Michelle Rowen: That Old Black Magic

Maksim Zadravec, the most powerful wizard in Toronto, didn’t look like someone from Hufflepuff at all.

Slytherin was more like it.

Darrak eyed him with distaste as the wizard leisurely moved his gaze over Eden’s body from head to toe. From the gleam in his eye it seemed as if he liked what he saw.

The wizard had dark good looks, tanned skin, broad shoulders, and wore an expensive-looking tailor-made suit. He lived in a large mansion at the outskirts of the city that looked more like a castle than anything else. If it didn’t have a feel of true history Darrak would assume the wizard had it custom-built to give himself more of a magical mystique.

Maksim lived alone… if you didn’t count the butler and two maids that silently slunk around the ten-thousand-square-foot, non-cozy home.

Darrak disliked him immediately. Knowing an attractive man was taking an active interest in Eden, for whatever reason, bothered him.

He knew it was jealousy, pure and simple. And maybe he was dealing with a small — or not so small — feeling of possession. No pun intended.

After all, Eden was his .

She, however, would likely argue this.

“So you want my help, do you?” Maksim said in a smooth, deep voice.

Darrak and Eden shared a glance.

“We do,” she confirmed. “It’s just that my black magic is—”

“Difficult for you to control,” Maksim finished. “And you are worried for the state of your soul.”

Her brows went up. “Well, yes. That’s exactly it. How do you—?”

“Know what’s wrong with you without first being told?” Maksim smiled. “One of my many talents, Eden.”

Darrak wasn’t sure how he felt about the wizard’s special insight. A lot of magic, even with the more notable wizards, was no more genuine than rabbits shoved up shirtsleeves. A whole lot of smoke and mirrors with little genuine product to back it up. Black magic, after all, harmed every practitioner if used too blatantly. Even somebody like Maksim.

“Can you help her?” Darrak asked evenly.

“How did you come by this magic, Eden?” the wizard asked.

Darrak’s lips thinned. “Don’t you know that, too?”

Maksim glanced at the demon. “It was a spell, correct? Another witch from long ago — she cast a spell upon you.” He took a walk around Darrak as if assessing him. “Sex magic. Sleeping with you made her a black witch. And now the same has happened with Eden.”

Darrak didn’t like this guy, but he couldn’t help but be a bit impressed. “Pretty much.”

“I can sense the spell. And I can sense your curse as well.” Maksim’s smile held. “It’s a big one.”

“I try not to brag.”

Maksim now strolled around Eden, who stood stiffly, her arms crossed over her chest. Her gaze flicked to a large oil painting of a nude that looked as if it was a few hundred years old. However, Darrak wasn’t much of an art expert.

“How many times have you taken her?” the wizard asked.

Eden snorted at that. “Taken me?”

“Do you not understand the question?”

“No, I–I understand.” Eden cast an embarrassed look at Darrak. She hated having their private problems out on the table like this.

Darrak wasn’t too happy about it either, especially with the fact this guy knew too much too quickly. But he was hoping it would work out in their benefit.

“Twice,” he replied. “But I also believe when I possess her every night at sunset that also triggers the original witch’s spell, which has made her magic much stronger than it should be.”

Maksim nodded, his attention fully fixed on Eden. “I see. This is why you feel like a furnace of energy to me. And you’re also half-angel.”

Eden nodded.

“My, my,” Maksim said. “Quite a combination. I can see how it might cause… complications.”

Thus the reason for their visit. Time to move this along.

“There’s a tug-of-war going on within her,” Darrak said. “The dark magic and the celestial energy are fighting against each other. It’s a problem, a big one. And it isn’t getting better. Her magic is becoming more difficult for her to control with each day that passes. That’s why we need your help.”

He hated stating it so bluntly. Help us, wizard master.

So weak.

But there was only one alternative Darrak could think of, and he wasn’t ready to go there yet. He could go to Lucifer and beg his ex-boss to save both Eden’s life and her soul.

Hmm , he thought. Let’s make that Plan Z, shall we?

He and Lucifer weren’t exactly on the best of terms. Last time he’d seen the prince, Lucifer had almost destroyed him. Parts of Darrak still stung a bit from the assault. Mostly his pride.

“How does this tug-of-war between your darkness and your celestial energy feel?” Maksim asked.

She grimaced. “Like I’m being torn in two.”

“Does it happen often?”

“Every second day like clockwork.”

“And you’ve only slept together twice.”

“That’s right,” she said with a pointed glance in Darrak’s direction.

Yes, well, the decision to keep their relationship platonic was his doing, which was all kinds of hilarious considering he was once upon a time an incubus — a demon who thrived on sucking the life energy out of humans through hanky-panky.

He’d recently become a one-woman demon. Unfortunately, the one woman he wanted was also the one he couldn’t touch without potentially hurting her thanks to that pesky sex magic spell. He wanted to protect her from further harm and that managed to nicely trump his libido.

The fact they were being inspected and grilled by a smarmy Eurotrash wizard master was proof positive Darrak was more interested in Eden’s future well-being than his own ego-stroking. Or any other kind of stroking, for that matter.

Surprisingly, romance novels had become a nice distraction. Eden had a ton of them on her bookshelf. They were a good enough substitute for the real thing. He was a particular fan of historicals — the hotter the better. Those horny dukes and duchesses really knew how to get it on.

“Okay, enough questions,” Darrak said, his patience running thin. His gaze moved around the large parlor that included floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a leather sofa that looked as if it cost the better part of a small country’s annual budget. Then again, so did the wizard’s designer suit. “Can you help Eden or not?”

Maksim shrugged. “She is a powerful black witch and you are a demon. I don’t understand why you need any help from me. It sounds like the perfect combination.”

Darrak hissed out a breath. “Maybe you haven’t been paying attention. Her soul is at risk, get it? Take a look at her amulet. See that color? I don’t want it to be a shade darker or she’s in danger. The original plan was for her not to use the magic at all, but it’s being sparked — sometimes literally — without any provocation. And that the fight against her angelic side causes her any pain at all — well, that’s simply not acceptable. Now you’re either going to help us directly or you’re going to tell us where to get help. That is, if you know what’s good for you.”

One of his more passive-aggressive threats, but it would have to do. He didn’t want to scare Eden by shifting to his demon form and throttling this puny wizard within an inch of his semi-immortal life.

Maksim cocked his head to the side. “You’re in love with her.”

It wasn’t posed in the form of a question.

Darrak’s jaw tightened. “Let’s stay on topic.”

The wizard’s brows drew together. “Demons are heartless, cruel, without true emotion other than the glee they might feel at inflicting pain upon another being.”