by Мишель Роуэн
“You think he’d disembowel you?” Eden asked. Stanley seemed all too ready to jump to the conclusion that Darrak was just as dangerous as Ben thought he was.
“Of course.” Stanley lowered his voice. “He’s an archdemon. I try to avoid them whenever possible, but in my line of work. . well, it’s difficult. Can you. . uh, tell him that I can create some elixirs for him for free? I work to order. It’s my side business.”
“I promise not to disembowel him,” Darrak said. “The cleanup’s a real bitch. We should just go now.”
“Just relax,” Eden said to Stanley. The guy looked ready to wet himself at the prospect of infuriating Darrak.
“I can’t relax. Sex is the only way I can unwind, and you totally blew that for me tonight.” He breathed deeply and downed the rest of his drink. “What’s Darrak’s problem anyhow? Must be something major. If he’s looking for a wizard master to help him and his girlfriend—”
“I’m not Darrak’s girlfriend,” Eden said firmly.
“His bitch, then.” He flippantly waved his hand. “Whatever you are.”
Darrak snorted. “He called you my bitch.”
“I heard him.”
“What did you say?” Stanley asked.
“I’m not Darrak’s bitch.” She hissed out a frustrated sigh. “So what you’re saying is talking to you is a big fat waste of time, is it?”
“If all you’re looking for is my boss, then yeah. But if you’re looking for something else”—he placed a hand on Eden’s thigh—“then I might be able to help.”
She looked down at his hand. “Do you have a death wish?”
Stanley removed his hand. “You’re a difficult woman to love. No. No death wish. Although I have to say I’m probably in the minority around here. Anyone coming to this club who doesn’t have any magical protection is asking for trouble.”
That piqued Eden’s interest. “Are you talking about the murder last night?”
“Among other things.” He glanced nervously around the crowded club. “That’s seven now, including the reporter.”
She inhaled sharply. Stanley may not have been helpful in contacting the wizard master, but did he know something about Graham’s murder?
“I thought the other women only went missing. Do you really think they’re dead?”
“Once you disappear from here, you don’t come back.”
A shiver went down her spine. “So where do you go?”
“We really shouldn’t talk about this.” He scanned the room, his face paling. “The walls have ears.”
She touched Stanley’s leg to get his attention again. “You think it’s someone who works here doing the killings?”
He licked his lips. “It’s possible. It’s connected to Luxuria, that’s all I know right now. I wouldn’t come here at all, but I can’t seem to stay away. Wish I could.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just what I said. I’d like to go to other clubs, but I keep coming back here. So does everyone else. Ninety percent of the people you see here return nearly every night like clockwork.”
“Really?” She glanced around. She’d had friends who enjoyed going out on Friday and Saturday nights to let off a little steam after a long week at work, but to go to a singles’ club more than that? Seemed excessive.
And expensive. The drinks here were way overpriced.
She needed to know more. Darrak didn’t want her investigating anything to do with Graham’s murder, but how could she resist a little prodding into things? She owed her old friend that much.
“Look, Stanley,” she began, “I know you don’t want to get involved, but if you’re a regular here, maybe you saw something suspicious—” She stopped talking for a moment as something occurred to her.
The other demon had been here last night just before Graham’s murder.
Of course. It made total sense. That demon had to have something to do with this. What other reason would a demon have for hanging out at a singles’ club?
“What?” Stanley prompted.
Two people making out next to her jostled Eden’s arm, and she moved out of their way, scooting down the couch to sit closer to Stanley. “Did you see a demon here last night?”
“Eden,” Darrak breathed. “We need to leave. Come on.”
Why was he trying to stop her from learning more? If she had a chance like this to find out more, shouldn’t he encourage that? She could dampen him so he didn’t get in the way, but she wasn’t ready to do that yet.
“A demon.” Stanley swallowed hard enough for it to officially be considered a gulp. “Yeah, I saw him. The demonic energy emanating off him was hard to miss.”
Her heart drummed so hard against her rib cage that she felt it in her ears. “Do you think he has anything to do with what’s going on here?”
“No.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Really?”
A waitress emerged to retrieve the empty champagne glasses in front of Stanley before she was swallowed again by the crowd on the dance floor half a dozen feet away. The music shifted from dance to something slower.
Stanley rubbed his temples. “I mean, I don’t think so. I don’t know what happened to the women for sure, but I’m positive a demon didn’t kill that reporter.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because he was strangled to death, right? A demon would never end anyone that humanely.”
Eden repressed a shudder. “Being strangled is humane?”
“Demons enjoy digging in and seeing what makes a human tick before they snuff out the life completely. It’s fun for them. And when they’re done, it’s not unusual for dental records to be necessary to ID the victim. That is, if there’s even anything left over to ID.”
Eden’s stomach lurched. “I can’t imagine all demons are like that.”
Stanley snorted. “What fairy tale are you living in, sunshine? I haven’t seen that much in my career as Maksim’s assistant, but what I’ve seen has shown me demons aren’t anything to mess with. And when they kill, they leave a hell of a mess in their wake. Oh—a hell of a mess. I made a pun. Listen to me. If my elixir business tanks, I should try stand-up.”
“Happy now?” Darrak asked dryly. “He thinks he’s witty.”
Eden stood up on shaky legs. “Tell Maksim I need to talk to him the moment he gets back, okay? That Darrak and I both need to talk to him.”
“You’re going? You’re sure you don’t want some champagne?”
“Positive.”
She turned and walked away from him, still queasy from the mental image of a demon’s carnage. She’d seen Darrak’s demonic form — all talons and fire and sharp teeth. And, yes, horns. If something like that, or worse, chose to end a human life. . well, Stanley was right. They probably wouldn’t use strangulation as their modus operandi.
Then who was the murderer?
And what was the other demon doing here? He’d been looking for Darrak, hadn’t he? And Darrak had dismissed it so she wouldn’t worry.
So what was this other demon’s plan? To drag Darrak back down to home base or destroy him outright? Either option made her feel more ill.
“So, this was pretty much a wasted trip tonight,” Darrak said, sounding weary. “I figured it would be.”
“Who is this other demon?” she said under her breath, anxiety spreading through her. “He’s after you, isn’t he?”
“He’s. . uh. .”
“You said he was your friend, but does he want to find you? Was he sent to hurt you?” She couldn’t hide the growing panic in her voice.
“He doesn’t want to hurt me.”
“How do you know that? You haven’t seen him in three hundred years, right?”
“Right. Yeah. About the demon. .”
“What about him?” Her chest felt tight.
“We’re meeting him for lunch tomorrow.”
Her sharp focus on the exit to the nightclub blurred. She froze in place. “What?”
�
��Next door to here. It’s a souvlaki place in case you’re curious.”
The music shifted back to a fast hip-hop song she’d heard on the radio during her drive to work that morning. She didn’t speak for a full minute. “What?”
“Uh. . the demon from last night. My old friend. Lunch tomorrow. Souvlaki. Yum?”
Was she hallucinating? Why was he saying things to her that made no sense? He’d made them leave last night, fearful of meeting his “old friend” face-to-face.
“When did you happen to make these plans with him?” she asked slowly.
“Last night.”
“But. . but when last night? We’re together all the time.”
“I know. Cozy, isn’t it?” He was quiet for a moment. “It doesn’t matter when. The fact is, the plans are made and I probably should have told you earlier, but I didn’t.”
It was like a puzzle she didn’t have all the pieces for. “You’re keeping things from me, aren’t you?”
“Nothing major.”
Oh, that was comforting. “So, at some time last night you talked to him? This old friend of yours?”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of? What’s that supposed to mean?”
A man walked past Eden on the way to the restrooms, and he looked at her strangely as she stood talking to herself like a crazy person. At the moment, she didn’t really care.
There was silence from the demon for way too long. And then, “Just get us out of here, and we’ll discuss this matter privately.”
She searched her memory from last night. He’d possessed her at sunset like usual. They’d come to the club. They’d left the club in a hurry. She’d gone to bed. That was all that had happened.
Then she had a thought. “What are you doing? Stealing my body when I’m asleep?”
Darrak didn’t reply to that. She’d hoped for laughter at how ludicrous that theory was, especially since she’d only been joking.
She struggled to breathe. “No way. That’s impossible.”
“I can’t help that you’re a good guesser.”
She gasped. “Oh, my God! You’re stealing my body at night!”
Two women on their way to the dance floor gave her a wide berth as they passed and exchanged a look.
“Stealing is such a harsh word,” Darrak said. “Borrowing is much more pleasant, really.”
Eden practically kicked the door open and emerged into the cold night air, ignoring the steady succession of strange looks she was now receiving from anyone she passed. She was livid. There hadn’t been many moments in her life when she’d felt this level of rage before. She felt ready to burst wide open. A tingling electricity coursed down her arms and into her hands. It crackled against her skin.
“Eden, you have to calm down,” Darrak said with concern. “Anger makes the black magic come to the surface. You know that.”
“Shut the hell up.”
However, she couldn’t argue with him. Sharp fluctuations in mood caused the magic to begin to spark inside her, ready to be channeled into destroying something. She wanted to destroy something. And his name began with the letter D.
Darrak borrowed her body when she was sleeping.
She’d trusted him and this is how he repaid her?
“It had to be done,” he explained.
“It had to be done, huh?”
He hissed out a sigh of frustration. “I had to find out what he wanted, and I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“You didn’t want me to get hurt.”
“You’re repeating everything I’m saying. You must be pissed.”
“Just trying to wrap my head around this. You didn’t want me to get hurt. But you borrowed my body. If your old buddy had been so inclined to rip out my throat, how would that not be hurting me?”
“I can handle Theo,” he said simply.
“Theo? Great. Your demonic BFF is named for one of the Cosby kids.”
She’d never felt so violated. And it wasn’t just that. It was the trust issue, already shaky after what had happened with Ben. She’d been a fool to trust an archdemon. Damn it. She felt so stupid.
And she’d thought Stanley and his lust elixir had been bad.
Still was. But this felt much, much worse.
“Theo can help us,” Darrak said firmly. “He’s willing to help us. I explained everything to him.”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as his words managed to sink in. “Keep talking.”
“All I know for sure right now is he promised to do everything in his power to help break my curse. And when Theo says he’s going to do something, he gets it done. He’s very resourceful.”
Eden rolled her eyes. “I think Stanley just filled me in on how resourceful demons can be when they want something. All that’s left is a red smudge to scrape up off the pavement. I’d prefer not to become a red smudge.”
“You won’t.”
“Because you’re looking out for me?” It didn’t sound particularly sincere.
“I’m not claiming to be perfect, Eden. But I am trying to make solid decisions here.”
“You’re trying, all right.” Her anger had come down from a boil to a steady simmer.
She stood at the edge of the parking lot now. Eden’s car was a few rows in. She felt in her purse for her keys.
“Hey, Eden!” a familiar voice called out to her.
She turned and was shocked to see Ben approaching her. He was with a pretty woman with waist-length blonde hair. She wore a tight blue dress.
“We need to go,” Darrak said warily. “We don’t need any more confrontations with golden boy today.”
So insightful, that demon. Really helpful internal monologue.
“What do you want?” she asked sharply. Perhaps that would be the first thing she always said to Ben from now on. Given their history it seemed appropriate.
“You’re better,” he said, looking relieved. “I’m glad. I was worried after. . after this morning.”
He took a step toward her, and she moved away from him.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she said firmly. “What do you want? Are you following me?”
He glanced at his companion, then back at Eden. “I said some things today that I regret. I wanted to apologize.”
Her shoulders relaxed a little. “Apology cautiously accepted.”
Ben smiled. He did look great when he smiled.
Residue of her earlier stress still tingled under her skin, but she tried to push it away. The evening had been a bust with Stanley. She’d learned some unpleasant things about what Darrak did when she was asleep. But at least Ben seemed to have himself together again. It was a strange relief.
“I don’t feel good about this,” Darrak said. “I sense something strange, but I’m not sure what it is.”
Ben nodded at his date. “This is Sandy. Sandy, this is Eden.”
Eden’s eyes shifted to the woman.
“Nice to meet you, Sandy,” she said.
“You, too,” Sandy replied, smiling. She drew closer and extended her hand.
Eden reached out to shake it.
“No, Eden—” Darrak’s voice turned panicked. “Don’t touch her. She’s a wi—”
But it was too late. Sandy’s fingers wrapped around Eden’s and an ice-cold wave rippled through her body. Darrak’s presence disappeared like a lamp had been flicked off, leaving only a dark room behind.
Her eyes widened as she looked down at the blonde’s hand. The red stone set into the ring on her index finger glowed.
“What—?” she managed before the woman let go of her hand. “Ben, what the hell’s going on here?”
Ben cleared his throat. His arms were crossed firmly over his chest. “Sandy’s a witch. And she just dampened your inner demon. Hope you don’t mind. He’ll just get in the way of what we need to do right now.”
Eden could barely speak, she was so shocked. “But — but why are you—?”
Before she could say another
word, Ben had moved toward her with something in his hand. A syringe. She felt a sharp pain as he jabbed the needle into her upper arm and injected her with the contents.
His expression was grim.
Immediately, the world began to darken at the edges.
“I’m sorry it has to be like this,” he whispered. “But. . I said I’d help you, and I meant it.”
A moment later, the world disappeared completely.
NINE
“Hand me the smelling salts.”
Eden heard the voice as if it was a long way away. The next moment, a sharp, pungent scent assaulted her nostrils, and she gasped, her eyes snapping wide open. She was in an unfamiliar living room seated on a leather sofa.
“Eden.” She felt a warm hand on her arm, and she looked to her left, where Ben sat next to her. Sandy stood a few feet away with her arms crossed over her chest. “Please, don’t panic.”
Eden licked her dry lips, her thoughts cloudy and jumbled. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.” Her voice croaked as if she’d been unconscious for a while.
“I want to help you.”
“You have a funny way of showing it.” Her throat hurt and anger and confusion flowed inside her. “Tranquilizers and kidnapping aren’t exactly things that sound very helpful.”
Eden tried to sense Darrak’s presence, but there was nothing there. Was he okay? Had the witch hurt him? The thought filled her with fear. Only moments before she’d been wishing he was gone forever, and now she was desperately concerned that he’d been harmed.
“What were you doing at Luxuria tonight?” Ben asked.
“None of your damn business. Where the hell am I?” The longer she was conscious, the more the fog was lifting, and the more pissed off she was getting.
“My place,” Ben said.
“As a cop, you should know kidnapping is a crime.”
“I wish there was another way. But you’re not thinking straight right now.”
“I’m thinking fine.”
“You’re possessed by a demon,” Sandy said.
Another worrying reminder that Darrak was currently AWOL.
“What did you do to him?” Eden snapped.