The Demon in Me (14 page)

She relaxed slightly at his assurance. “Then I better go get ready.”

“Actually, I must admit I already picked something for you to wear tonight and left it on your bed. It’s been a long afternoon with you all unconscious.”

“You…” she began and then sighed. “So you really are my demonic fashion consultant.”

“Guilty as charged.”

“Mrroww.” The cat moved past them.

Eden grabbed it. “Can’t forget about putting you back outside so you can finally go back home. I’m sure your family’s been looking for you.”

The cat started fighting her. She felt its sharp claws slice her forearm and she yelped in pain and dropped it.

Darrak was at her side in an instant.

She held her hand against the scratch, which stung badly. Blood welled on the wound. “I shouldn’t have taken it by surprise. Totally my fault.”

“Let me see.”

“Ow. Okay.” She peeled her fingers away.

His eyes narrowed. “I need to fix this before it’s too late.”

“Too late? Too late for what?”

“Shh.” He held her arm in his then pressed his palm against the wound. “I need to concentrate. I keep a small amount of healing power in reserve and I think it’ll be enough.”

“What are you doing?”

“What part of ‘shh’ didn’t you understand?”

The heat of his skin suddenly seared into her flesh and into the wound itself. Whatever she was going to say next was knocked out of her mouth with the overwhelming sensation.

Darrak grunted, his expression strained as he stared down at her arm. Again she could have sworn she saw an amber flicker come into his blue eyes. They appeared to glow with a strange inner light as he drew in a ragged breath.

Her arm felt as if it was literally on fire and she tried to pull away from him, but he was much too strong and easily held her in place.

“There. It’s done.” His grip on her finally decreased. “Damn. I need to sit down before I fall down.”

He staggered, and she grabbed him. He wasn’t kidding. She led him over to the sofa and he sat down heavily.

Then she looked down at her arm. The scratch had healed completely.

“What—” she began. “What did you do?”

“What does it look like?”

“You healed me?”

“That’s right.”

She was stunned. “But it was only a scratch. A nasty one, but it wasn’t anything to get all worked up about.”

The cat darted out from under the couch where it had hidden again and Darrak stopped it with his foot, pressing the feline down against the carpet.

“I tried to play along, kitty,” he said. “I even gave you some cream this morning because I was trying to be nice.”

It hissed at him.

“Tell it to someone who cares,” Darrak continued. “Enough of this. Show yourself before I make you.”

What the hell?
Eden watched him with wide eyes as if he’d lost his demonic mind.

After another hiss, the cat went silent, glaring up at the demon through glittering eyes. Then, before Eden had a chance to say anything, the cat morphed into a woman with dark skin and long, shiny black hair who was wearing burgundy jogging pants and a white tank top. She lay on her side on the carpet with Darrak’s foot still pressed against her shoulder.

“Let me up, demon,” she growled.

Eden skittered back until she hit the kitchen counter. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Your cat is a shapeshifter,” Darrak explained. “Although I would assume that is obvious now. But I wasn’t sure if she was a born shifter or a made shifter. That’s why I had to heal you. Otherwise, with a scratch like that, you might be looking for a groomer and a garden of catnip of your own in the next few days.”

“I’m a born shifter,” the woman said unpleasantly. “She would have been fine.”

“Do you normally con your way into unsuspecting homes and then mooch off the kindhearted people who let you in?”

She smiled thinly. “Do you?”

“Touché.” He removed his foot and she scrambled up to her feet. She looked over at Eden guiltily.

“Please don’t make me leave.”

Eden’s mouth was open but no words came out for a moment. “I can’t believe this. You… were a cat.”

The woman’s expression was tense. “I was. And I will be again. I promise if you let me stay I’ll be very quiet. I won’t make any trouble. I won’t scratch you again—but just don’t grab me when I’m not expecting it. That’s not cool. I don’t have any money right now but I can keep your apartment clean—”

“
You’re
the one who cleaned up?” Eden asked, stunned.

She shrugged. “It was the least I could do. But don’t go thinking I’m your maid and you can boss me around. That’s not going to happen. This is just my way of bartering. I keep your place looking good… hell, I can even cook a bit… in return for you letting me crash here for a little while.”

“No,” Darrak said.

The woman glared at him. “I wasn’t asking
you
, demon.”

“The name’s Darrak.”

“My ass it is. And I’m watching you, hellspawn. Don’t think I’m not.” Her attention turned to Eden. “You need me. I can help protect you.”

“Protect me?”

She nodded emphatically. “Demons are repelled by shifters.”

“I thought I was just allergic to cat fur,” Darrak said dryly.

“If he tries to hurt you or suck out your soul, or whatever, I can stop him.”

“I’m not going to hurt Eden,” Darrak said. “If I wanted her hurt then why would I have used any of my stored-up power to heal her?”

An excellent point.
Eden looked at Catwoman, who regarded the demon with obvious distaste.

“Because if she’d been infected and was a shifter then you wouldn’t be able to use her body anymore.” The woman glared at him, then smiled. “You’d have to find a new home then, wouldn’t you?”

Darrak’s expression had turned stony. “I didn’t even consider that.”

“Sure you didn’t.”

“Is that true?” Eden asked.

Darrak met her eyes. “A shifter can’t be possessed. It’s true.”

That was food for thought. Food she’d rather shove into the fridge until later when she could pick through the leftovers a bit more thoroughly.

A glance at the clock confirmed there was less than a half an hour before Ben arrived. It was one supernatural disaster after another today.

“What’s your name?” she asked the woman.

“Kathleen Harris.”

“And let me guess,” Darrak said without any friendliness. “You go by the nickname
Kat
, right? That’s almost as adorably predictable as a fairy named Fay.”

“Sure. As much as you go by the nickname
asshole
. Actually, you can call me Leena.” She turned back to Eden. “Please.
Please.
You have to let me stay here.”

“Why here?” Eden asked helplessly, her mind drowning from the flood of information.

She wrung her hands and her eyes shifted nervously around the small apartment. “I’m hiding from somebody who wants to kill me. I’ve been wandering the streets for weeks and eating out of Dumpsters, which blows even more than it sounds like it would. I can’t go home. I’m desperate. Then last night I sensed you—I felt you were different. That you’d be able to protect me.”

“Me?” Eden pointed at herself. “Protect you from somebody who wants to kill you? That’s ridiculous. You need to go to the police and explain this to them. They can help you.”

She shook her head. “They can’t. They won’t believe me, anyhow. I just need to lay low for a while until all the shit I’ve been going through passes. Then I’ll be out of your hair. A week or two tops. I promise.”

“I don’t know…”

“Please.”
Leena looked at her with such open desperation in her gold-flecked brown eyes that Eden knew she couldn’t possibly kick her out. Not yet, anyhow.

She spread her hands. “I don’t have any room. This apartment is barely big enough for one person.”

“I can stay in my cat form.” Leena’s eyes lit up with hope. “I’m seven pounds that way. Tiny! And I don’t eat much. I’ll shift back to human form when you’re out. Come on! I make a really amazing lasagna.”

Well, Eden
was
a fan of homemade lasagna.

Ever since Darrak had come into her life it seemed as if she was a magnet for paranormal beings—demons, fairies, and now… feline shapeshifters? And everyone seemed to be dealing with a life-or-death scenario. Including her.

And she’d thought working for Psychic Connexions had introduced her to strange, desperate people.

The least she could do was help out a bit. She would hope that somebody might help her in return. She was all about the karma. The universe looked kindly on that sort of thing.

“Fine. Two weeks,” Eden said. “And that’s it.”

Leena smiled widely. “Thank you!”

“Just keep your claws to yourself.”

“Well, you do seem to have a walking/talking first aid kit currently in residence.” Leena shot an unfriendly glance at Darrak.

“That was only a scratch,” he said, his arms now crossed in front of him. “Anything more serious could have drained me completely.”

She looked at him skeptically. “Pretty weak for a demon, aren’t you?”

“Luckily, I have a nice personality.” He smiled thinly. “Didn’t you say something about turning back into a furry, nontalking animal again? Any time would be good.”

She pointed at her eyes and then at him. “I’m watching you, demon.”

“I do enjoy an audience.”

Leena grabbed Eden and gave her a big hug. “Thank you. You totally rock.”

“Oh… okay.”

“You’ll have fun on your date. It will be nice for you to spend some time with a real man,” she said pointedly. “Humans make for the safest lovers. Trust me on that.”

Before Eden could reply to that, Leena shifted and shrank until she was a small black cat again that scooted into her bedroom.

Did that just happen?
She turned to Darrak.

“Her clothes disappeared when she shifted,” he said and shook his head. “Did you notice that? So convenient.”

“I…” she began. “I… just… I don’t know what to do right now.”

“If you’re taking suggestions, you really shouldn’t think too much about the paranormal paradise of your life and instead go get dressed. Time is a fleeting thing.”

He looked very pale, and he leaned against the wall by the wall unit her flat screen TV was on and a picture of her mom and her when Eden was ten years old.

“Are you drained again?” she asked.

“I’m at a level where I can recover on my own.”

“Well, no matter what your intentions were, I appreciate you… uh… healing me. Thank you for that.”

“My intentions were honorable, I assure you.”

“Do you need to take a little energy from me again?” And no, she wasn’t just looking for another earthmoving kiss from the demon. Because that would be wrong on too many levels to count. Especially when she had—she glanced at the clock—twenty-five minutes until Ben arrived.

“No. That’s for emergency usage only.” He crossed his arms. “It’s not safe for you otherwise.”

“Not safe?”

He shook his head. “Siphoning energy from a human is a tricky thing. If I were to take too much… well, I don’t want that to happen.”

“But I feel fine.”

“Right. Other than your seven-hour nap, which you needed because of my draining your energy.”

“Right, that.” She frowned. “But I feel okay now. If you took just a little—”

Oh, God
. She
was
trying to get him to kiss her again. How pathetic was she?

Very pathetic.

She forced herself to think about Ben, instead. Perfect, courageous, wonderful.
Focus, Eden. Eyes on the prize. Not on Darrak’s lips.

“Seriously, Eden. I’m trying to be responsible here.”

“And I’m trying to understand what is happening to me.” She considered what he said. “What’s so bad about taking energy from me?”

“Fine. You really want to know?” He paced to the other side of the living room, over by her neatly arranged bookshelf. He looked stressed. “If I’m not careful or if I get greedy, I can take too much of your energy. And it could hurt you badly. I don’t want to do that.”

“Could I be turned into a demon?”

“No. You could die.”

She touched her mouth, thinking about when he’d kissed her in the car. It hadn’t felt bad, that was for sure, but would it if it had gone on for much longer? “I’m glad you’re against that, then.”

He closed the distance between them and leaned against the sofa next to where she stood and studied the floor. “The problem is that the energy I’ve tasted of yours is very… what’s a good word to use here?” His brow furrowed. “
Irresistible
.
Delicious
.
Addictive
. Any of those would do.”

“My energy is tasty?”

“Yes. Very.” He raised his gaze so that it seemed to burn into hers with an intensity she felt inside of her. Then his attention moved to her mouth. “So therefore I can’t take too much or I might not be able to stop myself.”

“You’d drain me completely.”

He took another step closer to her, enough that she could feel the heat from his body as well as his gaze. Then he made a move as if to touch her face but seemed to stop himself before making contact. “That’s what I’m saying. So maybe it’s good that we have Pussy Galore in the apartment now as your fur-faced chaperone. Just in case I get a little too close for comfort.”

She wasn’t sure why the thought that Darrak found her delicious didn’t freak her out. Okay, it freaked her out a bit, but not as much as she would have thought.

A demon admitting that he wanted to devour her totally? That was not a good thing.

But it was also strangely… exciting. And so was the look he’d just given her.

“So when you take the energy, it has to be through a kiss?” she asked, knowing that time was passing, but she still wanted more answers. “Is my mouth the only place you can get the energy from?”

“Actually, no. That was just personal preference.”

Her eyes widened. “Personal preference?”

A slow smile spread across his handsome features. “It worked, didn’t it? Unfortunately, it made your energy much more irresistible than it was to begin with. I’ll have to remember your mouth is a serious danger zone for me.” His gaze moved back to her mouth for a long moment before he met her eyes again. “You better go get ready quickly. The man you really want to swap spit with is probably already on his way here.”