No, it just didn’t make sense, but he wasn’t willing to take the chance there was a murderous angel on the loose in the city right now.
He pushed open the door to the alleyway and he and Caroline ran to the van that was still idling. Ben opened the driver’s side door and looked in at Leena.
She was sprawled unconscious across the seats.
“Hey, lover,” a voice called from behind him.
He slowly turned to see Sandy standing there with her arms crossed over her chest.
“So,” she continued, eyeing the pair of them. “You haven’t returned my calls. I have a funny feeling, between these two”—she nodded at Caroline and the unconscious Leena—“you might want to start seeing other people.”
He held his hands up in front of him as she drew closer. “Sandy, what are you doing?”
“You should have had the soup, Ben. Trust me, it was delicious.”
“We need to talk about this.”
“Nah, let’s not and say we did.”
Ben’s gaze moved to her throat. The necklace she wore with the light gray stone had changed. The stone was now black.
Something about that made his blood run cold.
“You’re a witch,” Caroline said, her voice trembling. “My daughter has an amulet like that.”
Sandy touched it lightly. “Yes, pretty isn’t it?”
“You killed Oliver,” Ben said, the realization sinking in with dark certainty. “You killed him with black magic.”
“Smart guy.”
“I don’t understand. I–I thought you were a gray witch.”
“Baby…” A chilling smile stretched across her face. “I’ve been upgraded.”
There was a crackling of energy, like lightning circling her hands as she raised them in Ben and Caroline’s direction.
“Run!” Ben yelled.
But before they had a chance to take even a single step away from her, Ben heard Caroline scream, and then everything went black.
TWENTY-THREE
With a last howl, Andy shifted back to human form.
It wasn’t pretty.
Luckily, a shifter’s clothing went along for the ride, so he was curled up in the fetal position on the floor of Triple-A fully dressed. Eden crouched down beside him and put her hand on his shoulder.
“How are you feeling, Andy?” she asked.
He just eyed her. “Take a wild guess.”
“You need a drink?”
“Oh, yes. Very much so.”
Darrak entered the office. He’d taken a stroll around the block to test his and Eden’s previous hundred-foot tether. It seemed to be gone.
His trip to the Void, and surprise return, had worked to break his curse.
“Look,” Darrak said standing at the glass door and looking out. “The sun’s up.”
It was the first time they’d ever seen a sunrise together.
She grinned. “Pretty.”
“I’ll say.”
Darrak had every chance to go away now, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t. They were together now by choice rather than circumstance.
She loved him. He drove her crazy half the time, and she was sure the feeling was more than mutual, but she loved him so much it hurt. She’d made a deal with the Prince of Hell to save the life of the man she loved and, no matter what, she knew she’d do it again in a heartbeat.
And, quite frankly, she didn’t really give a crap what her mother or anyone else thought about that.
Darrak looked down at Andy recovering on the floor. “You’re looking good.”
Andy studied the ceiling. “I need a vacation.”
Eden helped him to his feet. “Go home and recover.”
He nodded. “Is shifting always this difficult?”
Darrak shrugged. “I don’t think so. As they say about many things, it only hurts the first time. You’ll get used to it.”
“Hooray.” He grabbed his coat. “So what are you going to do about… you know who?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Darrak said. “I have it under control.”
Eden eyed him. Under control? This was news.
“Worry? Who me?” Andy gingerly slid his coat on. “Deals with Lucifer, trips to Hell, growing fur out of places fur should never grow. Totally a normal day for me, nothing to worry about at all.”
That he was able to be sarcastic after everything he’d been through was reassuring.
Darrak put a hand on Andy’s shoulder. “Thank you. Really. I owe you big-time for what you did for me. I won’t forget it.”
Andy patted his hand. “No thanks required. Just be good to Eden. Promise me you’ll do that, okay?”
“I promise everything I do from this day forward will be in Eden’s best interests.”
“That’s the spirit, Romeo.” Andy finally grinned as Eden gave him a tight hug, her throat thick with gratitude toward her brave guide to the Netherworld. She knew she never would have succeeded without him. “I’m heading home. But if you need me for any reason, call.”
Eden watched as he slowly headed out to his car and drove out of the parking lot. Then she made a beeline toward Darrak, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him.
“So happy to see you.”
“As happy as I am?” He grinned before brushing his lips over hers. “That’s not brimstone in my pocket, you know.”
Despite the joke, there was something sad in his ice blue eyes. He hated that she’d agreed to give up her celestial energy to Lucas, but it had been the right decision. It gave her the chance to find him.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you, too.” A smile played at his lips.
“What’s so funny?”
“We sound like something out of a romance novel. Which I’m thinking about writing, by the way. Maybe I’ll start with our story.”
She laughed. “A romance novel about a demonic possession. Sure, that makes sense.”
Darrak kissed her again, holding her face gently between his hands. She wanted to enjoy this, enjoy him, but something felt off.
She pulled back from him. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair, his expression darkening immediately. “Wrong? What could possibly be wrong? Other than that little deal you made with our buddy Lucifer, of course.”
She cringed. “My angel side never served any purpose. Just a little unreliable psychic insight. As far as I’m concerned, he’s welcome to it.”
Darrak’s jaw tightened. “Yeah, that’s all it is. May as well give it away to the first person who asks for it.”
