The Demon in Me (28 page)

“Mostly because he’s a demon.”

“But he healed me when you scratched me. And he’s been really helpful. And he’s a pain in the ass but he hasn’t done anything really horrible. And he… he doesn’t
seem
evil to me.”

Leena frowned. “Are you in love with him?”

Eden’s eyebrows went up. “What?”

“I can’t think of any reason why you’d be defending him like this if there weren’t feelings involved. And just before you say yes or no, just know that demons are well-known for manipulating the feelings of humans and using them against the human in question to get them to do what they want.”

“I know that.”

“Then if you know that and you’re still defending this dude, then you’re seriously screwed.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Eden tried very hard not to think about the times when she’d felt close to Darrak, despite what he was. When she’d woken up in his arms. When they’d kissed. When she’d called him her guardian angel. “I’m going to have him exorcised.”

“Where is he right now?”

“He’s been dampened.” She quickly told Leena about what happened with Selina.

Her eyes widened. “The Love Witch is a real witch? That is so cool.”

“You think she was telling me the truth?”

“She’s the Love Witch. Of course she was. Summoning an incubus to make her into a black witch back in the Salem witch trial days… that’s pretty powerful stuff. She should sell the movie rights for that. I’d go see it.”

Eden twisted a finger absently through her long hair. “It’s got to be powerful. I mean, even with proper instructions, summoning an archdemon sounds dangerous.”

“Summoning a
what
?” The pleasant, curious look fell from Leena’s face.

“An archdemon. It’s apparently a really powerful demon who answers only to Lucifer and—”

“Oh, I
know
what an archdemon is. And you’re saying that tall, dark, and gruesome is an arch?”

Eden nodded.

Leena gave her a frozen smile. “And I am out of here.”

“What?”

She stood up. “It’s been fun. I made a lasagna like I said I would. It’s in the fridge. Help yourself. Well, since I used your ingredients it’s legally yours anyhow. There’s a Caesar salad in there, too. And you might get your cable bill later and find out that I’ve been watching a lot of pay-per-view movies. Like,
a lot
of them. I’ll send you a check… some time soon. Thanks for letting me stay here.”

She walked to the door.

Eden blocked her. “Wait. You can’t leave.”

“Oh, but I can.”

The panic that had subsided a little rose again. “I need you here.”

“Why? You don’t even know me. And you didn’t want me to be here in the first place.”

“I thought you were hiding from some people.”

Leena physically pushed past Eden to get to the door. “I am. And I can hide somewhere else that doesn’t have an archdemon in residence. In fact, I think I’d prefer it that way.”

“Don’t go.”

Leena laughed short and bitterly. “You have no damn idea how much trouble you’re in, do you? And I’m sorry if it seems like I’m being selfish. Well, I am. But if I found out a nuclear bomb was about to go off in the town I was living in, I wouldn’t think twice about getting the hell out of there as fast as I could.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Wish I was.” She shivered. “I’ve seen demons, Eden. I’ve seen them in their demon form—none of this human-looking pretty exterior.”

“So he does look different,” Eden breathed. “I knew it.”

“Oh hell yeah, he looks different. Demons have two… the word used is
visages
. A human visage and their demon one they have to wear like a uniform when they go see the big boss downstairs. And the demon visage can be pretty goddamned scary. I had nightmares for weeks after I ran into my last one who wasn’t wearing his human visage at the time. Like something out of a horror movie. There was slime involved.”

“Slime?” Eden yelped.

Leena crossed her arms tightly, her expression one of disgust. “Yeah. Not pleasant, believe me. Sure he was hot as hell in his human form, but that didn’t exactly erase the other form from my mind. And he wasn’t even an archdemon.”

Eden’s mind reeled, trying to process this latest influx of info. “So what’s the difference?”

“Power. An archdemon can level an entire city if they have a mind to with so-called natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, fires, or tornados. These things aren’t always caused by archs, but they’ve had a hand in some of the worst things to ever hit humans in the past—mostly for their own amusement. And they try to one-up each other. They want to be closer to Lucifer—closer to the top. They hunger for power. It’s all they want.”

Eden chewed her bottom lip so hard she thought she might break the skin. “But there are demons who can be redeemed—ones who used to be human.”

“Never heard of that before.” Leena studied Eden’s face. “Are you seriously coming to his defense right now? You need to send him back to Hell.”

“I’m going to.” She was. Malcolm would contact her tomorrow, she was sure of it.

“I’m outie. Bye, now!” Leena grabbed the doorknob.

“Please don’t leave.” Eden hated the pleading tone in her voice.

“I’m sorry. I need to protect myself first.” Leena did have the grace to look guilty about her decision as she looked over her shoulder at Eden. “I’ll check back in a few days to see if you’re still alive. Good luck!”

She opened the door and walked out of the apartment. The door closed behind her.

Eden was in shock. She’s just been abandoned. She was all on her own.

Well, not totally on her own. She had a sleeping demon inside of her. One she was going to have exorcised tomorrow even though the thought of it made her feel queasy.

Leena was gone.

Eden blinked.

Well, if there was a bright side to all of this, at least there wouldn’t be a cat hair problem anymore. That stuff was getting everywhere.

Eden couldn’t sleep. She didn’t even try. She sat at her
tiny dinette table all alone, waiting and watching the hours tick by.

The shapeshifter didn’t come back.

“Hey Darrak? Are you still here?” she whispered. She still couldn’t feel him. Maybe Selina had permanently dampened him. Maybe he was gone and wouldn’t come back.

Or maybe the piece of salt in her pocket that Malcolm had given her was enough to hold back his presence.

As long as she didn’t start foaming at the mouth again, it was a good thing to hold on to. Tightly.

She tried to stay awake, but despite the fact that she was worked up and stressed out… not to mention, scared to death… it was a lost cause. She was exhausted. The moment she rested her head on her folded arms a few hours later, she fell asleep.

When she woke, she opened up one eye and saw daylight. She swore out loud and tried to straighten up but she was so stiff from her sleeping position it took a moment.

“Ow.” She rubbed her sore neck.

The phone rang and she jumped with surprise, her heart thudding violently. Then she reached forward to grab the cordless phone on the table in front of her and held it to her ear.

“Yeah?”

“Eden?” Andy asked. “Why are you still at home?”

“Still?” She glanced at the clock. It was nearly eleven o’clock. “I didn’t realize the time. I’m… I’m not feeling so good. To put it extremely mildly. I don’t think I’ll be in today. Is that a problem?”

“I guess not. I need you healthy for our new caseload, so rest up while you still can. Should I bring over some chicken soup?”

“No soup required.” She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stifled a yawn. “You do remember I’m not a licensed private investigator, right?”

“We can work around that.”

“But the law—”

“Eden, don’t be so literal. We’ll have you as my assistant for now and I’ll get the license for you. I know people.”

“But what about classes and tests and—”

“You are really nothing like your mother, are you?”

She sighed. “I’ll take that as a compliment, actually.”

“You’ve got Caroline’s looks, but not her taste for adventure. You need to open up to the idea of putting some danger and intrigue in your life. Shake things up a bit.”

Things were shaky enough as it is. “I’ll work on that.”

“I’m going to close shop early today and turn on the voice mail. I’m starting a case for a guy—wants me to look into somebody he feels is spying on his pack and interested in becoming… and I quote, ‘alpha.’ Weird way to put it, isn’t it?”

She blanched. Was this the werewolf client? “Just be careful.”

“Always. Now you take it easy today and get yourself healthy again, okay?”

“I’ll try my hardest.”

She hung up.

“So what happened last night?” Darrak asked wearily.

She froze and slowly turned to her right. Darrak sat on the couch ten feet away. His shoulders were hunched over.

“Last night…” It came out as a barely audible squeak. She cleared her throat. “Uh… Selina dampened you.”

“And then what happened? I don’t remember a damned thing.” He raked a hand through his dark hair, his expression alternately confused and concerned.

She wrung her hands nervously. “Then—then I got the hell out of there.”

“She didn’t try to stop you?”

“No.”

He leaned back and exhaled with relief. “Well, that’s good. I was worried.”

“About what she might tell me?”

“Actually, I was worried she might hurt you.”

This wasn’t good. She hadn’t been prepared to face the demon yet. She needed preparation time—to figure out what to say, how to act, what to do. Why did she have to fall asleep?

Eden got up from the table and went around to the fridge in the kitchenette and pulled out a bottle of water. She uncapped it and took a shaky swig.

“So you came back here?” Darrak asked.

“Uh-huh.”

He got up from the sofa but it seemed as if it took some effort.

She eyed him uneasily. “Not feeling so good?”

“I’ve felt better. Selina is just as powerful as she ever was. Her dampening ability is very admirable—witches are good at that sort of thing. I didn’t even come to until an hour ago. That’s way after sunrise.” He gave her a weak grin. “I notice that you weren’t in bed ready to molest me again. I won’t take it personally, really.”

That earned a vivid flashback to yesterday morning and the “dream” she’d said was about Ben. But it had been about Darrak. Fully and completely. And she’d wanted him badly.

But that was then and this was now.

She tried to look at him with her new eyes, her new information, but he seemed the same to her. He wasn’t acting any differently. He didn’t look any different.

But he was.

“Will you be okay?” She tried to sound as normal as possible.

“I’ll be fine. I think.” He was quiet for a moment, but then frowned. “You know, you’re acting very strangely right now.”

“Am I?”

He came into the kitchenette. She took a quick step back from him.

His frown deepened. “Yes, you are. What’s the problem?”

“Oh, there are a lot of problems. And Leena left. She… decided she didn’t want to stay here anymore.”

“Can’t say I’m sorry to hear that.” He grinned and took another step toward her, then braced a hand against the refrigerator. “So it’s just the two of us now?”

She staggered back from him, hitting the stove behind her and bit her bottom lip, refusing to meet his eyes. “So… how do you plan to convince Selina to break your curse if the moment she senses you, she dampens you? Doesn’t exactly seem like she’s all that open to discussion on the topic.”

Eden originally believed that Darrak meant to reason with the witch to get her to agree to help. But now she knew Darrak had probably planned to kill her to get what he wanted.

“You’re shivering,” Darrak said, his brows drawing together. “Eden, what the hell is going on? Something bad happened last night. What was it?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Everything’s super. Fabulous, r eally.”

“You’re lying. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Don’t come any closer.” Her hand curled around the crystal of salt in her pocket.

He didn’t listen to her and came within two feet before he stopped in his tracks. His forehead creased. Then he swore under his breath. “Who gave you that?”

“Who gave me what?” she asked innocently.

“The big-ass piece of salt you have there.”

“You mean this?” She pulled it out of her pocket and thrust it at him.

Darrak stumbled back a foot, his eyes narrowing. “That would be the big-ass piece of salt I was referring to, yes.”

Eden watched him carefully. “No foaming at your mouth.”

“The day is young. Also, I’m not sucking on it, so that makes the situation much less foamy.” His eyes narrowed further. “What’s going on, Eden?”

“Just trying to protect myself. You know, with a big piece of salt.”

He pointed at his chest. “Protect yourself from me?”

“No, from the ice monster who moved in next door.”

“Okay, so let me take a wild guess here. You were lying before about what happened with Selina.”

“Me, lying?” She let out a short humorless laugh at that. “Interesting. I guess it takes a liar to know a liar, doesn’t it?”

He sighed. “Are we going to play word games, or are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“I’m okay with word games. Scrabble, crosswords, Boggle. You name it.”

“Did Selina give you that?” He nodded at the salt.

“No. Malcolm did.”

“What?” His jaw clenched. “Did he try to hurt you again?”

Not the reaction she’d expected. “No, just the opposite actually. The drifter you threatened to tear apart yesterday jumped into another body and tried to kill me. Malcolm saved me.”

“Kill you?” he repeated harshly. His brow was lowered over his blue eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I’m standing here in one piece, aren’t I?”

“Something’s different, though. Very different.” He studied her face with a growing distress in his expression. “Please. Tell me what happened last night. What did that evil bitch say about me?”