“My intentions were honorable, I assure you.”
“Do you need to take a little energy from me again?” And no, she wasn’t just looking for another earthmoving kiss from the demon. Because that would be wrong on too many levels to count. Especially when she had — she glanced at the clock — twenty-five minutes until Ben arrived.
“No. That’s for emergency usage only.” He crossed his arms. “It’s not safe for you otherwise.”
“Not safe?”
He shook his head. “Siphoning energy from a human is a tricky thing. If I were to take too much… well, I don’t want that to happen.”
“But I feel fine.”
“Right. Other than your seven-hour nap, which you needed because of my draining your energy.”
“Right, that.” She frowned. “But I feel okay now. If you took just a little—”
Very pathetic.
She forced herself to think about Ben, instead. Perfect, courageous, wonderful.
“Seriously, Eden. I’m trying to be responsible here.”
“And I’m trying to understand what is happening to me.” She considered what he said. “What’s so bad about taking energy from me?”
“Fine. You really want to know?” He paced to the other side of the living room, over by her neatly arranged bookshelf. He looked stressed. “If I’m not careful or if I get greedy, I can take too much of your energy. And it could hurt you badly. I don’t want to do that.”
“Could I be turned into a demon?”
“No. You could die.”
She touched her mouth, thinking about when he’d kissed her in the car. It hadn’t felt bad, that was for sure, but would it if it had gone on for much longer? “I’m glad you’re against that, then.”
He closed the distance between them and leaned against the sofa next to where she stood and studied the floor. “The problem is that the energy I’ve tasted of yours is very… what’s a good word to use here?” His brow furrowed. “
“My energy is tasty?”
“Yes. Very.” He raised his gaze so that it seemed to burn into hers with an intensity she felt inside of her. Then his attention moved to her mouth. “So therefore I can’t take too much or I might not be able to stop myself.”
“You’d drain me completely.”
He took another step closer to her, enough that she could feel the heat from his body as well as his gaze. Then he made a move as if to touch her face but seemed to stop himself before making contact. “That’s what I’m saying. So maybe it’s good that we have Pussy Galore in the apartment now as your fur-faced chaperone. Just in case I get a little too close for comfort.”
She wasn’t sure why the thought that Darrak found her delicious didn’t freak her out. Okay, it freaked her out a bit, but not as much as she would have thought.
A demon admitting that he wanted to devour her totally? That was not a good thing.
But it was also strangely… exciting. And so was the look he’d just given her.
“So when you take the energy, it has to be through a kiss?” she asked, knowing that time was passing, but she still wanted more answers. “Is my mouth the only place you can get the energy from?”
“Actually, no. That was just personal preference.”
Her eyes widened. “Personal preference?”
A slow smile spread across his handsome features. “It worked, didn’t it? Unfortunately, it made your energy much more irresistible than it was to begin with. I’ll have to remember your mouth is a serious danger zone for me.” His gaze moved back to her mouth for a long moment before he met her eyes again. “You better go get ready quickly. The man you really want to swap spit with is probably already on his way here.”
With a firm nod of her head, and not another word spoken, she walked into her bedroom and closed the door, pressing her back against it. Her heart had started pounding very fast during their conversation about her mouth and his preferences.
“The dress the demon picked out sucks.” Leena, again in human form, held the red dress Darrak had picked out — coincidentally enough, Eden’s favorite one — against the front of her as she gazed into the full-length mirror on the wall. “I can find you something way better. Red is so trashy for a first date.”
“Okay,” Eden said, not moving from where she was.
“By the way.” Leena sat on the edge of Eden’s bed and nodded at the wall by the small window. “
“Thanks.”
“Molly Ringwald never got the credit she deserved as a great actress.”
“I wholeheartedly agree.”
When Eden finally emerged from the bedroom, Darrak inspected her from head to foot in the blue dress Leena had picked out.
“I preferred the other dress,” he said. “But this one will do, I guess.”
“Glad you approve.”
His expression was grim. “Shifters are so annoying. Nearly as bad as fairies.”
She tried not to smile. “Are there any life-forms that you don’t dislike?”
“I’m fond of humans.” His gaze slid down the front of her again. “Some of them are very tolerable.”
She cleared her throat nervously and turned away from him, suddenly noticing how dark it was in her apartment. She flicked a glance out the balcony window to see the sun had slipped almost completely beneath the horizon.
She froze. The day had totally flown by. Now it was sunset.
And she knew all too well what was going to happen at sunset — other than Ben’s arrival for their date.
Darrak’s breathing had suddenly grown more rapid and his expression tense. “It’s time.”
Those two words worked to kick her self-preservation instincts back into high gear. She took a step back from him. “You don’t think there’s another way?”
“There isn’t.”
“But what if you just try to resist?”
“If I could I would. Believe me, losing form isn’t fun.” He placed a hand over his stomach as a flash of pain went across his face. “Not good.”
“Maybe some Tums might help.”
“This isn’t indigestion.” He grimaced. “Maybe it only hurts when I fight it.”
A wave of concern flowed through her. “So stop fighting it.”
He looked at her and managed to smile a little. “Change your mind much?”
“I’m a Gemini, so sue me. But I don’t like seeing somebody in pain.”
“That makes two of us. Especially when the somebody is me.”
At that moment, the buzzer to Eden’s apartment sounded.
“That must be golden boy,” Darrak managed. “Perfect timing. What a surprise.”
She moved toward the intercom and pressed the button. “Hello?”
“Eden, I’m here,” Ben said. “Are you ready?”
Panic moved through her as she watched Darrak gasp with pain. The next moment his body morphed into a six-foot-tall cloud of black smoke. “I’ll… uh… be down in just a minute, okay?”
“Sure. Take your time.”
She released the button and turned around to press against the wall. Leena exited the bedroom in cat form and hissed and arched her back as the swirling black smoke moved past her.
The smoke approached Eden almost tentatively, swirling on the ground like a sentient pool of thick smog. Darrak was waiting for something. He was holding back.
