The Demon in Me (39 page)

Eden bit her bottom lip and waited for Darrak to respond to that, but all was quiet for the moment, other than the warm presence that let her know he was fully conscious and listening in.

Okay, so she was still possessed by an archdemon and former incubus. She’d been turned into a black witch who had to keep a rein on the magic now at her very fingertips for fear of losing her soul completely. The private investigation agency she owned 49 percent of had been inundated with supernatural clientele.

Was Darrak’s newfound humanity a permanent change? Or would the fiery, horned archdemon return in all his nasty, evil glory someday when she least expected it? And would they find a way to break the curse before it killed her in a year?

Would they be able to control their passion for each other, regrettable or not, so she didn’t lose another piece of her soul?

And… when he said he loved her, had he really meant it? “One problem at a time, okay?” Eden said, a bit shakily, after a long moment passed.

“Yes,” Darrak replied from inside of her. “One problem at a time.”

“This is all the information I have on her.” Ben pushed the
folder marked “Eden Riley” he’d taken from the precinct across the table.

“Thank you. Are you ready?”

Yes, he was. He was more ready than he’d ever been for anything in his life. He rolled up his sleeve and placed his arm down on the table, palm up.

A moment later the brand was pressed into his skin.

Scratch that. He wasn’t ready. Nobody could be ready for pain like this without any anesthetic. But he gritted his teeth and didn’t cry out. That wouldn’t have made a very good impression, would it?

He smelled something burning and he knew it was his own flesh. Instead of trying to push the pain away he embraced it. This was his christening into a new world—a world he’d never even imagined before today. He felt the power enter him along with the pain, imbuing him with the ability to sense the Otherworldly.

He’d seen a demon with his own eyes. It wasn’t something he’d ever forget. That demon had taken someone he cared about. He thought he might be able to love Eden. Despite his past and the troubles he’d had, he was willing to open his heart to her.

She was in danger. It was obvious. And he’d do anything it took to save her from that… monster.

He wasn’t able to save his fiancée—a woman he’d loved more than life itself. This would help to finally make up for that failure.

The brand was pulled away. He looked down at his charred flesh to see the circle enclosing the fleur-de-lis.

“Welcome to the Malleus,” the white-haired man across the table said. “We welcome you as a brother. All that we have is yours. And all that you have is ours. We together will defeat the evil that permeates this world, protecting the citizens who don’t realize what lurks in the shadows. Do you agree to this?”

“Yes,” Ben said firmly. He was concerned with protecting this world and the people who lived in it. Of course he was. But he was mostly concerned with Eden. He feared for her safety. For her very soul. “You told me that you had information about Eden, other than what’s in my files.”

“Yes. Eden shows signs of psychic ability, correct?”

He nodded. “I dismissed it originally, but I think it might be very real. And after what I’ve seen I know it’s possible.”

“It is. She gets that from her father.”

“Her father.” His arm hurt so much it made it hard to think. “She doesn’t know anything about her father. There’s nothing about him in her file.”

“No, there wouldn’t be. Her mother never told her anything. As far as Caroline Riley was concerned he was a brief fling. A man with no past or future.”

“Who is he?”

The white-haired man studied him as if gauging how ready Ben was to hear the truth. He was ready. No matter what it was.

“He’s an angel.”

Okay. He’d been wrong. He hadn’t been ready for that.

“An… an
angel
? Eden’s father is an angel? You’ve got to be kidding, right?”

The Malleus elder shook his head. “Eden Riley’s psychic abilities and her closeness to the magical world are due entirely to the fact that she is half human and half angel, making her what is termed a
nephilim
. It’s very rare, but not unheard of.”

“A… nephilim?”

“This is the power Eden has deep inside of her—mostly dormant until now—from which the demon draws his energy. It’s the reason he’s able to take corporeal form.”

Ben was stunned. “This is hard to believe.”

“But do you?”

He nodded firmly and brushed his fingers against the gold cross he wore around his neck. “Yes, I do. I believe.”

“Her involvement with this archdemon is very dangerous.”

Ben clutched the side of the table, the pain from his fresh brand forgotten. “I need to save her.”

“You will. But in the meantime, it won’t be long before the news of his daughter’s current situation will likely reach her father’s ears. And to know that she has been corrupted by an archdemon… well…”

“Well what?” Ben asked.

The Malleus elder smiled thinly. “There is going to be serious hell to pay.”

Turn the page for a special preview

of the next Living in Eden novel

by Michelle Rowen

SOMETHING WICKED

Coming soon from Berkley Sensation!

“Would you look at this place? Equal parts lust and desperation. It’s fantastic.”

Eden grimaced. She’d been trying to pay as little attention to Darrak as possible, but it wasn’t easy. The demon was very hard to ignore.

“It’s a single’s club,” she replied. “What did you expect?”

“This, of course. But it’s even better than I thought it would be.”

“You have a strange sense of what
better
is.”

A tall man holding a bottle of Corona tapped Eden on her shoulder. When she turned to look at him he leered approvingly at her. “Who are you talking to, sexy lady?”

She cleared her throat. “Nobody. Just talking to myself. I do that frequently now that I’ve stopped taking my medication.”

“Uh…
okay
.” He slowly backed away from her and went to hit on someone else. Someone
sane.

Darrak snorted. “Busted.”

She felt her face redden. She had to remember that no one but her could see or hear Darrak at the moment. He was her demon. Her
inner
demon. After all, Eden Riley was the current cover girl for demonic possession.

This time she spoke under her breath so no one would hear. “I thought you said you were going to keep quiet once we got in here?”

“I lied. Besides, you need me to coach you through this, don’t you? I thought you said you’re a bit out of your element.”

He was right about that.

“Okay, so coach me. Now what should I do?”

“Walk over to the bar, order a drink, and scan the room. I know he’s around here somewhere. I just have to spot him.”

“You still haven’t told me how you found this guy. How were you able to contact anyone in your, uh, current condition?”

“I have my ways.”

Well, that was cryptic. But instead of grilling him about it, Eden walked across the floor of the dark nightclub, Luxuria. It was very upscale with gleaming black floors and an indigo interior. A cascade of pretty sparkling light moved slowly across the hundreds of faces and bodies in attendance. But the lust and desperation Darrak mentioned seemed to permeate the entire building, giving it a distinctly unpleasant ambiance Eden was able to pick up with her subtle sixth sense.

As she walked, she tried not to twist her ankle in the four-inch stiletto heels Darrak strongly suggested she wear tonight. Her legs felt cold in her short skirt. She normally didn’t like to show off so much skin, especially this late in October. However, a quick scan of the club made her feel that she was practically in casual wear compared to the other women-on-the-prowl. They, however, didn’t share her inner accessory.

No one could see the demon, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t very much there, currently sharing her scantily-clad body.

Why wasn’t Eden freaking out over the fact that she was possessed by a demon? She had. Many times. She’d since realized that no matter how much freaking out she did, it didn’t do much to change the situation.

Three hundred years ago, Darrak had barely survived a witch’s death curse. It had destroyed his physical form, leaving only his essence behind. He’d existed for three centuries unseen and mostly unheard by the hosts he’d been forced to possess.

That is, until he’d possessed Eden.

For some reason—and it was probably because she was a little bit psychic and had been for as long as she could remember—he was able to feed off of that energy to communicate with her at night in her head and take physical form during daylight hours.

Until they found a way to break his curse and return him to full power so he could re-form a permanent body, they were stuck like this. And screaming about it wasn’t going to do anything except make her throat hurt.

There was someone in this club tonight who could help them. A specialist in the affairs of Others—aka the Otherworldly—who would know where they’d need to go for curse removal. Whether this person was human or not was something the demon hadn’t yet shared with her.

Demons, witches, fairies, and werewolves
, Eden thought as she scanned the crowd of seemingly normal mingling singles.
Welcome to my new life. I definitely need a drink.

The bartender eyed her when she slid onto a tall stool. “What’s your pleasure?”

“Uh… I’ll have a white wine. Thanks.”

“That’s so boring,” Darrak commented internally. “A white wine? Could you order a more generic drink?”

She cleared her throat and tried to keep the smile fixed on her face.

“Sure thing,” the bartender said, quickly uncapping a bottle of house white and pouring her a glass.

“Let me guess. You’re not a fancy cocktail kind of girl,” Darrak continued even though she wished he’d just shut up for a moment. The demon hadn’t had much conversation in three centuries so now he was a regular chat factory. It was a good thing he had such a nice voice—deep, warm, and usually filled with wry amusement at the human world he witnessed through Eden’s eyes.

“Not particularly,” she replied dryly, when the bartender moved farther down the bar and out of earshot. “The little paper umbrellas can be so intimidating.”

“It’s all fun and games till someone pokes their eye out. So you’ve found something you like, and you stick with it.”

“Makes things very simple.”

“But how will you ever know if there’s a drink out there that might be the best thing you’ve ever tasted?”

She shrugged a shoulder. “I’m perfectly content with my white wine.”

“
Content
,” he repeated and the one word sounded like a pronouncement on Eden’s boring life. At least, up until she got possessed. Things now were difficult, awkward, and frequently dangerous, but they couldn’t exactly be described as “boring.” Too bad, really.

There was a wall-length mirror behind the bar that allowed her to see both herself and the club behind her. Her gaze didn’t go to her long, bone-straight auburn hair, her green eyes lined with smoky liner, or her plunging neckline that showed off too much cleavage to be considered remotely modest, but instead to the necklace she wore. The pendant was light gray with darker veins running through it. It looked like a two inch oval piece of polished marble. She absently ran her fingertips over its cool surface.

“Don’t worry.” The previous amused and mocking edge to Darrak’s voice was gone and replaced by a serious tone. “It’s still practically white.”

She tried to smile at her reflection. “You’re a very good liar, you know that?”

“I have been told that once or twice before.”

The amulet showed how damaged her soul was after she recently came into some…
powers
.
Dark
powers. She was now officially a “black witch”—a woman who had black magic at her fingertips to use whenever she wanted.

Using this kind of magic destroyed a soul piece by piece, little by little, eating away at one’s ability to tell good from evil. The best solution—the
only
solution—was not to use the magic at all. Eden had used it just once and her soul was damaged from it. Just a shade darker, but it would never be completely pure again.

Eden could feel it now, only a short mental reach away—a bottomless ocean of power that itched to be used. It was like doing heroin. She’d heard that when you did that drug the first time, you were an immediate junkie.

Ditto black magic.

She hadn’t told Darrak about this constant urge she now had to dip into the dark well of power. He was adamant that she never use it again, no matter what—it was too dangerous for her. He felt a great deal of guilt about her current gray-stoned predicament, which was understandable. After all, it was his fault she was now officially a black witch.

Having sex with the demon had—
hocus-pocus
—accidentally turned her into one.

She chewed her bottom lip and tasted her red lip gloss as the memory slid through her mind of what had happened between them.

Well… Darrak
did
have solid form during the day. And that form was a
mighty fine
one.

What could she say? It had happened. Once.

But it could never happen again.
Ever
. Not unless she wanted to put more of her soul at risk. And she didn’t. She was very fond of her soul, even in its current, slightly dingy state.

“Do you see him yet?” she asked, taking her mind off other hazardous, horizontal subjects. She turned away from her reflection to look at the faces in the crowd, slowly scanning the width of the room.

“Not yet. This place is packed. I think every desperate single person in the city is here tonight.”

Eden took a shaky sip of her wine. It tasted bland and, to be honest, a bit boring. Not that she’d ever admit it.

“I don’t believe it,” a voice said to her left. “Eden Riley. Long time no see.”