AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Aaaand that was enough for Wrath. He threw a punch that sent Shade flying across the parking lot and into the side of the large trash containers at the far end.
“Satanus!” Sophia snapped and shoved his chest. “There is no need for that.”
There was every need. “You heard what he said about my daughter.”
“Standing right here.” Sophia glared at him. “And I told Dee about this outing.”
Wrath gaped at her, not sure he’d heard right, or able to make any sense of what she’d said in case he had heard right. She had been right beside him as they’d snapped the hold the horsemen had on his broken Haziel. “Why?”
“Because she’s the guardian.” Sophia smoothed her hair back into the braid she’d contained it in. “And she deserves to know.”
“Ex-guardian.” Daniel Lee stepped around the corner and made an apologetic face at Dee. “Sorry, Dee, but officially you’re no longer the guardian.”
Dee stiffened and glared at Sophia. “What’s he doing here?”
“The same thing you are.” Daniel winked at Dee. “Either we’re infiltrating a secret meeting or going for a burger and a beer. Personally, a cheese and bacon burger with fries and a micro IPA would be my vote, but I’ll go with the crowd.”
Wrath’s head felt like it might explode. He wouldn’t risk one more person he cared about. He couldn’t see another being that meant something to him damaged. Breathing deep, he forced the image of Haziel’s horrific injuries out of his mind.
Eddie put a hand on his chest. “Dad.”
And everything in him stilled. All the anger, all the frustration, all awareness of anyone around him. His mind even took a break from the mental replaying of Haziel bleeding and broken in his arms. Eddie had called him Dad, and nothing else existed in that moment. His child had acknowledged their blood bond, and tears burned behind his eyelids.
“Dad,” Eddie said it a second time. “Look, I know you wanted to keep this between you, Shade, and Sophia. But I can help. I’m Nephilim, and after what those fuckers did to me, I want to see them. I want to look my enemy in the eye and be part of bringing them down.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Shade had made it back from his dumpster dive. “There will be no bringing down tonight, Eddie. We go, we observe, and we gain information. Then we leave and do the burger and beer thing.”
Wrath barely heard him. All he saw was those aqua eyes of his little girl staring up at him, begging him to understand. How the fuck did human fathers ever deny their daughters anything? If she’d asked him to rip the moon from the skies and give it to her as a night light, he would have done it. If she’d asked him to wrap her in the entrails of her enemies—one entrails comforter coming right up. “I don’t want you to get hurt again.” Not like Haziel. Yes, Ramiel had sent her there alone, but Wrath had ridden in the car beside her. Been right there when the horsemen’s power had latched onto her and refused to release her. The need to touch Eddie overcame him and he cupped her cheek. “I can’t let you get hurt.”
“I know.” Eddie held his hand against her cheek. “And I appreciate that. But who’s going to hurt me with you and Shade there to keep me safe? Is there even a being in this universe who could?” Her eyes beseeched him. “I have to do this. I have to not be their blind victim anymore.”
She made an excellent point this being of his blood and heart. “Okay.” His voice was gruff with the emotions he could not put into words. “But you stay by me or Shade the entire time. No going off on your own. No heroics and don’t speak to anyone.”
“We’ve already been through this.” Shade gave Eddie a loaded glance. “She sticks by me, or you, and she keeps her head down.”
At least the fucker was good for helping him try to keep his daughter safe.
“Oy!” Sophia jabbed a thumb at her chest. “One archangel, standing right here and not at all incapable of taking care of Eddie.”
“Sorry, Sophia.” Eddie took her hand. “I know you’re just as kickass as these two.” She looked at him and Shade. “And Sophia has been teaching me how to control my power and to fight.”
He turned, in perfect unison with Shade, and glared at Sophia.
“What?” She shrugged. “You like to forget that we female beings have as much power and an equal ability to leverage it. Eddie deserves to know what she can do.”
She had him there, and the glance Shade shot him confirmed as much.
Shade nodded to Sophia. “Sorry.”
Wrath knew he’d lost the battle against Eddie and turned to Dee and Daniel. “What about them?”
“We’re nonnegotiable,” Daniel said and slung an arm over Dee’s shoulder. “We come or we blow the whistle on this entire operation.”
Wrath did not appreciate being threatened by a mortal, and he got right into Daniel’s space. “I can make it so you are incapable of doing so.”
“Dad?”
Ah, fuck it! There she went again. Hell! Let his enemies never discover the size of this particular chink in his armor. Still, he could hold out on this at least. “What?”
