That Old Black Magic lie-3

by Michelle Rowen

  Pure shock and an edge of fear.

  “Eden…” he began.

  She shook her head. “I’m so sorry. I–I didn’t want you to find out like this. Not from someone else.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “She’s telling you the truth.”

  His brain had stopped processing information. “It can’t be true. I’m a demon, I’m not a… a…”

  Her face had paled. “Half. You’re half-demon and half-angel now. The celestial energy — it’s not a temporary thing. It changed you… permanently.”

  He wanted to make a joke and laugh it off, but nothing came out. Just the stunned realization that he couldn’t deny this, because on some level he’d already known the truth.

  The angel juice he’d been absorbing from Eden from day one, the same stuff that gave him the ability to take form during the day after hundreds of years of being nothing more than black smoke trapped inside a succession of human hosts…

  It hadn’t only tainted him by enhancing his already messed-up humanity-tainted archdemon form. It had literally changed part of him to angel.

  Holy shit.

  “You already knew,” he bit out. “And you never told me?”

  Eden looked distraught. “I should have. I didn’t want you to freak out. Please don’t freak out.”

  Freak out? That was the shallow end of reactions he could have to this revelation, actually.

  In one single sentence, his entire existence had just taken a swan dive directly into the Void. That was the only place he could end up now. He knew without a single doubt he’d never be accepted in Hell again. Not like this.

  And Heaven? As if he’d want to stroll through those pearly gates even if he had the opportunity. Not a chance in… well, wherever.

  It was over. It was all over.

  And, no, he wasn’t overreacting. He’d witnessed much worse than the Void as a result of way less. For a time he’d even been one of those responsible for doling out punishments to those Netherworld beings deemed unworthy or flawed or… tainted.

  Talk about karma.

  Eden pulled the silver chain out of her coat pocket. “Okay, Brenda, enough stalling. I don’t know your real story, but I was sent here to do a job and I’m going to do it. Lucas… Lucifer wants to talk to you and you need to have that talk. Say no if he offers you a job downstairs, but you have to see him. I’m sorry, really, but I have no choice.”

  “Me neither,” Brenda replied.

  She turned and ran out of the lobby.

  Eden immediately chased after her.

  “Eden!” Darrak began to pursue them, but another wave of pain crashed over him, halting him in his tracks. This time it was accompanied with dizziness. His entire world devolved into a Tilt-A-Whirl from Hell.

  Eden wouldn’t get too far without him. Their hundred-foot tether would stop her the moment she reached it.

  Or maybe not. He raised his hand before his face, again disturbed to see it shift to the white and black swirling smoke.

  Pure light and pitch-black.

  Now he knew why it had shifted to that color combo. It was pure evil with a side order of sparkle dust.

  It was… him.

  Quite honestly, if this didn’t mean the beginning of the end of everything he’d ever known, he’d think it was freaking hilarious.

  “Please stop!” Eden grabbed the woman’s arm before she reached the exit. She felt a twinge of pain here — she was at the farthest point she could be from Darrak. Another few steps and she would have had to give up the chase completely.

  Brenda’s muscles were tense. “Did you just say ‘please’?”

  “I can’t help that I’m polite.” Eden glanced at the knife the woman still clutched, and with a mere thought it rocketed out of her hand and imbedded itself into the wall next to them.

  The woman didn’t seem particularly strong, despite her other gifts. Eden was able to hold her in place without too much effort.

  “Let go of me,” she snapped.

  “Can’t do that.” Eden pulled the silver chain out of her coat pocket. “You tried to kill me.”

  “I wouldn’t have killed you.”

  “Sorry if I don’t automatically believe that. That’s quite a knife to carry around during the workday.”

  “I’m too busy to learn kung fu. A girl’s got to protect herself somehow.”

  “You think that would help you against Lucas?”

  “Who?”

  Eden gritted her teeth. Damn it. “Lucifer.”

  “I’m cloaked from him in the human world — totally. He can’t find me without help.” Brenda gave her a dirty look.

  “Maybe you should think of it as an honor. Any job he wants to offer you might be a good one for somebody like you.”

  Brenda stared at her incredulously. “I don’t want anything to do with him.”

  Everything this woman said was confusing Eden. She’d been so focused when she’d arrived here, but now she was distracted and doubting herself. Plus, having the truth about Darrak come out so unexpectedly had thrown her completely off guard.

  Darrak.

  What was wrong with him? He hadn’t followed after them, which meant he might be in trouble. She had to get this over with so she could check on him.

  “Enough,” she gritted out. “Lucifer wants to talk to you and I’m going to—”

  “No, Eden. Please listen to me.” Brenda shook her head. “You can’t do this, and you know it. You’re a good person.”

  Her throat tightened. “I’m a black witch. Take a good look at my amulet. Does that seem like a good person to you?”

  “You’re a good person who’s had a few hard knocks. Like me. You do what it takes to survive, to get through day to day. Don’t do this. If you put that thing on my wrist you’re going to be going against your better judgment. You know this is wrong.”

  Eden hissed out a breath. “Stop it.”

  “See?” Brenda brightened as Eden’s grip on her loosened a fraction. “We’re in the same situation, you and me. I have a prophecy telling me my destiny is set. But I know I can fight it. I choose what I want to be and, let me tell you, it’s got nothing to do with Lucifer or Hell. I want better than that for myself. And whatever I have to do to keep myself away from him is exactly what I’ll do. He can give that job that’s up for grabs to somebody else.”

  “How can you see the truth? How did you know what Darrak is so easily?”

  “I don’t know. I just can. He needs you, Eden.” Her brows drew together. “He needs you, more than ever, to make the right decisions — for both of you. And there’s more at stake now than the two of you, you just don’t know it yet.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Brenda’s gaze clouded over as if she was focused on something a long way from here. “Some things I can’t tell you. Some things are just whispers in my head, but I know you’re going to have to be strong. You’re going to have to do the right thing in the darkest situation. You have to prepare for a journey that will change everything.”

  Eden hissed out a breath of frustration. “You sound like a fortune cookie.”

  Brenda’s eyes cleared and she laughed, but it sounded a bit bitter. “I know.”

  Eden couldn’t help but ask. “This journey, this dark situation… will everything work out okay in the end?”

  Brenda shook her head. “I don’t know that.”

  “Lot of good you are.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Lucifer wants to talk to you, and I don’t think he’s willing to negotiate about that.” Eden’s grip on the chain grew tighter.

  “Talk? You really think anything to do with him is that simple?” Brenda looked stressed. “Please, Eden, look into your heart. Do the right thing for you, for Darrak, for… for everyone. Let me go.”

  Where was Darrak? Why hadn’t he followed her out here yet?

  This woman had nearly killed her, Eden had no doubt about it. When it came to sel
f-protection, if Brenda was that dead set against ever having this “talk” with Lucas, then she might have been willing to do anything to avoid it.

  Eden didn’t know the whole story. All she had was a request from Lucas on one side and this woman begging her to let her go on the other.

  In the end, all she really had was her gut instinct.

  “Fine.” She let go of Brenda’s arm. Magic still sparked off her fingers, charged and ready to be used, but she wouldn’t need any more of it today. Today was proof that the more she used it, the more control she had over it. It was only when she tried to ignore it that it began to control her. “Get out of here before I change my mind.”

  Brenda’s eyes widened with surprise. “Really?”

  “Why are you still standing here?”

  “Thank you! Thank you so much!” Brenda N. Franks then pushed through the glass doors and ran down the sidewalk until Eden couldn’t see her anymore.

  It was the flu that made her do it. It was obviously messing with her brain as well as her stomach this week.

  Lucas wasn’t going to be happy with her. Not at all.

  TEN

  Eden didn’t stand there another moment; she turned and ran directly back to Darrak. He sat with his back up against the front of the security desk. Brenda’s cloaking magic still seemed to be in effect since no one seemed to notice. Either that, or nobody cared.

  She knelt next to him and grabbed his hand, which felt disturbingly cold to the touch.

  “Let me take a wild guess,” Darrak said. “You slapped the chain on that chick’s wrist and sent her ass straight to Hell like the coldhearted assassin I know you to be.”

  She snorted. “Sure, that’s exactly what I did. I’m such a badass.”

  His answering laugh sounded pained. “No, you let her go. You believed her sob story, bought the whole ‘I’m a nice girl in a tough situation,’ and let her scurry away.”

  “You really think I’m that much of a sap?”

  “Not a sap. But for a black witch who could level this city, you’re a hell of a softie.”

  Her eyebrows raised. “You really think I could level this city?”

  “Maybe just the downtown core. Use the CN Tower as a big-ass cigarette and the Rogers Centre like an ashtray. It would be epic.”

  Eden got to her feet and held a hand out to him. “Let’s go.”

  “Cigarette and ashtray time?”

  She shook her head. “See Maksim the wizard time. What happened before with you — it scared the hell out of me.”

  His expression wasn’t filled with humor anymore. “Why didn’t you tell me, Eden?”

  Her chest felt tight. “This isn’t a good place to discuss this.”

  “Damn it, Eden, talk to me.”

  She swallowed hard and felt tears burn her eyes. “I was going to tell you.”

  “When was that? Before or after I found myself torn into two separate but equally annoying beings of light and dark?”

  “We need to see Maksim. It can’t wait till tomorrow, not if you’re feeling like this. Whatever I did earlier triggered something bad.”

  Darrak slowly got to his feet, using the security desk to help him up. “How long have you known?”

  He was angry with her. She couldn’t very well say she didn’t deserve it. “Two weeks.”

  He actually laughed at that, but it sounded bitter and unpleasant. “Two whole weeks? And you figured this out all by yourself?”

  Might as well get it all on the table now. “No. Actually, Lucas told me.”

  “Oh, this is terrific. Just terrific.” He swore darkly under his breath. “You should have told me, Eden. I should have known it wasn’t just an acorn. The sky is literally falling.”

  A spark of anger fought against her guilt. “Why? So you could overreact like this? We’ll figure out what I did to screw you up this morning, Darrak, but this isn’t the end of the world. So you’re part angel. So what?”

  Eden went to reach for him, but he shrugged away from her.

  “Not the end of the world,” he repeated. “No, to you this is probably great news. I’m not a scum-sucking, bottom-dwelling demon anymore. I’ve been given a little additional sparkle at the edges like a fancy doily. But it doesn’t work that way, Eden. I can’t be both demon and angel. It’s impossible on too many levels to count.”

  Eden raked a hand through her hair and paced back a few feet before turning around to face him again. She understood his anger. She’d been wrong to keep this from him for so long. “You can be both. That you’re standing… err, leaning… right in front of me right now proves that.”

  “You just don’t get it, do you? This will destroy me. That — what happened before? It was only a taste test of the pain to come. I’m headed directly for the Void like this, Eden. But, hey, look at the bright side. At least you’ll be rid of me forever.”

  She just gaped at him.

  “Excuse me,” the security guard piped up from behind them. “You were looking for someone, weren’t you? Something to do with a sweepstakes? What was that name again?”

  “Forget it,” Darrak said, his lips twisting into a humorless smile. “Looks like the party’s canceled. Permanently.”

  Eden drove immediately to Maksim’s mansion and knocked on the door until her knuckles hurt. The butler finally answered to tell her he wasn’t home. He hadn’t been seen since their meeting with him yesterday, and the butler didn’t know when he’d be back.

  “Tell him Eden Riley needs to speak with him as soon as possible,” she said, trying to control the sharp edge of panic in her voice.

  So much for wizard intervention.

  Darrak had waited in the car. He hadn’t said a word since leaving the office building. She thought for a time he was just being sullen, but then she realized he was dealing with the tearing pain inside of him.

  He needed to be comfortable and her apartment was the first place that came to mind. He didn’t resist when she helped him into her bedroom and into bed.

  She’d worry about failing Lucas’s task later.

  “Tell me what you need,” she asked, stroking the dark hair back from his forehead.

  “I need you to cut the angel parts out of me. Stat.”

  “Can’t happen.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut. “Then just leave me to die.”

  “Don’t be so damn melodramatic, Darrak. This isn’t that bad.”

  His eyes snapped open. “You know, your bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired.”

  Eden’s heart twisted to see him in this much pain, but she refused to believe this was the end for him. She’d dealt with complications, too, that fight between her angel side and her black magic — although Maksim seemed to think it was the demon who possessed her that had caused her imbalance. The jury was still out on whether he was right.

  This, what Darrak was dealing with, was an imbalance as well. However, it was recent. If he’d been half-angel for a while, then this should have been an issue all along. But it wasn’t.

  “If it wasn’t for the angel part, you wouldn’t be who you are,” she reasoned.

  “Small comfort.”

  “You’re going to be fine.”

  “I hate angels. Despise them.” He stared up at the ceiling. “And I’m not just being cranky. I’m supposed to hate them. I’m a demon. It’s a balance thing. I hate angels, so I stay away from them as much as possible. They hate demons so they stay away from us, too. Everything’s all equal and proper on the universal playing field. But now I have an angel inside of me clawing to get out.”

  “It’s not inside of you like an alien in a movie. It is you.”

  “Are you trying to be helpful or make me feel worse?” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I think I have a solution to this problem.”

  “What?”

  “Slap that chain on my wrist and send me directly to Hell. Maybe the angel bits can be burned right out of me if I jump into a pool of hellfire.”

&n
bsp; “Don’t be an idiot, Darrak.”

  He glared at her. “That bedside manner? Not improving.”

  How could she fix this? Trying to reason with him seemed pointless when he was dealing with this pain. It was manifesting itself physically, rather than just emotionally.

  “We’ll fix these unpleasant side effects,” she assured him. “But then you’re going to have to look on the bright side.”

  “There’s a bright side?”

  “Sure. You felt fine this morning. You had no idea anything was even wrong.”

  “Fine has taken on a whole new definition for me lately. I used to be a strong, powerful archdemon, and now I’m an inconsequential leech on the world. Yeah, sounds fine to me.”

  She grabbed hold of his hand, which felt even colder than it had before. That wasn’t a good sign. His skin was normally warm, even warmer than a human’s. “Selina showed you to me in that vision of the past, you know. How you were back when you were that strong, powerful archdemon before you were cursed. You were absolutely horrific.”

  Darrak pressed back into the mattress. “I appreciate the compliment, but fond memories of who I used to be aren’t helping.”

  She knew he was trying to be amusing, even now. “That wasn’t supposed to be a compliment.”

  “But it was. Demons… we’re supposed to be fearsome. Powerful. Scary as hell. It’s our whole raison d’être. I mean, you’ve seen my demonic visage. All horns and talons and fire. I can’t accept the possibility of wings and halos. I just can’t.”

  She grimaced. “Got to say, I prefer the Darrak who has humanity and a pinch of angel running through him. Personally, I think it’s an improvement on the original.”

  A glimmer of a smile played at his lips before it faded away completely. “This is the beginning of the end, Eden.”

  She shook her head. “No it isn’t.”

  “You really think we can stay this way forever? Playing house in your little apartment in the sky while our lives fall apart all around us? We’ve been fooling ourselves.”

  Her throat felt thick. “Don’t say that.”