Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,1
up their horses as Trace turned to me with worry etched into his features.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked, his baritone voice low. “They could be lying to us.”
“They could be,” I acknowledged and then shook my head, “but I don’t think they are. Besides, if they are lying, the last thing I want to do is lose track of them.”
Trace nodded as War circled back to us.
His dark eyes were as hard as stone. “We have to wait for Death to join us.”
For a second, I thought he was speaking figuratively and looked at him as such, and then I remembered the fourth horsemen. “Right. Well, we can wait, but I don’t think your brother-from-another-mother is going to fair very well,” I said, gesturing over to the blood-soaked Famine.
He thought about it for a moment. “How far is this cabin you speak of?”
“It’s just a skip and hop through time and space.”
His stony eyes twitched with confusion.
“Trace is a Reaper,” I clarified. “He can port us there.”
His gaze darted to Trace as if to inspect his capacity to properly transport us anywhere. Appearing satisfied with his inspection, he offered a curt nod and then crossed his arms over his massive chest.
Trace quickly reached out and squeezed my hand and then tried to steady Famine with his other hand around his upper arm. Famine shucked Trace’s touch off and speared him with a look that said, ‘touch me again and I’ll make sure you die a slow, agonizing death’.
“We have to all be touching in order for him to port us there,” I said, reaching my own free hand out to War.
The two horsemen exchanged glances as if silently speaking to each other and then conceded.
Within seconds, that familiar icy air wrapped itself around my body like a frozen blanket as Trace moved us through the magnanimous maze of time and space. Before I could even shudder from the cold, we were already materializing in his father’s old cabin.
The horsemen immediately severed the connection to us, but Trace and I continued to hold hands as we acclimated to the new space and temperature.
“Nice parlor trick,” muttered Famine through clenched teeth. “Now can one of you do something about this hemorrhaging cavity in my stomach?”
Trace let go of my hand and rushed off to the bathroom to retrieve the first aid kit as I took in the horsemen before me, trying desperately to make sense of the mess I’d gotten myself into.
How the hell was I going to fix this one?
I needed time to think. Time to come up with a plan. Time to—
“We don’t have any more time,” answered War, his tone flat.
My surprised gaze shot up to his and then tapered. Just great. Yet another ease-dropper in the midst. I should have seen that one coming. “Well, we’re going to have to make some time. I need to figure out our next move.”
“What is there to figure out?” asked War, looking genuinely perplexed by the notion. “The objective has not changed.”
“Are you sure? Because your foursome sure has,” I pointed out with a quick gesture around the room which was clearly lacking half their horsemen pack. “Besides, Lucifer’s kid hasn’t even been born yet. There’s obviously not much you can do until that happens, right?”
War and Famine exchanges glances, but neither one confirmed my summary.
I narrowed my eyes and stepped forward. “You are waiting for the kid to be born, aren’t you?”
“That was the intention,” answered War, thick arms bundled across his colossal chest.
“Was? As in, it isn’t anymore?” Nausea rolled through my stomach as I waited for him to clarify.
“Without the Power of Four, we may not be able to stop it once it’s out of utero,” answered War as though we were discussing something as mundane as a leaky faucet. “We will not take that risk.”
“So, what are you saying? You’re going to kill it before it’s even born? How can you do that without killing the mother?” I asked as Trace walked back into the room, his pace slowing as he took in the tail-end of our conversation.
“Most likely, we cannot,” replied Famine as he ran a bloodied hand through his muddled strands of hair. “Though that is of no concern to us.”
“Well, it’s a concern to me,” I quickly fired back. I may not have liked Nikki very much, if at all really, but this was too much even for me. I wasn’t about to climb on board of a plan that involved killing