Page 51

Heading home from the pizzeria the next evening, Naomi slid Konstantin a quick look. The bodyguard was walking beside her rather than behind her—a new practice that Luka had warned her would be typical from here on out.

Due to his powerful build, there was zero chance he’d go unnoticed.

Nobody’s eyes would gloss over almost seven feet of roped, bulging muscles.

He looked like a damn wrestler. That she so obviously had personal protection would hopefully act as a deterrent to anyone who would dare think to mess with her.

The current dark expression he wore only added to his don’t-come-close air. She could guess what had put that look on his face.

She nibbled on her lower lip. “You’re still mad at me, huh?”

He looked at her askance. “Why would I be mad? You only neglected to tell me—your personal bodyguard—that you had clerics on your ass, which interfered with my ability to properly protect you. Why would that bother me?” Sarcasm at its finest.

Naomi sighed. “I didn’t think they’d strike while you or anyone else were near. They seemed set on getting me alone. I really am sorry that I kept you in the dark. If I’d known that they would even so much as think to use bombs . . . It just hadn’t occurred to me that they would go that far.”

“Which I can understand, because clerics usually rely on magick, and explosives aren’t at all their style. But that isn’t the point, is it?”

“No. And I’m sorry that they almost killed you.”

He cast her a frown. “Told you before, that wasn’t your fault. The apology doesn’t need to come from you. My problem is that you hid from me that you had danger dogging your heels. That’s something I needed to be made aware of.”

“I wasn’t trying to make your job more difficult than it is. I just wasn’t ready to tell Luka everything, which meant I also couldn’t tell you .”

His frown deepened. “Don’t know why you thought it necessary to hide that you’re part celestial. Luka’s the last person who’d care about something like that.”

Wanting to be able to pyroport around the mansion at her leisure, she’d permitted Luka to inform his most trusted demons—namely his bodyguards and Konstantin—that her father was a fallen angel to account for why her fire wasn’t normal.

But he hadn’t told them that her dad was Lucifer—they intended to keep that a secret from all.

None of the three had batted an eyelid on hearing that she had celestial blood. She supposed it was no biggie to them, given that they were around Lilibeth and the Black Saints often. They were used to hybrids like herself.

Luka would have liked to also tell Ella about Naomi being part angel, but he didn’t feel comfortable doing so.

Truly, neither did Naomi. If every fallen angel did share in Lou’s curse, Ella—being mated to a fallen celestial—would be aware of that.

As such, she would therefore also guess that Naomi had to drink blood.

And while it wasn’t likely that she would leak the information, neither Luka nor Naomi wanted anyone else to be aware of it.

The fewer people who knew of a secret, the easier it was to protect it. Simple.

Of course, Lou’s curse might not be something that applied to all fallen angels, in which case Ella couldn’t possibly guess about Naomi’s “dietary quirk”.

However, it was worth noting that Ella was leery of all celestials due to some having tried to kill her when she was pregnant with Lilibeth.

She would therefore naturally wish to know who Naomi’s father was in order to establish if he should be considered a threat—something she would consult Viper about, since he would know of many fallen angels.

Sure, Naomi could lie and claim that she had no idea who her father was, but then they’d just go ask Tia. And yes, Tia could lie to them as well. But it made more sense to just tell the couple nothing at all rather than feed them falsities.

Snapping back to the conversation, she said, “It wasn’t that I thought it would put him off.

It wasn’t about Luka at all. My mom never wanted people to know that I wasn’t full demon because half-breeds aren’t always welcome if they’re part celestial.

As such, very few people know. Even most of my lair are in the dark.

I didn’t intend on sharing it with Luka unless things got serious. ”

“You could have told him about the clerics without mentioning that you had celestial DNA.”

“He would have asked if I was keeping anything else from him. I would have had to lie. I didn’t want to do that. Whatever you might think, I didn’t feel good about keeping things from him. Or from you.”

Konstantin’s expression softened. “I don’t for a second think that you felt good about it. But I do think there’s another reason you kept the stuff about the clerics to yourself.”

“What’s that?”

“You didn’t want Luka to feel that he had to keep rescuing you.”

Naomi blinked. Huh, now that she thought about it, there was some truth to that. “You could say that I was reluctant to drag him into anything else. First he had to step in to deal with Iain. Then the PI.”

“And you didn’t want him feeling that you’re more trouble than you’re worth,” he surmised.

Again there was some truth to his assumption. “Kind of. Haven’t you ever kept things from someone because you worried you’d otherwise lose them?”

Konstantin let out a long sigh. “Yeah. There was a lot that I didn’t tell my mate about myself in the beginning. I wanted to hook her first and then lay it all on her. No woman in her right mind would have taken me on otherwise.”

Curious, Naomi tilted her head. “Why is that?”

He glanced across at her. “I’ll tell you my secrets if you’ll tell me yours.”

Yeah, not possible. “Some things are better left mysteries.”

“Agreed.” He paused. “You know, on reading your background check, I thought, ‘Hmm, this girl has not one thing in common with my Prime.’ But then I realized you’re as evasive and secretive as he is.”

“Yep, we’re quite the pair.”

“You’re good for him. I didn’t think he’d ever take a mate—legions struggle with relationships, and they don’t always stake such claims. Plus, Luka is . . . well, Luka.”

“A very solitary being,” she elaborated.

“Exactly. And he seemed fine with that. I figured he’d find it impossible to properly trust another woman so deeply anyway. I’m glad to be wrong.”

“I shared your beliefs at one time, so—”

“Naomi Chamberlain?” a voice called out.

She tracked it, her head whipping to the side. A man was casually approaching them, nothing aggressive in his body language. Nonetheless, her insides seized. Because she recognized him straight away.

Stefan.

Konstantin slipped in front of her—for a tank, he could move fast. “Who are you?”

“Just a friend of her anchor,” Stefan told him. His head peeked around her bodyguard, and his eyes locked with hers again. “We met briefly at the psychic store, remember?”

Her demon studied him closely, not sensing that he meant Naomi any harm but still not wanting him near her. “I remember.”

“Can we talk?” He lifted his hands in a gesture of peace. “I just have some questions.”

“I’m not interested in answering them. There’s nothing I can tell you that Daniel Phillips won’t have put in his report, so . . .”

Konstantin shot her a look over his shoulder. “ He hired the PI?”

“Yes,” she replied.

The bodyguard shifted, blocking Stefan’s view of her. “It’s time you left.” A firm statement.

“I don’t intend to hurt her or anything,” Stefan assured him. “I just want to talk to her.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to you—she’s made that clear. So I don’t give a damn what you want.”

“But—”

“You have five seconds—no more, no less—to get in your car and get the fuck out of here,” Konstantin warned.

Stefan let out a loud sigh. “Oh, come on.”

“One . . . two . . . three—”

Pitch-black darkness fell. Pitch- black. It seemed thick and endless, like she was standing in a void.

The fuck?

Her demon shot to full alertness as her heart began to race and—

Pain slammed into Naomi’s head—sharp, heavy, hard. She sucked in a breath, stars bursting behind her eyelids, her stomach heaving.

She swayed, her legs trembling as pulsing waves of agony reverberated through her skull. The world seemed to be spinning around her. A world still so dark .

She fell to her knees, balancing on the mere edge of consciousness. Noise. There was so much noise.

Alarmed shouts. Pained cries. Crackles of magick. Hisses of hellfire.

She only distantly registered it, the agony racking her head all-consuming. It stole her breath, her focus, her strength. And it just kept battering at her.

A warm hand landed on her arm. “Naomi, come on, get up.”

She knew that voice. Iain.

“I don’t know who the fuck these people are, but we have to get out of here,” he stressed.

Luka’s mind all but crashed into hers, and then his voice poured inside—hard, demanding, filled with dread: Naomi? Naomi, tell me you’re all right.

She tried to respond, she really did, but her head hurt too much.

Fuck, baby, hold on.

Iain grabbed her arm tighter. “ Now , Naomi, get up.”

“Sorry to say,” came a deep voice from the darkness, “you won’t be going anywhere.”

Magick crackled again. A loud cry tore out of Iain. There was the thud of a body hitting the ground. All of which Naomi barely registered, the pain in her head becoming so great that she couldn’t think of anything else. She sagged forward, her eyes falling shut as unconsciousness dragged her under.

As the office door closed behind Luka’s now ex-employee, Nikandr whistled low from the sofa. “Two people quitting in one week—unusual.” He paused before adding, “Though I suppose it’s not surprising that Draya quit. She’d want to avoid you after what she did.”

Yes, but whereas Sela had resigned in person, Draya had done it remotely—and with immediate effect.