Eden originally believed that Darrak meant to reason with the witch to get her to agree to help. But now she knew Darrak had probably planned to kill her to get what he wanted.
“You’re shivering,” Darrak said, his brows drawing together. “Eden, what the hell is going on? Something bad happened last night. What was it?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. Everything’s super. Fabulous, r eally.”
“You’re lying. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Don’t come any closer.” Her hand curled around the crystal of salt in her pocket.
He didn’t listen to her and came within two feet before he stopped in his tracks. His forehead creased. Then he swore under his breath. “Who gave you that?”
“Who gave me what?” she asked innocently.
“The big-ass piece of salt you have there.”
“You mean this?” She pulled it out of her pocket and thrust it at him.
Darrak stumbled back a foot, his eyes narrowing. “That would be the big-ass piece of salt I was referring to, yes.”
Eden watched him carefully. “No foaming at your mouth.”
“The day is young. Also, I’m not sucking on it, so that makes the situation much less foamy.” His eyes narrowed further. “What’s going on, Eden?”
“Just trying to protect myself. You know, with a big piece of salt.”
He pointed at his chest. “Protect yourself from me?”
“No, from the ice monster who moved in next door.”
“Okay, so let me take a wild guess here. You were lying before about what happened with Selina.”
“Me, lying?” She let out a short humorless laugh at that. “Interesting. I guess it takes a liar to know a liar, doesn’t it?”
He sighed. “Are we going to play word games, or are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?”
“I’m okay with word games. Scrabble, crosswords, Boggle. You name it.”
“Did Selina give you that?” He nodded at the salt.
“No. Malcolm did.”
“What?” His jaw clenched. “Did he try to hurt you again?”
Not the reaction she’d expected. “No, just the opposite actually. The drifter you threatened to tear apart yesterday jumped into another body and tried to kill me. Malcolm saved me.”
“Kill you?” he repeated harshly. His brow was lowered over his blue eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I’m standing here in one piece, aren’t I?”
“Something’s different, though. Very different.” He studied her face with a growing distress in his expression. “Please. Tell me what happened last night. What did that evil bitch say about me?”
She was breathing so fast now that she felt ready to hyper-ventilate. “Actually, she said that you’re an evil, powerful, ex-incubus archdemon and to break the curse you need to kill her and tear out her heart and that everything you’ve told me has been lies so you could get me to do what you want. In a nutshell.”
He stared at her stonily. “What else did she say?”
“That she tried to destroy you out of self-defense and also to redeem herself. But she failed.”
“Oh, she failed, all right.”
She searched his face, which looked more upset than pissed off at her fast-forward recount of last night’s events. “Tell me she’s the one who’s lying.”
He let out a long exhale. “Is that all it would take? Would you believe me again then?” His jaw clenched. “I knew you shouldn’t have gotten too close to her.”
“You’re not denying anything.”
“No, I’m not, am I?”
Her chest hitched. “You said you were a good demon dispatched to get the bad things that escaped the Netherworld. That you protected humans. That was a lie?”
He swallowed hard, then shook his head. “Busted.”
“What?”
“I lied to you,” he said softly. “Selina told you the truth. I am an archdemon. Or, at least, I
Chills broke out down her arms. She wasn’t sure what she expected him to say. At the very least, she expected him to deny it.
She could barely breathe now. “The fire I see in your eyes… that’s part of your demon visage.”
“Yes.”
“The only type of demon who can be good is a former human.”
His jaw clenched. “Somebody’s been doing their home-work, haven’t they?” He swore again and looked away. When he turned his gaze to hers again his eyes were fiery. “I know how this looks. It’s bad. But I’m not going to lie to you anymore. I only lied in the beginning because I didn’t want you to be afraid of me.”
Her back hurt from pressing up against the stove edge, but her kitchen was so small, and she didn’t want to move any closer to him.
“No, you lied so I wouldn’t exorcise you.”
“Well, yeah. That, too. But I am not going to hurt you. I swear it.”
“You swear it?” she repeated incredulously. “You
He sighed heavily. “I don’t know what to say to make you believe.”
“You don’t have to say anything. You know what the craziest thing is? Even after Selina told me all of that, I still didn’t believe her. Not really. But now… it’s over, Darrak. It’s
“Which means what?”
Her throat was tight. “Exactly what it sounds like.”
Darrak nodded. “Normally if you’re planning on exorcising a demon, it’s best not to give him a heads-up about it first. The surprise factor works best.” He swallowed and raised his gaze from the floor to hers again. His eyes had returned again to their ice blue shade. “I know you won’t believe anything that comes out of my mouth anymore, but I’m going to try anyhow.”
“Try what?”
“I was a very powerful demon, and I did what I wanted to do for a very long time. But do you want to hear the real truth and nothing but?”
“More than you know.”
“I’ve changed.”
“Bullshit.”
He shook his head. “For three hundred years I’ve been trapped inside a succession of humans. Do you know what that’s done to me?”
“Made you into a lying, evil sack of shit?”
He huffed out a small laugh. “Other than that.”
“What, then?”
“It’s changed me. The humanity has infused me.”
“That’s right. I didn’t know what it meant to feel like a human back then — to love and fear and want things that weren’t totally selfish. That has bled into me from the humans I’ve possessed. Now I feel
She didn’t think she could be any more confused by Darrak than she already was. She’d been wrong. “But… you said you possessed bad people. Was that a lie, too? How can you claim to have absorbed their humanity if they were scumbags like you said they were?”
“I wasn’t lying about that. But it didn’t matter if the humans were good or bad, they were still human. That alone has given me some of that intrinsic humanity.”
She brought a hand up to her aching head. There was not enough aspirin in her medicine cabinet — or, possibly, the entire world — to deal with her current headache. “But you were an archdemon. Why would you even
