The Four Horsemen_Reckoning Read online

  THE FOUR HORSEMEN: RECKONING

  L J Swallow

  Copyright © 2018 by L J Swallow

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For all the Pony Boys fans who’ve supported me through the series. Thank you.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Coming Soon

  Other Books By LJ Swallow

  About the Author

  1

  HEATH

  If I let her go, she might disappear.

  The first time I held Vee, outside our house, I worried whether she’d cope with what we told her. Whether she’d come back with me, or I’d need to search for her again. This time, I’m scared if I close my eyes, the nightmare will become worse and I’ll lose her completely.

  I see her through new eyes after the shock today. But the Vee beneath my hands now is the same girl she was yesterday. Her naked skin is soft and warm, her scent fills me with memories of promises we’ve made each other with our lips and our words. This Vee is human, her kisses and touch pulling me from the guy called Death to become Heath. The man whose heart hurts when he sees his girl unhappy, who hates feeling powerless to help.

  Forget powers. Forget supernatural connections and prophecies about uncontainable powers. The girl I’m with now, who’s urging me on, is the one who made plans for the future in a human world.

  Vee and Heath love each other as much as any hearts can.

  I know exactly what she’s asking me to do, and I mean it when I say she doesn’t need to ask. The look in her eyes each time I know she wants to grasp onto the old Vee, confusion mixed with desire, is here again. This time, the sadness hovers around her, confusing me when I expected her fear and grief to match ours.

  She sits forward and unbuttons my shirt, slowly, her soft fingers brushing my skin, and heat bursts through me. I don’t miss how they tremble as she pushes the shirt from my shoulders. Pulling her own shirt over her head, Vee pauses and shivers. Her skin goosebumps along her arms, and my focus switches to the lace covering her breasts and her nipples peaking beneath.

  “Shit, it’s cold in here with no heating.” Vee rubs at her arms.

  Laughter bursts from me at her consternation. The flat is cold, unlived-in, and she pouts at me before dragging me onto her. Shaking with tension, I lie over her. Vee’s eyes blaze back at me and my heart swells.

  “Are you hinting that you want me to heat you up?” I nudge her nose with mine and she brushes my hair away as it tickles her face.

  I shift my weight onto my elbows, but don’t pull away completely. Her breasts push against my chest, the lace annoying me. Annoying because it shouldn’t be there. Her hips cradle mine and when her legs move so I can settle my weight between her body, blood surges to my dick.

  More heat, really, because the moment she whispered she wanted me, the second she revealed that gorgeous body, I hardened. Her mouth parts slightly as she looks up at me, our legs both covered in jeans, wrapping together and preventing the closeness we want. Her hair splays behind her head onto the bed and I take a strand. Soft. Beautiful. Like her.

  “Vee, you’re so fucking beautiful it hurts.”

  Her perfect lips twitch into a smile and she shifts to rub a hand against my crotch. “Hurts here?” She runs her fingers along the outline of the bulge.

  I frown at her downplaying my words. “Hurts everywhere because I might lose—”

  She seizes my head and shoves her fingers into my hair and tongue into my mouth. A silent ‘don’t say anything’. Believe me, that move stopped everything, apart from my cock trying to push its way through the annoying denim barrier between us.

  Fuck. I unbutton her jeans and tip Vee onto one side, sliding the jeans over her gorgeous ass. Legs free, she wraps them around me while I push my hand beneath her cotton panties to stroke her ass. We kiss again, gentler, as my tongue strokes hers. Every time I kiss Vee, the minutes feel like hours. Soft, building in intensity as lips whisper silent understandings.

  Every time, I’m turned on by how much she yields to me in those moments, but those kisses are more than foreplay. These kisses are me. Her. Us. A reassurance that what we have is different—I give her something unique to us that she needs.

  Joss can soothe her and connect with his own intensity. Ewan’s raw emotion and fierce protectiveness causes problems. But it’s how he is, and his place in all this. Xander? Sometimes I wonder what, but I see how in sync they are, how similar they are, and the explosive way they keep each other in check.

  Between us, we’ve created more than anybody expected. The power we’ve built encompasses us and grows daily. Together, we’re stronger than anybody can reckon with.

  And right now, her needs grow as the hot and heavy kisses start, pulling us deeper. I break off and look down, and when she shifts her almost-naked body beneath me again, she touches my chest, running them across my muscles with her greedy look that amuses me. Vee’s skin flushes red across her neck and chest and her nipples peak behind the black lace.

  “Heath,” she whispers, watching both hands explore my body. I shiver slightly in expectation as her fingers move to my waistband. “I love you.”

  “And I love you. Nothing has changed that.” I roll onto my side again, pulling Vee with me, and deftly unhooking her bra. She wriggles out of it and tosses the thin material to the floor by our clothes. She lays back on the bed and stretches out, the one part of her tantalizingly hidden behind her thin cotton panties.

  I’m lost.

  Fucking lost to the heaven I’m in when I’m alone with this girl. Her breasts fill my hands, pale against my tanned fingers, nipples hard against my palms. We focus on each other and breathe with the same rhythm.

  “I managed the button.” Vee’s eyes are wide and lust-filled, and her voice hoarse with the desire matching mine. My blood-starved brain can’t keep up to what she means until she pulls at my zipper. “Off.”

  I stand, and she looks at me as if I’m unwrapping a gift for her as I strip my jeans and briefs. My cock springs free against my stomach and I palm myself as I look down at her naked figure. The long legs and slender thighs I’m half an ounce of self-control away from pulling apart. I don’t care about scraps of material, I need to taste the sweet, wet heat, to breathe her in and focus on her. Just her.

  To lose myself to the place I’m determined we’ll go again and again—the past, now, and a future with us all.

  “What’s wrong?” Vee props herself on her elbows, looking
up at me. “Did you want to leave?”

  “Leave?” I shake my head and kneel over her, pushing hair from her cool cheeks. She’s right, even though her body’s heating, the freezing flat equals freezing limbs. Peppering kisses across her face and neck, I drag the smoke-smelling blanket over us. Her chuckle turns into a lower moan as at the same time I run a finger up and down her panties, the heat radiating from her and wet dampening her pants. I pull them to one side and stroke her again.

  Fuck she’s wet, and this is going to end too bloody quickly if she doesn’t stop wriggling against me. I slip two fingers inside her, and she pushes herself against my hand, moving so I move faster. I thumb her clit. She arches her back to me, and I hunch down to work her stiff nipple with my tongue.

  The noises Vee makes are perfect because she’s letting go of the world we were in this afternoon. The future that nips at our heels retreats with each moan and gasp escaping her lips.

  The longer she stays here with the pleasure wrapping around, pulling her to the edge, the more I do too. The need to be in her tries to take control, but this needs to last. Vee needs to remember who she is.

  Vee’s close and I switch the movements, swirling my fingers to find the sweet spot that guarantees she’ll lose control. She trembles and breathes out my name, fighting within herself to keep hold.

  Vee grabs my hand and pushes at my fingers. “You,” she pants. “Heath, please.”

  I allow my thudding heart to take away the focus on her need. I need to escape too. I move away and brush my cock against her wet, hot pussy and another shiver shoots through her. She lets out a low moan.

  Control. Gone. I move my cock to push against her and tease my way slowly inside. Vee pants and wraps her legs around my waist, dragging me closer. As I fill her, I prop myself by my hands either side of her head and look down. My arms tremble as I do.

  Vee tenses around me and murmurs how good this feels. Beads of sweat break out on my forehead as I try to hold onto the control again.

  “Heath.” She grips my shoulders to pull me forward and she breathes out, “Fuck me. Make me forget.”

  I pull out slowly, dragging across the places inside that drove her to the edge moments ago, before slamming into her hard. Her grip on my waist tightens and I cover her mouth with mine. We kiss with the fervour to match our lovemaking, moving from gentle teasing to harsh and frenzied. I push Vee’s legs apart, gripping her ass and tipping her upwards. I carefully move in and out, ready to let go too. But not yet.

  “Come for me, Vee,” I say, looking back into her lust-filled eyes. I lick my thumb, making a noise of pleasure before rubbing her clit again.

  The sensation takes her by surprise and she shouts out my name. Her muscles clench around me, tighter, as she comes. I pull away my hand and grip her ass harder, thrusting over and over as her climax continues. My fingers dig harder into her skin, and my brain turns to mush. I’m in our world, and I want to stay here.

  I come. Hard. I swear over and over under my breath, eyes closed, and push myself to the hilt one last time. I hold myself there as Vee continues to move against me, her orgasm still shuddering through.

  The light we create burns brighter, not only the flash across the room as if someone flipped the switch on a flood light, but the pleasure coursing through my body intensifies. The light engulfs us both in my mind too, and I see Vee struggling, grasping at my power, fading, and instead of comfort I feel terror. I slam my mouth on hers and kiss her as if she was drowning and needed breath. She grips my face in her hands.

  Tears wet my skin and my panic grows. Vee wanted me to love her, remind her she’s human, and instead the most intense link to our powers blows all that away. I hide us beneath the tangled blankets and our hearts thud together as we hold on to each other, grounding ourselves again.

  Her panicked intensity gradually fades as her heart slows. “Vee.” I attempt to sound soothing but my voice breaks. Will she run now the way she did with Ewan?

  No. He said her eyes faded, and that she wasn’t with him. This Vee fixes me with huge, teary eyes and whispers, “I don’t know who I am, Heath.”

  Her body shudders as she heaves in a breath, and I squeeze her to me. How can something incredible minutes ago be reduced to fear and unhappiness?

  “You’re Vee,” I say against her wet cheek. “You’re Vee. Always.”

  She grips my shoulders. “When I close my eyes, or if I let go of my thoughts, it’s as if I’m standing outside my body and looking at myself.”

  “What do you mean? Do you become two people?” I push myself up on one hand and look down.

  “No. Like a disassociation. As if my hands are someone else’s.” She swallows. “I don’t recognise myself when I look in the mirror. I’m scared, Heath.”

  “Everything will be okay.”

  But the platitudes sound empty, echoing in the unknown void we face. Sometimes I feel the same, especially when I fall into the ink black my dreams hold. That darkness has never taken me, but I’m closer to the edge Joss has fallen over.

  “We will all hold on to each other. Nothing will change that.”

  Vee doesn’t reply, and we lie together in silence, trying to forget we’re in a burned flat from a life and world where Vee no longer belongs.

  2

  VEE

  By the time I arrive back at the Collector’s with Heath, the day has grown as dark as the atmosphere between us all. Heath stays close to me, and we grip hands as if gripping onto the time we had alone. He made me feel alive and human, lost in the physical sensations that fill me with belief I'm a person, not a power. But when the light shines the way it did the first time, it’s reminder we're not a human couple, and that I hold a strange power that equals Heath's.

  Our time together at my old flat allowed me to forget the shocking news this afternoon, but also brought reminders of how intense everything in my life is. The tension rushing from me in mine and Heath’s shared moment was marred by the struggle in Heath’s eyes afterwards. He held me tighter than ever, loved and kissed me as if he never wanted to walk from the flat again. Because the first time I walked out of my flat with Heath, nothing was ever the same again. This time, we won’t return.

  We wanted to hide and wrap ourselves in the world we withdraw into. Vee and Heath, the girl and guy fooling around on a Sunday afternoon. Not Death and Truth, desperate to forget who they really are, in each other’s arms.

  We spoke about the taboo subject—whether I can resurrect if I need to.

  Whether I would need to one day.

  Heath carries my rucksack over his shoulder and dumps it in the lounge, which has become our makeshift living space.

  "You took your time," says Xander. "We started to worry."

  Heath runs a hand through his hair and glances at me. "We're okay. Where's the Collector?"

  "He went to bed."

  "Bed? It's 8 P.M.."

  Joss chuckles. "A girl arrived an hour ago. Well, I presume she was a girl. I heard a female voice."

  How uncomfortable is the Collector with the situation we’ve put him in? He's helped us more than we could’ve expected, or asked for, and understands the position we're in now. Without him we’d be homeless. Sitting somewhere else, facing an unknown future which barrels closer as the hours pass.

  I sit on the sofa and curl up against the arm. My head aches, something that’s been happening more the last few days. I tell myself it’s the stress, but sometimes my hands tremble as pain shoots through. Is this the power already taking hold?

  Heath sits beside me and takes my hand. Ewan, unsurprisingly, says little. He sits in the Collector's favourite chair, legs outstretched and bare feet resting on the low table. He focuses on his laptop, in a world of his own. I expected a greeting but know Ewan enough to recognise his retreat from the situation.

  We have the books and the stone, confident we've found everything we need to know. Apart from one thing: when and where? The portal locations in the book match what the guy
s know, but there's not mention of us being at one in particular. There's also no indication whether any—and how many—have been opened by Seth.

  We're certain at least one opened already, thanks to our visit from the fire elemental. Were the attacks against Ewan and Joss also creatures from portals?

  "We're leaving tomorrow." Xander's firm voice and resolve encourages me. At least he regained his determination to move and is no longer the lost guy from earlier.

  "Where?" asks Heath.

  "The States."

  I snap my head up to look at him. "Why there?"

  "Because I want to be closer to where Seth is. The portal where he attacked the fae is located near LA. He wanted us to see what he did, but also that the portal is intact. For now. I think Seth wants us to go there."

  "He could be anywhere," replies Heath. "The guy can teleport."

  Xander's face sours. "Seth's obviously not coming for us, which means he's waiting for us to go to him."

  "We're not facing him down, are we?" I ask and my chest tightens. Not yet. Not until we have all the facts.

  Xander chews his lip and studies my face. "No. Just to the same country.”

  "Xander wants out," says Joss. "We don't have anywhere safe to stay in the UK."

  "And we do in the States?" I rub my eyes, tired and confused.

  "We travel there occasionally," Joss explains. "Big country. Big population."