Lethal Rider

Call her an overprotective mom, but Regan would take a guardian for her son that would eat anyone who tried to hurt him.

God, what a freaky family she belonged to now. But it was a family, and it was hers.

“Oh, hey,” Wraith said. “How many of those do you have? My son wants a dog. Or a bear.”

The conversation turned to hellhound puppies and kids, and Regan backed herself out of it, wanting to catch Kynan before he left.

He was standing by himself next to the beer barrel, watching over everyone, but his gaze kept drifting with possessive heat to his wife, Gem, whose head was together with her twin sister, Tayla’s. When he saw Regan, he pushed off the wall he’d been lounging against and gave her a hug.

“I’ve never seen you look so good,” he said. “Horsemen agree with you.”

“Weird, right?” She stole a glance at Thanatos, which was only fair, because he stole her breath. She was so going to get laid tonight. “Ky? I want to be there to help rebuild and reunite The Aegis.”

Kynan smiled sadly. “The Aegis is gone, Regan. This has been coming since the day Tayla hooked up with the head doctor at Underworld General. What she put into motion changed the course of The Aegis, and this split has been coming for a long time.”

“So what are you saying? That we let Lance and the others just take The Aegis and run with it? That’s bullshit.” Then there was the fact that she still had a score to settle with those assholes. If Thanatos didn’t get to them first, anyway.

This time, Kynan’s grin was blinding. “It is bullshit. So I say we salvage what we can—knowledge, property, the Guardians who share our philosophy—and we build our own organization. New name, new mission statement. The Aegis is moving backward. I say we move forward.”

The very idea was terrifying. To let go of everything she’d grown up with and start over gave her chills. But what it didn’t give her was the insane desire to organize the room or eat until she was ready to pop and then throw it all up.

Wow. Okay, so that was new. And it felt freaking awesome. She waited for the urge to count or flip a light switch three times or something, but nope, nothing happened.

Her eyes stung at the realization that she hadn’t gone OCD in the face of stress. She’d passed a milestone somewhere between being kidnapped and being killed, and wasn’t it funny how the ultimate trauma made everything else seem so trivial.

Oh, she didn’t doubt her OCD would be a work-in-progress, but Thanatos and Logan had given her much needed stability, and dying had given her much needed perspective. She couldn’t control everything, and she didn’t need to. Life was messy and unpredictable, and learning to roll with the punches was part of surviving.

She nodded. “I say you’re right.” Her fingers found the handheld baby monitor she’d jammed in her pocket. “Does this new organization allow for maternity leave? Because I’m not letting my little guy out of my reach for a while.”

Ky leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “You got it, kiddo. Call me next week, and we’ll conference with Decker, Arik, Tayla, and Val. We’ll get things going.”

“Ky…?”

“Yeah?”

She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth for a second, unsure she wanted to bring this up. Finally, she blurted, “I lost my soul-sucking ability. Will you still want me if it doesn’t—”

“Hey.” He took her by the shoulders and dipped his head to give her his super-serious Kynan stare. “You were always valuable to The Aegis, special abilities or not. I didn’t realize how deep some of our members’ resentment of you went, or I’d have stepped in, and I’ll never forgive myself for not paying better attention. They were jealous, and the only way they thought they could keep you from seeming more important than they were was to tear you down. So forget them.” He winked one denim-blue eye. “They’re nursing their wounds of failure behind the walls of their castle, and you saved the fucking world.”

With a grin, Kynan took off, and the guests all began to trickle out. When only Ares, Cara, Limos, and Arik remained, they gathered for a final champagne toast.

Ares held up his glass. “To Logan Thanatos. May he grow up healthy and strong, and find a mate as perfect as ours.”

“Sap,” Than said. “But thanks, bro.”

The clink of glasses rang out, and after their first drink Cara said proudly, “Rath said his first sentence.”

Arik tugged Limos against him. “What did he say?”

Ares sighed. “What are the three words said most often in our house?”

“Not tonight, Ares?” Than offered.

“Funny,” Ares growled. “Cara never says that.”

“I might tonight,” she muttered.

Laughing, Limos clapped her hands. “I know. Hal! Bad dog.”

“Yep.” Cara grinned like the proudest mom ever. Didn’t matter that their child was an adopted Ramreel demon. She was beyond thrilled.

Limos set down her glass on the food table, and then took Arik’s and did the same. “Come on,” she said, taking his hand.

“Where are we going?”

“Home. Now that the Apocalypse is over, you’re going to knock me up.”

Arik turned eight shades of red but allowed her to drag him out of the house, and Ares and Cara followed soon afterward, taking Hal with them. They left the pup, who settled onto a blanket beneath Logan’s cradle as if he’d always belonged there.

Thanatos, however, looked distinctly uncomfortable as Regan began to undress. “I’m going to go make sure my staff doesn’t need any help to clean up—”

“Oh, no, you don’t.” She grabbed him by the arm and turned him to face her. “You’ve been avoiding me every night since Logan was born, but Eidolon gave me the green light, and you’re not pulling this crap again.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit. You help me get into bed, and then you make up some lame excuse to leave the room, and you don’t come back until I’m asleep. Why?” When he averted his gaze, she gripped his chin and forced him to look at her. “Why?”

“Dammit, Regan—”

“Why?” She was more insistent this time, and loud enough that both Logan and the pup whimpered. In a more hushed voice, she added, “Please, Than. Don’t shut down on me. What’s bothering you? Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” he said quickly. “Oh, hell, no. It’s me. I … failed you.”

“Are you kidding? You saved my life.”

“After I killed you. And now you’re stuck feeling what I feel. Azagoth took away fourteen of my most important tattoos…what you have to be going through…”

She palmed his chest, feeling his heartbeat against her palm. “What are you feeling?”

For a moment, he didn’t seem to understand the question. Finally, he said warily, “Nothing. I remember each of the scenes more vividly than I did before, but the emotional pain is as dampened as it was when I had the tattoos. Initially after Azagoth took the tats, the pain was bad, and I know it was bad for you too. I saw you crying, Regan.”

“And that’s why you’ve been so distant? You felt guilty?” At his remorseful nod, she threw herself at him, wrapping around him so tightly he sucked air. “Don’t. Don’t you ever feel guilty about that. I’m used to experiencing emotions that don’t belong to me. The same thing happens when I touch ink on parchment. It’s always that way. Intense for a few hours, and then it all filters away and all I have left are the memories.”

“But not the emotions that go with them?”

Looking up at him, she shook her head. “That’s normal, Thanatos. You’ve been tattooing away your grief for so long that you don’t remember what it’s like to be… human. It may take a while, but the pain always dulls. You’ll