Page 107 of Lust

“Now, we need to deal with that situation downstairs.” Dee uncurled from the bed and stood. She launched into a sun salutation.

“Where’s Jean-Claude?”

“I left him on the cruise.” Dee popped her hips up into a downward dog. “He’s a lovely boy, but not the brightest, and all this would be too much for him.”

It was all too much for her, Eddie wanted to wail. “I don’t suppose we could kick them all out and tell them to sort it out somewhere else?”

“No.” Dee unrolled into mountain pose. “We want to keep them where we know you’re going to be safe. And between Wrath and Asmodeus, here seems the best place.” Dee clapped her palms together in prayer. “What is the situation with you and Asmodeus?”

“Nothing.” Eddie didn’t even want to go there. She felt things for Shade, for sure, but then he was the hell prince of lust, so anyone with a pulse would feel things for him. “He came through the hell gate injured, and I helped him. That’s it.”

Dee cocked her head and stared at Eddie. “Hmm?” She started a second sun salutation. “We should go down there and see what’s happening.”

“Do we have to?”

“Yup.” As limber as an eighteen-year-old, Dee folded forward. “The guardians are in there, and we need to keep an eye on them.”

“But you’re a guardian.” Eddie was sure she’d pull a muscle if she tried yoga.

“I’m a different kind of guardian,” Dee said as she table-topped her back. “I don’t believe the hell princes are evil or that the archangels are on a power trip.” She popped into a lunge. “And I definitely do not believe all Nephilim should be destroyed.”

“Thanks for that.” There was one silver lining.

“Eddie-girl.” Dee approached her and cupped her face in her hands. “You’re my granddaughter, and I love and adore you. I am not going to let anything happen to you.” She tapped Eddie’s nose with a forefinger. “But we can’t hide up here and pretend none of this is happening. There’s obviously a big problem in hell, and our hell gate is getting all the action. We need to make sure that we’re part of whatever next steps are taking place.”

Eddie closed her eyes and inhaled the familiar mint and vanilla scent of Dee. “Are you sure we can’t hide.”

“Eddie.” Dee chuckled. “The hiding thing didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped with you. And besides”—she gave Eddie’s head a little shake—“you should make an effort to get to know your father. You might like him.”

Eddie didn’t see that happening, and she pulled a face. “Let’s go and see what they’re all talking about.”

Eddie and Dee shouldered their way into the packed greenroom.

With so many impossibly beautiful beings in one place, Eddie found it impossible not to stare.

A red-haired angel dressed in a beautiful tailored gray skirt suit stood in the middle of the greenroom with a tablet in her hands. Her fiery hair was neatly contained in a gleaming chignon. She was trying to make herself heard above the noise of so many raised voices. Everyone seemed to be talking at once.

Shade sauntered over and took Eddie’s hand. “That’s Gabriel,” he murmured. “Try not to shove that tablet up her ass. It’s what we’re all doing.”

“This is most irregular,” Gabriel shouted, her eyes on the tablet screen. “It completely contravenes all the terms of the treaty.”

Chris was on his feet, thrusting his forefinger at Gabriel. “Wrath and Asmodeus broke the terms of the treaty by assaulting me and my men.” His men stood behind him, hands uniformly folded in front of them. Including the one who had fired that bolt into Xerxes.

Eddie gave him a look to let him know all was not forgotten or forgiven.

Ramiel spotted Eddie and stood. “The Nephilim is here.”

He didn’t raise his voice, but his words brought instant silence to the greenroom. All eyes swung Eddie’s way and stuck.

“Nephilim.” A huge archangel dressed like a gladiator glared at her. “Abomination.”

Growling, Wrath leapt to his feet. “You touch one hair on her head, and I will end you, Michael.”

“Don’t make me laugh.” Michael sneered. Like all the archangels, he was beautiful, but his was a harsh, brutal sort of beauty that made Eddie take a step back.

“You won’t be laughing when I shove your head up your ass,” Wrath roared.

Michael’s wings sprang from his back, pure white with gleaming silver filaments. His shoulder-length hair blew back as if he had his own fan operating. The term avenging angel sprang immediately to mind. He put a broad hand on the hilt of a gleaming, opalescent sword hanging from his waist. “I will end you, hell scum.”

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