Eden was in shock. She’s just been abandoned. She was all on her own.
Well, not totally on her own. She had a sleeping demon inside of her. One she was going to have exorcised tomorrow even though the thought of it made her feel queasy.
Leena was gone.
Eden blinked.
Well, if there was a bright side to all of this, at least there wouldn’t be a cat hair problem anymore. That stuff was getting everywhere.
Eden couldn’t sleep. She didn’t even try. She sat at her tiny dinette table all alone, waiting and watching the hours tick by.
The shapeshifter didn’t come back.
“Hey Darrak? Are you still here?” she whispered. She still couldn’t feel him. Maybe Selina had permanently dampened him. Maybe he was gone and wouldn’t come back.
Or maybe the piece of salt in her pocket that Malcolm had given her was enough to hold back his presence.
As long as she didn’t start foaming at the mouth again, it was a good thing to hold on to. Tightly.
She tried to stay awake, but despite the fact that she was worked up and stressed out… not to mention, scared to death… it was a lost cause. She was exhausted. The moment she rested her head on her folded arms a few hours later, she fell asleep.
When she woke, she opened up one eye and saw daylight. She swore out loud and tried to straighten up but she was so stiff from her sleeping position it took a moment.
“Ow.” She rubbed her sore neck.
The phone rang and she jumped with surprise, her heart thudding violently. Then she reached forward to grab the cordless phone on the table in front of her and held it to her ear.
“Yeah?”
“Eden?” Andy asked. “Why are you still at home?”
“Still?” She glanced at the clock. It was nearly eleven o’clock. “I didn’t realize the time. I’m… I’m not feeling so good. To put it extremely mildly. I don’t think I’ll be in today. Is that a problem?”
“I guess not. I need you healthy for our new caseload, so rest up while you still can. Should I bring over some chicken soup?”
“No soup required.” She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and stifled a yawn. “You do remember I’m not a licensed private investigator, right?”
“We can work around that.”
“But the law—”
“Eden, don’t be so literal. We’ll have you as my assistant for now and I’ll get the license for you. I know people.”
“But what about classes and tests and—”
“You are really nothing like your mother, are you?”
She sighed. “I’ll take that as a compliment, actually.”
“You’ve got Caroline’s looks, but not her taste for adventure. You need to open up to the idea of putting some danger and intrigue in your life. Shake things up a bit.”
Things were shaky enough as it is. “I’ll work on that.”
“I’m going to close shop early today and turn on the voice mail. I’m starting a case for a guy — wants me to look into somebody he feels is spying on his pack and interested in becoming… and I quote, ‘alpha.’ Weird way to put it, isn’t it?”
She blanched. Was this the werewolf client? “Just be careful.”
“Always. Now you take it easy today and get yourself healthy again, okay?”
“I’ll try my hardest.”
She hung up.
“So what happened last night?” Darrak asked wearily.
She froze and slowly turned to her right. Darrak sat on the couch ten feet away. His shoulders were hunched over.
“Last night…” It came out as a barely audible squeak. She cleared her throat. “Uh… Selina dampened you.”
“And then what happened? I don’t remember a damned thing.” He raked a hand through his dark hair, his expression alternately confused and concerned.
She wrung her hands nervously. “Then — then I got the hell out of there.”
“She didn’t try to stop you?”
“No.”
He leaned back and exhaled with relief. “Well, that’s good. I was worried.”
“About what she might tell me?”
“Actually, I was worried she might hurt you.”
This wasn’t good. She hadn’t been prepared to face the demon yet. She needed preparation time — to figure out what to say, how to act, what to do. Why did she have to fall asleep?
Eden got up from the table and went around to the fridge in the kitchenette and pulled out a bottle of water. She uncapped it and took a shaky swig.
“So you came back here?” Darrak asked.
“Uh-huh.”
He got up from the sofa but it seemed as if it took some effort.
She eyed him uneasily. “Not feeling so good?”
“I’ve felt better. Selina is just as powerful as she ever was. Her dampening ability is very admirable — witches are good at that sort of thing. I didn’t even come to until an hour ago. That’s way after sunrise.” He gave her a weak grin. “I notice that you weren’t in bed ready to molest me again. I won’t take it personally, really.”