“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 that 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 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.
TWO
Maksim Zadravec, the most powerful wizard in Toronto, didn’t look like someone from Hufflepuff at all.
Slytherin was more like it.
Darrak eyed him with distaste as the wizard leisurely moved his gaze over Eden’s body from head to toe. From the gleam in his eye it seemed as if he liked what he saw.
The wizard had dark good looks, tanned skin, broad shoulders, and wore an expensive-looking tailor-made suit. He lived in a large mansion at the outskirts of the city that looked more like a castle than anything else. If it didn’t have a feel of true history Darrak would assume the wizard had it custom-built to give himself more of a magical mystique.
Maksim lived alone . . . if you didn’t count the butler and two maids that silently slunk around the ten-thousand-square-foot, non-cozy home.
Darrak disliked him immediately. Knowing an attractive man was taking an active interest in Eden, for whatever reason, bothered him.
He knew it was jealousy, pure and simple. And maybe he was dealing with a small—or not so small—feeling of possession. No pun intended.
After all, Eden was his.
She, however, would likely argue this.
“So you want my help, do you?” Maksim said in a smooth, deep voice.
Darrak and Eden shared a glance.
“We do,” she confirmed. “It’s just that my black magic is—”
“Difficult for you to control,” Maksim finished. “And you are worried for the state of your soul.”
Her brows went up. “Well, yes. That’s exactly it. How do you—?”
“Know what’s wrong with you without first being told?” Maksim smiled. “One of my many talents, Eden.”
Darrak wasn’t sure how he felt about the wizard’s special insight. A lot of magic, even with the more notable wizards, was no more genuine than rabbits shoved up shirtsleeves. A whole lot of smoke and mirrors with little genuine product to back it up. Black magic, after all, harmed every practitioner if used too blatantly. Even somebody like Maksim.
“Can you help her?” Darrak asked evenly.
“How did you come by this magic, Eden?” the wizard asked.
Darrak’s lips thinned. “Don’t you know that, too?”
Maksim glanced at the demon. “It was a spell, correct? Another witch from long ago—she cast a spell upon you.” He took a walk around Darrak as if assessing him. “Sex magic. Sleeping with you made her a black witch. And now the same has happened with Eden.”
Darrak didn’t like this guy, but he couldn’t help but be a bit impressed. “Pretty much.”
“I can sense the spell. And I can sense your curse as well.” Maksim’s smile held. “It’s a big one.”
“I try not to brag.”
Maksim now strolled around Eden, who stood stiffly, her arms crossed over her chest. Her gaze flicked to a large oil painting of a nude that looked as if it was a few hundred years old. However, Darrak wasn’t much of an art expert.
“How many times have you taken her?” the wizard asked.
Eden snorted at that. “Taken me?”
“Do you not understand the question?”
“No, I—I understand.” Eden cast an embarrassed look at Darrak. She hated having their private problems out on the table like this.
Darrak wasn’t too happy about it either, especially with the fact this guy knew too much too quickly. But he was hoping it would work out in their benefit.
“Twice,” he replied. “But I also believe when I possess her every night at sunset that also triggers the original witch’s spell, which has made her magic much stronger than it should be.”
Maksim nodded, his attention fully fixed on Eden. “I see. This is why you feel like a furnace of energy to me. And you’re also half-angel.”
Eden nodded.
“My, my,” Maksim said. “Quite a combination. I can see how it might cause . . . complications.”
Thus the reason for their visit. Time to move this along.
“There’s a tug-of-war going on within her,” Darrak said. “The dark magic and the celestial energy are fighting against each other. It’s a problem, a big one. And it isn’t getting better. Her magic is becoming more difficult for her to control with each day that passes. That’s why we need your help.”
He hated stating it so bluntly. Help us, wizard master.
So weak.
But there was only one alternative Darrak could think of, and he wasn’t ready to go there yet. He could go to Lucifer and beg his ex-boss to save both Eden’s life and her soul.
Hmm, he thought. Let’s make that Plan Z, shall we?
He and Lucifer weren’t exactly on the best of terms. Last time he’d seen the prince, Lucifer had almost destroyed him. Parts of Darrak still stung a bit from the assault. Most
ly his pride.
“How does this tug-of-war between your darkness and your celestial energy feel?” Maksim asked.
She grimaced. “Like I’m being torn in two.”
“Does it happen often?”
“Every second day like clockwork.”
“And you’ve only slept together twice.”
“That’s right,” she said with a pointed glance in Darrak’s direction.
Yes, well, the decision to keep their relationship platonic was his doing, which was all kinds of hilarious considering he was once upon a time an incubus—a demon who thrived on sucking the life energy out of humans through hanky-panky.
He’d recently become a one-woman demon. Unfortunately, the one woman he wanted was also the one he couldn’t touch without potentially hurting her thanks to that pesky sex magic spell. He wanted to protect her from further harm and that managed to nicely trump his libido.
The fact they were being inspected and grilled by a smarmy Eurotrash wizard master was proof positive Darrak was more interested in Eden’s future well-being than his own ego-stroking. Or any other kind of stroking, for that matter.
Surprisingly, romance novels had become a nice distraction. Eden had a ton of them on her bookshelf. They were a good enough substitute for the real thing. He was a particular fan of historicals—the hotter the better. Those horny dukes and duchesses really knew how to get it on.
“Okay, enough questions,” Darrak said, his patience running thin. His gaze moved around the large parlor that included floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a leather sofa that looked as if it cost the better part of a small country’s annual budget. Then again, so did the wizard’s designer suit. “Can you help Eden or not?”
Maksim shrugged. “She is a powerful black witch and you are a demon. I don’t understand why you need any help from me. It sounds like the perfect combination.”
Darrak hissed out a breath. “Maybe you haven’t been paying attention. Her soul is at risk, get it? Take a look at her amulet. See that color? I don’t want it to be a shade darker or she’s in danger. The original plan was for her not to use the magic at all, but it’s being sparked—sometimes literally—without any provocation. And that the fight against her angelic side causes her any pain at all—well, that’s simply not acceptable. Now you’re either going to help us directly or you’re going to tell us where to get help. That is, if you know what’s good for you.”
One of his more passive-aggressive threats, but it would have to do. He didn’t want to scare Eden by shifting to his demon form and throttling this puny wizard within an inch of his semi-immortal life.
Maksim cocked his head to the side. “You’re in love with her.”
It wasn’t posed in the form of a question.
Darrak’s jaw tightened. “Let’s stay on topic.”
The wizard’s brows drew together. “Demons are heartless, cruel, without true emotion other than the glee they might feel at inflicting pain upon another being.”
“Stop, you’re making me blush.”
“But not you. Why?”
“I guess I’m . . . special.”
“You love her, don’t you?”
“What I feel for her is nobody’s damn business but my own. And Eden’s.”
“Say it,” Maksim said. “Or I will do nothing for you.”
“That would be a grave mistake.” Both Darrak’s tone and his mood darkened substantially. Witty, humanity-filled personality or not, he didn’t like being pushed.
Maksim’s smile looked genuinely filled with amusement. “You’d risk her safety for the sake of your own pride? That does sound more like a true demon. But all I’m asking is for you to admit your feelings, the ones that have made you go out of your way to help her. Say it, and I promise I’ll give you the answers you need.”
He was messing with Darrak and enjoying it. Testing him. And he seemed unconcerned with the danger this put him in. Darrak had faced many wizards in his existence, pre-humanity-infusion, and those that would dare to piss off an archdemon rarely survived in one happy, magic-wand-waving piece.
Darrak didn’t have to look at Eden to know she was watching him, waiting for his reply. They were dangerous words, dangerous feelings, especially for someone like him. Words held power—a power that even now he struggled against.
He supposed he could kill the wizard. Wizards could live for a very long time—just like witches—but a quick twist of the neck would solve that little problem. Unfortunately, he knew a little recreational carnage wasn’t in the cards today.
Too bad.
“Yes,” Darrak finally said after several tension-filled moments passed. “I tried to fight it, tried to deny it, but I couldn’t. It’s real and it’s big and it scares the unholy shit out of me, but it’s true. I love Eden, and I would do anything in the universe to save her from all of this. She’s the only thing that matters to me.”
He finally slanted a glance at her to see her expression was unreadable, but tears shone in her eyes.
“Anything in the universe?” Maksim repeated. “Sounds to me as if the solution to your problem has been right in front of you all along.”
“What do you mean?”
“The worry that the fight between her black magic and her celestial energy will destroy her. The seemingly uncontrollable magic. It’s all connected to one very specific thing.”
“What?” Darrak asked.
“You. You’re the dark object her angelic half is attempting to cast out. You’re the reason her magic is unreliable. Her black magic was caused by a spell, but it is a part of her, therefore organic to her core being. You, however, are not.”
The news hit him like a punch to the gut. He wanted to deny it, but he knew it was the truth. It was like he’d always known. This was just the confirmation.
“I would do anything in the universe to save her.”
He’d said it only a minute ago, and he meant every word. Now he saw the answer written all over Maksim’s face—the answer he’d been trying to avoid for as long as he could.
The only way to save Eden was for him to no longer possess her, but he already knew the only way not to possess her anymore was for one of them to die.
The horoscope this morning hadn’t mentioned anything like that.
“Awesome,” Darrak gritted out. “I just knew coming to see you would be helpful.”
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Maksim replied.
“Shoot? I had a couple other things in mind, like fire and sharp glass. Bullets are much too speedy.”
Not even a glimmer of fear went through Maksim’s gaze, which, considering his last unpleasant run-in with a demon, was admirable. “Don’t you see, demon? You need to send yourself to the Void. Save the woman you love and sacrifice yourself. Simple.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Eden snapped. “There’s another solution.”
Maksim turned to regard her. “You think so?”
“Yes.”
“So you’re determined to do whatever it takes to save both this demon and yourself, are you?”
“One hundred percent.” Her eyes narrowed. “And you’re going to tell me how to do that.”
Maksim glanced at Darrak. “She’s spunky.”
“She has her moments.”
“Another potential answer lies with Selina.”
Darrak’s eyes snapped to the wizard. “How do you know that name?”
Maksim smiled. “I already told you I know many things. Selina is the name of the witch who placed the sex magic spell on you. And she’s also responsible for the curse that has bound you to Eden now three hundred years after it was first cast.”
Darrak struggled to keep his expression neutral. “You don’t happen to know what the lottery numbers are going to be this week, do you? Now there’s some very useful information.”
“Selina could remove both the spell and the curse.”
“Too bad she’s dead.”
“Yes, that is too bad.”
/> Selina was killed by a member of the Malleus, an organization of humans who liked to hunt demons and witches and other things that went bump in the night. Their origins went back to the infamous Salem witch trials. No, the Malleus weren’t fun people to be around if one preferred their head attached to their body, more like sanctimonious murderers who saw the world only in black-and-white terms. And red. Red was one of their favorite colors.
Eden had her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “She promised to help me learn to control my magic before she died. She said we were like sisters now.”
“More like twins, actually.” Maksim moved closer to her, studying her face. Eden stayed very still, her attention on Darrak as the wizard flicked her long, dark red hair back from her shoulder and moved around her slowly as if inspecting her. “If you received your magic from the same source, your magic signatures would be identical, like sharing a fingerprint.”
Darrak frowned. “You’re saying their magic is exactly the same.”
“That is what I’m saying.”
“Does that mean I can remove the spell and the curse?” Eden asked, her voice shaky. “Just like Selina would have been able to?”
“It is possible, but not guaranteed.”
“Nothing ever is, except death and taxes,” Darrak said. “Well, taxes.”
He watched Eden to see her reaction to this. It did make a crazy kind of sense to him, and he was surprised it hadn’t yet occurred to him. Selina and Eden had received their black magic from the same spell—and that was enough to make their black magic identical.
“I don’t know.” Eden shook her head. “I’d be afraid to even attempt it. I might hurt him.”
“Magic is like a muscle,” Maksim explained. “With regular use it becomes stronger. It is only the truly destructive magic that will darken your soul. An attempt to do something like this should not tap too deeply into the black magic.”
But it wasn’t exactly white magic, either.
Darrak wasn’t convinced of a word that came out of the wizard’s mouth, but Eden seemed intrigued.
“Maybe this is the answer we’ve been looking for,” she said cautiously.