That Old Black Magic

  Strange.

  He wondered how long he’d been out. He’d had one hell of a dream—a long epiclike dream full of adventure and danger and . . . huh. It was already slipping away.

  He wished he could write it off as nothing, but two things troubled him deeply.

  First, demons didn’t dream.

  Second, demons didn’t sleep.

  It didn’t take a genius to notice that something was strange about that.

  Maybe it wasn’t sleep. Maybe he’d just zoned out for a while. Yeah, that had to be it.

  Funny, though. It had felt different than zoning.

  “You sure you don’t want one last drink?”

  He looked to his right to see his friend Theo sitting there, which struck Darrak as odd—on top of everything else—but he wasn’t sure why. He and Theo always hung out like this when business didn’t have to come first.

  “Why did you let me drink so much?”

  “Because it’s fun.”

  Darrak eyed him. “You know, it feels like I haven’t seen you for a while.”

  “Me?” Theo pointed at himself. “You really have had too much to drink, haven’t you?”

  Theo had started his existence at almost exactly the same time as Darrak, created from hellfire by a very industrious Lucifer. Both had been incubi for centuries before their promotions to archdemon.

  They’d scorched a path of destruction and good times across the human world in their day. Very few knew how to party as hard and as well as an archdemon with power to spare and the good looks of an ex-incubus. There were very few who could resist the pair of them.

  Theo was tall, broad shouldered, with long dark hair that he kept held back with a leather strap. His almond-shaped eyes gave him an exotic appearance, like a prince from a faraway land or, possibly, a surfing instructor from Hawaii. It worked for him. The ladies loved it.

  If there was one demon in the entire Netherworld that Darrak considered family, it was Theo.

  This sentiment, however, was not something that demons tended to share with each other. Emotion, anything that might make them seem soft or too humanlike, was strictly avoided. But Darrak had always thought his friendship with Theo was more helpful than harmful. It was good to have one other being who you could turn to if you were in trouble and needed help.

  So strange, though. A feeling was churning through his gut—one he didn’t recognize.

  “What’s wrong?” Theo asked.

  “Don’t know.” Darrak placed a hand on his abdomen. “I feel like I’ve lost something.”

  “Too many shots of vodka, that’s all.”

  “Where are we, anyway?” Darrak glanced around again at the vacant bar, empty apart from the two of them and the bartender. “I don’t feel like I’ve ever been here before.”

  “Yeah, this place? It’s the best. Not tonight though. Dull night. Another night would be better. Entertainment, women, it’s a nonstop party.”

  “Sounds great. So why are we here tonight?” Darrak narrowed his eyes at a couple of male fairies that walked through the door and cut an unfriendly glare in his direction. They weren’t quite as lovely as they were in the human world, where they hid their true natures with glamours. Here in the Netherworld they were regular fairies—fearsome dark-skinned creatures with sharp teeth and pointed ears and eyes that could burn a hole straight through your soul. Literally.

  Luckily, Darrak didn’t have to worry about that.

  He remembered a glimpse of his dream. Something about somebody’s soul.

  Impossible. He didn’t dream.

  Wow, he was seriously messed up. Time for a vacation, maybe. He’d been working hard for Lucifer for so long that he had forgotten to stop and smell the brimstone.

  “Let’s go,” Theo said. “We have somewhere we need to be. May as well not put it off any longer.”

  “Oh yeah? Sounds deliciously ominous.”

  “You have no idea.”

  He followed Theo to the exit and emerged onto the main street. It was dark outside, but it was always dark in the Netherworld.

  “Can we phase?” Darrak asked, referring to the method demons used for easily transporting themselves from place to place.

  “No, we’re walking today.” Theo smirked. “It’s not very far from here.”

  Darrak frowned. “I feel like I’m forgetting something.”

  “Yeah? Something important?”

  “Seems that way. I don’t know.”

  “Well, if it’s that important, it’ll come back to you. If it isn’t, then it won’t.”

  Theo had a way of reducing most problems down to their base parts. “Good point.”

  Darrak rubbed his temples. He didn’t feel the effects of whatever amount of booze he’d drunk tonight, but he still felt off. Kind of bruised and broken, as if he’d survived some sort of major stomping. It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling. Darrak didn’t always win the fights he got into—just most of them. And usually those he beat didn’t walk away feeling bruised and broken. They were sent to the . . . the . . .

  Somewhere. Where were they sent?

  Something that started with a V. It was on the tip of his tongue . . .

  “Shit,” he mumbled. “I’m seriously messed up.”

  “Just relax,” Theo said. “It’ll be easier that way.”

  “Easier? What will be easier?”

  “Everything.”

  “You know, I’m trying to remember the last time I saw you.”

  “Don’t try too hard. You might break yourself.”

  Darrak snorted, then sobered. “Wait, I think I remember something.”

  Theo stopped walking and turned to look at Darrak. “What’s that?”

  “I was . . . summoned. By a witch. She summoned me to the human world and made me give her an extra serving of power. Then she tried to destroy me.”

  “You remember that?”

  “Yeah . . . it’s fuzzy, though. Has Lucifer been messing with my head again?”

  “It’s possible. He can do that.”

  “Hate that guy.” Lucifer hated him, too. Even though the Prince of Hell had created Darrak out of nothing, given him life, so to speak, and power and strength—then upgraded him to archdemon—he knew Lucifer still resented him. Darrak liked to believe it was because Lucifer feared him. A little. Now and then.

  Yeah, right. What a laugh. Lucifer could smite him with a single thought. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. A couple of seconds later Darrak would be a handful of hellfire again, only lacking the good looks and charming personality he had now.

  Something moved up ahead, something dark and formless.

  Darrak tensed. “What was that?”

  “What?”

  “That thing—it looked like a wraith.”

  He would have preferred not to say it out loud. Wraiths were not the kind of creatures you wanted to come across in the Netherworld. They were energy suckers. If one latched onto you they could drain you dry in a very short amount of time.

  Not fun.

  “What the hell are they doing here?” Darrak mumbled, feeling more annoyed than worried. “Who sent them?”

  Wraiths weren’t just arbitrary beings that wandered wherever they liked. They were creatures with a job to do—to target someone specifically and get rid of them. Seeing a wraith was not a sign one’s day would be pleasant.

  “Don’t know.” Theo didn’t sound too concerned.

  “Let’s head to the human world,” Darrak suggested.

  “Nah, let’s not.”

  “If you want to stay here and give them the chance to creep up behind you and give you a nice wet kiss, feel free. As for me, I’m out of here.” Darrak concentrated on phasing somewhere else—anywhere else. However, nothing happened.

  He frowned very deeply. “I can’t phase.”

  “Oh no?” Theo cocked a dark eyebrow.

  That weird feeling Darrak had gotten since he first woke up grew much larger. He now realized it was paranoia. “What’s
going on, Theo?”

  Theo shrugged. “Stuff.”

  “Can you be any less helpful?”

  “Probably. If I tried harder.”

  Darrak scanned the street again. The wraiths were gone, which eased his mind some. Then he saw something else. It looked like a woman with long auburn hair who disappeared behind a corner up ahead.

  He wasn’t sure why, but he started walking, quickly, after her.

  “Where are you going?” Theo asked.

  “I need to talk to her.”

  “Who? I don’t see anyone.”

  “Her . . . uh, I don’t know. There was a woman over here.” He reached the corner and looked around it, but nobody was there. He swore under his breath. “I am really messed up tonight. I’m seeing things.”

  “Who did you think you saw?”

  “Somebody, I—I’m not sure.” He frowned hard. “I thought I recognized her, but I have no idea who she is.”

  “Sure, that makes sense.”

  It didn’t make any sense at all, which was why he was starting to get more concerned about his current disoriented state. Maybe he’d been drugged or bespelled. But who would do that to him? And why?

  Something was off, and he had a feeling it had to do with the woman he’d seen—or, rather, that he’d thought he’d seen. He’d felt a desperate need to catch up to her, to grab her arm and pull her around so he could see her face.

  Women. More trouble than they were worth. Especially the ones here in the Netherworld. For all he knew, it was some apparition sent to lead him to his doom.

  He glanced around the unfamiliar street. The Netherworld had the appearance of the human world, depending on where you were. You either got this type of urban setting—always night—or you got the inferno. And, no matter your location, it always felt like the hottest day of summer.

  He didn’t tell anyone, but he preferred spending time in the human world. At least there was a little more variety up there.

  This area didn’t look familiar to him. It was deserted. A lot of the Netherworld was very busy, bristling with activity, but not here.

  This didn’t feel right. At all.

  Darrak turned around in a circle, trying to see something that might strike a chord of familiarity in him, but nothing did. “Talk to me, Theo. Tell me where we are.”

  “We’re exactly where we need to be.”

  “And where’s that?”

  “You could call it a waiting room.”

  He hissed out a breath of frustration. “A waiting room for what?”

  Somebody tapped Darrak on his shoulder, and he turned to see the two male fairies from the bar standing there.

  “What are you doing here?” the taller fairy asked. The edge of his razor-sharp teeth could be seen under his upper lip. “What are you looking for?”

  Good question. He wished he knew.

  “Who wants to know?”

  “We do.”

  Darrak snorted. “And who exactly are you?”

  “We’re the neighborhood watch for this area making sure dumb demons don’t wander off and get themselves hurt.” The fairy jutted his thumb in the direction he’d been headed. “Go down there and you’re in big trouble. You won’t be coming back.”

  Okay, this was turning out to be a bit amusing. “Down there?” He nodded at the street where he thought the redhead’s apparition had disappeared.

  “Yeah.”

  “See, you saying that I can’t go down there makes me want to go for a nice long walk. Down there.”

  The fairies exchanged a glance. “Then you’re even stupider than you look.”

  Darrak clenched his jaw. “I’m not stupid.”

  One of the fairies gave him a head to toe assessment. “Incubus, right? I can tell by the brainless, shiny surface.”

  “Archdemon, actually,” he growled.

  “Former incubus, though, right?” They both laughed knowingly.

  Assholes. “You two should walk away. No reason for this to turn into something.”

  “First we need to know why you’re here.”

  “He’s here because there’s nowhere else he can be now,” Theo said. “He’s on the list.”

  Darrak frowned. “The list for what?”

  “So what’s the delay?” the shorter fairy asked.

  “All good things come to those who wait, boys,” Theo said. “Patience is one of my seven favorite virtues.”

  “You said you’re neighborhood watch?” Darrak asked.

  “We are. Nothing happens around here without our knowledge.”

  “Then you should probably know there are a couple of wraiths standing right behind you. They’ll probably bring down the property values around here.”

  He’d never seen fairies roll their eyes before. It wasn’t pretty. “Don’t be ridiculous. Wraiths never come this close to the hole.”

  The hole? The area wasn’t upscale, but it was an odd nickname for it.

  Darrak shrugged. “Could have fooled me. Because they’re here anyway.”

  They began to look uneasy. It seemed as if they didn’t want to move their attention away from Theo and Darrak, but they still swiveled, as if in unison, to see the two dark forms lurking behind them.

  The wraiths were cloaked, their faces unseen, swathed in shadow and something that turned the hot night around them much colder. Darrak knew that they revealed their faces to you just before they sucked you dry, and that they were the most beautiful women in the entire universe—a sight which helped to freeze a victim in place, shocked that something so alluring could be so dangerous. By then it was too late.

  He didn’t see any beauty at the moment. All he saw were two gloved hands with pale, slender fingers dart out from each of the wraiths, fastening around the fairies’ throats, drawing them closer for the kiss.

  The fairies didn’t even have a chance to scream before the cloaks surrounded them and their entire forms were consumed by the wraiths.

  That was all Darrak really needed to see. Self-preservation was a powerful motivator. He wouldn’t say he ran away, but he moved quickly, very quickly, along the path the redhead had taken before she’d disappeared.

  “Theo,” he growled. “You either tell me what the hell is going on here or I’m going to beat it out of you.”

  “You think so, huh?” Theo strolled next to Darrak, his hands casually clasped behind his back.

  “I know so.”

  “Think back, Darrak. When was the last time you saw me? If you can answer that, then maybe you actually have a chance. Let’s see how strong your survival instinct is.”

  Darrak normally had a joke or a quip for every situation, but this wasn’t the time or the place. Something was horribly wrong here, and he couldn’t figure out what it all meant. He’d woken up in a bar with no idea how he’d gotten there. He couldn’t remember anything recently, apart from a fuzzy recollection of being summoned to the human world by a power-hungry witch. When was that? What had become of her?

  He remembered talking to Theo, agreeing to be his business partner in overthrowing Lucifer and taking over Hell. But that felt like such a long time ago—centuries, even.

  No, wait. He remembered something else. Something much more recent.

  Another bar. Another meeting with his demonic best friend. Looking at him as a threat, rather than an ally. Having differing opinions of how to deal with an important situation.

  There was another demon lord—Asmodeus. Theo worked for him now. It was all a part of Theo’s ultimate plan to defeat Lucifer and take over his throne, to take over Hell itself. Asmodeus—he needed a body. He had set his sights on Theo’s, a powerful archdemon that had the desirable appearance necessary to contain the essence of the Lord of Lust.

  Darrak’s voice was quiet when he spoke. “He destroyed you. Asmodeus, he burned you away and stole your body. Then I destroyed him.” Darrak raised his wide gaze to look at his friend. Yes, it was true. Theo was gone. Despite their disagreements, he’d been a true frie
nd, trying to save Darrak from a huge mess he’d gotten himself into, right till the end. And Darrak had felt grief for the first time in his long existence. “You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be anywhere.”

  Theo shrugged. “Looks like you still have some brain juice left over after all.”

  “What is this? Why am I able to talk to you right now?”

  “Thought this would be a face that would set your mind at ease.”

  “So you’re saying you’re not really . . .” A flash of anger and confusion rushed through Darrak. “Who the hell are you?”

  “A friend.”

  “Liar.”

  He stormed forward to grab hold of Theo, to throttle the truth out of him, but instead he went straight through Theo’s body and hit the brick wall behind him.

  Darrak spun around, but Theo was no longer there. Darrak was alone.

  “Okay,” he said aloud. “This is even worse than I thought.”

  Theo was gone and something had been using his face to lead Darrak here—wherever the hell this was. He couldn’t phase for some unknown reason and there were energy-sucking wraiths wandering around.

  Maybe he shouldn’t have said no to that last drink after all.

  SEVENTEEN

  Ben tried to keep hold of the shapeshifter, but she put up a struggle once they reached the exterior of the Malleus headquarters. He’d taken a shortcut to a hidden exit a guard had shown him for emergencies. In his opinion, this qualified. They had to get as far away from this place as possible.

  The woman, however, wasn’t making things easy for him.

  A block away she finally managed to wrench herself out of his grip.

  “Are you crazy or something?” she snarled.

  “Possibly.”

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “I believe I just saved your life.”

  She stared at him for a long moment before thrusting her wrist out to him. “Take this thing off me.”

  He eyed the cuff. “You want me to remove it so you can shift form and run away?”

  “That’s basically what I’m thinking.”

  Despite himself, amusement began creeping in at the edges. Or maybe he was just losing it. With one decision he’d ruined his entire life, and there was no turning back now. “What’s your name?”