“Then give me the knowledge that empowers me.” He needed to understand this, or there was no future for them. “Give me choices.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Yesterday—who probably wouldn’t see tomorrow if Wrath had anything to do with it—had produced a date and time for a rebel demon meeting. Since his return minus Haziel from the horsemen’s resting place, he had thrown himself into activity. He didn’t want to think about the gnawing ache in his chest, so he drove himself to get to the root of what was happening with the demons and the seals. Still, in those quiet moments when he rested, sparkling green eyes, velvety dusky skin, and a sweet laugh chased him back into action again. She’d gone with Ramiel. Worse than that, she’d begged him to let her go.
And he, like the fucking idiot he was, had let her. When was he going to learn around females? They all fucking left sooner or later. The ones that made him feel things did, in any case. One glimmer of a silver lining in this whole clusterfuck was that his loss of Haziel had put in perspective any lingering fondness he might have felt for Rosabella.
She was constantly around, batting her lashes at him and pouting in a way that used to make him want to move hell for her. Now her heavy-handed attempts at ingratiation made him want to punch shit. Actually, he pretty much wanted to punch shit as a default right now.
Just when Wrath was warming up enough to Shade not to want to eviscerate him on sight, they stood outside the theatre with Wrath unable to believe he was looking at Eddie standing there beside Shade. And Shade would do as his first punching bag.
“She asked me to let her make her own decisions.” Shade shrugged. “To give her choices.”
“Choices?” Wrath spat. Choices that could very well get her dead. Haziel had made a choice, and it hadn’t been him. Rosabella had made that same choice. Now Shade wanted him to condone him sending his daughter right into the belly of the beast.
“Yup.” Dee slid out of the backstage door and joined them. “We all need them.”
And Wrath’s night slid into his top three worst ever. Fucking choices! This was the problem with humans. They always insisted on choices in matters they were woefully ill-equipped to make decisions about. For the sake of his budding relationship with his daughter, he kept the rancor out of his tone. “These are not matters that involve humans.”
“Beg to differ there, big man.” Dee thumped his shoulder. “This affects all of us. You go boom, and we all go boom.”
“Dee?” Eddie frowned down at her grandmother. “What are you doing here?”
“Me?” Dee’s eyes went all innocent and wide behind her pink zebra print glasses. “I thought we were infiltrating a secret demon meeting. That’s what I’m doing here.” She shrugged and grinned at Eddie. “But if we’re just going for a burger and a beer, I’m down with that too.” Hauling a heaven wrought blade out from under her sweatshirt, she grimaced. “But I’ll probably leave this behind if we’re doing the burger and beer thing.”
Wrath felt the growl building in his core, and he closed on Shade. They’d agreed—him, Shade, and Sophia—that they would handle this quietly and on their own. He refused to be like Ramiel and send others into danger. “Did you tell everyone?”
“Eddie forced the information out of me.” Shade grinned down at Eddie, his expression softening. “She can be very persuasive.”
“Stop it.” Wrath pounded his arm. He did not want to hear any of that about his daughter. “Don’t do that. Don’t think that. Don’t even imagine that.”
Eddie smiled and stepped closer to him. “There is nothing like that going on.”
“Yet,” Shade murmured.
Aaaand that was enough for Wrath. He threw a punch that sent Shade flying across the parking lot and into the side of the large trash containers at the far end.
“Satanus!” Sophia snapped and shoved his chest. “There is no need for that.”
There was every need. “You heard what he said about my daughter.”
“Standing right here.” Sophia glared at him. “And I told Dee about this outing.”
Wrath gaped at her, not sure he’d heard right, or able to make any sense of what she’d said in case he had heard right. She had been right beside him as they’d snapped the hold the horsemen had on his broken Haziel. “Why?”
“Because she’s the guardian.” Sophia smoothed her hair back into the braid she’d contained it in. “And she deserves to know.”
“Ex-guardian.” Daniel Lee stepped around the corner and made an apologetic face at Dee. “Sorry, Dee, but officially you’re no longer the guardian.”
Dee stiffened and glared at Sophia. “What’s he doing here?”
“The same thing you are.” Daniel winked at Dee. “Either we’re infiltrating a secret meeting or going for a burger and a beer. Personally, a cheese and bacon burger with fries and a micro IPA would be my vote, but I’ll go with the crowd.”
Wrath’s head felt like it might explode. He wouldn’t risk one more person he cared about. He couldn’t see another being that meant something to him damaged. Breathing deep, he forced the image of Haziel’s horrific injuries out of his mind.
Eddie put a hand on his chest. “Dad.”
And everything in him stilled. All the anger, all the frustration, all awareness of anyone around him. His mind even took a break from the mental replaying of Haziel bleeding and broken in his arms. Eddie had called him Dad, and nothing else existed in that moment. His child had acknowledged their blood bond, and tears burned behind his eyelids.
“Dad,” Eddie said it a second time. “Look, I know you wanted to keep this between you, Shade, and Sophia. But I can help. I’m Nephilim, and after what those fuckers did to me, I want to see them. I want to look my enemy in the eye and be part of bringing them down.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Shade had made it back from his dumpster dive. “There will be no bringing down tonight, Eddie. We go, we observe, and we gain information. Then we leave and do the burger and beer thing.”
Wrath barely heard him. All he saw was those aqua eyes of his little girl staring up at him, begging him to understand. How the fuck did human fathers ever deny their daughters anything? If she’d asked him to rip the moon from the skies and give it to her as a night light, he would have done it. If she’d asked him to wrap her in the entrails of her enemies—one entrails comforter coming right up. “I don’t want you to get hurt again.” Not like Haziel. Yes, Ramiel had sent her there alone, but Wrath had ridden in the car beside her. Been right there when the horsemen’s power had latched onto her and refused to release her. The need to touch Eddie overcame him and he cupped her cheek. “I can’t let you get hurt.”
“I know.” Eddie held his hand against her cheek. “And I appreciate that. But who’s going to hurt me with you and Shade there to keep me safe? Is there even a being in this universe who could?” Her eyes beseeched him. “I have to do this. I have to not be their blind victim anymore.”
She made an excellent point this being of his blood and heart. “Okay.” His voice was gruff with the emotions he could not put into words. “But you stay by me or Shade the entire time. No going off on your own. No heroics and don’t speak to anyone.”
“We’ve already been through this.” Shade gave Eddie a loaded glance. “She sticks by me, or you, and she keeps her head down.”
At least the fucker was good for helping him try to keep his daughter safe.
“Oy!” Sophia jabbed a thumb at her chest. “One archangel, standing right here and not at all incapable of taking care of Eddie.”
“Sorry, Sophia.” Eddie took her hand. “I know you’re just as kickass as these two.” She looked at him and Shade. “And Sophia has been teaching me how to control my power and to fight.”
