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“I can’t.” She got up and started dusting a collection of cameras. “But Shade would know immediately upon encountering you. His blood would call to yours.”
That was one minor sop to her teetering reality. She addressed the bigger concern. “So why aren’t you and Shade trying to exterminate me then?”
“Because the real reason Nephilim are not tolerated has more to do with prejudice than anything else.” Sophia applied her duster with the enthusiasm of someone who was either OCD or was finding dusting a novel experience. If it was the former, Eddie had plenty of places Sophia could work her compulsions out on. “Many of us”—Sophia moved on to some rotary dial telephones—“find the idea of relations with a human distasteful.”
“Hey!” Eddie felt the need to defend her species. Human, dammit, she was human.
“Not because there is anything wrong with humans.” Sophia held her hand up. “But more because…well, you saw what effect Shade had on darling Lillian. And although angels and princes are susceptible to him, we are not nearly as susceptible as humans.” She cleared her throat. “Humans find themselves unable to resist a hell prince’s powers. In Shade’s case lust, but Lucifer is pride, Wrath is…fairly obvious. Then we have Leviathon and envy, Mammon and greed, Beelzebub is gluttony.”
“That’s six.” Look at her killing the mental math.
“Oh, yes.” Sophia flapped her hand. “Belphegor guards sloth. I always forget about her.” She made a face. “But she’s very quiet, and it’s easy to do.”
“There are female hell princes?” Although why anything surprised her at this point was beyond Eddie.
“Well…yes.” Sophia looked at her as if that were patently obvious.
“But prince is a—never mind.” So not the most important issue on the table. “And you say the hell princes aren’t evil.” Eddie had to shake her head at that clanger. Supernatural, powerful beings running around tossing shit like greed, envy, and gluttony about. Sounded like a real party.
“Your view of good and evil is narrow.” Sophia had moved on to an eclectic mix of vases. “All these things that you deem as evil: lust, pride, wrath, avarice, envy, gluttony, sloth. They are merely facets of the journey of a soul to reach its wholeness. It is the same with the seals we archangels guard. The facets we guard were deemed by you humans as good, but even they can have a negative effect in excess.” Sophia moved music and jewelry boxes out of the way of her duster, which was moving itself. No biggie. “Imagine someone who is excessively charitable for instance.” Wisp, wisp, wisp, went that self-propelling duster. “They can cause as much damage to themselves as someone who has an excess of gluttony.” She gave Eddie a minatory stare. “Humans need to start seeing things in a truer perspective.”
Easy for Sophia to say. She was working with a much fuller dossier. “Back to the humans are gross thing.” Eddie couldn’t keep the edge out of her voice.
“Not gross.” Sophia held up one finger like a governess. “Merely susceptible, particularly the younger souls. They are unable to help themselves, and having congress with them is like…er…a human adult preying on a child.”
“Ugh.” Eddie was running out of stretch now. Good news would be great at this point. “So, you’re saying that my daddy is the hell prince version of a pedophile?”
Sophia grimaced. “That is oversimplifying the matter, but it is frowned upon to prey on a being with fewer defenses.”
Potato-potahtoh. “Great.”
Chapter
Seventeen
Eddie got back from the grocery store to find a black sedan parked outside the theatre’s stage door. It wasn’t a vehicle she recognized, and given how surprises were working out for her lately, she kept an eye on the sedan as she parked.
As she was hauling her groceries out of her trunk, a man in a dark suit and shades climbed out of the passenger side of the sedan. Tall, straight-backed, with dark hair graying at the temples, Eddie had never seen him before. The driver’s door opened, and his younger twin emerged. They stood by their vehicle surveying the back of the Edwardian building which housed the theatre.
“Ms. Ward?” The older man removed his shades and tucked them in the breast pocket of his suit jacket.
Call her paranoid or merely suffering from an overactive imagination, but Eddie was getting Men In Black vibes with these two. The hair on her nape prickled, and she took a step closer to the door. “Can I help you?”
“I think it best if we talk inside,” the older one said.
His buddy stood with his hands folded in front of him and his head turned in her direction. Although she couldn’t see his eyes, Eddie would bet her groceries he was staring right at her.
Having faced down a rakshasa demon, whatever the hell—arf, arf—that toad thingy was, an imp, two hellhounds, a hell prince, an archangel, and a pissed off diva, Eddie wasn’t about to roll over for two suits. “That would really depend on what you’re doing here and why you want to see me.”
“Ms. Ward.” He straightened the cuffs on his jacket. “I’m afraid I’m going to insist we have this conversation inside. Preferably somewhere private.”
“Yeah.” Still not going to let these suits into her theatre. “And I’m going to have to insist you state your business before that happens.”
The younger man took a determined step in her direction. His companion put out his arm to stop him. “No need for that, Oliver.” He gave Eddie a thin smile. “Not at this point. Actually, Ms. Ward, we are here to speak with Deandra Ward. She will know who we are.”
With spidey senses tweaking, Eddie played dumb. “Dee?”
“That is correct.” Tall, dark, and intimidating nodded.
