The Red Rider (End of Days #3) - Trepagnier, JB

Chapter 1

D

ice was still standing right up in my personal space with his wonderful smell and his shirtless chest. That toothpick was just lazily hanging out of his mouth. I needed him to get away from me. There was something about that deranged look in his eyes that was drawing me in, and I didn’t know him. Plus, I was already dating two of the Four Horsemen, and I didn’t need to start collecting them like Pokémon.

I pressed my hands against his chest and then remembered he was only wearing those rainbow suspenders up top. I jerked my hands away like he was on fire and eased myself away from him. Dice just chuckled and chewed on his toothpick.

“Is she always this skittish?”

I grabbed Smurfette off the table. I always kept her nearby, even in Leif’s secure lab. I poked him in the chest with her.

“I don’t know you, buddy.”

“Once you’ve painted someone in an orgy, you’re old friends. Did you get my cock right?”

“I swear to God, if you whip it out in this lab, you’re taking my bat to your balls.”

Dice just winked at me and turned back to Leif and Aeron.

“She’s fun. When do we leave?”

“You’re a little early, Dice. We talked about you coming later, but you insisted on coming now. I need to help with the vaccinations here.”

Dice just rolled his eyes.

“You have people for that. I’ll bet it bore poor Aeron senseless.”

Aeron just shrugged.

“I’ve got a girl and a lot more fucking patience than you ever did.”

You mean to tell me Dice had less patience than Aeron did? Why were Leif and Aeron giving Dice the stink eye for getting here early? Didn’t we need him here? We could use all the help we could get.

Leif just rolled his eyes.

“Between the two of you, I don’t want you breaking my shit. And Dice, no recruiting. We need the soldiers here, where they are.”

“Oh, please. I can contain myself. You know I like to spread things out. I trained most of the older soldiers here and left them where they were, didn’t I?”

“I haven’t broken any of your shit since Ariel and I got here,” Aeron pointed out.

“Yeah, but the two of you tend to feed off each other, and that’s when my shit starts breaking.”

Yeah, I could see that. War and Death went hand in hand, and shit tended to get destroyed in the process. Aeron could have a big stick up his ass when it came to my safety, but I’d also been around him when he let his hair down. I could see him acting up with Dice. I’d been staring at that fucking laptop for so long, I wouldn’t mind causing some trouble that didn’t upset Leif.

Aeron and Dice both snapped to attention and placed their hands over their hearts like really massive boy scouts.

“We solemnly swear not to break anything,” they both said at the same time.

They were so not boy scouts, and I had a feeling they had said that numerous times since they were created and Antichrists started getting sent to Earth.

“That means nothing anymore,” Leif huffed. “You say that every time and you always manage to break something of mine. Remember the Antonine Plague?”

“You’re still mad about that?” Aeron asked.

Dice just popped his suspenders.

“We did kind of cause the end of the Roman Empire with that one, and the end of the Pax Romana meant I had to stick around longer. It’s serious this time. Fine, Leif. We’ll make a concerted effort not to break anything while we are here.”

Aeron ran his fingers through his hair.

“Okay, I’ll give you the Roman Empire, but you do know Dice is more effective when he breaks stuff, right?”

“When he’s breaking Antichrist stuff. Not my stuff.”

Dice gave his suspenders a hard pop again. His hazel eyes were trained on me, and he was smirking again.

“Maybe the pretty Nephilim should babysit us.”

Leif just scowled.

“You’re a full angel, Dice. You don’t need a Nephilim babysitter.”

“No, but I’d like one when they are that cute.”

“Get out of my lab! You too, Aeron. Go kill something. We are so close to have things blow up in our faces now. We need to handle things here so we can leave for Florida.”

Dice just slung an arm over my shoulder.

“I’m going to borrow your Nephilim. If her powers are starting to show and she’s exploding things, then she needs to be taught how to harness it and control it. She can use it to defend herself when we