“What was that all about?” Cara took a step back from the cliff, her eyes wild as she looked down at the rocks below.
Ares moved closer to the edge, putting his body between it and Cara. “When Thanatos is exposed to mass-casualty, he… changes.”
“Like how violence excites you?” She inhaled harshly. “Sorry.”
Shit. Not a comfortable conversation. “Yeah. Like that. He needs to kill.”
“What are those shadows?”
Ares looked out over the water, focusing on a fishing boat. That was the difference between him and Cara: He got up in danger’s grille but looked beyond. She backed away from danger but kept her eyes on it. “They’re souls.”
“As in… souls?”
“His armor collects them. Every time he kills a demon, human, or animal, the soul is sucked into his armor.”
Her horror penetrated his own softened armor. “Oh, my God. They’re trapped with him?”
“For a time. When he gets angry or goes into battle, or if he calls them out, they have a shot at freedom, but only if they kill something.”
“Does the victim’s soul replace the shadow after it earns its freedom?”
“No.”
“Can he get different armor?”
Ares shook his head. “None of us can. It’s part of us, like our horses and our curses.”
“What’s Limos’s curse?”
Ares turned to Cara, his breath catching at the sight of her standing there in the breeze, her lips rosy, her silky hair blowing around her shoulders. It was hard to believe she’d lifted his heavy ass off the ground, especially given the dark crescents under her eyes. She looked exhausted, and at the same time, so very alive that he had to remind himself she was dying, no matter how strong she appeared to be.
They die. You love them, and then they die. That’s what’s going to happen to you, Cara. You’re going to die, and then I’m going to— God, he couldn’t believe he’d lost it like that. He never exposed himself, but Cara had dismantled his defenses, and he wondered how much of it was due to his proximity to the agimortus, and how much of it was just… her.
He had to clear his throat to continue. “Limos becomes a danger to herself. When she’s drawn to famine of any kind—a lack of food, medicines, water—she falls into a deep depression and becomes self-destructive.” It had always taken Reseph to get her out of it.
“And Reseph?”
“He was drawn to disease, plague. He would… become that disease. In order to rid himself of it, he had to kill someone with it. If he didn’t, he’d spread the disease wherever he went. Now that he’s Pestilence, he can cause whatever disease he wants, more potent and faster-spreading than its natural counterpart.” His cell buzzed, and he checked it, cursed at the note from Kynan.
Where are you? You’d think Horsemen would be a little more prompt.
Hard to believe, but Aegi had actually gotten more annoying over the centuries.
Smiling tightly, he took Cara’s hand. “You ready to do this?”
“Yep.” Cara’s big eyes took him in… she looked like that damned Puss-in-Boots cat in Shrek, all cute and heart-melting. The way she’d looked when she’d told him that she saw more in him than a killing machine. But how could she? No one had seen him as more than that. Even Ares’s sons had looked up to him as a great warrior they wanted to be like when they grew up.
He made a disgusted noise. As much as he really wanted to take her in his arms, he couldn’t. They were at war, and she still needed a lot of toughening up if she was to survive. You’re one to talk. You’re softening as much as your armor when she’s around.
“Ares,” Cara said, just as he opened his mouth to summon Battle. “Who did you lose?”
“What?”
“You said humans die.” She squeezed his hand, might as well have squeezed his breath out of his lungs. “Who died?”
Damn her. He didn’t want to answer, but words spilled out of his mouth. “My wife. My brother. My two sons.” When those Puss-in-Boots eyes went liquid, he ended it, right then and there. “Don’t you pity me. Don’t you dare.”
Her chin came up. “Don’t you tell me how to feel.”
Okay, so he wanted her to toughen up, but her bravery might just veer into foolhardy territory with the wrong person. “You know I could crush you.”
“I know you won’t.”
“Why, because I need to protect you?”
“No.” She poked him in the breastplate. “Because you gave me a pillow.”
He blinked. This female’s logic was whacked, as Reseph would have said. “You’re gambling your life on a pillow?”
“I don’t doubt that you’ll do what you have to do to save the world. You’ll make hard choices. But you don’t grab a pillow for someone you would have no problem killing.” She snagged his wrist and flicked her finger over the lines that defined Battle’s flank, and Ares sucked air at the sensation of his hips and ass being caressed. “You going to let him out or not?”
On his arm, Battle kicked, as if hearing her. Shit. “Battle, out.”
Battle appeared, and wouldn’t you know, instead of nudging Ares in greeting, he nuzzled Cara. “Hey, buddy,” she purred, and the stallion rubbed against her even more. Stupid horse.
“Come on,” Ares growled. “Cara, I’ll help you up—”
Battle kneeled. He fucking kneeled. Cara shot Ares a taunting grin and climbed into the saddle. Battle went back up on his hooves, and as Cara scooted forward, Ares swore Battle smiled, too.
Muttering obscenities, Ares swung up onto the horse, wrapped one arm around Cara’s waist, and opened a Harrowgate. “I’m going to materialize a few blocks from the coordinates.” He inhaled, took in her clean, floral scent, and instantly, his body reacted in a way that only happened when he was heading into a conflict. His heart pounded, his adrenaline surged, and damn, he wanted to throw down with her. If I want to have sex, it’s not your place to tell me I can’t handle it. He stifled a miserable groan. “I don’t want to leap into a trap. I also want Battle available if there’s trouble.”
Especially since being this close to Cara meant that his armor and weapons would be all but useless. Sort of like his brain.
“Trouble?”
She was trouble. “I don’t trust Aegi. And I wouldn’t be surprised to find Pestilence lurking.”
“You have a real fun family, you know that? I thought mine was odd.”
Battle started toward the gate, but Ares tugged on the reins. She’d said she was alone, with no one to care if she lived or died. Why had he not asked about family before? Maybe because he was a callous bastard who’d forgotten what it was like to be human.
“I thought you said you had no family.”
“My mom died of cancer when I was young, and my dad passed away a couple of years ago.” Cara twisted around so she could see him, her eyes taking on the color of the water around his island, and he wanted to dive in. “I have an older stepsister from my dad’s second marriage, but we fought a lot, and I haven’t seen her or my stepmom since the funeral.”
“And you said you don’t have a boyfriend?”
“If I had, you wouldn’t have touched me in the shower.”
Inexplicably pleased by that, he urged Battle into the Harrowgate. The stallion stepped out into a foggy evening that came straight out of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Fitting, seeing how they were fetching a hellhound. Car lights sped toward them, and Cara yelped.
“They’re going to hit us!”
“We’re on another plane. We’re not only invisible to humans, but we’re formless.”
“I thought you made it so people froze.”
“I can do that, too. Or I can enter the world and exist just as humans do.”
“But then they can see you.”
“Yes, but I told you my presence makes people want to fight.”