Authors: Michelle Rowen
She laughed. “Wouldn’t want that.”
“Definitely not.”
Her expression sobered. “This is all my fault, you know. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have werewolf clients in the first place. And you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
“And Triple-A wouldn’t be thriving at the moment, allowing me to start paying off my monumental debt. Our new supernatural clients seem to have plenty of money, and that’s more than okay with me.” He looked at Darrak. “Take her home. She’s exhausted. And growing puffier all the time. I can’t handle anyone crying around me. It’s going to make me start crying, too.”
“I’m not crying. Demons don’t get emotional like humans.” Darrak didn’t even know if he
could
cry. It had never been an issue before.
“Demons are manly creatures, aren’t they?”
“Except for the demonesses. They’re even manlier.”
Andy finished removing his bandages and threw them on the coffee table in a white gauzy pile. “I’ve decided to look into Luxuria later today and find out if something funny’s going on there.”
“The hell you will.” Eden had her arms crossed. “What you’re going to do is recover and deal with your own problems. The last thing I’m going to let you do is investigate something else that might put you in danger again.”
Andy rolled his eyes. “Yes, mom.”
She huffed. “I’m just trying to think logically.”
“You’re very logical for a possessed redhead. Fine, I’ll take today off and watch some soap operas and talk shows.”
“Good. Just heal.”
His forehead wrinkled. “Is that a dog-trick command? Because I might have to start taking offense to that.”
“Not heel.
Heal.
With an
A
. And don’t just take today off. Take tomorrow off as well. Nothing at the office is urgent enough that it can’t wait until Friday. Got it? That’s a direct order from your equal partner in the business.”
“You only own 49 percent,” he reminded her.
“Whatever.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “And, just so you know, if you get hurt like this again, I’m going to kill you.”
Andy laughed. “Such an angel our Eden is, isn’t she, Darrak?”
Yes
, Darrak thought.
She sort of is.
And he didn’t even mean it as an insult.
Eden wasn’t in a happy place when she and Darrak got back to the apartment. Her neck strained from keeping an eye out for Ben and Oliver. She wasn’t complaining, but it was a little, uh,
eerie
, that they hadn’t even attempted to make contact since she’d knocked them out last night. She knew she hadn’t killed them.
What were they planning next?
She had too much on her mind and thoughts were beginning to overlap, threatening to drive her totally batty. Too much to do, too much to think about, her life had begun to spin completely out of control.
“I’m so bored,” Leena announced. She was sprawled on the sofa. “Seriously. Bored. To death.”
“You can leave the apartment, you know,” Darrak said dryly.
“Leave? Are you kidding? I told you, people want to kill me if I step foot outside, especially if I’m in human form. D-E-A-D. I can’t leave. Not yet. I’ve been making some calls.”
“Long distance?” Eden asked weakly.
“Well, yeah. Of course. My issues are not local.” She twisted a finger into her hair, and her eyes flicked to Darrak. “Speaking of local issues, somebody called for you, gruesome.”
“Is that your new nickname for me?” he asked.
“Seems fitting enough.”
“I have a few nicknames for you, too,” he replied. “But I’ll keep them to myself for the time being. They’re not family-friendly.”
“Someone called for Darrak?” Eden asked, frowning. Then she cringed. “Was it Theo?”
Leena shrugged. “No idea. I hung up on him before he could say.”
She didn’t sound particularly sorry about this.
Who else would be calling for Darrak? Who else would know he was even here?
Theo.
Just the name alone was now enough to fill her with rage. She’d been trying—sort of—to give him the benefit of the doubt since he’d been willing to help out her and Darrak. But Theo had proven himself to be an opportunist, a devious manipulator, and a scumbag without any conscience.
So, basically your average, everyday demon.
Your average, everyday demon she’d helped to completely drain an angel’s energy. Funny, but that didn’t sit so well with her.
She couldn’t believe Darrak had actually been friends with this guy. And he was willing to conspire with him to destroy Lucifer?
It just proved that she didn’t know Darrak half as well as she thought she did.
“What’s up with you?” Darrak directed the question at Leena. “For someone bored, you look remarkably happy. Did you get a new cat toy to play with? A little catnip mouse to merrily bat around?”
Leena glared at him, but then a grin appeared on her lips. “I think I’m going to ask him out.”
“Who?” Eden asked.
“Lucas from next door. Could he be any more adorable? And he’s a teacher. Not normally my type, but I’m willing to make an exception. I don’t usually get the attraction vibe right away, but I felt it between us this morning, you know?”
Darrak snorted. “Go for it. He looked pretty hard up for a date. You’re perfect for him.”
Leena ignored that. “Do you think he has a girlfriend already?” she asked Eden.
“Uh . . . I really don’t know.” Good question. Did Lucifer, the Prince of Hell, have a girlfriend, or would he be willing to take her shapeshifting roommate out to dinner and a movie?
The phone rang and Leena answered it, holding her index finger up to them and turning her back. The call must have been for her.
Eden’s head began to throb. Oh, wait, it already did. The pressure had simply ramped up. She rubbed her temples and went to sit down heavily on her sofa, pushing aside an issue of
Cosmo
that was in her way.
“How are you holding up?” Darrak asked. “I know it’s been . . . a bit of a difficult day.”
“Difficult? Today? You really think so?” Sarcasm dripped.
“Can’t say it’s been boring, though.”
“I’m fine.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
She snorted. “Oh, really?”
“I mean . . .” He sat down next to her, a bit tentatively, and took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. She didn’t pull away. “I know what happened with Andy was rough on you.”
“Yeah, it was.” His concern was oddly touching. She looked up and met his blue eyes. Even after everything that had happened, she still desperately wanted to trust him.
His gaze moved to her mouth. It helped a memory of him kissing her to vividly return.
Even after a day like today, the demon was still able to turn her on with just the direction of his eyes?
So not fair.
Did he feel it, too? This undeniable attraction between them?
Sometimes she couldn’t give a smaller crap about the black-witch-imbuing spell Selina had cast on him hundreds of years ago. All Eden wanted was to touch Darrak and for him to touch her and to hell with the consequences. To feel his hands on her body again. His mouth on hers.
It was overwhelming.
I want you
, she thought.
Badly.
But then she cleared her throat and yanked her hand away from his, before standing up from the sofa without another word.
When Leena hung up the phone, Eden walked toward her in the kitchenette, behind the counter.
“What do you know about werewolves?” she asked.
Leena made a face. “Hate them.”
“Why?”
“They’re territorial, mean, and the mortal enemy of werepanthers like me.”
“Werepanthers?” Darrak said. He remained seated on the sofa a dozen feet away, and he leaned forward to absently flip through the copy of
Cosmo
. “I thought you were a werehousecat.”
“I’m more dangerous than I look. Size really doesn’t matter.” She eyed him. “I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that.”
“Size has never been one of my problems, kitty cat.”
“Sure. That’s what they all say.”
Eden’s headache was getting worse just listening to them.
Darrak stood up and came toward Leena with an unpleasant smile on his face. “I know it’s difficult for you.”
She frowned. “What is?”
“Not only having to use a litter box, but also being responsible for cleaning it out. Kind of disgusting, actually.”
Why did they have to squabble like this all the time? It was getting old. And it was starting to piss Eden off. She was already way too edgy today as it was, and this wasn’t helping one little bit.
“Is that the best you can do, you impotent incubus?”
He laughed. “I’m not impotent.”
“May as well be.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, really.” The shapeshifter’s eyes narrowed. “I know you’re holding out hope you and Eden can be together, but that’s a stupid and pointless thing to do.”
Darrak’s smile disappeared. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She doesn’t love you, gruesome. Trust me. Despite how good you might look in that body, nobody loves you. She tolerates you because she has to, that’s all. You need to get that through your pin-sized demonic brain.”
Fire ignited in his gaze, and his lips twisted humorlessly. “Oh, Leena. Are you trying to tell me you think I’m hot? That’s kind of sweet.”
She sneered at him. “No.”
He shrugged. “Sorry, though. Shifters repel me. In more ways than one. Alas, I won’t be able to make your many lust-filled dreams about me come true.”
“I’m going to throw up.”
“Come on. You don’t really mean that.”
She grimaced. “I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot scratching pole, you disgusting piece of—”
“Enough!” Eden smashed her fist down on the kitchen counter. “Could you two stop squabbling for one god-damned minute? Seriously, it’s annoying as hell.”
Leena and Darrak both looked at her with surprise.
Anger simmered under her skin, bringing with it her very-hard-to-resist black magic. Trying to keep an even mood at the moment was hard enough, but dealing with the bickering between these two was going to put her right over the edge.
Destroying something sounded pretty good right about now. The world was at risk of becoming her own personal stress ball.
“Look, Leena, listen to me,” she continued, willing herself to remain as calm as possible. Her heart thrummed in her chest. “I get that you and Darrak have a hard time communicating, okay? I understand it. But you both live with me at the moment. And if you can’t get along, then one of you has to leave.”
“But—”
She held up a hand. “And since Darrak is kind of attached to me at the moment, it won’t be him who’s doing the leaving. Do you understand?”
Leena’s cheek twitched. “I was trying to help.”
“It didn’t sound like it to me.” Eden let out a long, shaky exhale.
“Why are you defending him? In case you didn’t hear everything, he was giving as good as he was getting.”
“I’m not defending Darrak.”
“Jesus, Eden, you’re not actually in love with this jerk, are you?” Leena’s dark brows drew together with confusion.