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)
Lou smirked. “That you, Jolene? I’m getting your usual mess with me and die vibes and—Ooh, shiny,” he added, his attention snatched by the sword.
“Don’t touch it,” Jolene snapped as he walked toward it, making the cleric jerk in shock at her abrupt change in manner.
Lou glared at her. “I wasn’t going to steal it, just look at it.”
“You look with your eyes, not your hands,” Jolene reprimanded.
His lips curved. “Harper’s always saying that to Asher.”
“And I really shouldn’t have to say it to a man your age, but here we are.”
He gave her an incredulous look. “Who are you kidding, acting all aggravated? You love having an excuse to give me shit. It’s a balm to the boredom that plagues your dark, ghoulish soul.” He moved closer to the bed and said to the cleric, “Really, don’t let her fool you—she’s the kind of person hell itself would reject.”
Her demon closed its eyes in the same exasperation Naomi felt.
Her lips thin, Jolene sighed at him. “You just can’t help but fuck things up, can you?”
Baffled, Lou blinked and rocked back slightly on his heels. “What exactly am I fucking up? Speaking of fucked up, why does the room look like a tornado hit it? And why is there a priest in Naomi’s bed? And where is Naomi?”
“Naomi,” the cleric mumbled, his eyes going increasingly wide with terror and realization. “Wait, this is her home? This is . . . You tricked me,” he accused Jolene.
“No, I did not.”
“Of course she did,” Lou told him with a snort. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I am quite sure she messed with your head somehow. It’s what she does.”
Jolene edged off the bed and threw up her arms.
Naomi tapped Tobe’s shoulder and indicated for him to drop the shield. As he did, the cleric let out a loud gah of horror.
She stared at Lou. “Dad, honestly, you have the worst timing.”
His gaze snapped to her, and his lips bowed up. “There you are. And what, pray tell, is wrong with my timing? Or anything else about me? I am perfection itself.”
He was something.
“The priest. Your bed. Far too weird. What’s going on?” Lou pressed.
Baby Face sat up, shrinking away from Jolene. “I want to leave. Now.”
The Prime exhaled heavily. “All right. My grandson here will take you someplace else. Mostly because it’d be strange for Naomi if we killed you in her bed.” Jolene looked at Ciaran and tipped her chin toward the cleric.
The guy’s eyes bulged. “No, wait!”
Ciaran didn’t. He crossed to the cleric, snatched his arm, and teleported away.
“Will someone please tell me what’s happening here?” asked Lou, dipping his hand in his bag of chips. “The suspense is killing me.”
Naomi rolled her shoulders. “Fine. But don’t freak out.”
His brow pinched. “Why would I freak out? I’m an extremely calm and composed being. Very little bothers me on a deep level.” He tossed a chip in his mouth.
“So here goes.” Naomi thrust a hand into her hair. “A bunch of clerics have been trying to kill me because they think I’ll birth the Antichrist and eliminate their order. Oh, and a dark practitioner is helping them.”
Lou paused mid chew, going rigid, his eyes turning cold as frost. Moments later he resumed chewing—the process slow, stiff, angry. The bag of chips went up in a small burst of ultraviolet flames. He spat a very ugly curse and then began pacing back and forth.
Naomi and the others remained silent, giving him a chance to walk off his rage. Ciaran had just teleported back to the room when Lou marched over to the sword and—snap.
Yeah. He split it right down the middle.
More ultraviolet flames appeared beneath his palms, sinking into both halves of the broken weapon and eating them whole so they were quickly reduced to tiny particles. Particles that he promptly dumped on the floor.
“Calm and composed,” mumbled Tobe beside Naomi. “Right.”
Lou whirled on her. “I need specifics.”
So she told him everything, watching as his expression turned darker and darker.
“I shouldn’t only be learning of all this now! Why did you keep it from me?” It was a whiny demand.
“Why do you think?” She would have thought the answer was obvious.
“I have no idea. I’m such an approachable, understanding person—ask anyone.”
If she did, they’d laugh their tits off at the mere idea that any such descriptors could be applied to him.
“Not to mention that I’m your father,” he reminded her, stabbing his finger into his palm. “I have a right to know these things.”
Tia went to his side, her hands raised in a placatory gesture. “It wasn’t a matter of excluding you. We just wanted to be careful how we approached the situation, and we didn’t have enough information to go on anyway. You would have wanted details that we simply didn’t yet have.”