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next Living in Eden novel by Michelle RowenThat Old Black MagicComing soon from Berkley Sensation!
“READY TO HEAR YOUR
ULTIMATE FATE?”
Eden glanced warily
at the shirtless demon sitting at the tiny dinette table in her
tiny apartment with the daily newspaper’s horoscope section in
front of him. Seemed harmless enough, and yet a chill ran down her
spine. Something about Darrak’s statement felt like an omen. A bad
one.
Maybe she was just
being paranoid. Nothing new there.
She pushed back
against the unpleasant vibe. “Sure.”
Darrak absently raked
his messy dark hair back from his forehead. “You’re a Gemini,
right?”
“Present and
accounted for.”
“Be prepared for a
blast from the past as an old acquaintance, one whose destiny is
irreversibly intertwined with yours, wants to reconnect. Also, buy
more crunchy peanut butter as soon as possible.”
She nodded. “Let me
take a wild guess here . . . You added the last bit
yourself.”
“Doesn’t make it any
less true. We’re out. And I love it.”
“I’ll put it on my
grocery list.”
“Life is good.” He
studied her for a moment longer before his grin began to fade at
the edges. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” Eden crossed
her arms. “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing at all. Everything’s wonderful.
Fabulous, in fact.”
“Overcompensating in
your reply only leads me to believe that something’s seriously
wrong.” When he stood the horoscope page fluttered to the carpeted
floor at his feet. His brows drew together. “What is
it?”
It was surprising how
quickly Darrak could switch from amusement over a horoscope and a
craving for crunchy peanut butter to deep concern for her
well-being.
He wanted to know
what was bothering her. That was a very dangerous question these
days.
Ever since Eden woke
this morning, she’d felt the unrequested tingle of magic moving
down her arms and sparking off her fingertips. She didn’t allow
herself to tap into her recently acquired powers despite it being a
constant itch for her. Magic—at least her magic—came with nasty
consequences.
She could control it,
she kept telling herself. She could.
Sometimes she even
believed it.
“You need to get
dressed,” she said instead of answering his question. Her gaze
moved over his very bare and very distracting chest. “We have to
leave for the office in five minutes.”
Black jersey material
immediately flowed over Darrak’s skin. Since he’d come into Eden’s
life a month ago, she’d wanted to take him shopping at a mall, but
other than a leather coat he occasionally wore—short sleeves in
Toronto in chilly mid-November might be a tip-off that he wasn’t
exactly human—he magically conjured his own clothing, which seemed
to solely consist of black jeans and black T-shirts.
She slid her hands
into the pockets of her navy blue pants and turned away from
him.
Darrak caught her
arm. “It’s your magic, isn’t it?”
The
peanut-butter-loving demon could be very insightful. “My
magic?”
“I can feel it, you
know. Right now. It’s coming off you in waves.”
“I’m fine. Don’t
worry about it.”
She grabbed her
purse, which was hanging off the back of one of the dinette chairs,
to fish into it for her new BlackBerry. Andy McCoy, her partner at
the investigation agency they co-owned, insisted they become more
technically savvy now that their caseload had increased, so he’d
bought them both brand-new phones. Triple-A Investigations had been
on the brink of bankruptcy only a month ago, but now they were busy
with new cases.
The sudden surge in
business was directly related to Darrak coming into Eden’s life.
While working as an occasional psychic consultant for the police,
she’d been possessed by the cursed demon after the death of his
previous host, a serial killer gunned down right in front of
her.
Darrak was able to
take solid human form during daylight hours, but when the sun set,
he became incorporeal and had to possess her body. She’d recently
had the chance to end the possession once and for all, but that
would have destroyed him completely. Her privacy was a great
motivator to find a solution to their problem, but not at such a
high price.
After all . . . she’d
come to care a great deal for the demon since they’d first
met.
Unfortunately, all
roads in their search for mutually beneficial separation had led to
dead ends. Some deader than others.
She finally tore her
gaze away from the screen of her phone to look at him and cringed
when she noticed the searching look in his ice blue eyes. “I said
nothing’s wrong. Please, Darrak, don’t worry.”
“Your phone is on
fire.”
He was right. A spark
from her magic had ignited her BlackBerry. She shrieked and threw
it before it burned her. It skittered across the breakfast bar and
landed with a sizzle in the kitchen
sink. “Well, damn.”
Before she had a
chance to move, Darrak was right in front of her. He pulled out the
chain she wore around her neck so her amulet lay flat against her
freshly ironed white shirt.
“It’s even darker
than it was yesterday.”
She clamped her hand
over the visible state of her soul. The more she used her magic,
the more damage it did. A black witch, even an extremely reluctant
one like her, started with a pure white soul, but it grew darker
and darker every time she accessed her very accessible black magic.
Eden’s amulet was still pale gray, but it had darker veins
branching through it, making it look like a piece of
marble.
She shook her head.
“I haven’t done anything.”
“Then what are
these?” He pushed her hand away and slid his index finger over the
veins.
She grimaced. “A
glitch.”
“A glitch,” Darrak
repeated skeptically. “Not sure it works like that.”
“Then I don’t know
what to tell you.”
“Eden”—all amusement
was gone from his voice now—“I’m worried about you.”
A demon from Hell was
worried about her immortal soul. It sounded like a joke. But Darrak
wasn’t any normal demon. And she wasn’t any normal black
witch.
Once upon a time,
Darrak had been just as bad as any demon who’d ever existed—as
immortal as he was immoral, sadistic, powerful, selfish,
manipulative, and deadly. He’d even conspired with a demonic pal to
overthrow Lucifer himself in an attempt to take his power as Prince
of Hell. However, they’d failed. Rather spectacularly, in
fact.
Darrak had been
summoned into the human world over three hundred years ago, and a
curse was put on him that destroyed his original body and his
ability to manifest a new one. He’d been forced to possess humans
ever since. A side effect of this was that he’d absorbed humanity
slowly but surely and it infused his being. The demon had developed
a conscience. Morals. A sense of right and wrong.
But that wasn’t the
whole story.
To add to Eden’s
growing paranormal résumé, she’d recently been shocked to learn
that in addition to being a black witch she was also a
nephilim.
A human mother plus
an angel father equaled one very confused twenty-nine-year-old
woman—black witch plus half angel in the same body. It wasn’t
exactly a combination that was working out perfectly, more like oil
and water.
And the bonus
prize—she was possessed by a demon.
It had been an
interesting year to say the least.
Her angel side
infused her with celestial energy, something she’d never even
sensed before, apart from a smidgeon of unreliable psychic insight.
But it was what Darrak had absorbed over the last month due to
their situation. And he’d absorbed a lot of it.
Bottom line, a human
conscience was the least of Darrak’s troubles. A demon who’d been
neck-deep in celestial energy as he had been in the last month . .
.
Well, it was changing
him on a core level. Only he didn’t exactly know it
yet.
Eden knew it would
shake his already shaky confidence, not to mention his entire
identity, to find out he was becoming a little more . . .
angelic. Whether he liked it or
not.
The news could wait a
little longer.
“Eden,” Darrak
prompted when she didn’t speak for a while. “Are you going to talk
to me or what?”
“You mean I have a
choice?”
“No. No choices. This
is not a choose-your-ownadventure novel. Your amulet is darkening
and you say you’re doing nothing to cause this. Is that
right?”
Eden didn’t want to
deal with this, but sometimes fate didn’t give you a chance to
catch your breath before it threw another bucket of water in your
face.
She looked up at him.
“I can feel it this morning stronger than ever. I’m honestly not
sure how much longer I can control it.”
Darrak took her face
between his hands. “But you want to control it.”
She touched his hand
but didn’t pull away from him. “Of course I do.”
“I wish to hell I
could protect you from all of this.” His jaw tensed. “Looks like
it’s time to get some outside help.”
He walked over to the
kitchen counter and grabbed the phone.
“Who are you
calling?” she asked.
Darrak held a finger
up to her. She flopped down on a chair at the table, already
exhausted from talking about something she would much prefer to
continue trying to ignore—magically melted BlackBerry or
not.
She really hoped Andy
had taken out a warranty on the device.
“Stanley?” Darrak
said after a moment. “Do you know who this is?” A pause. “No, it’s
okay. Don’t be scared. I’m not going to do that to you.” Another
pause. “Seriously, I’m not. Evisceration is extremely messy and the
clean up is a—Come on. Please stop crying. Be a man.”
That Darrak’s
“outside help” required contacting Stanley didn’t fill Eden with a
great deal of confidence. Stanley worked as a minion for just about
any supernatural creature who paid or threatened him. Not exactly
her favorite guy in the city.
“Is he back?” Darrak
asked. “He is? Why didn’t you let me know this already? Oh, come
on. Stop crying.”
Eden’s hands tingled.
It was so tempting to throw out a spell right here, right now. It
still seemed like just a dream that all of this had happened to
her. Demons were real. Angels were real. Witches were real and they
came in a few different varieties.
White witches—the
good and beneficial nature lovers. Among other things, Eden had
heard they could make flowers grow and dying trees come back to
life. How nice for them.
Gray witches—able to
blend both white magic and black magic with the ability to do this
successfully without damaging their souls provided they maintained
a perfect balance.
And then there were
black witches—able to destroy or kill things with a mere thought if
they were so inclined. Not exactly the life of the
party.
“We need to see him
as soon as possible.” Darrak paced back and forth between her
kitchenette and the dinette area. “That sounds fine. Why are you
still crying? Suck it up, dude. Seriously.”
He hung
up.
“You upset Stanley,”
Eden said. “Actually . . . I’m fine with that.”
Darrak shrugged.
“He’s still intimidated by my fearsome archdemon reputation. Nice
to know somebody still is.”
“Are you going to
share what that was all about?”
“We’re seeing Maksim.
Today.”
She stared at him
blankly for a moment. “The wizard.”
“The one and only.
Sounds like he’s finally back from his vacation.”
Maksim the wizard had
gone on vacation after surviving a torture session by Theo—Darrak’s
former demon friend—a couple weeks ago. Before he went AWOL, the
wizard was supposed to help them find a way to break his curse,
even though rumor had it only the witch who’d originally cursed him
could do something about that. Since she was now dead it was a moot
point.
“You really think he
can help me?” She didn’t want to hope for too much from a simple
phone call. Disappointment was a heartless bitch.
“I don’t think he can
hurt. Wizards and witches go hand in hand, after all. Didn’t you
read Harry Potter?”
Eden stared at him.
“Well, yeah.”
“I didn’t read the
books,” he continued. “But I did get to see the movies. A previous
host was a fan. He even wore dress robes and pretended he’d been
sorted into a house. Hufflepuff, if you can believe it. Who liked
Hufflepuff best? I mean, seriously.”
“Not sure that’s
really helpful in this situation.”
“A wizard, especially
one at Maksim’s level, will know how to control black magic, even
yours. I’m sure of it.”
It was worth a shot.
“Okay, so when do we see him?”
“Now.”
“Now?” She glanced at
the clock, which read eight thirty. “But Andy’s going to want us in
the office.”
“He can wait a couple
of hours. He can wait a whole day if necessary. Figuring out how to
control your magic is much more important.”
She took a deep
breath. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Of course I’m
right.” Darrak’s smile had returned, although this time it didn’t
completely reach his eyes. He still looked worried.
Which was
worrying.
“Fine.” Eden nodded
and clenched her magically tingling hands into fists at her sides.
“Then I guess we’re off to see the wizard.”
“Don’t make me start
singing.” He snatched the fallen newspaper from the floor and put
it back on the table. “You know, he just might be the person from
your past whose destiny is intertwined with yours, according to
your horoscope.”
“I think I’d remember
meeting a wizard named Maksim.”
Darrak crossed his
arms. “Then who do you think it was referring to?”
She waved her hand
flippantly. “It was just a horoscope. It’s fiction. Totally
meaningless.”
“If you say
so.”
Out of all the drama
in Eden’s life lately, an entertaining but silly horoscope was the
least of her problems.
CAROLINE RILEY
WATCHED FROM THE SHADOWS AS her daughter left the apartment
building and headed toward her rusty Toyota. She was about to run
up and give Eden a big hug, but she held back when the demon came
into view.
He was tall with
unruly dark hair almost long enough to brush his broad shoulders.
He casually pulled on a black leather jacket as he trailed closely
after Eden. He was very handsome, of course. Most demons had a
highly attractive human visage they wore when not in their demonic
form. It made it that much easier to prey upon humans.
He was going to be a
problem.
She wondered why Eden
would spend time with this evil creature and allow him into her
home. Maybe he was threatening her. Blackmailing her.
Or . . . sleeping
with her.
Was her daughter
having an affair with a demon?
Eden had always been
a rules follower, a perfect student, a hard worker, although one
who’d always lacked any specific career direction. A smart girl
like that wasn’t one who’d have her head easily turned by one of
Lucifer’s minions.
Then again, despite
Eden’s natural beauty—that she’d inherited from her mother, of
course—she’d never had much confidence in herself when it came to
men, poor thing. This must have been what the demon had preyed
upon.
Caroline had arrived
just in time. Sure, she had other pressing matters to attend to,
but rescuing her only child from the clutches of a demon had now
risen to the very top of her to-do list.
It would be so nice
to talk to Eden again. It had been much too long since they’d last
spent time together.
Then again, Caroline
had been dead for the last three
months.