Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
She cleared her throat. “So. That’s my dad. Quite a gem, isn’t he?”
“Hmm.” After a long moment of silence, Luka raised a finger. “I have a question. Why would he banish a turtle to hell?”
“Jolene gave Donatello to me as a birthday gift. Lou didn’t like that I was so delighted with it. He felt outdone and jealous. She made it worse by smirking at him smugly. And, as I’m sure you noticed, his thought processes aren’t normal. So in his head, it was a perfectly reasonable reaction to throw the turtle into an abyss, never to be seen again.”
Luka twisted his mouth. “Hmm,” he repeated.
She expected him to ply her with more questions, but he said nothing, just stared into the distance, his expression blank. “You’re still stuck processing him, aren’t you? Yeah, it takes most people’s brains a fair few moments to do that. You’ll snap out of it soon. Want a beer while we wait?”
“Hmm.”
She gave a nod. “Beer it is.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Heading home from the pizzeria the next evening, Naomi slid Konstantin a quick look. The bodyguard was walking beside her rather than behind her—a new practice that Luka had warned her would be typical from here on out.
Due to his powerful build, there was zero chance he’d go unnoticed. Nobody’s eyes would gloss over almost seven feet of roped, bulging muscles. He looked like a damn wrestler. That she so obviously had personal protection would hopefully act as a deterrent to anyone who would dare think to mess with her.
The current dark expression he wore only added to his don’t-come-close air. She could guess what had put that look on his face.
She nibbled on her lower lip. “You’re still mad at me, huh?”
He looked at her askance. “Why would I be mad? You only neglected to tell me—your personal bodyguard—that you had clerics on your ass, which interfered with my ability to properly protect you. Why would that bother me?” Sarcasm at its finest.
Naomi sighed. “I didn’t think they’d strike while you or anyone else were near. They seemed set on getting me alone. I really am sorry that I kept you in the dark. If I’d known that they would even so much as think to use bombs . . . It just hadn’t occurred to me that they would go that far.”
“Which I can understand, because clerics usually rely on magick, and explosives aren’t at all their style. But that isn’t the point, is it?”
“No. And I’m sorry that they almost killed you.”
He cast her a frown. “Told you before, that wasn’t your fault. The apology doesn’t need to come from you. My problem is that you hid from me that you had danger dogging your heels. That’s something I needed to be made aware of.”
“I wasn’t trying to make your job more difficult than it is. I just wasn’t ready to tell Luka everything, which meant I also couldn’t tell you.”
His frown deepened. “Don’t know why you thought it necessary to hide that you’re part celestial. Luka’s the last person who’d care about something like that.”
Wanting to be able to pyroport around the mansion at her leisure, she’d permitted Luka to inform his most trusted demons—namely his bodyguards and Konstantin—that her father was a fallen angel to account for why her fire wasn’t normal. But he hadn’t told them that her dad was Lucifer—they intended to keep that a secret from all.
None of the three had batted an eyelid on hearing that she had celestial blood. She supposed it was no biggie to them, given that they were around Lilibeth and the Black Saints often. They were used to hybrids like herself.
Luka would have liked to also tell Ella about Naomi being part angel, but he didn’t feel comfortable doing so. Truly, neither did Naomi. If every fallen angel did share in Lou’s curse, Ella—being mated to a fallen celestial—would be aware of that. As such, she would therefore also guess that Naomi had to drink blood. And while it wasn’t likely that she would leak the information, neither Luka nor Naomi wanted anyone else to be aware of it.
The fewer people who knew of a secret, the easier it was to protect it. Simple.
Of course, Lou’s curse might not be something that applied to all fallen angels, in which case Ella couldn’t possibly guess about Naomi’s “dietary quirk”. However, it was worth noting that Ella was leery of all celestials due to some having tried to kill her when she was pregnant with Lilibeth. She would therefore naturally wish to know who Naomi’s father was in order to establish if he should be considered a threat—something she would consult Viper about, since he would know of many fallen angels.
Sure, Naomi could lie and claim that she had no idea who her father was, but then they’d just go ask Tia. And yes, Tia could lie to them as well. But it made more sense to just tell the couple nothing at all rather than feed them falsities.