Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)(56)

He stopped to look up at the ceiling. His heart still hurt after all this time. I rubbed his hands, encouraging him to continue.

“So, time passed and we heard stories about earth and humanity’s creation. Lucifer sent up spies. He became bolder and bolder, sending up rebel angels to turn humans against the Creator.”

His head suddenly snapped up and he looked over my shoulder. A strange hissing whisper came from deep in my father’s throat, and his eyes flashed bright red. I yanked my hands away. When he looked back at me he seemed completely normal.

“Sorry about that,” he said, distracted. “They’re not supposed to work in my territory.”

I couldn’t respond. The entire episode, lasting no more than two seconds, had been the most terrifying thing I’d ever witnessed. Was that inhuman hissing some sort of demon language? I looked around, but no one else had noticed.

“I didn’t mean to scare you. This isn’t exactly a conversation for their ears, you know?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I just didn’t understand at first, because I can’t see them.”

“Really?” His forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows came together in worry. “That could be a problem.”

I touched my necklace, still shaken.

“I might be wrong,” I said. “But it sounds to me like you actually respect God. I don’t understand how that can be, though, considering your... line of work.” I lowered my eyes, hoping he wasn’t offended.

“Ironic, huh?” His mouth hitched into a satirical grin. “I deserve hell. I was led astray too easily.”

His forearms were still on the table, open palms up. I slipped my hands into his again, and he squeezed them.

“I worked my way up the ladder in hell for selfish reasons. I heard each human was assigned a guardian angel, and I became obsessed with the possibility of seeing Mariantha again. Something about my dreary attitude and hard work must have impressed Lucifer, because I found myself earthbound in the 1700s, with the job of leading humans to eventual addiction.”

I felt a flicker of shame at the thought of drugs, and although I was careful to keep my colors hidden, my face was harder to control.

“I’m afraid I’ve been too successful,” he whispered. “I knew when I was made a Duke that I would have to do a good job to keep the position. It was horrible when I came to earth and saw the human souls trapped in their physical forms. They were miraculous creations, truly a work of genius and love. But they’re at odds with their own bodies. My job was too easy. I focused on seeing as many guardian angels as I could across the world, hundreds of thousands of them. It was the only thing worth existing for. I’d already lost everything.

“And then, seventeen years ago, I was in a small town not too far from here called Hemet, checking on one of my dealers there. I went into his house, and I’ll never forget the moment I saw her. Damn, she was a beautiful sight,” he whispered, pausing as if to replay the memory. “She was leaning over a human woman who was passed out on a mattress in the corner curled up real small—I thought she was a kid at first. You’re a pipsqueak like her.”

His grip tightened on my hands as he studied my midsection where my aura would be.

“You feel a strong pull to drugs, don’t you?” he asked.

I nodded and he shook his head, unhappy.

“I can see it. And you’ve got a double whammy: the pull from me, plus the addiction in your genetics. That’s got to be hard.”

“I’m used to it now. My body might pull, but my mind knows better.”

“Good. That’s what I like to hear.”

“All right, back to the story,” I said, gripping his fingers.

“Yep, this is where it gets good. When I saw Mariantha she was whispering to that human woman like a mother with a feverish child. Nobody in the dealer’s house cared when I picked the lady up and took her. That is, except her guardian angel, my Mariantha.” He chuckled. “She saw what I was, but didn’t register who I was at first. She went apeshhh—um, she went crazy trying to protect her human. And then she recognized me.”

He said the last sentence with such adoration that our eyes watered at the exact same time. We both laughed, wiping them dry before clasping hands again.

“Mariantha and I took the human woman to a hotel and cleaned her up. It took a whole day for her to come to, and even then she was so far gone. Her body was ruined and her soul was barely hanging on. We both knew that if the lady died, Mariantha would have to escort her soul to the afterlife. Mariantha wouldn’t be allowed to come back to earth afterward. We would never see each other again. So, hoping for the best, she climbed into that body, something no angel of light had done since Old Testament times.”

I squeezed his hands, hanging on to every word.

“The human soul didn’t fight her; she moved easily aside. It took almost three days to detox and heal the body. It was a lot for Mariantha to deal with her first time in physical form. It was hard to watch. I had to force her to eat and drink. She fought me, but she made it through. And when her mind was clear and we were together again, it was like it’d always been, only different. For the first time we weren’t just souls; we were a man and woman overcome with physical attraction and... well, that’s how you came along.”

I blushed and he looked down, shamefaced.