Lina looked at each of them with a favorable smile. “Cool names. I like names with the letter Z in them. They sound mysterious. Classy.” She tilted her head at me, grinning. “Ever thought about changing your name to Mazon, Mason?”
Ugh. My first nephilim encounter, and I hated her guts already.
21
“While I appreciate the phone call, Mr. Albrecht, I cannot say that I appreciate the circumstances surrounding it.”
Maharani sounded more tired than angry on the other end of the line. I recognized the timbre of her voice. It sounded a lot like resignation.
“We’re not happy about it either,” I said, pacing back and forth outside my hut, out of earshot of the others. “We managed to save just the one nephilim, but that was already a huge production.”
She groaned. “Don’t remind me. We already have a team of Mouths spinning the Cornucopia fire. Faulty electrical wiring, of course, because what else are we going to tell the public? And just for safety, we also have people shutting down the dimensional meat locker. I confess, I am not pleased to learn about Dionysus’s involvement.”
I coughed. “I’d call it negligence, honestly. He likes to have his fun, but I can’t really call the guy malicious.”
“I would be more inclined to believe you, Mr. Albrecht, if you were not such good friends with others within his pantheon. The goddess Artemis, for one thing, and then there’s Apollo. But let’s save discussions of conflicts of interest for later. We will be very interested in registering your rescued nephilim in the near future. The international arcane authorities – the cooperative ones, at least – have been alerted about the potential threats to their constituents.”
These weren’t other branches of the Lorica, but actual regional organizations. I’d heard of the Hooded Council, who oversaw the entirety of Europe, and there was also an alliance of Southeast Asian countries. We’d have to count on them for help, because what was the alternative? Flying to every single location on my own two wings?
“Understood,” I said. “We’ll work on things locally. If we move fast, my friends and I can cover more ground in California, help you out with – ”
“No, Mr. Albrecht. I’m afraid your talents will be wasted on such a task. Leave that to the Lorica. We need you to nip this in the bud.”
My heart did a somersault. The memory of Asher’s voice saying something in the back of my mind returned, something about cutting the head off the snake. Last time, it was Leviathan. And this time?
“Beelzebub,” I breathed. “You want us to take care of him.”
“A euphemistic way to put it, but yes. The Prince of Gluttony demands results, but even he cannot be in too many places at once. His minions will carry the brunt of the dirty work. He may have even returned to his prime hell. A demon prince would not show his hand so readily unless he has something truly diabolical in store. The Seven barely respect the secrecy of the Veil as it is, but a global attack on so many targets? Unprecedented.”
An awful, queasy feeling tingled at the bottom of my spine. She was right. But how does someone go about finding a demon prince? How do you find a swarm of insects?
“I’ll get in touch if we hear anything else,” I said, feeling even more anxious than when the call had started.
“Be sure to call me, not Royce.” There was a pause, and she sighed. “Yes, I just confirmed. He has snapped his phone in half. Again. Actually, do call him. Reach out with your mind. He will hear you. He won’t be happy to, but his telepathy will recognize your signature.”
Royce’s voice spoke gruffly in the background. “Tell him I want to put my right foot up his signature.”
Rani’s words came out muffled, like she’d tried, unsuccessfully, to cover the mic on her phone. “This isn’t the boy’s fault, Royce. You’ve nearly exhausted our entire budget for replacement phones this month. I should ask HR to put that funding towards anger management for you instead.”
I bit my tongue, pretending I hadn’t heard a thing, hearing Royce’s grumbling fade away as he stomped off.
“Mason? Locate the prince, if you can. Exhaust all your options. And let us know what you find. The Lorica will help. This, I promise.”
“Thanks, Rani,” I mumbled.
“Stay alive, Mason Albrecht.”
She hung up, and the day felt even gloomier, even with the sun still up in Paradise. I looked at the others gathered in the dimension’s central grounds. There was an oddly cheery air to the conversation, but I could sense that everyone was mostly putting it on. We all understood what was at stake. I marched towards the group, all talk falling silent as they saw me approach.
“So,” I said. “The Lorica is doing what it can to locate the other nephilim and fight off Beelzebub’s minions.”
An exhalation of relief went up from everyone, but most especially Sadriel. “I should be going myself,” she said. “I need to mobilize my department. It’s all this bureaucracy and paperwork standing in the way of action. There aren’t enough to help, but we will do what we can to protect the others. DEAD needs to look out for its own.”
I shook my head. “You guys really need to think about a different name.”
She sniffed. “It’s an unfortunate acronym, to be sure, but it covers the bases. We watch adolescent extracelestials for delinquency. And now we must use those same tools to fight for their lives.”
“A question,” Sam said, patting Lina on the shoulder. “She’s a teenager. Literally an adolescent. How did your people not pick up on that? Fifteen. It’s right there in the number. Teen.”
Sadriel coughed softly and adjusted her glasses. “Like I said, there aren’t a lot of angels in our department. The people upstairs don’t much care for Grigori, or your offspring.
