That Old Black Magic

NINETEEN

There was no redhead. No matter how far Darrak went down the seemingly endless street, no redhead magically appeared.

Which was fine. He’d never really had a thing for redheads before. Especially not enough to follow one of them into dark, uncharted territory. So why was he doing just that?

No damn idea.

He stopped walking and scrubbed a hand through his hair.

“Okay, enough,” he said out loud. “Talk to me. What do you want from me?”

Some entity was using Theo’s appearance to get close to him, but why? He refused to think about the fact that his friend was really gone. It made something in his chest ache. It was a pain that was spreading outward the longer he walked down this street, and it wasn’t just from some strange sense of grief. It felt very wrong.

All of this felt very wrong.

Somebody was messing with him. It had to be Lucifer.

Yes, of course it was Lucifer. He could change his appearance at will. Lucifer had the power to play with Darrak’s mind, make him forget or make him remember things that had never happened. It was like Darrak was a lump of play dough and Lucifer was the enthusiastic child smashing the colors together and making a complete mess.

“Okay.” Darrak turned in a circle, ignoring the pain now swirling in his gut. “You had your fun, Lucifer. What do you want from me today? What game are you playing?”

Lucifer didn’t appear. What did appear, however, were the dark forms of the wraiths, moving toward him swiftly and smoothly, as if their long black cloaks glided just an inch above the ground.

“Ladies,” he said, forcing himself to hold his ground and not turn tail and run in the opposite direction. They had to already be full from the substantial fairy meal they’d just consumed. “Maybe you can help me.”

“Demon,” one hissed in a cold feminine voice.

“Angel,” the other snarled.

“Huh?” Darrak replied. “I think you’re a little off there, sweetheart.”

“Demon-angel,” they said in unison, moving around him like piranha circling nervous prey. “So unusual. How does it exist? How does it walk with such contrary forces at work within it?”

“Are you referring to me as an ‘it’?” Darrak asked. “Because that’s kind of rude, if you ask me.”

“It has the sweetest smell,” one said.

“Thanks. That’s not a cologne, FYI, that’s all me.” His words were flippant, but he felt anything but.

“No wonder it couldn’t maintain its life force anywhere else. No wonder it was sent here. It is not meant to exist.”

“We must taste it. Such a waste to simply let it continue on to its fate.”

Those pale fingers reached for him, but just before the wraith touched his throat, he turned and started walking, not looking back, not saying anything else to provoke their interest.

He wasn’t scared, he was mad. Mad that Lucifer would put him somewhere like this, allow these common wraiths to think they could attempt a taste test of his archdemon energy.

One of the wraiths darted in front of him and peeled back her hood.

“Try to look away, demon-angel,” she whispered. Her voice had grown more sultry, more sirenlike. Her hair was long and blonde and silky and flowed as if moved by a nonexistent wind. Her face was a supermodel’s. One of those Victoria’s Secret babes.

For some reason, a blonde supermodel didn’t do it for him today, not even for a moment.

“No thanks,” he said. “No offense, but I don’t think you’re my type. You haven’t seen a redhead wandering around here, have you?”

She hissed, which ruined the shiny look when it revealed her sharp teeth.

Wraiths. No better than the Netherworld’s answer to vampires, really.

“Go play with your girlfriend,” Darrak suggested. “I’m not interested in a make-out session with either of you. Sorry to disappoint.”

Both of them flew at him then, and he tried with all his strength to throw them off. He’d been fooling himself to think that he had a chance here. They were petite, but they were supernaturally strong once they attached themselves, like humanoid leeches. It was impossible to shake them off.

An image of long, beautiful auburn hair flashed across his vision as they kissed him, one on his mouth, one on his throat and he felt the edge of those sharp teeth.

A word flitted through his mind — a garden of paradise, somewhere warm and safe and beautiful where he wanted to live forever.

Eden.

Great. One mention of angels and he was getting all Adam and Eve.

Although, still, for last thoughts there could be worse ones, he supposed.

The wraiths suddenly detached themselves and recoiled from him. It wasn’t something he’d expected. He’d figured that was it, he was a goner. They both had their hoods pushed back from their lovely but sour faces.

“What?” he asked. “Not as delicious as you thought I’d be?”

Their eyes grew larger, now focused on something right behind Darrak. Anything that would get a reaction like that from the walking death duo didn’t make him want to turn around. He waited until the wraiths swept themselves away as if they’d just seen oblivion itself.

Darrak put his hands on his hips. “So I’m guessing that this isn’t going to be my night no matter what direction I go, is it?”

“That’s up to you, demon.”

He finally glanced over his shoulder. It wasn’t Theo again, he already knew that thanks to the woman’s voice. But this face was also familiar. A woman, in her twenties, with long dark hair and a beautiful face.

“Selina,” he said.

She put a hand on her hip and smiled. Her lips were red and glossy. “Sort of.”

“Not Selina.” Not the witch who’d summoned him hundreds of years ago. Along with the pain that had begun to infuse his core he was getting a little well-needed clarity.

“Am I on an episode of This Is Your Life?”

Her smile held. “No.”

“How about Candid Camera?”

“Strike two.”

Darrak’s eyes narrowed. “You’re Lucifer, aren’t you?”

She shook her head. “Wrong again.”

He didn’t speak for a moment. He’d been certain he was right, that Lucifer had brought him here, wherever here was, and messed with his memories, just to play one of his stupid reindeer games. “Then who the hell are you?”

“I told you before. A friend.”

“A friend who was going to let two wraiths make a tasty meal of me.”

“They didn’t.”

“What do you want?”

“You’re clinging to the sides of existence, digging in with your fingernails so hard that I thought I’d come and perhaps give you a bit of a hand.”

Darrak blinked. “Thanks?”

She continued to study him with that cool detached look of amusement. “Why don’t you follow me?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really.”

Selina turned and started walking. She wore four-inch heels and a flowing black dress that was low cut in the front and laced up in the back.

The Love Witch, that’s what she liked to be called. She’d written books — self-help books for women who had a difficult time with the men in their lives.

Darrak had made her a black witch back during the Salem witch trials — she’d cast a spell that siphoned dark power from him. She’d wanted the black magic in order to get vengeance on the men who’d put her sister to death.

Selina had tried but failed to destroy Darrak shortly after she’d gotten what she wanted from him, and he’d only recently found her again. He wanted her to break the curse she put on him. It had destroyed his ability to maintain his corporeal form. To break that curse he would have had to tear out her heart.

But he hadn’t.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Thinking about the good old days?”

“Hardly.”

“You didn’t kill me when you had the chance,” she said.

“You know what I’m thinking?”

“I know lots of things, demon.”

He raked a hand through his hair and looked back in the direction he’d come from, but all he could see was darkness now. “Do you know why those wraiths were calling me demon-angel?”

“Yes.”

“Want to share?”

“Actually, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that riddle out.”

“I think I hate you.” He glowered at her. “No… wait. I do. I definitely hate you.”

She cocked her head. “Would you have killed me if you’d been given another chance? Would you have done what it took to return to your normal existence even if it meant destroying someone who had sought redemption for centuries?”

“Sure,” he replied immediately. It only made her smile wider.

“Think first, demon. You’ve always spoken before you thought first. It’s one of your many flaws.”

“Gee, you’re all kinds of charming, aren’t you?”

“Come on, it’s not much farther.”

The farther he walked, the more pain he felt. It was a normal sensation for one who punched a time clock in Hell itself, but it was still something that was best to be avoided. Pain, even for demons, was an indication that something was wrong.

A large black building shielded the view of what lay ahead. Darrak slowed. The pain had shifted to a burning sensation — flames blossoming outward from his chest.

Fire was his element to call, and it never hurt. Fire was such a part of him that he was shielded against this sort of pain. And yet… this wasn’t pleasant at all.

“I have a proposition for you, demon,” Selina said.

“Really. And what’s that?”

“You’ve come to a fork in the road. It’s up to you which path you choose.”

Darrak came to a halt next to Selina at the edge of the building.

“Talk,” he said. “I don’t have all night here. Patience isn’t one of my virtues.”

She leaned back against the black wall behind her. “Do you know where we are?”

“No. I believe that’s why I’ve been asking you that very question since I came to earlier in the bar.”

“Do you know how you got here?”

“What is this, twenty questions?” He fought against the frustration that rose in his chest. “No, I don’t know how I got here. I don’t know what part of the Netherworld this is, only that I’ve never been here before and I’m not too interested in coming back.”

“Do you know what you’ve lost?”

He gritted his teeth and tried to remain calm, cool, and collected, despite wanting to grab whatever or whoever this trickster in front of him was and shake it very hard.

“Do you even know you’ve lost something?” Selina persisted.

“Yes,” Darrak said. “I’ve lost something very important, but I don’t know what it is. Why don’t you go ahead and tell me?”

“Can’t do that.” Selina’s smile changed as her form shifted back to Theo’s again.

“Who are you?” Darrak asked again.

“Someone who has taken a mild interest in you, demon. A very mild interest. Look around the corner and see what is waiting for you. It’s time we move this along.”

This was ridiculous. Darrak moved past the trickster and went around the corner. He took three more steps before he froze in place. Something cold slithered through him. It felt a bit like clarity.

“The Void.” It was the word he couldn’t think of earlier, but it now came back to him.

The street before him, pavement surrounded by cement curbs and brick buildings just… disappeared. There was a drop-off, like the sheer side of a cliff into nothingness. He didn’t have to look. He knew it didn’t have a bottom to it.

The bottom didn’t exist.

He scanned the area to see that the street picked up a hundred yards up ahead and the jagged drop-off formed a wide, gaping circle. An open, bottomless mouth whose deep black hunger could never be satisfied since it had no stomach to fill.

Welcome to the Void.

“So those fairies—” Darrak began.

“Gatekeepers. Sentries. Administrators. Take your pick. They were on a break when they spotted us. It’s their job to make sure no one strays too close to the Void and to double-check those who do. Don’t worry, they’ll be swiftly replaced. It’s a bit lonely in this area, but the pay is excellent.”

Darrak covered his abdomen with his hand. The burning sensation had increased, and now he felt a strange pull toward the hole in the ground. “So let me guess, I’m next up on the list to take a dive?”

“You are.”

It was as if he’d known this from the moment he woke up in the bar, but had been trying to repress it. After all, this wasn’t exactly good news. There was no news he could think of worse than this.

“Well, shit,” he said. “This sure hasn’t been my lucky day, has it?”

Then he remembered something and glanced away from the abyss to look at Theo. “You said you have a proposition for me. Does that include an option of not heading down there?”

“That’s up to you.”

The cryptic statements were grating, but currently his only chance. He knew that strength or smarts weren’t enough to get out of this particular pickle. He’d never heard of anyone who’d survived a trip to the Void. Then again, his memories were currently shaky at best. Maybe he was forgetting something.

“Tell me,” he said.

“Do you want another chance?” Theo asked.

“Of course.” A demon’s first defense was self-preservation. It was also his second and third. Whatever happened, he would put himself first. This was the perfect example of that. At this very moment, Darrak was willing to promise anything in order to walk away from this in one solid piece.

“There is a job opportunity that’s just opened up. It would be a demotion from archdemon, I’m afraid, but these things happen.”

Darrak resisted the urge to protest. “Keep talking.”

“It would involve you going to the human world and doing some reaping of human souls.”

“You mean I’d be an incubus again.” The thought did not appeal, but it was better than the Void.

“No, not quite as pleasant as that. In order for an incubus to take a soul, that soul needs to be willing to be taken. This job requires a bit more stealth work. You would target specific humans, kill them, and tear the souls from their bodies. As you can see things are a bit on the downtrodden side around here, especially in outlying areas like this. With a fresh influx of positive energy we’d be able to do a nice upgrade.”

“Positive energy,” Darrak repeated. “So they would have to be clean souls. Not evil, not corrupt, not dark at all.”

“The cleaner the better.”

“And I’d have to kill them.”

“How else do you suggest reaping a soul?” Theo grinned. “It’ll be fun, I’ll even help you out for a bit like the good old days.”

If this was actually Theo and not some trickster demon, Darrak might find that amusing. “So what’s my first assignment?”

“A private school in England. A bunch of adorable schoolboys. Think Harry Potter without the magic and flying broomsticks. If it makes you feel better, a great many of them regularly break curfew to visit a nearby girl’s school. Very naughty.”

An image flitted through Darrak’s head. A school in London consumed by a fire that he’d set with his own power. Kids screaming, trying to run, but he was blocking the door, snatching them, trapping them. Them begging for his help, pleading, crying, but he wouldn’t help. They had something he needed. Souls, white, shiny, almost silvery souls filled with energy and power. Mothers and fathers consumed with grief when they found out they’d lost their children in such a horrible tragedy…

Definitely not Hufflepuff in any way, shape, or form.

The pain in Darrak’s gut grew more intense and his throat suddenly felt tight. “Sounds… interesting. So what’s behind door number two?”

Theo nodded at the Void. “That.”

Darrak laughed, and it sounded sharp and unpleasant, even to himself. What was wrong with him? Why was he even giving this a second thought? He was a demon. They weren’t your friendly neighborhood superheroes that saved kids from fires and certain death. They caused fires. They killed. They maimed. And then they danced merrily among the carnage.

He definitely had memories of merry carnage dancing from his many years of existence.

So why wasn’t he dancing right now?

“Problem?” Theo asked.

“No. Of course not.”

“You should know this is a limited time offer.”

“How long do I have?”

“Ten minutes. No, actually make that nine minutes and six seconds.”

“So let me get this straight. I either agree to be a murderer and reaper of innocent human kids with shiny souls or I forfeit my entire existence and get sucked into that Void right there. Is that right?”

“You’re paying attention. I appreciate that. Makes things much simpler.”

“Awesome.”

Damn it. What was his problem? Anything was better than his own destruction. He felt the clock ticking down his remaining minutes. The fire in his gut was getting more intense. And the Void had some sort of strong pull on him — like a hellish vacuum cleaner — which was drawing him ever closer to his ultimate fate. He couldn’t seem to move away from the edge.

Unless he said the word, accepted this deal, then he was minutes away from being cast into the Void.

Kill kids for a living or allow himself to be destroyed forever.

He really wished there was a door number three.