“Your phone is on fire.”
He was right. A spark from her magic had ignited her BlackBerry. She shrieked and threw it before it burned her. It skittered across the breakfast bar and landed with a
sizzle
in the kitchen sink. “Well, damn.”
Before she had a chance to move Darrak was right in front of her. He pulled out the chain she wore around her neck so her amulet lay flat against her freshly ironed white shirt.
“It’s even darker than it was yesterday.”
She clamped her hand over the visible state of her soul. The more she used her magic, the more damage it did. A black witch, even an extremely reluctant one like her, started with a pure white soul, but it grew darker and darker every time she accessed her very accessible black magic. Eden’s amulet was still pale gray, but it had darker veins branching through it, making it look like a piece of marble.
She shook her head. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Then what are these?” He pushed her hand away and slid his index finger over the veins.
She grimaced. “A glitch.”
“A glitch,” Darrak repeated skeptically. “Not sure it works like that.”
“Then I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Eden—” All amusement was gone from his voice now. “I’m worried about you.”
A demon from Hell was worried about her immortal soul. It sounded like a joke. But Darrak wasn’t any normal demon. And she wasn’t any normal black witch.
Once upon a time, Darrak had been just as bad as any demon who’d ever existed—as immortal as he was immoral, sadistic, powerful, selfish, manipulative, and deadly. He’d even conspired with a demonic pal to overthrow Lucifer himself in an attempt to take his power as Prince of Hell. However, they’d failed. Rather spectacularly, in fact.
Darrak had been summoned into the human world over three hundred years ago and a curse put on him that destroyed his original body and his ability to manifest a new one. He’d been forced to possess humans ever since. A side effect of this was that he’d absorbed humanity slowly but surely, and it infused his being. The demon had developed a conscience. Morals. A sense of right and wrong.
But that wasn’t the whole story.
To add to Eden’s growing paranormal resume, she’d recently been shocked to learn in addition to being a black witch she was also a nephilim.
A human mother plus an angel father equaled one very confused twenty-nine-year-old woman—black witch plus half-angel in the same body. It wasn’t exactly a combination that was working out perfectly, kind of like oil and water.
And the bonus prize—she was possessed by a demon.
It had been an interesting year to say the least.
Her angel side infused her with celestial energy, something she’d never even sensed before apart from a smidgeon of unreliable psychic insight. But it was what Darrak had absorbed over the last month due to their situation. And he’d absorbed a lot of it.
Bottom line, a human conscience was the least of Darrak’s troubles. A demon who’d been neck-deep in celestial energy as he had been in the last month . . .
Well, it was changing him on a core level. Only he didn’t exactly know it yet.
Eden knew it would shake his already shaky confidence, not to mention his entire identity, to find out he was becoming a little more . . .
angelic
. Whether he liked it or not.
The news could wait a little longer.
“Eden,” Darrak prompted when she didn’t speak for a while. “Are you going to talk to me or what?”
“You mean I have a choice?”
“No. No choices. This is not a choose-your-own-adventure novel. Your amulet is darkening and you say you’re doing nothing to cause this. Is that right?”
Eden didn’t want to deal with this, but sometimes fate didn’t give you a chance to catch your breath before it threw another bucket of water in your face.
She looked up at him. “I can feel it this morning stronger than ever. I’m honestly not sure how much longer I can control it.”
Darrak took her face between his hands. “But you want to control it.”
She touched one of his hands but didn’t pull away from him. “Of course I do.”
“I wish to hell I could protect you from all of this.” His jaw tensed. “Looks like it’s time to get some outside help.”
He walked over to the kitchen counter and grabbed the phone.
“Who are you calling?” she asked.
Darrak held a finger up to her. She flopped down on a chair at the table, already exhausted from talking about something she would much prefer to continue trying to ignore—magically melted BlackBerry or not.
She really hoped Andy had taken out a warranty on the device.
“Stanley?” Darrak said after a moment. “Do you know who this is?” A pause. “No, it’s okay. Don’t be scared. I’m not going to do that to you.” Another pause. “Seriously, I’m not. Evisceration is extremely messy and the cleanup is a—Come on. Stop crying. Be a man.”
That Darrak’s “outside help” required contacting Stanley didn’t fill Eden with a great deal of confidence. Stanley worked as a minion for just about any supernatural creature who paid or threatened him. Not exactly her favorite guy in the city.
“Is he back?” Darrak asked. “He is? Why didn’t you let me know this already? Oh, come on. Stop crying.”
Eden’s hands tingled. It was so tempting to throw out a spell right here, right now. It still seemed like just a dream that all of this had happened to her. Demons were real. Angels were real. Witches were real, and they came in a few different varieties.
White witches—the good and beneficial nature lovers. Among other things, Eden had heard they could make flowers grow and dying trees come back to life. How nice for them.
Gray witches—able to blend both white magic and black magic with the ability to do this successfully without damaging their souls provided they maintained a perfect balance.
And then there were black witches—able to destroy or kill things with a mere thought if they were so inclined. Not exactly the life of the party.
“We need to see him as soon as possible.” Darrak paced back and forth between her kitchenette and the dinette area. “That sounds fine. Why are you still crying? Suck it up, dude. Seriously.”
He hung up.
“You upset Stanley,” Eden said. “Actually . . . I’m fine with that.”
Darrak shrugged. “He’s still intimidated by my fearsome archdemon reputation. Nice to know somebody is.”
“Are you going to share what that was all about?”
“We’re seeing Maksim. Today.”
She stared at him blankly for a moment. “The wizard.”
“The one and only. Sounds like he’s finally back from his vacation.”
Maksim the wizard had gone on vacation after surviving a torture session by Theo—Darrak’s former demon friend—a couple of weeks ago. Before he went AWOL, the wizard was supposed to help them find a way to break his curse, even though rumor had it only the witch who’d originally cursed him could do something about that. Since she was now dead it was a moot point.
“You really think he can help me?” She didn’t want to hope for too much from a simple phone call. Disappointment was a heartless bitch.
“I don’t think he can hurt. Wizards and witches go hand in hand, after all. Didn’t you read
Harry Potter
?”
Eden stared at him. “Well, yeah.”
“I didn’t read the books,” he continued. “But I did get to see the movies. A previous host was a fan. He even wore dress robes and pretended he’d been sorted into a house. Hufflepuff, if you can believe it. Who liked Hufflepuff best? I mean, seriously.”
“Not sure that’s really helpful in this situation.”
“A wizard, especially one at Maksim’s level, will know how to control black magic, even yours. I’m sure of it.”
It was worth a shot. “Okay, so when do we see him?”
“Now.”
“Now?” She glanced at the clock that read eight thirty. “But Andy’s going to want us in the office.”
“He can wait a couple of hours. He can wait a whole day if necessary. Figuring out how to control your magic is much more important.”
She took a deep breath. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right.” Darrak’s smile had returned, although this time it didn’t completely reach his eyes. He still looked worried.
Which was worrying.
“Fine.” Eden nodded and clenched her magically tingling hands into fists at her sides. “Then I guess we’re off to see the wizard.”
“Don’t make me start singing.” He snatched the fallen newspaper from the floor and put it back on the table. “You know, he just might be the person from your past whose destiny is intertwined with yours, according to your horoscope.”
“I think I’d remember meeting a wizard named Maksim.”
Darrak crossed his arms. “Then who do you think it was referring to?”
She waved her hand flippantly. “It was just a horoscope. It’s fiction. Totally meaningless.”
“If you say so.”
Out of all the drama in Eden’s life lately, an entertaining but silly horoscope was the least of her problems.
Caroline Riley watched from the shadows as her daughter left the apartment building and headed toward her rusty Toyota. She was about to run up and give Eden a big hug, but held back when the demon came into view.
He was tall with unruly dark hair almost long enough to brush his broad shoulders. He casually pulled on a black leather jacket as he trailed closely after Eden. He was very handsome, of course. Most demons had a highly attractive human visage they wore when not in their demonic form. It made it that much easier to prey upon humans.
He was going to be a problem.
She wondered why Eden would spend time with this evil creature and allow him into her home. Maybe he was threatening her. Blackmailing her.
Or . . . sleeping with her.
Was her daughter having an affair with a demon?
Eden had always been a rules follower, a perfect student, a hard worker, although one who’d always lacked any specific career direction. A smart girl like that wasn’t one who’d have her head easily turned by one of Lucifer’s minions.
Then again, despite Eden’s natural beauty—that she’d inherited from her mother, of course—she’d never had much confidence in herself when it came to men, poor thing. This must have been what the demon had preyed upon.
Caroline had arrived just in time. Sure, she had other pressing matters to attend to, but rescuing her only child from the clutches of a demon had now risen to the very top of her to-do list.
It would be so nice to talk to Eden again. It had been much too long since they’d last spent time together.
Then again, Caroline
had
been dead for the last three months.
TWO
Maksim Zadravec, the most powerful wizard in Toronto, didn’t look like someone from Hufflepuff at all.
Slytherin was more like it.
Darrak eyed him with distaste as the wizard leisurely moved his gaze over Eden’s body from head to toe. From the gleam in his eye it seemed as if he liked what he saw.
The wizard had dark good looks, tanned skin, broad shoulders, and wore an expensive-looking tailor-made suit. He lived in a large mansion at the outskirts of the city that looked more like a castle than anything else. If it didn’t have a feel of true history Darrak would assume the wizard had it custom-built to give himself more of a magical mystique.
Maksim lived alone . . . if you didn’t count the butler and two maids that silently slunk around the ten-thousand-square-foot, non-cozy home.
Darrak disliked him immediately. Knowing an attractive man was taking an active interest in Eden, for whatever reason, bothered him.
He knew it was jealousy, pure and simple. And maybe he was dealing with a small—or not so small—feeling of possession. No pun intended.
After all, Eden was
his
.
She, however, would likely argue this.
“So you want my help, do you?” Maksim said in a smooth, deep voice.
Darrak and Eden shared a glance.
“We do,” she confirmed. “It’s just that my black magic is—”
“Difficult for you to control,” Maksim finished. “And you are worried for the state of your soul.”
Her brows went up. “Well, yes. That’s exactly it. How do you—?”
“Know what’s wrong with you without first being told?” Maksim smiled. “One of my many talents, Eden.”
Darrak wasn’t sure how he felt about the wizard’s special insight. A lot of magic, even with the more notable wizards, was no more genuine than rabbits shoved up shirtsleeves. A whole lot of smoke and mirrors with little genuine product to back it up. Black magic, after all, harmed every practitioner if used too blatantly. Even somebody like Maksim.
“Can you help her?” Darrak asked evenly.
“How did you come by this magic, Eden?” the wizard asked.
Darrak’s lips thinned. “Don’t you know that, too?”
Maksim glanced at the demon. “It was a spell, correct? Another witch from long ago—she cast a spell upon you.” He took a walk around Darrak as if assessing him. “Sex magic. Sleeping with you made her a black witch. And now the same has happened with Eden.”
Darrak didn’t like this guy, but he couldn’t help but be a bit impressed. “Pretty much.”
“I can sense the spell. And I can sense your curse as well.” Maksim’s smile held. “It’s a big one.”
“I try not to brag.”
Maksim now strolled around Eden, who stood stiffly, her arms crossed over her chest. Her gaze flicked to a large oil painting of a nude that looked as if it was a few hundred years old. However, Darrak wasn’t much of an art expert.
“How many times have you taken her?” the wizard asked.
Eden snorted at that. “Taken me?”
“Do you not understand the question?”
“No, I—I understand.” Eden cast an embarrassed look at Darrak. She hated having their private problems out on the table like this.
Darrak wasn’t too happy about it either, especially with the fact this guy knew too much too quickly. But he was hoping it would work out in their benefit.
“Twice,” he replied. “But I also believe when I possess her every night at sunset that also triggers the original witch’s spell, which has made her magic much stronger than it should be.”