’t backed off in the slightest after my warning and claim on the human. He’d doubled his efforts.
I’d been picking off demons left and right, in daylight even. Not a common occurrence for demons. It was much harder for them to keep a hold on mortal forms in the daylight. They preferred to hunt at night for a whole host of reasons, but least of all that it was when their power was strongest.
Nearly twenty blasted demons were snuffed out with my unchallenged power as a Horseman, and still, one had gotten their nasty hand on my Counter Soul.
The fire and ice that flooded my veins the moment I caught sight of Emily on her knees, her blood coating the asphalt, with a demon’s hand around her throat hadn’t faded.
If anything, seeing the woman who’d carried herself with nothing but sarcastic confidence wither into fear and panic had roused a fury I hadn’t felt in all my years as this plane’s unchallenged Bringer of Illness.
My eyes tracked each finger mark around her throat that no mortal could see, the vicious red branding her.
A mark that made it easier for the demon to drag her to Hell for whichever bastard was bent on having her.
Had I been even a minute later, she’d be gone—her soul torn from her mortal body and brought to the demon seeking her out.
I never intended for Emily to see my other form.
The fear creeping into those beautiful two-colored eyes wasn’t the kind I fed on.
The mere thought of her being afraid of me was a punch to the gut.
It rendered me absolutely mad. But fighting demons that had only gotten more powerful with each encounter forced me to take my original form.
Even after all that, she’d been marked.
The demons sent to find her would have an easier time of it now that she had.
There wasn’t anywhere I could take her they wouldn’t find.
She was marked for Hell. Then again, running away wasn’t my style either.
I was in for a fight for however long it took to ripen her soul and deliver it for the apocalypse.
What we initially thought was only a month to find the souls had become a rather unclear deadline. Maybe for as long as it took to deliver one. Still, time was hardly on my side with a powerful demon bent on having what was mine.
I’d need to act fast.
After asking her questions, the adrenaline crash after the attack finally hit her.
She slipped away to a quiet sleep, her head gently cradled in the crook of my arm, little hands clinging to me like she worried I’d slip away and leave her.
Nothing and no one could ever make me. Her breathing had evened out after nearly half an hour, and seeing her take to me after everything put an ache deep inside my chest.
It was an emotion I couldn’t name. A surge of protectiveness rushed over me. I pushed it down and brushed away the silky blonde hair that had fallen into her face. Then I stared at the ceiling and considered my next move.
I’d need to find out who was in the market for her soul and where the demons they sent were crossing over. It had to be close for so many to be hanging around.
But the thought of leaving Emily’s side struck my chest with painful heat. Not even under the eye of my most trusted underlings did it feel safe to leave her. I needed to be the one by her side, or I risked losing her.
For the apocalypse and no other reason, I reminded myself.
Snatching my mobile from the bedside table, I texted the only person I trusted who was capable of finding the answers I sought—and there was no telling if he’d answer the call.
After Emily slipped away to shower, I went to the door. He was already there waiting for me. The black hood he’d pulled over his staggering white hair only made his obscenely white skin stand out more.
“I didn’t think you’d show, Ghost,” I greeted.
The silent Horseman’s red eyes slipped up, his uncomfortably attractive features as emotionless as always. It didn’t fit the rest of him. Mortals always fell all over themselves around him, though he never stayed long to watch it happen.
His head canted to one side. “I could say the same about your text.”
The unease he summoned with a single glance was something mortals always found the most staggering about the Horseman they called Famine. Everything about him gave the impression of a human’s idea of a ghost—haunted, skulking in corners, silent, and the farthest thing from warm.
I’d never seen the bloke crack a smile or really show any reaction that wasn’t stoicism or boredom. I wasn’t much for the types I couldn’t pin with a glance, and Limos was the hardest to read of them all.
I didn’t see him hanging around mortals often.
His powers didn’t require him to be around them quite like the rest of us.
More around the things they relied on for survival.
So, if he ever was, it wasn’t on purpose.
He found almost no value in exchanges with mortals.
Well, and the stoic Horseman barely interacted with anyone who wasn’t Ares.
But that disposition of his had its uses. Not only was he incredibly good at uncovering things and unnervingly intelligent, but angels and demons couldn’t sense him at all. He literally became a ghost to all beings if he so chose it.
Even Dead couldn’t sense him if he wanted to remain hidden.
The only person who could find him was Ares, or as I lovingly called her, Commander.
The Horseman—or was it Horsewoman? I wasn’t a bloody sexist like these humans—always found what she searched for and cleverly hid what she didn’t want found, including herself.
Limos would be able to move in ways I couldn’t, in ways my underlings couldn’t. This matter required a delicate touch if we were dealing with a higher demon that had sway with Lucifer. I was powerful, but even I couldn’t take on the Devil.
After ensuring the shower was still going, I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe. “I need to find the demon seeking out this human and where the demons they send are crossing over.”
Ghost’s red eyes slid past me to where he sensed the human. “Your Counter Soul, then?”
He might only be asking out of curiosity, but I stiffened at the question. The idea of admitting to anyone who she was didn’t sit right with me. So, I evaded it. “Can you do it? I think it’s a powerful demon. Someone close enough to bend Lucifer’s ear.”
That snagged his attention enough to miss I hadn’t answered his question. Limos stared at me and stayed perfectly still, portraying his most convincing imitation of a stone statue yet. “You’re sure?”
I scoffed and smirked at him. “Twenty demons in one day, and some with enough power to come in shadow form, yeah, Ghost, I’m bloody sure.”
Still, no emotion. A stretch of silence passed between us before he gave a short nod. “I’ll find out, but I’ll need something in return.”
Always tit for tat in this business.
I nodded. “Whatever you need. A bird or two? You thinking it’s about time you pop that cherry of yours, mate?”
His face stayed frustratingly passive, unaffected by my taunt. “I’d like to know where you last crossed paths with Ares,” came his surprising request.
My eyes widened a bit at that. “You mean she hasn’t been in touch?”
That was news. Ares never failed to mother him any chance she got, and she was nothing if not a stickler about checking in with him. Ghost had a tendency to do as all ghosts do and disappear. The overly protective Commander was the only one who could ever find him when he did.
The emotionless wanker just stared at me, those unnerving red eyes of his expressing nothing but bored interest. “I haven’t heard from her in a while. I—”
His gaze slowly moved to something behind me, and with a curse, I realized that Emily had come out of the shower.
She was now staring at our guest like she couldn’t decide if he was a human or demon.
My Viper was hilariously under the impression that everyone and everything was a demon now that she’d discovered they existed.
Emily stepped out ahead of me. “Hello there. Are you a friend of Songbird’s?”
A sneaky smile crept across my face when Limos looked as though he had no idea who she was talking about. But his clever brain pieced it together quickly enough.
Instead of answering her question, his deep baritone that didn’t match his pretty face and ghostly features said something I hadn’t expected. “You’ve been marked.”
My smile disappeared in an instant as a crease formed between Emily’s brows.
“Marked?” she asked.
I grabbed the tiny human by the shoulders and redirected her back inside, tossing an agreement over my shoulder so he’d get on with it. “It’s a deal. Get me what I need, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
Kicking the door behind me, I guided her over to the couch again. “Hungry?”
“What did that guy mean when he said I was marked?” she went on, far too clever for her own good.
Why did this woman have to take such quick showers when all the others I’d been around insisted on living in one any chance they got? I would’ve forced the ghostly wanker to meet downstairs if I’d thought we might’ve been heard.
Her glare told me she wouldn’t be put off. My bird wasn’t a ditzy princess. She didn’t miss a bloody thing.
Roughly combing a hand through my hair, I plonked down next to her on the sofa. “The demon from yesterday grabbed you around the throat, yeah?” My eyes dropped to the glaring hand mark marring her beautiful skin.
Her arms crossed and she waited patiently for me to get on with it, those calculating eyes taking in every little twitch.
I’d never been so closely observed by a human.
Like Ghost, her gaze unnerved me in ways no human’s had.
I normally didn’t struggle to twist the truth or hide a lie, but this terrifying woman picked me apart in seconds. So that only left one option.
The truth.
I was careful how much simmering rage over the memory of it reached my expression as I went on, “You’ve been marked for Hell, pet.”
Her eyes widened, and I prepared myself for an outburst, but what happened next wasn’t panic or fear. It was quiet resignation, and it bothered me far more than her fear would’ve.
“Oh.” She sunk into the couch, absently touching her throat.
The urge to comfort her made my hand move before I could think better of it, but she dodged it. Then she was on her feet.
“Viper—”
“I need some space,” she told me before collecting her purse and leaving my flat.
My heightened ears picked up on each step that took her further away from me.
And when her door opened and shut, I swore and appeared next to it, casting angry eyes at the stairs.
I took a fortifying breath and settled in for a long day of taking my rage out on demons sent to collect my pretty little viper.