Page 34 of Stalked By Pestilence

I huffed in agitation. “You can’t come, Z.”

“Who says?”

“Me.”

“Well, tell ‘me’ I’m coming, anyway.”

I hadn’t met someone as stubborn as I was since Asha. Now I had two difficult children to deal with. “You’ll wait outside then.”

“That’s hardly fun, is it?” he rumbled, his eyes dancing when I lifted mine, prepared to go to war.

I growled. “I don’t need a man to fight my battles for me.”

Odd coming from me, since I was, in fact, letting this snake monster fight my battles for me. But that was with demons.Demons I didn’t have any hope of defeating. Arrogant men, though? That was my field of expertise. As long as it didn’t become an all-out brawl, I’d tear them to verbal shreds.

I expected him to laugh, but his smile faded. “I haven’t any doubts about that, Ems.” The way his voice graveled out added strength to his next words. “And I plan to watch every second of it.”

“Fine!” I caved, as I always did with Asha. That woman could set fire to my life and I’d ask her to do it again. “But you’ll keep your mouth shut. You’re just the purse I’m bringing with me tomorrow.”

His laughter was back, and when he leaned in to kiss me, I didn’t pull away or punish him. I hauled myself closer and deepened it.

Chapter Fifteen

Emily

After I gave Zelus strict orders that he was aguestin my apartment and not its new tenant—my roommate would be home any day now—I was able to convince the slithery asshole to leave so I could breathe before taking on the partners at my firm.

Verbal wars must be prepared for, and I never brought anything less than my lethal charm to them.

I’d hand-picked my favorite courtroom ensemble for the occasion. I won in it every damn time. The red two-piece that skimmed my midriff with a tight, high-slit pencil skirt was killer in a room full of duds andsuckers.

I’d also worn heels. I appreciated the threat that loomed in their nearly six inches of sharp plastic; that if pissed off, I wouldn’t hesitate to impale a bro in the eye or throat with them.

My phone pinged, and I snatched it up, hoping to find my bestie’s name on the screen. But it wasn’t a name I recognized, only a number. Normally I didn’t care enough to bother with it, but the preview had me opening the text.

Unknown Number:I’ll do whatever it takes to claim what’s mine, and even that Horseman can’t save you from me, Emily Jackson.

At first, I thought stalker—because I seemed to be in excess supply of them these days. Then I squinted at it, confused.

Horseman? Doubt they meant an actual horse slash man, as funny as I found that in my head. Asha mentioned a centaur one time, and it never got any less funny to me. Like, if he wore a shirt, would it be on the human half or the horse half?

But this likely referred to that old weirdo bible thing where they brought the end of the world. The harbingers or whatever. I didn’t really pay attention when a friend I met in college mentioned it in a rant. She was as crazy as her parents made her, but we loved her for it.

Then it hit me. My brain quickly summoned the night I’d been doing my best to forget. The demon who attacked me mentioned the same thing. It referred to some Horseman savior, though I didn’t know who it was talking about. I hadn’t met anyone bearing that identity.

Of course, it’d be weirder if they came right out with, “Hello, Emily. I’m here to bring the apocalypse.” I doubt they’d want me to know. Most humans, me included, were anti-apocalypse for obvious reasons.

So, who was it referring to? Someone around me I’d met, or was it someone watching from the shadows? And what did they want with me? Was I in some weird end of the world battle? But how did that make any sense?

I mean, I guess not much made sense when I didn’t understand fuck all about demons and what they were here for or why they were so desperate to take me to Hell.

Zelus? No. Pretty sure the Horsemen were supposed to have, you know, horses and bring a certain omen with them. He’d been lazing about in my apartment and bothering me for nearly a week. Hardly the actions of a harbinger.

I thought back on what my crazy friend talked about. I knew for a fact one of the Horsemen was War. Then maybe like, Death? Conquest? No, that didn’t sound right. Famine. Oh! And illness. Plague dude. Pestilence.

No one was more surprised than me that I’d remembered any part of my friend’s rant because I’d been hung over and slouched on top of a coffee that morning when she went off about what she’d learned in class. Never thought I’d need that knowledge one day, so I owed Becky a thank-you text.

But it didn’t help me much. I still didn’t have any clue how any of this connected to me. I didn’t usually struggle to put the pieces together, but I was left baffled by the text and events leading up to now.