That Old Black Magic lie-3

by Michelle Rowen

  Eden wasn’t going to touch that bitter comment with a ten-foot pole. Lucas had issues when it came to his fate. She had no idea how many years, centuries, millennia it had been since the original fallen angel was first sent down to Hell, but he had a chip on his shoulder the size of the planet Jupiter about it.

  “Fine. So I guess I’m stuck with my mother.”

  “You saved her soul. Does she even know that?”

  “No. And I’m not planning on telling her.”

  “So modest.” He walked a slow circle around her, and she felt very uncomfortable as his gaze slid leisurely over her.

  “Why am I here, Lucas?”

  “I like that you call me Lucas. It makes me feel more human.”

  “No comment.”

  “But you’re right. I did want to see you. Approaching you when Darrak’s around probably isn’t such a good idea.”

  She snorted. “Believe it or not, he mentioned you earlier today. Said that I should—”

  She clamped her mouth shut before she finished that sentence. Perhaps it was best not to venture into that territory.

  “Said you should what?” Lucas’s scrutiny was almost palpable as he took another turn around her like a circling shark scenting an injured seal. His gaze finally fell on her amulet. “Maybe I can guess why my name was brought up.”

  She clamped a hand over it. “Are you a mind reader, too?”

  “Another ability that would prove extremely useful. No, Eden, I can’t predict the future and I can’t read minds. But I’ve existed for a very long time and my skills of deduction are second to none. Your amulet is darker. You’ve been using your magic again.”

  Eden thought about the curse removal she wanted to attempt tomorrow morning. “I need to use it.”

  “Even knowing the consequences.”

  “Yes.”

  Lucas’s lips twisted with amusement. “Was it Darrak who suggested you kiss me again so I can take some of that darkness away or was it you?”

  Her cheeks warmed. “Neither.”

  “Liar.” Then the humor faded from his expression. “Drinking your darkness goes against my ultimate plan, Eden. I want to get back to Heaven, not push myself farther away.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I’m not asking you for anything.” She focused on the ocean and the sunset that didn’t rise or lower from its eternal position. “I need to go back now. I have things to do.”

  “Like attempting to break Darrak’s curse?”

  She stifled a gasp. “How do you know that?”

  “Skills of deduction, remember?” His smile returned. “Have you told him what your delicious celestial energy has done to him yet?”

  Eden blanched. “The subject hasn’t come up.”

  “It will destroy what little sense of self he still has left. The ego is very important to demons — especially lesser ones.”

  “I disagree.”

  “Then why haven’t you told him yet?”

  Frustration pricked at her. She turned away from Lucas to study the calming waves of the ocean. “I have to get back. He’ll wonder where I’ve gone.”

  “No he won’t. I’ll return you within the same millisecond that you left.”

  This earned him a look. “Really?”

  He nodded. “Or… maybe I should return you a hundred years from now. I might not see the future or read minds, but I do have certain abilities. Keeping you away from him at sunset would certainly help break his ties to you, wouldn’t it? He’d be sent directly to the Void if he can’t find a new body to possess in time.”

  There was a veiled threat behind the softly spoken words. He was right. Lucas was in control — he was always in control. He could tear Eden and Darrak apart with only a thought, he had that much power over them.

  Eden struggled to breathe normally. “You brought me here for a reason, so let’s get to it. Enough small talk.”

  He studied her for a moment before nodding. “Fine. When we were last together I told you that you worked for me now. You owe me for how things worked out last time.”

  Lucas had wanted to get his hands on a weapon — a diamond that had been infused with celestial energy called an angelheart. With it he planned to kill his inner beast, the anchor that kept him trapped in Hell. He called that beast Satan. Eden hadn’t met Satan — Lucas’s split personality — but from what she’d heard, she never wanted to. Eden gave him the diamond, but its power had already been spent and it was useless to him.

  To make up for this, she was now his Girl Friday.

  “What do you need me to do?” It would be futile to try to deny him or say no to whatever came next. The best thing for her to do was hear him out and then figure out a way to do it.

  Lucas pulled a small card out of his pocket. “There’s someone I need you to find for me.”

  She took the card from him. “It’s blank.”

  “I know.”

  “Why is it blank?”

  “Because this person has been cloaked from me. The details are written on that card, but I cannot see it. It will remain blank for as long as I’m near it.” His lips thinned. “Which is why I need you.”

  “Okay.” It didn’t make sense to her, but she wasn’t going to argue. She needed to get back to Darrak before sunset. “Why me?”

  “You’re a private investigator. I assume you’ll be able to find a missing person with a little bit of digging and a couple clues. All I do know is that they can be found somewhere in your city.”

  Seemed shaky reasoning at best, but she kept her lips sealed. Lucas would have an arsenal of demons to send out to do his dirty work. Why use her?

  “Why do you want this person?”

  “I want to talk to them.”

  “About what?”

  “That’s my own business.”

  “Just talk?” She looked at him skeptically. “Not torture? Not imprison in Hell? Not use against someone else?”

  He held her gaze steadily. “Just talk.”

  “About what?”

  His jaw tightened, but he didn’t answer her. He pulled a silver chain out of his pocket and put it in her palm. It looked like a charm bracelet without the charms. “You’ll place this on his or her wrist.”

  “And then what?”

  “That’s it.”

  She looked at the chain. “Sounds too simple.”

  “Are you refusing to do this for me?”

  “And if I do?” she asked, then flicked her eyes to meet his. His expression didn’t change.

  “I suggest you don’t.”

  He sounded so pleasant, but the threat was there. This man — this thing—in front of her might not be able to read minds or see the future, but he was the most powerful being she’d ever met. And if she could help it, she’d rather not piss him off anytime soon.

  “When does it have to be done?”

  “Tomorrow. Right after your attempt to remove Darrak’s curse.”

  She looked at him sharply, but bit her tongue. He couldn’t see the future, but he knew way too much about her. It made her extremely nervous.

  “Will you do this for me?” he asked.

  “I can’t believe you’re actually giving me a choice.”

  “You need to say yes, or this isn’t a binding agreement. And you need to do so of your own free will.”

  “Will you destroy Darrak if I don’t agree to this?”

  He didn’t speak for a very long moment. Then finally, “No. But know this, Eden. It’s your choice if I’m your friend or your enemy. And trust me, you don’t want me to be your enemy.”

  She had absolutely no doubt about that. “I’ll look for your guy tomorrow. I promise.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  She turned away to look at the ocean. “Now I need to get back to—”

  Lucas pulled her around to face him and before she could say anything, he crushed his mouth against hers. She gasped against his lips as he kissed her and her hands went up against his chest to push him back
. He was smiling when she managed to break away, but his eyes were black — fully black.

  “Damn,” he said. “Wish that didn’t taste so good.”

  She touched her fingertips to her mouth. “I didn’t ask you to do that.”

  “Good-bye, Eden.” He snapped his fingers.

  She’d been dismissed.

  A bright flash of light and she stood in the Triple-A office. She staggered back a few feet until she felt the edge of her desk behind her.

  A moment later, the door jingled open and Darrak walked in. He looked at her standing there in shock, clutching the silver bracelet.

  “Did I miss something?” he asked with a frown.

  “I–I had a visitor. Sort of.”

  His gaze moved to her amulet, and his expression turned tense and concerned. Fire flared up — literally — in his previously ice blue eyes. “Lucifer was here.”

  “Not exactly. He summoned me. He said it was only a millisecond.” She glanced at the clock. No more than five minutes had passed. Not a millisecond, but close enough. “He gave me an assignment. Wants me to find a guy for him and put this on his wrist.” She raised the bracelet.

  He appeared to relax slightly now that he knew she was unharmed, but there was nothing pleasant in his gaze. “Pretty. So was that before or after he stuck his tongue down your throat?”

  “Uh… before. And there was no tongue.”

  “Glad you thought my idea to kiss him again was a good one after all.”

  “I didn’t ask for that. He just did it.”

  “Well, that was nice of him, wasn’t it? So helpful, the Prince of Hell. A real swell guy.”

  “Don’t, Darrak,” she warned. The desk legs squeaked against the floor as she pushed away from it. “Seriously. I’m not feeling up to this right now. You don’t have to be jealous about this. Of all the people in the universe I’d like to kiss, he’s not even on the list.”

  He frowned. “I know that. This is actually much worse than a little jealousy. You’ve become an object to him. Something he now desires.”

  She shook her head. “He doesn’t feel that way toward me.”

  “It’s not as simple as him wanting to have sex with you. Trust me. That guy could have his pick of anyone in the universe if he wanted. But he wants you. There’s something about you he’s drawn to. He doesn’t do nice things just because. He’s freaking Lucifer, Eden. He’s up to something. Some master plan. And it has to do with you.”

  Her breath caught. “What?”

  “I don’t know. But even with our bond, he has the ability to snatch you away and I can’t protect you. I don’t like that at all.”

  “I can handle him.”

  “Really? You can handle Lucifer, the Prince of Hell.” He didn’t sound like he held much faith in that statement. He paced over to the glass door and looked out at the darkening parking lot.

  Could she handle him? Maybe it was a good time for a little bit of optimism. “Sure I can. Why not?”

  His brow furrowed. “It — it’s time, Eden.”

  “Time for—?”

  “What do you think?” Darrak clamped his hand over his stomach and doubled over. He nodded toward the window. Outside the sun had sunk beneath the horizon. Night came early in mid-November.

  A moment later, his body shifted from a solid six-foot-tall handsome man to an ominous column of black smoke, which then moved through the office toward her as if she was a magnet.

  Eden swallowed hard. “Tomorrow, Darrak. I’m going to break this curse first thing tomorrow morning once and for all. I swear I will.”

  She closed her eyes when the smoke made contact with her and a gasp caught in her throat as he possessed her.

  Being possessed by Darrak had always felt good in the past — warm and oddly orgasmic. Today it felt different. It was cold for a moment, as if she had just walked through a freezer, before the cool sensation moved through her limbs right down to her fingertips and toes.

  It had to do with the spell she’d removed. That the sensation of being possessed had changed was only more proof she’d been successful. Realizing for certain that what she’d experienced for the last month was a daily anomaly caused by a malevolent spell brought back her previously queasy feeling.

  Queasy was definitely the word of the week for many reasons. Terrific.

  So, being possessed wasn’t an orgasmic experience anymore. Fine. But it was more proof that she’d be able to successfully break the curse, finally giving Darrak — and her — freedom.

  And that was definitely worth celebrating.

  “You really think you can break the curse?” Darrak said, his voice now in her head.

  “Yes, I do.”

  He was quiet for a long, tense moment. “One try. That’s all. And if there’s even a glimpse of anything bad, we stop. Maksim saying it could work doesn’t mean a damn thing. I don’t trust that wizard.”

  If it wasn’t for Maksim, she wouldn’t even have attempted the spell removal. “He was trying to help us.”

  “Right. Which is pretty much why I don’t trust him. Wizards aren’t usually the most helpful types.”

  “But you’re not going to attempt to stop me. One try. You said so yourself.”

  “Yeah, fine. But if anything weird happens, we’re pulling the plug.”

  Anything weird.

  That was the story of her life lately. Why should tomorrow be any different?

  SEVEN

  Someone followed Eden home, and that made her very nervous.

  Maybe it was the Malleus — led by Ben Hanson, former crush. They were nasty, horrible people who had conned themselves into believing they were the good guys, but they weren’t. Not even close.

  It could be Lucas keeping tabs on her, which would explain how he seemingly knew everything without the ability to see the future. However, that was unlikely. If he was the one following her, she doubted she’d even realize it.

  It might even be Leena, her ex-roommate, a feline shapeshifter who’d disappeared two weeks ago after a disagreement with Darrak, leaving only a note behind and a key to a locker containing some of her belongings. Her departure only proved that three was a crowd when it came to paranormal beings cohabiting a one-bedroom apartment.

  But it was none of these.

  It turned out to be her mother — the twenty-three-year-old lingerie model version, anyway. She drove a sports car like some sort of life-size Barbie doll and pulled up right next to Eden in her apartment parking lot.

  “So where’s the demon right now?” Caroline asked, following a silent Eden to the elevators.

  “Around.”

  “I guess she isn’t going to wait for your call,” Darrak said from inside of her. “What’s it been, six whole hours?”

  “Guess not.”

  “What, honey?” Caroline asked.

  “Nothing. Look… uh, Mom”—it felt so strange calling this woman that—“we need to talk another day.”

  “My God. He said at night he…” Caroline’s eyes widened. “That demon is possessing you right now, isn’t he?”

  Eden grimaced. “It’s really not as bad as it sounds.”

  Caroline hugged her tightly. “Oh, sweetie. I can’t believe this is happening to you. I’m so sorry for all of what you’ve been through.”

  “It’s not exactly your fault. Besides, it’s almost over.”

  “It is? You’re having him exorcised?”

  “I have a strange feeling I’m not going to win her over with my charm and good looks,” Darrak observed.

  Eden repressed a grimace. “I’m not having Darrak exorcised.”

  “How can you be so calm about this? You’re possessed, honey. By a demon from the fiery depths of Hell!”

  Luckily there was no one else in the lobby to overhear her — admittedly true — ravings.

  “Calm isn’t what I am,” Eden said. “But Darrak and I have a mutual understanding. And we’re finding a solution. Sooner than you think, actually.”

/>   “And how am I supposed to be convinced that he’s not manipulating your emotions? Did he seduce you? I know demons. I know how persuasive they can be when it comes to converting one to their sexual deviance. Bondage is meant to be done between two consenting adults, not between a victim and a vile minion of Lucifer.”

  “Stop her,” Darrak said dryly. “I’m getting all turned on.”

  Eden cringed. “I’m not talking about this, Mom. Not with you.”

  Caroline’s bottom lip wobbled. “I’d do anything for you, Eden, you know that, don’t you?”

  Anything. Funny, it hadn’t felt like that when Caroline had been alive. In her own body. Frankly, it felt as if Eden had been a big burden on her mother’s free-spirit lifestyle. Carting a kid around when you never called one place home for more than a few months wasn’t exactly ideal to establishing a stable childhood.

  Eden exhaled. “Mom, I need you to hear me. Will you listen for just a moment?”

  “Of course.”

  Eden turned to face her directly. “I don’t need your help. And I don’t want your help. I can handle this like I’ve handled everything else for my entire life. You can’t march in here and expect that you can make everything right that went wrong when you were alive. I know you’re trying to redeem yourself, but you can start somewhere else. Not with me.”

  She expected this speech to finally get through to her mother and make her understand. Instead, Caroline’s eyes flashed.

  “Well, that’s too damn bad. Because I’m here. And I’m going to help you whether you like it or not. I might have been a lousy mother—”

  “I’m not saying that.” Not out loud, anyway.

  Caroline raised her hand. “Whatever. I’m not an idiot. I know things weren’t ideal when you were growing up. But you turned into a fine woman. I’m not going to say it was my doing, but this is where we are now. I don’t know what this demon has been telling you, but it’s sick what’s going on here. I guess I have just enough clarity to see that. I’m not leaving until I can do something to help fix this. It’s all I want, Eden. I want you to be happy.”