Lethal Rider

shoulder.

“Got some potions, powders, and metal doodads. Something should help un-enchant people.”

Ky started up the rocky trail to the vehicle he kept parked in a nearby field, since the Harrowgate they’d just come out of was the closest one to the Aegis castle, and there was no way Ky was walking the twenty miles. “Are you sure?”

Wraith shrugged. “No, but it’s always more fun when there’s a risk factor involved.” He flashed fang. “We gonna get to kick some ass?”

“I fucking hope not.” Normally, Ky would be up for a battle, but he wasn’t up for a fight with people he’d worked with and trusted for years. “How’s Lore? Any luck locating Idess?”

Wraith kicked a rock and watched it plummet to the shore below. “Lore’s about how you’d expect. E had to sedate him, but it’s not going to hold him long. We got nothing on Idess.”

They reached the top of the cliff, and Ky unlocked the little Volvo. “When we get done here, do what you can to keep Lore from doing something crazy. Once I gauge the situation at Than’s place, taking Lore there might be a good idea. They’ll want any help they can get locating Pestilence.”

They piled into the car, and Ky floored it, tearing up the road to get to headquarters. Wraith’s oddball observations about the countryside kept Kynan level, which was, he suspected, Wraith’s goal. The demon might be a pain in the ass, but he was a lot more astute than people gave him credit for.

Ky parked at the base of the castle grounds, and he and Wraith wasted no time in jogging through the late morning gloom and into the damp castle, and what perfect timing… the very assholes he’d been seeking were gathered around a pile of books in the makeshift front office. And oddly, there were a dozen Guardians standing sentinel throughout the room, heavily armed.

“Who wants to explain what happened with Regan?”

Juan closed the book he’d been poring through. “Hello to you, too, Morgan.”

Lance wheeled around, his swollen, bruised face going purple with rage when he saw Wraith. “You brought a demon to our headquarters?”

“Do you really want a pissing match to see who’s made the most egregious offense to The Aegis lately?”

Takumi stiffened with a wince. Someone had beaten these guys senseless, and Kynan popped Regan a mental high-five. “We did what we thought was necessary.”

“And you thought it was necessary to cut open Regan and kill her innocent baby?”

“Innocent?” Lance scoffed. “It’s a demon.”

Wraith snorted as he unzipped his backpack. “See, Ky, this is why I always want to kill all your friends.” He pulled out a glass vial filled with green liquid. “No offense.”

“Trust me, none taken.” Kynan glared at the four men in front of him. “You guys want to explain why you didn’t consult the rest of the Elders before you changed our plan?” He doubted anyone would mention getting possessed or something, but it was worth a shot.

“We told you earlier. Tried to.” Omar gave Kynan a sad look, as if he felt sorry for him. “You and Valeriu are too blinded by your relationships to the demons to consider other options. And despite Decker’s pledge of allegiance to the Sigil, he’s still a member of the American military, and some of us don’t trust him.”

“There is something seriously wrong with you,” Kynan said, his temper mounting.

He nodded sharply at Wraith, who grinned as he flipped the vial into the air. Lance dove for it, but it hit the stone floor and shattered before he could catch it.

A sickly brown mist exploded through the room, shifting and writhing as if it were alive. Ten seconds later, it disappeared.

“What the fuck was that?” Juan shouted.

Wraith dropped his pack to the floor. “A revealing elixir. It would have made anyone suffering a magical enchantment glow like they took a swim in nuclear waste. None of you are glowy.” He shrugged. “You’re douche bags, though.”

Lance whipped his head around to Kynan. “You thought we were compromised by a spell?”

“Why else would you have pulled such a stupid stunt?” Kynan shot back.

“Bastard.” Lance came at him, although he should have known that doing so was useless. As long as Kynan was wearing Heofon, the amulet around his neck, he was impervious to harm.

Wraith moved in a blur, and in an instant, had his teeth buried in Lance’s throat. The Guardian sentinels sprang into action, firing their crossbows and hurling weapons, but Wraith, the recipient of a similar immunity charm, was protected.

After a few seconds, the demon disengaged his fangs and shoved Lance away. “He’s not possessed by a demon. He’s just naturally a dickmunch.”

“You thought we were possessed, too?” Lance’s voice was strangled, his eyes bugging out of his head.

“I hoped so,” Kynan said. “God, I’d hoped so.” Kynan’s temples throbbed with anger, and his skin felt tight, scoured raw by their betrayal. “What in God’s name made you think you were doing the right thing?”

“We didn’t think we were. We knew it.” Juan gestured to one of the guards, who disappeared down a hallway. “We were given new information that led us to believe that the prophecy isn’t about stabbing Pestilence in the heart, but stabbing the infant. We’re certain that will destroy Pestilence.”

“Who gave you the new info?”

“A trusted source,” Lance said. “Unlike all the clues we’ve been patching together over the years that turned out to be false or planted or just wrong, this is real.”

Kynan couldn’t believe this. What kind of fucking Kool-Aid had these morons drunk? “You’re wrong. The infant is Thanatos’s agimortus. Killing the baby will break Thanatos’s Seal. You should have come to me and Val with this. We could have worked it out.”

“We can’t trust you or Val anymore. You’ve led us down a path that failed. Working with demons? Forming an alliance with werewolves? Making peace with vampires in trade for intel? What part of the fact that we’re demon slayers are you not understanding?”

“It’s called changing tactics and turning enemies into allies. It’s called progress, Juan. Making alliances in unlikely places.”

Lance, his palm slapped over Wraith’s bite wound, snarled. “We like the old ways. Since the day you came along, involved in that demon hospital and married to a goddamned monster, things have gotten worse, and now we’re on the verge of an Apocalypse. Thanks a fucking lot.”

Married to a goddamned monster? Crimson fury cut a scalding swath of rage across Kynan’s field of vision. “You son of a bitch.” Kynan barely recognized his own voice, warped and molten with the depth of his anger. He lunged at Lance, but Wraith seized him around the waist and dragged him back.

“Dude.” Wraith spoke in a hushed tone into Kynan’s ear. “Check up. I’m all for ripping these fucks to shreds, but eyeball your perimeter, man. Something bad is going down.”

Kynan sucked air through clenched teeth, desperate to take chunks out of Lance, but as the demon held him tight, Kynan noticed four new guys entering the room, each holding a flask … but one also held a furry baby Slogthu demon, a tiny silver charm Ky had seen before but couldn’t place, and a dagger, all of which he handed to Takumi.

“What is this?” Kynan demanded. “What the hell are you doing with that demon?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Leave it to you to be concerned about a damned demon.” He gestured to the four newcomers. “And these are our new Elders.”

“New…what?” Kynan glanced at the new Elders. Two had been on The Aegis’s short list for future promotion to the Sigil. The other two were Regents, the heads of individual cells, one in Toronto and one in Rio de Janeiro. “You can’t promote new members without a unanimous vote from every Elder, and you know that.”

“Yeah,” Lance said. “That’s the thing. We did get a unanimous vote, because you, Val, Regan, and Decker are no longer welcome in the Sigil.” He made an encompassing gesture with a sweep of his arm indicating the eight men standing in a semi-circle in front of Ky and Wraith. “We are the Sigil. And you … you are no longer welcome here.”

“You can’t do this.”