his fist into her jaw.
She’d regained consciousness exactly where she was now. In this strange, putrid, stinking room, in her underwear, with the man in the black suit studying her closely, a leering smile pulling at his mouth and what felt like a thousand grasshoppers crawling over her feet and up her legs.
“How do you feel, my dear?”
Her stare jerked back to the man in the black suit before she could stop it and another lurching wave of nausea rolled through her. “Please…” She knew she was whimpering but couldn’t stop. “Please…where am I? What…”
“Is happening?” the man finished for her, each word he spoke like a finger of rotting filth shoved down her throat. “I needed to speak with you and my faithful servant brought you to me. Of course, you are no longer human. He had to initiate your transformation to a bloodsucker before you could travel to the Realm, but I understand that transformation has not yet been completed.” His expression turned to one of concern and thick snot dribbled from her nose. “May I ask, my dear, are you hungry?”
She cowered backward, pressing herself harder to Raz’s cold body. She wasn’t hungry. She was sick. Real sick. She licked her lips, tasting snot and blood. “I want to go home.”
Raz’s claws sank deeper into her ribs and arm. “Pestilence will let you return when he’s finished with you.”
Amy stiffened. “Pestilence? As in the First Horseman of the Apocalypse?”
The man preened, smoothing one hand over his lank, unwashed hair. “You’ve heard of me? I’m honored.”
Swallowing the bile bubbling up from her stomach, she nodded. “My father was a minister.”
Pestilence’s smile spread wide. “A man of the cloth?” He turned his attention to Raz and Amy thanked the Lord for the small reprieve from his sickening gaze. “Raziel, you did not tell me she was a child of the church.” A frown contorted his sallow forehead and the candles illuminating the room flickered, throwing wild shadows up the walls as if sharing his displeasure. “That was very remiss of you.”
Behind her, Raz tensed, the claws puncturing her flesh digging in further. “I did not know, sire.”
Pestilence waved his hand, turning his smile back to her. “Tell me what you know of me, child. I am curious how I’m perceived in mankind’s world.”
She swallowed again, her stomach churning. Every pore of her body leaked perspiration, foul-smelling sweat that seemed to burn her skin. She licked her lips, horrified to discover they were not only cracked and bleeding, but crawling with tiny bugs. Oh Lord. What was happening to her?
“Well?” Pestilence snapped, and her bladder let go in a hot, acrid gush.
She squirmed in Raz’s hold, desperate to be free. Her muscles held no strength however, and the vampire’s grip was impossible to escape.
“Just that Pestilence is the First Horseman of the Apocalypse,” she sobbed. “He comes before the others on a decaying horse and causes the destruction of the world’s crops and wildlife.”
Pale blue eyes narrowed. “That is all?”
Amy closed her eyes. She felt sick. Oh Lord, save her. She felt so sick. “Please, I want to go home.”
“So, I am just a pest? Like a grasshopper? A little munching on some wheat fields? Is that it?”
Feeling like she was about to pass out, she shook her head. She wanted to go home. “Revelations 6:2 ‘I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.’ My father always said the church view the other Horsemen more formidable. The Fourth Horseman is the most feared.”
She was babbling. She knew it. But she’d never felt so sick. Or scared.
“The other Horsemen are…” Pestilence’s growl faded away.
Maybe he’s gone? A tight spear of hope stabbed through her nausea. Maybe you can go home now?
Cold, clammy fingers hooked under her chin and she cried out. Her stomach cramped, her head felt like it was about to explode. Every muscle and joint in her body erupted in agony and her bowels opened in a flood of stinging shit that dribbled down her legs onto the insects swarming there. Behind her, Raz let out a disgusted bark. He jerked backward, his claws tearing deep gashes into her flesh.
“I am the most powerful!” Pestilence’s voice sliced into her like a blade and her eyes snapped open. “I am the First. The premier. I am the beginning of the end. Without me there is no Apocalypse!”
His