“Now this is where it gets interesting. Around 1800, a New Englander named Jedediah Proctor had a vision. Jesus came to tell him that, because of his death on the cross, he had redeemed not only the souls of all mankind but the souls of the Nephilim, too. The reason Jesus was giving this intel to Proctor was because Proctor, himself, was a descendant of the Nephilim. Although the Christian god decided to give the half-breeds a second chance, he attached a few caveats.
“Proctor was to go around and gather together the descendants of the Nephilim who by this time were scattered all over the world. They were to band together in communities and behave themselves until the Second Coming. If they were all good boys when the big day came the Christian god would restore them to the rank of angel first class in heaven. If they weren’t so good, not only would they go to hell, but they would be transformed into demons and join the ranks of Lucifer’s satanic minions for all eternity. So, no pressure there.”
“You said boys,” Cassie noted. “What about the girl angels?”
“No such animal,” Maddie stated flatly. “The Nephilim is strictly a boys’ club. They believe only males carry the angelic bloodline. The girls are descendants of their human mothers—breeding stock and nothing more. This creates a little bit of a problem for the cult. Hard to get a date when the girls don’t get any special perks come Judgment Day. It’s an even bigger problem because the Blessed Nephilim are expected to breed in a big way. Jedediah Proctor was told that the Christian god was so disappointed in humans that he wanted the Nephilim to multiply and build up an angelic kingdom on earth. That’s one of the reasons they’re polygamous. They have huge families. The women, aka brood mares, are called consecrated brides to distinguish them from you and me, aka Fallen women. They get a pat on the head for being the wives and mothers of angels, and that’s how they get a guaranteed ticket to heaven. By building up the angelic kingdom. The more kids they crank out, especially males, the higher their status upstairs.”
The girl raised dubious eyebrows. “And this Jedediah actually got people to believe him? To follow him?”
“In droves. For the past two hundred years, their numbers have been growing. They keep to themselves mostly and try to avoid contamination from the outside world while they wait for the Second Coming. When Jedediah Proctor died, he passed on his prophetic powers to his successor who is known as the ‘Diviner.’ The diviner claims to get direct revelation from their god about what they’re supposed to do. He’s like the pope and what he says goes. Weird, huh?”
Cassie nodded. “Weird doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Maddie continued. “I wouldn’t care how weird their cult is if they minded their own business, but now they’re messing with us. When Erik followed Leroy Hunt from Sybil’s apartment on the night he broke in, he ended up at the Blessed Nephilim headquarters out in the sticks.”
Cassie was mystified. “I don’t understand. If the Arkana collects artifacts that are pre-biblical, what would this Nephilim cult want with the stone key?”
“Aha!” Maddie jabbed the air for emphasis with a sharp fingernail. “That’s the $64,000- dollar question, and we still don’t know the answer.”
“Maybe it’s what Griffin said. There are lots of overlord sects that would try to destroy the Arkana if they could.”
“You mean one artifact at a time?” the older woman asked jokingly. “That’s got to make for some pretty slow going. Besides, the Nephilim don’t know we exist.”
“They don’t?” The girl was flabbergasted. “Then how did they track down Sybil? They had to know she was the pythia.”
“I don’t think they did. I’m guessing they just blundered across an artifact that they wanted at the same time Sybil was going after it. She was an antique dealer, so they wouldn’t question why she might want it. Something like this has happened a few times before.”
“With the Nephilim?”
Maddie leaned forward across her desk to retrieve her lighter and a pack of cigarettes. “I haven’t had a cigarette all morning, and I’m dying for a smoke. Let’s continue this discussion topside.”
The pair walked to the elevator where Maddie swiped her keycard. Once they started their ascent, she picked up the thread of the conversation. “Now where did I leave off?”
“You said that the Nephilim had taken some Arkana artifacts before this,” Cassie prompted.
“Right. These other episodes happened before I joined the Arkana, so I’m vague on the details. The first time was about twenty-five years ago in the Balkans. Somebody from the recovery team was murdered, and an artifact was intercepted. Then about ten years ago, something similar happened in the Middle East. A team of ours was after an Asherah artifact. She was the main goddess of the Canaanites before the Hebrews invaded the area. By the time we figured out what had happened, two of our operatives were missing, and the artifact was gone. We eventually traced that theft to the Nephilim too.”
Cassie felt a vague sense of uneasiness at Maddie’s words—a memory being jogged loose somewhere at the back of her consciousness. She dismissed it, for the time being, more intent on understanding the strange behavior of the Nephilim. The elevator doors opened on the second floor. They strolled down the long hallway with its vacant offices and meeting rooms.
When they
