Something Wicked

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.