Jillian swayed, her head spinning, her heart pounding impossibly fast. Don’t pass out. Do not pass out in front of these people. She reached out and clutched the railing as hard as she could, praying hard that she’d stay conscious.
Thanatos took a step and disappeared as quickly as the other man had, leaving her alone with the woman and her black stallion. At least, Jillian thought it might be a horse. But she’d never seen a horse with razor-sharp teeth, red eyes, and hooves that created steam in the snow.
Terror was a cold fist around her heart, squeezing so hard and fast that her blood felt like it might explode from her veins. This was a nightmare. She was stuck in a horrible nightmare and reality was sliding right out from under her feet. She must have been speaking her thoughts out loud, because the other woman shook her head.
“This isn’t a nightmare. It’s all real. My name is Limos. What’s yours?”
Jillian swallowed. “J-Jillian. Who… are you?”
“I’m Reseph’s sister. Thanatos and Ares are his brothers.” Limos glanced around, her sharp, amethyst eyes seeming to take in everything. “Nice place. Look, Reseph has been missing for a few months. We didn’t even know he was alive until last night. Where did you find him?”
“In a snowbank,” she said hoarsely. “He… he didn’t remember anything but his name.”
Limos nodded. “Yeah, that’s what we were told. Looks like you took good care of him. Thank you.”
Thank you? Something about Limos’s gratitude struck Jillian as ridiculous, given that they’d knocked out Reseph and then kidnapped him. Sudden anger replaced her fear, and she released the post to get up in Limos’s face.
“Where did your brothers take him? Why did he freak out like that? What the hell is going on?”
“They took him home.” Limos’s voice was calm despite the fact that Jillian was practically shouting now. “As for the rest… it’s not important. We’ll take care of him.” She pivoted around. “You shouldn’t have any more demon trouble, either. Thanks again.”
“Wait—”
“Trust me,” Limos said softly. “This is for the best.”
Limos and her horse disappeared, leaving Jillian terrified, confused, and so alone it hurt.
Twenty
Reaver had been prepared to see Reseph in a state of shock, but when Ares brought him back to Greece, slung over his shoulder, Reaver hadn’t been prepared for all the blood.
“What happened? Did he fight you?”
“No.” Ares’s voice was gruff as he strode toward the bedroom they’d prepared. “He went a couple of rounds with a tree. Tree won.”
“Damn,” Reaver whispered. Reseph had done the same thing in Sheoul… thrown himself against a wall over and over, as if he could beat the demon out of himself.
“He seemed to remember everything once he saw us. I used the last of the qeres on him,” Ares said. “When this wears off, we’ll have no way to neutralize him.”
Reaver followed Ares to a guest room, where he set Reseph on the bed. “Summon Harvester,” Reaver said. “She has a particular talent when it comes to restraints.” Reaver knew that firsthand, and the memory made his bones ache.
“Nothing can hold us,” Ares said, as he grabbed a towel from the connected bathroom. “You know that.”
“Harvester’s restraints are made from the victim’s own bones, chains grown out of the skin and attached like part of the body. He can break free, but doing so would be so excruciating that he’ll think twice. He might stay put just to avoid the agony.” Then again, Reseph might welcome the misery.
“Interesting.” Ares wiped Reseph’s face more gently than Reaver would have expected. “Sounds like you know something about this.”
“Too well.” He regarded Reseph, a dull ache throbbing in his gut at the sight of the once happy, carefree male looking so tortured, even while unconscious. “How did he seem before he remembered?”
“He was happy,” Ares murmured. “He seemed like his old self.”
“Maybe he’ll be able to remember that through the rest.”
“I hope you’re right.” Ares whistled, and a hellhound came from out of nowhere. Reaver moved aside, giving the beast plenty of room. They might be lapdogs around Ares and Cara, but they were the same vicious, people-eating demons they’d always been to everyone else, and they especially hated angels. In fact, the buffalo-sized creature snarled at Reaver as he passed, and it took a huge amount of restraint to not strike out at the thing with a punishing heavenly weapon.
Cara would kill Reaver for that, and the look Ares gave Reaver said he knew exactly what Reaver was thinking.
“I’m behaving,” Reaver muttered. “As long as Rin Tin Tin minds his manners, we’ll be fine.”
“His name is Eddie.”
Reaver rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you name them.” He gestured to the thing, which was eyeing Reseph like he wanted to dismember him. Understandable, given how Pestilence had put a bounty on their heads. “Pestilence was immune to hellhound venom. Reseph might be as well.”
“I know. But Eddie can warn us when Reseph wakes up.”
Reaver wasn’t so sure that leaving a pissed-off hellhound with a helpless enemy was a good idea, but Ares didn’t have the same concern, and he strode out of the bedroom without a word. Reaver sighed and accompanied Ares to the great room, where a clearly worried Cara was holding a squirming toddler Ramreel demon.
“I don’t like having him here, Ares,” she said.
“We discussed this.” Ares’s voice softened as he pulled her against him. “We can’t take him to Than’s place because of the baby, and we don’t want him at Limos’s house in such close proximity to Arik. Until we know he’s got nothing left of Pestilence in him, we can’t risk him being anywhere but here.”
If Harvester hadn’t smashed Reseph’s mountain cave in retaliation for Pestilence’s violence against her last year, it would have been a perfect place to keep him. She’d screwed them with her angry actions, but Reaver couldn’t blame her.
“Where are Limos and Thanatos?”
Ares stroked the baby Ramreel’s furry back. “I don’t know. I left them with the human female.”
“Her name is Jillian,” Reaver said.
Ares’s head whipped around. “You know her? Another secret you were keeping from us?”
“I have no obligation to explain myself, Ares. We’ve been through this. She suffered a demon attack. I thought they could heal each other.”
“Forgive me if I don’t want him healed,” Cara snapped, pulling away from Ares. “I want him dead.” She stormed out of the house with the little demon, and Reaver couldn’t fault her.
Ares cursed and went after her, opening the door just as Harvester strode in, looking like a damned high-class hooker. She was dressed in leather, including a skimpy bra top. At least she had on a long duster. Maybe she should button it up, though.
Her lips, painted as black as her outfit, quirked in a wicked smile. “Hello, lover.”
“I’m not your lover,” he ground out.
“Not yet.” Every long-legged stride popped her leather miniskirted hips out in exaggerated supermodel style. High-heeled thigh-high boots cracked on the marble floor. Toned bare flesh flexed between the top of the boots and the bottom of the obscenely short skirt, and Reaver cursed the slow curl of lust that stirred his insides. “But you will be.”
“Do you have any idea how badly I want to strangle you?”
She flipped her long hair over her shoulder. “You’re into asphyxiation play? Nice.” She jerked her thumb toward the door. “Why did Ares summon me?”