Page 72 of How to Trust a Hellhound
“What is it that you seek?” I asked. “We only want our friend returned safely. We have no access to the son of Cain’s money and fortune, if that’s what you search for.”
The Nephilim laughed gleefully. “Oh, no, we do not seek hisfortune, although we wouldn’t turn it down. The real prize was the son of Cain.”
“We have no interest in him. Give us back those that belong to us, and we shall part ways,” I answered.
“You want your friend? Follow me, and I’ll bring you to him. I warn you that your hellfire cannot harm me, but it would be detrimental to the building and all those in it, including your mortals.” She motioned her head toward Thea, who was standing calmly with a knife at her neck, looking bored.
The Nephilim walked through the door, expecting us to follow, and I turned to look at Thea again. She actually rolled her eyes at me and made a slight gesture with her hand, telling us to go ahead. I didn’t like leaving her behind, but if they thought she was mortal, perhaps they wouldn’t hurt her. I turned and followed the Nephilim, hoping I was making the right decision. I heard Thea mumbling softly to her captor as Corbin, Josh, and I made our way through the doorway.
Some of the other robed figures followed behind us, but I focused on the woman in front of us. Her burnt, wrong smell was the strongest of any of them. She led us through the house and to a padlocked door, which she opened, leading us down a flight of steps. Once down in the basement, there was another door. I wished Thea were there to make some quip about horror movies, because this would have amused her for sure.
“It really is kind of cliched,” Josh murmured, like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
I moved my hand to the back of his neck, giving him a squeeze. We went down another set of stairs, which ended in another door. She opened it, and I could see a large round stone chamber inside. She walked through, but Corbin, Josh, and I stopped in front of the doorway.
I suddenly realized why she smelled so wrong, and why she had both demonic and angelic features. “Inbreeding,” I murmured.
She turned and looked at me. “Selective breeding,” she corrected. “The original Nephilim started the order, and they made sure to keep the bloodlines as pure as possible. It has kept us powerful, although some lines have flourished more than others.”
We stepped into the room, and Josh gasped as he saw Sebbie chained to the stone wall, sitting with his back against it, legs stretched out in front of him. He looked okay as he glanced up at us, but the old man who was unchained and laying in his lap didnotlook okay. He was skeletal, most of his hair was gone, and his skin was gray and wrinkled. It was like he had been mummified, but I saw his chest rising and falling, so I knew he was breathing.
I took a sharp inhale as I realized who I was looking at.
“Yes. As you can see, you won’t have to worry about the Son of Cain anymore,” the woman said.
“This is evil work,” Corbin stated, and I heard the anger underlying his words.
“He is an evil man,” she answered calmly.
“What does that make you?” Corbin asked, tilting his head at her.
The other Nephilim had crowded behind us, blocking the doorway. I had no doubt that we could fight our way through them all, but I wasn’t sure if we could do it before Sebbie was injured.
Hellfire would have been the practical solution, and although I wasn’t sure she was telling the truth about being immune to it, there was too great a possibility she, and some of the others, actually were. They were Nephilim, after all, and if they had strong demonic ancestry, an immunity to hellfire was likely. I couldn’t chance them retaliating and hurting Sebbie.
The Nephilim woman finally answered Corbin’s question. “It makes us a necessary evil. We know about the afterlife. How wrong things have gone. How the universe is breaking apart. The original Nephilim wanted the destruction of the universe, but in later centuries, we realized that goal was shortsighted.”
“World domination for the win,” Thea said from behind me, and the man who was holding her brought her through the others and into the room, going over to stand next to Sebbie.
The Nephilim woman bared her teeth at him, but he seemed unfazed. “They won’t attack with both their humans here,” he responded.
I had known they thought Thea was a human, but I hadn’t realized they thought Josh was a hellhound. If they knew he was human, I had no doubt they would have tried to take him away from us as well, and then I would have had no choice but to act.
“You think too small, little girl,” the woman hissed. “We want what was rightfully ours and was denied to us.”
“Immortality,” I said, looking at the husk of the old man in Sebbie’s lap.
Somehow, they were draining the descendant of Cain and stealing his immortality. I didn’t know how they were doing it, and I wouldn’t have thought it possible if the evidence wasn’t in front of me. The man’s very life force was sucked dry, his soul just a small sliver in his body.
Corbin hadn’t said a word, which was beginning to concern me. He seemed… mesmerized. He was staring at Sebbie, who was looking down at the old man in his lap. Corbin moved to sit down on the floor, crossing his legs. The Nephilim glanced at him, but she did nothing, probably because he seemed less of a threat now than before.
She turned her attention back to Josh and I. “Immortality… and control of the universe. Why destroy what we can instead control?”
“You’re insane,” Josh whispered hoarsely.
“No, I’m afraid not, hellhound. Although perhaps you’ll wish I was,” she answered.
From the folds of her cloak, she pulled a dagger. It was a plain-looking thing, the hilt and the blade both made of the same metal. Itwas silver in color, slightly tarnished looking, and if I hadn’t felt the power emanating from it, I might have mistaken it for a regular weapon.
