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)
He went completely still. “You’re Lucifer’s daughter?”
“Yes.” A whisper.
“The Lucifer’s daughter?”
“Yes,” she repeated, her voice a little stronger this time.
“I thought that all his offspring lived in hell.”
“I’m the exception.” She worried her bottom lip again. “And as you saw for yourself, I inherited his curse.”
Luka frowned. “Curse?”
“I don’t know if this applies to all fallen angels or just him, but he was cursed when he fell. Cursed to need blood as much as he needs food and water to survive. And when passing his DNA onto me, he also passed on that.”
“So you drink from people?” he asked, an edge to his voice that was jagged with possessiveness.
“Normally, no. My bite is venomous. It doesn’t kill, but it causes a lot of pain. Tobe has vampiric connections who make bottled drinks that contain blood and vitamins and stuff. They sell him batches of them every so often, and he gives them to me.”
Realization visibly dawned on Luka. “Your smoothies.”
“My smoothies,” she confirmed.
A pensive glint entered his eyes. “You bit me the other night.”
“I didn’t draw blood, but it was a close call.” A little too close. “I think you can understand why I’ve kept all this quiet from most people.”
“Who does know about it?”
“Only the people who are also fully aware of the cleric situation—which includes Lou. He thought he’d killed Kushiel during his recent spree of murdering dark practitioners, but that clearly isn’t the case.” He was gonna be furious when he learned that.
Luka was silent for long moments, his expression still unreadable. “Acceptance. You said that your demon needed me to accept something. This is what you meant.”
“Yes. You can’t tell anyone about it, Luka.”
An affronted anger rippled across his face. “Do you honestly think I’d do that?”
“I don’t know, because I can’t tell what’s going through your head right now. It’s not as if this stuff is light or cheery. Look, you have a right to be upset that I kept the information about the clerics from you. If there were Eliouds on some dumbass holy mission to end your life and you’d kept it from me, I would’ve been pissed as all hell at you. I just . . . I didn’t want to lie to you. Keeping things from you is one thing. Lying is another. I couldn’t have told you everything, so I decided to say nothing.”
“Wrong, Naomi, you could have told me everything.”
Exasperated, she challenged, “Would you have, in my position? Would you have spilled to me that Lucifer was your dad and that you needed to drink blood to survive? Would you have risked that I’d look upon you with sheer disgust?”
His brow pinched. “You thought I’d be disgusted?”
“Aren’t you?”
“No. It isn’t as if drinking blood is a fetish for you. You have no choice. What I am is angry on your behalf. This was Lou’s curse. It should never have been yours.” His gaze arrowed into hers, stripping her of her cool facade, seeing everything. “You expected me to walk away if I knew the full truth.”
She gave a weak shrug and lowered her gaze to his chest. “I won’t blame you if you do.” Her demon would, though.
A long moment of silence passed. “You warned me that I wouldn’t like what I heard if your secrets came to light. I was clear that you’d still matter to me regardless. And you do.” He cupped her chin and tipped her head upwards, his dark eyes boring into hers, not letting her look away, giving her no room to hide. “I’m not going anywhere. And I’ve got news for you, Naomi—neither are you.”
It took a few seconds for his words to penetrate. “Uh . . . sorry?”
“I didn’t anticipate that you’d become this important to me. I never saw it coming. Feels like it crept up on me somehow. We might not have admitted it to ourselves or to each other, but what we now have is as far from shallow as it can get. I have zero intention of changing that, or of letting you go.”
“Since when?”
“Since a few minutes ago, when you looked up at me wearing a defeated, wary expression. I knew you expected me to leave you, and I realized that it isn’t something I ever plan to do.” He shook his head in mystification. “I have no idea how you did it, how you circumvented every defense I have, but you did. So here we are. It’s done. All that’s left for me to do is officially claim you as my mate, and I will. There’s no going back now. Not for me, and not for you.”
Luka had meant for his words to come out reassuring, but they sounded more like a threat. He had no gentleness in him right now. Hot rage coursed through his blood, fueling that of his demons. Their need for vengeance tore at all four of them, demanding satiation. Killing that cleric hadn’t been enough. Not even close.