Tempting the Dark

by Michele Hauf

  “I only reckon those demons who have committed a crime against humans or have been determined to be a menace here in the mortal realm.”

  Which wasn’t exactly a promise never to reckon her. And if he was attempting to send back all those demons who had entered this realm that night, wouldn’t that include someone like her?

  “I, uh...” Savin rubbed his hands together, then leaned back against the considerate wife’s tombstone. “Okay. You’re part demon. Nothing wrong with that. You were there so long. It was inevitable. And I mean, demons come in all forms, types and demeanors. Just like us humans. They can be benevolent. Even more human than some of the humans I’ve known. But—” he pressed his palms before him and against his lips, letting out an exhale “—you’ve still got human in you, right, Jett?”

  She nodded. Maybe she did; maybe she didn’t. She couldn’t know one hundred percent. Without the sheen, she sported horns and dark gray skin. Entirely demon. Yet surely, her innate humanness would return to her now that she’d left that horrible place. With hope?

  No, you mustn’t abandon me!

  She winced at the cry from her darkness, which was entirely her, not a separate entity like the demon who lived within Savin.

  “I do have humanity,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as Savin. “I think. I don’t know, Savin. This is hard for me to talk to you about.”

  He clasped her hand, and that startled her. That he could still want to hold her hand after what she’d confessed. After witnessing her flee last night.

  “I’m safe for you, Jett. You can trust me with your secrets. I promise. I’ll do what I can to help make things right. No matter what happened to you in Daemonia? You didn’t ask for it.”

  “I didn’t. You’re right about that. And everything I did while there was with the goal of survival. I always looked ahead to a moment when I might make my escape.” And there was nothing her dark side could say against that. “But there’s something you should know. Something I learned while there. I was tended by a cortege that catered to my every whim, took care of me, treated me well. One grew to be my confidante. And...she confirmed that I was taken because of my father.”

  “Your father? Your adopted father or...”

  “I didn’t know then that I was adopted. Well, there were clues. But I didn’t know how to process some of the things I was told when I was so young. Anyway, I could only think of the man I’ve always known as my father, Charles Montfort. But who was he? He had no ties to demons or the Place of All Demons. It made very little sense. So sometimes I tossed around the idea that my mother might have had an affair with another man. Perhaps a demon.”

  Savin tilted his gaze at her. “Josette Montfort never seemed the sort to go in for dark and dangerous.”

  “I wanted to believe she didn’t know. It was the only option besides believing my real dad, er, Charles, was demon.”

  “He wasn’t,” Savin said. “I just know that.”

  “Right. So the affair scenario. Demons can do that. Wear a sheen or a human costume. Humans never know who they are interacting with unless the demons want them to know. And, well, I know how demons are. They seduce humans. It is in their nature to do so. They constantly seek the human experience.”

  She was revealing too much, and yet why the hell not? The jig was up. The reckoner had discovered her. But just let him try to reckon her. He wouldn’t know who he was standing against.

  Foolish, Jett thought. She didn’t want to be a threat to the man. She wanted him to admire her, not label her an antagonist.

  “It doesn’t matter now what I suspected when I was there,” she said, “because I now know I was adopted. I got the answer I most desired. So perhaps one or both of my parents was demon.”

  “Whew.” Savin rubbed a finger along his bearded jaw. “That’s a lot to take in. But it is possible. Like you said, demons make it a game at seducing humans. And if your mother had been human but knew the father was demon? A good reason to give the child up for adoption. And I hate to say it, but it would make your kidnapping into Daemonia less random. Though why I was taken along with you...”

  “You were not the target,” she said quietly.

  He turned to meet her gaze.

  “I was told that,” she said. “You were so close, though, and were sucked in along with me. I’m sorry. If I could have changed it so you would never have had to suffer...” She shivered and clasped her hands about her legs. This human emotion stuff was draining. But she refused to allow her dark to rise. Not now. Not when he sat so close and she could feel his comforting warmth. He needed answers as much as she did.

  “Jett, don’t blame yourself. Ever. I survived. And for a while there we were together. We took care of each other.”

  “For that I was thankful. I don’t know what I would have done had I landed in that place all alone. You gave me strength, Savin.”

  “You’re a hell of a lot stronger than I will ever be. So, about being kidnapped. What were you told? Do you think your father—if indeed he was demon—wanted you to live in Daemonia? Did you ever meet him?”

  She shook her head. “What I’ve told you is conjecture. I was only told I was taken because of my father. No explanation beyond that.”

  Mostly. She did know the exact reason—it was what made her flee—but she wasn’t ready to reveal that yet.

  But why not spill all? Savin seemed open to listening, and perhaps even to accepting her. And she had no intention of committing a crime or becoming a menace to society, which would then require him to reckon her.

  They could do this. She wanted that.

  You want him, between your legs and in your arms.

  “So you know things,” Savin said. “Can I ask a few questions?”

  In for the dive, Jett leaned back beside Savin and gave him the go-ahead with a squeeze of his hand.

  “I know it’s tough for you now, and you don’t want to talk about your experience there, but the dark witch who put up a binding hex on the rift between Daemonia and this realm expects that to shatter soon. We can’t let that happen. And while I’m no demon hunter, I don’t relish having to reckon hundreds or thousands of demons after they’ve been caught, if it’s preventable.”

  “Nor do I relish another single demon coming to this realm. They need to stay where they are.” And far from her.

  Last night she hadn’t encountered any determined to send her back to Daemonia. But that only meant none there had come from the Place of All Demons, or if they had, they were being as stealthy as she should have been. What was it called? Flying under the radar.

  “So, part demon,” Savin muttered. “I’m usually spot-on with detection.”

  “I’m wearing a sheen,” she said. “I have been since I arrived. Not to deceive you. It is a necessary mask to walk amongst those unknowing in this realm.”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t sense the demon within you. That must mean it is very weak. You’re still mostly human, Jett.”

  She offered him a weak smile. It was difficult not to grip him by the throat and show him exactly how not-weak she was. But she had control over that side of her. For now.

  “Is it difficult?” he asked.

  “Very tiring. But I’m afraid of releasing it. And who knows, maybe it will become easier as the demon in me slips away? It’s got to happen. I just want to be human again, Savin. To belong here in my home.”

  “What—” he dipped his head, and his hair concealed the side of his face “—are you like with the sheen down?”

  Jett sighed. His curiosity annoyed her. And even if she did understand, she felt the prejudice in that question.

  “You don’t have to show me if you don’t want to,” he said. “I don’t need to know. But, Jett, I mean it when I say I’m on your side.”

  He wouldn’t be if he knew the complete truth.

&nb
sp; Oh, she wanted him to trust her, and to help her. But her dishonesty would not make that happen. She had to tell him. To spill her truth. And if that scared him away, then so be it.

  And if it made him come after her to reckon, then she would stand and fight to the death.

  Because I am strong. The reckoner will bow to me as all others do.

  Jett lifted her chin, feeling the dark energies infuse her system. She preferred him to know exactly what and who he was dealing with. “Savin...”

  “Are you hungry? I’m hungry.”

  She slid off the sarcophagus and stood before him. “Sure, but I have to tell you everything. I need your trust. I need...” Keep it innocent. He doesn’t need to know how strong you really are. “I need your help. I need...you.”

  “You have me, Jett. All of me.”

  “I’m afraid I’ll lose you with my truth.” Her darkness slipped. She quickly pulled it back up and used the power she owned to speak the next confession. She exhaled and spread her hands before her. “I was taken for a specific reason. To sit the throne,” she said.

  He cocked his head to the side.

  “I’m the Daemonian queen.”

  Chapter 13

  Savin stood abruptly.

  A flock of crows pecking at a discarded bit of nearby food suddenly took to wing with an eerie chorus of caws. And Jett stood there before him, seemingly human and beautiful and so lost.

  Or was she?

  She held her head regally. Like a...

  She’d confessed the most incredible and startling secret.

  “You’re...” He couldn’t find the right words to express his mixture of dismay, shock, curiosity and downright revulsion.

  “I had to tell you,” she said. “I want you to know my truth, Savin. Then you can decide whether you want to help me or send me back to that terrible place.”

  He would never send her to a place she knew well yet did not belong in.

  Or did she?

  Who was Jett Montfort?

  “Sit down,” she said with a gesture to the sarcophagus. “I’ll explain how it went down.”

  Savin crossed his arms high on his chest and did not sit. Then he realized he’d just closed himself off from her, so he dropped his arms and nodded, signaling his willingness to listen. It was the least he could do for her. Hell, what had just happened between them?

  “I was brought into Daemonia by a queen,” Jett said. Her voice was confident, modulated and precise. Chin lifted and hands hanging freely at her sides, she held herself with a regal air. “And then she fled.”

  Savin narrowed his brows. A queen had kidnapped Jett? And him, as well. Though, apparently, taking him had been a mistake. He’d been in the wrong place at the right time. Or had it been the other way around? Would his life have been different had he not been sucked into the Place of All Demons? Bizarre to even consider it now.

  “It took me a while to piece together that she had wanted out of Daemonia,” Jett continued, “but she had to find a replacement to take the throne in order to make that happen. In that legion of Daemonia they protect the queen greedily. Well, I imagine it is so in all legions. It is like here in the mortal realm with some of the countries. Royalty is not uncommon, and even revered.”

  The demonic legions were sections in the realm ruled by separate governance, a bit like countries or the states.

  Savin nodded. “I know about the legions and royalty. I just never...”

  He wasn’t going to finish that sentence.

  “As soon as the queen went missing,” Jett continued, “there were cries of ‘The queen is dead!’ And then immediately after that, all gazes turned to me—shivering little nine-year-old me. And the shouts rose, ‘Long live the queen!’ I didn’t know what to think of it.

  “Well, you know what the conditions were like in that place. We were both near death and maddened by the experience. But I was sheltered and treated kindly amidst these strange creatures in a strange land, so at the time I thought it best to do as I was told. I was clothed and fed. My wounds healed and I began to think straight. I never stopped thinking of you, though.” Her breath caught on those last words.

  Savin swallowed. Alone and with no one to hold her hand, not a single friend... He couldn’t fathom it. And yet. “Where did that queen go?”

  “I don’t know. I met her only the one time in the beginning when I was brought to her private chambers. It was right after I’d been scooped from the falls. I stood before her, tattered and shaking. She was vile and yet beautiful. Her skin was the color of a night sky splashed with indigo. She had a cackle laugh that I will never forget. Her red eyes seemed to burn my skin. She was the one who told me she knew my father and that was why I was there. I was so startled I didn’t have the words to ask intelligent questions. You understand?”

  Savin nodded. He would have been out of his mind had he been taken to such a place and told strange information.

  “I was groomed and trained and coddled and dressed and taught how to be a queen. And as I matured, I learned that following rules was wise, but also that my newly gained title granted me power untold. I learned to wield it wisely, yet also always to protect myself. I never gave up hope of escaping. Someday.”

  A lift of her chin caught a glint in the corner of her eye. Was that a teardrop too proud to fall?

  “So.” Jett splayed her hands before her and said, “Throw me to the demons, I will rise their queen.”

  The tone of her voice held a wicked, dark edge and Savin felt he’d just heard the true queen. A woman who had grown into her power and embraced it. But for survival, or because she had learned to expect it?

  “Call it my sad yet triumphant tale,” she said. “I survived to escape. And yet here I stand before you, the one thing you have taken to task to destroy.”

  “Never destroy,” Savin muttered. He did not do that. Reckoning did not harm demons; it only sent them whence they had come.

  “Are you going to reckon me?” Jett asked in that same confident, and slightly challenging, tone.

  Drawing in a breath through his nose, Savin straightened and met her defiant gaze. For the first time he saw a sheen of red in her irises. Barely there, but telling. He’d thought he saw it once before—in this same place—but had dismissed it as a reflection from a streetlight. What a fool. Yet he still couldn’t sense her demonic nature as he could when around other demons. She wore the sheen well, and with an ease that amazed him.

  “Reckon you? I don’t know,” he stated truthfully.

  It hurt his heart to speak those three words. He wanted to know. He wanted to be positive that he would never harm her. He wanted only to protect her. But the situation had changed.

  His alliances had been split.

  “Thank you for your honesty,” she said. “I’ve learned to recognize those who would lie to get close to me, only to ultimately betray me. Very few speak exactly as they feel and act. But you do. You are a good man, Savin.”

  He didn’t feel so good. But he had spoken the truth. For right now. Ten minutes from now? A day or more? Everything could change. Like it or not.

  Jett asked, “Do you want me to leave your place? If I could get a small loan—”

  “You can stay, Jett. Nothing has changed between us. And...” A sigh was unstoppable. “Everything has changed. You’ve laid a lot on me. I have to think about this. We’ll figure this out. I promise I won’t play the diddley bow when you’re around. And... I’ll see what I can do about adjusting the wards on my place.”

  She lifted her head, her eyes smiling before she did. “That’s very generous.”

  “I won’t completely take them down. I’m not stupid. I’ve got to protect myself from all the other demons in Paris.”

  “I understand that. Do you feel you need protection from me?”

  He shook his head. “My
job is to send demons back to Daemonia,” he said. “The dangerous ones. Are you dangerous?”

  “No.”

  “I believe you.”

  Jett smiled. “You really want to help me? After all you now know about me?”

  He did. Because...

  Savin grabbed Jett by the shoulders and pulled her to him and kissed her. She went up on her tiptoes to meet his mouth in an intense, hard crush of desire and want.

  She was his girl. They had been friends since childhood. They knew each other. And he wanted her back in his life. Demon or not. Queen or commoner. No matter what it took, he wanted to see if this could work.

  He broke the kiss and Jett’s sigh dusted his mouth. “I think that was a yes,” she said.

  “That was a hell yes. I’m going to contact CJ, the dark witch.”

  “What for?”

  “He’s keeper of the Archives. That place has an entire room on demons. And the book of all demons, the Bibliodaemon, is constantly updated. Maybe he can find us some answers, like where that queen is who kidnapped you, and even who your father is. Come on. Let’s go home.”

  * * *

  With Savin’s adjustments to the house wards before he’d left on an errand to pay monthly rent, Jett felt more relaxed sitting in the cool evening shadows of the living room beneath the skylights. He’d been gone for hours, but she’d taken that time to close her eyes and go within. It was something she had done when alone in her rooms. She’d cross her legs and place her hands on her knees, palms up. And seek that deep and hidden part of her, the innocence that still lingered.

  She had never been alone. Always the presence of a watcher was felt but never seen. After a while she’d stopped caring and had simply proceeded with her life, breathing, sighing, living, dressing, sleeping, without a care for that presence.

  Focusing and moving inward was initially a struggle, getting past the darkness, but there, she touched it. That giggle. The long-lost smile directed toward the sunshine. The memory of Savin telling her she had a cotton-candy voice. But now the memory was strangely overlapped by the rugged, masculine tone of Savin’s adult voice. One that had the power to glide over her skin and creep under her clothing on a tempting touch.