Page 48 of Stalked By Pestilence

His expressionless face didn’t confirm my fears, but his nod did. “It’s the reason it took so long.”

“Bloody fucking hell,” I cursed and rubbed a hand over my hair.

The creepy bastard waited patiently for his payment, and I passed him the coordinates of the last place I’d encountered Ares. Or more specifically, where she’d kicked my ass. It was difficult to see if he was eager or not. His expression never changed as he took it and then disappeared. Not a single goodbye or word of thank you, but that was Ghost.

I’d only exhaled another breath when the whispers of warning snapped my head sideways. Disappearing from the dark street where I’d met Limos, I reappeared at the bottom of Emily’s flat. Dead would kill me if I went up there, but my snakes and spiders guarding her were frantic.

Risking it, I disappeared and reappeared in her room. The two hadn’t failed to react. Both came clamoring inside, shadows already reacting and reaching for me, but they fell silent.

I swept over, heart hammering in this mortal skin I wore. She was still on the bed, but my senses picked out the wrongness of it. Emily’s heart didn’t beat. Her lungs didn’t breathe. Her golden skin had lost its luminous glow.

Lifting her gently off the bed, I snarled and held her cold body close. I sensed his power and checked her finger, finding the damning symbol of the Fallen Brothers.

“Fuck!” I growled, pacing with the dead body of my love, my reason for living, my everything, pressed tightly against my chest. I’d lost her. I’d lost everything. The bastard had taken her and left nothing for me to hold onto.

Her flat mate tried to come over, but I was covered in scales and unraveling, threatening pandemonium and plague,so Thanatos came instead. Sickness was bleeding from my pores and snaking into the air, ready to seek a bloody revenge.

His hand landed on my shoulder, stopping the angry pace and threat of death with the touch. “If Asha could be reborn even after death had claimed her, then so can Emily.”

“And if she can’t?” I asked, though I nearly couldn’t say the words aloud. My throat constricted and pain sure to tear me to pieces burned in my chest.

Thanatos hummed and searched my expression for something. “Then she’ll have a place in my realm.”

I didn’t relish the idea of Emily stuck in that barren space, but losing her to Hell, or worse, to the apocalypse, wasn’t an option. I’d rather her there than where she was.

Asha stared at him. “You can do that?”

His eyes went to her. “Before what happened to you, it was how I planned to keep you.”

She swallowed and nodded, back to staring at Emily in my arms. “Whatever it takes.”

“The Fallen Brothers…” I started.

Thanatos nodded, not the least bit surprised. “I suspected it might be one of them. I’m guessing you know who.”

The growl left my chest with strength. “I do. It’s probably who you’d guess.”

His eyes flashed, inky veins growing around them, the sure sign his emotions were getting the better of him. It likely had everything to do with Asha. He’d become rather expressive around her, but by the way my body rippled with fury, I couldn’t say I was any better.

The thought of Emily in distress, in Hell, at risk of whatever plans he’d devised for her, was a bitter burn in my throat. My skinprickled with the return of scales and poison. I wanted to bathe the bastard in my venom. It wouldn’t kill a Fallen Brother, but it’d hurt more than he’d ever hurt before.

“He’s making a play for Lucifer’s throne, then,” Thanatos murmured, hand on his chin in contemplation.

A battle as old as time.

Lucifer and his seven brothers were always at odds, always in a long war over who held power over Hell. They’d been determined since its creation to rule, but Morning Star hadn’t lost his throne to them. Except, he was distracted by the looming apocalypse, so he was vulnerable. Now was the perfect time to strike.

My eyes cut up to the other Horseman. “But he took her to Hell, Dead. We can’t wander there without Lucifer’s approval.”

“And his brother broke rules even Lucifer abides,” Dead countered astutely. “He crossed over to the mortal world and Heaven will want to know it. So will Lucifer.”

My thundering pulse and overactive brain hadn’t calmed enough to work that out. “You have a plan then?”

“I always do.”

Smug twat. But in this case, I had to be grateful for it. I might’ve caused a plague in my grief and killed as many as I could before storming the gates of Hell and surrendering my existence to do whatever I could to get her back. Against Lucifer and all of Hell, I wouldn’t win.

Thanatos’s arm went around the redhead next to him, and he dropped a gentle kiss on her head as she cried and touched Emily’s lifeless hand.