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 stiffened. He’d killed Konstantin? This motherfucker.
Anger and vengefulness swirled in her bloodstream. But not defeat. Not hopelessness. Not fear. Because these people had no real fucking clue what they were dealing with.
“Why am I here?” she bit out. Why hadn’t he just killed her already? He should have. Which he’d learn soon enough.
“Three times my clerics made an attempt on your life. None ever came back to us.” Kushiel tilted his head. “I got curious. Curious as to how a siren could be so easily defeating them time and time again.”
“I would have thought that an angel would be grieving their deaths, not merely feel curious as to how they came about.”
He ignored that. “You must be far more powerful than you seem. Divine power is quite lethal for demons.” He crouched in front of her. “But not for you, apparently.”
She forced herself not to flinch as he touched her cheek—another attempt to intimidate her, no doubt. Her entity hissed at him, preparing itself to pounce early if necessary. Naomi’s psychic strength was returning, but it was a slow process.
He studied her closely, inhaling through his nose. “As I suspected, there is holy blood in you. You have a celestial somewhere in your family line.”
Murmurs traveled through the crowd, coated in alarm and agitation. Oh, “the holy” did loathe it when demons possessed angelic DNA.
“Is that why Lucifer chose you to be the mother of his child? I would expect so.”
Funny, he truly did seem to believe that she would birth Lou’s kid. Maybe he put stock in the prophecy as a whole, not merely the part predicting his demise.
“You know what’s interesting?” Naomi asked as the red-hot power within her pushed upward and started pooling beneath her skin, awaiting release.
“What?”
“That holy blood you mentioned? It hums when I’m around another who possesses it —angels and such. Not sure why, but it always has. It isn’t humming right now. Which tells me that you’re no celestial. But then I already suspected that. The clerics’ swords all scented of dark magick. Swords that you gave them.”
He didn’t look fazed by her words. “If you are seeking to turn these clerics against me, it will not work,” he claimed, the image of confidence.
“Don’t be so sure of that. I overheard the last group of ‘brothers’ talking. One—think his name was Henry—claimed that you aren’t quite as angelic as you first appeared.”
His jaw tightened at that.
“Others agreed that your requests and responses weren’t so divine in nature anymore. They were suspicious. I’ll be surprised if there aren’t others among this monkhood who harbor the same suspicions.” She briefly scanned the large crowd, noting a few avert their gazes or shift uneasily.
“Such lies and manipulations,” scoffed Kushiel, standing upright. He sniffed, haughty. “I would expect nothing less from the consort of Satan.”
“Satan and Lucifer are two separate people. Any celestial would know that. The fact that you don’t only supports my claim that you’re no angel.”
His eyes went hard.
“But hey, I’m sure you could easily prove me wrong. Calling on heavenly light, for instance, would do the trick. Fill the room with it here and now,” she dared.
He forced a dismissive smile. “I do not have to prove anything to a demon.”
“But it would put these clerics’ minds at rest. As servants of God—a being you supposedly revere and love—they must indeed matter dearly to you.”
“The only thing making these clerics uneasy is your existence. Of course, as of tonight, that will no longer be an issue.” Kushiel clicked his fingers. Almost instantly, a bunch of clerics rushed forward to place buckets near her chair.
Naomi regarded him through slitted eyes as he conjured a ceremonial dagger. “Let me guess . . . you plan to bleed me out. It’s what a dark practitioner who feeds off anything holy would do. They’d drink my blood; use it in their rituals.” A typical practice. “Of course, if you’re truly a celestial, you’ll have no such plan. You’ll just kill me outright, because my blood would have no value to you.”
He didn’t react other than to glare down at her in annoyance, a light flush creeping into his face at the rise in air temperature.
She smiled. “I’m right,” she accused. “You intend to bleed me out. How are you going to justify that to these people here?”
“A demon does not deserve to harbor holy blood. Being drained of it is an appropriate way for you to die.”
She snickered. “That so?” He had an answer for everything, didn’t he? “Look, these clerics might buy your brand of crap. But I don’t. If you were truly an angel, truly favored by God, you would not be here. No celestials are permitted to walk the earth until demonic tempers have cooled. The last thing the people upstairs would do is make matters worse by targeting yet another demon.”