Immortal Rider (LD2) by Larissa Ione Read Free Book Online

breathed. “I’d been sensing an upswing in deaths, but nothing I could pinpoint.”
    “That’s because the battles are scattered right now, mostly skirmishes, and the death rates are fairly low. Pestilence might be working his next attempt at an Apocalypse in gradual measures. Fly under our radar for a while. He’s definitely up to something.” Ares reached over and scratched the hellhound under the chin, and Limos didn’t think she’d ever get used to that. “You guys make any headway in locating Arik?”
    Limos nodded. “We were just heading out to Erta Ale to search. Wanna join us? There might be some fighting.”
    “Then hell, yeah. I’m there.”
    Limos touched her fingers to the crescent-shaped scar on the left side of her neck, and her Samurai-style armor snapped into place. Thanatos followed suit, his bone-plate armor clacking as it folded itself onto his body.
    Time to ride.

    Nothing.
    They’d found freaking nothing but scorching lava, noxious gasses, and lung-choking ash near the Erta Ale hellmouth. Inside the entrance, they’d discovered the gnawed-on skeletons of half a dozen humans and tunnels that broke off into more tunnels. After a full day of combing the caverns, Ares and Thanatos had been compelled to another of Pestilence’s wars, and Limos had to change her game plan.
    She threw a Harrowgate to her place, intent on gathering a team of her servants to help her. As she stepped out onto the warm Hawaiian sand outside her home, another gate flashed, and that son of a bitch, Pestilence, burst from it on his white stallion.
    “Hey, sis.” In a clang of metal armor, he swung down from Conquest and called the horse to him. Conquest poofed into a wisp of smoke and slipped under his master’s gauntlet to settle on his arm. “I have a job for you.”
    Her fingers flexed over the scabbard at her hip, the desire to run him through with her blade stronger than it had ever been. “If you think I’m going to do anything for you, you can go fuck yourself.”
    Pain flickered in his ice-blue eyes, startling the hell out of her. “I know I’ve been a bastard, Li. I can’t help it.” Hisshoulders slumped, and he looked down at the ground, his platinum hair concealing his face. “My dreams… man, my dreams mess with me. I remember how I was. I… miss that.”
    She took an involuntary step toward him. “Reseph?”
    “I need help.” With a jerky, uncoordinated movement, he grabbed his head as if it pained him, and his voice cracked. “Cure me… please .” He inhaled a strangled breath. “Deliverance… under… my armor. Kill… me. I’m begging you.”
    “We’ll help you, I swear,” she said, reaching for him.
    His hand snapped out, grasping her wrist so tightly she felt the grind of bones. “You sentimental fool.” His head came up, a menacing crimson glow lighting his eyes. “Reseph is dead.”
    She hissed, anger and pain ripping her right down the middle. She had her sword out and was swinging it before Pestilence could release her. Blood sprayed as the blade hacked into his neck. He stumbled backward, slapping his palm over the gaping wound.
    “That,” he said, in a freakishly calm voice, “will cost you.” He jerked his head as if working out a kink, and the laceration sealed up, a hell of a lot faster than the same wound would have responded before he’d gone evil. He’d gained strength when his Seal broke, his ability to draw on the power of Sheoul boosting all his abilities, but bloody hell, she hadn’t thought he’d gotten that resilient. “Like I was saying, I have a job for you.”
    “I’m not doing anything for you.”
    He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I found an ancient vault that once belonged to The Aegis, and I want you to tell them about it.”
    All her internal alarms went off, clanging loudly in her skull. “What’s in this vault?”
    “Harmless historical relics.”
    “Nope. Sorry. I’m not leading Aegi to a bunch of fake