by Мишель Роуэн
Otherwise, he was a monster.
“See? That’s much better.” Lucas’s voice sounded raspy as if Darrak had done some damage to his larynx by throwing him around like a rag doll. He turned to Eden. “Why did this happen?”
Her mouth felt too dry to form words, but she tried anyhow. “I–I didn’t say anything to him. I swear I didn’t.”
“And yet we are here right now, and I’ve just avoided being killed by a disgruntled employee.”
“I stopped him,” she pointed out, hoping that would help matters.
“Yes, you did. If you hadn’t stopped him, it wouldn’t have ended well for any of us. I can do a great deal more damage from Hell than I can live and in person.”
Eden tried not to look away from Lucas’s intense gaze. She tried not to feel any fear toward him. He looked so broken and beaten and incredibly human that, despite his angry words, it was difficult to remember who and what he really was.
Lucas looked at Darrak. “You know you’re compelled to tell me the truth right now, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he hissed.
“Did she tell you who I am?”
“No.” The demon’s voice was deeper now and filled with darkness like something out of a nightmare. The sound of it raised goose bumps on Eden’s arms.
“Then how did you know?”
“I guessed. And I was right.”
Lucas studied him for a moment. “Interesting.”
“Do I win a prize?” Darrak’s tone was insolent.
Lucas turned to Eden and gave her a thin smile. “Our deal was that you don’t directly tell him about me. It doesn’t seem as if you did, so I can’t fault you. You’re very lucky that I always hold true to the exact wording of my bargains.”
Funny. She wasn’t feeling all that lucky at the moment.
Lucas touched his throat gingerly as if testing for deeper injuries.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He frowned. “What?”
“It’s just. . that cut on your forehead is kind of nasty. You might need stitches.” Eden dug into her pocket and pulled out a tissue, which she pressed against the wound.
Lucas flinched. “It’s nothing.”
“If you want to have a mortal form like this, you’re going to have to look after it properly.”
“This is only temporary.” He took the tissue away from her, and her arm dropped back to her side. As she stepped away from him, he eyed her curiously.
“Excuse me,” Darrak said. “If Eden’s all finished kissing your boo-boos, can we move this along? I have a full schedule today.”
Even in his demon form, Darrak was still sarcastic at inappropriate moments.
“You tried to kill me,” Lucas said.
“Gee, you figured it out. I wish I was as smart as you, Lucifer. You’re my hero.”
Shut up, Darrak, she thought, hoping the glare sent in the direction of the scary-looking, fiery demon might be enough to quiet him, but she doubted it.
“I created you,” Lucas said.
“Sorry I forgot the Happy Father’s Day card this year. I made a really nice one with crayons.” An unpleasant smile creased the demon’s fearsome expression beneath the flames. “They melted a bit, though. Made it difficult to draw the bunnies and smiley faces.”
“You aren’t going to beg my forgiveness?” Lucas asked.
“Nope.”
“And will you attempt to end my existence again?”
“More than likely.”
“Darrak,” Eden snapped. “What is wrong with you?”
He turned his horned head toward her. “You used my true name. Again. Thanks for that, by the way. Right now I’m compelled to tell the truth, remember? So sue me.”
“No, I don’t think I’ll sue you,” Lucas said. “Frankly, I’m not sure what to do with you.”
“Bullshit,” Darrak replied.
“What did you say?”
“I said bullshit. It’s a common English expletive used to reply to insincere, nonsensical talk. You know what to do with me. The only penalty for a treasonous act like the attempted murder of someone like you would be immediate decimation.”
Icy fear coursed through Eden’s body.
“It is, isn’t it?” Lucas agreed. “But I’m not quite ready for that yet.”
“Oh, no?” Darrak still didn’t move an inch. However, his eyes showed the strain of his attempts. “Why not?”
“Because I need you,” Lucas said evenly.
A low, scary chuckle sounded in the demon’s throat. “You’re kidding. You need me?”
“Yes.”
“This is the warm and fuzzy, sentimental moment I’ve been waiting the better part of a millennium for. I’m kidding now, of course. I don’t do warm and fuzzy.”
It’s a mask, Eden thought suddenly. This whole sarcastic, kill-me-now thing Darrak was doing. It was masking how worried he must have been feeling at Lucifer’s mercy like this.
“I’m going to give you a choice, Darrak,” Lucas said. “I’m fairly well versed in what has happened to you all these years. Why you disappeared—”
“You mean, after you fired me and sent me out on my own, an act that allowed a witch to summon my archdemon ass straight out of Hell? Besides, what you accused me of wasn’t even true.”
Lucas just shook his head. “That you were a conspirator? Perhaps not directly with Asmodeus, but you were not innocent of my accusations. I don’t regret what I did. I need demons I can rely on to protect me and do what I tell them to do, not ones that gossip and plan uprisings behind my back.” He sighed. “Maybe you simply were never right for the job and worthless as an employee and an archdemon.”
“Don’t be a hater.”
“Theo was much better at following orders than you ever were.”
Darrak smiled, showing the sharp teeth behind his coating of translucent fire. “Theo would be thrilled you think so.”
“Speaking of Theo, I want the angelheart he plans to destroy me with,” Lucas said.
Darrak’s smile faded and he looked at Eden. “Is there anything you didn’t tell him?”
“Uh. . nothing actually comes to mind,” she admitted. “But he already knew about the murder plot.”
“It’s strange,” Darrak said. “You’re allegedly mortal here and without any power. And yet you easily have me frozen in place like this.”
“I allowed what happened earlier as I was curious to see what you’d do next,” Lucas said. “I could have stopped you at any time, but instead Eden did that for me. My form or level of mortality is meaningless when it comes to those I created. Even here, I can send you to the Void if I choose to, but not before causing you more pain that you’ve felt in your entire existence.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“No?” Lucas approached Darrak. “How about I give you just a little taste, and you can see how lenient I’ve been so far.”
Lucas didn’t move. His expression didn’t change.
But Darrak’s face convulsed and his body quaked. A roar sounded out from deep in his throat as if he was experiencing sheer, unadulterated agony.
A cry rose in Eden’s chest at seeing him in pain like this. “Stop. Please.”
Lucas glanced at her, then back at Darrak. The demon went silent, closing his eyes, his chest hitching.
“The fact you still exist is because I am allowing it,” Lucas said to him. “Look into my eyes and tell me if I’m lying.”
Darrak slowly opened his eyes and looked closely at Lucas. “Did. . anyone ever tell you. . that you have lovely eyes?” His voice was slightly weakened from his short torture session. “For a lousy, self-pitying, ex-angel boss, that is.”
Eden shook her head with frustration. She really couldn’t help him if he didn’t at least try to help himself.
“I will allow you to leave here this morning with your existence intact,” Lucas said to him. “And in return, you will get me that black diamond.”
“And if I can�
�t?”
“There are several interested parties in the Netherworld who have heard rumors of your situation here in the human world.” Lucas shook his head. “I can’t help but sense that you’ve changed, Darrak.”
“The humanity is temporary.”
“You believe that?”
“Yes.”
Lucas tilted his head to the side, studying Darrak as if trying to assess his true worth. “You’d never pass their tests. They would hunt you down and destroy you and anything you value.”
“I don’t have any possessions,” Darrak said.
“Are you sure about that?” Lucas flicked a glance at Eden. “I believe there is something here you wouldn’t want destroyed alongside you.”
The moment Eden felt personally threatened, black magic rose to the surface of her skin for her to use at will. It was like another sense. She supposed she was working on her seventh now.
Darrak’s gaze moved to her as well. “Leave Eden alone.”
“It’s much too late for that.” Lucas approached her, almost tentatively. “You know the truth about me. You’re one of the very few who does.”
She nodded.
“And you believe what I told you?”
“Yes.” Eden didn’t hesitate to answer. She knew deep in her gut that what he’d told her was true. That he wanted to destroy his own inner demon — Satan — so he’d have a chance to be redeemed in Heaven’s eyes.
“Thank you for saving me from your demon,” Lucas said.
“You said you didn’t need my help.”
“It’s still appreciated. I won’t forget. And I won’t forget about our deal.” He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. She froze in place at the unexpected kiss.
When he pulled back, his eyes flicked to her necklace and his brow furrowed. “I must remember that black witches are dangerous for me to be around.”
Eden looked down at her amulet. With shock she realized it had suddenly become a shade lighter. “How is that possible?”
Lucas’s expression shadowed. “It’s part of my punishment. I’m a natural magnet for darkness. I attract it and it feeds my inner beast.”
She touched her lips. One kiss from Lucifer had helped restore her soul? It was just a smidgeon, but it was more than she ever could have hoped for.
“Bring me that black diamond,” he said softly. “And I will make good on our deal. I promise you I will.”
Lucas turned and left the apartment.
Darrak flickered hellishly in her peripheral vision. “Did he try to slip you the tongue?”
She shot him a look. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Is that a yes or a no?”
“Did you see what he did to my amulet?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe you should seek him out for an afternoon of tonsil hockey.”
She thought about that. Could Lucas take all of her darkness away?
“I was kidding,” he said firmly, still using that dark ominous tone of his that didn’t match the words he spoke. “Forget tonsil hockey. It’s a dangerous sport. Especially with him.”
“Seems to be a dangerous sport with everyone lately.”
“Touché. So are you going to release me or let me stand here all day like a tiki torch?”
Eden walked toward him until she stood right in front of him, then forced herself to look up at his intimidating visage.
He blinked. “I don’t like it when you look at me that way. Like you’re afraid of me.”
“I am afraid of you.”
“This form really isn’t all that difficult to warm up to, is it? No pun intended.”
She crossed her arms. “Darrakayiis, I release you.”
Darrak’s body immediately relaxed, the flames extinguished, and he returned to his human form in less than ten seconds. He grabbed both of Eden’s wrists in his grip so she couldn’t pull away from him.
“Do I really scare you that much?” he asked, his gaze searching hers.
“There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.”
“Do you think I’d ever purposely hurt you?”
She swallowed. “No.”
“I wasn’t thinking straight earlier. I may have some anger issues I need to sort through.”
Eden exhaled shakily. “Okay. So now we just need to figure out how to get that angelheart away from Theo today.”
Darrak crossed his arms and paced over to the glass doors leading to the balcony. “So we can hand it over to your new buddy, Lucifer?”
“That’s right. And he’s not my buddy. This is a business transaction only. We give him something he wants, he gives us something we want.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“What?”
“There’s no damn way I’m doing what he wants me to do. I hate him.”
Eden hissed out a breath. “And there’s nothing I can say to make you change your mind?”
“Can’t think of a single thing.”
“So I’m on my own.”
“You attempt to get that angelheart today, and I’ll have to stop you.” Darrak’s expression softened at her look of outrage. “I know you don’t get it, but I’m doing this for you, Eden. Lucifer can’t help us.”
“He said he’d fix things between us.”
“Then he’s a big fat liar. He won’t fix things. He will decimate me before he ever helps me. And whether or not you’re open to playing kissy-face with him won’t change his mind. I do believe I’ve told you about his well-stocked harem, haven’t I? Does that sound like somebody who is keeping a list of people he owes favors to?”
“And if I refuse to go today to Luxuria to take part in this demonic awakening of Asmo-whatever-his-name-is? Will you force me to go?”
His lips pressed together. “Again, I say I’m doing this for you. Why can’t you understand that? We’re kind of a team. Team Darrak and Eden. Team Deden. Or Team Edrak. We’ll get T-shirts.”
“Sure we will.” She felt utterly exasperated by this entire situation. “You really think this nightclub-possessing demon will help us?”
“I do. Theo swears he will.”
Darrak seemed so certain he could trust Theo. She personally couldn’t stand the demon, but she couldn’t argue the fact he and Darrak were friends and had been for centuries. Friends helped friends. Theo wouldn’t betray Darrak.
Lust elixir notwithstanding.
Besides, if she resisted going, she wouldn’t be able to get close to that diamond again. She needed it. Her mother’s soul needed it. And she was convinced that Darrak’s entire existence rested on not crossing Lucifer this time.
“Fine,” she said. “We’ll go.”
His eyebrows rose. “Really? I thought you were going to give me a hard time.”
“I already did. Hard time is over. But. . but you really, totally, completely trust Theo?”
“I trust Theo with my very existence,” he said without hesitation.
“Fine. If you trust him, then I’ll try to, too. Besides”—she looked at him—“we’re in this together, aren’t we?”
“Despite the fact you’re afraid of me.”
“It comes and it goes.”
“For the record, I’m afraid of you, too.”
Eden touched her amulet. “The black witch thing?”
He shook his head. “I wish it was that simple.”
She did, too.
TWENTY-FOUR
“And the demon let you go?” Oliver asked.
Ben had answered these questions several times already. He was far past the point of being annoyed by them. “Yes.”
“Just like that.”
“Yes.”
“And the demon was in full possession of Eden Riley’s body at the time.”
“Correct.”
“Did you tell him anything about our organization in return for your freedom?”
“No.”
As a Malleus elder, Oliver had an ability that helped him gauge when an underling was lying to him.
Since Ben wasn’t lying, he didn’t have anything to fear. Still, the whole situation had a “trip to the principal’s office” feel to it.
“It’s just as I thought,” Oliver said after a moment.
“What is?”
“The fact the demon released you. He should have murdered you without conscience. He’s developing humanlike morals thanks to absorbing the nephilim’s celestial energy.”
“If you say so.”
Ben still couldn’t believe he’d gotten away — that Darrak hadn’t used that knife to slice right through him. Then he’d stopped the other demon from finishing the job.
He was still breathing only because Darrak had saved his life.
No. He wouldn’t feel grateful to that thing that lived inside Eden’s body like a cancerous tumor. Ben had learned a great deal in his short time as a member of the Malleus, and he hadn’t liked everything he’d learned, but he knew right from wrong. The most evil criminal was capable of doing a good deed if it served his ultimate plan. Ben was no chump.
“What about Eden’s father?” Ben asked. “The angel. You told me he would be disturbed to hear what had happened to his daughter and he’d help us.”
“I assume he will. We don’t know exactly when. Until then we must be vigilant. Eden Riley is more dangerous than I ever could have predicted.”
“I don’t know about—”
Oliver cut him off. “She’s a black witch and received her magic because of the demon. We’ll keep an eye on her and wait for the right time to strike next.”
“But what if—”
“No, Ben. You will follow orders. Until then you will wait and not initiate contact with her again.”
He hated being interrupted. “I’m not afraid.”
“And we appreciate your bravery. We will apply it to cases other than Eden’s.”
“But—”
“Ben”—Oliver smiled at him coolly—“arguing will not win you any friends here. You will do what you’re told, when you’re told. If you’re unable to follow our rules and guidelines, I’m afraid we’re going to have a serious problem. Now, go home and await further instruction. You’re dismissed.”