CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Slumping into a chair in the clubhouse's meeting room the following day, Prophet glanced from Viper to Dice. There was no nervousness there. No sheepishness. No remorse.

Viper's entity narrowed its eyes. Either the angel didn't grasp the gravity of his behavior last night—which seemed highly unlikely—or he felt he'd done nothing wrong.

At the head of the table, Viper swiveled his chair slightly toward him. "I'm sure you can guess what this is about."

Prophet gave a nod. "I messed up, I know. But I apologized."

"Yeah, you did," said Dice from the chair opposite Prophet, his expression hard. "Our problem is that we're not sure you meant it."

Prophet frowned. "What?"

"Nor are we sure it was an accident on your part," Dice added.

" What ?"

"Our club's ability to live in peace with demons in this realm depends on our secrecy," Viper pointed out. "We're all careful of what we say at all times. We don't accidentally say too much in a public place. You don't accidentally do that. You've always been vigilant. Last night, you weren't."

Prophet's mouth thinned. "I didn't know the sisters were there."

Viper shot him an incredulous look. "They were close enough that they overheard you. I find it hard to believe you hadn't sensed their presence on your way to the office."

Prophet's nostrils flared. "This is bull."

His oh-so-innocent routine was bull. "You didn't needed to come to my office. The conversation you wanted to have with us wasn't long-winded or of a serious nature, was it? All you wanted was to ask if we'd seen Merchant and—though we hadn't ever asked to be informed of such a thing—tell us that our regulars were at the bar. You could have done that telepathically. It would have saved you a walk and been less risky."

"I wasn't taking risks, I—"

"No? You didn't enter my office and close the door behind you. You popped your head inside, keeping the door open while you talked. That isn't careless?"

" I didn't know they were there ."

Viper leaned forward. "I think you did," he said, his pitch dropping, his voice oozing danger.

"Why would I have wanted them to overhear me?"

"Not them. Ella. Maybe you wanted to know once and for all if she would be able to handle our reality. You knew we could edit both her memories and that of Mia afterward. But you had to also know how much I would have hated doing that to my woman. You didn't care."

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."

A line formed between the brunette's thin brows. "Of course there is," she said, waving a hand that sported long acrylic nails. "I've heard about them."

"There are potions that can temporarily manipulate a person's body chemistry using magick, much like with a drug. The potions make the brain release oxytocin, the good ole ‘love hormone'. Whoever—or whatever—they're looking at while the potion takes effect will become an object of their obsessive devotion. But the potions wear off in a matter of hours."

"Surely you can whip up something stronger than that."

"The magick would never hold. It can't. Because real love is emotion. Emotions can't be manipulated that way."

The woman tossed her head, making her sleek bob dance to the side. "A temporary effect will do, I suppose."

"You're fine with essentially forcing someone to love you? Fine with interfering with their will in such a way?"

"Yes," she answered without missing a beat.

Ella's demon huffed in disdain. It didn't exactly have an issue with forcing anyone to do anything against their will, but it did find the idea of love potions somewhat pathetic. "Even though it won't last, and they'll eventually realize you did something to manipulate their feelings?"

"Why would they realize it?"

"Once the magick wears off, the person who was bespelled can look back through all that happened through clear lenses. They'll be well-aware that their ‘feelings' were fake, they'll realize they were caught in a spell, and they'll obviously suspect the person they temporarily ‘loved' as being responsible." It wouldn't exactly take detective work.

She lightly scratched her chin with one nail. "He may not suspect me. He's not particularly smart. Where do you keep the potions? I browsed the aisles, but I didn't find one."

Of course she didn't. "We don't stock them, sorry." Ella turned and made a beeline for the counter.

"But you could whip me up one, right?" the woman persisted, trailing after her.

"You want me to help you trick someone to love you? Uh, no."

The brunette practically pouted. "Why not?"

"First of all, it's highly unethical." Ella rounded the counter, moving to stand behind it. "Second of all, I have too much of a healthy respect for magick to ever misuse it." Magick was a force that was not to be fucked around with.

The brunette gave her a dirty look. "Fine. I'll get a love potion from someone else."

"Possibly. But you'll run across every problem I just mentioned, and also have to deal with magickal karma bitch-slapping you. A misuse of magick always leads to that."

Not seeming at all concerned, the woman swanned out of the store, almost bumping into Kasper outside. He and Arman stood either side of the door, making no attempt to be invisible.

Mia materialized at Ella's side. "What was that about?"

"She wanted a love potion."

Mia rolled her eyes. "You warned her about the consequences?"

"Yup. She doesn't appear to care." Ella cricked her neck, too much tension gathered there.

Mia's face softened as her gaze sharpened on her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just a headache. It'll pass."

"That's all it is? Often when I glance over, you look sort of … introspective. You said earlier that you weren't gonna let what we learned last night run you off, but you've been quiet all day. You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"No, not at all." Her demon would have put up a fight if Ella had tried to pull away from Viper anyway—it had become a teensy bit attached to him, and it gave not one measly fuck that he drank blood.

"It's not that you're spooked? Because it would be understandable."

"I'm not spooked. Surprised, yes. Pretty bummed on his behalf, yes. And also kind of … "

"What?"

Ella cleared her throat. "I'm curious as to what it'd feel like to let a certain someone take a bite out of me."

A slow smile curved Mia's mouth. "I've thought about that a lot, too. Truth be told"—she leaned in—"I wouldn't mind finding out."

"I told Viper to come to me the next time he needs to feed. But it's important to him that I'm sure about it; he doesn't want me to have regrets afterwards."

"And would you?"

"I don't think so." Maybe some would have found the blood-drinking thing a little off-putting. Ella wasn't one of those people. "He said he could make it pleasurable."

"Dice said the same. I didn't volunteer to offer him a vein next time he was thirsty, but I think I will. I know we're not serious, but I still positively loathe the thought of him sinking his teeth into another person's skin—man or woman."

The light click-clack of heels preceded the appearance of their mother. She smiled brightly at them, her hands clasped together. "My lovelies, I have a favor to ask of you."

"No," they both said at once.

Melodie frowned, lowering her arms. "I haven't even told you what it is yet."

"The answer's still no," Ella told her.

"A resounding no," added Mia. "Your favors always center around allowing us to test your new products on us. My hair was like straw for a week when I last tested a shampoo."

"And I got a huge-ass purple rash after trying out one of your soaps," Ella reminded their mother.

"There aren't always side effects," said Melodie.

"But there usually are," Ella pointed out, "and I'm not interested in personally finding out what they are this time."

Melodie huffed. " Someone needs to be a test dummy."

"Neither me nor Ella are gonna be that someone," Mia stated.

Melodie's gaze flitted to the front of the store and narrowed in consideration. "Hmm, maybe she'll consent to it."

"Who?" Ella tracked her mother's gaze to see Jocelyn stood outside nattering amiably with Maxine . Her inner demon glared at the harpy, rather unpleased to see her.

"Jocelyn is still friends with her?" asked Mia, astonished.

"Not quite," replied Melodie. "Like us, she feels there's a good chance that Maxine befriended her for the wrong reason. But she won't find out for sure if she doesn't give the harpy the opportunity to pump her for information, so she accepted Maxine's invitation to go for lunch." Melodie smiled as both women entered the store. "Maxine, how lovely to see you. I was just wondering how you'd feel about letting me test some new products on you."

The harpy's polite smile faltered. "I'd prefer not to, if it's all the same to you."

"Can't say I blame you," muttered Jocelyn.

"Where did you go for lunch?" asked Melodie.

"The sushi place not far from here," replied Jocelyn. "The food was amazing."

Maxine looked from Ella to Mia, her eyes briefly flashing with something not very pleasant. "Girls."

Not ‘Ladies' this time , Ella noted as she telepathically reached out to her sister.

Yeah, that greeting was a condescending slap if ever I've heard one , said Mia. "How's Dionne?"

Maxine's strained smile turned brittle. "She's fine. Well, I'll be off now. I'll touch base with you again next week, Jocelyn."

Once the harpy had flounced out of the store, Ella turned to her aunt. "Well?"

"She asked me less questions than usual, as if being careful not to bump my radar," said Jocelyn. "She also bemoaned how a mysterious someone went to Knox ‘falsely' claiming she uses Dionne as a plant. Maxine monitored me very carefully when she revealed that little tidbit."

Mia hummed. "So she suspects that it was one or more of us."

"I'd say so. I played clueless and feigned horror on her behalf." Jocelyn's brow furrowed. "I was initially surprised that she asked me to lunch, but I suppose she has to continue on as normal or she'll otherwise look guilty of what Knox accused her of."

"Move, idiot," a female voice hissed, drawing their attention to the couple making their way toward the counter.

Ella felt her lips curve up. She knew Larkin, since this harpy was part of Levi and Piper's circle of friends. Larkin's mate, Teague, was someone who most demons in Vegas would recognize on sight. He regularly raced in the Underground hellhorse racing stadium, and he'd never been known to lose. Or to be anything close to sane.

Teague gave his mate a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry, am I bothering you?"

Larkin glared up at him. " Are you actually sorry, though?"

He considered it for a moment. "No."

The harpy growled, which made his smile widen.

"Here, let me carry your shower gel," he said, all solicitous.

She held the bottle tighter. "It's shampoo."

"Semantics."

Reaching the counter, Larkin drew in a centering breath, smiled politely at Ella and the others, and plonked the bottle down. "Just this."

"No conditioner, today?" asked Mia.

"Still got some left," replied Larkin. "I shampoo twice, so I run out of that sooner. I don't usually care about brands, but since Piper convinced me to sample your stuff, I won't use anything else."

Having rung up her purchase, Ella bagged it. "I'll have to thank her for being our product-pimp."

Teague courteously took the bag. "I'll carry the soap."

Larkin's eyelid twitched. "It's shampoo."

He made a dismissive sound. "Semantics."

The harpy blinked at him. "I'm starting to think that that word doesn't mean what you think it does."

The couple bickered all the way to the door, though Teague seemed to be riling his mate on purpose. It generally wasn't advisable to piss off a harpy—especially one whose entity had an ugly reputation. But hellhorses weren't exactly the most sensible demonic breed.

"More of those Black Saints are outside again," commented Melodie, staring out of the window.

Following her gaze, Ella noticed a bunch of the Fallen gathered outside the dive bar.

"I'm thinking of starting a petition," Melodie announced.

Mia cocked her head. "To what?"

"Make them stop coming to the bar," their mother replied.

Ella frowned, pointing out, "They own it."

"That doesn't mean they need to be there." With a sniff, Melodie retreated to the workshop.

Wincing, Ella exchanged an awkward look with Mia. If their mother was irritated merely seeing the Black Saints close to the store, she would lose her mind on hearing Ella's news.

"I'll have to tell her about Viper and I at some point," said Ella. "I wasn't sure it'd be necessary. But last night, he made it clear that he hopes this will go the distance."

"Are you hoping for the same?"

"Yes. I feel comfortable with him in a way I never have with anyone else." All her life, Ella had felt like something was missing. It was much the same feeling that you got when you walked into a room and realized that something had been moved or taken. There was an absence that she couldn't explain. Now, with him around, it was gone.

"Do you care for him?"

"Yes, I do. I actually think I'm in serious danger of falling hard for this dude." It would be a first for Ella. She'd done a whole lot of liking. There'd also been plenty of lusting. A time or two, she'd thought she might well grow to feel the big L for someone. But it had just never happened.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm still a little miffed that he hasn't yet told me all there is to know about him," Ella continued. "But I do understand the Black Saints' need for caution. And I don't really have much room to judge someone for keeping things from people anyway, considering I've kept my involvement with him a secret."

"Yeah, we'd be hypocrites to judge them."

"I thought my demon might fight me on agreeing to a relationship with Viper, but it isn't actually opposed to keeping him. Why? Simple and selfish: It's possessive enough of him not to want another woman to have him."

Mia snickered. "Typical."

Ella puffed out a breath. "I guess I better rehearse exactly how I'll break it to our family."

As she later drove them home from work, it was exactly what she did. But no matter what way she approached the matter, no matter what angle she took, she never found a way to voice the news that would make their loved ones take it well.

"I think I'm going to have to accept that there is no way to make them take it well," said Ella, turning onto a single lane. This short-cut to their apartment building didn't see much traffic, instead it was surrounded by grassland. "I'll just have to bite the bullet and tell them anyway."

"I think Mom and Jocelyn will eventually come round, once they see that Viper makes you happy. Luka? He might hold it against Viper until the end of time."

"I wish I could say you're wrong, but—"

Something landed on her car and rolled off it.

Ella slammed her foot on the brakes, bringing the car to a screeching halt.

Ghost. It was Ghost who'd hit the car. He was now pushing himself up off the ground … and glaring at the two strix looming over him. One strix lashed him with a whip of— whoa —black fire while the other blasted him with flaming orbs.

And then … everything happened superfast.

Several members of the Black Saints appeared, sans Viper.

Ella's guards rushed out of their car behind hers and began charging forward.

More strix came sprinting across the field on her right, as if they'd been waiting there.

The rest of the Black Saints materialized, Viper included, and shed their jackets in a wickedly fast movement.

All hell then officially broke loose.