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Naomi felt her eyes drift shut. Unbelievable.

She looked up to see her father standing at the foot of the bed in a ratty tee and stained jeans, a bag of chips in hand.

His curious gaze studied the cleric like he was an insect.

That gaze then narrowed on her Prime, as if he sensed the use of glamor and was striving to see through it.

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.”

“You knew that a dark practitioner was involved, though.” He sniffed. “That problem, at least, is easily solved.”

Khloe frowned. “It is? How?”

“I’ll just kill all the dark practitioners in Vegas,” replied Lou, as if the solution were obvious. “Then we can be sure he’s dead.”

Naomi barely held back an aggravated sigh. “That’s a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think?”

“Nope. And why would you care if they all die? They’re terrible, terrible people. The things they get up to” —he shuddered in disgust—“are pure evil. They should be eradicated for the greater good.”

Beck frowned. “What do you care about the greater good?”

“Not one thing,” said Lou. “But I want my daughter to be safe. A dark practitioner is a threat to her. Slaughtering them would remove that threat. Ergo . . .”

Naomi stepped toward him. “While I appreciate that you want to protect me, I’d rather you didn’t go on a killing spree.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he pointed out.

“Who did you kill before?” asked Khloe.

“A bunch of angels.” Lou folded his arms, inching up his chin in superiority. “They deserved it.”

Khloe’s nose wrinkled. “Why?”

“Because they did.”

Alfie tipped his head to the side. “And that conclusion has roots in pragmatism or is just something you claim to excuse your actions?”

Lou’s face scrunched up. “Why would I want to excuse what I did? That kind of thing is for people who feel . . . you know . . . remorse. I would genuinely pity those who experience that emotion if I had it in me to give a rat’s ass.”

“And yet you judge others so much,” said Beck. “You don’t think that you’re perhaps equally cruel?”

Lou pointed at his face. “Perfection itself, remember?”

Jolene rolled her eyes. “Your ‘solution’ won’t help us.

Unless the first dark practitioner you kill is our boy, you’ll only scare him into lying low by massacring his kind.

He might even go underground, making it harder for us to find him and dragging out this whole thing.

More, he could decide to come at Naomi another way.

A harder way. Like with preternaturals instead of clerics.

Humans who have a trace of Nephilim blood and thereby possess an aptitude for holy magick are far less of a threat. ”

Lou leaned back, eyeing the Prime curiously. “Wait, you think you can talk me into ignoring that this is happening? Is that what you’re trying to do?”

“What I think is that if you want to get involved, you need to go about it more stealthily for Naomi’s sake,” said Jolene. “No dramatic displays of power or vengeance.”

“Says an imp—the very personification of dramatic displays of, well, everything.”

“Be a parent, Lou, and think of her .”

“I think of her all the time. She is always in my thoughts.” He thumped a fist over the right side of his chest. “I hold her here.”

“In the large cavity in your chest where a heart should be?”

“Now that was uncalled for.” Lou crossed to Naomi and curled an arm around her shoulders. “Fear not, my dear girl. I will make this problem go away completely. You’ll see.” With that, he disappeared.

Ciaran rubbed at the back of his head. “I could be wrong, but I don’t think he intends to listen to us.”

Naomi puffed out a breath. “No. No, neither do I.”

“Thanks to Lou,” Jolene began stiffly, “we’re unlikely to get the address of the monastery from the cleric. I’ll question him regardless, but it isn’t likely to get me anywhere. Even under threats of torture, he’ll protect this person he’s convinced is an angel.”

“He did give us a few clues to go on,” Beck reminded her.

“He said that the monastery was over an hour’s drive away.

That means it’s approximately sixty miles from here, though I’m not sure in what direction.

He also said it was near a ghost town. There are several in Nevada, but I think there are only two that are roughly in a sixty-mile radius from here. I’d have to check.”

Jolene folded her arms. “We might be able to locate it using these clues, though we’re only likely to get an approximate idea of where it might be.

Damn Lou for showing up. Things were going so well.

We could right now be in possession of all the answers if he hadn’t appeared and messed everything up. ”

Naomi pulled a face. “I feel like I should apologize for him.”

“You certainly don’t have to make apologies on his behalf,” Jolene stated.

“Do you think he really will aim to kill every last dark practitioner he can find here in Vegas?” asked Ciaran.

Jolene drew in a breath through her nose. “Yes, I do. And I’m feeling quite certain that he won’t be in the least bit subtle about it.”

What with how the start of her evening had played out, Naomi had briefly considered canceling her hookup with Luka. She wouldn’t exactly make the best company—too tired, too distracted, too annoyed that Lou had foiled their plan.