Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)(42)

A prickly chill of disbelief coursed through me.

I did the math. “So, twelve Dukes, six hundred fifty-four whisperers, or Legionnaires... where do the Nephilim figure in?”

“We’re just a by-product. We don’t count as human, but also don’t qualify as being part of the demon Legionnaires. We work for our fathers and keep our mouths shut. That’s it.”

All I could do was nod, feeling sick as he continued.

“There used to be more Dukes. At one time there was one for each of the Ten Commandments, in addition to those that cover the seven deadly sins, but many of them became obsolete. They change as necessary. Lies and adultery are the only two of the Ten Commandments still represented. The Dukes specialize during each lifetime based on the state of society they’re in at that time. My father specializes currently in pornography.”

I held a bottle of water in my lap, forcing back the nausea that crept up as he spoke.

“I hear your father had a good run with alcohol last century,” he continued. “But in this lifetime it’s drugs. Demons feel a pull in the direction of their specialty, and their offspring get a taste of it as well. Being female, you probably have additional senses, like being able to tell when others have addictive natures, am I right?”

I nodded, thinking of how I saw it in Jay. “But what does being female have to do with it?”

“I’m not certain, but female Neph always seem to be more sensitive to things. Female intuition or whatever. My father’s past daughters were able to sense virgins and fertility, as my father does, but I can’t.”

“That’s interesting. Okay, what else?”

“Yep. Let’s see. I suppose you should know that positions of Dukes are highly sought after among the demons. They all want a chance in human form. There’s even been warring among the dark spirits. Lucifer himself would prefer to be on earth, but he’s bound to hell, along with his right- and left-hand warriors, Beelzebub and Ammadeus.”

“They can’t leave?” I asked, allowing a surge of relief to surface.

“No, they can’t. Lucifer lives vicariously through the Dukes and Legionnaires.”

“Why are there so few demons on earth? He could send up all of them if he wanted to, right?”

“I suppose he could, but it’s all run as a sort of clandestine operation, which is ironic, since everyone in heaven must know what the dark ones are up to. But Lucifer seems to want to stay under the radar, so to speak.”

“He’s scared,” I thought out loud.

“The thing is,” Kaidan said, ignoring my comment, “the Legionnaires can’t make humans do anything. They can’t take away a person’s free will. They place ideas into their heads. Period. But humans are self-centered by nature. Half the time the demons are only telling them what they want to hear—encouraging their selfish instincts.”

These were unpleasant things to hear. Kaidan breezed through it, giving me the straight facts as though quoting from a demon textbook.

“Do the Dukes whisper to people? I mean, what do they actually do?”

“No, they can’t whisper in human form, but they have certain verbal abilities of persuasion. The Dukes weave themselves into society, landing in positions of influence over leaders and societal powerhouses.”

“They don’t try to become the leaders?” I asked.

“Never. Remember, the point of their jobs is to get humans to claw their way to the top and rip their own souls to shreds in the meantime.”

The way he talked about humans made me sad. It was impossible not to think about the people who were being manipulated. The heartache. The fact that my own father played a heavy hand in this evil game.

Kaidan wrinkled his brow at me and said, “You’ve sprung a leak.”

I swiped my hands across my wet cheeks. Ugh! I gave an annoyed wave of my hand. “I always cry when I’m emotional, which is pretty much all the time. Just ignore me and keep going, please.”

He sighed and passed a tractor trailer, then took a swig of water before continuing.

“Okay, so the Dukes are placed strategically around the earth and they move as needed. They meet once a year to see where each demon will do the most damage, except the ones who are confined, like your father. There are three Dukes here in the United States right now: my father, your father, and Melchom, the Duke of Envy. Each Duke gets a quarterly visit from Lucifer’s personal demon messenger, Azael. They give him a report of their work and the state of humanity, which is passed along to Lucifer. I hear he’s satisfied with how things are going these days.”

“But humans are good, too,” I argued. “I’m sure plenty of people are resilient.”

“I suppose, but even the devout have weaknesses. The demons have to take different measures with different cultures, because some are more accepting of sin, while others are stricter. It’s all a matter of semantics and presentation. They come up with ingenious ways to promote pain and apathy, kind of like marketing schemes. Seek pleasure. Eat, drink, and be merry. Carpe diem.”

“Seize the day,” I whispered.

The hotel outside of Albuquerque was an improvement over the first night’s. Kaidan turned on his music player, placing it on the nightstand between our beds. I was starting to think of his playlist as the sound track for our trip.