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)
Snapping back to the conversation, she said, “It wasn’t that I thought it would put him off. It wasn’t about Luka at all. My mom never wanted people to know that I wasn’t full demon because half-breeds aren’t always welcome if they’re part celestial. As such, very few people know. Even most of my lair are in the dark. I didn’t intend on sharing it with Luka unless things got serious.”
“You could have told him about the clerics without mentioning that you had celestial DNA.”
“He would have asked if I was keeping anything else from him. I would have had to lie. I didn’t want to do that. Whatever you might think, I didn’t feel good about keeping things from him. Or from you.”
Konstantin’s expression softened. “I don’t for a second think that you felt good about it. But I do think there’s another reason you kept the stuff about the clerics to yourself.”
“What’s that?”
“You didn’t want Luka to feel that he had to keep rescuing you.”
Naomi blinked. Huh, now that she thought about it, there was some truth to that. “You could say that I was reluctant to drag him into anything else. First he had to step in to deal with Iain. Then the PI.”
“And you didn’t want him feeling that you’re more trouble than you’re worth,” he surmised.
Again there was some truth to his assumption. “Kind of. Haven’t you ever kept things from someone because you worried you’d otherwise lose them?”
Konstantin let out a long sigh. “Yeah. There was a lot that I didn’t tell my mate about myself in the beginning. I wanted to hook her first and then lay it all on her. No woman in her right mind would have taken me on otherwise.”
Curious, Naomi tilted her head. “Why is that?”
He glanced across at her. “I’ll tell you my secrets if you’ll tell me yours.”
Yeah, not possible. “Some things are better left mysteries.”
“Agreed.” He paused. “You know, on reading your background check, I thought, ‘Hmm, this girl has not one thing in common with my Prime.’ But then I realized you’re as evasive and secretive as he is.”
“Yep, we’re quite the pair.”
“You’re good for him. I didn’t think he’d ever take a mate—legions struggle with relationships, and they don’t always stake such claims. Plus, Luka is . . . well, Luka.”
“A very solitary being,” she elaborated.
“Exactly. And he seemed fine with that. I figured he’d find it impossible to properly trust another woman so deeply anyway. I’m glad to be wrong.”
“I shared your beliefs at one time, so—”
“Naomi Chamberlain?” a voice called out.
She tracked it, her head whipping to the side. A man was casually approaching them, nothing aggressive in his body language. Nonetheless, her insides seized. Because she recognized him straight away.
Stefan.
Konstantin slipped in front of her—for a tank, he could move fast. “Who are you?”
“Just a friend of her anchor,” Stefan told him. His head peeked around her bodyguard, and his eyes locked with hers again. “We met briefly at the psychic store, remember?”
Her demon studied him closely, not sensing that he meant Naomi any harm but still not wanting him near her. “I remember.”
“Can we talk?” He lifted his hands in a gesture of peace. “I just have some questions.”
“I’m not interested in answering them. There’s nothing I can tell you that Daniel Phillips won’t have put in his report, so . . .”
Konstantin shot her a look over his shoulder. “He hired the PI?”
“Yes,” she replied.
The bodyguard shifted, blocking Stefan’s view of her. “It’s time you left.” A firm statement.
“I don’t intend to hurt her or anything,” Stefan assured him. “I just want to talk to her.”
“She doesn’t want to talk to you—she’s made that clear. So I don’t give a damn what you want.”
“But—”
“You have five seconds—no more, no less—to get in your car and get the fuck out of here,” Konstantin warned.
Stefan let out a loud sigh. “Oh, come on.”
“One . . . two . . . three—”
Pitch-black darkness fell. Pitch-black. It seemed thick and endless, like she was standing in a void.
The fuck?
Her demon shot to full alertness as her heart began to race and—
Pain slammed into Naomi’s head—sharp, heavy, hard. She sucked in a breath, stars bursting behind her eyelids, her stomach heaving.
She swayed, her legs trembling as pulsing waves of agony reverberated through her skull. The world seemed to be spinning around her. A world still so dark.
She fell to her knees, balancing on the mere edge of consciousness. Noise. There was so much noise.
Alarmed shouts. Pained cries. Crackles of magick. Hisses of hellfire.
She only distantly registered it, the agony racking her head all-consuming. It stole her breath, her focus, her strength. And it just kept battering at her.
A warm hand landed on her arm. “Naomi, come on, get up.”
She knew that voice. Iain.
“I don’t know who the fuck these people are, but we have to get out of here,” he stressed.