Ares swung down from Battle. “They look thrilled to meet me.”
“Trust me,” Kynan said with a wry smile, “they’ll be talking about you for months.”
He snorted. “Years.”
A very pregnant female waddled out of the house, her black Goth clothing matching her black and blue striped hair. Kynan reached his hand out to her while keeping an eye on Ares. “This is my wife, Gem. I brought her with me because she’s due any minute.”
The female rubbed her belly. “That minute is now.”
Kynan’s sharp intake of breath was audible even over Hal’s whining. “Are you sure? We have to call Eidolon. And Shade. He’s your pain management, right? And Tayla. Have you called Tay?”
Ares had always thought the fatherly panic was fiction—when his own sons were born, he’d been told by messenger weeks after the births. But had he been there, he doubted he would have freaked out. During that time, men had little to do with pregnancies and birthing and babies, and as long as everyone survived the ordeal, it was all good.
Gem’s smile turned into a wince. “I just got off the phone with her. I told her my water broke, so the guys are heading to the hospital.”
“Your water broke?” Kynan patted down his pockets, maybe searching for a phone or keys. “We have to get you to UG.”
UG? She was a demon, then. One of the leaders of a demon-hunting organization was married to a demon? Maybe The Aegis had changed.
“We’ll be getting the hound and leaving, then,” Ares said, and nearly had a heart attack when he looked over at the cage, where Cara was already on her knees and hugging the animal through the bars. Didn’t matter that the canine was bonded to her—it could still kill her. Maybe. Ares didn’t know. Shit, he had to get his emotions under control. Think like a soldier.
Which wasn’t easy, given Cara’s proximity.
“Uh… lady, you might not want to get that close,” one of the Guardians called. All of the Aegi watched, bug-eyed and freaked out. Even Gem, who was in labor, wasn’t budging no matter how hard Kynan tugged on her.
Finally, he scooped her into his arms. She wound her arm around his shoulders and nuzzled his ear, and deep in Ares’s gut, something kindled. Longing? Envy? His wife hadn’t been affectionate at all. Attentive, yes, but they had never shared intimate moments like that, and as Kynan peered down at his wife’s swollen belly, his expression was a mix of worry, joy, and love.
Ares’s eyes shifted to Cara, and he actually had to swallow a lump in his throat.
Get your head out of your arse. He could hear his father’s bark, could swear a blow struck his cheek from his father’s backhand. The bastard had long been in the grave, and he still had the power to reach out and try to put Ares in his place.
For the first time, Ares welcomed his father’s interference. He couldn’t afford to let Cara matter to him. She was going to die. Even if she didn’t die because of the agimortus, she’d die long before he did, even with the hellhound bond. A couple of hundred years was a fruit fly’s lifespan for immortals.
And what the f**k was he running through the scenarios for? Love was not an option for him. It never had been. Caring for someone made you weak. Made you make stupid decisions. He’d seen it all over the centuries; men losing property, wars, their very lives over the love of a woman.
Idiots.
“William, you handle this.” Kynan awkwardly fished keys out of his pocket. “I’ll leave the Rover near Woodacre.”
There was a Harrowgate there, but it was still ten miles away. “Kynan.” Ares threw open a gate just outside the property fence. “Take it. You’ll come out at Underworld General.”
Gem peeked over Kynan’s shoulder to admire Ares’s handiwork. “That is so cool. I want that power.”
Kynan eyed the Harrowgate with distrust, until Gem socked him in the shoulder. “Hello! Do you want me to drop this kid right here? The baby is charmed, remember? As long as it’s in my belly, nothing can hurt me.”
Kynan shot Ares a look that said, “If you land us in a Sheoul blood pit, you’re dead,” and then he sauntered to the gate, stepping through after only a second of hesitation.
Ares moved closer to Cara, but when the f**king mutt went insane, snarling and snapping at him, he halted. Battle didn’t. He charged the cage, and before Ares could stop him, he reared up to smash the crate and hound to bits.
Cara leaped to her feet, put herself between the two-thousand-pound warhorse and the iron cage.
“No!” Ares’s shout came out in a deep, horrified rumble as Battle came down hard enough to make the ground tremble.
He’d stopped mere inches from crushing Cara. She stood there, not even flustered, and took Battle’s face in her hands. The horse calmed immediately, but Ares was shaking like a leaf, and his fear morphed abruptly into anger.
“Goddammit,” he snapped. “What the f**k were you thinking, Cara? He could have killed you.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.” She glared at him while stroking Battle’s cheeks. “Obviously, I’m fine.”
The Guardians shrunk back, twitchy fingers poised over their weapons. Great. They now thought he was not only incompetent, but an a**hole as well. Snarling, he held out his arm. “Battle, to me.”
The horse let out a furious whinny that lingered in the air even after he’d settled on Ares’s skin.
“That,” Cara huffed, “was unnecessary.”
“No,” he ground out, “it wasn’t. When you released the mongrel, there would have been trouble.”
“I could have handled it.”
“I handled it. Now let’s do this.” He turned to the Guardians. “You had best watch from inside the house.”
They retreated, and he gave Cara the go-ahead. “Lever on top should open the cage.” Casually, he rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, even though he couldn’t injure the animal for fear of affecting Cara.
She gave the lever a shove, and the door rattled open. The hellhound bounded out, pounced, and took Cara to the ground. Ares’s heart jammed into his throat, but when Cara let out a delighted squeal and the dog bathed her face in sloppy kisses, it became clear that there was no danger here. No danger to her, anyway.
Hal lifted his head momentarily to peel back his lips in a silent warning aimed at Ares, and Ares returned it, hoping his hatred came across loud and clear. Dealing with this bastard was not going to be fun.
“Cara, let’s go. I don’t like you being this exposed.”
She told Hal to let her up, and he tore off across the lawn. “He needs to run. Maybe we could walk to the gate instead of ride? Give him a chance to stretch his legs?”
“Cara—”
“Please?”
It went against his better judgment, but Cara had been through so much, with little of it in her control, that he could do this one thing for her, he supposed.
Two heartbeats later, his own words, barked out at soldiers, rang through Ares’s head like a death knell. Never let a woman sway you. Never. Or I promise you’ll regret it.
Seventeen
Cara and Ares strolled across the grounds toward the gate, his pace purposeful, hers more leisurely, and he kept having to slow down and wait for her. But dammit, this was the first time she’d felt a little normal in days, and walking across a huge expanse of grass while Hal bounded around chasing birds just felt good. Relaxing, even.
“Why don’t you like hellhounds?” she asked, and Ares let out a soft growl.
“I don’t not like them.” Even loaded down with armor and weapons, he moved like a predator down the drive, his sharp eyes in constant motion, nostrils flaring as though seeking the scent of danger. “I hate them with every cell in my body.”
“That’s a little harsh.”
He swung around to her, his big body pulsing with menace, but she was instinctively aware that his mood wasn’t directed at her. “One of them killed my brother and sons.”
“How awful.” A lump clogged her throat, and she had to swallow a couple of times before she could speak. “What did you do?”
“I chased that motherfucker through the centuries. Slaughtered some of his packmates, but never managed to kill him. Eventually, he and his pack got one up on me, paralyzed me with a bite, and then spent days eating me alive.”
Oh, God. “They… ate you?”
“Thanks to my ability to regenerate, yes. I fed them well, and I felt every bite. When one of them ripped my leg off at the hip joint, I couldn’t even pass out from the agony. And then I got to watch them gnaw on it, right beside my head.”
Nausea bubbled up in her throat. She couldn’t imagine Hal, that sweet puppy who was rolling around in the grass, doing that.
“Yeah, he’d do it,” Ares said, somehow knowing what she was thinking. “He’s just a pup, but when he’s full grown, he’ll be as big as a damned buffalo with an appetite for cruelty to match his size.”
“Like the one who attacked you at your house? Hal’s sire?”
“Hal’s sire is the very hound who killed my sons and brother.”
Oh… damn. “Hal… he wouldn’t… I mean, look at him.”
Hal leaped into the air, his jaws snapping as he caught a bird he’d flushed. The poor bird was gone in an instant, an explosion of feathers floating around Hal’s head.
“Sure,” Ares said wryly. “Look at him.”
“Bad dog,” she scolded. Hal wagged his tail and cocked his head, all flopping ears and drool. How could a puppy like him become the demon beast Ares was talking about?
Ares snorted. “Just wait until he’s catching people instead.”
“Is that…” She swallowed sickly. “Is that what they eat?”
“Not usually. They’re Sheoul-dwellers. They rarely travel to the human realm unless they’re summoned or brought here.”