That Old Black Magic

by Michelle Rowen

A turf war was going on in Darrak’s body between who he was and the new part of himself he refused to accept.

  Something else caught her attention. She hadn’t noticed it before. She’d been too distracted thinking the pure darkness was the curse, when really it was his demonic side. But now she saw it hiding at the edges, staring out at her. His curse. It was slimy and evasive, and one look at it told her it would devour her if she even attempted to reach toward it.

  If the spell from before had been like a puppy returning to its master at its first opportunity, this was a snake, winding around everything, both light and dark, until it was too tangled to untie.

  One day, she might try again. But not today. She instinctively knew that grabbing hold of it now would only do more damage.

  Darrak gasped out loud as she shifted the light and dark parts of him back into their comfortable positions. The raging jutting turf war stopped immediately.

  Putting Darrak back together was a lot like putting IKEA furniture together. Only this didn’t come with instructions.

  Eden opened her eyes to see Darrak was staring up at her.

  “Done,” she said. “How do you feel?”

  “Better.”

  Relief flooded her. “Thank God.”

  “If you say so.” He grinned and slid his fingers into her hair. “Yeah, I feel way better now.”

  “Things don’t seem as bleak?”

  “Oh, things still reek of bleak. Just without the bonus prize of sheer agony.”

  She pulled back. “I should have told you. I’m sorry.”

  He sat up. “Yeah, well, I’m sorry for not taking the news like a champ.”

  Her guilt from before prodded at her again. “You had a right to know earlier than today.”

  “How about we renew our agreement to be honest with each other? Or I might start borrowing your body again to do my errands at night.”

  “Blackmail. I can respect that.” She hadn’t told him about her meeting with Lucas, but she’d been returned so quickly that she honestly didn’t see a reason she needed to share that with him. She didn’t want to spoil his improved mood by mentioning his ex-boss.

  Eden looked down at her amulet. “Not much damage done.”

  “Anything is too much.”

  “It was worth it. I’m so glad you’re feeling better.”

  “Angel.” He blinked. “I’m half-angel. Maybe if I keep saying it out loud it won’t feel so utterly insane. Which half is angel, though? That’s the question.”

  She almost smiled. “I think it’s your right half.”

  He snorted. “It was a rhetorical question.”

  “I could see it, you know. Two separate pieces that aren’t too thrilled about taking up the same space. The right”—she took his right hand and brought it to her lips, kissing it—“and the left.” Then she did the same to the left.

  Darrak watched her carefully. “Well, I can tell you that both sides like that a lot.”

  He was wrong. This wouldn’t be the end of him. She’d fixed the pain and she could fix everything else if given enough time. “You’re going to be okay.”

  “You know that for a fact?”

  She nodded. “Yup.”

  “Beauty, brains, and the ability to soothsay. I’m very impressed.” He frowned. “You’re looking at me strangely right now.”

  Desire had replaced the concern she’d felt before. She slid her hands over his shoulders. “Am I?”

  “You are.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Better, like I said.”

  She leaned forward and brushed her lips against his. “How much better?”

  His gaze darkened with passion. “One hundred percent.”

  Then, as if a well had broken, he pulled her against him and kissed her hard and deep on her lips.

  She grinned. “So you are feeling frisky now.”

  “Never friskier.”

  His mouth covered hers again, his tongue sliding against her own. She couldn’t remember him ever kissing her with this kind of abandon before, not even the time they’d been given a lust elixir. There had always been something to stop them—worries about her black magic, Darrak’s spell that might make it worse, or not admitting her true feelings about the demon in the first place. They’d always fought against what felt so right.

  Sure, they had plenty of problems stacked up against them like a tall, impenetrable brick wall, but nothing remained to keep them from giving in to their passion for each other.

  “I want you, Darrak,” she whispered against his lips.

  His eyes blazed with need. “You know how much I love you.”

  “Show me. Make love to me.”

  It was all the encouragement he needed. He gathered her into his arms and turned her around to press her down against the mattress. She worked to remove his T-shirt and jeans, running her hands over his hot, bare skin.

  He kicked off his shoes and unbuttoned her blouse, sliding her pants down her legs. His mouth moved over her curves as he went, filling his hands with her breasts so he could slide his tongue over them, making her arch her back and gasp with pleasure.

  She wouldn’t think about their problems. She wouldn’t think about anything but this moment. She’d do like Darrak always suggested and live in the now. The future was not invited.

  “I love you,” he whispered again after he’d explored her body inch by inch.

  “Darrak, I—” But anything she would have said next was swept away by the feeling of him filling her in one deep thrust. It swept away her thoughts, her words, her entire universe.

  Eden clung to him as he moved inside of her and she captured his handsome face between her hands, staring deeply into his ice blue eyes—such a cool color to be filled with so much heat. He felt so good, smelled so good, tasted so good.

  Darrak made her feel better than anyone ever had in her entire life.

  People like Ben, like Leena, like her mother, thought what they had between them was wrong. That it was impossible for her to care this deeply for a demon and for that demon to care about her in return.

  But Darrak wasn’t exactly a demon anymore, was he? He was special. He was unique.

  He was hers.

  She arched against him as it felt as if she exploded into a million pieces of pleasure and couldn’t help but cry out against his lips. A moment later, her name left his lips in a harsh, raspy groan as he experienced his own shattering moment of completion.

  They lay naked on her bed, side by side, the covers tossed off and the shadows of the dark room playing across their bodies. Darrak held her hand tightly in his, their fingers entwined, and stared into her eyes as she relearned how to breathe.

  “Yes,” she whispered, trailing her fingertips down his bare chest. “That was very good.”

  He pulled her closer, his lips tracing the contour of her jaw. “No spell.”

  “Gone for good.”

  Darrak slid his hand over her hip, then around to her back where he played up the length of her spine. She nestled closer to his warmth, which had thankfully returned now that everything was back in proper alignment.

  “I think I could get used to this,” she said.

  “You, me, a messy bed.”

  “To hell with everything else.”

  A smile played at his lips. “I have a feeling you’d need food. Eventually, anyway. We could always send out for chocolate donuts.”

  “You know the way to a girl’s heart.”

  He slowly trailed his fingers over her face, then down her throat, collarbone, and breasts. He swirled his thumb around her nipple, which made it extremely difficult to think properly.

  She wanted him again. And again.

  “Darrak, please...”

  “Please what?” He was grinning now.

  She eyed him and couldn’t help but smile as well. “Don’t be so smug, demon.”

  “Smug? Moi?” He leaned forward and kissed her shoulder, but his fingers didn’t stop playing with
her sensitive flesh until he replaced them with his tongue. Her mind went white. “You want me, Eden?”

  “No, you absolutely disgust me.” She grinned and captured his mouth, kissing him deeply. “Yes, I want you.”

  “And you need me?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  He leaned closer to whisper in her ear. “And you love me?”

  She took his face between her hands and stared deeply into his eyes. “Of course I do.”

  He pulled back, locking gazes with her. A frown creased his brow. “I’ve been thinking a lot. You know, between the bouts of agony and confusion.”

  Eden raised an eyebrow. “Should I be scared?”

  “Possibly.”

  “What have you been thinking about?”

  “Stanley.”

  “You’ve been thinking about Stanley? Before, during, or after we had sex?”

  He laughed. “Not now, trust me. No, I’ve been thinking about him and his decisions lately. Especially when it comes to Nancy. He and I had a little talk about his proposal to her.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Stanley was a selfish loser, never thought much about anyone but himself and his next conquest.”

  “I remember. But what’s your point?”

  “I was like Stanley, sort of. Way better looking, of course.” He flashed her a wry grin. “Less balding, anyway.”

  “No argument here.”

  “But when it comes to faulty starts, him and me—we’re a lot alike. Until we met a couple of very special women. Stanley met Nancy . . . and I met you.”

  Darrak looked so serious right now it almost made her laugh. By the looks of things, his brush with mortality had given him much to think about. “You did. So what’s your point?”

  He met her gaze and held it. “Eden, this is going to sound crazy, but it feels right. Especially now. I . . . I just . . .”

  She stroked the messy dark hair off his forehead. What was this all about? “Just say it. It’s okay.”

  Darrak sat up completely and brought Eden up next to him, clasping her hands in his. His eyes were so full of sincerity she had a moment of fear about what exactly he wanted to tell her, what confession he suddenly wanted to make.

  “What, Darrak? Talk to me.”

  He searched her face. “Eden . . . marry me.”

  She blinked. “What?”

  He squeezed her hands tighter. “We’ve been through so much together and . . . I know it’s a human concept that doesn’t normally apply to demons, well, like ever. But it feels right. I want to be with you for however long we have together. I know it’s not ideal, and our lives aren’t anything remotely resembling a fairy tale, but . . . I love you. And I want to marry you because it’s a symbol of how we feel. How I feel.” He laughed a little. “Damn, I sound like I have no idea what I’m doing here, but I’m doing it anyway. Eden Riley, will you marry me?”

  She gaped at him for a long moment before she tried to speak, but nothing came out. Her mouth had dried up like a box of sand.

  What was he doing? Just what exactly had she clicked into place when she’d been shifting his dark and light jigsaw pieces apart before?

  “Darrak . . . I—I don’t know what to say. I’m surprised you’d ask me . . . this. It’s just, I . . .”

  A shadow of doubt entered his expression. “It was stupid, wasn’t it?”

  “No.” She gripped his hands. This was so unbelievably sweet and unexpected and . . . she didn’t know how to deal with this. A wistful sensation passed through her wishing things could be different than they were. Wishing they were remotely normal and could discuss things like this seriously. “Not stupid. Just not—Darrak, I . . . it’s just not something we should even be thinking about right now. There’s too much to deal with. I mean, at the very least you don’t even have a birth certificate. Or a driver’s license. And . . . and we’ve only known each other a month. One month!”

  Clarity washed over his expression. “Forget I said anything.”

  Her stomach twisted. “No, I don’t want to forget it. Just . . . maybe ask me again when things are better. But right now—you can’t honestly think this is a good time for this, do you? Besides, we have to go deal with Andy.” She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. “We really have to get moving right now.”

  New clothes flowed over his skin, and he let her go completely. “Of course. Andy. I forgot about him for a minute there.”

  Eden grabbed at the bedsheets to cover herself. She suddenly felt extremely naked. “Darrak, I mean it. We’ll talk about this later, I promise we will.”

  He got up off the bed, averting his gaze. “No problem. I’m going to let you get ready. I’ll give you some privacy.”

  He left the bedroom and the door closed behind him with a soft click.

  It felt very quiet all of a sudden. She could even hear the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears, loud and fast.

  Darrak had just asked her to marry him. Marry him. And she’d all but replied with a hell no. The last thing she wanted to do after all they’d been through was to hurt him, but what was she supposed to say? And what in the world had possessed him to ask her that in the first place? Had he really been inspired, of all things, by Stanley Dancy, minion to wizards and demons alike?

  The full moon was making everyone go wild this month.

  So, that couldn’t possibly have gone much worse than it did.

  Darrak wished for a button to press that could undo the dumber things he attempted. It would have helped many times over the years.

  This, quite possibly, had been the dumbest.

  “Eden Riley, will you marry me?”

  He covered his face with his hands. “What do I think this is? The Bachelorette?”

  Sex didn’t normally make him lose his mind like that. First time for everything.

  It was sort of humorous, actually. A cursed archdemon asking someone to be his wife in holy-freaking-matrimony. And the entire idea had been put into his mind in the first place by the romantic lothario Stanley, of all people.

  Hilarious. Maybe someday he’d be able to laugh about it.

  That day was not going to be today.

  Fine. So the proof was in the proverbial pudding. He had sensed it all along, but now he knew for sure. What he felt for Eden was not returned in full. She cared about him, she lusted after him, she might even love him a little. But it wasn’t nearly the same as how he felt about her.

  Point taken. He didn’t need any further embarrassment, thank you very much. He could take a hint when it hit him in the face with the force of a city bus.

  He caught a glimpse of himself in the oval mirror attached to the wall. “This is what happens with all that angel inside of you. It’s turned you into a romantic dope.”

  He was soft, sensitive, and making offers of marriage.

  It was the beginning of the end, just as he’d predicted for himself.

  Lucifer must have been laughing his ass off about his least favorite ex-employee. Darrak was nothing more than sentient hellfire with a soft side.

  There were bigger issues to be concerned with at the moment; he knew that. Much, much bigger.

  But still. How embarrassing.

  TWELVE

  Ben was getting better at lurking. Practice made perfect.

  He currently lurked outside of Eden’s apartment building. He hadn’t been here for a while, but he was determined to do something now—something that would redeem him from his recent lousy decisions. He’d gone into everything with the Malleus because he wanted to save Eden from the demon who possessed her, and that was exactly what he’d do.

  The only question was how.

  Do this and everything goes back to normal.

  Yeah. Unlikely at best, but it was a nice thought.

  The chill in the air made him draw his coat closer. He’d been standing there staring at her building for nearly a half hour now trying to concentrate, but his mind kept going back to that shapeshifter.

  Big
trouble, that one. Her being locked up in a cage wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

  Still, something about her situation had struck him as wrong. She was locked in that cell because she had information Oliver wanted. She was also locked up because she was a shifter, since the Malleus deemed anything Other to be evil. Just like the police, the Malleus had rules and guidelines that governed their actions. They were trying to make the world a better, safer place.

  He’d honestly believed that in the beginning.

  “You look troubled.”

  Ben glanced next to him with surprise. He hadn’t seen the man approach, now leaning against the car next to Ben’s. He was tall, with short messy brown hair and an ill-fitting suit that looked like it could use an ironing.

  “Do I?” he replied.

  “Definitely.”

  “Who’re you?”

  “Just a concerned citizen. I want to help you . . . if you want my help, that is.”

  “You can help me? You don’t even know me.”

  “I know enough, Ben. Enough to know you’re a good person who wants to do the right thing. Just like her.” The man nodded off to their left.

  Ben was taken aback that this guy knew his name, but he turned to see that they weren’t alone in their survey of the apartment. There was a pretty, dark-haired young woman sitting in a Corvette nearby, her gaze fixed on the building.

  “Who’s she?” Ben asked.

  “Someone like you who’s looking for redemption. Her name’s Caroline. You two have a lot in common.”

  “Like what?”

  “You both care about the ultimate fate of Eden Riley.”

  Ben tensed. “What do you know about Eden?”

  “A fair amount.”

  “Who are you?”

  “A friend.”

  “I don’t need any more friends.”

  “No? Could have fooled me. Here I thought you currently have”—he cocked his head to the side—“exactly zero friends, right? At least ones you can count on in a pinch. You know what they say, a friend can help you move. A good friend can help you move a body. It’s all very true.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  He nodded toward the parked car. “You and Caroline should become friends. Together, I think you can help Eden. After all, that’s what you both want: to help her. And you both think you know how to do that.”