Page 71 of How to Trust a Hellhound
Thea sighed. “Definitely horror movie shit. So trite, though.” With that, she led the way, walking up the steps and into the house.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but the inside of the house was well-kept, if sparsely furnished. There was a hallway and then a door at the end of it, which was an odd set-up. Thea took the lead, opening the door at the end of the hallway. She wasn’t attacked, and I could see past her to a large room that was currently empty. She walked in, and we all followed.
The door shut behind us, the lights went off, and Thea scoffed as a door across the room opened up and people filed through it. They were all wearing robes and carrying candles.
“Oh, brother. Not even original,” Thea mumbled under her breath.
Josh stifled a slightly hysterical giggle. They were all mostly human, and they were all rotten. That slightly burnt flavor existed on all of them, but it was a faint trace.
“Behold Death, majestic in her beauty, triumphant in—” a man’s voice started, but Thea cut him off.
“Yeah, yeah, we get it. Can we get this show on the road, please?” she complained.
What appeared to be an angel came in through the door, her wings flaring out behind her. She wasn’t an angel, though. She was… wrong.
She wore an all black robe, her hair was long and dark, and two small grey horns protruded from her forehead. Her wings were a beautiful white color, fully feathered, but there was something off about them that I couldn’t quite place. It was almost like it was a costume, because it didn’t look totally real. I had seen angels, and I had seen demons, and she didn’t quite look right for either. The burnt smell emanated most strongly from her—she smelled of angel, demon, and rotten soul.
She stepped up onto a dais, which made Thea snort. She bared her teeth at that, and they were all pointed and sharp.
“Oh my god, did you seriously file your teeth?” Thea asked. “Because that’s just so 2010, girlfriend. And the horns are cute, but the wings need some work, don’t they?”
The woman hissed at that, and I noticed it then. Her wings were real, but most of the feathers were not. I thought without the artificial additions, her wings would be a patchy mess.
“Nephilim,” I said, the realization suddenly coming to me. That was the underlying odor, but it was so distorted it had been hard to place.
Corbin and Thea both looked at me, confused. I didn’t blame them. They were both relatively young, and the only Nephilim they had seen looked just like people. Nephilim of today might have some extra abilities, but their appearance was all mortal.
In the beginning, though, Nephilim had not always looked like humans. But that had been centuries ago, and although Nephilim had longer lives, they werenotimmortal.
“How?” I asked.
The woman—I refused to call her Death, even in my head—smiled at me.
“We have been here since the beginning, even though we were cast out and forgotten. We have cultivated our powers, being careful to keep our bloodlines pure and hidden from those like you. We have flourished in the darkness, in secret, but our time is near,” the woman said.
“For fuck’s sake,” Thea said, and I could literally hear the eye roll in her voice. “You sound like every other cult out there. Let me guess—you’re all going to off yourselves and take over the afterlife or some other crazy shit like that.”
The woman laughed, a high, tinkling sound that grated. “What use do we have for the afterlife? They all betrayed us. They left us here on Earth, and then they took away our dominion of this place.”
“Oh my god, really? World domination? That’s just so predictable,” Thea mocked.
“Human, your sharp tongue grows tiring. Perhaps my acolytes will cut it out so I’m not subjected to any more of your impertinence," the woman hissed.
I reached over and gently touched Thea’s elbow, hoping she understood. They didn’t know she was a hellhound. That could work in our favor, and I didn’t want her correcting the Nephilim.
“You’re all Nephilim,” I stated, attempting to draw attention away from Thea. “But I’ve had encounters with the Order before, and there were no Nephilim then.”
“You think we do not have humans who worship us and do our bidding? We didn’t have the means to deal with you then, so we stayed in the shadows,” she snarled.
Josh gripped me more tightly, and I understood his fear. Her words implied that shedidhave the ability to “deal with us” now. I couldn’t imagine what that meant, though.
“Where’s Sebbie?” Josh asked.
She turned her attention to him, which made my hackles rise. I couldn’t suppress my growl, but Josh just leaned into me.
“Your friend is safe—for now. A shame you didn’t bring the rest of your pack with you, although I imagine they’ll come along eventually.” She smiled then, and Josh shivered at her pointy teeth.
Thea was slightly ahead of us, and one of the men grabbed her and pulled her forward, a knife to her throat. I put my hand up slightly, cautioning Thea to remain compliant. I wanted them to continue believing she was human. I didn’t understand what they wanted, and it frustrated me. We needed every advantage we could get.
