Chapter Nineteen
Zelus
Ithought eternity was too long, but after meeting Emily, it wasn’t long enough—and I wouldn’t get that much time with her because she was mortal.
Fuck the end of the world.
It couldn’t have her.
Emily was mine.
Wasting even a day I could be spending with her was buggering me up, but until I’d dealt with the demon, she wasn’t safe. I’d have a lot of groveling to do once I finished this wanker off.
Thanatos was one of few I trusted to protect her in my stead. Death was formidable to either side of the political coin, and it was few who would go toe to toe with him. Better, that feisty bird turned Lady Death cared deeply for my Viper. She’d keep her out of harm’s way.
I leaned back against the brick wall behind me, a breath escaping my mouth and smoking the air.
Nothing and no one had ever weighed on me like this pretty little viper did. Never lived under my skin and constantly plagued my thoughts. Fate was a clever minx. Now that I had her, I didn’t want to let her go. Suppose that was its design.
But knowing she’d seen the monster I was—the true one who’d tried to kill her friend and at one point planned to take her soul—was eating me alive.
I needed her to live so I could spend the next however many years it took groveling like a bastard who didn’t deserve her but wanted her.
Nothing was more important to me. Centuries upon centuries of wandering, and I’d finally found the reason for living.
And no doubt she was presently masterminding my murder.
My lips ticked up in amusement. Bet she’d use clever means. But angry was better than dead. Better than the hostage of some unknown demon.
“Zelus,” a skin-crawling baritone greeted.
My eyes shot open. The figure looming barely two steps in front of me captured my attention. How long he’d been there, I couldn’t say. Trouble with Limos was that you’d never know he was in the room unless he wanted you to.
“Ghost.”
His red eyes rose and then he handed me a paper, handwritten notes scrolled across it in bold ink. I took it and perused the page, my throat catching on a single name.
“You’re sure?”
His expressionless face didn’t confirm my fears, but his nod did. “It’s the reason it took so long.”
“Bloody fucking hell,” I cursed and rubbed a hand over my hair.
The creepy bastard waited patiently for his payment, and I passed him the coordinates of the last place I’d encountered Ares.
Or more specifically, where she’d kicked my ass.
It was difficult to see if he was eager or not.
His expression never changed as he took it and then disappeared.
Not a single goodbye or word of thank you, but that was Ghost.
I’d only exhaled another breath when the whispers of warning snapped my head sideways. Disappearing from the dark street where I’d met Limos, I reappeared at the bottom of Emily’s flat. Dead would kill me if I went up there, but my snakes and spiders guarding her were frantic.
Risking it, I disappeared and reappeared in her room. The two hadn’t failed to react. Both came clamoring inside, shadows already reacting and reaching for me, but they fell silent.
I swept over, heart hammering in this mortal skin I wore. She was still on the bed, but my senses picked out the wrongness of it. Emily’s heart didn’t beat. Her lungs didn’t breathe. Her golden skin had lost its luminous glow.
Lifting her gently off the bed, I snarled and held her cold body close. I sensed his power and checked her finger, finding the damning symbol of the Fallen Brothers.
“Fuck!” I growled, pacing with the dead body of my love, my reason for living, my everything, pressed tightly against my chest. I’d lost her. I’d lost everything. The bastard had taken her and left nothing for me to hold onto.
Her flat mate tried to come over, but I was covered in scales and unraveling, threatening pandemonium and plague, so Thanatos came instead. Sickness was bleeding from my pores and snaking into the air, ready to seek a bloody revenge.
His hand landed on my shoulder, stopping the angry pace and threat of death with the touch. “If Asha could be reborn even after death had claimed her, then so can Emily.”
“And if she can’t?” I asked, though I nearly couldn’t say the words aloud. My throat constricted and pain sure to tear me to pieces burned in my chest.
Thanatos hummed and searched my expression for something. “Then she’ll have a place in my realm.”
I didn’t relish the idea of Emily stuck in that barren space, but losing her to Hell, or worse, to the apocalypse, wasn’t an option. I’d rather her there than where she was.
Asha stared at him. “You can do that?”
His eyes went to her. “Before what happened to you, it was how I planned to keep you.”
She swallowed and nodded, back to staring at Emily in my arms. “Whatever it takes.”
“The Fallen Brothers…” I started.
Thanatos nodded, not the least bit surprised. “I suspected it might be one of them. I’m guessing you know who.”
The growl left my chest with strength. “I do. It’s probably who you’d guess.”
His eyes flashed, inky veins growing around them, the sure sign his emotions were getting the better of him. It likely had everything to do with Asha. He’d become rather expressive around her, but by the way my body rippled with fury, I couldn’t say I was any better.
The thought of Emily in distress, in Hell, at risk of whatever plans he’d devised for her, was a bitter burn in my throat.
My skin prickled with the return of scales and poison.
I wanted to bathe the bastard in my venom.
It wouldn’t kill a Fallen Brother, but it’d hurt more than he’d ever hurt before.
“He’s making a play for Lucifer’s throne, then,” Thanatos murmured, hand on his chin in contemplation.
A battle as old as time.
Lucifer and his seven brothers were always at odds, always in a long war over who held power over Hell.
They’d been determined since its creation to rule, but Morning Star hadn’t lost his throne to them.
Except, he was distracted by the looming apocalypse, so he was vulnerable. Now was the perfect time to strike.
My eyes cut up to the other Horseman. “But he took her to Hell, Dead. We can’t wander there without Lucifer’s approval.”
“And his brother broke rules even Lucifer abides,” Dead countered astutely. “He crossed over to the mortal world and Heaven will want to know it. So will Lucifer.”
My thundering pulse and overactive brain hadn’t calmed enough to work that out. “You have a plan then?”
“I always do.”
Smug twat. But in this case, I had to be grateful for it. I might’ve caused a plague in my grief and killed as many as I could before storming the gates of Hell and surrendering my existence to do whatever I could to get her back. Against Lucifer and all of Hell, I wouldn’t win.
Thanatos’s arm went around the redhead next to him, and he dropped a gentle kiss on her head as she cried and touched Emily’s lifeless hand.
I wasn’t the only one torn apart at the sight of her, and I suddenly felt the need to say the words I’d been guarding and refusing to acknowledge since meeting my Viper.
“I love her. I wasn’t going to—”
Her green eyes rose to meet mine. “Yeah, I know. I still don’t like you, but she’s…” Her voice hitched with a silent cry of anguish, her hand clinging to Emily’s. “She’s everything to me, Zelus. You have to help us get her back. Then we can figure the rest out. I can’t lose her.”
“I can’t lose her either. I’d do it even if you hadn’t wanted me to.” My arms tightened around the lifeless woman who’d changed everything. “So how are we doing this?”
Thanatos summoned his shadow portal and gestured to it. “We remind them what happens when you cross the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”