Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Prophet sighed. “Nothing I say is going to change your mind, is it?” he asked, like a suffering, misunderstood martyr.
“I could always invade yours and get the answers for myself,” Viper suggested with a shrug. “It’s not something I want to do, but it would go a long way to proving your innocence. Unless … you’re not innocent.”
Cursing beneath his breath, Prophet shifted in his seat. “Okay, okay, I knew they were close. I thought there was a chance they’d overhear me. I wanted Ella to.”
“Why?” Viper bit off, his inner entity seething.
Lines of anxiety set into Prophet’s face. “I worry for you. I worry what you’ll do if she rejects you when you come clean to her about everything. I know what it’ll do to you; what the consequences will be. I felt that if she could accept our diet, there was a good chance she’d accept the rest. It seemed best for you to know that now.”
Indignance spiked in Viper’s blood. “So, in your view, this was a test.”
“I didn’t do it for me, though, I did it for you. And look, it worked out in your favor, didn’t it?” Prophet spoke as if he’d done Viper a service. “And now there’s real hope that Ella can handle the entire picture.”
Dice growled low in his throat as his mind bumped Viper’s. He can’t honestly think you owe him or some shit.
He shouldn’t think that, but he does. “Too many times the Uppers disciplined you for taking it upon yourself to perform reckless acts for ‘the greater good’. You never did learn from that, did you?”
Prophet’s eyelids flickered, his jaw clenching.
Viper pinned him with a cold stare. “I don’t want or need you to ‘test’ Ella. You have concerns, bring them to me. Do not work against me. Do not decide you know what’s best and act on it.”
The angel licked his lips. “Viper—”
“I have been clear since before we fell why I was coming to this realm. Every member of our club knows that I’m here for Ella. Claiming her as my own is the ultimate goal. You’ve always been aware of this, correct?”
Prophet’s lips tightened. “Correct.”
“Then your concerns can’t be anything new. Your awareness of the risks must have been there from the start. Am I right on that?”
“Yes.” A muttered response.
“And yet, you chose to fall with us anyway. You never made me aware of your concerns or doubts regarding Ella. You decided to take the chance that all would work out well. Is that the case?”
Prophet stiffly inclined his head.
“So what fucking right do you have to suddenly interfere in my plans?” Viper demanded. “You chose to take chances when you fell, always knowing the risks. What authority do you have over me that you get to decide what’s ‘best’ for me? That you get to ‘test’ my woman?”
“I thought I was doing the right thing,” he upheld.
Viper’s entity snarled at the weak defense. “That’s my point. You assumed you knew what was right, and you acted accordingly—arrogantly believing we’d thank you in the end. There was nothing ‘right’ about it. I can’t afford to make mistakes in how I handle bringing Ella into my world. It’s a delicate, complex dance. There’s no room for wrong moves. What I absolutely do not fucking need is any of my brothers causing missteps.”
“I wasn’t trying to cause you problems.”
“But you could have. You also placed Dice in a position where he’d either have to delete Mia’s memories or share things with her he hadn’t originally intended to share unless he built something serious with her.”
“And I cannot tell you how much that pisses me off,” Dice gritted out, glaring at Prophet.
“You will not ever interfere when it comes to Ella,” Viper ordered. “There will be no more tests. There will be no more doing what you believe is ‘best’ when it comes to her. Are we clear on that?”
Prophet ground his teeth. “We’re clear.”
“I hope so,” Viper told him. “Because you might be my brother, but she’s my woman. She is my priority—always will be. I will eliminate any risk to her. I will obliterate anyone who gets in the way of me making her mine. That includes you. So do yourself a real favor and heed my warning. Because I’m telling you now, there won’t be another.”
“I want a love potion.”
Oh, unreal. Ella blinked at the she-demon beside her. “A love potion?”
The brunette gave a decisive nod. “Yes.”
It wasn’t unusual for people to come into the store thinking they could purchase such potions. They were the kind of people who watched way too much TV and had a dramatized notion of magick and how it worked. They had no real idea of its limitations, costs, or risks.
Turning away from the products on the shelf that she’d been rearranging, Ella gave her a tight smile. “There’s no potion that will make someone fall in love with another.”