That Old Black Magic

SEVEN



Someone followed Eden home, and that made her very nervous.

Maybe it was the Malleus—led by Ben Hanson, former crush. They were nasty, horrible people who had conned themselves into believing they were the good guys, but they weren’t. Not even close.

It could be Lucas keeping tabs on her, which would explain how he seemingly knew everything without the ability to see the future. However, that was unlikely. If he was the one following her, she doubted she’d even realize it.

It might even be Leena, her ex-roommate, a feline shapeshifter who’d disappeared two weeks ago after a disagreement with Darrak, leaving only a note behind and a key to a locker containing some of her belongings. Her departure only proved that three was a crowd when it came to paranormal beings cohabiting a one-bedroom apartment.

But it was none of these.

It turned out to be her mother—the twenty-three-year-old lingerie model version, anyway. She drove a sports car like some sort of life-size Barbie doll and pulled up right next to Eden in her apartment parking lot.

“So where’s the demon right now?” Caroline asked, following a silent Eden to the elevators.

“Around.”

“I guess she isn’t going to wait for your call,” Darrak said from inside of her. “What’s it been, six whole hours?”

“Guess not.”

“What, honey?” Caroline asked.

“Nothing. Look . . . uh, Mom”—it felt so strange calling this woman that—“we need to talk another day.”

“My God. He said at night he . . .” Caroline’s eyes widened. “That demon is possessing you right now, isn’t he?”

Eden grimaced. “It’s really not as bad as it sounds.”

Caroline hugged her tightly. “Oh, sweetie. I can’t believe this is happening to you. I’m so sorry for all of what you’ve been through.”

“It’s not exactly your fault. Besides, it’s almost over.”

“It is? You’re having him exorcised?”

“I have a strange feeling I’m not going to win her over with my charm and good looks,” Darrak observed.

Eden repressed a grimace. “I’m not having Darrak exorcised.”

“How can you be so calm about this? You’re possessed, honey. By a demon from the fiery depths of Hell!”

Luckily there was no one else in the lobby to overhear her—admittedly true—ravings.

“Calm isn’t what I am,” Eden said. “But Darrak and I have a mutual understanding. And we’re finding a solution. Sooner than you think, actually.”

“And how am I supposed to be convinced that he’s not manipulating your emotions? Did he seduce you? I know demons. I know how persuasive they can be when it comes to converting one to their sexual deviance. Bondage is meant to be done between two consenting adults, not between a victim and a vile minion of Lucifer.”

“Stop her,” Darrak said dryly. “I’m getting all turned on.”

Eden cringed. “I’m not talking about this, Mom. Not with you.”

Caroline’s bottom lip wobbled. “I’d do anything for you, Eden, you know that, don’t you?”

Anything. Funny, it hadn’t felt like that when Caroline had been alive. In her own body. Frankly, it felt as if Eden had been a big burden on her mother’s free-spirit lifestyle. Carting a kid around when you never called one place home for more than a few months wasn’t exactly ideal to establishing a stable childhood.

Eden exhaled. “Mom, I need you to hear me. Will you listen for just a moment?”

“Of course.”

Eden turned to face her directly. “I don’t need your help. And I don’t want your help. I can handle this like I’ve handled everything else for my entire life. You can’t march in here and expect that you can make everything right that went wrong when you were alive. I know you’re trying to redeem yourself, but you can start somewhere else. Not with me.”

She expected this speech to finally get through to her mother and make her understand. Instead, Caroline’s eyes flashed.

“Well, that’s too damn bad. Because I’m here. And I’m going to help you whether you like it or not. I might have been a lousy mother—”

“I’m not saying that.” Not out loud, anyway.

Caroline raised her hand. “Whatever. I’m not an idiot. I know things weren’t ideal when you were growing up. But you turned into a fine woman. I’m not going to say it was my doing, but this is where we are now. I don’t know what this demon has been telling you, but it’s sick what’s going on here. I guess I have just enough clarity to see that. I’m not leaving until I can do something to help fix this. It’s all I want, Eden. I want you to be happy.”

“I am happy,” Eden gritted out. “Ecstatic, in fact.”

“Are you in love with that nasty demon? Tell me.”

She let out a breath of exasperation. “Would that make a difference to you?”

“It might.”

“I care very deeply for him. Yes, I—I love him.”

“You don’t sound convinced about that.”

“I guess I don’t like being put on the spot when it comes to discussing my feelings. Especially not with someone who’s always had the habit of stomping on them whenever she has the chance.”

Finally, Caroline flinched. “I’m sorry you feel that way. Fine, I’ll leave. But this isn’t over.”

She turned and stomped back toward the sports car. Eden watched until she’d driven out of the parking lot, squealing her wheels.

“I think we’re making progress with her,” Darrak said. “And by progress I mean the opposite of that. What’s the opposite of progress?”

“That.”

“Yeah.”

She was quiet for a long moment. She couldn’t help but feel guilt at pushing her mother away, even though she knew it was the right thing to do. There wasn’t much more to say. She’d been blunt. Perhaps too blunt.

It was done. And Caroline didn’t seem completely deterred in her newfound mission.

Save her possessed daughter.

But Eden was already attempting to save herself. And she might even have the tools to do just that.

“Tomorrow, at dawn, before we go and find the missing person for Lucas, I’m breaking your curse once and for all.”

“Is that a promise or a threat?” he asked warily.

She thought it was a promise, but suddenly she just wasn’t all that sure anymore.





If it was possible to pace while in a noncorporeal state inside the body of a beautiful, yet frustrating woman, that was exactly what Darrak did while Eden slept.

Pacing. Back and forth.

He might even say he was fretting. He didn’t think he’d ever fretted before. It was a word that had only been added to his vocabulary tonight.

Fretting sucked.

She was so damned motivated to try to break this curse. She’d broken the spell relatively easily—so easily it made his head swim. Not that he’d have a head until the morning, but a head was implied.

She wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Besides, why would he even say no? This was exactly what he wanted.

Freedom. Something that had sounded like a pipe dream for so long might actually become a reality.

And then what?

Darrak wasn’t much of a “look deeply into the future” kind of guy. He liked to live in the now.

Okay. So what now?

He had to deal with Lucifer. That wasn’t now, but it would be soon. Lucifer was his boss—a boss that Darrak had screwed over once too often. A big lesson he’d learned recently was if you were going to screw over a boss, please try your best not to make it Lucifer, the Prince of Hell.

Yeah. Lesson learned.

Darrak didn’t feel the immediate need to head back to Hell anytime soon, of course. He wouldn’t be welcomed there anyway until he got rid of the celestial energy churning inside him. He had no idea how long it would take before he would be able to enter the Netherworld undetected. Possibly a very long time. In the meanwhile, he’d have to get used to living here in the human world.

He couldn’t help but wonder if Eden would want him around after their ties were finally cut. This was something he tried very hard not to think about much, especially after hearing her awkwardly answer the “Do you love the hell-spawn?” comment from her mother. Eden had answered in the affirmative, which was nice to hear. But it hadn’t exactly been delivered with a great deal of enthusiasm.

Ah, self-doubt, he thought. There you are again. Awesome.

He hated that he felt this way, that he’d spend even a moment of his energy on this particular problem, but there it was. The uncertainty about whether a woman was head over heels in love with him.

How sad.

Even sadder was the fact that he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that what Eden really felt about him was only a fraction of what he felt for her. Perhaps it was the fact he’d never been in love before that made his emotions so acute, so strong, so impossible to ignore. He wasn’t a puppy dog, ready to roll over and bare his belly the moment he thought she might give him a scratch. He wasn’t that whipped. But he knew he’d do just about anything for her.

And if, when all was said and done, she wanted them to part ways, then that was exactly what he’d do. As the saying went, if you love someone you should let them go, and if they didn’t return you should hunt them down and . . .

No, wait. That was a different saying. The original one was that if they didn’t come back then they never were yours to begin with.

Thus, the fretting.

Even Stanley, of all people, had been hit by the love stick when he’d least expected it, and it had changed the direction of his life forever. Well, Nancy did know how to make an excellent donut, that was for sure.

All Darrak knew for absolute certain was that he cared for Eden more than anything in the world. And the fact that she’d become a person of interest to Lucifer didn’t sit well with him. Lucifer might have a very disarming face here in the human world, but that didn’t make him any less dangerous.

He just wished he knew what to do about that.

It felt like a very long time before the sun began to rise. He knew the moment it happened, because it hit him like a lightning bolt before surrounding his incorporeal form like a clawed hand, tearing him from the darkness and wrenching him up through to the physical world.

Eden gasped in her sleep as he was expelled from her body. Immediately he began to take form, his essence rebuilding itself in the image of whom he’d been before, so very long ago. Tall, demonic, and handsome, limbs in all the right positions. It was effortless and yet exhausting at the same time.

A few moments later he found himself lying next to her on her bed. A feeling of relief and calm swept over him.

Eden appeared to smile in her sleep, and she slid a hand over his bare chest. He covered it with his own hand, not wanting to break the moment. It did surprise him that she was able to sleep through this every morning—almost every morning, unless she was already awake.

“Today is special, I feel it,” he whispered to her. “It’s the beginning, not the end.”

She grunted a soft reply, but didn’t stir further. In her sleep she wasn’t consumed with worry or anxiety over their unusual situation. Eden slept very soundly for a woman who had to deal with an unwanted demonic possession and a million other problems since he’d come into her life.

Today could go very well. Darrak tried to hold on to that thought.

It was an important Friday. First he’d walk her through the curse breaking. One way or another, after that they would find Lucifer’s missing person to check that chore off the list and get him off their backs for a bit longer.

And tonight was also the full moon.

Andy was scheduled to turn into a werewolf at approximately the same time Darrak would next lose form. That was, if they were unable to break the curse this morning.

Let’s think positively, he told himself.

“Darrak . . .” Eden whispered, her eyes still closed.

She often talked in her sleep, saying all sorts of interesting things.

He drew closer, bringing his head to rest on her pillow. “Yes, Eden?”

“What am I going to do . . .”

“What are you going to do . . . ?” he prompted when she trailed off.

“. . . without you?”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He frowned at the strange statement and studied her face. “Do you love me, Eden?”

His breath caught and held as he waited for her answer as if he was a teenage human boy looking for the girl he liked to confirm she would go to the prom with him. She was very honest when she was asleep.

“I want you,” she murmured. “I need you . . . yes . . .”

“All good to know. But what about . . .” Oh hell, what was he doing? Trying to coax some sort of oath of love and devotion from an unconscious woman? “Forget it.”

“When you’re gone I’ll be all alone again . . .”

“Gone?” He frowned again. “Where am I going?”

“I love . . .” she whispered.

His attention grew fixed on her again. “Yes? What do you love?”

“When you . . . make love to me. Want it . . . please . . . again . . .”

Okay, so she wanted him for his body. It was nice to know. But oddly empty. Nice. But empty. Kind of like how he felt after eating one of Nancy’s chocolate donuts.

“You want me?” he said.

“Yes, so much . . .”

“There’s no more spell to stop us anymore.”

Her hands slid over his chest to his shoulders. “No more spell.”

“Wake up, Eden.” He stroked the long strands of dark red hair off her forehead. He studied her face, as if committing it to memory. Every part of her, right down to the very faint and adorable freckle just under her right eye, burned into him for the rest of his existence—a scorch mark where his soul would be if he actually had one.

Instead, she had become his soul.

Damn. He really should start writing those romance novels. He’d kick ass at it.

Her eyelashes fluttered, and her sleepy gaze took in the sight of him lying next to her. This didn’t happen anymore, not since he’d been trying to be well behaved. Too dangerous to be this close when there had been nasty spells to contend with.

“Darrak . . .” she whispered.

“That’s my name.”

For a moment he thought she’d pull back from him. It was what she’d done in the beginning, when she’d woken to find her unconscious self had been getting a bit too close for comfort with a naked demon.

But she didn’t pull back. Just the opposite, actually. She pulled his face closer to hers and kissed him hard and deep. He didn’t try to stop her.

Eden loved him for his body, for how he made her feel when they had sex.

That wasn’t all this was. It wasn’t.

Come on, Darrak, he admonished himself. Can’t you just enjoy the ride and stop second-guessing everything?

He could enjoy the ride. Sure he could.

Her cold amulet pressed against his chest as her lips moved down his throat. Lucifer had kissed her behind his back, sweeping her away to some alternate dimension so he wouldn’t be around to disrupt them. It bothered Darrak a lot, and it wasn’t because he was jealous.

Then again, jealousy wouldn’t be completely unheard of. Lucifer might be the ultimate hellish a*shole, but he was a prince. Influential, powerful, and if he really did have a thing for Eden, the things he could give her . . .

Oh, this was not good at all. Thinking about his ex-boss was deflating more than just his ego.

“Is there a problem?” Eden asked.

“Problem? No, of course not.”

“I thought you wanted us to . . .” She cleared her throat, her expression now uncertain.

Thinking about Lucifer was pretty much the equivalent of taking an ice-cold shower. Not exactly firing up his libido. Quite the opposite, in fact.

How embarrassing. An ex-incubus who couldn’t get it up.

“It’s not you,” he assured her. “It’s Lucifer.”

Her eyebrows raised. “Oh?”

“Thinking about him isn’t exactly helping matters.”

“Then stop thinking about him.”

He flicked her amulet. “A bit difficult to do. I feel like there’s three of us in this bed right now.” At her amused expression, “Don’t get any ideas about having a ménage à trois from Hell. He’s really not my type.”

“As if I would.” She shook her head. “You’re funny.”

“So hilarious I forgot to laugh.”

She took his face between her hands. “Sometimes you just prove to me that you’re so much more than just a demon. Sometimes you’re practically human.”

“Let’s not get insulting.”

“Not an insult. You have doubts, worries, issues.”

Darrak groaned. “This is not an issue that’s going to be long-term. Seriously. Just give it a moment. This has never happened to me before.” He glared at her. “Okay, you look way too amused right now.”

She was grinning at him. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“Maybe once upon a time, but not anymore.”

She nodded. “Let’s do this.”

“I thought I already explained in flaccid detail that it’s not going to happen. Ten minutes. Give me ten minutes. I need some peanut butter or something. Protein.”

“I mean the curse.” Her expression had grown serious very quickly. She shifted so she pushed him onto his back and straddled him. Even though she was wearing full flannel pajamas, he found that his issues were disappearing as quickly as they’d arrived. The woman could make even flannel sexy. He ran his hands up her thighs.

“This is much better,” he said. “I can work with this.”

He pulled her down and captured her mouth again.

Eden pushed back from him. “I want to break the curse. Now. Let’s get it over with. Why would we want to wait another minute?”

He eyed her warily. “Now? You’re sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”

“That’s pretty sure.”

She pressed her hands against his chest. “So should I approach this the same as the spell? Maksim said a curse is made of denser magic and I was supposed to be careful with it.”

“Yes, you definitely want to be careful. And he was right. A curse will feel different than a spell on that level. It’s stronger, tougher. Think about gum stuck to someone’s shoe. Only it’s not gum and no shoes are involved.”

Eden’s expression was filled with enthusiasm, hope, and sheer determination. He didn’t want to say anything to break this mood. He liked seeing the worry gone from her green eyes.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said.

He almost smiled at that. He was more concerned for her, not him at this moment. “The spell could have gotten worse, but a curse is as bad as it gets. Not sure you could do more damage than was already done.”

Eden nodded. “Then kiss me again for good luck.”

“I can definitely do that.” He flexed his abdomen and sat up, doing just as she asked. She tasted good. Addictive. His body responded immediately.

Sure, now it responded. What happened to this surge of desire five minutes ago?

Stupid Lucifer.

He slid his hands under the edge of her flannel top to trail up the length of her spine.

“Should touch you skin to skin again,” he said. “It will help.”

“It’s helping.”

“Now try to concentrate, Eden, and break this damn curse once and for all. One shot. That’s all we’re doing right now. Just a test of the emergency broadcast system.”

“Just a test.” She kissed him one last time, then closed her eyes and pressed him back down to the mattress. “I can do this.”

Darrak watched her guardedly. There was no change for a moment, but then she frowned, her eyebrows drawing together. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing . . . but I—I think I can see something. I think it’s your curse. It’s . . . it’s so dark and horrible.”

He did hope that was the curse she was seeing, not simply his true demon self. “Tell me exactly what you see.”

“The darkness is filled with evil like a black hole. It scares me.”

“What else?”

She hesitated. “On the other side there’s a glow, a—a brightness. Filled with light and life and goodness.”

That was probably the celestial energy he’d absorbed from her like an undigested candy bar in his gut. “Focus on the dark part. Try to grab that darkness and test it out—you’ll be able to see if it’s really the curse then or if it’s, uh, just a part of . . . yours truly.”

“Okay, I can do that.” She was silent for a long moment, her forehead creased with concentration. “I’m almost there. I can move it—right now . . . it’s hard to budge . . .”

Something was wrong, he sensed it deep in his gut. “Eden, wait a minute. Something about this doesn’t feel right. We need to hang off for just a—”

And then he felt it. Pain—a searing agony more intense and acute than he’d ever felt before crashed over him like a tidal wave. It was quite possible he literally screamed. He pushed Eden off of him and rolled off the side of the bed. And then, suddenly, his body was gone, and there was only smoke.

This is it, he thought past the white-hot pain tearing through his entire being. The end. It’s over. It’s all over . . .