The Demon in Me

Malcolm in the first place.”

“Guilt is a powerful emotion.” His dark brows drew together. “This wouldn’t be enough to hurt you.”

“Stop talking and do what you have to do. Just don’t break the skin.”

“That won’t be necessary. I simply need an opening to that bright, shiny soul of yours.” He brought his hands up to either side of her face and drew her closer to him.

She braced herself. “That sounds very—”

He kissed her. And not just any kiss. Open mouthed and, if she hadn’t been sitting down, completely knee- weakening.

After a moment it started to make the rest of her feel weak as well.

But, she supposed, that was because he was purposefully draining her energy. She moaned a little against his lips because the kiss felt surprisingly, well, amazing. If this is what being drained by a demon felt like, then she was seriously considering signing up as a regular donor.

Just when the kiss was deepening further, he broke it off.

“I think that’s more than enough,” he said.

“Oh. Well, good.” She pressed her lips together and cleared her throat.

“Thank you. I feel much better now.” He sounded tired. “Do you mind if we go back to your apartment so I can rest? That really took it out of me.”

That made two of them. “Sure.”

Darrak didn’t seem as affected by the kiss as she was. Her cheeks felt hot. She was embarrassed by how easily she’d been ready to climb onto his lap just from a simple kiss. Then again, it wasn’t a real kiss, was it? It was a dip into a lip-shaped donation box and she’d been feeling charitable.

She directed her Toyota back onto the road and drove to her apartment, parking in her designated spot outside. Darrak was still unsteady, but he didn’t ask for any more help and got out of the car by himself. Which was fine. It would probably be safer if she didn’t touch him at the moment.

What the hell was wrong with her? One little kiss and now she was swooning over him? Hardly.

Maybe she’d spend the rest of the day cleaning up her apartment. Even aside from the mess Darrak had left in the kitchen, it could use a good fall cleaning. Then she’d figure out what she was going to wear on her date with Ben. Maybe she should cancel it after all. Or reschedule it to a more opportune time.

There were too many other things to think about, including the unlicensed case she was going to start tomorrow. The thought of cheating husbands didn’t put her in a very romantic mood, even if she wasn’t dealing with her inner — sometimes outer — demon.

No. It would go on as scheduled. She wouldn’t let the insanity she was dealing with mess with her chance at her shiny piece of happy.

Now there was a guy to swoon over — a human one, too. And swoon she would. It wasn’t just the fact that he was gorgeous. She wasn’t that superficial. He was charming and noble and brave and, well… normal. Dealing with a demon only made her realize how much she wanted stability.

She wanted Ben in her life if she had half a chance with him, and she wanted Darrak out of her life. Period. That should be simple enough to remember.

This time Eden didn’t try to lose Darrak at the elevators. They got on together and went up to the fourteenth floor.

She didn’t want to deal with the cat. Hopefully it hadn’t shredded her curtains yet. Or peed on her carpet.

After unlocking the door and pushing it open, she looked at the very weary Darrak and suddenly realized how tired she also was. “Help yourself to the bed. Just don’t get too used to it.”

His lips curled. “So generous.”

She cleared her throat nervously. “You think Malcolm has it in for you or was it just a coincidence he was pacing us on the road?”

“You introduced an eager young exorcist to a real demon. He’s obviously intrigued.”

She swallowed her lingering guilt from the exorcist experience. “So do you sleep? Is that how you recharge your batteries?”

“Something like that. It’s… it’s more like a deep meditation, really. I kind of zone out.”

She waited for more of an explanation, but he didn’t offer any. It seemed like something she should know. Knowledge was power, and all that. “Then go zone.”

He was in a somber mood and entered her bedroom. She shut the door to give him some privacy. And herself. Privacy was good.

Her apartment was small enough that there was nowhere she could be that was farther than sixty feet from her bed. No risk of forcing the demon to painfully dematerialize. She had a feeling testing those boundaries wasn’t such a good idea at the moment.

Her date was in eight hours. She’d be able to do a clean sweep and then have a quick nap before getting as gorgeous as possible for Detective Hanson.

She turned to look at her messy apartment to gauge how much work she had in front of her.

It was spotless.

She rubbed her tired eyes and looked again. No, it was still spotless. Any mess in the kitchen from earlier had disappeared. The coffeepot sparkled. The counter was empty. She inhaled a whiff of lemon-scented cleanser in the air.

“Well, that’s very strange,” she said aloud.

She moved into her living room to see that the knitted afghan she’d had over her lap the night before was now folded neatly and placed strategically on the back of her sofa. The cushions were propped up in their designated places. Her small selection of current magazines was in a tidy stack on the coffee table.

The carpet even looked freshly vacuumed.

She turned around in a slow circle. Had her apartment been broken into by Molly Maid while she was gone?

Maybe Darrak had worked some sort of demon cleansing magic before he’d left the apartment to follow her earlier.

But, no. He said his powers — whatever they might be — were drained.

It didn’t make any sense.

“Mrroww?” the black cat rubbed against her leg.

“Oh, there you are,” she said out loud. “Who did this?”

The cat didn’t answer her.

“Don’t think I’m forgetting you,” Eden said. “Come on, I’ll put you out and you can go back to wherever you came from.”

She reached down but the cat darted away from her and dove under the easy chair.

She put her hands on her hips. “Fine, be that way. Just don’t get used to it.”

Eden sat down on the sofa, suddenly more exhausted than she’d been in recent memory despite her bewilderment about the mystery tidiness of her apartment.

“I’ll just have a five-minute nap,” she said, pulling a beaded cushion under her head as she lay down. “And then I’ll figure out what happened here.”

Was she feeling this way because of donating energy to Darrak? Was a side effect an overwhelming need to fall into unconsciousness?

If so, she thought wearily as she closed her eyes, that was very inconvenient…

When she opened her eyes to see the view outside of her balcony the sun was low on the horizon. Considering it hadn’t even been noon when she got back, that wasn’t a good sign that she’d only fallen asleep for five minutes.

“Damn.”

“Never thought you’d wake up,” Darrak said.

She sat up so quickly she got a head rush. “What time is it?”