The vampire stood stiffly at the library entrance. “There’s an Aegi here to see you.”
Regan wheeled around so fast she lost her balance. Than leaped to catch her before she hit the desk, and for a split second, her grateful smile completely erased the tension between them.
And then Kynan staggered inside, a mass of cuts, bruises, and
Regan gasped. “My…God. What happened?”
Kynan halted a dozen feet away, his icy gaze locked with Than’s. “He happened.”
“I haven’t left the keep, human. And even if I had, you know I can’t harm you.” Which sucked, because there were times that Than really would like to pulp the guy.
Except someone had already beaten him to it.
Kynan’s split lips peeled back in a snarl that revealed blood-streaked teeth. “How did you find our headquarters, Horseman?”
Thanatos curled his hands into fists to stop a punch that wouldn’t land anyway. “I sensed the child you were hiding from me. The child you will not have.”
“Now isn’t the time to discuss that.” The human kept his eyes on Thanatos, but his words were for Regan.
“Thanks to your baby daddy, Pestilence found headquarters. He tracked Than’s Harrowgate.” Kynan’s voice went low, and Than’s gut went with it. Pestilence’s easy capitulation during the battle earlier made sense now. He’d said he had something to do. Now Than knew what. “The building is all but destroyed. The son of a bitch brought a fallen angel with him. Between the two of them and the demons they turned loose…” He scrubbed his hand over his face to wipe blood out of his eyes.
“What?” Regan’s voice was soft, a thread of worry woven into it. “Between the two of them … what?”
Ky met her gaze. “They killed everyone in the building but me.”
Ten
Regan stood there, her brain unable to process what Kynan had just told her. “Who?” she rasped. “Who’s dead?”
Kynan’s red-rimmed eyes flashed. “Malik, Chad, Ian, Zachary, Kathy, Hans, Shylon, everyone in the personnel department, two dozen Regents who hadn’t gone back to their local cells yet … Suzi.”
Oh, God. Regan slapped her hand over her mouth and fought the urge to cry out. She’d always been calm and logical, even in the face of losing those she cared about, but the pregnancy hormones had her crying during freaking car commercials. Four Elders dead, several soldier-level Guardians. And she’d really liked Suzi, who had been one of her few friends. Her only friend, really.
The room spun, and she stumbled toward the sofa. Instantly, both Kynan and Thanatos were there, one on each arm. She jerked away from Thanatos as the faces of the dead flipped like playing cards through her brain.
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped. “This is your fault.” But even as he backed away, so did Kynan … with a grunt.
Her support gone, she crumpled. Before she hit the floor, Than had her again, sweeping her up in his strong arms, and this time, she allowed him to help her to the sofa.
“What…” Kynan stared at his hands. “It felt like I got punched.”
Thanatos eased away from her, although he remained close, propping himself against the wall, one knee bent, foot planted on the wall behind him. “Guess we can add humans to the don’t-touch list.”
“The baby has suddenly decided that no one but Thanatos and vampires can touch me,” she explained, and then she stiffened at the sound of raised voices and pounding footsteps.
A split-second later, Limos, Arik, and Decker filed into the office. Limos tossed a duffle bag to the floor. “I went on a quick shopping spree for Regan. Figured she left before she could grab anything.”
Still reeling from Ky’s news and too flustered by Limos’s kindness to speak, Regan nodded her thanks as Arik glanced at Ky and barked out a curse. “You need a doctor, man.”
“You think?” As if the air had been let out of him, Kynan sagged against a bookcase. “I’ll head to UG after this. Obviously, you guys all got my text.”
“I was with Arik and Limos when it came. Hitched a ride with them.” Decker angled his body closer to Ky, within reach if the other man collapsed. “How bad was it?”
“Bad,” Ky replied. “Real bad. Pestilence and a fallen angel came in like they owned the place. Forced Rebecca to open the door to most of the chambers before he killed her. She died quickly. Few were as lucky.” He paused. “Chad, Malik, Zachary, Ian, and I were in the conference room when we heard the battle and screams. The bastards…shit…we never had a chance.”
Limos wrapped her arm around Arik’s waist in a comforting gesture that Regan would have gagged at just months ago. Now her stupid hormones had her thinking how sweet it was.
And how she’d never have that.
“What happened?” Limos asked.
“They toyed with us for hours, some of it just for the fun of hearing people scream. The things they did…” Kynan shuddered, his eyes haunted. “Their main goal was to get us to open the artifact chamber. I opened it, but I did it to get a
Regan blew out an unsteady breath. “You took out the angel with it?”
“And not too quickly.” Ky’s gaze hardened with hints of how much he’d enjoyed that. Kynan was one of the most level, compassionate people Regan knew, but he was also a soldier who would do what was necessary. And he was even more dangerous when he was pissed.
“What’s
Regan shifted on the couch to keep her ass from going to sleep. “It’s a weapon developed by ancient Egyptians to combat angels. Well, fallen angels.”
“Why doesn’t the R-XR know about it?” As a member of the U.S. Army’s paranormal unit, the R-XR, Decker wasn’t intimately familiar with everything The Aegis knew and possessed, even though he had been inducted into The Aegis and made an Elder. His Guardian status was too new, and he had a lot of catching up to do.
“Because we don’t have enough to share,” Regan answered.
Arik stroked Limos’s back. More sweetness. “What happened to Pestilence?”
“He took off. He was furious that he couldn’t get into the artifact room and worried his siblings would show up to try to stop him.”
“He’ll be back.” Than’s voice was grave. “The Aegis holds too many powerful objects. He’d love to get his hands on anything, but was there something in particular he was after?”
Kynan gave the barest nod, as if his neck pained him. “He said something about Wormwood. It’s most notably a star mentioned in Revelations, but it’s also the name of a dagger The Aegis appropriated in the late 1300s.”
“Why would he want that?” Regan asked, more in general than to anyone specific.
“No idea,” Than said. “I remember the dagger. It supposedly belonged to an influential archbishop.”
Limos tapped her chin. “Wasn’t it rumored to have been forged by a demon?”
“The archbishop claimed it was a heavenly relic,” Kynan said. “Originally worn by an angel. We’ve never found the truth about it, but maybe Pestilence knows something we don’t.”
“We’ve got to move all the artifacts,” Decker said. “We can’t allow him to get anything, especially something he wants.”
“It’ll take forever to transfer the items to a new location.” Regan’s head ached just thinking how long it would take and how much effort would be involved. “And they’d be vulnerable during the move.”
Kynan sighed. “I know, but we don’t have a choice. Val is securing a new headquarters, and once that’s done, I can use Harrowgates to transport the most important things quickly.”
The most important things? Everything in their inventory was important. The Aegis was the largest collector of historical, Biblical, and demonic artifacts in the world, holding one-of-a-kind spell books, summoning crystals, and
