She didn’t like the look on his face. It was suspicious, searching, and the flirtatious friendliness from a minute ago was fading quickly.
“I need to get out of this market,” she said firmly. “Tell me how to do that.”
“There’s a mild spell on the entire area to keep the customers shopping for as long as possible. You have to really want to leave before you can break away from it.”
“Trust me, I really want to leave.”
“So you can go to the Void.”
She kept her mouth closed. Andy began to growl again.
Stefano drew closer, inhaling. “I smell something sweet.” His eyes narrowed. “Something that shouldn’t be here. What are you really, Eden?”
“A visitor.”
“Whose visitor?”
“Lucifer’s.”
Stefano flinched at the name, but he didn’t look as if he believed her. “I smell angel. An angel in the Netherworld. Not a very good idea. Much too dangerous a place for a sweet little thing like you.”
Before her very eyes, he shifted his form until he grew taller, broader. His skin became leathery and the red of bricks, his horns long and curved and shiny black. His lips peeled back from sharp yellow teeth. “Maybe I should have a taste of that sweetness. I hear angels are delicious.”
He grabbed hold of her arm. Andy clamped his teeth into the demon’s shin.
And Eden summoned magic into her hands and blasted the incubus back from her. He landed on his back ten feet away, looking up at her, dazed.
She looked down at the demon. “I’m not that sweet anymore.”
“What the—?” He tried to get up.
Eden held out her hand to stop him. “Follow me and you’re going headfirst into the Void. Hear me?”
He stayed on the ground. “Yes, ma’am.”
“That’s more like it.”
She touched the cold surface of her amulet, but didn’t risk looking at it. A little black magic was worth it sometimes when she could avoid being a demon’s snack.
“We’re out of here, Andy. Come on.”
“You got it.”
Stefano said she had to really want to leave the market. This time she walked out with purpose, with no hesitation, and with every ounce of determination she could summon. There was a slight pulling sensation as she reached the outer breaches of the crowd and noise, but then with a small pop, she broke through.
Out here there was darkness, silence, and a look over her shoulder now showed the market far in the distance even though she’d only taken a few steps away from it.
“I hate this place,” she whispered.
“Me too. But I have good news.”
“Yeah? I could use some of that right about now.”
“He said that once we were out of the market we could feel the pull of the Void.”
She shook her head. “I can’t feel anything.”
“Well, I can. I bet Lucifer made me into a hellhound for that reason. I can guide you there.”
Eden let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding and nodded. “Then lead the way.”
“Well?” Theo asked. “Not to hurry you along, but I do have stuff to do.”
Darrak glared at him, feeling the pull of the Void behind him. “And you’re trying to convince me that you’re not Lucifer.”
“I’m not Lucifer.”
“How do I know that for sure?”
Theo inspected his fingernails for a moment. “Because if I was Lucifer I would have already gone Sparta on your ass and kicked you into the Void just to see the look of shock on your face.”
He had an excellent point.
“Does everyone get a deal like this before they’re gone forever?”
“No,” Theo said. “Most are introduced to the Void like a balled-up piece of garbage tossed into a garbage can before they have any idea what’s going on, rather than moseying up to the edge like this all subtle-like.”
“Then why me?”
“Because I think you could still be useful to me.”
Darrak wracked his mind, trying to find the answers he needed. “Are you one of the other demon lords? You want me to work exclusively for you if I agree to this? Keep the soul energy away from Lucifer?”
“I’m not a demon lord. And your time is ticking away. Just over two minutes left.”
The draw of the gaping chasm of darkness behind him was growing stronger, he felt it like long fingers sliding underneath his skin, like branches growing up over the jagged cement sides and wrapping around his ankles. It would be pointless to try to fight it. It already had him in its clutches, but now it was waiting before yanking him that last bit backward.
But something kept Darrak fighting, hoping for a solution.
A demon who hoped. Sure, that made sense.
What was down there? Would he land somewhere eventually? Is that where the rumor of the torturous pain came from before you were finally gone forever? Who started that rumor if no one had ever survived the plunge? He was in pain right now, but it was still manageable. He’d experienced much worse in his long existence.
“What do you care about, demon?” Theo asked.
Strange question. “Care about?”
“Is it only yourself? In these last minutes, are you only concerned about yourself and your own well-being?”
“It is top of mind.”
“But not completely. If it was, then you’d already have given me your answer. I need you to speak the words, demon. Say you’re willing to devote your future to killing innocent humans in order to save your own skin. Come on, it’ll be totally fun. Any normal demon would have already jumped on this opportunity, and you know it.”
“Can’t it be evil humans?” Darrak hated the catch in his voice as he said it. “Criminals, serial killers, blackhearted assholes with no chance at redemption?”
Theo laughed. “You’re hilarious. Of course not. What value does a black soul have down here? Zero. Just more cannon fodder. The true value in a place of ultimate darkness comes from the smallest infusion of light.”
He wanted to say yes. He did. But something stopped him, something apart from the invisible ropes that now tied him to the Void. Something else wrapped around his chest and squeezed tight.
“Thirty seconds, demon.” Theo crossed his arms.
Thirty seconds to decide his ultimate fate.
That redhead . . . had he really seen her? Was she just a figment of his imagination? Why did he think of her now when he was so close to the end? This was it. If he wasn’t able to wrap his mouth around the word yes—such a simple word considering how much it would mean—then it was all over.
His mind went again to the kids—his first assignment after saving his own sorry neck. It was a deal he once would have taken in a second and not given it another moment’s thought.
But he wasn’t that demon anymore. And he never would be again.
Oh, hell.
“That deal of yours?” Darrak said.
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you go ahead and shove it right up your ass?”
Theo’s lips curved. “Is that your answer? Are you saying no to me?”
A small part of him was screaming, wanting to change his mind while there was still a chance to survive, say anything to get out of this. But a larger part of him knew without any doubt that this was the right thing to do.
The right thing. A demon choosing to do something because it was the right thing to do. Hilarious.
“I’d tell you to go to Hell,” he said firmly. “But that would be a bit moot. My answer is no. Capital N, capital O. And that is my final answer, asshole.”
For emphasis, he gave the grinning entity the finger.
Theo cocked his head. “So it’s true, you have changed.”
Darrak just glowered at him. Then he staggered back a step as the Void’s hold on him tightened another notch.
“One final chance, demon.”
Darrak’s fists clench
ed. “Blow me.”
“No, thanks.” Theo shrugged. “Okay, I asked three times. You answered three times. It is decided. For the record, I think you should feel really good about yourself. Go you! Buh-bye now.”
The Void’s grip tightened like an iron fist, pulling Darrak backward. He fell to the ground and clawed at the cement. The very edge of the cliff face pushed against his shoe before it broke away, and then he was hanging on to the side of the Void by only his hands, his feet dangling over endless darkness.
So this is how it ends, he thought. Awesome.
Was this really it? Was he willing to give up?
Something kept him holding on. Something with as much of a grip on him as the damn Void had. He couldn’t let go. Not yet.
“Theo! Get back here!” he yelled, calling the name of the friend he’d already lost. The entity using Theo’s face didn’t reappear. He was gone, his job was done, and Darrak was alone to face his chosen fate.
No rewards in Hell for making the selfless decision, that was for damn sure.
This wasn’t a huge surprise.
It felt as if they’d been walking forever when a voice echoed off the dark brick buildings surrounding them.
“Theo! Get back here!”
Eden gasped. “That’s Darrak! It’s him!”
“I think you’re right!”
Andy started running then, although it wasn’t without effort. Whatever was in the air around here was starting to cause him some pain.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Watch out!”
A hand clamped down on her shoulder. She spun to see who it was and was shocked to see the face of Theo, Darrak’s demonic BFF who’d been destroyed two weeks ago.
He didn’t exist. Not anymore. And yet here he was.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Theo said.
“Let go of me.” She tried to summon her magic, but it fizzled in her hand before she could get even a spark going.
“It’s too late, Eden. Let him go.”
She glared at him. “Never!”
She turned and ran, racing around the corner up ahead and then skidded to a halt, shocked at what she saw stretching out before her. There was a huge crater in the ground that reminded her of the Grand Canyon. She’d been there once as a kid; her mom had taken the day away from the tables to take Eden on a helicopter ride above the canyon. It seemed so big and vast and expansive. A world wonder. At the time it had filled her with awe.
This, on the other hand, filled her with fear because she knew what it was.
The Void.
And Darrak was nowhere to be seen.
Theo was right. It was too late.
No, damn it, it wasn’t! She’d just heard him. She couldn’t have missed him by mere seconds. Life wasn’t that unfair.
“Darrak!” she yelled. “Where are you? Answer me!”
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.”