sensed she was in the area, and here she was.
The witch looked nice enough. She also looked really young — younger even than Eden herself. All of those years, all of what she would have experienced.
What would it be like to be beautiful, powerful, and have the chance to live forever?
Without wasting another minute, Eden called Fay and let her know what had happened with her husband and what they’d discovered. While upset and shocked by the fact that Richard’s body was currently possessed by a drifter, after a minute she sounded extremely relieved.
“Of course,” she said. “Why didn’t I see it before?”
“Apparently drifters are really sneaky.”
“I do know that. And what about the woman?”
“She’s involved with him. But since it’s not really him, I don’t know if I’d call it cheating.”
“No, I agree. To say you’ve literally saved my life wouldn’t be an exaggeration. And you worked so quickly, too.”
“Just be careful. He wasn’t happy with me. He might be dangerous.”
“I can handle him now that I know what’s going on.”
“Still. Humor me and be careful.”
“I’ll forward my check to you immediately. A weight has been lifted off of me.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “I knew my husband loved me. I shouldn’t have doubted him. Thank you, Eden. So much.”
“You’re very welcome.”
A happy customer. It felt really good to know that she’d helped somebody. Maybe Darrak was right. Maybe she could do this “helping others” thing for a while to give her life some meaning. Especially when it worked out really well in the end.
She just had to get over the fact that their clientele at Triple-A were Others.
And just because Darrak would be leaving didn’t mean that she’d automatically forget everything she’d seen in the last couple of days. She didn’t think she’d be able to forget even if she tried. But when Darrak left, would the clients go as well? Would Triple-A still be a paranormal hot spot, as the demon had said it was?
Well, whatever was going to happen, her personal life would be back to normal.
It was a good thing. She had to embrace it. But it didn’t mean she’d ever forget.
The phone rang again. She’d never realized how few times the phone normally rang until now that she heard it every couple of minutes. Andy picked it up to give his oddly cheery, singsong greeting.
“Eden. It’s for you.”
She picked up. “Eden Riley here.”
“Eden, hi. Sorry I didn’t call earlier.”
She immediately recognized Ben’s voice. She bit her bottom lip. “I figured you probably wouldn’t call me at all after what happened last night.”
“Why? Did something out of the ordinary happen?”
She could hear the smile in his voice and was surprised by it. “Only a couple of things.”
“Are you busy right now? I wanted to see you again.”
“Me, busy?” She twisted the phone cord around her finger and leaned back in her chair. “Later yes, but not too bad right at the moment.”
“Good.”
She heard the jingle and looked up. Ben entered the office with his cell phone pressed against his ear. He pulled it away and closed it, then slid it into his pocket.
“The question is,” he said, “do you want to see
“Are we talking about the slapping me thing?”
She forced herself not to look at Darrak, who stood by the window to her left. “Among other embarrassing issues.”
Ben tilted his head. “So you didn’t really mean to slap me?” “Of course I didn’t.”
“Because I was thinking I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you.”
“Then that would have been a drastically wrong assumption.” She moved out from behind her desk. “Although I understand why you’d feel that way. With the physical violence and all.”
He nodded, studied her intently for a moment, and then closed the distance between them, ignoring both Andy and Darrak. “Then I think it’s best to get this out of the way right now so it doesn’t become an ongoing issue between us.”
“What are you talking about?”
He captured her face between his hands and kissed her very firmly on her mouth. Her eyes widened at the feel of his lips against hers before he let go of her.
He grinned. “See, I feel much better now.”
“Uh… wow, I didn’t expect that.”
“Less time for you to build up a defensive tactic.” His grin disappeared. “Does that mean I shouldn’t do it again?”
“No, I’m definitely not saying that. You have my full permission to do that again.” She cleared her throat. The cop could kiss very, very well. And he looked extremely pleased with himself considering the fact he had a fiery- eyed demon now standing directly behind him with fists clenched at his sides.
“If I wasn’t so busy,” Andy said from across the room, “I’d be very curious to know everything that’s been going on with you lately, Eden. Okay, maybe I’m a little curious. Who’s this guy?”
“Oh, uh… this is Ben Hanson. Or, rather,
Andy drew closer and extended his hand. Ben shook it. “Good to meet you. Nice to see that somebody’s willing to give our little recluse Eden a good time.”
“Andy!” Eden’s face flushed.
“Well, you know what I mean. You can’t always depend on your brother, especially considering his special condition.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother,” Ben said.
“Right.” She cleared her throat again. It helped to give her a moment to think. “Uh… this is Darrak.”
Ben turned slowly to see the demon. Eden breathed a sigh of relief to see he’d changed his eyes back to their normal blue color. Flame-filled eyes might be hard to explain away.
They were exactly the same height. She hadn’t realized that until seeing them side by side. Ben had short blond hair, while Darrak’s was dark and unruly. Ben wore faded jeans and a white shirt under a dark brown leather jacket. Darrak wore head-to-toe black. They had similar builds to go with their similarity in height. Hard, lean muscle. Broad shoulders and chests.
Ben was smiling. Darrak was not.
“Hey there.” Ben extended his hand in greeting. “Good to meet you.”
Darrak didn’t shake it. “You go around kissing a lot of women without their permission?”
Ben’s smile faded at the edges. “I guess that might not have looked very good to you, did it?”
“No, it didn’t.”
“It’s fine,” Eden interjected. “Really.”
“You’re interested romantically in my… sister?” Darrak asked.
Ben let out a small laugh. “Didn’t know I’d be meeting the family today. But, uh… sure. I’ll play along. Yeah, I like Eden. A lot, actually.”
“But you don’t like psychics. You’re turned off by the supernatural.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say turned off, exactly. But I am a skeptic. Besides, Eden herself doesn’t claim to be able to bend spoons with her mind or anything crazy.”
Darrak crossed his arms. “Crazy, huh? Bending spoons is serious business. If you ever come face-to-face with a true spoon-bending telekinetic, I hope for your sake you don’t piss them off.”
Ben’s eyes shifted back and forth. “Are you being serious with me right now?”
“Deadly.” Darrak eyed the cop distastefully. “Do you normally abandon the women you like at restaurants so they can find their own way home?”
