That Old Black Magic

TWENTY-ONE

The sound of her voice brought Darrak’s memories back so forcefully it almost made him lose his already shaky grip on the side of the cliff.

The redhead.

Eden.

Terrific. Now he was hallucinating. In his last moments of existence, he thought of her. Not a huge surprise, really. After all, she was the only thing in the universe he cared about.

She’d be proud he’d made the right decision about the kids. So selfless. So unlike him. It almost made him smile.

Demon-angel, the wraiths called him.

This, too, came back to him now at the end of everything. He’d thought there was some hidden meaning, but it was exactly as they’d said. The wraiths sensed both demon and angel in him because that was exactly what he was.

It was his angel side, the annoyingly do-gooder side, that had shifted his morals enough to make his final decision — sacrifice himself rather than take a job that would force him to hurt others.

He didn’t want to hurt anyone. Now he wanted to help them.

The demon side of him thought this was all kinds of lame.

Darrak was the ultimate teeter-totter of good and evil. Black and white. He’d fought it from the beginning. He refused to accept that he’d been tainted with humanity, let alone celestial energy. The two sides of himself had remained apart like oil and water. It was what had caused him the tearing pain when Eden had shifted those parts of him a bit too close together. They hadn’t wanted that.

He hadn’t wanted that.

It was clear to him now: The decision had always been in his hands. The pain resulted from his failure to accept that he’d changed.

But he had. And that the change had come because of Eden — well, that made it a good change as far as he was concerned. He could accept this now at the end of his existence. He was a demon-angel, filled with equal parts light and dark.

So be it.

He felt something fill him then, easing his tense muscles and relaxing his mind. The peace of accepting who he was, once and for all. Even if it was just for a moment before he ceased to exist.

Embrace your inner freak, Darrak thought. For better or for worse.

At the moment, it looked like it was for the worse. The Void wasn’t going anywhere but down. And down.

He’d thought Eden had destroyed him by giving him her celestial energy, but she hadn’t destroyed him. Instead she had made him better than he was before.

If only he’d realized this sooner.

“There you go, Eden,” he whispered. “You did make me a better man after all. Thank you for that.”

An animal howled in the distance. Great.

Well, any hellbeast sniffing around for scraps would be out of luck very soon. Nothing to see here. Move along.

“Where are you?” Eden’s apparition yelled again. “Darrak! Say something! Say anything!”

He already missed her so much. “Good-bye, Eden.”

Some of the cement fell away as his grip loosened. Only seconds now.

But then a hand reached down and grabbed tightly onto his wrist. With surprise, he looked up into the most beautiful face he’d ever seen.

Her green eyes were filled with tears and she smiled down at him. “There you are, you jerk!”

He guessed he’d memorized her face perfectly because this apparition was as real as they came. Or maybe it was her angel side coming to visit him in his last moments. He almost expected to see white fluffy wings stretch out behind her.

Sharp nails dug into his skin. “Darrak! Snap out of it!”

He blinked. “Wait a minute, you — you’re not an angelic apparition?”

“Not the last time I checked. What the hell do you think you’re doing right now?”

“Oh, you know.” He glanced at the bottomless drop below him. “Just hanging around.”

Determination filled her gaze. “I won’t let you fall.”

He snorted. “You’re going to pull me out of the mouth of the Void.”

“That was my general plan, yes.”

This earned a full laugh. “I’m imagining you right now. Or maybe that damn entity is using your face to mess with me some more.”

Eden’s fingers dug hard into his arm as she grappled for a tighter hold on him, but he slipped a few inches farther down. “Darrak, I’m really here. I came to the Netherworld to find you before it was too late. What you see is what you get.”

This was impossible. “Tell me something to make this real. It can’t be real.”

She hissed out a breath of frustration, but then locked gazes with him. “I’m here because losing you made me realize I don’t want to live without you. Ever. I love you more than anything, Darrak, and I want to be with you forever, no matter what the future brings. Now pull your ass out of that goddamned Void right now!”

It hit him like a monster-sized fist. This was real. He didn’t know how, but Eden was here.

And she loved him.

Hope flooded through him, and it gave him enough strength to grab hold of her. Enough strength to fight against the pull the Void had on him.

He spoke through gritted teeth. “Just for the record, you’re crazy for doing this.”

“Less talking, demon. More climbing. Come on!”

He braced his feet against the side of the cliff, and began dragging himself upward, fighting with every ounce of his strength against the Void’s tight grip on him. Finally, he breached the edge of the cliff, gasping from the effort.

He looked back at where he’d come from. That was close. That was so unbelievably close.

“Darrak… we did it!” Her voice was filled with pure joy and relief.

A smile spread over his face and he turned to look at her, to take her in his arms and never let her go. They made it. He survived and it was all thanks to her.

But then Eden shrieked and suddenly she was being dragged backward from him. He scrambled to grab hold of her but she was pulled out of his reach.

He leapt to his feet. “Eden, no!”

The wraiths had returned, and they surrounded Eden in shadows.

“My magic…” Eden managed. “I can’t use it…”

Wraiths leeched any sort of power from their victim. Made it easier for them to ensnare their prey.

Out of the corner of his eye, Darrak noticed an unconscious black hellhound lying off to the right. That must have been the source of the howl he’d heard earlier.

He’d been willing to let himself go, to be swept into the Void in order to not hurt anyone now or in the future. But seeing Eden in the grip of the wraiths was enough to bring forth the side of him that enjoyed a bit of destruction. And then some.

He wouldn’t lose her only a moment after they’d found each other again.

Not like this.

Darrak wrenched himself farther away from the edge of the Void, and it was like pulling himself slowly out of quicksand. But he did it. He ignored the pain, got to his feet, and moved closer to the wraiths now twenty feet away from him.

“Demon-angel,” one snarled. “We have something it loves.”

“Let go of her,” he warned.

“She doesn’t belong here, but we’re happy she has traveled so far.”

The other wraith drew her pasty-white fingers over Eden’s stomach. “Two lives, twice as sweet. A taste we’ve never experienced before. So delicious.”

“Two lives?” he growled. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Small life, it is. Created from two places, two worlds, two beings of opposite means.” Wraiths were known to be cryptic double-talkers. It just made them more annoying. “And the demon-angel had no idea, its senses dulled from its curse, no true idea of what the small life created from two worlds—”

“Oh, for the love of—” Eden fought against the choke hold the wraiths had her in. She looked at Darrak. “This wasn’t how I wanted to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” he asked tightly.

Her gaze locked with his. “I’m… pregnant.”

“What?” He gaped at her. It felt as if he’d just been shoved back into the Void and was holding on by his fingernails.

Eden watched him uncertainly before her eyes narrowed. “You heard me. Now do something, will you?”

Pregnant. Eden was pregnant.

This unexpected piece of news changed pretty much everything in his entire universe in one split second.

His hands tightened into fists. “Let go of her or you’re going to be very sorry.”

“A strongly worded warning. That should work perfectly,” Eden said dryly. “Thanks.”

The wraiths circled Eden, their hands brushing against her enough to keep her from moving, keep her from protecting herself with her magic. “All will be sorry soon. The shadows are restless. Their master stays away looking to take a trip to a place with no shadows.”

“Shadows,” Darrak repeated, glancing around. He knew what the wraith spoke about. The Netherworld was filled with the shadows. It was what made it eternally night here. No light could broach darkness like this. The darkness was what fueled Hell — evil without form.

Lucifer controlled those shadows, the darkness, keeping it from spreading, growing, branching out past the Netherworld. It was what gave him his vast power, but also what kept him chained here even while able to take mortal form in the human world.

But he’d been neglecting his duties in Hell lately, whining about wanting to go back to Heaven. What a total crybaby.

“Are you afraid?” he asked the wraiths. “Is that what this is? Afraid of the shadows? I can help you.”

“It can’t help. It’s tainted. It’s part angel now.”

“Sweetheart, that only makes me more powerful. I’m an archdemon with a shiny gold star.”

That was a nice way to think of it, actually. Less “freak of nature,” more “awesome upgrade.”

“This woman and her unborn child are too delicious to give up at any price. They are ours now.” They tightened their hold on Eden and she let out a shriek of fear.

Darrak finally had had enough.

He phased from where he stood near the edge of the Void to reappear right in front of the wraiths in a flash of fire. Grabbing each by their throat, he squeezed until they released their grip on Eden.

“Did you say she’s yours?” he asked.

“Yesss.”

“Pardon the expression, bitches, but possession is nine-tenths of the law.”

He launched the pair of them backward. They made a lovely arc through the dark sky as they flew, screaming, into the gaping mouth of the Void.

A couple less wraiths in the Netherworld was like stomping on a couple of cockroaches in a seedy motel. It didn’t make much of a difference, but it was still extremely satisfying.

Darrak quickly moved toward Eden and checked her throat. Luckily, the wraiths hadn’t done any damage. She stared at him with wide, shiny eyes.

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

Eden grabbed hold of him, and he crushed her against his chest. She felt so good, better than anything. How could he have forgotten her for even a moment? He’d been forced to forget, by someone, something, but he’d remembered anyway. First with the vision of her and now with the real thing.

He pulled back and took her face between his hands. “Is it true? Are you really pregnant?”

She studied his face and nodded. “Yes.”

“Is — is it mine?”

Her warm gaze turned into an icy glare very fast. “Are you kidding me?”

Darrak cleared his throat. “Uh, well, it’s an honest question. Demons created from hellfire aren’t usually able to—”

“Unbelievable. No, it’s not yours. It’s Ben’s. Or Lucas’s. Or maybe it’s Stanley’s. Not sure, I’m such a tramp.”

She went to pull away from him, her cheeks flushed red with anger, but he caught her hand to draw her back. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I get it. It’s mine. But just so you know… that’s impossible.”

“There’s a lot of things that are impossible. And yet here we are.”

“Touché.”

He pulled her closer, swept her soft hair off her face, and kissed her very hard on her lips. It didn’t take long at all for her to kiss him back just as passionately. If he’d had any remaining doubts that she was real then they’d now be gone. That fire, that stubbornness, that taste of her mouth against his… all Eden. His Eden. The only woman he’d ever loved. Would ever love.

She’d saved him.

Eden had found a way to come to the Void because she loved him as much as he loved her — she was his princess in shining armor.

And she was pregnant with his baby.

It was too much to process. All too much.

But the kiss was a very good start.

Then she pulled away from him and glanced to the right. “Oh no!”

She ran toward the hellhound, falling to her knees next to it.

“Eden, be careful,” he warned. “Hellhounds are dangerous.”

“No… this is Andy.” Her voice caught. “Those monsters must have attacked him when I was trying to pull you up.”

That was Andy? But he was a werewolf the last time Darrak had seen him.

This… this definitely wasn’t a werewolf.

Darrak went to the hellhound’s side. “Is he…?”

“Christ on a cracker… what happened?”

His eyebrows went up. “That’s definitely Andy.”

The hellhound raised his head and blinked at them through glowing red eyes. “Those two were hot as hell but not very nice girls, were they?”

“What happened?” Eden asked.

“I think they… they kissed me.”

Darrak made a face. “No offense, but gross. Wraiths are nasty. And hellhounds aren’t traditionally great kissers.”

“Wasn’t bad for a few seconds.” The hellhound cocked his head. “You’re alive!”

“I am.” He looked at Eden. “Thanks to both of you.”

“Thank Eden,” Andy said. “She’s the one who made the deal to get us here in the first place and that also shifted my, uh, shift.”

Darrak’s surge of happiness began to drain away leaving him feeling very cold. “What deal?” When Eden didn’t say anything he took her by her shoulders. “What kind of deal did you make? And with who?”

“With whom,” she said, grimacing, and not simply because of his bad grammar.

“Whatever. Eden, talk to me. Please don’t tell me you made another deal with Lucifer.”

She looked away. “Then I guess I won’t tell you that.”

“Are you looking for the buy-ten-get-one-free card?” He swore under his breath. “What did you promise him?”

Her expression wasn’t fierce anymore — it was worried. But she didn’t look away from him. “It was worth it. He made it so I could come here and find you without it killing me. He made Andy a werehellhound so he could be my guide.”

Her intentions were in all the right places, but he’d known this was too good to be true. “I know you think that Lucas is a friendly, good-looking guy with a dark past, but you have no idea what he’s truly capable of.”

“I know exactly what he is.”

“Do you? Are you sure about that? So you’re saying that you made a deal with the Prince of Hell himself in order for a fleeting chance to pull my ass out of the Void before it was too late.”

Eden held his gaze. “Well… yeah. That’s pretty much it.”

He wanted to be furious, but he couldn’t be. This was the bravest thing anyone had ever done for him. He would have done the same thing for her, so he supposed that made them even in their mutual insanity. “What did you promise him?”

She hesitated, which made him more nervous than he was to begin with. “Lucas wants to go back to Heaven, but he’s bound to Hell, like a chain around his ankle. I still don’t understand why.”

That wasn’t exactly an answer to his question.

He didn’t let go of her. “The darkness here needs to be controlled and that’s Lucifer’s job. That’s what the wraith meant when she talked about the shadows. When he gets upset or loses his composure, that darkness takes him over. They make him into Satan, a being of malevolent energy that likes to destroy and wreak havoc over everything. No one else has control over the darkness. He can’t leave.” An unwanted piece of empathy slid through him for his unpleasant boss. Being the Prince of Hell and dealing with all of that uncontrollable darkness wouldn’t be a fun job for an ex-angel, even if it had plenty of perks.

“He says he has a replacement lined up to take over for him,” Andy said.

“A replacement.” Darrak frowned. “So he’s found a way to leave the Netherworld permanently?”

When Eden didn’t reply his grip on her shoulders grew tight enough to make her flinch. He released her immediately.

“Talk to me, Eden. Tell me exactly what you promised him.”

She finally met his eyes. “I agreed to give him my angel side for the chance to come here and find you. Freely give every last bit of my celestial energy to him. It will be enough to break his chains down here once and for all.”

He just stared at her for what felt like a very long time. “Please tell me you’re just messing with me right now.”

She just shook her head, her expression pale.

“We need to leave, and we need to leave right now.” He didn’t say another word, he just put his arm around Eden and his other on Andy’s furry back and concentrated on phasing all three of them out of there. He’d been able to channel his phasing ability when he took care of the wraiths, but it wasn’t working anymore.

“Oh come on,” he growled. “Don’t fail me now.”

“Will this help? It got us here.” Eden showed him her wrist that bore the silver chain she was to use on Ms. Brenda N. Franks, potential Antichrist.

“That won’t work both ways.” He snorted. “So Lucifer told you to use that, did he? Did he happen to mention how you were supposed to get out of here when you were finished?”

“He didn’t cover that.”

“No, of course not. He doesn’t care if you were able to leave without his assistance. He’d prefer you remain at his mercy at all times.”

Darrak rubbed a hand over his face, trying to think this through.

Eden looked at the hound. “If Andy’s still here at sunrise, then there’s a problem. He’ll shift back to human form.”

“Hate to break it to you but minutes and hours sometimes work differently here, like a broken clock. Sometimes it’s equal, other times it’s not. Time has moved fast since I got here. I already sense sunrise approaching in the human world.” He looked at Andy. “Do you feel it?”

Andy looked up at him somberly. “Afraid so.”

“You can’t shift back to human,” Darrak said. “Not here. Fight it.”

“I’ll try.”

“Try very hard.” The only way they were getting out of there was to either find a gateway or for him to figure out what was stopping him from phasing. And he knew for certain that there weren’t any gateways to the human world anywhere close to the Void.

Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Someone was watching them carefully.

Theo. Or, rather, the entity currently using his face.

Darrak looked into Eden’s eyes. “Wait here.”

“But—”

“I’m serious, Eden. Please wait here. I need to talk to him for a second.”

She didn’t argue, which was a relief. Her green eyes were filled with worry, but determination also battled within them. She knew what she’d done was extreme, but she didn’t regret it. She’d agreed to give up half of herself — she didn’t even know how serious a decision it was — in order to save his paltry life.

Darrak would love her forever for that, but he couldn’t let this deal stand. If Eden lost her angelic energy, the darkness from her black magic would grow inside of her at an even faster rate than it already did. Even Selina’s magic hadn’t been so powerful, so dark as this. Her soul would have taken centuries more to rot. Eden’s was turning black at an accelerated rate and it scared him like nothing he’d ever known before.

For as long as she had that magic at her disposal she needed to stay a nephilim, otherwise she didn’t have a chance against that darkness. She’d become an entity whose only desire would be to spread evil throughout the human world until she was killed and sent to Hell.

Eden’s future then, unless she was tagged to become a demon, would be to become a wraith. Black-souled human females starved for energy had few other options here.

Darrak wouldn’t let that happen. Even though Eden didn’t realize it, she was hanging off the edge as much as he had been. Just because she couldn’t see the drop didn’t mean it wasn’t still there.

He’d save her. No matter what.

In fact, he’d already come up with a plan to end this once and for all.

It might get a little tricky, though. Throwing Lucifer into the Void wasn’t exactly going to be easy.