To say the least.
He nodded and looked into her eyes. “I’ll be with you tonight, of course, but I want you to know right now — now that I’m still here solidly beside you — that you need to be careful around Selina.”
“I will.”
“She’s dangerous.”
“Understood. I will be careful. I don’t want to be turned into a toad.”
“Well… you’d make a very cute toad.”
Toads weren’t cute. She waited for him to possess her, but nothing happened. “What are you waiting for?”
“I’m not waiting. I’m thinking.”
“About what?”
He was looking at her strangely. He reached over to twist a long piece of her hair between his fingers. She didn’t stop him even though she knew she probably should.
“Darrak—” she began, although she wasn’t sure what she was going to say next.
“I think I know why I hate golden boy so much.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because he gets to do this in the future.”
Darrak leaned forward and kissed her.
She hadn’t realized how much she wanted him to do that until he did it. She should want to kiss Ben, want to be with Ben. He liked her. He was normal and wonderful. He represented a solid future filled with potential happiness. But Darrak was… he was different. And so was his kiss, which was entirely too addictive.
When she went to touch him, though, her hands went right through his body that had turned to black smoke. She opened her eyes just as that smoke gathered over her and disappeared inside. It was a sudden reminder that he wasn’t a man… he was a demon.
She kept forgetting that important little fact.
An hour later, Eden stepped through the front doors of the bookstore. The first person she spotted was Nancy. The coffee shop barista was in the front row of an audience a few dozen strong. There was standing room only available in the area that had been cleared in the “Hot New Releases” section.
She also saw another familiar face. Vanessa the exotic dancer with bad taste in accountant boyfriends sat on the side opposite Nancy. She looked over at Eden and waved.
Eden waved back, feeling uncomfortable at having so many people there to see a dangerous curse-spewing three-hundred-year-old witch — even if the makeup in her headshots was spectacular.
She made a mental note to speak to Vanessa about the drifter otherwise known as Richard. By now, she figured that Fay had already taken care of her spousal issues. The fairy had sounded very determined on the phone.
“Are you nervous?” she asked. She sensed Darrak was. He hadn’t said much since he’d possessed her at sunset, but she felt his presence like an anxiety-filled weight on her chest.
“Yes,” he replied.
“It’ll be okay.”
“Of course it will. No worries at all.”
He didn’t sound convinced.
Eden joined the crowd and waited, listening to the mostly female audience chatting amongst themselves about how much they were looking forward to seeing Selina in person and how much her books had helped change their lives for the better.
There was no mention of black magic, eyes of newt, puppy dog tails, or anything else overtly malevolent.
That was a good sign.
A store employee approached the podium set up in front of the audience. “It’s our great pleasure to introduce internationally best-selling author Selina Shaw, the Love Witch. Please give her a warm welcome!”
The crowd burst into applause and Eden began to feel a growing nervousness as the woman in question appeared, dressed in a sparkly white, skintight dress. She had a white feather boa draped over her shoulders. The white of her outfit contrasted sharply with her black hair and green eyes. She looked exactly the same as she had on her website.
“Is that really her?” Eden asked breathlessly.
“It is.” Darrak’s voice was tight.
“Was she always that beautiful?”
“Yes.”
The one word answer brought forth an unexpected emotion from Eden. Was that jealousy she felt?
Jealousy at Darrak confirming that the witch who’d tried to destroy him three centuries ago was beautiful? How did that make any sense?
“Good evening, everyone.” Selina spoke into the microphone, smiling broadly at her audience. “Thank you so much for coming out tonight to see me.”
The applause swelled again.
“This is my latest book, Curse That Creep Right Out of Your Life. Anyone read it yet?”
More applause along with some enthusiastic “woo-hoos.”
“I’m impressed! That’s almost all of you and it only came out last week.”
“You’re the best, Selina!” a woman in the second row shouted out.
She pointed at the shouter. “So are you. Thank you. Really! This is great. Why don’t we start with some questions? Then I’ll roll into a short reading and then we can sign some copies of these for you all. Sound okay?”
The audience appeared to approve as a dozen hands shot up.
“Yes.” Selina pointed at a woman in the front row.
“Oh, this is so exciting,” the woman said, standing up. “I am a huge fan. A huge fan.”
Selina pulled the microphone off its stand. “I appreciate that more than you know. What’s your question?”