Sin Undone

As Sin had predicted, he was in misery. He looked like he’d been tortured for days, but thanks to meds, Shade’s gift, and Idess’s bedside vigil, Sin said Lore didn’t look half as bad as usual. Which was fucking scary, given that Con had seen roadkill in better shape. Sin and Con didn’t hang around; no doubt Lore didn’t need gawkers. They slipped out of Lore’s room and headed for the Harrowgate. He planned to take her to an early breakfast, and then they were going to stay at Shade and Runa’s house. It was a temporary arrangement until he and Sin could find a place to live, but Shade and Runa were generous enough to let them shack up as long as they wanted. Besides, Luc and Kar were staying there, too, so the place was already in use.

Horror Hotel, as Wraith called Shade’s house. “Vampires, demons, and werewolves check in… and then they make out, and—” Serena had dragged him away, whispering something in his ear that had made him let out an erotic growl, and then they were gone. As Con and Sin approached the Harrowgate, it flashed and a tank of a blood-bay stallion leaped out, scattering staff and patients. Atop the horse sat a massive male in hard leather armor. His hair was short, reddish brown, and his eyes were as black as Sin’s.

“What the hell are you doing?” Eidolon shouted, but the big male swiveled his head and focused his gaze on Sin with such intensity that Con stiffened. “Why is he looking at you like that?”

“I… ah…” She slid him a timid glance. “I sort of slept with him once.”

Con took a deep breath and tried to rein in his desire to rip out the horse guy’s throat. “Where’d you find him? EviLove.com?” “Hey, that’s not funny. I know people who use the demon dating service.” The entire hospital seemed to go still, watching and waiting, and what the hell was up with Sin and guys on horses anyway? “Well, who is he?” “War.” Con stared at her. “War. Just… War. What kind of name is that?” Nope, not jealous at all of musclebound handsome guy. “Yeah, you know, the original War. Second Horseman of the Apocalypse?” Con nearly swallowed his fucking tongue. Everyone else in the ER scrambled backward. Even Eidolon backed up a step as the guy swung down from the horse. Christ, standing, the guy was damned near seven feet tall.

“Sin,” he said in an impossibly deep voice. He approached her, bent to kiss her cheek, and Con bristled. “Big horse,” Con ground out. “Compensating much?” The guy straightened, shot Con an amused smile—the fucker had some seriously white teeth—and turned back to Sin. “I need the object my brother gave you.” “That tool with the dissolving arrows was your brother?” Sin dug the gold piece out of her pocket. “Is this it? This coin?” “Yes.” He took it, and Eidolon sucked in a strangled breath as he put two and two together. “A Seal. Gods, that’s a Seal.”

Con felt the blood drain from his face. “A broken Seal.” White horse. Bow. Holy shit. “Conquest. Your brother is Conquest.” “His real name is Reseph,” War said, “but he’s also known as Pestilence in some interpretations of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Eidolon’s voice was stunned, toneless. “She of mixed blood who should not exist, carries with her the power to spread plague and pestilence. When battle breaks, conquest is seal’d. Isagreth 3:17, Daemonica.”

War shifted, and his leather armor squeaked loudly in the otherwise silent ER. “It’s what was engraved on the back of this Seal.” Slowly, Sin pulled her right arm out of her jacket and raised her sleeve to reveal the circular glyph that had split open so badly at Rivesta’s cabin. The scar that ran through it was an exact replica of the broken edge of the Seal. “I’m the reason it broke,” Sin rasped.

“Yes. You are what we call an agimortus, a catalyst of sorts. Your actions put into motion an event that caused my brother’s Seal to break.” “Wait,” Con said. “So why was he trying to kill her? He was there when my house blew up… He tried to shoot her.” “We were all trying to kill her,” War said. “No offense to you, Sin, but we wanted to prevent the Seal from breaking. Contrary to a lot of religious interpretations, we’re neither good nor evil until the Seals break.”

“And then?”

“And then it’s time to bow before whatever God you believe in.” Sin’s dainty eyebrows slammed down in a frown. “Why did Pest save me from assassins in Montana if he was trying to kill me?” “By then, the Seal had already broken. At this point, your life or death isn’t important, but he did want you to have the coin.” “Why?”

War rubbed his thumb over the writing on the Seal. “A message to me,” he said quietly. “So, are you still planning to kill me?” Sin asked, her arm tensing under Con’s palm.

“There’s no point.” He rolled one big shoulder in a shrug, and his mouth turned up in a smile that probably made females fall all over him. “Besides, it would be a shame to kill you.” Another growl formed in Con’s chest, but Sin squeezed his hand, reminding him that she was there with Con, and she wasn’t going anywhere. Not even for musclebound legend guy. Asshole. “What was the final straw that broke it?” Con asked, much more nicely than he’d have liked. And that note of awe in his voice… seriously? Humiliating.