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“Okay, I change my vote—I’m pro Luka moving into our compound,” Darko told Ella.

Ghost raised a hand. “Yeah, same here.”

Luka frowned at the two fallen angels lounging on the sofa of his den. “Vote?” he repeated, confused.

“Blackjack suggested it first,” Ghost explained. “Some were up for it, some were against it. I was on the fence. At this point, I’m all in.”

No less confused, Luka exchanged a look with each of his bodyguards, who were standing at the back of the room. Their expressions were a mixture of baffled and amused.

Every member of the Black Saints MC club appeared tough as fuck, but they were also a little on the crazy side. How Ella happily lived among them, Luka had no clue. “I’m not even going to ask what this is about.” He figured it was best not knowing.

Darko’s brows slid together. “It’s not obvious?” He spared a look at the infant in Luka’s arms. “Whenever you hold her, she conks out. And she stays like that.”

“So?”

Exhaustion fell over Ghost’s face. “So Lilibeth is like that kid from The Ring . She doesn’t sleep.”

“She does ,” Ella cut in from the armchair opposite Luka’s. “It’s just that she sleeps in small bursts throughout the day. A few minutes here and there. Which we don’t really understand, because it’s not normal.”

Was there a “normal” for a baby who was a product of a demon and a fallen archangel? The president of the Black Saints MC club hadn’t confirmed the rumor that he’d once been one of the infamous seven archangels, but Luka deeply suspected it was true.

“All her health checks have come back just fine, so it doesn’t negatively affect her,” Ella added.

“But the rest of us?” Ghost let out a pained sigh. “We’re fucking tired.”

His eyes on Luka, Darko raised a placatory hand. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I can’t work out why she’s so relaxed around you.”

Luka peered down at Lilibeth. With her mop of short dark hair, chubby cheeks, and eyes blue as diamonds, she was cute as fuck. “I’m a little surprised by it myself.” He wasn’t what anyone would call soothing.

Just ask Iain.

Six days he’d been in Luka’s vault now. Six days during which he’d been .

. . pressured to face reality. But the psi-demon’s mental state still showed no signs of improvement.

Something that didn’t bother Belial in the least, because it meant that the entity got to play with him more.

Abraxas and Dagon, however, were as frustrated as Luka with Iain’s seeming determination to cling tight to his delusions.

Ghost looked at his brother. “We should rest while we can.”

“Agreed,” said Darko. “I’ll take first watch.”

Abraxas smirked, amused by how the two acted as though they were in the middle of a war zone.

Luka turned to Ella. “Does Lou still show up to visit Lily whenever he feels like it?”

She exhaled heavily. “Yes. Even though she telekinetically slaps him, he just keeps coming back for more. He finds it hilarious. Though I haven’t seen him in about a month.”

“I thought you were teaching her not to slap.” Really, Ella had to teach the infant not to do many things. Extremely advanced for her age, Lily could make various displays of power. And she did it ruthlessly—something that he and his entities respected.

“Viper told her she can do it to Lou whenever she feels like it,” said Ella. “So she does. Her new thing is telekinetically shoving people. She gave one of your waitresses from Infernal a little push the other day at my store.”

Luka felt his brow crease. “Which waitress?”

“Draya,” Ella elaborated, idly plucking at her red bangs. “She bent over the stroller, smiled at Lily, and proceeded to let out a stream of baby babble. You know how my girl finds that condescending.”

Any child so advanced would. “I had no idea you knew Draya.” Neither female had mentioned it.

“Oh, I didn’t until recently. She started coming to my store a lot. She always chats so sweetly to me, like we’re old pals. She even asked me to lunch last time.”

Luka felt his brows snap together. “Lunch?”

“I blew her off, because I could tell that it wasn’t a genuine overture of friendship. She hopes to buddy up to me as a way to get to you.” Ella’s lips set into a thin line. “She’s not the first woman to have tried it. Probably won’t be the last.”

He clenched his jaw, infuriated that she would try to use Ella that way. “I’ll have a word with her.”

Ella flapped a hand. “Don’t bother. It’s fine. Really. She buys a whole heap of stuff. Only to suck up to me, sure, but sales are sales.”

“When did she last seek you out?”

“Umm . . . a few days ago.”

Luka frowned, surprised. Draya hadn’t once approached him since he’d made his involvement with Naomi common knowledge, so he’d thought the banshee had chosen to move on.

Ella sank back into the chair. “Be aware that she was asking a lot of questions.”

“What kind of questions?”

“All revolved around you. Where in Russia you came from, why a quarter of your old lair migrated here, what the likes and dislikes of your demons are, why you avoid long-term relationships.”

Dagon grumbled a sound of annoyance at the nerve of Draya, who had no right to such information. She wasn’t even a member of their lair, for Christ’s sake.

“It was as if she was trying to profile you so she could better get close to you,” mused Ella.

“From the stuff she was saying when she first tried befriending me, it seemed she thought that something might happen between you two. But then rumors recently began to circulate that you had Naomi Chamberlain in your bed. Draya seems quite put out by that.”

“I never led Draya on. We briefly flirted. That’s it.

Not once did I verbally express an interest in taking it further.

” And now that it was apparent Draya wouldn’t respect his well-known preference for privacy, he would never take it further.

He was careful to choose bed partners who wouldn’t push him to confide in them or share overly personal details. Then nobody would be disappointed.

“The flirting was clearly enough for her to feel hopeful that you’d take things up a notch,” said Ella. “She seems hurt that you passed her up for Naomi. Draya had not-so-nice things to say about her.”

His demons went rigid in an anger that also tightened Luka’s jaw and made his nostrils flare. “Is that so?” he asked, his voice soft but vibrating with a menace even he could hear. “What exactly did she say?”

Ella’s eyes widened and lit up. “Ooh, someone’s protective. Intriguing. You generally place your bed buddies under your protection while they’re in your life, but it was a formality in the past. You never appeared to feel protective until now.”

He barely stopped himself from stiffening. “That isn’t the case here.”

“And now you’re denying it. Again, intriguing.”

The truth? Yes, his protective instincts were easily riled up when it came to Naomi. Hence why, despite still having Iain in his custody, he had assigned her a guard earlier than planned.

Though he’d told Konstantin to keep his distance, Naomi had still spotted him. She’d walked right up to the guard and asked who he was. Konstantin had told her, after which she’d telepathed Luka to snippily demand an explanation for why he’d put a man on her without informing her.

I was curious to see how long it would take you to notice him , Luka had replied. It’s reassuring that you did so this quickly.

Why reassuring? she’d asked.

His response had been blunt and to the point. Because your safety is far more important to me than I’d anticipated it would be .

She hadn’t said anything more about it, telepathically or verbally, since.

A soft snore popped out of Darko, and it was then that Luka realized both fallen angels were asleep. Some guards they were. He supposed he should take it as a compliment that they so implicitly trusted Ella and Lily’s safety with him.

“Admit it, I’m right,” pushed Ella, leaning forward in her seat.

Luka squinted. “I really loathe it when you’re bored. You turn into a meddling, nosy—”

“You’re defensive,” she noted, her lips curving. “That’s telling.”

“Not defensive, just uninterested in addressing your incorrect assumptions. You’re free to believe what you want. Now, you didn’t answer my question. What did Draya say?”

Ella lifted her shoulders in a mocking challenge. “Is it important, considering Naomi apparently doesn’t matter to you?”

Luka pressed his lips tight together. Honestly, Belial wanted to shake her right now.

“I’ve never had cause to really talk to Naomi beyond saying hi and stuff, so I asked some of the demons in her lair about her.”

He felt his brow pinch. “You normally don’t express an interest in women I bed.”

“You don’t normally make frequent appearances at their place of work and stare at them like you want to devour them.

With Naomi, you did that even before you made your play—I heard all about it.

And it tells me two things. One, you liked to watch her a whole lot.

Two, you were ensuring that other men noticed your interest in her to deter them from making a play of their own. It made me curious.”

It really was frustrating how well Ella knew him.

“Harper and Khloe used a whole bunch of words to describe your siren. Spunky. Protective. Loyal. Sharp. Secretive. They also said that she’s like you—has a small circle of people around her who she lets close; others she holds at a distance.

Also, again like you, she apparently keeps her sexual associations short and shallow. ”

“Hmm.”

Ella smiled. “You really don’t want to discuss her with me, do you? Why not? You’re evasive in general, but your bed buds aren’t usually off limits when we natter.”