The Demon in Me (12 page)

“Will that be enough money to keep us afloat?” She walked over and handed him the check. He looked at it with disbelief.

“If it clears, then yeah. It’ll definitely help.” He looked at her. “And it’ll save Rhonda. It’s like winning the lottery.”

Eden leaned against his desk. “Now about Darrak’s friend.”

“Oh right. Missing person. Totally no problem.” His voice and demeanor had brightened considerably. “I just need her name, last known address, physical description, and any other information you can provide.”

Darrak grimaced. “That might be a problem. I don’t know her name. And the last time I saw her was… well, let’s just say it was a long time ago.”

“It’s very important that we find her,” Eden told Andy. “I can’t stress this enough.”

“But you don’t know her name?”

Her head throbbed. “No.”

“How about a physical description?”

“I can help a little there,” Darrak said.

“Not much to go on. But I’ve worked with less and come up with something.” He grinned and punched Darrak in the shoulder again. “Sounds like a challenge, champ. I like challenges.”

“Please don’t call me champ.”

Andy fixed his coffee. He seemed very happy now—the gloomy look from earlier had disappeared completely. “Why don’t you tell me exactly how she looked the last time you saw her and we’ll start from there. I can always run her profile through a facial recognition program. Donut?” He offered Darrak the box to choose from.

“Thank you.”

“Eden, how much sugar is your brother allowed to have?”

“Uh…” The phone rang and Eden turned to answer it. “Triple-A.”

“Eden.” Ben’s voice was immediately recognizable. “Good morning.”

She inhaled sharply. “Morning.”

“You doing okay today? Recovered from all the drama yesterday?”

Eden eyed Darrak as the demon enthusiastically tasted his first deep-fried chocolate-glazed pastry. “My recovery is an ongoing process.”

“I was going to wait until this afternoon to call, but I had a free moment so I figured now was as good a time as any. It’s good to hear your voice.”

“You, too.”

“Oh yeah?” He sounded pleased.

Her cheeks warmed. “Sure.”

“Any sign of your friends from last night?”

She grimaced at the memory. “No. They’re long gone.”

“That’s good to know.” He was quiet for a moment. “It’s strange, but it kind of feels like I’ve known you for weeks already.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“A good thing, trust me. So… dinner tonight? We still on?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to cancel. How was she supposed to go on a date with a guy she really liked with everything that was happening all around her? Shouldn’t she focus on getting rid of the problem that was Darrak the demon before even considering spending any time with Ben?

But who knew if she’d have the chance in the future?

“Yes, dinner’s still on,” she said firmly.

“How about I pick you up at your apartment at a quarter to seven?”

“Sounds perfect.” Eden told him her address.

“Do you have a favorite restaurant? I can make reservations.”

“Uh… no. Anything you pick is fine.”

“You’re putting a lot of faith in me.”

“I trust you to make this very important decision.”

“Okay,” he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. “Then I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.”

She hung up.
Damn.
She really did need Darrak feeding her smoother, more confident lines. Was she always such a doofus when it came to talking to men? She had managed to get engaged to ass-face. But he’d been a friend of a friend who helped ease her into things with a lot of double dates. There wasn’t this awkward “getting to know you” phase.

But she did want to get to know Ben. He was perfect. She needed a little bit of perfect in her life.

“Eden,” Andy called. “You have to look at this! Hurry!”

Oh, God. Now what?

She crossed the room in five steps. Andy held out a piece of paper to her and she looked at a precisely detailed sketch of a beautiful woman with long dark hair drawn in blue ballpoint pen.

“That’s her,” Darrak said, pointing at the picture.

“He’s an artist,” Andy said. “This is really good. And the crazy thing is he says he’s never drawn before. How is that possible?”

Eden gritted her teeth. “He’s very special, Darrak is.”

“Thanks, sis. You’re the bestest.” He grabbed another donut. “And so are these.”

“It’s not a lot to go on, but it’s a start.” Andy took the page. “I can work on finding Darrak’s old friend here and you can take care of the cheating husband case.”

She pointed at herself. “Me?”

“Sure. She wanted you to do it. And I don’t want to piss off a new client. Especially one who seems to be bleeding money. You can start on it tomorrow.”

“Why wait until tomorrow?” she asked.

“Got to make sure this check is good.” He grinned. “If you don’t hear from me, don’t even bother coming in here first. I’ll call you if there are any emergencies.”

“But I don’t have a license.”

He waved his hand. “Don’t worry about that.”

“Don’t worry about that? It’s the law. We could get in trouble.”

“Honestly, Eden. Leave that sort of thing up to me.”

She opened her mouth to protest some more, but closed it. Andy was going to search for the witch, and he seemed surprisingly positive about it. That was good. She wouldn’t say anything to disrupt that. While she didn’t feel comfortable with Fay’s case, she’d do her best.

She was really a fairy? Other than the painfully tight hug there was nothing to indicate she was anything other than human. But she was a fairy who would be tried as a deserter of her people and possibly killed if her marriage was a failure. Talk about a good deterrent for divorce.

It was all very, very wrong.

“Fine. If you say so, then so be it,” she finally said. “Cheating husband. No problem, right?”

“No problem,” Andy agreed. “Grab my camera. Just jot down everything the husband does, who he’s seen with. Take tons of pictures. Easy as pie. I’ve done a million of ’em. And I hate to say it, but 99 percent of the time the client is right about their husband or wife. The gut rarely lies. They just need us to confirm it so they can use the evidence in the divorce case. I say, keep it coming. Infidelity has always been Triple-A’s bread and butter.”

Eden’s ex-fiancé cheated on her at a Valentine’s Day party, of all things. As far as she was concerned, 99 percent of all men were born to cheat. The challenge was finding that 1 percent that wouldn’t.

However, searching for that elusive needle in the haystack usually resulted in finding a whole lot of other pricks.

Ben might be part of that tiny percentage. He was so perfect in every other way, from his looks to his job performance; he had to be the potential perfect husband as well.

Not that she was planning that far ahead. However, it did make for a nice mental image.

“Eden, why don’t you take the rest of the day off? After talking to Mrs. Morgan and getting that nice juicy check you’ve totally earned it,” Andy said. “Show your brother around the city. Have some fun.”

She eyed him skeptically. “This is
so
unlike you.”

“I’m feeling generous toward my favorite employee.”

“Not that I’m looking the gift horse in the mouth, but you’re actually not my boss. We’re equal partners here.”

“Oh, right. I keep forgetting that.”

“Except he does own 1 percent more than you,” Darrak added, now on his fourth donut. “So that does make him the controlling partner.”

“That’s right, sport.” Andy nodded. “You’re paying attention. You’re totally awesome.”

Darrak sighed. “I want to leave now, Eden. Please.”

They left.

———

“I heard you on the phone with the cop,” Darrak said in
Eden’s car as they pulled away from the office. “Everything’s on for tonight?”

“It is.”

“Thought you might cancel.”

She eyed him sideways. “Well, I didn’t.”

He pressed back against the headrest. “I guess you really like him.”

“I do.”

“What’s so great about him?”

“Everything. Now just try to stay quiet.” She had to accept the fact that she had someone with her constantly until she figured out how to get rid of him. She’d never appreciated her now long-lost moments of silence before.

“You don’t like me very much, do you?” Darrak asked, but he sounded amused.

“Do you blame me?”

“A little. You need to loosen up a bit.”

“I’m loose enough.”

“Oh, really?” He grinned. “I’ll have to remember that.” She clutched the steering wheel tighter. “It’s hard to think when you’re around.”

“Because you find me so devastatingly handsome?”

She refrained from rolling her eyes. “Were you always so vain, or is this a recent revelation for you?”

“No, I’ve always been this way. Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful. Well, perhaps not as beautiful to you as your cop.”

She jerked the wheel to the left and cut someone off, receiving a horn blast in return. “Leave Ben out of this.”

“How is that possible? He’s obviously your lifeline right now. You can deal with me as long as you have him as the big, dangling carrot urging you onward.” He frowned. “Perhaps we shouldn’t talk about the cop’s big carrot. At least not until we see how the date goes.”

Her knuckles whitened as a thought occurred to her. “And let’s just say the date goes really, really well and I invite him back to my apartment. What then?”

“Is that something you’d do?” he asked. “On a first date?”

“Hypothetically speaking.”

“Okay, continue. I’m all for hypothetical situations.”

“What happens then? If you’re inside my head, seeing what I see, hearing what I hear—”

“It means that I’d prefer if you wait to dent the sheets with him until after I’m gone.”

Her face burned. Well, she’d asked. And he’d answered.

“Is that your natural hair color?” Darrak asked randomly.

“What?”

“This reddish shade.”

She realized that he’d reached over and was stroking a lock of her hair, twisting it around his finger. The car swerved again before she managed to right it. More horns blared.

The demon was going to make her get into an accident. “It’s—it’s dyed. I go to the salon regularly. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“I bet it’s brighter in its natural state, right?”

She forced herself to focus on the road rather than the demon sliding his warm fingers through her hair. “I don’t like my natural color.”

“So you change it, make it duller. Less vibrant,” he mused. “It’s strange. If I concentrate, I can see past the façade to the real color. Normally a human female would have freckles with such red hair but your skin is like porcelain, isn’t it?”

When he softly touched her face she almost ran the car right off the road.

She pushed his hand away from her cheek and put it back on his side of the car, but not before he entwined his fingers with hers.

“Let go of me.” Her voice sounded breathless.

But he wasn’t really holding her down or trapping her hand in any way. All she had to do was pull it away. Strangely, she seemed unable to do that. His skin was so hot, he had to be more than regular body temperature. She felt the warmth slide up her arm and flow into the rest of her body. It felt
really
good.

Eden finally forced herself to disentangle her hand from the demon’s.

“Don’t touch me,” she told him as firmly as she could, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

“I’m sorry. Couldn’t help myself. I guess I’m a sucker for redheads.” His lips curled.

She was sick of talking about herself. All of these personal issues out on the table for him to pick over. It was time to turn the tables.

“Fine,” she said. “You want to talk? I have questions.”

“Such as?”

“How old are you?”

“That’s very personal. How old do I look?”

“You look like you’re thirty. Or younger, even. But I know you’re at least three hundred years old based on when you say the witch cursed you.” The thought that he was that old made her shiver.

He noticed. “I know I’m very old. Probably a thousand in human years. Maybe more. But time doesn’t really have the same value in the Netherworld.”

That made another shiver run down her arms. “A thousand years old and you’ve never had a donut before?”

“I had no idea what I’ve been missing.”

“Empty calories. You’ll get fat.”

“I don’t have to worry about that. My body will remain the same no matter what I eat.” He placed his palm over his flat stomach.

“Lucky.” She wasn’t going to consider the demon’s body. Which she’d seen in all its glory first thing that morning, if only for a short time.

Bottom line, Darrak had every right to be vain about how he looked. He was just as gorgeous as Ben, but in an entirely different and much more darkly dangerous way. But she knew what he was and she knew what he could do. She wanted a normal man in her life. Ben was normal.

She had no interest in the demon in that way. After all, he was a
demon
. It didn’t take a brainiac or a horror movie aficionado to see that was a bad idea.

However, sitting in her car, he didn’t seem like a demon. He just seemed like a hot guy who knew how to easily push her buttons.
All
of them, apparently.

She cleared her throat. “We should probably get you some new clothes. There’s a mall just up ahead.”

“Clothes? You’re thinking fashion at a time like this?”

“You said you couldn’t… conjure… anything other than what you’re wearing.”

“I thought this was adequate. Isn’t it?” He looked down at himself.

“It’s getting really cold. It’s supposed to warm up a bit but after that the temperature will be nose-diving to penguin climate. You need a coat.”

“Temperature doesn’t affect me.”

“Yeah, but people will wonder why you’re walking around in short sleeves.”

He nodded. “Of course. Appearances are very important to you, aren’t they?”

“I don’t really care one way or the other.” She was silent for a moment. It was frustrating talking to him. “Were you always a demon?”