“It was a challenge. The two of them are the most vulnerable sort—unmated males. Young and full of piss and vinegar.”
Lilith and Pan nodded, as if that was not at all surprising.
“Would you say the number of demon encounters has gone up?” I asked.
Alek nodded. “Exponentially. I think it’s safe to assume that more are coming through the hellmouth every day.”
“It will be even worse in a few days,” Hades said.
Evander caught his gaze and gave a sharp nod. “Sloth is coming. He and his ilk are rumored to be the worst of the lot.”
“How so?” Asher asked. “Shouldn’t they be too lazy to bother with us?”
“You would think so, but Sloth is a sadist. Cruel for cruelty’s sake. He was Lucifer’s prime torturer, skilled in extracting information as quickly and painfully as possible. Where most would assume he’s lazy, he’s actually quite adept at being efficient. He’s trained his Knights to be the same.”
“Then his name is a misnomer, don’t you think?” Kingston asked.
Alek, Thorne, and I all shot him a disbelieving look, but he simply shrugged.
“What? I’ve been using the Word a Day calendar Glinda got me for solstice last year. Thanks, witchy-poo.” He winked at Moira.
“More misleading than inaccurate,” Lilith mused. “Laziness can be an excellent motivator.”
“He’ll take his time flaying the skin off your bones after you’ve given him what he wants. His methods will be efficient to accomplish his goal, and then long and drawn out afterward until you’re dead. It’s not that he prefers to do nothing, it’s that he prefers to maximize the amount of time he spends doing what he loves. That’s why he’s called Sloth.”
A chill ran down my spine. For a vampire, that would mean an eternity of torture.
“How do you know all of this?” Thorne asked, and I could see my own fears echoed in his eyes.
“Because I’m one of the angels who hunted down the Princes and sealed them in their prisons.”
“Geeze, Lil. You didn’t mention we were in the company of celestial royalty,” Kingston said. His voice was light, but the awe on his face wasn’t feigned.
“I told you he was important.”
My brows lifted when Lilith didn’t correct Kingston for using a nickname. Normally, the succubus was quick to nip that in the bud.
“Yes, yes. Very impressive. But how many people did he take out with a single plague?” Pan asked, fussing with the cuff of his shirt. Apparently a line had been drawn in the sand between those two.
“Do we have the manpower to fight them?” I asked, bypassing Pan’s comment.
“For now,” Alek said, but his expression was grave. “They are powerful, but their armies are small enough to handle at the moment. If they grow, which we can only assume they will, we might be telling another story.”
A bleak silence filled the room.
“Great. I love an underdog story,” Asher muttered.
Since there was nothing more we could discuss on that front for the time being, I decided to switch to the next topic. “Where are we with locating Gabriel or the horsemen?”
“We’re exactly where we were the last time you asked, Caleb.” Lilith’s eyes narrowed as she focused on me.
“So nowhere.”
“Not exactly nowhere,” Evander offered. “Gabriel is fully hidden with no trace.”
“How is thatnotnowhere?”
“As one of his brothers, I should be able to find at least a trace of him. A whisper of his grace. But there is nothing. Not a hint. That means he’s being hidden, whether by choice or by force.”
