“It’s for the best!” Gabe replied. “Look at what we’re finding out. I don’t think we should leave her alone right now. What if this bloody Brotherhood goes after her? Or do you want me to ask Lucien to be a bodyguard? Or Barak? Or Eli, perhaps?” There was a glint of amusement in Gabe’s expression now.
Niel’s grin broadened, and he expanded the tease. The ring was egging him on, urging him to unsettle Nahum. “I’m sure Eli would be only too pleased to comfort Olivia while you’re away.”
“I know what you two are suggesting, but I’m pretty sure that Eli wouldn’t seduce Olivia while pregnant with my child!”
“But her hormones will be raging, brother,” Niel said, “and she looked radiant at New Year. A good-looking woman! No wonder you couldn’t help yourself.”
Ash intervened, sweeping the ring into the spelled box as Nahum’s hands clenched into fists. “Let’s get rid of this, shall we? Before tempers flare.”
The box shut with a bang and Belial’s whispers instantly vanished.
Chastened, but only slightly, because Niel was enjoying getting his own back after all the teasing he had endured over Mouse, he said, “Gabe is right. All of us would hate for anything to happen to her. Maybe you should both leave London for a while. Find a place no one knows about.”
Shadow smirked. “A love nest?”
“Shadow!” Nahum took a deep breath, a resigned expression crossing his face. “I know you think this is funny, and yes, you can tease me. Go ahead! I slept with her—once—and now she’s pregnant. I didn’t foresee this, and if I had known, well, I wouldn’t have. I’m ruining her life.” He sank into a chair, staring at the table. “The last thing I want to do is crowd her.”
All of them stared at each other over his head, and compassion swept over Niel. He sat down next to him. “That’s not true. You are not ruining her life. She could have chosen to abort her, but hasn’t. She wants this, Nahum, and that means she wants you—and all of us, too—in her life. When she visited us, she was happy! She fitted right in. I think you’re more worried than she is.”
Nahum looked up, eyes locking with Niel. “What if I’m not father material? Or even a good partner, in whatever capacity that is? I’ve never done this before. My marriage was a sham. This life was supposed to avoid that.”
“Then you would have been avoiding living. You cannot completely avoid connections, or love, or lust, or else you’d be dead! Or merely existing. And love and relationships are painful.” He looked across at Shadow and his brothers, who had also sat at the table now, their mood sombre. “You all know about me and Lilith, but I wouldn’t have missed all of that for anything. It’s life, in all of its messy, glorious strangeness. It’s what we fought to eradicate, and then fought to save. It’s why we’re hunting down Belial and his damn Brotherhood. It’s meant to be, Nahum.” He felt a bit emotional, as he always became when dwelling on such things. It’s why he channelled his feelings into aggression half the time. It kept his ridiculous romantic side in check. “I want to be an uncle, and you will be an amazing father.”
Nahum’s eyes filled with tears. “Brother.”
“Oh, you two,” Shadow sniffed. “You’re even getting to me.”
“I’m serious, though,” Nahum continued. “Should I suggest that I stay in a hotel room?”
“What good will that do?” Gabe asked, rolling his eyes. “You have to move in. I’m not saying forever, just for now! I could phone her, if that’s what you’re worried about? I’ll tell her it’s my idea, and she can’t say no.”
“No!” Nahum took a deep breath, pulling himself together. “No, I will. It’s all taking some time to get used to. You know, how all of this will work.”
Shadow’s natural sarcasm returned. “You better get a move on. Seven months to baby time.”
“Yes, thank you for that reminder.” Nahum didn’t move, though. “I can’t just sit in London and do nothing. I must help in some way.”
“I’m sure Jackson has a list of things to follow up. Or even JD,” Ash said. “If I think of anything, I’ll let you know. Maybe look at the map and pursue the northeasterly idea. Did you buy one?”
Shadow extracted the item in question from her pack. “It’s the biggest we could find. Niel and I had a few ideas while we were smashing things. Ooh! And we discovered that Belial’s statue was carrying a horn. Do you think that’s important?”
Ash blinked. “A horn?”
“Yes, and jewels were carved onto the statue, just like the ones under the church. They were identical! It must mean something.”
Ash turned to Gabe. “You must remember his special horn? It induced a type of madness any time he blew it—triggered a bloodlust among his Nephilim, as well as everyone else. It’s what made his battles so…horrific.”
Gabe narrowed his eyes, gaze distant. “I do, actually, but strangely I’d forgotten about it until now. I never heard it, though. I just heard about it through others.”
“Have either of you?” Ash asked. Niel and Nahum shook their heads. “Well, I heard it. It was unearthly, and like his jewels it got under your skin and into your brain. If that exists here, we’re in big trouble.”
“Why?”
“Its sound carries for miles. It would have a far wider ranging effect than the jewels. It could be devastating.”
“Surely that means,” Niel reasoned, “that they haven’t got it, or they would have used it already.”
“Unless they have a specific time they are waiting for,” Nahum suggested. “Although, I’m sure its effects would be devastating whatever time it was used.”
Gabe stopped their conversation. “This is just supposition. We’ll keep the horn in mind, but we focus on The Brotherhood.” His phone started ringing, and he frowned when he saw the caller. “It’s Theo! I’ll take it outside.”
“Theo?” Niel asked, excitement building. “It must be about the Templar treasure!”
Theo Carmichael was the rich owner of Temple Keep, and as the name suggested, it had once belonged to the last Master of England who served the Knights Templar. Theo had instigated the search for the lost Templar treasure, and they had found some of it deep beneath the church in Temple Moreton. Not without running into descendants of the Templars, however. After a fierce battle, the Nephilim had given them the instructions to find other caches, and Theo had generously agreed to split the money they would earn for the treasure. It had been in the British Museum for months since then, being evaluated.
Ash moved his laptop and spread the map across the table. “Perhaps they have come to a decision about money! That would be good news in the middle of all this. Now, let us search this northeasterly line.”
He put a cross on the map where the church was in Florence, and then marked the position of Amato’s house. “Okay, so roughly, if I draw a line to the northeast through these two points, and focus on the bigger cities, we cross the edge of Venice, head into Austria, skirting Linz, and on from there into the Czech Republic, and then Poland. If we go southwest, it will take us to Corsica, Algiers, and Morocco. After that it’s the Atlantic, and north is Finland. Do those places suggest anything to you?”
Niel shrugged, “Not particularly.”
“Perhaps,” Nahum said, “they’ll mean something to Jackson.”
“We could at least research big churches and cathedrals,” Shadow suggested.
“There’ll be so many,” Ash told her. “And there’s no guarantee there will be any churches involved. We need more to go on.”
Gabe entered the room, more cheerful than Niel had seen him in weeks. “Good news! The British Museum has agreed to an amount of money to award us, and we have Theo and his influence to thank for that. I think it would have taken a lot longer otherwise.”
